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Feb 9 2015

It Only Takes ONE

For the last three years, the VP of my department at my Evil Day Job has been forwarding newsletters from motivational speaker Jon Gordon. Every time one of these newsletters comes into my email box, I eagerly read it from beginning to end. While most of what Jon writes and speaks about does not translate well into the publishing world, I always strive to find that one kernel of truth that holds even in this fickle industry. In fact, Jon’s ideas and words of wisdom have sparked more than a few blog posts of my own, and today’s is no different.

I have noticed a very distinct increase in the number of self-published “writers” over the past two years. I have only to scroll through my FaceBook newsfeed to see that approximately half of the 4000 people on my friends’ list considers themselves a writer, most of which have at least one novel self-published through Amazon or are working on their first novel that they plan to self-publish. One would think that being around that many creative minds would be conducive to helping a writer stay on track and do what they do best – write.

Unfortunately, as I have discovered so many times in the past, being around writers is actually counterproductive for a lot of us. We tend to measure our own successes by how much other writers have accomplished. It’s disheartening for most of us. Who wouldn’t be discouraged when they have a half-dozen projects going at once with no tangible goal other than to actually get one of them finished sometime in the next six months, while their newsfeed is filled with writers who have churned out their fifth book in as many months. Sure, we all know that we shouldn’t measure our own successes by those of others’, especially when we know what type of quality most of these “writers” are producing.  But when you are bombarded by this information in virtually every other post in your newsfeed, it makes it extremely difficult to not feel at least the tiniest twinge of inadequacy creeping in.

Then today, I had this wonderful piece of advice from Jon fill my inbox, and I realized that what I have been telling other writers for so many years still rings just as true not only in the writing world, but in the business world as well:

Sell without selling out. Focus more on your core principles and customer loyalty than short term commissions and profits.

 

For years I have told budding young authors that they don’t want to write a word-vomit book, the self-published equivalent of a mercenary writer, those writers who focus more on quantity than quality. A word-vomit book is just that, a book that someone vomited words onto a page without so much as a single rewrite and little to no edits.  These types of books are generally seen the most in categories that contain a propositionately  larger number of sales than other categories, such as erotica. These types of writers will churn out large quantities of sub-par reading material in an attempt to keep a steady stream of royalties in their bank account. These types of writers rarely make any type of real name for themselves.

As I like to say, such writers are “selling out” their readers by offering them mediocre plotlines when they could have just as easily spent the required time to polish it to perfection. Consider this, Harper Lee only ever published one book in her life, and that book has become one of the single most read books of all time. It is a timeless classic, required reading material in half of the nation’s schools and banned by the other half. That is no small feat, especially these days. And while no one may know the author’s name, they have most definitely heard of the book.

I remember a fellow author friend posting on FB that in this day and age, a writer cannot just produce one book a year and expect to make any money. You have to keep churning out dozens of books to keep your name out there.

I find so many faults in this statement. It only takes ONE really great book to make a name for yourself in the writing world. And you have to ask yourself, do you want to be remembered for producing thirty mediocre books, or for producing that one book that is read for generations to come, the type of story and characters that stay with your readers regardless of how many other books they read? There are over 1.5 billion English speaking readers on this planet. You will make more money by selling one really great book to a few million of them than you will trying to market dozens of crap-tacular books that will only sell a few dozen copies each at most.

This is another reason why I love this wonderful piece of positive wisdom. So many writers are focused only on getting the next book out, to do a massive launch and sell as many books as they can the first week or two. And once they see their sales start to tank, they immediately start writing the next mediocre piece of word vomit and wonder why no one outside of their base 100 fans are buying. It never occurs to them that there are literally MILLIONS of readers out there that have yet to be exposed to their works. And if they did not spend the time and energy to produce the absolute best piece of literary work they are capable of, it does not matter how many books they produce, it only takes a reader getting hold of just ONE badly written book and they will never read another book by that author again.

The good news is that it only takes a reader getting hold of just ONE really great book by an author to keep that reader coming back again and again, even if it does take you a year to produce your next book. It is for this reason that while I continue to write and do a bit of marketing for each new release, I only really do heavy marketing for ONE of my books. Those who already know about my work stay in touch and eagerly snatch up the next release, but for those who have yet to discover my vivid imagination, I try to captivate them with only ONE book, and once they take a look around, they will see that I offer a wide range of books and adventures.

It only takes one. This is my motto for everything. It only takes ONE good book to make a name for myself. It only takes ONE reader talking about my book to spread the word. And it only takes ONE badly written book to turn off a reader forever.

My advice to authors is to start using this same philosophy. Stop trying to churn out an endless stream of sub-par books. Concentrate on creating just ONE really awesome book, and market that book far and wide. And once that ONE book has become a household name, you can start working to make another one of your books into a household name. Keep writing, and treat all your books as if it is going to be that ONE truly great book. When you do this, one day you will realize that you have a half-dozen really great books, and any ONE of them can help cement your name in the history books.

Dec 29 2014

Formatting for Kindle: Why Page Count Matters

Most authors rarely think about formatting. Thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), the tricky task of formatting is not nearly as difficult as it is when formatting for a printed copy. With Kindle, there is no need for the aesthetically pleasing page breaks and numbered pages that one must adhere to when formatting for print. Most authors just sit down at their word processing software and begin typing away, using whatever default setting their software is set to. They finish the drafts, have it edited, and if any formatting is done for Kindle by professional formatters, it is just to ensure that there is a hard page break between the title page, copyright page, dedication page, each chapter, and any ‘About the Author’ or ‘Foreword’ sections. The author gets the finished file back, uploads it to Kindle, and never thinks twice about it.

 

 

In today’s article, we discuss why the estimated printed page length that is on a book’s purchase page is important, how Kindle estimates the page count, and what you can do to ensure that your printed page count is accurate.

 

 

Let’s consider this for a moment.  When you walk into a book store, you are purchasing formatted books, correct? You are not purchasing an unformatted book printed single spaced on a standard sized piece of printer pager. The books come in many different sizes, or trim sizes as the industry calls them, and they vary greatly in page length depending upon font used and the trim size used. As a reader, one of the first things that you are concerned with will be

 

 

  1. The size of the book and
  2. The price of the book

 

 

As a reader, how large the book is determines whether or not you are willing to pay the asking price of a book. While you may not mind paying $20 for a book that is 400 pages or more, you most likely will baulk at paying that same price for a book that has half that many or fewer pages. As a reader, you want to get your money’s worth, and expect to pay more for larger books that have a larger trim size and more pages. Publishers know this, which is why they will purposely use a smaller trim size on short word count novels to increase the printed page length. They know that readers will not be willing to spend $20 on a book that is only 200 pages long but will be much more willing to pay that same price for a book that is 400 pages long, even if the word count is the same.

 

 

With that in mind, what most authors do not realize, especially if they do not do their own formatting or format for printed copies, is that Kindle strips out all the formatting on a file when it is uploaded. The estimated printed page length is estimated on the overall word count as if it were being printed out on a standard sized 8.5” X 11” of printing paper, single spaced, with a 12 pt font. As noted above, you do not purchase unformatted books printed out on standard sized paper with single spacing. So, when Amazon strips out the formatting, the estimated printed page length of the book will NOT be based on the trim sized used for print formatting.

 

 

So let’s break this down further and use a real world example. My book The Red Fang was formatted for print using the standard 5.5” X 8.5” trim size and is just shy of 50K words.  When printed, this book is 388 pages in length, as noted in these product details.

Product Details

 

However, when this same formatted file is uploaded to KDP, the formatting is stripped out, and the estimated printed page length that is showing on the book’s Kindle buy page is estimated at only 178 pages.  The book lost 210 pages during the conversion process, as noted in the below product details for the Kindle version of the same book.

 

Product Details

 

 

But what does this mean? As an author, do you really care how many pages your book is on Kindle, or that the estimated print length showing on Amazon is based on an unformatted standard sheet of paper and not based on a formatted print copy?

 

The short answer for this is yes, and the reason why is because your readers care. Remember our scenario from earlier where you walked into a book store and made a purchase based on the overall page count of the book? Readers do this same thing when looking at Kindle books. If they see two Kindle books that are the same word count and both priced the same but one has an estimated printed length of 178 pages and the other has an estimated printed length of 388 pages, they are naturally going to buy the one with the higher estimated printed length because they think they are getting a better deal. It doesn’t matter that the two books have the exact same word count because Amazon does not list word count, only estimated printed length. Since the readers don’t know the two books are the same word count and ONLY have the estimated printed length to judge the length of a Kindle book, they are naturally going to opt for the Kindle book that shows a longer estimated print length.

 

But if uploading the file to KDP is automatically going to strip the formatting, then wouldn’t all the Kindle versions of all books then be on equal footing, i.e. wouldn’t they all show estimated page counts based on a stripped down format that had fewer pages? The answer to this is no, which is why authors need to make certain that the estimated printed length on their Kindle books is accurate.

 

So you may be wondering if this is all done automatically, how do you get the Kindle versions of your books to show the correct, formatted estimated printed length? Why is it that some books are showing a stripped down page count resulting in fewer estimated pages while other books are showing the same printed page length as the book’s printed counterpart?

 

The answer to this is simple. You will need to link the Kindle versions of each of your books to a printed copy, and you can do this by going through CreateSpace (CS). Once you have your book formatted to the trim size of your choice, you simple have to upload the file to CS and link the printed version of the book to the Kindle version.  Within a few days the estimated printed page length on the Kindle version will automatically readjust to show the same printed length as the printed version of the book. This same process will work in reverse, i.e. you can upload the printed version to CS first and then have it transferred over to Kindle using the feature built into CS that automatically carries everything over to Kindle for you. When uploading to Kindle through CS, the Kindle version of the book will automatically show the same estimated printed page length as the printed version.

Dec 9 2014

Blurring the Lines – Serial Shorts, Serial Novels, and Book Series Explained

As a reader, I love reading book series. There is nothing quite like getting engrossed in a group of characters and following them through adventure after adventure over the course of a multi-novel series. I often discover my mind wandering after reading a book, wondering what was going to happen next, what had happened in Character X’s life to make him/her act the way he/she did. There might be tiny tidbits of information throughout the series that alluded to an even greater mystery, information that I would roll over and over in my mind, trying to decipher the meaning of it all. I would become greatly invested in the characters, their lives, their adventures, eagerly devouring novel after novel, falling ever more in love with the characters and their world.

With the steady influx of self-published authors over the past few years, I am finding that the lines of serial novels, serial shorts, and book series are becoming greatly blurred. Not only that, but I am quickly discovering that a lot of authors do not understand the difference between the three, resulting in mislabeling of their works and subsequently upsetting many of their readers.

In today’s article, we discuss the difference between a book series, serial novels, and serial shorts.

First, let us discuss the book series. A book series is generally a series of books written about or around the same group of characters. Each book contains its own story with a beginning, end, and resolution of some smaller, immediate problem in the story. The books may or may not have to be read in a certain order for the reader to be able to follow along.

Some examples of book series is Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles or the Harry Potter series. While Harry Potter was an on-going saga that really required the reader to read the books in order to get the full picture of the main characters’ lives and how they grew and matured, each book was a complete story in itself. The Vampire Chronicles did not necessarily have to be read in order but was a series around several of the same characters. Many of the characters’ stories entwined throughout the series and oftentimes gave rise to a new novel that told about a previously minor character’s life or other adventure. What they all had in common is that each book was a complete story with beginning, middle, end, and most importantly, a resolution to the immediate problem. Additional examples would be the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.

Where a lot of people get confused is that a book series can also encompass a much larger problem/adventure. While each book contains its own story, the books together could tell of a larger story.  Many readers are getting the idea that such a series is actually a group of serial novels, and a lot of the confusion is being created by authors who do not know the difference between the two, or who are mislabeling their works. Take for instance my own Before the Sun Rises series. Each book contains its own story with beginning, middle, end, and resolution to the immediate problem presented in each book. However, because the books hint at a much larger problem that is not immediately rectified in any one book, some readers wrongfully consider them serial novels.

So exactly what are serial novels and serial shorts?

First, I will discuss the serial short. Think of these as TV series, or comic books. They are generally based around the same group of characters in an on-going adventure. Serials are not necessarily meant to have a conclusion and are generally written until the demand for the characters and their decline.  Serial shorts, like their name imply, are generally about the length of a short story, usually under 15K words or less.

Since the serial is not really meant to ever have an ending, the storyline may seem to ‘wander’ or not have any sense of direction. There may not seem to be a ‘larger problem’ hinted at that needs to be resolved, or, if there is, once the problem is solved, a new one just crops up, much like you see on season finales of TV series when the ‘larger problem’ that the entire season was escalating towards just leads to another problem.

With serials, many times the next installment in the serial will pick up right where the last one left off, or it will switch up between several groups of characters with each new installment in the serial depicting an adventure for one specific group of characters. The entire serial could be written so that each installment bounces from one group of characters to another, oftentimes entwining their stories.

The main difference you will notice as a reader is that each installment is incomplete; there is not a beginning, middle, end, or resolution to a problem. The installments will have to be read in order from beginning to end in order for the reader to get the full adventure.

Finally there is the serial novel which oftentimes gets confused with a series. As discussed previously, books in a series will be a complete story in itself with a beginning, middle, end, and resolution to a problem identified in the book but the series as a whole may present an even larger problem. The main theme is that each book will contain its own story with a conclusion. A serial novel, however, can get a bit tricky.

First, there is the serial novel that is much like the serial shorts, the only difference being the length of each installment. The installments might be the same approximate length of a full novel or novella, usually 20K words or more. Like their shorter counterparts, the serial novel can be an on-going saga that the author never really planned to end, rather, was just writing until demand for the characters and storylines naturally declined.

However, the most common type of serial novel is a novel that, when finished, represents a complete story in itself. Basically it is just a full length novel that has been broken up into installments but, when combined, represent one complete storyline with a beginning, middle, end, and resolution to the problem presented in the story.  For example, the third book in myBefore the Sun Rises series, Clan of the Claw, is being released in installment, or episode form. Once finished, the installments will represent one whole, complete book with beginning, middle, conclusion, and resolution of a problem that arose during the telling of the story.

So as a reader, you may wonder why authors would purposely decide to write serial shorts or novels. Many readers feel cheated when they get to the last page and realize that there is no conclusion, no resolution to the problem presented in the storyline, and with good reason. Many readers think that an author’s primary reason for doing this is to earn more royalties since having more items for sale could translate into higher earnings. While this may be true, and I will have to leave the discussion of math and royalties for another article, there are other reasons for authors to decide to release serial shorts or serial novels.

For myself, I decided to release book 3 in the Before the Sun Rises series in episode form not because it would garner me more royalties (the number of installments I have planned and their price point will equal out exactly the same for readers whether they decide to read the installments as they come out or if they decide to wait and purchase the entire book), but because I did not want my readers to have to wait for months, possibly even a year or longer, before they would have access to the next book. As I work a full time job outside the home in addition to writing, it takes me a bit longer to produce a final product than it does for those writers who have the luxury of writing full time. Because of this and the sheer number of new books being released each and every day, I knew that forcing my readers to wait a year or longer could very well be career suicide. From a business stand point, I knew that I needed new material coming out every few months but as a working writer holding other jobs, it just is not feasible for me to produce a new novel every few months. For myself and other authors like me, deciding to write a novel in installments and making those installments available to the public as they are written means my name stays out there in the mix, allowing me to continue to bring in more readers.

While it is true that some authors may decide to write an entire novel and then break it up into installments and sell them individually to garner themselves a larger royalty check, there are additional reasons that authors may decide to release serial shorts or novels. Some authors may only have a vague idea of what the ‘bigger picture’ is when they started writing, and instead of trying to force it into a novel with an end, they choose instead to post it  as a serial short and just let the story and characters go wherever they may.

I feel that serial shorts are no different than a TV series. It’s understandable that some readers may get miffed to learn that the $4.99 they just spent turns out to be a mere 10K words in an ongoing saga, and rightly so, but other readers may not mind paying $.99 for an ongoing  adventure with characters that they have an emotional investment in. Again, it’s no different than getting caught up in a TV series such as The Walking Dead or Supernatural. While I may not be directly buying the TV series from its source, you can bet I will pay whatever premium package price is asked by my satellite provider to keep my AMC channel. Who I pay makes no difference; the simple fact remains that I am willing to pay to keep watching because I am emotionally invested in the characters and storylines.

Still other authors simply prefer to read on-going serials such as comic books etc. and will naturally gravitate to write in this form as well. As with everything else dealing with the literary world, it truly is a personal choice. As readers, while we may not like the idea of wasting endless amounts of money on an on-going saga, we can also cheat ourselves out of some wonderful adventures and characters by not giving these serial novels and shorts a chance. As one reader said, “If I fall in love with the character and story, I’m going to read it no matter HOW it is released.” This simple statement holds true for most readers.

However, as authors, we do need to keep in mind that in today’s economy, and especially with so many authors giving away the milk for free so to speak, our readers are being forced to be more economically conscientious than ever before.  Our best bet is to continue to provide the highest quality product we can at a fair price. After all, at the end of the day, whether you are a reader or an author, a good story truly is in the mind’s eye of the reader.

Nov 20 2014

Editor Versus Proofreader: Which is Right for an Author?

In this vast, new world of the indie publishing, authors are now finding themselves wearing many new hats. No longer are we just the wielder of the pen creating worlds and characters out of words and imagination, we are now finding ourselves also becoming graphic artists, editors, formatters, promoters, and marketing gurus. Many times, however, we either do not have the time or the expertise to fill all these roles, opting instead to hire someone who can polish our work to perfection with just the right flare.

Naturally, this influx of indie authors into the literary and publishing world means more and more people are opening up their own side businesses to try to fill the need the self-publishing boom has created. Freelancers are now offering their expertise as graphic cover artists, formatters, editors, and proofreaders to those authors who are in need of their services.

But what if, as an author, you don’t really know what you need? Unfortunately, in the self-publishing business, not knowing can mean the difference between getting a quality, finished service, and getting parted from your hard-earned money without the polished product you were expecting. In this article, we explore the difference between an editor and a proofreader.

Proofreader:

In short, a proofreader goes through your manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and corrects any and all typographical, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Think of them as spell checks with fingers. They go beyond what a normal spell-checker program can pick up to ensure capitalization and punctuation are used correctly, correct word  usage (‘two’ versus ‘to’, ‘too’, etc.), subject/verb agreement, and ensures there are no shifting tenses. When a proofreader is done, your manuscript should be free of any typographical, punctuation, and grammatical errors. A proofreader does not necessarily point out inconsistencies in your storyline or plot holes, but are really just there to find the obvious grammatical and punctuation errors.

Proofreaders generally charge by the word, and they can range greatly between freelancers, companies, and individuals with their own sole proprietorship. I’ve seen everything from $0.005 to $0.008 per word with some going as high as $0.14 per word or about $35/hour. It can get expensive very quickly, and this is not for anything other than basic grammar and spell check.

Editor:

Now let’s discuss editing. This is where I’m seeing a LOT of misuse of the word in the freelance and indie author community. A lot of authors are using the term ‘editor’ and ‘proofreader’ interchangeably, and are hiring freelancers who are calling themselves editors and charging editor pricing, but are actually just delivering proofreader performance.

Some will argue authors actually need to hire both a proofreader AND an editor because they offer separate services. Others will state while an editor can do everything a proofreader can do, a proofreader is not an editor. I tend to agree with the latter. As an author, you need someone who can not only polish out the typographical and grammatical errors, but also someone who can help fine-tune your writing style and syntax to ensure your story is the absolute best it can be. Most editors, however, will not help with proofreading-type duties and will stick to just helping with sentence structure and an overall development of writing style.

So exactly what does an editor do? An editor goes one step beyond proofreading to help a writer ‘find their style.’ They help with the overall flow of the language and often will rewrite portions of the manuscript so the style stays consistent throughout. They help clear up ambiguity and syntax problems. In essence, it takes more than just a strong background in English and goes beyond finding mere typographical errors. An editor also has a measure of intuition and knows what looks and sounds right on the page. A professional editor will not only clean up the grammatical and punctuation errors, but will also use his/her knowledge of English grammar and the literary world to ensure your manuscript sounds its absolute best.

Editing can further be broken out into line edits (or a general editor, as some refer to them) and copy editing. While these types of edits share a lot of similarities, there are also a lot of differences and are handled in different ways, and once again require different skill sets.

LINE EDITS: Line edits address the writing style, the creative content of the work, and the language/syntax used at the sentence, or line-by-line, level. However, the goal is not to look for errors (again, that is technically what a proofreader does) but to help a writer develop his/her writing style, to help with sentence structure, and to ensure the writing flows smoothly. A line editor may call attention to run-on sentences, overused words and sentences, can pin-point words or phrases that are being overused or not needed (for example, I had an editor point out I used the filler word “that” entirely too much in my writing). They help find redundancies in description, help tightened up scenes (show, not tell), and can help with dialogue. In essence, an editor is not just finding mistakes in any given manuscript, but is going to help point out all the things which can be improved in your future manuscripts to help you become a better writer and a better storyteller.

COPY EDITING: A copy editor is more like a very high-end proofreader. They help read out typographical, spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.They also work much like a formatter to ensure font styles and formatting structure. In addition, they help weed out inconsistencies in the storyline, such as a character whose physical traits were mistakenly changed in the manuscript, plot holes, etc.

It is the job of the copy editor to fix your typos, your inconsistencies in your storyline, and your punctuation. It is for this reason that a copy edit should always come after a line edit, once the storyline has been completely finished and is ready for a fine-tuning.

This is where I feel both freelancers and unknowing authors fall into a trap. Authors need someone who can do both, or if they cannot find someone who can do both, they need to learn the difference. If given a choice, an author really needs to hire a line editor and copy editor and skip a proofreader altogether if budget permits. If not, then a line editor followed by a really good proofreader is in order. In the trade publishing industry, publishers hire editors who can not only clean up your typos, but they will also help you develop your writing style. In the land of the indie author, many freelancers are claiming to be ‘editors’ but are actually only offering proofreading services, and some of them are not up to par on the proofreading services either.

As an author, it is your responsibility to not only know the difference, but to be sure you are hiring someone who not only also knows the difference, but who is providing you with the service you are requesting. In the end, you only get one chance to make a good first impression on your reader. As the author, that responsibility ultimately falls on your shoulders. Not ensuring your work is polished to perfection can mean the difference between being a one-book author, and having real staying power with a reputation among your readers as an author who consistently provides the absolutely best quality work possible.

Oct 30 2014

Why Traditional Publishing is Still Not an Option for Most Writers

One of the questions I get asked the most by other, “serious” writers, is “Why aren’t you trying to get a traditional publishing deal?”

First off, I, like most other writers, don’t have the option or luxury of writing full time. We have bills to pay, families to feed, and all those pesky little necessities that insist upon being paid every month, like electricity and the mortgage. So for a huge chunk of us, with me being right there in amongst them, we have to have a full-time Evil Day Job that helps pay those bills and support our families. It’s a simple fact of life. Trust me, if I could afford to write full time and not have to work, I would quit this gawd-awful hell I go to each day and plop my happy arse down in front of my PC for 12 hours a day and pound out a few books a year. Unfortunately, I live in the real world, so I have to have my job to help pay the bills. It’s not a matter of choice; it’s a matter of my kids needing to have food in their bellies and a roof over their heads.

So I guess the next question for most everyone would be, “So what does that have to do with getting a traditional publishing deal?”

In the past few months I have seen numerous authors in my FB feed overjoyed that they finally got a traditional publishing contract, some of them from really big name companies. I’m happy for them, really, and I’ll admit, I’m absolutely pea-green with envy. But my first question to them, after congratulations, is “Did you get an advancement?”

I already knew their response even before they answered me, because I have already been down this road so many times over the past twenty-five years. The vast majority of them have responded to state that the companies, even the large ones, did not offer them any type of advancement, just a book deal that covered X number of books to be published over X number of years. Some were lucky and got offered a few thousand dollars, but most were not offered any type of advancement.

My next question to them was, “Okay, so what about marketing and promotions? How much are they going to spend towards marketing your books?”

Again, I knew the answer and was not shocked when they told me that they companies hadn’t really mentioned anything about it, or they hadn’t confirmed any hard marketing plans yet. What I was shocked to hear was how many of them never once broached the subject of promotional ventures and budgets with these companies. Those few who did think to ask or had the information provided to them in the contract all reported the same thing: the marketing of the book would be left up to the author until such a time as the publishing company had recouped the money spent on editors, printing, and graphic artwork.

As I said before, I have to work to pay the bills, so signing a contract with a company, even if it were Random House, would not be feasible for me if it did not come with a large enough advancement to replacement my current income. Now that I have said that, let me clarify this by saying I could not sign a contract with a regular publishing company UNLESS they either offered a large enough advancement to replacement by current income OR they were willing to spend money to market and promote my books, i.e. get them in major bookstores across the country with prime shelf space, ads in major publications, get it in front of critics who could help launch my career, and possibly some talk shows or radio shows.

So you are probably wondering why on earth I would pass up signing a contract with a publishing house, even a big one, even if it meant I didn’t get an advancement or any type of marketing support? Wouldn’t the exposure of having a big name publishing company printing my book help launch my career? The answer to this, unfortunately, is not so cut-and-dry, and is both a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ question.

First off, most readers, and even authors, can’t tell you who publishes the majority of the books they read. Sure, you probably know who publishes your favorite author of all time, but 99% of people who read have no clue who actually published the book. Why? They don’t care. Readers don’t care if Random House published the book or if Joe Blow Press published it. All anyone cares about is whether or not it’s a good book, so having a ‘big name’ publisher means absolutely jack-shit to a reader.

Second, if no one cares who publishes the book, then how is having a big name publisher print my book going to help me? If they are not marketing my books, not getting them into book stores, not getting them in front of critics and major publications, then exactly WHAT are they doing for me? The answer to this is N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

If Random House offered me a deal today but refused to pony-up any type of marketing dollars, it would not help me one damn bit so far as readers are concerned. Sure, authors would be jealous as hell, but readers honestly don’t give a rat’s ass. The readers I already have would be overjoyed for me, but those who didn’t want to read my work in the first place are not about to go rushing to bookstores to snatch it off the shelves just because I announced that Random suddenly wanted to publish me. Trust me on this, it isn’t going to happen. How many times have you used the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon, or read a teaser on FaceBook, and groaned over the storyline and writing style? What happened? You rolled your eyes and didn’t bother to purchase. Now imagine if that same author announced that Random House had picked up their latest series. Are you suddenly going to rush out JUST because Random House decided they could make a quick buck off it? Um, NO, so it’s not like having their name on the inside of your book is going to make people hunt you down UNLESS they are marketing the shit out of your books.

I’ve seen dozens of authors signing these deals with big name publishers and a year later I still have not seen their books on the shelves of book stores, they have not become a house-hold name, they are not being offered movie deals and they are still having to do their own marketing and promotion through FaceBook and begging bloggers to review their work. They have to pay for those ARCs out of their own pocket because, when a publisher publishes on Amazon for you, you no longer have an ecopy that you can send. Instead, you have to purchase them through Amazon and gift them to readers and bloggers, costing you the precious little bit of royalties you have earned.

So now the big question is, if being picked up by a big publisher isn’t going to help an author in any way, then why on earth would they do it? The amount of royalties they get are far less than they are when self-publishing through Amazon. They are still going to have to do their own promotion and marketing and pay for all that out of their own pocket. Readers don’t really care who publishes them so using that name as a marketing tool is not going to garner them a whole lot of extra readers. So why do it?

For some writers, just getting that contract is enough. And to be honest, even if I did not get offered an advancement or any type of marketing plan behind the deal, I would still sign just to say that I was “good enough” for someone to take notice. However, this simply is not enough for most authors. And while I might be willing to sign a contract for one book, I can’t see myself signing a major contract for numerous books UNLESS it came with a large enough advancement to take the place of my current income. Because let’s face it, I’m already doing my own marketing, my own promotion, lining up my own blog tours and paying for my own editing and graphic work PLUS I get to keep 70% of my royalties. A better question for authors is, “If you are already doing all that, why would you sign a contract with a publisher who is going to make you continue to do all that AND take half your royalties away from you?”

Why indeed.