One Thing Never to Blog About: Reviews

You know how things happen when you least expect them to but they leave you with a feeling like you just gotta say something? 

Yes? Well, here's my something. It will read like a rant, for which I must apologize. However, I assure you that I was probably drunk at the time so it's not really my fault. I should probably blame Facebook, where it is so easy to post things you regret the next morning. In the end, I intended no offense to anyone, anywhere. Honestly.

One of these days I'm going to remember to promote my novels again. Until such a time, look me up at Amazon. And if you can add to my review tally, I'll send you the book of your choice as a Kindle gift to read. 

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[Returning to that Facebook post the next day...]

Oh dear. Did I really post that? I thought I was drunk. 

But, yes, I had a fair number of reviews before the great Amazon purge, when they removed everyone's reviews, believing they were all fake. I only had two novels out at that time but lost about a dozen reviews.

Then I got lazy. For me, being lazy means locked in my own mental ward writing something new...which is always preferable to doing the promotion thing. Besides, I'm rather altruistic and introverted when it comes to promotion; hate to foist anything upon anyone. And there's no accounting for taste; sometimes a story is just not someone's cup of tea, no matter how well written it may be.

I've always written stories that interested me, following the axiom of write the kind of stories you want to read. I've been very good about following that idea. Whether others want to read them is, of course, another fair question. But, really, that is the lesser question because I have always, right from the start, written to entertain myself and gave little thought to what to do with them next. Maybe I'll be accused of coming to this conclusion after not selling massive amounts of books, like it's a kind of salve for the soul. Possibly; only a psychiatrist would know. Perhaps I came to this conclusion while deep in a meditative pose? Would that make it more or less valid?

At any rate, selling some and having the readers express enjoyment of them is the most basic measure of success to me. My only rule is that I will never make a book free--unless given as a gift to a specific person, of course. I believe "free" cheapens the product, and for what it's worth, I put in a lot of time and effort to produce a novel, as all writers do. It's worth at least the token 99 cents.

I must be drunk again to write a rant such as this. Never mind. I've got my latest novel, the vampire story, locked away for the two-week crap test. If it survives, I'll seek a gamma reader and go from there. Onward and upward. The day job awaits!

[And returning the following day...]

It occurred to me this morning as I was preparing to go to school for the summer class I'm teaching, that someone will remind me to consider the reader or some variation on that meme.

The quick and easy answer is I do consider the reader. I consider the reader during revision, editing, and proofreading. The first draft, however, belongs to me: I am trying to please myself and not really thinking of who else may one day read it. Only later do I take on the role of objective reader and try to shape the manuscript into something perhaps more palatable.

The longer and more complex answer is that there is a fine line between challenging the reader and, for lack of a better phrasing, making it easy for the reader. I see the dumbing down of education every day and I am swept along with that tide. One sign is the reluctance of young people to read anything which requires sustained attention and reflection. The Tweet is the perfect medium for these people.

So should an author make it easy for a reader? I'm sure if I tried I could boil down a novel into a paragraph, but it would necessarily lose a lot of deeper meaning, nuances, the beauty of the language, and heart and soul of the fictional people dealing with their crises.

I prefer to lean toward challenging. Not challenging in the way, say, James Joyce did with Finnegan's Wake. I want the text to be clear, certainly, and the meaning not obscured. But the story must flow with its own inner fire and sometimes that means the reader must meet the author half-way, at least.

In fact, what keeps a reader going? It's bizarre enough that someone willingly chooses to read about something he/she already knows is a lie. Fiction is a lie we accept for the sake of entertainment...and perhaps some kind of catharsis. So it's rather like a performance, a stage play: Here is the play which I have created. Sit back and enjoy it. If by the end, or somewhere in the middle, it is not to your liking, you are free to leave. It would not be the same medium if a reader could intervene in a novel.

Unlike the interactive video games available today, can we allow the reader to decide at any point in the story what a character should say or do, or how the plot should turn or twist, or who actually is killed in the end? No, it's already set, just like performing a play. You can have endless debates afterward, of course, but in the product itself (a play or a novel) the performance is already done and the reader must experience it as it unfolds according to the instructions of the author.

Yes, there's plenty of room for self-indulgence in the author's tasks, but most of us weed out those examples of purple prose and kill our darlings to a reasonable degree. (I wrote about this in a recent blog post.) But how are we as a society, as a civilization, as the keepers of literary culture supposed to go on without some maintenance of the standard, any standard, which assures our performance on the page is welcomed and ultimately appreciated?

New things always come and then, for better or worse, always go. Ebooks then self-publishing then whatever is next occupy our attention, but the imagination, the construction of texts never ends.

Sorry for all the literary criticism jabs. I was considering my readers when I decided to make short paragraphs and add blank lines between them to make the reading easier. 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

What would you pay for a good Ebook?

Many of us think nothing of spending $10 to $15 per ticket to enjoy a movie for a couple hours. 

How about spending that amount on a book which will likely entertain you for many more hours?

As a discussion topic among authors, the pricing of ebooks is near the top of the list.

How much to sell an ebook for? After all, it has no paper, no physical materials that need to be considered in the cost. It's just text - mere words on a screen. Words don't cost anything, after all. Unless you put them into a book made of paper, such as a dictionary - or a novel. So the actual cost to a reader is only whatever time and skills were needed to put all those many words into a certain arrangement to tell a story or present other kinds of information.

So what is that time and skill set worth?

Time is, of course, worth at least "minimum wage" - currently $7.25 per hour. How many hours does it take to write, say, a 300 page novel? First rough draft? A thorough going-over of a subsequent draft? A full edit? The skill set necessary to write a book may be innate, may be pure talent from God, or it may be the result of years of training, probably at the cost of classes, tuition, and craft books read. More likely a combination. How do you put a price on that?

Some people may argue that the quality of the writing should determine the price. Or the length of the book. Both are true. Who would pay more for a book full of editing and formatting problems? (But what if the story is still compelling despite its technical issues?) It makes sense that if a 200-page book sells for $1.99 then a 400-page book should sell for $3.99 - unless the second 200 pages is not very interesting, of course. Or is that latter portion of pages simply a risk the buyer must take?

How about a children's book then? The text may be rather rudimentary, nothing demanding a high level of education, no fancy $20 words. The writing may not be very sophisticated or require any research. It may, however, include graphics - which would bring an artist into the cost/price equation. However, even a true "chapter book" (and most adult books, as well) has certain elements which must be considered in pricing, such as:

The plot. Where does a story come from? How does a writer invent such things? How does a writer arrange the telling of the story to create suspense, conflict, humor, tension, resolution, denouement? It's all imagination, right? And imagination is like ...air: it's free to everyone. So why pay someone for his or her imagination? Thanks, author, but it's not like you really did any work, no heavy lifting; you just thought for a while.

Characterization. Every story is told not by an author but by an invented person. Such characters may be based on real people or totally made-up, or be a combination. Does the real person who originated a fictional character get any share of the price? If a character is based on a real person then it's not actually invented, hence, it should be free. Right?

Action and dialog. Fist fights and car chases, the stuff of excitement, of entertainment. We can see them for free on television anyway. And in the greater scheme of writing, dialog is also considered action, just as much as a fist fight or a car chase. If the author overhears two people talking, say, at a Starbucks one afternoon, and writes that conversation as part of the story, do those speakers get a well-deserved portion of the price? What if the author changes some of that original conversation?

Setting. Sometimes it's the first, sometimes the last thing we think of in a story. Surely some stories would not exist if they were placed in a different setting, a different time and place. If the author went to such a place and looked around to get a feel for the landscape, the mood of the city, to see the way the cliffs actually crumbled down into the sea that our fictional hero must dive into - is that part of the cost? Is it the same, cost-wise, as attending a professional conference to perhaps hear what other authors have to say about writing?

Editing. Finally, we have something a bit more tangible in regard to the pricing of an ebook. Someone is actually hired to read and fix whatever problems may exist in the text, whether large such as organization or continuity, or small such as correcting typos or a grammar glitch. It's nothing against the author when something needs to be corrected - unless the author is also acting as editor. However, when a second person is employed, there is a real cost to be factored into the pricing of the book, even an ebook.

Artwork. Children's books rely on art but so do adult books, even ebooks. They all have a cover and most have cover art. It seems the cover does provide value to the story itself. People do judge a book by its cover. Many a book has been purchased, I would guess, because of the attractive cover. Therefore, authors have always been advised to pay well for competent artists to create enticing images to attract readers. More costs to factor in!

In the final analysis, we can easily see that there are actual costs for the editor and the artist which must be accounted for in what the author spends on producing the book. The author is due something, as well. The publishing venue, such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, may also have criteria the author must follow when determining the price of an ebook. But how much? In the marketing business, selling a high volume of a product will usually cause its price to be reduced. Cost savings. Simple supply and demand, right? However, in the book business, well-known authors begin with high prices. Lesser known authors begin with lower prices. And some ebook sites will actually raise the price if there is more demand for a book, completely defeating the principles I learned in Economics 101.

Questions still abound.

How much do you think an ebook should cost? Does it matter what genre it is? How about the length? Does the first few pages (usually available for preview) determine the price for the whole book? Should the use of graphics in the book (number and quality of images) affect the price?

What if the author used an expensive marketing service? Would that warrant a higher price? Would you accept a higher price if you knew the author employed an editor, artist, and a marketing service? Does the cover art matter for ebooks? for the price of ebooks?

Would you pay more for a well-known author’s ebook? Should the price of an ebook correlate to the day of the week, the month, or the holiday season in which it is launched? What is the highest price you have paid for an ebook? What is the highest price you are willing to pay for an ebook, and what conditions would be necessary for you to pay that higher price?

Authors want to know. We want to provide the best value for your dollar but we also want to feed our children. (Sure, most authors have day jobs for feeding the children but the principle still applies.) There is a fair price in there somewhere. 

Please share your thoughts.

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 (C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

How much is your happiness worth?

Believe me, I understand. A blog post devoted to, shall we say, "advertising" is not the most attractive place to spend a few minutes while wasting some time at work or school. (Neither is writing such a blog.) However, it needed to be done. The book is out, available within some time zones and under the more favorable stars. I simply wish for my wonderful friends, followers, and [dare I say] fans to know of its existence. That's enough.

I love to write. [Let me start again:] I love to write what I choose to write. I don't mean professional documents (as I occasionally do now) nor academic essays and research papers (as I did not too long ago), or any other obligations of the literary sort. No, I mean fiction writing. The world of make-believe. I suppose that love comes from a long-standing disappointment with the status quo. Of course, it's not all utopia and unicorns in what I write, either, but at least the chaos, the misery, the betrayal and backstabbing are of my choosing.

And so I wile away my days (this past summer was a great pile of such days!--ooo, did I make a rhyme?) at the keyboard of life, type type typing the days into the molds I have created for them. And they (the days made of words which are symbols that represent the meanings of life) go on to form the walls and roofs and patios of Lego-like worlds in primary colors. That's how it is done. Waxing poetic on a Monday morning is winning, isn't it?

Long story short--if you've read this far--I love to write stories about people in odd situations and I love seeing how they get out of those situations. I'm the kind of writer who does not outline, does not plan ahead (not in any more detailed sense than a general story arc), and so as I write the story unfolds to me just as it will unfold to the reader. I like being surprised as much as readers are (I guess). Often I don't like what my characters have planned, what they try to do or get away with, and just as often they don't find my plans for them to be very appealing. Such is the conflicts between the real and the fictional.

Long story even shorter: I love to create these stories and more than anything else (anything but writing them) is my delight at readers experiencing these stories and enjoying them. That's my greatest thrill: to have a readers say (or post, comment, etc.) what they took from the story about, say, the human condition, or what he/she liked about these stories. I'll even take a "didn't like" comment with a half-grin. We can't get it all right all the time, eh?

So the bottom line is that I let people know when and where something is available so they may get as much enjoyment reading (indeed "experiencing"!) what I have created as I have gotten in creating it. I expect us both to be pleased.

And then there is the matter of money. Some people write to make money. I have not yet found a list of those people. Instead, I think most writers write for love of writing, as I do. But there is the need for food, printer ink, books for research, etc. that requires us to beg for some kind of compensation just to keep up the brain cells for the next round of creation. Starving artists do not actually create very good art; their minds are starved.

And as for paperback books, even set at the lowest possible price that, say, Amazon.com will allow, my take is only about one or two dollars per book, hardly a king's ransom. The ebooks for Kindle actually provide a slightly better percentage to the author. However, many readers prefer the touch, the feel, of woodchips in their hands. I do; call me old fashioned. Either way, it all begins with the quirky spark of gray matter inside an artist's brain, something which is truly priceless. How can one put a price sticker on an idea, even a fictional story about people who do not exist and therefore serve no purpose in life, contribute nothing to society, and ultimately are forgotten? Difficult to calculate. Even so....

I'd do it anyway (write), as I stated above, because I love to create new worlds and odd situations and see how it all plays out. If I share that entertainment with someone, isn't it fair I get something back in exchange? A "thank you" is a good start. An obsessive urge to possess the next creation of mine is also good. A meal ticket for the school cafeteria of your choice is often an acceptable donation. It's up to you. What is your happiness worth?

Mine is worth $1.29--give or take a few pennies.


And if you do not mind any little pluggettes, please allow me to mention some entertainments are available for you....

THE DREAM LAND Trilogy 

(Book I in paperback, or ebook; 

Book II as ebook , paperback coming soon; 

Book III coming soon as ebook then paperback)

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(C) Copyright 2010-2013 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.