Just a quick reminder that I’ll be at Fergie’s Pub tomorrow at 2:00 pm for the Stripped Launch Party. And just to be 100% clear — I am not actually stripping at this event. Though, if I have too many shots, who knows what might happen, so be sure to bring some extra singles just in case.

Again, Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash is edited by Nicole Monaghan and asks the question of just how important is gender in storytelling. All the author names have been “stripped” from their stories, and won’t be revealed until next year. So I can’t tell you which story is mine. But I will tell you that the story I’m reading tomorrow is not mine. So there — that’s your first clue.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area and have nothing better to do tomorrow, head over to Fergie’s to see me and a few other contributors read some anonymous stories.

Finally, Man of Wax got its best one-star review yet. Even better, I’ve been compared to John Steinbeck! Well, not really, but apparently I’m telling little dirty secrets of myself and what I do in my free time. Maybe someone needs to explain to this reader what “fiction” means. Also, recommend her next book be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That’s a very wholesome read!

Anyway, while watching Alcatraz I was reminded of two awesome things from my past.

The first was, obiviously, The Rock, which was directed by Michael Bay back when Michael Bay made decent movies. Now, before you give me grief, keep in mind The Rock came out in 1996, so I was just a freshman in high school at the time, and movies like The Rock were just the, you know, greatest. That’s why I believe Michael Bay peaked after Armageddon, which was only his third movie; after Pearl Harbor it was all downhill. Oh what, Michael Bay, you think Pearl Harbor was your best? Well then, Sean Connery has something to say to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3UQwyKrTtI

It’s been a few years since I saw The Rock last, but I’ve been itching recently to watch it again, even before tonight, so hopefully I get a chance to catch it soon. Unfortunately, I just checked and it’s not streaming instantly on Netflix. Why, Netflix, why?

The second awesome thing from my past was the short-lived television series Time Trax. Does anyone even remember Time Trax? No? Well, maybe this will refresh your memory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJSzJVrPcno

Corny, right? Well, maybe by today’s standards (though future generations will no doubt look back at all the CSIs and snigger), but the show came out in 1993, and I was only twelve at the time, so cut me some slack.

Embarrassing fun fact: At the time I was so taken with the idea of Time Trax, I (like most aspiring writers “borrowing” ideas) came up with my own television show with basically the same very idea. Only it starred a kid. And the word time was in the title, but I forget what it was paired with. I even wrote a script, though I’m sure it’s long gone, and rightly so.

Actually, while we’re on the topic of favorite cheesy TV shows from my childhood, does anyone remember this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U15tUFJXseQ

All of this ebook talk is becoming a business in itself. Money is being made out of thin air in this strange new speculative meta-practice: there are seminars, conferences and courses springing up everywhere, even at the Society of Authors (a writers’ union which, until recently, was largely against epublication). Television and radio programmes are being made about self-epublishing (I’ve personally been asked to speak about it on 12 occasions since August). Everyone can be a writer now: it only takes 10 minutes to upload your own ebook, and according to the New York Times “81% of people feel they have a book in them … And should write it”

But all of this gives me an alarming sense of deja vu. There’s another name for what happens when people start to make money out of speculation and hype: it’s called a bubble. Like the dotcom bubble, the commercial real estate bubble, the subprime mortgage bubble, the credit bubble and the derivative trading bubble before it, the DIY epublishing bubble is inflating around us. Each of those other bubbles also saw, in their earliest stages, a great deal of fuss made over a “new” phenomenon, which was then over-hyped and over-leveraged. But speculation, as we’ve learned at our peril, is a very dangerous foundation for any business. And when the epub bubble bursts, as all previous bubbles have done, the fall-out for publishing and writing may be even harder to repair than it is proving to be in the fields of mortgages, derivatives and personal debt. Because this bubble is based on cultural, not purely economic, grounds.

Self-epublishing has indeed, as many of you are aware, become all the rage in the past year. With bookstores closing and ebook sales growing every month and major publishers lowering their advances while keeping their standard digital royalty rates at 25%, the possible 70% royalties an author can earn on their own self-published work becomes very alluring.

But, as I always say, just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

That’s not to say you should never self-publish, but if you do it you have to make sure you do it right.

Everyone is looking for a quick buck, and while some self-published authors are finding success, the majority aren’t. Then again, you have to ask yourself just what does success mean. If it means making over six figures in a year selling ebooks alone, then you probably shouldn’t hold your breath. If it means bringing in some extra income to help pay bills, then that’s much more realistic.

The other day I was asked to come speak to the Garden State Horror Writers about the success I’ve had self-epublishing (I’ll be there April 14th, BTW). While I’m happy to go speak, I stressed the fact that I wasn’t going to talk about “tips and tricks” of selling digital content so much as what I’ve been doing personally to market my own work. After all, what works for one writer most likely won’t work for another. Everyone went crazy for John Locke’s How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! (which currently has over 170 five-star reviews, in case you were wondering), but how many writers have since also sold over one million ebooks? Locke’s get-rich-quick ebook was published in June of last year. Seven months have since passed. Where are all those newly successful writers?

The Guardian article provides the seven stages of any economic bubble. The last stage–”Revulsion/Lender of Last Resort”–gives us this insight:

After a long year of trying to sell self-epublished books, attempting to self-promote on all available networking sites, and realising that they have been in competition with hundreds of thousands of newcomers just like them, the vast majority of the newly self-epublished authors discover that they have sold less than 100 books each. They then discover that this was in fact the business model of Amazon and other epub platforms in the first place: a model called “the long tail”. With five million new self-publishing authors selling 100 books each, Amazon has shifted 500m units. While each author – since they had to cut costs to 99p – has made only £99 after a year’s work. Disillusionment sets in as they realise that they were sold an idea of success which could, by definition, not possibly be extended to all who were willing to take part.

The now ex-self-epublished authors decide not to publish again (it was a strain anyway, and it was made harder by the fact that they weren’t paid for their work and had to work after hours while doing another job – and they realised that self-promoting online would have to be a full-time job.) They come to see self-epublishing as a kind of Ponzi scheme – one created by digital companies to prey on the desires of an expanding mass of consumers who also wanted to be believe they could be “creative”. They also become disillusioned with their ereaders, which are now out of date anyway. And so they return to the mainstream publishers to look for culture. Unfortunately, as a result of the ebook market implosion it is impossible for publishers to push their prices back up to pre-bubble levels (from 99p to £12.99), and so their infrastructure continues to decline. And since they have decided to look for new talent in self-epublishing, they are trapped in the very same bubble that everyone else is trying to get out of.

And this is in fact very true. Many writers, when they don’t get that immediate success, will stop self-publishing (maybe even writing completely). These are the same writers who idolize bestsellers like King and Koontz and Patterson, failing to remember that it took each of those writers many years and a lot of hard work to gain the kind of readership they now have (say what you will about Patterson, but the man is a marketing machine). Not many writers enter the field with a massive following and sell a ton of copies of their debut. Those that do were given a very hefty advance from a major publisher looking to recoup that money. It’s in that publisher’s best interest for the author to succeed, so they do everything they can to ensure it happens.

So no, self-epublishing is not a guaranteed success, and any writer going into it thinking it is is way beyond delusional. Again, some writers will have success, but many will not. Some will have success for the first year or two and that’s it; some won’t have success for the first five years, and then suddenly bam, their books take off. Nobody really knows how publishing works, and anybody telling you otherwise is full of shit.

Speaking of which, did you know Jonathan Franzen hates ebooks? It’s true. Though curiously, when Freedom sold a ridiculous amount of ebooks two years ago, he didn’t seem to have a problem with them then.

Anyway, do I think self-epublishing is a bubble? Yes and no. Yes, eventually many writers who are having success now will fade away, but it doesn’t mean digital publishing will vanish. As we have all seen from the music industry, digital is where we are headed and where we will stay. So it’s best for writers to take their work seriously and understand that success won’t happen overnight. As long as they keep writing, then they’re at least doing something right.

At Goodreads, we make it a priority to use book information from the most reliable and open data sources, because it helps us build the best experience for our members. To that end, we’re making a major change.

On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon.

Amazon’s data has been great for us for many years, but the terms that come with it have gotten more and more restrictive, and we were finally forced to come to the conclusion that moving to other datasources will be better for Goodreads and our members in so many ways that we had to do it. It may be a little painful, but our aim is to make it as seamless as possible for all our members.

Amazon data that we will stop using includes data such as titles, author names, page counts, and publication dates. For the vast majority of book editions, we are currently importing this data from other sources. Once the imports are done, those few remaining editions for which we haven’t found an alternative source of information will be removed from Goodreads.

Member ratings, reviews, and bookshelves are safe, but your data may be moved to a different edition of the book. If we can’t find a matching edition, then your review will be attached to a book with no title or author. But the good news is that there’s a way you can help.

Today, we are announcing new tools to help Goodreads Librarians source data for the books that need rescuing.

There’s more, but further down the post they do address the books published solely at Amazon:

There have been many questions about Kindle Editions and books in the KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) program. As these editions are unique to Amazon, there are no alternative data sources. We anticipate keeping these, and will bend over backwards for all our authors who publish via Kindle to make sure their readers on Goodreads have a smooth transition.

If you’re an author, it’s in your best interest to make sure your books are rescued. If you’re a reader, it’s in your favorite authors’ interest to make sure their books are rescued. Supposedly all of my titles are safe, though their covers and product descriptions have disappeared, which means I’ll be very busy in the next week fixing all of that. If you’re on Goodreads, be sure to click here to see any books you’ve read that may need saved.

It stuck out to me immediately, because my friend Aaron Polson not too long ago published a new book with this cover:

As you can see, a very striking resemblance.

So then I thought, Okay, somebody just stole his cover. That’s ridiculous but not too awful.

Then, on a whim, I clicked on the “look inside” option, and guess what.

It was the same book.

Word for word.

I immediately contacted Aaron and let him know.

The first book — the plagiarized book — according to its pub date, has been available since November.

But that’s not all.

I noticed a few other suspicious-looking e-books and brought them to Aaron’s attention, too.

One of them, he told me, was his as well — a short story published under a different title.

Clearly this is a very fucked up part of digital publishing. Many e-books are published without DRM, which stands for digital rights management. E-books with DRM basically make that title only available on that device. Most authors are encouraged to publish their e-books without DRM to make it easier for the reader.

And while it is easier for the reader to transfer the e-books from different devices (you can even take Kindle titles, download them to your computer, and convert them to epub or anything else using Calibre), it makes it even easier for pirates to take your work and put it up for anyone to download for free.

As I’ve said before, while I don’t agree with pirating, it’s a reality we all need to face. And, to be honest, it doesn’t really bother me. The way I see it, those who download my books from pirate sites wouldn’t have even considered buying the books in the first place. And, who knows, maybe they’ll really enjoy that pirated book and seek out more of my work.

But someone taking my e-books and putting them up on pirated sites is one thing.

Someone taking my e-books and doing like they did to Aaron — republishing them under a different name and cover for profit — is fucking despicable.

How can we fight this sort of injustice?

By being vigilant, for one.

What else?

I’m not so sure.

And that, when it comes down to it, is what I find really scary.

Red Wheel/Weiser Conari Press, in collaboration with Hampton Roads and Hierophant Publishing, are entering the self-publishing market for spiritual and self-help authors. The companies have formed Turning Stone Press which will be under the director of Red Wheel /Weiser Conari publisher Jan Johnson.

The press will offer editorial and production services including copyediting, book and cover design that will be overseen by Red Wheel/Weiser’s art and production directors. Red Wheel president Michael Kerber noted that the entire publishing process “is managed 100% by us. We do all the work.” Turning Stone will charge a one-time fee of $7,500 and authors will be paid on a royalty basis. “There are no hidden charges,” said Kerber, noting that if a book takes off, the additional printing costs will be covered by Red Wheel. “We’ll treat [Turning Stone] titles like any other Red Wheel book,” he said.

Print and digital editions of each book will be produced and listed on Amazon and BN.com, as well as other retail channels. Both formats will be featured and sold on a dedicated Turning Stone Press Web site in addition to Red Wheel/Weiser’s main site. Turning Stone will also provide a press release and marketing plan for each book and Kerber said Turning Stone will support events the author creates.

Red Wheel/Weiser Conari Press have long focused on the spiritual and self-help market and Johnson said the launch of Turning Stone will “complement our existing publishing programs.” Kerber noted that with publishing undergoing tremendous change “this is a different type of service we can offer.”

How much ridiculousness did you spot in those four paragraphs? Go!

There was a period of about eight months or so where I thought I was being clever. I thought I was writing this innovative sort of poetry that I wasn’t seeing nearly enough of. It read quickly and almost like really short fiction. At that time, flash fiction, to me, was anything less than 500 words. So I thought these really quick rapid fire poems of about 30 words or so had a chance to be unique.

Of course, I simply hadn’t taken the time to do my research. I found that there are limitless avenues for shorter poetry and fiction out there. This was a fact that slapped me squarely across the face when I saw the submissions call for Hint Fiction, a book that was being edited by some Robert Swartwood guy.

25 words to tell a story. A STORY. It made my little 30-word poems curl up in a minimalist corner and cry. But, finding that I loved to experiment with short forms, I gave it a try. And much to my surprise, my story “Through Tiny Windows” was accepted into the collection. As a result, I was having semi-regular correspondence with Mr. Swartwood. Also, because of Hint Fiction, I can now die happy in the knowledge that my name will forever be linked with Peter Straub, Joe Lansdale and Joyce Carol Oates (even if it is only by circumstance).

So you can imagine my delight when Robert openly welcomed me to stop by for a visit during my blog tour for my new release, Everything Theory: Cold Compass. As the colon and presence of a subtitle suggest, it is part of a series—obviously a far cry from a 25-word short story. Everything Theory is a planned 5-part series that borrows from a variety of genres, but would probably be best suited in the company of horror, thriller, and dark sci-fi.

The series is centered around twenty-year-old Gabriel Warren, a disenchanted young man that has been dragged down for most of his life by the bizarre legacy his deceased father left behind. His father was viewed by his peers as a mad scientist of sorts, dabbling in controversial projects concerning genetics manipulation, advanced space exploration, time travel, and ESP.

Everything Theory: Cold Compass finds Gabe after he has been approached by government officials, requesting that he assist with the work his father was unable to complete. Unable to resist the paycheck, Gabe is tasked with his first assignment as an unofficial member of a shadow organization known as the Center for Scientific Anomalous Research (CSAR). With the assistance of a CSAR official posing as an FBI agent, Gabe travels to the small town of Hasper, North Carolina where people are being killed by an ancient evil that lurks beneath the town.

Along the way, Gabe must also contend with the fact that he is beginning to see ghosts and is being hunted down by an enigmatic figure that calls himself Garrison Sleet. As he slowly unravels the mysteries of his father, Gabe slowly understands that even the evil lurking beneath Hasper is tied to not only his father’s work, but to some integral part of him as well.

What some kind folks are saying about Everything Theory: Cold Compass:

“Everything Theory is a dark and creepy ride that takes you right into the lair of the things that go bump in the night.”

– Robert Swartwood, author of The Serial Killer’s Wife and Man of Wax

“The Sixth Sense meets The X-Files … Barry Napier does an outstanding job of drawing you into the storyline while teasing you with glimpses of the larger world to come. Everything Theory: Cold Compass is a veritable page turner that will leave you begging for the next book, and has all the qualities of being an epic series.”

– Gabriel Beyers, author of Guarding the Healer

*  *  *

To learn more about Barry, his Everything Theory books and other works, visit him at his online home: www.barrynapierwriting.wordpress.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KDx5z60nU

Newly Edited And Revised.

Oftentimes there will even be an exclamation point after the phrase, as if it’s something to celebrate. Sometimes there’s even an addition of Now Proofread! or something along those lines.

When I talk about self-publishing, I always start with the same adage:

Just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

What does that mean, exactly?

Well, believe it or not, self-publishing takes a lot of work.

And, believe it or not, a lot of writers are impatient.

I know I am.

But here’s the thing — you as a writer are a brand. This always has to be in the back of your head, especially when potential readers encounter anything in which you’re involved. I like to think while I take my writing and self-publishing seriously, I don’t take myself too seriously. That’s why you might see some silly things said by me on Twitter and Facebook. But when it comes to my work? You better believe I take it very seriously. As should every other writer out there.

You only get one chance to impress potential readers.

Make sure it counts.

Including phrases like Newly Edited and Revised and Now Proofread! come off as amateur. Even if it is true, why bring it to the attention of new readers?

Well, some might say, because that writer got some poor reviews previously for having a bunch of typos and stuff.

Okay, then let me ask you this: Why were those typos there to begin with?

While it’s nice giving yourself deadlines when it comes to self-publishing, you still are in complete control. So take a breath. Take a step back. Look at your work extremely closely before you release it into the wild. There isn’t any hurry.

That’s why The Man on the Bench hasn’t been released yet. It’s almost ready. But it’s not yet 100%. So I’m putting it off for another week or two. You know why? Because I can. Because that’s what the work deserves.

So respect your work.

In doing so, you’ll also be respecting yourself.

At some point, if you work them right, words eventually become stories. Fragments and sentences turn into paragraphs, and paragraphs, if you’re lucky, become something whole. But the exact moment that change takes place can be hard to pinpoint. It’s not always clear what’s a narrative and what’s something less. That’s especially true in the field of very short fiction, which is enjoying a moment right now.

Writers have long played with prose forms that are shorter than traditional short stories. Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges wrote slices and sketches that don’t fit the typical model. Hemingway once supposedly penned a story in six words to settle a bet. That piece—“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”—has never been definitively tied to “Papa.” But fans of what’s sometimes known as flash fiction, or very-short prose, often cite it as the ur-text of their form.

Check out the rest of the piece here.

*   *   *

Over at PandoDaily, Sarah Lacy shares an email from a publishing insider who wishes to go unnamed … which is smart, as this person basically admits he/she will soon be out of a job:

Long-term there’s no future in printed books. They’ll be like vinyl: pricey and for collectors only. 95% of people will read digitally. Everybody in publishing knows this but most are in denial about it because moving to becoming a digital company means laying off like 40% of our staffs. And the barriers to entry fall, too. We simply don’t want to think about it.

Amazon is thinking about it, though, and they’re targeting the publishers directly.

*   *   *

On the heels of reading this, I then read all about Apple’s big announcement where they talk about getting into the textbook business. Great! I also read about how they are finally opening a platform for writers to publish directly through them. Great? Well, not really. You see, in the app’s license agreement, you find this:

Now understand I have no problems granting exclusivity. In fact, I have enrolled several of my e-books in the Kindle Select program, which allows Amazon Prime members to download those e-books for free via their “lending” program, plus I’m able to make my e-books free for up to five days during the ninety day exclusivity period. I tried it out with a few e-books to see how I liked it, and I actually like it quite a bit, so much so that I might enroll all of my books … which means they would no longer be available via Nook or Sony or iBooks. On the one hand, I don’t really like the idea of exclusivity — I obviously want as many readers to be able to read my work as possible — but on the other hand I benefit tremendously from it. The bulk of my sales are through Amazon; my sales with every other platform is so minimal it’s almost laughable. That’s the thing — Amazon knows how to market and sell e-books (after all, they make apps that can be used on practically any device, so granting exclusivity isn’t really a big deal when you think about it). Apple? Well, if they do, they sure haven’t proven it yet. Me thinks this is a case of too little, too late. Their app is no doubt nice — I must admit I do love Apple products — but if you’re looking for a program to create e-books, I highly recommend Scrivener.