Adrian Stephens's Blog - Posts Tagged "books"

If you've been checking out my previous blogs, you might be wondering why they tend to be all over the place. Since I'm sure you've all been holding your breath waiting for the answer, I'll keep you in suspense no more...they're just gonna be that way. I don't really see a point in writing a blog if I'm not going to be speaking about the things that interest me. For the most part, what interests me these days is the writing and publishing processes for my book, In My Shoes. But sometimes I'm going to go off topic and talk about something in left field. Hopefully, at the end, you won't feel you wasted your time. Speaking of wasting time, let's get on topic...

When people seek out to buy my book, sometimes they can feel like it's a Where's Waldo adventure. You've got to know where to look to find it. So, I thought I would share an experience I had with a major national bookseller. I've waited a while to tell the story because it's personal to me, and I didn't want to rant before I had time to analyze it better.

When I started the publishing process for In My Shoes, I spent a lot of time researching the process. I'm not one to just shoot from the hip. I wanted to do it right, and I wanted to be taken seriously. I'm willing to jump through the hoops, as long as the goal is attainable. Major reviewers and booksellers alike have guidelines for submitting your books for their consideration. For instance, many books reviewers will not consider reviewing your book once it's been published. They want an advanced copy at least three to six months prior to publication.

Booksellers also have guidelines. They all play by their own rules and as far as they are concerned, they are doing you a favor by even considering your book. So, when I started the process, I contacted one of the national booksellers, and asked them some specific questions regarding their criteria, to be sure I understood what I needed to send them. Their response was short, but I thought they answered my questions. When the book was ready, I registered the ISBN and sent a finished manuscript copy, with all of the other requested data to this seller. I over-nighted the package so they would receive it right away. Two weeks later a representative called me, told me that she just received my package, and that I did not submit an actual finished, bound book to them, and that they would not consider my book until I did. I explained that my book was currently with the printer and would not be ready for over a month, and I also told her that I had emailed them with that specific question, and their reply did not say anything about a bound book back from the printer. She replied if I wanted my book in their stores, I'll get them the copy. I did that the day I received my books from the printer, nearly a month later.

Here's the thing, though. Almost immediately after my conversation with that representative, my book showed up on their website. They were pre-selling my book, more than $6 off the cover price, and without any agreement in place with me (come to find later, they pull the data automatically from the ISBN database and start pre-selling books, whether they actually have any intent to sell the book or not). They continued the pre-selling until the release date, which I had provided when I registered the ISBN. The day the book was released, they stopped pre-selling my book, and marked it as unavailable. People who had purchased my book were out of luck (and I know people had bought the book because I had a sales ranking on their webpage). About a month after my book was for sale at Amazon.com
(for both hardcover and Kindle), my website adrianstephens.com and several smaller stores, the national bookseller finally placed their order for my book. They ordered one book. I had pre-sold at least that many, and had already sold plenty more than that on my website and through Amazon, but they wanted one book. So, I shipped them one book.

After selling over 200 books through other sellers, I contacted the company again, asking them to consider placing my book in their stores. My book was getting lost on their website, and I knew that people wouldn’t catch on unless they saw it in the stores. On a website, if it’s not a featured book, it has no chance. As my name doesn’t end in Rowling, Meyer or Collins, my book doesn’t have much chance of being featured, which I completely understand. So, I emailed her, suggested letting me place my books in the stores local to me. I offered to hand deliver them (so there was no shipping cost), and asked them to give it six months on their shelves to see how it did. A test market. In the stores where the book is on the shelf, people are picking it up and buying it. I also offered to forego invoicing them until the books actually sold.

I was excited when the representative asked me to call her so we could discuss it. I thought, if she’s actually asking me to call her, she must be considering it. Heck, I’d be willing to adjust my terms to get a foot in the door, so things were looking good. That was until I called her. I called her that day, and reminded her who I was since she has so many people she deals with. When she found my email, she began reading it back to me, and laughing as she read it. That’s right, she started laughing. Not boisterous laughing…just average run of the mill old laughing. Then she explained to me that is not how they work. Now, I understand that’s not how they work. But, from my standpoint, while my book is selling consistently at other retailers, my book is crawling with them. What I also understand is that, if that’s not how they work, an email with that statement would have sufficed to get that point across. If she is as busy as she says, why have me call her to go through the motions? I decided she must have needed a laugh for the day, and I was the designated fool.

So, we continue along…they sell one book, they order one book. In the time it takes my book to get to their warehouse, the book is listed as not available. In times like this, when it can be quite frustrating, I remind myself that I was able to publish my book the way I wanted, on my terms. Coming up on 300 books sold, I’m pleased with the progress. It’s a learning experience, and I’m enjoying the ride. It may take me longer, but I’ll get there. Is it worth it? Oh yeah!


So…what are you still doing here? Go out and buy my book, tell your friends, post a review! Oh, and thank you!

It has been some time since I last blogged. There's a good reason for that. I've never really believed in blogging for the sake of saying just anything. Besides, when I'm blogging I'm not writing my novels. I'm taking a break from my writing today, because I do have something I want to talk about.

Many of you have probably heard of torrent downloads. If you haven't, there are websites out there where you can find your favorite media, be it movies, music or books, and download them for free. Aside from the fact that this practice is illegal, it's also quite risky as many times you'll find you've downloaded a virus with your free media. Funny how people dedicated to creating sites for the sole purpose of giving you other peoples' work for free usually don't have qualms about hacking your system.

If you can't tell from the above paragraph, I'm profoundly against the concept. Now, you may be saying, 'yeah, it's not like you've never done it.' Actually, I haven't. I know people who have, and they know how I feel about it. For those who know me, they know that if I want to read something, or watch something, or listen to something, that isn't available through legal means such as radio or television, I buy it. If I don't want it bad enough to buy it, then I don't need it. I would never profess to be perfect, but I do make the effort not to do things I know are wrong.

Until the other day, I wasn't actually aware that these sites were so widespread and that they provided links to books. I was made aware of this and directed to a torrent download site that was carrying my book. In looking at this site, I noticed that it provided details on how many times an item had been downloaded. According to this one site, my book, In My Shoes had been illegally downloaded almost 1900 times. On this ONE site.

My intent is not to point fingers here, or make you feel guilty if you have ever done this. What I would like to do, is inform you so that maybe you reconsider before doing it next time. I'll share a couple of things with you. First, when I sell a digital book, unless I have it on sale, the retail price is $9.99. Depending on which site I am selling it through, my take on that is usually somewhere in the $6 range. That means that this one site has lost me nearly $12,000 in revenue.

Second, being a first time, independent author, I have yet to actually sell 1900 books. So, without my permission, this one site has given away substantially more of my books than I've even sold.

Third, I have given away a lot of books, both hardcover and digital, to people and causes important to me. I wrote the book. It feels to me like I should have the choice of who I give it away to.

Fourth, though over 1900 (and this is just one site) people have downloaded it for free, if you pool all of the websites with reviews of my book, I have less than 50 reviews on the book. Not that it would make it okay, but people downloading my book for free aren't even spreading the word about the book.

I've heard lots of arguments, justifications for why it's okay to illegally download other peoples' work. It's overpriced, they weren't sure if they'd like it, those people are rich and won't notice or care...

The fact is, nothing really makes it okay to do something that is wrong. Period. If you think a book is overpriced, don't buy it. Don't steal it, but don't buy it. If you're not sure you will like it, well...that's the way it goes with expressions of art, and most things in the world. If you buy it and don't like it, review it on websites so others don't make the same mistake.

As for the rich part...so few authors actually get rich from writing. And if they do, it's because their book was good and they sold a lot of books. They deserve the money. But, for the rest of us, every book sold is a big deal. I've done okay with my sales, but I'm not getting ready to break the bestseller lists.

Because I published independently, I purchased a large quantity of hardcover books up front because I got a better unit price for bulk. I haven't even reached the breakeven point yet. And that's okay. It's a risk I was willing to take. But, to afford that, I work a lot. Working more means writing less. I have several book ideas I am dying to share, but until I have the time to write more, they will be slow coming. $13,000 would go a long way toward helping free up my time to write more. As the author, do I really not deserve that money?

If you have made it this far, you are probably in one of two categories. Either you have felt like me and don't agree with downloading other peoples' work illegally, or you have done it before and maybe feel I make a valid argument. Of course, if you still think it's okay, please feel free to share your thoughts.

If you've done the torrent download thing before, I ask you to reconsider before doing it next time. If a book looks interesting, please buy it. If you like it, tell people. If you don't, tell people. Maybe just maybe, you'll make it possible for us authors to publish our next book a little faster. Please feel free to comment. I look forward to your responses.