David R. Michael's Blog, page 32
March 19, 2011
Now Available – "Insanity"
"Insanity" – A new science fiction short story by David Michael!Corporal Jonathan Nathan "Drooz" Andrews isn't sure what he signed up for, but it looks like the "future of modern warfare" has caught up with him. And he already knows he isn't going to like it. (3600-word short story)
"Insanity" Edition
Price
Kindle edition (Amazon)
$.99
Nook edition (Barnes & Noble)
$.99
Ebook (Smashwords)
$.99
Related Posts:
Now Available – "Curtain Call"Now Available – THE DOOR TO THE SKYDemon Candy – Now Available!
March 18, 2011
Book Trailer – THE DOOR TO THE SKY
Animated by Don Michael, Jr., with music by Arnel Manago.
Enjoy!
-David
Related Posts:
Music While Writing…THE SUMMONING FIRE Gets 4 Stars at The Book Bee!My Growing Art Collection
March 17, 2011
Well, That's Comical…
Go to Google Images and do a search for: inspirational comic
Somehow, my pre-Nano-2009 post with a scan of a Bloom County strip has become the #2 result.
I do love that strip. Quoted it for years. Didn't see this coming, though.
-David
Related Posts:
Inspirational Comic – Just Wing That MotherWeb Sharing EthicsNaNoWriMo 2009 – Now Over
Yeah, What Dean Said
After my Short Story Ebook Economics post, I had been thinking about writing a "Novel Ebook Economics" post. I don't have to, though, because Dean Wesley Smith did exactly that today over on his blog:
Think Like a Publisher #3: Projected Income
Read the whole thing, of course, but he has a very detailed example about calculating the break-even point for novels which says everything I would have said.
After reading his post (and after being prodded by another indie writing friend), I'm thinking of raising the price of my first two novels to $4.99.
As a businessman, I prefer to be as far away from the "appearance of discount" as I can be. In my software business, I have worked to be as upmarket as I can for the last decade. Aside from Microsoft OneNote and a few niche-specific offerings, The Journal is probably the most expensive journaling software you will find (and worth every penny, thank you very much). Let my many competitors figure out how to make a profit at their lower price points, I'm happy offering a superior product for a good price. Someday I might figure out how to do something similar with my indie publishing. For now, though, I'll be satisfied with positioning myself in the middle range (not discount, not upmarket).
So, yeah, I might be raising the ebook prices of The Summoning Fire and The Girl Who Ran With Horses in the near future.
Just to mention it: I raised the trade paperback prices of both books back in February for a similar reason. I realized as I was getting Demon Candy ready to go that I had seriously underpriced both of my previous POD books. Trade paperback prices are noticeably higher than mass market paperbacks. One thing that was cool about raising the prices then was that Amazon then felt it had enough profit margin to offer the books at a discount. Plus, I think it made the books more attractive to the "expanded distribution network" of CreateSpace for the same reason.
-David
Related Posts:
What I Need are … ReadersShort Story Ebook CoversYeah, What She Said…
March 16, 2011
Why I Keep Bringing That Up…
By "that" I mean: A Short Story a Day. People who've known me a while hear about "ASSAD" somewhat regularly. I even mentioned it earlier today.
ASSAD was one of the most significant events in my writing life. ASSAD *was* the year 2006 for me.
The bulk of my indie publishing so far came out of ASSAD:
The Summoning Fire – written in November 2006 (for NaNoWriMo).
The Door to the Sky – written in September 2006 (my "warmup" for The Summoning Fire)
Nasty, Brutish & Short Short and Serene Morning & Other Tales of a Little Girl – both of these are collections of short shorts and flash fiction written throughout that year.
All told, those novels and collections represent about 1/3 of what I wrote during ASSAD. (The other 2/3′s was, well, educational.
)During ASSAD, I wrote more, faster than I had ever written in my life to that point.
ASSAD is what made me love short stories, both writing them and reading them.
ASSAD taught me how to write "on the fly" *and* how to structure both short and long story arcs.
ASSAD showed me that I can do horror–and just about anything else I decide to write.
ASSAD was the first time I took writing seriously and made a concentrated effort to improve. I have no doubt I'm a better writer now than I was at the end of ASSAD in December 2006, but it was ASSAD that got me furthest-fastest up the learning curve. ASSAD got me moving.
Of course, I then rather squandered that momentum in the second half of 2007 and all of 2008, but, hey, that wasn't ASSAD's fault.
I do have other Big Moments in David's Writing Life, of course. Finishing my first short story as an adult (early 1990′s). Finishing my first nonfiction book (2003). Finishing my first novel as an adult (2005). And, more recently, becoming an indie publisher (2010). But, so far, none of those compare with the impact ASSAD had on me.
One of my goals for 2011 is to create a new Memorable Year in Writing for myself. Something to put up on the wall beside the shining plaque that is my memory of ASSAD. To outdo myself. I'm too young to be stuck in my Glory Days.
I'll never forget A Short Story a Day. But maybe, after 2011, I'll mention it less often.
-David
PS I still own the domain name: ashortstoryaday.com No, it's not online any more, and, no, it's not for sale.
Related Posts:
Guns & MagicMaking PlansMy Writing Goals for 2007
My Short Story Articles
For your convenience, here is a consolidated list of my posts about short stories and short story ebooks. Enjoy!
Short Story Ebook Economics
Short Story Ebook Covers
Writing Short Stories Considered Useful
A Short Story a Day: A Post Mortem
-David
Related Posts:
The Origin of Nasty, Brutish & Short ShortShort Story Ebook CoversShort Story Ebook Economics
March 15, 2011
Writing First, Then Publishing
That's been my mantra this week: Writing first, then publishing.
Because publishing is distracting. Very distracting. As I've alluded to before.
What I mean by "publishing" includes:
Editing
Line Editing
Formatting ebooks
Blurb copy creation
Cover creation (well, contracting and approving)
Uploading ebooks
Announcing ebooks
Promoting ebooks (sometimes called "browsing blogs and forums")
In other words, "publishing" is everything but the actual writing.
I think the biggest part of what makes publishing so distracting is that I see the finished product much quicker (with the possible exception of line editing; that seems to take forever; tedium, thy name is line editing). Editing is fun. When I'm editing, I'm reading what I wrote. Sometimes I'm reading what I forgot I wrote. Which is also fun.
Blurb copy writing is almost as tedious as line editing, but it's over much quicker. Covers just magically appear, and, of course, covers must be looked at ASAP, and then multiple times. And so on.You pick up a publishing task, you do it, you enjoy the rapid turnaround and bask in the result. Feedback, baby. Sometimes even positive feedback.
Writing, though, even writing short stories, is a horse of a different color. Writing takes more time. Writing takes more focused effort. And the feedback is usually a long time coming (relatively speaking).
So it's easy to play with the publishing side of things. Certainly easier than it is to sit down and write something new. Which is what makes it tempting to spend all day "publishing". It's the easy route.
Unfortunately, for me, once I flip the switch into "publishing" mode, I find it a challenge to recover the concentration required for writing. So I end up doing "publishing" tasks all day (which can be fun; which is the problem).
And so I say, "Writing first, then publishing."
If I don't write, I don't have anything to publish. I like publishing (didn't see that coming, did you?). And if I want to keep publishing, I have to keep writing.
So, again: Writing first, then publishing.
Like I said: Mantra.
Writing first, then publishing.
-David
Related Posts:
Publishing Seemed Less Work When I Didn't Know Any BetterI Have Big Plans for 2011Short Story Ebook Covers
March 14, 2011
Now Available – THE DOOR TO THE SKY
The Door to the Sky – A new speculative fiction novel by David Michael!Worlds are at war. Dragons attack TV stations and winged gargoyles do battle with steam-powered behemoths. Gaia the Earth Mother and the woman called Blue lead the Weirdlings in their struggle against the Tyrant and his Compatriots, while the man who calls himself the Traveler walks through the chaos looking for The Door to the Sky .
Ebook includes 2 Bonus Short Stories: "Fickle Reality; or That Explains a Lot" and "Encounter".
The Door to the Sky Edition
Price
Kindle edition (Amazon)
$2.99
Nook edition (Barnes & Noble)
$2.99
Ebook (Smashwords)
$2.99
Writing Progress Report
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, March 7, 2011.
Writing Project
Words
Monday
GoSH1
Line edited Door Sky chapter 11, 12.
2564
Tuesday
GoSH1
Line edited Door Sky chapter 13.
Line edited "Curtain Call".
Created base ebook document for "Curtain Call".
616
Wednesday
Created "Curtain Call" ebook document for KDB, Smashwords, & PubIt.
Line edited Door Sky chapter 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, "Fickle…".
Thursday
GoSH1
Created base ebook document for Door Sky.
Created Door Sky ebook document for KDP, Smashwords, & PubIt.
841
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total
4021
Marketing/Submission
Monday
Started publishing company setup.
Tuesday
Wednesday
Uploaded "Curtain Call" to PubIt, KDP, & Smashwords.
Thursday
Friday
Announced "Curtain Call" on 4CL, G&M, FB, KB, MR, NB.
Uploaded Door Sky to PubIt, KDP, Smashwords.
Saturday
Tweaked G&M page layout.
Sunday
More blog page tweaking.
Reading List
Cautionary Tales by Stephen Tobolowsky.
The Middle-Class Millionaire by Russ Alan Prince and Lews Schiff.
March 13, 2011
Short Story Ebook Economics
I had the urge to do some math today, to kinda check again some of what I did the other day in my post about short story ebook covers.
For the purposes of my numbercrunching today, I'll assume I have a 5000-word short story.
Now, selling that short story via Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever at $.99 (the cheapest price possible in most cases) is going to net me about $.35. I'll call that the average because it kinda *is* the average, by the time affiliate percentages and delivery fees and blah blah blah get taken out. You sell an ebook for 99 cents, you get about 35 cents as a royalty.
The SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) declares that the minimum professional per word rate of pay is $.05. In SF magazines, this is known as the "pro rate": 5 cents/word.
With that in mind, if I had sold my 5000-word story to an SF magazine, I could expect to make $250. (Whoa. Is that it? Rechecks math. Yep. Damn. Anyway…) That seems like a good target for my ebook short story sales.
At $.35 per copy sold, I need to sell 715 copies to reach the equivalent of "pro rate".
Actually, no.
Because that short story ebook needs a cover. If you manage to get a solid cover for $50, then you've just added 143 more copies you need to sell, for a total of 858 copies to hit the "pro rate" and earn back your cover expenses.
Now, if you're just starting out (like me), 858 copies might sound like a lot (and it kinda does). There are two things to keep in mind, though.
First, 858 copies is not a lot. You gotta remember that there are millions of Kindles out there, plus millions of Nooks, and millions of iPads, and more. There's a huge market. If you sold a thousand copies a day, it would take you more than 3 years to sell 1 million copies–and you still would not have sold to the entire market. 858 barely registers. It's a rounding error. It only seems huge when you're just starting out (like me).
Second, it's not like the sales will stop once you hit 858. They'll keep coming. Barring the sudden collapse of Western Civilization, there's a long sales life ahead of any ebook released.
Dean Wesley Smith, in his initial short story challenge post (scroll down to "My Crazy Challenge This Year"), outlined a simple way to make money selling short story ebooks. Lots of short story ebooks. For his numbers, he went with the very low number of each title selling only 5 copies per month. He called this the "bottom level".
At Dean's "bottom level", it would take me over 14 years to hit the pro rate.
Which, I will admit, sounds like a long, long time to reach the point of having earned 5 cents per word.
On the other hand, you weren't planning on retiring from the proceeds of ONE short story were you?
Let's just say, "Not at 99 cents, you weren't."I have 3 short story ebooks out now, and will have another 5 out soon, plus another novel, in addition to the 2 novels and 3 collections I already have, as well. Not a huge inventory, but a growing one.
That's the "secret" at the core of Dean's "crazy" short story challenge: inventory. I can't control how well my books and stories sell. But I can control how many of them there are available for sale. The idea is to have enough inventory that the stories create feedback amongst themselves. One story leads the reader to another, or to a novel, or to a collection, and from there to yet another story or collection or novel, and so on. Dean figures that you will reach a point where you go well past selling only 5 copies per month per title (his guess: 30 stories), but, of course, there's no guarantee.
One $.99 short story ebook, by itself, doesn't appear to be much of an economic force. Certainly not the basis for a sound retirement plan. As another element of a long term plan for world domination via electronic publishing, though, it plays its tiny, fruitful part.
-David
