A long time ago, in a magazine I did for fun for writers called The Report, I came up with an idea to try to add numbers and quantify the mysterious process of submissions to traditional markets. For some reason it got the name of “The Race” because it was a race against ourselves as writers.
And it worked in so many ways, I was stunned. First off, it was a clear number that many of us could hang onto to show progress in a business that often doesn’t give a sense of progress. And secondly, it gave a yardstick measurement of the writers who were pushing hard and those who couldn’t seem to get started.
Also, this allowed writers to take some sort of control of what they can control. Writers can’t control if an editor will buy a story or not. But a writer can control the mailing of the manuscript to the editor. The more manuscripts on editor’s desks, the more chance of sales. Pretty clear concept.
So following some discussion on the last topic, I figured it was time to bring “The Race” forward into the new world. Besides, The Race is a great way to help writers set smaller goals that are in their control to get to larger dreams.
The traditional Race is a simple point system. You get one point for each short story in the mail, three points for chapters and outline in the mail (only once per project, even though multiple submissions are allowed in novels), and eight points for a full manuscript to an editor. Manuscripts to agents DO NOT COUNT, since an agent can’t write a check for anything.
Short Story… 1 Point
Chapters/Outline… 3 Points
Full Novel MS….. 8 Points.
I hit seventy-some points with short fiction only when I was starting out. That was my high. Interestingly enough, I was selling stories all the time at that number. Many of my friends such as Kevin J. Anderson and my wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, were above that number. And what was interesting is that those of us with high numbers, above fifty, were selling regularly, while those writers with five or ten points wondered why they didn’t sell much. Hmmmmm, putting a hard number on it seemed to give a pretty clear reason why they weren’t selling.
Remember that evil word “practice” so many writers hate? Well, if you have over fifty short stories in the mail to traditional publishers, you are practicing as well as giving your work a shot at selling. Higher numbers help a writer in more ways than one.
So that’s the traditional race that has been used in one form or another by writers for twenty-plus years now.
BUT WHAT ABOUT ELECTRONIC SELF-PUBLISHING?
The question has come up a number of times since publishing started shifting this last year or so about having an electronic race for indie-publishing. At first I resisted. Then two fine writers (Amanda McCarter and Annie Bellet) came up with a way of keeping track of electronic publishing and they called it the eRace.
Here is what they suggested (that I like a great deal and will use myself). 1 point for each short story published electronically. 3 points for each short story collection published (five stories or more…and yes, you get a point for having a story up as a stand-alone and then can include it in a collection.) 5 points for a novel, meaning anything you call a short novel that is about 15,000 words long and up.
—eRace Point System—
Short Story… 1 Point
Collection… 3 Points
Novel….. 5 Points.
Now, this system will also show clearly one aspect of electronic publishing, and that is that the more stuff a writer has published, the more they will sell and the more money they will make. Again a pretty simple concept assuming decent quality and storytelling. (One addition I would make to the structure above: If the story is put up for free, it doesn’t count as an eRace point. Must be for sale.)
There are a couple of clear differences between the Traditional Race and the eRace.
Difference #1:
The traditional race has a ceiling on it. When the story sells, you move the points off the race. So at a certain point the sales will level with your points and maybe even be faster than your writing. And you will get multi-book contracts and so on. So the goal with the traditional race is in the early years to ram it up high and then try to keep it high against all the sales knocking the points down. Trust me, that’s a great fight and one you want to fight.
With the eRace however, the goal is to keep the total climbing because once a point is added to the eRace, it doesn’t ever fall off. There is no ceiling on the points in an eRace structure. I like that as well. It is one of the best things about electronic publishing. The stories are not produce. So this eRace helps writers with long-term thinking as well and might get some away from all the silly and wasted self-promotion.
Difference #2:
The novel structure is different. In traditional publishing, a short novel is considered a short story and even though 26,000 words, like a story Kris just sold to a major magazine, it only counts as one point. Only novels to novel publishers count. And since traditional publishers have length restrictions, those restrictions are placed on the writer by the publisher.
In the eRace, there are no restrictions of length, so short novels are starting to make a comeback. Amanda and Annie lowered the points for novels so that the short novels could be fairly included and not make the race too complicated. Besides, readers don’t care too much about length for the most part if the story is great and ends well. Long novels are a construction of the last 30 years in traditional publishing anyway. So anything from around 15,000 word and up is considered a novel or short novel and all get the same 5 points for simplicity sake.
Why Not Do Both?
No reason. In fact, if you have read my challenge post a few back, you know I will be doing both this next year. My goal is to write 100 short stories, but if my wife, a Hugo Award winning editor tells me a main genre magazine might buy it, the story won’t count in my challenge or the eRace, but will count in the Traditional Race. (At least until it sells and is published or until it doesn’t sell. Then it will go only eRace.) And if you follow the idea I suggested a while back of putting a novel up electronically and POD and then sending it to a traditional publisher to buy, the points would count on both Races.
I can see far more reasons to do both races in this new world than just focusing on one side or the other.
Results?
For Traditional Race points, it has been fairly established over the last 25 years of watching the Race that the writers with above 60 points tend to sell regularly and if they keep going make a career. And once selling regularly, a writer has trouble holding the Race points up.
The eRace is just brand new. I have no idea how it will actually go, and there are a ton of factors involved that haven’t been figured out yet, including pricing structures. But my gut sense is that if you get up around 1,000 points at distant point, you’ll be making pretty close to a six-figure income every year.
Right now my eRace total is 25. I only have 25 short stories up and I am making around $100 per month, which is above the minimum math I use to figure possible sales. Actually about double, which surprises me, considering I only get 35 cents per sale. And it’s growing slightly each month. It will grow dramatically as I get more stories and novels and collections published. I hope to have a total of well over 1,000 eRace points within two years.
Kris has an eRace total of about 105 already, with 7 collections selling at $2.99 and 7 short novels selling at $2.99 and one full novel at $4.99 and one large nonfiction book at $9.99. Plus a bunch of short stories. Her total income has a comma in it per month. And the total is climbing like crazy. I know, without a doubt, she’ll be past 1,000 eRace points in a year or so. Just on backlist work, not counting all the new stuff.
Thanks Amanda and Annie for getting this started. It’s a great system and a great addition to The Race. Very glad you figured it out to give us indie-publishers a way to track our progress. With more work available to readers comes more sales.
This is a great new world we are living in. Great fun.
I have no problem with bargain books. I’m within walking distance of a used book store. You wanna talk dangerous? To make matters worse, my boyfriend just got me gift certificates to said book store for Christmas. I can try out new authors, research, and find some real gems. Inside the store.
Outside the store they have a row of tables piled with books. These books are all .25 a piece or a bargain at 5 for a dollar. They’re books the store can’t sell and for obvious reasons. They stink. I’ve never bought a single .25c book. My ex and I used to frequent a used book store in North Carolina that GAVE those books away. We would grab two or three, maybe, but I’ve never read them. They just sit there on the shelf, alone and unread.
Now, granted, these are full novels, not short stores, but I’m not about to buy a .25c short story either. Because to me, it screams crappy story. Also, at 35%, the author is only earning around .09c a story. Why would you do that to yourself? If you sell a hundred stories you’ve only earned 9 bucks. Compare that to the 35 bucks you could have earned with a .99c story. 35 bucks helps buy me gas or food or pay a bill. 9 dollars doesn’t get me very far. Besides, Amazon only pays out at 10.
Dean,
If you want to write twelve short stories in four days, all you have to do is get snowed in with no TV, no internet, no radio, no close neighbors, one typewriter, and a ream of paper.
And be young enough to take advatange of the situation, plus new enough at writing to lack the knowledge that you can’t write good stories this way.
It’s amazing how much I learned you can’t do or shouldn’t do after I’d already done it.
James, LOL!! Yup, learned more about what couldn’t be done and shouldn’t be done far after I had done it successfully.
I’m way too old now to push at that level. But two stories a week, plus novel projects and other projects will keep this old guy pushing. Time to get exercising for me I guess to get some more energy. But exercising is just so darned tiring. (grin)
David, don’t tell most of the great writers in western literature that 60,000 words is too short. Might be too short for some New York publishers in 2008, but just fine for readers. And New York has finally hit that top end and is slowly starting back down the word-count scale toward more reasonable length books in most genres. 60,000 words is just fine. Look at what James said about learning what you shouldn’t do after you do it successfully. (grin)
Dare to be Bad!
Wow, James! 12 stories in 4 days and keeping the subs going, now that’s a great work ethic to emulate.
OT, but did you delete your blog, btw? I used to read it and now I can’t find it, and I found some of your advice very helpful and encouraging.
My erace score is 18 (2 novels, 2 collections, 2 short stories).
I have one novella and one collection of 4 related short stories I plan to release in the first months of 2011. Oddly enough, they have about the same word length (40K words). Maybe I’ll count them both as “novels”.
I have been writing short stories throughout 2010 with an eye towards releasing them in an e-anthology. I may still do that, but now I’m tempted to release each story separately first *then* in maybe a couple collections, then one big collection… Maximize points that way.
My two novels so far are 65K words each. So far, only another writer has said they are “too short”. I kinda like that length, though I’m planning to go up to 90K-100K words with some projects in 2011.
Thanks for another good post!
-David
By the way, my blog hasn’t actually been deleted, but it is on hold. I don’t want to go into details for obvious reasons, but while in the middle of moving the blog to a new URL, we had a young and tragic death in the family.
Needless to say, it put all of us into a holding pattern for months. I’ll get the blog up and running again come the new year, at the new URL, but needless to say, some things do take precedence over writing and blogs.
As for 60,000 word westerns, yep, there’s still a market, if a fairly small one. I wrote five of them back in the nineties, and then moved on when my main publisher, Walker and Company, folded its western line after the owner died. But the market is still there. I have no contract yet, but an editor recently asked me for sample chapters of just such a western, which is another reason I’m putting my old ones online.
(Interestingly enough, at least to me, the editor asked for the chapters because of some fan letters I received. They still show up now and then, even though my last western was published about twelve years ago. I cherry-picked several, most of which said something like, “I’ve always been a big Louis L’Amour fan, but I like your books even more. Are you ever going to write another one” and sent them to the editor.
The category western market is a small one right now, but the letters were enough to make him ask for chapters.
You just never know what it will be that perks an editor’s interest.)
Anyway, it’s been my experience that most editors don’t really know what they want until they see it. There was no market for 35,000 word novels, either, until Robert James Waller wrote The Bridges of Madison County.
Whatever you think of the writing, the book set an all time sales record for adult hardcover, hit the top of the NYT bestseller list three times, and stayed there for a year. It was also made into a major motion picture starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.
And it came in at just about 34,000 words.
Publishers word count guidelines are very good things to follow, but the right book at the right time will not only find a publisher, it will skyrocket, whatever the word count.
You can’t control any of this, of course, but you can write the best book you can possibly write, and you can give it the chance to succeed by placing it in as many hands as possible. A good story can change any editor’s mind about what he wants.
And I’m rambling.
Sorry I missed all this, but I had fun catching up last night! Been busy staying with relatives, not so much time for the computer (although I’ve managed to get at least a few hundred words in here and there on an Alphasmart). Great stuff here, as always.
And I think that’s part of what I like most about this ‘place’ and the people here. The can-do, upbeat attitude. When I come here and see seventy-some-odd comments, I don’t groan – I love it, because I *know* it will be interesting stuff to read, and I *know* I will come away feeling upbeat and inspired to write. Everyone here, from the newer novices like myself through the longterm writers like Dean seems to approach writing with a zest and energy that is wonderful to be a part of.
Merry Christmas, all, and thanks for being here.
Well I have a point. I had planned to story next week with the new year, and at least get all my previously published stuff up, about sixteen stories so I figured three months. However I was just messing around this morning to get any idea how long a cover would take this morning. Turns out, first time through, it took an hour, including searching for the photo, (would have been forty-minutes but I made one stupid screw-up and had to start over). So, yeah, a half hour per cover, after an initial learning curve, and without any previous design experience, is very realistic. At least, I think it turned out well. I used the Pages app (the Apple word-processing program, because I must have thrown out Powerpoint and it’s Apple office suite), couldn’t have been simpler.
So I went back to Dean’s post on becoming a small publisher, and did the earlier steps. The big intimidation hurdle for me was (always is) the blurb; I feel self-conscious about pitches, blurbs, editorial matter (can’t want to get the your workshop in March, Dean!). But, hell, it was the only thing holding me up, so I powered through and wrote one.
For those with of full time job or other time commitments, I think putting up one to two pieces every weekend, can realistically be done with ZERO sacrifice of writing time.
Oh, trust me, Michael, you’ll know how to do blurbs without an issue in March. (grin) And remember, you can always go back and change anything, including blurbs. Some of my early covers I look at and go “I have got to redo that at some point.” And some early formatting I need to redo as well. Learning is part of the process, but the wonderful thing about this new world is nothing remains set in stone. It all can be changed as you learn.
Thanks, Michael, for the test run. You are right, doing a few stories or books here and there shouldn’t impact writing time at all. Everyone can dig an hour or so out somewhere every few weeks. The key is to set the goal. Even getting one new thing up electronically a month means that by this time next year you have twelve up, and that will be fun to accomplish.
Well, just to jump on the bandwagon on posting goals here:
2 or 3 completed items each week to be published by the next week.
Also work on at least one longer project each week. (I’ll figure publication dates on that AFTER I’ve tried my new schedule [starting in Jan.].)
Thanks, Dean, ’cause you are the reason I have now completed two short stories, ten drabbles, and almost ALL of my edit (now that I know to only clean up the dire mess [logistical error built into premise] and ship that thing out). Those first Sacred Cows helped me to know what I was doing wrong and get the internal editor to hush up and let me work.
Dean,
I’m looking to getting into a race next year with another reader of your blog and I’m not sure how to count eletronic only publishers. There are a number of markets I’m writing things for that only publish in ebook format, with the looser restrictions on wordcount for novels. Acording to the guidelines you set out above, I wouldn’t be e-self-publishing, but the short novel market doesn’t really fit in the main race.
What are your thoughts on how I should count e-only markets? Use the points scheme from the e-race and just apply them to the main race for e-only submissions?
Terry, over the years in the regular race, we always counted a novel as a novel, no matter the length. So if you submitted it as a novel, it’s a novel even if short or a 250,000 word epic. Same points, and same points to any paying market, electronic or paper. The eRace only counts as points if you do the publishing yourself with your own company.
Hi There,
Great post, but what’s the URL for eRace? I haven’t heard of it until now. Thanks
No URL as far as I know. Just sort of formalized it for everyone here. To help people set goals. All new.
Amanda McCarter and Annie Bellet both have posts for when they solidified how it worked. I prefer the former’s on it for quick and easy clarity. I’d give you the link but my internet is currently fritzing.
Here it is!
http://amandamccarter.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/race-scores-and-e-publishing/