What do these three things have in common? I have no idea, but I need to figure it out before Sunday.
(That's the final prompt for the Pill Hill Press Winter Shootout. I have a feeling this is going to be an interesting story to write; and by interesting I mean 'oh crap'.)
An adventure is, by nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose. ~G.K. Chesterton
Monday, March 12, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
New Story: Fade Into You
I've just completed my first time travel story. Would anyone like to beta read it? : )
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
A teaser
Because, you know, if I put on the blog, then it has to happen. No take-backs.
This one I have plotted out in my head. Three novellas: Blood-tempered, Weaving Steel, and Kissing the Blade. Many a moon ago I wrote about how I had a character stuck in my head, a sword-monk. I know his story better now, and am more confident about telling it. I just need more time.
Also, the wonderful poet Megan Arkenberg has graciously given permission for me to use her poem 'Song Before a Quest' as an epigraph for the story.
This one I have plotted out in my head. Three novellas: Blood-tempered, Weaving Steel, and Kissing the Blade. Many a moon ago I wrote about how I had a character stuck in my head, a sword-monk. I know his story better now, and am more confident about telling it. I just need more time.
Also, the wonderful poet Megan Arkenberg has graciously given permission for me to use her poem 'Song Before a Quest' as an epigraph for the story.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Self Publishing: The old paradigm vs the new
My dream was always mass market. I wanted to walk into bookstores and see my books on the shelf, right after Anne McCaffrey's. I wanted it so bad that I would go in to bookstores and feel hate for the physical books of writers that I believed couldn't write as well as I did.
Both the hate and the dream are dead.
I don't need bookstores anymore, just as I don't need publishers.
Last night, in bed, I got two new books. Books that I couldn't have bought in bookstores, not because they were self-published, but because they were out of 'print'. The bookstore as we know it, my friends, is marked for extinction. This I've blogged about before.
Before, if I used a print on demand service, I'd have had the books sitting in a box somewhere in my house because I wouldn't have been able to get them in stores.
Now, though the option is available, I can't be bothered. Why should I, when I can electronically distribute to virtually every English speaking country, virtually instantly? Why should I, when I can do the same to almost every country in Europe with a mouse click? Yes, I could go through Createspace and have physical books available through Amazon, but paper numbers are simply paltry compared to ebook numbers, for indie authors.
Publishers still have a lock on distribution to bookstores, but that doesn't mean very much anymore, and it means less every day.
I almost want to call print on demand a vanity thing,but it's not, for most, not anymore. Instead, it's either a nostalgia thing, or it's a sign that the author hasn't figured out which way the wind is blowing.
My dream was to hold my book in my hands. Now it is to get my works into the hands of as many people as humanly possible. The old paperback is, sadly or otherwise, on its way to the dustbin of history.
Both the hate and the dream are dead.
I don't need bookstores anymore, just as I don't need publishers.
Last night, in bed, I got two new books. Books that I couldn't have bought in bookstores, not because they were self-published, but because they were out of 'print'. The bookstore as we know it, my friends, is marked for extinction. This I've blogged about before.
Before, if I used a print on demand service, I'd have had the books sitting in a box somewhere in my house because I wouldn't have been able to get them in stores.
Now, though the option is available, I can't be bothered. Why should I, when I can electronically distribute to virtually every English speaking country, virtually instantly? Why should I, when I can do the same to almost every country in Europe with a mouse click? Yes, I could go through Createspace and have physical books available through Amazon, but paper numbers are simply paltry compared to ebook numbers, for indie authors.
Publishers still have a lock on distribution to bookstores, but that doesn't mean very much anymore, and it means less every day.
I almost want to call print on demand a vanity thing,but it's not, for most, not anymore. Instead, it's either a nostalgia thing, or it's a sign that the author hasn't figured out which way the wind is blowing.
My dream was to hold my book in my hands. Now it is to get my works into the hands of as many people as humanly possible. The old paperback is, sadly or otherwise, on its way to the dustbin of history.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Publishing myth #1: You need a traditional publisher for distribution
When I first started out in the writing game, I knew nothing (which is why I signed a contract in 2002 that meant my book would only be an ebook forever and ever amen). I had many beliefs, but essentially no knowledge regarding the publishing industry.
My education was painful, and costly. But it was also, it must be said a very thorough one.
When it became apparent that Random House had absolutely no interest in publishing my books in a paper format, I thought I was very clever in asking for those rights. "I'll just print them myself," I thought. "Who could resist my sword and sorcery genius, once they have it in their sweaty, trembling hands?"
Random House basically said "Sure, kid. Knock yourself out." They knew what I didn't know: Traditional publishers had a lock on distribution to all the retail chains. Borders and Barnes & Noble were never going to stock any book from Lulu or Xlibris. I count myself fortunate that I figured this out before I spent any money on printing Thagoth.
For a while I would tell people I'd written a book and had it published, but after the twentieth or thirtieth time having to explain that it only existed in electronic format, and no, they couldn't get it at their local bookstore, I just shut up about being a writer. And soon enough I stopped finishing anything new anyway, fiction-wise, so it didn't really matter.
Fast forward a few years.
When Random House finally responded to my emails regarding rights reversion of Thagoth, and my request that they stop selling it, their reply was, essentially, "Sure, kid. Knock yourself out."
So what has changed? Everything.
Let's look at where Random House distributes my ebook to right now, compared to where I can distribute to on my own (English speaking countries):
The United States:
Random House - everywhere
Me: everywhere
Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland & Australia:
Random House - nowhere
Me - everywhere
Am I worried about losing sales by leaving Random House? Let's put it this way: The population of the United Kingdom is 62 million.Canada, 33 million. Australia, 23 million. Ireland, 4.5 million.
By leaving Random House and distributing on my own, I increase my potential reader base by 122.5 million people. Now let's say 1% of this seething mass of English speaking humanity has some reasonable chance of being interested in reading my work. Likey it's less, but I'm not so good at math, so let's keep it simple. 1% equals 1.2 million people, rounding down. 1.2 million possible readers I was shut out from with Random House, because they did not distribute my book to those countries.
That's 1.2 million reasons for me to indie publish, on top of the ones I've discussed elsewhere. So when the powers that be at Random House finally deigned send me a reply to my several emails regarding Thagoth, this time around I didn't mind their supercilious tone.
"Sure, kid," I thought. "Knock yourself out."
My education was painful, and costly. But it was also, it must be said a very thorough one.
When it became apparent that Random House had absolutely no interest in publishing my books in a paper format, I thought I was very clever in asking for those rights. "I'll just print them myself," I thought. "Who could resist my sword and sorcery genius, once they have it in their sweaty, trembling hands?"
Random House basically said "Sure, kid. Knock yourself out." They knew what I didn't know: Traditional publishers had a lock on distribution to all the retail chains. Borders and Barnes & Noble were never going to stock any book from Lulu or Xlibris. I count myself fortunate that I figured this out before I spent any money on printing Thagoth.
For a while I would tell people I'd written a book and had it published, but after the twentieth or thirtieth time having to explain that it only existed in electronic format, and no, they couldn't get it at their local bookstore, I just shut up about being a writer. And soon enough I stopped finishing anything new anyway, fiction-wise, so it didn't really matter.
Fast forward a few years.
When Random House finally responded to my emails regarding rights reversion of Thagoth, and my request that they stop selling it, their reply was, essentially, "Sure, kid. Knock yourself out."
So what has changed? Everything.
Let's look at where Random House distributes my ebook to right now, compared to where I can distribute to on my own (English speaking countries):
The United States:
Random House - everywhere
Me: everywhere
Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland & Australia:
Random House - nowhere
Me - everywhere
Am I worried about losing sales by leaving Random House? Let's put it this way: The population of the United Kingdom is 62 million.Canada, 33 million. Australia, 23 million. Ireland, 4.5 million.
By leaving Random House and distributing on my own, I increase my potential reader base by 122.5 million people. Now let's say 1% of this seething mass of English speaking humanity has some reasonable chance of being interested in reading my work. Likey it's less, but I'm not so good at math, so let's keep it simple. 1% equals 1.2 million people, rounding down. 1.2 million possible readers I was shut out from with Random House, because they did not distribute my book to those countries.
"Sure, kid," I thought. "Knock yourself out."
The self epublishing 'bubble'
Ewan Morrison writes in The Guardian that we are at the start of an epublishing bubble. Go on and read it. I'll wait.
Now here's the thing: All the words have meaning and all the sentences are coherent, but this article doesn't make a lick of sense. Mister Morrison, if he can bear to look back at what he wrote five years from now, will cringe at the hash he made of predicting the future, and the logical contortions he forced himself through to get this piece written.
1. Trying to compare cultural shifts to macroeconomics is pointless and absurd, right on its crazy face.
2. For there to be a bubble, there has to be a boom and a bust in the cycle. I see the boom. For the life of me, I don't see a bust in the scenario. It's not like people are suddenly going to throw up their hands in despair en masse and stop writing.
3. There are three groups who are going to get hurt because of the paradigm shift away from print to electronic publishing: Traditional publishers, brick and mortar retailers, and any indie hopeful who pays hard money for anything to do with his/her writing without doing their homework. This does not a bubble make, any more than the printing press did.
Look, I'm quite certain that the makers of illuminated manuscripts first scoffed at, then became alarmists about the printing press. The makers of buggy whips, I'm certain, denigrated automobiles to no end. But at the end of the day, it's wasted effort to battle inevitability. Worse, it's wasted time.
Time that should be spent playing catch-up, hell bent for leather.
Now here's the thing: All the words have meaning and all the sentences are coherent, but this article doesn't make a lick of sense. Mister Morrison, if he can bear to look back at what he wrote five years from now, will cringe at the hash he made of predicting the future, and the logical contortions he forced himself through to get this piece written.
1. Trying to compare cultural shifts to macroeconomics is pointless and absurd, right on its crazy face.
2. For there to be a bubble, there has to be a boom and a bust in the cycle. I see the boom. For the life of me, I don't see a bust in the scenario. It's not like people are suddenly going to throw up their hands in despair en masse and stop writing.
3. There are three groups who are going to get hurt because of the paradigm shift away from print to electronic publishing: Traditional publishers, brick and mortar retailers, and any indie hopeful who pays hard money for anything to do with his/her writing without doing their homework. This does not a bubble make, any more than the printing press did.
Look, I'm quite certain that the makers of illuminated manuscripts first scoffed at, then became alarmists about the printing press. The makers of buggy whips, I'm certain, denigrated automobiles to no end. But at the end of the day, it's wasted effort to battle inevitability. Worse, it's wasted time.
Time that should be spent playing catch-up, hell bent for leather.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Farewell, Thagoth
I've finally received acknowledgement from Random House that I wish them to stop offering Thagoth for sale. I will not miss seeing my name mis-capitalized, nor will I miss the dreadful hash they made of the NCX file (the programming bit that lets you jump to different sections of the book).
Now, with the benefit of eight years of additional wisdom (ha!), I'll give it a nice edit and re-release it as the full version of The Thief who Spat in Luck's Good Eye.
For those kind visitors who have read Thagoth, I have a question: Is there anything you'd like to see changed in the revised edition? The comments section is open, or you can email me at mcclungmike [at] yahoo [dot] com if you want to avoid potential spoilers.
Now, with the benefit of eight years of additional wisdom (ha!), I'll give it a nice edit and re-release it as the full version of The Thief who Spat in Luck's Good Eye.
For those kind visitors who have read Thagoth, I have a question: Is there anything you'd like to see changed in the revised edition? The comments section is open, or you can email me at mcclungmike [at] yahoo [dot] com if you want to avoid potential spoilers.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Johnny Zero has entered the building
I love hardboiled detective stories - Chandler, Hammet, Spillane. What's more, I love hardboiled fantasy detective stories - Jim Butcher's Dresden Files & Simon Green's Nightside series especially. I've been working on something in the genre set in Singapore for a while now, but before that one, I'd thought of a premise, a tiny germ of an idea for something several years ago. It's been sitting on a shelf in my brain for a while now. Last week, I dusted it off after getting a prompt. A story ensued.
There's a lot going on to this story; the setting is an alternate America where magic is real, and mages have suffered from witch hunts, both political and literal, in the past. The specific city where the story takes place is Los Magi, commonly referred to as Miracle City, and it's a place that shares elements of modern day Las Vegas and Los Angeles of the 1930's. It's also not unlike Brigadoon.
I don't want to give away any plotty stuff, so I'll just say that I had a lot of fun writing down Johnny's casefile and meeting his partner. I'm quite sure Johnny will be back around to tell us about some of his other cases, sunglasses firmly in place, day or night.
There's a lot going on to this story; the setting is an alternate America where magic is real, and mages have suffered from witch hunts, both political and literal, in the past. The specific city where the story takes place is Los Magi, commonly referred to as Miracle City, and it's a place that shares elements of modern day Las Vegas and Los Angeles of the 1930's. It's also not unlike Brigadoon.
I don't want to give away any plotty stuff, so I'll just say that I had a lot of fun writing down Johnny's casefile and meeting his partner. I'm quite sure Johnny will be back around to tell us about some of his other cases, sunglasses firmly in place, day or night.
Requiem for a hamster
When the kids ask
I'll say you're on holiday
Not passed away
From some obscure hamstery malady.
So will everyone else -
If they know what's good for them.
I'll say you're on holiday
Not passed away
From some obscure hamstery malady.
So will everyone else -
If they know what's good for them.
Ireland loves/hates me
Of course, what else should I expect from the birthplace of my ancestors besides a dysfunctional relationship?
Waste Land is the #1 free iTunes sci fi short story there. It's also #1 in the broader free science fiction and literature category, and #5 in the free 'sci fi & fantasy' category, the broadest of the categories I can hope to aspire to (after that it's just 'books', which includes every book published). That's the first time I've broken the top ten in any country, in the SF & F category.
'Thief who Spat' on the other hand is only #18 in its epic category, #132 in general fantasy, and doesn't even make the top 200 in the free sci fi & fantasy.
To which I can only say to Ireland, I love/hate you, too*.
(*Just kidding. Only love flows from me as from a font towards the Emerald Isle of my progenitors.)
Waste Land is the #1 free iTunes sci fi short story there. It's also #1 in the broader free science fiction and literature category, and #5 in the free 'sci fi & fantasy' category, the broadest of the categories I can hope to aspire to (after that it's just 'books', which includes every book published). That's the first time I've broken the top ten in any country, in the SF & F category.
'Thief who Spat' on the other hand is only #18 in its epic category, #132 in general fantasy, and doesn't even make the top 200 in the free sci fi & fantasy.
To which I can only say to Ireland, I love/hate you, too*.
(*Just kidding. Only love flows from me as from a font towards the Emerald Isle of my progenitors.)
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Waste Land Update
Hi there, cats & kittens. Currently have a monstrous headache that won't go away, but thought I'd let you know that Waste Land is the #1 Sci Fi short story in the US (iTunes free category), and is featured at the #1 spot in the 'New & Notable' section for Sci Fi shorts and in the broader 'Sci Fi & Lit' category.
Roll on, free...
Roll on, free...
Friday, February 03, 2012
Projecting into the future (always a risky proposition)
In 2012 I will:
In 2013 I will:
- Double the number of titles digitally available by moi (financial success comes from a deep title list)
- Finish two novel-length works (screw you, writer's block)
- Force myself to learn how to outline (you're an artisan, not an artist, Mike)
- Take my first stab at formula fiction (see above)
- Chop my WIP list in half (closure!)
- Take back Thagoth from Random House, revise it, and re-release it with a new cover (oh, yes, every writer needs the editorial guidance, marketing power and cover art that a publisher provides. That I got essentially none of that, and still manage to sell copies of Thagoth, says that I don't need them. I just need to get serious, and get busy.)
In 2013 I will:
- Be approached by a literary agent because of the success I'm having as an indie author
- Turn him/her down
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Free works: More thoughts and more numbers
Today, for the first time ever, Thagoth has broken into the Top 200 paid fantasy chart on iTunes. It has debuted at #159. Some of the titles it is, at this moment, outselling:
- Changes -Jim Butcher
- A Touch of Dead -Charlaine Harris
- Moon Called -Patricia Briggs
- Flirt -Laurell Hamilton
- Dead Witch Walking -Kim Harrison
- Bearers of the Black Staff -Terry Brooks
- The Two Towers -Tolkien
- A Hard Day's Knight -Simon R. Green
Why now and not in the previous months? After all, 'Thief who Spat' has been in the Top 10 free epic fantasy chart, usually at #1, for more than two months. The answer is 'more free' and 'wider market'. 'Waste Land' is a sci fi short story. It has introduced my writing to a wider audience. It has given more people a reason to take a chance on my not-free writing. It's currently #2 in the Sci Fi & Lit Short Story free category.
As a writer who wants to get read, and maybe even be able to earn a living writing some day, my task is to rid myself of the curse of obscurity. After nearly nine years of stumbling in the dark, I'm starting to see some glimmers of hope.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Anti-Gordon Gekko
Free, for lack of a better word, is good. Free is right. Free works. Free clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. -Anti-Gordon Gekko
So Mike, you say. It's nice and all that people are downloading your stuff. But how do downloads of free stuff compare to real, actual for-sale books?
Let me put it this way: In the fantasy category on iTunes (which includes contemporary, epic, historical, paranormal and short stories), there are 729 free titles and 14,910 paid titles. Total for fantasy, free and paid, is 15,639 titles. It's 20:1in favour of paid.
'The Thief who Spat in Luck's Good Eye' is #7 in the free fantasy category in the US right now. When you add free and paid together? It's #20.
Here are a few paid titles that are not being downloaded as much as 'TWS' :
- The Hobbit - Tolkien
- The Gunslinger - King
- Living Dead in Dallas - Harris
- The Wise Man's Fear - Rothfuss
- Ghost Story - Butcher
- Alloy of Law - Sanderson
And this, my friends, is why I'm misquoting Gordon Gekko. And lest anyone say 'if you were charging instead of giving away, you'd be making awesome money' -- uh, no. If I were charging, I would not be #20. Or #200. Or #2,000, in all likelihood.
Now I'm off to clean a hamster cage.
The Indie Author Files: Making your own luck
Right now there is a gold rush going on in terms of digital content. A lot of writers who have no business letting their work see the light of day are publishing willy-nilly, hoping to cash in. This does not dismay me: far from it. Those readers who have read terrible self-published hack-work have a greater appreciation for self-published work of a professional standard. I try very hard to only present the best work I'm capable of, and take pains to make sure it's as error-free as I can make it. And when I do catch an error and dread the thought of having to re-upload a corrected copy, I remind myself how infuriating it is that my ebook published by Random House - one of the largest publishers in the world - doesn't even get my name right. They mis-capitalized it. The lesson: Only you can make sure it's done the way you want it.
#
As has been preached night unto nausea by Joe Konrath, an indie writer has to get the fundamentals right to even hope to succeed. Decent writing. Decent editing. Decent cover art. Decent price point. These things are necessary - but not sufficient - for success. From there, he says, you keep at it and wait for your break.
Thagoth has been out there for eight years.It garnered zero reviews. A few months ago, in a fit of pique, I went on Amazon and committed a grave sin: I reviewed my own book, very forthrightly. A buddy of mine who had read and liked it kindly contributed his own review as well. In the following months, there have been no other reviews. Joe would likey say "You just haven't gotten lucky yet."
For me, the critical difference between Amazon and Apple's iTunes store is that iTunes allows uploads of free books. Amazon supposedly price matches, but only when they feel like it. You can't plan a marketing strategy on the back of somebody else's whim. So Joe is right, when it comes to Amazon: I haven't gotten lucky. Sadly, infuriatingly, 'get lucky' is the only plan available when it comes to Amazon.
Apple is another matter entirely.
I've said many times before, and I will say it until it isn't true anymore: As a writer, I am at war with obscurity.
In the past, a writer was at war with indifference: the indifference of agents and of editors who were inundated with submissions and queries. Those days are gone for those who choose to indie publish. It's no longer about them. It's about getting noticed by readers. And readers, my friends, are not indifferent. On the contrary, they are excited and hopeful. 'Tell me a story,' they say. 'Tell me a good story. A story that will make me forget for a while my jerk boss or the bill for my kid's braces or the fact that I've got an exam coming up that I am woefully unprepared for.' God bless the readers; they're you and me, and they want you to be good. They are looking for you, for what you create, and if they find you and like what you have to say, they'll come back for more. You disappoint them at your own peril.
These are the people you are trying to attract. That's the good news. The bad news is, they've got to find you, and that's a bitch, both for them and for you. Once they do find you, they have to be given a reason to take a chance on you, you obscure unknown quantity.
Apple, via Smashwords, has allowed me to give the reader that reason. It's called 'free'. Amazon hasn't. I got lucky with Apple because Apple allowed me to make my own luck. Enough readers felt they got lucky with my free writing that some of them have taken a chance on my writing that isn't free. On Amazon, Thagoth has two reviews; one by me and one by a friend of mine. On Apple, Thagoth has fifteen ratings, all by people I have never met. And they came to Thagoth by reading the free novelette 'The Thief Who Spat in Luck's Good Eye' and liking it.
I'm at war with obscurity. Free, properly applied, is the greatest weapon in my arsenal.
#
As has been preached night unto nausea by Joe Konrath, an indie writer has to get the fundamentals right to even hope to succeed. Decent writing. Decent editing. Decent cover art. Decent price point. These things are necessary - but not sufficient - for success. From there, he says, you keep at it and wait for your break.
Thagoth has been out there for eight years.It garnered zero reviews. A few months ago, in a fit of pique, I went on Amazon and committed a grave sin: I reviewed my own book, very forthrightly. A buddy of mine who had read and liked it kindly contributed his own review as well. In the following months, there have been no other reviews. Joe would likey say "You just haven't gotten lucky yet."
For me, the critical difference between Amazon and Apple's iTunes store is that iTunes allows uploads of free books. Amazon supposedly price matches, but only when they feel like it. You can't plan a marketing strategy on the back of somebody else's whim. So Joe is right, when it comes to Amazon: I haven't gotten lucky. Sadly, infuriatingly, 'get lucky' is the only plan available when it comes to Amazon.
Apple is another matter entirely.
I've said many times before, and I will say it until it isn't true anymore: As a writer, I am at war with obscurity.
In the past, a writer was at war with indifference: the indifference of agents and of editors who were inundated with submissions and queries. Those days are gone for those who choose to indie publish. It's no longer about them. It's about getting noticed by readers. And readers, my friends, are not indifferent. On the contrary, they are excited and hopeful. 'Tell me a story,' they say. 'Tell me a good story. A story that will make me forget for a while my jerk boss or the bill for my kid's braces or the fact that I've got an exam coming up that I am woefully unprepared for.' God bless the readers; they're you and me, and they want you to be good. They are looking for you, for what you create, and if they find you and like what you have to say, they'll come back for more. You disappoint them at your own peril.
These are the people you are trying to attract. That's the good news. The bad news is, they've got to find you, and that's a bitch, both for them and for you. Once they do find you, they have to be given a reason to take a chance on you, you obscure unknown quantity.
Apple, via Smashwords, has allowed me to give the reader that reason. It's called 'free'. Amazon hasn't. I got lucky with Apple because Apple allowed me to make my own luck. Enough readers felt they got lucky with my free writing that some of them have taken a chance on my writing that isn't free. On Amazon, Thagoth has two reviews; one by me and one by a friend of mine. On Apple, Thagoth has fifteen ratings, all by people I have never met. And they came to Thagoth by reading the free novelette 'The Thief Who Spat in Luck's Good Eye' and liking it.
I'm at war with obscurity. Free, properly applied, is the greatest weapon in my arsenal.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
The Indie Author files: The State of Play
Have you noticed how nobody - and I mean nobody - talks about Borders bookstores anymore? Have you noticed how little press Barnes & Noble has got about their plans to sell off their Nook business? It's freaking eerie.
Here's how the fiction food chain used to flow: Writers wrote 'x' and tried like hell to get an agent. Agents tried like hell to get an editor to look at 'x'. Editors who like 'x' tried like hell to get their publishing company to buy 'x'. (Here's where things got a little bit wonky) Publishers tried to only buy 'x' if they thought it was going to be a smash hit (Snooki anyone?), but grudgingly published things they thought would at least do decently. Then they sold all their 'x' to bookstores, mostly bookstore chains. (Here's where things really went off the rails) Bookstores, especially chains, started selling their premium floor space to publishers, who were pushing the 'x' they thought would do really well, or that they'd paid a stupid amount of money for and needed badly to make their money back on. Bookstore chains didn't care; one book was much like any other, and it was all about margins. It was all just 'units' and 'product' (which is why Borders in its waning days was selling things like designer spatulas).
Turns out readers like what they like, not what publishers want them to like. Turns out readers stopped putting up with chain stores not having what they wanted, and stopped accepting increasingly long waits for special orders. Why? Because readers were, and increasingly are, able to download what they wanted in seconds rather than waiting for, on average, weeks to get their 'special' orders in. And usually they can get it cheaper.
No bookstore can carry every title. Borders stopped even trying to go the extra mile for their customers. Borders, it must be said, deserved its fate.
Barnes & Noble is next.
Borders sold away its digital future to Amazon, then tried far, far too late to replace it by partnering with Kobo. B&N wasn't quite as short-sighted. They got the Nook up and running, and are essentially preparing to enter a metamorphosis stage. If B&N brick and mortar stores are still open in five years, I'll buy you a donut.
In five years. No B&N, no Borders. Book stores will be specialty stores and second hand shops, not chains. Them's the breaks. Who do the publishers, great and small, sell 'x' to then?
To digital content purveyors, that's who. Amazon and Apple.
#
So what, increasingly, does the fiction food chain look like today? Like this:
Writers write 'x' and publish it directly on a digital platform such as Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple, or Smashwords. Control, be it creative, business or editorial, is almost entirely in their hands (for good or ill). It is available for purchase within days at most. It sinks or swims on its own merit, of course, but per unit, the writer will receive a greater percentage of each sale than they ever would have with a traditional publishing contract. And every day the potential audience grows as people buy kindles or nooks or iPads or kobos in the millions.
But of course the devil is in the details. More about that another day.
Here's how the fiction food chain used to flow: Writers wrote 'x' and tried like hell to get an agent. Agents tried like hell to get an editor to look at 'x'. Editors who like 'x' tried like hell to get their publishing company to buy 'x'. (Here's where things got a little bit wonky) Publishers tried to only buy 'x' if they thought it was going to be a smash hit (Snooki anyone?), but grudgingly published things they thought would at least do decently. Then they sold all their 'x' to bookstores, mostly bookstore chains. (Here's where things really went off the rails) Bookstores, especially chains, started selling their premium floor space to publishers, who were pushing the 'x' they thought would do really well, or that they'd paid a stupid amount of money for and needed badly to make their money back on. Bookstore chains didn't care; one book was much like any other, and it was all about margins. It was all just 'units' and 'product' (which is why Borders in its waning days was selling things like designer spatulas).
Turns out readers like what they like, not what publishers want them to like. Turns out readers stopped putting up with chain stores not having what they wanted, and stopped accepting increasingly long waits for special orders. Why? Because readers were, and increasingly are, able to download what they wanted in seconds rather than waiting for, on average, weeks to get their 'special' orders in. And usually they can get it cheaper.
No bookstore can carry every title. Borders stopped even trying to go the extra mile for their customers. Borders, it must be said, deserved its fate.
Barnes & Noble is next.
Borders sold away its digital future to Amazon, then tried far, far too late to replace it by partnering with Kobo. B&N wasn't quite as short-sighted. They got the Nook up and running, and are essentially preparing to enter a metamorphosis stage. If B&N brick and mortar stores are still open in five years, I'll buy you a donut.
In five years. No B&N, no Borders. Book stores will be specialty stores and second hand shops, not chains. Them's the breaks. Who do the publishers, great and small, sell 'x' to then?
To digital content purveyors, that's who. Amazon and Apple.
#
So what, increasingly, does the fiction food chain look like today? Like this:
Writers write 'x' and publish it directly on a digital platform such as Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple, or Smashwords. Control, be it creative, business or editorial, is almost entirely in their hands (for good or ill). It is available for purchase within days at most. It sinks or swims on its own merit, of course, but per unit, the writer will receive a greater percentage of each sale than they ever would have with a traditional publishing contract. And every day the potential audience grows as people buy kindles or nooks or iPads or kobos in the millions.
But of course the devil is in the details. More about that another day.
Waste Land iTunes debut: numbers and thoughts
So 'Waste Land' has been live on iTunes for roughly a day, in the free science fiction short stories category. As of right this minute, it is:
#7 in Canada
#7 in the UK
#10 in the US
#23 in Australia
Them's the numbers. Now for the thoughts:
There's an old Russian fairy tale called 'The Three Ivans'. In it, the main hero, Ivan Gardener's Son, fights three ogres, each more powerful and hideous than the last, on the banks of the River Sorodin. Before each battle there's a bit of back and forth smack talk. After each ogre has his say, Ivan basically tells them to shut up and get on with it. His name for each is as poetic as it is descriptive - he addresses each as 'Unclean Strength'.
Now besides the fact that I'm definitely going to steal that for a story title at some point, 'Unclean Strength' resonates with me because that's how I view an indie writer's struggle. Each of us stands on the banks of the River Sorodin, as it were, and each is confronted with our ogres. Which is all a long-winded way of saying it's not enough to write a decent story, have decent formatting and a decent cover. These things are necessary, but not sufficient, to cut off Unclean Strength's ugly head(s).
You can facebook and twitter and blog all day long, but it's not enough. It doesn't get your writing into the reader's hands. Forget trying to sell -- your battle is getting noticed.
So. For me, for my battle with Unclean Strength, also known as obscurity, the weapon I've chosen is 'free' and the only place with a platform worth fighting for is iTunes. (Kindle may be a bigger market, but good luck getting anything on there for free.) 'The Thief who Spat' has spurred sales of Thagoth. I am hoping 'Waste Land' will spur sales of The Sorcerer's Lament. And as the months and years roll on, I will continue to offer free content, linked in some way to an additional, moderately priced book. As more titles are added, my thinking goes, it will serve to strengthen, deepen and broaden a virtuous circle of downloads and purchases.
For those writers who measure success in terms of sales, I urge you to take a longer view. Look to the horizon. If you can't see a horizon for your writing, it's probably because there's an ogre blocking your view.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Thief Who Spat In Luck's Good Eye: The latest update
#1 in the US
#1 in Canada
#1 in Romania
#2 in Australia
#2 in Luxembourg
#3 in the UK
#3 in Greece
#3 in Switzerland
#4 in Germany
#4 in Spain
#9 in Sweden
#11 in France
To which I can only say, Romania? It must be much cooler there than I ever imagined.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
On Writer's Block
There is a disease, my friends, that affects all creative types - the inability to create. For writers, it's known as writer's block. Some people will tell you it doesn't really exist. Some people are lying sacks of shit.
After the publication of my first book, the world looked like it was my oyster (man, was I a naive writer). I mean, I'd found the shortcut to literary success, right? No years of toiling to find an agent, no years of waiting for an editor to fall in love with my writing. I wrote, was selected to enter a competition, I won said competition, my book was published by a Big Six publisher. The fact that it was published only as an ebook, in 2003, didn't phase me. I knew - knew - that people would love it and it would be a big success and a representative from Random House would come to my door with flowers and a big Ed McMahon-sized check and a new contract detailing how my book would lovingly be printed in hardback and Darrell K. Sweet or maybe Boris Vallejo was going to do the cover art.
Yeah. Well.
Truth is, Thagoth did do relatively well, for an ebook in 2003. About 300 sales that first year, lots of good ratings. But Random House had zero plans or interest in doing anything further with it. My editor was gone, casualty of a regime change, and my book was an orphan. I didn't really understand any of that for a while, and happily went on writing some fairly decent short stories, starting some interesting novels, and starting and discarding stories I knew, even as a young, inexperienced writer, weren't up to snuff. All very healthy and good and normal for a writer learning their chops.
When reality started to sink in, it was at the worst possible time. I was already sinking into the depths of clinical depression due to other stresses in my life; my writing career that wasn't pushed that decline into a nosedive.
All my projects came to a screeching halt. And stayed halted for about eight years.
Oh, I started quite a number of new things. Over the last few years I've gotten much more confident when it comes to the old Act I of storytelling. And editorially, I can polish the first third of a piece of writing like nobody's business. I can edit and revise and polish like a boss. But finish something?
Well. You know. All stories have the same general form, right? And the middle ground is a slog, and the ending either predictable or artificially forced. Who needs to finish anything? The beginning is where it's at, right? Right? Easier to pretend to feel this way than to face yet another abandoned project, anyway.
My point here being, every writer's block is personalized for that writer.
Some can start, but not finish. Some can't start at all, and the blank page or snowy-white screen are like some insurmountable curse. Others can write, but every word written or typed gives off a rancid stench. Yet others get lost in the process, the orderly world of words suddenly turned in to some cursed forest with no path out.
If you ever have writer's block, and somebody tells you 'just' to work your way though it, you have my permission to call them very bad names. If anyone ever tells you writer's block doesn't exist, go right ahead and punch them in the gut. If anyone, heaven help them, tells you writer's block is all in your head, smile and say to them 'yes, it is indeed in my head, which is also where the WORDS are, you cretin' and then taser them (I suggest the genitals).
Ah, you ask, but Mike, how do you defeat/cure/get rid of writer's block?
Your disease is personalized, my friend, and so must be the cure. I could give you a bottle of snake oil, with predictable results. But I can give you a little advice that might help:
After the publication of my first book, the world looked like it was my oyster (man, was I a naive writer). I mean, I'd found the shortcut to literary success, right? No years of toiling to find an agent, no years of waiting for an editor to fall in love with my writing. I wrote, was selected to enter a competition, I won said competition, my book was published by a Big Six publisher. The fact that it was published only as an ebook, in 2003, didn't phase me. I knew - knew - that people would love it and it would be a big success and a representative from Random House would come to my door with flowers and a big Ed McMahon-sized check and a new contract detailing how my book would lovingly be printed in hardback and Darrell K. Sweet or maybe Boris Vallejo was going to do the cover art.
Yeah. Well.
Truth is, Thagoth did do relatively well, for an ebook in 2003. About 300 sales that first year, lots of good ratings. But Random House had zero plans or interest in doing anything further with it. My editor was gone, casualty of a regime change, and my book was an orphan. I didn't really understand any of that for a while, and happily went on writing some fairly decent short stories, starting some interesting novels, and starting and discarding stories I knew, even as a young, inexperienced writer, weren't up to snuff. All very healthy and good and normal for a writer learning their chops.
When reality started to sink in, it was at the worst possible time. I was already sinking into the depths of clinical depression due to other stresses in my life; my writing career that wasn't pushed that decline into a nosedive.
All my projects came to a screeching halt. And stayed halted for about eight years.
Oh, I started quite a number of new things. Over the last few years I've gotten much more confident when it comes to the old Act I of storytelling. And editorially, I can polish the first third of a piece of writing like nobody's business. I can edit and revise and polish like a boss. But finish something?
Well. You know. All stories have the same general form, right? And the middle ground is a slog, and the ending either predictable or artificially forced. Who needs to finish anything? The beginning is where it's at, right? Right? Easier to pretend to feel this way than to face yet another abandoned project, anyway.
My point here being, every writer's block is personalized for that writer.
Some can start, but not finish. Some can't start at all, and the blank page or snowy-white screen are like some insurmountable curse. Others can write, but every word written or typed gives off a rancid stench. Yet others get lost in the process, the orderly world of words suddenly turned in to some cursed forest with no path out.
If you ever have writer's block, and somebody tells you 'just' to work your way though it, you have my permission to call them very bad names. If anyone ever tells you writer's block doesn't exist, go right ahead and punch them in the gut. If anyone, heaven help them, tells you writer's block is all in your head, smile and say to them 'yes, it is indeed in my head, which is also where the WORDS are, you cretin' and then taser them (I suggest the genitals).
Ah, you ask, but Mike, how do you defeat/cure/get rid of writer's block?
Your disease is personalized, my friend, and so must be the cure. I could give you a bottle of snake oil, with predictable results. But I can give you a little advice that might help:
- Stay the fuck away from negative people. Good general advice, critical for a writer.
- Don't think you're going to outwit writer's block. It's exactly as intelligent as you are.
- You only lose when you quit. Yes, I know it sucks -- eight years worth of suck for me, remember?
- Don't try to be too ambitious. It's much better to write something that sucks ass, but is complete, than to start your magnum opus and have it die on page 30, reinforcing the feeling of failure.
- Remember, when writing garbage, that you can always revise.
- Remember, when writing garbage, that you can always delete.
- Follow any spark of interest or creativity to see where it leads. Try very hard to have no expectations.
- Keep idea notes as they come to you.
- Realize that the desire and urge to write will flee as soon as you sit down to do it, and reappear as soon as you have to go to work. Realize that this is just your subconscious fucking with you. If you called in sick, you almost certainly would not have a breakthrough.
- Learn to listen to the small voice in your head that says 'hmm, that's interesting'. Learn to nurture that germ of an idea. It might sprout. the sprout might take root. It might grow a story. Don't try and force it; you wouldn't try and force a seedling to grow into a tomato.
- Periodically read really, really terrible writing that managed to get published. Make notes on why it was awful and how you would have done it better.
- Make an effort to experience new, different things. Feed your soul and your psyche.
- Know you are not alone.
Good luck, my friends, and remember to be kind, both to others and to yourself.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
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