Month: January 2013

Publetariat Has Suspended New User Registrations

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As usual, the spammers and hackers have ruined things for everyone.

For months now, among the hundreds of new user registration applications received each week, ten or fewer are from legitimate people who genuinely want to blog and comment about writing and publishing here. All the rest are from spammers and hackers, but we can’t know if a given application is fraudulent or from a legitimate prospective member until it has been physically inspected by a real human being.

While it’s nice to know Publetariat has become a big enough online fish to be seen as a worthy target for this level of spammer/hacker attention, we’d much prefer not to be showered with that type of praise. We simply don’t have the time or resources to waste on this nonsense.

Publetariat is entirely volunteer-staffed, and is offered as a free, public resource for writers, authors and publishers, indie and mainstream alike.

Since we don’t want to put our valued readership at risk by eliminating or streamlining the registration inspection/approval process, but we also can’t keep spending so much time and effort keeping the bad guys out, we regret to report that for the time being and foreseeable future, Publetariat will not be accepting any new user registrations.

We have also been forced to clean up our catalog of registered users, to try and eliminate nefarious user accounts from the past. All of the following accounts have been deleted:

1. Any account with a suspect email address

2. Any account with a suspect or spammy username (e.g., MyBestBargains)

3. Any account that duplicates a pre-existing username or email address

Why Authors Tweet

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This article, by Anne Trubek, originally appeared on The New York Times Sunday Book Review on 1/6/13.

Since the 19th century, the common conception of “the author” has gone something like this: A young man, in his garret, writes furiously, crumpling up papers and throwing them on the floor, losing track of time, heedless of the public, obsessed with his own imagination. He is aloof, elusive, a man whom you know only by his writing and the portrait in his book.

Writers themselves have sustained this myth, asking readers to keep their distance from authors, who should remain enigmatic. W. B. Yeats remarked that the poet “is never the bundle of accident and incoherence that sits down to breakfast.” T. S. Eliot further argued that “the progress of an artist is . . . a continual extinction of personality”; forget about getting to know the figure behind the words: “Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.” On his Facebook page, created by his publisher, Jeffrey Eugenides recently expressed similar sentiments. In “A Note From Jeffrey Eugenides to Readers,” he described his joy at meeting them, but concluded by saying he doesn’t know when or if he’ll post on the page again: “It’s better, I think, for readers not to communicate too directly with an author because the author is, strangely enough, beside the point.”

But readers are not heeding Eugenides’s advice, nor are many writers. Why? For one thing, publishers are pushing authors to hobnob with readers on Twitter and Facebook in the hope they will sell more copies. But there’s another reason: Many authors have little use for the pretension of hermetic distance and never accepted a historically specific idea of what it means to be a writer. With the digital age come new conceptions of authorship. And for both authors and readers, these changes may be unexpectedly salutary.

Salman Rushdie told me he enjoys Twitter because “it allows one to be playful, to get a sense of what is on a lot of people’s minds at any given moment.” He has written more than a thousand tweets — “OK: Philistinism (destroying bks bec you don’t care abt bks) is not fascism (destroying bks bec. you DO care). But both destroy books” — and more than 150,000 people follow them.
 

Read the rest of the article on The New York Times Sunday Book Review.

This Is How You Write A Memoir

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This post, by Katie Roiphe, originally appeared on Slate on 1/9/13.

There has lately been a rising backlash against the ubiquity of personal writing. Hamilton Nolan’s anti-confessional diatribe in Gawker claims that journalism students are now taught only to write about themselves, which I can say as a full-time faculty member at a journalism school is patently absurd, but he raised some interesting points about the dubious rise of confessional writing over the last two decades and the market pressure, especially on younger writers, to make a splash, or at least publish something somewhere, by turning to their own, possibly limited, life experience.

And then, of course, there were recent critiques of Elizabeth Wurtzel babbling incoherently about her pure heart in New York Magazine.

All of which leads me to believe it may be time to think methodically about what separates good confessional writing from bad confessional writing. It’s dangerously cartoonish to say all personal writing is bad, and to automatically attack every writer who dares to delve into his own experience, but there are a million different ways to write personally and some of them are undoubtedly better than others. Here, then, are some basic principles I have come to over the years as both a professor and a writer (though, of course, I am still puzzling through them and tinkering with them and will continue to do so probably for the rest of my life):

1. The writer should turn her fierce critical eye on herself. (One of the great masters of this is Mary McCarthy, who was terrifying and brilliant in her critiques, even of her own pretentions and snobbisms.) It is always satisfying to read a writer who sharply and deftly attacks the hypocrisies and delusions of the world around him, but we trust that writer more completely when he also attacks himself, when he does not hold himself to a different standard, or protect himself from scrutiny. Take David Foster Wallace’s famously dazzling essay, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” He obsessively, comically, gorgeously dissects everything around him on the cruise ship, but does not exempt himself from his high level satire:

Read the rest of the post on Slate.

Commodity Publishing, Self-Publishing, and The Future of Fiction

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This post, by Jane Friedman, originally appeared on her blog on 1/8/13.

Many years ago, when I started working for Writer’s Digest, I was put on the self-publishing beat. I started by reading Dan Poynter’s guide, by the godfather of self-publishing, then the Marilyn Ross guide. I attended EPIC, once the leading conference for e-book authors, and sat on a panel with Piers Anthony to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing, POD publishing, and digital publishing. For a couple of years, I edited a newsstand-only magazine called Publishing Success, geared toward independent authors, and oversaw the Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Book Awards. I developed lasting relationships with several indie authors during that time, including John Sundman and M.J. Rose, and I saw a few authors successfully cross over to traditional publishing.

At that time (which was in the early 2000s), if you were a self-published author, print-on-demand was emerging as the golden ticket to affordable independent publishing. New POD publishers were marketing their services with dirt-cheap introductory packages—as low as $99—to entice authors fed up with rejection to find success through this no-print-run-required technology. What most authors discovered, however, is that without access to bookstore shelves, or a reliable way to get in front of readers (these were the early days of the Internet—no social media and very little in the way of popular blogging), you were pretty much wasting your time.

One author stood out, though, as finding a way where the others didn’t—M.J. Rose. She was turned down by traditional publishers but was convinced there was a readership for her work. So in 1998, she set up a website where readers could download her book for $9.95 and began to seriously market the novel online. After selling 2,500 copies (in both electronic and trade paper), her novel Lip Service became the first e-book sensation to score an author a traditional publishing contract. (What is also interesting here is Rose’s background: advertising.)

When asked about the future of self-publishing in October 2012, Rose told The Nervous Breakdown:

In 2000, when I was the e-publishing reporter for Wired.com, I was asked about the future of self-publishing and at that time said it would become the best test market for publishers to find future superstars—as soon as e-books took off and that wouldn’t happen until the readers dropped to under $100. We’re there—it’s happening. Every week the press reports on two or three major deals with self-pubbed authors who have built up their own fan bases.[1] But notice how those self-pubbed authors are moving to traditional deals. As empowering as self-pubbing is—it’s not easy to go it alone. Most of us writers want to be writers—not have to spend years studying the business of publishing and becoming entrepreneurs. So I think there are going to be more and more creative business models to offer authors trustworthy and creative partnerships as solutions to going it alone. It’s an amazingly exciting time in publishing.

I agree with M.J. My question is: Is self-publishing going to become the predominant, preferred, or recommended means for authors to launch their careers? While we might all agree there are more paths than ever to get published and be a successful author, some advocates of self-publishing—primarily those (perhaps exclusively those) who write genre fiction go a step further: Don’t even bother getting traditionally published. Self-publish first.

Usually the model or formula is expressed like this:

 

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

Penguin Random House Merger Begins A New Chapter For Publishing

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This article, by Stephen Page, originally appeared on the Guardian UK Books Blog on 1/7/13.

Richard Ford’s brilliant new novel Canada opens audaciously: “First, I’ll tell you about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later”. An account of the dramas in publishing last year might begin in similar vein: “First, I’ll tell you about Agency pricing and the Department of Justice. Then about the mergers that happened later.”

2012 was a fascinating year in publishing, a year of accelerated change, culminating in the Penguin Random merger. 2013 has kicked off with Pearson (Penguin’s owner) investing in the Nook e-reader. Whatever one might think about the wisdom of these strategies, both these events are bold moves in the war for the heart of the reader, and indicate dramatic change.

For some time the market for writing has been in demonstrable good health in the UK, with a large audience buying a great number of books. From the rise of Waterstones in the 1980s, through the mass-market explosion of the 90s, and more recently the arrival of writing for the web and the ebook with the new self-publishing model, UK readers have been a substantial, various audience with an appetite for books and reading. The hunger has been for writing from around the world, but it is especially well-served by a highly productive community of writers in Britain and Ireland, many of whom are read across the globe. Reading and writing are strong in the UK, not in crisis.

The revolution is happening in the pipeline between writers and their readers. The merger of Penguin and Random House currently taking place will create a large and powerful international publishing business that has at its disposal the most powerful and well-known consumer books brand in the world: Penguin. The move should not be misread as a retreat or a simple attempt to drill out cost but as a direct move towards the consumer and against the technology businesses that have become powerful in the market. It will be followed by further aggregation of the largest publishers – talks have been reported between HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster.

So what does this mean for reading, writing and publishing? It is certainly a dramatic opening chord in a new movement, a movement that will be high tempo and full of development of familiar subjects in new ways.

 

Read the rest of the article on the Guardian UK Books Blog.

Reviews – What About Those Stars?

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This post, by Terry Odell, originally appeared on her blog on 1/7/13.

Authors want to see lots of reviews for their books. Why? Reviews and star rat­ings can move a book up or down the vis­i­bil­ity charts at the e-book stores. Some pro­mo­tion sites won’t con­sider a book unless it has over 15 reviews with a 4.5 star aver­age. But are they really reviews if they’re writ­ten by read­ers and not pro­fes­sional review­ers? Some folks just leave a num­ber of stars and that’s it. Oth­ers write “book reports” and tell the whole story, includ­ing giv­ing away crit­i­cal plot points. But no mat­ter what, the sites want you to assign a num­ber of stars to your review.

What do the stars mean?

At Ama­zon, this is what you see if you hover over each star.

1. I hate it
2. I don’t like it
3. It’s OK
4. I like it
5. I love it

At Barnes & Noble it’s this:

1. Poor
2. Below Aver­age
3. Good
4. Very Good
5. Exceptional

Goodreads uses the fol­low­ing guide­lines:

1. Didn’t like it
2. It was OK
3. Liked it
4. Really liked it
5. It was amazing.

Now, there’s a big dif­fer­ence, in my opin­ion, between “I hate it” and “Didn’t like it.” I’d also con­tend there’s a dif­fer­ence between “Excep­tional” and “Amaz­ing.” But one thing Goodreads and Ama­zon have in com­mon is that they’re ask­ing for opin­ions. Per­sonal reac­tions to the book, which often have noth­ing to do with the qual­ity of the writ­ing. Barnes & Noble’s guide­lines lean more toward content.

The reviews on these book sites are reader ‘reviews’ and many of those who post them have no idea what a ‘review’ means. Per­sonal exam­ple. I noticed a one star review for Rooted in Dan­ger. Since the book received a starred review from Pub­lish­ers Weekly (which are pro­fes­sional reviews, not reader reviews), I won­dered what this reader found so ter­ri­ble. The review said, “All the authors other books are avail­able in dig­i­tal for­mat, but this one is only hard cover.” Is that a book review? Hardly. Nei­ther is the “the book took two weeks to get to me” or “the cover was ripped.”

Read the rest of the post on Terry Odell’s blog.

Done Is Better Than Perfect

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This post, by L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

I recently read this Facebook post, which had dozens of Likes:

A little advice, writers. Don’t think you have to put a whole lot of words on paper every day. What I find is a few words today will encourage more tomorrow. The point is for those few to be brilliant.


I respectfully disagree… that is, if you want to make a living as novelist, or least sell moderately well. If you’re writing just for your own pleasure, you can do whatever you want. But striving for a few brilliant words every day will not produce a finished novel, let alone a body of work.

I realize many writers have full-time jobs and kids at home to take care of. I did too, for most of my writing career. But I found that setting aside blocks of time in which I could write whole scenes for chapters worked better for me than trying to write a little something every day.

And brilliance? Why even think about it? Most readers aren’t looking for brilliance; they just want a good story with interesting characters. So laboring over every word and every sentence is too paralyzing. If you want to produce something for people to read, then you have to finish the story.

Done is always better than perfect.

I’m not implying that I don’t care about quality or craftsmanship. I definitely do. In the second, third, and fourth drafts, I polish my prose as much as I can. But I don’t worry about producing beautiful turns of phrase or poetic descriptions. As Elmore Leonard says, “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

In my prose, I strive for clarity, readability, and rhythm. In my word count, I strive for consistent daily production while I write the first draft. Getting the whole story down in a short period of time is my goal—because it works. The longer it takes to write the first draft, the more I struggle with keeping the whole story in my head and making the timing work out.

I’ve known people who spent five or ten years writing the same novel and never finishing it. That must be purposeful. They must not want to finish because finishing means letting someone read it. And that’s scary. I understand.

But I want people to read my stories, and I don’t care if no one ever calls my writing brilliant.

The woman who wrote the post may have thought she was being encouraging to authors. But telling writers to strive for a few brilliant words every day is bad advice on both levels… unless she was trying to thin out the market competition.

What do you think of that advice? What works to keep you motivated?

 

Writing Big Scenes In A Novel

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This post, by Steven Ramirez, originally appeared on his Glass Highway site and is reprinted here in its entirety with the author’s permission.

Normally I don’t like to talk about a work-in-progress. For me, it’s better to actually write than talk about the writing. Anyway, here’s the thing. I’ve been slogging through my new zombie novel—yes, that’s right, I am daring to be awesome—and I am at the point where things need to get bigger. I mean, really big. Like soldiers and guns against ravening armies of the Undead. My only problem? I don’t do big.

If you’ve read any of my work, you’ll know right away that I am the kind of writer who likes to focus on small, tense situations with very few characters. And over the years I’ve refined those particular chops. I am pretty comfortable coming up with painful dilemmas for these poor imaginary souls. And I always find a way to write my way out of them. Or else the characters die at the end, which is fine with me.

But now I’ve taken on a much bigger project, which is not to say I am writing about the zombie apocalypse. No, there are plenty of good books, movies and television shows covering that ground. I am particularly fond of ‘The Walking Dead‘ on AMC.

Small can be Big My story has more in common with the original ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ You know how that one goes, right? First, there’s a single zombie (actually they are referred to as ghouls in the movie) stumbling around the cemetery where Johnny and Barbra have just laid a wreath at their father’s grave. Soon the gates of Hell open and now a bunch of twitchy strangers are trapped in a farmhouse, trying to find a way to stay alive while outside a horde of these ghouls is clawing its way in.

I watched George A. Romero’s excellent horror movie the other night and guess what. It still holds up. The writing is great. Not only is there the requisite gore but he gives us plenty of humor as well. Like when the field reporter, played by Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille, interviews Sheriff McClelland and asks him, “Are they slow-moving, chief?” People pay good money for those kinds of laughs.

Romero does a great job of hinting at a bigger movie. Through a series of television reports, he lets us know that pretty much the entire eastern third of the United States has been overrun by ghouls. He tells us that top scientists are meeting with the President of the United States and that soon the National Guard could be deployed. But he never shows us those scenes—brilliant!

Now of course if you interviewed Mr. Romero, he’d probably smile affectionately like you were some kind of moron and say something like, “Of course, I didn’t show that. We had no money!” Fair enough.

Getting back to my book… Budget is irrelevant so I am free to write big scenes if I want to. The problem is, I really don’t know how without mimicking every apocalyptic disaster movie ever made. I refer to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. In that book, the unnamed narrator carefully describes the Martian invasion. Compare that to Steven Spielberg’s version from 2005. Night and day, my friend. Night and day.

Time for Plan “B” Because these kinds of set pieces don’t come naturally to me, I am forced to try another approach. I’ve decided that I will tell myself the story—in my head so that people don’t think I am a lunatic. In fact, I will describe scenes to myself as if I were watching a movie—but my movie.

Once I’ve gotten down the big strokes, I will then dissect the scenes and write about them piece by ear-splitting, gut-busting, brain-bleeding piece. With luck when I suture the parts together, I will have me one whopping good scene.

Will it work? I’m happy to report that I’ve begun to rewrite a few chapters this way and I believe it is in fact working. And to be clear, this is not big for big’s sake. The story requires it. At some point, the National Guard is deployed and given that they usually arrive packing lots of cool weapons, military vehicles and helicopters, things must get bigger. Which leads me to my next problem.

Research is Key Recently I finished reading Stephen King’s excellent On Writing. Unlike James A. Michener, apparently Mr. King doesn’t do a ton of research before banging out a first draft. He is more interested in getting the story out of his system. I imagine the process is like pouring molten bronze into a mold—only there is no mold, just the hot metal holding itself together, somehow defying the laws of physics. Once that’s done and he is revising, he goes back and researches those things that need researching and makes the appropriate adjustments. I actually do some “pre-research,” then more after the first draft.

There’s a lot of research required to make the scenes in my book believable. Not to mention the idioms that people who are in the Army use. On that note, I recently met with a friend of mine, a retired police captain, who clued me in to how a local police department might handle a real outbreak. My next task is to interview someone from the National Guard to better understand how they actually bring order. Fun stuff.

So to recap:

  1. Dream big scenes
  2. Write them in small chunks then string them together
  3. Apply research to correct and enhance the scenes

How does that sound to you? I’d love to hear how other writers handle this. And now for that excellent TV reportage where you’ll hear Sheriff McClelland provide the best description of a zombie ever.

 

Historically Authentic Sexism in Fantasy. Let’s Unpack That.

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This post, by Tansy Rayner Roberts, originally appeared on her blog on 12/9/12.

A great, thoughtful article at the Mary Sue on one of my pet topics: the common justification of sexist fantasy fiction being that it’s historically authentic.

I am BUSY today, far too busy for a rant, but then I felt one coming on, and was worried I might end up with a migraine if I tried to stifle it. You know how it is. So let’s talk about sexism in history vs. sexism in fantasy.

WARNING, ACADEMIC IN THE HOUSE.

I agree with pretty much everything said in the Mary Sue article: when you’re writing fantasy inspired by history, you don’t have to take all the ingrained sexism of historical societies along for the party, and even when you do, you don’t have to write women in a sexist or demeaning way. Your fantasy will not break by treating women as if they are people too.

But my rant is actually not quite about that stuff at all. It’s about history, and this notion that History Is Authentically Sexist. Yes, it is. Sure it is. We all know that. But what do you mean when you say “history?”

History is not a long series of centuries in which men did all the interesting/important things and women stayed home and twiddled their thumbs in between pushing out babies, making soup and dying in childbirth.

History is actually a long series of centuries of men writing down what they thought was important and interesting, and FORGETTING TO WRITE ABOUT WOMEN. It’s also a long series of centuries of women’s work and women’s writing being actively denigrated by men. Writings were destroyed, contributions were downplayed, and women were actively oppressed against, absolutely.

But the forgetting part is vitally important. Most historians and other writers of what we now consider “primary sources” simply didn’t think about women and their contribution to society. They took it for granted, except when that contribution or its lack directly affected men.

This does not in any way mean that the female contribution to society was in fact less interesting or important, or complicated, simply that history – the process of writing down and preserving of the facts, not the facts/events themselves – was looking the other way.

In history, from primary sources through most of the 20th century (I will absolve our current century-in-progress out of kindness but let’s not kid ourselves here), the assumption has always been that men’s actions are more politically and historically significant to society, BECAUSE THEY ARE PERFORMED BY MEN.

 

Read the rest of the post on Tansy Rayner Roberts’ blog.

Flash What? A Quick Look at Flash Fiction

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This post, by Jason Gurley, originally appeared on Writing-World.com.

If you’re anything like me — the traditional short story writer — then perhaps you’ve had the same reaction I exhibited when I first heard of something called “flash fiction.” I stopped, stared, then turned to a writer friend of mine and said, “What?”

Flash fiction has been around for years, but has become increasingly prevalent in the literary community. Once the obscure little sister of the conventional 2,000 word story, flash fiction has shrugged off that obscurity to accept its new position: the intellectually challenging blurb. Dozens of literary publications, both print and online, have shifted their focus to include (or focus exclusively upon) flash fiction.

So what is it?

A Flash in the Pan?
In brief, flash fiction is a short form of storytelling. Defining it by the number of words or sentences or even pages required to tell a story, however, is impossible, for it differs from writer to writer, editor to editor. Some purists insist that it is a complete story told in less than 75 words; others claim 100 should be the maximum. For less-rigid flashers, anything under 1,000 words can be considered flash-worthy. And there are even a few who stretch their limits to 1,500 words.

Not only is the definition of flash fiction unstable, but the name is as well. Pamelyn Casto recounts its various titles in her article Flashes on the Meridian: Dazzled by Flash Fiction:

Other names for it include short-short stories, sudden, postcard, minute, furious, fast, quick, skinny, and micro fiction. In France such works are called nouvelles. In China this type of writing has several interesting names: little short story, pocket-size story, minute-long story, palm-sized story, and my personal favorite, the smoke-long story (just long enough to read while smoking a cigarette). What’s in a name? That which we call flash fiction, by any other name would read as bright.

So we’ve now got a fairly blurry idea of what flash fiction is. The question now: How can one write it?

Flashes of Inspiration
Though the form is by definition extremely short, it is not a medium that tolerates fragemented storytelling. The challenge of flash fiction is to tell a complete story in which every word is absolutely essential, to peel away the frills and lace until you’re left with nothing but the hard, clean-scraped core of a story.

Do not make the mistake of assuming that such bare-bones writing is less than elegant or beautiful. Sometimes beauty, or even inspiration, can be found in the simplest of things.

What makes a complete story? Lila Guzman, author of “Ask the Author”, once told me that a complete story is “A beginning, a middle and end.” How difficult is that?

When it comes to cramming such things into less space than the back of a playing card, it can be very difficult indeed.

Read the rest of the post on Writing-World.com.

End Of Year Reflection: Celebrate What You Have Achieved And Understand What Didn’t Quite Make It

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We are all on the writer’s journey, and each year marks another way-point.
I think it’s important to stop and reflect on the goals we set for the year, celebrating what we achieved and also being accountable for what didn’t quite happen.

I also love being honest with you here, as [The Creative Penn] site keeps me accountable. I hope it also helps you. Here’s my goal-setting post from Jan 2012 [and my updates for each goal].

Fiction

  • Write 2 novels and a novella. I did publish Exodus (ARKANE Book 3) and I have 28,000 words of a new book which I started during NaNoWriMo. I also have 2 novellas under another pen-name. But I didn’t quite make my fiction goals and this is something I need to fix next year.

exodus

  • Sell 50,000 copies of my fiction books by September. I tipped over 50,000 copies a little later than Sept but I made it by December, so that’s not too bad.

J.F.Penn with Lee Child Thriller authors

^ J.F.Penn with Lee Child at Thrillerfest

Go on a writing course/ invest in expanding my fiction skills. I did the Guardian Fiction weekend but primarily I went to Thrillerfest in July 2012, so that was definitely the best investment in my skills. Plus I met some amazing authors!

The Creative Penn, my business

  • Change the site focus to more on the business and less on free (since I pay my bills with this site now). I have focused on more copywriting skills. I did rewrite the Author 2.0 Blueprint. I changed the Home page to reflect what is on offer. I will be doing more of this in 2013.

  • The other course was “Turn Your Ideas Into Cash”, a course on how to create multimedia courses (very meta!) which I did as a joint venture with Women Unlimited, a site for entrepreneurs. If you write non-fiction and want to expand beyond the book, you might be interested in joining this when we next open the doors. You can register your interest here.
  • Go on a silent retreat. Hmm, didn’t manage this. But I have taken up archery which is a kind of meditation :)

Other Celebrations

  • I signed with a NY literary agent. This wasn’t a goal and I still change my mind every day as to whether I want a publishing deal or not, but I definitely want to sell foreign rights, so this is a start, and I would like to explore the hybrid option of having some books with traditional publishing and others as indie. Here’s the reasons why I signed.

  • Non-fiction: I re-wrote and re-released “How to love your job or find a new one”, the book I used to change my own life. I love this book and I hope it helps loads more people. I will have a print version out in the next few months to make it even more accessible.
  • Health. Writing is a sedentary life and I have 13 years of being a miserable cubicle worker/sugar junkie behind me. I’m also heading towards 38. Something had to change this year!

Joanna Penn
I had a specific weight-loss goal and I didn’t quite make it but I did lose 10% of my body weight, which I celebrated by eating lots of chocolate :) I will take the rest off in 2013 as I am finally on a sustainable diet. This isn’t a weight-loss blog but if you’re interested in this type of life change, I put this down to:

(a) Weightwatchers app on the iPhone which acts as a food diary so you accurately understand portion size. This changed how much I ate every meal. Any type of food diary works.

(b) Tim Ferriss’ slow carb diet recommendation of eating protein for breakfast. I have 2 boiled eggs most days and it’s amazing how you don’t get hungry when you start the day with protein. Read this article for more, or get The Four Hour Body

(c) Going Gluten-Free and not replacing the wheat stuff at all e.g. no bread – read ‘Wheat Belly’ if you need convincing.

OK, your turn :)

Quite a number of you shared your goals at the beginning of the year, so I’d love to hear how they have gone.

Or please do share what you’ve achieved as well as what you haven’t in the comments below.

Let’s celebrate and also kick each other in the butts with encouragement to achieve more in 2013! I’ll be back in a few days with my goals for 2013.

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Why I Don't Self-Publish My Stories

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This post, by Jamie Todd Rubin, originally appeared on his site on 12/17/12.

Every now and then, when I write about the vast number of story rejections I’ve collected over the years, I get asked why I don’t self-publish some of the stories that I haven’t sold elsewhere. The short answer is that self-publishing is not for me. To be clear I am speaking only about me and my goals as a writer. Different writers have different goals and different reasons for writing.

I grew up reading science fiction stories and I admired the writers who wrote them. I wanted to be just like them. Most of these writers didn’t self-publish. They went through a process of submission and rejection, until they ultimately started selling stories. Later some of them transitioned to novels. Each of them had to overcome some kind of editorial bar. While this editorial bar is an arbitrary judgement of quality, it nonetheless means something to me. I think of it like trying out for a baseball team. No one just starts in the majors. You play ball in Little League, and work your way up to the older leagues. Then there is junior varsity and varsity ball. Maybe college ball and if you are really talented and lucky, the pros. But who judges that talent? That bar that is set to get the pros is set high for a reason. This doesn’t mean you can’t settle into an adult softball league and have a blast. It also doesn’t mean that settling into such a league implies a lack of talent. It’s just a different path.

When I started out writing, I did so with the intent of being just like those writers I admired so much, and that meant, as much as possible, following in their literary footsteps. I always tried to keep the bar high for me. It wasn’t just about getting my stories in front of as many eyes as possible. It was about honing my craft so that the stories I wrote were good stories, worthy of a position in the same magazines as my heroes’ stories appeared. It meant that I rarely submitted stories to magazines which were not considered “pro” markets until after I made my first “pro” sale.

Then, too, I might like a story I write. I might love it, but I am probably the worst judge of my own stories. Who might be qualified to tell me if the story is any good? It seems to me that a professional editor at one of the major magazines is just that person. They are extensively read within the genre. They know what sells and what does not. Sure, their opinions are their own, but it is the same yardstick that applied to my heroes, so why not to me as well?

Read the rest of the post on Jamie Todd Rubin’s site.

Designing Character Interviews That Really Matter (Including Genre-Inspired Questions)

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This post, by Juliette Wade, originally appeared on TalkToYoUniverse on 12/17/12.

I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of character-interview posts, but I’m hoping this one won’t be like most you’ve seen elsewhere, so stick with me. I’m writing it as an update and expansion of one of my most popular posts of all time, “Know Your Character Inside and Out.” The post will have two parts: first, a discussion of what criteria make questions more useful and less pointlessly trivial, and below that, a list of questions that deal with world and identity, and with genre (so you can skip down if you like).

Okay, so why should you conduct a mock interview with your character? What is it that makes a character interview more than just a bunch of random silly questions?

You can learn a lot from an interview if you conduct it the right way. The first thing to do is to think about who you are as an interviewer. You are the author who will be telling this character’s story, so the questions you want answered have to do with the character and his/her role in that story. You won’t be wanting to ask the kinds of questions that a neighbor or relative might ask, or the kinds of questions that an entertainment TV interviewer might ask. It’s possible you may have some overlap between your own questions and those types of questions, but only if there is neighbor, relative, or TV entertainment content in your story.

You will want to ask the kinds of questions that help you understand your character and where he/she fits in his/her world. Don’t ask what an alien thinks of coffee, for example, unless that alien will be encountering coffee in the story. You will want to know about what kinds of expectations your character holds, because story events will be judged on the basis of those expectations, and you can construct a backstory based on the type of expectations that person needs to have. You will want to know a lot about your character’s emotions, because emotions are what give dynamics to your story. The questions you choose should grow out of what you already know about the plot and conflict, and the needs of the story, which will differ according to genre. Here are some of the many things that interconnect for a character:

world, culture, personal history, psychology, judgment, reaction, motive, action

You can enter into this web at any point, but from there you should follow the interconnections to get insight into other areas.

Before I head into the questions, let me make one last point about judgment. Judgment to me is one of the most important things you can understand about a character. This does not necessarily mean that you have to show or explain that character’s judgment on the page (I like to, personally) but people need to have reasons why they do the things they do. For that reason, I like to angle my interview questions to elicit judgments, not just information. For example, I think “how many brothers and sisters do you have” is a far less helpful question than, “What do you think of your family members?” Answers to the first type of question will be numbers. Answers to the second could range from “I don’t think about my family at all because I’m too busy” to “Every time I think of my eldest brother, terrifying memories well up in me and I can’t bear to think about it.”

The last suggestion I will make is that you should always let your character answer in the first person, because that means you’ll be more likely to discover things about character voice as you go along.

The Interview Questions

Read the rest of the post on TalkToYoUniverse.

Why Side Characters Steal the Spotlight (and How to Steal Some Back)

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This post, by Susan J. Morris, originally appeared on Omnivoracious on 12/24/12.

Main characters, as we all know, are golden gods of absolute awesomeness, with sharp intellects, shiny biceps, and sparkling personalities that make fair folk of all genders faint out of sheer want—both in and outside of the novel. Okay, that’s not really true (we all know biceps can’t really shine: they glisten). But even so, it can feel like it when we think about the huge amount of pressure that rests on the glistening deltoids of any main character: the direction of the action, the flavor of the narration, and most importantly, addiction of the readership. (No pressure.)

So, given all that (and how very much time you can spend on your main character as a result), it’s amazing how some random, throwaway character, who was only supposed to have maybe ten seconds of fame–max–can suddenly steal all the spotlight and demand your readership’s full attention (not to mention the author’s). Somehow, what your imagination coughed up in a moment of thoughtless need ends up being more gripping than the most carefully crafted character, in whom you’ve invested every hope and expectation!

But what makes these seemingly accidents of ink, these minor–yet somehow spectacular–characters so enthralling? It has, I think, something to do with those very pressures and expectations that make a main character so important to begin with. Here are a few different reasons that side characters can outshine main characters, along with a few suggestions as to how your main character can get her sparkle back.

Mary Sues Always Lose

Remember all that pressure we talked about? It weighs a character down, and forces them into a tiny little box where their every personality trait is measured for its heroic quotient before being allowed out to play. And there’s a good reason that! I mean think about it: generally speaking, no one wants a hero who is unlikable, foolish, incapable, or, worst of all, boring (unless, of course, it’s a “thing”). So it follows that heroes tend to be likable, smart, and capable of extraordinary things–as well as anything else the author believes befitting of a hero.* For example, if an author admires those who can operate coolly and logically under pressure, then his main character will likely do the same.

Of course, all this pressure, constraining your character in all those ways, is almost a surefire way to make your main character dead boring. I mean, if your hero isn’t going to get herself into trouble, then you’re by definition leaving all of the most interesting parts to the side characters and villains (and getting into trouble is ever so much more fun–and more engaging–than getting out of trouble)!

Side characters, now–there isn’t half as much pressure on them. And this leaves them remarkably free to be awesome. Which is perhaps why many of the most interesting (conceptually anyway) characters start out as side characters. So here’s a trick: instead of treating your main character like the . . . well, main character, try treating them like a side character. And instead of trying to create a main character who can serve as a touchstone for ordinary in a sea of extraordinary, try to think of who the most interesting character would be, given the themes and scenes in your novel—someone who would react in original and entertaining ways. You may be surprised how much more interesting a main character can be, when they don’t have the weight of an entire novel (or more!) on their shoulders.

*Which, by and large, tend to fit in a fairly narrow box that you could set on your windowsill, and which the neighbor ladies and gents could pass by and murmur approvingly of what a well-mannered, appropriately heroic box it is.

That’s Not a Character: That’s a Camera!

 

Read the rest of the post on Omnivoracious.

Smashwords Year in Review 2012 – The Power in Publishing is Shifting to Authors

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Welcome to my annual Smashwords year in review.

In the last 12 months, tens of thousands of new authors and publishers have joined the Smashwords community. I welcome you.

A brief introduction to Smashwords is in order.

I founded Smashwords in 2008 to change the way books are published, marketed and sold. I realized that the traditional publishing industry was broken. Publishers were unable, unwilling and disinterested to take a chance on every writer.

Today, Smashwords has grown to become the world’s largest distributor of ebooks from self-published authors and small independent presses.

The idea behind Smashwords was simple: I wanted to create a free ebook self-publishing platform that would allow me to take a risk on every writer. I wanted to give every writer the freedom to publish, and every reader the freedom to read what they wanted.

Back in 2007, we designed our logo with this revolutionary ideal in mind. The up-thrusting fist holding the book represented our desire to transfer the power of publishing to writers and readers. Today, we still refer to it as our “Power to the people” logo.

The revolution is now in full swing. Indie authors know ebook self-publishing is the future of publishing. Ebook retailers know this as well. Traditional publishers, however, have been slow to grasp the transformative impact the self-publishing revolution is having on the industry.

We’re entering a golden age of publishing. The ebook self-publishing revolution will lead to a more great books being published than ever before. More books will touch the souls of more readers, because indie ebooks make books accessible, affordable and discoverable to more people. These books, in all their diverse and controversial glory, are cultural treasures.

Our authors know that every writer – every one of us – is special, and those who doubt this truth will become the dinosaurs of tomorrow. You can’t truly honor the culture of books without honoring the writers who create them. You can’t truly honor the value of books if you measure their value by perceived commercial merit alone. You either value the human potential of all writers, or none at all.

Every day, I’m thankful that so many writers, readers and retailers have supported the cause of self-published ebooks. Every day, I’m tickled pink that so many authors, publishers and retailers have partnered with Smashwords, because without your trust and support, we wouldn’t be here.

Unlike self-publishing services that earn their income by selling over-priced services to authors, Smashwords doesn’t sell services. The money flows to the author. We earn our commission only if we help sell books. We think our approach aligns our interests with the interests of our authors and publishers.

Since most books don’t sell well, and we rely entirely on commissions, it’s incredibly difficult to build a profitable business doing what we do. We figured out how to do it.

Smashwords highlights for 2012
2012 was another incredible year for the Smashwords authors, publishers, literary agents, retailers, libraries, and customers we serve.

Here are some of our key milestones for 2012:

  • Catalog growth: We’re ending the year with more 190,500 books at Smashwords. 98,000 new titles were added to the Smashwords catalog this year. This is up from 92,500 at the end of 2011, and up from 28,800 at the end of 2010, 6,000 in 2009, and 140 our first year in 2008.
  • More authors/publishers/literary agents choosing Smashwords: Smashwords today supports 58,000 authors and small publishers around the world, up from 34,000 at the end of 2011, 12,100 in 2010, 2,400 in 2009, and 90 in 2008.
  • Profitability: Smashwords has been profitable for 27 straight months, and our profitability is growing as our business grows. We’ve done this without bringing in outside venture capital, which means we’re free to pursue our unconventional business model without the interference of outside investors. Profitability is important, because it means we’re here for the long haul. It means we have the resources to reinvest in our business for the benefit of the authors, publishers, retailers, libraries, and readers we serve. Nowhere is this investment more apparent than in our staffing numbers (next item).
  • Employee Count: We’re ending 2012 with 19 employees, up from 13 in 2011, and 3 in 2010. This year we continued to invest heavily in customer service and software development.
  • Faster-Faster-Faster: Thanks to investments in technology and staffing, we’re providing faster conversions, faster Premium Catalog approvals, faster response times to support inquiries, faster distributions to Apple, Kobo and Barnes & Noble, and faster sales reporting. We will improve further on all counts in 2013.
  • Libraries: We signed new distribution deals with library aggregators such as Baker & Taylor Axis360, 3M Cloud Library and one other major aggregator not yet announced. We added support for custom library pricing, and we introduced Library Direct to support libraries that operate their own ebook checkout systems under the Douglas County Model.
  • Ebook Distribution Systems: We began a complete re-architecture of our ebook distribution systems to enable faster, more accurate ebook distributions and metadata updates.
  • Smashwords Profiled in Forbes Magazine: This was a big deal for us. For the first time ever, we revealed to the world our revenues (Forbes requires that startups they profile reveal numbers). Later in the year, we received coverage in the New York Times and Time Magazine. The indie ebook revolution is starting to go mainstream, though I think we’re all still flying below the radar. That’ll change in 2013.
  • Improved categorization: We completed adding support for thousands of BISAC categories to help our author’s books land on the correct virtual shelf.
  • Merchandising collaboration with retail partners: We ramped up our merchandising collaboration with retailers, especially Apple, which has been incredibly proactive and creative in working with us to create new opportunities to connect Smashwords books with millions of their customers (See Apple’s Breakout Books promo). We continued to build tools to help our retailers identify books worthy of promotional love, because these tools help Smashwords authors sell more books and help retailers satisfy more of their customers, which is their primary objective.
  • Retailers earning millions of dollars from the sale of Smashwords books: Our retail partners have made incredible investments to help list, maintain, promote, merchandise, and sell our books to their customers. I’m pleased to say their investments are paying off. We want our retail partners to do well with our books, because the value they provide to our authors and publishers far exceeds the sales commission they earn.
  • We released the Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success: In March, I released this free ebook, which identifies the 28 best practices of the most commercially successful Smashwords authors. It’s the lastest in a series of free ebooks I’ve written that promote professional publishing best practices. Along with The Smashwords Style Guide (how to publish an ebook) and the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to promote any book and build author platform), my three books combined have now been downloaded over 250,000 times. Thousands of our authors and publishers have since put these practices to work.
  • Amazon: Our relationship with Amazon has been frustrating. Even though Smashwords authors have the freedom to bypass Smashwords and work directly with many of our retail partners, about 80% of our authors choose to distribute through Smashwords. They appreciate the time-saving convenience and simplicity of centrally managing their books and metadata from the Smashwords Dashboard. Unlike every other major retailer, Amazon has not yet provided us the ability to do large, automated distributions and metadata updates. As a result, our authors who would prefer to reach Amazon through Smashwords are forced to upload direct to Amazon. Although I remain hopeful Amazon will one day see fit to treat us as a partner rather than a competitor to be crushed, killed and destroyed, I’m not holding my breath. We’ve built a healthy, profitable and fast-growing business without their help, and we’ve done this despite their attempts to harm us and our retail partners. Unlike traditional publishers which would probably go bankrupt if they stopped distributing to Amazon, we face no such noose. In the meantime, we focus our energy on helping our true retail partners succeed in the marketplace.
  • We protected your right to publish legal content: When PayPal tried to ban certain categories of “objectional” books, we pushed back, and led a broad coalition of authors and pro-books advocates to overturn PayPal’s proposed policies. PayPal and the credit card companies decided to do the right thing. It was a victory for all authors, and demonstrated the growing power of the indie author movement, especially when we stick together and work toward a common cause. At Smashwords, we’re always advocating for the rights of our authors. Much of this advocacy happens quietly behind the scenes, outside the glare of press releases and media spotlight. We’re all in this together.
  • Smashwords Direct: Today, we released Smashwords Direct, a new publishing option at Smashwords that allows authors and publishers to upload professionally designed .epub files for distribution through the Smashwords network. The service complements our Meatgrinder conversion engine by enabling us to support ebooks with more complex formatting requirements.

Industry Highlights: When we started Smashwords five years ago, self publishing was viewed as the option of last resort, and 99.95 of writers aspired to publish through traditional publishers. The stigma of self publishing that was so prevalent five years ago has given way to new credibility, as Smashwords authors top all the bestseller lists and set the example for the next generation of writers.

At the same time, we’re seeing a growing stigma develop around traditional publishers, which continue to underserve authors and readers. Just as traditional publishers were slow to embrace ebooks before they began their breakout in 2009, publishers have also been slow to recognize the transformative impact self-publishing will have on the business of books. Self-published ebooks still account for the minority of ebook sales, but just as ebooks will one-day eclipse print books, so too will self-publishing eclipse traditional publishing.

In 2012, some Big 6 publishers bumbled their way into the self-publishing business, starting with Pearson/Penguin’s acquisition in July of the granddaddy of vanity presses, Author Solutions (ASI). In November, oblivious to all the screaming indie authors who called foul about the business practices of ASI, Simon & Schuster introduced its own self-publishing imprint called Archway Publishing, powered by none other than ASI, and proudly offered publishing packages ranging from $1,000 to $25,000. Twenty-five thousand dollars? How do they sleep at night? By adopting the worst practices of the worst vanity presses, publishers telegraphed to the writer community what they really think about authors: Only a few of you are worth the investment of our time, talent and resources, and the rest of you are worth only the money in your wallet.

It was a cynical move. A move that will damage the already diminishing credibility of large, traditional publishers, even those which haven’t made such a bone-headed move.

In my 2011 Smashwords Year-in-Review post last year, I wrote:

“I think few people in the traditional publishing industry comprehend how this indie author revolution will transform their business in the next few years. Their world is about to be turned upside down.”

They still don’t get it. From the perspective of indie authors, it’s starting to not matter. Publishers risk irrelevanance if they don’t adopt more progressive business policies soon.

The writing is on the wall. Traditional publishers are earning well-deserved ridicule and stigma at the very time indie authors are shedding their stigma by blazing a better path forward. What I tell you here isn’t pie-in-sky theory or empty pontification. The numbers tell the story.

In 2010, it was virtually unheard-of for an indie ebook author to hit the bestseller lists at retailers, let alone the NY Times bestseller list. In 2011, indies began to hit the bestseller lists on a more regular basis, but it was still rare. In 2012, indie ebooks were frequently listed among the top 10 bestsellers at major retailers, and multiple indie authors landed books in the bestseller lists maintained by The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and others. For example, the week of August 4, 2012, four Smashwords authors hit the NY Times fiction ebooks list in the same week. Next year we’ll see more, and within a couple years indies will dominate all the bestseller lists and it’ll be seen as business as usual.

Some industry watchers might label my prediction delusional. Indie authors know it’s real because some of them are experiencing it today, and they’re sharing their results with their fellow indies. At Smashwords, where we distribute books to most major retailers, we see the sales numbers. We see how our books are starting to earn more dollars than many traditionally published books. This growth is not because Smashwords is wonderful, it’s because all writers are wonderful. You can’t love books without loving the writers who write them.

What’s driving the rise of indie ebooks? There are multiple factors, chief among them include:

  1. Indie authors are learning to become professional publishers – Indies are pioneering the publishing best practices of tomorrow, as I note in the Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. They’re becoming more sophisticated publishers, and they’re starting to publish better books, priced more competitively, written more responsively to reader tastes, and more broadly distributed.
  2. It’s a game of numbers – Although only a small fraction of indie ebooks grace the bestseller lists, the publishing output of indie authors is unprecedented. Authors are now releasing over 9,000 books per month on the Smashwords platform. Thanks to such democratized publishing and distribution, the business of publishing has become available and accessible to all writers, for FREE. Writers who were previously shut out of publishing – simply because the conventional publishing business was broken and unable to take a risk on every author – are now publishing for free at Smashwords and elsewhere. Writers who previously gave up on writing are now writing again, because every writer can now confidently begin a book and know that it will be published, one way or another.

    In my 2013 book publishing predictions post, I talked about how future bestsellers are like baby black swans. They’re extremely rare, and hidden and indistinguishable amid flocks of baby black geese. Publishers devote enormous energy trying to cull the flock and eliminate the geese, yet at the same time they’re also indiscriminately culling black swans. Self-publishing changes this. Self-publishing gives all writers – the geese and rare swans alike – the freedom to publish direct to their readers, today, and be judged. Readers are the only ones capable of reliably identifying the black swans. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Readers have always created bestsellers through their impassioned word-of-mouth.

    When we analyze the future of publishing, where authors become more professional, and all books are given a chance in the marketplace, the law of numbers would indicate that it becomes a reasonable and inevitable conclusion that self-publishing will hatch more black swan bestsellers of the future than traditional publishing. The vaunted editorial gatekeeping function of publishers, long mistakenly believed to be a public service, has become a public disservice. At the end of the day the smart folks in publishing can only guess at what readers want to read. Publishers have long been in the business of throwing spaghetti against the wall, and then retroactively taking credit for the few books that become bestsellers. Now writers can throw their own spaghetti, and when it’s cooked just right, the author can take the deserved credit.

  3. Retailers welcome indie ebooks – Retailers have been true enablers in the ebook revolution. Ever since 2009, every major retailer has welcomed self-published ebooks. These retailers have collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars to bring readers to their stores, and these readers are purchasing these books. Retailers and authors alike are earning millions of dollars for their efforts, which makes it a win-win for retailer and author.
  4. Ebook Self publishing is simply a superior method of publishing – Ebooks cost less to produce, package and distribute than print books. There’s no inventory, and therefore no returns of unsold inventory. With a traditional publisher, it often takes 12 months or more before the book is released. With indie ebooks, the book is published instantly to a worldwide market. The indie author enjoys greater creative freedom, a closer relationship with their readers, the ability to earn 85-100% net as opposed to the paltry 25% of net paid by publishers, and the ability to price lower – which has the virtuous effect of driving greater sales volume, faster platform-building and greater author profits. Unlike the static print books of yesteryear, ebooks are living creatures. Indie authors can leverage Viral Catalysts (see my Secrets ebook for more on these) to make their books more available, more discoverable and more enjoyable. Unlike print books, most of which quickly go out of print, Indie ebooks need never go out of print. Ebooks are immortal.
  5. Reading is moving to screens – Ebooks as a percentage of the overall trade book market will reach about 30% in 2012, up from 19% in 2011, 8% in 2010, 3% in 2009, and 1% in 2008. Within two years, ebooks will account for over 50% of book sales. As noted in my 2013 predictions, I predict that the number of books read on screens will exceed the number read on paper in 2013. If authors want to reach readers, indie ebooks are the fastest, most efficient method of doing so.
  6. The global opportunity – The ebook retailers expanded their global footprint in 2012, and will expand further in 2013. This means an author in Columbia can upload their book to Smashwords today and see that book available for sale in the Apple iBookstore in their home country in a matter of days. And because that book is written in Spanish, it’s also available in the world’s largest Spanish-speaking markets across North, Central and South America (and Spain too!). Authors can publish locally and reach readers globally. This kind of global publishing and distribution simply wasn’t feasible under the old print model.
  7. Stigmas of traditional publishers increasing as self-publishing gains street cred – Many Smashwords authors now publish direct to their readers and don’t even bother to shop their books to agents and publishers. At multiple writers’ conferences this year, I lost track of the number of times authors approached me and said words to the effect of, “I’ve been waiting for years to get picked up by a publisher. I’m done waiting. I’m going to self-publish and get out there now.”

What’s Coming to Smashwords in 2013?
At Smashwords we consider our business in constant beta. Every day we’re tweaking our business processes and technology to make everything we do faster, more reliable, more scalable, more efficient and more competitive.

In 2013 we will continue to invest in people and technology to better serve our authors, publishers, retailers, and libraries.
Here’s a brief sampling of what you can expect from Smashwords in 2013:

  • Discovery – We’ll improve our metadata to make our books more discoverable by readers. One such example is series. Currently, we don’t offer an elegant method of identifying books in a series. You’ll see this in 2013.
  • Retailer Merchandising – We’ll continue building tools, processes and relationships that give Smashwords-distributed books increased visibility to the merchandising managers at the major ebook retailers. By serving our retailers, and helping them identify Smashwords books that are worthy of extra in-store promotion, many of our authors will enjoy merchandising advantages not available to other authors.
  • More Distribution – We’ll continue to create new distribution opportunities for our authors and publishers. We believe the more high-quality retailers promoting our books to readers, the better.
  • Faster Distribution – In 2011, we shipped books to our retailers once per week. In 2012 we began shipping multiple times daily to Apple, once-daily to Kobo, and twice-weekly to Barnes & Noble. In 2013 we will continue to work with our retail partners to allow faster shipments and faster metadata updates. This will give authors greater control over their distribution.
  • Faster Reporting – We provided faster sales reporting in 2012, compared to the previous year, but we still have much improvement to make, both in speed and schedule consistency. We will continue to make incremental progress here in 2013.
  • Faster Premium Catalog Approvals – Six months ago Premium Catalog approvals took up to 13 days from the date of upload. Today approval times range from 1-5 days. We will continue to add staff and technology to improve the speed of reviews so your books can reach retailers faster.
  • Improvements to Smashwords Store – When people tell us the design of the Smashwords store is so circa 2000, we take it as a compliment because we think they’re being generous by at least a decade. The Smashwords web site user interface is outdated. We’ve neglected the design and customer experience of the Smashwords store, in favor of investing our limited resources on the distribution side of our business where we generate over 90% of our revenue.

    2013 is the year we will give the Smashwords store a facelift, not because we have designs on becoming a large ebook retailer (well, actually, we already are, even though that’s not our focus), but because we think an updated site will help us attract more books and more customers that we can feed to our retail partners. In 2013, expect to see us start adding links to some of our retail partners, so the millions of visitors to the Smashwords site can enjoy greater freedom to purchase our books and support our authors at their favorite ebook retailers. Although an individual ebook sale at Smashwords earns the author a higher royalty than a book sold at our retail partners, a book sold at our retailers brings a multiplier advantage, because it drives their “also bought” algorithms. Put most simply, our retailer partners with their broader customer reach have the ability to turn each sale into more sales than we can at the Smashwords site.

  • Improvements to Smashwords Direct – As I write this, Smashwords Direct has been operational for about one day. We’ll make multiple iterative improvements to Smashwords Direct in 2013 because we want to make it as easy as possible for Smashwords to become the ebook distributor of choice for as many authors and publishers around the world as possible.
  • Expansion of “Mark’s List” – A couple of years ago, we created a simple auto-responder email (email to list@smashwords.com) that contains a list of recommended, low-cost ebook formatters and cover designers. When you hire off of this list, all your money goes straight to the service provider performing the work. We don’t receive a commission, advertising fee or kickback of any sort. This means you gain access to valuable services at the lowest possible cost. Most of the providers are fellow Smashwords authors. We’ll expand the list in 2013 to contain more service categories. The application process will be announced at Smashwords Site Updates as we open up the list to more providers. There may be some surprises, but I’ll save that for another time.

My thanks to you
I want to express my sincere appreciation to every Smashwords author, publisher, reader, retailer, literary agent, service provider partner, and angel who has supported Smashwords over the last few years. I want to especially thank authors who continued distributing their books through Smashwords despite the inevitable growing pains experienced by both Smashwords and our retailers. Those of you who left and are considering returning, I thank you too. Your support of Smashwords – especially your decision to distribute through Smashwords – is what fuels our ability to serve the greater community of all writers around the world.

Although I’m excited by what we’ve accomplished thanks to your talent and support, I’m even more excited by the future that lies ahead of us. I still believe we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible. I believe that within five years, the majority of bestselling ebooks will be published by self-published authors, and I want those authors to be Smashwords authors. Help me realize this, because working together we can create a better future for writers, readers, retailers, libraries, and all those who contribute to the culture of books.

Happy New Year and safe holidays. Peace to all.

 

This is a reprint of a post by Mark Coker that originally appeared on the Smashwords blog on 12/31/12.