Has self-publishing saved science fiction? - Page 4

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Has self-publishing saved science fiction? (Page 4 of 4)

Posted: 12/20/2017 5:57:22 AM EDT

[#1]

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That's your loss. I tried the agented, big-5 route years ago. Took years and wound up with oh-so-close-but-not-this-time. I had two completed, professionally edited and multiple-rewrite SF novels and no one ever read them except my agents' multiple editors. I self-published them and, within a year, 30,000 people had bought them. I've written 13 novels, 6 just this year, and I'm working on my 14th, and guess what? Shitloads of people have bought them and read them and I've made a good amount of money from it. Enough to call it a full time job, even though I have yet to quit my day job. There are a lot of other authors out there just like me, and a lot of them have received and turned down offers from the big publishing companies because they don't NEED them. I don't need them. They're an outmoded and obsolescent business model that's dying a little every day.

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I'm not a novelist, but I read the posts on this Kindle forum which has a special section just for authors. What you're talking about is all true. There are plenty of "professional level" indie authors who get their work edited, it goes through the same process to assure quality, and their books make a TON of money. For many, it is a fulltime job. From what I've heard, traditional publishers can be so frustrating. And their authors make a pittance compared to what indie authors make.

There are lots of resources available to help clean up and edit a novel. It doesn't have to be done through a traditional publisher. Sure, there are crap books being spewed out; and as you probably know, there are also scammers on Amazon just trying to game the system. They spew out crap and try to scam and cheat to squeeze some money from Amazon and the readers. But that doesn't detract from the legitimate authors who produce good work, unfettered by the big "gatekeeper," the traditional publisher, deciding who gets in and who stays out. Big traditional publishers are losing their clout, and it's about time!

Posted: 12/20/2017 11:49:08 AM EDT

[#2]

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I can only give you the accounts of the authors I've talked to in person and on author groups on Facebook, but most do not get paid monthly. Most I've talked to get paid either twice a year or quarterly. I've never talked to any who get paid monthly royalties from a big publishing company. As for the advances/marketing/etc...that's from surveys that have been done of published authors.

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That's a long time between paychecks if you aren't frugal with your money

Posted: 12/20/2017 11:53:25 AM EDT

[#3]

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There are a lot of people like that. Michael Anderle made $2 million last year self-publishing. He's basically running his own publishing company at this point with all the authors he's collaborating with, and some of them are well into 6 figures per year. Lindsay Buroker has made over a million dollars in a MONTH before. And those are SF/F authors. Self-published romance authors can make even more money; romance readers are voracious and if you get a following and publish quickly, you can make 7 figures a year in romance. I wish I could write it, but that's not my thing.

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You should start a new genre of action fiction, with the target audience being basement dwellers. Just talk about the big world outside their basements. They wont believe you, think you come up with the mist imaginative stories, and you'll make millions.

Posted: 12/20/2017 12:40:09 PM EDT

[#4]

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There was, but they didn't have the marketing clout of Amazon behind them. Sony had one, IIRC, I used to read on a Palm Pilot.

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Most of my favorite authors started with self publishing. Larry Corriea for one.

Yup, found him through the Nightcrawler threads on THR where he and Mike Kupari did the posts that would eventually become the Dead Six series.

Correia self-published before there was even such a thing as an e-book. He did it the old-fashioned way: had thousands of copies printed and sold them himself. (Admittedly advertising on the net, so not entirely old-fashioned.)

Baen was publishing ebooks well before Larry published "Monster Hunter International" ;-)

True, but there was no such thing as an e-reader at the time.

There was, but they didn't have the marketing clout of Amazon behind them. Sony had one, IIRC, I used to read on a Palm Pilot.

Really? Wow, I thought I was up on the tech back in the day but I never heard of the Sony Reader until I just googled it.

Posted: 12/20/2017 12:40:46 PM EDT

[#5]

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That's a long time between paychecks if you aren't frugal with your money

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I can only give you the accounts of the authors I've talked to in person and on author groups on Facebook, but most do not get paid monthly. Most I've talked to get paid either twice a year or quarterly. I've never talked to any who get paid monthly royalties from a big publishing company. As for the advances/marketing/etc...that's from surveys that have been done of published authors.

That's a long time between paychecks if you aren't frugal with your money

That's why most writers have day jobs.

Posted: 12/20/2017 3:25:11 PM EDT

[#6]

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Really? Wow, I thought I was up on the tech back in the day but I never heard of the Sony Reader until I just googled it.

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My ex wrote a significant chunk of one of her novels on a Sony Clie with a folding keyboard, sitting at White Water while our daughter played.

Posted: 12/20/2017 3:48:57 PM EDT

[#7]

Would the writers in this thread please provide some info so I can check out your books? I’ve been aware of RikWriter’s work, but none of the others. Seems like we have a great group here.

Posted: 12/20/2017 4:24:18 PM EDT

[#8]

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Would the writers in this thread please provide some info so I can check out your books? I’ve been aware of RikWriter’s work, but none of the others. Seems like we have a great group here.

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There's a thread here in Books...

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Any-other-Authors-in-the-house-Check-in-post-a-link-to-your-books-/153-1921501/

Best,
JBR

Posted: 12/20/2017 8:39:52 PM EDT

[#9]

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There's a thread here in Books...

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Any-other-Authors-in-the-house-Check-in-post-a-link-to-your-books-/153-1921501/

Best,
JBR

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I didn't even know we had a books forum.

Posted: 12/20/2017 9:15:32 PM EDT

[#10]

I live to serve.

Best
JBR

Posted: 12/20/2017 9:18:54 PM EDT

[#11]

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I live to serve.

Best
JBR

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That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

Posted: 12/20/2017 9:20:54 PM EDT

[#12]

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That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

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I live to serve.

Best
JBR

That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

Sweet! My first redshirt!
Thanks!

Best,
JBR

Posted: 12/20/2017 9:47:10 PM EDT

[#13]

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That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

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I live to serve.

Best
JBR

That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

Buckley-ed!

Posted: 12/20/2017 11:32:29 PM EDT

[#14]

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Buckley-ed!

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I live to serve.

Best
JBR

That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

Buckley-ed!

I really think an author needs to have MET Joe Buckley before killing him off in a book... (of course, once you spend some time around him, you'll fully understand WHY he gets killed off so often..)

Posted: 12/20/2017 11:53:06 PM EDT

[#15]

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I really think an author needs to have MET Joe Buckley before killing him off in a book... (of course, once you spend some time around him, you'll fully understand WHY he gets killed off so often..)

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That's no fun. So, it'd be alright to have him nibbled to death by vegetarian velociraptors - as long as we do it off stage? "There's this supply sergeant I knew, name of Buckley, wandered away from the landing party on Marduk 7..."

Oh, wait. That's how he bit it in the Maple War series. Off screen.
Darn. Maybe I'll get to a Libertycon someday.

Posted: 12/21/2017 12:55:51 PM EDT

[#16]

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Sweet! My first redshirt!
Thanks!

Best,
JBR

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I live to serve.

Best
JBR

That's good, because you're about to be killed by a human/alien hybrid in my new book.

Sweet! My first redshirt!
Thanks!

Best,
JBR

Congrats. I remember back in... 2015 (?) when I showed up as the uncle of a side character in a daily novel I follow. She was a scampy orphan who started tagging along with the main character's party on a cross-country run from a psychotic general who wanted to use them both for science experiments. After scampy side character decided to stay in the peaceful small town with her uncle, far away from the war, psychotic general showed up and murdered the entire town, holding her hostage. Oh, and he forced her to eat flesh from her uncle's body.

Posted: 12/21/2017 1:35:22 PM EDT

[#17]

Reading a self-published Sci-Fi right now. Tamer by MSE.

Posted: 12/21/2017 2:17:00 PM EDT

[#18]

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Reading a self-published Sci-Fi right now. Tamer by MSE.

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I liked that one. Waiting for the next.

Posted: 12/21/2017 9:26:13 PM EDT

[#19]

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Maybe you should look at the publisher that most of the people behind "Sad Puppies" write for (or at least associate with)? Yeah, the publisher is a female of Jewish extraction, she also laments that her new house doesn't have a shooting range like her old one did... She also runs the only independent major science fiction imprint, publishing John Ringo, Larry Correia, David Weber, Sarah Hoyt, Michael Z. Williamson (who constantly gets locked on FaceBook for playing "who can I offend today?"), Tom "Genghis" Kratman, etc... Yeah, there are also some Commies (Eric Flint), but they're Commies who can tell a good story, which is the number one criteria.

Of course, I'm probably biased, she (well, the publishing house) sent me a box of chocolate to thank me for moderating their web forum :-)

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Maybe you should look at the publisher that most of the people behind "Sad Puppies" write for (or at least associate with)? Yeah, the publisher is a female of Jewish extraction, she also laments that her new house doesn't have a shooting range like her old one did... She also runs the only independent major science fiction imprint, publishing John Ringo, Larry Correia, David Weber, Sarah Hoyt, Michael Z. Williamson (who constantly gets locked on FaceBook for playing "who can I offend today?"), Tom "Genghis" Kratman, etc... Yeah, there are also some Commies (Eric Flint), but they're Commies who can tell a good story, which is the number one criteria.

Of course, I'm probably biased, she (well, the publishing house) sent me a box of chocolate to thank me for moderating their web forum :-)

@LoneWolf545
I thought Flint was the editor-in-chief of Baen?

Anyway, yeah, I read a fair amount of what they put out. I kinda miss David Weber's stuff, wish he'd get to writing again, even though he really needed an editor to sit on him and demand that he cut at least 30% out.

Hah. Saw your later post about him.

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I didn't read the whole thing, I just couldn't get through the sample. Coming off multiple reads of the Stephenson ouvre and the Aubrey-Maturin series, RP1 felt like gargling with Kool-ade. It struck me as jarringly puerile and little more than a thinly masked attempt to cash in on 1980-90s memberberries.

Yeah, I didn't get the rabid love for that one either.

Posted: 12/22/2017 12:34:19 AM EDT

[#20]

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@LoneWolf545
I thought Flint was the editor-in-chief of Baen?

Anyway, yeah, I read a fair amount of what they put out. I kinda miss David Weber's stuff, wish he'd get to writing again, even though he really needed an editor to sit on him and demand that he cut at least 30% out.

Hah. Saw your later post about him.

Yeah, I didn't get the rabid love for that one either.

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Maybe you should look at the publisher that most of the people behind "Sad Puppies" write for (or at least associate with)? Yeah, the publisher is a female of Jewish extraction, she also laments that her new house doesn't have a shooting range like her old one did... She also runs the only independent major science fiction imprint, publishing John Ringo, Larry Correia, David Weber, Sarah Hoyt, Michael Z. Williamson (who constantly gets locked on FaceBook for playing "who can I offend today?"), Tom "Genghis" Kratman, etc... Yeah, there are also some Commies (Eric Flint), but they're Commies who can tell a good story, which is the number one criteria.

Of course, I'm probably biased, she (well, the publishing house) sent me a box of chocolate to thank me for moderating their web forum :-)

@LoneWolf545
I thought Flint was the editor-in-chief of Baen?

Anyway, yeah, I read a fair amount of what they put out. I kinda miss David Weber's stuff, wish he'd get to writing again, even though he really needed an editor to sit on him and demand that he cut at least 30% out.

Hah. Saw your later post about him.

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I didn't read the whole thing, I just couldn't get through the sample. Coming off multiple reads of the Stephenson ouvre and the Aubrey-Maturin series, RP1 felt like gargling with Kool-ade. It struck me as jarringly puerile and little more than a thinly masked attempt to cash in on 1980-90s memberberries.

Yeah, I didn't get the rabid love for that one either.

No, Eric Flint only edits the anthologies he's listed on. Toni Weisskopf is the publisher and head of Baen Books (it's owned by four parties, Tom Doherty who started Tor, a guy whose name I can't remember right now who is in it purely as an investment, and Jim Baen's two daughters, one of whom Toni is the mother and caretaker of, she's severely disabled, the other has no interest in running the company and is happy to let Toni do it). There are four or five editors at Baen Books (which is a significant chunk of the Baen staff, Baen is NOT a very large company, some editing and typesetting functions are outsourced, there are probably only about fifteen people total directly on the payroll, which is part of WHY they only put out about three or four completely new books each month). Oh, and one part-time editor who mostly works on John Ringo's stuff (Gary Poole, that's his professional name, he used to be a radio personality in Chattanooga and still works in media there).

Posted: 12/30/2017 6:08:36 PM EDT

[#21]

Sturgeon's Law usually applies.

Posted: 12/30/2017 10:59:00 PM EDT

[#22]

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He writes Fantasy, but I've had some interaction with Trevor H Cooley. His The Bowl Of Souls series is the best I've read in years. He went through the publisher, re-edit, rewrite, maybe later merry-go-round and never got anywhere.

He self published on Amazon and now makes enough to be his full time job. But like YouTube does with their creaters. If Amazon tweaks an algorithm, what they are pushing, how they pay Kindle Unlimited, etc it can quickly take an author from making good money, to needing a 2nd job. Your still at the whim of others for your livelihood.

As a reader I didn't understand kindle unlimited at first but have found way better Fantasy books there than what i've been seeing at the book store. Its a treasure trove of good stuff and I'm still on the Black Friday 3 month free trial.

For published stuff about the only one I ready any more is L.E. Modesitt who does both SF and Fantasy.

First Bowl of Souls book:
https://www.amazon.com/Eye-Moonrat-Bowl-Souls-Book-ebook/dp/B0082V0ZHM

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I've read the six books in the Moonrat Saga since you posted this. Loved everything except the Vrill, who was written more as a caricature than a serious antagonist.

Posted: 1/1/2018 12:04:51 PM EDT

[#23]

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I've read the six books in the Moonrat Saga since you posted this. Loved everything except the Vrill, who was written more as a caricature than a serious antagonist.

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Thanks! I'll try to get to that series next.

Just found another good one: Claire McCague's "The Rosetta Man". It's fonking hilarious so far.

Sample chapter from her website:

https://clairemccague.weebly.com/the-rosetta-man---chapter-1/the-rosetta-man-excerpt

Posted: 1/2/2018 12:24:52 PM EDT

[#24]

Just read Tamer 2, it was amazing. I read an interesting article recently about how established authors might become the new big publishers. You co-write a book with an established author, he gets the bulk of the cashola but you get his fan base and are basically instantly established as well.

Posted: 1/2/2018 5:25:24 PM EDT

[#25]

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Just read Tamer 2, it was amazing. I read an interesting article recently about how established authors might become the new big publishers. You co-write a book with an established author, he gets the bulk of the cashola but you get his fan base and are basically instantly established as well.

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That's what Michael Anderle has been doing for over a year now.

Posted: 1/3/2018 9:29:15 AM EDT

[#26]

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Just read Tamer 2, it was amazing. I read an interesting article recently about how established authors might become the new big publishers. You co-write a book with an established author, he gets the bulk of the cashola but you get his fan base and are basically instantly established as well.

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I was under the impression it was more like you write it, they put their name on it. I used to read James Patterson books, but I don't think he's actually written one in over a decade.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Has self-publishing saved science fiction? (Page 4 of 4)

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