Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Mike Cane writes about writer Declan Burke giving up writing, hopefully not for long. Declan Burke writes -

I decided over the weekend, after interviewing James Ellroy, that it is actually immoral of me to steal time to write fiction when I could be writing freelance material that will actually earn real money. And that’s not even factoring in the time I steal away from my family on the ‘writing’, a catch-all word which includes, these days, reading and blogging too.

I’d love to finish up with some kind of gloriously noble declaration about how writing isn’t just a business, it’s a vocation, a passion, an obsession, and come hell or high water, I’ll write the next novel and let the chips fall where they may, etc …  

But I can’t. Not only would such a decision be immoral, it would be foolhardy verging on insanity

Sarah Weinman writes about it and hopes he returns to writing.

Truth is there are no easy options for writers any more – finding a publisher is nothing compared to the level of effort that’s going to be needed now.

There are four paths to choose from -

1. Quit Writing - See Reality As It Is i.e. in the future of books we’re headed to writers are going to struggle much, much more than they currently do.
2. 50-50 i.e. split your working time equally between a paying job and writing.
3. Control your destiny i.e. build out your own revenue stream and channel. 
4. Build a sustaining Revenue Stream – Use writing about something with commercial potential to create a revenue stream and then free up time to write.

Note: Finding a Publisher is still a top option. This post assumes that option will be gone soon – while Publishers are around do try to get a Publishing deal.  

Will start with the most dismal one i.e.

See Reality As It Is and Quit Writing.

Publishers and Literary Agents at least love writing and books. Plus they were very, very vested in the success of authors.

We’re moving in a direction where competition and uber-powerful gatekeepers will suck out all the profits and leave writers with next to nothing -

1. Value perception of books is falling.
2. The gatekeepers are getting all the branding and control.
3. Competition amongst authors is increasing.
4. Readers are overwhelmed and quality control is poor.

Consider the potential gatekeepers.

Amazon and Barnes and Noble still have a huge stake in books so they might care. Apple and Google and Sony would hardly be affected.

The gatekeepers of publishing could be companies that neither need books to remain profitable nor the quality to stay high nor would they be vested in authors’ success.

Fundamentally, we’re transitioning to a model where authors will be completely marginalized and have little brand power. The new system wants all the power and profits to stay in the channel and authors don’t really matter. Just the way newspapers are being told they should be glad for the traffic, authors will be told they should be glad for the readers.

See Reality As It Is (as Jack Welch would say) and find another career.

The second best option in my opinion (really wish it wasn’t).

Next, is probably the riskiest option (though it seems the safest).

50-50 – Equal amounts Work and Writing

This is the standard option if you don’t have overwhelming responsibilities -

1. Devote half your working time to ensuring you don’t starve to death.
2. Devote the rest of your work time to writing.

What makes it harder than before is that there may no longer be a big book advance or royalties waiting if you hit the big time.

The big time will be rather different -

1. It’ll be 30% or perhaps even 50% of $1 or $2 ebooks.
2. The gatekeepers will make sure no author becomes too big of a brand – Divide and Conquer.
3. It’ll take a lot of marketing budget to hit the big time. However, there will be no big pay-off so no Publishers paying for marketing.
4. Your work will not be valued as much as books currently are.
5. Random factors become very important i.e. a great marketing strategy or a gimmick replaces the place of quality control by literary agents and publishers.

This is the best path for people who want to work just for the love of writing. It’ll be painful to see other companies profit and grow rich off of your work while you earn barely enough to make ends meet. However, you can have the carrot of ‘people reading your work and recognizing you’.

It also makes it difficult to support a family and write at the same time. If Malcolm Gladwell is right (in Outliers) about the 10 years and 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master your craft, we would have -

1. Great (and good) Authors hitting the big time at older and older ages.
2. After finding success, authors still not having 100% of their time to devote to writing.
3. Less masterpieces as less time is spent on writing overall.
4. Lots of great authors would be passing on kids to be able to succeed as writers. Perhaps having kids at 35-40 instead of 25.

This is unfortunately the easiest path i.e. the path of least resistance. Most people who are committed to writing will be forced to choose this. The struggle is the same as now, except there will no longer be a big payday or royalties.  

After that, we have an interesting option – go solo.

Build your own channel and Control Your Destiny

Coming back to another lesson from Jack Welch – Control your destiny or someone else will.

The Internet is a double-edged sword -

1. It lets people with bad intentions steal ebooks for free or try to steal the profit of ebooks.
2. It also lets writers find people of good intent.  

Authors need to keep that in mind as they build their channel – your only customers are people of good intent.

You can build a channel that can sustain you if you focus on people of good intent.

Your Own Channel, Not Someone Else’s

If you don’t own the whole channel you can be turned into bonded labor working to make the channel owner rich.

Yes, it’s difficult. You don’t understand technology, you don’t have the time, you don’t understand how things work.

There’s an easy answer – it’s all much simpler than you think, and it’s necessary to own your channel completely if you want to make a decent (perhaps even good) earning off of it.

For the same reason that Publishers and Newspapers need to build their own Hulu, authors need to build their own channel. If either of the three don’t, the channel owner will bleed them to death.

How can an Author build their own channel?

1. Above all else, build it on your own website.  
2. Second, have a blog and blog every single day.  
3. Band together with the best writers in your genre.
4. Do not be dependent on one source of traffic/readers or on one store for selling books.
5. Take responsibility for beginning to end i.e. a reader searching for mystery novels to finding you to buying your ebook. All of it is your responsibility.
6. Ask your readers for help – to spread the word, to buy ebooks, to buy merchandise.

Your channel is a path to your readers – if you keep it pure and free of companies trying to take a share off of your rightful earnings, you will be greatly rewarded for it.

How long will it take?

At least 2 years.

You have to budget to survive at least 3-4 years or have a 20-30 hours a week job you can keep doing until your channel becomes strong enough.

What sub-channels should your channel include?

As many sub-channels as you can work in for free and little time investment i.e.

1. Twitter.
2. Kindle Store.
3. Blog (most crucial).
4. Facebook.
5. Book Networks.
6. Book Forums.
7. Apple App Store. Only if you can get your book converted for $500 or less.

70% plus of your time should be on websites and blogs you own. Don’t spend 50% of your time ‘twittering’ so that Evan Williams can sell his site for $3 billion. You aren’t going to get any of it.

Thoughts on Building Your Own Channel

This is the toughest strategy by far. It’s really hard – on the plus side, it’s pretty much guaranteed to set you up for life.

There will be perhaps 10 to a few dozen authors in each genre that pull this off over the next 2-3 years. They will be the new stars. Why not join them?  

Finally, we have the delayed gratification plan.

Build a Revenue Stream and then Switch to Writing

Consider what AOL is doing – Low Cost Content Machine.

Now twist it into a site/blog that -

1. Is Focused on one particular niche.  
2. Has high quality, very hard to produce content instead of cheap content.

Find a niche at the intersection of your aptitudes/passions and create one of the top 2 best websites in the world for it - 

• That means expert insights and in-depth discussions and analysis. 
• It means blogging and/or updating every single day.
• It means a lot of passion.
• It means exactly what Gary Vaynerchuk is doing with wine.

Content is still King. Your writing has very, very high value. Pick whatever you like and create a blog on it and monetize it.

It’s going to be way beyond your comfort zone – however, dig around a bit and you’ll see its worth it.

The Big Sacrifice of Delaying Writing isn’t a sacrifice

There are a few things to consider if you’d rather starve writing than build a revenue stream to support your writing -

• Whatever niche you pick (and become a heavy-weight in) is going to give you financial freedom.
• It’ll also give you an audience, a platform and lots of other benefits when you’re promoting your book.
• You’ll be helping a ton of people and you do it through your writing.
• Pick an area that’s an intersection of your aptitudes and passions and it’ll be fun. More fun than doing a dead-end job.
• You own your niche site – all of it. Total artistic control.

Read Gary V’s Crush It

There are a few good sources to understand this and Gary V’s vook (or book) is a good starting point.

There are lots of other good examples -

1. The blogger who sold Bankaholic for $15 million. 
2. Numerous smaller blogs that have gotten acquired (some in the millions range).
3. Lots of blogs that make over six figures annually.

Leave a comment if you want examples of a niche you’re interested in and will find you examples and tips.

It’s a pretty good option – once you’re established you can get by on 20-25 hrs work a week and the rest is free for your writing.

How long does it take?

2 to 3 years if you’re lucky. 3 to 4 years if you’re unlucky.

If you pick a niche that suits your talents and you like you might find that blogging for 100 thousand people a month is as satisfying as writing a book that sells 100,000 copies.

Which of the 4 options are best for you?

That’s a tough one. Hopefully you don’t quit and you don’t choose the 50-50 option as it doesn’t guarantee anything.

The other two options are both great. Writers can make money – they just have to think of themselves as Writers + Publishers + Marketers + Storekeepers.

Filed under: publishing Tagged: | author tips, future of books