It has been an interesting time for me and writing over the last three months that has gotten me to a spot where I can see clearly (even tired) some observations about indie publishing that without the last three months I would not have noticed. At least not now. I’ll talk about them one at a time over the next month or so.
The first observation:
The Money Doesn’t Stop
In late July and early August I worked really hard on getting some experiments ready for the World Science Fiction Convention in Reno, Nevada. Book cards and the like. I had no book deadlines and the only writing I was doing for the summer and fall was the short story challenge and getting up indie published a Poker Boy novel and a thriller I had written a few years back and done nothing with. It felt wonderfully freeing.
Now understand, I am a professional fiction writer. Not having book contracts, not having deadlines used to be the most frightening thing that could happen to me. In fact, before this year, I loved having at least five and up to ten book deadlines lined up like planes on a runway waiting for take-off, as Kevin J. Anderson calls them.
In fact, on my office wall I used to have a bunch of images of jets cut out of paper and a book title written in bold on the side of each jet image. In one color ink I had book projects I was thinking of writing, in another color book projects I had under contract.
If I finished the book and turned it in I would cut off the wheels of the plane so it looked like it was flying and put the plane on another wall. At one point I had fourteen novels in the air at the same time in that period between turn-in and publication. (Those of you who don’t understand traditional publishing time, you won’t understand how that was even possible.)
If a book deadline got moved around, I would climb up on a chair and change the order of the planes on the wall on the runway. When I got a new contract, I added those planes to the line on the runway, fitting them in around the others as the deadlines allowed.
In other words, I was the flight controller for my own books. I could control that much of the business.
That system worked for me for almost a decade, letting me, at a glance, see what I had happening at a glance at my little airport-of-publishing.
Right now, if I had those planes on my wall, I would have a couple book ideas, nothing in production, and nothing in the air.
In the old days, that would have scared hell out of me, because I know how slow money comes in from traditional publishing. In fact, I would have been planning for cash shortages for at least a year out ahead.
Yet in August I felt wonderful, actually light for a change. No deadlines and money flowing fine from indie publishing. Then on the last day of the convention my friend died and every plan I had for writing changed suddenly. (I’ve talked a couple times about the mass of work and problems of that, so won’t go over that again. Just know it stopped me cold in even thinking about writing much from August 22nd to two weeks from now.)
Now, with book deadlines in traditional publishing, I would have called editors, pushed back deadlines, and really, really hurt my cash flow by doing so.
But now, without deadlines or anything at the moment forcing me to write even while in this mess, the money keeps flowing.
And except for the challenge stories, it’s all from backlist. Kris’s novels, our collections, some short novels, and a ton of short fiction. Over 200 titles up through WMG Publishing, all earning money while I deal with life issues.
I have been getting nothing new up through WMG Publishing either since the system was set up that I am the bottleneck in the process. (We will change that down the road.)
What stuns me is that the amount of money flowing in each month hasn’t gone down. In fact, it’s slowly growing. Not as fast as it was when WMG was putting up more work every month, but still growing.
So my point is on this that if you use indie publishing correctly, you don’t need book deadlines to keep the money flowing. And you don’t have to go get a day job either. The money flows from your own writing like the grand old days of royalty payments. Old-timers, remember those days? (grin)
With indie publishing, the money just keeps flowing even when you are not writing or putting up more products.
As a long-term professional fiction writer, I am stunned.
Dean, Aren’t residuals great? I was in a business where I helped clients purchase a service/product and I received a commission. But the nature of the service/product also produced trailers. I haven’t written any new business for a few years now (changed careers) but I’m still receiving residual income. The magic bakery is a wonderful thing.
I suppose in a way this could be called “residuals” but that’s really not an accurate term in this case since there is nothing being “rerun” or “left over.” These are all first sales.
This winter I’ll be doing a few columns about this, actually. When a traditional publisher does a book publication, in the produce model, then after a set time the sales are done. Gone. But when an indie publisher does a publication, the sales are all part of the plan, part of the “first run” of the book. The difference is now a book stays in place and in first run mode for years and years and maybe decades (we shall see). So money from first run sales are not residuals. But I do agree with what you are saying, the magic bakery is wonderful. (grin)
In a much more humble way I have noticed the same thing. The indie publishing money starts to flow and continues. It’s wonderful, really. For me it’s not enough to live on yet or even enough to entertain myself on – but it comes into my bank account and my Paypal account (from Smashwords) and it will add up to something in time. Lately with dayjob responsibilities I too have had to slow way down on the writing for a time. For me it has to do with the time of year – I teach English as a second language and it is coming close to one of the twice-yearly test times. But the pubs are still out there and a few people are buying them. I hope the amount will increase – I’m sure it will as I put more stuff up – but what is out there is out there and will remain. Spot on, Dean. Thanks.
This is why I’m glad I have a little background in entrepreneurship and money management. My goal is always to see income as a _stream_, not an event. (Preferably a “passive” income stream — thought that is misnamed, because it ain’t passive at all in the beginning, only later on.)
I work to have multiple income streams, some tiny, some bigger — and many not related to writing at all.
It gives you a lot more freedom. It just takes a lot of work and investment up front.
This, honestly, is what keeps me going. I have so little time to write that I’m just not going to be making much anytime soon. But as each story goes up, I get a few more cents, and it adds and accumulates.
Which means that I feel like I’m still a writer even in those weeks where I barely write. I may not have written anything that week, but I still sold something that week. That’s reassuring.
I too love this about independent publishing.
I’ve never done the traditional route. I love writing short stories and novellas so for years I just wrote without any thought about getting published.
But I am a self-employed private music teacher. Yes, I do get to decide on my schedule. But if I want to take any time off I just lose money for the day/week/month. There’s no paid vacation time.
This aspect of indie publishing appeals to me immensely. I would love more my writing to get to the point where it could consistently supplement my teaching. So I could have a day off here and there and not take a hit for the entire month.
Yeah, it’s great having some money come in every month. The trick is to have enough coming in to meet all the expenses, though. I’m a long way from that currently.
The potential is there – More so than with any other business venture.
It amazes me. No, I’m not supporting myself with my indie publishing but it pays the utilities and puts a dent in the groceries. Or would if I weren’t saving it for the costs of putting out that next novel early next year. And it goes up a little every month with me doing very little to encourage it.
Weird.
And the planes sound like such a “guy” thing it made me laugh.
You’re living the dream, Dean.
Aww, I want to do that airplane thing now.
I decided that I wouldn’t check my numbers until I have at least 10 books up and selling, but I do check the payments whenever they come in, and it is steadily growing. I’m sure there’s a sexy formula for it, something like
(Quality+Time)*Volume^2 = $$$
…I should write my own How To Sell A Billion eBooks now. With the David Barron QTVCashMoney System.
Like Shakespeare? Lewis Carroll?
Turn around, hire an artist, put out a nice illustrated classic and it will sell.
Mind you I’d rather publish someone new, and leave the classics to Gutenberg.
FYI, it looks like I’m an turning publisher. I’ve got a list of people who want someone to do the heavy lifting. I can do that. There are advantages to having Aspergers Syndrome. What would bore other people fascinates me.
Wayne
Missed your point, Wayne, on classics. It doesn’t take a classic to keep selling in indie publishing. That’s the fun of it.
“When a traditional publisher does a book publication, in the produce model, then after a set time the sales are done. Gone. But when an indie publisher does a publication, the sales are all part of the plan, part of the “first run” of the book. The difference is now a book stays in place and in first run mode for years and years and maybe decades (we shall see).”
I’m all in favor of indie publishing, Dean. But isn’t the statement above true of ALL ebooks – indie and traditional both?
Used to be that trad pubs had the produce model.
But doesn’t the ebook universe push them to keep books up for sale as well, now? It’s not just indie ebooks which sell forever, I suspect, but most trad pub ebooks as well.
Kevin,
We can hope that traditional publishers will start making the move to longer-term profit-and-loss calculations. But at the moment they don’t (99% of them anyway). And thus all decisions are based on the produce model, not long-term growth sales. And trust me, every major author I know, including my wife and myself, have had series kicked out of print for no reason or because growth wasn’t large enough. For example, the Fey novels by Kris, Bantam still had book #5 and two others in the series under contract when they put book #4 out of print.
I hope some logic and common business sense hits traditional publishing in this new wave, but after thirty years I ain’t holding my breath. Right now, indie writers also think about the produce model far, far too much. If a book doesn’t sell at once they think they need to change a cover or a blurb or some even pull it down. How stupid is any of that, yet writer after writer don’t even give their books a month or two chance before hitting the panic button. In old produce thinking, that’s normal, but in this new world of calculating sales out over five or ten years profit and loss calculations, making changes to anything in a month or two is just silly. And, of course, so is pricing it too low, but you all know my feelings on that. (grin)
@JR Tomlin
The plane thing made me crack up as well. It made the mental image of my brother pop up making all the action packed sound effects as he blasted around the room with his toy plane.
I have been indie publishing for less than a year, and I didn’t have a, agent, contract or a platform. I was an unknown. I have since made enough to make a small car payment for the last five months and this November I’ll get enough from Amazon to make our house payment. That may change, but for now I’m in shock and excited about what the future holds.
I feel like I have to work for every sale, but it is so much fun. Next book rolls out in a month or so.
Thanks for your encouragement, Dean.
>If a book doesn’t sell at once they think they need to change a cover or a blurb or some even pull it down. How stupid is any of that, yet writer after writer don’t even give their books a month or two chance before hitting the panic button
I think you’re right on target on this one, Dean. Right now I have a novel selling nicely and still growing, but it was pretty slow for six months before it finally took off. Sometimes it just takes time.
Yep. Finally have had enough stuff up long enough that monies are trickling in. Pricing ebooks decently means that even with smaller sales numbers, the money still looks good. I calculated out that to make what I’m making this month on just one of my novels (priced at 5.99), I’d have to sell at least 1007 copies of it at .99. Decent pricing makes a difference.
Don’t worry, Dean. You got two months left to finish your challenge *grin*. I hope things smooth out for you life-wise soon! Glad to see you posting.
I’m jealous of the people that only look at their statements once a month, but I’m getting better. Perspective about my long range goals is hard to keep when bright, shiny new sales are just a click away.
And whenever I get even a slight bit of concern about the pace of sales, I take out a calculator, multiple the monthly sales by 12 (for months) and then by 10 (for years). And then I remind myself I have more books getting ready to put up and more that I’m writing and will write. And then I laugh, because at minimum growth will be linear (based on # of books and the growing ebook market) and it always has the possibility of being exponential (getting a book or two to “take off”).
Tom
Dean: You bring up a point that makes me all atwitter about ebooks:
Due to the “produce” model of publishers, I’ve often picked up the new-to-me second or third book in a series at a book store and found that I couldn’t get the first because it was out a print.
Not wanting to read the second or third in the series without first having read the first, I’ve put it back.
(I can’t be the only book buyer who shops like this, can I? I’m sure it’s cut into more than one author’s bottom line.)
With ebooks, I don’t have to worry about finding that first book, because, more than likely, it’s available….along with others I’m certain not to find in print.
You got it, Kelly. An entire series can be in print when a new book comes out as well. Wonderful for writers and mostly for readers.
That is one of the great things about being a self-published writer. Passive or residual income. As long as writer or vendor doesn’t take the story down, the story has the potential to earn the writer money for a very long time. I just published my first piece this weekend, and I look forward to having many pieces up, potentially earning me passive income while I wrote more and more and more
Maybe if more writers took a hard look at the passive income factor, more would see the advantage of the long-term model of the self-published ebook as compared to commercial publisher’s produce model. (Or at least the advantage of doing both methods.) I know commercially published books can still earn a writer royalties–but only if they are still “in print” or available. A self-publisher can keep her works available for a very long, long time.
Jodi
Hey Dean, on the subject of “life rolls” here’s another one:
I’ve been trying to get some ISBNs (I’m planning on doing a novel POD as well as e-book) but all the Bowker web sites have been down for the last three days. Seems the big snowstorm in the north-east cut their power too. As of right now they’re still not back up on all sites; they’re still working on it.
Fortunately Amazon’s IT infrastructure is a lot more robust. It has to be!