The Hybrid Author Mindset

So I've had this non-fiction idea for a some time now. It originally started out as an article but ran way too long for publication in any journal or magazine, which signaled to me that it should be a short book instead. Part memoir, part confession, part instructional how-to, The Hybrid Author Mindset will offer writers a no bullshit peak at what it's like to be a full-time professional writer who publishes independently and traditionally.

It begins with my scoring that quarter-million dollar deal I've spoken so much about in the late '90s (plus lucrative deals that have followed) and all the stupid mistakes a young early thirty-something piss-and-vinegar-filled young man can possibly make to screw the deal up, not to mention his love life. But it also busts through the publishing myths, such as advances. Think a $100K advance is a big deal? Think it will save you from the poor house? Think again.

Here's an excerpt from the The Hybrid Author Mindset that just might rattle your cage:

So you finally nailed the big contract. Your agent just called, all out of breath and beyond excited. She can hardly wait to tell you that you have been offered $100,000 for a two book, hardback, soft, eBook, and audio world rights deal. You’re about to become the darling of New York City and the talk of the town. You’re do excited, you scream! All your office workers become so alarmed they think someone has died. But the only thing that’s died is your need for a day job. Everyone is so excited for you they take you out for drinks at Happy Hour.

So here’s what happens over the course of the next few months. You sign the big contract. In turn, your agent sends you the signing portion of the advance. Since this contract is for $100K that means it’s $50K per book. The signing portion of the first advance might be $25,000. That sounds like a lot and it is a lot. But after the agent takes her 15% you are down to $21,250. Next in line is Uncle Sam and his cut which, if you have a good accountant and get lucky, might be 25%. Now you’re down to $15,937.50. Okay, still not bad. But conservatively speaking, if it costs you $4,000 per month to live, you’re going to run out of money in just little bit shy of four months. If you have a savings put away, you’ll have to start digging into it. If you don’t have a savings, you might have to start thinking about asking your boss for your old job back. But you would rather hang from the ceiling by your fingernails than do that. You’re about to be a mega bestseller. Everyone thinks you’re a major success, even before the book is released. You have your pride to think about.

Plus you have another $25K coming for the first book, right? So what’s to worry about? You pull out the credit cards and cover yourself until you get the next round of monies. Easy Peasy. That next round of cash comes in say, six or eight months down the road when you deliver your revised manuscript. If…the important word is IF here…your revised manuscript is accepted, you will receive the Delivery and Acceptance portion of your first advance. Let’s say it’s $12,500. After you do all the math you’re left with about $7K and change. That might last you two months if you stretch it out. It most certainly doesn’t cover the credit cards you’ve been racking up. But you’re stubborn and you look forward to the next and final portion of your advance which will arrive on publication day…

…four months later.

Okay, so it’s the big day you’ve been waiting for. Publication day. You just got a nice check for $12,500 minus the agent’s fee (You’ve decided to forgo Uncle Sam’s portion on this one, because you’re book is going to be a bestseller and you’ll earn out the initial $50K in a matter of weeks when the book lands on the New York Times bestseller list). You have a check in your pocket for $10,625 and even if your credit card balance is more than that (and don’t forget the back taxes), you feel on top of the world. Your author copies arrive, you take a ton of selfies for Facebook and Instagram, you collect a ton of “likes”, you do a couple signings in your home town, and maybe, just maybe if you live in proximity to NYC, you do a signing at the B&N in Union Square. The reviews come out and in general they are very kind. Maybe you didn’t get the New York Times review you were dreaming of, but you did get one in People and Entertainment Weekly. In a word, you are a rock star.

Then something happens…The Big Yawn.

Your book doesn’t make the New York Times bestseller list. It doesn’t even make the USA Today bestseller list which is easier. But it does make several Amazon lists which is encouraging, or so your editor tells you over the phone. The troubling thing however, is that as time goes on, you notice your conversations with both your editor and agent are becoming shorter and shorter. They don’t seem to be as emotionally invested as they once were. It’s troubling because even before your second book in the contract comes out, you realize you desperately need another very big contract in order to get yourself out of debt.

You go to work on the next novel. You write frantically and finish it in record time. You hand it in to you editor. You don’t hear from him for weeks, months. You email him and your agent incessantly. Finally, the editor emails you back. He says he’s read the book and “likes” it. However, seeing as it looks like you’re not going to earn out the first half of your advance, they are going to forgo the hardback publication and go straight to mass market paper and eBook. You feel your heart drop into your stomach.

The year goes buy and you receive the balance of your $100,000 contact, or $50,000. After your agent takes what he’s owed, you make the horrible decision to keep the entire $42,500 since you’re in such debt you can’t possibly pay the $10,000+ plus federal and state tax bill owed. As it is, you already owe more than $5K to the IRS from the previous advance check.

You call your editor. He takes the call which is encouraging. You tell him about your next book project…a high concept thriller. But all you get is dead air, which is not only discouraging, it is downright disconcerting. He calmly explains to you that it’s probably in your best interest to pursue another publisher for your next book project. He hangs up. You’ll never hear from him again.

 
After living on the $42,500 for the year, you are dead broke, in serious debt to the credit card 

companies, and the IRS. Your agent and editor don’t return your phone calls or emails. You don’t

have a job or any means of income. You’re a good if not great writer with two books to your credit, 

yet you have a very tough road ahead of you. 


The point to the book, other than to inform while entertain, is to encourage authors to build up both a 
traditional list as well as a very healthy indie list. That way, when one media outlet goes dry (or goes belly up, or parts ways with your editorial staff, or just plain becomes disinterested)...and 
believe me, it will go dry at some point...you have other outlets to rely on. Take it from one who
knows, those authors who don't treat this game like a business are doomed to failure. Just ask James
Patterson. He's made a fortune by treating authorship like a business. 
Methinks you should too. 

Get The hybrid Author Mindset. 

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Discipline

Sorry...I'm not talking about the kind of discipline that involves black leather, riding crops and chains. So mind of out of the gutter pronto.

This is the kind of discipline that leads to freedom. If you're a writer, what you're working for in the short and long run, is freedom. The freedom to do whatever you want when you want to do it. But just like the freedom we enjoy as Americans, it don't come cheap nor does it come without a lot of hard work. It takes discipline to pull your butt out of bed everyday and sit yourself down at the writing desk to pump out five or six pages of new work, day in and day out. Discipline takes strength but it also takes desire and self-motivation.

Working for yourself is a goal most working stiffs and corporate slaves only dream about. What's the point of putting in all that schooling, all those loans, if you're only signing up for two weeks vacation per year?

One of the best things about being a full-time author (or freelance writer for that matter) is being your own boss, setting your own schedule, building a passive income that will not only take care of you and yours in the present tense, but will supply financial security for future generations. But it all takes discipline.

So how do I go about applying the writing disciple in my everyday life?

The answer is in the Vlog (nice face huh?):

 THE REMAINS, the No. 1 Overall Amazon Bestselling, is just 0.99 for a Limited Time! "Beware the Woods!"

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You got what it takes to be a full-time author?

My very first novel back in the day of big advances ...

I've been doing this writing gig for a long time now. Full-time. Some years have been spectacular. You know, those years when I'm scoring big contracts and winning some prestigious awards, and hitting all the lists.

Then there are those years where all I hear are crickets, the bank account is dwindling, and the passengers are jumping ship.

Most years, however, fall somewhere in between the highs and the lows, and that's actually a good place to be. Because in the writing business, things are never as good as they seem, nor are they as bad.

The only thing you can control is the writing. At least, that's what my first editor at Delacorte Publishing, Jacob Hoye, used to tell me. And he was spot on. So long as you're true to your craft, everything else can go to hell.

Now, with further ado, you got what it takes to be a full-time author?

Today THE REMAINS is just 0.99...
Grab it and be thrilled...

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Marketing: The Time Suck

I work all the time. In fact, I'm sometimes like the crotchety writer dude played by Jack Nicholson in that movie from the late 1990s, As Good As It Gets. There's a scene in which he tells Helen Hunt, "I work all the time." The point being, Don't bug me. Writers are a funny bunch in that they don't feel right unless they are putting words on a page, good words or bad words.

But lately, I feel like despite the stellar word count, the marketing has been getting in the way. The social media, the interviews, the setting up of promos, the website updates, the newsletters, the compiling of subscribers and, if you're like me, answering as many fan emails as you can possibly answer without your fingers falling off from all the typing. I like my fans. They support me. Therefore, I like to give them the personal treatment.

Now, marketing your work doesn't apply only to your independently published books and stories. It also applies to the traditional stuff. In some cases, I find myself pushing the traditional stuff more, since the publishers just don't have the time or the budget to keep pushing Zandri books, especially the ones I can't even get my own mother to buy.

Some authors rely on Amazon ads or Facebook ads. They pour a bunch of money into the ad budget then create numerous ad-sets and forget about it. But like I intuited in a previous post, these ads can be a money suck if not monitored closely enough. Some authors hire virtual assistants to handle the marketing overflow. I've done this in the past and it never really works out, because you lose control over your messaging when someone else is producing it. Some authors do nothing. Their marketing is boiled down to consistent output. Write, publish, rinse, repeat. There's that rule again. The more books and stories you create, the better chance you have of making a decent monthly and semi-annual profit.

I believe that making more words is the inevitable answer. Writing stories day in and day out without hesitation. But how can one keep up with that kind of grueling pace? you ask. Simple. Some people never miss a day of work in a forty year career, minus vacations of course. Why should a writer be any different? Here's how I do it. I tell myself I'm working for a Hollywood studio, like Fox or Disney. They give me a room and a typewriter, and my boss tells me, "I want a story on my desk by the end of the week, or no paycheck." See, it's not so difficult when you look at it from that POV.

Anyway, this was supposed to be about marketing. But it all comes down to the writing, doesn't it?
Write, publish, rinse, repeat.
Everything else is secondary.

Grab my new novel THE ASHES

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On Publishing: 5 Rules You Should Break

Any author who isn't considering opening up their own publishing imprint in 2017 is living in the fucking dark ages. Pardon the F word. Sure, publish traditionally. Give to Caesar what is Caeser's. But by all means, take control of your career, and take advantage of all the publishing opps out there, including independent publishing platforms like KDP and D2D.

Publish, not once a year, or twice a year, but all the time. Publish non-stop. Don't let any publishing professionals, agent or editor, tell you you're wearing yourself too thin. Don't take their advice at all in fact when it comes to production and the proliferation of your words. Proliferation scares them. It goes against their traditional mindset. It makes them feel like they are losing control.

What scares the writing traditionalists and academy elites the most? A non-traditional writer who sells. A writer who writes what he wants to write, how he wants to write it. A writer who doesn't bend over to the PC lockstep culture. A writer who refuses to be emasculated by the system. I made well over six figures last year publishing the shit I make up, one way or another. I don't have to teach, I don't have to work at another job I hate. I don't have to grow old and irrelevant by punching a clock for some other asshole. Like the song goes, I live life my way.

You can too, but it takes a crap load of work. In mean time, here's a little advice about 5 traditional publishing rules your should break!

1. Don't sign a contract if you don't have to. Here's why: the publisher will break it if it wants to. You however, being an author and therefore powerless in the publisher's mind, will be expected to adhere to the letter of the law. When it comes to publishers, well, they feel they control your fate. So, like a pilot that purposely crashes the plane into a mountainside, they can tank your book if they so choose. Or they can veer away from the mountain, and make it a bestseller. Once you sign away your rights, they control everything. So bring along a parachute and don't sign if you don't have to.

2. If you must sign a contract, make sure there's no bullshit in there about non-compete clauses, or anything that holds onto your rights, paper or electronic, for more than a period of seven years. Anything more than that, and tell them to hit the road. Publish it under your savvy new imprint and control your own destiny.

3. When your publisher tells you to slow down, nod politely, then write and publish as many stories and novels as possible. Write, publish, repeat. Don't listen to their rules. I've worked with a half dozen major, medium, and small publishers over the course of a 20 year career. Almost every editor, editor in chief, and marketing person I've been involved with over that period are now gone baby gone. If nothing else, professional publishing is a revolving door. No one cares about you, no matter how much they pretend. Take care of yourself first, and publish everything. 

4. Don't suck up to get ahead. If you're like me, a hybrid publishing traditionally and independently, you're still going to find yourself in situations (especially in New York City and LA), where you're going to have to suck up to somebody. Be nice, treat others with the same respect you expect, but don't suck up to get ahead. It's humiliating. Remember, this is 2017, not 2007 or 1997 for that matter. You, the writer, have far more control over the publisher than you think. They need you more than the other way around. What a liberating concept. Like I said, be nice, work with them, market the work they produce for you to the best of your ability. But expect them to work for you as well. Your relationship with them should be a working relationship of mutual admiration and respect. Not one of the writer on his knees and the publisher with his pants unzipped. 

5. You don't need to attend every writers conference on the planet. These are expensive events that are usually attended by the old guard elite who are often paid to be there. Sure, conferences can be fun sometimes, especially for the more social butterfly-like writers. But again, it's one of those situations where conferences need you, more than you need them. It's a cash cow suck up fest. So if you enjoy sucking up while emptying your pockets, go for it.

I could add a sixth rule to break here, like do not waste your money on an MFA, but I'll save that for an essay down the road. For now, just write. Write everyday, write with abandon, write for yourself because that's who you are. Carve those precious gems. Write for traditional publishers but proceed with caution. They will do their best to control you. So don't let them. Control your own destiny. Be your own man. Doesn't matter your gender, grow a new set of balls, and establish your own rules and live by them. Thrive by them. 

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Observations by the Hybrid Author Thus Far

Back in the old days (I'm talking the late 1990s here), when I wrote my first book for Delacorte Press, there was only one way to publish. Traditionally. You submitted the manuscript you'd been agonizing over for the past two to three years (or in writing school, like I did) to an agent, and when and if they agreed to shop it, you'd then wait another period of months until it was sold.

More than likely however, it would have been rejected. But...Big ol' booty BUT here...if you were one of the lucky ones, said agent fielded an offer for you. Or two. The more the better because that meant the book was entering into an auction and that would drive the price up. That happened to me with that first book and I ended up with a pretty hefty advance.

However, the book pretty much tanked and after having left all that money on the table, no one wanted to offer me more money for more books. I was out of business for a while (but the joke was on them, because the second edition of that book would go on to sell well over 100,000 copies).

Fast forward to the early 2000s and the advent of indie publishing and suddenly authors have options like never before. We can publish the old fashioned way and hope, or we can publish with smaller more digitally based presses, or we can form our own publishing companies and self-publish our books (so long as they are rigorously edited...this of course, takes investment money). A fourth option is the one I prefer which is hybrid authorship, or a combination of all the above.

I've been at the hybrid game for about three years now, and at this point I've been able to make some interesting observations (these are personal observations and by no means the rule...what works/doesn't work for me, might be different for another author).

1. Small independent presses can't move units. Simple as that. In other words, if you sign with a small imprint, regardless of their quality, author stable, and distribution, it's hard for them to move as many units as a big publisher can. They simply don't have the resources to make it happen. Now if you're publishing with the small press for the honor of doing so (maybe you have another job or you teach), and not relying on the money, then by all means, indulge. Some beautiful books are being produced by more than a few of these companies. 

2. The big publishers, and I include Amazon Publishing imprints in this group, can indeed move a lot of units, but only when they are paying strict attention to you and your library pretty much all of the time, or at least, a lot of the time. Which, of course, is impossible. Big publishers have a ton of authors vying for their attention and not everyone can get a big bite of it all the time. Ironically, it's the authors who sell the best who are going to demand the most attention. That's the way it's always worked and that's the way it will remain. I personally like to use big publishers, especially Amazon Imprints like Thomas & Mercer, for my stand-alones since they have an aptitude for marketing like no other. 

2A. Big Publishers still move a lot of paper (I exclude Amazon Publishing imprints in this one, since they rely almost exclusively on Kindle and audio).

3. Indie or self-publishing is all about the math. What I mean is, having now been publishing one entire series, The Chase Baker action/adventure pulp series for three years now under my own imprint, Bear Media, I can see that the best marketing tool for succeeding independently is to write more books. Five books sell more than one book. 10 books sell more than 5, 20 books sell more than 10, and so on, rinse, repeat. However, to be a successful indie writer, you need to market aside from writing more books. This means paying for FB ads, BookBubs, KNDs, and any one of a multitude of advertising sites that are presently available. There are days I am so confused and overwhelmed by marketing opportunities that I find myself having to lie down and take a nap. Also, has anyone tried to figure out precisely how Facebook ads work? You need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. But wait, you can now hire other outside firms to do this kind of thing for you. In turn you're free to write while they build up your subscriber list which in time, will result in increased sales.

To sum it up (this was supposed to be a short blog), numerous options still exist for all fiction writers, especially genre writers like me. It's all about personal choice and comfort and how much control you're willing or not willing to give up. If you make your living as a writer, like I do, you'll probably find yourself shying away from small presses and concentrating on bigger trades for certain books (like stand-alones for instance) while spending a significant amount of time building up your indie list of series books.

One day, I foresee one's own website acting as a one-stop bookshop for an author's personal list of subscribers who need only tap their smartphone (or wristwatch) for the books they wish to read, digitally, audibly, or in good old fashioned paper. That day is coming rather quickly. But not yet.

Note: I'll be speaking on this exact topic at the annual Writer's Digest Conference 2016 taking place August 12-14 in New York City. Click HERE for details. Please come, introduce yourself to me, and perhaps we can have a drink and chat it up.   

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How Do I Publish My Novel?

Lately, I've been fielding more than my fair share of phone calls, emails, texts, and barroom queries over how precisely one goes about getting one's book to the marketplace. The kinds of people asking me these questions might be varied in age, gender, occupation, and relationship to the author (that's me), but they all have one thing in common: not only the desire to publish a book or books, but also to make money from it.

What I find most interesting is that they come to me in the first place. As if I know a secret formula no one else knows and all it will take is my snapping a photo of said formula with my smartphone and forwarding it along the digital transom. Within a day or two, a new novel would be available for sale on the global marketplace. But what's even more interesting is the way these people perceive me as a writer.

"You have a lot of luck publishing eBooks."

"You publish real books."

"You publish with a big publisher."

"You work with an Amazon Publishing imprint."

"You work with an independent publisher."

"You write pulp fiction."

"You write stand-alone suspense thrillers."

"You write PI series." 

It goes on and on. The truth is that I am all of the above and more than all of the above. I am a hybrid author who at one time or another in his career, was a slave to the old system of write a novel, submit novel to agent, wait to hear from agent, finally hear from agent, rewrite novel, submit once more to agent, wait while they submit to publishers, wait some more, collect rejections until maybe...just maybe...you field an offer. Then wait some more. Just like magic, however, your book appears in the bookstores where it will live a  shelf life of perhaps six weeks, if you are lucky. That entire process can eat up two to three years of one's life.

But now, with the advent of eBooks, Kindle Direct Publishing, and a new breed of author/reader friendly major publishers like Amazon Publishing (in particular, the Thomas & Mercer imprint), I am able to publish many books per year, in several different genres, in multiple formats, and enjoy infinite shelf life. Since some of these books are published under my own imprint, I make a far greater profit per unit sold than I would under that aforementioned "12 Years a Slave" publishing process of yesteryear.

So when it comes to answering the queries from those interested in getting their new opus in print, my answer is not always simple. There are simply too many options available to authors these days. From going strictly indie to pursuing a traditional deal. I do stress the importance however, of keeping one's options open and not sticking strictly to one method of publishing. I published with Amazon Publishing because, hands down, they are the best at what they do. The marketing department operates like they invented book marketing. Because of their efforts, I'm closing in on my first million sold. In terms of the traditional deal in a no longer so traditional world, I can't imagine being anywhere else.

But then, AP and independent bookstores don't always see eye to eye, and that means the paperback versions of my novels aren't often found inside those hallowed brick and mortar walls. Which means I need to also publish traditionally with a publisher who will produce a hardcover book and distribute it to all the bookstores. Enter my friends at Polis Books who recently published my newest stand alone noir novel, Orchard Grove.

And yet, there's the third method of publishing for the hybrid author and that's self-publishing. Back when I was in writing school, if you even breathed the words "self publishing" you might have been banished from campus (I was banished anyway, but for other reasons I won't get into here). Now however, self or "indie" publishing, is all the rage. And while I avoided it for far longer than I should have, I now make significant profits from my own imprint, Bear Media. My son, Harrison, who will release his first supernatural YA novel, Howard, in April, can't imagine going any other way than indie. "Why would you want to give away your rights, dad?" he says. You gotta love the millennials.

But what KDP also allows me is speed. I'm a fast writer and I work everyday, six and a half days per week, as if I were working for a big company like Miramax, for instance, who might expect me to put out a script per week. "But don't you ever get writer's block, Mr. Zandri?" the would-be writer asks on occasion. I always answer them the same way, "My dad worked construction for sixty years before he died. Never once in all his working life did he experience construction block."

So back to the basic premise of this essay which is first-time authors asking me how to go about publishing their first novel. It's totally up to you. Do your research. Google the term "traditional publishing." And do the same for "hybrid publishing" and "self/indie publishing." Determine which method suits you best, your goals, and the effort you're willing to put into it.

One thing is for sure. There's no fast track to riches and fame in the writing business. Sure, there's the occasional first time breakout that takes the globe by storm, but you have a better chance of being struck by lightning while cashing in your winning Power Ball ticket than you do becoming a mega bestseller right out of the starting gate. There's only one sure fire way to succeed as a writer, and that's to write, publish, stretch, repeat. If you possess talent, and you're willing to put in the work, you will enjoy a degree of success. Perhaps even major success.  So stop reading this and get to work.

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