Thoughts on Newsletters

By James M. Jackson

Authors are largely responsible for promoting their books and their careers. With limited time (and budget) they want to find effective ways to connect with readers. Blogs, like Writers Who Kill, can work, but with the slash of its corporate pen, Google could kill Blogspot and the 4,400 blogs in our archive. Many experts suggest creating and nurturing a mailing list as one of the few ways to develop an asset that belongs to the author without the threat of corporate interference.

Having watched Amazon, Facebook, X (the social platform formally known as Twitter), TikTok, and other entities authors have relied on to reach readers arbitrarily change rules, ban authors, shut down services, etc., I think the experts are correct that while these platforms have proved useful to many, relying on them may result in a catastrophic business loss over which the author has little control.

Given my bias of disliking others controlling my destiny, I committed to put more effort this year into growing and tending to my newsletter. One of my first steps was to participate in a promotion with a group of thriller/suspense writers. In return for signing up for my newsletter, readers had the chance to receive a free ebook from me and be entered into a grand prize that included free ebooks from all thirty participating authors. The promotion cost $55, which I could earn back if only one of the 400 people who signed up purchased all the books in my series.

I wanted to use this opportunity to understand how the other authors handled their newsletter and learn from their practice. To do that, I signed up for the promotion. I expected to be included on twenty-nine new email lists, and that was my first surprise: So far, a month later, only half have sent me a newsletter. Maybe I will receive a few new ones in March, but this strikes me as a missed opportunity.

Of those who sent me newsletters, the vast majority focused on convincing me to buy their terrific books, usually through one or multiple promotions. Two offered a free book and then immediately went into sales mode. After two or three sales-oriented newsletters, they had written nothing that interested me, and I unsubscribed.

Only three provided a welcoming sequence that emphasized bringing me into their world. They told me a little about themselves: why they write, where they grew up, their pets. They provided information about their writing. Some mentioned what they were reading. One provided interesting background to one of their books. They also had books on offer, but the primary emphasis (it seemed to me) was to create a connection between me and them.

With that information, I learned one author’s stories are not the kind I enjoy. I dropped off her newsletter—no reason to cost her money by remaining a subscriber. The other two I will continue to read and probably buy a book to see if I enjoy their stories.

I provide an “onboarding” sequence for my newsletter subscribers (I call them my Readers Group). Over two and a half weeks, I send six newsletters. Like the two authors whose newsletters I still receive, I include information about myself, my writing, Seamus McCree (my series character), links to either a free novel and short story, and information about the series. At the conclusion, I encourage anyone who doesn’t think they are interested in my kind of writing to unsubscribe.

Given my preferences, it’s no surprise I drop out of the sales-only newsletters and gravitate toward those authors who bring me into their world. But, rather than patting myself on the back because I agree with myself, my question for you is what do you enjoy reading in an author’s newsletter?

If you'd like to join my Readers Group, here's the link to sign up.

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com.

Why Amazon Must Change Its E-Book Royalties to Indie Authors

by James M. Jackson

Indie authors have had a love/hate relationship with Amazon for years. Circa 2011–12, Amazon decided as a market strategy that e-books should cost between $2.99 and $9.99. This strategy is outdated and harmful to Indie authors.

 Amazon formed their theory as part of their battle with the major publishers about Amazon’s right to discount e-books regardless of publishers’ list prices. At the time, Amazon was trying (and succeeding) to build market share and was willing to sell e-books at a loss. This blog focuses not on Amazon’s turf war with large publishers, but on how Amazon applied their vision of e-book pricing to the detriment of Indie authors.

 I don’t know the exact date, but by 2012 Amazon set the royalty rate for Indie authors at 70%, but only if they priced their e-books in the golden window of $2.99 through $9.99. If an author priced an e-book outside of that preferred range, Amazon dropped the royalty rate in half to 35%. Amazon presented a rationale that went something like this: because there were no production costs, no storage costs, and virtually no return costs, e-books should cost consumers significantly less than print books.

If one only focuses on manufacturing expenses, Amazon’s analysis is correct: e-books cost less to produce per copy than paperback and hardcover books. However, authors sell more than a physical product; they sell hours of entertainment (or perhaps education for non-fiction works). Amazon ignored this inconvenient fact and relied on the cost of production analysis to set $9.99 as an appropriate top price. Perhaps not coincidentally, $9.99 is an attractive marketing price point. It ends in ninety-nine cents and the dollar amount is one digit, not two.

At the low end, they arbitrarily proclaimed that anything below $2.99 was discounting the value of an author’s work below what it was worth, or words that affect. Even if you bought their general philosophy, they left mammoth holes in their logic. For example, they made no differentiation between short stories that could run, say, 5000 words, and multiple-book boxed sets whose total word count could easily exceed 500,000 words.

The only way a short story author could earn seventy percent royalty on their work product was to either charge $2.99 (generally considered way too expensive for an electronic version of a short story) or combine multiple short stories into an anthology. A boxed set containing 500,000 words is the equivalent of five 100,000-word novels, each of which Amazon believes should not cost less than $2.99. Amazon should encourage a minimum price of at least $14.95, but if the Indie author charges that amount, Amazon subjects them to a 35% royalty rate

Amazon retains its right to discount an author’s e-book whenever they chose (and keep paying the normal royalty rate). But if the Indie author discounts their e-book below the $2.99 minimum, their royalty rate drops.

In 2014, Amazon created Kindle Unlimited (KU), a subscription service for readers. Indie authors who choose to list their e-book exclusively in KU have several perks that lessen the financial burden of pricing e-books priced outside of Amazon’s golden window. Two key features are (1) the ability for Indie authors to periodically run promotional sales and keep the 70% royalty rate, and (2) in KU, since it pays authors based on pages read not books read, boxed sets and short stories are on the same footing as regular novels.

Yeah, Jim, I hear you. But it’s been ten years since Amazon created the golden window of pricing, and seven years since they introduced Kindle Unlimited. This is all old news. What has changed?

Inflation.

In the decade since Amazon introduced its golden window of e-book pricing, prices as measured by CPI–U rose 23.543%. (The December 2011 CPI-U of 225.672 increased to 278.802 in December 2021.) Amazon’s golden window of e-book pricing rose exactly 0.000%.

Even if we assume that Amazon’s heavy handed royalty rules were appropriate at the beginning of 2012, they are outdated now. Amazon has not suffered by their lack of action, but Indie authors have. To reflect the overall level of inflation in the decade, the $9.99 maximum should now be $12.34. The inflation-adjusted equivalent of the $2.99 “minimum” is $3.69.

Keeping the $9.99 maximum becomes another method for Amazon to exploit its position as a dominant player in the U.S. e-book market to disadvantage Indie authors.

Since I think Amazon should pay 70% royalties on any e-book, I’m not advocating for them to increase the $2.99 minimum to $3.69. However, Amazon must increase the top end of its golden pricing range from $9.99. I suggest $12.99 as a minimum to accommodate expected inflation during 2022.

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.

Whose Words Are They? by Kait Carson

This is November. To most folks, that means Thanksgiving and the start of a hectic holiday season that doesn’t wind down until January. To writers it means NaNoWriMo. The National Novel Writing Month. Writers who participate challenge themselves to write fifty thousand words. They may not be good words, that’s not the point. The point is to get it on paper because you can’t edit a blank page. There is much to say for this philosophy. It’s successful, and many novels have been conceived in November.

 

In 2009 I took part in Nano, as it’s affectionally known, and I completed the word challenge. Diving Diva wasn’t the first book I’d written, but it was the first one I thought might be good enough to publish. Four years later, after extensive revision and a change of title to Death by Blue Water, Henery Press picked up the book, and I spent the next few days doing a happy dance. Thank you, Nano!

 

My Henery contract provided that all rights would revert to me after five years. The rights to Death by Blue Water reverted in 2019. Those to Death by Sunken Treasure contractually came home to mama two years later. Perfect timing. The pandemic that cost me my day job in July of 2020 opened the possibility of pursuing writing as a full-time job. How lucky was I to begin a full-time indie author career with two books “in the can.” By the time I finished setting Blue Water up for publication, I’d have the rights back to Sunken Treasure. Easy peasy.

 

I set my feet on the well-worn path of reviewing the books, omitting references to the traditional publisher and making necessary edits. The only major change was new covers for each book. I did not own the rights to the original artwork. Those rights stayed with the artist and/or publisher. Besides, I intended to continue the series. A new look helps create a new brand. Unfortunately, my artistic talent is limited to stick figures and turkeys drawn by tracing my own hand. I thank my lucky stars for Polly Iyer and her amazing talent. She prepared two outstanding covers for the existing books and a third for the now-in-edits Death Dive that -capture the atmosphere of the series.

 

Amazon provides basic formatting for e and paper books, but I wanted something a step above, and the opportunity to easily publish on platforms other than Amazon. A program named Vellum is and has been the gold standard, but it operates only on Apple products. I am a PC user. Fate intervened and last month Atticus was released. Atticus is the PC user’s answer to Vellum. Whew, saved by innovation! I have to master the program, but early indications are that it’s non-techy friendly. I typically know just enough about my software to be dangerous to myself. The support team has been great.

 

Do you sense a dark cloud looming on the horizon? I belong to the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime and receive their self-publishing forum emails. One of my fellow Guppies had recently submitted her book for publication to Amazon--a previously published book to which she had received a rights reversion. Amazon questioned the author’s right to publish the work and publication day was delayed while the author proved her ownership. A wrinkle I hadn’t anticipated. After all, no matter the publisher, traditional or self, the author holds the copyright to the words. The problem arises at the production end. Amazon cannot afford to be seen as a pirate platform. That’s both understandable, laudable, and something that I must resolve before I decide on a publication date.

 

Whose words are they? They are mine. Forged in NaNoWriMo and buffed to a high sheen through revisions and editing. Amazon does not question that. What may be in question is whether having written the words gives me the right of re-publication. Amazon’s response to my query email glossed over the question of the return of rights. It focused on the suggestion that I publish using KDP and offered information on the mechanics of self-publishing. I wrote again to confirm that Amazon understands my question is not one of mechanics but rights. An unexpected wrinkle in an otherwise smooth process.

 

Pray that you live in interesting times. The life of a writer is always exciting!

Bowker Infuriates

by James M. Jackson

If a publisher or independent author wants bookstores to order a book, it must have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). In the United States an outfit named Bowker has a monopoly on issuing the 13-digit numbers. You’ve probably seen them on the barcode on a book’s back cover or inside a book on its copyright page.

As with most monopolies, their product doesn’t come cheap. If you only need one ISBN, it’s $125. You can get 10 for $295; 100 for $575, and if you’re big enough to buy 1,000, it costs $1,500 (only $1.50 per title). That’s one heck of a discount compared to $125 for one.

Bowker doesn’t just sell and manage ISBNs. They market services to self-publishers, offer (for a price) to register your copyright, etc., etc. But I digress.

Here’s the sad tale of ISBN 978-1-943166-16-9.

978: A prefix assigned to media barcodes by an international organization

1: English-speaking country

943166: Registrant, in this case Wolf’s Echo Press

16: Publication, here it’s the trade paperback version of Seamus McCree U.P. North (the e-book version has a separate ISBN)

9: A checksum digit to help catch typos or electrical transmission issues in the first 12 digits.

Taken together they tell those in the know that this ISBN represents the trade paperback version of Seamus McCree U.P. North published by Wolf’s Echo Press, and that someone purchased the ISBNs in a batch of 100.

Bookstores use ISBNs to order books and maintain inventory. It’s used to determine what entity may publish the book—not in a legal sense, but in a practical one. For example, before publishing a book through KDP (Amazon’s self-publishing platform), one check the book must pass is that the ISBN listed within the book matches the ISBN on the back cover, and that ISBN and title match the database maintained by Bowker.

Here comes the frustrating part. For Seamus McCree U.P. North, Bowker has the title listed as Seamus Mccree U.P. North (note the lack of a capital C in McCree). KDP has several quality checks it performs before it publishes a print book. One of the last is to make sure the proposed title and the one in Bowker’s database match. Mine didn’t, so no publication.

I am prone to typos and lately the stars have been aligned against me, so I figured I screwed up. Doubly so, because I had done the same thing for the electronic version of the book. After mentally giving myself a head slap, I changed the Bowker database online, checked twice to make sure I had it right, waited the day it takes for the database to update, and . . .

Dang if the database didn’t revert from the McCree I had typed in to the undesirable Mccree.

On May 16, I called Bowker’s help desk. The individual checked the database, understood the problem, and gave me an email address to report it as there was nothing he could do. I emailed a description of the problem and asked for resolution. Thank you for your assistance.

And a week later I sent a follow-up.

And six days after that I called the help desk and told them I had heard nothing and needed another way to contact someone who would respond. He sent an email (and copied me, so I know it happened). As of this writing, I am still without resolution, which means the only way anyone can get a print version of Seamus McCree U.P. North is by ordering from me because I can get “pre-publication” copies.

People can’t buy them from Amazon because the titles MUST MATCH before they will publish it. People can’t order them from their favorite bookstore either until Bowker fixes their database.

I’ve spent fruitless hours I could have spent doing something productive or fun. I’ve challenged my arteries with raised blood pressure. Now I’ve written a blog on the topic to relieve said blood pressure. (Not successful.) But now you know how Bowker works—or doesn’t in my case.

Update: Bowker responded to the email a day later, informing me they had made a fix in the database records by inserting the correct title and blocking any access to change it. Not elegant, but it should work. Unfortunately, I still can't publish the print version on KDP. It turns out that when Bowker "fixed" the title, they added a space between the U. and the P., and of course for KDP, I had it as U.P. without the space.

So, I tried to make that change, only to discover that dunderhead that I am, I managed to have a typo in the publisher's name. KDP needed both the new title and the publisher to match the ISBN. If I tried changing either one, all I got was an error that the book did not match the record. The KDP help desk couldn't help, but then I came up with the solution. I removed Wolf's Echo Press and the publisher and temporarily made KDP the publisher. That allowed me to change the Title to include the space between the U. and the P. that I didn't want, but have to live with. With the title fixed, I could again use my ISBN (making sure to spell Wolf's Echo Press correctly) and poof! it let me publish. At least I think -- it is under the up-to-72-hour review.

Self-Publishing: It ain’t always easy

By James M. Jackson

When authors consider self-publishing, they are usually attracted to being in control. They can decide on the cover, pricing, how quickly to publish. All profits accrue to them.

All the hassles also fall on the author’s back, as the past few weeks have reminded me.

The Amasa (nearest village to where I live) historical society offered me the opportunity to sell and sign books at their Memorial Day event. I donate a copy of Cabin Fever for their auction each year. Terrific timing, I thought, my next Seamus McCree novel, False Bottom, will be out by then. I agreed, and then things didn’t go as I planned.

I hope readers of my books find very few typos or formatting errors. Assuring that is the case was one reason I switched from traditional publishing to self-publishing. The problem was, I thought False Bottom had gone through its final copyedit and only needed proofing and formatting to be ready. A final read revealed issues. Fixing anything has the potential to introduce additional errors. It took a lot longer than I anticipated to polish this novel.

I’d put together a schedule with drop-dead dates and I was still okay. While I was fussing with False Bottom, I decided on a marketing idea directed at new northern readers. I’d produce a compendium of the two novels (Cabin Fever and Empty Promises) set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, plus two short stories set in the same area. I called it Seamus McCree U.P. North. That meant another cover to design, print and e-book formatting, but at least I didn’t need to proof anything other than the introduction. That would be perfect for Memorial Day. The timing was tight, but I could do it.

Before I order a bunch of print copies of a book, I’ve learned to order a proof copy. Despite thinking an electronic version is perfect, things can go awry in the printing process. Colors may not appear as expected, placement of graphics on a page might change, who knows what else. I ordered the False Bottom proof with the understanding it could take up to a week to arrive.

Good news: it showed up in three days. Bad news: When I created the cover using Photoshop, I included an extra layer that made the cover much darker than I had intended. Good thing I ordered a proof.

I had plenty of time to order a new proof, but there was a rub. If it arrived in three days, I could have it shipped to Madison; but because we were heading to our place in the U.P., we’d be gone if it took a week. And if it arrived in three days in the U.P., it would get forwarded to Madison. I had to wait three days to avoid the issue. This time, the second proof took the entire week. My drop-dead dates were fast approaching.

The proof looked great. I tried to take the book live on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and got an error message to fix the highlighted issue. No issues were highlighted. Support told me the problem was that a book with the same ISBN had been previously published. I knew that was wrong. He told me to Google the ISBN. I did. False Bottom showed up on Goodreads with an expected publication date of that day. Oh, he’d write a support ticket. They’d get back to me in the next 24-72 hours.

The drop-dead window was upon me.

At 5:11 pm Central time, I received an email with the explanation. The Bowker listing for the ISBN had the titled spelled Fasle Bottom, which did not match my title. My transposition typo, something I am doing more frequently these days. I fixed the Bowker listing—but any change needs review, and it sat with a Pending status until the next morning.

Either I published the print version that day or I couldn’t guarantee having books in hand for the Memorial Day event. I resubmitted to KDP to publish. Good news: No errors. Bad news: It can take up to 72 hours for KDP to approve a new publication. Because the most recent changes I’d made to my files had been to electronic versions—and KDP had always approved those the same day—I neglected to add three days to the schedule.

In the meantime, I received the proof version of Seamus McCree U.P. North on the same day as the one for False Bottom arrived. It looked good. I went to publish it on KDP and got the same error. Aha, I said, I know what this is, and sure enough I checked the Bowker listing for that ISBN and discovered I had put in Seamus Mccree U.P. North (small c, not capital C). Weirder, I had done the same thing on both the print and e-book ISBNs. I’ve typed McCree so many times, I couldn't imagine I’d screwed it up twice, but the proof was before my eyes.

I submitted the changes, waited a day for “pending” to change to “approved.” The next morning, I checked. Something in Bowker’s software had changed it back to Seamus Mccree U.P. North. I called the help line; he understood the problem but couldn’t fix it. I’d have to email a specific address he gave me and describe the issue. They’d respond within 72 hours. As I write this blog, I have just passed the 24-hour mark.

KDP approved the False Bottom print version the day after I submitted it. I placed an order for books, which will arrive May 24 - May 28. Memorial Day is May 27.

The Seamus McCree U.P. North cannot possibly arrive in time.

On Memorial Day, I’ll have the proof copies to showcase and take orders. I’ll hand-deliver the books for locals. If they are out-of-town visitors, I’ll mail them for free.

And if there is a next book, I’ll push my drop-dead date two-weeks earlier. I don’t need this stress.

Self-publish versus Micro-press

by James M. Jackson

Recently someone posted a message—a rant from my perspective—on one of the online self-publishing groups to which I belong that stated no one should publish with a micro-publisher. Since my Wolf’s Echo Press is a nano-press, I thought a more nuanced approach to considering whether to use a small publisher or become self-published was warranted.

At its basic level, the difference between self-publishing and publishing with a very small press is this: when you self-publish you receive all the revenue from your sales, and you are responsible for all the tasks to bring your novel to the market. When you contract with a publisher, you agree to give the publisher a portion of the revenue, and they agree to perform some of the tasks of bringing your novel to market.

When you are responsible for a publishing task, you can hire someone to do it or do it yourself. If you do it yourself, you need to have or learn the necessary skills, and it takes time away from other activities (like writing the next book). If you can’t or don’t want to do it yourself, it takes up-front money.

You wrote the book, and you polished it as well as you could—or at least as much as you chose—and now you are at the decision point of what publisher (including yourself) you’ll choose. Before selecting a publisher, it’s important to understand what they will and will not do to earn their share of the revenue stream.

Developmental Editing: Many presses perform a developmental edit of your work. You should understand how thorough that edit will be and who will do it. Some presses have full-time staff. Most use either a stable of on-call people or, in small presses, the owner performs that work. A full developmental edit, which is what I do for Wolf’s Echo Press clients, considers and offers suggestions about story inconsistencies, character inconsistencies, theme development, pacing, sub-plots, and character arcs—all with the intent to bring out the best in your story.

Some small presses provide little or no developmental editing. That may be fine if you have run your novel through a qualified critique group or have a stable of good beta readers, but even then, friends may have their own blind spots whereas an outsider brings a fresh perspective.

Copyediting and Proofreading: Once the story is locked down, it still needs copyediting and proofreading. My theory is that your name and the publisher’s name are both on the title page and both should want to produce a clean document. It’s nigh to impossible to create an 80,000-word, error-free book. How close does your publisher come and what is their process?

The best way to check the quality of the copyediting and proofing is to read, or at least skim, several of the publisher’s published books. You can often download free sample chapters from a publisher’s website or read the first portion of a book on Amazon.

Even if you have a perfect understanding of Chicago Manual of Style (or whatever style you use), I believe no one can proofread their own material. We read what we “know” to be there instead of what is actually there, and it’s especially hard to catch your own homonym errors.

Print Layout: While you are checking the quality of the copyediting and proofing, pay attention to the way the publisher laid out the print copy. Is it clear, readable, and attractive? Does it meet industry standards, or does it cram type onto a page to reduce the number of pages. Do the justified lines occasionally cause wide spacing between words? Do pages begin with a single line that should have been attached to the rest of the paragraph on the previous page? You worked hard to choose the right words, will the publisher display them in a manner that does you proud?

Electronic Layout: Do the electronic versions of the publisher’s books also look attractive? Go through the same evaluation process as for print.

Book Covers: Again, look at the publisher’s published works. Is that what you want for your book? If you already have a cover, will the publisher consider using it, and will they change the royalty terms?

Print Distribution: Where and how does your publisher distribute your book? Many small publishers use Print on Demand (POD) outfits such as CreateSpace, KDP, and IngramSpark to create print versions of your book. These are the same sources you would use if you were doing it yourself.

What retail stores (if any) will your book be automatically distributed to? Most nano- and micro-publishers have no ability to get a book into Barnes & Noble or Walmart. Does the publisher allow returns—or give you the choice to allow or disallow returns? If returns are allowed, are they charged against author royalties?

Electronic Distribution: Does the publisher insist on a strategy (going-wide, staying with Amazon only to take advantage of Kindle Unlimited) or, as Wolf’s Echo Press does, allow the author to choose an approach if they wish?

Marketing Efforts: What marketing, if any, does the publisher use? The sad fact is that books rarely sell themselves, and most of the responsibility for marketing falls on the author. Does the publisher take out ads? Engage in reduced-price sales events? Will the publisher share costs with the author? If Wolf’s Echo Press agrees to a marketing effort, it splits the costs with the author.

Royalties: Although it may be the first thing an author considers, if there are no book sales because of a failure in anything above, it doesn’t matter what the royalty terms are. Let’s assume you will have sales, so how are royalties split between publisher and author? Is it the same or different for print and electronic copies? Wolf’s Echo Press pays 50% of net revenue for both print and electronic.

Statements and Payment: How often does the publisher issue statements, and when do they make payments? A self-published author receives a plethora of monthly statements, one from each of the distribution entities that sold a book. The publisher does the work of consolidating the information into a single place, but their process also will delay payments. Wolf’s Echo Press issues monthly statements and pays royalties within sixty days once they reach a minimum threshold. You’ll have fewer payments to keep track of with a publisher, but they will be delayed compared to self-publishing.

Taxes: One advantage of using a publisher is when it comes to tax time. They provide you with a single IRS Form 1099 that shows your paid royalties for the year. Self-published authors must maintain and aggregate that information themselves.

Inevitable Typos: Despite everyone’s best effort, what happens when a reader contacts you because they found a typo on page 117? Some publishers (like Wolf’s Echo Press) will correct electronic versions of the work so future readers have a better experience. Others can’t be bothered. Similarly, what happens if some of your back-matter changes?

This is not an exhaustive list of things to consider, but if you do your homework, you should have a good feel for whether a publisher is right for you, or if self-publishing is the best approach.

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree mystery series. Empty Promises, the fifth novel in the series—this one set in the deep woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—is now available. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.

On Writing by Julie Mulhern

In January of this year, I made the heart-stoppingly terrifying decision to quit my day job and write full-time.

For years, I’d been one of those writers who rose before the chickens. I got so I didn’t need the alarm at five in the morning. I was already up, fingers poised over the keyboard, writing. At seven, I’d switch gears and go to work. My series, The Country Club Murders, had a home with a publisher I adored. The books were selling well. But I wanted more.

I dreamed of making a living writing.

Therein lies one of the myths of publishing and one of my first lessons. Before I was published, I was certain writers made buckets of money. Granted, not everyone could earn like James Patterson or Janet Evanovich, but I was certain that mid-listers were making a comfortable living. After I was published, I grasped the math.

When an author sells an e-book on Amazon or Kobo or iBooks or Barnes & Noble, the store takes a cut. Percentages vary based on pricing, but the store makes its money first.

I have a publisher who collects the royalties from my Country Club Murders book sales. The publisher gets a cut.

I also have an agent. She too gets a percentage of my earnings.

The percentages are worse for print.

At the end of the day, I make less money than the bookseller or publisher.

My options seemed clear. If wanted to make a living writing, I had two choices. Either I figured out how to be James Patterson or I kept more of the royalties generated by my books.

Which is why I dipped my toe into self-publishing.

Starting a new series is tough. Tougher than the first time because now I know the pitfalls. The world is set in the first book. The characters are created. Their backstories are revealed. There’s a lot to think about.

The first book in the Country Club Murders takes place in June, 1974. The second book is set in September of that year. Without thinking, I gave away a whole season. If I wanted the Country Club Murders to stay firmly rooted in the 70s, I had to slow time. Now, Ellison finds bodies on a near weekly basis and time inches by rather than leaps.

Those first few days of being a full-time writer, I sat in front of the computer and stared at the screen. World? Characters? Plot? What had I done? I’d left the security of a job I’d had for ten years to create, and I couldn’t create. Maybe my creativity was limited to the hours of five to seven in the morning. Maybe, I’d write something so terrible not only would it bomb, but it would take the County Club Murders with it in a fiery explosion of awfulness.

I’d dreamed of effortless creativity. The reality was a butt-in-chair job that required serious thought. And slowly—too slowly—the words came. A character came into focus. A world was created. A plot took shape.

Not that everything was harder. Somewhere in the first few years of writing, I found my voice. That didn’t change. Nor did the nuts and bolts of building a story need to be relearned. Those hard-won lessons about active writing, point of view, and specificity still applied.

So, two months late (according to the ridiculously over-optimistic schedule I set for myself), I self-published my first book, Fields’ Guide to Abduction. It didn’t bomb.

Here’s a second publishing lesson, no one can make a living off of one book. But—but—I can see the roadmap for the future and chasing a dream is a risk worth taking.

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Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders and the Poppy Fields Adventures.

A Kansas City native, she grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean--and she's got an active imagination. Truth is--she's an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog, and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.

The “Last” Typo

by James M. Jackson

Tuesday marked the day when I officially sent Empty Promises out into the world to live or die as the fates and readers decide. One disadvantage of being your own publisher is that when your product has an error, there is no one to blame but yourself. Just to be perfectly clear, I don’t like screwing up. No one does, but I really don’t.

That strong desire for perfection might keep me from publishing anything including this blog. Fortunately, my son had an English teacher who once said in passing something to the effect that “no writing is ever perfected; the author finally decides to abandon it.” I remind myself of that every time I hesitate to push “send” or “publish.”

But before I can make that commitment, I often have to read it “just one more time” to find the last typo. I know it’s hiding somewhere—and deep in my heart, I know that even if I find that one, there is one more last typo hiding somewhere else. It is darn near impossible to have an error-free, 90,000-word novel. I swear commas can and do move of their own accord between readings. Having only one error means the novel is 99.9989% correct. Even five errors mean 99.9944% is correct.

I’m a math-geek, but I can’t add a string of numbers ten numbers 90,000 times and be correct 89,995 of my attempts. I’ll transpose a number or miscarry a digit or something many more times than that and think nothing of it. Yet I want my novels to be error-free. So sad.

Empty Promises was available for pre-order on Amazon, and they insist the “final” version must be available three days before the release date. No problem: I was ready a month before. And then I discovered a typo—actually E. B. Davis discovered the typo. In one of her interview questions (see here for the entire interview) she asked what a pine martin was. Well, I was about to correct her typo—it’s a pine marten—when it occurred to me that maybe she had copied the error from my manuscript.

Sure enough, and that sucker had slipped through my editor and all three proofreaders (not to mention all the times I had reread the novel). Expletive deleted. I still had time to read the electronic version “one last time,” so I did.

And found four more typos!

A quotation mark was after a space rather than before it. Another quotation mark had doubled up. A comma had lost its tail and was masquerading as a period. The name of a business gained an “s” where their incorporation papers didn’t have it. Nothing critical, but all wrong.

I made the changes and submitted them before Amazon’s deadline. And then we had company come to visit. One of them had read my novella, Low Tide at Tybee, on the car trip down to Savannah and mentioned that she had spotted a typo. After another (silent) expletive deleted moment, I asked if she could find it. I couldn’t do much about the print editions, but I could fix all of the electronic ones. She did find it; I did make the correction. Anyone who buys the novella in the future won’t find that error.

All of which tells you two things about me. (1) I’m not good at this abandonment thing with my writing, and (2) if you find a typo, I want to know about it so I can fix it.

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree mystery series. Empty Promises, the fifth novel in the series—this one set in the deep woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—is now available. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.