Writing Biz

by Kimberly A. Cook        (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

A friend told me about Dr. Phil McGraw’s new book, “Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World.” He’d seen him talk about the book on the NBC Today Show on Nov. 15 and thought it might be a good read.

Sounded good to me too, so I began my search for the book. Checked the Today Show online on Nov. 19 and the video of that segment had been taken down. Odd. Went to Amazon.com to find the publication date. No publication date and I didn’t recognize the book publisher, Bird Street Books.

Seemed different for a six-time New York Times bestseller to go indie, but this might be a big jump if Dr. Phil went to independent publishing. There must be more to the story. Plus the book was listed at $68 at Amazon.com. That can’t be right, I thought to myself.

Next I checked in at Barnes and Noble, the physical store, since online didn’t have any info for me.  They told me it was out Nov. 13, 2012 release date, but Barnes and Noble couldn’t get it. Now I was obsessed to buy this book. Was this a slick marketing ploy to drive up demand?

One of the first rules of marketing is don’t promote something you can’t deliver. Creating demand with a publicity run up to launch is one thing, but providing a barrier to consumers to buy is not necessarily a good idea. Especially in the holiday book buying season.

Back to Amazon.com I went to see if an ebook would be available. I found out from one review that the book is only available at www.thebooknook.com, McGraw’s son Jay’s new online bookstore. The buyer was not too happy with the option to buy from a different online bookstore instead of Amazon.com.

Checked The Book Nook web site and found the prices online were reasonable, ($26 list price but $22.05 at The Book Nook, up to $50 for the other “bundle” choices with extra goodies) but I really don’t want to start up a relationship with another online bookstore; I’m still recovering from losing Borders. I am comfortable with www.Amazon.com, www.bn.com and www.Powells.com and my publisher. How many book vendors do I need to date?

On Nov. 26 at The Book Nook web site it said this is an exclusive pre sale period, so one hopes the book will soon be in the stores and with the other online vendors, but online rumor control says not until January 2013.  Dagnabbit. Libraries can’t even buy it right now according to one Amazon.com reviewer.

It has been four years since Dr. Phil published a book with a traditional publishing house. The world has turned on its ear since then in the book business. Kudos to him supporting his son’s business venture, but at what cost to the buying public?

I am sure Dr. Phillip McGraw did not take this decision lightly and got good advice, but Coca-Cola did the same thing a few years ago when they changed their main Coke recipe and shot themselves in both feet. A fast retreat to Classic Coke ensued.

The first rule of physicians is “do no harm.” The first rule for today’s authors is do no harm to the reader. As author Bob Mayer puts it so well, “Readers Rule!” in the digital age.

Yes, I realize I’m promoting Dr. Phil’s new book, but I’m not real sure about his distribution methods at the moment. Don’t promise me cookies and milk then give me a lump of coal and swipe my new book Christmas present; to mix my Santa, Charlie Brown and Grinch metaphors.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Available copies of Life Code on Amazon.com by resellers are down to $58 now. Onebook reviewer thinks this is the actual price of the book and went on a tirade instead of realizing it is supply and demand right now. Very limited supply. Watch and learn.

by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

(Alert: Long Blog Post)

Last month I tried to reduce my bundled cable bill. I know, it would have been easier to invade a small country, but I enjoy tilting at corporations. When my first new bill showed up, I was confused. By the time the company explained how they put me in a higher package price but downgraded it with discounts to get a smaller cost, it hit me. “Oh, this is special cable math,” I said. The cable gal on the phone laughed, but agreed with me.

Now, the reason I can kinda understand this is because I know about special author math. Whenever a new writer wants to know if I’m rich because I’m an author, it’s time for another lesson in special author math.

The basics. A first-time category paperback romance author published by a New York house may get a $3,000 advance and then 6 percent royalties. That is six percent off a cover price of 4.99, which is 29 cents per book sold. So if the author sells 10,344 books, they earn $2,999.76 beyond their advance, for a total of $5,999.76. Used to be royalties were paid out every six months.

So the book it took an author two years to write and perfect is on the shelves for six weeks, tops. The book may get foreign reprint rights in other countries, but let’s assume not.

A first-time indie published ebook romance fiction writer can put their ebook up on Kindle for free and charge 4.99 per copy and get either a 35 or 70 percent royalty rate minus the digital delivery fee. Let’s chose 70 percent royalty, so 3.49 per book minus one cent for delivery fee equals 3.48. If this author sells 10,344 ebooks, she earns $35,997.12. Plus the digital book can sell online forever.

Notice the difference between a romance fiction paperback published by a New York house and the indie published romance fiction ebook. $35,997.12 – $5,999.76 equals $29,997.36. Now the New York traditional publishers are getting $12.99 for some of their bestselling author ebooks, so you know who is not getting the benefit of that author math. These numbers also explain why the record industry went indie years ago.

Now, anyone selling 10,000 copies of a book is a big deal. Granted, the New York romance publishers have set distribution channels, but the ebook is the great liberator for authors.

There are also a zillion other things to consider in this simplistic example from quality of writing, to cover art, distribution channels, marketing, etc., when looking at the numbers, but this author special math is one reason so many authors are going indie. It’s one of the main reasons I did in 2006 with my non-fiction book and will continue to do so for all my books.

Here are some more author math numbers; the average indie published print-on-demand book (POD) sells 300 copies. No typo, 300 copies. (This is where I have a huge problem with the marketing packages many POD companies charge; they make their money on the up sell of producing the book, not the actual copies of a book sold.)

So if you spend $10,000 on a package to publish your $4.99 paperback book and you get a generous 35 percent royalty, ($1.74) you will need to sell at least 5,747 books to break even and that is without cover design, ISBN numbers, etc. Know your numbers and vet the POD houses before spending big bucks.

If you’re going paperback POD and ebook, which I did, make sure you do a return on investment calculation. Take the cost of the “package” divided by your royalties to see how many books you would need to sell to break even. Then put that number next to 300 books. Compare your numbers and the 300 book average. Reality check time! Do not quit your day job or take a loan on the house to self-publish a book.

Now, let me add this number; more than 1,000 books are published every day in the United States. So the book chatter out there is big time. Granted this includes everything from the latest Manga book to cookbooks, but you get my math.

The publishing industry is undergoing massive change right now because our publishing tools and methods are changing. But in that chaos comes opportunities for writers and authors who like to publish to the sound of the new author math. The writing needs to be clean and good, the package pretty and spell checked, but it can be done.

My goal has always been to sell books around the world while I’m sleeping; that day arrived several years ago with the online market. Consider how you want your author math to stack up. Any battle plan requires a recon of the terrain and mission goals. I expect no less from fellow writers.

Be an informed author/publisher/writer and spend your dollars and time wisely. Make sure the special author math works to your advantage, so we can all pay our special cable math bills.

by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

My name is Kim and I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I yell at my new cell phone when I can’t figure out how to answer a phone call, then later gush in amazement when the digital photo I uploaded to Costco prints as a fabulous poster. Welcome to digital ditzy.

One of the main reasons I changed to an Android phone, besides the fact Blackberry was sinking, is I wanted to use the Square. www.square.com For those not in the know, the Square is this fabulous little white cube you plug into a smart phone or iPad. (Not a Blackberry) Square processes credit cards, charges you a small fee, then delivers money in your bank account the next day. Nirvana for those of us with BORS (back of room sales) for physical books.

I read business news to see what other digital developments might help make me more moola. An announcement that Starbucks will be taking mobile payments from Square at their 7,000 corporate-run stores in November perked me up. Pun intended. Starbucks invested $25 million in Square in August to adopt the technology and process all its credit and debit payments.As goes Starbucks, so go I. Learning from the best includes business advice as well as writing advice. Starbucks will be using Square’s Wallet app so you can pay with your phone, no cube needed. Square also launched their online directory last Wednesday so you can find which of the 200,000 vendors use Wallet app right now; it will even point you to the closest Starbucks. A necessity for all writers.

Square was founded in 2009 by CEO Jack Dorsey, the same guy who invented that other little app, Twitter. And next summer those using the Wallet app will be able to tip their barista. Another great idea.

So while I’m having fun thinking about being an author/publisher wallet app vendor in the future who can sell ebooks anywhere in the world, I’m also keeping my eye on Mark Cuban, the “Shark Tank” guy. Cuban invested $1 million in a Portland startup company here called Little Bird. www.getlittlebird.com

“Little Bird (as in “a little bird told me…”) helps find and reach online experts on any topic. It’s aimed at marketers and others seeking to reach and communicate with people who have influence in a given community,” said The Oregonian article by Mike Rogoway on Oct. 6. Another little Portland company also kicked in some bucks, our own Wieden+Kennedy ad firm.

What better place for an author to be than up close and in tight with a Little Bird and a Square? In the spirit of business, success and “putting a bird on it,” follow the money!

by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

My web site needs to be updated. The design is old school and it has too much stuff on it. Seems I am purging stuff in all areas of my life these days, getting down to fighting weight. In my quest for a new design I unscientifically compared my favorite author’s web sites for romance fiction.

There is a wide variety of styles. It’s always easiest to compare something you can see than start from scratch. Just like writing. When all the design the possibilities overwhelmed me, I checked out Romance Writers of America’s statistics on what reader’s look for when buying a book. These were 2010 stats, but still good to know.

How do readers decide whether to buy an author’s book? The number four item for online purchase decisions was the author’s web site. Fabulous report, RWA always knows the fiction business. Read here http://www.rwa.org/cs/readership_stats  One needs to be a member to get the latest stats.

Since RWA does the survey every year, I can’t wait for the next results. With things moving so fast in the publishing biz these days, six months is eons. But it reinforces the importance of not only having, but liking your author website.

My web site went online in 1997. I’ve changed it over the years from writing code to now having a wordpress.com blog I want to incorporate into my site. I need easy and quick. In order to incorporate my blog, I had to switch to a Unix platform; that is about as much as I know about it or even want to discuss computer tech.

So this past weekend I copied all my code and content in preparation for this next project. I’ve got my new web site themes narrowed down to a few, so all I have to figure out is what is going back on the site and what is cut. Somehow it always comes back to editing. There will be some glitches along the way too, I’m sure.

Since I have both non-fiction writing books and fiction romantic suspense books in development, a single web site gets complicated. Nora Roberts uses two names and two web sites, but I don’t quite have her income, so one web site for me.

In the end I want an easy, fun, entertaining and classy site. Like Audrey Hepburn. Figure this will only take about 10 years to accomplish.  Stay tuned…..

by Kimberly A. Cook        (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

In the grand attempt to balance our lives and writing, it seems writing falls to the back burner quite easily. Is this because we don’t give it a high priority or are we all doing too much?

Carving time from our busy lives when day jobs, volunteer work, kids, pets, in-laws, parents, spouses, friends and telemarketers want a piece of us, creates tension. Not a good kind. It’s like my yearly mantra with my friend Carol, “Next year we’re going to get organized.” Twenty-five years later we’re still not organized, but we’re ever hopeful.

One must block time to get organized and stay organized. There goes writing down the slippery slope again until we get organized. And then last week I decided to lower my tv cable bundle bill and switch to a new cell phone company. NOBODY has enough time for what that requires. I can buy a car faster than switch cell phone carriers, by a good hour with minutes to spare.

Let’s say we actually get our book or article written, edited and ready to go. I publish using Print-On-Demand. So even when we survive the indie publishing swamps and make it to the other side, then the other combat boot drops.

When a new writer looks at all the marketing today’s authors need to do to promote our wares, a sane writer goes back into her cave and doesn’t come out. Ever. Social media can be a blessing, curse and huge time suck. (I spent two hours on Saturday merrily picking photos for Pinterest, so trust me on this.)

Do I do too much? Yes. It’s the bright shiny thing problem for us right brains. Squirrel! Am I trying to change? Yes. Will I get organized and have a calm life? One can hope. A buddy at my volunteer job thinks I am the most organized person he knows. Egad. The rest of you are in big trouble.

Writing I enjoy. For me editing is like getting my teeth cleaned and a mammogram at the same time. So what gets me editing? Bribes. I resorted to a pinky swear promise with a co-worker at the day job last Thursday. I swore to actually do more editing on the second edition of my non-fiction book titled Writing War Stories. So when late Saturday night rolled around and I’d done everything but that, including rearranging my patio furniture and rose garden, I bribed myself.

Sunday morning I drove 30 miles to the Huckleberry Festival in Welches, Oregon. Bought my gallon of picked huckleberries and a cookbook, ate huckleberry pancakes and drove back home. Then I edited for three hours. Yes! Sometimes all the goal setting, planning, want, drive, organizing and passion just doesn’t do it. Whatever it takes, find your bribe and get ‘er written.