tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post8861783854647192700..comments2023-06-26T06:14:18.058-05:00Comments on Lauren Gallagher and L. A. Witt: The End of An Author's Life? Uh... what? Lori W.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00977774459484130567noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-43601357997455300672014-04-03T19:49:09.038-05:002014-04-03T19:49:09.038-05:00Thank you for this. As a new self-published autho...Thank you for this. As a new self-published author, I'm glad to hear that there is a possibility for me to be compensated for my work effort and product. I've had so many tell me that my ability to write is not a marketable job skill, that I've wasted my years in undergrad and graduate school crafting my skills. So happy I stopped listening to the infamous "they" so long ago.LaQuettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09836952986281060411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-1182712504226921992014-04-03T19:48:53.988-05:002014-04-03T19:48:53.988-05:00Thank you for this. As a new self-published autho...Thank you for this. As a new self-published author, I'm glad to hear that there is a possibility for me to be compensated for my work effort and product. I've had so many tell me that my ability to write is not a marketable job skill, that I've wasted my years in undergrad and graduate school crafting my skills. So happy I stopped listening to the infamous "they" so long ago.LaQuettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09836952986281060411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-62372882932371648862014-03-08T07:12:44.915-06:002014-03-08T07:12:44.915-06:00LOL! That's crazy. And yes, we totally should...LOL! That's crazy. And yes, we totally should. TO THE THUNDERDOME...Lori W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00977774459484130567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-82549566965255890452014-03-07T21:27:39.785-06:002014-03-07T21:27:39.785-06:00You're L.A. and I'm L.A.
You're Lauren...You're L.A. and I'm L.A.<br />You're Lauren and I'm Lauren.<br />We're both finalists for the same category in the Lambda Awards.<br />Should we stage a cat fight for publicity? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-81175370636861632392014-03-05T10:35:08.187-06:002014-03-05T10:35:08.187-06:00I'd like to comment as a reader. I think we r...I'd like to comment as a reader. I think we readers benefit the most especially from authors who write in genres the big publishers won't push. I still read JD Robb and the big guys but I also have found fantastic new (to me) authors through smaller publishers like Riptide and Samhain and through social media and the authors own efforts I have found some terrific self pubbed authors. I also love the fact that when I find a new author I can go back and pick up the stuff I've missed when they get their rights back and can sell it as a reasonably priced ebook. Donnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15952178069661583692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-91519409396998768382014-03-04T23:39:36.647-06:002014-03-04T23:39:36.647-06:00Thank you for writing this. It shows the realities...Thank you for writing this. It shows the realities of what being a working writer looks like and counters the myth of the 'golden age' Robert McCrum would want us to believe in. I added a link to your post in the post I wrote about this topic as I think yours is a much needed (and far more common) perspective on how writers are adapting to the digital revolution. Great read!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08825591751602941061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-12621151730088916062014-03-04T18:11:29.640-06:002014-03-04T18:11:29.640-06:00I don't think La Nora's books are ghost wr...I don't think La Nora's books are ghost written but I do know she employes fact-checkers for her series and has assistants. Not that I think that's a bad thing. Her one very long series under JD Robb shows that those fact checkers are working hard. She's also been at it for over 30 years, so her backlist is huge.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11727060933062642642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-83212419803761951932014-03-04T17:07:55.065-06:002014-03-04T17:07:55.065-06:00Holy Ned, this blog post got busy. Thank you to ev...Holy Ned, this blog post got busy. Thank you to everyone who's stopped by and commented!<br /><br />And yes, Stephen King and Nora Roberts are extremely prolific, which was why I used them for that example. You *can't* just write one or two books every once in a while and expect the kind of lifestyle they lead because even THEY can't do that. Write more, publish more -- the only way for a writer to survive.<br /><br />LoriLori W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00977774459484130567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-11360774549556952772014-03-04T16:39:42.052-06:002014-03-04T16:39:42.052-06:00Great article, LA! Best wishes to you and Aleks.
...Great article, LA! Best wishes to you and Aleks. <br />I think co-writing sounds awesome and would love to try it with a couple of writers I know. You both bring specialties to the project that make it richer.<br /><br />Yeah, no sympathy here for the entrenched old-school authors. Welcome to the new millennium, where we are paid by readers for what they want to read. <br /><br />After being shepherded by Samhain for several years, I've branched into self-pub. Love using all I learned from my editors there to craft a new arm of my career.<br /><br />best,<br />Cathryn CadeCathryn Cadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10714037225684245673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-77581635050986644622014-03-04T12:32:52.048-06:002014-03-04T12:32:52.048-06:00Hi Taylor - well done you. :) I think the world is...Hi Taylor - well done you. :) I think the world is coming slowly around to the fact that e-books are real books and there's money in being a writer. (A shocking thought jut ten years ago!) So I'd just wait for the slow kids in the class to catch up, to be honest. :)<br /><br />RE: Marketing, I have grounds to believe that every new book sells your other books, so quality and new releases seem to be the main factors. Also, it helps being in with a publisher who's on NetGalley and has a good reputation. Riptide has grown my income from "oh, nice, coffee money" to, "holy crap, if I'm sensible with the cash, I can live off this" in two years, so having them back me up is great. (I do believe there are publishers who are "sales poison", so you might have a contemporary romance that's no better or worse than the OTHER contemporary romance of the same length and roughly the same price, but it sells half the number of copies it SHOULD because it's with a certain publisher - I have some evidence from a number of friends where that seems to be the case, though it's anecdotal and by no means scientific). Generally, it makes sense to diversify your income over a number of publishers - each pub will reach a slightly different readership and it also means that if a publisher explodes and ends owing you money, you'll still be OK. This is why some authors diversify across 2-3 houses plus self-publishing, which seems to make perfect sense. Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-13219481489912494842014-03-04T09:15:13.782-06:002014-03-04T09:15:13.782-06:00I just wanted to say thank you so much for writing...I just wanted to say thank you so much for writing this. I've been following yours and Aleks adventures on Facebook which directed me to this page. I found myself in the same situation as Aleks - I got made redundant from my main employment at the beginning of 2013 and I live in a very isolated community witth limited options for employment. I managed to struggle through to the end of the summer with odd jobs here and there and then basically had to make the decision to relocate to where I would have access to employment I was suited for or look for something that I could do from my home and support myself. I'd had a novel accepted by Siren in 2012 that I'd sent off in a burst of courage and optimism and then did nothing else about following it up. I'm great at having fun and creating and not so great at releasing out of my own computer but I chose a couple of contemporary novels to edit and polish from the ones I''ve amassed over the years and self-published on Amazon and Smashwords. It's been a lifeline - it's still an occasional struggle but I'm slowly making it work. I find it hard to know how to manage the marketing side of things with the practicalities of making sure I still have an income, but I know that even as little as five years ago I would not have had this option. I love what I do - I live in a world of perpetual happy ever afters and romantic heroes after all! - and I'm trying to do better with meeting people (am English by birth, Scottish Islander by choice) and connect with people on the internet. The rebuttal you wrote above is everything I want to say to people who look at me squint eyed when I tell them what I do - this is my JOB. Its hard work. Its frustrating and lonely sometimes, but this is sustaining my life and I love it. I'm part of a new wave of creative talent (however tiny and insignificant) that are going out and connecting directly with the people that want what we produce and not waiting around for someone to notice us and take us down a more traditional route that doesn't work so well anymore. And I swear to God, the next person who asks me 'Yes, but when are you going to write a REAL book...' I will not be held responsible for my actions! Thank you again for writing this - I needed to read this today and see that, not only am I doing what I love for my working life, but I made the right decision last year. Enjoy the rest of your stay!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08596790135934876508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-74606182560357949662014-03-03T19:55:19.896-06:002014-03-03T19:55:19.896-06:00Forgot about this piece I read a few days ago:
ht...Forgot about this piece I read a few days ago:<br /><br />https://medium.com/debt-ridden/35d7c8aec846<br /><br />"How Much My Novel Cost Me"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-11895547921844494242014-03-03T16:01:41.065-06:002014-03-03T16:01:41.065-06:00It's quite funny - I've heard so many stor...It's quite funny - I've heard so many stories about how incestuous and self-serving the cultural scene in London is that I have very little interest to be part of it. I'm happy to be a genre writer aiming to make a living pretty much on my terms, while I have it on authority that in that particular scene, you play by their rules or don't play at all. As I said, zero attraction for me.Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-91384800132261474342014-03-03T15:56:01.326-06:002014-03-03T15:56:01.326-06:00EM - WE used Stephen King and Nora Roberts as well...EM - WE used Stephen King and Nora Roberts as well-regarded, reliably productive authors who also make a decent living (I wanted to research the murmuring I'd heard that La Nora is actually employing a number of ghosts by now, but Lori distracted me with this book we just finished). I'd suggest that King's "Carrie" was something of a big thing, considering the size of the advance, but that wasn't the first book he wrote and he kept going, and I have a huge respect for him anyway ever since I read On Writing. <br /><br />And big advances were a weird thing for me anyway when I came over into the English-speaking market. The biggest deal I'd heard about in my circle of friends involved a EUR 20-25k advance for three books, two of which unwritten. These were historical novels - the first one had taken ten years to write (stupendous amount of research), and the others took a year or two each. Still, not life-changing money by any stretch. The money I got from Random House/Heyne is still, as far as I'm aware, and ten years later, a standard advance in the fantasy/sci-fi genre for a 10k print run, which is considered "biggish" in a market where fantasy novel debuts might only get a 3-5k print run. I was lucky and saw that I'd never make enough money writing. <br /><br />Based on those numbers, my literary agent said he might be able to get me a EUR 10k advance for a historical novel focuwed on a "strong woman", which was ALL THE RAGE in those days in Germany. I tried, and failed, to write that book to market, sadly. <br /><br />So, for me, those kinds of advances were like news that there's water on Mars. Really cool data, but of very minimal significance for me personally. <br /><br />That said, I don't believe in the "number of sales = quality" argument, because then celeb bios would be the best books on the planet, and they aren't. However, I do believe that for any niche, there are readers, and if you can get them to keep coming back for more, you have a living. Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-41328462824288884932014-03-03T15:45:19.122-06:002014-03-03T15:45:19.122-06:00As a writer who has put aside plenty of deep liter...As a writer who has put aside plenty of deep literary passion-books to write what readers want to buy, and found ample rewards for doing so, I couldn't agree more. Well said. I'm sending this to The Passive Voice, btw.Libbie Hawkerhttp://libbiehawker.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-78118278771285449512014-03-03T13:46:10.583-06:002014-03-03T13:46:10.583-06:00LOL. Love that story. :)LOL. Love that story. :)Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-73009461916724481722014-03-03T13:42:25.518-06:002014-03-03T13:42:25.518-06:00PS if it's not obvious - thank you for the tim...PS if it's not obvious - thank you for the time you spend interacting with us readers. I'm much more inclined towards artists who take that time, be they writers, actors or musicians (as well as traditional art artists). You don't owe us that but it's nice to know my money goes to nice people.Malinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00334043474444909595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-30340792407006470922014-03-03T13:39:53.276-06:002014-03-03T13:39:53.276-06:00Like EM Lynley I noticed you referenced Stephen Ki...Like EM Lynley I noticed you referenced Stephen King - who hasn't sat back for all these years but has written, written, and written some more. <br /><br />Change isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when paradigms change some people get left behind if they're not prepared to adapt. It's a bit ironic that those getting left behind are using a newspaper to get their voices heard, since newspaper sales have been declining for some years now. <br />Personally as a reader I like living in a world where I can follow writers on places like twitter. I like following writers who answer questions and interact with their audiences. Malinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00334043474444909595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-33051820471091489972014-03-03T12:33:34.664-06:002014-03-03T12:33:34.664-06:00You've hit so many nails on the head. I will a...You've hit so many nails on the head. I will add that you mention Stephen King and Nora Roberts without pointing out that they are two of the most prolific authors in their respective genres. They haven't just hit it big with one book, but have been writing their asses off since day one and keep going, even after selling a jillion copies. <br /><br />That's the key to earning a living now: keep writing and publishing, whether with a publisher or on your own. The old world of big advances actually reduces the number of books published in a year, thus allowing artificially high prices. The influx of new books and new publishing channels reduced barriers to entry and costs, at the expense of readers not being able to tell quality from quantity. <br /><br />The result is that authors need to prove they are worth reading and they will have a following. I suspect it will take some time for the industry to shake out the low quality/low earners, but it will pay writers according to their efforts and quality.<br /><br />EM Lynleyhttp://www.emlynley.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-34700795799813543842014-03-03T12:15:21.252-06:002014-03-03T12:15:21.252-06:00I think it was Mickey Spillane who got 'writer...I think it was Mickey Spillane who got 'writer's block' every time he sold a book. He'd then lie on a beach drinking tequila until his accountant called and said, you're running out of money, and then apparently the ideas would come thick and fast...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-8799981273670767162014-03-03T11:54:35.107-06:002014-03-03T11:54:35.107-06:00Yeah - I did the numbers and thankfully have a nes...Yeah - I did the numbers and thankfully have a nest egg from the time I was laid off, too, so that's another thing I can throw into the balance... but yep, I sat down yesterday and hammered out 2k words in the morning and they were easy--with more ideas coming. I think once the time and energy sink is gone, many writers discover just hoe strong they are. It seems to have happened to people like Amy Lane, and, of course, Lori herself. Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-20401179853207620542014-03-03T10:39:40.974-06:002014-03-03T10:39:40.974-06:00Fortunately, we're not in a position where we ...Fortunately, we're not in a position where we have to make the same kind of income.<br /><br />The truly liberating thing about having "gotten resigned" is that I've had more book ideas in six months than I've had in the prior six years. I was up furiously sketching out a series idea, working on the cryptography theory with a friend the other night.<br /><br />I still need some injections of day jobbery (software engineer), and I fell into a weird career crack it's hard to get out of. So that's taking a lot of my time and energy. I figure within two years, I won't have to worry about that, I can just write.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-32553612594070758612014-03-03T10:32:57.999-06:002014-03-03T10:32:57.999-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-26799015444522258812014-03-03T10:26:14.401-06:002014-03-03T10:26:14.401-06:00Hi deirdre - first, my condolences. It's gener...Hi deirdre - first, my condolences. It's generally an upsetting situation - seeking out and building that "portfolio" income is quite a bit more stressful than ye olde 9-to-5. (I'm definitely using the time to also acquire some skills that allow me to do some work that's not editing.) So quite a bit of my recent thinking is about diversifying - it's why I branch out into a couple other genres, and will self-publish a few things (I can't throw books at Riptide that they can't sell), and looking for some RL sources of income as well. And, absolutely, price is a consideration, especially if you're a "heavy user". I hope to make a bigger dent into my TBR piles while my income is taking that hit. Apparently fortunately, my book hoarding now has an advantage. :) Aleksandr Voinovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06583805228909693924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1541335208145531499.post-67215151697370689012014-03-03T10:12:45.893-06:002014-03-03T10:12:45.893-06:00I'm pretty much in the same boat as Aleks is, ...I'm pretty much in the same boat as Aleks is, only without the backlist. (And that .DE advance was in line with US numbers for first SF novels, from what I've heard.) Most of what I've gotten significant money for writing-wise has been contract work that doesn't have future income.<br /><br />So this year is changing all that, but in between I still need to seek out other work. I'm doing book covers, writing (under three different names), doing some interior book design, picking up some tech work—but mostly, I'm trying to piecemeal income sources so I don't have to have that big gob of time taken out.<br /><br />The ongoing results in the Author Earnings Survey are really interesting. I just pulled the latest spreadsheet to tear it apart:<br /><br />http://deirdre.net/fun-data-from-the-author-earnings-spreadsheet/<br /><br />(Yes, not a typo, there is an author on that list who reported $13M in earnings last year from self-publishing.)<br /><br />Oh, and ebooks. I did read a few free ones last year, but I bought several hundred, almost all of them read. If I don't see some more income soon, I may be doing more re-reading than buying new, though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com