Saturday Ruminations: This Book is Free.99?

Jean Oram had a wonderful post on her blog regarding Self-Publishing and prices, What Is The Cost Of Free?  It got me thinking.  And I realized as I typed this insanely long response into her comment box, I should probably share this with the rest of you guys as well.  So here’s my thoughts on the matter.  (You should totally read Jean’s post first by the way, it’s the thought-parents to this one.)

Honestly, I don’t bother with e-books that are free or for 99cents. To me, it’s an indication of what I can expect to get. Everyone knows the adage, ‘you get what you pay for’. And that holds true, to me, for pretty much anything. (Except for maybe those cheap duplex cookies, in some weird universe time-flux they’re as good as the expensive duplex cookies.)

I know that one of the marketing go-tos is to sell your first book for free and hope to hook them in and they’ll pay for the second book. As a consumer, I’ll just wait until you make the second book free. You did it for the first book and so at some point, whether it’s for a week or a day or a special sale or doesn’t happen for months from now when you wait til Christmas, you will, eventually, put it up for free. It will happen. Why? Because you want to try and ‘hook’ the other people that have been on the fence. Except those fencers aren’t dumb, and they’ll wait for you to cave in for your third book and make that one free too. It’s a terrible cycle.

On top of that, it cost money to get a good cover artist, it cost money to get a good editor, and regardless of whether or not you’re hoping to be the next Amanda Hocking or John Locke or whomever is on the ‘Super Amazing Self Publishers of FOREVER List’, you want to at the very least make back what you put in. So if you’re giving away your book for nothing, I’m going to assume that’s what you put into it–nothing.

On the other hand, I don’t expect to pay 6 or 7 dollars for an ebook. I just don’t. Not because it’s any less of a book than a printed book or because I believe less work went into it, but because the entire concept behind an ebook is convenience. That’s why they were brought into existence. So that I could have pages and pages of tomes at my fingertips on my little e-reader (that I don’t actually own, so it’s more like on my e-reader app on the PC) to browse through whenever. If I’m going to pay 7.99 for a book then I WANT paper and ink. I’ve paid paper & ink price, so I want to feel the embossed letters on the cover and get my paper cuts from turning the pages too quickly to find out what happens next.

Now that I have these views in mind as a consumer, I know what I will do with my book because I know what I would be looking for. It won’t be free, but it won’t be 5.99 either. There’s a sweet spot, I think, right inbetween there. When I browse for books on the kindle I browse for books that are 2.99, 3.99 or 4.99. In my mind, the 4.99-ers are the ones that know they could sell it for 7.99 if they really wanted to, but they aren’t going to be dicks about it. The 2.99-ers are the ones that can’t bring themselves to price their hard-slaved upon book to the same level as a pair of cheap socks or two dunkin donuts, so they kick it up to 2.99 (3 dunkin donuts). The 3.99-ers are saying, “Hey, I put work into this, and I want to see some sort of turn around for it but I’m a reader too, and I know you don’t have a bajillion dollars to take a chance on my little ol’ book. So here’s what I’ll do for you, I’ll make it 4 bucks. It’s not quite a whole five, not quite an entire bill-with-an-official-president-on-it, but it’s more than a one-way train ride on the NYC metro, and hey, that’s worth something right?”

Does this mean that putting your book out there for free and the rest for not-quite-free is wrong? No. I’m sure it has worked for others and will continue to. It’s just not a method that I, as a creator or as a consumer, can get behind. And when you step into the business side of getting your book out there, you want to be able to look at it as a consumer.  Does that mean that putting your book out there for 4.99 or 5.99 or 6.99 is wrong? No.  It’s worked for others and it may work for more.  (I just don’t think it’s very likely.)

Regardless of whether or not your book is 5.99, 3.99 or Free.99, the real deciding factor on your sales is quality.  Your book can be the most kick-assingly awesome piece of literature ever written, honestly and truly, and because of that, people will find you and they will buy your book.  Whether it’s free or 7.99.  It happen faster if it’s free, sure, but it will still happen if it’s not, and here’s why: They can’t get away from you.

Write an awesome book and word will spread.  Readers will come to your page and read the blurb, stare at the cover, read the blurb again and go 5.99?  Pft!  And walk away.  Be it a few days later or a few weeks, someone else is going to mention your book.  And they’ll have forgotten and they’ll find themselves on your page again, and it’ll be OH!  This book.  And they’ll read the blurb, they’ll stare at the cover, they’ll read the reviews.  And maybe they’ll spend the money or maybe they won’t.  And if they don’t, someone will.  And if your book is just that awesome, that someone is going to tell someone #2, and word will get back to Mr. Indecisive.  And they’ll HAVE to buy the book, because the universe keeps pointing them to it, they can’t escape it!

Can that happen?  I believe so.  Conversely, your book can be 100% Free.99, no more effort than it takes to click the button and WHOOSH, it’s on their computer.  But if your book sucks, if the plot is nonexistent, if the characters fall flat, if the dialogue doesn’t engage, if there are typos or it’s poorly edited or a myriad of other ways you can go wrong, they will not only not buy that book, but they’ll word-of-mouth the crap out of it just as much as the awesome 5.99 book.  I’ve seen it.  ”I’m glad I didn’t pay for this book, it was awful!”

So yes, I have my opinions on the pricing machinations of self-publishers, I do believe there is a good, bad and an ugly to this side of the beast, but I don’t really think any of it matters as much as writing a good book.  Do that first.  When you’ve done that, then you can put on your business-boots and consumer-cap and drive yourself nuts with all the pretty something.99 options you’ve got.

I Thought Writers Were Supposed To Be Mature

Wouldn’t you know it, I start doing audio posts (tentatively dubbed ‘slogs’) and before I can work on my next one, I GET SICK!  So, no Slog for you guys today, I’m stuffed up and that just isn’t cute.  Instead, we’ve got a fresh list of useful and/or interesting links, blogs, articles and the like for you to check out!

I started this post with the intention of putting together another list of pretty blue words with pretty blue underlines (as they look prior to my clicking the ‘publish’ button).  But as I gathered more articles and browsed more blogs, I found it increasingly difficult to maintain a view of objectivity.  So, here it is, yet another post on self-publishing clogging up your internets.

First up, we have the ‘M. R. Mathias Meltdown’.  If you’ve been living under some sort of rock, here it is:

• The forum post that started it all.  Could I paraphrase what he said?  Sure, but it’s so incredibly egotistical and mind-boggingly asinine that it deserves to be read verbatim.
• The Man Who Thought He Was King  An article posted by a moderator of the Fantasy Faction site.
• Which brings us to, Revisiting The Fevered Egos of Self-Publishing, Chuck Wendig’s take on the whole issue.

The entire situation actually garnered a few blog posts from agents as well.  We have Nathan Bransford weighing in on the matter (of self-publishing, not Mathias) here: On Self-Publishing and Having a Chip On One’s Shoulder.  Sarah LaPolla also joins the discussion in Damn Yankees, and Other Ways Self-Publishing Holds Itself Back.  I’m sure there are many others that have posted on the matter before (such as Nathan’s post Should You Self-Publish?  Ten Questions To Ask Yourself) just as there will be many more to toss their two cents in after me.

So, now that you have a bajillion tabs open to read later, what are my thoughts on the whole ‘Self-Publishing Thing’?

It’s no secret that self-publishing came with a stigma that’s harder to remove than the price tag on a used video game.  Have there been massive changes to the publishing world overall?  Yes.  Is it still changing?  Of course.  But what is slow to evolve is that stigma and here’s why:

People are not educating themselves.  There are still people out there, authors and readers alike, that don’t know what they’re doing and don’t know what they’re looking at.  There are readers that assume all self-publishing works are dren.  Why?  Because there are authors out there that aren’t taking the time they should be to present the best work they can.  Instead they’re focusing on…

Sticking it to the Publishing-Man.  After accumulating enough rejections to stuff a pillow they’re fed up and angry, so they slap a cover on and push their work out there.  Not out of love for the book or because they have a true desire to see it in a reader’s hand, but so they can stand back, cross their arms, and go “Ha!  Take that!”  And all thoughts on marketing, editing, pricing, and networking come later when they should have come first.

The Self-Imposed Self-Publishers Witness Protection Program Like Sarah LaPolla pointed out, stop calling it ‘indie’ publishing, that’s not what it is.  Instead of trying to change the public opinion of us by standing tall by what you are and producing quality work with high-end professionalism, you’re changing your name and hoping people won’t find evidence of previous asshattery.  That does not work.  It only succeeds in confusing people and just makes it seem as though you’re ashamed to be what you are.  Don’t be!

People, we can only change how we’re viewed with actions.  Not by hiding and not by pretending the issues don’t exist.  And yes, I say ‘we’.  Barely a week ago I decided that self-publishing was the route for me.  Why?  Not because I have a stack of rejections cluttering up my inbox waiting to be printed and used as kindling.  In fact, I haven’t even started querying, nor do I have any intention to (at least for my adult works).  This isn’t a back-up plan, this is THE PLAN.  Sure, the high royalty rate aspect is enticing, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t.  But it is not the basis on which this decision was made.  The control and freedom appeals to me.  Cover design, pricing, distribution, all those fun and equally stress inducing things.  It’s something that I’ve been back-and-forthing on for years, not days or weeks, years.  And when I finally made my decision, the very next time I opened my word document, I felt a serious weight absent from my shoulders.  It was like I could just sit back and go ‘Alright, now let’s have some FUN!’  If I felt as though I couldn’t do that before, for whatever reasons, there’s a problem.

Earlier, after reading the Fantasy Faction links and Chuck’s post, I was understandbly annoyed and did what any annoyed person does: rant to their significant other/best friend/parent.  In my case, it was poor Mr. Jace on the receiving end.  After my stuff-nosed tirade, he had only one response.

“Wow, I thought writers were supposed to be mature?”

There’s something in there that I’m not sure you’ll notice right away.  I’ll give you a minute.

He didn’t say ‘self-publishers’, he didn’t say ‘those indie folk’ and he didn’t say ‘slaves to the man’; he said writers.  And I think that’s something a lot of us, on all sides of the fence, agents, authors, aspiring authors, indie presses, and self-publishers alike are all forgetting: before we slapped any of those labels on ourselves, we were writers first.  Even after we categorize ourselves, we are still writers.  We should be in this together.  We should take note of not just everyone else’s hilarious flubs and cringe-worthy failures, but our own as well.  We should lend a helping hand.  Share articles, notes, blogs.  Reach out not just to other self-publishers, but indie presses, editors and agents.  Could you get burned?  Possibly.  Slap some A&D on that sucker and move on!

Now, maybe you are doing all that.  Maybe you’re working hard, putting out the best you can, and yet there are still people that have the wrong impressions, were given the wrong impressions by the less professional, less articulated and far less mature of the bunch.  They’re making it harder for the rest of us.  Yes, they are.  But I’m pretty sure you didn’t take this route because it was going to be ‘easy’, now did you?  (And if you did, honey, educate yourself, because someone lied to you!)  We’re in this together guys and we can only expect changes to happen, opinions to sway, only if we work together.

Honestly, after all this, I’m even more excited to self-publish.  And if you’re considering it, if you’ve decided on it, or if you already have taken the plunge, stand tall and make the following statement:

Yes, I am self-published and no, that is not synonymous with ‘I am an asshat’ and here’s why…

Then proceed to introduce us to your polished, professional and quality work.

Mid-Week Ramblings: This Is Not a Vlog

It’s a painting of a vlog!  Ha ha…ha.

In all seriousness though, I thought I might try something different!  So, check it out, let me know if there are any audio issues (too low, too loud, weird background noise, etc).  This is my attempt at creating a somewhat professional sounding…thing.  Enjoy!

(Total length is 3:13.)

Guest Post: Ronnie Jantek

Hello all!  I thought, in honor of Mother’s Day, I would do something a little different.  Today we have a guest post for you, and not just any guest, but Jace’s mom!  Yaaaay!  Ronnie will be sharing with us a snippet from her current WIP (with minor edits by myself), a collection of stories about survivors post-zombie outbreak, not just in the U.S. but all around the globe.  Besides being an awesome mother, Ronnie prides her story on the realism of not only the cause for the viral outbreak but the situations, trauma and blurring of the line between moralities as people struggle to cope with the undead.

Ronnie writes for pleasure and is still very undecided as to whether or not she will seek publication with her work.  Feel free to leave comments and feedback!

———–

The outbreak happened too fast.  It hit the government leaders around the world first.  No one believed it.  They thought it was a preview for a new movie or something.  The head of the CDC held a press conference along with the President of theUnited Statesto discuss how well things had gone with vaccines and how they felt that the pandemic had been averted.  Suddenly the President broke out in a vicious coughing fit then collapsed.  He was approached by several aides when he just turned and jumped the head of the CDC.  He knocked her to the floor and began taking bites out of her.  Real bites.  Deep, bloody, flesh tearing, George Romero type bites.

We all sat transfixed to our screens, waiting to hear “Coming soon fromParamount” or something, but the screen just went black.  We waited another minute, maybe a teaser.  But nothing came back on.  Finally we switched channels.  Nothing.  Nothing on any channel but the emergency signal.  I know a collective “What the fuck?” must have rung out in every household that was watching their TV that night.

Billy shook his head and cursed under his breath.

Carl’s voice cracked as he began to cry, “Shit, at least you were at home.  Me…”

That seemed to be all he could do anymore.  It was a miracle he had survived this long.  Though, for the life of me, I don’t know why, not after walking in to find his wife sitting in the middle of the living room in a puddle of their children’s blood, the torn arm of their six month old in her teeth.  Me, I would have walked to the roof and jumped.

“Ah, shut up, both of you!  What the fuck does it matter anymore anyway.  We’ve all been ass fucked by the universe.”  Lily, a hardcore gang-banger, she would just as soon as kill you than have to repeat herself.  But she was on the edge, about to crack.

Eventually, I’m going to have to kill the crazy bitch.

Julius paced in circles, flicking ash from his cigarette while running his other hand through his thick black curls.  He said he was twenty-two, but in all honesty didn’t look any older than seventeen.

“My first kill was a cop,” he said.  “Just another dumb fuck like myself, running through the confusion and trying to understand but, but they just poured out of the building, all covered in blood, snarling and making those horrible retching noises.  I don’t know why I did it.  Survival I guess.  I saw them, I saw the cop and I knocked him to the ground and took his gun.  He fought me.  I shot him and two of those things, then I ran.  I ran like a scared little bitch.  I didn’t need to kill him.”

Julius’ left hand trembled all the time.  It was only steady when it held a gun.  A psychosomatic tick I figured.  Whatever.

I took my can of soup and went up to the roof to eat.  Don’t really know why, it stinks like hell out there, literally, but sometimes I just need not to feel so closed in and closed off.  I walked over to the edge of the roof and sat down, letting my legs hang over the outside.  Strange, the fears you lose when they’re replaced with stronger ones.  The streets below are reasonably quiet, though littered with rotting bodies.  Not many roaming around this evening.  I looked up and the sky was clear and beautiful.  If you don’t look down and ignore the gut wrenching stench, you could almost imagine that things were normal again as you watch white, billowy clouds float by.

I slowly ate my cold can of condensed chicken noodle soup.  When I finished, I let the can slip from my hand and watched it as it plummeted towards the ground and for a few moments, I plummeted with it.  It would have been so easy, one simple scoot forward, a few seconds to curse the universe and then the nightmare would be over.

***

I don’t know how long I sat on the edge of the roof, day had given way to night and though I watched the stars glowing overhead, I never really took notice of the change.  At least not until the roof door slowly squeaked opened and Lily stepped out.

“You alright?” Lily walked over and peered over the edge, then spit.  “Thinking about jumping?”  Lily sat on the edge next to me, facing in, tapping the toes of her Timberlands together.

“No, why do you ask?”

Lily never said a word.  She simply smiled.  Her face for a brief instance was as peaceful and as innocent as a child’s.  Then she leaned back…and let go.  I had thought it a question, not a statement.  The sound of her body’s loud thud and cracking of her head as it broke open, spilling its contents on the dirty pavement echoed up and down the street.  I guess the really disturbing thing about the situation was not that she had chose, as she called it, “the chicken-shit way out” but that my only thought was… I wonder if she had any extra clips in her room?

—-

So, thanks so much to Ms. Jantek for sharing her work on my blog.  While hoards of the flesh-eating undead don’t seem to bother her, all you people at home reading her work and knowing she exists…kind of freaks her out.  So be gentle!

Mid-Week Ramblings: Useful Links #3

Hey guys!  I’ve managed to accumulate a fair amount of links for you to take a look at.  We’ve got a few on self-publishing and traditional publishing, a bit on royalty statements again, marketing and something on story structure.  Hope you find some of it useful!

• Harlequin Fail   This is an article that talks about author Ann Voss Peterson, her dealings with Harlequin and why she’s cutting the cord.  I know Harlequin is one of the major ones, like Tor for us Spec Fic guys, and while they don’t cater to anything I specifically write, I really think this post is worth the read for all of us.
• The Passive Voice – Spread The Word   Here’s another one about royalty statements, the sneaky things that can happen, and terms like ‘basket accounting’, which was a new one for me.  Again, even if you’ve got our fingers in your eyes screaming La-La-La at the top of your lungs about the traditional vs self-publishing pros and cons, woes and flat-out conspiracies, it’s worth the read just to have the knowledge.

Shifting gears, the next two links are specific to writing.

• 7 Ways to Write A Standalone Book With Series Potential   Just like the link says, 7 things to keep in mind, tips & tricks, when writing a series.  Specifically taken from the stance of looking at the first book as a ‘standalone with series potential’.
• 25 Things Writers Should Know About Creating Mystery  I almost skipped past this one for the same reason you’re thinking of skipping past it: Pft, I write Spec-Fic not mystery.  Now wait and re-read that title, it’s “…about CREATING Mystery” not “writing” it.  There are many elements found in that article that can, and should be, applied to your own work, regardless of the genre.  And the titles are just hilarious.  ”It Kills The Vampire or It Gets The Hose Again” is one of my favorites.  That one and “Plot & Character: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together.  Seriously, read the article.  I mean, any self-respecting owner of a Bondage Batman tool-belt should.  (I should mention some of the comments made throughout the article are, erm, ‘colorful’ to say the least.  If references to sex, orgasms or general use of the word ‘fuck’ bothers you, well, get over it and read it anyway ’cause it’s a really interesting article!)

And one final topic shift.  The last few links are specific to promoting yourself and your book.

• Author Business Cards  One agent discusses why she generally disliked author business cards, throwing them out when she got home, what changed her mind, and how you can make it work for you.  She’s written a follow-up post to it here: Author Business Cards Pt 2
• Headlines And Hooklines: Writing a Press Release  Another one I almost skipped past thinking, press release?  I can’t handle that, that’s hardcore out of my field of expertise.  Well, put it in your field of expertise, and start by reading this article

That’s all I’ve got for you guys this week!  I’ve read all of the articles so if you feel like chatting about anything in particular, definitely leave a comment.