Alison Kent's Blog, page 21
October 21, 2010
Take a Deep Digital Self-Publishing Breath
Not so very long ago, many print authors were up in arms at the digital revolution. "Readers will buy these electronically published books and realize they suck and the respect the genre has worked so hard to earn will go down the tubes and these sales will cut into ours." Now many authors, published in print and electronic format, are up in arms at the digital self-publishing revolution being driven by authors evaluating their options in the current industry climate. "Readers will buy these self-published books and realize they suck and the respect the genre has worked so hard to earn will go down the tubes and these sales will cut into ours." (And, yes, I've heard all of these things first hand.)
Change, progress . . . they come with panic and denial on one hand, with acceptance and embracement on the other. Authors successful in mass market paperback are touting their low digital sales numbers as proof that the surge isn't the tsunami some are predicting. 
Others are citing AAP reports showing the gap in sales between electronic books and those those published in mass market format is tightening each month. Digital first published authors are sharing their income numbers to prove the format is just as viable as print.
As this new world of self-publishing is born (and when I say new, I mean self-publishing done primarily by authors already published by reputable print and digi-first publishers striking out on their own), it's good to take a deep breath and consider a few things.
1) Not everyone is Joe Konrath
Joe may be the exception to the rule, but he may also be responsible in a large part for the revolution. He's providing numbers, facts and figures. One of the only other people I've seen do that (besides myself) is Lynn Viehl. Numbers, facts and figures allow authors to make informed choices. But though his blog is called "A Newbie's Guide to Publishing," Joe has a platform. He's been published by NY in hardcover. He has a blog with a huge following. He's done cross-country book signing tours on his own dime. He's put more effort into his career than most of us can imagine having time for. And because of that he's savvy enough to know digital self-publishing does not come with a built-in audience. He has worked to find an online readership by experimenting with cover art, pricing, giving away freebies, writing novels as well as novellas, etc. And he's writing original work, not digitizing a backlist that many readers will have already read. As he says about his success,
This isn't a case of JA Konrath fans buying my cheap ebooks. It's a case of readers buying my cheap ebooks, then becoming JA Konrath fans.
That doesn't mean other authors can't be equally successful. What it does mean is that those taking this path needs to have realistic expectations. Don't automatically assume digitizing your print backlist (or even publishing original work online) is going to bring you a certain amount of money each month. One author may see $30. Another may see $3000. 70% Amazon royalties are awesome, but 70% of five copies sold ain't much to write home about. Don't go into digital self-publishing assuming you'll have the same success as Joe. You might, but don't count on it. Because anyone who's been in the biz any length of time knows …
2) There is no guarantee in publishing, whether print or electronic.
One of the smartest things I heard reported from the recent NINC conference is that writers are the ones who most need the muscle behind a publishing machine, that "brand names" are the ones who have a good chance going it solo. Konrath is a brand name. Any author with an established readership is a brand name. Readers who may not hang out online or ever even visit an author's Website, may still go searching for a favorite author's digital backlist or newly self-published original work when that Kindle shows up under the Christmas tree. An author going the self-publishing route without that reader base, that mailing list of 7K subscribers, that Facebook account with 2700 followers or those 1700 Twitter friends? That author isn't going to have such an easy time of it. Not to say that author can't be a huge success, but brand names have an initial advantage.
New writers in digital publishing are starting out at the same place as new writers in print. At the bottom of a very large heap o' fiction to read. Except in digital publishing, there are no imprints to tell a reader what s/he's getting. There is no Harlequin Blaze or Berkley Heat in self-publishing. Readers have only author names to buy, which puts a monstrous onus on the author because . . .
3) Self-publishing requires an author to be a jack of all trades
That thing above about writers vs brand names? Yeah, this is where having a publisher comes in REALLY handy. A publisher handles cover art, handles cover copy. A publisher handles distribution. A publisher handles editing. A publisher SHOULD handle marketing, though this usually only happens in the case of the big stars. My True Vows publisher bought the RT Book Reviews centerfold. My True Vows publisher provided store dumps for the books to be displayed in. My True Vows publisher bought ads, arranged blog tours, all the things most publishers do not do for midlist authors.
Now, think about the electronically self-published author. S/he writes the book, arranges for the book to be edited (and this don't come cheap!), commissions cover art (a median price tag? $200), writes a cover blurb, and then has to market the ever loving bejeezus out of the book because . . . guess what? It's not going to be on store shelves. A reader browsing through the local indie or BAMM is not going to come across that book. Without a publishing machine behind it, the success of that book and the author's career is entirely in his/her hands. There is no publicity department to work with, no editor to lean on. There's the author. That's it.
I have rights to three of my backlist titles. I am in the process of scanning the two books for which I don't have the manuscript files, reading through all three stories and editing as necessary, creating new cover art, writing new cover blurbs, considering what sort of promo I can do for electronic books since everything else I've dealt with has been print. This is a new business for me, but I'm being smart about it. I'm listening to readers, learning their pet peeves in digital editions, paying attention to what the industry insiders say, seeing what works for other authors in terms of art, marketing, etc.
But at the same time, I'm continuing to write for NY (or Toronto, as the case may be). I want to write. I do not want to edit. I enjoy designing covers, but it gets in the way of the writing. I can't even put decent titles on my books, forgetting cover copy. And marketing? I'm cheap. I don't like paying for ads. I blog. I hang out on Facebook. I tweet random nonsense. Occasionally, I give away books and stuff.
I'm an author. I don't want to be a publisher. If it's the only way I can get my work to readers, then I'll embrace the crazy. But I'll do so knowing exactly the monstrous task ahead of me, and I won't expect to become an overnight millionaire sensation.
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October 20, 2010
So I have a new morning routine, and Stephen King
(I was told last night by the husband that I needed to update my blog. He doesn't seem to understand that all my brain cells are going to the many stories I'm working on, but to make him happy, here I am, because my goal in life is to please him, heh!)
So, I have this new morning routine. I've said before that my perfect routine would be to roll from the bed into the manuscript, brain fired up from a night of sleep and creativity unencumbered by distractions such as Twitter and email. In a perfect world, that's exactly what I'd do. But my LOOK! SHINY! affliction doesn't cooperate, so I find it easier to get my writing loop digests read (and they're all are on digest; I could never deal with the individual email madness) and any overnight emails answered (since I'm on CDT and my agent and writing buds are mostly not, meaning early morning gossip goodness) and do all that while I'm drinking my TWO cups of coffee and the husband is getting ready to abandon me for the day. ;) Lately I'm only getting in a single cup because these guys are whining at my feet the minute I stir in the bed.
When the weather cooled off toward the end of September, I enjoyed heading out in the mornings to walk, knowing the window of beautifully sunny and brisk mornings was a tease and would not last. Somehow the dogs nosed in on my fun and my routine became their routine. In the past, #1 daughter would walk them when she got home from work. She didn't mind heading out in the dark because, well, they have big teeth and loud growling barks, and the dark was the only time of day being outside was bearable. Me? I don't see in the dark. And I'm anti-sweat, so daytime walks were out. 90% humidity at seven a.m. is not my idea of the way to start the day.
Oh, the posturing and whining and nipping and stretching that goes on. I had barely grabbed my glasses and put my feet on the floor this morning before they were there: ISITTIMEISITTIMEISITTIME all in doggy whine. And the fact that cool weather has again abandoned us does not make me want to get up and get going any faster.
What is prompting me to the trails is that I downloaded and am listening to my first audio book: Stephen King's ON WRITING.
I've said many times that I am a writer, not a storyteller. I am deliberate, analytical. I can't rattle off a tale or relate something that happened in an entertaining sort of way. I'm great with the snarky comments, and can always get in a good dig, but I cannot verbally tell a story.
Stephen King can. And I'm not talking about his novels. Listening to him read this book, to him telling stories of his childhood, is like sitting around the proverbial campfire and enjoying the best sort of storyteller. I have never read this book, though it's been on my shelf forever, and now I'm glad that I waited the ten years it's been out because I wouldn't want to experience it any other way.
I have laughed out loud, literally, while tugging Snickers away from culverts where she is certain small animals are lurking, and insisting that Takumi does not need to sniff every other dog's leavings. The forty minutes or so it takes us to lap the park two times passes so fast, and I don't even notice the sweat dripping into my eyes until I can't see to drive home. Seriously, you don't even have to be a writer to enjoy listening to King describe his childhood. But if you are a writer, I can't think of any recording so inspiring.
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October 9, 2010
Smell Like a Monster & Internet Addiction
I'm at the Plotmonkeys today, talking about my one thing: Internet Addiction
Also, this is the BEST!
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October 4, 2010
All These Words That I've Done
It's that time of year where being outside is a joy rather than torture. I've been going each morning to the local soccer / baseball park to walk the dogs. This is the same park where I've gone for some quiet writing time for years. I can't sit at a computer and write. Never have been able to. I'll use my Alphasmart or pen and paper and let the fresh air and sunshine inspire me. This park is a madhouse on the weekends, but during weekday mornings it's bliss. I'm always surprised how empty it is, and love having my own writing / walking oasis, though it quickly fills up for evening practice.
I can remember exactly which picnic table I was sitting at when I wrote a scene that got cut from Larger Than Life. I wrote a whole lot of Beyond a Shadow from a table near the front of the park. It's where Ezra's and Emmy Rose's voices came to me. I moved from table to table while working on The Bane Affair.
On the other hand, Infatuation and A Long, Hard Ride were written from my backyard, as was Maximum Exposure and With Extreme Pleasure. I dictated most of One Good Man, and wrote a lot of No Limits from the backyard trampoline.
The Perfect Stranger I wrote in a spiral notebook at the reception desk and in a conference room where I lunched when working the day job. Love In Bloom was dictated while I walked the track at the health club on my lunch hour. And then there's all the writing I used to do on the bus.
I've never been much of a Starbucks writer, though I did write a lot of the girl-gear books at Beck's Prime or Schlotsky's, but did just as much at Houston's downtown Sam Houston Park and Tranquility Park.
I love remembering all the words I've written at so many places.
*****
Today's blog title inspired by the following:
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October 3, 2010
2 more pictures, 2 more freebie books!
Don't forget! If you'd like a copy of any book from my backlist (subject to availability; does not include The Icing on the Cake as that's not BACKlist), this post explains how you can go about getting one! Here are two more pictures! The first one is from reader Colleen, taking at an Arizona Barnes & Noble, and the second is from author buddy Jill Shalvis from a pharmacy near her Lake Tahoe home! Yes, authors are readers, too!
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October 2, 2010
Reality Doesn't Bite: A Giveaway
My pal Lynn Viehl, author of the fab Darkyn series, is giving away three copies of The Icing on the Cake at her blog: http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2010/10/reality-doesnt-bite.html. Pop over and leave a comment for a chance to win!
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October 1, 2010
Blogging at Borders w/ a $30 GC up for grabs!
I totally forgot that along with Julie Leto and Judith Arnold, I'm at the Borders True Romance blog today talking about True Vows! Head over there, read what we have to say about writing Reality-Based Romance™, and leave a comment to be eligible to win!
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6th Annual Raven Online Scavenger Hunt
Open: Month of...
6th Annual Raven Online Scavenger Hunt
Open: Month of Oct 2010
Over 50 participating authors and even more in prizes!
Contest info: www.ravenhappyhour.com
Hunt Rules: http://www.ravenhappyhour.com/Raven_Halloween_Hunt.html
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6th Annual Raven Online Scavenger Hunt
6th Annual Raven Online Scavenger Hunt
Open: Month of Oct 2010
Over 50 participating authors and even more in prizes!
Contest info: www.ravenhappyhour.com
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September 30, 2010
Another picture, another book going out!
Don't forget! If you'd like a copy of any book from my backlist (subject to availability; does not include The Icing on the Cake as that's not BACKlist), this post explains how you can go about getting one! Here's a picture sent in from Lillie of the True Vows dump in a Barnes & Noble near Valley Forge, PA!
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Alison Kent's Blog
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