Wednesday for Writers #4: The Only One Destroying Publishing is You.

I am sitting here laughing while writing this post, but I know I shouldn't be. What can I say? I am that crazy chick who laughs at inappropriate times. Like right now--when all of you are destroying publishing.

That's right, every single one of you are ruining it... right now. You should be ashamed of yourself! Of course, I'm guilty too, but I don't have any shame, that's why I'm an author.

And if you're an author, you might have heard of a place known as The Kindle Boards. If you aren't an author, and don't know what I am talking about I can't tell you...I can't even be sure of its exact use. It seems to be a place where people who have published on Amazon come together and complain about things. At least, that's all I ever see them do there. I admit to mostly lurking, on account of the one time I decided to say something and this woman--who is totes a crazy cat lady in my head--HAD to tell me how wrong I was. That is right I totally magicked myself onto the best sellers list by not selling any books. That's what she claimed anyway. {Insert wild head-bob here.}

But I digress, I wanted to share with you a reoccurring theme there, and that is, as I have stated before, that you are all destroying publishing. You might not not even know it yet, but I am hear to tell you it's true!

Recent method of total destruction: FREE E-BOOKS!

This is my preferred method of roughing up publishing. The thought is, why will people buy the cow if you are giving away the milk for free? It's almost perfect! Any saying that applies to loose women can in turn be applied to loose writers. AM I RIGHT?

WRONG! These people seem to think that there are enough e-books out there for free that no one
is going to want to pay for a book ever. I guess if you are totally forgettable that might be a problem. If you are writing clone thriller and romance books and never have any type of original thought--this might get you down. But I don't want to be forgettable. I don't want to be mediocre. I plan on making myself irreplaceable--and part of doing that involves building a loyal following. It's no secret I want you guys to buy my books--but I don't want it to be a one sided relationship.

Every time someone says, "Free e-books have ruined it for the rest of us!" I think they have no idea what they are doing. I used to be a marketing manager--did you?

The Old Favorite Flavor of Destruction: .99 E-BOOKS ARE DESTROYING PUBLISHING

I saw an article recently that focused on the new found malaise of the .99 e-book price tag. My first thought was, I didn't know that was mandatory. Because damn if I am not doing it wrong. Technically, I do have two .99 e-books; but they are both novellas. I like .99 for a novel promotion. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER! If someone wants something bad enough they will buy it--that is why the legacy publishers can charge their prices and not be socially executed. (Also, they have to pay a lot of people) The .99 is to allow people to find you, as an author. Don't hate.

Again, this goes back to whether or not you have a following, and if you have people beating down your doors asking for your next book. People whine about how this doesn't make for a liveable wage--but I've got bad news, if no one cares about you, pricing your book inline with traditional publishers isn't going to save you. The difference in $3.99 and .99 is not going to save you. The only life preserver an author can hope for is going to be tossed out to them by fans. Everything else just makes you a few extra bucks.

And more bad news. If you land an agent who gets you an awesome contract with Random House and they list your e-book for $9.99 you are still only going to get around a buck fifty per e-book. (In this calculation Amazon gives them 70% of list price, they give you 25%, and you give your agent 15%)

Writing isn't really a get rich quick scheme. If you are very, very lucky--and smart, you might pull it off slowly and painfully. That's my plan. Plus remembering to smile when someone calls me an over night success ;) Yes, I just put an emoticon in my blog. It's my blog, I can do what I want.

This Last Reason Gives Me Deja Vu, How About You?: .99 E-BOOKS ARE DESTROYING PUBLISHING (Still)

Before Indie Authors themselves were all bent out of shape over that whole .99 thing, there was another group sounding the alarm. That would be the traditional publishers—and their clients, “How can we complete?” they whined.

Remember where I talked about how fans where your only savior as a writer? That applies to you to genius. I won't pretend for five seconds that me or anyone I know (and I know some SUPAH-STARS) selling .99 e-books so much as gave Cassandra Clare a freaking paper cut. Because most of her fangirls are fangirls for life. She writes it, and they are lining up to buy it before they know even what it's called or what it will be covered in.

You just think about that. Because it's your fault.

Some of the best advice I ever got on writing came from a very good friend and enemy; she told me the secret was simply to outlast everyone else. I believe that is a huge part of it, I also believe that the next step is making sure no one else but you will do.

Pages of Pigments VI

As promised, Pages of Pigments VI! Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post AND if you are writing this weekend go here and sign up for #MWWM Lots of you have told me you are in on Twitter, but not all of you have made it official. 

Pages of Pigments I :: Pages of Pigments II :: Pages of Pigments III :: Pages of Pigments IV ::

Pages of Pigments V ::

It was the swan from the painting. But it was someplace different. She couldn't make out what it had been painted on. A rough paper or a think crude canvas—she couldn't be sure. It's wooden frame was splintered, and pulling apart in all the joints. It was so dark that it was almost black. Lucia touched it with slow and careful fingertips, wondering if it had always been that shade or if it had aged with time.

The swan that sat in the middle of the painting lay almost still. Gliding so slow, you could almost believe it was an ordinary motionless painting if not for the little waves that floated away from its opalescent white feathers. The swan seemed content to sit there—if not a little sad.

Only in the corner of the painting where the frame was the most damaged, it appeared that a large bit of surface of the lake had been completely torn away. The tare was all jagged edges and paper teeth.

“That's a shame,” William said, eyes taking in the same damage as Lucia.

It was a shame, but Ripley didn't say anything at all. He just stood stiff, staring at the painting until finally he mumbled something Lucia didn't catch the first time. 

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4th Installment of THE GODS OF MARKET STREET is now live!

Sorry this is a bit late. I had some disasters with JukePop, but I am happy to report they have fab customer service and took care of it like that; I just had to wait 24 hours after the solution to post a new chapter (and then I was actually asleep for once)

Don't forget, you can vote for every chapter; and you can tweet directly from there to tell your friends.

Comments here, there, and everywhere are LOVE <3

Also, it's not too late to sign up for #MWWM (Memorial Weekend Word Marathon) DO IT! You can find the info here.

Pages of Pigments 6 will up later tonight.

MWWM: MEMORIAL WEEKEND WORD MARATHON sign ups!

It's a loooonnnnggggg weekend, and you know what that means; I'm going to be writing a book! How is that different than any other time? Because I plan on finishing the book over said weekend, and you can too! If you have been stalking me on Twitter--and I mean, who ISN'T these days? *wink wink* you might have seen me chatting about organizing a little something something to help motivate others.  It has arrived! I feel like this is a bit late notice.

You might know this about me, but sometimes I like to procrastinate.

No, really.


Anyway, there are no official rules. There are no requirements. There aren't any prizes--except for bragging rights and a lot of smugness. You just have you to do your absolute best and tell everyone else about it. If you can't motivate yourself, motivate someone else. It's as easy as that, and these optional steps below:

Tell us your coming in the comments. Leave info on how to track to you down on the internets. Blog? Twitter handle?

I'll go first, this is my blog and you can find me on Twitter at @angelakulig

Snag the awesome badge below, then put it all over the internets! Facebook... webpages... etc.

Copy this code to get the badge:
<a href="http://www.angelakulig.com/2013/05/mwwm-memorial-weekend-word-marathon.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i364.photobucket.com/albums/oo87/ajkulig_bucket/mwbadge_zps52622d14.png~original" border="0" alt=" Angela Write Now"/></a> Make a goal! Stretch yourself.

I'd love to write 65,000 but that is a big goal, even for me. (I write all my first drafts by hand)

We're starting at 12:00 AM your time on Saturday 5.25. I for one, will be napping after dinner Friday night, just to ready myself--you don't have to. You can start whenever you want.

We're wrapping up this bad boy 11:59 Monday, but you can stop whenever your eyeballs start to bleed--unless you are into that (I am).

Don't forget to use the hash tag #MWWM if you are interested in running any sprinting sessions or other motivation whatevers LMK in the comments. Don't think you can't come if you can't stay the whole weekend--everyone can drop by whenever.

Pages of Pigments V

HA! I scheduled this post when I did the last one. I am ON TIME! Watch the damn thing not post when it should. Standard warnings--this is not the official edited version, it belongs to me, just because it's on the internet doesn't mean you can claim you wrote it.

     The water was rough. The tide seemed to be coming in faster than Leo could get away from it. Like an angry blood hound nipping at his heels, bits of wet drool landing all around.

     When Leo's soggy, sock covered foot his the first stair the water roared in behind him.      He scaled three, then four large steps before turning and looking back. It wasn't that Leo often found himself here this time of night, but he was almost positive there was supposed to be a beach beneath him. There was none. The dark water churned briefly before slamming into the unwavering seawall and rushing back out.

     It was too deep to see the shore as another wave came in.

     No, Leo thought, not normal. Not unless there was a storm he couldn't see or hear yet. Leo ran the rest of the way up the stairs before the sea could again claim him.

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! 

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6,666 Twitter Followers = SKELETON LAKE for FREE (plus awesome GIVEAWAY)

I hit 6,666 Followers on Twitter this weekend, and for only moments my Twitter account was really, really evil. As promised, Skeleton Lake is now free on Amazon and I want to make it a really big thang. THUS the awesome giveaway. Spread the word, help me move it up the charts.

First things first, click the cover to get your copy.

Now deets on the giveaway. This is a really cool one, but be forwarned--I am having the stuff sent to me and then I will send it to you; I know my giveaways are normally *instant* prizes or 2 day Amazon shipping prizes so I didn't want any surprises.

 

 

 

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Do you have a blog I should be following?

I will admit, I am really AWFUL about following peoples blogs back. I tend to catch new posts via Twitter, which occasionally get lost in my insane feed. Anyway, if you have a blog I--or anyone else who reads this post should check out leave your linkage in the comments. Be forewarned though, if you post anything you shouldn't I will delete it.

PS--the monkeys are actually an old joke from a Guest Post Mike Mullin did on my blog back in the day. You can see it here. No, I don't actually have monkeys that write my books for me. That would be nice.