Trad Publishing Is Bonkers Over the Author Earnings Report

The ninth quarterly Author Earnings Report came out Monday. For those who've been sailing around the Caribbean for the two years (oh, wait! that's one of AE's authors, and it's only been for the last couple of months), AE is a project put together by SFF writer Hugh Howey and his partner Data Guy.

Basically, these two gentlemen have developed spiders that crawl through the Amazon book data and scrape info concerning the sales of genre books on a given day. They then spreadsheet and smoosh and extrapolate whatever's happening in the wilds of Amazon to the book industry. The really cool thing is they make the raw data available for the public so we can also spreadsheet and smoosh and extrapolate to our little hearts' content, too.

The first report came out with very little fanfare except among indie writers. It showed that we were selling a pretty decent chunk of e-books on Amazon. It reassured us that this e-book self-publishing thing wasn't a flash in the pan.

As more reports came out, trad publishing pundits first made fun of the reports. They called it wish fulfillment. But with each successive report, the laughter died, and the complaints about their collection methodology began. As more reports rolled in, the complaints became shriller.

With the latest report (mind you, this is all being done by a couple of guys as a hobby), certain insiders are calling for AE to be audited. So what's behind all the mockery and complaints?

Fear. Simple unrelenting fear.

More and more of trad publishing's normal news channels are reporting falling sales. Let's face it--the savior over Christmas for the trad publishers was the popularity of adult coloring books. There hasn't a major fiction blockbuster since Fifty Shades of Gray in 2012.

The AE report shows where those missing sales are going, the pockets of indies. And this terrifies the Manhattan literati. So much so that Porter Anderson is calling for the duo to be audited and Lee Child mocks them for inaccuracy.

If indies were as inconsequential as many in trad publishing believe, then there is no reason for the uproar. But that screaming gets louder with each successive report. The fear has gone from general unease to full-blown panic.

What does this all mean?

To me, not a damn thing. I've played with their raw data enough to confirm what I already knew. I've gone from making a week's worth of groceries in my first year of publishing my work to paying for my son's oral surgery out of pocket.

Now. if you will excuse me, I need to write and publish a few more books because GK needs his wisdom teeth out this summer.

Authors United Strikes Again

Writers need to learn business.

Willful ignorance by writers who should know business is downright embarrassing.

Authors United, a little group of writers headed by Douglas Preston, is showing their willful ignorance.

Again.

Even worse, they display elitism and racism at its most horrible. I'm terribly ashamed that one of my favorite authors, Ursula Le Guin, signed a letter vilifying blue collar workers and Asian workers. Feel free to contact her or any of the other writers.

I will.

As soon as my blood pressure lowers enough for me to write coherently.

So what's going on?

Many of the AU authors are published by Hatchette Book Group. Hatchette's contract with Amazon expired last March. Amazon has been trying since January to work out a new contract with Hatchette, who ignored all communications until May.

That's when the PR war started. News media issued story after story of how Amazon was deliberately trying to kill traditional publishing. Anonymous tips came from unnamed sources close to Hatchette.

When that didn't work, James Patterson and Doug Preston took to the airwaves. Interview after interview claimed that Amazon was 1) refusing to sell Hatchette books, 2) refusing to discount Hatchette books and 3) slowing delivery of Hatchette books.

In reality, 1) Amazon is selling all published Hatchette books, but they aren't putting pre-order buttons on un-published books, 2) the same people had been bitching when Amazon WAS discounting their books, and 3) Amazon wasn't using valuable warehouse space to stockpile Hatchette books because they couldn't be guaranteed of returns due to no contract with Hatchette.

So AU published a letter in the New York Times re-stating Preston and Patterson accusations.

And nothing happened.

Well, that's not true. Only 900 writers rallied to their cause. Readers didn't care. And 8,000 writers and readers signed Hugh Howey and J.A. Konrath's letter thanking Amazon and readers for supporting them. [Disclosure: I signed Hugh and Joe's letter.]

So AU issued another letter Monday morning, this time to the Amazon board of directors. The Amazon BOD is going to care about as much as the readers do where the petty whining of a bunch of millionaire authors are concerned. Their responsibility is to their stockholders, and from the price of the stock, the stockholders like what they are doing ($322.57/share as I write this)

These authors' contracts are with Hatchette, not Amazon, so why aren't they nagging Hatchette to negotiate with Amazon?

Because if the writers do that, their contracts won't be renewed and they'll be blacklisted by the Big Five.

Or that's their fear anyway, because they can't conceive of forming their own companies to publish themselves. Therefore everything is Amazon and Chines blue collar workers' fault.

And they can't see that while they fight Hatchette's imaginary war for the publisher, we indies are taking over their market share.

Instead of fighting someone else's playground battles, Preston's group needs to take a hard look at what's happening around them. This isn't a war they can win.

In fact, the war's already over except for the dying.

[Note: If you want an really funny take on the AU letter, go read Jen Rasmussen.]

[Note 2: Apparently, the bitching by me and several other bloggers about the racist comment concerning Chinese blue-collar workers made Preston rethink his words and change the letter to the Amazon board. Now instead of insulting 1.5 billion people, he insults 7 billion. *rolls eyes* You would think someone who makes a living by writing understands how language works. Thanks to TPV regular Claire Ryan for the link to the original version via the WayBack Machine. LOL]

[Note 3: Oh, and he STILL hasn't fixed the typo in the first paragraph of the letter. So much for being the greatest authors in the U.S.]

The Bunker and Silo Show

If you didn't catch the livestream on Monday, Hugh Howey and Michael Bunker's video of their show is up on YouTube. They discuss the current state of the publishing industry and mention the growing middle class of indie authors (like me!) that are now able to write full-time thanks to the changes in distribution and the explosion of e-books.

The Non-War of Hachette vs. Amazon

If you're in the book biz, all you've heard in the last three weeks is "AUGH! Amazon is taking over the world!"

No, it's not. Although, I'm sure Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would love to.

As I've said before, Hatchette Book Group, USA, is hardly a wilting Southern flower being trampled by the longhorn bull that is Amazon. They are two multi-national companies duking it out over--

See? No one really knows what the specific issues are because Amazon and Hatchette signed a negotiation non-disclosure agreement.

Oh, you can guess and speculate, but you don't really know. What we do know is that Hatchette has orchestrated a massive PR campaign to paint Amazon as an evil ogre that eats babies. Hey, when you've got newspapers and TV stations in your pocket, why not pull out all the stops when you're not getting your way?

But there's two little problems:

1) The mass of the human race doesn't give a flying fuck what two mega-companies are doing right now. It's one more case of white noise in a multitude of crap they have to deal with in  their daily lives.

2) Even the publishing industry is getting tired of Hatchette's whining.

How bad does a publisher have to be before the rest of the trad industry stops taking your side? Hatchette may have hit that point. Last Friday, Publishers Weekly ran a piece that was, for once, even-handed in the current business negotiations between Amazon and Hatchette. Until now, PW has been on the trad publishers side, touting the party line that Amazon is evil, indie writers are producing a tsunami of swill, and only trad publishers can protect and cherish American literary culture.

*cough*Snookie*cough*

As one small publisher stated in the article, no one blinked an eye when a similar negotiation/battle went on for six months last year between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster. In their case, the issue was end cap and  front table pricing. B&N pulled the same under-ordering tactics that Amazon are, but the only ones who complained were authors whose books came out during that period.

Ironically, Simon & Schuster released indie phenomenon Hugh Howey's print version of Wool during their tiff with B&N. The paper version could have been S&S's 50 Shades of Grey last year, but it had mediocre sales because B&N refused to order large amounts of the book.

But did anyone raise the hue and cry like Hatchette is doing now? Nope. And writers in trad contracts should take a damn hard look at the similarities between the two situations.

Did Simon & Schuster acknowledge their part in your lack of sales last year? Were any guarantees made that you wouldn't lose your contract due to the conflict with B&N? How many of you did lose your contracts due to low sales number in 2013?

As much as Hatchette bitches and moans about Amazon, they won't remove their products from Amazon's virtual shelves. They can't. They'd lose too much money, and their corporate master in France would kick them to the curb in a heartbeat. In fact, Lagardere's CEO issued a statement that there would be a quick resolution to the situation. Reading between the lines, he's telling Hatchette US to get their shit together.

So how much longer will the publishing cyberspace be inundated with anti-Amazon propaganda? Who knows? But no one's paying attention, and even the people carrying the signs are getting tired.

The RT14 Clusterf**k

I was going to avoid this topic. I really was. But I'm reading and hearing too much not to comment.

First of all, RT stands for Romantic Times. The magazine RT Book Reviews started in 1981 as a "tabloid newspaper" called Romantic Times that was for and about romance books and their readers. Over the years, RT Bookclub expanded to review other genres. In 1982, the founder of RT, romance writer Kathryn Falk, launched the RT Convention.

RT is NOT affiliated with RWA (aka Romance Writers of America). Personally, I'm annoyed that all manner of bloggers and commenters cannot differentiate between the two organizations. There is a lot of crossover simply because of the nature of the romance community.

For the record, I had an RT Bookclub subscription for five or six years, but I have never been to an RT Convention. But I've heard stories from friends who have gone.

Oh, boy, have I heard stories!

But this year, the stories that were normally private over margaritas and Tex-Mex went public. Well, that's not true. They went viral among the publishing industry. And for our size, we're really very small and insular so things get around.

This year wasn't like the time a well-known author did a striptease on a tabletop. (P.S. At business functions, limit your alcohol intake. And make no mistake, the RT Convention is a business function for writers.)

Nope, there were a series of problems that irritated both readers and writers:

1) Record attendance in a too small facility

RT14 had a record attendance (no official number yet, but I've been hearing unofficial numbers in the 2500 range). These were just the registered attendees, and does not include people off the street since the Book Fair was open to the public.

This means they surpassed the RWA conference which has had 1700-2000 attendees over the last ten years. And RT held its conference in the Marriott in New Orleans, a place RWA already knew was too small for them! (Remember, lots of crossover between RWA and RT people.)

FYI - RWA has had a contract with the Marriott chain for the last fifteen years, and there's a limited number of their hotels that can handle 2000 guests. Only one time in that fifteen years was the RWA conference held on a non-Marriott site. That was when flooding destroyed the Nashville Marriott a couple of months before the conference. Only Disney World could handle that size of a conference on that short of a notice.

The New Orleans fire marshal was at the Book Fair, keeping a close eye on the situation. Several attendees mentioned that he threatened to shut down the Book Fair, but hey, his job is to keep people safe.

Now, these weren't all people off the street. I had checked into attending RT14, and a month after registration opened, the Marriott was full, and the RT organizers needed a spillover hotel. It's not like all these people showed up the morning the first day of the conference, so RT had an inkling from the get-go that space was going to be a problem.

Possible solutions for RT:
- Find a bigger facility.
- Limit registered attendees.


2) Separation of authors and long lines at the Book Fair itself

So RT already has a space issue, and they knew it, but they didn't notify the attending authors that space had been reduced for their signing tables until they arrived. Many writers bring signage, displays, and swag to give away to readers, and there wasn't enough room for everyone's. A lot of writers were miffed because they would have been more conservative in their packing if they had known.

RT needed two ball rooms to accommodate all the signing authors, but they placed all the trad published authors in one and the small press, e-press and indie authors in another. There was also the major issue with the square footage of tables. Supposedly some authors got extra. If RT provided some authors less than others when every writer paid the same amount and was promised the same size of facility to participate in the Book Fair, RT is looking at a potential breach of contract lawsuit.

This bring us to the second major problem. A lot of writers are hybrids(TM Bob Mayer). RT organizers forced them to chose whether they wanted to sign their trad published books or their non-trad published books. Major fail here because readers follow authors. Sorry, Big 5, but it's true.

This made a lot of authors, including NYT bestselling writers, feel like second class citizens, which I'll get into a little more in Point 3 below.

The third major problem is the bookstore providing support for the Book Fair did not bring electronic scanners or POS cash registers to the conference. All paperwork was done by hand, which resulted in long lines in the hotel's hallways and rankled the fire marshal. This is the 21st century. Hand tallying went out with the horse and buggy.

I don't know which retailer this was. I've heard both Barnes & Noble and Anderson's mentioned. Either way it's no excuse for not bringing adequate equipment to a major conference.

Supposedly the separation of the two groups of authors was due to returnable vs. non-returnable books at the request of the bookseller. Makes me wonder how long this particular retailer will stay in business.

Possible solutions for RT:
- Writers need to be notified as soon as a potential problem is known so they can adjust whatever promotion they have planned.
- RT needs to research the booksellers they use during the Book Fair more thoroughly, i.e. can they provide adequate staff and equipment? If not, find someone else.
- Indie writers who publish print need to consider the return option since it can be a make-or-break deal with booksellers.
- RT should arrange signing seats alphabetically to make it easy for readers to find their favorite authors. The only authors who need a separate room are those whose lines are difficult to manage (Nora Roberts and Sherrilyn Kenyon come to mind.)


3) Issues with volunteers

I've done volunteer work for a lot of different organizations. It's an exhausting, thankless task at the best of times, but you need to keep a positive face because you represent the event.

There were several reports of the registration desk opening early late and closing late early. One writer who was trying to confirm something was bluntly told she couldn't ask anymore questions. And then there was the volunteer that raised hackles by stating the people in the small press/e-press/indie room were "aspiring authors."

Everyone who witnessed this particular incident agreed this was the only incident and the volunteer was quickly and firmly corrected. But with the pressure of the book signing, the feeling of packed sardines, and the long wait to check out, the comment was a match on the pool of stress oil.

That in turn set off a firestorm of blog posts this week, ranging from Hugh Howey, who didn't attend RT14, to Jennifer Bray-Weber, who did.

Steven Zacharius, president of Kensington Publishing, jumped on Hugh's blog and pretty much made an ass of himself. I understand he felt the need to defend RT CEO Kathryn Falk because he and his father have been friends with her for years. But Kathryn's a big girl. If she can handle her own company, I'm sure she can learn from and fix the problems for next year's RT Conference. But considering Stevie Z.'s own stance on the separation of trad and indie books, he's the last person Kathryn needs defending her.

Possible Solutions for RT:
- An apology to all writers for the muck-up that was the RT Book Signing.
- Full training for volunteers, preferably in person the day before the conference starts. Online training prior to the conference if logistics for in-person training are impossible.
- Hire an outside conference organizer who has plenty of experience with large events.
- A ball gag and fingercuffs for Stevie Z. With friends like this, Kathryn Falk doesn't need enemies.


Personally, I think RT needs to go back to the basics of what it did best, facilitate interaction between writers and cover models and their fans in a fun atmosphere. Leave the publishing politics out of the equation. If Kathryn and her people want to promote classes for the business side of writing and publishing, then make that a separate event.

But the writer/fan interaction? That's where I've always heard terrific things about RT.


P.S. Stevie Z., you really need to let go of your hard-on for Hugh Howey. I don't think he swings that way.

Would I Take a Trad Deal?

In the wake of the blow-up of the Hugh Howey/Data Guy report that came out last week, DH asked me point blank, "What would make you take a trad deal?"

Me: "Don't you remember? I did last year." (A short story in Sword and Sorceress 28.)

DH: *laughs* "No, I mean a contract offer on a novel."

Me: "Low seven figures minimum on a property I don't give a shit about."

And we all know right now that just ain't gonna happen.

But later that night, I lay in bed wide awake. (Ah, the joys on insomnia!) The days' events replayed through my head, and of course, things rolled back to DH's question. I realized I wasn't entirely truthful with myself.

There's not a whole lot a trad publisher can do for me that I'm not already doing myself. I'm aware of the things I need to improve on, the expansions I need to make, and plans are in the works.

So what can they offer me? What bon mot can they dangle in front of my nose that would really, truly entice me to sign a DPH contract?

Yep, I would sell one of my babies for pennies on the dollar to get booked on The Late, Late Show.

Because Craig Ferguson is just that cool!

And Then the Numbers Flowed Like Manna from Heaven

On Monday, I talked about the recent trashing of indie publishing by some trad published writers.

Well, on Sunday, Jim Hines, a SFF writer I admire, jumped into the fray. The religious mockery he used made me laugh, and he really tried to be neutral in the main post. Unfortunately, his attitude in comments was rather telling. Especially when he jumped on J.R. Tomlin for not being able to produce a study on indie earnings that was not anecdotal, but didn't say a word to Sylvia McIvers for stating that indies spent all their time doing their own shipping. (Needless to say, my respect for Jim dropped a bit for the uneven moderation of his blog.)

Then yesterday, lo, behold, a savior appeared. Nope, not Jesus of Nazareth. Hugh Howey.

Hugh Howey, his mysterious angel, and The Numbers.

The Numbers that showed the Transformation of the Publishing Universe was not only well underway, but past the Point of No Return.

People got so ecstatic that they crashed the server in their reverence. The raw data is available for those who like the crunchiness of fresh numbers.

Joe Konrath, who foretold the revelation by Hugh and his angel years before, immediately posted the report on his website, so that the faithful flock (or herd if you're The Donald) may continue gaze upon The Numbers and be redeemed.

There are already those who claim the Great Revelation is based on heathen propaganda. Absolute Write shut down the thread about The Numbers within three hours because the OP didn't back up her reasoning for the post. (Because the OP was working that day job that everyone says not to give up, maybe?) And the AW moderator cried out in horror, "Numbers? You expect poor dumb writers to understand numbers?"

And the Wave of Knowledge swept across the countryside and the sacred cattle moo'd...

***

All religious snarking aside, comments are welcome. But y'all know the rules here: play nice, play fair, no name-calling. And this is my blog so I'm the final arbiter. If you can't handle that, go cry somewhere else.

Are the breakdowns perfect? No, but already Hugh and his partner are miles ahead of the Digital Book World/Writers Digest poll because 100% of the writers in Hugh's survey are published.

How Exclusivity Affected Hugh Howey

For those of you who may not of heard of him, Hugh Howey is the amazingly successful author of Wool, a dystopian short story that has captured the attention of millions of readers.  So much so, that they demanded Howey write more of the saga. (You can download Part 1 from Amazon for free. I, Zombie is pretty good, too, though it's $3.99.)

In a recent article on Digital Book World, Howey spoke of the reasons he and his agent Kristin Nelson refused to give up his e-rights to the publishers who came courting in the beginning of 2012. (A six figure income had a lot to do with it.) By the end of the year, Simon & Schuster was willing to cough up a seven figure advance for the print only rights.

Howey attributes part of the success of Wool to using Amazon's Kindle Select program, where the book is sold exclusively on Amazon in return for it being placed in the Kindle Lending Library and having five days where Howey can set the price to free.

Here's the thing: Amazon promotes their exclusive books because it's in THEIR best interest to do so. This is something a lot of indie writers don't seem to understand.

But in Howey's case, he began getting complaints from readers because they couldn't purchase his book on other platforms. In May of 2012, he took Wool out of the Select program in order to pubish it on Barnes & Noble's PubIt! and other retailers.

Howey was disappointed at first. But a couple of weeks later, he noticed that sales were picking up on B&N and Apple.

So is exclusivity worth pissing off your readers? Does it pay off in the long run?

It really depends on who you talk to. Some folks, like Howey, found it very useful to get his story off the ground. For some others I know, it's done nothing.

I've considered playing with it, but if I do, I plan on having two books: one exclusive on Amazon and one that's exclusive on the other retail websites. It might be an interesting experiment to try.