by Elizabeth S. Craig,
@elizabethscraig
I’m not going to say that all writers are a
little foggy when it comes to the business side of writing. But I will say that
many writers are tentative when it comes to business.
I’m one of those writers. I read a lot (a lot) of
articles on the business end of publishing. If there’s a post on taxes and
writers, I’m reading it. A series on decoding contracts and royalty
statements? I’m all over it.
Still…it’s tough. One reason it’s tough is because I have an
agent that handles the business end. And that’s a poor excuse for me not to
follow what’s going on, so I’ve been trying to bring myself up to
speed.
Every few months, I’ve gotten notices from my agent about
different things that have happened with editions of my books—last week I heard
that one of my books was selected for a book-of-the month club. I hear about
audio editions being made, about large-print editions, and foreign editions of
some titles.
What do I have to do with any of these deals? Absolutely
nothing. I did have to approve of the book-of-the-month club arrangement (not
sure why my okay was needed). I wasn’t even aware these deals were in the works
until they were all arranged.
Now I’m branching off and doing self-publishing as well as
traditional, and I’m realizing I need to pay more attention. I started
by asking myself some questions:
Why haven’t I arranged any print editions for my self-published
books?
Why haven’t I checked into creating audio books?
Why do I have one of my books available solely on Nook and
Kindle?
What can I do to broaden my exposure on Amazon UK and into other
overseas markets? Why haven’t I addressed this so far?
The answer to most of the questions is: because
I don’t have any time. :) This is compounded by the fact that I’m not sure
what I’m doing—and it will take a little time to figure out how to approach
these different areas.
I think if I put this stuff down on my to-do list, break it down
into manageable steps, and lump it in with my promo time each day I can start
branching out a little bit more.
And there are resources available to learn more. (And
you can find many more by searching on the Writer’s Knowledge
Base.)
Audio book info:
On “The Writing Bomb” blog: “Creating Audio Books is Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy”
On “Writer’s Fun Zone” : Making Audio Books From Your Novels
On “The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing”: How Does Audio Book Narration Work?
Multiple Sources of Writing Income (Expanding our
Markets)
Dean Wesley Smith’s blog: Killing the Sacred
Cows of Publishing: You Can’t Make Money Writing Fiction
The Tribal Writer blog: How a writer (or other creative) can develop multiple sources of revenue,
part two
Print On Demand (Print Copies of Our Ebooks):
Dean Wesley Smith’s blog: The New World of
Publishing: Reasons for a Trade Paper Edition
Bob Mayer’s blog: Why is Cool Gus Publishing switching from Lightning Source to
CreateSpace?
Let’s Get Digital: Making Money From Paperbacks
Blood Red Pencil: Which is Right for You – Lightning Source, CreateSpace, or
Both?
What’s on your to-do list that isn’t particularly creative or is
completely business-related? How do you make time to knock them out?
Image—MorgueFile—mconnors
Elizabeth – That’s one of the things I really respect about you; you try to keep up with the business end of your writing as well as the creative part. It’s not easy! Thank you very much for the links, too; I need to learn more – much more – about those things, and I might’s well start.
As to what I plan to do that’s more ‘business-y?’ I’m looking into getting my print books in e-format.
Too much to do. :)
Thanks so much for the links.
t
There are so many options, it’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. Some things just require more work than we have time for.
I was whining to husband this morning about not having time. I do have print editions, and I’ve been thinking about audio books. Thanks for including those audio links! I’m like you in not knowing all the ins and outs of these things. I think it’s learning by the seat of my pants.
People underestimate the learning curve. It’s not just a matter of reading something and saying “Oh, I’ll do that!”
There’s a lot of practice and messing around to get past before you really can do something cleanly and without wasting time.
I’m finishing up one book now—on the final proof, to format and release this week—and once that’s done, I’ll finally be having both a sequel in one of my series & print versions of the two novels in that series.
I have another in-progress series that I’ll worry about getting in paperback when I finish that novel’s sequel.
And I have a third series that’s more short stories, and that one I made up the print book, but I’m not sure about the cover. I might redo that one. That short story series, I’m saving to convert to audio. I’m also looking into how to translate it into Spanish, because from what I’ve read of Spanish literature, I suspect they’ll be more popular there.
But my major projects at the moment are #1 and then compiling some non-fiction to sell. :)
It’s exciting to hear about audio books and foreign rights! I know my rights to a ‘large print’ edition sold, but so far, that is the only unusual one. The idea of learning the business end terrifies me, too.
Hi Elizabeth, congratulations!
Thank you for all the links. I’m going to save this post and check out them when I have more time. I’m also going to add the link to this post to my post of yesterday … great stuff on here, as usual.
Kathy M.
Margot–No, it’s definitely not easy. And I’ve made some mistakes along the way (putting DRM on one of my ebooks wasn’t the best of moves.) But I learn from my mistakes!
Good for you for e-pubbing!
Diane–And I think it’s a little discouraging that it changes so quickly.
Teresa–There is, isn’t there? Hope the links help. The nice thing is that I don’t think most of this stuff costs much to do.
Carradee–You’ve got a lot going on!
I’m thinking making print editions is probably priority #1 on my list.
Translation! Another area to address.
You know, non-fiction is on my list to write, too. It sometimes seems really appealing, when I’m busily making things up, to just deal with FACTS.
Hart–It’s not an area I’m great at, that’s for sure. And…I’m sure you’ll be seeing some of these odds and ends sales soon, too!
Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy–Thanks so much, Kathy! And I hope you’ll find them useful. :)
I don’t have a clue! I just keep doing what I’m doing.
Carol–Yeah, I think that’s the way we all are. But, if it makes you feel better, it looks as though audio is one of the easier things to learn about. Like…almost TOO easy. I think you just pay a place and then you promote your audio release…that’s basically it.
Alex–That’s an approach that’s working well for you!
The Daring Novelist–The learning curve is pretty steep. For me, I just find qualified people and outsource some of it (formatting, editing, covers, etc.)
Right now, everything that I do besides writing seems like it’s a time-suck/time-waste while I’m doing it. It’s only later (like 4 or 5 months later) that there’s any kind of payoff. The payoff, though, *is* worth it. At least, it has been so far.
Something to bear in mind: Not all techniques for writing good fiction translate the same way into writing good non-fiction.
For example: In fiction, it’s often best to have some variety to how you describe things. In non-fiction, it’s often best to describe things in comparable ways, to avoid confusing readers who try to figure out what the significance is of your changed phrasing.
The first non-fiction piece I’ll release will be built out of a post series I ran on my blog, with some revision, expansion, etc.
Just sharing that to maybe help you get some ideas. :)
Carradee–I think you’re right…and my non-fiction would be very rusty. I started out working in journalism/small magazines, but that was in the early 90s. I think writing about writing would be the best/smartest way for me to approach non-fic.
This is an important post. I’m going to save it. Thanks for sharing all these great resources.
Thanks, Mary!
I’m totally bookmarking this post. That whole side of things intimidates the heck out of me!