Category Archives: Publishing

A Seven Figure Contract for Amanda Hocking

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Thanks to my friend Rosi Hollinbeck for sending me a link to the latest episode in the ongoing eBook “explosion.”  (Be sure to check out Rosi’s excellent blog, The Write Stuff, at:  http://rosihollinbeckthewritestuff.blogspot.com/ ).

Amanda Hocking, the poster-girl for rags to riches in eBook publishing, sold  the rights to an upcoming, four book YA fantasy series to St. Martin’s Press for a reported $2 million dollars.  http://tinyurl.com/4l2kddj

One year ago, Hocking, after repeated rejections by traditional publishers, uploaded two books to Amazon, hoping to make several hundred dollars by October to attend a Jim Henson exhibit in Chicago.

Something in our national character loves pathfinders and likes to see “ordinary people” get ahead, especially when they have Amanda Hocking’s humor and sense of irony.  Too bad Oprah is going off the air; that would have been a fun interview.

Several other points come to mind:

  • This is confirmation of the buzz I’ve been hearing, most recently at a local agent’s workshop, that good ebook sales have become another viable avenue into traditional publishing – arguably with better odds for some kinds of books than the query-an-agent route.
  • A critique group friend who runs her own small press and follows the publishing industry reports that genre fiction does especially well in the ebook format.  I would imagine it has to do with the price spread:  $9.99 these days for a paperback at Barnes&Noble vs. $0.99-2.99 for Indie ebooks.  Are the “official” books better written?  Based on my limited sampling, in general they are, but not in every case.  One nice thing about Smashwords.com is that you can sample half of the text of their ebooks before purchase, so you pretty much know what you are getting.
  • Most surprising to me is that segments of the writing community do not get it either.  Case in point:  I just got a card announcing the 19th annual “Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards,” which completely ignores the world of ebooks.  (Can we say it?  “Hard-copy is sooo last year!”)

A few years ago, I attended one of the better writing conferences.  I booked some appointments with editors and agents, but I wasn’t really trying to sell anything; I wanted feedback on my WIP.  I had several plot ideas and wanted to sound them out, and it was very valuable overall.  Other people were suffering in the job interview mode, all their self-esteem on the line with their manuscripts.

I made a mental note to myself – my manuscript is not my self.  I forget it from time to time but the principle is still valid.

I truly enjoy the brave-new-world of ePublishing because it supports that realization by giving me a look behind the curtain.  Traditional publishers and even Writer’s Digest are run by busy business people who are doing their best but sometimes miss the boat and make mistakes.  I find it refreshing to find we have a thriving alternative that few of us even knew about six months ago.


More on the eBook Gold Rush

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I live about two miles north of the American River.  In 1848, “Captain” John Sutter, who owned this part of the territory, hired John Marshall to build a sawmill on the American not too far upstream, in the town of Coloma.   On the morning of January 24, Marshall spotted some flecks of yellow metal in the mill race.  He knew gold when he saw it.  Marshall tried to keep his discovery a secret, and we all know how that worked out.

Replica of Sutter's Mill at the Gold Discovery Site

 This bit of local history came to mind when I spotted an article in Forbes called, “Who Wants to be a Kindle Millionaire?”  http://blogs.forbes.com/kiriblakeley/2011/03/06/who-wants-to-be-a-kindle-millionaire/?

I would not have bothered with another post about Amanda Hocking, except this piece is writen by a traditionally published author, Kiri Blakeley, who writes in a very measured tone about Hocking’s success and the reality of traditional publsihing:

There used to be a time, not too long ago, when traditional publishing had many benefits…Publishers…used to do all kinds of nifty things for their authors, like throw them a cool book party, send them on a book tour, get their books reviewed in the press and give manuscripts loving yet eagle-eyed editing. Now, chances are an author doesn’t get any of those things—unless she’s on a reality TV show.

Blakeley continues:

… going with a traditional publisher can be extremely expensive. Authors are generally expected to pick up costs for their book’s website, a book’s outside publicist, marketing materials like postcards, and any costs associated with readings or tours. All of this can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Trust me, I know.

This post is also worth reading because Blakeley’s interview with Amanda Hocking shows the young author to be very savvy about the uniqueness of her success, and dismissive of all the talk about the death knell of traditional publishing. 

Still, with the flurry of articles, you have to assume that every writer, editor, and agent with a computer has heard that Amanda Hocking struck the mother lode.  I have to think that when Forbes runs an article asking who wants to be a kindle millionaire, there are writers buying mules, covered wagons, and gold pans,and  firing up their laptops, and googling, “vampires.”

I find myself humming the naughty verse to “Oh Susannah,” and trying to make up more.

Some Words About Smashwords.com

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My thanks to Brandon Halsey for pointing out a great oversight in my last post.  I completely neglected to mention smashwords.com, an increasingly popular site dedicated to publishing and distributing ebooks in all the popular formats:  Kindle, Nook, iBook, Sony, Stanza, as well as plain .html.

I don’t know a lot about Smashwords yet, but a place to start looking is this Q&A page by Mark Coker, the founder http://www.smashwords.com/about.

Another resource is Tracking the Words, the blog of Catana, a writer who posts almost daily about preparing for publication on Smashwords, and is now including reviews of titles they have published.  http://writingcycle.wordpress.com

Publication on Smashwords is free, but it’s worth looking at the “How to Publish” page to get clear that it isn’t easy.  Assuming your text is really ready, after numerous drafts and third-party checks for typos, the first requirements are outlined in the site formatting guide, which is checked electronically before a submission is accepted.  Apple iBooks have additional rules.  Then there’s a checklist for inclusion in the Smashwords Premium Catalog, which gets your book distributed to Sony, Barnes&Noble, Apple, Kobo, and (soon, they say) Amazon.

How about a catchy cover?  How about a one sentence tag line?  How about a compelling book-jacket blurb in case the title and cover are so compelling that someone stops to click on your title?  How about uploading a free short-story or novella, as some of the authors do, to encourage readers to search through their other titles?

Clearly, there is a lot of effort behind even the most stunning success stories, but I’ll end with an upbeat set of predictions for Indie publishing in 2011, made by Mark Coker in an interview on December 28, 2010.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publishing-predictions-for-2011-from-smashwords_b18421

We are already seeing some of these predictions come true.  Here, for example, is one of them:

4. Self Publishing goes from option of last resort to option of first resort among unpublished authors – Most unpublished authors today still aspire to achieve the perceived credibility and blessing that comes with a professional book deal. Yet the cachet of traditional publishing is fading fast. Authors with finished manuscripts will grow impatient and resentful as they wait to be discovered by big publishers otherwise preoccupied with publishing celebrity drivel from Snooki, Justin Bieber and the Kardashians. Meanwhile, the break-out success of multiple indie author stars will grab headlines in 2011, forcing many unpublished authors off the sidelines. As unpublished authors bypass the slush pile, publishers lose first dibs on tomorrow’s future stars.

Writers Going Their Own Way in the eBook World

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Over the last month I’ve seen a flurry of articles on hugely successful ebook authors, and indications that their success is part of a wider trend.  In January, the month when Amazon announced that ebook sales had overtaken all forms of print volumes, 12 of their 20 ebook best-sellers in the horror genre were by self-published authors, in a field that included Stephen King.  http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/01/guest-post-by-terri-reid.html

Twenty-six year old Amanda Hocking is the best selling ebook author on Amazon’s kindle store.  Since April, 2010, she has self-published nine ebooks and sells 100,000 a month, at prices ranging from $0.99 – $2.99.  Amazon’s pricing allows her to keep 70% of the profits, where traditional publishing would give her 30%.  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381193,00.asp

One of many articles on Amanda’s success quotes an anonymous publisher as saying there is no traditional publisher in the world right now that can offer Amanda Hocking terms that are better than what she’s currently getting, right now on the Kindle store, all on her own.  http://www.novelr.com/2011/02/27/rich-indie-writer

Terri Reid’s self-published ebooks are in Amazon’s top 20 lists for 10 different genres.  Her previous day-job included advertising and market research, and she references she some interesting discussions on the meaning of “ownership” and “value” in the digital age.  Everyone instinctively feels that an ebook is not worth as much as a paper copy and shops accordingly.  (One mathematician calculated the optimum price for ebooks as $2.99-$3.99).  Reid suggests that the traditional “agency model,” where the publisher sets the price is not going to work in this arena, and says, “Apparently Ken Follet’s publisher raised the price of his ebook from $7.99 to $9.99 and sales dropped 48%.“

Reid further claims that:  “Publishers were, and still are, trying to slow the growth of ebooks in order to protect their business model, which is built around selling paper.  How has that been working out for them?  Not very well.”  (I referenced Reid’s article in the first paragrah, but here it is again:  http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/01/guest-post-by-terri-reid.html Note:  last night I downloaded Reid’s The Ghosts of New Orleans for $2.99 from Amazon and will review it here when I finish).

***

Not long ago – like maybe last year – traditional publishing offered writers a huge carrot – the certification of legitimacy.  USA Today reported that Hocking sold 450,000 ebooks in January, 2011, so I doubt that she worries too much about that.  http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-02-09-ebooks09_ST_N.htm

For a traditional game with winners and losers to endure, winning has to be possible.  At the 2007 San Diego Writer’s Conference, I heard an editor of adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy explain that traditional publishers, with their “stable” of known authors who are guaranteed to sell, have no financial motivation to risk an unpublished writer.  “If you want to break into this market, your best bet is to get some short stories in print,” he said.

I heard the same thing at the CWC February lunch, from a prolific local author of romance and romantic suspense, Kimberley Van Meter – that increasingly, not just editors but agents too, are not willing to risk unpublished authors, no matter how good the work seems, and that was always the sustaining idea:  if I write something really really good, I will make it into print.

Let’s assume that is still true, and I hustle and get some short stories or articles in print, and then write something really really good and, dream come true, in a couple of years it’s on the shelf at Barnes and Noble. Then what happens?  I suspect that despite all the hype about “building your online platform,” Donald Maass is still correct – bestsellers happen by word of mouth.  How did you hear about Harry Potter or The DaVinci Code? Somebody I knew raved about the books in both cases.

That seems to be what happens with ebooks as well.  After writing her whole life, Amanda Hocking had tried the agent submission route with no success.  The self-described muppet enthusiast was broke, but wanted to attend a Jim Henson exhibit in Chicago in October 2010, so at this time last year, she told her roommate: “I’m going to sell books on Amazon through Kindle, and I bet I can make at least a couple hundred bucks by the end of the summer to go to Chicago.” http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/08/epic-tale-of-how-it-all-happened.html.  She uploaded two books, sold 45 copies in two weeks, and thought that “wasn’t too shabby.”   In her case, the breakthrough came when she discovered book review blogs and asked the authors to consider her work.  Those digital voices launched her path to success.

Hocking writes young adult fantasy, and as word of her success spreads like wildfire online, you can almost hear the keystrokes of 10,000 writers hurrying to finish their vampire ebooks.  Everyone knows about gluts and bubbles from recent economics.  There’s not enough time to read all the good stories now (or separate the wheat from the chaff), and there will be even less as the ebook revolution kicks into gear.

Still, there is a democracy-loving part of me that loves this kind of populist development.  Different, but similar to they way I felt watching how cell phones and Twitter helped spark the revolution in Egypt, and how it made me feel to realize my own career in technology had, in however small a way, helped it happen.

These are exciting times to be a writer.  I’ll close with a quote from Joe Konrath (link in the first paragraph).  Konrath, a traditionally published author, was an early adaptor and advocate of epublishing, who writes:

The future isn’t Big 6 publishing houses vetting manuscripts, rejecting the majority, taking 18 months to publish, and then insisting upon ebooks with high prices and DRM, all the while paying authors one third of what the house makes. The future is smart, talented writers doing it on their own.

 

 

More On eBooks

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On Thursday, Amazon reported 4th quarter profits of $400,000,000, which disappointed investors and caused the share price to drop.  Perhaps of greater interest to literary folk, the company reported that sales of ebooks had eclipsed paperbacks for the first time (they exceeded hardbacks last summer).

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133293543/Amazon-Reports-Profit-Margins-Slid

The report featured comments by Nancy Pearl, an author and librarian, who noted that convenience often comes at a price; she mourned the loss of interaction with librarians and booksellers.

I’m not so sure.  I had two thoughts right off the bat:

1)  I have never had a “relationship” with a large bookseller since Tower went under.  I used to wander the aisles of the local Tower and make interesting discoveries on a regular basis.  Quirky titles on all kinds of subjects offered plenty of room for surprise.  I frankly do not like the shopping experience at Borders or Barnes&Noble.  Too slick.  Market and demographic research has smoothed out the quirks.  I shop at Amazon by preference, since I find the homogenized selections at the mega-stores depressing; online search and “my recommendations,” are more likely to yield exciting new finds.

2) I do have a great relationship with the local used bookstore, one of the Bookworm stores.  Ebooks won’t change that.  I don’t know how many times I’ve gone in to ask for a good book by a specific local author, or a good action-adventure title for a rainy weekend, and gotten spot-on advice.  I’ve had the same relationship with other used bookstores, and with a late-lamented fantasy and sci-fi specialty shop.

I am not going to offer predictions because I think ten years from now they will all sound foolish, but I am going to offer some reflections on ebooks and the changes in publishing, just because I find it fascinating.  These thoughts are just random and not in order of importance.

3) Certain titles I will always want as printed books:  books I read again and again, like some of the favorites I write about here.  Like certain non-fiction titles from cookbooks to Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind that are highlighted and have notes in the margins.  Illustrated books.  Books that are good friends; it wouldn’t be home without Lord of the Rings on the shelf.

4) I’ve had my Kindle for a month now, and love it.  It’s perfect for books I may not read more than once.  I would not have so many  books in boxes in the  garage  if I’d had the option at the time I purchased them. You never know in advance of course, but there are even must-read best sellers I won’t read twice – The DaVinci Code now that I know what happens. Cold Mountain because I was so pissed when Inman died.

5) In 2010 I came to love audio books so much that at my request, I got a year-long membership in audible.com for my recent birthday.  I got seriously into audio books last year as I was making regular trips to the bay area.  I think almost any kind of story is feasible on an audio books, but I really enjoy action-adventure titles while traveling or commuting.  More than once I’ve been so engrossed in a James Patterson book that I was disappointed to reach my destination early, and sat in the car listening until the last moment.

6) I was recently discussing publishing upheavals with several other writers, specifically eBooks and Borders’ financial troubles (that seem to derive from coming late to the party).  No one seemed to think brick-and-mortar bookstores would go away any time soon.  Someone made a plausible case that indie and specialty stores could experience a revival.  I am all in favor of that!

7) In parallel with Amazon’s financial report, a Wall Street Journal article posted on Yahoo suggested they aren’t yet doing that well with Kindle.  The piece claimed they are loosing money ($20 or so) on the latest hardware.  That is acceptable as they are working on the “razor blade” business model – sell the razors cheap and make your money on blades.  But Amazon will not reveal their actual profits from eBooks, and if profits are disappointing and that is their biggest driver…   Clearly the revolution won’t happen unless the manufacturer/publisher is making sufficient money.

***

The only things one can be sure of are trueisms, along the lines of, “Change is the only constant.”  The only thing I am certain of in this arena are that the landscape of book publishing and distribution will be very different in five years, let alone ten. 

I would be curious to hear other people’s opinions.  Leave a comment or drop an email.  Do you like ebooks?  Hate them?  Are they a boon or bane for new writers trying to launch their work?  Are books on paper going the way of manuscripts on parchement?  Or none of the above but something else?

 

Workshop with Donald Maass, Feb. 21, in San Francisco

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In response to my post yesterday about the agent workshop in Sacramento, I got a very nice email from Margie Yee Webb, President of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writer’s club, and author of Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings: Insight and Inspiration for a Wonderful Life which is scheduled for publication in February, 2011. Congratulations Margie!!!

Ms. Yee informed me that Donald Maass, whose, Writing the Breakout Novel, I reviewed here (see the December archive), is giving a half-day seminar called “Micro-Tension: The Secret of the Best-Sellers.”  This will be a post-conference session in connection with the San Francisco Writer’s Conference:

This workshop has been given to rave reviews throughout North America by the man who wrote the book (and workbook) on writing the novel that will break you out of the pack. In the course of two decades Mr. Maass has arrived at a number of definite and highly perceptive conclusions on just what the differences are between an ordinary, pedestrian but enjoyable novel and an ostensibly similar work that catapults the book and its author into an entirely new plane of literary success.

Details on the San Francisco conference and this workshop can be found in the comment Ms. Yee was kind enough to post here:

https://thefirstgates.com/2010/12/07/donald-maass-and-the-breakout-novel/#comments

Workshop, Feb, 5: Make Yourself Irresistable to Editors and Agents

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On February 5, the Sacramento branch of the California Writer’s Club is hosting a workshop called, Make Yourself Irresistable to Editors and Agents. 

Steve Liddick, who is in his second year of organizing workshops for the club, has posted a notice to Craigslist and asked us to spread the news:   http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cls/2146711302.html  I’ll be happy to email the brochure upon request (click the gravatar for my email). 

Times are 9:00-4:00, in the conference room of the Luau Gardens restaurant.  This is the club’s regular meeting venue, has wi-fi, and is close to the intersection of all the Sacramento freeways.  Steve said the presentation will be lively and enterataining, and everyone will have the option of a three minute, for-real pitch to one of the agents in attendance.  Price is $99 for non-club-members, $85 for members.

Steve organized the all day blogging workshop last June that got me started in this endeavor.  The California Writer’s Club also gives me a sense of connection to one of my writing ancestors – it was founded by Jack London.  If you haven’t seen my post on a visit to his ranch, please look in the October 2010 archive.

If you do decide to attend, I’ll see you there.

A Kindle for Christmas: Thoughts on Ebooks

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I wasn’t a stranger to ebooks.  I have apps on the iPod that I use for reading in places like doctors’ waiting rooms, but the screen is too small to look at for long at a time; it would never do on an airplane, for instance.  I have Kindle, Stanza, and Nook apps on my laptop as well.  It’s  great for reference materials, but not for kicking back on the couch with a mystery.

This year, after a lot of vacillation, I sent my letter to Santa, and he brought me a Kindle.  So far, I love it.  This no more negates my love of “real” books than enjoying an apple means I’m about to give up oranges, but it does raise some interesting questions.

After charging the device and reading the instructions, I jumped on Amazon to find something new to read, and I wound up downloaded half a dozen free Kindle books in rapid fire – indulging the rare guilty-pleasure of judging books by their covers.  Unfortunately, I deleted most of them after the first few pages; they were simply not very well written.

On one hand, I was reminded of the predictions of Laura Roberts, a literary agent who cautioned that the eBook revolution is not necessarily going to be a simple egalitarian paradise for creative people too long repressed by the publishing establishment.  In an article I quoted here in July, she said that when paid agents and editors no longer serve as screeners, we’ll have to do it for ourselves, on our own time and our own dime:   https://thefirstgates.com/2010/07/08/the-brave-new-world-of-epublishing

I find my somewhat ambivalent judgements interesting too.  (“Not very well written” in this case, a euphemism for “this book sucks.”)

I have often encouraged people by saying, “Everyone has a story to tell.”  That is, everyone. Is it a bad thing that anyone who wants to can now post their ebook to Amazon?  Aren’t many of my judgements arbitrary and conditioned by the literary and publishing status quo?

I suppose it boils down to something simple.  Everyone may have a story to tell, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pay money to read it.  And given a finite amount of time, there are some books I want to read before the others.

My first new rule of thumb for managing the Kindle is this:  never pay for (an unfamiliar) book that does not have a print edition I can search through first.  I really understand why editors and agents emphasize the importance of the opening pages.

I’m sure there will be further revelations.