Amazon's Ebook Returns Policy Is A GOOD Thing. Here's Why.

by

This post, by Publetariat site founder and Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton, originally appeared on her Indie Author Blog on 4/22/13 and is reprinted here in full with her permission.

Recently some indie author friends have become so outraged by ebook returns that they’re trying to organize and bring pressure to bear against Amazon to eliminate its 7-day return policy on Kindle books. There are other vendors who allow returns as well, and I’m sure this same group will be targeting those vendors in due time.

The main reason why this group of authors is so upset is that they’re watching their online, real-time royalty reports very closely, and making financial decisions for themselves and their households based on the “sales” they see reported there.

However, as any mainstream-published author already knows all too well, until net royalties for book sales are actually paid they are subject to change, and a large quantity of returns can easily bring your royalty statement for a given 6-month period into the red. The same is true of returnable self-published books, but these authors don’t seem to get that, or if they do get it, seem to think it’s unfair.

And so they’ve taken to social media to try and raise the visibility of this issue, to nudge their fellow authors into taking action intended to eliminate legitimate, vendor-sanctioned ebook returns. In my opinion, what they’re doing is a big mistake and if they succeed in getting vendors to eliminate ebook returns, it will be bad for all authors who have ebooks on the market.

Amazon’s 7-day return policy seems to be the biggest target here, so I’ll address my remarks to that specific vendor. But I think the points I’m about to make here are equally applicable to any ebook return policy.

I am *in favor* of Amazon’s 7-day return policy on Kindle books. Here’s why:

 

1. Hard copy books can generally be returned up to 30 days after purchase—longer, if you bought them someplace like Target. Therefore, as a consumer and reader, I don’t see why ebooks shouldn’t be returnable as well. Why aren’t all of these same authors up in arms about return policies on hard copy books? I’m all for removing barriers to ebook adoption, and one major barrier is consumers’ perception of value, that an ebook is somehow inherently inferior to, and less valuable than, a hard copy book. Elimination of ebook return policies makes ebooks economically inferior to hard copy books, from the consumer perspective.

 

2. Returnability removes the risk for buyers who might not otherwise take a chance on a new author.

 

3. People who want to game the system will always find a way, and it doesn’t make sense to take these first two benefits away from readers (and authors) for the sake of trying to do battle with the scammers. Take returns away, and the scammers who are abusing the returns system will just go back to outright piracy. Meanwhile, you’ve given paying customers some good reasons not to take a chance on your ebook.

 

4. I don’t believe most people DO read a book within 7 days of purchase, nor do I think most readers WANT to be put under that kind of time pressure. Those who are willing to read EVERY Kindle book they buy within 7 days are already paying a significantly higher cost than the price of the book in terms of their time and convenience.

Classic case of penny-wise, pound-foolish. True, the dishonest buyers’ inconvenience does not put money into authors’ pockets. But this just underscores my point about people who are looking to game the system. People who are willing to put themselves out like that to save three bucks or less are not a desirable target demo. I don’t want them to be my fans because they’re not truly invested in my work in any sense of the term, and never will be.

 

5. Regarding the “missing” or “stolen” royalties issue, I know this will sound harsh, but authors shouldn’t be counting their chickens before they hatch, anyway. Until I actually get a royalty transfer into my bank account, I know those figures I see in the KDP reports are fluid and subject to change. KDP authors still have it better than mainstream-pubbed authors, who must wait a year or longer for the first royalty check and only get them every six months thereafter.

My Indie Author Guide STILL hasn’t ‘earned out’ (the collapse of Borders meant thousands of returns), and it was published in November of 2010.

 

6. Contrary to what these agitating authors seem to think, those ebook returns do NOT represent lost sales. The people who are motivated to steal books or anything else never intended to pay for those things, and never would have paid for them. This argument from the authors is like a bank manager thinking that if only the bank robbers could’ve been talked out of their heist, they would’ve opened accounts at the bank and become customers.

Pirates and thieves are pirates and thieves, period. It’s just a question of how they get the books for free: illegal download, or return policy abuse.

 

7. Some of the authors who are speaking out about this are suspicious that there are actual, organized groups promoting the practice of return abuse as a means to get free ebooks. But even if there ARE groups of people who’ve organized to promote theft, well…so are pretty much all piracy groups. There’s no way to stop all piracy, and if people are abusing Amazon’s returns policy, it’s just another form of piracy.

 

8. Again, I know I’m about to sound really harsh, but the realities of business ARE sometimes harsh and that doesn’t make them any less real: Ignorance is not a defense here. Anyone who’s self-publishing for profit has a duty to read, and ensure they not only understand but agree with, any contracts they’re signing, and that includes KDP terms of use and Amazon’s ebook listing and sales policies.

If you don’t like Amazon’s ebook returns policy, you shouldn’t publish there or list your ebooks for sale there.

– – – –

Personally, I share Neil Gaiman’s view on piracy: I don’t care how people initially discover me, because once they’re fans and are able to pay, they will. And in the meantime, they’ll be spreading the word about me and my books. You may disagree with this stance, or even feel it’s naïve. But the bottom line is the same, regardless of anyone’s opinion about it: thieves will ALWAYS find a way. Hassling your paying customers and fans in an effort to discourage thieves will NEVER stop the thieves, but it is LIKELY to annoy customers and fans, resulting in TRUE losses in sales and new fans.

Has consumer hatred of DRM taught us nothing?

 

8 Years Later, Google’s Book Scanning Crusade Ruled ‘Fair Use’

by

This article, by Cade Metz, originally appeared on the Wired site on 11/14/13.

Eight years after a group of authors and publishers sued Google for scanning more than 20 million library books without the permission of rights holders, a federal judge has ruled that the web giant’s sweeping book project stayed within the bounds of U.S. copyright law.

On Thursday morning, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin dismissed a lawsuit from the Authors Guild, ruling that Google’s book scans constituted fair use under the law. Though Google scanned those 20 million books in full and built a web service, Google Books, that lets anyone search the digital texts, users can only view “snippets” of a book if the right holder hasn’t given approval.

“In my view, Google Books provides significant public benefits,” the ruling reads. “It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders.”

In a statement sent to WIRED, a Google spokesperson said the company was “absolutely delighted” with the ruling. “As we have long said, Google Books is in compliance with copyright law and acts like a card catalog for the digital age giving users the ability to find books to buy or borrow.”

Michael Boni, a partner with Boni & Zack, the law firm representing the Authors Guild, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment. Nor did the Authors Guild. But the Guild has told other news outlets it will appeal the decision.

 

Click here to read the rest of the article, which includes a statement from the Authors Guild, on Wired.

Also see this article, Google Books Ruling a Win for Fair Use … and Rich Tech Companies, on Slate.

 

How To Make A To-Do List That Works

by

Fast Company is a site mainly geared toward entrepreneurs and other businesspeople, but if you’re an author-publisher, you ARE an entrepreneur and can benefit greatly from some of the great content they’ve got over there. For example, Belle Beth Cooper‘s excellent article about to-do lists. Who among us hasn’t struggled with time management and ‘getting it all done’?

The article opens with some interesting factoids about the history of human list-making, as well as some of the psychology that a) drives us to make lists and b) sabotages our efforts to keep on top of said lists. Excerpted from the article’s 4 top to-do list tips:

 

1. Break projects into tasks, don’t succumb to the Zeigarnik effect

We kind of have a reminder system built-in to our minds that nags us about unfinished tasks, called the Zeigarnik effect. It sounds pretty cool that we already have this, but it’s actually not that reliable or healthy for us.

What really happens is that there’s a disconnect between our conscious and unconscious minds–the unconscious mind can’t plan how to finish the task, but it gets annoyed with the feeling of it being unfinished. To shake off that feeling, it nags the conscious mind with reminders about the task–not to finish it, but simply to encourage us to make a plan.

If you’ve heard of David Allen’s GTD method, you’ll be familiar with his concept of “next steps,” which is pretty much the same thing. It’s the process of breaking down a project or task into smaller tasks, and planning which one will be the next step towards completing the whole thing.

This abates the nagging of the unconscious brain, as it’s satisfied that at some point we’ll get onto that task, and we know exactly how we’ll do it.

Maria Popova at Brain Pickings says the essentials of creating these do-able next steps are to make “a few very specific, actionable, non-conflicting items.”

 

Click here to read the full article, The Amazing History Of The To-Do List–And How To Make One That Actually Works, on Fast Company.

 

How to Build an Awesome and Relevant Twitter Following in 6 Minutes a Day

by

This post, by Joel Friedlander, originally appeared on his The Book Designer site on 11/4/13.

If you’re like lots of other authors, you might feel a bit conflicted about Twitter. On one hand, you know that Twitter has become something more than just another social media network. It has started to function as the information network of choice for millions of people around the world.

These days, you even see Twitter feeds on television, and journalists, politicians, and celebrities make use of Twitter’s ability to communicate quite a lot in just 140 characters.

You know it’s a great place to interact with readers and colleagues. And with more and more people joining Twitter every day, you also know it’s a great place to promote your book, your blog and your other activities.

Right now, as Twitter gets ready to “go public” we know that they report over 218 million active monthly users, and that Twitter grew almost 48% in the year between March 2012 and March 2013. This trend shows no signs of slowing down.

On the other hand, Twitter can seem both cryptic and confusing when you first get started.

For one thing, there are lots of people just like you who already seem to have hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of followers. How will you ever catch up?

 

The Party’s Just Getting Started

Don’t worry about being late to the Twitter party; this service will be growing for years to come. And if you’ve been holding back from getting into Twitter because you think it will suck up too much of your time, relax.

To make it easier to grow your own community, I’ve got a simple, effective method you can use to build an engaged following of Twitter fans in just a few minutes a day.

Of course, you can “buy” Twitter followers if all you want is a big number after your name, but what’s the point of that? What you want is people who are likely to be interested in what you have to say.

This method is built around knowing both your own readers and the people who have already become successful in your niche, and who are also active on Twitter.

Let’s look at how to get ready to use this method, so we know we’re starting off on the right foot. Before getting started, you should:

1. Know something about your readers. For this method, you may only need to know what kind of books they like to read, but in general, you can never know too much about the people who make up the market for your books.

2. Know some writers who represent where you’d like to be when you become successful writing the kind of books you want to write.

3. Find some of those writers who are active on Twitter. Some of these people will have blogs, some will have e-mail lists, and all of these things may become important to you further down the road.

That’s all the prep you’ll need. Next, let’s see how these elements come together into a simple strategy to explode your own Twitter following in just a few minutes a day.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Book Designer.

 

Six Easy Tips for Self-Editing Your Fiction

by

This post, by Kristen Lamb, originally appeared on her Kristen Lamb’s Blog on 8/21/13.

There are a lot of hurdles to writing great fiction, which is why it’s always important to keep reading and writing. We only get better by DOING. Today we’re going to talk about some self-editing tips to help you clean up your book before you hire an editor.

When I worked as an editor, I found it frustrating when I couldn’t even GET to the story because I was too distracted by these all too common oopses.

There are many editors who charge by the hour. If they’re spending their time fixing blunders you could’ve easily repaired yourself? You’re burning cash and time. Yet, correct these problems, and editors can more easily get to the MEAT of your novel. This means you will spend less money and get far higher value.

 

#1 The Brutal Truth about Adverbs, Metaphors and Similes

I have never met an adverb, simile, or metaphor I didn’t LOVE. I totally dig description, but it can present problems.

First of all, adverbs are not ALL evil. Redundant adverbs are evil. If someone shouts loudly? How else are they going to shout? Whispering quietly? Really? O_o Ah, but if they whisper seductively? The adverb seductively gives us a quality to the whisper that isn’t already implied by the verb.

Check your work for adverbs and kill the redundant ones. Kill them. Dead.

Metaphors and similes are awesome, but need to be used sparingly. Yes, in school, our teachers or professors didn’t ding us for using 42 metaphors in 5 pages, but their job was to teach us how to properly use a metaphor or simile, NOT prepare us for commercial publication as professional novelists.

When we use too much of this verbal glitter, we can create what’s called “purple prose.” This glitter, while sparkly, can pull the reader out of the story or even confuse the reader. A while back, I edited a winner’s 20 page entry. The story began on a whitewater river and the rafters were careening toward a “rock coffee table.”

Huh?

Oh, the boulder is squarish shaped!

Thing is, the metaphor made me stop to figure out what image the author was trying to create. If the rafters had merely been careening toward a giant flat rock? Not as pretty but I could have remained in the story without trying to figure out how the hell furniture ended up in the river.

I’ve read some great books, but as an editor, I might have cut some of the metaphors. Why? Because the author might have a metaphor SO GOOD I wanted to highlight it and commit it to memory…but it was bogged down by the other four metaphors and three similes on the same page. The other metaphors/similes added nothing…unless one counts distraction.

Go through your pages and highlight metaphors and similes. Pick THE BEST and CUT THE REST. Look for confusing metaphors, like rock furniture in the middle of a river.

 

#2 Stage Direction

She reached out her arm to open the door.

Okay, unless she has mind powers and telekinesis, do we need the direction?

He turned to go down the next street.

He picked up the oars and pulled a few more strokes, eager to get to his favorite fishing spot.

We “get” he’d have to pick up the oars to row his boat, or that is a seriously cool trick.

Be active. Characters can “brush hair out of their face” “open doors” and even slap people without you telling us they reached out an arm or hand to do this. We are smart. Really.

 

Read the rest of the post, which contains four more self-editing tips, on Kristen Lamb’s Blog.

 

Publetariat Rises From The Ashes!

by

Hi group! Founder and Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton here. It’s been a VERY long time coming, but at long last I’m ready to resurrect Publetariat for real, with a regular schedule for posting new content and everything! We’re kicking off with a post intended to help keep you NaNoWriMo’ers going.

 

Why’d It Take So Long?

Anyone who doesn’t know the full story, check out this post: Why, And How, Publetariat Was Hacked.

The first couple of months after Publetariat was destroyed by hackers were spent in recovery and rebuild mode. With the very generous, pro-bono help of developer and author services provider Shawn E. Bell, the majority of site content was salvaged from the decimated Drupal site and ported to the new, WordPress site you’re viewing now.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

Since Publetariat had already been on hackers’ radar for many months, they weren’t about to give up just because the new Publetariat is on a new platform.

First came many weeks of tinkering with various site features, to try and figure out where and how hackers could still attempt to hijack the site, and disable any and all features that had the potential to serve as backdoor portals for hackers. Hence, no more interactive site features (like commenting) and no more site membership features. This was followed by many more weeks of trial and error in trying various “plug-ins” to keep the site secure without breaking other site features.

Next came several months of “trapping” incoming traffic from hackers so they could be blocked from the site going forward. There’s hardly a thing in this world as persistent and single-minded as a hacker web bot: those automated terrors just keep coming, through slightly altered avenues and with slightly different approaches. I didn’t want to start officially welcoming site visitors back until I was sure it was totally secure, and stable.

 

This is the kind of thing Digital Media Mom was created to combat.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

During this time I’ve kept busy with my day job managing the Kindle Fire on Kindle Nation Daily site and writing content for the site, and I’ve also launched a brand-new site of my own: Digital Media Mom. The creation of this site was inspired by my own mom’s call one day, to ask me, “How come my iPad only works at home?”

She didn’t understand that many of the things she liked to do on the iPad required Wi-Fi connectivity, didn’t understand how Wi-Fi works, and had no idea how to get Wi-Fi connectivity outside of her home. I did a little hunting around online for a plain-English tech site for the ultra-non-tech-savvy like Mom, but came up empty.

Since I have both tech and communication skills, and a real passion for digital media and tech stuff, it seemed an ideal project for me to take on. And just like that, the Digital Media Mom site was born. I’ve been helping folks like my mom cope with tech one daily article at a time ever since.

Just about a week ago, I released the first compilation book from the site: The Digital Media Mom’s Guide To High Tech In Plain English, and I hope to keep releasing new volumes in the series each year. I also released my divorce / breast cancer / job loss / home loss memoir, To Hell and (Hopefully) Back, a few months ago.

 

What Now?

Publetariat will now resume its usual editorial schedule of posting two new articles each weeknight from Sunday through Thursday evenings. This schedule ensures new content will be there Monday – Friday mornings for site visitors from most time zones.

Cross posts and reprints from some of your favorite past Publetariat contributors will be back, along with some new stuff from new contributors.

I’ll be tweeting links to the new posts each weekday under my personal Twitter account, so feel free to follow me there if you want to be sure you’re alerted to new posts.

 

WELCOME BACK, AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

 

 

14 Published Novels Written During NaNoWriMo

by

This post, by Stacey Conradt, originally appeared on the Mental Floss site on 11/1/13. It may provide some much-needed motivation to hang in there for this year’s NaNoWriMo’ers.

While November means turkey, football and marathon shopping for some, it’s a month of being hunched over at a laptop slurping cup after cup of caffeine for others.

Yep—it’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. People who are crazy ambitious enough to accept the challenge aim to write 50,000 words in November, which is about 1,667 words every day. While no one expects masterpieces in such a short time span—the goal is to force writers to get some words down on paper without overthinking it—sometimes it happens. Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants is a particularly successful example. But she’s not the only author to see buckling down and hammering out 50,000 words in a month pay off. Here are 14 other NaNo books that can be found on the shelves at a bookstore near you.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. She wrote it during two NaNos, but we’re not holding it against her. The Night Circus spent seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won an Alex Award from the American Library Association in 2012.

2. The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill. From Amazon: “The Beautiful Land is part science fiction, part horror—and, at its core, a love story between a brilliant young computer genius and the fragile woman he has loved since high school. Now, he must bend time and space to save her life as the world around them descends into apocalyptic madness.”

3. Wool by Hugh Howey. From Barnes and Noble: “In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.” Ridley Scott has expressed interest in directing the Wool movie, the rights to which have been purchased by 20th Century Fox.

4. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. Another NYT bestseller, The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a young adult novel that takes place in a post-apocalyptic United States that is overrun with zombies. This is the first of a trilogy, and the film rights have been optioned by Seven Star Pictures.

5. Don’t Let Me Go by J.H. Trimble. From Publisher’s Weekly: “Nate and Adam are smalltown adolescents whose relationship is threatened when Adam moves to New York. Nate recalls the first moments of their romance and its development even as it’s threatened by the arrival of Luke, a closeted younger teen who’s attracted to Nate. Told frankly and honestly from Nate’s point of view, the novel explores issues like coming out, parental acceptance (and its lack), antigay violence, and the attitudes of faculty and fellow students, whose ranks provide both antagonists and allies. Layered with the gritty everyday details of teen existence, the book provides a convincingly clear window into the many perils and sometimes scant pleasures of life in high school while never feeling overly grim; it will be appreciated by adults and teens alike.”

 

Read the rest of the post on Mental Floss.

 

Publetariat's Back, But It's A Work In Progress

by

Thanks to the pro-bono efforts of the very generous Shawn E. Bell, Publetariat is back online and all of the original site posts were preserved. However, while the “bones” of the site and its content are here, most of the recovered content has yet to be properly categorized into the various Departments (e.g., Sell, Write, Design, etc.). I figured it was important to get all the existing content back online and available to site visitors as quickly as possible, so that has been my priority. You can use the site’s search function (in the right-hand sidebar) to locate specific articles while categorization and cleanup work continues behind the scenes.

Note that while the site’s main web address is still www.Publetariat.com, the URLs for every piece of site content have changed. If you’ve linked to specific Publetariat content in the past, those links are now broken. I’m very sorry about the inconvenience, but it really couldn’t be helped. Frankly, we were lucky to recover the site’s content at all.

Thanks for your patience and support. Publetariat may not resume its usual editorial posting schedule for a few more weeks, but I’m very happy to be able to make the site and its content available to all of you once again.

– April L. Hamilton
Publetariat Founder & Editor in Chief

 

Why, And How, Publetariat Was Hacked

by

Many people have asked me why Publetariat has been repeatedly targeted by hackers, if this could be some kind of publishing establishment attack on indie authors in general, or if I feel I am being personally attacked.

Let me reassure everyone: I have no reason to believe the recent problems were any kind of attack on indie authors, or myself in particular. Publetariat was targeted for three reasons, none of which have anything to do with me, the subject area of the site, or the site’s posted content.

 

First, Publetariat has become a very popular site, and it gets a lot of traffic. Hackers know they have a better chance of spreading their malware far and wide if they can sneak it onto a heavily-trafficked site.

 

Second, Publetariat was originally built on a software platform called “Drupal”, an open source content management system (CMS) .

“Open source” means available to the general public for free. Using Drupal makes it easy for a developer with a little know-how to get a full-featured website up and running quickly, but hackers can learn all they need to know about the latest version of Drupal simply by downloading a copy of the software and studying its files. So every time a new release comes out, interested hackers grab a copy and get to work, searching for possible security holes and methods for manipulating or commandeering the software. There’s been a HUGE surge in this type of hacker activity over the past six months or so, not only on Drupal sites but on WordPress sites as well—Wordpress is also an open source CMS.

 

Finally, the original Publetariat site had interactive features like member accounts, member blogs and commenting. The hackers got in by registering bogus user accounts and manipulating the user blogging and commenting functions so they posted hidden, malicious scripts instead of blog posts or comments. Any Drupal or WordPress site with registered user accounts and these types of interactive functions is an attractive target to hackers, which is why I won’t be offering those features here on the newly re-launched, WordPress site.

 

Hackers keep track of sites where their hacks have found vulnerabilities in the past, so once you’re on the hackers’ radar they keep coming back. This is why I’ve migrated the site off of Drupal and onto WordPress. WordPress has its vulnerabilities too, but turning off all interactive site features severely limits the possibility of attacks, and merely changing from Drupal to WordPress ensures the Drupal hacks of the past can’t come back.

 

Fortunately, no site visitors or registered members were impacted.

Publetariat’s hosting company places limits on server activity, and sudden, unacceptable spikes in activity will automatically trip a safeguard system that takes the site offline. Each time an attack was launched on Publetariat the safeguard was tripped in less than five minutes, before the malicious script even finished copying itself to all the server-side folders and files.

I don’t want to bore you with all the technical mumbo-jumbo here, but following each attack I carefully studied the server activity logs to see exactly what was done and when. No legitimate user accounts were ever compromised, and no site visitors were ever exposed to copies of the hacker scripts since the first, site-wide copying step was never completed.

 

IMPORTANT: Your site may already have been hacked, and you just don’t know about it yet.

As a web developer I have special tools turned on in my browser at all times to alert me to web page errors, to alert me to any problems on my sites and blogs right away. Since malicious scripts tend to result in certain specific, minor page errors, I can tell that MANY sites I visit have been hacked: not just small-potatoes author sites and blogs, but some of the majors, too.

If you don’t have these special error reporting tools turned on, you’d have no way of knowing you’ve been hacked until after the damage is done, and it’s typical for the malicious scripts to be installed and left lying in wait for optimal server conditions before they launch their attacks. It can be days, or even weeks, between the time the hacker first gains access and the time the trap is sprung. When I see such an error on a site that I know has decent tech support or a tech-savvy site owner I’ll alert them, but unfortunately I’m seeing a lot of this on the sites and blogs of non-tech-savvy indie authors, too.

 

The only advice I can give is this:

If you’re not tech-savvy, keep offline copies of all your site/blog content, just in case you need to re-create it online following a hacker attack. I usually author my blog posts offline in MS Word anyway, then copy them to my blog, and you might consider doing the same thing.

If you ARE tech-savvy, turn on your browser’s error reporting function and pay particular attention to any error pop-ups regarding Jscript (.js) files. These are a favorite hacker vehicle for injecting and spreading malicious scripts. Periodically check the date and time stamps on the server-side files, because if anything has been copied or injected at least some of the files will have date and time stamps that don’t match the rest of your install. Back up religiously, and keep the most recent TWO backups, at the minimum. This gives you a better chance of having a clean copy in case you need to recover from an attack. Remember, there may not be any apparent symptoms of a hack until after it’s too late, so even your most recent backup, created before you became aware of a hack, may have malicious content you don’t know about.

 

– April L. Hamilton
Publetariat Founder & Editor in Chief

 

Authors of the Digital Age–What It Takes to Be a Real Author CEO

by

This post, by Kristen Lamb, originally appeared on Kristen Lamb’s blog on 4/12/13.

I do a lot of reading of other blogs, particularly blogs that aren’t about writing. I think this keeps my information fresh. As many of you might know, financial blogger Steve Tobak is one of my favorites, and he regularly inspires my writing.

This past week he had a neat post What It Takes to Be a Real CEO, and there were so many of the principles that applied to being a Digital Age Author. We are now Author CEOs, no matter what path we take. So what does it take to be a REAL Author CEO?

Passion for Work

We must have a passion for writing and a willingness to work hard. To be blunt, being a professional writer is a lot of HARD work. Writers are CEO of a company of one, and many times our writing work is on top of a day job, family, children, and other responsibilities. Going pro isn’t all floating around on a unicorn cloud hanging out with the muse.

All professional authors have to read, learn the craft, make work count, finish the books, and be ruthless and relentless in our edits until the work is complete. We have to build a platform, promote, keep up with taxes, accounting, deductions, receipts, spending, write-offs, mailing lists, etc.

This means we need to get up earlier and stay up later than most people, and we will have to sacrifice a lot. This is why we need passion. Passion takes the sting out of sacrifice. While others are whining, we are working.

Relentless Pursuit of the Dream, Even When Others Think You’re Nuts

In the beginning, this is particularly important. No one will take you seriously. Accept it and sally forth. Brush the dust from your feet.

Others want us to fail, because if we succeed, then we are proof success is a choice. Others will resent us because they want to believe they aren’t in control of their futures. They want to keep their victim mentality because it’s safe and absolves them of personal responsibility for their own futures.

Expect push-back.

Courage in the Face of Adversity

The new paradigm is changing and can be just as scary as the old one. Those who choose a traditional path know the odds of finding an agent and landing a publishing deal are not the best. Most writers who query will fail.

When it comes to a non-traditional path, we have to learn so many new things and wear frightening and unfamiliar hats. Again, the odds are better, but competition is staggering, discoverability is a growing nightmare, and the workload is daunting to even the best of us. But, we must have the courage to do what scares us if we want the dream.

Stickwithitness

 

Read the rest of the post on Kristen Lamb’s blog.

How Self-Publishing Has Changed the Industry

by

This post, by Clare Langley-Hawthorne, originally appeared on the Kill Zone blog on 4/15/13.

I read a recent blog post on The Guardian book blog about the 10 ways self-publishing has changed the book world and, after Jim’s post yesterday, it got me thinking about how I would explain the current state of the book world to friends and family who are neither authors, nor wanna-be writers, but who, as book readers, are nonetheless intrigued by all the changes going on in publishing.

I’ve summarized the Guardian’s top 10 list below and am interested in whether or not you agree (though I do think most of them are pretty self-evident):

1. There is now a wider understanding and increased visibility about what publishing is (and acceptance that it’s more difficult than it looks). Self-publishing has enabled people to learn the process and understand what is involved which has led to a wider awareness and diversity in the publishing process.

2. We are no longer confident that publishers and agents know what everyone wants or should read.

3. The copy-editor is now in strong demand as writers realize the limitations of self-editing. Freelance copy-editors are now in high demand by both self-publishing authors and traditional publishing houses.

4. The book as a ‘precious’ object is re-emerging as publishers produce limited, luxury editions.

5. Authors are being empowered to do their own marketing and are no longer reliant on publishers to mediate the relationship between authors and their readers. Looking ahead, authors are likely to be less compliant with what their publishers demand of them.

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes five more list items and some analysis/commentary, on Kill Zone.

BookBinding: Making A Travel Notebook

by

Increasingly, we work and play in a digital world.

I read, write, publish, market and often interact with friends online, which I absolutely love and value highly. But recently, I’ve been craving some physical creation, so last week I went along to the London Centre for Book Arts and joined one of their awesome workshops.

Because I write in so many Moleskine journals, I decided to make a Travel Notebook, complete with concertina folded envelope in the back. I’d like to eventually make my own paper, print my own work on it and bind limited editions myself – but that’s a while away! (I got the idea from Cory Doctorow’s awesome limited edition work)

Book binding

I made this!

In the (under 1 min) video below, you can see time-lapse footage of the process plus some pics. You can also watch it here on YouTube.

Extra Information:

  • Find out more from London Centre of Book Arts – and apparently there are similar centres in major cities all over the world. Or try searching for ‘book-binding’ locally.
  • I’m wearing a Nike FuelBand on my wrist, which is proving to be a fantastic way to get me motivated to move more in this very sedentary writer’s life we lead!
  • The video was shot with my iPhone using TimeLapse app which takes a photo every 10 seconds and creates a video from it. I just set it up with a GorillaPod adaptable tripod.

Have you tried book-binding, paper-making or any other physical book art? Or would you like to? I’d love to hear about it. Please do leave a comment [in the comments section of the original post].

 

This is a reprint of a post from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

 

The Ongoing Angst of Successful Writers – Conclusions

by

Publetariat Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Alan Baxter‘s Warrior Scribe site on 4/11/13. Alan is a regular Contributor here at Publetariat, but due to the length of this piece, and its numerous references to related posts on Alan’s site that have not been reprinted here on Publetariat, we are reprinting only the first portion of the article and providing a link back to the rest at the end of our excerpt.

I’ve really enjoyed the recent run of guest posts from six of Australia’s most successful genre writers. Here I’ll try to collate the overlapping themes from those posts into one place (and have links to all the posts in one place too.) First and foremost, I’d like to thank the six respondents for giving their time and honesty to the idea. So here are the links to each individual post, with my heartfelt thanks:

Kaaron Warren

Jo Anderton

Angela Slatter

Lisa L Hannett

Trudi Canavan

Margo Lanagan

I expected considerable consensus from all of these talented writers to most of the questions. It’s pretty obvious the questions were loaded to that end, but that was because I’ve regularly seen those kind of comments from writers of all styles and all levels of success. But let’s go through each of the three questions and see what the key themes were.

1. What do you still fear as a writer, when it comes to putting your work out there? What fills you with doubt and angst?

This is the question that I knew would draw the most consensus. The over-riding responses were of “imposter syndrome” – that dark and quiet thought that no matter how much success you see, at some point everyone is going to realise you’re a hack, or that one day everyone will point and laugh because they’ve all been having you along all this time. It’s simply the fear of not being good enough, contrary to all the available evidence. Or there’s been some terrible mistake.

Kaaron said: I’m still sure that one day someone will say, “You do realise it’s all been an elaborate joke we’ve played on you? You’re a crap writer and no one has ever liked anything you’ve ever written.” Trudi said: “one day I’ll discover that every person who liked and bought my books was just being polite” although she also pointed out: “but I can laugh it off.” That’ll happen when you’ve sold as many books as Trudi has!

In terms of being good enough, Jo said: “I fear being ignored, but I fear attention too. Silence is disheartening, but when people do sit up and take notice I’m terrified they’ll hate the story, tell everyone they know, and then laugh at me. Loudly.” Angela said: “you’ve lavished all your love, attention and care on it, that you’ve flensed and polished it until it looks like a slightly evil supermodel, but that when it’s out in the public gaze someone will find a fault you didn’t see.”

Lisa used a quote from Keats that summed things up well and she explained it thus: “It’s that niggling doubt that you’re not necessarily crap, but that what you’re writing isn’t adding anything exciting to the mix. That it’s just mediocre. That it’s not just forgotten, but forgettable. Now that’s scary.”

I think these fears are actually encouraging. Of course, that doesn’t help in our darkest moments of self-doubt, but the fear we’re not good enough leads to a desire to always be better. I think that’s essential to growth in any art. If we start to think we’re good enough, that we can’t learn more or get better, then surely our work will stagnate and become, at best, ordinary. Not necessarily crap, as Lisa says, but pedestrian. In the pursuit of any art, we need to constantly strive to be better, to out-do what we’ve done before. Sometimes we’ll succeed and sometimes we won’t – we may write something that truly resonates and then write a lot of stuff that doesn’t reach those heights again for quite a while. But we must always strive to do so regardless and surely, as our skill and experience improve, we will reach those heights again, and beyond. There’s no ceiling to how high we can go if we always strive to improve. I think the fear of not being good enough is what constantly drives us in that pursuit.

Margo made an interesting point that bad reviews can sometimes fuel that self-doubt. She said: “those voices feed directly into, and reinforce, that other voice inside me that’s ready to tear me down and call me a fraud”.

Interestingly enough, just yesterday Chuck Wendig posted this blog, about that very same thing. He calls it the “writer as stowaway”. He has two new books coming out soon and the early copies have gone out for review. He describes the feeling like this:

all the while I’ve got that flurry of fear-bubbles in my tummy: egads they won’t like it they’ll despise it I’m going to receive hate mail people might punch me Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly will probably give me whatever the opposite of a starred review is like maybe they’ll rub a cat’s butthole on my face in public OH GODS THAT’S HOW BAD THIS BOOK IS.

In classic Wendig style, he echoes exactly what the writers in my guest posts have said.

The second question I asked was:

2. What career markers do you still strive for? What heights are you determined to scale?

 

Read the rest of the article on Alan Baxter’s Warrior Scribe.

 

Authors Guild's Scott Turow: The Supreme Court, Google, Ebooks, Libraries & Amazon Are All Destroying Authors

by

This post, by Mike Masnick, originally appeared on TechDirt on 4/8/13.

from the old-man-yells-at-cloud dept
We’ve written more than a few times about Scott Turow, a brilliant author, but an absolute disaster as the Luddite-driven head of the Authors’ Guild. During his tenure, he’s done a disservice to authors around the globe by basically attacking everything new and modern — despite any opportunities it might provide — and talked up the importance of going back to physical books and bookstores. He’s an often uninformed champion of a past that never really existed and which has no place in modern society. He once claimed that Shakespeare wouldn’t have been successful under today’s copyright law because of piracy, ignoring the fact that copyright law didn’t even exist in the age of Shakespeare. His anti-ebook rants are just kind of wacky.

However, in his latest NY Times op-ed, he’s basically thrown all of his cluelessness together in a rambling mishmash of “and another thing”, combined with his desire to get those nutty technology kids off his lawn. For the few thousand members of the Authors Guild, it’s time you found someone who was actually a visionary to lead, rather than a technology-hating reactionary pining for a mythical time in the past.

First up, a confused reaction to the Supreme Court’s protection of first sale rights in Kirtsaeng.

LAST month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.

First of all, no, this was not a “change” in US law. Courts had not forbidden this particular situation in the past, because the specifics of this hadn’t really been tested in the past other than a few recent cases with somewhat different fact patterns. The point of the Supreme Court’s ruling was to reinforce what most people already believed the law to be: if you buy a book, you have the right to resell it.

As for the “surge” in cheap imports, let’s wait and see. It might impact markets like textbooks, which are artificially inflated, but for regular books? It seems like a huge stretch to think that it would be cost effective to ship in foreign books just for resale. And, of course, secondary markets have existed for ages, and studies have shown that they actually help authors because it makes it less risky to buy a new book, since people know they can resell it. Turow admits that secondary markets have always existed, but then jumps to what this is all “really” about in his mind:

This may sound like a minor problem; authors already contend with an enormous domestic market for secondhand books. But it is the latest example of how the global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams. It seems almost every player — publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars — is vying for position at authors’ expense.

Yes, that’s right. The Kirtsaeng decision isn’t just about first sale, it’s really about the evil “global electronic marketplace” sucking authors dry. Of course, Turow fails to mention that Kirtsaeng had next to nothing to do with the internet. Yes, Kirtsaeng ended up selling his books via eBay, but tons of books sell on eBay. That had no impact on the ruling at all. The issue in the ruling was about books legally purchased abroad, and Kirtsaeng did that without the internet — he just had friends and family back in Thailand buying books for him. To blame that on “the global electronic marketplace” is just completely random and wrong. It seems like the kind of thing someone says when they just want to blame technology for everything. Turow has his anti-technology hammer, but he’s got to stop seeing nails in absolutely everything.

 

Read the rest of the post on TechDirt.

How Fiction Authors Can Steal Marketing Ideas from Their Non-Fiction Friends

by

I abhor playing team sports. I presume I’m not alone in this dislike, but I do feel the need to share my reasoning. You see, it’s not that a bad teammate or anything like that. It all goes back to middle school: in 6th grade, I went from being the tallest person in my class to one of the shortest. The sudden height catch-up from my peers had an inverse relationship to my prowess in PE class.

Basketball was the particular bane of my existence. When you’re towering two or three inches above your peers, man, basketball is a BLAST. You come to think you have some sort of actual skillz (with a ‘z’) when all you really have is a distinct height advantage.

You may call me a sore loser if you wish (I freely admit that I’m WAY competitive), but when I stopped winning games, I started becoming a bit sour on the whole team sports thing. All of those height-blessed peeps had a total unfair advantage…how could I ever hope to catch up?

I see many fiction authors complaining about a similar unfair advantage, and I completely understand their point of view.

Tell me if you’ve ever felt this way: you look at a fellow indie author, very similar to you in every way except one key one: her book is non-fiction.

You can’t help but think, ”wow, it’s so much easier to market a non-fiction book. You have a built-in jumping off point for marketing, a specific, niche target audience and oodles of angles to approach someone with other than ‘hey, I wrote a book.’”

I totally understand your frustration.

Because, in many ways, marketing non-fiction is much easier than marketing fiction. (Please don’t throw stones at me, non-fiction peeps. I know it’s not necessarily easier for everyone!)

Non-fiction authors have built-in topics to blog about. They have a much easier time pinpointing readers who are interested in their book’s topic. When they find them, there’s an automatic open to engage potential readers in conversation. They’re never short on newsletter content. They can put out a free report or fancy manifesto to draw in fans.

In short: non-fiction authors have it all, right?

Here’s a secret: you, dear fiction author, can have it all, too. Wanna know how?

I’ll show you; it’s a method I’ve enjoyed using with fiction authors for awhile, but it wasn’t until the fabulous Laura Pepper Wu gave it a name that the concept really gelled in my mind.

Fiction authors can gain the advantage of non-fiction authors by finding non-fiction angles for their work.

A What Now?

Think of it this way: how can your fiction work relate to what’s going on here in the boring ol’ real world?

  • Maybe it’s a fabulous location the characters in your novel visit.
  • Perhaps it’s a time period you became particularly well-versed in.
  • Or, maybe it’s a common life topic like parenting, death or disease.

Here’s a quick example: Even if your book isn’t 101 Ways to Cook a Steak, if your main character is a chef, you can still tap into the same fan-finding angles as your non-fiction author friend.

16 Non-Fiction Angle Ideas for Fiction Authors

Luckily, there are a variety of categories you can “mine” for non-fiction angles. Keep reading for overall non-fiction topics as well as specific examples for how you can turn those angles into viable marketing ideas!

Angle Category #1: A Location or Time Period

  • My book takes place in St. Augustine, Florida. Reach out to the St. Augustine Record newspaper and share a bit about your book. Also consider offering up a review copy!
  • My book is set in Paris, France, where I visited last summer. Contact travel blogs and pitch a guest post about your journey and how it influenced the writing of your book.
  • My book is centered around a cruise to Fiji. Partner with a local travel agency to host an event where they can share how to take a trip to Fiji and you can share details about your book.
  • My main character’s parents are from Italy. Host a theme night with a local restaurant featuring Italian food and a reading of your book.
  • My book is a Victorian Romance. Contact a blog interested in Victorian history, culture or fashion and write a guest post or give away a copy of your work.
  • My book takes place during the Civil War. Reach out to reenactment groups, bloggers and historical societies interested in that war and time period.

Angle Category #2: A Character’s Generation, Job, Hobby or Interest

  • My main character is a 75-year-old retiree. Reach out to senior centers in your area and offer to do a reading or signing.
  • My main character is celebrating her Sweet Sixteen. Reach out to high schools and youth-oriented programs.
  • My villain is obsessed with sports. Contact sports bloggers or local sports teams in your area.
  • My sassy sidekick loves gardening. Reach out to local garden clubs as well as bloggers who focus on gardening.
  • My main character is a ghost hunter. There are niche blogs about everything! Contact paranormal bloggers and share a bit about your work and why their fans would enjoy it.
  • A character in my novel is a fashionista. Get in touch with fashion bloggers or the local fashion column in your local paper.

Angle Category #3: A Major Theme or Topic

  • My novel deals with adoption. Contact parenting and adoption bloggers to share your work. Also consider partnering with a local adoption support or awareness group.
  • The main character in my novel is a widow. Contact grief support groups and offer to discuss your book. It can be helpful for those going through something similar.
  • Divorce is a theme in my novel. Contact marriage and relationship bloggers to share your work or ask for a guest post. Share what you’ve learned and experienced on the topic.
  • A character in my novel has a rare form of cancer. Contact foundations and support groups to share your book — many will be appreciative of the research you’ve done and interested to hear of an author discussing the illness.

Now, Start Brainstorming!

  1. Physically or mentally run through your novel, making a list of every non-fiction angle you can think of. Come up with at LEAST 5-10!
  2. Brainstorm a way you can use each angle to reach out to potential readers.
  3. Choose the three best ideas and work on implementing them for the next few months.

The Big Idea

Using non-fiction angles immediately forces you to think outside of the box and connect your fiction story to real-life readers.

While those readers aren’t necessarily crazy fans of [insert your genre here], their interest might just be piqued by a particular angle your book offers them.

The best part of this non-fiction angles gig is that, any time you need to think up new marketing ideas, you can complete the exercise again. I guarantee you will find a new idea each and every time!

As for me…well, I still haven’t quite figured out how to steal basketball strategies from the folks towering over me. Ah, well; I’ve learned to love my short stature anyway!

Talk Back

What non-fiction angles did you find for your book? What brilliant marketing ideas did they spark? Share them with me (and your fellow authors) in the comments [section of the original post]!
This is a reprint from duolit.