publishing

Indie book advertising that works?

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Yesterday, Lit agent Kristin Nelson wrote a blog post on Pub Rants–”Advertising That Works?“–that suggests a new way to publicize books. Ever hear of Groupon.com? It helps independent local businesses offer deals to local customers, sometimes at huge discounts. She sums it up like this:

It introduces subscribers to local companies that they might not have discovered otherwise and more importantly, if a subscriber buys the deal for the day, that person is committed to visiting that company or using that service in the very near future.

I’d love to know if this concept could work  directly for authors. For instance, a few indie authors  could team up and publicize book specials along a couple of different dimensions–say, “Get three books by local Portland authors for $25″; or, “Get three new YA paranormal romance books for $25.” It would be a great way for readers to connect with new authors in their geographical area, or new books in a genre they love.

If you know me, you’ll know that any kind of local publishing venture intrigues me. The “Big Six” publishers are not the bad guys–they’ve brought us every book we’ve ever loved–but I also love the idea of self-publishing, Wild West stigma and all. The number of books per year continues to climb, and yet the number of good manuscripts that get rejected continues to climb, too. If you’ll allow me a cautious flight of fancy, what potential there must be for (some) literature right now, if (some) authors and (some) readers alike move away (sometimes) from the big-box-store mentality of traditional publishing and instead write locally, buy locally, and read locally (a little more often).

Maybe, just maybe, books and reading would regain footing in American culture. As Leonard Cohen wrote, “There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” For once, let it not be the light of a computer or television screen.

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Conference report card

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

Venue: A
Agents: A
Value: B+
The coffee: A+
Fellow writers: A+

Like the Backspace Writers Conference last May, this autumn’s Backspace Agent-Author Seminar was the shortest distance between two points: writers and literary agents. Two days of 15-member workshops and panels made for two nights of dead-exhausted sleep and sore feet, if you happened to be wearing boots with four-inch heels. But the rigor is worth it, because the agents, location, and especially other attendees–and yes, Starbucks coffee–were outstanding. The only reason I gave the value a B+ is because everything in New York has a, well, New York price tag.

My pages and query letter seemed generally OK, based on the response they got from agents Michelle Brower, Rebecca Friedman, Natanya Wheeler, Alanna Ramirez, Adam Schear, Kirsten Neuhaus, and Paul Cirone. But the few flags and questions the agents raised are ones I have, too, and hearing them out loud in front of a group helped me answer them better for myself. Chiefly: yes, it’s a dystopian novel about near-future Gaza; no, present-day Gaza is not a dystopia, (1) by definition; and (2) not an appropriate setting for story I want to tell, because the way characters confront the division of men and women in this society cannot happen while strident criticism of the West is a conventional part of the argument.

Anyway, it’s complicated, but it is all helpful for me as the creator of this world. I’m clearer about the writing and revisions that come next, and more excited about my late winter deadline than I was three days ago. Add this to a long run in Prospect Park this morning, and the discovery of a Stumptown Coffee around the corner from Leena’s apartment, and the world seems like a generous place.

Onward!

coffee

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Paying for indie publishing: It takes a village?

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

I’ve said here and elsewhere, many times before, that it takes a lot of money to self-publish a book. You can write one for only the cost of your time, but to involve professional editors, designers, printers, and possibly even marketers is to commit several thousands of dollars of your own money to do it right.

I make a living by editing books. If I am correcting your novel line-by-line, I cost about $2000.  I usually pay a competent designer between $1100 and $1300 to typeset that book and design its cover. Then I will charge you $150 to write your flap copy and press release. (I know it’s a faux pas to talk about money in public. Tsk, tsk. We writers… You can’t take us anywhere.) The result will be an attractive, well-edited book that you will be proud to share with your readers.

You can find better deals, of course. And they are still expensive. David Drazul, a fellow writer, spent a bit over $1000 in workshop fees, editing, design, and marketing costs. (See his guest blog post below, or here.) No matter how you slice it, indie publishing is not as democratic as we biblio-revolutionaries would like it to be.

Until now? Michael Keefe posted an article last week on music website MadeLoud.com, “Kickstarter: Where Modest Dreams Can Still Come True,” that highlights yet more instances of successful crowd-funding ventures. While the concept is not exactly fresh from the fires of a new economy (TIME published an article on it in 2008, and it has been around for at least ten years), it offers some hope for the cash-strapped genius in all of us. By posting your project on a site like Kickstarter.com, people anywhere can read about it and donate a minimum of $1 in support of it. Some of the site users’ current writing projects include zines and a translation of “Uruguayan poet Marosa di Giorgio’s 1965 masterpiece, The History of Violets.”

The concept is appealing. With over 95 percent of its revenue going directly to the artist, writer, or filmmaker, a crowd-funding site can offset the cost of a worthy project. Besides that, it also involves the public in the arts and creates a sense of ownership–supporting an idea that I am personally attached to, namely that the arts are a dialogue, not a talent show.

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Guest blog: David Drazul on the cost of self-publishing

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

I asked my fellow writer, David Drazul, if he would be willing to talk about the self-publishing costs of his novel, Armistice Day, on this blog. He was gracious enough to break down all his expenses and comment on what he would do differently next time. Be sure to check out his book on Amazon.com, and his website here.

Publishing Costs

I’ve spent my whole working career in technical fields. The style of writing required in engineering and computer programming is very dry and doesn’t lend itself to creative writing. In essence, I had to re-learn how to write.

I was initially inspired to write by the birth of my son. After composing an essay detailing that event, I signed up for the local adult ed writer’s workshop. I tried my hand at non-fiction but it wasn’t until I submitted fiction that everything came together. What would later become Chapter 2 of Armistice Day was submitted to the last class. I don’t know if you want to include this re-education, but if you do, that’s $150.

As I wrote up enough material, I returned to the writer’s workshop to have it reviewed. I went through two workshops at another $150 a pop.

Once I’d taken everyone’s advice on corrections and suggestions, I asked the teacher of the workshop, a writer and editor herself, to perform a final review. I think that was $200. And that was a discounted rate.

I spent the next couple of years pitching agents but had no luck. Bad cover letter from an unpublished author? Probably. I decided to self-publish because I couldn’t stand to have Armistice Day lying on my hard drive forever. I’ll spare you my rants towards agents and traditional publishing as my predictions have largely come to pass. After spending too much time reviewing my self-publishing options, I began my hunt for an illustrator for the cover. The first guy went MIA and I waited too long before picking the next guy. I’m very happy with him though. Very professional. The cover cost me $200, which was very reasonable considering other artists posted rates of several thousand dollars. armday_cover

Since I went with Lulu, the other publishing costs were nil. As you know, Lulu gets paid when my book sells. I don’t use any of their editorial or marketing services.

Total Publishing Cost: $400 – $850 depending upon how you slice it.

Marketing Costs

Book Reviews: I’ve got two of those. They were free. Well, the first one received a copy of the book in print so technically that cost me $11 (Cost to make book and have it shipped to the reviewer).

Donations: I donated a copy of the book to my local library. Cost: $11.

Targeted Marketing: I’ve emailed friends and family, posted to MySpace, and made announcements on my blog and three sci-fi rpg message boards (one has since shut down) that the book was out. No cost.

Website: Back when I had a small business, I bought a couple domain names and got some web hosting. I needed more space and functionality than the real cheap/free sites offered so I had to pay. $100/year for domain name and web hosting. I’d still have the website even if I wasn’t writing professionally. I don’t know what other authors do/pay, probably just stick with a free blog.

Business Cards: When I ran a small business, I learned how to make my own business cards on my home pc. I print them myself. The cost here is just for the cards themselves, which is a few bucks.

Advertising: I haven’t popped for this yet. The Indie Spotlight lets people buy ad space for $5-$10/month. There was also a zine I was going to buy ad space in but they folded before they published my short story. That would’ve been about $20-$30.

Trade Shows: The illustrator for Armistice Day rented booth space at GenCon. He offered to sell my book and any other merchandise I had for a flat $50 fee.  I went for it and commissioned him to print up some promotional posters. To save myself money, I designed the poster myself. I had four printed up for $100. The illustrator kept one for GenCon (per my instructions) and sent the other three to me for future promotional use. I also sent him 150 biz cards and 15 books (the books cost me $165.72).

Unfortunately, GenCon was a bit of a bust. One book sold. The $15 price was the killer. The bright spot is that the illustrator churned through most of the biz cards so my name is getting out there.

As an aside, I’d hoped that writing short stories would get my name out there and thus increase book sales, but that’s been a bust. The competition in the recession-shrunken genre zine market is brutal. I’ve sold one story. But since Smashwords allows short stories to be released on their site (even reprints if the rights have reverted back to the author), I’m going to post some there after I give up on getting published in the zines. I posted my one sale there (the zine recently closed down) for free (if a book doesn’t sell for $2.99, what can a short story get?) and it’s racked up 51 downloads in a week.

The illustrator is going to TravellerCon in October (a sci-fi RPG) and the same conditions apply. Although it’s another $50, he’s got the books and poster. I have to print up more biz cards. I’m going to discount the book to $10 and see how that goes. It’ll be a loss, but maybe the lower price will shrink my total deficit for this venture.

If anything, the experience at GenCon provides valuable feedback on print pricing. $15.58 is the minimum retail price I can sell the book for on Amazon. I get $1 per book sold there. It tells me that I may have to find a less expensive way to print (Lightning Source, perhaps?) as a no name writer can’t charge $15 for trade paperback without people balking.

Total Marketing Costs (so far): $222, unless you want to include the 14 unsold books from GenCon.

Now these numbers may not seem like much, but the royalties from my book sales fallshort of even these modest expenses.  I am at roughly 25 percent of break even at best. If the expenses weren’t so low, it would be really hard to justify. Going forward, when I finally write the sequel, I’ll still need to pony up the editorial and illustrator costs, but I don’t know if I’ll return to the writer’s workshop. New marketing strategies may be in order as well.

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Interview with fantasy author Adam Copeland

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Vancouver, Washington author Adam Copeland

Vancouver, Washington author Adam Copeland

I had the pleasure of interviewing my client-now-author, Adam Copeland, last week. As self-publishing transforms from a frontier village of the publishing industry into a thriving city for indie authors, writers are faced with the full burden of publicity, marketing, and business strategy. How well can the creative person wear so many hats, and how can we learn the skills that writers have traditionally left to their publishers?

1. Tell us about your fantasy novel, ECHOES OF AVALON.

The backbone of the story was inspired by, and revolves around, the imagery common to popular fairy tales: A knight in shining armor charging up a mountain of glass to rescue a princess locked away in an ivory tower. But the book delves deeper with an adult perspective into a story that leads up to that iconic imagery. It also goes about it in such a way that the reader could be reading something that might have actually taken place in history.

echoesofavalon2_dark-200x299

Click to visit the book on Amazon.com

Indeed, the story starts out in Medieval Europe as the main character, Irish knight Sir Patrick Gawain, is returning from the First Crusade in the Holy Lands. Due to the horrors he’s witnessed during that conflict he has lost his faith in all things.  A stranger offers him a new beginning as a knight protector on the fabled Isle of Avalon, and from that point forward the story slips into the realm of fantasy as Patrick battles his personal demons, ghosts, goblins and talking wolves to protect the young students of a secret academy.  It is a classic story of a flawed and broken man re-finding his faith in time to defeat the bad guy, rescue the princess, and save the day.

2. You have been actively promoting your book for a few months now. What have you done, and what would you add, subtract, or amend to the conventional wisdom on book promotion?

I’ve almost done everything to promote my book. I say “almost,” because it seems like every time I turn around there is something else I could be doing. I have a website that features the book but where I also blog about it and writing in general, I’ve joined Twitter and follow book-industry individuals and organizations, I’ve entered my book in contests, I plan on participating in conventions aimed at my genre, I’ve coerced readers to leave reviews on my Amazon page, I’ve digitized my book for sale on the Kindle store,  iPad’s iBook store, and other digital media sites, I’ve joined Goodreads.com and Published.com and several other websites to get my name and book more SEO (search engine optimized), I’ve made up bookmarks, business cards, postcards, and even t-Shirts, I’ve e-mailed friends, announced the publication on my Facebook and Myspace pages, my email signature is a thumbnail image of my book cover linked to my website, and I surreptitiously mention my book while participating in other people’s blogs and discussion threads.

If I have any advice to give concerning promotions, it would be this: Stick to your strengths or at the very least maximize what seems to be working for you. I’ve come to find that, currently, most of my sales are a result of people with whom I’ve come in direct contact. Either at book signings, book readings, cocktail parties, church, work, or when I approach independent bookstore owners for sales I seem to be successful. Everybody has their area that they are most successful. I do, however, have high hopes for book reviewers. I recently paid a fair amount of money to have my name put on a list that goes out to the various media outlets whose A&E staff look for copies of books for review. All I need is just one favorable review from a reviewer who has a big audience.

3. Any particularly surprising or proud moments in your efforts so far?

All the “Firsts” were special: The first time I held a hard copy of my book. Seeing my book for the first time listed on Amazon. My first sale. My first book signing. All gave me a warm fuzzy. One particular special moment is when I got approval to hold a book signing at a local famous establishment. Because the main character of my novel is Irish, I thought it would be cool to hold a signing at an Irish Pub. So on a lark I asked Kell’s Irish Pub if they would be interested. I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance of them agreeing, but they did. As far as I know, I’m their first and only book signing.

4. People say that a writer needs two brains: one to write, and one to run a business. Does that make you an unstoppable, duo-cephalic, writing-and-selling beast–or just schizophrenic?

It certainly helps if you’re crazy. It helps even more if you’re crazy like a marketing fox. As the publishing process shifts more and more towards self publishers, publish-on-demand providers, and e-book authors, those individuals who have more of a knack for promotion will be ahead of the game. The eclectic artist who can spin a great tale but won’t blog or won’t get out and shake hands and pass out business cards won’t fair so well.

5. The aforementioned conventional wisdom on book publishing emphasizes social networking, blog tours, and other online efforts. How do you keep Internet fatigue at bay; or do you?

I can’t say I’ve suffered “fatigue” yet, but I certainly have suffered from “anxiety.” Finding the time and energy to do all those things I aught to be doing on the web makes me anxious. I’m a perfectionist and am impatient. I want to do everything and I want to do it NOW. So when it doesn’t happen when and how I want I get squirrelly. Also, I’m not a web designer by any stretch of the imagination and right now I can think of a dozen changes I’d like to make to my website. I can do it, but finding the time and getting over my web-design-ophobia gets me agitated. As far as staying on top of things, it helps having a smart phone to which all my messages from my email accounts and social networking sites are routed.

6. Indie publishing is exciting to many because it allows writers to have a dialogue with their readers. Does this relationship exist for you? Is it necessary for writers to connect in person with their readers?

I see the potential to have that sort of relationship with readers. Six months ago had you told me that friends of friends would be contacting me and wanting to discuss my my book I wouldn’t have believed it. So, it’s entirely possible that six months from now that complete strangers will be having long discussion threads with me on my blog site as well as sparking off debates with other strangers about the themes and characters in my book. I do think it’s important to stay engaged with your audience. If they’re buying, reading and are publicly interested in your work (and therefore performing the best kind of promotion: word of mouth testimonials) then you owe it to them to give them the attention they deserve.

7. Are you still seeking an agent and traditional publisher for the book, or has self-publishing been a satisfactory process?

I’m not actively looking, but I’d be happy to have a traditional publisher. If I were lucky enough to stumble upon a contract there would be obvious benefits, but I’d also be giving up some of the freedom I’ve come to enjoy.

8. What are you working on next?

I’ve been working on adding meaningful content to my blog, like tips on writing and the self-publishing process. I’m hoping that stuff will be interesting in and of itself to draw people to my site. I’m hoping to finish a short story before the end of the year.

I’ve got a problem in my writing: I write too big (very detailed, very visual, very long). I want to write a short story that says a lot, but whose prose is very sparse and straight to the point like something Cormac McCarthy would write. After that, maybe at the beginning of the year I’ll start writing a sequel to Echoes of Avalon. When I published, I didn’t have a sequel in mind, but lots of people have have been bugging me for one and it got me thinking. I now have a great follow up in mind.

Visit Adam’s website here, or check out the book and Kindle editions of Echoes of Avalon on Amazon.com. And f you have questions for him, feel free to pipe up in the comments!

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