by john | Nov 19, 2011 | Business of publishing, Writing
I missed my Friday post yesterday. Sorry about that. I kinda forgot what day it was until it was late, and then it didn’t happen. Anyway, here’s what’s up in the land of Hartness.
I wrote a short story and submitted it to a magazine. We’ll see how that goes. It’s a stand-alone story that grew out of a lunchroom conversation. If it gets 5 rejections, I’ll self-pub it and you can read it then. This is part of my ongoing plan to get enough SFWA credits to join. I’ll be writing more stand-alone stories and submitting them around while I’m doing my novels and my Bubba stories. Don’t forget, Ballet of Blood is available now! At $1.49 it’s a little more expensive than my other shorts, but at 9,000 words it’s half again as long. Voodoo Children, the first Bubba short story, is one of my best sellers for the month, so that’s pretty interesting.
What makes a best-seller for me, you ask? Well, I didn’t intend for this to be a numbers post, but we can go there. Let’s start with the fact that my sales are off by 50% from the high point this summer. A lot of that has to do with an Amazon algorithm shift, which kicked me square in the nuts, but I’m still making plenty of cash. Here are my numbers so far this month –
Black Knight Chronicles –
Hard Day’s Knight – 214
Knight Moves – 200
Back in Black – 175 (I have NO idea why Book #3 consistently outperforms Book #2, but it does)
Black Magic Woman – 90
Movie Knight – Crazy numbers since it’s been free this month – 1,247
The Chosen is plugging along at 149 copies, just a little below its average pace of 10 copies per day.
Genesis has started off more slowly than I thought, only doing 24 copies so far. But hopefully we’ll see some residual effects next week of my blog tour.
Like I said, Voodoo Children is blowing me away, moving 159 copies this month
And Ballet of Blood has shipped 7 so far. There are a few other assorted things out there, like my holiday story The Christmas Lights. It’s sold 7 copies this month and I’m just as thrilled with that as I could be. It’s a little litfic story that I put up there hoping to sell a few copies ever. It sells five or so a month, and that’s just brilliant with me.
I’ve done a ton of work this week on Red Dirt Review and Ebook Deals Today, the other two sites I actively run. RDR is an online literary magazine that updates every Monday and Thursday. You can check it out online, via RSS, or you can subscribe to it on your Kindle. I’ll also be publishing print and ebook anthologies from the submissions to RDR quarterly.
Ebook Deals Today is a place where authors can feature their bargain ebooks, so you can go there to get daily deals. All ebooks will have at least half a dozen positive reviews on Amazon and be $6.99 or less. So check it out if you’re looking for a good deal on a good read. You can follow the site at @ebookdeals2day on twitter.
Then I spent a couple of hours today updating the ebook files for The Chosen to reflect the revisions the book has gone through. I once again worked with Lynn O’Dell and her team of editor ninjas at Red Adept Editing Services to clean up tense issues, word choice issues, repetition issues and mommy issues. Okay, they didn’t really help me with mommy issues. That’s what tequila is for. But if you haven’t read The Chosen, I now once again recommend it. I’ve spent a lot of time with those people recently, and I like them again. They’re fun. It’s worth a read.
Once I got that done, I reformatted the print edition of Hard Day’s Knight and got it uploaded. I’m down to just three hard copies left with the old cover, so I wanted to repaginate the whole thing and get copies with the new cover on it for my December signings. We’ll see how that works out. Tomorrow I’ll probably spend some time doing the same thing to Back in Black. I have a lot of copies of that one on hand, but when people look at the big canvas print of my new HDK cover, and the Knight Moves cover, they want Back in Black with the new cover. So I might be having a paperback sale here on the site after Thanksgiving. Keep your eyes open!
by john | Nov 16, 2011 | Business of publishing, Fiction, Writing
My new Kindle Fire came in the UPS yesterday. I am teh happy. Honestly, I haven’t had a ton of time to play with it between work, finishing up a short story and sending it off, and then back to work. But it’s really pretty. And I have the next four days off work (two to make up for working Saturday and Sunday last weekend), so I should be able to get some time on the device this weekend.
Between playing Dragon Age II and writing stories, that is. The new Bubba story is out, and I think it’s pretty fun. It ended up being a lot longer than I expected, but there were a lot of monsters to kill, and a lot of ways to devise to kill them, so that took up a few extra thousand words.
Here’s the Amazon link – go buy it, it’s only $1.49.
Here’s the Barnes & Noble link – see above.
There will be a print Bubba anthology coming sometime in the spring. My plan is to get five short stories completed, then offer an anthology that will be available as print and ebook. Genesis print copies are coming, I promise, once I get time to format the book for printing. So probably December.
I’ve also started submitting short stories, because I want my SFWA card, and the quickest way to get one is to get three acceptances by approved publications. So I’ll be hammering on a bunch of short stories and submitting them to magazines for publication. Then once the rights revert, I’ll self-pub the stories as ebooks or in anthologies. I sent my first one off last night, and have several other ideas percolating. So hopefully I can get that rolling this weekend.
by john | Oct 25, 2011 | Business of publishing, Fiction, Return to Eden, Writing
Baen Books is one of the pioneers in ebook sales, particularly in genre fiction. While I think they do a lot of things right, there are a couple of things I think they miss the boat on (notably, not having their ebooks available for purchase from Amazon, you know, the largest seller of books in any format in the world??). But since I don’t run the company or have any financial stake in anything they do, it’s not really any of my business.
But one thing Baen does that I’ve never seen anywhere else is offer e-ARCs for purchase. What’s an e-ARC, you might ask? Well, let’s start with what an ARC is. An ARC is an Advance Reader Copy, a pre-release copy of a book typically provided to journalists, reviewers, or people of note to garner blurbs, reviews or hype about a book before it is released to the general public. An e-ARC is an electronic version of the same thing.
What Baen has done is turn this into a marketing tool, and a revenue stream as well. They sell e-ARCs on their website, making it very clear that these are not the final versions of the books. Things might change a little, there might be some further polishing, some cover edits, things like that, before the final book is released. But a hardcore fan doesn’t want to wait. Not only that, but these hardcore fans will actually pay a premium to get the book early.
I’m hoping that I have a few hardcore fans, because as of today I will be offering e-ARCs of Genesis for sale here on the website. These will not be sold at a premium, but will be the same price as the release price of the book – $2.99. These are ARCs, though, so don’t kill me on typos. If you find one, please send me an email and point it out, so I can change it before the final release. The cover is also not finalized, but will be close. So this is the whole story, the completed story, just not at its final polished state.
But if you’re one of those people who has to be the first one on your block to have the next cool thing, then this is your deal. This is the kickoff volume to my new series, a very different series than the other stuff of mine you’ve read. This is much less silly, and it’s designed to be teen-friendly, so no f-bombs.
And that was tough, let me tell you!
But here’s the link to buy with PayPal. Just shoot me $2.99, and within 24 hours I’ll email you the file in whatever format you choose (PDF, ePub or Kindle).Enjoy!
by john | Oct 8, 2011 | Business of publishing, Writing
Last night I was pleased to see a comment show up on my post from August about Yog’s Law. In it, I theorized that Yog’s Law does still apply to self-published authors, but maybe not in the same way that some people who are anti-self-publishing use it. I’m just going to drop the whole comment in here, because that, and the blog post, sum up my feelings on the matter pretty perfectly.
Yes, Yog’s Law still applies to self-publishing, because self-publishing is a category of commercial publishing.
Sure, in self-publishing the publisher only has one author, but if the publisher can’t see his/her way clear to putting 15% of the cover price of each book sold into a separate bank account labeled “Author’s Money” (or “Retirement different hobby.
The money flow is still toward the author. That it’s only moving from one pocket to another in the same pair of pants is immaterial.
The individual, in his/her persona as publisher, should say “Would I do this/spend this if the author were Joe Schmoe, writer?” and the person, in her/his persona as author should, simultaneously, say “Would I sell my book to this guy if it were the Joe Schmoe Publishing Company?”
As you say, the Publisher and the Writer are two different people, and wear two different hats, even if they wear the same pair of shoes.
Writers who think about self-publishing should remember that, if they don’t want unhappy surprises.
The author of this comment is one of the most famous people to ever comment on this little blog, and that’s kinda cool. James D. Macdonald used to play around on a listserve back in the early days of the internets. Back in those days, he used the handle “Yog,” presumably taken from Yog-Sothoth, the Lurker at the Threshold from the Cthulu mythos.
He knows a little about Yog’s Law. He came up with it. So that was kinda cool. I’m guessing he’s got a Google Alert or something set up and just now found his way around to the post, but I appreciate him stopping in. Yog’s Law definitely does apply to self-publishing, even though as Mr. Macdonald says, it may just be moving money from one pants pocket to the next. But it doesn’t apply in the sense that writers shouldn’t sometimes lay out money to bring their books to market, because as I said in the post, sometimes we take off our writer hat and put on our publisher hat. And it was nice to have the creator of Yog’s Law stop by and agree with me.
There are a lot of potholes on the road to self-publishing success, and I’ve driven through plenty of them. But the road does eventually go somewhere, so know that there is a destination involved, not just more winding roads.
by john | Sep 29, 2011 | Business of publishing, Writing
Well yesterday was certainly fun hanging around at Magical Words and answering questions. It was nice to have folks say that I did things “the right way,” but of course everyone’s mileage will vary with how they go about stuff.
One thing was brought up in comments that I’ll talk about here briefly. Someone asked if I’d had any friends who had self-published and not sold anything, and what I did when they asked me why. Basically asking – how do I handle it when a friend asks me to read something that’s crap or not ready to be sent out for submission or publication.
Well – here are a couple of answers.
First – I don’t know, because since I’ve started publishing I’ve only read stuff by three of my friends with an eye towards critique, and they all knew exactly where their work was with regards to its completion. The first friend knew that her book was in first draft format and needed a lot of love. This was some months ago, and we swapped critiques on her book and Knight Moves before I released it. She gave me some really helpful tips for my book’s third draft, and I hope that I helped her work out some plot points and get her book moving in the right direction for her second draft.
The second friend sent me a copy of her manuscript after I asked to see it, and it’s almost ready to go. It’s a good story, but there are a couple of spots in the beginning that I think need to be re-organized or tweaked somehow, but I think this one is a very publishable book and a darn fun story. And she knew when she sent it to me that it needed a little love, but was further along than Friend A’s book.
The third friend had a short story that had already been published, but she now had the rights back and wanted help with the mechanics of converting and uploading the story. It was polished and ready to go, and she didn’t need me to tell her that. :).
So I’ve been really lucky that I haven’t had any deluded buddies come up and tell me about their book that’s sure to be a bestseller once it gets out in the world. I have only looked over manuscripts from people who are serious about the craft of writing, have paid some dues in the writing biz, and have a good sense of where their book is in its development. I suppose I need to set a policy of reading unpublished work (or not), because that’s the kind of thing that can get somebody in trouble if they’re not careful. So I guess here it is – if you don’t know me well enough to call me on the phone, I probably won’t read your unpublished book and offer critique. It’s a litigious society out there and I have to protect myself.
What I find more often than anything is that my friends have delusions of mediocrity. I have some really good writers that I’m friends with, and some of you guys aren’t putting anything out there. Come on! Get the stories out, get some feedback, really get a sense of where you are along the continuum of writing talent and skill. I’ve developed a pretty good sense of where I am (happy to be a hack), and I don’t let it hold me back! So here’s my challenge for all of you writer-types out there – submit something in the month of October. I don’t care what it is, but you must submit. And I’ll go with you. I promise that in the month of October I’ll create a piece and submit it somewhere that I’ve never been published before. So I’ll find an anthology or magazine, and I’ll submit right alongside you. We can track our progress here together. I bet one of you gets a piece accepted before I do.
by john | Sep 21, 2011 | Business of publishing
My friend Stuart has a great analogy for the publishing industry (and he has a new book out, so go here to check it out!). He says that self-publishers are like speedboats, nimble little boats that can turn on a dime and give you change, quick things that can react to market forces immediately. Then to continue the analogy, small press publishers are like destroyers, well-armed, but still fairly quick to turn and adjust to things. They don’t move nearly as quick as a speedboat, but they’re a hell of a lot better equipped than most. Then there are the aircraft carriers – this is the metaphor for traditional New York publishers. They’re huge, with a whole city inside of them, and they lumber along slowly, and it takes them forever to slow down and turn. But once they get turned and locked onto a course, you DO NOT want to be in their way, because they’ll run over a speedboat without ever noticing.
I was reminded of just how good an analogy this is last night at the meeting of the Charlotte Writers’ Club. Kevin Morgan Watson of Press 53 came to speak to the group, and he gave his opinions on the state of publishing, what it takes to get published in today’s world, and all sorts of other things. I found myself nodding at almost everything that came out of Kevin’s mouth, something that happened very little at Dragon*Con panels, and I was struck by the accuracy of Stuart’s analogy once more. Kevin is a small press, and I tend to use Minor League baseball as my metaphor for small presses.
I would classify Press 53 as a AA team. They have a good listing of authors, including some truly amazing writers, but they’re still a pretty small operation. They don’t have some of the distribution deals with Barnes & Noble that some publishers have, and they don’t yet have their entire catalog available in e-book format, but they’re moving that way and understand that e-books are the future, and have embraced that fact.
I classify Bell Bridge as a AAA press, because they do have the B&N print distribution, have some truly rocking deals with Amazon and iTunes, and have landed a bunch of their books on the Amazon top 100 list, which is a serious sales number. Also, they pay advances, albeit small ones, which is almost unheard of in the small press world.
Someone I call a A team would be someone like Hydra Publications, out of southern Indiana. They’re a start-up, with just a few titles so far, but Frank over there is a great guy with an eye towards the future, and I think they’ve got potential to grow into something over the next few years. So they’re someone to keep an eye on in your submission process.
Okay, now that I’m done expanding my metaphor (and don’t forget other awesome small presses like Kerlak or Apex when you’re choosing which one is the best fit for you, because those guys are great, too, especially for building up new authors), let’s get back to my point – small press publishers are paying better attention, and reacting better, to the market changes that are going on today.
I would sign with a New York publisher only if there was pay off my house money guaranteed.
I happily signed with a small press for less money in an advance than will pay off my truck (way, way less, but it was an expensive truck). And every time I talk to a publisher from a major press, or listen to them on a panel, I become more and more convinced that they have no idea how to change their business model to fit with the new world. And every time I hear someone like Allan from Kerlak, or Deb from Bell Bridge, or Kevin from Press 53 talk, I become more and more convinced that they are paying attention and working on a plan to figure out how to survive in the new world of publishing.
And that’s what has me so impressed with these small press folks – they’re working on a plan. They understand that the world is changing, and they have to change with it. They aren’t still trying to hammer square pegs into round holes, they’re taking keyhole saws to the pegboard and changing the shape of the holes. Duh! But when I talk to a publisher at a major house and ask “How would a self-published author get your attention?” and I get the answer “With a self-published work, they can’t. We won’t ever publish a reprint.” I think that I’m talking to someone who isn’t paying attention to the world around them.
I didn’t sign with Bell Bridge for money (although I do have hopes for increased revenue for both of us) – I may very well be giving up cash on the table by making this move. I signed with them for marketing support, assistance in building my brand, editorial help in crafting my books, and career development for myself as a writer. I could pay fifty grand in a Creative Writing MFA, and MAYBE get some of that education, or I can give up some of the revenue for a few of my books and get exactly that education. And since I’ve already dropped out of grad school once, I think it’s a better bet for me to go this route.
So there’s a few rambling (as usual) things to think about when looking for a publisher. Do you want to be the speedboat, or do you want to sign on with a destroyer or an aircraft carrier? Only you can make that decision, and only you will be the ultimate judge of whether it was the right call or not.
