Tag Archives: self-publishing

Scary Thought of the Night

Posted on November 5, 2010 | Comments Off

Tonight’s scary realization….

After a taking a workshop that taught the bare basics on making book covers and thereafter playing around, I can now make simple book covers for real electronic and POD editions if I so chose to.

My significant other pointed out that this means I ought to give into my evil side and start a vanity press.

No, I’m not going to start a vanity press.

But it feels just like I’ve woken up with a mutant power.  I’m used to only knowing about the writing side of things.

Here’s the first pretend book cover I ever did.  Still much much more to learn to get better at this.   And I have no intention of doing this for money from other writers or publishers.  Just learning more about another side of the publishing business.  Also, I find the way I look at the work of cover artists has changed–I admire those artists more than ever!

This is a practice book cover made by L. M. May

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Posted in Business of writing, Publishers

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No Quirky Writing Need Rot in a Drawer Anymore

Posted on October 24, 2010 | Comments Off

Sooner or later it happens to every writer.  The story that’s too weird in characters or plot to get past the sales force of a publisher, or has the wrong word count–too long for a short story sale (10,000 words or more), too short for a novel sale (less than 55,000 words).

It used to be when that happened all one could do was save those stories up for a collection of short stories or let them rot in a drawer.

And then after awhile, one reaches a point where one knows a story is going to be quirky after the first few pages, and an overwhelming urge would hit to just give up on it since there was virtually no market for it.

That’s why I’m so excited about the new distribution systems opening up through Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt.   Writers’ quirky stories are going to be able to see the light of day.   I’m looking forward to seeing what some of my favorite writers do in this new world.

And these days I no longer get the urge to stifle a story after the first few pages, because I know if it’s of publishable quality I can find a home for it, no matter what, down the road.  No story I write need sit rotting in a drawer–unless (like the first novel I wrote) it ought to.   Bad writing is still bad writing in this new world.

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Posted in Business of writing, Markets, Psychology of writing, Publishers

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Interesting links on the writing business

Posted on July 10, 2010 | Comments Off

Check out Douglas Smith’s Foreign Markets for selling speculative short stories.  This is a unique list of non-English markets.  Make sure to read his guidelines if you decide to submit to these markets.

There’s a fascinating article about how literary agent Andrew Wylie runs his business, written by Craig Lambert at Harvard Magazine.

And Cory Doctorow has an update on his self-publishing experiment (and he continues to share the income and expense numbers), at Publisher’s Weekly as “New York, Meet Silicon Valley.”

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Markets, Publishers

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J. A. Konrath on Ebooks

Posted on May 27, 2010 | Comments Off

Unless you don’t follow publishing news, I’m sure you’ve heard about J. A. Konrath signing a major deal with AmazonEncore. I advise reading about it at his blog since Publisher’s Weekly got some of the basic facts wrong .

Also, he’s well-known in e-publishing circles because of his candor in blogging his actual sales numbers on the Kindle since he started self-publishing there. There’s been a lot of handy information on his blog since he’s experimented with different approaches–like better book covers and changes in pricing–and I know he gathered it up for THE NEWBIE’S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING. I’ve downloaded it, and will try to find time to read it this summer to review here.

He’s getting swamped with emails from writers asking questions about e-publishing, so he just did a blog on “Top Ebook Questions.” I think it’s a good place to start exploring this new revenue stream for writers.

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Posted in Business of writing, Contracts, Copyright, Markets, Publishers

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Jim C. Hines’ Terrific Survey on How Novelists Broke In

Posted on March 18, 2010 | Comments Off

Writer Jim C. Hines has done a very helpful survey of 246 novelists to explore the following questions:

1) Do you have to sell short stories first to sell a novel?

2) Is self-publishing the way to go to sell a first novel to a publisher?

3) Are most first sales of a novel an overnight success story?

4) Do you have to have personal connections to the publishing industry to sell a first novel?

I’m not going to tell what the answers are, because I think it’s important to visit Jim’s website to read his detailed answers and analysis there.

Here’s what Jim says on his website about his survey:

For this study, I was looking for authors who had published at least one professional novel, where “professional” was defined as earning an advance of $2000 or more.  This is an arbitrary amount based on SFWA’s criteria for professional publishers.  No judgment is implied toward authors who self-publish or work with smaller presses, but for this study, I wanted data on breaking in with the larger publishers.

247 authors from a range of genres responded.  One was eliminated because the book didn’t fit the criteria (it was for a nonfiction title).  A random audit found no other problems.

The first part of the survey is Novel Survey Results, Part 1 (answers questions 1 & 2).   Second part has just been posted today as Novel Survey Results, Part 2 (answering questions 3 & 4).  There will be a third part next week.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Craft of writing, Editors, Interviews with Writers, Markets, Publishers, Writers on Writing Links

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Cory Doctorow’s Publishing Experiment

Posted on November 13, 2009 | Comments Off

Cory Doctorow has offered himself up as a guinea pig to test two areas of hot debate: 1) does offering a work as a free e-book lose or gain the author money in the long run, and 2) would an author make more money on a book by self-publishing or by going with a traditional publisher.

Here’s what he says:

I’m a contrarian on both of these propositions: that I’m losing money by giving away e-books, and that I’m losing money by using a publisher. I have a nice little Goldilocks gig going—not too hot, not too cold, just the right amount of DIY, independent publishing and just the right amount of professional support and administration from my publisher to sell. But I’m as curious about both propositions as anyone. While it’s fun to argue about whose intuition is more correct, I think facts on the ground beat a priori assumptions every time. So I’ve come up with an idea to get some facts in evidence, while making some money and raising a little hell.

So Doctorow’s third collection of short stories With A Little Help will be done using a self-publishing model, and he’s going to keep track of the sales numbers and actually share the data.

Data he’ll be tracking:  Profit & Loss, E-book, Audiobook, Donations to him, Print-on-demand trade paperback, Premium hardcover edition, Commission a new story for the book for $10,000 (already sold), Advertisements, and Donation of books.

He’ll be posting monthly to Publisher’s Weekly.  His first post is here.

Keep an eye out on what happens with this experiment in the next year or two.

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Posted in Business of writing, Copyright, Markets, Publishers

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