Looking Into The Crystal Ball

Our theme, where publishing is going, is pretty much anybody's guess. Back when I started writing, paper books and magazines were the only way to go. Okay, I admit I still love the feel and smell of a paper book. But things have changed rapidly in the last few years, and not only with publishing. Remember Superman ducking into a phone booth to change? No matter how smart a phone is, it won't offer cover for costume donning. Now almost everybody has a cell phone—and they can be life saving in an emergency. Which is why I got my, not smart, cell in the first place.
I have to be honest, I was dragged into the computer age kicking and screaming. My first encounter with a computer terrified me. I was sure I'd push the wrong button and blow the entire building to smithereens. Slowly I learned to use the thing, and then I began to like the thing. Today, my laptop and I have a love-hate relationship. I love what it does, but sometimes I want to throw it out the window.
The same is true of electronic publishing. Yes, I was once one of those paper snobs who believed e-publishing wasn't REAL publishing. Once  again, time proved me wrong. Today I've had short stories, novellas, and novels published electronically. And I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Electronic is the way to go.
Does that mean I believe the future will be paperless? That all reading material will be electronic? Let me look into my crystal ball and tell you.
I see electronic publishing growing and changing in ways we can't imagine right now, and in many ways staying the same—a different version of paper books and magazines. Paper isn't going anywhere, at least not anytime soon. There are too many people who prefer paper, and who dislike or even hate computers and spinoffs like tablets and e-readers. Still, e-books are going to be a bigger and bigger part of the publishing pie. I have two books available in both paper and electronic formats. The e-books outsell the paper by a huge margin, and I hear the same from my writer friends.
It's hard to believe, but electronic reading material is only a few years old. Try to remember that when you see typos and format issues in e-books. We as authors, and our publishers, are still learning. And besides, NY Times bestselling hardcovers have typos too.
It's true, you know, sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Have a great week!
Cheryel
www.cheryelhutton.com

Business As Usual: An Insider's Look at Publishing

I think publishing has changed in ways that we haven’t begun to come to grips with. The changing landscape of the media-intensive culture we live in necessitates that we become content providers in ways we didn’t need to worry about even five years ago. While that’s exciting, on the one hand, on the other I find it, frankly, daunting.

So here is Aunt Noony’s down-and-dirty look at publishing, from my perspective. The biggest change I’ve seen is the eclipse of New York traditional publishing by the digital-first providers, which then turned so-called “traditional” publishers into digital-first by necessity. But what does all that bla-bla mean?

I’m going to pretend for a moment that my reader is a reader, and not an author, just so we can all get on the same page. To writers of my acquaintance, and at writing conferences, the term “New York,” “traditional publishing,” and even, sometimes, “real publishing” is used to mean the big houses, or “the Big Five”: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster. Technically, as of November, 2012, it’s the big four, since Penguin and Random House merged.

Digital-first is a term used to refer to houses that publish books in digital form first, and was coined as a way to step away from the idea that publishers that started out as e-publishers were simply “small presses.” Small press is a publishing house that releases a limited number of titles in a year, usually to specific market segments. Before the advent of digital publishing, authors really only had two possible markets: try to get into one of the big houses, or choose a small press and potentially smaller sales. (It’s worth noting that not all small presses mean smaller sales and not all “big five” contracts translate to big money.)

In 2010, Amazon announced that ebooks sold more than hardcovers, which shocked many people in the industry and observing it. (WSJ and NYT stories.)  Would that spell the end of traditional (i.e. paper) publishing? Speculation ran high as to when paper would end, how it would end, and how large a piece of the pie ebooks would consume. Fast forward to January 2013 and ebooks are an established part of the marketplace and a large portion of the reading public doesn’t know what they did before their e-reader. That’s not to say books in paper form are gone, but the trend is clear: ebook sales are growing, paper sales are flat or declining across all sectors, and New York houses have paid attention. The Big Five have started putting real money behind their ebook initiatives and digital-first publishing has hit the mainstream.

I could speculate as to what I think will happen in the next two years, but I don’t think that adds to the discussion. What will be, will be. My job, as an author and content provider, is to write the content, not worry about the channel. I need to understand the channel, but I don’t need to worry about it. The changes in the channel don’t change the fundamental nature of what I do as a writer: I still craft stories. How they get from my mind to the reader’s mind is not as important as that they get written first.

At the risk of sounding like I’m contracting myself, I do think it’s incumbent on us as authors to pay attention to the changes in the marketplace and to understand the channel. As interested readers, we can follow it as well, if for nothing else than to be witness to the greatest shift in media consumption since the printing press. So here’s what I’m going to do instead of make predictions. I’m going to show you a window into the predictions of the “big boys.”

While any publicly-traded company that trades on an exchange in the United States is required to disclose a ton of information on a regular basis, I found that none of the Big Five are publicly traded (though a couple parent companies of the publishers are). If the company is private it’s a little harder to get information on their official opinions, but you can always start by visiting their website and digging around.

Yahoo Finance and Morningstar have a wealth of information available, as does Bloomberg Online. Using the Big Five as an illustration:

1. Hachette Book Group is now a private company. more>>
   
2. HarperCollins is now part of Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. more>>
3. Penguin and Random House merged in November, 2012, creating the largest publisher of consumer books. The merger still has to be approved because of ongoing litigation against Penguin for price-fixing of ebooks. more>>
4. Simon & Schuster is a part of CBS. more>>

Barnes and Noble and Amazon are publicly traded, however, and their quarterly reports to Wall Street and investors are archived on Morningstar. I recommend you check them out.

1. Amazon.com; Ticker Symbol AMZN; Q3 2012 Earnings Call Transcript
   (Q4 comes out the end of January, 2013; keep your eyes peeled for the transcript)
2. Barnes & Noble, Inc.; Ticker Symbol BKS; Q2 2013 Earnings Call Transcript

I suppose, in closing, I will leave you with the thought that as authors, we must understand that we are, also, in the publishing business. The better we can understand that business, the better – more effective – we can participate.

What questions do you have about the publishing industry in general or any of the specifics I’ve included above? Don’t be shy. It’s a complex subject, but we can figure it out together.

Write on!

--
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
- E.E. Cummings

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Watch for TIGER TIGER, coming July, 2013, from Samhain Publishing.

A convoluted journey into the Indie-tide

Let's start off by admitting it took me a long time to come over to the digital side of publishing. My journey has been, um, not quite a straight line? More like a spiraling op-art piece.

I started the road to publication with a complete manuscript -- SECRETS AND SHADOWS. An editor for a particular Harlequin line -- yes, the heart of category romance -- loved it. But. That was a BIG but. I revised. Waited. Waited. Heard she left the house. Sobbed. Waited some more. Got a lovely rejection letter from her successor.

The entire process? About a year and a half, maybe two. It's all a blur. But I remember it felt as if I had flushed a big chunk of my professional life down the drain.

I was left with a good, very polished manuscript that was too short for other houses; one not-great finished historical romance; and several fits, starts, and ideas for stories. What to do?

I heard about Samhain Publishing opening up. I still wasn't sure about "selling out" to publish digitally. BUT, it sounded promising and I refused to rewrite that book for the sake of meeting a word count minimum. My writing friends were excited at the prospect. Most e-pubs at that time seemed strictly aimed at erotica, so Samhain was something new. They wanted everything!

Long story short... SECRETS was snapped up. I was elated. I then had to explain to my family that yes, I was with a 'real' publisher. Oy. We still go there, believe it or not, three novels later. :P

I had other stories along the route, too. Sweeter, funny stories pubbed with a tiny e-press. It was a great experience and I loved writing those down-to-earth romances. They seemed more 'real' to me -- like old friends. That publisher struggled -- don't all small businesses? -- and finally closed. I was left with more finished stories without a home.

These events -- plus a painful rejection letter, life interference, and a monster case of writer's block -- led me to the Indie-publishing idea.

Re-publish my own work? That's outrageous! Sacrilege! Not to mention narcissistic. I balked at the whole idea, believe me. Until I saw a talented friend take the plunge. And her plunge led to a huge splash as her stories rocketed to the bestsellers' lists on Amazon. It changed her life. Literally.

Wow. That's pretty cool. Could I dare? I mean I'm a good writer. I have these polished stories ready to go. Hmmm....

Yep, I dared. Not many houses want to re-pub stories by a virtual unknown. Don't blame them, really, it's a business. And so I jumped in to the Indie world, with my friend's guidance. Just ankle deep, however, I'm a cautious swimmer.

I wish I could say my wading turned into a tidal wave of sales. It hasn't. But I'm okay with that, really. I know there are a lot of ebooks out there. A LOT. And readers are understandably cautious about spending their money on the unknown quantity.

What have I learned in my journey? A few things:

#1) Write what you love, not what you think will sell. Otherwise you'll lose your love for it. Why bother writing if you wind up hating the job?

#2) Publisher's may be necessary for many of us. We don't all have the resources, patience, talents, knowledge and connections to do it all on our own. But if you decide to try the Indie-route. Do it right. Don't sidestep and do NOT put out an inferior quality product. Readers will notice.

#3) The publishing business is a living entity, changing and growing dramatically along with technology. It's exciting and scary all at once. It allows us to find otherwise undiscovered talented writers. Let's face it -- publishers can only put out so many books a year. They have to be selective. They have to pick and choose. If a story doesn't make the cut, maybe it's just the market and not the story or writing. How many times was Harry Potter rejected? Think about it.


Instant gratification is a very seductive beast. It's hard not to find a thrill in publishing a story one day; selling copies the next; and receiving monetary rewards two months later. In the traditional publishing world, you're lucky to see anything up to a year after the contract dries.

Although it might be tempting to look down our collective noses at independently published authors, we shouldn't. Indie-publishing is NOT narcissistic. It's not evil or lazy. Honestly, there's much more work involved for the writer who publishes their own books. I've also seen that this route is sometimes the only way really good stories by good writers can get a chance.

If you're willing to work and the traditional road seems too daunting, too limiting, or has failed you one too many times: check out the Indie-tide. It's a little dark and murky. It's a little frightening. But there are many resources and folks to help along the way. Whatever road to publication you choose to follow, just remember:

Success rarely happens overnight.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
If you need to write, do it. Never give up. Eventually you'll find your audience.

~~Meg Allison

Indulge your senses...
www.megallisonauthor.com

Aunt Noony's Inside Look at Publishing

It’s funny, I don’t really think of myself as being “inside publishing,” or inside the ebook publishing industry, but since I have a book out with a major digital-first press I suppose to others that I might be considered at least “published,” if not on the “inside track.”

So how’s the view from here?

The more I know, the more I learn that I need to know. As much as I know about writing (active voice, action tags, story craft), I find I still have more to practice. Each time I go through a manuscript to edit, I think, “This is the time, it’ll be so clean I won’t have to touch a thing.”

I’m wrong. Routinely.

Humbling experience, that.

Each time I think I “know about the ebook publishing industry,” someone will mention a new-to-me publisher that’s been in business for years. It’s not that they’re so small I’ve never heard of them, it’s that I’m not well versed enough on the businesses playing in the industry yet.

So here’s what I do know:

Concentrate on the basics and on what you can control.

1. Write daily or as often as you can. There are many prompts available on the internet (type “writing prompts” into Google and poke around). Experiment with a new one every day for a month. Write with a pen and write on the computer, see how the different mechanics work with your creative process.

2. Practice your writing skills. Get a book on grammar from the library or buy yourself a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Wrestle with comma usage and the dreaded semicolon; become an expert in verb tenses. Learn about the “story arc” and the seven traditional plots. Get yourself a copy of Fiction Writers Workshop by Josip Novakovich or take a fiction class through a local writing group.

3. Meet other writers. Find writing friends online through magazines like Writer’s Digest or The Writer, and make local connections using your local newspaper or Meetup. Exposure to others working on the same things you are is helpful for the learning process and can also inspire you to try new things.

4. Attend regional writing conferences or even a national one. My own writing organization, Evanston Writers Workshop, holds our annual conference very year during the third weekend of August. We bring in authors, publishers, agents, and have an awesome time learning and playing with words for three days.  There's a lot you can learn about traditional publishing and the ebook publishing industry, and how the interrelate and augment each other from the authors' perspective.  It's no longer enough to ignore ebooks; we as authors need to understand it because that's how a lot of newer authors are being published.

5. Stay humble. No matter how much you know or learn, remember there’s always someone out there that can teach you something. Be teachable.

6. Keep writing. Through it all, remember to keep writing. This is surprisingly easy to forget, in fact. I meet writers through Evanston Writers Workshop who have all sorts of dearly-held opinions about publishing and writing, but when asked what they’re working on, the answers “oh, this manuscript I’ve been writing for twenty years.” One manuscript for twenty years is not a good track record for knowing the publishing industry. One of our speakers, author Jody Lynn Nye, has published over forty books and over a hundred short stories.  I think THAT is the track record of someone who knows the publishing industry, don't you?  Everyone has opinions, and it’s easy to forget that our job description is “writer,” not “pontificator” or “prognosticator.” If you have the urge to do either of the latter two things, DO IT ON THE PAGE! Whatever you do, write.

Lots.

Write on!

Publishing Econ 101: A Love Story

A little tidbit most people don’t know about me—I have a degree in Business Economics. Weird, huh?

How many Business Economics Paranormal Romantic Suspense Authors do you know? Because of my background, I look at the state of the Publishing Industry and get all excited because it combines my two worlds with a great glorious bang.

Ready for Publishing Econ 101?

Did you just roll your eyes? Stay with me here, Economics can be…dare I say it?...fun.

I am going to attempt to explain why the rise of digital books is a good thing for readers, authors, and the industry in general.

To do so, we need to travel back in time. Way, way back, say five years, or at the most ten, to the days when you and I didn't own an ebook.

In the pre-digital era, the majority of books you and I could buy in our local bookstores were published by New York's Big Six. The gold-standard for an author was to be published by one of these houses. Combined as one group, the Big Six operated like a monopoly.

And monopolies are not good for consumers.

Why? Because the monopoly, not the consumer, controls the quantity, content and cost of books.

· The amount of books released each month was established for the individual lines in each house. Once the set number was collected, editors were forced to either turn away books or push them further out into the future. This meant that readers had to wait for fav authors and new authors had a tough time breaking into the established line.

· Books were produced in accordance with the requirements for each line. If a book didn't fit those requirements, it was turned away. If a trend became hot (vampires, Regency...) new lines in the house had to be created, which obviously took time. If a trend slowed down, lines were cancelled and books that were written to fit a particular line suddenly became the equivalent of publishing pariah (Chick Lit).

· Cost of books were set by the Big Six. Prices were roughly the same depending on the type of book (paperback, trade, hardcover).

Fast-forward to the digital-age.

The advent of eReaders created something that was missing in the Publishing Industry--Competition. And competition is good for consumers. Suddenly, we have choices. Writers don't have to submit to New York to be published. Readers have a choices in all sorts of digital formats.

Now we are moving toward a free market where:

Quantity - More and more writers are increasing the supply of books and chipping away at New York's control of the product. Authors no longer want to wait two years to see their words in print if they can self-pub a story in days. And they don't have to fit their stories into a predetermined box (house line). I am thrilled to see Chick Lit on the market again. My friends are self-pubbing Chick Lit books and readers are snatching these books up like candy. What a great supply and demand lesson!

Content - New York had a system of vetting out the not-ready-for-publication authors. Today, pretty much anyone can write a book and throw it into the pool. Readers are complaining about purchasing books that have not been professionally edited. I think this will get sorted out by supply and demand as well. Readers will look to review sites, author testimonials, Goodreads (and similar places), and the publishing houses themselves to find good quality books. If an author doesn't produce a product that stands up to the consumer's demands, they will not sell many books. Free trade at its finest!

Cost - When supply increase, price goes down. Cha-ching Economics!

Are you worried about the Big Six? Don't be. They still own the majority of the market share and I am sure they are figuring out how to play the game with the new world-wide-web rules. They'll have to learn how to produce faster and cheaper books while keeping the quality high. We are experiencing a market flood and although it has been said that creme rises to the top, so too unfortunately, does crapola. Publishing houses might be the experts that the average reader turns to to find a good book in the sea of books. Maybe, maybe, they will go back to the old model of helping their authors with promotions to distinguish them above others.

It is an interesting time for change. But one thing will never change--readers will want to read good books and authors will want to write them. Somehow, we will come together, no matter what.

Now that's a great love story.

What are your thoughts about this amazing in the industry? And don't you love Economics?

www.kimberleytroutte.com