The Daily Journal, Friday, July 12

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* The second quote of the day
* Update: My publisher and I
* European ebook aggregators
* Daily diary
* Of Interest
* The numbers

Quotes of the Day

“PG says there is nothing like a collection of first-world complaints to make you realize that life in modern America is a totally hellish experience. Lovecraftian to the max.” The Passive Guy

“Left to myself, I’d be like you. I have a horror story and a gritty urban general fiction in me right now. BUT. I spent 15 years trying to be NY published, so I won’t [write those].” Laura Drake in a comment on “Should Authors Break Free from the Brand?” (See “Of Interest” below.)

The second quote of the day is head-shakingly sad. How many books might Ms. Drake have written and published in those 15 years had she been working toward a goal instead of chasing a dream?

Well, admittedly, indie publishing has been around for only 8 or so of those 15 years. Still, how many millions of words of practice might she have written in those 8 years?

And even if she catches the dream of being “NY published” today, she’ll soon find it’s actually a nightmare. They’ll take her copyright for life in exchange for a pittance. Consider, even if the advance is $100,000 (and it won’t be) that figures out to only $12,500 for each of those 8 years. Not to mention the other 7 of the 15 total.

A final note on her opening statement: “Left to herself,” I’m betting she would not be like the writer of the post. She would still be mired in the myths and chasing dreams that, either way, will never come true.

But no, I didn’t comment. It would do no good.
***

My new publisher and I watch and isten to the learn-along videos together. It’s easy to hit the Pause button and discuss what strikes us as interesting or bounce notes or newly spurred ideas off each other.

We spent only around three hours listening to the videos yesterday. Not bad for our first day out the gate. I took avid notes. (One of those was about “European ebook aggregators,” a notion I later researched. See below.)

As sometimes happens with any new venture, we will modify our approach when we return to the videos. Three hours straight was too much, and it was all we got.

We’re used to watching movies that last 1.5 to 2 hours, then taking a break from sitting. So on the next full day we have available for learning, we’ll take that approach. I predict we’ll get through (a lot) more videos and spend more time learning overall, though in shorter sets of time. (Keep Coming Back)

And right now, “getting through the videos” is what matters. (We can return to them in the future if we want to.) We’re playing catch-up, noting and investigating highlights while looking forward to all there is to learn.

On a side note, Dean (like everyone else who teaches online workshops) tends to add a little “filler” to his online workshop videos. (This is not a complaint; the value is still there.) But I say that only to say this: there is no filler in the Licensing Learn-Along.

Dean’s excitement is palpable, and he forges ahead through these like a wide-eyed 4-year old explaining his first adventure to someone who wasn’t there. Great stuff. There might still be time to sign up if you haven’t. I honestly don’t know.

On a second side note, I’m deferring my personal short story challenge until after my new publisher is up to speed on all the stuff she has to learn and absorb. No reason to add more to her plate before she’s had a chance to settle into the job. (grin)
***

In my very brief search for European ebook aggregators, Google handed me “2019 eBook Distribution Round-up” at https://www.davidwogahn.com/ebook-distribution-round-up/. Excellent resource.

A chart in that article lists several aggregators. I immediately dismissed any that required an up-front fee or that wouldn’t appreciably expand my current distribution.

In the end, I chose to research two new aggregators more deeply: StreetLib and at PublishDrive.

After viewing their sites, FAQs (on one site) and “community help” pages, I emailed them both the same question:

Can I upload an .epub created by another aggregator for distribution and sale to select markets through your company?

A day later, I received two responses.

An actual person (Lucia Zitelli, Head of Publishing), at StreetLib emailed me to say yes, I could do that as long as the .epub “passes the EpubCheck validation.” Well, any .epub put out by D2D or Smashwords (if your Word doc is formatted correctly) passes validation, so that’s a non-issue.

PublishDrive’s email response was automated (though personalized) and informed me they had received my question and “will reply as soon as possible.”

So I’ll definitely be adding 180 or so new markets/stores to my distribution with StreetLib.

When PublishDrive gets back to me, and IF their response is affirmative, I’ll return to their website to determine whether they distribute to any markets not covered by D2D, Smashwords and StreetLib.

If they do, I’ll determine whether learning their interface is worth placement in any additional markets they offer.
***

Rolled out late at 3:45. Wrote all of the stuff above and below and took a break at around 6.

I was entertaining writing some fiction today. Then I started a stuff avalanche.

I was going to do one simple task to update my Hovel (it’s hot here; I need AC), but to do that I had to do another task, which led to another, etc. in the bay next door.

When it was all over a few hours later and the dust had literally cleared, I still hadn’t made enough headway to accomplish the first task I’d set out to do. And by the time I sat down again, I was in no mood to have a good time. (grin)

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “2019 eBook Distribution Round-up” at https://www.davidwogahn.com/ebook-distribution-round-up/. If you’re an indie publisher, this is a must-read.

To complement this, see “The Complete Guide to Ebook Distribution” at https://blog.reedsy.com/ebook-distribution/. I especially recommend you scroll down and look over their “optimized distribution setup infographic” and farther to their “Comparative table of royalties by publishing platform and retailer,” not so much for royalties but to see which territories and stores are covered by which aggregator.

See “StreetLib” at https://www.streetlib.com/. By the way, I found out you can upload the .epub you get from D2D or Smashwords to StreetLib.

See The Passive Guy’s take on “Amazon Ruined Online Shopping” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/amazon-ruined-online-shopping/.

See “Two New Lectures and New Pop-Up” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/two-new-lectures-and-new-pop-up/.

Via the Passive Guy, see “Should Authors Break Free from the Brand?” at https://writersinthestormblog.com/2019/07/can-authors-break-free-from-the-brand/. I think the author of the article confuses “brand” with “genre.” You should write what you want to write. But even if you write in different genres, you still should brand your books.

See “Control Freakery: Book Covers” at http://prowriterswriting.com/control-freakery-book-covers/.

See “ICE … It’s Cool and We Need It!” at https://www.leelofland.com/ice-its-cool-and-we-need-it/. If you ever wondered about how ice was made back in the day, here you have it.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 1160 (Journal)
Total words for the day: 1160

Writing of ()

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 3173
Total fiction words for the year………… 354511
Total nonfiction words for the month… 14630
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 198830
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 5533411

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 44
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 194
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31