c2012 (S)
Feedback is essential to any creative process. Over the course of the last two or three years, I have made about 670 short story submissions. Less than three percent have been placed, and probably less than one percent paid any money. That is a kind of feedback.
On Blogger, there are stats. You can see how many page hits a given story might receive. If one story gets a lot of page hits, and another story, of different subject matter, gets a few, then obviously the savvy writer will write more stories on the more popular subject matter.
On my Smashwords dashboard, there is a 'stats' button. It takes me to a separate page. If I put out a link on Twitter, and an hour later see that I have received 'x' page-hits, then all I have to do is put out ten links to achieve ten times 'x' page hits, and after a while, I can figure out exactly how many page-hits it takes to sell a book. This can be compared to how many page hits I get without any promotion at all.
The difference is pretty obvious.
Now, if I put out a link for Smashwords and get fifty page hits, then it's a pretty good bet that if I put out a link leading to a product on Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, or Sony, then I will get the same number of pages hits, approximately. At this point the relative market share of the retailer comes into play, and this skews the numers, but feedback is still essential. In purely physical terms, try doing anything without feedback. Try walking without eyes and a sense of balance, and no feeling in your feet.
For many short story rejections, all the editor says is, "Not quite what we are looking for."
That's too bad, as I had this one story with a real bad error of fact in it. No one told me! And of course I kept on submitting it around. It was only later that I discovered the error. Mentally reviewing just how many places I submitted the story, I sure wish someone had told me about that.
A little bit of feedback would save everyone a bit of time in the long run, put it down to 'species altruism' or whatever. That's because one editor's effort might benefit another editor's publication in the short term. However, in the long term, it would come back to the editor's benefit, as I would be less likely to submit a bad story, over and over again.
I'm always glad to receive feedback or criticism, as in the long run I am better off! That's called, 'enlightened self-interest,' and I never take it too personal.
I just figure the editor was having a bad day, and my story wasn't helping any.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The Perfect Product
c2012 (S)
The e-book is the perfect product. Under the previous paradigm, at least ten percent of all production was wasted at an enormous cost in labour, raw materials, environmental degradation, shipping, fuel, storage, insurance, and other liabilities.
Other liabilities might include benefits for employees, or the cost of rezoning in order to locate an industrial plant and administration.
The e-book eliminates all of that, by a factor of well over ninety-nine percent.
It does not require paper, it does not require ink, or a printing press or trucks going down the road.
Online retail operations require far fewer employees, and they can be centralized rather than dispersed, subject to countless local pressures and multiple independent retailer agreements.
The only thing required to produce an e-book is knowledge, some talent of a creative nature, and time. It takes a relatively simple computer, and an internet connection
Where else could I have found a business where I could invest the fruits of my labour, that is to say e-books, at $0.99 each and give them away, at no cost to myself, thereby building up a clientele?
How would I have learned the shameless art of self-promotion, a shy guy like me with nothing to sell?
That's why I give so many books away for free. Each one represents about a dollar in promotion, or advertising, or however we choose to describe it.
The experience is priceless. You can't bottle it and sell it or I would.
It's a paper transaction, where I give up a dollar to get a customer! Yet I still have positive cash flow, when normally, four out of five businesses fail within the first two years due to lack of sufficient capitalization. Of the survivors, most of them bleed money for the first two years before ever turning a profit.
So why then, would I polish up a manuscript and submit it to a major publisher?
Why not? It's not like I haven't learned a lot about writing and the business. It's not like I haven't heard the criticisms or sensed the jealousy.
But more than anything, it represents a bigger game--one that's more exciting and so much more challenging.
I don't believe in miracles, and I never rely on luck.
We'll see how it goes.
The e-book is the perfect product. Under the previous paradigm, at least ten percent of all production was wasted at an enormous cost in labour, raw materials, environmental degradation, shipping, fuel, storage, insurance, and other liabilities.
Other liabilities might include benefits for employees, or the cost of rezoning in order to locate an industrial plant and administration.
The e-book eliminates all of that, by a factor of well over ninety-nine percent.
It does not require paper, it does not require ink, or a printing press or trucks going down the road.
Online retail operations require far fewer employees, and they can be centralized rather than dispersed, subject to countless local pressures and multiple independent retailer agreements.
The only thing required to produce an e-book is knowledge, some talent of a creative nature, and time. It takes a relatively simple computer, and an internet connection
Where else could I have found a business where I could invest the fruits of my labour, that is to say e-books, at $0.99 each and give them away, at no cost to myself, thereby building up a clientele?
How would I have learned the shameless art of self-promotion, a shy guy like me with nothing to sell?
That's why I give so many books away for free. Each one represents about a dollar in promotion, or advertising, or however we choose to describe it.
The experience is priceless. You can't bottle it and sell it or I would.
It's a paper transaction, where I give up a dollar to get a customer! Yet I still have positive cash flow, when normally, four out of five businesses fail within the first two years due to lack of sufficient capitalization. Of the survivors, most of them bleed money for the first two years before ever turning a profit.
So why then, would I polish up a manuscript and submit it to a major publisher?
Why not? It's not like I haven't learned a lot about writing and the business. It's not like I haven't heard the criticisms or sensed the jealousy.
But more than anything, it represents a bigger game--one that's more exciting and so much more challenging.
I don't believe in miracles, and I never rely on luck.
We'll see how it goes.
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