tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post2019970805516400749..comments2017-02-19T04:55:39.148-06:00Comments on A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: The Ark by Boyd MorrisonJoe Konrathhttps://plus.google.com/116545910411481156433noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-82936530440850936882012-01-24T10:56:49.441-06:002012-01-24T10:56:49.441-06:00Wonder how things are going now for Boyd. Think I&...Wonder how things are going now for Boyd. Think I&#39;ll go and find out. Thanks for posting this.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06658507579160418855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-54292272465842631482010-07-07T13:55:55.830-05:002010-07-07T13:55:55.830-05:00Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I l...Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I look forward to meeting you in Seattle at the end of July, Pilar<br /><br />www.pilarrivett.comPILAR BERTUZZI RIVETThttp://www.pilarrivett.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-73308955945875969402010-05-16T16:40:27.184-05:002010-05-16T16:40:27.184-05:00This is a great story but a Black Swan event not t...This is a great story but a Black Swan event not to be repeated.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15222366707246731960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-16263285268126822342010-05-15T10:12:22.662-05:002010-05-15T10:12:22.662-05:00Jude, Let&#39;s say there are three kinds of book...Jude,<br /><br />Let&#39;s say there are three kinds of books. We&#39;ll list them by sales. Above 5000. 5000 to 50. 50 or less.<br /><br />80% of the books published by New York fall into the middle. They&#39;re good enough to get an agent and a publisher, but fail to sell enough to make New York a profit.<br /><br />These books, by professional authors, could be self-published for free on Kindle. Every sale is 100% profit. A $2.99 ebook could earn a $2 royalty. If their book sells only 2500 copies in its life, the author will make more money than if they stuck with New York.<br /><br />How does this hurt anyone? New York no longer takes the loss. The author gets the same money or more. The book exists if any reader wants to try it.<br /><br />It&#39;s win-win-win. <br /><br />- JackJack H. H. Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15495812906987846109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-36389637085068696012010-05-15T08:38:09.887-05:002010-05-15T08:38:09.887-05:00@Moses HAHAHAHAHA Come on now, this is how rumor...@Moses<br /><br /><br />HAHAHAHAHA Come on now, this is how rumors get started! I said it&#39;s smart to put your eggs in more than one basket. <br /><br />We all know I haven&#39;t taken that advice, but that&#39;s just because if epub never makes it big, I&#39;d rather work within the niche than deal with NY publishing as a system. <br /><br />I think if what I&#39;m writing is good enough, over time I&#39;ll build all the platform I&#39;ll ever need and will continue to be happy as an indie. If I&#39;m not good enough, I won&#39;t. So to me it&#39;s not a big risk to avoid NY altogether.Zoe Wintershttp://zoewinters.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-86758383599609689472010-05-15T08:31:01.674-05:002010-05-15T08:31:01.674-05:00@Jude, Another time I agree with you! Self-publis...@Jude,<br /><br />Another time I agree with you! Self-publishing has been SO scorned by people throwing out manuscripts their cat probably puked on for public consumption... that it&#39;s almost synonymous with &quot;couldn&#39;t get a publisher.&quot;<br /><br />That&#39;s a pretty stifling world to live in if you&#39;re entrepreneurial and don&#39;t see the sense in the trad pub system as it stands.<br /><br />The term indie author isn&#39;t a term meant to be thrown around by those SAME lazy people unwilling to do the research and work.<br /><br />While most authors can&#39;t know the quality of their own work that doesn&#39;t mean one can&#39;t find out. It&#39;s ridiculously easy now to gather the information necessary to &quot;self-publish right.&quot; There is a plethora of good information and advice on the topic.<br /><br />I&#39;m okay with it if someone wants to self pub unedited drivel for them and their family members, but when they put it out to a larger market it causes me to be painted with that same brush.<br /><br />The term indie author should only be worn by those who have EARNED IT.<br /><br />And earning it doesn&#39;t necessarily mean having wild and crazy sales. It means educating yourself about the business you&#39;re entering into and doing the work to put out something of quality that a &quot;real publisher&quot; could have published.<br /><br />People who aren&#39;t willing to do that don&#39;t deserve to call themselves indies.<br /><br />While I want to be inclusive, I do think we have to stand up and say what you need to be willing to do to call yourself indie. Otherwise it will become as bad a label as &quot;self-published.&quot;Zoe Wintershttp://zoewinters.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-2040762036123863682010-05-14T23:42:46.315-05:002010-05-14T23:42:46.315-05:00If 80% of the books published by New York never ma...<i>If 80% of the books published by New York never make a profit...<br /><br />Maybe 80% of professional authors should self-publish.</i><br /><br />That argument sort of collapses on itself, because a higher percentage of self-published titles never makes a profit, and <i>professional authors</i> and <i>self-publish</i> don&#39;t belong in the same sentence.<br /><br />With the previously noted exceptions, of course.Jude Hardinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09994813046526310594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-23398936568983002412010-05-14T14:16:57.179-05:002010-05-14T14:16:57.179-05:00Jude, If 80% of the books published by New York n...Jude,<br /><br />If 80% of the books published by New York never make a profit...<br /><br />Maybe 80% of professional authors should self-publish.<br /><br />- JackJack H. H. Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15495812906987846109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-34301974015119389252010-05-14T04:14:11.188-05:002010-05-14T04:14:11.188-05:00Congratulations Boyd! And thanks for sharing your ...Congratulations Boyd! And thanks for sharing your inspiring story.<br /><br /><i>&quot;However, having said that, I assume you are putting eggs in both baskets, which is smart.&quot;</i><br /><br />Mark your calendars, folks. Zoe Winters said traditional publishing is &quot;smart.&quot; LOLMoses Siregar IIIhttp://sciencefictionfantasybooks.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-86789737643804244152010-05-13T23:11:07.224-05:002010-05-13T23:11:07.224-05:00If I released a movie or music on my own and peopl...<i>If I released a movie or music on my own and people paid for it and liked it and told their friends about it and they bought it and ... you get the idea. Yes, I think I could call myself a successful indie film maker or musician.</i><br /><br />Like I said, there&#39;s nothing wrong with being independent. Good is good. But the handles &quot;indie filmmaker&quot; and &quot;indie musician&quot; and &quot;indie author&quot; are largely meaningless when people who don&#39;t know what they&#39;re doing adopt and use them freely. The internet, great tool that it is, has fueled the delusions of many a clueless &quot;artist&quot; who simply isn&#39;t ready for any sort of public showing.Jude Hardinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09994813046526310594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-3701266672360884862010-05-13T22:22:04.240-05:002010-05-13T22:22:04.240-05:00Jude. If I released a movie or music on my own and...Jude. If I released a movie or music on my own and people paid for it and liked it and told their friends about it and they bought it and ... you get the idea. Yes, I think I could call myself a successful indie film maker or musician.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-91058516570412916682010-05-13T22:17:52.743-05:002010-05-13T22:17:52.743-05:00Are books the only artform where indie = bad? I&#...<i>Are books the only artform where indie = bad?</i><br /><br />I&#39;ve judged many writing contest for a big magazine, and the overall quality of the submissions was abysmal.<br /><br />Self-pubbing has a stigma attached to it for a reason. Everyone thinks they can write a book, but very few take the time to understand and learn the craft, and they believe the 60,000 words they strung together are good enough to release to the world. As a result, many newbie authors get burned by vanity presses who take their money and their rights and offer only disappointment in return.<br /><br />So for years I&#39;ve cautioned people against self-pubbing.<br /><br />Then this Kindle thing came along, and I&#39;ve tempered my advice. I still believe writers have to find a way to show their work is worthy of being read (which is impossible to judge yourself.) But now self-pubbing is free with no risk other than bad reviews and bad sales.<br /><br />I know several authors who do fine self-publishing their work. But they are the exceptions. The overwhelming majority should have concentrated more on rewriting and editing. That&#39;s been my experience, and I have more experience than most.Joe Konrathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-4232775942215922042010-05-13T22:00:26.648-05:002010-05-13T22:00:26.648-05:00If I buy a $200 camcorder and post some home movie...If I buy a $200 camcorder and post some home movies on YouTube, does that make me an &quot;indie filmmaker&quot;? If I buy some midi software and burn a CD on my computer, am I then allowed to call myself an &quot;indie musician&quot;?<br /><br />Pretty ridiculous, huh?<br /><br />Boyd landed an agent before he self-published, which automatically put him in a different league than most &quot;indie authors.&quot;<br /><br />There&#39;s nothing wrong with being independent; the fact is, most of the titles simply aren&#39;t of publishable quality. Authors like Joe and Boyd are the exceptions.<br /><br />As for small presses, all are not created equal. If a press isn&#39;t recognized as legitimate by professional organizations like MWA and ITW, then I would say writer beware.Jude Hardinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09994813046526310594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-28292569928003342882010-05-13T17:41:54.288-05:002010-05-13T17:41:54.288-05:00I&#39;m somewhat new to Joe&#39;s Cafe. Why is &qu...I&#39;m somewhat new to Joe&#39;s Cafe. Why is &quot;self-publishing&quot; a dirty word?<br /><br />I became an author on accident, after ten years of playwriting, directing, and life in the theater. Joe is the only writer blog I read.<br /><br />My editor owns her own small press. She&#39;s a friend of mine. She made me adapt one of my screenplays into a novel, at penpoint. Working title was &#39;Hot Naked Battle Lesbians&#39; but she made me change it to something less interesting. It sold too well, so she made me adapt again, except with my stage play &#39;Dr Weil Gone Wild.&#39; So I&#39;m new to the lingo. Is &quot;small press&quot; a dirty word?<br /><br />Did my editor lie to me? Am I not a real &quot;author&quot;? Am I a &quot;small author&quot;? Or am I just a &quot;typist&quot;?<br /><br />Not that I care. I never worshipped New York. I have one God, and his name is David Mamet. But Mamet believes in semantics, so I would like to be able to label what I am. <br /><br />I only have 300 books in my book cube, half of them plays. But in my life I never made a decision to buy a book based on the publisher&#39;s name. Do readers secretly do this? I can&#39;t even name the Big Six.<br /><br />Movies, video games, music, plays, paintings, sculptures, architecture etc... Are books the only artform where indie = bad?Jack H. H. Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15495812906987846109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-43490586470597257482010-05-13T13:55:22.460-05:002010-05-13T13:55:22.460-05:00Thanks! All the best for rampant success!Thanks!<br /><br />All the best for rampant success!Helen Hansonhttp://www.HelenHanson.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-88764868776147304962010-05-13T12:58:58.106-05:002010-05-13T12:58:58.106-05:00Helen, the royalty is based on the list price, so ...Helen, the royalty is based on the list price, so for a list price of $1.99 (set by me) marked down to $1.59 by Amazon, the royalty is 35% of $1.99, or $0.70.Boyd Morrisonhttp://www.boydmorrison.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-14246434173184970032010-05-13T12:23:25.168-05:002010-05-13T12:23:25.168-05:00Congratulations! I admire the willingness of Joe,...Congratulations!<br /><br />I admire the willingness of Joe, Boyd, and others to share the logic of this rather personal decision. I have one question, if I may. <br /><br />@ Boyd When you set your ebook price at 1.99 and Amazon marked it down to 1.59, at which price were your royalties based? <br /><br />I’ve read the Amazon terms and didn’t see an answer to this question. I know they reserve the right to markdown from the list price, at least in the current iteration of the terms. <br /><br />Print pub or E-pub? There’s no single correct pub path for everyone. Makes me want a pint of John Courage just writing that. Fun to order, too: “A pint of Courage, please.”<br /><br />Take care, all.Helen Hansonhttp://www.HelenHanson.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-4786987753124388802010-05-13T11:20:32.511-05:002010-05-13T11:20:32.511-05:00Thanks, Boyd and Joe. As a writer, I&#39;ve learne...Thanks, Boyd and Joe. As a writer, I&#39;ve learned a lot from both of you about digital publishing with an eye to edging toward the printed market. You&#39;ve given me a lot to think about and act upon. Keep up the good work.Mark Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-36211888806050535522010-05-13T11:12:17.276-05:002010-05-13T11:12:17.276-05:00Thanks for this advice! I uploaded an anthology (h...Thanks for this advice! I uploaded an anthology (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003LSTEJQ) to Kindle yesterday and priced it at 99 cents. Two people have already bought it. Sure, 70 cents of profit certainly isn&#39;t much, but the feeling of having my writing out there is great! Thanks again.Smarandahttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B003LSTEJQnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-52697152469407260032010-05-13T07:42:01.333-05:002010-05-13T07:42:01.333-05:00@Scott. Totally agree with you. If someone&#39;s d...@Scott. Totally agree with you. If someone&#39;s dream is a print pub and they make that dream, then YAY. Boyd got his NY publisher. Jude got his first print publisher... that&#39;s awesome.<br /><br />But I&#39;m with you on wanting to avoid the whole process. There is a lot of stuff in life I don&#39;t personally want. But it doesn&#39;t mean I don&#39;t recognize the hard work it took for someone else to get there or how it fulfilled a dream &quot;for them.&quot; Which makes it great.<br /><br />But I agree totally with the &quot;new take on &#39;submission&#39;&quot; Yeah, no thank you.Zoe Wintershttp://www.zoewinters.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-61094726636738606132010-05-13T07:17:20.393-05:002010-05-13T07:17:20.393-05:00I love this story because it is so beautiful and h...I love this story because it is so beautiful and human--the simple power of dreams. Only a writer or a crazy person would cling to a wild dream that long, and fight through the obstacles. I don&#39;t blame Boyd a bit for taking the deal--that was his dream, and presumably the money was good, and he can always write more books, and for the rest of his life.<br /><br />If the industry collapses in five years, he can still write and self-publish and he doesn&#39;t have to give the money back. In retirement years, he may have lost money overall if he gave up the typical ebook rights common in most contracts. But it&#39;s still the right move, right now.<br /><br />I came at this backwards, 400 rejections, then six NY books, then nothing, then starting all over. I&#39;d take a print deal but I am not counting on NY to make my career and that&#39;s not my dream anymore. Success is a moving target and goals keep changing.<br /><br />Just the way agents sneer and smirk at writers in their blogs and tweets is enough to make me want to avoid the whole process, because it is so closed off now. &quot;Submission&quot; has taken on a whole new meaning. Power has been given to people who know nothing about writing, only about selling books. But, like Joe, I don&#39;t need to give anyone power over my ability to pursue my dreams. Not to be negative in any way, but to me Boyd&#39;s success shows that just maybe readers and consumers are better at picking winners than agents and editors are. Now they have the chance.<br /><br />Boyd didn&#39;t, either. He made his dream. He wrote those extra books when everyone said &quot;No.&quot; He made his luck. I love it.<br /><br />But I also don&#39;t think it&#39;s going to happen that way for anyone else, but that&#39;s the way dreams are. Perfect timing, good product in a popular genre, commitment, and a likable personality.<br /><br />Everyone who makes it has carved their own path--from Joe to Boyd to Oprah to Sandra Bullock. They simply don&#39;t know the word &quot;No.&quot;<br /><br />Scottauthor Scott Nicholsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09778999586794284457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-1392098795417633502010-05-12T23:41:15.717-05:002010-05-12T23:41:15.717-05:00boyd said: &gt; I decided, why not try to build ...boyd said:<br />&gt; I decided, why not try to build up a<br />&gt; readership by giving my books away? <br />&gt; I mean, they weren’t doing any good <br />&gt; just sitting on my hard drive.<br /><br />that&#39;s the attitude that&#39;ll fuel change.<br /><br />it can be smart to accept admission<br />into the major-publisher clubhouse;<br />good for the ego and the reputation.<br /><br />but make sure you keep track of<br />exactly how much it&#39;s costing you,<br />so you can decide if it&#39;s worth it<br />when you go to the next round...<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-19323376529998424822010-05-12T23:25:39.813-05:002010-05-12T23:25:39.813-05:00Great story, Boyd. Good luck with the book.Great story, Boyd. Good luck with the book.Linda Pendletonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333787752335329007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-61918168926795479232010-05-12T23:13:32.101-05:002010-05-12T23:13:32.101-05:00Next time I&#39;ve had too much tequila, I&#39;ll ...<i>Next time I&#39;ve had too much tequila, I&#39;ll get the hot dogs from 7-11.</i><br /><br />Or, you could try the latest $1.99 self-published ebook. The relative quality will most likely be about the same.Jude Hardinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09994813046526310594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-30588482679404208612010-05-12T23:07:54.412-05:002010-05-12T23:07:54.412-05:00You&#39;re right. Next time I&#39;ve had too much ...You&#39;re right. Next time I&#39;ve had too much tequila, I&#39;ll get the hot dogs from 7-11.rex kuslerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06629682795065138786noreply@blogger.com
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