I've always known that if I wanted to write a best-selling novel, rather than a critically acclaimed one, I would have two choices:
Come up with a great commercial idea and write it in a stripped back, fast style, leaving out what I think are the lovely bits - the meaningful ideas or powerful description.
Hope for the Unpredictable Fairy to bless my book.
Now, however, there is something so
Minggu, 08 Agustus 2010
Jumat, 06 Agustus 2010
The Beginning of the End?
Dorchester just announced it is cutting its mass market paperback line and focusing on ebooks.
A few months ago, Medallion announced the same thing.
I've heard, through sources who asked not to be named, that sell-through for paperbacks is as bad as 20%. In other words, out of ten printed, only two sell.
Now what's going to happen if more publishers follow this business model?
Here's a possible scenario.
1. Fewer paperbacks are published. Publishers either eliminate their paperback lines, or begin publishing more selectively, in smaller numbers, to cut costs and losses.
2. Bookstores have fewer books on their shelves, and sell fewer books as a result. Which means less money to the publishers.
3. Publishers downsize, since the ebook market, though growing, doesn't bring in the same money as print does. In order to maintain positive cash flow, they bill their accounts to pay up.
4. Their accounts--bookstores and distributors--can't pay up. They don't have the money to pay for the books they've sold--which they bought on credit. So they begin returning other books on the shelves to get credit for those.
5. Now there are far fewer books on the shelves, which means far fewer sales.
So when publishers stop printing as many books as they are now, the delicate balance will shift.
What does this mean to you, the author?
The main reason we need publishers is for distribution. We can't get into Wal-Mart or Borders on own own. They can. So we accept 8% royalties in order to sell a lot of books. But if publishers are no longer printing books, there is ZERO reason to sign with them, because they no longer have that advantage. Especially when we can earn 70% royalties on our own.
If you do sign with a publisher, make sure it contains a clause that states they MUST release it in print, or revert the rights back to you. Make sure there is specific wording for "out of print" that doesn't include ebook sales.
But, if you do sign with a publisher, do you think you'll ever get your rights back?
Let's say I'm running a publishing company. I see ebooks are the future, and I've got three new authors coming out in print. I gave these authors healthy advances, and there's no way they'll earn out these advances with print sales.
Their contracts state the only way they'll get rights back is if the books go out of print. But if I'm making all of my money on ebooks, and I'm still not close to earning back the advance money I gave the author, I simply can't allow the books to go out of print.
What should I do, as a publisher? If a book is selling very few print copies, but a lot of ebook copies, what are my options?
Now, we all know that publishers are honest, and their accounting is always truthful. But what if, when facing bankruptcy, some unscrupulous publisher (as opposed to all the honest ones) decide to artificially keep a book in print in order to keep earning ebook royalties?
Here's an imaginary example.
Joe Blow gets a $50k book deal with Publisher X. Publisher X cuts the print run because they're having some money trouble, and ships out 30k copies. The book does so-so, and has a 30% sell-though. Of those 9000 copies sold at $6.99 each, Joe Blow earns $5040.
So the publisher is in the red for $45k (probably more, but we'll stick to the advance..)
However, the book is doing well as an ebook, and has sold 5,000 copies. And unlike the print books, which dwindle down to a few hundred per year, the ebook stays strong.
5,000 ebooks sold, at $6.99 each, equals $6,100 in royalties.
Let's look at the royalty numbers for the first few years.
Year 1
Print: $5040
Ebook: $6100
Year 2
Print : $1020
Ebook: $7,200
Year 3
Print: $302
Ebook: $9,000
Year 4
Print: $51
Ebook: $12,500
Now the publisher has a problem. Joe Blow has earned out $41,213 of his $50,000 advance. By year 5, he'll certainly earn it out. But his book is pretty much out of print, which means the publisher has to revert the rights back to the author, on a book that is earning money.
The publisher may be reluctant to do that, for obvious reasons. So what should Publisher X do?
Maybe, incredibly, they sold more print books in Year 4 than they originally thought. Maybe they tell Joe Blow they owe him $1500 for print sales--which is enough to say the book is still in print, and then they still have the rights.
Will Joe Blow ever get his rights back?
Now let's look at what would happen if Joe Blow never sold the book at all. He self-pubs at $2.99, earning $2.04 royalty per book.
Using the same sales figures as above, let's see what he makes.
Year 1: $10,200
Year 2: $12,039
Year 3: $15,049
Year 4: $20,901
Looks like Joe earned $41,213 through his publisher, and $58,189 on his own. Plus he still owes the publisher $8787 on his advance.
Chances are, Joe will earn out his advance in Year 5, and then make a steady $10k per year off of this title, through his publisher.
If he'd kept the rights, he'd be making $20k in Year 5, and every year after that. But my numbers assume he'd sell the same number of books at his publisher's $6.99 price as he would at his own $2.99 price--which is doubtful. The $2.99 price will sell a lot more, based on my experience.
So how much money is Joe Blow losing in the long run by signing with a print publisher? Will Joe ever get his rights back when "creative accounting" comes into play?
Now, I know this scenario takes a lot of liberty with reality. None of us can imagine a future where publishers would knowingly fudge numbers. And we all know that print will remain the dominant force in publishing for years to come, even if publishers are printing fewer books and even dropping their print lines completely.
Right?
A few months ago, Medallion announced the same thing.
I've heard, through sources who asked not to be named, that sell-through for paperbacks is as bad as 20%. In other words, out of ten printed, only two sell.
Now what's going to happen if more publishers follow this business model?
Here's a possible scenario.
1. Fewer paperbacks are published. Publishers either eliminate their paperback lines, or begin publishing more selectively, in smaller numbers, to cut costs and losses.
2. Bookstores have fewer books on their shelves, and sell fewer books as a result. Which means less money to the publishers.
3. Publishers downsize, since the ebook market, though growing, doesn't bring in the same money as print does. In order to maintain positive cash flow, they bill their accounts to pay up.
4. Their accounts--bookstores and distributors--can't pay up. They don't have the money to pay for the books they've sold--which they bought on credit. So they begin returning other books on the shelves to get credit for those.
5. Now there are far fewer books on the shelves, which means far fewer sales.
So when publishers stop printing as many books as they are now, the delicate balance will shift.
What does this mean to you, the author?
The main reason we need publishers is for distribution. We can't get into Wal-Mart or Borders on own own. They can. So we accept 8% royalties in order to sell a lot of books. But if publishers are no longer printing books, there is ZERO reason to sign with them, because they no longer have that advantage. Especially when we can earn 70% royalties on our own.
If you do sign with a publisher, make sure it contains a clause that states they MUST release it in print, or revert the rights back to you. Make sure there is specific wording for "out of print" that doesn't include ebook sales.
But, if you do sign with a publisher, do you think you'll ever get your rights back?
Let's say I'm running a publishing company. I see ebooks are the future, and I've got three new authors coming out in print. I gave these authors healthy advances, and there's no way they'll earn out these advances with print sales.
Their contracts state the only way they'll get rights back is if the books go out of print. But if I'm making all of my money on ebooks, and I'm still not close to earning back the advance money I gave the author, I simply can't allow the books to go out of print.
What should I do, as a publisher? If a book is selling very few print copies, but a lot of ebook copies, what are my options?
Now, we all know that publishers are honest, and their accounting is always truthful. But what if, when facing bankruptcy, some unscrupulous publisher (as opposed to all the honest ones) decide to artificially keep a book in print in order to keep earning ebook royalties?
Here's an imaginary example.
Joe Blow gets a $50k book deal with Publisher X. Publisher X cuts the print run because they're having some money trouble, and ships out 30k copies. The book does so-so, and has a 30% sell-though. Of those 9000 copies sold at $6.99 each, Joe Blow earns $5040.
So the publisher is in the red for $45k (probably more, but we'll stick to the advance..)
However, the book is doing well as an ebook, and has sold 5,000 copies. And unlike the print books, which dwindle down to a few hundred per year, the ebook stays strong.
5,000 ebooks sold, at $6.99 each, equals $6,100 in royalties.
Let's look at the royalty numbers for the first few years.
Year 1
Print: $5040
Ebook: $6100
Year 2
Print : $1020
Ebook: $7,200
Year 3
Print: $302
Ebook: $9,000
Year 4
Print: $51
Ebook: $12,500
Now the publisher has a problem. Joe Blow has earned out $41,213 of his $50,000 advance. By year 5, he'll certainly earn it out. But his book is pretty much out of print, which means the publisher has to revert the rights back to the author, on a book that is earning money.
The publisher may be reluctant to do that, for obvious reasons. So what should Publisher X do?
Maybe, incredibly, they sold more print books in Year 4 than they originally thought. Maybe they tell Joe Blow they owe him $1500 for print sales--which is enough to say the book is still in print, and then they still have the rights.
Will Joe Blow ever get his rights back?
Now let's look at what would happen if Joe Blow never sold the book at all. He self-pubs at $2.99, earning $2.04 royalty per book.
Using the same sales figures as above, let's see what he makes.
Year 1: $10,200
Year 2: $12,039
Year 3: $15,049
Year 4: $20,901
Looks like Joe earned $41,213 through his publisher, and $58,189 on his own. Plus he still owes the publisher $8787 on his advance.
Chances are, Joe will earn out his advance in Year 5, and then make a steady $10k per year off of this title, through his publisher.
If he'd kept the rights, he'd be making $20k in Year 5, and every year after that. But my numbers assume he'd sell the same number of books at his publisher's $6.99 price as he would at his own $2.99 price--which is doubtful. The $2.99 price will sell a lot more, based on my experience.
So how much money is Joe Blow losing in the long run by signing with a print publisher? Will Joe ever get his rights back when "creative accounting" comes into play?
Now, I know this scenario takes a lot of liberty with reality. None of us can imagine a future where publishers would knowingly fudge numbers. And we all know that print will remain the dominant force in publishing for years to come, even if publishers are printing fewer books and even dropping their print lines completely.
Right?
Kamis, 05 Agustus 2010
SYNOPSIS FOR A NON-LINEAR STORY
Bugger, I am now under serious pressure from Twitter "friends" to say something sensible on this topic. OK, here's the sensible thing: do not make people think that you are going to say something piercing and helpful, when you might not be.
Thing is, I blogged on Tuesday about synopses and foolishly promised to come back today to add something about how to do a synopsis for a non-linear or
Thing is, I blogged on Tuesday about synopses and foolishly promised to come back today to add something about how to do a synopsis for a non-linear or
Rabu, 04 Agustus 2010
The High Cost of Self Promotion
I've done a lot of self promoting.
I've been to all the major mystery writing conferences, many multiple times. I've visited over 1200 bookstores. I've spoken at hundreds of libraries and book fairs.
I never really wanted to do any of it. The conventions were fun, but also a lot of work. I tended to try my best to burn as brightly as possible, and anyone who knows their astrophysics knows what results from that; burn out.
But I refused to get burned out. I believed the only thing keeping me in print was my never-ending effort to get myself in front of people.
Things have changed.
In the last few months, I've turned away over a dozen speaking engagements. Most of them offered to pay all expenses--flight, hotel, food. Some even offered a decent stipend on top of that.
I would have cut off my own legs to have had opportunities like this, back at the start of 2010.
So why am I being all hermit-like now?
Because I believe I've found a better use of my time.
My goal has always been to sell as many books as possible, with the hope of making a decent living at it. In the recent past, I'd identified certain things that I felt I needed to do, in order to reach that goal.
The most expensive, and time consuming, of these things, was travel.
As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats face time. Meeting a bookseller, a fan, a potential fan, is really the best way to promote yourself. A handshake, a smile, a joke, a thank-you--I've personally done this to over twenty thousand people. I felt it was my duty to. If I didn't, I might go out of print. If I went out of print, I'd lose my income, and my dream of writing full-time.
Consider that last observation. I was worried about no longer being able writing full time, so I'd become a full time traveling salesman. A full time ambassador, visiting thirty-nine states to spread goodwill and brand awareness.
But something has changed recently. A big something.
I don't feel the need to stay in print anymore.
In fact, I wish my books were out of print, so I'd have the rights to them back. (by my estimate, I'm losing around $100k per year because publishers have seven of my backlist titles and are pricing them too high for the ebook market and giving me a fraction of the royalties I could earn on my own.)
Since the rise of ebooks, I've been making more money that I ever have being traditionally published. This is steady money, and seems to be growing.
Face time isn't required for me to be able to sell ebooks. So I promised my wife I'd stop traveling everywhere, and do the thing I always said I'd do: write full time.
A funny thing happened. Once I cut down on traveling, I was able to get more writing done.
So far, this year, I've written four novels. By the end of the year, I'll squeeze in one or two more.
I'll be able to earn a lot more on new work, than I would promoting old work. Better yet, rather than trying to seek out publicity, it seems to be coming to me. I've gotten dozens of emails from people who recently read about me in Newsweek. When I spent a summer visiting 500 bookstores, Newsweek didn't call me. But sitting on my butt, doing my little ebook thing, is getting me a lot more exposure for a lot less effort.
Ebooks have given authors a choice. For decades, there was only one game in town--traditional print publishing. I studied that game, learned how to play, and had some modest success. But it was hard work.
Recently, I've been studying the new game in town, ebooks, and I haven't looked back. I can make more money, do less traveling, and spend more time doing the thing I wanted to do in the first place; write.
Now, some of my peers think that refusing speaking engagements is a mistake. I should be grateful people want to see me.
I am grateful. But the math just doesn't work.
I've turned down thirteen speaking gigs. Figure, with travel, each one took an average of four days.
That means I'd have given up over fifty days.
I can write a book in fifty days.
What's better for my career; face time with thousands of people, or a new book that will be potentially earning money forever?
NY Publishing didn't want more than a book a year from me. And a book a year was about my limit, considering all the promo I did.
Now I'm able to focus on the thing I love--the writing.
Out of all the cool things about the ebook revolution, this may be the coolest.
I've been to all the major mystery writing conferences, many multiple times. I've visited over 1200 bookstores. I've spoken at hundreds of libraries and book fairs.
I never really wanted to do any of it. The conventions were fun, but also a lot of work. I tended to try my best to burn as brightly as possible, and anyone who knows their astrophysics knows what results from that; burn out.
But I refused to get burned out. I believed the only thing keeping me in print was my never-ending effort to get myself in front of people.
Things have changed.
In the last few months, I've turned away over a dozen speaking engagements. Most of them offered to pay all expenses--flight, hotel, food. Some even offered a decent stipend on top of that.
I would have cut off my own legs to have had opportunities like this, back at the start of 2010.
So why am I being all hermit-like now?
Because I believe I've found a better use of my time.
My goal has always been to sell as many books as possible, with the hope of making a decent living at it. In the recent past, I'd identified certain things that I felt I needed to do, in order to reach that goal.
The most expensive, and time consuming, of these things, was travel.
As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats face time. Meeting a bookseller, a fan, a potential fan, is really the best way to promote yourself. A handshake, a smile, a joke, a thank-you--I've personally done this to over twenty thousand people. I felt it was my duty to. If I didn't, I might go out of print. If I went out of print, I'd lose my income, and my dream of writing full-time.
Consider that last observation. I was worried about no longer being able writing full time, so I'd become a full time traveling salesman. A full time ambassador, visiting thirty-nine states to spread goodwill and brand awareness.
But something has changed recently. A big something.
I don't feel the need to stay in print anymore.
In fact, I wish my books were out of print, so I'd have the rights to them back. (by my estimate, I'm losing around $100k per year because publishers have seven of my backlist titles and are pricing them too high for the ebook market and giving me a fraction of the royalties I could earn on my own.)
Since the rise of ebooks, I've been making more money that I ever have being traditionally published. This is steady money, and seems to be growing.
Face time isn't required for me to be able to sell ebooks. So I promised my wife I'd stop traveling everywhere, and do the thing I always said I'd do: write full time.
A funny thing happened. Once I cut down on traveling, I was able to get more writing done.
So far, this year, I've written four novels. By the end of the year, I'll squeeze in one or two more.
I'll be able to earn a lot more on new work, than I would promoting old work. Better yet, rather than trying to seek out publicity, it seems to be coming to me. I've gotten dozens of emails from people who recently read about me in Newsweek. When I spent a summer visiting 500 bookstores, Newsweek didn't call me. But sitting on my butt, doing my little ebook thing, is getting me a lot more exposure for a lot less effort.
Ebooks have given authors a choice. For decades, there was only one game in town--traditional print publishing. I studied that game, learned how to play, and had some modest success. But it was hard work.
Recently, I've been studying the new game in town, ebooks, and I haven't looked back. I can make more money, do less traveling, and spend more time doing the thing I wanted to do in the first place; write.
Now, some of my peers think that refusing speaking engagements is a mistake. I should be grateful people want to see me.
I am grateful. But the math just doesn't work.
I've turned down thirteen speaking gigs. Figure, with travel, each one took an average of four days.
That means I'd have given up over fifty days.
I can write a book in fifty days.
What's better for my career; face time with thousands of people, or a new book that will be potentially earning money forever?
NY Publishing didn't want more than a book a year from me. And a book a year was about my limit, considering all the promo I did.
Now I'm able to focus on the thing I love--the writing.
Out of all the cool things about the ebook revolution, this may be the coolest.
Selasa, 03 Agustus 2010
SIMPLY SYNOPSES
I have just seen a terrible synopsis. (Not from a P2P client - I would never use a client's material in this way, even anonymously.) No, someone passed it to me, after receiving it from a friend who was wanting advice. Thing is, he didn't actually want advice about the synopsis, because he believed it was brilliant and couldn't understand why agents were rejecting him. But, 'twas awful.
Why?
Why?
Senin, 02 Agustus 2010
Guest Blogger Stacey Cochran on “Sequels” and eBooks
Stacey was one of a few who took me into his house when I was on tour with the Rusty Nail 500. He's probably the only guy on the planet who has more rejections than I do, and his persistence and dedication to getting his work read is an inspiration to all. He's also one of these "pay it forward" type of writers who extends both hands in helping others and shining the spotlight on them.Stacey is currently doing a blog tour for his latest ebook, CLAWS 2. It's $2.99. You should check it out.
Now, here he is...
STACEY: Thanks, Joe, for having me at your place in the midst of my CLAWS 2 Blog Tour. For folks unfamiliar with me, CLAWS 2, or a Blog Tour in general, you might check out my website http://www.staceycochran.com for more info.
The goal of a Blog Tour is for an author to visit a number of blogs over a set period of weeks in order to promote and spread the word about his/her book. I launched CLAWS 2 on July 1 as an eBook-exclusive available through the Kindle store and have managed to set up 18 “tour stops” with blog proprietors for the months of July and August. It is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing I’ve ever used, and so far July has been my most successful sales month in a year.
What I need: 1) customers to buy my book, 2) customers to write reviews of the book, 3) other bloggers to host me during August and September.
If you can host me on your blog, drop me a note as a comment or via my website. We’ll set it up.
CLAWS 2 Cover
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/StaceyCochran/CLAWS2Cover-DONOTDELETEcopy-3-1-1.jpg
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/CLAWS-2-ebook/dp/B003TU20HE
_________
So I thought I would write today about my observations regarding sales numbers for CLAWS 2 and CLAWS. The main point that I’d like to make for newbies is that I have seen a dramatic increase in sales of CLAWS with the launch of CLAWS 2.
Joe could probably speak to this subject as well, as he is the author of a great series of books.
As naïve as it sounds, I had not considered that CLAWS would see any bump with the release of CLAWS 2. When I wrote these novels five years ago, my main reason for doing so was that I thought it would look cool. To my knowledge, no one has ever published a series of novels so similarly titled. Of course, filmmakers do it all the time (Nightmare on
I thought it would look cool, and I’d never seen it done in the publishing world. That was the height of my expectations and rationale.
So far in July, the original novel (released in summer 2009) has actually outpaced the new book at a roughly 5:4 ratio. When these novels spiked in July, CLAWS actually peaked in the 100s overall in the Kindle store whereas CLAWS 2 reached only #213.
It’s worth noting that the price-point for the books is different. CLAWS has been at 99 cents all along, and CLAWS 2 is at $2.99. Some folks are likely hearing of me for the first time and so are willing to give the 99-cents book a shot before purchasing the new title.
Whatever the case, the books have worked in tandem to drive up overall sales in a way that I simply did not anticipate.
I’ve had a number of folks ask me if there is a CLAWS 3 in the works. The truth is I outlined some preliminary notes back in 2006 for a third book regarding spotted leopards in the American Southwest and the border fence issue.
What I’d like more than anything else is to sell the series to a major publisher. I could easily write a CLAWS 3, 4, and 5, and it’s likely that such a filmable series would get optioned and could see move adaptation.
I may have to find traditional success with another novel altogether before I’m able to sell the CLAWS series. Or I may not be able to sell it at all. That definitely seems to be where we’re at with it now.
The sales numbers for my eBooks have been nothing short of a career break-through since May 2009 when I launched CLAWS.
If there’s a lesson to be taken from this, it is that readers will buy closely-linked series books in tandem. For newbies considering how to develop a career, it might be worth thinking through how you might publish a series of books and exactly what kind of series seem to do well with publishers.
Thanks so much for your time and for reading, and thank you, Joe, for hosting me today at your blog.
========================
Author Photo
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/StaceyCochran/STACEYbyJennWilburn-1-1.jpg
Stacey Cochran was born in the
Minggu, 01 Agustus 2010
PERSEVERANCE SUCKS
I need to scotch a myth: that if you try for long enough you will succeed. You see, people say you just have to keep trying, keep sending your work out, and eventually you'll succeed, but it's not true.
I was reminded of this in a recent post of mine, when Dan Holloway, whom I rely on to pick me up on any woolly thinking, suggested that I seemed to be over-praising perseverance. Since I can't
I was reminded of this in a recent post of mine, when Dan Holloway, whom I rely on to pick me up on any woolly thinking, suggested that I seemed to be over-praising perseverance. Since I can't
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