Monday, May 7, 2012

Publishing--T-Rex vs the Raptors


The T-Rex seems to be facing off against the Amazon raptors. We have the commercially published dinosaur authors coming to the defense of the Big Six way of publishing and pricing as evidenced by the recent article featuring Jodi Picoult, who claims, in so many words, that self-e-publishing is allowing way too much crap to be listed for purchase on the Internet. The self e-publishers can be likened to the more agile and numerous raptors, circling the cumbersome Big Six T-Rex, taking nasty bites out of its exposed flesh. We can remember when the T-Rex was king and ruled the high plains with authority, chasing down its prey. That was until we learned just recently that it might have been a scavenger, a view that is held today about the ultimate destiny of the large publishing syndicates. Will the Big Six be left squabbling amongst themselves over the scraps that are left by the multitudes that are rushing to purchase cheap digital books and stories?

I'm not a math whiz, nor do I have volumes of facts and figures. I can only generalize about how I feel about the subject from a personal perspective. So let's examine both sides of the coin.

T-Rex  

I  find it extremely ironic that the Big Six claim that Amazon will become a ravenous monopoly if agented pricing is not allowed. I've seen the Big Six swallow up hundreds and hundreds of independent, small and medium-sized publishers over the past 25 years, making imprints out of them or ingesting them into their lines. How dare they make such a claim about Amazon and its strategy concerning pricing and distribution. Who has been the real monopoly here? Both of my medium-sized advance-paying publishers disappeared under the Big Six umbrella over a decade ago. If that isn't gate keeping and monopolization, what is? They've taken away submission opportunities from writers, not increased them. 

At the very least, e-books require about 10% less in cost to produce, and any publisher who has the audacity to price its e-books above the cost of a normal mass-market paperback, or beyond into the $20.00 range, deserves to fail miserably. And no, I'm not self-published. I'm commercially published and have an A-list agent. This is just pure greed on their part, attempting to hold up the stagecoach and rob the public for the coveted bestsellers, penned by all those famous brand-name authors we've come to know and love. I think it smacks of extortion. If you want that popular title bad enough, you'll empty your purse or wallet, and they know that.

The Big Six and the Dinosaur authors claim that before too long the Internet book vendors will be inundated with mountains of slush, crap, trash--books and stories unfit for human consumption. Great literature will be lost, diluted in the sea of amateurish prose, and difficult to weed out. They seem to think that readers will purchase blindly and end up with this flotsam, become dissatisfied and give up on reading entirely or blame the Big Six, or demand their money back or all of it. Actually, the Big Six are shaking in their boots, aware that they are posed to lose millions, if not billions of dollars because of a much lower price threshold, coupled with the convenience of purchasing digital copy online. Print is taking serious financial hits at the present. They are also neglecting to realize that the reading public is not really that undiscriminating and can tell bad prose from good prose by peeking at the pages offered from the Look Inside Feature. They're also aware that a publisher's brand name will mean absolutely squat when it comes to book purchasing.  Low prices and convenience trump publisher's brand.

Sure, the dinosaur authors will always rally around the huge or medium advances they receive as a testimony to the validity of their publishing house. But they'll not mention the 17.5% average royalty rate they're prone to get, as opposed to the optimum 70% for the self e-published author. T-Rex publishers have got book store and distribution going for them--you have to give them that. That's because they belong in the hierarchy, and are nearly the only houses who are privy to the most prestigious review sources and listings, like Kirkus and Library Journal. Publishers Market also has a tendency to announce new books primarily from the Big Six, and such books also routinely make the the country's top bestsellers lists.  

The Raptors  

The problem with the raptors is that there's so damn so many of them and their numbers are increasing daily. Anyone in sundry can self-publish digitally nowadays, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. There's scores of programs and tutorials to help you format and create cover art for zero expense. Wam, bam, you're on Amazon, Ma'am. But oh my God, it's gonna be a jam! How in the name of hell are you going to bring attention to your title or titles, generate enough buzz, start a sales momentum and make some steady cash? Yeah, you hear about Rowe and Hocking and wish upon a star, believing if they can do it, then so can you. What you don't realize is how much work must go into this type of promotion and marketing campaign. It's a self-inflicted hell. And if you don't have a huge readership before you begin your self-publishing venture, you best take a few Motrin, go into a dark room, lay down and wait for these dreams avarice to pass. Seriously. You'll need a readership or fan base in place before you even get started. If you think you can play catch up and buy ads, hire a publicist, or invest in blog tours, you'll find yourself a broke, unknown writer at the speed of light. 

It doesn't stop with one book. To be successful at self-publishing digitally you'll have to have tons of books and stories, and you'll have to set up free trial periods for many or all of them, plus stagger the prices until you find their sweet spots. It's a business and you'll be monitoring it on a daily basis, plus trying to find the time to write more and more content. Hint: series work well for digital self-publishing, in a popular genre.

With more and more content comes the problem--the biggest problem of all--the EDITING problem. The faster you write and list on Amazon, the more chance you take in pasting incomprehensible slop in front of the public. If you're not an accomplished, pro editor who can handle structural, copy and proof editing, you'll have to pay for it. Editing is one of the most expensive costs in publishing. It can cost a buck a page from a friend who has experience, or five or $10 a page from a top-of-the-line contractor or service. When it's all said and done, will this book pay for itself in a year, two or five after you list it? What are you going to do about celebrity blurbs, pre-publication reviews and orders? Will you have to hire an assistant? Will you have the funds to do all of this, and risk it, knowing that you might not be compensated for your time and labor?

The good thing about the raptors is, is that the playing field has been leveled (somewhat) for the first time in the publishing industry. Books, any book, need not languish in a trunk or on their hard drive. Therein comes an amount of emotional satisfaction and accomplishment. Yeah, you can call yourself an author, since you certainly went through the moves from page one to the end. You'll reap more per book than the commercial authors, and you'll be totally in charge of every aspect of its production to its eventual sale. You will evolve into a brilliant sales person and financial wizard should you succeed. However, the odds are against you ever getting rich from this venture. It all depends on your expectations.

Whatever you decided, Good Luck!

But wait a minute, Chris. Where do you stand in all of this?

Well, the Big Six really never did anything for me. I'm not a raptor either. But I favor the little guy in this
case. 

SINCE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT DINOSAUR COMPARISONS IN RELATION TO PUBLISHING, MAY I BE SO BOLD AS TO INTRODUCE YOU TO A TRICERATOPS PUBLISHER WHO PUT OUT A WONDERFUL BOOK.

  

Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars (Engage Science Fiction) (Illustrated) by Chris Stevenson and Toni Zhang (Kindle Edition - Jan 7, 2011)Kindle eBook

Buy : $2.99

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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

HAS YOUR BOOK FLAT-LINED ON AMAZON?

Your book, story or series has flat-lined on Amazon. That means the rank is steadily climbing, which indicates no recent sales. When the rank bobs up and down over a period of days, it means you have sales activity. It's rather difficult to tell just how many sales, since a 150,000 drop can indicate only a single sale, and usually does. It does depend on the other author's books and how well they're taking off, at any given minute. If you do a fair amount of promotion and marketing every day or a few times a week, and have been doing so for months, you should see a regular roller coaster rhythm in your ranking status. For instance, for the past three months, I pretty much know where I rank on the average. My lows hit around 60,000 and then climb to about 235,000 before I see another dip. And this happens with regularity. My rough average is about 140,000 or so, give or take. You'll see much lower ranks (huge dips and higher sales) upon your book's release. Not talking about that. I'm talking about months of exposure and a consistent push campaign.  

It's also possible that you're doing really well and your rank is somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 on a consistent basis. For those of you who are ranking better than this, like in the top 100, or even top 10, I hate you and don't want to hear about it. But for us average folks who shamelessly flog our books and hawk-eye our Amazon book page, watching a steady increase (numbers rising) in rank and drop in sales is heart-crushing. I know that we shouldn't put too much into the rank thing, but let's face, we're addicted to it and no one is going to pry us away from our stats. Thank you very much. Right now, I'm at the high end of my coaster after about four days and it's beginning to worry me. If after a week I see no sales, I'll know that I'm approaching flat line. I can give it an extra promo and marketing push, doing all my regular links, articles, blogs, display site updates and forum participation, and yet if it has no effect I know I'm in trouble. I can redouble my efforts and still see no effect, and if this goes on for more than eight to 10 days or so, then I'll know I've officially flat-lined. If I haven't done any marketing or promo during or slightly before that time, I know that my book has no sales momentum and can't carry its own without my constant help

This most probably happens when you reach a saturation point. Depending upon how many resources you use (I use about seven or eight large sites or social networks), you get to the point where you've overstayed your welcome, or more precisely, you've introduced your book to the main population and made all likely sales to interested buyers. You only have so many friends on FB and Twitter. You only have so many blog followers-subscribers. You have a fairly finite population in your groups. And if you don't charge your batteries by joining new groups and discussions, you've reached your maximum audience. Of course, there will always be new members, but for the most part, you've roped in all of your potential customers. This can happen anywhere from 30 to 60 days after your debut on Amazon. Most books are bought during this period--when all the announcements and friend purchases hit at about the same time in the early stage.

A real good example of a book that's flat-line is my paranormal romance, Gate Walker:

 http://www.amazon.com/Gate-Walker-ebook/dp/B004GHN5BY/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336012258&sr=1-4

Gate Walker has been sitting there for years with no activity, in spite of me whipping up a huge campaign, loaded with interviews, reviews, press releases and display listings. The title and the cover art are substandard--there's a huge problem right off the bat. No reviews to speak of. And even when the publisher dropped the price to $.99 seven months ago, it still had no effect. I tried reviving it but it floundered just the same--no notice, interest or sales. That book is a true flat-liner. Nothing can resurrect it, short of pulling it from Amazon and starting all over again with new art and an captivating title. It's a shame--Gate Walker sold about 70 books and committed suicide right after the third month of its listing. It's actually a much more popular genre than my current SF book, which outsold it in one month. 

So what can you do to bring that corpse-like book back to life? Find new forums, new groups, and social sites. Add friends on Twitter and FaceBook every day, but keep your numbers down--a few members at a time adds to your little clubhouse. Have you written a romance? Join romance writing and reading groups. Same for SF and fantasy. Look for high group member populations--new people. Search the WWW--Google groups that cover your genre. You might try joining additional (general) writing groups, the one's who have large forums, thousands of threads and dozens of topics. Always follow your genre people, and look for those threads. Wherever you go, drop links to your Blog and website. Don't have a blog? Guh. Get one, make one. Pick a theme or topic and run with it, and blog frequently, at least every three days, or a every week if you're pressed for time.  List your book covers on your website and supply a blurb and reviews for each.

There are thousands of book review sites out there that will review your book for free and list it on their blog or review site. It might cost you an e-book, but it's well worth it. If the reviewer wants a print copy, just make sure their review site is legitimate and large enough to draw some serious traffic. Google lists that contain bloggers who love to interview authors. Write polite but enthusiastic letters to those hosts, explaining who you are and what topics interest you. Nine times out of ten, review and interview sites will direct the discussion around your book/s or stories.

Check out one of my older blog posts: E-Publishing on Amazon and How To Make It Work.

http://guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com/2012/03/e-publishing-with-amazon-and-how-to.html

Just remember, you can market and promote in your old sites, but if you're approaching flat-line, you'll have to go out there and find fresh faces--readers-writers who haven't met you, seen your blog, visited your website, seen your book pages, read your announcements or followed any of your links. Hint: when contributing to discussions in writers forums or in blogs, use a little levity. Yuk it up some. Writing is a deadly serious and oft time negative business, so when you can arrive on a scene and add a little humor to a topic, you'll find people gravitating toward you. You want them to Like-me-like-me-like-me!

                                       ______________________________________

Now the shameless plug. If you haven't found out what Planet Janitor is all about, forget Amazon. Check out the website and read the character profiles. A while back somebody (humorously) summed up my characters thusly: Two nerds, a boyscout, a dumb giant, a crazy bastard, a big-breasted matron, a virgin and a slut. See what you think, ha!

http://planetjanitor.com/Home.html

Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars (Engage Science Fiction) (Illustrated)