Smashwords

Novelist Phyllis Campbell Illuminates the New World of E-Publishing for all Authors

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:52:00 +0000

This week we're profiling a new Smashwords author, mystery writer Phyllis Campbell. From the moment we met her, we were inspired by her courage, commitment and confidence. Like many Smashwords authors, she has been publishing through traditional channels for many years.

Unlike most writers, Phyllis has been blind since birth.

When we learned she was blind, we offered her special hand-holding to help her navigate the Smashwords publishing process. She politely declined. She could do it herself without special treatment, thank you.

She has been writing and publishing since the age of eleven. As she describes below, blind writers face unique challenges not faced by sighted writers, yet technology old and new helps bring their important talent and voices to light. What a gift to all of us.

David Weir: You started writing at a young age. Why do you think this happened in your case?

Phyllis Campbell: My earliest memories are of my parents and sisters reading to me. My sister, Inez, who is also blind, and I often acted out stories based on characters we read about. I think it was only a step from there to creating my own characters and plots.

[DW] At what age did you start school and what role did your love of writing play in your education?

[PC] I was six in December and started school at the residential school for the blind in January. I drove my parents mad, I'm sure, begging to go. My sister was there, and I wanted to learn to read and write Braille. Certainly my love of reading and composition helped me tremendously all through my formal education.

[DW] When did you begin publishing and selling your work, and where did you publish?

[PC] I started selling my work in the 60's. My first sale was to the weekly magazine published by the Salvation Army, and the second to a delightful inspirational magazine, Sunshine Magazine. Following these first two sales my work appeared in various inspirational magazines such as The Standard, The Lookout, The Lutheran, Christian Herald Lutheran Woman, and in the romance publications of McFadden's Woman's group. I also did both fiction and nonfiction for Dialogue, a publication for the blind. My two books appeared in soft cover and hard cover in the US, and one of them was published in China and the UK. I have done a true crime book under contract with the family of the victim. I currently write two bi-monthly columns, Handicrafts, and Hobbies And Such for Our Special, a Braille magazine published by National Braille Press.

[DW] You mentioned that one editor encouraged you to write your autobiography. Can you tell us about that?

[PC] Barbara Brett of Brett Books, asked me to write a book about my life and my animals, including my guide dog, Lear. I was hesitant, but she urged me to do a rough outline, and a couple chapters, and to my surprise the book began to take shape. It was difficult to write since all of the animals except one, and many of the people, walked with me only along the road of memory, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pleased with the results. Certainly the book didn't make me rich, but I was thrilled when it was published in China and in the United Kingdom as well as the US. I like to think of people far away in places I'll never go, reading about the simple things that made up my life, from the time I was four until the time we bought our first house, and adopted our little Lady Gray cat. No matter where my writing takes me, I feel that I would have never gotten there without Barbara's encouragement.

[DW] When and why did you decide to start publishing digital books and work outside of the traditional publishing industry?

[PC] The decision was made slowly, I think. It can't be denied that the face of publishing is changing for a number of reasons, not the least of them being the current economic climate. Certainly digital books are less expensive to produce, thus less expensive to purchase. The author's fate is determined by the readers, not an editorial staff or agent. I feel that a digital book will sink or swim on its own, rather than to flounder out there [and grow stale as publishers decide how or if to release the book]. For me personally, I am pleased that the digital market makes it easier for other blind people to buy my book. Although some digital formats aren't accessible, many are. Definitely digital books are opening doors for the blind.

[DW] For those readers who have not yet seen your book at Smashwords, “Who Will Hear
Them Cry,” please tell us a bit about it.

[PC] For a while now what I call minority sleuths have dotted the writing landscape - African American, Native Americans, hearing impaired, paraplegics - but so far I haven't run across a major one who is blind. Meet Kate Talbot, who is blinded by the psychopath who kills her husband and unborn child. She makes a good adjustment physically, but is filled with guilt because the killer warned her not to testify against his son. She fears reaching out to others for fear she will cause them hurt. This shell starts to crack when she becomes the owner of a large orange tom cat, and breaks when her partner persuades her to investigate a series of fatal accidents at a private school for disabled children.

If readers have preconceived ideas about the blind obtained from popular movies or TV, I'd advise them to cast them to the winds. All too often these are written by those who have no first-hand knowledge of what it's like to be blind. Kate is neither “super blind woman,” nor a sweet wise little lady, offering comfort and inspiration to those around her. She's outspoken, kind in spite of herself, funny, and yes brave. In short she's human. She solves the mystery, using her wits, and her senses, even imagining what a scene looks like to the eye of her mind. I haven't asked her to do anything that a reasonably fit, adjusted blind woman of her age couldn't do. A friend took a slippery walk along a narrow ledge, minus the cat, to prove it could be done, although she didn't know at the time it would appear in Who Will Hear Them Cry, years later.

[DW] What are the main challenges that visually-impaired authors face? For example, how do you come up with descriptions of things you cannot see?

[PC] Of course we face all the same challenges faced by the sighted author, but up until I decided to go digital the main challenge for me was marketing, choosing the right publisher. It can be a bit hard studying a given publishing house's listing to determine if my work is appropriate. Because I've always been blind, description can be tricky, but since this book is told in first-person by a blind protagonist it's simply a matter of "thinking" myself into the scene. Before the coming of the Internet, research was a huge problem, at least for me, but here again the playing field has been leveled.

[DW] How do you go about writing your books, i.e., what is your process?

[PC] At first comes the idea. I play with that idea, moving scenes and characters around in my mind until I get the feel of the plot. Often I use music to help me in this preliminary phase. I like to plot the beginning, and the end I want to achieve. Then I go to the computer that has a synthetic voice reading the screen through my sound card, and begin to do the dreaded outline, filling in the middle. Of course by the time I reach the end the plot has changed, and may change several times before the book is actually finished. I like to put the second or third drafts of the work into Braille so that I can find errors, and what I call faulty rhythm of the writing. To say that this isn't a lot of work, and that it doesn't take longer than it does for a sighted author wouldn't be true. It is time and energy consuming, but for me it's worth it. I'm a firm believer in, and user of Braille, and although technology plays a big part in my working life, I can't stress the value of Braille too much.

[DW] When you create a blind character, such as Kate in “Who Will Hear Them Cry,” how do your own experiences inform her behavior and feelings?

[PC] I think if they're honest, all writers call on their own experiences in creating their characters. I've taught and counseled with blind adults as well as children, and this experience has been invaluable to me in writing this book. I've listened to parents' guilt and fear, I've listened to the adult's cry of, "If only, I'd acted differently, maybe this wouldn't have happened." I know the joy of accomplishment, and the despair of failure. The trick, of course, is giving these emotions to my characters in a believable way, a way that will make the reader say, "I can understand that!"

[DW] What are some of larger messages about being blind you would like to get out to the sighted world?

[PC] The most important message is to realize that this person is a person, who is blind. We have the same hopes, dreams, joys, sorrows, successes and failures as everybody else. Of course many of our challenges are of a different kind. Understand that we may have to approach a problem from a different angle. Don't hesitate to ask questions. Most of us welcome a chance to educate the public, especially someone who may be losing their sight or have a friend or relative who is facing the problem. This education process is one of the reasons I write using blind characters. As I said before, my characters are drawn from real life, and I feel are a fun introduction to the world of the four senses. I welcome questions, and like nothing better than to be able to say, "but of course you can still do that!" It is a long hard journey into that world for those who have just lost their sight, but trust me, it's worth it.

[DW] How have you found the process, technologically, publishing and distributing your digital writing?

[PC] I found the process easier than I thought. I did pay someone to do the book cover and the specialized formatting, and strongly advise any person using a screen reader to do the same. This is a small cost, and although my book has only been out around two weeks I've already made the amount I put out, and don't forget it's deductible as a business expense. It took me much longer to upload my title than it would a person with sight, because I had to listen carefully to my screen reader, but I had a tremendous feeling of satisfaction when I heard the words telling me that it had been done successfully. So far it has been a rewarding experience, and hats off to Smashwords for having such an accessible site!

[DW] Do you have any specific advice to would-be authors who have not yet given it a try?

[PC] To those who may be sitting there on the garden wall, I say jump, and this goes for all writers blind and sighted. If nothing else it's a heck of a lot of fun, and offers many rewards. Just remember to give your manuscript the best you can. Take digital publishing seriously, remembering that you are an ambassador in a way. If you have rushed through, thinking that standards are less than in the print market, think again, and start to re-write again, and again. People will judge not only you, but digital publishing by such things as the believability and accuracy of your plot, believable dialogue, and of course the technical things such as grammar.

[DW] What about future work – do you have another book under way at the present?

[PC] I want to turn Kate into a series character, and feel that with hard work, and loyal readers, she can perhaps find a place in the roster of women sleuths, giving the reader a new dimension as they enter her world.

[DW] Thank you, Phyllis!

Who Will Hear Them Cry is now available for purchase at The Diesel eBook Store and
Smashwords, and will soon be available via Smashwords at the Apple iBookstore, Kobo and Sony.

Can Ebook Data Reveal New Viral Catalysts to Spur Reader Word-of-Mouth?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:43:00 +0000

In my new best practices ebook, The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success, I explore at great length a concept I call Viral Catalysts. Think of viral catalysts as the virtual knobs, dials and levers attached to an ebook that an author or publisher can tweak to increase reader word-of-mouth. Viral catalysts make books more available, discoverable and enjoyable to readers. See Secret #19 in the book for a full discussion of viral catalysts.

Earlier this month at the RT Booklovers convention in Chicago, I decided to approach the viral catalyst challenge from a completely new angle for a presentation they titled MONEY MONEY MONEY, with the subtitle, "How Data Driven Decisions *Might* Help Authors Reach More Readers."

I analyzed a nine-month chunk of Smashwords sales data, aggregated across multiple Smashwords retailers, to determine if there were potential data-driven metrics that might reveal new viral catalysts that authors can put to work. The data encompassed millions of dollars in book sales for a collection of slightly more than 50,000 books. My study began with a series of questions that I thought could reveal potentially useful answers.

These questions included:

Do authors who change prices frequently sell more books?

If ebooks are immortal, how do sales develop over time?

How do individual titles develop at a retailer?

What's the ideal word count for ebooks?

What word count do romance readers prefer?

What word count do erotica readers prefer?

What impact does price have on unit sales?

How are Smashwords authors pricing their books?

What are the most common price points?

What price range earns the author the most money?

What does the indie ebook sales distribution curve look like?

What's the optimal price per word?

To learn the answers to these questions, I presented Henry House on our technical team with a massive wishlist for data dumps, and then I crunched his numbers in a spreadsheet. Some of the findings were eye-opening and useful, and others were simply fun.

I uploaded a modified version of the presentation to Slideshare, embedded below.

How Data-Driven Decisions *Might* Help Indie Ebook Authors Reach More Readers
View more presentations from Smashwords, Inc.

As I caution in the presentation, data-driven decision-making is no substitute for writing a super-fabulous book. Write the greatest masterpiece you can, and then review the data for ideas that at best might enable you to add incremental improvements to reader enjoyment, accessibility and word-of-mouth. Viral catalysts are all about incremental improvement.

Much of this data has never been shared with authors before. If you find the data useful, please consider sharing it with your friends. Facebook it, tweet it, Google+ it. Embed the presentation in your blog (click here to access the presentation at Slideshare, then click the "< > Embed" link to obtain the code you'll cut and paste into your blog). Talk about which aspects of the data have the most relevance to you and your publishing. Does your experience differ from the average? No problem, this is to be expected. Every book is different. Share your experiences. When authors help authors advance best practices, all authors and readers benefit. Enjoy!

Author Bill Dicksion On Telling True Stories of the West

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:48:00 +0000

Bill Dicksion is 87-years-young, and the author of seven novels. He stands as an inspiration for anyone wanting to become an independent author. He's been with Smashwords for almost two years, and his sales have been growing each quarter as readers discover his books (when we see strong organic growth like this, we know we're looking at a future bestseller). He and his wife, Millie, live in Hawaii, where he is hard at work on more books about the American West.

[David Weir] I want to get to your novels, but first, you've had such an interesting life, can you tell us about your childhood and where you grew up?

[William Dicksion] I was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma, on August 25th 1925, the fourth child in a family of ten children. I went on to obtain a degree in science and worked as an industrial chemist for two major manufacturing companies, assisted in doing pioneering work in purifying rare earth metals, and did post-graduate training in marketing. I obtained licenses to market real estate, stocks and bonds, and operated a successful landscape contracting company on the island of Maui, Hawaii.

I’ve held a commercial pilot’s license with a flight instructor’s rating, taught many people to fly, and then became an air traffic controller and worked at six different facilities. I helped train many air traffic controllers, some of whom are now ranking members of the Department of Transportation. I’ve traveled in almost every state, including the territory of Guam. I’ve traveled in Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Asia, and returned many times to Oklahoma, where I have two surviving brothers and numerous nieces and nephews. I have three children, six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. My wife and I now live in Honolulu.

I’ve published seven novels and a memoir, with a collection of poems, musings, and essays. Some of my stories have been included in anthologies published by the Honolulu Chapter of the National Writers Association. With the assistance of Smashwords, my books are being read throughout Polynesia and in locations in Asia and Europe. I remain interested in science, history, geography, and philosophy, and my writing expresses these interests.

I grew up in central, and western Oklahoma. My father was a farmer/rancher. Farmer/rancher more accurately describes what most people call ranching. Cows have to eat even when the grass is covered with snow, so somebody has to grow feed for both animals and people. I learned about farming and ranching by helping my father. I had lots of help because my father raised children as well as cattle. I had seven brothers, and two sisters. My father was a loving man, but he was a stern disciplinarian; when he gave us a job to do, we’d better do it right. Excuses were not accepted. If we didn’t know how to do a job, he’d say, “Don’t you think now would be a good time to learn?” If we said, “But I don’t have the tools,” he would say, “You have a hammer and an ax. Make your own tools.”

[DW] You mentioned that your father and grandfather were great storytellers; how did they influence you and your deep interest in the West?

[WD] Winter nights in Oklahoma are long and cold. We followed a tradition set down by our ancestors. Even primitive people sat around their campfires and told stories. We didn’t have TV or even radios, so we sat around our fire listening to stories told by our parents and grandparents. My grandparents were true frontiersmen, and the hardships they faced make the worst of mine seem mild in comparison. I grew up steeped in the lore of the West, and I try to share those stories because they are real, and they are history. When I tell stories, I don’t pull any punches. I tell it like it is. I don’t like innuendos, hints, and sly references-- if it’s worth telling, tell it as it is.

[DW] I know you fell in love with science when you were young. How did this help to shape your outlook, your career and your writing?

[WD] Science and scientists are, I believe, misunderstood words. You don’t have to wear a long white coat and work in a laboratory to be a scientist, although I have done both. Real science is done by people looking for answers. Growing up poor forced me to look for answers, and science showed me the way. I truly believe there are no unanswerable questions, and no unsolvable problems. Like most people, I encountered some real doozies, but like my father told me, “If you don’t now how to solve the problem, now is a good time to learn.” I carry that philosophy into my writing. I started writing professionally at age 77. I had written reports, and letters, of course, but nothing creative. I didn’t know an adverb from an aardvark, so I read everything I could find that would help me learn.

I think one of my best stories is, “A Button in the Fabric of Time,” about an American engineer being selected by an advanced civilization from a planet in another galaxy, to represent them in negotiating with Earthlings one thousand years into the future. The future is not glum, my friends, it is bright beyond compare.

[DW] I heard you had some exciting adventures moving west to make your way in the world?

[WD] Indeed I did. I hesitate to tell this story because it seems implausible today. I was 13 in the spring of 1938 when, due to droughts and dust storms, my father lost everything--the ranch, the animals, everything. There was no welfare in those days, and we were going hungry. I had to try to earn money to help. I was told that California was my best bet, so I hitchhiked west. I had six dollars in my wallet, the clothes on my back, and 1,500 miles to go. I slept on the prairie, ate whatever food I could find, and my ceiling was the sky. I was a child completely alone, but I wasn’t afraid. . . . I tell that story in my memoir, “A Brief Moment in Time.”

[DW] Did you try and enlist in World War II as a teen?

[WD] I worked in California all summer and sent money home, and then returned to western Oklahoma to finish high school. Western Oklahoma grows wheat and lots of it. I drove a combine to harvest the wheat, and then drove a truck to haul it to the railroad to be shipped overseas to feed American and British soldiers who were fighting Germans. It was World War II. I had dreamed of being a fighter pilot, but it wasn’t to be. The recruiting officer saw the scar tissue on my lung X-ray and turned me down flat. I had inhaled too much dust, and it left scar tissue on my lungs. That was the lowest moment in my life and probably the luckiest. Many men who enlisted as fighter pilots didn’t make it home. Since I couldn’t serve my country in the military, I went back to California, enrolled in college, and paid my way by working in defense plants. . . .I could write a novel on that experience. Hmm, maybe I will.

[DW] What about your other career as a pilot and air traffic controller?

[WD] I guess watching birds fly made me want to fly. In my spare time—which I had damn little of—I went to the local airport and washed airplanes, or did anything I could do, to get an hour of flying time. I finally got a license to fly, but I couldn’t afford to rent an airplane; so I got an instructor’s rating, taught students to fly, and got paid instead. I got my degree in science and wanted to use what I had learned, so I got a job as a chemist. Most young men and women were away somewhere fighting a war, so I advanced quickly to a supervisory position. One thing led to another, and I ended up doing research in rare earth metals. Most people didn’t even know what rare earth metals were. I wasn’t paid much, so I applied for and was accepted as an air traffic controller. I liked the work and did it well enough to train other air traffic controllers. I transferred to Hawaii, where I met my wife, who was a secretary to the facility chief. We married and transferred to the island of Guam, where I controlled the aircraft flying missions over Vietnam. Yep, I could tell a story about that, too.

[DW] So, on to your writing -- when did you start, and who were those who influenced you along the way?

[WD] I got into writing through the backdoor. Like the troubadours of old, I was always a storyteller, but I did it orally. I reiterated the stories I had been told, to my children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. They sat spellbound as I opened doors long closed. My niece suggested I write the stories for others to read, but how could I, my penmanship is illegible, my spelling atrocious, my typing skills limited, and I had a business to run. But fate found a way. I suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery. Recovery takes time, and I was bored. My wife and my children bought me a computer. Mystery of mysteries, how do I use the thing? As my father taught me, if you don’t know, now is a good time to learn. I had stories to tell, and the computer had spell-and-grammar check. The computer made it possible to write legibly. That computer released a monster.

[DW] Tell us why you write Westerns, and what the difference is between the inauthentic Westerns out there and a true Western?

[WD] I’m not a genre writer, but I grew up in the West, I love the West, and the true stories of the West are as interesting as any fiction ever told. That is why I am so disappointed by the stories being told about the West. When I write western, the history is right, the geography is right, and my stories are valid. The stories of Frank and Jessie James have been told so many different ways, that who knows what really happened? A few historians have recorded the true story, but it never saw the light of print, because publishers print what they believe will sell.

[DW] Did you publish through traditional publishers first or start with ebooks?

[WD] Did I publish through traditional publishers? No, emphatically No.
I am an unknown writer; therefore, I have no name recognition to draw readers. Publishing is a business, and publishers want to make money. They don’t give a damn about good writing, and for sure they don’t give a damn about writers. They butcher the writing, pay the writer a miniscule, and then throw them away. Nope, I don’t need traditional publishers; they need me, and if my guess is right, ebook distributors like Smashwords will show them that.

[DW] What do you like about independent ebook publishing?

[WD] When writers publish their writing, they own it, and no one has the right to alter it to suit their purpose. If it doesn’t sell, then the author can alter it until it does. People love to read good books, and the best and cheapest way is as ebooks. Ebooks save time, paper, storage, shipping and handling, so they cost less. I give some of my books away. It costs me almost nothing and for every book I give away, I sell a few.

The best thing that ever happened to me as a writer was meeting Mark Coker and his lovely wife Lesleyann. They are writers; they understand writers. They have opened the door, and now writers can be true to their art. I believe it will produce some good writing, and who better to distribute it than Smashwords.

[DW] I understand your wife, Millie, helps you in your work; can you tell us about that?

[WD] Millie sparkles like a jewel among the rocks. Praise embarrasses her, so I will limit mine by saying, “I couldn’t write without her help.”

[DW] How often do you write, how long per writing session, and do you generally know where you're going with a story before you write it?

[WD] That’s a three-phase question. I’ll try to answer them one at a time. I write something every day, and I spend about eight hours in front of my computer. I don’t time myself; I write until I’ve completed whatever I started. I have a thousand stories to tell, and each day more come to mind. I don’t plan a story. I don’t outline a story, I just write the story as I would if I told it orally. The advantage of writing is, if I need to verify, I can search for what is real. Being real is important to me. I never plan an ending. I just tell the story until it’s told, and I like happy endings. I don’t want my readers to walk away feeling glum; I want them to feel uplifted and wanting more.

[DW] What's your favorite part about writing these novels?

[WD] Finishing them and then reading them aloud. I improve my writing by reading it. When I read it aloud, the mistakes slam me in the ear. I have to be patient with myself – there’s always rewriting and rewriting. And if after finishing it, I can say, yeah! that’s what I was trying to say. And that makes me walk away feeling good.

[DW] Do you have advice for first-timers who may be trying to work up their courage and emulate what you've accomplished?

[WD] My vanity is enormous, but I don’t feel qualified to give advice to accomplished writers. I will, however, share some things I’ve learned. If you write journalistically, you must write with honesty, sincerity, and brevity. The same is true if your intent is to inform or educate, but if you write fiction, you are writing creatively, so create characters that never were, and put them in places that never will be, doing things no sane person would do, and make both so real that they seem more real than that which is real. Make those characters so real that when they cry, the reader cries with them. Robin Hood is a case in point. Everybody knows who Robin Hood was, yet in reality he never existed. I could cite more, but you get the point.

Don’t ever give up. Ask yourself, “Why do I write?” and there are probably as many answers as there are writers, but whatever your reason, continue writing, the world needs good writers, and with Smashwords, every writer can be published. Who knows, you might write something that will resonate throughout all time. And that’s your legacy.

[DW] Finally, do you have other books in the pipeline?

[WD] Only three. One will be published in a month or so. The other two are only half done. I have dozens more just waiting to be written.

[DW] Thanks!

[WD] Thank you, David, and to all who labored through this, Millie and I bid you a fond Aloha.

Interested to read Bill Dicksion? Download Sagebrush for free at Smashwords or at any of the fine retailers below.

Smashwords Distributes Bill Dicksion to the following retailers:

Apple iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Diesel eBook Store
Kobo
Smashwords
Sony

Sarah Burleton On Her National Best-Seller "Why Me?"

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:49:00 +0000
Sarah Burleton grew up in the Midwest, the daughter of an emotionally disturbed woman. Her book, "Why Me" chronicles the abuse she experienced at the hands of her mother. It has proven to be a remarkable success and has been on The New York Times bestseller list for an extended time now. She has made it her life's goal to get her story out to the world and to become an ambassador to children who are experiencing similarly frightening childhoods today.

[David Weir] When and why did you decide to write "Why Me?"

[Sarah Burleton] “Why Me?”, basically the accounting of my abusive childhood, seems like it took my entire life to write. I tried many times over the years to write down my story but didn’t know how to start. I also didn’t know how anyone who read my story would react. Would they laugh and say that I really wasn’t abused and that I deserved what I got? Or would I be criticized for putting my “dirty laundry” out for the world to see? It was a very scary thought–the idea that I would be “abused” again by people I didn’t even know. But, at the urging of my husband—who believed that getting my story out onto paper could help me heal—I decided to write it without even thinking about publishing it. So I wrote.

[DW] What made you to decide to publish it?

[SB] As I was writing my book, each word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter I completed made me finally realize that I had been feeling guilty my entire life for no reason at all. I had been carrying around a weight on my shoulders and a shame for being abused when nothing I had done had ever justified the abuse I endured. When I felt the weight lift off of my shoulders after completing my story, I felt compelled to put my story out there for anyone who was like me in the hope that they would read it and realize that they too, were victims of their loved ones. I wanted to help one or two people if I could – never expecting that I would be helping thousands.

[DW] When did the book first start attracting reactions from people and how did that affect you?

[SB] I first started looking at getting my book traditionally published and was immediately discouraged by the long query process and the hoops one had to jump through to even get an associate editor to view a transcript. So during an online Google search one day I stumbled upon the Amazon KDP program and uploaded my book in September 2010. I had a trickle of sales for the first couple of months and then at the end of December 2010, sales of my book took off and reviews started coming in on my Amazon page. I was so honored that people were taking the time to read my story and even more honored that these same people were taking the time to leave such kind and inspiring reviews on my book. I remember sitting with my husband at night and wondering out loud who was reading my book at that moment and what they were thinking of it – it was all a very overwhelming experience.

[DW] Other than distributing your book to the major retailers, did you do anything to market the book?

[SB] I have done no outside marketing of my book; it felt very odd to me to ask people to read a story about my childhood abuse. I felt that it was a story that certain people would need to read and would find on their own – they would have to be looking for it for their own personal reasons. I did utilize the tools provided by Amazon and Barnes and Noble (the Author Central page, author description and the “From the Author” sections). I “talk” to the readers in these sections of my page – I want them to know me a bit even before they read the first paragraph of my story.

[DW] When did you realize your book was on the New York Times best-seller list?

[SB] Soon after I made the top 100 at Barnes and Noble, I did a Google search on my name and my book and saw that one of the links that popped up was to the NY Times and I was listed on there at #23. I’ll never forget seeing my little book and my name listed among the giants in the publishing industry and I am continuously amazed to see my name on there week after week.

[DW] Can you tell us about the offers you've gotten since from traditional publishers and other types of media companies?

[SB] In March 2011, I was listed on Good Morning Americas “Top 10 Self Help Books” for the Amazon Kindle. Soon after, I was contacted by Raw Television Productions and was asked to be part of a series they were developing about women who had overcome adversity that was going to be pitched to the OWN Network. Unfortunately, the OWN Network didn’t think that the series was right for them at that time, but we are revisiting sometime in the future. I also was approached by 3 major publishers who were interested in obtaining my print and e-book rights, but in the end, I decided to remain indie and turned down each of those offers. The only rights I have signed away are my audio rights to Brilliance Audio and my audio book will be released on May 1st of this year!

[DW] What do you now see as the advantages of remaining independent rather than signing on with a traditional publisher?

[SB] I am a control freak, so the thought of not being able to log on and see what my sales were doing during any point of the day really bothered me. I also, probably like many authors, hold my little story near and dear to my heart. I was extremely concerned that my message of strength over adversity would be lost in flowery language and edits once a publisher got their hands on it. I didn’t want my message to be lost and my story to be put on a backlist for a year. I love that I have all of the say on the editing, distribution, and pricing of my book and it would be very difficult for me to give up all of that freedom I enjoy as an indie.

[DW] What's your opinion of exclusivity options like KDP Select?

[SB] I am not a fan of going exclusive with anyone - I don’t see the value of putting all of your eggs in one basket and hoping for the best. I would imagine that for an author, exposure is everything, so why cut out so many readers by only publishing on one site or device? It seems very counterproductive in my opinion.

[DW] Yours is a deeply personal story, of having been abused by an emotionally disturbed mother. How difficult was it for you to tell this story?

[SB] It was extremely difficult for me to tell this story. I only wrote about what I could clearly remember; the incidents in my life where I could still see the scar Mom left on me or remember the way Mom’s breath smelled in my face. I had many more things I could have written about, but I couldn’t remember what house I lived in at times or what exactly happened on a particular day that set Mom off on one of her tirades. I didn’t want to make anything up or fill in “holes” so I only relived what was still giving me nightmares and what was still making me sad in my adult life. Reliving these experiences word for word was extremely difficult and there were times I would write a chapter and weep for hours afterward. I went through every emotion possible while writing my little story – and I believe that emotion is what made my book so powerful.

[DW] How long did it take to write it?

[SB] Once I sat down and actually wrote it – it took me about a month and a half to complete it. I gave it to a former professor I had in college to edit it for spelling and grammar with the specific instructions that I did not want the tone of my story changed. Looking back – I should have probably asked for more advice on adding meat to my story or making the tone of certain parts sound more “adult,” but at the time – I was not thinking of any of those things.

[DW] Were there people who encouraged or helped you along the way?

[SB] The only person who knew I was writing the story at the time was my husband; he was the one who encouraged me to write down my nightmares just for my own piece of mind. He was absolutely wonderful throughout the entire process and I couldn’t be more grateful to have someone like him in my life.

[DW] How did you feel when you were done writing it?

[SB] I felt this enormous sense of guilt lift off of my shoulders and a wave of relief wash over me. I never realized how much I punished myself for the acts of my mother over the years – I always assumed that I had done something wrong or terrible for her to act the way she acted towards me. It is hard for many people to understand how a mother can hate her child – it’s even harder to understand it when you are the child and it’s your mother who hates you. By the end of the book, I realized that I really had no answers to the behavior exhibited by my mother – but what I knew was that I was not going to let my past dictate my future anymore. I had finally made a huge step in overcoming my childhood.

[DW] Since you've heard from others who suffered abuse as children, how has your story affected them?

[SB] Some of the emails I get from readers bring me to tears – there are so many of “us” out there; those of us who have suffered abuse at the hands of a loved one. The overwhelming theme I hear from my readers is that they realize that they too cannot let the past dictate their future. They realize that they cannot change who their parents are but they can change the way that they themselves react to situations in their lives. I have received emails from teenagers who tell me that they appreciate their mothers more; emails from mothers who want to reach out and offer me a motherly hand of love; and emails from people who were abused or are still being abused – using me as a venting board to tell their story. It is quite an honor to be trusted with such personal information and I pray nightly for those readers still suffering.

[DW] Usually success attracts critics also. Have you faced much criticism and if so, has that been like to deal with that?

[SB] My book has been called, “Boring, Poorly Written, Unbelievable, Fiction” and many more choice adjectives on numerous reviews and chat boards. At first, I was extremely insulted by these opinions, but then put myself into check and remembered that they were just opinions – nothing else. I know the truth, my family knows the truth and that is all that matters. If someone wants to knock me down for the way that my book is written or because they just don’t believe someone could be abused like that – then they are entitled to express that. It’s OK – I don’t let it bother me anymore and I make it a rule to never respond to a negative comment or review.

[DW] Are you working on another book, and if so, can you tell us what about?

[SB] I am working on a bullying book specifically for the Young Adult readers. I was bullied in school and can relate so much to what kids feel and what it is like to feel like there is no one in the world out there supporting you or understanding you. I hope to have it published onto all venues by Christmas – right now I am 6 ½ months pregnant so that has been slowing me down a bit!

[DW] Congratulations!

[DW] Do you have advice for others who may wish to write non-fiction, but haven't worked up the courage to do so yet?

[SB] I would suggest writing the book without the intent to publish – but for your own personal reasons. If I knew I was going to publish my book onto global platforms like Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, I may have written it differently or let the fear of customer reviews and critics cloud my judgment when writing it. Write what you feel, write what you know and remember, and once it is all done, then think about publishing it. If you have an abuse story like mine and you want to write about it – then do it! Even if you don’t publish it, seeing your story on paper makes you realize things about yourself that you never knew before and you will realize what a strong individual you really are.

[DW] Thanks Sarah!

Smashwords distributes Sarah Burleton to the following retailers:

Apple iBookStore
Diesel eBook Store
Sony
Smashwords

Author Nicky Charles on Why All Her Books Are Free

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:29:00 +0000

Nicky Charles is one of the most popular authors at Smashwords and at our retailers, yet she won't show up on any bestseller lists. At the Apple iBookstore, her four books have earned nearly 25,000 ratings, all averaging over four stars. Her highly-rated paranormal romance books, each over 100,000 words, are free to download and read. Her pure love of writing is inspiring. She suggests those who want to financially support her writing contribute to charity instead.

[David Weir] Why don't you charge for your books?

[Nicky Charles] That’s probably one of the questions I get asked the most by readers and there are several ‘layers,’ if you will, to the answer.

First of all, it’s important to point out that I’m very fortunate. Unlike some, I already have a good job and don’t have to use writing to supplement my income. While I’m not rich, I have sufficient [income] to live on and don’t need the money. (The bills are paid, I have a roof over my head, food on the table etc..) Many authors aren’t that lucky. They have to sell their stories to try and make ends meet. I’d rather let readers pay those who actually need the funds than give the money to me.

Second, writing is my hobby and I don’t want to turn it into a job. If I charge for my books it will start to involve foreign income tax and paper work and hiring an accountant to sort it all out. (Finances give me a headache!) At this point in my life I’d rather not deal with all of that.

Some people seem to think that offering my books for free is part of a gimmick or a convoluted sales ploy, but it’s not. Quite simply, I love to write. I love to paint pictures with my words and to make people feel emotions. I love building a new ‘universe’ and filling it with details to the point that readers actually start to believe that such a world exits. I love sharing my stories with others and hearing from fans and ‘meeting’ people from all around the world. That’s my payback.

When people insist that I deserve to be making money off my books, I try to direct them to donate the value of the book to an animal shelter or food bank. (If I was paid for the books, I’d likely be donating most of the proceeds there anyway.) I suppose I have a ‘pay it forward’ type of philosophy. I enjoy writing and getting feedback, people enjoy reading my books, they can pass that joy forward by helping out a charity... Everyone wins this way.

[DW] Did you set out specifically to be an independent author or did you fall into this?

[NC] I never planned on being an author at all! And I still don’t ‘feel’ like an author and have trouble believing that my books have reached this level of popularity. If you want the long version of how I fell into this, here it is:

It all started when I broke down and upgraded to high-speed Internet. I was exploring the wonders of YouTube and discovered some clips from an old TV series called Scarecrow and Mrs. King. The show wasn’t out on DVD at the time, so I began scouring the web for episodes and during that search stumbled upon the world of fanfiction. I never realized people wrote fanfiction and started to delve into that genre.

I still recall with stark clarity the day I wrote my first story for that show. I was in the basement doing laundry when I suddenly thought, ‘Hey, no one’s ever written Lee (an SMK character) as going undercover as a biker.’ I quickly jotted the story down and posted it on a whim that very night. Surprisingly, it was well received so I wrote another and another and another... I hadn’t realized how much fun it was to write. Thoroughly hooked, I even joined a fan group for Bruce Boxleitner (the star of the show) so I could share my stories with like-minded individuals.

About the time I posted my fourth story one of the group moderators, Jan Gordon, sent me a private message and pointed out that while my stories were good, I was making several mistakes with regards to switching point of view and dialogue tags and, heaven forbid, I was using Canadian spelling and no one did that! (I haven’t bent on the spelling point, lol!)

Dialogue tags? Point of view? Whatever was she talking about? I had absolutely no training in writing beyond the basics we all learn in school, and those topics hadn’t been covered to the best of my recollection. I questioned her extensively, did some research and began to try to hone my skills with the sole intention of becoming a good fanfiction writer. After all, what else was there? I never considered the possibility of writing original stories. That was for authors who worked for big publishing houses.

Unbeknowst to me, however, Jan was about to unwittingly catapult me into the position I now find myself in. She’d been working on an original story – "Black Silk" – and began posting it on the group we both belonged to. One day, as we were discussing her story, an idle comment stirred my muse and I thought, ‘if Jan can write an original story, maybe I can do the same.’

In my mind, I was going to write just that one story and then return to my beloved fanfiction. However, once I started I found I enjoyed original stories as they allowed for greater freedom and creativity. One story led to two and, well, here I am!

[DW] How did you discover ebooks and indie publishing?

[NC] Again, I have to tip my hat to Jan Gordon. I was very naive about ebooks and indie publishing. Quite honestly, I’d never even heard of such a thing! When Jan said she was publishing "Black Silk," I was sure she must have been referring to a traditional publishing house and had submitted her manuscript to one of them. It was quite surprising to learn that she had actually self-published her book. And even more surprising was that this wasn’t a novelty. A number of people were accessing self published books and reading them, not only on their computers but on ereaders, a device I was unfamiliar with at the time.

I couldn’t believe that an ordinary person now had the ‘power’ to create a book and distribute it all on their own!

[DW] Tell us about your first book, how long did it take to write?

[NC] Amazingly enough, my first book was written in only about two months! I’m a fast writer and at that time, I was simply interested in getting the story down on paper (or hard drive, if you want to be exact) and I didn’t really focus or even understand some of the finer points of writing. My mind set was write, publish, done.

Now I spend much longer working on my books. My stories are more complex, the characters have greater depth and, since each "Lycan" story builds on the others, I have to cross reference my earlier works to ensure my ‘universe’ stays consistent.

The editing process has also become more rigorous. I’ve been perusing writing websites and picking up tips on what qualifies as ‘good’ writing. Jan Gordon—who now functions as my editor—reads over my work numerous times and we have lengthy discussions about punctuation, spelling and grammar. Neither of us are professionals but with each book, we’ve tried to improve our skills and keep raising the bar. "Bonded" took ten months to write and publish!

[DW] Do you remember your first readers/fans and their reactions, and if so, what effect did they have on you?

[NC] The first time I received a review, I was so excited. To think that someone had read my story and taken the time to leave a comment! It was a heady experience. I remember reading the message over and over, not quite believing what I was seeing.

Then, when fan emails began to trickle in, I was even more amazed and the volume of mail has just continued to grow! "Bonded" was published near the beginning of January and I’ve been averaging about 100 fan emails a week for the past three months not to mention the posts on my Facebook site (I have almost 3000 ‘likes’) and the messages left as parts of reviews. For a while I was almost in tears, it was so overwhelming. I try to answer all messages and there just isn’t enough time. Poor Jan, I was crying on her shoulder several times claiming we’d created a monster and I couldn’t handle being “Nicky Charles, the author.” Thank heaven, she’s good at pep talks!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love hearing from my readers even if the number of messages is staggering. Some simply express how much they enjoy the books and ask to join my mailing list. (I currently have over 2600 people on a mailing list for a newsletter that I send out when a new book is published.) Others share personal stories with me, saying that reading my books provides them with a temporary escape from a busy life or difficult situation. I’ve had soldiers in Iraq tell me they read my books between missions, busy moms with triplets claim the stories provide a much needed respite, people who have survived bad relationships say the books give them hope...

I recall one person who said she was so grateful she had my books to read while waiting at the hospital for her daughter’s transplant. It helped take her mind off how worried she was. Wow. The fact that she took the time to write and tell me that was so moving.

Some emails make me chuckle. Readers have stated that the books have helped spice up their marriages, or made them see their husbands in a whole a new light. Some have even claimed their spouse is thanking me for inspiring ‘frisky’ behaviour, lol! I have people in their twenties writing to me, grandmothers in their seventies (and even a great-grandfather just last week!)

I’ve made so many new friends through writing these, too. There’s a group of ladies on Facebook who I’ve become close to, a photographer in England who corresponds with me occasionally, several readers who’ve asked for advice on establishing their own writing career, one lady drops me a line now and then to keep me updated on her schooling—she’s going to be a vet technician.

People have contacted me from all over Canada and the USA as well as Spain, England, Australia, Germany, France, Mexico, Ireland, Brazil, Japan, India, South Africa...more places than I can recall. It is truly astonishing that I can sit in my little corner of Canada and touch the lives of people all over the world through my words. And the fact that in some small way I’ve helped people truly warms my heart.

[DW] You've described your books as "steamy werewolf novels." Why this particular genre?

[NC] Basically, I write what I’d want to read. Real life can be hard. The news is full of tragedy: hunger, war, natural disasters, intolerance... When I manage to find a few spare minutes to sit down and relax, I don’t want to revisit those themes in a book. I want a story that ends HEA—happily ever after. And if the story has a few scenes that make you curl your toes and a bit of a mystery or some suspense, all the better.

As to the werewolf part... Well, I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal. The concept of extrasensory perception intrigues me. I like to think that there is life beyond our planet (I grew up on Star Trek reruns.) When I was younger I had a vivid imagination and thought that witches and genies were real...

However, I never considered writing about werewolves until after I posted my first original story on a site called Fictionpress and only a few people read it. I was a bit disheartened and wondered why some stories on the site were getting so many reviews when mine wasn’t.

I began to look for themes, to see what was popular, and discovered that vampire stories were all the rage. (I’d never heard of Twilight back then – I truly am ‘out of the loop’ when it comes to pop culture – and still haven’t had time to read that series or see the movies.) Not being too keen on the ‘undead’, I tried to decide what else I could write about that might appeal to readers. For some reason, possibly because Jan had written about were panthers, the idea of werewolves popped into my head.

I wrote the first chapter of "The Mating" and posted it as a short story to see if anyone would read it or not. Well, the response was overwhelming. Readers on that site loved it and wanted more so I decided to continue the story.

Near the end of the book, a supporting character named Ryne made an appearance and captured my imagination. While I’d really only planned on writing one werewolf novel, my muse had other ideas. I wrote Ryne’s story in "The Keeping" and then, near the end of that book, a character named Cassie appeared, so of course I had to deal with her and thus "The Finding" came to life. Before I knew it, a series had been born!

[DW] As you start a new book, do you have a pretty good idea how the plot will go, or does it emerge as you write?

[NC] I generally have an idea of how it will start and end but the middle of the book is often quite vague and poorly formed. Certain scenes might be floating around in my head and I’ll try to jot the plot down in point form. However, the finished product is often very different from the original plan. Things I thought would work, don’t fit, or a new scenario pops up. In a way, writing a story is almost like reading a book—you never know what might happen next.

[DW] How do you create the characters in your stories; are they fairly pre-formed, or do they take surprising turns during the writing process?

[NC] When I create my main characters, it’s often a certain personality type that catches my attention; maybe someone young and naive, or an impulsive person or perhaps a strong individual with an inner sorrow. I want to explore how they’d react to certain scenarios.

As I begin to write, I have a general idea of what the character will be like with regards to major personality traits, job, where they live etc. Sometimes I’ll scour the Internet looking for a picture of someone who matches my mental image, so I have an ‘anchor’ to refer to when writing about their appearance. Then, as the story progresses, the character’s background emerges and it can form the person in unexpected ways. And, of course, some characters can become quite demanding in what they want!

For example, "Bonded" was supposed to be a novella that provided a back story for Damien (a character introduced near the end of "The Finding.") Reno was supposed to be a minor character but whenever I tried to write a scene, he wouldn’t stay on the sidelines and kept becoming the main focus. After several attempts to force the story to go the way I’d planned, I threw up my hands in despair and concentrated on Reno.

It turned out he wasn’t just the tough guy he appeared to be on the outside. The more I wrote, the more I realized he had inner scars that shaped him and affected the choices he made throughout the story. By the time I was done with the book, he’d moved from a one dimensional, secondary character to one who was quite complex.

I can honestly say that I love all my characters. When I’m writing their parts, I become them, thinking as they do, feeling their hurts, their anger, their excitement. Sometimes I catch myself as I’m typing away and realize my face is contorted or tears are spilling from my eyes because that’s what the character is doing in the story in that particular scene. It can be quite emotionally exhausting. By the time a book is completed I know them so well they are like close friends or family. I think that’s one reason why I have characters from earlier books make cameo appearances in newer stories. I don’t want to let them go!

[DW] How has your personal writing process changed as you've gained experience?

[NC] I can’t believe how much I’ve learned over the past few years. As I said previously, I’ve had no ‘training’ in writing per se. But I take what reviewers say to heart, not just the good but the bad as well and try to grow with each book. If someone doesn’t like my book then obviously something isn’t working. At times it’s just because my style doesn’t fit theirs, but other times it can actually be a problem area I wasn’t aware of. I like to think I’m a reflective writer who is always trying to improve.

In the beginning, my writing was all about plot. I didn’t really care that much about the proper use of commas or how many times a character explained their thinking. Now I’m watching for ‘thought-a-logues’ and ‘showing not telling’ and trying to write more realistic dialogue. I never realized there were so many ‘rules’ with regards to writing fiction. My manuscripts are read over and over and I’m constantly tweaking here and there, bumping up the description—I love description!

On the other end of the scale, I hate editing with regards to grammar, spelling and punctuation. Commas are evil and their proper use drives me crazy! And spelling—oh my! I want to use Canadian spelling because I’m proud of my country and want to promote that fact. However, Canadian spelling is a strange mix of British and American and with the US being right next door, a lot of Americanisms have filtered across the border and into my daily repertoire. Jan and I have spent countless hours researching certain words trying to determine which spelling is the ‘most’ correct.

(A few readers, especially those from the US, find the Canadian spelling strange, but those abroad such as the Irish or Australians have written to say they find it refreshing.)

Working with graphics is a skill I’ve also developed through all of this. For "The Mating" I simply used a textured background but now I’ve become much more experienced. Since this is a hobby I try to keep expenses to a minimum and search for public domain, royalty free images rather than buying cover art. I then alter the pictures using my favourite programs Corel Draw and Corel Paint and have become quite adept at layering images, adding transparencies, altering the colour balance, applying hues, cropping etc.. It’s actually quite fun to see what you can do and to try and get the perfect look. I believe that for "Bonded," I had over thirty mock ups before I got it right!

There is one area of ‘learning’ I’ve experienced that I wish I hadn’t and that is copyright law. While it’s a good thing to know, the reason I had to expand my knowledge base wasn’t. Since writing "The Mating" it has been plagiarized over ten times on various writing websites. The plagiarists, I believe, are usually teens—it’s sometimes hard to tell from their profiles—who want the attention of having people think they are authors. Some change the name of the characters while others just copy the text word for word. I even had one enterprising individual photoshop the cover of The Keeping and insert her own name to use as her profile picture!

These are more annoyances than real problems and I regularly do a Google search for my books and send out DMCA takedown notices when needed. I think because my books are free some people believe I don’t care what happens to them, but I do. They are my books and while I might give them away, I’d at least like to be acknowledged as the author!

However, recently a bigger problem has come to my attention and that is ebook piracy. Three times in the past few months I’ve found copies of my free books being sold by someone pretending to be me. I’ve never received a penny from these sales and feel badly that my readers have been tricked into purchasing something they could have received gratis elsewhere. I’m currently in dialogue with the site’s representatives trying to ensure that my readers have received refunds and that steps are being put in place to prevent a recurrence of this situation.

Ebook piracy is a growing problem not just for me but for all authors. Smashwords author, Ruth Ann Nordin, even wrote a book about the subject (They Stole My Book) which is a free download on the site.

All authors need to be vigilant and regularly search the Internet for illegal copies. They should also become familiar with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and know their rights with regards to their intellectual property.

[DW] In the future, will you start charging for any of your books?

[NC] Not for the foreseeable future, however I’ll never say never. Perhaps when I retire it could be used to supplement my income. Or if I lost my job or had some other form of economic reversal, I’d use my writing to help pay the bills. At times I think I could use the money to help my community build a new animal shelter—they’re in desperate need of one—so it’s a thought in the back of my head, but right now I don’t see myself acting on it for the next few books.

Several people have asked for print copies of my stories and I’m starting to explore POD publishing. If I ever go that route, then of course, I’d have to charge to cover the expenses.

[DW] Do you expect to continue writing in the same genre in the future, or explore others?

[NC] I think I’ll always be writing some form a romance—I’m not into horror or crime or historicals. However, I won’t necessarily stick to werewolves or even paranormal. It all depends on what strikes the fancy of my muse. I’m very visual and when I see a picture or scenery or ‘people watch’ it often sparks an idea and then I’m off jotting down notes for a possible plot. They don’t always involve shifters.

[DW] Any advice for others who would like to try writing and publishing indie books?

[NC] I get lots of emails asking this very question and I always tell them that if they have the desire to write and share their work, then go for it. Having others read your work is incredibly rewarding and indie publishing is actually quite easy.

Sure, you can try to get accepted by a big publishing house but the statistics aren’t encouraging. Many don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts. I read somewhere that less than one percent of submitted manuscripts are ever read and only about one percent of those are ever published. If you are one of the lucky ones, you have to work within the publishing house’s guidelines for the number of words, what content they want you to add or delete, meeting preset deadlines etc.. And when your book is finally ‘out there’ you earn less than ten percent royalties and could very well lose the rights to the characters.

As an indie publisher however, you are the boss. You decide the book length, the content, the cover image, when you publish, what price you’ll charge, where you’ll distribute. Every step of the process is under your control.

Of course, before you consider publishing, make sure you have a good product. I encourage aspiring authors to try and find someone who will give honest feedback. I was fortunate in that Jan found me and pointed out my short comings as well as my strengths. Too often friends and family try to be kind (or don’t know what to look for) and simply say, ‘hey, this is good’ when in reality the story needs a lot of work. Join one of the many online writing sites and find a good, knowledgeable person to critique your work.

Then, be prepared to write and rewrite and rewrite again so that you are publishing the very best book you are capable of. Do some research on writing forums so that you avoid common pitfalls like “telling rather than showing”, or mixing up points of view. Watch out for punctuation and grammar and don’t just rely on spell checkers.

Once your work is ready, download Mark’s Style Guide. If you’re not familiar with all the features of word processors, it might seem daunting at first but the book is actually an easy read and outlines step by step how to format your book for publishing. Also be prepared to promote your book through social media such as Facebook or book blogs. Smashwords has a marketing guide as well.

Be careful. There are a lot of self-publishing websites out there that just want your money and some will charge you for services that should be free. Smashwords is an excellent company to go with. It’s reputable and really cares about the authors that publish through them. They also have an excellent distribution network and I know one of the main reasons my books have gained so much popularity has to do with the fact that they are available through popular sites like B&N and the Apple iBookstore.

Once your book is published, sit back and enjoy the experience. When the first review or fan mail arrives, it is one of the best feelings in the world!

[DW] Thanks, Nicky!

Smashwords distributes Nicky Charles to the following ebook retailers:

Apple iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Diesel eBook Store
Kobo
Sony
Smashwords

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has published three books and hundreds of articles in various publications, including The Economist, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. He currently covers technology for 7x7.com.

Coming up: Interview with an up-and-coming writer of authentic westerns, and an interview with a New York Times bestseller!

Irish Indie Author Claire Farrell Reaches Global Market Writing Books She'd Want to Read

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:45:00 +0000
Irish indie author Claire Farrell eschews social media, preferring instead to spend her days writing books she'd want to read. When the recession hit hard, she made writing her full time job. Two years later, her books are selling so well she supports her large family on her writing income. As she told us in the interview below, she writes up to 5,000 words a day. She's a great example of why authors should distribute as widely as possible, keep writing and stay patient because you never know when or where your books will start resonating with readers.

[David Weir] We've noticed how well your books are selling and wanted to ask you to share some of your secrets with our readers. One thing we noticed was that Thirst, the first in your Ava Delaney series, is free. How important has that been to help your subsequent books sell?

[Claire Farrell] The Ava Delaney series didn’t sell anywhere outside of the UK Amazon store for the first few months. When I released the second book, I set the first as free, and that pretty much drew attention to it on various channels. Having a freebie was a huge kickstart into getting noticed, but that was last year, before the massive flood of freebies. My book made it into the top 100 freebie lists on Amazon and Apple (despite its truly awful average rating on Amazon at the time), which was pretty much free advertising. I knew that most people who downloaded the book would likely never read it, but I figured that some of those who were really interested in the genre would probably read it quickly. The emails started coming in that week about the series, and a lot of people would thank me for giving away my book; I was surprised because I was thanking them for taking the time to read it.

[DW] The covers to your books are beautiful and professional-looking in design; how have you achieved that?

[CF] So far, I’ve created the covers to my self-published work myself using Gimp and Photoshop and stock images. My only aim was to create something simple and recognisable. It isn’t the perfect solution, and I’m constantly on the lookout for the right artist to revamp the Ava Delaney series because they aren’t as professional as I would like.

[DW] You also maintain a blog. In what ways has blogging helped build your audience and sell books?

[CF] I’ve slowed down on blogging due to lack of time, but I don’t feel as though blogging helped build an audience. It’s more of a base for people to find me, and it’s less formal than a static website. It’s great for giving quick updates and answering random questions, but I rarely write anything truly serious or meaningful.

[DW] Can you share with us the way your books have taken off in different markets through different distribution channels?

[CF] I wasn’t paying much attention, to be honest. It sort of happened all by itself. I’ve never expected to sell more than a handful of books, but I’ve been publishing a series, and I think that’s probably the most important thing I did. I know that the majority of readers who contact me directly are those who found my books on Apple or Barnes & Noble. I know that having a freebie was massively important. I believe Apple have featured my books on the genre pages, and that probably helped, but I’m not sure how, other than one being a freebie, my books are being found anywhere else.

[DW] How important has Smashwords' Premium Catalog been to your books' success?

[CF] At first, I thought it would be useful to price match Thirst to a freebie. And it was. If I look at this as a business, availability and content are ranked right up there in importance, and I couldn’t upload directly to any of those retailers, so the Premium Catalog was a boon. But living in Europe made me fully aware of the additional benefits of having books as widely distributed as possible. At the time I began publishing, Irish people (and others) were charged an extra couple of dollars to buy a book which took a lot of impulse buys out of the equation. Smashwords alone was the perfect solution. Apple recently began selling modern ebooks in the Irish iBookstore, which was another avenue that excited me, but they also regularly feature self-published books. Their customers seem to be avid readers who enjoy low priced books and frequent releases. Barnes & Noble seem to do their own thing, but lately they’ve been chasing Amazon’s tail in terms of sales. I don’t sell much on the other channels, but I see the potential there—Kobo in particular.

[DW] What is your view of Amazon's KDP Select (exclusive) program and whether it will help or harm authors in the future?

[CF] Exclusivity can and will work very well for some writers. Especially in the early stages when the full force of interest is behind it. I can see why writers are tempted, and I know some people have blown up using Select, but I couldn’t imagine taking my books down from other channels. I have a series, so it would be a bit cheeky to take future books away from the people who have been reading all along, just because they don’t shop at a certain place. As a reader, it wouldn’t make me happy, but we all have big decisions to make.

On another level, it has taken me almost two years to sell books at the distribution channels. It happened almost overnight in the end, so you never know when luck will be in your favour. I don’t sell a massive amount of books compared to the well-known names, but I’m proof that you don’t have to. I’m thrilled about my progress so far, and I hate to think what I might have missed out on if I chose Select.

[DW] So when did you start writing?

[CF] I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Always. Before I could write, I would draw pictures and make up stories in my head about them. I let it fall by the wayside in my late teens for a number of reasons, and I regret that, but times changed. In 2010, a couple of weeks before my 27th birthday, I was pregnant with our fifth child and preparing to upload a book for the first time.

The recession had already struck bad. There had only been one Borders here, but my partner worked there contractually. The first company who employed him there had been liquidated, and people were losing their jobs everywhere. Borders was eventually shut down, and my partner was promised work by an English company, but things got so bad that they couldn’t afford to set up in Ireland again. We were pretty much screwed, and for the first time in years, there was no work out there.

We had both been born in harder times, and we had grown up through the boom. The pop was bound to happen, but we still weren’t prepared. We were surviving, but with four kids and another on the way, I needed more than surviving on benefits. I researched the heck out of anything I could do, and I began hearing about self-publishing ebooks. That kicked off the writing buzz again. I had to do something, and I finally began to see writing as a viable option. I feel like I truly started writing in the last two years, and we’re not screwed anymore.

[DW] Did you receive any special encouragement from anyone along the way?

[CF] Teachers in my primary school went out of their way to make a big deal of me writing stories. They gave me hope that I could do something that would make me happy. Obviously, my partner has been the most encouraging person. Without him, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to give it a real chance. I have five kids, including twins, under the age of eight. He wouldn’t voluntarily put up with them every morning if he didn’t believe in me. ;)

[DW] When did you realize you have a talent that resonates with readers?

[CF] I’ve never thought of it in those terms. I write what’s in my heart and head, and I hope for the best. There’s an audience for everything, and I’ve been lucky enough to find some readers who are open to the stories I share.

[DW] Did you try conventional publishing before turning to indie platforms like Smashwords?

[CF] No. It has never appealed to me. I don’t believe I have the temperament suited to it, and I don’t believe I write suitable books either. The indie scene was perfect for me. I don’t think either method is right or wrong, and I think the most success will probably be had by combining both, but neither are suitable for everyone out there. Both are hard work in different ways, and some of us are suited to one than the other.

[DW] You live in Ireland -- how important is your country in your writing, as in providing a specific sense of place?

[CF] I try not to rely on setting too much. I’m sometimes told I’m doing it wrong, but I skim descriptions when I’m reading, so I try not to dwell on them while writing. I prefer to let readers find their own world in the story. I’ve always wanted to write a world that anyone could step inside, no matter their circumstances. Because some people have asked more about the locations, I did use Pinterest to share actual pictures of places mentioned, but some readers weren’t happy about me ruining their own vision, which was actually kind of cool. In a non-descriptive sense, I believe Ireland, or at least, Dublin, is very present within the writing. I don’t live in a pretty place, and I think it translates in the writing. Also, the Irishisms. No editor will ever manage to clean my manuscript of the slang.

[DW] Do you have a sense of your audience, their demographics and where they are based?

[CF] There’s a good mix with UK and US readers taking the biggest shares—and yes, I use British English. Most are probably female, but it isn’t something I focus on.

[DW] You characterize some of your books as "romantic paranormal suspense." What key elements make a good novel of this type work?

[CF] I generally call the Ava books "urban fantasy." It’s a pretty broad term, but I can’t think of anything more appropriate. For me, the most important element in any novel is the characterisation. If people can relate to the characters, then they are likely to care to stay with them until the end. And I have to care about the characters to write about them.

[DW] Do you recommend any particular length?

[CF] I enjoy writing shorter pieces, but every audience is different. With so many people reading on smaller devices, short is great. It feels good to finish a story, especially when you don’t have much time to read. I think we’re finally getting back to a point where length isn’t necessarily a judgment on the value of a story.

[DW] Can you describe your writing process, i.e., how much time you spend each day, whether you write from a pre-formed plan or rather more freestyle?

[CF] I’m not a great planner, although I’ve discovered that writing a series can be a lot easier if you prepare a vague sort of outline at the very least. My writing process is a little frantic. I go into hermit mode and write until it’s done. My partner has been able to give up his search for work in order to help me find the time. My first drafts are probably more like incredibly detailed outlines, but for me, that’s a lot easier. I write a lot because I enjoy. I love first draft writing. My current “schedule” is 5,000 words a day, but I don’t publish everything I write. The editing takes so much longer (partly because you’re relying on other people’s help) that there just isn’t enough time right now because I’m focusing so much on my series. I don’t write every single day, but while a book is out with beta readers or an editor or proofreader, I focus on writing something new.

[DW] Do you have other advice for others who might hope to replicate your lead and follow their own dreams to write and publish?

[CF] I write books I want to read.

I haven’t aspired to be one of the top sellers. I didn’t have a backlist to publish. You probably won’t notice me on Facebook or Twitter. Most people will never remember my name, and I’m not part of any indie group. I just plod along, doing my own thing—right or wrong. I didn’t even tell my family I was publishing for a long time. I’ve probably never been in the top 2000 on Amazon, or top 500 on Barnes & Noble, but I’m supporting my rather large family right now, and that’s what matters to me. I’ve no idea how many books I’ve sold, and I think too many people get stuck on the numbers and rankings, but it’s more important that readers are satisfied if you want long-term results. You don’t have to be in the top 100. Making a living from fiction isn’t an impossible dream. I’m not the greatest writer, I don’t have the best covers, and I don’t have a platform. I’m not trying to write anything profound, but I write about things I care about and wrap them up in a world a reader can hopefully get lost in.

It’s taken a long time for my books to stand on their own two feet, but I’ve been too busy writing new stories to notice. That’s probably the key. Having a freebie (before Select) helped boost the series, but releasing new content has kept readers with me. The only advice I can give anyone is to be patient and dedicated, and find your audience. Keep writing, keep working on improving your craft, and treat people with respect. Don’t be afraid to take chances. Not every book has a huge market, but that’s okay. Not everyone can take the same path, so you find your own. The only true failure is in giving up.

[DW] Thanks, Claire!

Smashwords distributes Claire Farrell to the following ebook stores:

Apple iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Diesel eBook Store
Kobo
Sony
Smashwords

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has published three books and hundreds of articles in various publications, including The Economist, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. He currently covers technology for 7x7.com.

New Smashwords WEED Service Treats Common Writer Ailments (April 1 Prank)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:16:00 +0000
One of the oldest medical manuscripts, The Ebers Papyrus, published in 1,550 BC in Ancient Egypt, contained medical miracles, the secrets of which are now being unlocked thanks to modern science.

Inspired by the Ebers Papyrus, Smashwords today announced a new service to treat medical ailments commonly endured by writers.

“For too many years, traditional publishers have turned a blind eye to the physical and mental welfare of writers,” said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. “Writing is one of the toughest professions on the planet. Over time, writing can lead to chronic medical issues such as back and joint pain, carpal tunnel, insomnia, anxiety, depression, writers block and hemorrhoids. It’s time we confront these serious medical issues openly and honestly so writers can receive the care and compassion they deserve.”

Medical science has discovered a strong mind-body connection proving that our thoughts directly impact our health. The dirty little secret of the writing profession is that writers put their emotional psyches in harm's way on a daily basis as they mine their imaginations in the service of readers. Some genre writers face greater harm than others. For example, novelists who write thrillers, horror novels and murder mysteries are at risk for chronic anxiety and insomnia .

A mind under constant stress and duress can lead to permanent physical and psychological disorders without early medical intervention.

Starting April 1, the new Smashwords WEED™ (Writers Earn Extra Dispensation) service brings brings welcome relief to all eligible Smashwords authors, publishers and literary agents.

As background, last month Smashwords filed a Form 10XTHC with the California Department of Health to become a licensed and legal dispensary of medical marijuana. The license was granted today.

The free service is only available to authors with books accepted into the Smashwords Premium Catalog. Please review the Smashwords Style Guide to understand Premium Catalog requirements.

To obtain medical marijuana under the Smashwords WEED program, Smashwords authors must first visit a California-licensed physician, who will determine if the writer’s physical, emotional and creative health can be helped by medical marijuana.

Writers then bring the prescription in person to the new Smashwords WEED dispensary at 21 Sunshine Boulevard, San Jose, California. The dispensary is conveniently located five minutes from San Jose International Airport. Smashwords offers a free hourly shuttle service for out of state guests.

Medical marijuana has been clinically proven over the centuries to relieve many ailments suffered by writers, including muscle spasms, headaches, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, insomnia, poor concentration or focus, and low energy. The Ebers Papyrus, for example, recommended cannabis for the treatment of sore eyes and hemorrhoids.

"Our mission at Smashwords is to make writers euphoric," added Coker. "Please enjoy our services responsibly, and tell a friend."

Considering today is April 1, commonly known as April Fools here in the U.S., the reader is cautioned not to believe everything they read today, especially stories that sound too good to be true.

Happy April 1!

Our previous April 1 pranks include:
2011: Smashwords Acquires Amazon to Create Smashazon
2009: Smashwords Harry Potter Ebooks

Does Agency Pricing Lead to Higher Book Prices?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:14:00 +0000
According to a March 9 story in the Wall Street Journal, The U.S. Department of Justice is considering suing Apple and five large US publishers for allegedly colluding to raise the price of ebooks.

At the heart of the issue, I suspect, is concern over the agency pricing model. Agency pricing allows the publisher (or the indie author) to set the retail price of their book.

Although Smashwords is not a party to this potential lawsuit, I felt it was important that the DoJ investigators hear the Smashwords side of the story, because any decisions they make could have significant ramifications for our 40,000 authors and publishers, and for our retailers and customers.

Yesterday I had an hour-long conference call with the DoJ. My goal was to express why I think it's critically important that the DoJ not take any actions to weaken or dismantle agency pricing for ebooks.

Even before the DoJ investigation, I understood that detractors of the agency model believed that agency would lead to higher prices for consumers.

Ever since we adopted the agency model, however, I had faith that in a free market ecosystem where the supply of product (ebooks) exceeds the demand, that suppliers (authors and publishers) would use price as a competitive tool, and this would naturally lead to lower prices.

I preparation for the DoJ call, I decided to dig up the data to prove whether my pie-in-the-sky supply-and-demand hunch was correct or incorrect. I asked Henry on our engineering team to sift through our log files to reconstruct as much pricing data as possible regarding our books at the Apple iBookstore.

We shared hard data with the DoJ yesterday that we've never shared with anyone. I'll share this data with you now.

As background, Smashwords is one of several authorized aggregators supplying ebooks to the Apple iBookstore. On day one of the iPad's launch, we had about 2,200 books in the iBookstore, and our catalog there has grown steadily ever since.

Henry was able to assemble a complete data set going back to October 2010. We created once-a-month snapshots of the Smashwords catalog at the Apple iBookstore between October 2010 and March 2012. Our data captures the average price of our titles in the iBookstore, and the number of titles listed.

I'm sharing four data sets. The first data set, above at left, shows the number of Smashwords titles for sale in the Apple iBookstore. As you can see, the numbers have grown steadily. I'm not aware of any other agency pricing study that worked against such a large body of data.

In the next data set, we plotted the percentage of books priced at FREE by our authors and publishers. As you can see from the chart, the number grew from 8.45% in October 2010 to 9.60% this month.

Why would authors and publishers give away complete books when they have the power to price at a price? The reason is because FREE is a powerful marketing tool for platform building, and for introducing new readers to an author's backlist.

This data indicates a slow but steady increase in the adoption of FREE.

For you statistics geeks out there, the data represents a statistically significant trend with a tau of 0.516 and a 2-sided pvalu e of .00313. For you non-stat-geeks, a positive tau number indicates an upward sloping trend, and the pvalue represents the statistical odds that the trend is invalid. A 2-sided pvalue of .00313 indicates that the odds of this trend not being statistically significant is only 3 in 1,000.

In the next chart, I aggregate all books, both FREE books and priced books, to calculate the average price of the books in the catalog.

The downward sloping trend is pronounced. The tau is -.948, indicating a downward trend, and the 2-sided pvalue is .000000049141. So, if I'm counting my zeros correctly, that's less than a 1 in 100 million chance that this trend is not statistically significant.

Dizzy yet?

In plain English, we've seen the average price of books in our catalog drop from $4.16 in October 2010 to $2.97 today.

In the next data set, we removed the free titles to identify the true average price for priced books in our catalog at Apple.

This statistically significant data set carries a tau of -0.908 and a 2-sided pvalue of 0.00000017217. This confirms that even if you remove FREE books, the average price of priced books is declining. The tau indicates 1 in one million chance that the indicated trend is incorrect.

In plain English, the average prices have dropped 25% from $4.55 in October 2010 to $3.41 today.

Back in 2009, I blogged at the Huffington Post that the time had come for publishers to price ebooks at $4.00. That day arrived for Smashwords authors and publishers a year ago.

The $3.41 is a really interesting number, for a couple reasons: 1) It shows that authors and publishers, left to their own free will, are pricing their books lower in this highly competitive market. Sure, they could all try to fleece customers by pricing their books at $29.99, but customers won't let them. 2) $3.41 is remarkably close to the average price paid for Smashwords books purchased at Barnes & Noble during the last 30 days. The B&N number: $3.16. I looked at every Smashwords book sold at Barnes & Noble between February 28 and March 27, then calculated the average price. This means Smashwords authors are pricing their books close to what customers want to pay. The median price (represents the midpoint, where an equal number of books sold at lower prices and and equal number sold at higher prices) was $2.99. The weighted average price (all priced book sales divided by number of units purchased) was $2.59.

We had a good conversation with the DoJ. They were very interested to learn about our business, and learn about the underlying dynamics of the retail distribution ecosystem from the perspective of indie authors and small publishers.

I explained how when Smashwords first began distributing ebooks to retailers in 2009, our retailer contracts were under the traditional wholesale model. After Apple introduced the agency model in early 2010, we found ourselves managing dual, incompatible pricing systems. Apple priced at agency, and our other retailers continued to discount.

As I explained to the DoJ, Apple was aware that our other retailers were underpricing them, not just because we were juggling wholesale and agency, but because Apple prices in $.99 tiers. As we explained to Apple two years ago and to the DoJ yesterday, if a Smashwords author priced a book at $1.25, we'd bump the price at Apple up to $1.99 rather than price lower than what the author wanted.

The DoJ asked me if Apple ever balked at the knowledge that other retailers were selling our same books for less, and my answer was no. Not once in our two year relationship with Apple have they ever complained about a Smashwords-distributed title priced lower at one of their competitors. They've never price-matched any of our books if they found it lower elsewhere. I really don't think they care.

For our other large retailers - Barnes & Noble, Sony and Kobo - I can think of less than five instances combined where any of them tried to price-match books because they found them priced lower elsewhere.

There's only one retailer that has made it a practice to strictly enforce most-favored-nation pricing upon its authors and publishers, and they're the retailer that forced us to move all of our wholesale retailers to the agency model. As I mentioned in my initial blog post here, our move to agency in 2010 was necessitated by Amazon's automated price matching.

At the time, when Sony or B&N discounted a $2.99 book by a mere 5%, Amazon price-matched the book which dropped the author from a 70% royalty rate at Amazon to 35% (Some time after October 2010, I believe Amazon stopped dropping the royalty rate upon price-matching). At the time, our bestselling authors were understandably upset, because the downgrade was costing some of them thousands of dollars in lost income. It caused some of them to remove their books from all retailers except Amazon out of fear of such punishment. Keep in mind, in mid 2010, Amazon controlled 80-90% of the US ebook market, so such policies put authors in a tough bind.

In mid-2010, with our authors angry over the discounting, and with them removing books from distribution (as a distributor, we care about this on multiple levels!), we started asking our retailers to move us to agency terms so our authors could control their pricing. At first, they all said no. None of them were fans of the agency model at that time. I think all of them felt as if the model had been shoved down their throats by the ultimatums of the Big 5 publishers (who viewed Apple and its agency model as their white knight counterbalance to Amazon).

In November 2010, Kobo moved us to agency, and then the next month Barnes & Noble and Sony gave us agency terms as well. I think they all moved us to agency because they realized that their discounting was causing indie authors to remove their books and sell only on Amazon.

Over the last two years, my appreciation for the agency model has grown as I've come to fully understand its benefits for our authors, publishers, retailers and customers. Here's why I support agency:

Agency puts the authors and publishers in control over their retail price and their promotions. This gives authors and publishers the freedom to coordinate promotions across all retailers for reasons decided by the author or publisher.
Publishers earn 60-70% of the retail list price as their earnings, vs. 35-50% under the traditional wholesale pricing model. This gives authors and publishers the freedom (should they choose to exercise it) to price their books lower, yet still earn the same or more income from the sale of each unit. This allows our authors to compete more effectively against the books of Big 6 publishers, who price their books on the high end. Lower prices make books more affordable and more accessible to more potential customers, leading to a virtuous cycle of higher unit sales at higher profit levels which leads to more earnings for our authors and publishers.
Agency provides our retailer partners a fair, predictable commission of 30%. These retailers are investing millions of dollars - sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars - to attract more readers to more books. They earn every penny. We want them all to build profitable businesses selling indie ebooks.
Agency creates a level playing field for all ebook retailers. It prevents deep-pocketed retailers or device-makers from using predatory pricing practices to sell books at below cost in an attempt to bleed their competitors' finances dry, or in attempt to snuff out new competitors before smaller startups gain a foothold in the market.
Agency forces retailers to compete on customer experience rather than price. Retailers who win will be those who do the best job of attracting customers to their store, and who offer the best algorithms to match readers with books they'll enjoy reading.
Agency forces authors and publishers to be wholly accountable to their customers. If the author or publisher prices their book too high, the market will respond by purchasing lower cost alternatives.
As I explained to the DoJ, I think it's fallacy to believe that agency pricing leads to higher prices. That's like blaming cars for drunk driving accidents. The driver behind the wheel is responsible. If the Big 6 publishers are pricing their books too high (and I think they are), blame the publishers.

It's also fallacy to believe that somehow the wholesale pricing model is the savior and enabler of low prices. Under the wholesale model, the publisher has always set the price at which they'll sell the book to the bookstore, typically a 50% discount to the suggested list price. The $30 front list hardcover you purchase earns the publisher $15, or less. If the publisher decides they need to earn $18.00 on each copy sold, they'll set the suggested list price to $36.00. If you agree that under normal circumstances, most retailers will not consistently sell all their books at below cost, then it's reasonable to conclude that even under wholesale, publishers already control the minimum price all customers, on average, will pay.

It's worth noting that when the Big 5 publishers moved to agency, many of them started earning less per book than they had previously earned under the wholesale model. Pricing control was more important to them.

Analyzing the Short and Long Term Impacts

A return to the wholesale pricing model for ebooks would lead to the following short term affects:

Indie author and publisher "royalty rates" (earnings) would drop to 35-50% of the retail price.
Retailers would discount ebooks, and customers would begin migrating to retailers with the lowest prices. In the online realm, the cheaper book is only a click away. Online price checking web sites and apps make it easy for customers to always find the lowest price.
Authors and publishers, in an attempt to recoup lost earnings, would at first increase prices. For example, if it's important to a Smashwords author that they earn $3.00 per copy sold, under agency they'd price the book at $5.00. Under wholesale, they'd need to price the book at $7.00, 40% higher. Yes, a return to wholesale could increase prices for customers.
A return to the wholesale pricing model could lead to the following long term affects:
In the battle for market share, price wars will break out, and some retailers will begin pricing books below cost. Other retailers would be forced to match the prices or risk losing customers. If the price wars persisted, only two or three major ebook retailers would likely have the financial stamina to endure: Apple, Amazon and Google
Barnes & Noble, which now controls about 28% of the US market, would probably run out of cash and suffer the safe fate as Borders.
Smaller independent ebook retailers such as the Diesel eBook Store, BooksOnBoard and others, would be probably be forced out of business.
Formation of new ebook retailers, both here in the US and internationally, would dry up to a trickle, further limiting the number of companies in the business of promoting reading.
With less competition, retailers would stop discounting, and prices would rise as retailers capture the full 50% margin enabled by the wholesale model.
With retailing power consolidated in the hands of one or two powerful retailers, authors and publishers could lose control over their distribution options and could be forced to make concessions on royalty rates, or forced to pay co-op dollars or listing fees.
I'm not suggesting that any of these retailers harbor nefarious intentions. They're simply trying maximize profit on behalf of their shareholders within the environments they operate. As much as I love our friends at Apple, and as much as I hope to be great friends someday with Amazon, I don't want there to be only two bookstores standing when the post-DoJ dust settles. That would be horrible for everyone, and I don't think it would even be good for Apple and Amazon.

I think if those of us - including the DoJ, authors, publishers, retailers, distributors, readers - who have the power to promote policies and practices that lead to more bookstores and more reading, we have an obligation to do the right thing. I believe agency will lead to more reading, and wholesale will lead to less.

Ultimately, regardless of pricing model, customers will decide what they will and will not pay.

Here's the big question: Who should decide what customers should pay? Proponents of the wholesale model believe that publishers make poor pricing decisions, and retailers make smarter decisions. If we're talking about big publishers, I agree with the retailers. Big publishers are pricing their books too high.

If we're talking about the indie authors and small presses, I think indies are more savvy about pricing than big publishers. The data above supports this. They're closer to their customers. With nearly 100,000 Smashwords books to choose from at Barnes & Noble, customers are voting for $2.99 as the median price and our books are priced very near that.

Are retailers better at pricing than indie authors? My guess is yes, simply because retailers have real-time access to store-wide data. But this gap in intelligence is rapidly decreasing. Indie authors are getting faster access to information, and there's even greater opportunity ahead for distributors such as Smashwords to start sharing more information with both authors and our retail partners. Such information sharing will help better align the interests of authors and retailers, and the end result will be pricing that is more responsive to the needs of customers.

Who Should Control Pricing?

In the end, I think authors and publishers should have the freedom to decide their pricing.

I have no idea how the DoJ will lean in their rumored lawsuit. I also don't know the negotiation plans of the publishers and Apple. The DoJ declined to share any details of their investigation with me.

I trust now that whatever decision the DoJ makes, they'll make it with the full knowledge of how it will impact indie authors. As I expressed to the DoJ, indies are the future of publishing.

The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:42:00 +0000
I released a new ebook tonight, The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. It's priced at FREE.

The book represents my attempt to distill, organize, package and share the best practices of the most commercially successful Smashwords authors.

The book is organized around 28 different "secrets," in which I explain not only what a writer should do, but also the thinking behind why they should do it.

The book took me almost 18 months to write. We've been so crazy busy at Smashwords that most of the writing occurred at 35,000 feet on my frequent flights to here and there, and during vacations.

The initial spark for the book struck two years ago in early 2010 when the organizers of the Self Publishing Book Expo conference in New York invited me to speak at their September 2010 conference on a topic of my choosing. I named the session, "The Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success," not because I knew the secrets but because I wanted to learn them.

As I mention in many of my talks, self-publishing tools such as Smashwords make it fast, free and easy (sometimes too easy) for writers to publish books, but we don't make it easy for writers to become successful publishers.

Even after a writer writes a great book, there's still the challenge of connecting that book with readers. Most authors tackle the challenge with marketing. I wrote The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide a couple years ago to help in that regard. The book has been quite popular with nearly 80,000 downloads. Although many people have achieved good results with my marketing guide, I've come to the conclusion that marketing alone is insufficient.

Many Smashwords authors have hit bestseller lists with little discernible marketing effort. Other factors - previously unknown to me - were propelling these books forward.

What were these factors? This is the knowledge I sought to uncover in this new book.

The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success helps writers obtain the necessary knowledge to take their publishing to the next level. That which becomes known becomes achievable.

These secrets are your secrets. You - the Smashwords author or publisher - inspired them, even if you don't recognize your contribution. Take these secrets and put them to the test. Build upon them. Then share what you learn with your fellow authors.

It's in this spirit of sharing that I invite you to share The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success with every author you know. Your fellow authors are your partners, not your competitors. When they succeed, you succeed. When you succeed, we all succeed. We're all in this together.

The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success is now available for free download at Smashwords. In the next couple weeks, it'll be available at all the leading ebook retailers.

Ruth Ann Nordin Shares Her Secrets to Success

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:30:00 +0000
Ruth Ann Nordin has built a successful business self-publishing romance novels. In our interview, she tells how she grew her readership and sales, and offers encouragement to other authors who may from time to time consider giving up. "Keep writing and publishing," she says, "Most of all, have fun writing..."

[David Weir] You've been very successful at Smashwords. Please tell us how you've done it.

[Ruth Ann Nordin] I heard about Smashwords in 2009 from Joanna Penn's podcast at The Creative Penn, and thought it would be fun to make ebooks. At the time, it was an experiment to see how the process worked and to share what I learned with others on my blog. As Smashwords opened up distribution channels, I opted in for all but Amazon because I was already publishing directly on Amazon (and I started that back in 2009 as well). Early on, I made all of my books free on Smashwords so people interested in my books could use any format they preferred to read them. I don't remember when I switched to $0.99 on most of my books, but I kept a couple of them free. I think it's the free books and offering them in as many avenues as possible that ultimately set me on the road to selling books for $0.99.

It wasn't until 2011 that I started asking $2.99 for my new books. I've experimented with pricing and found that for old books, free or $0.99 worked best, and new ones worked best at $2.99. Pricing up might have made me the same money, but I was more interested in exposure so that's why I like keep a couple books at free and my old ones (from 2009 to 2010) at $0.99. The trade off on losing money with free books to reach out to new readers who might then buy my other books has been one of my best tools. I also used to keep a first draft blog, and that was the best way my target audience found me. I posted my Facebook information on the blog, and they friended me over there. Between the comments on the blog and on Facebook, I was able to open a dialogue with my readers who gave me a better idea of what I was doing right and focused on doing more of that in future books. I'm not sure what worked best, but it's safe to say all of this worked together.

[DW] We understand you actually sell more books through Smashwords than through Amazon?

[RAN] Yes, and I recently made a blog post that tracked my sales from 2009 to November 2011. Here is what I got:

Amazon numbers
2009: 709 books sold; total earned about $160.
2010: 40,452 books sold; total earned about $15,500 (all of my books were $0.99)
2011 (up to the end of November):
•Books sold at all Amazon stores: 96,333
•Breakdown of sales earned through Amazon: US was a little over $44,000, UK was about $14,000, and DE was like $10 a month totaling $58,000.
•The $2.99 price on new titles made a big difference, as did word of mouth because at this point, I was doing no real marketing outside of blog posts and Facebook mingling
•Books given away for free on Amazon using their price matching strategy: 240,781 (this is separate from paid sales)

Smashwords numbers
2009: I made $0 from Smashwords. I also sold no books in other venues. But to be fair, all of my books were free back then on Smashwords, and I don’t remember when Smashwords started distributing to other sites.

2010 breakdown:
•Apple: 4,223 books sold and given away for free
•B&N: 66,291 books sold and given away for free
•Diesel: 230 books sold and given away for free
•Kobo: 55,025 books sold and given away for free
•Sony: 51,599 books sold and given away for free
•Total income from Smashwords in 2010: $2,860.

2011 breakdown:
•Apple: 36,919 books sold and given away for free
•B&N: 555,994 books sold and given away for free
•Diesel: 2,169 books sold and given away for free
•Kobo: 92,119 books sold and given away for free
•Sony: 36,930 books sold and given away for free
•Total income from Smashwords in 2011: $75,100

[DW] What does it mean for you to be an independent author, as opposed to the old-fashioned kind?

[RAN] Being an independent author means that I have the freedom to control everything about my books. I get to control content, the title, the cover, the price, when it's published, and if I want to post it for free on my blog or not.

[DW] How long have you been writing and did you ever try conventional publishing?

[RAN] Unlike most authors, I hated reading and writing early in life. It wasn't until I read my first Sweet Valley High book (a teen romance) back in the sixth grade (late 1980s) that I realized reading could be fun. I still remember the first sentence of that book, the title, the cover, the characters’ names and the plot. After I read every Sweet Valley High book I could get my hands on, I had trouble finding other books I wanted to read. When I was a freshman in high school, I was browsing the bookstores and libraries and wondering why nothing appealed to me. Finally, it dawned on me. "If I can't find the book I want to read, I need to write it." From there, I started writing.

I was never interested in conventional publishing. The query process didn't appeal to me. I just wanted to write books and have fun. Seeing my books in print was fun, so I went through vanity publishers (meaning, I paid them to put my books into paperbacks) starting back in 2002. I continued on with vanity publishers and spent $10,000 from 2002 to early 2008. My husband put his foot down at that point and said making $30 twice a year wasn't worth spending all the money I was. In despair, I confined myself to never seeing another one of my books in print again and started looking for a conventional publisher because I still wanted to write and see my manuscripts in book form.

It was while hanging out in forums on Authonomy and Amazon that I learned about creating paperbacks for free. Well, free was in my price range, so I asked several authors for more information, and it was April Hamilton who pointed me to CreateSpace. From my time on the forums, I came across The Creative Penn where I learned about ebooks. I did send out queries and synopses to a couple of agents and publishers, and two publishers requested I modify the manuscripts to better suit their idea of what a romance book should be like (aka to make them marketable to their audiences). I never resubmitted the two manuscripts because their vision of romance wasn't my vision.

Thanks to CreateSpace for the paperbacks and The Creative Penn, which led me to Amazon KDP and Smashwords (ebooks), I could publish my books for free (making my husband happy) and keep my books the way I felt they were meant to be (making me happy).

[DW] Do you remember your first reader reviews or letters for your ebooks and what did they mean to you?

[RAN] I do, and I still keep in touch with the first reader who told me she enjoyed my books. Feedback I received from readers wasn't all positive, and I think that's the reality check that startled me the most. It seemed to me that if people liked my books, they would email me or comment on my blog, but if they didn't like my books, they would leave 1 or 2-star reviews on Amazon. To be honest, I almost gave up (and this was in March 2010) because of the 1 and 2-star reviews. While most of the feedback was positive and I was also getting 4 and 5-star reviews, it's the 1 and 2-star ones I remember most, and those reviews came on An Inconvenient Marriage (which is ironic since that seems to the be the book that has done the best overall). I remember praying to God and asking Him what He wanted me to do because I was ready to unpublish all of my books and walk away from the whole thing. A half hour later, I got an email from a reader who told me "to continue my good work”.

That email is posted on my wall where I can read it whenever I contemplate giving up because the urge still comes about twice a year. I share this story because it's one of the experiences of being an author that no one in my writing groups ever told me, and I was in organizations with Harlequin, Avon and small press authors who had more experience than I did. I wish someone had given me a heads up that the emotional roller coaster authors go through is normal.

[DW] What do you think of the trend toward exclusivity such as with Amazon's KDP Select program?

[RAN] It worries me because of the implications exclusivity involves. No matter where exclusivity is part of the deal, it means limiting yourself from potential readers. Readers prefer to read ebooks on their e-readers, whether it's the Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. I think the best thing an author can do is make their books available to them in the format (and for the device) they want. My other bad feeling about being exclusive through one retailer is that authors can get boxed in to ultimately relying on one place to sell books. It takes time to build up reviews and sales ranking. In the past, whenever I have pulled my book for even a week, I might have kept my reviews, but my sales ranking fell and I wasn't able to get it back to where it used to be, no matter what marketing strategy I tried. Also, from examining how exclusive programs work, I've noticed that books in these programs get a boost, but the problem is, the boost doesn't always last.

Books not in exclusive programs can take a hit, so there’s a downside to not being in them. For example, my sales at Amazon have been about 40% worse since I don’t have any books in the program. I won't enter Select or any exclusive program offered by any retailer because I think in the long run, it's going to hurt my potential to reach new readers. I think for authors who don't want to enter an exclusive program, the best strategy is to write more books they're passionate about and publish them. Sales might dip, but having more books available (and making them the best books you can so don't rush it) is crucial as you try to find new readers and to keep the ones you already have happy. I also think it's a good idea to keep books on Amazon even if sales are dropping. I don't want to alienate my Kindle readers, and Amazon is a useful avenue to get books to the public.

[DW] What's the hardest part about self-publishing and what's the best part?

[RAN] Back in 2008 and 2009, the hardest part was the stigma associated with it. I was pretty much told by traditionally published authors that my books didn't count in their organizations because I self-published. This is not the case today. Self-published books are now acceptable in most places. Today the hardest part about self-publishing is the spirit of competition among some self-published authors. There are authors who are nice to your face and leave 1 and 2-star reviews behind your back, and you find out it's them when readers call out their true identity on forums. Sandbagging is a big problem, especially on Amazon. I’ve seen authors who’ve been harshly criticized in reviews by their fellow self-published authors, and when I say criticized, I mean they resort to mudslinging. Most authors I come across are great. They are very supportive and will bend over backwards to help each other, but I think you have to be careful until you get to know someone to find out who you can trust.

The best part is having full control of your book. I love having the final say in my content, my cover, my title, my publishing date, my price, and even my record keeping. I have hired cover artists on a couple of books, but I do most of them myself because I enjoy working with GIMP or BookCoverPro. This is why traditional publishing was never a good fit for me. I love doing it my way too much.

[DW] You've published some 23 romance novels to date. How did you come to this genre and what continues to draw you to it?

[RAN] I stumbled upon romance by accident when my parents took me to a used bookstore when I was in the sixth grade and I picked up that Sweet Valley High book I mentioned above. I enjoy reading a variety of genres and I've written a variety of genres, but romance is my primary focus because I enjoy exploring the relationship between a husband and wife as they overcome obstacles presented to them. I also enjoy that “falling in love” feeling and love a happy ending, both of which are the focus of romance novels.

[DW] Who reads your books and what do they tell you about their experience reading them?

[RAN] My primary audience is Christian women around the world. My secondary audience is Asian women of various faiths. I've noticed that no matter what their religion is, their faith is important to most of them, and they appreciate the fact that sex happens after marriage in my books. In fact, I get more requests to keep sex after marriage in all of my future books than any other feedback, and since it's something I intend to do, fulfilling their wish isn't a problem. I would say my audience wants to see old-fashioned values in their romances.

[DW] How does your writing and editing process work?

[RAN] I have at least four books I'm working on because if the plot stalls on one book, I have other books I can focus on. That way, I can keep advancing toward the end goal, which is a published book. My goal is to publish six to eight books a year, so I keep a calendar where I write what I hope to accomplish three to six months in advance and another calendar to track down what actually happens. To keep my readers updated on my progress, I also have word count widgets and updates of where I'm at with all of my works in progress on my blog. This also helps me stay motivated because it holds me accountable for how I spend my time. I have an average goal to write 2,000 words a day. I break this word count up into one 1,000-word segment and two 500-word segments.

500 words equals 30 minutes. So I can do my word count goals in two hours, as long as I remove all distractions. That means no Internet, no TV, no answering the phone, etc., for 30 minutes to an hour at a time. After that, I'll take a break or do some housework (I'm a stay-at-home mom). There are some days when I can't make my word counts. If I miss a couple of days in the month, I don't stress it. I just start over the next day. I have scheduled in a vacation for the summer and take a day off if I'm too sick to write. So I do allow for real life. This helps prevent burn-out. If I'm feeling overwhelmed (usually because I have too much to do that day), I take the day off from writing.

As for editing, once I finish the first draft, I go through it to polish it up to second draft status. Then I send it off to my editor with specific things I'm looking for. After I get it back, I polish it up again to make the third draft. Then it goes out to two or three proofreaders. My proofreaders are people who’ve read and enjoy my books, have been nice in telling me what they like and don’t like in my books, and are punctual in getting the book back to me. After I fix their suggestions, I go through a final listen through on my Kindle (hearing the book helps me catch things we all missed earlier in the editing process). After that, I send it off to be published.

[DW] Do your characters come to you before you start writing, or do some pop up during the writing itself?

[RAN] This usually works in two ways for me. I either have the characters in mind and wait for the right plot to pop up, or I have the plot waiting for the right characters to come along. I am the type of writer who writes by the seat of her pants. I start with something like, "I want to write a mail-order bride story" and "I want a heroine who isn't beautiful". Then I start writing. Usually, I have the first couple of scenes in mind, but the characters end up taking over and as long as I follow their lead, I don't have a problem with the story. The story stalls when I am doing something that isn't right for the characters. At that point, I work on another book and brainstorm what needs fixing to get the other book back on track.

[DW] Many authors get discouraged when their books do not become successful quickly. What advice do you have for an indie author trying to connect with her audience?

[RAN] First, I think it's important to define success. I don't think success is limited to sales. To me, success is writing the story I want to read, and as long as I accomplish that, I'm successful. That's how it's always been for me. I know it's easy for me to say that since I'm where I am today, but it's how I felt back in 2002 when I published with a vanity publisher. I was just happy to have a physical copy of my book so I didn't have to carry a notebook around to read my story. I think if you're happy with where you're at and with what you're doing, it's easy to keep going.

That being said, I can understand and appreciate the desire to make a living or get a nice supplemental income from your books. Different things will work for different authors. Free has probably been the most useful way I've connected with my audience. But free took time. Free didn't lead to sales in a couple of months. It took over a year for me to see things start to take off. I realize there are some overnight successes out there, but that's rare. I think self-publishing has allowed a good percentage of authors a good chance of either making a living or having a nice supplemental income, especially since we're able to distribute to a variety of channels on Smashwords that are also expanding globally.

Ultimately, it's really a matter of patience and perseverance. Keep writing and publishing. I strongly advise authors to put their books through every channel they can. My first months (Spring - Summer 2009) on Amazon earned me a few bucks, and that is all I made until Dec. 2009. When I started out in ebooks, I didn’t have the sales that I hear most newbies get, so this is where authors should be encouraged. I think it’s easier to reach readers now. However, instead of expecting numbers to take off in a profound way the first year of publishing, I think it’s better to think long-term. Don’t stress the numbers. Keep writing books you are passionate about. If you are passionate about your books, you won’t have trouble writing them. Also, have a strategy where you're reaching deadlines so you can stay focused on getting more books out there. The more books you have, the better your chances are of finding readers.

[DW] Any other pearls of wisdom especially for new authors hoping to take a shot at self-publishing a book?

[RAN] Study books in your genre and see what types of covers and titles are selling well. Also, which ones caught your attention? The ones that caught your attention should give you an idea of what to name your book and what kind of cover to use. Read the descriptions and pick out key words and phrases that intrigue you. Go to reader forums on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble where readers of your genre are discussing books they like, don't like, and why. You don't have to do what the readers are saying, but they might discuss what types of covers, titles, plot points, and character traits they like or don't like that might give you some ideas when you're working on your books.

Most importantly, you should write the book you're most passionate about because you'll want to make it the best you can. I strongly advise you not to spam. Just put links to places to buy your books on your website and/or blog. Participate with people you come across and be the kind of person you'd like to be friends with. If people like what you have to say, they'll click on your name and see your website/blog that you linked to. Look for ways to help others but also know that you have the right to say no if someone is trying to take advantage of you or if you don't have enough time to do something.

Don't read reviews. Reviews are for readers. You're better off taking the advice (praise and criticism) from your fans because they are the ones you're writing for. Don't compare yourself to other authors. Everyone's experience will be different. Sales rise and fall. Publishing new books help to get out of the dips, but not all books sell the same. Some books sell better than others, and there's no way to tell which will sell well. All you can do is write the best book you can, put an attractive cover and title on it, write the best description you can, and put it out there. Most of all, have fun writing because in the end, that's really at the heart of what we're doing: writing books that mean something to us.

[DW] Thanks, Ruth Ann!

Smashwords distributes Ruth Ann Nordin to the following retailers:

Apple iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Blio.com
Diesel eBook Store
Kobo
Sony
Smashwords.com

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has published three books and hundreds of articles in various publications, including The Economist, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. He currently covers technology for 7x7.com.

Inside the Mind of Best-Selling Erotica Author Selena Kitt

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

One of the authors whose work was deeply threatened by PayPal’s recent attempt to suppress certain types of erotica was Selena Kitt. We interviewed Selena about her extraordinary success as an indie author and also about her views on the attempts to curb erotica. Most of the interview took place prior to PayPal's decision to overturn their policies. After PayPal reversed their policies, David Weir updated the interview.

[David Weir] When did you first start writing erotica, where did you publish, and what were the results?

[Selena Kitt] I wrote a lot when I was younger—I wrote my first novel long-hand when I was thirteen—but I didn’t start writing erotic fiction until a friend pointed me to a site called Literotica. They were holding a contest called “Survivor” (back when the television show was very popular)—the most stories written in the most categories in one year would win a $500 prize. I thought it would be a fun way to flex my writing muscle, get feedback for my work, and push my boundaries as a writer.

Also, my husband was the only one working at the time, and we had two small children, so I thought the money could come in handy. I only came in second place, but at the end of that year, I had a very large body of erotic work. I had also received a great deal of feedback from readers on the site, and had risen to the top of Literotica’s “favorite authors” list. I said to my husband, “If I’d been paid for every time someone downloaded one of my stories, I’d be a millionaire!” And he said, “Well, why aren’t you getting paid?”

That got me moving. I submitted some of my fiction to a few epublishers—the now defunct Stardust Press along with Samhain Publishing and Phaze—and they accepted and published my work, but they paid so little, just 30-45% royalties, and they didn’t accept many of the subjects I’d written.

So I went to the largest ebook distributor in the game at the time, a site called Fictionwise (they were later bought out by Barnes and Noble). They told me they didn’t accept individual authors, and that I would have to be a “publisher” to get my books distributed on their site. So I went to my Literotica author friends, who had written books right alongside me all year long, and asked them to publish with me. And that’s how Excessica was born. I met my goal of making a good supplemental income on Fictionwise -- about $5,000 per quarter. That was $20,000 a year! I was pleased.

Then Amazon came out with the Kindle and the whole ebook world exploded.

I started making $10,000 a month on Amazon. (And that, ladies and gentlemen, was back when their Mobi division was the only way to get on the site and they only offered 35% royalties to authors!) When Kindle KDP opened up and Amazon began giving 70% royalties, the floodgates really opened. And then Barnes and Noble came out with the Nook. And suddenly, my little supplemental income had turned into a booming business.

[DW] Can you quantify your current success for us?

[SK] Well, if you want stats… in 2011, I sold half a million ebooks and made about three-quarters of a million dollars. I don’t know if I will make that much in 2012, but I’m fairly well known as an erotica author now and the ebook market only has room for expansion— but as we know in this genre, it’s often one step forward, two steps back! I’m humbled and still a little stunned by my own success, I have to admit. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the amount of money that comes my way every month from ebook distributors and still break into a cold sweat sometimes when I see the bank balance!

[DW] How much feedback do you get from readers and what is your sense of who they are?

[SK] I get lots of emails from fans, and I try to answer them all if I can, even if it’s just to say, “Thank you for reading!” Just judging from the feedback and reviews, I’d say that 70-80% of my ebook audience is women. Which is a bit of a switch from Literotica, where I think a majority of my fans were men. But I think I actually write erotic fiction that crosses gender boundaries and appeals to both.

[DW] What tension, if any, exists for an author of erotica to write about fantasies as if they were events that actually took place? Or is it sufficient to present fantasies strictly as fantasies?

[SK] One of my books, “Confessions,” addresses this very issue!

More than any other genre, erotica writers hear the question, “Did that really happen?” Somehow it’s assumed that we erotica writers are swinging from the ceilings on sex swings every night and we carry cat o’nine tails in our back pockets “just in case” like some people carry Swiss army knives! Why should I try to dispel the myth?

There are lots of people who think Stephen King is one creepy dude. Is he really? Or does he just have a very rich, vivid imagination? Writers are good at lying. We don’t call it lying, of course, we call it fiction. Telling stories. It’s what we do. We give the truth “scope.” So even when we are writing about things that happened in our own lives, they’re not always true. And when we’re writing about things that never happened to us at all, that doesn’t mean some aspect of them isn’t also true, for us, in some way.

Thriller writers don’t have to have murdered to write about serial killers. I wrote The Sybian Club before I’d ever ridden a Sybian. (Although I do happen to own one now!) Like any other writer, I don’t have to have experienced something to write about it. Some of the things I write about have happened to me, personally, or to people I know. Some of them are strictly fiction.

And sometimes, I think especially in erotica, the mystery of not knowing for the reader makes the reading all the more intriguing and fun. Erotica writers become a fantasy within the fantasy and as long as I don’t have stalkers calling or showing up at my doorstep, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that!

[DW] Are there any differences in the way you develop a character in erotica, say, than in other reams of fiction?

[SK] Not really. You’re still exploring someone’s psyche, whether your character is eating breakfast, jumping out of an airplane, or having sex. That said, you’ll probably be exploring more of your character, or at least different aspects of them, than most authors do. You’re going to have to think about your character’s first sexual encounters, whether or not they’re experienced, what things have shaped their sexual character? Are they conformers in the bedroom? Are they rebels? Are they repeating patterns in their sex lives, in their relationships? Those are things you might explore in a mainstream novel, but its stuff you definitely have to know when you’re writing erotica.

[DW] Do you think there is any connection between erotica and visual pornography, which obviously is also huge on the Internet?

[SK] Other than the fact that it’s porn and sex that has driven every new technology we’ve ever developed? They aren’t the same thing of course—but they do have connections. They both sexually excite. They are both controversial. They both have their advocates—and their detractors. Personally, I’m not against either, nor do I believe that one is “better” than the other. I think they can both be healthy additions to a normal person’s life. But I do think they both have a slightly different aim. Most visual porn has the singular purpose of arousal and release. The purpose of erotica is far more plural. Most erotica explores the depths of human sexuality in ways that visual pornography can’t reach. Visual porn tends to be as two-dimensional as the screen you watch it on. Erotica, when it’s done well, gives the reader a deeper understanding and experience of human sexuality.

[DW] Finally, what advice do you have for new and first-time authors of erotic stories and books, and how can they navigate the world of self-publishing, especially during the periodic crackdowns that may occur?

[SK] I won’t tell anyone to self-censor, although I have chosen to do so myself, in some ways. I do write some incest fiction, but out of my sixty-something titles, I only have two novels and one anthology that focus on incest. If you do want to write in the taboo realm, there are still places (Barnes and Noble) to publish all of the topics. If you want to write transgressive erotic fiction, go for it! Just know that the paying market, at the moment, is more limited than it was. And there is a possibility that it will become even more limited in the future. Keep your eyes and ears open.

Other than that, I wouldn’t give any different advice now to an erotic writer than I would have a month ago. Write often, write well, and write what turns you on. Worry more about your character development and your word choice than finding your market. If you keep writing, your market will find you. Pay more attention to your readers and their feedback than pimping your book on Facebook or Twitter. Yes, you’re writing for yourself, but if that was the only person you were writing for, you wouldn’t be publishing, would you? So you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but if you’re not pleasing most of the people most of the time, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your work. Learn to take constructive criticism and filter out the stuff that really doesn’t matter. And keep writing. Always keep writing.

[DW] Can you walk us through the recent crackdown attempt on erotica by PayPal from your perspective?

[SK] Sure! The basic 411 on the “erotica crackdown” started back in late 2010, when Amazon decided to start removing erotic fiction containing incest and bestiality from their virtual catalog. This was a backlash in regards to Amazon removing The Pedophile’s Guide from their site (after they defended leaving it there, issuing an official statement that removing it would amount to censorship). So much for a policy of no-censorship.

Just recently, it was PayPal that contacted me as a publisher at Excessica, telling us that they would no longer pay for erotic fiction that contained “incest, pseudo incest, bestiality or rape for titillation purposes.” And I wasn’t the only phone call they made. I know several other independent ebook publishers and distributors who use PayPal who were also contacted. Many of these ebook distributors began removing books from their sites without regards to actual content. If they had “Daddy” in the title, they had to go—even if they were just role-plays between two consenting adults. Non-consent fantasies (i.e. what PayPal deemed “rape for titillation”) were removed, even if they were actually dreams or the characters were ghosts and never existed at all.

Many of those titles were on their bestseller lists and selling very, very well. Many of my own titles had been on their sites for years and I’d actually been awarded as a “bestselling author” for selling titles that contained such content. Clearly readers were voting with their dollars. They wanted to read them—they were willing to buy them—but now they couldn’t. At least not on the sites that had been targeted by PayPal.

But what happens when a huge corporation like PayPal decides they don’t want to pay for something? Well, now it becomes less profitable to produce those products in question. Erotic authors begin to change and adapt to the market. They self-censor. They don’t write about that stuff anymore, even though readers want to read it (remember, they previously told us so with their dollars), because they can’t upload it onto sites that use PayPal as a processor.

That’s how the decision of one corporation threatened to reshape the entire free market.

[DW] Why should rape or incest or bestiality be protected in erotica?

[SK] Um, gee… because it’s fiction? Because these are completely imaginary, made-up stories written down as words on a piece of paper? Because it’s not real?

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the public’s reaction, given that I write erotic fiction in a country whose Puritanical roots continue to choke the life out of us as sexual beings. I keep having to remind myself that I live in a culture where breastfeeding photos disappear off Facebook as fast as they appear, but clips of torture-porn like Hostel or Saw posted from YouTube are just fine and dandy. Sometimes I forget that some people consider the books I write offensive or even immoral.

The fact is that all fiction is, and should be, protected. There are no victims here. And there has been no broad-based, definitive study that proves that fiction makes people engage in the subjects they read about. Most people who read thrillers about serial killers don’t go out and kill people. People who read erotic incest fiction don’t want to have sex with their family members. It’s called fantasy for a reason!

We should always defend free speech, if we want it to remain free, even if we don’t like what’s being said. So maybe the thought of a woman being tied up and having clothespins attached to her nipples is abhorrent to you. And perhaps the babysitter having sex with the family dog makes you feel a little ill. And two siblings getting it on is just… ewwwww… icky!

But we have to protect icky speech too. We have an obligation to defend those things we find reprehensible, even indefensible, if we want to protect our rights.

[DW] What does research tell us about rape or incest fantasies, and why people have them?

[SK] I can speak to this with some authority, as I have my Masters degree in psychology. If you want a thorough background, go read Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden or Forbidden Flowers. The fact is that sexually explicit fantasies are normal and healthy in both men and women. This is 2012. We all understand (I hope) that masturbation doesn’t cause hairy palms, and sexual fantasy doesn’t cause sexually deviant behavior. Many, many, many women have rape and incest fantasies. It’s quite common. Rape and incest are deviant behavior, but fantasy is not reality and words are not action.

Incest fantasies have a huge psychological component to them, and they’re usually about love and acceptance. It’s probably no surprise that many women who enjoy “Daddy/daughter” role play or fantasizing about “Daddy/daughter” sex often lacked a strong father figure in their lives as adolescents. This is a generalization of course, not an absolute. But one of the reasons incest fantasies are so popular for men and women stems from the fact that, at least in our ideal worlds, no one knows you better or loves you more unconditionally than family. There’s also the “forbidden love” aspect of an incestuous relationship, which has great psychological appeal. We humans sure do like doing things we’re not “supposed” to do!

As for the non-consent or rape fantasies, we have to remember that, historically, women have been sexually repressed by the patriarchy. Even in this day and age, we still have a mainstream radio host making comments about a woman whose admission of using birth control must mean she is not only sexually active, but she is also a “slut.” So it’s no wonder that females in this culture have a lot of shame and guilt surrounding asking for and accepting sexual pleasure. The non-consent (or as PayPal liked to phrase it, the “rape for titillation”) fantasy allows a woman to explore her sexual pleasure without all the baggage and possible recriminations that can come with openly doing so.

One of the purposes of fantasy and fiction is to allow ourselves to experience things that might actually frighten or horrify us in real life. Horror fiction does this. So do the fantasies of erotic fiction. There are lots of books about locking a girl in a basement as a sex slave—both in mainstream and erotica. The difference is, in mainstream fiction, the woman is truly raped and tortured in horrible, shocking and really sick and twisted ways, and the killer usually gets caught and punished. In erotica, the woman being "forced" isn't really being raped, per se—at least not in the same sick and twisted way she is in the mainstream—and in the end, it turns out... she actually enjoys herself! And usually falls in love with the rapist-hero.

The reality is that the “rape for titillation” fantasy that PayPal was so worried about isn’t about rape at all—it’s actually about women receiving pleasure! Non-consent and dubious consent fiction is about sex and fantasy. But the rape in mainstream fiction—from John Norman’s Gor books to Jack Ketchum’s The Woman—is, indeed, about very real rape, in all its horrible, gory detail.

Is it a coincidence that, statistically, most erotic fiction is written by AND read by women, but horror, on the other hand, is known to be a male dominated genre?

[DW] What is "pseudo incest" and why would it be censored?

[SK] “Pseudo incest” is so ridiculous a term it’s laughable. It isn’t incest. It’s sex between two consenting adults who happen to be related, but not by blood. Pseudo incest is kind of like taking tofu and shaping it like a hamburger.

As to why it was to be censored—you’ve got me. Apparently, according to PayPal and the credit card companies, Woody Allen could have sex with his adopted daughter—but erotic fiction authors shouldn’t write about it?

[DW] You've described what started happening with PayPal as a "slippery slope" that could affect all indie authors. Please explain.

[SK] Instead of dealing with PayPal’s mandate on a book-by-book basis, Bookstrand deleted all of their Indie author accounts. Not just the erotic writers—ALL of their Indies. If you’re an Indie author and you think you’re immune… think again. Be prepared. It’s possible that this latest round of “risk-reducing” by PayPal and credit card processors is over. Or maybe they’re just starting at the top and working their way down. Take a look at this, from Visa’s site:

VISA Brand Protection
Members must not use the Visa-Owned Marks:
• In any manner that may bring the Visa-Owned Marks or Visa Inc. or its affiliates into disrepute
• In relation to, or for the purchase or trade of, photographs, video imagery, computer-generated images, cartoons, simulation or any other media or activities including, but not limited to:
– Child pornography
– Bestiality
– Rape (or any other non-consensual sexual behavior)
– Non-consensual mutilation of a person or body part

I know a lot of “torture porn” (al a Saw and Hostel, etc.) that falls under that last category. And I know a lot of Indie authors who write it as well.

[DW] Now that PayPal has reconsidered, what do you think PayPal's new policies mean for the future of indies in general and erotica indies in particular?

[SK] I think it's an unprecedented victory for erotica indies and it gives me hope for this thing we call "the free market." People stood up for something they believed in, and a large corporation backed down from their original position. How often does that really happen—outside of, say… fiction? It seems as if it's a victory for the little guy, for free speech (even if this wasn't 'technically' definable as a constitutional issue) and for the erotica genre as well. All Indies will benefit from what happened here, because no matter what we write, we are all authors and we should all be interested in protecting the right to do so freely, regardless of genre or subject matter.

And it may seem radical on my part, but even given how far PayPal has backed down in terms of erotic fiction, it still bothers me that they made any restrictions on free and legal fiction at all. Like most citizens, I abhor child pornography and pedophilia, but the written word is very different from other art forms—as this decision has proven. I understand staying away from pictorial displays of that kind of subject matter—but fiction? What would happen, for example, if Lolita was self-published today? Sorry, Nabokov—PayPal won’t pay for that?

The fact is that no pseudo-bank should be telling anyone what they can or cannot write or publish, regardless of subject matter. I’m glad PayPal came to their senses to the degree they have. And I do feel that Indies are now a little more protected, thanks to the actions of those who were willing to speak up.

I hope other corporations will remember this incident when they sit down in future board rooms to make policies in regards to the written word, erotica or otherwise. The message the public sent here was loud and clear, and I’m pretty sure they’d be willing to send it again—as often as needed—to make their point.

[DW] Thank you, Selena!

Smashwords distributes Selena Kitt to the following:

Apple
Diesel eBook Store
Kobo
Sony
Smashwords

View the complete catalog of Excessica books:
Smashwords - Excessica Publisher Page

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has published three books and hundreds of articles in various publications, including The Economist, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. He currently covers technology for 7x7.com.

Next week, an interview with Smashwords author Ruth Ann Nordin!

PayPal Revises Policies to Allow Legal Fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:09:00 +0000
In a victory for free speech, PayPal today announced plans to revise their content policies to allow Smashwords writers full freedom to publish and sell legal ebooks.

I met with PayPal at their offices yesterday in San Jose. They outlined their proposed policy changes for me. I was impressed.

This is a victory for all writers and readers. It removes credit card companies, banks and payment processors from the business of censoring legal fiction. It creates a new precedent that should allow other payment processors who have previously discriminated against legal fiction to relax their policies.

It will make more fiction more available to more readers. It gives writers greater freedom to express themselves. It gives readers more freedom to decide what they want to experience in the privacy of their own imagination.

If you haven't followed the Paypal censorship saga, you can see how the campaign developed by reading my email dispatches to Smashwords authors, publishers and customers. They're archived in the Smashwords Press Room (see PayPal #1, #2, #3, #4, #5).

When I received the first email from PayPal February 18 with the ultimatum to remove certain erotica content or face loss of PayPal services at Smashwords, my first inclination was to try to limit the damage so we could protect mainstream erotica from further censorship incursion. Thanks to the outpouring of opposition to these policies, I saw an opportunity to make PayPal our partner in a greater campaign to protect all legal fiction from censorship.

Credit for this breakthrough goes to the indie author community who made phone calls, wrote letters and emails, blogged and tweeted; bloggers who raised visibility of the issue; advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) who were the first to stand up for our authors; mainstream media who raised visibility of the story to greater levels; and last but not least, PayPal. PayPal worked with us in the spirit of partnership to understand the issues, understand Smashwords and how we represent a new model for publishing outside the traditional gatekeeping system, and to understand that fiction is fiction and literary merit should be determined by readers.

I'm sending out an email today to all Smashwords authors and publishers with more details and thanks. An archived version is in the Smashwords press room here.

Two People Having Sex - An Erotic Parody

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:10:00 +0000
Talk of censorship tends to put a frown on everyone's face.

Today, we're going to put a smile on your face, erotica style.

The amazing duo of Jen Ashton and Ren Cummins, writing under the nom de plume of Freida Wright, have penned a delightful parody of the PayPal/Smashwords censorship saga that would make Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert blush with pride.

They published it Monday as a $.99 ebook titled, Two People Having Sex - An Erotic Parody That Meets PalPay Standards of Censorship. You can purchase it at Smashwords (and soon, Smashwords will distribute it to the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and Baker & Taylor).

With their generous permission, I bring you their masterpiece here in its entirety, for FREE.

Great satire helps us view important issues in a new light. Just as the political satire of Stewart and Colbert brilliantly illuminate insights inaccessible through mainstream media, Ashton and Cummins expose the inanity of censorship.

If you've been following my email updates to Smashwords authors, publishers and customers regarding the PayPal censorship saga, you'll appreciate this parody even more. I trust even our friends at PayPal will enjoy a friendly chuckle.

Ashton and Cummins have given readers permission to reprint their story anywhere online provided it's reproduce it in its entirety with the links intact. This is a story worth sharing, so please do your part to sprinkle its pixie dust far and wide.

Parental notice: Since this is an erotica parody, it contains language and situations not suitable for children. Enjoy!

TWO PEOPLE HAVING SEX

An Erotic Parody

That Meets PalPay Standards of Censorship

by

FREIDA WRIGHT

Edited by

Kissimmee Hugh Jass

Two People Having Sex by Freida Wright

Copyright © 2012 by Freida Wright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

License Notes

This ebook is reprinted with permission from the authors. Bloggers may reprint this story in its entirety provided all content and hyperlinks remain intact, and provided readers are not charged for access. If you would like to support the authors of this ebook, please purchase a copy at Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/139100

Two People Having Sex:

An Erotic Parody That Meets PalPay Standards of Censorship

By Freida Wright

Edited by Kissimmee Hugh Jass

The gentleman in the suit handed her a pen. “Here you go, miss.”

She accepted it with a demure nod, glancing over the details in the paperwork before her. The lawyer closest to her patted her shoulder reassuringly.

“I’ve been through the documents, Melanie, they’re all perfectly legal.”

Regardless, she read briefly through them. Such a big deal for such a simple thing, she thought. She sighed.

Thomas touched the back of her hand. “Are you sure you still want to go through with this? I know, it seems like such a bunch of fuss over something so…” he sighed as well. This wasn’t how he’d planned it, but rules were rules. He reached into the interior pocket of his jacket and pulled out a passport and a billfold. From the billfold, he further drew out his driver’s license, credit card and his gym identification.

“You said three forms of ID, yes?”

The lawyers nodded, and Melanie set her purse on the polished oak table and pulled out her own documents. “I, um, don’t have a passport, but you said a birth certificate would be fine, right?”

“Certified?”

She nodded.

“That will be fine, miss.”

She bit her lower lip a moment before asking her next question. “You said we’d need to pay your legal fees now as well, correct?” The two lawyers nodded in turn. “I didn’t bring any credit cards along, I just have a checkbook. Or do you take PalPay?”

The lawyers looked at one another and laughed briefly before turning back to her. “Good heavens, no, miss.”

Thomas patted her hand again. “It’s okay, Mel, I’ll cover this.”

Her smile was filled with gratitude. He was a good man; they’d only been seeing each other a few days now, but he was thoughtful enough to ensure that all possible legal protections were being covered for. She could remember in the not-too-distant past how it was all so much simpler; two people met, were attracted, and things led naturally to another until…well, she was afraid of even thinking it in case the censors were somehow able to read her thoughts.

His hand touched hers a moment longer, until the prolonged contact drew the attention of one of the lawyers. “Please, sir, if you could restrain yourself until we have completed our business.”

“Sorry,” he said, withdrawing his hand, but sneaking a wink in her direction as he did so.

Thomas had told her he had spent a year abroad, and had merely shaken his head when they had gone through the list of conditions that the law required of them. “It’s so much different in other countries,” he had explained. “You wouldn’t believe what goes on in other countries without all this…red tape.”

She had grinned at that. “Are you going to use red tape on me?”

“Shush,” he had said, quietly alarmed. “We don’t know who’s listening.”

What had ever happened to this? It had all become so formal, so sterilized and impersonal. It was almost….censored. Romance, intimacy, sexuality, it was all becoming distilled into a legal process designed not to offend.

Well, screw that, Melanie thought. I want to fuck this man.

The lawyers took photocopies of the IDs, and ran Thomas’ credit card for their fees.

One of the lawyers pulled a stapled set of pages from his briefcase and cleared his throat. “Please understand, we are required by law to ask the following questions. Failure to comply will leave us with no further choice than to pull you from publication.”

“What does that mean?” Thomas asked.

The other lawyer answered without even looking up from his paperwork. “It means it will be as if you were never created.”

“That’s a bit excessive, don’t you think?”

The first lawyer regarded Thomas and Melanie over his reading glasses. “Not at all. There are reputations which must be maintained, sensibilities which must be protected. There are many things of a vile and loathsome nature; things offense, detestable and obscene, and we stand as gatekeepers against the tides of filth which might otherwise choke our pristine shores and its pure citizenry.”

“Um, yeah,” Thomas nodded. “You’re doing a great job, too. So, let’s get started, then.”

“Of course. By signing your respective affidavits, you are both attesting to the best of your ability that you are each of legal consenting age, correct?”

Mel and Thomas both indicated in the affirmative.

“Melanie, you are the younger of the two?” His grim gaze was condescending and judgmental.

“Yes, sir. Is there a problem?”

He cleared his throat and mumbled something about how they frowned down upon older men dating younger women. But when Melanie asked him to speak up, he simply just referred her to the fine print.

“Second,” he finally spoke up, “that by signing these documents you are also attesting that you are both, in fact, human beings, alive and not an animal masquerading as one such person, and will remain in human form for the duration of your…activities?”

The couple exchanged awkward glances. “Um, yes. We promise.”

“Are either of you any of the following: vampires, cybernetic organisms, minotaurs, mermaids (or mermen), lycanthropes (including, but not limited to: werewolves, werepanthers, werefoxes, werebears, carebears, or any other part-human creature?)”

“No,” they said in unison, giggling to themselves.

“Animals?”

“No!” they echoed again.

“Third, that you are not related?”

They both agreed.

“Pseudo-related?” he continued.

“What does that mean?” Melanie inquired.

“Pseudo. Meaning false,” he clarified.

“Falsely related?” she asked further. “I’m not quite sure I understand. Who would fall under that category?”

“Technically? Everyone who is not related by blood.”

“We aren’t,” she assured him. “But wouldn’t that just mean we’re not related?”

“No, miss. Not related is not related. Pseudo-related means falsely related.”

“Just say no,” Thomas whispered through his teeth.

The lawyer’s expressionless face was smug and impatient.

“No,” Melanie finally muttered with a smile.

“Good. And, final question, that you will not engage in any actions which could be found to be of a sadomasochistic manner, otherwise known as BDSM, including anthophilia, necrophilia, pedophilia, bibliophilia, or any other form of engagement which might be against the terms and conditions outlined in this pamphlet.”

“Bibliophilia?!” Thomas interjected.

“Yes, books. Especially of the erotic nature.”

The second lawyer reached into his briefcase and handed the couple two identical pamphlets, again without lifting his eyes from his work.

Thomas glanced over the pamphlet before exchanging a somewhat confused look with Melanie. They both nodded at the lawyers. “Yes, we’ll… behave.”

The second lawyer pulled an inkpad from his case and stamped their respective documents, and handed Thomas a copy of the credit card receipt for him to sign.

They stood and collected their paperwork, and shook the couples’ hands before exiting.

“Lovely house you have here, sir,” the second lawyer said. “And good day, ma’am.”

They escorted the lawyers to the door and closed it, locking it as the two odd men walked away.

“Well, that’s that, then,” Thomas said with a wink. “Now what shall we do?”

“What can we do?” she reasonably asked.

He held up one of the pamphlets, and waved it before her face. “Obviously not anthophilia, that’s for sure.”

She shook her head, pulling the paper from his hand. “Anthophilia? What is that, anyway, sex with another person?”

“That’d be anthrophilia, I think. Anthophilia is sex with plants.”

“Plants? Ew! Who would do that??”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a weird world, my dear.”

They made their way to the bedroom. Somehow, it wasn’t quite as romantic as she had envisioned it would be. The two held hands and finally sat next to one another on the foot of Thomas’ bed.

“So?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she shied away, tucking her hair behind her ear. “This is a little awkward.”

“Maybe we should make out,” he suggested.

Melanie sighed. “It’s just so confusing. With all these rules and all, I’m not really even sure if we’re related or not.”

“Pseudo-related, you mean,” he corrected her. “We’re not.”

“How do you know? I mean, we have known each other a long time. I practically grew up with you. And there was that one time…you know, when we played house?”

“Don’t be silly,” he calmed her, placing his hand on hers. “Maybe we should set the mood. Let’s get comfortable.”

Thomas reached for his jacket and began to peel the sleeves down his arms.

“Wait!” Melanie placed her hand on his jacket to stop him, and then looking around, “Maybe we should keep our clothes on. You know, in case PalPay is watching.”

“Relax,” he told her, “People have sex every day. We’re not doing anything wrong.”

“It sure feels like it. I didn’t know there were so many morality clauses attached to what two consenting adults do together in the privacy of their home.”

“C’mon Mel, it’s just sex,” he half-joked. “People who have sex don’t even have morals!”

Melanie couldn’t argue with that, so she, too, began to remove her restricting clothing. It wasn’t the romantic ripping off of the clothes with passionate hunger that she had fantasized about for the last decade, but it would do. As she pulled her sweater over her head, she peeked at Thomas’ manly chest and the soft tufts of hair that trickled down between his nipples, leading to his…well, to below his belly button. There was a moment where she recalled the muttered fine print about age discrepancy in her contract.

Was it really wrong that Thomas was an older man? Since when? And who says? Surely, no one could frown down upon her for finding his distinguished good looks attractive! So he was a few years older. Who cares? Last she checked, Edward from Twilight was a 104 years old and dating a teenage girl! Now that was disgusting! And he wasn’t even human. Ew!

“You alright?” Thomas interrupted. She felt as though she had been ripped from the pages of the contract itself.

She made a face. “Is sex with a vampire considered necrophilia?”

“Wait, what?”

“Well, vampires are dead, so wouldn’t sleeping with one be like sleeping with a dead person?”

He laughed a bit at that. “Well, I think they’re undead, so maybe that’s not the same thing.”

“I guess not, no.” She shrugged. “Though I still think he’s too old for her.”

“Who’s too old for who?”

“Never mind, it just got me thinking, that’s all.”

He sighed. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“What question?” Her eyes widened. “Oh, am I alright?”

“Well, are you?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Yep! Let’s do this thing!” he said eagerly. “Tell me, what turns you on?”

“Well,” she paused, smiling to herself, “I would really prefer a light tap on the ass right now. It really gets me going. But I'm not sure if that qualifies as an incidental plot point or not."

“Oh yeah,” he conceded. “Damned BDSM. It’s such a broad field - where do you draw the line?”

“Exactly,” she agreed. “Except, I happen to love getting spanked. This sucks.”

“You’re telling me, I’m totally down for a little ass smacking right now. Especially if you call me Daddy. Man, that really turns me on!”

“Shhh,” she reminded him, placing her delicate fingers over his lips. Again, she peered around the room to see if PalPay’s SWAT team would come crashing through the windows. She brought her voice to a whisper. “You can’t say that. This is technically an erotic experience and that word is forbidden. When I perused the pamphlet, I saw a clause that specifically banned it from this entire occasion.”

“Are you serious?” Thomas’s brow buckled at the thought of being so restricted. When did sex become so tame? Exhaling his frustration, he flailed his hands around. “Great! Next you’re going to tell me that we can’t role play, make animal noises or fulfill any other fantasy!”

“Actually,” she cringed, “we can. Er, well, I think we can. As long as we remain in human form and are just pretending to make animal noises, I think we’re good to go!” Her statement was followed by a short pause before she continued. “Well, then again, pretending would mean pseudo. Sooooo…” she dragged her vowel as she tried to make sense of it all, “that may fall under pseudo-bestiality. Was that in the contract?”

“Fuck, I don’t know, Mel. The lines are so blurred. I’m going crazy right now, I’m so horny!”

“Oh my God!” she squealed. “No! You have horns?! Are you the devil? Some kind of animal? Please stay in human form until we figure this out! I really want to have sex with you!”

There was a brief silence following her panic attack, and then they both fell to the floor with laughter as Melanie realized how absolutely absurd she sounded. She had been so engulfed in the fine print, hazy guidelines and limitations that she completely lost her sense of sexy. Perhaps it, and all of her romantic instincts, had somehow walked out the door with their attorneys.

“Oh Thomas,” she apologized, feeling awkwardly embarrassed. “I am so sorry.”

They exchanged glances and Thomas, reaching up to caress her face, gave her the most endearing eyes she had ever seen. She leaned in to him, scooting her body close to his, and closed her eyes. It was then that Thomas finally placed his soft lips on hers and kissed her.

The kiss was long and passionate, just as every other kiss they’d shared the past week had been. His mouth was so warm, so sweet. It almost felt as though he cradled her tongue in his. Oh shit, don’t think cradle, she warned herself. He’s an older man, I’m a younger woman. Pseudo-related, pedophilia. “Fuck!” she finally shouted. Aloud.

“What now?” Thomas asked, sliding his finger along her neck until it traced her collarbone. A tress of her hair fell forward and he twirled his fingers inside its curl.

“Nothing,” she sighed heavily. “Let’s move back up to the bed.”

They both climbed to their feet, Thomas gently assisting her in removing the rest of her undergarments. She, in turn, peeled his boxer briefs down his hips until his you know what peeked above the waistband. The sight of his swollen sex took her breath away. She had fantasized about it for years. Well, since she was eighteen, of course. You know, of age. Everyone knows teenage girls never think about sex. How dare they!

Melanie tried to gather her thoughts again. Back to Thomas and his giant pee-pee.

“Are you ready?” she asked coyly. She bit her lower lip and looked up into his deep blue eyes. It was her signature move. Her mating call. Doh! Don’t think mating. Don’t think mating. She hated all these rules. She couldn’t get out of her head for even just one minute. Music, we need music. Her eyes panned the room for a stereo, an iphone, anything that would fill the silence with something other than her debilitating thoughts.

Thomas seemed more confused than ever as she excused herself and walked over to his nightstand. She pressed a button on his alarm clock and the static blared through the speakers. She scrolled the tuner to find a station. Pausing when she heard an old metal song, she left it alone and jumped on the bed.

“Okay,” she squealed happily, “now I’m ready!”

Naked and waiting, she laid back on the bed as Thomas slipped out of his briefs and crawled on top of her. And there they were, back to kissing.

Thomas’ body felt stiff and hard against her supple curves. He was athletic and muscular, and kind enough not to place all of his weight on her. He held himself just above her, leaning in only near her secret places. She felt him pulsate against her writhing femininity. He was firm and ready.

“I can’t believe we’re finally doing this,” he said sweetly, brushing her hair out of her face. “There was so much red tape to get here.”

“I know,” she concurred. The words red tape formed another image in her mind, of being bound to a chair with red tape as he…. No! I can’t think about obscenities at a time like this! It’s wrong. So wrong!

As if a mirror to her thoughts, Thomas wrapped his arms around her body and thrust his hips toward her pelvis. Just as he slipped his organ between her thighs and pressed firmly into her, an ominous song began to play, an old industrial song she knew well.

I want to fuck you like an animal!

“No,” Melanie begged. “No, no, no! Turn it. Hurry! It’s not allowed! We’ll be unpublished!”

Thomas reached up and hit the snooze button, inadvertently turning off the radio completely. Melanie’s anxiety had clearly startled him. He fell over her nude body and gave up in a huff.

“It’s never gonna happen, is it?”

She ran her fingers through his hair, soothing him the best she could. “There’s just so much…bureaucracy.” She crinkled her forehead at the thought of using that word anywhere near a bedroom, let alone the bedroom of the man she was dating, who was naked, hard and laying on top of her, dying to fuck her brains out! That’s it, she convinced herself, fuck the rules, we’re fucking! Right now! But just one more formality. Just one.

Melanie rolled over and slithered down Thomas’ body, exploring his tan skin and athletic physique. She lingered just above his erection, slowly sliding her hands further south over his thighs. She had noticed earlier how…very hairy they were. She curled his hair between her fingers gently, until an entire tuft was within her grasp.

“You’re not a werewolf, are you?”

“No,” he chuckled under his breath, “I’m Italian.”

“Just making sure,” she smiled, moving her hands back up to grip the base of his…well, you know.

She stroked the length of his shaft, feeling his sex throb under her touch as she guided him toward her lingering kiss. Wait. What was oral? Was it allowed? Forbidden? Could it be considered BDSM if she used excessive force? What if he pushes her head down while in the throes of it? Oh no. Oh no! Rather than take any chances, Melanie simply glided his stiffness along her cheek, down her neck, between her tits and so on, until she climbed back up his body.

“I think we should just stick to the basics,” she told him. “You on top. Me on bottom. That’s how the conservatives do it, right?”

“No doggie-style?” he asked.

“The title alone implies it could be risky to try,” she whispered.

“Reverse cowgirl?”

“Human? Or alien?”

“Human.”

“You may feel inclined to spank me if we do that, though,” she reminded him.

“Ok,” he conceded. “What about butterfly?

“Not human.”

“Crab?”

“Animal.”

“Jockey?”

Melanie paused in deep thought. “Nope. A Jockey rides a horse. Animal.”

“Lotus?”

“Sounds too sacred,” she argued.

“Piston.”

“Barbaric. Might fall under BDSM, hun.”

“Snake charmer. Wait, never mind.” Thomas caught himself this time.

“Super woman?”

“Sounds paranormal.” Melanie finally cut him off. “I think we should do missionary, babe.”

A deep, heavy sigh fell from his mouth. “I guess you’re right. Way to take all the fun out of it.”

“Oh c’mon Thomas, let’s just play by the rules and make this happen already. Take me!” she screamed. “Be a man, in human form, with absolutely no fantastical qualities to whisk me away into romantic wonderland, and just take me!”

He snapped his fingers. “I know! I’ve got it!”

Her eyes widened. “Anything, please, I just want you inside me!”

“You can be an author…” he began, crawling up between her legs and draping her arms over his shoulders. He held her by the hips, positioning her just until he was nearly inside her.

He grinned, making certain she was paying attention to his words. “…and I’ll be PalPay.”

“Oh, yes!” she squealed. “Yes!”

“You see these muscles,” he flexed. “I’m gonna use them on you, baby!”

“Ooooh,” she cooed, wriggling her hips underneath him as she gripped his biceps. “So powerful. Does this mean you’re going to use excessive force?”

“You’re catching on,” he laughed.

She trembled expectantly, squirming in his grasp. He was so close, so near that she ached with desire for him.

“But it’s against the rules,” she whispered playfully.

“Not if I’m PalPay,” he reminded her. “Now I can really fuck you!”

And, with a powerful thrust that took the breath from her, he did.

About the Author

Freida Wright may, or may not, be a young woman or an old man. She may also, but not likely, possess supernatural powers that may, or may not, have been used to procreate with her partner. Her children don’t, but could, have crossed eyes and cleft palates because her husband is much older and of no relation. But most importantly, Freida Wright is an advocate for first amendment rights in the United States.

Freida Wright is the pen name of the writing duo, Jen Ashton and Ren Cummins.

If you enjoyed this story, please consider supporting the authors by purchasing a copy of your own at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/139100

Connect with Jen and Ren:

Jen Ashton

Twitter: @jenashtonart

http://www.jenashton.com

Ren Cummins

Twitter: @rencummins

http://talariapress.com/ren-cummins/

Randolph Lalonde Takes Sci-Fi Space Opera to a New Level

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Science Fiction author Randolph Lalonde has been with Smashwords since July, 2009. Smashwords distributes him to Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Diesel. 

His first year at Smashwords, as is the case with most authors, started out slowly, and he earned a few hundred dollars. But then, in 2010 he had a breakout year, and he's been selling very well ever since.

Lalonde’s newest book, The Expendable Few, is the latest in his popular Spinward Fringe series of science fiction space opera novels. He released it February 28 at Smashwords, where it is exclusively available for the first 30 days (it will appear soon at Smashwords retailers). As of this writing, it's the number one bestseller in the Smashwords store. A synopsis of the book appears at the end of our interview below. 

[David Weir] Did you first explore the world of traditional publishing before turning to self-publishing, and if so, what was your experience?

[Randolph Lalonde] I tried to secure agency representation and publishing deals until I self-published in 2004. The submissions always came in spurts, every few years I'd send several dozen query letters out, and submit to open slush piles in several English-speaking countries. I even teamed up with an artist in an effort to break into the comic book market. Less than a quarter of my queries and submissions received a reply, and while a couple small publishers were interested in seeing more work from me in the future, they weren't interested in what I was offering at the time.

I didn't talk to anyone about the rejections or my efforts in getting published because I'd often get pretty negative responses from people I knew. It was a pipe dream, I may as well have been trying to be the next Brad Pitt, or Angelina Jolie for that matter, judging from people's responses. There were a few exceptions, but most people were pretty cynical about my dream as a writer, so I stopped talking about submissions for a long time. In 2004 I stopped submitting, and went the self publishing route for the first time.

[DW] Did people start taking you seriously after you self published in 2004?

[RL] People started to take me more seriously, but I was going about it the wrong way, even back then. I invested money in getting copies printed and flogging the book at signing and book launch events. While I broke even, it wasn't the way to go about things, and there were a lot of people who saw their cynicism proven right. I'm glad I didn't listen to them back then, because I learned a lot from that experience. Flogging a print book is generally the worst option a fiction author can take these days. I've seen several authors try that route in the last couple years, and they still see results that are similar or worse than the experience I had in 2004.

I didn't gain any respect from people I actually knew until around 2009, when I had been writing full time for several months. By then I had stopped paying attention to anyone who wasn't in my corner, and remembered everyone who was supportive all along. They are the ones who I make sure share in my dream these days, and I don't really pay attention to anyone else.

[DW] How did you find Smashwords and how was your early experience? How quickly did you books take off?

[RL] I was offering my books through Mobipocket, Kindle and several other small retailers, and saw that Mobipocket in particular was winding down fast. While looking for another distribution channel I found Smashwords. They offered a simple, DRM free platform that appealed to me because I was watching a lot of my early readers get frustrated because they weren't able to take their locked Mobipocket books with them to other platforms. Some of these customers had libraries worth hundreds of dollars, and the DRM didn't allow for portability or conversion. On July 31, 2009, I joined Smashwords, and it has been an important part of my distribution network ever since.

[DW] When did you realize that your first book was resonating with readers and how did that feel?

[RL] In early 2008 I published an optimistic space opera novella called Freeground on Mobipocket.com and was surprised to see a couple emails and reviews within the first month. I self published it because several co-workers had read it on a lark, and said it was really entertaining. It was initially written as a warm up for the Spinward Fringe series, a grittier Sci-Fi series I really wanted to pen. I was overjoyed when Mobipocket customers, not knowing me at all, mirrored my co-worker's enjoyment. By the time the third and final book in the First Light Chronicles series came out I wasn't just writing for myself anymore, and the fact that the Spinward Fringe series would have an audience drove me to work harder. (The First Light Trilogy is available for free as Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins).

[DW] What's been the hardest part of self-publishing, and what has been the best part?

[RL] The hardest part of self publishing is knowing how much of the situation you have to control and monitor. Once the book is done you are left with the business end of things, and that includes formatting, distribution, publicity, intellectual property protection, checking reviews for spoilers, answering emails, and other things. A control freak like myself can spend most of the day trying to firmly grip all those aspects. It took me a long time to figure out the priority list, and when it's time to just leave the business end alone while I get back to the pleasure of story telling.

I'm using 52 Novels formatting company  for all my books now, both as a time-saving measure and to ensure that  my books come out with a professional polish -- formatting wise at  least.

The best part of self-publishing is the freedom I have as a storyteller, and the freedom I have in how that work is presented. Almost half the my latest book, The Expendable Few, was revealed for free on the reader forums, just because it had been a long time since anyone had seen any of my work, and I wanted some early reader feedback. Everyone got a juicy preview, and I got a lot of valuable feedback. I can't say I'd have that kind of freedom if I were with a mainstream publishing house.

[DW] When did you start writing and did you always want to be a writer?

[RL] I started writing short stories around the age of eleven, and completed my first full sized novel by the time I was seventeen. Since then I moved from one career to the next, using call centers as fall-back jobs when something more interesting wasn't available. I've worked as a Black Jack and Poker dealer in a traveling casino, played weekend gigs with a few bands as a drummer, managed a computer store, been a consumer technology trainer, and I've owned a design and print business. I think I've been in a lot of situations and met a lot of people that inform my writing. Through all of it I kept writing when I had time until I gave up in 2006. I didn't start writing again until 2008, after deciding to take a crack at science fiction with a story and setting that had been percolating for over twenty years.

[DW] Was Sci-Fi your first love as a writer? How did you come to it?

[RL] I've always enjoyed science fiction as a fan. My parents took me to see "Star Wars" when I was three years old in 1977, and I think the love affair began there. I wrote horror, suspense, military fiction, and a lot of fantasy before sitting down and trying science fiction for the first time on January 1, 2008.

The closest I came to writing science fiction before then was designing a role-playing system and universe when I was a teenager. We played that for years before I returned to other gaming systems as a storyteller. I believe that dipping into many genres as a writer and as a game master for over twenty years helped me find my story telling style, and helped make me the writer I am now.

[DW] What is the Space Opera genre, for those who are unfamiliar with it?

[RL] The Space Opera genre normally refers to futuristic adventures set in space, featuring ships, high technology, and dramatic situations between characters. Larger than life villains also tend to be a staple, but less so these days. There are more novels featuring more realistic heroes and anti-heroes who struggle with day to day challenges coming out now, instead of epic 'save the galaxy' stories. The grand examples of Space Opera that people would recognize are "Star Wars," "Star Trek," "Battlestar Galactica" and "Firefly."

[DW] What is your writing process -- how often, how long, and do you set goals for a certain number of words per session or per day?

[RL] Word counting never worked for me, I always seemed to start high and taper off over time. What works these days is looking at chapters of a novel like a puzzle, and trying to find the most interesting way to put the pieces together. I try to write every day, and focus on one novel at a time unless the muse descends like a bag of hammers and I have to spend a short stint on another project. I usually get my first writing session in before 9 a.m. and then take care of some of the daily business. If I'm in the middle of a project and I've already figured out the next few chapters, I'll have another writing session or two later that day or evening. My writing sessions are typically two to four hours long.

[DW] How your characters and stories come to you? For example, are they pretty much set before you begin writing, or do they develop during the writing process?

[RL] I normally have a couple main characters developed before I start. These are the initial point of view characters. I often have certain scenes in mind for them before I begin, so I have a feeling for how they behave, and what their tendencies are. Other characters develop during the writing, and I usually know them pretty well by the time I've finished writing a chapter in which they've stolen the scene. Some of these have become reader favorites, even central to the series itself.

[DW] Where are you headed over the next five years as a writer? Will you continue the highly successful Spinward Fringe series and if so, how many more books in it are to come?

[RL] I approach the Spinward Fringe series as I would a television series in a few important respects. That series has seasons, wherein story arcs begin and end. The current arc started in Broadcast 0, and is ending in Broadcast 7. After that I'll be starting a new 'season' with Broadcast 8, which will feature a couple stand-alone books that aren't as tightly connected to future novels as Broadcasts 0-7 were. Having a story arc that threaded through eight books was just too long, so I want to tell stories that are a little more compact, but just as entertaining. As long as there are stories left to tell in the Spinward Fringe universe, I'll keep adding to it.

[DW] Do you envision attempting books in other genres in the future?

[RL] Other than the Spinward Fringe series, I'll be finishing work on a Fantasy Adventure novella and continuing work on a Horror Adventure novel this year. I also have a few ideas for one-shot books that range from comedy to straight up horror, so if I stop having new ideas tomorrow, there's enough material scrawled in notebooks to last me at least the next five years. I'm sure I'll have more ideas though, that muse is always up there somewhere, ready to dive-bomb my brain.

[DW] If you had one tip for an aspiring author who's having trouble taking the plunge, what would it be?

[RL] Write, keep writing, and finish everything you can. Sometimes it'll feel like you're just punching a clock and putting in a couple hundred words because you should, other times you won't be able to get to your word processor fast enough. What's important is that you do it, and you complete as many projects as you can. When you find a story you love, with characters you can't forget for long, and people you trust have told you it's entertaining, then you should find someone with the right education to copy edit your work. Once you're confident you've done the best job you can on the polish your baby deserves, release it out into the world. If you love the novel you've written there's definitely a few like-minded people out there who have been waiting to love it too.

[DW] And, what is the best thing about being a writer, for you?

[RL] I enjoy exploring worlds with characters I'd like to know, or love to despise. Writing is a way of doing that without looking absolutely crazy. Without my writing habit I'm sure I'd be that guy you see who talks to himself in public and carries on with imaginary people.

[DW] Thanks, Randy!

***

Here's a synopsis of Randolph Lalonde’s latest book, The Expendable Few:  

Commander Clark Patterson and several other officers in the Freeground  Military are ejected from regular service when a desire to look beyond  Freeground Nation’s borders is proven by an oppressive government.  They are assigned dangerous missions by a special Intelligence  Oversight Group.   If Commander Patterson and his people complete these missions, they’ll  gain their freedom from Oversight and have the opportunity to start over in a tumultuous galaxy. Patterson’s fascination with another crew  who left Freeground years before and managed to survive serves as a destination, but will they survive to reach it?

Where to find Randolph Lalonde and his books:

Website: http://www.randolphlalonde.com
Twitter: @randolphlalonde
Facebook: Randolph Lalonde Facebook profile
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/randolphlalonde
Blog: http://randolphlalonde.blogspot.com/

Smashwords distributes Randolph Lalonde ebooks to the following retailers:

Randolph Lalonde at Smashwords
Randolph Lalonde at Apple
Randolph Lalonde at Barnes & Noble
Randolph Lalonde at Sony
Randolph Lalonde at Kobo
Randolph Lalonde at Diesel

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has published three books and hundreds of articles in various publications, including The Economist, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. He currently covers technology for 7x7.com.

Smashwords to Distribute to Blio and Public Libraries Via New Distribution Agreement with Baker & Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:10:00 +0000
Smashwords today announced a distribution agreement with Baker & Taylor, one of the world's largest distributors of physical and digital books.

The agreement will expand distribution for nearly 100,000 Smashwords books to new devices and markets.

There are two components of the agreement. The first is distribution into the Blio online store and e-reading app. The second part of the agreement gains Smashwords authors and publishers distribution into the library market through Baker & Taylor's Axis360 service.

If you're not familiar with Blio, it's an online store (Blio.com) and also a popular e-reading application that has been pre-loaded on over millions of computers and devices. It powers the e-reading experience for laptops, desktops and tablets produced by Dell Computer, HP, Toshiba and T-Mobile, among others. Blio is also available in the Android store.

The agreement will also bring Smashwords ebooks to public libraries that subscribe to Baker & Taylor’s new Axis360 digital media platform. Axis360, which was launched last year, has been deployed by several top public library systems in the U.S. Dozens more libraries are converting to the platform.

Like all new Smashwords distribution channels, all Premium Catalog-approved Smashwords titles will gain automatic distribution to Blio and Axis360. As standard practice, we give authors and publishers at least 48 hours to opt out new distribution outlets if they wish, though I don't recommend opting out. This agreement will give authors and publishers important, incremental exposure for their books.

Smashwords authors and publishers will earn 60% of the list price for books sold through Blio, and 45% of the list price for books sold to libraries. The libraries are authorized to check out one purchased copy at a time. The books are DRM'd so they time out after the checkout period has expired.

Read the full press release in the Smashwords Press Room.

Please join me in welcoming Baker & Taylor to the Smashwords distribution network!

Smashwords Author Profile: Shayne Parkinson

noreply@blogger.com (David Weir) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:24:00 +0000
(Mark's note: This is the first in an ongoing series of Smashwords author profiles. The interviews are conducted by David Weir, a veteran journalist who has written previously for The Economist, Rolling Stone and The New York Times. We'll profile a diverse range of authors who are achieving success distributing ebooks with Smashwords. Even if we manage to do 52 interviews in the next year [a goal], it means we'll barely touch 1 in 1,000 Smashwords authors. Do you have a favorite Smashwords author? If so, consider interviewing them for your blog and support your fellow indie authors.)

When we caught up with Shayne Parkinson recently, she was just about to go outside her countryside home and tend to her sheep.

Shayne writes historical fiction set in her native New Zealand, a genre traditional publishers in her country considered too niche to take seriously. So she started to self-published with Smashwords starting in March 2009. Ever since, people all over the world have been discovering her books -- one reader at a time.

And once they do, they became fans, often quite insistently (as she explains below) awaiting the next book in her series. These days, her books attract a truly significant global audience, and she sells more in a day now than she did in her first full year back at the start.

Smashwords distributes Shayne's work to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, Diesel and Amazon. And Shayne's husband, Roger, also publishes on Smashwords.

[David Weir] We know your first year on Smashwords was one of slow growth as people began to discover your work. Can you describe what it was like "meeting" your first readers and fans?

[Shayne Parkinson] Delightful and astonishing and wonderful. To hear from someone halfway around the world telling me that my stories have touched the reader in some way, perhaps by a reminder of something in his or her own experience, even though they're set in such a different time and place, is hugely rewarding.  I now get quite a bit of mail from readers, and answering it is one of my pleasantest daily tasks. A while ago I got a lovely letter from a group of co-workers who've read my books. They attached a photograph showing them all in their office, holding up a mix of paperback versions and e-reader displays of the books' covers. That had me smiling for days. More recently a lady informed me that she has most of the people in her little town reading the books, and if I don't hurry up with the next one they'll all move to New Zealand and camp outside my gate. And I should be worried, she tells me, "because we're Texans". I wouldn't dare stop writing with readers like these!

[DW] How did interest in your work grow after that slow beginning? Was there a "tipping point?"

[SP] I think there was a tipping point around the middle of 2011, about two and a half years after I joined Smashwords. I've never done much marketing, instead relying on word-of-mouth. A reader enjoys the books and recommends them to a friend or two. Sometimes one of those friends likes them enough to recommend them in turn. It might take a while, as it did for me, but reader recommendations are like gold.

[DW] Are you surprised that you've emerged as a successful author, or did you expect this would happen?

[SP] I'm genuinely and utterly astonished. I hoped I'd get some readers, and perhaps make my hobby self-sustaining by earning enough to pay my research expenses, but I wouldn't have dared dream I'd be hearing from hundreds of readers and earning a living (meaning I now have much more time to devote to writing) from something I love doing. I sometimes wonder when I'm going to wake up!

[DW] What do you like most about indie self-publishing?

[SP] Having the freedom to work at my own pace, and being responsible only to my readers and to myself.

[DW] You've told us that about 20 years ago, you had "all of these stories running around in my head" so you started writing them down. How long had those stories been taking form for you and where do you suppose they came from?

[SP] The original inspiration was a place: a farming valley a few miles from my childhood home. My husband grew up in this valley, on a farm that had been in his family for generations. Much of the land had been cleared for pasture, but the steeper hills were still covered in forest—bush, as we call it in New Zealand.   I was captivated by this lovely place (and by the farm boy who eventually became my husband); later, after the farm had passed out of family ownership and there was somehow more time to talk, I was captivated by the memories of those who had lived there, particularly my late father-in-law, who was almost 90 when he died, and who had his own father's and grandfather's recollections to share. Tales were told of the days before electricity or engines had reached the valley; when milking was done by hand, and machinery was drawn by horses. A weekly buggy trip to town was an adventure in its own right, dependent on the state of the track and on tides. The valley was isolated, and family all-important.  I never quite forgot the valley, even when we'd moved far away. I didn't think of myself as a writer back then, beyond the few short stories and articles that I'd produced, but that place and those times somehow called to me. Over the years characters took shape in my imagination, set in my imagined vision of the valley long before my time; my own inventions but surprisingly real to me. And as I thought about these people, how they might have lived and what they might have been like, stories took shape and grew, to the point where I conceived the outrageous idea of writing a novel.

[DW] How long were you writing down your stories before you showed them to others, and who did you show them to?

[SP] I showed them to my husband from early on, when they were still very much works in progress. Once the first book was complete, a few friends and workmates asked to borrow it, then word spread among friends and acquaintances who wanted to borrow the books (or rather folders of print-outs, as they were back then).

[DW] When did you approach traditional publishers and what happened?

[SP] It was a fairly casual approach. I've never had any real interest in trying out traditional publishing, but several readers encouraged me to make an attempt. I wrote a brief query to three (I think) publishers; two said they wouldn't consider fiction from an unknown author, and the third said there would be no interest at all in long books of New Zealand historical fiction.

[DW] How did you discover Smashwords and what drove you to try it out?

[SP] After leaving my manuscripts gathering dust on a shelf for some time (my fund of interested friends and acquaintances had dried up by now), I began to wonder if there was a way of making them available to more readers. I saw Smashwords mentioned on a site called Authonomy, and when I visited the site I liked what I saw there in terms of what was being offered and the vibe I got from the people running it.
   
[DW] Your love of history and of New Zealand's history, particularly in the late 1800s, is evident in your work. When and how did you first develop this specific passion?

[SP] While I've had an interest in history for as far back as I can remember, this particular passion grew with the process of discovering my characters and the world they inhabit. I wanted to find out more about how they lived, and the more I learned the more fascinated I became.   The late Victorian era saw some significant changes in New Zealand, particularly relating to women. The Married Women's Property Act of 1884 allowed married women to own property in their own right. Changes to divorce law meant that women could file for divorce on the same grounds as men. In 1893 New Zealand women gained the vote, the first in the world to do so. The attitude where a woman was seen as the property of first her father, later her husband, with only the most minimal of rights to her own person, was being undermined.   I hadn't originally intended to write a sequel, let alone a series, but when I finished "Settling the Account" I found that I missed the characters too much to leave them behind. That meant taking them further into the early 20th century. The book I'm currently editing covers the years of the Great War, 1914-1918. Finding out what it might have been like for those left at home during the war to try and cope when sons, husbands and brothers were taken from them is proving just as fascinating to me as the earlier periods were.  While the historic period has shaped the attitudes of my characters and the events of their lives, and the period details are as accurate as I can make them, the books aren't about those details. I believe that in some ways people are the same across the ages. We all have dreams and disappointments, loves and losses, joy and sorrow. For me, historical fiction can show us something of how our forbears lived—such different lives from ours—and can help us feel a kinship with them.  I find it easier to identify with ordinary people than the great and powerful, and although mine are imaginary they're as real as I can make them. I'd like to think that my characters give something of a voice to those who lived obscure lives of quiet struggle and small triumphs, wanting the best for their children, even though their idea of "the best" might be very different from ours.

[DW] Did anyone ever encourage you to become a writer?

[SP] Not really, although once I *did* start writing my husband was and continues to be my most supportive and encouraging reader. I was lucky enough to have some very good English teachers who gave me a good grounding in the basics of using language.  My late father was a great reader, and he was the person who first taught me to love books. That love of reading contributed to a desire to write.
  
[DW] You've said that you enjoy getting to know your characters. Can you explain how they come to you and how they develop once they arrive?

[SP] Yes, getting to know my characters is for me one of the great delights of writing.   When I'm going to introduce new characters, I spend some time just letting them take shape in my imagination: putting them in different settings, "listening" to them talking, finding out their likes and dislikes. It's like sitting quietly in a room listening to the conversations of others, occasionally nudging conversation in a certain direction, and then recording what I’ve learned about these people. I think about their back-stories, their childhoods, the sorts of families they came from.   I find out more about them when writing, especially as they interact with other characters. It's sometimes a matter of writing my way into a character, maybe devoting pages to the process, knowing that much of what I've written will be discarded. Characters and story each grow with the telling—for events shape character, and characters shape events.  While I like to think I'm in charge, sometimes a character will surprise me by insisting on acting in a certain way when I'd planned something different, or perhaps saying something I really didn't expect. I've learned that it's best to let them have their own way when this happens.
   
[DW] Do you create detailed back-stories for each character, like screenwriters do, perhaps including material that doesn't make it into the book?

[SP] Yes, I do, and the back-stories grow ever more detailed as I get to know the characters better and better. I put several chapters worth of extra material from the first book on my web site, rather as DVDs sometimes include deleted scenes, as that extra material gives further insight into the main character but would slow the narrative too much if I included it in the published book.

[DW] When you've finished a book, do you miss the daily interactions with your characters? Or, perhaps a better question would be, do those interactions end?

[SP] No, those interactions never do end. Even when I'm not actively writing about them, I'm thinking about what they might be up to in "book time", and how particular historical events might affect them. Sometimes I imagine what-if scenarios: what would have happened if a particular event had gone in a different direction. I have files of notes for future books that I'm constantly updating, and that's part of keeping in touch with the characters.  Another way those interactions stay fresh is through correspondence with readers. My characters do feel very real to me, and discussing them with readers who've had a strong response to a character adds extra layers to my own experience of them.  I find I'm now writing about the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of some of my original characters. Because the readers and I have known these people for so much of their lives, there's a sort of shared history. When something happens in a character's present, we're aware of the past experiences that are shaping that character's reaction.

[DW] How do you work? Do you write according to a regular schedule every day and how much rewriting, and editing do you do?

[SP] It would be fair to say I'm not the most organized person in the world when it comes to working at set times. I do devote time to writing almost every day, and I don't allow myself the possibility of writer's block. On days when the words simply refuse to flow, I work out plot details or write up character descriptions. I also research more or less constantly.   I do several editing passes, some involving fairly substantial amounts of rewriting, moving things around, or removing sections, then further passes to polish the work.
   
[DW] Where do you think you will be as a writer, five years from now?

[SP] I expect to have more books out, still using historical New Zealand as my main setting, but exploring new aspects of that setting. I hope to grow as a writer, learning from every book and from the response of readers.  I've a head full of plots, and a bulging file of research notes and ideas for the future. My next book will be released some time in the next few months, and I have at least half a dozen more in various stages of plotting, including some that will feature characters who have secondary roles in the main series.

[DW] Finally, do you have any advice for others who may be hesitating before taking the plunge to self-publish their first book?

[SP] Self-publishing can provide a wonderful opportunity to reach readers, and with luck it may also mean commercial success. I'm very grateful for the success I've had, but I think it's important not to lose sight of why I write: for the joy of the writing itself, and for interacting with readers. Those are the most important things of all.   Every writer's experience will be different, but here are some things that have helped me:
Making the books as good as I possibly can, from the broader issues of story and characterization through to careful proof-reading.
Writing what I'm inspired to write, without worrying if it will be commercially successful.
Being accessible: the books are in a variety of outlets; I’ve a web site and a blog, and an easy-to-find email address.
Patience.
A healthy dose of luck.
[DW] Thanks Shayne!

Smashwords distributes Shayne Parkinson to the following retail outlets:

Apple iBookstore
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Diesel
Kobo
Smashwords
Sony

Follow Shayne Parkinson:
Blog: http://shayneparkinson.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShayneParkinson

David Weir is a veteran journalist who has published three books and hundreds of articles in various publications, including The Economist, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. He currently covers technology for 7x7.com.

Smashwords Surpasses 100,000 Indie Ebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:13:00 +0000
Today we announced an important Smashwords milestone. Over 100,000 ebooks are now published and live in the Smashwords catalog, thanks to the efforts of over 36,000 Smashwords authors and publishers around the world.

This month also marks our fourth birthday. Four years ago we unveiled Smashwords at the Tools of Change conference in New York. It's fun to read our original Smashwords launch press release. Back then, ebooks accounted for about two-tenths of one percent of the U.S. book market. Self published authors were considered black sheep.

What a wild ride it's been the last four years. Millions of books sold. Millions of readers touched by your words. Lives changed.

My favorite emails are from complete strangers who contact me and write, "Because of Smashwords, I'm writing again." Those emails make this all worth it, and inspire me to do more and do better for our authors.

Four years in, it still feels like we're just getting started. The next couple years will be exciting. New global markets are opening up. Billions of new, potential readers will be equipped with ebook-ready smart phones, tablets, computers and yes, even e-readers.

These potential readers will all be a few clicks away from discovering, sampling and purchasing books previously unknown and unavailable to them. Maybe some child growing up at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro will enjoy your book some day. Maybe your words will inspire them to write. Maybe it's already happening.

Ebooks transcend geography and make your words accessible to vast audiences. The secret to reaching your audience (beyond of course publishing and distributing with Smashwords!) is to write words worth reading. If you honor your reader with quality work, your reader will honor you back by reading more of your words, and by recommending you to their friends.

Read today's press release in the Smashwords Press Room.

On behalf of all 13 of us at Smashwords, thank you for joining us on this journey to change the world of publishing one indie ebook at a time.

Charlotte Sometimes and The Cure

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:52:00 +0000
So often, the discussion about copyright centers around how authors can retain total control over their intellectual property and prevent others from borrowing it, copying it or stealing it.

I won't attempt to weigh in on all sides of the moral or ethical debates surrounding this contentious issue. Instead, I'm going to share a story about how a great novel inspired a great song.

The story illustrates the unintended consequences of what, at first glance, might strike the author as theft, but upon reflection is revealed as a gift.

Back in 1981, the gothic rock band The Cure released a single titled, Charlotte Sometimes. It's an amazing song (listen below). It tells the story of a young girl who at night mysteriously travels back in time 40 years to switch places with another girl.

The song was inspired by a childrens novel of the same name published by British author Penelope Farmer in 1969.

The Cure's lyrics for Charlotte Sometimes lift direct passages from the novel. The band wrote and released the song without clearing the rights with the author or her publisher.

When the author and her agent first learned about the song, they were livid. After all, here was a writer of limited financial means watching a megaband profit from her story, her title and her words. Was this theft or fair use? Read the links below, then you decide.

In 2007, Penelope Farmer shared her side of the story in two blog posts. The posts are poignant, and might surprise you. Read them here:
#1: http://grannyp.blogspot.com/2007/06/cured.html
#2: http://grannyp.blogspot.com/2007/06/cured-climaxed.html
Here's The Cure performing Charlotte Sometimes in Brazil the same year (1996) Ms. Farmer came face to face with Robert Smith. Enjoy.

I don't know about you, but I'm curious to read the book.

Robert Smith (or any other songwriter), you have my permission to take my novel, Boob Tube, and immortalize it into song. Extra credit for turning The Smashwords Style Guid e into song.

Smashwords Author Darcie Chan Hits #1 in Apple iBookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:51:00 +0000

Congrats to Smashwords author Darcie Chan, who today rose to become the #1 bestseller at the Apple iBookstore with her ebook, The Mill River Recluse.

This weekend, Apple promoted the book in an email blast to its customers, recommending it as one of their "Buzz Books."

In a further sign that self-published titles are gaining cachet with customers, Apple's promo celebrated the title's self-published background, stating, "The self-published phenomenon is dazzling readers everywhere."

If you're looking for a great read, check it out at the Apple iBookstore. It's also distributed by Smashwords to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Diesel and Kobo.
The description:
Disfigured by the blow of an abusive husband, and suffering her entire life with severe social anxiety disorder, the widow Mary McAllister hasn't been seen by the people of Mill River, Vermont, in almost sixty years. Only Father Michael O'Brien, the town's elderly priest, knows Mary and the secret she keeps -- one that, once revealed, will change all of their lives forever.
For More on Darcie Chan, visit her Smashwords Author Page or her personal website. Also check out the feature on her in the Wall Street Journal from a few weeks back.

Smashwords Year in Review 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:55:00 +0000

Welcome to my annual Smashwords year in review.

2011 was another strong year for Smashwords and our authors.

We're ending the year with over 92,000 titles published, up from 28,800 at the end of last year.

In my 2010 year in review post, 75,000 was my stretch goal for this year, so we beat it by a good margin.

Smashwords today supports over 34,000 authors and small publishers around the world, up from 12,000 a year ago.

I launched Smashwords four years ago with a crazy idea to change the way books were published, marketed and sold. I believed authors should have the freedom to publish directly to their readers without the interference of publishing gatekeepers. My ideas were not unique. The great Dan Poynter has been evangelizing the virtues of self-publishing for over 30 years.

I’d like to think we’ve helped bring Dan’s vision to life. Smashwords married self-publishing with ebooks, and we did it with a free platform that enabled any writer, anywhere in the world, to easily publish an ebook using nothing more than a word processor. We took the printing press – once under the sole dominion of the publisher – and put it in the cloud for all to use.

Unlike publishing services that earn their income by selling paid services to authors, Smashwords doesn’t sell services. Smashwords earns income only if we help sell books. We earn a small commission on sales equal to 10% of the list price for distributed books, and 15% of the net for books sold at our Smashwords.com retail operation. We think our approach aligns our interests with the interests of authors. The more we help you sell your book, the better we all do.

What started as crazy dream has become a reality. We've created a business that empowers authors to reach readers with their words. Smashwords authors collectively earned millions of dollars in 2011. More importantly, we've helped tens of thousands of authors enjoy the freedom to publish and get read.

When we launched in early 2008, many writers viewed self-publishing as the option of last resort. Self-pubbed authors were often ridiculed as "vanity" authors, and much of the most vitriolic criticism came from fellow writers. We don’t hear much of that anymore. Self-publishing is finally earning the respect it deserves.

Today, self publishing is the option of first choice for many first-time authors. Previously published authors - the backbone of Big Publishing, are also wading into the indie waters. Most start with their reverted-rights works. Then they catch the indie bug and release unsold works, and then they move on to original first releases. You might think of it as a graduated progression toward enlightenment that starts with baby steps before the big leap. More will take those first steps in 2012, inspired by other successful indies, possibly inspired by you.

I think few people in the traditional publishing industry comprehend how this indie author revolution will transform their business in the next few years. Their world is about to be turned upside down.

Unfortunately, when faced with simultaneous convergence of multiple big trends (the rise of ebooks, the rise of the indie authors, the shift of bookselling from brick and mortar to online), most big publishers have taken actions counterproductive to their own self-preservation. They're trying to grab author rights they don't deserve. They're trying to the hold the line at 25% net royalties for ebooks, which works out to a paltry 12-17.5% of list. That line can't hold when authors can earn 60-80% list by self-publishing, and enjoy better distribution.

The power of publishing is shifting from large publishers to authors. It's what I’ve predicted for four years, and now the trend is plain as day for anyone who chooses to see it. What happens when authors lose faith in Big Publishing? This was the subject of my blog post earlier this year, Nietzsche and the Downfall of Big Publishing, inspired by what I thought were interesting parallels with the Arab Spring.

2011 was the year indies proved they can out-publish, out-compete, out-distribute and out-sell the large publishers. Look no further than the bestseller lists at major retailers to see how the indie insurgents are scaling the lists. A few have even landed in the NY Times ebook bestseller list. We’ll see more of this in 2012.

The Indie Movement Reaches Adolescence

Indie authors, free of the legacy business practices and expense structures of the large publishers, are beginning to feel their oats.

If the indie author movement was a person, it would just now be entering puberty. It's in that gawky awkward pimply stage of life. The participants are filled with unbridled optimism for the future, confident they're writing the new rules for the future (and they are!).

Visit any writers message board and you’ll find writers plotting the future of publishing. Sure, the skeptical observer will find petty internecine squabbles reminiscent of high school, and copious uniformed opinions dripping with unfounded speculation, fear, greed, envy and aspiration. But dig deeper and you'll see something profound is happening. These newly fledged indie ebook authors (old timers are the ones with two or three years of experience) are piecing together the secrets of successful modern day publishing.

They’re sharing information, debating, arguing and leading the revolution that is upon us. We're witnessing the rise of the indie author collective, and the collective - warts and all – is giving rise to an intelligence and sophistication that will redefine publishing for the better.

The practice and professionalism of self-publishing grew by leaps and bounds in 2011 as indie authors collaborated. The best indie authors and small presses are publishing books of equal or higher quality than traditional publishers, and they're doing it faster, smarter and less expensively. Because the indies are earning 60-80% of the list price as their royalty, they're earning higher profits while producing a product that is more affordable and more accessible to more readers around the globe than ever before.

As some lucky indies strike gold (and let’s be realistic, most indies do not sell well, just as most traditionally published books don't sell well), they share their secrets in real time and inspire all authors to raise their game.

We're witnessing a publishing renaissance that will lead to more readers, more reading, greater literacy, and greater and more amazing published works than could ever have been realized under the old gatekeeping system.

As I've often stated here and elsewhere, traditional publishers are in the business of selling books, not publishing books. They acquire books they think they can sell. Nothing wrong with that, unless you’re an author whose work is not perceived as commercial, or you lack the fame of an established platform, or you’re a reader who appreciates more choice at less cost.

Writers write for reasons different than publishers publish, and it's at the nexus of these opposing motivations that the indie author revolution took root.

Today’s indie ebook author is at the right place at the right time. Print is in decline as reading moves to screens, brick and mortar fades, and book buying moves online.

The Free Printing Press Helps Shift Publishing Power to Authors

In the old world of two or three years ago, publishers controlled the printing press and access to distribution. Today, thanks to free ebook publishing and distribution tools like Smashwords, the printing press is free and available to any author, and distribution is open to all.

Retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and Amazon deserve a lot of credit for welcoming indies to their virtual shelves. These ebook retailers are hungry to carry the books of indie authors because these books satisfy their customers (they sell). Retailers also understand that readers could care less about the name of the publisher on the book’s virtual spine.

The implications of this revolution are profound. Writers are now in charge. The writer decides when their manuscript graduates to published book. Readers decide which books are read.
Along with this power shift also comes the responsibility for authors to honor the best-practices of the best traditional publishers. Readers have little tolerance for anything less, and this is how it should be.

In this age of abundance where consumers have unlimited access to myriad high-quality sources of entertainment and knowledge - much of it accessible for free - writers need to up their game. Those who honor the reader by publishing great books will reach the most readers.

Book marketing has always been a word of mouth business. If you write a book that touches your reader’s soul, or inspires them with passion or knowledge, your readers will market your book for you.

There's never been a better time to be a writer. The opportunity to reach readers with words has never been greater.

Against this backdrop, you might understand why I’m so excited about the future I see for Smashwords authors and publishers. Our business is dedicated to helping authors stake their rightful claim to this bright future.

So let's turn the page to Smashwords...

If I were to sum up our focus in 2011 in one word, that word would be infrastructure.

Smashwords has been profitable for 15 months. We're reinvesting these profits to build a solid foundation upon which we’ll deliver continuous service enhances to our authors, publishers and retailers for many years to come.
Our development roadmap calls for over 500 minor and major service enhancements. Some are so minor you might not notice them. Others we think will knock your socks off. The Smashwords you see today barely scratches the surface of what we think is possible.

The bulk of our development effort this year focused on building a scalable technology infrastructure that can support one million or more published and distributed books (or, about 10X our current size). To enable this future, we invested heavily in infrastructure. Much of this infrastructure build-out is invisible to users, and if we do our job right it remains invisible. You don’t care how we build it, you just want what we build to work for you, whether you're an author, publisher, retailer or reader.

Notable Smashwords Milestones 2011

Before I review the plans for 2012, let’s summarize some of the notable business, technology and competitive highlights for 2011:

1. People - There are real people behind Smashwords. 12 months ago, we were barely three employees. Today we're 13. We've got a great team here in California, all of whom are dedicated to serving our authors, publishers, retailers and customers. We value every client.

2. Platform infrastructure - We completely rearchitected the underlying Smashwords platform this year to improve scalability, reliability, performance and security. As one of the Twitter founders once said, developing a fast-growing web service is akin to rebuilding a rocket ship in mid-flight. I grok that. The Smashwords platform has a lot of complex moving parts. Most of our last six months of development work has been focused on this infrastructure under the hood; the nuts, bolts, gears, glue and magic that hold our systems together. Most people never think about infrastructure except for when it fails. The proof in our pudding: Our infrastructure improvements have led to fewer website outages and faster page load times at the same time our catalog of books and traffic have exploded.

3. Distribution - We revamped our technical integrations with our retail partners so our books can flow to them faster and more accurately than ever before. Most of our retail partners also upped their games to accommodate our incredible increase in title volume. This is not to say everything is perfect. It is not. We view distribution as a never-ending work in progress, and we will continue to work in a constructive manner with all our retail partners to explore how we can improve our mutual performance.

4. Meatgrinder - We completed multiple updates to our Meatgrinder conversion engine, both in terms of scalability and also capability. On the scalability front, earlier in the year Meatgrinder was taking up to 30 hours to convert a single ebook. We tripled conversion capacity and now complete most conversions within three minutes. On the capability front, we improved Meatgrinder's ability to produce higher-quality books by adding greater styling control, automatically generated NCXes, and automatic error correction for some common formatting problems.

5. Categorization - We're in the final stages of a complete remapping of our categorization system to provide complete support for the latest BISAC categorization specifications. We're now supporting more categories than ever. Good categorization is a foundational element of what comes next in 2012.

6. Discovery - Multiple items here. Books aren’t purchasable unless they’re findable (or tripped over or stumbled upon or recommended by a friend or promoted), and that's where discovery comes in. We kicked off 2011 by adding support for long book descriptions (4,000 characters). We updated the shopping cart so it recommends up to 12 other books by the same author. In March, we launched the official Smashwords Facebook page which now gets thousands of visitors each week (thanks to the great volunteer efforts of Smashwords author John Low!) including many readers looking to discover new authors. In June, we acquired a block of 50,000 ISBNs from Bowker so we could give them away for free (ISBNs enable distribution to Apple, Sony and Kobo).

7. Reporting – We increased the frequency of our aggregated sales reporting from retail partners. We introduced a new downloadable spreadsheet that maps each quarterly payment to the sales behind that payment, and we made the data easy to query by author, retailer or title. For sales at Smashwords.com, we improved our email notifications so authors can more easily monitor more information about about their sales as they happen. Customers, too, now receive more complete purchase confirmations to help them access their books faster and easier.

8. Literary Agents – We updated our publishing platform so literary agents can now upload and manage the indie ebook efforts of their clients.

9. Globalization – On a percentage basis, most countries outside the US are just now entering the exponential growth phase. Their markets are where the US market was two, three or four years ago. Within a few years, the market for ebooks outside the US will dwarf the US market. We took a number of steps in 2011 to expand the global footprint of Smashwords ebooks. We signed an expanded distribution deal with Apple which increased our international coverage to Apple iBookstores in 32 different countries. Today, nearly half of our Apple sales come from outside the U.S (I’m surprised the media hasn’t picked up more on Apple’s impressive international success in 2011). We updated our payment and reporting systems to track VAT, which is handled differently by different retailers. Thanks to the volunteer efforts of Smashwords authors around the world, we released translated Smashwords Style Guides in German, French, Spanish, Italian (also the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide in Italian) and Dutch. A Bengali version is completed and a Danish version is in the works.

10. Smashwords Gifting - Our final big feature of the year launched on Christmas eve. We now make it easy for customers (and authors too, if they choose) to purchase ebooks as gifts. We think this is a nice complement to our popular Smashwords Coupon tool.

11. Competition - Many new ebook distribution competitors came on the scene in 2011. Back in 2008, we were the only game in town when we became the first ebook distributor to focus exclusively on self-published authors. Now you have choices. We feel honored that so many authors, small publishers and agents continue to choose Smashwords over the competition.

The ebook market remains in an exponential growth phase. 2011 will probably show ebooks at 20% of the US book market, up from 8.3% the year before and 3% the year before that. Based on preliminary post-Christmas sales results I’ve seen for Smashwords books at Apple, B&N and Sony, I think 2012 could see ebook market share in the US rise to between 40 and 50%. I expect many more competitors will come online in 2012 and 2013. I've been in technology for the last 20 years, so I'm intimately familiar with the inevitable boom and bust cycles of things touched by tech (and I have the old scars to prove it). Ebooks are in the boom phase now, but they cannot continue the torrid pace of growth. The new competitors and the noise they create will draw more authors, books and readers into the market, and will act as a growth catalyst for a couple years. When the exponential growth ends and the bust comes (and yes, it will come), some of these new competitors will disappear. Any one of us could disappear if we fail to build profitable businesses that add measurable value to those we serve.

In 2011, the most formidable competition came from Amazon, which has been on a multi-year rampage to disintermediate anyone or anything that stands between Amazon and their target customer. Three weeks ago Amazon launched KDP Select, a new opt-in service that represents their boldest broadside yet aimed at competing ebook retailers. KDP Select requires participating authors to remove their books from all retailers except for Amazon. I blogged why I think KDP Select is bad for authors (here and here). While most Smashwords authors share my view that exclusivity is a dangerously slippery slope to trod, thousands of authors enrolled titles in the Amazon program before Christmas. Of the approximate 65,000 or so books enrolled in KDP Select, nearly 6,000 books came from - and disappeared from - Smashwords as a result.

Despite the punch in the gut from Amazon, we still managed to grow our title count during the month of December (now over 92,000 titles), albeit at a lower rate of growth than we’re accustomed. Preliminary holiday sales results indicate our remaining authors enjoyed an impressive sales bump in the first few days following Christmas at Apple (up over 70%), Barnes & Noble (up over 100%) and Sony (up 30%). I don’t yet have results from Kobo and Diesel. If the record-breaking post-Christmas bump follows the same pattern as last year, sales will moderate a little in the next two weeks and then stabilize and begin growing again at a new normal that’s measurably higher than the pre-Christmas sales levels. These strong holiday sales, and the tremendous growth we’ve seen this year both in the US and internationally only solidify my conviction of the importance of authors maintaining broad and diversified distribution. Every retailer – even the smallest – works to introduce authors to new readers they wouldn’t reach otherwise. Yes, distribution is our business so my view is biased. I believe in the value of retailers and the distributors who serve them.

Someday, if the Amazon powers see fit, we’ll distribute more of our titles to them as well (we’re currently distributing about 200 titles to them). We’d much prefer to engage with Amazon as a partner rather than as adversary. We think we and our authors can help make their business more successful, just as we’ve helped our existing retailer partners grow their businesses. A good distributor helps retailers ingest and list more titles more efficiently and at less cost than operating their own self-pub platforms.

What's Coming to Smashwords in 2012?

Smashwords is an ebook distributor, so our priorities will be guided by this focus. Service enhancements will concentrate on making our books more available and more discoverable by readers.

In 2012 we’ll shift more of our attention from backend infrastructure to customer-facing user experience. The new features and service offerings will leverage the new infrastructure foundation we built in 2011.

Here’s a brief sampling of what you can expect from Smashwords in 2012:

Discovery – We’ll complete the BISAC recategorization mentioned above very soon, and from there we’ll turn our attention to our Smashwords.com retail operation and give it some much overdue love and attention on the discovery front. We’ll add more search options to the Smashwords home page, more alternative discovery paths to help readers find books they'd enjoy reading, and we’ll revamp the algorithms driving our best-seller lists so they more accurately reflect the collective intelligence and reading preferences of our customers. Once that initial stage is completed, we’ll leverage some of these new features on a couple secret projects that might surprise some folks, one of which will help our retail partners identify Smashwords books that deserve extra promotion.

More Distribution - We'll add more distribution outlets in 2012, the first of which we'll probably announce in the next two months (working on the technical integration now).

Faster Distribution – We currently ship to retailers once a week. In 2012, we’ll phase in more frequent shipments to those retailers that can support it so books appear faster and metadata changes reflect faster. This will give authors greater control over their distribution.

Faster Reporting - Some Smashwords authors have already noticed that we've increased the speed and frequency of retailer sales reporting over the last two months. We will continue to make incremental progress here for the retailers that can support it.

Faster Premium Catalog Approvals - There are two variables influencing Premium Catalog approval times. The first variable rests with the author or publisher, and that's the responsibility to upload a book that's formatted to the Smashwords Style Guide. A well-formatted book gets approved on the first review. We'll continue to improve the Smashwords Style Guide and other resources to help make it faster and easier for authors to format their books. The second variable is on our side, and that's the vetting process where we manually review each title for adherence to the Style Guide and the Smashwords Terms of Service. We've added two new recent hires to the vetting team and will add additional staff in the new year as required. The goal is to get approvals down to under three days. The faster the approval, the faster we can distribute you to retailers. In addition to throwing people at the challenge, we'll also continue to develop new automated tools to accelerate the process.

More Control - There are several planned features related to providing authors greater control over more aspects of their publishing, distribution and metadata. One such feature planned for the second half of 2012 is Smashwords Direct, which will give authors the option to upload their own pre-formatted .epub files (and other formats) if they choose. Also look for greater control over foreign currency pricing.

My thanks to you

As another fabulous year draws to a close, I want to express my sincere appreciation to every Smashwords author, publisher, reader, retailer and service provider partner (shout out to the awesome pros on my “Mark’s List” who help their fellow indies with low-cost formatting and cover design services). We created this for you.

With your trust, confidence and support, we will continue to serve you. When you utilize our distribution services, you’re directly supporting our mission to reshape book publishing for the benefit of authors and readers everywhere.

Happy New Year, and safe holidays. Peace all.

Smashwords Authors Experience Blowout Christmas at Barnes & Noble

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:03:00 +0000
It looks like it was a blowout Christmas for Smashwords authors at Barnes & Noble.

I'm looking at the early sales results for December 25 and December 26 for the titles Smashwords distributes to Barnes & Noble. For these first two days, sales are running about 225% (125% higher) of the daily sales average for November through mid-December (12/29 update: sales are remaining strong. 12/28 sales, three days after Christmas, were 260% of previous 30 day rate, or up 160%).

While it's too early to draw definitive conclusions, I think the numbers speak well for B&N headed into January.

FREE Smashwords books were also popular with B&N customers, racking up hundreds of thousands of downloads in two days. At the current download rate, our authors with free books will yield close to 10 million downloads in the next 30 days from B&N alone.

In the next couple days I should have sales results from the Apple iBookstore, where Smashwords authors were already enjoying a surge in sales over the last two months. Early reports of iOS activations (the operating system for the Apple iPhone and iPad) indicate Santa stuffed a lot of stockings with iPhones and iPads too.

The numbers also speak well for the importance of authors maintaining broad, uninterrupted distribution to multiple ebook retailers. Earlier this month, Amazon played the Grinch who stole Christmas when it convinced thousands of authors to remove approximately 65,000 books from Amazon's competing retailers two weeks before Christmas. Thankfully, only about 5,000 of those books came from Smashwords authors, with most Smashwords authors heeding my warnings (here at the Smashwords blog and also at the Huffington Post) and their own gut instinct that exclusivity is generally a dangerous idea. I wonder how many of these authors will feel duped? I imagine some will do well by their decision, but I suspect most will have shot themselves in the foot.

If the patterns we observed last year hold true again, we'll see a massive stepping up of the sales rates across all retailers in the first few days following Christmas, followed by a week or so of moderation, and then a new normal going forward that is significantly higher than the sales rate for the weeks and months immediately preceding Christmas.

Here are the top 20 Smashwords bestsellers at Barnes and Noble for the two day period of December 25 and 26:

Smashwords Top 20 at B&N (total dollars), December 25-26

Demon Dark - Penelope Fletcher
Fate (My Blood Approves Series #2) - Amanda Hocking
Wisdom (My Blood Approves Series #4) - Amanda Hocking
Arousing Love - M. H. Strom
My Blood Approves (My Blood Approves Series #1) - Amanda Hocking
Mud and Gold - Shayne Parkinson
Voodoo Kiss (Ancient Legends) - Jayde Scott
Shotgun Groom - Ruth Ann Nordin
Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two - Brian S. Pratt
The Witch's Ladder - Dana Donovan
A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends) - Jayde Scott
The Queen's Blade II - Sacrifice - T C Southwell
Immortal - Lauren Burd
Demon Day - Penelope Fletcher
Settling the Account - Shayne Parkinson
Doomed (Ancient Legends) - Jayde Scott
A Second Chance - Shayne Parkinson
Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three - Brian S. Pratt
The Mists of Sorrow: The Morcyth Saga Book Seven - Brian S. Pratt
The Queen's Blade III - Invisible Assassin - T C Southwell
Congrats authors, and a warm welcome to the millions of readers who will discover and enjoy Smashwords books this holiday season.

Smashwords Introduces New Ebook Gifting Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:03:00 +0000
Smashwords yesterday released a new ebook gifting feature.

Because Smashwords books are available in multiple ebook formats, our books are readable on any e-reading device.

Simply click to the book you want to gift, and click the "give as gift" button. The shopping cart will ask you for their name and email address. The lucky recipient will receive an email with a hyperlink that allows them to claim their gift. If they're already logged in to their Smashwords account, the book will appear in their Smashwords Library. If they don't have a Smashwords account, they'll be prompted to register.

Prior to this new feature, authors were unable to purchase their own books. One advantage of the gifting option over Smashwords Coupons is that the recipient, assuming they're already a Smashwords member, can simply click the hyperlink in the email and the book is loaded into their Smashwords Library. No purchase or checkout process necessary.

In the next few weeks, we'll add new features based on your feedback. We'll also integrate prompts into purchase confirmation emails and review reminders so your fans are encouraged to purchase your book as a gift for their friends.

We've created a temporary email address where you can send your beta testing feedback and bug reports. Email gift at smashwords dot com

Happy holidays!

Amazon Shows Predatory Spots with KDP Select

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:13:00 +0000
Amazon today announced a new service offering for authors and publishers who upload to their KDP platform: KDP Select. Writer beware.

At first glance, the program looks enticing. Amazon has created a $500,000 monthly pool of cash they'll distribute to participating authors based on the number of times your book is borrowed from their new lending library.

As they note in their FAQ, if your book accounts for 1.5% of the downloads during the monthly lending period, you'll earn 1.5% of the pot, or in this case $7,500.

But there's a catch. Actually, multiple catches, which are outlined in their Terms and Conditions:

For the time your book is enrolled in the program, you cannot distribute or sell your book anywhere else. Not Apple, not Barnes & Noble, not Smashwords, not Kobo, not Sony, not even your own personal blog or web site. Your title must be 100% exclusive to Amazon.
If you violate their exclusivity terms at any point during the three-month enrollment period, or you unpublish your book to remove it from the program so you can distribute your book elsewhere, you risk forfeited earnings, delayed payments, a lien on future earnings, or you may get kicked out of the Kindle Direct Publishing program altogether.
Your enrollment, and thus your liability to Amazon, automatically renews every three months if you neglect to opt out.
Amazon has also modified the Kindle Direct Platform's user interface with the effect of making it almost difficult not to enroll your books. Where they once placed their pull down menu for managing your book's settings, they've now placed the enrollment link. The pull down settings menu is moved to the bottom of their dashboard.

Let's examine the implications for this new program, not only for authors but for the nascent ebook industry as well.

When authors enroll a title in the program, they're contractually obligated to remove their books from all other distribution channels.

Wow. Most indie authors appreciate their independence. This rule is quite restrictive.

Impact on authors:
Forces the author to remove the book from sale from the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords and others, thereby causing the author to lose out on sales from competing retailers.
By unpublishing a title from any retailer, the author destroys any accrued sales rank, making their book less visible and less discoverable when and if they reactivate distribution to competing retailers
Makes the author more dependent upon Amazon for sales. Do you want to become a tenant farmer, 100% dependent upon a single retailer? As some of you history buffs may know, tenant farming, and the abuses of power by landlords, was a primary contributor behind the great Irish potato famine.

Impact on competing retailers:
Harms other retailers by denying them access to your book.
Many authors will permanently stop distributing to Amazon's competitors once they become fully dependent upon Amazon for the lion's share of their earnings
Motivates more customers to purchase at Amazon since Amazon has this exclusive content.
Discourages formation of new ebook retailers around the world
The new Amazon KDP Select program strikes me as a startling example of a predatory business practice. Amazon has the opportunity to leverage their dominance as the world's largest ebook retailer (and world's largest payer to indie authors) to attain monopolistic advantage by effectively denying its competing retailers (Apple, B&N, Kobo, Sony, etc) access to the books from indie authors.

The move will also make it more difficult for new retailers operating outside the US to gain footholds in their respective markets if they lose fair access to the content readers want to read.

Amazon might argue that indie ebooks today only account for a fraction of overall book industry sales. True, but that fraction is growing quickly as indies scale all the best-seller charts. This trend will continue as more and more professional authors turn their back on traditional book publishers in favor of self-publishing. Amazon is smart. They understand indies are the future of book publishing.

European Commission and US Department of Justice Unwittingly Working to Create Amazon Monopoly

Amazon's new service offering comes at a time when the European Commission and even the US Department of Justice are scrutinizing the legality of agency ebook pricing. Agency ebook pricing, as you'll recall (see my blog post last year on our move to agency pricing) allows authors and publishers to set their own price and receive higher royalty rates. Amazon is a long time foe of agency, and as a result is probably enjoying a virtual wet dream as they savor the implications of potential restrictions against the agency model.

If agency pricing is limited or overturned, it would allow Amazon to price ebooks at below cost and effectively eliminate the profitability of all its competing retailers. This would also discourage the formation of new competitors. It's ironic that the EC and US DOJ are pursuing these ill-advised campaigns that could lead to less competition in the ebook market, not more.

What the EC and US DOJ fail to realize is that big publishers (the target of these investigations), which (I agree) price their books too high, are becoming less relevant to the future of book publishing as authors lose faith in the myth of big publishing. The problem of high prices from big publishers is not an agency issue, it's big publishers pricing their books too high.

Agency Pricing Enables Indie Authors and Small Publishers to Lower Prices

Despite fears to the contrary, we see evidence at Smashwords that agency pricing might actually encourage lower book prices. Indies, which are enjoying great benefits from the agency model (Smashwords only distributes to agency retailers), are using agency to offer customers lower prices, not higher prices. The average ebook at Smashwords is priced under $5.00, and we have over 15,000 books priced at FREE. Why do indies price their books lower when they have the freedom to charge anything they want? The reason is that indies realize that consumers value fair prices, and as a result these lower prices give indies a competitive advantage over the large publishers.

When an indie author can earn 60-70% of list with agency pricing, they can set a lower price yet still earn more per unit than if the book was sold under a wholesale pricing model (where the royalty would equal 43-50% of list). As an example, if an author wants to earn $2.00 from each book they sell, at a 70% agency rate they'd price the book at $2.85. Under the wholesale model (50% discount off list), they'd need to price the same book at $4.00.

The agency model puts profits in the pockets of the author or publisher, where it belongs, while allowing the retailer to earn a fair profit. Agency pricing relieves retailers from the pressure of competing on price and instead forces them to compete on customer experience, such as developing discovery tools and recommendation systems that help match readers with the books they'd enjoy reading.

How should indie authors respond? Horror might be a good start. Recognize that your long term interests are best served by enabling a vibrant and competitive global ebook retailing ecosystem to develop. Distribute your book to as many retailers as possible. A world of many ebook retailers, all working to attract readers to your books, is much preferable to a world where a single retailer dictates all the terms.

Obviously, I have a horse in this game. Smashwords is probably the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks. We publish and distribute over 90,000 ebooks from 33,000 indie authors and small presses around the world. We exist to serve our authors and publishers. We supply Amazon's competitors. We'd love to supply Amazon as well, but they're unwilling to provide us agency terms.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Bright Future for Scandinavian Digital Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:32:00 +0000
Approximately 90 Scandinavian publishing executives gathered a couple weeks ago in Copenhagen, Denmark at the historic Carlsberg brewery for the annual invitation-only Scandinavian Publishing Executive Meeting. The conference was organized by Schilling, a strategic consultancy for Scandinavian publishers.

The conference took a decidedly international theme by importing speakers from Spain, the U.K. and United States, including yours truly representing Smashwords, and Nyree Belleville, a best-selling Smashwords author who writes under the pen names Bella Andre and Lucy Kevin.

Scandinavia is representative of the vast majority of global ebook markets where ebooks still represent less than one percent of overall trade book sales. Like the markets in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia which have experienced a rapid transition to ebooks over the last two and three years, the building blocks are now falling into place for Scandinavia to experience similar exponential growth as readers transition from paper reading to screen reading.

Personal highlights of the conference:
Apple's Nordic region manager talked about the iPad's potential to unleash the creativity of authors and publishers
Pete Downton, a former VP at Warner Music, urged book publishers not to repeat the errors of music publishers (who dealt with change by raising prices and suing customers).
Nyree Belleville talked about how she'll earn over $1 million this year selling indie ebooks, and why she's unlikely to go back to traditional publishing
Presentations from four interesting publishing startups - 24Symbols, Jellybooks, Smashwords and Valobox - exploring new business models to connect readers with books
An overarching theme of unprecedented opportunity for the world's authors and publishers to leverage the power of global distribution to reach new markets with ebooks that were previously unreachable via print.
I wrote a blog post over at Publishing Perspectives exploring the above sessions and others in greater detail. Click here to read A Bright Future for Scandinavian Digital Publishing.

Smashwords Style Guide Translated to Italian (Guida allo Stile Smashwords)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:02:00 +0000
The Smashwords Style Guide is now available in an Italian translation, Guida allo Stile Smashwords.

The Italian translation is thanks to the generous volunteer effort of Giuseppe Meligrana, an Italian publisher at Smashwords. Giuseppe is also planning to translate the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide.

The new Style Guide will make ebook publishing and distribution more accessible to thousands of Italian-language authors. As one of a handful of authorized global Apple aggregators, we're pleased to distribute Italian authors not only to their home country's Apple iBookstore, but worldwide as well.

As we announced October 24, Italy is among the 26 new iBookstore countries now served by Smashwords distribution.

Prior to these new stores, Apple operated in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Australia.

Of the 26 new stores added by Apple, the Italian store was the top performer by unit sales for Smashwords authors and publishers for the week ending November 20.

Two fun facts about the Italian language, per Wikipedia:
Italian is spoken by 55 million people in Italy, and 6.7 million outside the country
Between 120 and 150 million people worldwide use Italian as a second or cultural language
The release of the Italian Smashwords Style Guide follows the recent release of French and German Style Guide translations. Additional translations are in process for Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Bengali.

If you're a Smashwords authors or publisher and you'd like to translate the Style Guide into your native language, please see the instructions here.