Month: May 2012

Plan a Book Launch Party for an Ebook

by

Recently an author asked me "How do you stage an in-person book launch with a novel that’s published as an ebook? How do you autograph a computer screen?"

Here are some suggestions for doing a live book launch event for an ebook:

Plan the event much like you would any other book launch party, except you will probably need to find a venue other than a bookstore. Try to use a venue that has some kind of tie-in with the book, and offer refreshments and perhaps some form of entertainment. See this article by Tolly Moseley for creative ideas on planning a book launch party.

Do a presentation based on the book’s content, not just a signing where you sit at a table. Nonfiction authors can speak on their book’s topic or plan an interactive activity based on the topic. Novelists can do a presentation based on some aspect of the book’s story or do a short reading. Children’s authors can read the book aloud, speak on the topic of the book, and plan fun activities for kids. All authors can talk about writing and publishing and take questions from the audience. Be creative and plan something interesting!

Print lots of bookmarks and handout several to all of the attendees so they can share with others. If you print your bookmarks with uncoated paper on the back side, you can sign the back of the bookmarks. See this article to learn more about using bookmarks for book promotion.

Encourage attendees to bring their ebook reading device to the event. They can download the ebook on the spot.  You could even provide a laptop computer where people can order the book if they don’t have their ebook reader with them, but you’ll need to make certain that each person logs out of their Amazon or other ebookstore account after using it.

You can "autograph" Kindle ebooks by using KindleGraph to send personalized inscriptions and signatures to the customer’s Kindle ebook reader.

If your ebook is available on the Nook store, you may be able to arrange an event at a Barnes & Noble store. Last year B&N announced that they were going to offer autographing services for Nook Color devices, but it’s hard to find any details on how to do it. Your local store event manager may have information on autographing.

Remember that you’ll need to promote your event heavily. Suggested promotions include press releases to local media, emails or evites to your friends and local contacts, announcements on your blog and social media accounts, and postcard invitations. Ask others to help spread the word.

Do you have any suggestions on how to do a live launch for an ebook? Please share in the comments section [on the source article’s page].

 

This is a reprint from Savvy Book Marketer Dana Lynn Smith‘s blog.

How To Get Seen And Noticed

by

With 500,000 new books being published every year, how can you compete? How do you get seen and noticed? How will independent booksellers fall in love with your book and promote it in their stores and on the recommended reading lists? Relax, I’m about to give away the deep, dark secrets of book marketing.

The American Booksellers Association (ABA)

The book industry trade group has been around for over 100 years. Based just north of New York City in Tarrytown, NY, this organization watches over the business health of over 1,200 independent bookstores throughout the United States. Notice I keep saying independent bookstore and not the giant corporate chains and Amazon. The ABA has many helpful programs and resources for both the booksellers and the publishers who sell to them. The following info will help you know what is available.

The link to the following information and costs is http://www.bookweb.org/pubpartner/resources.html:

The Red Box

This is a once-a-month shipment of marketing materials to bookstores. You can get the below particulars at

THE MONTHLY INDIEBOUND RED BOX MAILING PROGRAM

Designed to serve as a monthly “In-Store Marketing Action Kit”, the Red Box mailing (actually a white box with a large red sticker) contains the stores initial quantity of the latest Indie Next List flyers as well as other timely news and information from ABA and IndieBound.

For inclusion in the Red Box, ABA Publisher Partners are invited to provide marketing materials including but not limited to:

    * Shelftalkers, easelbacks, bookmarks, posters, or other point-of-purchase items to promote those titles chosen as
           Indie Next List Great Reads or Notables, or other recent or upcoming releases
    * Sell sheets and/or catalog copy for any “off-the-list” titles
    * Seasonal catalogs and/or order forms
    * Special offers, notice of backlist promotions, etc.
    * Any other news about titles, authors, tours, confirmed media appearances, etc.

The Red Box mailing is shipped within the first 12 days of the month to approximately 1100 IndieBound stores. The mailing is prioritized, based on the level of a store’s participation in IndieBound and ABA programs. The minimum quantity for inclusion in any mailing is 450 pieces.

Effective with the January, 2012 mailing, standard pricing for inclusion in all 1100 Red Boxes is as follows:

• A sell sheet or flyer
• A standard (4” x 6”) postcard • A large-format postcard
• Shelftalker
• Easelback poster
• Standard poster, flat or folded • Pack of 25 bookmarks

$275; $.27 per piece for quantities less than 1100
$145: $.15 per piece for quantities less than 1100
$180; $.18 per piece for quantities less than 1100
$145; $.15 per piece for quantities less than 1100

$525 and up, dependent on size; $.55 per piece for quantities less than 1100 $425 and up, dependent on size; $.45 per piece for quantities less than 1100 $695, other quantities custom quoted

No galleys, ARC’s or finished books are included in the Red Box mailing. Those items are exclusive to the monthly White Box mailing (please see Appendix B).

We are happy to custom quote on any item you may wish to include in this mailing. If you would like your materials to also be sent to other active ABA Publisher Partners as well as to the nine Regional Bookseller Association Executive Directors, please provide an additional 100 pieces (same pricing as above).

Please contact Carolyn Bennett (carolyn@bookweb.org) at least three weeks prior to the White Box materials due date of a given mailing (please see Appendix D for these dates) with information about the item(s) you wish to include.

All materials should be shipped to:

Transport Specialties International, Inc. (TSI) Attn: Keith Gosselin
9 Joanna Court
East Brunswick, NJ 08816-2108

Phone: 732.698.0988, x 110

Please mark all cartons and/or packing slips:“FOR INDIEBOUND “month” RED BOX” Early shipments are possible, but must be pre-approved.

The White Box Program

THE MONTHLY INDIEBOUND WHITE BOX MAILING PROGRAM

Every month a box measuring 18.5” x 18.5” x 4” is sent to each of the approximately 750 actively participating IndieBound stores, filled with galleys,ARCs and finished books provided by ABA Publisher Partners. As with the Advance Access Program (see Appendix G), this is an excellent and cost effective way to reach the Independent Bookstore market with news of your titles. By collating, packing and shipping all these materials from one warehouse, we are able to offer publishers substantial savings in time, labor, and postage over individual mailings done on their own.

The cost of inclusion in the White Box is dependent on the size and weight of the galley,ARC, or finished book. Standard pricing typically ranges from $1.35 to $2.50 per piece. Upon receipt of the dimensions and number of pages, we are happy to custom quote for any proposed inclusion.

    * The White Box mailing is prioritized, based on the level of a store’s participation in IndieBound and ABA programs. The minimum quantity for inclusion in any mailing is 450 copies.

    * To reach all stores receiving the White Box mailing, please plan to provide 750 copies.

    * If you would like your materials to also be sent to other active ABA Publisher Partners as well as to the nine Regional Bookseller Association Executive Directors, please provide an additional 100 copies.

There is an additional charge for the insertion of any bounceback cards, letters, or any other collation done in our warehouse. Charges for collation will be custom quoted.

Please contact Carolyn Bennett (carolyn@bookweb.org) at least three weeks prior to the White Box materials due date of a given mailing (please see Appendix E for these dates) with information about the item(s) you wish to include.

All materials should be shipped to:

Transport Specialties International, Inc. (TSI) Attn: Keith Gosselin
9 Joanna Court
East Brunswick, NJ 08816-2108

Phone: 732.698.0988, x 110

Please mark all cartons and/or packing slips:“FOR INDIEBOUND “month” WHITE BOX” Early shipments are possible, but must be pre-approved.

Children’s White Box

THE QUARTERLY INDIEBOUND CHILDREN’S WHITE BOX MAILING PROGRAM

Four times each year a box measuring 18.5” x 18.5” x 4” is sent to each of the approximately 750 actively participating IndieBound stores, filled with a variety of materials provided by ABA Publisher Partners specifically for Children’s book- sellers. As with the Advance Access Program (see Appendix G), this is an excellent and cost effective way to reach the Independent Bookstore market with news of your titles. By collating, packing and shipping all these materials from one warehouse, we are able to offer publishers substantial savings in time, labor, and postage over individual mailings done on their own.

Standard pricing for inclusion in all 750 boxes is as follows:

• A one-sheet or flyer
• A standard postcard
• A large format postcard • A shelftalker
• A pack of 25 bookmarks • A pre-folded poster
• An easelback poster

$190; $.27 per piece for quantities less than 750 $100; $.15 per piece for quantities less than 750 $125; $.18 per piece for quantities less than 750 $100; $.15 per piece for quantities less than 750 $475

$300 and up, dependent on size $400 and up, dependent on size

For galleys, ARC’s, F&G’s and finished books, costs for inclusion usually range between $1.35 and $2.50 per piece, depen- dent on size and weight. The minimum quantity for any galley,ARC, or finished book is 450 pieces. There is an additional charge for the insertion of any bounceback cards, letters, or any other collation done in our warehouse.

We are happy to custom quote on any item you may wish to include in this mailing. If you would like your materials to also be sent to other Publisher Partners and to the nine Regional Bookseller Association Executive Directors, please provide 850 pieces (same price as above).

Please contact Carolyn Bennett (carolyn@bookweb.org) at least three weeks prior to the Children’s White Box materials due date of a given mailing (please see Appendix F for these dates) with information about the item(s) you wish to include.

All materials should be shipped to:
Transport Specialties International (TSI)
Attn: Keith Gosselin
9 Joanna Court
East Brunswick, NJ 08816-2108 Phone: 732-698-0988, x 110

Please mark all cartons and/or packing slips:“INDIEBOUND “season” CHILDREN’SWHITE BOX” Early shipments are possible, but must be pre-approved.

IndIe Next List And Shelftalker Suggested Rate Card 2012

INDIE NEXT LIST:
Top 20 Listing, #1 Title $ 3,500
Top 20 Listing, Other Titles $ 2,500

This charge includes printing costs and postage for 450,000 fliers; store placement

“Now in Paperpack” (12 titles per month) $ 1,000

A pdf with jacket image, bibliographic information and bookseller quote as well as a shelftalker for each title is available for download at www.bookweb.org.

Top 10 Listing, Frontlist
Top 10 Listing, Backlist
Regular Listing, Frontlist
Regular Listing, Backlist

This charge includes printing costs and postage for 450,000 fliers; store placement

TEAR-OFF SHELFTALKERS:
Standard cost for regular Indie Next List titles, 1100 $2,875 Standard cost for Kids’ Indie Next List titles, 750 $2,175

Includes production and shipment, 5.5” x 7”, with four-color jacket image and bookseller quote, 50 tear-off sheets and printed backer.

Combined cost (to support an Indie Next List title) Kids’ combined Top Ten
Kids’ combined Regular

$4,500 $3,200 $2,700

Combined cost includes suggested rate for Indie next List placement and standard shelftalker production (see individual costs above).

Please contact Mark Nichols at mark@bookweb.org for further information Rates subject to change without notice.
 

Advance Access Program

This is an email alert to member stores where you can offer up free review copies of your book to those stores that request one. The ABA is currently re-doing its rate structure for this, so check back in from time to time to see when it becomes available again.

Snail Mail Lists

These are available for a price; however, I don’t think sending materials direct to the stores is nearly as effective as communicating through the ABA programs, which give them a much more valid image.

Summary

There you have it: the secret to success in book marketing. Yes, it is expensive! Yes, it’s well worth it. Book marketing is a full time job and an expensive undertaking. If you’re not prepared to do this, you might want to rethink the idea of self-publishing. It’s not for everyone.

 

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

Amazon's Ever-Changing Algorithms: Oops, They Did It Again

by

This post, by Edward W. Robinson, originally appeared on his Failure Ahoy! Adventures In Digital Publishing site on 5/4/12.

So not 12 hours after my post about how Amazon’s algorithms work, Amazon changed their algorithms again. This is a big enough deal they apparently just caused me to quote Britney Spears.

Fortunately, the latest changes weren’t a complete revolution. By all accounts, there is once again a single list seen by all customers. I’m not sure exactly how this new list works–the Avengers are still working on it–but it seems to hew very closely to one of the lists we already understood. And if you are a Select author who leans on free giveaways for sales, here is my current advice to you:

Sorry, couldn’t resist. I actually don’t think we should flee the battlements just yet, for reasons I’ll get into lower down, but this is bad news for Select authors. Phoenix Sullivan has alluded to this, and will surely have more to say herself, so keep watching. Anyway, cause for panic: the new list looks an awful lot like List B. As a refresher, here are the main mechanics (that I am aware of) for how List B works:
 

  • Ranks are determined by the last 30 days of sales, with no extra weight given to the most recent sales

  • Free book downloads are discounted heavily–maybe as little as 10% the value of paid sales

  • Borrows don’t count as sales

I’m not sure about whether borrows count or not on this new list. Won’t have the data on that front for a while. I am positive free books are counted, and that they’re counted at a discounted rate–feels like 10-15% of a sale. (In other words, for every 10 freebies given away, you’re credited with 1 sale for the purposes of pop list rank.) You can see this for yourself by trolling the popularity lists. You’ll see a few titles that are permanently free scattered across the first few pages. If freebies didn’t count, you wouldn’t be seeing them on the lists at all, and if they did count, you’d see a lot more permafree titles and Select titles higher up on the lists.

 

Read the rest of the post on Failure Ahoy, and also see this follow-up post on the same site.

AAR (Association of Authors Representatives) Fail

by

This post, by JA Konrath, originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing on 5/10/12.

I just read the letter the Association of Authors Representatives sent to the DOJ yesterday. 

Then I threw up in my mouth. Ack. 

The letter in plain text, my comments in bold. 

My comments will not be kind. 


May 8, 2012
John R. Read

Chief, Litigation III Section United States Department of Justice 450 5th St NW Suite 4000 Washington DC 20530

Dear Mr. Read,
I write to you as the President of the AAR, the largest organization of literary and dramatic agents in the United States, and on behalf of the unanimous AAR Board of Directors. Our more than four hundred seventy-five members represent writers who number in the tens of thousands. We want you to know in the strongest terms possible that we firmly oppose the proposed settlement between the Justice Department and three publishers with respect to e-book pricing.

Translation: We’re about to put our collective foot in our mouth. Stay tuned!

Joe sez: I count thirteen names on this letter. I don’t see the names of the other 462 AAR members, nor the names of the tens of thousands of authors they seem to be insinuating they speak for.

They DO NOT speak for me. And I hope the majority of the AAR who didn’t sign their name to this nonsense show some guts and leave an organization that erroneously claims to speak for them. Or at least fire the board members that sent this without getting a majority vote.

Readers, writers and the general public benefit when there is a healthy competitive literary marketplace. Two and a half years ago Amazon, with its proprietary Kindle devices and its willingness to discount e-book “bestsellers” to a level at which it sustained a significant loss on each copy sold, threatened the entire marketplace for books. 

Translation: Amazon invented a device that consumers wanted. That’s BAD. Readers were getting cheap ebooks. That’s BAD. It may not seem bad on the surface, and we don’t back-up our claim with any actual evidence, but boy oh boy trust us it really is because we say so.

Amazon’s practice of targeting the very titles that drive profitability of our entire industry and pricing them several dollars below cost was clearly leading to the demise of the independent bookstore, hastened the loss of Borders, and threatened the existence of Barnes & Noble, the one remaining large chain store that sells books. 

Translation: Customers were changing how and where they shopped because Amazon gave them a clearly better alternative; ebooks delivered instantly for less.

Joe sez: Apparently the AAR doesn’t remember that under the previous model, their authors were making more damn money.

Doesn’t AAR stand for Association of AUTHORS Representatives? Why are they suddenly spokesmen for Barnes and Noble?

And Borders? Weren’t they on the verge of bankruptcy (or at least in serious trouble) before Amazon even introduced the Kindle? Blaming Amazon for Borders’ woes is bullshit correlation. Or as a friend of mine calls it: causality magical thinking.

This was not healthy for competition or for authors or indeed for consumers in the long-term. 

Translation: Trying to outsell your competition, or attract customers with lower prices and better service, is bad.

And it’s bad when authors get paid more for each copy sold and sell more copies because of lower prices. 

And lower prices are bad for consumers, because maybe one day Amazon will again raise prices, possibly even up to the lofty heights publishers have them raised to now under the current Agency Model.

Retailers shouldn’t be allowed to set their own prices. That’s bad. It’s much better for the wholesaler to set both the wholesale and the retail price, because THAT and THAT ALONE encourages healthy competition. ESPECIALLY when there are several wholesalers in lockstep. 

Nothing is better for consumers than a group of companies who set wholesale and retail. And even though they set the SAME prices, it really still is competition! Really!

The steep discounting from Amazon was a practice of selling our clients’ work at a loss in order to make it impossible for other businesses to enter the e-book marketplace in a way that made financial sense for them.    

Translation: This predatory pricing is driving competitors out of business, like it did with… um… what’s that famous case where a company lowered prices, destroyed competition, and then became a monopoly and raised prices?

It must happen all the time, right?

Or if it doesn’t, it’s because the government steps in and stops it. Like in the case of… um…

Joe sez: Like in the case of the DOJ stepping in because 5 of the Big 6 were colluding to raise ebook prices?

 

Read the rest of the post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

Craft: Good Editing Help Is Findable

by

This post, by Jane Friedman, originally appeared on her Writing On The Ether site.

Be sure the editor (or editors, if it’s an editing service) is qualified. You’re looking for professional publishing industry experience–preferably, as an editor for reputable publishers–and/or professional writing credentials (legitimately-published books, articles, etc.). If the editor has a website, a resume or CV should be posted there.

We do a lot of yelling and screaming these days about how authors simply must get  outside, professional editing services. To my mind, this is true whether you’re trying to self-publish or sling-shotting your MS on a flash drive at the rococo facade of a legacy publisher.

But how to find reputable editing?  That’s Victoria Strauss’ focus in Vetting an Independent Editor.

I’m a little concerned only about her first comment about considering free alternatives such as:

…a friend who’s not afraid to criticize, a local writers’ group or critique circle, an online writers’ group (such as Critters Writers Workshop for SF/fantasy/horror writers), a peer critique community (such as Book Country or Authonomy), or a creative writing course.

In a hardship case, do what you have to do, of course. And if you’re in earlier stages with a book, you do want less expensive avenues of feedback, sure. But I’d say — and again, this is me, with no desire to put words into Strauss’ blog post — there’s a point at which a true run at the market goes far past the friends-and-family stage. And a professional developmental edit isn’t the same as exchanging input in a mutual-critique community.

I find some backing on this point in a post — Where will self-publishing get quality control? — from author Roz Morris, diligent in working on why so much self-published content is sub-par.

It’s raining slush and nonsense. Readers who’ve bought unreadable books are muttering ‘vanity press’ all over again.

Morris is asked by a reader, “If people won’t use editors, can we realistically replace them with critique groups and beta readers?”

Morris’ answer is typically straightforward and refreshingly honest:

 

Read the rest of the post on Writing On The Ether.

Why E-Books Will Soon Be Obsolete (And No, It’s Not Just Because Of DRM)

by

This post, by Jani Patokallio,originally appeared on Gyrovague on 4/30/12.

E-books will be obsolete within five years.  Crippled by territorial license restrictions, digital rights management, and single-purpose devices and file formats that are simultaneously immature and already obsolescent, they are at a hopeless competitive disadvantage compared to full-fledged websites and even the humble PDF.

 

Last year, I bought a laptop in Singapore, and brought it with me to Australia.  It worked fine for reading the Economist online and what passes for journalism in Singapore, but one day I searched for the Sydney Morning Herald, and there were no hits: it’s as if it didn’t exist.  A little poking around revealed that to be able to view Australian sites, I had to register my browser to be in Australia, which also requires a credit card with a billing address there.  What’s more, switching countries like this would delete all my bookmarks, terminate my paid subscription to the Economist and stop me from being able to read even single issue of the Singaporean Straits Jacket.  And needless to say, the laptop is locked to prevent me from installing another browser that would allow me to get around these limits.

Does this sound ridiculous, a perverse fantasy of some balkanized Web of the dystopian future?  Nope: it’s all true, except that my “laptop” is actually an iPad and my “browser” is iTunes/iBooks.  Since my iTunes account has a Singaporean billing address, the Kindle application does not show up in my search results.  If I switch countries, I will lose access to everything I’ve previously downloaded.  And if I do bite the bullet and switch to Australia, a good chunk of apps, music and more on offer will no longer be available on iTunes, iBooks or Amazon, and I’ll pay around 50% extra on what remains.  But I chose not to, and thus didn’t buy 3 or 4 books I wanted to, because their publishers would not sell them to me.

Why?  Because publishers insist on selling e-books the way they sell printed books, and customers simply don’t figure in the equation.

Now, breathtaking stupidity like this is commonly attributed to digital rights management (DRM), and Lord knows there’s plenty of idiocy involved in there as well.  Fortunately, Charlie Stross has already eviscerated that particular sacred cow of the publishing industry (see here and here), so I’ll focus on what’s actually causing my problem: publishing rights.

On the Web, the very idea that the right to read a website would vary from country to country seems patently absurd.  Cyberspace is flat, after all, just computers talking to computers.  You, the reader, do not need to concern yourself with where these electrons on your screen are coming from, and neither do I, their publisher, need to care where they are going.  And when somebody attempts to artificially block those electrons — say, China and its Great Firewall — it’s the kind of the thing that the US Congress and the World Trade Organization get worked up about.

 

Read the rest of the post on Gyrovague.

E-book Nation: An Infographic About Ebooks And The People Who Read Them

by

The following infographic, from Online Universities, is reprinted here with that site’s permission.

[infographic after the jump]

 

 

E-book Nation
Brought to you by: OnlineUniversities.com

Ciao Publishers. Ciao Agents. Ciao Slavery.

by

This post, by Suzanne White, originally appeared on The Passive Voice on 5/7/12.

From the comments to Kris’s Post – Spread the Word, a classic letter to The Author Guild from 70-year-old author Suzanne White:

It’s unfortunate that an entity which professes to be an “Authors Guild” doesn’t work for authors. It works instead for the publishing industry. It works to try to protect what is obsolete.

 

Authors today can go to Amazon with books they have written, post them on Kindle or develop paperbacks with Createspace or seek to actually be published by Amazon… and get a 70% royalty on their sales. Do you encourage them? Do you help them to understand how they can gain their freedom? Do you applaud those courageous authors who self publish, sell on Kindle and make a living? No you do not. Instead, you warble on, lamenting the fact Bezos is taking over the crusty publishing industry. DUH!

Shame.

Where in the traditional publishing industry can an author command 70%? Where can an author have utter dominion over cover art? Formatting? Content? Illustrations? Impact? Marketing? The answer is Amazon. And a little bit Pubit and sometimes Smashwords or Apple as well. Where in the standard publishing industry can an author revive a book that he or she wrote in 1982, sold to a publisher who printed it, didn’t sell very many and took it right off the market? Amazon, that’s where. Author gets rights back, re-formats the book, slams it up for sale on Kindle and in six months is making money with that book.

Where? Tell me. Where can an author do better?

Why does a Guild for Authors rail on about monopolies and decry the demise of old-fashioned publishing as we knew it? Dinosaurs still prowling the streets of Manhattan want their good old boy industry back. Give it up already.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Passive Voice.

Harlequin Fail

by

This post, by Ann Voss Peterson, originally appeared on J.A. Konrath‘s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 5/8/12.

This is a guest post by my friend Ann Voss Peterson. But it’s more than that. It’s a call to arms, a cautionary tale, and a scathing exposé.

Don’t believe it can be all those things? Read on…

Ann: In this world, there are a lot of things I can’t afford to do. A trip around the world, for instance, although it would be amazing. Remodeling my kitchen. And until recently, sadly, braces for my son.
There’s one more thing that I find valuable and enjoyable that I can no longer afford to do, and that is write for Harlequin.

 
I published my first novel with Harlequin’s Intrigue line in August of 2000. My twenty-fifth was released in November, 2011. I had a lot of fun writing those books–taut, page-turning, action-packed romantic suspense staring a myriad of different heroes and heroines and a boatload of delicious villains. I had four editors during that time, and all of them were great to work with. The senior editor has a strong vision for the line, and that vision appeals to readers all over the world. My books were in bookstores and Target and WalMart, and my office overflows with foreign copies from countries I’ve never visited. I have around three million books in print, and Harlequin throws the best parties in all of publishing, hands down.
 
But as lovely as all that is, I can’t afford to write for them anymore.
Why?
 
If you do a (very) little digging into publishing companies, you’ll discover that while the industry standard royalty rate for mass market paperback sales is 8% for US retail, Harlequin pays its series authors only 6%.
 
The royalty goes down from there.
 
All Harlequin series authors know that US retail royalties are going to be lower than industry standard going in. We also know that Harlequin pays rather low advances. My largest and most current advance was only $6,500 per book, but here’s the kicker; the books are widely distributedand sell a lot of copies. I have NEVER failed to earn out in my first royalty statement. That’s right, ALL of my books have earned out and then some.
 
So why can’t I afford to write for them any longer?
 
Let me share with you the numbers of a book I wrote that was first published in January, 2002, still one of my favorites. My life-to-date statement says this book has sold 179,057 copies so far, and it has earned $20,375.22. (bold text by Joe) That means the average I’ve earned is a whopping 11 cents per copy. If you use the cover price to calculate (the number used in the contract), which was $4.50 at the time of release, I’ve earned an AVERAGE of 2.4 % per copy.
 
Why is this?
 
irst, while most of my books are sold in the US, many are sold under lower royalty rates in other countries. In this particular contract, some foreign rights and -ALL ebook royalties- are figured in a way that artificially reduces net by licensing the book to a "related licensee," in other words, a company owned by Harlequin itself.
 
Harlequin uses the Wholesale Model (not the Agency Model) with retailers, including Amazon. So the money Harlequin receives is determined by the list price, and retailers can set any price for the consumer that they want. This is how the numbers break down when Retailer X lists the ebook for $4.00 (doesn’t matter what they sell it for).
 
Retailer – $2.00 (any discounts are taken from this amount)
Harlequin’s related licensee – $1.88
Harlequin – $.06
Author – $.06
 
So Harlequin makes a total of 1.94, and I make .06.
 

Read the rest of the post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

Show Your Setting through the POV Character’s Eyes

by

This post, by Jodie Renner, originally appeared on The Blood-Red Pencil on 4/18/12.

Fiction writers—one of the fastest ways to bring your story world and characters to life is to portray the setting through the senses, feelings, reactions, and attitude of your protagonist.

Enhancing your fiction by filtering the description of the setting through your viewpoint character’s senses is a concept I instinctively embraced when I first started editing fiction about six years ago. I was editing a contemporary middle-school novel, whose two main characters, a boy and a girl, were both eleven years old (details slightly changed). The author had them describing rooms they entered as if they were interior decorators, complete with words like “exquisite,” “stylish,” “coordinated,” “ornate,” and “delightful.” Then, when they were in the park or the woods playing and exploring with friends, each tree, shrub and flower was accurately named and described in details that were way beyond the average preteen’s knowledge base or interests.

Besides the obvious problem of too much description for this age group (or for any popular novel these days), this authorial, “grownup” way of describing their environment would not only turn off young readers, but also create a distance between any reader and these two modern-day kids. As a reader and editor, I didn’t feel like I was getting to know these kids at all, as I wasn’t seeing their world through their eyes, but directly from the author, who obviously knew her interior design terms and flora and fauna! Through this unchildlike, out-of-character description of their environment, the author puts a barrier between us and the two kids. If we don’t get into their heads and hearts, seeing their world as they see it, how will we get to know them and bond with them, and why will we care what happens to them?

I advise my author clients to not only show us directly what the characters are seeing around them, in their words, but to bring the characters and story to life on the page by evoking all the senses. Tell us what they’re hearing and smelling, too. And touching/feeling – the textures of things, and whether they’re feeling warm or cold, wet or dry. Even the odd taste. And don’t forget mood—how does that setting make them feel? Emotionally uplifted? Fearful? Warm and cozy? Include telling details specific to that place, and have the characters react to their environment, whether it’s shivering from the cold, in awe of a gorgeous sunset, or afraid of the dark. Bring that scene to life through your characters’ reactions.

As Donald Maass says…

 

Read the rest of the post on The Blood-Red Pencil.

Is There a New Type of eBook Piracy?

by

This post, by Sam Cheever, originally appeared on ‘Tween You And Me on 5/4/12.

Over the last week I’ve noticed something that has me really concerned. My titles are selling. And then they’re being returned. I’ve been indie publishing for about 2 years now. I can count on three fingers the number of returns I’ve had of my ebooks over that period of time.

Over the last 2 days I’ve had 8.

Okay, I know that’s not a lot in the overall scheme, but I think it’s a pattern. Amazon has been nice enough in responding to my concerns, though I imagine they think I’m a total loon at this point. The problem isn’t very big yet. However, to a hard working author who counts every penny she earns dearly, 8 lost sales is a smack in the face. Here’s what I think… I believe someone is scamming the system. I think they’re buying the books, reading or copying them, and then returning them.

Paranoid? Maybe. But there’s that pattern to worry about again. I’m not imagining the 300% increase in returns in an extremely condensed timeline. It’s not so farfetched when you think about how many pirate sites authors have to monitor and report in a given year. There are lots of unscrupulous people who apparently only care about getting what they want for themselves and the hell with the author/artist/whatever.

It’s disheartening. I hope I’m wrong. But I really think I’m discovering the leading edge of a new type (or at least growing if not new) of piracy.

 

Read the rest of the post (and be sure to check out the comments, too) on ‘Tween You And Me.

Monthly Mash-up: 10 Writing Craft Books And Blog Posts

by

There are so many great writing craft books and blog posts out there I just had to do my first monthly mash-up focusing on those. The following are some of my favorite books, in no particular order:

Writing craft books:

  1. If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland — Brenda shows us that no writing is absolute crap. In fact, she challenges us to write the worst piece possible, then goes on to show how in even the worst there will be a few gems. She tells us cherish the quiet moments because that is when our stories are percolating.
  2. Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell — James walks us through the four act set-up, character arc, various plotting methods and a myriad of other techniques that make writing more efficient (if you’re a plotter, that is). Pantsers can find great information in this book, as well, with questions to ponder either before or after the first draft and different methods of revising once the draft is complete.
  3. Story Engineering by Larry Brooks — Larry explains the six core competencies of concept, character, theme, story structure (plot), scene construction and writing voice, showing us why each of these are important to writing a great story. He also breaks structure down into easily understandable points and gives an idea of how to judge the length of a potential story.
  4. The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes — Ralph helps writers understand that we are not alone in our fears. He gives anecdotes of how famous authors coped with that fear, even encouraging each of us to develop rituals that help get us through the fear of setting words on the page (or screen).
  5. Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell — From redefining failure and success to learning how to embrace failures, John shows us that making both small and monumental mistakes is something to strive for rather than try to avoid. If you’re worrying about falling on your face as a writer, especially as an indie, this is a great book for learning how to accept failing as part of becoming successful.

Writing craft books aren’t the only place to get great information. There are hundreds, perhaps millions, of great blog posts with exceptional advice on how to be the best writer you can be. Here are just a few:

Writing Blog Posts:

  1. Do You Judge A Book By Its Cover by Diana Murdock — Diana gives us a peak into how she chose the cover of her book, Souled.
  2. Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy a guest post by Roz Morris on Jamie Gold’s blog — Having trouble condensing your entire book into a couple of paragraphs? Roz has some tips on what do to and what not to do to capture your story and make readers want to snuggle up with your book.
  3. Saying ‘No’ — A Successful Writer’s Must by August McLaughlin — If you’re struggling to get any writing accomplished because others think you can drop everything to help them, the August has some great ideas on how to set boundaries.
  4. Ask the Editor: How can I cut back on the abundance of pronouns in my writing? by Kira McFadden on Novel Publicity — Having problems with an abundance of he/she/it? Kira shows us how to rewrite passages to limit the number of pronouns used.
  5. 7 Setting Basics That Can Bring a Story to Life by Jody Hedlund — Setting can really bring a scene alive and move the plot forward if we use it properly. Jody gives us 7 ways to make setting almost a character in itself.

These are 10 of my favorite writing craft books and blog posts. I have hundreds more because I’m a craft junkie, as Jillian Kent said in her guest post on Rachelle Gardner’s blog. (Psst… That’s #11. :D ) I’m always looking for more blogs to read and books to buy on the craft of writing, so, if you have one you love, please share it in the comments. Happy writing!

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s blog.

E-Ink Devices – The Fastest Invention In History To Become Old-Fashioned

by

I’ve been noticing that more and more people are reading e-books from tablets and fewer people are buying e-ink devices like the original Kindle. When I straw-polled this perception on Twitter, it seemed that I was right. While we are seeing more Kindles and Kobos than ever, the number of iPads and other tablet devices seem to far outstrip the e-ink growth.

Further chatting and some links supplied by friendly tweeters backed this up. When I tweeted: “I predict that e-ink devices could be the fastest invention in history to become old-fashioned”, futurist Mark Pesce replied:

@mpesce: They’re already charmingly quaint.

From a shiny new technology to obsolete and replaced in very short order. Already, the Kindle is “charmingly quaint”, like a gramophone player or a phone with a cord and dial. I’m a bit disappointed about this, because I love my Kindle. The thing I like most, apart from the very easy on the eyes e-ink screen, is that it’s a dedicated reading device. No distractions. It holds books and other documents that I need to read and that’s all. There are enough interruptions everywhere else – I don’t need them in a book too. Plus, the battery lasts literally weeks.

But I do have a slight issue in that I love my comics. I’ve read comic books forever and still buy several titles a month. I’d be happy to move to reading those digitally, but for the colour and graphic delivery I’d need a tablet like an iPad. I’ve yet to be able to justify the expense of an iPad purely for reading comics. But if it was for all my e-reading… And that doesn’t even begin to address the multi-media reading experience, with linked footnotes, video content and so much more that tablets make so easy.

But here’s where another problem presents itself. Reading novels (or other straight, unadorned text) from a tablet is problematic at the moment. It’s hard to see outside in the sunshine. The tablet has a terrible battery life, compared to the weeks and weeks I get from my Kindle. The backlit display is more tiring for the eyes. And herein lies the reason tablets are taking over – all those things are being addressed and improved at a furious rate. The tablet is starting to achieve all the positives of a dedicated e-ink reader, along with all the other things it does, making the strengths of e-ink irrelevant.

It’ll be a while before the tablet screen, ink, battery life and so on are as good as, say, a Kindle, but not that long a while. It will happen.

What this boils down to is actually something bigger. The device itself is becoming irrelevant. The beauty of the tablet is that it is a convergent device. You carry one thing and it does everything you need – reading, writing, web surfing, social networking, etc. This leads to a paradigm shift in content creation and delivery. As Eoin Purcell said on Twitter during last night’s conversation:

Things will be sold, but selling will take different forms. Subscriptions, memberships, ads, events, readings etc.

His point being that the content will be in the cloud, the creators and publishers will earn through the things he mentions in the quote above and that content will be consumed on a variety of devices. The device itself becomes irrelevant – all it needs is access to the cloud and a comfortable reading experience. That’s the tablet with the battery life, screen resolution and daylight clarity I talked about above. The implication here is that not only does the device itself become irrelevant – as long as you have one, any one will do – but the concept of an ebook is also irrelevant. You don’t buy a book. You subscribe to a publisher and access their content, whenever, wherever. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this…

So the dedicated e-reader, like the Kindle or Kobo, is already dead. It just hasn’t stopped kicking yet. Amazon know this, so they’ve released the Fire, which is a tablet device. Others are following suit. For those of us who prefer a dedicated e-ink device, we should make the most of it now. Before long we’ll be the hipsters of the digital reading world, congregating like those people in record stores who still buy vinyl and talk about what stylus they prefer. I wonder if half the people reading this even know what a stylus is.

(For further reading, I’d recommend this article on the subject by Eoin Purcell. Interestingly, this article is already more than two years old.)

 

This is a cross-posting from Alan Baxter’s The Word.

All Changed, Changed Utterly…

by

This post, by Lawrence Block, originally appeared on his site on 4/22/12.

All these things happened in the space of a week or so:

1. My friend Pat reported that the POD paperback of the book he’d co-authored with my friend Dick had gone on sale quietly at Amazon, with a score of copies sold in the first several days. (The eBook has already been selling for a month or so.)

The book is Bitter Medicine: What I’ve Learned and Teach about Malpractice Lawsuits (And How to Avoid Them), and I’ve been peripherally involved with it since Dick showed me some chapters he’d written several years ago. Dick is Richard Kessler, a retired surgeon and professor of medicine, with extensive service as an expert witness in malpractice lawsuits. Pat is Patrick Trese, also retired after a distinguished career as an Emmy-winning writer and producer at NBC News; in the course of it he’d also written and published a couple of books. I’ve known them both for thirty years or so, and they’ve known each other for about as long, and the partnership turned out to be a good fit. They put in a lot of hours over a couple of years, and wound up with a solid professional manuscript that told important stories in an accessible manner.

But nobody was interested. A couple of agents agreed to look at the manuscript, kept it forever, and then returned it. A publisher, in an uncharacteristic moment of candor, said essentially that every retired doctor wants to write a book, and many of them do, and nobody cares.

And then Pat had a revelation. Neither of the book’s authors was in it for wealth or glory. Dick had had a very important and useful tale to tell, and Pat had found a way to tell it clearly and forcefully, and what they both wanted was for it to be read. And Pat knew a couple of people who’d embraced the revolution of eBooks and self-publishing, and figured why not?

Pat’s work on Bitter Medicine is done, but he’s keeping busy. His first book, Penguins Have Square Eyes, grew out of his experiences as a TV reporter in Antarctica; it came out in 1962, and now fifty years later he’s tweaking it for self-publication. And he’s hard at work on the revision of a big thriller he’s had in the works for as long as I’ve known him. Some agents have seen versions of it over the years, and encouraged him, but this this time he plans to publish it himself.

2. My agent told me about a new client he’d just signed, a romance writer. She’d published several books with a commercial publisher, and then they dropped her. So she started publishing herself in eBooks, and in a little over a year she was making eight or ten times what she’d been earning in the past. She’d tried handling her own foreign rights, but it took too much time and she didn’t really know what she was doing, so she needed someone to represent her overseas, and negotiate other sub rights.

Now that she was doing so well, she said, publishers had come around, telling her how much they could do for her. “I tell them I already know what they can do for me,” she said. “They already did it.”

 

Read the rest of the post on Lawrence Block’s site.

Springtime For Amazon

by

This post, by Jane Friedman, originally appeared on her site on 4/26/12.

As the market evolves, Amazon is becoming a home for readers.

Say what? “A home for readers?” The Evil Amazon? Did the jungle drums just miss a beat?

There is so much for readers to do on Amazon – so much book-related content for them to peruse before buying.

There it was again. I could swear I just heard a friendly word for Seattle.

We have to ask ourselves, with the collapse of physical retail for books, which company will book suppliers want to deal with most? Just as iTunes supplanted record stores, Amazon is supplanting bookstores. Of all the bookselling options out there, only the remaining indie bookstores and B&N are more “bookish.” Should they eventually collapse (or transform or get sold), Amazon will be the most bookish place for readers to go to buy books.

You’re not hearing from some Prime-drunk refugee of the Borders wars here. These are the thoughts of Laura Dawson, Firebrand’s reigning Queen of Metadata, one of our best-regarded publishing specialists, and she’s packing knitting needles, don’t cross her.

@ And as you say, Barnes & Noble started adding bookish things & services that made people feel better about it. So will Amazon.

April 26, 2012 11:40 am via YoruFukurouReplyRetweetFavorite

@tcarmody

Tim Carmody

 
 
 

 

In Why Amazon Will Be the Good Guy, Dawson is echoing a jazzy new counterpoint to the shrill call of the poison-dart frog we’ve heard so relentlessly in deepest, darkest Amazonia.

A new slant on the aggressive retailer is beginning to be felt. And this angle doesn’t always turn up along the same lines of debate, which indicates that a subtle but broad-based reconsideration may be underway. Dawson’s not dropping a stitch:

In the late 1990s, the American Booksellers Association sued Barnes & Noble and Borders over what they felt were unfair trade practices… B&N was the king of the discount. And for “bookish” folks, this was a source of friction – the cheapening of books made them seem commoditized, and our beloved independent bookstores were going out of business.

Hunker with me here. This is an argument many can’t see yet.

Amazon has been regarded as less than entirely “bookish” since its inception, when Bezos made it clear that books were just the beginning (and only because books were the easiest products to build a store around).

@ The premise of "bookishness" made me a little nervous, but it is undeniably a Thing.

April 25, 2012 10:30 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@ljndawson

ljndawson

 

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Jane Friedman’s site.