Picking Your Battles

My new book, The South Coast, has been out for just about two weeks now. The release was sloppy, to say the least, due to Amazon picking the listing up and putting it on their store before I even knew, for a whole week. I then pushed the Kindle version live and in a whimper, not a bang, had a book available to the world.

My book is printed by a company called Lightning Source, which is owned by Ingram. Ingram is the largest book distributor in the country, and services most other countries. Lightning Source is Print-On-Demand (POD) meaning I don't have to buy hundreds or thousands of copies and keep them in my basement. A book is printed once it is ordered, eliminating the need for keeping stock (or for wasting paper). And the printing is fast and good. I am very happy with the cover and paper quality of my book. It is hard to tell any difference from most books sitting on the shelves down at my local Barnes & Noble.

And in the first day of release I discovered quickly that Amazon treats independent authors quite differently. Amazon owns their own POD company, called CreateSpace. If you use CreateSpace your title is of course automatically on Amazon.com (it is with Lightning Source as well). POD takes no more than a couple of days to have a book ready to ship. But if the POD supplier is not CreateSpace, Amazon puts a hold on the order. This hold equated to 2-3 weeks for my book.

I had many emails back and forth with the executive office at Amazon to find out why they do this, but a true answer was never given. I then decided to contact who is pretty much the 'king' of independent authors, Hugh Howey. I wrote him and he wrote back quickly, to tell me he too had the same issue when he first started publishing his own books.

Hugh's answer: Create a second version of the paperback through CreateSpace and just move on.

It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear. I wanted to fight the giant, to go into battle and win a big win for indie authors everywhere. But... I also want my book to be readily available for the tens of people who might buy it.

So available now on Amazon is the CreateSpace version of my paperback. Honestly, it is almost as good as my Lightning Source version.

I'm still going to find ways to push Amazon to work better with companies other than their own, but for now I just have to maintain two different versions of my paperback.

The South Coast is available at these fine retailers:
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos

Jeff,

I am a writer. I am in the process of independently publishing my first book, The South Coast.

In the early stages I was going with Amazon's CreateSpace but decided to use Lightning Source as my printer to not limit the availability of my book to only Amazon.com. All the right selling points were there, that my book would be available to Amazon through Ingram. Honestly I also liked the quality of the final printed book and the nice matte cover better than the proofs I received from CreateSpace.

Then I find out, once Ingram has put my book in the system, that Amazon began the process well over a year ago of not carrying independent books from Lightning Source anymore, instead putting a Temporarily Out of Stock notice on their detail pages which as we all know discourages anyone from ordering.

Lightning Source is a reputable, respectable and fast print-on-demand supplier. Would it not be possible for Amazon to simply put 'Available to ship in 1-3 days' on the details for Lightning Source sourced books rather than 'Temporarily Out of Stock'? I understand Amazon doesn't have the warehouse space to carry even one copy of every self-published book, but allowing people to order the books that are then created by Lightning Source seems to be a win-win for Amazon.

I'll still be selling my Kindle version through Amazon through the KDP program. It is still the best method of distributing eBooks online.

Amazon was first a bookstore before it began selling everything else. This is punctuated by the first product Amazon built was a device to read books. The Kindle store has a special section for Independent Books. It seems counterintuitive to me that you would then take steps to keep independent authors from making their printed books available through your store.

Embrace the Independent Authors. Whether they use Amazon's CreateSpace or Lightning Source, or another Print On Demand system that can integrate with your system with minimal human interaction, let them easily sell their printed books on your store.

Thank you,

John H. Matthews

Sent To:
Executive Customer Relations,

ecr-replies@amazon.com

Jeff Bezos

jeff@amazon.com

From Author to Publicist: The many hats of self-publishing

I'm still working on coming to terms with calling myself an author and now I have to be a publicist, run distribution and more.

Self-publishing, the less condescending name for the previously known as vanity publishing, is a brave new world for an industry that shows as much resistance to change as the music industry. But it is a new world especially for the writers themselves.

There have been some breakout superstars of self-publishing, led by Hugh Howey and his Wool series. Howey actually did so well he ended up getting a hybrid publishing deal, keeping the ePub side to himself and a big publisher doing the print versions. That kind of success is beyond rare. 

80% of books published sell less than 250 copies. Most authors are happy to sell a few dozen to their family and friends, but deep down everyone who writes a book hopes for success. Hugh Howey type success would be great, but just selling enough copies to justify your efforts is a huge boost to your psyche, and to being motivated to continue one of those other dozen projects you have in your mind.

I'm a couple weeks out from releasing my first book, The South Coast. I've put my Author hat on the shelf, even putting my two new projects on hold. My Publisher hat is off but within reach. Now I have my Publicist hat firmly on my head, it's a snazzy tan fedora (in my mind). I'm a Myers-Briggs introvert so this is uncharted territory.

I'm emailing newspapers and radio stations and working on a media kit to mail out. So many self-pub authors write, edit, and release to eBook then sit back and hope for sales outside their direct family. I'm hoping to go past that. I want to go past that 250 and be part of the 20%, not the 80%. 

Once I hit that 251st book I'll put on my Party Hat for a night.

Cover Story

The cover art has changed a bit since I began blogging about the book. 

Here is the final front cover that will be seen on the trade paperback print version as well as the Kindle eBook.

The model is Dave Reeves, a former Marine, mixed martial arts master, physical fitness trainer, father of three, and all around good guy. When I came to him about modeling for the cover of my book he had no hesitation in agreeing, as well as providing the 'hardware' seen in the image. 

You can follow Dave on Twitter at @FluffyNowFit. He has an amazing story of going from 240+ pounds to his current weight in the mid 100's and becoming a winning martial artist.

We shot the image, along with about a hundred others, in my studio over about an hour and a half. His training as a Marine and a martial artist worked well to understanding what I was looking for. 

Thanks again, Dave, for channeling your 'inner Eddie Holland' for the cover of The South Coast!

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Soundtrack for a Book?

We've all walked out of a movie theater or turned off a DVD with the music from the film running through our head. Maybe we went online and ordered the CD or went to the store and bought it (when you could still go to stores to buy CD's).

But have you ever finished a book and wanted the soundtrack? 

I've had it happen to me once, after reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (the movie is good, but the book is great). The whole story revolves around a few guys who work in a record store in London. Real records, vinyl. Band names and song titles are thrown around and make you want to listen to them right then.

Music is a very big part of my life, and when I began writing The South Coast I knew I wanted to somehow include that love. With the book being set in Austin, Texas, I felt it fit to also focus on the wealth of incredible music from the Lone Star State. 

Throughout the course of the book, our protagonist, Eddie Holland, listens to Texas bluegrass, folk and rock. The artists range from Guy Clark to Lyle Lovett to Spoon.

What are your favorite movie soundtracks?