[Note from Steve: this blog newsletter appears most Fridays.  If you miss an issue, back numbers are filed in the blog category with the same name.]

Wattpad.  I’m trying it.  I posted “The Call,” a short, short story seen here in “Steve’s Shorts.”  It’s probably not going to do much for me.  AFTER I joined, I googled “pros and cons of wattpad” and found it’s a mixed bag.  It seems to be used more by authors seeking traditional publishing contracts, and focused on romance-related stories.  I’ll be a duck out of water, I guess.  Any experiences with this?  I figure, if I’m giving away some free short stories, I might as well try to increase the audience.  BTW, I was motivated to do this because I saw that Margaret Atwood gives away free stuff here.  I’m not holding my breath because Atwood clearly already has a vast following.

Critique groups.  Wattpad isn’t a critique site.  It’s more like American Idol—the idea is to collect followers and create a brand name from the author’s perspective.  From the reader’s, it’s more about finding free stuff to read.  I couldn’t find anything like critique groups.

When I started way back when, I had a lot of writing already behind me, so I tried to help young authors at the now defunct critique site EditRed.  I put in some time, but I probably didn’t help all that much.  Of course, many MFAs are based on the critique group paradigm, and there are many other sites now on the internet.  If you’re a newbie author, they could be useful, I guess, but you’re always running through a gauntlet of “experts” who think the right way to write is how they write.  In other words, your voice, in the colloquial and technical sense, can be drowned out by the cacophony of “experts.”

I guess a critique group is better than NaNoWriMo.  Why anyone in her/his right mind thinks s/he can write a novel in one (!) month is beyond me.  In both cases, though, your time is probably better spent writing and self-critiquing what you write after perusing published suggestions about how to do it.  Know the rules before you break them certainly, but don’t let any so-called experts squash your creative spirit.

Indie v. traditional?  “I’ve always maintained that no publisher should make more money off a book than the writer does.”  Sounds like an argument for going indie, right?  Traditional publishing’s contracts give meager allowances (which the author has to “earn out” before s/he gets royalties), 10 to 15% royalties, and exclusivity clauses that you have to buy out if you want rights to your novel later.  Moreover, there are fewer benefits offered for signing said contracts every year.

With the indie paradigm, an author holds all rights, and s/he receives 35% to 70% royalties from Amazon (Smashwords percentages are less than Amazon’s except for ebooks sold on their website, but even ebooks they distribute as wholesalers to retailers receive more royalties than traditional).  Financially, that means that every indie writer can make more than his publisher because there is NO publisher.  (Yeah, I know many of us create or use a phantom publisher—that gives us something to fill in on that Amazon or Smashwords form.  Phantoms, real or virtual, don’t make money off a book after it’s published—only the indie author.)

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The more the merrier.  Born Lew Alcindor, NYC native Kareem Abdul-Jabbar certainly doesn’t have to worry about name recognition.  The 2.18 m (7’2”) NBA legend said in the Sydney Morning Herald (9/19): “…writing has basically been what I wanted to do the whole time.” Meaning?  He had a day-job (day-and-night-job?) that distracted him because he had to put food on the family table?  At any rate, we have something in common.  By the way, his new book, Mycroft Holmes, is #10!  I think they all are written with a co-author, this one with Anna Waterhouse (I couldn’t find much on her).  Anyone read this ebook?  I won’t be reading it soon.  It’s currently priced at $10.69 (Amazon Kindle), far above my $5 threshold.

Is the hype over?  I guess people came to their senses when they discovered that the MC in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was a Southern bigot and that the “new book” was just the original MS of Mockingbird rejected by the original editor.  Thankfully, the hype has settled down.  Maybe questions still linger?  Did Ms. Lee really want this failed MS released?  Did a greedy publisher take advantage of her?  Did the lawyer handling her affairs screw up?  We’ll probably never know.  I never liked Mockingbird, so I’m sure I wouldn’t like Go Set a Watchman.  I’m not even curious.  Correction: I’m curious to know the answers to those questions.

Jackie Collins.  Never liked her work.  She was the epitome of a schlock-meister with her steamy romances.  It’s hard to speak badly of the dead when she fought breast cancer, though.  The big C is one of the grim reaper’s most gruesome tools, no matter the form it takes.  And it seems to have incredible staying power in spite of the decades of research done.  Here’s to Jackie and all cancer fighters across our land and the world.  Maybe the 21^st century will see this often lethal weapon taken from the grim reaper’s hands.

An interesting discussion.  As an avid reader, you’ve probably noticed a new trend in ebooks—the $0.99 short story.  That’s right—one short story for $0.99.  Similarly, even traditional publishers are releasing excerpts from novels—two or three chapters designed “to hook the reader.”  In a Goodreads discussion thread, I objected to these practices.  I can’t say comments were overwhelmingly pro or con about these new wrinkles designed to capture readers’ attentions.  What’s your take?

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Item. A thank you.  If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re a reader of my blog.  I thank you for reading.  I’m now averaging about 15K visitors per month to my website; I thank all of you—everyone’s welcome.  Blog readers probably make up a good portion of those visitors—I estimate at least 9K—so hopefully you’re having as much fun reading my posts as I do writing them.

I can’t say that number of visits translates into ebook sales, though.  I realize some of you borrow ebooks (Prime, Unlimited, Oyster, and Scribd, for example); I don’t have stats on you.  I just see book sales on Amazon and Smashwords.  Of course, I also thank you if you’re a book reader, even if you don’t read my books.  Did you know we’re an endangered species?

You all know my philosophy: If I can entertain just one person with an ebook, that ebook is a success.  If I can entertain and/or inform just one person with a blog post, that post is a success.  If just one person makes an informed buying decision with each book or movie review, that review is a success.  If just one author is helped by one of my posts on writing, that post is a success.  I don’t set my bars high.  I don’t have to.

Item. A second thank you.  Janella Fila wrote a good review of Muddlin’ Through on Readers’ Favorite.  I don’t have many reviews, but many of them show the reviewer enjoyed a good tale.  I like to read a good story; I try to write them.  In some cases when I get in the zone and everything clicks, the story turns out surprisingly well, and I ask myself, “Who was that guy who wrote that?  Why can’t I be him all the time?”  But my goal is always to be entertaining and thoughtful.

Janella wrote an excellent summary of Muddlin’ Through and found ex-USN Master-at-Arms Mary Jo Melendez an interesting and complex female protagonist.  She also figured out what I was trying to do with the story.  Kudos to her and all my reviewers who understand what I try to accomplish in my ebooks.  You all deserve my thanks.  Sometimes it’s scary; you understand me better than I do!

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Item. Taxes.  First the EU with its VAT, now Japan with an 8% Consumption Tax.  It’s becoming more and more difficult to market ebooks in other countries (all bad-news bulletins from Amazon affecting KDP Select authors).  I can’t say I make many sales there (dribs and drabs, but that can describe all my sales), but here’s the thing: many of my stories are international in scope and I think overseas readers would enjoy them as much or more than U.S. readers.  I have an international outlook, not a provincial one.  My blog posts show that and more—I’m often critical about decisions taken by our government and often look outside the U.S. for sanity checks.  My points of view were formed by many years living and traveling abroad.

That said, I’d like to have a chance to reach non-U.S. markets, even to have my novels translated.  These taxes are barriers to realize that, just like sales taxes are barriers in this country.  But the main problem with sales tax, VAT, and Japan’s consumption tax is that they’re regressive—they hurt the poor more than the rich and incrementally add to the growing gap between the haves and have-nots.  To put it into a reading context, shouldn’t everyone have a chance to read a good book?  These regressive taxes, like property taxes, are ways for incompetent and wasteful governments to steer their budgets to the black from the red on the backs of the poor.  Both readers and writers should speak out against this.

Item. Ebook piracy.  David Segal, in his The Haggler column in last Sunday’s NY Times Business section, wrote an interesting article about ebook piracy titled “Rousting the Book Pirates from Google.”  His claim is that Google’s Play Store, a self-publishing channel, has become a way to upload fake ebooks pirated from legitimate sources.  These days I question anything in the Times about indie publishing, but I haven’t heard about a Google response beyond the flimsy one reported on in the article.  It does bring up the issue of book piracy again.

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[The celebration of issue #100 is now history, so some chest-thumping is back.  Well, that’s newsy too, and I don’t spam readers with email newsletters like many authors, so you won’t find most of my personal news anywhere else.  News about the publishing business is more op-ed like—comment on those items if you approve or disapprove.]

Item.  Feedback is important.  Lurkers abound on the internet.  This isn’t a negative term for the most part, by the way.  I’m a lurker myself.  I read a lot of opinion and discussions in social media groups and on blog sites, but I feel compelled to comment only in a few cases when I see that something is missing and I can add to the discussion.  I’m also reluctant to get on a soapbox—that can really muck up an interesting discussion and take it down culs de sac.  My soapbox is here for the most part.

But feedback is important in those discussions, and it’s important here.  I realize that readers of this blog and/or my ebooks (there doesn’t seem to be much correlation there) don’t have a lot of time to write extensive comments here or anywhere else.  Up to now, my only feedback is via stats I have on hits and visits to this website.  There’s a steady uptick on those, and I thank all new visitors to this site for stopping by.  But if you have opinions about my ebooks, which often treat controversial themes, or blog posts, you’re free to comment, whether at the end of posts (more public, of course) or via the contact page at this site (more private, because I never divulge emails—this newsletter is part of the blog, and I don’t have separate ones).  Join the conversation—it’s what makes this country great!

Item.  No reaction?  I was surprised I didn’t receive any flak from my post “Our Narcissistic Society” this Tuesday.  How can I interpret that?  Like I always do, I guess: readers are so busy they don’t have time to comment, whether they’re disapproving or not.  Or, maybe I’ll be e-punished and e-boycotted?  Surprise!  There are so few readers of my ebooks that an e-boycott against them wouldn’t even be noticed.  Readers of this blog can e-punish me by no longer reading this blog, but because there isn’t much correlation between the numbers of book pages borrowed or books sold and the numbers reading this blog, that’s like slapping me with a cooked udon noodle instead of a Barry Eisler karate chop.

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[Note from Steve: To celebrate the hundredth edition of his newsletter, I think I’ll allow myself a double Jameson whiskey tonight—please join me.  I’ve been doing this a long time (writing the newsletter–I’m not an alcoholic).  I hope all of you enjoy it.  Maybe not the chest-thumping items, but I also try to keep readers and writers informed with my comments on the writing and publishing business.  I’m admittedly biased toward indie writing, but those traditionally published writers completely content with their lot in life don’t have to read this newsletter.  Others and indie authors and the reading public should—they’ll be entertained, at least.]

Item. More lies from the Times.  How many have read the NY Times article making Amazon look like a Chinese sweat shop?  While this isn’t surprising–the Times has a vendetta for all things Amazon and indie authors–an Amazon employee on Linked In Pulse shows how the Times twisted the truth to present a negative portrait of the huge company.  Unfortunately, his exposure of Times’ duplicity won’t get nearly the publicity that the Times’ article does, so too many people will walk away thinking the company is worse than Walmart.  By the way, the Times doesn’t have to write out an out lies.  They can omit facts and interview biased people and lie that way.  Fox News does it all the time.  I guess the Times isn’t any better than Fox News.  Their motto, “All the news that’s fit to print,” should certainly be rewritten.  I’m ready to cancel my subscription.  I already throw away their touted Book Review without looking at it, knowing that what all they tell me there are lies by omission and bias.  There are a few honest newspapers out there–the Times isn’t one of them.

I’m not an apologist for Amazon–I have my own problems with the company, including still trying to recover an ebook that I paid for that customer service has denied me.  My experience with Amazon can be summarized with that old movie title: The good, the bad, and the ugly.  You’ve read about some of my experiences in these pages and blog posts.  I don’t agree with their review system at all, for example.  But they’re not Walmart, and most certainly aren’t duplicitous like the Times.

So, why does the Times attack Amazon?  Because Amazon is the biggest seller of ebooks, many ebooks are indies, and the Times feels threatened by the whole reading revolution in America.  Consider their attacks the thrashing around of a dying dinosaur who happens to know that not only he but his whole species will soon disappear from the face of the Earth.  That little wooly mammal, the internet, will soon be lord of creation.  Should we have pity on the dinosaur?  Not me, because this one is bloodthirsty and out for Amazon’s blood.

Item. Inexpensive Kindles.  With the Kindle Fire at $99, I’m wondering what the Paper-Whites are going for?  I received my old Kindle Paper-White as a birthday gift years ago; wondered what I was going to do with it.  Now I it’s almost as necessary as my laptop.  Ignoring the gizmo’s conveniences, the idea of directly downloading ebooks without ever leaving my office is so important for my reading and reviewing, I can’t imagine being without it.

I usually don’t push products in this blog (I might attack them, like the Times), but an e-reader can be a game-changer for your reading enjoyment.  The Paper-White is the best; I’d forget about the Fire.  If you want a tablet, get something else.  OK, maybe you can combine the e-reader functionality with a tablet computer (e.g. the iPad), but just try reading an ebook on the beach with one, including the Fire.  The only glare advantage it has over a Galaxy or iPhone smart phone is that the fonts can be larger.  What about other e-readers?  Are they even supported anymore? B&N sold their Nook business, Sony’s history (they might be supporting them), and I don’t know about any others (readers can correct me), but Kindles were the first and are still going strong.

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Item.  Go Set a Watchman.  Harper Lee’s first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird has enjoyed a lot of sales.  The publisher’s probably celebrating.  I compare this phenomenon to the Fifty Shades one: readers are curious.  But some are also irate.  Their beloved Atticus turned out to be a racist bigot and that genteel South isn’t so genteel.  I’m not surprised some people are turned off.  Some people don’t like to see real-life problems (racism in America, especially the South) portrayed in fiction, no matter which side of the problem they’re living on or their political outlook.  That’s why romance novels and cozy mysteries are so popular—they’re the equivalent of verbal Prozac.  Nothing wrong with that if that’s what gets you through the day or night—at least you’re reading and not watching mindless “reality shows” on the boob tube.

Item.  Don’t forget those bios.  I know many people who read these posts are more interested in what’s happening in genre fiction.  Next week I’ll mention James Gleick in a post—I read his interesting biography of Feynman, Nobel prize-winning physicist.  I’m currently reading a bio of Churchill.  It’s interesting to see that cultural icons had many of the problems and flaws seen in the general population.  It’s also interesting to see how they reacted to rascals around them, sometimes their reactions being equally rascally.

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Item.  A humble thanks.  While I do so at the end of my ebooks, I’ll do it here too: If you’ve read one of my ebooks, I thank you.  Today there are so many reading choices, I have to feel humbled by the fact you chose one of my ebooks to read.  I write to entertain as well as present socially relevant themes, so your choice validates my writing and is the best form of compliment.

Not all readers are created equal.  Some read for pure entertainment, often escapist or adventurous thrill rides, but preferring a good read to passive TV fare and video games.  Some want to think about heavy social themes in a non-threatening, quiet, and enjoyable environment.  Others delve into history and philosophy or other non-fiction themes.

I salute you all, but I focus on the first two classes of readers as a writer.  I respect all your reading choices, though.  Reading is a disappearing pastime, I’m afraid, so we might be viewed like dinosaurs by future generations.  So let’s all give ourselves a pat on the back.  We are the champions!  We are the readers!

Item. Mockingbird sequel.  It’s out.  Is there dancing in the streets?  Is everyone out to lynch Lee for making Atticus a bigot?  I don’t see any of that happening.  The weather, Trump, and Chattanooga are grabbing the headlines.  I can’t do anything about them either.  One thing writers need to learn from all this: It doesn’t matter whether you can write or not; it matters whether readers recognize your name and want to read your book.  As McLuhan said, perception is reality.  Writer X can write the next great literary classic and die unrecognized; E. L. James can write crap and become famous.  In the world of literature, readers rule, even though some of the reading choices are hard to understand.  I didn’t like Mockingbird, and one critic has said the “new book” is just a first draft of that (historically that’s true).  But go for it if you’re curious, or just want to swallow a Big Five publisher’s hype.

Item. Pre-Release Excerpts.  OK, I forgot the one for More than Human: The Mensa Contagion.  The ebook’s out now, so you can use Amazon’s “Peek Inside” feature (Smashwords has something similar, I’m sure—maybe you can even download a few chapters there?—I frankly don’t remember).  This was an excusable error.  With my detective series, I tend to include a pre-release excerpt in each ebook.  For example, in #5, The Collector, you’ll find one for #6, Family Affairs, and in that one you’ll find one for #7.  I recommend that every indie writer put a pre-release excerpt out there to whet readers’ appetites.  I don’t recommend what Big Five authors often do, namely sell the first few chapters of a new book.  That’s simply gouging readers, unless those excerpts or chapters are free.  (More on gouging readers below.)

Item. Old friends.  Author Lee Gimenez started out in sci-fi too, but has added detective stories to his catalog.  I probably overlooked this development—we all get busy in our own thing.  Starflash, his new novel, is about a PI under contract to the FBI (there was at least one previous book in this series with those same two characters).  It sounds sci-fi, but it is only in the sense of a new designer drug that blows the user’s mind.  Lee’s had a lot more success than I have, so I congratulate him and wish him luck with this new ebook.  Check him out.  You might consider this a proto-review—I’ll be downloading Starflash soon—but it’s an endorsement only in the sense that Lee has a proven track record for writing entertaining thrillers (my endorsements aren’t worth much but here it is).

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Item. Big deal?  Go Set a Watchman is creating a media and reader frenzy.  What’s the big deal?  Will Lee get her second Pulitzer for it?  I hope not, especially if it’s as badly written as To Kill a Mockingbird.  N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn, also a Pulitzer winner, is a novel providing better insight into an unusual culture (Lee’s is the South, Momaday’s is North American Indian).  Momaday has few competitors.  Lee has many—Faulkner is just one example.  I’m about as excited about this book as I was about Rohling’s detective novel, that is, it produces a yawn.  It would be nice to see Lee beat out E. L. James, though, just to set the Universe right again.

Item. More than Human: The Mensa Contagion. “People of Earth!  You’ve just won a complete makeover of your society that brings peace and prosperity.  What will you do next?”  “Why, go to Mars, of course!”  This epic sci-fi tale relates how an invading ET virus affects Earth’s social structures and subsequent space exploration.  Some time ago, I wrote two sci-fi trilogies, “The Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” but I’ve returned to the hard sci-fi genre with this stand-alone.  This new novel might seem like a combination of Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, and Weir’s The Martian, but I’m hoping readers will find it to be a new and exciting story about new beginnings for humans on Earth and beyond; it’s full of both weirdness and hope.  Now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and most other online retailers for $2.99.  Who knows?  Maybe there will be a sequel.

Item. My publishing team.  They’re the best, most efficient team in the indie publishing business!  I’ll start with Debby and Carol, my beta-readers.  They find logical flaws and catch those last few editing errors all the while reading a raw manuscript (MS) on their laptops.  Donna, a fantastic author in her own right, runs Carrick Publishing with hubby Alex.  She does a great job of formatting and proof reading, taking that raw MS and turning it into a high quality ebook for your enjoyment.  For More than Human (see above), that formatting was double trouble, because I release sci-fi ebooks on both Amazon and Smashwords.

Sara, my creative cover artist, reads the raw MS for cover ideas and comes up with a work of art that relates to my story.  Finally, someone who I often fail to acknowledge at the end of my ebooks but a person who plays an important role after the book is released, is my online PR and marketing guru Amanda, of Book Buzz.  She offers quality services at reasonable prices that help launch an ebook.

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Item. Mockingbird follow-up.  Well, well, yet another case of the media looking for scandal!  It turns out that the sequel to Harper Lee’s classic is creating a scandal because the grown-up Scout, after living in NYC for some time, returns to Alabama to find old Atticus has become a racist bigot.  I found To Kill a Mockingbird a rough ride—disorganized ups and downs as the two different stories unfolded (only the trial appeared in the movie)—so maybe I’ll like this one better.  I don’t have any emotional stake in Atticus the good guy v. Atticus the bad guy.  The author wouldn’t get away with that today.  Critics are saying that Lee’s old editor knew what he (she?) was doing by rejecting the original and encouraging a rewrite.  Maybe not.  This sequel, written before the famous novel, might have been the better book.  Of course, coming out now, it’s a poignant reminder that racism and bigotry is still a national problem.

Item. A thank you.  Authors don’t do it enough, but I want to express my thanks to all readers who take the time to review the books they’ve read.  I don’t have many reviews, but I value every one of them, even the negative ones, because the person took the time to review.  Through reviews an author can learn the likes and dislikes of his readers (but email correspondence works too).  While readers often use more than reviews, and should (see below), when selecting their reading material, it’s clear that reviews can provide useful information for doing just that.  So, thanks to all the reviewers out there.

Item. Star reviewers.  Don’t worry, writers: I’m not creating a list to compete with Amazon’s star reviewer list.  One not containing 90% product reviewers is sorely needed, but I don’t have the time or the data.  No, here I’m talking about the wide range of reviewers’ interpretations of the Amazon star ranking system.  Many book bloggers use it, and there’s a wide range there too.  Let’s face it: the star-system isn’t uniformly applied, it’s primarily a convenience for Amazon (they can computerize all their book reviews), and readers often take the shortcut of counting stars instead of reading the review.  I’d do away with it, period, because achieving consensus about its application is impossible.  (I won’t use it in book reviews here and, in my official book reviewing capacity at Bookpleasures, it’s not used.  Of course, Goodreads uses it—their nexus is far too tight with Amazon.)

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