Ctrl+Alt+Pub

Top 5 Myths of Self-Publishing

2012-01-25T19:37:00.001-07:00

I recently attended a new critique/support group for the first time and one of the members read an article he’d written on self-publishing. After listening to his points (some of them good), it occurred to me that there are a lot of myths about self-publishing that I’d surmise were perpetrated by pundits for traditional publishing venues. Here are the top 5 myths and my responses:

Myth #1 – All self-published books are just books rejected by multiple pubishers.

Wrong! This is the whole “Red Scare” that self-published books are not quality books and it’s a ridiculous idea. I’ve read a lot of self-published books and have found a good many of them to be not only original but well written by authors with fresh voices and talent. If we accept the axiom that’s been thrown at writers for years that a rejection doesn’t mean a book is bad, that it just didn’t suit the commercial needs of the editor or publisher, then we must accept the idea self-published books aren’t for everyone either. No book is for everyone. It’s a matter of personal reading tastes. Otherwise, people like Amanda Hocking wouldn’t have been paid $2 million dollars for a four-book contract. I don’t really enjoy her work but some editor at St. Martin’s Press does. Now let’s see if she can deliver the goods.

Myth #2 – Self-publishing is expensive.

Bunk! Here’s statistics from Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure, which I self-published through CreateSpace, Kindle and Smashwords.com in 2009:

* CreateSpace Pro Fee: $ 39.00 (TPB – go to https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/)
Kindle Pub: FREE! (go to http://kdp.amazon.com)
Smashwords: FREE! (go to http://smashwords.com)
Cover art: $ 25.95
Publicity Materials: $ 20.00
GRAND TOTAL: $ 85.95
Copies sold to date: approx. 925 @ $3.50 per book (avg.) = $3,237.50

* CreateSpace recently announced it was doing away with the professional fee, and that expanded distribution would cost a one-time charge of $25.00, while at the same time they would maintain steep discounts (70-80% depending on cover price vs. page count) for any books purchased by the author. The arguments of hiring an editor, cover designer and so forth is moot if you take over these processes and learn how to format your book (you can download Microsoft Word templates from CreateSpace). Fantastic cover art can be purchased from places like Fotolia, Dreamstime and text can be generated at cooltext..com. You can use free software programs like GIMP to create covers. Don’t want to hassle with that? Fine, go find a cover artist for the book—there are plenty of inexpensive artists who do a fantastic job like the inimitable Judy Bullard of JaeBee Creations (who is an award-winning cover designer). Her charge? $100! That’s a steal! Want something more tailor-made? Touch base with the uber-talented Laura Givens—you won’t regret it. Editing can be covered by feedback groups, pre-readers and college English majors looking to make a few extra bucks; they certainly won’t charge you $5 to $8 per page, the current going rate for “professional editors” (most of whom are not). Yeah, I said it.

Myth #3 – Traditional book stores won’t stock self-published books.

Negative. Traditional book stores won’t stock non-returnable books. This is a another tenet perpetrated by the pundits of the traditional publishing industry. Why? They don’t want self-published books competing with their books on the shelves or even stocked next to their books. It’s a form of literary snobbery, you see. Since they can’t control the fact that self-published books will go on the shelf for that respective genre alphabetical by author they have to come up with some falsehood to dissuade and discourage self-published authors. Every square inch of space in a bookstore is for sale. But it’s expensive and often books don’t get seen or judged based on their merits. Let’s take The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as an example. My opinion: it sucked. Boring and flat, lacking substance or direction. But it did very well because booksellers the nation over bullied floor staff and bookstore owners into touting it every time a customer walked in the door. Want to know a secret? One Borders Books in my town bought 25 copies of Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure directly from me and I did a signing where I sold nine of them. As a courtesy, I gave them free shipping. When they finally closed they only had about 5 copies left. I assume they sold them all since they never asked to return them.

Myth #4 – Royalties on self-published books aren’t good.

This is partially true, inasmuch as what publishing outfit an author chooses to go through. But what’s not true is the royalties are worse than through traditional publishing. Kindle pays me 70% of list price and Smashwords.com pays me 80%. Those are the e-books. For print, CreateSpace pays me 80% for any copy sold through their store, 60% for any copy sold on Amazon.com and 40% for any copy sold through expanded distribution (i.e., Libraries, Bookstores and Online Retailers and Academic Institutions, etc.). They also assess a per book and per page charge to help cover the costs of manufacturing, which I think is quite fair. How does this work out at the end? Here’s a rough sample:

A trade paperback book of $15.99 and 300 pages would yield approximately this royalty:

	CreateSpace Store	Amazon.com	Expanded Distribution
My cut:	$8.34	$5.14	$1.94
Their cut:	$7.65	$10.85	$14.05

Think you can get that kind of royalty per copy sold going through a traditional publisher? Think again. Using the same example, here’s approximately how much a traditional book contract earns out for a midlist author:

	Retailer(s)	Publisher	Author
15% (to 10,000 copies)	$8.94 (55%)	$6.11 (40%)	$1.08 (15%)
17% (> 10,000 copies)	$8.94 (55%)	$5.97 (38%)	$1.22 (17%)

“But a traditional book publisher pays an advance!” they say. Yeah. And that advance is paid out based on what criteria? Nobody really seems to know. It’s one of those great enigmas we may never illuminate. Let me tell you what I know to be the truth after having made a great study of this industry (which I call The Machine). Most publishers agree they can typically sell 5,000 to 10,000 units of any given book and will hence pay an advance (usually in a minimum of 3 to 4 installments spread out over 18 months to 2 years) based on the royalty percentage. So… they might pay me $5,400 to $10,800 in an advance for my sample book above, but chances are good I won’t earn that out. And even if I do, what difference will it make? I’ll expend most of it on marketing because (and I cannot stress this enough) the publisher isn’t going to spend more than a pittance to market my work. And if I were to sell 925 copies at a standard royalty I would’ve only made a little over $1000 and be nowhere near earning out my advance. Think I’d get another book contract with them? No. At least the money I’ve come by self-publishing the book I have earned! So at the end of the day, I’ll stick with the self-publishing royalties.

Myth #5 – You will never get traditionally published if you self-publish.

This myth has been disproved so many times it hardly seems worthy of mention, and yet there are a lot of folks out there who still think this is true. Here’s the real question and there’s no getting past it: What’s the definition of a professional writer? An individual who gets paid money for their work. It doesn’t matter if you sell ten copies or 10 million copies of your books. If you’re a working writer, honestly doing all you can to put out the best book you can—and possess even a modicum of good business etiquette and courtesy—you are a professional writer. Publishing companies don’t get to decide that, just as agents, critics or other writers don’t get to decide that. Who decides that? Readers! Are there writers who put crap out there in the self-publishing world? Yeah. There are also a near infinite number of traditional publishers who have put crap out there and somehow tried to make it seem as if the book they were publishing was better just because they published it. After all, they are professional publishers and nobody but The Machine has the knowledge or resources to publish. That’s not professionalism and graciousness: it’s ego and greed (like there’s any shortage of that in the world today). Ya feel me?

I hope this encourages others to investigate alternative publishing paradigms. These are exciting times for writers! The whole reason I started Ctrl+Alt+Pub was so that self-published writers could share their experiences and get information. Bear something in mind: I’ve been on both sides of the fence; I’ve been traditionally published many times over; I’ve had legitimate publishing contracts. I’ve also self-published and looking back on it now I wouldn’t do it any other way. And the same can be said for most of the writers on this blog. I want to inform, inspire and encourage. We here can only give you the facts as best as we know them, and share our personal experiences. The rest is up to you. Good writing to you!

My Experience with Amazon's Kindle Select Program

2012-01-22T20:50:00.004-07:00

A few weeks ago, when Amazon announced their new Kindle Select Program, I was not in favor of it. My reason for that was the exclusivity required to enroll your book/books. I had even posted at a blog that I would not be taking part in Amazon’s new program. The idea of giving books away as a promotional tool was not at all my reason for declining the opportunity. Over the years I’ve given many books away: mine, those of my late husband, Don Pendleton, and ours.

From the Amazon Kindle site: “ When you make your book exclusive to Kindle for at least 90 days, it will be part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for the same period and you will earn your share of a monthly fund when readers borrow your books from the library. You will also be able to promote your book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.” The monthly fund for December was $500,000, and for January it is $700,000. Sharing in that amount of money should be enticing. I happen to be a Prime Member of Amazon and have been for a number of years, and am now able to “borrow” many books free through the Lending Library.

I have over fifty books now published at Kindle, which includes more than a dozen of Don Pendleton’s books. A number of our books are also at Smashwords, and distributed to a number of ebook retailers, including for the Nook, Kobo, iPad.

But one of my books has been exclusive to Kindle, only because I had not gotten around to putting it elsewhere. I decided to give the program a try. On December 27 and 28, I gave my historical Civil War novel, Corn Silk Days: Iowa, 1862, away FREE. I was amazed!! Nearly 8,000 copies were downloaded. It was #1 on the Free Best Seller Lists, War Fiction: The # 2 book on that list was Tolstoy’s War and Peace! Other listings included, # 4 in Historical romance, # 4 in Historical Fiction; # 19 in Romance; # 77 in Fiction.

When the two-day promotion ended, Corn Silk Days stayed fairly high on the Best Seller Lists, staying in the Top Ten of paid books under War Fiction. Today, it is listed as # 2 under Best Selling Historical War Novels in the Kindle Store. # 3 is War and Peace (a free edition), and War Horse is # 4. Obviously my sales and the Kindle Lending Library downloads are continuing.

I then added two additional books, one mystery, one nonfiction, to the Select Program. The results have not been quite as impressive, but my nonfiction, To Dance With Angels, went # 1 in Paid New Age Channeling, and # 1 in New Age Religion and Spirituality. Today, it remains in the Top Ten after a two-day promotion on January 1st.

So I’m happy! Sales have increased on many of my others books not in the program. I’d say this promotion may well be worth it.

WHAT A CHARACTER!

2012-01-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

One of the nicest compliments I ever received was from a reviewer who called “Josie Bates (heroine of my witness series) one of the best characters ever”. For an author, that is the highest praise.

Think about the millions of words written about thousands of fictional people, and then ask yourself how many stuck in your mind, reside in your heart, or continue to haunt you years after reading the book? If you’re like me, there are a handful of such characters in your memory. My list includes:

Gone With the Wind: Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler and Miss Mellie.

Princess Bride: Buttercup, Inigo Montoya, Westley

The Hunger Games: Katniss

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Lisabeth Slander

Johnny Oops: Johnny Oops (a fine Indie book)

Analyzing these characters helped me become a better writer, and here’s what I have learned. Memorable characters are:

Spiritually Unique: Villain or hero, each one has their own demons and desires, strengths and weaknesses. Strength on its own is uninteresting without weakness.

Physically identifiable: A great character manifests his or her uniqueness in dress, mannerisms, and speech patterns. Imagine an actor tackling your character on screen. Can you hear them? See them? Are they so real you would know them walking down the street?

Logical: A character with a unique speech pattern may amuse your reader for a while but if the words coming out of that character’s mouth aren't appropriate to story, plot and core of that character, the affectations is illogical.

Unapologetic: Readers may not always embrace your vision, but if you give a character an unusual life, let them live it. Do not be swayed by fear of political incorrectness or tempted to take the safe route. Writing is about nurturing your bold voice.

Purposeful: A character’s journey is guided by principles born of experiences. In Josie Bates’ case, she is formed by her mother’s abandonment (personal) and her belief that the law and justice are two separate things (professional). The author’s objective is to create a passionate character willing to go to great lengths to protect what they believe in or secure what they desire.

For Example…

Katniss’s (Hunger Games) and Scarlett’s (Gone With the Wind) fight for basic survival.
Westley’s (Princess Bride) relentless search for his lost and true love.
Salandar’s (Dragon Tattoo) desperate desire for self-determination.
Rhett Butler’s (Gone With the Wind) code of honesty.
Melanie’s (Gone with the Wind) passionate belief in Scarlett’s inherent goodness.
Johnny Oops’ (Johnny Oops) wry but heartfelt search to define his teenage self.

Don’t be afraid to refine your characters. We are not born the people we will become; neither are those who populate your books. Nurture them, define them, polish them and they will live in the reader’s memory for a very long time.

Good Business Etiquette

2011-12-21T22:04:00.001-07:00

Okay, this may go without saying but I’d like to relate a recent experience. While searching for a new publisher for my book on ASP.NET programming I came across a POD company that looked very promising. After making initial contact I noted this publisher also had an online writer’s site with articles, forums and a lot of other good resources. Intrigued that this publisher I was interested in also had this great site, I sent an email inquiry asking how I could submit some of my articles. In what I thought was in the spirit of the site, I offered the articles for free.

The email response I received from the publisher floored me. The email contained not one but two thinly-veiled insults by: a) suggesting I didn’t value my work because I wasn’t charging for it; and b) I wasn’t a professional because my willingness to provide free material sent the wrong message to the site’s readers “who are professional writers.” Wow.

First, unless the publisher intended to blab to readers I hadn’t been paid for the articles, how could I be sending the wrong message? Second, to suggest I don’t value my work because I offer some of it free and am, thusly, not a professional has to be about one of the most pedantic things I’ve ever heard. So authors who give out free samples of their writing are unprofessional? Hmm. Somebody better let Stephen King know. And by the way, that means all of you self-published who have done free releases through Smashwords.com and Kindle, you’re not professionals either.

While I very much wanted to point out to this person I’ve authored thirty-five books, thirty-three of which are with one of the largest publishers in the world every one for which I’ve been paid (not to mention my two self-published books have sold nearly 1200 copies), I refrained. Instead, I tried remember to hold to a professional and Christian attitude and simply thanked the publisher for their reply.

This should be a reminder to all of us that maintaining good business relationships involves etiquette. Publishers have no more of a right to denigrate writers than we do publishers. So whenever conducting your business dealings, use common courtesy and good sense. And if you ever encounter something like that, my suggestion is to move on. You can do better. Good writing to you.

It’s Never about the Author

2011-12-11T10:08:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago Smashwords CEO Mark Coker posted this blog entry about Kindle Digital Publishing and their new KDP Select program. Many authors responded to the article (myself included), although some of the replies were a bit more impassioned than others. I simply advised writers to consider very carefully before engaging in an exclusivity clause but other writers were simply outraged—and they weren’t shy about saying as much.

There’s a lot more to the KDP Select program than selling your e-books through Kindle, and only through Kindle, for 90 days but I won’t rehash the whole thing here. But to those who were so outraged I wanted to say this: what’s the big surprise? Did anyone really think that because the Amazon Group created opportunities like CreateSpace and KDP that they were doing it out of altruism toward authors? Ha! Ha, I say!

Let’s remember that these companies are in this to make money, and believe it or not they’re not any different than the “traditional” publishers in that regard. While these opportunities do create a great way for new/unknown authors to gain exposure, and the (not-so)-recent explosion of self and non-traditional publishing outlets, the reality is something quite different. The KDP Select program is, for all intents and purposes, no different than its other programs. What interests me here more is of some of the responses of the authors to this and the seeming naiveté it appears they have regarding it.

For example, Thad McIlroy—founder of TheFutureOfPublishing.com (whatever that is)—stated: “If your sales are low on other platforms it’s because you are not doing your jobs.” Really? That’s strange, because I thought my job was to write; by the way, no matter what I do it’s not going to increase my sales either way. I write the book, I publish it, I do signings and blog and send free copies to reviewers. Not much else I can do as an independent author beyond that unless I want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. And leave us not forget that as a relative unknown that a traditional publisher wouldn’t do that for my books (unless they paid me a huge advance) so why should I? Another author, Jim Kukral, wrote: “You have two types of authors. Those that write for business reasons and those that write for vanity reasons.” Hmmm… not sure where I fit in, then, because I don’t write for either of those. And that’s a pretty limited view, which demonstrates that many people just don’t actually get what this type of program is about.

My point is this: Amazon.com’s move here isn’t about the author, so stop taking it so personally! So what if Jeff Bezos wants a house in the Caymans or to monopolize the market or simply wants to make more money. So what?! How is he different from any other fat-cat publishing executive in that regard? For crying out loud, the FBI raided several NY publishers earlier this year and it’s practically public knowledge that a number of publishing firms keep double books. The face of big publishing hasn’t changed in that regard. The “big-name” authors keep getting paid to write (or more often have ghost-written) tired old reprints of the plots from their last novels and those of us at the bottom strive to gain notice to little or no avail.

Does anybody really think it’s about authors? We need to get over ourselves because the living (or not) we have to scratch out as writers, those of us in the bottom 94% I’m talking about, isn’t going to make our mortgage payments. That’s why I work a full-time job; I know it’s probably unlikely I’ll make a full-time living as a writer and I know it’s not about the writing, so it has to simply be the market. A market that has all but been destroyed by the outdated and greedy business model of big publishing conglomerates. I think these days that the important thing is we write and we do it for the love of it; at least where it means my own material. The contract work I do, well… that’s purely mercenary although I do put my best foot forward and try to produce a good solid story so I don’t get sloppy on my own stuff.

So here’s the bottom line. If you want to be a writer then you need to write. Don’t concern yourself with all of this corporate wheeling and dealing—you’ll drive yourself nuts! And don’t quit your day job because the odds are stacked against you making a living at this gig. Don’t give up, for sure, but take from a sixteen-year veteran writer when I say “Relax!” Just keep doing what you’re doing and who knows? Maybe you’ll land in that 6% category one of these days. Good writing to you.

Writing at the Speed of Mind

2011-12-10T17:27:00.001-07:00

A couple of years ago, author and friend Tim Tresslar and I were at Bouchercon. We were seated in the audience with a panel of well known writers in front of us. They were bemoaning the fact their publishers only gave them a year to write a novel. Tim and I looked at each other and broke into hushed laughter. Imagine! Complaining about how they only got one year to write a book. Try writing three books in a year, year after year,” I whispered at Tim. “Then come talk to us.”

Tim simply nodded and smiled in the way Tim Tresslar does. Like me, an author for Gold Eagle Books in Don Pendleton’s The Executioner Series, that’s the kind of output he understood.

The fact is that you can write faster than you might think, and I’m talking about writing and not typing. If you’re really slow and frustrated that your output can’t be faster, I’m here to propose a possible reason. You could be suffering from your own inner editor. That’s right! The only one stopping you from producing a faster output is probably you! Here’s what I mean.

I know that I can type somewhere on the order of about 80 words per minute, although not without errors. Of course, I know I can’t write that fast. But how fast can I write? That depends on whether I don’t pick up the bad habit of listening to my own inner editor as I write.

The next time you sit down to write something, just try to pay attention to how you do it. Are you pausing regularly to think about something or reread the last paragraph you just typed or even correct a misspelling? If so, you’re really hurting your output. I know because I used to do that same thing until a few years ago. Here’s what happened. After enduring a particularly grueling period of time in my personal life, I found myself very behind in a book. In desperation to get the book delivered when I promised the editor (it was already overdue), I sat down and knocked out about 55,000 words in three days! It was during this time I realized the mistake I’d been making up until that point, and looking back on it I’m glad it happened because now I write much differently than I once did. You see, I don’t listen to that inner editor on the first draft. I just sit down, put on paper exactly what I think or feel, and then I walk away from it when I’ve finished my chapter.

My average output per day is now one chapter and I usually do that in about an hour and a half. Impossible, you say?! Not if you look at it this way: 3,000 words divided by 90 minutes is only 33 words per minute, or about 2 words a second. I don’t think that’s too difficult for anyone to do if they really give it a try. The thing you have to train yourself to do is to keep going! Don’t go back to edit a single word, don’t stop and try to change anything mid-sentence, just keep your fingers moving over the keyboard. In other words, let yourself make mistakes. I call this “writing at the speed of mind” and I think you’re going to find that the output really isn’t so difficult if you do it that way and over time you actually become more accurate on the keyboard. It’s true!

Additionally, you have to remember that you can always go back and fix things. It’s not like whatever you’re writing is what you intend to submit to the editor or printer anyway, so don’t sweat that part of it. If you learn to write what you think as you think, you’ll actually put out better copy in the long run because you know you’re going to have to go back and edit much more carefully than you would have if the words were practically perfect the first time you put them to paper. And you’d be surprised how advanced spell-check features are today in word processing software. They can correct a lot more errors than you might think.

So give this technique a try some time if you think that you’re not getting the output you desire, or if you feel you’re not putting in a totally productive day. Try it and just see how many words you can produce in ten minutes or a half hour, something like that. You don’t have stick with it if it ends up going against everything you are and think as a writer, or if it hampers you so badly you end up making it worse. I don’t think for many of you, however, that will happen. Think about it! You sit down for an hour and a half or even two hours and put out a chapter, then you’re done and can go do something fun—treat yourself to dinner or a movie or listen to your favorite music. Maybe even take a day trip. Go ahead. You earned it!

Good writing to you.

Sixty-One Years of the Shell Scott Mystery Series by Richard S. Prather

2011-11-05T17:55:00.003-06:00

It was in 1950 that Richard S. Prather's first Shell Scott mystery novel, The Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published by Fawcett's Gold Medal Paperback Originals. His successful and best-selling Shell Scott series of thirty-six novels plus four short story collections, published between 1950 and 1987, have sold over 40 million copies in the United States and have enjoyed foreign language publication, selling millions more world-wide. In addition to the Shell Scott mysteries, Richard penned three novels under pseudonyms. He wrote the first Dragnet novel based on the television show, Dragnet, titled, Dragnet: Case No. 561, published under the name, David Knight; used that same pseudonym for the initial publication of Pattern for Murder, later republished by Gold Medal Books as The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather; and used the pen name Douglas Ring for The Peddler, which was later republished under his own name by Gold Medal. He also published a number of short stories; and lent his name to the Shell Scott Mystery Magazine.

Richard S. Prather's book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover in 1987 by Tor. He received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986, and was twice on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America. His Shell Scott mysteries are now back in print with ereads.com and available as POD paperbacks and ebooks, and a number of his novels are at booksinmotion.com as unabridged audio books. The Peddler, a non-Shell Scott mystery, is now back in print, published by Hard Case Crime, November 2006.

I met Richard and his wife, Tina, in 1989, when my husband, Don Pendleton and I were vacationing in Sedona, AZ. Don and Richard had shared the same literary agent for a number of years, yet the two of them had never met. Don picked up the telephone and called Richard and we spent a delightful evening with them at their home.

About five years later, Don and I moved to Sedona, so we often got together with Richard and Tina.

Richard had given me a wonderful endorsement quote for my first Catherine Winter PI novel, Shattered Lens, and encouraged me to make it a series, which I have done. Fractured Image is the second book in the series and I hope there will be more Catherine Winter in the future.

In 2006, I asked Richard if I could do an interview with him. We did it by mail, and due to his declining health, it did take some time. I published the long interview in December 2006. During that time, Richard asked me to take his unpublished 1,000 page manuscript, The Death Gods, at his death and to do my best to market it. Following his death in February, 2007, I received the manuscript, all 1,000 pages, only a few of those pages typed, the balance, handwritten with lots of his blue felt pen notes squeezed between lines.

The task seemed overwhelming and due to the length, agents and publishers did not find it an attractive opportunity. But I did not give up on publishing Richard’s work, as I felt strongly that his fans and new readers should have the opportunity to read the last Shell Scott mystery.

So sixty-one, yes, Sixty-One years after Richard S. Prather’s tough, yet happy-go-lucky, Southern California detective, Shell Scott hit the pages of a book, the last Shell Scott mystery is now in print and in ebook formats. I am pleased with his story, with the book and with the cover I designed with Judy Bullard. I hope readers will enjoy Richard S. Prather’s last creation.

Read more here

Blog, Richard S. Prather, The Death Gods, Shell Scott

Exclusive Interview with Richard S. Prather by Linda Pendleton, at Kindle

~Linda

How Amanda Knox Saved My Story

2011-10-09T14:46:00.000-06:00

If you have been writing for any length of time, I am sure you have a manuscript that stalled and no matter what you did there was no way to get it going again. So you threw it in a drawer and said, Maybe someday....

A couple of years ago I started a manuscript entitled Bullet Alley about an ex-cop and defense attorney racing to clear a woman wrongly accused of murder and up against corrupt city officials doing their best to see she's convicted for reasons of their own. The story stalled when I could not come up with a proper "frame" for the woman; I think the story collapsed around page 50. Those pages remain in a box.

Someday, I thought, I will find a solution to the problem and finish the story.

Flash forward to this week. Like many folks around the world I have kept up with the story of Amanda Knox. It has been quite riveting. Did she do it or not and if she did not will she be cleared and if she did will she spend the rest of her life in prison? And now, as more information of what went on before and after the crime and during the investigation comes out, I see a picture of somebody railroaded into prison by overzealous, incompetent, or even corrupt police and prosecutors using evidence that cannot stand up to scrutiny, violating the rights of the accused, and slandering the accused as well.

And then a light bulb went off.

With a few changes here and there (to protect the innocent, of course--and so I don't have to pay anybody!) the Knox case provides the outline for the frame I need for the woman in Bullet Alley. Woo hoo!

Now the story can be told. I have no idea when, or even, really, if, I will get back to Bullet Alley, but you can bet when I do it will be a much better experience, and a better story, because of what happened to a certain young woman from Seattle. Maybe I should send her a cake.

STORIES MY MOTHER TOLD ME

2011-10-02T18:13:00.003-06:00

My parents made a pact to stand on every continent in the world. When my dad passed away, my mother went to the Antarctic for both of them. That’s when I figured there was a lot I didn’t know about mom.

When she returned with a bright orange jacket that she got ‘for free’ (don’t count the cost of the cruise), she had lots of stories to tell. Yet, when the excitement of the trip wore off, we both had the sense that we were still standing on a pitching deck with no way to sail to calm seas. A big piece of the puzzle – my dad – was missing.

“Write your memoir,” I said.

“My life wasn’t interesting,” she answered.

But the idea must have taken hold. Not long after this conversation, she called. She was done with her memoir.

“Impressive,” I mused.

It takes me months to write one novel and she finished hers in a week. When I saw her manuscript, I understood why. It was five pages long and she was eighty-five years old. There had to be more.

So began a year of weekend sleep-overs as we poured over photographs for inspiration. She had twenty beautifully documented photo albums, a box filled with pictures taken when cameras were still new fangled things.

There was mom in waist-length braids and Mary Jane shoes standing in the German village she called home.

She was a teenager in the U.S. while war raged in Europe, threatening the grandmother she had lived with, cousins and friends.

Here was mom, posing in a swimsuit she bought with the dollar she found on the street.

Mom in her twenty-five dollar bridal gown perched in the back of a hay wagon beside my father, a skinny, wide-eyed farm boy who would become a doctor.

Mom with one child. Two. Three. Five. Six of us all together. Dark haired and big eyed, we were her clones dressed in beautiful, homemade clothes. I remember going to sleep to the sound of her sewing machine.

And there were words! I bribed my mother with promises of Taco Bell feasts if she gave me details. Funny, what came to her mind.

To keep body and soul together when my father was in med school, he was a professional mourner and bussed tables for a wealthy fraternity. My mom worked in a medical lab where the unchecked radiation caused her to lose her first baby. They ate lab rabbits that had given their all for pregnancy tests. They were in love and happy and didn’t know they were poor. But St. Louis was cold, she remembered, and they couldn’t afford winter coats. Still, she insisted, they weren’t poor.

She typed, I edited; I typed, she talked. My youngest brother almost died when he was 10. She didn’t cry for a long while; not until she knew he would live. The captain of the ship that took her back to Germany was kind. She dreamed of becoming a missionary doctor. In 1954, she had two toddlers (me and my brother) and another baby on the way when she and dad drove to Fairbanks, Alaska where he would serve his residency at the pleasure of the U.S. Air Force. Her favorite outfit was a suit with a white collar. She loved her long hair rolled at her neck in the forties. In the fifties she made a black dress with rhinestone straps and her hair was bobbed. In the sixties she made palazzo pants and sported a short bouffant. She looked like a movie star in her homemade clothes. I wanted to grow up to be as glamorous as she was. She still thought she wasn’t interesting.

Mom wrote the forward to her memoir herself. It began:

A great sense of loneliness fills the house as twilight approaches. In the silence, I can almost hear the voices of my grown children as they recall their childhood years, the laughter of grandchildren and the quiet conversations of friends who have gathered here in years past, echoing through the empty rooms.

You see, she really had no need of my help as a writer.

We had seven copies printed. On the cover was a beautiful picture of a sunset. She called her book In The Twilight of My Life and would not be swayed to change it. Mom thought it perfect and not the least depressing. It was, she laughed, the truth. It was her laugh that made it right. She gave my brothers and sisters a copy for Christmas. My older brother had tears in his eyes. Everyone exclaimed: “I never knew that”.

Now I have a book more treasured than any I have written. I learned a lot about my mom and I realized why I create fictional women of courage and conviction, strength and curiosity, intelligence and, most of all, spirit. It’s because, all this time, I’ve been writing about my mother.

Coming Summer of 2012...

2011-09-24T00:18:00.001-06:00

While I typically don't make it a habit of plugging my own books on the site, I did feel some might be interested that I've decided to write what could be the most anticipated sequel of my career. You can check the blog on my website for updates.

Doing It Your Way

2011-09-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

Being a technology professional, I'm always excited to try new things. The most exciting and recent discovery I've made is the latest incarnation of the Mobipocket eBook Creator. With this great tool, authors have the ability to convert their Microsoft Word or HTML documents into the .PRC file format—this is the native Mobipocket format and one of the most popular file formats for e-books because it can be converted easily into other proprietary formats. And here's the best part: with this software you no longer have to trudge through the formatting problems of the past by converting your Word document to filtered HTML, etc. Here's how it works:

Download the Mobipocket Creator v4.2 from here.
Download the Mobipocket ebook Reader from here.
Install both applications as compatible to your operating systems (Windows XP, Vista, 7, etc.).
Open the Creator program and you're presented with the Home screen.
Select to import the Word document from the list at the right (figure 1).
Click the Browse... button, select your document and then click Import.
At the next screen (figure 2), you can then select all your options at the left menu.
When you're finished, you can then click the Build menu, which takes you to the screen in figure 3.
If all goes well, you'll be directed to the screen in figure 4 (by the way, if anything goes wrong, you can view the errors and then take whatever appropriate actions you require to fix the errors and rebuild).
Lastly, you can choose the option for opening the book. Note: The emulator option didn't work for me for some reason so I just downloaded the ebook Reader and opened my book that way.
Figure 5 depicts the finished ebook product as viewed in the reader.


Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

So what's the big deal here? First, you can now take your file and upload it to Kindle Direct Publishing without having to mess with all the technical gobbledy-gook that goes along with normally publishing on Kindle. You can also create files in this format from scratch, which would allow you to sell those varying formats through your website.

This kind of flexibility and technology being delivered to the hands of we self-published authors is a game-changer. We're now becoming the authors, producers and publishers, able to determine our own destiny and have full control over our work. And best of all, we're now being appropriately compensated for our efforts. Check out this new application and feel the power! Good writing to you.

"Cover" all your Bases

2011-08-30T22:41:00.002-06:00

Some authors might think that if they decide to publish just e-books, a decent cover isn't that important. Such an assumption is very, very wrong. Statistics say a cover is the second-most important factor in book buyers making a purchasing decision (other studies say it's third). Story value is first and supposedly—in some cases I've read—the cover copy or back-cover blurb is second.
Whatever statistics you accept, it's important to remember that with the advent of self-publishing, we as authors must arm ourselves with every advantage. Since I publish in both print and e-book mediums, I'm mandated to produce high-quality covers for my works. But I also want to set myself apart—I want my covers to catch the eyes of potential readers because that can mean a potential sale.
In an earlier post, I discussed a variety of tools to create covers for $25 or less. Besides the cost, however, the ever-increasing volume of work being independently published requires top-notch quality work. The cover is often the introduction online to a reader. Recently, I finished creating the cover (below) for my science fiction novel coming out early next year. (You can click the image to see it at a fuller size). I think it catches the eye nicely.

Beside a striking font for the title and my name—along with warm and vibrant colors—I've also learned it helps in marketing efforts to add what I call a "tease line." In effect, this helps intrigue the reader's interest and I've found it can be quite effective if used properly. I use the tease line to build some sort of tension or conflict based on the story I'm telling. I didn't use this on my first two self-published books, but I did start using it with the cover for CHASER'S RETURN. Finally, I've used high-quality graphics (at least 300dpi and extra-large in size at minimum 1800 x 2300 pixels) so that the colors are crisp and clear in print copies. They also present better when shrunk for the web.
The competition is fierce so be certain to "cover" all of your bases when creating covers. If you have any questions about creating covers or are interested in learning more about the tools I use, feel free to contact me. Good writing to you!

Founder's Update

2011-08-28T14:53:00.001-06:00

Hi all! I first wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the authors at Ctrl+Alt+Pub who have taken time from your busy schedules to post topics on non-traditional and independent publishing. Please keep sending as much content this way as you please. It makes me SO happy to see great authors who get what this site is all about.

Second, I want to give a shout-out to those of you who are following this blog regularly. We now have thirty members, and I'm hoping to double that number by the end of the year. I really want to spread the word about Ctrl+Alt+Pub. In order to do that, I need to ask our followers to do two things: first, Contact Me to let me know what else you'd like to see relative to content on this site. While the other authors are basically free to post as they want, I'm certainly happy to approach subjects and/or add content that is useful to you or ask one of the other authors to post if I think they have good experience/knowledge in that area.

Third, I know I get a lot of questions from aspiring and even veteran authors about the current methods for non-traditional publishing. One of the first things I do is refer them to this blog because the authors that write here have more than 200 years of combined experience! That's a great resource considering all of the content on this site is free. So please spread the word about this blog; the more readers, the more exposure; the more exposure, the more experience we gain that can be passed on to others who feel they have no place to turn to get their questions answered.

Finally, if you are an author interested in writing for Ctrl+Alt+Pub I certainly encourage you to contact me and give me a brief rundown of your experiences in self-publishing. In general, I don't "censor" anybody that I approve as an author, provided you're posting information that focuses on one of three areas:

The writing craft
Marketing and sales of non-traditionally published works
Experiences (good or bad) with non-traditional publishing as it relates to covers, submissions, formatting, self-publishing companies, relationship to traditional publishing, and so forth.

Interviews are also great if they are of someone who has done one or all of the above. Once more, I want to thank each of my fellow authors for your contributions as well as our followers for your insightful comments. And I will soon be conducting an interview of Kirt Hickman, an independent author and publisher who has gained a lot of experience in the process of what it take to write and publish quality work.

Heck Yeah! E-Publishing is E-xhausting & E-xhilerating

2011-08-27T18:49:00.005-06:00

For 26 years I was a crazed, angst-filled, traditionally published author. Deadlines loomed. Editors lay in wait to knock me down a peg. Agents doled out favor based on the size of advances. If my books were all over the bookstore I worried; if they weren’t, I worried. Still, I had no idea what tired and cranky really was until now. Which brings me to the topic of the day: E-publishing, E-xhileration and 24/7 E-xhaustion.

I decided to digitally publish my first book because I had hit a bump in the road. New York was tightening up, I had parted ways with my agent and the project I was working on wasn’t getting a warm welcome in the Big Apple (more on that later). So, I published one of my 23 books out of curiosity and a niggling sense that, if I didn’t, I would be missing out on something. Little did I know, I was dipping my toe into a roiling sea and would soon be drowning in challenges and opportunities of indie publishing.

After eighteen months, four of my books are still on the Kindle legal thriller bestseller list (they were on the Barnes & Noble Nook top seller list for four months). Before Her Eyes, a novel I believed in but one which had received conflicting and cool rejections from New York has been graced with multiple five star reviews. My creative gut, it seemed, was working just fine. Readers were willing to take a chance on the book I loved but without digital publishing it never would have seen the light of day.*

It took a year and a half of non-stop work to properly post 18 of my 23 books. And, as happens in any new venture, the more I learned the more overwhelming the task of taming E-publishing seemed.

Amazon is not alone in offering indie publishing opportunities. There is Pubit! (indie authors outlet on Barnes & Noble) and e-publishers like Smashwords.com. There is the Apple bookstore and don’t forget Google books. There are backlist purveyors and indie author sites that allow click through to your sales sites. An author must have a manuscript and a cover (to the correct format), reversion letters if you are posting your backlist, an understanding of DRM, a sense of what price the market will bear. Add to that, the fact that you and you alone are responsible for all marketing worldwide, that readers are extraordinarily vocal and you must still write. Suddenly you are working 24/7, first to get noticed and then to grow your fan base.

So, to keep you authors from going bonkers, here are a few tips; for readers, a couple of favors to ask. Together, we can really make E-publishing an E-xquisite E-xperience.

AUTHOR TIPS

• Pace yourself and publish on one site at a time until it is done correctly.
• Spend more time editing than writing.
• Smashwords.com formatting guidelines are excellent. Follow them.
• Be comfortable with the program you use to design your covers. Have fun.
• Become a part of discussion groups, not just an advertiser.
• Choose the most efficient marketing opportunities.
• Make friends with bloggers who want to interview authors.
• Return the favor on your own blog.
• If you market more than you write or talk to your family, stop.
• Check your sales figures once a week - every hour will make you crazy.
• If you make a top seller list, let people know.
• If you get a great review let people know.
• If you get a bad review don’t argue with the reviewer or lose sleep.
• Twitter and Facebook but don’t spam.
• Don’t be discouraged. Readers will find you.

READERS, THANKS FOR THE HELP

• Let us know about typos privately. We’ll love you for being kind and
probably send you another book for free.
• If you like our work, we love reviews.
• If you don’t like our work, we’ll take your constructive criticism to heart.
• Please know that we appreciate you even when we’re E-xhausted.

Now, everybody get some rest. Tomorrow authors will write and publish, and readers will give us all a chance to entertain them. We’ll intersect at some point, make new friends, discuss books, writing and reading. Heck yeah, it is going to be a busy day.

*If any editor would like to take a look at Before Her Eyes, I’m happy to gift them an E-copy or send the manuscript! Feel free to check out the 5 star Amazon reviews!

Electric Angel e-books exclusively thru publisher

2011-08-20T11:21:00.006-06:00

Other than shameless self-promotion to let everyone know that my latest, "professionally edited" book through Black Bed Sheet Books is now available wherever books are sold, this is to also give you a little information on where you can purchase the e-book.

I did NOT make it "industry standard (death to all small publishers)" returnable as I did NOT want my publisher to eat the print cost of books he'll never see again because distributors for small publishers don't actually return books. They destroy them or at least this is what they say. I've no proof and they won't let me visit the site of "book destruction" as I've asked and they quickly blow me off. My belief is that they never see the returned book as they don't want to have to pay to have them shipped back. I'm quite certain the books go straight to "returned from the bookstore" wholesalers such as the ones Books-A-Million buy from. I'm just not sure who gets the money for the sale. I'm guessing the distributor.

Nevertheless, my books are non-returnable according to "industry standard." Any bookstore can get with my publisher though and work out a return policy that works for both. ;) And my book is available in ALL ebook formats including .lit which Ingram has now stopped accepting for reasons you can read about on my blog at SueDent.net. You will not see an e-book version of Electric Angel for sell anywhere else though as everyone else seems to want to give a publishers e-books away or make them returnable without the publishers say so.

Funny that.

So yes do visit http://blackbedsheet.goshopper.net/ to get your copy or any bookstore to order yourself a copy. Just know that if you want a kindle or a nook or a lit format e-book, you will have to go to my publisher.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to post on this blog Jon.

You're wonderful!

Flowers in the Attic: Backlists and Half-Finished Books

2011-07-27T19:45:00.008-06:00

One of the strangest books ever was Flowers in the Attic (V.C.Andrews). There is lots to talk about with this book (incest, misguided religiosity, family acceptance and love) but those are topics better left to a book group discussion.

What really freaked me out was the premise of that book. A mother locks her kids in the attic and forgets about them. The children languish, nearly dying in that attic, until they rise up and confront her. They are no longer willing to be locked away. And that brings me to the topic of the day:backlists and half finished manuscripts locked in our creative attics. We never forget them, we know they are there, but what in the heck do we do with them?

My own career has been neatly split in two distinct genres: Romance/women’s fiction and legal thrillers/thrillers. I had my rights reverted to all 23 of my novels as soon as I was contractually able. I had no idea that rights reversion would turn out to be the smartest move I ever made. In control of my work, I was perfectly positioned to digitally publish, POD or self-publish my literary inventory. I chose to concentrate on digital publishing, taking advantage of the explosion of E-readers.

It took a year to scan all my thrillers, create covers, edit for scanning errors, properly format and upload my 11 book backlist. The effort was worth it. My faith in my thrillers has been rewarded by good sales, excellent reviews. In fact, the three-book (soon to be four) Witness series has been on Amazon’s top 100 legal thrillers for almost two years.

Spurred on by the success of my thrillers, it seemed logical to follow the same strategy with my early books - romance and single title contemporary women’s fiction. Yet, when I went to my literary ‘attic’ and opened the door I didn’t exactly find my ‘flowers’ in full bloom.

The truth was that some of my work should not be resurrected. The very first book I wrote was creatively tentative, predictable and descriptively overwrought. This was a far cry from the intricately plotted books I penned later in my career. I tried to convince myself that books were books and someone would like them. But in this digital age, word of mouth is advertising on steriods. A few bad reviews from these early books could affect all my work. When I weighed the pros and cons it came down to this: would I be proud to have this book in the hands of an avid reader? For three books on my backlist, the answer was no.

I am not ashamed of anything I have written (all were published by respected New York publishers) and each represents my best effort at that stage of my career. They are not, however, representative of the author I have become. When a reader chooses to sample my early books, I want them to hear my unique voice (I had no POV in the three I will not re-publish). I want the reader to be engaged in a multi-layered story (my early work is linear). I want a reader to get to know well-drawn characters that live in a complete universe (my early characters were two dimensional and their universe limited).

In my memory, I believed my attic contained excellent work. In reality, I had stored away my building blocks. But I also had put away a few half-finished manuscripts, ideas that could be resurrected, reworked, redone and published. I guess the good thing is, I’ve come a long way if I can objectively look in my attic and know which of my flowers need to stay exactly where they are and which can be brought out and be celebrated.

So take a look in your attic and be prepared to make some hard but honest choices about those manuscripts you find there.

http://www.rebeccaforster.com

Creating Credible Fiction

2011-07-21T00:14:00.003-06:00

Andrew E. Kaufman, author of While the Savage Sleeps, and the upcoming book, The Lion, The Lamb, The Hunted, wrote an interesting blog post, “Why the Decision to Kill off a Character can be Murder on an Author.”

Andrew said it well! Fiction has to be larger than life and credible. We have to build a realistic world as we create our stories. So I agree with his comment: “Our job, although writers of fiction, is to depict life in a realistic manner, make the reader forget she's actually reading.”

Our characters tell the story they want to tell and sometimes it can be difficult to kill of one of the characters. But the important thing in writing realistic characters is that even the bad guys may have some redeeming features. That makes them human. My husband, Don Pendleton, the “father of action/adventure,” was very good at that. Sometimes you hated when his bad guys were knocked off. He wrote in his book, Metaphysics of the Novel: The Inner Workings of a Novel and a Novelist:
“If you have villains in your story make sure you have made them powerful and resourceful, not reduced to the idiot level. In real life, the bad guys are highly formidable and dangerous individuals. Real life is full of grim games played by grim people. So should your fictional world be, if that is the type of story you are presenting. Do not indulge in some juvenile misunderstanding of the forces that move and shake this world. Some people are dangerous, not because a gun is in their hand, but because something cold and deadly is in their hearts. So make sure you are presenting a credible world with the world of your novel.”

After all, we are writing about the human situation, no matter what predicaments we place your characters in. Life itself presents challenges, drama, pain, joy, grief, wonder, and more, and a successful novelist is called upon to examine and develop deeper insights into the moving forces that power creativity. Writing is an art, and it is up to the artist to produce a living image of reality.

The author is in charge of his own fictional world, and that fictional world needs to be understandable, coherent, and credible. But it is our own story to create, and not everybody may like it. And that is just fine.

~Linda

My Drops of Ink Blog

Corn Silk Days, Iowa, 1862

Catherine Winter, Private Investigator Series

E-Covers: Seduce & Sell

2011-06-28T09:25:00.006-06:00

I doubt this will come as a surprise, but ‘pretty’ sells. So does intriguing, shocking, soothing and sexy. That’s why I spent the last three weeks sweating over cover designs for my backlist romances and redesigning my thriller covers - all of which I hope you'll be downloading to your E-reader of choice someday. But today the topic is E-covers.

Why, you may wonder, did this exercise in cover design create such angst? After all, nobody will run their thumb over the richly embossed type, check the weight of the stock or touch it in a bookstore. This isn’t a ‘real’ cover on a ‘real’ book and that is exactly the point. These covers are more important than a paper cover because they will live on in perpetuity.

In this new publishing reality, authors who have backlists and don’t own the rights to their covers must now become designers; indie authors who have never had the benefit of seeing their work transformed into a visual face a daunting task of identifying the soul of their books. Bottom line, unlike paper, an E-cover's impact will be farther reaching than any of us can even imagine.

In the old days an author might reproduce their cover image on bookmarks and mugs. In this brave new world, E-covers pop up as thumbnails on Facebook, Linked-In and other social media posts. They are broadcast to readers of blogs and reviewers who promote your work. An E-cover makes a statement on your own website. An E-book cover is brought up full-size and full color on most readers. An E- cover sets the tone for my book in a way that a paper cover never could because I – the author – have designed it and that is the truly exquisite bottom line.**

No longer am I at the mercy of a New York art director working off a synopsis of the book I spent months writing. Never again will I have a cover where Lady Justice had a sex change and became a sword-toting Roman guy. I have seen the last of a beautiful ocean on the cover of my book that is set in the high desert of California. Hurrah! I have taken the beaches of cover design, planted my flag and you can too.

I must confess that initially I was like a young soldier rushing into war without realizing how important the battle was. I lucked out with my Witness Series covers but others looked amateurish, weak and unmemorable. I had that revelation as I readied my romance backlist for E-publication. I was determined to make my covers as easily identifiable as my writing style. Faced with the prospect of creating a minimum of 8 new covers, I made a plan. I studied E-covers of books I admired and those on the top seller lists. I began to experiment. I realized that like a first draft of a book my covers were not perfect the first time out. I began to understand that I had to kick everything up a notch to get noticed: visuals, color, and content.

The new covers now reflect the theme of each book or are evocative of the mood of that work. With the romances and women’s fiction in particular I tried to limit the use of full-on portrait photography in order not to inhibit the romantic reader’s imagination. For me, blocking and color worked for the romances. For other authors, flowers and pastels might be the key to success. For my thrillers, I decided to go darker with ominous and/or graphic images. Though there are no hard and fast rules, here are some guidelines that worked for me:

• Clean is better than fussy
• People (especially parts of people) are intriguing***
• Experimenting is good. Odd colors and disparate type faces can work together and create drama
• The covers should reflect the tone of the book
• Slugs should be tight and to the point
• Spend a little money on stock photos (I use ‘small’).
• Plug in image search words that aren’t obvious.
• Use PowerPoint portrait setting for your design. The pixel height and width meet standards for Amazon, PubIt! and Smashwords.

So, Heck Yeah! Get on top of the the covers. Your E-career will thank you for it.

*Check out all my covers at http://www.rebeccaforster.com
**Even if you had a designer, they worked at your direction. Own that cover!
***See The Reckless Ones (http://www.rebeccaforster.com/my-early-books.html – my favorite partial body shot.

Marketing: Exploration in Your Writing

2011-06-27T19:29:00.000-06:00

One thing I always promised myself when I became a writer was I wouldn't let anybody tell me what I should write. Not publishers, not agents, not editors: other than the editorial confines in which I must contractually operate of course (like my work in the various Mack Bolan series). The other promise I made myself was that I wouldn't write to market; like if paranormal teenage romances about vampires were popular I'd strive to write anything but that.

Something else I've found very effective to marketing my work is keeping multiple irons in the fire. You see, just because I happen to write mostly action-adventure fiction doesn't mean I have to write just that. You hear a lot about "branding" yourself as a marketing strategy, but I disagree with this concept. There might have been wisdom in this idea at one time but not anymore. The limits of self-publishing and e-publishing are getting pushed and that's raising the competitive nature of the field. Naturally.

That's why I decided to write a science fiction novel (actually two SF novels this year), and a technical book on programming. I also started a new blog after the namesake of the book: Binary Guerilla. And recently I've taken an interest in perhaps trying my hand at freelance scripting a comic book or two. You see, it's actually counter-productive for us as writers, especially independent writers, to constrain ourselves in just a single genre. If that's what you really enjoy and that's what you want to do, that's fine. Don't get me wrong. However, if you're not doing it because someone gave you a very bad piece of advice about branding yourself, you're missing out.

So go explore all of the possibilities you choose, if that's your desire. Writing one genre particularly well or branding yourself isn't doing you much justice if you're not happy with your work and especially if you're not selling. Write some short pieces and make available for free on your web site, or put them up at Smashwords for a buck a piece; publish some non-fiction work at Scribd.com (as I chose to do with my non-fiction, serialized book on writing). You know, since I put my serialized book up there I've had almost 600 reads and acquired 30 followers, some of the them BESTSELLING writers? Nothing earth-shattering, perhaps but hey... I'm getting read!

Take risks and feel free to explore other avenues; that's the only real freedom you can declare as an author, and you just don't know what's going to take off, what's going to sell, and what will attract new readers.

Can't Afford Fancy Research Trip? Google Earth Instead!

2011-06-14T22:40:00.000-06:00

By typing the headline I just realized that this article is going to sound like a commercial for Google Earth, that wonderful bit of software that lets you "see" any place around the globe at the touch of a button. Forgive me if that is the case, but I must share with you what this bit of software has allowed me to do as far as my stories are concerned.

I'm working on a new novella that takes place in Italy. I have never been there, and cannot afford to go there. Google Earth helped me navigate around Greece for my most recent novel, so I decided to try it again. First, it proved that setting the story in Venice was not going to work--no streets there, you see, or at least no streets wide enough to accommodate the car chase that opens the story. I moved the action inland, on the coast, with Venice in the distance. The software helped me locate a hotel where the action starts, it linked to guest reviews where I could get a feel for the place (the service, condition of rooms, etc.) and provided excellent pictures, all of which made me fill a page of notes. That sort of detail, as Ian Fleming proved, fleshes out the location in such a way as to make it a character itself, and adds richness to the narrative. It's not as good as being there and experiencing things for yourself, of course. But until I make a mint, it will have to suffice.

Travel books and travel television programs may provide similar inspiration, but I have yet to see a travel show that didn't gush over the location in question. I loved seeing the review of the hotel my characters will stay at, for instance, where the guest reported that the rooms have a dark motif that the reviewer found dreary and that the walls were too thin and did not block out neighboring sounds. One can only imagine what was heard through those walls, and I bet it was a fat Eye Tie with an accordion who kept everybody up until o'dark thirty. (And before ten thousand emails are written complaining about my slur against our Italian friends, please note that I am HALF Italian, and therefore entitled to make the joke. You're welcome.) You are not going to find a comment like that on a travel show, and it adds color. It makes the reader think you were there, and makes them think they were there, because who hasn't been in a hotel that was less than stellar at one point or another?

There is a gold mine of resources available to help you add zest to your stories, and Google Earth has done wonders for me. Maybe it will help you too. In fact, I would be delighted if some of y'all could share your favorite cheap research tricks. I'm sure there are a ton I have no idea exist!

E-Book vs. Print: Televised Seminar at BEA

2011-06-12T16:35:00.001-06:00

The following data is from a session given by Michael Norris, Senior Analyst at Simba Information at Book Expo America on May 24, 2011, as televised on BOOKTV.Data from Experian-Simmons:

Did you buy a book (any kind, any format) in the last 12 months:
118,819,000 did (54% adults)
104,900,000 did not (46% adults)
Paperback book buyers outnumber e-book buyers 3:1 (2010)
The ratio of paperback readers who outnumber e-book readers is approximately the same
In 2008 and 2009, the personal computer (PC/MAC) was the largest consumer device for e-books; interestingly, even with the rise in e-readers and the "iPad explosion," nearly 40% of iPad owners haven’t used the device to read a single e-book.

Overall, the e-book trend appears to be more related to the consumer mood than it does the device; for example, the B&N Nook Color and Nook are the second and third most utilized e-book consumers while the Kindle is the lowest.

Another point made regarding consumer mood is the popularity of fiction vs. non-fiction in the e-book world. History has shown that in times of economic distress, the sale of literature has increased dramatically and this is most likely due to the fact readers turn to fiction for escapism. Perhaps, then, this explains why the fiction with the most "escapist" value (e.g., can anyone say paranormal romance and thrillers about the loner/avenger?) continues to command the market.

When a member of the audience asked about the recent popularity and gains in subscriptions are women’s magazines, Mr. Norris speculated that this, again, appears more a reflection of consumer mood than changes in technology preferences. For years, newspapers have opined about how sales continue to dwindle and blamed the electronic market for the decline. While this is probably the most likely cause for dwindling newspaper sales, it’s probably not a reflection on the appeal of technology over print. Why? Most likely because getting your news from online websites at home or work at no cost is much more convenient than paying rising newspaper costs.

Frankly, the most telling piece of this 1-hour video session was a striking revelation: the top 100 e-book bestsellers were all e-books that were under $1.00. Is this then an opportunity for the self-published author to consider quantity over quality? Should we rush to our distributor log-in pages and change our cover prices from the heretofore magic $2.99 price we’ve all heard about? Maybe. I think the biggest consideration, however, should be to focus on the value of our work.

For example, I’ve been steadily selling approximately 25 copies per month of my two books, Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure and Chaser, beginning around March of this year.
I won’t say I have the answers or that I know what all of it means. What I will say is that this evolution in e-books does indicate things are changing in the markets. What direction it finally takes remains to be known, I think. But it’s exciting. Good writing!

Don't Be Afraid to Experiment!

2011-06-02T15:53:00.001-06:00

You never know what is going to work, or not work, as we scribble our lives away, so as long as it doesn't cost anything but time, you might as well try new things. Two recent developments led me to a bit of experimentation that I never thought would work as well as it has; in fact, when I started, I was convinced that this new trick would not work at all.

Firstly, based on the experience of another indie writer who does the same thing, I am going to start writing shorter novels and release them once a month on Kindle and the other usual suspect. These releases won't happen until January 2012; in the meantime, I'm writing the batch of stories so they're prepared well in advance. It's a series, by the way. Each "episode" will be around 15-20,000 words, not unlike what some of the Black Mask writers did back in their time, and the outlines are going smashingly well.

Secondly, it's the tool I'm using that is making these outlines go so well and allowing me to fully develop the stories in a way that, I think, will make them very satisfying to readers. I'm using the--wait for it!--James Bond Movie Formula.

Eh?

Let me explain. I have been a Bond buff since as long as I can remember, starting with the films; nowadays, I'm more loyal to Ian Fleming's novels. On one of the Bond fan sites, somebody posted the formula that all of the films follow. Reading down the list, you can see scenes from the films in your head, and at first you laugh at how amateurish it seems that they always follow such a pattern. But then you think, I wonder how one of my stories would turn out if they followed the same pattern?

How indeed...

I decided the best way to try this would be on one of the new shorter pieces. So, after jotting my initial notes about the plot and characters and what I wanted to see happen, I followed the formula step-by-step as allowed by the story. There are some items in the Bond formula that do not apply, and others I ignored. It took a little over an hour to pound out the six-page outline, but when it was done, wow, I had a story!

How did this formula help me? I need length, of course. I tend to write short. If I plan for 90,000 words, I get 50,000--that kind of short. Drives me nuts. Always has. Here I had a story that might have made my 20,000 goal, maybe not; what the formula did was force me to approach my new story in a different way. The plot developed in a nice fashion, one event following the next with ample time for development of each. I had to adjust here and there to accommodate the formula, and it led to some new directions and, actually, some new characters that were needed to make it all fit together. I am very, very pleased with the effort and I will continue to use the formula with the full set of short novels. I think, this way, I will hit my desired length very easily.

Now, I'm not suggesting you use the same tool, but what I am suggesting is that you explore ideas you may not think will work. Give 'em a try. Worse case, you have to start from scratch, but I bet you will learn a ton along the way and may even discover new tricks you never thought you would use. This is what makes writing so much fun!

I won't use the formula on a long-form project because I don't think it will work as well....but there I go again! I may have to take my own advice and try it on a novel, too.

But don't tell anybody my secret. The Broccolis may want a share of the profits....

What I Have Learned Through E-Publishing

2011-05-27T13:45:00.003-06:00

You never realize what you have learned until you actually learn it.

I have been publishing ebooks for over a year now, and I am pleased with the results. But I have discovered something that should be mentioned.

Quit reading stuff on the internet.

I do not mean stop surfing or researching or clicking on those pictures you should not be clicking on, but I mean stop reading about e-publishing and what people think about it. Quit clicking on blogs where it is the subject of discussion, or web sites, or forums, or what-have-you. There is nothing to learn there. You will only find three things (and it is always the same three things):

1) The Cheerleaders. These are the folks who are carrying the flaming log against the wall of the castle. They are believers! "There is no God but Konrath, and Hocking is his prophet."

2) The Nay-sayers. This group is usually made up of out-of-print mid-listers, critics, and folks in "the industry" who think self-pubbers should be thrown into a pit of lions, stabbed, and then shot (we're hard to kill) because we are somehow cheapening the Sacred Written Word that only a select few are allowed to write. "There is no God but the Publisher, and the Editor is his prophet." (Where the Agent falls in that chant I leave to your imagination.)

3) The Wait-and-See Gang. This group thinks electronic self-pubbing is interesting but they are not sure it will last and they want to hang out with both sides so they stay on the fence. "There may be a God, but we need more evidence."

The self-publishing debate has been repeating itself since it began. After the first day, the arguments did not change. Nothing more can be said that has not been said already, but that does not stop folks from continuing to scream about it because they think they can change somebody's mind.

If you are trying to learn more about the business of self-publishing, that is a different story. There are plenty of forums where you can pick up information to help you find readers, and those sites are valuable indeed, but eventually it all sounds the same, too, and all you want to do is say fuhgetaboutit and get back to work on your next book. Which is what you should be doing anyway.

So my mid-year new-year resolution (I just made that up!) is to quit reading about self-pubbing and do more self-pubbing.

Amen.

Revisions, revisions

2011-05-15T21:02:00.001-06:00

I love revisions, yes I do! I love revision, how ‘bout you?

I think revising material is my favorite part of writing a new manuscript, especially one that has been so well outlined that the basic foundation is solidly in place. When that happens, revisions are a matter of playing in the house you have built from scratch, and seeing what improvements you can make along the way.

The current example of this is The Rogue Gentleman, a story featuring an international adventurer who rights wrongs wherever he finds them, which I will release as an e-book this summer. I am so excited about this story and the characters that I am going to immediately start a sequel. In fact, while planning the sequel, a line about a character inspired yet another sequel, so you can expect many adventures for the Rogue and his band of merry marauders.

Anyway… I have been going over the book and, from my notes, am making various changes. This manuscript needs a lot of work, really. It was written under a cloud of personal turbulence which has, thankfully, settled down. This manuscript is all action and the story, but the detail that makes such stories come alive is missing. What I am doing is fleshing out scenes with descriptions, adding character back story where appropriate, and chipping away the stuff that does not work. And this is where the fun comes in. Further research on a police character, for example, allowed me to include bits of physical detail and family history not present in the original draft, and I am now sorry that this particular policeman is only in the book for a short time. I would certainly love to have him take part in more of the action, but forcing him to do so would not work. So out he goes after the first act. He can always come back in a sequel…or his own book.

I was reading a Frederick Forsyth novel this week called Avenger and it’s a crackling good read if you have not had the pleasure, and one thing Forsyth does very well is give detailed histories of his characters. I have been afraid to do that, because such detail, I always believed, bogs down the narrative and never really, to my mind, made much of a difference. Not so with Forsyth’s style, which means the practitioners who led me to my earlier opinion were not very good at that portion of their craft. I have emulated the Forsyth Way as best as I could, careful to keep it short, and I must say the result is fantastic. The characters feel stronger to me than they had previously, and by keeping the bits spread out, a little here and a little there, I think, at the risk of being redundant, that the information really strengthens the whole show. This is a good thing. If I feel the characters are stronger surely readers will, too.

There are some authors who say they just make up their stories based on a slapdash outline and never have to revise; I think that that is promotional mumbo-jumbo. I wrote that way for 15 years while I was learning, thinking I was a hot shot, only to be told that everything I wrote fell flat. I started outlining, giving characters more attention, adding details and descriptions and arcs, and the resulting improvement showed me that was the way to go. Perhaps you have had a similar experience. If not, give it a try. I think you will like it. I may not be as cool as those other guys, but who cares?

This is not my first experience with the Joy of Revision; I added a substantial amount of material to my recent effort, Show No Mercy, which had the same effect. At the time I wondered, as I do with every book, if I can pull it off again, but my effort on The Rogue Gentleman says yes indeed. Does every writer think that?

I cannot wait to release this book! Or the next one! I hope you like it, too.

New King Story Shows Why You Should Not Listen to Critics

2011-05-08T13:11:00.000-06:00

As a follow-up to my Alligator Skin Required post, check out the latest from Stephen King at The Atlantic. Read the comments at the end of the story, and then convince yourself that you should listen to every critic you hear from. In the end you will know that the only thing you can do is write your story the best you can, and your way.

Alligator Skin Required

2011-05-07T01:48:00.001-06:00

Tough reviews and less-than-stellar reader feedback are par for the course when you're scribbling and making your scribbles available, and you either need a thick skin or you need to keep your scribbles in a drawer. How do I know this? Trust me, I know this.

Take my most recent novel, Show No Mercy. It's a spy story and a departure from my earlier crime novel efforts and has sold OK--just OK. (So far.) The other two books, Reaper's Dozen, my short story collection, and Justified Sins, an action story, both of which borrow heavily from the Black Mask school of crime fiction, have sold much better. When I try to specifically promote Show No Mercy, readers buy the other two instead. It makes one want to scream, but at least I have sales.

So where does the thick skin comes in? Example: Some may say the characterizations in Show No Mercy are a little thin; I say, I don't have enough feedback to agree. My editor didn't think there was a problem, so there are two who say there's a problem and one who doesn't. It's not exactly a push, but I have a reason to doubt the second critic because (a) he's my father and (b) he has the attention span of a knat toward anything that isn't scientific or political so asking him to make an honest comment on one of my books is like trying to hit a home run with a toothpick and (c) he hasn't finished the book yet. But he tries, and at least he reads them while my mother flatly refuses to. I told him to finish the book before he committed to his remarks. He said okay, and I should have that feedback in about ten years.

So, thick skin, and stick to your guns. I worked hard on making sure the characters had some life. Perhaps it was too subtle, but I thought it was layered pretty well, and I can point out where a reader missed certain things. Actually, this is like the most recent James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, in some ways. There are those who think the movie is unintelligible rubbish and those who cheered at the end and watched it two or three times to enjoy the nuggets of prime storytelling that made us want to try the same thing. Why? Those of us who cheered finally had a James Bond movie that made us think and pay attention to what we were being shown rather than just have everything spoon fed to us. With all due respect to the Bond producers, as I've been a fan for ages, you can check your brain at the door when you turn on a 007 flick. Perhaps that's what the audience wants, but there are those of us who want a little more meat, too. Unfortunatnely the complainers were pretty loud so the next Bond movie will be as brainless as all the others. And I'll go watch that one, too. Maybe that's the case with Show No Mercy; perhaps it is not. I have no trouble sticking to my guns but there's no sense trying to fight an avalanche. Right now we hear rumbles but there is no reason to run.

I flat out refuse to spoon feed an audience. I think people are smarter than that. Newspapers may be written at a fifth grade reading level, but that doesn't mean I have to.

In the end, it's all in a day's work, and nothing is going in a drawer. Don't miss out on the important thing: people are reading my work (or your work) and feel strongly enough about it to make a comment. Mission accomplished!

Marketing Tip: A New Opportunity

2011-05-01T18:05:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, Smashwords CEO Mark Coker posted this on his site updates for authors:

New free marketing opportunity. The folks over at Double Edge press, a small publisher of Christian Fiction, have created a new free marketing opportunity that fits my favorite theme of "authors helping authors." They're launching a free weekly newsletter where they'll feature books priced at $2.99 or less from indie authors. To participate, all they ask is that you join in and help promote some of your fellow authors. The service is new and just now taking shape, so go help shape it. Learn more at "E"Ndependent Publishers.

I had considered blogging about it at the time, but I wanted to wait to get the full skinny. This afternoon I received an email that Double Edge Press is in full swing and will be making their first post to over 100 blogs simultaneously on May 15 to announce the premier round of authors who chose to participate (yours truly included).

If you're offering an ebook for $2.99 or less and are willing to promote other author's books (or you're simply interested in buying and reading books from other independent authors), you're in. Frankly, I think it's a great opportunity and another creative way for those who are independently published (or even if you're thinking about it), to get in on the ground-floor of a new marketing opportunity that doesn't cost you anything more than a little time.

What I like most about this marketing idea (I'm not a big "sales" person and I think MOST marketing programs don't work, so this is a big leap for me) is that it's all about promoting other like-minded authors. That's the whole reason behind the founding of Ctrl+Alt+Pub. Authors helping other authors who are interested in becoming independently published. So why would a socio commisura phobic like me tout this particular venue? Because I believe it's in the spirit of independent authors. We got tired of getting "beat up" by the pundits of traditional publishing so we banded together. Power to the people! It's an old cry, but a good one. Please check it out by the link provided through my reprint of Mark's post. Good writing to you!

2011-03-30T23:08:00.018-06:00

The State of the Indie

I had the pleasure of attending the Left Coast Crime conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico last week. Besides taking in all the beauty and culture of this remarkable state—not to mention the ridiculously good food—it was also an opportunity get caught up on the latest publishing trends as well as get a sense of where we stand as independent authors. For me, the news seemed good and the message loud and clear: We are gaining ground, gaining acceptance, and gaining legitimacy. This isn't your grandmother's vanity press anymore, and the progress isn't just groundbreaking; it's earthshaking.

From the Readers

I was pleased by most of what I heard. Many have no problem purchasing books from indie authors—in fact, a lot of them prefer it; they like the lower prices most are charging for e-books and actually refuse to pay the inflated ones many traditional publishers offer. Several people told me they're not just finding good reads from indie authors—they're finding incredible ones. One woman likened independent authors to indie filmmakers in that they offer an escape from the formulaic Cookie Cutter Syndrome. She told me that she's enjoying new authors who aren't afraid to take risks and who color outside the lines. Another reader said he's now buying more books than ever and more often than not, from indie authors. A good sign, for sure.

From the Indie Writers

I noticed a confidence that in the past seemed to be lacking. I also noticed a lot more of them. People weren't afraid to say they hadn't gone the traditional publishing route, and many actually made a point of stating such.

One of those is bestselling author L.J. Sellers, an indie phenomenon whose Detective Jackson series continues to ride high on Amazon's bestsellers lists. All five are in the top fifteen, and her standalone novel, The Baby Thief, is number thirty-seven on Amazon’s bestselling romantic suspense list. On whether or not indie authors are being taken seriously yet, she says, “Industry professionals are still a little schizophrenic on the subject. On one hand, they’re looking for authors who are selling huge quantities of books and signing them when they can. Yet they’re still clinging to old business models and the idea that they’re the necessary gatekeepers.”

But Sellers says it's not just the publishers who are reluctant. “Indie writers still can’t join the 'published author' clubs and are excluded from many promotional opportunities on websites and blogs. It’s slowly changing, but the stigma is still there. For me, it’s a mixed bag. I was once published by a small traditional press, so I slide through some of the gates, but many are still closed to me…no matter how many books I sell.”

From Mainstream Publishing

The message seemed lukewarm, misinformed, and in some cases, even downright angry. During one panel, when asked about what they do to promote their books, one traditionally published author said: “For me, promotion seems like a big black hole. I don't get it. I rely on my publisher to do it for me.” I shuddered because I thought it was common knowledge that, unless you're a blockbuster, A-list author, publishers do very little to promote books anymore. I also know that indie authors seem to be at the forefront of mastering the art of online promotion.

I was particularly taken aback by a comment that came from literary agent, Janet Reid. When indie author Judith Yates Borger, author of the Skeeter Hughes Mysteries, asked what agents/publishers/book sellers bring to authors, given that Amazon and Barnes & Noble each pay self publishers a 70 percent royalty, Reid's red-faced response was a very terse, “If you don't know, then I'm not going to tell you.”

And she didn't.

But Yates did have a response. She said, “The growth of self-publishing is forcing agents, publishers, and book sellers to define exactly what they do for their percentage of the take for books. These are factors authors need to consider when debating whether to self-publish or go the traditional route to finding readers.”

To the same question, another agent answered by simply saying that authors need editors. I had to wonder if she'd noticed independent editor, Jodie Renner, sitting on that same panel. I also wondered what Renner thought about the comment, so I asked her. She said, “Writers all have the option of hiring a professional freelance editor to edit, copyedit and proofread their book. Many freelance editors spent years working for established publishers before striking out on their own and offer all the same services that editors who work for publishers do.”

In response to indie author Amanda Hocking's recently reported two-million dollar book deal with St. Martin's Press, Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Press said that she tried to read it but couldn't get past the first few pages because it was so poorly written. This with St. Martin's Press editor Keith Kahla sitting right next to her on the same panel, the very publisher who signed Hocking. I heard a gasp from the crowd. Or was that me?

Lawrence Light, Executive Vice president of Mystery Writers of America made the comment that they only allow members into their group who are with “legitimate publishers”. Indie authors apparently need not apply. I wonder if he's aware that some of what he considers “illegitimate authors” are outselling the “legitimate” ones by a rather wide margin.

Changing Roles

Outside the panels, I heard buzz that some agents and publishers are nervous about their future roles in publishing. I even heard news of agents who have formed their own presses so they can self-publish their clients' books after traditional publishers have rejected them. Seems a bit of a conflict of interest to me, but I guess they have to do what they have to do.

One of the more interesting things I heard was that many traditional authors say that they're going at least partially indie, releasing their backlist titles on Kindle—that is, those who can wrangle the rights away from their publishers—while others are uploading previously rejected titles.

Where do we go from here?

What does all this mean? For me, I'm feeling more optimistic than ever, and I think it's a wonderful time to be an author—even better to be a reader— because for the first time in a long time, the decision over who and what gets published is being placed back where it belongs: in the readers' hands. Not the publishing industry conglomerates, not the literary agencies, who have developed such a rigid model for what will sell that it seems to defy all logic. The “I know what's best for you” model of publishing no longer seems to apply. The system has been broken for years, and for years, has needed fixing. A shakeup was desperately needed, and with the advent of the Kindle, we now have one. Amazon has leveled what was once a very uneven playing field.

Andrew E. Kaufman is an award winning journalist and independent author living in Southern California. His debut novel, While the Savage Sleeps, a forensic paranormal thriller, broke out on four of Amazon's bestsellers lists, taking the #1 spot on two of them and third place on their Movers and Shakers list. It is also currently on six of their Top-Rated lists.

New Ctrl+Alt+Pub Author

2011-03-29T23:26:00.000-06:00

As is my custom, I'm writing to inform readers of a new contributing author who will be joining the ranks in the next day or two with his first post for Ctrl+Alt+Pub: Andrew E. Kaufman. I first became acquainted with Drew around eight months ago not too long after his novel was released, While the Savage Sleeps. It's a taut, well-paced thriller that's won at least two awards I know of, not to mention captured 50 five-star reviews on Amazon.com.

What I think tickles me more than all of that, however, is that the book was self-published! And after all this fear-mongering about lack of quality, poor content, and bad entertainment in self-published works. Yeah, sure... whatever. Once more the readers have spoken and in Drew's book they've spoken loudly. And Drew's going to share some exciting news with us about how self-published authors and the ebook revolution are changing the face of literature and publishing.

That said I want to extend a personal welcome to Drew, and I'm confident the first entry we'll see from him will be eye-opening for all of us interested in alternative writing and publishing. Welcome aboard, Drew. And thanks one and all for supporting independent authors!

Barry Eisler Turns Down Half a Million to E-Book Publish

2011-03-22T13:05:00.005-06:00

I posted this at one of my blogs: At first glance some may think best-selling thriller author, Barry Eisler is nuts to walk away from a half million dollar publishing deal with one of the Big 6 NY publishers. But I don't think he is. I believe he's smart and visionary in his decision to self-publish ebooks. Many new or midlist writers, as well as best-selling authors are now putting their books at Amazon Kindle, Smashwords (which distributes to a number of retailers in various ebook formats), and publishing print on demand through Amazon Creatspace for -0- or $39. What is nice about all of these, is the author sets the price on his or her book, and can change it at any time. It appears the books that are selling the large numbers, especially at Kindle, are priced from .99 cents to 4.99. But you never know. It all depends on what someone might want to read, fiction, nonfiction, and the many subjects and genres. Lots of choices. If you are an author, new or old, thinking of e-publishing backlist books, or new manuscripts, but still unsure about taking the leap, read what Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath have to say in this discussion of ebooks. It is possible it may remove any resistance you have to the idea of self-publishing. (Be prepared to have a cup of coffee at your side before you start reading as it is a long discussion, but well worth the read.) I previously have written two posts about Barry Eisler: Novelist Barry Eisler and INSIDE AND OUT

Barry Eisler, Author of Thriller Novels ~Linda

E-Book Sales Continue to Rise

2011-03-18T19:28:00.006-06:00

I posted this on one of my blogs today.

According to The Association of American Publishers, the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry:

"March 17, 2010, New York, NY – E-books and downloadable audio books continue to grow in popularity according to the January 2011 sales report of the Association of American Publishers. Figures for the first month of the new year show that E-book net sales increased by 115.8% vs January 2010 (from $32.4 Million to $69.9M). Sales of Downloadable Audio Books also rose by 8.8% vs the previous year ($6.0M to $6.5M). As AAP reported last month http://tiny.cc/obolv in its December 2010 monthly report and full 2010 analysis, E-book sales have increased annually and significantly in all nine years of tracking the category."

I know for my ebooks sales over the last decade, there has been a nice increase, especially since Kindle came along, and now Smashwords, which has given me the opportunity to publish more of my books as e-books.

I'm sure e-book sales will continue to go up and up. I would imagne the ability to download mp3 digital audio books will continue to increase audio book sales also.

~Linda

Quit My Day Job? Heck No!

2011-03-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

A friend said to me the other day, "Now that you're a tiger-blooded totally bitchin' big shot author from Mars, I bet you can't wait to quit your day job, right?"

I suppose there are plenty of authors who have quit day jobs in order to write full time, but I'm afraid I won't be joining those ranks. I spent the last three years either unemployed or underemployed. I had a lot of time to write, read, smoke cigars, watch television, and basically live the life of a "full time author" complete with weekly checks that arrived from the pixies at a small government office. You know what? I was bored out of my mind. Bored stiff. So bored I would go outside just to count grass pedals. I mean, seriously, if there is another way to describe how bored I was, I would insert it here, because I don't think I can tell you how totally bonkers I was going. I did some volunteer work with my church, which I was already doing, and that helped, but the days were long. I decided that if that was the life of a full time author, I didn't want it.

I like having something to do and somewhere to go every morning. It doesn't hurt that my current job is cake--I work for a company that sells food to restaurants. Yeah, sales is a tough gig, but I have a good time with it, the people are good, the pay is decent. My living expenses are covered. Income from book sales is gravy.

If I am going to keep working full-time, though, I need more hours in the day to write, so to that end I have found a new apartment a few miles from the office which will greatly reduce my commute time (ten minutes as opposed to the one hour drive I have now) so that frees up some hours. I will be able to devote two hours a night to my manuscripts, and on that schedule I can finish a book in three months.

What's nice about having income from my eBooks is that it will eventually build up and allow me to maybe get a house, a nice sports car, take a Caribbean vacation... who knows. It will also allow me to eventually say, should I ever want to, "forget you" to my boss. Who doesn't want to be able to say "forget you" to anybody and be rich enough to get away with it? You never know, my boss will someday tick me off one too many times, and I'll be too rich to put up with his crap. Or her, really. My boss is a her. Did I not mention that? I've known her all of my life, you know.

My boss is my mother.

A question about Smashwords answered.

2011-02-22T11:41:00.003-07:00

I had a question for Smashwords that I didn't know the answer to. I hadn't thought to look and see what their policy was on returned e-books. To me the decision to have an e-book returned should be a choice made by the publisher and not the distributor. This morning I went through their FAQ section with one eye closed and one eye open not certain I wanted to see what I found. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I saw this:

Are books returnable if I don't like them?

No. All sales are final. This is why most authors allow you to sample much of their book for free so you can try before you buy.

Well I don't have to tell you how impressed, excited and exuberant I was to find this. Don't get me wrong. If you're an e-book publisher and YOU want to make your book returnable, that's one thing. If the distributor pushes it on you, that's another.

Way to go Smashwords!! Love you even more if possible.

Not enough said about Smashwords!

2011-02-20T10:13:00.004-07:00

E-books, E-books, E-books!

Finally technology has managed to do what small press and self-pubbed authors have been attempting to do for quite a few decades now. It has leveled the playing field. Completely and inexplicably leveled it.

No longer does a small press author or self-pubbed author have to worry about getting their books into a brick and mortar store such as Border's (oops, too late) or Barnes & Noble (on their way out too) to successfully sell books.

Now we have e-books and they aren't controlled by larger publishers and their outlets. And we have the opportunity to choose an e-book distributor that works best for us.

Smashwords, Smashwords, Smashwords!!!!

Can't say that name enough. Anyone can upload their book and it is immediately available in any e-book format. Not only will your e-book be distributed by Smashwords, you also become a distributor. You can create a link to sell your e-book yourself. I know of no other e-book publisher that offers this. Sure you can create a paypal link and e-mail the e-book version purchased via e-mail but it won't be encrypted. I little risky to say the least.

Another nice advantage is that Smashwords offers to put your e-book in Kindle format! What's that you say? Exactly. You can now sell a Kindle version of your e-book WITHOUT HAVING TO DEAL WITH AMAZON!! That should be the only incentive you need. No "Lending Library" shenanigans to deal with whatsoever. If I'm not mistaken, they even offer a Nook version. They pretty much offer every format out there to date.

So while the larger publishers play with Amazon in an attempt to gain the same kind of bullying foothold they had in the print market, us small press and self-pubbed authors can be making headway.

Yep Smashwords is definitely the way to go. Also, if you sign up with Lightning Source for your print book distribution, (of course making books non-returnable so chain bookstores won't order them, what few are left that is) then you'll get double distribution as LSI also distributes e-books for free. They just don't have the set-up Smashwords has. So take advantage of both but use Smashwords to take advantage of all the different formats available.

You may visit my blog at www.suedent.blogspot.com to read all about Amazon's Lending Library shenanigans.

Bringing Back the Dead, or: Those Old Novels Aren't Really Bad, Are They?

2011-02-20T00:48:00.001-07:00

My friend and fellow author Rebecca Forster is uploading her impressive backlist to the Kindle Store, and is currently going through some of her earliest romance novels to add to the list. She's learned a lot over the last 25 years, so hearing her commentary about her old books has been interesting. She would change a lot, of course, but she's not doing a heavy edit--she wants to respect the writer she was at the time. She inspired me to go back to some of my old books to see if there's anything worth salvaging. I hadn't thought to do so before because I didn't think there was any there there, if you know what I mean, and my apologies to Ms. Stein. Why? I'll get to that in a minute. And if you pay attention, you may learn something.

There are four books I'm looking at, but this article concerns what I'm editing now, Bullet for One, a private eye revenge thriller I wrote and rewrote between 1999-2001. This was a very personal story for me at the time, as it was my first attempt at a crime novel after taking a whirlwind tour through the hard-boiled canon the year prior to starting the book. Never mind the plot. It's simpler to say it's an I, the Jury riff with a heavy Spillane debt, but I tried to do my own thing with it.

Of course, it has flaws. There is a lot of overwriting, and a lot of needless words and description, but that is easily fixed. What I was afraid of, though, was a serious lack of characterization, and one-dimensional characters as a whole. I didn't know much about characterization in 2000-2001. I just wrote stuff. The characters were alive to me, but I was knocked over when another writer friend said the characters did nothing for him and seemed lifeless.

I stopped writing for a bit after that and learned everything I could about how to bring a character to life. I think those lessons have served my recent work very well.

However...

Going back through BfO, I'm noticing a few things. Characters are described. They have set behavior patterns. Outside stories (related to the main plot) and inside stories (their own personal story arcs). It's simple characterization. They're types, they exist to do specific things, but I don't see anything wrong with that. You could make the case that my three novels already on Kindle have the same sort of characterization. But as I'm reading the manuscript I find myself wondering what my friend actually read, because it appears he wasn't reading my book. Either that, or he has a different idea of what characterization is than I do.

I'm not suggesting there isn't room for improvement, and that's what my current edit is for. And I'm not sorry I stopped writing for a few months while I learned the craft a little better. That process didn't hurt. But what I think you need to learn, as I just have, is that one person's opinion does not mean a work is inferior or unworthy of a reader's time. A manuscript is not a sculpture carved from rock, wherein you must start over with a new rock if you make a mistake. Manuscripts can be fixed--easily--either through editing or a total rewrite. But BfO does not warrant a rewrite. It just needs a little massaging.

I think my friend was wrong. It's a good book, and the characters are not lifeless. And when I'm done, it will be a better book. And you'll get to see just how good it is when I release it in a few months.

If you have somebody read your stuff, have two or three people do it. Don't live or die by the approval of one person.

I think Stephen King made the same point in On Writing.

But I wasn't paying attention.

Borders Books Announces Chapter 11

2011-02-16T19:53:00.001-07:00

It was bound to happen; we saw the vestigial tail of the chain book store wagging over a year ago with rumors Barnes & Noble could go up on the auction block, and now Borders has categorically announced their action to file Chapter 11 proceedings. This was a very surprising announcement to see in my email inbox tonight, which is duplicated here in all its splendor. For those who’ve been wondering what impact the spiraling publishing industry’s economic model is having on retail book chains, this is another good example. While a chapter 11 still means there is solvency in the operations the bottom line seems clear: book stores are failing on an international scale—the largest impact being felt right here in the United States.

Notice that this cites the closure of “under-performing stores” but at the end of the day we know that’s really just CEO speak for “We are circling the drain.” It’s striking to hear that an organization of this size is keeping their Borders.com site open, and the selling of eBooks for the various Kobo and Sony readers—thank goodness for that. But there’s little argument one could make for the overall impact this will have on the conventional book market. While there’s little chance the traditional book (one with covers, pages, and ink) will go away any time soon this does signal that the entrepreneurs and supports of self-published books and e-books are winning this revolution.

One might wonder who’s next to fall? With major retail chains boxing up their shelves, closing their doors and stepping away from billions of dollars in retail space that demanded disproportionate revenues for advertising premuim, it’s clear that the next ones on the chopping block could well be the independent and small presses. When that happens, I’m confident the Machine (particularly the “Big 6”) won’t be far behind, and their interests will turn toward the same type of economic model already being explored by their retail partners: online and e-book sales.

“How could this be?” you may ask. “Surely you’re not serious when you say the Evil Publishing Empire is the next to fall?” Well to coin a phrase from our late friend, Leslie Nielsen: “I’m very serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” If the retailers can’t continue to operate the vast physical plant they’ve built, less book stores means less distribution channels. Less distribution channels means no middle men, which means the 55-60% retail margin is of null effect. This means no more will it be profitable for publishers to continue sales of droll, repetitious, and derivative material that has become popular commercial fiction, which means it may no longer be crammed down the throats of 49% of the book-buying public.

We should pay attention to the simple economics of supply and demand. Less books in inventory or warehousing for distribution means smaller print runs. Smaller print runs means less sales, fewer jobs, smaller advances, fewer returns, fewer corporate write-offs and less tax kicks to the Fed and States. That’s just for starters, folks. Eventually, you have an economic implosion where buying and selling of books on the Internet at a retail of $2.99 is preferable to the $7.99 to $9.99 of Kindle books—the “discounted price” of hardbacks and trade paperbacks through agreements like those between Amazon.com and MacMillan. Ahem. With an economy headed toward a second recession and possible inflation, it’s becoming clearer that individual authors are going to have to step up to the plate if they wish to survive. That gravy train for mainstream and high-sales authors like Grafton, Patterson, Cussler and Grisham (to name a few) is pulling into the station for its final run.

Where will it lead? Illiteracy is at an all-time high in this country. Those teenagers who can read coming out of H.S. prefer Twitter over Twain, Playstation over Plato or James Cameron over James Joyce. Social networking seems to have become preferable over dinner out with friends for the large majority of the country. It’s not difficult to see that as authors we must be at the top of our game more than ever before. But I digress. The real point is that the face of publishing and book retail is changing at an historic pace. Where it all leads? Well… seems like that’s the stuff of books.

Staying on Message or Cutting Corners?

2011-02-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

I have just released my latest ebook (see my own blog for more) and I am now in the process of making the rounds to various web sites to promote it. I'm doing interviews, writing guest posts, and sending out free copies of the book for reviews. It's exhausting, disagreeable work. So far it hasn't resulted in a huge amount of sales. One wonders if the effort is even worth it, but it doesn't cost anything, and if I wasn't sending stuff out I would probably be wasting time doing something else. I certainly would not be working on the next book, as I find any excuse I can not to write (don't we all?).

I've been recycling my answers for the various interviews I've done, and even using those same interview answers for articles, and it makes me feel like I'm cutting corners somehow and not giving it my best effort. Then again, a friend with a large marketing background says what I'm doing is straight out of Marketing 101 and I should repeat myself in order to stay on message. All I know is that promotion is not much fun. But if I don't do it, nobody will know the book is out there.

How do you handle such effort, if at all? Are you seeing good results? This tour of mine will last through March. I've set my prices at $1.49 to see if that gets the same amount of sales I had at $.99 over January, when I broke a personal record; if not, come April I'll drop everything to $.99 and keep them there until I have ten or fifteen books available. And, hopefully, the demand that goes with such a number. That's the other thing I'm leaning: forget everything Konrath says; this is hard work. It takes time to build your numbers up. Which means no Ferrari. Yet.

Plowing the Road

2011-01-28T21:52:00.001-07:00

There’s this scene in the movie Independence Day where Bill Pullman, playing the President of the U.S., tells his surviving flight squadron to clear a path through an alien fighter armada for Randy Quaid’s character who is a pilot carrying the lone missile that will destroy one of the alien base ships. In it he says, “Okay, gentlemen, let’s plow the road!”

If you don’t know the names Dean Wesley Smith or Kristine Kathryn Rusch, you’re missing out on two people who are boldly writing about the changing industry and how entrepreneurial, self-published authors are plowing the road. I regularly follow the blogs of this man-and-wife team who have more than sixty years of combined experience as professional writers.

There’s little doubt when you read their work on writing (never mind their fine fiction) that these folks have a grip on what’s happening in this self-publishing revolution. And that’s what it’s fast becoming: Revolution!

I've been following Kris’s Business Rusch blog and in the most three recent entries she’s been talking about the midlist author and what it all means. She even boldly contrasts the differences between a book that sells fast and a book that sells many copies, and why the fast-selling book is likely to be a bestseller while the many copies never quite makes it on the official lists.

The opportunities abound for writers looking to get their books into print. The market is still vast and the market share practically untouched when compared to the traditional publishing arena. It’s a rights grab, a control grab, call it what you will. Stop and ask yourself why this is happening? Because writers are fed up, that’s why, and we’re not going to take it any more. What happened when the British monarchy attempted to grab the rights of others? The good old US of A (may her flag always wave high) was formed. Why should it be any different today? Why should I give publishers 88% of my profit per book?! That’s right: 88% on average! And that’s before any agent takes their chunk out of my measly 12%.

Did you know that in 1977, Ken Olson (then president of Digital Equipment Corporation) said he couldn’t see why anyone would want a home computer? Ha! The world’s been filled with blundering predictions like this one and the publishing world is no exception. The fact is that authors are plowing the road. For who? Other authors! That’s right, we’re actually helping out our potential competitors and we’re helping each other. We’re showing them that we can do what they’ve been trying to tell us can’t be done. The beauty is, there’s enough room in the markets for many of us—particularly the e-book markets—as is evidenced by the recent blog posts of our contributing authors.

You see, we’re not alone in this game. There are a whole bunch of others just like us, with all of the same problems and concerns, that are taking charge of their own works. So remember next time when you’re discouraged that you only sold two copies or five copies of your book(s) this month, or worse, when you’ve had your manuscript rejected for the billionth time and you’ve decided to “settle” on non-traditional publishing. You’re just plowing the road—don’t give up or you’ll never get to see where it leads. And worse . . . nobody will be able to follow.

Set a Sales Record This Month...And It's Not Over Yet!

2011-01-26T09:45:00.002-07:00

I hope you find some encouragement in this post, whether you are just starting out with an indie book or contemplating publishing one...

After ZERO sales over the final three months of 2010, and only so-so sales prior to that, I have set a personal record with my Kindle books, selling almost 40 when you combine my two titles.

This isn't an experiment anymore. Going the indie route is a viable way of making your work available to an audience providing the work is good and up to standard (as has been discussed many times and will not be repeated here).

So... If you haven't put up your book yet, get it on Kindle; if you're work has been available for awhile, promote some more or tweak it some more. I started my efforts in May 2010 and did OK; now, after some tweaking of my own (covers and descriptions) we're off to the races, and it only gets better from here. I have four more books scheduled for 2011, so expect fireworks.

This is an exciting time. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

How To Write Action Adventure Novels by Michael Newton

2011-01-25T13:23:00.004-07:00

Jon's recent post on Jeff Gerke's Plot vs. Character, and his comment about most how-to writing books repeating the same information, gave me a sudden and bright flashback (I get a lot of those) to the very first how-to writing book I ever received, How To Write Action Adventure Novels by Michael Newton.

It was 1988 or '89; I was a wee lad of 14; Dad, seeing my literary leanings, and knowing that my reading diet consisted of James Bond, The Executioner, and Robert Ludlum, bought me the book for Christmas. I think I read it in 24 hours, just soaking it all in. I have since read the book thousands of times, not always first page to last, mostly sections in which I find great value, and there is a ton of value in this book.

The book is out of print now but worth tracking down. Newton is dead on with what he teaches, and I have found few books that are as good. Plot--how to weave a story from beginning to end. Character--how to create real people and make a reader care about them. Action--when is violence over the top, and when is it just right? He covers it all, along with an exhaustive (for the time) review of the state of the action/thriller market place, the fundamentals of which still apply today (it's interesting to see the authors he highlights who were hot at the time, but have since faded into oblivion).

Perhaps his short chapters could be considered bare bones by some, but if nothing else Newton provides a foundation in which to build on, and I can't say that, when it comes to creating characters, anybody else has provided better advice than he. In fact, he provides two major pieces of advice that have stayed with me all these years. (The third best piece of writing advice I ever received came from Daivd Morrell's Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing, but that's another article.)

Of course, it was through this book that I discovered Newton was on the writing staff of Don Pendleton's The Executioner series, which prompted me to attempt to join the writing team myself (several times). I came close, once. But knowing Newton could walk the walk assured me of his credibility. When he built his web site, I sent him a letter telling him how much I enjoyed the book; I can't remember his reply, but I think he was amused.

I'm sure you can find How To Write Action Adventure novels in a used bookstore, somewhere; read it, and add it to your library. Even if you don't write thrillers, I think you'll find his easy-to-read, teacher-to-student writing style helpful for whatever subject matter you scribble about.

Oh, as for those two pieces of advice: the first is subjective and may not mean anything to you so I'll skip it. However, you'll find the second piece in the very last lines of the book. Newton spends the preceding pages talking about the business side of writing. You'll have to work hard, he says, and obstacles are high; maybe you will, and maybe you won't, reach the finish line, but I've given you the basics, he says. And then the last lines:

The rest is up to you. Go on and give 'em hell.

I've never forgotten that. Neither should you.

Plot vs. Character by Jeff Gerke

2011-01-17T10:40:00.001-07:00

There are times when I just want to kick myself and say, “Dang nab it! Why didn’t I write that? I recall a few years ago talking about a conversation I overheard at a writing conference where two guys were vociferously offering alternate points of view about what was the better story: character-driven or plot-driven. Well bless my soul if author Jeff Gerke (writes also under the non de plume, Jefferson Scott) didn’t center an entire book on the subject—Plot vs. Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction. Some days I just want to kick myself for not having enough vision to see an entire book could be written on a simple blog entry.

Why I make mention of this book is not to embark on a journey of self-ridicule, however. I’m mentioning it here because of the impressions the book made on me. It’s rare these days for me to purchase books on writing; in fact, it’s almost non-existent because after having purchased and read so many, I find most say the same thing, rehash the same old rules, etc. But I was compelled by an interview with Mr. Gerke and opted to risk the $12.00 for the book.

Gerke’s approach left me with mixed feelings. On the critical side I found redundant the first 20 pages or so. I understand making a point and even reinforcing it, but it seemed like Mr. Gerke wasn’t off to a very strong start, almost hesitant in his direction with seemingly little to say. I thought I’d be disappointed, again, but then he gets his stride and moves into the meat of the subject beginning with chapter 2.

What I liked most about the book was that the author goes outside of the writing world to make his case for characters, using psychology texts for how to draw character types (of which there are 16). He then returns to the literary world when talking about plot. He hashes out the “three-act play” as the cornerstone of the plot device (although I think his approach of genre is flawed, as is most writers who do not realize that “genre” is a marketing term, not a literary one). He was unafraid, however, to cut into some of what’s wrong with commercial fiction, particularly epic fantasy, with a deft eye.

What left me least satisfied (outside of the first 20 pages that could have been trimmed to half that without missing anything) is that Mr. Gerke spent only 15 pages actually pulling the two aspects together, and I think that’s lean for a 260+ page book with the subtitle “A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction.” In my opinion, he didn’t quite get there.

I think the book has value to writers for building strong characters but the rest seems like pretty much a rehash of what’s already out there. If you’re interested in learning how to build better characters, I strongly recommend the book because I found it delivers quite a bit of insight and works you through these things in much like workbook fashion. This will make it a valuable tool for writers who feel weak on their characters (as I do) and want to improve their craft.

Why Self-Publishing Makes Sense

2011-01-14T13:35:00.001-07:00

Bear with me on the length of this entry as I’m home recovering from dental surgery, but I’ve been working on this for a few days and wanted to get it completed.

There are some pretty good arguments against non-traditional publishing: if your name’s James Patterson or Janet Evanovich or J.K. Rowling. For the majority of us, however, traditional publishing doesn’t make sense. In fact, it’s the worse thing you could possibly do in today’s viral and inhospitable publishing climate. In this entry, I’ll try to explain why I think this is the case.

Let’s consider today’s typical publishing business model. Author farms manuscripts around to agent after agent until he finds one to represent him. This acceptance is usually because the agent already has an editor who’s indicated they’re looking for something in particular; 98% of everything else the agent sees is dismissed out of hand. Note: remember that when you sell to an agent or editor all you’re really doing is selling a manuscript. It’s the publishers and retailers who sell books, series and otherwise—not the authors.

The Deal

A deal is struck that usually looks something like this for hardbacks by an “unknown” or “first-time” novelist:

Advance:	$5,000.00 against royalties
Retail margin:	55-60%
Royalty rate:	12% net for up to 15,000 copies 15% net more than 15,000 copies
Agent cut:	15%

Advance Payout

Author gets a check for $1,250 on signing, $1,250 on delivery of the manuscript, $1,250 on acceptance and $1,250 on publication. (I’ve had half on signing, half on delivery but that’s rarer). But wait! Don’t forget the agent: subtract $750. And let us not forget to pay Caesar, so we’re looking at the author getting about $3100.

Royalties

Now the book comes out. First, the author has to earn back the advance. Let’s see how he does it: We’ll go conservative with a retail margin of 55%. The average hardback today is $21.95. This leaves a net unit sale of $9.87. The author’s tier 1 royalty is 12% so the author gets $1.19 per copy. The author, thence, must sell 4,102 copies before earning out his advance. Not impossible but without serious marketing dollars (which publishers only do for authors who have been paid an advance of $25,000 or more and I’ll explain why this is in a minute) this will take time. Average sale of a hardback from a new author is about 1,000 copies. I promised to explain why only advances of more than $25,000 get the bulk of marketing dollars. The fact is that $50,000 is what it costs for a publisher to manufacture one book! Add another $25,000 for the advance and $25,000 for marketing costs and that’s $100,000. The publisher knows they have to sell 15,000 copies of that book to break even. That’s right: publishers know going into the deal that 95% of all books will be a loss. How could they not?! We already know 95% of all authors don’t earn back their advances. Doesn’t it stand to reason that the book won’t reach that break even point, let alone generate any profit? Now the publisher gets to write off that money. The author doesn’t.

Waste and Fraud

Where things really get heady is allegations that many publishers keep double books, allow returns from retailers they forced to buy particular titles and back-shelf others (a technique where they buy books to get them out of inventory but never actually shelve them in stores) and destroy thousands on thousands of returned, unsold or unshipped books (because they are charged a premium for warehousing them by, of all entities, the federal government).

Self-Publishing Sensibilities

Now suppose another author hasn’t been successful getting published or (more likely) is fed up with trying or (in my case) doesn’t want to lose creative controls on the work. That author finishes a book he or she feels is ready to be published. (Please, please, please… find proofreaders or an editor. Don’t dash it off and publish without editing. That’s hurts all of us). The author decides to use a service like CreateSpace. She spends $39 for the Pro plan and let’s say an average of $30 for cover art and that covers both print and eBook editions (including Smashwords.com and Kindle, for example). She charges $12.99 for her trade paperback and $6.99 for her eBook. If she sells her book on Amazon.com, CreateSpace pays her $5.19. If they sell it through her storefront, she makes $7.77. If she sells through BN.com or retailers, she makes $1.29. Any eBook she sells through Kindle she makes $4.89 and through Smashwords expanded distribution she get $5.59. Those are all PER COPY! The point is, she needs to sell an average of 5 print books or 10 ebooks (or any combination thereof) to make back her $69 investment. Because the technology is Print-on-Demand (POD) there is no waste. Assuming CreateSpace, Smashwords.com and Amazon DTP are all reporting accurately (and I personally have not heard of any fraud or even accusations thereof), the author becomes profitable after selling only 10 books. And she’s being read, has name exposure, and she’s building a readership.

Summary

Make no mistake that traditionalists would love independent authors to believe traditional publishing is the way to go. I don’t believe them anymore, because they have not only shown themselves to be liars and frauds, but even more they have shown no capacity to respond to business opportunities and handle finances. They exploit authors for profit, plain and simple. I’ve given only the facts here and I think any of our readers can draw the conclusion for themselves. To me: self-publishing makes sense!

What Do You Wear When You Write?

2011-01-12T22:45:00.004-07:00

Isn't it fun to learn something new about your friends, especially after you've known them for almost 20 years? Earlier this week I had a chat with my writing pal Rebecca Forster, and the subject turned to a certain yellow jacket she wears when she writes. I first learned of this jacket on her own blog. I couldn't help but try to learn more--she wrote that her family thinks that the jacket is so ugly that they have forbidden her from wearing it outside of the house. It's a suede and leather job and some of the suede has come off the cuffs so you can see the leather beneath. She calls it her lucky jacket. She also claims that she will be buried in it. Hopefully not anytime soon.

The conversation made me reflect, for once, on where I write instead of how. Everybody wants to know how you wrote something. They want to talk about your process. Do you outline? Type on a manual typewriter? Scribble in a notebook? Use a computer? (All of which I do.) Nobody has ever asked me what my "writing environment", if you will, consists of.

Going back to Rebecca for a moment, when she's not at the house in her ugly yellow jacket (I'm sure her husband and kids will love that one!) she's at the neighborhood coffee bar where she has a regular table. If I'm not mistaken, the shop has pictures of some of her books on the walls, and she's been pestered by other customers who want to know if she's the "book lady". One of these days that coffee shop will be as famous as the seafood place Hemingway often dined at on the Florida Keys, the name of which escapes me, proving perhaps it's not that famous after all. Ahem. Anyway...

My writing environments have varied so much over the years that it's hard to remember them all, but, basically, I write anywhere and everywhere. I can do that because my first drafts are always in a spiral notebook, scribbled with a pen, in handwriting even a doctor couldn't decipher (the code breakers at the N.S.A. are still trying to figure out a very old manuscript of mine as even yours truly cannot figure out what the words are). That means bars, restaurants, parks, cars, planes, jail... all have provided a place for me to write. When I'm at home and typing up what's in those notebooks, I sit in front of a small desk in the corner of my bedroom.

You would be amazed that I actually get any work done when I'm in front of that desk. There is usually some kind of hard rock music playing (currently I'm listening to a heavy metal band out of Sweden, of all places, called Sister Sin--excellent stuff, the kind of hard rock that makes you want to run outside and start breaking stuff because you can). Sometimes I play OTR shows. Otherwise, the television is on. What's on the television? Whatever the DVR has recorded. Am I sitting so I can see the television? Of course not. I have to turn my head. Does this affect my typing? Yes, indeed. I can't see what I'm typing when my head is turned to the television. I can't believe I actually accomplish anything. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I dig the tales some writers tell about their "sanctuary" where everything is quiet, and they can concentrate and write away... not for me. I need noise. I need to be around people. I need to have my senses engaged. When I'm in first draft/notebook mode, I like being in a spot where I can watch people, hear voices, smell whatever odor is in the air, hear noises... I think it helps me color my writing, makes the scenes come alive for a reader. That's what readers tell me, anyway--the scenes pop with elements that make them feel like the drama is playing out right in front of their eyes. You can't put a price on that effect. You certainly can't fake it. And by the time I'm in front of my computer, I'm simply transcribing; all the hard work has already been done, so who cares if the T.V. or music distracts me?

I see a hand waving in the back. What? Oh, you still want to know what I wear when I write?

Well. Ahem. That's none of your business. But I certainly do not wear an ugly yellow jacket.

Snowflake Pro by Randy Ingermanson

2011-01-08T12:22:00.003-07:00

Being a software and programming professional, I’m always interested in innovative products. I’ve found one in Snowflake Pro, developed by author, teacher and former software engineer Randy Ingermanson.

I’ve never been much for “outlining” or “planning” my novels, relying solely upon my creative juices to flow as I wrote. That’s always served me well but I’ve noticed (particularly of late) that it’s becoming more difficult to come up with ideas or to find the motivation to continue with a story. I’ve also noticed my output is slower and that there are times where I see a character or plot thread isn’t holding together. Or I just plain forget what I wrote before. Those kinds of things are especially important to get right for self-published authors because we don’t have a professional editor to keep the work in check, although I use a pool of advance readers and that helps.

Self-publishing books is also a bit more difficult because we don’t necessarily possess the readership of the “brand name” authors; that means we have to ratchet it up in the quality department to overcome the stigma that still comes with non-traditional publishing. Solid plots and characters are a MUST in today’s world of literature if we want to be noticed among the tired old repeats of popular commercial fiction being crammed down the throats of what little readership is left among the American populace. It always amazes me that the same names end up on the bestseller lists every year, not necessarily because they’re good authors but because the publishers have the marketing power to dictate exactly what readers will or will not see on the shelves. And no, that’s not paranoid delusion: that’s just the way it is.

What I like most about Snowflake Pro is that it’s not intrusive in any way; it allows me to get organized without interfering with my creativity. The program is also simple to use and incorporates Randy’s “Snowflake Method.” The following picture depicts the first screen when you open the program (posted with the kind permission of Randy Ingermanson).

The price of the software is right: $100.00 (and you can check Randy’s site at http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php to find out how to get a 50% discount). So for fifty bucks I gave it a try, figuring it was a small investment if I want to get serious about my work and take it to a new level. After looking it over and using it for a few days, I believe Snowflake Pro can help me do that. I believe it can help others of you as well.

The program is written in Java so that means it’s compatible on multiple operating systems including Windows, Macs and most Linux flavors. It also includes an audio tutorial that explains each screen in depth, and you can output an entire framework of your novel with the push of a button. You can build characters, entire scenes and even generate a complete summary. This is VERY nice if you’re fortunate enough to get an agent or publisher to pick up your work and they demand a proposal before paying you. But then again, this might just be nice for you to have a desk reference as you write. Finally, Randy offers a license for installation on up to five personal computers, so the files can be interchanged between say your desktop and laptop. That’s a pretty liberal license in contrast to other products.

I highly recommend you check it out. This is a great deal and is a perfect tool for authors who wish to self-publish. Thanks to Randy Ingermanson for his entrepreneurial spirit.

Like Digging for Coal, or: Now I Know How Poe Felt

2011-01-07T10:37:00.002-07:00

Ugh.

How has your week been? Enjoying the new year so far?

For me it's been up and down. This has been my first week back to work full-time after two and a half years of unemployment, so it's been busy; my plan to "write for an hour" upon my return home has been foiled by... wait for it... a brain and body so worn out (my job requires a lot of lifting of heavy things) that all I've done is plop into a chair and stare at the wall. Sleep has been elusive as well, with me waking up every two hours. I might as well have a screaming baby in the next room, but I don't, so that's no excuse.

Anyway it's been tough to write this week. Normally I like to do five pages during a session; this week, I averaged *three* pages; last night I only did two.

But it's more pages I would have had I written none. When I type everything up this weekend (I write longhand) I will have a small stack of pages, but I wish I had more.

It's not like I'm making the story up as I go. I have a detailed outline. It's pretty much all fill-in-the-blanks at this point. I like writing that way. I've done all the plotting and now I get to have the fun. I'm on a schedule (one book comes out at the end of the month; this current one is supposed to be out in March), but I'm already way behind. March? Yeah, right. I'll still be editing at the rate I'm going.

I've decided a delay in the schedule is okay. Perhaps it's too much; perhaps, this is simply an adjustment I need to go through as I settle into the new routine and next week or the week after will be back to normal production. Who knows? Who cares? As long as I write something every night, I suppose I still win. Even when I don't feel like putting the words down.

All of this reminds me of a quote I found a long time ago from Edgar Allan Poe, and it's stayed with me. I don't know when he said it, or what else he was talking about at the time, but it's a good one:

"Through joy and through sorrow, I--wrote. Through hunger and through thirst, I--wrote. Through good report and through ill report, I--wrote. Through sunshine and through moonshine, I--wrote. What I wrote it is unnecessary to say."

Kill Your Darlings, or: Hurry Up and Rescue Me, Muse!

2010-12-24T20:07:00.002-07:00

One of the obstacles facing us indie writers, or any writer, really, is finding people who have the editorial sense to give our manuscripts the review they deserve—not just a read where somebody says something nice about it. I’m talking about a “this works, this doesn’t, this makes no sense” kind of read. In other words, we need somebody who isn’t afraid to tell the emperor that he has no clothes.

I have auditioned several folks in this area with varying degrees of success; the most recent was my friend Beth, who was good at spotting the typos and pesky grammar problems that plague all writers, but she didn’t like my subject matter of heroes and villains and shoot-em-up-bang-bang with a few sexy babes thrown in for color. She preferred mysteries of the cozy variety, where the Old Ladies Knitting Circle solves crimes without ever leaving their knitting circle, and the murderer confesses because one of the old ladies has a cat who stares at him funny. She read my newest manuscript, Show No Mercy, which I want to release in January, but this spy thriller in the James Bond mode wasn’t her thing. She could not get into the story, did not care about the characters, and had no comment as to whether or not the plot and situations made any sense. And that’s fine. She was up front about her prejudices, and I didn’t hold it against her. She found a few mistakes, and those mistakes were corrected. But I needed another reader.

Enter my friend Michael, who once edited his college newspaper, and told me that gave him all the experience necessary for what I needed. Plus, he reads a ton of thrillers and we discuss new books quite often. It wouldn’t hurt, thought I, to let him try. But…

Michael and I had a conversation recently about the book; he’d only just started reading, hadn’t progressed very far. He did say, however, that he thought some of the minor characters the hero meets within the first 30 pages should get their own book.

“Eh?” said I. “You mean the cardboard people who are there only to provide a clue or information for the hero to advance his investigation? Those are the characters you like?”

Calling them cardboard is a mistake as I try to infuse even the minor folks with some bits of characterization, but I wonder if maybe I went too far, and didn’t give the hero enough to catch Michael’s attention. What does he think of the hero?

“Oh, yeah, he’s cool. I like his name.” (They’re both named Michael.)

I guess that’s a decent comment but it didn’t have the enthusiasm he showed for the minor folks.

Further questioning revealed that Michael hasn’t read far enough to form an opinion on the hero or the supporting players (whom he hasn’t met yet). But it made me think: Did I do the job right? Had I properly set up the hero, Michael Dodge, as somebody to root for?

Immediately I went through my notes and the story itself. I think I did all right. The mystery begins as soon as we meet Dodge, a C.I.A. operative, and he’s confronted with the idea that his mentor may have turned against the Agency. Right away he’s eager to learn the truth. We get a little about his background and his habits (he’s a good poker player, drinks rum-and-Coke, and has the usual heroic skill with a pistol and gadgets). What we don’t have as we meet Dodge, but we see in the minor characters, are traits. One fellow eats with his mouth open; the other has a hair cut which leaves some strands dangling over his ears. Are those enough to really make a reader want to see more of them?

I asked myself, “What first grabbed me about James Bond, when we meet him in Casino Royale (the book, not the movie—I’m an Ian Fleming purist and think the movies suck). Why did I find Mack Bolan sympathetic when I read War Against the Mafia? What is it about Matt Helm that made me want to read more about him? Why do I like Mike Hammer? Why is Dirty Harry so exciting? Why do I still read the Dan Track books that I collected ages ago?

Then I thought to myself, It’s too soon to analyze this. He hasn’t even finished the book yet.

I may be over thinking this, of course, but it’s the kind of critical thinking that a writer must do. If something isn’t working, it needs to be fixed, and if Dodge needs something more, I will give him more (perhaps a physical flaw that makes him less than perfect), but I won’t do any altering of the manuscript until Michael finishes the entire book.

This reminds me of a funny story regarding my last book, Justified Sins, which has been my best-seller so far. I wasn’t sure anybody would like the hero, a vigilante named Pierce, but most readers have said that they liked him very much, and took the news that I didn’t think I would do a second Pierce novel very hard (I have since reversed that decision because a great idea came to mind). They want to see more of him, learn more of his story. Why? I didn’t give Pierce any more characterization than I have given Dodge. But readers find Pierce compelling. For some reason.

But I need to wait until Michael finishes the book before I do anything rash.

Meanwhile, I think the conversation made me focus a little more. It’s the thought process a writer must go through, time and time again, because to think we “know it all” is, literally, poison. We have to be ready to alter what we think is perfect. The good news is, my muse, if you will, always provides a solution.

Hopefully, when Michael finishes marking up my manuscript, he will be as excited to see more of Michael Dodge as I am to write about him, and will be able to answer more questions. I have four more Dodge books planned, so if this one takes off, more will quickly follow. It will be a few more weeks until my new reader finished the story, but in the end I think he’ll give it the kudos I think it deserves. If he doesn't, it's back under the hood for some fine tuning.

Nielsen BookScan Data

2010-12-15T19:38:00.001-07:00

Once more, Amazon.com is pushing the envelope. Effective to anyone with an account at Author Central, you can now view sales data for every one of your paperback books, as well as sales rankings for Kindle! The notification came via email from CreateSpace, the company through which I exclusively publish my print books! Here’s a chart on sales rankings for Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure:

There are also reports for sales of books by geographic date, sales numbers (copies sold) and some other nifty tools. If you’re an indie-pubbed author and do not belong to Amazon.com’s Author Central, I would highly recommend you create an account. Up to this point, Nielsen BookScan data has only been available at significant cost to publishers and “other authorized parties” but now this info is free!

Nielsen BookScan, by the way, is probably the core tool used by the “Big 6” in New York city to decide (these days, anyway) which authors they’re going to publish and those whom they will not! This is also the reason many mid-list authors were dropped after the THIRD (yeah, count it) time that the publishing industry has fallen on hard fiscal times since 2001.

This is just another great way you can see how you’re doing. And hey… ya just can’t beat free! Good writing to you.

There's Hope Yet if You Want to be a Kindle Millionaire!

2010-12-11T02:03:00.003-07:00

JA Konrath, whom I suppose is the guru of electronic self-publishing, posted an article today about a Publisher's Weakly (sorry) article regarding slowing ebook sales. Konrath's opinion on the piece is that it's garbage, more or less a Big Publishing attempt to downgrade the ebook juggernaut currently wrapping its tentacles around the world. To prove that ebook sales are full of vim and vigor, he listed several indie authors who are doing great. We're talking decent money here, my friends. Money that I, with two ebooks available at the Kindle store, have not seen.

So what, I asked myself, noting as I looked at my reflection in the mirror that I haven't shaved in a few days and look quite horrible (yes, I talk to my reflection, don't you?), are the authors in Konrath's article doing that I am not? Konrath, super trooper that he is, provided links to the mentioned authors so I could click on their names and visit their Amazon pages and personal web sites.

I discovered that none of the authors have only written two books. They've written more, in some cases far more, than two books. Which means that if you are discouraged by your $10 royalty checks, keep pumping out books. Pump 'em out like the Black Mask pulp writers who had to write a ton of material at a penny a word in order to make a living.

Simply having two books available won't cut it, apparently; I'm also of the opinion that writing hard-boiled crime novels, as I have, isn't the best way to reach a wide audience, and my next two books will hopefully appeal to a broader segment of folks as fast-paced thrillers sell more than noir any day. In other words, if you write for a small niche audience, you earn small royalty checks.

An author simply must have a wide body of work available in order to cut through all the chaff and make some decent cash. I have four books planned for 2011; add that to the two I did in 2010 and I will have a total of six (I'm a math wiz). If I am as fortunate as the authors in Konrath's article, that means by the time I have all six out, my work should cut through the chaff more and more when readers browse the Kindle store.

So don't give up, my friends. As Jon would say, good writing to you. It's certainly appropriate in this case.

About the Craft: Quality

2010-12-05T11:05:00.003-07:00

Once more, I see recent comments on the blog about the Top Suspense Group and their recent “diss” on indie-published authors. I've said before and maintain that those at fault are not writers, outside of the fact they buy into the whole idea that quality is about how an author is published instead of what an author publishes (see Brian Drake’s earlier post regarding the comments of one Dave Zeltserman). The assumption and consequent dilemma is a false one; the source of quality is not the publisher—it’s the author who’s responsible to ensure they deliver quality goods. If it’s not quality work, then the author is to blame.
One thing that’s nice about being a non-traditionally published author is the freedom to write exactly the kind of book I want to write. This doesn’t mean I can skimp on quality, however; in fact, I must be even more diligent since I won’t have the services of a professional editor (and I’m talking about a copy editor, not a line or acquisitions editor). I’ve worked with editors I considered both competent and not, and there’s no trade when you get a really, really good one—trouble is that they are few and far between in professional publishing (I think most professional authors with any credentials would agree), which merely illustrates my point that going with traditional publication is no guarantee of quality.
So… how to maintain quality. Well, I’ve always found it truly helpful to find a core group of readers who aren’t afraid to give it to me straight. It’s always worked for me (and continues such) so it’s one thing to take into consideration. The other two steps to quality are developing strong, likeable characters and a credible plot. Even in fantasy and science fiction, I’ve found it necessary to have a strong plot. If I’m asking my readers to suspend disbelief, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean I can fool them. My readers are sharp and if I miss the boat they’re typically not shy on pointing it out.
Finally, I don’t rush my book just to get it published. If I take an extra few weeks, nobody’s going to die. It’s not like I have a readership standing at line at the bookstore to scoop my book off the shelf at 12:01 AM on release day. Yeah… I should be so lucky. No, I’d rather make sure the book is exactly what I want it to be than sacrifice quality for the sake of “getting it out there.” I’ve seen too many indies do this, and it’s a big mistake because it gives traditionalists more ammo to say, “See, indie-pubbed stuff is crap!”
Stick to writing and editing the best book you can before you send it out to the masses. You as an author are always in control of quality. You cannot blame anyone else, so don’t try. Just write a good book and don’t rush it to press. It’s as simple as that.

Our Multiple Device World

2010-12-04T22:08:00.004-07:00

Linda Pendleton here:

According to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, the Kindle is a “purpose-filled device where no trade-offs have been made, where every design decision as your walking down the process has been for optimized reading.”

Bezos refers to the Kindle as an electronic paper display, comfortable to the eyes, and for ease of reading. He stated, “Buy once—Read everywhere.” That might include buying a Kindle book and reading it on your PC, as I do, or your MAC, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, and other apps.

As of last July, Amazon had 630,000 Kindle books, and the large majority priced under $9.99. In addition, 8 million Public Domain books.

I believe it will be interesting to see how the sales of the Kindle and Kindle books increase over this next couple of months with holiday sales.

The visionary Jeff Bezos has also allowed for individual Kindle book titles to now be given directly as gifts, minus messing around with a general gift certificate.

It may be a multiply device world as Jeff Bezos refers to it, but darn, looks like all you need is a Kindle to read your favorite books.

On my own blog, I have uploaded a video of Jeff Bezos and Charlie Rose having this discussion.

~Linda

The Writer's Mind

2010-11-23T09:38:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all, and I certainly hope you have plans that will provide you with needed R&R, because who doesn’t need a break after this particularly trying time? I plan on spending a lot of the holiday weekend with my face down in notebook pages as I write the new novel, The Rogue Gentleman. I feel very strongly that this is going to be a hot book, and I feel it as strongly as a TSA agent feeling up a three-year-old.

Writing a story is probably one of the most rewarding activities I engage in, because of moments like the other day when I was scribbling a scene between the hero—the aforementioned rogue gentleman—and the police detective he interacts with. My outline doesn’t go into characterizations or anything like that, it just gives the facts of a scene, so it’s up to my imagination and other pre-writing activity to fill in the gaps. The hero of the book is a cigar smoker; when it came time to introduce the detective, he became a cigar smoker, too, but because if his daughter’s college tuition, he can only afford the cheap smokes. This shared habit was the turning point in their conversation, which was supposed to end with them forging an alliance against the bad guys. Before that, the dialogue had to carry the day and it didn’t have the impact I wanted; I didn't think mere words would forge the bond these two needed to make the plans they later make. They needed something else.

At one point the detective leans back in his chair, his jacket falls open, and the hero sees the el cheapo cigar sticking out of his shirt pocket. The hero then produces a much more expensive cigar from his own shirt pocket, the kind the detective wishes he could afford. If the detective likes it, the hero promises to buy him a case. The detective doesn’t take it right away; he’s not sure he should, but then he does and BOOM the dynamic between the characters transformed and suddenly their alliance wasn't so hard to swallow.

The other funny thing about this new book is how much material from an old book I’m incorporating. Every writer has “trunk novels”, stuff they and for a variety of reasons put in a drawer. One of my trunk novels has not only provided material for my previous book Justified Sins, but it’s providing a lot of material for The Rogue Gentleman as well. And there will be enough left over for a third book. It’s the manuscript that keeps on giving. You might be asking, If the trunk novel has so much good stuff, why didn't you publish it by itself? I don't know. I think somebody told me they didn't like it. Maybe I worked on it for too long and lost interest. I can't remember the reason anymore.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into a writer’s mind. I assure you all writers have them; now, when you read a book, maybe you can imagine how the author created what seems like an effortless the story, but you'll know better.

Competitive eBook Pricing

2010-11-18T23:06:00.001-07:00

What’s a fair price when it comes to your self-published eBooks? This is a blog topic that came to me during an email correspondence with a writing colleague. It’s also a discussion I’ve had with a few other folks, both personal and professional. I think it comes down to intent. If you’re new to the readers, it may seem credible to offer a book for free, although this limits your sales avenues to select few places like Smashwords and Scribd, or even your own website.

I read a recent study (don’t recall where at the moment) that says the vast majority of readers today prefer to spend $4.99 - $7.99 for a book. That’s roughly the price range of most discount and mass market paperbacks. Not good news for trade paper and hardback sales projections, and it’s one of the reasons the publishers are scrambling right now, making changes to their formats and trying to hammer their way into the eBook markets. Funny thing is, guys like Jeff Bezos and Mark Coker (even going back to Richard Curtis around 2001), figured out that eBooks could be priced cheap enough to attract sales. There just had to be a technology medium to support it.

Now there is—there’s no better time for entrepreneurial spirit and a boat-load of patience when deciding to go your own way in eBook publishing. If you follow the norm, you should consider pricing your eBooks around the current price range I quoted above. My rule of thumb is to go right around %50 of the trade paperback price. So if your TPB retails at $13.99, consider $6.99, or if $16.00, go maybe $7.99. I would only price your eBooks lower than half the cover price if it’s the only format in which the book is available, since this will help increase your name exposure.

When to do free? Again, it’s just my opinion herein but I think free is great when you want to:

Promote a new series (give the first book away to heighten interest)
Sales on the priced book are practically non-existent
You’re wealthy or financially independent and couldn’t care less
The competition is giving similar material away free (assuming it’s “serious” competition)
Your offering free and plan to start charging later (a sort of viral marketing, “Get it while it’s free” kind of thing)

Randy Ingermanson’s publisher, Wiley, recently did that last one with Randy’s Writing Fiction for Dummies book in Kindle format—I believe it’s still available so if you have a Kindle or download the Kindle for PC app you might want to consider it. Naturally, I jumped right on that and got my own copy! When he sent his newsletter about it, he also offered people his course and software at steep discounts. Not bad and I firmly believe this is one sharp example of when offering free stuff can help you as a writer.

One other consideration: how you price your eBook can have an effect on sales insofar as it gives readers some idea of how you value your own work. Traditionally published authors don’t typically get the option of pricing their own books; not so with us independent types. So consider this when pricing your eBooks. Go for what makes sense in your gut; study the market carefully before deciding. Sure, you can always change it later (in most cases) but it’s typically better to make an informed choice. Remember what your teachers were always telling you in school relative to tests and quizzes: go with your first answer! Good writing to you.

Why Are They Always Picking on Indies?

2010-11-18T16:12:00.005-07:00

We read yesterday that a bunch of C grade midlist authors have formed a group called Top Suspense and are putting their backlists, and some current offerings, on Kindle and other electronic formats. The spokesman, Dave Zeltserman, said it's part of their effort, as "established" and "proven" authors, to offer "good" ebooks since so much of the ebook market is slush.

But, wait, don't take my word for it! From their press release:

"Electronic books are soon to be a billion dollar business, yet it's more difficult than ever to find a good read, especially via digital download. With more than 700,000 ebooks already on line, with a good number of them self-published, ebook stores are becoming the equivalent of publisher's past 'slush piles'. A newly-formed collaborative site called The Top Suspense Group plans to slash through all the clutter. www.topsuspensegroup.com will be offering readers one central site filled with exciting e-books, covering several genres and all at reasonable prices.

'Readers can count on us,' creator and acclaimed author Dave Zeltserman explains, 'Every member of our group has already made his or her mark on genre fiction, whether it'snoir, crime, mystery, thriller, horror or Westerns, and in some cases, several of these genres.'

Authors aboard include Zeltserman, Max Allan Collins, BillCrider, Ed Gorman, Vicki Hendricks, and Harry Shannon.

Zeltserman has spoken before about the difficulty readers have in searching for sites that offer seasoned professionals..."

Of course, this begs the question, Who the heck is DaveZeltserman and what has he written that has been so widely acclaimed as we cannot think of a single title?, and reminds us that "widely acclaimed" also means "out-of-print due to lack of sales" but never mind.

(A quick shout down the hall to Miss Zelda informs us that Mr. Zeltserman published his first book In His Shadow with a company called iUniverse, which Miss Zelda further informs us is a self-publishing company. Pot, meet kettle.)

The fact that none of these folks, other than Max Allan Collins, has sold enough books to even be somewhat known in the world (and only then because of Road to Perdition), shall not be mentioned or questioned, either, as it would be in bad taste to do so.

We are inclined to let Top Suspense have their part of the sand box knowing they probably won't sell any more ebooks than they have paper books, which is why a lot of them are either out-of-print or have been working for Z list publishers for the last two decades, with two or three--notable, of course--exceptions, but we won't mention that as, again, it's in bad taste and we need not further muddy the already dirty water.

But seriously, folks, can't we all just get along? The ebook market may indeed have a lot of crap (and it does; Dave is not wrong, just an elitist snob) but to offer blanket statements that it's all garbage when a lot of "independent authors" (oh how we hate that PC feel-good term) are doing our best to release quality work--because we respect our audience--is wrong. It would be better for the Top Suspense team to say they are making their work available to take advantage of this new and exciting market. But, of course, that would be too easy, and these "established" and "proven" authors must, for some reason, attack those of us who are trying to slug it out in a tough market when in reality it is a waste of time and energy that these "established" and "proven" authors could better use, maybe, writing more books. Oh, right, they don't have anybody to write books for.

But we know how to waste time and energy in response. In fact, we wasted about a half hour writing this.

Traditional v. Non-Traditional Publishing Sales

2010-11-10T23:56:00.001-07:00

While I’m happy that our contributors (and subscribers) are experiencing successes, publishing books, winning awards and getting interviews I did feel it was probably good for me to quickly reinforce the purpose behind Ctrl+Alt+Pub. I started this blog so that we could share our experiences and offer advice on alternative forms of publishing, talk about the craft, or point our readers to what’s happening in the indie-pub/self-pub business. In that light, I’d like to stick to that topic or angles on that topic. Opinions, editorials, interviews with other authors on craft, interviews with self-pub company insiders, and so forth is perfectly suited to this forum. The remainder is best reserved for your personal blogs. Thanks!

Moving on, I’ve recently observed that there seems to be little strength in the argument going through traditional publishers increases the chance of better sales. It’s simply not true. Consider this: 40% of all manufactured books never sell a single copy! That’s right, it’s a fact—I didn’t make it up. But why? This is a question that has perplexed many and I’d surmise the first person who can come up with a quantifiable, scientifically bulletproof reason will probably land their own bestseller. That’s a book I’d buy! Yet, we cannot change our fortunes because the reality is that the odds are stacked against from the start. And let me dispel the myth now: I don’t believe it has anything to do with self-publishing a book over going through traditional channels. Where the real difference is the money.

Traditional publishers give an advance to the author; we non-traditionally published authors advance ourselves based on our belief in our own work. The problem is that there simply isn’t enough money in the publisher coffers to give every author an equal chance. Many say that it’s the fault of the publishers that give too high advances. Probably true, to an extent, but that still has nothing to do with sales. Traditional publishers have the advantage of the connections and resources to market books. But the simple act of marketing doesn’t guarantee increased sales. They can market the heck out of a book, but if the topic doesn’t appeal to the masses (non-fiction) or the author hasn’t built a loyal following (fiction), chances are good the book won’t move. Money down the drain for the publisher, and a near-guaranteed career killer for the poor author with things like Nielsen Bookscan now in play.

It begs the question: what do we do? I’ve come to believe the only thing we can do is write the best book possible, take chances and think outside the box. For those trying to make a full-time living out of writing, and more to those who’ve done it successfully, I applaud you. It’s certainly never worked for me and I’ve been at it fifteen years professionally. Great part-time job, for sure, but I’ve tried many different tacks and none have generated any sales of “significance.” In my opinion, your book will do as well as it does, and I don’t advise any author to invest many thousands of your own dollars into marketing your book unless you’ve braced yourself for disappointment. Do the small things; network and make connections; sign up for the free marketing sites; improve your professional and industry relationships. Do all you can to help others. You may never know where it leads.

Whatever you do, though, don’t beat yourself up for a lack of sales. Remember, if your book sells one copy you just stepped out of obscurity and into the realm of being a professional author. That’s more than most can claim in a lifetime.

Sue Dent's Official Blog Spot: WRITTEN IN BLOOD: Interviews With The Vampire Writ...

2010-11-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Sue Dent's Official Blog Spot: WRITTEN IN BLOOD: Interviews With The Vampire Writ...: "******DISCLAIMER****** Indeed who WOULD have thunk it!!! Awww, apparently Mr. Boyer aka David Byron aka a host of other aliases is now bein..."

HTML For Writers - Part 4

2010-11-09T22:22:00.001-07:00

I’ve introduced you to the core information you need regarding HTML, and provided samples of all the elements you’ll need to publish your writing on a web server or through Kindle. See the sample page for a review of this information. In this final entry, I’m going to discuss styling for your HTML documents. Some years back, as the Internet became more sophisticated, developers realized there needed to be a “separation of concerns” in HTML documents. The idea here was that HTML elements should be more about the content of a document and less about how to present it. For example, earlier HTML standards had elements like <color>, <font>, and <center> to name a few. The problem was that this resulted in having to nest tags. Here’s an example:

<p><center><b><font color="red">This text is bold and centered in the color red.</font></b></center></p>

This text is bold and centered in the color red.

You can see how very cluttered this method makes HTML. Then along came Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). With the advent of CSS, or “styling,” there was no longer a need to have HTML elements define the presentation. CSS provided a way to separate the content from the presentation. This proved more efficient by making markup cleaner within HTML documents, and it increased the speed at which the documents were created because styles could be applied globally to any given element. Here’s an example of how CSS (version 2.1 being the current version) can be used to apply the same formatting to the above text:

p {color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;}

Neat, huh? But you may be thinking, “That’s great but wouldn’t it apply that style to all of my paragraph elements?” You bet. This is where the class comes in. If I wanted to apply this only one paragraph in my HTML document, I would add a class attribute to the <p> element like so:

<p class="callout">This text is bold and centered in the color red.</p>

In the CSS, I would then designate the style as follows:

p.callout {color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;}

Finally, this entire idea begs the question: Where do I put my styles? You have three options:

Inline
In page
Stylesheet

I almost always recommend either option 2 or 3. Much depends on preference, although some die-hard web developers will swear that option 3 is the only option for professionals. Okay, if a little sugar helps it taste better. I have fond that method 2 works best if I have only one or two stylistic considerations. More than that, I recommend using a style sheet. In this case, I’m going to show you all three using the example above.

Inline: <p style="color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;" >This text is bold and centered in the color red.</p>

In page:
<head>
     <style type="text/css">
        p.callout {color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;}
     </style>
</head>
<body>
      <p class="callout">This text is bold and centered in the color red.</p>
</body>

Stylesheet:

<head>
     <style type="text/css">
        @import url("Styles.css");
     </style>
</head>

The last example is simple in concept, really. In this case, you create a file in a plain text editor and name the file Styles.css. You the place the following style information in the file as follows:

p.callout {color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;}

When the page is then loaded by someone who visits it, that style is applied where appropriate. That’s it! Those are the three ways to apply styling to your HTML without cluttering up the elements. I’ve provided this example on my site, the current fantasy novel I’m writing for National Novel Writing Month. This example will show you exactly what you can do with styles. And if you’d like to view the styles I’ve applied to this online novel, drop me a line and I’ll be happy to send you the file. Good writing to you!

Jerry Ahern: King of Adventure

2010-11-09T19:53:00.003-07:00

Of all the authors who influenced me when I first started writing, Jerry Ahern is in the top four, the others being Ian Fleming, Don Pendleton, and Robert Ludlum. Ahern is the author of close to 100 novels, and you probably know of some of them. Such series as The Survivalist, The Defender, Track, and The Takers bear his name, and that of his wife, Sharon, his co-author.

I liked Ahern’s books because they were loaded with heroes you wanted to cheer for. Full of the usual red-white-and-blue, yes, but there was something more. They were motivated to take on the bad guys not because they had to, but because they could; in other words, they were willing to sacrifice themselves for a greater good, which is something that set Ahern’s heroes apart from, say, Batman, or Mack Bolan (The Executioner), who only wanted to get even with the villains for the murders of their (respective) families. Ahern’s heroes battled terrorists, the Soviets, and scores of other evil-doers who had world domination or other nefarious goals in mind, and when I was in junior high and high school, his books were perfect for reading on the bus or between classes (or during class, ha ha) and never failed to entertain.

So imagine my delight when Mr. Ahern, through his web site, answered my (embarrassingly) gushing fan letter and agreed to an interview.

We talked a lot about his books and his writing style, and one of the first things Ahern said authors need to pay attention to is character. In the massive crop of action novels produced in the ‘70s and ‘80s and early ‘90s, character never seemed like an important concept.

Not so to Ahern.

“If people don’t care about the characters it doesn’t matter if you have somebody hanging over the edge of the cliff,” he said. “If you [as a reader] don’t care, you won’t care if he or she falls. You want people to care.”

Not only did Ahern create characters you cared about, he was lucky enough to do that over and over as readers gobbled up his series, and those recurring characters continued to grow into their own personalities.

“Characters get a life of their own and you sort of allow them to do what they’re doing,” he said, adding, “and then you have to be true to that character so they aren’t doing something that character wouldn't do.”

Ahern kept the actions and reactions of his characters fresh by putting himself in their shoes, something he calls “method writing” as opposed to method acting. And this method writing brought out the kind of attention to detail not every author adheres to.

“We have a real passion for realistic detail,” he said. “We try and actually make people suspend disbelief by anchoring the situations in reality as much as humanly possible.”

An example?

“In a gunfight we actually count the shots.” he said. “There are [also] a few [of my] books I’m aware of where the main character starts out standing in the forest taking a leak. People rarely eat or answer nature’s call in fiction. The more you suspend disbelief the more you want to put in realistic detail.”

Through it all, Ahern maintains a simple philosophy when it comes to his fiction.

“You want to write things you’re interested in reading. If you’re bored with it, readers will be bored too.”

Thinking back over his body of work, Ahern summed it up this way:

“I was writing about things that were commercial. I wasn’t going to write the great American novel that no one was ever going to read. If you write the great American novel and nobody reads it you haven’t done anything. If you write an adventure story and get good ideas across to people, you have done something. Sharon and I would much rather touch individuals with good ideas and thought-provoking situations for them in a way that is palatable rather than get that message across in a way that’s non-palatable that people won’t necessarily read.”

And while there hasn't been many spine-tingling thrillers with Ahern's name on the spine in the last few years, Ahern hasn’t stopped writing. Recent efforts include “Survive!--The Disaster Crisis and Emergency Handbook”. Ahern calls it “a practical guide to what you can do to stay alive” during a disaster. (Perhaps it will finally replace my old, worn out Boy Scout handbook!) Also, Ahern just finished a new novel, but there’s no news on that yet. Hopefully it will be released soon.

The Soviets may no longer be the villain of choice, but there are plenty of terrorists running around the world (or so I hear) and real life good guys, as usual, are hamstrung by rules and regulations and political correctness.

Get that new book out quick, Jerry.

The world needs your kind of hero now more than ever.

Thoughts on the E-Book Revolution So Far

2010-11-04T13:19:00.003-06:00

I suppose it was a year or two ago that e-books began picking up steam. I recall some skepticism regarding the Amazon Kindle and other e-reading devices when they were first released, but must admit my recall is a little hazy because I had no intention of ever having anything to do with e-books or e-readers. Paper and ink for me, baby, and no mistake. But then the economy went south, and a certain writer started pontificating about the terrible state of publishing, authors being dropped by book companies (including him), and the success of his work on the Kindle. He wasn’t entirely wrong, as my dear friend and fellow author Rebecca Forster was one of those writers dropped by her publisher, and her struggles in this racket have been very sobering as I began my assault on the citadel. Other articles appeared in business publications mentioning how hard a time Big Publishing is having these days--about the same amount of trouble as everybody else, really, but the tone of these articles was grim indeed. If there is any good publishing news in recent months, I haven’t found it.

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, though the dream probably began back in the 7th grade when I discovered Ian Fleming and after that began gobbling up any other spy and adventure novel I could find, regardless if I had full comprehension of the plot and nuances of the stories or not. (Rereading some of those books as an adult proves I had little clue about what I was reading at the time and I enjoy them much more now.) That dream includes printed books. Paper and ink. A real editor and real publisher. Not ones and zeroes. No “independent author” status--and is that title full of PC feel good garbage or what?

But the reality is, the publishing world is a jungle and it’s not getting any friendlier (it probably never was very friendly, but there was a day when books outnumbered televisions; and back in the ‘80s, the latest bestsellers were always hot conversation topics). With the economy as it is who knows how long before the industry recovers, if at all, considering the poor sales reports that are not hard to find, and highlighted by those who now have a vested interest in electronic books.

E-books apparently are the future, though I’m sure print books will survive in a niche form. If motor cars ever go fully electric, we’ll still have gasoline engines for driving enthusiasts who need internal combustion for their sports cars. The car replaced the horse and buggy, but horses still occupy an important place in our culture.

So it’s with that realization in mind that I began putting my work out for the Amazon Kindle and other electronic reading devices; it’s why I’ve taken on the “independent author” title (gak!); and why I’m making the herculean effort of publicizing my work. If I can bring an audience to a publisher instead of having to find one once a book is published. . .

But e-books are not my dream. Until paper and ink books go away forever, they will always be my preferred format; meanwhile, my assault on the citadel continues--in a way I certainly never expected. Call it unconventional warfare. Call it whatever you want. One thing I know for sure: the royalty checks sure are nice!

Ebook Awards and Self-Publishing

2010-10-27T01:04:00.005-06:00

Tonight I was told two of my books are EPIC ebook Award Finalists. My novel Shattered Lens: Catherine Winter, Private Investigator, in the Mystery and/or Suspense Category and The Cosmic Breath: Metaphysical Essays of Don Pendleton, Introduction by Linda Pendleton, in the EPIC Non-fiction Category. I was given two EPIC Finalist Awards in 2001-2002, one in non-fiction and one in fiction (written with Don). I wrote a blog about the EPICS and ebooks, and self-publishing at my Blog.

A Quick Update

2010-10-22T18:44:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to post a little housekeeping note. I’ll be taking a long-needed vacation this next week and away from anything resembling a computer. In the interim, please enjoy the posts I’ve already added here. Also, I just sent an invitation to author Brian Drake. You can find his blog at http://briandrake88.blogspot.com. Brian has indy-published two books inspired by being a reader of The Executioner and Stony Man series, created by Don Pendleton. He’s obviously had some experience with alternative publishing and I look forward to seeing his contributions. Additionally, we share a love for hardboiled fiction in the vein of such greats as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Please join me in welcoming him aboard Ctrl+Alt+Pub as a contributing author!

HTML For Writers – Part 3

2010-10-17T23:29:00.001-06:00

Samples of topics discussed herein can be found on the sample page provided. To view these samples first hand, simply navigate to the page, right-click on it and choose View Source.

In this entry I promised to discuss two new concepts that will become useful to you as writers. The first is the encoding of your HTML pages using character sets. The need for character sets becomes obvious when you consider that in order to mark up a document you must the less than “<” and greater than “>” symbols for elements. Obviously, these are “protected” pieces of HTML elements so if you have to actually show them in an HTML page you would encounter difficulties without character encoding. In this case, the two most common encodings used in HTML are ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8. While ISO-8859-1 supports most Western European languages and is thereby the default translation set of most browsers, UTF-8 is actually the preferred encoding for email and web pages, due to the fact it supports a larger subset of languages. Below are the most common ones writers will encounter: it is best in your HTML pages and ebooks to substitute the characters indicated for these character sets. You can usually do this with a simple find and replace:

Replace this	With this
"	"
'	'
<	<
>	>
&	&

There are a couple other things to watch out for when it comes to character encoding and Kindle. If you save your Microsoft Word™ or Corel WordPerfect™ file as HTML and upload to Kindle, there are often default character sets utilized by the underlying code base of these word processing applications that do not conform to either of the standards mentioned. Word™, for example, is notorious for placing the Windows-1252 character set in the document, which can often result in replacement of standard ASCII characters with stuff that can only be described as just plain weird. If you encounter this, seek support from the Kindle team or post your problem in the comments here. I will try to answer your questions as best I can.

On to the anchor element. The <a> element is one of the most important in web pages because it’s what allows you not only to create links to your individual chapters or sections (yes, you can build a linked table of contents in a single web page!) but also to other pages. Perhaps you want to post sections of your book, say one chapter at a time, in separate pages. The anchor link is what allows you to get from one page to another. The concept is quite simple. Here’s an anchor element sample that goes to my web site:

<a href="http://guenfire.com">

Three other examples of links are provided within this post, including one to the sample page. The sample page also shows you how to link to another location in a document using the id attribute. An attribute is allowable information that may be added to a given element. For example, you’ll notice that the anchor element above has an href attribute: in this case, it is the hyperlink-reference to the site. You’ll also note the attribute is placed in quotation marks, which goes back to why character encoding is important. Be certain, however, that the quotation marks around attributes within elements do not get replaced with the " symbol. This is not well-formed HTML. Hope you enjoyed this latest entry in the HTML for Writers series. Good writing to you!

HTML For Writers – Part 2

2010-10-15T23:20:00.001-06:00

In the last entry, I provided an overview on the history of Hypertext Markup Language, and demonstrated its most fundamental principle: the markup tag, which in the context of HTML is known as an element. Now I’m going to expand on this principle by looking at two specific areas: elements for “structuring” HTML documents and some basic elements for defining appearance.

All HTML web pages have what’s known as a specific structure or document type. The basic type of a document must include the following elements at minimum to be considered “well-formed” documents. The following structure is inherent to any HTML document if you wish for that document to render correctly in most modern browsers:

<html>
<head>
     <title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

That’s it! It’s really not all that difficult when you break it down. The first element in any well-formed HTML document is the <html> tag, which specifies everything to follow is Hypertext Markup Language elements and should be interpreted by the browser as such. You might almost view this as a sort of “super” element that encapsulates all of the other elements beneath it. Next is the <head> element, and between these opening and closing elements is the <title> element. The text between the title element is what you see in the title bar of your browser. In my sample page, you’ll note the title is “Basic HTML Tags”. If you right-click the page and choose View Source, you will see that’s exactly what’s between the <title> elements. Finally, there are the opening and closing <body> elements. This is where all of the content will that is actually seen on the page itself. All other content between the <head> elements is not seen in the page.

Now that you should have an understanding of the tags used to structure a document, let’s look at the sample page again. You will see listings labeled Heading 1 to Heading 6. These are encased between the following elements: <h1>Heading 1</h1>, <h2>Heading 2</h2>, and so forth. You can see how headings would be useful for breaking down the presentation of your books into book titles, chapters, and even sub-sections from these examples. Cool, huh? The Copyright statement is between the <p>paragraph</p> elements (I talked about them in my last entry).

If you’re viewing the source of the page you may also note two other distinctive elements: the first is known as the Document Type Declaration (DTD):

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

The other is:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">

I’m not going to get into either of these right now to avoid confusion. However, I will tell you that the image you see indicates that I ran the page against the World Wide Web Consortium’s W3C Validator Service to ensure that I had created an HTML document that complied with W3C standards and was well-formed. That’s it for this entry; next time I’ll cover the anchor tag and discuss character encoding your files for Kindle and the Internet. Good writing to you!

HTML For Writers – Part 1

2010-10-11T23:37:00.001-06:00

Here we go, everyone, the first entry in my tutorial on Hypertext Markup Language for writers. It’s important to note up front I will not be going the full scope of HTML (I know many of you are breathing a sigh of relief); the subject is too broad for a blog. Instead, I’m going to hit the key elements of HTML—including the core concepts and how the Internet works—that will give you everything you need to format your books in HTML format. As we progress you’ll become familiar with the terms regarding HTML, the Hypertext Transport Protocol (http) that is the foundation of Internet communication, and how to format any existing manuscript to be compatible with the Kindle application. Let’s get started.

History

I’d ordinarily skip over this but let’s give credit where credit is due. HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and became the foundation of the World Wide Web. It’s important to understand that Mr. Berners-Lee did not intend for HTML to be a “programming” language; it doesn’t even qualify as a scripting language. HTML is, quite simply, a way of marking up text (yup, plain-old English) so that it may be interpreted by a Web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) using HTTP. It’s this technology that forms the key components of client-server communications over the Internet. That is: we make a request at an address, such as http://ctrlaltpub.blogspot.com, which is in turn interpreted to be an Internet Protocol address of 75.125.45.132, the address of the computer hosting this site. This is how the Internet came to be and while the W3C Steering Committee has updated the specifications of HTML over the past 20 years, the fundamental concepts haven’t changed; in other words, they applied yesterday, apply now and I daresay will probably apply in the near future.

Basic Syntax

HTML is called a markup language because it involves the use of special tags that are interpreted by any HTML-compliant browser (which is essentially all of today’s Web browsers). In some cases and depending on the specification used, the proper way to “mark up” text is by using a series of opening and closing tags. A common one is the paragraph tag, which opens body text with a <p> and closes it with a </p>.

Example: <p>This text is enclosed between the HTML paragraph tags.</p>

This idea of opening and closing tags is the entire premise behind HTML, and is the reason why text between paragraphs tags appears the way that it does when rendered in the browser. Case in point: you can right click on this screen and choose “View Source” from the menu, and you will see much of the text in the page enclosed between open and close tags of some kind. Header text (such as a page or blog entry title) is enclosed between <h1> and </h1>, the header of a document has special tags such as <title></title>, and of course I’ve already discussed the paragraph tags. In fact, each of these paragraphs you’re reading here is enclosed in between paragraph tags, which is why the browser interprets them and they are separated into block-style paragraphs.

That concludes this entry. Next time (most likely Wed. of this week) I’ll provide a number of examples that show the text I’m using and the end result of that text. Until then, good writing to you!

Why are Traditional Publishers Worried?

2010-10-02T18:00:00.000-06:00

Because today’s technology has caught up to the market shifts and the control is being wrested from the traditional publishing gatekeepers. As I’ve noted before (here and elsewhere), authors exploring alternative means of publishing their work is undoubtedly one of the most exciting things about being a writer today. New and fresh voices are being exposed to the market, and good or not so good, the work is getting attention. And with that there are less books being purchased in traditional book and mortar bookstores every day. How do I know? I can see it! Yes, I can actually see when I go into stores like Borders or Barnes & Noble that shelf space is beginning to either shrink or come up utterly empty. Whole rows of shelves are collecting dust where books used to sit. In some of those dark recesses might be stocked board games, children’s toys, more magazines or gaming supplies for role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons or Warhammer, etc. Most of the time, booksellers just turn carefully selected books to face outward rather than racks of spines that were once proudly displayed. Independents are closing up left and right; mall bookstores have all but vanished; Barnes & Noble is on the auction block.

Why is it happening? I’d like to propose a why. Let’s say some already filthy rich folks own a bakery called “Baked Bonanzas”, and instead of having their own products they go out to find the very best bakers (supposedly) in the industry. Let’s say they buy their recipes for ridiculous sums of money, and then modify them, branding them as their own or against the names of the bakers. Their end products are deemed yummy cakes, pastries and candies loaded with sugar and practically sinful to the palate. Time goes by, ten or 50 years, and suddenly they have bakeries all over the country to which they’re selling their products. And things are going along pretty well and they’re now big enough that they’ve bought up a bunch of the smaller or independent bakeries who simply cannot keep up with those tasty morsels they’ve advertised.

Then the economy tanks and along comes “Baked Goods ‘R’ Us”, a little known company used by thousands and thousands of independent bakers and pastry chefs as a sales front, a place online where people can place their orders and have the goods delivered in record time. Here’s how it works: each baker makes their own products and delivers them to the “Baked Goods ‘R’ Us” international outlet. Doughnuts that cost $27.00 a dozen suddenly cost one-third as much and, in many cases, are just as good or better. Moreover, people don’t have to go to the bakeries in their neighborhoods… they can just have them delivered fresh and warm from the oven at any hour of the day or night. And maybe even some of the recipes these bakers sold to “Baked Bonanzas” can be used because, after all, that company modified them—the original recipes still belong to their respective bakers.

So what do the executives at “Baked Bonanzas” do?! They panic and their board members start to squirm, and their self-appointed minions go on a campaign to convince everybody that the “Baked Goods ‘R’ Us” products aren’t nearly as good as the ones “Baked Bonanzas” have been force-feeding them all of these years. That’s right: they don’t use “quality ingredients,” and they aren’t “as healthy” or “they don’t taste as good.” But people enjoy the convenience of not having to leave their homes or jobs (after all, America’s a fast food society). Now some of the bakers are starting to realize that “Baked Bonanzas” set them up and cost them some profit because they took money up front for their recipes. Now they want control back because they realize they’re not really bakers any more, they’re sales people and Su Chefs. So when the propaganda campaign of “Baked Bonanzas” doesn’t work, and some of their sales force and quality engineers begin to find ways to make money from this new venue, they’re forced to admit that perhaps they’ve been short-sighted.

So what to do… what to do? Well, they can try to respond by changing their business model—which may or may not help them—but that has the consequences of losing employees who’ve been faithful to them for many years and done nothing to get the axe. Meanwhile, they’re losing money hand over fist and they have to start scaling back, and their store fronts begin to close down. In desperation, they try to start your own business model called “Half-Baked Goods” although they’ve spent all of their money on the recipes so now they have to convince the bakers to part with a lot of their own hard-earned cash. And guess what? The bakers aren’t falling for it. So now the middle management at “Baked Bonanzas” worry and fret and tug at their collars and throw temper tantrums, all while they brush up their resumes because they see the writing on the wall: their empire is beginning to crumble. Welcome to the NEW game in town. Good writing to you!

Marketing Resource and Tip #5

2010-09-27T21:21:00.001-06:00

Ah, autumn… undoubtedly my favorite time of year. Leaves are turning, the weather’s a perfect mix of warm days and cool nights, and the scent of rain brings with it the promise of growth and new opportunities.This week’s marketing resource is Jo-Anne Vandermeulen’s Conquer All Obstacles site, and Jo-Anne’s offering a fall promotional, who I have mentioned before. Right now, Jo-Anne’s Premium Promotional Services is offering the full media blitz package for only $35.00. You can click the fall promotional link provided. Based on the services they’re offering, I happen to think $35.00 is a steal! I’ve not used this service but I fully intend to give a try since I missed the summer promo. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you. You’re also free to contact Jo-Anne and ask her any questions you’d like—I’ve corresponded with her personally and she’s a super nice gal.

My tip this week regards pricing for e-books. You may have seen a lot of “buzz” lately about authors who attempt to increase their exposure or readership by offering their books ranging anywhere from free to $2.99 on Kindle and Smashwords and other venues. Personally, I don’t feel it’s my business to tell you what price to set: there’s enough restrictions on authors already. But I’ve found that even if you’re trying to gain an audience, offering an e-book for significantly low prices can have some drawbacks. First, it doesn’t necessarily distinguish the book from another priced equally low. Moreover, consider what your work is worth and price it accordingly. In general, my rule of thumb is to price my e-books at approximately 50% of the print book. Offering free samples, partial content or temporary sales discounts are all good things to do from the marketing aspect, but as an author looking to make a profit I think it merits more studied and informed pricing of my work accordingly. Good writing to you!

A Little Kindle-Friendly HTML Anyone?

2010-09-25T11:00:00.001-06:00

I’ve made a decision, one I hope is going to get people excited enough to get you to tell others about Ctrl+Alt+Pub. One of the reasons I founded this blog was I wanted to engage other like-minded writers, or simply those interested in learning more about the process of writing and non-traditionally publishing their own works. But in order to keep something going and not let it die out, I’ve learned offering new and fresh content is the key.

Author Joe Konrath has made quite a dent in the world of the Amazon Kindle due largely, in part, to his very good marketing skills. He’s outspoken and approaches his work with the exuberance of a puppy. Oh, that we could all learn a lot from that example. I do wish Joe’s blog would deal more with what he originally started it on, the subject of writing and publishing for those new to it, but it has more recently become about the whole e-book/Kindle thing and his own personal success.

In a telephone conversation I had last night with Linda Pendleton, I came to the conclusion that hype is still just hype and I would insert a little cautionary note here to those looking to experience Joe’s kind of success. Is it possible? Of course, anything is possible with enough time and skill and effort applied. A lot of prayer doesn’t hurt, either. More often than not, however, a good many of us writers either work day jobs or we don’t yet have a successful platform and so we experience small successes or none at all. How I measure success is not the same as someone else will measure it, so the entire topic is subjective at best.

What I’m getting at in all of this is that you can utilize the Kindle technology to help build your platform and readership. The Digital Text Publishing (DTP) facet for self-published authors is still a bit tricky, however, so I thought why not take my extensive knowledge of technology and use that to help others. So… here’s the deal. Beginning Monday, October 11, I’m going to start providing tutorials on Hypertext Markup Language, and describing how you can in a very quick and dirty fashion, format your book into a “Kindle-friendly” file. I hope this will prompt folks to get exited about the new “e-book revolution” and take that next step toward building their readership. And if you know others who this will interest, please tell them about Ctrl+Alt+Pub; I’ve pushed out the jump-off of this new project to give others time to climb aboard and follow our blog. Good writing to you!

Marketing Resource and Tip #4

2010-09-24T22:45:00.001-06:00

For this marketing resource, I’d like to recommend Randy Ingermanson’s Advanced Fiction Writing site. Here, you can sign up for Randy’s E-zine, and get a copy of his Tiger Marketing presentation. In the email he sends, you’ll also get a link to Seth Godin’s ebook: Unleashing the Ideavirus. Randy Ingermanson is one of those authors I admire. The guy just is who he is not mention he’s a multiple award-winning author of six novels, many of which examine the intersection of science and faith. Additionally, his site contains a myriad of free resources on the craft of writing.

My personal tip deals with the pursuit of excellence. As alt-pubbed/self-pubbed authors we have an even greater responsibility to ensure the quality of our work is such that it will keep bringing our readers back for more of the same. Particularly if you consider the amount of prejudice against non-traditional publishing. Personally, it’s a ridiculous idea because I’ve been reading a lot of this type of work later—partly to show my support for authors who like to take risks—and I’m finding much of it is good. There’s a lot that can be said for being prolific, a topic on which I believe I’m well qualified to talk about after having written more than thirty-five books and dozens of other works in a variety of literary forms. I can also say with honesty that with each new project I tackled, I’ve done my best to get better. It’s okay to produce a lot of material, but it’s better to produce good, solid work and do it consistently. I guarantee this is what will build your readership in the end. So be true to yourself, as William Shakespeare counseled, and realize there’s a certain amount of improvement you can expect through continued writing. I leave you with one of my favorite writing quotes:

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” —Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Good writing to you!

About the Craft: Genre

2010-09-21T22:08:00.001-06:00

“What kind of books do you write?” It’s a question I’m asked often when I tell people I’m a writer, and I can almost predict they expect me to answer with “mysteries” or “thrillers” or “fantasy.” In contemporary publishing this is known as genre [pronounced zhahn’-ruh]. But how do we actually define it within popular fiction? I’m afraid the dictionary isn’t much help; it describes the noun form as ‘A category of artistic composition… marked by a distinctive style, form, or content...’[i]

Frankly, I’ve never been fond of this word—I view it mostly as a marketing term. It’s always been enough for me to simply view it as a literary context—I use it to decide what will best serve the needs of the story I want to tell. I suppose this is the closest way I can define genre and that’s how I’ll approach the topic for our purposes here. I’ve listed the major genres in popular fiction below:

Action/Adventure
Fantasy
Horror
Literary (including Classics)[ii]
Mystery
Romance
Science (speculative) fiction
Thriller
Western

There are also a near-infinite number of sub-genres for each of the above, so take note my list is by no means exhaustive.

Once you have your ideas (I advise you to write them down as they come to you), I think you’ll be able to make a more informed decision into what genre you’ll want to write your story. This begs the question: why did I choose to cover genre first in this guide? Because genre is most often one of the first things aspiring novelists rush to decide. I surmise this happens because the bulk of experienced writers and instructors encourage you to read a lot of novels in the genre in which you want to write. This isn’t “bad” advice but be cautious as it can create somewhat of a cart-before-the-horse dilemma for you and stifle your creativity. Am I saying if you really like to read science fiction you shouldn’t take an interest in writing it? Absolutely not— I’m just counseling you to flesh out a decent list of ideas before making your decision.

I would extend the advice about reading in your chosen genre(s) by urging you to read non-fiction as well, particularly social topics like history, politics, psychology, finances and religion. It’s a good bet you’ll be writing about people and you’ll want to know something of these things in order to build a “credible” world. I’m not suggesting you should attempt to become some sort of sage on all of these subjects, but certainly take time to familiarize yourself with their concepts. You’ll gain additional knowledge when you begin to research your ideas as well.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with something I’ve learned over the years relative to genre. I believe that some stories are told better in some genres than others; in other words, the needs of the story are best served based on the context. When I chose to write Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure, the idea of a man hired by a secret organization to rescue persecuted Christians around the world was most definitely going to be an adventure. The idea itself practically shouted “I’m a swashbuckling adventure novel!” I even put it into the title of the book to clarify for readers the content. To have just titled it Soul Runner might have suggested it was a paranormal romance or fantasy. And in my upcoming novel, Finding Faithe, my main character is a private detective. Must be a mystery, right? Only if I have a puzzle that must be solved and I don’t solve it until the end of the novel (this is known as the climax or denouement).

I have an idea for a story about an ancient culture caught between spiritual beings at war with each other, so I elected to go with fantasy. It simply seemed natural but I could have just as easily made this a historical (sub-genre) novel or even literary, since I think spiritual (or religious) contexts in fantasy can be mutually exclusive. If you’re in any doubt about that, read Jean M. Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear.

But what if the lines aren’t so clear? What if my idea is about astronauts who plan to steal a space shuttle and colonize Mars? Science fiction! But it’s in the present and there’s a lot of political intrigue and most of it takes place on Earth. Okay, fine… a thriller then! But once they steal the shuttle, I decide there’s a psychopathic stowaway who murders the whole crew. That idea sure sounds like most of what Stephen King writes, so maybe it’s horror!

Once again we see that the ideas we have can push and prod us in different directions on a whim. In the end, you’ll be able to come to a more logical decision. It’s enough right now to simply understand that genre will be something you must face at some point; it will be everything to the marketing folks at any publisher you can persuade to take an interest in it, and it will certainly dictate to what agents you will submit it. However, you have plenty of time to decide now that you know what genre is. Time to set it aside and focus on collecting your ideas.

[ii] There is a view that “literary” fiction falls entirely outside of genre fiction, citing it as being of superior artistic or cultural merit. I’ve chosen to list it here as its own genre merely for the purposes of clarification.

Are Agents a Dying Breed?

2010-09-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

This is a question that’s been on my mind for the past few months and I’m not sure of the answer. I do know that if you still have any glimmer of a traditional publishing contract in your eye, an agent is pretty much a necessity. Most of the time, any way. You’ll never get an editor from one of the “Big 6” to read your work unless either you have an inside connection to the decision-makers or a literary agent. They are, and continue to be, the gatekeepers to a traditional publishing deal in most cases. Smaller presses still seem open to direct author-publisher relationships.

That said, Terry Whalin recently posted a link on his Facebook page to his free list of over 400 agents. I’ve seen this list (in fact, I’ve owned a copy for some time, bless Terry’s heart) and it’s comprehensive, no doubt there. But back to the core question: are agents a dying breed? If you’re looking to get alt-pubbed/self-pubbed, they’re not even part of the equation. But could they become part of it? I think it also goes without saying that as more authors explore alternatives to waiting potentially months to hear from an agent (most of the time in the form of a rejection), there will be less work coming over the transom for agent representation. This means less sales, which in turn means agents will have to find alternate ways of generating income if they want to stay in business. Promoting their current client base won’t cut it save for those fortunate few representing “the biggies.”

One could argue, in fact, that agents are already feeling these effects to some degree. Earlier this year, I went through a small army of agents—all of whom basically told me the same thing: “Sorry, not taking any new clients right now.” Why is that? Discovering new talent is supposed to be the life blood of the agent. I think it goes back to the publishers, the economy, and about a dozen other reasons that, combined, are categorically the culprits of the decline in author-agent contracts. Some agencies, such as Jody Rein Books, Inc., are not only not taking new clients but they’re now turning to pushing software for writers. Huh? There was also a recent discussion on offering paid reviews for self-published writers by BlueInk Reviews, run by… yep, you guessed it: the same Jody Rein who isn’t taking any more new clients. And by looking at her site, it would almost appear she hasn’t sold a major book in about six years (either that or she hasn’t kept her site updated). And none of that is meant to sound like a personal criticism against Ms. Rein; it’s just one example of many that illustrates the point.

What about agents who are now helping their current authors go independent because publishers aren’t taking their works? Indeed, even the mega-successful Richard Curtis was exploring the publishing of e-books more than a decade ago with the founding of E-Reads, I think due largely in part to the fact he saw the direction of midlist publishing after the paperback crisis of the mid-1990s. Isn’t it funny how people seem to forget this man’s forward-thinking in the “buzz” being generated by today’s e-book publishing phenomenon? Take Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, an agent who is no small potatoes in today’s market. Even she couldn’t sell Joe Konrath’s latest book to publishers, and he’s an author with solid numbers. Agents across the country are closing up shop. Agents are reverting to finding alternate ways of making their money. The list is growing and I, for one, am not sure how I feel about it because I think it’s going to turn the industry on its head. Will the dying breed of traditional publishing flock to the self-pub/alt-pub markets? We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we? Good writing to you!

Marketing Resource and Tip #3

2010-09-18T16:47:00.001-06:00

Hello—it’s that time again! I do hope these marketing resource and tips are proving useful to readers and if so (or if not), I’d really like to hear from you on what’s working for you and what isn’t. Today’s resource is from a site I recently discovered created by a woman named Diane Eble. Ms. Eble is one of those individuals from who we can all learn something. And with very good reason as she has more than 30 years of experience in the business of writing and publishing. The site is called Words to Profit, and from here you can sign up for a weekly newsletter from Ms. Eble’s companion site, http://www.yourbookpublishingcoach.com/. In addition to her weekly newsletter, you can listen in on some free podcasts on ways to market your book. She also has a five-week eCourse on sale for only $5.00. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m seriously considering it, mainly because she’s offering a money-back guarantee. How many people do you know who do that today?

My tip has to do with something important to all of us: money. It’s funny how when ever we get on this topic, the debates become impassioned. What should we alternative or self-published authors spend our hard-earned cash on to market our works vs. allowing ourselves to get scammed? After all, we’re writers—most of us don’t have money to throwaway! Well here are some things I’ve learned along the way, and I hope some of my advice helps you.

1. Never buy into anything that promises overnight success—that has scam written all over it. You know this because there’s no such thing; marketing is expensive enough and takes a long time. These people that claim they can get you there tomorrow are predators, nothing more and nothing less.

2. Don’t purchase programs that simply redirect you to buy other programs and don’t offer you any real information in and of themselves. I call this “coattails” marketing: you know what I’m talking about, where somebody asks you for $19.95 to send you a list of all of the other people who want to charge you $19.95.

3. Don’t put your money into any marketing that does not have some sort of tangible, demonstrable system behind it with “proven” results. By the latter, I mean lots of people you can contact to tell you how successful they were or weren’t with the system, what worked for them and what didn’t. Remember, if these “marketing coaches” won’t show you anything about what they’re offering up front then I wouldn’t part with any cash; you’re not likely to see it come back.

That wraps it up for this week at Ctrl+Alt+Pub. If you know others who would be interested in either following this blog or becoming a contributor, please let me know. I want this to become a place where others can talk about their experiences. I’m not interested in selling anything here; I simply believe that together we are much stronger than all working separate of each other. Let’s show the traditional publishing industry that we have a quality product to offer. Good writing to you!

Book Covers for $25 or Less? You betcha!

2010-09-17T00:00:00.001-06:00

You can create a professional cover without breaking your piggy bank. So far for my four self-published books (two of which are forthcoming in the next few months), I’ve utilized a total of 55 credits for artwork at Dreamstime.com, which equates to about $70.00 out of my PayPal account. Remember, that artwork covers a total of four books. I love this site and nearly exclusively buy all of my images there. The package I bought for Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure cost $24.95 and the rest covered the other three books. You can see the end results for my two most recent novels below.

And no, that’s not a sales pitch (unless you really, really, really want to buy one of my books, in which case I won’t dissuade you). Ahem. Anyway, I’m delighted with the end results of both covers, but even more with the fact that since I changed them out from the rather bland ones I started off with, sales have picked up. Don’t believe it when someone tells you a cover doesn’t sell a book—not even for a moment. Maybe the cover won’t sell a book but it will definitely get people to take a closer look if your cover’s eye-catching.
Make sure when buying images at Dreamstime that they are at least 300 dpi. If you can’t find what you want there, don’t hesitate to try fotolia, as well. I have purchased one image from iStockphoto but I find they’re overpriced in contrast to the other two sites I’ve mentioned.
But what about the creation piece? Well, it’s not as difficult as you might think (yeah, I know, easy for me to say as I’m a technology professional). There’s a free image tool I absolutely love called the GNU Image Manipulation Program, or affectionately known as GIMP. This software is free, installs on a number of different operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc.) and is extremely intuitive to use.
When creating a new file in GIMP, you want to set the image for your book to be at least 0.25” larger in width and height than your trim size (that being the actual size of the book). See this chart at CreateSpace for a breakdown of industry standard book sizes. My preferred sizes for a book are 5.5 × 8.5 in. or 5.25 × 8.00 in. I know some authors prefer the 6.00 × 9.00 in. and that’s okay, but as a reader I find that a bit uncomfortable to hold (particularly as I do most of my reading in bed). I’m kind of a spoiled brat. Once you’ve created the correct size and dpi (dots-per-inch) setting of at least 300 x 300, you’re then ready to buy your images and add them to the background palette created in GIMP.
Finally, there’s the issue of lettering. I think the fonts for the title and your name are some of the most important aspects of cover creation. My exclusive tool for creating titles and my byline on the cover is CoolText.com. I welcome others to contribute comments as to what they’ve used for creating covers. Still, this process has proven pretty solid and I look forward to making more covers in the future. Once you get the process down, it’s not really all that difficult—in fact, I think it’s pretty fun! Good writing to you.

About the Craft: Plot or Characters?

2010-09-16T00:00:00.000-06:00

It was always always my goal with this Blog to discuss more than just alterative and self-publishing, markets, and so forth. I also intended to discuss the craft of writing. Okay, so there’s been a lot published on this topic over the years. Just humor an old vet, huh?

I want to give a word about plot vs. characters. It was 2003 and I was in Las Vegas for Bouchercon (my first time at this particular convention). It was during the ‘Con I heard a couple of fellows discussing which type of novel was stronger, character driven or story (plot)-driven? The first thing I remember thinking was, Why not both? It struck me so profoundly, in fact, I wrote an article about it and suggested that they have a panel about it at a future Bouchercon. They never did go with my idea, but they seemed intrigued enough that they invited me to be on a panel at the 2009 conference in Indy, which was way fun!

So what about this idea and why do I bring it here? I think because it merits some consideration for the writer. I’m sure there are some of us at times that wonder why our particular story doesn’t seem to be going anywhere; others of us might worry we’ve created characters that are too weak to carry a story for a piece of book-length fiction. I’ve dealt with both issues from time to time.

In fact, I recently received a rejection from an editor (although a very nice one) that my particular story of frontier travel didn’t make for the best backdrop in an historical romance. I wasn’t convinced that assertion to be entirely an accurate one, but I thought it a noteworthy tidbit of feedback and filed it away for future reference. In that same rejection, I was informed that while many of my main characters were women there was still too much of a “male” voice in the prose. Again, perfectly fair assessment. And since this was a piece submitted to a major publisher of romances in just about every sub-genre you can imagine, I figured the comments in the rejection had merit.

And then it dawned on me—these were the two halves that made up the loaf! And momentarily I learned why I’d harbored this niggling feeling from the start the book just didn’t seem to be working (thanks to Linda Pendleton for pointing out a few items, as well). I’d gotten neither the plot nor characters correct. No decent plot plus no believable characters equals a manuscript editors are sure to pass on every time. Versus when I wrote Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure, which contains plot and characters in strong measure.

You see, I’m convinced more than ever now the truly best novels have great characters and a solid plot. I recall some of my favorite books (a few of which I’ve listed below) and now I know why we should strive to make sure we deliver on both sides of this equation in a consistent fashion. It’s something to keep in mind when you decide to write and publish your own work. I’d love to hear the thoughts of others on this subject. Good writing!

Some of my favorites

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Executioner Series by Don Pendleton
The Matt Helm Series by Donald Hamilton
H.M.S. Ulysses by Alistair MacLean
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Try Dying by James Scott Bell
The Fifth Profession by David Morrell
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Pixels or Fonts: Does It Matter?

2010-09-15T13:14:00.006-06:00

I wrote this article below in 2002 and it has been on my website all these years since. At the time I wrote it, I had already published several ebooks. Also, this library director I wrote about was replaced a short few months after she published her article. I wrote her a letter of complaint concerning her attitude, and I also heard a few comments by others about her article.

Since that time, technology has expanded greatly with the succesful Amazon.com, Google, and numerous eletronic applications and devices, not to mention memory capability and the increase in speed on the Internet. My article seems so appropriate to repeat here when we are embroiled in this ebook, self-publishing debate.

Pixels or Fonts: Does it Matter?
A Resistance to E-books by Some in the Library Profession
by Linda Pendleton, 2002

Recently my town library director wrote an article in our local newspaper that disappointed and disturbed me. Her article was titled, "Computers Won't Replace Books." What I found disturbing about the article was that she stated that she found amusement in the content of an article that appeared in the "Christian Science Monitor" with a headline that read, "Book lovers fail to click with e-pagers" She stated that for at least the past decade, "doomsayers have been predicting the demise of the printed word," and that these "prophets of the new age" claimed that the eventual disappearance of books printed in bound paper format was all but inevitable. Considering herself a lifelong book person, she stated, "I always scorned these prophecies."

The librarian commented "triumphantly" (her word not mine) who would want to curl up with a computer on their lap? She makes further comment about having to deal with hard to read pixels, batteries, and plugs, while "deeply involved in a well-written novel." My answer to that is a lot of people. But she fails to realize, at least in her article, that many read from their regular computer monitors, in addition to those who read from handheld devices. Maybe I am reading between the lines of her words but it seems she is indicating that a well-written novel would not be in electronic format. I believe her attitude as a librarian is distressing. I don't feel that it is of any importance what format a reader chooses. All that matters is that they read. It is important to encourage reading in young children. Children can sit for hours playing a game on a handheld computer-and they can also read a good book on a handheld device. I suppose it could be that I have an old fashioned belief that librarians encourage reading, period. At least, the librarians I've known have. While in high school I worked in the school library and in my earlier years spent a lot of time at the library, either doing research or checking out books to read.

Well, I can assure her that her career as a librarian is probably secure if that is what she is worried about. But obviously she does not peer very far into the future and has not educated herself about the popular use of the Internet for reading a large variety of materials that are available.

From what I have heard from e-book authors and publishers who belong to the same two professional e-book organizations that I do, her pessimistic attitude is not too unusual among many librarians. Which is sad. Of course, there are librarians who hold a visionary and optimistic view about any and all formats of reading materials and encourage their use, but obviously she is not one of those.

Many people who are computer literate read a great number of documents on their computer monitors and spend hours doing so-including "well written" novels. E-books come in several formats including the simple and easy to read PDF format. I would agree that some of the hand-held reading devices can be improved and I am sure they will be before long with the new technological advances that are taking place. Apparently, one of the most popular hand-held readers is the Palm Reader, and a few other devices are enjoyed by many. Recently, Edward Nawotka, a "Publishers Weekly Magazine" editor wrote an excellent article about his personal use and enjoyment of the Palm Pilot in reading 4,934 pages of "The Corrections" while on vacation in Europe.

What is nice about these handheld e-book readers is that a number of books can be stored in memory and are available at the flip of a switch.

I would agree that electronic literature will not replace paper bound books in the immediate future, nor probably within this librarian's lifetime or mine. Despite that fact, there is plenty of room within the publishing and literary world for books of all genres published in electronic format.

Electronic literature also allows for Print On Demand. This means that there does not have to be tens of thousand copies of a book sitting in a warehouse somewhere. I have been in several of those warehouses myself, and I have also seen conveyor belts sending thousands of copies of magazines and soft cover books into the shredder. Print on Demand saves storage and paper, and the tradepaper book is printed and bound and ready to ship quickly after ordering a copy.

The quality of e-books has improved in the few years as new authors have found their niche and many established authors have moved away from the New York publishing print world and into the electronic world of publishing. Many have done so for business reasons and wider exposure. And not far behind, have been the New York print publishers, jumping on the bandwagon and offering their books both in print and electronic format. Why have they done so? Because they know it is a viable and profitable medium and will become more so as time goes on.

As a print author, I had watched the development of electronic technology for three or more years, consulting from time to time with my New York publishing attorney regarding copyright infringement issues that might put copyrighted materials at risk when available for download on the Internet. I also carefully followed the growing information in regards to these issues with the Authors Guild, of which I am a member.

In late 2000, I made the decision to publish electronically. Last year I was afforded the opportunity through the Authors Guild to put twelve of my late husband's popular novels back in print, as Print on Demand. The program has worked well. I also put six novels back in print as electronic books with Palm Digital Media, formerly Peanut Press. Their program has also been profitable. In fact, according to a January 2002 press release by Michael Segroves, Vice President and Director of Business Division, Palm Digital, stated that in 2001 the company sold almost 180,000 e-books, up 40% from 2000.

Richard Curtis, a well-known New York Literary Agent and president of E-reads, an electronic publishing company, had this to say, January 7, 2002, in a "Publishers Weekly Magazine" article: "How long are we going to endure skeptics telling us that nobody wants to read on screen, when thousands are paying do so every day?" He also stated in response to critics, "Those of us making money in e-books, delivering thousands of downloads every month, paying royalties to authors and publishers, have to wonder what planet these pundits are on." I totally agree with Curtis.

The University of Virginia currently has a database of approximately 51,000 electronic texts. That is only one example of what is available on the world wide web for educational and pleasure reading. I have come across a lot of books available for PDF download that have been out of print for many, many years, even as far back as the Nineteenth Century. For those doing genealogy, there are many historical county histories and books of that nature available to download and read.

My late husband, Don Pendleton, in his thirty-year successful writing career, published more than 125 books, and has had more than 200 million copies of his novels in print world wide and in more than two dozen languages. And now, because of the technology available, I will continue his legacy in various publishing formats, including electronic.

The popularity of electronic books will grow. It is bound to. In fact, it is inevitable. Our children and grandchildren are becoming proficient in computer technology not long after first grade. Computers will become a way of ordinary life for them, and for many, it already has. They will not object to reading from their computer monitors, nor curled up on the sofa with their Palm Pilot-or whatever new technology arises in the near future.

Visionary e-book publishers are now offering books for children of all ages. A few short years ago, it appeared that many of the electronic books were limited to romance novels but that is rapidly changing to include all genres of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.

I believe if librarians do their homework they may change their mind on the future of electronic publishing. We are at the early stages of something that will become a vital part of the publishing industry. Electronic books will not fully replace paper books on library shelves but it will give millions of readers the opportunity, twenty-four hours a day, to download their choice of reading materials from home or work. A trip to the local library will not be necessary.

If librarians cannot recognize the technical advances that have taken place in the last five years-and the value of the new advances that are currently and rapidly unfolding-then I would have to agree with Richard Curtis and wonder what planet they are coming from-and in what age they are living.

I have always believed it should be the goal (and desire) of librarians to encourage people to read. It should not matter what format the reader chooses. The author's words are there to be shared-a meeting of the minds-whether in pixels or fonts.

*******************
My electronic books have won awards. I have been nominated for the Franklin E-Books Awards; one novel was an EPIC 2001 Award Finalist; a nonfiction e-book was a 2002 EPIC Award Finalist. The EPIC Awards are given for the finest in electronic publishing.

Marketing Resource and Tip #2

2010-09-15T00:00:00.000-06:00

Today’s marketing resource is BookTour, a site introduced to me by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen (a great marketing resource, herself, which I’ll be talking about in a future entry). BookTour effectively allows you to set up a profile, and then add books and events at which you’ll be featuring them. One of the additional, low-cost features here is the PressFinder, a media contact relationship tool that allows you to get in touch with those who might be interested in hosting events, reviewing your book or just getting industry insiders to take notice of your work. (Offering free copies is a great way to promote your work!) The nice thing is that you can purchase a subscription for $5.00 per month, so the risk is relatively low. Check out BookTour. And don’t fear about missing these links as I post them; I’ll be adding a list of links shortly in the sidebar for every resource I point you to.

Today’s tip regards giving away free content. What do I mean by that? Well, some authors use bookmarks and/or book plates, others do postcards or other samples that usually include the cover of one or more of their books and maybe a short bio. Booklets containing excerpts of your books is also a decent possibility, although that can get a bit pricey. What I’ve found personally rewarding are giving away samples of up to 25% of my work, sneak previews and my personal favorite: “additional features.” This might include things such as a reading guide or deleted scenes from the book. One author I think does a superior job of this kind of thing is Brandon Sanderson. Mark Coker, president and founder of Smashwords, recommends giving away up to 50% but I feel that’s a bit too much. PDFs of your work can be made free with tools like the Adobe PDF/XPS format add-in for Microsoft Office (2007), or one of my favorites: PrimoPDF. This is where the online presence I told you about comes in handy because you can then upload the file to places like Scribd. You can also try the handy Box.net if you don’t have a Web site. Start making it a habit to regularly distribute giveaways (with lots of samples of your writing), so that you can begin to draw a regular audience and build your readership. Ta-ta for now, and good writing to you.

Defining the Professional Author

2010-09-14T00:00:00.002-06:00

One of the claims by traditionally published authors is that authors who don't select the traditional publishing route aren't really professionals. Huh? The dictionary defines the adjective form of a professional as “participating for gain or livelihood in an activity often engaged in by amateurs.” The noun form is “one that engages in an activity professionally.” Fair enough and far be it from me to argue with the good folks at Merriam-Webster.
So let’s look at this another way, just for fun. I now have over a decade of experience as a “technology professional.” I paid more than $40,000.00 for my Bachelor of Science and attended 4 years of school (for which I wasn't compensated a dime). I've invested thousands of dollars more in books, magazines, and additional training (much of it out of my own pocket). At present, I consider myself pretty well-respected in technology circles and I don't think one person wouldn't agree I'm a “professional.” Every day I go to work and my employer compensates me for my time and skills—but remember that all of that didn't come without some significant financial investment on my part.
Okay, back to the self-published or alternative published author. Author A submits his/her manuscript through an agent/editor and is paid an advance (most of whom we're told will not earn that back due to horribly poor book sales). Now they are deemed worthy of the title “professional author.” Author B goes to CreateSpace or Lulu.com or Lightning Source, forks out anywhere from $5 to $5,000 and publishes his/her book. A book they wrote, revised (hopefully), designed a cover and interior layout for (possibly), and actively marketed. People buy copies of their book at book signings, on Amazon.com or directly from the publisher’s web site.
Now... what makes Author B any less of a professional than Author A? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Hmmm...crickets are getting kind of loud. Let’s just imagine for a moment both writers did the same amount of work, same amount of editing, wrote a novel that was about the same thing or in the same genre. Now again, I ask: why is Author A deemed a pro and Author B is not? Look, friends, I beg of you not to get dejected and buy into all the literary snobbery you read and hear these days. If someone pays you to read your work, you’re a professional author. Period. And if the slaves of traditional publishing think otherwise, well they’re entitled to their opinion but I say they’re wrong! Hey, they don’t like it they can take it up with the lexicographers.
I’ll let you in on a little wisdom. The reason our Founding Fathers made freedom of the press part of the First Amendment to the US Constitution had nothing to do with making sure Fox News Network got the same fair shake as ABC Nightline. The whole purpose was to ensure that every individual had equal access to write and publish their work! If you’re remotely educated and your history teachers did their job, you’ll know that a good majority of American colonists were writers and publishers of their work, many as a second form of self-employment. So here's my request of people like Laura Miller and some of these other “self-publishing/alternative publishing” naysayers wringing their hands and blubbering about quality. Start comparing apples to apples. There's nothing in my mind different about what one road an author chooses over another road, other than the roads they chose were different. And when it comes to quality of books? Let the readers decide!

The Tides of Change

2010-09-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

With Dorchester Publishing's announcement about transitioning to strictly E-book and trade paperback formats, it came as no surprise to learn they fired two of their senior editorial staff on August 19, 2010: Leah Hultenschmidt and Don D'Auria. The fact is, the publishing industry appears to continue down a shallow grade. Barnes & Noble is experiencing its own issues and many of its shareholders think that a minority stockholder may try for a grab.

Does all of this come as a shock to me? Not really. I don't think we'll see another Black Wednesday out of the deal, but I'm persuaded this is far from over. What's triggering it? I can't say with certainty but since most blogs are little more than opinion, I'll take a stab: poor business practices. I've mentioned before that the publishing industry has operated for a long time now with fiscal impunity and now they're paying for it. You cannot repeatedly give high advances to authors that don't earn them back and stay afloat. My job doesn't pay me ahead of time for work and with good reason. It's basic math and the numbers don't pan out.

I think there's enough evidence to postulate the number of authors seeking alternative means of publishing will continue to rise. It's become relatively cheap. In spite of the fact some naysayers claim "most self-published work is crap" (see Writers Beware Blogs for the latest turmoil in response to Publishers Weekly's announcement regarding self-publishing), there are a lot of authors, published and not, who seem determined to expose their work wherever they can.

Once more, only time will tell but it seems there's a fresh resurgence of non-traditionally published work and particularly with the "E-book revolution." Yeah... it's about to get interesting.

Marketing Resource and Tip #1

2010-09-12T15:33:00.001-06:00

One of the things I promised this blog would do is help authors with discovering great resources for marketing. What I won’t do here (other contributors are welcome) is regurgitate the work that’s already been done (outside of telling you about some of the things I’ve done that have worked and some that haven’t). So in this brief entry, I’m going to list a resource and render a tip—I will follow this model with each entry on marketing.

My resource recommendation for today is W. Terry Whalin’s The Writing Life. Why? Well for one thing, you may need to educate yourself on your profession, particularly if you’re a newer writer. You won’t get this stuff by osmosis—you must read and understand what’s happening in the business, and I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t have their finger on the pulse of the industry better than Terry due to his incredible experience as a speaker, author, former agent and currently a publisher (if you’re considering self-publishing Terry’s the man to talk to as he is Vice President of Intermedia Publishing Group). I recommend Terry because I’ve had both a personal and professional relationship with him for many years. He also gives away lots of free stuff so don’t be too shy to drop him a line to find out how to subscribe to those resources. Finally, please… please… please get a copy of his book Jump Start Your Publishing Dreams! Trust me when I say I’ve used the advice in this book. It works. And no, I don’t get any premiums, kickbacks or referral fees from Mr. Whalin. I’m here to HELP you, that’s my whole game with this blog. I won’t recommend any service that offers me a piece of the pie because then I couldn’t maintain impartiality or integrity. Some things can’t be bought, and my honor is one of them.

Now for today’s marketing tip from personal experience, I’ll try to answer this question: What if I already have something I’ve written? You have to get the message out, and the only way to do that in today’s information age is social networking and internet marketing. First, if you don’t have a website I would jump on that (doesn’t even really have to be your own website, simply view this as “an online presence”). Today, you don’t have to be a technology genius to get a site up and going. Web hosting is cheaply available (as low as $5.00 per month for hosting and $8.00 per year for domain name registration). I use Silver Webs Hosting and I love them for two reasons:

A two-year web site hosting package (including domain name registration) cost me $103.10. Trust me, that’s a steal!
They offer installable applications like WordPress (for Linux hosting) or Tandem Server (for Windows hosting) that make getting even a blog-style Web site loaded in minutes.

Naturally, you want to try for getting <yournamehere>.com or .net. However, if that’s not available then go for something memorable. Maybe the title of your work, for example, particularly if it’s your first book. If a low-cost option isn’t feasible right now, then there are a half-dozen free solutions including:

Blogger (if you’re reading this, you obviously you know what this is!);
LinkedIn is a great way to get started showing off your professional status as an author;
Facebook is another awesome social networking tool.

If you’re interested in spreading word about your material, go offer samples of your work via upload to places like Smashwords. For the latter, however, I do not recommend posting anything that is less than 50,000 words unless short fiction is your forte—you won’t gain any respect on a partial book (just as you wouldn’t submitting to an agent or publisher); it violates Smashwords policy anyway to publish incomplete works. In the case of short fiction, try setting up an account at Scribd.com; again, you can upload samples and whole books free. You can also establish this account using your Facebook account, if you wish, which will start to get you connected with others interested in the same thing you are: writing and publishing!

Best wishes and watch for the next Marketing Resource/Tip posting from me on Wednesday, 9/15/2010. Auf wiedersehen!

Making Self-Pubbed Books Returnable.

2010-09-10T08:17:00.005-06:00

First off, let me thank Jon for making me a contributor. I will try not to let him down or make him sorry he did such a thing. ;)

Many self-pubbed authors hook-up with POD publishers such as Ingram's Lightning Source or Book Masters and even Create Space to take advantage of printing services and DISTRIBUTION services these companies offer. Yes. I capitalized distribution. It's an important word.

Here's what you need to pay attention to. Most POD publishers give you an option: you can either make your book returnable or not. Most POD publishers will tell you that you NEED to make your book returnable for bookstores to order it. The fact is that if you do make your POD published book returnable bookstores might be more likely to order it but only to return it shortly thereafter because the bookstore won't promote it nor will they make any effort to sell it. They don't have to. They don't make any money off of small pubbed authors books.

Big deal, you say. At least it had a chance to sell.

Actually, because of the return policy set in place during the depression by publishers who decided to help bookstores out, it isn't smart for a self-pubbed author to make their books returnable at all. In fact, it pretty much ensures they will never make anything off what they sell.

The return policy set up for bookstores during the depression states that bookstores could return books anytime they like no matter what shape the book was in no matter how long they had the book and still receive a full refund. In many instances they only had to return the front cover. They were supposed to trash the coverless books but we've all seen these for sale with those wonderful words, "do not buy this book if it doesn't have a cover."

I'll give you an example of how making your books returnable can be a bad thing. I recently signed up with LSI (Lightning Source) after reading and liking the way they said they did things. The first report I received for my first month of sales indicated that I sold ten books. Well, I was elated--initially. Two came back. Even this didn't bother me as I surely made more money than I lost. Wrong. I actually lost money and the reason goes back to that return policy.

No POD publisher that I've found actually gives you the option to have the "returned" book given back to you so you can actually try to re-sell it. This means not only did you lose your profit, you also eat the print cost. LSI, in their mode of operation PDF offers you three options:

1. Yes, destroy. Meaning your book is returnable but you want it destroyed.
2. Yes but don't destroy - inferring that you get your returned book back.
3. Don't make it returnable.

I called to discuss option two with them as this sounded like the smartest route to go. LSI told me that no matter how the option reads, and it clearly states you get your returned book back, you actually can not get your returned book back. What happens when you choose option two is that they send you a "newly printed" book and charge you $2.00 but no printing fee. Okay. So you're only out half of your printing fee that you lost when the original book (that you'll never see again) was printed.

Also I was told that, and I'm sure they'll never admit to this, LSI never actually accepts returned books back because it would costs them too much to go through and sort them all out as Ingram and Baker & Taylor and all the other distributors simply return them in one big shipment and of course it costs to have books shipped back so they never actually ever see the returned books. My next question was that if the books aren't actually returned to LSI, who destroys them. All they could say was that they could assure me the books were destroyed.

There is an entire industry out there of distributors who make money off selling returned-from-the-bookstore books to retail stores such as Books-A-Million. Where do you think they get these books to sell?

LSI doesn't destroy the books. No POD publisher destroys the books. The distributors such as Ingram sell them outright to these wholesalers and the author never sees any profit from his work. There are thirteen copies of Forever Richard sitting on the shelf of my local Books-A-Million yet they can't order any other copies when they're gone. The copies they have were books returned from bookstores when Book Masters oversold my title to earn a commission than stuck it to my second publisher who couldn't survive under the fees they charged them for returned books that they never saw again. I ordered books from Book Masters once with my author discount and received ten copies of returned-from-the-bookstore books some of which were signed and dated and still had the Barnes & Nobles sticker on them.

The moral of the story: Don't make your self-pubbed books returnable unless you're ready to lose more money than you can afford to lose. Bookstores will still order your books if they aren't returnable. They order mine all day long and they're not returnable. I shared that with a writer friend this past weekend at a Horror Convention. I told him that large book stores would indeed order books that weren't returnable that they placed mine all the time. His response, "That's because you're Sue f*#%$in' Dent." ;D

Whatever. They will order them.

Okay Jon. Ready to make me a non-contributor now?

Love ya.

The Self-Publishing Debate (part 4)

2010-09-10T00:00:00.000-06:00

In this fourth and final entry on the self-publishing debate, I want to tackle the semantics of what it means to "self-publish." This particular area has been its own topic in microcosm on self-publishing but the reality of this booming venue isn't everything writers might think it is. I abhor disinformation (probably why I never worked for the CIA), hence my reasons for illuminating this particular area. It goes without saying but I'll reiterate this is my opinion based on an informed study; don't take it as "absolute truth." Only God has that.

When I first published Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure through CreateSpace I thought I was self-published. However, in a recent look at the Independent Self-Publishers Alliance I've changed my views on what it means to be self-published. While it might seem like a trivial distinction to many, a change in mindset actually helped me understand the real paradigm in the publishing industry and the boom of writers now publishing their own print and eBooks.

I've broken this paradigm into three areas:

Traditional publishing
Alternative publishing
Self-publishing

Traditional publishing involves submitting your manuscript to an agent or editor, signing a contract with a publisher and working with that publisher's resources to get the book into print. In other words, you're selling a "manuscript" that the publisher will eventually transform into a book (if you're lucky). Most books through traditional publishers are the ones you'll see that land on the shelves of brick and mortar retailers (e.g., Barnes & Noble, Borders, and so forth). You might even sell a few copies. Also, you typically give away some intellectual rights and, by so doing, reduce the number of other venues in which you can publish. This might include giving that publisher rights for eBooks—a VERY hot industry topic right now—along with foreign language and drama (television, radio, movie) rights. Once you put ink to paper, you're typically stuck with the deal and outside of the writing you will have little to no influence on any other creative aspects like cover art, interior layout, marketing and so forth. Maybe you don't like that thought but let's face it; traditional publishers really are the experts when it comes to marketing "their" books—that's right when you publish with a traditional publisher it's not really "your" book anymore, so don't get mired in trying to tell them otherwise. They won't listen to you. Examples of traditional publishing houses include Penguin/Putnam, Random House and Thomas Nelson.

Alternative publishing is where you submit your manuscript to a publisher and at some level you may have to subsidize costs. These costs might range from $10 to $10,000 or more, and they cover a range of services. Some of these services can include cover design, editing, printing, marketing, distribution, consulting services and on the list goes ad nauseum. How much you pay is based solely on the alternative publisher you select and what they offer in the way of product and services. And that's where the lines have become fuzzy. You see, a large percentage of these publishers claim they're putting the power of "self-publishing" in your hands; not really and that's where my mindset has changed. If these companies are taking any money from you at all, in up front fees or royalties, then you couldn't really view that as self-publishing because you invested something but you did not get a 100% return on the investment. The best way I can do this is by using the CreateSpace model as one example, and to make things interesting I'll assign some values based on estimates over the life of my thirteen plus years as a professional writer. So here's how we'll tackle this:

Assumptions:

Hourly rate for writing/editing:	$ 50.00
x 120 hours per book (average):	$6,000.00
CreateSpace Professional fee:	$ 39.00
Proof copy (incl. shipping):	$ 10.00
Total investment:	$6,099.00

Now, I publish a 300-page book through CreateSpace at a retail price of $13.99, and make it available through all outlets. I can buy copies at $4.83 (assuming I pay the $39 professional fee) add about $1.00 per book for shipping. If I sell that copy myself I make a profit of $8.16 per book (about 66%). Every copy sold on Amazon.com makes me $3.68 or 40%. Every copy sold through CreateSpace's eStore makes me $6.48 per copy or 60%. By the way, I've only ever sold one book through their eStore—to my sister who could not wait for me to send her free copy. I've found CreateSpace doesn't advertise their eStore very well at all. Hmmm… I wonder why? Could it have something to do with the 60% profit to me? Finally, every copy sold through expanded distribution channels—which CreateSpace alleges is retailers, distributors, colleges, libraries and CreateSpace's retailer program—makes me 88 cents or 6%. Oh… goodie. Then there's what I like to call "The Kindle Nexus." This is where I format my manuscript and, with a little investment of time, I make my books available on the Kindle reader. My rate is 70% per copy based on the retail price. Period. Maximum price I can set to get that rate is between $2.99 and $9.99. Of course, I can publish that book in as many formats as I wish (i.e., foreign language editions) since I own the Worldwide language rights. I can also pull my book from sale and/or distribution from any of these publishers at any time. For the most part, I maintain 100% creative control on my literary properties.

So the best way to make a profit is obviously to sell it myself. How many copies would I have to sell to "break even" on my investment? Nearly 900 books! And that's just to recuperate my own costs. Now, I could lower the bar on my hourly rate but why should I? I feel my writing is worth $50.00 per hour because the work-for-hires I've done the past 13 years net me that much. Of course, I have no "costs" in the publishing of those books. I write the book, I get paid (albeit how little it is). So that valuation is based on current rates being paid by publishers for work-made-for-hires. Traditional publishers pay more or less, obviously, because it depends on the advance amount. Given my experience and skill as a writer, any advance I received from a traditional publisher would still probably yield that $50 per hour rate, so I'll stick with it.

Then there’s self-publishing and that definition has become very clear for me: self-publishing comes down to starting your own company, buying ISBN blocks and LCCN numbers, editing manuscripts, creating covers (or paying someone to do it), finding a print-on-demand printer like Lightning Source, paying marketing groups, establishing relationships with book buyers and joining distribution "biggies" like Ingram Book Group, Baker & Taylor and Bowker. In this scenario, you are then truly "self-published" because you sink 100% of the cost into it and you retain 100% of the profits (less what these bloodsucking taxes take… or I should stay "steal").

At this point and time in my life, the alternative publishing option through CreateSpace and Smashwords works for me. And believe me when I say there are dozens of these types of alternative publishing companies, all with slightly different variations on a theme in how much of YOUR money they take. That's not to say I'm “pushing” CreateSpace or Smashwords, only that I can speak to my experiences because this is the alternative publishing route I've chosen. Here, let me just name some others randomly so nobody feels they're getting a raw deal: Westbow Press, Dellarte Press, Lulu, OutskirtsPress, AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris. There! I'm sure I've missed a few… hundred.

In closing, I advise you to do your homework. Find what works for you and then do that. But whatever you do, understand the differences in the self-publishing debate and look at all sides of the issue. And don't sign any stupid contracts. Get an agent or attorney if you're not sure; no, don't consult your mom unless she's high up in a major publishing firm or an experienced literary attorney. I sincerely hope the information and opinions I've provided in this mini-series help you on your quest to publish your work.

The Self-Publishing Debate (part 3)

2010-09-09T00:00:00.000-06:00

In part 1 of this Saturday-morning-style serial, I discussed the ongoing self-publishing debate and then expanded on dispelling some of the myths about self-publishing in part 2. Now I'll talk about the benefits of publishing via traditional means and how getting a contract with one of the big houses in New York can do wonders for your career.

"Traditional publishing means an advance."
Typically, the amount of an advance offered by a traditional publisher can range anywhere from $2,000.00 to $25,000.00 in most cases—particularly for first time writers. Very rarely do writers make the huge advances you hear about (like author Christopher Reich who got a whopping $750,000.00 for his first novel Numbered Account or Nicholas Sparks' $1 million take for The Notebook). Remember: approximately 92% of writers will never earn out their advances.

"Traditionally published books are likely to receive more retailer and media attention."
This is true because big publishers have the marketing and distribution muscle to get an author's name out there. They have book sales personnel who travel the retail circuit; they know book reviewers for all the major newspapers and magazines; they're cozy with radio and television show hosts; they can draw on or recommend successful book publicists and marketing strategies. How much they spend on these markets will depend largely upon the advance they pay (see above). In other words, high advance equals lots of marketing dollars; low advance equals squat.

"Having an agent increases your chances of being traditionally published."
If you have a good agent who knows the business and is connected, then it does improve your chances some. Agents act as the intermediary for the editors at publishing companies who are already overworked and underpaid (so they claim), although I'm not certain what they're doing because they have assistants to read incoming slush and answer the phones. I've never understood the role of the modern editor in publishing companies other than I know they spend a lot of time championing (even "justifying") books they believe should be published with the marketing and sales departments, which are the ones with the final decision-making authority on what makes it to print. However, since I've never been an editor I won't claim to have the exclusive scoop. It’s true your chances of getting read by a major house increase exponentially if represented by a good agent. Of course, you'll have to give an agent part of your cut.

"I have a traditionally published book so now I can quit my day job and write full time."
Hold on there, tiger (or tigress)! Don't go run out and buy that dream home in the Hamptons you've always wanted. Even if you managed a big payday there's a lot of work ahead of you. Being traditionally published can benefit your career but there are also some things you have to bear in mind. First, you'll need to produce a book every six to nine months. You ready to do that? Second, you'll have to rewrite your current book. A lot! Finally, you need to set aside quite a bit of your advance for marketing efforts. That's right—your publisher is not going to pay your first class airline tickets to the ten major cities where you've scheduled your book signings. Sorry.

"Traditionally published books lead to more sales avenues than self-published books."
This is very true because they have the better exposure. Other sales avenues to consider include motion picture options, audio, e-book, trade and mass market formats and—the biggie—foreign language rights. Make sure when you negotiate on the contract (which you'll probably be coordinating with an agent or literary attorney) that you keep as many rights as you can. Don't sign away "everything and in perpetuity" or I guarantee you'll get screwed. And whatever you do, get as much money as you can up front!

I hope this has given you a good look into some of the benefits of going with traditional publishers in this self-publishing debate. Keep your eyes open to what's presently happening in the industry because you're going to continue to see things change rapidly. This is an exciting time to watch what's unfolding between the traditionally published and self-published. It's personally bittersweet for me to be a writer in this era.

The Self-Publishing Debate (part 2)

2010-09-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

I hadn't planned to write more on this subject but it's vast enough, and has recently garnered enough interest, that it seemed like it would be fun to look at it in more detail. An entry posted at the Association of Christian Writers in January of this year garnered a whopping 24 responses. And this is a United Kingdom-based group, which means this hotbed of debate seems to be an international one.

I can only speak for myself here, but I'd like to tackle some of the common arguments against self-publishing with a dose of informed reality:

"Self-publishing costs a lot of money."
Bunk! I published my last two books for $39.00 each + cover art photographs ranging anywhere from $7-20. That's it! I then purchase my copies at a very steep discount and sell them myself, which is where I make the highest profit. (I also permit them to be sold on Amazon.com, by the publisher and to libraries and colleges).

"You cannot get a self-published book into brick and mortar bookstores."
Wrong! My books sit on the shelves of Borders, Barnes & Noble and a number of independent retailers—most have done commission although Borders bought straight up with 50/50 split. At my launch signing I sold 12 of the 25 books they bought. Naturally, they welcomed me to come back any time. Another bookstore took three of my books on commission and all of them sold, again at a signing.

"Self-published books don't have the quality of traditionally published books."
That decision is entirely up to me. If I don't edit my books, or have them proof-read and edited before publishing them—and if I don't review my proof copy for a very low price from the publisher—the books I self-published would be of very low quality. If I'm too cheap to fork out a few bucks for a good photograph, then I can't expect to compete with traditional publishers who spend thousands on their cover art. However, I produce very high quality covers through CreateSpace. Look at my book covers here on my site or Amazon.com. I challenge anyone who says they aren't as good as the vast majority of book covers.

"An author who self-publishes loses all of their rights."
I read my contracts carefully and I can assure you that I own ALL the rights to my works published through CreateSpace, including all formats. I can publish them anywhere else I wish; I can published them in any language I wish. I published them through Kindle because I retained my Worldwide rights. I know I can do this because I know my rights related to Pan American and International copyright laws.

"Authors don't make much from a self-published book."
Really? Okay, let's do some simple math. If my book Chaser were sold via a traditional publisher I would make approximately 56 cents per copy. That's a fact and here's why. An author's take (if they get a decent deal) is 15% of the net. The net is what the publisher gets after the standard 55% trade retail discount. Then of my 15% I might have to hand over at least 15% to an agent (a high probability due to the fact I couldn't get a big publisher to pick me up unless I had an agent to begin with). My average royalty on self-published books: 40-75% per copy. I'll take the latter deal, thanks!

"Self-published books don't sell nearly as well as traditionally published books."
I love this because the exact same industry that makes this claim also admits 90% or more of all books published will sell an average of 500 copies and go out of print within a year. As Soul Runner: A Novel of High Adventure just broke the 200 copy mark since being published August 31, 2009, I'm already halfway there. And it's still selling both in paperback and on Kindle. And guess what? It'll never go out of print!

That's it for this entry. Next time I'll present the cons of self-publishing. That's right, I'll actually talk about the benefits of the traditional publishing industry. It's not all bad by a long shot, and I'm confident readers will want to know more about that said. Plus I believe in looking at both sides of any argument, a habit that comes from having a college professor who always said: "An uninformed opinion is neither worth having nor expressing." (Thanks, Bill!) I'm also working on an eBook on my experiences with self- publishing. Hey… I think I'll self-publish it!

Self-Publishing Debate Continues

2010-09-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

The debate appears to continue on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. In fact, from Jerry D. Simmons to Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt to Salon.com author Laura Miller the opinions are strong and varied. At the end of the day, though, they're just that: opinions. The difference on who you'll listen to ought to be based on what facts are used to inform those opinions.

I'm more intrigued by the fact there's so much passionate debate on this subject. If authors now have the means available to them to publish their own work at low cost and sell their books only to a niche audience willing to buy them, why are "industry professionals" up at arms? I believe it comes down to money and power! The publishing industry isn't going to make as much money because they now see an already overcrowded market becoming more populous. The titles of their best-selling authors will now have to compete with similar titles by new voices—some of them fresh and creative, I might add. They don't like that. The fact anybody can now publish, and inexpensively too, also means the power has been taken away from the marketing departments who have been the alleged pundits of what the public wants to or should be reading.

Do I have any proof of this woeful tale I spin? Not really other than I see the recent rise in disagreeable exchanges between Amazon.com and Macmillan CEO John Sargent, or price wars between Amazon.com and discount retailers. While much of the more recent gusto has been on eBooks, the arguments continue for and against self-publishing (I've used Amazon.com a lot because authors can now publish their eBooks for Kindle free and retain a 70% royalty rate).

At the end of the day, my position is this: my written works are mine. They belong to me legally, morally and ethically except where I sign a contract that says they don't. I've never been much for giving others control of my writing, and I'm even more disinclined to do so in this day and age when I know I would receive a very small percentage of compensation going through traditional publishing channels.

Excluding those books I've written for Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. (a company who hasn't given me one raise in the more than ten years I've been writing for them, by the way), the remainder of my work is original and that's where I see a chance at succeeding in self-publishing. I simply don't have the time or patience to deal with the "machine" unless it's in my best interests. In other words, they better offer a decent advance because it's likely the only money I'll see. Otherwise, I'd much rather maintain control over my work as well as the largest percent of the profit therein than put all my sweat and blood into something only to have everyone but me profit by it—even if that profit isn't a lot. I don't recommend any writer go that route.

At the end of the day, the argument about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing is a personal and individual one. Consider your reasons for wanting to self-publish and if they seem in line with your goals and dreams than I say go for it! Stop letting others influence your decisions; investigate the various opportunities available, consider those carefully by getting the facts and then make a decision. Writing and publishing books isn't hard; selling books is hard. Work smart, not hard.