"OMG! I love (insert author's name here). Her books are awesome!"
How many times have I seen these enthusiastic praises from my fellow authors? Several.
How many times are they referring to my stories? None.
Some authors dream of being on a best-seller list, of raking in a six-figure income, or of having their book made into a movie. Me? I want people to be enthusiastic about my work. Referrals are the best form of advertising.
Sometimes I wonder if lack of print books is hurting me. When I go to cons, all I can take are postcards, bookmarks, etc., but no physical copies. Of the free promo material I give out, how much of it goes in the trash? Also, it takes a certain number of impressions before someone may decide to buy the book. Some authors with digital only books might print up sample booklets or CDs. Again, where do these end up, and what permissions do they need to get (if any) from the publisher?
I want to sell my books. I want to earn royalty checks. And it's not like I don't try. But lately, I've become so discouraged, I don't want to write anymore. I feel like the last one picked for the team.
Keep hoping things will get better.
Showing posts with label digital publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital publishing. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Still Got That Champagne Bottle?
Last week, I mentioned receiving good news which I couldn't share because it wasn't official. Well, the contract has been signed and I can announce my short horror story "Family Tradition" was accepted for publication by MuseItUp Publishing.
"Family Tradition" originally started out as a flash fiction piece that I expanded and revised. I'm influenced by shows like Night Gallery, Thriller, and The Twilight Zone and by writers like Serling, Beaumont, Arthur, and others.
I like to say this is the year of the short story for me. And it's also about coming full circle. I started out writing short horror stories. But why not write what I love to read? (That includes mystery and fantasy.)
Now I need to write that mystery short story.
"Family Tradition" originally started out as a flash fiction piece that I expanded and revised. I'm influenced by shows like Night Gallery, Thriller, and The Twilight Zone and by writers like Serling, Beaumont, Arthur, and others.
I like to say this is the year of the short story for me. And it's also about coming full circle. I started out writing short horror stories. But why not write what I love to read? (That includes mystery and fantasy.)
Now I need to write that mystery short story.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Read an E-Book Week
Need I say more? :-)
I'm a digitally published author. All of us here at Write Club are published with Lyrical Press and other electronic publishers.
Why did we choose this instead of agents and the traditional publishing route? I can't speak for others but my stories don't meet agents' word length requirements. Digital publishing gives me places to submit my short stories and short novels. (I could also self publish, but that's a topic for another time.)
The first e-book I read was Personal Demons by James Buchanan. I read it on my PC. Now I have Nook and Kindle reading apps on my iPod, tablet, PC, and laptop, plus I have a Kindle.
If you've never read an e-book before, here's a perfect opportunity to try one. Don't have a Kindle or Nook? You can download a free app from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Worried about paying for a book you might not like? Check out free reads or download free samples. Many authors are giving away free or discounted reads during Read an E-Book Week.
To learn more about Read an E-Book Week click here.
Finally, to help celebrate Read an E-Book Week, one lucky commenter will win a Smashwords copy of Bites - Ten Tales of Vampires. Just leave a comment by midnight, March 10. To learn more about Bites, click here. The anthology is also available on Kindle.
Happy e-book reading!
I'm a digitally published author. All of us here at Write Club are published with Lyrical Press and other electronic publishers.
Why did we choose this instead of agents and the traditional publishing route? I can't speak for others but my stories don't meet agents' word length requirements. Digital publishing gives me places to submit my short stories and short novels. (I could also self publish, but that's a topic for another time.)
The first e-book I read was Personal Demons by James Buchanan. I read it on my PC. Now I have Nook and Kindle reading apps on my iPod, tablet, PC, and laptop, plus I have a Kindle.
If you've never read an e-book before, here's a perfect opportunity to try one. Don't have a Kindle or Nook? You can download a free app from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Worried about paying for a book you might not like? Check out free reads or download free samples. Many authors are giving away free or discounted reads during Read an E-Book Week.
To learn more about Read an E-Book Week click here.
Finally, to help celebrate Read an E-Book Week, one lucky commenter will win a Smashwords copy of Bites - Ten Tales of Vampires. Just leave a comment by midnight, March 10. To learn more about Bites, click here. The anthology is also available on Kindle.
Happy e-book reading!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
To Pay Or Not To Pay
"Money flows towards the author." This was a mantra I learned fairly early on in my writing career. If a publisher charges you money to publish your book, it's a scam, I was told by several reliable sources.
Sound advice, but there is an additional factor these days that complicates matters: when is it OK to pay for marketing?
I was always led to believe that an author should not have to shell out for marketing their own book. A reputable publishing company will have a marketing department, and if they are investing in you as a writer, they should be promoting your book. Sadly, the world is changing. Only the big publishing companies these days seem to be prepared to spend money on marketing. Many of the small independents do not employ a marketing person or PR department. And even if you are with a publishing company who do, gone are the days when the author could hide in her garrett and expect all the work to be done on her behalf. She has to be Out There, pimping herself and her books at every opportunity.
E-books become even more problematic, as with a print book you have something to physically hold and try to sell. If you have a print book, you can contact book stores and set up signing sessions. With an e-book, all you can do is pimp your link around the Internet. And although there are a lot of online resources that will let you do this free of charge - Goodreads, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a personal website, a blog, etc - is this really enough?
My sales to date suggest it's not. I have signed up for all the above. I blog at least twice a week. I Tweet daily. I post links about my e-books on Goodreads, Facebook, and a host of other Internet sites. I am forever scouring the Internet for online review sites, anyone looking for guest bloggers - anything that I can use to promote my books. And yet my sales can be described as modest, at best. My total income to date from royalties for both published novels, since SUFFER THE CHILDREN was published over 18 months ago, is half of what I earn in a week at the day job.
The question is, then, what else can I do? There are plenty of other promotional opportunities out there, if you are willing to pay for them. Ads in magazines, or on websites. Internet sites that will give you reviews and set you up on blog tours, as long as you are willing to pay for the service. But this goes against that all-important mantra, and hence the dilemma: should I be paying to promote my e-books?
I did, after all, fork out for marketing when I paid for the postcards, business cards and promotional material that I used to promote each of my two books when they first came out. I still have a pile of postcards left - I take them along to all the conventions I go to, leaving piles of them on the 'free stuff' tables and handing out the cards at every opportunity. But to date, I haven't paid for any other advertising.
Now I'm starting to wonder if I should be. It's a gamble, of course. There's no guarantee that paying for advertising will help sales in any way. And there's no way of telling if the advertising opportunities on the Internet come from people who really know what they are doing, or whether they are just scams run by people playing on the desire of authors to get their books Out There.
I'm still pondering over this dilemma. If you are a published author who has paid for advertising, I would be interested in hearing your views - whether the advertising was worth the money, or not. Because I'm not much of a gambler. I'd rather make an informed decision after researching the facts.
Sound advice, but there is an additional factor these days that complicates matters: when is it OK to pay for marketing?
I was always led to believe that an author should not have to shell out for marketing their own book. A reputable publishing company will have a marketing department, and if they are investing in you as a writer, they should be promoting your book. Sadly, the world is changing. Only the big publishing companies these days seem to be prepared to spend money on marketing. Many of the small independents do not employ a marketing person or PR department. And even if you are with a publishing company who do, gone are the days when the author could hide in her garrett and expect all the work to be done on her behalf. She has to be Out There, pimping herself and her books at every opportunity.
E-books become even more problematic, as with a print book you have something to physically hold and try to sell. If you have a print book, you can contact book stores and set up signing sessions. With an e-book, all you can do is pimp your link around the Internet. And although there are a lot of online resources that will let you do this free of charge - Goodreads, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a personal website, a blog, etc - is this really enough?
My sales to date suggest it's not. I have signed up for all the above. I blog at least twice a week. I Tweet daily. I post links about my e-books on Goodreads, Facebook, and a host of other Internet sites. I am forever scouring the Internet for online review sites, anyone looking for guest bloggers - anything that I can use to promote my books. And yet my sales can be described as modest, at best. My total income to date from royalties for both published novels, since SUFFER THE CHILDREN was published over 18 months ago, is half of what I earn in a week at the day job.
The question is, then, what else can I do? There are plenty of other promotional opportunities out there, if you are willing to pay for them. Ads in magazines, or on websites. Internet sites that will give you reviews and set you up on blog tours, as long as you are willing to pay for the service. But this goes against that all-important mantra, and hence the dilemma: should I be paying to promote my e-books?
I did, after all, fork out for marketing when I paid for the postcards, business cards and promotional material that I used to promote each of my two books when they first came out. I still have a pile of postcards left - I take them along to all the conventions I go to, leaving piles of them on the 'free stuff' tables and handing out the cards at every opportunity. But to date, I haven't paid for any other advertising.
Now I'm starting to wonder if I should be. It's a gamble, of course. There's no guarantee that paying for advertising will help sales in any way. And there's no way of telling if the advertising opportunities on the Internet come from people who really know what they are doing, or whether they are just scams run by people playing on the desire of authors to get their books Out There.
I'm still pondering over this dilemma. If you are a published author who has paid for advertising, I would be interested in hearing your views - whether the advertising was worth the money, or not. Because I'm not much of a gambler. I'd rather make an informed decision after researching the facts.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Prolific Writers
The problem with only having one book publishing credit to my name is having only one book publishing credit to my name. "Backlist is king," or so fellow authors assure me. And while that may be true, unless I self-publish, each story I write must first be accepted for publication. Thus, I can have every intention of wanting to create a backlist but no means to do so. Cue vicious cycle.
I'm impressed at the dedication of writers who consistently publish a body of work. But is quantity really better? According to a recent blog post I read, many commenters bemoaned the fact their favorite authors' works suffered from lack of quality. These readers preferred authors concentrate on writing better stories rather than merely churning out material.
Prolific writers are nothing new. Walter B. Gibson, writing as Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Gibson). Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, wrote 92 of the 156 Twilight Zone scripts, not to mention the screenplays Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight, among other stories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Serling). Charles Beaumont published over 70 short stories and 15 Twilight Zone teleplays before his death at age 38 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Beaumont).
Of course, screenplays are different from prose writing. And the 1950s and 1960s are far removed from the publishing environment of today. But while print publishing opportunities may be dwindling, digital publishing is keeping doors open to writers. Not only can writers submit novels but also short stories and novellas. Not that print magazines don't exist, but I imagine that space is a premium and advertisers often have priority.
While some writers may dream of a contract with the Big 6, I'm happy to seek opportunities with the electronic publishers. Not that I won't ever seek representation. And there's always the chance I will self-publish. But when I do, the work will be as polished as possible. Meanwhile, I plan to keep improving my skills as a writer while the plot bunny whispers ideas in my head.
I'm impressed at the dedication of writers who consistently publish a body of work. But is quantity really better? According to a recent blog post I read, many commenters bemoaned the fact their favorite authors' works suffered from lack of quality. These readers preferred authors concentrate on writing better stories rather than merely churning out material.
Prolific writers are nothing new. Walter B. Gibson, writing as Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Gibson). Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, wrote 92 of the 156 Twilight Zone scripts, not to mention the screenplays Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight, among other stories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Serling). Charles Beaumont published over 70 short stories and 15 Twilight Zone teleplays before his death at age 38 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Beaumont).
Of course, screenplays are different from prose writing. And the 1950s and 1960s are far removed from the publishing environment of today. But while print publishing opportunities may be dwindling, digital publishing is keeping doors open to writers. Not only can writers submit novels but also short stories and novellas. Not that print magazines don't exist, but I imagine that space is a premium and advertisers often have priority.
While some writers may dream of a contract with the Big 6, I'm happy to seek opportunities with the electronic publishers. Not that I won't ever seek representation. And there's always the chance I will self-publish. But when I do, the work will be as polished as possible. Meanwhile, I plan to keep improving my skills as a writer while the plot bunny whispers ideas in my head.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
(Mis)Adventures at ConGlomeration
This past weekend I attended ConGlomeration, a local sci-fi/fantasy convention. Although not an official "guest," I was listed in the programming booklet under "Also Attending ConGlomeration" with a nice little write up and link to my site.
ConGlomeration opened Friday April 22. The first workshop I attended was "Steampunk Tutorial Part 1." Christopher Boll showed us how to take ordinary objects and give them a Steampunk spin. We learned about creating a character, including that person's occupation, likes and dislikes, etc. Other discussions included cyberpunk and diesel punk and how steampunk can span different eras (up to about the 1930s).
Now it was time for "A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words.” The premise of this workshop was to swap stories and artwork. Artists and writers were paired off. The author would give the artist a piece of writing the artist would use to draw a picture. Meantime, the author would write a story based on a picture the artist had created.
I partnered with Christine Griffin, a portrait artist who’s done covers for Loose ID and Cobblestone Press. She let me choose a print from the art exhibit.
 | |||
| Copyright & Credit: Christine Griffin & Fantasy Flight Games |
This was the piece I selected. Later I discovered it was for “A Game of Thrones” by Fantasy Flight Games. Anyway, I loved it so much, I bought it.
After explaining I didn’t have anything written, either, she asked if I wouldn’t mind a portrait. I wrote a quick description of Xariel and Karla from Death Sword. Then I remembered I had a sample chapter of Death Sword on my IPod. I let her read it to get an idea of the characters and she decided to draw Xariel.
Friday ended on another high note when I got a chance to meet artist Melissa Gay. Melissa has done covers for Apex Publications, including Lavie Tidhar’s Hebrew Punk. So yeah, I went all fan girl on her. :-)
Day’s panels finished, I headed home to start brainstorming ideas for my artist/author swap story. I’ve been tossing around the idea of writing a story about a Valkyrie and her wolf. So it was a matter of dipping into a little Nordic mythology to come up with a work about a page or two long.
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay up too late because the next day’s panel began at 10AM.
Even worse, I missed the first panel on Saturday. But I made the 11AM one, another steampunk workshop. Yes folks, this weekend was steampunk and writing.
After lunch found me awaiting my turn at the “Author Reading” panel. I was one of about a half dozen authors reading that afternoon and followed the guest of honor, Peter David. Luckily, no one fled the room after I started reading the first chapter of Death Sword.
However, what works fine in rehearsal doesn’t always cooperate during the performance. My IPod locked up. What? I was reading an E-book. Might as well read it from a digital device. Although I was able to continue, I went two minutes over my allotted time. (Sorry, Marsha!)
Overall, though, the reading was fun. Even if there was a techno glitch, no one really seemed to mind. (Maybe it’ll make people remember me.) Oh, wait. That might not be a good thing...
The last panel for me that day was “Going Digital.” I had been invited to be on it but somewhere along the line communication got mixed up and I ended up in the audience. (Shrug.) Nevertheless, I participated, giving my perspective and asking questions. It actually ended up being a lively exchange about where digital publishing is now and where it’s going.
Panels finished, I headed home to work on my story. After all, I had a Sunday noon deadline.
I finished the story Sunday morning and headed to the con. Apparently part of my brain – the one that controls memory – decided to go on vacation. I was almost there and realized I’d forgotten my badge.
Yep. Another head-desk moment. Not only that, it was ten minutes to noon (the start of the panel) and I had to drive back 11 miles. Time to hit the interstate. I silently thanked the DOT for raising the speed limit.
I arrived for the second part of “A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words” at 12:06PM. I was late but I wasn’t too late. Luckily, the audience seemed to like the story. If you like, you can read it here. (You'll have to scroll down.)
 |
| Copyright & Credit: Christine Griffin |
Christine Griffin then showed us her version of my hero Xariel from Death Sword. This is the first time I’ve ever had an artist draw one of my characters. Damn, it’s like the coolest thing to see how she interpreted him. Chris told me she even went back and reread the sample chapter to get a better idea of the character.
So, yeah, I’m stoked. And of course I had the pieces framed to hang on my wall.
If you get a chance to attend a con, do so. It’s a great opportunity to meet other people (i.e. artists and writers) and to be inspired.
To learn more about the con and the artists' work, click on the following links:
ConGlomeration
Christine Griffin (artist)
Melissa Gay (artist)
To learn more about the con and the artists' work, click on the following links:
ConGlomeration
Christine Griffin (artist)
Melissa Gay (artist)
Friday, October 8, 2010
Some love for novellas
In dead-tree publishing the average urban fantasy or paranormal romance will be anywhere from ninety thousand to a hundred and ten thousand words. That translates roughly to a three hundred to four hundred page paperback. I've read plenty of authors that can fill up that many pages and make you love for every word. I've also read books with sub-plots that made me think, this was added purely to pad the word count and make it a full length novel. The truth is, not every story needs ninety thousand words. For a long time, publishers did not find it cost-effective to publish novellas unless it was in an anthology, and usually even then you had to already be a name-brand author and be invited to contribute. Digital publishing has changed that.
I've read some terrific novellas released by digital publishers. Most of those stories probably would not have found a home otherwise, simply because of their length. My own novella, Bring On The Night, would not have been released by a dead-tree publisher because of that very reason. There would have been no point in my even submitting it to one, or to an agent for that matter. In the world of digital publishing, novellas are welcome, as are shorter works of twelve to twenty thousand words. (Always carefully read any publisher's submission guidelines before submitting.)
With a novella you have to get down to business pretty quick, and you have to stay focused on your main characters and the driving plot. That can create a different set of challenges for a writer than a full length novel that may have various minor characters and sub-plots, and a different experience for a reader. I like both, as a reader and as a writer. My second release from Lyrical, Mojo Queen, is a full length novel. The project I'm working on now is a novella and though I started it just for fun, it's turned into something with promise. I've decided I want to try submitting it once it's finished and polished, and turn it into a serial. (This is just a personal quirk of mine that has nothing to do with anything, but with full length novels I think of the word "series" and with novellas I think the word "serial." This has nothing to do with terms used in publishing, like I said, it's just me. And no, I don't know why.) What I have in mind would be novellas with an interconnected main story arc, something I've never done before. But that doesn't mean the individual pieces each need sixty to ninety thousand words. The purpose of part one can be done in about thirty thousand words. I like the idea of having these shorter works to both tell a tight, focused story and also be part of a larger story arc, getting closer to the payoff with each installment. Digital publishing offers writers a chance to do something like that.
What do you think of novellas? Are there many in your "stack" of ebooks?
I've read some terrific novellas released by digital publishers. Most of those stories probably would not have found a home otherwise, simply because of their length. My own novella, Bring On The Night, would not have been released by a dead-tree publisher because of that very reason. There would have been no point in my even submitting it to one, or to an agent for that matter. In the world of digital publishing, novellas are welcome, as are shorter works of twelve to twenty thousand words. (Always carefully read any publisher's submission guidelines before submitting.)
With a novella you have to get down to business pretty quick, and you have to stay focused on your main characters and the driving plot. That can create a different set of challenges for a writer than a full length novel that may have various minor characters and sub-plots, and a different experience for a reader. I like both, as a reader and as a writer. My second release from Lyrical, Mojo Queen, is a full length novel. The project I'm working on now is a novella and though I started it just for fun, it's turned into something with promise. I've decided I want to try submitting it once it's finished and polished, and turn it into a serial. (This is just a personal quirk of mine that has nothing to do with anything, but with full length novels I think of the word "series" and with novellas I think the word "serial." This has nothing to do with terms used in publishing, like I said, it's just me. And no, I don't know why.) What I have in mind would be novellas with an interconnected main story arc, something I've never done before. But that doesn't mean the individual pieces each need sixty to ninety thousand words. The purpose of part one can be done in about thirty thousand words. I like the idea of having these shorter works to both tell a tight, focused story and also be part of a larger story arc, getting closer to the payoff with each installment. Digital publishing offers writers a chance to do something like that.
What do you think of novellas? Are there many in your "stack" of ebooks?
Friday, September 10, 2010
Some thoughts on digital publishing
The decision to start my writing career in digital first/only publishing was an easy one for me. I had written a novella, I went searching online for publishers that accepted works of that length, and found one I liked. The only full length novel I'd written at that time was a big rambling mess, so it got put away. I still haven't tried to find an agent and with publishing being in such a state of flux, I don't know that I'll worry too much about getting a traditional deal with a big house anytime soon. There is a great deal of freedom in digital publishing. Freedom for publishers to take a chance on new authors, freedom for authors to stretch the boundaries of genre and convention. Freedom to learn and grow as a writer in a supportive environment, while still making a little money. (Very little, but that's okay.) It's a good fit for me right now and I'm enjoying it.
It's not perfect, though. Having to explain what an ebook is to people who still live in the twentieth century is always, um, interesting. I can't wait to get a Kindle. Seeing me read on an actual ereader may really blow some minds. It may be the thing that converts some people, too. It's both entertaining and annoying to hear people talk about physical books like they're some kind of fetish object, saying they like the feel of a book in their hands, the smell of the pages, reading in the bath. I always want to say, you and that hardback need to get a room. As much as I love to read, I've never been too particular about whether I was reading a hardback, mass market paperback, trade paperback, new or used. What mattered to me was the story, the world I was entering when I began reading. That part of the reading experience is exactly the same for me with digital books. Right now I read on my laptop, and I have no trouble becoming engrossed in a story that I'm reading on a screen. I realize it's not the same for everyone, though it's very hard for me to understand. Especially as a writer - does all this work I've done only mean something if it's on paper? Is the paper, the physical object, more important than the story being told?
There's a lot for a writer to think about when they're considering submitting to a digital publisher. You may or may not ever see your book on a shelf. Your family and friends may or may not be willing to support you by purchasing something they can't hold in their hands. You may or may not ever hold a book signing. But there is a readership for digital books, and it's growing every single day. The business model of digital first, then print on demand for full length novels, is most likely the wave of the future. Being an early adaptor can have it's advantages, and it's exciting too. I'm happy to be starting my career this way and who knows, maybe I'll bring a few converts into the twenty-first century with me.
It's not perfect, though. Having to explain what an ebook is to people who still live in the twentieth century is always, um, interesting. I can't wait to get a Kindle. Seeing me read on an actual ereader may really blow some minds. It may be the thing that converts some people, too. It's both entertaining and annoying to hear people talk about physical books like they're some kind of fetish object, saying they like the feel of a book in their hands, the smell of the pages, reading in the bath. I always want to say, you and that hardback need to get a room. As much as I love to read, I've never been too particular about whether I was reading a hardback, mass market paperback, trade paperback, new or used. What mattered to me was the story, the world I was entering when I began reading. That part of the reading experience is exactly the same for me with digital books. Right now I read on my laptop, and I have no trouble becoming engrossed in a story that I'm reading on a screen. I realize it's not the same for everyone, though it's very hard for me to understand. Especially as a writer - does all this work I've done only mean something if it's on paper? Is the paper, the physical object, more important than the story being told?
There's a lot for a writer to think about when they're considering submitting to a digital publisher. You may or may not ever see your book on a shelf. Your family and friends may or may not be willing to support you by purchasing something they can't hold in their hands. You may or may not ever hold a book signing. But there is a readership for digital books, and it's growing every single day. The business model of digital first, then print on demand for full length novels, is most likely the wave of the future. Being an early adaptor can have it's advantages, and it's exciting too. I'm happy to be starting my career this way and who knows, maybe I'll bring a few converts into the twenty-first century with me.
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