Hugh Howey's Blog, page 48

Writing Tip #23

The only way to make it as a writer is to learn to write when you least feel like it.

So the next time you don’t feel like writing, view this as an opportunity, not a curse. Here’s a chance to prove you have what it takes. Prove it to yourself. Write anyway.

You can always delete. If you don’t write, there’s nothing you can do with the time you wasted. And nothing you can accomplish by procrastinating is as beneficial as getting words down.

The next time you feel writers’ block coming on, show it you mean business and write your ass off. Pretty soon, it’ll leave you alone.

A Sandbox!

AT ANY PRICE by Brenna Aubrey

You can’t make this stuff up. A book entitled AT ANY PRICE goes up for auction with major New York publishers, and the author of the book finds out that she can’t be bought. Not with certain contract restrictions and other considerations taken into account.

This is an amazing story. Brenna had one book out on submission, and while she waited, she did what every writer should do: She started the next book. This new story totally swept her up, and in 12 days, she had a rough draft. Another month and a half later, she had a book that she knew was special. Read her account of what happened next. It’s riveting.

What jumps out at me is the community of authors she turned to for advice. Everything I’ve heard about RWA — and having had the pleasure of hanging out with some of the top romance authors in the business — it makes me feel a little inept at how savvy and hardworking these authors are. They are prolific, skilled, professional, and brilliant. They make me feel lazy, if you can imagine that.

Turning to her colleagues for advice, Brenna found the sort of new information that is just emerging about her potential paths to publication. She knew from Courtney Milan that she should consider her net worth. She knew to be wary of non-compete clauses, which are poisonous for both publisher and author and yet still persist. She knew a multiple-book deal was a bad move. She knew the long lead-time to publication would hurt her. She knew high e-book prices could prevent her from breaking out.

What really moved me about her story is how familiar it all feels. These are the exact same things that I wrestled with. This is very similar to the position I found myself in. Yeah, Brenna, I know what it’s like to cry over good news. It’s baffling to feel miserable about an offer you have dreamed of your entire life. And that’s this nether-where that we find ourselves in right now as an industry struggles to cope with a new paradigm.

And it will cope. Publishers are coming around faster than other industries have. We are seeing reduced e-book prices from major publishers as we speak. Some publishers are getting rid of the non-compete clause (smaller publishers, anyway). Some have taken huge risks on terms of license or print-only deals. There is progress. More will come.

I’m just delighted to see that the community of authors who are figuring all of this out are there for each other, sharing what they learn, so everyone can make the best decision for themselves. I think Garth Hallberg made the right decision to go with a major publisher. The book he wrote will do better in bookstores and with a major marketing campaign (and I plan on reading it). There is no one solution for all writers. We each need to have a good cry and make the best choice we know how.

Speaking of a good cry, I’m expecting one of Brenna’s book. Yeah, I just bought a copy of AT ANY PRICE and sent it to my Kindle. I don’t think Brenna will need my two bucks in the grand scheme of things, but I’m happy to do my part. I hope she makes every penny of that 6-figure offer back and then some.

We don’t lose. We create. We win.

In response to yesterday’s blog post, the brilliant and insightful Dave Strom said:

Well, Hugh, my writing actually will cost me money.

I just sent a short story to an editor and a cover artist. They won’t cost me a lot of money, but I think it will be money well spent. Maybe I’ll break even?

Years ago, Harvey Pekar did a comic where he figured that with the money he would save by not collecting tons of old jazz records, he could self-publish a comic book. Hence, American Splendor.

This is a great way to look at the cost of publication, and I think it’s a point that doesn’t get made often enough. Where you once had vanity presses that suckered people out of tens of thousands of dollars for crates of books that would never get sold, you now have the ability to make professional-looking books that are in print forever at a fraction of the cost. And people still want to focus on the fact that “most authors lose money.” No shit. Most musicians lose money. Most painters lose money. Most photographers lose money. It’s art. Nobody is really losing anything. We are creating something. We are expressing ourselves. We are doing something positive and lasting with our free time. There’s no losing here, only winning.

The fact that some of us are then going on to make a living or are earning  enough to fill up our car with gas is amazeballs. Musicians have always had this path to discovery. They could play small gigs, have a good time, earn a few hundred bucks in a weekend, improve their craft, and maybe build a local following. I lived with a drummer in a modestly successful band out of college, and I got to see what was involved with their lifestyle. It has a lot in common with what I went through as a writer just getting started. This is a huge and important development for our craft. We now have a path from the ground level that can take us as high as our ambition allows (and that doesn’t have to be any higher than just wanting to publish something for the experience of it).

Here is what happened in the past few years: The cost of book production and distribution has dropped nearly to zero. I want to repeat that and bold it: The cost of book production and distribution has dropped nearly to zero. This is a massive economic force, and it’s the reason the book industry is being upended. It’s the reason anyone can enter this field. It happened practically overnight. No other artistic endeavor has a lower barrier to entry than writing currently does. This is true for two reasons. First, practically everyone already has the tools necessary to participate; there aren’t any expensive gadgets or musical instruments or supplies to purchase; most everyone has access to a computer. Secondly: We all — to some degree — practice  at reading and writing in our everyday lives. The tools and skills were both already handy when the price to participate plunged to zero. That’s incredible.

It’s incredible as a market force, which is great for those who enter this field to make money. It’s even better as an artistic force, as anyone with the inclination and dedication can write and enter the market similar to how a musician can play sidewalks, small bars, small venues, larger venues, etc. Writing is a pleasurable act. A creative act. The only ones who stand to lose a thing these days are those with a dream, a yearning, who don’t follow their hearts and plunge themselves into a story, just to see what they are capable of. If it costs you a few hundred bucks to make an infinite supply of your book, which will be available until humanity goes extinct, and anyone is going to claim that you lost something in this exchange, tell them to go talk to an amature photographer. Photographers enjoy a good laugh.

You’re looking at it wrong

Here comes another article on how very little self-published authors earn! Now, I love Jeremy and all he does at DBW. I’ve met him in person, and I’m the first to say that he’s a lot smarter than me and sports a much sexier beard. But I think we are looking at this question of indie author earnings the wrong way. Two wrong ways, in fact.

First, you have this from the article:

“At the high end of the spectrum, 1.8% of self-published authors made over $100,000 from their writing last year, compared with 8.8% of traditionally published authors and 13.2% of hybrid authors.”

But that compares ALL self-published authors and only a small fraction of people who go the traditional  route. I’ve been hammering this point home for years, but it still gets left out of these comparisons. When you look at earnings and sales figures for traditionally published books, you have to take into account the huge percentage of books that never make it out of the slush pile. Why? Because those are authors and books attempting to go that route. With self-publishing, ALL books and authors are counted. In traditional publishing, only a small fraction are.

Because these numbers are impossible to wrangle, we simply pretend the distinction doesn’t exist. A fair comparison would be to know (here’s the impossible bit) how many manuscripts are submitted to agents and how many of those are never self-published. These are part of the traditional equation. Period. If you’re going to count among the self-published works every copy/pasted Wikipedia article or rough draft that is just tossed out there with no love and no editing, then you’ve gotta lump the slush pile into the traditional tally. Plain and simple.

When you consider this, the 1.8% vs. 8.8% is pretty amazing. Especially considering the $100K traditional club are the people getting all the promotional energy and dollars from major publishers.

So that’s one way we’re looking at this incorrectly. Here’s another way:

How much do knitters like my sister make a year? How much does someone like my wife, who likes to strum a guitar, make in a year? What about my friends who play video games hours upon hours a day? What does your typical gardener make? Or someone who blogs regularly? Or all those people with YouTube channels who are always looking for more subscribers? What about serious home chefs? How much do they make?

Because this is how I look at it: Hundreds of thousands of voracious readers with a dream of writing a novel sat down and did just that. They wrote out of love and passion, just like a kid goes out and dribbles a basketball for hours every day or kicks a soccer ball against a garage wall. Of these hobbyist writers, thousands now make a full-time living from their work. Thousands more pay a huge chunk of their bills from their hobby. These are part time artists who have thousands of fans and hear from readers all over the world. Some of them go on to get offers from agents and publishers and score major deals. All because they are doing something they love.

Even better, this hobby costs nothing. Many of the other hobbies I listed above might cost you thousands of dollars. Everyone has access to a pen and paper. Most people already own a computer for other reasons. It just takes time and imagination. Some of us didn’t set out to become wealthy from doing this . . . it just happened. There are tens of thousands of authors out there now making $20 or $100 a month doing what they would happily do for nothing. In fact, if you told me I had to pay a monthly “writing fee” for the privilege of making stuff up and pounding it into my keyboard, I would do it. I would pay $50 a month to get away with this. Maybe more. Not earning a penny at this is a win for me. Many self-published authors are doing much better than not-earning-a-penny. And this revolution is only a few years old! Just wait until more and more talented writers forego the slushpile altogether and skip straight to self-publishing. Or when more authors jump from traditional to self-publishing. These numbers are going to look better and better for indie writers.

So, two things to keep in mind: The number of authors going the traditional route is not reflected by those who happen to land an agent and then go on to get published; their number includes those in the slush pile who do not go on to self-publish. This is a fact that must be dealt with.

The second thing to keep in mind: Not all of us are doing this to make money. We’d do it if it cost us money. Among the self-published  are those who published a memoir to share with a few family members. Or the young student who participated in a youth NaNoWriMo program and just wanted to see their work for sale on Amazon. These are valid reasons to publish. We shouldn’t lump everyone together in the “wanna be rich and famous” category.

I stand by this assertion, which bad data cannot dent: In the history of mankind, there has never been a better time to be a reader or a writer. Never. And tomorrow, things will likely be brighter still.

Goodreads Q&A and Writing Advice from David Estes

If you have any questions for me, I’m doing a Q&A over at Goodreads all week. You can find it here, as part of David Estes’s YA fan group.

I also wanted to share a blog post David recently put up. It’s some of the soundest advice I’ve seen for aspiring writers. Definitely worth a read. My favorite bit:

Be patient! Those who are trying to make quick money will realize how hard and competitive the publishing industry really is and they’ll give up, but if you’re serious and you keep working at it, publishing more and more books, growing your readership slowly over time, you’ll outlast the others. I’m not talking days or months here, I’m talking years. You have to be in it for the long run, looking at success ten years down the road. Every step you take today is a step in the right direction.

That’s the most honest and uplifting and dead-right advice you’ll ever get. The entire post is worth a read. Brilliant stuff.

Five Essential Tips for Lazy Writers (by Bryan Cohen)

I used to have trouble getting myself to write. I did a lot of blaming in those days. I blamed my wife for interrupting my quiet time. I blamed my lack of money and the amount of hours I had to work to break even. I blamed the internet and television for being so damn enticing. When it came down to it though, all the blame in the world wasn’t going to write my books. The reason I wasn’t writing was my laziness.

I needed to become more industrious. I read countless books and listened to dozens programs on learning better working habits. Here are some of the lessons I learned applied to writing.

1. Give Yourself Writing Goals

During my personal writing dark ages, I had ideas for stories, but I didn’t give myself any clear writing goals. I started training myself to write for a certain number of minutes/hours and to meet a word count goal every day. Once I’d given myself these daily goals, I was able to tackle harder goals, like finishing chapters and entire books. Nobody was going to set these goals for me. I needed to do it myself, and the goals paid dividends!

2. Write Down Your Writing Goals

Goals are so important, they get two essential tips on the list! Coming up with goals helped me to turn a major corner. I was writing more often, but every once in a while I would get off track. It might take me weeks to get back into the habit. Why was this happening? It’s because I forgot about my dang goals!

By writing out my writing goals every day as part of a to-do list, I trained myself to remember these daily objectives. Writing my goals helped me to complete NaNoWriMo for the first time a few years ago and I find that over time I’ve been able to give myself bigger and more complex goals to tackle.

3. Do More Things to Motivate Yourself

Maybe it was years of being a chubby kid in middle and high school, but my neutral state has rarely been a positive one. I used to always make fun of myself and my surroundings to break the ice with people. This was great for comedy but bad for self-esteem. In setting myself free from the dark ages, I learned the importance of keeping myself motivated throughout the day. I’d listen to uplifting music and self-help books. I said positive things about myself instead of the usual insults. I actively thought about how good I had it and how great things would be if I kept being industrious. It took a few months to right the ship, but these little bits of motivation started to make a difference. Nowadays, I make sure to find new and unusual ways to fire myself up throughout the day, refusing to let negativity keep me from writing productively.

4. Treat Your Writing Time Like a Gift

People like to complain. They will even complain about the good things they have going so they can be a part of the complain train (I just made that up). I used to do that about my writing. I would say things in a negative tone like, “I can’t, I have to write 2,500 words today,” or “I’m never going to finish all this writing, why did I decide to do this book again?” Of course, I wasn’t being completely honest. I liked my writing time, even though it was hard sometimes.

After reading about the negative effects of complaining, I tried getting it out of my system for a month. It was easier said than done. After all, most of my friends and family members complained all the time, and I had to resist joining the crowd. Once I threw out most of my complaints, I became even more excited about my writing time. I treated it like the gift it was and I started reaping the rewards of increased productivity.

5. Spend More Time Writing and Less Time Reading about Writing

It’s great to keep up with the latest trends in self-publishing. I’ve always wanted to make sure I was ahead of the game in that respect. As a somewhat obsessive personality, however, I need to be careful with how often I read about the industry. It’s easy for me to lose myself in dozens of articles at a time when I really should be writing. I’ve also noticed in presentations I’ve given that most beginner writers are more interested in learning about writing than they are in actually sitting down to write.

Break the chain and go on a blog reading diet if you find yourself spending too much time on the blogosphere. When I’m on a deadline, I find this helps me to keep focused. Obviously, you should read and learn as much as you can, but a wise man once told me that when you find yourself getting caught up in too many things, you should pretend that you’re only smart enough to do one of them. Since I am actually only smart enough to do one thing at a time, I’ll pick writing and save the blog reading for when I’m between projects.

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I like being industrious. It keeps me from being a slave to whenever my creativity feels like working. I set out my goals, keep a good attitude and focus as much as possible. I may not be as go-with-the-flow as I used to be. I may not have much to offer in the complain train and I may miss out on a few of the latest happenings in the industry. But I do get to write, and that is more than worth the sacrifices.

 

In honor of his new book, Cohen is hosting the “1,000 Prompts, 1,000 Dollars” Writing Contest on his website. Click the link to find out how to enter! Click the next link to check out the rest of Cohen’s blog tour!

Bryan Cohen is an author, a creativity coach and an actor. His new book, 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts, Volume 2: More Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More is now available on Amazon in digital and paperback format. He has published over 30 books. Connect with him on his website, Build Creative Writing Ideas, on Facebook or on Twitter.

The Magic of Jason Gurley

I’ve promoted a few cover artists here on the site, but I wanted to give Jason Gurley one more shout-out. Jason has done a few covers for me now. The new SAND series of covers look amazing. And he’s working on a limited edition set of hardbacks of WOOL, SHIFT, and DUST that we should be announcing soon (not sure if this counts as an announcement. I’m saying it doesn’t).

What Jason excels at is the hardest thing about making a cover look professional: It’s the typography. It’s the font used for the title and the author’s name. Jason invests in great fonts, and he knows how to throw a design together that makes a book stand out. Check out some of his ready-made covers here. And here’s a link to his portfolio (where you can see some of my books with their soon-to-be-updated covers).

Jason was recently laid off from his day job. I’m hoping his book sales and cover design pick up a little more so he can do what he loves full-time. But you won’t be doing him any favors if you reach out and commission a cover from him. You’ll be doing yourself and your book a favor. Working with Jason is a highlight. If you ask him to design a cover, you’ll often get a few mock-ups to choose from. The hardest thing you’ll do, other than writing your book, is picking just one cover to go with. You’ll want them all.

Email Jason if you need a cover. Even if you’re in the editing phase, now’s the time to lock down the artwork so you can get the book in front of readers.

 

Bob Barker, I Apologize!

This is something I’ve wanted to blog about for quite a while now, ever since I came up with the idea for my next series, SAND. I’ve hesitated, because I’m pretty sure this will only seem like a good idea to me. But now that a pre-order page is up for part 1, I’m expecting some questions about the odd price, so I figured I’d post my latest and arguably zaniest idea to head those questions off at the pass.

The idea stemmed from the observation that all book prices look the same, even though we self-published authors have complete control over them. It’s like everyone shows up at school wearing the same outfit every single day, not because there’s a rule or a dress code, but because that’s what everyone has always done. Everything ends in .99. Maybe there’s a few ruffians over there smoking cigarettes and wearing their .95, those rebels. But no one takes those guys seriously, do they? And really, for all practical and commercial considerations, following this trend is a sound idea. It’s similar to how a good cover and a spell-checked product description can help a self-published work blend in with the traditionally published. The problem is this: I can’t stand sound ideas.

I got a lot of grief from trusted advisers over the title of WOOL, back when it was just a single novelette and no one had read it. My science fiction professor and friend Adam Griffey told me it was a dumb title. As did a good friend of mine in my writing group in Boone. But my thinking was twofold: The first reason I went with this title was that it held a hidden meaning that gave away the twist at the end of the story (the wool being pulled over Holston’s eyes), but this hint is so subtle and can be interpreted in so many ways that you can tell people this meaning and they still won’t guess the final scene. It was an artistic choice (if writers are allowed to consider themselves artists) that made me enjoy publishing the work just a little more. The second reason I went with the title of WOOL was that I felt it would pop in a sea of traditional SFF titles (my other works included). It was simple and short. It was a common word amid a sea of uncommon and made-up words. And it’s fun to say!

Who knows if I was right or wrong. Maybe the series would have done better if the book was called SILO (though that’s difficult to imagine). What was important to me was that the name meant something. Painters and poets have complete freedom to name their works whatever they please. Authors don’t always enjoy this freedom. Often, it’s an editors’ or an agents’ suggestion. One publisher who made an offer on WOOL warned that they would have to change the title (this was after the book had already sold hundreds of thousands of copies). I remember complimenting Charlie Huston on the title of one of his books, and he laughed and said that his editor came up with it. He wanted something different. Maybe these editors and agents are right. Who knows? I certainly don’t.

What I do know is that I love the creative control self-publishing provides. Hell, I enjoy paginating my print books so I can see what line every page ends on. Back when I painted, I also enjoyed sawing wood and screwing together my own frames, stretching the fabric myself, and gessoing the canvas. I could make the dimensions my own. This is my approach to writing. I see the book — every single part of it — under my careful purview (for better or worse). Traditional publishing can sometimes feel like you came up with the idea for the image, but it’s up to someone else to transfer it to the canvas. They choose the matting and the frame (of course, they ask you if you’re happy with it. And you’d better be), and then they hang it on the wall for you and determine which way is up and how it’s going to be lit. Maybe they hang it upside down or sideways (akin to seeing your young adult work shelved in literary fiction or your urban fantasy book dubbed a romance novel. Because: marketing). There’s a ton of ways that giving up control can lead to more sales but a different work. That’s a valid choice. Personally, I’d rather work in a bookstore for the rest of my life and write and publish books of my own making than sell a ton of copies that someone else packages and markets. Hence my horrible titles. Hence my next wacky idea.

If everyone is coming to school in a .99 cent tie (or that little group over there in their .95 cent bow-ties, aren’t they adorable!), then here is yet another chance for authors to stand out, to be creative, and to impart some extra meaning into their works. Maybe that epic novel about crime-fighting angels could be priced at $7.77. Or someone could be very brave (foolish, maybe) and make that series of horror novels $6.66. Or what about a trilogy of novellas or short stories at $1.00 for the first book, $2.00 for the second, and $3.00 for the third?

There are a ton of reasons not to do this. I’ve already mentioned that this will signal a work has been self-published, but as someone who is proud to publish my own material, this isn’t a deterrent. I think we are just moments away from entering an age where indie writers will have the same cachet as indie filmmakers and indie musicians (Yeah. I really do). Here’s a far-off prediction: I think we’ll see a point in our lifetimes where traditionally published material is made to appear self-published in order to give it street cred. Seriously.

Of course, the other reason an author would be crazy to price a book at $2.00 is that they make HALF the royalty rate at prices below $2.99. On Amazon, where most e-books are purchased, you make 70% if you price between $2.99 and $9.99. Above or below this range, and you only make 35%. This is an extremely powerful motivator. Most e-book prices are settled upon to maximize earnings, and I don’t begrudge anyone for doing that. I want more and more writers and artists to earn a living with their craft. But like fitting in, making money has never been a huge motivator for me. Being happy while not impacting the joy of others is a much stronger urge. And I like numbers. Which brings me back to SAND and a bit of nuttery when it comes to setting price.

SAND will be released in four parts, with each part priced at $1.41. The first part will go live in 10 days, on the 15th of December. I urge people in the product description (and here) NOT to buy the book in installments. Just wait for the full novel. The reason I’m publishing like this is because I enjoy the “live” aspect of serialization. I enjoy the feedback from those readers who enjoy reading and waiting on each installment. I love the two months of frenetic writing and publishing that await. This is fun for me.

The odd price comes from the themes at the heart of the series. I was pretty deep into the writing of SAND when I realized what the major theme was about. The series started off (and remains) a story about Syria, Somalia, North Korea, and all the places in the world where we know human misery exists but find ourselves unable or unwilling to pool our resources and our courage to assist the stricken. SAND is still that story. But it’s more than that. At the heart of this series, I found both a breakdown and a misapplication of the Golden Rule. The breakdown comes from without and the misapplication from within. You don’t have to even spot this for any of it to matter. It matters to me. That’s when the number 141 jumped out at me. I recently re-read Robert Axelrod’s work on game theory, and tit-for-tat became one-for-one. I started thinking of ways to play with page numbers, similar to how in the Silo Saga page 99 in every one of the printed books is written as 99%. I wanted to do something similar with SAND. That’s when I realized that I had the power to hang this number even higher and brighter and let it stand out. Let it confuse like a simple title with hidden meaning, even if it only had meaning to me. Especially if it only has meaning for me.

This is the coolest thing about self-publishing: I can make bad choices that make me happy. Bad choices that add to the depth and complexity of a work, even if that perceived depth is only in my imagination. Will this make sense for others? Would anyone be crazy enough to have a book series priced at $1.11, $2.22, $3.33? Or a murder mystery where the price was a clue toward solving the crime? Or books that go on sale for a day with the price as the date? Would anyone dare write a cop drama with each book priced at $9.11? Probably not. It’d be chaos. We’d look like a bunch of weirdos showing up at school wearing clothes we stitched together ourselves. We’d be like the kid who wears a tie to school, who carries his books in a briefcase. Yeah, okay, that used to be me.

A Sad Bit of News

For those who ordered Silo Thumb Drives, I’ve got some bad news. A box with 500 drives was delivered to my house on Monday and was promptly stolen. UPS confirms delivery to this address (they have nifty GPS-tagging tech in those scanners of theirs now). The reason for the disappearance was likely the two DVDs that were delivered the same day. That smiley Amazon box was just too tempting sitting there on my porch. I’m sure the thief threw the 500 USB sticks away, since they have my name and email address on them. All for a couple DVDs.

The real bummer here is for those of you waiting on your drives. I’ve ordered another batch (this was already a replacement batch, meaning some of you have been waiting MONTHS for your drive!) And I’m going to ship out your signed books this week and will follow up with the thumb drives when they get here. Really sorry about this. And really frustrated to think of the several thousand dollars worth of plastic business cards sitting in someone’s trashcan right now.