More on the PayPal/Smashwords Saga

Monday night I received an e-mail from a Faithful Reader concerning the PayPal situation. Not wanting to start a flame war, she wondered if I was being harsh blaming PayPal and whether another entity was to blame.

First of all, contrary to what others have accused me of, I don't feel it's right to repeat rumors. I will however offer an opinion on the evidence I have at the time. If I'm wrong, just show me the evidence.

Sure enough that same evening, I received another e-mail from Mark Coker. (For the record, these e-mails and the ones I mentioned on the previous post, were only sent authors with erotica titles under their account on Smashwords.)

According to Mark, he'd been in talks with the folks at PayPal. The folks at PayPal claim that the banks and credit card companies are pressuring PayPal about the same types of subject matters as mentioned before: incest/pseudo-incest, beastiality and rape.

Mark's major concerns are censorship and the fact the topics are not well-defined. Take rape for instance. The mandate handed down from PayPal (or the other U.S. financial institutions, depending on what's really going on behind the scenes) does not differentiate between rape as titillation and rape as a criminal act. Without such differentation, a great many top thriller authors would be banned as well.

Assuming PayPal folks are telling Mark the truth about who's behind this move, I second Mark's request of the following:

1) Blog, tweet, FB about this issue. Financial institutions have no business dictating terms to other businesses.

2) Contact your bank and credit company to protest such actions. Let's face it; they don't want to lose their customers.

3) Contact your U.S. representatives and senators protesting private companies efforts to censor books.

4) Contact your local news media and ask them to look into the matter.

Why am I seconding Mark's request? As my Faithful Reader pointed out in her e-mail Monday, it's too coincidental that this crap is happening during a presidential election year.

As of the time I type this, the deadline to remove material from Smashwords has been extended an indefinite period.

For additional takes on the PayPal situation, check out Sarah York's blog, Jane at Dear Author and Ryan Field's Blog..

One of my writer friends, Anna Kathryn Lanier is promoting a petition to PayPal to stop the censorship. I'd like to point out Anna DOES NOT write erotica, but she feels strongly about the censorship issue.

I don't envy Mark Coker, and I certainly don't blame him. This is business. His fledgling company needs contacts with financial providers as well as content providers. Trashing Mark is stupid and pointless and helps nothing. Please stop.

Furthermore, writing for profit is business. Plain and simple business no matter what YOU want it to be. My regular readers have heard me preach this time and time again--writing is business; treat it like one. I hope all of you take this to heart and be smart about how you deal with other companies. You can stand your ground without being an asshole.

Angry Sheep
Off her soapbox.

PayPal Has Become the Morals Police

Friday night as GK and I were watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, I received an e-mail from Mark Coker, the founder/owner of Smashwords. I can't reprint the e-mail here since I don't have Mark's permission, but needless to say, I wasn't the only one who received it. The news of the contents spread over the internet through the weekend.

Basically, PayPal has issued a warning to Smashwords that certain erotic content must be removed from their website. Otherwise PayPal will deactivate Smashwords' PayPal account. PayPal allegedly gave them only ten days to comply. The content PayPal objects to is erotica having to do with incest/pseudo-incest, bestiality and rape.

I'm of several minds on this development.

Most publishers have limits on what's acceptable in their guidelines. This is nothing new. In fact, Ellora's Cave rejects all three of the items in their submissions guidelines. So the number of publishers who would accept such types of things is limited. That leaves indie publishing.

Obviously there's a market for for this kind of erotica, which is why the indie writers put such types of erotica up on places like Amazon and Smashwords.

On the other hand, retailers don't want to anger customers. When enough customers protest something that disturbs them, retailers often bow to the pressure. A good example is when Amazon removed the 'how-to-commit-pedophilia' title last year.

What's unusual is that this is business-to-business pressure. Rarely does a company object to something that is protected free speech and fills their own coffers. This move was apparently not spawned by customer objections.

PayPal is hardly an innocent party. It has spent millions on lobbying efforts to prevent the company from being classified as a bank. It rarely follows it's own policies and procedures, and often changes those policies and procedures on a whim. So personally, I find their stance on issuing morality ultimatums to another company rather hypocritical.

It also shows a flaw in the design of Smashwords' software in that they can't readily change to a new financial provider.

More than likely another company with no PayPal connections will pick up the ball and provide those people with stories they prefer that PayPal deems objectionable.

But this situation goes to show we ARE a global community. This is not a maybe that will happen someday down the line. GLOBAL IS NOW.

While I can't put words in Mark Coker's mouth, the likely reason he decided to use PayPal is because of its global reach. All the other e-book retailers are limited by the laws in both the U.S. and overseas over sales and the types of merchandise.

Do I object to certain types of materials? Yes, but I can CHOSE NOT TO BUY the materials I object to, just like I don't buy crystal meth. Do I think what PayPal did was right? No, forcing your views on the populace rarely works. That's why Prohibition failed.

But most of all, I don't like seeing anyone bullied. For those of you who object to Amazon's tactics, take a good hard look at PayPal. This is what a real bully looks like.

The bigger problem is what else will PayPal find objectionable down the road?

Songs I've Been Listening To A Lot Lately...

This isn't on my Indie Publish playlist, but it IS on the playlist for my forthcoming urban fantasy novel, Amish, Vamps & Thieves. It cracks me up every time I watch/listen to it! *grin*

E-tailers, Part Deux - Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble is the last big box bookstore standing. I'll give the execs at B&N credit for realizing that being the last man standing doesn't mean they're out of danger. So they introduced their version of self-publishing--PubIt. I first talked about B&N last year.

B&N offers 40% gross for book priced under $2.99, but only 65% for the magic $2.99 to $9.99 price point.

Since the 2011 post, B&N and Amazon management have decided to up the ante in their pissing contest. Among other things, B&N refuses to carry paper books or e-books published by Amazon. Many other brick-and-mortar retailers have followed suit. So if you get an offer from Amazon's publishing arm, think about it carefully because your work will probably be available through only one retail outlet. Also, B&N has firmly sided with trad publishing, who, let's face it, are so freaked that they've turned to raping the writers.(If you don't believe me, read Kris Rusch's post from yesterday.)

First of all, neither company is entirely in the right in their attitudes. Neither company focuses solely on books anymore. Neither company is looking out for the writers' best interest. When it comes down to it, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble's main focus is THEIR bottom line. Not yours.

To all writers: stop taking sides in THEIR dispute. Look out for your best interest. THEY WON'T. And only you can decide what's in your best interest.

As I said before, I want MY books available through as many outlets as possible. One series sells best on Amazon. Another series sells best on B&N. But my best interests are definitely not served by limiting each series to only one outlet. Take a hard look at your business before making any decisions.

E-Tailers, Part Deux - Amazon

Amazon. The company that is either the Second Coming or the Anti-Christ depending the person talking. Neither version is useful to an indie writer. Always take anything anyone says about anything, including Amazon and the Big Six, with a grain of salt, a shot of tequila and a lime

Here's the original post I did about the pros and cons of Amazon. Since then, Amazon has had issues with their over-enthusiastic 'bots. In December, they added their e-book Lending Library with its 90-day exclusivity clause and it's five days of allowing you to give away your book for free.

The main reason for going with Amazon still remains--the 70% of gross to the author for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99.

Uploading has been changed to allow both DOC and MOBI files. If you don't have a Kindle, I highly recommend downloading their Kindle for PC app or Kindle for Mac app to test your MOBI files before uploading for e-book to Amazon.

There's been a great deal of debate over participating the Amazon Lending Library Program ("ALLP"). I haven't tried it yet. I may. Personally, I think you should use it in conjunction with a well-thought-out marketing plan because I don't believe giving ALL your goods away for free is smart business. Just my $0.02.

If I do try ALLP, it WON'T be with one of my current series. I'm starting to get some traction on other retail platforms. In fact, one series is selling best on Barnes & Noble, not Amazon. I'm also starting to get feedback from readers. It's not good business to make a current series book exclusive on only Amazon when it's selling so well in another store. The LAST thing I want to do is piss off readers. Ultimately, these are the people paying me!

If anyone's tried ALLP, I'd love to hear your experience. I KNOW the readers of this blog would as well. Please let us know in comments, or contact me by e-mail: suzan at suzanharden dot com.

Abe Lincoln - Super-Hero

I read the book; I so want to see the movie this summer.

Songs I've Been Listening To A Lot Lately . . .

I think a lot of writers are still Hung Up on trad publishing, but that's starting to change.

The Authors Guild Wins Stupidity Award

Instead of posting about Amazon and Barnes & Noble as I'd planned today, please go read The Passive Voice and Passive Guy's breakdown of a totally spineless blog post from Authors Guild. And I call it spineless because there's NO FREAKIN' BYLINE!!

The author of this blog post knew he/she was blowing smoke up somebody's ass, else he/she would have taken ownership of their statements.

The Angry Sheep must go to the day job now. This is likely a good thing because the Angry Sheep's blood pressure is very high after reading these articles.

E-Tailers, Part Deux - Smashwords

On February 1, 2011, I announced my intent to indie-publish my own books. Over the course of the following three months, I posted results of my research.

Back in July, I updated and revised some of this information during a guest blog series over at Pitch U. Much of this information was consolidated into a book called Creating a Business Plan for the Indie Writer. (It surprised the hell out of me when it hit the Business book bestseller list on Amazon in December.)

From some of the questions and comments on Monday's post, it's time for updating again. And yes, folks, this IS how fast the publishing landscape is changing!

Once again, the information on the blog is free. When CBPIW is updated, I will upload Version 2.0 to all the retail sites and provide a coupon code so y'all can get a free copy. There's no sense in all of us having to reinvent the wheel.

***

There are several different ways to sell your e-books on online.

1) You can create your own online store. (Ex. Bob Mayer and Jen Talty's WDW Publishing)

2) You can uploaded directly to a retailer. (Ex. Amazon)

3) You can go through a distribution service provider which sends your e-book out to various e-tailers.


Smashwords is a combination of (2) and (3). I first wrote about Smashwords in this post.

To update:

Smashwords still only accepts MSWORD files, though Mark Coker (the owner of Smashwords) has indicated he's looking into allowing writers to upload EPUB files directly.

If you need help formatting your MSWORD document, Mark has written The Smashwords Style Guide, a 40-page booklet of instructions on how to use Smashwords. Mark should pare the instructions down to 5-pages for clarity, but that's just my personal opinion. However, the guide is free.

Smashwords then converts the MSWORD file to various file formats including, MOBI (Kindle), EPUB (Nook, iPad), PDF, TXT, etc. using their proprietary Meatgrinder software. The Meatgrinder has its pluses and minuses, depending on what type of e-book you're producing and your own software programming skills.

Your e-book is then sold by Smashwords directly through their website for a 10% cut of your list price plus a delivery charge. The delivery charge varies depending on how many other e-books that customer buys at the same time.

Smashwords then distributes your e-book to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple, and Diesel. To date, Smashwords have not been able to work out a distribution agreement with Amazon, though it's listed as a retailer. (Of course, if I were Jeff Bezos and Mark Coker continually compare my company to the Galactic Empire and me to Emperor Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious, I wouldn't be too keen on doing business with him either.) From there, your e-book is automatically distributed unless you opt out through the Distribution Channel, which you can access through your dashboard.

Right now, neither Sony or Apple will accept an e-book from Smashwords unless it has an ISBN (i.e. an International Standard Book Number). You can buy ISBNs through Smashwords, but then the publisher code on the ISBN is Smashwords, not your publishing company.

Also, Smashwords requires that you place text in your e-book stating that it is the Smashwords edition of your book.

In my case, I've opted out of Amazon and Barnes & Noble since I can upload to them directly. My books aren't currently being distributed to Sony or Apple since I'm still working on getting my own ISBNs and I don't wish to purchase ISBNs from Smashwords. So right now, Smashwords only distributes my books to Kobo and Diesel. [Edit to add: Kobo now requires ISBNs as well.]

For me, the extra 30% of the list price to Kobo and Diesel are worth letting Smashwords do the distribution. I would have to jump through some serious hoops to get Kobo to allow me to upload directly to them. As of  January 11, 2012, Diesel still will only accept e-books from Lightning Source or Smashwords.

On a side note: Apple also has some pretty weird conditions for uploading directly to them, including that fact that you must have a Mac. Sony, like Diesel, only accepts uploads through their chosen distributors.

I hope this helps you in making your business decision. I've been using Smashwords for almost a year now. If you have any more questions, post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

Remembering Who Matters In The Entertainment Game

Lately, I've been seeing and reading about writers who make decisions on aspects of the business that have nothing to do with our customers.

Who are our customers? Ultimately, the readers. These are the people who really pay us. Not the agents. Not the publishing houses. Not Amazon.

The readers.

Let's face it--if you write fiction, you are an entertainer. In today's economy, folks have fewer entertainment buck to spend. Sure Nora Roberts emphasizes her theme of how important families are, but people read her books to escape just for a little while.

Frankly, the writers who don't forget these point are the ones who will see a long career. It doesn't matter if you're indie published, trad published, or some combination. Just remember who really pays you.

Now, that being said, cutting off your customer from your product, i.e. your stories, does not endear you to your customer. If your customer has a NOOK, and you only sell on Amazon, who are you really hurting? If you only sell e-books and your customer prefers paper, who are you hurting?

That's right. You. It's your sale that's lost. Your customer will take their money and buy someone else's book because it's available to them. Yours isn't.

I realize that sometimes, especially if you're an indie, doing everything at once isn't always possible. I'm in that position now. I'd like to be selling on the iBookstore, but I need ISBNs for Apple to accept my e-books, and I rather have my own than be subservient to someone else. I want to sell my books in hardback and paperback versions, but I'm still learning how to format for print.

There's a big difference between "I can't do X yet, but I will" and "I refuse to do X". A huge difference. A GINORMOUS difference.

Just think about who you're really affecting before you make the blanket statement, "I can't/won't do X."