Recently, a job opportunity has opened up to me that I just couldn’t say “no” to. I won’t bore you with the details, because the details really are quite boring. Suffice it to say that between it, my ‘day job’, my writing & marketing, and my family responsibilities, I will not have enough time to give Publishing Renaissance the attention it needs and richly deserves. Hence, I am handing the reins of command back to Zoe, the original Captain of our ship. (How’s that for a mixed metaphor?)
Thanks to all of you for your readership, contributions, and support. 
It’s been awhile – too long, actually, and I apologize for that – since we announced that we’re going to be making some changes here at Publishing Renaissance. Here, in short, are the details. Starting in September, our format will change from semi-daily blog posts to a monthly e-zine. This way we’ll have more time to devote to quality and variety. Publishing Renaissance will also have a more structured look and feel, with specific categories and features that will include:
- Marketing
- Opinion pieces
- Indie Author Spotlight
- Publishing Industry news
- Technical tips (how-tos)
- Moving Beyond Indie (tips for indie authors looking for an agent or publisher)
- Success Stories Business Tips (information for those starting their own business as their own imprint)
- Various columns (humor, slice-of-life, etc)
- Focus on Genre
Most of these ‘categories’ are currently being covered by our staff, but with the new format it will be easier to find specific kinds of articles that are of interest to you, or to find particular information you need. Our existing articles will be saved in the archives and will still be available to read. We will still be open to guest blogs and Creative Works submissions as well.
The look of Publishing Renaissance will change, too. In fact we’ll be fiddling around with that a little bit in the days and weeks to come, so don’t be alarmed if you pop in here during the next month or so and things look a bit odd.
The first issue of the new format will be published in September. We’ll have an announcement with a more specific date coming very soon.
I’ll bet you’ve been wondering why things have been quiet around here lately. The reason is this: we’re in the middle of a major revamp here at Publishing Renaissance, one that will bring some significant improvements in appearance, organization, and – most importantly – in quality. More information will follow in the coming days, including info on an upcoming newsletter.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already, please consider following us on Twitter. We’ll be posting links to some of our older articles you may have missed, or forgotten, that are still helpful and relevent, sometimes funny, and always entertaining.
Before I begin the wrap up, an announcement about July’s Creative Works submissions. Because it’s a holiday next weekend in the U.S., we’re pushing things back. The new deadline for July’s submissions is Wednesday, July 8. The new works will be posted Friday, July 10. For submission information, please check this page. And a heads up, because I’ve been asked: No fan fiction please. (Copyright issues. That’s a headache we don’t need.) And now, on with the show…
Instead of posting my usual ‘Round The Net wrap up of writing / self-publishing news, I thought this week I’d post a ‘Round The Blog wrap up of some of the articles we’ve written here at Publishing Rensaissance. I’m going to highlight one from each of our current regular contributors. Happy reading! And have a great weekend!
Skating The Promo Annoyance Meter For Indie Authors -Zoe Winters
Cleaning Our Houses – Moriah Jovan
Bookstore to Bookstore – Robin Altman
Building A Mystery – Evangeline H
Free Books and Ebooks and Promos, Oh My! - Alan Baxter
Crime and Punishment – RJ Keller
Last night (or this morning, depending on where you are in the world) Alan posted a link back to a very excellent article on his blog about social networking. In it he gave a few examples of why “online activity and social media is by far the strongest influence in readers these days.” And it’s true. It really is worth it for indie / self published writers to put ourselves out there; on Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon message boards…we should utilize our own blogs and comment on others’ blogs as well. The numbers prove that it’s worth it. But I’m going to talk today about the kind of social networking that won’t do you – or anyone – any good, is a big, fat waste of time, and can actually reflect badly on indie authors as a group.
Yep, you probably guessed it. It’s all the damned bickering.
There are people out there who don’t like self-publishing. There are people out there who don’t like self-published authors. There are people out there who think we’re a bunch of gullible, untalented wannabes who clothe ourselves in respectability by giving ourselves the phony, pretentious, undeserved title of “indie.” And I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Are you ready? It’s this:
You’re not going to change their minds by bickering with them on the interwebz.
You can go to their blogs and leave facts and figures in their comments section. You can site instances of Self-Published Authors Who Made Good. You can give them your own sales numbers and recommend well-written self-published books until your fingers are raw from typing…and you’re not going to change their minds. We’ve seen so many of these kinds of conversations that the responses are predictable.
- That author only made money after NY picked her up.
- Most of your sales probably came from family and friends.
- The majority of self-published books are crap.
- Your mama wears combat boots.
Back and forth, back and forth it goes for days, sometimes even weeks. And when all is said and done, nobody’s mind has been changed and you’ve just wasted precious time that could have been spent writing or editing your book, networking on Twitter, or reading this blog.
Even worse is the sudden surge of bickering amongst self-published writers. Obviously we’re all individuals, and independent minded ones at that, and obviously disagreements are going to come up. It’s the nature of the beast. And it goes without saying, although I’ll say it anyway, that we each have the right to air our opinions, and honest discussion is a good, healthy thing. But bickering back & forth with another indie writer, in full view of the public, isn’t just a waste of time, it makes you look bad. By reflection it makes every serious self-published writer look bad. It makes us look unprofessional. It just proves to the naysayers what they’ve been saying all along: that we’re a bunch of gullible, untalented wannabes. And that isn’t good for anybody.
I’m not about to tell anyone what they can or can’t say on their own blog, or anywhere else on the internet. It isn’t my style and it isn’t my place. But I do urge all of you to consider the points I’ve made here today the next time you feel the hair on the back of your neck start to rise when you read something that pisses you off. Because the only real way we’ll ever prove to those people – eventually – that we’re talented and professional is to act like it.
I made a post on my blog today about the nature of blogging and social media and its impact on the world of books and what people choose to read. I thought the good people here at PubRen would be interested in the content, so head over to my site and have a read.
What do you think? Is social media working for you? Do you use online recommendations like those mentioned in my post to select your reading material?
.
I’ve been a busy little bee this past week, but in all the wrong ways. This usually means I’ve been debating on the internet and writing comments so long I want to melt into the floor. I’m so verbose. Ironically my fiction is really tight/sparse. If only I could learn not to ramble in a debate.
Well, it’s not filled with quandry. Let’s call it 1/5 full.
I’m starting off our weekly review the way I was planning to last week, by drawing attention to a contest being held by LLBookReview. They’re due to review their 100th book very soon and are celebrating that fact by holding a contest wherein readers can decide which (from a list of six books) will be the Lucky 100th reviewed. In addition, everyone who posts a comment here is eligible to win a copy of that 100th book. Pretty cool, right?
So, where’s the quandry? Well, my novel is one of the six in the running, a fact I wasn’t aware of until last Sunday afternoon; a full four days after I had written up my original notes for this post. I decided to risk looking like a self-serving ass by going ahead and drawing attention to the contest anyway, because I think it’s a great way for our readers to be exposed to some good self-published books - and possibly to win one of those books. Also because I really like LLBookReview and want to send our readers their way. So if you get a chance, head on over and vote for your favorite book. And don’t forget to comment.
And now on to the remaining quandry-less 4/5 of my weekly review.
- Our own Moriah Jovan was moonlighting over at Teleread with a review of Atlantis Word Processor. ( “I don’t demand things for free, but if they’re out there and they’re free and they work right, I’m all for it.”)
- Over at Writinghood, John Harmon gives some sage advice with To Succeed At Writing, Develop A Thick Skin. ( “Sometimes the spark will be lit and you’ll feel everything is going just right and every word you’re putting down is perfect, perfect, perfect. Then you finish the piece and set it aside for a month or so. You look at it again and, lo and behold, it sucks. I mean it sucks big time.”)
- We all know how important social networking is to indie writers. But what if we spend so much time with the networking that we don’t get any writing done? Mary Jaksch has some suggestions of how to overcome this problem in her post How To Stop Digital Fiddling and Start Writing.
- And finally, Joanna Penn posted a video in which she evangelizes about the wonders of Print On Demand.
As always, feel free to drop any relevent links you’ve discovered in the comments section of this post.
Just a reminder that submissions for July’s Creative Works is still open. For more information on how to submit a piece, click this pretty link.
Have a great weekend!
Those who know me know that while I don’t look down on someone for publishing with Lulu or CreateSpace, I am a big fan of the “start your own imprint” methodology of self-publishing.
What frustrates me often though is how few people in the grand scheme of things seem to have ever heard of Lightning Source. I will be forever grateful to Morris Rosenthal for writing the book: Print-on-demand Publishing, or I might just as easily still be in the dark on the issue. This book was where I learned about Lightning Source and it changed the entire way I viewed self-publishing.
Often when I hear discussions about self-publishing options I hear two things:
1. POD self-publishing companies like Lulu.com or Authorhouse.
2. Starting your own imprint and doing an offset print run.
As if there is no third option lying anywhere in the middle which *may* just be the best of both worlds, and I happen to think it is. That option is Lightning Source. Due to the fact that it seems so few self-publishing authors know about Lightning Source, I wonder if it’s not supposed to be a well-kept secret and that my spilling the beans might result in some kind of publishing hit being put out on me.
I’m going to take the risk to explain this option. (I’m pretty sure I’ve explained it before, but it was months ago.)
Lightning Source is a POD printer. As opposed to a POD publisher. This company is used by many NY publishers for parts of their backlists, university presses, small presses, and even authors set up as micropresses. In order to use them, you must have your own publishing company and own your own ISBN’s. So you will have chosen the “start your own imprint” option. There is a learning curve to working with LSI and creating files in the appropriate formats for them.
You’ll have to get your interior layout and book cover design taken care of elsewhere. Whether you do this yourself or hire out, you’ll have to adhere to the LSI file creation guide. If you don’t understand the LSI file creation guide, you will have to seek out someone who does for help because LSI expects to work with people who understand this… i.e. publishers.
And if you’re going to be a publisher, there is a learning curve. I get frustrated seeing time after time how “easy” it is said to be to self-publish your work. In some cases, yes. It’s easy if you use Lulu. It’s easy if you publish on the Kindle. There is very little learning curve to these two options and you can easily get someone else to take care of all the confusing parts for you.
But self-publishing in the sense of starting your own imprint is not “easy.” It’s not the hardest thing in the world either. It doesn’t require a degree in physics, but it does have a learning curve (let’s make a drinking game out of how many times I use this phrase), and it’s not for everyone.
But if it is for you, you might consider the POD through Lightning Source option.
So briefly I want to run through why I favor using LSI as a small imprint instead of doing an offset print run and instead of using something like Lulu.com
Why I prefer LSI to something like Lulu:
1. Lulu.com is a middle man. They get a large portion of their printing done by Lightning Source. With a little extra study and legwork, you can cut out that middle man and make a higher per book profit. (The exception here may be CreateSpace, but CreateSpace doesn’t hold your hand like Lulu does. You DO keep a much higher profit per book, but your only distribution option is Amazon.com. Not a bad option, but still only one place.)
2. You own your own ISBN’s; you are in total complete control of everything. You bring in all your outside vendors for editing/cover design/interior layout, however you get that done, and LSI just prints and offers distribution.
Why I prefer LSI to offset printing:
1. You don’t know how many books you’re going to sell. Doing a print run of almost any size is usually a losing proposition unless you know a LOT about publishing. Even then sometimes it is. With POD through LSI you never have to do any guesswork.
2. The investment is much smaller. You’ll pay a little bit over $100 to get your book uploaded into LSI’s database, pay the listing fee for the first year, and get a proof copy. As opposed to the thousands you’ll easily spend doing a print run. (If you do a short run print option that doesn’t run you into thousands, you will be cutting significantly into your profit margin since the cost per book might get about as high as POD through LSI would anyway. Then it’s a draw, except for the hassle/expense of the points below.)
3. NO Shipping and Warehousing. You can order super short runs (like say 25-50) directly from LSI to your door for when you may need them, or for selling some signed copies from your site or as giveaways, etc, but you don’t have to pay to warehouse a bunch of copies and then ship them out to whatever channels you’re selling through. There is no shipping charge for books sold into distribution through LSI (though there is shipping for what you order shipped directly to your house or to some other location not in the distribution network.)
4. Distribution. Okay so if you are still hung up on this offset printing model… great but how are you selling these books? Off your website? Even to sell through Amazon you would have to sell through Amazon Marketplace, which would eat up a chunk of your profit margin that you don’t need eaten when there are other ways. But where else are you selling the book? Unless your book is in Ingram, a bookstore is unlikely to be able to order from you. And what happens if/when someone walks into a bookstore and for whatever reason wants to order your book? (Yeah they can order it off Amazon, but not everybody is like that. Some still don’t trust shopping online even Amazon, and some want to go pick it up from the bookstore when it arrives. Not how I shop, but it doesn’t matter, some do.) Those are lost sales opportunities. And it is *tough* to get into Ingram (or Baker and Taylor) as a micropress. The discount you have to give them is greater as an individual micropress, assuming they even let you through the door.
LSI on the other hand has distribution partnerships with Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Amazon.com B&N.com as well as several others… including major distribution channels in the UK. And why would you sell only in the US when you can just as easily move books in the UK too? If you can tell me a coherent plan for doing this with an offset print run, I’d love to hear it.
5. LSI is a huge operation. They print hundreds of thousands of books daily. There is no way on God’s green earth that you are going to sell enough books that you overload their capabilities to produce. This means, you can use LSI indefinitely unless you start selling so crazy big that you want to do a large print run. But how many indies is this going to be a problem for? And won’t most of them just accept a traditional publishing contract if it gets that out of control anyway?
You better believe if you’re selling enough you feel LSI can’t keep up with it, every publisher on the east coast knows who you are and is courting you already. And they can take care of mass market rights.
This last point is a point of contention for me because I often hear: “Unless you are planning on selling less than 500 copies, you need to do an offset print run instead of POD.” I don’t agree on any level with this point. While the cost per book may be a bit higher than a larger print run even with LSI, you’d eat up that extra profit with shipping, warehousing and returns. It’s important to look at the big picture.
You could easily sell 20,000 copies in a year (and is this really a concern for you right now?) through LSI without any problems at all.
In short, LSI makes sense from every financial and distribution angle I can think of. I can understand those who would prefer to use Lulu or Authorhouse or CreateSpace because they don’t want to get over their head in publishing minutiae. “That” makes absolute sense to me, it IS a big learning curve (drink), but I don’t understand those just starting out self-publishing, wishing to create their own imprint, who are jumping right into a print run, unless they don’t fully grasp the difficulty and hidden costs of what they’re getting into, or they’ve never heard of LSI.
I have to get on a plane and leave the country now so the LSI people don’t get me for revealing this secret. I’ll let you know when it’s safe for me again.
When I first started self producing my novels as POD trade paperbacks I was against ebooks. This is back in the dark ages, around 2006. My thinking was, “I want people to buy my books, therefore I’m only going to produce actual books!” If I could go back in time I’d give myself a solid slap upside the ear. The simple truth is that POD trade paperbacks, even bloody good ones like mine, are still more expensive than their mass produced counterparts. You can buy my book on Amazon for around $15 or you can buy something by Neil Gaiman for $8, or that awful Twilight rubbish at around $5 or $6. Obviously, these low prices are for paperbacks, smaller and of lighter paperstock than POD trades, but that’s beside the point. The consumer is usually happy to buy books in a variety of formats if the price is right and if they’re really keen to read the them.
Therein lies the rub. Convincing people that my books are really worth reading is the hardest part of indie publishing, especially when they cost around $15. I currently have two novels out – RealmShift and MageSign. Neither of them have yet received a bad review – a few negative or lukewarm comments in otherwise positive reviews is as bad as it gets. I don’t think they’ve ever been reviewed at less than 3 out of 5. I’m ecstatic about that and it proves to me that people think my books are as good as I do. But it’s still hard to convince the buying public to give them a go. As indie publishers we’re always going to be hard up against three primary walls of resistance:
1. The recognised author name
2. The trusted publisher brand
3. The low price of light stock paperbacks
The price is something that we’re always going to struggle with. The recognised author is something we hope to become, but in the meantime have to struggle against. The trusted publisher is something that is becoming less and less of an issue. In all honesty, how many people check up on the publisher before buying a book? How many people would decide against a purchase on the grounds of not knowing the publisher? But whether that affects a buyer’s decision or not, that publisher will always have the massive marketing department and distribution reach that we can only dream of. So what to do?
Well, we have to embrace the new. Big trad houses are just starting to get on board with the idea that ebooks are becoming more popular. The Kindle 2 from Amazon has recently been released, the Sony Reader is very popular outside the US, the iPhone has a Kindle app. My novels are now selling better in Kindle editions than any other format. The trouble with the big houses is that they’re still charging at least $10 for an ebook. Talk about missing the point! My books are $3.19 on Kindle and $3.50 at Smashwords and I thought THAT might be a bit overpriced. But they’re selling and that means people are reading my books, hopefully enjoying them and, also hopefully, telling friends and colleagues all about them. So my writing and my name are being disseminated among a larger audience.
It bothered me before that my books might get copied and passed around like MP3 music. These days I think, So what? People are reading my work. If they really like it they might even buy a paperback edition for their shelf. I know people that have done that already. I’ve done it with music – a friend gives me a handful of MP3s and I end up going out and buying the CD. So now I promote my books as much on Kindle at Amazon and in other formats at Smashwords as I do in print.
And that’s why I also give books away. I ran a contest recently on my website where I gave away a signed trade paperback copy of RealmShift. The contest required people to download the sample chapters and read them to find the answer to a trivia question based on one of the secondary characters. I got a massive response from all over the world. In the end, a lady called Jennifer in the US won the prize, but dozens of other people read the first three chapters of RealmShift in the process. Hopefully one or two of them enjoyed it enough to go out now and buy a copy as they didn’t win. I emailed everyone after the contest and told them that they hadn’t won this time, but thanks for entering and listed all the places they could get a copy of the book if they wanted to read more. Sales have spiked since the contest, so it looks to have been a positive step.
I’ll gladly give away copies to reviewers and awards judges – anything to get the books read and raise my readership and my profile as an author. If I get a review or, better yet, an award from the effort then all the better. Cory Doctorow, a massively popular author, is famous for giving his stuff away and he’s selling in enormous numbers. Look on it as marketing expenses – it doesn’t have to be much in cost, but it can be massive in results.
And how about putting my money where my mouth is? Here’s a shameless example of the kind of promo I’m talking about. If you want to read RealmShift as an ebook, go to the Smashwords page right now and you can buy a copy for the discounted price of $1 by entering this code at the checkout stage: TM99X
That code will be valid for two weeks. An entire novel for a dollar – can’t say fairer than that. Tell all your family, friends and colleagues and let me know what you think of the book. If you really like it, you can get the paperback version from Amazon and that’ll look sweet on your bookshelf. And the sequel is available now in all formats.
See how easy it is?
.
zoewinters
Moriah Jovan
R.J. Keller
robinaltman
Evangeline/Sandrine
alanbaxter