Indie Publishing: The Reckoning

When I started indie publishing back in 2011, I promised myself I would keep at it until my next landmark birthday and then re-evaluate if I wanted to continue. That day arrives next week.

Like many people at the start of a new venture, I thought self-publishing success would be assured, and it wouldn't take me long to find fame and fortune. That didn't happen. I'm not a fast or prolific writer, and the stories I want to tell don't have the tropes many readers seem to want. I seldom sell books unless I pay for ads on the free/bargain book sites, and even the ads end up costing more than I earn. I earn more from selling short stories to anthologies than I do from my indie-published novels. Perhaps I should focus on short stories--if I still feel that writing is worth the effort.

Despite all the struggled, I'm determined to keep writing and self-publishing my novels. I improve my craft with every project, and it's possible future novels will hit the sweet spot between what I want to write and what readers want to read. I don't necessarily need to be a bestseller; if I can find a few thousand people who are in my tribe and get what I write, I'll do well enough. There are still so many stories I want to tell with my current and future characters. I can't let them--or myself--down by giving up. I already fulfilled one dream by finishing the Season Avatars series. There are still more dreams out there. Thanks to indie publishing, I can control what happens to my dreams.

Here's to another fifty years of reading and writing books. May the Muse be with me!

IWSG: Publishing Paths

Once again, the Insecure Writer's Support Group is encouraging writers to share their writing journeys with others. You can learn more about the IWSG on their website , Facebook page, or Twitter. This month, our co-hosts are Toi Thomas, T Powell Coltrin, M.J. Fifield, and Tara Tyler.

Our question this month is What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why?

When I decided to be a writer back in the 90s, traditional publishing with an agent and a publisher was the only real option. Today, I consider myself a hybrid author. Although I'll still publish most of my work independently, I'll participate in anthologies if I find them interesting.I enjoy having control over my projects, and while I obviously want to find a steady stream of readers for my work, I can also write "projects of the heart" to keep my passion for writing alive. I'd rather retain full rights for my novels, but short story markets take fewer rights and introduce my work to new readers. No matter if you pursue traditional publishers/agents (remember: there's no guarantee they'll choose you) or take on the publishing role yourself, writing is a business, and there's no easy path to success. It takes time to develop your craft and find an audience.

What's your writing path? I would love to give you some choices here like the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, but I'm afraid there's only one place for comments for this post.

Three Things to Celebrate in October

As if colorful leaves, hot ciders, pumpkins and squash, and Halloween aren't enough to get excited about this October, here are three more reasons to celebrate this month. Two are global, and one is personal.

1. Vegetarian Awareness Month--Saturday was actually World Vegetarian Day to kick off Vegetarian Awareness Month. I became a vegetarian about two years ago to reduce my carbon footprint and leave more resources for my son's generation. It's not always easy to eat vegetarian; at home, I have to do more cooking to accommodate everyone's preferences. When we go to a restaurant, I have to check out the menu online to make sure I have something to eat--and sometimes I've ordered things I thought were meat-free but didn't turn out to be. Becoming a vegetarian obviously means I eat more vegetables and forces me to expand my palate. On the whole, I feel it's a healthy diet (as long as I don't overdo the cheese) and helps reduce some of the cruelties involved in modern food production. If you're not ready to give up meat altogether, you could try going meatless once a week. If everyone made small changes to their diets, it could have big effects.

2. Star Wars Reads--I may not wield the power of the Force (though I am working on a Jedi costume for the Rebel Legion), but I do have the power of reading. These two powers combine this month for Star Wars Reads. There will be various activities going on all month. When Alex was younger, Star Wars provided him with material he wanted to read at a reading level he could manage. Although his reading has improved and his tastes have broadened, Star Wars books still make up a large part of his library. I have to check if there are any local events we can troop at this year.


3. My Fifth Indie Anniversary: Lyon's Legacy celebrates its fifth year of publication this week. While I do plan to celebrate with an ad and a brief sale on my novels, these days I'm focusing more on permafree and newsletter campaigns than I am on sales and ads. In the long run, I want to develop fans who will seek out my work, so this seems like the best strategy.

What can I say about five years of being an indie writer? There's been a lot of learning involved. While I'm fairly familiar with the publication process by now, there's always more to learn about craft and marketing. There have been ups and downs, and indie publishing is definitely not a quick path to fame and fortune. (I knew that when I started out, but it has been harder to find readers than I expected it would be.) However, I enjoy the freedom of being able to choose who I work with, what I write, and when it becomes available. The more I learn about the pitfalls in traditional publishing contracts, the happier I am with my choice to go indie. My short-term plan is to publish two books a year (while hopefully completing smaller projects too) until 2020 and then re-evaluate how I'm doing. Here's to more writing and more books in the meantime!

Indie Author Day

If dogs can have their own day (which was last week), why not indie authors?

The first annual Indie Author Day is scheduled for Saturday, October 8th. Libraries across the United States will be holding a variety of events to support local indie authors. You can learn more about Indie Author Day at their own website, indieauthorday.com. This is also where authors and libraries can sign up to join the event. I think signing up puts you on the ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) mailing list, as I received an e-mail from them with an offer of a free eBook shortly after I signed up.

One caveat I would point out is that one of the sponsors of Indie Author Day is SELF-e, a service that asks indie authors to donate eBooks so SELF-e can sell them to libraries. I don't mind donating paper copies of my books to the local library or offering permafree books as a marketing strategy, but other people shouldn't profit off of my free works. Hopefully they won't pressure me to enroll with SELF-e.

My local library hasn't signed up yet to be part of Indie Author Day, so I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to do anything with them or if I'll be able to participate at another nearby library. I'll keep you updated as the time draws closer.

Barnes and Noble to Carry (Some) Indie Books

One of the disadvantages of being an indie author is difficulty getting your paper books distributed by physical bookstores. It can be done, but it might require printing your books through a different service and paying for returns. Barnes and Noble announced yesterday plans to carry select indie books in their stores (you can currently order indie paper books on their website). Here's the original article posted on GoodeReader; you can read commentary from other indie authors on The Passive Voice. 

While this sounds like a great deal for indie authors, it's necessary to consider the details. To qualify, the eBook versions must be published through Nook Press (which means I'd have to cease using Draft2Digital to distribute to B&N--and I can't set a book to permafree unless I use the distributor) and sell at least 1000 books a year. Most of my sales are on Amazon; I have very few on Kobo, Apple or B&N. I still distribute my books there partly to give my readers as much access as possible and partly because I don't want to be 100% reliant on Amazon. Even if a book does qualify, there's no word yet about terms, such as number of books per store, how long they will be displayed, and what the return policy for unsold books will be. While I see this as a step forward for indie authors, I also have my doubts about the long-term health of Barnes & Noble. If they manage to avoid going the way of Borders, they may be forced to do that by reducing their shelf space even further and selling things other than books.

Let's take a quick poll: If you buy paper books, where do you buy them from? Please feel free to comment below.

IWSG: Trading Off Goals

Welcome to June and the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group! This month's co-hosts include Murees Dupe, Alexia Chamberlynn, Chemist Ken, and Heather Gardner. 

I recently read Susan Kaye Quinn's Indie Author Survival Guide, and it got me thinking about how I should plan my long-career as an indie author. One of the goals I decided on was to publish at least two books a year through 2020. This will allow me to build a backlist, complete a series or two, and establish a reliable schedule to keep fans happy. In a few years, I'll reassess how my career is doing and decide if I should change my strategy. I already published one book this year and hope to publish Fifth Season, the next book in the Season Avatars series, by the end of this year. Once my son's birthday party is done, I'll read the rough draft and start revisions. It's going to be challenging to keep this pace up for an extended period of time while continuing to improve my craft and fulfilling all of my other obligations. Of course, have I ever backed down from such a challenge?

There will be trade-offs required to meet this goal. These trade-off may include focusing on certain projects at the expense of others. For example, I came up with an idea for a short story after coming home from WisCon. I'm not a natural short story writer, probably because I read many, many more novels than I do short stories. I may still put this project on the back burner, along with several other short stories in progress, and work on it in between novels. However, I think in order to meet my goals, I'll have to develop longer projects and prioritize them.

Have you ever had to trade off writing projects? If so, what were your reasons? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Indie Author Fringe

Indie Author Fringe, a free online conference for indie writers, is occurring on Friday. This is actually one of three online conferences for indie writers this year; all of them are scheduled to tie in to major book conventions. Speakers include Mark Coker, Joanna Penn, Joel Friedlander, David Gaughran, and many more. (Here's the link to the full schedule, including speakers and times.) Although I'll be working during the conference, the panels will be available online afterward. There's also an Opening Line Competition that you can enter through Saturday, April 16; full details are available here. I don't know yet if the conference sponsors will be giving any prizes away, but after last year's indie conference IngramSpark provided a special code to all registered members. Using this code, I was able to set up my paper books on IngramSpark without paying the normal fee.

Do you think you'll register for the Indie Author Fringe? If so, what panels look most interesting to you? (I'm most interested in cover design, promotion, and e-mail lists). Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Four Years of Lyon's Legacy and Being Indie

Tomorrow marks the four anniversary of Lyon's Legacy's publication. That also means it's been four years since I've officially become an indie author. I'm no longer a newbie, yet I still have a lot to learn about writing craft (or rather, writing what readers want),
the dreaded marketing, and managing other aspects of writing business. I admit I have fewer books out at this point than I thought I would. It's humbling seeing all the other works and writers out there, especially when they seem to be doing better than you. However, Hugh Howey wrote a blog post some time ago about how there will always be writers in front of us and writers behind us. It's important to keep that in mind, to enjoy the journey, and to help other writers when I can.


I still enjoy having the freedom to decide when a book is ready to publish. I'm grateful I can pick which editors and cover artists I work with. I can continue to promote my backlist whenever I want, and I keep a much larger share of sales than I could otherwise. As an indie, I can publish a novella in paperback and even audio, something most traditional publishers might not bother with. Every work I publish brings me closer to my goals.

I don't have any special promotions planned for tomorrow, as I want to put more work out in the Catalyst Chronicles series before promoting it. Of course, Lyon's Legacy is still permafree, so feel free to pick up a copy if you haven't done so already. In the meantime, there's more stories to write.

SF Women A-Z: Resnick, Rothschild, Rusch, and Russell

Laura Resnick is the daughter of another SF author, Mike Resnick. She's won awards for both her romance novels (written as Laura Leone) and her fantasy short stories and novels, including the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1993. She's the author of the Esther Diamond urban fantasy series, which is about an actress in NYC who keeps being pulled into supernatural happenings. I believe she's a hybrid author. She comments on The Passive Voice occasionally and shares her knowledge with other authors. Learn more about her on her website (which didn't load for me), on Wikipedia, and on Amazon.

Aviva Rothschild has written a book about graphic novels (you can find it here), but she's better known as the author of With Strings Attached, or the Big Pink Job. In this book, set in 1980, the four Beatles are reunited on an alien planet, are given new powers, and must work together to complete various quests to return home. Anyone who loves the Beatles or RPGs will love this work. After reading it, I became first a fan and then a friend of Aviva's. website.
She's currently working on a sequel, which hopefully will be ready this year. Learn more about Rothschild on her

Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in multiple genres under multiple names and has won a Hugo for her work in editing The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I'm most familiar with her The Fey Series, though I do have a book from her Retrieval Artist series on my TBR pile. She's a hybrid author these days; her wise Business Musings series taught me a lot about publishing and was a big influence on my decision to go indie. You can learn more about her and her work on her website, Wikipedia, and Amazon.

Mary Doria Russell was born in Elmhurst, IL, which is where I spent part of my childhood. Her first two books, The Sparrow and The Children of God, deal with religion and first contact with aliens. The Sparrow won several awards, including the Tiptree and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. I saw Russell when she was a Guest of Honor at WisCon in 1999. (That seems so long ago, doesn't it?) Russell has moved out of SF and is currently writing historical novels, but she doesn't deny that her first two books are SF. Learn more about her and her books on Wikipedia and Amazon.

If you have any more R authors to add to this list, please do so in the comments.

Increasing Visibilty of Women Authors

Well, it's a bit soon to discuss the 2015 A-Z Blogging Challenge, but I've decided to join it this year. I've been thinking more about visibility of authors, particularly women authors and indie authors. For example, this post, which was shared on the Broad Universe Facebook page, discusses the struggles of a traditionally published female SF/fantasy writer and how more difficult it is to gain attention and sales as a woman writer. That said, I don't think the solution is to adopt a male pseudonym. I am who I am, and I write about what moves me. It may not resonate with every single person in the world--not that that's possible--but I write to reach the people, however few or many, who can grok what I have to say. That can't happen if I hide a fundamental part of my identity. And why should women hide who we are? While I don't track author gender, I probably read more women authors than men, and there are some highly skilled women authors out there. Women create great aliens and worlds, come up with witty dialogue, rock their science and action scenes, and evoke emotion.  Some women writers are more well-known than others, but they all deserve an audience.

Accordingly, I will dedicate my blogging during the month of April 2015 to featuring women authors of science fiction and fantasy. I already have my schedule and list of names drawn up, and there's so much awesomeness out there I couldn't limit myself to twenty-six authors. As of now, I have nearly sixty authors on my schedule, though this may change between now and April. I just have to decide on the format for each author before I start preparing my posts.

In an ideal world, writers would be judged on their merits, not their identities. If this world will not come about from the top down, we must build it from the bottom up, author by author, book by book, reader by reader. Let's build it together.

Women's Visibility in Science Fiction

Yesterday one of my sister Broad Universe members posted a link to this long Tweetversation (Twitter conversation) that had been preserved on Storify. This conversation is about bias in science fiction and fantasy toward women. The triggering incident was an observation that the lists of fantasy works most anticipated for this year are all mostly by white male authors, even though women swept the Nebulas last year. (There are two women on the list--though I haven't seen a link to this list anywhere--who have gender-neutral names.) Some of the women authors in the Tweetversation talk about times when they thought about publishing certain works under a masculine or gender-neutral name. Laura Anne Gilman brings up a good counterpoint on her own blog that it's important for women to be visible in this field, which is why she uses her own name.

One interesting point brought up in the Tweetversation is that the author's gender may be more important to reviewers and bloggers than it is to readers (though I'm sure there are people out there who only read authors from one genre. While I probably do find more female authors to my taste than male ones, as a reader, I focus on the story, not the author.) One of the great things about indie publishing is that the traditional gatekeeper can no longer exclude anyone based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or any other reason. We have ways to connect directly with our audience and don't have to worry about fitting into a narrow profile defined by someone else to reach them. Hopefully indie publishing will become more common and accepted so all authors have an equal chance of being discovered by their readers.

In the meantime, I'm Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, I write science fiction and fantasy, and I'd rather spend my time writing and editing than worrying what people think of my XX chromosomes. They work just fine, thanks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a first draft to finish and another story to edit.

The Other Side of the Story

It's no surprise that the media supports traditional publishing. It seems that every few months, someone posts an article on the Huffington Post or elsewhere about "the true cost of self-publishing" using figures no business-savvy indie writer would use. Naturally, these articles blow up the cost of publishing a single book into the five-digit range because they attempt to emulate the way traditional publishers do things. You can also see articles by traditionally published authors lamenting that their careers will be shot if no one can preorder their books. While traditionally published authors are judged on the velocity of their sales, very few indie authors are allowed to have preorder buttons on Amazon. (Smashwords does allow this, though I haven't tried it.)

Anyway, if you'd like to hear the other side of the story, please check out this petition on change.org by Writers and Readers. It's addressed to Hachette, and it calls for them (and all publishers) to stop fighting low prices and fair wages. It explains the conflict between Hachette and Amazon, along with the implications this has for writers and readers. Here are a few key quotes:

New York Publishing once controlled the book industry. They decided which stories you were allowed to read. They decided which authors were allowed to publish. They charged high prices while withholding less expensive formats. They paid authors as little as possible, usually between 2% and 12.5% of the list price of a book.

Amazon, in contrast, trusts you to decide what to read, and they strive to keep the price you pay low. They allow all writers to publish on their platform, and they pay authors between 35% and 70% of the list price of the book.

You probably aren’t aware of this, but the majority of your favorite authors can’t make a living off their book sales alone. Very few authors could when New York Publishing was in charge. That is changing now that Amazon and other online retailers are paying authors a fair wage....

You may have heard that Amazon and Hachette are having a dispute about how books are sold. The details are complex, but the gist is this: Amazon wants to keep e-book prices affordable, and Hachette wants to keep them artificially high. Higher than for the paper edition of the same story....

Hachette is looking out for their own interests, not the interests of writers or readers. This approach is consistent with a long history of treating bookstores as customers, writers as chattel, and readers as non-entities. But we believe the Hachette approach is backwards. We know the only players who truly matter are the storytellers and their audience. That’s us. That’s you. We’re in this together.

 Read the rest of the petition at this link. If you agree, please sign it and share it with your friends. No matter how authors publish, they all deserve fair compensation for their labor, and all readers deserve access to a wide variety of reasonably priced books.

IndieReCon Contests

Have you ever wished there was a convention specifically for indie writers? Apparently, there is one. It's called IndieReCon LIVE!, and it's taking place October 10--October 11 in Sandy, Utah. Even if you can't make it there in person, you can still participate in their contests. Click here for the rules and how to enter for the chance to earn a Howey. (After Hugh Howey, of course. They chose a great person to name their awards after, didn't they?) Most of the contests are free to enter, but some do require a small fee ($15 max) to enter.

I'm personally not sure yet if this is something I want to enter. The rules do allow books published in 2013 to be nominated, so I could enter Twinned Universes. Perhaps if the categories were broken down by genre instead of reader age group, I'd feel that this was a better fit for me. (To me, this con seemed skewed toward YA.) Still, some publicity might come out of it, and you can nominate other authors' works for some of the categories. The deadline for the Total Package contest is June 30th; for all the rest, it's July 31st. I still have time to mull this over.

Does this sound like something that would interest you? Why or why not? Please feel free to comment; it should be much easier to do so now.

WisCon 38 Wrapup

It's hard to believe this was my fifteenth WisCon. As always, it passed much too fast, and I was torn in several different directions. Here's the recap:

Alex had a play at school Friday afternoon, so once that and the reception were over, we were able to leave. We arrived in Madison around 5:00, which is earlier than we’ve managed in the last few years. After checking in, I dropped off some books at the Broad Universe table, where I ran into some friends. We went out for dinner and stopped by a chocolate store for dessert, where we saw more friends. However, by the time we got back to the hotel, Alex, Eugene, and I were all pretty tired, so I skipped the opening ceremonies/parties.

I woke up early Saturday morning because that’s just how it is with me.  At least I had plenty of time to swim and attend the Farmers’ Market before heading to panels. My panel focus this year was learning about diversity so I can write well-rounded, diverse characters. I was on a panel called What Is Science in Feminist SF, and it went well (though I’m not sure if we answered the question if classifying a work as “soft SF” discriminated against women authors). Then I took my turn at the Broad Universe table for two hours before attending two more panels.  They were How to Ally (which was a good panel) and Non-Binary Genders (which proved less helpful than I thought it would be).

 For dinner, I had vegetable sushi and gelato with my family, and we also had a family swim before Alex and Eugene retired. I went to the parties, which seemed smaller and quieter this year. The Tor party was noticeably absent. I stopped by the haiku party to exchange a poem for a pair of earrings and give the hostess a copy of Life at Seventeen Syllables a Day. Somehow, I even found the energy to attend a late-night panel on Bisexuals in Science Fiction. By the time it ended at midnight, I was ready for bed.

On Sunday, I attended four panels and participated in the Broad Universe reading. The panels were on The Corporation as Character (OK), Women of Color in SFF (good), Is SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) Relevant? (good), and Where Have the Bisexuals Gone? (OK).  Since I’m Readings/Events Coordinator for Broad Universe, I had lunch with one of the officers and brainstormed ways to make it easier for members to run tables at other cons. Afterwards, I introduced her to my favorite Madison store, The Soap Opera. For dinner, Eugene, Alex, and I visited local college friends. We had a good time, but we got back so late I missed the GoH speeches. I read the transcripts, which you can find on N.K. Jemisin’s and Hiromi Goto’s blogs.

After packing up Monday morning, I attended a reading (Hard Chargers, featuring women who write hard SF) before participating in the Sign Out. Jemisin was kind enough to sign my hard copy of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and I talked with some other authors as well.

I didn’t make a lot of sales at this con, but I made a couple. I also met some other indie authors, so it’s good to expand my network. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend some more local conventions between now and next WisCon. WisCon, however, will always be my favorite con.

Edited to add: I meant to mention this earlier about the SFWA panel, but they are looking into ways of qualifying indie writers as members. It sounds like it may take a while before they decide to do it, however, and I'm not sure what the delay is. Maybe some members don't want to make it too easy to join. For me personally, I know for a long time joining SFWA was one of my goals as a writer, as a sign that I'd "made it." I don't feel the same way about SFWA anymore; I'd have to see what benefits it would offer me as an indie (or even hybrid author) before deciding to join. But despite the unpleasant incidents in the last couple of years, I'd still consider it. After all, the more people who join SFWA, the more diverse it will be--and hopefully more welcoming to all writers.