I Do Not Pay For Publishing Services!

Today was the last straw. Another future independent author has emailed me asking; "wut company do u pay to publish you?" Further into the email he asks; "how much does mobi charge to keep ur books so high?" [I didn't edit or change the language he used to ask the questions, those are direct quotes].

Here's the skinny on how much publishing online costs me. NOTHING.

My books are in the top 10 in the Science Fiction category on Mobipocket because the readers enjoy them, rate them, spread the word and people continue to purchase and enjoy them. I'm very fortunate.

I do not pay Amazon a fee to get my books registered with their Kindle reader or in print on their site. I use Createspace's free service for print and Mobipocket's distribution network to list my eBooks. I do order print copies for myself, but that's the same as anyone ordering a copy from Amazon (except for my massive discount), they don't charge a dime for publishing.

Lulu.com offers all their services for free, and they're very happy to have me.

Any place you see my books you can rest assured that they didn't charge me anything to put them there, in fact, they listed them because they see that they're selling elsewhere, mostly on Mobipocket. They want to bring that success to their retail outlets as well.

I don't pay for marketing services either. I use Twitter, my Blogs, Facebook, and most of all people who I have a connection with to to get the word out. I also frequent other blogs, comment on them as often as I can, participate in online events and put a lot of hours into guerrilla Internet marketing. Oh, and don't email me with a "get 15,000 followers in one month" or another "make sure you're heard!" marketing scheme. I don't care about reaching 15,000 random people, I'm interested in reaching people who are interested in what I do specifically. I also enjoy connecting with people who are interesting, which doesn't happen often with mass join scams.

I also don't pay for advertising. Effective Internet advertising is an art form and to be honest, I'd rather use online social networking. There's more feedback and it's a lot more fun.

For everyone whose ever asked me how it's done; I don't have any magic trick. I don't pay someone to do the work for me, and vanity presses are expensive money pits. I work about 10 hours a day between writing and marketing.

I've received many calls from these vanity presses that call themselves publishers, they all start the conversation with; "We'd like to publish your book." The first thing I ask them is; "how much will it cost me?" If they answer with a dollar amount I hang up.

I'll never, ever pay someone else to publish me. In fact, I won't take any offer on the rights to my work from a publisher that comes with an advance under four figures. I'm fortunate enough to have a number of readers who enjoy my work. I do my best to entertain them and in return they buy my work in the format that is most convenient for them. I should never have to pay anyone to publish my work because those retailers and publishers are going to make money from selling my books. It's bad enough that I only recieve a 30%-35% royalty on most titles as an independent. That sounds like a lot to some of you, but you have to consider that I don't sell the volume that published authors do, no where near. (Less than 5% of what a non-best selling author sells).

That brings up another point. I can't afford to pay for publishing or marketing services! Being a successful self published author to me means making enough money to keep writing, to keep entertaining readers. I live a happy, simple life where I get to work the trade I prefer without frills.

I'd like to end this post on a positive note by thanking the readers, who have been very supportive. I've said it before and I'll say it again; they keep a roof over my head, the lights (and Internet connection) on, and food on the table. I thank you and hope that you continue to enjoy my work enough to remain a reader and spread the word.

RL

[Where do you want my books to appear next? Leave a comment!]

Spinward Fringe: The Facebook Group

It is everywhere, it is all around us, even now in this very room, you can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television, when you go to work. It's not the Matrix, it's Facebook.

Discussions begin between friends and acquaintances that are both recent and from the distant past and people interact with this social system using their computers, cellphones, and other devices that are both portable and not. The viral nature of Facebook has gotten it uncountable mentions on television, in film and even in recent permanent written EMedia and print.

As with many people who have seen other social networks come and go on the Internet, I was hesitant to pay too much attention to it, even though I knew it has become so prevalent that some people have actually shunned their email in favour of only communicating through Facebook (which I think is a terrible idea, but that doesn't change what that kind of personal investment means).

So, after being asked if there was a group for Spinward Fringe or myself for the 20th or so time, I finally gave in and created a group. Over the last few months I've also had people emailing me with questions about the technology, the characters and the settings in the books, and I started to think having a place for discussion might be good so people could actually bring those questions up in a more public forum and I have to admit it seems that Facebook has a good basic system for that.

I'm sure there are other things that this group will be good for, and that brings up the thing I like about the Facebook Group system the most: The fact that users can add and change things as they see fit. I actually hope that this becomes active, that this gives people a place to go after they've read one or all of the books to get in touch with other readers. I also hope that you guys take over to a great extent since I'm very interested to see what other people would do with this space.

Without further adeu, here's the link to the new Facebook Group called: Randolph Lalonde and Spinward Fringe Crew

Make it yours, that's what it's there for!

RL

Wondering What I'm Up To? Follow Me On Twitter!

A lot of people are eagerly awaiting the release of Spinward Fringe Frontline and what I can tell you right now is that I'm working to write a fantastic story. I can't release the book yet, it's still in the works, but one thing you can do it satisfy your curiosity by following me through your Twitter account or by looking at the upper right hand corner of my Night By Night Blog.

At first I wasn't sure how much I'd like this social networking tool, but I decided to give it a fair shake and before long I was interacting with two of the guys from SomaCow, keeping a few fans current on what was going on, updating my status on Facebook and keeping a mini-journal of my writing habits all at the same time. Now, I'm generally no big fan of social networking tools, but this one does help me keep everyone aware that Spinward Fringe Frontline is in the works and I'm enjoying the writing. It's an uncommon reassurance, and sometimes I wish that George RR Martin or any of my other favourite authors used such things. It might also be interesting to see what someone like George Lucas, Joss Whedon or Eric Kripke (creator of Supernatural), was up to from day to day.

So, my life may not be nearly as interesting as the entertainment icons listed above but if you want to know more about what I'm up to and how Spinward Fringe Triton is coming along from one day to the next, Twitter is the most direct way!

For those of you who don't have Twitter and don't want to sign up, I'll have an update on how things are going with the latest Spinward Fringe book right here tomorrow, so stay tuned...

RL