Jeff
jeff@jverse.com

“The distributors all ate each other, the chain book stores ate each other, and print publishing is in a never ending series of crises.”

Sounds like a great book if we can give everyone involved a fork, a crowbar, or a chainsaw! BARNES & NOBLE: BEYOND THUNDERDOME.

My best,

Jeff
jeff@jverse.com

Meanwhile — and this is the point I mean to make — for people who can tell stories, the eBook rights are worth more than the print rights. I do have a pot full of old books, none “out of print” but many effectively so since they are generally not displayed for sale in book stores. Fortunately most of them were contracted back before anyone knew there were eBook rights, and I’ve got most of them up on Amazon and Nook now, and yeah, it’s a pretty great thing to see money come in from old books — and to be paid after two months, promptly and not on credible threat of lawsuit. I got royalty checks from Simon and Schuster for royalties earned to Septermber 2012 — in February 2013. Amazon just paid me for sales in December. Not for June through December. December. They’d already paid for the earlier months.

This eBook thing is great. And Congratulations.

It’s a toss-up as to whether my favorite one-star review of THE FROZEN SKY on Amazon is from the woman who fears I’m pushing a humanist agenda to turn all of us into “rutting animals” or from the guy who opened with “I found this book to suck”… Aha ha ha ha. But I hope the book strikes chord with you better than it did with them.

Thank you. And you raise a good point that I think I’ve mentioned in other blogs and definitely harped on at CCWC. Publishing isn’t a religion! My sense is the rabid “us versus them” firestorms of indies vs. trads that we saw online a couple years ago has faded, but you still see people virtually screaming at each other as if you can only publish in one way and will eternal damnation should you make the wrong choice. Wrong. Mixing and matching is perfectly valid. Every book (and every writer) is different. That’s the best (and worst) thing about writing. Everybody makes their own way. We can help each other. The job’s too hard and too lonely to view other writers as the enemy. But ultimately, everyone finds their own way.

See you at BayCon 31?

I do believe it helps (in my case, at least) for a writer have established him or herself through short fiction or novels. Coming up the traditional route isn’t necessarily cool — it came with a lot of work and heartbreaking rejection until at last I began to sell stories to small and then bigger markets — but main thing I gained was a lot of experience. Writing short stories is a great way to experiment with voice, structure, arcs, you name it, and plenty of magazine editors provide solid feedback when you’re close to breaking in. They want new writers. So for me, writing short stories was a way to accelerate my craft.

Michaele, I have not hired a publicist because I’ve only met two publicists I think are any good and I can’t afford them and even they will tell you they can’t guarantee their efforts will pay off. Ergo…?

Obviously I’ve done a few guest blogs here and there. I’m also fortunate that Tony Smith with Starshipsofa hosted me for fun, caffeine-addled interview in tandem with Amy H. Sturgis’s excellent rendition of the “Topsider” excerpt from THE FROZEN SKY.

I’ve had emails from several people who said they heard the interview and/or the “Topsider” excerpt and liked it. Skimming through the reviews of SKY on Amazon, many people definitely liked the PLAGUE YEAR novels and grabbed SKY because of that trilogy. Name recognition was a leg up. I do try to share pithy thoughts etc. on FB and Twitter regularly but tend to feel too busy actually living my life to post about it (and, honestly, who cares what I had for lunch?). Certainly I’m not posting hourly. I’m writing or living my life! No question I’m in something of a minority. Bazillions of people love FB and Twitter, and if it works for them, fantastic. But I don’t think anyone gets too far ahead spamalotting friends and strangers alike?

As for advertising on Goodreads (very expensive) or Kindle Nation Daily (also expensive) or other sites, I’ve been investigating and asking questions. As yet, however, the $1300 in production costs were purely for artwork, file conversions and upgrades to my web site; I don’t have the patience or the skills for any of ‘em.

Good questions. Keep it coming!

Jeff
jeff@jverse.com

On the one hand, I do agree that an SF author today (and tomorrow) must have a cear plan involving the e-book route, and self-publish if necessary.

On the other hand, it does help, considerably, if one has a name, plus track record, through traditional publishing (in your case PLAGUE YEAR). OK: there are self-published authors who made it big *without* a previous track record with traditional publishers, but these are — so far — the exception, and most of them are snapped up by the big publishers anyway.

Interesting times…