Lexi Revellian's Blog, page 25

The cost of selling to bookshops

I made a couple of visits to local Waterstones, hoping to interest them in selling Remix . The manager at the London Wall branch ordered six copies. Telling my daughter about this modest triumph, I said, "Of course, they could all come back again a bit the worse for wear in a couple of months." She asked what I meant, and I explained the system for selling books to bookshops.
The publisher sets a cover price, in my case £9.99, and a trade discount; I went for the full discount, 55%. So the bookshop pays £4.50 per copy. The print cost to me is £3.48, so I make £1.02 per sale. The bookshop decides what to charge for my book, and I certainly hope it's less than the full £9.99 (must go and check) because it's crazy for them to make five times what I do, and anyway, no one will buy it at that price.
But bookshops also require returnability. If my books don't sell, because the price is too high, or nobody notices them tucked away spine out on a low shelf, Waterstones will return them to me and get their money back. I still have to pay the printer, so I will be £20.88 worse off, unless I can re-sell these books second-hand.
"But that's retarded," said my daughter.
She's right.

My first author interview

I fear I'm boasting again.
Simon Royle, author of soon-to-be-published futuristic thriller Tag , interviewed me for his blog, and I realized I've never been interviewed before in my capacity as a writer. Simon read Remix , too, and said he enjoyed it and it made him laugh out loud.
To see my moment of fame, go here .

News round-up

This is going to be a bitty blog post about this and that.
First, I was tickled pink to read this fabulous review of Remix in The Romance Reviews, written by Michelle R. Her one reservation was that she would have liked more 'deets between the sheets'. I have to admit I favour letting the reader do most of the work in this area. I reckon if I've made the characters live on the page, readers will know how they make love. But I might attempt a little more in the current book. My daughter will tell me if it doesn't work, kindly but firmly the way she does.
Remix has now been in the UK Kindle top 100 for twenty-seven days; highest position 14. It has seventeen reviews, fifteen 5-star, two 4-star. I've sold over a thousand ecopies on Amazon. I'm rather pleased.
I'm pressing ahead with the WIP, An Unofficial Girl. It's currently at 30,500 words, and the plot is thickening nicely. Beth has found a derelict flat to move into. The real flats I explored in March 0n which hers is based have been sold, properly fenced off, and now have builders busy completing them.

Publishers price fixing for ebooks

Yesterday a group of big publishers started to put into practice what they call 'Agency pricing' of ebooks. This means that retailers are no longer allowed to discount the price they decide to charge. Amazon has reacted by adding the tag This price was set by the publisher below agency prices - though it's also easy to identify these books by their higher price usually ending in 99p.
When this happened in America, sales of those books fell. The same will happen here. Publishers are okay with this, as they think that if the dead tree book is cheaper, readers will buy that, which suits them just fine. They are comfortable with the status quo. They'd really, in their heart of hearts, prefer ebooks to go away.
However, what they are leaving out of the equation is piracy - the illegal downloading of ebooks free from the internet. Right now, you have to search to find the book you want, but as more Kindles sell in this country, it will become as easy as downloading a film or music is now. (Not sure how to do it? Ask any teenager.) Kindle owners don't want to buy the paperback, they want the Kindle version. And they get annoyed if they feel they are being ripped off, particularly when they have paid £149 for the Kindle in the first place.
Caroline P said on the Kindle forum: I can't believe I'm saying this... because I have never ever downloaded files illegally. Not even once. And now I'm considering it. Because if publishers want to rip ME off, maybe it's not so wrong to rip them off?
I have to say I'm watching the publishing industry shoot itself in the foot with some enjoyment. Their loss is my gain, and the gain of any independent with a realistically-priced ebook to sell.
*See also the Bookseller's article.

Ongoing Authonomy saga...

This morning, the revamped Authonomy is up and running (if rather slowly). So what are the big changes they have put in place?
Well, my two gold stars on Torbrek and Remix are now medals. This is to clear the way for a brand new star system, where you can rate books with one to six stars.
Here's how it's described:
6 stars – Excellent: Publish it. I'd buy it myself and recommend it to everyone! 5 stars – Very good: Should be on the bookstore shelves already!
4 stars – Good: Shows real promise.
3 stars – Average: Readable, but still needs work.
2 stars – Poor: Unlikely to attract readers in its current form.
1 star – Awful: Pulping is too good for it!
I think this is a bad idea; when I joined a beta Authonomy in 2008 from YouWriteOn, one of the things I liked was that it was not possible for spiteful people or rivals to mark down my book. The worst they could do was not back it. This system is open to abuse.
Harper Collins say multiple accounts (sock puppets) will no longer be tolerated. But a quick look round shows that many of them are still there. They'll need to work on this, if they mean it.
The ranking system has changed. This can only be good, as it was not working big time before; some writers are already grumbling that their books which they have laboured (!) to get high in the charts have dropped overnight. I notice there's a book written entirely in Bulgarian at number 31 in the chart - interesting. Time will tell whether the new system works.
My feeling is that, so low had Authonomy sunk from its bright beginnings, that any change has to be for the better. But it hasn't so far done enough to make me want to return.

I wasn't expecting THAT...

One of the nice things about writing is the surprises you get - the characters who emerge from their minor position in the crowd to take centre stage, demanding a name and a key role in the plot. I've just had that - one minute the guy was a nonentity at the back of the room on his computer, the next he started needling his boss. Now he's heading for an affair with one of the heroines.
Or the story; how many of us write the story we set out to write? (Apart from those organized souls who do a summary of each chapter before they start.) With any luck it'll be better than planned, but it's never quite the same. Like those Hogwarts shifting staircases in the movies, suddenly you're heading in a different direction. And that's when the book really starts to move.
Here's to wayward characters and pleasant surprises! I'm off back to writing.

REMIX paperbacks and trailer

There's been a delay, as Lightning Source lost my revised files (how could they do that?) but today the first paperbacks of Remix were delivered, and they do look nice. I shall be sending out the pre-orders this afternoon.
I'm pleased to see that The Book Depository has discounted the cover price of £9.99 to £4.91 + p&p of £2.75 if you get to them through Amazon - this is why I'm giving bookshops the full 55% discount, which few self-publishers do. It's a competitive market out there.
The Kindle version is selling well - it's at #1 in Contemporary Romance. See widget in sidebar for overall ranking. Woohoo!

Publishers and agents

Publishing is in an interesting state of upheaval right now. It's broken, and when it's fixed it isn't going to be quite the same.
I'm going to suggest that one major reason for this is the decision publishers took some years ago to relinquish the slushpile to agents. I'm sure on paper it made sense. No doubt they worked out the time and the cost of looking at all those desperate typescripts, 99%+ of which were no use to them, and thought they'd save some money. Agents were willing to take on the job; for free they'd filter out all the rubbish and pass the gems on to the publishers. Win/win situation.
Except it hasn't worked out like that. Of course it's worse for writers, who now have to pass two gatekeepers instead of one. But nobody in the industry cares much about writers. The problem is that agents aren't interested in taking a chance on a new writer, in the belief that two or three books on, they'll write a best seller. (Publishers used to do this; Longmans stuck with Mary Renault for several now-forgotten books until she struck gold and justified their faith.) Nor are they interested in acquiring a midlist author, because a modest advance of a few thousand pounds, though most new authors would jump at it, just isn't worth their while. 15% of 5,000 is £750, hardly enough to put a gleam in an agent's eye.
But worst of all, agents are, it seems to me, giving up on the slushpile. They are always moaning about it (funny, you don't hear owners of gold mines grumbling about all the rock they have to shift) and I have a dark suspicion a lot of it is shredded unopened. What made me decide to self-publish was my last round of five submissions. I included stamped postcards for agents to post so I'd know Royal Mail had done its stuff. Only two postcards returned. I received three form rejections, one of which had no letter heading and was signed by an intern, so I don't know who it came from.
Gone are the days when a rejected author shoved his manuscript to the back of a drawer. These days, we self-publish. Some of these books are bad. Very bad. And some of them are so good they will change the face of publishing for ever.
*See also this article from The Independent.

REMIX Book of the month on KUF!

Kindle Users Forum is a brand new UK site for the small but burgeoning group of Kindle owners. It's an elegant site, friendly and well-run, with just the right amount of moderation.
I was pleased when my novel, Remix , was one of a list of ten books suggested for KUF's first Book Club Book of the Month, and even more delighted when it won with 20% of the votes, beating Room and The Book Thief into joint second place. Although several members had read and enjoyed Remix, price may have been a consideration; my novel is the cheapest at £0.86, while Room's price, the most expensive, actually more than doubled in September to £6.50 as its publisher cashed in on its success.
Members will read Remix during October, and discuss it in November.

Life rankings

Like most authors with a book on Amazon - in my case, the Kindle version of Remix , I'm obsessed with my book's ranking in the chart. As I write, Remix is #1 in Contemporary Romance, #21 in Adult and Contemporary Romance, and #259 overall. By the time you look, it could be anything.
Those charts have the power to make one elated or downcast, and unless one's book is sitting at #1 in every possible chart, there is always something to wish for. And if one's book was at #1 in every chart, one...