Alan Edwards's Blog - Posts Tagged "ebooks"
Some Thoughts on Self-Publishing
Recently, a friend and fellow-writer-stymied-by-the-ridiculously-impregnable-world-of-publishing sent me a link to a blog post (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03...). Since it was about self-publishing, which I have done and my friend has not, he thought it would be of interest to me.
Boy, was he right.
It wasn’t just interesting. It was mind-blowing, perception changing, paradigm shifting (when I said that last one to Lady Aravan, she immediately groaned – her attendance grad school during the heyday of that catchphrase always gives her nauseating flashbacks when it resurfaces). It’s a dialogue between two authors who voluntarily left the regular world of publishing to become self-publishers. What was a vanity project ten years ago has, thanks to Amazon and other eBook companies, become a more viable publishing tool for authors. One of them walked away from a $500k book advance and contract to do it himself. Why? Because he can make more money that way. When all is said and done, an author generally gets less than 15% of the profits generated by the unique that only he or she could ever create when publishing through the traditional method. An eBook published on Amazon generates 70%. It’s math. 70% > 15%. Added to the fact that an eBook costs a few dollars when self-published (did I mention that The Curse of Troius is now available on Kindle for $2.99? Cheap than a vente mochachocolata frenzichino!), meaning that it is more likely to sell more copies and STILL generate more profit per copy than the traditional route, and self-publishing is now a preference for authors.
In fact, we aren’t self-published authors anymore. We’re indie writers. Now, that does make me feel like I should be wearing a beret and ill-fitting clothes and slouch around coffee shops a lot listening to shitty music, but I love the term anyway. Are we any different than people like Dave Sim and Jeff Smith and the other independent comic-book publishers that completely changed the comics industry a couple decades ago? I don’t think so. No one sneers at them anymore and derides their work as vain and mediocre. The world is changing in the publishing industry, thanks to a online book retailer.
It changed my life. Seriously. A year ago, I decided to self-publish independently produce my own work in the far-fetched hopes of actually landing a deal with an established publisher. Now, I realize that I’m doing it wrong. I’m better off doing it myself. No more time wasted on bullshit form inquiry letters and submitting manuscripts (some of them still expect them on paper, for gods sake. It’s the digital fucking age, for crying out loud) to bored agents and monolithic publishing houses. That time is better spent actually writing and producing material to publish. That stuff makes money. Begging someone else to take a cut doesn’t.
I’m excited. I can actually see a future ahead of me as a full-time writer. I might not make it, but you know what? I’ve already made money on my first novel. That thing that no agent or publishing house wanted has earned me money that I had to pay taxes on. It’s just the start.
So, for my friend, that lovable Browncoat, and all of the rest of you out there who love to write – polish it and publish it. Share your unique perspective with the world: it’s easy now. Those words you’ve put down could only have been written by the singular entity that is you. Don’t be selfish; let us read them too.
Boy, was he right.
It wasn’t just interesting. It was mind-blowing, perception changing, paradigm shifting (when I said that last one to Lady Aravan, she immediately groaned – her attendance grad school during the heyday of that catchphrase always gives her nauseating flashbacks when it resurfaces). It’s a dialogue between two authors who voluntarily left the regular world of publishing to become self-publishers. What was a vanity project ten years ago has, thanks to Amazon and other eBook companies, become a more viable publishing tool for authors. One of them walked away from a $500k book advance and contract to do it himself. Why? Because he can make more money that way. When all is said and done, an author generally gets less than 15% of the profits generated by the unique that only he or she could ever create when publishing through the traditional method. An eBook published on Amazon generates 70%. It’s math. 70% > 15%. Added to the fact that an eBook costs a few dollars when self-published (did I mention that The Curse of Troius is now available on Kindle for $2.99? Cheap than a vente mochachocolata frenzichino!), meaning that it is more likely to sell more copies and STILL generate more profit per copy than the traditional route, and self-publishing is now a preference for authors.
In fact, we aren’t self-published authors anymore. We’re indie writers. Now, that does make me feel like I should be wearing a beret and ill-fitting clothes and slouch around coffee shops a lot listening to shitty music, but I love the term anyway. Are we any different than people like Dave Sim and Jeff Smith and the other independent comic-book publishers that completely changed the comics industry a couple decades ago? I don’t think so. No one sneers at them anymore and derides their work as vain and mediocre. The world is changing in the publishing industry, thanks to a online book retailer.
It changed my life. Seriously. A year ago, I decided to self-publish independently produce my own work in the far-fetched hopes of actually landing a deal with an established publisher. Now, I realize that I’m doing it wrong. I’m better off doing it myself. No more time wasted on bullshit form inquiry letters and submitting manuscripts (some of them still expect them on paper, for gods sake. It’s the digital fucking age, for crying out loud) to bored agents and monolithic publishing houses. That time is better spent actually writing and producing material to publish. That stuff makes money. Begging someone else to take a cut doesn’t.
I’m excited. I can actually see a future ahead of me as a full-time writer. I might not make it, but you know what? I’ve already made money on my first novel. That thing that no agent or publishing house wanted has earned me money that I had to pay taxes on. It’s just the start.
So, for my friend, that lovable Browncoat, and all of the rest of you out there who love to write – polish it and publish it. Share your unique perspective with the world: it’s easy now. Those words you’ve put down could only have been written by the singular entity that is you. Don’t be selfish; let us read them too.
The eBook Adventure Begins in Earnest
When I published The Curse of Troius through Createspace, I was excited for two things: I now had an actual printed book that I wrote in my hands, and I could look at Amazon.com and see my book for sale across the country. I felt good about it, to see all those hours and days and months that added up finally resulted in an actual tangible result. I suppose it was a shadowy imitation of the experience of having a child (I wouldn’t know for sure, but in my imagination it is): something unique that only you could have created, now in the world. All I know is, Lady Aravan probably thought I’d lost my mind as I sat holding it, giggling and shaking my head in sheer wonder.
Like other children, it was a little ungainly at first. The cover was generic, there were typos in it, information I wanted in the book didn’t get in. Gradually, though, it grew up. A talented artist made the cover something awesome instead of bland, I fixed some of the typos and added some of those things I’d wished I’d had before – including whole new sections of story – and made a Kindle version available. I’d gone digital!
Now, I felt like I was done. I’d done everything I could to make my book accessible and hopefully attractive to a publisher. Of course, months went by full of rejection letters, one manuscript request, and heaping helpings of stony silence. It’s not like I expected the publishing world to open up its shiny gates and breathlessly sing my praises and herald me as the second coming of Shakespeare, but I thought I’d written a decent enough story that was better than some of the dreck that managed to get published.
As my last post explained, though, my eyes were opened to a whole brave new world, one free of gatekeepers and people trying to sell books that were popular a year and half before they managed to get them out the door. I realized that while I was waiting for Traditional Publishing to welcome me into their homes (through the small side servants’ entrance of course, disdainfully and reluctantly, while I held my hat and cringed appropriately and fawned and nodded at their every word), their method of doing business was beginning its death rattle. Authors were leaving them, rejecting them, and doing the thing I had done in order to make themselves more money, the very opposite of my original plan. Places like Smashwords made it possible for an author to publish a novel, not in years, or months, or even weeks, but in a couple of hours. How? By ignoring paper and targeting the growing world of eReaders like Kindle, Nook, and iPads and iPhones and Droids and the entire new method of consuming the written word.
So, now I’m in that world with both feet. My novel is available in a multitude of electronic formats. You can go sample 15% or so of it for free. It is going through the process of vetting for inclusion in the Premium Catalog, which would gain it access to the Nook through Barnes and Noble’s site, Apple stores, and more. A few hours after it was published, there were already people downloading the free sample. It feels good, and it makes me even more jazzed and excited to finish the next part of the story and get it published. It makes me feel like a writer, a real one. I don’t care if only two-dozen people ever read my work – that’s a hell of a lot more people than could have ten years ago.
So I’m excited, and I’m excited for you, too. Maybe you have a short story or fifty sitting around, something you had to write because it insisted on it. Right now, for absolutely NO COST, you could get a eBook of your collection available for purchase, all in less than a day. Imagine an explosion of content available, no longer held back by the stony-faced gatekeepers of the traditional publishing world. Certainly, some of it will be bad, just like the crap that gets printed right now. Some of it will be sublime. Some will trigger the imagination of a young person and change their life, opening their eyes to some possibility they never considered before. Some of it might just make sleep a little uncomfortable as they jump at shadows.
It’s a pretty cool friggin’ world we live in. I’m a writer, just like I always wanted to be. I don’t make a living at it, of course. Yet.
Like other children, it was a little ungainly at first. The cover was generic, there were typos in it, information I wanted in the book didn’t get in. Gradually, though, it grew up. A talented artist made the cover something awesome instead of bland, I fixed some of the typos and added some of those things I’d wished I’d had before – including whole new sections of story – and made a Kindle version available. I’d gone digital!
Now, I felt like I was done. I’d done everything I could to make my book accessible and hopefully attractive to a publisher. Of course, months went by full of rejection letters, one manuscript request, and heaping helpings of stony silence. It’s not like I expected the publishing world to open up its shiny gates and breathlessly sing my praises and herald me as the second coming of Shakespeare, but I thought I’d written a decent enough story that was better than some of the dreck that managed to get published.
As my last post explained, though, my eyes were opened to a whole brave new world, one free of gatekeepers and people trying to sell books that were popular a year and half before they managed to get them out the door. I realized that while I was waiting for Traditional Publishing to welcome me into their homes (through the small side servants’ entrance of course, disdainfully and reluctantly, while I held my hat and cringed appropriately and fawned and nodded at their every word), their method of doing business was beginning its death rattle. Authors were leaving them, rejecting them, and doing the thing I had done in order to make themselves more money, the very opposite of my original plan. Places like Smashwords made it possible for an author to publish a novel, not in years, or months, or even weeks, but in a couple of hours. How? By ignoring paper and targeting the growing world of eReaders like Kindle, Nook, and iPads and iPhones and Droids and the entire new method of consuming the written word.
So, now I’m in that world with both feet. My novel is available in a multitude of electronic formats. You can go sample 15% or so of it for free. It is going through the process of vetting for inclusion in the Premium Catalog, which would gain it access to the Nook through Barnes and Noble’s site, Apple stores, and more. A few hours after it was published, there were already people downloading the free sample. It feels good, and it makes me even more jazzed and excited to finish the next part of the story and get it published. It makes me feel like a writer, a real one. I don’t care if only two-dozen people ever read my work – that’s a hell of a lot more people than could have ten years ago.
So I’m excited, and I’m excited for you, too. Maybe you have a short story or fifty sitting around, something you had to write because it insisted on it. Right now, for absolutely NO COST, you could get a eBook of your collection available for purchase, all in less than a day. Imagine an explosion of content available, no longer held back by the stony-faced gatekeepers of the traditional publishing world. Certainly, some of it will be bad, just like the crap that gets printed right now. Some of it will be sublime. Some will trigger the imagination of a young person and change their life, opening their eyes to some possibility they never considered before. Some of it might just make sleep a little uncomfortable as they jump at shadows.
It’s a pretty cool friggin’ world we live in. I’m a writer, just like I always wanted to be. I don’t make a living at it, of course. Yet.
