Status Report - April 2014

In six days, tax filing must be done. Yesterday, DH and I got our returns back from our CPA, Ed.

What a difference from three years ago when I took my first tentative step into publishing. Not only did I make a profit for 2013, I had to pay self-employment tax!

Okay, I know most people aren't (or shouldn't be) excited about paying taxes, but for me, it means Angry Sheep is a real business. Not that it wasn't before, but this is my type of validation. Not getting a traditional deal, but having to cough up money to Uncle Sam.

Your mileage may vary.

As for what's happening in 2014?

The ramifications of the Kernel Pornocalypse are still being felt in Alter Ego's sales. On the other hand, word-of-mouth is starting to spread about her books. I'm getting requests for ARCs from book bloggers.

The fantasies under Suzan Harden got a nice little plug thanks to Jonathan Moeller's interview and the release of Sword and Sorceress 28 last fall, but the surge was short-lived. All I can do is keep plugging away at the writing for the small cadre of readers who like those books and keep my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, there's been shuffling and weirdness in the e-book retail world. Sony sold its business to Kobo, and Diesel shut down completely. I'm not holding my breath about getting paid for the last sales from those companies.

While total sales are down across the board, my Apple sales have been outstripping my Amazon US sales this year. In March, Amazon UK sales beat Amazon US.

What does this mean? I think it shows how wide open the world markets are. Most writers are only look at a little slice of America, and then only looking at Amazon. I.thought that was short-sighted three years ago, and so far, my opinion hasn't changed.

Barnes & Noble continues its death spiral. I've been lucky to sell one book a day when two years ago, I could sell 200 a day. As I've said repeatedly, I hate seeing B&N throw away its advantages, but they seem intent of commercial suicide.

As for Smashwords, I haven't made a sale there yet this year. I've heard a couple of different rumors regarding Mark Coker's intentions with the company, but nothing I can verify through independent sources. And these are the types of things that even if I asked Mark, he would have to lie because the truth would majorly fuck over both him and the writers distributing through Smashwords. So we'll see on that front.

Is the e-book market becoming saturated? Yes and no. There are thousands more books out there than there were three years ago. But like the other entertainment industries, a consumer is more likely to find enough material in her favorite niche to keep her happy. In four words--I am not worried in that regard.

My biggest problem is that my productivity for the last twelve months is down considerably due to the move from Texas to Ohio. Things aren't over yet. We still need to sell the house in Texas. So right now, I'm doing more general contracting than I care to and battling a colony of bees that are setting up shop in my siding.

Between a retailer upheaval and slow production, there's a reason for my drop in sales. I can't fix one, but I can fix the other.

After I deal with this stupid house and a possible killer bee invasion.

The Last of the Jonathan Moeller S&S 28 Interviews

After Thanksgiving, I plain out forgot to post links to the rest of Jonathan's interviews of the contributing authors of Sword and Sorceress 28.

I know.

Bad Suzan.

Anyway, here's the links:

Elisabeth Waters (our esteemed editor) and Michael Spence

Steve Chapman

Jessie Eaker

26 Days of Christmas - Spell-Slinging, Sword-Swinging Ladies

Twenty-eight years, famed SFF author Marion Zimmer Bradley thought traditional sword and sorcery fantasy was a little too testosterone-ridden. So she put out a call for stories with female protagonists in the S&S subgenre.

Why I love the Sword and Sorceress anthologies: I've discovered soooo many authors through MZB'santhologies. The first one was S&S 3, which had a story by an incredible lady named Mercedes Lackey. I've probably helped pay for Ms. Lackey's house with all of her books I've bought over the years. (I'm not just saying all this because I'm in the current edition, though it is pretty spectacular enough with all the other writers!)

More Jonathan Moeller Interviews of the S&S 28 Contributors

In the focus on the current novel during NaNo, I forgot to post links to the latest interviews by Jonathan Moeller. You see, Jonathan did this out of the goodness of his heart, using his precious time on his fellow contributors instead of working on his own wip.

First up is Lori Calkins.

Then there is the lovely Rebecca Eaker (who's father Jessie is also in Sword and Sorceress 28. Like me, this is Rebecca's first time in S&S. A fair warning, her story in the volume made me bawl my eyes out.

As Jonathan pointed out to me in an e-mail, what's interesting is that I'm the only contributor that's self-published.

The Jonathan Moeller Interviews of the S&S 28 Contributors - Part 5

This time, it's Michael Payne in the spotlight!

The Jonathan Moeller Interviews of S&S 28 Contributors - Part 4

Yesterday, Jonathan posted my interview. Show Jonathan some love! Stop by and leave a comment!

P.S. There's a snippet of "Justice" for you to check out.

Status Report - October 2013

As the Celtic year winds down (yes, folks, Halloween, or Samhain if you will, was the Celtic equivalent of New Year's Eve except with a lot less glitter and champagne), I'm looking at what I've accomplished.

Sales have been down over September and October, just like they have been for the last three years. Why? Because readers are dealing with school, kids, fall activities like football, and holidays. Oh, and October is when trad publishing unleashes a flurry of paper books, especially hardbacks, in preparation for the Christmas rush.

A lot of folks in indie world are panicking, but they've panicked every fall for the last three years.What they need to be looking at is the long-term implications. The initial gold rush in self-publishing is over. Thank Djehuti!

Why do I say that? Because the people who aren't serious about writing as a career are starting to give up. That doesn't mean the rest of us can relax. If anything, we need to up our game. We not only have to be better than other indies, we have to be better than trad published books in our production values.

Fortunately, that's not hard. *grin*

Here's some of the data you're looking for:

After Amazon's August surge, Apple sales are still beating the house that Bezos built as far as my books go in September. Barnes & Noble sales have dropped thanks their schizophrenic board of directors and total lack of direction. Frankly, I can't blame Nook owners for not wanting to invest any more money in their devices. Kobo and Smashwords sales have been non-existent since April. Sony is the retailer that surprises me because I'm starting to see 2-3 actual sales per month for the second half of 2013.

Total sales in August = 215
Total sales in September = 139
Total sales for October as of the 22nd = 74

I place a lot of the blame for October on Congress' shoulders because of the stupid-ass government shutdown. There was a marked increase in sales after 16th, and not just because Alter Ego published a new novella on the 18th.

The rest of the year will be interesting. Blood Sacrifice will be published by Halloween. Sword and Sorceress 28 with my short story "Justice" will be released November 2nd. Alter Ego will put out her first novel in December as well as the last novella of her current BDSM series. That will bring my total releases up to ten for the year.

And I've officially made more money in 2013 than I did in 2012, and I've still got two more months to go.

All-in-all, I think I've done pretty good this year for an average mid-lister.

The Jonathan Moeller Interviews of S&S 28 Contributors - Part 3

Last Thursday, Jonathan interviewed the fabulous Melissa Mead. Check it out here!

The S&S 28 Interviews, Part 2

Fellow fantasy writer Jonathan Moeller interviews his fellow contributors to the Sword and Sorceress anthologies. Here's last Thursday's interview with Catherine Soto.

Speed and First Drafts Are Not Your Enemy. Fear Is.

The reason this post is late today is I'm reticent to stir the controversy pot.

I can hear what thinking. Since when, Suzan?

It's the issue of speed when it comes to drafting a story.

Please understand that I'm not talking about physical limitations. And before anyone goes off on me in comments, yes, I do understand certain impediments. I'm in the early stages of arthritis thanks to the self-destructing chemical soup that is my body, and I'm losing my eyesight, even though my doctor has been running an a battery of tests since March, he can't figure out what the problem is, and he's more frustrated about the situation than I am.

Maybe it's my own impending problems that spurs my need for speed. I've got so many ideas in my head that demand to be told. I started watching how many books were put out per year by my favorite authors. The only one who really talks about his process is Dean Wesley Smith.

When I started writing with the intent to publish back in 2004, I was doing great to get down 250 per hour. At the beginning of the year, I could do 500 words per hour. Dean's 7500 words per day seemed an impossible thing to achieve unless I went without sleep, food or potty breaks.

So instead of the impossible, I went for the possible. I'd done NaNoWriMo before. 50K words in 30 days comes out to 1,667 words per day. What if I bumped that up to 2K per day?

And it worked! Despite the craziness of homeschooling and packing, it worked. I finished five novellas, three short stories and the infamous novel Blood Sacrifice since January 1, 2013.

Which brings me to the other problem--rewriting. Maybe it's the flippant answer I gave in a recent interview. Maybe it's something Dean said in his blog, but I've given up on rewriting pieces ad nauseum.

Why? Because when I do, the book doesn't sound like me anymore. It reads like every piece of pablum coming out of New York these days. Oh, there's definitely times when I, my editor or beta readers say, "Hey! This piece here doesn't match the rest!"

But to me, that's content editing, not a complete rewrite. And I'm not saying a rewrite is never necessary.

Blood Sacrifice is a prime example. I started it in 2009, and I had to scrap it after seeing Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull because Steven Spielberg and I had the same frickin' plot. In 2010, I tried again, but I realized I had a problem with who the Big Bad was. It needed to be someone worthy of Alex and Phil.

I sat down for a brainstorming session over pumpkin lattes with my friend Jody in 2011. "The Aztecs and Mayans are overdone right now," she said. "Go farther south."

She had lived in Peru during the 1968 military coup. (I really think she needs to write about her life, but she thinks she's boring. Goddess, she so is not!)  She had a ton of books (most of which I couldn't read because they were in Spanish) and native music recordings she let me borrow, but it was her photos and recounting of the the Day of the Dead festivals that caught my warped attention.

Again, I started Blood Sacrifice. Again, I ran into a problem. I set it aside and concentrated on Alter Ego's career. This year, as I was wrapping breakables for packing, the solution popped into my head.

The only other time I rewrote a novel was to satisfy the bizarre whims of agents. (Zombie Love if you're curious. The published version is very close to the original version once I gave up trying to please a bunch of strangers who didn't give a shit about my story.) It's one thing when my perfectionistic streak comes into play. It's another when someone arbitrarily dictates changes.

Anything else I've written and published is the first draft. Including the short story "Justice" which I sold to Elisabeth Waters, the editor of Sword and Sorceress 28.

I can go into all the psychology of why writers think slow drafting and multiple drafts are a good thing, but I won't since Dean covers it pretty well in his Killing the Sacred Cows series on his blog.

It all comes down to one word--fear.

It's amazing how good writing feels once you let go of that fear.

So I challenge all of you to write FAST, write FEARLESSLY and have FUN!

Jonathan Moeller and the Sword and Sorceress 28 Interviews

Fellow fantasy writer Jonathan Moeller has been interviewing the contributors to MZB's Sword and Sorceress anthologies for the last several years. He posted the first one with Pauline J. Alma last Thursday for the 2013 edition.

Sorry, guys, but between Blood Sacrifice and Justice coming out within weeks of each other, you're going to deal with me squeeing a lot.

*SQUEEEE*

My First Time Doing Proofs

Like I said back in May, I sold a story to Sword and Sorceress 28. On Friday, July 5th, I got the proofs from editor Elisabeth Waters. For the whole damn book, not just my story.

You have no idea how hard it's been NOT to read the other authors' stories. Mainly, because I want to order the volume and devour it in a weekend like I normally do. Then there's the added joy that my story is right next to Deborah J. Ross (aka Deborah Wheeler). Fan girl *squeeeeeeeeee*

In a way, it's unsettling seeing how my writing will look in a print book. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I need to tackle putting my indie books in print, and I'm slightly intimidated. Maybe because I didn't think this day would ever come with the tightening of the trad market.

I tried to relay my concerns to DH that evening. He pointed out that maybe it would be more time efficient for me to hire people to do the formatting and covers for the print editions. When I showed him some of the designers and artists and laid out their costs, he surprised me by saying, "That's it? We need to start hiring people to help you, so you can get more writing done."

I keep forgetting that he deals with five- and six-figure contracts as a matter of business, so my piddly three-figure costs are nothing to him.

But for now, I need to keep my attention on my business, which means returning my proofs to my editor on time.

By the way, have I said how excited I am about being in Sword and Sorceress 28?