Here We Go Again

Back in the spring of 2020, COVID-19 swept through the world, causing massive disruption to everyone and everything. Millions of deaths, trade and economic collapse, people refusing to protect themselves or others from contamination.

And now, it's happening all over again. Except the cause is greed and power, not a virus.

*sigh*

If you're a history buff like me, we're seeing an action for action repeat of the first half of the 20th century. Back in 2020, Kris Rusch posted about Black Swan events disrupting the expected path of things. Go read it. I'll wait.

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So, what does this have to do with me and my writing? I had planned to do a Kickstarter this month for The Books of Apep series. I've been prepping for this campaign for two freaking years, and...

Of course, shit hit the fan. Not mine, for once. But everyone else's. And this Black Swan event is even weirder than the last one.

Everyone in the U.S. is suffering from the current, and rather deliberate, chaos in D.C. to dismantle the government. I won't get into my fury about my son's panic at not getting paid as a soldier.

But on top of that, the employees of Kickstarter have gone on strike. Ironically, the workers unionized back during the pandemic. And now, they are looking for nothing more than to continue their four-day work week and a cost of living increase in their wages. Management isn't even trying to negotiate in good faith. Kind of like Congress right now.

So, I delayed in putting up my campaign, hoping that the strike would end soon. Both of my parents were in unions. I remember us dropping off Dad at the picket lines during strikes in '70's. Frankly, I feel a little funky about crossing the Kickstarter United virtual picket line.

Company owners seem to forget who makes the products they sell. They forget who buys the products they sell. And if people aren't earning a decent wage, they can't buy the products these companies sell. It's a vicious cycle that no one seems to want to stop.

In my own case, my book sales are down because of the uncertainty of the economy. I can't blame my readers. DH and I are also nervous about what will happen next, too.

What am I going to do? After waffling over the last three weeks, I'm going to bite the bullet and launch the campaign at the end of the month. If it funds, great! If it doesn't, I'll try to do it again next year. But I've got to look after my own interests, especially if GK needs financial help!

In the meantime, I'll keep writing to keep from weeping over the disaster my country has become. Which is how I wrote 2600 words on A Barrel of Vintner yesterday.

The AI Revolution

I was hoping to write down my thoughts on the whole AI kerfluffle, but read these two blog posts by Kris Rusch instead. She says thing much more succinctly than I could right now.

AI, Copyright, and Writers

AI and Mediocre Work

Black Swan Events

Kris Rusch talked about Black Swan Events in her latest Business Musings blog yesterday. She discusses both bad decisions and good decisions over the course of her professional life. I suggest you read it.

For those who don't want to read Kris's blog, a Black Swan Event is an unpredictable event that changes the economy whether on a local stage or world wide.

I'm old enough now to have been through a few as an adult. And the irony is that each Black Swan happened in a different profession in my life.

1991 - The First Gulf War.

I worked as a computer consultant for DuPont. I'd moved to the east coast to get the heck out of Ohio. When the war broke out, part of me knew I should be looking for another job. Part of me knew no where in the U.S. was safe from the coming recession. I give DuPont some credit. When they announced one million lay-offs, they got rid of the contract workers like me first and retrained their employees from closed divisions for other jobs within the company.

Unfortunately, DuPont wasn't the only east coast employer laying off workers. I found myself competing with folks from IBM and DEC (they were the two biggest computer companies at the time) with twenty or more years of experience for jobs along the Atlantic states. I finally nailed a position after two months of solid job searching, but it meant moving back to Ohio.

2001 - The Trio

The beginning of the 21st century had not one, but three Black Swan Events. The first was the tech stock/dot.com crash in April. It unfortunately didn't effect just the dot.coms. DH and his partners had sold their consulting company two years prior, and the new conglomerate had planned to go public in May. Needless to say, that didn't happen, and it made DH's stock worthless.

In the meantime, I'd started a solo law practice. That was going well until 9/11. For those of you who remember, I don't have to remind you of the fear and uncertainty of the time.

Finally, there was the collapse of Enron and other corporations who'd overstated their earnings in an effort to keep the price of their stocks propped up. Enron in particular was the final straw in the Houston economy. I had no new clients because no one could afford my services. Even worse, other law firms were laying off attorneys and staff. A couple of months later, my lease expired and I had to pull the plug. The day I moved out of my office, I curled in a ball in my bed once I got home and cried. I tried practicing from my home for a while, but all the leads my friends threw me evaporated.

2008 - The Housing Crash

I'd been hired by a firm in Houston and was back to practicing law until health problems forced me to quit. Once again, I got a part-time job at a local Hallmark to make ends meet. Unfortunately, between my illnesses over 2006 and 2007 and GK needing two surgeries during that time, our money was stretched to the limit. When the crash occurred, the banks jacked up the interest rates on our credit cards to compensate for their loss of income. Stupid move on their part. We ended up defaulting on the credit cards, but thankfully not our house, though we did consult with an attorney concerning bankruptcy. It took us a long time to dig out from that mess. What's funny is that my income from writing erotica is what changed our financial landscape. *grin*

2020 - The COVID-19 Pandemic

After a series of life rolls from 2013 to being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, it took a lot of work in 2019 to get back into the writing and publishing game. I naively thought 2020 would be a breeze. Here we are, two and a half months into the year, and the world has essentially shut down. But that shut down is the only way to stop the spread of the virus.

In a world of chaos, you have to ask yourself, what can you do? What can you control?

In my case, I can control my writing. I have a stockpile of covers. I just need to finish the stories they belong to.

I can stay inside and away from people. The last thing I want to do is spread germs to people who may be even more vulnerable than me.

I can keep in to touch with friends and family who are in the same damn lock-down as I am. E-mails, texts, and phone calls go a long way, even if it's just commiserating with each other.

I throw what little money I have to people who need it. Buy a few covers. Tips for the workers at the carry-out windows. Buy a few books.

I can give Bella some extra cuddles and play time when I need a break. Extra hugs and kisses to DH who's trying very hard to be supportive to his employees and dad right now.

I remind myself that I've survived everything else Murphy, the one true god, has thrown at me.

It's too easy to get lost in the anxiety and fear right now, and to paraphrase Master Yoda, oftentimes that fear turns to hate. We don't know what the world's going to look like once we get to the end of this Black Swan. What we can do is look out for each other and to quote the Doctor, "Always be kind. Never cruel."

Sales Dropping in the World's Chaos

A lot of fellow indies claim they're seeing a drop in sales over the last few months. I was going to address this in today's post, but Kris Rusch did a much more elegant and thorough job yesterday in her business post.

I strongly recommend if you own or run a business, even if you're not a writer, you need to read Kris's post on Disruption.

Wild, Wicked & Wacky Rewind from 2011

This old post points one of Kris Rusch's columns that just as relevant today as it was nearly ten years ago. The original post was written back on September 26, 2011.

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If you haven't read it yet, go read Kris Rusch's rant of what constitutes a professional writer.  She warns against her, um, vulgarity.  Really, it's pretty mild.  But then, I can and have made Marines blush during my rants so my POV is a little skewed.

Seriously, go read it now.  I'll wait.

Here's what scares me me:  the way traditional publishers are treating mid-list writers is very reminiscent of how the old vanity model works.

Unfortunately vanity publishing and self-publishing got wrapped up together in the blanket of bad ideas, so let's differentiate.

Self-publishing is exactly what a lot of us are doing right now.  We either subcontract certain jobs or do them ourselves in addition to writing the books.  This includes cover art, back cover blurbs, actual printing of the book, etc.  Any marketing anad retailing is the responsibility of the writer.

Vanity publishing is a scam that preys on naive, uneducated writers.  They present themselves as a legimate publisher and make a lot of promises.  But then they ask for money from the writer to actually publish the book.  These sums can easily hit five figures.  The vanity publisher then often produces a badly formatted, unedited tome.  They sometimes require the writer to buy a minimum number of copies.  They do not market the book to retailers, despite insinuations to the contrary.  By the time, everything's said and done, the writer has blown the kids' college fund or his 401K for a garage full of books he can't give away.

From the incidents I've been reading and hearing about, traditional publishers are starting to act like vanity publishers.  Locking naive writers in unteneable contracts designed so that the publisher get all the money and the writer has nothing.  Threatening legal action if the writer protests the unfair treatment.  Verbally abusing the writer if the writer questions anything regarding the process.

And what does the writer end up with?  Well, this time they don't even get a garageful of books.

I'm not saying all publishers are bad or that all publishing deals are bad.  But seriously, talk to an IP attorney BEFORE you sign on the dotted line.

And if I were you, I sure as hell wouldn't talk to Kris AFTER you've signed one of these atrocious contracts.

Why Would You Take a Trad Deal?

The lovely Phoenix Sullivan posted an interesting Twitter thread yesterday. She talks about her efforts to secure a trad deal to expand her revenue streams and the lack of enthusiastic response to her frank talk about money.

I wish I could say I was surprised by the responses she's received from agents and editors. Five years ago, I talked about a post written by agent Donald Maass. His opinions of the worthlessness of both midlisters and indie writers was derogatory at best. This attitude has infected nearly every corner of trad publishing now. There's a few areas that remain open-minded, but those generally involve pet anthology projects from what I've been seeing.

The problem from the trad publishers' perspective is that we indies are competing with them for the same dollars. It doesn't matter what kind of hard-earned savvy we bring to the table. To trad publishers, why pay a competitor when there are plenty of shills willing to accept $0 advance just from the privilege of having someone choose them?

And that's what it comes down to--what is the real reward you the writer wants for signing a deal?

Indies are often mocked for only caring about the money. In some cases, that's true. However, a lot of us love the freedom being indie affords us. I can write what I want, when I want, instead of being ordered to write in a genre I detest.

And having a book with a trad publisher isn't really broadening your income stream. They go through the same retailers and distributors indies do. To broaden our income streams we need to look at licensing our stories, characters, and worlds. (For more on this, check out Kris Rusch's blog series on licensing starting here.)

Overall, it always come down to the readers. As long as I'm entertaining them, they will be willing to pay for my stories. When I stop doing that, they'll move on. This is a truth that applies to both trad published and indie writers whether we like it or not.

What Is Literature?

Literature

Definition:

(1) writings in prose or verse

(2) written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit

Origin - late Middle English (in the sense ‘knowledge of books’): via French from Latin litteratura, from littera (see letter).

For some reason, the difference between literature considered worthwhile and literature not considered worthwhile has been making the social media rounds over the last couple of days.

First, the magazine Bon Appétit made the mistake of posting this tweet on Twitter:

Nothing like insulting all us romance writers and readers who cook. And really, Bon Appétit? Slut shaming? After how many millions of people read Fifty Shades of Gray openly and publicly with the ORIGINAL COVER!

Bon Appétit has since changed the post:

Say it with yet again, ladies and gentlemen: THE INTERNET IS FOREVER!

Hybrid writer Bob Mayer then blogged about an NYT opinion piece that debated whether elitism or populism is more harmful to the arts. After reading the piece, I have to agree with Bob. The initial premise is like asking which smells worse: dog farts or cat farts.

And yesterday morning, Kris Rusch talked about the same issue in her weekly business blog. Ms. Rusch compared the indie revolution with the post-WWII increase in paperback publishers. The question she proposed: was there such a thing as a "good" book or a "bad" book?

To answer Ms. Rusch's  question: no, I don't think there's any such thing as a "good" or "bad" book. Oh, sure, there may be a difference between technically good or bad writing.

For example, look at how Yoda talks in the Star Wars. Standard English generally follows the subject-verb-object rule. Yet, Yoda's speech pattern generally uses object-subject-verb order.

Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.

Now if everyone in Star Wars spoke like Yoda, the writer can be properly castigated for abusing the English language, i.e. bad writing. However, Yoda's speech pattern emphasizes his alien-ness. This isn't a guy who thinks like the rest of us, so it's actually an example of good writing. The writer breaks the rules on purpose to create a specific effect in the consumer.

But when someone breaks down stories, or in this case books, into "good" and "bad" categories, it comes from their desire for power and control.

The actually reasons for desiring this control vary. The Bon Appétit issue stems from "good" girls cook for their men, whereas "bad" girls read smutty books, i.e. the desire to control female sexuality.

Trad publishers have lost a great deal of control in the industry. They are losing a ton of money for three reasons:

1) some writers who were trad published no longer submit manuscripts to them and are making money by going indie,
2) some writers have never submitted to them, and
3) some writers submitting to them haven't reached the technical proficiency need yet.

As a result, trad publishers claim that indie books aren't quality because they haven't been properly vetted.

Since the same corporations that own the big trad publishers also own the newspapers and magazines that do a lot of reviewing, things like the opinion piece in the NYT get published in order to shame readers into reading the "good" books, i.e. the same books our co-workers are publishing.

And then there's the moral police, screaming "Think of the children!"

My feeling is if you really want kids to read, give them something that interests them. I learned to read thanks to Dr. Seuss and Stan Lee. How many of moral police would be screaming about what a bad example the Cat in the Hat would be?

However, I would counter that Spider-man's "With great power comes great responsibility" would trump any bad cat influence I suffered.

Deep down though, the people who want to control what you read really want to control how you think.

Don't let them!

(And I'd be the first one to tell you to read Fifty Shades of Gray as many times as you want. ☺ )

When the Clouds Pass

The day I posted the February status report about my recent frustrations, Kris Rusch wrote a very similar post about writing or not writing through bad times. After reading it and several of the comments, it was heartening to know I'm not the only writer that feels this way.

Add to that the fact that we've had two full days of sunshine, and I'm starting to feel like myself again.

All of which helps me to obey Batman's orders.

Now if only Sam doesn't lose the earrings she borrowed from Tiffany during the climatic battle against a dino demon...

Data Guy Strikes Back and Other Important Info

I was going to talk about my projects this morning, but Data Guy released the Author Earnings Report for May 2016 yesterday.

HOLY FUCKING CRAP ON A CRACKER!

If you want or have a career as a writer, you need to read this report. It shows the marked changes in the publishing industry.

Another important blog to read is Kris Rusch's current series on contracts. There's lots of scary (and career ruining) contracts these days, and indie writers aren't immune. She focuses on some problems with the now-defunct Booktrope.

To top off the recent spate of writers not getting paid, Barnes & Noble's NOOKPress managed to fully fuck up payments for the month of May. I've counted nearly 300 indie writers including myself who did not receive payment on May 31st. And these are just the folks who bitched. Goddess only knows how many others are in this boat.

Sadly, it took B&N over forty-eight hours to issue any kind of statement. I'll update this post if/when I receive my payment.

Needless to say, I've pulled all of my books from B&N after this fiasco. I'd previously pulled my books from Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, etc. in preparation for the new book covers and updated back matter. Now, I'm wondering if I should try Kindle Unlimited since I have a fresh slate. I'm already researching some other retailers like All Romance eBooks.

The whole incident really bums me out because the original Nook was a decent product. But no, the short-range thinking of Len Riggio, his board of directors, and B&N executives torpedoed their potential before they even got off the ground. And they wonder why Amazon is crushing them.

After all that, I promise more positive news next week!


UPDATE: My payment from B&N/NOOKPress arrived in my business bank account this morning. I received an answer to my e-mail I sent to them on Tuesday at noon today.

Unfortunately, this fix doesn't alleviate my deep concern over B&N/NOOKPress's professional behavior of late, or their lack thereof in this case. This isn't the first time they've had a problem paying authors who indie publish through them. Therefore, my e-books will remain unavailable through Barnes & Noble's website for the time being.

Which means I need to spend tomorrow updating a zillion links. URGH!

The World Is Mad I Tell You! Mad!

DH's dad is still in the hospital (complication from his surgery Wednesday) so this is a round-up of stuff y'all may be interested in.

First off, my self-editing post got a few comments yesterday. Just a reminder that there is no "right" way to edit. If you can proofread your own stuff, more power to you! Honestly, I proof my own short stories. However, it's the only area of where I think money can be wisely spent, just like it's overall cheaper and faster for me to hire out my formatting these days.

Ironically, Kris Rusch posted about the nightmares of dealing with trad publisher editors.

In that same blog, Kris also talked about the recent bloodbath at Penguin Random House. The layoffs included several editors.

And that led to this little bon mot my friend Angie e-mailed me this morning. Just how bad are things at PRH that la Nora jumps ship?

Are publishers in that much trouble? Yeah, they are. Data Guy's recent talk at the Digital Book World Conference shows trad publishers are sort of acknowledging that they sail in iceberg infested waters, but they still believe the icebergs pose no danger. *sigh*

On the other hand, anything that improves DG's scraping and analysis of book sales can help us indies in the long run.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

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.

KU and Wanting to Be Read

Last Wednesday, I posted my initial thoughts on KU. Over the last week, I've read several other writers' thoughts on the matter. I'm surprised how many writers don't care if they are read; they just want to make money from their books.

I have to admit that this sort of thinking boggles me. Fiction publishing is delicate balance between art, entertainment and widget selling. It's a little bit of all three, so believing it's all one thing turns into a self-defeating mess.

Why? Because if the art doesn't entertain, it will not be borrowed, much less bought by the populace. If my first book doesn't entertain, then the reader will not pick up the second, or third, or fourth, etc. I will not continue to make money because I disappointed the reader, and the reader will most likely share their opinions with their friends.

Now granted, it's impossible to please everyone, but writers should hit with a good chunk of their target market. This is where word-of-mouth kicks in. As readers talk about your book, more of their friends and relatives start reading your books. In return, you make more money.

However, some writers just want to be bought, or borrowed under the old KU system. They make money on the appearance of entertainment, not on actual entertainment. It means instead of only polishing the first 10% of a story, they need to polish the whole damn thing in order to for the book not to be returned, or to earn money on the revised KU system.

This is what Kris Rusch was talking about when she referred to gaming in her column last week. It's not about short story writers vs. serial writers vs. novel writers. It's not about genre vs. genre vs. litfic. It's about giving the reader the experience they desire when they read. Which means a quality product for that particular length and genre. That means wanting to be read.

Not throwing up random words. Not posting cut/pasted stories or articles. Not putting in a bunch of filler to pad the content.

Write a great story that has your reader's coffee grow cold. One that makes her forget to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. One that makes her miss her subway stop.

Write a story they can't forget. That's the way to make money on KU.

Women in Science Fiction and in Real Science

I was going to talk about something entirely different today, but it's been a bizarre week for the intersection of women, sexism, science and fiction.

Kris Rusch talked about how women were quite prevalent in science fiction writing until the last twenty or so years in her blog post, Hidden Treasures. She goes on to lament how much work is being lost as the public switches from print to digital. To counteract the obscurity, she has started a website, Women in Science Fiction.

Kris's efforts came to my attention at the same time I heard Nobel-winning scientist Tim Hunt make some rather sexist remarks concerning the need for gender-segregated labs because female scientists were too distracting.

#DistractinglySexy pictures flooded Twitter, and AJ+ put them together in a highly amusing video.



Sometimes, laughter is the best response to stupidity.

What the Craigy Ferg!

It's bad enough that Kris Rusch announced the end of her column, The Business Rusch, last Thursday.

Shortly after supper last night, I started reading about another impending demise. "It's Hollywood rumors," I prayed. But no, it's true. Craig Ferguson is leaving The Late Late Show at the end of the year.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!



The only thing that will make me feel better is if someone can tell me the brand and color name of Eddie's nail polish.

The Eye of the Storm?

Last week, one of Kris Rusch's reasons for cutting back on her business blogging was that the publishing business had entered a period of stabilization. But with the Gulf hurricane season officially starting a month from Thursday and preparation ads starting to spring up, I wondered:  Are things really stabilizing or are we in the eye of the storm?

1) Writers

The trickle of writers who had contracts for novel length works leaving publishing companies has turned into a steady stream. Many new writers are refusing to even consider  working with a major publishing house. We haven't gotten to the point where that steady stream turns into a gush, or where a MAJOR name like King, Roberts or Grisham walks away from their publisher.

2) Publishers Houses

Sure, you've got guys like Joe Konrath predicting the big publishers will collapse, but the bigger publishing houses made record-breaking profiits in 2013. There's also a lot of issues not being said.

Both Disney and Warner Brothers streamlined their print book operations so that they are focusing on materials and IP properties they fully control, e.g. Star Wars and Superman among others. Supposedly, Disney is keeping the contract Lucasfilm had with Random House to produce Star Wars novels, but I question how long that arrangement might last.

After news got out that Harlequin used contractually sleight-of-hand to rip-off writers, pitch slots to their editors were empty at the 2013 Romance Writers of America Conference. Other small publishers, such as Kensington and Ellora's Cave, are seeing a drop in submissions, and the submissions coming in are dropping in quality.

Overall, the publishing houses are reducing advances, reducing print runs, and issuing draconian contract terms to keep the writers they already have tied to them. They are also tying up reversion rights even though they seem to have no interest in reissuing the older books.

The question is at what point will the majority of writer grow tired of these shennanigans and walk way from the publishers, or writing, altogether.

3) Brick and Mortar Stores

It's been a little over two years since Borders collapsed here in the U.S. Barnes & Noble is scrambling to stay alive by cutting down on books and selling trinkets and toys. Book-a-Million and Half-Price Books only sell a fraction of what the ailing B&N sells. Walmart, Target and Costco will only sell  book on the top twenty of the New York Times bestseller list. Groceries stores and pharmacies are whacking their mass market paperback displays in a quarter of what they used to carry, assuming they are still carrying books at all.

On the plus side, many independent bookstores have arisen from the ashes of the Borders collapse and the closing of several B&N's. They've learned their lessons that they can't compete on price alone and are focusing on service and the customer experience.

Can the bigger stores afford to carry books? And if not, at what point do they quit?

4) Devices

This is where I think the most pundits are short-sighted. I've read article after article about slow down in sales of dedicated e-readers. Barnes & Noble is floundering. Sony gave up on devices totally, then sold its e-book division to Kobo. Kobo turned around and laid off 63 people last week. Yet, I still see publishing CEOs claim the slow down in dedicated device sales means adaption to e-books is also slowing.

This is where I *facepalm*.

First of all, if e-book adaption is slowing, why are the same companies claiming record profits? Sales of paper books are down or steady according to the folks who keep track of such things like Bowker.

Second of all, consumers are buying more and more tablets and smartphones. These multi-purpose devices are driving technology sales right now. In fact, tablets sales are seriously impacting Dell's laptop business. Executives don't seem to understand that you can READ on these multi-purpose devices.

Do you want a prime example? Two weeks ago, an older woman and I were sanding in line at the post office to mail Easter packages to family. I was reading on my iPhone 4. She had a HC. She didn't understand how I could read on such a small screen. I showed how I could adjust the font on the Kindle app, which led to an explanation of how apps work on a phone.

And why am I reading so much on my iPhone? Because the toggle switch on my Kindle 2 broke. While I like reading on e-ink since I spend twice as much business time on my computer than I ever did when I was a programmer or systems engineer, I question why should I spend the extra money. If my eyes need a break, I have 1300+ paper books I can read.

Even Genius Kid, who just got a Galaxy S4, doesn't think he needs another device, even though he's been asking for a Kindle for the last year.

When are execs going to understand that the loss of dedicated devices doesn't mean the loss of e-books?

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With all these issues still outstanding (and I'm sure there's more I missed), I can't see any supposed stability lasting for long. The real question to me is--are we on the clean side of the hurricane or the dirty side when the storm roars past us?

Thursdays with Kris

Yesterday was like every other Thursday. I got my caffeine first. This time I ran over Starbuck's for a trenta iced tea, black, no water, no sweetner. In other words, my standard order when Houston temps reach the mid-eighties. I had a hard day ahead of me--getting several thousand words in for a super secret, not-my-usual project I'm working on.

Like every other Thursday morning, I booted up my computer and clicked on Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog for my weekly dose of The Business Rusch before I started.

Unlike every other Thursday, I wanted to cry when I read Kris' announcement. After five years of not missing a week with her words of wisdom, Kris was ending her popular column.

I totally understand her reasoning. If you're not enjoying something you're doing for free, then you need to stop.

In this case, Kris had dispensed her thirty years of experience and hard knocks to a multitude of writers. She was to the point that she felt she was repeating herself, and she had started to dread what was a self-imposed deadline.

Kris also announced that her blog will be revamped soon, so she can't guarantee all her columns will survive the transition. I highly recommended that if you haven't read The Business Rusch yet, start printing off copies for study. There's a lot of advice in the million words she's written. If you haven't read them, you'll never know if there's some tidbit that may take your career to the next level.

To Kris, thanks from all of us newbies from the bottom of our hearts.

When an Agent Sticks the Cow Hoof into His Mouth

Wednesday was a train wreck writers just couldn't look away from.

Agent Donald Maass wrote a post over at Writer Unboxed. It was controversial. It was contradictory. It was derogatory. And at times, the Donald was out-and-out lying or woefully misinformed.

Initially, the Donald said indie stories weren't worth the electrons, much less the paper, they were written on.

One sentence started the cow bells clanging over at The Passive Voice, particularly, this phrase: "...print publishers have the luxury of culling the prize cattle from the herd." The Donald is referring to indie writers doing all the work, then folks like him swooping in to...

Do y'all have any idea what "culling" is? That's when the farmer/rancher separates the animals not needed for breeding or sale purposes and takes them to the slaughterhouse.

In other words, writers need to be culled for slaughter to keep the publishers fed. *facepalm*

The Donald's diatribe about the worthlessness of writers went downhill from there. Comments from opposing views were often blocked at Writer Unboxed. As writer Marc Cabot, who in his day job is an IP attorney, said, "It’s a rare glimpse of complete honesty as to how authors are usually viewed with a bonus Voltaire moment. Be grateful for it."

Yep, we writers are cattle to be culled for slaughter.

The fabulous commenters at TPV started having fun with it. The cow jokes flew.

The Donald also said, "...print publishers instead are now gratefully relieved of the money-losing burden of the mid-list."

Wait a minute. Publishers are glad to get rid of us, but they still plan to cull us?

Now, I could go over the entire list, but Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler stepped in and royally fisked the Don. I needed a box of tissues when I was done reading because of the proverbial tears from laughing so hard.

One of the few opposing comments that got through at Writer Unboxed mentioned Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch and their support and entrance to the indie world. The Donald claimed in the Writer Unboxed comments that he's buds with them, and that he'd have to talk to them. DWS had an interesting response. Make sure you read his comments as well. Later on Thursday, DWS made a point of updating one of his posts on agents.

Here's the kicker: if someone asked me for a recommendation on the basic elements of storytelling, I would, and have, recommended the Donald's book, Writing the Break-Out Novel. I've changed my mind about the re-writing until your fingers bleed section though. I don't think that really helps a writer to learn and grow. YMMV.

As for the rest, I think the Donald's statement is endemic of the state of traditional publishers. In other words, they are starting to panic. I'm hearing from more and more writers with the micro-press and smaller publishers that submissions are down, and what the editors are seeing is of lesser quality than before. These people are talking to me because they are looking to switch to indie publishing.

If this is the case (and I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the people I spoken with), then agents and the Big 5 are going to have the same problem soon, if not already.

When people start flinging insults and use fear-based marketing for their services, it is usually coming from their own internal fear. And that's what I'm hearing from the Donald.

No route to publishing is easy. Success isn't guaranteed on any path. But I'll be damned if I'll be a cow led to slaughter.

Because I'm an Angry Sheep.

Baaaaa!

Why Kris Rusch Is Super Smart and You Should Listen to Her

There's lots of people throwing advice left and right in the publishing world these days. Folks who've only put their first indie published book up last week. Folks who've worked for NY publishers for fifty years. Very rarely can you find someone who's a melding of both with a large dose of common sense.

If you don't know who Kristine Kathryn Rusch is, you should find out. She has written in so many genres under a variety of pseudonyms that you've probably read one of her books without realizing it.

In fact, I think the only position in publishing she hasn't held is illustrator.

Right now, she is posting a series on her blog about discoverability. I suggest you start with Part One. She's up to Seven and still going.

One caveat before you click over to Kris. This is NOT a "Three Easy Steps to Becoming a Bestseller" manual. If that's what you want, you need to go elsewhere. And frankly, if you believe writing/publishing is that simple, I have some land in Florida I want to sell you.

Kris's series looks at the long tail, i.e. how to create a career out of your writing. If that's not your worldview, nothing Kris says is going to help you. She also talks about where the industry has been in order to understand where it could possibly be going. You know the old saying about people who don't understand their history are doomed to repeat it.

I'm not saying Kris's series is the Gospel, nor should it be treated as such. But I am a huge believer in having a business plan if you want to make a living in this crazy industry, and Kris's thoughts are an excellent place to start.

And if you're reading my blog for business advice, remember that I'm only telling you what I've tried, what worked and what didn't.

I probably should re-title the blog to "Don't Fuck Up Like I Did."

Random Shenannigans

Yesterday, Random House threw a cow patty at a set of circulating blades. They seem quite surprised that writers are unhappy about the mess.

I wish I could say I was surprised that Random Hose [mistake or Freudian slip?] House decided open, not one, but several vanity press lines. Considering their proposed merger with Penguin, which is already using the notorious vanity publisher Author Solutions for their Archway imprint which now owns notorious vanity publisher Author Solutions, I'm not. Not at all. [Note: Simon & Schuster own the Archway imprint, which subcontracts work to Author Solutions. Mea culpa for the error.]

I first heard the breaking news from the lovely Angie Benedetti when she spoke about the kerfluffle on her blog. I didn't have the chance to do more than skim her thoughts before the family and I had to leave to meet some associates for dinner. My first thought was the situation is pretty bad if it pisses off SFWA president John Scalzi.

Several of our dinner companions are SFWA members and expressed their thoughts, none of which I'm at liberty to repeat here. But let's just say they weren't flattering towards Random House.

When I got home from dinner, I read Mr. Scalzi's full post regarding Hydra, Random House's questionable SF/F line. By then, he'd managed to obtain a copy of the contract for Alibi, RH's mystery line. I have to agree with John that if the tems are that egregious with Hydra and Alibi, they are equally egregious for Loveswept (romance line) and Flirt (New Adult).

Both Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch talked a bit about the terrible terms. And today, a majority of The Passive Guy's headline gathering consists of stories regarding Random House's vanity lines, the scariest of which is RH's public letter to John Scalzi, the SFWA, and Victoria Strauss of WriterBeware.

HERE'S THE REAL DEAL, FOLKS-

If you want to be traditionally published, by all means, go for it. But a real traditional publisher DOES NOT FOIST ALL THE PRODUCTION COSTS ON YOU WHEN YOU HAVE NO SAY IN THOSE SAME PRODUCTION COSTS!!

Seriously, why are you paying Hydra, Loveswept or their ilk a huge chunk of your profits if they are doing nothing for you and you are paying ALL the costs?

Don't sign a contract with these assholes. Period. End of story.

If you really, REALLY want to pay the production costs, go indie.

The Publishing Gold Rush Is Digging Up Lead

Writers refuse to learn basic business principles. Publishing companies refuse to learn basic business principles. And we wonder why the publishing industry is in such bad shape.

I've complained about Simon & Schuster teaming up with vanity press Author Solutions (which, by the way, is owned by Penguin).

This week, Kris Rusch vented her own frustration at writers refusing to take responsibility for their careers.

Now, yet another small publisher may be in the process of going the way of Triskelion (I don't even want to go there), Dorchester Publishing (extensive chronicling by Brian Keene) and Aspen Mountain Press (Samantha Combs's report of the efforts to save the company).

Now, it appears Silver Publishing sinking rapidly. A publisher paying late is never a good sign. When the publisher starts throwing around legal threats and writers are holding a fundraiser for the publisher, things are bad. There's been several flame wars over the matter already, and it'll probably get worse before Silver finally succumbs. The Erotic Romance Blog catalogs some of what's going on.

Unfortunately, where there's smoke, something burning hot usually lies underneath. The fingerpointing and spinning is too much like the other defunct publishers I mention above to not take this seriously.

If you're a writer wanting to contract with a publisher, for the love of Murphy, CHECK THEM OUT before signing the contract!