E-Pub or Hang On For a Traditional Publisher?

Alison Morton has written a blogpost about the dilemma facing her and many other writers: at what point do you give up on the traditional route of agent/publisher, and go for self-publishing?

There are some people who will always want to go the traditional route. There are some people who will plunge straight into self-publishing. Often, both these groups can be disparaging or dismissive about the other choice of direction.

I think the polarisation is unfortunate and not particularly helpful. Every writer will make choices dependent on their personality, their opportunities, their wallet, the free time available to them. What suits me may not suit you - and if we were all the same, what a boring world it would be.

I think each writer should instead ask themselves what really matters to them...

Prestige or validation:

You need a traditional publisher, preferably one of the Big 6. This may change in the future, but right now it's true. Having said that, your friends and family probably won't know any different, but you will in your heart and this is about what matters to you not them.

Money:

If you go into writing with the sole aim of making money then you are deluding yourself. There is a very small percentage of writers who make more than the national average wage, but writing is not the route to riches unless you are incredibly lucky. JK Rowling and Joe Konrath are exceptions, not the rule.

There are some self-publishers who are making serious money, easily as much as they would from going the traditional route. However, they are not in the majority and most self publishers consider themselves successful if they earn more than a few thousand. A traditional publishing deal will almost certainly be for more than a few thousand, and an agent should be able to sell other rights. But until you get a deal you're going to get nothing...

Getting the book 'out there':

Self-publishing without a doubt. You can be up and running via Kindle or Smashwords in a very short time. Print on demand (eg Lulu.com) means you can hold your book in your hot little mitts even if it's the only copy that ever gets printed.

Control:

Again, self-publishing is the way. You have very little control in the traditional route. This way you get to choose the design, how it's marketed and promoted, what price it sells at - everything is up to you. You get none of this with the traditional route.

Writing time:

Self publishing means you have to do a lot of stuff in front of a computer screen that isn't about writing your book and, in the tradition of 'you don't get something for nothing', you have to do a lot more than you originally bargained for. Editing. Cover design. Typesetting. Book design. Admin. This leaves less time for writing.

With the traditional route all the technical and production aspects are taken care of, and a lot of the promotion (though writers are expected to do a lot of promotion themselves).

Personally I know that I'd quite like to have a go at e-publishing one book maybe, but I don't have the interest/patience to do much more than that. I certainly don't want to run a small publishing business. But that's my choice. No reason why it should be yours.

PS Sorry this is late - I completely forgot. Oops.

Why 70% Royalties Might Not Be As Much as 10%

A friend has self published their book. It's non-fiction, and doesn't lend itself to e-publishing as it has lots of illustrations over double spreads so she's gone the print route. It's sold well and is making money, but she was grumbling to me about how she was having to chase up the various retailers for payment. Other grumbles included postage, and the need for invoices and delivery notes. It wasn't so much the cost of these things as the amount of her time they consumed.

OK, if she'd gone the e-publishing route, she wouldn't have had the same grumbles. But there would have been others. Different formats, the threat of piracy and Amazon pricing glitches for example. All of which have time implications, and that's before the big time-suck is included: marketing.

If you are conventionally published then I agree that they are asking authors to do more of their own publicity - too much, with too little support IMO. But you'll still have a publicist who will be dealing with the more conventional outlets such as reviews in magazines etc as well as promoting you on-line. You'll also have a team who will deal with all the other stuff involved with publishing, from editing to production to admin.

Now, basic maths tells me that 70% is more than 10%. But your 70% may have to fund some areas that you weren't expecting, whether directly (in the form of hard cash) or in terms of time spent. It's like thinking an advance of £20,000 is a fortune, when - if it's taken you a full time year or more to write the book - it's less than the national average wage, and even less when the agent's commission is taken out.

This isn't an anti e-publishing post, just Caveat Emptor. If something looks to be too good to be true - you get to keep 70%!!! - then it usually is.

Let's Be Thankful For Our Freedom of Choice

Yesterday I was chatting to a former prison librarian. It was a scary place, she said, but the library was treated with great respect. In a place where what you ate and wore was regulated, when your communication with your family and friends was limited to when the prison officers chose, when every step you took was monitored, the freedom to choose a book - any book - was relished. Even prisoners who had no real interest in reading enjoyed selecting a book.

It made me think of how we get het up over who reads what and the way some sneer at those who enjoy books we don't consider any good. It made me think of the aggression some people on both sides of the discussion display over epublishing, and how any one who makes a different choice can lay themselves vulnerable to name calling - and worse.

We are so lucky that we can write what we choose, when we choose. We can choose to follow any publishing path, and the number of options is increasing not decreasing. We can read what we like and when we like.

Let us be thankful for our freedom to choose and celebrate, not denigrate, the wonderful wide variety that the world of literature and publishing offers us.

Really, Really Wanting It

I find it worrying how many times you hear on reality talent programmes how the contestants really want it, it being whatever the prize is. They really, really want it. Really, really, really want it. You see this on X Factor and America's Next Top Model and - oh, anything that involves a judge deciding who to pick and who to drop. Sometimes the judge even says approvingly, 'A really wants it'.

I must admit my reaction is 'So what?' Sure, if A really wants to win, they'll perhaps work harder, spend more time on whatever it is they're trying to achieve, and that's good, but just wanting it? Is that supposed to out-weigh talent, and ability and skill?

I worry that 'wanting it' leads to a feeling of entitlement. 'This is what I want (and I really, really want it), therefore I should have it.' If you want to be a singer or a model then you're not going to get far without the support of people already working in the industry. Really wanting it, in real life, doesn't get you far unless you also have talent, ability, skill, persistence etc.

Until recently, that's been true for writing. You write a novel and yes, you've always been able to self-publish, but before e-publishing finances dictated small print runs and limited access to distribution networks. Now, e-publishing has taken those barriers away, and for good measure, Amazon and the rest will deal with all your invoicing and payments. All you have to do is the formatting, marketing and spending the money received.

I think e-publishing is great. I think it's creating opportunities for writers (although there are also some worrying signs that it could be financially disastrous long term).

But I do worry that feelings of entitlement might lead writers rushing in to self-publish before their books are ready on the grounds that they want publication now. Just because you feel ready, just because you want it really really badly, doesn't mean you are in fact ready for publication.

When I started writing fiction I had no idea of the amount of work that went into bringing a short story, let alone a novel, up to scratch. And I'd spent the previous ten years writing and editing non-fiction for my living. I was genuinely surprised that my short stories didn't automatically get short listed for every competition they went up for. Gradually I learned...

But I was still convinced that the first version of Adultery for Beginners was amazing, and was equally amazed that no one wanted it. No one even asked to read more. After a long period of sulking, I re-wrote and ended up cutting 90%. Yup, that's how good that first version was.

I've heard that feeling repeated by other authors. They look at their first writing (often because they're thinking of e-publishing earlier works which are now out of print) which at the time they thought was brilliant and shudder.

Self-publishing blogs you can read comments like: I'm going to e-publish when I'm finished because I don't want to go through the hassle of submitting, or I don't like people commenting on my work, or I can't be bothered with rewriting it. And the response is sometimes things like: good for you, and go for it, and conventional publishing is dead. Luckily there are also people who comment saying, are you sure it's ready? Because a writer may really, really want it, and think their book is ready, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is.

One of the great things about e-publishing is how easy it is to tell friends about a great book you read. It's also very easy to tell someone about a bad one. You and your book may be ready, but is the readership ready for your book? The question isn't about how much you really really want it. It's about how much the readership really, really want it.

Does Conventional Publishing Deserve to Survive? II

Editing and Gate Keeping yesterday. Today I'm looking at Marketing and Career Sustainability

3. Marketing

All authors are told to use social media - FaceBook, Twitter, blogs etc. So you could argue that the publishers have already opted out of marketing. But, social media aside, they have most of the other outlets sewn up. It's very hard for an outsider to get coverage in a magazine or newspaper or at a literary festival.

It's also hard for an outsider to get into supermarkets. You might argue that with e publishing you don't need to be in supermarkets. Maybe so, but they're where the bulk of books get bought. Sell in the supermarkets and you hit the best seller lists, even if you're a complete unknown. Lots of people - and we're talking tens of thousands - read your book and (hopefully) spread the word. It's hard to build word of mouth if you start from a relatively low number of sales in the first place.

The other plus point for the publishers is they have a team of dedicated press officers and marketing staff who love their jobs. If I'd wanted to go into marketing, I'd have done that after university. I didn't. I might be able to sustain enthusiasm for one, maybe two books, but I don't think it's in me to carry on marketing beyond that. Which leads me to...

4. Career Sustainability

Once upon a time, publishers nurtured authors. They accepted that an author might take time to develop as a writer, and that not all of an author's books would be as good as each other. They were prepared to keep the faith and give authors advances that enabled them to write. The mid list was the staple of all publishers, selling consistently albeit not brilliantly. Well, that went some years ago - along with the Net Book Agreement. It's particularly bad in Mid List Land at the moment as publishers concentrate their resources on the big brand names and new debuts they can sell as the next big thing.

I think quite a few authors are looking at e publishing because they realise that publishers aren't interested in sustainability any more for the mid list. If your sales graph isn't going upwards then you're out. That's a tough policy, and I think it's going to backfire long term. But then, as a mid list author, I would say that.

***

So, does conventional publishing deserve to survive? That depends. They've been careless with some assets, such as editors and the good will of authors. They've devolved some chunks of what they're supposed to do onto agents and authors. But they still control a large part of the book market and will continue to do so for the next few years at least whether they deserve to or not.

Overall, if I were a new author, I'd be looking for the print deal before I considered e publishing. As a mid list author, I'm still primarily interested in print, but I'm keeping a close eye on e publishing developments. I don't think my position will change next week, or next month. But the month after that...? Who knows?

NEW!!! I've finally got round to organising some course dates....

How to WRITE a Novel: London 3rd May/Birmingham 7th May/

Oxford 8th May/Exeter 21st May/Bath 12th June

How to SELL a Novel: London 24th May/Exeter 4th June/

Bath 3rd July Details are on my website

10 Truths about E Publishing

E publishing has had an interesting couple of weeks recently. First there's been widespread coverage of self-publisher Amanda Hocking making a million on Kindle, then the Joe Konrath/Barry Eisler interview, where Barry Eisler reveals that he turned down a $500,000 deal with a publisher so he could self-publish, then the news has come out that Amanda Hocking has signed a $2,000,000 4-book deal with a publisher (by coincidence, the same publisher Eisler turned down. They're also my US publisher, though sadly they've never offered ME that sort of money.).

It seems to me there are some basic truths....

1. What one person wants from writing a book is not the same as another person. You may want kudos, she may want money, he may want validation. That's true whether you're talking about conventional publishing or e-publishing. Once you know what you really, deep down, want from your writing, it's easier to choose your route.

2. A lot of discussion around e-publishing has money at the centre.

3. A lot of the discussion around e-publishing that doesn't have money at the centre has control as the big issue.

4. And the third big area of discussion around e-publishing is the potential downfall of conventional publishing, especially the Big Six, which is often seen as a good thing. No one seems to talk about the rising power of the retailers - Amazon, Google, Apple et al - and the level of discounts they demand.

5. There's not much discussion about poor writing and how much of it there is out there.

6. Some people will get lucky with e-publishing, just as they do with conventional publishing, when other people won't. The quality of their writing may have little to do with their success or otherwise, although the genre probably will, as some genres of writing are already doing better in e-book format than others.

7. There seems to be a belief that there is a "right" price for an e-book. But no one can agree what it is.

8. Pricing is currently all important in getting an e-book into the Top 100 on Kindle, and if you're not in the Top 100 your sales are significantly reduced. Stephen Leather has written a blogpost about how he played around with pricing over Christmas.

9. You have to sell a lot of books at 99p or 99c to make anything like a living wage after the retailer has taken their cut, which may be as much as 70%.

10. What is true about e-publishing now will not be true in a year's time. It probably won't be true in 6 months time. Or even next week.

I'm not sure what's going to happen over the next couple of years, what I'm going to do and where I'm going to end up. I really want to be writing, rather than marketing, or publishing. And in that I think I'm like most authors.

NEW!!! I've finally got round to organising some course dates....

How to WRITE a Novel: London 3rd May/Birmingham 7th May/

Oxford 8th May/Exeter 21st May/Bath 12th June

How to SELL a Novel: London 24th May/Exeter 4th June/

Bath 3rd July Details are on my website

E-Publishing

You'd think from some of the sites that e-publishing was a universal panacea. Writers are going to overthrow conventional publishers and take control of their own careers and income streams.

There's no doubt that epublishing has become a cheaper, easier and simpler form of publishing compared to conventional print methods. No worries about distribution or holding stock, for example. But the two fundamental problems associated with ALL publishing are still there:

1. How do you let people know about the book?

and

2. How do you make them buy it?

Neither of these things are as easy as you'd think. Yes, letting people know is easier now there's social networking and yes, you may be lucky and things go viral, reaching out to millions at the click of a button. But they've still got to buy it. Try an experiment. How many books have been brought to your attention over the last week. And how many did you actually buy?

I must have had over a hundred books pass before me, some of them by people I personally know, and I haven't bought a single one. I buy a lot of books, but right now my To Be Read pile is already stacked high and I'm on a book diet. But whatever the reason, people do not buy every book they see or read about - common sense should tell us that. They buy...1%? I wouldn't be surprised if it was 0.01%. The method of publication makes not difference. Getting people to actually put their hands in their pockets and fork out their cash is hard work.

Books aren't like music downloads. How long does it take to listen to a single track? 3 minutes? 5? And how long to read a book? Several hours at least for most people, if not more. Even if people like the idea of your book they still might not buy it because they haven't the time to read it.

All the successful epublishing stories come from writers who either have previously established readerships or are publishing non-fiction - just the same as with print self publishing success stories. And yes, there are writers who have epublished and gone on to land deals with conventional publishing houses, but I wonder why - if their epublishing venture was so successful - they want a print deal? I'd make a guess it's because book marketing is hard work and unbelievably time consuming.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against self publishing - I've done it myself and with the right project would happily do it again. But just because the technology of publishing has moved on, it doesn't mean that the basic principles of selling books have changed:

How do you get people to know about your book, and how do you get them to buy it?