Alexandra Sokoloff's Blog - Posts Tagged "e-books"
To Nook or not to Nook...
Okay, the Nookers have guilted me into putting some of my newly re-acquired backlist up for THEM. So at least for the next few weeks, here you go:
For Nook: $2.99
On Amazon: $3.99
Five troubled college students left alone on their isolated campus over the long Thanksgiving break confront their own demons and a mysterious presence... that may or may not be real.
Bram Stoker & Anthony Award Nominee for Best First Novel.
"Poltergeist meets The Breakfast Club as five college students tangle with an ancient evil entity. Plenty of sexual tension... fast pace and engaging plot."
-- Kirkus Reviews
For Nook: $2.99
Amazon: $2.99
A Boston District Attorney suspects his wife has made a terrible bargain with a mysterious hospital counselor to save the life of their dying child.
"Some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre."
-- The New York Times Book Review
For Nook: $2.99
Amazon: $2.99
Two psychology professors and two exceptionally gifted students move into an abandoned Southern mansion to duplicate a controversial poltergeist experiment - unaware that the entire original research team ended up insane... or dead.
Based on the real life, world-famous parapsychology experiments conducted at Duke University by Dr. J.B. Rhine.
"Sokoloff keeps her story enticingly ambiguous, never clarifying until the climax whether the unfolding weirdness might be the result of the investigators' psychic sensitivities or the mischievous handiwork of a human villain." -- Publisher's Weekly
I have to say this Nook thing is a bit of an experiment.
One of the amazing things about e publishing is the sheer control authors now have over pricing and venues, and the infinite flexibility of choices we enjoy (or dread, depending on your point of view!). We can change the prices of our books literally overnight, and play with where we choose to make our books available, to determine what is the most profitable for us.
And when I say profitable, what I'm really talking about is exposure.
There's an ongoing and vehement debate about the effectiveness of e publishing for Nook. The big problem is that Amazon is so incredibly effective at marketing that enrolling in the Kindle Select program, which makes your book exclusive to Amazon for three-month periods at a time, has been for some time now more profitable for authors than making books available on multiple platforms (including Nook).
The two reasons for this are:
1) The ability in the Kindle Select program to promote your book for free for five days of those three months, an incredible marketing spike, and -
2) Any book enrolled in Kindle Select is made available in Amazon's Lending Library, and authors are paid a certain amount per borrow (about $1.70 for a $2.99 book, but it fluctuates.)
So the math that authors are being forced to do is - "Can I reach more readers and make more money with Nook sales or with borrows from the Amazon Lending Library?"
And the answer seems to be - "It depends on the book."
Thus my experiment this month, because I really don't know. My goal is to have the most people read my books as I can reach, and I'll choose whichever path is getting my books to the most readers. And the only way to find that out is just to try.
So I'm trying, and I'll report back on how all this goes.
Authors never used to have to think about this, by the way. Our publishers did all of this - or DIDN'T do it, as often seemed the case! - and we had no control or input whatsoever over or into the various strategies.
Now it's up to us to research, analyze, experiment, and go with the best strategy for whatever our goal is in publishing.
It's a lot of control, and a lot of responsibility.
And a lot of authors I know are freezing up at the sheer overwhelm of the increased demands, and not jumping in to this brave but chaotic new world.
I'm trying not to freeze up, even though it really is kind of annoying, alternating with terrifying, to have to make business decisions like this instead of just concentrating on the free-form creativity that writing is. I really HOPE that having my books up on B&N for Nook will prove viable; I hate the idea that anyone with an e reader would not be able to instantly download any one of my books any time they wanted one. After all, instant gratification is the very essence of e reading, isn't it? It sure the hell is for me.
But if my goal is the most readers I can get...
Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?
The fact is, with e publishing, we GET all of those numbers. And the numbers are very telling, and they don't always tell what we want to hear.
So how about you all? Authors, what are you finding on the Kindle Select vs. multi-platform question? Is Nook paying off for you, or are you sticking to Select? Anyone trying Kobo's new program?
And readers - how many of you actually ARE Nook readers? If you are, are you supporting the Nook platform by buying a lot of Nook books? Are you aware of how agonizing a decision this is for authors?
Any insights greatly appreciated!
- Alex
For Nook: $2.99
On Amazon: $3.99
Five troubled college students left alone on their isolated campus over the long Thanksgiving break confront their own demons and a mysterious presence... that may or may not be real.
Bram Stoker & Anthony Award Nominee for Best First Novel.
"Poltergeist meets The Breakfast Club as five college students tangle with an ancient evil entity. Plenty of sexual tension... fast pace and engaging plot."
-- Kirkus Reviews
For Nook: $2.99
Amazon: $2.99
A Boston District Attorney suspects his wife has made a terrible bargain with a mysterious hospital counselor to save the life of their dying child.
"Some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre."
-- The New York Times Book Review
For Nook: $2.99
Amazon: $2.99
Two psychology professors and two exceptionally gifted students move into an abandoned Southern mansion to duplicate a controversial poltergeist experiment - unaware that the entire original research team ended up insane... or dead.
Based on the real life, world-famous parapsychology experiments conducted at Duke University by Dr. J.B. Rhine.
"Sokoloff keeps her story enticingly ambiguous, never clarifying until the climax whether the unfolding weirdness might be the result of the investigators' psychic sensitivities or the mischievous handiwork of a human villain." -- Publisher's Weekly
I have to say this Nook thing is a bit of an experiment.
One of the amazing things about e publishing is the sheer control authors now have over pricing and venues, and the infinite flexibility of choices we enjoy (or dread, depending on your point of view!). We can change the prices of our books literally overnight, and play with where we choose to make our books available, to determine what is the most profitable for us.
And when I say profitable, what I'm really talking about is exposure.
There's an ongoing and vehement debate about the effectiveness of e publishing for Nook. The big problem is that Amazon is so incredibly effective at marketing that enrolling in the Kindle Select program, which makes your book exclusive to Amazon for three-month periods at a time, has been for some time now more profitable for authors than making books available on multiple platforms (including Nook).
The two reasons for this are:
1) The ability in the Kindle Select program to promote your book for free for five days of those three months, an incredible marketing spike, and -
2) Any book enrolled in Kindle Select is made available in Amazon's Lending Library, and authors are paid a certain amount per borrow (about $1.70 for a $2.99 book, but it fluctuates.)
So the math that authors are being forced to do is - "Can I reach more readers and make more money with Nook sales or with borrows from the Amazon Lending Library?"
And the answer seems to be - "It depends on the book."
Thus my experiment this month, because I really don't know. My goal is to have the most people read my books as I can reach, and I'll choose whichever path is getting my books to the most readers. And the only way to find that out is just to try.
So I'm trying, and I'll report back on how all this goes.
Authors never used to have to think about this, by the way. Our publishers did all of this - or DIDN'T do it, as often seemed the case! - and we had no control or input whatsoever over or into the various strategies.
Now it's up to us to research, analyze, experiment, and go with the best strategy for whatever our goal is in publishing.
It's a lot of control, and a lot of responsibility.
And a lot of authors I know are freezing up at the sheer overwhelm of the increased demands, and not jumping in to this brave but chaotic new world.
I'm trying not to freeze up, even though it really is kind of annoying, alternating with terrifying, to have to make business decisions like this instead of just concentrating on the free-form creativity that writing is. I really HOPE that having my books up on B&N for Nook will prove viable; I hate the idea that anyone with an e reader would not be able to instantly download any one of my books any time they wanted one. After all, instant gratification is the very essence of e reading, isn't it? It sure the hell is for me.
But if my goal is the most readers I can get...
Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?
The fact is, with e publishing, we GET all of those numbers. And the numbers are very telling, and they don't always tell what we want to hear.
So how about you all? Authors, what are you finding on the Kindle Select vs. multi-platform question? Is Nook paying off for you, or are you sticking to Select? Anyone trying Kobo's new program?
And readers - how many of you actually ARE Nook readers? If you are, are you supporting the Nook platform by buying a lot of Nook books? Are you aware of how agonizing a decision this is for authors?
Any insights greatly appreciated!
- Alex
My e publishing decision
I'm sure those of you who follow this blog have noticed more and more e book posts creeping in alongside the craft ones. Not that this is new in principle; I'm always very much about being practical about craft. I think writing is a marvelous hobby, everyone can benefit from doing it, and I strongly believejustwriting is just fine. But if you are going to go through the agony of writing an entire book, a real, finished book, don't you want at least the possibility of getting it out there in the market, for others to read and experience and for you to make money for your labor?
So I am introducing more blogs about publishing and e book issues. Partly because it's astonishing to me how many writers and aspiring writers still have so many misconceptions about e publishing - and there is a LOT of misinformation out there. (As my last workshop class knows, I was outraged enough about this to teach an impromptu e publishing seminar in the middle of our writing intensive last week!)
The fact is, a very large number of the authors I know who started out in publishing at about the same time I did (2007) have made the leap and are now e publishing directly - either exclusively so or in conjunction with traditional publishing contracts. My friends and wonderful authors Blake Crouch, Brett Battles, Rob Gregory Browne, CJ Lyons, Elle Lothlorien, Zoe Sharp and JD Rhoades are just a few who are doing VERY well with e publishing. Friends who started even earlier are doing even better (Scott Nicholson, Diane Chamberlain, Sarah Shaber and of course Joe Konrath, whose Newbie's Guide to Publishing is a must-read.). In a few short years, e publishing has filled retirement funds for older writers and elevated midlist authors to bestselling - or rock star! - status.
And now that I have several of my traditionally published backlist titles up as e books and the sales numbers are coming in, it's clear to me that at least THIS YEAR, e publishing is the right choice for me.
How do I know this? Well, one of the amazing things about e publishing, for those of us who are used to the cryptic and essentially useless sales reports that we get quarterly - maybe - from our traditional publishers - is that now we can see exactly how many copies of each book we're selling and exactly how much money we're making per month. This is a VASTLY easier way to ensure that you're making a real living, and it takes huge amounts of anxiety out of the process. Plus you get paid every month, instead of when your publisher gets around to it, which is a vastly easier way to keep up with the bills, if you see what I'm saying.
E publishing has made making a practical living a much more realistic proposition for authors who are not (yet) bestsellers in traditional publishing. I don't know how long that will realistically last, whether it will get better or worse, but by now, for now, it's unignorable.
So this month I will publish my new thriller, HUNTRESS MOON, directly as an e book.
(This great cover is by the megatalented Rob Gregory Browne!)
Lots of thought and agonizing went into this decision.
First, I know that some people who have not yet succumbed to the rapture of e readers still want to hold and touch and smell their print books and get peanut butter on them and all that. I feel you. I have a real pang about this as well. But it's not a very realistic pang.
The book is the book, whether there's a paper cover on it or not. And I can publish it this month and get it into the hands of thirty thousand readers in a week (Based on my numbers for Book of Shadows, The Harrowing, and The Price.) Even if I never sold ONE book after that, that exposure alone would be worth it. Because exposure sells my other books.
But based on the numbers I've compiled with my other books, I will sell thousands, and very quickly.
If I went through traditional channels, the book wouldn't even hit the shelves until a year and a half from now. How can I possibly think of giving up the tens of thousands of readers I will be able to reach with this book starting NOW?
Plus, I'm already almost halfway through my first draft of the sequel to HUNTRESS MOON (this is a series, my first-ever!). I'll be able to publish that one in the fall. No longer do authors have to hold to the glacial timetables of their publishers, or worry about the possibility of the publisher deciding not to publish at all (which has happened to several of my friends, recently).
I can have two books out this year, with a guaranteed income. What that income will ultimately be, well, I don't know, but traditional advances are way down and, much worse than that, most publishers are demanding e rights in perpetuity in traditional contracts, which seems to me an insane thing for authors to give up in the current climate. That alone pushed me in the e publishing direction.
Please hear me. I am NOT saying this is the way to go for a never-been-published author. Be warned: it is not the Gold Rush that it was back in, oh, January - there's a lot of competition out there. I - and the other authors I listed above - know the benefits and drawbacks of traditional publishing because we've lived it; there's no Holy Grail mystique about it. To me the choice between the (waning) prestige of having a print book in stores and having an army of dedicated readers is a no-brainer. Someone who doesn't have several years of actual sales numbers to compare and crunch is not going to be able to make the same kind of decision that I am doing, it would be much more of a leap of faith. That doesn't mean don't do it, it just means it's riskier.
Also, going through the gauntlet of traditional publishing prepares an author to e publish like bootcamp prepares a soldier for war. I KNOW how much editing it takes to come up with a clean and readable book. I KNOW how much time I'll be spending marketing, and I have some idea of how and where to do that.
But even if you haven't had the benefit of that kind of trial by fire, you do need to know that there is an opportunity here that was never available to an author before, and that - is nothing but good news.
Now is the time. Things may change within months. But I'm not excessively worried about the current system collapsing, because no matter what happens out there; I can still write books. Or scripts. I've always figured out how to make a living with writing. And I've been doing the figuring once again, and this is how I can do it right, right now.
So first, I want to hear e publishing stories, and of course questions. Are you doing it? Thinking about it? If you're not, what's holding you back?
And second - I'm giving away 50 copies of HUNTRESS MOON for potential reviews (Amazon reviews are what I need the most, but am glad for any, anywhere!). You DO NOT have to review the book - I just ask that you be open to posting a short review if you are inspired to do so.
e mail me at alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com for a copy in whatever format.
Here's the story!
HUNTRESS MOON
FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can’t believe is coincidental. His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman he glimpsed on the sidewalk behind his agent, who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of “accidents” and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial.
Roarke’s hunt for her takes him across three states... while in a small coastal town, a young father and his five-year old son, both wounded from a recent divorce, encounter a lost and compelling young woman on the beach and strike up an unlikely friendship without realizing how deadly she may be.
As Roarke uncovers the shocking truth of her background, he realizes she is on a mission of her own, and must race to capture her before more blood is shed.
----------------------------------------
I am not launching the book officially until July 11, but it's up in online stores starting today so that I can collect some reviews.
E mail me at alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com for a copy in whatever format.
But if you just feel like reading, or want to support me and this site, of course you can buy a copy! $3.99 on Amazon, $2.99 on Nook
Amazon
Nook (will be available later today)
Amazon UK
Amazon DE
Amazon FR
Amazon ES
Amazon IT
A note to Nook readers - Huntress Moon will only be available for Nook for the next two weeks, after which it will be exclusive on Amazon for the next three months at least. I'm truly sorry to have to do it that way, but it's unavoidable (read more on that here.)
Thanks for reading!
- Alex
So I am introducing more blogs about publishing and e book issues. Partly because it's astonishing to me how many writers and aspiring writers still have so many misconceptions about e publishing - and there is a LOT of misinformation out there. (As my last workshop class knows, I was outraged enough about this to teach an impromptu e publishing seminar in the middle of our writing intensive last week!)
The fact is, a very large number of the authors I know who started out in publishing at about the same time I did (2007) have made the leap and are now e publishing directly - either exclusively so or in conjunction with traditional publishing contracts. My friends and wonderful authors Blake Crouch, Brett Battles, Rob Gregory Browne, CJ Lyons, Elle Lothlorien, Zoe Sharp and JD Rhoades are just a few who are doing VERY well with e publishing. Friends who started even earlier are doing even better (Scott Nicholson, Diane Chamberlain, Sarah Shaber and of course Joe Konrath, whose Newbie's Guide to Publishing is a must-read.). In a few short years, e publishing has filled retirement funds for older writers and elevated midlist authors to bestselling - or rock star! - status.
And now that I have several of my traditionally published backlist titles up as e books and the sales numbers are coming in, it's clear to me that at least THIS YEAR, e publishing is the right choice for me.
How do I know this? Well, one of the amazing things about e publishing, for those of us who are used to the cryptic and essentially useless sales reports that we get quarterly - maybe - from our traditional publishers - is that now we can see exactly how many copies of each book we're selling and exactly how much money we're making per month. This is a VASTLY easier way to ensure that you're making a real living, and it takes huge amounts of anxiety out of the process. Plus you get paid every month, instead of when your publisher gets around to it, which is a vastly easier way to keep up with the bills, if you see what I'm saying.
E publishing has made making a practical living a much more realistic proposition for authors who are not (yet) bestsellers in traditional publishing. I don't know how long that will realistically last, whether it will get better or worse, but by now, for now, it's unignorable.
So this month I will publish my new thriller, HUNTRESS MOON, directly as an e book.
(This great cover is by the megatalented Rob Gregory Browne!)Lots of thought and agonizing went into this decision.
First, I know that some people who have not yet succumbed to the rapture of e readers still want to hold and touch and smell their print books and get peanut butter on them and all that. I feel you. I have a real pang about this as well. But it's not a very realistic pang.
The book is the book, whether there's a paper cover on it or not. And I can publish it this month and get it into the hands of thirty thousand readers in a week (Based on my numbers for Book of Shadows, The Harrowing, and The Price.) Even if I never sold ONE book after that, that exposure alone would be worth it. Because exposure sells my other books.
But based on the numbers I've compiled with my other books, I will sell thousands, and very quickly.
If I went through traditional channels, the book wouldn't even hit the shelves until a year and a half from now. How can I possibly think of giving up the tens of thousands of readers I will be able to reach with this book starting NOW?
Plus, I'm already almost halfway through my first draft of the sequel to HUNTRESS MOON (this is a series, my first-ever!). I'll be able to publish that one in the fall. No longer do authors have to hold to the glacial timetables of their publishers, or worry about the possibility of the publisher deciding not to publish at all (which has happened to several of my friends, recently).
I can have two books out this year, with a guaranteed income. What that income will ultimately be, well, I don't know, but traditional advances are way down and, much worse than that, most publishers are demanding e rights in perpetuity in traditional contracts, which seems to me an insane thing for authors to give up in the current climate. That alone pushed me in the e publishing direction.
Please hear me. I am NOT saying this is the way to go for a never-been-published author. Be warned: it is not the Gold Rush that it was back in, oh, January - there's a lot of competition out there. I - and the other authors I listed above - know the benefits and drawbacks of traditional publishing because we've lived it; there's no Holy Grail mystique about it. To me the choice between the (waning) prestige of having a print book in stores and having an army of dedicated readers is a no-brainer. Someone who doesn't have several years of actual sales numbers to compare and crunch is not going to be able to make the same kind of decision that I am doing, it would be much more of a leap of faith. That doesn't mean don't do it, it just means it's riskier.
Also, going through the gauntlet of traditional publishing prepares an author to e publish like bootcamp prepares a soldier for war. I KNOW how much editing it takes to come up with a clean and readable book. I KNOW how much time I'll be spending marketing, and I have some idea of how and where to do that.
But even if you haven't had the benefit of that kind of trial by fire, you do need to know that there is an opportunity here that was never available to an author before, and that - is nothing but good news.
Now is the time. Things may change within months. But I'm not excessively worried about the current system collapsing, because no matter what happens out there; I can still write books. Or scripts. I've always figured out how to make a living with writing. And I've been doing the figuring once again, and this is how I can do it right, right now.
So first, I want to hear e publishing stories, and of course questions. Are you doing it? Thinking about it? If you're not, what's holding you back?
And second - I'm giving away 50 copies of HUNTRESS MOON for potential reviews (Amazon reviews are what I need the most, but am glad for any, anywhere!). You DO NOT have to review the book - I just ask that you be open to posting a short review if you are inspired to do so.
e mail me at alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com for a copy in whatever format.
Here's the story!
HUNTRESS MOON
FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can’t believe is coincidental. His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman he glimpsed on the sidewalk behind his agent, who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of “accidents” and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial.
Roarke’s hunt for her takes him across three states... while in a small coastal town, a young father and his five-year old son, both wounded from a recent divorce, encounter a lost and compelling young woman on the beach and strike up an unlikely friendship without realizing how deadly she may be.
As Roarke uncovers the shocking truth of her background, he realizes she is on a mission of her own, and must race to capture her before more blood is shed.
----------------------------------------
I am not launching the book officially until July 11, but it's up in online stores starting today so that I can collect some reviews.
E mail me at alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com for a copy in whatever format.
But if you just feel like reading, or want to support me and this site, of course you can buy a copy! $3.99 on Amazon, $2.99 on Nook
Amazon
Nook (will be available later today)
Amazon UK
Amazon DE
Amazon FR
Amazon ES
Amazon IT
A note to Nook readers - Huntress Moon will only be available for Nook for the next two weeks, after which it will be exclusive on Amazon for the next three months at least. I'm truly sorry to have to do it that way, but it's unavoidable (read more on that here.)
Thanks for reading!
- Alex
