Letters from the Company

I have to admit to still being in a bit of shock.

After ten years of concentrating primarily on our pub review website fancyapint.com, my founding partner and I have left. We knew there was a possibility of this happening after three years – we had good contracts that got us through the worst of the recession and paid us very well. But I guess we always thought that wouldn’t happen to us.

Well, it did.

We built the site from the ground up in the mid-nineties, scrounging server space where we could when it was still ridiculously expensive, making detailed notes of all our favourite pubs along the way. Fancyapint Ltd was incorporated in 1999, and we had a business. It didn’t do a lot for the first few years, being one of those hobby sites that sprung into being at that time, while we worked for the man (BT – oh, British Telecommunications plc, for those across the pond – the phone company) and did the site in our spare time.

Voluntary redundancy beckoned in 2002, so we decided to put our money where our mouth was and thought we could pay the bills with web consultancy while we developed the site. And it did okay.

Hey we were geeks, not businessmen

So it trundled along, developed a loyal following – and I mean loyal – and there was never quite enough consultancy work or enough revenue from the site.

In 2008 we were approached with a buy offer and we didn’t think too long about it. We said yes and the rest is the proverbial.

I’m not going into the ins and outs of our time under the new man – buy me a beer sometime and I might tell you what happened, but not here. Lets just say it’s not been that much fun.

So what do I do now?

Well, I can do anything.

Maybe it’s the kick in the pants my writing needs. Or I could do web consultancy again (like I ever stopped). Then there’s the small publisher schtick, ebooks are all the rage…

I don’t know exactly what I’m doing next, but there’s lots of options. And I don’t think it’s going to be boring!

My taste for nostalgia only goes so far.

I was eating my wife’s homemade pulled pork last night (very nice it was, too) and trying to remember where I used to get pulled pork in the ghetto I lived in over 20 years ago in Washington D.C. Most of my friends lived in and around Adams Morgan, just north of Dupont Circle in NW (northwest, as all the Washington areas are quartered into NW, NE, SE, SW).

But that’s not the point. In the course of reminiscing with some of those friends, one of them posted a link to an article about a riot that took place just over 20 years ago in my neighbourhood, Mount Pleasant.

I’d say there are some uncanny correlations between what happened then and what’s happening now in the UK (it’s spread from London, if you haven’t heard yet).

It was Cinco de Mayo, a Sunday, and an important Mexican holiday, so people were celebrating. It was warm as I recall; being D.C. this means humid, too.

The way the story goes, a rookie female police officer told a Salvadoran man, who didn’t speak a word of English, to get rid of his beer or whatever it was. Officially, he resisted and pulled a knife on her so she shot him in the chest. Unofficially, apparently he went to take his belt off because drunk Salvadorans fight with their belts (who knew?).

Unlike the spark that set off our current riots, he did survive. But that’s not the whole story.

According to the article, some 85,000 Latino immigrants lived in the Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights area, a number of whom had fled civil wars in Central and South America. This doesn’t surprise me as I lived next door to a Latino community centre and my friend Julia and I were the only white people living in our building at the time.

I called it a ‘ghetto’ because none of us had money, we were just surviving, working to live. I always figured I never had any problems in the neighbourhood due to the fact everyone knew about the crazy white guy that lived in a mostly black and Latino-occupied building.

Anyway, the police heavy-handedness sparked two days of chaos: burned out police cars littered our neighbourhood’s streets, more than 30 (mostly local) businesses were attacked and looted. I think the only chain we had at that time was 7-eleven, so it’s hardly like they were protesting global capitalism. And I got my first whiff of tear gas (which begs the question: do they use tear gas in the UK? I think it’d change a few minds about rioting if they did! Or water cannon.).

Does any of this sound familiar? A very poor neighbourhood, bad (or at the very least, careless) police behaviour and whoosh the touch-paper is lit. What seems to be much more distressing here is the fact that we’re in a global meltdown where the most disadvantaged are being even more disadvantaged by the fat cats with the financial sector’s hands up their backsides (What? You think politicians run things? Judging by the last two years, the banks run things, resisting any moves to regulate or control them, but I digress.)

Oh, but it was different back then, Rodney King had just been beaten up on the six o’clock/ten o’clock news, Good Morning America, etc. and things were just waiting to explode. I don’t think so. I liked it where I lived. People spoke to each other. Football from South America played on the telly in the laundrette. You could get all varieties of Latin American food or soul food and I seem to remember a Spanish restaurant, too.

By all reports Tottenham, where this all started, was a good community, too. Decades of work by people to make things better had made it a place that got along, a prime example of the multi-culturalism mostly working in modern-day Britain. But now it’s got a burnt-out heart and upset people. The authorities are decrying the looting and violence and, as usual, taking no responsibility for the root causes of the problem.

No surprises there. I’ve been half-expecting diatribes against single mothers again now the Conservatives have taken back power with the collusion of the so-called ‘Liberal’ Democrats. Successive governments have created the economic and social situation we now find ourselves in and none of them are willing to take responsibility for their actions — or to try and make it better.

The best quote I’ve seen so far was retweeted by Cory Doctorow overnight: “Needs repeating: you can utterly abhor the actions, but the causes cannot be ignored.”
But like those single mothers of the last Tory government, they probably will as the authorities are more concerned what this looks like with the World coming to London next year for the Olympics.

State of the publishing nation, pt 3

There’s a lot of controversy over ebooks – particularly among publishers and published authors who a) already have a book deal and b) depend on royalties.

The controversy mostly stems from the people who are pricing their books for the very low price of $0.99 or lower. Some people have made a lot of money doing this (see John Locke who’s sold over a million copies of his ebooks), but they have to sell a hell of a lot of books. And as with hardbacks and paperbacks, not everyone is going to sell a million copies, regardless of how cheap it is. There’s also a lot of crap published now, but more on that later.

In terms of publishing, traditional publishers cannot afford to charge that little for an ebook version of their author’s books. It’s simple and I can see their point. Not unsurprisingly, they’re worried about their physical sales.

I was at a Time Out event this week called “Thriller Night” – no, not a Michael Jackson tribute night – where Tess Gerritsen, Simon Kernick and Mark Billingham discussed their writing and getting started. At one point, Tess dropped the comment that she’d had a novel optioned by Hollywood for a $1million. She’s not poor, by any stretch.

What was more interesting was that she reckons last year more than 50% of sales of her books were ebooks. Tess also thinks that those sales are eating into sales of her paperbacks, but not affecting hardback sales. Her new book (Kindle version) is priced at $12.41 on Amazon.com and £7.69 on Amazon.co.uk, hardcover $16.37/£8.54, which is approximately the same price at current exchange rates.

Right, simple math says she has to sell a lot fewer copies of her books to get her royalties than John Locke with his $0.99 specials. The next question is how likely is it at this price? Personally, it would have to be one of my favourite authors or a book I was desperate to read before I’d pay that kind of price. I tend to have an upper limit of £4.99 or just over $8.00 for an ebook generally. And from the Indie publishing side of the fence, that’s a fair price.

I don’t price mine that high (although I seem to have gremlins mucking about with the prices on Amazon at the mo). As I’m an ‘Indie’ publisher I think pricing my ebooks at $3.45 or £2.99 is a reasonable deal (just realised I’m undercharging in dollars – drat!) for something that has cost me nothing to produce beyond my time and the costs of editing and producing a cover.

Complications and predjudices

What is an issue is a general perception of the people who publish their books for $0.99. “They’re trolls who can’t write for shit, hence they can’t get a REAL publisher to look at their book*” is the vibe I get from traditionally published authors. In fact Mark Billingham basically said all $0.99 ebooks are crap and whatever you do as an aspiring author DO NOT go down that route because you’ll be crap too and you’ll never get back. Gee, thanks Mark.

He’s not totally wrong about what’s out there. I recently received a handful of books via LibraryThing’s member giveaways which is a way for new authors to get their work out there and get some reviews/publicity at the same time. Of the six or so books I received, about 50% of them were dire. I’m not being malicious and I’d hardly criticise anyone for something I’m guilty of myself.

The simple fact is the bad ones could have used an editor. The others were polished, professional books that I’d be happy to pay for. The crap ones made me angry. So I can see Mark’s point. Like Desk Top Publishing did for printed material in the ‘90s, self-publishing has lowered standards across the board and we have to depend on the public to ascertain what’s good and what’s bad. Gasp!

But at the same time, the reviews and comments appearing on Goodreads, LibraryThing or Amazon are starting to reflect this, one of the most common I see being: “this book needs an editor”.

I resent Mark’s lumping me into the same category as the rest as I work damn hard to make sure my books are of a professional quality and get the attention the readers expect – no, that I expect – from a book. But at the same time, I suspect his repulsion is fear of losing sales to a medium he doesn’t know. And that’s a problem that pervades the traditional publishing sector.

They just don’t get it.

Next time: No one understands the pricing models

*All three authors admitted that publishing deals are mostly about luck – if that’s true, self-publishers are trying to eliminate games of chance from their publishing experience.

What the traditional publishers don’t seem to have noticed – the rules of publishing and getting published are changing and becoming more fluid all the time. This follows on from my post last week about the state of publishing – well, I wrote it at the same time, it was just too much!

The internet changed all the rules

I think this is the critical bit that the traditional publishers have missed. They may be getting it now, but their thinking about how electronic vs paper works is still on the skew-whiff side of things. I mean, come on, how likely am I to pay £10.99 (around $17.99) for an ebook when the paper version is available on Barnes and Noble or Amazon for £5.59?

One of the strengths any independent has, be it film maker, musician, artist or author, they can get their work out now. Not in 12 months time, not in two years, but now. That immediacy is working against the traditionals and they’re suffering for it. There’s still an idea amongst some of the TV, book and movie producers that the old ways are best – we’ll release our new TV programme in the U.S. first, then maybe Britain, then we’ll see. Newsflash: it doesn’t work!

As soon as they release a new series in the U.S., if it doesn’t have immediate (or nearly) release elsewhere, it’ll be available via the internet within hours of broadcast.

“But that’s not fair!” they shout. Why? This is the 21st century, film reels don’t have to travel across the sea on a boat, now do they? And the smart ones are releasing new series on both sides of the Atlantic either on the same day or within 24 hours as HBO did recently with the new series Game of Thrones.

Publishers need to have the ebook ready when the print one is published if Amazon’s Kindle stats are anything to go by. I can do that. I produce my ebook versions as well as the print version. I’m still learning how, so apologies for anyone with a dodgy copy (I’ll replace it with a newer version, just drop me a line).

And I don’t understand people like J.K. Rowling refusing to allow ebook versions of their books due to concerns over piracy. What? Does she really need another castle/yacht/private jet? Another newsflash: it’s already too late! They’re already out there!

Here’s the text of my guest post on Just One More Paragraph – thanks Theresa for a great time and fantastic questions in my interview!

That title has probably put you off already – a lot of people read ‘indie’ and substitute ‘vanity’ or ‘crap’ or worse. And probably with good reason in some cases, as a lot of independently published books don’t stack up against offerings from traditional publishers.

Notice I said ‘a lot’, not ‘all’. More on that later.

What does it really mean, indie vs traditional publisher?

I read a lot of writer blogs, publishing pages and twitter posts from authors (too many, according to my wife), musicians and creative types. A lot of them say the same thing, but there are some common themes. Things like Kickstarter and just internet viral word of mouth are proving to be great tools for anyone wanting to drum up support for a new book or project – it’s amazing what you can get money for via Kickstarter! But that’s not my point, the point is nothing’s changed here.

You heard me, getting people to buy books is the same as it always was: it’s about getting bums on seats, getting the reviews and making sure potential readers have access to what you’re selling. All that’s changed is some of the mediums we as authors use to get those messages across.

I’ve been traditionally published (twice) and have published two of my own novels myself. (Don’t groan, I’m working hard not to be one of the indies that gives the rest of us a bad name). I laid out both books myself – having a print design background wasn’t a total waste of time – I got my covers designed and I’ve had the contents edited by someone else, although one is better for that than the other. That done, I’ve organised printing and distribution, electronic versions of both books and then concentrated on getting exposure.

The experience from the publishing end is different but similar: our traditional publisher sorted out the cover, edited both books and printed copies of them, sent out a press release and… wait, that’s about it. But that’s the point, they produce a FINISHED article to a certain standard that’s expected of them – many indies don’t manage that.

Besides the finished product, a point I know a lot of people miss: getting a publisher doesn’t mean there’s less work to do; there’s exactly the same amount of work, unless you’re James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell or Stephen King (and lets be honest, their names do all the work). No one promotes your book but YOU whether you’re an independent publisher or land that dream book deal.

Talent wins out – and hard work

When I suggested this as a topic for my guest blog, Theresa replied with this comment:
“One thing I hear among bloggers is that they don’t like reviewing vanity or indie books because they are either awful or the authors don’t want anything besides glowing reviews.”

It’s true. Most wannabe writers are unrealistic in their expectations and while a HEALTHY belief in one’s abilities is important, I know a great many are crushed when the reaction is not the ‘glowing review’ they expect from their favourite blog (go read the review and comments of a recent high profile crash and burn – it’s enlightening). And while everyone may have a book in them, I don’t necessarily want to read it.

I learned a long time ago – over 25 years ago, now – if you do anything creative you have to develop a thick skin. The simple fact is: not everyone’s going to like what you do. That’s fine, because it’d be a very strange and boring world if we all liked the same things, regardless of what you believe about “popular” culture.

Sadly, a lot of indie authors are buying the X-Factor/American Idol model of life: basically, “I’m going to write a book and it’ll be a best seller over night!” Reality check: it just doesn’t happen that way (for most people). I think one of the most depressing things to hear a kid say today is “I want to be famous!” That may be, but they don’t want to do the work involved to get there, either.

I mentioned Stephen King earlier and he’s a prime example. It took him a lot of years and a lot of work to become a household name. A lot of people forget (or choose to ignore the fact) he published short stories in the likes of Playboy magazine and lived on his wife’s income while he wrote. Hey, there are no shortcuts – writing is work!

I know she’s been in the press a lot recently, but Amanda Hocking is a good example of getting it right in the digital age. She’s very good at getting her message out there, but she can also write. It’s not just that people knew about her, she also managed to reach and connect with her audience – the difficult bit. And she’s not afraid to put in the hours it takes to get something done.

Advice for writers

Here’s the advice bit for anyone considering the self-publishing route: the biggest complaint I (and many, many others) have is about editing your final manuscript. No matter how good you think you are, you CAN’T edit it yourself. GET AN EDITOR. At the very least, you’ll get an outside perspective from someone without any axes to grind or sucking up to do. And they’ll fix those troublesome commas and apostrophes, too.

Last bit of advice. Writing the book is only half the battle – maybe a third – the rest is about getting people to read it. My favourite J.G. Ballard quote is apropos here:
“Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it.”

But…

That’s not the whole story with the indies; I’d say there’s a good portion of indie publishers who are getting it right, an attractive (DESIGNED) cover, good story that shows it’s been tightened up and any sloppy bits sorted out before it’s unleashed on the public.

Cory Doctorow at the London Book Fair told how he’s offered a ‘bounty’ on spelling mistakes in his books. With the benefits of digital publishing, if you spot a spelling mistake in one of his books, he’ll correct it and footnote the contribution with your name and date. It’s a great idea and one I might ‘borrow’.

So give the indies a chance. Yes there’s dreck out there – but that was there before, it was just published by the traditional publishing houses. There’s still a lot of gems to uncover, too, I’m just going to be careful where I step…