PG missed this one a few days ago.

From the Smashwords blog:

For the study this year, we analyzed over $12 million in sales for a collection of 120,000 Smashwords ebooks from May 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013.  We aggregated our sales data from across our retail distribution network, which includes the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Amazon (only about 200 of our 200,000 titles are at Amazon).  As the world’s largest indie ebook distributor, I think our study represents the most comprehensive analysis ever of how ebooks from self-published authors and small independent presses are behaving in the marketplace.

. . . .

1.  Ebook Sales Conform to a Power Curve
Most books don’t sell well, but those that do sell well sell really well.  This finding wasn’t a surprise.  Just as in traditional publishing, very few books become bestsellers.

However, the underlying dynamic of the power curve is extremely significant, especially when you consider it as a framework for evaluating the survey’s findings.  As a title moves up in sales rank, its sales grow exponentially.  We see this in our sales results all the time.  On any given day, a #1 bestseller in an ebook store might be selling twice the number copies as the #5-ranked title on that day, and triple or quadruple the number of copies as the #10 bestseller.  In our data over this 11-month period, the #1 Smashwords bestseller, measured in dollars, sold 37 times more than the book ranked #500, and #500′s sales would put a smile on most authors’ faces.

The opportunity for every Smashwords author and publisher is to make decisions that cause their books to move up in sales rank.   This is power of my Viral Catalyst concept.  When you consider that there are potentially dozens if not hundreds of factors that can make your book more (or less) discoverable, desirable and enjoyable, then you realize that you – the author/publisher – have more control over your book’s destiny than previously thought.  Your opportunity is to make dozens of correct decisions – big and small – while avoiding the poor decisions that will undermine your success.

. . . .

2.  Viva Long Form Reading:  Longer Books Sell Better
For the second year running, we found definitive evidence that ebook readers – voting with their Dollars, Euros, Pounds, Krone, Krona and Koruna – overwhelmingly prefer longer books over shorter books.

The top 100 bestselling Smashwords books averaged 115,000 words.  When we examined the word counts of books in other sales rank bands, we found the lower the word count, the lower the sales.

Now consider how authors can use this finding, combined with the knowledge of the power curve, to make smarter publishing decisions, and to avoid poor decisions.  Often, we’ll see an authors with a single full-length novel break the novel into chunks to create a series of novellas, or worse – they’ll try to serialize it as dozens of short pieces.  When you consider that readers overwhelmingly prefer longer works, and you consider that bestselling titles sell exponentially more copies, reach more readers and earn more money than the non-bestsellers, you can understand how some authors might be undermining their book’s true potential.

Like every finding from this survey, you should use this information as one data point.  There will always be exceptions to any rule.   If your story deserves 50,000 words – nothing more and nothing less – because this is the length packs the biggest pleasure punch for readers, then by all means don’t bloat your perfect story with extra words just because the data shows that longer books, on average, sell more.  Do what’s right for your story because that’s what’s right for your reader.

Link to the rest at Smashwords

From author Scott William Carter:

A couple days ago, when I wrote about my upcoming novel, Ghost Detective, I mentioned that I’m doing a little bit of recalibrating with my writing career.  Well, republishing my Jack Nolte books under my own name is a big part of that process.

Why go to all the trouble, and why did I publish those books under a pseudonym in the first place?

. . . .

I was feeling like I was building toward something of a career as a young adult/children’s writer under my own name.

Now, you have to understand, this isn’t how I saw my writing career.  I follow a simple motto when it comes to my writing, one that I actually have taped to my monitor as a daily reminder:  Write your own favorite book. What I mean is, I try not to pigeonhole myself as a young adult writer or a children’s writer or a mystery writer or a science fiction writer or literary writer, though in my short career, you could already make the case that any one of those labels applies.  I just try to write my own favorite book.

. . . .

But back to 2010.  There are many valid reasons to write under a pseudonym.  You could do it because you don’t want people to know (anonymity) you write “that sort of thing,” whatever “that sort of thing” is.  You could do it because you write across genres and you want to more clearly distinguish those books for readers (branding).  But even if you don’t feel the need to write under a pseudonym for those two reasons, there was an even better one if you hoped to have a long and fruitful traditional publishing career:  protecting your sales numbers.

If you wrote thrillers that were expected to move 100,000 units a book, you may not want to release that latest science fiction novel that’s only expected to sell 5000 under your own name.

. . . .

[B]ecause nobody really knew what the future held for indie-published writers in 2010 (though it was looking promising), I decided to release The Gray and Guilty Seaunder the pen name Jack Nolte.*

Honestly, I was unsure about the book, too.  A writer’s self-confidence can already be an iffy thing, and this is a book that had failed to sell to traditional publishers.

. . . .

So I just stuck it out there with no fanfare, not even a mention on my own blog.  I even put the book at 99 cents originally because I just didn’t care.  I created a JackNolte.com website ( a site which, you’ll notice, now links back here) and treated Jack like he was a separate writer altogether.

And an amazing thing happened. The book started to sell.

. . . .

Over the past few months, this whole pseudonym thing has been nagging me a great deal.  It’s hard enough to build one name, and it’s doubly hard if you’re spreading your books among several.  This has always been true, I guess, but it’s even more true now:  The best way to build a career, today, and with indie publishing specficially, is to steadily release new, similar material.  It’s not the only way, and it’s certainly not right for every writer, but it’s probably the most common method I’ve seen writers use to achieve success recently.

. . . .

Here’s what I did over the last week:

1. Add my own name to the online listings of the Jack Nolte books as a co-author
2. Repackage the covers, dropping the Jack Nolte to a “writing as” subhead
3. Direct all traffic from JackNolte.com to my own site.
4. Publish updated versions of the paperbacks with new covers and interiors.
5. Write this blog post, so Jack Nolte fans will know why I’m making this change.

This way I don’t lose any momentum from the Jack Nolte name, but I position myself so that when the third Gage book is released, I can just release it completely under my own name.

Link to the rest at Scott William Carter

From author Russell Blake on KBoards:

I’ve gotten a number of PMs from authors asking for counsel on one matter or another, so I thought I would take the time to lay out my thoughts so that the info is available to everyone. This doesn’t represent the only way to do things, but it’s my way, and is the synthesis of everything I’ve learned over the last 23 months of self-publishing.

By way of background, I write conspiracy-based action/adventure novels. I published my first novel on Amazon June, 2011. I published my 20th novel in April, 2013. My first month I sold about 7 books. In 2013, from the start of the year to today, May 7, I have sold just shy of 100K books, and look good to exceed 200K for the year by a decent margin. I do not sell books at .99, or $2.99, or $3.99. The vast majority of my titles are $5-$6.

. . . .

1) Pick one genre that’s popular and with which you are extremely familiar, and then write in that genre. Stick to it. Don’t hop around. It confuses your potential readers and muddies who you are in their minds, and will hurt your sales. If you want to write different genres, use a pseudonym, and if you like, let your readers know that moniker is you. But stick to one name, one genre, because you’re building your brand, and brand building is a function of clarity – clearly communicating what you do, and what your product is.

2) Write a series. Why? Because readers like series, and you want to give readers what they like. Or you won’t sell as much. You can try stand-alone – I have – but my series outsell my stand-alone books 4 to 1. Once you have at least three books in the series, make the first one free. Make your money on the rest, but give readers a whole novel to decide whether they like you or not.

3) Write a lot. By that I mean try to write at least 3 novels a year. Don’t bother with short stories or novellas (40K or under) if you’re writing fiction (non-fiction might do better) unless it’s erotica or your name is Hugh. If fiction, write 60-90K installments in your series, and release them AT MINIMUM every four months. Every three months would be better. Every two, better still. Momentum breeds success, and readers have short memories.

. . . .

7) Stay off the internet when you’re writing. Set aside the writing time, and do only that. Leave placeholders for stuff you need to research later (XXX city is Y distance from ZZZ city, etc.). Stopping your writing to research breaks your momentum. Don’t do it. Checking your e-mail, checking in with your facebook group, reading a tweet – none of these are going to write your book for you, so stop it already.

. . . .

13) Price competitively and intelligently. Look at your genre. Where are most books priced? Are you undervaluing/underpricing your work? Price to sell, but don’t go cheap, no matter what Locke or Hocking did years ago. Use low prices occasionally to move product, as promotional pricing. But price your product consistently with the rest of your peers. Over time, you can increase prices, if your product warrants it and your readership is willing to pay it. My advice here is don’t price too low, or too high. Obviously, if you are racing up the charts at $3.99 and believe that moving to .99 will get you into the winner’s circle, go for it, but that’s rare. Price intelligently, and constantly play around with. By way of example, I tried $2.99 and $3.99, and then $4.99, and my sales were basically the same. So my readers are willing to pay up to $5 with no issues. My new releases are always $5.99. I do that because I want to brand myself as a quality read, and also because that’s still a bargain compared to my trad pub peers. I’m nosebleed level for indies, but I’ve only been pricing there with success this year. All last year, $4.99 was the ceiling.

Link to the rest at KBoards and thanks to Barb for the tip.

From author Leigh Ann Kopans:

One of the first questions I ask people who are considering self publishing is whether they have the money to do it well. I see other self-publishers giving the advice to “only spend what you can afford,” and I think that’s wrong.

Yes. It’s wrong. What I think they should say is “If you don’t have the resources to do it right, either wait and save up or don’t do it at all.”

Yes, it’s sort of a harsh message. Yes, I stand by it.

. . . .

Before I made the final decision to publish ONE and TWO, I spent some time quietly gathering estimates from the various professionals I’d need to hire to make these books a success.

. . . .

Then I made an Excel spreadsheet of all the costs, and added up the total.

Then I sat down with my family’s (very tight, four-kids-in-full-time-daycare) budget and hemmed and hawed and sweated and groaned and SQUEEZED until I figured out a way to make it work. (Basically, there will be no date nights or new clothes or electronics or, like, any luxuries for….awhile.)

. . . .

[H]ere’s a basic [cost] breakdown:

Editing, formatting, packaging, and distribution services: $825
Promotional materials and services: $700
Print ARCs (including shipping): $450
Audio book studio time*: $150

Grand Total – $2125

Included in some of those categories are some deeply discounted services, that could have easily added $1500 to the project if I had kept them at full price. All writers have different connections and different personal skill sets, so this is not meant to be a guide for any individual author or project - just one example of  one person’s budget for one particular project.

. . . .

I just want to stop right here and say that I fully recognize that putting money into publishing a book up front is the biggest drawback to self-publishing. So, here are the reasons that I decided it was worth it:

I was speaking (read: complaining) to a prominent literary agent about the stress of putting money into the project at the outset. She responded with something like, “Yes, but just think – if you got a book deal today, your book wouldn’t be out until 2015. All the money you make between now and then, consider your advance.”

Link to the rest at Leigh Ann Kopans and thanks to Ant for the tip.

There’s an interesting new Kickstarter project:

I’m Gary W. Goldstein and I’ve been producing films in Hollywood for over 25 years, as well as managing the careers of many successful screenwriters and writer-directors. I am excited to ask for your support to self-publish my new book for aspiring screenwriters and to create a new creative community.

. . . .

I’ve just finished writing the book about how you can transform your talent into a vibrant career in Hollywood as a screenwriter. I don’t focus on teaching how to write a screenplay. Instead, my book is a blueprint that reveals how to build a successful career by having a detailed game plan, knowing the exact action steps to take to get your projects and career moving forward in Hollywood. The book is a precise roadmap and a simple plan that anybody can follow and duplicate the sort of results and success I’ve been able to enjoy.

Link to the rest at Kickstarter

From regular visitor and author JW Manus:

I get several emails a week from people who are self-publishing or thinking about self-publishing. They ask me questions about the process.

Sometimes I can answer: “What’s a good program for making an ebook?”

. . . .

Sometimes I have no answers: “What’s the most effective type of marketing and promotion?” (who knows?) “Will I make money selling ebooks?” (maybe, maybe not)

. . . .

A common thread running through most of those emails is this: I feel alone and I’m not sure what to do.

I want to assure those folks that one) self-publishing DOES NOT mean going it alone; and two) by asking questions, you are doing EXACTLY THE RIGHT THING.

The number one reason I hear for going the trad pub route is this: “I just want to write and let a publisher or my agent take care of all the business-production-marketing stuff.”

I understand that. I honestly do. When I’m caught up in creative throes, I don’t want to bothered by, you know, life. Here’s the reality. I sold my first piece of writing in 1990. I’ve worked with several publishers. I have a stack of book contracts. I’ve belonged to several professional writer organizations. I’ve listened to and talked to hundreds of industry professionals–writers, editors, publishers, publicists, agents, and booksellers. So I’ve been around the block once or twice. One thing I know for a hard fact is this: The industry is full of weasels and sharks, and if you abdicate your responsibility to your writing and your career, you will get bitten. It might be a small, barely noticeable wound, or you might get eaten altogether.

. . . .

It’s actually more in response to something I’ve heard several times in the past week. Proponents of traditional publishers and agents proclaiming their valuable role in “nurturing” writers.

Um… no.

Nurturing is what mothers do for babies. Writers are not infants. Most aren’t children, either.

Despite my raised hackles over such condescending bullshit, I still understand the appeal. Writing can be lonely. Loneliness leads to frustration. Frustration requires relief lest it fester. You need someone to tell you that you aren’t wasting your life on a dream. You need assurance that you are doing at least something right. Gold stars and pats on the head don’t do a thing for me, but I do understand the very real need for recognition and acknowledgement for a job well done.

So this is for the writers who are looking at self-publishing, but are afraid that it’s a leap into a lonely abyss. Afraid it is too hard. Afraid they’ll make mistakes.

. . . .

You don’t need nurturing. You need connections and support. One of the most fabulous aspects of self-publishing is that the community is large, noisy, active and supportive. Generous, too, with information.

Link to the rest with a lot of good advice at JW Manus and thanks to Julia for the tip.

From Digital Book World:

Fantasy author Michael J. Sullivan was one of the early indies who signed a traditional contract when the big-six came knocking. Orbit (fantasy imprint of Hachette) bought his Riyria Revelations series and republished it as three, two-book omnibus volumes. He recently announced a return to self-publishing with his new novel, Hollow World, which will come out January 20, 2014.

. . . .

So why self-publish now?

The plan had always been to be a “hybrid author” even before that became the current buzzword that it is today. To me it just makes the most sense. If diversification is good for investments, why wouldn’t I want to diversify my career, especially given how volatile publishing is right now. Early on I learned the incredible earning potential of self-publishing, but there was still a pretty substantial portion of the book buying public that was left untapped. Libraries and bookstores are still important for discoverability, and while it is changing rapidly, there are still some who would never consider reading a self-published book. I estimated that my readership tripled in the first year after my transition. If I had stayed self-published, I think my growth would have been more along the line of 10%-20%.  So, signing Riyria was absolutely the right decision for me and my career. I actually had planned on self-publishing my next work (The Riyria Chronicles), but Orbit made an offer that was higher than I thought I could make through self-publishing, so I signed. When I submitted Hollow World, I had some caveats regarding contract terms and advance amounts. When I got the news they passed, I was actually excited because it opened the door that I have been wanting to go through all along.

Will you be approaching self-publishing differently now than you did originally?

In some ways yes, in other ways no—it’s important to me that regardless of how my books get to the market they must be identical with regards to quality. When I originally self-published, I operated on a shoestring budget, and that meant I had to do everything myself.  Yes, I hired some freelancers for editing, but I needed to keep my expenses down to ensure a positive return on investment, so I had to spend a lot of time shopping around. The people I eventually found were excellent, but I still felt a need to check and double check their work.  So it took a lot of time away from writing new material.

. . . .

So does that mean publishers are irrelevant now?

It’s actually pretty amazing that traditional publishers are in a position of having to explain their relevancy.  My own publisher, Hachette, put out a letter last year to all its authors explaining why they were still necessary. The fact that they felt they needed to make a case speaks volumes about how impactful the self-publishing revelation has been.  There are a lot of people who are pretty partisan about which route is “the best,” but my stance has always been that there is no universal answer. Each author has different goals and abilities and there will always be a place for traditional publishing (at least for the foreseeable future). Because I’m such a huge supporter of self-publishing, many think I’m anti-traditional, which I’m really not.  I just want people to be well informed before they make their decision on which way to go.  Also, I think all authors should constantly re-evaluate their paths because things are changing every day.

. . . .

But if a work is turned down, doesn’t that mean it’s not worth being published?

There is only one group of people qualified to make the determination of whether a book is worthy of publication…and that’s the readers. There are many reasons why books are turned down, which have nothing to do with the quality of the work. They may be pushing the envelope in such a way that it’s impossible to find comparable works to calculate the necessary profit/loss calculations. It could be that the house is over committed with other titles. Maybe the author wanted more money than the publisher is willing to spend. Or it could be as simple as the publisher being wrong about a book’s potential.  Every major publisher passed on The Riyria Revelations when I first submitted them (before self-publishing).  They have sold more than 250,000 copies between self and traditional and the series is still on Amazon’s bestsellers lists more than a year and a half after its release.  The books didn’t change between the rejections and Orbit’s acceptance, the only difference the second time I submitted, was that the readers had vetted it.

 How do you think the hybrid movement will affect traditional publishing?

My hope is there will be a shift of power toward authors. For years, traditional publishing has had a veritable monopoly on determining what books made it to the market, hence contract terms are heavily weighted in the publisher’s favor. However, at the end of 2010, self-publishing came along and proved that authors could bypass publishers and still be successful.  I think one of the biggest secrets in the industry is just how well the self-publishing mid-list is doing. The media loves to focus on outliers like Hocking, Locke, and Howey, but the truly amazing thing is all the indies who are quietly making five and six-figure incomes. I actually know more self-published authors who earn a full-time living than I do traditionally published ones.  A recent survey by DBW & Writer’s Digest indicated that 1/3 of traditionally published authors are interested in self-publishing their next book.  Once publishers start seeing an exodus of titles, they’ll need to adjust their contracts to entice authors to stay. Because of this, even those that plan on staying traditional will benefit from those that go the hybrid route.

Link to the rest at Digital Book World

From The Washington Post:

fter a feverish month of inspiration, Colleen Hoover had finally fulfilled her dream of writing a book.With family and friends asking to read the emotional tale of first love, the married mother of three young boys living in rural East Texas and working 11-hour days as a social worker decided to digitally self-publish on Amazon, where they could download it for free for a week.

“I had no intentions of ever getting the book published. I was just writing it for fun,” said Hoover, who uploaded “Slammed” a year ago in January.Soon after self-publishing, people she didn’t know were downloading the book — even after it was only available for a fee. Readers began posting reviews and buzz built on blogs. Missing her characters, she self-published the sequel, “Point of Retreat,” a month later. By June, both books hit Amazon’s Kindle top 100 best-seller list. By July, both were on The New York Times best-seller list for e-books. Soon after, they were picked up by Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint. By fall, she had sold the movie rights.

. . . .

When Hoover finished her third book, “Hopeless,” in December, she initially turned down an offer from Atria and decided to digitally self-publish again. By January, that book too was a New York Times best-seller and she signed that month with Atria to publish the print version, but kept control of the electronic version. The paperback is set to come out in May.

. . . .

Johanna Castillo, vice president and senior editor at Atria, said she learned about Hoover while perusing book blogs. Checking out Hoover’s blog that details not only her burgeoning writing career but also her day-to-day life, Castillo became enchanted. Around the same time, Hoover’s agent, Jane Dystel, sent Hoover’s books to Castillo.

Link to the rest at The Washington Post and thanks to Meryl for the tip.

From author Elisabeth Naughton:

What’s fabulous about the industry these days is that authors are willing to help each other. When I started writing everything was hush-hush. You didn’t ask what authors got paid because every publishing house treated their authors differently. Some amazing writers were handed BIG contracts, and some amazing writers got paid next to nothing. It all came down to which authors a publisher wanted to push. When I first told my husband I wanted to seriously pursue my dream of being an author, he said, “Well, what kind of income do authors make?” I answered, “I don’t know. It’s all different. No one talks about money.” He was shocked. “What? How can you not know what to expect?” I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to work on my laptop. He was right to be horrified, of course. Part of the reason authors have been treated as non-essential to publishers for so long is because we never stood up for ourselves. For years authors took crappy contracts all for the “prestige” of saying they were published (and I know this is true because I was one of them). I wrote for four years for traditional publishers and spent more money on marketing and promotion and conference travel than I ever made in profit. Something’s wrong with that. Thanks to self publishing, though, that isn’t the case anymore. Instead of publishers deciding who sinks or swims in this business, readers are now choosing who to support. And authors who write books readers want to buy are the ones who are succeeding. For a determined writer, for someone with book business sense who wants to make a living doing what they love, this is a fantastic time to be an author.

. . . .

When Dorchester started having problems I moved to Sourcebooks and continued my Eternal Guardians series by writing three more books for them. From a professional standpoint, I was doing great. I had all the accolades of being a published author–my books were on store shelves and in airports, I was getting rave reviews, I was a top seller in romance for Sourcebooks, I even hit the USA Today bestsellers list! But what no one saw was the hard reality: I wasn’t making any money. I was working my ass off for a couple thousand dollars, which I was then spending on promotional materials, conference travel and expenses to write MORE books. In fact, I was spending more money than I was making. It was a vicious cycle, one I kept convincing myself would one day pay off. But the truth is it didn’t change. Not because of traditional publishing, at least. It changed because of self publishing.

. . . .

In late 2011 I got my rights back on my Dorchester books and wasn’t sure what to do with them.

. . . .

Luckily, self publishing was just starting to take off, and I’d been watching what my friends were doing. One phone call to Marie Force was all it took to convince me to give it a try. In December 2011, I put MARKED and ENTWINED back up online. Did I know everything about self publishing right away? No. I learned by trial and error. It took me a while to get the metadata right, to play with pricing and to advertise that the books were once again available to readers, but I slowly figured it out. To this day, that was the decision that changed my career in ways I never saw coming.

. . . .

Then…only a few months into my self publishing venture…I found myself up for contract renegotiation with my publisher. At this point I was just starting to see an income from my self published books. It wasn’t a lot, but it was growing every month, and I was starting to see how exciting it was to have total control. To be able to play with pricing, to be able to advertise how I wanted, to adjust metadata or change covers…it was liberating. And I was getting paid monthly instead of biyearly! That right there was a huge plus. I found myself with a decision to make: keep accepting what would be considered less than minimum wage for my work if I broke down all the time I was spending writing by hour, or take a chance. I chose to take a chance.

Link to the rest at Elisabeth Naughton and thanks to Anthea for the tip.

From TechDirt, an analysis of Hugh Howey:

We’ve pointed out time and time again that there are still roles for the former gatekeepers in various content industries, but those roles are changing, because they now need to be enablers, helping to do things that content creators can’t do on their own. We’ve also pointed out that one thing that “direct to fan” and other offerings have done is give content creators much moreleverage in dealing with those traditional gatekeepers. It used to be, if you were a first time author, you didn’t have very much leverage at all. You accepted the tiny advance and crappy book deal offered to you, in which the publisher basically took control over your work almost entirely, leaving a tiny royalty for you should you ever earn back the advance.

. . . .

[Howey]  sold the print rights to the book to Simon & Schuster and the movie rights to Ridley Scott for around $1 million but was able to retain the digital rights to the book for himself.

. . . .

That is how leverage works. It’s also a recognition of where a publisher can actually help.

. . . .

[G]iven the fact he didn’t need the help of a publisher, he was able to negotiate this more equitable deal.

Link to the rest at TechDirt

Passive Guy thinks it’s pretty close to a general rule that an author who wants to work with a big publisher will get a better deal (with negotiation to change several “standard” provisions) if he/she already has a successful self-publishing track record.

Publishers, agents and marketing consultants are constantly preaching that an author needs a good platform, by which they generally mean a high-profile blog, Twitter presence, some press exposure, etc.

PG suggests that the best platform is a successful self-publishing platform. Hugh Howey generated a high profile because his self-pubbed writing was selling so well.

It’s questionable how many blog visitors, Twitter followers, etc., will actually buy a book. However, it’s easy to sell a second book to readers who liked the first one.