Hugh Howey's Blog, page 45

This is so beautiful and haunting

A fan reading from WOOL 1. I’ve shared this before, I think. Just saw it again. Love it.

Seattle Meet-Up: Thursday, January 16th

Enough people have gotten in touch to ask about meeting up here in Seattle, that I thought we’d try to make something happen. Thursday night is really the only time I have open. I fly out early Friday, and I figure I can sleep on the plane. My hotel doesn’t have a very welcoming bar and lounge, so I’m looking at Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, mostly because it’s walking distance from me. 9pm – 11pm. Chime in if you think you might make it.

Non-Compete Clauses: A Live Case Study

Publishers are terrified of simultaneous releases. Their contracts are saddled with non-compete clauses that prevent authors from “publishing too many books.” Meanwhile, readers are clamoring for more. And most authors can write quicker than they are allowed. This is a policy that helps absolutely no one and hurts absolutely everyone, publishers included.

If more business majors worked in publishing houses, they would know that four gas stations at the same intersection all make more money than the same four stations spread across town. Lowe’s goes up down the road from Home Depot. There’s spillover. And you know what part of town is a great place to get gas.

Here’s a case study for the ridiculousness of non-compete clauses. My novel SAND released on Saturday. My Kindle Worlds fan fic story PEACE IN AMBER hit today. No major publisher would do this. They would sue an author for doing this.

SAND is a mere $5.99 for a full-length novel, full of original artwork from Ben Adams and graced with a sublime cover from Jason Gurley.

PEACE IN AMBER is a mere $1.99, and it’s the first time I’ve tackled the difficult task of writing about my 9/11 experiences.

Both are currently #1 in their respective categories on Amazon.

This makes me happy, less because of the success of these works and more because you have spoken. You are speaking right now. The publishers are wrong. You are looking for something to read, more than just one thing. And you’re happy not to have to drive clear across town to get it.

Kindle Worlds Webinar Giveaway!

All you saw in that title was “Giveaway,” right? Admit it. It’s okay. Details from a talking head:

Here’s the last webinar with J.R. Rain and Jason Gurley. 

Here’s where you can register for the Webinar and attend the event!

Two Kindle Paperwhites will be given away as well as Two $25 Amazon Gift Cards.

The winners will be announced on SATURDAY, January 18th!

No purchase necessary to enter!

Sand: The Audiobook

I’m thrilled to announce that Sand has found her voice! And it’s that of Karen Chilton, who absolutely blew me away with her audition.

I literally danced around the room with goosebumps as I listened to her read chapter one. I couldn’t believe I might get this talented woman to read my book! And then I thought how much it sucked that you all weren’t hearing what I was hearing. But why not? I asked if I could share the audition, and I was given the thumbs-up. So here it is!

http://www.hughhowey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/audition_86jg026tudabno7d1389633774729.mp3

 

How haunting and magical and lyrical and timeless was that? Look for the audiobook around the end of February, which should be when Sand hits all other distributors. It’ll also be available DRM-free here on my website directly. And that’ll be around the time that I take the signed copies down from the site. So get those while you can. I won’t be able to keep fulfilling those orders as my travels pick back up.

Cheers, everyone! Thanks for making this release a hit and for making writing so much fun.

Brenna Aubrey: A Case Study

Doesn’t “Case Study” sounds so much better than “anecdote”? I think so. Some will no doubt dismiss the following because of ingrained biases, but my hope is that if we  stack enough anecdote together that it will become data. Because until we have real data that works, I don’t know anything better than keeping our minds and eyes wide open and accruing as much anecdotal experience as possible. If we do it long enough, we might just learn something.

A few weeks ago, I came across an interesting story on KBoards. A debut author named Brenna Aubrey had just turned down a three book deal worth $120,000. Her main sticking point was a non-compete clause, a ridiculous contractual tool that I’ve complained about here numerous times. She also had enough friends self-publishing and making a solid living that she decided she could do better on her own. The decision couldn’t have been easy, but she found support from fellow writers who have made the transition from traditional to self publishing.

Elsewhere and by others, she was attacked and bullied, called a liar and deemed an idiot. Meanwhile, those of us who understood how this money would be paid out (incrementally over several years) and how tied-up Brenna’s career would be (she wouldn’t be able to write and publish as quickly as she wanted) rushed to her defense. Only time would tell if she had made the right decision.

I figured it would take quite a bit of time. Years, perhaps. At least as long as it would have taken to publish her first novel had she gone traditional. In fact, it took a month. In her first 30 days of sales, Brenna has brought in over $18,000. Yes, this is atypical. So is having a bidding war on your debut novel. As I argued in a blog post entitled The Work is the Work; The Path is the Path, a novel’s quality is not appreciably affected by its method of publication. Brenna wrote a great book, as evidenced by the interest from publishers. Did she leverage having turned down a 6-figure deal for initial sales? No more than she would have leveraged having signed a 6-figure deal for initial sales. This book was never going to release with a whimper. The publisher would have thrown the weight of their mighty publicity department behind this book (no doubt). The book was the book. What this case study does is help reveal the beauty of the path.

Brenna spent just over $1,800 on the production of the book. Again, it shows that she has done her homework, that she has listened to the advice from fellow authors, and that she takes her craft and this profession seriously. The writers who do these things are already in the top 1% (possibly higher). They don’t have to worry about competing with millions of self-published e-books. For this reasonable sum, which I have argued we should see as both an inexpensive hobby and also a paltry start-up cost for a small business, Brenna has paid ONCE what she would have paid her publisher for the rest of her life. It cost her $1,800 to OWN HER ART. Forever. She can now stamp out as many print books as she wants. The electrons are boundless. She can promote this book 20 years from now and make 70% royalties.

When I shared her story weeks ago on Facebook, I commented on how brave she was. A friend tried to compare my having turned down 6 and 7-figure offers, but I strongly disagree. I was making a healthy income from my writing when I walked away from those deals. Brenna had nothing but belief in herself. That blows me away. There’s no way I could’ve been strong enough to trust my craft and my work and give up a 6-figure deal and the prestige of getting published by a major house. I know this about myself. Brenna is cut from a different cloth.

And that’s what makes this case study so important. Contrast this with another recent blog post about how little a debuting author made from their publishing deal. Those of us who have seen revenue from both sides know the pros and cons, and sharing our experiences is meant to help aspiring writers make a sound decision. That won’t always be the same decision. Some authors will decide that the money is less important and go with a traditional publisher. Some will decide that the allure of bookstore placement trumps the ability to control their price and serve their readers. The only wrong choice here is to choose without all the facts.

* The first fact is that very few books make money. Most books sent down the traditional path never get published at all. These authors don’t even get agents. Likewise, most self-published books earn less than $100. Hey, it’s more than zilch, but don’t quit your day job however you decide to publish.

* The second fact is that pound for pound, self-publishing pays more. Is your book truly great? Only the reader can decide this. If it does well along either path, it’ll pay better self-published. And you’ll have the advantage of a lower price (while still making more per sale). You’ll also have a longer window. Rather than sit spine-out on a bookshelf for 3 months, you’ll have decades for your work to be discovered. Multiply any advantage by this expanded range of availability, and a moderate advantage becomes an enormous one.

* The third fact is all about ownership. Not just the business sense of controlling one’s work but the pride and freedom that come with it. No one will put a cover on your book that you disapprove of. No one will charge more than you think is fair. No one will tell you that you can’t give away that work or include it in that box set or quickly rewrite that product description. Working for yourself is like owning your own house. Working for someone else is like renting. How you view a thing and treat it is similarly affected.

* The last fact is that a lot of luck is involved. This is true however you publish. That luck won’t change because a major publisher signed you (they sign a lot of people, and most of them don’t earn out their paltry and staggered advances). Your luck also won’t change because you read on a blog that self-publishing rocks and everyone should do it. There are risks and rewards both ways. Right now, I believe the scale is pinned in the favor of self-publishing. At least until major houses get rid of non-compete clauses, pay higher royalties for ebook sales, and limit their contracts to a set number of years. Until these things happen, more talented writers should be as brave as Brenna. Every writer that walks away and then goes on to sell thousands of books is another anecdote. Once publishers see a pile enough of them, they’ll become data. And then things will change.

Don’t buy Brenna’s book to support her courageous decision. Buy a copy because it’s good. Hell, publishers started a bidding war over this puppy. That ought to tell you something.

My Second Month on the Hypothetical Job

Wow, my hypothetical first month as CEO of New HarperCollins went by in a flash! It feels like it’s only been a week. Goes to show how much we’ve done and how far we’ve come. I thought it would be a couple years before we overtook Random Penguin as the #1 publisher in the land. I mean, it used to take us a year to produce a book. But with Elle Casey as our guide, we now know what’s possible. And even though I’m something of a slacker CEO (it takes me two months to go from blank page to publication), my team has really impressed me with their energy. I think those long NY lunches were wearing them out. Now we have a free buffet and a climbing wall in our Houston offices, which means no one ever feels like going home. Productivity is through the roof. It’s like a startup over here. Shelly from accounting even on-sighted that 5.14a that Ned said was impossible.

But now we’re in the second month, and we’ve got the easy changes behind us: DRM is a thing of the past; hardback sales have shot up with the ebook bundling; our authors are using the forums and coming up with great ideas (that we actually listen to and implement). Things are great. But they could be better. Now that we’re #1 and have some leverage, we’re gonna drop the bunker busters.

1. New HarperCollins announces an end to the returns system. Holy crap, that’s right. We just did the unthinkable. We told bookstores that if they buy our products, we won’t take them back for a full refund. Instead, we’re doing two things: We’re lowering the price of our mass market paperbacks by a dollar and hardbacks by five dollars. We’ll fund this with the money we’re saving by being outside of Houston and by not having to process returns (and print so many books that we never sell). We’re also enticing bookstores by offering 50% discounts on our titles rather than the industry norm (which can range from 35% to 46% for non-bulk orders). Bookstores pay less; the consumer pays less; our margins are squeezed, but we don’t take returns.

Which is okay, because most of our sales are through online retailers these days, and they manage inventory more efficiently. We also know, having worked with bookstores for generations, that they don’t like the returns system either. What other retail industry allows all of inventory to be returned for a full refund? My mother ran a knit shop. She had to be judicious with her buying; she had to make smart choices. What didn’t sell went on sale. With a 50% discount from us, bookstores can mark what doesn’t sell at half price and do better than returning the books (bookstores pay the shipping for returns, and they pay employees to box up the books). Getting all of their money back will be an improvement on a small loss, and it’ll bring readers into stores again. Amazon can’t compete with their prices!

At the last bookstore I worked in, our bargain section was one of our busiest areas. It didn’t exist when I was hired. Within a year, it ruled our sales sheets. We bought in bulk from remaindering companies (which meant these books were shipped around the country several times, damaging the environment. A no-returns system will avoid this). New HarperCollins’s earth-shattering policy will mean fewer books bought by bookstores but ZERO books returned. It will mean more of New HarperCollins books will be read by consumers. Our competition will continue pulping theirs. (They used to burn them!)

Making this announcement will solidify New HarperCollins as the T-Mobile of the publishing industry. We’re the un-publisher. Even folks at Amazon are turning to each other and saying, “Why didn’t we think of that?”

2. In month two, we embrace print on demand. We already employ Lightning Source for small fluctuations in demand and emergency print runs, but now we’re going all-in. Our entire backlist is being made available to in-store printing systems like the Espresso Book Machine. In month one, we assured our authors that their contracts wouldn’t lock them down forever. Now, we’re assuring them that their books will always be available.

As part of this program, we’re announcing the Lost Literature initiative. Every month, we’re going to take a book that we believed in, that we still believe in, one that didn’t do so well upon release, and we’re going to promote it as a work of Lost Literature. Small numbers will be printed and sent to book club members and be made available to retailers. We will also send letters to the authors of these works and apologize for not printing that trade paper we told them they would get in their contract but then didn’t after we saw their hardback didn’t sell so well. “Our bad,” the letter will say. Rumor of these two words escaping a publisher’s lips will echo through the halls of those publishers still up in New York. They’ll whisper about it over expensive lunches.

3. The reason we’re able to promote backlist titles is because of a revolutionary change in our operational philosophy: We no longer see our own books as competitors. This is currently a major problem, one that never served us or our authors well. Every book will be seen as equal to every other book. We don’t worry about lowering the price of a backlist title and having it compete with a new release. Hitting bestseller lists is no longer our goal. Getting books in the hands of readers is our goal. The competition is no longer our other books, the competition is twofold: It’s those other publishers like Penguin House. But more than that, it’s all the other things people can do that’s not reading. We want to prevent people from not reading. Lower prices help and faith in our backlist helps. You know what helps even more?

4. Free books. That’s right, we’re going to offer free books. Neil Gaiman demonstrated the power of free when he convinced his publisher to put American Gods up on a website, gratis. He suspected something awesome might happen. What happened was even awesomer. American Gods print sales went up 300% for the entire month that his publisher offered the book for free. Neil begged them to leave the book up for longer, but the publisher had had enough of this sudden onrush of profits. They pulled the book down. The print sales returned to normal. The word correlation never came up, much less causation. The experiment was not repeated.

The books we love here at New HarperCollins that aren’t gaining traction? You know, like a great book with good reviews that won’t take off because the name Rowling isn’t on the cover? We’re going to offer the entire text for free on our website. One title per genre, rotating every month. Come and read our great novels rather than scroll through your Facebook feed. Come read our great novels rather than pay too much for Randomly Penguinish’s environmentally-unsound returnable tome. Oh, another way we’re giving books away:

5. Cereal boxes. No, we’re not going to print our books on the back of your Frosted Flakes (am I the only one who did most of my early reading on cereal boxes?) No, what we’re going to do is something else I remember as a kid. I remember clipping UPC codes and turning them in for free stuff. For every ten New HarperCollins books you read, you’re gonna get a free one. We’re going to partner with online retailers to make this a cinch. All of our product pages will feature our new company logo, so readers know the book qualifies for the deal. Amazon, Kobo, iBookstore, B&N, Google Play . . . everyone can deliver a book of the reader’s choice for every ten NHC books purchased. We pay the distributor the full cut, so it behooves them to participate. It’s free money for them. It’s an extra sale for every ten they make. And now we’re really branding ourselves as the publisher to beat.

In the case of print books, just cut out the last page in every book, which details the program and lists qualifying titles in the same genre or by the same author. Mail those pages in with your selection checked or written in, and your free book arrives in the mail!

Again, at Amazon, executives are saying to themselves, “What will these crazy cats in Houston think up next?!”

6. Speaking of branding, we’re going to do a better job of that. We’re going to start by getting rid of our imprints. They’re dumb. Nobody knows what they are. Nobody cares. Not outside of the publishing houses. Readers certainly don’t. It took me years of working in a bookstore to know which publisher I needed to call to order a book without scanning it in the system or hunting the tiny print on the copyright page. The book jacket would list the name of a previously-independent small publisher that had been gobbled by a bigger one. Or more likely these days: the name of an imprint concocted as a favor to an in-house editor. Publishing imprints are akin to producer credits on Hollywood films: Meaningless badges whose significance seems paramount to the two or three people involved and no one else. They’re gone.

We’re replacing them with very clear genre imprints. It’s a pretty open and damning secret, but readers don’t buys a Penguin Home book because it’s a Penguin Home book. They don’t look and they don’t care (which is why, as I glance at the top selling books on Amazon in science fiction right now, self-published authors dominate. Readers don’t care how books are published). Well, we’re going to make them care. One of our strongest advantages is curation. Aware of the brand loyalty to genre-specific publishers like Orbit, Tor, and Harlequin, we’re going to replicate that in-house. Our science fiction imprint will be called Worlds, or something equally clear. Our romance division will be called Bella Andre, H.M Ward, and Similar Titles. (Or something else. I can’t have all the ideas around here). We’ll even have a literary fiction imprint, though it will of course get less attention than our bestselling genres. Because.

The point is, readers will see that NHC logo and know they’re going to qualify for a free book and that they’re going to get a perfectly edited book that they’ll enjoy. No more readers wandering around the bookstore, thinking they’ve read everything, not wanting to take a chance and be disappointed. “Squee!” they’ll say, when they see a new NHC book. “I haven’t read that one yet!” And they’ll buy it without even flipping to the back.

7. Speaking some more about branding, here at New HarperCollins we know that our authors are a brand, not their books. This is difficult to acknowledge, because it requires letting go of the ego we have about creating bestsellers that would otherwise languish were it not for our expert wisdom. But we’ve seen self-published authors dominate us in gross sales, so we know it’s about the writer and not the book. Moving to Houston has made it easier for us to admit stuff like this. We no longer sit authors down in our offices and beg them not to talk about themselves on book tour. We don’t give them really bad publicity advice like, “Let’s not discuss your personal journey and just stick to the plot. It’s a great book. Focus on the book. Don’t talk about yourself too much.”

Because that’s been done before. I’m pretty sure. But our authors know better, and now we know better. Blabbering about plot turns a reader’s brain off. Yes, we know it’s about people who do something. Is it any good? Oh, it’s been optioned for a film? Oh, you’ve sold how many copies of your other books? Oh, you went from nearly losing your home to making six figures a month like that sweet couple I saw on CBS? Damn, it must be good. No, don’t tell me what it’s about; I wanna be surprised. GIMMEE!

We’re going to celebrate the personal stories behind the written stories. We’re going to present authors as human beings. Readers will enjoy this. They’ll want to meet their favorite authors. They’ll want to subscribe to their book clubs (a month three initiative). We’re going to take a backseat and bring the author front and center. Let them become the brand. We don’t have to worry about them taking that brand elsewhere because we’re paying 50% net on ebook sales and offering limited terms of contract. Remember?

8. More letting the author shine. Readers love meeting authors. New HarperCollins has already brought its authors together in a private forum meant to strengthen loyalty, generate ideas, and increase enthusiasm. Now we’re taking that database of authors and putting together local events that they can afford to travel to. In conjunction with libraries (which we are treating better by offering sane prices for ebooks) and indie bookstores (which are the future of the printed word) we are doing once-monthly literature events that bring together authors from within a reasonable radius to discuss their books, announce new releases, and meet readers.

We will be able to afford this by getting rid of our current book tours — which spend ridiculous sums on 4-star hotel suites that exhausted authors hardly see — and we will spread that money across our entire stable of authors. By allowing our authors to drive no more than three hours to local events and shoulder that much smaller cost (a vast improvement over current industry practices of expecting authors to fly to national conventions and pay their own travel and hotel costs) we will have plenty of money left over for food, drinks, and freebies. Readers will come and listen to readings, attend panels, and participate in workshops on the craft of writing. They will walk away with swag, signed books, and full bellies. They will also know better where their local libraries and bookshops are located.  The gallery crawl model will come to the book world. Indie shops and libraries will benefit greatly. As will our authors and our readers. Every writer in the world wants to be a HarperCollins author. Bookstores are crazy not to order our nonreturnable books.

9. If month one was about letting go of ego, month two is about understanding the long tail of publishing. Less concentration on blockbusters. A fairer investment in our authors. By bringing back lost works and embracing POD, we give writers a second chance. By putting together regional author events, we make sure that our bestsellers and our freshman authors are able to share the stage. We don’t want them going anywhere else. Low prices for backlist means more revenue streams, which all add up. We care less about how many times we grace the New York Times bestseller list (which isn’t even a true reflection of sales) and we care more about how many books we have ranked in the top 10,000 on Amazon. Hey, we would love to at least catch up to self-published authors in this regard. Maybe even surpass them!

We can dream, right? After all, this is all fantasy. And yes, small publishing houses already do many of the things New HarperCollins is tackling in these first two months. Without the promise of large advances and major bookstore distribution, small publishers have to sweeten the pot and be nimble where they can. None of these ideas are unheard of. Few of them are untried. But nobody our size has tried this. Other major publishers may be content to reap record profits off the growth of ebook sales while paying authors practically nothing for digital books with far lower production and distribution costs, but we wouldn’t feel right doing that. Authors are people too. Readers are people. That’s our new focus here at HarperCollins. Less worrying about ourselves, less focus on the bookstore as our customer, and more about bringing writers and readers together.

Because both parties are rapidly learning that they can do this on their own.

Happy Dance!

SAND is now published! Sorry, no videos of me dancing a jig around my office. YouTube has new algorithms that block any video of my unrhythmic spasms from landing on the internet. True story. I do have a video of me uploading SAND to my Kindle Direct Publishing account, though. (Am I the only person who geeks out over how easy all of this is? Self-publishing is a handful of clicks. The time-consuming part is still writing the book).

So . . . now that SAND is out in the world, it’s on to the next thing. Time to open a blank page or an old work in progress and daydream a bit. In my underwear. Yes, I fully appreciate the awesomeness of it all. Peace, everyone.

Readers Don’t Get Fatigued; Editors Do.

Someone on Facebook pointed out that the zombie bestsellers right now are largely self-published titles. Even on the print side, where POD books are ruling the roost. I saw a thread on KB recently about how well someone was doing with clean urban fantasy (no graphic sex), even though they’ve been told nobody wants this.

You hear it a lot in this business. “Vampires are done.” “Zombies are tapped out.” “Nobody wants that anymore.”

Who is the “nobody” here? I don’t think it’s readers. There are new readers being born every second. There are new people hitting the age where they become absorbed in fiction. Right now, at this very moment, while you are reading this sentence, some child is hurriedly scanning the final paragraph of a great book. They just finished. They are now realizing that they haven’t been breathing. There is a gasp, a feeling like crying, like sobbing, an overwhelming joy at how frickin’ awesome that experience felt, a need to call a friend and beg them to read this book, but also a pit in their stomach, a hunger, an absence.

That person — they are real, even if we don’t know their name or where they live — is now a reader. They just had that experience that so many of us have had. And they are going to love a zombie story. They are going to love reading about vampires. Everything in the world is new to them.

This constant replenishing of the reading public means nothing ever grows old. It means your stories will be out there to be rediscovered over and over again. And it means we have to stop worrying about genres being “tapped out.”

I think what really happens is that agents and editors get weary of the same stories. They just decide one day that they’ve seen enough of this theme or setting, and it’s time to move on. They chatter on about this at conventions, and so it becomes self-fulfilled prophecy. Meanwhile, a new reader is being born. Someone else just turned to the last page. The process is still happening, still happening. These people are going to want new books to read. Whether that agent thinks those books are needed or not, I’m going to write them.

A Google Hangout Extravaganza

I’m hoping this takes place on Thursday, the 9th of January, around 7PM EST. It all depends on whether or not the USB Thumb Drives arrive in time. If they don’t get here until Friday, I’ll do it then.

What am I doing? A Google Hangout that you don’t want to miss. I’ll be packing up the USB drives, unboxing parts 3, 4, and 5 of SAND, and maybe even giving you a sneak peek at some of the artwork going into SAND and the WOOL comic. There’s also going to be a special gift going inside each of the USB drive orders to make up for the long delay in fulfilling these (I’ll also talk about what caused that delay. It’s a sad story).

A lot going on. Hopefully someone shows up so I don’t feel pathetic and lonely. Ask questions. Join in. See you tomorrow night (hopefully).

Also: The pre-order link for signed print editions of SAND just went live. These might ship out after I get back from Taiwan, depending on how quickly the books get to me. This is easily the prettiest book I’ve ever put together.