Dear O'Abby: Is it Worth it?

Dear O'Abby,

I'm in a writing group and we're currently doing NaNo which means we get together at a local coffee shop a couple of times a week to write.  After we were done the other night, we started talking about where the books we're currently writing will end up, and we ended up talking about Amazon and the cost of e-books.

Things went dark pretty fast, let me tell you! 

Basically, we ended up breaking down how many e-books you need to sell on Amazon per month to make the minimum wage.  It works out at over 3000.  3315, to be precise, if you're selling your e-book for .99c which I've found to be the best price for my shorter, NaNo-length stories.  And of course, I only get .35c of that cover price.

I guess my question is, is it worth it?  We're all out here kicking our asses to write 50K words in November, but realistically, even if everything falls where we want it to, the chances of making any kind of living out of this is minimal.  Are the seven plus hours a day I'm devoting to this project a waste of my time?

Yours Truly,

Figured

Dear Figured,

The short answer to this is no.  If you're writing because you want to make a fortune, or even a living, the odds of being able to sustain yourself on book sales alone is extraordinarily low.  Which is why there are not a lot of writers who rely solely on writing novels to make a living.  I wrote a bit about it here a few weeks back.

But if you're anything like most of the writers I know, writing isn't something they do to make a living.  It's something they love to do, something they have to do.  Every time I get a royalty statement from my publisher I sigh and wonder why the hell I bother losing sleep every day so I can find time to write, yet somehow I'm still up at 5:30am every day and at my keyboard by 5:32am.  

It's frustrating, I know.  Putting in all those hours of work for so little return.  And then reviews from readers that tell you they tore through your book in a single afternoon.  Great that they enjoyed it and found it so engrossing they couldn't put it down until they'd finished, but that book was one, two, ten years of my life to create.  Couldn't they take the time to savor it?

But back to your question...  The price of e-books isn't something you can really influence.  Readers have decided the value they put on this experience, and as you've discovered, .99c is the price point they are most comfortable at for the kind of book you are producing.  If you price the book higher, you will make more per book purchased, but you may sell a quarter as many units.  I imagine you've experimented with this, if you're an indie author, and this is one of the benefits of being an indie author - you're in control of the price.  Although, you have to price your books at $2.99 or more if you want to be part of Kindle Unlimited.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself why you're writing.  If it's a chore and you don't enjoy the process and it's not making you the kind of money you want to be earning, then you have to wonder why you're doing it.  Waiting tables is probably more lucrative.  But if you love to create and can't imagine living without spilling the stories in your head onto the page, then I'm afraid you're a writer.

X O'Abby

Guest Post: Self-Publishing for Author/Illustrators, by Taryn Skipper

Writers write. Illustrators illustrate. Publishers publish. Right? Sure. Unless you’re like me and choose “D, all of the above.” I’m all over the place, and I love it. 

The first book with my name on it was written by someone else who commissioned me to illustrate. The second was a story my son and I came up with at bedtime, and I couldn’t help but illustrate it and put it all together for him. The third was inspired by niece of mine. It rhymes, teaches a moral, and comes as a package deal with the illustrations (I know, so many faux pas). And the fourth doesn’t even have any words yet, just one full-page illustration and a few ideas wafting around it.

While a writer of children’s or picture books may have at least a rough vision for their story’s illustrations, an author/illustrator may very well be composing paintings in her head while writing. Sometimes the illustrations come before the words are even penned.

Our processes may differ, but I think author/illustrators can agree on a couple constants. First, we couldn’t bear to have the stories of our hearts illustrated by some stranger who will probably get everything wrong. Even if that stranger is a better artist than we are, it would feel as if he were taking the brain out of our baby and putting it into the perfectly polished body of someone else’s baby. It would still be half ours, kind of, and it may be beautiful, but all we really want is our own baby, the way we made her. The other constant among us is that we all want our books to be successful. We want people to read them, and love them. We want to be published.

Unfortunately for author/illustrators, publication means that we need to find an agent and/or a publisher who not only loves our story, but loves our illustration style as well. And if they love both of those, they also have to love them together. Every step of the way, our chances of being traditionally published diminish.

So hold out your hopes for traditional publishing, if that’s your end goal, but I suggest considering self-publishing for the following reasons:

You get to finish your book.

Self-publishing means that you get to see your entire project through on your own terms, on your own timeline, and with your own creative touch on every single aspect. You cut out any kind of middleman and get full rights and total control. I do suggest reaching out and gathering all the feedback you can possibly get, but in the end, all the final decisions are yours alone. Cover art, illustrations, revisions--all of it will be exactly how you envisioned it because you’re in charge. Of everything. Which leads me to the next reason to self-publish.

You get to learn about marketing your book.

Cutting out the middleman does mean more work for you. Even if you are traditionally published at some point, no one will ever care about your book as much you do, and even the biggest publishers will expect you to do your part in marketing. So why not learn what you can now, and get a head start? Establish a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and your own blog or website, and start to make friends and build up your networks. Research and experiment and find out what sells for you and what doesn’t. One of my favorite things to do to increase my readership and create publicity for my books is to attend craft fairs and art shows. I sell my art and jewelry and I hold a book signing at the booth for my books. In every event, I sell more copies of my books than anything else. 

Contact libraries, bookstores, toy stores and gift shops to set up readings and book signings. You get to negotiate your own terms and percentages. With every meeting and event, marketing and selling yourself and your book will become easier and more efficient. If you ever land a book deal, you’ll have an advantage, and if you don’t, then at the very least you’re already doing something about getting your book out there yourself.

Self-publishing is totes legit.

There was a time when “self-publishing” was used interchangeably with “vanity publishing.” That time is trying to hang on and occasionally puts up a fuss, but it’s on its way out. Saying that you’re self-published is no longer followed up by that look of “Oh… so not very good, huh.”  In this DIY crowd funded entrepreneurial start-up world, people respect those who go it alone, put their best work out there, and let the people judge for themselves. My first book signing was at the Stanford Children’s Hospital gift shop, and even in such an upscale area, people were impressed, and not disappointed, by my being self-published. When people ask who I publish through and my answer is myself, their curiosity is actually piqued and they want to know more about the process. They then read through the book and almost always buy it. Who cares how it’s published if it’s good? I’ve had a few people buy my books just so they can say, “I knew you when....” Be confident and don’t make excuses for being self-published, but if it helps boost your confidence, use phrases like “cutting out the bureaucracy/red tape” and say “indie author” or “independently published” instead of “self-published.”

If you are interested in traditional publishing someday, be sure to check that your target publishers will accept self-published manuscripts, as there are some who will not. But if they do, and if you’re up for a little adventure, self-publish. You’ll learn a lot about every step of the process, and whether or not a publisher ever picks up your book, you’ll still get it out into the world.

If you ever have any questions about my self-publishing experience, find me at:

Facebook.com/SkipperBooks

www.SkipperBooks.com

@Skipper_Bay on Twitter

Here are my books (I published through CreateSpace, owned by Amazon, and I love it):

The Bear, The Box and the Boy (also available in bilingual English/Spanish, Russian, or Chinese) http://amzn.com/1502493136 

The Girl Who Knew She Was a Princess http://amzn.com/1503321916

And the hand-painted wearable art and miniature paintings I mentioned:

http://Etsy.com/shop/SkipperBay

***********

Taryn is offering a giveaway of one of her books! If you are interested, please let her know in the comments which of her two books you'd like, and include your Twitter handle or e-mail address so she can contact you. Taryn will choose a random winner on Saturday night, so you have until then to enter! International entries are welcome.***********GIVEAWAY CLOSED. Thanks to those who entered!

A little give and take

Take a close look at the above picture. Can you guess what all five DVDs have in common?

Perhaps I should narrow it down a little more. It does NOT have anything to do with the original book demographic. So you can cross that off your list.

It also has nothing to do with the characters.

Figure it out yet?

Maybe you should look one more time. Just to be sure.

Here's the answer. Are you ready? All five of those DVDs offered a free digital copy with purchase. (Did the answer surprise you?)

This might not seem like a big deal, but for many buyers, it is. If you watch movies on any kind of mobile device, the choice between a DVD and a free digital copy with the DVD is pretty much a no-brainer. For me, it's what cinches the deal. Why purchase the plain DVD when, for practically the same price, I can get the DVD to watch at home, and the digital copy to watch, well, everywhere else?

Indie authors have something sort of like this. I'm not sure if it's available in traditional publishing (if so, please direct me to it), but the indie version is called:

Not all books/ebooks are enrolled in KM, and even if they are, not all are set up for free when you purchase the hard copy. But you'd be surprised at just how many books are enrolled and how many of the ebooks are free.

I love Kindle Matchbook (link), because it's good for both the author and the reader. 

Author Benefit #1: Additional books in a reader's hands means a higher likelihood of your book being read.

Reader benefit #1: Additional books in a reader's hands means a higher likelihood of their book being read. 

Author Benefit #2: Additional book in reader's hands = higher likelihood of your book being gifted.

Reader Benefit #2: Additional book in reader's hands = higher likelihood of them sharing one of their copies.

Author Benefit #3: The author is saying, Hey, reader, thanks for purchasing this hard copy! You matter to me! As a thank you, I want to give you another version! Keep them both, or give one to a friend!

Reader Benefit #3: The author has just given me an extra copy! I feel special! Shall I keep it? Or give it away? Squee!

There are many other benefits to this awesome feature, but the point is, whether you're an indie author who publishes through Createspace and KDP, or a reader who loves to purchase books from Amazon, Kindle Matchbook is definitely a feature worth checking into. 

For more information about Kindle Matchbook, or to search for participating titles, click HERE.