An interesting interview with Joe Konrath was just published (see link below). Here he further expounds on his results as a self-published author. He cites significantly better earnings by self-publishing books for a low price while at the same time devoting less time to marketing than he had for this traditionally published novel. He states that publishers take over 52% of the cover price while authors receive only a bit more than 17%.

The article is definitely worth reading. One caveat though is that nowhere in the article does Joe mention his release with Amazon’s new imprint Encore. This leaves me wondering, if self-publishing is so fantastic, why sign a deal with what is ostensibly another publisher? Sure Amazon isn’t a traditional publisher per se, yet it aspires to be one. That is one question I’m sure many writers would be interested in hearing the answer to.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/j-a-konrath-responds-our-interview-with-jamie-raab_b46413

http://elitzr.com/is-amazons-konrath-concession-a-sign-of-things-to-come/

In the continuing competitive battle between Amazon and Barnes and Noble, B&N has stated that it will not carry paper books published by Amazon in its bricks and morter stores. However, you will still be able to find Amazon digital titles in B&N’s online store.

While Amazon has now entered publisher’s territory by publishing its own fiction books in several genres, B&N has not done so. It is sticking to its distributor role.

This will further widen the gap between the traditional publisher/distributor companies and Amazon. The challenge competitors will have is that Amazon’s business is significantly more diversified and provides it with funds to develop the book division.

As readers and authors, we’ll just have to hope that the competition provides more opportunities.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/50444-it-s-official-b-n-will-not-stock-titles-published-by-amazon-.html

I’m well into the pre-Holiday crunch time. But just wanted to take a minute to point out an interesting (but rather long) post on author payments. In this post, the author argues that traditional publishers can afford to and should pay authors more for their work. This would then better compensate authors and discourage them from defecting to Amazon where pay is better. Will anyone take his advice? Time will tell…

http://www.idealog.com/blog/paying-authors-more-might-be-the-best-economics

A few days ago, Eric Felten published an interesting essay in the Wall St. Journal on the value of the publishing industry. His take is that the publishing industry primarily serves as gatekeepers or bestowers of quality labels. This function allows the book buying public to have some confidence that the book they’re buying is up to the acceptable standards for quality publishing.

In comparison, self-publishing is the Wild West. Or as Mr. Felten calls it “American Idol” for authors. I agree there are a quite a few poor quality books in the self-publishing world. The worst being people who don’t even write their books, but essentially steal material from other people then publish under their own name (book spammers, in Mr. Felton’s lexicon).

However, I don’t believe the entire self-publishing arena is bad. There are books that have a small audience that can’t be profitably produced any other way. For example, some years ago I worked on a book (nonfiction) on a medical topic. I dutifully sent it out and eventually found an agent to assist me. However, the word came back that the target market was too small. I put the book aside. But, what if it could have profitably been published? Wouldn’t people concerned about this condition have been able to learn from my knowledge? Maybe felt better able to handle their condition or even to avoid developing it? No one will know since the book wasn’t published. But, now, in the crazy, wild world of self-publishing, maybe those type of books can have a home.

Where publishers need a large staff and have considerable overhead, self-publishers can publish with a small coterie of freelance assistants. The reduced overhead means that books with lower sales can be profitable since the creation and production cost is lower. Thus smaller, niche audiences can be served.

Yes, in the Wild West of self-publishing, much sifting is needed. However, there just might be other Amanda Hockings out there. Plus what is one man’s dross could be another man’s gem.

Great news today! Three of my poems (Lying, Christina’s Reflection, and Troy) have been published at The Lyon Review. It’s always a lot of fun to see your work in “print” (or digital ink) after working so long and hard polishing the words. Just like spring, which arrived today in full force with purple crocus and 75 degree F weather, publication is the rebirth period for writers- the time you can relax for a few moments and say to yourself, “This is what I’ve been working for.” (Paychecks are also welcome, of course.)

The Lyon Review is a newly launched publication. I encourage you to click over to the site (link below) and take a look at the variety and quality of the work they’ve put together ranging from book excerpts to poetry and essays.

The Lyon Review can be enjoyed at: www.thelyonreview.com

That’s it for the pat on the back. (Happiness is fleeting, I know.) Back to work on my novels and other projects….

A good marketer always wants to know the competition. For aspiring authors, how much competition is there? The numbers are closely held and hard to pin down. However, I decided to take a stab at it.

In 2004, one source gives the number of books published in the U.S. as 190,000. For 2006, another source (citing BEA statistics) gives the number of books published in the U.S. as 172,000. Sounds like stiff competition so far, right? In fact, out of the 172,000 books, 93% sell fewer than 1,000 copies. A successful book should sell at least 5,000 copies to earn out a modest advance.

More recently another source indicates that in 2007, about 62,000 fiction books were published. This seems to suggest that more than half the earlier totals were mostly nonfiction with some other categories.

The numbers suggest that the number of books published by traditional publishers probably hasn’t changed much or has even declined in the past 6 years.

Self-published books count for a large number of total books published. They haven’t been included in the above numbers, but offer some competition. Lulu claims it publishes 4,000 books a week, which comes to an astounding 208,000 books a year! That’s just for one self-publisher. The vast majority of self-published books only sell a hundred or two hundred copies to the author’s friends and family. For fiction, self-publishing is useful if all you want to do is see your name in print. Most people shouldn’t consider it a money making venture since self-publishing costs anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 and up.

For more on self-publishing challenges, see http://reviews.cnet.com/self-publishing/

For new authors, these are sobering facts. I have seen estimates that between 700 and 1,000 people in the U.S. make their living as novelists. Some will write more than one novel per year. Let’s assume that 1,500 novels each year come from full-time novelists. That leaves 60,500 novels to be written by those not making their living as novelists. This is good news in that it means there’s some chance to break into the field. But not so good in terms of earnings or a long term career.

So where to go from here? I highly recommend any aspiring novelist join a writer’s association to learn about the industry. Also, think deeply on your writing goals.

By now many of you have woken up hearing the cacophony of  Book Wars. Amazon and WalMart battling it out.

Book Wars can help authors by placing their products (books) front and center in the news and in people’s minds. Think of books, see books, buy books. At the price of $10 or $9 (or who knows, maybe the price has dropped further since this morning), readers can afford to buy stacks of books. Think about it- how many Christmas gifts can you buy that will last hours and only cost $10 (or less)?

Of course on the down side, authors may make less money with their books being sold half off (or more). But sales depend on price and volume. So selling more units at a lower price could yield similar revenue.

So, which is Darth Vader and which is Luke Skywalker? I’ll let you decide.

This weekend, my RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter hosted Amy Pierpont from Grand Central Publishing. A number of us agreed this meeting was one of the best we’ve had because Amy has such a wealth of industry experience and is so passionate about books.

One key take-away from our discussion about the industry was that paranormals are still going strong with no end in sight. (Keep looking for those vampire books!) Expect paranormals to combine with other genres or subgenres. Recently I found a pirate vampire series for young adults that seems to be checked out of our library most of the time (a definite issue when my young adult is clamoring for book 2). I was particularly happy to hear that paranormals have a bright future since my second novel is a paranormal thriller with romantic elements (no, I didn’t entirely drop the medical slant, it’s just less prominent than in book 1). There aren’t any vampires in my novel but I believe I have some beings who are just as intriguing.

Another trend is the growth of e-books and e-readers. Publishers are looking to do more in this area because of the growth even though, at this time, the e-book area is only a small part of overall sales. From our informal sampling, there’s still a lot of room for growth since only one writer in the room currently has an e-reader. However, there was strong agreement that as readers, we book people are enamored of the touch, feel and smell of books- something an e-reader doesn’t offer.

The final trend I’ll mention is the growth of e-marketing tactics. Look for electronic announcements of all kinds from publishing companies promoting novels. Word of mouth is still the best way to attract readers and that is moving to the Internet as well with bloggers recommending novels and talking with their favorite authors.

While the publishing industry, like most other industry, hit a rough patch, there are a lot of exciting things going on!

Along with cleaning out the physical clutter, it’s time to clean out the mental clutter. I admit, I have plenty of clutter to get rid of- thoughts that bog down and doom some of my best intentions. I bet many writers can relate to my resolutions…

Here are the top 5 bits of mental lint that I plan to sweep away for 2009:

1) Lint: Famous writer Jo Author writes 500 page outlines and sketches scenes worthy of hanging in the Louvre. I am unable to stick to the 2 page outlines I make and, yes, those sort-of circleish blobs on my drawings are in fact heads. Resolution: When I have this thought, I will take a deep breath and accept that my fiction writing is ORGANIC (no- I’m not a panster!). I will ignore the laughter of friends and family who know that I obsessively make lists for everything else I do in life.

2) Lint: The only way to move one’s publishing career forward is to attend every available writer’s conference and workshop. Resolution: I will slowly move my hand away from the mouse. I will not click on the “Yes, I’d love to attend!” button. I will not raid my retirement fund to go to Maui.

3) Lint: The only way to get an agent is to send your pitch to every person who says they’ve met an editor. Resolution: I will not mass mail every listing in Writer’s Market. Wait- does anyone know Millie’s agent? (I have a dog in my book. That would be targeted wouldn’t it?)

4) Lint: The only way to get better is to keep writing (and writing and writing). Resolution: OK, I buy the practice makes perfect but when I find myself typing more underscores (for word goes here) than words, it’s definitely time to go to sleep.

5) Lint: The entire publishing industry is doomed. No one is buying any books. Resolution: Recognize that journalists write stories that sell (sound familiar?) Conflict sells. Step back from the cliff and look around. People will buy entertainment. The only other option is reading the news and look where that got us. Go back to point one- write entertaining conflict that makes people turn pages (or hit page down button) and it will sell.

Wishing everyone a successful New Year for 2009!

Over the past few months I’ve been pondering innovative marketing strategies in publishing. Why? Basically just because I love publishing and would love to see the industry jolted out it’s doldrums.

In September the UK Harper Collin’s announced a website “Authonomy” that functions like a pre-publication Amazon web site. Writers post 10,000 word chunks of their books and visitors review and rate the copy. The highest rated copy is then read by Harper Collin’s editors. Any one in any country can post their work.

I have no idea if Authonomy is proving profitable for Harper Collin’s. It’s still in beta testing. What do I think of it? I’m of two minds on the idea. On the one hand, anything that stimulates interest in writing or reading gets an A plus! But does this site really get a writer out of the slush pile as the site implies? I’m not sure about that. It seems to me the slush pile is simply moved online and gains enthusiastic, free (though untrained) reviewers. The theory is that these reviewers are the same people who might buy the book if sold so in effect, they receive an early preview and the author receives helpful comments.

The bottom line is I think Authonomy is a great marketing tool. But it is likely of dubious utility for career-oriented writers who have to essentially publish copyrighted material for free and hope they receive useful feedback.

A second innovative marketing tool in Europe is the new Faber Academy where published authors teach new authors. This is also a great marketing tool for the publishing company. It gives them publicity and makes money. Writers attending the workshops will receive the benefit of learning from well-known authors. If only they offered a class in the United States!

In my next post I’ll explore why European publishing is pushing the envelope on innovative marketing.