Roll Them Bones: Indie versus Traditional Publishing

By: Aaron Michael Ritchey 

So Donnell Bell is to blame for this post.

No, blame me. I can take it. 

Donnell suggested I write about the benefits and drawbacks of Indie publishing versus Traditional publishing. I’ve published independent books and I’ve published through small presses (and WordFire Press, a medium-sized publishing that is gaining ground). 

One of Donnell’s many friends published through a big publisher and her readers found some typos. The friend asked her big publisher if they could be fixed, and the big publisher said, “Sorry, girlfriend. Your book is what is. We’ve moved on.” 

If the friend had Indie published, she could make the changes and re-upload. So, yeah. But before we go any further, I have to be clear. I could write FOREVER on the different avenues and mouse holes and mazes and labyrinths and bear-traps of the publishing industry. 

But I will say this…. 

In this day and age, it takes about fifteen hundred dollars to publish a book and do it right. When I say that, I mean you pay for several rounds of editing and you pay for professional cover art. You can do it cheaper, and there are no rules. You could publish your book for free and do it all yourself. Some people warn against this, but I think they’re Nervous Nellies who are terrified that people might laugh at them. Be brave. There are no rules. And if you publish junk, oh well. Lots of junky novels do really well. No one knows anything for sure.

So, if you have $1500 in the bank, and if you are willing to risk it, I say Indie publish because you have creative control, you’ll make more money, and this is the big thing: EVEN WITH A TRADITIONAL PUBLISHER YOU WILL MOST LIKELY BE DOING ALL YOUR OWN MARKETING ANYWAY!

Notice, MOST LIKELY, I emphasized in all the capital letters because if you get a huge, big, huge publisher (huge), there is a chance the will choose your book to push. If they choose your book to pour the marketing dollars into, then you’ll get a ton of help and you win! Hurrah! 

But most likely, you’ll be doing it yourself. So, dude, if you are doing all the work, why pay

some nameless corporation 90% of your total profits? And you have to jump through their hoops, follow their rules, and you become a line item on someone’s to-do list. Most likely, no one at the house will care about your book as much as you do. 

There is the whole status thing. I’m published with Random House. Look at me! 

Yes, you win the status thing and people will say your name in awe. Wow, she’s a Random House author and she has huge distribution into bookstores. Okay, but how many people are buying books at bookstores? 

I don’t know. 

So if you can afford it, and if you are willing to do the work, going Indie seems like the best bet. 

Unless… 

Unless you a can find a publisher that will “help” you market your books. 

Notice, “help” is in quotation marks. Many will promise to help and won’t. Others will do a few things and call that “help.” Warning! The level of help will vary!

I love WordFire Press because they help me market my books by setting up massive booths at comic cons where I can harass crowds until they buy my stories. And I love WordFire because really, it’s a coalition of Indie authors backed by industry professionals with the best contract I’ve seen in the publishing world. Walking away is easy. Staying is even easier.

What really makes the most sense is playing the publishing game like craps.

In craps, you have all these different bets you can make on the next roll of the dice. If it comes up a six, you’ll win. If it comes up “snake eyes,” you’ll win. If you hit boxcars, bam, winner, winner, chicken dinner. 

Placing your bet on traditional publishing is betting on the long odds, the weird roll of the dice that hits it just right. Yeah, you might get screwed on a cover, and you might have typos, and you might have issues, but you can manage some of that. Every single time I’ve worked with a publisher, I’ve used my own line editors along with the one the house provided, to make sure my document is as clean as possible. And I went in with open eyes. I’ve talked with other authors at the publishing house and learned what their experience was. 

I will say this, if you find a small press that will publish your book and they don’t offer any kind of marketing, what’s the point of publishing with them? You can do it yourself. Email me. I’ll set you up with my vendors. If you have $1500 to spend. 

So there are no easy answers. Being a hybrid author, independent and traditional, makes good sense. I get to place lots of bets for every roll of the dice. 

And the querying process is good for my spirit. It keeps me hopeful and it keeps me strong.

If you want an easier industry, I’d go into health supplements. You’ll make more and it’s easier. But if you love stories, if you are called to write books, then you have a duty to get those books out into the world. 

By any means necessary.

About the Author: Aaron Michael Ritchey is the author of The Never Prayer, Long Live the Suicide King, and Elizabeth’s Midnight. His fourth novel, Dandelion Iron, the first book in The Juniper Wars series, is available now from Kevin J. Anderson’s WordFire Press. If you like the first one, Killdeer Winds, the second book in the series, just hit the streets. In 2015, his second novel won the “Building the Dream” award for best YA novel, and he spent the summer as the Artist in Residence for the Anythink Library. He lives in Colorado with his wife and two ancient goddesses of chaos posing as his daughters.

For more about him, his books, and how to overcome artistic angst, visit www.aaronmritchey.com. He’s on Facebook as Aaron Michael Ritchey.

The Sex, Money, and Angst Behind Hugh Howey’s Graphs and Data Spiders

By Aaron Michael Ritchey

Okay, the writerly world has been topsy-flippin'-turvy over Hugh Howey and his analysis of the sales, customer satisfactions, and general informations (plural) taken from Amazon's database. Mostly, it concerns the Indie pub revolution and all the different kinds of authors out there. You can google it. I’ll wait. You’ve read it now, right? Well, most of the graphs I don’t understand, so I skip them and read Howey’s thoughts. I’m more of a word person than a graph person. But basically, Indie authors are doing better and taking more market share than ever before.

It’s a lot to take in. I wish I were better at graphs because I like graphs, I really do. So I decided that in my blog post this month on PPW, that I will break down the economic picture and give you graphs that I do understand.

Are you ready? Okay, this is going to get technical very fast.

Mr. Howey has an anonymous data collector which he refers to as his data spider.  I don’t have a data spider collecting the data for my analysis.  I have data aphids. They don’t spin webs, but they do flit about and live very short lives. Like my attention span.

Okay, let’s get to it.

This first graph is an easy one. It shows which kind of writers get published, and I lump both traditionally and independently published together.

I know. The graph is startling. Writers who don’t write have published 0 books. 100% of the books written are written by writers who write. I was shocked. I asked the data aphids to check the statistics again, but most of them died before they could.

Let’s look at the money and sex behind the numbers. I mean, most people are obsessed with either sex or money, finances or romances.  That’s what drives most people.  We’ll do money first, then sex.

Now, you can’t just have one graph about money, you have to have two. So here’s the next one, which is a pie graph, but that’s because I like pie:

The graphs above aren’t a big surprise.  I want a whole mess of money for writing books, really, more money that can fit on this grid.  But a hundred million dollars is about right, just so I can be comfortable. Then there is the money that others are making, like J.A. Konrath, Hugh Howey, Stephen King, those kinds of people. Not sure they are making 200 million dollars, and I was going to check with my aphids, but I couldn't catch them. Anyway, the important thing is how much money I'm making. Rats! My slice of pie isn’t even a point on the Weight Watchers system! Not even on the new Points Plus system! It’s slim.

Okay, that’s the money part. What about the romance part?

As far as I can tell, I’ve split the market after my big haircut. Some women think I look younger and sexier and some pine for my lovely locks now long gone. Only a few women want me for the books I write, but then there’s my wife, who loves and adores me. I won’t do a graph on the fact that my wife is often frustrated with me and doesn't always adore me, but you get the picture.

I’ve been writing, I’ve made some money, and I have met women who wanted me, and I’ve had some successes to be sure. But I’m not where I want to be, as the next graph explains.

I’ve written sixteen manuscripts. I’ve published two. But there are a ton of other books I want to write and publish, so I’ve not even scratched the surface.

Now, what are my options for the hundred or so books I still want to write? Well, I have a graph for that.

So my options are split. I can Indie Pub, I can go with a small press, I can go for the traditional book contract, or I can sell my soul to the devil in return for a lifetime of success and awards and an eternity of burning in hell. Hey, it’s an option. I’ve read my Goethe.

Let me be clear. This graph is controversial. I don’t mean to say that I only have to choose between one of these four options, no, as Catherine Ryan Hyde’s agent Laura Rennert pointed out in a recent blog post, we live in a time where authors can decide, book by book, what they want to do. One book I might Indie Pub (I have one of those in the works), one book I want to get out into the world through a small press (I have a bunch of those), and I have a book that might appeal to the mass market, which in turn would appeal to the big publishing houses (I have one of those). Lastly, writing any book in a sense is a Faustian deal, but we’ll talk about that in the next graph. It’s all about the benefits of writing books and getting them published:

Yes, the best benefit of publishing books is that real readers are reading my work. Real readers.  Real people. Some like it. Some don’t. Some are touched by it. Some aren’t. Some cry and write me letters and get really excited because I moved them with my story.

It’s real. It’s not a fantasy. It’s real. Yes, it’s not perfect, it’s not what I had in mind when I started out, it’s gritty, imperfect, flawed, but it’s real.

And getting to be an author? I get to do all these hard, terrifying, soul-breaking things that bring me joy, meaning, and a rich, full life. It’s a hard life, but a good one. Not for sissies, definitely. Writing and publishing books is not for sissies.

Let’s do one final graph, and this is an important one. It’s as important as the first graph in this little blog post:

Yes, that’s right. If you get your book published, either traditionally, through a small press, or independently, you will have more readers. Some people will read your unpublished book, but not many. Not many.

In summary, since if you have graphs, you have to have a summary. I write books, I publish books, by any means necessary, and what I want is a lot of stupid, selfish desire, a lot of fantasies that have nothing to do with reality. I’m at my best as a writer, as an author, as a human frickin’ being when I let go of all the bullshit I think I want, and just do the next, right thing that will benefit the world. Writing books benefits the world, whether I get the huge contract including Learjet, or if I Indie Pub and become famous, or if I Indie Pub and three people read my book.  It benefits the world. And remember that first graph? If you don’t write books, you will not get published, not by anyone.

My aphids are all dead, so I’ll end here.

Writers write. Authors get published. Some make money. Others don’t. But every book adds to the world. The end and amen.

About the Author: Aaron Michael Ritchey grew up as a garbage can for stories including way too much Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Stephen King. His debut novel, The Never Prayer, was published by Crescent Moon Press in 2012.  More recently, he has two new stories in the second and third issue of a new magazine, Fictionvale. Aaron’s next novel is a happy, little suicide book for young adults and anyone just this side of hopeless.  Long Live the Suicide King is available now!  Aaron lives in Colorado with his moviestar wife and two rockstar daughters.

One Size Fits All?

By Cindi Madsen

Ever walk into the store and see that magical One Size Fits All tag? I mean, it fits ALL? Then you put that muumuu up to yourself and you think, well, technically I can wear it, but it doesn’t exactly fit. 

I was scrolling through my Twitter feed the other day, noticing all the opinions on publishing. There’s a lot of information out there, which is awesome. I nodded at some of the good tips. But…well, I started thinking, “I’m not sure about that”, “Maybe I’m doing it wrong,” and “That’s sorta' insulting when I think about my process.” Some of the tips were from well-known agents, some from authors with agents, some from people who are writing their first books. I think they’re all valuable for different reasons, but there were a lot of opinions that were stated as fact.

Again, I’m not saying that all the tips are like that. They don’t all fit in one neat category. But I saw one about how long it should take you to write a book. And how you should/self-publish/not self-publish/market/etc. I also noticed a lot of discussion about this at PPWC. What’s so great about right now is that there are so many ways to publish: self, traditional, boutique, indie, Facebook (one line at a time - don’t actually recommend that, but hey, if it works for you…) If you want to write in more than one genre, you can. If you want to get a book on the New York Times Bestseller list, you don’t have to be published by a New York house. There’s also a group of authors they’re referring to as “hybrid authors,” both traditionally and self-published.

Before you make any decision, you want to know what you’re getting into. Big houses have different promotion plans than indie publishers. Sometimes you get more attention at the big houses; sometimes you get more in the smaller houses - the smaller fish in a big pond idea. If you publish yourself, you’ll need to do your own marketing. All of it. Unless you hire someone, which is also an option. A lot of the self-published authors that are doing so well already had a large fan-base and money to do their own promotion, just like a lot of them grow an audience and get promo help after hitting "publish" for the first time. I won’t dive into all the nitty-gritty details of all the methods. I’m just saying, don’t ever let someone tell you there’s only one way to do it, or make you feel badly if you choose another path. (How’s that for a One Size Fits All statement?) Study your options, as well as what’s working for authors in your genre. Build a support system. Keep working on your craft. As writers, we have more options than we ever have, and why wouldn’t you want that? I mean, yeah, you can throw on that floral muumuu and marvel that it fits you, your kids, and your pet dog, but is that really what you want for your book?

About the Author:  Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting, revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes this makes her a crazy person. Without it, she’d be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they’re sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She lives in Colorado with her husband and three children. Look for her YA novels, All the Broken Pieces with Entangled Publishing, and Demons of the Sun with Crescent Moon Press. More information can be found on her website: www.cindimadsen.blogspot.com.

A Tale of Two Barrys - Independent Publishing and Strawberry Ice Cream

By Aaron Michael Ritchey

We had a pocket-full of controversy at the 2013 Pikes Peak Writers Conference. What an astounding time we live in to be a writer. Oh the drama! The chances! The changes!

Barry Eisler, whom I adore, gave a rousing speech on the choices we have in this day and age. Can’t find a way into the traditional publishing machine? Independent publishing is now a very real, very viable way to get your stories out into the world. He likened the choices we have to ice cream. In the past, it was chocolate or vanilla, baby. Big press or small press. Today? Strawberry-cheesecake shuffle. Indie pub your way to success! Or diabetes.

Barry Goldblatt, whom I adore, talked about the shadow side of Barry Eisler’s talk, something that I’ve not heard before. His argument came down to this: How much should we pay for a story? Are stories just product, or are they something more?

Goldblatt pointed out that for most of history, authors didn’t make a living off their fiction. They had the day job and wrote around it. Does Amazon and the ebook revolution help with this? At first, it might appear that it does.  However, we now have free books and 99 cent books. Is that how much stories are worth? I’ll work three years of my life, sweating and bleeding, and then end up selling the product for 99 cents because the price point has been pushed down so far.

What are books worth? I’ve read some books where I wished the author had paid me, dammit. I could name some YA angel books I’ve read, but I won’t go there. And I’ve read some books that are priceless.  Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells is one of those books. I’m sipping from her Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood like it’s a fine wine. I never want that book to end.  It’s priceless, but I paid nine bucks for the ebook.

Goldblatt echoed the Donald Maas argument, that traditional publishing pushes authors and the industry to a level of quality that Indie pubbing sometimes lacks. However, that is not necessarily the case. I write for small presses, which is just Indie pubbing with a tad more support, and every book I put out into the world has to be quality because I’m building my name. And since I’m not with a big house, and since some people LOVE to find fault, I have to make damn sure I’m putting out quality books. This takes time, sweat, and blood.  Unmedicated OCD can help with that, as well.

Will I hit it big, quit my job, and buy my own jet? Who can say? Indie pubbing, traditional pubbing, both are still in many ways a lottery. I could argue Stephen King, E.L. James, and Christopher Paolini all got lucky in way or another.

But again, what are books worth? Not much, really. I now have used copies of my books on Amazon and in used book stores. I peruse the racks of the Goodwill, books, good books, worth less than a dollar. It all fades. Writing novels is just another form of Navajo sand painting. Most likely, the winds of time will wipe away my words, no matter who publishes me.

The reality is this: I will write books. My books will find a way into the world. I wrote for twenty years alone in my basement, and I can’t do that anymore. For my brief moment in this world, I will publish my books. If the industry chooses not to help me, I’ll do it myself.

I have to say this, and I’ll yell it. I AM SO GLAD I DIDN’T PUBLISH MY EARLY WORK! I wrote a half-dozen novels that, while I love, aren’t ready for prime time. However, the books I’m writing now are.

My job as a writer is not to chase after the traditional publishing industry in hopes someone, somewhere, will throw me a bone. No, my job is to write fantastic books and get them into the hands of readers by any means necessary. 

We can’t go back to the way things were before Amazon. Does this mean the death of books? Hardly. Does this mean that voices that have been silenced in the past can be heard, however meager the audience might be? Definitely.

Suzanne Wells had her first novel, Little Altars Everywhere, published by a small press. Many people in the traditional publishing industry passed on it because it didn’t play by the rules. But her work found an audience and Wells’ career exploded with the help of a book group in Texas, or so I’ve heard. Readers decided. Let the readers decide my career, if I’m to have one.

What are my books worth? What is my life worth? It’s the same question. I’ll live, I’ll write, I’ll die. To most, my life will be worth 99 cents or nothing. To me and those around me, my children, my friends, my fans, I’m so very Mastercard. Priceless, baby. How lucky I am to live in a time where I can give my priceless gift to the world.

About the Writer: YA Paranormal author Aaron Michael Ritchey has penned a dozen manuscripts in his 20 years as a writer. When he isn’t slapping around his muse, Aaron cycles to look fabulous, works in medical technologies, and keeps his family in silks and furs. His first novel, The Never Prayer, hit the streets on March 29, 2012. Most recently, his work appears in the steampunk anthology The Penny Dread Tales Volume III and in an upcoming issue of Electric Spec.

I Write Because...What Really Matters

By Rob Killam

Amid the flurry of workshops, networking, eating, and socializing that went on at Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2013, Barry Eisler's keynote speech concerning the conflict between independent publishing and traditional publishing set off a firestorm that attendees are well aware of. It shortly got to the point that Pikes Peak Writers addressed the subject on Facebook, with a post on April 23rd:

Barry Eisler’s keynote speech at PPWC on April 20 regarding digital versus traditional publishing has ignited something of a firestorm on the net. We believe this conversation has value, and we hope that it can occur with respect for both sides. Whether writers elect to self-publish, to follow a traditional publishing model, or to create a hybrid of the two, the Pikes Peak Writers Conference remains a place for education and open exchange of ideas.

While I was not in the auditorium for Mr. Eisler's speech, I've become familiar with the varying opinions on what he had to say. In order to understand my take on it, you should also know that--about a hundred yards from where the controversy started (at least at the conference)--there was a poster board on an easel. At the top of that board was the phrase "I Write Because..." Attendees were given the opportunity to write down their reason(s) for writing on a piece of paper and tape it to that board. It was a fun idea, but it also showed me something about the "publishing controversy."

Among the reasons people had for writing were:

It's therapy. (That was mine.)

I can't not write.

The blank page will win if I don't.

There were other reasons people had, but one reason never made an appearance: "I want to be published." From what I understand, Jeffrey Deaver (one of the latest James Bond novelists) makes a distinction between people who want to write, and people who want to have written. The former is what I see most often at conference; they're the folks who love writing because they love the craft. The latter are what Donald Maass calls "status seekers" in his book, The Fire in Fiction. They're the kind of people who couldn't care less about actually writing, because they just want money and fame.

I daresay that writers would write even if there was never a penny to be made for it. Of course, the fact that someone is willing to pay us for it means that we can do something we love in order to "put bread on the table," as it were. As it should be, there are any number of ways to make money writing. Some ways are more honorable (read: honest) than others, and some are definitely more successful than others. Without going into the facts and figures and statistics of it (because math makes my brain hurt), I will borrow a note from Robert Frost's poem Fire and Ice, and say that both traditional and independent publication are good.

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice.

Of course, Mr. Frost was not referring to the debate between two forms of publication when he wrote Fire and Ice, but his point stands: the world could end through both fire and ice. Similarly, writers find publication through both independent and traditional publishing. Regardless of the manner in which we choose to publish, the core standard--that which determines our worth as a writer--remains unchanged. You cannot expect to succeed as a writer for the masses if you do not start with a good story. We have standards for what a good story is, and the parameters for that remain unchanged regardless of how we publish.

The reason for the unchanging standard is simple: we do not write for a publishing house, or for an independent publishing service. Those are venues to distribute our writing to those who will truly judge our work: the reading masses. If you are not a good writer as far as the masses are concerned, then your work will not be widely read (unless it's read for the curiosity of whether it's really that bad). There are some polarizing authors (Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight franchise comes to mind) whose work is both highly praised and highly criticized, but for all of the discussion concerning Meyer's work, it has to contain some talent to draw an audience.

I am not a fortune teller, but I can easily predict the outcome of any discussion on the debate Mr. Eisler inadvertently started. Those who approach from their various sides will remain largely unchanged, and--like so many theological disagreements--the debate will continue, with no one side being proved more beneficial (read: more "right") than the other. Pros and cons exist on either side, but just as writers have the choice of what to write, they have choices in how to be published. No one side is better than the other, despite how die-hards on either side might wish.

What matters most is that we as writers continue to write, not for the fame or money, but because writing is in hearts and minds, and thus the body must follow. We are compelled to write, not to be rich and famous, but because it's therapy, or because we can't not write, or because the blank page will otherwise win. Sure, there will be a time for all of us to decide when and how to publish, but we can't get there unless there's a story to be written. Regardless of your viewpoint on the debate, you're not going to get anywhere if you forget why it is you write in the first place.

About the Author: Rob Killam has been a freelance writer since 2009. He is currently living in Colorado Springs, where he is working on his debut novel, a Springs-based science fiction novel. (Photo by Jared Hagan)