2012: The Year in Review

Ok, I've finally made time to do the 2012 roundup. (BTW, happy 2013 everyone!)

I had hoped to make 2012 a year of writing. Unfortunately, much like 2011, 2012 was a year of publishing, but not so much of writing. However, unlike 2011, I now have a year's worth of sales data. :)

Sales numbers tell an interesting story. I sell more titles on Barnes & Noble than anywhere else. In fact, I sold more titles at B&N than at Amazon (all stores), Kobo, Smashwords (just them), and Sony combined. However, I make roughly equivalent dollar amounts between Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords (including Apple, Kobo, etc). Below is a sales chart showing titles sold, as well as some of the data for the free titles:

The top portion includes only sales for which I received money. The bottom portion is for "sales" that were free, either price-match or promotion. Apple and Kobo apparently do not report their free sales to Smashwords. I had some free sales through other Smashwords outlets, but I didn't count them here because they didn't result in any dollar sales through those outlets.

Dollar-wise, here's how those sales translate:
      Amazon US: $227.60 (didn't figure foreign sales as it is a hassle)
      Barnes & Noble: $233.29
      Smashwords (all channels): $299.60

For Amazon and Barnes & Noble, those are the royalties generated for the 2012 calendar year. For Smashwords it's a little trickier because of the delay in reporting and receiving; I basically added up the royalty payments for the calendar year (one of which hasn't gone out yet, of course, but I can see the numbers).

My best selling title is Scent and Shadow (yeay!) at 95, followed closely by "The Sub Fairy" at 88. My three most consistent sellers are Scent and Shadow, "The House That Pip Built", and "Geargirl"; each of those had at least one sale a month across all channels. (Heck, S&S and Pip had at least one sale a month just at B&N; Geargirl missed December or that one would have as well.) The story with the best average sales per month it's been available is "Cry Wolf."

I did manage to publish at least one title a month, which was a goal of mine from 2011. I didn't get any anthologies put together, but I have one that just needs a cover and another that should be ready in the next couple of months.

2012 (not counting unfinished projects):
Short stories written (final drafts written 2012): 4
Short stories sold to tradpub: 2 (one submitted in 2011)
Short story submissions to tradpub: 10
Short story rejections (including revoked submissions): 13
Short stories traditionally published: 1 (one forthcoming)
Total self-published word count (final drafts written 2012): 49,122


The four stories I did this year were Demon's Asylum, Night's Acolyte, "Husband's Little Helper," and "Care Packages." Demon's Asylum was mostly written before 2012, but I obviously didn't count it in last year's total, and the final draft was finished this year, so there you go. I'm not sure how to count The Once and Future Poet, since a large portion of it was, obviously, written over many years. But if we count all of Poet, that brings my writing total up to around 93,622, which isn't too bad.

I didn't get anywhere close to my 4000 words/week goal from last year. Frankly, making writing time is much harder than making publishing time, for some reason. I want to try and keep up my one-title-a-month trend, but I know that's going to be much harder this year. Last year I had stuff sitting around, and titles that had rights coming back. This year, I have only one finished short story (at least, that's long enough to be published as a single) available to pillage, and one title that will have the rights revert late in 2013. So I have at least 9 months to fill up. I might get to use anthologies for a couple, but I'm hoping to not use those as the "new" releases if I don't have to.

My big goal for 2013 actually isn't writing-related at all. I need to start working out consistently, and I need to make that a bigger priority than writing. That being said, some new software for my iPod is making it much easier for me to capture writing time, since I can save doc files between the iPod and my computer now. I got 250 words done the other day while The Husband was in the grocery store, for example. I've also discovered I write better when I can't see how much of the page is left to fill. That's a mental hang-up I didn't even realize I had until I started writing on the iPod.

My big writing goal for 2013 is to finish the first draft of Empire's Shadow. Ideally, I want to publish it this year, but I'm keeping my goals on the small side for now. Depression kicked my ass last year, so I don't want to stress myself out. I write less when I'm stressed about not writing. Weird, no? There are also a handful of print anthologies I have my eye one, so between those and my self-publishing I'm shooting for 10-12 finished short stories this year on top of the novel.

Oh, and I want to do the Scent and Shadow podiobook this year. I have the microphone and the recording space. I just need to suck up learning Audacity. Or maybe I'll hire that part out. (Hmm, if I tell myself that I'll hire it out, I'll be much more likely to start working on it... Writer, know thyself.) But first, I must record!

Happy May Day!

Celebrate the pagan festival of shagging with a new erotic short story!

Samantha and Ron’s 1950s-ish life style strikes some as misogynistic, but for them it’s about more than just sexual thrills. Contains explicit sex.

Husband's Little Helper is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords!

Just for Kinks stories are light-hearted, contemporary tales of titillation for kinky people and the kink-curious. Often romantic, Just for Kinks focuses on the everyday kinky person with a stories involving a variety of genders, orientations, and combinations thereof. These stories are about healthy relationships, clear consent, safe sex, and having fun in whatever way floats your particular boat. Commonly seen kinks include bondage, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism, exhibitionism, and voyeurism.

No historicals, no paranormals, no science fiction, no dark and unhealthy encounters. Just modern kinky people doing what they do best—having a darn good time.

Well Said

All the people screaming about Amazon lately have me ready to tear my hair out. But rather than rant about it myself, I will instead point you all to Sarah A. Hoyt's post. Sarah is also tired of authors getting overly emotional and riotous without first bothering to examine what's really going on, and she says it much better than I probably would have.

The whole post is very entertaining (have I mentioned that I like snark?) but here's the crux of it:

You want to make yourself useful? Start doing things like protesting the rights-grabs of publishers keeping bringing things out in ebooks YEARS after they have BY CONTRACT lost right to those properties, or bringing out things for which they never bought ebook rights. You want to make yourself useful? Start going after the exclusivity clauses in contracts. You want to make yourself useful? Start going after some of the agency clauses which give the AGENCY copyright rights for the life of the property.

If you’re not doing all of that, stop shaking your little fist and screaming that Amazon is controlling your thoughts. Amazon can’t do that, because it has yet to be shown that you’re capable of independent thought. You’re only so many trained seals, ready and willing to serve the interests of publishers and distributors, even those who’ve been screwing you for years. You’re good circus animals, ready to jump on your little bandbox and slap your hands together and arf for the rotten fish you’ve been fed for years – even while fresh fish are swimming all around you.

My blood pressure thanks you, Sarah, for writing that post so I didn't have to.

Image: Karen Shaw / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

New Release: A Kiss Before Coffee

This month's short story, A Kiss Before Coffee, is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords!

When Karen is diagnosed with inoperable cancer, she travels to the ruined Asclepion on the Greek island of Kos with a vague idea of leaving an offering for the god of healing. With the help of a sympathetic tour guide, Karen gets the chance to make her petition in person. Contains explicit sex.

Originally published in Rendezvous. League City, TX: Passionate Pens/Twin Trinity Media, 2011.

New Short Story Available!

My newest short story, "When the Bough Rakes," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords!

Dillon’s a solitary masochist with who’s found a unique solution to his needs—a pine grove in a windy valley on his parents’ property. But when Dillon comes home for his first visit since starting college, his secret is discovered by a handsome new neighbor. Contains adult situations.

Of course, I forgot to include the "an erotic short story" subtitle when I pubbed the story last night, which resulted in zero sales at Smashwords. Usually I get one or two in the first few hours. It should be fixed at all sites shortly, but it'll miss the "new release" ticker on Smashwords. Sad. I'll remember that for next time.

Experimenting

I'll have a new short story coming out tomorrow, and I'm experimenting with doing the front matter as an image instead of as text. So the title will be in the same font as the cover, and the title and copyright info will all fit on one easily-skippable page. Plus I can include the Rookery Creek logo, which just makes me happy for some odd reason.

So far it's looking good on the Kindle. I haven't made an epub version yet, but I don't foresee any issues. I'll be interested in seeing how it looks on Smashwords--and whether they'll realize the "Smashwords Edition" requirement is met in the image. Will be interesting.

I'm also planning to redo the blurbs for most of the short stories. Or, more precisely, write longer blurbs to go with the short ones. Those will go up in March. For those of you who buy single short stories, are you influenced by seeing that the story has been previously published? Is that something that would make you more or less likely to purchase a story?

Demon's Asylum and Geargirl Released!

In keeping with my goals for 2012, I'm pleased to announce the first of Rookery Creek Media's new publications for the year.

First, the long awaited Demon's Asylum is finally available!

London, 1794. George Wickham has always been able to see the true natures of the creatures around him; it’s just that up to now he’s always been able to lie about it. When a truth spell and a conspiracy land Wickham in Bedlam asylum, he finds an unlikely ally and lover in vampire Thomas Thornton.

But Thornton’s in no hurry to get Wickham free of Bedlam, and as the plot against him takes a sinister turn, Wickham must decide which poses the greater danger: the person who had him committed, or the demon he’s falling in love with. Contains explicit sex.

I've decided to experiment with Amazon's KDP Select, so for now Demon's Asylum will only be available through Amazon. It will be released in other formats through B&N and Smashwords in mid April. For those of you with Amazon Prime, you can borrow the novella through the Kindle Online Lending Library.

For those of you without Kindles, don't fret! Also available is my erotic short story Geargirl, originally published in Sex Toy Stories: Erotic Tales of Naughty Play from Ravenous Romance (2010).

Briony is a cyberpunk mercenary longing for a little personal action, but dating your coworkers is just a nonstarter. Fortunately for her, the autopilot in her vehicle has other plans. Contains explicit sex.

Geargirl is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

So the plan for the next few months--while I evaluate KDP Select--will be to release one new story via KDP Select and one story via all channels each month. That will give me a chance to compare sales between the two methods, both with concurrent releases and with the stories released last October. Should be interesting.

New Free Story and Free Novel For a Day!

Happy Halloween!

Without further ado, I present this year's Free Halloween Fiction! Click on over to Smashwords to download the ebook in your format of choice, or read the story at my website.

Jake has never taken Kary seriously—in his mind, she’s still his little sister’s best friend. So when Jake discovers Kary’s a witch, he doesn’t take that seriously either, and dares her to put a love spell on him. But Kary’s been waiting for this opportunity, and Jake gets a firsthand lesson on why it’s dangerous to taunt a witch. Especially a sexy witch. This story contains explicit sex and is not safe for work.

Is it an Aether Vitalis story, or is it not? I leave that up to the reader.

I've always really loved the song "I Burn For You," ever since I first heard it. It's not one of The Police's better-known songs. I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio. But in the back of my head, I thought it would make a really great love spell.

If you aren't familiar with the song, I really recommend picking it up from Amazon or iTunes or wherever you get your music. You can certainly enjoy the story without having heard the song, but I personally think it works better if you kinda have the music in the back of your head as you read.

Also in honor of Halloween, for today only you can pick up a copy of my novel Scent and Shadow for free at Smashwords with the coupon code GF52N! If you like the book, I would really appreciate it if you'd leave a comment or review at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads. Or just tell a friend! Happy reading!

Even More Stories!

Just in time for the weekend come two short stories sure to get you in the Halloween mood! Yesterday The House That Pip Built went up for sale. That was my first m/m story (as opposed to m/m/f), and it's a hot and sweet little tale of lust and loneliness. And ghosts. Or something like a ghost, anyway. Pip is available at Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Today, for your reading pleasure, is The Sub Fairy. This little D/s gem is set (mostly) at a Halloween party, where the female narrator is enjoying being a costume accessory for her husband/dom. Is it exhibitionism if no one else knows you're getting worked up on it? Decide for yourself. Available at Smashwords, and soon at Amazon and B&N.

Stay safe at your Halloween parties this weekend, my lovelies, and check back on Monday for this year's Free Halloween Short Story!

More Stories!

Whew, doggie! It's been busy!

Uploaded on Friday was The Power That Dreams Have, the follow-up story to Empusa. Power was a tough one to write initially; I talk about it a bit over at my website. But once it got rolling, it was a heckuva good time. I do so love writing about uneven, unhealthy relationships. (This fact worries The Husband on occasion, but given some of his favorite movies, he has no stones to throw, hehe.) Linkage at Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Yesterday saw the release of The Princess and Peony, a lesbian BDSM retelling of the Princess and the Pea. I always enjoy writing descriptions of sub-space. It's so hard to get across to non-subs... Linkage at Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

And today up goes Encore! This is probably one of my most popular stories ever. The story was inspired by a concert I went to where there were two male singers, both of who were very passionate musicians. Not that those two guys were probably lovers or anything, but the energy in the room was pure electricity. I'm trying to upload to Amazon and Barnes & Noble the night before, so hopefully Encore will be available in all three channels at about the same time.

The Post-Activity Slump

I've written about patience many times, as I truly believe that patience is one of the most important skills a writer can nurture. But right now I'm kinda caught up in the insidious flip-side of patience: the post-activity slump.

I have a novel and four short stories out to editors, as well as two short stories out on submission. It's hard not to check the email every five minutes, but I have to have patience.

The problem I'm having right now is that I have a ton of stuff to do - a novella to finish, rewrites on another, six covers to make, blurbs to write, and I still haven't come up with a good title for the novel - but it's really hard to get motivated. I've gotten so much done in the last couple months, and I'm waiting waiting waiting to hear back from the editors so I know how much more work I have to do and can start planning a more firm timeline...and all I want to do is chill out for a couple weeks while I wait.

It almost even makes sense. Once I know my timeline, it'll be easier to prioritize, right? And I've spent so much time recently writing and doing business stuff, surely it would be good to take some time off for research and catching up on other authors. (Especially since my one research book is due back at the library any day now and I've used up all my renewals.)

Granted, I did spend a lot of hours last week learning Paint.NET and getting two covers mostly done, but I still sorta feel like I'm slacking, because I'm not writing. I haven't written anything new in months. It's all been edits and rewrites. And I keep looking forward to when all these stories are up and epubbed, because then things should slow down. I can get back to writing. I just want to know when. And until I know when, it's hard to concentrate.

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Publishing Podcasts I Listen To

I'm always on the lookout for more awesome podcasts, an you might be too, so here are the ones I hit every week, in no particular order:

Writing Excuses - The best 15-20 minutes of listneing a writer can spend all week.
I Should Be Writing - Fun interviews, and follow Mur Lafferty as she traverses the worlds of publishing and podcasting her own books.
Adventures in SciFi Publishing - Great interviews with authors, editors, and publishers, plus fun commentary and discussions.
The Reading and Writing Podcast - interviews with authors about their books, writing, and the weird hobbies authors pick up.
eBook Ninjas - Occasionally a bit technical, but informative. The folks from eBook Architects discuss ebook formatting, digital readers, and publishing news.
The Creative Penn - Interviews with authors, podcasters, cover artists, and basically anyone who has useful information for authors, with indie author Joanna Penn.
SF Signal - As powered by the Functional Nerds, these podcasts cover everything SF&F, including panel discussions and interviews.
The Dead Robots' Society - young author hosts provide interviews, con panel recordings, commentary and discussion on everything writing and publishing.
The Hopkinson Report - The Marketing Trends That Matter from Wired Magazine's Jim Hopkinson. Includes some awesome interviews with authors, social media marketers, website people, and more.

If you have any publishing/reading/writing related podcasts that you like, leave a comment and I'll add them to my list. I'll update this periodically as I find new ones.

Writing as a Business

I've been doing a lot of reading and research on the small business side of writing lately. It seems to me that a lot of writers are not very good businesspeople. Of course, in the days when our only option was traditional publishing, we didn't necessarily need to be. We didn't have to think about layout, had no control over the cover art, and nothing at all to do with the money save catching what fell through at the end.

With more and more writers going indie, that's all changing. But what's a newbie business-writer to do? If you don't know the first thing about business, it's hard to figure out what questions you should be asking, much less where to look for answers.

Enter Dean Wesley Smith. Man, if I had found his Think Like a Publisher series sooner, I wouldn't have taken that small business class. If you're thinking about delving into self-publishing, do yourself a favor and read these posts first! Not only do they provide lots of wonderful real-world-experience advice, they answer the most important questions of all: the ones you didn't know to ask.

The Pricing Debate

There's been much talk in the industry regarding the pricing of ebooks, as recently as yesterday over at Nathan Bransford's blog. The industry as a whole still hasn't settled down to a pricing structure for ebooks.

The Big Six have more or less all ascribed to the agency model, wherein the publisher sets the pricing, usually between $10.99 and $14.99. Amazon.com had been setting prices at $9.99. Indie authors (however you want to use the term) have prices starting at free and moving up from there to prices comparable with the Big Six.

Personally, I think $0.99 is too low for a novel, but it's a great price for a short story. I also think more than $10 is too high for most books: I grew up in an era where mass-market paperbacks were $3.99, and that's sort of stuck in my head as the baseline price for a book. (I'm not only dating myself here, I'm also showing the fact I do a lot of book shopping at the half-price stores, which is about the only place you can find a paperback for less than $5 anymore.)

I recently found a non-fiction book I was interested in purchasing because my library doesn't have a copy. I looked it up on Amazon, and it was $16.49 for the paperback, discounted from $24.99. The Kindle edition was $14.74. I don't have a Kindle, but I do have a Nook, so I popped over to B&N where it was selling for $16.82 print, and $14.99 Nookbook.

Now, I like my Nook a lot, but I hate not being able to flip through it, especially with reference books like the one I was contemplating. However, I also hate paying shipping. So my options were: drive to my local B&N and probably have to pay list price; buy it online and either have to pay shipping or find another book to add to my order that I wasn't planning on buying (and would probably blow my book-buying budget for the month [yes, I have to budget for that]); or buy the ebook version, which I could get right now without having to pay shipping or full price or even leave my freaking chair, but then I wouldn't be able to flip through from bit to bit as I like to do with reference books.

My decision?

I didn't buy the book.

Now, if the ebook version had been significantly cheaper than the print version, I probably would've downloaded it and just dealt with the search function. However, with only a couple of dollars difference between the ebook and online pricing, it just doesn't make sense to me to buy the ebook. And since I'm not planning on placing an order in the next couple of weeks, and I have the $17 price point stuck in my head from looking at the websites and don't feel like paying full price, I just added the book to the long list of "books I want to get eventually."

Some people prefer ebook to print, and for them the book might be worth $15, but I still prefer print. I have a really hard time paying $15 for a digital book. However, what really killed this sale was the online discounting of the physical book. Other than a selfless desire to support my local brick-and-mortar chain store (which still employs local people), I'd feel like an idiot paying $24.99 for something I can get for less than $17. Hell, even paying shipping, it would still be cheaper to buy online. But if I looked online and saw a price closer to list, I would either have bought the ebook which would now be closer to $10 off, or I would've driven out to the local store if I really wanted a print copy, because driving out to buy it would be cheaper and much faster than getting it online.

In economic times like these, when feeling like a smart shopper is so key to many people's buying decisions, I think the industry has more to worry about than just the pricing on ebooks.

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

100 Words About: Digital Publishing (and Whiskey)

Publisher's Weekly has an interesting "whiskey poll" from the London Book Fair wherein of those who responded "nearly 80% of publishers expect e-book sales to surpass physical books within 15 years. Of that number, 32% expect e-book sales to overtake print sales within 10 years and 5% within five years. On the other hand, 18% said that e-book sales will never surpass physical book sales."

I spent this week doing an online seminar through How To Write Shop on Digital Self-Publishing for the Newbie. I'm also reading some books on the subject. (Oddly, one digital, one not. BTW, The Husband bought me a Nook! Go, Husband!) While many of the anthologies I've been in have been ebook only already, or had mostly ebook sales, I expect to jump into self-pubbing a few short stories in the next couple of months, just to see what the response is like. I don't know if that 80% of publishers are going to be right...but it doesn't hurt to try to get in before the train leaves, right?

What e-readers do you all use, and where do you download your books from? So far I've gotten a few from Barnes and Noble, of course, but I've also gotten several from Google Books and Archive.org. I expect I'll be using Smashwords, B&N, and Amazon. Where and in what formats would you like to see my work? Leave a comment and let me know!

And now I'm off to WhiskeyFest, woohoo!

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net