News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #79…
Item: Who’s N. Scott Momaday? Some of my readers might have noted his quote running across the top of this website and wondered. More energetic ones might have googled him to find that he’s of Kiowa descent (my understanding: they roamed in the same general geographic area as the Lakota, or Sioux) and the winner of the 1969 Pulitzer of House Made of Dawn. Very observant ones who also receive the Smithsonian magazine will remember him as the author of the article “The Year that the Stars Fell” (that superb January issue also contains the following interesting articles “The Lady Vanishes,” about Amelia Earhart; “PTSD: The Civil War’s Hidden Legacy”; “Darwin’s Forgotten World,” about where his theory took shape—hint: it’s not the Galapagos; and “Descent of Man,” a poem about evolution in NYC).
That doesn’t explain why I quote him. Of course, the quote offers some pithy advice for writers. But there’s more to it. Although he’s surely forgotten me—my English class with him at UC Santa Barbara had over one hundred students—I’ve never forgotten him. I can’t write poetry (the poem at the beginning of The Collector is my only published poem), but Momaday taught me to love poetry. His poetry readings on that UCSB lecture hall’s stage were passionate and entertaining. And, to his credit, I cannot remember him pedaling his own writing. I discovered House Made of Dawn later. He’ll have to forgive me. I was busily reading T.S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, and Dylan Thomas. He’s the only author I’ve quoted that I’ve seen in person—par for the internet age, I guess.
Item: Two recent interviews. Book bios are a wee bit limiting. The bio on my website (at least the long version) is more complete. But I recently responded to two interviewer’s questions that might interest my readers. The two websites are also interesting ones to visit. Here are the URLs: John Hohn’s author site and BookGoodies.
Item: The VAT flap. If you’re an author selling your books via an online retailer or even from your website, you probably know how Europe is putting the screws to those of us who want to sell books in the EU. Both Amazon and Smashwords have sent policy statements, for example. The bottom line: European readers will suffer because it’s less attractive for American authors to sell their books there. The VAT has always been a regressive tax that penalizes buyers, like sales taxes in America. This change puts the onus on the sellers, though, forcing them to pay the VAT to the country of the purchaser, not the country distributing the book. This is deliberate protectionism that hurts U.S. authors.
The author has two options with VAT: either maintain her same royalties by adding the VAT to the cost to the buyer, or take a cut in her royalties to compensate for the VAT. Both Amazon and Smashwords offer these options (Amazon’s “price matching” forces you to make the same choice for both). That’s called being between a rock and a hard place: either way the author takes a hit, the first in reduced sales, which implies reduced royalties, and the second directly in reduced royalties. If you feel like you’re in a no-win situation, you are.
Item: Ebook borrowing. Does it work for you? With the new VAT rules in particular, but also generally speaking, it isn’t clear that ebook borrowing is worth your while. Smashwords does it automatically with Scribd and Oyster, but you can opt out of that. Amazon requires exclusivity, obtained via KDP Select, to trigger it, via its Prime and Unlimited programs. I want to generate readers, so I’ll do it, which is why only my sci-fi ebooks are found on Smashwords. But I’m thinking Amazon’s exclusivity is onerous and objectionable, taking away my freedom to sell my ebooks anywhere I choose. These are all business decisions, of course, but many authors don’t realize you can be non-exclusive on Amazon and still sell your ebooks there. Many people are.
Item: Price reductions. I already announced them. Check them out. If a dollar or two makes a difference to you, maybe it’s time to buy. These reductions don’t represent a sale, by the way. I’m just preparing for the new 2015 ebooks. Some ebooks on Smashwords and Amazon are affected.
In elibris libertas….
