Ebooks and the triumphant resurgence of the novella…

One of the trends I’m noticing as I buy new ebooks is the lengths, and most of my recent purchases have been novellas from both indie and pro market writers. This makes me realize that there’s a side of this self-publishing story that isn’t being talked about: the return of the novella market.

Mainstream publishing has all but abandoned the novella, and even among mid-size and small publishers, it’s hard to find a novella a good home. Many places choose to double up authors to make a larger print book, and while this works, it has problems, in my opinion. For one thing, some readers will decide not to buy the book if they like one book blurb, but not the other. The other is, it’s hard to figure out how to sell them. Do you pair up two stories that are similar and risk making the second novella look like a clone? Or do you pair contrasting stories, even if it might cost you some readers? (For the reason given above that readers like one, but not the other.)

Traditional publishers have tended to look down on the novella because the length to payout ratio isn’t “cost effective.” I put that in quotes because this is the same industry that banks lousy books using their blockbusters, and that has been operating on a shotgun marketing approach to sell a book within a very limited window of time. They abandon many works even as those books are just starting to find an audience. And they’ve operated this way for decades knowing this approach meant marginal returns, at best. You pro publishing proponents may try to claim that I’m  wrong, but let’s look at Borders, or B. Dalton, or at the diminishing sales of print books while ebook markets are soaring. The fact is, these people don’t have room to talk about what’s cost effective when so many industry standard practices aren’t.

The New Bedlam Project – Vol. 2 Issue 4

The last online issue of The New Bedlam Project is out today, and after this it will move to a print format. Fittingly, the last digital issue also features the final installment from my Donkey Lady series, four linked “episodes” that have been posted every other issue over the online life of the project.

After this episode, Teaching the Beasties, Jeff Parish is taking over to continue the story from a new perspective. Jodi called this the best of the series so far. I don’t know if it is or not, but I am pleased with the finished results, and I’m excited to see what another writer will make of Carol and her dark powers.

I hope you like the final installment from me, and thanks again for all of you who’ve been following the whole series.

Think kind thoughts for my hubby…

I’m cross posting this, so if you’re reading a duplicate, my apologies. Last week, my husband collasped outside of work and had to be taken to the hospital. He told me not to worry, that he was fine, and they just wanted to run some tests. Hours later he called back, and no worries, he’s fine, but the doctors just performed a leeettle surgery to install a shunt in his heart. Also, he wouldn’t be able to come home until next Wednesday because the doctors wanted to run more test to see if a second shunt was needed.

On Saturday he was moved out of intensive therapy, our version of ICU, and into a shared room with another patient. Hubby saw this as a good sign, and once again, he said he felt fine. I went to see him on Sunday, and he was taking calls from work and bouncing around the room to give us the full tour. So yeah, that gave me hope that I’d been worrying over nothing. Well today he called, and the doctors aren’t convinced he’s fine. They want to install the other shut and run more tests. So hubby won’t be coming home this week, and he might not be back next week either.

Hubby is an Atheist, so prayers are kinda not kosher. (I don’t think he’d really care one way or the other.) But if you could, try and think some positive thoughts for him. And also, if I seem a bit randoms or catty out of the blue, try to forgive me. I’m having a bit of a rough time dealing with this. Hubby is my only connection to the world around me, and I have trouble caring for myself when he goes out of town for four days on a sales convention. He’s been gone a week, and things are falling apart fast here, myself included. The house is so cold I have to stay in my room to conserve heat, or wear three layers of clothes just for a walk to the bathroom. I can’t really cook full meals, so I’m eating junk food and snacks. Which is probably also part of the reason why I’m having such terrible problems with my MS. But then again, with all this added stress of worrying over hubby, I’d still be fucked even if the weather was warm and I was eating properly. Since I’m not and it’s the dead of Winter, I’m triply fucked.

I am not an Atheist, and so you can direct all prayers this way, please. And once again, sorry if I get weird on you in the coming days. Really, I have good reasons to be losing my shit.

Why I hate marketing…

Me: I wish I knew how to market a book.

People Online: Oh, that’s easy, stupid. You just go online and talk about your book.

Me: Okay…um, so my book is about—

PO: No, stupid, don’t just talk about your book, or we’ll ignore you.

Me: But you just said—

PO: Oh, sure, we want the book, eventually, but for now you should talk about yourself.

Me: I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. I’ve got mental issues and I—

PO: Whoa, stupid, don’t tell us anything personal! Christ, we don’t really want to know you. We just want to pretend we know you. So give us some random stuff that doesn’t involve your religious, political, or personal beliefs. And nothing honest or awkward. Just tell us something interesting to identify with you without really talking about you.

Me: … You know, at this point, I’d really rather just throw my book at you and go back to my cave.

PO: Then you have a poor attitude about selling books.

Me: Well, since we’re on the topic, the handful of you who bought my books might help out by saying something.

PO: No, stupid, you can’t expect us readers to act like fans from other entertainment industries. We prefer remaining silent and letting you do all the marketing yourself. It makes you look more epic when you finally do sell well. You should thank us for making you look epic.

Me: …

PO: Yep, that’s enough useful advice for one day. Good luck with your new book!

Me: … Mother was right. I should have taken up alcoholism instead.

Another push for Zombie Punter, please?

So, last night, I had this plan, nay, this vision, of trying to market Zombie Punter for one night, just like I had with the free Twilight parody. Well, early on, I kinda got sabotaged by my own body and had a fatigue attack. So I wandered off to the couch after making one sale. I woke up at 6 AM, stumbled back to the computer, and…still have only one sale.

I realize it will be harder to sell a book than to give one away, but one isn’t going to pay any bills. So, people who’ve read Zombie Punter, please, let me ask you once again to consider going to Smashwords and buying a copy for 0.99. One, because it’s something like a tip for the story you read. And two, because if you buy a copy you can also leave a rating or a review.

I could try to appeal to new readers first, but here’s the dealio, yo…yo. Despite being in this writing gig for four years, I’m still a POD writer to a lot of people. So any price, even 0.99, is too high to pay if there’s a risk that the story sucks. I know that, you know that. We know that. They know that. But you know what? You folks who read Zombie Punter, you know it rocked. Lots of you either wrote me to say so in the blogs, or you emailed me, and there are a few favorable reviews here and there for Zombie Punter. One might even say glowing reviews.

But to really help out the sales effort on Smashwords, I could use a broad range of opinions and ratings. I appreciate the help I got when the story was first released, but now I need to make a new push and get more people onto Smashwords. So, I’m asking you to consider leaving a 0.99 tip and a rating and review as well. I cannot stress enough how much your opinion means for the success of my work. On my own, even my best ballyhoo got one sale. So obviously, very few people believe my hype. And that’s depressing, but there’s not much I can do about that.

So..no serial, BUT, there is a way out of this mess…

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that my superhero serial, A Frosty Girl’s Cure, is coming to a close, and that I’m discontinuing free serial fiction. Initially I had plans to release a paid series using Smashwords. But it was brought to my attention that Smashwords will not allow me to charge anything below 0.99 cents, and in writing to confirm that, Mark Coker informed me that serial fiction isn’t allowed at Smashwords at all.

And so what to do with Confessions of a Zombie Lover? Well, it will have to go out as an ebook first. I’ll be aiming for mid February, possibly even Valentine’s day as the release date, giving me some time to release guest blogs and drum up more support. I need strong sales on this series because my ultimate goal after releasing all three ebooks will be to release a print omnibus edition with interior art illustrating some of the key scenes. Paying an artist to do this right will require strong sales, and not just on this book, but also on the first book, Zombie Punter.

For this reason, I’d like to urge readers to pick up copies of Zombie Punter from Smashwords through this link. If you’ve already read it free, please consider buying a copy to help me earn a decent wage in 2011. If you’ve never read it, please buy a copy and check it out. While it is a zombie story, I consider it a dark fantasy more than horror. The differences are in minor style changes and little elemental touches, like the main character wielding a replica bastard sword like a mini berserker.

Zombie Punter got a number of great reviews, but no one has yet posted a review on Smashwords. So after buying a copy and reading it, please consider leaving a rating or a review on Smashwords. You can be as brief or verbose as you like, and you can give whatever score you think is fair. But your reviews will help me out a lot in picking up new readers over the rest of the year. Who knows, if we can keep up a steady increase in sales, I might even be able to earn a semi pro rate.

Or that’s the plan, and a lot of it depends on you. My current sales count on Zombie Punter is 38, so I need 138 before I can back off the ballyhoo machine. I got 300 downloads for my Twilight parody in four days, but that was a free file. So now it’s time to find out how many of you are willing to chip in 0.99 and a review to help finance this series and get it developed to a print omnibus. (In theory, a cheap one, possibly even 8.99)

Maybe you can’t buy one now. Okay, fine, but perhaps you can share this post through your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr account. Let’s get Zombie Punter on track to become an example of an indie fiction success story, okay?

ETA: There is in fact one review for Zombie Punter on Smashwords, and a 4 star review. I completely forgot about it while writing this post. So, yes, there’s one good review, and it could use some neighbors.

A free ebook to kick off the new year…

Bella Wong is a young lesbian moving to the Bronx, where she hopes to meet hot older women. She’s in luck, because her neighbor Edwina Sullen is the prettiest and coolest older woman Bella’s ever seen. No, she’s really cool, like room temperature. And she’s really old, like 218.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35481

My Gay Sparkly Vampire romance is my 2010 NoNoWriMo entry, and at 56k it should be a short read. I hope you’ll check out my parody, and if you do, please considered leaving a review or a rating at Smashwords, where the book is hosted. Thanks in advance for the brave reviewers who accept the challenge, and happy new year to everyone!