C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

07/11/2011 • 12:55 PM 3

New Feature: Scoop it!

Scoop it! allows me to grab a bunch of articles to quickly curate an on-line magazine for your pleasure. My focus, of course, is writing and reading and publishing news, particularly indie publishing. It’s more great stuffing for my juicy and delicious info-turkey that will complement the Chazz Writes potatoes, mashed, potatoes and gravy you’ll find on this blog.

In other news, I think I need to go get some lunch.

Shoot on over to check it out.

Scoop.it Wants to Make Curation Frictionless (newsgrange.com)
Scoop.it opens the flood gates to allow curation on more sites [Invites] (thenextweb.com)

Filed under: authors, blogs & blogging, Books, publishing, self-publishing, web reviews, Writers, Digital curation, fiction, indie, online magazine, publishing, Scoop it, self-publishing, writing

07/04/2011 • 1:14 AM 4

Book Reviews: A Very Decent Proposal

The magnificent Kim Nayyer sent me a very interesting idea

**that the self-published among you might just love.**

“Magnificent?” you say, skeptically.

Me? I don’t say anything. Instead I whap you on the nose with Kim’s rolled up bio: Peter Parker and Marian the librarian’s love child. Selects and edits creative non-fiction submissions to Victoria’s Island Writer magazine. Writes book reviews, mainly of children’s literature and adult legal texts, to the extent those genres are distinct. News and information junkie. Proved her good citizenship by writing a blog for Canada’s public broadcaster during the recent Canadian federal election. Her website is http://www.kimnayyer.com.

Here’s the email Kim sent:

What a coincidence that I spotted your video book review today (nice!). Coincidence because a couple of days ago I was going to suggest to you a book review corner on your site, a corner restricted to reviews of self-published or e-only or e-first books, something along those lines to give a platform to the non-traditional market.

Recently a twitter contact asked me whether I was able to review his book. I checked with a couple of my outlets. One only does Canadian books (and the guy’s in Portland) and the other only does pre-release publishing house books (and he’s self-published and the book came out earlier this year).I thought of you and your forthcoming books, and I thought of a couple of local self-published authors I know and how hard one of them works to sell her book.

My idea is not that you do all the reviews yourself (unless you want to, say in videos), but that you get a roster of a handful of decent writers/vloggers, perhaps other self-published authors, to do them as guest posts or to commit to doing one or two a year each, or perhaps in exchange for reviews of their books. The authors of course would send you or the reviewer free review copies of their books.

Think it’s workable?

I love that idea! How about it, self-published party people?

If you’re a self-published author and want:

1. Your book to be reviewed, and

2. to review a couple of books a year

then, 3. Email Chazz at expartepress@gmail.com with:

your name, book title, genre, book length and what genres interest you for writing book reviews. I shall attempt to match up the compatible submissions and we’ll take it from there. Also, if you have suggestions, let me know. I do love the idea. I just haven’t thought much about what the protocol should be.

The self-published can support each other. As it stands, The System and The Man wants to keep you down. Let’s subvert The System, kick The Man in the crotch and spread the word about our books.

Yes, Kim the Magnificent. I think it’s workable!

GO INDIE!

Filed under: authors, reviews, self-publishing, web reviews, Writers, Author, book, book review, indie reviews, indie writers, Literature, review, self-publishing, writer

06/27/2011 • 1:51 AM 1

The “But At What Cost?” Miscalculation

John Locke has written a book: How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in Five Months.* (I recommend it)

LA Times writer Carolyn Kellogg wrote a piece that asks, “At What Cost?” Here’s that nonsense argument and my bit of nonsense follows.

The upshot is, Ms. Kellogg thinks Mr. Locke undersold himself. He sold a million ebooks, but charged 0.99 for many of them. She says he could have made a million of with higher pricing instead of making do in the $300,000 range. (A figure that would make many authors swoon.) There are many interesting observations in the comments section of the LA Times article that pick apart Ms. Kellogg’s worries very well.

Here’s my take away: I had never heard of John Locke until now. He used 0.99 loss leaders to sell a shit-ton of books. Yes, he “only” made 0.30 on the 0.99 ebooks, but low or no pricing allowed wary readers to try him out. And now many more people know about him. And I bought his non-fiction ebook which details his success so far. And I bought it for $4.99.

Kellogg is saying Locke was an idiot for leaving money on the table, assuming he could have moved so much and so quickly with a middle man trad publisher involved. Why would she assume that, I wonder? There’s no basis for it. The new world is not the old world and hers is classic old world thinking.

Now you know, if you didn’t, who John Locke is. And now you’re thinking, maybe I should buy one of his books and give it a try. Maybe more than one, huh?

*Thanks to Joanna Penn for her post on Mr. Locke. I love Joanna’s blog and podcast, The Creative Penn. Subscribe if you haven’t!

Random Thoughts on People jealous of John Locke and Kindle Indie Author success (ireaderreview.com)
Independent author John Locke joins Amazon’s million-Kindle-seller club (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Self-published author John Locke sells 1M e-books (seattlepi.com)
John Locke – The New Sensation (onemano.biz)
Every author really should read this book – today (ireaderreview.com)
Self-Publishing: Maybe Not a Cottage Industry Anymore? (batterrier.com)
How to Sell a Million eBooks in 5 Months! (montyenglish.wordpress.com)
Independent Author Sells 1 Million eBooks Via Amazon’s Kindle (chatootsboots.wordpress.com)

Filed under: authors, DIY, ebooks, getting it done, links, Media, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, self-publishing, Writers, Amazon Kindle, books recommendations, E-book, John Locke, Los Angeles Times, publishing, Publishing and Printing, selling ebooks

06/23/2011 • 1:52 PM 0

VIDEO: Moso, the free Mac app for vlogging

Did I mention that this app is free, free, free? Also, it’s free.

(There’s the power of the written word over video right there. I forgot to mention the app is free, but it was easy to add the detail of the price using this ancient keyboard thingy.)

More details: You don’t edit Moso, you just do retakes. It’s easy to upload to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, though. I’d say if there’s a social medium that’s underused for authors promoting their books, it must be YouTube. Moso will help you with that.

Podcasts can be helpful, though access and difficulty of execution/time involved increases the variables in that argument. I don’t think Facebook is as effective for promotion as it could be. Twitter can be effective if used well (but that’s another post.)

I Vlog, You Vlog, She/he Vlogs … and You Know How the Rest of It Goes (englishforteenagers.org)
Sharing YouTube Activity Digital Breadcrumbs (speedofcreativity.org)
20+ Apps To Bring Your Favorite Websites To Your Mac Desktop (makeuseof.com)

Filed under: authors, blogs & blogging, Books, podcasts, Publicity & Promotion, self-publishing, What about Chazz?, Facebook, Social Networking, Twitter, Video blogging, vlogging, vlogs, YouTube

06/20/2011 • 10:02 PM 1

Zoe Who? I recommend you find out who! (PLUS GREAT VIDEO)

The Little Me Update: I’m reading and writing a lot lately. Yesterday was an incredibly productive day as I get closer to putting a (long) short story called The Dangerous Kind up on Smashwords. It’s amazing how many alterations I still want to tinker with as I go through the editing process. Still!

Anyway, I’m also in book recommendation mode this week, so…

Have you subscribed to Zoe Winters blog yet? If you are an indie author, you definitely should. I especially like her ranty goodness on her wordpress blog. As I waited for my son to finish soccer practice I started digging into the last chapter of Zoe Winters’ book: Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author.

This is the single most helpful book on the business of self-publishing I’ve read. (I have the Sony e-reader version, though I think I’ll want to get the print copy, too, for easy reference and permanent residence on my bookshelf. Yes, I do that, too!)

Zoe has a no-nonsense approach to the subject which boils things down to what you need to know to succeed as an indie author. There are a lot of useful books on the subject out there, but this is delivers the bullet without preamble or extra excavation needed on the part the reader. Zoe Winters has broken the trail and mapped out the way so it’s easier for you.

I especially love how frank she is about the self-publishing strategies that didn’t work. The book is worth your time and money for the troubleshooting section alone.

And she’s good at spotting the details others might have missed. For instance, everyone agrees Goodreads can be a great place to boost awareness of self-published books. But Zoe is savvy to point out the pitfalls, too (like if the regulars get a whiff of the stink of self-promotion on you they’ll find your home, break in and beat you to death with Webster’s dictionaries.)

If you don’t love her already, she also made a series of YouTube Videos about breaking into publishing the indie way. Go to YouTube and search for the series called Zoe Who? . Enjoy. (And buy her guide.)

Here’s a sample video of Zoe Who? by Zoe Winters:

Createspace or Lightning Source: Pros & cons breakdown (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Self-publishers are judged unfairly (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Writers & Readers: I say something new & cranky (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Book promotion for self-publishers (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Publishers: What do I need you for? (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Write. Commit. Do. (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
6 Effective Ways to Promote Your Book (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Filed under: authors, book reviews, Books, DIY, ebooks, getting it done, self-publishing, Useful writing links, Writers

06/20/2011 • 2:10 AM 9

Book promotion for self-publishers

As a self-publisher, you probably can’t afford to splash a big ad across the back page of the New York Times (and that’s of limited use anyway.) What is useful is connecting with people. Be genuine and you can share and spread useful information that brings good karma down the line. In this video I talk about Jeff Bennington’s Reunion blog tour. I won a Kindle, but I would have promoted his novel anyway. Here’s why:

Support authors. Buy books. (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
6 Effective Ways to Promote Your Book (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Spam Invades the Kindle Store (techland.time.com)
Createspace or Lightning Source: Pros & cons breakdown (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
The publisher’s temperament (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Filed under: authors, Books, Publicity & Promotion, self-publishing, book promotion, Jeff Bennington, low cost ways to sell books, Reunion

06/19/2011 • 1:58 AM 2

Robert Chazz Chute: Literature hater & narcissistic bastard!

I realized something about myself the other day. I’ve been writing since I was a kid. So why haven’t I published a string of books yet?

Narcissistic Bio (Feel free to skip this paragraph to get closer to the point arrived at below): I went to journalism school. I wrote for newspapers and magazines. I worked in book publishing for five years in several positions, making books, editing books, selling books and promoting books. I’ve written a column for a magazine for three years. I submitted to and won writing awards or honorable mentions. And yet…I never pushed to get a book written. I have written several books, but I never got to the point with one where I was satisfied enough. For a long time I thought this was just laziness or perfectionism or both. Even as I edited other people’s books, I still had my own cooking in the background. But I never sent out manuscripts or pestered agents or got anything really done, except short stories and feature articles, speeches and presentations. I’ve written about writing extensively, attended publishing conferences and writing workshops, chewed through publishing issues and edited several books this year for Five Rivers Chapmanry. I’m proud of all these things and enjoy them.

But everything I’ve accomplished centered around tasks with a short deadline, stuff that paid up front, stuff that required short bursts of intensity. I wasn’t working on my personal long term writing and publishing dreams. I wasn’t digging in to do the long hail work. It’s as if I’ve been mixing dough, letting it rise, shoving it in the oven and letting it bake…and never eating any bread.

I used to think that I wanted to be a writer because I love literature. I read and read and read and still can’t get enough, it’s true. (At least some of the above headline is supposed to be ironic, folks!) Obviously I don’t hate literature, but I don’t love literature as much as I thought I did. If I loved it all that much for its own sake, I would have either settled for reading tons of books without thoughts of my own. Or I’d have finished those revisions and delivered my stuff over publishers’ transoms. I would have added to slush piles and wallowed in rejection slips until I finally started breaking through. I didn’t do that. I raised kids, did piece work, indulged another career, dabbled around the edges and did other stuff.

So why self-publish now? I was disillusioned with the failures of traditional publishing when I worked within it (another post for another time.) I loved reading, still do. I love that floaty feeling you get when you write, go deep and a story comes together.

But these loves weren’t enough on their own.

I’m self-publishing now because ebooks have finally arrived. I can finally indulge my loves as well as my need to remain independent. Clearly, I’ve got a problem with authority.

My motto is Question authority before authority questions you. I do not wear a tie and I’m the kind of dog who pulls out of his collar.

Love of literature wasn’t enough. Love of literature plus love of self plus digital opportunity was the ticket.

Embrace independence:

Control freaks! Unite!

(Ahem…well, do what you want. Far be it from me to tell you what to do.)

The revolution

(I didn’t know I was waiting for)

has arrived.

Support authors. Buy books. (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Writing Conference: 10 Bad things (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Life & book marketing update shouted from a speeding car (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
How to edit without reading (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Narcissistic personality disorder/ Encyclopedia of Mental Disorder (protectivemothersalliance.wordpress.com)
5 Things I’ve Learned about Publishing (and about myself) (westernthm.wordpress.com)
Four Traits of Successful Writers (Besides, You Know, Writing Ability) (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Filed under: e-reader, ebooks, Rant, self-publishing, What about Chazz?, Arts, book, edit, Publish, Publishing and Printing, self-publishing, short story, writing

06/06/2011 • 1:05 AM 2

DRM: The Digital Rights Management Scam

At the Writers Union of Canada conference, an author stood to ask a panel the question:

Should authors fight to keep Digital Rights Management?

DRM: is a term for access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to limit the use of digital content and devices.

Someone from the panel replied that, yes. Authors need DRM to keep the pirates at bay.

I disagree. DRM has two major disadvantages. It keeps customers from enjoying your writing on whatever devices they choose so savvy readers won’t read your book if you’ve slapped the locks on it.

But the panel missed the most important problem with DRM on books: It doesn’t work. If you’ve got a work out there, it’s already cracked. It’s already distributed to pirates. However, it’s not all doom. Pirates were never going to buy your book, anyway. They’re pirates and it’s the pirate life for them.

If you want to protect your work from illegal copying, don’t bother with DRM. Make your book cheap, so cheap it’s not worth a pirate’s time to even think about cracking DRM.

Self-publishers putting out ebooks are

in the impulse buy, couch change business.

Pirate 1: Let’s disrespect the author’s work and steal his book! (Editor’s note: Because pirates these days talk like that and rarely say Ar! That’s cliche.)

Pirate 2: It’s like $2.99, dude. Why bother? Why risk a virus to download it from a pirate site?

Pirate 1: But we could read it for free, matey. (Editor’s note: Yes, they say matey. A lot.)

Pirate 2: Look, I’m okay with being a hosebag about enjoying somebody’s work for free, but I’m not going to waste my time. Just one-click it and own it.

Pirate 1: But free’s always better. If I like it, I’ll blog about it and publicize the book. (Editor’s note: I expected more swashbucklin’ talk, too.)

Pirate 2: And if you hate it, you’ll blog longer about it, right? You’ll complain and troll about something you got for free. Pathetic. Listen, order the pizza and we’ll look in your couch for change. You’ll find enough coins under the cushions to buy that book and still tip the pizza delivery guy.

(Editor’s note: This concludes Pirate Unlikely Verbalization of Argument in Conversation Form Theater for today.)

Related articles

It’s Time to Give Digital Rights Management the Boot (pcworld.com)
Digital Rights Management (DRM) (digitalcollaboration.wordpress.com)
Capcom: ‘We Got it Wrong’ on PC Super Street Fighter DRM [Drm] (kotaku.com)
What, Exactly, Is DRM? [Explainer] (kotaku.com)
DRM (a day against) (creativecommons.org)

Filed under: Books, DIY, ebooks, self-publishing, Writers, writing tips, Digital rights management, Intellectual property, piracy

06/01/2011 • 3:55 AM 2

Writers: What are you worth?

At last week’s Writer’s Union of Canada conference in Toronto, an author asked the head of ECW Press: “Why should authors should get a royalty of 25% (of net) when they could get 70% publishing on their own digitally?”

Good question.

The question rose from a discussion of ECW’s new ebook imprint. The replies from the panel were interesting. First there was the assertion of the value of editorial input, an advance of $500 and a promotion budget of $800. Production cost was $1600. So, the publisher’s risk up front was $2,900. The ebook price was set at $9.95 (though Amazon dropped the price to $7.96.)

The publisher emphasized his risk, saying that most of these ebooks haven’t been runaway successes and, because they are solely digital, it’s difficult (or impossible) to get them reviewed in traditional venues. The Globe & Mail refuses to review ebooks, even though ECW is a traditional publisher. (Insert your own joke about the fragility of newspapers’ relevance here.)

By now, my objections to these answers are pretty obvious: 70% is more, the publisher’s price point is too high for the competition, hire your own editor (edit and hire a graphic designer for less than $1600 and format it yourself), $800 for promotion* , $500 advance and giving up e-rights frankly doesn’t make me swoon.

Am I missing something here? And, as a writer, what about your risk? What about all your time and energy invested as a writer? It takes much more of your finite resources to produce a book out of nothing than it does to shepherd it through to publication. Right?

What do you think? I welcome your comments.

Next post: Promoting your book.

How much should fiction cost? (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
The publisher’s temperament (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Writing Conference Cataclysm: Ebooks versus the Amish (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
21 Bold Predictions: The changing future of books (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Filed under: DIY, ebooks, publishing, self-publishing, Writing Conferences, advances, authors, book pricing, book promotion, Bookselling, ebooks, indie, self-publishing, writers

05/30/2011 • 4:35 AM 7

Writing Conference Cataclysm: Ebooks versus the Amish

The room was packed with authors who were traditionally published. When the bookseller was talking, they were clapping. She told them what they wanted to hear. She insulted lovers of ebooks, told them to unplug, told them they needed to “get a life.” Her world is divided between ebooks and “real” books, nostalgia for what was and contempt for what is and will be.

Her emotional appeal worked well on that crowd. No one was paying near as much attention to the other guy on the panel. Formerly of Booknet and now with Kobo, Mark Tamblyn knew the numbers. The reality he knew and could quantify didn’t get any applause there so here are some highlights from his trip on the Reality Train:

1. Ebook lovers do love books, they just love them on ereaders. They do not fetishize the package. They read for love, enjoyment, entertainment and ideas, just like traditional readers claim to do…except:

2. Ebook lovers buy more books. Twice as much as people who love so-called “real” books.

3. Ebook readers are not 20 and 30-somethings. They are typically 45-55.

4. Ebook readers are not easily distracted. They do engage in deep reading and are not flighty cyber-ADD sufferers, after all.

One author asked how many people in the room owned an ereader. Only a handful of us raised our hands and he looked quite pleased with himself for a moment. Then someone pointed out the demographic in the room: the crowd skewed old and were, after all, a bunch of traditionally published authors. (And by the way, a couple of those older authors expressed excitement at fleeing to publish their own books so they can get off the mid-list and get paid 70% instead of 25% from a legacy publisher. I’m sure there will be many more to follow.)

So here’s another break from the illusions of The Matrix: Last year Kobo had a party to celebrate their one-millionth customer. A week later they held a party for their two-millionth customer. The month was December and that, my friends, is one major and measurable difference made by Jesus’s birthday. Clearly Jesus wants you all to buy ereaders.

It’s gauche, but since I predicted the ever-increasing appetite for ereaders last year and since I’m in a foul mood I will point out: I informed you thusly! I so informed you thusly! (Inside joke for Sheldon Cooper fans.)

And by the way, since I’m so damnably cranky: Last week I noticed someone saying the indie revolution was a good thing for creators but wasn’t any good for readers. Hey! I’m indie but I was a reader first and will always be a reader. I read ten books at a time. I’m more voracious for reading material than I am fudge. I’ve got a stack of pbooks by my bed, a huge library we call a house and a whack of ebooks loaded in my ereader. I relish more choice, even the stuff that isn’t particularly close to grammatically pure. So knock off that BS, thanks very much.

And have a day. Make it real.