Videos I've Been Watching Lately

Remember Wednesday? Talking about beagle IQs? Well, this little guy takes the cake!

Or actually the chicken nuggets.

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."

One of Those Days

It's been one of those days.

A bout of insomnia meant I didn't get to sleep until sometime after five this morning. When I did finally drift off, I had dreams about being trapped on a Jurassic Park-type island and being chased by various dinosaurs. (I'm still trying to figure out how the torosaur turned carnivorous.)

I woke up at noon with what I call a weather headache. When a front moves through, the change in air pressure seriously affects my sinuses. The resulting pain is migraine level. And yes, the doc tested me to make sure it wasn't actual migraines. Believe me, I'm very familiar with differentiating between the types of headaches. *smile*

So I started with minor household tasks while I waited for the ibuprofen to kick in. Only to have someone from the water company knock on the door. There was a leak on their side of the water line, but he needed shut off the water in order to fix it. At least, it wasn't something where they had to dig up the street. (And really, Universe! What's with all the water leaks over the last five months?)

While I finally shower and decide whether it's worth braving the grocery store or would it be better to pick up something from a restaurant, here's one of my favorite videos from YouTube. It always brightens my day.

(And as a beagle mom, I can definitely say they are this smart!)

Am I a Failure?

The Negative Writer I mentioned a few blog posts ago struck again with a snotty remark. The unnamed website's host had posted a story about Another Writer who'd turned down an auctioned trad deal to indie publish her book. Another Writer had a very successful launch and was kind enough to share her numbers and experiences.

FYI - Another Writer spent approximately $2000 in production costs and brought in nearly ten times that in revenue her first month. (I love seeing an indie do well!)

So of course, Negative Writer made an nasty comment to the effect that no one ever hears about the indie failures.

Well, first of all, very few humans want to admit they fucked up. At least, no one I know will. Heck, even most dogs I know tuck their tail between their legs and hide when they screw up.

But I think there's a deeper question here: what constitutes failure as an indie writer?

According to Negative Writer, anything less than a comfortable six-figure income is failure. (But then, this is the same person who thinks ALL readers owe that comfortable living to Negative Writer.) So by Negative Writer's standards, I am a failure.

Am I really? Should I curl up in bed, sob uncontrollably, and refuse to shower because I sold zero books yesterday?

Yep, zero. Nada. Zilch.

THE HORROR!

Even worse, I brought in less than $5000 for the entirety of 2013! That's below the poverty level! I should just give up!

Maybe I should stop using so many exclamation points instead.

Instead, I'm looking at what I can do better.

Take the Bloodlines series for example.

The stories themselves are good. I especially enjoy the reviews that start with, "I thought I would hate this, but I LOVE it..."

However, the window dressing needs help. DH and I did the best we could on covers with a friend's help, but frankly, they need a serious upgrade. DH and I had a long talk about my publishing business. He's the one who said I needed to start farming out some of the work in order to spend more time writing.

I'm searching for a digital fantasy artist. I have a few names, but I can't do anything until this summer. (Real life expenses have a way of intruding.) I've also have a proofreader, a e-book formatter and a print formatter in mind. What I hope to do is relaunch the entire series when the last three books are published at the beginning of 2015.

In the meantime, I can't do a half-assed release of the Justice series. Not when the short story concerning the main character was in a trad-published anthology. So I'll be putting the cover artist to work right away.

So am I a failure for not doing perfect covers the first time? Am I a failure for not putting out a print edition right away?

No, I did the best I could with the tools I had at the time. I learned a lot from simply trying. I have better tools now. More knowledge. The next time around will be much better.

To me, a failure is someone who doesn't want to improve. Who quits. Who would rather wallow and blame everyone else for their misfortune than figure out what needs to be fixed.

I can't afford mentally to do any of that. Why? Because I means I've wasted the last ten years of my life trying to learn this damn business. Because I don't want to give up using my imagination. Because I like getting e-mails and comments asking, "When's the next book coming out?"

If I give up on writing now, I will climb into my bed and refuse to get out. I've been there before. It isn't pretty. And if all it takes is getting some outside help with cover art, then by [deity of your choice], I'll do it.

Am I or anyone else who took the chance of putting their stories out for public consumption a failure?

HELL, NO!

It takes a lot of guts to expose yourself in this way. Maybe we don't make a zillion dollars. Maybe we don't have a zillion fans. Maybe that was never the intent of some of us to begin with.

Every writer does this for different reasons. Some want fame, fortune or some other form of validation. Some of us simply want to be read.

You're reading this right now. All the way to the end. Which means no, I'm not a failure. Thanks for taking the trip with me.

Videos I've Been Watching Lately

Indian movie star Imran Khan hilariously addresses his country's Supreme Court decision to uphold the law making homosexuality a crime worthy of life imprisonment.

SPIT WARNING: Keep liquids away from your computer or other electronic devices! You WILL be laughing your ass off!

Flogging Social Media to Death

Once upon a time, a writer could use social media to connect with her readers, build a fan base and sell more books.

What's the key words in that last sentence? Trust me, it's not "sell more books."

Today, I don't even get on Twitter anymore. No one talks. Every single tweet screams, "BUY MY BOOK!"

Something a lot of writers don't seem to understand is that following other writers, then demanding the other writers follow them back IS NOT BUILDING AN AUDIENCE. It becomes one ginormous echo chamber.

Even worse, half the new followers on my Twitter account are companies trying to sell their "special services" to indie publishers. Sorry folks, I know how to format, and I already have editors lined up. And I'm sure as hell not paying four-to-five figures for someone with no internet marketing experience to promote my books.

(Though if anyone can recommend a good fantasy digital artist, I'd love to hear about them.)

Facebook isn't much better. With the company going public, the shareholders are pressuring Zuckerberg to show them the money. Over half of posts don't show up on my family and friends' feeds, much less my fans. I'm sure as hell not paying $20 bucks to contact my family! And I don't trust Facebook's analytics for advertising when they keep telling me I need to improve my love life by joining a dating website, and I should earn my degree in medical transcription.

Oh, and I need to increase the size of my penis.

(Seriously, dudes?)

MySpace is officially dead. YouTube's become a joke since Google took it over. And Google+ is selling what info they can collect about you to any scam artist willing to buy it.

(Guess what? My penis still does not need to be enlarged. Thank you very much.)

If I haven't responded to you LinkedIn invite, I apologize. What do you mean you didn't send me one? Didn't you realize they mined your entire address book?

Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest simply don't appeal to me. I write. I don't take pictures. And I really don't want Pinterest reselling pictures of my adorable beagle around the internet.

So for now, I'm sticking with Blogger. Hey, I'm a writer, so why not write?

Or I will until Google takes all my blogs and uses them as evidence of why a middle-aged mother of a teen needs her penis enlarged.

To Distribute or Not To Distribute

Not a whole lot has changed in the nearly  three years since I first talked about distributors. If anything more distributors for e-books have joined the fray since Smashwords opened their doors. The problem is that many distributors are distributing in order to get their claws in the burgeoning indie market without regard to long-term implications.

And yes, despite claims that e-book sales are down or flat, many of these pundits have no accurate way to count indie books that don't use ISBNs. Amazon isn't about to inform them either.

Is it worth it to use a distributor?

Three years ago, I said yes, if only to get into Apple, Kobo and Sony. None of these retailers allowed direct uploads from individual writers at the time. Sony still doesn't. But three years ago, the only distributor to handle indie e-books was Smashwords.

There were complaints about Smashwords at the time, primarily about their trademarked Meatgrinder software that converted a MS-WORD file to various formats for distribution. Smashwords has since upgraded so you can upload an EPUB file. However, the EPUB must pass EPUB3 check (which, frankly in my personal opinion, is a bogus, bullshit way of trying to keep some books out of the market). But you still have to upload the MS-WORD file in order to convert to MOBI and other formats.

Since 2011, Kobo and Apple have launched their own self-publishing initiatives. Unfortunately, as the Kernel Pornopocalyspe showed, using Kobo's Writing Life shows their utter disregard for indie authors regardless of their genre. Apple insists that you can only upload through a Mac or other Apple device.

More companies have popped up since 2011 offering to distribute your e-books to retailers.

One of the most popular is Draft2Digital, aka D2D. They currently only distribute to Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. They ran in to a major snag during the Kernel Pornpocalypse when their entire catalog was deleted from the Kobo retail site. They have worked hard to settle the situation for the benefit of their e-book vendors

While I have no complaints about D2D's handling of the matter with Kobo, I had problem with a particular book passing the EPUB 3 check for distribution to Apple in June. Again, this was not something that was D2D's fault. Because of my family's moving situation, I marked the book as 'Do Not Distribute' to Apple on June 10. I saved the e-mail confirming the book's status.

Out of the blue in October, I received a notice from D2D that the book had been rejected by Apple. When I went online, my D2D dashboard said the book had been sent to Apple, but the book's individual record page said it was stil marked as do not distribute. After several frustrating e-mails with a young woman in Customer Service where she basically accused me of lying about the situation, I was so angry that I called D2D president Kris Austin and told him to delete my account.

My experience with XinXii wasn't much better. The company started as a German e-book retailer, but has expanded into distribution to the major retailers (Amazon, Apple, Kobo, etc.). I have sold books in Germany, but only through Amazon DE. The year and a half I was with XinXii I didn't sell a single thing, but there are American indie writers who sold very through them. My problem with them began when they switched to an opt-out method instead of opt-in and only gave vendors two days to opt out.

In all fairness, Smashwords has also switched to opt-out for new markets, but they give vendors at least two weeks notice.

Overdrive focuses on the library and educational markets, but they do some distribution to retailers. They still doesn't distribute for individual indie writers. In theory, writers could form their own company to apply with Overdrive, but so far I haven't heard from anyone if it's worth distributing through them.

If you write romance, in ANY of its subgenres, check out All Romance e-Books. They are primarily a retailer, but they do distribute to the major markets. I haven't applied to them yet, but there are some legal matters involving Angry Sheep Publishing since I want to apply as a company.

So does using a distributor make sense?

It depends on your resources and plans. For me, uploading directly to Amazon and Barnes & Noble makes sense as long as books are $2.99 and up. Below that I actually earn more by distributing through Smashwords.

DH has suggested that I buy a MacBook for the sole purpose of directly uploading to Apple since my sales have improved significantly during 2013. I don't know if I want to deal directly with Apple considering some their previous behavior.

Kobo? It's going to take a lo-o-o-ong time to forgive their extreme over-reaction during the Kernel Pornocalypse before I would try them. I wasn't harmed, but I know too many authors who were.

One last word of warning, do not take my word or anyone else's concerning any distributors. Do your own investigating and do what's best for your business.

Songs I've Been Listening to Lately

While working on an Alter Ego novella, I've been playing this particular song a lot.

How Being a Douche Can Affect Your Sales

I don't know if it's the extreme weather we've been having. Maybe it's the flattening of sales. Or maybe enough chemicals are in our food and water it's messing up our minds. But a lot of writers have been acting like total douches lately.

Newsflash, folks. I read just about anything. From the Cheerios box to the latest best seller to Playboy. (Yes, I know the joke about reading the articles, but there was a time when Playboy had some great journalism.) And when I meet new authors, a lot of times, I will check out their books.

If the book grabs me, I'll recommend it to someone I know. Not just anyone, mind you. I wouldn't give my mother a Jim Butcher novel anymore than I would give DH a Debbie Macomber book.

So what does that have to do with writers acting like douches?

Why on earth would I pick up your book if I see you acting like douche to other writers? Or even worse, readers?

Because that's what I am when I interact with you. A potential reader. Not some ignoramus you feel you can insult. Not your competition. A reader

When I see you treat people like crap, it doesn't make me want to buy your book. And it obviously doesn't make other people want to buy your books either from your Amazon rankings and the way you bitch about low sales.

Here's a couple of examples:

I met L.M. ("Libbie") Ironside on The Passive Voice. She's witty, charming, and offers terrific insight in the conversations on PG's blog. When I learned she writes about Ancient Egypt (one of my favorite time periods for historical fiction), I immediately checked out her books. I bought them. I loved them. I've been recommending them to my friends who are into Egypt and/or great women in history.

Even sweeter, Libbie checked out my website and asked about the urban fantasy I'm working on based on Egyptian mythology. She did everything right by engaging and showing interest in a potential reader.

Then there's another writer, who I will not name, that I met on a website I will not name. This person was an award-winning trad published author before turning to indie publishing. And it's almost like they think indie publishing is beneath them. Or they think other indie writers are beneath them. Sometimes, it seems a little of both. When this person leave comments on this particular website, they are mean, derogatory, and mostly ignored by the other participants.

The sad part is this person also writes in a genre I adore, and I will probably never pick up one of their books because of their sour attitude and their insults.

While Libbie has a couple of hundred reviews and is ranking in the top twenty on Amazon in her genre for most of her books, the other writer has a handful of reviews and is averaging about a sale a day OUT OF OVER 20 BOOKS despite being an accomplished, talented writer.

Word-of-mouth is the greatest promotion tool in your arsenal, but it is a double-edged sword. A retailer I used to work for commissioned a study that showed for every good experience a customer has, they tell 5 people. For every bad experience, the customer tells 14 people.

Am I saying that you cannot disagree with someone? Of course not. If you're a regular reader, you know that my friend Angie (aka M/M romance writer Angela Benedetti) disagrees with me quite regularly and vice versa. But Angie doesn't insult me and she's respectful in her objections over whatever stand I've made that particular day. Because of HOW she argues with me, if I meet someone who reads M/M romance, I suggest Angie's books.

So think twice about your behavior online. Despite what you may believe, it really can affect your bottom line.

The 2013 Status Report

2013 was...weird. For everyone, not just me.

On one hand the acceptance among writers of the indie publishing avenue has never been greater.

On the other, more pressure was applied on indies from corporations including ones we thought were supportive.  Now, that true colors are being shown, we got to watch each others' backs and share information more than ever.

Over the next week or two, I'll talk about my run-ins with Amazon, Apple, Kobo and Smashwords in regards to a third chapter in the Kernel Pornocalypse. I'll also talk about the problems concerning distributors versus uploading your books on your own.

Personally, 2013 had some bright spots and dismal points.

The Pros

- I made more money this year (approximately $4930 because I don't have all my final numbers yet) than I did last year ($4058), but I didn't hit my target of $7500. The multiple reasons are listed below.

- I licensed my first short story to a traditional market. I saw that with a bit of irony because The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust has brought its production in house instead of hiring a small publisher to handle the actual print and e-book publishing.

- GK is back in public school and doing very well ('A' student and on the student council). This frees up more of my schedule to focus on my career.

- I have three novels under my name and three under Alter Ego in various stages of completion. It's just a question of finishing them.

The Cons

- The family move from Texas to Ohio put a major crimp in my productivity this year. As a result, I only released one novel and two short stories under my name, and five novellas under Alter Ego.

- I spent way too much of my precious writing time dealing with the direct effects of the Kernel Pornocalypse to Alter Ego. I'll give more details Part 3 of this disaster.

- Issues with one of my distributors not only took precious time to deal with, but made me look like a total idiot to one retailer.

I don't know what going to happen in 2014 because our personal situation in Ohio has changed again. All I can do is to keep things together as best I can, and keep writing.