Business End

Articles about the business aspects of publishing and self-publishing.

The Speed of Self-Publishing is Best When You Go Slow

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Will you have the time?

A couple of weeks ago we took our son and his friend to lunch at Sam’s Anchor Cafe in lovely downtown Tiburon, a tony suburb of San Francisco that sticks out into the Bay. It’s a popular spot and attracts a lot of people coming from San Francisco on the delightful ferries that ply the bay. Bicyclists abound, dog walkers stroll, and there are numerous eateries to provide for people’s appetites.

Walking toward Sam’s, which features dining on its deck over the water amid sailboats moored along the piers and marinas, we spotted this parking sign: “3 Minutes Only Anytime.” Three minutes? Holy cow. There isn’t much on-street parking in Tiburon, but I was left puzzled.

What exactly can you get done in three minutes? It seems to take me about three minutes just to collect myself and get out of my car these days.

I wonder if this is just the latest sign of our rush-rush, Twitter-enabled life. Is three minute parking like microblogging for parking lot attendants? Is it just right for the ADD crowd?

 

We Have Slow Food, What About Slow Books?

This hurried aspect to life often collides with the realities of publishing. One of the common complaints about traditional publishing, with its seasonal lists, long response times, and endless editorial meetings is that it can take a long time to get into print. From acceptance of your manuscript it’s not unusual for a book to take 1.5 years to appear in bookstores.

Self-publishing cheerleaders often trumpets its ability to be more responsive, and to get to market much faster than the big guys, and that’s certainly true. But it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Books, by their nature, take time. Sometimes a long time. It’s understandable that an author, after spending months or years researching, writing, and re-writing their manuscript, will want to get the book to print as soon as feasible.

Taking the Time to Do It Right

But there’s no good reason to short-change the time it takes to properly edit, design, layout, and proof the book. Up front it may also take time to find a good match with an editor, to contract with a designer who can execute the right kind of design for your genre, to assemble the entire team that will be needed to produce a high quality book.

Once in motion, the team you’ve assembled will work together to produce a quality product. But this also takes time. Editing a 300-page history book, checking references, making sure citations are accurate and uniform, making style sheets to guide editors and proofreaders to the usages that occur in the book—all essential tasks that are time comsuming.

On the design side, giving your designer time to get familiar with your material, to scope out other books in your genre against which you may be competing, or with which you may be cross-selling, is time well spent. Then your designer is going to need time to come up with her unique vision for your book. In my case, I usually present three distinct and different solutions to the communication challenge that’s presented by your book. More time.

Illustrators, cover designers, indexers, proofreaders all need time to do their job properly. As publisher, it’s up to you to make sure you have the time in your schedule to allow your team to do its best work.

Having a Plan Makes Sense

You need a plan that’s based on your strategy for your book. For instance:

  • If you plan to sell through nationwide bookstore distribution, you will probably try to get prepublication reviews from the major prepub reviewers: Publishers Weekly, Libarary Journal, School Library Journal, Kirkus Review, and Foreword Magazine. You could add in the New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, BookPage, Quality Books and any book clubs you are thinking of soliciting.

    Since these review sources need Advance Review Copies with promotional material a good 4 months before your official publication date, their schedule may well dictate your publishing schedule.

     

  • If you would like to get corporate sponsorship or a promotional tie-in for the launch of your book, you will need sufficient time to pitch your proposal and sign partners before going to press. Many of these arrangements require the sponsor’s branding on the books themselves, so you need to have this in place before going to press.

     

  • If your book is tied to a holiday or other special event, you will need quite a bit of advance time to make absolutely certain you have your book in hand well before you need it. You don’t want to be sitting with 3,000 copies of your book that arrived right after the special event.

So although we live in a “hurry-up” world, taking the time to plan thoughtfully will go a long way to reducing the stress new publishers experience. Bring your “team” into your planning as soon as possible. Their experiences with previous projects will be available to you, an invaluable aid as you get ready to launch your book.

And a tip from me: that errand will take longer than 3 minutes. Pull around the corner and park somewhere else.

 

This is a cross-posting from Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer site.

The New Money Flow

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Recently, while reading a write-up of a self-publishing nightmare, I ran across mention of something called Yog’s Law, attributed to one James D. Macdonald. Having never heard of Yog’s Law before, I clicked through and learned the following:

Macdonald is well known for his work in educating aspiring authors, particularly for his advice on avoiding literary scams. Early in his career he was asked by such an author how much he had paid to have his books published, and in response began a campaign of educating other writers about the problems of vanity publishers. As part of this campaign, he coined Yog’s Law, which states “Money should flow toward the author,” which is often quoted by professional authors when giving advice on getting published.

Less than a day later, I read this in a blog post by Richard Curtis:

The line that once sharply separated traditional publishing (“We pay you”) and vanity publishing (“You pay us”) has all but dissolved in this corrosive environment of fabulous riches.

Mere hours later I found Yog’s Law quoted a third time, in a Jane Friedman blog post analyzing the Harlequin Horizons debacle:

People like to say (and I’ve said too) that money should flow TO the writer, not AWAY from the writer.

But I can see a business model emerging where publishers work with authors in more diverse ways. What we’ve held to be sacred—that a writer should NEVER pay to publish—may change.

To be clear: there are a lot of literary scams out there, and a lot of naive writers who get taken to the cleaners as a result. Whatever work James Macdonald has done to protect writers from predatory service providers who peddle false promises is a good thing.

Understanding Yog’s Law
As maxims go, Yog’s Law is not bad. In a moment I will speak to the fallacy of Yog’s Law, and to the convenience of revisiting the rule when the publishing industry decides it wants to get in on the writer-servicing business, but as a general guideline I think Yog’s Law does what it needs to do. It tells writers that anyone asking them for money should be viewed with suspicion, and that’s correct. That this core tenet could be expanded to cover most aspects of anyone’s life does not detract from its effectiveness as a general rule for aspiring writers.  

As related specifically to publishing, Yog’s Law also describes what was, until recently, the truth. Publishers who wanted to make money as a result of book sales did not ask writers for money up front. Just as jewelers evaluate diamonds before buying, and real estate moguls evaluate land, and art dealers appraise paintings before adding them to their galleries, publishers performed due diligence on authors and their works (including future efforts) to determine whether they were worth adding to their lists. Publishers took this risk with the understanding that they would profit alongside the author only if a book did well.

That was how business was done, and that’s why Yog’s Law made sense. Legitimate publishers didn’t ask for money up front, but rather gave money to authors based on sales. Illegitimate publishers asked for money up front, meaning money flowed from authors to such publishers. A law that told aspiring writers to keep an eye on the direction in which money flowed was helpful precisely because of the modus operandi common to many of the predatory scams aimed at writers.

The Fallacy of Yog’s Law
At its most basic, however, publishing is not a question of maxims or appraisals or even authorial merit. It’s a question of cash money. Which brings me to my criticism of Yog’s Law, my criticism of the industry for exploiting Yog’s Law, and my general exhaustion with the idea that all the bad people are on the outside of the publishing industry and all the good people are on the inside praying to Daniel Webster. Because nothing about Yog’s Law deals with the fact that a pay-you-later publisher can screw authors as effectively as a pay-us-now subsidy or vanity publisher.

To begin, it’s worth noting that Yog’s Law fits quite nicely with the publishing industry’s own propaganda of love and reverence for books and authors. “Look,” the publishing industry says, “we’re not taking money up front! We’re gambling on you because we believe in you! We have faith in you! We’re not like those scummy people who ask for money in advance!”

And it sounds good. And because it sounds good this message has helped the publishing industry convince the average wannabe author that anything other than publishing with a pay-you-later publisher is a scam or — and here it gets a little ugly — an admission that the author is a vain, talentless failure.

The original spirit of Yog’s Law — the laudable let’s-keep-naive-writers-from-getting-screwed message — was hijacked so that the flow of money to other publishing sources could be kept in check, while the herd of new writers arriving in the marketplace each year could be marshaled into publishing-industry stock yards, poked and prodded for good marbling, graded, slaughtered, shipped and stocked for the convenience of the book-loving consumer.

This is what you do if there are limited resources available to your business. You try to destroy the competition and lock up those resources. Until recently, writers were the publishing industry’s only resource. Today, writers are the publishing industry’s resource and the publishing industry’s competition and the publishing industry’s new and rapidly-growing market for publishing services. (Think about that for a minute.)

It is in this context of industry propaganda that Yog’s Law breaks down. First, there’s a demonstrable need for publishing services outside of the publishing industry gates. If you have a book of family recipes, or a family history that you want to bind, or any of a thousand other works that you intend neither to sell yourself nor pitch to a publisher (meaning a publisher who doesn’t ask for money up front) you need to find someone who can make a book for you, in the same way that you might need to find someone who can hem curtains or put a patio in your backyard. And there’s nothing remotely fraudulent about anyone offering these services. (I’ll get to the fraud part in a moment.)

Second, the idea that money flowing to an author means the author isn’t being taken to the cleaners is a joke on the face of it, and only gets worse the closer you look. Think about any music-industry horror story you’ve ever heard, where musicians are cheated out of money by their own music label, and chances are that story will involve money that was flowing to the musicians. Band X doesn’t get ripped off because they paid $20,000 up front and got left in the lurch, they get ripped off because they signed a contract with a publisher that legally allowed the publisher to rip them off day and night, week after week, year after year — in some cases forcing the band to also produce new music under penalty of legal action, including loss of copyright, if the band ever had copyright to their own music in the first place.

The Money-Flow Lie
Imagine for a moment that you’re an unknown author. You sign with a publisher and your book goes to #1 forever. It never comes down. You have written a book as good as a book can be written, and everybody admits it. In less than a year your book is the only book on the bestseller list because every other writer quits the business.

Now imagine that your contract, the one you signed with the we-don’t-charge-you-up-front publisher, gives you one penny on every book sold. You had to take that contract because it’s all the publisher was willing to offer, you had six kids to feed, and you lived in an upside-down abandoned sailboat in the slimy backwaters of Chesapeake Bay. Despite the fact that you’re talented beyond measure and that money is now flowing like the Mississippi, at one penny per book your ten-million-selling blockbuster has netted you the grand total of $100,000 before taxes, agent fees, etc. When it’s all over you’ll be lucky to clear $40,000.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking any author who signs a deal like that is an idiot. And I don’t disagree. But notice what’s happening now. Now we’re saying that an author needs to be on guard not just against publishers who ask for money up front, but publishers who only flow money to the author. It’s not simply the case that money flow predicts or precludes abuses, as the music-industry analogy showed. And if that’s the case — if money flowing in either direction can still be fleeced from writers — what’s the ultimate utility of Yog’s Law?

Or maybe what you’re thinking is that the penny-a-copy royalty example is too unrealistic. And you’re right. I should have made it a little more realistic, so we could get bogged down in arguable concrete details instead of recognizing the blindingly obvious fact that authors can easily be taken by publishers who do not ask for money up front.

Do we really have to have a conversation about all the ways a publisher might rip off a writer? Do we need to get into the reserves-against-returns issue? Do we need to talk about publishers holding authors’ rights even after they’ve stopped exploiting those rights? What about phantom charges deducted from a book’s costs? Is there anyone on the face of the earth who really believes that a publisher cannot screw a writer just as effectively — and perhaps even for a greater total amount over the life of a contract — as a vanity publisher?

Then again, maybe what you’re thinking is that no writer would ever be caught in a contract like that if they had a good agent, and I agree. But now we’re falling so far back from our original assertion we’re assuming it’s agents who will ultimately protect writers from any publishing nightmares. While that’s certainly an agent’s job, this assumption destroys Yog’s Law completely.

The New Money Flow
The abuse of writers by con-artist agents easily rivals the abuse of writers by publishers of any stripe. To help protect naive writers, reputable agents such as Richard Curtis put the AAR together, authors’ groups like the MWA and SFWA support sites like Writer Beware, and sites like Preditors and Editors post updated information about who’s being naughty and nice to writers.

But if writers need agents to protect them from bad publishing deals of any kind, and if the process of finding a good agent is as fraught with risk as the process of finding a good publisher, then writers today aren’t facing any unique threats. In fact, the only thing that’s changing is that the stigma of self-publishing is dying at exactly the same time that the pay-you-later publishing industry has discovered there may be considerable profit in the self-publishing space.

Apart from any stupefaction at this amazing coincidence, the net effect on writers is trivial. Instead of buying into Yog’s Law and trusting pay-you-later publishers who may bleed writers through bookkeeping scams, writers now have to use the same savvy and suspicion necessary for surviving the agent-hiring phase of their careers in the dealings they have with publishers or publishing-service providers.

Which brings me to what might be called the New Yog’s Law, with apologies to Mr. Macdonald:

Money can flow in any direction you want, but it’s your job to know where every penny goes and what you’re getting for those pennies.

If you’re a writer you have to do more and know more about your own business than ever before. You have to be good at watching your pennies, good at making deals, and good at judging the character of the people you do business with. You’re also going to need good advisers, good publishing contacts and good support groups to deal with the unending parade of offers, scams, services and cutting-edge technological developments that will appear and disappear in the next decade.

The New Publishing Metric
The good news is that content distribution isn’t the only thing the publishing industry no longer has a monopoly on. The other cornerstone of traditional publishing success has been proprietary information about the industry itself, including in particular all those legendary bookkeeping tricks of the trade.

If writers are completely on their own now, and they are (and for my money always were) then it’s up to each individual writer to make sure they take care of business. But unlike days of yore, writers can now communicate in real time about what’s happening to them. And unlike, say, musicians, writers are experts at using the tools of their craft to analyze and articulate messages. In fact, in perhaps no other industry are the rank and file as smart and skilled as management at using message and language to achieve their own ends.

Just as writers currently have resources to help them decide which agents are reputable, writers can pool knowledge and experience in order to determine which publishers and publishing-service providers are reputable. Which brings us back to the Harlequin Horizons debacle, and the reason why every publisher in the world should be scared. Ten years ago, maybe even five, Harlequin would have been able to act with impunity. Now, today, it took only a day or two before the combined response of several writers’ organization forced Harlequin to change their plans.

Why did writers react so strongly and effectively? I see two big reasons that galvanized authors to action in a way that caught Harlequin flat footed.

First, Harlequin did exactly what the publishing industry has been warning authors about for years. They held out the possibility of a potential Harlequin publishing deal as a means of seducing authors into paying money up front. That’s the fraudulent stain I mentioned earlier, and one this is often used by shady vanity publishers. Rather than offer a suite of defined publishing services for various rates, such predators imply that something wonderful and magical will happen if only an author is willing to invest in themselves by throwing ten grand (or another ten grand) at perfecting their text. This opens the door to all kinds of abuses, including selling the author on high-dollar editorial services that can easily be faked.

Second, after decades in which the industry told published writers that the pay-you-later model was the one true way to define success, a publisher with the recognizable and respected brand name of Harlequin changed its tune when it realized this industry propaganda was getting in the way of profits. Unfortunately, writers who had come to believe that professional success was defined by being published didn’t take kindly to that change of heart. And I don’t blame them.

Implicit in all this, of course, is the internet, which provided the means for the instant analysis and information sharing that galvanized authors to quick action. Again, the internet is not simply a new avenue of distribution that allows authors to move past traditional publishing-industry gatekeepers, it’s a critical information pipeline that functions in the same way. Because writers have access to shared real-time information, controlling messages in the way that the publishing industry has long been accustomed to becomes almost impossible.

In the end, Harlequin’s crime wasn’t that they tried to move to a new business model. Harlequin’s crime was that they hypocritically betrayed a whole generation of professional writers just to make a buck. Meaning the same buck that slick vanity and subsidy publishers have been trying to make all along. Once again, this pretty much puts to rest the idea that publishers love and revere writers.

As Harlequin found out, the internet puts a premium on trust. Those publishers and publishing-service providers who prosper going forward will treat trust as a critical metric in their dealings with authors. They will do this by providing honest services at a fair price, and by letting competition determine the winners. Everyone else will eventually fail.

 

This is a cross-posting from Mark Barrett’s Ditchwalk site.

Interview With Association of Independent Authors Founder Leigh Cunningham

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The AIA is an organization recently founded for the benefit of indie (self-published) authors. To find out what this new group is all about, and what it has to offer indie authors, Publetariat interviewed AIA founder Leigh Cunningham.

1. What is the AIA?
 
The Association of Independent Authors is a not-for-profit organization representing and advancing the interests of independent authors. Our vision is that independent publishing will be the preferred, first choice for all authors.

2. How is the AIA different from the Independent Book Publishers Association and the (mainstream) Author’s Guild?
 
The IBPA is a trade association of independent publishers. Its mission is to advance the professional interests of independent publishers.
 
The Author’s Guild is restricted to authors published by an "established American publisher." Self-published works and works published by subsidy presses do not qualify an author for membership of Author’s Guild.
 
The Society of Authors in the UK only recently amended its eligibility criteria to allow for self-published authors, but entry is subject to sales results, which is not the case for authors published through an established publisher.
 
The AiA in contrast has a singular focus on independent authors. Every resource in our community is relevant to authors who publish their own work, either in their own name or under their own imprint.
 
 
3. What are the benefits of membership in the AIA?
 
There are hundreds of thousands of independent authors, all doing the same thing, individually. A key function of the AiA is to facilitate the sharing of information and resources so that members can avoid the mistakes made by others. Since authors generally have limited budgets, our members can direct those funds to opportunities that will generate the desired outcome whether it is sales or publicity.
 
Another priority of the AiA is to improve the quality of self-published works. Our members are serious about ongoing improvement as a writer, and development as a business professional. We offer genuine, honest feedback on writing, cover and interior design, and market strategies, in a supportive community environment.
 
Members also receive discounts on an array of services relevant to independent authors including marketing, PR, video book trailers, magazines and courses.
 
 
4. Must a writer have self-published in order to join?
 
We have two levels of membership. An Associate is someone who is in the process of arranging the publication of their own work, or one who plans to publish their own work upon completion of that work. A Member is someone who has arranged the publication of their own work either under their own name or under their own imprint.
 
Unpublished authors (Associate members) require different services, information and resources to published authors who are looking to distribute, promote and sell their work. This differentiation allows us to tailor services to each member type. It also means members can communicate directly with others who are in the same part of the writing or publishing process.
 
5. Many mainstream-published authors are now going "indie" by self-publishing works for which the rights have reverted to them, or for works not yet signed over to a publisher, yet still have mainstream books in print. Will these authors be able to join the AIA?
 
Absolutely! We would love to have them along as they epitomize the vision of the AiA, like self-published poet, Chrissie Gittins. Having had success with her first two collections under her own imprint, Chrissie decided to self-publish the third collection because the contract terms offered by publishers did not compare to the rewards and benefits of self-publishing. Opportunities previously beyond the reach of self-published authors, for example global distribution channels, are now accessible, and of course, e-books break down all barriers. We expect therefore, that more and more authors will choose the independent path.
 
 
6. Will the AIA be taking public positions on issues that affect its membership (e.g., DRM, Text-To-Speech on Kindle books, etc.), and if so, will members have input to those positions?
 
We will definitely take public positions on issues affecting our members, for example, we support Amazon’s position regarding the price of e-books. We support the moves by publishing houses to establish self-publishing entities. The term "vanity publishing" has no relevance today – it is a business model that responds to the changes that technology has brought to the publishing industry. Publishing houses are already moving away from offering author advances. It’s only a small step from this to asking authors to invest in the success of their own work.
 
Our members will always have an opportunity to comment on issues affecting them, which is why the AiA community revolves around our forums, groups and community blogs.
 
 
7. What does it cost to join the AIA, and are there any other specific requirements for membership?
 
During the month of February, our inaugural month, the AiA is offering complimentary first year membership. Registrants can use promo code " COMP " to take advantage of this offer.

The regular, annual subscription rate is USD50 for Associates and Members, and there are no application fees. Membership is open to any author who has, or who is planning to publish his or her own work. Our annual subscription compares favorably with similar trade organizations, for example, Author’s Guild is USD90 and IBPA is USD175. The Society of Authors in the UK is GBP90 per annum (USD140)
 
We also have Consultant members, and following a request from a bookseller, have added a new category for Booksellers. Consultant members offer valuable information and resources to our members, which is posted in their Group forums and blogs. We plan to work closely with bookseller members to help them with the issues they are facing as much as they might offer opportunities for our individual members.
 
 
8. What does the AIA have planned for its inaugural conference in 2012?
 
The conference will address issues specific to independent authors. We will focus on the business side of writing as our members, as independent authors, effectively run their own businesses. This stream will include topics related to marketing, PR, sales, distribution, finance, etc. Additionally, as one of our goals is to improve the overall quality of self-published works, there will be streams for the technical aspects of writing and book design.
 
There is a detailed online survey on our website for members to complete, the responses to which will guide us in identifying the west-coast destination, the program, and speakers for the conference.
 
 
9. Where can Publetariat’s audience go to learn more about the AIA?
 
Our web site at http://www.independent-authors.org/ or they can contact us directly at info@independent-authors.org

pictureLeigh Cunningham is a lawyer by profession, but most of her career has been spent as a senior executive for two membership organizations. She also worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers as Director, Operations & Finance, Asia.

In addition to her law degree, completed with honors, she has three masters degrees: an MBA (International Management), Master of Commerce (e-commerce major) and a Master of International Trade and Investment Law. 
 
Leigh sees the AIA as a merger of her past professional career and her new career as an independent author. She hopes to use her business background and education to help other independent authors improve their capabilities as businesspeople, and to use her experiences as a self-published author to guide and strengthen the publishing plans of others.

 

Interview With Read An Ebook Week Founder Rita Toews

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Read an Ebook Week is coming, March 7-13, and it has a lot to offer indie authors, small imprints and readers alike. Herewith, we present an interview with event founder Rita Toews.

1) What is Read An E-book Week, and what was its genesis?
 
Read an E-Book Week is an event to educate the public about electronic reading, and to promote the individuals and entities involved in all aspects of the experience – from the authors who create the books to the technology in the e-readers.

 
In 2003 I was looking for a way to unite e-book authors under a banner that would help them promote their e-books. I registered Read an E-Book Week with Chase’s Calendar of Events and encouraged authors to use the week to educate the public about e-books in general – thereby creating a market for their own e-books. Authors were encouraged to: approach publicity venues and offer to be interviewed, set up displays in libraries, offer to do readings in schools, and to generally spread the word.
 
2) How many years has this event been running? 
 
This will be the eighth year for Read an E-Book Week. The first few years were very low-key as I figured out what worked and what didn’t. The last few years were very successful.
 
3) Do you feel Read An E-book Week has been effective in raising awareness of, and interest in, ebooks? 
 
I think so. People have to hear about a new idea three times before it even registers in his or her mind. When something like a new way of reading books comes along the initial reaction is "There’s nothing wrong with the old way." So on top of having to introduce the idea, e-book authors had to break down the scepticism and barriers to electronic books in people’s minds. I think we’ve done a pretty good job. 
 
4) How can authors and small imprints partner with Read An Ebook Week to help promote their books while promoting the event? 
 
It’s very easy to partner with Read an E-Book Week. The website is a clearing house of events happening during the week. To partner, an author or publisher just has to offer a free e-book on their website, and host a banner linked back to the Read an E-Book website. We in turn will list the partner on the REBW website with a link back to the author or publisher. Anyone visiting our website can explore the participating partners list and visit those that catch their eye. Last year some partners reported 4,000 visits during the week.  
 
5) The upcoming Apple iPad has been rumored for many months to be a possible Kindle killer. Do you feel the ebook market needs an "iPod for ebooks" to truly break through to a level of market acceptance competitive with print, or are the challenges not specific to a device/platform? 

 
I don’t think the challenges are specific to a device/platform. In 2003 e-book fans wanted a device that was affordable and would allow them to read e-books comfortably. Now there are so many ways to read e-books that one device isn’t going to dominate the market. Actually, the most popular way to read e-books is on a mobile phone. A phone serves more than one function, is easily carried, and is a device that many people have with them all the time. It’s there when a person, even one who may not be a regular reader, has some spare time and decides to read. 
 
A dedicated e-book reading device such as a Sony or Kindle is something that a person has to make a conscious decision to have at hand when they want to read. It’s a device an avid reader would use – out at an appointment, or on vacation.
 
What is an iPad? Is it a small computer? An e-book reader? It’s too big to slip into a pocket or purse. It’s too expensive to forget at the Doctor’s office, so it will probably be used at home or in the office. This may be a product with an identity crisis. 
 
At this point, I think the challenges for e-books to break through to a level of market acceptance competitive with print are related to price, not device.  
 
6) Mainstream authors such as Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Stephen R. Covey are signing Kindle book deals directly with Amazon or go-betweens such as Rosetta Stone, cutting their print publishers completely out of the equation. Do you think this is the beginning of a bona fide trend, and if so, what are the larger implications for the trade publishing industry?
 
I really feel the interest in e-book by mainstream authors is the beginning of a trend. Publishers have resisted e-books for many years, fearing the new format would cut into their profits. Authors on the other hand are looking for profits, which are hard to come by in the traditional publishing formula. To them, e-books are a way to increase their profits. If traditional publishers continue to dig their heels in about e-books more authors are going to claim the e-rights to manuscripts and sign their own deals, cutting the publisher out of the equation.
 
7) Where do you stand on the $9.99 ebook question? Can publisher moves toward higher pricing succeed in making the $9.99 price point a memory, or will their strategy backfire?
 
$9.99 for an e-book is a high price. When a reader looks at $15.00 and more they will go elsewhere – perhaps to the independents. If a reader wants a specific book they may wait until it’s being cleared out. I’ve seen popular paperbacks at discount stores for less than $10.00. 
 
8) There are strong differences of opinion about the future of print and electronic books. Some predict e will inevitably overtake print, as CD has overtaken vinyl, to the point where print books will become the province of purists and collectors only. Others think print is here to stay and e will never become a very significant factor in trade publishing. Still others foresee a world in which the two format types will co-exist and serve different needs or audiences. What is your opinion?
 
In my opinion, the two will co-exist. There is a place for print and a place for electronic. Infant’s books are definitely a place for print, as are art books and reprints of classics. Electronic works well for travelers who would bring a lot of books with them, as well as for fiction that is popular at the time but will not become a classic. Anything that changes constantly is also well-suited for e-books.  
 
9) Along those same lines, some industry watchers theorize that the ebook is now in its infancy, and the current, predominant model of static text ebooks is just a phase to be superseded by a totally new model of enhanced ebooks and ebook "apps". Many ebook consumers say they would prefer not to have the distractions of embedded links and videos, yet enhancing ebooks may be the only way for publishers to justify higher pricing for them. How do you predict things will shake out in this area?
 
This makes me wonder what the monks, who hand-lettered and gilded each page of their lovely books, thought of books produced on a Gutenberg printing press. Change is hard. Is a book with links and videos a book at all or a form of entertainment?
 
Images and a few links would not be a distraction to me. After all, images in printed books add to the reading experience. When it comes to video and audio embedded in a book — that stretches the definition of a book a bit too much for me. 
 
Publishers may say they need to include the "add-ons" to justify the higher prices for e-books but that may not be so. It does cost a lot to produce a good quality e-book. The vetting of the manuscript, editing, formatting, advertising – each step costs the same whether the final product is in print or electronic. The cost of the paper, shipping and storage are saved when producing the electronic copy. It’s estimated those costs are about 12.5 percent of the average hardcover retail list price. That’s not a large figure. 
 
But there’s another way to look at e-book pricing. Do the people who buy e-books buy the expensive print books? E-books may reach an audience that print books don’t — meaning that each e-book sold is an added sale to the publisher. A sale they wouldn’t have had if the book were produced only in print.  
  
 
10) What do you say to the author or small imprint who/which has elected not to release books in electronic format due to an assumption that e is too small a piece of the market to matter? To the author/imprint who/which is holding back on e and waiting for the dust to settle on pricing, DRM and related issues? 

I say they are missing out on sales and the e-book reader’s goodwill. For any business to succeed they have to give their customer what they want. If one business doesn’t, the customer will go to the business that does.

 
11) Where can Publetariat’s audience learn more about Read An Ebook Week, and can you offer links to any general online resources for good, up to date information about what’s happening with ebooks and related technology?
 
Read an E-Book Week is located on the web at www.ebookweek.com The website has a host of information about reading and publishing e-books, as well as information on various e-book reading devices. Readers should also visit the Supporters page and the E-book Store page for a fantastic choice of free e-books during Read an E-Book Week.
 
There are a number of current on-line resource sites on the web. I would highly recommend Teleread and Mobileread.  The mobileread forums are really informative.

 

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: once again, Smashwords will be sponsoring Read An Ebook Week, with special discounts on Smashwords titles. Indie authors with books listed on Smashwords can learn more about how to participate here.]

Authors Can Be Stupid: Price War Motives

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/11/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the tenth installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here, the third is here, the fourth is here, the fifth is here, the sixth is here, the seventh is here, the eighth is here, and the ninth is here. 

It has been suggested that the battle between publishers and Amazon over ebook pricing actually had two motives. The first was to prevent Amazon from establishing a “monopoly” over ebook sales. The second was to create a “sustainable price model.”

I’ve suggested a third motive: greed.

Monopoly: Amazon never had a monopoly, wasn’t going to have a monopoly, and no one with enough neurons to form a synapse believed they were going to have a monopoly. Amazon never demanded exclusivity from any publishers in the United States, small or large. Amazon allowed files to be sent to a Kindle outside their store structure. Amazon did not support epub, which is the format that all the other ereaders support, leaving wide open a whole market vector over which they had no control. Amazon understood that to establish a monopoly—were they somehow able to do so—would invite Department of Justice investigations and anti-trust litigation.

Moreover, if publishers were truly worried about Amazon having a monopoly, they would have pushed matters before Apple offered the agency model for pricing. They would have sued for restraint of trade or otherwise have used lawyers to force Amazon to negotiate better deals. Amazon does have a lock on sales for the Kindle, and used their clout there to demand better pricing from suppliers. That is exactly what every retail outlet and chain in the world does when they have the opportunity.

In a last-ditch attempt to justify this idea, people have pointed to Amazon saying they would give in to Macmillan because the publisher has “a monopoly” over the content they produce. Evanescent persiflage. Every manufacturer has a monopoly over what they produce. No single publisher has a monopoly over all books produced. The monopoly comment was a statement of fact and to construe it as something more significant or sinister is just silly.

Sustainable Pricing Model: Nice business terminology that roughly translates into “I get what I want.” What the agency model does is allow publishers to charge as much as they want for books, which may not be what the market will bear. They will charge exactly what they believe they need to make for profitability—the return on investment they need to keep their current business model afloat. I’ve addressed before the question of bloated overhead that stems just from locating operations in New York that don’t need to be there. The model is broken, and inefficiency will be subsidized through higher prices—prices which, for years and years, were justified to the public as being caused by higher paper prices.

This model is built specifically to allow prices to rise, which is a ridiculous proposition in the face of downward pricing pressure when things move into the digital realm. Artificially high prices create a market for pirated versions of things. Premium prices charged for a premium product (hardbacks versus paperbacks) can be justified in the minds of the consumer. Charging a premium for the first look at a book will seem as nothing to fanatical devotees of certain authors; but will seem like a gross ripoff to many other folks.

The shift in sales figures and sales modalities in the music business should be pointing to a probable future. The problem with most publishers is that they’re part of larger entertainment conglomerates who had their music divisions clobbered by digital; and now they’re vowing “Never again.” Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and this is a disaster in the offing.

Greed: I really like greed as a motive here. The publishers take from Amazon by reducing Amazon’s discount. They take from authors by reducing our share of the electronic take. They refuse to make changes to their business which would eliminate waste and run things more efficiently, and they fail to capitalize the resources they already have (ebooks which are under the higher author cut) in favor of all the new things coming out where they make more.

I should also note here that publishers have suggested that the higher prices will allow them to pay authors. However, in the 22 years that I’ve been a published author, the average advance for a first novel has not risen at all. Authors who are not superstars—Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer—are constantly under pressure to hit it big with every book. Big, in this case, is a constantly shifting target that results in such authors, like me, being squeezed badly. The contract for my current fantasy trilogy offered me an advance that was 70% less than my previous contract, and I am not alone in facing this sort of down-sizing of pay. And I’m a writer who earns out his advances and has his books being reprinted all the time.

I can discuss the technical reasons for this sort of pressure another time, but in short strokes it comes down to this: instead of offering a journeyman author $30,000 for a novel that will be profitable but not a blockbuster, a publisher can purchase a dozen first novels and hope just one of them will explode. It’s gambling on the longshots, which is fine for a wasted weekend in Las Vegas, but isn’t a way to run a business. And it is a business model that persists for two reasons. First, that’s the way it’s been done forever and, second, virtually every editor, no matter their genre or division, hopes they discover the next James Joyce, so they can be immortalized through their discovery.

People can rationalize all sorts of noble motives for the deal reached with Amazon, but from where I sit, there’s only one winner that comes out of it: the publishers. They’ve evidenced a willingness to squeeze both sides of the chain and I see no reason to suppose they won’t continue to do so in the future. They’re in the driver’s seat, so they have the right to call what’s going to be on the radio.

But given how badly they’ve bungled things in the past, and how they seem to be quite happy to hit the gas while driving on black ice now, I think everyone should buckle up and hope they’re not hurt too badly in the crash, or find a way to mitigate the damage that’s coming down the line.

 

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

Audio Book Production & Choices

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As promised, here is a post on audio books. Have you ever priced audio books in comparison to printed versions? Mass market=$8-10, Trade Paperback=$15-20, Hardback=$22-30, Abridged audio=$26-40, and Unabridged audio=$35-60. Why are audio books on CDs so much more expensive? Production costs.

First, there is the different cover and packaging. Then comes the cost of the pressed CDs (analogous to printing). Finally, there are the costs of recording, which consist of: using a professional recording studio with all its expensive equipment, its talented engineers and producers, talented reader(s) capable of smooth readings and producing different character voices consistently.

All this is very expensive! Having been a studio musician and been involved in recorded book-like projects as far back as 1966, I’ve had the opportunity to personally experience both the music and the reader sides of the process. For these reasons, I decided to go with Hudson Audio, an internationally based company out of Australia. They charge a very reasonable setup fee of $285, which is taken out of earned royalties. Their site is http://www.hudsonaudiopublishing.com/ and they take the pain out of much of the process. Technology has gotten to the point where CDs are not absolutely necessary. Newer model cars have plugins in their dashes to accommodate ipods. Ipods and similar devices are to the audio world as e-book readers are to the e-book world. Both can download electronic files to play at their leisure. Doing away with CDs is like doing away with printing books. That makes the production process much cheaper.

Not for Everybody

I’ll be up front with you, although they allow folks to produce their own electronic files, you have to either be able to pay for their production or do it yourself. If you choose the latter, they will listen to a sample first to determine if it’s up to their standards. Despite my experience, when I recorded on my iMac’s internal mike, unwanted background noises were introduced, which made for a poor quality recording. Back to the drawing board I went and solved the problem by buying a $60 studio quality mike and using my PC instead of my iMac. Although I initially tried freeware digital recording software such as Audacity, I eventually decided to spend $30-$40 on AVS Audio Editor. This gave me better control over the audio editing. If I muff a line or hiccup, I can see and find the offending area, erase it, and seamlessly record the proper material over it. A reader must do character voices, so that gave me a leg up to reading my books myself. Hudson Audio has a list of professional readers and studios that are reasonably priced if you can’t do it yourself. They also have certain technical parameter requirements you’ll need to use when recording. You’ll need to record each chapter as a separate MP3 file. What I just described sounds easy and it is; however, if you don’t know your way around a sound studio, you might find all this rather daunting—it’s not for everybody.

Reading

A good reading is not easy. There is a reason why seasoned actors are often the ones picked to read audios. They must be able to create excitement or interest with their voices. Different characters often require unique voices and accents. Fortunately, I have been a professional storyteller since 1997 and had musical and community theater experience prior to that. Storytellers do characters all the time, so I felt comfortable doing all this. Again, it’s not for everybody.

Distribution

Now comes the important part—getting your creative efforts out there for people to buy and download. Hudson Audio sells through Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.com with a 5-year commitment to them, which also means they need a con commitment from you. They are doing the hard part of distributing to the most likely markets. You keep your CD version rights; they are only interested in the download rights. So, what sacrifices will you have to make and what will you get for them?

You will get 70% and they will keep 30% of any royalties due to them through their sales to the above mentioned companies. The normal royalty they receive on a sale through these major companies is 20%. Let’s consider an example: Let’s say you place a retail price on your work of $10. For every time it is sold by iTunes, Amazon, or Audible.com, Hudson will receive 20% or $2. Your share of that $2 will be $1.40. Their share will be $.60. They pay out royalties every 90 days. At this time, they’re not going to make you wealthy; however, I think that’s going to change once more people become comfortable with downloading audio books like they do e-books.

Your Responsibility

Like everything else in this business, you must do the marketing. That involves time and funds, but will have to wait for another post on how to go about getting the word out.

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

Authors Can Be Stupid: Agency Model Pays Authors Less…

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/10/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the ninth installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here, the third is here, the fourth is here, the fifth is here, the sixth is here, the seventh is here and the eighth is here. 

An excellent post by April Hamilton [here] at Publetariat.com got me looking at the actual numbers on the money paid to authors under the old system for the Kindle, and the new Agency Model. Under the old model, ebook royalties were still connected to the cover price of a physical book. Under the agency model, they are linked to the retail price of the ebook. In both cases the author gets a cut of what the publisher receives.

Under the old model, it didn’t matter what Amazon decided to sell the book for. Amazon would pay the publisher 50% of the cover price. The author would then get his cut of that. (Prior to 2009, most contracts called for publishers to split that income 50-50. New contracts have been pushing a 25/75 split in favor of the publisher.) An author with a 25% ebook royalty rate, under the old system, would be getting 12.5% of the cover price for each sale, regardless of the discounted ebook price. Because most authors have a 10% royalty rate on physical books, every ebook copy sold by Amazon actually resulted in an increase in the amount of money the author got. Under that old model, ebook sales were better than hardback sales for an author, as the chart below indicates on the first two lines.

 

 

Under the new Agency Model, publishers will set their own prices for ebooks, with the $14.99-$12.99 price range for most hardbacks being commonly cited. Prices as low as $4.99 for older books has also been mentioned. The publisher will then get 70% of the money collected for each sale. Because authors get 25% of this 70%, their effective royalty rate is 17.5%, based on the ebook price.

As lines 3 & 4 on the chart show, under the agency model, authors who have a hardback selling for $27.99, and the ebook version selling for $14.99 will make twenty cents less on an ebook transaction over the hardback sale and nearly a dollar less than on an ebook sale under the original Amazon model. And if we were to set the price lower, to the Amazon-desired price point of $9.99, authors fare even worse.

So, the great victory over Amazon actually costs authors money.

The chart’s last five lines examine the price structure for paperback sales and the percentages for authors who signed contracts prior to 2009 and have a higher percentage of ebook receipts. While paperback-level pricing returns are slightly better for ebook sales over paper sales; you’ll notice a significant increase under the old contracts where a 50% share of the net receipts translates into a 35% royalty on retail price.

In short, before publishers decided to get greedy with a market niche that they all claim is somewhere between 1-10% of the business, writers did a lot better. Amazon and their pricing structure, which actually was being subsidized by Amazon, paid authors more, pure and simple.

Let’s be clear. Publishers are fighting for the agency model and the right to to set their own prices simply because they make more money that way. They, just like Amazon and every other corporation, acts in its own enlightened self-interest. What they think of as enlightened, however, can appear to many of us as short-sighted. As I showed previously, digital sales are actually more profitable for publishers, so they should hasten the transition and use that money to underwrite physical publication—much as Baen Books does.

It is also critical to point out that writers, while they have a dog in this fight, have no voice in it. Why do authors accept 25% of ebook receipts today when, two years ago the offer was 50%? Because we have no choice, or, rather, the choice is take it or leave it. If your boss comes to you today and says, “Either you take a 15% pay cut or I have to fire you,” what do you? If you have no alternatives, you accept the paycut

So, where’s the silver lining? How do authors win with the Agency Model?

Publish work electronically yourself. Then you’re not splitting the take with anyone aside from the retailer. (And you get the money faster.) Every author should realize something critical. If the publishers are pushing to maximize their money for digital publications by taking money from Amazon, and taking money from authors, they clearly believe this market segments is going to grow quickly. The fact is we’ve already seen demographic data that suggests that people who own ereaders buy more.

Authors can benefit directly by publishing themselves. Even if it’s not new material, but short stories and out of print books, it will sell. If you don’t do it, you leave money on the table.

And if you don’t do it, you won’t have an alternative when the publishers come to you and say, “You know what, 25% is too much for you for ebook sales. 15% or we have to let you go.” That day will come, and all writers want to be ready.

 

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

Your Book Marketing Plan – Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To?

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A written book marketing plan is an essential tool in effectively promoting your book. One of the first priorities in developing a book marketing plan is to define your target audiences.

Your audience may be wider than you think. Your book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching several different target audiences, including these:

1.    Readers – These are people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience (the "ideal customer" that the book was specifically written for) as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic.

2.    Purchasers – Many book buyers purchase books for other people. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, and women buy men’s health books. Companies and organizations buy books to give away to their customers, members and prospects. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?

3.    Influencers – Don’t overlook the importance of people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. This includes bloggers, other writers in your genre, journalists, book reviewers, and other experts in your field.

In online book marketing, the influencers may be the most important category of all. Think about how much you can multiply your book promotion efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers and customers. Other people who cater to your target customers can promote you and your book in several ways, including blog posts, links to your website or blog, Twittering, newsletter articles, and media sharing tools like Digg and StumbleUpon. It’s important to develop relationships with these influencers, as part of your book marketing plan.

Traditional and online media are also important influencers. You can reach them through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution.

Be sure your book marketing plan includes strategies for promoting your book to all of these important target audiences.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides. Get your free book marketing plan outline at The Savvy Book Marketer blog, and follow @BookMarketer on Twitter for more book marketing tips.
 

Authors Can Be Stupid: $500 ebook design for free!

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/9/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the eighth installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here, the third is here, the fourth is here, the fifth is here, the sixth is here and the seventh is here. 

One of the things that keeps being said about self-published ebooks is that they lack professional book design. This is short for “they look like crap.”

As you are aware, I have two ebook readers, and I’ve purchased commercially available ebooks from traditional publishers. Those designers are no great shakes, for reasons I can’t fathom. What most of you don’t know is that back in the 1980s, while working for Flying Buffalo, Liz Danforth and Pat Mueller dragged the entire game industry into the realm of professional layout and design through the work they did on all of our products. I was fortunate enough to learn from them the arts of typesetting, layout and design.

So, here are the quick and easy rules for making sure your ebooks (especially epub versions) don’t look like amateurish crap.

1) Get a book on coding HTML, or cultivate a friendship with someone who knows this stuff. There are a couple coding tricks you’ll need to know. Most ebooks work off HTML, so if you can do it on a web page, you can do it in an ebook.

2) Choose a font. For the sake of simplicity, just use Times New Roman. (If you are picky about fonts, experiment, but be aware that not all devices support all fonts. Times New Roman is supported.) Font size is irrelevant since the joy of ebook readers is that the owner can change font size.

3) Prepare the text by reducing it to single-space. And justify the text. Nothing screams amateur like ragged-right text.

4) Do not put empty lines between paragraphs (the way most webpages like this format themselves). That looks like crap, doesn’t look like any print book anywhere, leaves tons of blank space and makes for weird page spacing. Instead you will indent your paragraphs, just like in a physical book. The code is easy to write and I use the measure of 1.5em. (I know, looks like code. It is, and you or your HTML-savant friend will put it right where it needs to go.)

5) Instead of putting in a blank space to suggest the passage of time, find a small illo (even just a straight line) to drop into that space. I have disks upon disks of copyright-free illustrations. I pick one appropriate to the story and slip it in as my break spacer. If you use the same illo throughout the book, it doesn’t add much to the file size. I prefer .pngs, but .jpgs work just fine.

6) Your cover should not be representative, it should be iconic. The cover for The Silver Knife was done by Kat Klaybourne and is just such an iconic image. It reduces great to an icon for the iPod/iPad interface and is attractive enough to catch buyers’ eyes. It is the bestselling of the titles I have on through the appstore, in fact, because of this cover. (Doesn’t hurt that the story rocks, too… Mycroft Holmes, Jack the Ripper and a lot more. A *lot* more.)

Put that all together, add the cover to the front of the file, convert it to the Kindle format, or any other format, and you’re set. A professional looking book that will look as good as or better than anything coming out of traditional publishers.

 

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

What If Big Six Market Share Leader Random House Breaks Ranks with the Apple Five?

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“The sense of entitlement of the American consumer is absolutely astonishing,” said novelist Douglas Preston in a direct reference to Kindle owners in the New York Times last week, but Preston’s equally astonishing notion that we in Kindle Nation are governed by "the Wal-Mart mentality" misses the mark by plenty.

Much of the reporting about the ebook pricing controversy has strongly suggested that Steve Jobs and the Apple Five (thanks to The Kindle Chronicles podcaster Len Edgerly for this currently apt label for MacMillan, Hachette, Penguin, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins) will have their way and impose 30% to 50% price increases on Kindle Store bestsellers and new releases by the end of March, so it should not be surprising if Kindle owners’ backs are up.

It’s true that a majority of respondents in the Winter 2010 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey is ready to take a stand against anticipated increases in Kindle Store ebook prices above the $9.99 figure that Amazon has associated with bestsellers and new releases since the Kindle’s launch over two years ago, but inside the numbers are some indications of flexibility:
 

  • 54% disagreed somewhat or strongly with the statement "I will probably pay $10 to $14.99 for new ebook titles if necessary," but a significant number (37%) agreed with the statement and another 52% disagreed with the statement that "I will never pay more than $9.99 for an ebook."
     
  • Given further choices, 75% agreed with the statement "I’ll pay over $9.99, but only rarely when I simply must have an ebook," and 33% said they would pay more for professional or technical books.

With this range of views,  there may be significant numbers of Kindle owners who occasionally pay more than $9.99, and indeed there have been many Kindle books that have sold briskly with double-digit prices during the past two years. Kindle owners are by their very nature likely to be too  fair-minded and attuned to subtleties to participate in a totally unified boycott based on price or any other single, simple factor.

While it will be fascinating both to me and, perhaps, to the U.S. Department of Justice to study the array of ebook prices in the Kindle Store and in other venues like Apple’s yet-to-be-opened iBooks store on April Fool’s Day, it may be more telling to see where they settle out on May Day, Independence Day, or Thanksgiving Day. In the interim, competition may have its effects in more traditional ways than we have seen so far, and the behavior of Random House, the largest of the Big Six in U.S. operations, may ultimately say the most about how this drama shakes out. As reported here earlier, a key Random House senior executive indicated to a confab of booksellers a few days ago that her company could pursue an independent course on ebook pricing instead of trying to impose its own retail pricing wisdom on a company — Amazon — that knows more about price elasticity and its own customers than anyone else in the world.

Kindle owners now say in large numbers (73%) that they have become more price-conscious as a result of the recent price controversy, and an overwhelming 87% in our survey disagreed with the rather broad statement that "publishers know their costs, so I’m happy to pay the prices they set." If Amazon’s temporary deletion of MacMillan titles was intended to send an implicit message about the extent to which key players should be viewed as benign or malignant, it worked: a remarkable 68% of our respondents agreed with the statement that "Jeff Bezos and Amazon have my back, and I know they price things to sell."

Some may think this perspective is an indication that Kindle owners are bellying up to the Bezos Family Kool-Aid Stand in large numbers, but given the significant and growing role that ebook readers will continue to play in the retail book business, publishers who fail to pay close attention may be risking more than they can afford to risk.

One Kindle Nation citizen commented, on an earlier post here, that "some anti-publisher bias is understandable" in the survey results, give the "kindle specific audience" of Kindle Nation Daily, but the comment itself is commentary on the extent to which important things have changed. The book publishing industry is not Big Oil, Big Pharma, or the Wall Street Bonus Bankers. Not all that long ago it was widely seen by the American reading public as being composed of venerable houses and imprints that were well-deserving of the roles we granted them as gatekeepers and arbiters of taste and quality. The idea that large numbers of voracious readers hold something like an anti-publisher bias represents a stunning fall from grace.

If Random House breaks ranks with the Apple Five, it could do itself and its authors a tremendous amount of good, and a return to more traditional competitive behavior could soon follow. In  the long run, or that middle run before we are all dead, we as the increasingly savvy, quality-conscious, price-conscious citizens of Kindle Nation could find ourselves holding more of the cards than we thought we might be holding.

Click Here to View Likely Kindle Owner Buying Behavior at Strategic Price Points

Click here to see complete, detailed results of the survey, and keep your dial tuned to Kindle Nation Daily — here on the web or here to have posts pushed directly to your Kindle — for ongoing breakdowns of the significance of the survey results.
 

By Stephen Windwalker
Originally posted February 16, 2010 – © Kindle Nation Daily 2010

Authors Can Be Stupid: A Brief Note on Self-publishing

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/8/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the seventh installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here, the third is here, the fourth is here, the fifth is here and the sixth is here. 

It strikes me that in long essays, certain facts get lost. I wish to break them out here.

1) The purpose of writing for commercial distribution (electronic or print) is to make a profit. This means you have more money coming to you than you have flowing away from you. As with any business, you may have some start-up costs. Create a budget. Set aside an amount of money which you do not need, and use that for your business. Create a business plan, analyze the avenues for generating income. Hit those which have minimal costs and higher payoffs first, and work your way down. If ever you tell yourself, “Well, this won’t cost me that much,” stop. Do not do that thing. Once you start making rationalizations like that, you are being foolish.

Once you are foolish, you will soon be penniless.

2) My support for self-publishing in these discussions has been for digital publishing and digital publishing alone. It is true that I have mentioned services like Blurb.com where one can do a limited run (10 or less) copies of a book. I have used Blurb.com and the like for extremely short runs of books which I can bring to signings. This is so I have an inexpensive item for people to buy when they come up to the table and say, “I don’t have anything for you to sign.” I am fairly confident I can move ten copies of such books over a convention season, so I’ll be making a profit (see point 1). Never print more books than you have pre-sold. Volume discounts for printing don’t mean anything when the excess inventory is sitting in your garage.

3) I do not believe that even digital self-publishing is easy. I believe it is simple, and there is a world of difference between those two things. Establishing your own business is hard work. If you don’t put that work in, you will not reap the benefits of your business, pure and simple. To me, spending twenty hours scanning and preparing a novel for ebook publishing is “negligible,” because it’s only an expenditure of time. In my opinion, time is cheap compared to the money that will be returned by that effort. But then, I don’t own a television, so I may have a bit more time on my hands than others. Everyone will decide whether or not they will spend the time to enter the digital marketplace. I tend to think the cost of not entering is the greatest of all, but I expect others will disagree with me.

4) Publishing in the digital age is about more than files, formats, devices, DRM and shopping-cart software. It is about using new media for locating, building and sustaining an audience. In business, companies gear their publicity expenditures to accomplish one of three things: Customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer re-acquisition. Everything you do when it comes to new media should fulfill one or more of those criteria. All three would be nice.

I heartily recommend the book Crush It! by Gary Vanyerchuk for his discussions of using new media to find and build your audience and brand.

5) There is no get-rich-quick-scheme. You will be working your tail off. (This is the reason most of us get those chairs with the pneumatic lifts in them. As our butts get smaller, we have to raise the seat.) While doing the marketing and file prep and website coding may be tough, it won’t be nearly as tough as the writing itself. But once you’ve done the difficult work, you owe it to yourself and your work to get it out to your audience in a manner that lets them support you in your efforts.

6) Established authors do not have a leg up on new authors in this digital world. My previous post on The Myth of the Established Author makes my feelings very clear on this point. Those who would dismiss everything I’m saying because I have been previously published would do well to read that essay. They might also want to consider the following: it may not be the fact that I’ve got a following that allows me to be successful in the digital age, but that my experience in the pre-digital age is what allows me to see the ways to profit in the post-paper era.

7) One last point, which goes back to the first: money flows to the author, not from the author. Whenever anyone offers you a deal, ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t see a return in one or more areas as affects your career, it’s probably not a deal that works in your favor. People get taken by all sorts of scams simply because the scammer offers you an opportunity that is too good to pass up. One such is publishing a novel which, deep down in your heart, you know is not of professional quality. It might be close, but it isn’t there yet. Don’t let your desire to be published prompt you to open your wallet and give money to someone who promises you the moon, but can’t even deliver a moon-pie.

Whatever you do, do not trick yourself or allow others to trick you into believing that self-publishing—especially of print books in any quantity beyond a dozen copies—is the way to make you the next J. K. Rowling. Writing is not easy. Getting good at it takes years of hard work. Do the work. Do it on the writing. Do it on the business side, and the promotions side. Learn as much as you can and then, and only then, can you make the correct decisions about when and where to invest your time and (extremely reluctantly and penuriously) a tiny sum of money.

Learn from the mistakes of others. A garage full of books will not pay your mortgage. A solid, profitable business will.

 

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

 

Authors Can Be Stupid: Doing the Ebook Math

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/7/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the fifth installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here, the third is here and the fourth is here.

One of the things that keeps being bruited about in this discussion over digital books and pricing is a question of how much digital books really cost. The base cost of a book, of course, determines its final price. Repeatedly people have come out and said that the production costs of an ebook are fairly close to that of a paper book, so the prices need to be where they are. I want to break those numbers down.

In conventional publishing authors get a royalty of 10% of the cover price (on average). In the digital world, authors working through a publisher will get 25-50% of the publisher’s cut. Under the new Apple and Amazon models, that is 70% of the book’s cover price. The author, therefore, will get 17.5% to 35% of the cover price of the digital download.

In conventional publishing, the generally accepted cost for physical production of a book is 10% of the cover price. This number is a bit unstable because of volume discounts on printing and because of the returnability of books. For every book sold into a customer’s hands, two are printed. With digital publication, the actual production cost is negligible. The elimination of returns also eliminates the needs for the accounting dodge of reserves against returns.

In conventional publishing, physical books are sold into the market at a 50% discount off the cover price. Under the new digital models, that discount is reduced to 30%, so the publishers will be making an additional 20% of the cover price. (Yes, with an author’s percentage rising to 35% of cover for a digital sale, that increase is devoured, but the 10% physical production cost vanishes, leaving the publisher still 14.2% ahead.) (A $10 book at a 50% discount pays the publisher $5, and the author gets $1. The publishers gets $4, and then loses an additional dollar for the cost of the physical book, so they’re down to $3. A $10 digital book pays the publisher $7. After paying the author, they keep $3.50, so they’re over 14% better off with that digital sale.)

In conventional publishing, the remaining 30% covers everything from editorial, art direction and acquisition, warehousing, transportation, promotion, overhead and profit. If you’ve been following the math above, assuming that this 30% is fixed, the publishers are still 14.2% ahead through digital publication, and roughly 52% ahead if their authors have agreed to one of the shameful 25% of the digital take contracts that have been promoted recently.

The digital model, however, removes costs out of that 30%. Warehousing is no longer a cost. Transportation is no longer a cost. Typesetting is no longer a cost. Art direction is still a cost, but the cost of cover art goes way down. Digital books work well with iconic images, not the sweeping cover illustrations found on books. Even Michael Whelan does not reduce well to an icon. This might seem like an insignificant line item, but in the SF&F field, a cover illustration could cost more than acquiring the book. Going from even $1000 for a painting down to $100 for some graphics makes a significant difference in the profit picture.

Now, here’s the hidden, dirty little secret that the publishers don’t want you to think about. That 30% goes to zero for all of their backlist books. With those books, all the developmental costs have been written off years ago. Because digital books never go out of print, we suddenly have the return of the backlist. If a reader likes a book by an author and goes looking for more, they can find all of those books through a simple search or, if big publishers ever cotton on to this digital thing, through hotlinks at the back of the book.

In a previous post in this series, I’ve noted that the overhead category of charges, which some folks have suggested accounts for half of that 30%, is needlessly high for conventional publishers. Do they really need Manhattan offices? Baen Books and Night Shade Books seem to function perfectly well without them, just to name two publishers off hand. And the authors aren’t all located in New York. The internet is how I get my manuscripts to my publishers. And we have telephones, too. Moving the editorial and production offices out of Manhattan could significantly reduce overhead for any project.

Promotion is a sore point with authors. Publishers claim they do it. Authors find themselves encouraged to do more and more without any compensation. I have had my books solicited to stores including the fact that the author will do signings, but the publishers never set things up. I’ve had publishers refuse to pay $150 for a flight to Denver for a four store signing tour (the store chain manage got in touch with them, not me) because I wasn’t “on tour.” The lack of support and misplacement of advertising dollars is legendary in the industry; and authors are expected to pick up the slack on our own.

In the digital age, those promotion costs drop nearly to zero, consisting mostly of pages on the publisher’s website. If they do choose to do any advertising, at least it can be targeted to hit their audience by putting banners on author websites or online retailer websites.

Another point publishers don’t want anyone to think about is the cost of money. Publisher invoices are paid net 30 or net 60 (in one or two months). Authors are paid net 90 to net 270. A book sold on the last day of June won’t have a royalty sent to the author until, at the very fastest, the first of October. If the store pays the invoice for that copy on the last day of August, the publisher still has the money for thirty days. Often it is for considerably longer, and the interest earned on that money—which belongs to the author—is something the publisher retains. The current rate for a 6 month CD is 1.07%, or just over 2% per year. That goes neatly to the publisher’s bottom line.

Back to the cogent point: If every publisher today were to switch immediately over to the digital publishing model only, they would be 14-52% to the good on every new title they put out. They would be significantly better off with every backlist title they make available. If they just wanted to stay even, they could sell brand new ebooks at a 5% discount over the print price, and backlist books at 35% off. (Since most of the backlist books are currently out of print anyway, this becomes a new revenue stream for them, raising their overall volume, which, in turn, increases their profit because their cost of offering those books is zero.)

Industry insiders point out that there’s one flaw in this analysis: so few people are reading digital books, at this point, that if they were to make this immediate switch, there would not be enough volume to sustain the companies.

If that is true, however, how can traditional publishing’s suggestion that ebook sales are cutting into hardback sales be supported? It can’t and isn’t. They fear that it might, but there is no data to show that it has or will.

Moreover, and here is the trickiest thing, no one is asking them to do one or the other. We want them to do both. Since digital books produce a higher profit margin, increasing the digital offering only makes sense. In short, for every print book sale you don’t make because of a digital sale, you make more money! This is especially true of backlist offerings of the books to which they already own the rights. (I am repeatedly asked by books 3 and 4 of the DragonCrown War series are available as ebooks, but 1 and 2 are not? Beats the hell out of me. And why no omnibus digital edition? Another puzzler.)

Tradition publishing (and apologists for it) note that they want to control the transition because there are a lot of jobs at stake here—namely truckers and warehousemen. Does anyone actually believe that if a mobile robot that could pick books faster, tirelessly, without making mistakes; was available tomorrow, that every warehouseman wouldn’t be out on his ear? In a heartbeat. This isn’t to say that there are not plenty of compassionate people working for publishers—heck, working with authors requires the patience of a saint—but when it comes down to return-on-investment decisions, people become numbers, and numbers can be subtracted with amazing speed and facility.

The very important thing for authors to look at is this: the costs for you to offer your work as digital files is less than that of the publishers. A previously published short story already has the editorial work done. Converting the file for Kindle or epub takes less than an hour. Loading it to Amazon or your own website, less than an hour. Off Amazon you currently make 35% of cover, in July that goes to 70%, same as the big boys. Off your own website, you’ll pull at least 87% of cover.

My point to authors is the same as my point to publishers: I don’t think you should do one or the other, I think you have to do both. Just like the publishers owning rights to out of print, backlist properties that could make them money, authors have the same sort of inventory. Get it out there. Start selling. Establish your presence and encourage readers to buy direct from you.

Why?

The simple fact of the matter is this: traditional publishing has repeatedly evidenced an inability to integrate itself with technology to its benefit. Traditional publishers are fighting to maintain an inherently dysfunctional business model which has been in decline for years. If not for J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, Dan Brown and Stephanie Meyer it and the wasteful consignment-system of book retailing would have suffered a serious and perhaps fatal contraction seven years ago. Traditional publishers have repeatedly showed not only a lack of understanding of its customer base, but a contempt for them (as evidenced most recently by predatory pricing of ebooks). Last year’s attempt to cut author royalties in half on ebook sales, despite claims that the market for ebooks was insignificant, is yet one more indicator of publishers seeking to redress their inefficiencies by pulling more money from authors.

The traditional publishers themselves are going to give authors who do the work the very means with which the publishers can be supplanted. By setting ebook prices artificially high, they allow authors to offer the same quality entertainment at a reasonable price that actually nets us more. As I noted yesterday, I can take out a novel that New York didn’t want, do up in a digital version, and make seven times per book what they would pay me for the print version, and double what I’d get out of the digital version. With no downside for me at all. As I’ve noted before, using the Apple Appstore as an example, there is constant downward pressure on prices, and traditional publishers can easily find themselves competing with authors who offer their own backlists at reasonable prices.

The numbers don’t lie. Ebook prices should be lower than print prices, by a minimum of 5%, and that’s just if publishers wish to maintain the status quo. Operations where the costs of physical production, warehousing, transportation and editorial (in the case a backlist material) are reduced or eliminated, significantly increase their profit profile through reduced costs and the higher discount being offered on digital sales. In my estimation, ebook prices could be 20% below current print prices without causing any hardship, and significantly lower on backlist titles which would now be returned to availability. And they could go even lower if publishers addressed overhead costs and ran their companies more efficiently.

It’s not a matter of change coming. It’s already here. How you decide to deal with it will determine where you and your career are in fifteen months and fifteen years.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: if you’ve found this piece interesting, you might like to take a look at, and participate in, the discussion going on in the comments thread of the original post on Michael A. Stackpole’s website.]

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PUBLETARIAT!

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In honor of Publetariat’s one-year anniversary this week we’re running a contest between now and Saturday, March 6 to benefit you, our loyal audience. Top entrants will: 1) get exposure here on Publetariat, 2) be considered for invitation to join Publetariat’s roster of regular contributors, and 3) will also have a shot at winning some prizes. Here are the details:

1. Write an article or blog post on a topic related to self-publishing with a minimum word count of 700 and a maximum of 2000. Use our department headings as your subject matter guide: 

Think – opinion pieces about self-publishing, ebooks, the current or future state of trade publishing, etc.

Choose – reviews of products or services used by self-publishers and small imprints (e.g., software, sites, freelancers, ebook conversion services, etc.)

Write –  pieces on the subject of craft and the writing process: plotting, characterization, revision, editing, workshopping, etc.

Design – any aspect of book design: cover design, interior design and layout, typesetting, fonts, etc.

Publish – types of publishing and the pros and cons of each: minimum-print-run, Print On Demand, ebooks, book "apps" in Apple’s iTunes store, Twitter novels, etc.

Sell – topics related to author platform, book and author promotion

Imprint –  topics related to establishing and running a small, independent imprint

2. Ensure that you mention, and link to, Publetariat somewhere in the article/post. The mention doesn’t have to include any specific language, it’s acceptable to just say something like, "This is my entry for Publetariat‘s one-year anniversary contest."

3. Post your piece online, at your website or blog.

4. Use the Contact Us form to send us a link to your article, no later than midnight PST on 3/6/10. The contest closes to entries at midnight PST on 3/6/10. One entry per person, please.

5. Publetariat Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton will review all submitted links and reprint the articles she judges to be both the best-written and most pertinent to Publetariat’s audience here on Publetariat beginning the week of 3/7/10. At the minimum, three articles/posts will be reprinted here. Authors will be notified of the reprint via email; the email will include a link to the reprinted article, and authors can use this link to publicize the reprint anywhere they’d like online.

As per usual for material posted on Publetariat, posted articles will credit the author (including an embedded link back to the author’s profile or ‘about’ page on his or her site/blog) and include links back to the source article on the author’s blog/site and his or her blog/site’s homepage. Authors will retain all rights to their material. Also as per usual, each post will intially appear with a ‘teaser’ on the front page of the site, to maximize its visibility.

6. Unique page views for each article will be counted for exactly 7 days (7 24-hour periods), beginning when each article is posted, to determine the relative popularity of each article with Publetariat’s audience. "Unique page views" is a count of how many unique visitors click through to the full article; repeat visits will not be included in each article’s page view count. So if your article is reprinted, don’t be shy about spreading the word and sharing the reprint link!

7. PRIZES:

The authors of top three most-viewed articles will receive VIP enrollment in Vault University for one year. VIP enrollment grants access to all posted lessons in both Vault U. curricula: Publishing and Author Platform/Promo. New lessons are posted in each curriculum on the first day of each month, and including lessons already posted, this prize will grant winners access to all 16 lessons in both curricula – a $160 value.

The author of the most-viewed article overall will also receive a signed copy of April L. Hamilton’s upcoming Writer’s Digest Books book, The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use, upon its release in November of this year.

Any participating authors will also be considered for addition to our roster of regular Publetariat contributors based on the content of their submitted article and the content of their sites/blogs overall. Per Hubspot’s Websitegrader, as of this writing Publetariat ranks in the top 1.3% of all websites worldwide in terms of traffic and has an SEO grade of 99%. Since self-publishing is on the rise and our audience is comprised of both indie and mainstream pub peeps, the targeted exposure Publetariat can give you is tough to beat. So get those articles written and get those links submitted—we’re excited to see what you can do!

Click here to spread the news about our contest on Twitter!

Authors Can Be Stupid: I Just Want To Write

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/6/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the fourth installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here, the second is here and the third is here.

One of the laments that is oft heard concerning the coming changes in the industry is this: “Look, I just want to write.” The whole idea is that the writer in question enjoys writing. All they want to do is just to turn out stories. They don’t want to have to learn HTML. They don’t want to have to learn how to put things in an online store. They don’t want to learn about different ebook formats, or set up accounts with online booksellers or find an artist to create graphics for their work.

I understand the sentiment.

And I understand it’s unrealistic.

Imagine, if you will, a really good cook who decides to open a restaurant because, “All I want to do is cook.” If all you want to do is cook (or write) you don’t open a business. You get a job. There is a significant difference between the two. In a job you have no control over your circumstances, you have bosses telling you what to do and to do it over again, your choice of assignments is not yours and, in short, you have very limited control over your work environment and situation. You are at the whim of others.

When you open a business—and this is what every writer is doing—you have to pay attention to the bottom line. The idea is to be profitable. If you cannot find an advantage in doing things, don’t do them.

Every single day I have to make decisions about what is going to be the best way for me to occupy my time. Sometimes, as when I have an assignment, writing a story that will pay me in a couple of months is a good idea. It may not pay me much, but there is usually another angle that I want to work. Perhaps I’m working with friends. Perhaps the subject is one that I enjoy. Perhaps the story goes into an anthology with a hot theme. I constantly have to measure the angles so that when the work is done, I am getting ahead. I am expanding my audience. I’m providing an entertaining read that will draw more folks to my work. I’m adding another story to a world of mine, which feeds my current audience and encourages new folks to buy the older work.

Sometimes there is zero monetary profit in a project. A number of years ago I was asked to contribute a story to a charity anthology. I immediately agreed. I like the cause. Lots of other, high profile authors were going to be in the book, too. The organizers wanted to try peer-editing, which was a cool concept. The good will and publicity certainly would be a plus.

That could all make me sound like a cold and calculating bastard. Fair enough. But cold and calculating is what has allowed me, since 1987, to be my own boss. As I noted in a previous post, three years ago Bantam dropped me as an author. I spent the next two years without a contract. And yet, in both of those years, my business as a writer showed a profit. How? By finding writing jobs. By finding other ways to make money using my skills. Via digital sales, via teaching classes, via industrial, not-for-external publication jobs. My market had collapsed, and yet I found a way to make my writing pay.

If you have the attitude that you “just want to write,” then just write. But don’t lament the fact that you’re not making any money. That’s like saying you’re hungry, but you don’t want to get up and make yourself a sandwich. It’s playing the victim. Playing the victim won’t get you anywhere.

A number of folks have pointed out the 80/20 rule of business. Eighty percent of your profit comes from twenty percent of your product line. In publishing it’s much worse than that: ninety-five percent of the profit comes from five percent of the line. Two key points here: First, you want the entire line to be making profit. You know a minority of it will make most of the profit, but you have to do the things to see to it that the rest of the line at least breaks even, like advertising and sales support. Publishers don’t do this. They only do sales support and effective advertising for that 5% of the line. It is a model that bets on the “sure thing,” ignoring the fact that there are no “sure things.”

Second, you have to expand the line and change the mix. If you have items that are not profitable, you cut them. And then you open up other markets. You explore new opportunities. You find new ways of having income flow in your direction. You still work from your core strength, but you find new ways to profit from it. In this way the contribution of the 80% of your line is still in the black.

Many authors are resisting or denigrating the idea of digital self-publishing. This is like a farmer saying that the produce sold from his roadside stand just isn’t as good as the stuff you buy in the grocery store. It’s nonsense. If a writer provides samples (free, or low-cost stories), readers will have the means to make informed decisions about where they want to spend their entertainment dollars. Sure, will digital publishing mean that anyone whose ever wanted to write can have a storefront? Absolutely, but if consumers demand samples before they buy, the good writing will be weeded out from the bad very quickly.

And there are other ways to have stories rise to the top. Watch this space for some project announcements very soon.

Here’s the true tragedy of authors who don’t want to attend to the business side: every single one of us has inventory that isn’t doing anything right now. Could be a novel that never sold. Could be a handful of short stories that sold years ago and haven’t been seen since the anthology or magazine went out of print. Could be we get an idea for a story tied to current events, or we want to do a story that we can sell and donate the money to Haiti relief. The current publishing model doesn’t support such things, but digital can and will.

Let me give you two examples of ways that digital publishing works for both the authors and readers by circumventing economic necessities that encumber the current business model.

1) I’m not alone in having one or more novels which are of professional quality, which the large publishers rejected because, in their opinions, the books would not sell enough copies for them to bother with. Setting aside the issue of publishers’ lack of demographic data on reader tastes, the idea is that since the book would not be a huge bestseller, in an editor’s opinion, it goes unbought.

So, I have this book. I will never recover the time I’ve invested in it. If I turn around and publish it in digital form for $5 and I sell three copies a month, the sales of that book alone will cover the cost of my website and more. The cover illustration will cost me $25 or so, maybe as much as $50; so the sales of the first fifteen will cover that cost. After just fifteen books, I’m profitable, and I’m making the money now, not having to wait for a publisher to get around to send me money in six to nine months after a copy is sold. If the current sales figures for digital sales just hold steady, without any push on my part, I can sell a dozen copies a month, putting $50 or more dollars in my pocket a month. May not sound like much, but it is $50 more than I have right now. In ten months, that’s an iPad.

2) Back in 1997 I had a novel come out titled Talion: Revenant. The book sold well over 50,000 copies here, and sold in Germany. I already have the start on a sequel: Talion: Nemesis. Since Bantam has rejected me, they don’t want the sequel. Because they hold the rights to the first book, no other publisher wants to pick up the sequel, despite the strong sales figures and the fact that this is the single most requested volume for a sequel that I’ve got. (And if you want to register your support of my doing the sequel, please feel free to do so in comments.) Why won’t anyone else pick it up? Because sales of the current book would drive sales of the previous one, allowing Bantam to profit off their efforts. Even using current (and crude) models for estimating sales of the next book in a series, Nemesis would be projected to sell a minimum of 30,000 copies, which is a ton in the current environment. And yet, this sort of thing is seldom done under the current model.

If I do it as a digital book, and tap into that 30,000 sales figure, I’d been looking at a gross amount of money running, conservatively, at $100,000 on a $5 digital book. Even if I sell only a fraction of those copies, even if I only sell 10,000, I’d make more than I’d be paid as an advance for the book in the traditional model. Regardless, every dollar that flowed in would be one more dollar than I had before. Low effort, low cost, high profit. Why wouldn’t I do it?

And why on earth would I listen to anyone who denigrates digital self-publishing? I’ll let you in on a big secret here: those same authors are reading these very blog posts, and are the first to pigeonhole me at conventions to learn how they can do what I’ve been doing. They’ll be doing all this very soon, claiming that it’s different for them because of [insert feeble rationalization here]. Smile and nod when you see them.

In either scenario, providing samples for free to entice folks to buy would be part of the package. So folks would not be buying a pig-in-a-poke even if they had no idea who I was or what I’d done.

The simple facts boil down to these:

1) The old system has never treated writers well. Publishers have continued to cut back on services that build author careers, now expecting us to do that for them. This is not to suggest that publishers do not provide services that benefit writers. They do. But they have shifted things that they used to do onto the backs of writers, and they have not increased our cut of the take to compensate us for doing that new work. And if we refrain from doing that work—or even if we do it, but not well enough—it becomes grounds for severing their relationship with us. In essence, they throw a hundred infants into the ocean, and then rescue the five that bob to the top—who then go into the next load of a hundred and go right back into that cold, cruel sea. Lather, rinse, repeat—how long can you tread water?

2) Authors already have work product to which they own the digital rights, which they are not making available. This is akin to a farmer having produce the distributor doesn’t want and his failing to erect a roadside stand to sell it. The effort to get that material out there is minimal, and the reward is immediate.

3) The dark side of the digital world is this: you can never audit a digital royalty statement. There is no way to tell how much end-product has been delivered. A one meg file to which a gig of bandwidth has been devoted does not mean 1,000 sales. It could be one guy has failed to download that file on all but his 2,000th attempt. If an author does not sell his own work, he has no baseline against which to judge the sales statements coming in from others. (Based on my experience, transfer failures affect less than 2% of transactions.) Since publishers will be paying us substantially more for digital copies of our work than they do physical copies, and since the paper trail is a lot more difficult to break down, it behooves authors to be collecting data by which we can verify what’s going on.

4) Authors say they don’t want to learn graphics or HTML or anything else. Great. Have your spouse, child, grandchild, friend, assistant, unpaid intern or willing fan do it. It’s work that needs to be done. If a pipe breaks in your house, you don’t sit around in a flood lamenting the fact that you don’t want to learn how to be a plumber. You find someone who can fix things. HTML, Graphics and the rest are things others can fix. Incorporate them into your success.

All that said, there are still folks who will say, “I just want to write.”

Fine. Do that. Just don’t complain when the business isn’t going the way you want it to. Either you take control of your own destiny, act like an adult and make the business work; or your forfeit the right to wail and gnash your teeth about the vicissitudes of publishing.

 

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.

Authors Can Be Stupid: Entitlement? Really?

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This post was written by Michael A. Stackpole. It originally appeared on his Stormwolf website on 2/5/10, is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission, and is the third installment in his series on common myths and distractions in authorship and publishing. The first installment is here and the second is here.

My post yesterday, Authors Can Be Stupid: Please Feed The Authors, can seem to have been rather unsympathetic to authors who are caught in the Amazon-Macmillan fight. They could very well be in a difficult position, and panic can be expected. I have no idea what percentage of sales go out through Amazon, but it’s very clear that Amazon is one of the most visible book retailers. Some authors haunt the website, watching a book’s ratings rise and fall with the avidity of a doctor watching a critical patient’s heart monitor.

Any author, however, who believes that his career is going to be ruined by something Amazon does, is just kidding himself. Authors have never been in control of their careers. Here are some realities to consider:

1) The single thing which determines how well your book sells has nothing to do with your prose. Though we are all told from birth “never judge a book by its cover,” this is exactly what book buyers do. And by book buyers I don’t mean just the retail customer, I mean the buyers for the large book chains. If they do not like your cover, they don’t buy your book. And authors, with very few exceptions, have zero input on what will go on the cover. (I have had covers presented to me before a book is finished, requiring me to add a scene to the book so the cover is relevant.)

2) A second huge factor in book sales is promotion. I don’t mean ads and book tours, since most authors in SF&F get neither in any useful sense, but I mean in placement and special discounts for purchasing. In bookstores you’ll see books on wall racks or aisle end-caps. Publishers buy placement in stores (same as shelf space is sold in grocery stores). And a special discount for a particular book can inspire bookstores to stock more of them. Ask yourself which is better: having two books stocked in a store and selling both of them, or having eight stocked in and selling four? Most folks point to the 100% sell-through, but since virtually all mass market books are sold on a returnable basis, selling half the books stocked in, but a larger number, is better. The books that don’t sell are sent back, so it’s just sales volume that counts.

3) Every writer knows that the quality of writing has little to do with sales. There is not a single person reading this who hasn’t wondered why a book of inferior writing quality sells more than a stunningly well-written book. Think about it. Is Dan Brown really the best writer of 2009? (I’m happy for his success, but I could name a dozen writers who are head and shoulders better than he is. Why aren’t they selling so well?)

4) Why did Dan Brown make it? Why are Stephanie Meyer’s books so popular? One huge factor in a writer’s success is luck. You, the writer, catch a break somehow. The right editor gets behind your book. President Reagan says he’s reading it. Teen girls fall in love with your hero. Someone who is in a position to promote your book (*cough* Oprah *cough*) decides she likes your book. You get tapped to write a series of novels in a very popular tie-in line. You can’t script these things, they just happen.

5) You tap a fad. There are more writers than I care to count who have made good money off the supernatural romance fad. Great for them. But many of them have come away with the impression that turning out a financially successful novel is just a matter of writing to a formula.

Fads die. Bubbles pop. I’ve been in the game long enough to watch the Techno-thriller bubble burst. I remember authors who were on top of the world, making big bucks, who suddenly couldn’t sell a word after the cyberpunk and horror bubbles burst. The expressions on their faces resembled those on the faces of disaster victims. Their worlds had collapsed, and they had collapsed because publishers had pumped out so much material to feed the fad, that they glutted the market with lower quality work, and readers revolted. They stopped buying.

6) Calamities can destroy a book. A hurricane rips apart a warehouse. Truckers go on strike. A flood, an earthquake destroys a stock of books. (Publishers will get insurance on all the destroyed books, but the authors won’t get a cent, and the chances of their books being reprinted are zero, since the books never had the sales numbers (due to a lack of distribution) to support reprinting.)

Sometimes the economy crashes.

And some times book chain stores get overextended, can’t afford their stock, and close stores. (Curiously enough, no one has complained that Borders closed so many B. Dalton outlets lately, and yet that action likewise cost authors lots of sales.)

Notice a key point here. The decision to judge books harshly for a lack of sales despite extenuating circumstances has nothing to do with retailers. If a publisher believes in a book, they can push it (see point 2 above). Authors who have had their first book caught in the Amazon-MacMillan fight will be hurt only if their publisher decides to do nothing to spur sales on those books. And while I would like to hope that Macmillan would step up to do that, I don’t think they will. They never promote small books anyway because they expect them to fail.

Two years ago the New York Times printed an article which contained a number of revelations. The one that has stuck with me the most is this: 5% of a publisher’s line makes 100% of its profit. In other words, 19 out of 20 books lose money or break even. So, sales failure is expected, not the anomaly. Books sinking without a trace, regardless of Amazon sales figures, are the norm.

And consider this: what other business expects to lose money on 95% of what they turn out?

Or, to turn it around, if Walmart only made a profit on 5% of its product line, how radically would they shift the mix of things they stock in their stores?

7) You have to remember, authors are adults who have entered into a business agreement with publishers. In theory they go into it with open eyes, but the fact is that most don’t. The joy and excitement of selling a book blinds most authors to the market realities. Most writers buy into the Hollywood image of writers living on easy street, having long walks in the park with their editors, enjoying fancy and elegant meals in New York and otherwise just loving life.

Even though they should know better, they willfully ignore reality. Once your book is out of your hands, its fate is decided by other people. They give you a crappy cover, you’re screwed. They decide that your book will be the second or third book in the list for that month, you’ll never make it into grocery stores, drugstores and airports. They don’t offer a special discount, you have two copies in the chains and maybe a week to get sales traction. Bookstores may want you to come and do a signing, but unless you have a budget for a tour, publishers will tell the store that “the author doesn’t want to go on tour.” (Without ever asking the author…)

The simple fact is that none of us, no writer, is entitled to a career. We are all a single sales disaster away from working with the phrase, “Would you like fries with that?” Whether it is the downturn in the economy, your editor leaving your publisher, your publisher cutting the division that publishes your books, a retailer (for whatever reason) deciding not to carry your book, no writer should ever have the expectation of a career.

We have never been in control of our own fate.

Until now.

Make no mistake about it: the fight over ebooks is a fight by publishers to stay relevant. I’ve already pointed out that they are defending a grossly inefficient business model. Authors now have direct access to their audience and by going direct (even charging less than the publishers) authors can make money faster than the publishers will allow. Authors have plenty of content which they can sell digitally, and can generate more, faster. When you can make more off a $2 short story than you can off an $8 paperback set in the same world, and not have to wait 6-9 months for a publisher to send you your cut, you can take control of your own economy.

Are digital sales to the point where they can supplant traditional publishing income? For some authors they are. Digital readers are proliferating, and the J. K. Rowling demographic is very comfortable with reading off a screen. They’re reading more. And if your work is not available digitally, you don’t exist to them.

It’s time for writers to stop lamenting how the inefficiencies of the old system treat them badly, and to embrace the future. If writers don’t take control of their future, they doom themselves to the obscurity that will swallow the current business model whole.

©2010 Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a New York times Bestselling author with over forty novels published including I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron. He was the first author to have work available in Apple’s Appstore. He has lectured extensively on writing careers in the Post-paper Era and is working on strategies for authors to profit during the trying time of transition.