ROBUST discussion

Kat Jordan's 2nd Biennial Overview of the Indie Market
http://jordanscroft.blogspot.ie/2013/...

Sales are down? That's news to me and the authors I edit at CoolMain Press. The writers and micro publishers who've done what the good guys have always done, put the literature first and bugger the posturing and the politics, have survived and prospered. There never were easy riches in them thar Kindle hills for wannabe writers unless they were talented, and most of the indies were more intent on "living the author lifestyle" than on writing, on being writers than on writing. They mistook the ability to bash a typewriter for a writer's entire skill set. They got what they had coming for being foolish. On the way, with a lot of help from Amazon, they very nearly succeeded in ruining the market for quality literature. I shan't weep at their passing.

BTW: Love your banner image. http://jordanscroft.blogspot.ie/2011/...

Well, I can't speak to the market in general, but I know a lot of people still making their living with indie publishing.

My wife has done rather well as well (first published in April) and does better (in terms of increasing average dollars per day) with each new title added. So, its not like she had some big following from the golden age or something.

I will note that A) publishing regularly (minimum of once every ninety days*) and B) writing a series (whether stylistically the same or an actual linked series) make things easier, and everyone I know doing well tends to follow the above-mentioned pattern.

*It's interesting watching the long-term data for some of her titles. You can see, despite the noisiness of the data and the general tendency to return to the mean and what not, the patterns and the critical points at 30, 60, and 90 days.

Sure, it's definitely not as easy at it once was, but opportunity is still there.

Heck, if I could get more time*, I could get the sequel out to my first book that people keep asking for and make some more myself.

*My wife's success, particularly the last two months, is going to allow me to seriously reduce the number of hours I spend on non-writing related tasks. I actually did have decent momentum on my first book sales-wise, and then followed it up a year later with a book in a totally different and rather niche genre. Brilliant marketing!

My wife's success has been particularly instructive. She used a pen name and has done zero promotion. She didn't even do any funny algorithm stuff like freebies or whatever. She just picked a genre she liked, studied the popular titles in terms of covers and what not, and just keeps writing stuff.

Most of her covers have been $30 pre-mades.

She writes romance, so it's easier than say it would be with Heian mystery or something, but I know people doing well in everything from historical fiction to even horror, which was a genre that's been "dead" so long, I remember going to cons twenty years ago and being told "horror is dead unless your name is King."

You took the words out of my mouth, Jeremy. I was about to say, "Horror isn't dead. Stephen King is alive and well and writing away in Maine."

I don't pay much attention to markets and trends. By the time I've finished the book that I wanted to write and let it lie fallow, and rewritten it, and had it edited by trustworthy people, it's a few years down the line and there's a new bunch of gurus saying exactly the opposite as when I started out. So I turn out to be right and trendy all the time.

The thing is to look cool and pretend you planned it that way.

Yearly trends are interesting. And it's been even more fun to watch the culture around e-book publishing change.

I still say the the more backlist available, the few Indie e-books are sold.

BTW - Ashtabula Public Library has requested I come back to give a talk and bring a couple cases of my books to sell. The trip is planned for August 18th, 2014.

K. A. wrote: "I still say the the more backlist available, the few Indie e-books are sold."

Or you could say that the more cheap books there are from indies, the less likely readers are to want to pay for the output of professionals.

I don't think we've seen the final outcome. Everyone always concentrates on the 79% of Indies that I found in my study to be worthless as writers, or at best needing more work than their earnings would ever be worth. That's the wrong focus.

What matters is that the 21% of good writers I discovered among the indies are several times as many writers as there were in the entire world under the old tradpub system. There aren't proportionally more books being sold, except (maybe) in pornography, so all those writers can't be earning a living. That indicates another shakeout coming.

You don't need to be Nostradamus to forecast that the hardened professionals, survivors of many earlier shakeouts, will survive again, together with those among the talented new writers who took the opportunity Amazon provided via KDP to learn their business. That's just the way it works.

Congratulations on becoming Homecoming Queen at your hometown library. Who's got the ROBUST white gloves? Kat needs them!

I hope you're right, Andre, that the talent will out. The situation certainly hasn't settled down yet. Personally, I'm trying to ignore many of the short term noise, and trying to do what seems best long-term.

Talent flows like water, finding the invisible cracks. There isn't much you can do about hurrying it along. The smart response to the constant ferment of indieland is to do what a writer is supposed to do, write.

Dakota had the gloves last...I'm not sure what happened to the tiara - I think she took it to work. LOL


"I don't think we've seen the final outcome."

No - but the trends are being published all over kboards.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see where everyone's at in about a year. I mean if we look at the yearly "Kboards" trends, they make indie sales patterns, strategies, et cetera look like an cracked out hummingbird's flight pattern, and that isn't even taking into account the seasonality of things.

Writers write. I was writing before the indie revolution, so its particular monthly permutations don't disturb me much.

Well, I mustn't have any talent because my sales have dried up completely.

You should not give up promotional activity, Katie. The book market has natural dips and peaks that new entrants can't observe for a few years because they are hidden by new books being launched. There are well-known industry-wide phenomena. I would expect your sales to pick up towards Christmas.

I've just re-enrolled in Select with two books, one of which has never been in before, so we'll see.

On the good side, my book cover/illustrating business is doing pretty well. Who knows, if my name becomes well known enough, people might start peeking at my books just out of interest.

Great to hear you're earning a buck. We shouldn't forget that earning a living in an agreeable manner puts the seal on the satisfaction of being talented and creative.

PS. I think I've earned enough today to pay someone else to vacuum my study. Who'll do it for a dime?

Andre Jute wrote: "Great to hear you're earning a buck. We shouldn't forget that earning a living in an agreeable manner puts the seal on the satisfaction of being talented and creative..."

Hear hear!

Andre Jute wrote: "PS. I think I've earned enough today to pay someone else to vacuum my study. Who'll do it for a dime?"

Kench!

I just pulled my 'Horsewomen of the Zombie Apocalypse' novella off all the other markets so I can put it in Select for the Christmas season.

Otherwise I've been busy spinning llama wool into yarn. I'm making Christmas presents this year. Infinity scarves, hats and fingerless mittens.

There are 5 bags of wool sitting in my study. Hubby is buying me Dragon software so I can dictate my books. Lol My hands are going to be full for a very long time.

That's a lot of llama hair.

Llama: South American domesticated camel (when wild called vicuna) that spits in one's face to express its opinion. Excellent warm coats are made from its fleece.

I just brought home two alpacas (smaller than llamas) I've adopted from a rescue organization. The one spit a few times while we trimmed it's toes. He was terrified, hadn't been handled much.

Both are white, one is a suri - very, very fine hair.

I also got three more bags of hair. I've been washing and spinning a skein every few days.

You can find llamas at rescue organizations? That's my "weird thing I didn't expect" for the week.

Does this imply a lot of people mistreating llamas? Seems like an odd animal to purchase if you're not prepared to take care of it, then again, I still can't wrap my head around the fact that so many people buy something as expensive as horses and then mistreat them.

There are rescue organizations for just about any critter you can think of.

It appears that people bought a few llama's or alpaca's, turned them out into a field, brought them in to shear once a year and let them go. Southeast LLama Rescue gets llama's and alpacas in by the herd - sometimes a couple dozen at a time.

My two are very wary of humans. Even when they want to come in at night, they still have to be cornered and caught because they've never been handled much. To walk up to a human, allow that human to touch them, is unthinkable.

I've renamed them - Bashful and Grumpy. Grumpy has gone from screaming and spitting when I touch him to something that sounds like he's swearing at me, to cussing and now it's 'Ewwwww!'

Bashful is so timid with humans that he still has to be cornered, though it's very easy to catch him. He almost corners himself.

But they have become curious about me. It's a good sign, I might get them tame yet.

Grumpy has got the thickest, softest coat - I love to touch him - but he still complains 'Ewwww!' Every time I handle him.

They're probably irritable because they're suffering heat rash in a Kentucky winter, which to them would be a heatwave. i once had a vicuna coat but it was only good for posing in, and then not too long because you would start sweating most unattractively. Lovely orange-tan color though.

Alpaca hair comes in some really lovely colors!

I sent a scarf to my sister, she just moved back to Ohio and the sub-zero winter temps. It was a soft white and a chocolate brown that was just yummy. Took a week to spin the yarn.

The little guys are SO soft! Unfortunately, my old mare has declared WAR! on them. I have to keep them in a small pen. The first time I let them out, the old mare rounded them up and put them back in the pen.

It was strange to see her carry out a plan - well thought out - to put them back 'where they belong.'

Funny old mare!

PS - the alpacas are making great strides in socialization. I'm surprised at their progress.

Next you'll start training us...

I wouldn't presume...Kench!

I can just imagine Andre cornered and muttering 'Eewwww' as you got closer. I wonder if he has enough wool left on him to be useful though.

Kat didn't name one of those llama Andre, did she? Mind you, I used to have a bonobo, a series of them in fact, called Mini-Andre I through IV, so a llama isn't so far off, though of course a bonobo is a more intelligent animal than most people.

Is Andre that grumpy? I could see him doing that...Eewwww!

Kench!

The alpacas don't like to get wet - found that out today. I was even able to catch them by myself - they really wanted inside!

Nah, I smile and tell jokes. I don't see he point of being grumpy.