Where has all the drama gone?

When I first starting writing, 7 or so years ago, it was a foreign world to me. Ebooks were not highly thought of and the ebook publishers of the time were little demi-gods that you weren’t allowed to question because they wouldn’t give you a contract if you did. I know some authors who were terrified of a certain diva at the main erotic epublisher of the time. I suspect she enjoyed scaring people with her power. Everyone has to have a hobby I guess.

Today, for some reason Mrs Giggles came to mind. Do you remember her? She’s still going. I remember how terrified authors were of getting a book reviewed by Mrs G. She hated two of mine. It didn’t bother me. Reviews are always just opinion and not fact – but oh, how some people were scared of her.  I kinda liked her. She was a force to be reckoned with then. And there was Karen Knows Best. She’s still going too but – dare I say it and I will – she’s mellowed a lot. I can remember HUGE controversies about authors like Carol Lynne who had ebooks ripped to shreds on KKB and the drama behind all that. It never harmed CL and frankly it made her career and good luck to her.

There were other ‘terrifying’ people as well, but most have fallen by the wayside.  I tend to think it’s because ebooks are more acceptable now than then. A plethora – love that word – of people can write ebooks, there are scads and scads of publishers out there and writers don’t have to rely on the tyrannical whimsy of the only established ones - and let’s not forget self publishing. Look at people like Selena Kitt, an author, who kicked arse and made a huge success of it despite what people thought or said.

Does anyone fear reviews any more? I don’t think so. Not from what I read. Are writers scared of trying other publishers? Not that I’ve heard. Do Diva publishers rule? Probably in their own minds. So, where has all the drama gone? I’m sure writer Anny Cook is nodding her head at this. Is it just age mellowing them or more, as I believe, the world has moved on without being scared of them? Or, do we just not scare as easily?    

         

Apparently...

I cannot work out June 2011, July 2011 and August 2011 royalty spreadsheets from Noble Romance Publishing.  At all. One of them has the picture above on it. It doesn't inspire confidence does it?

Answers? I have asked…a lot. Apparently there are none. Apparently I’m stupid.

Price gouging...

So, I have been taking back the rights to all my books and stories from the mainstream publishers. Why? Because I have learnt enough in the six years I have been doing this writing thing to know that I don’t agree with what they do. So, for me, it’s a case of put up or shut up. So many writers whine about publishers but the vast majority do stuff all about the situation they’re in because they’re scared to move away from the mother ships. Whatever. I’m an Aussie. We’re a little bit different. Our crap factor has a low threshold and we believe we can do anything we choose to do.

Anyway, I got the rights back to Fear of Being as of August 1^st and I was looking at it on the publisher’s page and I was astounded by the price they had on it. No, I’m not a writer who spends time starry-eyed looking at their literary reflections on the publisher’s page and squeeing so I hadn’t really paid any attention to the website. But this is a 40,000 and a bit word story and they were selling it at $5.99. That’s ridiculous. Who in this particular economic climate is going to shell money out for an ebook that essentially all the publisher has to do is bang it out in 6 – 8 formats and then set it up to be downloaded hundreds of times. It’s a rip off.  I absolutely believe 99% of publishers are screwing the book reading public over. While I get that they’re out to make money, seriously charging through the nose for an ebook is ridiculous.  

What will I charge for Fear of Being? I’m going to charge 0.99 cents for the first month and then I reckon $1.49 after that. Is this profitable? Yeah, I’ve seen that through the other stories I have taken back.   

Reading should be an affordable pastime for everyone – not just the rich.

Authors...

….who call their 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 word piece of writing a book are essentially playing with themselves and the public. It’s a short story, lovie. I wrote 10k essays when I was at Uni. I didn’t hand one in and say here is my book on the Linguistic vagaries of urban, tattoo Pigmies living in non-monogamous relationships who ride scooters in socio-economically challenged areas of the Simpson Desert. By the way…pretty much no one lives in the Simpson Desert. It’s hot and dry and there’s nothing for miles…but I digress…it’s not a book. It’s a short story. Writers don’t want to hear that. Why? Well a butt load of them are churning out fast stories to make a quick buck. I get that. I really do. Money makes the world go round and every writer, myself included, has done it. But don’t call a hastily written 5 men and one woman fuck-fest a book. I’m not doubting it sells but calling it a book gives readers expectations of more. It also – and this really annoys me – allows publishers to put inflated, ridiculous prices on short stories. $3.99 for a 15,000 word story that is written once, is formatted into different versions in the blink of an eye – and don’t let anyone try and tell you there’s a lot of work in formatting because that’s crap. There are programs that do that with very little thought from a human. $3.99 for 10-15k of words. Seriously? I can go to Kmart and get books on sale that are bigger and a better price. I can go to a junk shop and fill a bag with cheap books.

Yes, yes, yes…you have an e-reader. It’s the way of the future. I just wonder how many readers actually considered how expensive the future of stories and proper books was going to be. The greed of authors, publishers and giant corporations is bleeding readers dry. No, I haven’t been sucked into an ereader yet. And no, I do not ever plan to charge $3.99 for a short story. Why? Because readers deserve more.   

 Dicking Around…$1.16…

The Perils of Paula…$1.16

Strip for Me….$1.16

If Nor For You….$1.16

Hush…$1.16

Eat Me Up…$1.16

Bad Girl….$1.16

etc…etc…etc…

Don’t talk to me about expensive overheads. That’s bullshit. Treat the reader fairly.   

   

www.amarindajones.com

Now look here, insignificant author type person…

This is a mass email to the mass of you author people. We have no idea who you are but we figured you may write for us or have written for us or looked sideways at us so basically we include the whole world in this email. That includes you Obama-dude. We want to apologize for our slack-arseness in responding. We have been…tick the applicable…

- drunk
- hiding out

- in deep do-do

- bitching about whiny authors

- in Tijuana
- lost in the infinite corridors of time.

This is to let you know that you have emailed several times and that you’re annoying as all hell but we figured better to answer and try and fob you off so you will shut the hell up. We are trying to summon the interest level to care and answer your email. We plan to have responses to everyone whenever or the 12th of never whichever is sooner.

Sincerely,
Heaving Bosoms Publishing

In accordance with our star signs, religious beliefs, medical conditions, the waxing moon and on the off chance we all get captured and experimented on by aliens, this message cannot be sent to anyone living, dead, kinda dead, stoned, drunk, in a ménage, living with a vampire or a werewolf or under the influence of chocolate and or the sniffing of laundry powder. So be a good, scared little author and do not distribute, copy, post, share, do a sock puppet play or do an interpretive dance to the contents of this email otherwise we will not be happy campers and will stamp out feet. A lot. No really. We will. I’m not kidding, Amarinda.

Half past get out....

So, I have been going through the correct channels with Ellora’s Cave to remove all my books from them. Why? Because I don’t trust them. They once used to be very good but that was back when readers had little e-book choice. They were top dog and due to lack of competition they were sitting pretty and they generally did the right thing. Oh sure, I was concerned when I first started writing there as ‘old’ authors were leaving in droves saying EC was crap and the ‘new authors’ were also ‘crap.’ Now I’m not big on worrying about what people think of me so I took that with a grain of salt and subbed there. That was until I became concerned about payments and the randomness about when cheques got sent out. Others noticed it too. So, I decided, to move on from EC and sub elsewhere. Now, this was a huge thing to do as Ellora’s Cave have or had this policy where they try and put your tits in a vice so you are unable to move to any other publisher. It’s ruling by fear and many people stayed frozen as they were scared to upset EC. I’m not one to be held when I want to move on so I moved regardless and subbed elsewhere. My tits are still intact.

Anyway, back to getting books back. I had the last four to get back. I emailed the correct ‘Please revert the rights back on these books.’ Now EC is not big on answering emails from their authors. Why? Possibly ignorance and lack of honesty. I don’t know. Anyway, I had been waiting for this publisher to revert the last 4 books back and I had waited the required six months. No word from them. They’re supposed to be professional and say something along the lines of ‘We revert the rights back as of such and such a date.’ That’s the proper way to do it so you all know where you stand.

Today, with no response from them, I checked their website as I have been to see if the books were still there. They weren’t and no word from EC. Initially I was pissed off at their once more unprofessional way of doing business. But then I thought about how a company that is losing authors and readers is most likely in dire financial straits and professionally answering my rights reversion letter was probably not possible when they’ve got their proverbial fingers plugging holes to avoid sinking. Yes, yes, it has been rumoured many times EC is/was going under. I won’t be surprised when their doors close.

So, thinking of subbing somewhere? Do your homework. Ask around. Just because a publisher sucks up to you doesn’t mean they’re good. Do you have a bad feeling about a publisher you’re with? Then you’re probably correct. It’s up to you to sink or swim. This is a tough business. No one gives a crap if you fail. Look after yourself first.

Why so expensive?

I don’t understand why e-book publishers are charging the public so damn much for an e-book. Since working on Scarlet Harlot Publishing I’ve noticed this –

- Covers… yep, there are some mighty fancy ones around but look at the actual image. It probably cost no more then $2…more likely 75 cents.
- Editors…can be very competitive on rates if they know they’re going to get steady work.
- Formatting – yes, it’s a complete embuggerance at times but you do it once, in many versions, for each book and then you sell that version. There’s no paper or transport costs. There’s no need to pay to get the book on a prominent shelf. One pdf can be sent out infinitesimal times.

If you split those costs over hundreds of sales for one book, they’re nothing. So why are e-books so expensive? Greed…and it’s not always good. Look at the word length before you buy and judge if it's worth it and use your power to exercise your consumer rights before you buy. I tend to believe people buy at a higher point out of no choice. Demand choice and competition. It’s your hard earned dollars after all. E-book publishers need you to buy from them. You have the power.

Beware of publishers bearing gifts….

As a lot of people know the vast influx of new publishers opening up and self publishing becoming easy and more lucrative to do, older e-book publishers have been losing authors. The obvious question arises from this – if you were a good, honest publisher paying a healthy royalty percentage and treating your authors like people and not with contempt, then in theory you shouldn’t lose writers because they would be loyal to you. That’s the theory. As we know theory doesn’t always work. The reality is a lot of e-pubs set themselves up as demi-goddesses when they were at the height of their popularity when it never occurred to them that they could fail or that publishing would change. Hindsight - 20-20 or what?

So I’ve been hearing from various sources that some of these supposed demi-goddessses are now trying to be ‘nice’ to writers and they’re giving niceness lessons to their staff in order to stop the exodus. Uh-huh. Two thoughts on that – it’s a bit bloody late and people – writers – for the most part – are not that bloody stupid to believe in someone who has treated them like crap suddenly wanting to be their best friend. And secondly, beware of publishers bearing gifts.

Liar, liar pants on fire…

The most asked question of me as a writer? What is my inspiration? Finding myself alive every morning. Do I suffer for my art? Oh, fuck no. Do I have a muse? Oh, double fuck no. Actually the most asked question is from others writers and it’s about publishers paying royalties on time and did I get my payment because they didn’t.

E-book publishers? I reckon probably 2 out of 5 you can trust. Generally, from my experience they’re a dodgy bunch who rob Peter to pay Paul in an effort to tide themselves over to the next month and they blithely think the author won’t notice any slipshod behaviour because the author is so grateful to be published. Bollocks. Like anyone who works for a living a writer expects to be paid on time and the correct amount. That ain’t got nothing to do with gratitude especially in a market where many e-book publishing houses are going hungry for new releases because they have a bad name.

Now to me, alienating writers due to sloppy or non existent royalty payments begs the question – how do you run a successful business if you treat the merchandise and suppliers like crap? Answer is - you don’t. There are a lot of publishers who trade on past glory with very little stock. The solution? Pay your writers on time and the right amount or expect a revolt. It’s not rocket science.