Category Archives: Publishing

I Haven’t Given Up

Publishing The Writing Life 3 Comments

The writing business is in an incredible turmoil right now.  It has been for a long time, actually.  And right now, there are doom-sayers and prognosticators all over the place predicting that traditional publishing is on its last legs and the only way to go is independent self-publishing.  Some of them are experienced writers who are intelligent and articulate (see Lawrence Block, or any of a series of posts at According to Hoyt, for example); others, not so much.  Myself, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  If someone indicates he knows for sure what the publishing industry is going to look like in ten years, I put my hand on my wallet.  If he says he knows for sure what it will look like in five years, I put both hands on my wallet, because sure as death and taxes, the next statement will probably be something like “And here’s an opportunity for you to get in on the ground floor of the New World Order.”  Heh.  Lord knows my spam bucket catches enough “we want to publish you” emails to prove that point.

Moving on.  I’ve been trying to crack the fiction traditional publishers’ Newbie Wall since 2002.  My first hardback anthology story was published in 2006 by Baen Books, with five more since then.  My first novel, a collaboration with Eric Flint, was just turned in to the publisher, Baen Books in April 2012.  I’m not sure I can say I’ve arrived, but I think I can see the station from here.  (And “arrived” does not mean I’m a name.  It just means I’ve got solid professional credits.)  So my perspective on all this may be a little different from either an established author with an extensive back-list or a struggling newbie yet to make a “professional” sale.

In my skepticism, do I think traditional publishing will survive?  Yes, I do.  There are a lot of people out there who derive an almost physical pleasure from sitting down with a physical copy of a good book anticipating a pleasant evening of reading (myself included), and I think those folks are going to continue to demand hard copy books.  And at this point, I’m not sure that the economies of scale for print-on-demand technology are going to prove truly competitive.  I think the jury is still out on that.

Will traditional publishing survive in its current form?  No.  I think the next ten years will force traditional publishers to find a different business model.  But I do think that there might be a few publisher names you recognize still in business in ten years.  However, I can guarantee that they will be doing business in a very different way.  Forget the governments; Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Apple will force them to it, one way or another.

Do I think traditional hard copy books will survive?  As I stated above, yes, I do.  However, I think the days of the 200,000 copy best-sellers are singing their swan song as I write this.  Once publishers adopt reasonable pricing for e-books and drop the DRM security, which I think they will be forced to do by market and legal pressures in the not-too-distant future, I suspect the sheer convenience of e-books will drive the sales of e-books up, consequently forcing sales of hard copies down.  (But that opinion and $5 will get you a Starbucks coffee.)  What I think will happen is independent publishers like Baen and small publishers like Subterranean Press and Nightshade Books will continue making hard copy books for readers who are dedicated to their offerings and programs.  Surviving big name publishers, if they can get divorced from the bean-counters who are killing them, may do something along those lines as well.  200,000 copies?  No.  500 – 5,000 copies?  Yes.  Maybe by subscription only, but still there.

But what does this mean for the writer?  Do we totally abandon the traditional publishing approach as so many are advocating?  Do we totally embrace the independent self-publishing model?  Do we reject it and cling to the traditional model?  Or does the truth lie somewhere in between those two extremes?

Regardless of what you think, any realistic assessment of the near-future industry is going to contain e-books and a substantial amount of self-publishing.  That topic has been and is almost continually being addressed in blogs all over the web, including right here at The Fictorian Era this month.  But what about the writers who still have a desire (for whatever reason) to make it in the traditional publishing world, to see hard copy books with their names on the covers?  What are their options?  Limited, but they all have a common element, and that is getting the author’s name out there somehow in the traditional world.

To do that , I think the future successful new author will have almost certainly have to build a resume of self-published work to serve as a door opener that shows the following:  number of works published, how quickly they were produced, samples of quality, and statistics of sales volumes over time-not just the initial surge, but the longevity of the sales.  Whenever you’re around other significant writers, or editors, or publishers, have those files (constantly updated) on your phone or your tablet, accessible at a moment’s notice, ready to e-mail or present if someone asks for them.  And work on your verbal presentations:

  • The elevator speech:  what can you say in 15-30 seconds that will intrigue an editor or publisher or significant writer with your ideas enough to say “Come with me,” or “Call me tomorrow.”
  • The expanded elevator speech:  1-2 minutes.
  • The conversation.

You never know when an opportunity may arise.  Be ready.

Here’s one final thought:  I found my publishing route by participating in Eric Flint’s grand fan-fic experiment, where he allows anyone who has the desire to write and submit stories in his Ring of Fire universe, the best of which are selected for publishing in the Grantville Gazette e-magazine, with the best of the e-magazine stories selected for the Grantville Gazette hard copy anthologies.  So this is a blended electronic and traditional approach, and it’s produced a number of writers, myself included, who have cracked the Newbie Wall from that platform.  Eric’s approach is unique (although I hear rumors that Thieves’ World may be contemplating something similar).  But the idea of finding some kind of existing program or co-op that has an established presence and fan base may have some merit.  Star Trek/Star Wars/Harry Potter don’t qualify, but there may be something else out there.  Look for it.  Again, the goal is to get your name on the cover of something that will serve as a credential to a traditional publisher, whether New York or small house.

So, that’s my thoughts.  They may be good prognostications, or they may be as wildly out in left field as the flying cars that were predicted in 1950’s science fiction.  It will be interesting to look back in five years or so and see how they stack up.

S. James Nelson: Abandon All (unreasonable) Hope

Colette Black Guest Posts Publishing The Writing Life 5 Comments

Guest post by S. James Nelson

My intention with this blog is to give you a healthy dose of despair and a stronger injection of hope.

I’m honestly surprised that this blog has turned into what it has. I’ve written and discarded a dozen drafts until settling on this topic–the topic I most hated to hear writers talk about when I started up writing again. In my heart I simply believed it wasn’t true. At least not for me. For the rest of you schmucks, sure. But not for me.

Turns out I was wrong.

I started my self-publishing experiment last August when I published The Demigod Proving. In November I followed up with Keep Mama Dead.

I haven’t sold a million copies.

Yet. I haven’t sold a million copies yet.

I’ve purposefully kept my marketing efforts to a minimum, although I have dabbled in what I would term marketing. That has netted me only about 2k sales and 12k give-aways. I’m more qualified to talk about what doesn’t work in self-publishing than what does.

But there is one thing I have learned, that I’m qualified to talk about, and that might be useful to you: you should give up your unreasonable hope, and maintain your reasonable hope.

I learned this over time, as I came to the conclusion that I am not an exception to the rule. There’s a very high chance (probably better than 99.9999%) that you aren’t, either.

I now suspect that the promise of quick and easy riches was what lured me back into writing. My day job wasn’t meeting my income desires, and so I thought, “I think I’ve got some skill with writing. Maybe I can hit it big. In fact, I bet I can.”

I haven’t told anyone that until now (so, naturally I put it on the Internet for all the world to read)–after all, they would scoff and spout some rot about those stories being the exception to the rule. They would try to distract me from my objective. I believed that I could be one of writers who had crazy huge success without much work.

Alas, it didn’t happen. At the same time, my day-job miraculously exceeded my income desires. The fire in my belly–the desire and urgency for quick and easy success–disappeared, leaving me wondering: why am I getting up early every morning to write? Why am I expending all manner of resources on this effort? It would be so much easier to use those resources for something more productive.

And yet, here I am, still writing. Still planning on putting out more books.  And, in fact, trying to find ways to be more successful. I’m certain I’ll have to work harder. Perhaps I need to step up my marketing efforts. Maybe I need to hone my writing. There’s a chance I need to understand my audience better. It might be that the package of my book (style, cover, title, editing) needs more work.

How strange to find myself thinking like that when it’s safe to say I will never be the exception to that stupid rule. I’ve worked way too hard to ever legitimately be called an overnight success.  For mercy’s sake, I’ve sacrificed for my art!

This has led me to a conclusion: I’m no longer in it for the quick and easy money. Which leads me to another realization: though success isn’t the primary goal, I still want to sell a lot of books. Which begets another conclusion: if a large number of book sales is something I’m going to continue to pursue, I’m going to have to manage my expectations about how easily that success might come. At the same time, I must maintain hope that I’ll succeed. Without hope, I have no reason to try. I may as well write and hide my work under a bushel.

Yet I have hope, and therefore I must continue to act. I must try different things, believing that if I change this or that-maybe this time I’ll have success.

So, the message?

Despair at ever being an overnight success, yet hope that your hard work will pay off.

Let your hope lead you to continue to develop your writing. If you self-publish, let your hope lead you to develop your marketing. If you fail at first and give up, it means you were in it for the money. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you fail at first and find yourself willing to keep going, you must maintain hope that with persistent work, constant learning, and different approaches to the same problem, you’ll succeed.

You may not, though, and that’s why the money can never be the only reason you’re in this business.

S. James Nelson recently won first place in David Farland’s Nightingalewriting contest. If you enjoy action-oriented, deep-thinking fantasy, take a look at his book, The Demigod Proving. If you like strong characters, real-world fantasy, and hiking in national parks, take a look at his book Keep Mama Dead

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Sunday Reads: 10 June 2012

Kylie Quillinan Publishing Sunday Reads The Writing Life No Comments

Still to come in our Publishing Month: guest posts from writers Brandon Sanderson, Stephen Nelson, and Gini Koch, and literary agent Laurie McLean.  In the meantime, here are 10 reads worth your time:

Anne R Allen examines the different types of publishers in Who Are the Big Six? What Does “Indie” Really Mean”? Answers to Not-So-Dumb Questions You Were Afraid to Ask.

At Writers in the Storm, Susan Squires explains her own publishing options in Too Many Choices.

The Intern takes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at The Publishers Weekly: The Deals You Don’t See.

Teleread crunches numbers in Amazon Price Bots Result In Unusually High- and Low-Price Books.

Mhairi Simpson talks about how Self-Publishing Is Not the Easy Way.

Still on the topic of self-publishing, The Huffington Post discusses The Changing Politics of the Self-Publishing Stima.

Nathan Bransford talks about how Traditional vs Self-Publishing is a False Dichotomy.

The Guardian examines writers’ incomes in Stop the Press: Half of Self-Published Authors Earn Less Than $500.

Interested in checking out some books by small or independent presses?  Take a look at Small Press Reviews.

 

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Guest post from David Dalglish – The Triumph of the Dalglish: How I Sold 2ook Novels While Not Knowing Squat

Nancy DiMauro – E-Publishing – Why I Chose It

Guest post from Jordan Ellinger – Coming Up In The Trenches

 

Jordan Ellinger: Coming Up in the Trenches

Guest Posts Publishing The Writing Life 9 Comments

Guest Post by Jordan Ellinger

Quick! Name some of your favorite science fiction writers. Some of you might have named Asimov or Theodore Sturgeon, while others might have said Orson Scott Card or Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The more literary-minded amongst you probably listed Elizabeth Hand or Jeff Vandermeer. Guess what? They’ve all written tie-ins.

There is a perception among writers that tie-in books–that is to say books that are based in a universe created by someone other than the writer–are of low quality and reside in a kind of literary ghetto, and in some ways that’s even true. Tie-ins are generally hastily written and of poor quality. The plots are often clichéd or trite and the characterization hobbled by the need to not conflict with “canon” and to leave the universe in a state suitable for the next writer to tackle. But these books can often add depth to a beloved universe like Vonda McIntyre’s Stark Trek novels, or continue the story of favorite characters like Dave Wolverton’s the Courtship of Princess Leia, or even fill in plot holes such as Isaac Asimov famously did in Fantastic Voyage.

Like many of today’s fantasy writers, I spent my teen years playing Dungeons and Dragons and so it was with some pleasure that I discovered a set of Dragonlance books on the shelves of my local bookstore. Tie-in books had existed previous to the Dragonlance novels by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, but in the late 80s they were being pushed in a big way, and began to occupy whole shelves at the local bookstore. Being a fan of both dragons and lances, I devoured Weiss and Hickman’s novels and moved onto the Forgotten Realms series also set in a world that obeyed D&D canon.

It didn’t matter to me that many of these novels were hastily written and clichéd. I was young enough that a plot line revolving around an elf, a dwarf, a wizard, and a warrior meeting in a tavern seemed fresh and new, simply because I hadn’t read enough to know how many authors start their novels that way. At one point, I had more Forgotten Realm novels on my shelves than original novels, and I would incorporate some of the plot lines I read into the D&D campaigns that I ran with a few friends.

In 2009 an event occurred that marked the beginning of my career as a professional writer: I won 1st place in Writers of the Future with a story about a woman with the powers of a Phoenix and a lifespan only a day long. After my win, I immediately started writing novels, hoping to capitalize on my newfound notoriety. Unfortunately, everything I wrote seemed to peter out after 50,000 words (just over half the length of a modern fantasy novel). A year after winning the contest, I had nothing to show for myself other than a few failed manuscripts.

Around that time, Larry Segriff put out a call for his Story Portals site, which would launch with a series about Katya, an assassin who killed with a mixture of extreme competence, sexually aggressive tactics, and magic. This was my first experience with work for hire. He owned the characters and universe and, once I signed his contract, he’d own whatever stories and ideas I created for him as well. Despite that stipulation, I was intrigued. Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weiss had done quite well from Dragonlance, and I told myself this could be an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new franchise. I expressed an interest in the project and sent Larry a writing sample, which he quite liked. I was hired.

With a story for Larry under my belt, I decided to tackle other franchises, and when I went down to the local mega-bookstore I found that Warhammer had the most shelf space. I sent them a note telling them I’d won this award, and did they have any stories that needed writing? Laurie Goulding, their acquisitions editor wrote me back to say that he was interested and that I could send him a pitch. When I asked what I should write about, he gave me four potential ideas. I ran out, spent a ton of money buying the rulebooks and then did my best to bone up on the areas he suggested. Instead of sending him a single pitch I sent him four (two of which were accepted and will be in issues of Hammer & Bolter this summer).

Laurie seemed to like my work, and he was one of the best editors I’d worked with (and still is) so I dove full-tilt into the world of Warhammer. The Black Library sends its authors free books whenever they ask to encourage them to become familiar with canon, and I must have read twenty novels in those first few months. Some were bad, but to my surprise and delight, some were amazing. In the latter books, the prose held up to that of any in the genre, and though the focus was necessarily on bloody action scenes, they were dynamic, with well-realized characters. These would be the kinds of books I’d write. Sure, they’d be Warhammer books, but they’d be the best damned Warhammer books out there.

Things have really skyrocketed for me recently. Since writing that first short story for Story Portals, it seems that my career has come full circle. When I was a kid, I had a ton of Tracy Hickman books on my shelves and I now have a novel coming out in a series he anchored. My name will be on the spine of a novel only a few books away from his on the shelves.

Writing tie-ins has given me the confidence to write my own stuff, and I’ve been able to bring the lessons I’ve learned writing them to my own original work. Best of all, the work pays better than pro-rate and is paid in advance. I’ve heard it said that the average number of novels a new writer has to pen before selling one is six. I sold my first novel before I’d even written it.

In terms of ways for a new writer to practice their craft, it’s hard to beat the tie-in market.

 
Guest Writer Bio:
Jordan Ellinger is a Writers of the Future winner and Clarion West graduate. His story “Kineater” recently made an appearance in Warhammer:The Gotrek & Felix Anthology and has work upcoming in Hammer&Bolter as well as World’s Collider, a new anthology from Nightscape Press. In his spare time, he helms Every Day Publishing, publisher of Every Day Fiction, Every Day Poets, Flash Fiction Chronicles, and Raygun Revival. To read more, visit his website www.jordanellinger.com or follow him on twitter @jordanellinger.