Are You In It For The Money, Or Something Else?

Every now and then, I like to take a look at the state of self-publishing. After all, it’s gone through as much of a revolution as the e-book industry has, and why not? The two go hand in hand. A USA Today article reported that the number of self-published titles released in 2012 was 391,000, a whopping 60% rise from the previous year due, in part, to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Program. Smashwords’ numbers are also high: 250,000 titles from about 60,000 authors. Author Solutions (purchased by Penguin) has 200,000 titles from 170,000 authors. The thing is, how many of those authors are actually making money?

According to a marketing VP at Author Solutions, authors spend between $1,000 and $2,000 to publish their books and most aren’t making their money back. I don’t know how much Author Solutions charges for their services, but I do know that to produce a professional product, you’ll likely need to hire either a typesetter, jacket designer, or editor. Based on my own informal research, $1,000 to $1,500 for a jacket designer and good editor isn’t out of line.

But the article raises an interesting point. Not everyone who writes a book publishes it to make money. In fact, a study by Digital Book World revealed that making money was only forth on the list of a writers’ priority. I think there’s some truth to this. I know plenty of writers, myself included, who’ve been writing and publishing for a couple of decades or more, but still aren’t making a living. For the first twenty years of my career, money wasn’t even on the radar. Learning to finish and edit novels was, along with the long journey to find a publisher. I kept going because transforming a single idea into to a fully formed novel was tremendously satisfying.

As Digital Book World’s study showed, I wasn’t alone. The two top reasons respondents gave for writing and publishing were to build a writing career and to fulfill a lifelong ambition. Maybe this is why so many people I know don’t put the time and energy into selling their books as they did to writing and editing them. I think most of us want something to be remembered by. Publishing a book provides immortality, at least it does in Canada, as every book ever published winds up in Canada’s National Library to be saved forever. So, I have immortality. But wouldn’t it now be nice to make some money?

To read the USA Today article, go to http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/11/29/the-upsurge-in-self-published-books/3191731/

Will Your Book Be Pulled From Amazon?

Anyone who’s published e-books through Amazon knows that they like to change things now and then. Sometimes the changes make sense, other times… This week, I came across a blog by Penny from Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (I’m not familiar with this company) who reported that Amazon is pulling books because they don’t like the content of keywords and/or book descriptions.

It seems that Amazon used to encourage authors to use the names of other titles and authors in keywords and descriptions. Recently, someone decided that this practice is no longer acceptable. For this reason, one of Penny’s authors had her book removed from the virtual shelf without notification.

Incidentally, in a follow-up blog, Penny clarifies that keywords are not the same as tags. Tags are no longer used. Keywords are words associated with your book page; the back end page where you upload your e-book and add the book cover.

In the follow-up blog (you can find the link in the original blog), Penny reports that she’s been able to have the book reinstated. Penny also personally wrote to Jeff Bezos, after not having much luck with Author Central, and received a response on from a customer relations executive acting on Mr. Bezos’ behalf. It seems they weren’t aware of this practice and we looking into the matter.

So, whether more books will be pulled for this reason remains to be seen. Meanwhile, it might be a good idea to do your own investigating and to take a second look at your book’s description.

You can find Penny’s blog at http://www.amarketingexpert.com/amazon-making-big-changes-authors-beware/

When Good Things Happen

Anyone who’s been writing a while knows that the writing life isn’t easy. It often feels that there are more setbacks than milestones. It’s part of the biz. We slowly type those words on a blank screen or scribble words on a lined notepad, only to find within seconds, minutes, or days that what we’ve written isn’t nearly good enough, so we revise and revise. And then we take it—if we’re lucky—to a trusted group of readers to learn that the piece needs more work.

It’s the same with submitting a story. Once that new work is ready to submit to a willing editor, agent, or publisher, we often find the same type of setbacks and frustrations or worse, total indifference to the work. Again, it’s part of the writer’s life. It’s also the part that sends many folks packing onto new ventures, deciding they don’t need the aggravation, and who can blame them?

But every once in a while good things happen. Then it’s time to celebrate and reflect on how far you’ve come and, above all, to pay it forward. I’ve just experienced such a month, beginning with the news that my publisher, TouchWood Editions offered me a contract for the fourth Casey Holland novel, The Deep End, which will be published in September 2014. I’ve also just completed four weekends of selling books at Christmas craft fairs and, to my surprise, I broke my own record. I’m grateful for the many book buyers who bought copies because they believe in supporting local authors.

Lastly, I received word that my essay, “The Wheels on the Bus” that discusses the Casey Holland series has appeared in Mystery Readers Journal, Murder in Transit issue. I’ve never made it into a national magazine for mystery readers before and again I’m grateful.

When things like this happen, it’s all the more important to do what I can to help other writers. So, this weekend, I bought another writer’s book, I told yet another writer about Access Copyright, which he’d never heard of, and I honoured someone’s request to like their page. This is only the beginning. In my experience, writers represent a close community and we’re stronger when we help each other.

After all this, I've reconnected with the inspiration and the drive to keep working hard Most of all, I learned how the importance of gratitude and to keep paying it forward.

You can find the issue at http://www.mysteryreaders.org/Issues/transit2013.html

Writing A Novel, 250 Words At A Time

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. I did it in years past, "failed" it a couple of years, and didn't try at all last year. This year, I had the silly notion to use it to write something I've never done before: a Romance novel.

According to my impeccable reasoning, if I'm attempting something I have absolutely no practice in and no proven competence in, I have a license to fail. It's not only allowed to be of poor quality because it's NaNo, it nearly guaranteed to be of poor quality. How's that for taking off the pressure? It's like being dipped in Invulnerabilium or something.

So I'm having fun this year. And I'm keeping up with my word count.

Sometimes, it's hard. But you know what I do? Yes, the title of this post totally telegraphs the message: I tell myself I need to write 250 words. That's all, just 250 words. Sometimes that seems like a lot. Sometimes I do it one. word. at. a. time. But I seldom write just 250 words. Because the time comes when I count my words, and I have 276. If I have 276, I might as well try for 500. If I have 500, I might as well go for 1000. By that time, I'm nearly always on a roll, and I can exceed, hit, or come close to my word count.

I can't guarantee what I'll have when NaNo is over. It'll probably be an unusable mess.

But you know what? I don't really believe that. This is just too much fun to be a total loss.

Marian Allen
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes

Plenty of Bookstore Closures in the UK

A few days ago, the Guardian reported a 42% increase in the number of bookstores that closed in the UK last year. That is a whopping 98 stores, some of which had been around for decades.

Naturally, there is more than one reason for all these closures. The article says that part of it is due to deep discounts and the digital book market. But the secondhand book market, particularly in the world of academic textbooks, has soared, and Amazon’s secondhand marketplace definitely hasn’t helped. This is one of the few articles I’ve read that also lists digital piracy as part of the problem. Additionally, the end of the Net Book Agreement (NBA) in 1997 was a game changer.

Originating in 1899, the NBA agreement essentially allowed publishers to set the retail price themselves. Each publisher agreed not to do business with anyone who tried to discount books. The retailers thought this was fine because it wouldn’t hurt their bottom line either. But then things began to change.

Some people believed that the NBA was a restrictive practice, so the issue was re-examined in 1982. The agreement was upheld because it allowed publishers to subsidize the work of “potentially important” authors. You can read more about how the agreement unravelled in the 1990’s through the link provided in the Guardian’s article.

It saddens me to see so many bookstores go. I was raised with bookstores, but the chains look far different from the stores I remember, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Although I’ve embraced the digital age, by both buying and selling e-books, I was hoping that more booksellers would find ways to adapt. Maybe it was simply wishful thinking. Clearly, the UK is in a state of flux and some people clearly blame Amazon’s arrival. But maybe it all comes down to re-evaluating what customers want, and trying to accommodate them a little better. I do know that the model of “we’ve always done things this way so why should it change?” just doesn’t cut it anymore.

You can find the article at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/04/ebooks-discounts-98-publishers-closure

Welcome to the November Crush

If you have been writing for a while, you’ve probably noticed that November is one of the busiest—if not the busiest—months of the year for writers. Not only are writers’ groups in full swing, but there are plenty of readings, book signings, conferences, and festivals to attend. November 1^st also marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which was created to encourage writers to write a novel in one month. I have a number of colleagues who’ve taken part, with varying degrees of success, and honestly, I admire them. I haven’t had the courage to try, yet.

For those of us actively engaged in selling books, November is also our busiest month of the year. Christmas craft fair season is upon us and I’ve taken part in two events so far in November. I have two more go, and this is a slower month for me. Last year, I took part in ten events over a six week period. Fun, but tiring!

So, if you’re starting to feel a little fatigued, how about pulling back a bit and sitting down to read? If you want to challenge yourself, why not tackle one of the fifty difficult books listed by Emily Temple? She describes these books as really long, or difficult, or with intense or upsetting subject matter. In some cases, there is also brilliantly written pose that requires effort and serious mind expansion. Intriguing, and a little scary, isn’t it?

Some of the titles you’ll be familiar with, such as Finnegan’s Wake and The Sound and the Fury, but others will be new. Temple provides a description with each title, so sit back and enjoy her list, then try one, if you dare! http://flavorwire.com/423424/50-incredibly-tough-books-for-extreme-readers/

Meanwhile, on my website’s News and Events page, I have a list of upcoming craft fairs, and big news about a new publishing contact, which you can find at www.debrapurdykong.com