When I was down in Las Vegas last week being a guest speaker at the SuperStars writing Seminar, they put me on a panel about agents. They expected me to bash agents, as it seems is my reputation. I didn’t. As I have said many times, in the old days of publishing, when agents were actually needed, I had three top agents and I liked them and they did as I asked them to do. (I repeated that on the panel as well.)

Mainly, I didn’t bash agents because it’s not an agent’s fault that writers hire them in this new world. It’s not an agent’s fault that writers give them all their money and all their paperwork and then wonder why they got ripped off. It’s not an agent’s fault that a writer signs an agency agreement giving the agent part of the copyright in a work. It’s not an agent’s fault that a writer lets a non-lawyer agent negotiate a contract with fifty lawyers on the other side.

And it’s not the agent’s fault that a writer didn’t notice the agent stopped working for writers and started working for publishers years ago.

I didn’t bash agents on the panel in Las Vegas because it is not an agent’s fault that writers don’t know business.

Granted, agents take advantage of stupid writers (which there never seems to be a shortage of). But writers let themselves be taken over and over and over and then wonder why their career died. Or never got started. So I didn’t bash agents on the panel last week. But I did bash stupid writers.

And I have been doing that here for years now.

I guess that makes me anti-agent, but I am not. I am anti-bad-business. And anti-stupid-writer.

So now comes this week’s events and one more point in the proof how bad agents in general are for smart writers in this new world.  Just this week (yet again) the agents themselves gave us even more proof that they work for publishers, the very people they are supposed to represent writers against.

The AAR (a group of agents joining together to pretend to have more power when they have none) just put out a letter asking that all agents and writers and other publishing professionals write the Department of Justice and say that we all don’t like the suit filed against the major publishers on the agency agreement.

Excuse me??????

Now agents have gone so far as to flat represent publishers. Right out in public. No more hiding their true intent now.

And their organization did this with not one thought on how such a position will help or hurt their writers (at least the midlist writers and indie writers). And the agent organization put out this letter with not one thought on how Department of Justice forensic accountants crawling around inside big publishers just might find some of our money hiding in those cooked books. You know, the money from our electronic sales that are underreported over and over and over.

I’m not going to get into all the details here of the lawsuits and the letter from the agents, but for two great perspectives on all this, in a ton of detail, go read Joe Konrath http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ and Bob Mayer’s post on Digital Book World.

Both are great posts about this topic and the stupidity of what the agent organization did. And I like what Bob basically said in his post that this industry is changing so fast, no one knows where it’s going.

Bob is right. No one knows. Least of all agents who are now trying to protect their partners in the crimes against writers.

What should the AAR have done? Nothing. Or maybe start helping their writers take back electronic money they helped us give to publishers for electronic sales. Yup, one day the agents and all publishers sort of “got together” and decided electronic couldn’t be 50% of cover anymore (as it was in all contracts before this magical agreement), but had to be 25% of net. It was “better for the business” that way.

Just as setting agency pricing “was better for the business” as the publisher’s said, and now the agents want us to support those publishers.

Excuse me??? 

There are great arguments on both sides of agency pricing and wholesale pricing. As an indie publisher and writer I can see both sides. And the good and bad of both sides. Please argue that topic somewhere else because no one really knows where this is heading. And is not the point of all this, really. The point is the clear sign again that agents and their organization work for publishers.

Last week at the SuperStars writing seminar, all seven of us instructors (all bestsellers and long-term writers) were asked where publishing was going. There was a long, long, long moment of silence, then finally someone said, “As soon as we figure it out, we’ll let you know.”

That’s right, from a panel of “old” professional writers, most with over thirty years of experience and hundreds of books each. We don’t know.

But I do know one thing. Smart writers are running in droves from agents. And many young writers are not even going after agents at the moment, but instead going directly to editors and using IP lawyers to help with the contracts. Or indie publishing and letting the dust settle.

So now the agent organization came out asking us all to help protect their small “little” publisher partners being unfairly attacked by the Department of Justice by writing letters of support.

Wow.

Stunning.

It makes you wonder just how long agents as a class in publishing will survive. Even the most stupid writer has to wake up one day.

Or at least stop giving an agent all the money and all the paperwork for that money.

From all reports from our new tech service and friends, all our web sites are now clean and will be guarded. However, the Google warnings are still up on her site for the moment on all servers and we are working to get those down. That takes time. So don’t click through. And once they are down, please clear your history and cache to make sure the old information isn’t stored there.

And we got the comments problem solved at least on this site. For those of you who were having trouble making a comment on a post here, try again. The website cleaning service hardened up the sites just a tad too much. (grin)

Kris and I want to thank everyone again for the kind support on all this. We’re using it to make some changes on our sites, which we were planning on doing, but now those changes have increased in speed, so watch for them shortly.

And I have a number of blog posts almost ready to roll, plus more chapters in the 2012 edition of Think Like a Publisher. So soon.

Any questions on the workshops, feel free to ask in the comment section now.

FRIDAY UPDATE!!

All sites completely clean and warning signs coming down. We are returning to normal here, whatever that is. (grin)

I just got back from being a special guest at the SuperStars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas. (Pictures in the post below.) It’s a great workshop with wonderful people attending. Thanks, Kevin and Rebecca, for inviting me. It was great fun.

Here on the Oregon Coast, we have a few workshops left this spring and early summer and then three brand new workshops for the fall.

Starting next week is the Cliffhanger workshop followed by Genre Structure workshop. Both are closed and are going to be great fun.

In the middle of June, Kristine Kathryn Rusch is teaching a Short Story Workshop. It’s a week long and since someone just dropped out yesterday, there is now one spot open again. Since there is a reading list, it would be some work to jump in with only just over a month to go, but possible. Anyone interested or need more information, e-mail me. Basic information on all these are under the “Workshop” tab above.

In July there are two critical workshops to indie publishers.  Together they cover one week. First is Pitches and Blurbs. That workshop will be taught by me and you will learn how to write pitches and blurbs for cover letters to editors in New York and for ad copy and back cover copy of your own books. With everything selling through electronic stores, having a great story blurb these days is far more critical than it used to be. If you are wondering why your books don’t sell, maybe it’s because your blurbs are bad or dull.

The second part of the week in July is a workshop called “Think Like a Publisher.”  Scott William Carter and I run you through every detail of how to be an indie publisher and help you learn how to format your work, do covers, understand POD and web sites, and how to sell your work effectively. If you are afraid of the indie publishing process and starting your own publishing company, you won’t be when these four days are finished.

We have room in both July workshops still, so check out the information under the “Workshop” tab above and write me if you have questions or are interested.

NEW WORKSHOPS

We are doing three brand new workshops this fall with some great guest instructors. All three workshops are one week long, starting at 7PM on a Saturday and going until late the following Saturday night. All three are $650.00 workshop fee. Again, details under the “Workshop” tab above. But let me outlines what these workshops are. There is room to sign up in all three.

SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 6, 2012
POD Workshop. 

Everything you need to know about doing printed books in your indie press. We will teach you how to lay them out, do wrap-around covers, interior design, and how to sell them into bookstores and other sales outlets.

Taught by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira. Allyson has a masters degree in graphic design and has been an editor and publisher in the past. She is now the publisher of WMG Publishing and will have well over a hundred books laid out and designed before the workshop. Dean Wesley Smith is the former publisher of Pulphouse Publishing, one of the largest publishers in science fiction and fantasy in the 1990s.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night. (This will be limited so sign up as soon as you decide.)

——

OCTOBER 20-27, 2012
The Sexy Side of Writing. 

Everything you need to know about how to write hot, sexy fiction in any genre. Taught by three of the top writers in three different genres, this will be an intense and fun writing workshop. Instructors are Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Phaedra Wheldon, and Dayle Dermatis.

If you want a writing and craft workshop, this is one I wouldn’t miss.

I’ll put instructor bios here in the next week and under the workshop tab.

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $50.00 per night. (This will be limited so sign up as soon as you decide.)

—–

November 10-17, 2012
Beyond the Page. Audio. 

Everything you need to know about how to read your own work, how to do audio books cheaply with your own computer, and how to sell them as well through your indie press, your web site, and other places.

Instructors are Kristine Kathryn Rusch and J. Daniel Sawyer, with help on the sales side by Dean Wesley Smith and Allyson Longueira.

Kris used to train new radio announcers how to read and speak and that’s what she will be doing for writers in this workshop. Reading your own work in an effective and entertaining way is a skill and Kris can teach you how to do it. Dan is a sound professional as well as a professional fiction writer and he will teach you how to do the audio books in the WMG Publishing sound room.

You will leave this workshop knowing how to read your own work, record it if you want, and sell the recordings.

(I’ll put instructor bios here and under the workshop tab in the next week.)

Workshop fee is $650.00 and room rate is $40.00 per night. (This will be limited so sign up as soon as you decide.)

For fun, I thought I would post these pictures of the instructors at the SuperStars Writing Workshop in Las Vegas this last week. Joshua Essoe took the photos of all of us sitting up front. I was one of the guest speakers and I had a blast and learned a ton. How can you not learn listening to these other instructors? When they announce next year’s dates and such, I’ll put it up here. (I won’t be teaching since they rotate through guest speakers to keep things fresh, but I want to support it.)

In the first picture it is (from right to left) Eric Flint, Rebecca Moesta, Kevin J. Anderson, Brandon Sanderson, James Artimus Owen, David Farland, and me on the very end.

In this second picture, same order but missing Brandon Sanderson.

Thanks again to Joshua Essoe for the great photos.

As many of you noticed and gave us a head’s up (thanks), Kris’s site was hacked. We’re solving the problem. She finds it funny that someone can’t argue with words about what she says, so has to resort to this.

I’m still in Vegas but heading home, so I will be back here tomorrow with new stuff. The Superstars workshop was great fun. More later when I’m not typing on an iPad.

(Added Note the next day.) I’m back and we have hired a national computer security firm to clean all the web sites and get things back up and running. And make sure this site is clean and will be as secure as possible as well.

Thanks, everyone, for all the support and for spreading Kris’s last blog, which I thought was important. It seems that someone injected into her site a very nasty thing that spread through her web sites as she tried to link and reroute the post. It’s going to take a few days, more than likely into early next week to get things up and running and completely safe again.

And a huge thanks to The Passive Guy and others who posted her article in full while this craziness is going on. It really is a special world we live in.

SATURDAY NIGHT UPDATE: The great service we hired has cleaned all the web sites we have and is working to remove the warnings. But until those warnings on Kris’s site are down, don’t go through them. Everything is being monitored and seems clean at the moment, but give it a little time yet. Maybe a few days before everything is back to normal. If anything we do on these web sites is normal. (grin)

SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE: All cleared out and my sites are cleared as well, but hold off on going to Kris’s site until all the warnings are down. Thanks a ton for all the support on this, everyone. I’m sure Kris will talk about it all in a few days.

Here we go with Chapter Three, the last of the “Early Decisions” set up chapters.

It’s been some time since I wrote the first version of Think Like a Publisher. Since I wrote those first chapters, Scott William Carter and I have taught three workshops by the same name, plus an advanced workshop helping indie writers make more money from their books. This fall I will be teaching a POD workshop on all the aspects of designing and selling paper books. (Watch for the announcement.)

And during those workshops and from comments and from hundreds of sources I learned a ton more information.

Plus the publishing company I helped start (WMG Publishing) now has a full-time employee and has published over 240 different book titles.

And the overall publishing business has changed as well. Amazing numbers of changes, actually.

As traditional publishers grab for more rights and become even more difficult to work with, more and more writers are moving to indie publishing. As they make the jump, they ask basic questions on how to do it, how to be treated with respect as a publisher, and even how to do simple things like setting up a publishing business.

An indie publisher is still a publisher, the same as any traditional publisher.

Think Like a Publisher 2012 is an updated version of the book from over a year ago, including some of what has changed and what I have learned over the last year or more. I’m sure in another two years I’ll do a third edition. Some things are changing that fast.

Every three or four days I will post a chapter for free here with a link under the tab above. But the entire 2012 edition is now available in both trade paper and electronic editions in all electronic bookstores (Kindle, B&N, Smashwords and so on) if you want to jump ahead of these posts. (B&N link also has the paper version through Barnes & Noble.com) Make sure you get the green cover. The red cover is the first edition.

Comments on each chapter are welcome and help us all learn, but keep the comments focused on the topic of the chapter, please.

I hope these chapters help you get a jump on learning how to be a publisher.

Chapter Three

Projected Income

To actually get a profit-and-loss calculation for a book project, you must now make some pricing decisions and projections of income.

Yeah, I know. I know. This is all so new, how can anyone predict how much money they will make on any project? Well, you can’t. Not really. But you can try. And you want to know a dirty little secret. New York traditional publishing can’t predict how much they will make on any book either.

But they try.

And that’s the key. To really act like a publisher, you need to understand what you are trying to gain. You need to know how many sales will get your expenses back. And you need to know at how many sales will you start making a profit.

So this chapter is about why you need to try to determine set income ranges, and how to do that at this moment in 2012.

This is the last of the basic three set-up chapters. After this one, we start getting into more detail on specific areas.

Caution!!

Here we go again, back into pricing. Remember, this discussion is about acting like a real publisher, not a hobby writer. Real publishers are in the business to make a profit. That’s the focus now, so please keep that in mind. If that is not your intent, fine.

Pricing

To determine any kind of income and sales potential, you must first make some pricing decisions. And you must decide as a publisher what your long-range goals are.

(Holy smokes have we had discussions about this topic here on the blog. Feel free to bring up the old questions again if you feel they have not been answered yet.)

Those of us involved with the starting of WMG Publishing sat down and talked about long-range goals. We all wanted WMG Publishing to become, down the road, a decent mid-sized publisher of fiction of all types from many, many authors. You might decide that your publisher is just to publish your work. That’s normal for indie publishing and nothing wrong with that at all. Or maybe your business mission statement isn’t to make any money, but to have a lot of people read your work. Fine as well, if you are clear for yourself on that.

The choice of mission statement will also determine your standard pricing. And your pricing will determine also how you sell books, both electronically and in paper editions.

Continue Reading »

I did a New World of Publishing post a few posts back talking about how I could find the balance between short fiction indie publishing and short fiction traditional publishing. And then I did another post about how I could NOT find the balance between traditional novel publishing and indie publishing. And from some of the comments that came in, I think I didn’t talk clearly enough about the main point I was trying to make.

So let me try once again from a slightly different angle, and, I hope, a little more directly on my point.

First off, I need to clear up one thing. I still have two books under contract with traditional New York publishers and I plan on writing both to the best of my ability. So I haven’t jumped completely to indie publishing just yet. And unless a few things change, as I said in the last post, I find it hard to imagine ever doing another book for traditional publishers except for rare exceptions.

Unless things change.

That’s the key.

Unless things change. And the changes I am asking for are in the contracts and are fantastically simple.

Do I Want More Money?

Well, duh. Who doesn’t?  But I am not asking for more money from traditional publishers. I know how the math works, I know how they calculate a profit and loss statement, I know what a range for an advance means in sales. If an offer is fair for the product on the money side, I would not turn down an offer. And I have written books over the last ten years from $5,000 advance and on up.

I have always felt that my advances were fair for what I have been writing. In fact, for about ten years, I felt as if I were the most overpaid writer working, because I did rescue jobs at times in which I was offered far more of an advance than the book could handle in sales. I took it. Because the publisher needed me to help them with a larger problem.

But if I wrote a nifty little midlist romance right now, I’d be happy at the advance for a midlist romance right now. And those advances range from $4,000 to $20,000 depending on a ton of factors. And more than likely I could make more money than that indie publishing the same book over a period of years. That’s a factor in a decision, but honestly not my main factor. When you can write a novel as fast as I can, (meaning I am willing to spend the hours at the computer in a short overall span of time) then I can often make choices that have nothing to do with money.

So in the decision of more money, if the offer is fair from a traditional publisher, it’s usually fine with me.

So Bluntly, Why Did I Say There Was No Balance?

Simply put, I want traditional publishers to respect me as a writer and supplier of their product. Nothing more.

And nothing less.

One more time. Here are the respect contract terms I would demand and are far more important to me than money in this new world.

So to TRADITIONAL PUBLISHERS, here are the respectful terms I are asking for.

And I hope many other writers ask for as well until these terms start to happen.

(Notice, no extra money. Just asking for respect.)

One… 

The contract has a firm termination date.

If you (traditional publisher) are offering me a small midlist contract of say $5,000.00, the contract terminates completely in five years from the day of publication or six years from the day of signing on the contract. Period. If the publisher feels they can continue to make money on the book, they must come and negotiate a new contract with me.

If the contract advance amount is larger, I will go up to ten years max. Again, the term in negotiable, up to a point. No more “forever” contracts in publishing. They are disrespectful to the owner of the copyright. (Ummm, that’s me.)

Two…

Not one breath in the contract of trying to control my other work.

And if you (traditional publisher) try, then we add into the contract how you must give me rights to walk into your business and tell you what you can and cannot buy from other authors. It’s only fair. And respectful.

Keep your hands and control out of my business except for one book under the one contract. Nothing more, nothing less. Those kind of restrictions do not belong in a single book contract. No amount of money gives you the right to control my business beyond the contract. And no amount of money gives you (traditional publisher) the right to tell me what I can and cannot write.

Three…

You (traditional publisher) must allow contract terms that allow me to cancel the contract at any moment if you (traditional publisher) do not perform up to the contract terms.

It’s a form of consideration (if you want the legal term.) You (traditional publisher) demand that I turn in a book at a certain time and there are repercussions in the contract if I do not. I should be able to have cover approval and demand that you publish my book within a certain time frame as well. The repercussions of failure on both sides need to be the same: termination and complete reversion of the right and/or return of money.

—

That’s it.

Three simple things.

Of course, there are many other clauses that do not belong in a publishing contract, not the least of which is the agency clause. But I don’t much care about that because I haven’t had an agent in seven years now. (If you are still silly enough to give a perfect stranger all your money and the paperwork with your money and allow that agency clause to be in your contract with a publisher, you need some major business classes and should watch a bunch of fairly recent news programs about a guy called Bernie.)

For now, I would be happy with the three major changes I outlined above. They are very simple, they don’t cost the publisher extra money. Nothing. Not one dime.

And all short fiction publishers have no trouble with any of those three. They are standard in short fiction.

Yet traditional NOVEL publishers across the board are turning down those terms and demanding even more control over a writer’s work.

And sadly, some writers are signing. And their agents are too afraid to stand up for their clients to even ask for any of this. (Shame on you, agents. When did you lose your courage to fight for your clients?)

That’s how really, really screwed up traditional publishing on the novel side has become.

And that’s why I say there is no longer a balance for any smart writer between indie novel publishing and traditional novel publishing.

Indie publishing, where we writers (copyright holders) are in control of our own work, wins every time over giving away our copyrights, our control, and our art.

I am not asking for more money from traditional publishers.

I am simply asking for respect.

But traditional publishers think so little of writers, they are not willing to even give that in return.

And so many writers have so little respect in themselves, they are willing to let traditional publishers take all this from them.

Not me. After I finish these two novels that are under a very old contract, unless those three simple terms are in a contract, I’m not signing.

I respect myself just a little too much to do that.

Here we go with Chapter Two.

It’s been some time since I wrote the first version of Think Like a Publisher. Since I wrote those first chapters, Scott William Carter and I have taught three workshops by the same name, plus an advanced workshop helping indie writers make more money from their books. This fall I will be teaching a POD workshop on all the aspects of designing and selling paper books. (Watch for the announcement.)

And during those workshops and from comments and from hundreds of sources I learned a ton more information.

Plus the publishing company I helped start (WMG Publishing) now has a full-time employee and has published over 240 different book titles.

And the overall publishing business has changed as well. Amazing numbers of changes, actually.

As traditional publishers grab for more rights and become even more difficult to work with, more and more writers are moving to indie publishing. As they make the jump, they ask basic questions on how to do it, how to be treated with respect as a publisher, and even how to do simple things like setting up a publishing business.

An indie publisher is still a publisher, the same as any traditional publisher.

Think Like a Publisher 2012 is an updated version of the book from over a year ago, including some of what has changed and what I have learned over the last year or more. I’m sure in another two years I’ll do a third edition. Some things are changing that fast.

Every three or four days I will post a chapter for free here with a link under the tab above. But the entire 2012 edition is now available in both trade paper and electronic editions in all electronic bookstores (Kindle, B&N, Smashwords and so on) if you want to jump ahead of these posts. (B&N link also has the paper version through Barnes & Noble.com) Make sure you get the green cover. The red cover is the first edition.

Comments on each chapter are welcome and help us all learn, but keep the comments focused on the topic of the chapter, please.

I hope these chapters help you get a jump on learning how to be a publisher.

And on finding an audience for your writing.

Chapter Two:

Expected Costs 

The first chapter was “The Early Decisions” which included picking a business name, setting up checking accounts, and so on. There were no real costs at all in those early steps unless your state had a small fee for registering a business name. Checking accounts are free, so are PayPal accounts, and so on.

So, the question on this second basic business-planning chapter is: “What are your expected costs?”

For those of you with a basic understanding of business, you can now see the structure of how I am setting up these chapters. Before starting into a business, there are certain things that need to be figured. Set-up costs, projected production and business costs, and projected income.  You have no real data on the costs or the income, at least not accurate data, but anyone with a lick of sense who is starting a business will sit down and try to figure these factors out to some degree.

It would seem that expected costs should be tough to figure. But actually, in this business, they are not. At least for most levels. It just will take a little homework is all.

So, let me first divide this discussion into three major areas.

Cost in Money.

Cost in Time.

Set Costs.

All three areas are critical to figuring overall expected costs of producing a product.

In the first two categories I’ll divide the discussion down into three major ways of running your company: 1) Do All Work Yourself. 2) Do Some Work Yourself, and 3) Hire all work done.

And, of course, the categories cross over. If you find your time more valuable than your money, then hiring things done will be more of an option. And so on.

Cost in Money 

1) Do It All Yourself: For Electronic Publishing

No costs. None, zero, zip. No actual costs that I can see at all if you want to do everything yourself, and I do mean everything. You lay out the book in some free program, lay out the cover in some free program, find free art at public domain sites or free photos or take your own electronic photos with a camera given to you as a gift at Christmas on a computer given to you for your birthday.

There is no cost at all to upload a file to Kindle, B&N, and Smashwords (which then gets your story out to Apple, Kobo, Sony and others). Use the free ISBN feature on Smashwords and use the free tracking numbers (which are like ISBNs) for Kindle and B&N.

Continue Reading »

On the Rookhouse Books web site, professional writer Lee Allred did a wonderful tribute to his friend K.D. Wentworth, who passed away far, far too young. Everyone inside of science fiction and fantasy knew K.D. from one place or another. I have no actual memory of meeting her for the first time. She just was always a part of the science fiction world for me. And over the years I spent many wonderful hours with K.D. in convention suites, on panels, and over dinners, usually talking writing or business.

I admired her tremendously. Not only was she a fine writer, but she did some fantastic work helping new writers come into writing, not the least of which was her years of work as the main judge on the Writers of the Future contest. It’s a stunner that she is gone. She will be missed.

http://www.rookhousebooks.com/2012/04/25/k-d-wentworth-1951-2012/

Lawrence Block, in a fantastically wonderful post (called All Changed, Changed Utterly…), gives a perfect sense of what it has been like to move from one side of this crazy industry into indie publishing.

And with his wonderful writing he lets you understand what it feels like to a person like me (or Kris) when we have spent thirty-plus years in the old system to suddenly find this new system. After reading his column, you might understand why every-so-often I just shout out, “I love this new world!”

So please, please, please go read his column, even if you are not indie publishing. (It’s Lawrence Block, for heaven’t sake.) And if you haven’t already, follow the links and buy a book or two that he talks about at the end. (The Scudder short story collection, The Night and the Music, is a personal top favorite of mine.)

Go read the column. You will be very glad you did.

http://lawrenceblock.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/all-changed-changed-utterly/