Whistling in the Darkzone

I work as a newspaper reporter in a small town in the United States and I've built up some goodwill with the local creative community.

When Issue #13 comes out (which Neve said would contain my story "Nicor"), I am thinking of having a "book signing" of copies of the magazine at a couple of local bookstores.

I'm thinking that'd be a good idea for other authors in our group to try in their own towns. It would generate buzz for them and increased sales for the magazine.

How easy is it for bookstores and other retailers to buy copies of "Flashing Swords" in bulk?

While that's all well and good, I don't really see it as my job to do the marketing and PR work for the magazine I'm selling my stories to. That's part of the job that comes along with running a professional publication. My job, as a writer, isn't to go out and kiss babies and make promises and smile pretty for the camera, it's to write content and get it out there for the public to read.

I'm not saying it's not important to do book-signings. That's part of marketing the book. But it's always the publisher who schedules those book signings (unless you happen to be self-published) and sets it all up, and the writer shows up because he's naturally inclined to help get more copies of his book sold because his cut of the royalties is based upon it.

In the case of a magazine, where you are only paid a one time fee, I see absolutely no reason why I should be responsible for the marketing and PR of the publication. If it were a book, that would be different. Sure, you could argue that the more people who read your work helps you get your name out there more, but I'm of the opinion that getting my stories out to a wide variety of publishers showcases my work more than just one particular 'zine, and broadens my reader-base.

Then again, I'm also not going to be doing the initial selling of my novel. I'm a freelance writer by trade, so I am well familiar with the ins and outs of publishing, and I am absolutely using an agent when the time comes. I don't plan on doing any of the business side of things. Much like in my previous occupation I had an accountant on staff to handle all the payroll and business side of my company, I have no plans to get involved in the business side of writing. My job is to write. It's my agent's job to promote and market my work.

I get the distinct impression you're more well-established in the writing world than I am.

Also, I am under the impression publishers don't do much at all to promote the work of authors (with the exception of biggies like Stephen King), so if one wants to be a successful writer, one might have to wear many hats, regardless of how it *should* be.

It depends entirely upon your agent and the deal he managed to score you with your publisher.

Yes, I am established in the industry. Not necessarily fiction, but I am a freelance writer and investigative journalist by trade. Fiction is something I am slowly breaking into, but I spent 6 years researching the business side of professional writing before I actually made the plunge, and I ran a successful construction company before this in Colorado, so I've been through the business side of things before. That's not to say I'm the be-all-end-all when it comes to advice/information. Just because I'm making a healthy living at this doesn't mean I'm flawless, or the "last word" on anything. Just that I have practical experience and a lot of knowledge that can be applied.

It's in the best interests of the publisher to promote the books they publish. They make money per book ordered/sold.

However...First-time authors generally get a first run print of 6k copies if you get your manuscript approved without an agent. Publishers are highly unlikely to spend a lot of time and money marketing a first-time, un-solicited author. If you want your book to sell, you are going to have to be doing the promotion yourself. Which can work, but why bother with the hassle? They'll publish it for you, but really they aren't risking anything giving you a 2-3k advance on 6k copies. It's a situation of "publish many, make money off a few, and see how the remnants do".

Get an agent. Agents sell your book. They get paid to do so. After all, an agent gets a percentage of what you get, so they are naturally inclined to make your book sound as if it's the best thing ever written since <insert name of last bestseller here>. Don't just settle for a no-name agent. Start at the top and work your way down. There's a reason why some authors only have to write 1 book a year vs. others who have to write 4-5 books a year, just to make the same amount of money. It's not always about the quality of the work. Very frequently (personally I'd say more often than not) the reason certain writers do so well financially is they scored a good agent. One who is not only respected within the upper echelons of publishing, but one who will demand that you get a first-run of 25k copies, a promotional stand at Barnes and Noble (etc), an ad on Amazon (or etc), and reviews from several other established, respected authors in the field.

They do this so they can make their own mortgage. A good agent won't be satisfied with you only getting a 3k advance on 6k copies. He'll be shooting to get you a 10k+ advance on 25k copies, because that's how he makes his money. In addition, a good agent is your PR guy. If you find a good agent he's going to be just as passionate about your book as you are...because he's getting paid to be so. He will help you get your book marketed to the right publisher, and he'll convince them to give you a book-stand at the bookstores, ads on Amazon, and enough promotion to sell those 25k copies and maybe even get a second run published.

It takes 3-5 years to break into the market as a full-time author, statistically. The first 3-4 years are spent getting 2-3 books out on the market and hopefully getting them to sell. Usually by the 3rd or 4th book, or 4th to 5th year, you will be selling enough copies to actually quit your other job to write full time. This is the average. Even the great successes, like Dan Brown, didn't get off to a good start. His first three novels barely sold 4k copies each. His fourth novel was going to be his last before he went back to teaching. Guess what his 4th novel was? Davinci Code. He went from being a no-name author with only 3-4 copies of each of his previous books sold to a novel that made over 250 million dollars in one year.

Fiction is a rough market to break into. That's why almost every writer you will ever read about always got his or her start while working a "real" job somewhere else for 4-5 years until they started selling reasonably well. It is not a get-rich-quick industry. But if you stick with it, you absolutely will eventually make it. Like Stephen King says, writers are not born...writers are taught. Anyone can learn to be a writer, they just have to spend the time getting better at it, just like any other skill out there.

Keep in mind that fiction writing, in general, is a rough market. Short stories DO NOT MAKE MONEY! The only way you can make reliable money writing short stories is if you are selling 4-5 of them per month to the SFWA-approved pro markets who pay close to 10 cents per word. Even then, you will only be making a few hundred dollars per short story, and you have to sell quite a few per month to make a livable wage. Even if you get paid 500 dollars per short story and you sell 4 a month...that's still only 2k a month, and that's not really a livable wage for most people. This is why, statistically, most writers spend the first few years working a "real" job while they work on writing as their passion.

Short stories are generally done for the "artsy" side of the craft, while novels are done for the paycheck. Want to make a ton of money? Write romance novels. Seriously. My grandmother knows four different ladies who write romance novels and publish through a no-name publisher and all of the make over 80k a year apiece. But they are also pushing out 4-5 novels a year. If you write one per year (high fantasy), you are likely going to make a healthy 30-40k by the time you are an established author. More if you can get on the best-seller list. Or you can go the David Gemmel/Angus Wells route and push out 4-5 genre fiction books per year and make a good 80k a year.

Personally, I'm going for the route of 1 book per year. I don't have the desire to pump out genre fiction. I think it's perfect for a certain type of reader, and some writers fit comfortably into that niche. I'm not one of them. Most of my work is website content (I'd say I do 60% content/re-writes, 30% original articles and journalism, and 10% is SEO work, which is boring as hell), and I plug away on my novel when I can, trying to do 2 chapters a month at minimum. I'll finish chapters 12 and 13 by the end of June and I'll cross the 100k words mark with chapter 14, so I'm basically 50% of the way towards my rough draft (25 chapters).

Other writers will pound out a rough draft in 6 weeks (or less). I'm not one of those. I prefer to take my time. I'm getting damn good paychecks doing freelance, and I'm not worried about "when" my novel is published. In the meantime my short stories are selling in a variety of markets. I still get rejections, but everyone does until they are an established name in the industry. But the point is...it's like the old British actors like Sir Laurence Olivier. They did movies (content generation) for cash, and theater (fiction) for the craft.

In any case, this got longer than I expected and I have a deadline to meet today so I'll have to leave you with this. In closing, I would simply say this: don't stress yourself out when it comes to promoting your short stories. The point of short stories is to hone your craft, establish a name for yourself, and rack up a series of sales so when you are ready to submit that manuscript to an agent you can present him/her with a list of serious credits so they will be willing to take the time to read your manuscript, rather than you being just a nobody off the streets. Short story writing (magazines and e-zines) are traditionally *not* a high-paying market, so you are basically wasting your time stressing about promoting a magazine. At the end of the day it's not your job. What your job is, is to remain focused, writing good, quality stories, and sending them out to as many publications as possible to start earning a name for yourself. The more places you get published, the wider your audience.

You are not as knowledgeable as you are trying to convince people that you are. 18 months as a journalist is considered to be a neo-pro. While many things are dependent upon the deal that the agent scores, very few first time authors get a contract that includes a large ad budget. They hold those back for established authors. It happens more often in mainstream and non-fiction than it does in genre work.





There are over 300,000 books published each year. For this reason very few books get a printing that is over 6k with or without an agent. Do your homework and figure out what kind of expense would be involved in publicizing that many books.



Very few publishers will consider an unsolicited manuscript at all these days. The majors no longer employ vast numbers of first readers the way that they did thirty years ago. Instead, they rely upon agents to act as the first reader and first gatekeeper. You got it right about first time authors, but the unsolicited part is totally irrelevant.





Again consider the number of books sold to publishing houses. An agent, top notch or not, cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. With rare exceptions, the bulk of the authors handled by agents are not in the 25k print run arena. That's upper midlist and people only get there by proving they can sell to the public. There is also a three strikes you are out policy with most publishers. If you can't prove yourself a valued commodity (and the market is fickle) within three books, you need to get a pseudonym because you will not sell another book.



Most agents would rather take a smaller print run, have it earn out, and then go to another printing than sell a book with a high print run that fails to earn out. Books that fail to earn out tarnish the reputation of both the agent and the author.




Agents do not do PR. That's a specialized area.



It can take a lot longer than three to five years. Less than 10% of those 300,000 books published each year earn enough for an author to quit his day job. It's a given that you can't make a living as an author unless you are very rare indeed. It used to be that the way authors made sustained money was through the back list. These days very few books are backlisted and are instead allowed to go out of print.



SFWA has the pro rate set at five cents per word, not ten. I've been an active member of SFWA for 30 years.



Your figures are bullshit. Unless you're Terry Goodkind or Greg Keyes, you cannot hope to make that kind of money even if you're established. The vast majority of genre books are mid-list titles. Mid-list titles do not make that kind of money. Go back and do your homework.



You are going to have to trim that down. The majors don't want books over 100k in length from first time writers and sometimes not even from established pros. I suggest that you get a subscription to the SFWA bulletin. It's their public publication.



You are not very familiar with the ways of the small press. Every writer worth his salt in the small press helps to promote the places that his material appears. It's part of the process in the small press.

The books can be bought bulk by stores and others by ordering direct from Ingrams. Distribution was part of my reason for going with LSI.

Another point I would like to make is that having an agent, no matter who that agent is, is that the mere fact you have one does not guarantee a sale. Publishing is a subjective crap shoot. If the dice roll right you get a sale, if not then you don't. There are many stories that can be found online about major agents being unable to sell certain titles.

LOL

It's wonderful to see such professionalism from the owner of the magazine

Thanks for making up my mind as to whether or not I wanted to waste my time writing a follow-up to my other story for Flashing Swords.

Edited to add*

I had to LOL when I was reading this post to my wife this morning. I can appreciate your years in the industry, but when I researched a bit further I found that the last time you had a professional publication was...well...decades ago. Your last few year's worth of publications have all been e-books. I say this not as a slight, but to point out that perhaps you should take a wider look at the publication industry rather than basing opinions off of your personal experiences in the industry. You may not be making 30-40k a year doing this, but there are plenty of no-name authors working in fiction who are. I'm one of those, although technically I'm not fully relying on fiction for my paycheck. This year is only my second year in publishing and if I chose to do so I would break the 50k mark. However, I'm a lazy sod and I choose to only work part-time and spend the rest of my time traveling across Europe with my wife, so I won't be doing that this year.

Now, while I may not have had a professional novel publication yet, I am not a newbie to this, nor do I need to "go do my homework", as you so succinctly put it. I have done the research, talked to authors, researched the industry, and I know exactly what it takes to make it commercially. I can appreciate that you might not have had commercial success, although you may have had critical success in your niche market regarding feminist fiction, but to suggest that my personal experiences are "false" just because you don't happen to aggree with them is naive at best, and grossly arrogant at the worst.

If you are keen on getting this publication off the ground you are going to have to take a step back and treat your authors with respect. No writer worth his salt is going to subject himself to the sort of scrutiny a tyrannical owner/editor will dish out. There's a difference between professional courtesy and "bow before me, worms!". You have not displayed any level of professional courtesy in your post, which makes me wonder if you are perhaps bitter over your lack of success.

Given that (the ones I know of anyway) your staff for Flashing Swords are on volunteer status, and not even receiving a paycheck for their work, I am doubly amazed that you can call this publication professional, and that you can are callous enough to suggest that the previous administration here published hack fiction. They at least could *pay* their writers and staff, they didn't lose e-mails, they were promoting the magazine, and things were rolling along at a good pace.

I never once suggested I was a professional at this. I have been very honest that I only have 18 months of experience at this. I'm still a newbie. But what I am not a newbie to is the business side of things. I understand that your own personal experiences may have left you feeling jaded and bitter, but to suggest that every other writer out there need subscribe to your personal experiences is simply short-sighted. Many people in the field are quite successful at this, and not all of them are big-name authors. I cannot speak for your own personal experiences, I can only speak for myself and the people I have chosen to associate myself with, and the research I have done. You can choose to mock my research and put me down because you disagree with me, but I find that rather ignorant since you are going to be relying on writers such as myself to get this magazine back off the ground.

The writers are what make your magazine. Without the writers you wouldn't have content. If you choose to alienate your writers, you are left with no one who is willing to submit. You already have several published authors who are questioning things on these forums, which from a business standpoint should have you taking a step back and asking yourself "what am I doing wrong?", rather than coming on the forums and displaying such open hostility and complete lack of professional courtesy.

I honestly wish you the best of luck in your venture, but I would suggest modifying your tone if you want to get this publication off the ground again. Such open hostility will not attract writers, or customers.

Still doesn't change the fact that the information you are giving out to young writers is inaccurate.

It still doesn't change the fact that I did more in my misbegotten youth than you have so far.

It still doesn't change the fact that I do fairly well for a crippled woman.

And it still doesn't change the fact that I have PAID employees and a European financial backer on the publication.

And it does not change the fact that you're a flaming prima dona.

*wonders who the flaming prima dona is*

My information isn't inaccurate. It's just different from your own. Opinions and all that, ya know?

You have *some* paid employees. I know of one in particular who is a volunteer

I like to put my money where my mouth is. In any case....

Best of luck in your publication!

Statements of fact, such as publishing numbers, are not matters of opinion.