P is for Publishing

I have really enjoyed posting this month on the theme The Making and Selling of Books, because I am so passionate about the topic.

I like writing and publishing books. My own, of course, but it is also incredibly rewarding to have a hand in seeing other writers' dreams of publication come true. I love it love it love it. Having a career in publishing is the best job I could ask for.

I feel honored to be a part of  WiDo Publishing. I am proud of all the authors who have published with us. I've seen the hard work they go through to get their manuscript print-ready. The unveiling of a new release is just the most exciting moment ever. You can't help but feel like a new mama.

Clarissa Draper won a submissions contest on my blog a while back and now her wonderful mystery, The Sholes Key, will be released on May 1. I wasn't her editor but I'm still as proud as can be. I read an ARC and it's an absolutely brilliant book. I can't wait to see this baby launch upon its journey!

All across London, single mothers are vanishing. Margaret Hill, mother of two, walked out of her house two months before, never seen again. A month later, Carrie-Anne Morgans takes her two-year-old son for a walk in the park and disappears, leaving him alone in his stroller. Lorna McCauley leaves her London flat in the early hours of the morning to buy medicine for her sick child and does not return.

Newly promoted Detective Inspector Theophilus Blackwell is assigned the case of Lorna McCauley, which on the outside seems to be a simple case of mid-life crisis and child abandonment. Elsewhere in London, MI5 analyst, Sophia Evans, is working undercover to catch an animal rights group responsible for targeted bombings. As Sophia's case (and her personal life) fall to pieces, she receives a strange envelope in the mail. It contains a picture of Lorna McCauley's lifeless face along with a daunting code.

Now the police and MI5 are forced to work together to stop the murders, and Sophia must find her way into the terrifying mind of a serial killer.

How Important is the Internet in Selling Books?

If you're reading this, you're on the Internet. Probably have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page and whatever tools you have chosen to utilize. It's not so much about selling as it is about building your online presence-- using social media to get out there and learn the publishing trends, meet writers, readers, editors, agents-- whatever it is you need to move your writing career forward.

These days, it takes more than just sitting at home with the laptop writing the books. A writer must understand the industry, the market, the options for publishing and distributing your book.

A few years ago, I was seeing this on publisher blogs: "If you don't have a way to get your book into the bookstores, then you won't ever sell more than a few copies to friends and family." I saw that over and over. In today's publishing climate, it's just a stupid thing to say. Anyone who makes that statement now shows their ignorance of the current book market.

It's great to get your book into bookstores but doesn't guarantee sales anymore than publishing your work as an ebook will. There are no easy roads to success. Getting a top agent or fat publishing contract doesn't guarantee success. Setting up a blog or tweeting your head off with links to your new release won't either.

The most successful authors will tell you that it isn't just one path that leads to sales but many.

Try whatever you can. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify. Experiment. Do spend a LOT of time on the Internet. Because when it comes to the selling of books and the making of money, the Internet is where it's all happening, baby. Plus, the best thing about the Internet is that it is free as well as effective.

Sure, it takes time to build a web presence and stay active online but everything has a cost. Don't get discouraged if there aren't instant results. Keep at it. Keep trying stuff. There's a lot to learn and to try, even for those who have been at it for years. New sites, new opportunities, new people keep popping up. Like I said, the Internet is where it's happening for writers and books. Time you spend on the Internet now can mean income later.

A Writer's Journey

I started this blog 2 1/2 years ago very insecure, newly published with a brand new small press, my first novel out, doubting that I'd ever find an audience for it. My blog connected with other insecure writers, some published, others on their way, many feeling as insecure about publication as I felt about book sales.

Discovering this community helped me feel like a part of something.

Along the way, I've seen blogging friends get contracts with agents and/or publishers. Some chose to self-publish. Some are sticking with the original plan to get the dream agent, to get the big publisher. It's all cool.

Go wherever your heart takes you, there's no right or wrong way. It's not marriage or parenthood, it's book publishing--a career choice, not a life choice with eternal consequences. Your spouse won't leave you, your children won't die or end up in prison because you chose to self-publish or wait for just the right publishing contract.

After two years of sharing writerly journeys, things change. I see a lot happening. Even the publishing industry has changed in amazing ways! And we writers blog about it and make decisions and share our joys and frustrations with each other. Online is where I found my writing community.

Where am I after two years? More active on social media, for one. (In varying degrees--Twitter, Facebook, Google+) A second novel published and the third heading to the editor. Less frustrated about sales. (I'll write the books, the sales will come or not.) Somewhat less awkward about promoting my books.(Still insecure about that part of it.)

I spend less time blogging and more time writing. (It used to be the opposite.)

Sometimes I wonder what the next two years will hold. Truthfully? I have no clue. I'd like to have more books out but other than that....not sure where I see myself in two years. How about you? Do you think you'll still be blogging? Published? Bestselling author? Tired of the whole scene?

Pricing Ebooks

WiDo Publishing began in 2007 as a print publisher, later releasing titles as ebooks as well. They price new releases at $3.99, and $2.99 for older titles to stimulate interest and attract new buyers. Recently they experimented to find that magic number for bringing in the greatest number of ebook sales

As I mentioned in my previous post, $2.99 is the lowest Kindle price to get the 70% royalty rate from Amazon. WiDo tried .99 for two books: Ghost Waves by W. Everett Prusso and my novel Uncut Diamonds, both released 2009 in print, 2010 as ebooks. Results were interesting.

The drop in price made very little difference in sales. Both authors had only one book on Kindle. Neither of the books had significant sales, although mine were higher probably because I had developed an online presence and the other author had not.

My sales went up a bit with the .99 change but then held steady. They weren't enough to make a difference in profit so WiDo put it back to 2.99 and sales continued at the pre-.99 rate. It may go back to .99 for a time with the release of House of Diamonds, as a promotional price.

The cut didn't affect Ghost Waves sales. Although the hardcover print book did alright for $19.95, it hasn't done well as an ebook regardless of price.

WiDo's top selling ebook is In the Mirror: A Memoir of Shattered Secrets by Ann Carbine Best. It came out in May and there are no plans to drop the price to $2.99 as it continues to sell steadily at $3.99. Not by huge numbers, but consistently, and more every month.

Another new release is Cloak by James Gough, a YA fantasy to be released in hardcover November 15 as a special gift edition for $25.95. It is currently available as an ebook for $4.99, the highest WiDo has priced a new ebook release. The somewhat higher price hasn't seemed to affect ebook sales for Cloak, at least not its first month. People who wanted it bought it.  

I'm using WiDo's examples because as a publisher, they're dealing with a variety of authors, titles and genres. So price variations can show interesting trends. And what it has shown in WiDo's case is that if people want a book, the price of a few dollars isn't going to matter. And if they don't want it, the .99 tag won't convince them to buy it. Maybe a few, but not in high enough numbers to overcome that price's  weak profit margins.

It comes down to that age-old question forever baffling writers and publishers. What does the public want to read? What inspires people to pay for a book? Simple answer: If it's what they want, they'll make the effort. They'll look for it in a library or bookstore or on their ereader. Book sales come from writing and publishing what people want to read. Give customers what they want and sales will come, whether the book goes for .99 or 9.99.

Are there any ebooks that should be priced at .99? Books that would sell significantly better at the rock bottom price? Consider this. When paperback novels first came out they were cheap, they were exciting and their enticing covers and fast plots appealed to pulp fiction readers. The .99 ebook is like the new old-time paperback pulp fiction novel. 

There's a large population of ebook buyers looking for the .99 fast read. It has to have an enticing cover and a fast-moving, action-oriented plot, preferably with a healthy dose of sex. Very much like the hugely popular paperback novels of the 1940s. If this is what  you write, and you can do it well, and you churn them out pretty fast, then you could sell a lot of .99 ebooks. Because you will be giving this audience exactly what they want at the price they're looking for.

Why I'm Not a Fan of the .99 eBook

How to price an ebook? I've read many posts on this topic and considered the variety of opinions. After all the research, it finally hit me why I disagree with pricing ebooks at .99. It occurred to me one day while gazing lovingly at my cookies.

Convenience stores buy my cookies for $1 apiece to resell at $1.59 or $1.79. I make 24 dozen each week, using extra ovens for baking and other techniques to speed up the process without sacrificing quality.

Imagine that each of these cookies represents one book selling on the Kindle for .99. Compare production time of cookies to that of creating a book good enough for people to pay even .99. Scary thought, isn't it?

 Don't forget that Amazon gets 65% of each cookie--er--book, netting you 35 cents per sale. If you went through a publisher they take their cut. Is the solution to self-publish so you get the entire 35 cents? That's what many are saying, but it's still just a pittance for an awful lot of effort and expense.

I wouldn't sell my cookies for .35. If that's all I got, I wouldn't bother. Remember, I sell to the stores for $1 and they add the extra .59 or .79. I, who created the recipe and made the cookies, get the larger cut of the product. I'd be a fool to give the stores over half my profit.

When an ebook is priced for .99, Amazon gets the largest cut because royalty is only 35%. Priced at 2.99 or higher, royalty rate goes to 70%. A Kindle ebook priced for 3.99 earns $2.76 on royalties. Big difference between getting $2.76 for each book sold compared to 35 cents.

Now if I could write 24 dozen quality books a week hahahahahahahaha, I might consider pricing them for .99. But probably not even then, because that's not really .99 it's .35, which is split 50/50 with my publisher.

* So for each .99 book sale on the Kindle, Amazon gets 65 cents, my publisher gets 17 cents and I get 17 cents.

* For each 3.99 book sale on the Kindle, Amazon gets $1.19, my publisher gets $1.40 and I get $1.40.

* $2.99 is the lowest price available to get 70% royalty rate. At that price, Amazon gets 89 cents, my publisher gets $1.05 and I get $1.05.

* I'd have to sell six .99 books to get the same amount of money I get from one sale at $2.99. I'd have to sell eight .99 books to get the same money I'd get from a $3.99 sale.

A .99 promotional price has merit but as a permanent price on one's books? No. I would not do this for 17 cents, not even for 35 cents. At that price, I'm better off making cookies.

On Friday, I'll post about one publisher's experience with pricing ebooks and how price has affected sales.

Need Agent-- yes or no?

I know nothing about the agenting process since I got published quite by accident through a small, start-up press.

Agents scare me. It's the gatekeeper before an editor will even talk to you. Gatekeepers scare me-- they're meant to keep people away, not welcome them in. (Okay, a lot of stuff scares me, but that's another story.)

However, it is possible to get published without an agent. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Small, regional or niche presses will often accept nonagented submissions. I know, I researched enough of them. Course you have to do your homework. You've got to "meet their needs," "fit their niche," and all that. You have to be able to take rejection....argh!! But that goes without saying. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. (I'm glad blogging wasn't around when I was first trying to get published, or I would've just done this and forgotten about submitting, thus avoiding rejection.)

Remember Marty's dad in Back to the Future? He wrote sci fi stories and when Marty told him they were good enough to get published, he cringed and said, "I don't think I could take that kind of rejection." That's why I always avoided agents-- because I couldn't take that kind of rejection. I used to check publisher guidelines and only submit to those with "nonagented submissions okay." I didn't want to get turned down by an agent before I even made it to the editor-- way too much rejection for my fragile psyche!

Now that I'm older, and published, my skin is a bit tougher. I'm not afraid of publishers anymore, or editors, or bookstore owners. I got the best compliment last week from a bookseller, who said that reading Uncut Diamonds was like talking to someone over the back fence. I like that, because it's how I intended the novel to be, shows she gets it. I wanted it to be like someone dropping in on this family and being part of their lives for a time. ANYHOO, so I'm no longer afraid of any of them because I've gotten to know them and to understand they're just people doing a job. And yes, the compliments do help!

Except for agents. I'm still afraid of them. Who are you most afraid of in the publishing industry? Agents, editors, publishing CEOs, booksellers, readers, reviewers? Or is fear not even part of your vocabulary?