Ebook Pricing and DRM

Much has been made about Digital Rights Management (DRM), particularly in light of TOR Books' decision to go DRM-free in the future. It's a particularly salient conversation, too, because of the ongoing litigation between the DOJ, Apple, and the Big Six (although some have settled and Random House has escaped accusations of collusion all together--for now).


For a definition of DRM, take a look here. Basically, it's intended to prevent piracy. It doesn't. What is does prevent is the exchange of ebook software between the online retailers' proprietary ereader hardware (Amazon's Kindle, B&N's Nook).


From my perspective, DRM has indeed always seemed a little, well, silly because it's so easy to crack--to strip off the coding that makes a Kindle book readable only on a Kindle so that you can read it on, say, a Nook. I'm not posting any links here, but let's just say if you Google the most intuitive keywords you can think of on this topic, you'll find dozens of resources. Honestly, if any set of people is likely to know how to crack DRM, it's the pirates themselves, who tend to be tech savvy and determined.


Publishers invest in DRM, near as I can tell, because it's something of a security blanket ("We're doing what we can about piracy!") and a Cover-Your-Ass measure in case an author ever discovered their books out there on the Interwebz...but if you Google any of your favorite authors and "PDF," you'll find that DRM hasn't slowed piracy in the slightest. 


Where DRM is effective is in complying with the preferences of the big online retailers, one of which in particular (ahem, it starts with an A) has an extremely vested interest in their ebooks being read on only their own hardware. And as this article points out, limiting the ways that an ebook can be read affects its price (enter DOJ litigation).


We'll be seeing the aftermath of TOR's very bold move to strip off DRM shortly and I'm really interested to see what the reaction of the rest of the industry will be--and in particular that one begins-with-an-A behemoth, which has been known to strip publishers' books out of its stores over all sorts of disagreements. 


One thing's for sure: abandoning DRM will mean a big shift in the way retailers obtain market share of ebook buyers and shift the balance of power somewhat away from proprietary hardware (ereading devices) and back to the software (ebooks) that should be at the center of all this anyway.


What do you think about this? Would you want your ebooks DRM-protected? Have you used it if you've self-published?

Writer's Digest Webinar: Self-Publishing

I'll be giving a webinar through Writer's Digest on Thursday, November 17th, about self-publishing.

We'll cover everything you could possibly want to know: the strategy behind self-publishing, its relationship to traditional publishing (aka will it help you get signed or published), file formats, different platforms to use, metadata, etc. etc. etc.!!

And just for icing, there'll also be question time and a guaranteed critique from me. Sign up here:

http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/when-how-to-self-publish-webinar/

See you there!!

Why Janet Reid Is My Idol and Should Be Yours

This post, right here, on platform.

Also, I'm at the BACKSPACE CONFERENCE OF AMAZING today and tomorrow.

Jumping The Gun

One of the most important skills to develop as an author, particularly an unsigned one (i.e. my favorite type of author) is patience.

patience

It's a beautiful word. It's nigh perfect. It sort of takes a long time to say, too, which sort of fits. Am I hyperanalyzing here? Perhaps. 

But I can't explain how much better and easier your writerly career will go if you also treasure this virtue. Do your research. Give that manuscript one more week to sit, so that you can read it one more time with fresh eyes. Take care with your queries so that the list of agents is right, you have your personalization planned, and you make a good impression. If you're think about going the self-pub route, get all the information and plan out what your journey will look like.

You'll be glad you did.

When is it right to self-publish?

It's probably one of the hardest decisions authors today face. Both sides, legacy and self-publishing, have benefits, and there's absolutely no way to predict results until you're knee deep in either choice.

My advice is, if you ever might maybe-perhaps-one-day want to be traditionally published, query exhaustively before going to self-pub. Self-publishing can really complicate getting an agent (see why here). If you're sticking it to the man by self-publishing, that's cool. Don't query, too, though. They're separate paths; until you sell a million copies you've got to step on to one or the other.

But saying "suck it" to traditional publishing (or agents) might not be why one self-publishes. You might be *fine* with traditional publishing. You might be torn, feeling discouraged after a bunch of form rejections from a book that, by many unbiased accounts is PRETTY DARN GOOD. So when do you take the plunge, call it quits, and go self-publish?

Actually, wait. there's one caveat first: No one should self-publish without expecting it to be a lot of work. Without having an active online presence, a slammin' cover (peer edit, just like with your writing), and a marketing plan of your own design or someone else's. Books don't just sell. Ever.

If you fall into one of the following categories, self-pub might just be the best route for you:

1. You're writing what's in bookstores right now and you're getting form rejections. If you're seeing books that are suspiciously like yours come out right now, it means that they were being bought a year ago. Unless you think you've got a pretty substantial twist or a really new take (be real) you might be better off self-publishing it.***
2. You're writing significantly shorter or longer than traditional wordcounts.
3. You're writing poetry without the platform of some amazing prizes and journal publications.
4. You're writing a memoir with neither a strong platform nor a "third act"--something that happens as a result of what happened to you that makes yours a more universal story: legislation that was enacted or overturned, for instance. This does not go, however, for other types of nonfiction (in my opinion).
5. You're writing extremely graphic violence or sex. Or both. 

*** The relates the most to young adult fiction. People seem to be jumping on that bandwagon with stuff that's past its prime: dystopians, vampires, werewolves, angels. 

The reasoning here is that there may very well be an audience for your book, but that might also be a very small audience or one that's not easily reached by the typical event-oriented marketing that publishers do. Therefore, an agent might also have a hard time finding an editor to buy it. If you sell a billion copies, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank because you found the audience no one else was willing to.

However. This does not give you license to not edit. You still should have a writing group or beta readers of people who write and read in your genre. You should still listen to them. They ARE your audience. Let them judge your cover, too (PLEASE).

Anything else that's prompted anyone to self-publish?

#AskAgent 2

OK, topic today will loosely be self-publishing, since that's what we've been talking about this week. But feel free to ask anything, even if it pertains to your own project, so long as it's not a personal question for me.

Questions close at 3pm today, Thursday, EST. I will answer by Friday night...I hope. (I'm travelling this Labor Day weekend)

Go for it!

Self-Publishing: Where's the Marketing?

I can't tell you how often I see queries in my inbox that start "I self-published my book ___, but I am frustrated/underwhelmed with the sales and now I need an agent to take it to the next level."

They need someone to boost sales for them and teach them how to market. A publicist. Not an agent.

Agents do more marketing all the time as the landscape shifts (me more than many--I like it). But this is done for clients--people for whom we have sold a book. Any marketing assistance would be supplemental to the function of selling the book (the only thing, incidentally, for which an agent is traditionally paid--on commission). If you've already gotten the book published, you've essentially done the agent's primary job. 

As I said in the previous posts in our self-publishing series, legacy/traditional publishing and self-publishing are different paths. If you're looking to move between these paths make sure you're realistic about how much you expect the other system to bend over backwards to accommodate you.

Agents functioning primarily as a publicist is just not going to happen. We sell: foreign, print, audio, etc. etc., and we want to do so for self-published authors too. But you've got to sell those copies yourself first.

Tomorrow's #AskAgent!

Self-Publishing Mechanics

Most agents and editors agree that 5,000 is the minimum number of copies a self-published book has to sell in order to be considered a viable choice for a traditional publishing deal. This within 6 months or fewer, in order to be really eye-catching.

That is a lot of copies.  

It seems sort of unreasonable, really, if you don't know why a book has to sell that many. Honestly, one thousand copies, essentially sold by hand, while holding down a full-time job, should impress pretty much anyone. And in truth, it is impressive!

But you're not trying to impress a person. You're trying to impress a Profit and Loss Statement (a P&L: example here). This financial statement is used to project profits for a publishing house. In the case of debut writers, the "Revenue" section is guess work, based on how books like theirs have sold. In the case of non-debut writers, it's based on their actual past sales numbers. If the "Revenue" doesn't exceed expenses, book 2 (or 3 or whatever) is in trouble.

The P&L is one of the most common causes of a book getting turned down by a house, particularly in the case of authors who were first published by a small house or self-published. It's the P&L that agents have in mind when they say that you must have 5,000 copies sold in order to be considered for a traditional publishing deal. 

Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing

Agents wear all sorts of hats these days, but it's important to remember the first hat any agent wears (or should wear) and that's to sell books to publishers.

Which means self-publishing and traditional publishing diverge very fundamentally.

If you've published your book in any way, whether it's on your blog for free, as an ebook, or through a small press, you've essentially taken over the agent's job. Many do this to great satisfaction. Most, though, find themselves frustrated and feeling duped without representation.

Of course, some self-published authors get leveraged into traditional deals with publishers, but these are few and far between and the mechanics are complicated (more later this week). There is about a 1% chance that your self-publishing experience will look anything like John Locke's.

If you're hoping to be published traditionally, the best way to get there is traditionally. Query agents. Revise for agents. Attend conferences. Do research. Get an Agent. Get a Book Deal.

If you exhaust that avenue, and no one is smart enough to see you've written a bestseller, then self-publish (this is almost universally better than signing with a small press, believe it or not, because you keep ALL your rights--meaning you can sell them later if a big publisher is interested).

If you self-publish and then try to query agents, you will universally get "No" unless you've sold in excess of 5,000 copies. This is not an opinion of mine, it's the fact of the matter. An agent cannot leverage print rights on a self-published book without sales numbers to back it up. As a debut author, querying agents, you have no sales numbers and no one expects you to. You're a debut. But once you're published, even if you do it yourself, publishers need to see some $treet cred.

Queries of a different sort...

Yesterday was so much fun that I vote it become a Thursday institution on this blog. All those in favor? All those opposed? OK. It's settled.

Thanks so much for all the questions, everyone, and let's tune in next week for a discussion of self-/indie publishing and the relationship to traditional/agented publishing. Are they symbiotic? Mutually exclusive? The basics are covered in yesterday's comments section, so take a look there if you're wondering. But does anyone have any follow ups to yesterday's discussion of the matter? Let's make sure I answer them next week!!

Yay collaboration!

Self Publishing: I Wanna Know

Yesterday there was a link circulating around the pub-peeps Twitter-verse (along with commentary ranging from outrage to profanity) to an offer from Publish America.

(BE-EFFING-WARE!! THEY ARE EVIL AND ONLY WANT YOUR SOUL AND $$)

The link took you to a buy page: pay $49 and Publish America (my fingers burn to type it) will show your book to J.K. Rowling and "ask her what she thinks."

To me, this just sounds insane. Completely implausible. But I empathize with writers, and I sort of see how PA gets people. The suggestion that something might get an author published is a powerful thing.

I know this, too, because I see so many queries that start out "I self-published with _____ but the experience was not what I expected (or) I am disappointed (or) they totally jerked me around." And my heart goes out to these people! Because often that project is shot--without serious sales numbers (5K+) an agent will have a very difficult time leveraging a self-pubbed book for print sale.

So I want to ask you guys. What offers entice you/your compatriots to pay the $49, to sign a contract without representation? Is it resentment toward the Publishing Establishment? Snazzily worded pitches from the self-pub companies? What value do you see in the self-publishing world, in having to do it all on your own??

Further, what do you want to know from the Publishing Establishment? Does it make sense that agents cite such a high number of sales before a self-pubbed project is valuable for the traditional publishing world?

My instinct is that there was a lot of "Eff the Man" talk about a year ago. The sad stories I'm seeing in my inbox now are the result of the early adopters of self-publishing getting burned; the backlash. I feel now that there's a more cautious view of self-publishing: that it's a dangerous, potentially career-harming move if not done correctly, with a lot of back-end work. But then I still get emails asking what the point of an agent is...so I dunno.

Online Author Marketing: Agented!

You may have been an unagented writer before, just trying to build a basic online brand (see yesterday's post) but now...

YOU DID IT!

You landed an agent. Nice work! You've got a blog with a few followers and you've done some guest posts here and there for other bloggers who've even returned the favor. You may have figured out The Twitter. The two platforms, through cross-linking, support one another.

Things feel a lot more concrete than they did when you were just hammering away at different projects. You've got one to really focus on, with some in the wings (your agent hopes).

Now that you have something specific to promote, whether sold or unsold, you should reevaluate your online strategy and perhaps expand into new platforms. Hopefully your agent can help you. For instance:

• Are you writing nonfiction as an expert in some area? You could join Quora and start answering questions there--it's a great way to build platform.
• Facebook. This is more complicated because everyone thinks they know how to do The Facebook. Most people have a Facebook page of some sort, but few have one that's really effective in building an online brand, (see here for some details). Think of a strategy for Facebook: what are you promoting? A single title? A series? You as an author?
• Flickr. If you're an artist or illustrator, Flickr is a great place to showcase your work and build stories--supplemental, perhaps, to your book--in a new way.

There are many more ways to build an online brand; your agent can and should help you with this strategy, although you shouldn't expect them to do it for you. If you're too busy for social media, see here. Apply to all social media platforms.

A word on oversharing: you're going on submission now. It's a nervewracking experience for all involved and it can be really frustrating. Don't blog about it. Don't tweet it. Don't write angsty poetry about it and post it to your Tumblr. Don't.

So in the agented stage you get an online presence with a little more flair, guided by your agent. You've also got a more focused message, since you'll have a project to promote. Go get 'em!

Agencies with Separate Publishing Divisions

I got word recently that yet another agency has decided to set up a side-project to handle "ePublishing." This division will not serve (1) clients self-publishing themselves (no commission taken) or (2) clients who bring the agency ready-to-upload files that the agency then uploads and monitors for royalties/earnings (15% commission taken). It's for (3)clients for whom the agency will handle all aspects of the epublishing.

Sounds alright, right? That's got to be a lot of work!

Except when you consider what actually goes in to converting and publishing a book online.

Unless the agency has undergone some MAJOR personnel changes and hired cover designers and converters, the work of converting and designing the cover of the ebook will be done by outside freelancers.

AKA the agency has a list of a couple of people they know who convert books and/or design covers and they send your book to them, get it back a couple weeks later, then proceed as with client-type (2).

The agency has probably done extensive work on these projects, even the ones that are self-published, and even tried to sell it in many cases. They've certainly earned their 15%. But I'd be hard to convince that the agency is earning more than that 15%.

You should be hard to convince, too.

Ask a lot of questions before signing up for anything that involves more than a standard commission. Who's doing the work? Who's paying them? Get the facts, and you may feel that an increased commission is justified...or you might not.

Down and Dirty Ethics of Digital Publishing

OK, full disclosure: yesterday's post wasn't *just* a general knowledge "Hey, you should know this, just because!!" post.

Reading that post and understanding what's outlined there is vital for understanding *this* post. So...I'll wait. :)

Now that we're all on the same page:

I'm sure you've heard of the new companies popping up as independent digital publishers. Some are actually integrated into agencies.

Independent ePublishers typically have 50-50 royalty splits and handle new covers, conversions, etc. Most (now at least) do this front-end work for no money down, without an advance. I think this is pretty fair, although there is certainly room for improvement (but that's another post).

Today I discuss the latter--agencies getting into the ebook business. Many people have an immediate negative reaction:

agencies shouldn't be publishers. It's an inherent conflict of interest (how can someone negotiate against herself in your best interest?). But if agencies aren't allowed to epublish on their authors' behalf, then how can they, for instance, put an out-of-print backlist online, which is in their client's best interest?

Are they forced to go with one of the indie ePublishers, even if, for whatever reason, they don't think it's best?

The issue is more complicated than just "Agencies should never publish." And to get to the bottom of that, you have to get at the financials: who's getting paid for what.

In a traditional publishing deal, the author pays both sides: the publisher takes a revenue split on sales (your royalty rate is the other portion of this split) and the agent takes a standard 15% commission on the gross (total amount before taxes) of all monies received.

The publisher gets paid for publishing the book, the agent gets paid for working on the book, getting it sold, and monitoring the publication and sales forever.

So let's say the backlist is small, and it's better to leave out the ePublisher, do the conversion through a freelancer, and get a 70% royalty for the author (in their best interest!) by publishing directly with Amazon, etc. The agency handles everything. Of course, they should still get their 15% commission. They got the book sold in the first place, and they're facilitating the ebook.

But I've heard of agencies, here and abroad, taking a 50% instead of 15% cut in the name of all the "extra work" they're doing on the ebook. To someone who doesn't know the steps (unlike you who does know the steps), that probably sounds reasonable. Who the heck knows how HTML works, anyway?! It's probably some sort of voodoo.

Those agencies seem to be saying "pay us 35% for publishing this ebook, and, of course, we're still entitled to our 15% for working on and getting the book sold in the first place." So a cut for a "Publisher" function and one for an "Agency" function. This is where we cross the ethical line, in my opinion.

There's no publisher involved.

"But," you might say, "don't they deserve some more dough for the extra work they're doing that a publisher normally would?"

Well, back to yesterday's post: There are 6 steps (roughly) to getting an ebook online. 3 of those are probably going to be done by a freelancer (the conversion). Your agency, unless they've made some big personnel changes recently, is probably going to contract this work out. After all, they've had a full-time gig being agents for some time now; more than likely they don't have time to integrate ebook coding themselves.

So, you should be paying the freelancer, not the agency, for the conversion. A simple referral to a freelancer doesn't justify a 35% cut of sales (forever).

Step 4, the upload, takes vigilance and attention to detail, but it's a one-time deal. And it takes about 30 minutes. I've heard of and support agencies charging a (small) flat fee to perform this service, but a 200%+ higher commission rate?...not so much.

Step 5 is a step that agencies already do for all of your books. Monitor sales and royalties. So that definitely doesn't justify 35% more money--or any more money.

The final step, marketing, is and always will be a split labor. I do foresee agencies charging to do marketing for their authors. We are, after all, really good sales people. But marketing services should not affect commission rates, which are tied to sale of books only. (Marketing helps sales of books, but it is not sales of books)

So 50% of the process is done by someone else, 16.67% is one-time "extra work" for the agency, 16.67% is what they've always done, and 16.67% may not be done at all by the agency, and isn't related to sales, which are what we typically commission. I'll leave you to make the final decision, but that doesn't sound like it adds up to a 50% cut for the agency.

Agencies stand to make money on the sales of books. There are opportunities for agencies to provide new services to their clients in the marketing arena: setting up and managing a social media presence, for instance. And for those, they should certainly be paid.

But the publication of clients' books online should not be considered a new revenue stream for agencies. Royalties, sales, are an agency's revenue stream. It's not that agencies shouldn't facilitate the publication of clients' books online, it's that they shouldn't be paid as publishers.

A client's book going into ebook format is the same, for an agency, as having the book come out in mass market (as far as commission). Someone gets it into the new format and the agent monitors the publication and sales, and continues to take 15% for services rendered.

And, dash it all, we still have to figure out the marketing.

Down and Dirty Anatomy of Digital Publishing

Ebooks.

Did your eyes glazed over? I don't blame you; there is pretty tangled system of information out there on the topic, and more options pop up daily for how to make your cool million publishing online.

But it's important to realize that you are not without allies in this (in fact, that's the whole point of having an agent, but that's another post). It's also important to realize that you have to learn. At least a little. "Print Only" publishing does NOT exist anymore--unless you're doing it yourself. I've summed up the process here in this novella-length post as a launchpad for your own research.

The problem with ebook illiteracy is circular and (at least) twofold:

1. If you don't know what the steps of the process are, it's incredibly easy to get taken advantage of.


BUT


2. There's a "shut-off" reaction to a lot of things Information Technology. The thought is "There's no way I will understand this." So then you never do.

Over a year ago, I literally didn't know what an HTML tag was (and if you're like "What the heck is that?" that's OK--you don't have to know; that's not the point of this post). It took me 60 hours to code my first ebook (now it takes me...significantly less). Somehow (Youtube and w3schools.com) I figured it out, and if that's the case then you certainly could too. If nothing else, you will definitely understand what I'm about to tell you. And it's in your best interest to know.

Here follows a very bare bones step-by-step of what it takes to put a book online:

1. Is the book available in a .doc format? If not, it needs to be. If yes, go to #2.



This is primarily of concern with backlist books which were never digitized--they're only in printed form. If this is the case, the book has to be scanned and converted through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) into a Word document (or a PDF, which will be converted to a Word doc).


Convert the Word doc into an HTML file and, in an HTML editor (not Word), do your formatting.


Here, in the HTML file, is where you'll do your formatting and yes, unfortunately, you have to do it in plain, hand-coded HTML. There are programs out there, such as inDesign, which can facilitate this process as long as you're coding a plain novel. But if you're dealing with any hyperlinking or index or anything remotely complicated, I'm afraid you're looking at hand-coding. inDesign allows you to export as an ePub file.


Don't forget that you need a unique ISBN (separate from any print edition of the book published by someone else--like a publisher) and a copyright page (a list here of what MUST appear on the copyright page).


Convert the coded HTML file into a .mobi file and a .epub file.


These are the only two file types you need in order to put your book on every platform you can think of (and some you can’t). .Mobi is for Amazon/Kindle, .ePub is for everything else.This process is automated via MobiPocket (.mobi) and programs like Calibre (.epub).


Upload!


There are a couple of ways to do this, and it will take relatively little time. I've used Smashwords.com in my freelancing to some success (Smashwords also allows you to publish across pretty much every major platform--Apple, Amazon, Borders, etc.--from one place). You can get a free ISBN from Smashwords as a part of the publication process or you can pay for a "premium ISBN," which I'm not sure would do you any good.


Monitor your sales and royalties.


You can set up payment via Paypal or, at least with Amazon, you can be paid with paper checks. Paypal does charge fees, so Smashwords (for instance) will pass that on to you. For Smashwords, it's a $10 fee. Also, most places will report, but not pay, if earnings are less than a certain amount ($75 in a lot of cases).


Market (we don't have to get in to that here, but for godssakes don't forget it needs to be done!.

So that's it. It's not impossible, but it is labor intensive, time consuming (especially the conversion process), and, My GOD is it frustrating at times. You may suddenly realize that publishers do a lot more than just mess up somehow when they're publishing a book. A lot more.

More than likely, if you're looking to put titles online you're going to use a freelance coder for your conversion. Or you're begging to spend 60 hours coding your first ebook. Things to consider:

• Ask to see some books they've done to get a sense of their skill level.
• Be sure to sign something (both of you) that states what formats they will convert to (they should do both .mobi and .epub for you) and set a deadline.
• Make sure they're going to deliver you the files without claiming ownership of any "design" (there shouldn't be any if we're talking straight conversion) or content. This must be explicitly stated in the agreement!
• Don't be afraid to lobby for a payment schedule so you're not paying it all up front and to keep the freelancer on deadline. 1/2 on signing, 1/2 on delivery would be a standard way to divide it.

Be careful, authors. Do research, and take your time. There is so much more to the process--more nuances and anomalies that I could write coherently here.

In the comments section, please let loose on questions, or share your pitfalls/anomalies with others. It's so important that authors understand the process of ebook publication, even if they don't understand the mechanics (which is OK!). It's particularly important on this blog, because I'll be posting about the ethics of ebook agreements, especially as related to agencies now acting as publishers, tomorrow.

Anatomy of a Fiction Platform

You thought you'd dodged this bullet, didn't you? heh.

Oh, novelists, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news (although I'll remind you not to shoot the messenger), but you should take a look at your platform, just like those nonfiction writers.

Is platform in any way essential to fiction the way it is to non? NO. I'll be clear on that. Fiction is sold on the story and the writing. And the economic viability. :) Platform, for novelists, is a bonus. (Nonfiction writers, see yesterday's post stat).

So if a nonfiction "Platform" means convincing editors and agents 1. why you're the best person to write a book and 2. that there's a large audience already eager to read on the subject, what does platform mean for novelists? Answers would be 1. because I thought of it first and 2. Um...everyone wants this! Of course!

And those answers aren't helpful. Platform, for fiction writers, is more about demonstrating that there are people out there who like you. Who think you're funny, say. Or people who find you engaging. Check out Chuck Wendig and Maureen Johnson on Twitter for examples of people who do this really well. Copy them. (sort of serious)

Fiction queries are 100% focused on the novel: who's the main character, what's the big choice they're facing (See Query Shark if you're at all unclear on what a query should do). You don't have to mention your 2K Twitter or blog followers in your query.

But agents will Google you. They will find your 2K Twitter followers and your popular blog (in email queries, at the bottom where you write your contact info, you can include these links, too). They, and the editors to which they pitch your book, will be impressed that you've gone out there and started talking with what will become your audience.

Platform

It's that dreaded word. Unfair, limiting, gatekeeping word. We hatessss it, precious.

Well, actually, no we don't. In fact, it's probably safe to say that the only ones who hate platform are the ones who don't have platform. It's high school and the head cheerleader's new perm all over again.

Frustration is easy to understand, though. Platform is harder than ever to acquire with the rise of the Internet and particularly with the rise of blogs. When we set up blog tours for our authors, blogs with one or two hundred followers are considered successful, places that will make good potential blog tour "stops." In the unbelievably noisy Internet age, a couple hundred people professing to listen to your noise is fairly impressive.

But what does that translate to as far as platform?

Platform, as it applies to publishing, is about whom you impress with your numbers. Publishers. And, unfortunately, a couple hundred isn't going to cut it. To get publishers' attention, regardless of whether you're debuting or a self-pubber trying to transition to print, you have to command the attention of thousands.

The definition of "publisher" is not as hard and fast as it once was, though. That affects your platform strategy. We'll finish out the week with a short series, covering the anatomy of a non-fiction and a fiction (no, you novelists haven't escaped this scourge) tomorrow and Friday.

EBook Quality Control

Guys, this is going to seem like shameless self-promotion. But it's not. Because it's Ann Rockley saying these things, not me. And see, I'm linking...so I'm shamelessly promoting...both of us?

Oh, whatever. Don't you judge me...what're you doing? Writing a query letter?!?! AKA shamelessly self-promoting your BOOK!?

Pshaw. Whatevs.

If you want to self publish a book (you+Amazon/BN/Smashwords=book!, not the ePublisher model--see here), you have to code it.

You can't just save it as a webpage or upload the doc to Amazon, etc. I'm sorry, you just can't. Ann lists some common problems she's seen in ebooks in the link above. I've seen some crazy crap too. More than that, I've worked through those problems. Like why Amazon doesn't understand the italic command on page 4, but it does on page 97. Oh, it's because I didn't close that one tag...blargh.

Hiring someone to format your ebook seems expensive. It seems like an extra step. It's not. There are a lot of awesome people out there that can help you. I can. Joshua Tallent can, and has been an invaluable resource as I've learned the ropes. Ann's company does it. Lots of others, too. Hire one of us.

A Lovely Little Bookend

Publisher's Weekly has a nice article today about the ways that agenting is going "Untraditional," which we've been discussing here...and everyone's been discussing everywhere else. I like to think we were first though, intrepid readers. (Allow me my delusions)

As a small recap, we've decided that there are two types of straight-to-electrons publishing: self-publishing (author+Amazon/Smashwords/etc.=book!) and ePublisher (traditional publishing, but online).

There are benefits and drawbacks to each, one of the major issues being who does all the post-sale stuff: covers, interior, coding, marketing, royalty analysis. Etc.

If you self-publish, you do so with the understanding that "self" is the operative word. You're doing all that stuff. You're doing all this analysis. You're in control, you keep a whopping 70% of the money you make. Could be a sweet deal. But by this time, enough people have told you that Amanda Hocking is an anomaly, including Amanda Hocking, that I don't have to.

Few writers make money self-publishing. Not because self-published authors are incapable of marketing themselves or even the fact that there are millions of self-published books, although that's a factor for sure. It's because after maintaining your day job (which you should do), cooking dinner, doing the laundry, and kissing your kiddies (or, insert family member/pet here), there's no time to dedicate to the post-pub.

When people get in that situation--when they need something done but can't do it effectively themselves, they pay someone to do it. Lawyers. Hairdressers. Accountants. Literary Agents. Publishers. It's not about whether writers can do it--you can, with enough time. It's whether you should. Is it best for your career to bear the full-time job that is getting a book effectively published and marketed? Can you keep doing it?

Agents aren't "making themselves needed" as one commenter put it. As I see it, we just are needed. Not for everyone, of course--plenty of people self-publish and are happy as clams about it. In fact, we're happy for them, too. But for everyone else, for whom writing and getting published are high emotional priorities, but low practical priorities, agents are the stopgap. Aside from the front-end stuff, being the "second pair of eyes," agents' job is to shepherd the book through the rest of its life.

But, really, if agents just don't resonate with you, if you really can't see the point, don't have one. Fortunately, you don't have to anymore.

Self-Publishing: The Agent: Follow Up

AWESOME questions, guys. I want to centralize my response so they're easier to find...and so they're not awkwardly cramped into the comments section.

A distinction that I should've made before:
There are two forms, as I see it, of self-publishing.

1. One is the long established "Author+Amazon=BOOK."
2. The rise of the "ePublisher" (we WILL talk about this more; what follows is just a snapshot)

There's a ton to be said about ePublishers but the most important things to remember:

• They're new. A lot will change.
• An ePublisher can never NEVER be monetarily associated with or a part of an agency. AAR would have our hides. So, in fact, would our authors.

Related to bullet two above: Agents and agencies make their money from AGENTING. Not anything else. You won't pay an agent to design your cover, and you won't pay them to find you someone who will (not directly, at least. Good cover=increased sales=more money from their commission, but that's sort of arbitrary.)

You can hire freelancers to do work like cover design. But if you do so without an agent, you do so without an advocate. Sure, you can get all up in your designer's grill if they don't produce something up to snuff. But you're just one client. They're not going under if you get mad, or even if you don't pay. A freelancer's relationship with an agent/agency is different. Those entities offer volume: hundreds of referrals are at stake if the agency takes their authors elsewhere. They're more likely to get it together, crash a project, or make a deal for that kind of risk.*

Point 3 about ePublishers:

• Royalty/Advance structures aren't set in stone. Some deals do have advances, others use high royalty rates to offset a no-advance deal. Either way, the agent signs up for what you sign up for: if there's no advance, we don't get paid until the first royalty statement (but, with no advance to earn back, there should be immediate money).

So, blahblahblah, that's all fine--why are we back to a publisher again?! Isn't the point of self-publishing to get away from all of that???

If you feel that way, may I direct you to number 1, above. But here's what ePublishers are offering (the ones that will succeed, at least): Distribution.

In traditional publishing, distribution is what makes the Big Six "big." It means they get your books shipped to stores with favorable rates on shipping, etc. that minimize cost and maximize market penetration, maximize profit.

But this is the Internet, right? We've all got "distribution," Sally. Well, yes. But I italicized minimize cost above for a reason. Distribution is not only about getting the book on the shelf (digital or real). It's about doing it efficiently, with the lowest cost. ePublishers can do that because (to answer Livia's question), they do have special deals with online retailers. This is similar to the freelancer/agency relationship. Perseus is the largest distributor of independent publishers in North America. You think they have clout with Amazon and Apple? You bet.

Exactly what that clout will get ePublishers remains to be completely defined. But they will have special arrangements for royalty models, and more control over book pricing, not to mention other things that don't even have to do with price, like page placement. It's the equivalent of getting your book face-out or not in a bookstore. That was the publisher's doing, you know.

The ePublishers are just getting themselves launched. They make arrangements with agencies because they need work that's 1. vetted and 2. plentiful. They need content--a lot of it--in order to have clout with eRetailers--agencies offer an aggregation of hundreds of authors, thousands of books. Even a sole proprietor offers dozens of authors and books. For you, the author, getting into that pool means getting the best deal. Getting an agent (at an agency that's thinking about these things--question to ask people offering rep.) means getting into that pool.

Agents are able to see where ePublishers are getting it right and which ones to steer clear of. And, by the way, which books just need the ol' fashioned traditional publishing treatment. Authors are brilliant. They could do the research and figure out 90% of what agents know. But then there's still 10% advance info gleaned from contacts about new initiatives/companies/etc. that you'll never have access to. Not because publishing is "so insular," but because you're not in publishing. You don't have those relationships.

Agents have the full picture. They can strategize with you. That's what made them valuable in traditional publishing and even moreso now. With so much in flux, a lot stands to be gained by having a professional advocate, and a lot stands to be lost by going it alone.

But, you know...I'm biased.

*Are the agents/agency getting a kickback from these referrals? More thank likely not, although models for becoming more full-service are evolving. Always remember: the agent gets paid if you get paid. They've got your best interests at heart because it's their best interest. If you don't feel like that, you've got the wrong agent.