Libby Fischer Hellmann's Blog, page 57

For Traditional Authors: Got Backlist? Don’t Give It Away…

 

I never thought I’d have to write this post. I figured it was a no-brainer. A non-issue. But then, a friend of mine told me about several traditionally published authors who fought and argued and struggled and finally got their out-of-print backlist titles from their publishers.

“Great!” I said. “Good for them. Now they can get ebooks out.”

“No. Not good,” my friend said.

“Why not?”

“Because they turned around and farmed out their titles to an ‘ebook pubisher.’”

“Oh.”

“Right,” she agreed.

Authors, why are you squandering money coming in through the front door by throwing it out the back? Why are you giving another entity control over your intellectual property? And a cut of your proceeds? In today’s book industry it makes no sense.

Don’t say it’s because you don’t know what to do or how to do it. I will teach you in about five minutes by giving you the emails of people who will do what you need to have done. Including converting the book.

Don’t say it’s because you don’t have the money. It isn’t that expensive.

Don’t say that you’re a writer, not a businessperson. You are business-oriented or you wouldn’t have fought to get your rights back. You knew you could make money from them. Good money, too (Btw, to that end you really need to read Kris Rusch’s latest blog post).

And don’t say you just don’t have time to do the marketing and promotion and would rather have someone else do it. Do you really think, in today’s social media environment, any publisher is going to promote you as well or as thoroughly as you can? Especially after being published by a traditional publisher and seeing how much marketing and promotion they did for you? In fact, if you believe someone else can do it for you, I’d like to tell you about this bridge…

Come on, folks. Why give between 20% and 50% of your 70% royalty rate to someone else? Assuming the price of your book is $3.00, most e-tailers will give you a 70% royalty, or roughly $2.00. If you then contract with someone else and let them take 20-50% of that, you could be losing up to $1.00 a book! That’s real money.

It really isn’t hard to put your books up yourself. Here’s a rough idea of what you’ll need:

– A clean word document (Don’t worry. If you only have a PDF of the final version, there are websites that will convert it back to word for you. Free.)

– A new cover. This is the most important step and the place where you SHOULD spend whatever funds you have. A cover is your calling card. It will be there forever. Still, it shouldn’t cost too much more than $250. You’ll find a terrific graphic artist here.

– Conversion. And no. You don’t have to do it yourself. I don’t. Plus, costs have come WAY down now that there are more converters out there. I rarely pay more than $50 per book.

–  Upload your book(s) for free to Amazon, Smashwords, the iBookstore, and Kobo. I am not a tech guru by any means… but even I can do that.

That’s it.

Except for marketing, which is another kettle of fish (and one that I might dive into in a later post). You will need some money for advertising, but how much is up to you. And you won’t need it immediately. To start the ball rolling, I still think it’s a good idea to go into Amazon Select. Even though the results are not as robust as they once were, it’s a good way to jump-start exposure and sales. And it’s free. Once you get some revenue, you can put the proceeds into more promotion, if you want.

If  an E-book publisher says they can do more for you, I’d really like to know what they’re promising. I probably won’t believe it. Remember, when you give your rights away, you’re giving them away long-term—just like you did with a traditional publisher. Why would you want to put yourself in the same position all over again?

You can do this. Really.

Flight Has Flown!

 

There’s a very cool write-up of the round-robin short story several members of the Outfit  (including yours truly) wrote at the April Romantic TImes Booklovers Convention in Chicago. We wrote it with audience participation!

Check it out right here.

 

And just so you know, the story is FREE all month at Smashwords. Use coupon #SSW75.

Crossing the Rubicon — Guest Post by Rosemary Harris

 

I’ve crossed the Rubicon. I’m guessing it won’t be as historically significant as Julius Caesar launching the Roman Empire but it was something of a milestone for me. I made the decision to self-publish. And not just an ebook, format the file, throw it online and see if anyone notices. I self-pubbed as a trade paperback Slugfest, a book that had already been published in hardcover and as an ebook. This is what’s known as going down a road a lot of people have called a dead end.

 

Most writers I know have had the self-publishing conversation – with each other, their beleaguered spouses, themselves, or the dog. It’s a big decision. And not just because it would cost a lot or even take a lot of time. It doesn’t. It’s like not being a virgin anymore (btw a 1920s definition of “crossing the rubicon” referred to losing one’s virginity.)

For some, self-publishing still carries the faint whiff of failure or self-delusion. “Did you hear….she self-published.” Any old movie fans here? Think Emil Jannings in The Last Laugh, going from highly respected doorman to men’s room attendant. It broke your heart.

My decision to self-publish was less a response to the shifting sands of publishing than it was a simple business decision. The first three books in my series, Pushing Up Daisies, The Big Dirt Nap and Dead Head had all been published hard, soft and e by my publisher. After initially telling me that Slugfest would be released as a mass market paperback, the publisher reversed that decision. It happens.

 

I was focusing on my fifth book (not in the series) and apart from a little grumbling, didn’t think too much about it. But once I’d delivered the new manuscript to my agent, I had the time to investigate self-publishing options. Why shouldn’t I try it myself? If nothing else I would learn a lot about my marketing efforts and whether or not they were actually generating sales or just keeping me in Likes and Friends. The cost of entry was low, the book had already been professionally edited (alas she has left the business), I had a pretty good idea for a new cover – and it had been well-reviewed. For goodness sake, Kirkus liked it. Besides it was killing me that the book might never be available at a consumer friendly price.

 

Small detail. I no longer had the rights. I’m from the school of ya don’t ask, ya don’t get. So I asked and I got. In fact, my publisher could not have been more accommodating.

 

Most of the players in this field, Lightning Source and CreateSpace among them, have similar royalty structures and timelines. I’m not here to lobby for either one. I chose CreateSpace and they were a breeze to work with. I particularly like the option to click on a link to have someone call you. Immediately. I did not take advantage of their Expanded Distribution option because I would have had to raise the cover price to 11.99 and I wanted to test the waters at the 8.99 price point which compared favorably to other traditional mysteries even though mine was a trade pb not mass market. Perceived value of a trade as higher than a mm is not something easily communicated in a postage stamp sized picture. It meant Slugfest wouldn’t be listed on Baker&Taylor or Ingram but that was a call I had to make.

So far, so good. I’m not giving John Locke a scare any time soon but unlike traditionally published books which have 2-3 weeks to make an impact before they’re yanked off the shelves, I’ve got all the time in the world. Ask me how I’m doing in six months.

 

Libby here:

Rosemary is one of the hardest working authors I know. She understands the book business, especially marketing and promotion. So this must have changed ALL her perceptions about the industry. (I know — I developed ulcers when I realized that ebooks required a totally different skill set than the one I’d been using for ten years). So for Rosemary to have been so flexible and to have adapted so quickly is a tribute to her. In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to understand and justify what’s going on at the Big Six these days. And while I have no ax to grind, all I can say is that through Amazon I’m finally making some money and attracting new readers. How can I complain?

 

 

What do you think?

 

FLIGHT: Born at the Romantic Times Convention

 

 

Back in April, five members of (THE OUTFIT, a Chicago crime fiction blog I’m a member of) went to the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention which was held here in Chicago. The organizers asked us to come up with an interactive workshop, so we obliged by creating the “You Done It” workshop, in which members of the audience would help us brainstorm a short story and we’d write it up afterwards and publish it!

 

Well, that story is now done. It’s called FLIGHT and it’s a thriller about a woman and a man, and yes, there’s romance in it. We’ve put it up on Amazon, Smashwords, Apple, and B&N. Although five of us were at the workshop, three of us did the majority of the writing; hence our names are on the cover. It still amazes me how “Something” can evolve from a place where there was “nothing” before. Much gratitude and thanks to my talented Outfit colleagues Bryan Gruley, Jamie Freveletti, and of course, Laura and Michael. (We did it, guys!!!)

 

And.. just because we love you… and all the people at Romantic Times, we’ve entered it into the Smashwords Summer/Winter promotion. If you get the story directly from them, it’s #FREE all during July starting tomorrow, July 1. !! It should also be available — or at least — talked about in RT Book Reviews.

 

Enjoy! And tell everyone you know!

More “Beach Read” News!

 

Ellie Foreman is baaacckk! Now you can read the award-winning suspense ebook series featuring Ellie, a single mother and video producer in the Chicago suburbs. Meet Ellie’s father Jake,  her daughter, Rachel, her boyfriend David, Fouad, Susan, and many other characters you’ll learn to love. Think “Desperate Housewives” meets “24.” WIth an emphasis on “24.”  Heavy on suspense and quite dark, these are not cozies.

(Please click on the covers to see more)

 

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Best of all, the short story prequel to the series, “The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared,” is FREE right here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Summer Beach Read” News

 

 

 

Hi, all.

Just in time for the beach season… The price of A BITTER VEIL has been reduced on Amazon to $5.99!

 

AND

Ellie Foreman is baaacckk! Now you can read the award-winning suspense series featuring Ellie, a single mother and video producer in the Chicago suburbs. Meet Ellie’s father Jak,  her daughter, Rachel, her boyfriend David, Fouad, Susan, and many other characters you’ll learn to love. Think “Desperate Housewives” meets “24.”

(Please click on the covers to see more)

 

Enjoy!!

Glen Ellyn Book Fest

 

 

Looking for something fun to do in the Chicago suburbs this weekend? Come to the Glen Ellyn Book Fest. Especially for lunch. I’ll be there. It’s on Saturday, June 23rd. More details HERE.

A Mind-Blowing Moment

 

“Turkish… towel… bath… coffee… passport. May I see your passport please??”

OK. Now my mind is officially blown…

I’m in Owensboro, KY with the indomitable Lee Goldberg Max Allan Collins, Raymond Benson and more, and saw ENCORE FOR MURDER last night, the play Max wrote (It’s a witty Mike Hammer story, btw. Originally written by Max and Mickey Spillane.

BUT…guess who two of the actor/directors were??? The old FIRESIGN THEATER guys!! They practically defined my college career! (Academics clearly weren’t a priority back then)…

The Ellie Foreman Mysteries

Hi, all. Some great news here! As of last week, all the Ellie Foreman mysteries are now on AUDIO at Audible.com. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series, Ellie is a video producer and single mother in Chicago, who stumbles onto crimes and conspiracies that need to be solved. And she does. Although Ellie is an amateur sleuth, the books are not cozies. They are full of suspense and fairly dark. There are 4 books in the series:

 

 

 

You can find EYE here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUILT is here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMAGE is here.

 

 

 

 

 

And SHOT can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While you’re at it, don’t forget the PREQUEL to the series — THE DAY MIRIAM HIRSCH DISAPPEARED. An award-winning short story, it’s set in 1938 in Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood, and it was recorded by the fine people at Sniplits.com. You can find it right here.

Enjoy the listens — they’re perfect for those hot summer days. Btw, the narrators ROCK!!

 

FYI, as for the ebooks, I just got the rights back from Poisoned Pen Press and am re-converting them even as we speak. They should be back up in a few weeks.

 

What I Did At BEA

 

This is a long post, so get cool and comfortable before you start reading.

In the ten years I’ve been published, I’ve probably gone to Book Expo three times, so while I’m not a novice, I’m certainly not a regular. I remember attending workshops at some and was on a panel at another, but I spent most of my time in the exhibit hall. I remember tiptoeing down the thick carpeting of Macmillan, Penguin (my publisher at the time), and the other Big Publishing Companies, wondering who all the people were, watching them talk to each other at little tables, and imagining the deals they were making, even though I knew that most of the big stuff was being negotiated offsite at bars and restaurants. I remember feeling like a tiny ant at a gigantic picnic, grateful to have been allowed in, although no one would have missed me if I hadn’t been there. I remember leaving exhausted, over-stimulated, my bags stuffed with business cards and numbers.

That part didn’t change, but practically everything else did. Book Expo was very different for me this year. Maybe it’s because of the state of the industry and the economy, but the Big Six booths didn’t seem quite so opulent or intimidating. Lots of smaller booths were there, including RTC Publicity (Rebecca, my publicist is on the right), which was why I came to begin with.

 

But mostly it was different because of the new kids on the block. Amazon took up a lot of real estate and made a huge splash, along with most of their imprints, ACX and Audible, Kindle, and Kindle Select. (More about them later). Kobo was there and announced their new bright and shiny self-publishing program. But most interesting was the presence of new vendors offering a slew of products and services to — guess who– independent authors and publishers!

 

This was indeed a breath of fresh air. Plus, all the people I interacted with were friendly, warm, and seemed to be interested in what I had to say. For the first time, it felt like my BEA.

Let me start with the people in our booth. Besides Rebecca, there was romance indie author Tina Folsom, who has made quite a name for herself. I don’t know any author who works harder or has more savvy when it comes to marketing. No wonder she’s broken through the one million dollar sales figure with her ebooks. Talking to her alone was worth the price of admission. Romance author Nina Bruhns, historical fiction writer Cynthia Drew, and Lindsey and Micah Gardner of Large Media were also there.

Although small, our booth was strategically located between the rest rooms so we always had good traffic. In fact, so many people came to visit that I wasn’t able to walk the floor or attend any workshops. Well, okay… I did go over to the Overdrive booth but didn’t get answers to my questions, and since I’m doing a lot of work with ACX, I went to hear their presentation too.

Of course, the traditional crowd dropped by: booksellers, librarians, and people who love mystery and thrillers (I gave away over 150 print books and am sending out a bunch of ebooks). I was invited to several events as a result, which is always gratifying.

 

But most of my business was conducted with entrepreneurs who have come up with some fabulous ideas to support indie authors. For example:

Andrew Rhomberg, who is Austrian but has lived in the States and now in London, has started Jellybooks.com. For authors who want a shot in the arm at promotion, JellyBooks will feature your cover, a sample, and, starting soon, a way for people to “bid” on your book and buy it, if you’re willing to discount it.

 

Then there’s Enthrill.com Books from Canada. Jeff Buick, a thriller writer himself, is working with Kevin Franco, and they’ve come up with a way to actually sell ebooks in retail markets, like grocery stores, and any other bricks and mortar shops! They use self-standing kiosks with a variety of books that can be instantly downloaded onto any e-reader device. They’re only in Canada right now, but they have plans to come into the US soon. What a concept!

 

 

There’s also WaveCloud, a site that will connect readers and authors in a more organized way than Goodreads by giving readers the opportunity to create personalized shelves with their recommendations for others to see.

 

Okay, now for the discussions with Amazon. I met several people from KDP and the VP of Kindle. To each I posed the two questions that everyone seems to be buzzing about now.

The first was the change in the KDP algorithms. The head of KDP Select, Nader Kabbani, said unequivocably they have NOT changed the Select algorithms. In fact, he made it a point to check and got back to me the next day, saying the same thing.

“Then why has there been such a slowdown in post-free sales?” I asked.

He did say they’d heard that from a lot of Select authors and that the answer lies in the number of books in the program. There are so many books, he says, that the effect has been noticeable. Six months ago there were barely 100,000 books. Now there are over 160,000. Not all of them can have miraculous sales.

Russ Grandinetti, VP, Kindle, went on to make the analogy that Amazon is made up of many ecosystems. A change in one can affect another… and that a perfect balance between, for example, the sales systems, the ranking systems, and order systems are rare. When they see an element tipping to one side, they’re not always in a rush to correct it. They’d rather watch and see if it naturally rights itself before they tinker with it. He also said that people (ie us) probably give them too much credit (or blame).

Which—indirectly— brings up my second question. Amazon has played a major role in devaluing the price of books by giving us the opportunity to make so many free. What plans do they have, if any, to REvalue books for the long term?

Their reaction was interesting, and not unexpected. Their prime objective, Russ said, is to be customer-centric, so anything that fits that strategy is valued. Their belief is that in many cases, that will also mean it’s good for their suppliers, too (Important: in this scenario, “suppliers” are not limited to authors).

However, they are aware of the situation, and KDP has some plans to do more for authors who meet a certain criteria of performance. They were short on details, and I was asked to honor confidentiality, but, as an author, the plans really do sound wonderful. They will make our lives much easier. And potentially more profitable. Really! Apparently, we’ll start hearing about them later this year. I can’t wait.

Btw, when I asked how they would define “performance,” ie just sales? Sales plus reviews? I was told that was a good question and that they’re still formulating exactly how to proceed.

So, while they weren’t long on specifics, I felt like I was in the right place. I came away with the feeling that Amazon knows their business, but that they’re interested and curious in knowing more about ours.

It was a good conversation.

It was a great convention.