What's Authors Guild Really Up To?

Authors Guild has finagled several indie book distributors into sending emails to their customers/vendors. They are asking indies to tell them how much they make.

So far, I've received emails from Alliance of Independent Authors, Barnes & Noble, and D2D/Smashwords. I fairly sure Amazon, Apple, and GooglePlay will refuse or have refused to participate. I'm waiting to see if I get anything from Kobo or IngramSparks. I've asked around, and several writers I personally know have received these emails. So far, none of these people are planning to respond to the survey.

Why does Authors Guild want this information? Because they've been trying to make the case that author incomes are down across the board. As far as I know, they been doing this survey amongst their membership for the last five years.

But here's the problem. There's been an active anti-indie vibe within AG for the last fifteen years. In fact, AG didn't make a big announcement regarding finally accepting indie members in 2014. They quietly slipped the change into their membership rules.

And frankly, I have a problem with the criteria AG and most other professional writer organizations have for accepting indie writers. I could get $500 advance for a novel from one of the Big Five, and the offer letter is sufficient for membership to AG. It doesn't matter whether I make another penny on that book. However, as an indie, I have to prove I made ten times that amount in one year on one book to become a member. Sorry, but that's just not right.

Furthermore, I don't feel comfortable showing statements from my distributors or my bank account statements to random strangers. Most other writers I know don't either. Frankly, that level of detail is no one's fucking business other than my husband's and our CPA's. Well, and the IRS.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I fear how this information will be used. I understand that we indies are very individualistic. I also understand we don't have a centralized repository for information. However, we were the ones that the Big Five didn't want, so why is AG so interested in our information?

I can only think that AG and their buddies, the Big Five and agents, are looking to copy our techniques even more than they already are.

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 Real Life of an Indie Writer

Yesterday, when I talked about my income, it brought a few of interesting comments, both on- and offsite. But here's the thing--I did NOT include my traditional publishing income.

Why?

Because my advance skews my income average for the year. So far, every Sword and Sorceress anthology released has earned out, but I won't see any additional monies coming in for two years at the earliest.

I also did not include my Apple, etc., numbers for the second quarter because I don't have all of them yet. So basically, you're looking at Amazon and Barnes & Noble only.

Some people found the figure of $392/month for 2013 depressing. I don't. Considering my average earnings per month in 2011, my first year indie publishing was $14/month, I've come a long way.

If you are looking for instant gratification for your efforts, frankly, indie publishing is NOT the way to go. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Mind you, the work isn't hard. At least, it's not to me. But like building any other business, you take out what you put in.

Also, if you're looking for a regular paycheck, indie publishing is NOT the way to go. On my best month so far, I made $1200. At the worst, my first three months of indie publishing my income was $0. I didn't get an EFT from Amazon because I didn't meet their $10 threshhold for issuing payment.

Later, when I did get payments, money had to go into savings and stay there, only to be doled out for bills and necessary business expenses. Needless to say, I haven't gone on a hog-wild spending spree and bought a Mazaratti or some other stupid shit like that.

No, real life has its own demands. Thankfully, that best month payment came two weeks before GK needed surgery on an impacted wisdom tooth and to realigned a skewed molar.

If you want to be a successful indie-published writer, you need to be in this for the long haul. There will be ups and downs in the seasonal selling cycle as well as ups and downs over the next several years. As Bob Mayer said, "The gold rush is over."

Hopefully, you're not one of those people looking at indie publishing as the proverbial gold rush. If you have, you may want to rethink things.

There's not guarantees in this business. I hate to tell you this, but there's no guarantees in life either.

The only question you have to answer? Is writing what you want to do with your time?

If so, then you need to put your heart behind it. Readers can tell when you're only going through the motions. You WON'T sell any stories if you're putting up half-assed shit.

There's no guarantee you will sell if you put up the greates novel ever written either. That's the chance you take.

If you can't deal with taking chances though, I strongly suggest finding another line of work.

The Real Income of the Indie Writer

There's been a lot of talk in the blogosphere lately about the real income of indie writers. I'm probably as average or median as they come. The following is my experience. Mine alone.

I currently have eight stories for sale under my name in the urban fantasy genre: four novels under one series and four novellas under a second series. I have one perma-free novella under the first series.

Alter ego currently has eight novellas and one short story for sale in the contemporary erotica genre. Four novellas are under the first series, two novellas are under a second series, and one novella is the start of the third series. The rest are individual stories.

In both cases, I'm only selling e-books, though I hope to expand into print by the end of the year.

For 2013, I'm averaging $392 per month before taxes.

For comparison, I averaged $649 per month at my former part-time, retail job before taxes.

Yet, I'm a little further ahead by writing full-time. Why?

Because there are a lot of expenses that people don't take into account when they work outside of the home. In my case, there's gas money. There's the business casual wardrobe. There's the sheer time of the commute. There's the stress of dealing with the public, which makes getting my head back into writer mode all the more difficult.

On the positive side of being an employee are things like health insurance. Even when you make a decent income as an author, simply buying a policy can be impossible. Writer David Farland tried to get health insurance, but he is a Type II diabetic. Any company willing to insure him and his family charged more than he could afford.

A few months ago, David's son Ben was severely injured in a snow boarding accident. Ben's medical bills already exceed a million dollars and will climb higher. David and his wife are facing the possibility of bankruptcy and losing their home, much less keeping their other kids in college.

There's also the fact that your taxes are doubled as a self-employed person. It amazes me how many people don't realize half of their taxes are paid by their employer. Once again, it's those little things we don't think about that trip us up.

These were among the many things that my husband and I considered before I left my job. Overall, it's been a success for us. However, the long-term goal for me is to get to the point where I'm selling enough books to match DH's salary, bonuses and benefits.

Just in case.

Your mileage may vary.

My Soapbox Advice

Two weeks ago, a fellow indie author wondered if there was a secret to self-pubbing sales. Here's the e-mail reply I sent her. Names have been removed to protect the guilty, and I fixed my typos. Uh, most of them.

This is just my $0.02 from self-publishing for the last year, so take it with a grain of salt, a shot of tequila and a lime.

1) Don't ever compare yourself to another writer! Otherwise, I would have slit your throat, run your body through my Cuisenart and buried the pieces in Friend X's compost pile months ago.

2) Genre does matter. All those genres that agents and editors are saying are dead, like romcom, vampires and thrillers? Those are the ones kicking ass on Kindle right now.

3) Sometimes, the social media circus doesn't mean jack. The books I write under my name and plug the hell out of? They're doing 'Meh' sales. My alter-ego who's done zero promo work for her genre? She's kicking ass on both the Amazon and B&N charts.

4) Put more books up. Hubby did a rough calculation back in 2010. A writer needs an average of ten books to hit the tipping point of self-sustaining sales. Some do it with one book; some do it with the twentieth. I didn't see much of a change in sales until my seventh book went on sale. I noticed Friend Y stated kicking butt around her fifth.

5) Did I mention write more books? Try a different genre. Take a chance on something different. If you're worried, publish under a pseudonym. Don't stick all your eggs in one basket.

In other words, don't sweat the little stuff and keep writing.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Got to write the black moment scene, and I'm procrastinating.

Now mind you, my friend thought her sales sucked  when in fact, she's doing quite well. Success is a relative term in this business. Only you can define what it means for you.

The Times They Are A'Changing

I'm neck deep in some work that I'll announce tomorrow.

In the meantime...

Stacey Purcell, one of the lovely muses at Musetracks, talks about indie writers who are making a living. She'd asked me for some help and some numbers. I'm not quite there yet, but I made enough last month to replace GK's Xbox that crashed and burned two days after Christmas.

Also, publishing gurus Kristine Kathryn Rusch and her husband Dean Wesley Smith have both posted insights to their change in stance regarding indie and trad publishing. Just a year ago, they both advocated a balance between the two. That's no longer the case, and they tell why.