“When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?”

~  Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

My growing sense of unease is related to things I cannot control. Things like the publishing industry and one of the two publishers through which, I am connected to it.

There was a lot of angry words said about Permuted Press, during what we now refer to as “The Kerfuffle.” Last year, Permuted announced they would be cancelling the print version of many books. Affected authors got upset. Some authors then announced they were taking their toys out of the sandpit and going home. Permuted then did something really dumb. They said anyone who leaves, may have certain costs (cover art, editing etc.) charged to them to leave their contracts. That was when people got really angry.

The outrage was exactly like this

This was followed a few months later by Kerfuffle 2.0. This was when Permuted Press (whose new owners had expanded the stable of authors to over 200) realized that there wasn’t a lot of money in buying up every single book that crossed their desks. They shed a few (I don’t know how many – but the number of members of the Permuted Press Authors group on Facebook dropped by about 30).  A letter was sent to everyone, some said your books will not be published by us, we are cancelling the contract, and others said, you’re good. Carry on.

This time they did it right. At least they didn’t charge anyone recovery costs for money invested in their titles.

Now we are facing Kerfuffle 3.0.

This one is simpler, subtler, and scares me most.

I am not a Permuted Press bestseller. I have been personally told (twice now) that the changes enacted (K1 and K2) would not have any effect on my books with Permuted. So, when the first kerfuffle blew up, I defended them. I got in to some stupid online fights over it. Got hassled and slapped down by professional assholes like Brian Keene (great writer, angry, angry human being).

I’m pretty sure the only reason they keep me on the books is because they almost, almost sold the movie rights to Tankbread. To a major Hollywood producer. It didn’t happen, but it was really close.

Maybe because of that, but also maybe because they like my books. Sure they don’t sell (they don’t sell much at all), but they keep me around. Sometimes I feel like one of those old cons in the prison movies. The trustee who is losing his teeth, his hair, and his marbles. They let him wander around because, hey he’s loyal, he’s harmless and he still thinks Truman is president.

This mean’s I’ve stood up when I believed that Permuted were still doing the right thing, even if it meant people were feeling hard done by on their contracts and the terms imposed on breaking them. I didn’t stand up, but I didn’t raise a fuss when the second round of changes came along. But I had a bad feeling.

In 2014, Permuted Press sold 250,000 books. They are not a company going under, as many of the Kerfuffle 1.0 sad puppies brigade claimed. If they’re taking the lion’s share of the money they are charging (and boy do they charge) for books – then they’re probably doing okay.

I wondered what the fuck they were doing when they started bringing in so many new authors. The rest of us felt (correctly) that the meagre attention being paid to the rest of us for promotion and marketing was being further eroded. There were staffing changes – people in key positions changed and I’m still not sure how many people there are in the actual office. It feels like their marketing department is possibly a fax machine that hasn’t been switched on since 2004. The people I deal with at Permuted are nice. They respond to emails, they tell me what I need to know.

I’m not sure what a full marketing team giving a month’s worth of attention to the Tankbread series would do for sales anyway. I think probably nothing. The market for zombie fiction is (and this is the word I heard used today) ‘mature.’

Zombies in their current guise are fully ingrained in western pop-culture. We have The Walking Dead, we have Fear The Walking Dead, we have Z-Nation, we have dozens of movies and thousands of novels, comics, and other media about zombies.

Vampires were probably a mature genre item by the time Max Schreck appeared in Nosfteratu. But we still see variants on the vampire myth (maybe because it’s more about sex than anything else). Mature markets aren’t dead. They aren’t a guaranteed way to lose money – but they are no longer the fresh and virgin territory for the mass marketing they once were.

The Big Six  Five (who may well be the Big Three by now) in publishing know more about genre markets than anyone. Which brings me to Kerfuffle 3.0

In a nutshell, Permuted Press “lost” their distribution partner and have been negotiating with Simon and Schuster for a replacement distribution arrangement. This distribution partnership has always been focused on the Permuted Platinum titles. Those are the best sellers, which the company then invests in producing hardback and paperback copies of those titles for distribution to chain stores like Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores across the USA.

I don’t know how the previous deal was lost. It probably involved money – or maybe it’s just that you know, the market for zombies is mature now, and their distributors can’t place hundreds of copies of titles that sold well in ebook format, into brick and mortar stores. Either way Permuted is currently without a distributor. They are looking for another one, and S&S aren’t interested in the way Permuted wanted them to be. So we were told today that Permuted will be restructuring the Platinum (best sellers in bookstores via distributor model) over the summer.

Again, not my problem, my books aren’t Platinum sellers anyway. But y’know… there’s more at stake here.

There is the issue that Permuted don’t seem to have a plan, or a strategy, or a solution. Not just to their sudden lack of distributor, but to a whole bunch of things. There’s no apparent marketing. There’s no support for the back catalog. There’s no stake in the ground for Permuted authors to feel that we know where we stand. Summer is a really uncertain term. I’m guessing it means the northern hemisphere summer, but that could be three months, four, maybe six before anything is actually announced to those who really need to know.

Given that twice now (in the last 12 months) there have been situations where a lot of authors (some quite successful) were suddenly told that the way their product was being sold or produced would be changed (or just dropped from the catalog) it’s small wonder that many of us are uneasy.

There are other things.

Post Hill Press and Winlock Press. Both are Permuted Press imprints, or at least publishing ventures owned by the same investors. These other print-brands specialize in different genres (Winlock publishes apocalyptic fiction as well as everything else). Post Hill publishes mainstream fiction and non-fiction.

They are apparently doing very well. So suddenly, Permuted Press is looking to rebrand. They did this with a request for people to provide them with a new tagline to replace the “Enjoy the Apocalypse!”

I have a mug like this. They are rare and precious – unless you bought one.

tag which focused on their main source of material – apocalyptic fiction. Now they want to expand into other genres, sci-fi, fantasy, YA… sure they’ll keep zombies around… I mean the market is mature… and Truman’s still president…

The winning replacement tagline was apparently provided by a Permuted Press author – they win an Apple Watch. Irony is Apple watches are worth more than I have made from Permuted book sales ever (I’ve been paid advances, but still haven’t earned out). It’s akin to being told you’re being retired and having someone else get your gold watch.

So where am I at now?

Cover is still being finalised

I’m facing an uncertain future. I have a book coming out from Permuted next month, called, Dead! Dead! Dead! 

The cover draft looks cool. They just ran with my simple idea and it’ll do. It’s not a Tankbread story, though I have got a contract with them for Tankbread 4.

Except, when I told Michael (President) that the manuscript wasn’t going to be ready by the April deadline we had agreed to last year, he said that was okay, it wasn’t on their release list at the moment anyway.

Oh… good?

I’m happy with the new book. It is apocalyptic fiction. But it was co-written with US Army and National Guard veteran, Bill Ball. So the extensive military elements in the book are accurate and it might actually have a market. There is no contract for a book 2 in that series. Though I have ideas, and a title. Bill would definitely be on board for a sequel. D!D!D! is his baby as much as it is mine. Permuted have provided me with one of the best editors in the business, for which I am grateful. Working with Jon has always been a real education for every book they have published of mine.

But unease… I have a lot of other writing irons in the fire. I think we all do. There is the sequel to Engines of Empathy (which won a Best Novel award this year) to be published by my other publisher. There are multiple short-stories coming out and there are other novels. Sci-Fi, Crime-Thrillers, YA, and I’m even working on a paranormal romance. I’m probably going to self-publish them. To do that I will need to save up for paying a professional editor. I know a few and I hope I can afford them.

EDIT: Permuted Press reported ‘delivery’ of 250,000 titles in 2014. This includes free downloads, which are only “sales” if you are a journalist for Forbes.

So the titles are getting out there, but there’s no certainty around how fiscally successful the company is.

Addendum: This is an edited version of the post Michael Wilson (President of Permuted Press) made to the Permuted Press authors Facebook group, 18 April, 2015.

Emphasis added.

In late February, we met in Berkeley, CA, with our distributor to discuss sales strategy for Fall/Winter 2015…The discussions didn’t go so well. Shortly after returning from that trip, the mutual decision was made to part ways with our distributor, Ingram Publisher Services…Shortly thereafter we received a fantastic offer from Simon and Schuster to distribute Post Hill Press.

When we brought Permuted to the table [Simon and Schuster] simply weren’t interested.

Discussions didn’t progress for Permuted Platinum the way they did for our other publishing company, Post Hill.

Permuted’s books weren’t generating enough backlist sales to make a transition of the entire catalog worthwhile.

Coul we instead continue with our separated Permuted / Permuted Platinum model? The powers that be at S&S agreed to do so.

[Simon & Schuster] would distribute Permuted Platinum, but we had to bring even more than our previous A-game.

We are shifting Permuted Platinum’s strategy.

We’ve not settled on a strategy just yet, but we’re considering a lot of things.

I realize that change like this gives the impression of instability, but that’s genuinely not the case.

Sales are down

Permuted isn’t in the business to sell 10 books at day at $2.99 a piece

At the end of the day, if that’s all the genre is capable of producing, then so be it I suppose.

TL;DR: Platinum is moving distribution to Simon and Schuster and will be restructured later this summer. Permuted continues to morph also to work within either the confines or abundance of revenues as the case may be.

Self Publishing success is achievable – apparently.