Changes in Publishing and Book Sales

Publishing keeps changing and it’s hard to keep up.

First off, I want to offer a link to a recent blog I read by Kristine Katherine Rusch.

http://kriswrites.com/2016/06/22/business-musings-the-midlist-rules/

If you haven’t read it, you should. Kristine is a prolific writer who writes under several names and across genres along with her husband Dean Wesley Smith. She was editor for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction a while back. (1991-1997) They also live in Oregon, not far away from me.

A few points she makes in the blog are fascinating. She is an Indie advocate who has extensive experience in both traditional publishing and self-publishing.

The discussion starts by talking about authors making $100,000 and compares Indie authors to traditionally published authors.

She says that in the past, traditional publishers focused authors on the number of books to be sold rather than the amount of money earned over time. Authors made money on advances that were paid out over several years because they rarely earned out enough to collect royalties…her example used six years.
In the old days, the book’s launch was expected to sell the most copies right out of the gate–usually hardback, then paperback. (if the author was good enough) Rusch states that often during that first month she would sell the most books because of the hype and as time went by, sales would tail off and the book would be pulled from the bookshelves to make room for newer books.

Now, with the advent of ebooks, sales often increase over time. Ebooks stay available and, with marketing, can continue to do well. My sales in 2015 doubled over the previous year, and I’m on track to double that in 2016.

Also, she said selling several series is more profitable. Along those lines, I’m coming out with my next book World Too Far, and it will be the first in the Terran Trilogy. So, I will have two series, but they will relate to each other.

Ms. Rusch goes on to make some interesting points, comparing what it takes for an Indie author and a traditionally published author to make $100,000.

There’s math involved, but she keeps it simple. What she fails to mention are the expenses that Indie authors must now incur with book covers, hiring editors and ad sites. Traditional publishers used to bear those costs.

However, a 25% royalty for a traditionally published author is really 25% of the 70% royalty a publisher gets from an ebook on Amazon. So, 70% of say a $5.00 ebook equals $3.50, but the royalty for the author is 25% of that or around $.875. The Indie author gets the full $3.50; the traditionally published author gets $.875 per book. Traditional publishers may offer advances (or not), however, but no royalties are received until the advance is covered. And that’s only for the publisher to know when that happens.

Honestly, I’d rather have control over what my work looks like and how it’s marketed. I want to know how each book is selling at every point in time. Also, I want to control the timing of the release of my next book and not be waiting, maybe years, for the publisher’s timetable or be under a stressful deadline I might not be able to meet.

This week I’m going back to old favorites and want to suggest several series in the space opera/military genre.

A few names I have recently run across are Ryk Brown, B.V. Larson, Michael Hicks, Vaughan
Hefner, Nick Webb,and Jasper Scott. All sell on Amazon. There are others. What are your favorites?.

Specifically I want to highlight Space Carrier Avalon by Glyn Stewart. Again this was offered at a good price from an ad site and bought through Amazon. If you’re one of those readers that like the military and science details included in a good story, you might like this first book in a series.

The spaceship Avalon is the highest decorated battleship of the Castle Federation, and the oldest. Because of increased pirate raids and rumblings at the outer planets, it is making one last tour before heading off to theshipyard to be retired. Captain Blair comes on board, but it is CAG Kyle Roberts who is the main character.
The refit and refurbish uncover a number of irregularities. Stuck in a backwater area of space, the previous crew had gotten lax, and certain officers became engaged in black market selling of the more current fighter planes on board. Kyle has to ferret out the culprits and clean up the mess before they head out.

Of course, right away, Kyle and Captain Blair sense that something is wrong, and the “pirates” are more an undercover plot by the Terran Commonwealth, an old enemy, trying to defeat the Castle Federation.

The book has several strong characters and some nice battle action. Romance also blooms among officers, creating problems and touching moments. The reader is drawn in emotionally to the main characters.

The writing is engaging, but I did scan past several in depth descriptions of battle armaments and weaponry.

I didn’t realize that this was the same author who wrote Starship’s Mage until I was more than halfway through the book. I recently reported on that book and liked it also.

If you liked Ark Royal by Christopher Nuttall, this is a similar book, but is only one of a trilogy in the Castle Federation Book Series.

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A final note. Caught in Time. The first in my Alysian Series will again be offered free June 29 through July 1. If you’re registered with Robin Reads, you might see my ad on June 30.

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the sales results from Book Barbarian. For the cost of $25, I had a lot of follow-on sales. I’ll let you know how Robin Reads does.

My beautiful daughter claims that she told a number of Australians about my books who were on her cruise around that time. I had quite a number of readers go and buy the whole series package. That was exciting.

Thanks, mates!

After the US, Australia rang up the biggest sales in June. Knowing what a great sales person my daughter is, I believe her, and attribute a number of those sales to her. She interprets for the hard of hearing who evidently like science fiction and read a lot, especially on cruises.

Thanks, again for spreading the word.