The Publishing Challenge

 During one of WMG Publishing's class sales, I bought The Publishing Challenge. It sounds stupid on the surface, paying someone to make me accountable for sticking to a publishing schedule.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. descending into facism, this challenge has helped keep me on track with my writing through the chaos.

Each month, I need to publish one of the following:

- a novel

- a novella (minimum of 20K words)

- a bundle/anthology/boxed set (minimum of five short stories)

 

I can hear some of you say, "But, Suzan, you just published a single short story this month!"

Yeah, I did. Under the Suzan Harden name. I published a novel under Alter Ego, and that counts. It doesn't matter which pseudonym I use.

So what's the point of this post?

Do whatever you have to keep going through hellscape 2020 has become!

The Print Book Shuffle

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how interconnected we all are, whether we like it or not. My paperbacks from my July release finally arrived yesterday.

 

I can't blame anyone. COVID-19 has slowed everything down. The shipping companies are overwhelmed by the increase in the number of packages and the new safety measures, plus their own people getting sick. And that's not taking into account the new Postmaster General attempting to sabotage the Postal Service.

 

The printer I use is overwhelmed. Their orders are up, thanks to another major book printer going under this year. Their own personnel are sick, and the remaining folks have to do the PPE dance. On top of everything, they are starting to have trouble with their suppliers.

 

The paper and inks suppliers are having the same shipping problems, their personnel are getting sick, and their remaining employees are doing the PPE dance.

 

And so on. And so on.

 

It's an ugly cycle, but it's not going away any time soon. But later today, I'll do my part to keep the Postal Service in business. Because no matter if it's rain, sleet, snow or gloom of night, readers need their books.

Wild, Wicked & Wicky Rewind from 2013

This was about the time things really started getting crazy in the publishing industry. It took a little some time to decide, but this post from July 24, 2013, about covers and reviews shows the weirdness the best.

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Even though e-books now consist of 20-30% of the market, depending on the source of the statistic, even though indie writers are regularly hitting the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list, even though you can have a hard time telling the difference between trad-pubbed and indie-pubbed books unless you check who the publisher is, there are reviewers who have made it their life mission to mark as many indie book as they can with one-star reviews.

Many indie writers get absolutely livid over this. I totally understand their feelings. It isn't fair. Especially when they've shelled out the money for a top-notch editor and cover artist. In fact, those writers have done everything a publishing house has done, in some cases even better, but still they get shit on for daring to break the chains the big publishing houses tried to bind them with, therefore they must be punished.

And honestly, some of the reasons of these reviewers are kind of silly. An Oxford comma enthusiast counts down an indie author for failing to use it. Others become enraged if an author uses the British spelling for words.

But those are mild compared to a friend or family member jealous of what they perceive of the indie writer's undeserved success. It doesn't matter if the writer is like me--making just enough to pay the law school loan and buy two pizzas IF Papa John's is running a special.

So what's an indie author to do?

First of all, if there's a definite pattern of harassment from the same person, there may be a law against it where you live. Many states and countries are cracking down on cyber-bullying. Check with your local law enforcement or an attorney about the steps you need to take to document the culprit's actions and protect yourself if necessary.

Otherwise, you may need to ignore it. I understand; I'm not one to back away from a fight either.

Unfortunately, there are some so-called reviewers who are nothing more than drama queens. They stir the pot just to see what kind of trouble they can cause. They thrive on the attention, and frankly, I pity their real-life family and friends.

Others are trolls. They hope to poke at you enough to prompt an emotional outburst, so they can sit back and laugh at you.

The third type just really didn't like your book. Guess what? You can't make everyone like you or like your book.

The last type think they are really doing you a favor. It's no more or no less than what can happen in a critique group. Try to pull the constructive criticisms out (if you can) and let the rest go.

If you're getting a tremendous amount of one-star or two-star reviews, take a step back and try to analyze the comments dispassionately. (It's hard, I know. Those stories are your babies!)

If you've truly become the target of a vendetta, your best bet may be to unpublish the book, and re-publish it as a new book to purge the harassing reviews.

If you're getting a lot of the fourth type of review, seriously look at your work. Could the cover or blurb be better? Have you put your book under the wrong category? DO you have too many typos? These are all things that can be fixed! That's one of the joys of indie publishing!

When it comes down to a few people hating the story but lots of four- and five-star reviews, ignore the naysayers. You're on the right track!

[Note: Can you tell which of the books above was produced by a traditional publisher?]

Pesky Last Details

Still going through  the file my formatter sent to me. I should be back on track by Wednesday. See you then!

Pay to Play or Simple Fatigue

I feel I've been on the bench too long. I only released two books under my name in 2018. Alter Ego hasn't released anything in over two years. (She says it's hard to feel and write smexy when we're surrounded by pain, disease and death.) So neither of us are surprised our sales have dropped like the proverbial stone this year after coasting on fumes for the last five.

However, I'm hearing whispers that other indies are seeing huge drops in sales this year, drops they claim aren't due to the usual fall school/holiday downturn. And those that use internet ads (such as Amazon and Facebook) and book deal newsletters (such as Bookbub) are seeing lower returns than ususal. But if they stop advertising, their sales plummet.

From what I'm observing, there isn't any one problem. Here are the situations I'm seeing:

1) Amazon's Latest Updates

Amazon has rolled out updates to their online platform every year between the months of July and August since I started indie publishing. And every year, there's been bugs. In fact, there's a cadre who refer to the following month as Glitchtember as the bugs become known and obvious.

This year's Glitchtember has extended into the rest of the year. Amazon's efforts to force users to go to their country's associated store has led to a slew of books disappearing from the retail platform. What's more unusual is Amazon's admission that there was a problem!

But hey, if you're only selling books on Amazon, and Amazon isn't showing your book as available, you've lost that sale.

2) Online Advertising

It used to be that for a few bucks a day, you could advertise your wares on Google and make a ton of money. But Google uses an auction system for their ads, and as time went on, they sold more and more ads at higher and higher prices.

Then Facebook and Amazon jumped into the online ad business, using the same criteria as Google, and now the same problem is occurring as they, too, saturate buyers with ads. Even worse, more computer users are employing ad blockers to keep the multiple ads from slowing down their machines. Or from annoying the hell out of them.

Now, indie publishers are paying more and more to advertise and seeing less and less returns, but if they don't do ads at all, their sales crash. Resentment at the pay-to-play issue is building, but unfortunately, we're not going to see the free advertising we had in the beginning of the indie revolution again.

3) Bargain Book Newsletters

Amazon cracked down on reviewers and their bargain book newsletters years ago by eliminating their ability to monetize the freebies. As a result, many of those review/newsletter proprietors had to close up shop.

The handful left, like Bookbub, are charging more money to advertise through them and making it tougher to get a spot. And even when an indie publisher gets spot, they're not seeing the long-tail with their other books like they used to. Unfortunately, indies aren't just competing with each other for those newsletter slots.

4) Trad Publishing Copying Indie Methods

Nope, we're competing with trad publishers for those BookBub slots. They pay more, and they have a huge backlist to advertise. If you see a $1.99 book on BookBub, it's probably a backlist trad book.

But trad publishing is copying indies in other ways. Their covers are becoming simpler with titles and author large enough to read in thumbnail size. Backlist formatting is getting better rather than throwing up a cheaply, and shittily, OCR-scanned copy of the mass market paperback. In other words, the trad publishers are starting to get their act together when it comes to e-books.

5) Reader Fatigue

How many of you have downloaded hundreds, if not thousands, of free/cheap e-books? *raises hand* Yeah, that's coming back to bite us writers in the ass. Why buy a new book if a reader has a zillion still waiting to be read on their devices? We have to publish something so unique and brilliant they can't resist us, and that's a damn mountain to climb.

On the other side, something that's personal for me and other middle-age people I know--we're rereading old favorites. Between dealing with elderly parents, our own health issues, and launching our kids into a world that seems to headed for disaster, we reach for the comfort reads from childhood. I know I've been going through the Katherine Kurtz/Barbara Hambly/Mercedes Lackey novels from my teens and twenties while dealing with cancer this year.


So what does this all mean?

It means we have the level playing field we claimed we wanted when the indie revolution started. It means we need to step up our game when it comes to storytelling; we can't rely on gimmicks to sell our wares. It means that the e-book market in finally maturing, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

My attitude may change when I get back to publishing in January. But for right now, I don't think it's the end of the world.

Flickers of Flame and Color

August in publishing and book retailing is generally pretty quiet. New York publishing notoriously shuts down for the month as folks head for the Hamptons if they can afford it, or try to find a cool breeze if they can't. Readers already have their last vacation reads or are dealing with kids going back to school, so sales slump.

September though...

September is when the trad publishers launch their big book/Christmas gift full-court press. Usually, they wait until after Labor Day, but not this year.

Libbie Hawker, writing as Olivia Hawker, had her fall release The Ragged Edge of Night moved up to September 1st. She's an adorable person who  writes historical fiction (I've raved about her Hatshepsut series before). This is a tale of loss, love, and sacrifice during WWII. It's an awesome read!




As an indie, I normally don't publish a whole lot during the fall months. Well, except for October, but that's more my ego concerning my birthday month. LOL

But generally speaking, I find my books get lost in the noise of the New Hallowthanksmas (a phrase coined by my former Hallmark co-workers in Houston) season. So no more publishing for 2018. Instead, I'll be writing and editing in order to hit the ground running in 2019.

And for once this year, I'm happy to be making a publishing decision based on business and not my health!

Big Publishers Now Looking to Indies for Marketing Ideas (And I'm Highly Amused)

On a Monday two years ago, a tip popped up on Alter Ego's Facebook feed. A handful of her friends were telling their friends that the first seven books of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series were bundled on Amazon for $1.99.

Yep, Randy Penguin had had a bundle sale.

When indies started doing stuff like low priced e-books and even lower priced bundles, the pundits were screaming from the rooftops that indies were destroying culture. Yet, here we are, ten years down the road since the Kindle was introduced, and the big publishers are doing the exact same thing.

Sadly, things can be traced back to L.K. Rigel's cover for her novel, Spiderwork. Harper Collins liked the original artwork so much that they ripped off cover artist Nathalia Suellen. The matter was eventually settled, but not before L.K. and Nathalia had to get their attorneys involved and the art director at Harper Collins lost her job. And poor author Alix Flinn was blamed for a lot of the mess though it was her publisher who started the kerfluffle, not her.

Obtaining one of the coveted promotional slots on BookBub has been difficult for the last few years. It's even more so now that trad publishers are using it to promote their backlists. I signed up for the SFF list years ago. I've been seeing a lot of old favorites that came out when I was in grade school or even before I was born. Authors like Katherine Kurtz, Andre Norton, and Anne McCaffrey.

The swing side of trad publishing BookBub slots are setting the first book in a series (or even all the volumes released so far) at a sale price to goose sales of the latest release of the series.

The odd part is the pricing for these sale books. The trad publishers are pricing books at $1.99, the price that most indies consider the dead zone. It does make the book stand out from the indie crowd. Part of me would love to know what their actual units are for one of these twenty-four-hour sales.

Finally, the trad publishers are contracting with indie writers again. After unit sales didn't meet the marketing department's expectations between 2012 and 2016, the trad publishers backed away from pursuing indie writers, and more than a few indie writers they did pursue refused to sign. Now, trad publishers are looking at high-selling indies again, but they are being more selective on who they are handing out contracts to. For example, J.A. "Joe" Konrath signed with Kensington Publishing. It'll be interesting to see how things work out with Joe.

As I said in the title of this post, I find these changes funny more than anything. A lot of the things authors have been asking for over the decades are now being delivered--now that those same writers proved they were financially feasible.

We must not be so crappy after all since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Minding the Gap

As I write this, I'm in the process of reviewing the Kindle e-book my formatter delivered on Tuesday. And as I do, I realize I'll be on a whirlwind of completing books in the pipeline and publishing at approximately one per month until April.

The very British subway warning popped into my mind because I'm still standing on the platform. I see the train slowing to a stop to drop off and pick up passengers, aka other writers.

It doesn't matter what my destination is at this point. Will I successfully board that train? Or will I get caught in the gap, so when the train takes off again, I'll be ripped to shreds.

Mind the gap. Odd thoughts go through a writer's mind when they're stressed.

Picking a Genre

Goddess, I feel old. I've only been doing this indie publishing a little over six years, and somehow I'm an old-timer. Lately, I've been seeing writers with no trad publishing experience and only a year or two of indie experience whining about how hard this business is and why aren't they making six figures a month.

When I take a look at their catalog though, I see one novel in romance, two in urban fantasy, three erotica shorts, and a young adult novel. All under different pseudonyms.

Can anyone in the audience name the problem? Anyone? Bueller?

*headdesk*

If someone reads your romance novel AND they like it, usually they want to read more of your romance. You aren't going to sell more of that same romance novel to that same reader.

Now, maybe that reader would have read your YA, too. But they can't find your YA because you put under another, totally unrelated name. So how are you going to sell a second book to your reader if they can't find you?

This is another example of lottery thinking. Jumping from genre to genre isn't going to win you readers because not everyone reads the same genre or the same sets of genres.

If you need to write in different genres, pick something related. For example, fantasy is a pretty broad genre. By June of 2018, I'll have 13 books in one series of UF, three books in a sword and sorcery series, four books in paranormal romance series, and three books in a superhero series. All these books are under the same name. There's quite a bit of crossover in readership.

On the other hand, I have fourteen books under the Alter Ego pseudonym under the broad genre brush of erotic romance ranging from hot paranormal romance to BDSM romance to ménage. Again, there's a lot of crossover among that readership.

Since there's not a lot of cross appeal between the two broad audiences, it doesn't make to have the same pseudonym.

Notice something else? Yeah, there's a lot of books for a reader to choose from.

I'm not out writing cozy mysteries, military sci-fi, or sweet romance. I'm sticking to a category and building it.

Now, granted I've slipped over the last few years in the production department, but I'm still averaging three figures a month in income. Why? BECAUSE I HAVE A LOT OF BOOKS.

Okay, maybe not as many as say Amanda M. Lee or Kris Rusch.

But the more books you have in the same genre, the more likely it is a reader will discover one of them  and check out the rest.

One thing I haven't done is genre-jump in an effort to hit the lottery. Also, I'm sticking to genres I love to read. Why? Because the last thing I want is to hit the jackpot on a genre I hate. I don't want to be stuck writing stuff I actively dislike. Life's too short, and frankly, I don't want to earn living at something I hate. Hell, I can go back to farming if I want to make myself miserable.

When someone asks, my advice is to write what you love. Write the types of books you want to read but can't find. I guarantee you there's someone else out there, just like you, wanting to read the same stuff you wish were on the bookshelves or your e-reader. You'll make everyone a lot happier, including yourself.

When Unsolicited Advice Hurts

New writers are often hungry sponges, who want to soak up the wisdom of the more experienced in the industry.

Which, don't get me wrong, is a good thing. Most of the time.

2017 is the ten-year anniversary of Amazon's Kindle. Like many tech advancements, it wasn't the first of its kind on the market, but it was the game changer, especially in the fiction side of the publishing industry.

So what does the Kindle have to do with new writers?

The newbies are getting a lot of advice from folks who've been in the trad publishing system their entire career. They're also getting a lot of advice from the indies who've been in digital publishing since Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing in 2009 (KDP had a different name when it first started).

I'm not saying this is all necessarily bad advice. But what both sides fail to take into account is that we're still in the middle of the digital disruption. Things are in no way settled. They are still changing. Ironically, my unintended vacation from publishing 2014 through 2016 makes the constant churn more painfully obvious.

If you're a new writer, you need to take a brutal look at what you want out of publishing your work, aka a solid goal. If you want awards, that's one path. If you want your letters (aka New York Times or USA Today bestseller attached to your name), that's a different path. If you want a long-term career, that's a third path. If you want a way to cover your costs when you compile Grandma's recipes into a book for the rest of the family, that's a fourth path.

I could keep going, but you get the point. And that's not to say some of these paths never cross. They can and do. However, your focus needs to be on your primary path in order to get what you want. And if you say you want Path One, but keep bringing up Path Two, you need to re-evaluate what it is you want.

The problem comes in when the more experienced writer tells the newbie "You need to X, Y, and Z to succeed ." However, X, Y, and Z are predicated on Experienced Writer's chosen path and their experience. If Newbie doesn't start with a solid goal, they can get sidetracked for years pursuing a goal that's not theirs. Not to mention, one experience does not automatically equal a second.

I've been the sidetracked newbie. It's frustrating when you realize your mistake. I've been the experienced writer, who's let their excitement overwhelm a newbie. And I've felt guilty when I realize that mistake.

For now, I'm trying to be the wise writer. If someone asks for help, I'm trying to ask questions to discern what the newbie really needs rather than what I think they need. Sometimes that pisses off the newbie, who thinks I'm hiding the secret handshake.

Folks, there is no secret handshake. And with the digital shake-up, it's a brave new world for all writers. Anyone who tells you different is lying, to themselves as well as you. The last thing I want to do is harm a new writer by giving them unsolicited or non-useful advice.

Making Progress

The last three years have been rough. The only new thing that's been published under Suzan Harden since November of 2013 was "Diplomacy in the Dark" in Sword and Sorceress 30 (and that was November of 2015). The last new story Alter Ego published was in May of 2014. Some days, I wondered if I'd ever publish again.

I finally feel like I'm getting traction this year. Over the last week, I've

- hit the 46K mark on Zombie Goddess (Bloodlines #6)

- wrote the first 5K on Resurrected (Bloodlines #9)

- thought I'd be done with an Alter Ego novella, but it's turning itself into a short novel

- found an Alter Ego idea from four years ago, got caught up in the story again and wrote another 1K before I made myself stop

- shopped for pix and fonts for the cover of an Alter Ego short story I finished nearly two weeks ago

It sounds like I'm bouncing between the last four books of Bloodlines, and yes, I am in a way. But a lot of it has to do with linking, foreshadowing and consistency. The first draft of Book 6 should be done by the end of April.

However, I have a bad habit of typing so fast when I get caught up in a story that I leave out words, mainly articles and prepositions. By the time editing and proofing are done, I add 10-20K words. LOL

Now that things have settle down in my personal life (which is probably an invitation to Murphy to fuck me over), I need to prioritize projects based on how close they are to completion.

Today, my first task is getting the cover and formatting done for the AE short story and getting it published. Depending on how fast I get that done, and it may not be totally done today since I'm really out of practice and software has changed/upgraded, I'll finish the novella/short novel. The cover for it was finished back in 2012. That leaves the formatting.

The next step is to run through second-round edits for A Question of Balance, the first Justice novel, since that story is completed. The incredible Elaina at For the Muse Designs has already produced a lovely cover, so the last thing I need is to write the back cover blurb and to have the book formatted.

After that, I need to finish reviewing the proof paperback for Blood Magick (Bloodlines #1). I already found a couple of things that missed the mumble, mumble rounds of editing it's gone through.

Then hopefully, I'll spend Friday and Saturday hiding at Panera's to crank out some more of Zombie Goddess.

I can't do all NOW, but I can chip away at the mountain one grain at a time.

Finding Your Path As a Writer

When does an indie writer ignore people who are telling her what to write?

Short answer:

When she's making money anyway.


Long Answer:

What I'm talking about here is subject matter, not grammar and spelling.

(Seriously, you should always fix grammar and spelling, assuming the critic is correct that something is wrong. Guess what? Sometimes, the critics don't know as much grammar, spelling or factual research as they think they do either.)

Many of the so-called experts, and that includes folks from both the trad and indie published spheres, have no freaking clue of what they're talking about. So how do you know when they're right and when they are wrong?

You don't. Sometimes their criticism has nothing to do with you or your story, and everything to do with the critics own hang-ups. So, here's some things to think about to keep you on your path, not someone else's:

1) Write what you like to read

This is not the same thing as writing what you know. A lot of people write to market, i.e. if sparkly vampires or stalkers are hot, that's what they write. These are the same people who deride you for not following that trend. But once the market's saturated with crappy knock-offs, the readers stop buying those books, and everyone loses.

If there's a genre you love, and you can't find enough material that can keep you satisfied, then write a story in that genre. Just because it's not the hot thing at the moment doesn't mean it won't sell. There's lots of readers bemoaning the loss of sweet romances, westerns, and gothics right now. If you're one of them, why aren't you writing one?

For example, I like BDSM stories with romance, which is a subgenre of erotic romance. There wasn't a whole lot when the big publishers tried to ride the erotica wave launched by Ellora's Cave in 2000. So I wrote a couple and published them under a pseudonym. They sold, and they continue to sell steadily.


2) Study the market

Sounds contradictory to No. 1, doesn't it? But I'm not saying write to the market. What I mean is there are times when you can anticipate trends in the genres you love.

I adore fantasy and paranormal. In 2004 when I got serious about having a writing career, vampire romances were peaking and werewolf romances were on the rise. So I considered what would be the next big thing, i.e. which monster would take center stage.

The year before, an odd little duck of a comic book called The Walking Dead had been released. George Romero was still writing his zombie movies, and they were as popular as ever. However, Zombie Love was too off-the-wall for trad publishing by the time it was finished in 2005. In some ways, it still is. But I indie published it anyway, and it sold.

Does anticipation of a market trend always work? No. I couldn't have predicted BDSM romance taking off like it did. Which leads to...


3) Accept that you may love and write in a niche, and it's not a bad thing

Contemporary romance may be the most popular and best-selling genre on the face of the planet right now, but if you absolutely despise it, don't write it. Seriously. It's a good way to burn out your brain. And if you did a half-assed job because you hate the genre, your book won't be differentiated from the thousands that are out there. Furthermore, just because romance readers are voracious doesn't mean they are idiots. They'll one-star your book in a heartbeat if they think you don't respect them or their favorite genre.

The great thing about indie publishing today is that freaky subgenres that can't sell enough to sustain a multi-national publishing conglomerate CAN sell well enough to support the dozen or so writers that adore that particular freaky subgenre.

For example, M/M romance, lactation erotica, and serial killers as heroes are niche markets. Indie writers in these markets are doing very well because they enjoy the subject matter and they respect the readers of that subject matter. Very rarely would a trad publisher touch these topics, if it all, whether because of their own squick factor or the relatively tiny sales. However, those relatively tiny sales can still pay your mortgage if you write about it.


Finally, to paraphrase Internet Rule 35--if no book on a new subgenre is found at the moment, one will be written. Be the one to write that book!

Indie Book Promotion

Five years after I jumped in the indie publishing waters, I still see new writers debating which method of promotion works the best. Especially when comes to advertising newsletters, such as Bookbub, eBookSoda, Pixels of Ink, etc., results can vary wildly. Couple that with expectations of winning the author lottery, it makes me want to *facepalm*.

How many methods work? Therein lies the problem. Here's what I've learned since 2011:

1) There is no magic bullet. No perfect form of advertising. You will drive yourself insane and broke trying to find it. Do your research and stay within your budget.

2) Don't do what everyone else is doing.What used to work doesn't work anymore because of oversaturation by all the writers before you. By the time you learn about it, the ROI on that form will be shrinking to zero.

3) Don't be afraid to experiment. What works for Superstar Indie may not work for you, and vice versa.

4) Only do the forms of promotion that you're comfortable with. If you hate tweeting, it's a waste of your time, and your discomfort generally comes across to the public.

5) The only, and I do mean ONLY (assuming you've mastered the art of storytelling), method of spurring additional sales is to publish your next work. This method freaks out new writers because it means OH MY GOD! MORE WORK!

Um, yeah, if you want to sell more books, you need to put out more books. That concept eludes most people who believe they want to be writers. Yes, sometimes a person can write that one book that sets them up for life, but that's not always the case.

Take J.K. Rowling for example. How many of you had heard of her in 1997 when the first Harry Potter came out? I didn't learn about Harry Potter until 2000 when I was asking for book recommendations from other parents. 2000 was the year the fourth book in the series came out, not the first book.

Word-of-mouth takes time. When many new indie writers don't get immediate sales with their first book, they give up instead for writing the next book. Or else, they continue promoting that one book until their readers are sick of hearing about it. If someone likes your writing, you need to give them more product to enjoy. Your readers aren't going to buy the same title over and over again.

Unless you release three or four books at the same time, don't worry about promotion. If you do release a bunch of books at once, then by all means go to town on promotion, but only do what you can afford. Good luck!

More Thoughts on How to Know If You're Ready to Publish

Well, I got about 700 words in on Wednesday before I ended up at my doctor's with a massive UTI. I started to get angry about getting nothing done over the last two days until DH pointed out with my chronic situation, it takes me longer and longer to recover from any problem, bacterial or viral. It doesn't help that I'm developing nasty side effects to drugs I've taken before with no problem.

So I've been crashed out on the couch alternating between Bones, Grimm, Supernatural and Leverage for the last forty-eight hours, except when I'm sleeping twelve hours straight.

What does this have to do with knowing when you're ready to publish?

I finally got the energy a bit ago to crack open my laptop and take a gander at the notes my beta reader e-mailed me concerning A Question of Balance. All three lines. Yep, only three lines concerning the first couple of chapters.

So I asked, "Where's the rest of the notes?"

"Um, there aren't any."

I'm a little flabbergasted. "You can't tell me the book was perfect."

"Well, I got so into it I forgot to take notes."

This isn't the first time that's happened to me. I've have various readers, editors and friends say something similar. That's what I want. To tell such a spellbinding story the reader doesn't see the boo-boo's.

I'm not saying you shouldn't line edit or proofread your work. By all means, please fix the typos! But if your story is so compelling your beta reader doesn't notice the typos, then you're ready to send your baby out in the world.

Just make sure it has a clean diaper first.

When Trad Publishers Start Thinking Like Indies

Today's post is a little later than usual because I needed to really think about the situation I want to address. The main difference between trad and indie publishers is their marketing concept: the produce model versus the longtail.

The produce model consists of leaving a book on the brick-and-mortar book shelf for a limited period of time. It makes sense because the physical constraints of the bookstore can hold only so many paperback and hardback items. Trad publishers have view e-books the same way.

The longtail means leaving books (both e-book and POD books which makes sense for indie publishers because of the high cost of a print run and the waste of the return system) available on the virtual shelf forever because computing space is incredibly cheap these days.

Because of the produce model, the trad publishers have licensed rights to thousands of books that they aren't bothering to sell. And they finally noticed this.

Two weeks ago, Publishers Weekly had an article about Simon & Schuster's CEO Carolyn Reidy and her address at the BISG annual meeting. This is the quote that has me concerned as a rival publisher: "S&S makes its backlist title available to subscription services, she said, emphasizing that these services do not cannibalize print sales and that they also drive discovery."

It's not the subscription service part that worries me. It's the fact that she's noticed that S&S has thousands of books they can dump back into the market and not ruin their front list. In other words, a trad pub CEO has noticed the long tail and plans to use it.

Can S&S pump all these e-books into the market at once? No, not when they've cut personnel to the bone. In theory, they would also need to review contracts to see if they have the rights, which would also take time. Big corporations are more likely to put out the e-books anyway and tell the little, powerless authors to go ahead and sue them.

Even when/if a trad published author manages to get their rights back, it takes time to get their books into e-book shape. Kris Rusch has a good breakdown on how hard it is for indies to keep up with only five to ten books. She also points out that trad publishers are now competing with indies for ad space in places like BookBub., which a couple of years ago carried only advertised deals on indie books. They even emphasized in a recent blog how they preferred older books for their adequate reviews. (And I can't for the life of me find the page that I had thought I bookmarked. When I do, I'll add the link.)

And make no mistake, older books being reissued is happening. In today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal, a book I've been searching used bookstores for ages popped up: Michael Moorcock's The Eternal Champion. $1.99 for the e-book of a novel that was originally published in 1970. The reader is me *SQUEED*. The indie publisher in me said, "Holy shit."

Granted, Titan Books, which has the reprint rights to The Eternal Champion, is a smaller publisher than S&S, but S&S and the rest of the Big 5 could do this eventually. If writers think the indie tsunami ruins their discoverability now, wait until the large publishers get their reissue machine chugging.

If they do. Just because a CEO has noticed a potential revenue stream, it doesn't mean that they'll take full advantage of it. But I really do think this is the last nail in the indie gold rush.

Does that mean we can't compete? Hell, no! But as I've repeatedly said, we have to be better than the trad pubs to get attention. To that end, I'm working on new covers for my books as we speak.

Indie publishing is a business; we have to treat it as such if we want to compete.

Hijacking Other Writers' Social Media Is Rude

You would think I wouldn't have to address this issue. Indie publishing has been pretty solid for six years now. You would think that people would know some of the etiquette rules.

So if you're new to indie publishing, let me tell you now before you piss off the wrong person: Hijacking another writers social media is plain fucking rude. It's a good way to ruin friendships and getting yourself banned from some sites.

What do I mean by hijacking?

- Leaving links and/or comments about your book on other writers' blogs
- Leaving links and/or comments about your book on other writers' Facebook account
- Spamming public boards with links and/or comments about your book in inappropriate places

Posting about your brand new book on the wrong place on Kboards especially will earn you a ton of scorn.

Not only can hijacking earn you the animosity of another writer, you're failing to take something important into account. Are you really marketing to potential readers?

Take Wild, Wicked & Wacky for example. The folks that read this blog aren't necessarily the same folks that read my books. I talk about writing craft, the publishing industry, and other tidbits that I find interesting (like Jensen Ackles lip-synching to "Eye of the Tiger"). If you parse through the last few months of posts, you'll find I rarely talk about my books here. And even when I do, it's only the books I write under the "Suzan Harden" moniker, which are firmly in the fantasy genre.

So when you add a link in my comments here for your brand-new romantic suspense, who exactly are you marketing to? Probably not to folks who read your type of story. So not only have you irritated me, you look totally clueless to a lot of the readers who might have looked at your book.

Yes, I know it's hard, really, really hard to get attention in the fragmentation that is today's publishing market. All I'm saying is don't sabotage yourself before you've gotten out of the gate.

Craft Is King! (Or Queen!)

I've been asked lately by quite a few new writers how can they know when they're ready to publish.

I can't answer that question. Things have changed so much since I made the decision to self-publish. I judged my skills by the answers I received from agents and editors to my queries. The most common response I received was summarized thusly, "Love your style. Love your story. I don't know how to sell this."

I don't know how to sell this.

To me, that said they didn't want to find a new voice. They didn't want to create a new market. They were looking for an easy sell.

I can't really fault the agents and editors for that attitude. As a business person, you always want the best return on your investment (ROI) you can get.

Except I thought I  could find a market for my stories. Maybe I was pretentious. Maybe I was full of myself. But I did find market for the stories I wrote.

The key was that I'd mastered the basics of the craft of writing. I knew how to plot. I learned about the different points-of-view (POV) from which the story can be told. I'd mastered basic grammar when I was writing a magazine column.

That's not to say I don't make mistakes. I do. But that's a lot different than not understanding the difference between first person POV and omniscient POV. And for the record, I don't think there's a damn thing wrong with omniscient if it works for your story.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of folks releasing books before they've mastered these basics. That's their decision, but then they pitch a fit when readers ding them on reviews for misspelled words, bad grammar, and huge plot holes.

So please don't ask me if you're reading to publish. It really depends on you. Do you think you can sell enough copies to earn back your investment in your book?

There's a better question to ask yourself. Do you feel confident enough in your basic abilities to put yourself out there to be criticized? Because that's what we do when we publish.

What Happens When You Can't Fulfill a Publishing Contract?

The short answer to the title question is it depends on what's in your contract. This is a issue that can hit both indie and trad writers. And it's especially true if you have a co-writer(s).

How this issue came about is personal, so if you don't want to read a discussion about lady parts, CLICK AWAY NOW!

As I've said before, Xxxxx Yyyyyy and I are writing a superhero novel. We'd planned to have it out by May 1, but we both had issues with elderly family members that had to be dealt with right that moment! So we consoled ourselves that we'd buckle down in May and finish the damn thing. (FYI - We're at approximately 62K words with 10 chapters to go.)

After the parental drama, I went in for my annual gynecology exam recently, and they found something. In fact, they did the biopsy right then and there.

I've already been down the cancer road with DH. I've already had my own lumpectomy when GK was still a toddler. I wasn't going to panic until there was something to panic about. But that didn't mean the waiting didn't affect my productivity. (However, I take total productivity responsibility when it came to the Rockets and Cavs NBA play-off games. *grin*)

Thank the Goddess, I got the call from the doctor that the suspicious tissue was benign.

But what if it hadn't been? What would have happened?

A lot of writers don't take into account life crap when they sign contracts.* Let's face it, most of us don't want to think about bad things happening, much less death.

With the BHP contracts I've seen, if a writer doesn't deliver a manuscript on time, then the publisher can demand the advance money is returned. And yes, they can and will do this. They don't care if the writer has already spent it on food and electricity. And in most cases, that's exactly what the writer has done.

Generally speaking, most contracts can be renegotiated if you're going to be slightly delayed. I've known writers who've been able to do this when dealing with sick/injured family members. It's a little harder if the writer is the one laid up.

But you can't ask for an extension if you're dead. In which case, the publisher may become a creditor of the estate, trying to get that advance back.

Again, generally indie writers don't have to worry about publishers, but they should be worried about their editors, cover artists, etc. For example, what if I hired the incredible Dan Dos Santos to do the cover for Justice? He's not cheap. What happens if he can't finish my cover because a bunch of paint cans falls on his head and he's in the hospital in a coma?

You don't need a huge, complicated twenty-five-page, double-sided, eight-point font legal document, but you should have some sort of agreement about what happens if your independent contractor can't fulfill his agreement.

Then there's my situation where I'm co-authoring a novel. In our case, Xxxxx drafted what she refers to as the "What if a bus hits us" clause in our agreement. We negotiated ownership percentages (for both early stages of drafting and the completed work), buy-out terms should the affected writer need to withdraw from the project (including buy-out terms for after the novel goes on sale), and what terms would apply to our estate representatives.

Considering how far along we are when I was biopsied, I could have finished my share of the writing if I had cancer before chemo brain set in, but poor Xxxxx probably would have been saddled with the majority of the editing and marketing. Like I said, no one wants to think about worse case scenarios, but any time you're working with another person, you need to have contengencies in place.

This is hardly a comprehensive list of items you need to consider. Every writer's personal situation is different. It's also best that you check with your own attorney prior to signing a contract.

In our e-mail exchange concerning my situation, Xxxxx asked that I add the following:

Maybe add a paragraph to your blog about the need to be flexible on the timetable as you go along. Especially if you're middle aged women, because -- if the past couple of years are any indication -- it's not IF the catastrophe occurs but WHEN.

Which is very true. We're at that lovely age where we're caught between two generations, both of which need our help.

A lot.

And if you're a generation younger than us fifty-something broads, please, PLEASE don't make the assumption that this crap won't happen to you. DH was diagnosed with cancer seven months before our wedding, two months after his thirty-first birthday. A close friend of ours was diagnosed with testicular cancer at eighteen. And my karate instructor's son was diagnosed with cancer at the tender age of six.

I beg you, don't take your life for granted, whether you're a writer or not. But always, ALWAYS cover your ass.

*I'm no longer a licensed attorney, and nothing I've stated on this blog constitutes legal advice or legal representation. As always, please consult with your own attorney prior to signing any contract.

Why Samuel Adams' Speech Applies Today

The family's been watching the History Channel's Sons of Liberty for the last three nights. Last night was the culmination of the Battle of Bunker Hill and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The climax of the episode was Samuel Adams addressing the Second Continental Congress. He speaks of having a fair chance to pursue a livelihood without someone coming along a taking everything just because they can.

Granted, the speech talks about government interference with civilians, but the ideas apply to private parties who do their damnedest to ensure artists cannot pursue their craft with the opportunity to make a living.

Sound familiar?

This is exactly why the publishing industry is in such an uproar. You've got a handful of corporations bestowing their blessings on a small number of writers. Then along comes Amazon, just like the character of Samuel Adams--the Instigator.

Other writers take up the cause of revolution, but of course, the Powers That Be cannot see beyond the Instigator. Cannot see that other writers haven't even approached their not-so-nurturing bosom. Cannot see that they've lost the battle by engaging in it. All they see is that they are surrounded by a bunch of pig farmers shoveling slop into their pristine environment.

As author Joe Konrath has said, this is a revolution. A chance for writers to make a living.

Not a guarantee, but a chance.

I love my chance!




Sons of Liberty adds a little sex, drugs and rock n' roll to the story of the founding of the United States of America, and its accuracy leaves something to be desired. However, if you want something that will get your pre-teens interested in history, I definitely recommend the mini-series. You can see full episodes on the History Channel's website.

Collaboration and the Indie Writer - The Business Side

Creating with other writers always sounds like fun. If you've been with any type of writing group, whether something formal or just a friend, you've brainstormed and come up with lots of nifty ideas. The energy in shared creativity can be intoxicating.

So intoxicating that writers don't stop and think about the business ramifications of publishing a joint project.

Xxxxx Yyyyyy and I came into collaboration from a different angle than most writers. We were both attorneys at one point in our lives. So we were very aware that we needed an agreement in writing to cover our asses, aka a contract.

As Xxxxx mentioned in her comment on Wednesday, we have a clause concerning acts of Murphy (feel free to substitute the deity of your choice). It acknowledges that we are both in positions of dealing with elderly family members, and frankly, shit can and does happen with them, or us. That goes back to how the actual writing is divided between us and what happens if one of us cannot fulfill her duties.

In most contracts, the parties to the contract agree to which state's law controls the contract (aka, choice of law). In most situations, each party tries to get their own state listed. When we first started talking about a collaboration, I was in the process of moving from Texas to Ohio and Xxxxx lived in Jjjjjjj. So which state did we choose?

North Dakota.

Yes, we picked the most inconvenient place for both of us to force us to come to an amicable decision over something we were at odds over. Though I really think our coin toss clause will solve most of our problems.

We decided whose imprint our joint books under which will be published. (Neither. We created a whole new imprint.) We decided how money will be handled. We also came up with a formula if one of us decides this isn't working and wants to buy out the other person.

These are the situations most writers don't want to think about when they're in the throes of a new relationship. But by shaking out the business bullshit well before hand, you can focus on writing the story.