Kyell Gold's Blog, page 40

FurCon 2013 Wrap Up

Further Confusion is my “home” con, just a 20-minute drive down the highway, and I haven’t missed a one. This year’s iteration was very familiar, which is a compliment: FC is generally a well-run, well-attended convention that somehow manages to feel full but not crowded (with one exception, for me–going to the art show midday Saturday when it seemed like everyone in the world was in the lounge).

The big event for me this year was, of course, the release of “Divisions,” the third book in the series that began with “Out of Position.” I posted previously about having gone to sign bunches of pre-orders, and because this year Sofawolf also allowed pre-orders of the softcover, I wasn’t sure whether there would be a rush to get the book at its first con. When the dealer’s room opened, people streamed in–and all went to their favorite artists to book sketches. But after about fifteen minutes, a crowd gathered around the Sofawolf table, and then my paw was kept busy with signings for about two hours. It wasn’t quite the rush that Isolation Play produced, but in the end, Sofawolf sold about as many books. The hardcovers sold out by Saturday morning, and may I say again that if you are deciding between the two, not only does the hardcover have an extra story (“Heart,” which is free online), but the gorgeous back cover is completely visible on the hardcover, whereas on the softcover it is obscured by the back cover blurb and barcode and so on. It is a testament to Blotch’s cover that I didn’t even have to mention the extra story most of the time.

I also ran some panels and they all seemed to go well. Briefly, they were: Sofawolf Presents (I read from “Divisions”–and Ryan Campbell read from his upcoming book, plus Blender and Buckhopper read from upcoming Sofawolf books, all of them really good readings!), How To Read, Unsheathed Live, Critiques and Writing Groups, Character Development, My Own Reading (for the third time in my recent readings, people voted to hear a bit of the unpublished Calatians novel), and Adult Furry Fiction.

I do want to call out the Unsheathed episode because we convinced Ursula Vernon to be our guest and despite having a colony of frogs in her throat, she was a terrific guest. When the episode goes up, I’ll talk more about it, but suffice to say you will not want to miss it. I am sure the crowd was not disappointed.

I also went to the art show, which I rarely do, to bid on a couple of the interiors from “Divisions.” As it happened, while I love all the illustrations, Blotch had brought three of my favorites to this show, so I had to make a couple choices, and eventually got Lee in his Knights-shirt and the bar scene. On the Lee pic, because Kit ran off with my other pen to make some bids, all I had left was my gold signing pen, so when I had to make another bid on it, everyone standing around with me teased me. “Oh, REAL SUBTLE, Kyell.” It was the ONLY PEN I HAD LEFT. I guess I could’ve borrowed one. But anyway, the other person bidding on that pic left off when he found out I was bidding, which was really sweet and I do very much appreciate it. I feel guilty about it, though, and I want to post here that although yes, I love all the art Blotch has done for the books, I am fully aware that I cannot afford to buy it all. I have a certain budget, and if someone else loves the characters enough to give Blotch more money, then I will be okay with that (like the Isolation Play cover, which went for $4,000). I may ensure that it’s a LOT more money, though…

Had good writing conversations with a number of folks, worked out timelines for my next two books, tentatively, and will post about those maybe later in the week. Also was very pleased to see that K.M. Hirosaki’s “Summerhill” did very well, as did the new Cupcake “Indigo Rain” by Watts Martin. Also picked up “Initiated,” which is a nice gallery of artists who draw adult material, and “Little Buddy” by Chestnuts and Meesh–lovely art, reasonably good story that needed about four more pages to set up the things that happen–and the new ArtDecade comic “The Luck of Fools,” which was quite enjoyable, as we’ve come to expect from him.

Also I signed a bunch of “Green Fairy,” which is good. I hope that book continues to grow its audience. We’re coming up on its one-year anniversary and I need to check on the sales with Sofawolf to see if I have to write a bonus story for it or not. You know, in addition to the sequel.

Anyway, FC was a good time! I was very happy to meet/see again all of you who stopped by the table and came to the panels, and if you didn’t make it, you should come next year!

Fox Pride Pin

So I made these little pins for fox pride, and Sofawolf has agreed to sell them at their FC table for $5. You can wear one if you are proud of your vulpinity, or to support your vulpine friends, or just because they look cool!

We will not have them available for mail order. I will try to keep some for Furry Fiesta and future cons. If they are really popular we may make more! There is no e-book version planned.

300

I flew up to Sofawolf HQ this past weekend—in Saturday, out Sunday—to sign about three hundred books that you guys pre-ordered. Last time I signed pre-orders, with the Isolation Play hardcover, we just signed and numbered a bunch of books, and it was kind of abstract. This time, Sofawolf organized it such that every order for a hardcover got assigned a number when it came in (we numbered 160 books, kept the single-digit ones and #57 for special purposes, and had about five left over), so the way I signed them was to look at the order sheet and write in the number, then sign the book.

A side effect of this was that for that entire stack of hardcovers, I saw the names I was signing the books for. That made it much more personal than just scribbling my signature in a stack of books. So I started thinking, because you have a lot of time when you’re signing for a couple hours, about each one of those books going through the mail to that particular person. I imagined each person opening the package and holding the book, flipping through it the way I flipped through some of them, looking at the very numbers and signature I was writing. And I imagined all of those people lined up at Sofawolf watching me somehow sign the books.

It was a little overwhelming. I know you guys love Dev and Lee, and I know that the numbers tell me that there are a few thousand of you out there who have got their books. But sitting there this weekend was like sitting at a convention, only it went on and on and on (speaking of: yes, I will be at a convention in five days sitting behind a table waiting to sign your books, and if you did not pre-order then I hope to see you there, and actually even if you did pre-order then I hope to see you there).

I am really so deeply grateful to all of you for enabling me to do crazy things like this weekend that just saying “thank you” doesn’t seem enough. But the only other thing I can do is keep writing more books, more Dev and Lee, more Sol and Alexei, more new characters and new worlds and new stories, and that doesn’t really help because then if those do well I have to thank you all over again. But really: you guys are awesome. I hope everyone who ordered a book, hardcover or soft, loves it when you get it. And I hope that you think, when you open it up and see those lines in gold, of an author holding that book in his hands and placing it in yours and saying, “thanks.”

[The e-book of “Divisions” will not be out until later in the year. Watch http://www.kyellgold.com/pubdates.html and this journal and subscribe to the mailing list to hear about the release date! I’m just including this because anytime I mention “Divisions” someone asks me about the e-book.]

Find me at Further Confusion 2013

Further Confusion is nigh upon us! For those of you who are reading my blog/twitter/FA for the first time, you will be pleased to know that I am very excited about this convention because I have a book coming out! “Divisions,” the third book in the Dev and Lee saga (is it a saga yet?), will be released in hardcover and softcover. The Sofawolf table in the dealer’s room will have lots of softcovers and a limited number of hardcovers for sale, so come get your books there!

If you pre-ordered, your books will be waiting at the table. Don’t worry. You can still get them personalized by me. Please do not bring books to panels to sign unless you somehow cannot make it to the dealer’s room at all; I ask this because when I sign books at a panel, it brings everything to a stop while a room full of people watches one person get a signature. You can catch me outside a panel if I am not hurrying somewhere else, or anywhere else I’m not really occupied, but in general, if you can make it to the dealer’s room, that’s best.

(There are exceptions–after the Adult Furry Fiction and Unsheathed Live panels, I usually hang out, and am happy to sign books then.)

Here is where I will be and what I will be doing:

Friday

11 am: The dealer’s room opens! I will be behind the Sofawolf table for at least two hours to sign copies of “Divisions” for people, or longer if there are more people. Actually I might take a short break for lunch, but I don’t have much else to do Friday until…

7 pm: Sofawolf Presents. You can hear me read a short excerpt from “Divisions.” I will likely read from Chapter 2, which I posted online, because that is fun to read.

Saturday

10 am: Dealer’s room. I will be back at the Sofawolf table for 2-3 hours to sign and chat with people.

4 pm: How to Read. Join me and fabulous writing people Watts Martin, Rikoshi, and Tube as we discuss ways in which you can train yourself to read better and thereby write better.

6:15 pm: I am not a part of the Matthew Ebel concert, but I will probably try to attend, and you should, too.

10 pm: Unsheathed Live. K.M. Hirosaki, Kit, and I will be back for a live podcast to answer all your writing questions, adult or not. This is always fun and unpredictable, so come on down and see us at our foxy and ottery best. Or worst.

Sunday

10 am: Dealer’s room. This is likely the last scheduled time I will be at the Sofawolf table, as I have panels all the rest of the day. I’ll pop in between panels when I can, but early in the morning is the best time to catch me.

11 am: Critiques and Writing Groups. Rikoshi, Tube, Mary Lowd, and I talk about finding other writers to exchange stories with and then about not offending them with your critiques once you do.

1 pm: Character Development. Watts Martin, Tube, Rikoshi and I talk about characters, and how to make them three-dimensional so your readers will care about them.

3 pm: Kyell Gold Reading. I will read from an upcoming unpublished work! I have a few to choose from and you will get to vote on which one you want to hear. I will also then answer questions about published/upcoming works, and as I’m sure some of you will have finished Divisions by then, that is fair game.

10 pm: Adult Furry Fiction. Join K.M. Hirosaki, Not Tube, and myself as we get down and dirty, or at least talk about getting down and dirty. Sex and the furry fandom are intertwined, so if you’re going to write smut (and you know you are), find out how to do it right.

This weekend and next

I am going to be doing a lot of things at Further Confusion (next weekend), and will post a full schedule sometime next week. Look for: Unsheathed on Saturday night and Adult Furry Fiction (whatever they’re calling it) Sunday night. Primarily, of course, I will be in the dealer’s room Friday bright and early to sign all the copies of “Divisions” that you can grab with your grabby paws.

In the meantime, though, this is how much I love you people: I am flying to MINNESOTA in JANUARY at SIX O FREAKING CLOCK IN THE MORNING on a SATURDAY when there is FOOTBALL going on (*). Why am I doing this? For you, my fans, only for you. You guys have ordered something on the order of two hundred copies of “Divisions” (hardcover and softcover) as well as scattered other books, and it is actually cheaper for Sofawolf to fly me to Sofawolf HQ than it is to send a zillion boxes of books to California and back (not to mention quicker and safer in terms of possibly losing/damaging books).

* There is not, of course, football going on at six in the morning, and in fact the first game doesn’t start until right around the time I land in Minnesota. But still: I don’t get to watch the games with Kit and my California football posse. And I fly back Sunday while the afternoon game is going on.

Okay, actually I am pretty psyched to do this. I always like visiting with the Sofawolf guys and their huskies, and I cannot wait to see how “Divisions” came out from the printer. Hopefully I will not screw up the numbering for the hardcovers this time. I also have better pens that will not glop all over the books if mishandled. So I have learned lessons.

And it has not escaped my attention that my publisher is freakin’ FLYING ME OUT to sign books. That’s not one of the usual milestones you hear about for writers, but it’s still pretty awesome. You guys make it possible, with your buying of books and pre-ordering and enthusiasm and all, so when I get up at four-thirty tomorrow morning, I will probably be saying, “Thanks a lot” sarcastically, but I will mean it sincerely.

Where You Buy Books

(aka, Publishers and Distributors)

I talk about this every so often, but haven’t in a while and people are asking about Amazon, so here goes again…this is about how it affects authors and publishers when you buy books in different places.

(And I will preface this by saying that I understand that there are reasons of shipping and convenience and other things that prevent people from buying from one place or another. The below is in an “all things being equal” world. Adjust your set as necessary.)

The way the mainstream publishing industry works, greatly simplified, is this: authors sell manuscripts to publishers. Publishers create books and sell them to distributors. Distributors sell books to you.

Tor and Baen and Harper Collins and Simon and Schuster are not in the business of selling books. They are in the business of making books. Barnes and Noble, Borders (formerly), Powell’s, and Amazon (until a couple years ago) are not in the business of making books. They are in the business of buying large quantities of books and selling them in smaller batches (usually singletons). In order for distributors to make money, they have to buy the books at less than cover price–usually around 50%.

Small presses, both to make more money and because they don’t sell books in the quantities the distributors usually want, are usually in the business of making books and selling them. Sofawolf, FurPlanet, and non-furry small presses like Small Beer Press (they are awesome and you should check them out) offer their own storefronts, because usually the volume of books is low enough that they don’t need a large distributor’s fulfillment services. You can see immediately how a publisher selling books directly makes more money, because they are not paying a distributor half of the cover price of each book.

Many small presses still distribute through Amazon, because Amazon has a very smart system whereby they can buy small batches of books that will not require a lot of inventory space. But they still charge 50% (actually Amazon specifically is, I think, 55%) of the cover price for it.

If you are an author whose book is published through Tor, they expect that all of your books will be sold through a distributor, and so your royalty per book is pretty constant. John Scalzi has written a few blog posts on where he prefers people buy his books, and it comes out to “I’m just happy if you buy them legitimately.”

Generally, that is true for most authors, including me! I would much rather you buy my book than not, no matter where. But where you buy the book also affects how much money the publisher makes, and that affects how much awesome furry stuff they will be able to offer you in the future.

Let’s say the cost of printing is $3 for a $10 book. If the press sells that book for $10, then their profit is $7 and I will get between $2.50 and $3.50 of that, depending on the specific contract. The publisher keeps the rest. But if they sell that book to a distributor for $5, then their profit is only $2, and even if they only pay me $0.50 out of that, that doesn’t leave them a lot of profit.

That said, I understand that shipping costs are a big deal, and some furry distributors like Bookshelf Bear and Blackpaw are set up specifically to offer better shipping to customers in Canada and Europe. It is definitely not worth giving an extra $20-40 to the USPS/FedEx just to buy directly from the publisher. And if you’re going to buy from a distributor, it’s better to support a small furry distributor like those guys or Rabbit Valley (“Buy Furry!”).

(If you are confused about whether a book of mine is published by Sofawolf or FurPlanet, here’s a handy guide: Sofawolf doesn’t resell FurPlanet books online. So if my book is in the Sofawolf catalog, it’s a Sofawolf book. If not, it’s a FurPlanet book. Also you could look at the front/back covers if you are at a con. )

E-books are a different case. Royalty rates are about the same everywhere I publish, and I’m the publisher in all cases. So yeah, you can’t really go wrong with e-books, but I do love print books, myself. I don’t think I have any book I really love only as an e-book.

Anyway, I hope that all helps. The economics of publishing is not entirely simple, but it’s not all that complicated, either. I hope this helps you make an informed decision, but in the end, really, I’m just flattered that you guys feel like spending some hard-earned money on my books, wherever you do it. And if you like the books a small press is putting out, please do support that press if you can.

One More 2012 Note

Forgot to mention this one, because I was in Australia when it was announced: Green Fairy placed fifth in the “Gay Young Adult” category in the Rainbow Awards for 2012! It merited a listing with a very positive reviewer comment.

So that was pretty cool. Also, “Science Friction” received the “Best Mature Novella” award from the Coyotl awards. No need to mention that it was running unopposed.

Looking Back at 2012

Last year went pretty well for me. I released three books: Green Fairy, The Silver Circle, and Winter Games, and have gotten some good reviews on the three of them even though none of them is an OOP book (this bodes well for when I finish that series). I was a Guest of Honor at a staggering three conventions, two within weeks of each other: FWA in March, Gaylaxicon and OklaCon in October. All three of them were amazing experiences and I highly recommend the cons if they are within your means. I also attended MiDFur as a lower-case guest, and several other furry conventions, all of which were a great deal of fun.

In less visible accomplishments, I wrote a number of short stories, posted a couple online, and had one appear in Heat. I also finished a draft of Divisions, the third OOP book, which was challenging for a number of reasons; I finished a draft of the sequel to Green Fairy; I finished editing the first Calatians book and read the first chapter at two conventions, where it was well received. I am hoping to get it published outside the furry fandom, not because I want to “escape” the furry fandom, but because I would like to see people outside the furry fandom exposed to some of our writing.

And of course you guys all made me very waggy by voting Isolation Play the Best Novel Ursa Major, as well as voting “How to Get Through The Day” the Best Short Story award. I said this at the time, but I don’t take those awards for granted at all. Every year is different, every novel and story is different, and every year I am so, so flattered and honored that you guys still enjoy the books enough to go vote for them. Thank you all for your votes, for your purchases and e-mails and comments and notes all through 2012. You guys are the most awesomest fans.

And now I turn my attention to 2013, with “Divisions” coming out in just two weeks! If you want to keep up with my schedule (books and appearances) and get little extras once a month, subscribe to my mailing list! First mailing going out later today, or early tomorrow.

Divisions Preview!

I have posted a preview of the upcoming book “Divisions” (available for pre-order!), the first half of chapter two. You can read it on my site or over on FurAffinity.

In this chapter, told from Dev’s perspective, Lee visits on Thanksgiving to meet some of the tiger’s family, with mixed results.

Pre-Order Divisions!

“Divisions” is now up for pre-order at the Sofawolf website, and if you order before January 9, you can have your copy (hardcover OR softcover) signed! Hardcover pre-orders will also be numbered. Details are here: https://t.co/Htl1Fnox

And if you sign up for my mailing list (https://groups.google.com/d/forum/kye...), you will get not only info on pre-orders and stuff like this, but also a sneak peek at the opening of “Divisions” in the January newsletter (going out in a couple days).