Amazon KDP Select: Good, Bad or Ugly?

N00B VIEW: Amazon's Kindle Direct Select Publishing 
PART I

Just trying to wrap my head around all of the twists and turns in publishing of late usually leaves me with a swollen and aching brain. Things are moving that fast!

I know, I know. Just saying things are moving quickly in the publishing world makes me sound crazier than that ONE guy, from that ONE giant Southern state, who thought he could be President. (Silly Hillbilly, politics are for quasi-sane people.) Alas, it is unfortunately true, friends. Major changes to how words become books and writers become authors are happening daily. 

Why? Pretty simple really. In a night of careless frivolity even the Bieber could admit to, reading and technology hooked up and made a crazy touch-enabled, instant download, content devouring, everyone-is-doing-it lovechild. That child quickly grew into a monster known as electronic reading and, knowing only a monster could properly care for another monster, Amazon adopted it. 

Here we are millions of downloads later, and we're nowhere near seeing the end of all of it. Don't mind telling you, as a publishing newbie that's scary as hell. So, in an effort to help other newbies (a newbie brain-trust we shall be!), I'm starting another new 'feature' on my blog called the N00B VIEW. 

Each N00B VIEW will take a look at different aspects of what's going down in publishing, mostly as it pertains to the new guys and gals. I hope to make it plain-speak, or as plain-speak as I'm capable of making it, and angle-free. I've got no ax to grind. Or, as Coolio might say, "If you got beef, eat a pork chop."

Maybe we can figure it out together? Maybe we'll all go blind from eyestrain and the robots will read to us out of the goodness of their tiny tin hearts? In my bleak book, a win either way.

This is part one of two articles examining Amazon's new book lending program (think Netflix for books) and what it means for authors. The second article will run right here on Monday, mostly because I thought we needed to have a little history lesson on the and the post just got too dang long.

Let's get started!

AMAZON - BULLY OR PUSHY BEST FRIEND?

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to little old authors. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.

Amazon has been called many things by many authors. Savior. Greedy, sharp-toothed, dirty greedy bastards. You name it. Honestly? I think they've earned every slur AND every complement. 

In one respect, Amazon almost single handedly took the publishing game out of the exclusive, corporate, freaking huge hands of New York publishing by pushing the Kindle and ePublishing. In the same move they put the game in the many grimy hands of the little people (see readers and writers--US). Yay Amazon!

Even before things got all techno-wild, Amazon was delivering paper books to your door at PRICES SO LOW THEY MUST BE CRAZY!! Consumers and fans of capitalism rejoiced!

On the other side of things big box stores, bean counters at Simon and Schuster and local bookstores moaned.  You see, here is the paradoxical female dog of it all: You can rarely accommodate everyone in business endeavors. If consumers are happy, businesses are probably losing money. If businesses are happy, consumers are left feeling fleeced. Not always, but usually. 

Before the Kindle ever caught fire, Amazon held a few too many cards for the tastes of many people in the publishing industry. Already a global giant in the paper book retail game, Amazon began acting as publisher as well with the eBook craze. Then, last year, they really peed on the campfire when they announced they were getting into paper book publishing as well. The tug of war between Amazon and traditional publishers began in ernest.

You can understand the dilemma faced by the trad pub folks: Your largest retail vendor is also trying to run you out of business. (Amazon denies that last bit, by the way.) They need their books to be sold on Amazon, but they also don't want Amazon (now a competitor in their business) to dictate terms.

Meanwhile, traditional publishing ex-pats and DIY authors flocked to Amazon to take advantage of the opportunity. Never before had an author been able to get her work in front of millions of consumers without signing 'Hurt So Good' contracts and/or mortgaging their creative properties. The filters were off, so to speak, and lots of previously struggling (or non-existant) authors started making money. Good money, and in some cases GREAT money.

However, a few nervous nellies (AKA - skeptical authors and agents) were cautioning about Amazon being the cow with the golden teat. (Okay, I just made that up, but it sounded like a cool name for a cautionary tale.) Once Amazon held all the cards, they said, they'd get all heavy handed and cut the purse strings. It would no longer be an open market, and you'd publish on their terms or not at all. Just like the old way of doing things, but maybe at an even higher cost, with even fewer people who really 'love' books in charge of things. 

Hogwash? Many thought so, until Amazon announced the Amazon Kindle Owner's Lending Library at the end of last year. The Kindle Direct Publishing Select (KDPS) agreement for independent authors soon followed. For the first time, Amazon began using words like 'exclusivity' and other nasty terms that make the ears of the artistically free bleed. 

So is it a good deal for authors or not?

HOPE YOU'LLL JOIN ME BACK HERE ON MONDAY FOR PART II AND AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT THE KDPS PROGRAM!

~EJW~

*UPDATE* I inadvertently left the word "SELECT" out of the title of this post and the references I made to the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program. Please note that Kindle Direct Publishing differs from Kindle Direct Publishing Select and that (for the purposes of this discussion) my intention was to discuss KDPS. I apologize for any confusion, and really (REALLY) appreciate the folks who pointed out my omission. 

An Observer's Tale - 10 Things I've Learned About ePublishing

As we race toward 2012, I thought it would be a good time to share my observations on e-Publishing. The publishing world is evolving at lightening pace. A bevy of attractively priced new reading gadgets *cough* KINDLEFIRE *cough* and a huge commercial push promises to make 2012 the year of the eBook.

I keep up with tons of self-published (and otherwise) authors on the Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the like--trying to learn what I can. As such, I thought it would be appropriate for me to regurgitate my knowledge in the form of An Observer's Tale - 10 Things I've Learned About ePublishing  

This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive tutorial on the process, nor should it be taken as gospel. Just my take.

1. eBooks are like so hot right now: 

 This might be the understatement of the decade, but this digital media stuff is a big deal. In the last ten years we've witnessed the digitization of every major form of entertainment from music to movies. Now it's time for written entertainment to share the stage. Some have labeled it a fad, some a revolution. Whatever your take, I think we can all agree that this is now at the very least a movement--a shift--to a new way of "doing" books. Who knows if paper and pixels will be able to coexist, but I'd bet the family farm that the pixels aren't going away.  

 2. Fit and finish don't just apply to car shopping: 

Hop over to your local online monster retailer and browse the eBooks. Do it like you would browsing for cars at the auto dealership. Why? You'll quickly get into the head of the average book shopper, that's why. It's the shiny exterior (i.e. the cover) that draws them in, the awesome stereo and smooth interior (blurb or back jacket verbiage) that gets their imagination going and the salesperson (reviews) that seal the deal. In an increasingly cluttered book market, presentation makes the difference. 

 3. It's a slow burn, baby:

That tune doesn't apply to ePublishing. There are no golden tickets. Much like in traditional publishing, there is a constant effort to figure out the purchasing habits of fickle readers.  eAuthors are scrambling to try to figure out how Amanda Hocking, John Locke, etc., etc. managed to become Kindle millionaires seemingly overnight. 

I follow both of the afore mentioned authors on Twitter and blogs (One of them follows me, but I'm not namedropping or anything... OK, it's JL and I nearly blew a gasket when I saw his name pop up as a new Twitter follower! Name. Dropped.) and I can tell you neither of them truly claims to know exactly how it all happened. One thing both say: it took some time and they worked hard to promote their stuff. They didn't instantly sell 10,000 books a month. Word of mouth had to build. The Interwebs had to weave its magic. Just like in traditional publishing, expect to have to pay your own dues before you get much payment in return.  

4. Skinning cats and publishing electronically have a lot in common:

There are many, many ways to get a book published electronically, and many more yet to come. 

Total DIY: You can study Kindle/Apple/Barnes & Noble/WhatHaveYou and learn to format and upload yourself. You can get free pictures online and create your own covers with free photo editing software. It's not rocket science, but it's also not without frustration. If budget is a concern, you can definitely do it on your own. Knowing your limits is important, however...

Hire out some of it: Don't have an artistic eye? Cool. There are oodles of folks online that will design a good cover for you. Got a great cover, but don't care to format? Cool. Lots of folks out there will format your book so it reads nice and pretty on the nook, iPad, Kindle, Kobo reader things. See # 2 if you're not sure why it matters.

Hire out all of it: Specialty ePublishing companies are ALL freaking over the place. Go to any online writing community and you'll see their ads. Hangout in the writing dens of Twitter and you'll get a half-dozen follows a day from someone offering to publish your book for a fee. (That and maybe a few unwholesome offers, but I digress ...) Heck, some of them even promote your book in various places. Prices vary. Quality varies. Choose wisely.

5. One is fun, but 8 is great:

Only got one great story in you? I'm sorry to inform you that self-publishing isn't going to pay your next electric bill. Nor will it likely pay any electric bill. Ever. Here's the thing, just like in traditional publishing you have to build a readership in the eWorld. That typically doesn't happen with one great book. It takes several. It takes building a reputation. 

eReading is like any other electronic media thing, which is to say it's about consumption. Unlike Sam the Business Man who buys one non-fiction book every year at the airport to read on layovers, the owner of that Kindle plans on getting her money's worth. When she finishes one book, she's going to immediately jump into another. If you only have one book in the store, she can't buy your next. It's science--or math--or something. 

The best anecdote I've read on the subject relates virtual shelf space to actual store shelf space. The more space you occupy the better chance someone is going to 'find you' and buy you.    

6. Traditional rules don't necessarily apply...:

Suburban cat vampire fantasy doesn't sell you say? WRONG! There are no hard rules when it comes to ePublishing. All those agents and editors in the traditional world aren't wrong (just aggravating) when they shoot down your 'Hamster Falls In Love' picture book idea. In the paper world there are all kinds of upfront production costs that force the publishing machine to make hard choices about what they invest in. That doesn't exist online. If you want to publish it, you can. If you can connect with the people who are interested in what you've written, you'll probably even sell a few copies. And unlike a paper bookstore, even if you're only moving 6 copies a month it'll stay on Amazon's shelf forever.

Heck people are even publishing poetry again. That should really be all you need to hear to understand that up is now down, and that cats now sleep with the dogs.  

7. Well, except for these:

Don't read 6 and assume everything has changed. These basic principals must be observed for any kind of publishing success:

You must have a great story.

It must be extremely well-written.

It must be gleamingly edited. And edited. And edited. And edited ....

You can never shortchange a reader with a poor product. Readers will drop you like a bad habit, even if your book is only .99 cents. 

8. Merchandising! Merchandising! Merchandising!

I'm not talking about action figures (but that would be AWESOME!); I'm talking about selling your story and yourself. Understand where your story fits in terms of genre. Make sure your cover looks better than those 'other books' that pop up in the product search. Know where your readers hangout online--go to them. Use Twitter, Facebook, etc. to their full potential. Learn and heed the rules of responsible, non-D-Bag marketing. Make friends by promoting other authors more than you promote yourself. Make sure your story is available to every kind of reader for every kind of reading device. Make sure your website, Twitter page, Facebook, etc. say, "I'm a pro, not a schmo." 

Self-publishing means you're now a small business owner. That business will sink or swim based upon your effort and nothing else. 

9. All the cool kids are doing it:

ePublishing isn't just a game for the little guys to dabble in. J.K. 'I could buy your country' Rowling is self-publishing her Harry Potter books electronically. So too are many, many highly successful traditionally published authors. Some are completely abandoning the traditional route, others are simply supplementing their paper efforts, using it as a vehicle to explore things that wouldn't normally fly in the trad-world. Regardless of the reasons, don't assume that your too big or too small to make a go of it. It sure looks like there's room for everyone.

10. No one has THE answer:

There is a lot of advice from super-helpful authors out there. They might tell you to Tweet this way, never pay for XYZ, or never use XYZ font--you get the idea. They're all right to an extent. ePublishing is still very much a baby in the grand scheme of things. As such, each individual experience is a valuable learning tool. However, I've learned you'll find more conflicting answers than definite methods of success. Does this mean you should tune them all out? Absolutely not. Just understand that the path to success seems to be different for just about everyone. 

Keep your ear to the ground and be willing to adjust your expectations and tactics as needed. That should keep you on track at least until next year. :)

~EJW~ 

BTW, big WAY TO GO for all of you who reached your NaNoWriMo goals! I'll buy you the frosty beverage of your choosing should we ever cross paths! :)

Author Spotlight: Damyanti Biswas

E.J. (ME) – The important stuff first.  Tell us about your book/collection, A to Z Stories of Life and Death. 

Damyanti (D) -- The book is a collection of twenty-six stories, based on the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. They seek to question our moral compass: How do you judge a teacher toying with the sexuality of her teenaged student? A boy who decides to murder his mother? What thoughts rage inside a pedophile serial killer before he shoots himself? The stories challenge the concepts of beauty, truth, and morality, by revealing the face of the other side.

I began writing some of the pieces in the collection in April during the A to Z challenge organized by Arlee Bird. (Note - If you don't know about the A-Z, you should check out Arlee's blog, HERE. Seriously one of the most challenging and rewarding blogfests  going.)  During this challenge, participants had to post on their blogs for 26 days in April, every day excluding the 4 Sundays. Some of the readers liked my pieces of fiction enough to ask me to put them together in a book, so the idea took root there.  

ME – The stories seem to be highly philosophical and emotional in nature, asking readers to take a reflective look at their own humanity and how life plays out around them.  That’s an extremely complex task for short stories to accomplish. How did you make it work?  

D – I write about what interests me--people, and what makes them tick. I question the reasons why someone did what they did, and I analyze everything way more than is healthy. My head is full of ‘weird’ people, of what ifs, and whys and wherefores. This is what came out in the collection. Some people have found it too hard-hitting, or the topics too uncomfortable: matricide and pedophilia are not exactly soothing reads, despite a completely literary style and clean language.

I did not write on those themes in order to sensationalize, however, just went where the writing prompts took me. I don't have a ‘moral’ approach to fiction--won’t judge, just hold up things as they are and let the readers come to their own conclusions. Just because something is ugly or inhuman is no reason why it should not be examined. Rather the opposite.

In most of the stories I examine what we usually turn our faces from: death, murder, child abuse, loss of a child, ageing, poverty—but I’ve tried to ask the whys and also sought a glimmer of compassion, understanding, forgiveness, hope, even love.

ME – Taking a step back, can you tell us a little about your writing journey?

D – I started writing 3 years ago. I had some non-fiction experience at the time, but none whatsoever in fiction. I’ve always been a voracious reader, and the idea of writing appealed to me. But it also terrified me, and I let decades pass by before I gave myself the permission to write.

I’ve been traditionally published in quite a few anthologies in Malaysia and Singapore, and Peeping Toe was my first published short story, two years ago. I got accepted for yet another anthology this week, a collection of short stories from Asia and Africa. I’m yet to finish a novel, but that should change soon.

ME – Tell us about your writing process in general. 

D – I write everyday. Whether it is a page or a few pages, I feel quite upset if I don’t write something, a story, a free-write, a bit in my journal, a letter (I correspond via snail-mail with other authors). 

I usually go with images, and take down stories as they occur in my head. I’ve been a pantser so far, and it has worked for short stories.I use exercises from books like Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes by Roberta Allen. I take a prompt, a word, a picture, a sentence, anything at all, and start writing, pretty much without thinking.

Another book that influenced me, and from where I borrowed the word dream-storming, is From Where you Dream by Robert Olen Butler. After reading through this book (several times), I got into the habit of entering a sort of trance, of letting the character take over, of entering a setting and becoming part of it. My stories (even the longer short stories) never start from an idea, but instead from an image which tugs at me and compels me to write.

ME - Many of my followers also participated in the A-Z daily blog challenge as well as many, many other blogfests. As such, we know how much time and effort can go into blogging. The idea of turning that work into a published story will, I’m sure, be intriguing to many of the readers. What led you to the idea, and how did you go about making it happen?

D – My short stories started at Daily (w)rite, where apart from some journalling and rambling about writing, I began to put up some of the 5-minute or ten minute exercises I'd written. I got a few good responses from my readers, and kept at it, mostly because I enjoyed it.

Then came A to Z Challenge. Being naive, I thought of writing one flash piece each day. On some days, the pieces came easy, on others I barely made the midnight deadline. Near the end of the challenge, some of the readers asked me to compile the 26 pieces of flash fiction into an e-book, and the idea of A to Z stories of Life and Death was born. I threw out and re-wrote a few of the original pieces, spit and polished them as best as I could. Not many stories in the collection are longer than 200 words, and the entire book adds up to barely 12000 words. My hope is that I’ve made each one of them count.

ME - I saw from your author profile that you’ve been traditionally published and that A to Z is your first work to be published independently. What was the motivation for that shift, and it is it something you plan to continue to explore in the future?

D – I would not call it a shift, because I’m still submitting stories for traditional publication, (E.J. - EXCELLENT point! It doesn't have to be all or the other, folks.) and hope to publish my current work (a WIP collection of longer short stories, and a novel) traditionally. 

As I keep repeating to myself: the most important thing is to keep writing, improve my craft, and keep submitting for publication. A writer writes, and then hopes for publication: each rejection is a spur to write more and write better. After all, an established writer is no different from an unpublished one (at least in one aspect): both aspire to write better and reach a bigger audience every day. (E.J. - This might be the most important paragraph ever printed on this blog!)

That said, I think I’ll epub some work as well, mostly because it is fun, and a good way to interact with writer-friends and readers. This e-book was an experiment of sorts: I wanted to learn what this new business of e-books was all about, because as writers I think we should not ignore the flux in the industry. I continue to learn more about ebooks, marketing, and publishing each day, and I don’t think that is a bad thing.

ME – Random question time: What’s the last good book you read? 

D – “The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore”…I think it is one of the most moving, philosophical and thought-provoking books ever to be written with an animal narrator.

ME -  We’ll finish up with the most important stuff. Give us three reasons why A to Z Stories should be our next download, and tell us where we can get them.

D – As a writer, I can give a million reasons, of course. All writers are painfully, desperately in love with their babies. But as a reader I think there exist only two reasons to download a book: the sample, and the reviews. Check those out, and if you like them, buy the book at Kindle Smashwords Nook or Diesel.

Thank you, EJ, for taking the time to host me, and for the well-considered questions. I've done my best to answer them, and I hope I've done them justice. Thanks also to the readers who have heard me through with my long rambling! I'm around to chat with you all, and answer any questions. 

ME - You've been a beautiful interview, D! I think I can safely speak for everyone who reads this and say it has been a true pleasure getting to know you and your writing. You're an inspiration for sure. Best of luck to you on your future endeavors.

------

Writer Bio: Damyanti lives more in her head than in this world, adores her husband, and loves her pet fish and plants. She is an established writer for magazines and journals. Her short fiction has been published in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Muse India and in print anthologies by Marshall Cavendish, Monsoon Books, and MPH publications. Her book, A to Z Stories of Life and Death, is available for downloadeverywhere ebooks are sold.

Twitter: damyantig

Website: http://amloki.com

Blog: http://damyantiwrites.wordpress.com

Will Amazon Change Our Taste for Words?

It’s no great revelation that the ways in which we consume media and entertainment have changed over the last two decades.  In the music industry, the concept of an entire album listening experience died several years ago at the hands of individual song downloads. This has led to a prevalence of artist creating albums full of HIT singles in place of albums comprised of songs that form a cohesive whole. The days of high concept story albums—think Pink Floyd’s The Wall album, where the individual songs don’t necessarily stand on their own, but when listened to as whole become something essential and even beautiful—are mostly over. Sure, intrepid musicians will on occasion create ‘story’ albums, but the experience is lost on the average listener who shops from the iTunes top 10 singles list.

Similarly, Hollywood is a machine driven by consumer demand, and that demand is for bite-sized entertainment. Modern blockbuster movies are long commercials aimed at no one and everyone. They are designed to engage a broad audience from moment to moment, as opposed to engaging an individual from beginning, middle, to end. The handful of films that dare to start a story in the beginning and take a full 2 hours to finish are labeled as high concept and, if they’re fortunate enough to snag a big name in the lead role, might win a few awards.

Please don’t misinterpret this as a shot at consumerism or some heraldry for ‘the good old days’. While I enjoyed the good old days as much as anyone, I also like the freedom of being able to watch and listen to what I want, when I want. The ability to do that is directly tied to the trends in media consumption I mentioned above. Furthermore, I like a good popcorn flick and lord knows I’ve got my share of top 10 singles on the old iGadget.

    

My point is that just like how we learn to enjoy different foods from childhood to adulthood as our flavor palette broadens, I think we (as consumers) have learned to ingest our media in different ways as technology has changed. We all have to accept that when change comes for a visit—no matter how welcome it might be—it’s always going to bring along a few ugly cousins. In the end, there really isn’t much else to do but give them a comfy sofa to sleep on and hope they don’t steal the good silverware on the way out.

I’m thinking about all of this lately, because I see changes happening in how we consume written media, and I’m left to wonder if it’s going to similarly alter our taste for it. Amazon’s recent announcement of a sub-$100Kindle and a sub-$200 tablet reader have sent trimmers through the reading world.  With the tablet, Amazon has clearly put readers in their sites, similarly to how Apple put listeners in their sites with the advent of iTunes/iPods. You see this tablet is going to be all things Amazon in terms of their video content offerings, music and eBooks. A veritable buffet of entertainment options.

At first blush, it might not seem like such a big thing. After all, we have computers, iPads and other doodads that marry all forms of entertainment onto one device. However, Amazon is certainly one of (if not THE) the top book retailers in the world (both paper and electronic) and up to this point no one has really attempted to give books equal space at the table with video and music downloads.  Couple this with the rumor that Amazon is contemplating a book rental service akin to Netflix where Kindle owners pay a flat monthly fee and are able to download as many books as they care to read, and you’ve got the makings of full out assault on the book business.

In the effort of full disclosure, I’m mostly concerned with all of this from the standpoint of an author looking to build a seaworthy business model (ship) prepared to navigate the unpredictable waters of modern-day publishing. Many have theorized that the future of publishing is going to gothe way of short stories or serialized content as more and more folks turn to the instant gratification/entertainment offered by all of these ‘connected’ gadgets. That certainly makes sense, especially in light of a giant retailer pushing written content right alongside its other electronic cousins (music and movies). Plus let’s face it; the attention span of the average person just isn’t what it used to be. Consequently, the idea of giving readers shorter reading experiences that can be digested quickly makes some sense.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to do a couple of more blogs on the topic, specifically thinking about what a ‘Netflix’ model might mean for authors, and what impact it might have on storytelling.  I’m going to try to answer questions I’m having, like: Is there a place for long-form fiction in the future?  I hope you’ll come back and add your thoughts. This is exploratory in nature, and I certainly don’t claim to have the answers. As always, I’m just one guy thinking aloud.

More near in this blog’s future, in an attempt to get into the mind of modern day authors, I’m going to begin running interviews with various independently published authors. Folks who are daring to carve their own path to publication, paths that many of us may be following in the years to come. I think you’ll really enjoy hearing from these authors, both as readers and writers. They’re all super-smart, engaging and (most importantly) dedicated to the craft.  The first interview will be this Wednesday with author, Kimberly Mullican, so please stop by and say hi. Also, if you’ve published a story and would like to do an interview or a guest-post here on the Open Vein, please drop me a line in the comments, via e-mail or on Twitter and we’ll try to make it happen. I’d love to hear from all of you.

~EJW~

.99 Cent Books = Armageddon???

Salutations compadres!  I've been poked and prodded so much in the last week that I'm starting to feel like 'The Catch of the Day' at the local fish market.  That's right, I went to the doctor!  Heck, they even let me run on a treadmill ...

I couldn't help but identify with a lab rat when they started greasing me up and sticking wires all over my chest.  Seriously, an alien autopsy would probably have been less invasive.  A good time it was not.  Maybe that's why my feathers got all ruffled when I thought about today's topic.

I keep reading ... and keep reading ... AND KEEP READING about the scourge of the .99 cent book.  Those of you who are in the ePublishing Circle of Trust will immediately know what I'm talking about.  Those of you outside the Circle might not, so let me catch you up.

(I'm going to simplify a little a lot, but there are lots of little linkable words and phrases if you want to learn more.)

A little while back a small family-run Internet retailer named FREAKING AMAZON--I heard they got their start as shoe cobblers--decided they would let any old author upload their books for free to be sold on their site in electronic fashion.  Amazon, by this point, had officially become the largest retailer of paper books on the planet.  In short: Readers knew Amazon.  Readers trusted Amazon.

Coincidentally, Amazon had also popularized the eReader with their snazzy little device, Kindle.   For the historians out there, they released it in November, 2007 @ $399 US.  I say "popularized", because the Kindle wasn't the first eReader, it just happened to be the first REALLY consumer friendly one in both price and function.  (Yes, they were once MORE expensive than $399.)  Amazon had also become THE place to purchase eBooks--the things you read on an eReader.  Convenient?  I think so.

At the point authors were invited to share their wares on Amazon, eReaders were still relatively niche gadgets.  A little too pricey, and a little too unknown for the common woman or man.  That changed as other companies began to throw their names into the electronic book arena.  Two years after the release of the Kindle, physical book retail giant Branes & Noble released their own reader (Nook) and announced that they too would allow authors to self-publish on their website.  Shortly after B&N, Apple developed their own eBookstore.  All the while, a major Internet eBook retailer named Smashwords was also allowing authors to self-publish.  Even Google got in on the action.  

Fast-forward to Now

eBooks and eReaders are HUGE.  Sales of electronic books are surpassing their paper cousins and that gap is only going to widen with the growing number of popular electronic gadgets capable of functioning as a reader.  As a result, many authors are running to get on board the eTrain.

Economics ... BLECH

An initially unnoticed aspect of authors being able to circumvent the traditional publishing process--you know bleed tears, find an agent, bed-down with a publisher and hope your book made it to the front of the bookstore for a couple of days--and self-publish their work was pricing flexibility.  All of the sites that allowed for DIY publishing also let the author more-or-less set the price of the product (a privilege usually afforded to only publishers).  In the old model, the author's job was to write, not worry about profit margin.  A good thing for many authors who feel as I do about the E word.

So what did authors do when they put on their big boy and girl business undies?  What any entrepreneur would do, of course!  They undercut the poop out of the competition.  Why?  Why does Walmart sell things cheaper than everyone else?  Because they can afford to.  The Indie/DIY author was no different.

eBooks from traditional publishers are more expensive, and here's why.  You're going to pay more for Stephen King and Twilight because the big traditional publishers are corporations with big payrolls.  They have many editors, secretaries, etc., etc. to feed.  They also publish more than one or two books in a year.  That requires coin.  Furthermore, Stephen King and Twilight are responsible for making money for all the lesser-known authors who might not earn back the investment publishers make in them.  Combine that with the cost of making paper books (ya know like ink, shipping, feeding the gnomes who blow on the binding glue to make it dry it faster, etc.), and you've got a formula for mark up.

Here's a pretty solid list of why traditional publishing is 'spensive.   

It's a well known fact that most authors survive off of Saltine Crackers and various canned meat products, and they wouldn't know the difference between a board room and the Bahamas if you showed them a photo.  (I kid, I kid!)   So you see, the idea that an Indie author would be willing to price their baby at a scant .99 cents and think they were making a killing isn't that far fetched.

I'd like to point out that at this point no crimes were committed--by either party--and no animals were harmed during the making of the price war.  Traditional publishers have a right to determine what an acceptable profit is, as do Indie authors.  As with most things, however, the actual decision is going to come down to consumers.

I say tomato, you say I'm destroying an entire industry

There has been A LOT of mudslinging in the transition from paper to electronic publishing ...

Let's pause for a sec to clarify something:  It is a transition.  Not a fad.  Not a phenomenon.  Not a tryst.  This is a lasting change to how we primarily consume a product.  Proof?  I just got my nearly 70 year old dad an eReader for Father's Day on Wednesday of last week.   He told me on the phone this morning that he has already read half a book on it even though he didn't think he'd ever use it.  It seems he really likes being able to enlarge the font.  Now he wants to know how to get some of his favorite old paper books on it!  Call it anecdotal if you want, but for my money when the "old folks" are buying in, the "change" has already come and gone.

Back on task, everyone (including me ... wait for it) has seemingly had an opinion about what has happened to the publishing industry.  Readers, authors, publishers, editors, agents, Wall Street, grandfathers, granddaughters--you name it--have expressed everything from joy to dismay over the first real change to come to the reading medium since we swapped out stone for papyrus.

With those opinions have come accusations and prognostications.  Accusations of wrong doing and right doing in the transition, prognostications of good things and bad things still to come.  I've applauded some, laughed at others and scoffed at most.

The biggest bur to stick under my saddle of late is the scuttlebutt over book pricing.  Former literary agent and current author, Nathan Bransford, posted this poll last week to essentially gauge what the perceived value of a $25 hardback paper book in eBook form is.  He had posted a similar poll last year and the results were compared.  The highly unscientific, yet utterly compelling, findings showed that a year ago 63% of the folks who voted believed an acceptable price for the eBook version of a $25 paper book was greater than $10.  This year, 72% went the opposite direction and said that the eBook version should be priced below $10.  Even as a somewhat random sample that's a pretty big shift.

Nathan isn't the first person to illustrate or surmise that the value of a book is falling.  Consumers are starting to speak up.  THIS EXCELLENT ARTICLE (highly, highly recommended) posted back in March on The Digital Reader noted that of the top 20 bestselling eBooks on Amazon, 9 were priced at $1 or less.  With this evidence in hand a number of people have started predicting a day when all books are free, because no one will be willing to pay for them.  I've also read a number of hostile comments directed toward the authors who are pricing their books in the bargain basement, blaming them for hastening the collapse of the written word's value.

Let's pump the brakes, m'Kay?

Here are my reasonings (told you I had 'em) for why we shouldn't go all 2012 on books just yet:

• The Entertainer: Entertainment and talent have always carried a price tag.  People will pay to escape.  People will pay to enjoy and whiteness things they cannot, or are not willing to do themselves.  It's why we have sports.  It's why we have Lady Ga Ga.  If you can offer an experience of value, someone will pay for it.  From puppet shows in the street to sold out arenas; if you build it, they will come.
• A Change Will Do You Good: eBooks are a market in flux.  It is still way too early to nail down the market price.  Case in point: Back in March 9 out of the top 20 Amazon bestsellers were under $1.  As of this evening, only 1 out of the top 20.  A month from now it will probably be 15 out of 20.  Based upon the survey mentioned above, I'm not even sure readers know what an electronic book is worth to them.  While I'm pretty sure it isn't what a paper book is worth, I'm also pretty sure it isn't nothing.  (That's coming from a reader, not a writer.)
• "I'd Buy That For A Dollar": Worth is highly subjective.  Some people wouldn't pay more than $30 for a meal, but would sell everything they own for a new Harry Potter book.  Others would pay thousands of $$$ for a bottle of wine but not pay anything for digital content they can pirate for free on the Internet.  As such, there will never be "an agreed upon" price for anything.  
• Look To The Past, Not The Future: The music industry went through a similar shift not all that long ago.  People predicted horrible things when consumers were allowed to download their favorite tracks for .99c instead of being obligated to purchase an entire album for $15.  The same mantra of, "Pretty soon we'll be giving it away!" was shouted then.  (Actually, it is still being shouted by Jon Bon Jovi.  :)   Here's a news release from 2005 explaining how Apple and the Big Record Companies were butting heads over  the issue.  The reality is that the music industry for MUSICIANS and LISTENERS has never been better.   What about the Big Record Companies?  Not so much.  Draw what conclusions you will, but I for one think authors and readers will be fine. 
• "A Hamburger Today ...": Fastfood restaurants have been waging the price war for years, yet I still have to pay .99c for a hamburger.  Shouldn't it be free already?   If piracy and price cutting were truly the ingredients for "free" I tend to think my next iTunes purchase would be $0 instead of $9.99.  There is a bottom line for everything, and that bottom line will be set by the people who make a living off of the goods and services being provided.  An author won't work for free so long as there are readers who covet their stories.  Why?  Because milk and eggs aren't free.   

At the end of the day I think that authors just need write good stories.  The money and accolades will come if there is justification for it. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Are cheap eBooks going to devalue literature to the point that no one is willing to pay for it?  Are we headed toward a future where authors, like classical composers of old, are hired by private investors to craft stories that will be free to the public?

~EJW~

    

Author Vs Author - Can't we all just get along?

Howdy, all!  Sorry for the blog silence, but I had a busy weekend that involved 40 middle school students and their first ever visit to a college campus.  We took our group of students to the city of Austin to visit the University of Texas, one of the most progressive (I shan't use the word 'liberal') university/city combos in the nation.  Such a cool experience for students who still view a college education as something akin to climbing Everest.  It was great fun, but exhausting all the same.  I've been struggling with trying to get caught up ...

At any rate, I have a bit of fun news to share.   Have you ever wondered what motivates my tiny brain to write?  (You haven't, but just play along.)  Here's a hint: It has a soundtrack!  I did my first ever 'guest post' on Chris Phillips' blog to the 'tune' of naming three musical selections that inspire my writing.  (See what I did there?)   Head over and we can talk tunes!  You can check it--AND Chris' excellent blog--HERE.

Now to the meat and taters ...



Those who've followed my blog for any length of time know that one of my favorite topics is that of ePublishing and the general impact that technology is having on the publishing industry.  As an aspiring author, history tutor and a student of human nature I find it endlessly fascinating on multiple levels.

To be perfectly clear, as of yet I have no horse in this race.  I've not published anything (outside of grants) traditionally, nor have I have joined the Indie Army and uploaded my work to Amazon, et al.  I've definitely expressed that I support the ePub trend, but in general I like to think that I'm a neutral observer.  A scientist, if you will, who is simply going to allow nature to run its course and document my findings.  I've generally had the attitude of:

If the hyaenas eat the lion cub, I'm just going to point my camera in the general direction and try not to get all queazy on my new Timberlands.  

Still, as the topic has now grown into a full-sized bull elephant that has taken up residence in the one bedroom efficiency apartment that is publishing, I've come to realize that I cannot claim complete neutrality.  I do have a side.  Specifically, I have two sides.  I'm for authors, and I'm for readers.  I think that's why I'm so disturbed by what I've been reading ...

I'm seeing a lot of discourse between traditionally published authors, and authors who have gone the indie route.  In fact, I recently took part in a two week debate on a fairly prominent writing forum that had both sides practically tearing at each other's throats.  At one point, a pro-traditional publishing person referred to all self-published writing as "crap".

See, that's kind of where I draw a line.

Writing is art.  (Yes, even those vampire stories!)  As such, it will always be the domaine of subjectivity.  We can't label the creative expressions of others as unfit, because it's like saying a color is ugly or that a number is unlucky.  Maybe to you it is, but there might be 50 other people who disagree.  Or perhaps  only two other people, but that still doesn't change the fact that your opinion is just that, an opinion.  It governs you and no one else.

Do you know how many people I know think Picasso is crap?  TONS.  Does everybody dig the Beatles?  NO.  Was Twilight for everyone?  NOT HARDLY.  Does that change the scope or importance of the work?  Not in the slightest.

Don't get me wrong, there are certainly levels of refinement involved, and there is certainly a 'style' factor.  But that variance is precisely what makes all writing unique.  Furthermore, we're talking about something (DIY publishing) that allows consumers complete control over the value.  If the writing isn't polished to a degree and skillfully done, people aren't going to buy it.  No one is getting hoodwinked.

So why then is there suddenly a need to label one type of writing versus another, particularly among those who are creating it?


As a fan of YA material, I can tell you that YA authors have faced similar attacks on their credibility over the years.  Many think writing for children is a 'dumbing down' of literature.  That serious writers wouldn't think of doing it.  Don't believe me?  Recently lit fiction author, Martin Amis, said that only, "If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book--I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than I can write."  

I bring this up, because I view the criticism slanted at indie authors as a pebble in the same pond, so to speak.  As such, I was really disheartened to read one of my favorite YA authors take negative stance against his fellow writers.  Rick Riordan, of Percy Jackson fame, posted the following on his blog:

"I don’t talk about books that I didn’t like, but I must mention that I read a very hyped e-book on my Kindle – or tried to read it. About a hundred pages in, I started wondering why it seemed so poorly written. How did this get past an editor? Then I looked at the Kindle site and realized it was published straight to e-book. Ah, it didn’t get past an editor because apparently it never had one. I will be more careful in the future to check the provenance of e-books. Don’t get me wrong. While I still buy a huge quantity of physical books, I love my Kindle and my iPad, too. They are great for travel especially. But publishers and editors do serve a vital role in shaping manuscripts and making sure they are ready for prime time. It’s possible to circumvent this process with the advent of e-reading, but that’s not necessarily a good thing for readers. Caveat emptor."  

There are several flaws to Mr. Riordan's line of thought, most notably the fact that he has--through gross generalization--thrown thousands of authors into a one-size-fits-all bag.  Not all indie books are poorly written, and many of the authors are hiring independent editors.  That brings me to the second thing I'd have to disagree with, which is the presumption that only publishers (and the editors who work for them) are capable of creating a "consumer worthy" book.  Lots of English majors in the world, and lots of people with the composition chops to put together a solid read, and they don't all work for Random House.  The final area of my disagreement is the idea that every book that graces the shelf of your local Barnes & Noble has somehow passed a gold standard test of quality assurance.  Have you ever purchased a paper/traditionally published book with typos, plot holes, one dimensional characters, etc.?  I sure have.  Is there a greater likelihood of finding poorly written indie books?  I just don't have the numbers to say one way or the other.  (Alas, I don't read one indie for every traditional book, nor have I even touched the surface of reading a small majority of all books that have been traditionally or indie published.  When I do, I'll check back in. :-)

I guess I was so upset by Riordan's comment because as an author who has made his fortune writing in an area that so many people ignore, disregard or otherwise downgrade, I think he should know better.  Pigeonholing is for marketing gurus, media and fools--not artists.  Anyone who enjoys the freedom of expression, not to mention survives off of it, should avoid this kind of broad evaluation.  

Authors have to get away from tearing each other down.  If a writer can self-publish and make a living doing it, support that.  Furthermore, don't denigrate their desire to get their writing in front of readers simply because they're trying a different path.  Traditional publishing cannot logistically make certain that all worthwhile stories get published.

Conversely, don't hate J.K. Rowling or Steph Meyer for being successful, even if you don't enjoy their writing.  In fact, if you're an indie, you should go out of your way to support traditional folks.  Their popularity and presence are essential to fueling reader awareness for every type of writing.  

The bottom line: Now more than ever we need champions of literature at every level, and we're not going to get it by destroying each other.    

~EJW~