An Interview at Write Cafe

Nancy Wing writes a delightful blog about writing (and coffee consumption) and was kind enough to talk to Kindling Press.  Here she interviews us about KP, and why it exists, and what it's meant to be.  Thanks, Nancy!

"i want to be jk rowling"

One of the nicest features of blogspot is the stats function.

With this handy tool, bloggers can see how much traffic their blog has received, where it came from, and all sorts of interesting data to help improve their traffic. No, nothing personal or identifiable - but occasionally, something unusual crops up and presents itself as worthy of commenting.

In this case, it was a person who was directed to this blog after googling the phrase, "i want to be jk rowling".

Stop and think about that for a moment. J.K. Rowling. Author of the Harry Potter series. One of the best-known authors in the world, not to mention the richest. Somewhere out there, someone wanted to be her. And google, in its infinite wisdom, gave that person a link to the very blog you're reading right now.

I am utterly blown away by that. Who the heck are we, anyway? Kindling Press has existed barely a few months, officially. Its authors have been writing for a while, sure, but neither of us is what you would call a bestselling author. There is no reason on earth why anyone using that web search text should have found our blog.

But then again, that person was looking for something - something we're also seeking. Success. Maybe not J.K. Rowling-grade success, but success nonetheless. We're kind of like that anonymous seeker, in our own way. We're working toward it, building readership, exploring new markets and new opportunities, reaching out to other writers and doing everything we can to show them what we think is our best work. So yes - in our own way, we too are trying to become like J.K.R.

So, to the person who found us with that web search, I say: follow your dream. Never let go of it. And be prepared to work really, really hard. Maybe you won't reach that goal, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth trying for. I certainly wouldn't be here, writing this, if I didn't feel the same way you do.

Thanks for reading.

Apple gets all proprietary

I knew that Apple was wanting people to use the iTunes store to buy books for the iPad, but apparently they're really clamping down now. The changes don't seem all that major, I guess, but you apparently have to now leave your reading app, go to the appropriate store, buy the item, then load it into your app, because nobody wanted to pay a 30% cut to Apple for allowing in-app purchases without using the iTunes store.  I don't know how this will play out; it's not really terrible, just inconvenient.  But for iPad users, I wonder who will get the blame: Apple or the various ereader companies that are trying to avoid paying more money?

I couldn't say it better

No, really.  I don't know that I could.  Pamela Olson lays out why she went the self-published route, and hits every point clearly, completely and compellingly (which doesn't seem like a word, yet it is.)

Written Words in a Post-Scarcity Society

For all of human history, the written word has been controlled. Whether by political institutions, religious institutions, or publishing houses, there have always been gatekeepers standing between the writer and the reader determining what written works are worth disseminating. That's because, until recently, it cost time, effort, and raw materials to take a written work, reproduce it, and distribute it. From monks laboriously copying texts in monasteries to printing presses churning out new hardcovers, there has always been the necessity for an aggregation of capitol capable of taking risks in investing in a particular book. Readers have had to rely on the judgement of publishers to determine what is worthy to publish, what will sell, what is "good."

No more. While it still takes the usual amount of blood sweat and tears out of an author to write the book in the first place, the advent of digital distribution means that author can replicate his work a near infinite number of times for a cost approaching nil and disseminate it to an audience of millions. The publishing houses are terrified of this, of course, as it effectively destroys their very reason to exist. They continue to cling to existence, however, because this new model of digital distribution has two major problems of its own.

The first significant problem is that of too much choice. When anyone can publish anything, how do readers find the writers whose books they would enjoy amidst the sea of words? In this respect, publishers continue to have the advantage. They have large marketing departments dedicated to telling us which books we should buy. They have art departments that come up with eye-catching covers. They have distribution deals with bookstores that get their physical artifacts at eye level on a shelf. I suspect, however, that as systems such as the Amazon store and other websites get better at categorizing, reviewing, and organizing the vast number of choices available, connecting readers with writers will get easier. Also, so long as price points stay low, people may be willing to take a chance on an author they've never heard of. What's better, taking a chance with a $.99 book or a $25 hardcover?

That brings me to my second significant problem: money. A digital file can be copied infinitely, distributed practically for free, and there's not a lot that can be done about it once its been released into the wilds of the internet. How will authors get paid? The publishers have the advantage here, too, as they have well-established systems for paying their authors based on books sold. That model, though, it toppling rapidly. When an author can make MUCH more money selling a book for $.99 online than he would make per copy sold by a publisher for $8, the incentive to migrate to e-books becomes significant. An author makes a pittance on a paper book, but can make 90%-100% profit on the same book sold digitally, depending on if he's using an online distributor like the Amazon store. This, of course, relies on the willingness of e-book readers to pay anything at all. There are still some controls in place that encourage payment. The Kindle, for instance, is hardware that uses a proprietary format making it harder to copy a book willy-nilly. If Apple's iTunes store has taught us anything, people are willing to pay for something they could otherwise get for free if it's: 1) convenient, 2) cheap.

So as we enter this brave new world of limitless words, I encourage everyone to swim to their heart's content. You may find some terrible books. You may find many hidden gems by authors who may never have seen the light of day under the previous regime. Hopefully associations of authors such as Kindling Press will crop up to make choices easier in our post-scarcity reading lives.

Interesting. As far as it goes.

I wish this article was a little longer, a little less fluffy.  I wish it was a NY Magazine article from the weekend edition and really went into the meat of why things were changing, and what was changing.  Instead, it's a tiny little puff piece that doesn't really justify its title.  But I still find that it's a good read, and probably, if this isn't a topic you know anything much about, it's informative enough of the basic conditions.  The one thing it does tell me is that the publishing industry is capable of responding, if a bit slowly still faster than many have thought it would.  Will conventional publishing change quickly enough to keep fully in the game as the next couple years change the landscape completely?  I don't know.  But they're starting to change, it appears, and that's noteworthy.