Category Archives: Business

Technology: Digital Power Plays

Have you ever met someone so sure of their own power over the world around them they could hold up their hand to block the sun and swear they’d created an eclipse? I have and sometimes it feels as though certain digital entities are beginning to see themselves this way.

Amazon has been facing charges of monopolistic action for some time now, even before they deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from customers’ Kindles back in 2009. The furor of this action (supposedly taken because the copies were from a pirated version of the book) was not any less despite the company granting ever customer a full refund of the purchase price, which I completely understand. It’s just an unheard of proposition! No one ever had to worry that Borders employees were going to break into your house and steal back a copy of the book (leaving your refund on the kitchen counter, of course) just because a publisher no longer owned the rights to that book. We expect that once paid for, the book belongs to us. Apparently, we were wrong. And it’s not the only time they’ve been accused of this. But this is old news and now customers aren’t the only ones dealing with Amazon’s power plays.

In February, CNET reported that Amazon shut down the sale of over 5,000 Kindle titles in a pricing/discount dispute with distributor Independent Publishers Group. The President of IPG suggested this was a strong-arm move by Amazon to increase their margins and get better terms from the publishers. Amazon refused to comment, but the sudden disappearance of those titles does kind of speak for itself. The article also mentions an issue with major publisher MacMillan over pricing when the internet giant refused to price ebooks higher than $9.99. This reminded me of an article I read a couple months ago about an official investigation into ebook pricing by the federal government.

According to the LA Times, “A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed that the probe involved the possibility of “anticompetitive practices involving e-book sales.”” Major retailers have been controlling the prices of ebooks and despite their price being lower than the paperback or hardcover versions, prices have been rising steadily until there’s barely a difference between buying a physical copy and downloading the ebook version. One of the major draws of ebooks (at least for me) is the price drop. If that goes away, they may see sales start declining across the board.

But pricing isn’t the only issue. Apparently PayPal has taken it upon itself to become a moral compass and content censor as well. Ebook distributor Smashwords was threatened by PayPal in February that the company would revoke it’s account unless Smashwords banned certain types of erotica from their site. While the content banned would all be considered by most immoral (and in some cases illegal), Smashwords spokesman and founder Mark Coker said,

“it’s a slippery slope when we allow others to control what we think and write. Fiction is fantasy… A reader should have the right to feel moved however they desire to be moved,” he writes. “We do not want to see PayPal clamp down further against erotica. We think our authors should be allowed to publish erotica. Erotica, despite the attacks it faces from moralists, is a category worthy of protection.”

And he’s right. Letting a third party who is essentially unconnected with the production of content dictate what you are and are not allowed to print is ridiculous and probably unconstitutional. However, because PayPal is literally written into the code of the Smashwords site, switching to another payment provider is not a feasible (or fiscally responsible) option.

What does this all add up to? I have no idea. These are all pieces of the still shifting publication puzzle. All it seems to me is that digital self-publishing may not be as free form as it is currently for much longer. The major players are taking control.

Publishing: The Traditional Defense Part Four

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Before even beginning his final post defending traditional publishing, Steve Laube calls part five boring. Personally, I disagree. For people not already involved in the industry, the information presented here is probably the most enlightening in his series.

The publisher’s involvement does not stop once the books hit bookstore (or online) shelves. In fact, the post production part of their jobs may just be what makes it worth giving up more than half of your royalties. Most aspiring authors know their publisher or agent will deal with things like selling and managing foreign rights, but they don’t think about things like IRS laws and multiple state income taxes. Selling your book across state lines apparently adds a lot of complications to your tax return, fyi. Publishers have teams of people dedicated to tracking and verifying sales, standardizing prices across multiple outlets, and accounting for every dollar made by a particular title. On a global scale. Can you imagine trying to do that on your own? I don’t even want to think about it.

Foreign rights are their own legal and logistical nightmare. Did you know you have to sell the English language rights to different countries before they’re allowed to sell the book in their territory? Add to that the translation rights, audio right, movie rights, etc., etc., etc. and you have a puzzle with teeny tiny pieces and no picture to guide you.

What else do these behind-the-scenes teams do? How about protect you from piracy? Steve explains:

I attended a presentation last year on “Digital Initiatives” made by very smart people from Hachette. They discussed their use of “Attributor Monitors” to scour the Internet for illegal versions of their book titles. I was shocked to hear that they discover and send out 1,500 take-down notices to illegal sites, every month (saying, in essence, take the illegal book down from your site, or else). Fifteen hundred! They get better than 99% compliance with the request, worldwide. (It is understandable that they would have that level of trouble since Hachette publishes the Twilight franchise.) I suspect that when a company like Hachette contacts the illegal site with their powerful legal team, the offending site owner is willing to comply. But if you tried to do it on your own, you would be ignored.

Having the power of an experienced legal team behind you can give you a peace of mind you wouldn’t otherwise have in an age where digital piracy is the norm.

However, speaking of digital, that side of the market isn’t all about piracy. It’s also about metadata. For those who don’t know, metadata is one of the ways search engines like Google find you on the web. It’s also how sites like Amazon employ their “you might also like” algorithms. Bad metadata will bury your book in an avalanche of fiction titles–both self and traditionally published–and leave you mired in obscurity. By itself, this isn’t a daunting thing to learn for yourself, but added to all the other tasks ultimately part of the infrastructure of traditional houses and I know it’s something I don’t want to have to do on my own.

After all this, do I still think the traditional model has some major adapting to do if it’s going to succeed in an increasingly digital world? Yes. Am I still going to try to find an agent? Yes. Am I still going to have that agent submit my work to both traditional and indie houses? Yes. If after several books and years of trying that still doesn’t work, will I self-publish? Most likely, yes. Will I ever succeed at any of these? Who knows? Only time will tell.

Publishing: The Traditional Defense Part Three

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Continuing my posts from last week (part one and part two), today I’m looking at Steve Laube’s Defense of Traditional Publishing Part Four: Design. While cover design is a crucial element of the overall design process, it is not the only one. Decisions must also be made on the weight of the paper (did you know it comes in a wide variety of thicknesses?), the size of the pages, the font, the author photo, the color of the cover (for hardcovers), and whether or not to use deckled edges (click for picture and definition). All of these points add up to the entire design package and one reason having a team of experts one your side, especially experts who will be footing the bill, is a very good thing.

Especially since I’ve taken to browsing the Kindle store online, I have seen a lot of really beautiful covers. I’ve seen even more hideously ugly ones. Realy, really ugly ones where I’m left hoping and praying the author didn’t pay anyone to create that for them. While you may not always like the cover the design team of a traditional publisher creates for you, that doesn’t mean it will be an ineffective attractor. Despite the adage “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” we often do just that. Working in a bookstore I found beautiful covers often correlated to how invested a publisher is in the book’s success. I also learned I was more likely to enjoy reading a book the publishers were standing behind. Not always, of course, but it was true more often than not.

Like with editing, proponents of self-publishing can argue, “Well, I can hire a designer myself.” This is true. But did you know that when publishers hire freelance designers they usually pay between $3,000-5,000? Do you have that much to invest? No? Neither do I. Are there amazing designers out there who will work a lot cheaper? Yes. But Steve warns you can’t let your personal preferences get in the way.

Those who want to forego the traditional publishing route need to remember one thing, don’t let your own personal taste be the final vote. What you think is gorgeous may make another person heave. (A simple walk down the mall observing fashion choices is a case in point.) This is not the place to bargain hunt or be shallow with a comment like “I just don’t like the color pink.”

The packaging (which if you’re publishing in ebook only is just the cover) can create just as much buzz as the content. Good content without a stunning cover won’t give your book it’s best shot. The reverse is obviously true as well and will probably make readers feel as though they’ve been tricked. But that’s where editing should have come into play.

Because I found this fascinating, I’m re-posting the video Steve used to illustrate his point. This time-lapsed look at the making of a cover gives you incredible insight into the kind of time and energy gets invested in good covers.

Publishing: Since We’re Kind Of On The Subject…

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I jumped onto the subject of self-publishing yesterday and this morning found another related post. This one, written by author and blogger J.A. Konrath, specifically talks about how legacy houses (the big names people normally think of) treat non-blockbuster level authors. Konrath has experience on both sides of the fence and is a strident, vocal, and sometimes angry proponent of self-publishing. His love of DIY publishing has some pretty strong support, like the $500,000 he’s made off a book the publishing houses didn’t want to print.

His posts always send me straight into the whirlpool of doubt and indecision about whether or not self-publishing is for me. There’s no doubt about its viability or the possibility of creating a huge following, the doubt is whether or not it’s a good fit for me.

Like most fields, there’s no clear path to success with self-publishing. There are some ways to make things work for you, but it’s a trial and error process. There’s also no filter between what people are writing and what they’re selling. No editorial reviews, no slush pile. I’ve read some books off Amazon that had the promise of a good story, but the writing just didn’t deliver. They didn’t invest in an editor, or maybe hired one who isn’t worth their salt, and put out a final product that won’t carry them as far as it could have. I don’t want to be one of those authors. I’m not looking for perfection in my story because, really, there’s no such thing, but I want my debut novel to be the best I can make it before I release it to the world. For that I need editing. And editing services without an agent and publishing team to provide them are EXPENSIVE. At least, the good ones are and why would you spend less money on something this important?

So, yes, Konrath, I get your point. I agree and can even honestly say that I would like to have some of the creative control self-publishing offers, so I’m thinking of the middle ground. Anyone know of an indie house that publishes young adult paranormal novels and is taking submissions?

Self-Publishing: The New Dream Or Just A Stepping Stone?

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Once upon a time, self-publishing held a certain stigma. Self-published authors were looked down on by the world at large and laughed at behind fake smiles as people sneered “Guess they couldn’t hack it in the real publishing industry.” Those authors were usually doomed to low sales and obscurity unless they happened upon the right person at the right time or the right marketing tool at the right price. And, historically, self-publishing was expensive and entirely out of the author’s pocket. This all adds up to one big black cloud hanging over the definition of “self-published” even though the climate of the industry has changed completely.

With the technology boom and the rise of the all-powerful internet, self-publishing has become a possible platform from which to launch yourself on the world and a handful of authors have done this successfully. One of the privileged few? Debut author Darcie Chan and her book The Mill River Recluse.

I found this article online about Darcie’s rise to fame and fortune. While, today, her story isn’t exactly unique, what struck me was this section of the article:

While she would love to write full time, for now, she still sees writing as more of a hobby. When people ask her what she does for a living, she says she’s a lawyer. But she’s still holding out hope that a publisher will buy “The Mill River Recluse,” edit it and sell it in brick-and-mortar stores.

A little surprising, isn’t it? But maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked. After all, one of the main draws toward traditional publishing for me is the dream of finding a talented, devoted, invested editor who will help my writing grow and become better than I ever could have made it on my own. However, I have to say that if I’d made over $130,000 before taxes I’d probably hire an editor and invest in printing physical copies of the book. Or maybe find a smaller independent press to partner with on the physical printing and distribution. But that is beside the point.

Authors can obviously find major success with self-publishing, especially digital self-publishing, but is this the new dream or do most simply see it as a stepping stone to what they really want: the validation of publication by a recognizable brand like Little Brown, HarperCollins, et al.? According to the article,

A few major publishers made offers, but none matched the digital royalty rates of 35% to 40% that Ms. Chan makes on her own through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Typically, most publishers offer print royalties of 10% to 15% and digital royalties of 25%. Simon & Schuster offered to act as a distributor, but Ms. Chan wants the book to be professionally edited and marketed…. Ms. Liss [Darcie’s agent] says that the offers from U.S. publishers so far don’t improve much on what Ms. Chan is making on her own…. “I told Darcie, at this point you’re printing money. They’re not. Go with God, we’ll sell the second book,” Ms. Liss says.

It’s an interesting issue and I don’t think anyone can see the big picture yet, not until the landscape stops shifting. By the time we emerge from this major transition period, my guess is that the publishing industry will be completely transformed. At least, I kind of hope it will be because otherwise it might be doomed to go down in flames as the next generation of blockbuster authors gives up on the NY houses entirely and shoots straight for the digital market. However, I have been wrong in the past. What do you think might happen? Is self-publishing going to continue to be a stepping stone into the more traditional publishing world or will it become the new dream?

Covers: How Much Will They Matter In A Digital Age?

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One of the items in the endless list of things to keep a soon-to-be-published author up at night is the book cover. Will it convey the right tone? Will it appeal to the right audience? What if it’s in a color I hate? Will they let me change it at all if it’s horrible? Even for self-published authors (probably especially for self-published authors) these questions can be consuming. But how much does the cover even matter in a digital age?

Jody Hedlund, author and blogger, recently posted about her newest cover and the process that went into creating it. Her publisher posted several options a few weeks ago and asked readers to vote on their favorite. In the post, Jody not only unveils the winner, but explains why it won. One of the explanations that struck me the most was “2. The larger picture would be stronger compared to the others when viewed online, where thumbnail images are so pervasive.”

Honestly, it pleased me to see that publishers are taking digital marketing and display seriously. Brick and mortar bookstores are closing down all over the place (I live in a pretty major metropolitan area and there is ONE major bookstore left within half an hour of my house) and the convenience of digital readers are converting many people–myself included. The turning point for me was my move last year where, because of space, I was forced to give away/sell/donate about half of my precious book collection. If I had digital editions of those books, I would never have had to worry about that. There’s a lot more to this discussion, but I’ll save it for later before I get myself completely off track.

When browsing through sites like Amazon, the only things you see are the cover, the title, the author, and the price. If you don’t recognize the author’s name, that’s already one of four possible draws down the drain. If the title doesn’t grab you, there goes another. All you have left are the cover and the price point. If the price is average–not low enough to make the book a WTH-impulse buy but not high enough to immediately knock it out of the running–the cover is going to be the only thing that will draw in your audience.

If you’re publishing with a major house, you probably don’t have a lot of control over the cover–or anything post-final draft, really. However, if you’re self-publishing it is the greatest disservice in the world to not spend the money on a professional, eye-catching cover. There are so many artists out there with lost of talent who are available for free-lance design work. It probably won’t even be as much money as you think it might. It doesn’t hurt to look and you’ll only be shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t. The other thing to consider is editing (I’ve passed on buying a lot of books because more than half the reviews were something along the lines of “the story was great, but there were too many errors”), but that’s a whole post in and of itself.

Bottom line: will covers be important in the digital age? YES. Maybe even more so than they are now.

Websites: Common Mistakes

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Mixed messages are everywhere and the information coming to new or aspiring authors is no exception. One of the biggest of these involves self-promotion and websites.

Almost everyone recommends authors have a web presence through their own site as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter. The social media pages are simple to set up and most of us already make use of these pages in our daily lives. Setting up a website from scratch? Not quite as easy.

When I started my first website sometime in 2007, I used Microsoft Office Live. Not only did this service (at the time) offer free webhosting and free simple design software, they gave you a free domain name! It seemed perfect and, for a first website, it was. I attempted to have a blog on that site simply by adding text to a page with dates, but the format annoyed me pretty quickly. A few months after I started the website, I started a Blogger blog and, for a while, cross posted everything on both sites. Eventually I stopped cross posting and simply added notifications to the website that new content had been added to the blog. But then I dropped of the face of the interwebs for a while. When I finally resurfaced this year I looked at my website and realized I hated it. The webhosting was still free, but I had to pay for my domain name. The design software was still simple, but it was annoyingly limited. Then I looked at my blog. Most of my interesting content was already hosted on my blog and in the intervening year Blogger had added a really cool new tool called Pages. This featured allowed me to create static pages with whatever content I want. How awesome is that? It didn’t take me long to decide to scrap the Microsoft site entirely and bring my domain name over to Blogger.

For me, Blogger works as a site. In a few years once I actually have some books published and my promotional needs change, it might not work as well. For now, however, it’s perfect. I like posting content about writing because not only does it help whoever happens to stumble across the post, it helps me keep up to date on the ever-changing industry. There are a few people who have been following me ever since the beginning of the blog and even came back after my long hiatus, but for people who are just discovering my corner of the internet there’s a wealth of posts for them to browse through.

As easy and convenient as Blogger (and similar sites like WordPress) is, it’s not for everyone. If you don’t plan on posting much or find after you start that you can’t keep up the pace, having a blog-centered site might actually hurt your promotional goals: having no website is better than having a bad website. However, there is hope!

If you’re a die-hard do-it-yourselfer, there are a few websites you can check out that list the most common mistakes author websites make and how to spot and then avoid them. Jane Friedman talks specifically about Blogger and WordPress and the problems of using a blog-centered website. Designer Karin Bilich goes into detail about the design issues she faces working with authors on their websites. Last but not least, The Creative Penn hosted a guest blog by founder of Writing Forward Melissa Donovan about common mistakes authors make on their websites. All of these posts provide useful tools and tips that won’t hurt and may help your website.

If you don’t mind asking for help, there are a wide range of services available online from the cost-effective to the full-service luxury packages. Different designers will specialize in working with different hosting services, so if you don’t already have a site established, find a designer (preferably one who has worked with authors before) and listen to their input. That is, after all, what you’re paying them for, right?

Retail: The Gripes of A Bookstore Employee

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Having spent most of my day at a mall (eww), it brings me back to my days as a retail employee during the holiday season. When the bookstores began to die, a few stores gave up the veneer of complacency and decided to tell customers exactly why they’ve gotten on our nerves over the years. Having lived through two years of Borders I can vouch that all of these are true. All of them and then some. >.< So, in the spirit of the season, here are some things NOT to do when you go into most stores. Chances are if you avoid these errors, you'll get better service. 😉

Things We Never Told You: Ode To A Bookstore Death

We hate when a book becomes popular simply because it was turned into a movie.

It confused us when we were asked where the non-fiction section is.

Nicholas Sparks is not a good writer … if you like him, fine, but facts are facts.

We greatly dislike the phrase “Quick question.” It’s never true. And everyone seems to have one.

Your summer reading list was our summer reading NIGHTMARE. Also, it’s called summer reading, not three days before school starts reading.

It’s true that we lean to the left and think Glenn Beck is an idiot.

We always knew when you were intently reading Better Homes and Gardens, it was really a hidden Playboy.

Most of the time when you returned books you read them already – and we were onto you.

Limit One Coupon did not mean one for every member of your family – this angered us. Also, we did know what coupons were out.

It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We’d rather you do if you’re putting up a stink.

“I was just here last week and saw this book there” meant nothing to us. The store changed once a week.

When you walked in and immediately said, “I’m looking for a book,” what you really meant to say is, “I would like you to find me a book.” You never looked. It’s fine, it’s our job – but let’s be correct about what’s really happening here.

If you don’t know the author, title, or genre, but you do know the color of the cover, we don’t either. How it was our fault that we couldn’t find it we’ll never understand.

We were never a daycare. Letting your children run free and destroy our section destroyed a piece of our souls.

Oprah was not the “final say” on what is awesome. We really didn’t care what was on her show or what her latest book club book was. Really.

When you returned your SAT books, we knew you used them. We thought it wasn’t fair – seeing that we are not a library.

Publication: Advice On How To Get There

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There is no easy answer to this question and no road map for you to follow.

Just so we’re clear.

There are, however, steps you can take and things you can try that might get you one step closer to publication. Agent Rachelle Gardner offers some tips, but no one can make you promises. Other agents and bloggers have as well and, in a nutshell, their combined advice is as follows.

One, improve your writing. In fact, this is kind of a must. If your book is not absolutely the best you can make it, don’t even think about submitting it and please, please step away from thoughts about self-publishing. For advice on how to improve without spending a lot of money, check out Elizabeth Spann’s post or my version of the same.

Two, enter contests. I mentioned this in my post on improving, but it’s a subject that is worth repeating. Romance Writers of America has a list of contests for 2012 ~~here~~ (chapter hosted contests) including a few for unpublished manuscripts. Many others exist for both published and unpublished authors and a Google search can help you turn up ones relevant to your genre.

Three, fine-tune your query letter, but stay away from query-letter services. I’ve read from multiple reliable sources that most agents can instantly spot a pre-fab query letter and using one of these will not get you on their good side. Free services for query letter critiques include sites like Critique Circle and Query Shark that can provide edits once you have a letter written, but if you’re struggling to get a solid letter on paper (or on computer) try one (or a few) of these resources:

Agent Query – How to Write a Query Letter
Query Shark – just reading through the posts can be enormously helpful
Writer Beware Blogs – How to Write a Query Letter
Nathan Bransford – How to Write a Query Letter

These are just a few of the thousands of sites available, but they are sites I know are reputable and thorough. The advice they offer is more valuable than gold and you should treat it as such.

Four, find an agent to query. Do your research and don’t bother querying agents who A) aren’t accepting submissions, B) don’t represent your genre, C) show up on Writer’s Beware, D) ask for money before reading your query, E) don’t follow the guidelines of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR). They don’t have to actually be a member of the AAR, but even those who aren’t should follow the ethical guidelines established by this organization. To find an agent you should do some Google searches or search through the databases of Agent Query (free) or Writer’s Market (subscription required). These sources include most of the agents currently working in the industry and will be invaluable in your search.

Five, attend conferences and pitch sessions. You can do a Google search for conferences in your area, but unless you live in New York or California, you will probably have to travel for most of the major events. Personally, I hope to attend the RWA conference, the New York Book Expo, and the NYC Pitch and Shop Conference in 2012. These types of conferences are a fantastic way to meet other writer and industry professionals and maybe start forming a network. Often, skill alone isn’t enough. A single recommendation can go a long, long way.

Six, think positive. This may seem silly, but it’s important. Crucial, even. Getting published can be a long, winding, uphill road and letting yourself feel negative is one step closer to letting yourself quit. If you want it bad enough, you’ll get there come hell or high water. Just remember that each rejection you get is one closer to an acceptance and each bad review is one more way you can make your work better.

This probably seems like a lot of work. That’s because it is. There is another route to publication, the DIY path, but since the weight of every single decision rests on your shoulders, you have to make sure you do your research before committing to this. J.A. Konrath has a lot of information on his blog about self-publishing even if he sometimes phrases his opinions in ways that tend to offend. Not me, but I’ve seen it happen. New sites with advice or offers of publishing services are popping up every day, but do your research before signing with a company. It’s free to load your ebook onto Amazon or Barnes & Noble, so don’t pay for anything you don’t have to. This is a very valid option, but not one I’ve done a ton of research on, so I can’t offer much more advice on the subject. Not anything that I’ve personally tested, anyway.

So, here it is. Hopefully, it helps someone. Satisfaction is in no way guaranteed, but it’s a possibility.

Book Blogs: The Beginning Of The End?

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The LA Times recently posted an article about a letter from William Morrow of HarperCollins to book bloggers. The company used to send out unrequested books to bloggers in the hopes of a review (apparently. I was never on that list, so I can’t speak from personal experience). Now they plan on creating a request system which will limit bloggers’ choices to three per month and will expect reviews of those books within one month of shipment.

I can see both sides of this equation. It must cost the company a lot of money to print and ship that many books and I’m sure there are more than a few bloggers who request a ton of books, but don’t always review them–hell, maybe they don’t even read them. I can also see the point of view of the bloggers who have been diligently toiling away on their sites for years (often without compensation of any kind except those free books they receive in the mail). Too bad this system HarperCollins is putting into place can’t judge bloggers on a case by case basis and give the ones who deserve it more credit.

Does this move by HC spell the end of the golden times for book bloggers? Does it signal the end of book blogging entirely? If bloggers who review multiple books per week have to buy all those books, do you think they’ll continue? A few will, those who would buy the books anyway whether they planned on reviewing them or not, but a lot will probably fall away if the flow of free copies ever stops. The advent of the digital age may be the saving grace as it costs companies almost nothing to send out ebook ARCs, but will they do this? The fear of piracy may prevent them from even contemplating it.

There’s no easy answer, but I know how I hope this will turn out. It will be interesting to see the actual outcome.