Archive for category Business of publishing

Guest Post by Tamsin Silver

Jan 4

Posted by john in Book Spotlight, Business of publishing, Vampires, Writing | No Comments

I’ve known today’s guest blogger longer than I’ve known any of the other writer friends in the fantasy world. We met long, long ago in another life, in another state, and before a couple more careers for both of us. We reconnected through Facebook and realized that we’re chasing the same dream. Her first book, The Betrayal, came out late last year. Give it a look at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

 

GO FORTH!

Anyone who loves acting or directing, dreams of working on Broadway.

Anyone who loves dancing ballet, dreams of dancing at Lincoln Center.

Anyone who loves painting, dreams of having their work in a gallery in Paris, London or NYC.

What about writers? Well, many dream of being published.

When you’re about to be forty there’s really no more lying to yourself. I looked at what I’d been doing and realized that there was no way with my current lifestyle I was ever going to be a well known director. In order to really do that I needed to have a flexible job and I work in an office. It’s a good job. I like it. It pays well and gives me insurance. To walk away from that would be stupid. But if I wanted to really have the freedom to be a director I needed to be able to travel and be flexible. I could do neither. So it was apparent to me that staying in theatre for me was just me spinning my wheels. I wasn’t going to move up any higher than I already was at. And to be honest, I wasn’t happy with that.

I thought of my first love, writing, and weighed that against what I was doing. The answer was very clear. I wanted to write more than I wanted to keep plugging away at directing/producing. Hell, the idea of even attending an Off Off Broadway show made me want to squirm. I swore if I saw one more experimental artsy performance I’d shoot the cast and walk out with a clear conscious. So I hunted for the book I’d started writing in college, loaded it up and finished the damn thing.

I hate to even type this…but it was Twilight that made me do this. DON’T SHOOT ME! Let me explain! It’s not the reason you think.

To be honest, I was suddenly afraid someone was going to write/publish my story. No, Twilight is NOTHING like my series (unless you count the word “vampire” as a connection) but it made me go, “Get off your ass, girl, and get it done!” So, though I’m not a huge fan of the series, I thank the powers that be for putting a foot on my ass.

So, book is finished. Now what? Get an agent…right? Then they’d get me a publisher and so on and so forth. Little did I know how much the publishing world was changing. I don’t think I really understood until I owned a Kindle. I was buying books right and left on that thing. So when a writing pal of mine emailed me a link to an e-publisher looking for Fantasy Novels I thought, what the hell, why not?

But what about an agent? I was trying but I wasn’t getting anywhere fast. I’d been submitting to literary agents for a year and a half and nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I caught the eye of some of them and they asked to read it, but then they would disappear off the planet. Or as I had reached the point of saying, “They fell into a ditch and they swallowed their laptop and forgot how to check their email.”  Yeah, I’m a little bitter. I’m working on it.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the link my friend had sent me was to Eirelander Publishing. I researched them and submitted. By that Saturday I had an offer in my email. I was shocked. I was in tears. I was leery. It shouldn’t be this easy, right? Then I thought, “Easy? I’ve been bustin’ my ass for a year and a half to get someone to give me a chance!”  And when you write vampire novels and your publisher/editor’s name is Buffi, how can you not see it as “meant to be”?

For you see, I started to try and sell the first book of The Living Dead Girl Saga in December of 2009. I told myself if I’d not found an agent by December 2011 I would start considering going to Grad School (somewhere warm ‘cause NYC weather really bites).  But, on October 14, 2011 that book was released by Eirelander Publishing in e-book format. We hope to see it hit Amazon Print on Demand early in 2012.

For me, two of my dreams have come true. I’ve worked successfully in the indie-theatre world of NYC and now, I am published. To be honest, the latter really hasn’t sunk in fully. I think that’s because it’s so new and because I’m still a tiny fish in a big pond.

But I will push forth! Book Two, called Shattered, in the Living Dead Girl Saga, has been requested by my publisher so if you’ve read Book One, The Betrayal, and enjoyed it, the next one will be out in 2012!

For more information on me and my books, visit me at www.tamsinsilver.com . Once there you can find links to purchase my book in e-format (Amazon and B&N) as well as a PDF form through my publisher. You’ll also find cool things like pictures of my characters, videos from the photo-shoots, and if you hit the October entries of my blog there are character profiles for most everyone in the LDG Saga. Or, if you want…here are links:

Photos: http://is.gd/nD6rd7

Videos: http://is.gd/tYJbJ7

Character Profiles: http://is.gd/r2Pixg

I hope you are following your dreams. If you’re not, stop making excuses and GO FORTH! Jump on the ambition train and make it happen. You won’t regret it. Honestly, even if I’d not gotten published yet, I’d not regret my decision. I’ve met so many great people doing National Novel Writer Month and getting involved with a writing group here in NYC, that I feel suddenly like I’m on the right path. I just wish I’d not avoided that path for ten years due to my fears.

So go forth, and good luck!  Cheers!   -Tamsin

Screw a bunch of resolutions…

Dec 30

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Poetry, Real Life, Weight Loss, Writing | 1 Comment

Let’s make goals instead. I suck at resolutions, but somehow manage to be pretty goal-oriented. So here are my goals for 2012. At some point I’ll take a look back at last year’s goals and see where I succeeded (number of novels written) and where I failed horribly (weight loss), but this is not that post.

1) Words per day – I’m quitting my day job, so there’s no reason not to ratchet up my productivity. My current goal is 2,000 words per day, or 10,000 words per week. That equates to half a million words in a year, which should give me plenty of fodder to do the 2 Black Knight books I’m contracted to turn in this year, finish the Return to Eden trilogy this year, and work on something else (maybe a fairy tale, maybe a straight thriller). That also leaves a lot of words on the table for short stories, because my books are short, usually under 75,000 words. So I should be able to crank out a lot of product this year, which is pretty key to putting food on the table.

2) Solicit more paid work – not just fiction, but I’m a pretty good non-fiction writer, too. I’ve still got a few contacts in the poker world I can ring up, plus there are several entertainment industry publications that are interested in having me write for them. I’d like to get a couple of articles each month out in the world to help out in the slow months when the fiction dollars aren’t cranking.

3) Return to writing poetry – I haven’t done much poetry in a year or so, but re-launching Red Dirt Review has me itching to write more literary fiction and poetry, so I need to re-train my mind for those particular backflips. And if you haven’t check out the Review yet, give it a shot. There’s some work over there by some amazing poets and short story writers. And submissions are always open.

4) Work on my photography – I got a new camera, now I need to learn how to use it. I want to learn about filmmaking with a DSLR, and I want to learn more about photography, too. My years in lighting design and stage direction have given me a pretty good sense of composition, I just need to get a better handle on the technology.

5) Work out and lose weight – I’m not real healthy right now, and I’ve got to make time to get some of the weight off. It needs to be higher on this list, but whatever switch in my head that makes me want to get up and work out every day hasn’t flipped yet. I did get a couple of workouts in during my week off, but not as many as I would have liked.

That’s what we’re going to start with – what are your goals for the new year?

Win a Kindle Fire!

Nov 23

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Promos/Giveaways | 27 Comments

It’s the hottest new toy for the holidays, it’s the Kindle Fire! And I’m giving away not one, but TWO of them! Yep, two lucky winners will get a Kindle Fire this holiday season, and it’s 100% free to enter and win!

Yep, this is how I’m using the last of my marketing budget for the year!

It might be free, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be simple – there are LOTS of ways to gain entries, and if I’m gonna drop $400 on electronics, you better believe I have a plan to sell a few books in the process.

I’ll even go you one better. If any of my books hits the Kindle Top 100 at any point during the contest, I’ll add in a third Kindle! So the more books I move in the next month, the better your chance to win a Kindle!

Here’s how you can win -There might be even more ways to win coming soon, so keep checking back here -

 

Here are the rules for the contest -

Contest runs through 11PM EST, November 23, 2011, to 5PM EST, December 19, 2011. That should give me enough time to order the kindles and get them shipped to people for Christmas delivery (I’ve got Prime, so it’ll be 2-day delivery). There’s no purchase necessary, and all the ways to earn entries are listed below.

You get one entry for commenting on this blog post. That’s all it takes – one comment that says “I wanna win!” or something to that effect.

You get one entry for signing up for my email newsletter – click the box on the right-hand side of the page

You get one entry for following me on Twitter – @johnhartness

You get one entry for “liking” my Facebook Author page

You get one entry for Following this blog using Google Friend Connect (also in the right sidebar for the folks in RSS reader-land)

You get one entry for following my Ebook promo site – Ebook Deals Today – on Twitter – @ebookdeals2day

You get one entry for “liking” Ebook Deals Today on Facebook

You get one entry for every Facebook post that links to one of my book or Ebook Deals Today.

You get one entry for every tweet that links to one of my books (and includes my twitter handle so I can find it!) or Ebook Deals Today. Retweets count!

If you have a blog, you get one entry for every time you link to this blog, EbookDealsToday.com, or one of my books on your blog.

Take a picture of yourself reading one of my books somewhere interesting, or holding up a sign promo’ing my books somewhere interesting, post it to Facebook, and I’ll give you one entry per photo.

And if you come up with some other type of crazy creative marketing stunt that might result in a few sales for me, let me know and I’ll give you an entry for that, too!

 

Those are all ways to win without buying anything. No BS, and it only takes one entry to win.

 

But if you want to max out your chances, you might want to buy a book or two. This is a sales/promo contest, after all.

 

You get 10 entries for every book of mine you buy between now (11/23/11) and the end of the contest – 5PM on 12/19/11 – you have to email me a receipt (please black out personal info like credit card data) or buy the books through PayPal here on the site.

You can also get 10 entries for every book you buy from me in print form – just order them here on the site or pick them up at one of my live events.

You get 5 entries for every book you buy that is a featured Ebook Deal of the Day on EbookDealsToday.com. These books all have positive reviews and all are under $6.99.

You get 5 entries for every review you write of one of my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes. And the reviews should be honest. If you think my writing is crap on toast (pop quiz, which urban fantasy author did I steal that phrase from – worth another entry to the first correct commenter) then you should say so. If you hate it and give it a review (must be at least 100 words, and no bs like “I hated it” 34 times) I’ll give you two entries. That’s two entries per book reviewed, so the more reviews you write, the more entries you get. Obviously you can only review each book once, because to do anything else skews the review process. So no sock puppet reviews, no multiple reviews, and please don’t slag another book in a positive review for mine (or vice versa).

 

So there’s the plan – and if you have other things that you can do to promote my site or my books, then you’ll get extra entries for it and I’ll post those methods here so everybody can get the same benefit. YouTube videos featuring my books, getting my book covers on an episode of Vampire Diaries (it shoots in Atlanta, it could be done!), whatever you can do to become my street team and promo my books here at the holidays will earn you entries.

And remember, if any one of my books reaches the Kindle Top 100, I’ll give away a third Kindle Fire!

Please email any questions or entries to johnhartness AT gmail DOT com. You know what to do with that address.

 

UPDATE – Suzanne gets the bonus entry for knowing that crap on toast is from Kim Harrison’s Hollows series. I love those books. A bunch.

 

Ugh, sorry

Nov 19

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Writing | No Comments

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!

 

Let me stand next to your Fire!

Nov 16

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Fiction, Writing | No Comments

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.

Stealing a good idea…

Oct 25

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Fiction, Return to Eden, Writing | No Comments

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!

Your Email Address!
File Type (ePub/Kindle/PDF)

A little validation from Yog himself

Oct 8

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Writing | No Comments

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.

Delusions of Grandeur? October submission challenge!

Sep 29

Posted by john in Business of publishing, Writing | 1 Comment

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.

Carriers, Destroyers and Speedboats – why a small press might be your best choice

Sep 21

Posted by john in Business of publishing | 4 Comments

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.

Back to reality

Sep 8

Posted by john in Appearances, Business of publishing, Real Life, Theatre, Writing | No Comments

Or whatever most closely approximates reality for me these days. Looks like September will be the calm before the ridiculousness that is October for me, as I  think I’m home most of this month, and gone most weekends next month. I spent a large portion of the morning looking at regional cons and trying to figure out which ones I want to attend next year, and then looking at budgeting for all that travel, which is no small feat.

Cons are one of those things that some people love and others loathe. I’m still trying to figure out where I need to be at a con, and what makes the most sense for me. There are almost always at least a couple of panels that I can get some valuable information out of, but frequently only a couple. I went to close to a dozen panels at Dragon*Con and actually took notes at two. It’s certainly not that I think I’m such a great writer that I don’t need more information, but with an hour-long panel most of what people go over is going to by nature be very basic. I did pick up some recommendations for good resource books and some networking sites that may prove useful, but that was more me grabbing little nuggets of wisdom out of the air than the panel itself being hugely useful.

So I’ve looked at all the remotely local cons that I could find, from as close as right here in Charlotte to as far away as Memphis, and tried to see which ones are worthwhile. I’ll definitely do Dragon again, and ConCarolinas would be a good one. I made back my table rental at Heroes Con, so we’ll give that one another shot, and since I’m kinda putting together the lit track for RoundCon in Columbia I figure I should plan on attending it. ChattaCon looks good, as does MidSouthCon, but damn, Memphis is a long way from here! Fandom Fest is a yes for me for next year, and the SC Book Festival is a maybe, if I can share a booth with someone and get a better location. Being all by myself and way on the back wall made it very hard to make any sales. And if I can’t get on any panels it won’t be worth attending.

But that should be easier, now that I have a publisher behind me. That’s another major reason I wanted to sign with a publisher – it’s a lot easier to get on panels and things like that if you’re not self-pubbed. So having BellBridge in my corner will give me a legitimacy in a lot of eyes that I can’t get on my own. Ugly truth, but truth nonetheless.

Obviously I still plan to self-publish some stuff. The money is really good, and some of my stuff just doesn’t fit, even in the small press world. Plus there are only so many publishing slots out there in a year, so just like no writer can keep up with the speed of a reader, no publisher can keep up with the speed of a fast writer. So now I’ve got a foot in both worlds, and we’ll see how it all works out. I can’t wait to get my first massive revision letter so I can go through all the cursing, weeping and drinking that my friend Misty describes. I’m sure I’ll be just as distraught as she was, because after all, how could anyone not LOVE my Black Knight Chronicles books?

Heh. I got that answer in spades this morning when Hard Day’s Knight got its first 1-star review on Amazon, and it was pretty ruthless. Unfortunately, there have been enough recent incidents of sock-puppet reviews that the first thing I did after reading it was to check the person’s other reviews and see if it looked like a fake review. Even more unfortunately, it looked like the review was legit, just from someone who hated the book.

I thought it would hurt more. You know, getting the first bad review was supposed to have me all devastated and stuff, right? Nah. I’ve gotten bad reviews before, because you can’t do theatre for any length of time without getting them. So I’m used to seeing people in print say I suck. But I did find a great trick for dealing with bad reviews. Other than ignore them and not read them at all, which is the best advice that I try to follow (and fail miserably). I went to one of my favorite books, Book 1 of The Dresden Files, and read one of his 1-star reviews. Yep, no matter how much a lot of people like something, somebody out there will hate it. So now I’ve gotten a 1-star. Won’t be my last, and I lived through it.

On a completely different note, the nominations for the annual Metrolina Theatre Awards are out, and both Suzy and I got nominated! I got a nod for my lighting design on Rent, and Suzy got nominated for her costuming of The Princess Bride and King Lear. So I guess we’ll break out the monkey suits on October 9th and go see who takes home the lucite statues. That is, if I’m not in rehearsal for another show. I did mention October was a little nuts, right?