Hugh Howey's Blog, page 84

Wowsers.

J.K. Rowling has a new book coming out. You can get the hardback for $20. Or the e-book for $17.99!!

I’m wondering if the goal here is to protect hardback sales while avoiding the controversy of not releasing an e-book. Negative Amazon reviews have piled up on books recently that “window” or delay the e-book release. Or maybe they figure readers will pay anything, so why devalue the product?

What do you all think about this? Should a digital book have its price based on demand or manufacturing costs? I imagine there are Rowling fans who will think this is awesome of her and any price is a fair price. I also imagine there are Rowling fans wondering why they have to pay hardback prices for an e-book.

I’m mostly curious about the marketing strategy. To me, an e-book should never cost more than ten bucks. And if you price it low enough, many readers will probably end up buying a hardback and an e-book. Better yet: Why not give away a free download code with every hardback? Is piracy the concern? I hope not. A devoted fan wouldn’t give up that download code, and pirates are going to get copies no matter what you try and do. Worry about your readers, first! And price your e-books where people don’t think twice before clicking that purchase button.

**Update** It seems the original price for the e-book was $19.99!! A lot of discussion about this within the Amazon community.

Something else: Look at the most popular tags on the book. The reaction to this is already quite fierce.

A Question from Calvin

Hi Hugh,

I’m a huge fan. I have a quick question. Can you tell me the benefits of being a self-published author vs. going with a publishing agent?

Thanks,

Calvin

Hey Calvin, thanks for getting in touch and for the fantastic question. It’s so fantastic, in fact, that I’d like to use the answer as a blog post. My advice, briefly stated, is to do both if you can.

Agents and self-publishing aren’t always at odds with each other. For most agents, this might be the case, but more and more agents are handling self-publishing in one of two ways: After exhausting their submissions to publishers and receiving nothing but polite rejections, some agents are backing up their authors’ decisions to self-publish as a last resort. The other hybrid method are those agents who take on successful self-published authors in order to shop their works around. I know authors in both camps. They have all the benefits of representation and all the benefits of self-publishing.

The benefits of an agent are numerous, but first, a word on landing one. I published a dozen works before I produced something an agent deemed worthy of representation. I didn’t waste my time trying to find an agent for a work that wasn’t ready or right for them. I didn’t even think about agents. I wrote what I wanted to write, what I wanted to read, what I loved immersing myself in. And when readers, those ultimate arbiters of taste, decided I’d written something halfway decent, agents came to me.

Now, that makes a lot of hard work sound frightfully easy. I worked my butt off at something I loved before I had the success that made agents take notice. But I also find the correlating advice from traditional publishers hopelessly oversimplified: “Write a manuscript. Write a query letter Land an agent.” Both recipes require a ton of work and an equal amount of luck. So when I suggest waiting for success to come before seeking an agent, know that I’m talking about winning the lottery in order to pick up a hot date. And keep in mind that the inverse is equally difficult: landing a hot date before you’ve won the lottery. The advantage of what I’m suggesting is that you just write. You don’t waste your time in bars testing pickup lines; you’re at home increasing your odds of winning the jackpot.

(Of course, if you’re writing for the reasons I write, you’ll be happy if you never land an agent or pen a bestseller. I was just as happy with a few hundred readers as I am today. That might be my own neurological disorder. I’m not on any drugs to help me feel this way, so I can’t offer you any. All I can tell you is the way I went about things and what I would do right now, just starting off, knowing what I know.)

Now, what exactly can an agent do for a self-published author? They can target markets the author is hard pressed to infiltrate on their own. Foreign publishers are always on the lookout for new titles to translate. Many of their works come from English-speaking territories, where the output of publishing houses are so great. An agent will work with co-agents overseas to submit and promote your work for translation. These aren’t usually huge chunks of change, but there’s always a chance your work does better in Germany or China than it does domestically. You’ll pay a 20% commission on these deals, with half going to each agent. That’s a little more than the normal 15% agency fee, but it’s worth it. You wouldn’t land these deals on your own, not with the same terms.

Your agent may also pitch your work to film and TV studios. Again, this can often be a small chunk of change, but if nothing gets made, you get your rights back. Their third goal (really the agent’s primary angle of attack) will be for domestic publication, where sales and therefore earnings can be highest. But you probably won’t get an offer that I would suggest taking. Which is why I say to take on an agent if you can, but to stay self-published.

Why self-published? I’ve listed the advantages elsewhere, but those posts get buried, so I don’t mind reiterating them. When you self-publish, you retain complete control over your work and its rights. The biggest advantage here is that you can price your work where it will sell, rather than what the publishing industry does, which is price the ebook in an upper tier so it won’t cannibalize print sales. The publishing houses have this completely backwards. Rather than use ebook sales to drive print sales, they feel the two are in competition with each other. Until they figure out what they’re doing wrong, it gives indies a lot of power on the pricing side.

You also make 70% of your ebook’s price rather than 15%. If they left the price alone, it would take 6 times as many sales with a publishing house before they made you a penny. Of course, they’ll probably be selling the book for much more, which means it might only take a doubling of sales, but the higher price will cut the sales in half, instead. I’ve seen this with my WOOL series overseas. When the price was no longer in my control, it went up. And sales went down. Publishers don’t mind this because they have thousands of books for sale at a high price. What happens to that single book is of less concern (for the author, it’s the only concern).

Publishing contracts are detrimental in other ways. Many of them contain non-compete clauses, which preclude an author from writing and self-publishing anything on the side. These contracts often gives them rights of first refusal on subsequent works. You may be signing more than just a book over — you may be signing away your career. And if your book doesn’t do great, they drop you. There’s an endless stream of new authors to try out. They’re looking for the Dan Browns and the Stephen Kings, authors whose works go to the top of the charts and guarantee sales on subsequent works. On top of winning the lottery once, you’ll need to win it again. These are the double lightning bolts that admirers of the traditional machine love to point at as exemplars of that path. Meanwhile, they point to any breakout indie as the rare exception. It’s an unfair and weighted argument.

Back to those contracts. Domestic book contracts never expire (unless the publisher wants to cast you off, which they can in an instant, sometimes demanding their advance back). The foreign contracts I’ve signed, meanwhile, expire in 5 or 7 years. I get all my rights back, and we can renegotiate based on sales. This is what publishers here in the States need to move toward. Until they do, I won’t recommend anyone signing with them. In fact, if enough people refuse to sign, we’ll win these rights for more than just the indie authors. Established veterans like Sue (if she circles back through the alphabet again) will benefit from the competitive state the publishing industry would then find itself in. Think of it as a superior form of a union. Rather than strike and threaten violence on scabs, we just move across the street and set up a factory that sparkles with all kinds of benefits and higher pay. The old crumbling brick factory belching smoke up into the sky will adopt our ethics and codes once nobody is showing up for work. They will, or we’ll just erect another factory on their property once they go under.

But what about bookstores? you might ask. I suspect most of us get into writing because we were avid readers. And avid readers grew up in bookstores cherishing their bound volumes. Which is one helluva lure for getting us to sign publishing contracts. It’s the fulfillment of a dream, seeing our books in print. I’ll admit, it works on me. I still do videos of every proof I unpack, that’s how much I love holding my printed works. But you have to understand what you’re getting when you sign those rights over.

With a publishing house, your book will sit spine-out on several hundred or a few thousand bookshelves that increasingly fewer people are browsing. It’ll sit there with a ton of other spine-out books. Shoppers, meanwhile, are rushing in to grab whatever the hot book of the moment is. They’re browsing the center aisle and the bestsellers. Your book will be in these bookstores for 3-6 months. I know. I used to shelve these books when they came into the store, and then I boxed them up to send them back. Soon, your book will be out of print. If you want another copy for a friend or to sign at a craft fair, tough luck. They’re gone, and there won’t be anymore.

With self-publishing tools, I can create a print book for ZERO cost. I make the PDF at my leisure, upload it to CreateSpace, and they show me what the book will look like with their new digital proofing tools. I can see the cover and flip through every page. I press a button, and the book is on sale on Amazon, which puts you in every home and every place of business, every coffee shop and every airport, FOREVER.

There is no going out of print. You want a dozen copies for a book convention? You order them wholesale through Createspace. The printing cost is so cheap, that I can sell a 250 page book for $9.95, which is competitive with major publishers who have their books printed in China by the thousands. Mine are all printed in Charleston, SC by people I know. They arrive about a week after ordering them. I can order a single book or hundreds, the price doesn’t change. You have to have lived in the era before these technologies to fully appreciate them. They seem miraculous to me.

So: The only way I recommend publishing is self-publishing. At least until the contracts, terms, and royalty rates change. And if an agent approaches, ask if they are cool with you remaining self-published. See if they want to represent you overseas and with other forms of media (like audiobooks). If they are, great. I wouldn’t give up working with my agent Kristin for anything. But keep in mind that winning the lottery in the publishing world is a lot easier to control than landing that hot date. Not only is it more in your control to concentrate on writing and publishing rather than querying and handling rejection, it’s a lot more fun! You’re doing what you love. You’ll have a handful of readers. You’ll get a positive review on Amazon, and maybe an email from a fan. And until that hot date comes along and asks you to dance, having a wink or a free drink aimed your way isn’t a bad deal at all. Better than walking around rubbing your cheek while agent after agent slaps you for not wowing them with your first five pages.

I hope that helps. Best of luck. And keep in mind that my opinions are based on years of writing on the side, dreaming of making it big, and now my temporary success. I’ve seen almost every angle of the publishing world: As a reader, a writer, a bookseller, my own publisher, with a small publishing house, and with a major publishing house. I’ve had agents and editors and worked without them. I’ve done my own covers and had them commissioned by both experts and those starting off. These variety of experiences have taught me a lot, but someone else might have a different suggestion based on what they’ve been through. Sue Grafton, for instance, has spent 150 years writing the same book in the same manner, and she would advise you to not be lazy and follow her path. So take my answer with a grain of salt. And thanks again for the excellent question.

The Publishing World Changes…Why Not the Editing World?

God bless David Vinjamuri, whose recent Forbes article reveals the naked truths about traditional vs. indie publishing. And thank you, Sue Grafton, for suggesting that indie authors are lazy and then not bothering to actually apologize when given the opportunity to do so (a friend of mine summarized her follow-up remarks thusly: “I didn’t understand what I was talking about when I said it, but now that I’ve learned more, I still don’t understand it”).

The nay-sayers (who mostly seem to have their interests entwined with The Big Publishers) need to get with the program. I’m a voracious reader, and 75% of what I read these days are works by indie authors. Sure, I pick up some for free, but I’m spending way more money on indie authors than authors affiliated with Those Other Guys these days. I’m loving the Psion series by Jacob Gowans and have pitched my hard-earned dollars toward Denise Grover Swank’s The Chosen series. They make me feel ashamed that I paid so much for the first in Michael Grant’s Gone series.

Now, back it up, you don’t have to tell me how much of the indie-offered works are absolute SHIT. I know this from many, many, many works I’ve downloaded for free and the many, many, many works for which I’ve taken advantage of the “Click to LOOK INSIDE!” button on Amazon.

Granted, the indie world offers some total crap. But if you can’t step around that fact and start checking into indie authors who might blow your mind and rock your world, you’re missing out.

Back to the point, Lisa.

Necessary repeat, although I suspect all three of you reading this already know this about me: I’m an academic editor by day and an indie editor by night/weekend.

It seems that the biggest gripe people have about indie authors is that their works need to be edited, and I admit to bailing on numerous indie titles when the typos and grammatical errors became too tedious. At the same time, I’m sympathetic: were I an indie author with no income as of yet from my work, how the hell could I afford an editor? Depending on the length of the work in question, we could be talking about a serious chunk of change.

You would think, then, that The Traditional Publishers would have this part of the game locked up. All those editors and proofreaders on staff, making sure the words that turn to ink on a page or pixels on your e-reader are flawless.

Mmmm. Not so much. Maybe they downsized or something, but you can no longer count on your $25 new release hardback being typo-free. (I have some examples I can share; feel free to post the ones you’ve found in the comments.)

At any rate, let’s cut to the chase.

As I’ve said, I edit for indie authors, and it distresses me to have to bill these folks for my time correcting common spelling and grammatical errors when they would be better served by me focusing on the story, the plot, the characters, the dialogue, etc. I created a guide with common errors to which indie authors can rely (holla at me if you want it), but it’s quite necessarily circumscribed (otherwise, I would’ve written a book).

Thus, I find myself at a place where I can give indie writers a reading list (ewwwww) or…or what?

Beta readers, that’s what.

I make this suggestion only because I regularly participate in Hugh’s forum. His fans are well-read, articulate, enthusiastic, and generous (and kudos to Hugh for setting the tone).

To that end, I posted in the forum, asking if any members would be interested in serving as beta readers. The job essentially would be to read an indie author’s work and report on what was liked and what was not liked (pointing out spelling and grammatical errors would be a good thing, too).

NINE. As of right now, nine members have quite enthusiastically tossed their hats in the ring.

I have already sent one manuscript to two betas (between the four of us–two betas, me, author–we’ve agreed that leaving the author anonymous is best) and am working on getting Author 2′s manuscript out to two betas.

“Nine” may not sound like much, but I’m talking about a relatively small community and the space of just a couple of days.

And right now, I have more betas than manuscripts that could use beta readers.

You see where I’m going with this, right?

 

I Love My Kobo

Relationships and Dead Batteries

My Kobo has a dead battery. Again. And something occurs to me as I search for the e-reader’s charger: It’s the long-lasting nature of the device that allows it to run dry so often.

I know that sounds strange, so bear with me a moment. Think about your cell phone. If you have a smart phone like mine, that sucker goes dead unless you charge it nightly. The fragility of the thing fosters a habit of extra care, which keeps it juiced up and ready. We don’t have complete confidence in the battery, and so it begs for attention and therefore rarely fails us.

My Kobo, on the other hand, is a stalwart beast. The battery can go for a week. Because of this, I never plug it in. It sits around; it gets picked up; it gets used; and then it’s dead. I can’t count the number of times readers have messaged me to whine about their dead e-readers. I think my experience here is a near-universal one.

And aren’t relationships the same way? Those that are fragile, we nurture. Those that are secure, we begin to take for granted. When we assume it’ll last forever; it isn’t until the love runs down or something breaks that we think to charge it back up.

I had a great time on Stickam last night signing books and chatting with readers. But it was all the sweeter because Amber was there. I need to remind myself to spend more time charging up the very relationships that I assume will never fail me. And maybe this is a near-universal as well.

An Explanation from Sue Grafton

Poor Sue Grafton. She’s been taking a beating the past week after accidentally revealing her loathing of self-published authors in an interview with Leslea Tash. I commented on Leslea’s interview with Sue a few days ago, and I failed to adequately praise the reporting from this indie author. Leslea recognized a key moment and pushed for clarification. It was a bold move, a kick to a smoldering log that threw up quite a few sparks.

Ever since Sue mistakenly answered some questions with regretful candor, she has been performing damage control. A Facebook friend of mine e-mailed Sue and received a reply that made no sense whatsoever. Sue claimed in this response to have been worried about charlatans and swindlers. Funny. She never mentions them in the original interview. Indie authors are lazy; we are wannabes; we are exhibitionists. But she’s just looking out for us as a mother might. She loves us and hates these bogeymen that she never brings up.

The reason I’m beating a dead horse here with yet another post is because Sue has come forward with an explanation. You can read it here. I call it an explanation, because nowhere does she apologize. Like a politician, she shows regret for causing harm to herself but nothing like a true mea culpa. Instead, she admits to making a “gaffe.” She needs to “clarify her remarks.” She meant no “disrespect” to us wannabes.

In fact, it was our responses to her insults that were egregious! According to Sue, they ranged from “irate” to “downright nasty.” Meaning, none of them were thoughtful rebuttals at all. Not a single one of our replies contained merit, humor, or insight. Just anger and rudeness. We offended her.

How fucking dare this woman? She calls indies lazy, and when the writing community points out that the opposite is true, she calls us mean. No apology. More accusations. No concept that some of us worked for a full ten minutes on humorous graphics for our blogs over this.

Here is my favorite part of her disingenuous backpedaling:

When I’m asked for advice I warn many writers about the charlatans lurking out there.  I warn about the risk of being taken in by those who promise more than they actually deliver and do so at a writers expense. 

Sue? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were talking about traditional publishers. Promise more than they deliver? Self-publishing makes no promises. You work your butt off with nothing but your own hopes and dreams. Every success startles. The empty promises I’ve seen made have come from major publishers, who have graciously offered to take my hard work and pay me less money and less frequently while they profit handily. Who are the charlatans? Look around, Sue. They’ve been milking you for years.

Make no mistake, there is a revolution afoot. A technological revolution. A societal revolution. A revolution of artists. It has already hit every major sector of the entertainment industry: music, film, television, comedy, photography. And now the tools of self publishing are slicing through the publishing world like a gleaming guillotine slamming down on a steaming pile of bullshit.

Sue Grafton stated in the original interview that if you write a great work, the universe will come to your aid. If you want to understand the outcry this remark engendered, know that we have just had our Marie Antoinette moment. A beloved queen of the old order has leaned out over the ramparts, peered down at the huddled masses, the beleaguered and starving artists, and has admonished us with: “Eat your fucking cake.”

Again, because I spent ten minutes on the damn thing:

A wild ride on Stickam tonight!

Thanks so much to all who tuned into the live book signing tonight! It made for an awesome and impromptu book launch party. So glad Amber decided to join me and that Bella made a brief appearance. When we hit the front page and the viewers shot up over a thousand, I couldn’t believe it. What an amazing experience.

I love that I recognize so many of your names, that you’ve become FB friends, blog participants, and people I can chat with and feel like I know. This really has been a wild ride. It’s you people that make it so special. The reviews for I, ZOMBIE blew me away today. So thoughtful and insightful, so serious and touching.

Happy Zombie Day, everyone!

Z-Day Minus One and Counting…

Man, I have no idea what to expect. This time tomorrow, anyone who wants to can just snag a copy of I, Zombie and start reading. It’s weird how much trepidation I feel. This is the opposite of waiting for my first books to go on sale, just hoping they’d be noticed, that anyone would grab a copy (even if by accident). Now, I almost want to go off and hide somewhere while this . . . thing lurches out the door.

A few people have already received their blood-splattered copies. Tomorrow, the Kindle version goes live. In a few weeks, the book will go up on other outlets as well. Right now, I feel like I’m bracing for impact.

Very little of my anxiousness is the gore, to be honest. There are a few scenes in the book that I used for my own catharsis. I didn’t wrestle with my demons so much as breathe life into them and allow them to rag-doll me like Hulk did with Loki.

One thing to keep in mind, for those of you counting down the hours, this release is a little different from my previous ones. I normally get an itchy trigger finger the night before a release date, and I’ll go ahead and hit the publish button. This time, it’s all in Amazon’s control. If you wake up and the book isn’t out yet, it has to do with when they decide the start of the day has officially begun (after Jeff Bezos finishes his second cup of coffee). This is my first time doing it this way, so I don’t know what to expect. In fact, I think I’ll go crawl under a rock now and stay there for a few days. Happy Z-Day to you all.

Jasper Strikes Back!

Jasper Schreurs has outdone himself. After this brilliant cover for Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue, he has now completed the cover for Molly Fyde and the Land of Light. Feast upon the awesomesauce:

RrustyDawg’s I, ZOMBIE Review

A RrustyDawg review of “I, Zombie” (guaranteed spoiler-free!)

A quick note of explanation:  As some of you are aware, I was the winner of Hugh’s charity auction on ebay.  While the featured attraction for that auction was a coveted proof set of the upcoming UK release of “Wool,” there was also a proof copy of “I, Zombie” included.  Being ever efficient, Hugh boxed everything up and mailed it out the same day that the auction ended and it arrived on my doorstep this past Monday.  Since Hugh gifted me with this great prize, I felt a small way of saying thanks would be to offer up my review of this book.  So here we go:

First off – I am obviously a huge HH fan and since you are too, I aim to provide you with meaningful, spoiler-free information to aide you in deciding if this book might be one for you to read or avoid.

I could take the funny and easy way out and simply say, “There is no hope.”   Hugh put it right there on the cover.  Heck, Hugh was even so generous as to post a couple of sample chapters on his website.  NO HOPE!  I had read the teaser chapters myself, but I was honestly not ready for the book that I just read.

What do I mean by that?  Well, I was prepared to read a book written from the point-of-view of the zombies as they eat their way through the brains and bowels of the living.  I was prepared to be sickened (thrilled) by graphic depictions of human destruction.  I was prepared for mayhem!   And rest assured, I got plenty of all of the above.  So what wasn’t I ready for?  I wasn’t prepared to read a zombie book that isn’t really about zombies.

What?  Um…Rrusty.  The title of the book is “I, Zombie” and you just said it’s NOT about zombies?!?

You read that correctly. In another week, some of you will probably take issue with me and argue that I am a complete idiot (get in line behind my wife and three kids), but this is my review and I say this is not a zombie book.  It is a book in which all of the characters happen to be zombies.

(One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand)

Now that I’ve given you enough time to re-read that last sentence and become completely confused, let me clear up what “I, Zombie” is.  You know that little demon in the back of your mind that you won’t even admit lurks in your secret inner thoughts?  He’s real, he’s not nice and Hugh is about to hand him a six pack of Red Bull and let him bore some holes through the “prim and proper” parts of your psyche! This is a book about humanity at its very core.  People who have had every shred of their personal facade stripped away and are left staring face-to-face with themselves.  That my friend is WAY scarier than zombies!  The whole experience is one I thoroughly enjoyed in a sick, twisted, and thoughtful sort of way.

“I, Zombie” is very unlike any other book I’ve read from Hugh.  I would compare the style of this book to an anthology or a collection of short stories in that it is not a flowing series of events, but rather is a group of individual stories that are not tightly interrelated.  The characters are in the same city and suffering the same affliction, but otherwise each one stands apart.   I think most Hugh Howey fans will like this book, but if you cannot find satisfaction from stories without a single shred of a hope then I suspect you will be disappointed in this one.

Also, this book does have very graphic depictions of human carnage.  No avoiding that when zombies are involved.  This book doesn’t just hint at the details…it wallows in them!  Horror fans will rejoice, but even though I am a huge horror fan, there is one particular scene in this book that even made me cringe (Yep Hugh…in the office building…you’re gonna burn in hell for that one).  If you really dislike tales containing graphic violence, I don’t think your love of everything Hugh Howey will be strong enough to get you through his masterfully descriptive language.

One final thought – don’t avoid reading “I, Zombie” because you aren’t into horror books.  Avoid reading “I, Zombie” because this is a thought-provoking book…and some of those thoughts may be things you buried a long time ago and never wanted them to return!  You have been warned.

And if you still want the book, you can pre-order it now! (Ed.)