The Mark of the Tala: The Musical

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is "Your book as a musical: which book would you choose to have made into a musical and which composer/lyricist/songwriter would you have score it?"

This is an amusing question in part because it's never been posed to me before. And I'm a fan of musicals from way back, having even performed in a few back in high school. I gave serious thought to which book would best translate to stage and who would do a great job with it.

I finally settled on THE MARK OF THE TALA, the first book in The Twelve Kingdoms trilogy and the overall Uncharted Realms series. I considered The Forgotten Empires books, but I think this story has an arc that would work best for stage - and I can envision the musical numbers. This entire trilogy was heavily influenced by the musical Wicked. There's even a scene in book 3, THE TALON OF THE HAWK, that I drew directly from a climactic song in that musical.

Therefore, I'd pick Stephen Schwartz for the music and lyrics and Winnie Holzman for the book. If they could do for THE MARK OF THE TALA what they did for Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked (which is an amazing book, if you've never read it), I'd be... well, I'd be defying gravity!

Why Independent Publishing Works For Me

DepositPhoto

Our topic this week is "Choosing your freedom - Traditional or Self-Publishing?" We seem to address this subject here at least once a year but that’s actually pretty appropriate, as fast as the publishing world changes nowadays!

The post below has been somewhat edited and updated, but I feel the same way I felt in 2018, which is when the post first appeared:

I’m in the independently published camp all the way, but that’s  because I’m me and this method of publishing suits my needs. There’s no one right answer for everyone so I’m not going to try to persuade, dissuade or make lemonade here today.

When I decided to work toward being a published author in 2010, I was focused on traditional publishing because that was really all I’d ever heard of. I wasn’t tied into the author community – it wasn’t as easy then to be connected and to research the ins and outs of various methods of becoming published as it is nowadays with Facebook author groups and author loops and twitter and etc. So I submitted a story to Carina Press (a Harlequin imprint) over the transom as they used to say, in response to an open call on their part for ancient world romance. I wrote a paranormal romance set in 1550 BCE Egypt and the rest is (a very modest footnote to) history. Published author here, as of 2012!

I learned so much from my experience with Carina and really enjoyed the association. They gave me a beautiful to die for cover from Frauke of Croco Designs, I loved my editor and she really ‘got’ the book, I lucked into a wonderful community of Carina authors (which is where I met Jeffe) and things seemed good. As a long time romance reader, I was thrilled to be part of the extended Harlequin family as an author.

Carina acquired the second book in the Egyptian series. Although everyone was again lovely to me and professional to work with, I got to see a different side of traditional publishing – the cover by someone other than Frauke was not my favorite, shall we say. (The second cover on the top row, below.) My editor left and while I was quickly assigned to a new editor, they didn’t really seem to resonate with my story or me. I couldn’t believe how much time was elapsing between book one’s release and book two’s release. Which to be clear wasn’t an inordinate amount of time at all for a trad published book (although Carina was primarily ebook at the time and my books never made it into print with them although there were audiobooks), but for impatient me, it was an eternity!

My entire ancient Egyptian backlist at the moment. I no longer have the rights to the original cover for Priestess of the Nile so this is my new cover. 3 by Frauke, 4 by Fiona and the one I can't wait to replace when I get the rights back hopefully!

In a good, non pandemic year, I can write and release eight or nine books on my own as a nimble self publisher, which does include professional editing.

 I discovered I didn’t like working to a contract, in terms of what book to write next. My Muse is a flighty being and likes to work on what appeals to her most. Looming schedules make her tense. Some mornings I wake up with an entire book plot in my head, out of nowhere, and if I don’t write that book right now, forsaking all others for a while, I’m making a serious mistake. My biggest sellers have been those books. They certainly weren’t anywhere on even the gauzy schedules I keep for myself.

My first self published novel
Cover by Fiona Jayde

Oh and did I mention Carina decided to leave the ancient world romance genre at that time (they may have gone back into it since for all I know) and didn’t show any interest in acquiring my scifi romance, although they were venturing into SFR then. I’m extremely glad they passed now of course. So I couldn’t have continued with them, not writing the only two types of novels I wanted to write.

Conveniently, I had also self-published my first scifi romance two months after the initial Carina book released. I LOVED everything about self-publishing. I picked the cover, the price, the distribution channels, whether to make certain edits or not, the schedule, the promo…the royalties came straight to me me me with no extra % taken out for a publisher in between me and the seller’s platform…

I’ve written my entire life and been seriously pursuing publishing since 2010. I had a long career in the business side of the house at NASA/JPL so once I was able to become a fulltime author (which didn’t happen right away – took three years, until 2015) I was ready to step right into the multitudinous tasks of being a small business owner in effect, publishing and managing my own books. And I’ve been a happy clam ever since.

I admire authors who can be hybrid and work within the traditional publishing framework and self-publish as well. I think there can be advantages to having a big, successful publisher behind you. I can’t envision it for myself at this time, but I wouldn’t necessarily say no if the right offer came along. I would negotiate the heck out of the contract to keep my intellectual property rights and to make sure there were no issues or constraints on my continuing to also self-publish.

I never had a desire for an agent, although I will say I’d love to see one of my books made into a movie or a TV show and I understand how having an agent can move an author into that world, as well as into other rights, such as foreign distribution.  Having someone actively working to gain new opportunities for your books would be cool but I’m not in a place where that fits my business model. A downside perhaps to being independent the way I prefer but not one that causes me too much angst.

Obviously a big publishing house has the resources to give a book a lot of high visibility promotion that I could never afford, although there are so many cautionary notes on that one point – too many to repeat here. I guess I’ll say as I understand it very few authors actually get the glam promo paid for by the publisher and the vast majority are left to do their own promo just like the indies BUT without the freedom to control the price of the book, etc.

I’ve been truly shocked in some of the author groups I belong to online when high flying very famous romance authors have shared what their monthly promo budgets run. After picking myself up off the floor, I knew the high stress of being at that level of name recognition and sales was something I was probably better off without.

I think an author always dreams of one of their books becoming a viral hit, leading to all the nice consequences like movie offers and mainstream media interviews and promo, and I wouldn’t say no. I’d find a good agent for sure and try to maximize the moment! But I’m very happy and content self-publishing and running my own business. I feel fortunate to have come along when I did, just when indie publishing was a real avenue that could be pursued successfully.

Yes, let's make my STAR CRUISE series into a TV show!
All covers by Fiona Jayde

I had the classic career/day job at NSA /JPL for a very long time and successfully supported my family until they were all out of the nest, so I probably came to this second, later in life, unexpected career with a different set of expectations and needs than I might have at an earlier time. I’m a very competitive, highly motivated person but it just isn’t in the same ways as it might have been had I been a fulltime author decades earlier, when the traditional publishing model was the only way to go. I also had more energy then and fewer chronic health challenges to work around, versus nowadays. I’m intensely grateful for this opportunity to write and sell my books now and for me, indie publishing is the way to go.

I've had a lot of fun along the way, fulfilled some goals and dreams that were important to me (and I have lots of stories still to tell).

So that’s my story, as told in 2018 and again now in 2020, and I’m sticking to it!

All the Options

Happy Beltane or May Day if you celebrate either. I hope you have a few minutes to enjoy the outdoors. At the very least.

Talking about publishing paths is a lot like Max standing outside my boat looking in. As Sinéad O'Connor liked to title an album, I do not want what I haven't got. Most of us come at publishing starry-eyed and with strong opinions about how we want to go. When I started, publishing really only had one option - traditional publishing. Self-publishing was still in its infancy and had the taint of desperation clinging to it. Dawn was beginning to break and there were a few outliers playing around with what might be possible. Shortly after I was first traditionally published, the ground totally shifted under self-publishing, fortunately.

These days, the options are legion.

Traditional
Self-publishing
Small press
Audio
Hybrid
I dunno. Triad?

Your choices are limited only by your wishes. Some of us NEED the validation that traditional publishing represents. Some of us hate playing by traditional publishing's timelines (which are glacial, especially if you're a high out-put author). They're also hard to break into. Generally you need an agent because the slush piles are towering door props. No lie, it took one editor three years to reject a book I'd sold someplace else.

Self-publishing lets you put books out at your pace and you need never suffer a suck-tastic cover again. Self-publishing is limited only by your budget. You get what you pay for in regard to cover work and editing. As mentioned last week, I'm currently priced out of this option.

A small press - or in my case- an e-first press with POD as an option, has trade offs just like the other options. Small presses can be risky. We've all seen presses go under. It's always sad when that happens. BUT. They're far more open minded about working with new authors and with authors who are in the position of having to start over. In my case, they were willing to republish books that had already been published once before just so they could complete the series. That's pretty flexible.

Some authors are writing specific content for audio books. I don't know much about it and I'm starting to hear that the shine is off that apple, but it is still an option. I don't do audio because there's not much call for it in my genre. Not a single one of my readers has asked for it .

Hybrid/mix of all the things - well, I suppose that's the most flexible of all, but it is a lot of balls to juggle. It means that you're published either traditionally or via a small press and you self-publish. You are still on the financial line for the books you self-pub, but if you're writing books that don't fit your traditionally published brand, self-publishing those can be a reasonable option. You'd control branding and messaging around the books that way.

The only thing I notice is that I feel a lot like poor Max. The publishing cash looks greener over there.

Red or Blue Pill

Recently we blogged about writer finances and I defined the various routes of publication here. But this week we’re talking about how we made the choice between them. 

Note that I said we and not you. Because choosing your publishing path is a bit like Neo having to pick between the red pill or the blue pill and I’m not going to say which color coincides with which. 

Traditional or Self Publishing; red or blue, blue or red… but red and blue makes violet: Hybrid Publishing. 

Before reaching for your water glass to swallow that pill, I suggest making a pro and con list. 

This could’ve been heavily influenced by my recent Gilmore Girls binge and love of all things Rory, but we’ll roll with it because it actually makes sense in this situation. 

For me, Trad Publishing Pros:

a fabulous agent to bounce ideas off

an Editor that comes with the package deal

a Marketing team

Trad Pub Cons:

sloooooooooooooooow

Self Publishing Pros:

ultimate cosmic powers! 

Self Publishing Cons:

itty bitty living space

See, YMMV. And I guarantee your pro con lists would look very different from mine as well as your definitions. But that’s great because nobody’s publishing path is the same! Even those on the same track, self-pub, indie, trad, or hybrid, no track will match up exactly. 

Even here, where I attempted to show two different book paths, they ended up domino-ing differently. I even enlisted the assistance of my twins to make sure the paths started the same! 

But you can’t control another’s finger nudge any more than you can control world events that slide colored lenses over people’s eyes. And there’s personal stressors for each reader that influence their reading enjoyment and there’s sudden waves of hot tropes or plots that are unpredictable and short lived. Basically, there’s a million things that influence how a book is received in the world and all of them are out of your hands. 

Maybe that’s why the author’s decision of which publishing path to take is such a weighty one? It’s the first important step that we actually control, the one step that every author actually controls. And by making a choice we determine our book’s trajectory, and also our career’s. 

Whew! Scary stuff huh? Well, it is just a tiny, little pill after all, right?

I’ve chosen the traditional publishing route. Red or blue, I’ll never telllll! Originally this track was most appealing because I had a thriving career in the medial field along with being a wife and mother, which left very little time for authoring. Life changed, but my writing trajectory didn’t, even though my pro con list altered slightly. 

I’m still on the trad route because my health is limiting and I know the added stress of being in control of every little piece of bringing a book into the world would be too much. I still value my health over any career. Who knows, someday it could change. I still see the Hybrid author track as the most profitable, you can have the best of both worlds and ensure the most stable income possible (which still isn’t stable, but closer anyway). 

What track have you chosen? Which colored pill is the most appetizing to you?

Indie versus trad: grudge match

Ladies and gentlemen and everyone under the sun, tonight we have quite a show for you. Indie versus traditional publishing! Fighters take your corners. Whiffle bats out. And ... go!

Except it isn't really that simple, is it?

There are lots of reasons authors choose to self-publish, get an agent and go the traditional route, or build a career that is a hybrid of both of those. Moreover, most authors are only too happy to share how they did it. Here's the kicker: you can listen to every single one of those fervent devotees to their publishing path describe how you ought to do things, and they are always wrong.

Your path is your path. Your path will never be whatever worked for somebody else.

A while back, a speaker came to talk to my local writing group. She was a fierce advocate of self-publishing and had a few negative things to say about traditional publishing. At that time, I had just signed my debut three-book contract with a publisher, and as she spoke, I had this horrible sinking feeling. Had I done the wrong thing? Had I already tanked my career before I even really started it?

Well, honestly... maybe. 

Looking back, I'm not sure I should have gone with that first offer. I'm not entirely sure I should have published that book at all. But of course I didn't know back then what would happen. All I knew was that people had told me how to do this writer thing, and I was following the steps.

Let me be clear: there are no steps. You are on your own. We all are.

For me, the decision of what to send to my agent and what to self-publish is still murky. I haven't figured it out by a long shot, and income probabilities don't make any of this clearer.

Last year, I received royalties for the two books that were published and distributed by a fairly large publisher. They were in book stores, printed in paperback, submitted to the fancy review sites, etc. They sold okay, I guess. The third book in the series, I self-published. It had no fanfare, zero buzz, and uninspiring sales. When I filed my taxes this for the year, I was a little startled to see that I had made more on that self-published book than I had for royalties of the other two books combined.

So I don't even know anymore. The waters of this whole pool of indecision have gotten awfully muddy. Some days I decide I will self-publish the book I'm working on. Some days I think maybe it's good enough to send to my agent. Some days I just hope I finish the thing.

I'm sorry I don't have solid wisdom on this topic, but the takeaway might be this: No one can tell you what to do. The decision is entirely yours. And I believe in you.

Indie & Proud

I'm one of many self-published authors on this blog but one of the few non-hybrid. Not being traditionally published by one of the Big Houses isn't because I've eschewed that part of the industry; it's simply because stars and stories haven't aligned.

I'm unrepentantly Indie. It's been a joy watching this half of the industry scrabble into existence, explode with popularity, then settle into a competitive marketplace. Sure, the royalties from the gold-rush days would be nice to see again, but that era is long gone. Then again, so is the insanity of indie authors having to release two books a month just to have a toe in the game. It was a fascinating moment when readers cried, "Whoa! Too much, too fast!" Authors happily responded, "Whew! Burnout is real!" By then the importance of backlists was established. Readers could binge, authors could breathe. Suddenly there was room for authors who couldn't pump out a dozen+ books a year, but who did publish stories readers were willing to wait to read. Niche markets were finally being served in measurable quantity with rising quality.

Speaking of rising quality, the Indie market provided opportunities for more than authors. The supporting industry of creative professionals from artists to editors to formatters and designers found new demand for their talents. It used to be a struggle to find someone willing to work with a self-published author, now our business is par for the course. Small tech companies have popped up too to serve our unique demands, innovating in ways that are thrilling to provider and user. Oh sure, crackpots and exploiters abound everywhere, but for the most part, Indie authors are gaining the respect of peers and readers.

The downside of self-publishing? There are many institutional biases we still have to overcome. There are public-facing opportunities (books fairs, expos, cons, local news, etc.,) from which we are excluded because organizers don't consider us properly vetted. We are hugely dependent on the benevolence of a singular capricious capitalist company. A single seemingly insignificant design change on any retailers' site can tank our sales. A tech glitch on their end can result in significant losses in sales and challenges to our Intellectual Property (among other legal complications). Retailers who struggle financially find the easiest copout is to delay paying us pay us or to not pay us at all. Worse are those who under-report our sales, a circumstance against which we have no proof or recourse. When distributors have a problem--be it in tangible or digital product--it's the author who gets blamed, though we have no ability to right the wrong. We've yet to consolidate our voices to demand changes that benefit all self-published authors. We ride the shirttails of the publishing industry despite our conflicts of interest. Oh, and of course, the whole damn enterprise is costly. Success is a long-game. Books into which you invested your heart and savings will tank. Envy is real, jealousy pernicious and prevalent. Don't get me started on piracy.

But...for all the negatives, it's worth it. To me, at least. I write stories because I want to share them. I want to help total strangers escape their realities and find a bit of joy.

The biggest advantage of being an Indie author is also its greatest disadvantage: control = responsibility = accountability.  It's our name on the cover. It's our words on the pages. It's our reputation regardless.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

I choose you!

Hi folks.

It's been a while.

Sorry, I was off having cancer and doing everything I could to get that under control, but I'll do my best to post regularly again. No promises, of course, I'm busy playing catch up.

So this week's topic is near and dear to my heart. Traditional or self-publishing.

Listen, twenty years ago I would have sneered at self-publishing. Right or wrong (for the times) I felt the true measure of professionalism was getting published by one of the Big Five. Less than that meant less than professional.

Then the world changed drastically.

Self-publication stopped being an amateur hour. You could do it and actually have a chance of making money, which, two decades back wasn't the case very often. There were always exceptions but they WERE exceptions.

One of the best things bout self-publication these days is called BACKLISTING. I have several books in print now that weren't there for a few years. True story, I did a book called BLOODSTAINED OZ with one of my best friends. It sold through a small press at a price of $40 for a numbered limited edition and $125 for a lettered limited edition. lt also sold out in one weekend. After that, you just weren't going to see it again.  There were no plans for a mass-market version because we were talking about a novella.

fast forward ten years and the book was practically a holy grail affair. The books that had sol at $45 were going for over $1,000 dollars on the secondary market. because we could and because there was obvious demand, my partner on the book and I agreed to put it out as an ebook for $1.99. We sold a few copies and the market dropped. Now you can get a second-hand version for a far more reasonable price. What can we say? Books are meant to be read.

I have several more books that are currently out of print. I intend to put most of them back into print during the next year.

I'm doing them a few at a time because I have to pay someone smarter than me for the layout and someone else with artistic talent for the covers. :)

I still have plenty of traditionally published books in the queue. but my backstock? I can do that myself, if only to ensure people can still find copies if they're so inclined.

Keep smiling folks!

The Freedom of Being a Hybrid Author

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Choosing your freedom - Traditional or Self-Publishing?" We've been asked which freedom we picked: the freedom to write without getting into the business side or the freedom to control it all?

You all know me: I'm the both gal. As with everything, I'm pretty much in the Venn Diagram overlap of both worlds. I'm a hybrid author, with a foot equally in each camp. My income for the past three years has been 60/40% from trad/indie or indie/trad. It goes back and forth depending on the year, but I figure it evens out to 50/50.

I like both routes! Being able to control my covers and pricing is great, but I mostly love the freedom of being able to move my self-publishing deadlines around. I particularly love the monthly income. I also really love being part of a team. The St. Martins team working with my on my Forgotten Empires trilogy - and the release of THE FIERY CROWN in one month! - is beyond awesome. Having a high-quality group of people loving my book, cheering it on and pouring their own energy into making it succeed is really wonderful.

All the freedoms belong to me!