My report on #SelfPubBookExpo this past Sat & Mark Cokers keynote speech: I was fortunate enough to attend the 2014 Self Pub Book Expo on Saturday in New York City. Mark Coker of Smashwords was the keynote speaker, and frankly, the main reason I was interested in attending. I’ve heard Mr. Coker speak before, and he always has such good information! He’s one of the few people who really has his finger on the pulse of indie publishing, and even better, he actually shares the data on what works and what doesn’t. He’s helpful. And informative. So I was expecting something along the same lines at this event, but thankfully, ended up getting so much more out of his words. More than I ever expected. You see, those who might have followed my recent discourse on facebook and elsewhere may have realized that I’ve come to a pinch point in recent months. As has pretty much every single other indie author I’ve spoken to. Since July, income from Amazon is down across the board. Like, way down. In my case, by 50%. Many of my friends report the same phenomenon. As is my nature (I started my working career as a scientist, after all), I’ve been doing a lot of research and asking a lot of questions, trying to figure out the root cause of this downturn. I’m not sure that I’ve actually discovered the ultimate cause, but I do have a few ideas of what happened to me, in particular. One of the big factors in my troubles is that I did an experiment and failed. For a while there, I went into panic mode and wondered if I should just pack it all in and get a “real job” again and forget this whole writing thing. I mean, I’ve had a really good run for the past few years, but for the first time the numbers have been going the wrong way on my multitude of spreadsheets. I went into the keynote speech on Saturday expecting to hear some facts and figures that might help me come to terms with what’s been going on. Instead, I got an inspirational pep talk and reinforcement of the things I should already know that made me realize the world has not come to an end. Things might’ve gotten a little tougher, sure, but it’s still the best time ever to be a writer. Mark Coker’s speech was titled something like “10 Trends in Self Publishing” (sorry if I got that title wrong). He pointed to things like the rise of ebooks – something I witnessed first-hand, having been published since 2006, before there was such a thing as a Kindle or Nook. Apparently, ebooks now make up something like 35% of the overall book market, and in romance – my bailiwick – it’s more like 50%. I believe it. The vast majority of my sales have always been ebooks. He pointed out all the new publishing tools that are available to indie authors, the fact that indie authors are now hitting the big lists on a more or less routine basis. The stigma of being self published is also diminishing. The days of people sneering the words “vanity press” are lessening, thank goodness. However, I’ve also experienced first-hand the snobbery that still exists among traditionally published authors and houses – most recently at RWA in San Antonio. It was pretty awful. I left Texas feeling diminished. It was not a good feeling. Mr. Coker also talked about how traditional publishers don’t really understand indie publishing, which I totally agree with, and he mentioned the ebook subscription services. In my own experience, places like Scribd and Oyster are now more readily available to indie authors through aggregators like Smashwords (full disclosure – that’s how I do it). Bonus – if you have a legit, authorized copy of your ebook on Scribd, it cuts way down on the piracy that used to be a huge problem there. He touched on the Amazon v. Hachette battle and stated his belief that exclusivity was at the core of Amazon’s strategy going forward. I tend to agree with that. Kindle Unlimited (KU) seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, spreading out to new countries and including more and more content in their exclusive catalog. It’s very obvious by the increasing amount of money going into their “fund” and the decreasing payments per “borrow” to authors, that this thing is growing into a monster. One good point about this that Coker pointed out, is that it indicates Amazon recognizes that indie authors are the future. They seem to be orienting toward indie authors, who seem to make up a large part of the exclusive catalog in KU. It’s good that indies are getting recognition, but by the same token, indies don’t have big organizations behind them to fight for them. While it’s true that traditional publishers have been taking obscene advantage (in my opinion) of authors for a long, long time, they do have some value in that they represent a large chunk of the market that can help balance Amazon’s tendency to want to rule the world. One thing I found really interesting is the argument I keep hearing from traditionally published authors and their publishers that all these indie books is causing what Coker called a “tsunami of drech.” This argument states, in my opinion, that basically all indie authors are no-talent hacks that don’t know how to spell or compose a sentence. That without editing, we are nothing, and we are too quick to push out “badly edited, poor quality” books. Um… No. Just no. Sure, there are those kinds of books out there. But then again, there always have been. Okay, maybe not in these quantities. But, as Coker also pointed out, the opposite is also true. This revolution in publishing is also leading to a “tsunami of high quality books.” I like to think that free market forces will win out. Poor quality books will turn readers off and disappear into the oblivion of rank 1,000,000+ on Amazon or wherever. I like to believe that the cream rises to the top. As people read a good book and rate it well, it gains visibility. Or at least, that’s the way I believe it should be. Of course, I’ve always been a Pollyanna wishing for meritocracy. Coker also warned that from here on out, everything gets tougher for authors. Ebooks are forever and there will be – if there isn’t already – a glut of high quality content. He suggested that the growth in supply would outpace the growth of readership, and that would lead to lower advances in the traditional publishing world, along with fewer traditional publishers and agents. Makes sense. But he added, after this disheartening news, that now was not the time to quit. “It’s the time to start!” Thank goodness. I was about to give up at this point, but the rest of his talk made me feel a lot better. He described a number of things a writer can do to reach readers, starting of course, with writing a “super awesome book.” He also gave some business tips that included things like: Be nice. Be honest. Be ethical. Be humble. Learn how to manage your time. And my personal favorite: Take risks. He advised us to “experiment and fail often.” Well, considering my latest experiment was a bit of a failure, I really needed to hear that. I guess I just got so used to the numbers on the spreadsheet going up, up, up, that a setback freaked me out. I need to remember that this is a business like any other. There are cycles, and good decisions…and bad decisions. I’m in recovery mode right now from a very bad decision, but I shouldn’t let that bring me so far down that I forget how good things really are. I haven’t had to have a “day job” in years. I’m earning easily three times what I earned in my last real job as an AVP on Wall Street. Even if my income goes down a bit, it’s still more than I could earn if I tried to re-enter the job market at this point. As long as I can make a living – which I define as as much or more income than I made at my last job (allowing for cost of living increases) – then I figure I should stick with this writing gig. I’ve never had more fun “working.” I love what I do, and I especially love the freedom this job gives me to be with my family and make the most of whatever years I have left with my father, a World War II vet and the very best man I know. If you ever have the opportunity to hear Mark Coker speak, do it. He is a wealth of information and has a very good perspective on the self publishing market in particular, and the publishing market as a whole. I also highly recommend the Self Publishing Book Expo. It is in its sixth year, I believe, and I am already looking forward to attending again next year.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:20:05 +0000