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I understand the need of authors to get something for their considerable effort in creating the stories we love, but at the same time I am concerned about the future of this site. I have noticed that several of the best writers are moving their work to kindle or nook. I hope this trend does not doom this wonderful site.
Waterdog
perhaps not
I don't think it will ruin this site. I think it will encourage new authors to start posting stories here and keep the site going and growing. For the longest time I duel published on this site and on Kindle and there really isn't stopping many other people from doing the same thing. The reason I had to stop was that someone complained directly to Amazon that my work was being sold on Kindle but offered free here. If that person hadn't said anything, there would be no reason for me to have pulled my stories. I think, however, that most of my work has been geared towards commercial venues where others are not.
There are pieces that are simply too long for print or Kindle. Like Bike for instance, which is almost 3000 parts. And others that are really not commercially viable. I have kept several stories on here because I don't think they are a good fit for kindle. Stories like A Christmas Diary and The Adoption of Little Orphan Danny. I know other authors like Tanya Allan and Karin Bishop also post stories to the site that they don't intend for sale.
Hopefully I can resolve the issue with Amazon and they will allow me to dual post again. It was a great way to share and contribute to a site that has helped my skills flourish.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Not as optimistic
It merely means that the competent authors will be skimmed off. I seriously doubt there is a relationship between whether an author will be discouraged from posting if there are good authors publishing here.
Problem is, this site will now act more like a proving ground for authors who more than likely will monetize their offerings as soon as they feel they are good enough.
I am not blaming them. But like you they will leave the leavings that are not considered publishable. Or like Tanya, they will skip publishing here at all and just go straight to kindle instead of publishing here, removing it before going to kindle. Tanya just posts notices here now of what she publishes. Free advertising.
Leveling the Playing field
We are working behind the scenes on ways to make BigCloset viable for quite a while. Some of these moves, hopefully, include ways of allowing authors to keep their stories here for the multitudes to read while still publishing at Amazon if they wish.
Most authors have not chosen to remove their stories from BigCloset because they feel the need, except when Amazon has decided to "price match" and then offer their Kindle books also for free.
It is by far not a level playing field as it stands, but we are working to make it so.
-Piper
Not so
Only those works published under Kindle select have to be removed. Perhaps arrogance on my part, but as people are paying me a reasonable sum for my work on Kindle (Sussex Border Stories, available through the site link) I suppose I could be classed as one of the competent writers. That is not a hint for a compliment, just a recognition that I am good enough to sell people my work.
I have no intention of pulling stuff from here unless I am forced to. This place has nurtured, welcomed and helped me. I still appreciate it when people buy my books, but this the place where I mostly get told what they think.
Even so?
I'll just go ahead and complement you anyway! From my perspective, you're so much more than competent, yes? I'm sure I've got plenty of company regarding my perspective.
Love, Andrea Lena
I have to be honest....
When I first started posting stories and found that people enjoyed them, I never considered being paid for what I did. I just enjoyed writing and the fact that others got pleasure from them thrilled me. I was working full time at that moment in my life, so was on a hefty salary and so it wasn't an issue. Then I retired and a pension is good, but never up to what I was earning, so I set up my own business and was working for the difference. Then came the recession and I found the work was less forthcoming. Someone suggested that I tried to sell my books, and three years ago (this month) I tried. It worked, slowly, so after a year and a half, I was almost earning half what my work was bringing in. I have now reached the stage that I no longer need to work to augment my pension.
Firstly, I have not lifted any of my stories that I originally posted here. The only ones that I have not posted here are those new books that are subject to the Kindle Select programme.. as I am not permitted to keep any digital copies apart from on Amazon. I do post material here... as last Christmas I posted a story here, and I have plans to post others here in the future.
I have to be honest... the audience base for my books out there is very small. I can never hope to achieve big sales because of the select nature of the genre. I'd like to, believe me, for then I could post more stuff here for free. Those who read stuff for free here would account for 75% of my potential customer base. Although I'd love to give everyone what they want for nothing... I am not a charity. I do appreciate that cash is a problem for some, but that's the same for the world in general.
A lot of effort and time goes into my writing. Now I don't quibble about providing stories for people, for nothing at times, as I enjoy many of the stories available here.
I have to be honest... if there is a work here - for nothing - I will not bother buying the book on Kindle, even if it is under $5, as all mine are.
You have to decide; should all the time and effort that writers put in be rewarded, or should they all give it all away? Everyone has to start somewhere, and I chose here and on Sapphire's place. We all continually develop and improve. What better place to do it, providing good stories and getting helpful feedback along the way?
I do not regret posting free stuff here, and it will stay here. I will post stuff here for competitions etc, but I now call myself a writer and earn a living by selling books.
If you feel I am being uncharitable, then for that I am sorry, but I repeat - I am not a charity, and the many that can afford my work have been most supporting. I am very appreciative of those who buy my work.
Thank you for supporting my writing over the years. I will not stop.
Tanya
There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes!
Authors Like You...
and Karin Bishop write very competently, and give us more than a fair sized digital novel for the prices you ladies charge. Still, the majority of them charge too much for something that's only 11-55 pages long. Seriously, they have really interesting premises, but just end after the end of the change/sex. It's a waste, and I refuse to give them my money.
You on the other hand, I think I've mowed through 6 of the 12 stories of yours that interested me. The rest I haven't gotten around to yet, but they're on here, including the kindle version of Every Girl. I read it on your site years ago, but I liked it, and am looking forward towards seeing what changes you've added.
BTW, When's book 2 of agent of time coming out?
Marine 2......
... is slowly creeping towards completion, along with seventeen other books! Seriously, I am finding the research for the Roman times rather daunting, alongside research into some 1960s US background for The Knox Chronicles 3, and some Police procedural research for Candy cane 2. That, together with looking after a cantankerous 89 year old father who is high maintenance and asking for THE PILLOW! ((Or the steep stairs!).. actually I jest, but don't push me!), and having to occasionally work for a living, do the garden, run various charities I was persuaded to become a trustee for... so, if you happen to have around 45 extra hours a day I could borrow, then I might get these damn books finished. until then, life grinds on... and on... and on... and on......
Thank you for supporting my work. If just a few more bought books, then I could stop working completely and write full time (apart from when I'm ferrying my dad over SE England to doctors, hospitals, old girlfriends, funerals (not his own yet, mores the pity!)... you get my drift?
Tanya (Stressed)
There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes!
Can BigCloset act as a pseudo publisher?
There's a lot of stories on Amazon but it's hard to tell which stories are good without taking a leap of faith or trusting spotty reviews. This genre is popular but it is way outside of Amazon's expertise to know what is good. On the other hand sites like this have a good core of people that know good stories and I'd think many writers would like to help this site if they could but it is impossible right now.
Can sites like BigCloset partner with Amazon and act as a front end? I have no idea if it is possible but it seems to me it would be a win for everyone. Writers post stories on BigCloset to get publicity. BigCloset contacts some of the best, help those that need help to get on Amazon and advertises them on their front page. Amazon processes the sales and gives the writer their share with a percentage going to BigCloset.
I know I'd be more willing to purchase something if it was endorsed by this site.
Not all want $$$$ for their work
That includes me. I write because it is something I want to do not because of any possible financial reward.
Around 50% of what I write is for myself and not for publication here (waaaayyyy to wired for this site).
I travel a lot on business and mostly to places where English is not the first (or second) language. Often there is nothing on TV in English or if there is it isn't worth watching. There is only so much CNN International that one person can take in their life. The last place I stayed in was 50km from any chance of 'entertainment' so what are you going do do with your free time? Quietly go mad staring at the four walls of your hotel room? I think not. Thus I write (or lie on my bed thinking of plot lines.)
Samantha
not for me
Personally i dont even own a kindle...dont even know what one looks like... though i figure it's something like an ipad or whatever..
You wanna put your stories up for sale? Hey more power to ya and good luck... unfortunatly i wont be reading it :/ well... unless it comes out in paperback. honestly i dont see the need to go buy an $80 item just so i can read a book... seriously? why dont they just charge the money and allow you do download the file? would be hella easier and cheaper... ah! but that's the reason in and of it'self.. to squeeze more money out of it!
bleh, i'll stick to the unpublished fiction writers here and on other sites, if i wanna buy a book.. i'll run to my local bookstore. I just wish they'd better organize their shelves with slightly more detailed category's than 'Sci-Fi/Fantasy'.
Kindle reading apps
"honestly i dont see the need to go buy an $80 item just so i can read a book... "
FYI, you don't have to buy anything to read Kindle books. Amazon has free programs or apps that allow you to read Kindle books on just about any electronic device, or you can read your Kindle books in a browser, like the one you use to access BCTS.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_3?ie=UTF...
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Sorting Sci-Fi
At one time I'd actually talked the local chain bookstore into seperate catagories, scifi and fantasy. That lasted about 2 weeks then the corporate people found out and made them change back to the old/convential system. Corporate didn't even care that the store manager was starting to see an increase in sales, it was a "Do it our way or start looking for a job". Being a married dude with all that entails, it just wasn't worth his job to make waves. I don't blame him either, he did what he had to do.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
As an author preparing to
As an author preparing to make the leap of faith in selling my fiction online ( Amazon or other), for those who enjoy & support my efforts: be assured that it will be new material.
This decision came out of a creative crisis almost two years ago, concerning a novel I'd freely adapted (practically on a dare) from a Mako(aka MissMako) comic book idea. The result of this meltdown, after a frantic exchange of e-mails, was that a pro writer friend ( the old fashion kind, with an agent. ) suggested that I was in danger of underestimating my manuscript.
So after a lot of fussing( i.e. serious reediting ) I'm looking to get this project up for sale; as well as finish the first draft of a companion book to the first one. But back to the concern of the original poster. Even if older authors leave, there's still a shiny batch of fresh scribblers for you all to embrace, and critique, and grow with. And that's cool too. :)
Most of us aren't going anywhere
Not that I'm presuming I'm one of the best authors here; if I were, I'd likely have more Kindle sales. But I know that I, and several of the other authors from the site who have moved into Kindle, and Smashwords, and so on, have no intention of leaving Big Closet or of denying it content we think fits with the site.
The reason many of us DO pull from the site when we publish on Kindle is the Kindle Select requirements that only Kindle have rights to the work's distribution. Publishing a book without that limitation nets you around 40% of the royalties you would otherwise receive, so in many cases, yes, it is a smart idea to go for it and pull the original. As for me, I'm hoping that extensive rewriting on my stories will allow me to have my cake and eat it too, leaving the originals I've written up here and selling the "final draft" versions to make ends meet.
All together, though, I know of less than a dozen authors from BC who are trying to make a serious go at Kindle, so your worries seem to be a little extreme for the time being.
Melanie E.
Kindle Select?
Can you expand on that comment about how not opting in to the Kindle Select program means you only get 40% of the royalties you would otherwise? My books are not in the Kindle select program, because one of them is also available here and all of them are also available at Smashwords. They're earning 70% royalties (at least the longer ones priced at $2.99; the one priced at $1.99 because it's fairly short is only earning 35%) on sales in the U.S. and most other territories. Apparently in some territories you get 70% royalties in Kindle Select and 35% royalties otherwise, but so far I haven't sold any books in those territories, only the U.S., UK, Germany and Brazil.
At Smashwords I'm earning 74% royalties, even on the one that's priced at $1.99. And Smashwords doesn't deduct bandwidth/storage fees before calculating royalties. Even though they sell fewer books, that seems like a good reason not to enter Kindle Select.
Are you selling far more copies of books in KS than of similarly priced, similar-content books?
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http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
Books have to be in KS to earn the 70% royalty from Amazon
I do believe you CAN offer your books through other retailers, but pricing becomes a problem. Main point being, if a book is enrolled in KS then AMazon's gonna be a lot more tetchy about pricing and availability than if it isn't.
Melanie E.
Some books not in KS do earn 70% royalty
At the risk of repeating myself, at least two of my four books for sale at Amazon (the ones priced at $2.99 which have been there for a year) are not in KS yet are earning 70% royalty, at least in the territories where they've actually sold copies. The short fiction collection I just posted a few days ago is also not in KS and priced at $2.99, and I recall, when I posted it, that they showed me a list of territories and the non-KS royalties they were offering for each; it was 70% for some territories and 35% for others, but the ones where English-language books sell the most copies were paying 70%.
If one is selling more books through Amazon in Japan and other territories on the 35% list than one could alternatively sell at Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, etc., then I suppose being in Kindle Select would make financial sense. So far I've sold not a single copy in any of the territories where $2.99-to-$9.99 books are earning 35%, and 17% of the books I've sold were sold through Smashwords. Maybe some of those Smashwords sales would have been Amazon sales if the book weren't available through Smashwords, but not all of them; some people specifically requested an ePub edition because their setup couldn't handle the proprietary Kindle format (or not as conveniently as ePub), and some people I know are boycotting Amazon because of past bad behavior toward LGBT-type people or other issues.
Another issue is, do we want to encourage Amazon's dubious business practices, such as devising their own proprietary ebook format to lock customers in when there are perfectly good standard formats like ePub? Different people will draw the line in different places; I'm not boycotting Amazon, but I refuse to give them exclusive distribution rights to my books either.
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http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
I don't know...
I don't know if any of you consider me skilled or even competent; my own amazon sales would seem to argue against that. I do know that I post/publish in both places, and have no plans to change that.
My own way of handling the publishing woes between amazon and here is already on record; it's also a good way of not getting sued. At least it's worked so far.
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If you appreciate my tales, please consider supporting me on Patreon so that I may continue:
https://www.patreon.com/Nagrij
Posting more free stories leads to selling more books
I've been keeping a log recording when I post stories or chapters of stories here, or at FM or Shifti or on the mailing lists. And comparing that log to my sales figures at Amazon and Smashwords, it seems clear that (at least for me, at this stage) the most effective way to sell books is to post new free stories. Almost every time I post a new chapter or a whole new story, I sell one or more books; when I went five months without posting any new stories, I only sold nine books in that period. (And five of those sales were in a week when I had a new blog post here, though most of my blog posts in that five-month period weren't followed by new sales.)
More recently, I serialized two stories here and on the morpheuscabinet mailing list from late January to early April, starting right after I offered a new novel for sale on Smashwords and Amazon; I also posted two more stories to FM in that period (which had already appeared here). I sold at least one book per week while the serials were running, an average of four books per week. After the longer serial ended, I went a month with no sales.
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http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
Publish and be thanked....
Anyone considering writing as a way of earning a living should probably be grateful if the process of writing takes your mind off how hungry you are going to be.
As a BC reader and buyer of Kindle books I (and probably others) resent not at all having to pay when I start a story I find I like on BC then buy the Amazon copy to finish the story on my Kindle Paperwhite (a device like the babel fish so improbably practical as to disprove the existence of god).
If in the future the range of stories posted stops appealing to my admittedly tame tastes my visits to BC will become more infrequent but even if there were no ePublishing that would happen with all who just read or post their stories. Those visits for other information and chats I hope will continue regardless
Rhona McCloud
Well... yes and no,
Yes, I have removed a story from this site due to the publication in the Amazon system (which required that removal).
No, this site will not 'completely' suffer. I presently have several stories under way which will post here (and remain here).
The other stories I have previously written were unpubbed due to the tampering problems I was having with Teddi's stuff and I didn't want to go through my own as well. That problem has, I think, been resolved. Apparently when I was using my notebook at work (back when I was still in the states) I left it unattended for some little time and I think someone got into my passwords file which was stored on it. I have since changed over forty passwords and my problems seem to have gone away. While 'Last of the Fey' will not be reposted (because it is on Amazon) the other stories will be returned to the site soon and there will be more to come. Time... all I need is time... If someone has a bottle available could they ship it to me? Things are getting hectic again. By the way, don't bother shipping it if it is hazardous to my heart. There are some things (such as caffine) which I'm not supposed to consume.
At any rate, this site is not forgotten despite my attempts to also place certain stories up for sale (e-books). After all, I feel bad about not having paid my editor for his work and hope that the sales will help me do that. BCTS will receive several other stories in lieu of L-o-t-Fey.
God Bless
Anesidora
Planning to publish on Kindle
I have currently posted 5 parts of my novel "The Sidereus Prophecy". I am planning on publishing the novel in three separate books for release on Amazon Kindle. My plan is to keep the story here (and on FM), but I will be offering special commissioned covers for all who buy the Kindle version. I am hoping to make up the cost of the commission. The Kindle version will also feature additional artwork.
Based on this, do you think I will have a problem with publishing on Amazon? I am offering artwork to those who are buying the novel. In the eyes of Amazon, is this enough of a difference to allow me to keep the stories here, and to publish on Amazon?
If this does work, it seems like a workaround to keep the words here and offer an added bonus to those who buy the Kindle version.
Avoid Kindle Select
If your book isn't in the Kindle Select program, you're fine, to the best of my knowledge. That program that requires you to give exclusive distribution rights to Amazon; the ordinary Kindle Direct Publishing agreement does not.
Why are you dividing the novel into three ebooks? Unless it's an enormously long novel (like over 200,000 words) I'd suggest avoiding that.
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http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/trismegistusshandy
http://shifti.org/wiki/User:Trismegistus_Shandy
not everyone
I hope they're not planning to live on the proceeds. Stephen King and John Grisham are rich, but most writers earn less than they would earning minimum wage. Without healthcare.
I'm not the most prolific author (one novel every seven-ten years I think) but I can't see the point of publishing for money. I get few enough readers as it is.
not as think as i smart i am