tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post7056032067270513714..comments2018-05-27T15:32:13.485-05:00Comments on A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: March Kindle Sales Top $4200 and 5850 EbooksJoe Konrathhttps://plus.google.com/116545910411481156433noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-30783928159112496282012-02-17T02:32:32.682-06:002012-02-17T02:32:32.682-06:00Just to say thanks for this blog and discussion. I...Just to say thanks for this blog and discussion. I&#39;ve juat written a book on being a dad which I&#39;ve sent to a publisher; since they&#39;re gonog to take 3 months to get back to me, I thought I&#39;d pop it online via amazon kindle to see what happened. I just put it on yesterday, and need to think now if there&#39;s other stuff I can be doing to help market myself etc. I might have got pricing wrong too - going to rethink based on your comments. <br /><br />Very grateful for the enthusiasm and empowerment on these pages. <br /><br />Very best<br />Tom Nichols<br />EnglandTom Nicholsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-14033446833718674572010-06-06T13:21:05.711-05:002010-06-06T13:21:05.711-05:00Dear Joe, A congratulations and a thank you. Con...Dear Joe,<br /><br />A congratulations and a thank you. Congratulations on your success and the innovation you&#39;ve demonstrated. Thank you for posting your information for the rest ofus.chuck curtisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-34135880464656979712010-04-25T21:27:09.206-05:002010-04-25T21:27:09.206-05:00I&#39;ve read so many self-published manuscripts w...<i>I&#39;ve read so many self-published manuscripts with &quot;just&quot; sprinkled everywhere. Or &quot;that&quot;. Or &quot;he said,&quot; gleefully/happily/sadly/moronically/morosely/adverbly. These are basic fixes which can immediately pull the quality of the writing up. Once the writer cuts that &quot;morosely&quot; they need to show morose, which takes more skill than that single adverb.</i><br /><br />I would amusingly suggest that writers like Stephenie Meyer prove that having poor writing skills is no barrier to having astounding sales.<br /><br />While it is an opinion that would make me unpopular in certain literary circles, it has been my experience that there is a huge gap between what a reader may read and enjoy and what other writers and editors consider &quot;good&quot; writing.<br /><br />Professional authors have often subscribed to the theory that you need to &quot;pay your dues&quot; to be a success. Meyer and the many hundreds of other crappy authors making tons of money prove that this isn&#39;t true.<br /><br />-nrAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-27085785877878953152010-04-09T03:13:04.391-05:002010-04-09T03:13:04.391-05:00joe said: &gt; No. Apparently you can&#39;t. we...joe said:<br />&gt; No. Apparently you can&#39;t.<br /><br />well, i can give &quot;evidence&quot; all day.<br /><br />whether or not you&#39;d consider it<br />to be &quot;proof&quot; is another question.<br /><br />but even though i _can_, the fact is<br />that i don&#39;t want to, so it&#39;s all moot.<br /><br /><br />&gt; So I&#39;m giving up.<br /><br />probably for the best.<br /><br />we seem to have gotten caught<br />in a fairly unproductive cycle...<br /><br />sorry it didn&#39;t work out.<br /><br />but i&#39;ll be watching your experiments,<br />with a very close eye on your pricing,<br />and its effect on your growth curves,<br />especially starting about one year out.<br /><br />but again, i wish you the best of luck.<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-44725022886532470362010-04-08T17:01:21.476-05:002010-04-08T17:01:21.476-05:00i can sit here all day giving you &quot;proof&quot...<i>i can sit here all day<br />giving you &quot;proof&quot;,</i><br /><br />No. Apparently you can&#39;t. Because that wasn&#39;t proof. That was more baseless assertions that didn&#39;t even apply to the discussion.<br /><br />So I&#39;m giving up.Joe Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-66812671879264191172010-04-08T16:46:33.349-05:002010-04-08T16:46:33.349-05:00you&#39;re making this about you and me, joe, and ...you&#39;re making this about<br />you and me, joe, and it&#39;s<br />_not_ about you and me.<br /><br />did you read those links?<br /><br />if you did, you&#39;d see that<br />i am not your enemy, joe.<br />i _want_ you to succeed...<br /><br />if you&#39;re willing to settle<br />for selling fewer books<br />because you make more<br />money by raising prices,<br />go ahead and do it, joe.<br /><br />i&#39;ll tell you that you are<br />making a big mistake...<br /><br />but who am i? and what<br />do i know? nothing, joe!<br />it&#39;s all just my &quot;opinion&quot;.<br /><br />so do whatever you want.<br /><br />but don&#39;t be stupid, joe.<br />there might be _some_<br />inelasticity of demand<br />for e-books right now,<br />but that won&#39;t last long.<br /><br />besides, any economist<br />(chicago-school or not)<br />will tell you that when<br />your variable costs are<br />virtually zero, you need<br />to increase the demand,<br />not jack up the margin,<br />because every sale is<br />_pure_profit_, joe...<br /><br />so don&#39;t act like i have<br />no solid arguments on<br />my side of the table...<br /><br />and you want &quot;proof&quot;<br />that a fan-base can<br />lead to e-book sales?<br /><br />look no further than<br />the 37signals people,<br />right there in chicago.<br /><br />they made a ton of<br />money selling their<br />e-book to their fans,<br />even though it was<br />nothing more than<br />the posts from their<br />very-popular blog,<br />all free on their site.<br /><br />my goodness, they<br />got people to pay for<br />&quot;site licenses&quot; to make<br />copies of the e-book.<br />those people could&#39;ve<br />copied the e-book for<br />_free,_ but they _paid_<br />for the privilege, joe!<br />can you believe that?<br /><br />know amanda palmer?<br />amanda could sell her<br />sweat-socks to her<br />dedicated fan-base.<br />(i don&#39;t think she&#39;s<br />done that already,<br />but she might have.)<br /><br />i can sit here all day<br />giving you &quot;proof&quot;,<br />but i&#39;d rather talk to<br />the people who will<br />believe without that.<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-76062399027241036172010-04-08T13:55:18.226-05:002010-04-08T13:55:18.226-05:00you haven&#39;t given any &quot;logic&quot;. you h...<i>you haven&#39;t given any &quot;logic&quot;. you have made observations.</i><br /><br />I&#39;ve used deductive reasoning, with examples based on my experiences and observations. That&#39;s what logic is. That&#39;s how I&#39;m able to defend my opinions. That&#39;s how I can reach conclusions about the people buying my ebooks. I&#39;ve constructed an argument to prove my point.<br /><br />You have only made statements without defending them.<br /><br />And I should know better. When a debate gets down to defining &quot;logic&quot; it&#39;s usually a lost cause.<br /><br /><i>my evidence is from the<br />experiments many people,<br />and reactions from readers.</i><br /><br />Who are you, who are these people, and what experience did you have? Names and numbers. You know my name and my numbers, because those are essential to back up my claims.<br /><br /><i>i have been predicting the future<br />of e-books for over 25 years, joe,<br />and doing it with great accuracy.</i><br /><br />Show me. You can read my blog a year ago, and see how accurate my predictions for ebooks have been.<br /><br />My argument is a simple one: the people buying my ebooks are doing so because of price, cover art, and the subject matter.<br /><br />You interjected, opining that raising prices is a bad idea. But you haven&#39;t given me any examples why that is, even though I&#39;ve proven that:<br /><br />1. The people buying the majority of my ebooks likely haven&#39;t heard of me before.<br /><br />2. There is no direct correlation between price and the bestseller list.<br /><br />3. For self-pubbed authors, there is no discernible sales difference between ebooks priced at $2.99 and those priced at 99 cents.<br /><br />You speak of losing fans and of ebooks being competitive. <br /><br />There isn&#39;t any competition, because ebooks aren&#39;t a zero sum game. And my established fans aren&#39;t the ones buying my ebooks, because they get them for free on my website.<br /><br />This is me refuting your statements with logic, based on experience and easily provable premises. <br /><br />Here&#39;s a premise: very few readers only read one author and no others.<br /><br />Ergo, a reader can enjoy many authors. Ergo, there is no competition between books.<br /><br /><i>you&#39;re out walking point,<br />and i&#39;m just telling you<br />where the landmines are.</i><br /><br />And you know that how? Based on what experience?<br /><br />Here&#39;s a premise: If you raise ebook prices, you&#39;ll sell fewer copies.<br /><br />Perhaps. But there&#39;s no evidence of this. Authors like Jeremy Robinson and F. Paul Wilson are selling for $2.99 and hanging neck and neck with some of my ebooks, and mine are hanging neck and neck with many 99 cent titles.<br /><br />There&#39;s no way to prove I&#39;ll lose sales by jumping up a buck. <br /><br />I am 100% sure, however, I&#39;ll make more money. $2.04 per download instead of 70 cents per download. <br /><br />Your argument against me doing that, and your warnings, carry zero weight.Joe Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-74326523227306290052010-04-08T12:23:35.368-05:002010-04-08T12:23:35.368-05:00(posted in 2 parts because i exceed the character-...(posted in 2 parts because<br />i exceed the character-limit.)<br /><br />joe said:<br />&gt; But if you&#39;re giving advice <br />&gt; in a thread where I&#39;m <br />&gt; hesitant to give advice, and <br />&gt; I have a year of Kindle sales, <br />&gt; ...<br />&gt; as well as the hard data and <br />&gt; results of direct, observational, <br />&gt; and anecdotal evidence, then be <br />&gt; prepared to prove your premise.<br /><br />again, i&#39;m not trying to &quot;prove&quot;<br />anything. i&#39;m stating my truth.<br /><br />just like you&#39;re stating yours...<br /><br />you might think your truth is<br />more solid. that&#39;s wonderful.<br /><br />i&#39;ve admitted that mine is as<br />flexible as a reed in the wind.<br /><br />but i&#39;m betting that you know<br />the story about the wind and<br />that reed, versus the big oak.<br /><br /><br />&gt; Assuming and knowing <br />&gt; are two different things. <br />&gt; You portend to see the future, <br />&gt; with nothing to back it up, <br />&gt; and yet tell me I&#39;m incorrect?<br /><br />i have been predicting the future<br />of e-books for over 25 years, joe,<br />and doing it with great accuracy.<br /><br />the things that would work and<br />also the things that would _not_.<br /><br />and my &quot;opinions&quot; have been<br />honed by reality in that time,<br />discussions with smart people,<br />and lots of close observation...<br /><br />so yeah, i&#39;ll certainly tell you<br />if i believe you are incorrect.<br /><br />and if you want to ignore it,<br />you can ask me for &quot;proof&quot;.<br /><br /><br />&gt; I love to argue and debate. <br />&gt; I love it when people <br />&gt; disagree with me.<br />&gt; It gives me <br />&gt; the opportunity to <br />&gt; bullet-proof my theories.<br /><br />we&#39;re a lot alike in that respect.<br /><br /><br />&gt; But a debate is more than just <br />&gt; positing an opposing point of view.<br /><br />it&#39;s quite amusing to me that<br />you think we are in dispute,<br />and ask me for &quot;evidence&quot;...<br /><br />for the most part, we agree,<br />and i support your main effort.<br /><br />indeed, when other people<br />demand &quot;evidence&quot; from me,<br />i often point to your experience.<br /><br />&gt; http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/10/he-not-busy-being-born-is-busy.html<br /><br />&gt; http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/10/the-good-and-and-some-bad-of-toc-frankfurt-coverage.html<br /><br />&gt; http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/11/michael-tamblyns-toc-frankfurt.html<br /><br />i&#39;m not your enemy, joe.<br /><br />you&#39;re out walking point,<br />and i&#39;m just telling you <br />where the landmines are.<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-53939704578822611822010-04-08T12:22:26.127-05:002010-04-08T12:22:26.127-05:00joe said: &gt; You haven&#39;t proven anything. ...joe said:<br />&gt; You haven&#39;t proven anything. <br /><br />i&#39;m not trying to &quot;prove&quot; anything.<br /><br /><br />&gt; You&#39;ve stated an opinion, and <br />&gt; haven&#39;t made a single attempt<br />&gt; to refute the logic and examples <br />&gt; I&#39;ve made.<br /><br />you haven&#39;t given any &quot;logic&quot;.<br /><br />you have made observations.<br /><br />which is exactly what i&#39;ve done.<br /><br /><br />&gt; Rex didn&#39;t say it best. <br />&gt; Bill Gates made money <br />&gt; and showed results. That&#39;s <br />&gt; why people listen to him. <br /><br />i didn&#39;t say &quot;rex said it best&quot;.<br /><br />i said he capped the thread.<br />provided a humorous ending.<br /><br />i got the impression that you <br />wanted to end the dialog, so<br />i was happy for his sum-up.<br /><br />rex got things wrong, but<br />it was still a funny closure.<br /><br /><br />&gt; If you want to <br />&gt; show the world <br />&gt; you&#39;re right, <br />&gt; you have to <br />&gt; prove it to the world.<br /><br />you misunderstand me, joe.<br /><br />i don&#39;t care to &quot;show the<br />world&quot; that i&#39;m &quot;right&quot;...<br /><br />people believe what they<br />want to believe, and it&#39;s<br />futile to work against that.<br /><br />furthermore, there is no<br />guide to e-book success.<br /><br />and that&#39;s a good thing.<br />otherwise there&#39;d be <br />all kinds of charlatans<br />invading the sphere...<br /><br />i&#39;d rather have the space<br />occupied by true writers,<br />people who _will_ write<br />even if they must starve.<br /><br /><br />&gt; Saying &quot;you&#39;ll see&quot; <br />&gt; is about as illogical <br />&gt; as you can get.<br /><br />it wasn&#39;t logic. it was<br />an expression that this<br />&quot;dispute&quot; has no power,<br />but _reality_ has a lot...<br /><br />that&#39;s the reason i have<br />no desire to &quot;prove it&quot;...<br /><br />the world will &quot;prove it&quot;.<br /><br /><br />&gt; You&#39;re arguing with <br />&gt; guesses and feelings <br />&gt; without a single shred<br />&gt; of evidence.<br /><br />you keep repeating that...<br /><br />i have as much &quot;evidence&quot;<br />as you do, joe, and mine<br />isn&#39;t based on self-interest.<br /><br />my evidence is from the<br />experiments many people,<br />and reactions from readers.<br /><br /><br />&gt; That&#39;s fine, if you want<br />&gt; to state that you&#39;re<br />&gt; spouting opinion.<br /><br />i have made observations,<br />which have caused me to<br />come to certain conclusions.<br /><br />if i see evidence that would<br />challenge those conclusions,<br />i incorporate it, and change.<br /><br />i have absolutely _no_stake_<br />in my &quot;opinion&quot;, none at all...<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-87071072112043736952010-04-08T07:48:45.460-05:002010-04-08T07:48:45.460-05:00Logic involves proving a premise. You haven&#39;t ...Logic involves proving a premise. You haven&#39;t proven anything. You&#39;ve stated an opinion, and haven&#39;t made a single attempt to refute the logic and examples I&#39;ve made.<br /><br />Rex didn&#39;t say it best. Bill Gates made money and showed results. That&#39;s why people listen to him. <br /><br />If you want to show the world you&#39;re right, you have to prove it to the world.<br /><br />Saying &quot;you&#39;ll see&quot; is about as illogical as you can get. You&#39;re arguing with guesses and feelings without a single shred of evidence.<br /><br />That&#39;s fine, if you want to state that you&#39;re spouting opinion.<br /><br />But if you&#39;re giving advice in a thread where I&#39;m hesitant to give advice, and I have a year of Kindle sales, five years of free ebooks giveaways, and seven years of publishing experience behind me, as well as the hard data and results of direct, observational, and anecdotal evidence, then be prepared to prove your premise.<br /><br />Assuming and knowing are two different things. You portend to see the future, with nothing to back it up, and yet tell me I&#39;m incorrect?<br /><br />I love to argue and debate. I love it when people disagree with me. It gives me the opportunity to bullet-proof my theories.<br /><br />But a debate is more than just positing an opposing point of view.Joe Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-53665726986352047062010-04-08T01:42:06.287-05:002010-04-08T01:42:06.287-05:00joe- if you can&#39;t see my logic, then -- no of...joe-<br /><br />if you can&#39;t see my logic,<br />then -- no offense, but<br />-- you&#39;re not listening...<br /><br />but, as i said, it matters<br />not a bit, because you<br />will eventually learn it...<br /><br />everyone will.<br /><br />i wrote a long post for<br />the mark terry thread,<br />but i like the way that<br />rex kusler capped it,<br />so i just let that stand.<br /><br />i could talk about this<br />for weeks, and you&#39;d<br />say a lot in return --<br />but i&#39;m not sure that&#39;s<br />the conversation you<br />intended to initiate, so<br />perhaps i should just<br />bow out politely now.<br /><br />because it&#39;s your blog.<br /><br />but if you really want,<br />let me know and i&#39;ll<br />post that long reply.<br /><br />oh, i&#39;m a big nobody,<br />so there&#39;s no reason<br />you should listen to<br />what i have to say...<br /><br />and i took no offense<br />by your asking that...<br /><br />carry on...<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-41052159490129707492010-04-07T23:52:31.178-05:002010-04-07T23:52:31.178-05:00but it does show clearly you&#39;ve stopped listen...<i>but it does show clearly<br />you&#39;ve stopped listening.</i><br /><br />I&#39;m listening. But you simply aren&#39;t making a good argument. In fact, you aren&#39;t making any argument at all. You&#39;re just disagreeing, without any logical or experiential basis.<br /><br />But I&#39;d be happy to point out where and why I believe you&#39;re incorrect, because I enjoy debate.<br /><br />I think it&#39;s fair to say that any fan of mine will be familiar with my website. On my website, I give away (for free) many of the ebooks I sell on Kindle. <br /><br />A fan would know this, and get the book for free.<br /><br />And yet, I&#39;m selling far more ebooks on Kindle than I&#39;m giving away for free on my website. My conclusion is that &quot;fans&quot; aren&#39;t the ones buying my Kindle ebooks. People who haven&#39;t heard of me before are buying the Kindle books. Building a fanbase has little to do with my Kindle sales.<br /><br />If you look at the Kindle bestseller lists, you&#39;ll also see at least a dozen other authors who don&#39;t have any fanbases, yet who are selling as well as I am.<br /><br />As such, the conclusion I draw is that Kindle shoppers are looking for authors at reasonable prices, and I am a new author to the majority of people who buy my ebooks.<br /><br />This is backed up by the email I get.<br /><br /><i>that $3 you ask for a book must compete<br />now against the $2 asked by someone else.</i><br /><br />There is no competition in book buying. I&#39;m not a fan of either Stephen King OR Dean Koontz. And neither are most readers. Books aren&#39;t Coke and Pepsi, where you only buy one or the other. Readers will buy both, especially at a reasonable price.<br /><br /><i>the good news for me is<br />your own experimentation<br />will prove that i am right.</i><br /><br />If you spend some time on the Kindle bestseller lists, you will see a lot of familiar, brand name authors, and a lot of authors selling ebooks for cheap.<br /><br />I&#39;ve noticed no correlation between sales priced from 99 cents to $2.99 and Kindle ranking. Some $2.99 books sell better than some 99 cent books. When the price is this low, the $2 difference doesn&#39;t seem to have any effect on buyers.<br /><br />When the agency model goes into effect, many writers will go to $2.99. I&#39;m predicting, based on what I&#39;ve seen, that my sales numbers will remain close to where they are now, but my profits will more than double.<br /><br />As it currently stands, I raised one of my ebooks to $4.99. That&#39;s a $3 price increase, not a $1 price increase, and I believe it&#39;s more than an ebook is worth. And yet, I made more money after raising the price, even though sales dropped off to about half. <br /><br />I don&#39;t expect sales to drop to by half if I raise my prices $1. I don&#39;t expect anyone will even notice, or care.Joe Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-31824955395264273932010-04-07T22:03:53.404-05:002010-04-07T22:03:53.404-05:00joe said: &gt; So people, who got &gt; the boo...joe said:<br />&gt; So people, who got<br />&gt; the books for free, are <br />&gt; now buying the same books? <br /><br />that&#39;s not what i said...<br /><br />but it does show clearly<br />you&#39;ve stopped listening.<br /><br />so i should stop talking.<br /><br />the good news for me is<br />your own experimentation<br />will prove that i am right.<br /><br />so have at it, joe...<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-2716465358185660592010-04-07T09:54:59.764-05:002010-04-07T09:54:59.764-05:00:) :) :):) :) :)Barbara Silkstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12202312076195753964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-36730968920813341402010-04-07T09:24:32.166-05:002010-04-07T09:24:32.166-05:00&gt; Guess what? &gt; I&#39;ve sold more ebooks in...&gt; Guess what?<br />&gt; I&#39;ve sold more ebooks in six months<br />&gt; than I&#39;ve given away in five years.<br /><br /><i>correct... you are now reaping the fruit from those trees you planted years ago.</i><br /><br />LOL. So people, who got the books for free, are now buying the same books? That makes ZERO sense.Joe Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-22082412868229926082010-04-06T04:28:03.586-05:002010-04-06T04:28:03.586-05:00joe said: &gt; I&#39;ve played that route, and ...joe said:<br />&gt; I&#39;ve played that route, and <br />&gt; given away ebooks on my website <br />&gt; for years. I still give them away.<br /><br />sounds good. but...<br /><br /><br />&gt; Guess what? <br />&gt; I&#39;ve sold more ebooks in six months <br />&gt; than I&#39;ve given away in five years.<br /><br />correct... you are now reaping the fruit<br />from those trees you planted years ago.<br /><br /><br />&gt; People apparently would rather pay.<br /><br />once they become fans, yes they would.<br /><br />that is why you want people to be fans...<br /><br /><br />&gt; And I&#39;m pretty sure a buck more <br />&gt; won&#39;t matter to the majority of them.<br /><br />to the people who are already your fans,<br />no, it won&#39;t. after all, you&#39;re asking them<br />to spend $15 a year instead of $10 a year.<br />what fan is gonna begrudge you the $5?<br /><br />but to someone who is _not_ a fan yet?<br /><br />that $3 you ask for a book must compete<br />now against the $2 asked by someone else.<br /><br />that&#39;s the competition you used to _win_<br />-- back when you were the $2 player --<br />but you now lose since you&#39;re the $3 one.<br /><br />and when you lose the competition on that<br />single book, you lose the fan, because they<br />read another book instead of your book, and<br />when you lose that fan, you lose all the sales<br />of your other books that fan would&#39;ve bought.<br /><br />you could afford to lose the single-book sale.<br />(although there&#39;s no reason why you should.)<br />you _can&#39;t_ afford to lose the follow-on sales.<br /><br />essentially you&#39;ve stopped planting fruit-trees.<br /><br />because you now want to exploit the trees that<br />you&#39;ve already planted. but each tree can only<br />give you so much fruit annually, so it&#39;s _much_<br />wiser to continue planting more trees instead...<br /><br />it&#39;s still way too early in the game to consolidate.<br /><br />especially for someone like you, who is now out<br />at the head of the pack. run. do not look back.<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-74351496854441845202010-04-04T23:06:28.756-05:002010-04-04T23:06:28.756-05:00where you make the most _fans_ that you can make ...<i>where you make the most _fans_ that you can make</i><br /><br />I&#39;ve played that route, and given away ebooks on my website for years. I still give them away. Guess what? I&#39;ve sold more ebooks in six months than I&#39;ve given away in five years.<br /><br />People apparently would rather pay. And I&#39;m pretty sure a buck more won&#39;t matter to the majority of them.Joe Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-5213487791093990002010-04-04T21:04:41.289-05:002010-04-04T21:04:41.289-05:00@Rex You&#39;re spot on about the controversial f...@Rex<br /><br />You&#39;re spot on about the controversial fee-charging category. That route is so poisoned with scammers that I doubt it will recover any time soon. Every website about agents warns in big flashing letters NEVER PAY THEM. MONEY FLOWS TOWARDS THE AUTHOR, NOT THE OTHER WAY.<br /><br />I think we&#39;ll soon see the editor/publisher model arise. People like me who&#39;ve worked in editing, acquisitions, sales, etc will start acquiring, editing and publishing all on a royalty basis. The authors don&#39;t pay upfront and these editors take a risk on future earnings.<br /><br />The model will split into two stripes: the permanent royalty and the capped royalty.<br /><br />I personally know plenty of writers who I&#39;d be happy to edit for only a royalty. What that adds up to over time though is another matter. Take Joe&#39;s recent sales figures and imagine a single editor worked on each title for $5000 capped royalty per book, taking half the Amazon royalty in payment. <i>The List</i> would earn out in about ten months. <i>Shot of Tequila</i> is chugging along at about $150 per month for 33 months or so.<br /><i>Planter&#39;s Punch</i> is bringing in about $50 a month and takes 100 months. <br /><br />It does all add up and the smart editor would work with a variety of writers. Ensuring that they get paid would be difficult ... people have a problem handing over money to freelancers, something each of us has lived a hundred times. The money issue is why editors will set themselves up as little publishers - so they can ensure they get paid. But then what happens when the capped royalties earn out? The book is given back to the author and republished online? The editor starts handing over 100% of the royalties? <br /><br />Perhaps we&#39;ll see royalties drop to a perpetual 5% after earning out. Sort of like residuals for editors.Mathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16107133130016562166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-55628170413725673162010-04-04T20:22:41.857-05:002010-04-04T20:22:41.857-05:00@Mat If e-book sales continue to escalate to the ...@Mat<br /><br />If e-book sales continue to escalate to the point where an indepedent author could make $10k per title over a five year period, then it would make sense to spend $2k for editing from someone you trust who is on the same wavelength. In the beginning these editors could be recommended by respected literary agents, and even work for them. If I write four novels per year, and make $8k total from each after editing, that&#39;s $32k per year. I would definitely be open to something like this if my sales numbers supported it. I think reputable agents may want to take a look at adding something like this. But it&#39;s controversial, because it would fall into the fee-charging category. Maybe agents will become less picky, taking on clients that they believe could make at least $10k with an e-book over a five year period. The client would pay for the editing, and the agent would put their brand on the book, publishing it under their name.rex kuslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06629682795065138786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-82399144808951870812010-04-04T19:41:26.825-05:002010-04-04T19:41:26.825-05:00@ Mat I started in the business with one of the b...@ Mat<br /><br />I started in the business with one of the best editors in the field. It was lovely and she was terrific but I don&#39;t expect to see that again. <br /><br />My friend who wrote an international bestseller that was published by...Basic Books, or whoever took them over?...had to hire her own editor for the manuscript because there was no one in-house to do it. At that point I knew something had radically changed in the business. (Her original editor left to become an agent.)Robin O'Neillnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-69188985901555750552010-04-04T18:01:03.141-05:002010-04-04T18:01:03.141-05:00@Rex &amp; @Anonymous Not to keep the threadjacki...@Rex &amp; @Anonymous<br /><br />Not to keep the threadjacking going...<br /><br />Editing is incredibly valuable in producing good work. Self-editing <i>is</i> possible but it&#39;s a difficult process. You must first leave the manuscript to rest so you forget most of it. Then comes edit and rest. Edit and rest. Even with these rest periods there will be gaping holes that you can&#39;t see because you wrote it. With this method I think you get to mostly good and rarely edging into excellent.<br /><br />An editor will (or should) pull all your weak spots out into the harsh light and make you fix them. Why does the character do that? Why would she steal something from her friend? What is this giant block of exposition doing here?<br /><br />For a writer with no money, I do advise them to find people they trust to give detailed feedback. They have to ensure these people have some skill about them and aren&#39;t simply unpublished wannabe &quot;gurus&quot; that spring up on all writing websites. <br /><br />I am loath to advise hiring a freelance editor for a whopping chunk of money despite my knowledge that they are essential to a good book. It is so easy to be ripped off, scammed, lied to and otherwise burned in every way that it&#39;s hard to separate the professionals from the liars. I&#39;ve known editors taking $2000 to work on a love-project of some writer even though they know it is unpublishable no matter what.<br /><br />I suppose I&#39;d say to find trusted writing partners and then if you can scrape together $500, hire someone good from ifreelance.Mathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16107133130016562166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-30419751193721026992010-04-04T17:40:18.173-05:002010-04-04T17:40:18.173-05:00@Robin They change jobs more often than a high fa...@Robin<br /><br /><i>They change jobs more often than a high fashion model changes clothes.</i><br /><br />Ha ha!<br /><br />I love this. It is absolutely true. That&#39;s why agents who claim special relationships with editors are usually full of it. <br /><br />Your editing experience is shocking. A publisher who doesn&#39;t have editors ... not a publisher I think. Good thing you self-edited.<br /><br />My defense of editors is in the transformational change they bring to manuscripts. I remember reading a post by Christopher Paolini (Eragon, etc) where he was brave enough to put his submitted text up and then the edited text. He described the process as painful but you can see how important it was to improving the work. The original text was not so bad but when compared to the edited text, it was a mess.Mathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16107133130016562166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-73408605115157539012010-04-04T17:28:30.396-05:002010-04-04T17:28:30.396-05:00joe said: &gt; My four rejected novels, &gt; ...joe said:<br />&gt; My four rejected novels, <br />&gt; that NY Publishers didn&#39;t want, <br />&gt; seem to be on their way to <br />&gt; earning more money<br />&gt; than the seven novels <br />&gt; NY Publishers paid me for. <br /><br />but i&#39;m sure those 7 novels that<br />the n.y. houses published made<br />_lots_ of money -- for _them_...<br /><br />if you knew exactly how much,<br />it would probably make you sick.<br /><br />***<br /><br />&gt; That&#39;s where authors <br />&gt; find the sweet spot for <br />&gt; making the most money <br />&gt; they can.<br /><br />there&#39;s another &quot;sweet spot&quot;,<br />where you make the most<br />_fans_ that you can make,<br />which -- in the long run --<br />ends up creating even more<br />profit than the short-term<br />&quot;sweet spot&quot; you mentioned.<br /><br />***<br /><br />&gt; The aggressive self-promotion is<br />&gt; the only reason I&#39;m still in print.<br /><br />i was talking about selling e-books.<br /><br />self-promotion is self-defeating,<br />or at least it _will_be_, very soon.<br /><br />readers are sick and tired of authors<br />blowing their own horn incessantly.<br /><br />***<br /><br />&gt; writers who ultimately &quot;make it&quot; <br />&gt; are the ones who realize <br />&gt; they&#39;re early work is bad. <br /><br />that should be &quot;their early work&quot;...<br /><br /><br />&gt; I don&#39;t feel threatened by any writer. <br />&gt; It&#39;s a zero sum game. <br /><br />you mean &quot;it&#39;s _not_ a zero sum game&quot;<br />when another writer&#39;s gain is not your loss.<br /><br />-bowerbirdbowerbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05962115094107919533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-70612936280215860382010-04-04T13:26:52.173-05:002010-04-04T13:26:52.173-05:00oops I meant of course 2009. Sorry (PIMF but I&#3...oops I meant of course 2009.<br />Sorry<br /><br />(PIMF but I&#39;m a lousy friend in return.)Robin O'Neillnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-37617544465176937812010-04-04T13:24:37.955-05:002010-04-04T13:24:37.955-05:00Sheryl, congratulations on being published. Anoth...Sheryl, congratulations on being published.<br /><br />Another true story. My next novel is set to be published in 2011. The contract was signed Oct. 2010. I&#39;ve had 4 different editors since then. Luckily I didn&#39;t have to pretend to be friendly with them.<br /><br />You don&#39;t keep them close. They&#39;re playing musical chairs. They change jobs more often than a high fashion model changes clothes.<br /><br />ymmvRobin O'Neillhttp://www.dashingbooks.comnoreply@blogger.com
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