eBook Marketing Models: If it's good enough for Jerry Garcia, it's good enough for me. (And Jerry only had 9 fingers.)

I saw a Tweet this morning that got me all fired up, something along the lines of '...a professional is somebody who doesn't give his work away.' (I suppose I could find the offending Tweet and just paste it here, but I gots points to make.)

It probably wasn't directed at me (paranoia forced me to type probably) but I took it personally because that's kind of my game right now--getting books to readers. From personal experience I know that thousands of published writers die on the shelf without ever seeing a royalty check. They jumped through the publication hurdles like they were Carl Lewis, but never built a fan base. Second or third books in their series never got published because the first book didn't sell like Snuggies. Maybe some of these guys were pubbed through a smaller press without publicists or marketers telling them what to do at every turn, and maybe some of these were writers who just didn't have the foresight or confidence to grow a fan base ("I'm a writer, not a salesman.")

Now I don't have too many people holding my hand, telling me what works and what doesn't. And a lot of new writers are in the same boat. That's why we hang out on forums and read blogs. I started looking for models from other fields, and this is how I stumbled upon a model that worked.

This time last year, I decided to give a thousand books away because this is similar to what the Grateful Dead did with recordings of their shows. They figured after they played a show it wasn't theirs anymore--it belonged to the fans.And I figured I wasn't selling books. I was selling myself.

In building support for my model I stumbled upon The Grateful Dead and the Tapers: A Distribution Lesson for the Arts where blogger Louise K. Stevens writes, "Face to face interaction with content is what builds audiences far more than all the PR and marketing in the world. Face to face interaction – sure, including via digitized media – that is facilitated by people just like you and me, who think enough of the content to pass it along, is even more likely to build audiences. Too bad that 99.9% of the artists out there have contracts forbidding the very thing that, as Kowasaki puts it, is totally enchanting in the simplicity of methods to build and keep thousands of happy fans. Think of it – a taper section at the concert hall. A taper section at the theatre, the opera. YouTube content that never stops, that is fundamental to audience growth. Encourage distribution, facilitate it, champion it. And watch the line at the box office grow and grow, just as it did for the Dead."

Think she's full of BS too? Then check out Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan. They talk about specific concepts that have made the Dead who they are.

Here's what the Dead have taught me:

The Dead have taught me stay away from the flock. Otherwise I'd still be querying agents. Of course, it can be argued that the new wave of publishing is just another type of flock, which I suppose it is. But since it's a flock of independents, it's more like a flock of mountain lions than a flock of ducks.

The Dead were prolific experimenters (both legal and illegally.) Experimentation yields innovation and keeps the flock on their toes. Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling were both genre outsiders. Maybe that's why Stephen King hates Stephenie Meyer so much? She didn't follow genre rules and play the games that you're supposed to play ("Publish a thousand short stories before you even think about querying...")

The Dead realized that the fans defined them, and didn't have a problem with trying to keep tight control over their music, imagery, iconography. They rewarded loyalty and innovation within the community, especially when it came to merchandise.

The Dead taught me that content belonged to the fans. This is a tough one for some writers to grasp. You can complete the best novel ever written and keep it in a drawer and charge one person a million dollars to read it. Or you can rely on hundreds (then thousands) of people to fall in love with what you do and hope that (and encourage) them to get a few friends to buy the book. This is Marketing 101. Word of mouth, and all that? (Some writers who haven't attempted marketing yet need to keep an eye on what you're posting and those scathing reviews on Goodreads, lest those words come back to bite you square in the ass.)

Most of all the Dead have taught me to do what I love. Don't write to market. Don't follow trends. Don't play it safe. One of the first things I heard as a writer was "..write the book YOU want to read." I took it as the writer saying my stuff would never get read, so I have to write for personal enjoyment only. And now that my stuff is being read I know he meant that you STILL have to write for yourself, first and foremost. Since I put my stuff out there for the world to read I have not had one miserable minute writing. I do not have to be reminded to 'get my ass in the chair' and do not have to be coaxed to keep up word counts. This is fun. Would I do it for free, as a hobby, the way I'm doing it now? Yes. I honestly would. But the fan interaction and checks and the opportunity to work with Raw Dog Screaming Press and Hatch Show Print make so much sweeter.

A friend from Seton Hill posted a link to Seth Godin's blog this morning. It was a short post if you want to check it out for yourself:

Building a job vs. building a business

He talks about the mentality of workers vs. entrepreneurs and it totally validated the way I felt this morning. And I guess what I would've said, if I would've replied to the Tweet was, "I'm not trying to sell books for a few bucks here and there. I'm trying to build something that's going to exist beyond this book, and the next, and the book after that."

And I guess I just did that here.

READERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN SALES.

Amazing deduction, right? So why did it take me 3 months to arrive at this conclusion.

Fear, probably, is the biggest reason. ePub is all ready looked at as being less legit than 'legacy publishing' so why devalue my writing even more? $2.99 isn't $17.99, but it sure as heck isn't a giveaway. $2.99 is J.A. Konrath's magic number, and if that's good enough for him it's good enough for me.

At some point between Monday morning and last night it occurred to me that I wasn't writing to make money. Maybe it had something to do with summer idealism and the ability to write in a stress-free environment for the next few months. Most likely the angle of the sun and the smell of honeysuckle in the evening reminded me of all the good things that come with summer. Playing my guitar in our porch swing. Fireflys. Getting muddy on some of West Virginia's finest singletrack.

Dave Matthews Band.

What?

Yup. Going back to 1994 or 1995, Dave Matthews Band had been my official summer soundtrack, and even if I don't listen to them nearly as much as I used to, something about this time of year makes me want to hear stuff from the first 2 or 3 CDs again.

I didn't get into Dave until CRASH came out, and by then he was certainly mainstream. But I knew that tapes of his early live shows existed, and tried to get my hands on some of the more legendary ones. DMB's early manager, Coran Capshaw, had toured extensively with the Grateful Dead and knew the importance letting tapers record and distribute, through one-to-one trades, Dave Matthews Band's early shows. Students from Charlottesville and Richmond came to their first concerts knowing the words to most or all of Dave's songs. Students from Richmond and UVA would pass out tapes to friends at other universities so when the band showed up for the first time at a city they'd never played in, they played to full houses of fans who knew all the words.

DMB gave their music away, because they knew the importance of building those relationships, something I'd forgotten until the sounds of the summer city waking up through an open window shook me back into reason.

So I'm dropping the price of THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK to $0.99 on Amazon and Smashwords (because Amazon won't let you give the book away, and Heidi says it should have some value) for the next few weeks. All I ask is that, if you like the book, tell somebody about it by leaving a review or sharing it with somebody who'll read it. If you're on Goodreads write a brief review or talk about it on a message board. If you bought it on Amazon leave a few words saying what you liked, or didn't. Doesn't have to be a doctoral dissertation. Just a few lines.

As a thank you I'm going to start posting my next book, HELLBENDER, chapter by chapter here on the blog. Look for the tab at the top of the page by the end of the day.

And to everybody who has read the book and has said kind things to me or to others about the book-thank you! These interactions are the reason I'm dropping the price. Down the road these will have more value than any money I would've gotten from sales.

PUTTING THE BOOK TO BED

Note: this post is saturated with the author's emotional self-reflective dribble. Any attempts to get anything meaningful from this essay will be laughed at. Or ignored.

I've written, and finished three novels, but this is the first time I've ever put one to bed. This is the first time since I began writing that I've ever been able to truly write 'the end.'

Publishing limbo has always made it impossible for me to ever see a book as finished. With each rejection letter came another attempt to make the book better, to tweak the plot, to look for typos. So for me, the publication process has involved finishing three novels simultaneously for the last ten years.

Friday night I got a call from Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee about my book cover. I'd been in touch with them off and on since January, but money problems kept me from being able to totally commit to the project. The income tax check went for new brakes. The contract I was supposed to sign never materialized. Checks for little jobs here and there always found their way to necessities rather than luxuries. So when Brad from Hatch called and said my project was next in the cue I freaked out a little. I'd forgotten that I had committed to the cover about six weeks ago. Just like jumping off a bridge.

So this week the posters will arrive. My book cover, as printed by one of the premier print shops in the United States. Hatch has been in business for over a hundred years. They've printed posters for Wilco, The Beastie Boys, Dwight D. Eisenhower, B.B. King, Elvis, Johnny Cash. And now Jason Jack Miller. With this cover, THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK is done. There will be no more tweaking, the typos that are in there stay in there.

Is the book perfect?

Now it is. This book is the result of ten years writing and a master's degree. This book, from the first word, conforms to my ideas about what a book should be better than anything else I've ever written. I've never been more proud of anything I've ever done with my life.

The writing process, and the publication process and defending the publication process have made this a very special time for me. This is the book that made me a writer because I learned what it means to truly be passionate about something--to live it and breath it, to rewrite in my head as I drift off to sleep.

I've written to contract. Professional or not, that's not writing to me. Writing is about YOUR plot and YOUR characters and YOUR values and pursuing YOUR passion. It will always be, for me.

This book is a part of me. It is all mine, to share with readers and the writers who have helped me along the way.

Now I'm on to the next one. Literally, right now.

Take a look at more of Brad's work: http://bradvetterdesign.carbonmade.com/

Interview on MS. SOCIAL MEDIA

Ms. Social Media has posted my brief interview about blogging over on her website. It's worth checking out if you have a few minutes. make sure to take a look at some of the other bloggers she has profiled on her site.

A special thanks to Faydra for the opportunity!

http://mssocialmedia.com/2011/04/16/pa-blogger-jason-jack-miller/

OPERATION EBOOK DROP

A few years ago Ed Patterson, a Smashwords author and US Army vet, began Operation eBook Drop as a way to distribute ebooks from indie writers to troops stationed overseas. Read all about it over at the Smashwords blog.

I just finished the process and am encouraging all indie authors to do the same. The process is relatively painless and it's a good way to spread the love.

Operation eBook Drop

THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK

You'd think finding a song named after you on an old record would be kind of cool. But that's not how it goes down for Preston Black.

What starts out as a search for his old man turns into a quest for an original version of "The Sad Ballad of Preston Black". Turns out the song is about his deal with the devil, a deal Preston doesn't really remember making.

When the devil decides it's time to cash in things get really interesting. People he loves get hurt, and Preston starts to wonder if a long fall into an icy river is his only way out.

Lucky for Preston, he has help. A music ethnographer with connections in some of Appalachia's darkest hollows convinces him that his salvation can be found in the music. Preston can buy that. It's the hexes, curses and spells he has a hard time with.

And it's the ghost of John Lennon who convinces Preston to do something about it.


      I wish I could say I found that record the first time I walked into the joint. But honestly, I'd been going into Isaac's every week since he'd hung his shingle out. Ever since I started giving lessons next door, at least. Killing time at Isaac's was easier than killing time with Mick's Strats and Twin Reverbs. The guitar shop had become too much like work, Mick too much like a boss. If I showed up early he always found meaningless little jobs for me to do, like tuning the Guilds and refilling humidifiers. If I showed up a minute late he was all, 'Get yourself a watch.'
      So I'd hide out at Isaac's until my lessons arrived, soaking up the juju that dripped off the old vinyl like heat from a spotlight. The simplicity of an album, its lack of moving parts, spoke to me in a way CDs didn't. Vinyl had a tender, handmade quality that made me believe that the music had been born into a more authentic era. Like a record could somehow be more sincere than a CD or mp3. But I knew all that was a load of crap. In the end, only the music mattered.
      For me, walking into Isaac's gave me the same feeling some people get when they walk into a church or a mall. I can't describe it. Maybe enlightenment, but I'm not sure if I've ever experienced that feeling. Either way, all I had to do to soak up the collective wisdom hiding in all of those vinyl grooves was appreciate the music, and try to understand where the artist was coming from. I swore if I browsed long enough I'd find whatever guidance I needed to get me through my paper-thin life. And since my own father ran off long before I ever learned how to hold down a G chord, I'd never have to worry about overdosing on guidance.
      The guys my mom brought home didn't have a lot of wisdom to pass on. They all either wanted to preach to me or beat me. So I didn't need a semi-employed union pipefitter around giving me shit when I had the Holy Trinity of John Lennon, Joe Strummer and Bruce Springsteen helping me down the path of lyrics and music. Each of these guys came into my life when I needed them the most. And each left just like my own dad did--long gone before I ever had a chance to say goodbye. But their lessons stuck. Joe Strummer taught me it was okay to throw a few bricks, and that a cop was something I really didn't want to be. From John Lennon I learned that if you were clever they hated you, and for a fool it was worse. From Robert Hunter I learned the devil's friend sure ain't a friend of mine.
      In hindsight, I should've listened to Hunter. Call it irony, but the morning I found the old LP that had me standing on the Westover Bridge thinking about taking the final jump, I'd been browsing near Ozzy, a friend of the devil if the devil ever had one. Before that LP I assumed lyrics were just lyrics. Didn't know they could be warning labels too.
      Besides, the douche bags who worked at Isaac's treated me like I had the musical tastes of a ten-year-old boy. I couldn't help it I never heard of Black Flag or The Pixies growing up. My brother and me were pretty much forced to listen to whatever mom played in the car. Mostly country. Kenny and Dolly singing "Islands in the Stream." Garth Brooks, if we were lucky. Most people didn't have to dig as deep as I did to find something they recognized in an old record or song.
      And digging deeper was pretty much what I was doing the day I found my LP misplaced behind Blizzard of Oz. On my way to return the record to the BLUEGRASS section the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen stepped out of the CLASSICAL stacks. She smiled. I smiled back. She asked what I had in my hand. On the cover a bunch of anonymous pickers sat in front of an old log cabin. The back of the record said Uncle Mason's Front Porch: Best of the Blackwater Sessions.
      And on the track list, between "Pretty Polly" and "Hangman's Reel" was a song called "The Sad Ballad of Preston Black", written by E. Black.
      I knew right then and there that if I could ever find the man who'd written that song, I'd have found my dad.



In less than twenty-four hours THE SAD BALLAD OF PRESTON BLACK shows up in Amazon's Kindle Store. This is kind of a soft release because there'll be a few bugs to iron out--I'm afraid some the internal links won't work and a heading or two may be off-center. But it's what I've been working on for the last few years. And I'm damn proud of it. And I did it independently, without any hand holding. And this is the format my writing was meant to appear in.

A few years ago this type of freedom wasn't available to a writer, unless you were lucky enough to to have an editor at a small press who was willing to take risks with formats. I think seeing the kind of fun Mike Arnzen had with his Gorelets and Audiovile made me wonder what kind of sweetheart deal I'd have to get to be able to work in those formats. Now I don't have to wonder anymore.

As soon as I get my Kindle formatting straightened out I'm going to start recording the soundtrack to The Devil and Preston Black. I already have the guitar worked out for three songs, and have complete lyrics to one, have banjo and electric guitar parts and bass lines for a few more. I'm still looking for somebody to help me with drum tracks and I'm hoping a sexy violinist will show up to put finishing touches on everything. After I get the title track finished I'm going to complete the book trailer I started.

The cover is temporary, too. I put it together out of necessity, but have been talking to Jim Sherradin of Hatch Show Prints of Nashville, Tennessee about a proper cover. Hatch is a traditional print shop that does concert posters for the Ryman Auditorium and Grand Ole Opry. I'd love to visit them over the summer and see how it's done, and hopefully document part of the process.

You know, I dropped more than a few characters talking about the Big Six and the state of publishing and all that, so I'm not going to do it again here. But in a way I feel like I no longer have to do it here, or anywhere. The industry used to be the biggest obstacle to publication and I KNOW they vetted writers and I KNOW their goal was deliver to first-rate stories to readers. But somewhere along the way they became the enemy to writers like me--writers who's only platform was a love of storytelling and a masters degree. And there are a lot of us out there. We like the idea of not having to write to a marketing department or a demographic. We like the freedom of writing for ourselves and being able to get it out there without the hassle of toeing the line or trying to impress an agent.

Writing and publishing this book has been the most gratifying experience I've had since I typed my first Chapter One back in 1998 when we were living in a tiny apartment down in Orlando, Florida while working for The Mouse. The challenges I face are my own, but a community is starting to gel. I've met so many people going this route who are more than willing to help a brother out. (I'm looking at you, M Stephen Lukac. How many other writers can pick up writing advice at Shop 'n Save?)

I got goosebumps writing this. Every writer should be able to feel this way about their work. Now they can. I don't care if my mom's the only person in the world who ever reads my book, because it's out there like H1N1. And I didn't have to compromise or give away 80% to do it.

In 2011, this is what happy, successful writers looks like.

Scott Turow on Random House: Local Booksellers May Be the Big Winners

From the Authors Guild:

Random House, the largest trade book publisher in the U.S., announced last week that it is adopting the agency model for selling e-books. For readers and authors concerned about a diverse literary marketplace, this is welcome news, a chance for online bookselling to avoid the winner-take-all trap. Random House's move gives brick-and-mortar bookstores, many of which are now selling e-books but cannot afford to lose money on those sales, a fighting chance in the new print + digital landscape.

"Book retailers have faced extraordinary challenges in recent years," said Authors Guild President Scott Turow, "a double whammy of recession and a shift to digital books that had cut many stores out. For anyone who loves bookstores, this is the best news out of the publishing industry in a long time. Random House's move may prove to be a lifeline for some bookstores."

Apple introduced the agency model into bookselling last year when it launched the iPad and the iBookstore. In January 2010, as Steve Jobs was announcing Apple's new device, Amazon controlled an estimated 90% of the U.S. e-book market. The price of entry into that market was steep: Amazon, using the reseller model for e-books, was routinely selling e-books at a substantial loss to build the market and to ward off competitors such as Barnes & Noble, which had just begun selling the Nook. As we described in last month's alert (How Apple Saved Barnes & Noble. Probably.):

Apple wouldn't sell e-books under the reseller model that Amazon had been using to lock down the market. (Under that model, the publisher sells e-books to a reseller at a discount of about 50%. The reseller can then sell the e-book at any price, constrained only by antitrust law and the reseller's ability to absorb losses.) Instead, Apple would sell e-books under the same "agency model" it used for iPhone apps. Under the agency model, Apple acts as the publisher's agent, selling e-books at the price established by the publisher and taking a 30% commission on each sale. To participate, a publisher would have to agree to a set of ceilings on e-book prices, generally $12.99 or $13.99 for new books. A publisher would also have to agree not to sell to others under more favorable terms.

If the agency model took hold, unfettered discounting of e-books would be out. Amazon would lose its ability to buy market share in a nascent, booming industry.

Macmillan leapt at the agency model, and Amazon fought back. In a dramatic, week-long showdown, Amazon removed the buy buttons from print and digital editions of virtually all of Macmillan's books. Macmillan stood firm, and five of the big six trade publishers (all except Random House) quickly adopted the agency model. The Guild immediately backed the agency model as essential for creating a healthy, diverse e-book retailing environment, even though it would mean lower royalties for many authors in the near term.

Barnes & Noble benefitted more than anyone from publishers' adoption of the agency model. It still had to subsidize sales of many Random House titles to stay in the game with Amazon, but it didn't have to lose money on the sales of other titles. Barnes & Noble's share of the e-book market grew at a pace that surprised everyone in the industry and is now approaching 20%.

The biggest beneficiaries of Random House's shift to the agency model may be independent booksellers, many of which are now selling e-books through an arrangement with Google. While Barnes & Noble could absorb some losses in selling Random House e-books, this was out of the question for most independent booksellers. Many readers will soon be able to support their local booksellers when they buy e-books, without paying a stiff price for their loyalty.

"Getting local booksellers into the e-book game is essential," said Mr. Turow. "Equally essential, if e-books are going to help sustain a vibrant literary culture, is restoring the traditional division of proceeds between authors and publishers. Random House and other major publishers have a lot of work to do on that score."

For a discussion of e-book royalties, see E-Book Royalty Math: The House Always Wins and The E-Book Royalty Mess: An Interim Fix.

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5 Rules for Indie Publishing

Back in September or October, Heidi and I really started kicking around the idea of flipping the Big 6 the bird (more my idea, I don't think Heidi approves of flipping of said bird) and following the course Joe Konrath, David Morrell and others are plotting.

We spent a week or two trying to figure out what criteria we'd use to ultimately make the decision to publish on our own, and came up with 5 rules or guideline we'd use to aid in our decision-making.

Here they are (count 'em, kids) for your perusing pleasure:

1. Know why you're publishing independently

This is a no-brainer. Independent publishing can not be a last resort after years spent collecting rejections from agents, big publishers, small publishers, ePublishers, etc.. The decision has to be--HAS TO BE--the writer's first choice.

Why?

If you are not going to treat your book the way a publisher--who'd spend thousands of dollars to print, market and distribute--is going to treat it, then independent publishing probably isn't going to be for you. You have to love it enough to make sure it receives the attention it deserves and have to be 100% committed to selling the crap out of it and believing in it. You have to believe you know what's best for your book.

It's your baby. Don't leave it locked up in a hot car while you drink beer.

2. Know risk to gain ratio

Our experience with a major travel publisher taught us a few things. It taught us that a publisher isn't always going to do the things it says it's going to do. Our publicist's campaign for our book consisted of sending .jpgs of our cover to bookstores prior to signings that we'd set up ourselves. Our publicist contacted no local media and couldn't even get us postcards or promotional material to take to conferences and conventions we'd attended on our own dime. We didn't expect subway posters and bus stops, but c'mon. Don't pee on my leg and tell me that's what I paid for.

Then the publisher printed a second edition of our book while continuing to call it a first edition and we haven't seen a royalty statement in months.

I know that some people have great experience with publishers. We haven't.

I'll gladly collect 70% instead of 12% to do the work my wife and I have been doing since our book was released--to promote a book that I've sweated and lost more sleep over than a publisher ever would. And I know that if I fail, the failure is my own.

But I'd rather fail on my own than fail because my query wasn't good enough, because a publisher cut my print run, because I got a contract for a print run I could never sell out, because marketing decided my book was urban fantasy instead of supernatural suspense, because the release date coincided with a release by Snooki or Nicole Richie.

And I'd rather take 70% of $2.99 for a book I spent 10,000 hours on than take 10% of $19.99 for a book a publisher spent a week on.

3. Know what you're compromising

->I'm losing the valuable experience of thousands of cumulative hours shared by the agents, editors and marketing departments who'd have a hand in publishing my book.

But I trust my associates from Seton Hill and the friends I've made at conferences and conventions to give me the same type of support. I know the relationships wouldn't be the same--some would be less personal, some more--but it's a price I pay. (And I wouldn't trust some of the professionals I've met at conferences and conventions with a laundry list or a recipe, let alone a manuscript. I'm looking at you, ------ -----------!)

->I'm losing national distribution.

We know that's not true anymore.

->I'm losing credibility.

I'm not sure that a Big 6 contract guarantees credibility either. I have a master's degree, am adjunct faculty at a distinguished university and am a member of The Authors Guild. I've worked with a major publisher on a big non-fiction project. I'm not Stephen King. But neither is Snooki.

4. Know that you are the company

You pick your release date. You choose a cover. You market it. You go to conferences and signings to represent yourself and the book. You are responsible for your own finances. You deal with complaints from readers. You contact local media. You set up signings and purchase all of your own promotional material. You pay somebody to format the book or you format it yourself. You get the pat on the back. You hang your head when readers point out typos and plot holes that you've missed.

5. Know if you have the time and energy

In addition to writing the book, you do all of the things mentioned above. And then you have to write another book. There's a lot of discussion on Konrath's blog about authors with multiple books doing better than authors with only one. Check out http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ to read what people who have a hell of a lot more experience in independent publishing (and 'real' publishing) than me have to say about it.

I don't know if independent publishing is for the faint of heart. But seeing that I'd have the freedom to write what I want instead of writing what I hope an agent would want is a very liberating experience. And if it bombs it bombs. I change my name and write something else. Or not. I can do whatever I want.

As the writer I should've always had that power--not the marketing department or a CFO. Sometime I get the impression that a lot of editors and agents and publishers put writers at the bottom of a very tall ladder. I think independent publishing puts writers at the top.

And look, I wrote this whole post barely mentioning the way the publishing industry has eaten itself into a very awkward and ugly corner. Let the agents have Snooki. I think the readers are smart enough to follow the writing.

Another Perspective on ePublishing

Steve Manning takes a level-headed approach to ePublishing from beyond the realm of Amazon vs. the Big 6.

WHY I WOULD TURN DOWN A SIX-FIGURE BOOK ADVANCE from Wordpreneur.com:

Unedited Guest Article by Steve Manning

People are always astonished when I tell them that I’d never settle for a six-figure book advance, that I’d simply turn it down flat. But when I explain the math to them, it all starts to make sense..

Shout-out from across the pond!

Many, many thanks to Tim Merrick for the kind words!

From http://www.theclashblog.com/

"Great article comparing Joe Strummer making a go of it with the 101′ers to becoming an author: Its no shock to most of you (I’d assume) that I enjoy writing and I’m perfectly keen to try and make a full time profession of it so I found extra reverberation in this piece which compares Joe’s early days trying to make inroads with his squat based band with the effort and resilience it takes as a writer on the endless path of seeking readers or even the holy grail of publication. Music much like writing is easier to get started in and ‘out there’ than it was 30 years ago but finding loyal readers or motivated listeners is another battle entirely."

2011 WRITING PERSPECTIVE

From JOE STRUMMER and the legend of THE CLASH by Kris Needs--“We started the 101’ers with one amplifier and one speaker’, remembered Joe. ‘We built our own equipment… We got some drawers out of a skip and we used to buy cheap speakers down the Edgeware Road and we’d drop them into these drawers and put a facing board on them and turn them up. That would be a cabinet… I used to go to gigs with two bricks in a shoulder bag and these bricks were to sit in the deck of a record player upturned with a broom handle screwed in it, which was the microphone stand. The microphone was taped on the top and the bricks were there to drop in the record player and keep the things steady so the mic didn’t fall over.’

I started writing in October 1998 with one goal--to get a book in print with one of the Big 6. Every writing-related action I’ve engaged in since has been to help me achieve the publication of a novel. I went to conferences to meet agents, went to book signings to meet authors to find out how they did it, I’ve taken query writing workshops, completed a Masters degree, bought writing how-to books, read agent blogs and subscribed to feeds from publishers.

And you know what? It was starting to work. My rejection letters really started getting better and people started telling me that was a good thing. Instead of ‘this isn’t right for us’, I started getting ‘the writing’s great, but we don’t know how to market it’. Some great victory, huh?

And that’s exactly why I’m pulling out now. I have the confidence to realize that my work is better than the form-rejection letter an agent’s intern sends me. Some would call it ignorance, or even hubris, but spending so many years on the outside looking gave me a new perspective on the industry I wanted more than anything to break into. And when I read that little passage from Joe Strummer it hit me…
I’m not waiting anymore.

Musicians don’t wait until they get paid to start delivering songs to an audience. An artist doesn’t paint with thoughts of ‘is this right for the market’ hanging over his head. It’s writing, with its archaic hierarchy of agents, editors and marketing departments that complicates the artist’s relationship with consumers. And with Amazon’s way of e-distributing directly to readers, writers finally have an alternative route to publication. Look at some recent Tweets from Publishers Lunch—“Harvard Square’s Globe Corner Bookstore up for sale”, “Random House closes operations at Tricycle Press Imprint”, “Latest BISG eBook Survey Finds 40% of Respondents Spending Less on Printed Books”, “Aletheia Continues to Trim their Barnes & Noble Holdings”, “New Book Sales Fall 9.3% At Hastings, Which Has No eBooks”, “Borders Announces Yet Another Web Site Redesign”, “Joseph-Beth Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy; Will Close Another Two Stores”.

Whose fault is it the industry’s going to shit? It’s not mine. I’m not the guy who chooses to represent or publish Hilary Duff or Lauren Conrad or Snooki over writers who’ve been practicing and polishing their work for a lot longer than I have. St. Martin’s Press published J-Wow and Ronnie’s book, NEVER FALL IN LOVE AT THE JERSEY SHORE. Celebrity culture is not literary culture and massive media campaigns will never create the kinds of long-term relationships word of mouth readers and booksellers and good stories can.

If somebody from one of the Big 6 houses would’ve asked me, I would’ve said it was dumb to print hardcovers in such massive quantities that they’d only end up reduces 80-90% on a bargain table three months later. And that it’s a bad idea to rely on a book like THE DA VINCI CODE (or a DA VINCI CODE clone) to support the rest of the house. And that advances, like the $1.2 million paid for Andrew Davidson’s THE GARGOYLE, or Tina Fey’s $6.8 million advance or Tom Friedman’s $5 million advance leaves little or no money for new, developing authors. The kind of authors that turn out the mid-list books that support a house in the long run.

Until Amazon made it easy for writers to produce and distribute work on their own terms, we had no choice but to abide by the Kafkaesque system create by the Big 6 and literary agents. Agents are terrified (assumption is based proportionally on how often I see agents blogging about how un-scared they are) of e-publishing because it exposes them for what they really are. Agents don’t create anything, and they don’t produce anything. The idea of agents as gatekeepers is insulting to writers and to readers. I once heard an agent say at a conference, quite boastfully, he still would’ve passed on the Harry Potter series despite its success because he wasn’t interested in Rowling’s writing.

Jessica Faust of BookEnds,LLC doesn’t even think a writer can stand without agents and editors. She said, “You can’t say enough about how good she (an editor) makes you look, but obviously if you’re self-publishing she won’t be involved with this book. And it shows. Of course readers snatch up your books because they love you, but they’re disappointed. The books aren’t what they’ve come to expect from you, and now they feel like they’ve wasted their hard-earned money and time reading books they found unsatisfying.” http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2010/11/building-your-career-on-kindle.html

So writers are little more than monkeys at typewriters? Interesting.

Here’s what she said about JA Konrath’s success--“In my opinion, he’s an exception to what’s happening, not the rule. Trust me, Joe has a lot of great points, and the biggest is the amount of money one can make going directly to places like Kindle rather than through a traditional publisher. That being said, can you make the money if no one buys your books? Joe was selling books to readers well before he entered the self-epublishing world, he had a fan base, and people were hungry to read more of what he had written. Let me put it this way: For every success story like J. A. Konrath, there are hundreds of authors who put a book out on their own, only to see a hundred or so sales to friends and family and then nothing.” http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2010/11/launching-your-career-via-kindle.html

My favorite is when she says, ‘…can you make money if no one buys your books?’ I don’t know, but I’d try asking Borders first?

Scott Eagan does her one better--“Many of the editors I talk to openly tell me they want to see some great new projects. They are desperately searching for that golden gem. They want that great author. Agents are doing the same thing. The problem is that the stories just aren't there.

I said this a couple of weeks ago, but you can't blame the editors for not buying. The real issue is that the stories just aren't coming in.” http://scotteagan.blogspot.com/2010/10/just-some-observations-e-publishing.html

There you have it--it's the writers fault the industry is failing. Brilliant.

You know, I may or may not be Joe Strummer, but I sure as hell ain’t Snooki. Relying on my writing ability and my ability to sell myself sits with me a hell of a lot better than relying on agents and publishers. I know that the road to legitimacy is a lot steeper going this route, but it’s been virtually impassable querying agents and trying to attain my goals ‘legitimately’. If I stick with the Big 6 plan I won’t have readers until 2015, if ever. By going Amazon’s route I can have readers--for better or worse--tomorrow.

I know a publisher is going to market me and make sure my book sells, right? I know this because it was what our Avalon Travel publicist was supposed to do. And we still set up our own signings and still contacted the media ourselves. We set up all of our own speaking engagements and presentations. The publicist contacted us the month before the release and never again, forcing my tenacious wife to learn more about publicity and marketing than she ever would’ve on her own. So I know even if would ever end up with a book deal, I’d still be promoting it myself. (But if our Avalon publicist is reading this, thanks a million! Because of you we learned to do it ourselves.)

Going through Amazon lets me keep my rights. The loss of eRights and future rights scares the heck out of me. Many authors weren’t so lucky. Joe Konrath has talked about this extensively at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com so I won’t get into it here. He describes the process and his experiences more succinctly than I ever could, and he has the figures and legitimacy to back it up. I personally find the royalty rates given to writers by publishers for ePubbed books absurd.

For me it comes down to what I’d rather be doing--writing. I’d really rather be writing than dealing with industry types. And more than anything, I’d rather fail for something I’d written, rather than for not being able to ever get a foot in the door. If I have to start carrying around a couple of bricks in a shoulder bag, that's exactly what I'll do.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Joe Konrath's Resolutions for Writers. Konrath'd better watch himself, or his blog is going to be seen as the Bible of ePublishing, if it isn't already.

The Feminista Files: FEM farewell: The Publishing Dinosaurs

Awesome post that sums up publishing for a lot of people.

The Feminista Files: FEM farewell: The Publishing Dinosaurs