Beyond Smashwords — My Plans to Upload Ebooks Directly to Apple & Kobo

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Lindsay

In late April, I published my fourth Emperor’s Edge book to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. The book appeared in all of these stores within 24 hours. This is what you’d expect in this digital age. But what of other stores? Apple? Kobo? Sony?

When I started publishing in December of 2010, I decided to use Smashwords as my distributor to get into these other stores. That was, I gathered from listening to other indie authors, how it was done. Sony and Kobo didn’t have self-publishing portals and it sounded like a convoluted process to get into the iTunes store, so I didn’t research it much. Smashwords was willing to handle the distribution for free (well, they take a small cut of the sales, but they don’t charge an upfront fee), so I was content to let them handle things.  Most of my early readers were at Amazon and, to a lesser extent, Barnes & Noble, so I didn’t worry much about Apple and the others anyway.

Last Christmas, however, I decided to make the first book in my Emperor’s Edge series free at all of these stores, and that led to more readers at Kobo and Apple, in particular. Readers tried the freebie and went on to buy other books in the series. Unfortunately, these readers aren’t able to get new books as they’re published. It took my last ebook (Peacemaker) over six weeks to show up in the Apple Store, and I’m still waiting for EE4 to show up (it’s been over six weeks since I first submitted it to Smashwords).

Several readers have tweeted or written and asked where the heck EE4 is at Apple. They follow me online, so they know that the book has been out for a while. All I can tell them is that I’m still waiting for it to get from Smashwords to the other stores. Even though I don’t think Amazon needs the extra publicity, I’ve mentioned the iPad’s Kindle app more than once and suggested folks may want to buy the book from Amazon. Not everyone is interested in supporting the e-giant though, and I don’t blame them.

Smashwords is a very affordable service (as I mentioned, free until you start making sales), so I don’t want to complain about the waits and the customer service (you get what you pay for), but the fact that people want the book and aren’t able to get it in a timely manner has led me to take a second look at ways to get into these stores. Fortunately, there are some new options coming online.

Kobo’s New Self-Publishing Platform

I just uploaded EE4 over at Kobo where they are beta testing their new self-publishing platform, Writing Life. It’s due to go live for everyone at the end of June.

As many of you know, I’m a fan of having readers everywhere and not putting all of one’s eggs in the Amazon basket. Going the Smashwords route, things took forever to get into Kobo, if they made it at all (I have a title published last August that isn’t there yet). Now we’ll be able to get ebooks into the store within a day or two.

As with other self-publishing portals, the dashboard will allow us to see real-time sales stats and make changes to price, cover art, blurbs, files, etc. that will be reflected in their store within a couple of days. The royalty rates there are set at 70%, which means you’ll make more than if you went through Smashwords, and it looks like you’ll be able to run free-ebook promotions any time you like.

This may be a great new opportunity for indie authors, especially for authors hoping to expand their reach with international sales. Kobo is based in Canada, and I’ve honestly never seen a Kobo e-reader here in the U.S., but it seems to be making leaps and bounds in global markets.

I’ve been in touch with Mark Lefebvre, the director of self-publishing & author relations, over at Kobo, and I hope to be able to give you guys some more information on the program soon, but it definitely looks like a promising new contender so far. They have things set up to pay in U.S., Canadian, Australian, etc. dollars, so it looks like there won’t be any barriers for international authors.

More on Kobo’s Writing Life here.

Uploading Directly to the Apple Store

From what I’ve read, you’ve actually been able to upload directly to the iTunes store for a while, but there are some hoops to jump through, which makes it tough for a lot of authors. The biggest one is that you need access to a Mac because publishing is done through their iTunes Producer software.

I was all set to install this last month, but my Mac is too old to run the OS required for the software. I am, however, planning to use my next Smashwords payout (irony?) to buy a new Macbook Pro, so I can make this happen (and because the keys are falling off my old Macbook). For those of you who have no interest in purchasing a Mac, it may be worth finding a friend with one if you get to be in the boat I’m in.

The other obstacle is that you need to buy your own ISBN. Once I’ve actually gone through the process, I’ll write up a post on what all is involved here, but I don’t think it’ll be a major hurdle.

Apparently, you can also make your ebooks free any time you like at Apple, so I’m looking forward to playing around with sales over there (since that first free ebook is what took me from $X a month at Apple to $XXX a month).

A Goodbye to Smashwords?

Though, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned, I’m not planning to use Smashwords to distribute to Apple and Kobo with future books, I’ll still make sure my latest titles are available there. I know there are quite a few international readers, in particular, who enjoy downloading ebooks from Smashwords (there are no extra fees for them to buy there).

Smashwords also has some perks that make me wish the outfit had made more inroads into the ebook market on its own merits (as a seller and not just a distributor), such as the ability to issue coupons, to offer affiliates a greater percentage of the sales price, and the fact that authors receive a higher royalty rate there than at any of the other stores. Their store interface has never been user friendly, though, and I know it’s rare that I make sales there when I haven’t specifically directed folks to my book links. The times are changing, though, and we may see less and less of a need for a distributor.

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 42 Comments

Winner in the Maldynado-Hat-Design Contest!

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Lindsay

Next week on the blog, we’ll get back to some less frivolous posts, but in the meantime I want to announce a winner in the Maldynado-Hat-Design Contest (if you haven’t been following along, the entries are here and the finalists are here). We had lots of great submissions, but the most popular amongst voters were…

Christian:

This time he had done it – this was unquestionably the hat of a killer. This was a serious, no-nonsense hat for serious no-nonsense people. It was black, low, and sleek, made of the finest brushed velvet and meticulously handcrafted by master millinery artists. It oozed menace, and whispered of blood-soaked deeds carried out by dark men of sinister purpose. This was The Hat. He was vaguely surprised Sicarius didn’t already own one. He added a large, bright pink plume sticking jauntily out of the side. There. Perfect.

and…

Tilly:

They’re both great hats, but I decided to use Christian’s in Book 5. Due to some new suspicions others have toward him (it’s such a pain when one’s family members are plotting to overthrow the throne), he’s trying to be on his best behavior and prove himself a worthy and dependable comrade (he wants to finally earn that statue too!). Of course, it’s Maldynado, so he can’t manage to be entirely serious. The pink feather is just right.

Since they’re both great hats, I’m going to send signed paperbacks to both up-and-coming milliners.

Thanks for entering and voting, everyone!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | 6 Comments

Finalists in the Maldynado-Hat-Design Contest (which is your favorite?)

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Lindsay

It’s been two weeks since I posted the Maldynado Hat Design Contest, and we’ve had a lot of great (humorous!) entries. I was going to pick a winner this weekend, but there were quite a few hats that made Maldynado’s ears perk. So… I’ve picked out a few finalists to post today. If you’re so inclined, let me know which sounds (or looks) best, and I’ll take your opinions into account when finally choosing a winner. The winner’s hat will be used in Book 5, and he or she will also receive signed paperbacks of the first four books.

Thanks, all!

Hat Entries

Seth:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gail:

I’m thinking porcupine quills, a lot of them sticking out, so it looks like a porcupine is sitting on his head. Except this is Maldynado so of course the quills would be dyed some ridiculous color. I can see it being an aviator like cap.

Christian:

This time he had done it – this was unquestionably the hat of a killer. This was a serious, no-nonsense hat for serious no-nonsense people. It was black, low, and sleek, made of the finest brushed velvet and meticulously handcrafted by master millinery artists. It oozed menace, and whispered of blood-soaked deeds carried out by dark men of sinister purpose. This was The Hat. He was vaguely surprised Sicarius didn’t already own one. He added a large, bright pink plume sticking jauntily out of the side. There. Perfect.

Sonya:

1. People are always ready to re-fight the last battle. Having just lost a quick but decisive skirmish with gravity, he’s determined to be better-prepared the next time. Thus, his chapeau of choice in this case is a solid, reliable pith helmet. In this case, though, it is decorated with a scene of hummingbirds in a field of flowers, painted in brilliant blues, greens, and purples; worked over with gold and silver filigree and brightly colored beads; and with a curtain of rich green mosquito netting suspended from the brim. That way, he’ll be ready to blend in in any jewel-toned magical forest glades he should encounter.

Tilly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dawn:

I am thinking that it is about time Maldynado got a nice turban that is tastefully striped in alternating red and white silk cloth. It would have a large gaudy “ruby” set in gold on his forehead. And it would need a large red feather sprouting out of the ruby and curling over his back. Naturally he may have to end up sacrificing this gorgeous creation to make bandages, so it could be useful as well decorative.

Cassandra:

A yellow snakeskin fedora. Specifically albino burmese python skin which is a creamy white and bright yellow. And I think it would need matching feathers in the band to complete the look.

Jane:

How about a shako with a plume on it?

A shako is a tall, cylindrical military cap, usually with a visor, and sometimes tapered at the top. It is usually adorned with some kind of ornamental plate or badge on the front, metallic or otherwise, and often has a feather, plume (see hackle), or pompon attached at the top.

Carolyn:

1) As Maldynado has had all of 20 minutes at the helm of the dirigible, he undoubtedly has earned the right to call himself an “aviator”. I suggest a close-fitting leather cap with goggles, but in a color that will catch the eye (like fuschia).

Anna:

I think he might feel the need to incorporate a little more practicality into his style now that he’s been through so much with the team. I was thinking he could have a sweeping, feathered hat, full of gold and silver swirls, with a descending set of goggles and glasses. Of course, the whole ensemble would have to be ridiculous and fail in some way or another, properly fitting Maldynado’s characteristic slip-ups. Maybe he’d even have a blade hidden somewhere in the device! I can see him hitting the control panel now!
“Wow. Let’s see what this one does! Ah, Sicarius, I didn’t mean for that to happen!”

David:

The drinking game hat.

A broad rimmed hat in some outrageous shade of lime green with a series of six to eight scarlet tassels hanging off the brim.

The hat is sold incomplete as the wearer or player is expected to add the wax sealed corks from various implausibly named and expensive bottles of wine to the tassels as the night wears on.

Possibly with a indent in the top designed to hold the base of a glass of wine, so Maldynado can win bets for dancing the jig or hornpipe without spilling his wine.

Rebekah:

Here’s my idea: What about a Spartan- type hat? 🙂 I drew a couple of pictures of them. The color I’m not so sure about, but I’m sure These types of Maldynado-worthy hats come in all sorts of colors. 🙂 here’s the link to my pictures. http://artoflonewolf.blogspot.com/2012/05/picture.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynne:

My mom told me about this contest during dinner and I immediately thought of the following hat. Said hat is hard to describe, and easier to explain how to make.

Take a pair of silk, ladies victorian bloomers with a thick ruffle on the waist, that go to the mid thigh. Turn them upside down, so that the opening on the hat would be where ones waist normally goes. Take the ruffle off the legs and stuff one leg down the other, then sew them together. This should result in a poof on the top of the hat. Take the end of the poof that is closest to what you want the back of the hat to be and tack it to the seat of the bloomers. This is to prevent the poof from falling down in ones face as you flee. The ruffle should just flop down and give the same sort of appearance that cockatoo feathers do when the birds are irritated. Place on head and you have a very distracting and distinctive hat.

The color of course would have to be beige. Nevermind. Knowing Maldynado he would never wear a color as mundane as beige. It needs to be ecru.

As you can imagine, the description of said hat made it very hard to finish dinner.

Sonya:

Hat #1: Beyond tactics and sound judgment, the single most important quality in naval officers is the ability to present an image of being unflappably, totally in control. This hat was made with that ideal firmly in mind. In many respects, it was a standard-issue black naval bicorne. However, this hat, unlike its more mundane contemporaries, rested entirely on a large gyroscopic balance within the crown, so as to be always level no matter how much the wearer pitched or swayed. It was made to offer a sailor the image of his or her commander being a fixed, reliable, and immutable point on a turbulent ship. Whether it would in fact do so at sea was unknown, but it certainly tended to impart a strangely unsettled feeling in onlookers on land – most of whom would only gradually become aware that, depending on your point of view, either the hat was staying still while the man moved under it, or the man was staying still and the hat was slowly roaming around his head. It was unnerving. And produced in Maldynado the pronounced desire to fidget.

A last comic from Seth who entertained us with several entries on Facebook:

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , | 53 Comments

What Does It Take to Become a Full-Time Indie Author?

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Lindsay

A few months ago, I changed my Twitter bio from “indie fantasy/steampunk author” to “full-time indie fantasy/steampunk author.” Apparently a couple of people actually read that Twitter bio, because I’ve had questions about it.

–You really earn a living from your ebooks?
–How many books do you have to write to do that?
–Are you a bestseller?
–If not, how many do you have to sell?
–How do I sell that many books?

I’m going to try to answer some of those questions today, though before I get started, let me admit that I’m not really there yet, insofar as being confident that writing books is all I’ll ever need to do to pay the bills and eventually purchase a suitable super-villain lair.

I feel like I’m on the right path, but I currently rely heavily on Amazon for my income (sales in the Kindle Store make up about 85% of my earnings with Barnes & Noble accounting for 10% and Smashwords and partners making up the last 5%). If Amazon decided to cut its royalty rates tomorrow, giving indie authors 35% instead of 70% for instance, that would make a huge difference in my income. Or, if Amazon made a change in its algorithms to favor traditionally published authors over indies or some such, that could make a big difference too.

Because of that potential for volatility, and the fact that I’ve only been at this publishing thing for 18 months or so, I’m not going to make any claims that this is the definitive guide to quitting the day job and becoming a career writer. I’ll just share what I’ve been doing and what my grand plan is (yeah, I have a grand plan — what, you thought someone scoping out villain lairs wouldn’t?).

What I’ve done so far:

Write books, short stories, and novellas

Duh, I know, but it’s hard to get momentum going when you only have one or two books out. It usually takes more exposures to your work for readers to decide they’re fans. Also, when you’re working hard on promoting a book, you get more return on your effort if there’s a series people can go on to buy, rather than a single title.

In December of 2010, I started out with The Emperor’s Edge and, a month later, Encrypted, two loosely related fantasy novels I’d written but never shopped around to agents (word on the AgentQuery site was that nobody was particularly interested in secondary world fantasy).

Sales were slow at first (so you’re not alone if that sounds like you). I had some luck running an advertising campaign on Goodreads and giving away a free short story starring my Emperor’s Edge characters (though, at the time, I didn’t know how to get that free story into Amazon). What next? I wrote. A lot (by my standards anyway). I published the first Flash Gold adventure (a novella) that spring, the second EE book in June, another Flash Gold novella that summer, and the third EE book in November.

I had some good months last summer where I saw the potential of e-publishing and started to think I could do this for a living someday, but it wasn’t until Book 3 in my series came out that things really picked up and I started getting more sales and a bunch of fan mail too. (Very cool, by the way. Who woulda thunk self-published authors would get fan mail?)

So far in 2012, I’ve published a short story, a third Flash Gold novella, and, at the end of April, my fourth Emperor’s Edge book. The final numbers aren’t in for May yet, but, thanks to that new release, it’s going to be my best month ever. And by “ever,” I mean ever. I was self-employed before this, and made a pretty good living from my old job, but May will trump what I earned in my best months at the old job. I don’t know if the entire year will be my best ever, though I’d guess not (even though I’m writing a lot, I can’t put out a new release every month, and, once the core fans catch up with the series, sales naturally dwindle to match what the rest of the books in the series are doing). Still, I could see 2013 being pretty awesome if the trend continues.

The theme here is that I’m writing a lot and putting out something new, even if it’s just a short story, every couple of months. Can you make a living as an indie author if you’re only publishing one novel a year? Sure. It’s just going to take longer. Of course, if you’re one of those lucky (or was it unlucky?) writers with eight trunk novels ready to be published, it might take less long.

By the way, I’ve never been in the Amazon Top 100 (or in the Top 1000 for more than a couple of days), and I’m not particularly visible even in my sub-categories (epic fantasy/historical fantasy) in the Kindle Store. You don’t have to be an uber seller to make a living, though you have to, of course, have characters and/or plots that capture people’s imaginations and turn them into fans (not everyone has to like your books but enough people do so that you get good reviews and you word-of-mouth “advertising” from readers). If you have ten books priced at $4.99, and they sell 200 copies a month, you’re earning over $6,000 a month.

I don’t mean to make it sound like it’s easy to write ten books or sell 200 copies a month of a title (I would have rolled my eyes at such a comment 16 months ago), but, right now, the numbers tell us that making a living as an indie author is a lot more doable than making a living as a traditionally published author (where the per-book cut is a lot smaller). If you’re mid-list as an indie, and you have a stable of books that are doing moderately well, you’ve got it made in the short-term. If… you’re building your tribe along the way, you ought to have it made in the long-term too (more on that below).

I’ve given away work for free

What else have I done that’s made a big difference? Last November, when I released Book 3, I started giving away the first book for free. That got a lot more people into the series, people who went on to pick up Books 2, 3, and 4. I also made the first Flash Gold novella free.

I’ve tried a lot when it comes to online promotion, everything from guest posts to book blog tours to contests to paid advertising, and nothing compares with having a free ebook in the major stores. Not only will people simply find it on their own, but it’s so much easier to promote something that’s free. If you do buy advertising (and I do from time to time), it’ll be the difference between selling 25 copies and getting 5,000 downloads (i.e. 5,000 new people exposed to your work), because people live in hope that they’ll find something good amongst the free offerings.

I’ve heard authors argue that most people who download free ebooks just collect them, like shiny pebbles on the beach, and that they never even bother to check them out. I say B.S. to that. I’d bet money that most people try the books they download; it’s just that they find most of them don’t pique their interest. Maybe they’ll download 50 or 100 ebooks and only find one where they want to read the whole thing. That’s fine. That just means you have to make sure your story is entertaining enough to be The One.

The power of the series:

I should mention here that, while giving away a free ebook can be huge, it’s key that the story be part of a series, or at least strongly related to the book(s) you’re trying to sell.

I just don’t see people having the same sorts of results when their free novel or short story isn’t related to the rest of their work. Oh, it might help a little, but not the way a Book 1 that ends on a cliffhanger will. (My first book admittedly doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but it does have a teaser epilogue to let folks know that there’s a lot more to come.)

Just to be clear here, the free ebook isn’t just about hooking people or tricking them into buying more books. It’s about good will too. It’s about letting people try your work for free, at no risk. It’s about starting your relationship with new readers off on a good foot. If they like the book, maybe they’ll buy the next one. Maybe they’ll share the free one with a friend. Maybe they’ll leave a nice review on Amazon. But if they don’t like it, they’ve lost nothing but a little of their time. You don’t get the resentful “I can’t believe I wasted $8 on this” kind of comments. If they’re disappointed, people are more likely to think, “Well, it was free; what did I expect?” But if they like it, they feel like they won a prize in a lottery.

This is why I plan to continue to give work away for free. It’s also why I don’t worry about it if my books appear on piracy sites (apparently they do now — I feel popular!).

Have you ever watched Neil Gaiman’s comments on piracy? It’s short. Go ahead and watch it. I’ll wait.

Another point I want to make, for those who are thinking, “Oh, I’ll just make some old trunk story free because it’s too short to sell anyway,” or “I’ll just give away some sample chapters,” is that what you give away for free should be great. Great in your mind, anyway. Art is subjective after all, so one person’s great is another person’s garbage. But this is your chance to wow people and turn them into fans. Don’t save your best stuff for the readers willing to buy. Give away your best stuff, and people will buy the rest because what they got made them fall in love with your characters, or your world, or your masterful fight scenes, or the way you write twist endings.

The only way to get someone’s attention (and that’s what we’re all looking to do as new authors), and to make sure your free offering is the one out of 50 or 100 that someone actually reads, is to stand out. Give ’em your best.

I’ve tried to cultivate a fan-base, or, as Seth Godin might call it, a tribe

I see a lot of indie authors trying to figure out exactly how Amazon’s algorithms work so they can find a way to take advantage of a loophole and get catapulted up the bestseller listings. To this ends, I’ve seen authors try to get a hundred people to buy their book in the same hour. I’ve seen them pay for 5-star reviews on Fiverr. I’ve seen them participate in massive book-tagging threads on forums. I’ve seen them go exclusive with Amazon in hopes of great rewards from KDP Select. I’ve seen… lots.

And, hey, I’m not above taking advantage of an opportunity myself, but I’ve always believed that any victories achieved through these sorts of tactics would be short-lived (and, in most cases, I’ve seen that to be true). That’s why I’m trying to focus on getting my work out there to the fans and not worrying about the other stuff.

Early on, I stumbled across Kevin Kelly’s “1000 True Fans” article. If you’re an indie anything, it’s a great read.

The gist is that you don’t have to be a mega seller. You just need X number of true fans (people who love your stuff and will buy everything you put out), and you’re assured that you can make a living at your art, so long as you to continue to produce quality material.

I believe, for an indie author, the number is probably around 10,000 rather than 1,000 (we only make a couple of dollars on a sale, after all). This is a large number, but, given that we can so easily get our work into Amazon, B&N, etc. where millions of eyeballs await, finding this many loyal readers isn’t infeasible, especially when you realize you can collect them over years, maybe even decades, so long as you’re in this for the long haul.

Why 10,000? Well, let’s say you have 10,000 true fans, 10,000 people who buy each novel you put out. If you publish two novels a year, each priced at $4.95, you will, under the current paradigm, make $60,000 a year. That’s a better-than-average income in most parts of the world.

Want more? That’s okay. It’ll probably happen. Remember, those 10,000 folks are your true fans, the ones who buy everything. You’ll end up with other people who will buy the books with such-and-such character in it or who will pick up a book or two just because they look interesting. You’ll end up selling far more than 20,000 books a year.

And, if Amazon stops listing self-published books tomorrow, your career isn’t in the toilet, because you’re smart and have collected the email addresses of your 10,000 true fans (see previous posts on the how and why of starting a mailing list). You can email them to let them know that you’ll now be selling your books from your site or you’ll be doing a Kickstarter campaign to finance the next book. Whatever. These folks have your back!

Remember way up at the beginning of the article where I said I was making a full-time income but wasn’t all that confident that I was permanently there yet? That’s because I don’t have 10,000 true fans yet. Based on my newsletter subscribers, I’d guess I have about a thousand. That’s an awesome number, but my plan (remember, too, that I mentioned a master plan) is to work toward getting that 10,000.

So, how does one acquire these 10,000 true fans?

Here’s what I’ve been doing and will continue to do:

  • I use the afterword of my ebooks to let readers know they can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and this blog. Also, I mention that I have a newsletter, and it’d rock if they signed up for it. The newsletter is key, because, as I said, it’s the one way I have of contacting my readers if chaos strikes in the self-publishing world (i.e. Amazon implodes).
  • I use Facebook as a place to interact with my readers (I don’t try to sell squat on Facebook; I post links to interviews, cut scenes, contests, etc. and sometimes throw up snippets of whatever scene or piece of dialogue I’m working on). What’s awesome is when people interact with each other here. I mentioned Seth Godin’s concept of a tribe. He’s written a whole book on the subject, but the idea is to be a leader of people with a common interest, goal, job, etc.. You can “lead” through your books, and, if you give people a place to interact, your books can be the connection that links folks who never would have met each other otherwise. Suddenly, you’ve created this thing, this entity, that’s greater than you are. Pretty cool, huh?
  • When a reader put together a fan forum for my books, I linked to it from my blog, and I try to remember to mention it in tweets and on Facebook now and then. Over there, folks can take conversations much further than they can on Facebook.
  • I not only have comments enabled on my blog, but I added the plug-in that allows nested comments (i.e. readers can reply to each others’ comments). Again, it’s about creating a community rather than standing on a pulpit and preaching. I hope to figure out more ways to use technology to encourage that community to grow in the future.
  • My focus may be on getting the next book written, but I’m often thinking about cool things I can do for my readers. As I write this, folks can enter a contest to design a hat for one of my more flamboyant characters. The winner will receive signed paperbacks and see his/her hat appear in the next book. On one of my character-interview blog posts, a reader mentioned that only one author she read did things like that. That stunned me. Really? Most authors aren’t doing that stuff? Well, there’s an easy way right there to stand out amongst your peers.

Yes, all this stuff takes time, but it pays off in the end. Most of us are never going to hit the publishing lottery (the $100,000 sales month or the 2-million-dollar book deal), but 10,000 fans? That’s a reasonable goal. I have a hunch, too, that the first thousand are the hardest to get and, after that, word-of-mouth will be on your side.

Thoughts? Please chime in below.

 

 

 

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 81 Comments

Cut Scene from Dark Currents (EE Book 2)

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Lindsay

A reader recently mentioned that she enjoyed the Sicarius interview and would love to see more extras. Since writing new material might take time away from working on EE5, maybe I could find some cut scenes to post? Well, ask and ye shall receive.

This is a short snippet I found in the EE2 scrap pile with the title of “Maldy tries to take advantage” (No, no, not in that way.). It was originally part of the scene where the team is riding up to the hidden lake, and Amaranthe and Sicarius are in the back of the lorry, cleaning their weapons and discussing events. It breaks off at the end when the glowing-eyed cougar is about to attack.

~

Maldynado stepped into the lorry bed and eyed their cleaning kits. “Anyone want to scrub my weapons?”

“No,” Amaranthe said.

“But you’re a natural at that sort of thing,” Maldynado said. “I like the way you’ve laid everything out in perfectly parallel lines.”

“I prefer a tidy area.” She glanced at Sicarius. His weapons were spread out just as neatly.

“Hm.” Maldynado slid his rapier free of its sheath. “It’d be unfortunate if someone dirtied your area by carelessly leaving a grimy old sword next to your shiny clean weapons.”

He set his blade on the edge of her towel. Smudges marred the surface and something gummy stuck to the forte. Amaranthe’s fingers twitched toward it.

Maldynado nudged it so it was out of alignment with the others. “Just in case you finish yours and—”

Sicarius’s hand blurred, and the point of the rapier appeared at Maldynado’s chest. Sicarius still sat cross-legged, relaxed and calm except for the outstretched arm holding the sword.

Eyes bulging, Maldynado did not move.

“Tend to it yourself,” Sicarius said.

Maldynado stepped back, arms wide. “I will. It was a joke.”

“It was not. You were trying to take advantage of her.”

“I was not. I mean, I was, but not in a mean way. In a friendly way.”

In a lazy way, Amaranthe thought, though not with rancor. She would have cleaned it as a favor, then reminded Maldynado later that he owed her a favor. She remained silent, not sure whether she should agree with Sicarius or tell him she would prefer to handle the men in her own way. It seemed a weakness to let him stand up for her—and she hardly needed that when it came to Maldynado’s innocuous joshing—but she did not want to squabble with him in front of the others.

“She is not your chum; she’s your employer. Act like it.” Sicarius flipped the sword and extended the hilt to Maldynado.

Maldynado grabbed the rapier, jammed it into its scabbard, and threw up his hands. “Whatever you two say.” He pointed a finger at Amaranthe. “You do realize it’s going to be hard for us to set you up with that pretty warrior-caste newspaper fellow as long as you have a viper coiled around your arm.”

Though Sicarius did not move, Amaranthe felt the air grow frostier around him. She waved Maldynado back and tried to soften the tension with a smile. “Thank you, Maldynado, I’ll consider your advice.”

He sniffed and climbed back into the cab.

Amaranthe reassembled the pistol. “That’s why people don’t tease you, you know.” She measured powder to load the weapon, grimacing when the swaying of the lorry made her spill some. “If they dare, you threaten them or give them the Death Stare of Doom.”

“You can lead men or befriend them, not both,” Sicarius said.

She rammed a ball home. “While I value your counsel, you must know I’m not one to create artificial distance around myself. Leading through—”

 ~

Thanks for reading. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to writing Book 5!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Writers’ Conferences–Valuable for an Indie Author?

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Lindsay

I’m plugging away at my next novel (70,000 words into EE5, in case anyone is wondering!), so I’m glad to have a guest poster lined up for today. Indie fantasy author Dale Ivan Smith is here to talk about writers’ conferences today. Are they worthwhile for those who want to self-publish? Let’s take a look…

Is there value for an indie author at writers’ conferences?

Writers’ conferences have long been a place where aspiring writers thronged, attending panels to listen to editors and agents dispense marketing advice and publishing wisdom, and line up for pitch seasons, where they could have a few minutes of an agent or editor’s time to run a novel or non-fiction book proposal past them, hoping that lightning would strike. Writers still head to annual conferences, hoping to connect with an agent or an editor and be invited to submit the first few pages to the agency or publishing house.

This is all well and good for writers looking to land a contract with a big NYC publisher or a small press, but what about the indie author? Is there any reason you should attend a writer’s conference? Conferences can run four hundred dollars or more for a weekend, not counting hotel, food and transportation. Is it worth your hard earned dollars to spend 1 to 3 days with fellow writers, editors and agents at hotel?

My short answer is a resounding yes! Writing conferences can offer far more than just pitch sessions and editor/agent panels, and even those have value for indie authors.

Writers’ conferences usually have a well-stocked schedule of workshops and panels on all sorts of writing craft topics, from putting emotion into your fiction, plotting, world building, inspiration, you name it. At my local annual conference put on by the Willamette Writers, there are panel and workshop tracks on fiction writing, non-fiction, YA fiction, and general topics. I’ve taken workshops from bestselling thriller author Larry Brooks, the “story fixer”, SF and mystery writer Mary Rosenblum, and accomplished short story writer Eric Witchey, to name but three. All are accomplished teachers. Craft workshops can range from a presentation on a topic and questions and answers, to writing exercises where you may, if you wish, share what you wrote with the workshop leader and your fellow attendees.

Despite having read a number of books on fiction writing, workshops opened my eyes to understanding how a story works, and beginning to learn to break down the craft of fiction into parts, much like analyzing a golf swing or learning to play the piano, something which had never occurred to me before.

Looking at the conference schedule for this year’s Write on the River conference, held in central Washington state, you will find a workshop by accomplished SF novelist and screenwriter Steve Barnes on the Hero’s Journey, another on making your writing process fun by C.C. Humphries, who also will offer an extensive longer workshop building a novel on Sunday. The big Surrey Writers’ Conference, in British Columbia, even offers master classes immediately before the conference begins in mid-October every year.

Of course, writing well isn’t just honing your craft, and learning useful techniques and tips on plotting or characterization. It’s also about finding inspiration, and facing the blank page. I took a terrific workshop a few years ago at my first conference from Eric Witchey on dealing with procrastination, with tips like writing for 15 minutes first thing in the morning, recognizing obstacles that keep you from writing, and how to turn them into allies to help you write. (Come to think of it, I need to rewrite my workshop notes.)

You can also find plenty of opportunities to cross-pollinate. For instance the right screenwriting workshop can give you unexpected insights into story structure, suspense, motivation etc. Screenwriting may be extremely stripped down in terms of narrative, but movie dialog has to work on multiple levels, and plot and structure are often tight and well-honed.

The “general” track at the Willamette Writers Conference covers publishing, finding agents, what editors want etc. But these days’ panels and workshops on all sorts of indie publishing topics are being offered as well in that general panel and workshop track, covering things like promotion, marketing, using social media, search engine optimization, building a career as a self-published writer, designing an eBook, etc.–the same sorts of things Lindsay has written extensively about here. There is a growing recognition that indie publishing is another way to reach readers and possibly make a living doing so.

While you might not be aiming at traditional publication, pitching to agents can still prove useful, giving you feedback, and perhaps landing you an agent if you decide to pursue a traditional book contract on the side, or to help with foreign rights. It’s also good practice for framing your novel, and helping with distilling it down for your description at Amazon, Smashwords, B&N and other e-book distributors. The same goes to pitching for editors. Moreover, conferences could lead to meeting a freelance editor or a referral to one for content or copy editing.

Also, often you can submit a first chapter or a short story for a paid manuscript evaluation at a conference, which can give you some extremely useful professional feedback. I did that at Willamette Writers a couple of years ago and found it a big boost to being able to look objectively at my own fiction, not an easy task for many of us. I sat down with an author who had read my manuscript and we went over his comments—I was able to ask clarifying questions. His written feedback was well worth the modest price, an additional charge not covered by the conference registration fee. Check with your local conference, chances are you’ll have an opportunity to submit a first chapter or short story for evaluation.

Connecting with other writers is one of the biggest benefits from a conference in my experience. Back in 2009, I ran into an old friend, a fellow writer, who had moved away years ago. We reconnected just at a writing workshop the last day of the conference, and went on to form a new critique group, which has been invaluable in improving my writing. And renewing my friendship with my writing pal led to him introducing me to a number of other local writers.

There are also intangible benefits from attending a conference. I had kept my writing to myself for several years, after some intense experiences in previous critique groups and accumulating a pile of rejection slips from various science fiction and fantasy magazines. Just going to my first Willamette Writers conference was a public acknowledgement that yes, I was a fiction writer, and I was rubbing shoulders with many other kindred spirits. It was a boost to my confidence, and the first step in getting my work back out into the world. That workshop I took on dealing with procrastination was at the same conference, and it led to my taking several classes from the instructor, which also was a huge help in improving my writing.

To recap, yes writers’ conferences have a lot to offer the indie author:

  • Workshops and panels on writing craft topics.
  • An opportunity to cross-pollinate with film, YA, and non-fiction.
  • Panels and workshops on indie publishing.
  • Pitching can be good practice even for indie authors, and you can meet agents and editors there. It’s also a place to meet potential free-lance editors, too.
  • Paid critique and manuscript evaluation.
  • Networking—you meet other writers, share stories, and find possible critique groups or beta readers.
  • Intangibles like confidence building and acknowledging to yourself that yes, you are a writer.

If you are interested in attending a writers’ conference, how do you find one? The good news is there may be one closer than you realize. Many cities in the United States host an annual conference, often put on by their local writer’s organization. Here in Oregon the Willamette Writers and the Oregon Writers Colony both run a conference each year.

In the Pacific Northwest alone we have the following:

Surrey Writers’ Conference: http://www.siwc.ca/

Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference: http://www.pnwa.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=5

Write on the River: http://writeontheriver.org/

Willamette Writers: http://www.willamettewriters.com/wwc/3/

I’ve never attended Surrey, but several friends have. It’s the largest of the four above and has a stellar reputation. Write on the River is the smallest, but still has a number of panels and workshops.

The following sites can help you search for writers conferences in your area:

Retreats for Writers: http://www.retreatsforwriters.com/conferences/

Writers’ conferences and centers: http://www.writersconf.org/

Writer’s Digest: www.writersdigest.com

Writer magazine:  http://www.writermag.com/events.aspx?page=list

*****

Bio: Dale Ivan Smith has his mother to thank for his love of science fiction and fantasy. When he was five, he glimpsed the cover of a paperback sci-fi novel she was reading and was immediately interested. (It had a giant radioactive spider on the cover.) When he was fifteen, she loaned him her collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom novels and he devoured them in short order. He got into trouble in grade school for sneaking off to the library during class, so naturally he wound up working as a librarian. While he has had fiction published in a couple of magazine and had the goal of having novels traditionally published, he has now embraced indie publishing. His story Persisting is now up at Amazon and Smashwords. In July, Episode 1 of his serial Weed will be published. You can find him at  www.daleivansmith.com, where he blogs about science fiction, fantasy, ereaders, and his fiction.  

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Contest: Design Maldynado’s Next Hat for a Chance to Win Signed Paperbacks

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Lindsay

As you may know if you follow my Facebook page, I’ve been mulling over ideas for a new contest. I’ll have some shiny new Conspiracy paperbacks coming my way soon, and I’d like to give away a set of all four books. EE1-4, signed, and (if you wish) personalized.

How can you enter the contest? Help me with a crucial plot element in Book 5:

I need design ideas for Maldynado’s next hat.

I’m afraid his current hat won’t make it through the dirigible crash, and, as team shopper and all-around-charming guy, it’s going to be up to him to venture into the city and acquire stylish new digs for the team, including (naturally) fashionable headgear for himself. As readers know from previous books, Maldynado’s idea of fashionable has occasionally been considered silly by others…

Feel free to get creative!

You don’t have to draw anything (though it would be fun to see some pictures!); you can simply describe your hat idea with words.

Entries can be posted in the comments of this blog post or on my Facebook page. I’ll leave the contest open for two weeks and then pick a winner and incorporate the hat into EE5. The winner will receive the set of paperbacks, and, yes, you can be located anywhere in the world to win.

Thanks!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , , | 85 Comments

Updates to Amazon’s Book Ranking Algorithms: The Death of 99-Cent Ebooks? An End to KDP Select Perks?

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Lindsay

Ever wonder how Amazon’s ranking algorithms work? Why one book gets recommended to readers and another doesn’t? The difference between the popularity lists and the bestseller lists? Well, indie author Edward W. Robertson doesn’t work for Amazon, but he’s a stats junkie who’s been studying the e-seller’s algorithms for a while. Today, he’s here to answer questions on how books get ranked and recommended along with new changes that could punish 99-cent titles and take some of the appeal out of the KDP Select program.

Amazon Algorithms Examined

You seem to enjoy studying how Amazon’s algorithms work for ranking and recommending books. Before we talk about what’s new, could you give authors an idea of how things work, at least insofar as you know? What goes into ranking a book and causing it to appear on such-and-such bestseller list? Also, what’s the difference between the bestseller lists and the popularity lists?

Yeah, studying these things is a lot of fun for me. I don’t have any formal training in numbermancy (which I’m pretty sure is the term), but spending the last 10-12 years reading about the statistical study of baseball appears to have taught me a few things about data analysis. Perhaps I wasn’t wasting my life after all!

On to the lists. Everyone who’s spent much time on the Kindle store has seen both the bestseller and the popularity lists. The bestseller list is the Top 100 of a given category of books. For instance, here’s the bestseller list for Epic Fantasy.

The popularity list is the list of all books in that category. Here’s the popularity list for Epic Fantasy.

What you’re currently seeing on those lists will depend on when you’re reading this, but you’ll note they aren’t identical. That’s because they differ in key ways. The bestseller list is essentially a gauge of how many copies a book has sold over the last 24 hours. It takes longer-term sales into account to a degree, but the last 24 hours are far and away the most important factor. A book can rise and fall extremely swiftly on the bestseller list.

The popularity list is more complicated. For one thing, Amazon changes the formula for how it’s calculated a few times a year. Currently, to the best of my knowledge, the popularity list is the accumulated sales of a book’s last 30 days compared to those in its category–but free books given away only count for roughly 10% of a paid sale, and price is factored in as well, in that the higher your price, the more each sale counts for on the list. Lastly, borrows aren’t counted as sales for purposes of popularity list rank. The formula looks something like this:

(sales + (0.1 x free downloads)) x (unknown sales factor) / last 30 days

A simpler way to think about it is gross revenue earned by your book over the last 30 days (with an additional boost depending on how many copies you’ve also given away). I’m not sure that’s a 100% accurate way to put it, but it fits the data we’ve seen well enough to work as shorthand.

In short, then, appearing on the bestseller lists is mostly all about having sold a bunch of copies in the last 24-48 hours. To appear high on the popularity lists, however, you need strong sales (or an extremely strong giveaway) over the last 30 days. Additionally, the higher your price, the fewer books you’ll have to sell to do well on the popularity lists; the lower your price, the more you’ll have to sell.

That’s a lot of information! What is the popularity list actually used for? It sounds like that’s what the changes are effecting, but, as a shopper, I wasn’t particularly aware of it until recently, so I never used it to find books. Do people actually browse through it? Or is it used for determining recommendations?

The popularity lists are pretty important. Obviously, Amazon has an almost endless assortment of ways to promote books from within the store itself, but I think the popularity lists are one of the major factors. See the main Kindle store page? With all those links on the left to a variety of different genres? Those bring you to the popularity lists.

So they’re pretty prominent. Both for browsing and, yes, for recommendations–when Amazon sends out emails along the lines of “You might enjoy these other books in Epic Fantasy,” the links they include take you to the popularity list for that category of books.

Of course, the importance of any given category varies quite a bit by its overall popularity with readers. Romance > Romantic Suspense might be just a little more important than Basketry > Underwater Basketweaving. Ranking high on the popularity lists of small categories won’t make much difference. But in the well-trafficked ones, it’s pretty big.

It’s hard to know just how huge unless you are actually Amazon, but if I were to make conservative guesses based on my experiences, being on the first page in Epic Fantasy might lead directly to 20-60 sales per day based on your visibility there alone. (And maybe much more. This will vary a lot depending on your book’s overall appeal. I’m sure A Game of Thrones benefits from it just a little bit more than my dinky indie title did.) In Science Fiction > Adventure, I’d say it might be good for as many as 30-100 sales. For the biggest categories like Romance and Mystery & Thrillers, the visibility the popularity lists provide to the top books might be responsible for thousands of monthly sales by themselves.

Key word “might.” This is really tough to estimate. But in my experience, a lot of people see these lists, both when they’re browsing around Amazon and when they’re directed there by emails. Based on post-free results from hundreds of different authors, I’m positive the popularity lists were the main drivers for the big sales Select authors used to see after making their books free. Now that it’s so much harder to achieve high visibility on these lists via free alone, I’m afraid Select authors are in for some much leaner sales.

Yes, in a recent Kindleboards post, you mentioned that Amazon’s changes would effect those using KDP Select. Can you summarize what’s been going on and what the changes may mean for authors?

Amazon has made significant changes to their popularity list algorithms twice this year. Around March 19, they started using three lists at once. Around May 3, they condensed that to a single list. The new list works as I’ve detailed above.

If you’re in Select and have been doing book giveaways, you may have noticed that you started selling fewer copies after a free run starting March 19. You’ve probably done even worse since May 3. That’s because free copies used to be weighted equally with paid sales on the popularity lists–which also looked at most recent sales most heavily.

But now that free downloads only count for about 10% of a paid sale, and the lists look at the last 30 days of sales rather than the last week or so, it can be really hard to land high on the popularity lists unless you give away a colossal amount of books. (Though if you can make it there, you’ll stick for longer.) Without the visibility of the popularity lists to drive your sales, you probably won’t see the “post-free bump” we grew used to in the first few months of Select. Select can still be an effective program, but for the moment, it’s far less useful for generating sales than it once was.

For instance, back in February, I gave away 9000 copies of my fantasy novel The White Tree. That was enough to put me at #1 on the Epic Fantasy popularity list for several days. I sold a lot of books! In March, I gave away another 4700 copies. On a similar version of the list we’re currently seeing, that was only enough to boost me to #65. I didn’t sell nearly as many books!

For a more in-depth look at these changes, check out my series of posts here, here, and here.

In that last post, you talked about how the new changes may make it harder for authors with 99-cent ebooks to rank as well. What exactly are you seeing and what price points seem to be favored?

Yes. Price now seems to be a factor as well. Collecting data on this is really hard–in fact, I can’t even say with total certainty this theory is correct–but there’s a strong correlation between price and relative position on the popularity lists. In short, the higher your price, the better you’ll place relative to your overall sales.

The favored price point in this new system is “as much as you can get away with charging.” It looks like $0.99 books have been pretty well massacred. $2.99 books can still place well (particularly when they’re boosted by giveaways), but they’re at a noticeable disadvantage. Something like $5.99 – $12.99 looks to be the ideal range at the moment. Affordable enough for people to buy in droves (if the quality is there), but with a high enough price to hang with all the high-priced traditionally published books.

This is not a call to jack up your prices. If you raise your book to $7.99 and only sell 20% of what you were doing at $2.99, you’ll be worse off on the popularity lists. And remember, the popularity lists are just one way to generate sales (although it is a significant one). But since price appears to be directly relevant now, it’s something to be aware of when positioning your book.

Any thoughts on why Amazon might be making these changes? To push people into their ideal $2.99 – $9.99 pricing bracket?

I don’t know. Could be, but it’s not like Amazon made any announcements about this. I don’t think Amazon builds these algorithms with overly specific goals in mind. Like, nobody in Seattle woke up one morning and said, “And now I ruin John Locke’s life! Ah ha ha ha!” As far as I can see, all they care about is what will make them the most money now and continue to do so ten years from now.

Do you have any parting thoughts on what these changes might mean for authors who hope to do well in the second half of 2012 and beyond? It seems like some of the “tricks” indies have used to outperform mainstream books (99-cent price tags, KDP Select free days, etc.) might not work as well in the future. Will this force us all (Big 6, small press, and self-published authors) to sell and promote our books in the same way?

This is just one more step in the ongoing and absurdly fast-paced evolution of the ebook market. The algorithms could change again tomorrow or six months from now. Amazon makes changes all that time.

That said, in the meantime, Select isn’t the money-printing machine it once was. To sell many books, you’ll have to do more with it than “set book free, sit on couch, drink fruity drink.” You need to have a secondary strategy to make your book visible after your free run’s over, or use your free run to specifically generate visibility for your other books. So maybe the strategy is to make the first book in a series free on a regular basis, or taking out an ad to run the day after your book reverts to paid to try to cluster as many sales into one day and climb the bestseller lists, etc. Indies are still in the process of working this out.

If these changes stick around long-term, we might see a convergence of prices, tactics, etc. between indie and trad publishers. But I think that, for better or worse, we’ll see yet another change before the year is up. Maybe several of them. While the current changes don’t look good for Amazon’s indie crew, we still have the advantage of being able to adapt faster to them–and to whatever comes next.

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions, Ed!

~

Edward’s bio and information on his books:

Born in the Pacific Northwest, Ed recently moved with his fiancee to Los Angeles, where they’ve since accumulated three small furry mammals. A sci-fi and fantasy author, his short stories have appeared in a couple dozen magazines online and in print. His epic fantasy novel The White Tree and the postapocalyptic thriller Breakers are both available through Amazon. A more complete list of his work is available here.

Note: if you’re reading this on Friday the 18th, Breakers is free at Amazon, so make sure to check it out!

 

Posted in Amazon Kindle Sales | Tagged , , , , , | 66 Comments