A Guest Blog by K. W. Jeter
Dean here to introduce K. W. Jeter a little to those of you who have not had the pleasure of reading K. W.’s work or meeting him in person. (I am headed off for one more trip for the estate, but will be able to moderate comments just fine while on the road. K. W. and I will both be answering any comments.)
K. W. has been a friend of mine for a very long time, and like me, has walked away a couple of times from this crazy and stupid business called traditional publishing. And since K. W. is a true writer, he keeps coming back, which makes his true fans, which I am one, very excited. K. W. is a New York Times bestselling author and is widely credited as having coined in 1987 the term “steampunk.” He wrote Morlock Night and Infernal Devices, two of the earliest novels in the genre.
In addition, he has written many other science fiction and thriller novels, more than I can count, including Dr. Adder, Farewell Horizontal, Soul Eater, and In the Land of the Dead.
You can find out a ton more about him and follow his writing and blog at http://www.kwjeter.com/
In addition to his writing career, he has worked as a researcher for the University of California Medical Center on AIDS-related bereavement issues with heroin addicts, and as a creative writing instructor for Portland State University in Oregon. After residences in England and Spain, he currently lives with his wife Geri in San Francisco, California – though that might change. His long-awaited sequel to Infernal Devices, titled Fiendish Schemes, will be available in 2013 from Tor Books.
Now over to K. W. Jeter.
The Kingdom of Shadows by K. W. Jeter
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It’s a real honor to be the first guest blogger on my friend Dean’s website. If you’re reading this, it’s because you know that this site is one of the premier sources for not just information and advice about the brave new world of e-publishing, but also for the passion and excitement that Dean brings to the subject. Plus, when it comes to the, shall we say, less attractive aspects of traditional publishing, a vision comes to mind of Dean manning a small booth at the side of the road, from which he’s handing out free torches to the enraged mob heading into the hills to kill the monster. But he’s always been that way.
It’s likely hard to believe, given how important Dean’s become to the indie e-publishing scene (he’s name-checked by all sorts of online honchos), but I think I was actually the first person to say anything to him about the revolutionary online possibilities that would be coming along for free-lance authors. (This would have been back in the early nineties, IIRC, and the term I used – “disintermediation” – was one that had some currency at the time, but which seems to have largely dropped out of the vocabulary since then.) I remember clearly seeing the lightbulb switch on over Dean’s head, as he immediately perceived the lovely economics that come about by removing as many middle-men, all taking a cut, from between the author and the reader.
A lot of things still had to come about, though, before the revolution could get underway. I don’t think either one of us, that far back, could have foreseen the importance that the online marketplaces such as Amazon.com were going to have for indie writers and e-publishers. That’s a game, the rules of which are still being written – the upcoming holiday gift-giving season has the possibility of being the point at which indie e-publishing finally moves from beta to the 1.0 stage. So when Dean says that you better have as many titles up & live for the Kindle and the Nook and whatever other formats, you should listen to him. It will be big.
Of course, the whole indie e-publishing thing looks a certain way to so-called “legacy” writers of, to put it politely, a certain age. I’m old enough to not just be Amanda Hocking’s father, but her grandfather if I’d gotten an early enough start by knocking up my high school girlfriend at the senior prom. And I have to confess I envy Ms. Hocking – she’s going to have a long and successful writing career, the essential parameters of which are going to be set by the reality that she has a viable alternative to whatever the traditional publishing industry tries to hand her. If everything works out between her and St. Martin’s Press, then great; she deserves it. But if it doesn’t, she can go right back to online self-publishing and make another pile of money that way.
And that’s an escape hatch that writers such as myself did not have for most of their careers. (The alternate metaphor would be, given what’s happening to traditional publishers, that indie e-publishing is a lifeboat casting off from a Titanic that keeps running into the same iceberg.) The traditional publishing industry used to be able to tell writers, “Our way or the highway,” and they weren’t kidding. The industry can’t do that now.
I was one of the many writers who decided back then that the highway was preferable, and who walked away from the traditional publishing industry in order to go do other things.
Or to put it another way, the industry walked away from us.
Dean’s wife and accomplice Kris, on her own blog, recently made an apt comparison between traditional publishing and the sport of professional baseball. She’s right about that, as she is about a lot of other things, but to my mind there’s a point where the comparison breaks down: there’s never been a head coach so stupid as to believe that he could put together a pennant-winning team by getting rid of all his reliable singles and doubles hitters, and having nothing but home run hitters on the roster. More baseball games have been won by singles and doubles than by over-the-fence home runs; that’s why the RBI stats are so important. But when the traditional publishing industry, including the big chain bookstores, prefers to concentrate solely on their big names and top sellers, to the virtually total exclusion of their midlist, they’re exactly like that hypothetical baseball coach who thinks he can win with nothing but home-run hitters. And the results are obvious in the publishing industry’s doleful numbers. The results are also obvious in the careers of those writers who either got cut from the line-up or who put their bats back in the rack on their own initiative. That’s why there’s about a ten-year gap in my own bibliography.
That gap has ended now.
A few months ago, I self-published online a novel that any number of trad publishing editors told me was one of the best things I had ever written – and even one of the best things they’d ever read – but which they couldn’t figure out a way to publish. They obviously thought it was better to go scouting for nothing but home run hitters, instead. Of course, they wound up signing Snooki from Jersey Shore instead – but hey, that’s their business.
Then as the winds grew stronger, the sails filled – and my brave little indie ship really picked up speed, just as I hope yours have. I kicked off a whole new series of thrillers, of a type I had never done before – so different that I figured I need an open pseudonym for them, just to keep them separate from all my other stuff. My alter ego Kim Oh, bless her, wrote the first three books in rapid succession. “Rapid” in this case meaning that the first one took about twelve days from start to finish, the second one fourteen days – and the third was done in ten days. Granted, these are at my preferred genre novel length of 50,000+ words and not thousand-page doorstoppers, but 150,000+ words in six weeks is a pretty good cruising speed, even if it’s way off the pace to break any Guinness world records.
The big question, of course, is did the books turn out readable? Well, Dean was gracious enough to read the first two and here’s the blurb he gave me: “Real Dangerous Girl grabs you from the first sentence and leaves you wanting more about this wonderful character. Thankfully Kim Oh is giving all of us more . . .” Dean’s pretty well-read in the thriller genre, so I like to think he knows what he’s talking about when he says something nice about mine. (If you want to check them out for yourself, the first one is Real Dangerous Girl.)
My own assessment? They were a ton of fun to write.
And a big, big part of that fun – and the ability to write so productively – came about from knowing that I would be able to get these books into the hands of readers who might also enjoy them, without having to deal with the increasingly dispirited and discouraged, deflating and depressing morass that the traditional publishing industry has become. I’m such a relentlessly sunny personality – stop laughing, Dean – that I’ve come to regard it as a blessing that I got punched in the face (and had my money embezzled) so many times by the traditional publishing industry. Legacy writers like me can really appreciate this new world of indie self-publishing, in a way that those of you who are just starting your careers will never be able to truly understand.
To which I say – good for you. You aren’t missing anything.
The trade winds are blowing, your sails are filling – hoist anchor now. These are the best of times for writers such as yourselves. Don’t miss them.
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Hi Mr. Jeter! (Hi Mr. Dean!)
I’m a fan and reader, and not a writer, but I did have a few questions.
First of all, congrats on the ending of “the gap,” however you made it happen. Although I’m a 50-something, I do love some tech toys. I’ve found, though, I prefer reading fiction, especially longer works like novels, in the dead-tree format. I may change my habits over time, but for now this preference strongly determines which books I buy. Do you think authors who go the way of primarily e-publishing should still have or provide a print-on-demand option? Or do they already?
I also like the signed/limited editions where the book product is nice to look at and will (hopefully) last longer than “normal” printed books. I realize this is a specialty market. Where do you see these in the future publishing landscape?
As a “legacy author” do you feel there is no longer a role for an editor in your process? Do you think your latest coming out from Tor benefited from external editing — or did you get edited much at all? Do you have a circle of readers who act as your editorial team? Self-published work can vary for sure.
Okay, enough from me. Thanks!
I’ll grab a few of these questions and K.W. can weigh in as he feels. First off, most indie writers are moving to doing some of their books in POD paper format. WMG Publishing that does my wife and my books has 9 different books so far in paper, and we are getting them into bookstores slowly but surely. And actually, Kris has the new book in the Retrieval Artist series coming out in both paper and electronic the first of December and you can order signed copies now if you want at WMGPublishing.com.
As for editing, that’s a tough question. First readers, usually one or two, are often enough. Those of us who have been around for a time have got our team around us. At this point in time, most New York editors (not all) could be my granddaughters and have far less experience at editing then I do or my wife does, so I tend to not worry about it. I like letting the fans and readers have the final say by either buying or not buying. And always remember, there is no such thing as a perfect book and just because it is with New York sure doesn’t mean it will be perfect. Don’t believe me, read the cover flat for the new Grisham novel. Often traditional publishing adds in more errors than they find.
Hi, KW:
It’s so nice to see you having success in this brave new world. (it’s not really anything new as you know but is sure is fun).
My wife and I too have books that traditional publishing passed on because they didn’t fit their narrow parameters. And of course now that we have the freedom to publish what we want to so they are either published or soon will be. We have just over 60 titles and we’re very excited about the future. And, like you, and Dean and Kris, we’re in the traditional publishing world as well.
We’re literally living the dream.
I love the baseball analogy BTW. I recently saw Moneyball and everywhere they use the word baseball you can substitute publishing and it works perfectly.
The world of the professional writer now has more options than it has in decades. Many pros and wantabe pros who are mired in the traditional publishing, myth-based reality dismiss indie publishing as something less than the traditional model. Even when it’s pointed out Amanda Hocking’s early efforts were very badly edited yet sold a LOT of copies these same people shrug this off as luck.
Man, what an insult. Amanda is a fine storyteller that’s why her books sell well. The best way to defeat these naysayers is to write the best book you can and publish it. Good stories will always rise to the top. Not even NY with all their marketing gurus etc. knows what books will sell, so why do we think we would know any better? jsut publish the darned thing and let the readers decide.
Anyway, welcome back and we wish you many, many sales.
Everybody — I just got back from World Fantasy Con in San Diego. Let me tell you, there was a *lot* of talk going on about indie e-publishing. Not on the panels, but anytime you walked past a group of writers sitting around a table with drinks in front of them, chances were good you’d hear the words “e-publishing” or “ebooks” or some variation thereof. More on that as we go along.
Joey — The dead-tree formats, POD or whatever, I’m personally viewing as mop-up operations. Meaning that I plan on getting to them, but after I do the alpha prime work of getting a bunch more ebooks up for Kindle and Nook. Last couple months after doing the first three Kim Oh books, I’ve been tied up with a project for a traditional print publisher, and I’ve been crawling the walls the whole time, itching to get back to my gal Kim. Now that project’s just about off my hands, I’m gonna rip on the next Kim Oh books, rather than do the mop-up operations such as POD, etc., on the first three. That’s just a personal decision based on wanting to write, write, write at the moment rather than formatting, lining up all the POD ducks, etc. Other writers make a perfectly reasonable decision to “mop up” as they go along, i.e. write a book, get it out in all formats including POD, then go on to the next book. Great thing about indie e-publishing? You get to decide what works for you and your creative process. Write now, mop up later or mop up as you go along — it’s all good.
Russ — “just publish the darned thing and let the readers decide.” Exactly. Publish however you can or want to, and *something* will happen. It might not be an Amanda Hocking-type something, but it will still happen. Don’t publish, and nothing will happen.
My big satori from talking with Mike Stackpole and a bunch of other people at WFC — the indie e-publishing revolution isn’t about the money. It’s about the excitement.
Joey — Sorry, I hit the “Submit Comment” button before I finished answering your questions.
Re editing: I really agree with Dean when he says, “I like letting the fans and readers have the final say by either buying or not buying.” In this brave new world, writers at all levels of experience, from newbies to grizzled old vets, are going to find out what works and what doesn’t work through direct experience — i.e., their own guts and their readers are going to tell them, one way or another. Downside? That’s like finding out whether your motorcycle helmet is any good or not by hitting the asphalt with your head at fifty miles per hour. Upside? You’ll really *know*, rather than just relying on someone else’s supposedly “professional” opinion.
What does that mean in practical terms for indie writers? Get your team of alpha readers in place, the people who will tell you whether you’re blowing it or not. These will very often be reciprocal arrangements — you spot for your buddy and he spots for you. Believe me, when Dean told me that the Kim Oh books weren’t absolute crap, my sigh of relief was audible from here to Poughkeepsie. Dean’s a straight shooter and I trust him to tell me whether I’ve screwed it up or not. Get your trusted straight shooters lined up — those and your guts are going to be the best editorial oversight you could ever have.
I agree in every particular and have nothing to add (since I’m DOING all that already, albeit from a standing start.)
Let me say, though, that I love that cover art, and the pseudo-blurb of ‘I wrote this really fast and it was fun!’ grabbed me. I’ll pick up the book.
K.W., I love your joy in this post. One of the things that inspired me and continues to inspire me to publish my own line of young adult science fiction novels is the happiness expressed by people like you, Dean, Kris, and others.
Fear is not motivating. Fun is.
Thanks for what you’re doing, and thanks for writing about it!
Robin, I agree, the fun and joy of the freedom to write and publish is everything. That’s why you here the shock from long-term pros like me and Kris and K. W. This freedom is something new for us. Great comment, Robin.
Heh heh (rubs hands together). Just bought Real Dangerous Girl. Thanks for sharing your experience, K.W. I always enjoy reading your comments on other people’s posts, so I was happy to see you here.
I just want to add those who think editing is so important. It is important to an extent, but even for a newbie they should publish their dead inventory. Yes, this means it will not be necessarily “perfect” but someone will buy it. How do I know this with such obvious certainty? Because as KW says, “Don’t publish, and nothing will happen.”.
I will add to what Dean is saying about traditional publisher editors. I have one I’m working with right now. She’s young and very nice. She loves the work, but there are times where her inexperience shows. She told me recently that every time she gets one of my stories she learns something new. Am I the smartest person on the planet? HA! So not! I just read a lot and have accumulated tid bits of knowledge and experience is all.
So don’t worry about the editing too much, but have a trusted and experienced first reader who will give you HONEST feedback. And if you still have concerns hire an editor. I personally only hire an editor for novels due to the expense. The company I use is Lucky Bat Books (Cindie Geddes) because they have done some good editorial and cover art for me.
For short stories and collections I have a trusted first reader and spell check *grin*. I use Powerpoint for covers and Word for the document formatting. (Check out Dean’s think like a publisher blog) Easy peasy.
And most important keep writing and keep learning. One of the most misunderstood statements Dean and Kris say is “write the best story you can TODAY, mail it (or publish), and then write the next one.”
Believe me if you follow this and keep going your writing will improve. It just will. It’s true of all professions. Pro athletes know this, pro actors know this, why don’t writers think this? I just don’t understand.
It is also true that we are the worst judge of our own work. I’ve heard interviews with actors who we all think are brilliant who can’t watch themselves. Why? They think they’re awful!
Writers are the same way. Stories I love don’t sell well, stories I think are seriously flawed are my best sellers. Why? I have no idea. No one does. The readers decide so quash the fear and let the readers decide what they like.
Great discussion, Dean and KW.
Nice guest post, Mr. Jeter (and no wonder you enjoy a good baseball analogy!).
I don’t have much to add but agreement about this being a remarkable time to hitch up one’s word processor and drive your herd of intellectual properties toward the cyber frontier (“Go Amazon, young man!”).
I will say, however, that I like this idea of implying one’s age in “Hocking units”:
The Half Hocking: Teenager.
The Full Hocking: Twentysomething.
A Double Hocking: Middle Age (also known as a “Parental Hocking”).
A Triple Hocking: Senior (also known as a “Grand Parental Hocking”).
A Quadro Hocking: Annual recipient of a birthday greeting from NBC’s Willard Scott.
Or maybe not.
Todd
“THE TELLING OF MY MARCHING BAND STORY”
http://www.toddtrumpet.com
Tod, too funny!!! Now how do I get that out of my mind?
Todd, still having trouble realizing I’m old enough to be a “Triple Hocking.” (grin)
Update: Reno is great, found my friend’s van (sheer luck…the guy who had moved it came by just as I was starting a five story parking garage search in the wrong place.) But snow planned here, so today shopping for a warmer coat while dealing with the coroner and other items.
Russ, great stuff. I agree all the way.
K.W. Thanks again for the great post. And I wish I had been there in the conversation with Stackpole.
KW, Every time I run into someone maundering on about how important “gatekeepers” are to the publishing industry, I think of Snooki. Really, that says all that needs to be said about that.
Welcome back from your hiatus. It is great having choices, isn’t it?
If anyone would like to see K.W. in (hilarious) action, I filmed a World Fantasy Con panel just this past weekend on the “Founders of Steampunk.” It was a great panel. Really interesting, really funny.
Thanks for the great post. Very inspiring. With respect, there’s just one point I wanted to mention:
I just received the proof copy from CreateSpace for my second short story collection, “Painsharing and Other Stories” (the electronic edition has been available for months). For me the POD edition isn’t just “mopping up”. Maybe I come from the old school but I like to see that paper edition in my hands, turn the pages and realize it is the culmination of my creative effort. Even if the POD editions sell much more slowly (true) I don’t feel the project is complete until the POD is done.
Great guest blog, KW! I hope all the newbies (me included) appreciate that they’re in a new golden age of publishing, but as many myths die with the old models of publishing, just as many new ones pop up (and old ones get new life, like this thread on KB about fast speed *must* mean low quality…sigh. http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,89817.msg1406033.html ).
Writers now get direct feedback from their customers about what sells well, through sales numbers and reviews and emails, and can capitalize on them far more quickly than before. This way, both readers and writers win: readers get more of what they want to read, and more quickly, and writers get to choose for themselves what projects to pursue.
It’s a wonderful time to be a writer and a business-minded one at that, and the sense of freedom to write whatever takes your fancy is just a massive boost for the creative juices.
Hi K.W.,
Liked your post and am happy you’re having such a great time. Keep spreading the joy and let’s hope it’s contagious. Publishing my own stuff is so much better than sitting around and waiting for rejection letters! I’d been waiting for far, far too many years.
I wrote down something you said in a blog comment recently (can’t remember where) and posted it on my desk for one of those down times when whatever I’m writing looks awful – “A badly completed piece is better than an uncompleted piece.” So very helpful!
Thanks!
Omnibus reply here, folks –
Robin — You’re exactly right about what I was trying to convey. There were two kinds of writers at WFC who I talked to about e-publishing: “house slaves” (thank you, Mike Stackpole!) and the joyous. More than once, somebody from the latter group literally said, “I can’t wait!” They couldn’t wait to get home, get back to work, get back to writing, get back to e-publishing, get back to connecting with their readers. What a feeling!
Tori — Hope you enjoy my gal Kim! Do let me know when you have the chance.
Russ — Be sure you make a distinction between “editing” and “copy editing.” Copy editing, swatting all the typos and grammatical errors and other pesky houseflies, is what makes you and your book look professional.
JR — You’re right, it’s all about having choices. And now we’re in a great but scary (for some people) situation in which people literally have to choose whether to have choices or not. How weird is that? Being able to choose is the difference between house slaves and free people, and there are none so enslaved as those who enslave themselves out of fear. Mike Stackpole’s getting a lot of flack for his colorful language in that regard, but I think he’s spot on with it.
John — If I could split myself in two, I’d be working on my POD stuff as well right now. I didn’t mean to diminish the value of it with the phrase “mopping up;” I love print books, too. The great thing about indie e-publishing is that our choices as to what we do when are only limited by the number of hours in a day. Get your POD thing on, and godspeed to you.
Todd — “Hocking units” are a useful addition to the writing discussion vocabulary. Thanks for that one! I’m hoping to have one more full Hocking unit under my belt before I croak.
Sam — You’re absolutely right, writers are now getting “direct feedback” in a way they’ve rarely had before. For a lot of us, this is as close as we’re going to get to performing in front of a live audience. No wonder writers are excited about it.
Linda — The other unusually smart (for me) thing I’ve said is, “Anything on paper is better than nothing on paper.” Glad you’ve found anything I’ve said to be of help.
Dean — “Shock” just about sums it up. I feel like Moses finally gazing upon the Promised Land, only I get to run down the hill and frolic in the milk and honey along with all the other liberated Israelites. People with as many Hocking units as you and me got to see one train leave, and we’ve lived long enough to see a better one pull into the station. Who knew?
I didn’t comment on this thread earlier because I had nothing to say. I just had this nice bright warm glow.
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts that give me a warm glow lately. And I keep thinking of what a contrast with ten years ago.
Ten years ago, I’d go looking online for my favorite mystery authors, and every time I found one, they were struggling horribly. I won’t repeat the stories, because you all know them.
At that time, I decided to take myself out of the pool. Those writers didn’t need more competition, and I didn’t need the aggravation. I did script reading and short fiction instead.
That was fun, but I couldn’t stay away forever, so I eventually schlepped myself back, feeling like the vacation was over. I had heard something about Kindle publishing from screenwriter John August, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention. (I wish I had. I assumed he was doing well because he’s a bigshot.)
Then I came across Joe Konrath’s blog, and I decided to try self-publishing my unpublishable off-genre stuff…. and it was like Joe had taken me by the beak and said “Duck, meet water.”
And I’m so frickin’ happy as a READER too. And as a publisher. I love doing graphic design. Doing covers, doing a nice interior layout. I only wish I had more time….
The best thing that happened to me at WFC was a patio discussion with the illustrious Mike Stackpole and K.W. Jeter about publishing…where it’s been…where it is going. It was strange to realize that when sitting with industry giants that I was actually the “veteran” since I’ve been selling thousands of ebooks a month (for several years which is a lifetime by ebook standards) by Ridan authors such as: Nathan Lowell, Marshall S. Thomas, Leslie Ann Moore, and Joe Haldeman. I’m in the middle of bringing out StarBridge (a backlist series of 7 books by New York Times Bestseller A.C. Crispin) and I’m hoping to have an announcement about a few others because of WFC.
Whether you partner with someone like Ridan, or pub them out yourself. Authors have gold in their backlists so please, don’t let them go to waste.
Robin Sullivan | Write2Publish | Ridan Publishing
@K.W. Jeter said: “I’m hoping to have one more full Hocking unit under my belt before I croak.”
This one sentence made me LOL harder than a week’s worth of blog reading.
@dwsmith said: “Todd, still having trouble realizing I’m old enough to be a ‘Triple Hocking.’ (grin)”
Dean, you’re so prolific that in “Words Published Years” you may have already hit the unprecedented “PentaHocking”!
Todd
P.S. Or is it the “QuintaHocking”?
Dean, I was just talking to a writer whose name you’d recognize whom I’ve known for quite a few years, and published a wonderful story from back in the Aeon years. He’s kind of on the fence about this being a couple of Hockings old (but a couple younger than I!) and uncertain what his choices are. I sent him to view your blog, and I sure hope he sees this one.
Thanks, K.W., for a great post, and another one over at http://steamwords.wordpress.com. Welcome to the disruption.
I’m about to publish my third short story ebook, a collaboration with the remarkable Marti McKenna that originally appeared in Tomorrow SF, edited by the much-missed Algis Budrys. It’s all just too much fun, ya know?
What times we live in!
K.W. – Any plans for putting up your self-published books on sites other than Amazon and B&N, e.g. Smashwords?
On Amazon, they come with the international surcharge, meaning that customers like myself (from Hungary) would have to pay $8.04 instead of $4.99 for “Kingdom”. And I suspect the extra dollars go straight into Amazon’s pockets…
Stefan –
Thanks for reminding me about that. I’ll get ‘em up on Smashwords ASAP.
KW -
As a reader of many of your SF novels (Dr. Adder, Death Arms, Farewell Horizontal, the Blade Runner books, etc.) I am glad to see you back to writing fiction and for being so charged up about it. I’m about half a Hocking younger than you, and I am excited that authors, and SF authors in particular will be able to get their great books back into print. Trad Pub has pretty much given up on SF so I’m hoping the ebook revolution with no “slots” to fill will mean more SF.
I’m hoping you can get your fantastic back list up.