Hugh Howey's empassioned argument for Amazon and self-publishing

In this Digital Book World interview by Daniel Berkowitz, successful self-published author Hugh Howey makes some fascinating points talking up the pros of self-publishing, like

"There’s a good route here for a livable wage if you can write entertaining stories and really pour energy into doing it right." 

and the cons of traditional publishing, like

"Publishers need to rebrand from the ground up. Get rid of ancient imprints that readers don’t care about. Stop paying seven- and eight-figure advances to people who are already millionaires, and instead pay more up-and-coming authors a livable wage."

Here's a highlight of their exchange:

Daniel: There’s some talk lately about Amazon being a monopoly or monopsony and the negative effects its share of the market has on the flourishing of literature. In your opinion, how worried should we be?

Hugh: I think the motives here are no secret, and they have historical precedent. When those who can’t compete on the open market realize this, they appeal to the public for sympathy and to the courts for protection. There are two very strident campaigns going on here, and both are ethically bankrupt.

Amazon has vastly increased the access to books. They have also vastly increased every author’s access to the market. They are lowering prices for consumers and increasing pay to producers. They are able to do this by operating very efficiently and by pouring all their earnings back into their business divisions.

What’s really Orwellian about these monopoly complaints isn’t just that Amazon is doing the opposite of what they’re being accused of; it’s that major publishers are the ones who have enjoyed a collaborative monopoly for many years and have used the lack of competition to calcify the reading experience, overcharge for their wares and underpay for work.

For a very long time, most aspiring writers had no hope of expressing themselves and having access to consumers. Amazon almost single handedly changed that. For an equally long time, many lower income and small-town readers have not had access to enough affordable books. Amazon almost single-handedly changed that.

Even better, Amazon is now hurting the big-box brick and mortar stores that decimated indie bookshops. Indie bookstores are making a comeback, and it’s largely because Amazon cleared out the wolves that were winnowing their kind. Those bookstores offer a shopping experience Amazon.com can’t emulate, so the two can exist in harmony. But there’s no doubting the positive effect Amazon has had on their numbers. Shoppers are showing they will support both.

So Amazon has been great for readers, writers and small bookstores. That leaves noncompetitive middlemen and the authors who were enriched by their system to complain. To be simultaneously pro-books and anti-Amazon requires some truly impressive mental gymnastics from anyone else.

It's a thought-provoking interview and well worth reading.

Illustrate and Write On, 
Lee

Do You Know About The Author Earnings Website? (With Info on Digital Book World and Launch Kids)

Put together by "Data Guy" and Hugh Howey, Author Earnings' purpose is "to gather and share information so that writers can make informed decisions. Their secondary mission is to call for change within the publishing community for better pay and fairer terms in all contracts. The website is by authors and for authors."

It's a fascinating resource, with graphs, charts and explanations "for our fellow geeks" and even translations "for the non-geeks." A recent favorite: "Our data-science awesomesauce now tastes even better." That was for the non-geeks, clearly!

The numbers and trends are revealing and thought-provoking. Like this February 2016 report with its chart showing "Market Share of Ebook $ Author Earnings by Publisher Type," from February 2014 through January 2016.

As they comment,

"In two short years, the market share of paid unit sales between indie and Big 5 ebooks has more than inverted. The Big 5 now account for less than a quarter of ebook purchases on Amazon, while indies are closing in on 45%."

I'm excited to hear Data Guy present at the upcoming #DBW16 - The 2016 Digital Book World Conference + Expo. As he says,

"Publishing independently is no longer a fallback choice for authors in today's market --- it may even be a far superior choice for most now," says Data Guy. "What was good career advice even a year ago might be poor advice today. Every author, however they choose to publish, should educate themselves about the new shape of the market and make career choices that are informed by up-to-date data on our industry."

The focus of #DBW16 is how to not just survive, but thrive, through publishing's digital transformation.  I'll be in New York for their Monday March 7th Launch Kids Children's Books and Digital Media Conference, and then the Tuesday and Wednesday of Digital Book World.

Lorraine Shanley, chair of the Launch Kids event, mentioned in this interview some highlights of Launch Kids that she's anticipating, including:

"...a brand new Nielsen survey of the children’s market, a conversation between bestselling author Jenny Han and Tumbler’s Rachel Fershleiser, and some great panels on brands, startups, and how schools and libraries can work together."

Lorraine also wrote about some of the changes the digital world has had on children's books in this article, Digital Book World's Launch Kids: Looking Forward and Back.

If you're there, say hello! (And if you still want to register, #DBW16 is offering a discount on registration: Use the code SCBWI5 to get 5 percent off.)

The #DBW16 Faculty are a who's who, and you can read my pre-conference interviews with with Christopher Kenneally, Peter Hildeck-Smith, Jane Friedman, Kristen McLean and Lorraine Shanley here and with Stephen Blake Mettee and Kevin Franco here. 

I'll be tweeting with the #DBW16 hashtag, and I look forward to sharing some highlights of what I learn on this blog (and on my own.)

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

In the News This Week

Fridays on the SCBWI blog, I share snippets of and links to some of the publishing/media-related news I've read during the last week that I found interesting, helpful, and/or fun. Click titles to get to the full articles.

Among this week's news: dictionary additions (unfriend and defriend among them), mind-altering vampire lit, industry job moves, a new imprint at Candlewick, the President's picture book, Roald Dahl Day, new-and-improved Twitter, Facebooking from your car, the release of Blio (which is pretty cool--I saw a preview at Digital Book World), an article against bashing multi-taking millenials, and more.

My BFF just told me “TTYL” is in the dictionary. LMAO. (OUPblog)
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for… New words, senses, and phrases have been added to the
New Oxford American Dictionary! Now, I’m not going to list every addition, but here’s a sampling I think you’ll all find interesting.

Good girls and vampires: 'Twilight' altering teen minds? (MSNBC.com)
It's a potentially sucky situation. The vampire craze in teen literature – exemplified by the "Twilight" book series – could be affecting the dynamic workings of the teenage brain in ways scientists don't yet understand. "We don't know exactly how literature affects the brain, but we know that it does," said Maria Nikolajeva, a Cambridge University professor of literature. "Some new findings have identified spots in the brain that respond to literature and art."

Slattery to Become Agent with Pippin (PW)
Joan Slattery will join Pippin Properties as literary agent and contracts manager, as of November 1. She has spent nearly 20 years at Random House, most recently as senior executive editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers. Among the authors Slattery has worked with are Jerry Spinelli, Philip Pullman, Cynthia Voigt, Adele Griffin, and Jane Smiley.

Lewis Joins Disney-Hyperion (PW)
Starting September 20, Kevin Lewis will join Disney-Hyperion Books as executive editor, where he will acquire and edit picture books, as well as middle-grade and young adult novels. He will report to Stephanie Owens Lurie, editorial director at Disney-Hyperion. Until May 2009 Lewis was editorial director at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; he was hired there in 1997 by Lurie, when she was S&S associate publisher.

Barack Obama to Release Children's Book (GalleyCat)
Weeks after the general election, President Barack Obama will publish his first children's book: Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters. With Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope, Obama already has two books under his belt. The 40-page children's book will be released on November 16th. Random House's Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers will initially print 500,000 copies.

Candlewick Partners with Toon Books (PW)
On October 1, Candlewick Press will launch a Toon Books imprint, a partnership with the already existing Toon Books, a press founded by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly in spring 2008 with the mission of getting kids to read using comics. The inaugural Toon Books list at Candlewick features 11 hardcovers, all of them Toon backlist titles, including 2010 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! by Geoffrey Hayes; two Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Books: Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith and Stinky by Eleanor Davis; and eight other titles.

In Honor Of Roald Dahl Day, A Lesson On Author Immortality (Ypulse)
We're a little late on this one, but it was too good to pass up: Apparently, Roald Dahl Day takes place every year on the scribe's birthday, Sept. 13. And while we in the States might not celebrate the day as heartily as they do in the UK--just check that 'What's On' section of the official website or visit the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre for a sense of the fervor the late author still generates on his native side of the pond--it’s safe to say he’s among the most beloved children's authors of the last century.

Twitter Site Revamped and Simplified (NY Times)
Twitter unveiled a new Web site on Tuesday that it hopes will be user friendly, Claire Cain Miller and Miguel Helft report in The New York Times. The redesigned site, which will be available to all users in the next few weeks, makes it simpler to see information about the authors of Twitter posts, conversations among Twitter users, and the photos and videos that posts link to.

Why Bashing Millennials Is Wrong (FastCompany)
Lazy. Entitled. Fickle. Freighted with their own inscrutable agendas. These are the kinds of things people say about cats--and millennials. For today's managers, the generation born after 1980 is a favorite punching bag.

Just What We Really Need: More Distracted Drivers--OnStar Facebook App Announced (MobileContentToday)
Note to PR types: If you write a scary looking email subject line like this, I may force myself to read it: Update Facebook While Driving" Yes, OnStar is introducing what may potentionally be a new source of distracted driving. Here's the rest of the press release:

Brooklyn Book Festival Panelists Agree The Book Is Evolving, Not Dying (eBookNewser)
While the Brooklyn Book Festival was much more about print than about eBooks, in a session called “The Transformation of the Book” poets and artists discussed the evolution of the book. Poet/critic John Yau spoke about using a wiki to edit a recent book. “The idea of the book is more fluid, as it becomes a part of a mass media communication,” he said. “The book is more of a communicative gesture these days.”

Blio e-Reading Software Set For Release September 28 (PW)
It looks like the release of Blio, the much anticipated e-book reading software developed by technologist Ray Kurzweil, is getting close. In partnership with Baker & Tayor, Kurzweil’s firm KNFB Reading Technology says the free e-book reading software will be available for download beginning September 28 for Windows-based devices, with iOS (Apple devices) and Android to follow at a later date. Also on Sept. 28, the partnership will launch a Blio-branded e-book store offering a million for-pay and free titles, including the latest bestsellers.