Mary Sisson's Blog, page 131

CreateSpace is changing

Oh, FYI, CreateSpace is discontinuing its "Pro Plan," which let you price your paper book more cheaply and distribute it to bookstores and libraries. Now everyone gets the cheaper price for free, which is nice, and Expanded Distribution is $25 a title, not $39. I don't know if there's an annual fee attached to Expanded Distribution now--there used to be a $10 annual fee to maintain Pro Plan after its first year.

ALIVE (and thinking about bestseller lists)

Yeah, I'm still here and still snowed in. I needed to take a break yesterday, so I took a hatchet and chased the cats around the hedge maze out back. Good exercise, but a bit chilly.

Anyway, this post (via PV) provides a breakdown of self-published books among the Kindle bestsellers in 2011. It's interesting data, although it also really points out the limitations of bestseller data, which I think the author of the post is a little blind to. As he notes, a book could sell as well in December as it did in June and not be on a bestseller lists because books in general tend to sell more in December. The other thing to remember about bestseller lists is that they're only good for the period they cover. So, you can wring your hands about the fact that John Locke basically fell off the monthly bestseller lists in June, or you can see that he wrote 7 of the 100 titles on the overall 2011 bestseller list and realize that he's doing just fine.

The author of the post also seems oddly worried that there won't be more news stories about self-publishing, while at the same time noting that news stories don't always boost sales. I agree that there will eventually be fewer news stories, for what that's worth: The sun coming up in the east and going down in the west is not news, so as self-publishing becomes more and more mainstream there will be less news coverage of it, because it will just be the way things are done.

But that doesn't mean that self-publishing will lose its appeal. Bestseller lists not only don't give an idea of absolute numbers, they offer zero information on how much an author profits from sales, and the 70% royalty rate is the secret sauce of self-publishing. Barbara Freethy is probably making more money now than she ever has in her entire life. Why would she turn to a publishing house, even an indie publishing house? Why would she start her own publishing house like John Locke, unless like John Locke she is a serial entrepreneur?

When people worry about who is where on some bestseller list, I feel like that's the habits of traditional publishing talking. In that world, yes, you did have to sell a gazillion copies to make a living--that's why it sucked. You basically had to win the lottery in order to pay the rent. The world of self-publishing is so much more exciting to me because you no longer have to do that. It doesn't matter if you're topping the bestseller list or not, you can still make good money on modest sales.

Progress report

Still snowed in. Edited up to chapter 19 today. Now everything says, "All work and no play makes Trang a dull boy." Should I worry? The twins tell me it's fine....

It is not unethical to give customers what they want

OK, fine, sometimes it is unethical--if your customers want snuff porn, or child prostitutes, or crystal meth, I do encourage you to seek another line of work.

But lately I've read several incidences of people wringing their hands over selling short stories.

Now, I don't write short fiction--don't ask me why, everything just seems to come in at book-length for me. But I like short fiction, and from a business perspective, I sure wish I wrote it. If you write it, please consider yourself lucky, and take advantage of that fact.

The hand-wringing around selling short fiction seems to focus around two issues.

ISSUE #1: 99 cents is too much to charge for a short story!

Um, hey, not to sound all laissez faire, but why not let the readers decide that one?

I realize that there's this whole campaign against expensive e-books, but those people are upset about books that cost north of $10 or $15, not a penny less than $1.

I know, I know, if you look at it at a per-word basis, 99 cents for a 4,000-word short story is like charging almost $25 for a 100,000-word novel, but guys, it's 99 cents!

Why would someone happily pay 99 cents for a short story? Convenience.

Think about buying a can of Coke from a vending machine. That 12-ounce can probably is going to cost you more than an entire 2-liter bottle of Coke you buy from a grocery store. A small bag of chips? Again, at the price you pay a vending machine, you could get a HUGE family-size bag somewhere else.

Why do you pay so much to the vending machine? Because it is there when you need it.

The same thing is true of an electronic short story. Think of the last time you realized that "painfully boring" could be a literal expression--you were stuck in line at the post office around Christmas time, your dentist made you wait 90 minutes in a room with only a few old copies of Gum Disease Today to entertain you, your flight was delayed...and delayed...and delayed....

You would have gladly paid 99 cents for some relief, right? I mean, hell, you paid way more than that if you hit the lounge at the airport.

You could be offering that relief to your readers.Trust me, they would thank you for it. But instead, you're too afraid. As a result, you are driving your readers to drink. At the airport lounge. How can you look at yourself in the mirror knowing that?

OK, I'm being a little facetious. (But just a little. Honestly, given the way some people bitch and moan waiting in line at the post office, I would pay 99 cents just to shut them up.) Of course you need to indicate in the book description (and possibly the subtitle) that you are selling a short story--give the word count, be very up-front about what the reader is getting.

But realize that you're not warningthe reader--a lot of people don't want a huge novel, they are just looking for something quick to read on their phone. There is a real, honest-to-God market for short stories. There is nothing wrong with providing to that market.

ISSUE #2: I can't sell a collection of short stories and then sell the same stories individually!

Why the hell not? Konrath does it. Lots of people do it! And of course, the more titles you have available, the more likely it is readers will discover your work.

I assume this stems from the deep-seated fear many creative people share: They don't want to turn into George Lucas. They don't want to repackage and repackage the same content over and over again, because they know that they have a really crazed fan base that will feel obligated to purchase each and every new package, no matter how crappy it is, and they don't give a damn about anything except extracting as much money from those people as possible.

But you're not George Lucas! Not everyone's a fan--some people don't even know who the hell you are!

In fact, you have two separate markets here, and there's nothing wrong with serving them both. On the one hand, you have the fans and the bargain lovers. They will buy your collection, which you have considerately priced at a discount to buying your stories individually. Think of them as the people who do plan ahead and do go to the grocery store and do buy that 2-liter bottle of Coke and the HUGE family-sized bag of potato chips and do save money.

On the other hand, you have the people I described above, who are desperate for a quick read. They could probably use a vending machine too, if you have one.

One group is not better than the other. One group is not more deserving of your care, attention, and words than the other. It is perfectly ethical to serve both markets. You are making more people happy. That is a good thing.

Yes, let them know what they are buying. Yes, tell them in the description of the collection what stories are there, and tell them in the description of the story that it's available in a collection--knock yourself out! But don't be afraid to offer your wares as many ways as you can. People pay for convenience all the time, because it's worth it.

And you know, if it totally blows up in your face and everyone thinks you're a money-grubbing whore, 1. I'm sorry I steered you wrong, and 2. you can always take the story down.

Good point!

I'm reading through Lindsay Buroker's blog--she's got a lot of good ideas about marketing, which you know is an area I need help in--and in one post she makes a very good point about self-publishing as a form of entrepreneurship. She's Q&Aing herself in this post:

 

Aren't you devaluing yourself and your work by pricing a novel at $0.99? At $0.35 earnings per sale you'll never even make minimum wage….

I always scratch my head when people bring hourly wages into this. We're entrepreneurs, guys, not hourly or salaried workers, and we're creating intellectual property that can pay us in perpetuity — we're not trading an hour's work for an hour's pay.

Progress report

I'm still snowed in, but I managed to edit the problem chapter as well as the next one, which was very much affected by the problems in the problem chapter. So, it was only two chapters, but it was a lot of editing, and I'm glad to have it done.

Just one of those days

I'm snowed in. I HATE being snowed in. I guess it's too many years in NYC (where I could just hike through the snow to the grocery store or the subway, so snow was no big deal), but the idea of being cut off from civilization by the icy hand of Nature is just upsetting to me. I keep waiting for the wolves to arrive.

So I didn't edit, because I was too buggy. I took care of little stuff, like finally getting that teeny error fixed in the e-books. Also I mentioned in the comments to that PV post that, hey, yeah! I put stuff helpful to newbies on my Web site! And someone came over here and was like, Your Web site is actually kind of hard to navigate. Which makes sense, because this thing has just grown without any planning on my part.

To make it a little easier, I tagged a few more things "helpful (I hope) hints." I changed the title of the Blog Navigation section to Search Blog and moved it up. That involved actually learning how to do that, and I'm glad I know now. The person also didn't like the fact that the content is on a subdomain of the hosting company--I'm assuming that affects Google searches, or maybe it just looks amateurish. I did some digging, and it looks to me like it would be a pain to fix that, so it's going into the "maybe later" pile. I don't really have any ambition to Dominate the Web, although setting things up so that visitors can actually find what's useful matters (not as much as, you know, writing books, but some).

I feel like I need a B project now that I'm done with the large-print edition. The next big project coming up is writing Trials, and let's face it, if I can't get it together enough to focus on editing Trust, I'm not going to get it together enough to write another book. I can still do work on the cover and description of Trust. (It was so nice when I went to do the large-print edition cover, and I opened the files, and they were already done!) There's also a home-improvement thing that might move into the B project slot--we'll see.

Great resources for self-publishers!

Passive Voice sent me to this awesome post by David Gaughran on self-publishing scams. It's a great read: If you're a newbie, it explains why you really, really, really don't need to spend a mint on production and distribution. (Short version: That's the easy part!) If you're an old hand, he suggests that you make information about production and distribution available on your blog or Web site. Obviously, I could not agree more. Don't be shy because you're no kind of tech whiz and your computer is ancient and your software is not really appropriate for the task and you don't really know what you're doing. Plenty of other people are in the exact same boat!

Gaughran links to this equally awesome post by David Burton, which contains all sorts of great links to a sold ton of information. Like, wow, that's a lot of information. I've read maybe a fraction of the stuff he lists, so if you read it all (and the vast majority is free), you'll be way more expert than I am!

Why grammar and spelling matter

(Thanks to circumstances beyond my control, I'm not editing today.)

I've noticed a tendency among writers who haven't worked in publishing to be kind of dismissive of stuff like grammar and spelling. This is in strong contrast with those who have worked in publishing: That's a field where the term "functionally illiterate" (say it with contempt!) is applied to those who make these types of errors, no matter how many PhDs or billions of dollars they may have. It is also a field where cover letters containing errors are marked up with red pencil and hung on the wall in the break room for the amusement of staff.

Outside that world of hedgehogs, less-experienced writers sometimes regard grammar and spelling as mere details (because when it comes to writing, details don't matter). I have even heard proofreading disparaged as "technical editing," with the implication that grammar and spelling are mere technicalities that a true artist can dispose of. You know, the way Michelangelo disposed with learning how to paint. (In addition to being bad in concept, that is also a misuse of the term: Technical writing and editing is what you do when you produce technical documents--user's manuals and the like.)

The fact of the matter is, errors interfere with the reader's enjoyment of the story. Trying to read a story that is riddled with errors is like trying to carry on a meaningful conversation in the middle of an artillery range. You're reading along, hoping to get into the story, when BANG!

"Jane looked at Mark, and then at Fred. Suddenly, he hit her."

Wait, what? Who hit her? Was it Mark or Fred? What's going on?

"I really hope it's leg isn't hurt."

I really hope it is...leg...what? Oh, they mean "its leg." Got it. Now where was I?

"At this rate, he'll probably catch a venial disease."

A...what? Oh, ha-ha, they mean venereal disease. Someone didn't get much sex ed.

You get yanked out of the narrative. (If you notice an error in this post and go, "A-ha! She's so high and mighty, but she screws up, too!" you've just made my point for me, thank you.) The more exciting things are--it's an action scene, blood's flying everywhere--the worse it is, like hitting a speed bump when you're going 70 miles per hour. Not to mention that if the errors are bad enough, you literally cannot understand what the person is trying to say.

It's a problem once you publish, obviously. But I also think it's important that your work be at least somewhat polished if you're giving someone a draft to look over. I feel like it's a real waste of everyone's time if you give me something in hopes of getting meaningful feedback, and the only feedback I can give you is, "Please fix the grammar and spelling, and then I can actually focus on your story and tell you something of value."

Thinking about the future

So, if you haven't figured this out yet, I definitely think the LibraryThing giveaway was well worth doing. There are not only some fab reviews on LibraryThing itself, but more are trickling out onto Amazon and Goodreads, and of course I now have enough reviews to have a reviews page (plus the psychological boost of knowing that some people actually liked the book). In addition, once the early LibraryThing reviews were posted, a number of other people put the book on their "to-read" list, plus several e-mailed me to get the book. And I think I finally got a second Book Rooster review. I assume that the fact that the early reviews were so positive encouraged people who might not necessarily read a book available for free (because who wants to spend their time reading something that sucks?) to pick it up and read it. And, you know, the LibraryThing giveaway didn't cost a cent.

That, plus the content of the reviews--even the people who thought it was just OK want to read the next book--makes me very comfortable with the idea of Trang as a loss leader. It's something that I assumed I would do once I had more books out (like, two more books out--Trust and Trials--not just Trust).

But now there's that new program with Amazon, where you list your book exclusively with them for three months. If you do that, people who pay for Prime membership can borrow your book for free, and you can offer your book to everyone for free for five days.

That's like sticking a toe in the free pool, as opposed to jumping all the way in. So I may give that a try once Trust is out.