Steve Jobs thrilled some people and infuriated others when he announced that Apple’s new eBook app will use the agency model for pricing.

Translation: publishers can set the price of their eBooks, and Apple will take a standard 35% discount, or commission.

Amazon was up in arms, because it believes eBooks should be a low-cost alternative to paper books.

Translation: keeping all Kindle prices under $9.95 would help push Amazon’s Kindle—which requires a unique format unusable on any other eBook reader—into the top spot in the eBook-reader market.

In Amazon’s business model, Amazon sets all eBook prices and pays publishers a commission—negotiable for larger publishers, non-negotiable for smaller and independent houses. Traditional publishers have been grousing about this policy for some time. When Amazon grudgingly agreed to accept agency-model pricing —with the stated emphasis on “grudgingly”—they managed to get into such a fracas with Macmillan that they killed the “Buy” buttons on most Macmillan titles. While this situation lasted hours, not months or weeks, it received damn-near minute-by-minute press thanks to the flurry of IMs, text messages, twitters, blog postings, and comments scurrying around the web.

Once consumers found out about the Apple/Amazon/Macmillion/agency model/Random House situation (a good 7.32 seconds after the industry found out) …

Translation: Random House took their sweet time making a deal with Apple and so were not included in the otherwise all-encompassing list of publishers who had signed up to play with Apple and thus caused a minor ripple about preferential treatment that didn’t even have a chance to spread very far before it was squashed with another announcement.

… more blogs and IMs and twitters and text messages and comments flooded the Ethernet as people expressed their outrage at the cost of eBooks to the reader and the unfairness of DRM.

Translation: Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the technology that lets eBook manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders, and booksellers control the electronic material the consumer buys. Examples of DRM that really push consumers’ buttons include the seller’s ability to yank paid-for material off an eBook reader and the inability to lend or sell eBooks by transferring them from one person’s reader to another.

Part 2

All of which logically leads to the question: just how much does it cost to produce an eBook, anyway?

I’m a ghostwriter, not an accountant, so we’re going to work with round numbers pulled out of the air in an extremely simplified example. Let’s start when a manuscript lands at the publisher’s door. We’ll stipulate that it’s a good book, that the agent called ahead, that the acquisition editor expects it to show up on (arbitrarily) her desk, and that a contract will ensue. We’ll include man-hours and cash outlays and keeping a running balance on the side.

Start the dollar countdown:

Getting the “Requested Material” physically from the mailroom or electronically from the editor’s inbox costs, let’s say, a single man-hour arbitrarily valued at $10 per. Cheap labor is good to find.

$10

The editor has to read the manuscript. Since much of the brouhaha is over fiction, we’ll make it a standard 350-page novel, and we’ll value the editor’s at, oh, $25/hour. Let’s say it takes her ten hours to read and fall in love with the manuscript. That’s pretty fast—I would take longer—but we’re working with round numbers and I have a limited number of fingers, even using both hands.

$260

We’ll dispose of the in-house decision-making meetings, discussions, push-and-shove, etc. in another ten man-hours—that includes all the people with whom the editor has to meet, some of whom make more than her and some of whom make less. Again, probably low, but I don’t want to have to take my shoes off. We’ll average them all out to earning $30/hour.

$560

Not too expensive so far. Now let’s negotiate the contract. No one is really disputing the cost of Jane Doe’s eBook—they’re disputing the cost of Stephen King’s new eBook, or Sue Grafton’s new eBook, or Elmore Leonard’s new eBook—but let’s make ours from an author whose reputation is rising but not yet star-level. We can probably get away with offering $60,000.

$60,560

Nice try, but the agent has other ideas. Another round of meetings, this time between the editor and maybe even the publisher with the marketing and legal departments. We can stick to another ten man-hours (low, low, low), but the average cost is now closer to $60/hour, and the final negotiated deal is $75,000. Agents are worthy of their hire.

$76,160

Huzzah! We own the book! Now things start pricey. The editor is going to spend at least 80-160 hours doing what editors do best (and most): editing. We’ll average it out to 100 man-hours at $25/hour. You’re right—that’s not much, but publishers expect the heavy editorial to be completed by the time they look at the manuscript. Chalk up another $2,500, minimum.

$78,660

Interior design really, really, low-ball: 40 hours @ $20/hour.

$79,460

Cover design: 80 hours @ $35/hour.

$82,260

ISBN, LCCN, CIP paperwork & follow-up: 5 man-hours @ $15/hour.

$82,335

Marketing. The industry rule of thumb is to spend the same amount marketing and advertising a title as it cost to buy the title—in this case, $75,000.

$157,335

We’d be fools to try to recoup over $150,000 on eBooks alone, especially since only about 6% of the population have readers and digital still only account for about 4% of total sales. Ergo, we have to print. If we print 25,000 copies—a gamble—our production cost should run approx. $.75/copy or $18,750

$176,085

We’ve got that $75,000 worth of advertising supporting our sales, so we need to get those books out to our distributors, wholesalers, and booksellers. The average distributor takes a 60% discount; wholesalers take 50. We’ve priced the title at $12.95, so we get $5.18 through our distributors and $6.47 from our wholesalers, for an average of $5.82 per book. If we sell out our initial 25,000 copies at an average return of $5.82/book, we recoup $145,500.

$30,585

We’re still in the red, but we’re getting close to breaking even—not making a profit to boost our budget for buying another book, just barely covering the costs of publishing this one. But hey—what about those eBooks? That cost is minimal at best: say, 10 hours of technical man-hours at, oh, $20/hour. That’s  $200, barely raising our nut.

$30,785

Let’s say the eBook sells for an average retail price of $9.95, Amazon’s comfort number, that we net 35% of that $9.95, or $6.47, and that 1,000 people—about 4%—buy it. Cool! We’ve made $6,470.

$24,315

We’re still over 10% in the red even without taking myriad other costs into account: bookkeeping, troubleshooting, production overruns, flat covers, and so on and so forth, and scooby-dooby-do. A lower advance won’t make any real difference because we’ll just go with a smaller print run and smaller marketing budget.

If we sell out that initial print run in a week or so, we’ll do another immediately. If we don’t run out for six weeks, we’ll calculate the potential against the cost—after all, we don’t have any more marketing/advertising dollars to spend. If we’ve still got books in the warehouse after six months, we’re not going back to the printer unless the author does something newsworthy to make demand shoot up. As far as eBooks are concerned, any additional sales will be trickles since we’ve already factored in the expected 4%.

Part 3

“But wait!” I hear you cry.

“I’m not going with a traditional publisher. I’m going with a nifty ePublisher whose web site promises to that all I have to do is pay $99 and we’re in business!”

Good for you! Since you have 10,000 Facebook friends and all the time in the world to promote your book because you don’t have a day job, the public will probably flock en masse to buy your eBook.

Approximately 5.8% of the reading public, that is, because that’s about how many people own an eBook reader. Let’s add another 1% percent who will read it on their computer. Oh, heck, let’s make your potential eBook audience an even 10%. The publisher has priced your title at a tempting $4.99 and you only have to recoup $99—hey, you didn’t waste your money paying for their phony extras. Figure you get 50% of that $4.99, or $2.495, so when 10% of your 10,000 Facebook friends buy your eBook—an inflated number, sure, but we’re going for the gold here—you’ll net $2,396, because you don’t count your own man-hours or value. Of course, unless all those people buy at the same time, your income will trickle in at a couple bucks per month, but hey—you’ve got an eBook!

Are these figures accurate?  Nope. I pulled them out of the air, remember? But the concept is solid. As authors, it’s easy to forget that books are business, and business is all about moving units.

Warning! Shameless Self-Promotion Ahead

If you had spent $25,000 to hire a professional to get your manuscript viable in the traditional-publishing world and had captured that $75,000 advance—or even a $40,000 advance—you’d have made at least $15,000, maybe $50,000, all at one time, with the potential to make a lot more since, after all, you have all the time in the world to promote your book. And having that money all at one time would have given you the funds to do a lot of specialty marketing and promotion, so yeah—more people would know about your book and want to buy it.

Just something to think about.

I did not write the 5th Edition of THIS BUSINESS OF BOOKS.

So I’m doing that one now. This January, 2010. Really. I mean it. Absolutely for reals. I may have to buy an interest in Mars Candy Company to recoup my investment in M&Ms to get through it, but I’m doing it. Right now. Seriously.

For six years now—six years?!  What’s the matter with you? Just write the damn thing!—I’ve promised myself to slam-dunk this revision in a matter of ten to fourteen days. A month at the outside. Six, eight weeks, tops. Definitely within a fiscal quarter.

And for six years—six years?!—I’ve found good reason to not even crack the thing open. I had clients’ work to do. I was backed up on my bookkeeping. It was still selling as is. I had other stuff to write. I didn’t want to self-publish again and I didn’t want to create a proposal. I’d gotten two negative reviews (out of about forty-five or fifty, the rest all positive —so sue me, I’m an author, just like you). Other books had taken its place. I didn’t know what I wanted to change.

I didn’t want to do all that work.

But this year—this glorious 2010 year, this tenth year since we stopped saying “nineteen” and started saying “two thousand” and now say “twenty,” this fantabulous year wherein my husband goes forth with his reinvigorated career, my daughter and her fiancée move to Boston, I sell SECRETS OF A GHOSTWRITER and even find a new agent for HIRED BODIES—this year I’m knuckling down and doing the 5th Edition.

In fact, I’ve already started. Mostly by pretty much catching up on everything else so I have no excuse left, but also by making notes in the margins of my desk copy. I’ve created a new file with a new file name that I can fold, spindle, and mutilate. I’ve collected articles and URLs with important albeit already outdated information. I’ve figured out exactly what I want to change and how I’m going to adjust the cover. I’ve determined the best BISAC Subject heading. I’ve even seriously thought about maybe starting a possible book proposal!

Whew! Is it time to take a break yet?

But no—I slog on. Neither rain nor sleet nor beckoning dirty toilets shall stay me from actually rewriting the obsolete stuff, editing the perennial stuff, updating the transient stuff, and throwing out the rest. The revision-needy text and its accompanying diagrams, tables, and sheaf of amendments sits right here before me, slightly right of my monitor, on the very top of the manuscript pile, obvious, relentless, demanding. I shall persevere. I shall overcome. I shall write the 5th edition.

But as Harry Truman would say: don’t quote me, that’s strictly off the record.

(To download PLOT Y OUR NOVEL IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS, just fill in your name and email address under SUBSCRIBE in the right column and hit submit.)

Got another free eBook coming soon: HOW GHOSTS GET THEIR GIGS. This will be a compilation of stories by actual, working ghostwriters. The eBook should be ready around the time the next Ghostwriter Certification Training (GCT) classes start in January, and will be free to all GCT students, past and present (and possibly available for a small fee to you aspiring ghosts…)

Why a HOW GHOSTS GET THEIR GIGS eBook? Because if you don’t take the training but still want to break in to the business, you’re going to need a helping hand. As one recent student said, ghostwriting isn’t  easy. But it is one of the fastest growing and most in-demand freelance-writer opportunities available.

Also–and take heed, shameless self-promotion ahead–check out the new Press page in the left column to see what people (only one is a student) are saying about ghostwriting and GCT. That’s it: shameless self-promotion officially over.

As with any conference, there was no way to absorb all the fantastic information being offered FOR FREE by the myriad presenters. But unlike costly in-person conferences, you could drop in on any workshop at any time to catch up with what was going on, post a question, or throw in your own two cents.

The MUSE Online Writers Conference is Lea Schizas’ brainchild, and she runs it almost single-handedly and, again, for FREE.

If you want to take advantage of one of the greatest Internet writer opportunities, sign up now for next year’s conference at http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/2010MuseConferenceRegistration/.
Trust me, you won’t regret it. This conference is FANTASTIC!!

1. Write an easily rejected manuscript. Don’t clutter up your nonfiction manuscript with a thesis or your novel with a theme. Ignore the differences between journaling and creative writing. Think of your audience as not only the general public, but teachers and your professional peers as well. Quote extensively from other books. Give all your characters the same background, agenda, and perspective. Never consider altering your plot. Get all your writing guidance from a critique group. Look for an editor who always goes by the book.

2. Don’t learn anything about the publishing industry. Send out hundreds of queries at a time by email. Don’t bother learning the nuances of book proposals or submission synopses. Send out your novel’s most compelling chapters, not the first ones. Expect agents to value your work even if they don’t handle your type of book. Resubmit your rewrite to agents who have already turned you down. Figure your publisher will tell you how to promote your book. Insist on keeping your title exactly as it is and dictate the cover design. Bank on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s local-author program and your title’s web site to sell a lot of copies. Assume your book will always be available whenever and wherever you do a promotion. Trust your friends’ opinions about everything.

3. Believe all the hype about subsidy press and “self-publishing services.” Know in your heart that agents and traditional publishers are biased, elitist or “just don’t know a good thing when they see it.” Expect your subsidy publisher’s catalog to get your book into brick-and-mortar stores. Plan on massive, continuing sales from Amazon. Ignore all that mumbo-jumbo about ISBN ownership and P-CIP requirements. Never question whether your book is up to industry editorial or design standards. Assume copy editing is the same as editorial accountability. Get all your marketing and distribution advice from publishing-service web sites and friends who have also used a subsidy press. Believe your ebook and web presence will entice a traditional publisher to pick up your title.

Don’t want to trash your literary aspirations? Read more than you write. Seek out legitimate writers groups. Find yourself a good teacher.  Read Larry Brook’s blog , Joanne Penn’s blog, this blog, and any other blog with solid writing or industry information. Plan to get your book edited by at least two or three different people, preferably professional book editors, not English teachers, out of work journalists, or former magazine editors. Recognize that you’ve entered a new industry that has its own rules, foibles, idiosyncrasies, personalities, jargon, and erratic ebb-and-flow, so learn first, question second–insist never.

And keep writing. Because the real way to trash your career is to give up at the first rejection, the first call for rewrite, the first deal gone sour, the first bad review. Writing is rewriting,  rejection is part of the game, and reviewers all have their own agendas, so keep revising, keep coming up with new ideas, keep pushing on.

Questions? Call 1-800-641-3936 or email claudiasuzane@gmail.com

I am a ghostwriter; it’s my job to keep reading. Imagine if I was a literary agent or acquisition editor — I would never have pushed through as far as I did. And in both cases, the fault lay in accuracy; both novelists assured me “this is what really happens.”

Bully. “What really happens” is the stuff of news reports and nonfiction. Not novels.

Novels are fiction; i.e., “made up” or “pretend” or “not real.” People who read novels are looking for a protagonist they can either pretend to be, enjoy reading about, or at least root for. Granted, despicable characters can be a lot of fun to write. Where would fiction be without rapists, murders, and thieves? They challenge the protagonist, create undeserved misfortunes, and provide dramatic tension. But regardless of how much depth and backstory you provide for them, they cannot be the main character.

We have to like the main character.

Got a really juicy bad guy? Great! Set him up to drive an equally enticing good guy nuts. Let that delicious queen of unrelenting evil needle and aggravate the flawed but lovable protagonist princess to distraction. Maybe you’ve got a kamikazi pilot bent on killing as many Americans and Brits as possible–no problem. But either he’s a guy torn between duty and morality or he’s got to go up against an Allied hero. And even if the  hero doesn’t survive, the kamikazi has to somehow lose.

Bottom line: fiction needs to be satisfying; real history seldom is.

So unless you can figure out a way to make them sympathetic or redeeming, don”t offer a rapist, murderer, drug dealer, pimp, hijacker, or (ugh) politician as your protagonist. Flip the story around and make them the villain.

Your readers will thank you.

Questions? Call 1-800-641-3936

Furthermore (the discussion goes on) the main character, aka “protagonist” in literary parlance, has to be sympathetic enough for the reader to want to read about them, even root for them. That protagonist then journeys through the plot, undergoes a character arc, and ends the story at least slightly changed, hopefully (but not necessarily) for the better.

Finally, the conversation concludes, the book opens and closes on the protagonist, not on a secondary character or subplot.

These concepts aren’t “rules” so much as they are accepted realities for communicating with a cold reader. When someone in a totally different state who has never heard your name before picks up a book you’ve written, you want to have a better-than-fair chance of capturing their attention and getting them to read your story.

If the fundamental “rules” of fiction are 1) it must be compelling and 2) it must be plausible within itself, then keeping the above simple guidelines in mind will help you achieve those two goals.

It’s simple. And complex. Like all writing.

Questions? Call 1-800-641-3936

But a critique group is not a substitute for an independent editor.

Critique groups are there to give us encouragement, to point out obvious flaws, to brainstorm ideas, to provide the underlying support necessary to live “the writer’s life.” A chapter-by-chapter critique from a handful of divergent voices cannot take the place of a focused analysis by a detached professional who knows what he or she is looking for–i.e., deal breakers–and how to correct them.

I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of authors who have assured me they only needed a copy edit because their critique group had already been over it (and loved it, of course), yet when I read the first three chapters I knew it needed serious revision to be considered viable. I wish I could say that many of them went on to fame and fortune without those revisions, but sadly, I cannot.

Substantive and line editors don’t edit a manuscript in individual chapters; they review the entire work first for over-all slinky flow, plausibility, cohesiveness, and continuity. First they correct deal-breaking content errors, THEN they go on to converting passive/static voice to active prose and excessive author narration to character action and dialogue. Only after all that has been fixed do they plunge into syntax, grammar, punctuation, and those other niceties that wrap up the package. Why worry about commas in a passage that needs to be rewritten?

Critique groups are invaluable; I highly recommend them and will never not attend one. But if you want what you’ve slaved over all these months and years to sell, remember: editors may not be priceless, but they’re usually worth far more than they cost.

Substantive Editing, also called content editing, addresses the manuscript’s structure and content problems. Nonfiction substantive editing may rearrange sections, chapters, paragraphs–even lines within paragraphs–to ensure the material reads in a logical, slinky flow of information without non-transitioned digressions, redundancies,  or gaps.

FACT: most nonfiction rejections are due to structure and content problems
that can be resolved with a substantive edit.

Fiction substantive edit uncovers plot, subplot, and characterization problems and provides an easily followed map to correct those issues. The knowledge gained from learning nonfiction substantive editing is extremely useful when editing fiction.

FACT: many novel rejections are due to plot and character implausibilities and contrivances
that can be resolved with a substantive edit.

Line Editing, the mid-stage edit, can make all the difference in the world in a otherwise well-crafted manuscript. Nonfiction line editing addresses not only passive voice (leaving it alone where appropriate, changing it where appropriate) but the even-more-important issue of static voice

FACT: deal-breaking pacing and reader comprehension issues
are resolved by line editing.

Fiction line editing converts excessive narration (“tell”) to action and dialogue (“show”) where appropriate and converts excessive action and dialogue (“show”) to narration (“tell”) where appropriate.

FACT: deal-breaking pacing (tell v show) and comprehension (show v tell)
are resolved by line editing.

Copy Editing, the stage most people think of when they hear the term “edit,” addresses spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, and so forth. Nonfiction copy editing also addresses academic and publication style guides.

Fiction copy editing requires an understanding of when to NOT apply standard nonfiction grammar and syntax rules.

FACT: poor or absent copy editing is seldom a deal-breaker for a
well-conceived, well-structured, and well-written manuscript.

The only places to learn the fast, easy techniques of substantive and line editing is in my BEFORE COPY EDITING online workshop or my GHOSTWRITER TRAINING class. Click the  link in the left column.

You’ll never look at writing and editing the same way again!