Publetariat

A Long, Detailed Look at Distribution Windows

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This post, from Kassia Krozser, originally appeared on her Booksquare site on 12/8/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

Has there ever been an industry more unwilling to make its customers happy than publishing? Simon & Schuster and Hachette have (independently) decided they’re going to hold back the ebook releases of some titles. Not all of course. Most likely just the ones they paid far too much for anyway. They’re taking a stand by creating marketplace confusion…some books yes, some books no. Consumers will need to guess.

Gee, that’s a good idea. But not a problem for me. If the book isn’t available, I’ll buy something else. I won’t be checking back in three or four months, because, well, clearly the publishers don’t want my money. And the chances of me remembering? Going with nil to nada. And even if I do, what bright and shiny new books will capture my attention…?

This new delay relates to windowing, the concept of moving a product through specific retail channels for specific periods of time. Windowing is a concept that works really well in the motion picture industry, though studios are trying to compress those windows, while the music industry (another business prone to overpaying advances) works with simultaneous release of formats.

[Part One: Response to Nat Sobel]

The window argument, as practiced by the motion picture industry, is often cited as justification for withholding digital books (and even trade and mass market paperbacks). To me, this represents a flawed understanding of how money flows in the motion picture industry. Books and movies are not comparable.

But first, let’s talk about rebellion. Nat Sobel used the window argument with an unconvincing twist. He chose Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as an example. Despite being pulled early by a number of [unnamed] exhibitors, it grossed, am I reading this right?, $30.1 million on 3,119 screens. I haven’t seen this film, so I don’t know if the sub-Pixar numbers are warranted, but I can tell you this: with that many screens reporting for opening week (generally the most lucrative; mama didn’t raise no stupid exhibitors!), the protest was, at best, muted. Like books, movies suffer from the limited marketing attention, though motion picture awareness and dollars are much higher. New titles are constantly displacing old, to the point where a release from a month ago is largely forgotten.

(Engrave that thought on your brain.)

Yes, motion pictures (a category that includes feature films, television series, and made-for-video/DVD) cycle through a series of windows. Those windows are growing ever-tighter, especially the one between theatrical release and home entertainment. It’s a money thing. The difference between books and motion pictures is this: a revenue continuum with direct, indirect, and sometimes repeat consumer sales.

Say that three times fast!

So what do I mean by “revenue continuum with direct, indirect, and sometimes repeat consumer sales”? Good question. Let’s walk through an oversimplified (ha!) feature film lifecycle. I think it’s instructive to dissect if this what publishing thinks it wants. Note: I am purposely leaving out some, mostly ancillary, revenue streams (this is not a master class), and there may be steps skipped in real life. Also, I am leaving out marketing costs associated with trade shows.

  • Theatrical: Movie is shown in a theatrical setting. It’s generally the first time people interact with the film, and if it’s good, they might pay two or three (or more) times to watch it again. Popcorn and really huge sodas are often involved. The money split is interesting, with studios getting decreasing returns the longer the film is in the theater (90/10, 80/20, 70/30, and so on; unless it’s an art house film, which plays out differently). Marketing costs are largely borne by studios (big, huge marketing costs) with co-op between studio and theater also in play. Consumer sales: direct.
     
  • Non-Theatrical: This is a pretty big market with not a lot of dollars. It’s all showings outside the traditional theater setting (prisons, schools, boats). Airline sales are generally lumped into this group. Some consumers may be watching the film for the first time; others caught it in the theater. Most marketing costs are borne by the third party, though some co-op comes into play in “theatrical non-theatrical” settings. Consumer sales: direct (ticket, pay-to-view) and indirect (streaming on airplane).
     
  • Pay-Per-View: A television-based market. Consumers pay to access a movie. First-timers and repeat viewers are engaged. New models are emerging. Marketing mostly a function of the third party, though, again, possibility for third party. Consumer sales: generally direct.
     

  • Home Entertainment: Right now, this is mostly DVD, and for a long time, it was the golden egg. Home entertainment covered that awful gap between production, marketing, and print costs and, oh, profitability. People have largely finished with building their libraries, and now purchase more selectively.

    At its most basic, the home entertainment market breaks down into three areas: sell-through (consumer purchases product), rental/premium (Blockbuster, Netflix), and streaming (models emerging all the time). Again, first-timers and repeat customers. Marketing has trended toward the theatrical model. Consumer sales: direct and indirect.

  • Pay Television: In this instance, we’re talking about the premium pay channels like HBO and Showtime. Big bucks are paid by premium channels for the privilege of an exclusive television window (U.S. only) starting about 12-13 months after theatrical release. First-timers and repeat customers tune in; people who paid in the theater or own the DVD are funding the license fee if they’re also premium pay subscribers. Marketing mostly borne by the third party. Consumer sales: indirect (money not associated with a specific product).
     
  • Network Television/Basic Cable: Other stuff is happening between Pay and Network, and it’s discussed below. Once upon a time, the network debut of a motion picture was a big deal (and reasonably lucrative). It’s less so now. Basic cable has picked up some of the slack here. First-timers and repeat customers. Marketing largely borne by network/cable channel. Consumer sales: indirect.
     
  • Syndicated Television: This is the never-ending revenue stream (or seemingly never-ending). International sales do kick in earlier in the lifecycle (and are a mix of pay and free, depending on the country), and domestic syndication happens after the network window. Films are syndicated like crazy. In a 24-hour programming world, there is always time to be filled. First-timers and repeat customers. Marketing largely borne by individual stations, though some additional dollars may shake loose, especially if a barter arrangement is employed. Consumer sales: Direct and indirect (mostly indirect, as a lot of this activity is ad supported in free television markets).
     
  • Wash, Rinse, Repeat: In addition to the ongoing television sales, home entertainment sales continue. Sometimes a film will get be reissued theatrically, sometimes an older title will show up on an airplane (crazy, but it happened to me on a flight!). As long as a product can be sold, it will be sold. Marketing: situation dependent. Consumer investment: ditto.

So that’s what I mean about the revenue continuum. So how do books fit into this model? Well, let’s see. Gifts aside, books are generally a one time sale (more if that consumer suffers from my particular form of insanity and poor library management). As you can surmise from above, there is never an actual gap in the windows. Ever. Okay, books can do that.

And, as you can surmise from above, there is a marketing continuum. Studio and theater advertising leads to airline advertising leads to retailer and studio advertising leads to premium pay advertising leads to network advertising leads to endless commercials in the free television space. Well, I guess books can do that. I mean, it’s gonna take some work to keep titles in the minds of readers, but, sure, I’ll play along. The key to success here is constant marketing. Luckily the costs are spread among players. This stuff gets expensive. Trust me. I’ve been there.

Note: without this ongoing effort, all hope is lost.

Differences. “Windows” in books don’t have that lovely mix of direct and indirect money. They don’t have that revenue continuum. Authors only get paid on that first sale. Actors, directors, and other get residuals and participations, whether the sales are direct or indirect. A hardcover window doesn’t protect hardcover sales from anything but people who want to buy the book in another format (the horror, people who want to buy books!).

I’ll be absolutely frank about one thing: publishers have already lost the pricing battle. They’re being subsidized by Amazon and Barnes & Noble now, but if they cannot figure out how to make their business work in a consumer-friendly way, well, we saw how ugly it got for the music business. I love that some publishers argue that it’s for the authors, because we all know how many authors actually earn a living wage from their writing. It’s a business thing, I get that, and there is definitely concern for authors. There’s just as much concern for the bottom line.

No shame there. Truly.

Publishing has, I’d guess, a year, maybe two, to figure this out. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but protecting the current business model — especially since publishers have done nothing to justify any aspect of their ebook pricing stance — is a zero sum game. You’re losing me and others as customers. How do you recover from that?

Personally, I’d look to another industry for guidance. In music, multiple formats have, with some blips, had simultaneous releases. In some cases, that lead to multiple sales. Yes, consumer behavior has changed, but it’s clear two separate formats can co-exist without diminishing the value of either. Look at how people can — with some teeth-gnashing on the part of the music industry! — move their music from CD to portable audio player of choice back to CD.

I would also look at the motion picture tradition of skipping theatrical releases when it’s clear some films are better as direct-to-video (sadly, a decision sometimes made after expensive production).

I get that this is hard. I’ve watched it happen in other industries. It’s been painful every time, but if you want to succeed, you make it work. If you want to go down with the ship, I have a lovely window seat for you….

 

Leave No Stone Unturned – Sell Thru All Channels

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I have talked about the competitiveness of the book industry. Last year there were over 275,000 new books published. At the same time, there are fewer bookstores. If you don’t understand why, go watch the popular video You’ve Got Mail to see a very realistic scenario. So, what to do?

It is imperative to sell your books in as many channels as possible. OK, that’s Marketing Speak—translation—sell your books to as many places as you can in as many forms as you can. Let’s take a look at these:

  • Traditional distributors & Giant Chains
  • Bookstores
  • Libraries
  • Nontraditional outlets
  • Direct sales of printed books
  • Direct sales & distributor sales of Ebooks
  • Direct sales & distributor sales of Audio books

Traditional Distributors & Giant Chains

These include selling with the help of a wholesaler such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and smaller independent distributors, as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. These are the height of competitive channels; however, they are necessary. They are also not very lucrative, since you have to give 55 to 65% discounts to these entities. With the cost of production, that doesn’t leave much for the publisher. Still, you need to use them because of their established inroads into the bookselling community.

Bookstores

They are harder to reach because there are fewer of them—both major chains and independents—and because they are overwhelmed by the book offers they receive. Still, they must be approached.

Libraries

This market has shrunk somewhat due to shrinking book buying budgets. They also prefer getting books from well established library distributors that add in little benefits such as paper pockets for date-due-by cards and such. If you believe your book will have an appeal to this market, I would highly encourage you to include the Library of Congress registration data on the copyright page.

Nontraditional outlets

This can be a lucrative market if done right. One of the chief benefits is no returns. Retailers other than bookstores just aren’t used to doing that. If your book, nonfiction or fiction has a specialty theme in it, this is a viable market for you. For example: you’ve written a guidebook to bike trails in your community. Bicycle shops are far more likely to sell your book steadily because that’s where your market segment can be found. It can work for fiction as well. If you’ve written a good action novel about bike racing or touring, bicycle shops are a great place to sell it. This is one example, so use your imagination to consider other places. Let’s say you’ve written a series of mysteries built around quilting (sound familiar?) Quilting stores and even craft supply stores would be natural venues for your books.

Direct sales of printed books

This worked well for me during the 1990’s when I had my own publishing company. In addition to fulfilling orders for my own products, I added about 200 products from other publishers in a direct mail catalog. I had 8,000 customers and did a third again more business from the basement of our home than I did from our bookstore downtown. Today, we have the internet in addition to the postal system, which is a whole new world.

Direct sales & distributor sales of Ebooks

A pdf version of your book and cover isn’t that hard to produce and sell over the internet as an ebook. It should sell for about 50% of what your printed version’s retail price is; however, it’s all pure bottom line territory. If you want to make multiple format versions for Kindle, etc., you can buy the software to do that or you can use a distributor such as Smashwords.com who will put your book into multiple versions and sell it through many channels for only 15% of the retail price. To me, that is a good deal and well worth considering.

Direct sales & distributor sales of Audio books

Finally, there are audio books. These can be as technically difficult to produce and certainly more expensive than printed versions. This is why audio books generally more expensive than printed versions. Traditionally one would use skilled readers (usually out of work actors) in an expensive recording studio. Then there are the expenses of pressing CDs and designing their labels and container covers, which are every bit as expensive as book covers and even more so if multiple pages are required. But I have found a wonderfully cost effectively way to do this—Hudson Audio Publishing. They do have an acceptance committee, so if your book doesn’t cut it, you won’t be able to go thru them; however, their up front production costs are minimal and are paid primarily from royalties. You can record your own right at your PC or Mac or you can use free lance voice over experts they can recommend. They charge 30% (for a $10 book, you keep $7) of the retail price to sell your book through established audio book markets as downloads. This is the audio version of an ebook. They pay royalties every 90 days. You can find them at http://www.hudsonaudiopublishing.com/.

Bottom Line

You cannot afford to not consider all of the above in today’s competitive market place. The more venues you use, the more formats you use, the more credible you become. You’ve got to be a player if you expect to quit your day job (oh no, not yet!). Now go out there and make your presence felt.

 

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear’s Book Trends Blog.

Ebook Strategies for Traditional Publishers

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This post, from Clifford Fryman, originally appeared on his website on 12/10/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Many traditional publishers are scared of the growing popularity of e-books. If there was ever any doubt of it, the announcements over the last two days of three major publishers delaying the release of the electronic book versions of at least some of their titles by three weeks to six months after the hard cover releases is proof. What is their reasoning for such a move?

“We’re doing this to preserve our industry,” Mr. Young said. “I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”

Mr. Murray said that if new hardcover titles continue to be sold as $9.99 e-books, the eventual outcome will be fewer literary choices for customers, because publishers won’t be able to take as many chances on new writers.

The problem is these publishers are fighting e-books instead of embracing and using them to their advantage. No matter how bad they want it, the reality is that e-books and their lower price points are inevitable. They should be planning for this instead of trying to postpone it while alienating potential customers in the process.

I’m not a publisher, or even someone with a business degree, but I do I have a few ideas of strategies publishers could use to make e-books work for them. Note that none of them includes delaying the release date until after the hard cover release.

  1. Serialize e-book editions of potential best-sellers.
    Publishers would serialize the e-book edition of potential best-sellers by breaking the book into three equal parts. Release the first part the same day as the hardcover edition is released. The next two parts would then be released one per month over the next two months. Each installment would be priced from $1.99 to $3.99, whatever would bring the e-book edition to approximately in-line with the price point the paperback edition would be set at.
     
  2. Bundle backlist books with e-book editions of potential best-sellers.
    Publishers could take advantage of the e-book edition of a potential best-seller to promote backlist books from the author or of other authors who fall within the same genre. Prices would be set at around $19.99. Customers would get two books, the author’s older books could be sold, and readers could be introduced to another author they may decide they like and eventually buy more of their books.
     
  3. Bundle books by debut authors with e-book editions of potential best-sellers.
    Instead of releasing a hard cover or paper back edition from a new author, test the waters by releasing their debut novel only in an e-book edition that would be bundled with a potential best-seller in the same genre as their book. Again, the price would be set for around $19.99. Customers would get two books, publishers could take a lower cost risk on new authors, and the new author would get the promotional advantage of being included with an expected best-seller. If the new author is well received and interest is high enough, the publishers could then release print editions in either hard cover, paperback or both with the knowledge that the potential for sales is already there.

Like I stated above, I’m not a publisher or someone with a business degree, but these seem to make sense to me. What do you think? Are they feasible options publishers could take? Or am I way off base in my thinking and should leave business ideas to the professionals? Don’t be shy, speak up and let me know.

 

Death and Taxes

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Ah yes, the only two things that are certain in life are death and taxes. While I hate to harsh anyone’s holiday season mellow, this is something to which we U.S.-taxpaying authors need to pay attention, especially at this time of year.

Let me open by saying I am not a tax professional and nothing in this [post] should be construed as professional tax advice. For that, you must consult a professional tax preparer.

I just want to share some information and get my readers thinking about tax issues now, before the end of the year, when there’s still a possibility of making some changes to alter your tax situation and when the deadline for paying your personal income tax is still about four months off.


Is Your Royalty Income Being Reported to Tax Authorities?
By U.S. tax law, as of this writing (see Guide to Information Returns section), if you’ve earned $600 or more in income in a given tax year from a given source (e.g., employer, Createspace, Lulu, Amazon), the company or person who paid you that money must report it to state and federal tax authorities so the authorities can tax it as income. The minimum threshold for reporting at the state level may vary from state to state, so that’s something you’ll need to look up for your specific state of residence, and/or the state in which you do business as an author.

At the federal (IRS) level, if the amount of money from a given source is less than $600, neither you nor the payor MUST report it to taxation authorities, but those authorities prefer that ALL income is reported regardless of the amount. Again, we’re talking "as of this writing"; since tax regulations are subject to change, this is something you’ll need to verify on the IRS site or with a tax preparation professional if you’re reading this post months after it was published.


Amazon, Createspace & Booksurge Reporting Policies: Here’s The Scoop
Based on my experience with Amazon and Createspace in prior years, I’ve previously stated that neither entity will report the proceeds of your book sales on the Amazon or Createspace site(s) unless you’ve earned at least $600. Since Booksurge is now merged with Createspace, and Amazon has stepped up other reporting requirements and seems to be generally getting its federal reporting ducks in a row, I decided I should look into the matter once again before the end of the year.

I just spoke to a Createspace representative, and an Amazon representative, regarding their IRS reporting policies. If you sell your books on the Createspace site or on Amazon’s U.S. site, this information is applicable to you. If you sell through other outlets, such as the Lulu store, or another bookseller, you will need to contact that outlet directly to get clarification on their tax reporting policies. Here’s what I was told:

Amazon and Createspace (which now includes Booksurge) will both report ALL your earnings on book sales through their online stores to the IRS as income, regardless of whether you meet the $600 minimum reporting threshold or not. They are within their rights to do this, and the IRS prefers that payors report ALL payee income regardless of the amount, so don’t go hating on them for it. They will report this income on a Form 1099, also known as 1099-misc (for miscellaneous income). 1099 income is income that has not had any tax withheld, so you must be prepared to pay tax on this income when you report it on your annual tax return (both state and federal).


What If They’ve Reported Less Than $600?
There’s a bit of a wrinkle here though, in that if the income shown on a given 1099 is less than $600, as of this writing IRS rules don’t require you to report it on your tax return. This puts anyone with a 1099 form for less than $600 in a tax quandary. Theoretically, by law, you are not required to report it. But the tax authorities will learn about it when they get their copies of the 1099. You have two options here: either report the income on your return and pay the income tax on it (the safest, most conservative route), or consult a tax preparer for further, expert guidance.

I’ve always reported all my 1099 income, regardless of the amount, because I’m terrified of getting into trouble with the IRS and when in doubt where such matters are concerned, I always go the most conservative route. I may very well be paying taxes I don’t have to, but this is just the way I’ve chosen to handle things. In discussing the matter with my CPA, he’s agreed with me that while I’m not strictly required to report the income on a 1099 if it’s less than $600, doing so helps to validate any write-offs I wish to take for writing-related activity in a given year.


Why Report A 1099 That Shows Less Than $600?
If you’ve got one or more 1099s that each show something less than $600 and opt not to report any of them on your tax return, but you’re attempting to write off expenses related to your authorial activities, this may well raise a red flag in the tax authorities’ analyses because you’re writing off expenses without reporting any income. This makes it harder for you to prove you’re running a legitimate business and are entitled to expense write-offs, and generally makes you look suspicious in the eyes of tax authorities. Red flags can lead them take a closer look at your return. And at your prior returns. This is why I choose to report everything, but your tax preparer may advise you to handle your situation differently.


Improving Your 2009 Tax Picture
As to the matter of changing your tax situation before the end of the year, there are two major things to think about here: maximizing your legitimate expense claims, and minimizing your reportable income (where it’s both possible and legal to do so).


Maximize Expenses
Maximizing your legitimate expense claims just means that if you’re intending to invest in some goods or services that constitute legitimate tax writeoffs for you as an author (check with the IRS or a tax preparer for guidance on what constitutes a legitimate tax writeoff), doing so before the end of the year will increase your reportable expenses, thereby decreasing your net income and the tax you must pay on that income.

So if you plan to hire a professional editor, buy more promo copies of your book, book travel or pay registration fees for a writer’s event you’ll be attending next year (like the Author Workshop Cruise – shameless plug!), or something similar in the near future, you might want to consider paying for those things by December 31 in order to include the expenses in your 2009 tax return. It’s generally a good idea to book travel and pay event registration fees as early as possible anyway, since doing so usually gets you a discounted rate.


Minimize Income
Options for legally, legitimately minimizing your reportable royalty income are not as numerous, as you don’t have total control over how many people buy your books or when. However, you do have some degree of control, at least where promotion and marketing campaigns are concerned.

If you’ve been planning a big launch for new book, or a renewed promo push for an existing book, delaying your plans till after January 1 will put all the income you earn as a result of such activity solidly into your 2010 tax year. Of course, you must balance the desirability of minimizing your 2009 reportable income against the desirability of jumping on the holiday shopping gravy train at a time when you know lots of people are doing lots of shopping. If it looks to you like you can sell a lot more copies before December 31 than after, you may elect to just take the income tax hit.

Also, if you’re in a position to receive any other author-related income (e.g., advance on a book or manuscript you’ve sold to a publisher, speaker fees, etc.), if you can afford it, you may want to consider asking if the payor can wait till after January 1 to cut those checks.

Bottom line: be prepared, plan ahead, and when in doubt, consult a tax pro.


This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton’s Indie Author Blog.

Part 2: Why Indie Authors Will Break Traditional Publishers

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This post, from Brad Vertrees, originally appeared on his Brad’s Reader site on 12/9/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. You can read Part 1 here.

Independent ebook websites like Smashwords and Feedbooks are giving indie authors an unprecedented advantage by letting these authors distribute their work without the gatekeeper of traditional publishers. While the digital domain has not been perfected, indie authors are coming out of hiding and setting their writing free into the world.

Authors CaRIAAn Learn From Music Industry

For a long time large record labels controlled the music industry. If your band didn’t have a contract with a record label, your music career wasn’t going anywhere. But as the internet began to spread and music became digitized, the record labels fought these new distribution methods while musicians embraced the new technology.

The result? Bands have little need for large record labels today because they can do everything on their own thanks to the technology that’s available. Over the last decade the record labels have become less relevant and the RIAA has resorted to suing their own customers for alleged copyright infringement. Indie authors are following in the same footsteps as these bands who gave the virtual finger to the record labels.

I think the trend will continue and we’ll see more authors taking the indie route. There is still a stigma to self-publishing, but the stigma is slowly dying as self-publishing  becomes more mainstream and accepted. It helps that a lot of bestselling authors today self-published their book before landing a publishing contract. My favorite example is Lisa Genova’s book  Still Alice (aff link), which had been rejected by numerous publishers until she sold it on her own.

Large publishing houses still have one advantage

I will give credit where credit is due. Publishers do have the advantage of a vast distribution network and can get books onto the shelves of chain bookstores (i.e. Barnes & Noble and Borders) with ease. They have the infrastructure and network in place to move a lot of books all over the world.

To further complicate things for indie authors, however, the large bookstores usually won’t consider stocking a self-published book for one reason: The books can’t be returned if it doesn’t sell. This must-be-returnable policy has long been a controversial issue among publishers and authors alike, and a pain in the side for all indie authors. Again, this gives the large publishing houses an advantage because of agreements with the book chains and their large distribution network.

And as much as they have been criticized for putting the indie bookstores out of business, the large chain booksellers are vital for new releases and any author who wants to make the bestseller list cannot survive without the likes of Barnes & Noble. This might be a necessary evil, but it certainly doesn’t help indie authors.

A light at the end of the tunnel

I think it’s fair to say that not all indie authors have aspirations of making the bestseller list. Look at some of the titles on the list at any given time – a lot of those books are popular because they appeal to large audiences, meaning the writing can be mediocre at best. A good example is Dan Brown’s most recent book The Lost Symbol. Many around the web called Brown a hack and deeply criticized his writing.

Indie authors want to be independent for a reason. They want to write something unique, that probably won’t appeal to the masses. For indie authors, it’s not about reaching the largest possible audience, it’s more about reaching an eclectic group of readers that can truly appreciate a book or short story that is different than what you find in mainstream literature.

My own goal as a writer is not to reach the bestseller list, and not even to land a contract with a large publishing house. My goal is to write what I want to write and find a niche audience to cater to. I also want to control my own career and not be bound by a contract that takes away even the copyrights to my own writing.

Even the distribution advantage that traditional publishers have is being minimized. The internet is becoming the great equalizer and letting authors publish their works, many with great success, in digital format without the need for a large expensive distribution network. And if those indie authors want to release their novels in print, they can do so easily by self-publishing their books and selling them on their own via their author website/blog.

Indie authors becoming a formidable foe

In conclusion, traditional publishers have a lot to fear from indie authors. Their role as gatekeepers to the collective literary canon is being chipped away at with great speed. These publishers are decreasing the number of new authors they sign, and giving these new authors only minimal marketing support. They are throwing most of their money behind the big-name popular authors who can rake in millions of dollars.

Authors now have a choice when publishing their work. They can go the traditional route or the indie route. What real advantage does the traditional route to publishing offer?

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcb// CC BY 2.0

Part 1: Why Indie Authors Will Break Traditional Publishers

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This post, from Brad Vertrees, originally appeared on his Brad’s Reader site on 12/7/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. Part 2 will run tomorrow.

 think large publishing houses are scared, and for good reason. They’re faced with an enemy that they see as a threat to their business. I’m talking about the growing number of indie authors – those who totally bypass the large publishing houses and self-publish their books in print and digital format. Indie authors aren’t afraid to trek out on their own and play by their own rules.

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Indie authors have several advantages over authors who go with a traditional publishing house. And it’s these advantages that could be the downfall of  the traditional publishing business.

 

– Indie authors can distribute their books in any manner they please. They can sell ebooks online and sell print books out of the trunk of their car. The distribution channels for authors is opening, thanks to the internet (the great neutralizer, as I call it).

– Indie authors can seriously undercut large publishers’ prices on books. These authors don’t have a very high overhead and can offer their books at much lower prices and still make a tidy profit.

– Indie authors become their own brand. They create an online presence through their own websites, Twitter, Facebook and other sites. They sell their books to a built-in fan base.

– Indie authors can control the copyrights to their works.

Example: Joe Konrath

Even when publishers do get into the ebook game, it does not always benefit the author – at least not financially. One of my favorite author blogs is A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing by Joe Konrath. He talks about making a living as a writer, including a lot of discussion about ebooks.

In a post he wrote back in October entitled Kindle Numbers: Traditional Publishing vs. Self Publishing. Joe “spills the beans” about his earnings and posts what he has made on ebooks from Hyperion (a traditional publisher) that have been published on the Amazon Kindle. And then he posts his earnings from ebooks he has self-published on the Kindle. Here’s how it breaks down:

Ebooks from Hyperion sold on Kindle

– Earnings from Jan. 1 to June 31, 2009.

– 6 titles published on Kindle.

– Price range per book: $3.96 -$7.99

– 1237 ebooks sold in 6 months.

– Total royalties: $2008

Self-published ebooks sold on Kindle

– Earnings from Jan. 1 to June 31, 2009

– 4 titles published on Kindle.

– Price range per book: $1.99

– 9800 books sold in 6 months.

– Total earnings: $6860

Joe made $4853 more self-publishing his titles on the Kindle. He offered fewer titles sold at a much lower price ($1.99). Why so much success with self-publishing? I think this big difference is due to the fact that when Joe self-published on Amazon, he got roughly $0.70 per book sold (35% of the price he sets).

For the books published by Hyperion Joe receives 25% of whatever the publisher receives. It’s also worth noting that Hyperion and Amazon have to strike an agreement regarding these prices. This leaves Joe with a lot less control and a lot less money in his pocket.

Here’s the interesting part, however, Joe does not own the rights to the books sold by Hyperion. If he did?

If I had the rights to all six of my Hyperion books, and sold them on Kindle for $1.99, I’d be making $20,580 per year off of them, total, rather than $4818 a year off of them, total.

Just by owning the copyrights to his own works, Joe can increase his own earnings by several thousand dollars. This makes a great case why copyright (especially in the digital realm) is becoming such a hot button issue.

Do you think I’m right in my assessment that indie authors will eventually bring the large publishers to their knees? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

In Part 2 (to be posted on Wednesday) I’ll be writing about the one large advantage publishers have over indie authors and how that advantage can be minimized.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kylemay// CC BY 2.0

The Inconvenient Truth about Voice

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This post, from Dan Holloway, originally appeared on the Year Zero Writers’ Collective site on 12/5/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

(with thanks to @cinemamanche for his lovely description of voice as the aroma of a text)

Voice is one of the great mysteries of writing, and the bearer of a couple of inconvenient truths for any author. It’s the one thing you can’t do without; but no one will tell you how to get better at it.

So what is voice?

Put it like this. What do Stanley Kubrick, Radiohead, DBC Pierre, Frank Gehry, Bob Dylan, Elfriede Jelinek, Morissey, Anish Kapoor, and the Coen Brothers have in common? Apart from that night ten years ago, outside the Brixton Academy, when… The answer is obvious – and it should end the topic right there. But somehow it never does. What I want to do with this article is figure out why an article like this needs to be so long.

The answer , in case it’s not self-evident (or in case there really was a night 10 years ago…), is that most people with a basic knowledge of the field in question – be it film, music, literature, architecture or art – if shown a piece of hitherto unseen work by one of them, would instantly be able to tell you who’d made it. And that, in fewer than 200 words, is all there really is to say about “voice”.

And yet we keep talking about it. Everywhere writers meet there is almost as much hot air and verbiage about voice as there is jealous bile about the latest vampire hit. Why? Simple, really. Editors, agents, publishers. They all agree on this one (and possibly only) point – voice is the essential ingredient a writer must possess. The “experts” also seem to agree on one other point – that of the key elements of writing – including characterisation, pacing, plotting – the one that can’t be taught is voice.

I want to look briefly at why It is that these two things make voice so controversial, and then ask the questions – is voice really essential? Where does it come from? What do we mean by saying it can’t be taught?

It’s obvious why saying voice is the one essential quality for a writer should make it controversial, especially when “experts” seem to go out of their way to be obfuscatory about what they mean by it. It’s true that in much genre fiction voice is slightly different, because there are genre norms, and what is valued most is often that elusive quality of “transparency” – an author who doesn’t intrude on their world. But I don’t want to get too het up on that distinction because if one does it can become an excuse for “literary” authors like us here to start sticking their nose into their text and, unless you’re making a point of that a la Kundera, it’s no more acceptable here than in genre fiction. A novel should (Ooh, I used the “s” would – spank me), even if it’s cross-referential, be a self-contained world in which the reader can lose themselves.

“Voice can’t be taught.” Publishers, agents, and editors seem, in my experience, to say this in the sense of “if someone comes to us and they can’t plot very well we can, and will, work with them on it. But if they have no voice, there’s nowt we can do.” There’s a very obvious reason why this is controversial, and it has to do, I’m afraid, with political correctness. I had a girlfriend once who took (more than) umbrage at my supervisor’s assertion that first class academic work could not be quantified but was evident when he was faced with it. Her complaint, that it wasn’t fair because it gave people nothing to aim for, that it discriminated against the hard-working and perpetuated an elite, was understandable. The need for fairness is one of our deepest yearnings.

But in this case, I’m afraid the complaint is utterly irrelevant. Artistic merit is nothing about rewarding hard work. It’s about, well, artistic merit. And that, I’m afraid, is unquantifiable but evident when you’re confronted with it. Which means that the thousands of writers who “write beautifully”(how often on sites like Authonomy do we hear reviewers say “this is beautifully written it should be published”?) are naturally going to feel aggrieved, but their beautiful writing is, frankly, very little to do with the artistic value of their book. If it was, the Tate would be full of Royal Doulton special edition plates.

So that’s why voice is controversial. But hang on. There’s a deeper question. Are people right that it matters at all? Well, it sounds like a dogma, and dogmas are things we at Year Zero dislike, er, dogmatically. And to an extent it IS nonsense. The value of much art lies in what it does for the people and communities that produce it – it gives hope, aspiration, self-esteem, vision – a sense of future, and to be honest, no aesthetic bollocks I spout in the next 500 words is going to trump that. As a punk ideologist and humanist, voice means precisely bugger all in art.

Except. Well, except look at those things – self-esteem, hope, vision. What do they mean? How are they real to an individual unless those hopes are specific? Unless the art produced has meaning to the community/individual? And a lot of that is about distinctive voice. So there IS, kind of, a crossover with “art for art’s sake”. And so there ought to be, because we’re not JUST absinthe drinking dilettantes.

Nonetheless, I’m part of Year Zero because I DO care about the arty nonsense. I want my writing to be the best it can. I want to push boundaries, connect with readers in unique ways, produce a body of work that (a subject for another blog) “matters”. And that means I need voice.

Which brings me to how to develop voice if it really is unteachable, and how to know if I have it because, if I don’t, I might as well leave the Zeroes now.

I want to start with Malcolm Gladwell’s oft-cited rule of 10,000 hours. His work on this is really at the heart of all the “learn the rules to break them” vs natural genius debates. He showed that most of the people we think of as geniuses – in the arts and in sport – actually did nothing of any real brilliance or originality until they’d put in 10,000 hours of practice.

What does this mean? Well, it means the “I don’t need rules, I’m a genius” brigade really are, as we thought all along, just lazy and will probably never produce anything any good. It also means something very useful. It means, if I understand correctly, that a natural aptitude for following the rules well is a good indicator that you may at a future stage develop an original voice. So that “beautifully-written” prose isn’t valueless. But it’s an indicator of what might be to come and not of the work in which it is displayed.

So what, practically, does that mean? Well, it means it’s a great thing to experiment. Which we kind of knew already. Why does it mean that? Well, first because it will accelerate the progress through your apprenticeship (question: why, when we hire a plumber, or go to a doctor, do we consider it essential they have served a full apprenticeship but as writers we expect to have a hit with our first novel?). If you spend them all on just one area of writing, it’s unlikely you’ll emerge fully formed. It’s also important that you find what suits you, pick up new tricks, borrow from here, pastiche from there until slowly something begins to emerge that’s you.

So it turns out there are not two but three inconvenient truths about voice. It IS essential. And it IS something that’s unquantifiable and unteachable in itself. he good news is that one can work on it, practising the basics until one’s voice emerges. The third inconvenient truth is that the practice will take a lot of time and angst and sweat and pain. Just like anything else worth doing.

Do discuss at will and leisure – I’d also like to hear your examples of great, original voices – in any form of the arts.

[Publetariat Editor’s note: you may prefer to join the discussion over on the Year Zero site, where Dan and the Year Zero community will be sure to see your remarks, rather than commenting here on Publetariat]

Indisputable Facts I Learned After Becoming A Published Author

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This post, from Patricia Volonakis Davis, originally appeared in the notes section of her Facebook page and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

1) The writers on Oprah are not real. They’re cyborgs made the same way ‘Diz’ made the Stepford wives.

2) Oprah herself is not real, either. That’s why she keeps changing size- it’s a glitch in the graphics software they haven’t been able to fix.

3) Publishers want books they can immediately sell for films in which producers will star Tom Hanks and Jessica Biel. Librarians want books they can adore. And retail booksellers just want books they don’t have to return for credit. (And if those books could fly off the shelves by themselves as a customer is wishing for them, that would be very nice, too.)

4) A “bestseller” does not mean what you think it means. At all. In other words, you might still be BROKE.

5) Selling your book in Costco is no more demeaning than having your relatives and friends buy fifty copies each, so they can gift them on all their acquaintances.

6) Your spouse is sick of hearing you talk about your book, no matter how many times they swear otherwise. They were sick of it after the first week.

7) You say you’re embarrassed when people ask you to sign their copy of your book, but you’re not fooling anybody.

8) You wrote a BOOK, not The Declaration of Independence. Hundreds of thousands of people do the same every year. So please, get over yourself. (Note- I recently added this last not only as a reminder to myself, but for other writers and literary agents, magazine editors, publicists and publishers by association.)

 

Patricia V. Davis is the founder and editor-in-chief of the non-partisan HS Radio  e-magazine and podcast at www.harlotssauce.com, and her essays, opinion articles and celebrity interviews have appeared in various newspapers and magazines nationally and internationally. She is also the author of ‘Harlot’s Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece’. You can view her blog here, and her Red Room author page here.  

Heady Times

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Boy, these are heady times for Indie Authors.  The smoke is still settling so we’ll have to wait before all the implications are clear, but there are three developments that caught my eye, so far this week.

First, and to my old eyes, a healing sight indeed, is the recent announcement by Amazon CreateSpace (which also is my presonal POD Publisher) that their "Pro Plan" titles will have the option to add INGRAM DISTRIBUTION to their marketing plan. 

This is huge, as it will give self-published authors a much wider market exposure than they would have been able to secure alone.  It effectively can add you7r boo to the largest bookseller distributor and institutional sales catalogs. Book stores.  Libraries. Schools.  The markets I only dreamed of.

It meant that my cover price had to go up.  I had kept the price relatively low at $11.95, but that did not allow enough margin to allow the booksellers and distributor a rpoyalty/share, so I upped the cover price to $15.95, which will make me 52 cents per book sold, instead of my owing the publisher $2.70 eaqch time a book was sold.

The second thing to happen, was the reported reaction of various writer’s organizations when Harlequin rolled it’s POD operation into one of it’s imprint names.  It was reported in detail in Publishers Weekly. Sounded like a relatively smart way for a business to reduce operating costs and move forward into a leaner operations model, but I guess I was wrong.  Several writer’s groups, angered that they would now be in some way associated with self-publishing (Shudder! Horrors!), removed Harlequin from their approved publishers ranks.  Inclu8ded are such organizations as the Mystery Writers Assn. and the Romance Writers Assn.  Hmmmm.  I suppose none of the members of those organizations ever self-published any books at all. No…not that! 

Harlequin, responding in a puzzled mode, of course, indicated they would placate these organizations in some, to-be-determined manner.  We’ll have to see where this settles out, but it seems that "last one in" writers, too are resisting the changes in the wind leading to a more cost-effective publishing industry.  To me, under-educated, self-published writer that I am, to deny any fellow writer a recommended publisher in these hard times for fiction is ridiculous.

Last, a first edition EA Poe’s self-published 1827 first book — a book of poems, published in a run of 50 coipies when he was 18,  brought more than US$662,000 at auction.  Publishing Industry take note — some self-published authors work not only is quality writing, but some of them may actually be worth adding to one’s stable for a long-term investment.

All of this happened on the heels of a short four-day family vacation we take each December with our children and grand-kids.  We pile into a condo in the Berkshires and pray for snow.  This past week, while I was staring at the stark, bare trees and grey sky, a figure appeared from nowhere, hobbling along on a wooden staff.  She approached slowly and asked me "Have you ever seen a four-leaf clover?" I answered, "of course, but I’ve never found one."

She replied "I find them wherever I go" and extending her hand, with a fist full of bright green clover (It’s December, remember?) asked "Want one?"  I chose one, and thanked her.  I turned back to my unit’s porch, and by the time I looked back to give her a wave, she was gone!  But I have the clover — all four leaves, too!  Maybe my luck will change after all!  Maybe it will begin a much-awaited turnaround for the whole publishing industry — Indies included!

 

 

Significant Reader Trends

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Shift in Topic Popularity

According to the Shelf Talker newsletter, the long run of vampire/werewolf fascination is just about over. The next fad is predicted to be post-apocalyptic novels.

A Major Shift in Some Readers’ Tastes

We have seen a very interesting trend at our bookstore, The Book Barn, in Leavenworth, Kansas just north of Kansas City. It started several years ago when the Harry Potter fad began, followed closely by the Eragon trilogy. These mid-grade and young adult fantasies became read by many parents. Although the books were long for the genre, these parents discovered they enjoyed the reads. This led them to read more of the shorter-length YA lit to see what it was like—partly to learn what appeals to their children, but more and more for their own enjoyment. When we asked them why they were reading more YA’s, they disclosed several reasons why:

  • Easy to read
     
  • Fun to read
     
  • Fits into their daily schedules

Ah, this last factor is the important key—Available Time. People have so many demands on their recreation time, they don’t have enough time to read thick tomes anymore. Much YA lit is designed to pull the reader through quickly with 1-3 page chapters. They are fun, if not challenging, and short. A good adult reader can speed through a book and be entertained while reading it. They have found they prefer tightly written books where every chapter leaves one hanging, curious to read what’s next. My wife and I believe we have discovered an important trend. We’re not alone. Some major NYT bestselling authors have begun writing YA novels—Patterson for one example. They are taking advantage of the trend we noted. Although their YA’s have young protagonists, the characters act more adult than is usually found.

I remember 20-30 years ago, during the height of Harlequin Romance popularity when some men were reading these books to put themselves to sleep. Then, as now, non-traditional readers sometimes emerge to make an impact on the book marketplace. There is a need for shorter adult books written specifically for the time-challenged market segment. Most genre novels are 70,000 to 100,000 words or more. We believe there is a need for some genre lit written within the constraints of 45,000 to 65,000 words. They need to be written tightly without too much description, focusing on rapid plot and quick character development. This approach reminds me of the 30,000 to 45,000 stories of the pulp fiction era.

I’m putting my money where my mouth is, as I have written four mysteries of place set in Leavenworth and consisting of 50,000 to 60,000 words that will appeal to our region, military officer couples, and time-challenged adults. Only time will tell if my take on this trend is accurate or not. I believe other authors, and more importantly publishers, should consider supporting this market segment, which should grow as more and more demands are made on our available time. I welcome your comments. Remember, I’m not saying all books should be written this way, but that there is a previously unnoticed market segment.

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

The Trunk

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When it comes to infidelity, experts always say it’s just a symptom of an underlying problem and the blame must be shared between the cheater and the betrayed.

In this case, Charlotte was pretty sure the blame was all Tim’s.

“Goddamn it, Charlotte,” he rasped, “We’ve been going around and around on this thing for…” he checked his watch and his shoulders drooped. “Nearly five hours now. I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll say whatever you want, but this has to end.”

“You’re a selfish bastard.”

“Absolutely.”

“And I can’t trust you anymore.

“I don’t expect you to. I know I don’t deserve it. Check my email, voicemail, call logs, credit card bills…whatever you want. For as long as you want. Hire a private eye to follow me around. Cancel my Twitter account. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make this right. Nothing is off-limits.”

Her reddened eyes darted from Tim to the walk-in closet. She knew this might be her only chance.  “Nothing?”

His head jerked around. Oh, no. The Trunk. She was after The Trunk. His exhausted mind scrambled, came up with nothing. And still, words tumbled out.

“It’s mostly just Playboys, you know. I mean, it’s not like there’s…” His brain finally perked up enough to make him wonder where the hell he was going with this, but not enough to shut him up. “…a live girl in there or anything.”

Charlotte’s mouth dropped open. Without another word, she stormed into the closet.  

Tim followed, still stupid with fatigue. “Just the classic ones, then. At least let me keep them long enough to sell them online. You could use the money to buy something for you.”

Standing in front of The Trunk, she wheeled on him and bellowed, “I don’t want your porn proceeds! What would I tell Lynne and Shari? These are the diamond earrings that Barely Legal bought?! Thank God for my husband’s Girls Gone Crazy subscription; if he’d had just a few more months’ worth, I could’ve gotten the matching necklace?!”

She bent down to grab one of the handles and yanked. The Trunk didn’t budge. She rolled her eyes up at Tim, who tried to look surprised.

It's Hard Out There For Everyone

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This post, from Henry Baum, originally appeared on The Self-Publishing Review on 12/3/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

One thing that is lost in the self-publishing/traditional publishing debate is just how hard it is to sell any kind of book.  It’s as if pointing out that it’s difficult to sell self-published books, it implies it’s easy to sell traditionally-published books.  It’s not – it’s hard to sell everything.  One of the criticisms of self-publishing is people saying, “But self-publishers need to market all the time! When is there time to write???”  Unless you’re Dan Brown, or some other high-profile writer, most writers have to spend a whole lot of time marketing.

This could be an argument against self-publishing: if it’s so hard to sell a traditionally published book, why even bother self-publishing, as it’s a potentially futile exercise. You won’t get a lot of argument from me there: it’s true, selling self-published books is hard. But so is getting traditionally published – precisely because it’s so hard to sell books, they look more towards those books that are more likely to sell more easily.

What it comes down to, though, is that we’re all in the same boat.  This whole debate should be us vs. them, but how in the hell can we get people to read more. A post at Digital Book World about the Rick Moody Twitter experiment (he posted a story in installments on Twitter) is particularly telling about how hard it is for all publishers and bookstore owners, not just us lowly self-publishers. The post links to another post by the manager of Vroman’s bookstore where he says:

The Moody Twitter experiment (and Moody wasn’t to blame for its failure, though I’m sure the first couple comments will be “ZOMG!1! Rick Moody is teh suck!1!!1?) depressed me for a number of reasons.  First, it made me wonder what we’re all doing on Twitter.  If so many of my followers are book industry people, am I wasting my time with it?  All this time, I’d hoped I was reaching customers.  To be sure, Twitter is useful for talking to colleagues in the book industry, and I’ll continue to use it for that purpose, but if it doesn’t have a reach beyond that, I’m not sure what the point is.  So much of the dialog that happens on Twitter and on the literary blogs feels masturbatory to me.  It’s the same couple hundred people talking about the same issues to the same audience.  Is that what I’ve been doing these past few years?  Is that what the book business is at this point?  If it is, then to quote the modern day philosopher Bunk Moreland “We ain’t about much.”

The book business is in major decline, and while we can all howl about the reasons why, the main one, it seems to me, is that not enough people read (and those who do, read less than they used to).  There are more ways than ever to get your entertainment and information, and books are having a lot of trouble keeping up.  Those of us who rely on selling books for a living need to devote a lot of time to finding people who are not readers.  We have to grow our market, or we are in for a very dark future indeed.   The reaction to this Twitter experiment seems to indicate to me that we’re not all that interested in doing it.  Or maybe we are, as long as it doesn’t interrupt our conversations about ebook formatting and the National Book Awards.

In other words, those at the top of the literary food chain – a major retailer like Vroman’s, where a self-publisher might dream of a book being housed – are having as much trouble unloading books as self-publishers themselves.  And just like a site like this might be an echo chamber of self-publishers reading about other self-publishers and possibly not buying anything, the same thing is occurring for everyone.

Which is one reason why the traditional publishing vs. self-publishing debate is so stupid.  We’re all trying to get people to buy our books.  There’s a lot traditionally published writers and sellers can learn from the sometimes-innovative approaches of self-publishers and vice versa.  Reading is on decline just as – somehow – there are more books being produced than ever.  I guess writers aren’t very voracious book buyers.  But basically, we’re all trying to reach readers in our own way in a very difficult environment, so criticizing self-publishing as the means of production should be the least of people’s worries – it should moreso be about how to make reading attractive to a new generation of readers.

Some might say that self-publishing dilutes the field even further by introducing books to people that should never be read and so turn them off of reading.  Possibly – but on the flipside, the possibility of being able to publish your own book could also make reading and writing more attractive to a new generation of readers. To me, that outweighs the former by a lot.

I read recently (can’t remember where) that McSweeney’s considers it a success to sell 3000 books of an edition.  McSWEENEY’S – a publisher that can get books reviewed most anywhere and has a huge built-in fan base.  That should tell you the state of bookselling.  The problem isn’t that it’s hard to sell self-published books.  The problem is that it’s hard to sell books.  Period.

[Publetariat Editor’s note: the quote to which Baum refers is probably this one, from Dave Eggers in an interview with Mother Jones from April of this year, discussing the Voice of Witness book series (published by McSweeney’s): "Small readerships can support small presses, definitely. If we sell 3,000 copies of a VOW book, for example, we’re in pretty good shape; we will have paid for the book’s expenses. But generally, we do try to keep expenses low, and operate more as a co-op than anything else."]

An Aside to Authors and Publishers: CreateSpace Expands Distribution Through Deal with Ingram

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For many Kindle Nation citizens, this post will be an easy one to skip over. It’s about what we around here call dead-tree books, and at first blush it may seem of primary interest to authors and independent publishers, because, at first blush, it is.

But the bottom line is that the playing field for publishing and bookselling just got a lot closer to being level, from the point of view of authors and independent publishers. And in the long run this could be a good thing for readers and independent bookstores as well.

Here’s what has happened, with thanks to TeleRead’s Paul Biba for the heads up.

CreateSpace.com, a print-on-demand publishing company wholly owned by Amazon, has made a deal with the nation’s largest book distributor, Ingram Content Group, and Ingram’s own print-on-demand subsidiary, which is called Lightning Source. As a result, CreateSpace authors and publishers are now able to distribute their titles to thousands of bookstores, libraries and online retailers. Here’s a link to the CreateSpace press release (full text of the release also provided at the end of this post).

For the past three years, CreateSpace has been far and away the best printing deal available for independent authors and publishers, except for one glaring omission. The CreateSpace platform allowed its clients print-on-demand production, with no up-front capital costs and no inventory or out-of-pocket fulfillment costs, at per-unit production costs that are competitive with short-run production costs for print runs ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 copies. For authors and publishers seeking to sell their books through Amazon or through their own websites and events, this amounted to a very sweet deal. CreateSpace has been my independent publishing company’s production arm for the past three years, and the interior and exterior quality of their printed trade paperback books has been flawless.

But there was a huge disconnect between CreateSpace and the rest of the bookselling world beyond Amazon, because CreateSpace did not offer wholesale distribution to bookstores, online retailers, and libraries. And the alternatives, involving Ingram and its primary competitor Baker & Taylor, were often difficult to navigate and significantly more expensive.

Now all that has changed in a collaborative deal that is so dramatic that it makes both companies’ spokespersons’ rhetoric about their passionate commitment to books seem utterly believable.

There are three new CreateSpace Expanded Distribution Channels, in addition to the previously available choices of the Amazon bookstore, a CreateSpace eStore whose doorways are seldom darkened by paying customers, and a relatively cheap author-copies feature:
 

 

CreateSpace Direct: By enabling this distribution outlet, you can make your books available to certified resellers such as independent bookstores and book resellers. The CreateSpace Direct program allows eligible resellers to buy books at wholesale prices directly from CreateSpace.

Libraries and Academic Institutions: By enabling this distribution outlet, you can make your book available to public libraries, elementary and secondary school libraries, and libraries at other academic institutions.

Bookstores and Online Retailers: By enabling this distribution outlet, you can make your book available to thousands of major online and offline bookstores and retailers, and expand the size of the potential audience for your books.

 

The expanded distribution royalties payable by CreateSpace to authors and indie publishers — about 20% in many cases depending mainly on retail price and page count — will be less than royalties paid on Amazon store sales, but will in most cases be significantly more than the royalties that would be payable either through what we still call "traditional publishing" or through the kind of short-run digital publishing referenced above.

[Publetariat Editor’s note: according to information posted on the Createspace site, the bookseller cut (referred to as "Sales Channel Percentage" on the CS site) is 20% for sales made on the CS site, 40% for sales on Amazon.com, and 60% for sales made through the Expanded Distribution Channel (EDC) program. Also, the site specifies that only books set up with the Pro Plan option are eligible for EDC. Some authors are finding they would have to raise the retail price of their books to earn a royalty on EDC sales due to the 20-40% higher bookseller cut on those sales.] 

Authors and indie publishers who have books in print on the CreateSpace platform can initiate expanded distribution options for their titles immediately. Here’s how:

 

  • Go to your CreateSpace dashboard page.
     
  • Select an "Available" title for which you would like initiate expanded distribution options and click on the pencil/edit icon to its right (image shown to the right of this bullet item —>). 
     
  • Scroll down to the heading called Sales Channel Management and click on the "Edit" hyperlink to the right of the heading.
     
  • Scroll down to the heading called Expanded Distribution Channel Sales and, at the bottom of the page, review the Distribution Royalty Calculation to ensure that you are prepared to accept the royalty offered to you for these channels. You can change your book’s price, but the price will be fixed across all of CreateSpace’s distribution channels.
     
  • If you wish to go forward and enable Expanded Distribution, click on the "Enable" button next to each of the three sub-categories. You will be able to enable the Libraries and Academic Institutions button only if your book’s ISBN was provided directly by CreateSpace.
     
  • After you have clicked on these buttons and see "Enable" in green to the right of the sub-categories, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.
     
  • You will be returned to the previous page, where you should scroll down to the Sales Channel Management heading and verify that you see a line that says "Sell via Expanded Distribution – Yes."


That’s it. Good luck.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: according to the Createspace FAQ on the EDC program, "It may take up to six weeks for your title to begin populating in the distribution outlets you select."]

Here’s the full text of the CreateSpace press release, for your convenience:
 

 

CreateSpace Announces Expanded Distribution Options for Members through Ingram Content Group and Lightning Source

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Dec. 03, 2009 – CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) group of companies, today announced a new agreement with Lightning Source Inc., the print on-demand unit of Ingram Content Group Inc. The collaboration between the two companies will expand CreateSpace’s distribution options for its members beyond Amazon.com and CreateSpace eStores.

Under the new agreement, CreateSpace’s Books on-Demand platform will allow members to print and then distribute their titles to thousands of bookstores, libraries and online retailers. CreateSpace members will have access to this enhanced print and distribution option as part of the CreateSpace Pro Plan, a program which gives members access to lower print pricing for their own book orders and better royalties for sales on Amazon.com.

"With this expansion, CreateSpace members will not only be able to reach Amazon.com customers, but they can also reach the thousands of bookstores, libraries and online retailers that work with the Ingram Content Group, " said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, managing director, CreateSpace. "With Lightning Source and Ingram, our members can make their titles available to the larger book marketplace while remaining inventory-free with print on-demand."

"At Ingram, we are passionate about books and the book industry," said Philip Ollila, chief content officer, Ingram Content Group. "Our new relationship with CreateSpace is a continuation of Ingram’s long-term strategy to offer the broadest selection of books to our customers worldwide."

For more information about CreateSpace, please visit www.createspace.com.

About CreateSpace
CreateSpace is a leader in manufacture on-demand services for independent content creators, publishers, film studios and music labels. CreateSpace provides inventory-free, physical distribution of Books, CDs and DVDs On-Demand, music downloads via Amazon MP3 and video downloads via Amazon Video On Demand. CreateSpace is a brand of On-Demand Publishing LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

About Lightning Source
Lightning Source is the leading print-on-demand company in the world, offering the unique combination of quality one-off book manufacturing and access to the most comprehensive distribution solutions in the publishing industry. Lightning Source is an Ingram Content Group company. The Ingram Content Group of companies provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry, and immediate access to the largest selection of books and book-related products in the industry. For more information visit www.lightningsource.com

About Ingram
Ingram Content Group Inc. provides a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry. Ingram’s operating units are Ingram Book Company, Lightning Source Inc., Ingram Digital, Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., Ingram Publisher Services Inc., Tennessee Book Company LLC, Coutts Information Services, and Ingram Marketing Group Inc. For more information, visit www.ingramcontent.com

About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as books, movies, music & games, digital downloads, electronics & computers, home & garden, toys, kids & baby, grocery, apparel, shoes & jewelry, health & beauty, sports & outdoors, and tools, auto & industrial.

Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk and Amazon CloudFront.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca and www.amazon.cn.

As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
For CreateSpace
Amanda Wilson
amandasu@createspace.com

For Amazon.com
Amazon Media Hotline
206-266-7180

 

This is a cross-posting from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily blog.

Promotion Plans

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This post, from MCM, originally appeared on his 1889.ca site on 12/2/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

I should make a FAQ for publishers who want to help me “go legit.”  It would be funny, I bet.

Recently, I had some contact with a medium-sized press that wanted to take one of my older titles and re-print it “for a much bigger audience.”  They were very courteous and seemed well-intentioned, but there were more than a few stumbling blocks to overcome.  One was a request for a promotion plan. 

This appears to be standard fare in the publishing biz, and the lack of a solid plan appears to irritate editors.  Let me tell you, it irritates me even more.

So to all prospective publishers looking to scoop up a popular self-published or web fiction property, here is what you need to ask yourselves: what are YOUR promotion plans?  How much are you going to spend, where is it being spent, and what are the expected results?  I want to see a solid plan that I can sink my teeth into, or I’m going to have doubts that you can deliver.  Get that together, and THEN contact me.

See, I already market well to my audience.  When I release something new, it’s well covered.  Your job is to spread the word further than I can do myself.  If you want ME to do that, then it assumes I CAN.  If I CAN, then I have to ask why I would need you involved at all.  So I can get a smaller royalty?  I think you miss the key element of “value proposition”… the, uh, “value” part.  And please, don’t suggest I spend my own advance on it.  I’m not your marketing department.  If you need help in that area, I have a rate card I can send you.
 

MCM is the author of The Vector, which io9 called "a gripping, scary viruscore tale." He’s best known for his books The Pig and the Box, Dustrunners: Typhoon, and TorrentBoy: Zombie World, as well as RollBots, a Saturday morning cartoon airing worldwide.

Operation eBook Drop – Update

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Operation eBook Drop has astounded me. If anyone would have told me that after three months nearly 290 authors would be participating offering a huge library to the troops, I’d have said — go away!

Here’s the genesis for the program, which was never conceived as such. While in the Amazon discussion groups, I was following the posts of a soldier who was stationed in Iraq. He was helping another customer through the steps to download eBooks through a router to their Kindle. On impulse, I offered this soldier (Joe Terry) a copy of my thirteen published works, if he wanted them. He did and, through our correspondence, I learned just how important reading is to the troops. I should have known this, because I’m an Army veteran (1966-67) — the lonely hours away from home and overseas are real. Wow, I could have killed for a Kindle then.

Operation eBook Drop started on the cuff and replicates that initial gift. I created an Amazon thread to ask if any other deployed troops had Kindles and wanted my books. There were a few nibbles. I then surveyed Indie authors that hung out on Kindleboards.com. The survey results were positive, but soon I had twenty authors asking to donate their books — then thirty — then . . . well, the word went out across the Internet. Within a week, I had an email from Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords.com. Smashwords is a premier on-line eBook distributor, converting Indie books into various eBook formats. Smashwords is also global. Mark Coker decided that Smashwords would back the project, opening up their author network to come aboard. This facilitated eBook delivery, because a link to the page on Smashwords and a 100%-Off Discount code. The long of the short of it, after a month we had over 60 authors participating and the troops were lining up also.

Operation eBook Drop is still off the cuff, and that’s the key to its success. There’s no central site, communication blog or layers of organization. It simply replicates my interaction with Joe Terry. I maintain a list of troops and authors. When a new author opts in, I email them the troop list and they’re responsible for sending the links and code(s), their own welcome email and, in turn, receive feedback directly from the troops. The troops get what they love most — access to a reading library in a shower of emails. I didn’t want to hog the good feelings, so each author has communication responsibility. They blog, post, network, and even go into print.

The program is only twelve weeks old and we have 290 participating authors, 7 publishing site in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and over 70 Troop points of light, including families preparing Kindles for their sons and daughters. We’ve adopted a submarine, the eBook Marine Special Forces program, troops in Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, Japan, Kuwait, Djibouti, Gitmo and at sea (including the Nimitz). I’m astounded by the success, but why should I be? Independent authors brim with generosity. They know struggle and make their own decisions when it comes to their books and who gets them. They’re in control. Personally, I’m stand in awe of them and urge readers to support them by buying their books. It’s my estimate that the Indie authors of Operation eBook Drop have made available 20,160 copies of eBooks to the troops on the program (and that’s a low estimate as some of the authors have multiple titles and offer them all). The troops choose what they want to read and use the coupons as they see fit, downloading eBooks and porting them to their eReading device.

As for the troops — what can I say? Their sacrifice for our freedom is a better gift than any book I could write. However, because of that freedom, I can author my books as they assure my freedom of speech and the air I breathe. It’s a small donation to fill in their hours away from home and, perhaps in those hours I can provoke a smile or a tear or an escape. Small price to pay for heroism. I salute these brave men and women and hope that no one ever forgets their contribution and sacrifice.

Here are some links for further information on Operation eBook Drop:

For information on joining (authors, deployed troops or their families): http://blog.smashwords.com/2009/09/smashwords-supports-operation-ebook.html

For information on Operation eBook Drop authors: http://tinyurl.com/ygk8u5o

For the Operation eBook Drop Kindleboards forum: http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,13352.0.html

And come join the Operation eBook Drop Fan club at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Operation-EBook-Drop/172002003420

Edward C. Patterson