There are a couple things I do know:

1. I’m going to keep writing, both fiction and non-fiction. This is not something I’m ever going to give up if I can help it.
2. I’m still working to get the last two books of The Steam and Steel Chronicles out. I had hoped to get book three out at the end of January and the fourth out in February, but that’s probably going to be pushed back by about a month. I still hope they’ll both be out before spring.

But basically everything else in my life is completely in limbo at the moment. To say it sucks is an understatement, but much of what is happening is beyond my control.

So that brings me to my next point: I’m going to be blogging a lot less for probably a few months, at least on this blog. I need to focus on my work, my books, and my life at the moment, and that means something’s got to give. I may still blog occasionally, when I find the time or have something I feel is important to say, but mostly it’s going to just be announcements about when my books will be available.

On that note, Hold My Hand is now available through the Kindle Owners Lending Library on Amazon, and will be available for free to everyone via Amazon from January 12-14, and then again later this month or next month (I’ll announce that when I finalize the dates). So if you haven’t read it (and based on my sales figures, most of you haven’t), take this opportunity to get it for free!

A couple of points before I begin, though:

1. One-pass revision is probably not going to work well for first-time novelists or first-time revisers. If you’ve never revised a novel or if this is your first novel, you’re almost certainly going to need to do more than one pass. That’s okay.
2. You need to figure out what method works best for you. If you prefer to go over your manuscript ten times, then that’s fine. Personally, I don’t. My goal is to continue writing new things, and get the old things as perfect as is reasonable in as little time as is possible. That means 1-2 revision cycles, tops.

So, without further ado, here is my method:

What You’ll Need

• A printed copy of your manuscript. To conserve paper, I print mine 2-up on a page, in Courier New 12 point, double spaced. This means I have two pages next to each other on a single sheet of paper, with the back blank. This creates generous margins on the top and bottom for notes.
• A notebook, paper, or note cards for making notes. Color-coding your notes either by using multicolored pens or by using colored paper/note cards can be very helpful from an organizational standpoint. Basically, you want to differentiate between notes about story, notes about characters, etc.
• Pens (multicolored or not, depending on your preference).

These are the basic tools that make revision your manuscript easier. You might also want to keep sticky notes handy for adding notes directly onto a page for later reference, if you run out of room in the margins.

Before you really start

Depending on how much time has passed between the time you wrote your novel and when you start revising it, you may want to read through the entire thing, front to back. Doing this in one sitting can be very beneficial. And it’s okay at this point to skim parts you remember well, as  you’ll be going back over them in-depth later. It’s important to resist the urge to start editing now. You’re just reading!

Next, turn to your notebook. Write down the following on the first page, where you can easily find it (alternatively, you could post these on a whiteboard over your desk or on a bulletin board where you can easily see them):

• What is the theme or focus of your story? What is the point?
• What does your protagonist want, both internally and externally? This should be the driving factor behind everything that happens.
• What does your antagonist want, both internally and externally? This should be in direct opposition to what your protagonist wants.
• What do your other main characters want, especially POV characters?
• Write down what your story is about, briefly, sort of like the “back cover blurb” of your story.

This gives you a good idea of the direction your story should take. With these things in mind, it’s easier to make decisions about what really belongs in your story and what doesn’t.

Check each scene

Now comes the nitty-gritty of checking each scene. Like Holly Lisle says, you first need to make sure that your story is written in scenes. Scenes are the basic building blocks of a novel, and without them, your story isn’t likely to be very engaging. A scene should take place in a single location, at a single time, from a single point of view. If any of those things change, you need a scene change.

For each scene, as yourself if it belongs in the overall story. Does it move the main plot or any important subplots forward? Does it further develop your main character? Does it contribute significantly to your story’s theme? If it doesn’t do any of these things, cut it or figure out a way to rework it so it does. Ideally, the vast majority of your scenes should move your plot forward. But it’s useful to have occasional scenes that do the other two: either develop characters or theme. Just make sure that those aren’t taking up the bulk of your story or it will drag.

Does each scene have conflict? Without conflict, or tension, a scene will fall flat. There’s no reason to keep reading it. There needs to be some kind of tension or conflict present in every scene, even if it’s internal.

Make notes in your notebook during this process about any story threads you’ve killed or changed. The same goes for characters you may have combined or eliminated. You want to make sure they’re removed from future scenes.

Re-type the whole thing

This is where the one-pass revision system almost cheats a little bit. When you’ve gone through the entire manuscript, you’ll have piles of pages that are marked up. Holly Lisle says that you’ll likely have a ratio of clean pages to marked-up ones somewhere between 1:2 and 1:4. In my own estimation, it’s more likely you’ll have a ratio of 1:10 or even higher, if you include simple things like changing verbiage or other minor corrections.

So, make a copy of your original first draft file to work from (I NEVER overwrite an old file, because the last thing I want to do is accidentally delete something I meant to keep or otherwise completely butcher the editing file). Then, start typing in your corrections. Feel free to make additional changes as you come across them, such as repetitive word usage or awkward phrasing (see, this is the part where it’s almost cheating, because you’re effectively doing two revision passes in one).

This may take a few days, but overall it’s a fairly quick revision process.

Why not do multiple passes?

I’ve heard more than one writer bemoan the idea of not doing half a dozen or more revisions on their novel. They feel that it’s lazy, or that you can’t get a polished enough draft with just one pass. I have two answers for that:

First of all, over-editing a piece is just as bad as not editing at all. It’s easy to get so caught up in trying to perfect your manuscript that you edit the emotion right out of it. That’s not good. As an example, look at Amanda Hocking’s self-published books. A lot of people say they’re in pretty desperate need of a good editor, but at the same time, they have so much raw story and emotion that it makes up for it (though I would agree they could have used a good copyeditor to catch all the little things). If she’d gone through an editor or gone through dozens of revisions, it’s possible that what makes her fiction great would have been edited right out of them and they would have been just another self-published ebook series.

Second of all, if you want to be a writer, you need to keep writing. That means writing new things, not rewriting the same story over and over again. I know there are all sorts of stories of writers who took 10 years or more writing a novel, and I can’t help ask myself how much of that time they spent actually writing, and how much of that time they spent just posturing and thinking of themselves as the struggling artist? I have a feeling they probably spent the same amount of time actually writing that your average writer who can manage a few books a year did. And there’s no guarantee that revising your book ten times is going to make it any better than revising it twice, once you’ve mastered the basics of both writing and revising (which is why this isn’t the best method for a first-time novelist).

What on earth are publishers doing with writers’ manuscripts that it takes them two years to publish them? I mean, seriously. I’m asking the question.

As an individual, I can put an ebook out in a matter of months. That includes a couple rounds of editing, copyediting, cover design, formatting, uploading, and marketing. And I work full time, so it’s not like I just have all day to do these things. If I can do this in a matter of months, why does it take publishers years? These are people with staff. With resources at their fingertips I could only dream of. And it takes them twenty-four months to put out a novel? As a freakin’ ebook?

And if you tell me that it’s because of backlog, because there’s too much in the pipeline to begin with, then the problem is only going to get worse. I’d say it’s time to fix that pipeline problem. Hire some additional staff or publish fewer books, faster. It’s not rocket science. I’ve worked with a large publisher, and I have to tell you that the inefficiencies in that system are astonishing.

Yet they wonder why indies are doing so well? As an indie author, I can see a market trend that I find interesting and I can write to it. I don’t have to wait three or four years (if you consider the time to write the book, get an agent, make the submissions rounds, and finally get signed, in addition to the actual publishing time) for someone else to put my book out. I see a trend, decide if it’s something I can actually passionately write about, and I can write it and have it out before that trend has reached its peak.

Publishers have a very hard time doing that anymore, because their publishing workflow and timeline is just too damn long. There are too many steps to the process that aren’t necessary and there are too many points of failure (and let me tell you, they do fail, and in my experience, they fail quite often). There are hundreds of digital tools out there that can be used to speed up the publication process and make it more productive and more useful, and from what I can tell, large publishers aren’t using any of them.

Granted, some publishers are putting books out rather quickly, in less than a year (my own non-fiction book was done in less than eight months between the time I signed the contract and the time it was available on Amazon, and less than a year when you look back to when the proposal was originally submitted). Some small fiction publishers manage to get books out in a matter of months. But the standard, the length of time most legacy published authors are coming to expect, is now eighteen months to two years. And that’s after the contract is signed.

I’m sorry, but this isn’t acceptable. Let’s actually crunch the numbers here:

I write a novel. Let’s say it takes me six months to get it into submission-ready condition (which is typical for a lot of professional, career-oriented authors). Let’s say I start this on January 1, 2012 (for ease of tracking). It’s ready to go on July 1, 2012.

I send it out to agents. It takes six months to find an agent who wants to take me on (which is honestly probably a bit on the quick side, as I know a lot of people who sub for much longer, but we’ll be optimistic here). It’s now January 1, 2013. It takes that agent another three months to find an interested publisher, and a month beyond that to negotiate an acceptable contract (again, this is being optimistic, but I’m trying to paint a best-case scenario here, not a worst-case one). It’s now May 1, 2013.

The publisher schedules it for release in April of 2015, just under two years after the contract is signed. But that’s three years and three months after I started writing the thing. And don’t forget that I’ll need to do a good bit of marketing after the book is released, so I better just round it up to four years.

Now, let’s say I have a very good agent, and she gets me a good advance for a first-time author: $30,000 for the book. I know a lot of authors would jump at that kind of advance, and a lot of them are getting paid a whole lot less than that. But broken down yearly, that’s only $7,500.

You might argue that during the two years that book is with the publisher I can be writing other things. But that publisher might just (probably does) have a clause in their contract saying I can’t publish any other novels (or even book-length works) before this one comes out. So effectively, my hands are tied. And the publisher isn’t going to contract another book from me until they see how the first one fares.

$7,500 a year. A part-time minimum wage job at McDonald’s pays more than that. Sure, you might get royalties down the line, but probably not until after that four years is up. And even then it’s completely up in the air whether you’ll actually get anything more than your initial advance. And we’re expected to make a living on that? I don’t know about you, but that wouldn’t cover my mortgage for the year (and I live in a very, very inexpensive area).

Authors need to look at writing and publishing as a business if they want to actually make a living at it (and if you don’t, then ignore what I’m saying here). You need to site down and crunch the numbers and the time involved in each and figure out which one fits your own goals. Just remember that there are indie published authors out there who are making the best seller lists (including at least two in the Kindle Millions Club), so that’s not a deciding factor anymore.

I enjoy writing forums, and I enjoy interacting with other writers. Especially since I work at home and have very little interaction with the outside world on a daily basis. But there are some questions that get asked on a recurring basis, with slight variations each time, that kind of bug me (maybe it’s just because I’ve spent way too much time on these forums, and so it all seems a bit repetitive to me).

One such question that I see asked constantly goes along the lines of this: “Can my character do XYZ?” or “If I do X, can I do Y?” Now, questions of logic aside, there is one answer to both of these questions: you can do whatever you want. Let me repeat that:

You can do whatever you want.

You’re the writer. It’s up to you to decide whether you “can” do something within the constructs of your story and the world you’d created. Sure, there are guidelines (some call them “rules”), and the guidelines are good to follow unless you have a reason to break them. But if you have a reason to break them, you can.

Now, the one caveat to all this “do whatever you want to” stuff is that you need to make sure that whatever you’re doing works within the context of your story. And no one can answer that without seeing what you’ve actually written. You know that saying, “It’s better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission”? That’s doubly true in writing. If you have an idea for how to do something, the only way you’ll know whether it can work or not is to try it.

Remember, too, that not everyone is going to recognize your particular brand of genius (a lot of the time, you won’t recognize it yourself). That’s not to say that everything you do is going to be genius, but once in awhile we all hit on that thing that really is brilliant, even if everything surrounding it is crap. It’s your job to recognize when that happens and nurture it, even if some are telling you you can’t do it that way because it breaks the “rules”.

But seriously, when you’re writing, and it’s your story, you can do whatever the hell you please. Just make sure it works. And how do you know if it works? You try it. No one else can tell you if it will work, because part of making things work is your particular skills and abilities. Neil Gaiman can make things work that a first-time novelist probably couldn’t. Stephen King can write with an omniscient viewpoint while I suck at that. If something doesn’t work, you can edit it out. That’s part of being a writer: rewriting and reworking. If you’re not willing to do that, you’re probably never going to get very far…

I think I’m going to make this my mantra for 2012. Let’s all repeat it again:

You can do whatever you want.

Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Since I got my Nook Color back in the spring, I’ve read ebooks by Amanda Hocking (indie), Zoe Winters (indie), Lindsay Buroker (indie), Greta van der Rol (small press), Kimberly Menozzi (small press and indie), Poppet (small press), Calista Taylor (indie), and Randolph Lalonde (indie). Print books I’ve read this year only include Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series (which I started reading last year) and Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. Oh, and some books I either picked up at places like Big Lots (when they’re $2 apiece for a hardcover), or books that have been shared among myself, my mother, and my grandmother (like John Grisham’s A Painted House).

But as far as the books I actually spend my own money on? Those are about 90% indies at this point. And there are a few reasons why:

1. I can buy more books for the same amount of money. Even at the high end of the indie spectrum, I can buy two indie ebooks for the price of one legacy published ebook. On the low end of the indie price scale, it’s 10:1.
2. A lot of indie authors give away free ebooks. I read the free ones, and then when I’m looking for something else to buy, I buy their paid books (as long as I liked the free ones).
3. With free downloadable samples, I don’t worry about quality. If the downloaded sample has quality issues, I just don’t buy the book. And honestly, I’ve run into more poor formatting with legacy published books than I have with indie published ones. And by “poor formatting” I mean 18 pages of front matter so I only get to read 2 pages of actual content before the free sample runs out. And in very few cases is that enough to actually hook me into buying the book. Indie authors, on the other hand, generally only have 2-3 pages of front matter and then a solid 18-20 pages of actual book that I can base a purchasing decision on.
4. I’m directly supporting authors. When I buy a $2.99 ebook from Amazon that’s been indie published, I know that the author is making over $2. When I buy a $9.99 ebook from Amazon that’s been legacy published, the author is getting what? $1? Maybe? And the publisher is getting the other $6. Sorry, I’d rather support the author directly. That’s not to say that the publisher isn’t adding value to the book, but I have yet to see where they’re adding 6X more value than the author…

Now, I realize that my reasons are not going to be the same as everyone else’s. And I honestly was kind of surprised that my reading habits had changed so drastically in so little time. Prior to ebooks, I’d never knowingly purchased a self-published book before. I’d read one rather poor example that my parents bought, but only because it was written by someone in my dad’s hometown and was a fictionalization of real events. So it was interesting from a personal standpoint (it even mentioned some of my family members—like we all didn’t know that “Ruby” in the book was actually Garnet in real life…), but it wasn’t a particularly good book and I wouldn’t have read it if it weren’t for the personal connection.

But I’m reading some fantastic indie published fiction. At least as good as what the legacy publishers are putting out in the same genres, and often better. Any of the authors I mentioned above are well worth reading, and the best part is that you can generally pick up one of their books for less than the cost of a latte at Starbucks.

I’m curious, what are your reading habits? Do you read indie books often? Not at all? Have your buying habits changed in the past year or so?

Independent movie producers say the same kinds of things. They only make a few cents (if that) whenever their movie is streamed via Netflix. Unless their film is viewed millions of times, they won’t make much money off of it.

I hear the same kind of thing coming from a lot of authors. If they’re forced to sell their ebooks at $.99, they’re only making $.35 on each sale. They have to sell thousands of copies to make any money. (The same things are said at $2.99, $4.99, and pretty much anything under the price of a mass-market paperback.)

Part of this has to do with the number of celebrities we see in each of these fields, and pretty much every other creative field. We see the J.K. Rowlings, the Stephenie Meyers, the Stephen Kings, of the world, and we think that that’s what success looks like. We think that all we should need to do is write something great (or not so great, depending on your opinion) and the riches should follow.

Part of this, I think, comes from the bottleneck that happened in popular culture during the 90s and early 2000s. People had more access to the arts than ever before. Cable TV was a mainstay in most (American) households. Most people had CD players and purchased CDs on a regular basis. We went to the movies regularly, as opposed to just for special occasions. We consumed these things at levels that were unheard of before. And because of this, there was a lot of money flowing into publishing, the music industry, and the movie industry.

But at the same time, the cost of producing all these things was still relatively high, and so there was a lot of money for a relatively small number of professional artists. Your average joe musician couldn’t produce a studio-quality album without spending a lot of money (which they often didn’t have), and so there was a definite difference in quality between your indie artists and your mainstream ones. You could pick out an indie film or a self-published book or an indie album from a mile away in most cases. And not for positive reasons.

Then, in the past half decade or so, things began to change. It became even easier to consume the things above as these forms moved online (both to legal and illegal sources). But it also became infinitely easier to produce these things. Cheap video cameras have made it possible for almost anyone to make a film (an the technology has only gotten better, making it possible to make a film that’s indistinguishable in many ways from anything coming out of the big studios). Consumer-friendly software and prosumer audio equipment have made it possible for anyone to record a decent album. Ebooks and POD have made it affordable for anyone to publish a book. And social media has made it a million times easier to get the word out about all of these things, even if you have no marketing budget.

But, the problem is that we’re not really consuming much more than we were ten years ago. There are more people, so consumption is up. But there’s also a lot more (legal) free content available, so we don’t have to pay for things like we used to. I don’t have to go buy an encyclopedia (or go use the one my library bought), because I have Wikipedia. I don’t have to go buy the latest Stephen King bestseller, because I can read a new indie author who’s getting great reviews and releasing their book for free.

So we have no bottle-neck anymore. There’s a lot of money exchanging hands, but there are now a whole lot more hands on the receiving end of these transactions than there used to be.

So what does this mean for creatives?

The thing I’ve seen over and over again among writers, musicians, and, to a lesser extent, filmmakers, is that they just want to focus on their art and forget about the business side of things. This is why they spend so much effort on finding an agent or a publisher, to manage the business side of things (or a manager, recording label, etc.).

But what more and more artists are finding is that even if they find the agent/publisher/recording label/studio/etc., they still aren’t making much money.

The thing is, there’s just not enough money to go around for everyone. So the creatives who really want to make it, need to think of their “art” as a business. If they’re not willing to put the time and effort into it, to figure out diverse ways to bring in income from their art, then they’re better off just treating it as a hobby. Something they do for fun, but that isn’t ever going to pay the bills.

If you’re serious about it, then treat it as a career. Think of it as a business. Consider all the ways you can make money from your creative endeavors, and pursue the ones you can. Don’t whine about there not being enough money to go around. Go out and earn your share of it. Provide value and you’ll make more money. If you’re not making money, then look at what you’re doing wrong. Look at what’s wrong with what you’re doing, and how you can fix it. It might not be that there’s anything inherently wrong with what you’re doing, simply that there are others out there who are doing it better. In that case, figure out how you can do it better.

The same things that have made it possible for you to get your work out there without an agent, manager, etc., are the same things that are making it harder for you to earn a living from it. Stop blaming it. Without it, you’d be stuck with the old system, and might not be making any money at it.

I hear people who aren’t taking advantage of all the independent options out there complaining about the indie options that are taking away from their opportunities. To those people, and this may sound a bit harsh, but all I have is this to say: get over it. It’s not anyone’s fault but your own if you’re not taking advantage of opportunities that are out there. And if you’ve honestly looked at those opportunities and decided they’re not for you, don’t blame the people who have decided they are the right option for them.

If you want to go the traditional route, then that is entirely your right and your prerogative. But don’t blame others because you choose not to pursue opportunities. And don’t complain when you don’t get the results you wanted. You chose your path, now live with whatever that brings.

I’m sure that some people will find this offensive. Some people will find it harsh. That’s fine. Feel free to respectfully disagree in the comments.

I’m pursuing my goals of writing in the ways I see that are most likely to get me to where I want to go in my career. If I were writing for a hobby, then I’d have a regular 9-5 job instead of freelance writing and editing. But I’m not ashamed to say that I’m in it for the money. I’m in it to earn a living. I’d probably do it even if I weren’t, honestly, but I’m certainly not going to complain about the people who do it for a hobby and give their writing away.

That’s fine. It’s their right to do so. I’m not going to bitch about them devaluing the entire market. My work stands on its own merit. Just because one thing is free doesn’t automatically mean everything else needs to be free. I don’t not pay for movies just because I can watch videos for free on YouTube. I do both. And I think most people do both. We need to get past this all-or-nothing mindset.

What next?

If you’re a creative, look at all the options out there. Think about how each one fits in with your overall goals. For some, it’s all about prestige, and they’re not going to be happy unless they pass through the gatekeepers that are legacy publishers. That’s fine. For others, it’s about the money, and those might pursue both traditional and self publishing options. For still others, it’s all about the audience, and for them self-publishing for free online might be their best bet.

But whatever path you choose, don’t disparage those who have gone down their own path, and who don’t hold the same goals as you. I don’t think anyone is in this to make it more difficult for other writers. No one is choosing a path specifically because it interferes with your chosen path. They’re doing it because it fits with their aspirations in relation to their art.

So yesterday, when I logged into my Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) dashboard, I was very intrigued by the new KDP Select program. Basically, KDP Select lets indie authors add their books to the Kindle Owners Lending Library in exchange for a 90-day exclusive with Amazon (you also get 5 days of free promotion during that 90-day period). Now, the best part is that you earn a royalty every time your book is loaned out. There’s a royalty pool each month, and you get paid based on the number of times your book is loaned, based on the percentage of the total number of loans.

The book will still be for sale during this time, but only via Amazon. It’s in the process of being un-published from everywhere else (though I’ll probably put it back up once the 90-day exclusive is over). I’m hoping that if nothing else, this will get the word out about the book, and hopefully even get some reviews. If, at the end of the three months, there’s no change in sales and it hasn’t been borrowed much, then I’ll have to rethink some things about the book (probably the cover first).

So, I’ll post an update at the end of the 90-day period and let everyone know how it went. I’m also interested in how others who are trying the program fair, so if you are, please let me know in the comments how it goes (feel free to post a link to your own blog if you write a post about it).

When and Where Do You Write?

I start my writing day sometime between 7:30 and 9:00 every morning. I’m most productive when I get to my desk before 8:00, but that doesn’t always happen. The bulk of my work writing is done at my desk. It’s a giant wooden desk I salvaged from the magazine where I used to work, and was used by my late editor. I like to think that it has good vibes left over from him.

I start with email and checking social media. Then I usually get down to researching whatever it is I need to write for the day. I usually start out with some kind of outline, even if it’s just a handful of bullet points, and then I get down to actually writing. Many posts I can finish in a single day, though some take longer. Books are a different story entirely.

I break for a quick lunch sometime between 11:00 and noon. I’m usually back at my desk within about 20 minutes, and sometimes I even eat at my desk. Then it’s usually back to work until 2:00 or 3:00 at least. At that time, I usually take a break. Sometimes I have errands to run, while other times I just watch a little TV or take a walk. Depends on the day. I’ll work for another hour or two before dinner (we usually eat between 4:00 and 5:00), and then, depending on whether I finished my work for the day or not, I’ll either go back to my office for a couple more hours or I’ll bring my laptop into the living room, and either do more work or spend time doing other things online.

My fiction writing is mostly done either first thing in the morning, on breaks during the day, or just before bed.

What Hardware Do You Use?

I’ve got a 2+ year old 13″ MacBook Pro as my primary computer. I recently upgraded it to 8GB of RAM, which has made a huge difference. I also work with a 23″ external LG monitor most of the time, and use the MBP screen as a secondary monitor (often either streaming video while I work or with things like email open in it).

I have a rooted Nook Color that also has Kindle and Kobo apps on it. I don’t use it as much as I ought to, but I do use it some. And it got me to transition to reading ebooks way more than paper versions.

My phone has become a huge part of my day. I have a Motorola Droid X2, and have a very love-hate relationship with it. I hate the screen, except for the fact that it is PHENOMENAL in direct sunlight. It’s e-paper-like. I use it to read ebooks all the time now (with both Kindle and Nook apps).

Now, I don’t do all of my writing on the computer. I use notebooks a lot. Within arm’s reach of where I’m sitting, I have ten notebooks. I carry one in my purse. I have them on my nightstand. And I have a stack of unused ones on my bookshelf, waiting for their day to come. I’m partial to college-rule, spiral bound notebooks. I usually pick them up during back-to-school sales for $.15 each, and buy enough to last me for the year.

Pens are a huge thing for me, too. I have ball point pens I got at the dollar store that I love. I’m a huge fan of ultra-fine point pens, including the Pilot G-2 with the .38mm tip and the various Uniball ultra-fine tips. I also sometimes use Pentel R.S.V.P. pens. For editing I use PaperMate Flair pens or colored gel pens. I occasionally use fountain pens, too, though I find them to be too much of a hassle to keep up with for daily use. My favorite is a Lamy Safari in charcoal gray. I use Noodler’s Polar Black ink when I do, though, because it’s waterproof and freeze-proof (both of which standard fountain pen inks are lacking).

What Software Do You Use?

I’m a software junkie. I regularly have to go clean out my applications folder just to free up space on my hard drive. It’s crazy. Right now, I use TextWrangler for most of my day-to-day work writing, because I hand-code all of my articles for uploading them to WordPress (which I also use on a daily basis). For notes I use Evernote (which I also have on my phone). I use Google Docs a lot for my writing, as that way I can access it from my phone when I’m not at home.

For specific writing software, I have four go-to programs:

1. Bean: a super-basic, simple word processor for the Mac.
2. Scrivener: a fantastic planning and organizing tool for larger prose projects.
3. Celtx: my go-to screenwriting and pre-production application.
4. Write or Die: I’ve been using the online version for when I need distraction-free writing and a tight deadline.

I also use OpenOffice.org for some things (like dealing with edits or opening more complex Microsoft Word documents). I’ve also used Adobe Story for screenplays, though I’ve found Celtx’s interface more enjoyable to work with.

For creating ebooks, I use Calibre, Sigil, and Adobe Digital Editions. I use InDesign for laying out print books and PDFs. One of these days I’m going to experiment with using Scribus for print book layout, because it’s free. I’ve gotten as far as downloading it and opening it, but haven’t done much beyond that.

Other basic software I use on a daily basis includes Firefox, Chrome, Thunderbird, and Hootsuite.

What Would You Change About How You Write?

I wish I had more time for writing fiction. I love my day job (writing about web design and tech, as well as a bit of designing), and can’t imagine doing anything else, but it leaves me without a whole lot of time for working on novels and screenplays.

I also wish I was more of a morning person. I would love to be one of those people who could get up at 5AM and spend a couple of hours writing. But I have a natural tendency to stay up late (I usually go to bed sometime between 11 and 1), so getting up at 5 would mean very little sleep.

But no one is asking whether readers should pay more than $2.99 for most books. We’ve just accepted that paperbacks are priced at $8.99-$16 and that hardcover books are priced at $20-$30. And so we feel like ebooks should be priced somewhere along that line, too. But does anyone know why a mass market paperback is priced at $9? Or a trade paperback at $16? Or why a hardcover book is $25?

In the 1960s, a paperback book might cost anywhere from 25¢ up to around $.75 or so depending on the length, publisher, genre, author, and specific year (you can find evidence of these prices by looking at old book covers from that era). Now, a lot of these books were shorter than what we’re used to these days, coming in at around 150-200 pages. They were “pocket books”, in their truest sense: they would fit in your pocket.

So, if we look at a book that was 50¢ in 1965, and adjust the price for inflation, we’re looking at a book that would be $3.59 in 2011. (A 25¢ book would be $1.80, a 75¢ book would be $5.39 in the same year.) So your average mass-market paperback would be $3.59, and some books would be as low as $1.80. Now, outside of a used book store, I haven’t seen prices that low in my lifetime (at least not that I remember).

Even if we consider the length to be double on modern novels, that still means we should be seeing books that are only $4 on shelves, and some ranging up as high as $11 or so. But just about every mass market paperback I see is $9-$12. Trade paperbacks (which weren’t really around in the 60s) run as high as $20. So while books are longer than they were in the 60s (the shortest modern novels are usually around 300 pages), we’ve set a new baseline price. We expect to pay at least $9 for a new paperback.

And so a lot of people think that selling an ebook for $2.99 is devaluing books in general. People look at that price and think the author doesn’t view themselves as “worth” a higher price. But lets break down the numbers:

First of all, if I sell a novel at $2.99 on Amazon, I’m going to earn roughly 70% of the cover price: $2.07 or so after Amazon deducts their delivery fee. Now, if I have a book published through a legacy publisher and the mass market paperback is selling for $9, if I’m lucky I’ll make 10% of that: $.90. So I’m already making more than twice as much with the $2.99 ebook. Even if I’m splitting that royalty with an ebook publisher, I’m still probably making more money.

Second of all, you eliminate a lot of expenses with ebooks. Covers are less expensive for a couple of reasons: 1) I don’t have to buy high resolution print-ready artwork which is often significantly more expensive than web-sized artwork; 2) I don’t have to design a spine or back cover, just the front. Both of those mean a cost savings. Something a lot of publishers don’t want to admit. I also don’t have printing or storage costs. For many books, this probably runs somewhere around $2, between printing, shipping, and storage in a warehouse somewhere (plus the labor to deal with all those books). And the production process is often faster, too, because there are no print proofs, no print galleys, etc. Everything is done digitally, which means there’s a ton of room for workflow improvements (whether publishers are actually taking advantage of that is another story).

Third of all, you eliminate the gigantic time lags that are inherent to any print publishing schedule. Everything can be done quickly, files sent instantly, etc. And so it’s possible to publish more books in less time for less cost. That’s a big savings.

So let’s say that the above adds up to a $3 savings per book (which I think is being conservative, though if anyone has any hard data about these things, let me know and I’ll revise), which now puts the paperback as only twice as expensive as the ebook, while I’m still earning more than twice the royalty.

But here’s the big thing that most people overlook: at $2.99, more people are reading more books. At $2.99, a book is an impulse purchase. We don’t have to plan for it, or budget for it. We can just buy it if it looks like it might interest us. Even when I’m broke, I can usually spare $2.99 for a book. It’s cheaper than a movie ticket (cheaper than a movie rental, even, in some places). It’s definitely cheaper than going out to dinner. And it provides hours of entertainment. The best part is that I can buy an ebook and then keep it on my phone and read it whenever and wherever I want. (As an aside, if you’re looking for a phone that makes a great ebook reader, the Droid X2 is fantastic for that, even if it’s lacking in other areas. It even remains readable in direct sunlight, much like epaper.)

As authors, we need to think about the long-term relationship we have with readers. If books keep getting more expensive, they’re going to be viewed as a luxury item by many. And that’s not what I want my books to be. I want them to be practical, to be read, and to be accessible to pretty much anyone who wants to read them. I’d rather have 1,000 readers at $.99 than 100 at $10, even though in the short term the $10 readers will earn me more money. And I’d much rather have 1,000 readers at $2.99.

I was talking with a friend on Facebook who was lamenting the size and price of new paperbacks. She said that she missed the days of small paperbacks that could fit in your pocket and be read in an afternoon. And I agree. I like a book that I can read in an afternoon. Sure, longer books are great sometimes, too. But what’s wrong with a book that’s light and fun and a page-turner? The answer was that those books aren’t as profitable for big publishers. They need the longer books to justify the much higher prices. $2.99 changes that. $2.99 is a great price for shorter books, for page-turners, and for books that are meant to be read in an afternoon.

I only charge $.99 for my novellas. They’re all around 20,000-30,000 words long (which would work out to around 60-90 pages if they were printed). I feel like that’s a very fair price for what they are. And besides, my novella series is meant to gain attention for my work. I’m writing them to share with people, and to get fans. At $.99, more people are willing to take a chance. Sure, some people just “collect” $.99 ebooks and never read them, but I have my own collection of books I’ve picked up at a discount that I have yet to read. What’s wrong with that?

At some point I may increase the price of the books, but for now I’m comfortable with $.99. And sometimes I feel like that makes other authors out there look down at my work, as if I’ve somehow shit in their corn flakes (that might be a little crude, but have you seen the way some of these people talk about $.99 ebooks and their authors?)

The point is that low cost ebooks make it easier to get people to try reading. At $.99 to $2.99, a teenager who’s on a very limited budget can afford to buy a book a week. A single parent can afford to buy a book a week. I like the idea that someone can buy my book rather than a cup of coffee one day (and I’m not talking about Starbucks, either). I like the idea that my books are accessible to pretty much everyone. And I like the fact that I’m building a readership who will hopefully stick by me as I write longer works and charge more. Some will, and some won’t. But offering a $.99 “intro” is a great way for them to try me out and decide whether I’m worth more to them. It’s kind of like there are certain authors whose books I sometimes read, but I only buy them used, because I don’t have an unlimited budget for books and there are other authors who are “worth” more to me. But I would completely buy their books as ebooks if they were priced lower than the paperbacks.

For me, I’d rather have ebooks be priced lower and sell more, and entice more people to read, than keep raising the prices and drive more people to view reading as a luxury. Other people feel differently about it, and that’s fine. But for me, I’m going to price as low as I think I should for a book, rather than as high as I think I can.

As far as marketing this month, I’ve been plugging a little bit on Google+ and Twitter, which I know has generated a few sales. And I had a couple of new reviews on Amazon (if you’ve read either of the books and feel like leaving a review, I really do appreciate them!), some of which were really favorable. One of my favorite quotes from a review of The Great Healion Race:

This is not Edward and Bella, living in perfection for all eternity. These are two adults with overwhelming baggage as the ballast for their journey. I especially appreciated how Ms. Chapman allowed her protaganists to be messy, angry and human.

Seriously, that’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about my books. Because that’s exactly what I was going for: complicated people who have messy, screwed-up lives, and find a way to love each other anyway.

Below are my sales numbers for this month. I saw a drop in sales for the second book, but a big jump in the first book. Hopefully that will translate to more sales for the second book in the next couple of months.

Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris

• Amazon US: 102 (last month was 89)
• Amazon UK: 3 (last month was 1)
• Barnes & Noble: 14 (last month was 7)
• Smashwords: 1 (last month was 0)
• TOTAL: 120  (last month was 97)

The Great Healion Race

• Amazon US: 53 (last month was 58)
• Amazon UK: 0 (last month was 2)
• Barnes & Noble: 5 (last month was 5)
• Smashwords: 0 (last month was 1)
• TOTAL: 58 (last month was 66)

Total sales reached 178! By far my best month yet. Which is really great since I had a rather nasty review on a rather influential blog. I was afraid it would have a negative effect on my sales, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I’m hoping to have the third book out in late January. The fourth will hopefully follow sometime in February.

I’m hoping to release at least two more books in 2012, and I might push for three or four. I have one that’s half-finished that I want to finish, and two others planned, and I have a fourth in a different genre that just needs a final round of edits. So I think it’s do-able to manage four books this year. Maybe.