First Cup of Coffee - September 16, 2022

Updates on my next projects and on the state of trad publishing - spec is out, full mss are in - and thoughts on being hybrid & the "middlest" author. Also info on how/why trad publishing only counts print sales.

Interested in Author Coaching from me? Information here: https://jeffekennedy.com/author-coaching

Preorder SHADOW WIZARD, Book One in Renegades of Magic, continuing the epic tale begun in DARK WIZARD. https://jeffekennedy.com/shadow-wizard

ROGUE'S PARADISE is out today! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-paradise). Buy book 1, ROGUE'S PAWN, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-pawn) and book 2, ROGUE'S POSSESSION, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-possession).

ORIA'S GAMBIT now available in audio on Scribd here! https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/571010481/Oria-s-Gambit LONEN'S WAR - now in audio! - is available wide. Buy links here https://jeffekennedy.com/lonen-s-war and in audio on Scribd here https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/558914129/Lonen-s-War

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Transcript

00:00.35
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:15.98
jeffekennedy
The sheer sensual pleasure today is say it with me everyone Friday ah September Sixteenth um yeah so ah Friday not the good Friday you know my stepdad the former catholic priest used to say that you would say ah, it's a good Friday but not Good Friday catholic jokes.

00:52.62
jeffekennedy
So ah, yeah, end of the week. It's been a pretty busy week for me um, turned around started the revision on shadow wizard yesterday. Carien has said nothing about it so far.

01:10.37
jeffekennedy
Could be. She's busy could be she hates it. We don't know. Ah she might be busy I think she's doing like stuff for her day job. I think it's funny because I am also her day job. But I'm like not the day job. Ah yeah, so I made it through like 50 pages. Yesterday and not as many as I wanted but it's fine I think it's fine. Haven't decided if I'm gonna work on it this weekend I might depends on if I'm feeling feeling the the need to burn which way is it. Um. Guess that's something that you develop over time as a writer. It's like when do you need to hold your feet to the fire and when do you need to give yourself to some time to relax I've still got a week more than a week before I have to turn it in for formatting. so but so far pretty clean it's not bad and something I thought I was going to weave in I realized I don't have to weave in. So yeah, so far so far I think it's pretty good. Um, so.

02:23.94
jeffekennedy
This weekend I really need to deal with this chair then you all won't have to listen to me bitch about it anymore. Yeah, so oh I don't even have this spreadsheet up yet I I won't give you any stats. Um, yeah I added just a few words. Yesterday not many. But yeah I was a little tired I was a little brain tired um ended up having an amp something I don't often do and then I did like a 3 hour meeting with the SFWA board in the afternoon. Where we got a bunch of stuff handled so that was good.

03:08.62
jeffekennedy
Um, yeah.

03:12.63
jeffekennedy
Um, and do I have anything to say to you? Well now I don't know some things on my mind I can't talk about um which I know is always hard. I you know I wish I could just tell you all absolutely everything I you know I absolutely would because I'm ah I'm not much of 1 for keeping secrets even though I do it? Um so a couple of you were asking about the secret movie project. Which is probably going to be its nickname even though it's a bad nickname not all nicknames are perfect. Um, and no, you won't see it anytime soon because agent Sarah wants this one I am going to write the whole book. Um, sorry mosquito. Because first of all and this is probably useful information for those of you who actually listen to this podcast for industry advice as opposed to me babbling about grapes in my patio chairs. Um yeah, agent Sarah - Sarah Younger at Nancy Yost literary agency for those who don't know - ah says that she's having a much better time selling complete manuscripts these days as opposed to on spec ah, which is in one sense sucks for the author because.

04:45.30
jeffekennedy
For me one of the perks of having an agent of being at this point my career is that I like being able to write 50 pages of something and give a vague pitch or at least I used to be able to do that and and sell it on those merits. But. Publishing has changed enough trad publishing has changed enough that it's um that they want to see the whole thing. They want to know how it's going to turn out I I don't even know why I'm I'm not sure I understand the reasoning. Um, what. My friends suggested and I thought this was a very interesting theory is that it's because the young editors the up and coming editors once who are buying stuff these days are so much less experienced that they don't have. Story sense the faculty to see where the story is going to go so whereas a very very experienced Editor. You could have shown them 10 pages 50 pages and they would know the younger editors don't and so. They they have to see the whole thing. Um because it certainly isn't to speed up the process. They're not going any faster the advantage for me. However, is that if I write this draft when I write this draft.

06:15.83
jeffekennedy
And give it to Sarah um, she can make tweaks on the whole thing if she has input and then we can settle on a very circumscribed submission time. You know that you know only ah you know 2 to three months something like that. And then I take it back and self-publish it so that way my time isn't wasted. Ah some of you may recall that there was the thing that I was working on that was um, off genre for me that Sara was super excited about and took out on sub and it just. And and that's it on spec that's a partial has not moved has not moved and Sarah thinks it might still she says she has a lot of projects that aren't moving ah and you know and she does make kind of hints about well it might do better if I wrote the whole thing reader I am not. Writing that whole thing because here's my reasoning if I wrote the whole thing it would take a lot of time that for maybe no money which Sarah fortunately understands not all all agents do and and if i. Did take it back to self publishlish it I would I would have to do it under pseudonym I would have to create a whole new marketing thing. Um, and I don't want to do them. It's not important enough to me.

07:49.91
jeffekennedy
So that's my new resolve and I may have discussed this before but I decided I'm no longer writing anything that I wouldn't immediately take out on my own I wouldn't take out to self-publish. So so yeah, the the secret movie project I would totally take that out. And self-p publish it and if trad doesn't want it or won't give me enough money for it. That's what I will do but it might be a while before you see it which is why I do kind of feel bad tantalizing you with it. But um I do have my plan I mentioned yesterday some.

08:30.99
jeffekennedy
Soon as shadow wizard is done I'm turning around to write secret movie project And in case you didn't listen before the reason I'm calling it that is because it comes off of a movie not because it's going to be a movie. Um.

08:49.70
jeffekennedy
It's it's from a classic movie I'll give you that much hint and no, you'll never get to guess it. So it's not Casa Wanka ah there's this like cadre of people who who I really like but um, you know like Walter John Williams and Connie Willis apparently at tous toolbox. Which Walter John Williams runs ah they have an enforced watching of casab blanca because they believe it's like the greatest movie of all time and I've seen Casablanca and it's like okay but you know I'm also I like happy endings heh.

09:27.59
jeffekennedy
Yeah, and we won't go into that rant again. So Um I did have a point didn't I Oh What am I doing Ah I'm anticipating that that will be a fairly fast draft. Um, crossing fingers knock on wood I will get that worked Out. Um and I'm not going to do it doesn't have to be perfect because there might be a lot of editorial input. So I'm just going to get it in a decent place. Get a complete draft and pass it off.

10:04.12
jeffekennedy
Then I will write the midwinter holiday novella which hopefully will also go fast so that I'm hoping that by the week after Thanksgiving when I get to go on this writing retreat which no is not the one that I went on before also secret. Ah.

10:23.58
jeffekennedy
This is totally different different group of people totally different location but that week I am hoping to start rogue familiar which is going to be the sequel to shadow wizard. And I've already been making notes on it I feel like I could turn around and start writing it today really is where I'm at with it. But um, other obligations right? and it's funny. You know I I do get to this point with writing books right? because i.

10:55.61
jeffekennedy
You know for so long while I was writing shadow wizard I kept wanting to stop and write secret movie project because I had such a buzz about it now that I've finished shadow wizard my mind is completely wrapped up in that and so now I kind of get the buzz back on the other one but I do feel like that's how it works I remember asking. Ah, writers that when I was a newbie you know like what do you do when you get a buzz for something else. Do you keep going on the new project or do you write the buzzy one and and people always would tell me they said you know if the buzz is real if it's solid. It'll wait. It'll save. And I do think that's true now dorda and I have argued about this point in that I think that you don't necessarily need to make a lot of notes on stuff because it's in it's there and you'll it'll come back to you and doranda gets very Testy with me and says that know that that's. My brain that and not her brain that her brain will completely lose things. So I mean you know everybody is different right? Yeah so so that's going to carry me easily through the new year um yeah but I think I've mentioned I'm home for the the next month or so at least into world. World fantasy con beginning of November. So so yeah, ah need to start doing a few travel plans things.

12:30.98
jeffekennedy
And now so did I have I feel like I started on a track of something that was interesting industry stuff selling full manuscripts.

12:46.91
jeffekennedy
1 of the outcomes of world con and I just end bubonicon too having a lot of different conversations with people is that um, pretty universally tret pub is not moving. There's very little going on except for a few bipac grabs. There's.

13:05.82
jeffekennedy
Just um, not a whole lot I did see a very funny tweet from Joanne Harris wonderful author who said that she had done this interview a while back with and I think she referenced it but I didn't click because I was being careful not to go down the rabbit hole. Where she was talking about the demise of the midlist author which which is me which is most of us and the interviewer understood her to say the middleist. middleist author like the middleist child. And thought that she had made up the word and focused she said rather uncomfortably on the fact that she had made up this word of a middleist author as opposed to mid list author so much condescension in the world. Um, you know I had something that I was going to go down this path and I was thinking oh get me all the way through this podcast and now I don't remember it? Um, yeah, the writing the full manuscript deciding whether to self-publish stuff.

14:18.42
jeffekennedy
You know one of the things about self-publishing is that while I don't think you have to adhere to the the mythical thirty day or sixty day release schedule it does require regular releases and so it's one of the difficulties of being hybrid is if you take time away to. Write stuff that then goes and sits with tread publishing on endless submission that that can really take away from that. So um, but I do think that it's worthwhile doing and oh I know what I was going to talk about? Yeah so. So one of the things that came out of the department of justice trial with um penguin random house acquiring Simon and Schuster I think I have that in the right order not being a financial type I don't always keep. Super close track of those things but I know I talked about this a little bit before that the publisher's ah main defense rather puzzling to many people was to convince to convince the department of justice that this wasn't going to be a terrible ah financial coup. It would not be a monopsony. Learned I were there because they basically don't know what they're doing and that it's all a crapshoot which is an interesting defense but 1 of the details that came out was that half like around half.

15:48.28
jeffekennedy
I think some people said over half I didn't see the original remark/data point but let's just say half of traditionally published books never sell more than a dozen copies and so this was passed around where all these so publishers were like oh I feel so much better about my hundred copies and all this and so. Several people had to explain that they're talking about print um, which is befuddling to people and I understand why it's befuddling but when traditional publishing talks about sales. They always always always mean print. Because they don't count Ebook sales and I know it's counterintuitive I know it makes no sense. But I promise you it's true. Ah they reference book scan they which is book scan tracks what books are sold in the bookstores. Brick and mortar stores paperbooks book scanned does not count books and so I can tell you that you know like Grace Draven and I have compared our numbers and both of us she sells way better than I do she has bigger platform. But for both of us ebook sales. Even for our trad published books are 95% of our sales and it shows on our royalty statements. We get you know here are the book sales here's the the print sales and we get paid for the book sales. We actually get paid.

17:18.67
jeffekennedy
A bigger percentage for each ebook sale than we do for the trap book sales which means that the publisher makes less money for those each print sale. So that's part of it. Ah, but for both of us 95% of our sales ebook not print. And which means that the publisher views us as not selling well and you know print sales are fraught. There are fewer bookstores. There's the whole return thing. Um, you know that they send books out to the bookstores if the bookstores don't sell them. They can return them so in some quarters or like St Martin's pays me every six months sometimes my print sales are negative because of the returns right? Ebook sales. My friend are never in the negative but tread publishing still doesn't count them. And agent Sarah went to a great deal of trouble once to explain it to me and and I'm going to simplify but it's because first of all the publisher gets a bigger cut. They don't have to pay the author as much and in that bigger cut. They have a much much wider profit margin on prep books. So for instance on a twenty four ninety nine hardback the publisher is going to make 10 or $12 pure profit that's on top of paying the you know the booksellers cut the paying overhead and so forth.

18:54.29
jeffekennedy
And they get a much much smaller amount like 1 or $2 on each ebook so you'd think that they would care about the volume of ebook sales but they actually don't ah because what they want are those those big print booksellers and that's why the midlist author. Middleist author is disappearing because they want the blockbusters and I suppose 1 question I always have this is me having written the mark of the tala was originally called the middle princess because it was like all the stories are about the eldest daughter and the youngest daughter what about the middlelist daughter? Ah, you know there's the blockbusters. There's the mid list authors. Well then what's the third category right? and I suppose those are just the people who never sell more than a dozen copies and there they are the unnameable.

19:52.24
jeffekennedy
That ended on a dower note but it's the way of things and you know thank goodness that we have access to Self-publishing because we love Ebook sales and self-publishing don't we um and thank you all out there. You readers for buying and supporting.

20:10.88
jeffekennedy
Ah, oh final notes on dark wizard I'll give a full rundown on Monday of the being free in the book but book bub feature deal but another over 1000 copies downloaded yesterday. So I think I'm up around 13 or 14000 copies and looking at sales of books, 2 and 3 the sales of those 2 books this week um have already paid for the book bub feature deal. So I figure I'm coming out ahead now and lots more pre-orders for shadow wizard. Thank you all.

20:48.23
jeffekennedy
Speaking of which I'm going to get in there and work on it I hope you all have a great Friday I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the the beautiful autumn weather say save for the good things right? you all take care bye bye.