Salon.com > Self-Publishing

The future is no fun: Self-publishing is the worst

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:30:00 +0000

Stick with me on this.

In 2001 when my first novel, "Slab Rat," was published and I was important for about eight weeks, I was asked to write three very short stories for a literary magazine. I believe the maximum amount of time I was allotted for each story was 10 minutes. Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to get a sentence the way I want it, but I decided to do it. I forget what the other two stories were, but one of them stayed with me: It was about a couple who go to real estate open houses to steal medication.

Cut to early spring 2012.

Thirty painkillers (prescribed for my bad back) were stolen out of my medicine cabinet. I was certain I knew who did it: someone in my building who had access to our keys. I set a trap for him and removed the remaining painkillers and replaced them with an over-the-counter painkiller that resembled them in color and shape -- but certainly did not deliver the same relief. A week later I left my apartment for a mere 10 minutes; when I returned, sure enough, about 30 more were missing. A check of the log revealed who had signed out the keys. As Michael Corleone says to his brother in "The Godfather II": “I know it was you, Fredo.”

Self-publishing star faces backlash for misogynist rant

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:09:00 +0000

Self-publishing wunderkind Hugh Howey may have relied on the kindness of strangers to boost his viral hit Wool into a word-of-mouth Amazon sensation, a major publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, and a lucrative movie deal. But after he took to his blog and Goodreads to bash one woman he met at last year's WorldCon, the publishing blogosphere may not have much goodwill left.

According to Howey, his wife told him that a story titled "The Bitch From WorldCon" (here's a cached version; here's a screengrab) wasn't the smartest thing he could post, but he ignored her and published it anyway.

Hugh Howey: Self-publishing is the future — and great for writers

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Contrary to recent reports, I am not the story of self-publishing.

The story of self-publishing is Jan Strnad, a 62-year-old educator hoping to retire in four years. To do so is going to require supplemental income, which he is currently earning from his self-published novels. In 2012, Jan made $11,406.31 from his work. That’s more than double what he made from the same book in the six months it was available from Kensington, a major publisher. He has since released a second work and now makes around $2,000 a month, even though you’ve never heard of him.

I’m a self-publishing failure

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I am contorting myself in front of the bathroom mirror, iPhone in hand, a porkpie hat on my head and a pair of black-framed Jonathan Franzen glasses perched on my nose. I am trying to capture an image of myself that does not look like me. Sans these accouterments, I am balding and thin faced with perpetual bags under my eyes – sort of like the father on “That ’70s Show” in need of a nap. Conversely, the look I’m going for is “intellectual cool.” I have a long way to go.

I share the photo with some friends, and the verdict is universal. “A slightly more effeminate version of Truman Capote,” is perhaps the best summation. I stick with the picture, post it, and release my new website to the world. No one notices, though I fear lawyers from the Capote estate may one day send a cease-and-desist order.

Thus began my life as a published author.

Books aren’t dead yet

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Without a doubt, book publishing is an industry in a state of flux, but even the nature of the flux is up for grabs. Take a recent example of the traditional tech-journalism take on the situation, an article by Evan Hughes for Wired magazine, titled "Book Publishers Scramble to Rewrite Their Future." The facts in the story are indisputable, but the interpretation? Not so much.

The news peg is the success of a self-published series of post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, "Wool," by Hugh Howey. Available as e-books and print books from Amazon, the series became a hit, and Howey recently sold print-only rights to a New York publisher, Simon & Schuster. Print-only because Howey and his agent determined that they were making plenty of money selling the e-books on their own.

Wired characterizes this as a "huge concession" on the part of Simon & Schuster, and in one sense it is: The publisher won't receive any e-book revenue, and it is in e-book format that "Wool" has seen its success so far. On the other hand, "Wool" is not only already very popular among the genre fans who made it an e-book bestseller, it's also an object of curiosity for the many otherwise-uninterested people captivated by Howey's rags-to-riches story in the Wall Street Journal. (By far the best-selling e-book by self-publishing exemplar John Locke is not one of his thrillers, but "How I Sold One Million E-Books.")

Do you like my book idea?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Cary,

You asked for it! I am a writer on a new journey. Stuck in the workaday world for money most of my life, I was recently given the gift/nightmare of being laid off just before my 52nd birthday. My serious attempts to get hired during the past two months are quickly confirming that myth we hear about the impossibility of getting hired after 50. I am facing the reality that, likely, I have a year ahead of me of collecting unemployment checks and not working, simply because that's what has fallen into my lap.

Of course, I struggle with writer's procrastination and fears about losing inspiration, not finishing, getting a job, not getting a job, husband turning on me for being a freeloader, dying alone under a bridge on a 10-degree night with a cheap bottle of vodka -- need I go on. But perhaps those are other letters for other days. Today: a more practical question.

Amazon’s the devil — and I love it

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I bought a Kindle, which means I’m the devil.

I’m the devil because Kindle is part of the vast network of Amazon, whose goal is pretty much to destroy everything I hold dear in my brick-and-mortar culture. And they employ a morally reprehensible scheme to do so. They charge less than what a book actually costs them, taking a small loss on each sale, with the hope of driving every other book retailer out of business. Kind of like gas wars from fifty years ago, when two competing gas stations lowered their prices beyond profitability to beat the guy next door, but in this situation Amazon’s the only company that can afford to lose money. Their job, as they seem to see it, is to keep dumping cash into themselves until they become the go-to place for not just books, but everything. “Don’t waste your time going to your local store. Buy it from Amazon for less and you’ll never have to leave home.” This drives many independent bookstores—which rely on profits to stay afloat—out of business, taking with them the entire culture of book buying I value (selling back used books, seeing my money go into the local economy, dealing with a bookseller, author readings, creaky floors, participating in a community as opposed to mouse-clicking, etc.)

Can self-publishing buy respect?

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:26:00 +0000

There was much pearl clutching after the Internet aired abecedarian mystery novelist Sue (“A Is for Alibi”) Grafton's thoughts on self-publishing. Short version: She thinks it’s for lazies. Who you calling lazy? The digital swarm opined and I agreed, to some extent, with the outraged chorus. Who wouldn't want to be on the side of the self-publishers, those scrappy DIY-ers who, like their punk forefathers and -mothers, step outside of a system that can't or won't serve them? Get in the van!

Social media scamsters

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:25:00 +0000

"I can't use Amazon to find new e-books anymore," a friend said recently over dinner. "I used to be able to search on the subject headings, but now all that comes up is a bunch of junk." The rest of the people around the table looked surprised. "Why would you ever search by subject?" one asked in bafflement. "But it's true that unless I know exactly the title and author I'm looking for, Amazon is pretty useless these days."

As someone who's never browsed Amazon looking for new titles, I was intrigued by their remarks. I've written in the past about the proliferation of "spam" or plagiarized books and repurposed public-domain content in the Kindle store -- the "junk" that my friend objects to. (The retailer has since vowed to crack down on such abuses.) But I never would have encountered these faux books if I hadn't gone looking for them in search of a story. My friends' observations reminded me that readers discover books in a wide variety of ways.