Why Some Don’t Do It
One of the chief reasons, that has been sighted over and over again, for writers to willingly keep their careers trapped in the dogmatic, narrow-minded, and outdated box known as, traditional publishing, is they needs are ’taken care of’ for them in the publishing process. Publishing mid-list writers seem to enjoy this perceived comfort and are unaware – or don’t mind – being taken advantage of by the industry.
Make no mistake, a writer that just signed that first multibook deal more than likely let their agent do all the talking and didn’t once have their contract looked at by an IP lawyer to make sure they weren’t getting screwed down the line.
J. A. Konrath has a great post on his blog about Big Pub’s screwing of the writer and should be looked at by anyone still on the fence about this issue. He breaks it down by the numbers and anyone still unsure will at least have solid information to consider. Check it out here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/05/exploited-writers-in-unfair-industry.html
Two blog posts from writers stating they don’t self-publish are prime examples of the mentality that Big Pub banks on to keep their control of writers.
I quote speculative fiction writer Kat Howard from her post: http://strangeink.blogspot.com/2012/05/overnight-success-thousands-of-nights.html
“But for me, right now, it’s not the right choice. I don’t want to learn how to convert my manuscript files into ebook files, or to learn how to make those files readable across a variety of platforms. (And no, I am not asking for advice on how to do this or reassurances that it is easy.) I don’t want to have to find and pay for content editing, or copy editing. I don’t want to have to find and get permission to use cover art, or commission cover art. I don’t want to have to research pricing, or worry that my book is suddenly going to be discounted or given away free without my knowledge or permission. I don’t want to immerse myself in any of the business parts of being a publisher. I want to put my time and energy into writing.”
Keeping in mind that I do not know Ms. Howard, have never spoken to her, or read any of her work, it seems there is a lot that she wants someone else to do for her. She seemingly has put complete faith in an establishment that is long accomplished in looking out for itself and not the writers who create the material they sell to stuff their coffers every year.
The telling part of this quote is:
“I don’t want to immerse myself in any of the business parts of being a publisher. I want to put my time and energy into writing.”
This looks good on paper, but unless your J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, or James Patterson, this qualifies as pipe-dream, IMO.
For Ferret Steinmetz, the reasoning is a little different but its worth mentioning.
In his post: http://theferrett.livejournal.com/1722391.html, he says:
“I write better for publishers.
I’m inherently lazy, and I’m pretty sure if I was just writing for people who already liked me, I’d do two or three drafts and call it a day. I’m not in competition with anyone but myself, and revising is a real pain in the ass, so without that pressure I’m pretty sure I’d slack off.”
At least, in this case, writing is being treated as a job. But how is self-publishing not the same competition? Mr. Steinmartz goes on to say that he may only revise two or three times if he was self-pubbing versus revising five or six times when writing for a publisher!!! He says this yields a better story. Possibly so, but again, why is the NY gatekeeper required in order for someone to put that much work into a story? The same amount of revision would suck the same amount of life out of a story no matter who it was done for.
The answer, of course, is validation – the other big crutch writers lean on with it comes to rationalizing why they stay with big pub. If a NY gatekeeper says to make so-and-so edits and its a good story, then it means something, right? Wouldn’t feedback from some good beta readers produce the same result?
In the post, he says his publisher has told him there is an uptick in traffic when he mentions his books in his blog.
And why would this not work if he self-published??? Of course it would. It works the exact same way. The only difference? 15% of net (at best), vs. 70%.
The only part of Mr. Steinmartz’s reason that makes any kind of sense is he thought that when submitting to Asimov’s or one of the other professional level publications he can is in competition with the best in the industry. Of course, we all want to know where we stand when our work is side-by-side with others, but that is no reason writer’s to keep themselves shackled as ‘house slaves’ (see Michael Stackpole’s post: http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=2887)
I do have to be perfectly clear here: I’m NOT saying don’t sign a traditional book contract EVER. I AM saying don’t let yourself get screwed. If you sign a deal, make sure it is a GOOD deal that serves you. Remember that MONEY FLOWS TO THE WRITER.
We are so fortunate to have a choice now. Exercise that choice to its fullest.
Strategy vs Tactics and Knowing The Difference in Writing
Marketing stuff. Writing stuff. How do you keep them separate? Ans: you don’t. You shouldn’t. VIPub (Vertically Integrated Publishing) means you’re doing it all, so it is one huge stewpot. But knowing the difference between what goes into the stew and the pot itself is important.
A VIPub author needs to create a brand. A reader has to look at a title, see your name and think “good experiences before.” The brand is like that pot.
‘Select’ results are in…
No need to break this down with a bunch of numbers and complicated formulas. Others, who can do it better, already have to great excess. I’ll keep it simple.
The Kindle Select program has been a big subject of discussion among writers since it came out last year. A novel concept; add ebooks to a lending library and those authors share a pool of money based on the number of times their books are borrowed.
The biggest hitch for most people, of course, has always been the requirement that the book submitted to the program be made exclusive to Amazon for the ninety day enrollment period, you must make your ebook available for free for five days of your choice during that period. During the free period, you don’t receive any revenue from the giveaways.
If one looked at it so simplistically, the natural reaction would be; “Give it away for free? Are you insane?”
No.
I tried participated in this program from January to March of this year and I’m calling it a success. ‘Success’, of course is a subjective term.
I gave away just shy of 200 copies of ‘Tully’. I didn’t experience the noticeable bump in sales that others have reported. As a matter of fact, I managed to match my best sales month, but that’s it. How can I call this a success?
I got a review. Not a ’5-star’. This reviewer, who has at least several hundred reviews posted, gave me 3 stars with some well-reasoned comments…and another comment aimed directly at me that could be interpreted as calling me a chauvinist, but that’s beside the point.
For me, one of the best parts of this review was that it was all about the story and NOT about the ebook product. There were no complaints about formatting or typos or anything of the other things that plague a lot of self-publish ebooks.
Now, I’ve said I didn’t experience a boost in sales as far as quantity. However after this review, I matched my personal best in monthly sales in a week, pushing me as high as #57,000 or so on Amazon. That was significant for me. I also hit the top 2500 in the free Kindle store, which tells me that the presentation of my product was probably pretty good.
I will do this again, soon with ‘George and the Brain’. I’m redesigning the cover and will likely retitle the story. I’ve never really liked it.
After this experience, I have to agree with Michael Stackpole that this isn’t something I’d want to do with a new release, but it is a very good tool for pumping some life into a story that’s been out for a good period of time and has slipped between the cracks of the rest of your inventory.
Still Under De-Reconstruction
The first read through and mark up of CrossRoads at Logan’s Outreach is still a work in progress. What I’ve learned is shutting down everything internally, except the ‘pure story’ part of the mind during the furious frenzy that is NaNoWriMo, is one of the most exhilarating experiences a new writer can have when it’s working and the words are flowing. However, the result that ends up on the page is vastly different from what you thought it was when you dig it up and look at it after a long period of time.
That’s not to say its ‘bad’. I still think there’s a good story there to be told. But this manuscript suffers from POV issues that I’ve been told about from beta readers of previous stories. I didn’t really get it until now. I keep morphing from third-person limited into a sloppy third person omniscient and back again. This is fixable and it will be a lot of fun to this work , and future works, come out tighter and more engaging to the reader going forward. I expect this would be much less of an issue, had I been constantly writing (practicing), instead of allowing life rolls to force me in long layoffs.
I also found I really had what could be three different beginnings to this book, rather than the first three chapters. That’ll take some work to resolve, but not impossible.
I’m not finished with this read through, but its moving right along and I’m excited about the process.
Let this be a lesson, boys and girls: never stop practicing.
