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Articles about craft.

Proofing Thoughts

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I just finished reformatting my 2nd mystery, Firebug, for uploading into Smashwords as an ebook. That was a worthwhile undertaking because, as in the 1st mystery, I found all kinds of proofing errors. This is after I had several people proof and professional editing. I had gone over it several times myself. The most common problem was using two words when they should have been combined into one. Second most common error was dumb little typos such as ‘be’ when I meant ‘me.’ A few passive sentences were caught (just like this one).

Two things often improve the accuracy of the writing process: multiple pairs of eyes and time away from the work in progress. It’s hard to catch everything when we proof immediately after writing something. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. It means we should do an initial proof, let it sit for sometime, and then come back to proof again. It’s amazing what an expectant eye will do to trick you that first time through. I am not alone in this problem—it is common in the profession.

The lesson to be learned here is that we are not perfect. We ere and we miss things. Because I have to do a careful line-by-line edit when reformatting into an rtf for Smashwords, I am more likely to see things the computer catches. Thank goodness for those wavy red and green underlines.

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

 

[Publetariat Editor’s note: also see these articles on editing and revision here on Publetariat:]

Choosing A Freelance Editor: What You Need To Know
Five Lessons For DIY Line Editing
Five Of The Most Commonly Misspelled Expressions In The English Language
Focus On Editing
How to Write Tight – Self-Editing Tips to Make Your Manuscript Ready for Publication 
More On Revising And Editing
Phantom Editors and Writing ‘Mistakes’
Simple Math: Fewer Editors = More Mistakes
Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling
The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words And Phrases
The DumbLittleMan Guide To Comma Use
The Science of Editing
Why Do You Need an Editor?  

 

Developing Subplots

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This article, from Laura Backes, originally appeared in the February 2010 issue of the Children’s Book Insider newsletter and is reprinted here in its entirety with the CBI’s permission. While the CBI newsletter is primarily aimed at authors of children’s books, the advice given here is applicable to any work of fiction.

If you’re writing a book that’s longer than an easy reader or early chapter book, you’re going to need sub-plots. Sub-plots give heft to longer fiction and allow you to introduce more characters and other aspects of your protagonist’s life. Well-crafted sub-plots are related to the main action plot line, and often give the main character the tools he needs to solve his most pressing conflict.

 
Like your main story, your sub-plots will also have a beginning, middle, and probably an end (more on this later). As with the action plotline, your sub-plots begin with a catalyst (see Module 7 for a review of plot catalysts [Publetariat Editor’s Note: registration required]). Where in the book your sub-plots begin, and how often they weave through the primary plot line, depends on what purpose they serve. Sub-plots tend to have one or more of the following jobs:
 
To develop secondary characters and their relationship with the protagonist. In Charlotte’s Web, Wilbur the pig is the main character. He’s got the problem that defines the action of the overall plot: he learns he’s being fattened up for slaughter. But Charlotte, the spider, is a vital secondary character. We get to know Charlotte as she reveals herself to Wilbur. Without Wilbur, we’d never learn Charlotte existed (this is another clue as to who is the protagonist and who is the sec­ondary character). But without Charlotte’s involvement in Wilbur’s life, we’d have a very different book. This is an example of a sub­plot that provides essential support for the main story arc.
When creating secondary characters, especially those as complex as Charlotte, go back to Module 5 ad follow the same steps as you used to develop your protagonist. These supporting characters must be fully formed, with their own lives, to add substance to the protagonist’s story.

To add texture and depth to the main action plot. Sub-plots simply make a story more interesting. Where would Charlotte’s Web be without Templeton the rat, and his evolution from self-centered, gluttonous scavenger to heroic, gluttonous ally? Some sub-plots are small diversions (think of Fern’s spending less time in the barnyard as she gets older), others crucial to the progagonist re­solving his problem. Sub-plots offer the au­thor another opportunity to throw obstacles in the main character’s path (by distracting the protagonist, making his life more difficult, or introducing characters with their own competing agendas), or give the protagonist tools to make his life easier.

To press the "pause" button. Sometimes, a story may be so tension-filled or stressful that the reader simply needs a break. Sub-plots keep the reader involved in the characters’ lives but offer a rest from the action. Conversely, if the main story is quiet and thoughtful, a more action-filled sub-plot helps vary the pacing. Be sure your sub-plots always develop elements of character or story that give the reader new information that relates to the primary story arc. Plot tangents that dead end, rather than loop around and eventually come back to the central story, are pointless.

To illustrate your theme. Sub-plots are often emotionally-based, exploring relationships or internal aspects of your protagonist. Because of this, a story’s theme is often revealed in the sub-plots. If the main plot of Charlotte’s Web is whether or not Wilbur will die, then the friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur is a primary theme. This friendship ultimately saves Wilbur’s life. Because E.B. White illustrated the power of friendship through a complex sub-plot, he showed us the theme. He never had to tell us what his message might be.
Another way to show theme is through the growth and change of your protagonist. Sub-plots are a vehicle for this as well. Wilbur grew from an timid, hysterical, lonely piglet who lacked self-confidence to a radient, resourceful, loyal pig. Elements from every sub-plot in the book contributed to his transformation.

Sub-plots don’t necessarily end with a firm resolution as your action storyline will. Sub-plots give your character skills and experiences that he’ll take with him beyond the last page of the book, so they can be more open-ended. For upper middle grade and young adult audiences, some sub-plots might end with the death of a loved one, or a friendship ending. But reserve a few hopeful threads for the final pages that show the protagonist is moving in the right direction. The most satisfying stories give a balance, as in real life.
 

If you’re an author of children’s books, or aspire to be, take a look at the Children’s Book Insider Clubhouse site. There, you can register to receive the monthly CBI newsletter, which is filled with more useful articles like this one, as well as notices of publishers and agents seeking children’s book manuscripts.

Profiles in Publishing: #1 – Why On Earth Would I Want a Book Contract?

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This post, from Judy Sandra, originally appeared on her JS Media blog on 2/13/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

Profiles in Publishing is a continuing investigation into the brave new world of publishing at JS Media Blog by Judy Sandra.  PIP will be a series of articles and interviews about methods and movers, reporting on who is exploring, who is inhabiting and who is succeeding in the new publishing landscape.
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We live in a whole new publishing world. I released my independently published book The Metal Girl (JSM Books) last month. Naturally, I sent an announcement to a personal mailing list. The first sale that I know about is a new acquaintance who excitedly emailed me, “I just bought your book on Kindle!”

Sale #1 = Kindle. I was more stunned that the first sale was on a Kindle, than I was that there was a sale. What to think.

This post began as an email to a writer/publishing industry colleague about an article we both read concerning the current state of the publishing industry and included several observations about self-publishing. From the writer’s point of view, the argument rested on, what seemed to me, the not so accurate conclusion that the ultimate “prize” of self-publishing is to land a book contract by a traditional publishing house. Really?

To be fair, this may be the goal for some. But it’s not mine. Why on earth would I want to sign such a bad contract, based on every outdated business model there is and extremely exploitive and non-remunerative to the owner/holder of the intellectual property? The author.

One wonders how many of those who say they want a book contract have actually read one. I have. I spent 23 years living in New York City, working in and around the publishing/media/arts business and have a number of writer and traditionally published author friends.

Let’s leave celebrities and huge commercial blockbusters out of the mix. Publishers didn’t market or promote the average author much in the past and now they do less than ever. Secondly, I’m a literary author, and major publishers abandoned us go a long time ago.

I published my book myself. I am now going to use my own language, because I find the phrase “self-published” cumbersome at best and mis-directed. I am going to call it “independent publishing”, or, if you like, “indie publishing”. As I’m also an indie musician and have been working with independent filmmakers, this feels about right. I’m an indie.

I created JSM Books as an imprint, so I am the “publisher” and am using Outskirts Press as my printer/distributor. They are a hybrid company and act like a real sales/distribution company. I have an ISBN number and barcode, I’m listed in Books in Print, books are available to the trade through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and I’m POD on Amazon.com worldwide and Barnes & Noble.com. Through Outskirts I have the option to be represented in Frankfurt and other book fairs, if I want.

My great advantage, of course, is that I’m also a professional
brand strategist/marketer/promoter and had a client last year, who was the author of a non-fiction book about filmmaking. So I am probably one of the best people to promote my book that I know. I have the savvy of both old school and new media promotion.

About that experience, let me count the ways that my client’s major traditional publisher did not spend any money on marketing. The author had a huge platform to stand on, an enormous mailing list, was well known within her field, yet they would not give us any money to launch the book. Nada. And we asked. Not a penny, not a cupcake. They sent one large poster stuck to poster board. I set up the book signing/launch, begged the indie book store manager to order 50 books instead of the 25 she wanted to order, and we had an almost sellout event–sold 40 books in three hours.

I won’t say anything untoward about the in-house publicist who was assigned to the book, because I think she did a very good job, was great with the client and helpful and generous to me, but she had ten other books to promote and, again, no marketing budget. I got most of the high profile press for the client, and wrote all of her promotional materials. She paid for this out of her own pocket. Because of her established reputation, the good press (it’s an excellent book) and her speaking opportunities, which she created for herself, the book is now a bestseller in the film category on Amazon.com.

Fresh out of this experience, I had a miraculous encounter with my second novel. You can read the whole account here, but the short version is that the original manuscript was discovered by a wonderful reader, who loved the book and found me on Facebook, which encouraged me to publish it myself. At this point, there are so many reasons why I don’t want a contract that it’s hard to categorize them but let me start with eight big reasons, that have to do with bookstores, readers and buying habits.

1. Bookstores don’t matter.
I hear the chorus of people defending indie bookstores now, and I love them too, but this is not where the bulk of book buying happens. It’s just a fact. People are going to bookstores less and less and buying online more and more. I don’t know why this news item got little play in the U.S. but fact is, Borders went out of business in the UK. Read The Guardian story here:

2. Critics don’t matter. Bloggers and readers do.
Step away from the Manhattan island. Outside of that little crowd of
incestuous literary criticism (come on, you know what I’m talking about), these days people care less and less about critics. In fact, many newspapers and publications have let go of their book review sections and book reviewers. Indeed, there was a comment on a Galleycat post the other day by a Goodreads reader that said, “I don’t read reviews. I only buy and read what my friends post on Goodreads”. Huh. So, I joined Goodreads and wrote to another reader/reviewer. This woman, a librarian in Illinois, is now reading and reviewing my book.

I have connected with a professional, more mainstream and new media kind of person who has also agreed to review my book. I was surfing the blogs and discovered her. I now follow her on Twitter. Bloggers do matter, a lot these days. Like the Goodreads member, readers seem more interested in not just professional bloggers but average book reading bloggers, their peers and such.

The Internet has democratized culture, for better or worse, and sometimes I think for much better. Certainly there are more voices with a global reach. Most people gather their information online, and to them–a website, is a website is a website.

3.  U.S. book publishers are local, and I’m connected to the world.
Ever hear of social networking, say, Facebook? My Facebook page, just from my professional acquaintances, is rather international, from South Africa to Ramallah to Brazil. My novel’s Facebook Fan Page, for some odd reason, has been attracting young people from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We live in a global culture now, not just an “American” culture. It was very fun to tell my UK Facebookers that the book is available on Amazon.co.uk.

4. Stop cutting down the trees.
POD, electronic formats and selective wholesaling of books is more ecological. The paper industry is a huge polluter. Does anyone NEED a hardback book?

5. Yes, they are reading on their mobiles and e-readers.
In spite of all the controversy, I’ve noticed that people who actually have a Kindle tend to like them. Nook is finally here, and the iPad will be bought. I have to tell you, my next door neighbor (a 40-year-old TV producer) is addicted to his iPhone and loves his Stanza, which lets him download books for free. He was annoyed when I said he would have to buy the e-version of my book. The Stanza has a very handy function of allowing you to enlarge the font size for easier reading. He gave me a demonstration, he went on for ten minutes.

6. The new companies, services and inventions are coming.
Do media people have amnesia? Do they think this or that device is the last one. There will be new companies, new inventions, new ways to do things. That’s life. Twitter didn’t exist 2 years ago, now it does, now I find it useful. The company I used for my book, Outskirts Press, is one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. They are a huge success, and that means more companies like them will pop up and/or others will evolve from them. There is an army of editorial freelancers–editors, copywriters, graphic designers. Popping up everywhere are new media book promoters, marketers, tools and so on. One of the reasons I’m writing this series is to discover what’s next. Life is change. This is a good thing.

7. The terms “vanity publishing” and “self-publishing” are so last century.
See above, even the term “self-publishing” is awkward and meaningless. Give it up already. Call it indie publishing and leave it at that. No one cares who published the book these days. When I tell people recently that “my book is out”. Their eyes light up; they’re so excited for me. “Great!” They say. “Well, I published it myself,” I say honestly enough. “Great, that’s even better!” No questions asked. They don’t care. “What’s it about?” is the only question. Is it good? Do I want to read it? There’s fan page on Facebook…

8. Indie publishing is now a choice, not to be dismissed with snarky condescension.
I’m an indie musician, and no one snarks about that. I am connected to
Mediabistro in Los Angeles, and lately have been talking to writers about
their book projects. A lot of them are just going for the indie publishing
route. They’re professionals, they have a platform, and they don’t have to
wait for anyone to get their book out. Why should they?
Repeat, #7.

OK, that’s a start. There is more to this, but it begins to cross over
into the whole communications climate at this point. My main argument is that we communicate differently, we consume differently, and we have a different and more active relationship to culture. We live in a global culture and multi-platform artistic/cultural universe. The idea of a “book industry” is, in itself, rather dated.

Bookmark Judy Sandra’s JS Media blog to continue following this series of posts.

Are You Listening, Mr. Bezos? Why a Kindle for Kids App Will Trump Academic Pilot Programs in Building a Kindle Future

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Wonpyo Yun, a reporter for the Daily Princetonian, has the scoop on an official Princeton University announcement of the results from the Kindle DX pilot project on which the Ivy League school partnered with Amazon last semester.

 
Yun’s report suggests that the New Jersey university’s report will lead with the positive by touting cost savings and the fact that use of the DX "reduced the amount of paper students printed for their respective classes by nearly 50 percent." But it also makes clear that the Kindle DX pilot project was something less than a love fest.

(Update: here’s a link to the official announcement.) 

(Update: here’s a link to a more comprehensive report on all the Kindle pilot projects, courtesy of my friend Ned Stuckey-French, in Tuesday’s edition of Inside Higher Ed.) 

 
Out here in the real world, Amazon has generally been very successful in its Kindle marketing by lowering prices several times while promoting the Kindle in a rather understated manner as a dedicated or purpose-built reading device, setting up a delayed "Wow" factor when customers receive their Kindles and discover unexpected features and capacities with the occasional help of a Kindle guide or a Kindle blog. But Yun’s reporting on the comments of students and faculty at Princeton suggests that Amazon may have hurried or overplayed its hand with a $489 DX that is not quite ready for prime time as a replacement for textbooks and courseware. The complaints cited will probably come as no surprise to Kindle Nation Daily readers:

  • difficulties in annotating PDF documents
  • lack of folders or other content management features
  • lack of page numbers for citation, or to help in judging reading progress
  • tiny keyboard size, and other limitations on annotation
“It was great to have the experience of using a Kindle, but I think I’ll stick with books until they work out the kinks,” Cally Robertson ’10 told the Princetonian, and her impatience with the Kindle’s "kinks" seemed to be shared widely among students who have probably been denied very little in the gadgetry arena during their brief lives. 
 
 “I think [the Kindle]’s one of those pieces of technology that will seem ridiculously anachronistic five years from now,” said another student, aptly named No. 
 
Are you listening, Mr. Jobs?
 
It would not surprise me if, having been introduced by Amazon and their instructors to the Kindle, many of these Princeton students end up being perfect customers for Apple’s iPad. The iPad’s initial sticker price of $499 to $699 is not going to be a deal breaker for many of these students whose parents are paying $252,480 for four years of tuition, room, and board, even if the total four-year costs of 3G coverage, warranties, and accessories like the iPad keyboard shown above right bring that price above $2,500. That’s over five times the cost of a Kindle DX, but for now at least, you can’t write a term paper on the DX.
 
While Amazon has been around for 15 years, its Kindle business is still very much a start-up, and for that business Amazon faces a dizzying array of choices about how to invest its capital, its people, and its many marketplace advantages for the future. Kindle DX sales seem currently to make up only about 10 percent of overall Kindle sales, and Amazon may well decide not to engage Apple in what might become a hubris-driven battle for the highest-end convergence-devices-that-might-also-serve-as-ereaders market. 
 
But eschewing a market composed of the children of millionaires is not the same as eschewing a market composed of children, and that’s where Amazon’s smartest future-oriented strategic moves could soon come. I’ve been saying for months that it is time for a Kindle for Kids, and although my predictions along those lines have come to naught, the fact that I’ve been wrong about the timing doesn’t make the entire notion wrong. Whatever Amazon decides to do in the short term with regard to the DX and textbooks, I’m convinced that the company could do much more to build a long-term future for the Kindle and the Kindle Store by putting a full-court press on the possibility of creating a Kindle App for the Fisher-Price iXL Learning System (shown at right, below), scheduled to ship in July 2010 for $79.95 with Story Book, Game Player, Note Book, Art Studio, Music Player and Photo Album applications, an SD card slot for expanded memory, USB connectivity, PC and Mac compatibility, a software management CD enabling users to add their own songs and pictures, and onboard storage for additional software titles, songs, and pictures (and, I would assume, ebooks). Calling it a Learning System, of course, is a marketing masterstroke that guarantees heavy activity involving grandparents.
 
But what part of all that would a kid not love? What part of all that wouldn’t lead a fair number of Dads to try to negotiate some user time with their five-year-olds? Most parents are already familiar with the experience of taking their kids to a restaurant and secretly wishing that they too could order the crusty mac and cheese with the $3 price tag from the Kids’ Menu. 
 
And most manufacturers and marketers are already familiar with the way in which many kids’ eating preferences are dominated for years by the culinary themes and motifs of those same Kids’ Menus. 
 
For Amazon, it’s got to be obvious that getting Fisher-Price to link the iXL Learning System to a beefed-up Kids’ Korner of the Kindle Store would — far more than any academic pilot project — virtually guarantee the development of millions of little Kindle Kids and future Kindle Adults.
 
Hell yes, I’m serious. Or, given the subject matter and the need for this particular App to come with parental controls, "Heck yes."
 
Are you listening, Mr. Bezos? 

This is a cross-posting from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily.

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.

Excerpt from "Specious Nephew" book 2 of Risner's Mystery Series

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Excerpt from "Specious Nephew" as promised in last week’s blog. ISBN 1438248202

Sold on this site Book two of the Amazing Gracie Mystery Series

I promise you if you read "Neighbor Watchers" book one of the series, you’ll want to read all five books.

"Ladies, please excuse me. I want to go to the water

closet before we leave," Jeffrey said, standing up.

"We all should think about that, shouldn’t we, Gracie?"

asked Melinda.

Gracie didn’t hear her. Jeffrey turned the wrong way

down the hall toward the outside door. Perhaps he didn’t know

his way about, but if he didn’t know the way to the water

closet, why hadn’t he asked? Jeffery Armstrong didn’t appear

to be the bashful type to her. She stared at the doorway, waiting

for him to realize his mistake and come back by.

"Gracie, don’t you think we should think about leaving

soon? Gracie, are you listening to me?" persisted Melinda.

"What?" Gracie asked absently, not taking her eyes

from the door. It had been too long now. Jeffrey had to realize

his mistake. "Oh, I’m ready whenever the rest of you are." She

rubbed her arms. "I feel a bit chilly. I think I left my shawl out

on the hall table. I’ll go get it."

"All right, dear," said Melinda. "Miss Moxie and I’ll

wait here for you and Jeffrey."

Jeffrey wasn’t in the hall. Perhaps he decided to leave

without saying anything. That would disappoint poor Melinda

if he decided to change his mind about taking them to the barn

dance. Gracie picked up her shawl. She draped it around her

shoulders and started back past the library. Puzzled that the

door was shut, she stopped. No one ever shut that door. She

placed her hand on the knob, giving it a gentle twist. She

pushed the door open a crack and peeked in.

Standing on a chair in front of the book shelves, Jeffrey

pulled a book out of the top shelf. He opened it and flipped

through a few pages. Closing it, he slipped the book inside his

suit jacket and stepped down from the chair. Gracie eased the

door shut as fast as she could and hurried to take her seat in the

parlor. What on earth was that man doing? If he wanted to read

a book why didn’t he just say so? He lied about where he was

going. He shut the library door so no one would see what he

did. He stole one of Miss Molly’s books, but he didn’t know

much about priceless books. That brown covered book wasn’t

one of the first additions so why would he want it?

Deep in thought, Gracie flinched at the sound of

Jeffrey’s voice when he burst back into the parlor, announcing

he was ready to leave.

"Are you still cold now since you got your shawl from

the hall table, Gracie? If so you best bundle up good for the

ride out to Mr. Orie’s farm. We need to get our coats. It’ll be

cold tonight when we start home," instructed Melinda.

Gracie glanced at Jeffrey. He stared at her with a

smoldering expression on his face and one eyebrow raised.

"Maybe Miss Gracie hasn’t had time to warm up, Aunt

Melinda. When did she get her shawl?" He asked, not taking

his eyes off Gracie.

"Just a few minutes ago," cheeped the little lady.

"Is that right? I do hope youve’ warmed up by now,"

Jeffrey said. His voice was icy sounding through tightened lips.

"I’m fine," returned Gracie calmly, thinking some

things never change. Melinda always talked when she should

keep her mouth shut.

Jeffrey seemed to relax again. Maybe he decided she

hadn’t seen anything with the door shut. She hoped that was the

case.

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.

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.

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.

Amazon's Recent Moves and Kindle Owners' Survey Suggest New Responses to Publishers' Prix Fixe Play

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When the Big Six publishers and Apple’s Steve Jobs began conspiring recently to raise ebook prices by 30 to 50 percent from the Kindle Store standard of $9.99 for bestsellers and many new releases, it may have looked at first like curtains for Amazon’s powerful hold on the fast-growing ebook market.

Amazon’s first move — referenced on the blog as its "Delete You" tactic against MacMillan titles — even seemed a bit petulant to some observers, especially when the retailer turned around a few days later and said that it would have to capitulate to MacMillan’s pricing demands.

The publishers are in a powerful position, and it may indeed hurt sales of the Kindle — and of the publishers’ own bestsellers — if in a few weeks we find that few ebook bestsellers are available any longer at that $9.99 price that has become so popular in the Kindle Store.

But it turns out Amazon has some arrows left in its quiver.

First, it is clear now that, whatever its intentions, Amazon’s "Delete You" play was very effective in educating Kindle owners about the pricing controversy that was going on behind the scenes. Among the first 1,032 respondents in the current Winter 2010 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey, 71 percent agree with this statement: "By dropping MacMillan books, Amazon took stand vs. high-priced ebooks." 11 percent disagreed with the statement, and 18 percent didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion.

The importance of this customer education, with its obvious subtext that "it is the publishers, not Amazon, who are behind the price increases in the Kindle Store" is that it helps to preserve a special relationship between Amazon and those of its customers who are Kindle owners. Most Kindle owners are extremely loyal customers, and we buy a lot of books. You don’t just have to take my word on these matters, because they are quite evident from other data provided by respondents in our current survey:
 

  • 88 percent have positive or very positive feelings about Amazon, but only 19 percent have positive or very positive feelings about the Big Six publishers.
     
  • 70 percent agreed (and only 13 percent disagreed) with the statement that "Jeff Bezos & Amazon have my back, & I know they price things to sell."
     
  • 33 percent said that since acquiring a Kindle they annually buy more than 30 Kindle ebooks that are priced between 99 cents and $9.99, while another 30% said they buy 15 to 30 such books.

What will Kindle owners do if the prices of bestsellers priced previous at $9.99 increase by the 30 to 50 percent threatened by the Big Six publishers? Currently, according to our respondents, only 3 percent buy 15 or more ebooks a year in the $10-and-up price range. For some customers, that will change: 37 percent agreed with the statement that "I will probably pay $10 to $14.99 for new ebook titles if necessary," while 54 percent disagreed.

But there are also some strong indications that this group of very active readers may be ready to make an interesting pivot in consumer behavior, one that may be reminiscent of changes in behavior in the audience for music and film in the past few decades. As these forms of entertainment became accessible in different formats and at different prices, and the costs of production and distribution declined, audience grew dramatically for music and movies with various forms of "indie" branding. In the current Kindle Nation survey, we found strong identification with the following statements:
 

  • With recent ebook price wars, I’ve become more price-conscious. 72 percent agreed, 22 per cent disagreed.
     
  • With higher bestseller prices, I’ll buy more backlist or indie titles. 60 percent agreed, 21 per cent disagreed.
     
  • I’ll look to buy ebooks by authors who provide Kindle exclusives. 48 percent agreed, 28 per cent disagreed.

It should come as no surprise, of course, that Amazon — and some other forward thinkers — are racing to keep up with, or in some cases help create a market for, changes in what we read and what is published. While Amazon is certainly not about to turn its back for long on bestsellers at whatever prices they are made available, there are some exciting channels opening up which will lead to expanded selection of unique content in the Kindle Store, including:
 

  • A high likelihood that we will soon see a significant number of bestselling or established authors eschewing agents and traditional publishers to publish their new work directly to the Kindle platform and other new technologies, as novelist Anne Rice recently hinted she might do in direct posts to an Amazon community threat that she initiated late last year.
     
  • Amazon’s recent announcement that its own do-it-yourself "Digital Text Platform" will soon pay 70 per cent royalties directly to any authors who choose to publish and market their work there in the $2.99-to-$9.99 price range. Even the English majors among established and successful authors may be sufficiently able to do the math that they question whether traditional publishers do enough for their authors to justify paying royalties of only 17.5 percent (the rate authors will get under the agency pricing model upon which publishers are insisting) compared with the 70 percent rate promised by Amazon.
     
  • Authors, meanwhile, are beginning to organize to protect and advance their independent publishing interests through initiatives like the fledgling Association of Independent Authors that may inspire more and more creative work for direct publication through the Kindle platform and other new technologies.
     
  • New publishing ventures such as Rosetta Stone and Jane Friedman’s Open Road Integrated Media are making a major investment in helping both established and emerging authors and their representatives to protect and assert their ownership of their digital publishing rights so that they can bring their own work to the Kindle and other platforms under more favorable terms than the 17.5% of retail list price being offered by the Big Six publishers for ebook royalties.
     
  • Recent deals by Amazon to publish a growing number of Kindle backlist exclusives or new short fiction by prominent authors such as Paulo Coelho, Stephen Covey, Ian McEwan and, through the auspices of the Atlantic Shorts program for the Kindle, Curtis Sittenfeld, Edna O’Brien, Paul Theroux, Jennifer Haigh, Patricia Engel and Christopher Buckley and others.  
     
  • The announcement this weekend by the British Library, courtesy Andrys Basten’s A Kindle World post, of a joint venture involving Amazon and Microsoft that will bring 65,000 works of 19th century literature to the Kindle, free of charge for Kindle users (although it is unclear if duties and wireless charges will be added for U.K. customers.)
     
  • Through initiatives such as Amazon Encore, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and its direct publication of public domain works for the Kindle, Amazon is beginning to venture beyond merely dipping its toes in the water of ebook publishing, so that within another year or two I will not be surprised to see hundreds or even thousands of new titles published directly by Amazon in the Kindle Store.
     
  • And last but not least, Amazon’s announcement on job boards this week that it is "seeking a uniquely-qualified individual to help drive selection of unique content for Kindle:

The position of Kindle Unique Content Specialist blends vendor management with creative and technical aspects of product development, and requires enthusiastic dedication to delivering to our customers unique, engaging, and multidimensional content designed especially for Kindle. To this end, the Kindle Unique Content Specialist will: Use customer feedback, industry news/trends, and Amazon data to identify categories and genres in which unique content will add key selection, amplify Kindle’s distinctive functionally, and further enhance/add value to the Kindle customer experience.

Where will it all lead?

We’ll see. We’ve just witnessed a strange and upside-down economic event where, in the hands of Steve Jobs and the Big Six publishers, "competition" has somehow led to higher rather than lower prices for the consumer.

What’s clear is that Amazon has no intention of biding its time while the publishers and Jobs do their dirty work. As often happens when the dinosaur sector of any industry goes head-to-head with cutting-edge, forward-thinking elements, the dinosaurs may convince themselves they are winning the battles only to discover later that the outcome of the war depended on other battles about which they never heard a word until it was too late.

Publishers and authors may be trying to convince each other that they are at war with Amazon, but they have been acting like they were at war with their own readers. Readers won’t stand for it, and Amazon is likely to do plenty to empower us by giving us more choices at better prices.

 

This is a cross-posting from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily blog.

#fridayflash: Almonds

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I’m going on hiatus from #fridayflash for a while – too much else on my plate now, and in the coming months. Thanks to everyone who’s read and commented on my stories to date; I hope to rejoin you again, probably next year, after the launch of the revised/updated edition of The IndieAuthor Guide this winter.

“I miss the almond tree.”

Nancy looked up from her coffee. “What, honey?” she asked.

Ryan sighed. “I miss the almond tree,” he repeated, gazing out the window at the spot where the tree once stood in the backyard. Now there was a walkway leading to the remodeled back part of the house, where Nancy’s bedroom was.

Nancy wasn’t sure how to respond. She glanced up at the clock, and the daily routine came to her rescue. “Ryan, if you’re going to catch the school bus you need to leave right now.” She helped him gather his things and gave his shoulders a squeeze as he headed out the door. “Pick you up after basketball practice,” she said.

“’Kay. See ya.”

As the door closed behind him, her mind was already racing with worry. The almond tree? What did it mean? He used to climb that tree when he was, what? Nine, or ten? But that was so long ago. She scanned her memories of the months leading up to the remodel; it was a happy time. And Scott’s car accident happened months afterward, it had nothing to do with their home improvement project. Was Ryan associating the tree with his memories of a time before his dad died? The walkway had been her idea; was he blaming her for Scott’s death, somehow? She reached for the phone and dialed Dr. Crandall’s number.

“Dr. Crandall’s office. May I help you?” answered the lilting voice of the secretary.

“Yes, hello Alice. This is Mrs. Munroe. I need to speak to Dr. Crandall.”

“Um,” Alice’s voice trailed off, “let me see if he’s…yes, he’s just getting off the elevator. Hold, please.”

A moment later, Dr. Crandall came on the line. “Hello, Mrs. Munroe. What can I do for you?”

“I think I need to bring Ryan in. Right away. Today, if possible.”

“Has there been some sort of incident?”

“He seems very sad all of a sudden. He’s been talking about the almond tree he used to climb in our backyard when he was little. We had that tree taken out when we remodeled. I think he’s associating the tree with the way things used to be, you know, before Scott died.”

“Well of course, I’m happy to see him if you think he needs my help. Let me hand you back to Alice, and tell her I said I’d see you at five-thirty.”

“Thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much.”

Later, as Nancy drove Ryan north on the I-20, he looked up from texting his girlfriend long enough to notice they weren’t on the way home. “Where are we going?” he asked.

Nancy took a breath and steeled herself for his reaction. “I’m taking you to see Dr. Crandall.”

“Mom!” he whined. “Why?”

“I noticed you seem a little sad lately, and I thought it might help you to talk to someone.”

“I’m not sad. I’m fine.”

“Ryan, denial isn’t going to help.”

“Again with the psycho-babble,” Ryan huffed, throwing his hands up in frustration. “Jeez, Mom! Give it a rest. Dad’s been gone for like, four years now. Aren’t you ever going to stop with this stuff?! Aren’t you ever going to go back to work and get a life of your own so you can stop messing with mine?!”

“Look, the appointment has already been made. If you need to talk to Dr. Crandall you can. And if not, well…better safe than sorry.”

He angrily turned his back to her and stared out the window in silence the rest of the way.

“Ryan!” Dr. Crandall said as he opened his waiting room door to them, clapping a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “Come on in.” He turned to Nancy. “You don’t mind if Ryan and I speak in private?”

“Of course not, Doctor.” She took a seat in the empty waiting room and picked up a magazine. “I really appreciate you seeing us after hours.”

Dr. Crandall nodded and he and Ryan disappeared behind his office door. Less than five minutes later, the door opened and Ryan stepped out into the waiting room, already texting his girlfriend again. “Ryan,” Dr. Crandall said, “You can wait here.” Ryan barely acknowledged the instruction with a slight nod as he lowered himself into a chair. “Nancy?”

“Yes, Doctor?” Nancy asked, standing up.

“Ryan likes almonds. That’s all.”

“Oh, what a relief!” Nancy said.

“Is it?” Dr. Crandall asked, ushering Nancy into his office and closing the door behind him. “Let’s talk about that.”

 

Why I'm Podcasting

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Note:  This was cross-posted for me by the owner of Publetariat.com. Originally it was intended for my blog, so if it sounds a little too "self-promotey" it wasn’t an intentional "ZOMG publetariat guyz look at me!" Re-reading it in this context it may come off that way, so thought I would add a little explanation, since Publetariat wasn’t the original intended audience.

I’ve been thinking about the podcasting and why I’m doing it. I came across Charlotte Stein’s blog. and it’s very silly and goofy and awesome and made of win. Believe it or not, I’m very silly and goofy (I won’t go so far as to say I’m awesome and made of win here, since that’s just never going to come off right.)

This rarely comes off online. I’m very passionate about publishing and my writing and about every other topic under the sun. I have an opinion about everything. I may not be right, but I have a viewpoint and I’m not shy about sharing it. Sometimes people read anger that isn’t there. And I get that. My grandfather once yelled at one of my best friends on Halloween when she came over there with me. Only he wasn’t really yelling AT her. He was just really irate about something and he was yelling “in general” but it seemed like he was yelling at her. She was an audience for his yelling but not it’s intended target.

He doesn’t realize he does it.

I’m kind of in that same boat. Only I realize (generally after the fact) that I do it. Though generally I come off much “harsher” in text. I wish I could let my silly side out and my freak flag fly (and sometimes I do a little bit on Twitter), but online I’m just always on a crusade, even when I’m not trying to be. I’m just intense. And there are days I want a vacation from myself and that intensity.

Though I’m still passionate and intense about things on my podcast, I feel like the more personal level of a podcast changes things. Like I listened to April Hamilton being interviewed by Joanna Penn on this podcast.

In many ways, April is a lot like me. We can both be very outspoken and brash and we can both get into very intense debates with people that somehow go sour when someone gets upset because they feel it’s gotten personal even when it hasn’t. But hearing her speak on the podcast, her voice softens those edges and she sounds about as friendly as a person can get. Then suddenly you’re able to re-frame nearly everything she’s ever said as it’s actually intended to be. I’ve always “gotten” April’s intentions in these sorts of exchanges, but hearing that friendly of a voice on a podcast, drove it home more sharply.

And so I think that’s what a podcast does for me. It gives me that extra dimension and softens some edges. (Well when I don’t sound like a chipmunk in a trailer park. Cause DUDE holy crap sometimes it gets crazy.) Hopefully while it still may be passionate and intense, it becomes clear that I’m *not* angry with everyone. I’m incredibly excited about the path I’m on and what I’m doing.

Then the fiction podcast, that’s all about the work, and it gives me another way to get the work out there and hopefully interacting with and engaging with an audience. Plus I know this sounds crazy-level vain but I really like my reading voice. It’s much better than my other podcast voice or my live interview voice because when I take the time to slow down and enunciate properly the twang is there, but it’s not like ZOMG insane.

Anyway… I also promised a link to the Breakthru Radio Book Talk episode I was on, so here it is. It should be noted that parts of the interview I’ve got that trailer park chipmunk thing going on. Though the reading at the end sounds a lot better (not perfect, but much better!)

Anywho… and then there are times during the interview (I don’t know why I torture myself by re-listening to it) where I remember even during the interview I’m thinking “Don’t say that. My GOD Zoe, shut UP!” But yeah, no. Never happens. No one should give me a microphone and just let me talk, that’s madness I tell you.

Click here to check out my very first podcast. It’s not "state of the art" podcasting but it’s a starting point. Sometimes the important thing is just getting started. And doing a basic podcast really isn’t rocket science. It can be done.


This is a cross-posting from Zoe Winters’ blog.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest Entry

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Monday was the first day for a week to enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I had been preparing for a month to enter my next book. After I finished writing the story, I went over and over it. Even taped the book for a friend in the nursing home. Reading the story out loud helps me catch mistakes that I missed when I read the sentences to myself. So by Sunday, I had the book ready to enter. A 300 word pitch and a copy the first 5000 words to the story had to entered in a separate part on the form.

I’d be the first to admit that blurbs for book covers and pitches are not my strong point. For me, trying to condense the whole story into a few words is hard. I entered the Amazon contest last year. My pitch was not good. Once I found out about the contest, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to work on it. This year I was better prepared. That 300 hundred words is what the judges look at to pick the 1000 contestants to go on, or how ever many have a good pitch up to a 1000. Next the judges look at the first 5000 words in the story and narrow the entries down again. Finally, three are picked and from that three one gets a book deal with Penguin.

This contest takes place until late June. In late February, the writers of the 1000 pitches are announced. Do I expect to be in the running? Yes, I think this year I’ve a good chance of getting into the first round. I’ll update you on that when I find out. If I’m not in the running, I should have a new self published book on the market in a few months. My pitch entry will work well as a jacket blurb so I have that out of the way. Look for the next book in my Amish Series Nurse Hal Among The Amish – Nurse’s Hal’s Rainbow.

As usual, anything that has to do with the computer does not come easy for me, but I didn’t expect the entry to take me all day. Once, I started I had to stay with it. The first entry was contact information. I filled it in and saved it. Time after time, red words warned me I need to enter the complete address or that my zipcode was wrong. Finally, the last time the form came up the space for state popped up. I filled that in, and I was ready for the next form. Copy and paste for the pitch and 5000 word entry went well, but no way could I get the form to accept my manuscript. My word processors weren’t compatible. I have Open Office and an outdated Lotus that no one has heard of lately. I could buy Microsoft, but once I figured out what I was doing with what I had, I didn’t want to take the time to learn anything new. I’d entered in this contest before so I knew I could if I figured out what I needed to do. After hours of trying, finally the manuscript was accepted, but the form didn’t think my pitch was right. I cut and copied the same pitch again and clicked save. That did it.

Last year, I received two reviews from the judges based on the first 5000 words. One judge was very complimentary about my original idea. The other pointed out my piece was poorly written with grammatical errors which didn’t surprise me since the story was no way near ready to turn in. That was the review that was the most helpful. I took the review to heart and went over my story to clean it up before I published it. I’m hoping this year’s entry is in better shape, but no matter what, I’m looking forward to the expert reviews if they do that again.

Now I’m working on short stories for the writing contest that is due the last of April. That gives me plenty of time to tighten the stories up to fit the word criteria and theme. I have some luck in those contests, but even if I didn’t it’s fun to compete with other writers.

　

　

Do I Care About Mobile Readers? [A Checklist]

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This post, from Piotr Kowalczyk ( @namenick on Twitter) originally appeared on his Password Incorrect site on 1/10/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Year 2010 has already been called “The Year of the Mobile”. Internet activity is shifting from desktop computers to laptops to tablets to mobile phones. This is an inevitable trend. People play music on mobile phones, update their social networks, watch movies and even play games. What about reading? It seems to be one of the easiest things. It’s not.

One side of the story is that people complain about general reading comfort – and this is a common excuse to stay with paper. The other side of the story is a fact, that a majority of Internet content is still not mobile friendly.

Here’s a quick checklist of things which can be done to make mobile readers’ life much easier.

Do I publish my books in formats optimized for mobile reading?

If you plan to publish a next book, a free teaser of a book or any new piece of writing, think not only of Scribd, BookBuzzr or Lulu. Think also of sites which convert your book to formats tailored for mobile viewing, like ePub or mobi. The most popular services, besides Amazon’s Kindle Store, are Smashwords, Feedbooks, Wattpad and Kobo.

Do I use a mobile friendly blogging platform?

Most of what 2.0 authors write is not actually books, but everything else intended to draw attention to those books. A blog is still a major place to share thoughts and tease about a book (first chapters, excerpts, etc). If you’re on WordPress.com, you are 100% mobile friendly. When a reader is visiting your blog from a cellphone, a mobile theme is automatically loaded instead of a regular one.

Do I use mobilizing plugins for my self-hosted blog? 

 If you run a self-hosted blog, you can use a proper plugin. This is especially important, when a blog is rich with many advanced plugins. They make it slow to load and probably the content will not display correctly as well. A list of blog mobilizing plugins can be found here.

Do I use blog mobilizing services?

If not a plugin, you can use one of convenient blog mobilizing services, like Mofuse or Mippin. You may also consider mobilizing part of your blog (such as one category) – and this tool seems to be the best option. Just paste the RSS feed in and in a couple of easy steps you’ll have it running. The list of services is also available in the above mentioned article.

Does my feed shows full articles?

More and more people are switching to reading RSS feeds on their mobile phones. If you set up an option to show only an excerpt of your post, the reader is forced to move to your page in order to read the rest. If your blog is not mobilized, consider it a lost view (or even a last view). A much better option would be to show a full length post in a feed.

Do I tweet mobile links?

Even if you haven’t done any of the above, you can still make your content mobile friendly. This is especially important if you spend a considerable part of your time in mobile communities like Twitter, Brightkite and alike. You can always use Google Mobilizer – just paste a link and in one click you’ll have your page optimized for mobile viewing.

Now, if your content is already mobilized, there is one more thing you could do. [As] non-mobilized blogs [are still common], the general attitude [toward reading blogs on mobile devices] is “do not open this link”. So ask yourself…

Do I inform readers that my blog is mobilized?

You can easily do that. Use text or widgets delivered by blog mobilizing services. Hopefully one day it won’t be needed any longer.

 

Also see this article, which provides instructions for how to make your blog available for sale to Kindle owners.

Dear Publisher

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This post, from Dan Holloway, originally appeared on his The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes blog on 1/20/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. In it, Dan pokes a little fun at boilerplate query responses while revealing some salient truths about authorship and today’s chilly trade publishing climate.

Thank you for sending me your contract for consideration. I am sure you will appreciate that talented authors receive many unsolicited contracts. Nonetheless, I am aware that a publisher like yourself relies upon discovering new talent in order to keep its lists fresh and win new readers, so I hope that you will not be too disappointed that in this case I am declining your kind offer. I wish you all the best in seeking exciting new talent elsewhere.

I understand that it is frustrating to receive a form rejection from an author, without any elaboration on specific areas to work on in your contract. I hope that the following general points may help you in your future submissions.

1. An author relies for their living upon a day job. They write, edit, and network in the evenings, at weekends, and in lunch hours and teabreaks. A publisher’s advance, the largest incentive for an author to sign a contract, is not sufficient for them to give up their day job with any security.

2. Many talented, exciting authors write work that will not appeal to large readerships. Publishers need to sell large amounts of books. The result of this tension is that many of these authors will fail to recoup publishers’ outlay within their first two books, and it will not be viable for publishers to keep them on board.

3. Without a publisher, a writer is under no such pressure, and will not be junked if their initial books "fail".

4. Should a writer achieve initial success wit ha publisher, they will be expected to produce similar works, and not explore or develop their talent.

5. Without a publisher there is no pressure to change, for a writer, the way they write in order to fit market needs.

6. Without a publisher there is the freedom to experiment, change genre at will, try, fail, try again, fail again, and devlop one’s talent, voice, and potential to the full.

7. With a publisher a writer must concede control over cover design, the way their work is presented to the world.

8. The long cycle of the publishing industry means that the time from pen to audience inevitably freezes some of the initial energy and excitement of the creative process, leading to a less real and invigorating feedback process between writer and audience, and a less meaningful feedback loop.

9. With a publisher, a new writer loses editorial control. Not just total control of final cut, but control of which editor to use in the first place. An editor must have two qualities – the ability to be utterly ruthless; and absolute sympathy with an author’s aims. An author needs to be free to select their own, trusted, editor.

10. Pricing – whilst unsigned, the author is free to set the price for all his books – and other merchandise. This includes setting the price at free should the author wish to do that with, for example, her ebooks. It also means the freedom to create and price special and limited editions of the work.

In conclusion, I am afraid that authors must consider not just their short-term but their long-term future. And whilst I am sure that your kind offer, were I to accept it, would put me in a financially more advantageous position one year from now, and possibly three years from now, compared to that if I reject it; I am afraid that the models I have run show that in five, ten, and twenty years – that is, over the course of my career – there is no financial advantage, and in many models financial disadvantage, in my accepting.

I wish you every success in your future publishing career.


Dan Holloway is an author and the founder of the Year Zero Writer’s Collective. Learn more about the upcoming Year Zero live reading tour here.