Saturday, December 13, 2014

Changes in Publishing - Part Two

By Maggie Lynch

***If you missed Part One, click on this link Changes in Publishing, Part One

What does all this mean to the individual author?


It means you have to think in terms of the long game. You don’t write a book (or even a short story) for next week’s or next month’s sales spike; and there’s no way to even see a trend before it’s gone. 

One could read all of the above and simply throw in the towel and say “I’m not writing anymore. I can’t make any money.”  However, I would suggest the author’s response to this should be NOT to play the short-game. 

Don’t count on book launches, short-term velocity, or deciding the value of your book on the first month’s or quarters, or maybe even year’s, earnings. 

Stop practicing or seeing answers to the short game. Instead focus on the long game. What is that title worth in two years? Ten years? How can it be re-used, re-purposed, re-made into new products? Duets, short stories, boxed sets, series. 

These are all thinking about long-game products and thinking about each product being more than a stand alone.


On the marketing and discoverability side, the long game approach is also very different. For example, there is no point in jeopardizing your long-term business over something that isn’t going to last. Too often authors check their sales every day and then react by trying some new latest fad to give it a boost: a Facebook or Twitter ad, a Pinterest post, a Tumblr blog, a … you name the latest new multimedia. Some subscribe to a tweet buzzer, or blast their fans with “buy, buy, buy, ” or frantically search for the secret “make millions now” scheme.

These are all temporary boosts with diminishing returns. Yes, the first time you try it you might see a few more sales, but the next time is less, and the next time may be nothing. While chasing those spikes, you’ve failed to write the next book or take into account the long-term sales results for that title.


Joanna Penn has coined a popular term for the type of author who can learn to thrive in this new publishing environment. It is: “author-entrepreneur.” I like this term because it joins both the creative and business sides that successful authors must embrace today.  Let me quote Joanna’s thinking on building an online presence.

“The author-entrepreneur” takes the long-term view, plans accordingly, and thinks ahead. For example, this is why I think relationships with other authors are so important. Some people consider social media a waste of time, but if you have a long-term perspective, you know it’s not about this one tweet, or a single blog post, or this one podcast interview. It’s about building social karma over time, about generosity that comes back to you in unexpected ways, about making friends and supporting each other on the journey. None of that is possible with short-term thinking.”

Embrace Change
Finally, I think the biggest change in publishing is the fact that it IS changing constantly. 

We are nowhere near stability or even heading toward equilibrium in the publishing game. 

We will continue to see changes in both traditional and indie options. 

We will continue to see a plethora of software solutions to speed the production cycle. 

We will continue to see power shifts among companies, countries, genres and formats. 

Authors who can find a way to continue to write great stories while being buffeted by change will be the ones to succeed, long term. 


Authors who don’t become obsessed with the latest gadget, marketing campaign, or promises of riches, will be the ones more likely to succeed in the long term. 

Authors who are willing to take chances, to experiment a little but always verify results, are the ones who will learn to be on the leading edge of change instead of hanging onto the tiger’s tail and bouncing between the earth and the sky.


Like most things in life, authors who can find some semblance of balance of creativity, business acumen, and a match with their core will now be more successful. Learn how to exercise control where you have some power and to let go of control where you do not.

And remember what brought you to writing in the first place. It probably wasn’t riches or fame. Get back to that person—that person who wrote because she had a story that wouldn’t leave her alone, or wanted her voice to be heard in a medium that has long-term staying power, or simply loved the shape of words and sentences and paragraphs. Don’t lose the core and all that flows from that will help you adapt as matches your need.


MAGGIE LYNCH
Maggie Lynch is the author of 15 published books, as well as more than 35 short stories and numerous non-fiction articles. She is also the founder of Windtree Press, an independent publishing cooperative.
Visit her online at http://maggielynch.com
Maggie's love of lifelong-learning has garnered degrees in psychology, counseling, computer science, and education;  and led to opportunities to consult in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. Since 2013, Maggie has enjoyed the luxury of writing full-time. Her adult fiction spans romance, suspense, and speculative fiction titles under the name Maggie Jaimeson. She writes young adult fiction under the name Maggie Faire.  Her non-fiction titles are found under Maggie McVay Lynch. 

Friday, December 12, 2014

What to do with left over food?


We had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day and weekend. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of twenty-one people. It was crazy, zany fun! I was so tired the next day I couldn't remember who helped me peel potatoes!

Everyone brought food and we ended up having lots of items we never opened. We gathered up all the unopened food and donated it to the Bethlehem Inn in Bend, OR.

I tell you this because we did miss one giant container of sour cream. Six cups worth of sour cream!

With only my Mother, my husband and I in our house hold, I seriously doubt we will eat the whole container of sour cream. So I’m on the search for recipes to use up the sour cream. If you have a favorite you’d like to share that would be awesome.

Here’s one from me to you for the holidays:

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten

Total Time:1 hr 40 min
Prep:10 min
Inactive:30 min                                                           
Cook:1 hr

Yield:8 to 10 servings
Ingredients

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar                                 
3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
For the streusel:
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional
For the glaze:
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Mix in the walnuts, if desired.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate. Whisk the confectioners' sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.

2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All Rights Reserved

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Hope you enjoy this wonderful recipe from the Barefoot Contessa!!
Do you have a special recipe using sour cream?  Please share!


HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Photo credits baking lady-/www.123rf.com/profile_lammeyer'>lammeyer / 

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Christmas Read

Well it's that time of the year. Holidays. A perfect time for magic and science to merge and become one really neat present. Since Steampunk is still emerging in the literature world, and gaining force, I haven't read very many full length novels of a holiday theme. So today, I'm going to discuss a lovely, light, and fun novella. Captain Andrew's Flying Christmas by Heather Hiestand.

Captian Andrew's Flying Christmas by Heather Hiestand was fabulous, especially for a short novella. Her characters are sweet, engaging and brave in a world of darkness and grime. Her main character, Linet, as the daughter of an airship captain, had loved her life and her family until the fateful day her father was executed. Andrews, the current airship Captain of the Christmas, her father's airship, was a family friend when her father was alive and has returned to rescue her from a life of servitude. Captain Andrews has his own agenda that he's not ready to let her in on, but his attraction for Linet pulls him to her repeatedly. Together they must rescue Linet's sister imprisoned in Newgate Prison before Christmas Day is over. Captain Andrew's Flying Christmas ends, of course with a happily ever after, but with a twist I don't want to spoil. Definitely a great Steampunk Christmas read. One I will keep reading every year during the holidays.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

What the world needs now: Empathy

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline says it all - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month I'm blogging about the E-word.

This is that season, you know the one were everyone shouts about peace on earth and good will toward men. I have to think about another word. Empathy. You know, that ability to see things from another point of view. To understand and at least temporarily share someone else's feelings, even if that someone else is outwardly very different from yourself.

I have a quote from Purple heart recipient Charlene Lauderdale, a retired master sergeant in the United States Air Force. She was also born with both female and male anatomy. After living most of her life as a man, she is now legally a woman faced with all the challenges the transition represents. Instead of the walk a mile in someone else's shoes cliche, I will use her words:
You never know until you step up to the plate and swing at the ball coming at you.
See, it's not about feeling sympathy or approval. It's about understanding.

Two weeks ago at my adult Sunday School class, the subject of Ferguson Missouri and the Michael Brown came up. One member of the group made a statement saying he could never understand how anyone could ever try to hit a police officer for any reason.

Never understand.

I'm not going to pretend I know the right or wrong or the final truth about anything that has happened or is happening in this arena.  But I know that anyone content to relax and say "I'll never understand" and let that be the end of things, lacks the ability--or the desire--to even consider the possibility that another individual might look at the world and see something outside their own vantage point. 

Not long ago I saw a call from a teacher looking for books for her elementary class she could use to help teach them empathy. My answer: get any book about anyone who is different from them, who lives a life different from theirs in terms of social class, race, ethnicity, and physical location. Hand them books that show these characters face the kinds of challenges her kids can understand. Let her readers walk through those books wearing the character's shoes so they also see his or her motives, issues, thoughts, goals and emotions. See their sorrows and their triumphs. Become someone different from themselves, at least for the time it takes to get through that book.

A good book can be the perfect empathy training ground.  The march 2013 issue of the Rotarian included an article called The Truth About Fiction. In that article, cognitive psychologist Keith Oatley is quoted as saying:
…reading more fiction enables you to understand other people better.  Fiction is about exploring a range of circumstances and interactions and characters you’re likely to meet.  Fiction is not a description of ordinary life; it’s a simulation. ...fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations...

Inside the pages your mind can occupy another space, another body. You can see the world through different eyes. Unfortunately, too many of us read books about people who are like ourselves.  I don't mean that we're all beautiful heroines or navy seal heroes. But a load of the books we read are about people who are basically like the reader. White, middle class or wealthy, primarily suburban. As a result - little or no empathy is required or promoted during the reading of that book, and opportunities are lost. WNDB was born for various reasons. Partly by authors and concerned members of the publishing industry who saw how many children's books featuring a protagonist outside the typical "universal" background could not find a publisher. That included fantasy and speculative fiction,  aliens and yetis were more plentiful than kids of color, kids who lived in poverty, or people who existed outside the US, Canada, England or the UK. Don't even ask about non-christian kids or the handicapped.  

I believe that books featuring Heroes or Heroines from all places and walks of life can have stories that bring something to enrich us all. That characters who are neither rich nor middle class can share their form of the universal story with readers, and in the process, enhance the readers' lives. Those books can teach readers they do not have to condone an individual's actions, but that understanding is the path toward a better future.

That's why I write diverse books. It's also why I teach a class for writers who want to write about people who are different from themselves.  It's not an easy task. If done wrong, the author can do more harm than good, promoting stereotypes that negate the need for empathy because the reader Ends up feeling, "Everyone knows that's how those people are."  And people from the group can feel victimized when seeing themselves portrayed as a caricature.  The class is for authors who want to do the work needed to do a good job understanding and portraying someone else. And, in the process, developing more than a little empathy themselves.

I want to thank you for reading this long-winded blog post.  I do so by holding a contest. If you've done a Rafflecopter contest before you know how easy it is.  If not, just check out he box below. Each option has a point value. You can comment or like or tweet for chances to win. The prize is a free spot in the next Adding The Spice Of Diversity To Your Writing class being held in February, 2015. And, if February is not right for you, I have a second class coming in June 2015 you can select instead.

Information on the class is available at the YARWA website. This is the Young Adult chapter of the Romance Writer's of America, the organization sponsoring the February session.  Simply enter the rafflecopter contest below. There are multiple chances and ways to win, staring by making a comment about your feelings on Empathy on this blog. The contest runs until the second Wednesday in January when I will announce the winner on my monthly blog post.


Click here to enter contest for a free spot in Adding The Spice Of Diversity To Your Writing class

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Indie Publishing, Part 2

by Madelle Morgan


I wrote about Amazon's KDP and CreateSpace platforms for self-published authors in a previous post dated August 12, 2014. The platforms enable authors to upload and sell ebooks and print books on Amazon's retail websites. 



This month I will cover Kobo, Apple's iBooks and Google Play Books. All have self-publishing platforms that enable the indie author to upload ebooks for global sale on their websites.


Kobo and Kobo Writing Life


Like Amazon, Kobo sells books in print and electronic formats. Authors upload EPUB documents via the Kobo Writing Life platform. Unlike Amazon, Kobo does not have the equivalent of CreateSpace to upload files for print on demand books. Authors have to use Lightening Source, IngramSpark or another company.

Kobo's KWL self-publishing platform went live a mere two years ago. KWL's small team of fewer than 10 employees is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and led by Mark Lefebvre, Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations. 

It's no secret that Kobo has not (yet) invested as heavily as Amazon in marketing ebooks. Kobo was bought by Japanese retailing giant Rakuten in 2011, so the potential exists for a great amount of money to be invested in the retail side of Kobo. Kobo's catalogue expanded when it absorbed Sony e-store and Borders e-store books when those ebook retailers closed.

Why should authors ensure their books are available on Kobo as well as Amazon, you ask? There are a few good reasons. First and foremost, Kobo has global retail partners. While as of July 2014 Amazon distributed to 246 countries via its own websites, Kobo has partnerships with overseas distributors and retailers such that its books are sold in 190 countries. Kobo also partners with independent bookstores who receive a percentage of sales. 

If your ebook is priced higher than $9.99 USD (Amazon's upper limit for author's 70% of list price) know that Kobo does not have an upper limit. KWL authors receive 70% for ebooks priced at $2.99 and above.

Yes, authors can save time and effort by having Smashwords (which takes its cut of revenue) distribute to Kobo. However, by uploading to Kobo via KWL yourself, you gain access to real time sales data.

You may not be aware that, beyond Kobo's extensive support to indie authors, KWL helps authors support authors. Check out the helpful author posts in The Craft of Writing and The Business of Writing


Apple's iBooks Store and iBooks Author


Apple owns the iBooks retail e-store for ebooks (no print). Ebooks are sold in EPUB, PDF and iBooks Author formats in approximately 50 countries. Readers download the iBooks app to their devices to access the iBooks Store. With an iTunes account you can seamlessly access video, music, apps and ebooks.

iBooks Author is Apple's self-publishing platform. The Apple ebook format is proprietary, just like the Amazon KDP format, and cannot be used to upload to other retail sites. It is not necessary for indie authors to create a file using iBooks Author. Uploading to Smashwords is the easiest channel to get indie books into the iBooks Store.


Google Play Books


Goggle Play Books is the newest retail website for ebooks (no print distribution). Authors can upload their ebooks in EPUB or PDF format through the Google Play Books Partner Center. Readers buy the books via Google Play and can preview the books via Google Books. Google Play sells ebooks in 61 countries, according to Wikipedia.   

Google Play offers the temporary advantage of improved discoverability, since relatively few authors have uploaded their books as yet. Joel Friedlander in his blog post Selling Books on Google Play: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly has more to say.

There are some concerns to note. First, the word is that uploading your ebook file via the Goggle Play Books Partner Center is no easy feat. Scarlet Cox has written a useful article entitled How to Publish to Google Play

On the sales side, unless a buyer knows the author name or book title, discover functionality is poor. Your cover had better be outstanding, because the buyer basically scrolls through a sea of covers. Check out the contemporary romance collection and click on a few covers. 

When signing up for an account, you'll read this in the Terms and conditions: "Revenue Split" is 52% of the List Price or Fixed Net Price as applicable." It makes Amazon's 70-30 revenue split (for ebook prices in the range of $2.99 - $9.99) appear generous. However, as with Kobo, you are not at a disadvantage if your Google Play list price is outside of Amazon's optimal range. Apparently Google Play discounts the price you list at, but you receive 52% of the list price, not the discounted price. The consensus seems to be that author net revenue from Google Play Books sales will be similar to that from retailers such as Smashwords and B&N. 

One major disadvantage: authors have no control over the Google Play discount. It makes it tricky when you are trying to price-match across retail sites.


How-to-Publish Books for the Indie Author


Are you just starting out on the self-publishing learning curve? Catherine Ryan Howard is on Santa's Good List for her blog and book Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing (3rd ed.). Both are excellent information sources and are written in a fun style. Be entertained while you learn!

On Kobo Writing Life's blog I discovered The Global Indie Author - Your Guide to the World of Self-Publishing, 3rd ed., by M.A. Demers. This Canadian's well-researched book and blog contain a wealth of information useful to all authors who sell ebooks globally, whether you are traditionally or indie-published. 


Cover Reveal




Tra-la! My new cover, courtesy of Kim Killion

Please "Like" my new Facebook page to be notified of KDP Select deals upon the January, 2015 release of this romantic suspense set in Canada's Sub-Arctic.

Happy Holidays!

Madelle