Jennifer Becton's Blog, page 63

Some Thougths on Traditional vs Independent Publishing

Things are not quite the same since the advent of the ebook. (A Printing Press © 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki)

I never wanted to self-publish, and I likely never would have if I had not been challenged to do so. As a result, my opinion of self-publishing has become much more favorable, and I've posted lots of benefits about this method of publishing.

But does that mean I am against traditional publishing? No. I still work in the traditional field, and I'd still be interested in hearing a traditional offer.

However, I no longer look down on independent authors. How could I? Not only am I now counted among their ranks, but even traditional publishers seek indies and occasionally make offers to them once they prove their work is marketable. Self-publishing can be a valid entry into publishing; either you enjoy a career as an indie author or you sign a book deal. (Of course, there's always the chance that neither of those options will pan out.)

On this blog, I have shared candidly what I have learned in my independent journey. I have given opinions on pricing and shared sales numbers, things that may seem a bit bold. But I did this in the spirit of letting people have a real view of how it works. I am not going to lie: there are definite benefits to being independent. You are in complete control of every aspect of the book. You set the price. You can even make changes midstream. You can earn more money per book because you have no publisher to take a cut of your profits.

And on this blog, I wanted to clear up certain misconceptions about what an independent author can do. Even though I had a file corruption error when uploading my ebook to BN, indie authors are completely capable of producing a professional ebook that rivals a traditional publisher's. In addition, you can have the exact same distribution of ebooks, and you can sell them at a lower price, if you so choose. And indies can produce professional ebooks and paperbacks, especially if they hire professional artists, designers, and proofers to help.

But now I'm going to turn the tables on myself and offer some opinions on what traditional publishers seem to do better:

Physical paperback distribution: There's no question about it. Traditional publishers are far and away superior at physical book distribution. They can place your book in chain bookstores, independent bookstores, Target, Walmart, airports, grocery stores, gas stations, you name it. Lots of people still buy books at physical locations and not online.
Online paperback distribution at good prices: While indies do have the option of expanded distribution to all online book retailers that traditional houses do, in my opinion, trad pubs still have the advantage here. And that advantage comes in price. They can produce books more cheaply, and therefore, they can offer larger discounts. (For example, if I were to open expanded distribution on Charlotte Collins, I would have to raise the price in order to account for the new retailer's cut. If I raised the price by $3, I would actually make half as much money per book at other retailers as I do now using only Amazon.com and my personal store with the price at $9.99.)
In-house services: While an indie can certainly hire artists, editors, and formatters, traditional publishers offer one-stop shopping.
International sales: Other than Canada or the UK, indies can't sell as easily overseas in foreign language markets.
Audiobooks: Again, indies can make them, but until there is a good method for doing so in a professional, cost effective manner, trads win here too.

Here are a few aspects that I am still debating:

Traditional publishers do your accounting for you. I see this as both a negative and a positive. I mean, who wants to pour over spreadsheets when they could be writing? But this also means that you have less understanding of a vital aspect of the book business: the numbers.
Validation: For many writers, this is a biggie. People with the healthiest of egos suddenly become completely uncertain when it comes to their writing. They think they need someone official to tell them their book is worthy. But do publishers really have a better handle on what will sell? I've ready countless articles in which publishers admit that, even for them, it's a crapshoot. Readers are the ultimate point of validation. My own experience backs this up. Yes, I enjoyed having a publisher tell me my book was well-written, but they also said it would not sell. And while I'm not breaking any sales records, thanks to all the wonderful Janeites out there, Charlotte Collins has sold beyond my wildest hopes. 

So what should you take away from this breakdown? Well, here's how I see it. There are advantages to both methods of publication, and they are both valid forms of bringing your book to market as long as you tackle each option as if it were a business. (More on the business aspects of publishing to come.) The most important thing is to get as much information as you can when deciding which route to pursue.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Our family is still hoping for a White Christmas. Well, Puttytat is not hoping for snow, and Darcy remains indifferent as long as she has her blanket on, but my husband and I are peeking out the door every five minutes to check for precipitation.

I hope you had a wonderful day full of gifts, good food, friends, and family.

Merry Christmas!

Week of Whimsy: Meet My Darcy

When I was a kid, I prayed for a purebred Arabian gelding. And he should be black and full of spirit, just like the Black Stallion. Well, fifteen years later, I had my prayers answered. Only I got a half-arabian mare; she's an arab x saddlebred. But she is black and full of spirit. 

After lots of searching, my dressage-teacher friend and I found my perfect horse, whose registered name we later discovered to be "Call Me Crazy." I thought I probably ought to be called crazy during our first few months together. I was a brand spankin' new horse owner, and my horse was very sensitive. To everything. 

But after lots of lessons for me and training for my horse, we are partners, and she is truly the horse of my heart. Her barn name is now Darcy. Yes, named after Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. I know, I know. I sound like an obsessed teenager. But my Darcy does have the same aloof qualities of Austen's Mr. Darcy. But once you get to know her, you'll find that she, like Mr. Darcy, has a heart of gold and does her best to please when she understands what you want. 

This year has been a big one for Darcy and I. I have made great strides in overcoming my horseback riding fear, and we have been able to travel to local trail riding facilities, which until this year I'd been too terrified to do. The work I did in overcoming this fear has carried over into my whole life, including writing and publishing. 

Yes, there is a great deal of potential fear in publishing your own work. Will people buy it? Will they like it? Is there some horrible mistake in the text that will turn people off? But like with horseback riding, I've had to acknowledge my fear and then ask good questions to make sure I was not going to allow my fear to control me. I made sure to do the best I possibly could do on Charlotte Collins, and the rest was out of my hands. And even though I took a pretty nice spill off Darcy and injured my arm a month ago, I am not suffering fear of riding as a result.  

Both riding and writing have risks, and I do my best to minimize those risks. I try not to let my vision be tainted by fear, but see what is really happening. And as a result of learning to ride and write fear-free, I have experienced the best year of my life so far. 

So many thanks to my Darcy for being the best partner I can imagine. Thank you for making me a better person. I look forward to hitting the trails again with you soon, Darcy-girl. 

Don't try this at home.

Week of Whimsy: Meet My Cat

Before I wrote Charlotte Collins, I was--and still am--a freelance editor employed by contract by two small presses. As a freelancer, my motto has always been "feast or famine." Either I had too much work or none at all. So if work came along during holidays, I had to take it.


This year, however, I decided to take the week of Christmas off. It feels so decandent to take time off, and so, I've decided to have a week of whimsy here on Skidding in Sideways. No serious talk. Just fun.

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to my writing partner: Puttytat.

Puttytat literally showed up on our doorstep one winter night seven years ago. She was extremely skittish--and is still terrified of most other humans--but apparently, my husband and I were deemed acceptable, and she moved herself in. Actually, she took over the household. She also played a large role in the writing of Charlotte Collins; she sat in my lap for most of its composition and made sure I remained in front of the computer through several drafts. Her self-appointed task is to keep our property varmint-free, a job that she takes very seriously. She patrols the perimeter of our yard daily, and sometimes, she leaves us gifts on the sidewalk. She has assassinated bugs, lizards, mice, moles, birds, skinks, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and a bat. (Still trying to figure out how she got the bat.) She also fulfills the roles of alarm clock, court jester, and lap warmer.

I am so thankful that Puttytat decided to make us her humans.

Jane Austen Birthday Celebration

On this day 235 years ago, Jane Austen was born. Her life was short, enduring only forty-one years, and rather sheltered. She travelled little and spent most of her time with her family and a close circle of friends, and she only received one marriage proposal, which she turned down. By today's standards, Jane Austen was very sheltered indeed and not at all a person one would expect to make an impact on the literary world.

Still, Ms. Austen did something few people ever do: she created books that continue to touch people's hearts centuries later. Her novels may not be the stuff of big blockbuster special effects films or contain earth-changing commentary, but they deal with more intimate problems, smaller scale woes that all people in all generations face. How do we find love? How do we deal with money issues? Did we misjudge someone? Where is our place in society?

Ms. Austen reminds us that sometimes a larger impact can be made by focusing on what may seem to be the mundane details of life. In these small details, we spend most of our energy. These small details make us who we are and define how we relate to the world around us.

I am in no small way indebted to Jane Austen. Without Pride and Prejudice, I would not have written Charlotte Collins, and I would not be on the journey I am taking today. She has taught me that books do not need to be tragedies to be considered literature, and she has showed me that good novels can be written by people of any age and place in society.

So thank you, Ms. Austen, for reminding us what is truly important and for giving us so many wonderful novels.

In honor of Jane Austen's birthday, please accept a free copy of "Maria's Romance," my short story, for any eReader at Smashwords.com.

Also accept this Jane Austen Birthday Celebration Coupon and receive Charlotte Collins: A Continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in any eBook format at Smashwords.com for only $0.99! Use coupon code: XL87H at checkout. This deal is good for one day only, so head over now and join me in celebrating Jane Austen's birthday!

Writing Fear Free: Reviews

After working on a book for months or years, finding an agent and publisher or going indie, and then seeing the book to press, you'd think the hard part was over.

Wrong. You still have to face reviews. You want people to like your book; that's why you put it out there for sale. What if book reviewers and online customers pan it?
That can be a scary prospect.
Really, there aren't many careers in which people are faced so directly with critiques of their work from so many sources. It's not like engineers have a web page devoted entirely to one of their designs: "The water line out on highway 21 gets water to my house pretty well, but if the engineer had used a 15-inch diameter pipe instead of a 14-inch diameter, it would have been a better design. And I really thought the installation crew should have worn yellow vests instead of orange. 3.5 stars." Can you imagine?
Some writers claim never to read reviews; some writers will respond to every single one. I fall somewhere in between. I read them, and unless it is an email thanking people whom I solicited for a review, I do not respond to them. I figure that my part in the review process was writing the book. Once it's out there, it's out there, and it's the reader's turn to weigh in.
There are two different ways your work will be reviewed. The first is by book bloggers and reviewers whom you solicit or who buy your book and review it for you. These fine folks do this as a hobby, and it is worth it to send them free copies, just as if you were a traditional publisher sending ARC's (advanced review copies). Book bloggers are to indie authors what the New York Times is to big-name authors. Even traditional houses solicit book bloggers. Their reviews are thorough and very professional, at least the ones who have reviewed Charlotte Collins have been. They include publication information, a summary, and a useful critique. They usually re-post their reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, and BN. I highly recommend all of my reviewers to anyone.
The second method of review is customer reviews. These are the ones that show up on Goodreads, Amazon, BN, and etc. from people who paid money to read what you wrote or who received it in a giveaway. These are reviews from your target audience, and they are just as important as the blog reviews. Because these people paid for you work, it's good to read what they have to say, especially regarding format and grammar. They may not like your plot or characters or theme, but that's the same chance everyone takes when they buy a book. But they deserve to have a quality product, even if they don't like the contents.
Here's a summary of what I've learned so far:

Well-written, unbiased reviews can be very helpful, even the ones that contain critiques. Authors should be open to hearing both praise and critique and growing from it.Solicit reviews from book bloggers who enjoy your genre. Good reviews from them can mean lots of good exposure.Expect a certain percentage of negative customer reviews. Not everyone likes the same thing.Also expect some insulting reviews. Every author gets them.Think carefully before responding to any negative review. No matter what you do, as the author, you are going to come off looking defensive and petty.Some customer reviewers may not have finished your book, and their review may contain factual misconceptions as a result.Worse, some people may not have even read your book before reviewing it. Many customers use stores' rating systems to protest price or even something like cover art, which is usually out of your control.Not every reviewer uses the same star scale. Some will only give 5 stars to the Bible.Not every review is going to be unbiased. Some are going to be predisposed to loving your work (your well-meaning family and friends); some will be predisposed to being critical.
Incidentally, that last bullet point is why I have chosen not to review books here, especially Austen-related tomes. As a writer in this genre, I can't say that I would be unbiased when coming to another sequel or anthology.

Also, would you even believe me? How do you know I'm not just saying nice things about a friend's book? Or that I'm not saying negative things about a competitor? It's a minefield I choose to avoid.
I'd rather just flat-out say, "This is my friend's book. Would you like to read it?"
So how do you face reviews the fear-free way? I don't really know. I'm still learning.

To Read or Not to Read

One of the most fun things about book marketing is meeting people through blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. (And in person too, of course.) Marcie of the blog To Read or Not to Read reviewed Charlotte Collins and she has been one of the best people to know for both support and encouragement.

On her blog, she reviews fantasy, romance, YA, Gothic, supernatural, classic, historical fiction, sci-fi, PNR, and some biographies. And she does a great job. Each review comes with full publication information so the book can be found easily and contains a brief summary of the work. Then, Marcie offers her review of the book, including fair critiques and well-thought-out opinions. All in all, Marcie is a great reviewer, and I'm not just saying that because she liked Charlotte Collins.

So if you are interested in any of the genres she reviews, hop over to her blog and find some new books to read this winter. And don't forget to read my guest blog and sign up for a free copy of Charlotte Collins!

Not in This Alone, Part 2

A while back, I mentioned two fellow Austen sequel authors who had helped me in my journey with Charlotte Collins. And now, I have another to add to that list: Mary Lydon Simonsen.

Ms. Simonsen has been supportive of my clumsy efforts--but is in no way responsible for any of my missteps--and, though she claims not to be good at giving tips, she did offer lots of valuable advice. She even read my short story "Maria's Romance" and, lemme tell ya, having her read it made me nervous!

. Here is the blurb from Amazon:

On Anne Elliot's 25th birthday, her family declared her to be a spinster, but instead of being downcast by this change in status, she finds it to be quite liberating. As a result of her new-found freedom, Anne becomes a long-distance runner, and this activity greatly increases her confidence. It is this new Anne who Captain Frederick Wentworth meets when he sees the love of his life after eight years of separation. The Captain admires the changes in Anne, and he finds that he is falling in love with her all over again. However, there is a complication. The heir to Kellynch, the Elliot estate, William Elliot, has also come back into the picture after an estrangement with Anne's father, Sir Walter Elliot, and he has set his sights on Anne. Now living in Bath, Anne senses that something is not right, and with the help of a street urchin named Swoosh, she sets out to discover what William Elliot is really like.

Searching for Pemberley was released by Sourcebooks Landmark in December 2009 and has received excellent reviews. And the cover is pretty too. From Publishers Weekly via Amazon:

Using a literary mystery rooted in Jane Austen's inspiration for Pride and Prejudice, Simonsen's debut novel brings resonance to the story of a love-torn American girl in post-WWII London. Young and eager for adventure, Maggie Joyce has left her jobless Pennsylvania coal-mining town for a typist position overseas. In London, she discovers two love interests as well as connections to the real-life Londoners rumored to have been the basis for Pride's Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Learning to disregard her prim and proper instincts, Maggie becomes closer to her very own version of Darcy, as well as the families of the original Darcy and Bennet, from whom she receives old diary entries and letters. Simonsen is clever and evenhanded, maintaining an unhurried pace in both the Austen adventure and Maggie's love life. Fans of historical fiction and Austen should savor this leisurely read. (Dec.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

And coming January 1, 2011 is Ms. Simonsen's newest book, which is sure to be a breakout hit: The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy. From Amazon:

If the two of them weren't so stubborn...

It's obvious to Georgiana Darcy that the lovely Elizabeth Bennet is her brother's perfect match, but Darcy's pigheadedness and Elizabeth's wounded pride are going to keep them both from the loves of their lives.

Georgiana can't let that happen, so she readily agrees to help her accommodating cousin, Anne de Bourgh, do everything within their power to assure her beloved brother's happiness.

But the path of matchmaking never runs smoothly...

Pre-order now and have something fun to read in the new year.

Nook Book Update

Thanks to Doug Pardee on the BN Book Club discussion board and Zoe Winters of IndieReader.com, the issue with the PubIt! edition of Charlotte Collins is now officially resolved.
 As it turns out, my source file was somehow corrupted, either during formatting or in the conversion process. I'm not entirely sure which. But to be sure of offering the best possible product, I took the nuclear option and reformatted the whole text. Then, I downloaded a what-you-see-is-what-you-get epub editor to make sure it was exactly what I wanted. Now, not only is the page numbering more accurately represented (212 pages, not 1,000!), but I even improved the formatting of the front matter.

 Does the nook version's page numbering now match the paperback's? No. It does not, but few ebooks match their paperback counterparts. Epub creates page numbers based on file size. My coding was messed up either during my formatting or during the conversion to PubIt and was displaying a page count 5 times larger than the file size demanded. Now, it is much closer to the actual file size and the paperback page count, but not exact.

 I bought the old version. Can I get the improved one? Yes, you can, and you can do it free. I do not own a nook, so I'm not familiar with the process, but the BN Book Club Discussion Board says to re-download the book to your nook by doing this: 
Archive the book (either on the nook or online at bn.com).Check for new B&N content on your nook.Un-archive the book (again either online or on your nook)Check for new B&N content on your nook.
I may be a self-published author, but I will always try to provide a professional book. And when a problem arises, I will also do my best to make it right. I regret that it took me so long to realize that my file was still inaccurate; I thought I had resolved it earlier. But now, it is fixed, and I have learned a great deal about epub.
 Thank you to my friend who pointed out the problem and to Doug and Zoe for helping me solve it.

Riding the Learning Curve

There is a lot to learn about the business of book publishing, and my experience has proven to be no exception. I started this blog to help others who may be in my position by posting honestly about my successes and my mistakes. So here's one thing I didn't do perfectly. When I began this journey with Charlotte Collins, I had no conception of the growing importance of ebooks. I had never seen one. I didn't know about the different file types.


But I'm learning.

Shortly after I launched Charlotte Collins on BN's nook, a friend in the Austen community informed me that the ebook claimed to have 1,000 pages! This surprised me for two reasons. First, at 77,000 words, Charlotte is nowhere near that length in traditional page counts; the paperback is only approximately 250 pages, not including ancillary material. And second, I didn't know that page numbers even existed in ebooks. And they don't really, not in the traditional way. Epub, the file type used by BN's nook, creates page numbers based on file size, so X number of bytes of information equals one page. They aren't designed to match up with paperbacks, though apparently there is a way this can be done in works that are frequently cited. But most authors and publishers see no more need to match their ebook's pagination to their paperback than they do to match the pagination of their hardcover and paperback versions.

But 1,000 pages is way off. So in my quest to fix the issue, I've been researching the matter. I thought I had it figured out, but still, the nook book claims to be much longer than it is. Why?

What is interesting is that the epub file generated by Smashwords' program was based on the same original file that I sent to BN. But their page numbers are radically different. Smashwords has the page count much closer to the original; whereas BN's is completely off. How can this be if it's the same file converted to the same format?

I am looking into the issue with the PubIt! help team, and for those who purchased the BN version that claims to be 1,000 pages long, rest assured it is not. When the issue is fixed, I will let you know and you can download the corrected copy free from BN. In the meantime, if pagination is important to you in ebooks, please find the Smashwords epub edition here.