Lessons From Lady Gaga

Despite what you may feel about Lada Gaga, when it comes to marketing, she knows what's she doing. Look at how she recently went directly to Amazon to sell the MP3 of her new album for just 99 cents. I'm not that big of a fan but I'll admit, I bought it. And why not? When you can buy a brand new album for 99 cents, that is what I like to call a no-brainer. When asked whether her new record was worth more than 99 cents, Gaga said:

No. I absolutely do not, especially for MP3s and digital music. It’s invisible. It’s in space. If anything, I applaud a company like Amazon for equating the value of digital versus the physical copy, and giving the opportunity to everyone to buy music.

Of course, as it turns out, Amazon paid the difference on all of those purchases to the record company, as this was also a way to help promote Amazon's new Cloud Drive and Player, so you can't quite equate it to the same as authors publishing their novels for the same price, but in a way, it does show a level of outward thinking on Gaga's part.

So what can we learn from Gaga here? Well, that 99 cent can be beneficial at times. There will always be the debate on whether 99 cent e-books are good for the author and blah blah blah, but do you know who they can be very good for? The reader.

Last week Aaron Polson did a little rant about this literary agent's blog post. It basically talks about self-publishing and comes to this startling conclusion: "This trend toward self-publishing serves primarily the writer. (Not readers and not the publishing industry as a whole.)"

I thought about doing a blog post about this but never could think of anything good enough, as I began to focus more on why do writers read these blogs by literary agents in the first place? Sure, you can get some insight into the publishing industry, but do you really want to be represented by an agent who spends a lot of their time blogging when they should be reading manuscripts and trying to sell those manuscripts? In my opinion, most of these agents blog just for the ego boost it gives them and nothing more. I mean, look at that one agent's blog post and the 100+ comments. Almost all of the commenters are writers, and guess who they agree with -- the agent, of course! Like by agreeing with the agent might bring them closer to one day being signed by the agent.

Anyway, my thoughts on "this trend toward self-publishing"? Yes, it serves the writer, but it also serves the reader by delivering reasonably priced e-books. I'm sure I mentioned here before how one of the main reasons I finally decided to jump into self-publishing e-books with both feet was because of Scott Snyder's Voodoo Heart. The Kindle edition had been $9.99, and I had waffled a bit on whether or not to buy it. Then, a month or two later, Random House went with the agency pricing model, and guess how much the collection became? $14.99. That's actually a bit more than the trade paperback at Amazon, believe it or not.

So now I ask you: how does that price benefit either the writer or the reader?

It doesn't benefit either of them. Who it benefits, of course, is the publishing company, and, perhaps, Scott Snyder's literary agent.

Obviously that blogging literary agent doesn't really care much at all about readers, but just her own job. Because if more and more writers start going directly to readers, then where does that leave her?

But 99 cent e-books? Sure, they can be beneficial. I mentioned last week how Amazon had stopped the free promotion The Silver Ring but the e-book was still selling. I figured when June started, sales would begin to trickle. But they haven't so far. Yesterday alone I sold over 100 e-books. As of right now today, I'm currently at 164 e-books. That's just in a day and a half. To give you some prospective, the number of e-books I sold on Kindle in April -- the month I released The Calling and did that mini blog tour -- was only 165.

So within less than two months I already have massive increase. Granted, Amazon's free promotion on The Silver Ring helped matters drastically. In fact, so far this month the bulk of the sales are for The Silver Ring. I was lucky, but I also used that luck to my advantage. I didn't just sit back and see what would happen. No, instead I used the free promotion to promote my other work and did everything I could go spread the word to get the e-book to the top 100. And that happened. And, right now, it's paying off.

Will sales for The Silver Ring eventually slow back down? You bet. Dave Silva says I'm way too pessimistic all the time, but I like to think of myself as just being realistic. Because let's face it -- the e-book isn't going to keep selling as well as it is all month long. It will eventually drop off. But that's okay. Because I'm sure another one of my e-books will just take its place. After all, the prices are right for the reader. And the reader is the most important thing here, no?

Pre-Rapture Notes

Last week I mentioned how The Silver Ring had been downloaded almost 10,000 times. Well, seven days later, it's now been downloaded over 22,000 times. Again, what does it mean? Who knows. The numbers are slipping in the US Store (currently #106, plus a new review calling it "Better than mediocre..."!) while in the UK Store the novella still hangs steady at #11. But I have heard from a handful of readers who said that they did download the novella, liked it, and then checked out The Calling. Two even said they were really looking forward to The Serial Killer's Wife. So at least there's that. You have to start somewhere, right? Hopefully this is it.

*   *   *

So this guy -- the president of the aptly named Family Radio -- says the Rapture will occur tomorrow, despite the fact he also claimed the same thing would happen on September 6, 1994. Here's what he said recently in regards to that little boo-boo:

"At that time there was a lot of the Bible I had not really researched very carefully. But now, we've had the chance to do just an enormous amount of additional study and God has given us outstanding proofs that it really is going to happen."

Except, of course, if they had really done their research well, they would have noticed a little verse in the Book of Matthew, chapter 24, which says:

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Anywho, the most disturbing part of all of this is that some of these nutjobs want to euthanize their pets before tomorrow. Sad but true.

*   *   *

Of course, if the Rapture doesn't happen tomorrow, then maybe the zombie apocalypse will. And because of this, I've lowered the price of The Dishonored Dead to 99 cents for a limited time on Amazon (US and UK) and Barnes & Noble. Get it before the zombies get you!

*   *   *

Finally, with no thanks to Netflix, I've been watching through all the back episodes of Scrubs. I didn't realize I had already seen as many seasons as I apparently had. But I finally got to season six, a new season for me, which aired back in 2007. And think how pleasantly surprised I was when, during episode 124 entitled "His Story IV," which talks about the Iraq war, the janitor made a startling prediction.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXKLb1Y46s

That was four years ago, folks. Maybe these nutjobs should look to Sacred Heart's janitor for new outlook after tomorrow's faux pas.

The E-Book Cover Game

Every so often someone asks me about my e-book covers and who I got to design them and how much it cost. And the answer always depends on the e-book cover, as some were done by myself, others were done by my friend Wyatt Perko, and my most recent one was done by Jeroen ten Berge (who will also be doing my upcoming thriller The Serial Killer's Wife). The thing is, e-book covers are even more important than regular book covers. Sure, a regular book cover has to really grab your attention, but most likely the potential reader is in the bookstore and is already browsing for new books. The potential reader and book are so very close that the potential reader can actually pick the book up, turn it over, read the back, even flip through the pages.

But a potential reader can't quite do that with an e-book, can they?

No, all they can really judge, oftentimes, is just a thumbnail, so you better make sure that thumbnail sticks out and really catches attention -- and in a good way.

Of course, to do this will cost either a) money or b) time and effort. The thing is, a lot of writers don't have the extra cash to spend up front for professionally designed covers (a sort of catch-22, if you think about it). So they decide to do it themselves, sifting through deivantart.com or istockphoto.com. There they might find something of interest and, if all goes well, will get permission from the artist to use the artwork or simply pay the correct amount of credits. And then it's off to Photoshop, where they add their title and byline and then -- ka-blamo -- that's it. Or maybe they are talented enough to design their own covers. This is definitely possible. In fact, Aaron Polson has been designing some really great covers of his own recently.

But let's go back to those who decide to use some kind of stock image. It might be a great image, but remember that when you decide to use it, it doesn't mean nobody else can use the same image too. That's what those images are there for. So then you might end up in a situation like these three writers.

The funny thing is, while the first two titles are self-published (at least I believe they are), the last book there, Infection, is published by a company called Eloquent Books, which, if you Google them, brings you to this website. It's a publisher but it's not really a publisher, as evidenced by this submission page. Right now I'm too tired and lazy to do more research, but I'm guessing this is the kind of "publisher" you want to stay away from. After all, they are VERY INTERESTED in the following (their caps, not mine):

• Authors with a built-in following or 'platform'. If you have a built in market for your work due to your job, your association, or your subject, we want to know about it.
• Authors that have been working with a literary agency or other 3rd party that can provide validation of the quality of work.
• Self-published authors that have sold a minimum of 1000 books in the last year. We can assist you in republishing your work and add our sophisticated marketing techniques to expand your sales.

Quite honestly, if you're an author who already meets those qualifications, then trust me, you don't need this "publisher" in the first place. Especially since this "publisher" will only use stock images like this one:

Remember, if you don't want to self-publish your own e-books and would rather have a publisher do it so you can think yourself special for having a "publisher" easily distribute something you can do yourself and then keep taking a cut of your proceeds, please make sure they are at least creating for you original and eye-catching cover art. I mean, it's the least they can do.

The Power Of Free

9,370. That's how many times The Silver Ring has been downloaded so far at Amazon as of 3:27 a.m. When I mentioned, just two days ago, how Amazon had made the novella available for free on Kindle, I had said only 40 copies had been downloaded. What I didn't say was that I hoped it would at least make 1,000 downloads before the weekend. Instead, that happened by the next afternoon.

Like I said, when Amazon emailed me telling me what they had planned to do, I decided to make the most of the opportunity. I spiffed up the formatting, made sure to include excerpts from The Calling and The Serial Killer's Wife, my forthcoming thriller (speaking of which, Blake Crouch just sent me his introduction last night and, among other things, he calls the book "a scary, thrilling, page-turning, race-against-the-clock novel if ever there was one, with a true shocker of an ending"), and I even dropped eBookNewser a heads up as, during the week, they feature a free e-book of the day. I knew the chances were slim that they would feature The Silver Ring, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least try. And, well, it turned out they did feature it yesterday. And while I haven't had a chance to keep an eye on the sales ranking constantly, I did make sure to try to check at least once an hour to see how high the ranking would get. And here's where it basically ended up (the US Kindle store and the UK Kindle store, respectively):

For some reason it didn't come up, but The Silver Ring is also currently #1 in the UK's horror section. (Also, it's interesting how you don't have to sell as many copies in the UK Kindle store to reach a very high ranking, but I guess that's because Kindles are relatively new to the UK, not like they are here.)

But of course, despite these numbers, there really isn't much reason to get excited. I mean, sure, they're great numbers, but just how many of those who downloaded the novella are actually going to read it? I'd say a very small percentage. People love free, especially those with e-book readers. In fact, I've heard it speculated that many people who buy Kindles will first go to the top 100 and browse there and buy books and download the free books just to fill up their nifty new device. And it makes sense. After all, The Silver Ring has been holding steady for the past day. I'm sure at some point it will begin to fall and disappear completely. And I'm sure it will be read by a small percentage of those who downloaded it. But even if, say, 5% actually read it, that's close to 500 people (and I'm going based on the fact we're almost at 10,000 downloads; we could even assume that that number will grow and grow). Even if, say, 25% of those 500 people really dig the story enough to try more of my work, that could be something, at least a start.

I should mention that there is one refund for The Silver Ring right now. Which at first I thought was hilarious because who refunds a free book? In fact, I don't think you even can refund a free book. But then I remembered seeing a sale for The Silver Ring Wednesday night; I had been keeping an eye out for when the sales started to increase figuring that would alert me to when the book went free. But when I checked, I saw it was still 99 cents. Which means that was an actual sale. And then, maybe an hour later, more and more people began to download it as the price went to free. So I'm thinking that this person, whoever they are, saw that they had purchased a 99 cent e-book that was now available for free and so refunded it. No big deal. It happens. Amazon's policy is that you can return an e-book in the first seven days, which, if you think about it, means you can purchase an e-book, read it in the first six days, and then return it for your money back. Not quite the thing I would do, but you have those cheap bastards out there. I mean, my day job is in retail and you wouldn't believe the entitlement many customers think they deserve, such as they purchase a product a full price on Tuesday, it goes on sale Wednesday, and they think they now deserve the product at that sale price.

Anyway, the real question: has the insane number of downloads helped bring in sales for any of my other e-books? Well, I think it's too early to tell. After all, it's only been two days. You have to figure you need to give that 5% time to actually read the novella first. And I think there's a good chance even a bigger percentage will because of a few things:

1. It's short, only 18,000 words long, as opposed to a massive-length novel.
2. It has short chapters. Thirty chapters for a 18,000 word novella, making the average chapter length only 600 words. (It's a psychological thing, you know, that shorter chapters make you read faster; many people are able to read The Silver Ring in one sitting because the chapters are so short, but if it were a straight story with no chapter breaks, it would take your average reader much longer to read; in fact, they might not even bother in the first place. Sad but true.)
3. The formatting is professional. It might be arrogant to say it, as I do my own formatting, but it's true, especially with so many shoddy formatted e-books out there.
4. It's a fast, fun story. Is it great? Well, I'd like to think so, but I know it's not my strongest work. Hell, I originally wrote the thing in high school and only revised it a few years ago. So it is what it is. Still, I'm proud of how it turned out and very happy it has the chance to be read by so many people.

The time is now 3:59 a.m. and, checking again, The Silver Ring has now been downloaded 9,408 times. Again, you have to ask yourself what does it mean? The same argument applies to the whole sure-your-99-cent-e-book-is-selling-but-how-many-of-those-readers-are-actually-reading-it? At this point I think the same answer applies: a sale is a sale just as a download is a download. You think traditional publishers care if the books they sell are actually read? Of course not. They just want to make money. But then again, don't we all?

The Nature Of Numbers

A few weeks ago, Lev Grossman, the book critic for Time, had this to say about literary fiction:

"There is a certain brokenness among American literary publishing. I find it quite incredible, the energy and attention given to publishing books that are bought by only 10,000 people."

You walk into a bookstore -- assuming there is still a bookstore near you -- and you see all of these books on the tables in the front and on the shelves and do you, like me, wonder: who's buying these books? Someone is certainly buying them, or else these authors wouldn't continue to be published. But if you're not buying these books, and I'm not buying these books, then who is?

You know I hate to always be cynical but it's difficult, especially when talking about publishing and writing. I mean, we spend all our time writing stories and novels and submitting those stories and novels and getting those stories and novels rejected until, hopefully one day, an editor(s) likes them enough to actually publish them. And so then we wait and wait until the stories or novels come out, and then ... then what?

If we're talking about a short story being published in a print journal, well, good luck on having it read by a lot of people, not unless it's The Paris Review or some other venerable journal. And online, well, you're going to have better luck getting people to read your story, but after the first couple of weeks, then what? A new issue comes out and pushes the issue with your story off the main page, and it keeps getting pushed further and further away.

If we're talking about a novel being published, well, good luck on having it read by a lot of people, not unless the publisher paid you one million dollars and is doing everything it can to earn back its investment. Most likely, the bulk of the promotion will be on your shoulders, and sure, it's cool seeing your book in the bookstore, but wait a month or two and check the bookstore again. See your book there? Probably not.

Again, I hate to be cynical, but this is the reality of writing and publishing. Not that it should dissuade you from doing it. Nine times out of ten, you're a writer because you want to be a writer, you need to be a writer, and so what if only a handful of people read your stuff -- at least someone other than your parents are reading words you created, and that, honestly, is something special. Sure, we all want the big advances, we all want to be read by millions and millions of people, but the reality is all of that will probably never happen. If we're lucky, we'll maybe get read by those 10,000 people Lev Grossman mentioned.

But numbers, man, they are important, aren't they? Especially in publishing, where your numbers follow you around for life. Your first book doesn't sell well? Good luck then on trying to get a second one published, as hardly any publisher will be willing to take a chance on you.

That's one of the great benefits about doing it yourself -- numbers don't matter as much, at least not in the same vein as they do with major publishers. I mean, yeah, the more units you sell, the better, but if a book isn't doing well, it's not the end of the world. Those numbers could stay the same or they could go up or they could go down -- whatever happens, it doesn't mean you will have to scramble to try to get another book published.

Recently I've been seeing some writers make statements like "I'm not going to write the second book in the series until this first book sells 5,000 copies," as if it's some kind of threat. And the thing is, even if it is some kind of threat, who are they threatening?

I actually asked one of these writers why they just don't start writing the second book now, as some series don't take off right away and it's only after the second or third book that they do. After all, I reminded this writer, The Girl With the Dragan Tattoo sold terribly at first. Here was the response (I've Xed out the book titles for obvious reasons):

I've been on this train before, even if it's the first time I've self-pubbed. I was writing a sequel to a novel I hadn't sold yet (XXXXX), and it was a frightening time. If XXXXX hadn't sold, then the follow-up XXXXXX would've had an even harder time selling, making the whole exercise pointless.  I don't want to spend another 8-10 months on series books while the series isn't selling well. Many in regular publishing get lucky enough with the 2 book deal, so they have freedom to not care. But when it's a self-pub, I'd rather sit back and wait. I'm busy writing other books right now.

At least this particular writer is busy writing other books. That's the most important part of being a writer -- always writing something, not matter if it's the second book to a series that, so far, isn't selling very well. Sometimes, though, I just feel that these writers aren't writing, and that they're just waiting for their sales to improve to give them the excuse to start writing again. That seems like an odd motivator, and maybe I'm way off base here, but there you have it.

Actually, I do know where this particular writer is coming from. Years and years ago, I'd written a novel (I mentioned this one before, the 90,000-word novel I wrote in a frenzied three weeks). It's the novel I got my first agent with, the novel that got me into the wild and wacky world of publishing (at least on the agent side of things). At the time, it had only been meant as a standalone novel. But then, as I began to think about it, I realized that it could actually be the first book in a trilogy. So what does the young and naive Robert Swartwood do? He starts writing the second book, just hoping for the best. And, obviously, the best never happened. Only maybe that's not the case. Because, well, now I have two books already written in a proposed trilogy, and ...

Well, I don't want to get too ahead of myself. It's been years since I looked at them last, and I know they need some work, so even if I were to release them at some point, it won't be any time soon.

But, yeah, numbers. The important numbers aren't the amount of e-books you sell a day (though that is important in a way). The important numbers are the words you write a day. Even if it's not a lot, only a few hundred, or even a few dozen, just as long as you're writing.

Also, is it just me, or did Sesame Street pave the way for a lot of kids to use psychedelic drugs?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUL4T8WcFdA