Last week I wrote about Michael Tamblyn’s Tweets against Amazon’s attempt to secure a better bottom line for itself vis-a-vis the publisher Hachette.
This week I want to focus on what author’s can do to help themselves. My focus will be on Indie Authors, because I’m an Indie Author and I’m sharing things I’ve learned along the way.
My friend, author C. L. Schneider, told me about a fantastic Indie Author co-op, IndieBooksBeSeen, started by Mark Shaw.
There are other groups to help Indie Authors gain visibility, but a number charge money to join or access their services. IndieBooksBeSeen is a cooperative. Indie Authors coming together to support each other and to promote each other’s books. Supporters use the hashtag #indiebooksbeseen on Twitter to signal others to retweet the tweet to their followers.
To my mind, that is the beauty of IndieBooksBeSeen: support and do a good turn for others, who will do a good turn for you.
The indie organizations which charge membership fees to do the same thing are more like clubs or businesses. And for some authors, that may work fine for them. For me, I have limited money and I don’t want to pay for something I don’t have to. Someday, maybe I will. Not today.
Having been actively involved with co-operatives over the years, I find the co-op principle more to my liking. A co-op is a community. And that is what I like about IndieBooksBeSeen. It’s also what I like about co-ops in general. A community of people who help each other and in the process help themselves.
In today’s publishing world, the big publishers, to maximize profits, have dispensed with things such as proofreaders and the slush pile. Agents have taken on some of these roles and writers have to now pay for others. In addition, few agents will take on a new unpublished author unless he or she has a thriving platform from which to promote his or her books. Why? Because advertising dollars go to the established big money authors. Not newbies.
If I have to get my own editor and proofreader, and work out my own advertising campaigns, why do I want to settle for a 10% royalty, from which my agent will take 15% right off the top? Doesn’t make good business sense to me.
This is where networking through a co-op such as IndieBooksBeSeen becomes a boon to the new and even established writer. You get 60% or 70% royalty and the help of your friends to sell your books. The cost? You help them sell theirs. After all, it is what friends are for: companionship and help when needed.
Let me know what you think about networking.
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Hey, will you let me play devil’s advocate here? 😉
A lot of indie authors say the same: If I have to get my own editor and proofreader, and work out my own advertising campaigns, why do I want to settle for a 10% royalty, from which my agent will take 15% right off the top?
But I ask: if you go indie and you want to do a professional job of it, you still have to pay for the professional work at least of a freelance editor and a freelance designer of a cover… if you want to stop there. And you have to pay this before you earn any money. And it isn’t a percentage, but a flat cost.
Agents and publishers take a percentage but only after you’re sold you books and on the books you’ve already sold. You don’t have any costs beforehand.
As for the rest, I think community is magic for any writer nowadays. I’m trying the traditional route and I know I’ll still need networking, because this is how the publishing business works today. Because competition has skyroketed in a field were readers still are more or less the same number as they used to be, costs have skyroketed too and that’s why publilshers cannon offer what they used to anymore.
I understand that and I’m fine with that. I’m also grateful that there is actually a lot I can to for my ‘writing career’ by myself 😉
Sure, play devil’s advocate. 🙂
You are right, JazzFeathers, if an indie author wants to do a professional job, he or she needs to invest some money up front which is deducted against the higher royalty amount.
I do my own editing relying on myself and my two non-professional editors (my sister and my daughter, who is a grammar and nitpic whiz) and my wife does my covers for free, until I make money that is. 🙂 I’m confident in my team to do good editorial work for me. So, for me, I’ve cut some of the initial cost.
Hugh Howey and his partner on http://www.authorearnings.com, have shown debut indie authors tend to make more money than debut traditionally published authors. So I think there is a monetary argument to be made for going indie.
However, as you so well point out, no matter which route a person takes — you have to work out your career for yourself.