A.P.E. by Guy Kawasaki

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, I was a dyed-in-the-wool Apple and Macintosh bigot.  If Apple made the product, I was convinced that it had to be better than anything else out there.  Guy Kawasaki was Apple's "Chief Evangelist" responsible for spreading the word about Apple's products, so he was someone I grew to like and respect.  Although I'm no longer the Apple bigot I was in those days (I primarily use Windows and Android, though I do own an iPad), I still think Guy is pretty cool and still listen to what he has to say.  When I learned that he had put out a book on self-publishing, I had to read it.

A.P.E. stands for "Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur" and represents what any self-published author should consider himself or herself to be.  As the author, you're responsible for writing and revising the book.  As the publisher, you've got to concern yourself with hiring good editors, acquiring cover art, and designing the book's interior.  As the Entrepreneur, it's your job to make sure that you earn a profit from all your hard work. With Guy's help, that should be a lot easier.

The book covers almost everything you'd need to know to publish any kind of book.  It talks about whether you should even bother to write the book in the first place.  How do you finance the book?  How do you get it?  How should you write it?  How do you avoid making the finished product look amateurish?  How do you sell and market the book when you're finished?  How do you format the book for publication?  How do you decide on a price?  It even talks about the tools you should use to produce the book.  (Not surprisingly, Guy recommends an Apple MacBook Air.  He also recommends Microsoft Word, Dropbox, Evernote, and Adobe InDesign.)

A section on how to format the text for the widest possible compatibility across eBook readers, starting at Microsoft Word and ending with Adobe InDesign is extremely useful.  He also covers how to convert the file for each eBook service, and how to upload it to them.

The book provides links throughout the text to many useful resources, including recommended writing/editing/publishing books, crowd funding sources, sites where you can find contractors to help, where to get a good cover, etc.  Some of these are affiliate links, providing another way you can monetize an eBook.

The final section talks about how this book itself was created.  They used MacBook Airs and iMacs with Microsoft Word to write it, with Dropbox to maintain backups and share versions of the book.  Adobe InDesign CS6 was used to design and produce the Kindle, ePub, and print-ready PDF files.  They hired an independent artist to do the cover.  Editing was crowdsourced to Google+ and Facebook.  A professional copyeditor took care of the final editing.  To promote it, they relied on blog reviews, NetGalley (a service that emails bloggers and journalists), asked readers for Amazon reviews, used social media, hired a PR firm, did press interviews, held a few live online events, and set up a Google+ community.

I've been studying eBook publishing for a few years now.  I've had the opportunity to learn from several authors who have made a living at self-publishing from back in the earliest days of eBook (before the Kindle).  They have taught me a great deal, but I learned more from reading Guy Kawasaki's book than I've learned from all of them, to date, combined.

If you're thinking about self-publishing a book through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc., the $9.99 you pay for this book will be money well-spent.  You'll get good tips about every step of the process from writing through to promoting and publishing.  I strongly recommend it!

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Review: Be The Monkey by Konrath and Eisler

This book is essentially a transcript of a discussion between professional authors J.A. (Joe) Konrath and Barry Eisler.

Konrath has been self-publishing for several years and has made a very good living at it.  I think he would probably argue that he makes more self-publishing digital books than he would be earning through legacy publishers.  Eisler is known for turning down a $500,000 advance because he believed he could earn more money by self-publishing the same book.

The value of the book is in the advice and information it shares.  There is some entertainment value as well, in that the authors both have some amusing and funny things to day.  My biggest complaint with the book is that it felt like Eisler and Konrath complimented each other every few pages through the book.
They make it clear that legacy publishing is facing a number of challenges, most of its own making.  They are trying to prop up the sales of printed books by keeping eBook prices artificially high, and refusing to release the eBook until the paper book is ready to ship.  They've been reducing author royalties, taking longer to pay the authors, and pushing more of their costs on to agents (e.g., editing and cover art).  Titles don't stay on store shelves long, and not all books get equal treatment at the retail level.

By comparison, authors who self-publish through Amazon.com fare much better.  They collect 70% royalties on each sale (instead of royalties in the 15% range from legacy publishers), and receive payment each quarter (versus semi-annually or longer for legacy publishers).  They have control over the content of their books, choose their own cover art, etc.

Another advantage of eBooks is that they remain on the virtual store shelves "forever".  Brick and mortar bookstores can usually only stock what is selling well right now, and few can afford to keep many older titles on their shelves.  With eBooks and retailers like Amazon, all of an author's works can remain for sale on the "shelf" indefinitely.  When a reader discovers one of an author's books, there is a good chance they will purchase others from the author's backlist of titles.

An argument often made for legacy publishing is that book publishers serve as "gatekeepers" for readers, separating the good books from the bad and ensuring the quality of the books they publish.  The argument says that self-publishing will lead to a flood of crappy, poorly written books, and that all authors will suffer.  Readers, Konrath and Eisler argue, are good gatekeepers.  They can separate the wheat from the chaff, and help others do the same through reviews, lists, recommendations, and word of mouth.  This is the same way people help each other find the "good" videos on YouTube. 
Konrath argues that legacy publishers haven't been very good at separating successful from unsuccessful books.  One of his titles that the major publishers in New York rejected 12 years earlier went on to become a #15 bestseller on Amazon and earn him $17,500 in just 12 days.  And because it's still on the virtual shelves there, it's continuing to earn him money today.

The authors make it clear that although they are confident that digital books will outsell paper books (if they aren't doing so already), they do not believe that paper books will ever go away.  Apple iPods and MP3s didn't eliminate the CD. The CD didn't eliminate cassettes.  Cassettes didn't eliminate vinyl.  You can still find music being produced today in all those formats (except maybe cassette?), just as you'll have no problem finding paper books 10 or 20 years from now. 

Konrath and Eisler say that self-publishing of eBooks isn't about bringing an end to the paper book.  It's about authors taking advantage of a new technology and distribution system that enables them to make higher royalties and reach readers without going through publishers.  It's worked out well for them.  Konrath reported making $102,000 in the month of March 2013 alone – most from older legacy-published titles no longer in print.

Be The Monkey is an entertaining read overall, though it is a bit annoying how often Konrath and Eisler compliment one another.  For 99 cents, though, it's hard to find much fault with it.

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Why Self-Publish?

A heated debate is raging in the community of professional authors on whether self-publishing is a good idea.  On one side are authors who have always worked through traditional publishers to offer their works.  On the other side are authors who are earning a living by self-publishing (and may or may not also be working with traditional publishers).   

Those on the traditional agent/publisher side of the debate feel that self-publishing diminishes the overall quality of books in the marketplace.  Their fear is that unskilled amateur authors will flood the market with badly-written books that will discourage readers from buying any books.  These authors feel that the traditional agent/publisher system acts as a gatekeeper that stops bad books from getting to market.  There is some merit to this viewpoint, in that anyone can digitally publish a book regardless of its quality.  It is also quite reasonable to believe that if a traditional publisher turns a book down it is unlikely that book will ever be a bestseller. 

Authors who engage in self-publishing have found that it increases their income.  Their backlist titles, which may not sell enough to warrant a small print run, can be offered digitally or through print-on-demand services.  The authors can offer books that appeal only to a niche group of readers, a group small enough not to interest a publisher but large enough to yield a profit for the author.  Self-publishers also have more creative freedom, telling the stories they want to tell - without agents, editors, or publishers demanding changes the author disagrees with.  Perhaps best of all, self-publishers collect a much greater royalty from the sale of their books (and usually collect it much sooner than with traditional publishers). On the other hand, in order to ensure a quality product, self-publishers must be sure to invest in a reliable editor to review the work and commission an artist to provide a professional cover for it.  These services would normally be provided by a publisher.

Chris Anderson published an article in Wired magazine in 2004 that (while not talking about self-publishing in particular) explains why authors should offer their works digitally themselves, even when a traditional publisher isn't interested in them.  I would encourage any creative artist to read that article and the book on the subject (The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More).  In a nutshell, Anderson says that a "hit" and a "miss" are on equal economic footing today.  A book that might sell only a few hundred copies appears (electronically) alongside a million-copy bestseller.  He presents a number of real-world examples where books, movies, and music that wasn't selling through the traditional publishing world is generating regular income for the creators in the digital marketplace.

One of Anderson's examples is the story of Joe Simpson's book Touching the Void.  Simpson's book received good reviews but generated only modest sales.  A decade later, John Krakauer's Into Thin Air, a similarly-themed book, became a sensation.  Touching the Void began selling again, and soon overtook Into Thin Air.  Anderson asks, "What happened?  In short, Amazon.com recommendations.  The online bookseller's software noted patterns in buying behavior and suggested that readers who liked Into Thin Air would also like Touching the Void.  People took the suggestion, agreed wholeheartedly, write rhapsodic reviews.  More sales, more algorithm-fueled recommendations, and the positive feedback loop kicked in.  Particularly notable is that when Krakauer's book hit the shelves, Simpson's was nearly out of print."

Amazon doesn't distinguish between product categories in its recommendations (nor do other retailers, generally speaking).  An eBook could be recommended alongside a hardcover or paperback (or a blender, for that matter).  If an author's backlist, out-of-print titles are available on Amazon, they'll still sell long after a traditional publisher has decided they're not worth printing anymore.  Someone buying an author's new book will see recommendations about backlist titles.  Someone buying a book by one author will receive recommendations about similar books from other authors.  All of this results in more sales for all the authors, which is a good thing.

Will self-publishing allow anyone to put a book on the market regardless of its quality?  Yes.  But will that result in financial harm for those authors who put out quality books?  Of course not.  Good books, whether self-published or traditionally published, will get positive reviews on sites like Amazon.  Lousy books will likewise get skewered in the reviews.  People will steer clear of the bad books, and spend their money on the good ones.  Mediocre authors will be forced to step up their game or get out of the market. 

Ultimately, it's all about getting your work in front of the people who will appreciate it.  If traditional publishers want your book, there's nothing wrong with publishing through them.  But if they aren't interested or decide not to reprint it, can there be any harm in publishing a digital version yourself?  I don't think so.

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