Minggu, 02 Oktober 2011
A young reader visits and wows me with awesomeness
Writing for teenagers is a tough way of earning a living. Virtually impossible when you write stand-alone books like mine. Most teenagers understandably tend not to buy books, preferring to borrow them from their school library - which is FAB from a cultural, social, emotional etc point of view but from an earning-a-living point of view, not so much. (School library borrowings don't provide
Sabtu, 01 Oktober 2011
Exposed - A Thriller Novella (Chandler Series) by J.A. Konrath & Ann Voss Peterson
I get a lot of email, and a lot of comments in my blog posts, from people thanking me for helping them out on their self-pubbing journey. If you really want to thank me, there's an easy way: buy my books.
That said, here's my latest. And it's a lot of fun:
EXPOSED by J.A. Konrath & Ann Voss Peterson
She's an elite spy, working for an agency so secret only three people know it exists. Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.
CODENAME: CHANDLER
Before special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions—and most dangerous people—for the government. So when she’s tasked with saving a VIP’s daughter from human traffickers, Chandler expects the operation to be by the numbers…until she uncovers a secret that will endanger the entire population of New York City, and possibly the world.
EXPOSED - Death is in her blood.
EXPOSED is a 35,000 word novella (roughly 150 pages) and is part of the Codename: Chandler series. It also contains an excerpt of SPREE, the next Chandler novel coming this winter.
To talk a bit about Exposed, here's my collaborator, Ann Voss Peterson.
When did I ask you to collaborate?
Ann: Right before Bouchercon in Indianapolis, 2009. You sent me some pages you'd written, and I thought it seemed like a lot of fun. Then we carpooled to Bouchercon and later Romantic Times together in my 1988 Chevy Nova and talked about it on the drive. Because both of us were busy with other books, we didn't do much more on the project until last winter when we brainstormed over burgers on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building.
Joe: Right. A key scene took place there, and we wanted to check it out.
I remember how shocked I was when I heard how low your advances were from Harlequin. You called it "the golden handcuffs", because they kept offering you contracts, and you kept taking them because you needed the money. I called it "working for the company store." They kept you so busy that you didn't have time to work on any of your own personal projects, which no doubt would have earned you more money. Your feelings about HQ?
Ann: To be honest, the "golden handcuffs" is stolen from a comment Morgan Freeman made about the years he was on the TV show "The Electric Company." He'd landed a steady acting job on a fun show, but that show prevented him from branching out and taking other roles would progress his career.
I've enjoyed writing for Harlequin. My 25th book for Harlequin's Intrigue line will be released in November. But although I made enough money on the books to quit my day job and write full time since 2000, I've never made enough to do anything more than live royalty check to royalty check.
In addition, I've always written on the plot-intensive side of romantic suspense, and on more than one occasion, my stories have stepped too far to the suspense side for some romance readers. Self-publishing has given me the opportunity to explore my more violent tendencies.
Joe: So now you're flying solo...
Ann: Not really. Now I'm writing with you. But I am working on some solo stuff as well.
Joe: We're working on SPREE, the next Chandler adventure, which begins right when FLEE ended. I'm hoping for a November release. What's up with that stand-alone you've been working on for the past 18 years?
Ann: While you're finishing the sequel to Timecaster, I'm trying to sort through what I have on this story. The downside of working on it so long is that it's changed so much, I'm no longer sure what I have.
That's nothing new. Unfortunately my creative process can be a bit messy at times.
But I haven't been working on it for 18 years, Joe. That's a gross exaggeration.
Joe: It's been longer than 18 years? Wow.
Ann: (shakes her head sadly)
Joe: We wrote FLEE pretty much based on my original outline, though you had a hand in crafting many of the scenes. We divvied up the actual writing about 50/50, using Dropbox and Google Docs. It went pretty quick once we committed to it, and it's one of my favorite books. I love the character of Chandler, and she's as much your creation as she is mine.
Ann: I love Chandler, too. She's kick-ass but she's also vulnerable, and that's what makes her so interesting.
It was a lot of fun working with you. Over the years I'd gotten used to always being the best plotter in the room. But I have to say, you're better. Which, of course, is one of the reasons I wanted to write with you in the first place.
Joe: Thanks. I wanted to write with you because you're good, and fast. One of the advantages of collaboration is: two people working on a story can get it done twice as fast, which means more work released, which means more virtual shelf space, which means more sales. In other words, you can actually make more money by co-writing. If I can put eight novels out a year with a collaborator, vs. four on my own, the eight will spread my brand and name recognition twice as far. At least, that's the theory.
With EXPOSED, you did the heavy lifting. The concept, and about 75% of the writing, was all you. So it's only fair you get 75% of the royalties.
That said, the story reads a lot like FLEE, with a consistent tone and voice. And like FLEE, I'd challenge anyone reading EXPOSED to figure out who wrote what part. It's pretty seamless.
Ann: Agreed. I got a kick out of peoples' guesses as to who wrote what in FLEE. No one was correct. But then, we tended to bounce off one another quite a bit as we wrote, so a lot of it is a true mix.
Another interesting thing to me was that I never felt like my vision for EXPOSED was realized until you added the Joe parts. It was as if Chandler didn't really feel alive to me until then, as if she was missing half of her personality...or at least 25%. ;D
Joe: I'm frankly shocked how much you can write like me. Or maybe it's how much I write like you. A mutual friend of ours just read EXPOSED, and he thought I wrote most of it. You even had a few jokes in there that he attributed to me.
EXPOSED began as a short story, then blew up to mini-novel length, about 35,000 words. We also managed to fit a sex scene in there. What's your feeling about all of those folks who get mad about sexual content in books?
Ann: Fiction is about the extraordinary moments of human life, the highs and lows, the events that exert the most pressure and force change. Sex is one of those moments. To refuse to use it in a story that calls for it is dishonest and cowardly.
Of course since sex can be so powerful, it carries a burden as well. Intimate scenes are the dramatization of a character's inner conflicts. Everything from the tone, to the dialog, to the actual sex acts involved are a window into a character's deepest fears and greatest hopes. That's why sex scenes are so difficult to write. Whether they are about love or not, they carry an emotional wallop.
But difficulty and personal discomfort are not bad things to face when you're a novelist. More often than not, they are signs that you're on the right track, that you're touching on real emotion. That can be disconcerting, but it's also the heart of what fiction is.
I fully expect some people to hate the sex scene in EXPOSED. It will likely make others feel uncomfortable. That's fine. The scene itself is neither comfortable nor safe. But anyone who says that scene doesn't change everything for the characters, that it isn't a glimpse into who they are,
that it isn't necessary to the character growth and plot is either clueless or fooling themselves.
Joe: I've heard that every scene in a story should do at least two things, or else it really isn't needed. Moving the plot forward and deepening character are the two obvious ones, but I also like to provoke base emotions as well. Laughter. Tears. Fear. And, in the case of sex, if it isn't turning the reader on at least a little bit, it isn't a well-done scene.
Ann: I absolutely agree. Readers read fiction for the vicarious emotional experience, especially popular fiction. That's the biggest part of our promise to the reader.
Joe: What is your view on legacy publishing? Would you take a Big 6 deal if offered? Or a Thomas & Mercer deal from Amazon?
Ann: If a legacy deal was good enough, I'd take it. But I'm not seeking one at this point.. I have to admit, I'm intrigued by Thomas & Mercer.
I became a novelist because I wanted to write fiction, not to become a publisher. I'm having a lot of fun doing the indie thing--the freedom, the control, the never going out of print again--so I would be hesitant to give that up, but the actual writing is what turns me on.
Joe: We wrote FLEE pretty much based on my original outline, though you had a hand in crafting many of the scenes. We divvied up the actual writing about 50/50, using Dropbox and Google Docs. It went pretty quick once we committed to it, and it's one of my favorite books. I love the character of Chandler, and she's as much your creation as she is mine.
Ann: I love Chandler, too. She's kick-ass but she's also vulnerable, and that's what makes her so interesting.
It was a lot of fun working with you. Over the years I'd gotten used to always being the best plotter in the room. But I have to say, you're better. Which, of course, is one of the reasons I wanted to write with you in the first place.
Joe: Thanks. I wanted to write with you because you're good, and fast. One of the advantages of collaboration is: two people working on a story can get it done twice as fast, which means more work released, which means more virtual shelf space, which means more sales. In other words, you can actually make more money by co-writing. If I can put eight novels out a year with a collaborator, vs. four on my own, the eight will spread my brand and name recognition twice as far. At least, that's the theory.
With EXPOSED, you did the heavy lifting. The concept, and about 75% of the writing, was all you. So it's only fair you get 75% of the royalties.
That said, the story reads a lot like FLEE, with a consistent tone and voice. And like FLEE, I'd challenge anyone reading EXPOSED to figure out who wrote what part. It's pretty seamless.
Ann: Agreed. I got a kick out of peoples' guesses as to who wrote what in FLEE. No one was correct. But then, we tended to bounce off one another quite a bit as we wrote, so a lot of it is a true mix.
Another interesting thing to me was that I never felt like my vision for EXPOSED was realized until you added the Joe parts. It was as if Chandler didn't really feel alive to me until then, as if she was missing half of her personality...or at least 25%. ;D
Joe: I'm frankly shocked how much you can write like me. Or maybe it's how much I write like you. A mutual friend of ours just read EXPOSED, and he thought I wrote most of it. You even had a few jokes in there that he attributed to me.
EXPOSED began as a short story, then blew up to mini-novel length, about 35,000 words. We also managed to fit a sex scene in there. What's your feeling about all of those folks who get mad about sexual content in books?
Ann: Fiction is about the extraordinary moments of human life, the highs and lows, the events that exert the most pressure and force change. Sex is one of those moments. To refuse to use it in a story that calls for it is dishonest and cowardly.
Of course since sex can be so powerful, it carries a burden as well. Intimate scenes are the dramatization of a character's inner conflicts. Everything from the tone, to the dialog, to the actual sex acts involved are a window into a character's deepest fears and greatest hopes. That's why sex scenes are so difficult to write. Whether they are about love or not, they carry an emotional wallop.
But difficulty and personal discomfort are not bad things to face when you're a novelist. More often than not, they are signs that you're on the right track, that you're touching on real emotion. That can be disconcerting, but it's also the heart of what fiction is.
I fully expect some people to hate the sex scene in EXPOSED. It will likely make others feel uncomfortable. That's fine. The scene itself is neither comfortable nor safe. But anyone who says that scene doesn't change everything for the characters, that it isn't a glimpse into who they are,
that it isn't necessary to the character growth and plot is either clueless or fooling themselves.
Joe: I've heard that every scene in a story should do at least two things, or else it really isn't needed. Moving the plot forward and deepening character are the two obvious ones, but I also like to provoke base emotions as well. Laughter. Tears. Fear. And, in the case of sex, if it isn't turning the reader on at least a little bit, it isn't a well-done scene.
Ann: I absolutely agree. Readers read fiction for the vicarious emotional experience, especially popular fiction. That's the biggest part of our promise to the reader.
Joe: What is your view on legacy publishing? Would you take a Big 6 deal if offered? Or a Thomas & Mercer deal from Amazon?
Ann: If a legacy deal was good enough, I'd take it. But I'm not seeking one at this point.. I have to admit, I'm intrigued by Thomas & Mercer.
I became a novelist because I wanted to write fiction, not to become a publisher. I'm having a lot of fun doing the indie thing--the freedom, the control, the never going out of print again--so I would be hesitant to give that up, but the actual writing is what turns me on.
Joe: Same here. Now that the money is coming in, my goals have changed. I'm trying to limit the non-writing aspects of this business so I can write more. I don't want to run a company. So if I can afford to hire out and let others run the company, that means I can devote more time to my love, writing.
EXPOSED was a lot of fun to write. Crazy action, some laugh out loud humor, car chases, hot sex, insane violence, a big twist. It's like a female James Bond on amphetamines. It isn't necessary to read FLEE first, because this comes before FLEE.
And for those who don't have an ereader yet, I heard the Kindle is now just $79...
Jumat, 30 September 2011
Drink the Kool-Aid
Yesterday, an agent blogged about a speech she recently gave to Sisters in Crime. Some of the advice was fine. Some was archaic (no, writers don't need to attend conventions or volunteer for anything), but this was just downright awful:
"Do NOT drink the kool-aid on E-publishing. It's too early to be making sweeping statements about any of it. We're all learning this as we go and the right answer to almost everything is "we'll see what happens."
I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that. It's terrible advice, especially coming from someone who should have writers' best interests at heart.
Here are some sweeping statements I'll make, which can be verified:
1. Ebooks sales are going up, paper sales are going down. This trend WILL continue. This means that you need to worry less about who handles your paper rights, and more about who handles your erights.
If you handle your own erights, you keep 70% of the list price (that you set.)
If you let a publisher handle your erights, you get 17.5% of the list price (which they set.)
2. There isn't much a publisher can do for you that you can't do for yourself (or hire someone to do.) In other words, paying a publisher 52.5% to create cover art and do some editing is crazy.
3. More and more self-pubbed authors are doing well. And more and more legacy pubbed authors are trying self-pubbed. On this blog I've had dozens of guest posts, and listed hundreds of authors by name, who are making good money. Some are getting rich. None of them would be making bupkis if they didn't drink the Kool-Aid.
4. Bookstores are closing. The only thing a publisher could do for you, that you can't do yourself, is get your book into bookstores. But with paper sales down, and ebook sales rising, getting into a bookstore shouldn't be the priority.
5. Every day you don't self-publish is a day you aren't making money. This is a tough concept to wrap your mind around. We're used to thinking in analog terms. With paper, there's a release date, then sales eventually trickle down to nothing, until the book is out of print.
But ebooks are forever. There can be a big surge in sales when a book is released, but I've also seen books that surge regularly, like waves in the ocean. Lulls and peaks, over and over. Sometimes it tapers off, but then something happens and it gets new life.
When a book has the potential to not only make money, but to sell better than it did yesterday, it no longer has a lifespan. Which raises the question:
If you have a book that will sell forever, do you want to start earning money today, or next month?
If you wait a month, you won't make-up the month you lost. That month you lost will be income that you never earned.
I can't think of a single advantage to waiting around. Even if you really, really want a legacy deal, I know lots of authors who self-pubbed and then got legacy offers.
Barry Eisler also had some thoughts on this, which he offered as comments to a previous blog post. I'm going to post them here, too, with a few interpolated thoughts:
Barry: "Do NOT drink the kool-aid on E-publishing." What does this mean, other than that the declarant thinks in cliches?
Joe: I think it means, "If you do something without me, I don't get my 15%."
Barry: Then she said, "It's too early to be making sweeping statements about any of it."
Isn't that itself a sweeping statement?
Never mind. As with the Kool-Aid reference, these sorts of massively vague pronouncements are difficult to address because, as articulated, they're fundamentally meaningless. But if you think about it for a second or two, just why would it be too early to come to various conclusions about the nature, trajectory, and speed of the revolution we're seeing in publishing? We have a lot of data, after all, to which we can apply logic while extrapolating from experience. Isn't analyzing broad industry trends, and trying to understand, extrapolate from, and exploit them, exactly what smart businesspeople ought to be doing? If you have to decide -- today -- between a legacy deal and self-publishing, should you just stick your head in the sand and your ass in the air?
Joe: I think it means, "I'm worried about the future, and my livelihood, so I'm not going to think too hard about it."
Barry: Next she said, "We're all learning this as we go…"
Well, no, there are clearly many people who are *not* learning as they go, or learning at all, for that matter. The rest learn different lessons and at different rates. The different lessons people are learning -- that is, the different conclusions people are coming to as experience continues to accrue and as data continues to come in -- are interesting and potentially valuable for anyone who thinks understanding today where the industry will be tomorrow is useful thing to do.
Joe: I've been learning this as I go. And while learning, I've made several hundred thousand dollars. Because I wasn't waiting around to see what happened. I was taking control of my career, experimenting, trying new things, sharing what I've learned with others.
Scores of writers who read my blog also gave it a shot. Some became very successful. Because they tried, rather than waited around.
Barry: Next she said, "...and the right answer to almost everything is 'we'll see what happens.'"
Absolutely! If something that looks like a tiger pops out of the underbrush and is hurtling toward you, it's best not to make sweeping statements. Better to learn as we go and just see what happens. Running for a tree would be foolish.
Same thing in intelligence work. Who really can say where Pakistani nukes are stored, or how soon China might be able to deploy a blue water navy, or who are the true power brokers in Russia? Better to just sit back and see what happens.
And isn't the same inevitably true in business? If you're in the horse and buggy business and you hear about a thing called a car, or if you're in the the candlelight business and you hear about a thing called an electric light, or if you're in the eight-track cassette business and you hear about a thing called a CD, or if you're in the paper book business and you hear about a thing called Kindle, you should absolutely avoid trying to understand -- let alone exploit! -- any of it, and should instead sit back and just see what happens. In fact, sitting back and seeing what happens is the one common denominator of profitable businesses and successful businesspeople. Amazon, for example, became a a hundred-billion-dollar company by doing little else but going along and seeing what happens, while legacy publishers are dying precisely because they've always ruthlessly examined, prepared for, shaped, and exploited industry, technological, and cultural trends.
Joe: "Daddy, those lights are coming straight for us!"
"Don't move! Just remain standing in the middle of the street, and we'll wait and see if they run us over or not."
Barry: "Drinking the Kool-Aid" means "to become an unquestioning believer in some ideology, or to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly without critical examination." Who's really doing that here? And the phrase is derived from the Jonestown massacre, where cult members followed one another into a massive group suicide. Again, not a bad metaphor for following "advice" like Janet's, which consists of nothing but cliches, sloppy thinking, and bromides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
It's one thing to be not very good at making predictions yourself, and Janet's track record is not the best:
http://twitter.com/#!/trow125/status/51355244587794433
But to advise that everyone else refrain from trying to understand where the industry is going and how we might profit from how it's changing? That's just irresponsible.
Joe: Barry, I meant to ask you about that above tweet. Now that The Detachment has launched, do you regret working with Amazon and not taking that $250k St. Martins deal?
"Do NOT drink the kool-aid on E-publishing. It's too early to be making sweeping statements about any of it. We're all learning this as we go and the right answer to almost everything is "we'll see what happens."
I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that. It's terrible advice, especially coming from someone who should have writers' best interests at heart.
Here are some sweeping statements I'll make, which can be verified:
1. Ebooks sales are going up, paper sales are going down. This trend WILL continue. This means that you need to worry less about who handles your paper rights, and more about who handles your erights.
If you handle your own erights, you keep 70% of the list price (that you set.)
If you let a publisher handle your erights, you get 17.5% of the list price (which they set.)
2. There isn't much a publisher can do for you that you can't do for yourself (or hire someone to do.) In other words, paying a publisher 52.5% to create cover art and do some editing is crazy.
3. More and more self-pubbed authors are doing well. And more and more legacy pubbed authors are trying self-pubbed. On this blog I've had dozens of guest posts, and listed hundreds of authors by name, who are making good money. Some are getting rich. None of them would be making bupkis if they didn't drink the Kool-Aid.
4. Bookstores are closing. The only thing a publisher could do for you, that you can't do yourself, is get your book into bookstores. But with paper sales down, and ebook sales rising, getting into a bookstore shouldn't be the priority.
5. Every day you don't self-publish is a day you aren't making money. This is a tough concept to wrap your mind around. We're used to thinking in analog terms. With paper, there's a release date, then sales eventually trickle down to nothing, until the book is out of print.
But ebooks are forever. There can be a big surge in sales when a book is released, but I've also seen books that surge regularly, like waves in the ocean. Lulls and peaks, over and over. Sometimes it tapers off, but then something happens and it gets new life.
When a book has the potential to not only make money, but to sell better than it did yesterday, it no longer has a lifespan. Which raises the question:
If you have a book that will sell forever, do you want to start earning money today, or next month?
If you wait a month, you won't make-up the month you lost. That month you lost will be income that you never earned.
I can't think of a single advantage to waiting around. Even if you really, really want a legacy deal, I know lots of authors who self-pubbed and then got legacy offers.
Barry Eisler also had some thoughts on this, which he offered as comments to a previous blog post. I'm going to post them here, too, with a few interpolated thoughts:
Barry: "Do NOT drink the kool-aid on E-publishing." What does this mean, other than that the declarant thinks in cliches?
Joe: I think it means, "If you do something without me, I don't get my 15%."
Barry: Then she said, "It's too early to be making sweeping statements about any of it."
Isn't that itself a sweeping statement?
Never mind. As with the Kool-Aid reference, these sorts of massively vague pronouncements are difficult to address because, as articulated, they're fundamentally meaningless. But if you think about it for a second or two, just why would it be too early to come to various conclusions about the nature, trajectory, and speed of the revolution we're seeing in publishing? We have a lot of data, after all, to which we can apply logic while extrapolating from experience. Isn't analyzing broad industry trends, and trying to understand, extrapolate from, and exploit them, exactly what smart businesspeople ought to be doing? If you have to decide -- today -- between a legacy deal and self-publishing, should you just stick your head in the sand and your ass in the air?
Joe: I think it means, "I'm worried about the future, and my livelihood, so I'm not going to think too hard about it."
Barry: Next she said, "We're all learning this as we go…"
Well, no, there are clearly many people who are *not* learning as they go, or learning at all, for that matter. The rest learn different lessons and at different rates. The different lessons people are learning -- that is, the different conclusions people are coming to as experience continues to accrue and as data continues to come in -- are interesting and potentially valuable for anyone who thinks understanding today where the industry will be tomorrow is useful thing to do.
Joe: I've been learning this as I go. And while learning, I've made several hundred thousand dollars. Because I wasn't waiting around to see what happened. I was taking control of my career, experimenting, trying new things, sharing what I've learned with others.
Scores of writers who read my blog also gave it a shot. Some became very successful. Because they tried, rather than waited around.
Barry: Next she said, "...and the right answer to almost everything is 'we'll see what happens.'"
Absolutely! If something that looks like a tiger pops out of the underbrush and is hurtling toward you, it's best not to make sweeping statements. Better to learn as we go and just see what happens. Running for a tree would be foolish.
Same thing in intelligence work. Who really can say where Pakistani nukes are stored, or how soon China might be able to deploy a blue water navy, or who are the true power brokers in Russia? Better to just sit back and see what happens.
And isn't the same inevitably true in business? If you're in the horse and buggy business and you hear about a thing called a car, or if you're in the the candlelight business and you hear about a thing called an electric light, or if you're in the eight-track cassette business and you hear about a thing called a CD, or if you're in the paper book business and you hear about a thing called Kindle, you should absolutely avoid trying to understand -- let alone exploit! -- any of it, and should instead sit back and just see what happens. In fact, sitting back and seeing what happens is the one common denominator of profitable businesses and successful businesspeople. Amazon, for example, became a a hundred-billion-dollar company by doing little else but going along and seeing what happens, while legacy publishers are dying precisely because they've always ruthlessly examined, prepared for, shaped, and exploited industry, technological, and cultural trends.
Joe: "Daddy, those lights are coming straight for us!"
"Don't move! Just remain standing in the middle of the street, and we'll wait and see if they run us over or not."
Barry: "Drinking the Kool-Aid" means "to become an unquestioning believer in some ideology, or to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly without critical examination." Who's really doing that here? And the phrase is derived from the Jonestown massacre, where cult members followed one another into a massive group suicide. Again, not a bad metaphor for following "advice" like Janet's, which consists of nothing but cliches, sloppy thinking, and bromides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
It's one thing to be not very good at making predictions yourself, and Janet's track record is not the best:
http://twitter.com/#!/trow125/status/51355244587794433
But to advise that everyone else refrain from trying to understand where the industry is going and how we might profit from how it's changing? That's just irresponsible.
Joe: Barry, I meant to ask you about that above tweet. Now that The Detachment has launched, do you regret working with Amazon and not taking that $250k St. Martins deal?
Barry: Let me put it this way. Amazon sold more digital copies of the Detachment as preorders than Ballantine sold digital copies of my previous book, Inside Out, ever. After that -- that is, apart from and in addition to all those preorders -- the book surged to #6 in the Kindle Store, stayed in the Kindle Top 20 for over a week, and currently (two weeks in) is at #57. Yesterday it was at #3 in the UK Kindle Store. The paper version doesn't even come out for another two weeks, and they're planning another big push then. I've earned more money from this book in two weeks than I've earned from some of my titles to date -- and I've had eight previous novels published, starting in 2002.
Joe: The money you've been earning since The Detachment was released makes the money I've been earning on Kindle look paltry.
You hear that, NY Publishing Industry? You thought Barry was silly, turning down a Big 6 contract. In two weeks, he's made more money than he did with any of you.
You hear that, name brand authors? You want to know who to sign your next contract with? It's Amazon.
Barry: And that's just The Detachment. Sales of my backlist have surged, too. Since April, my short story, Paris Is A Bitch, has been earning me about $1000 per month. This month it's going to be more than three times that -- as of today, it's sold 1677 copies in September, at about two dollars profit per unit. Sales of my other short story, The Lost Coast, are up, too, though I did drop the price of that one to 99 cents, which obviously affects the experiment. But even sales of my legacy-published works are significantly up -- at one point, my first book, Rain Fall, was at #146 in the Kindle Store, which is insane for a book that's coming up on ten years old. The other Rain books are all up significantly, too, though not as much as they should be, because Putnam insists on pricing them at $7.99, the same as the paperback. If I had control of those books, I'd repackage them, drop the price to $2.99… and I can't even imagine how many I would have sold in conjunction with The Detachment.
Joe: Golly, why doesn't Putnam do that itself? It's leaving a ton of money on the table.
Barry: Heh. You know why. Legacy publishers aren't primarily interested in maximizing profits from digital titles. They're primarily interested in preserving the position of paper and retarding the growth of digital. To that end, they price digital books artificially high and hold back the digital release until the paper one is ready. And that hold-back, by the way, for the reasons you discuss above, costs the writer a ton of money -- the money she would have been earning if the digital book had been made available earlier.
Let me preempt the response I know is coming from the Reidian antediluvian naysayers out there: "But you didn't self-publish The Detachment, Amazon published it! So all this success, all these massive sales, none of it counts!"
If that's what you think, read the section on either/or and other erroneous thinking in Joe's and my free ebook, Be The Monkey. My goal isn't to make any one of my titles a success. It's to make *all* my titles, collectively, the greatest possible success. As I've said many times, I think my best strategy in that regard is a mix of self-publishing and Amazon publishing-- not an either/or approach. And I think my experience so far suggests I'm right.
Since walking away from the St. Martin's offer, I've self-published two short stories, I've self-published a political essay, and I've self-published (with you) a short book on the changing landscape of the publishing industry. And I've published a new novel with Amazon. What I haven't done -- what's conspicuously absent from my business strategy over the last six months -- is a new work with a legacy publisher. And I'm doing far better than I ever have before. Maybe that's a coincidence. Maybe it's all just dumb luck. Maybe I would be doing even better if I'd gone with the legacy deal (though we wouldn't know yet, because if I had gone the legacy route, The Detachment wouldn't have been released until spring 2012).
Or maybe there are some principles in my experience that are worth pondering, and that might be applied by others who don't believe business is best conducted by just waiting to see what happens.
Joe: I look back on the past few years, and all the bad decisions made by legacy publishers, along with agents who think they're working for those publishers rather than for their authors, and I keep wondering at what point they're going to realize they aren't in a Jacuzzi, enjoying a luxurious soak, but actually in a stew being boiled alive.
High ebook prices, low ebook royalties, windowing, poor formatting and conversions, the agency model, retroactive erights grabs, DRM--each of these are bad decisions on their own, but add them all together and it's one huge crock pot of fail that they're now marinating in.
But we authors have more opportunities for success than ever before.
Legacy publishing is a vestigial organ. And it's about to be cut off.
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Kamis, 29 September 2011
Pitch your book in 25 words
Next weekend I'm doing a gig at Wordstock, a festival of words organised by 26, an organisation that aims to "inspire a greater love of words, in business and in life." They call them gigs in order to play on the Woodstock/Wordstock thing but I promise I will not have a guitar with me, and I will not sing, not even a little bit.
But you have the opportunity to send a part of yourself to
But you have the opportunity to send a part of yourself to
Rabu, 28 September 2011
Konrath's Ebook Predictions from 2009.
I wrote the following blog post in 2009, a list of ebook predictions.
1. Ebook readers will be available in stores for less than $99.I believe this is the magic price point, and the ability for consumers to purchase their device at their favorite department store will finally allow this tech to enter the mainstream.
As of today, the Amazon Kindle is now available for $79. The new Amazon Kindle Touch is $99. Kobo has been $99 for several months.
6. Estributors will become common. Where there are writers, there are folks who help writers and take a percentage of their income. Agents currently hold this position. But it won't be long until some smart folks realize they can make money being a liaisonbetween the writer and the ebook world, and offer services that include editing, formatting, uploading, and cover art, so the only thing the writer has to do is write.
I'm working with my agent in an estributor capacity. We'll see how it goes.
7. Print publishers will get savvy. Some major publisher is going to realize they can make more money selling ebooks for under $3 than selling them for $15, and they'll give it a try and be successful. Others will follow suit.
"On the subway today, I counted 7 people with PDAs, Blackberrys, and Palms, and two more with mp3 players. People need their media so much they're taking it with them when they leave their desks. Only three people on that train were reading newspapers. What does that say about the future of print media?"
All the major publishers were there, listening to my speech. None of them listened to me.
11. I'll continue to pay my mortgage with ebook sales. I've been self-publishing ebooks on Kindle since April, and every month since I've earned enough to make my monthly house payment. I'm also going to release a novel exclusively as an ebook in 2010, as a long-term experiment, to see if I can earn more in five years than I could on my previous print deals. This is the beginning of a very long tail, and writers really do need to think about how much their ebook rights are worth over the course of their lifetime and beyond. Because that's how long this technology will be around.
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I'll put my recent updates in bold:
1. Ebook readers will be available in stores for less than $99.I believe this is the magic price point, and the ability for consumers to purchase their device at their favorite department store will finally allow this tech to enter the mainstream.
As of today, the Amazon Kindle is now available for $79. The new Amazon Kindle Touch is $99. Kobo has been $99 for several months.
I expect B&N to drop Nook prices sometime soon.
Also, ereaders are now available in stores, Best Buy, Staples, Target, and many others.
2. Amazon will adopt Epub standard format. I've blogged about formats before, and how proprietary formatting is preventing worldwide acceptance of ebooks. The closest to a universal format is Epub, and once there are millions of non-Kindle ereadersout there, Amazon will want a piece of the pie and offer different formats.
They haven't done this yet. But they are releasing titles without DRM. Now that Amazon has launched several paper imprints, and B&N has refused to carry those paper books unless they can also sell the ebooks, it will be interesting to see how this gets resolved.
3. Ebook readers will improve. Well, no duh. All tech improves as time goes on. But I'm talking about the look and feel of the device, not just what it can do. As advanced as ebook readers are, they still look low tech. Compare this to the iPhone or iPodTouch. These devices look, and feel, 21st century. Some ereadermanufacturer will come up with a device that just looks right (the Nook comes close) and it will sell like crazy.
They haven't done this yet. But they are releasing titles without DRM. Now that Amazon has launched several paper imprints, and B&N has refused to carry those paper books unless they can also sell the ebooks, it will be interesting to see how this gets resolved.
3. Ebook readers will improve. Well, no duh. All tech improves as time goes on. But I'm talking about the look and feel of the device, not just what it can do. As advanced as ebook readers are, they still look low tech. Compare this to the iPhone or iPodTouch. These devices look, and feel, 21st century. Some ereadermanufacturer will come up with a device that just looks right (the Nook comes close) and it will sell like crazy.
Amazon Kindle Fire tablet just announced, for $199.
4. Ebooks will go multimedia. The potential for ebooks to change the way a book is experienced has not been explored yet. Author annotation, interviews, video, audio, extras, music, deleted chapters, short stories--these are all benefits that could be added to content at no cost.
4. Ebooks will go multimedia. The potential for ebooks to change the way a book is experienced has not been explored yet. Author annotation, interviews, video, audio, extras, music, deleted chapters, short stories--these are all benefits that could be added to content at no cost.
Not quite. There are a few companies doing some innovative things, but nothing that has caught on in a big way. Yet.
5. A third party etailer will rise to prominence. Currently, people buy most of their ebooks online at Amazon. But someone with deep pockets will launch a big website and begin to gobble upmarketshare. My guess is this site will be the first to begin offering the out-of-print backlists of published authors. Public domain isn't the key to success. Copyrighted work that is only available used is the key to success, because ebooks can make these vetted, professional books available again. It's a gigantic, viable, untapped market.
5. A third party etailer will rise to prominence. Currently, people buy most of their ebooks online at Amazon. But someone with deep pockets will launch a big website and begin to gobble upmarketshare. My guess is this site will be the first to begin offering the out-of-print backlists of published authors. Public domain isn't the key to success. Copyrighted work that is only available used is the key to success, because ebooks can make these vetted, professional books available again. It's a gigantic, viable, untapped market.
Smashwords and Kobo are doing very well. I just launched my own ebook store.
As for the copyrighted work I mentioned, Amazon is buying many out of print backlists from name authors, including Ed McBain and Max Allan Collins. Al's book just hit #1 on Kindle.
6. Estributors will become common. Where there are writers, there are folks who help writers and take a percentage of their income. Agents currently hold this position. But it won't be long until some smart folks realize they can make money being a liaisonbetween the writer and the ebook world, and offer services that include editing, formatting, uploading, and cover art, so the only thing the writer has to do is write.
I'm working with my agent in an estributor capacity. We'll see how it goes.
7. Print publishers will get savvy. Some major publisher is going to realize they can make more money selling ebooks for under $3 than selling them for $15, and they'll give it a try and be successful. Others will follow suit.
In the past two weeks, I've seen no fewer than eight Big 6 titles crack the Kindle Top 10 by selling them for $.99 to $2.99. Once they hit it, they jack up the price back to normal and the sales fall off. But they're learning...
8. Ebook bestsellers will emerge. As more reviewing sites and blogs dedicated to ebooks rise up, word-of-mouth will propel some independent ebooks author to bestseller status. It's inevitable, and both the print publishers and Hollywood will take notice.
8. Ebook bestsellers will emerge. As more reviewing sites and blogs dedicated to ebooks rise up, word-of-mouth will propel some independent ebooks author to bestseller status. It's inevitable, and both the print publishers and Hollywood will take notice.
Amanda Hocking and John Locke, anyone? I wrote this prior to their successes. I've also sold a movie option on an ebook.
9. Print books will be packaged with an ebook version. Perhaps it will come on a CD or an SD card. Perhaps it will come with a code so the ebook can be downloaded for free. But some smart publisher is going to include the ebook with the print version. A really smart publisher would also include a download for the audiobook version with the package. Then folks wouldn't mind paying $25 for a hardcover, if it came with those downloads.
I talked about this when I spoke at the Google Unbound Conference a few years ago. I've heard rumors of it happening, but nothing concrete yet. BTW, that blog about the conference is from January 2007. This is one of the things I said:
9. Print books will be packaged with an ebook version. Perhaps it will come on a CD or an SD card. Perhaps it will come with a code so the ebook can be downloaded for free. But some smart publisher is going to include the ebook with the print version. A really smart publisher would also include a download for the audiobook version with the package. Then folks wouldn't mind paying $25 for a hardcover, if it came with those downloads.
I talked about this when I spoke at the Google Unbound Conference a few years ago. I've heard rumors of it happening, but nothing concrete yet. BTW, that blog about the conference is from January 2007. This is one of the things I said:
"On the subway today, I counted 7 people with PDAs, Blackberrys, and Palms, and two more with mp3 players. People need their media so much they're taking it with them when they leave their desks. Only three people on that train were reading newspapers. What does that say about the future of print media?"
All the major publishers were there, listening to my speech. None of them listened to me.
10. Exclusivity. If an author is big enough, they are available everywhere: Amazon, Nook, Shortcovers, iTunes, Sony, etc. But someone is going to sign an author exclusively, so their book is only available in one etailer location, to lure people to their device and website.
Barry Eisler. Boy, he did make the right choice signing with Amazon.
Barry Eisler. Boy, he did make the right choice signing with Amazon.
11. I'll continue to pay my mortgage with ebook sales. I've been self-publishing ebooks on Kindle since April, and every month since I've earned enough to make my monthly house payment. I'm also going to release a novel exclusively as an ebook in 2010, as a long-term experiment, to see if I can earn more in five years than I could on my previous print deals. This is the beginning of a very long tail, and writers really do need to think about how much their ebook rights are worth over the course of their lifetime and beyond. Because that's how long this technology will be around.
I've earned more in the last eight months than I did on all eight of my previous print deals, combined, since 2003. And this holiday season looks to be even better than last year.
So I got 8, maybe 8.5 out of 11 right.
So what do I see for the future?
1. Publishing houses closing. Maybe it will be bankruptcy or maybe their parent company will just shut the doors. These houses once controlled paper, and because of that they could control authors. Now paper is a subsidiary right (something I wrote about last year, before ebooks were actually outselling paper) and authors can do better on their own.
No lock on distribution + authors now having choices + readers unwilling to pay $12.99 for an ebook = game over.
2. Interactive multimedia. I've been talking about this for over four years. Vook and Hybrid Books are only the beginning. One day enhanced ebooks will be the norm.
3. Ads in ebooks. This is something else I've been talking about for years. The $79 Kindle is ad-supported. As ebooks drop in price (or become free) authors will supplement their income by selling ad space and taking corporate sponsors.
4. Ereaders under $49. It'll happened quicker than the drop to $99 took.
5. People abandoning paper. I've already gotten rid of several hundred paper books, replacing them with ebooks. Watch as more and more people do the same thing, just like they dumped their vinyl and VHS. Thrift shops, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, will stop taking book donations because they already have too many.
6. Global market. Ebooks will be worldwide. Smart authors will work with translators (or smart estributors will have translators on payroll) to exploit these new avenues, which had been closed off to all but the luckiest authors. And even then, foreign deals were notoriously small, and hardly ever earned out. Watch for self-published authors becoming international bestsellers.
7. Bookstores, book fairs, writing conferences, and writers organizations will have to change, or perish. As paper popularity fades, and self-pubbing ebooks becomes more prevalent, there will be fewer and fewer people who gather around paper books.
Companies like Autography will allow readers to get personalized autographs on their ebooks. Add some video-conferencing, and no one will even need to attend another genre convention.
Conferences that sucker authors into paying $500 for a chance to pitch to a Big 6 editor will disappear.
Used bookstores will do well in the beginning, due to all the people dumping their collections, but eventually won't be able to give books away.
All the professional writing organizations will have to admit self-pubbed authors, or their ranks will thin.
8. Pottermore is just the beginning. Watch as more and more authors lure their fans to their websites, without any need of a publisher.
9. We'll see a lot of new stuff from old writers. All writers have shelf novels, or ideas that they couldn't pursue because their publishers wouldn't allow it. There are no longer any barriers to ideas, and we're done with all that bullshit about buy-in and sell-through. The fate of books will be decided by readers, not by a handful of people in a room looking at prior sales figures.
10. Libraries. There are tens of thousands of libraries in the US alone. I currently have 30 ebook titles available. If I sell one copy of each of my ebooks to every library, I've made over a million dollars--and many libraries will buy multiple copies. When Canada, the UK, Australia, and eventually the world get in on the library thing, it's going to be gigantic.
11. I won't continue to pay my mortgage with my ebook sales.
That's because I'm paying off my house with my ebook money. :)
What about you folks? Any predictions for the future?
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Selasa, 27 September 2011
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOOK
Really interested in this video on David Maybury's blog, which I came across last week. People are criticising trade publishers a lot at the moment - and I have some criticism myself - but I was inspired by the people in this video. I love their real passion for what they do. I love their knowledge and their willingness to share with each other. They are looking ahead; they are being positive,
Ebooks A La Carte
Last month, I did a blog post with Blake Crouch about the future of ebook sales. In that blog, we talked about the only two parties needed for a transaction: the author, and the reader. Everyone else (agent, publisher, retailer) is a middleman, taking a percentage.
But if a writer already has loyal fans willing to seek him out, why should the middleman get a cut? Couldn't the author and the reader complete a transaction (the reader buying the book) where the writer receives all of the profit?
Enter xuni.com. A few months back, they made an ebook store for Barry Eisler. I loved this idea, and loved how they implemented it. But Eisler only has three ebook titles for sale, and while it is cool that he offers readers different formats to choose from (epub, Kindle, and pdfs) I read ebooks on several different devices and it seems silly to have to buy the same book multiple times to get the various formats.
So I asked the team at xuni if they could make an ebook store for me, with a few tweaks. When readers buy an ebook from my store, they get four DRM-free formats (epub, Kindle, pdf, doc) in a single download. Also, it made perfect sense that I should sell ebooks by some of my peers (Eisler and Crouch as of this writing) and offer them the same 70% royalty rate as other retailers do.
A few days ago, my ebook store went live. So now I'm able to sell directly to customers, and cut out the middle man.
On a $2.99 ebook sold through a retailer, I earn about $2.04.
In my ebook store, I earn $2.79.
On a $0.99 sold through a retailer, I earn $0.35.
In my ebook store, I earn $0.89.
I've heard about other ways to sell ebooks directly, but they involve either paying a monthly fee, or a percentage of each sale. Going through xuni, I paid a flat fee, and now my ebooks can earn money forever. As I add ebooks to my oeuvre, xuni can add them to my ebook store for a tiny additional cost.
If you have fans, it makes sense to offer those fans easy access to your titles. If they like you enough to visit your website, give them the option of buying your books directly from you. (I also have a paper store, for those who want autographed editions.)
This is passive income that earns forever. Once it is set up, it becomes a 24 hour worldwide store. You'll need a Paypal account set up for micropayments (xuni helps with that) and a three figure initial investment, and you're set.
Also, Maddee and Ryan at xuni were fast, responsive, easy to work with, and extremely nice. I highly recommend them, and this service.
Contact xuni HERE, or in my sidebar.
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