T.F. Torrey's Weblog

The Desert King Now On Kindle

2011-12-31T17:46:00-07:00

The Desert King, my novel of dark adventure in the bright Arizona desert, is now available in a fine Kindle edition. And for now, it joins the ranks of the other books clamoring for attention at 99 cents—a fantastic bargain!

And for those who want their books in paper editions, print edition of The Desert King is now available at Amazon and other venues for a mere $9.99. Wow!

There's never been a better time for a desert adventure! Pick up The Desert King today and get lost in the desert!

I've been waiting to announce this for a long time, and it feels great. Now, I'm going to go celebrate. Then, back to work. New books coming soon.

Winter Kills Now On Kindle

2011-12-30T14:22:00-07:00

Winter Kills, my novella revealing the circumstances that drove Victor Storm to embrace vigilante justice, is now available in a fine Kindle edition. At just 99 cents it's a great bargain.

For those of you who love paper, the print edition of Winter Kills is now available through Amazon for a mere $7.99. At these prices, we can all afford a little vigilante justice.

Go spend some time with Victor Storm. You'll probably like him, and he's only going to get better.

The Year Of Elizabeth

2011-12-28T05:00:00-07:00

Boy howdy. It's certainly been quiet around here. Earlier this year I made predictions about a bounty of productive work. Then, my weblog fell silent. If you were judging from that, you might think that I found the work too hard, or maybe just got bored and moved on. Actually, something more amazing, and much more interesting, came into my life.

In February of this year, my daughter Elizabeth was born, and she's perfect and beautiful and awesome in every meaning of the word. I've heard that some people lose their edge or get soft after they have a baby, but for me, my work and plans have become more serious, more meaningful, more important. Nonetheless, it is so much fun spending time with Elizabeth that work gets pushed to the side. I never realized before how quickly babies develop! Week to week and even day to day she learns and grows and changes, and I am so lucky to be in a financial position that has enabled me to spend time with her. She is so awesome.

However, my writing work is still out there, and I did just say that it is more important than ever, and I have been (almost silently) plugging away at it, with some substantial progress. Substantial announcements will follow soon.

E-Books On Cards

2011-07-07T03:21:00-07:00

Recently I saw a weblog post by Dean Wesley Smith where he pitched the idea of selling e-books in the form of gift cards. He envisioned this as a way to get e-books into physical bookstores, and even suggested it might be a way for independent bookstores to survive and thrive in the e-book revolution.

The basic way it works is that the card is the same size and shape as a credit card. On the front it has an image of the cover of the book, and on the back it has the marketing copy for the book and a scratch-off area that reveals a code for a coupon good for a copy of the book from Smashwords.com, in any format for any e-reader the person might like. So people shop in a real bookstore, see the cards on display, find a book they like, pay for it at the register, take the card home to their computer, scratch off the code, type it in at Smashwords, download the book to their reader, and read away — e-books sold in bookstores.

I like the idea. I like imagining the racks of books on display, and the idea of collections of books being sold together in a pack. And I like the idea of a teeny-tiny bookstore having an inventory beyond any current strip-mall Waldenbooks.

Despite this, however, I don't share the hope that this is a way for independent bookstores to survive and thrive the e-book revolution. Unless most authors made most books available this way, shopping at an independent bookstore would still be hit or miss. The best inventory, with the best prices, and the easiest shopping, will still be online.

And it does seem like kind of a waste of the resources needed to manufacture, print, ship, display, sell, and buy the cards, when the only thing needed was the number, which you could have simply written down.

All in all, though, I like the idea. Smith suggests getting real plastic gift cards custom printed, but I have blank business card stock in my drawer right now, and I think I might print some for myself. I could print the cover of The Desert King on one side, a blurb and a Smashwords link on the back, and start selling them in person to my poker buddies right now (or, as soon as I get it on Smashwords).

Maybe.

Harry Potter and the Self-Published, DRM-Free eBook

2011-06-24T23:59:00-07:00

Wow.

For a long time, J.K. Rowling has resisted letting the Harry Potter series be published as ebooks, allegedly because she was worried about "piracy" (not a useful term). Now, in a major turnaround, she is not only bringing the entire series out as ebooks, she is self-publishing them, and she is releasing them DRM-free.

This is an amazing validation of the self-publishing model. Joe Konrath and others have been saying that authors don't need publishers anymore, that the death of publishers will come not from readers leaving books, but from authors leavin publishers. When a big name like J.K. Rowling jumps ship in such a dramatic fashion, it's bound to make big waves. As usual, Joe Konrath has an excellent write-up of what this means to indie authors and the world in general.

It's also a great positive step for those opposed to DRM. It brings attention to the evils of DRM and the practicality of going without it. This article at Wired.uk has some good detail about the issue, although they are under the misconception that Amazon's system requires DRM. It doesn't. It allows DRM, but it doesn't force publishers to use it. For a great explanation of why DRM is evil, see the Free Software Foundation's Defective By Design campaign.

This is an impressive, happy day.

One-Star Reviews

2011-05-24T02:08:00-07:00

It is common these days to see e-book of new releases priced about the same as the print version, and not uncommon at all to see the e-books priced almost the same as the hardcovers, despite the fact that e-books take virtually no resources to copy and distribute. This bothers me. A lot.

So, I smiled to see that rash of unhappy people posting one-star reviews on Amazon for e-books priced near the price of physical books. While I have a philosophical problem with reviewing and rating books that haven't actually been read, I like this protest movement. I think it's funny. For myself, any book that has the paper and e-book versions priced near each other prevents me from buying either. I just can't do it.

From a practical standpoint, though the article tries to justify this pricing by pointing out the traditional publishing practice of windowing, where more expensive and profitable hardcovers are released first, and people who want to read the book right away are forced to pay more, and publishers make more. Later, after a year or so, publishers would then release the same book in paperback, with a lower price and a somewhat lower profit per book. Later still, some books would be released in mass-market paperback, for the lowest cost and lowest profit. Overall, this practice was thought to maximize the revenue per book.

The article defends the e-book pricing by saying that publishers don't want to cannibalize profitable hardcover sales with lower priced e-books, and that changing the windowing model will produce lower revenue.

The first point, that e-books necessarily cannibalize hardcover profits, is mistaken. A hardcover at, say, $20, might have a profit of $4 ($10 wholesale - ~$6 for production/distribution). An e-book priced $4.99 would have roughly the same profit to the publisher. Charging $20 for the e-book is either about two things. First, publishers are trying to preserve paper sales to stay relevant, because their value to authors is in their paper printing and distributing infrastructure. They have a stranglehold on this infrastructure, but it isn't needed for e-books, which means that authors and readers don't need publishers for e-books. The second reason for pricing e-books so high is simply raping ignorant customers with a bald-faced money grab. Neither of these things is worth doing.

The article's second point, about damaging the windowing pricing model, doesn't hold water, either. There is nothing about e-books to prevent windowing (nor any particular reason why that might be the best approach, though that's a different subject). To practice windowing with the traditional hardcover/paperback/mass-market release structure, a publisher could simply match the profits of each with the e-book versions, with e-book prices starting at $4.99 and falling to $3.99, then $2.99 (or less).

All in all, though, I'm happy to see publishers putting out high-priced e-books. They will turn customers away to more sensibly priced books, like mine.

And the one-star reviews are funny.

Record Company Accounting Coming To Publishing

2011-05-16T01:40:00-07:00

Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has raised an interesting warning about how agents might be turning on authors and bring to publishing the kind of record company accounting that has long been the bane of musicians.

His advice for avoiding this minefield: Do it yourself.

Yes, you might have to learn a few new things, hire someone to help you with a cover, but folks, this is not rocket science.

And what if you don't have that skill set, or the time or inclination to invest in learning it?

Writers, if you need help, go to the services that charge a simple lump sum for the service provided. Those services are professional designers instead of agents. The services, for a set fee, not a percentage, can even put the book up for you. You keep the control. You get all the money.

It's nice to see an accomplished pro sharing such sage advice.

Profiles of A-List Authors

2011-05-11T15:24:00-07:00

There are many authors finding success with e-books and self-publishing, but some names get mentioned more than others. A new article provides interesting profiles of Joe Konrath, Amanda Hocking, Barry Eisler, and John Locke, who it calls the A-List Authors of E-Book Self-Publishing.

New Lower Prices

2011-05-10T18:45:00-07:00

As part of my new push to publication, I have reconsidered and realigned my pricing strategy, and the result is that the prices of my books are now lower. Winter Kills and First Lies are now $9.99 for the print versions and $1.99 for PDF E-book versions, and The Desert King is now $14.99 for the print version and $2.99 for the PDF E-book.

The new prices will take a little while to percolate through the various systems. Amazon should update in no more than a few hours; others will take a bit longer.

If you have an e-book reader like a Kindle or a Nook, however, you might want to hold off before buying the print version. I'm now preparing the e-book files for these books, and I expect them done and available very soon, probably by the end of the week.

Exciting times!

Physical Books Weigh Down Reading

2011-05-09T23:21:00-07:00

I gave a speech tonight at my Toastmasters club about the revolution in reading. One thing that I've realized lately is how much the physicality of real books has kept me from buying and reading more. Even though it's in keeping with the minimalism tenet that the things you own end up owning you, and I realized it applied to my books before, I never realized it affected my reading before. When I considered it tonight, I realized that before I buy a physical book, I have to consider whether I'm willing to commit to making space for it, and dusting it, and moving it, and moving it, and so on. More and more, I'm unwilling to add to my material possessions, and so more and more, I've read less and less.

With e-books, I'm freed of the commitment of time and space and energy that physical books demand, so I'm able to explore more, acquire more, and read more. And it's not just theory, it's happening in practice. Weird, I didn't see that one coming. Perhaps that's another reason why e-books are taking off so well, much more quickly than anyone thought they would.

My speech didn't go as well as it could have, mostly because I kept rewriting it right up to the point of delivery, but ultimately it was good practice, which is the point of Toastmasters anyway. Now, I'm back to reading, and writing.

It's Go Time

2011-05-07T07:46:00-07:00

Wow. I took time away from writing to do some contract work and have a baby, and it feels like the whole world of publishing has shifted under my feet. E-books have become the dominant form of books, and e-readers have opened a vast new continent of opportunity just waiting to be had. I feel like the moment in history that I have been waiting for my whole life has finally arrived.

And the best part is, when the avenues of publishing and sales were narrow and stifling, I built up a backlog of work with no practical outlet. Now, I have a number of books ready to go on short notice. I have the tools. I have the time. I have the drive. For the rest of this year, and the foreseeable future after that, I will be writing and releasing books at a rapid pace.

Where before I felt uncertainty and unease, I now feel confidence and excitement. Win or lose, right or wrong, this is it. It's go time.

The Revolution In Reading

2011-04-22T23:27:00-07:00

I've written (and spoken) about the dramatic changes in the publishing industry many times over the past few years, pointing out that the changes are so sweeping that they constitute the "new revolution of publishing". A book's journey from author to reader can be thought of as two halves: 1) from author to published book available for sale, and 2) from book for sale to reader's hand. My writing on the revolution have focused only on the first half of the journey, and how print-on-demand technology was dramatically lowering the barriers to publishing. Though e-book readers have been around for many years, I thought it would take them a very long time to catch on (if they ever did), and that their impact would not be revolutionary. Boy was I wrong.

The second half of a book's journey from author to reader, from book for sale to book in hand, is also undergoing a revolution. In just a short time, e-books have become the dominant form of publishing books, outselling hardcover, trade paperback, and all other forms of publishing. Wow!

One great effect of the e-book readers is that many (or most) readers report that using the devices leads to vastly increasing the rate at which they consume books, such as going from two or three books a month to two or three books a week, or more. Amazing!

Most incredibly, however, it seems that the hopes that an e-book reader would "re-kindle" the industry have proven largely true. It is widely reported that Kindle owners buy more books. If they find an author they like and the price is right, many Kindle owners will simply buy everything available by that author. It is also widely reported that e-book reader owners simply buy more books than their physical-book-reading counterparts, so much so that Amazon is reported to be considering giving away the Kindle, knowing that readers will buy more than enough e-books to make up the cost. Incredible!

I must confess that I was ignorant of this aspect of the revolution for a long time. Now, however, I am a Kindle owner, and I have experienced first-hand the boost in reading quantity and quality, and I can attest to it's amazing ability to boost book buying. I'm absolutely hooked, and I can now imagine a future where e-books are the norm and printed books are rare.

All this has really caused me to seriously reconsider my place in the universe, and I'm on the verge of announcing a major decision. This is an exciting time to be a reader, and a great time to be a writer.

Goodbye 2010

2011-01-03T07:27:00-07:00

So there I was, working away on Taxi Adventure and The Broken Jack and Second Wind, coming to the end of what I had planned to be my year of adventure in full-time writing, when my wife discovered something life-changing: she was pregnant. I don't know what that might be an EBOR to, but, wow. Suddenly, I needed an immediate infusion of either cash or stability or both, and I didn't have any good ideas.

And then, literally days later, a big contract job I had been trying to line up for years came through. Sweet! Unfortunately, it was quite big, and very challenging, and though rather lucrative, it devoured my time and lasted until the end of December.

Just like that, it was goodbye spring, goodbye year of adventure, goodbye 2010.

It did wreck my writing as such, but it wasn't all bad. For one thing, truth be told, by spring 2010 I still wasn't sure how publishers and self-publishing and e-books and all that fit into my personal philosophy. With the break, I was able to get some distance and perspective, and I found a comfortable way of approaching the subject. I don't want to get into the solution now, but now I have one, and that's a good thing.

From a financial perspective, it was really great. I was able to make enough money to be comfortable with the baby on the way, and I was able to solidify a future of contract work that should complement my writing work and supplement my writing income nicely. When I left gainful employment for the year of writing adventure, this is exactly the place I hoped to land.

So, while 2010 came in on a gentle breeze and rushed out like a hurricane, it left me in a very good place. It's hard to find fault with that.