Can be depressing/frustrating.

Ho hum. Depressing? Frustrating? Really? Yeah. Especially when you walk into a general market bookstore and see an entire endcap of books labeled "Christian" fiction and they're all books from CBA affiliated publishers  who serve a very targeted denominational niche market of Christiandom and have been doing so since 1950. I'll never be more astounded by this lack of regard for other authors out there who are also Christians but will now never be able to use the label because this group has misused and abused it. Thank you so much CBA!

Sue Dent gives more advice.

Yes. I know, whether you want it or not. LOL So an interested party contacted me recently to ask me about an editor I used and at the same time they let me know they were thinking of self-publishing with Westbow (Westbrook?) Thomas Nelson's POD entity.

After chatting with them I learned they were looking at Westbow due to their Bookstore Advantage Plan, a plan that supposedly offers to have employees actively sell your books to Brick & Mortar bookstores for you. My advice, save your money. Most self-pubbed authors thinks this means that by some miracle a big publisher like Thomas Nelson will be able to use their "clout" to get your POD book in a Brick & Mortar bookstore. Guess again. Not even Thomas Nelson can get your book into a Brick & Mortar bookstore and so you're wasting your money paying them for this. Put your money somewhere else. 

Brick & Mortar stores don't stock POD books because they don't have to and they make all their money off books published by the larger publishers. Westbow "marketing" peeps might be able to get some non-affiliated "Christian" bookstore to buy a few of your books but you'll have to make your books returnable and they will come right back at you. You'll eat the profit and eat the book because you'll never see it again (that's pretty much standard with all POD's. 

Paying a POD publisher to market your book is a WASTE OF YOUR MONEY!!!!! Don't do it!!!

There. That's my advice for today. ;)

Do know that when I say Brick & Mortar stores I mean the once small bookstores that have grown into modern day Frankensteins as far as who they support. Small and Independently owned Brick & Mortar Bookstores have and always will ROCK!!!!

Vamp Fest 2010 - Vampire Film Festival

The Vamp Fest folks have asked me if I want to participate this year and be on their literary panel!! Yeah buddy!! HALLOWEEN in New Orleans at Vamp Fest. You bet. More info. when I hear more. ;)

Ragging on Harlequin's AuthorSolutions

Wow! I ran across this blog today and I have to say my jaw dropped (again.) But it's been doing that a LOT lately or at least ever since I tried to figure out the "publishing industry." HA!

So Harlequin (I misspell this word a lot so just deal with it :)) decided to jump on the POD publisher band wagon with it's AuthorSolutions and found themselves under the gun on the blog linked to above. Their POD publishing model falls directly into line with all the other ones out there but for some reason on this particular blog they were made a target. 

Really? Really? Wow! Really?

Are all of you literary agents and posters to said blog clueless?

The original poster pointed out that AuthorSolutions claims to offer the same benefits that their "real" authors writing for Harlequin get. Suggests that they infer the same kind of distribution. Methinks someone should reconsider the adage "if it's too good to be true it probably is!" Also duh! it's their POD publishing model. Anyone who understands why POD publishers came into being KNOWS that you don't get distribution or at least they should. Yes, you get some distribution but nothing you couldn't get on your own. EGADS!!!

Every large publisher out there is adding a POD entity. DEAL WITH IT! The industry's is broken. Larger publishers are only adding POD's to get the rest of the money from the authors they won't ever look at because they don't have to and "you's guys" or "y'all" for my southern friends, keep playing along.

POD publishing is POD publishing and "real" publishing is "real" publishing. You want to take the giant down I suggest you stop stabbing at its toes!!! 

Just a reminder. ;)

Though I may appear to be a wildly successful published author, I am not. My first publisher went under for the same reasons many small publisher's go under (and will continue to go under) and liquidated over 4000 hard covers of Never Ceese. I never received one dime for the sale of any books because the pittance of an advance (standard advance for small press authors) never paid out (BTW that's pretty much the way things happen for Small Press authors all day long and will be in my book about publishing.) Sufficed to say, I receive absolutely no money from the sale of the hardbacks of Never Ceese.

Due to the insane problems my second publisher had with their distributor BookMasters, I now have my rights back to that book and subsequently, I make no money if you buy Forever Richard from anyone except from me.

There are two links in the sidebar on this page. I do receive money when you buy through these two links. Purchasing Never Ceese the paperback will bring me some money so feel free to buy that anywhere you see it for sale. I made it non-returnable so distributors and wholesalers can't steal it. (More on that in my publishing book.)

Good news is that it looks like Black Bed Sheet Books will pick up my Thirsting for Blood Series, so that will be grand and I'll let you know more when I do!!!!

Other than that, since most small press can't afford to pay editors that are worth their weight in goal, I'm paying for my own edits, a hefty price to get the job done right. I pay for my own promotion. I pay for pretty much everything. In this down time however, while things are up in the air, I sincerely ask that you use the methods stated above to purchase my work.

5-star review of Forever Richard

Wow! I found this while googling. How neat. Someone made it a free downloadable file.

Willie Loomis ROCKS!

So thanks to NetFlix I've been able to reconnect with the one show that set it all into motion for me though I can barely remember much about what I viewed of it as a child. Dark Shadows! Starting with episode 209 thereabouts, I discovered something very wonderful. Not only does Barnabus Collins rule the show, so does Willie Loomis!!!!

Oh my, I love Willie! ;D Found this on youtube. Enjoy!

Here we go again.

As you should know, there are a horde of hardbacks out there of Never Ceese due to my first small publisher liquidating all of their stock, that I receive no money off of. I straight away republished my paperback version to attempt to keep some money coming in to me, the author. There is some very GRAND news coming down the pike on getting Never Ceese out there even more so keep watching this site for more details!!!

But by "here we go again" I mean that there will be copies of Forever Richard out there now that I get no money for. My second publisher, for the sake of trying to survive, severed their relationship with BookMasters for reasons that point back to the return policy shared between major wholesalers and bookstores. Tons of "hurt" copies of Forever Richard, over nine hundred dollars worth, are out there supposedly waiting to be destroyed which, by the way, my second publisher will have to pay for despite not knowing for certain the books she's paying to have destroyed actually exist or whether they'll actually be destroyed.

There is a way to verify that BookMasters isn't treating "hurt" books the way they say they do or I wouldn't have received "hurt" books as new when I ordered some author copies. The other proof is that over thirty, that I know of, "hurt" books were bought by my local Books-A-Million. According to my findings, BAM's wholesaler only sells "hurt" books.

So now that my publisher has severed ties with BookMasters and has given me the rights to Forever Richard back, any books you see on-line or otherwise of Forever Richard are technically "stolen" books and, that's right, neither I nor my publisher see any of the money from the sale of them. Not only that, my publisher actually lost a large amount of money paying fees associated with these books, over-sold by BookMaster employees for a commission.

However, there is also a deal being conspired of at this moment to get Forever Richard back out there. Cyn No more too.

So yeah, that's the deal.

Oh, the drama!

I figured the mystery out concerning Books-A-Million.

Several months ago I was surprised to learn that my local BAM had over 15 of my book Forever Richard in their local store when I'd just been told they could no longer order the title. They'd previously ordered 10 at my request and sold them all!

Confused because my publisher, at the time, had distribution through BookMasters a division of Atlas Books, I began to do a little investigating. I love search engines (so far google is my favorite.) This is what I learned and yes it is quite disturbing. No surprise that it points back to that return policy put together between publishers of the day to keep Bookstores alive during the depression.

First off you have to remember that distributors, when a publisher signs on, has "supposed" concessions on how to handle "hurt" or rather returned-from-the-bookstore books. For BookMasters (I called before possibly signing on with them) it is to take the "hurt" book and place those books in a special place in inventory for publishers to decide what to do with them. Remember, a publisher is charged a fee by distributors when "hurt" books come back on top of having to return the wholesale price of the book to the bookstores. For the record and from experience I can tell you that BookMasters does not operate the way they suggest they do. If they did I wouldn't have received a boxload of "hurt" books when I ordered new ones, "hurt" books that were signed and dated by me and with Barnes & Noble's stickers blatantly on the front. They sent out "hurt" books as new, books my publishers already paid fees on. My publisher had no knowledge of this, suggesting that BookMasters indeed places "hurt" books somewhere but not in a place where publishers have a choice about what happens to them. But back to the point.

American Wholesale Book Company is one of the places where Books-A-Million shops for books. If you go to American Wholsale's web site you will find that they ONLY sell "hurt" books! I read this several times to make sure that is what it said.

What does that mean?

That everyone makes money off an author's book but the author or the publisher.

In every instance that I've seen a distributor will either tell you that your "hurt" book is destroyed (LSI for example) or that your "hurt" book is placed in a special place for the publisher to do with it what they will. The reality seems to be that, since it cost to have "hurt" books returned from the wholesaler (or rather Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon etc . . . ) the distributors opt not to allow this to happen. A publisher, even if they ask, is NEVER allowed to see the "hurt" book again.

The "hurt" book, in some cases supposedly destroyed, ends up on bookstore shelves or for sale on-line (and yes, I have proof as I was sold "hurt" books as new by BookMasters.) The "hurt" books seem to be shopped out to places such as American Wholesale Book Company by "someone," (most likely the wholesaler ie . . . Ingram, Baker & Taylor) who has no need for the "hurt" books that most distributors opt not to take back.

Knowing this now helps me understand why BAM can't get Never Ceese for their brick and mortar bookstores. I made the book non-returnable thus making it so I can have no "hurt" books for distributors to "steal."

Those copies of Forever Richard in Books-A-Million can only be "hurt" books. My publisher nor I ever saw any money off those books. We only lost money.

The fact that there wholesalers and distributors operate like this all day long with no one calling them on it, makes me sick to my stomach!

Tum's anyone?

New blog post at WordPress.

"The Hang by the neck until dead" Clause post is up at WordPress. Go check it out!!!

Borders and Never Ceese the E-book!!!!

Oh my GORSH!!! So until Never Ceese and Forever Richard find legitimate distribution again, something other than limited POD distribution (and non-returnable at that since no POD distributor will give me my "hurt" book back and I've no guarantee they destroy it as they say and don't turn around and sell it instead) these two books will never see the inside of a bookstore, even though you can special order them. HOWEVER, I was at Borders tonight, forced to go there with my daughter otherwise I'd not be there at all, and searched, because I like to torment myself, for Never Ceese on their system.

Well, my goodness, my e-book of Never Ceese through LSI is actually available and downloadable from Border's site!!!!!! How cool is that? Huh, huh! Any way you can get it buddy. And marketed just as I asked them to market. *Sue sticks tongue out at Amazon.* So run over there and get it. ;) At least if you want an e-book of Never Ceese. Otherwise you can order the paperback all day long from anywhere in the world and even from my site at www.neverceese.com and www.suedent.blogspot.com. Oh wait, this is www.suedent.blogpot.com so HA!

Interesting Amazon Kindle publishing experience.

*************************************************

Addendum: Now I'm really laughing (in a very disappointed sort of way.) As of my correspondence with Amazon about how a review can stay posted for a book that doesn't exist anymore, this now follows the one review given from my Kindle book.

Never Ceese (Thirsting for Blood Series) (Kindle Edition)

Wow! Really? What Kindle edition. There is no Kindle edition and if I'd known how capable Amazon was of screwing things up, there never would've been a Kindle edition to begin with. Get rid of the review that came from a book that no longer exist and came as a result of Amazon's sloppy marketing.

Yeah, we'll see how far that goes.

*************************************************

A couple of months back I decided to bite the bullet and put Never Ceese up as a Kindle. I wasn't hesitant at all. After all so many rave about all the books they sell like this. I even made a few proofreading changes and gave the kindle book its own ISBN.

Going through the setup process I was asked for categories where I wanted my book to show up. You know, so readers who weren't interested in the type of story wouldn't see it unless they were interested. So far my reviews have been stellar to moderate but all in all, I couldn't complain. So many unsolicited good reviews that I no longer feared that dreaded first one-star. I certainly expected one and was surprised I hadn't gotten one yet simply because my audience is soooo varied.

However what I didn't expect was for my FIRST review coming from my KINDLE book to be a one-star as well as a review that stated that the reader couldn't believe the category it was listed in which wasn't a category where I put it.

Well I work pretty hard to make sure anyone reading knows my book isn't this and it isn't that etc . . . and I'll tell you it's not an easy task but I will NOT sit back and let Amazon ask me for market information and then turn around and flood my KINDLE ebook wherever they choose!!!!! ARRRRGGHHHH!

So I pulled my Kindle book. Let me restate that. I PULLED MY KINDLE BOOK! Well I thought the nightmare would be over but not so. Earlier after my first publisher went under, I asked to have the reviews associated with the hardback to be moved to the paperback. I was told that I could only link the books and SHARE the reviews. In other words when the hardback stops showing up in and around December at which time the rights to the hardback revert back to me and I delete it, so go the reviews.

Apparently this isn't so with a Kindle book. If the book is removed, no longer exist, the reviews with it stay? I've tried to explain to Amazon that the Kindle version no longer exist and therefore all reviews associated should go as well. This isn't about sharing data. How can there be a review for a book you can't even get and doesn't exist anymore--good or bad? No. I don't like the one-star review but it isn't about that. The book the one-star review belongs to ISN'T the book the review is showing up on. What the heck would they link it too if I didn't have OTHER books out there?

So yes, when you see the one-star review from a reader who most likely never would have seen the book had it not been for Amazon's lame marketing, just know it's for a book that doesn't exist. This isn't even about sharing data between books. The book is GONE! Just keep that in mind when Amazon Kindle messes with your marketing and draws reviews from readers you never expected would like your book to begin with.

Give me a break Amazon!

Y'all make Amazon do there job, please! Whoever heard of a supplier (publisher's and self-pubbed authors) not even having a phone number to talk to someone about a problem. I have to email three different departments and can't talk to anyone. They say you can choose for them to call you back but that number is customer service and NOT anyone who can help.

Independent Distributors

Morsel for today about distributors or wholesalers depending on what the particular company wants to call themselves.

From a site that boast a list of Independent distributors:

Note: No distributor listed below is likely to take on distribution of a single POD (printed-on-demand) book. POD does not lend itself to distribution via distributors, except in the case of backlist books that are being kept in print only via POD. Frontlist books, which are the books that most benefit from distribution by a distributor, need to be produced in sufficient quantity to merit the sales efforts of one of these distributors.

And what are Frontlist books. Here's the clearest definition I could find:

"There are two publishing seasons each year: Spring (January to June) and Fall (July to December). Publishers who issue catalogs used to do so twice a year to match the publishing seasons. The new titles were listed in front of the catalog--hence the name. Older books were listed in the rear of the catalog--hence the name "backlist." . . . This can vary from house to house, but it usually refers to a title that is less than one year old. "Backlist," therefore means a book that has been in print for at least one year."

No distributor listed below [at this link] is likely to take on distribution of a single POD (printed-on-demand) book? Really? And yet distributors such as BookMasters are listed and they pretty much distribute POD books--POD books they themselves print. I suppose the wording "is likely" gives the right for POD distributors such as BookMasters to be listed. And so small publishers flock to BookMasters because they can afford this [so they think until they reap the benefits of fee after fee after fee that ultimately sink any small and POD publisher before they even get out of the gate.

Atlas books of which Book Masters is a division, does have an arm for large publishers. It's BDS another division of Atlas Books Yet if you qualify for distribution through BDS you probably won't have any trouble getting "hooked up" with either Ingram or Baker & Taylor for distribution. So why waste your time and money getting "hooked up" with a smaller wholesaler who most likely charges the same and can only offer less benefits as Ingram or Baker & Taylor who are the top two wholesalers that bookstores buy from. And no, I'm not advocating "hooking up" with Ingram or Baker & Taylor as they are the two wholesalers who are facilitating the bookstores ludicrous return policy that kills all POD and small presses that seek distribution.

I suppose I'm just saying to call a duck a duck. It is not relevant to refer to a distributor simply as distributor any more than it is relevant to call a title "Christian" when it is written for a very specific denominational market.

Speaking of Christian, STL is also on the list of distributors. Yes, they are a distributor but the bookstores they primarily shop their customers book to are "Christian" bookstores which actually only provide books for the conservative evangelical fundamentalist Christian. And most of those stores only take books that are CBA approved and already [and automatically] have distribution through Ingram's denominationally exclusive Spring Arbor or rather, as Ingram puts it, their fundamentalists arm. If you want your book in "Christian" bookstore then you need to bite the bullet and sign up with CBA. Ingram provides this denominational branch their OWN distribution. No need to waste your money on distributors who claim to serve the "Christian" market. Rest assured they will take your money.

Okay, that's enough for now. ;)

Off to work on Electric Angel!!

So who's accountable for fixing what got broke during the depression: Publishers? Bookstores? Wholesalers?

I'm referring to the outlandish, unprecedented and much too lenient "return" policy offered to bookstores during the depression to keep them afloat.

Just another question that will be answered in my book that may or may not happen depending on how I feel about anyone actually caring whether I write it or not. HA!.

Here's a bit of a clue though to the answer:

"In the 1950's . . . the Ingrams bought the Tennessee Book Company. This company was a textbook depository for the public school systems of Tennessee."

Okay this was Post-depression so you can't EXACTLY blame this wholesaler/distributor[Ingram] although there are TONS of things you can blame Ingram Book Industry for like humoring the exclusively denominational fundamentalist Christians and giving them their very own distributor AND labeling that arm as the distributor to the "official Christian Market" when no such beasts actually exists except in CBA's mind. Thanks a lot Ingram. Like that group needed any help being exclusive but not seeming that way. Good grief!

". . . In terms of business focus, James Baker and Nelson Taylor did not alter the direction of the business they acquired from Robinson and Barber until 1912, when they abandoned publishing entirely and instead directed the company toward wholesaling."

Dun, dun duuuuuun! and ding, ding, ding! Looks like we might very well have a winner. It will take more research to find out for certain but it is starting to look like that, since 1912 was BEFORE the great depression, the wonderful Baker & Taylor is the wholesaler who cut bookstores of the day the deal of a lifetime! Return all the books you want, in any shape, in any condition, whenever you like . . . just buy the darn things from us. We can't afford to warehouse all these books and we certainly can't let our customers go under !!!

And of course it's a lot harder to take the "deal of a lifetime" back once its been given.

So yes, it looks like Baker & Taylor was the culprit. I'll not comment on whether I felt it was a well-meaning gesture handed out in a very tough time . . . at least not on this blog . . . perhaps in my book that may or may not happen.

And one wonders why small publishers don't make it.

More fodder for my book on publishing.

Click here to read excerpt in its entirety.

Consider the advance system, whereby a publisher pays an author a nonreturnable up-front fee for a book. If the book doesn't "earn out," in the industry parlance, the publisher simply eats the cost.

In my case, as in many cases, my book never "earned out." The slim advance was all I ever got. Royalties don't come until a book "earns out."

Another example: publishers sell books to bookstores on a consignment system, which means the stores can return unsold books to publishers for a full refund. Publishers suck up the shipping costs both ways, plus the expense of printing and then pulping the merchandise. "They print way more than they know they can sell, to kind of create a buzz, and then they end up taking half those books back," says Sara Nelson, editor in chief of PW. These systems were created to shift risk away from authors and bookstores and onto publishers. But risk is something the publishing industry is less and less able to bear.

The reality is that publishers don't sell books to bookstores, bookstores buy from wholesalers. Publishers sell to wholesalers or distributors. Small pubs use distributors mostly because it's all they can afford. The relationship with wholesalers and bookstores goes back to that "depression" model when wholesalers (or at that time publishers I guess) allowed bookstores to return unsold books whenever they wanted to-however they wanted to so that bookstores could survive.

Also, the only ones printing way more than they can sell, to create a buzz as with Meyer, Rowling, King and sooooo many others, are your tried and true mainstream publishers who can certainly afford to do this and survive the insane return policy started in the depression by (wait for it) THEM!!

If the return policy is in such need of change so that the thousands upon thousands of small publishers can survive then why isn't it "fixed" to address the small publisher?

If you were one of those large publishers and the competition was nipping at your heels, producing quality fiction beyond even their wildest dreams, would you push for wholesalers to change things? And just because one wholesaler changes the way they supply books to bookstores, there's no guarantee the others will follow suit, or in this instance Ingram or Baker & Taylor. Bookstores sure as hell aren't going to change things, the larger ones are living la vida loco.

Okay that's enough until the book which will only happen if enough of you tell me you're interested. ;)

See, I'm that little guy. If I put something out there, I do so knowing that it doesn't stand a chance of getting in front of anyone other than those five or six who follow my blog. So few books that I actually lose money I never had attempting to sell it because that's how the industry operates right now. So yes, an interest expressed will help me decide whether I go any further with this book idea surrounding the publishing industry-past and present: from a small publishers POV.

Information I'll include in my book for those who want to be published.

Well, well, well. When I find something like this while "googleing" it makes me feel as though I were panning for gold and found it. My book on publishing will be a resource for information such as this. Click on the excerpt to go to the site where so much is explained:

What's the deal with returns?

Back in the Depression, when bookstores were going under right and left, publishers realized they had to do something radical to keep booksellers in business. They came up with the idea of returns—a system whereby any bookseller may return any book, with little regard for how long the book was kept or what condition it was in. No one told the book business the Depression ended 70 years ago. We still have a system that—not to put too fine a point on it—sucks. Few other industries operate on what amounts to a giant consignment scheme.

Myself and a few of my friends would like to change the last word in this excerpt to SCAM and not scheme.

This site also explains about "hurt" books or books returned from bookstores. LSI, my current POD publisher states in their operation PDF that your "hurt" book will be returned to you. However, when you ask why you are never given this option, LSI explains that it's because they destroy your "hurt" book and send you a new one for $2.00 waiving the printing fee.

Apparently POD presses like LSI and LSI themselves have decided that it isn't prudent to follow what it written in their own operations manual. They claim the wording just needs to be changed and why wouldn't someone want a new book anyway for just $2.00. Well, because that's one way a publisher can recoup some of their loss? DUH!

If anyone knows of a distributor who will actually make sure you get your "hurt" book back, I'd love to know about them. ;)

Attention bookstores who chose distribution through Spring Arbor.

Initially I had my books submitted for approval to Spring Arbor thinking that this would make it easier for my blatantly Christian readers to find my work. It was not divulged at the time by either distributor that Spring Arbor was Ingram's CBA's exclusive fundamentalist Christian arm. I'd only ever seen wording that suggested this exclusive Christian arm of Ingram was for all publishers who seemed to have a large blatantly Christian following and wanted to get their work in front of those readers. After all, Spring Arbor approves books by publishers who don't belong to Spring Arbor's non-CBA market. I know, right?

How ridiculous to waste a publisher's time by suggesting approval to a particular targeted and discriminative market would give that non-participating publisher access to that market. But hey that's Ingram and they can do whatever they like.

Since belonging to Spring Arbor does nothing for non-CBA participating publishers or authors (except to make the books available for purchase through participating bookstores who won't allow non-participating publishers in, I will withdraw my approval.

This actually doesn't affect anything BUT for those Christian bookstores who only sign up with Spring Arbor to get the few CBA titles they want (which they have to buy so many of that they can't afford to stock non-CBA Christian titles, you'll have to order my books directly from Ingram. I've no intention of being a token publisher to an industry that discriminates based on denomination. If you're a bookstore who only accepts books through Spring Arbor then that would make you a fundamentalist discriminating bookstore and well you'll be happy to know you'll never be able to make any money off my titles. ;)

My books are available anywhere the sun shines and everywhere it doesn't but as of today, they will NOT be available for you to order through ANY Christian bookstore that orders through Spring Arbor. DUH!

Thanks Spring Arbor for being so up front about things. LSI too. They didn't say one word about it.