Writing to the back-list

A back-list is all your older books that are still selling. When I started publishing in 1988 it was a rule of thumb for most publishers to rely on their backlist to contribute at least seventy percent to the companies gross revenue. The back-list gave stability because you could count on it to produce predictable sales. These books were usually non-fiction in genres like guidebooks, cookbooks, biographies, histories and the like. Back-list books required only minor modifications between reprints and since all the preproduction costs of acquisition, editing and design were already expensed these books could be surprisingly profitable. A strong back-list is worth its weight in gold.

It’s easy for writers to concentrate on front-list fiction. It’s exciting to promote your latest work and hopefully see strong sales. I have met writers who have the belief that since ebooks and POD books are never out of print they always remain front-list. However, this assumption doesn't work and leads to disappointment. Most books sell best in their first year and afterwards their sales tend to drop-off, usually dramatically. This process leads to spikes in author revenues and feelings of desperation and stress.

For this reason I believe it's important for authors to build a "traditional" backlist. For instance, if you write fiction you may want to consider also writing some targeted non-fiction for your back-list. This sort of non-fiction can greatly stabilize a writers income and focus a career. Plus, writing in a different genre can strengthen your writing skills and many find it’s sometimes easier to write non-fiction as well. Writers need to be entrepreneurial enough to carefully consider each writing project to maximize their back-list potential. Writing is much more enjoyable when you have a predictably selling stable of books behind you. It allows you to relax a little and explore things with less worry and uncertainty.

My Local Bookstore

Last Wednesday I delivered the first order of “An Island Between Two Shores” to my local independent bookstore. It has been available on Amazon as an eBook for six months and several thousand copies have been downloaded. However, I’m old school enough to feel that until a book is available in print at my local bookstore it doesn’t feel like it has really been published.

Those dozen books sat in a box in the backseat of my car. My two dogs smelled them and were alert when we drove up the alley behind the bookstore and pressed the buzzer at the freight door. The invoice was for barely a $100 and I was more excited than if I was delivering a $5,000 order. I worked for enough years in publishing to know that you lose money delivering small orders. We used to wait until there were enough small local orders to justify a “milk run.” But in the new publishing world we handle small print runs and deliver even tinier orders.

I then went home and ordered another 100 copies from my Print on Demand supplier. With freight it costs under $4 for each book and takes about two weeks to receive them. Ten years ago it was common for me to order 7,000-10,000 books for an average print run and we usually had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory at any one time. The printing, warehousing and managing this inventory was deceptively high and the risks were enormous.

I appreciate the lack of stress there is in the modern publishing workflow. If you make a production error or editing mistake you fix it in the next hundred copy printing. If you want to market your book you chat on Twitter, Facebook or promote the book on a host of book sites. These efforts can get astonishingly high levels of discussion and increase a books discoverability enormously.

Modern publishing offers independent writers and small publishers great opportunities. However, if you’re not entrepreneurial or web savvy you have a distinct disadvantage. These days there is a suite of skills required to succeed and producing a well crafted book is simply not enough.

My Writing Process...

Sometimes I get asked to describe my writing “process.” I’m not sure if what I do qualifies as a process but I will try to describe some of my thoughts about writing fiction.

First, I’m a big believer in writing shitty first drafts. My first drafts are horrible. Unimaginably bad. But they serve a purpose. Their job is to take the clutter in my mind and put it on paper. Once you have a first draft the real work begins as most of the surprises and creativity are already exposed. For me, rewriting is more laborious and less attractive than writing a first draft. I’m not saying that I find writing a first draft easy. It’s just that mixed in with all that crushing work are moments of flow. Transcendental moments when and hour passes in the blink of an eye. 

I often work on a book idea for more than a year; slowly researching and developing the plot and characters. Sometime I place myself in similar setting to what I am trying to describe in my novel. For instance, my first novel describes a protagonist who must survive on a small northern island. In this case I spent the better part of a day building a shelter under a log on an island on the Yukon River in the winter. It gave my writing insight and allowed the prose to be developed much easier and with greater authenticity. 

I like to write from a detailed outline that I discuss with my editor before I start writing. She always gives me frank suggestions about where I should develop the story to make its arc stronger and characters more believable. I find that this process helps me write more focused books and prevents me from spending time describing things that will be cut later. I find writing difficult and I try to prevent writing anything that will not make it to the final draft.

When I’m working on a first draft I try to write for at least a few hours each morning. I take long walks in the afternoon and try to settle my mind by not reading or talking too much. Having long walks allows me time to reflect on the manuscript and relax. I pamper myself with good meals and feel it’s important to embrace the moment as one of life’s true pleasures. After all I have the opportunity to write a book and I like to savour that privilege.

I usually can write a first draft of a novel in a very immersive month or so and find it energizing to get many pages written each day. Writing in the mornings is important because when you sleep you tend to work through your story. Many times I have awoken to find an idea that I’ve been struggling with has a solution I hadn’t previously considered. An added benefit is that you have wonderful afternoons when you’ve written a lot in the morning. Plus, you have the option of writing for another shorter session later in the day. 

When I’m writing I never reread what I have written until I am absolutely finished the entire draft. I don’t want to slow down the writing process and slip into a critical frame of mind. And if I come to a spot that I can’t finish because it requires more research I simply leave a hole with some notes indicating where I feel the prose should be headed. Before I begin the second draft I fill all these holes. 

I usually use the second and third drafts to develop characters as I find my first drafts tend to be more action oriented. Second drafts are terrific for making certain the story flows and the characters are becoming three dimensional. But to be honest I am often still working on these qualities until the final draft. My first novel required seven end-to-end rewrites and I can say with certainty that each subsequent draft improved although the last few required less of an over-haul. I usually have a structural review by an editor after at least a few rewrites. At this point we don’t touch the spelling or grammar and are more interested in ensuring the story is developing believably. The last couple of rewrites are focused on syntax, grammar and copy editing. But every book is different and require different levels of rewriting and editing.

I don’t find writing easy and many times it’s maddening. However, it’s always meaningful and rich and I feel lucky to be able to call myself a writer.  

Getting Well

I was saddened when my doctor left his practice several years ago. He was a terrific doctor and I had been going to him for many years. But I was healthy and I rarely went to a doctor anyways.

A year or so later I noticed that I was feeling exhausted and my wife felt I seemed depressed. I spoke with our marriage counsellor and she suggested I see a doctor to determine if there was anything medically wrong with me.  A new practice was being set-up and I made an appointment with a doctor that had recently come to town. He was Iranian and told me that he took his job very seriously and planned to live in my town for a long time. He sent me to the lab for a comprehensive set of tests and two weeks later we reviewed the results. The lab had found I had low Thyroid functioning but the doctor told me that I wasn’t Hypothyroid because my glucose levels were fine. There is often a connection between thyroid functioning and glucose levels and he reassured me we should ignore the findings. This opinion was unfortunate and had huge implications beyond what I could imagine.

The doctor thought I seemed lethargic and said he wanted to closely monitor my condition. He kept doing tests and over the next year I seemed to visit his office at least twice a month. However, I continued to feel tired, depressed, gained weight and was cold sensitive - all classic symptoms of Hypothyroidism. At one point the doctor told me that my problems were psychological and were likely due to problems in my marriage. He even asked me to bring my wife to the next appointment because he wanted to do marriage counseling - I told him we already were going to a marriage counsellor who was a licensed psychologist. Nothing seemed to improve and my lack of energy and depression gradually worsened. My body felt out of control and prevented me from doing things I had always loved like hiking and skiing. I started carrying candies when I went for walks because I found I quickly lost energy and felt light headed. Finally I came to the conclusion that it must be what it feels like to get older and was something I needed to accept. I went to the doctor less frequently and tried to get a long as best as I could.

During this time my marriage of more than twenty years started to unravel and in many ways my condition was the straw that broke its back. We had our problems but things seemed to intensify and worsen. Eventually I felt so horrible I decided to leave and while the divorce was nasty it was resolved relatively quickly. I moved into a small rental and adjusted to being a divorced dad. I started to blame my lack of energy and depression on the divorce and hoped I would soon start to feel better over time. 

Eventually the Iranian Doctor quit his practice and moved out of the country. He told me he was moving because the winters were too cold and long and he had received a good offer elsewhere. A few weeks after he left I started hearing rumors that he wasn’t qualified to practice medicine in Canada.

Several months later I found another doctor and made sure she was credentialed. I Googled her and was pleased to see she had received academic awards while at medical school and had a lot of positive comments from former patients. Within a few visits she called me to review my test results. She told me was that I was pre-diabetic and suggested I consider taking Diabetes medication. Then she told my that my TSH levels were too low and I was Hypothyroid. I was stunned and didn’t know how to respond. We decided to treat the Hypothyroidism and hopefully in time my glucose levels would improve. I started taking Synthroid and almost immediately began feeling better. Finally I had energy and felt much more optimistic and happy. 

Soon afterwards I went to a writing retreat in southern Spain for a couple of months. The sun and warmth invigorated me and I was hiking many miles each day on goat trails through the Andalusian mountains. Within a few months my glucose levels improved and I felt better than I had in years. It was like a light had been turned on. I no longer felt cold, lethargic and depressed and I was slowly losing weight too. Fortunately I hadn’t developed other problems such as diabetes and I was recovering.

Every day I wake feeling great. Then I become angry at the years I endured untreated Hypothyroidism and all the opportunities that were lost. My kids are now in their late teens and have memories of me was as lethargic and depressed for several years. I sometimes wonder if the Iranian doctor deliberately kept me sick so he could bill thousands of dollars worth of visits? But I prefer to think he was just incompetent and/or unqualified and hurt me unintentionally. 

Jacqueline Howett and Me

This week I followed Jacqueline Howett’s exchange with the book blog Big Al’s Books And Pals (Click here to read the exchange). Ms Howett sent her debut novel The Greek Seaman for review. When the review was posted she felt it was unfair. As a result she sent several ugly replies to the reviewer. Her notes were littered with spelling and grammatical errors that further discredited her argument.

Much of the criticism of Ms Howett’s novel seems to pertain to poor editing. The review noted that the story was “compelling and interesting” although it has “numerous proofing, typo, and grammar issues.” This is a common flaw with many Indie books. Recently Amanda Hocking, the current queen of Indie writers, made the decision to sign a four-book deal with St. Martin’s partially because she felt her books would be better edited by a traditional publisher. As she wrote on her blog “I have hired editors. Many, many editors…I’m clearly doing a really shitty job of picking editors…I don’t understand how there can still be errors.”

Recently I printed 25 POD review copies of my debut novel. Months before I had my novel professionally edited. I have worked with many editors as both a publisher and non-fiction writer and I felt confident that my book would be clean of grammatical errors. The problem is that as a writer it is surprisingly difficult to see these sorts of problems. I gave several copies of my book to knowledgeable friends and the rest I sent to reviewers. I waited patiently for a reply and then a friend pointed out that the book had many proofing errors. I then gave a copy of the book to another friend who is also an accomplished writer. She told me she loved the story but the book needed a complete rewrite. I was stunned but when she showed me some of the problems I had to agree. I decided to postpone the release date and work on a rewrite. Although I wish I could get back the twenty copies I sent to various magazines and newspapers I know I dodged a bullet. I was a week away from ordering thousands of copies of my book and I was saved much embarrassment.

Writers need to remember that it is the quality of the book that is of paramount importance. Books usually require several rewrites and edits to reach their potential. We need to work with the best editors we can find and be open to the prospect that our books may need additional work. Hopefully Ms Howett learned a valuable lesson this week.

The Re-birth of Book Publishing?

I have worked as a writer and book publisher for more than twenty years and I am about to release my first novel. Because of all the new publishing opportunities I have decided to release my novel in every format possible. I will print it traditionally for my regular sales channels. I will also release it as a Print on Demand book for markets that are too expensive to ship to. I will release it as an eBook for the Kindle, iPad and other eBook readers. We are also recording it as an audiobook for radio, podcast, MP3 download and as a CD product. I have an agreement with a film director and I am crossing my fingers that a small film will be made. Basically I’m throwing it into every sales channel and format and crossing my fingers. I don’t think any publisher has the luxury of thinking of a book as any single thing anymore. After all does anyone really know where the book industry will be in five years much less eighteen months?

Many book publishers fear the example of the encyclopedia business. Twenty years ago North American annual sales of encyclopedias were in excess of $650 million (dominated by door to door sales of the Encyclopedia Britannica.) When I was a kid, parents were compelled to buy ten feet of these books if they hoped their kids would even finish high school. Then computers started being sold with encyclopedias pre-installed, most notably Encarta (owned by Microsoft and a digital edition of Funk & Wagnall’s Encyclopedia) and within short order the encyclopedia business had contracted to $10 million. Then Wikipedia went online as a non-profit with an operating budget of less than $1.5 million. Sure, there is a difference between the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia but for good or bad the business evaporated.

People often say that books are going to follow the trajectory of the music business. Stores were abandoned for iTunes, piracy is rampant, and the price of a CD’s worth of music has dropped by half. Many musicians now record music themselves and market it online using social media and iTunes. They also treat the revenue from their recordings as incidental to the money they make through concerts and selling merchandise.

Most literary writers take three to five years to write a book. This includes several rewrites, and a year of editing and marketing by a publishing team. eBooks simplify some of these processes, most notably the post-production design, lay-out, and marketing. However, the more major efforts of pre-production such as rewriting and editing remain. Recently I have seen Indie writers post first or second drafts of their books on their blogs. The rationale is that readers will post comments and help direct the development of the book. Perhaps I’m not open minded enough, but this practice makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I come from the school of thought that all first drafts are embarrassing and require much attention and editing to become readable. I believe that professional editing is an important part of the creative writing process and is essential for all books to achieve their potential.

I follow Amanda Hockings and other Indie writers on their blogs and Twitterfeeds. I understand how they are able to attract the attention of book bloggers and build a huge community of loyal readers. Their success flies in the face of traditional publishers who have never understood how to build a community of readers or market directly to readers. For the Indie writer the seventy percent royalty is well deserved. Publishing a book traditionally or independently is a huge risk and nothing is going to change that. Amanda Hockings and her fellow Indie writers have my respect and I appreciate their courage and intelligence in their pursuit of a professional writing career.

I am comforted by the knowledge that because of iTunes and iPods people listen to much more music today than they did twenty years ago. We have access to a wider variety of types of music and a wider means of listening to it. We can subscribe to satellite radio, listen to web radio, pirate music, buy music etc. Unlike musicians, writers can’t treat their works as loss leaders as we don’t have concerts to promote. Few people would ever consider paying to attend a reading. Clearly books will have to evolve to preserve a prominent place in our culture. At their core, books are just ideas and these ideas can be expressed in a variety of forms. The flexibility of writing is one of its greatest assets and I do not feel doom and gloom. However, I think we have to all get busy producing books in many different formats and let the consumer choose how they want to explore our ideas. 

Money

Firstly, I should say that I have never been overly impressed with “money.” I have never coveted an expensive car or a mansion. I live in a nice house and I have a decent car – it’s just neither are particularly expensive. When I travel I stay in good hotels but I never stay in fancy hotels. I have always flown coach and have never even been offered an upgrade. I have made a good income and have managed to save and invest reasonably well because I’m not particularly materialistic. 

In 1986 I started writing professionally. I landed a weekly gig on CBC Radio as a writer/broadcaster and wrote feature articles for various small magazines. Because I earned very little money I had to work part-time at another job. I had a $2,0000 limit on my only credit card and lived a simple yet rewarding life. Every year I traveled for at least a few months and maintained this lifestyle for many years.

Eventually I established a small, regional publishing business and built a nice house on a lake outside town. I published regional books for more than twenty years and saw the industry experience massive change. When I started I could justify 10,000 copy print runs that would evaporate from my warehouse in a single season. We worked with distributors and retailers that were healthy and robust and paid their invoices early and always without reminders.

Click forward to 2011. More than half the stores we once had accounts with no longer sell books or are out of business. Our US distributor is bankrupt owing our company tens of thousands of dollars and Borders went bankrupt yesterday also leaving substantial unpaid invoices. At least a third of our present retail accounts no longer pay their bills on time and we fear they will be out of business in the next couple of years.

To adapt to these realities we “refined our supply chain” and found spectacular ways to reduce overhead. We incorporated a digital invoicing and inventory system and emptied our warehouse of overstocked books. Today we produce few new titles and only print small quantities. We also release eBooks and are planning on using Print on Demand for our backlist. Overall we are profitable and have relatively little debt. But don’t get me wrong our company is contracted and we have retreated into a fiscally responsible bunker. 

Recently I attended Digital Book World in NYC. It was a bipolar conference with all publishers feeling squeezed by the present realities of the industry while trying to seem optimistic about eBooks and all the uncertainty of the new publishing platforms and economic models. Repeatedly I heard publishers respond to free eBooks by saying “free is not a business model.” Writers like Seth Godin and Amanda Hocking cause publishers a cold sweat. But in this climate can you blame writers for bypassing publishers? 

Whatever the new economy brings I am happy that I don’t have Champagne tastes. It would likely only lead to disappointment. I am pleased that we scaled back our operations years ago because I also wouldn’t want to have a big warehouse in this economy. I look at the Big 6 publishing houses and I wonder how they will scale back their companies and adapt to the new realities. The big dinosaurs seem to die first.