EP 5: Pandemic? Recession? It's a Great Time to be an Indie Writer!

Honest Numbers about an Amazon Indie Ebook Giveaway

I recently had an article published at Funds For Writers in which I give honest numbers for my Amazon ebook free promotion. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I had a giveaway of my novelette The Scavenger, set in my Toxic World post-apocalyptic series.

There's a lot of bull spread by indie writers about their numbers, so I decided to post up some honest numbers. Check out how I did here.

Publishing is vast!

When I was in Madrid last week I saw a bunch of fellow writers from my old writers group. I had just finished Hugh Howey's Wool and was raving about it. This post-apocalyptic tale was indie published and went on to become a bestseller. Howey signed a juicy print-only contract with a major publisher, keeping control of the ebook rights himself. Smart man. Now there's talk of a film in the works.

I'll be writing a review later in the week so at the moment let me just say it deserves every bit of its success. I was surprised, though, when two writer friends said they had never heard of it. Both of them are science fiction writers, one of them with several publications under her belt. They're both well-read too, and certainly read a lot more in this genre than I do. Yet they hadn't heard of such a major success story. I bet I'm ignorant of many similar blockbuster science fiction novels.

Publishing has become vast. There was once a day when the majority of well-read people were familiar with any particular bestseller. Those days are long past. Now the market is fragmented, with fan bases that often don't overlap and may be entirely ignorant of each other.

How can a writer cut through this horde of new books out there and get noticed? I have yet to figure that out. The standard practice of blogging, tweeting, and networking only seem to go so far. I'm not sure anyone in this new publishing world has really figured out a magic formula.

I know one of the ingredients, though. An awesome book, like the one Hugh Howey wrote. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.

Starting a new blog

As regular readers of this blog know, I've been shopping around my Missouri Civil War horror novel, A Fine Likeness, for some time now. This was a finalist in ChiZine and Dorchester's Fresh Blood contest but because I was traveling in Ethiopia I wasn't able to garner enough votes to win.

Well, I've decided that with the Civil War sesquicentennial already upon us, now is the time to publish this, so I've going to self-publish with Kindle Direct Publishing, Createspace, and Smashwords. A Fine Likeness will be published in September.

I've started a blog dedicated to the book and its series called, unsurprisingly, Civil War Horror. I posted there today about why a professional author is self-publishing on Amazon. I hope you'll join me on this venture into the uncertain world of modern publishing.

Websites for Writers: AuthorsDen

Last week I got an Authorsden page. AuthorsDen is a site where authors can market their books and post articles, fiction, poetry, and blogs.

So why did I get an AuthorsDen account when I'm paying a web designer to make a personal site and I already have a successful blog? Because you can never have too much publicity. AuthorsDen is a community of authors numbering in the thousands. My rather basic site, listing my books and a few news posts, has gotten more than 200 hits in less than a week. People obviously read AuthorsDen.

Plus it's free. Well, the cheap account is free, and that's rather limited. With my bio, seven book listings, and two news announcements I've already used 71% of my space! I'll have to start deleting old announcements pretty soon, and after a couple more years of book publishing I won't have any more room at all! Like most free pages, AuthorsDen offers various levels of paid membership to get more features. Bronze is the cheapest and costs $40 a year. That gets you 2 megs storage capacity as well as a blog, newsletter, and a couple other features. There are three more levels all the way up to platinum, which costs $1,200 and gets you featured on the front page. I bet platinum members get a lot of hits, although I'm not sure how many of these hits turn into sales.

Which brings me to a problem with AuthorsDen. To a great extent it's a promo op for self-publishers. I've talked about the downsides to self-publishing before. Most of these authors don't have an audience, and I'm getting the impression that the site is mostly used by its members. That's not a bad thing, since writers are usually avid readers, but it feels like a bit like a closed group, much like many of the Yahoo discussion groups.

Still, having another platform is worth the effort I put into it. Setting up my site took less than two hours and cost me nothing. I've found a few other pros like Dianna Graveman so it's not all self-pub oblivion, and it helps my SEO. Who knows? Maybe I'll get a few sales too. A little extra push is always a good thing in this game.

Yes, I know this Websites for Writers series is supposed to feature nonwriting sites of use to writers, but the only one I found last week is turning into an article for Gadling. Since they pay me and this blog doesn't, it's ending up there. I love y'all, but business is business!

Self-publishing silliness

I've been posting about my experiences at Eastercon, from the people I met to a lecture on swordplay for writers. The con was tons of fun, but an incident in the bathroom made me sigh and shake my head.

Get your mind out of the gutter! What happened was that as I sidled up to the urinal I was confronted with an ad. Not the usual ad for a TV show or safe drinking, but one for an obviously self-published fantasy novel. I looked across the row of urinals and saw one stuck to the wall above each one. A desperate self-publisher did the same thing at last year's London Book Fair.

Being curious, I took the urinal ad and checked the URL. Yep, self-published, and according to the Amazon rankings the second and third books in the series hadn't sold anything, at least on Amazon. The first book had a ranking of six million, meaning it had sold one copy, (probably to the author's mother) a few years ago. Even my London guidebook, which has been out of print for almost a year, has a ranking of 1.5 million. My book on medieval handgonnes, which doesn't come out from Osprey until October, has a ranking of 142,000 thanks to preorders. That's what a good publisher can do for you.

I've written before about how self-publishing is more often than not a pitfall for writers. It almost never leads to fame or big sales. And with the kind of associative advertising these jokers engage in, it only leads to ridicule.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. I tend not to take photos in public restrooms.

Why writers should go to conventions, even when they don't want to

A few days ago a writer friend invited me to Odyssey 2010, also known as Eastercon, an annual fantasy/science fiction/horror convention here in England.

At first I didn't want to go. It was 25 pounds for the day, I didn't know anyone, and it was more of a fan con than a pro con, unlike others I've attended such as the World Fantasy Convention or the London Book Fair. Plus I'd just arrived in Oxford, my favorite town, and wanted to enjoy it.

My wife convinced me to go and I'm glad she did.

After a short drive to a Heathrow airport hotel (convenient for out-of-towners, soulless for everyone else) my friend and I split up and we wandered around the convention. There weren't any panels I wanted to see until the afternoon so I headed to the dealers room. If I wasn't going to make any professional connections I would at least have fun stuffing my bag with books! I got a decent haul. Prices were lower than at previous cons I've been too. I'm not sure if this was luck or the financial crisis, but there was lots of vintage stuff on sale cheap. Even the new books were discounted.

I also made some unexpected professional connections. I met a medieval researcher who knows some specialists in medieval firearms, the subject of my upcoming book and perhaps a future one. I also met the owner of Atomic Fez Publishing, a new Canadian small press, who I'll be interviewing in an upcoming post, and lots of pleasant fans besides.

Most importantly I met Brett and Sandra, co-owners of ChiZine Publications, two judges in the Fresh Blood Contest. My book is a finalist in that contest so it was interesting to meet them. They invited me to a party that evening, and of course I accepted. My ride was leaving before then but a lifetime of Third World travel made me unconcerned with such trivialities.

Continuing to wander, I attended a hilarious and informative speech by Dr. Ben Goldacre on Bad Science and bumped into a Swedish friend who I didn't know would be there. We then started sampling Rosie's Scrumpy Cider (7.3% ABV) and buying more books. I made it to a panel on swordplay (another future post), drank more cider, and managed to stay sober enough to be presentable at the ChiZine party.

Publisher parties at conventions are an interesting mix of aspiring writers, published-but-unknown writers, famous writers, editors, artists, and the occasional why-the-hell-are-you-here oddity. Besides meeting two famous names (including one who gave me a ride to Oxford, I told you it would be no trouble), a photographer for the Romanian edition of Penthouse, and various Goths, I got to chat more with Brett and Sandra. While getting to know them better will have no effect on my chances of winning the contest, that's up to you, I did learn that they're smart, fun folks who love what they do. I could work well with these people. So even if I lose, they're getting a manuscript from me.

All in all, I had a great time, bought some books, got material for future blog posts, drank some good cider and mediocre wine, saw old friends, and made professional contacts. So if you're thinking of not going to that next convention, rethink. They're almost always worth your time.

I just wish that the next day when I was playing with my son in the park my wife didn't notice a postcard sticking out of my back pocket and say, "What's that!"

It was a sample from the Romanian edition of Penthouse.

How to be an annoying writer

I just unfriended someone on Facebook for the first time.

I always accept friend requests from fellow writers, published or unpublished, because I've learned a lot from people I've met online. Plus I enjoy the feeling of community with fellow travelers on this crazy path. Right after I accepted his friend request he sent me an invitation to join a FB group for self-published authors. Previously on this blog I've discussed the reasons why I think self-publishing is a bad idea most of the time, and I didn't join the group.

The next day he invited me again. Strike one.

I ignored the invite again, and a few days later he invited me again. Strike two.

Then this guy starts sending me personal emails asking me to join. Strike one million.

What part of "no" didn't he understand? Now all he's getting from me is "go away".

While self-publishing is often harmful to a writer's career, the culture it creates can be pretty damn annoying to us professionals. A large portion (not all, but many) self-publishers are so desperate to sell their books, and thus reduce their loss to the "publishers" they paid to print their work, that they lose all sense of decorum. Did this guy really think that he could badger me into joining a group in which I didn't even belong?

Such actions have "unprofessional" written all over them. I hope this guy wises up. If he does, he might just stand a chance at getting published for real.

I don't miss my writing newsgroups

Back in June I blogged about dropping out of all my writing newsgroups. I was going through a really busy period, not to mention being distracted by living in Oxford, and I needed to simplify my schedule. As a midlist author, I wasn't finding much of value on them. Most newsgroups are filled with aspiring writers all asking the same questions and having the same conversations over and over again. Ebook or traditional print? Should I self-publish? Is website xyz good to write for? This sort of thing is good for beginning writers, although they should be careful of all the poorly informed advice out there. For a midlist author there's not much to learn from these groups.

I even had trouble getting more advanced topics discussed. I brought up the Google Books settlement a couple of times but nobody wanted to talk about it! Perhaps this was because there were so few published authors on the lists, but you'd think it would still be a topic of interest.

I also got tired of all the egos. There are always people trying to hog all the attention, and a lot of mutual back scratching. I don't need to see some guy trying to make his reputation on the internet by bragging in front of a bunch of fellow writers in the hopes he'll sell some books, and I don't need the group dynamic either. I can provide all my own encouragement. For good advice I look to fellow midlist authors who are friends of mine. While writing newsgroups are good for the rank beginner, they're are something you grow out of sooner or later.

Excellent series of posts on writing history

As a history writer with a keen interest in the American Civil War, I was happy to discover Eric Wittenberg's blog, Rantings of a Civil War Historian. Wittenberg has written eleven books on the subject and numerous articles. His main interest is the Union cavalry.

One of my favorite bits in his blog are his rantings against idiotic neo-Confederates and the silly ways they try to rewrite Civil War history to suit their own narrow world view. This hilarious article is one of the best.

Of more direct interest to readers of this blog is a series of articles on writing Civil War history, which is useful to both nonfiction and fiction authors alike. The series is called Things I Wish I Knew Then But Know Now. Part one is "Don't Give Up Your Dayjob", a rather pessimistic view of how much money a writer can expect to make doing books. Well, if you write detailed studies of Union cavalry operations in the Gettysburg campaign like Mr. Wittenberg does, you really can't expect to make a living. You have to go for broader, more popular-level subjects and commercial publishers like Osprey, who still insist on accuracy while selling a lot of copies. It's great that dedicated specialists like Wittenberg are writing books, but narrow topics will get a correspondingly narrow readership. Despite Wittenberg's pessimism, this post is worth a read to sober up enthusiastic beginners who think they'll hit the bestseller list on the first try.

Other posts in the series are about self publishing, learning to take criticism, marketing, working with your editor, the hidden costs of publishing a book, and the costs of researching one.

Public domain photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The London Book Fair: An Author's View, Part 2

As I said in my last post, I recently attended the London Book Fair and had an amazing time. The fair is mostly geared towards agents and publishers selling international rights, but it can be a productive place for authors if they go about it in a professional manner.

This last detail is key. On more than one occasion I saw writers desperately pitching ideas to people who were not in a position to make a decision, or whipping out a manuscript faster than Jesse James in a gunfight. Since the fair is basically an international business meeting, most of the representatives at the booths were from marketing, not editorial. These folks are good sources of information for what direction the company is taking, what subjects are doing well and what aren't, and who to contact in editorial, but there's no point hard-selling busy people who can't accept your manuscript. A little soft peddling and some educated questions can land the right business card, however.

The majority of authors I came in contact with were self-published, and hung around the big Authorhouse booth. Some made some rather odd attempts at marketing. One fellow set up a little stand of bookmarks on top of the recycling bin, which led to some cynical remarks. Another shameless guy put up stickers inside all the stalls in the men's room. Not only is this going to create even worse subconscious associations than the recycling bin marketing campaign, but it's a pain in the ass for custodial services, who were stuck with the job of scraping them off.

Despite the sometimes embarassing company, I found the fair to be very helpful. If you're a writer and decide to go, please keep in mind that the fair is not geared towards you. Maintain a professional demeanor, have something to bring to the table (like prior publications), don't be annoying, and realize that this will mostly be a learning experience, not a fast-track to publishing success.

More insights and news from the London Book Fair coming up tomorrow!

Writing Pitfall #4: Faking It

We've all met them, the pushy "writers" who claim to know it all but don't have the experience to back it up. They're especially common on Yahoo groups, but prowl around conventions too. I've found they tend to fall into three major categories, although I'm sure there are more types I have yet to have the displeasure to meet. Watch out for them, fellow writers, they'll steer you wrong if you give them half a chance.

1. The Multipublished Nonpublished Writer.
One fellow I came across boasted he had published more than a hundred poems. Considering the quality of his poetry, I had my doubts. I looked him up and guess what? His poems had all been published either on websites that are open to all content, or in a book of poems he self-published. Paying to get published or posting something on the web doesn't count as getting published. That isn't to say there aren't good self-published books out there, or talented work on the open content sites, but it's not the same as going through the submissions and editing process. And it certainly doesn't give someone automatic bragging rights.


2. The Writing Expert Who Hasn't Written Anything.
There's a strange subspecies of writer who has published nothing but "how to write" books. I have to wonder why they think their advice on writing should be taken seriously. I've been a professional writer for ten years and have seven professionally published books in print or in production, and I only just now feel qualified to write a "how to write" book.


3. The Pulitzer Prize Nominee.
When someone says they've been "nominated for a Pulitzer prize" every journalist rolls their eyes and moans. There's no such thing as being nominated for this prestigious award. You submit your own work for consideration. The prize committee announces nominated finalists and posts them on their website. That list doesn't include all the people who sent in something for consideration, yet some people will send in any old thing and then claim to be "Pulitzer nominees."
As the Pulitzer website's FAQ says, "Work that has been submitted for Prize consideration but not chosen as either a nominated finalist or a winner is termed an entry or submission. . .Since 1980, when we began to announce nominated finalists, we have used the term "nominee" for entrants who became finalists. We discourage someone saying he or she was "nominated" for a Pulitzer simply because an entry was sent to us."

So watch out for these three types of deceivers. I'm not sure what their motives are. Perhaps they are trying to boost their egos and get a following in the hope that this will improve sales of their books. Their energy would be better devoted to getting some real writing done.

What Book Reviewers Think About Self-Publishing

I've come across a couple of great articles about self-publishing, the temptation every struggling writer faces. They confirm my earlier argument that most writers should avoid it. Paul Krupin at Direct Contact PR interviewed a long list of book reviewers about their feelings when they receive a self-published book for review. The article is here.

It isn't pretty. There were comments such as,

"They go to the bottom of the pile."

"Do not send them, I will not read them."

"So far I have not found one that I would recommend to any reader."

"Rarely do I examine such a book, the quality is likely unappealing to readers."

Ouch. The thing is, book reviewers cover books their readers are likely to read. Since self-published books rarely make it into bookstore shelves, and are usually ranked so low on Amazon that nobody sees them, readers aren't going to find them. A common theme among the responses was an aversion to the poor editing, self-indulgent plotlines, and amateurish cover art found on so many self-published books. There was also a distressing confusion between POD (a method for making books) and self-publishing (which often uses POD)

On the other hand, several reviewers said they occasionally found good ones, and that they're far more likely to review a self-published work if it has a local angle. Check out Paul's excellent article for more information.

Kel Munger, book reviewer for the Sacramento News & Review has an informative rant on the subject here. The skinny: if you're a worthy writer, you'll put in the time and effort and eventually you'll be rewarded.

It worked for me. Well, with my nonfiction. Apparantly I have more time to put in before my novels are up to snuff. I guess I could self-publish them, but then what? Sell a dozen copies?

New Trends in Publishing Give Writers More Choices Than Ever

As I outlined in the previous post, the publishing industry is going through a lot of changes. Emerging writers now have more choices than ever. In larger houses, the midlist is shrinking, but there are still contracts to be had. With the advent of POD, there is a boom in the small press. Self-publishing is getting huge. Ebooks, once ignored as a gimmick, are now getting serious attention.

So where should an emerging writer submit their work? In my opinion, the big publishers are still the best bet, because they offer the largest advances and give you a chance to make a living as a writer. The major downside to them, of course, is they take forever to get back to you and have a murderous rejection rate. Oh, and they only market the big names.

What about small presses, many of which are now using POD? This can be a great option for someone who doesn't have making money as a major motivation. Small presses are like the Wild West of publishing these days, covering every topic under the sun. There are small presses just for psychological self-help books, ones just for Lovecraft pastiches, others for specific subgenres of mystery. The list goes on and on. Many of these produce a high quality of work. Hippocampus Press springs to mind. I've bought many of their books, and helped with research on a couple, and the editing, layout, and general presentation show a much greater love for book production than most major houses.

Self-publishing I've covered before. There are a few specific situations where self-publishing is a viable option, but in general, if you want readers, it's not a good idea.

Ebooks are gaining respectability. I've had good impressions of the people in the ebook industry, and it's beginning to make money. The major sf/fantasy publisher Baen is getting into them, as is romance giant Harlequin. The big drawback, besides the lack of advances, is that the main moneymaker for ebooks is erotic romance. Not my cup of tea.

So as I said below, the publishing industry is doing well, and that's good news for writers. Oh, there are the problems of the shrinking midlist (especially painful to yours truly), consolidation, advances not keeping up with inflation, and sharp business practices, but the doom-and-gloom posters on many writing boards are seeing the glass totally empty when in fact it's more than half full.

Is The Publishing Industry In Trouble? Nope.

There's a common belief on writing newgroups that the traditional print industry is in freefall, soon to be tossed into the scrapheap of history and replaced by ebooks or no books at all. This is, not surprisingly, the stance taken by many ebook authors and publishers. While I have nothing against ebooks, a good book is a good book regardless of format, these folks are fooling themselves.

Here are a couple of cold, hard facts: according to the Association of American Publishers, net sales for 2007 were $25 billion, up 3.2% from 2006. Not a bad showing for a recession year (and yes, we are in a global recession, there's another cold, hard fact for you).

Not only that, but the New York Times reported that in 2007 there were an astonishing 400,000 books published in the United States alone. Many of these are self-published books that hardly sell any copies, others are reprints of older works, but a great deal of them are new titles by reputable publishers. The development of affordable print-on-demand technology has led to a boom in small presses, and university presses are thriving too.

Ebooks are doing well, with a net profit of $67 million, a growth of 24% over the previous year. But looking at that as part of the total of all book sales they constitute less than one third of one percent. There are a lot of smaller epublishers out there that aren't counted in the statistics, but even if the figures are off by a factor of ten, which they're not, I don't think print publishers have anything to worry about.

So it seems that while Americans are reading less, dedicated readers are actually reading more. That's the only way I can account for these figures. Traditional publishers are doing OK, although with conglomeration, restructuring, and the gutting of midlists, the industry is in a state of flux, but I have a feeling it's always been in a state of flux. Long live the traditional print book!

Writing Pitfall #2: Self Publishing

I was a panelist at a fantasy/science fiction convention a couple of years ago and while I and the other panelists were waiting to start we looked at each other's books. As the fellow to my left examined a copy of my history of Byzantium, I looked over at his novel.

"Who was your publisher?" I asked.

"AuthorHouse," he replied, slumping in his seat.

I can see why he slumped. AuthorHouse is a vanity press, meaning he paid to have his book published. He will get no marketing from his "publisher" unless he pays even more, no copyedit unless he pays more, no distribution in stores, and most reviewers won't take him seriously. His work won't even be recognized by the Library of Congress.

When I first started as a writer and was expressing frustration at not being able to get my books published, my wife (who now knows better) suggested, "Why don't you self-publish?"

My response was "No thanks, I'm already a nobody."

Despite a lot of hype to the contrary, fueled by the vanity presses themselves and defensive self-publishers, paying for publication will probably not help your career. Agents and editors don't consider self-published works as prior experience, and almost nobody makes back their initial layout. "Oh," but they say, "What about The Christmas Box? What about Eragon?"

What about the thousands of books that are self-published every year that never make it anywhere? Yes, there have been a few success stories, but they're few and far between, and the authors of the above two books happened to be talented, unlike most self-published authors. Both eventually got picked up by major houses, which helped with their distribution and advertising and made them more money than they ever could themselves.

One of my more soul-destroying jobs was as a copyeditor at a major self-publishing firm. In the six months I was there I didn't see a single book worth reading, let alone publishing. Flat characters, hackneyed and occasionally nonsensical plots, and not a glimmer of literary worth. The fact that my pay came out of the author's pocket and not the publisher's gave me a queasy feeling. Now I only do freelance editing. It helps me sleep.

So is self-publishing always a bad idea? No. Self-publishers fail because they have no market for their books. When was the last time you looked through the catalog of iUniverse or PublishAmerica for something to read? But if you have a guaranteed market you can reach cheaply, then you just might be able to sell books to people other than your mother. If you self-publish a history of your church, for example, you know you can sell a certain amount of copies to the parishioners. I met a guy who was an expert in a certain rare tropical fish. Through newsgroups he knew pretty much everyone who owned this type of fish and they acknowledged him as an expert. So he self-published a book and sold it to people in his newsgroups. I doubt he made much money, but he did get his ideas out there.

You can also do well if you build up a major platform. Cynthia Hope Clark has built up a reputation for writing advice through her fundsforwriters website. Now she's self-publishing books filled with writing advice. Since she's spent years building up a reputation, she can market through her popular newsletters and website. It helps that she knows how to write. She blows all the authors from my old job out of the water.

So my advice is, unless you have a major reputation or a tight hold on a niche market, stay away from self-publishing. It will only break your heart.

And that guy I was on the panel with? I didn't see him sell any books at the convention. He never came out with the sequel he was planning, or the audio book of his first novel, and his personal website hasn't been updated since 2006. Yet another casualty on the self-publishing highway.