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Think Like a Publisher: 2015… Chapter 5: Return on Investment
Chapter Five: Return on Investment As a professional writer, when I am asked by another writer what they would be better off writing, my standard and correct answer is “Anything you are passionate about. Any story that motivates you. Any topic that scares hell out of you or excites you.” And when asked “What’s the best length in this new world?” my answer has been “Whatever length the story demands.” Those are my writer-to-writer answers and they are correct. No second thoughts at all. Those answers come from the art of writing. Those answers come into play for all writers and should be followed where possible by all writers. Those…
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The New World of Publishing: The Big Hurry
Every beginning writer I know (including myself back about thirty plus years) is in a hurry. Fact of publishing, sadly. But before two years ago, beginning writers knew that getting into publishing was going to be a long and hard road through the head-shaking methods of traditional publishing. Most writers who started down that road didn’t make it. And many who did make that first or even second sale quit shortly after, often because the process didn’t get easier, but actually harder. Now let me be clear here. Like my much-missed friend Bill, I still consider a writer new until at least ten novels published. Most writers never make it…
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Think Like A Publisher: 2…Expected Costs
The first chapter in this new series was “The Early Decisions” which included picking a business name, setting up checking accounts, and so on. There were no real costs at all in those early steps unless your state had a small fee for registering a business name. Checking accounts are free, so are PayPal accounts, and so on. So the question on this second basic business-planning chapter is “What are your expected costs?” For those of you with a basic understanding of business, you can now see the structure of how I am setting up these chapters. Before starting into a business, there are certain things that need to be…
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Think Like A Publisher: The Early Decisions
Okay, I’m starting a brand new series right now. I have no idea how long this series will be, and I will continue to do “New World of Publishing” chapters and “Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing” chapters as topics arise. But there is so much to talk about when a writer decides to become a publisher, I thought I would just do these in a new series. THE EARLIEST DECISION One day, after following Konrath’s blogs, a writer suddenly thinks to himself, “I should just publish that unsold story myself on Kindle.” Uh, oh… Right at that point the writer has made the decision to become a publisher. The…
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The New World of Publishing: Accounting
Warning: This will be a general post designed to help regular folk understand some real basics in indie publishing accounting, so publishing experts and accountants, please give me a break. This is very, very general. Thanks! Also, this is a long one. Sorry. The term “Margin” is thrown around in so many ways, by so many people in publishing these days, I figured it was time to try to make sense out of the word and other basic accounting issues. In fiction publishing, that is. I’m not getting into stock margins or buying covered calls on margin or anything along those lines. This is about fiction publishing and accounting and…
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The New World of Publishing: Cash Flow
Okay, time to talk about that evil subject: Money. And more pointedly, money for fiction writers. So many fiction writers these days banter around the saying that they can make more money indie publishing their work than selling it into the midlist in traditional publishing. And I’m not disagreeing with that, at least not for some. There are many factors to consider, including length of contracts, amount of advance, ability to do the work of indie publishing yourself. For some, indie publishing is right, for others not so good. But so many of the discussions about indie publishing vs traditional publishing don’t take into account a very important, and sometimes…
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Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Only 300 Writers Make a Living
This myth is so solid, I hear it repeated over and over again. And just today, a person I follow on Twitter repeated it yet again, sending all her followers to a web site that had some writer say simply “There are only about 200 or 300 writers making a living at fiction.” With nothing at all to back up the statement or even a second thought about what that statement meant if true. The number is total and complete hogwash. I’m going to lay out some facts. And I will use math and other ugly arguments to show you that this number is a total and complete myth. And…