Insights

Dear Barnes & Noble

I thought we had an understanding, you and I. Well, not just you and I, but every writer who uses your NOOK Press platform.

We sell books on your website, you pay us after 60 days, thereabouts, less your commission.

Pretty simple, right?

And for a while it hasn’t been an issue, at least on my end. Every month you deposited money into my bank account. It was never clockwork—not like with Amazon—but I could always depend on the money being there near the end of the month, or at the very least right at the beginning of the month.

But something strange—not to mention worrisome—happened this past month.

No money was deposited into my bank account.

No money was deposited in several other writers’ bank accounts, either. I know, because I’m friends with several different writers, and they all confirmed to me they haven’t been paid. I’ve even seen writers on your infrequently-visited NOOK Press message board complain about not being paid.

Another complaint?

No communication.

Numerous emails from several different writers have been sent with no reply. Not even a public statement.

As you can imagine, this is quite worrisome.

It’s especially worrisome for us writers whose sole income comes from our writing. We depend on places like yours and Amazon and Apple and Kobo and Google Play to pay us every month. After all, we have rents to pay, mortgages, utility bills, car payments, the friggin IRS. And even for those writers who don’t make a lot of money on your platform—say it’s only a few bucks—money is still money. They might need to pay for gas. Or food for their kids. Anything at all.

I’ve never had any issue with you guys. While many want to dismiss you as a time bomb just waiting to go off, I’ve sold quite a lot of ebooks on your website. So much so that I could never bring myself to pull all of my books and put them exclusively on Amazon, as I know many other writers have done. A kneejerk reaction now would be to say that I’m going to do just that, but the truth is I make good money on your platform … at least, I do in theory. Until the money actually enters my bank account, they’re just numbers on the screen.

I suppose anyone publishing on your platform—just like any platform, such as Amazon’s—agrees to play by your rules. We agree to your terms, which means you can basically do whatever you want. Which is pretty shitty, but something we need to accept.

Still, the fact that several writers haven’t been paid yet—and many haven’t even received a response from you about said payment—does not bode well for the future of your company.

And as a writer who uses your platform to sell books—in which I make money and you make money—I’m beginning to question our understanding.

Because I’m not the only one who’s worried. There are many, many others out there. Many writers who could just as easily stop publishing on your website. Maybe not as many to make a difference to you at first, but the more time that passes in which you don’t pay us, the more angry writers get, and, well, you know how that goes.

Every cent counts. You know that just as well as we do. So how about your hold up your end of the deal and pay us our money?

Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Robert

UPDATE: I received an automated email on 9/10 from B&N:

A payment of $XXX.XX for your NOOK Book sales through NOOK Press was deposited into your account on September 5, 2014. It typically takes between one and five days for the payment to be reflected in your bank account. We apologize for the delay in getting this payment to you. Last week, we experienced a glitch in our systems and acted quickly to get it resolved. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Books I Enjoyed In 2013

I read (or listened to, which I count as the same thing) 60 books in 2013. As I do every year, I'm not going to make a "best of" list, but rather simply list the books I enjoyed reading. There is no particular order other than which they were read/listened. Not surprisingly, the bulk of my reading was done via Kindle. Just recently I picked up the ebook of a book I already have in hardcover, because I want to read the book and know that I'll get to it sooner on my Kindle. What does that mean for the industry at large? Absolutely nothing. That's just my own taste. Anyway, I've broken the list down accordingly. Last year I included a category for short stories, but I only read one short story collection this past year, apparently (I did read several literary journals and ebook singles, however). I hope to fix that wrong this upcoming year (in fact, I just started  Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is great so far). Here we go ... Novels

  • THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER by Brian Keene (ebook)
  • THE TWELVE by Justin Cronin (hardcover)
  • LIVE BY NIGHT by Dennis Lehane (ebook)
  • THE BLACK BOX by Michael Connelly (ebook)
  • SANDMAN SLIM by Richard Kadrey (ebook)
  • A FRIEND OF THE EARTH by T. C. Boyle (hardcover)
  • THE MESMERIST by Joseph D’Agnese (ebook)
  • WAYWARD by Blake Crouch (ebook)
  • DOCTOR SLEEP by Stephen King (ebook)
  • WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY by Brian Hodge (ebook)
  • UNDERSTUDIES by Ravi Mangla (paperback)

Audiobooks

  • ODD APOCALYPSE by Dean Koontz, read by David Aaron Baker
  • THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green, read by Kate Rudd
  • YOU’RE NEXT by Gregg Hurwitz, read by Scott Brick
  • FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk, read by Jim Colby
  • 14 by Peter Clines, read by Ray Porter
  • THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman, read by Neil Gaiman
  • DELIVERANCE by James Dickey, read by Will Patton
  • KILL THE DEAD by Richard Kadrey, read by MacLeod Andrews
  • LIGHT OF THE WORLD by James Lee Burke, read by Will Patton
  • MR. PENUMBRA’S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE by Robin Sloan, read by Ari Fliakos
  • TAKEN by Robert Crais, read by Luke Daniels
  • TELL NO LIES by Gregg Hurwitz, read by Scott Brick

Non-Fiction

  • NO EASY DAY: THE FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE MISSION THAT KILLED OSAMA BIN LADEN by Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer, read by Holter Graham

Graphic Novel

  • THE STRANGE TALENT OF LUTHER STRODE by Justin Jordan, Tradd Moore, and Felipe Sobreiro (paperback)

So, what books did you enjoy this past year?

Looking Back At 2013

2013 was an interesting year. From a professional standpoint, it certainly had its highs and lows. Let's highlight some of them chronologically:

Throughout the year there were, of course, many, many podcasts.

I also talked about neglecting the blog, and how I was going to try to update it more. I don't think I ever really reached that goal. I saw a news article recently that talked about the death of the blog, and I guess that's what's been happening here. I use it to make announcements and that's about it. In the past I would blog about a lot of different things, whether it be pop culture or what was happening in publishing, but it became tiresome. I began to limit my comments to 140 characters on Twitter, where I'm most active. And, quite honestly, I started to become bored with the blog. I see other writers sometimes blogging about one issue or topic or another, and I think, who cares? And with that in mind, I don't feel like throwing my two cents in when nobody ever asked me in the first place.

I'm not the only one, I've noticed. Many other writers have been blogging less and less. Is it true, do you think -- is the blog dying for good now?

Anyway, despite the ups and downs, 2013 was a good year. What it wasn't, however, was very productive. Don't get me wrong, I've been writing, but I didn't release nearly as much as I would have liked. And my sales this year have suffered for it. They're still good, but they weren't nearly as good as they were in 2012, when I was releasing many more books. That's the thing in publishing, whether it be indie or traditional -- velocity matters. The more books you release, the more you'll sell. That's just how it is.

But I have been working. 2014 should see the release of many new books. Besides an omnibus of Refuge, which will collect all five books of the series, I hope to release Legion, Bullet Rain, and at least one new Holly Lin book, if not two. I also hope to throw in a short horror novel or novella if time permits. And I might even try to write a few new short stories.

Yes, 2014 should be quite an interesting year.

This won't be my last post of 2013, though; that will be in the next day or two, when I'll list the books I really enjoyed reading this year.

Until then, happy Sunday!

Analysis On Seven Items

One of my favorite short stories that I've written is "Seven Items in Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found by his Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady," which originally appeared via PANK and was a runner-up for the Micro Award. Recently it was also translated into Turkish. And now it has been given a very in-depth analysis by Anaea Lay, who makes me sound much smarter and more talented than I really am. Here's part of what she has to say:

This story is brilliant and beautiful and full of things I adore in my fiction (Sibling love/protectiveness! Suicide! Creepiness!) but the thing that stands out about it and makes it worth pulling apart is its sheer, relentless efficiency. Genuine efficiency, though, not the pruned and constrained soullessness or lack of development you get with inferior flash. This story chooses its moments carefully, but having chosen them, gives them lots of space to breathe and grow.

Read the rest here. And hey, if you haven't read the story yet and don't want to read it on PANK (though I can't imagine why, as it's free), you can check it out in my very short fiction collection Phantom Energy -- which is currently 99 cents for a limited time!

Reader Blurbs

There's a trend I've been noticing lately where authors use reader blurbs in their product descriptions for their books. Almost all of these are independently-published -- at least from what I've seen -- but just today when I clicked on the link for the Kindle Daily Deal I noticed that Amazon was doing the same thing. One of today's deals is The Quarry by Iain Banks, and instead of a blurb from an established author or a line from Publisher's Weekly, you find this:

Customer Review: "I quickly found myself lost in the story, laughing out loud while reading it and sympathizing intently with its protagonist Kit, his father and his father's friends."

That's not the only example. A few other books were listed as a Kindle Daily Deal, one of those being Rock Her by Rachel Cross, and the same kind of blurb:

Customer review: "This rocking book grabs you from the beginning, and doesn't let you go until its supremely satisfying end."

I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about Amazon, but one thing is for certain: they know how to sell books. So if Amazon is doing this, it must be somewhat effective, no?

Another reason this came to mind today is I happened to get a new review for my collection Real Illusions on Amazon. In part, the reviewer said:

"Once I know what the threat is I'm not scared anymore. This author knows that, and I loved these stories."

And another reader for the same book:

"Keeps me turning the pages way past my bedtime!"

And another:

"Ranking alongside the likes of Blake Crouch and Scott Nicholson as one of the best self-published thriller writers of the moment, Swartwood delivers a compelling collection of short fiction."

These are all readers who took the time to leave a simple review on Amazon. They're clearly fans of the book, and hopefully of the rest of my work. And I'd have to imagine they would be fine with me using their words to help sell the book.

But at the same time, I still question the legitimacy of doing such a thing, especially when there is always the question of writers paying for fake reviews.

I'll say it now: I've never once paid for a review. Have I offered free books in exchange for honest reviews? Absolutely. Everybody does it, independent authors and even major publishers. Half the time readers request copies and say they'll read and review, but they never do. I seem to have a core group of readers who will leave reviews for all my books, and I appreciate each and every one of them for their support.

But still, that doesn't answer the question of just how effective using reader blurbs to promote a book will be. After all, the reviews are there for readers to peruse before purchasing the book. Most times they'll check out the one-star reviews instead of reading any of the five-star reviews. Because of this, I saw one reader once give a book a one-star review, but then say that the book was actually amazing and that everyone needed to check it out and the only reason he was leaving a one-star review was because he knew everyone would look at it first. Clever, though I wonder just how effective that is, as the ranking does hurt the book overall.

Anyway, I'm curious to hear thoughts. If you come across a new book, are you more apt to believe a blurb from an author you are sort of familiar with or maybe never heard of, or a blurb from what the author or publisher claims is a reader?