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).

Speaking of old friends, author Scott Dyson has just released two short stories with the title Odd Man Out (one story’s title).  While covers never make the book, this one is eerily good and notable.  I like to support short story collections and short story writing—it’s a dying art form.  Scott participated in another great collection, Quantum Zoo.  I might have reviewed that one—a bunch of great stories.  Another “quantum title” is my Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, another potpourri of speculative fiction.  And if you’re in a crime fiction or mystery mood, try the collection World Enough and Crime—like Quantum Zoo, several authors appear, including yours truly–edited and compiled by Donna Carrick.

Item. Pricing.  I’ve become convinced that $2.99 to $4.99 is the sweet spot for selling ebooks, whether traditionally or indie-published.  Readers will note that 90% of my ebooks are under $3.99 (the two exceptions are Infinity ebooks where I have no control over price).  More than Human: The Mensa Contagion is $2.99 on both Amazon and Smashwords, for example.  I certainly won’t buy an ebook over $5 these days.  You shouldn’t either (maybe my two Infinity ebooks should be an exception; they’re the first novels in a series and still $9 or less).  Maybe traditional publishers can’t easily do it, but indies can garner many production savings they can pass on to their readers to bring them quality entertainment at reasonable prices.  (More about traditional and indie publishing below.)

Item. Indie writers attacked from all sides.  My views about Doug Preston and Authors Guild, last week’s blog post, can be easily summarized: They’re really going after indie writers.  Let’s call that the Big Five Front.  The number of readers is diminishing while the number of books and writers is increasing.  Let’s call that the Demographic Front.  The middle people in the traditional publishing paradigm—agents, editors, bookstores, and other bureaucracy standing between a writer and readers—is being replaced in the indie publishing paradigm by more service-oriented bizpers perhaps, but they still stand in between writer and readers unless the writer endeavors to take control.  Call that the Freedom Front.  Readers have come to expect many things from indie writers—great stories, great covers, good editing, freebies, low prices, etc—call that the Starving Writers Front.

These fronts are demoralizing, but ndie writers have a tough go of it in general.  Midlist authors in the traditional paradigm do too.  If you’re inclined to think that it’s a good-old-boys club, you’re correct.  Just ask Preston and the Authors Guild.  I’d recommend that you find a day job and stick to it.  I’d also recommend that you never stop writing.  If it’s in your blood, you’ll do it outside your day job.  And, you never know, someday, like E. L. James, you might win the lottery.

Item. But you should still want to be indie.  OK, that’s just my opinion, so I’ll try to back it up with some negatives for traditional publishing: (1) those onerous contracts.  Authors give up their rights (author’s lifetime plus 70 years).  Non-compete clauses are common (you have to stick with that one publisher, they determine second editions and they have to be with them, etc).  Advances on royalties (fewer and lower amounts nowadays) have to be returned if your book doesn’t do well.  You can bail out with your publisher at a cost to you—those famous termination clauses.  And your royalties are poor.

Because even traditional publishers want to sell ebooks on Amazon, let’s consider what they make compared to their authors.  Amazon gets 30% (that’s standard for indies too).  Your publisher gets 52.5%.  You get 17.5%.  This is why Michael Connolly’s new ebook is $14.99 instead of $2.99 so it can be competitive in price to indies—the traditional publisher is feeding all that bloated bureacracy.  Each ebook Michael sells within the legacy model’s paradigm gives him $2.62.  Each ebook I sell at $2.99 gives me $2.10, so Michael makes about fifty cents more per ebook.  That’s not a big difference, but readers get shafted, paying $14.99 for Michael’s ebook instead of $2.99 for mine.

OK, maybe Michael is a better writer than I am, but I’ve certainly read indie ebooks as good or better than Michael’s, and Michael and I make about the same per ebook.  Of course, this must make the reader wonder why Doug Preston and his ilk care about any of this.  They’d make about the same in either paradigm, but the traditional publishers have gouging consumers built into their business model.

Of course, authors have the choice between traditional and indie.  Some do both.  I could go on and on and still not convince some writers who seem to think a publishing contract is the Golden Fleece.  I just don’t like to gouge readers.  I’m one of them.  I won’t be buying Michael’s ebook anytime soon.  $5 is my limit now.  Smart readers will make it theirs too.

[Waiting for sci-fi?  More than Human: The Mensa Contagion is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers (NetGalley link for reviewers).  Kindle Countdown Deals: Soldiers of God will go on sale for $1.99, reduced from $2.99; Aristocrats and Assassins will go on sale for $0.99, reduced from $2.99.  Both sales run from July 31 through August 4 (note date correction).]

In elibris libertas….      

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2015 at 4:00 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.