Show Me the Money

The Guardian reports in a lengthy piece today that more established authors are thinking about self-publishing their work in the wake of such high-profile deserters of traditional publishing as JK Rowling, Barry Eisler, and John Edgar Wideman.  it all comes down to dollars and sense, as my friend Barry told them:

Thriller novelist Barry Eisler turned down a reported $500,000 from St Martin's Press to go his own way. "The key dynamic at work in self-publishing is legacy publishers' loss of their lock on distribution," he says. "It used to be that if you wanted to distribute your book in meaningful numbers, you needed a partner with a sales force, and relationships with wholesalers, retailers, and printing presses. Digital has changed that. Before, the question that had to be asked by a would-be self-published author was, 'How will I distribute?' It used to be that there was no good answer. Today, digital has definitively answered it. The question for a would-be self-published author now is just, 'How will I market?' And that question has a lot of available answers." 

[…]The thriller author is an interesting case. After turning down the St Martin's deal to self-publish, he subsequently signed up to a one-book deal with Amazon for a six-figure sum, but will continue to self-publish other titles. The way he explains it, the numbers make sense. 

"To understand what the traditional advance really represents, you have to break it down. Start by taking out your agent's commission: your $500,000 is now $425,000. Then divide that $425,000 over the anticipated life of the contract, which is three years (execution, first hardback publication, second hardback publication, second paperback publication). That's about $142,000 a year. This is a more realistic way of looking at that $500,000," he says. 

"But there's more. Some people have mistakenly argued that, for my move to make financial sense, I'll have to earn $142,000 a year for three years. But this is one time when you don't want to be comparing apples to apples. Because the question isn't whether I can make $425,000 in three years in self-publishing; the question is what happens regardless of when I hit that number. What happens whenever I hit that point is that I'll have 'beaten' the contract, and then I'll go on beating it for the rest of my life. If I don't earn out the legacy contract, the only money I'll ever see from it is $142,000 per year for three years. Even if I do earn out, I'll only see 14.9% of each digital sale thereafter. But once I beat the contract in digital, even if it takes longer than three years, I go on earning 70% of each digital sale forever thereafter." 

Barry just took a deal to publish his book THE DETACHMENT through Amazon's new imprint, Thomas & Mercer, but that's because they offered him a total rethink of the typical author contract. He says:

[…]"Amazon offered me the best of both worlds, legacy and indie. The advance and marketing muscle you (might) get in a legacy contract; the kind of digital royalties, creative control, and time-to-market you get with indie". So he's giving up "something like 20% or 30%" of his digital retail channels, but he's gaining Amazon's "marketing muscle" – "and if Amazon blows out the marketing for The Detachment, [his current and future self-published books] will benefit enormously".

JK Rowling, meanwhile, is self-publishing the ebook versions of her HARRY POTTER novels, but is going one bold step further… she's cutting out booksellers… brick-and-mortar and e-retailers…entirely.

She's going to sell the books through her own storefront. She stands to make millions more than she would have if she'd let a publisher or e-retailer release her ebooks. Instead of splitting the royalties with anyone…she's taking them ALL for herself.

This is a very compelling model…one I wouldn't be surprised to see other "franchise" authors like James Patterson, Stephen King, Janet Evanovich, or Michael Connelly try in the very near future.

The changes in the publishing world are happening with astonishing speed…and, for once, they are favoring authors more than corporations…at least for now.

More Good Stuff

Top Suspense Remaindered My short story REMAINDERED is now available as a standalone  on the Kindle and the Nook…and this special edition includes a link that will take you to a private, streaming video of the movie version of the tale: 

Kevin Dangler is a once-famous author desperate to regain his lost glory while traveling the back-roads of middle America, selling remaindered, fifth-editions of his first book out of the trunk of his car. When he meets a woman who loves his work, he believes she might be his salvation…or perhaps his nightmare.

This story was an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice finalist and has previously appeared in the anthologies "Three Ways to Die" and "Top Suspense." 

But wait, there's more…

DIE LOVER DIE, a Top Suspense short story, is now available on the Kindle and the Nook for just 99 cents. It's 10,000 words of non-stop action, violence and sex…a wild ride like nothing else you've read before…from twelve masters of suspense, who teamed up to write this rollicking story 250 rapid-fire words at a time, tag-team style, without an outline, without knowing what was coming next. The result is a pure, literary adrenaline rush:

401 Top Suspense ecover Die Lover Die_4

Lauren Blaine is on the run…fleeing across the country, pursued by a pack of ruthless, skilled, and psychopathic killers. That's because she's dumped her husband and he hasn't taken it well. Of course, he might have taken it better if he wasn't a major drug dealer with a gale-force temper… and if she hadn't run off with all of his cash. Now she's marked-for-death, a moving target for every mercenary, hitman, and sadist in the midwest. What they don't know is that Lauren is nobody's victim… she's a resourceful, brave, and cunning woman who won't go down without a fight.

All the Cars I Have Owned

This is not a collection that's going to make Jay Leno, or anybody else, envious. 

1. 1978 Chevette (My first car. Later burst into flames at Big Bear Lake in 1982 and had to be sold for scrap)

1978-chevette-1
2. 1982 Sentra (I later gave it to my sister Linda, who once saw gang members using it for cover during a shoot out in Venice. I think my brother Tod may also have owned the car for a while.)

Ad_nissan_sentra_4949_brown_sedan_1982
3. 1987 Honda Accord (A fine car. I'd only owned it a few months when I was rear-ended in a traffic jam by a Swedish diplomat without a driver's license or insurance.  My front and back end were smashed, since the force of the impact slammed my Accord into the car in front of me. The Swedish guy immediately proclaimed that he had "diplomatic immunity" and was not responsible for the damages. He was right. My insurance company covered the costs).

Honda Accord Ad 19874. 1988 Corolla FX (my wife's first car in the U.S. She's from France. I learned to drive a stick with this car)

800px-Toyota_Corolla_FX16_GT-S_front
5.  1990 Miata (I still own it. Only 60K miles on the odometer, since we only drive it a few times a month, usually on weekends, when its really nice out.  The car looks as good today as it did then. But I just had to replace the transmission, which was inexplicably fried despite the low miles.)

1990-98-Mazda-Miata-96807091990101
6.  1984 Mercedes SL  (I bought this from my grandfather in 1992 with only 30K miles on the odometer. It was a Christmas present for my wife, who coveted my Miata.  We still own it and it's in mint condition. Just crossed 100K on the odometer. It's my car now. My accountant would like me to get rid of it…thinks it costs way too much to maintain. But we have a huge sentimental investment in the car)

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7. 1995 Volvo 960 Wagon (We bought this when my daughter was born, since all we had were two two-seat convertibles and no place for a third person…)

960 volvo
8. 1999 Mercedes  SLK. (…so, naturally, I got another convertible. For a while, we had three convertibles and one station wagon. For a family of three. How dumb is that? It was the most troublesome car I've ever owned. Everything went wrong with that damn car. After three years, I sold it to my sister Karen, who later sold it to her sister-in-law)

1999.mercedesbenz.slkclass.7195-E
9. 2000 Mercedes ML  (It replaced the Volvo. We still own it and have 175K on the odometer. Still looks and runs great. This is my wife's car now — by her own choice — and she loves it. I've inherited her SL) 

Mercedes_1999-ML320-001_2

10. 2004 Lexus ES (I leased this for three years so we'd have more than one "family" car instead of an SUV and two 2-seat convertibles. I loved it but it spent more time in the garage than on the road since I was mostly working in Canada and Europe during the lease period, so I let it go).

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Our next car will probably be something for my daughter, who turns 16 in July…or we'll give her the ML and buy a new "family car."

Rerun: 25 Random Things About Me

(From January 2009

I've lost count of how many people have tagged me for this "25 Random Facts About Me" meme. So here goes:

Chevy_chevette_red_1979 1. When I was a pre-schooler in Oakland CA, I ran away from home, showed up at the door of the Mormon temple, and asked if Shirley could come out to play.

2. I'm a Lee Hazlewood fan.

3. I had a girlfriend who was an editorial assistant at Playgirl. I honed my skills writing sex scenes by writing fake "Letters to the Editor" for $25 each. 

4. My favorite BBQ place is It's In the Sauce in Ventura, Ca. 

5. When I'm sick, I like to lie in bed and watch old episodes of "Gunsmoke."

6. I wrote my first novel when I was ten. It was about a superspy from the future who was born in an underwater sperm bank. I don't know why it was underwater, or how you made deposits, but I thought it was pretty cool.

7. I love Nacho Cheese Doritos.

8. My favorite James Bond movie is "Goldfinger." 

9. I've broken all but one limb…so far.

10. When I was five or six, I used to tell people my name was "Lee Beaudine." I don't know why. Lee_hazlewood

11. When I was a kid, I once threatened to send my little sister Karen to prison for picking apart my Nerf ball. She was so terrified that she gave me all the money in her piggy bank to buy her freedom. I still feel guilty about that. 

12. My middle name is Brian. 

13. The ugliest city I have ever been to is El Paso, TX. 

14. Until I was about 25, I spent two weeks every summer at Loon Lake, Washington. 

15. I love the theme to "It Takes a Thief" but I can't hum it. 

16. I had a crush on Linda Carter when I was a kid. She was my Wonder Woman. 

17. I think Harry Whittington is one of the great, unappreciated authors of noir. 

18. When I was a kid, I used to collect Wacky Packs. I thought the cards were hilarious. 

19. One of my all-time favorite books is "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. 

20. I've seen Roger Moore naked. 

21. I like to read Motor Trend and the National Inquirer on airplanes. This embarrasses my wife. 

22. I can't spell marriage, similar, or envelope. 

23. I wrote two episodes of "The New Adventures of Flipper." 

24. I once flagged down a cop on Jefferson Blvd. to alert him that a homeless man was "playing a twisted game of Russian roulette" by running into traffic. The cop actually asked me to repeat that without imitating the ABC announcer's voice. 

25. I owned a Chevy Chevette.

The Age-old Reading Fee Scheme – Updated With Correction

I just received a solicitation from Creative Nonfiction Magazine, which is looking for true-crime articles for an upcoming issue. The catch is that they require authors to pay a $20 reading fee or to buy a subscription for $25.  In return, they will award the best submission $1000. So Creative Nonfiction Magazine is, essentially, not so much a magazine seeking submissions…as it is a thinly disguised writing contest with a $20-25 entry fee.

If this was a  reputable magazine, and not a facade for a contest, money would flow from the publisher to the writer, not the other way around.  This is a scheme by a company that apparently makes its money from writers…as opposed a real publisher, who commissions work from writers and then makes its money selling the final product.  Avoid them.

UPDATE:  6-16-2011 I received the following note from the magazine:

You should've checked us out quickly online before making that erroneous judgment.

To which I replied:

I see nothing "erroneous" about it. I did check you out online. You should be ashamed of yourselves for charging a "reading fee" and/or a subscription fee to submit articles for consideration. Are you charging Ruth Reichl, Sarah Wexler, John Edge, and Phillip Lopate a reading fee? I doubt it. You must be in pretty desperate shape to be trying to make a quick buck off of writers.

To which they responded:

Anyone is welcome to submit to general submission for free. Contest entries require a reading fee, which is used to pay the prize money for the winning essay, as well as any readers and judges we have to hire to read the submissions. We sometimes have to hire readers because we have a small staff who are taken up with reading general submissions and essays for other categories. This is standard practice for literary magazines.

So I looked into it some more.  And they are right, it is standard for literary magazines to run contests that charge a reading fee. I owe them an apology on that score.

However, no where in their solicitation to me, or on their home page, do they acknowledge this is a contest. Here's the original email I received from Creative Nonfiction magazine in its entirety:

Dear Lee,

For an upcoming issue, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about true crimes—detailed reports of premeditation, follow-through and aftermath, whether gleaned from police blotters or the news, passed down as small-town legend or family lore, or committed in cold blood.

We’re interested in a variety of viewpoints and are hoping you will help us reach your audience—or will consider submitting.

We want true stories of petty theft, identity theft, embezzlement or first-degree murder; of jaywalking, selling (or maybe buying) weed or assault; of crimes and punishments and unsolved mysteries. Think "The Devil in the White City" (Larson), "In Cold Blood" (Capote) and "Iphigenia in Forest Hills" (Malcolm); or "Half a Life" (Strauss), "Lucky" (Sebold) and "The Night of the Gun" (Carr). If it’s against the law and someone—maybe even you!—did it anyway, we want to know all about it.

We’re looking for well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice. Essays can be serious, humorous or somewhere in between. Creative Nonfiction editors will award $1000 for Best Essay.

Submission guidelines: essays must be unpublished, 4,000 words maximum, postmarked by September 30, 2011, and clearly marked “True Crime” on both the essay and the outside of the envelope. There is a $20 reading fee (or send a reading fee of $25 to include a 4-issue CNF subscription–U.S. submitters only); multiple entries are welcome ($20/essay) as are entries from outside the U.S. (though due to shipping costs, the subscription deal is not valid).

Please send manuscript, accompanied by a cover letter with complete contact information including the title of the essay, word count, SASE and payment to: Creative Nonfiction Attn: True Crime 5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202 Pittsburgh, PA 15232

For more information, please visit www.creativenonfiction.org.

Thank you for your time. We appreciate any help you can provide in sharing this announcement.

All the Best,

Becky Bosshart

Editorial assistant, CNF

You'll note that they say "for an upcoming issue," not for a contest. And here is what they say on the home page of their website about the issue:

UPCOMING CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: We're always reading general submissions and queries for non-essay sections of the magazine. We'd love to see what you're working on! We're currently looking especially for Pushing the Boundaries essays—experimental work that tests the limits of the genre. (Postmark deadline: June 13). Just announced: True Crime!

You'll note that so far the word "contest" has not appeared anywhere. But if you click the link to True Crime, here's what you get:

CONTEST: TRUE CRIME

postmark deadline: September 30, 2011

For an upcoming issue, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about true crimes—detailed reports of premeditation, follow-through and aftermath, whether gleaned from police blotters or the news, passed down as small-town legend or family lore, or committed in cold blood…

That is the only point where they finally disclose that this issue is the product of a contest that's outside of their usual publication submission requirements (where no reading fee or other fees are charged). 

The problem here is two-fold. They aren't upfront that their contest is a contest…and I didn't dig deep enough before leveling a judgment. We are both at fault on this one.

Cover Story

Watch Me Die_5 One of the great things about the ebook format is that it allows you to quickly change your product to adapt to the  marketplace. I learned this lesson when I changed the covers and titles of my .357 VIGILANTE series (to THE JURY SERIES) …and sales immediately and dramatically increased as a result.

That made a big impression on me.

I have since experimented with changing the covers, and in some cases the titles, of some of my other work. Almost always, I have seen a marked improvement in sales. In fact, I recently changed the cover of the JURY SERIES again and sales of that book have more than doubled.

So I now I'm hoping to perform that same magic on THE MAN WITH THE IRON ON BADGE, perhaps most my widely acclaimed novel when it was released in hardcover a few years ago…and yet one of my weakest performing ebook titles today. I have tried changing the cover multiple times…and while that has always helped, the uptick hasn't been much. 

I think the problem is the title. It's awkward, dated, and dull.

So I have decided to take a more radical step…this time I am changing the title and the cover.

It's now WATCH ME DIE.

It's a much more active title and the cover, by Jeroen Ten Berge,  is far more vivid and compelling than any of the others. The image is taken from a key scene in the book.

I predict that sales will go way up…what do you think? Here's the evolution of the covers…

The McFarland &  Company cover for the original, hardcover edition:

MwIOB_lg
The First Kindle Edition, made by yours truly:

BADGE 3
The Second Kindle Edition, designed by Carl Graves:

GOLDBERG_Iron_On_Badge_FINAL
And, once again, the new cover by Jeroen Ten Berge:

Watch Me Die_5