Luck

Yup, I'm back at Blogger. I thought the change to Wordpress would be worth it, but it turns out most of my subscribers are present on this portal, and it's like starting all over again using a new platform. So there you have it.

I read an interesting blog recently by JA Konrath, arguably one of the pioneers of the indie movement. After selling millions of books he started taking on deals (or a deal anyway) with one of the Big Five pubs, and he sort of disappeared from not only the blogosphere but also from the indie publishing community altogether (I could be entirely wrong about this, and forgive me if I am, Joe, but that's the way it appeared to me). But recently he made a return with some very interesting blogs about the state of the industry including the state of his personal publishing career.

One of his pieces spoke about how he spent a full year working on a huge project which he sent out to some of the Big Five, plus a couple Amazon Publishing imprints (like me he's been pub'd by Thomas & Mercer a bunch of times). He was surprised to find all the pubs rejected his new project. He offered up logical reasons for why this happened, but it came as a shock to me. Here's a guy who was making upwards of $800K per year, until Kindle Unlimited tore into his profits in a big way. Still, he's allegedly moved more than 3mil books (no reason not to believe him), won some awards, done major book tours, has a huge following for both his blog and his fiction, and yet he gets rejected across the board. Huh?

It gave me pause, let me tell you. That's when I proceeded to another blog that talked about what it takes to actually make it as an indie author (as a hybrid author the rules also apply to me). According to Konrath, it's not paid advertising, or relying on "How to Become a Kindle Bestseller" books (the authors are "full of shit" he says, and I tend to believe him), or social media posts that get your books noticed and eventually purchased. These things help get the word out and therefor have their place, taken in moderation. But the key, aside from hard work, consistent output, talent, and focus on one series and one genre, is pure luck.

Take it from me folks when I tell you, Mr. Konrath is spot on. I've been lucky in my career, and I've been unlucky. Generally, the bad luck comes in long streaks, with occasional breakouts of good luck. That said, the bad luck is usually a direct response to a stupid decision or decisions on my part. For instance, the past couple of years I experimented with shorter books and novellas of which I'm proud. But readers don't want short reads. They want 60K words minimum. I also delved into taboo areas like erotic noir, and those projects stunk up the joint (although the reviews were rave). I was putting out books with a medium sized crime imprint also, but it became frustrating since those titles were competing with my own. I also parted with my long time agent, thinking a new slick outfit would be just the boost I needed to get back on track.

But it was all pretty much a disaster. Over the past two years I've seen my income cut in half if not worse. What's it all mean? Going back to what works (just like coming back to Blogger). By the grace of God, my agent took me back and already, we've been making deals, and making some money too. It never really dawned on me until recently, that my agent isn't just an agent, he's a manager. There's a big difference. I also made the commitment to write thrillers and only thrillers, both stand-alone and in my numerous PI series. If I'm experimenting with anything, it's my cyberpunk book, Primary Termination, which will be out soon. A new genre yes, but trust me when I tell you the book is pure Zandri thriller, nonetheless.

I've also decided to pick up some freelance work again...something I'd always enjoyed but got away from over the past couple years. Lastly, I'm not going to put out one book per month (even though I can pretty much write a book per month). Instead, I'm going to stagger my publications (the indie ones anyway), every two to three months. Taken altogether, this is turning out to be a far better year than than the three previous years. My goal (and as Joe points out, it's important to have goals, not reliance on hopes since you have no control over the latter), is to head back into six figure territory this year. Not an unrealistic goal by any means. Chip has already secured me a "nice" offer for a two book deal (more on this coming later), but we're waiting to see what the other interested pubs say. We've done some non-fiction stuff together, and we have solid movie interest in at least two of my projects. That's a huge step up from the big nothing of last year.

All this involves a lot of hard work, but it also involves luck. I was smart to make the adjustment back to what works. I was lucky I realized it before it was too late.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM





  

     

Sales and More Sales

Remember the good old days when your novel would be released one week and six weeks later it would be removed from the bookstore shelves in order to make space for something else? You might write one novel per year and, if you were lucky, have one novel per year released. Of course all that's changed now in the digital age where space on the virtual bookstore shelf is infinite. Now I'm writing three books per year and I'm publishing so many of them my publishers can't keep up, which means I've actually begun my own imprint to handle the overflow. How fucking cool is that?

The digital and e-book age has initiated something else that's pretty cool.

Books that might have long been forgotten in the paper and bookstore "returns" age, are now able to enjoy renewed life. Over the past two weeks I've sold more than 14,000 books in e-book, print, and audible form. The novels that are kicking ass are THE REMAINS, GODCHILD, and THE INNOCENT. What makes these novels so special? Nothing in particular, other than I consider them some of my best and most inspired work. But that's the creative Vince talking. Now for the business Vince.

Take a look at the vitals for these three releases:

 --THE INNOCENT: First publisher, Delacorte Press in 1999: Copies sold, 7,000 and change.
                                  Second publisher, StoneGate Ink in 2011: Copies sold, 100,000 and change.
                                  Third publisher, Thomas & Mercer in 2012: 10,000 and change to date...

--GODCHILD: First Publisher, Dell in 2000: Copies sold...Data Unavailable but if I had to guess
                                                                           you can count the sales using the fingers on both
                                                                           hands.
                          Second Publisher, StoneGate Ink in 2011: Copies sold, 25,000 and change.
                          Third Publisher, Thomas & Mercer in 2012: Copies sold, 8,000 and change to date
                                                                                                   and climbing...

--THE REMAINS: First Publisher, StoneHouse Ink in 2010: Copies sold, 30,000 and change.
                                Second Publisher, Thomas & Mercer in 2012: Copies sold, 15,000 and change
                                  to date...(I'm guestimating that I will move around 25K of this title by the end
                                  of the month. Maybe more.)

The numbers reflected by T&M might not look as good as those of the "Gates" YET, but you have to keep in mind that the new editions are only a year or less old. Presently, I'm averaging 3500 sales per month with the Amazon Publishing imprint (they acquired 7 titles, all of which were released in late 2012. At the end of this month, I will have easily moved well over 50K units for them). If I update this same blog exactly a year from now, I suspect that my combined numbers at T&M will measure in the hundreds of thousands. Something not possible in the purely "paper/return" days of old. My books are my greatest financial assets, and presently there is simply no better place for these assets to reside and grow than in the hands of Amazon Publishing's Thomas & Mercer imprint. Five years from now things might be entirely different, although I doubt it.

This is not to say that selling books is easier these days. It's not. In some ways, it's more difficult given the ease with which anyone can self-publish a novel. There's a lot of shit out there and it's clogging up the pipes so to speak. But if you're good at what you do, possess a degree of God given talent, and you dedicate yourself entirely to the craft and the life, you have at least a chance of breaking out. To a degree, that is.

As recently as three weeks ago I was contacted by a reporter (name not given) at The New York Times, asking me about my relationship with one of my present publishers and how it is that I am able to sell so well (this same reporter has been contacting me periodically for almost a year now). I've also been contacted by The Observer in London, the WSJ, and numerous other publications. I don't hand over much information to them which is a source of their infinite frustration, but I sense what they are looking for is "the secret." You know, what's the secret of your success? What deal have you made with the devil? What kind of tricks are you playing? What algarythms are you manipulating? (This last one really cracks me up...)

The truth is that there are no manipulations and there are no tricks. The most I can reveal is that now and again, my publishers might run a special. But this sales tactic is no different from any bookstore or chain of bookstores offering my books at a discounted price for a certain period of time. The point is to move units and it's purely a decision made by the pencil pushers on the "Retail" side of the building. You want to find me, I'm down the hall in the "Talent."

And don't take my word for it. There are a lot of other authors moving more units than I am, JA Konrath, Blake Crouch, Sean Chercover among them. Just this past weekend, Aaron Patterson moved something like 10K units of his novel Sweet Dreams. The book is five years old.   

This week my very first published novel, Permanence (Northwest 1995) will go on special now that it's been re-released in e-Book format. Back in the 90's it sold less than 500 copies and from that point on, was forgotten entirely, despite its stellar reviews. I'll make a prediction, come this time next week, Permanence will have sold at least 3500 units over the period of a couple of days. I can't guarantee that kind of success, but based on experience, I think I can stand up in public and make that prediction. 3,500 units sold in just a couple of days. That will be more sales than I collectively earned from 1995 - 1999.

Who misses the good old days? 
Not me.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

What Will Happen If There Are No More Books?

The Kindle Edition of the great novel...By the time you read this Papa will have sold more than ten copies.

By now you've probably heard about the big advertisement book-idea mogul James Patterson ran in the New York Times last week. I'm not going to tear it apart sentence for sentence because other writers like JA Konrath and JE Fishman have already done a far more intelligent job of it than I can ever hope to. But one sentence in Patterson's curious rant struck home with me. He asks, "What will happen if there are no more books like these..." and then he goes on to list a whole bunch of novels that have, in part, helped shaped the 20th century as we remember it, and in a few cases, the 21st as we are presently living it.

I can only assume that when Patterson says "no more books" he means no more "paper books." Which in itself is kind of ridiculous because in my mind anyway,  a book is a book is a book (Thanks Miss Stein!), whether it's published in paper or on Kindle or Nook or papyrus or on the interior lenses of those new Do-It-All wonder glasses Google is currently perfecting--You know, the eyeglasses that will one day replace the E-Reader.

Okay, so let's, for shits and giggles, pretend that as of today, there are no more paper books. They're all gone, disappeared, library and bookstore shelves emptied of their contents. So let's take this little fantasy a step further and just for the sake of argument, let's say that Papa Hemingway is still alive and kicking at 113 years old (Not an impossible stretch considering today's abundance of centenarians and beyond...). Picture the scene: Papa comes lumbering into his writing room in the Keys (He will by now have moved back to Key West for practical and professional reasons). He's a little drunk from having downed a one too many Papa Doubles at Sloppy Joes after spending most of the day on the Gulf not fishing, but assisting with the new efforts to monitor fish populations in the wake of the 2010 BP Oil Spill.

Already he's getting hungry and smelling the wonderful dish his 7th wife Maria is cooking up in the kitchen. He wants to eat early tonight and get to bed at a decent hour so he can get up at dawn and bite the nail on his new novel which will be released not next year, but within three months of its completion as an e-book. Man, what he wouldn't give to have Max Perkins around right now, editing his work as he produces it. He recalls the days when a writer could get away with putting out one novel every five or ten years. Now he's got to put one out every six months. That's how much the reading public is devouring books these days.

Papa runs his thick hands over his beloved Remington portable, but then switches on his lap top, and waits for it to boot up. When it does he clicks onto the Amazon Sales Rank website like he always does automatically. He does this now not because he's wondering how he's performing for his publishers, but because, in this day in age, he's wondering how his publishers are performing for him. He still works with publishers, both big and small, but five or so years ago, he decided his audience was large enough that he would start his own indie label which would publish Papa books and stories exclusively. Why give the corporate bastards all the money and the rights? was his logic.

He stares at the screen, focuses on The Sun Also Rises, and feels his smile growing under his white bearded, suntanned face."Sun" is selling in the 2,000 range for Paid Kindles in the Amazon store.

"None male," he whispers in Italian to himself. "Not bad."

In fact, he goes down the list of the many novels he's published since his first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems was self-published in Paris in the early 1920s on a genuine old fashioned 19th century era printing press. All the books are ranking in the 2000 or below range, netting him a nice profit not on a semi-annual basis, but a daily basis.

He sits back in his wood and leather Cuban cigar makers chair and reflects on how much things have changed since he first started writing with pencil and paper. How the world has gone from the Carrier Pigeon in the trenches of World War I where he nearly lost his right leg, to smartphones and texts. How he used to spin ceramic disks on his phonograph but these days tunes into his own personalized Pandora digital radio now that the record stores have become more historical fact than his old neurotic buddy Scott Fitzgerald. He remembers crossing the Atlantic with his beloved Hadley on the Normandie but how he recently visited Paris via the business class of an Air France Airbus. He recalls horse drawn wagons delivering milk to his doorstep on the Left Bank and how now he can't bear milk unless it's Lactose free and bears the Whole Foods logo. He certainly recalls the days when the US Army issued cigarettes in the daily ration kits. But he was smart enough to quit that deadly habit a long time ago.

The only thing he truly misses about the past is bookstores like Shakespeare and Company. Now there was a bookstore. But then, he was never much for book signings, and he was never fond of chain bookstores especially when they wouldn't let go of the antiquated 1930s era policy of "returns" on books that didn't move within a few weeks. Then there were the bookstores, many of them independent, high school and university, who wouldn't carry his books at all because they weren't considered "politically correct." Screw 'em, he said then, and Screw 'em, he says now.

He certainly isn't crying for the major publishers who were the first to blame him when his books weren't moving and then the first to praise themselves when they did move. Now, he entertains many forms of publishing and as a result, he's got more control of his work than ever before, and having lived his life as a rugged individualist, he couldn't be happier. Sure he misses paper books, but then he loves his new Kindle Fire. He doesn't have to travel with a trunk load of heavy books anymore, and he even gets to watch The Killers on it, the one movie based on his work which he actually likes.

He gets up from his chair, takes a glance at the book shelf that now contains photos of his family. His many wives, good and bad. His sons, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren and even a great great grandchild. He smiles wryly but proudly and he misses those who have passed before him. The curse of old age. He turns to the window, and from there he can see the sea. The eternal sea. He knows that tomorrow, the sun will also rise upon it and he will bite the nail as he has always done. That is something that never changes and he is as resolute in his calling than ever before.

"Papa!" calls the voice of Maria from below. "Before it gets cold!"

He feels a start in his heart. He knows he'd better get himself to the table before she tosses the meal out the window. But at the same time, he's thinking about a certain young woman he recently met at Sloppy Joes bar. A strawberry blond, with a figure to die for and legs that go all the way up past her shoulders. What did she call herself? A professional blogger? Not a reporter, but a blogger. Oh well, time to commit that new word to memory. For Papa, words have always held a special fascination, no matter where or how they are printed or spoken. But he's made plans with this special new strawberry blond. They are about to visit the border country where Turkey meets Syria in order to write about the civil war going on there. For Papa it will be yet another war and another book, but for the blonde, it will be her first experience in Indian country. It will be a romantic time for them both. Just like it was for he and Marty Gellhorn during the Spanish Civil War. What's old will be new again and all's fair in love and war.

"But how will I break the news to Maria?" he asks himself, feeling the pangs of worry fill his considerable stomach.

Poor old Papa. Some things just never change.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

  

 

MOONLIGHT FALLS Comes Full Circle

Six years ago I was surviving as a freelance journalist and sometimes foreign correspondent. I hadn't published a full-length novel since 2001 when Dell published, Godchild, the second in the Jack Marconi series. I was beginning to think I would never enter back into the game again. Even then, I still had no idea about the power of e-books and digital publication, so I was still schlepping manuscripts the old fashioned way: via snail mail and via an agent who schlepped via snail mail. In the end, a small traditionally based press took the book on. I signed a traditional deal for traditional percentages. Hey, what did I know?

Now I have the rights to my first Dick Marconi novel back. And now, for the first time, the novel that started it all is available from a digital-heavy indie press that knows how to publish, market, and distribute e-books--StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink. I should know, Over the past two years, I've sold literally hundreds of thousands of copies of my novels with them. So many that it led to a seven book deal with Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing.

 Introducing for the first time, again, MOONLIGHT FALLS

Get it here on Kindle
Get it here on Nook
Get it here on Kobo

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

E-Books and Libraries: What the Big 6 Doesn't Get

                                           "Wow that Dick Moonlight is really something..."


Maybe JA Konrath read my last post "Libraries Get It" or perhaps it's a coincidence that his newest post is titled, "E-Books in Libraries: They Still Don't Get It."

Whatever the case may be, the libraries actually do get the future and the important impact inexpensive E-Books can make in a lending library all too often frequented by good reading folks who have no choice but to watch every single penny earned. But as usual the Big 6 and the American Association of Publishers (AAP) are fighting progress for a number of reasons, some of which they hide behind legal smoke-screens like "anti-trust suits," etc.

Now I'm not going to pretend I know the in and outs of the publishing industry, both commercial and indie, like Konrath does or have my finger on the pulse of the American library system such as it is. But after reading Joe's post, I'm gathering that what it all comes down to is this: The Big 6 just don't want libraries competing with their already dwindling returns.

In any case, click on Konrath's link and you can get the story, which is actually a guest blog. It's written by an individual in the know: a librarian and a "published author," who shall go unnamed, and who works in the South Carolina library system. 

His life is books, and passion drips from his fingertips....

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Book Piracy and Just Plain Cheap!

"Jesus has returned to earth. But it will cost you five bucks to see Him."
"No thanks, I'm pinching my pennies."



Maybe it doesn't seem logical, but there's a school of thought amongst some authors and publishers that books robbed off the internet, or what's better known as "pirating," doesn't hurt individual book sales one single bit. This seems illogical since those doing the pirating won't have to buy the actual product. It's been the same for the music industry. Pirated music doesn't need to be bought, so the artist suffers. Or does he?

I can't tell you how many people ask me for a "free book" or who tell me that their brother gave them their copy, who got his from a friend, who got theirs from a used bookstore, and when they're done with it, they're going to pass it on to their Aunt Trudy who will hand it over to the Salvation Army bin and then ask for a receipt for her taxes. Cheap ass Aunt Trudy.

My point?

Is this not a form of piracy? Only difference between stealing books or music off the internet and people passing paperback or hardcover books around without having to buy them, is that the latter group commits their crime right out in the open. In fact, nothing irks me more than being approached in a crowded bar and some obnoxious blond will walk up to me and shout "Where's my book?" Like I somehow promised her a freebie. What I always wanna say in response to one of these cheapskates is, "Ok, the novel is 20 bucks. Let's see, you keep the books at a construction company for 15 bucks an hour. How about you do an hour and a quarter's worth of accounting for me and I'll trade you a signed copy of Moonlight Falls for it. Deal?" Inevitably, I'll receive a kind of screwy upturned brow look, that screams, "Well aren't we all high and mighty?" Well, I write for a living, lady!

What will happen the next week? I'll see the same dame in the same bar, and once again she'll scream, "Where's my book?" Only this time, she'll tell me she's started on her own novel about her second marriage to some guy who didn't know he was gay until he got in bed with her. Or maybe he wished himself gay. "You're agent will love it. What's her email address?"

JA Konrath has yet another interesting experiment going in which he is allowing people to pirate his novels. He's going to prove the piracy won't affect sales. I wonder if he ever willingly gives away hard copies to people who refuse to pay for them?

Stay tuned....and anyone interested in pre-ordering The Remains...click Here!

PW and NY Agents Sink to a New Level!

"Excuse me Mr. Konrath, is that a Kindle in your pocket?"


The war in the publishing "revolution" reached new heights today when a scathing article penned by Publishers Weekly essentially accused bestselling author and indy publishing guru, JA Konrath of resorting to "scheme" tactics by signing a new book deal with Amazon-Encore. In a blatant and curious attempt to fully discredit Konrath as a legitimate author, PW sighted falling sales and "a book no one wanted," as the reason behind the new deal with the electronic powerhouse. PW even went so far as to back up their argument by interviewing one New York agent who refused to reveal his or her true identity.

"It's not necessarily clear that big corporate publishing is well structured to help low midlist authors with rapidly reducing print runs in an environment in which overall print sales are falling week by week," expounded Mr. or Ms. Anonymous. "I think what Joe [Konrath] did is valuable in that he saw there was an opportunity to create low-priced content and bypass the system."

Yet one of the agents interviewed, Scott Waxman of the Waxman Agency, must be a visionary who views that same "system" as, well, failing. He fully admitted to even starting his own new publishing venture entirely based upon the new Indy Model. "If you have an author with a platform who can sell books, we're happy selling 5,000 to 10,000 copies," says Waxman about his Diversion Books. "While Diversion isn't paying advances, it's not taking everyone who comes in with a manuscript. This isn't self-publishing...You get real publishing support. I know you don't get that with self-publishing. This lives in between."

Konrath who was quick to respond to this less than kind, blatantly biased, article raises the possibility that PW might owe him an apology. But by the looks of it, PW is simply making a weak play at holding at bay a publishing revolution which is clearly making its presence known in the Big Apple. And like Konrath says, any kind of publicity is good publicity, especially when it's being written by a nose-bitten douchebag.

As a novelist who has published with the biggies and the Indy Presses (no I haven't self-published...yet!), my agent, Janet Benrey (a brave Brit who wishes not to remain anonymous) recently asked me if I would like to make a return to big publishing one day. My response was this: If they want to pay me a major six or seven-figure advance, keep my book in print for seven or more years, offer me 50% on E-Book publication, and 25% minimum on trade paper and/or hardcover, if they want to market the hell out of it, if they can guarantee they won't discontinue the imprint, be taken over in a consolidation, if they promise to abide by the contract and not "cancel" it, and finally, if they'll kiss my perfectly carved Planet Fitness ass, than sure, I'll think about it. Janet's response? Well, she couldn't stop laughing.

Oh, and the link to Konrath's response and the PW Pulitzer Prize Winning article...click here!