The Nature Of Numbers

A few weeks ago, Lev Grossman, the book critic for Time, had this to say about literary fiction:

"There is a certain brokenness among American literary publishing. I find it quite incredible, the energy and attention given to publishing books that are bought by only 10,000 people."

You walk into a bookstore -- assuming there is still a bookstore near you -- and you see all of these books on the tables in the front and on the shelves and do you, like me, wonder: who's buying these books? Someone is certainly buying them, or else these authors wouldn't continue to be published. But if you're not buying these books, and I'm not buying these books, then who is?

You know I hate to always be cynical but it's difficult, especially when talking about publishing and writing. I mean, we spend all our time writing stories and novels and submitting those stories and novels and getting those stories and novels rejected until, hopefully one day, an editor(s) likes them enough to actually publish them. And so then we wait and wait until the stories or novels come out, and then ... then what?

If we're talking about a short story being published in a print journal, well, good luck on having it read by a lot of people, not unless it's The Paris Review or some other venerable journal. And online, well, you're going to have better luck getting people to read your story, but after the first couple of weeks, then what? A new issue comes out and pushes the issue with your story off the main page, and it keeps getting pushed further and further away.

If we're talking about a novel being published, well, good luck on having it read by a lot of people, not unless the publisher paid you one million dollars and is doing everything it can to earn back its investment. Most likely, the bulk of the promotion will be on your shoulders, and sure, it's cool seeing your book in the bookstore, but wait a month or two and check the bookstore again. See your book there? Probably not.

Again, I hate to be cynical, but this is the reality of writing and publishing. Not that it should dissuade you from doing it. Nine times out of ten, you're a writer because you want to be a writer, you need to be a writer, and so what if only a handful of people read your stuff -- at least someone other than your parents are reading words you created, and that, honestly, is something special. Sure, we all want the big advances, we all want to be read by millions and millions of people, but the reality is all of that will probably never happen. If we're lucky, we'll maybe get read by those 10,000 people Lev Grossman mentioned.

But numbers, man, they are important, aren't they? Especially in publishing, where your numbers follow you around for life. Your first book doesn't sell well? Good luck then on trying to get a second one published, as hardly any publisher will be willing to take a chance on you.

That's one of the great benefits about doing it yourself -- numbers don't matter as much, at least not in the same vein as they do with major publishers. I mean, yeah, the more units you sell, the better, but if a book isn't doing well, it's not the end of the world. Those numbers could stay the same or they could go up or they could go down -- whatever happens, it doesn't mean you will have to scramble to try to get another book published.

Recently I've been seeing some writers make statements like "I'm not going to write the second book in the series until this first book sells 5,000 copies," as if it's some kind of threat. And the thing is, even if it is some kind of threat, who are they threatening?

I actually asked one of these writers why they just don't start writing the second book now, as some series don't take off right away and it's only after the second or third book that they do. After all, I reminded this writer, The Girl With the Dragan Tattoo sold terribly at first. Here was the response (I've Xed out the book titles for obvious reasons):

I've been on this train before, even if it's the first time I've self-pubbed. I was writing a sequel to a novel I hadn't sold yet (XXXXX), and it was a frightening time. If XXXXX hadn't sold, then the follow-up XXXXXX would've had an even harder time selling, making the whole exercise pointless.  I don't want to spend another 8-10 months on series books while the series isn't selling well. Many in regular publishing get lucky enough with the 2 book deal, so they have freedom to not care. But when it's a self-pub, I'd rather sit back and wait. I'm busy writing other books right now.

At least this particular writer is busy writing other books. That's the most important part of being a writer -- always writing something, not matter if it's the second book to a series that, so far, isn't selling very well. Sometimes, though, I just feel that these writers aren't writing, and that they're just waiting for their sales to improve to give them the excuse to start writing again. That seems like an odd motivator, and maybe I'm way off base here, but there you have it.

Actually, I do know where this particular writer is coming from. Years and years ago, I'd written a novel (I mentioned this one before, the 90,000-word novel I wrote in a frenzied three weeks). It's the novel I got my first agent with, the novel that got me into the wild and wacky world of publishing (at least on the agent side of things). At the time, it had only been meant as a standalone novel. But then, as I began to think about it, I realized that it could actually be the first book in a trilogy. So what does the young and naive Robert Swartwood do? He starts writing the second book, just hoping for the best. And, obviously, the best never happened. Only maybe that's not the case. Because, well, now I have two books already written in a proposed trilogy, and ...

Well, I don't want to get too ahead of myself. It's been years since I looked at them last, and I know they need some work, so even if I were to release them at some point, it won't be any time soon.

But, yeah, numbers. The important numbers aren't the amount of e-books you sell a day (though that is important in a way). The important numbers are the words you write a day. Even if it's not a lot, only a few hundred, or even a few dozen, just as long as you're writing.

Also, is it just me, or did Sesame Street pave the way for a lot of kids to use psychedelic drugs?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUL4T8WcFdA

The Art Of Rejecting Rejection

Rejection is the most common thing a writer can experience. When it comes to writing, rejection is the rule, not the exception. If you cannot handle rejection, don’t be a writer.

The above basically sums up a massive post Roxane Gay did earlier today at PANK’s blog about writers rejecting rejection. This whole rejecting rejection phenomenon is so fascinating to me. It shouldn't be, of course. I used to edit a magazine years and years ago and we occasionally got the impulsively rude and snide rejection of a rejection. Even when I sent out responses to the Hint Fiction anthology I got a few of these. Writers, it seems, have the most fragile egos, which is odd because, as Roxane says in her post, when it comes to writing, rejection is the rule, not the exception. Everyone gets rejected at one point or another. I cannot seriously believe that there is one lucky writer out there who has never been rejected, not unless they wrote one decent story and sent it to a somewhat respectable journal run by a sibling who took pity on them and accepted the story and that writer never submitted anything else. In fact, I'm pretty sure I even once talked about how rejection is important for writers, how it actually helps them become better writers. All too often I see some writers publishing stories in the same journals and magazines; they have established a relationship with the editors there and, who knows, maybe have found that their stories will almost always be accepted and so they continue to submit there again and again and again because they don't want to play the whole rejecting game. And while there's nothing wrong with submitting to the same editors all the time, it's important that writers submit to other journals and magazines, ideally those of top tier quality, because otherwise it's possible their career as writers will plateau ... though I don't think these particular writers care much about whether or not this happens and instead are just happy to be keep their rejections to a minimum.

In the past I've gotten many, many rejections, but never have I fired off a snide reply. Well, that's not true. I remember there was one rejection where the editor called me "Mr. Smartwood" and I was in a bad mood at the time and quickly replied with something like "Thanks for reading the story, but it's Swartwood, not Smartwood." If I could go back and stay my hand from pressing the SEND button, I would. Then there was one rejection that was just snide and uncalled for. I didn't reply to the editor in question but forwarded it on to the publisher, explaining that while I didn't care much about the rejection itself, I didn't think it was professional for the editor to be so rude. The publisher agreed, apologized, and that was that. I never submitted to that particular market again, so I have no idea if the editor in question changed his ways. Honestly, I don't much care.

If you want to know the truth, the Internet has made it all too easy for writers to be this way. They sit down, open their email, read a rejection, and immediately send a reply. I can't imagine many actually think it over for an hour or two, try to get the wording just right, maybe even have a few close friends look the rejection's rejection over before they send it. No, it's all done in the heat of the moment, the writer's fragile ego making it so they can't think clearly. This is why a friend of mine once told me, years and years ago, he preferred to read paper submissions, because that way he almost never heard back from writers as opposed to email. And he's right -- it takes too much effort to actually write out a letter, put it in an envelope, seal that envelope, address that envelope, place a stamp on that envelope, and put it in the mail. At some point, that writer's anger would have dissipated and allowed them to think clearly.

And then, of course, you have the writers who so completely not with it that they will then partake in a flame war in the comments section of a blog post about your rejection of a rejection:

I’m the angered rejectee, and even though I ALWAYS regret my immature behavior, I see no good definitive argument in Roxane’s blog against it. Why is it wrong to react angrily and correct to bite your tongue? Is that just an opinion? Personally, I think people should express their true emotions more often than is the norm. Being phony is a choice, one that all you people in agreement can make for yourselves, but if the point of the blog is to convince me with logic that my actions were worse than just immature and uncalled for, but somehow morally wrong and reprehensible, then you’ve failed. It might be ugly behavior, but it isn’t the type you should spend your time condemning, and it isn’t the only ugly behavior going on here, is it?

So it’s like a lottery? We have to send the right piece to the right person at the right moment AND you’re deluged with submissions AND you want suggestions as to how to work more efficiently or lessen the lottery-like nature of the process? I’m glad you asked. Make it less subjective. Come up with a statement regarding ‘what you’re looking for’ so we know whether or not to waste everybody’s time with an unwanted submission. Simply telling writers that what they submitted is not what you’re looking for (a practice all you journal editors have taken up), it does nobody any good. Why do you even write that? Is it simply because it’s the norm?

It goes on and on. Be sure to check it and the rest of the comments out if you want to kill a half hour.

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Today Monkeybicycle’s Steven Seighman gave my story "Crash Test Dummy" a shout out for Short Story Month:

This story feels like it could pertain to a lot of different people: domestic troubles, job frustration, the need to get away. But the author puts a fun new twist on those very relatable things by making them happen to a crash test dummy. When you hear that phrase, you can’t help but think of exactly what it is: a mannequin with little yellow and black marks all over him in a jumpsuit, going through the windshield of a car in slow motion in a testing warehouse. Or is that just me? (I also think of–of course–the band that brought us “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.”) The idea of an animated one of these things living the life of an everyman is intriguing, and Swartwood tells its story perfectly.

Thanks, Steven!

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On a final note, this looks really interesting, doesn't it?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhw6OeTVcwM

And He Went A-Tumblin'

Late last night I went downstairs and my foot slipped on one of the steps and I took a hard tumble. Luckily the ground broke my fall. It wasn't a bad fall, per se, but I was laid out on the ground for a good few minutes just staring up at the ceiling. And, as I happened to have my phone with me, I of course tweeted about it. What lady and what commercial?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ

No, not that lady. This lady.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0

Yes, after taking a tumble down the stairs, all you can really think about at first is Where's the beef?

Anyway, you have less than three days left to enter the Hint Fiction contest, so do it to it.

If you were putting off purchasing The Calling because 99 cents was just too much, well, I'm sorry to say the price has gone up to $2.99. That was, of course, what was meant by an introductory price. Also $2.99? The Dishonored Dead, which already has a five-star review up at Amazon (thanks, A.M. Donovan!).

I haven't really had a chance to thank everyone who "attended" my live reading the other week. I hope you enjoyed it. It was fun, but, as it was my first time, there were some technical issues, namely that for some reason comments weren't coming through and that I had completely forgotten about Ustream's chat option. If I ever do something like this again -- and I probably will -- I hope to make it much smoother and more entertaining (and will, despite their rambunctiousness, have the pets back). In the meantime, I want to address a question that was asked by Horace Torys:

Can you talk about taking your stories from a concept to making an outline, planning scenes, writing the thing out, etc.?

The simple and easy answer is no, because mostly I don't outline or plan scenes out, at least on paper. Usually a story idea will pop in my head, or a character, or even a first line or story title, and I'll mull it over for a few days or weeks or months or even years before I finally sit down to write it. By that time I have most of the story planned in my head, or at least have an idea of what the story is about. It's like what Harlan Coben once said when writing a novel: "I don't outline. I usually know the ending before I start. I know very little about what happens in between. It’s like driving from New Jersey to California. I may go Route 80, I may go via the Straits of Magellan or stopover in Tokyo … but I’ll end up in California."

The same applies with me, because I almost always know what the main story will be, but different things might occur along the way. Then again, there are exciting moments like the one I had with The Dishonored Dead, as I had originally planned for it to be a novella, but at one point a very minor character appeared, a simple janitor hanging in the background for no good reason, and it wasn't apparent why until a few chapters later -- and that created a whole new conflict and ended up changing my novella into a full-fledged novel. That never would have happened had I stuck to an outline.

The Business Of Writing

If you're like most Americans, you waited until the last minute to do your taxes the other week, and if you're a writer, you most likely received one of those 1099-MISC forms from your publisher, agent, or, if you self-published, from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Smashwords or the like. It doesn't matter if the amount on the forms was a respectable one or if it was as low as $10 -- that income was reported to the IRS, making you, believe it or not, a business. The amount of money I made from Amazon last year? $10.85. Pretty pathetic, no? It's because before the past few months, all I had available were a few novellas -- three, specifically, and with each of them priced at 99 cents each, not much money was coming in. Also, I wasn't doing much to promote them because I didn't see a point. But then as we entered the new year and I began to open my eyes to the true potential of e-books, I realized that that measly $10.85 could increase drastically. And so far it has. In fact, recently I'm making more than that number each day now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Novels, I've come to quickly realize, sell a hell of a lot better than novellas and short stories. Readers are more apt to try a new writer's novel than they are a short story or novella. Short stories and novellas? They're for a writer's fans. In fact, with the increased sales of The Calling (and now The Dishonored Dead), I'm beginning to see more sales of my short stories and novellas.

So my point?

My point is even though I made diddly last year off my e-books, I still had to report it. It's not like the days when I sold a short story to a magazine or anthology and pocketed the money. The amount was never that large and so who cared if I didn't report fifty or one hundred bucks? Before, it was never a business, right? Except, in a way, it has always been a business. And I think the reality still hasn't hit many of the writers I see out there in the webosphere, particularly the ones on the message boards hocking their books to the same tired group of writers and bitching and moaning how their sales are down and asking anyone what's the cheapest way to get cover art for their e-books.

Because writing is a business, and as writers we need to treat it as a business. Sure, you can argue that you write for the love of it and that it's just a hobby and blah blah blah, but let's be honest here: we all want to be published and have readers and make money. And to do that, you need to become business-minded.

If you're a writer who has decided to do it yourself, you really need to approach publishing even more aggressively than you would going through an agent or publisher. Because while with an agent or publisher some of the work rests on their shoulders, here now it all rests on you. Which means you need to put in even more time and money and energy because, ultimately, your work is an investment. This is the one thing I don't think some writers understand. They want to go the easy route and not do much work and find cheap cover art and then, when the e-book doesn't sell, complain that nobody is buying their stuff.

Of course, putting money up front doesn't always work out either (as evidenced by Exhibit A), but sometimes you can't win them all. The cover for The Dishonored Dead? It cost me a pretty penny. But this time I did much better research of the designer, I even spoke to some of the writers who had used him before, and I understood that, ultimately, it was an investment. Hopefully soon I'll earn back that initial investment and then keep earning on top of that. It boggles my mind that some of these writers insist on signing with publishers who release just e-books. Their reasons are always odd, at least to me, the most prominent being that validation of being with a publisher, but also because they don't want to mess around with the formatting and cover design and uploading.

Okay, I guess I understand that last part (for me true validation is having readers and making money), but why continue to pay someone a percentage of your royalties for a job that you could simply pay for up front?

Again, whether you like it or not, writing is a business. Look at some of the successful businesses out there. The first one that comes to mind is Apple. Despite what you think of them, they've become one of the most successful businesses in the world. And why? It's because they make great products. They make products you want, need, can't live without. It's not because of their advertisements (though those are actually well done too). It's not because they're following everyone and his mother on Twitter and constantly posting about their new e-book and asking for retweets. It's because they have a product that people want, plain and simple.

As a writer, you are a business. Your novel or short story or even poem are products. You want your products to be so good that readers go looking for more. You want your product to sell itself.

Now is that too hard to understand?

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Speaking of Apple, for those readers who prefer to read on their iPads or iPhones or iPods, The Dishonored Dead is now available for iBooks.

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Still a lot of time to enter the third annual Hint Fiction contest. The stories keep streaming in, more and more each day. Joyce Carol Oates has it easy; she only has to read the top 10-15 finalists while I have to slog through the hundreds and hundreds of stories to find those finalists. If you hear a faint thumping sound coming from somewhere outside, that might be me bashing my head repeatedly against a wall. For the time being, make sure to check out the next big fad created by Ravi Mangla: Binge Fiction!

Tom Petty Was Right

Waiting sucks, doesn't it? And I'm not just talking about the movie, though it had its moments. I'm talking about what a writer does a lot of -- just waits. Waits to hear back from magazines, from agents, from publishers. And then, if accepted, waits for the story or novel to actually be published. And then once it's published, waits for someone to actually read your story or buy your novel and maybe email to let you know they liked it or hated it. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

The other week I had a very long conversation with Blake Crouch. We talked a lot about publishing and self-publishing and I mentioned how I was releasing The Calling soon and that I was going to wait a few months before I released my next book.

"Why?" he said.

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Well, because ... I guess I'm not sure why."

"There's no reason to wait," he said. "Waiting between release dates is old school thinking."

And of course he's right. Traditional publishing doesn't want to oversaturate the market with just one writer. They want to drag it out. Release the hardcover and wait a year for the paperback. Then release another hardcover and wait another year for the paperback. Again and again. But if you're trying to build an audience, having as many e-books available is the thing to do. And if that means you have books ready to go, it makes no sense to just sit on them for a month or two or three. After all, just imagine the potential sales you could be missing.

This isn't to say you should always rush into self-publishing your e-book, if self-publishing your e-book is what you want to do. You should always wait until it's the best it can be. But when it is, why wait? This is why over the course of the next year I hope to release at least two, if not three, more e-books. These are all books that are already written and have been collecting dust on my hard drive. I just now need to go back through them and dust them off and get them prepped.

In terms of The Calling, the "official" release date isn't until Monday, but I thought you might like to know it's now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords (a special thanks to Horace Torys for the last minute notes). It includes a sneak preview of my next novel, too. All for a special introductory price of 99 cents (that's dirt cheap, people!). Or, as always, you can pay with a tweet or Facebook post. Check her out. In the meantime, see you next week.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZX0f4CL-T8