Sam Stone's Blog, page 14

This weekend I'll be at ...

GRIMM UP NORTH, 5th-7th October, 2012
Sam Stone and David Howe will be attending Grimm Up North Festival this year as guests. More information to follow on this.



Address: The Dancehouse Theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester.

Date: 5th-7th October 2012



Futher details can be found HERE

This week I'll be at ...

PETERBOROUGH WATERSTONES, Saturday 29th September 2012.
Sam Stone and David J Howe are happy to be returning to Peterborough Waterstones this year with their new books.



Sam's new Vampire Gene Book Silent Sand will be available as well as
her new Steampunk/Horror Novella, Zombies At Tiffany's.



David's horror collection talespinning will also be available.



Address: Peterborough Waterstones, 40 Bridge Street, Peterborough, PE1 1DT

Time: 12-4pm

Date: Sat 29th Sept 2012.

This week I'll be at ...

A busy weekend ahead. With award-winning Steampunk author Raven Dane and Frazer Hines joining us.



Firstly ...




WIGAN WATERSTONES, Saturday, 22ndSeptember 2012. 



Sam Stone, David Howe and Raven Dane will be revisiting this super store in Wigan town centre.



Sam's new Vampire Gene Book Silent Sand will be available as well as
her new Steampunk/Horror Novella, Zombies At Tiffany's.



David's horror collection talespinning will also be available.

 

Award winning Steampunk author Raven Dane will also be joining us with copies of Cyrus Darian and the Technomicron (winner of 2011 award for BEST NOVEL) and her latest novel, Cyrus Darian and the Deadly Horde.

 

Address: 6 The Grand Arcade,Wigan, WN1 1BH
Time: 12-4pm 



Great to be joining the superb line-up as guests at this event also ... 












WALES COMIC CON, Sunday, 23rd September 2012.

Sam Stone, David Howe, Raven Dane and Frazer Hines join the line up of
guests for this increasingly popular event. Come along and meet stars
from your favourite TV shows and films.



Sam's new Vampire Gene Book Silent Sand will be available as well as
her new Steampunk/Horror Novella, Zombies At Tiffany's.



David's horror collection talespinning will also be available, as well as some new Telos TV guides. 



 

Award winning Steampunk author Raven Dane will also be joining us with
copies of Cyrus Darian and the Technomicron (winner of 2011 award for
BEST NOVEL) and her latest novel, Cyrus Darian and the Deadly Horde.









Frazer Hines will be there with his new audio of his autobiography Hines Sight as well as paperback, photographs and signatures.



Address: Glyndwr University, Wrexham

Time: 10am-5pm



For Further Information: WALES COMIC CON

This weekend I will be at ...

Catch up with David J Howe and me this weekend as we return to Manchester for two events. ALL WELCOME.




Firstly, it is great to be returning to our favourite Manchester Bookstore :



WATERSTONES ARNDALE CENTRE MANCHESTER, Saturday, 15th September 2012.
Sam Stone and David Howe will be revisiting this super store in Manchester town centre.



Sam's new Vampire Gene Book Silent Sand will be available as well as
her new Steampunk/Horror Novella, Zombies At Tiffany's.



David's horror collection talespinning will also be available.



Address: Waterstone's Arndale Centre, Arndale Centre, Manchester, Lancashire, M4 3AQ 

Time: 12-4pm

Date: 15th Sept 2012.



Next up :




MANCHESTER VAMPIRE GUILD MEET-UP, Manchester, Sunday, 16th September, 2012.


Sam Stone and David J Howe will be doing readings and signing at the Manchester Vampire Guild September meet-up.



Sam's new Vampire Gene Book Silent Sand will be available as well as
her new Steampunk/Horror Novella, Zombies At Tiffany's and David will have will him his superb horror collection talespinning.



Although this is the Vampire Guild's official monthly meet-up ALL ARE WELCOME to join them at any time.



Address: Lass O Gowrie 36 Charles street M1 7DB.

Date: Sunday 16th September, 2012.

Time: 2pm

Fairtrade Books

Why books, like bananas, can be worth paying more
for …




Over the past few months I’ve seen
stories online that tell us about UK farmers who have been forced to sell their
milk to supermarket chains below the cost of production. We’re regularly
bombarded with information about people overseas who have no choice but to work
for a pittance which is so small that they can’t afford to live at all. Concerns
over the welfare and the right to a ‘fair wage’ for work done has resulted in a
movement which has been labelled ‘Fair Trade’, where the shops stock coffee,
bananas, chocolate and other goods that come under this label. We are
encouraged to pay more for these items, as the money paid allows more of the
cost to go to those lower down the chain. The aim is, of course, to ensure that
the people who do all the hard work growing and making these things in the
first place are given better pay, improved working conditions, and that they
can work and live on the income they receive. There is a perception that these
Fair Trade items are often better quality than the mass-produced fare, that
because we are paying more for them, not only are we helping the producers, but
that we get something better in return as well.




It would be interesting to
speculate on what happens if you apply this principle to books. Some years back,
Amazon began trading in cheaper books. Using a ‘supermarket’ mentality, Amazon
bought in bulk from publishers, and increasingly used their position to negotiate
better discounts. Initially this seems to have been on the basis of ‘we’re new,
so we need a helping hand’, but latterly has been more along the lines of
‘we’re the only game in town’. So not only did they get the books cheaper than
anyone else, but they discounted them as well, selling them at less than anyone
else could. This is in part because they can demand large discounts (or they
won’t stock your books) and also because the sheer volume meant that they could
sell some titles at less than they paid for them, and still make a vast profit
overall. This was made possible in the UK because the government had allowed
the dissolution of the Net Book Agreement. From 1900 until 1997, all new books had
to be sold at their recommended retail price. Unfortunately, some bookstores wanted
to discount – reasoning that cheaper books would mean more sales – and they
were prepared to take a small hit on their percentage to do that. However what
the NBA did was to level the market – books cost the same everywhere, so a small
high street bookshop could do as well as Tesco. However with the loss of the
NBA, in came predatory pricing, and loss leaders, where a big store could
offset the loss made on one item with a profit made on another. The small
bookshops could not compete and so slowly started to dwindle.




And now there are eBooks. Notably
for the Kindle, which is rapidly becoming the favourite with readers,
publishers, and self-published writers who are trying to make a name for
themselves. In the meantime the discounts that publishers are asked to give in
order to get their books into the few remaining book stores, or onto Amazon, is
getting higher and higher, crippling the authors as they have no say in what
happens, and have to rely on contracts agreed in advance to protect them as the
landscape constantly changes.




Despite the fact that book sales
are increasing overall, advances – the up-front money paid to an author by a
publisher in ‘advance’ of their sales – are actually getting smaller and
smaller, and in some cases have vanished completely in favour of a buy out, or
some sort of profit share. Publishing contracts have clauses that allow
publishers to sell the books for less than the print cost, or at higher
discounts, and in these cases, the author takes the hit on their royalty – receiving
nothing whatsoever if the book is ‘sold’ at less than cost, or reducing
dramatically if the books are sold at higher discounts. All this means that the
author suffers as they don’t get royalties, because there is no money left for
them. In addition, publishers aren’t putting as much money behind up and coming
authors for promotion and marketing. Corners are being cut in every way
possible, and mostly to the detriment of the authors. And why? Because the
booksellers are demanding more and more discount. I’ve heard of some
booksellers wanting 60% discount, plus full sale or return at the publishers’
cost, and they won’t pay the shipping to get the books to them either … all
that has to be covered by the publisher.




I can’t liken the plight of authors
to that of people in third world countries who are paid a pittance for their
labour: certainly in the UK, we aren’t starving just yet, or living in abject
poverty.  But professional writers are more
often than not forced to have two jobs with their seemingly successful writing
careers taking a back burner to the day job that really pays their bills.




We live in a world where people
increasingly think that they are owed everything for free, and that they don’t
have to pay into the system which provides that which they consume. Some
readers think they should be ‘given’ books for nothing, or that they should pay
just a few pence as that’s all they should cost. There is no consideration or
respect for the months and years of work that have gone into the making of the
product. There is even criticism if you try and charge a reasonable price for a
book. Readers make no apparent distinction between the professional (who needs
to live off what they are paid) and the hobbyist (who does not).




When we had the Net Book Agreement
all UK retailers had by law to sell new books at their recommended retail
price. This meant in turn that a clear royalty was being paid to the author. It
was simple for the author to understand what they would be paid – x units sold
at y RRP meant a z payment at whatever percentage had been agreed. Authors
could therefore budget and work out how their income might run, and established
authors had a good idea of what they might earn from any given book based on
their previous sales. In those days a lot of writers were able to live on their
advances and royalties. Today this isn’t the case. With royalties now based on
‘price received’ rather than RRP, authors are at the whim of the discounts, and
the more the discount, the less the author gets.




This situation has been caused by greed.
Supermarkets wanted to offer discounts, mostly to encourage customers to buy
more with them, so they made more money overall. Online sellers wanted to offer
discounts, to undercut the competition and to get people buying from them. But
they can only do this if the producers are complicit and agree to the discounts
being demanded. With the boom of the world wide web, and internet businesses
making millions overnight, you can see why sellers everywhere wanted to have
room to manoeuvre and to protect their profits. They wanted a bigger mark up.
Whether they needed it or not is irrelevant. This is business and making money
is all that these large companies care about. There was never any thought at
all to the little guy or gal who was sitting back in their study writing the
product that these fat cats were then going to make a massive profit on.




It is quite sobering to think that
anything from 40 to 60% of the price you pay for a book goes to the company
selling it to you – and if they are online, then they don’t even have the same
cost overheads (premises and so on) of a bricks and mortar store. No wonder
that people are up in arms that Amazon don’t pay taxes in the same way as other
stores do.




The principle of being able to earn
a fair wage for the work you do is an important one. If writers can’t live on
their work then they will either give up writing completely or they will work
extra jobs, squeezing in the creation of their worlds of wonder around the
edges of their regular lives. This in itself does not allow for the best
creative working conditions. Nor does it encourage authors to spend literally
months, and often years, writing a book. Nor does it allow the financing of
research, of travel, of going to some distant, dusty library to leaf through
ancient tomes in search of obscure histories, facts and figures to bolster the
fiction or to form the backbone for the non-fiction.




Many people seem to think that
eBooks should be free. But the same amount of time and effort has gone into the
writing of these works as goes into producing a traditional paperback. There
might not be the print and storage costs for a physical copy, but the author still
deserves an advance, and they deserve royalties. If the books are
professionally produced then an editor will work many months with the author,
refining and improving. Someone needs to typeset the book, to create the cover,
to market it, to promote it. All of these costs mount up. It can cost a
publisher many thousands of pounds before a single copy of a book even appears
in a bookshop or online.




If we assume that the royalty on a
book is around 10% paid to the author (and it can be less, and sometimes is
more), then the common misconception is that on a book selling for £8.99 the
author will therefore be getting around 89 pence. Unfortunately, most publishers
these days will pay royalties on net sale not on RRP. So if a bookseller insists
on a discount of 65%, this means that the publisher receives just £3.14. The cost
price per copy (depending on print run size of course) is often between one and
two pounds. On top of this there are the costs for designers, artists,
typesetters, editor, publicity, premises, marketing, storage, shipping,
accounting … the list is endless. And the author ends up with 31 pence from the
sale of a book with a RRP of £8.99.




So for months and months and
possibly years of work on this book you are earning just 31 pence a copy. As
far as I am aware, the average mid-list author will sell between five and ten
thousand copies of a paperback (if they are lucky) which means that they will earn
£3100 pounds if they sell 10,000 books. The writer could easily have spent six
months writing this book full time.
That means they have earned an average of £500 per month. Let’s say that the
writer has spent eight hours a day, five days a week on this book. That’s 40
hours per week. There are 52 weeks in a year – half a year therefore equals 26
weeks spent on this book. That is 1040 hours. If we divide £3100 by that, then
the writer is getting £2.98 per hour for writing the book. Less than half the
minimum wage and that is gross, so before tax, and before any of their expenses
incurred during the writing are taken into account.




I wonder if the average person
would work for this – or whether any other business could get away with paying
that as a wage in the UK?




This is in part why authors are so
beguiled by Amazon’s self-publishing model. You get 70 or 35% of the price
(depending on how much you want to sell it for). If you opt for selling it at
99c (which is 63 pence) then you get 35% or 22 pence of that – not much less
than what you might receive from traditional publishing. However (and it’s a
big however), if you are unknown, then you are up against the thousands and
thousands of other unknown authors in the biggest bookshop in the world which
has every title ever published in stock all the time. And so the chances of you
selling even a fraction of 10,000 copies is practically unheard of. What you
almost certainly won’t do is make enough money to live off.




So what we need are Fair Trade
books. Perhaps if everyone started considering and paying a realistic price for
books. Buy in bookstores, rather than online – you’ll be helping to keep the
high street bookstores and their employees in work. Cast your eyes up from the
99c books to those priced at the far more realistic $2.99 and above – you may
get a better quality product from a professional author as a result, and they
in turn will receive more of your money. Don’t, under any circumstances, accept
free pirated eBooks – pay for them, and research where you are buying them from
as many pirate websites seem on the surface to be completely legitimate. If you
can’t afford to buy books then go to your local library (assuming you still
have one) and borrow them. The author receives a small royalty from the loan, and
you will be helping to keep your local library in business. Also consider that
almost everyone selling a book, whether online or otherwise, is making a profit
on that sale. If the book is cheap, it’s because they have gained a bigger
discount from the publisher, and that reduction in income is in turn passed to
the author.




These are moral choices. Just the
same as choosing to pay more in the supermarket for those Fair Trade bananas
and coffee because you know that it is helping someone, somewhere to be paid a
decent wage for the work that they have done to bring you those goods. Are we
going to have Fair Trade books or are we going to find ourselves without new literature
and professional writers because the majority of authors can no longer make
ends meet by writing?




Originally posted on Do Authors Dream of Electric Books on 31st August 2012.

Audio Deal with AudioGO

 

This is the press release for my recently announced sale of audio rights to AudioGO.

 

 

Zombies Hit AudioGO

 

Alexandra Arlango, Commissioning Editor - Original Content at AudioGO
Ltd in London, has acquired world rights to an audio edition of Sam
Stone's first collection, Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings.


The book was published by Telos Publishing Ltd in 2011, and went on to
win great acclaim from readers. Horror author Graham Masterton said in
his introduction to the print version: 'Sam Stone without doubt is a
mistress of the grisly and the gluti
nous.
She is one of the few horror writers who makes you feel when you have
finished her stories that you need to wash your hands. Twice. I believe
that we can look forward to seeing Sam Stone develop into a major
influence in the realm of blood and shadows and things that wake you up,
wide-eyed, in the middle of the night.'

Alexandra said of this
deal: ‘We are very excited to be working with Sam. She is a fresh and
unique voice in horror and her short stories weave deliciously dark
tales involving vampires, werewolves and clowns.’

AudioGO is
the home of BBC Audiobooks and manages all the Doctor Who audio releases
among their 10,000 catalogue items. Their clients include books by P D
James, J K Rowling, Ruth Rendell and Bernard Cornwall. Their horror
catalogue includes work by Bram Stoker, Rachel Caine, M R James,
Stephanie Meyer, James Herbert and Fangoria's Dreadtime Stories. For
more information, visit www.audiogo.com/uk/.


Sam Stone’s first novel, Killing Kiss, won the silver award for Best
Horror Novel in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year competition, and
her subsequent novels and short stories have gained her much acclaim,
including winning the British Fantasy Award. She holds an MA in Creative
Writing and is a noted public speaker and lecturer. Sam’s website is at
www.sam-stone.com, Telos Publishing is at www.telos.co.uk.

About AudioGO Limited


AudioGO is the new name for BBC Audiobooks, the UK’s leading audiobook
publisher and distributor. AudioGO was formed in July 2010 - its new
owners, led by Michael Kuhn, have ambitious and exciting plans for
growth and expansion. The company is the UK market leader. It also has a
successful, rapidly growing business in the US and a thriving
international business. It has a heritage stretching back over 20 years
based on BBC Radio content, but has built on that with the acquisitions
of Cover to Cover and Chivers, brand leaders in fiction and particularly
well known in libraries. The company now has a catalogue of thousands
of audiobooks and established relationships with retailers and
distributors around the world. AudioGO plans to expand its catalogue,
its distribution channels, and to better exploit web and other emerging
online retail opportunities.

About Telos Publishing Limited


Telos Publishing is a friendly independent press with bags of
enthusiasm and a love of publishing and books. Set up in 2000 by David J
Howe and Stephen James Walker, they won the 2006 World Fantasy Award in
the best Non-Professional category for their publishing work, and
several of their titles have won literary and design awards over the
years. They specialise in Non-Fiction Guides to cult film and
television, and also publish occasional fiction, mainly in the horror
and crime genres.

Gallifrey One - Appearance Update

GALLIFREY CONVENTION, 15-17 Feb 2013, Los Angeles
 

David J Howe, Sam Stone and Frazer Hines are
among the many esteemed guests attending this year's convention to
celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

 

Address: Marriott Los Angeles Airport Hotel, 5855 West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, USA.

Date: 15-17 Feb 2013

Time: ALL WEEKEND



For further information: GALLIFREYONE

SCI-FI WEEKENDER

Delighted to announce that David J Howe and I will be joining the line-up for the SCI-FI WEEKENDER at Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park, North Wales.



The event takes place from 1st-3rd March 2013.



Guest line-up announced so far includes Robert Rankin, Brian Blessed, Craig Charles, Peter Davison, Richard Madden, Jerome Flynn ... and many more to be announced shortly.



For more information on how to book : SCI-FI WEEKENDER



This is the advert that will be going in SFX Magazine's next edition.









Looking forward to it ... It's going to be a very busy year next year.

Guest Blogger - Poet Cardinal Cox

Getting away with Genre Poetry

 




I’m Cardinal Cox and I fully understand if you’ve never heard of me, after all, I’m a poet. I have been
published in both Britain and North America, won a couple of prizes and
had a couple of residencies. The reason though why Sam kindly asked me to be a guest contributor to her blog is that I’m also a genre poet, writing a lot of verse in the Lovecraftian tradition. (I also write steampunk poetry and I’ve lectured English degree students on SF poetry at my local University centre, but those are subjects for different articles). Again, I’ll understand if you don’t immediately think of poetry when you consider Lovecraftian fiction, but I’ll argue that is essential if you want to fully appreciate the weird fantasy of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle.




Indeed, let me start by quoting something to you:-




“Lo! Death has reared himself a throne

In a strange city lying alone

Far down within the dim West,

Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best

Have gone to their eternal rest.

There shrines and palaces and towers

(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)

Resemble nothing that is ours.

Around, by lifting winds forgot,

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie…”






That is from the poem ‘The City in the Sea’ by Edgar Allan Poe and I contend that it is the major source for Lovecraft’s image of Cthulhu and R’lyeh. Poe was heavily influenced by Byron (going as far as to emulate his hero’s swimming feat) and in turn influenced the French poet Charles
Baudelaire and thus the whole decadent movement of the end of the
nineteenth century and thence the surrealists of the early twentieth. Just as importantly (in my opinion) is the influence of Poe upon Lovecraft and his circle.




Between Poe and Lovecraft though there were other poets in
the weird fantast field, for instance both Ambrose Bierce and the
Anglo-Irish author Lord Dunsany had volumes of poetry published.




H.P.
Lovecraft had a large number of poems printed in Weird Tales and it is
possible to find collections of his verse. For instance ‘Hallowe’en in a Suburb’ published by Stanza in 2010. Other members of his circle of fellow writers were also active poets including Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard (both of whom also had volumes from Stanza) and Frank Belknap Long. Subsequent authors in the field who have penned verse include the Brit’s Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley.




Looking back at my own interest in H.P. Lovecraft I started reading him in the late 1970’s and in the early 1980’s my then band recorded on a demo-cassette somewhere a track called ‘When The Space Gods Come’. Forward to 2003 when I was the Council-appointed Poet Laureate for my home city (Peterborough) a couple of the projects I wrote included a cycle of poems for the local comic-shop (The House on the Borderland, now only trading on-line) and as Poet-in-Residence of a mad Victoriana-convention in Ireland (They Came and Shaved Us, guests included Robert Rankin and David Lloyd). Both of those included overtly Lovecraftian poems.




Since 2009 I’ve been writing Lovecraftian verse regularly and produced a handful of pamphlets that have picked-up good reviews in Britain and North America. So there is a small specialist market for these, but don’t discount the more mainstream market if you too write such poetry. Depending on what you write, you can get published in those too (though it’s not easy) if you’re willing to claim the mood pieces are either metaphors or ironically post-modernist.




As I said, I’ve had a couple of residencies, including for a local cemetery (the audience wasn’t great, but they never walked out on me, but I did get a piece in the Times Saturday Magazine out of it) for three years and I’m currently a third of the way through a year-long post at a 15th Century Gothic church. In both of these posts, although I seldom have need to discuss in rhyme the gibbering madness that lurks in the outer darkness, I feel my poetry is all the stronger for having an unseen foot (possibly cloven) in the terrible shadows.




If you have an interest in genre verse, be it Fantasy, SF or Horror, check out the lists of previous winners and nominees for the award given by the Horror Writers Association http://www.horror.org/

and have a look at the website of the SF Poetry Association http://www.sfpoetry.com /
 

If you live in Britain, consider sending an SAE for information to either (or both) Data Dump c/o Hilltop Press, 4 Nowell Place, Almondbury, Huddersfield West Yorkshire HD5 8PB and Handshake c/o Dunnock Press, 5 Cross Farm, Station Road North, Fearnhead, Warrington WA2 0QG.

Guest Blogger - Joe Mynhardt

So
you want to publish an eBook?

Joe
Mynhardt




Let me start by
introducing myself. I’m Joe Mynhardt and I started writing flash fiction and
short stories in November of 2008. Need I say that most of my stories are
speculative fiction and just plain old horror.




After over forty
short story publications, I decided it was time to put together my first eBook,
filled with a couple of my best stories to date. I realised I had a pretty
solid base of support, readers and writers alike, and gathered it was time to
really put my work out there for others to see.




Being a very
analytical person (at times), I first looked into why I wanted to do this:

·       
Promote myself

·       
Promote my work

·       
Learn more about the publishing
industry

·       
Gain experience and confidence

·       
And make a little bit of money off
my efforts




Pretty much in
that order as well.




I was immediately
met with excitement, and couldn’t wait to get the ball rolling. Luckily I’m not
one to rush into things, and I hope you’re not. Being a writer is about being a
professional. And professionalism lies in our actions, responses and choices. And
don’t forget timing.




Like the cover of
the eBook, for instance. Nothing shouts desperate wannabe-writer like a cheap
cover. Now, living in South Africa, I knew I’d have to dig deep, but I made
sure I got an award-winning artist to design my cover. I got a quote from Ben
Baldwin and sent him a few stories I was planning to add to the collection.
That way we could both discuss what would be the best possible cover.






While Ben was working
on the cover, I thought about the stories I would include. A few would be
previously published, but the majority needed to be unpublished, brand new
material. The final tally is twelve stories. Just remember to choose your
stories according to a theme. Some writers and anthologies prefer topics like
zombies, or vampires, I prefer deeper themes like death or jealousy. The theme
for my collection is lost hope and man’s struggle to retain it.




Originally I was
looking to upload the eBook to Amazon back in April, but then I got some really
positive feedback from other writers and my growing support of readers about
the cover. It made me realise that I really had to write a few more stories in
order to release this collection in print format as well. If you’re only
looking to e-publish, word count isn’t that important. Print books shouldn’t be
less than 40 000 words, as it just doesn’t look worth its cover price.




But, before I get
ahead of myself, what about learning how to format an eBook. This is something
that has given many a writer headaches. I immediately, thanks to the great
advice of my friend Nick Daws, bought the ‘Formatting and Publishing on the
Kindle by David Robinson’ eBook. I put all the stories I had so far, including
the index, into one document and formatted it as I worked through the book. I’m
also reading the ‘Smashwords Style Guide’ eBook at the moment. But, it’s nice
to have someone ready to help in case something goes wrong. I have a few
friends who can help out with formatting, and one who will help if I struggle
uploading onto Amazon. Make sure you have some kind of backup, especially if
you’ve given yourself a deadline like I have.




Now when it comes
to the price, there are a few things you need to know about Amazon. Amazon of
course takes a cut, but the size of their cut depends on the selling price of
your eBook. From what I’ve heard, anything less than $2.99, you get 35%
royalties. Between that and $9.99, you get 75% royalties. Anything higher than
that returns to 35% royalties. So make sure what you want to ask on the launch
day, but remember, you can always change it later. And don’t forget, you have
the option of selling on Smashwords or even from your own website, if you know
how. Just remember to read Amazon’s terms and conditions first, especially when
you want to sell eBooks from another outlet. Any writers living outside the US
also needs to register for an EIN number, otherwise the Amazon, Smashwords or
Createspace will take an additional 30% for tax purposes.




Another reason
for pushing back the release date was proper marketing. Lost in the Dark goes
on sale as an eBook August 1st 2012. The print version will be
available a month or two later. Here are a few things I’m
working on at the moment:

·       
A Blog tour two days before and 5
days after the launch.

·       
Interviews

·       
A Facebook Event

·       
Just showing the cover on various
Facebook pages and websites already created lots of buzz.

·       
Spreading the word on forums and
chat groups

·       
Contacting local radio stations

·       
Calling in support from friends,
bloggers and folks in advertising I’ve helped over the years. There are some
wonderful people out there who are always willing to help out. Just remember to
return the favour.

·       
I’ve recruited a couple of readers
and writers alike to work on Amazon reviews. They’ll each get a free copy a
month in advance and upload their reviews the day of the launch.

·       
I’ve sent the stories to a dear
editor friend of mine who is much better at spotting mistakes than I am. She
will of course promote from her side as well, just like the other people who
helped bring this entire project together.




And who knows
what idea I’ll come up with next. Maybe you have a great idea you’ll share with
me. All I know is, if I rushed this, I wouldn’t have thought of any of these
ideas. I’m even working on a special event for Halloween.




But, always
remember this, the stories are the most important factor here, be it a
collection of short stories or a novel. You can promote as much as you want,
but if you’re story isn’t the best it can be, forget about it. Also make sure
your next book is better than your previous.




A month or two
ago I became so overwhelmed with all these marketing strategies and formatting
guidelines, that I almost suffered from writer’s block. Perhaps I was feeling
the pressure of not giving the readers what they thought they’d get. With such
an amazing cover, the reader will be expecting the same quality on the inside.
And it is a scary thought, one every writer needs to face. We are putting our
words out there for people to judge. Don’t think every reader will be happy.
Don’t think every review will be positive. As long as you know you did your
best and took no shortcuts, words shouldn’t hurt you, and you shouldn’t let
them.




Here are a few
wise words from my fellow authors:




“Remember,
this eBook revolution is a marathon and not a race. Your latest release comes
on the heels of a thousand more in the last hour, and another thousand in the
next. When I put my first eBook out I took two steps back so I didn't get
stampeded with customers tripping over each other to buy it. That never
happened. I'm forty releases (and countless short story sales) in and starting
to build an audience. The reality is this: promote this first release as much
as you can, but that second one better be coming quickly to keep momentum
going.”



Armand Rosamilia, author of "Dying Days" zombie series.http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Days-ebook/dp/B004RVZXN2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334328194&sr=1-1







“.
. . the most user friendly system is Amazon's KDP. It’s just so darned easy to
use.” [image error]




Jack Eason,
author of Turning Point. http://www.amazon.com/Turning-Point-ebook/dp/B007GDUVNA/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1334671276&sr=8-7




Jack also
recommends the ‘Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing’, free
on Amazon.







“On
your first day live on Amazon, you can expect your initial sales to be to
friends and family. After that, sales will slow to a crawl or, more likely,
stop completely, and the reason for this is as a new, unknown, author your book
has no profile; it's just another indie book amongst a sea of indie books. This
is the time you have to start promoting your book and, more importantly, yourself.
Facebook and Twitter accounts are essential, as is a blog. Use Twitter to
advertise your book page on Amazon, although bear in mind that every other
author on Twitter is doing the same too, so realise you'll just become part of
the noise. In my experience using Twitter in this way yields very few, if any
results. A better way to use Twitter is to use it to drive people to your blog.



Your blog should be entertaining and reflect the kind of writing people will
find in your book. Make sure your posts have the widest possible appeal. For
example, if your blog is about food and recipes, include anecdotes about when
you first discovered the particular Recipe, Food, Wine etc. You want your
personality to shine through your posts, so people can get to know you and,
hopefully, like you enough to become a subscriber. If someone likes your blog
enough to subscribe to it, chances are they are going to be interested in
looking at your book, so make sure you have a visible link to your Amazon book
page for both the UK and US sites. If your market is likely to be in France,
Germany, Spain or Italy, then include links to the relevant sites also.



On formatting: I would recommend purchasing a copy of Scrivener, which has long
been available for the Mac, and is now also available for Windows. As well as
being a brilliant word processor, Scrivener will compile your manuscript in a
variety of formats including .mobi for the Kindle, and .epub for other
e-readers such as the Nook and the iPad. Scrivener did a perfect job of
compiling my novel for the Kindle, and I also used it to compile the PDF for
the 5" X 8" paperback version, which will be available very soon.”




Patrick Fox,
author of Trinity. http://www.amazon.com/Trinity-ebook/dp/B007FGWIE8







The only thing
left to say go for it, have faith and enjoy the ride. You can read more about
each story in the collection at: http://chandarawrites.blogspot.com/2012/07/author-shout-out-joe-mynhardt.html







All the best,

Joe Mynhardt

Author, owner and
operator of Crystal Lake Publishing

www.facebook.com/Crystallakepublishing

www.crystallake.com

www.joemynhardt.com

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJoeMynhardt