You know you want to write a book. I can help.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/490615 by Ann- Kathrin Rehse http://www.sxc.hu/profile/kalilo” width=”200″ height=”200″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2152]Pantsers seem to take umbrage, sometimes extreme, to my statement that planning is vital to writing.
Let’s get what I hope is an unbiased definition of “plan” from Merriam Webster:
plan verb: to think about and arrange the parts or details of (something) before it happens or is made
Let’s consider writing without planning:
Writing to make a profit in 2013 requires either wild blind luck or choosing to write over-the-line sexual encounters. For this brief moment in history, books are a commodity: far more supply than demand.
Stick with it for 5 years, and the opportunists will have faded away or been pruned by market response.
For now, write because you have something to say. Word toward making a profit 5 years from now.
If you understand that self-publishing is a business which is connected to but not the same as the art of writing, you’re light-years ahead of many other authors.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/873643 by K Rayker http://www.sxc.hu/profile/krayker” width=”440″ height=”204″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-2146]
… more … “Self-Publishing Jump Start and Long Game”
Here’s that list of 13 27 posts. The first is at my personal blog. The rest are here at Someday Box.
It’s doubtful the book I originally envisioned here will ever see daylight.
But I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/391902 by Bill Davenport http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lumix2004″ width=”222″ height=”276″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2123]The descriptions written by masters like Chandler aren’t there so we know what a wing-back chair looks like or because the cigar smoke plays a role in the book.
Psychologically, statistically, we are conscious of less than 1% of what we experience. The other 99% goes to our unconscious, bypassing our conscious mind.
But we still experience it.
If I don’t know that your protagonist is a little chilly, or that the drapes are green, or the woman at the next table is wearing flats instead of heels, how will you connect with my unconscious, touch my memories, dredge up what I’m afraid of, or willing to fight, or fight for?
Chandler wrote great long paragraphs of what most authors would call “description.”
… more … “Vicarious Experience Depends on Description”
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/570269 by Andy Reid http://www.sxc.hu/profile/RockinDad” width=”166″ height=”256″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2107]If first books were universally priced at 99¢, the only folks who’d lose are authors who won’t write or can’t sell a second book. I say, let’s set that expectation!
99¢ is a good price for a single “taster” book so folks can be sure if they like your books. If so, they’ll pay full boat for the others. If not, you don’t have a frustrated reader who feels ripped off, you just have someone who quietly goes away. Folks who pay $12 for a book they hated are far more vocal than folks who only paid 99¢.
Be clear with your readers that’s exactly what you’re doing. “This book is the taster sample. If you like it, here are 6 more!”
Everyone in traditional publishing mourns the loss of the gatekeepers. This is built-in thresholding. Don’t set the bar artificially from the outside, set the bar at “Do you want to write a book badly enough that you’re willing to sell it for 99¢ because you know you’ll be writing more?”
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/875056 by Andrew Steinle http://www.sxc.hu/profile/andrewcs” width=”222″ height=”222″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2108]The common perception is that a low price is hard to raise. It’s just not true.
It’s hard to resell the same thing to the same buyer at a higher price, sure. That’s why we whine about the price of gas, like that’s gonna do any good.
But if I sell my book to you for 99¢, and in a year when I’ve finished 5 of them and am famous for being Chandler reborn, do you really believe I can’t set the price of that selfsame book anywhere I like, and sell copies all day long to new readers?
In fact, would those early readers not tell everyone they know “I knew him when he was 99¢, and he’s worth every penny of ten bucks, go buy the book” ?
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1334745 by Robert Linder http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=profile&l=linder6580″ width=”128″ height=”256″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2101]Price is a number. Value is the outcome of a relationship.
My first book, The Commonsense Entrepreneur, has made the difference between a lifetime of struggle and successful entrepreneurship for more than one person.
Lifetime earnings of, let’s estimate, a million dollars. Measure of happiness and contentment from working for yourself instead of a soul-sucking corporation: priceless (meaning, oddly enough, “of such high value as to be incalculable.”)
… more … “Should Price Equal Value?”
You’ve seen 99¢ samples of toiletries in stores. For less than a buck you can know, unequivocally, whether it works for you. They make enough, and you’re out very little.
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/189883 by Lotus Head http://www.pixelpusher.co.za/]
[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/641396 by jweston http://www.sxc.hu/profile/jweston” width=”200″ height=”200″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2080]Seems I started this last week, talking about digital book pricing. Since digital books have essentially no cost involved in delivery, the price is almost an abstract concept.
It’s often argued that a book priced at 99¢ looks like the author doesn’t value their own work (usually by authors who don’t want to sell their books for 99¢.)
In what context do “price” and “value” relate to each other? That’s the question I’ll be exploring in a bit of detail this week.
… more … “Who Says a $10 Book is Better Than a 99¢ Book?”
[image: I'm sure there's a metaphor about paths and choice in here somewhere” width=”200″ height=”395″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2066]I’ve long been opposed to sharing profits with the traditional publishing world after an author has done all the work to build a following.
Lately I’ve been thinking there’s middle ground.
… more … “Sharing the Profits vs. Hiring Assistance”
