Frankly, the business side of things gets a little repetitive… so I’m merging the blogs.

My “new” “main” blog will be here:  http://jimsworldofhorrorandmusicandstuff.blogspot.com/  I invite you to join me there where I’ll be posting like I do here but it’ll also have stuff about what I’m reading, listening to, watching… my personal thoughts on life, quotes, Tweets, and my link roll to some pretty cool sites.

It’s personal with a touch of business.

To those who won’t follow me over there, I understand, and the only part of this business that matters is WRITING.  You can read blogs all day long but at the end of the day you won’t have the word count needed to publish and make money.

Find your own path and follow it until it ends.

A year ago I sat at a computer confused with nothing to show for myself.

Today we have 45 titles published with 10 more being prepared for January 2012.  We’ve cross the “thousands” mark in sales figures and have seen steady growth since September. We have NO secret to anything… some people have grown faster than us, some haven’t.  The one thing we’ve done is simple:  WRITE.  The writers we work with WRITE.  I myself WRITE.  Our team WRITES WRITES WRITES.  It’s what we do and it works.

This will be the last post on this blog, so if you don’t follow me to my new blog, save this post and read it.  WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE

What am I looking forward to?

Last year, when the ball dropped and my Dad and I were slightly drunk, doing our best not to laugh at poor Dick Clark (come on, why do they still let him do the show???) I never thought I’d be where I am today.  Last year, compared to now, I was a baby.  I was a child with a pencil and a short story idea.  And that’s all I had – ideas.

2011 let me bring those ideas to life.  Pencils to pens to keyboards to manuscripts… to state documents to registering an actual company to seeing books hit the virtual world and become paperback books.  To seeing reviews pour in – some good, some bad (each one thickening my heart and skin).  To seeing numbers climb, fall, climb, fall, and climb… to seeing the actual bigger picture of this business and how to focus on it as a business and actually turn a profit.  

More so… to the even more ideas that have come to me.

Without saying too much to piss off my partners (then again, I own the company), we have a HUGE line up for 2012.

As a sampler:

- A 4 book series with Book One due in January 2012 (with the potential series being done in 2012)

- A whopping 12 book series!  Coming January/February 2012 (this one I am ‘ghost writing’ on)

- A potential men’s adventure/with-a-touch-of-sex series co-authored

- The Zombie Camp Trilogy from J Wiz

- The actual launch of the middle grade horror series from J Wiz

- A two part horror novella called Within the Walls

- ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES!

- And of course, some horror

Now, is this all me?  Nah, we have a hell of a team going right now.  But for 2012, it’s about production.  It’s about words on paper and books being published.

I’m shifting the crap aside…. the worries of Amazon and KDP Select.  The worries of advertising and marketing and Tweeting… I’m going back to where I belong – at the damn keyboard so I can entertain the hell out of you!

You should join me, it’s a fun place to be.

Bowie Ibarra is awesome and this is what he had to say about The Failed:

Jim Bronyaur contributes a great first entry into the zombieverse with “The Failed”.  Bronyaur is a craftsman with words, and “The Failed” is a tremendous story filled not only with the requisite scenes of zombie horror, but a well-told story with deep characters and quality storytelling.  The devilish cruelty of the opening pages is just the beginning of a zombie story that is certain to be a standard of zombie horror.

 

 

Social sharing for 2011…

What it shows for me is that there isn’t just one venue for sharing anymore, or at least one venue that does it all.  Facebook had more sharing than anyone else.  Google was down, Twitter was up a little, and Tumblr exploded into the 1,000%+ growth.

Tumblr is an interesting platform and usually the blogs I see there are eye catchy, poppy, etc. which is pretty cool.  I’ve actually since considered a little blog over there, just staying in contact with another group of people reading and sharing.

Now, how much social is too much?

That’s up to you… I personally am not very active on Google+.  Not that I’m against it, I just don’t have time.

I use Twitter and Facebook mostly.

Twitter is fun to stay in contact with people, meet people, engage in a short conversations, and share links.  I enjoy the hashtags, reading what’s happening, and getting involved.

Facebook is where I stay closer with friends and family.  I’m in quite a few groups and am able to have a conversation longer than 140 characters!

Things are growing and changing, fast.  It’s nice to keep our eyes open at what’s happening and align ourselves with it.  Always been on the lookout for another opportunity.

I enjoy this blog here to talk about writing and business stuff.  My other blog http://jimsworldofhorrorandmusicandstuff.blogspot.com/ I use to talk about movies and music… and stuff… haha.  It’s more personal – my thoughts on things I’ve read and watched and very informal.

But Tumblr could be cool, when I have the time to actually look at it and understand it.

What’s your social life like online?  How many sites, blogs, etc. do you have and does it work?

Article link: http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/21d1adb6-413d-4042-a7dc-bcca3cc98a64.aspx

I fully believe that too many people rely on Amazon, thinking of them as a partner versus a  distributor.  Now, comparing Amazon to B&N may be like comparing Wal-Mart to CVS… which I understand.  But no matter what comes next, for me or for you, it’s our choice.

Amazon put an option on the table.  There’s no right or wrong choice here – it’s all yours to make and follow, or not.

There has been talk that Amazon will take care of Select authors better or even that Amazon is testing the waters for something bigger in the future.

I say, fine and fine.

If Amazon treats the Select authors better, so be it.  They did offer Amazon exclusivity.  If Amazon has plans for the future to “force” authors into the program, then fine.  Let them.  I still have to day to sell books.

Why am I cool and calm?

Because I have other vendors!  I love them, I support them, and the customers there love me.  I’ve noticed a big uptick in sales on sites like Barnes & Noble and Smashwords in the past week.  Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe not, but either way, I feel safe with my decision to not opt into Select.

I’m not doing anything fancy to sell books on these sites… just making sure my links put people there.  There are millions of people with Nooks… right?  And anyone who has Twitter has a computer with an internet connection.  That means they can download .PDF copies…

I’ve also organized my site and books to have all the vendors right there, ready to go.  So I can post a link on Twitter calling out #kindle AND #nook in the same Tweet, and send the person to my site where they can choose.

Again, this is my process, and right now, it works.  That could change tomorrow.

Being in this business is tough because we have to plan for the future but what we cannot do is get lost in it.  We don’t know what will happen.

It’s like being a pizza shop owner and wondering when the world’s supply of tomatoes are going to run out.  Then you have a rough summer where food prices went up 20% and now you’re planning on the end of the tomato forever…

Okay, my examples suck.  I know.

But that’s how I look at it.  I keep it in the back of my mind that this can all go away.  But I can’t harp on it.  I can’t worry about it 24/7.  I have to focus on getting my books out to the people who continue to buy them each and every day.  They are the people I care about most… and if Amazon shut its doors to me, I’d thank them for their time and hope my readers would come with me over to the other vendors.   Will Amazon keep changing?  Yeah, it’s what they do.  I try to find the silver lining… and in this case, Amazon has said that $6m is put away for the Select program for 2012.  That tells me I still have KDP for at least a year.  That could change in a moment, but I hold onto it for now.

So, through the hundreds of pages of posts and opinions… the new data, the rushed data, the panics, the praise, and the hate… through the sites, boards, and networks… let’s all remember one thing:  It’s a choice.  Keep at that, keep it at your choice, and now go back to where you and I belong – at the keyboard writing the next book!

*sigh*

*yawm*

I’m over it.  You should be too.  Anyone who spends more than thirty seconds reading this particular post or any post on why indie’s will take over or how big publishing will die should be ashamed of themselves.  You should be writing!

What do I mean?

Okay, let’s take Stephen King.  How much does he make a year?  $20 million?  More?  A little less?

He does that with a big publisher… if he published it all on his own, how much MORE would he make?  3 times that… 6 times that… who knows.

But he doesn’t.

Does that make Stephen King an idiot?  No, it makes him an author.  He lets the publisher handle all the business stuff.  And there’s nothing wrong with that!  People will always query agents and agents will query editors, etc.

Not everyone wants to indie publish.

Think about how much goes into one book… writing, editing, proofing, formatting, cover, ISBN’s, uploading, tracking, marketing, pricing, collecting royalties… *whew*  Now, as a business owner, I also have… overhead, costs, taxes, etc.

It’s not quite as simple as upload and collect cash.  I wish it was.  This is a business and I treat it like a business.  I love what I do, from writing the story to tracking receipts, but it’s not an easy path.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a publisher do all this stuff… and I could just write… ah, to dream… but this is my life and I enjoy it.

Which brings me to my point… if you can cook eggs, does that mean you should open a breakfast restaurant?

NO.

Because the restaurant would be a business… okay, let me get to the point then… just because Stephen King can make $20 million a year, it doesn’t mean he should do it all on his own.  He needs the help, he welcomes the help, and he survive just fine.

I make kick ass tacos… but I’m not going to open a taco bar.  I like tacos.  I wouldn’t care for all the crap that comes with running a taco bar.  Just like some authors don’t want to do all the business stuff.  And that’s also why so many people jump into this business and bow out quickly.  This isn’t for the faint at heart and this isn’t for the person who writes one book.  This is a business and it must be treated with the respect a business deserves.  We must have plans and we must be able to execute those plans.

My dream in life has been to own my own business and to do something with either music or writing (or both).  Well, well, I’ve found my dream, right here.  I get write stories, share them with the world, and in the background, I get to be geeky with my giant spreadsheets tracking sales, books, vendors, patterns, trends, etc. along with all the accounting nonsense that goes along with it.  I spend at least an hour a night go over financial figures, analyzing things, making decisions.  It’s what I love to do as a business owner.

Look at Pottermore… that was supposed to change the world and it flopped.  It’s not all that easy, is it? 

So yes, big publishing may shift, may crack, may change, but to go away?  Come on… be real here.  There are enough big named authors to keep it stable, and there will always be authors signing new deals.  Are those authors’ idiots?  NO.  Are they making a bad choice?  NO.  Are they taking a different path than myself?  YES.  And so what, it’s their choice.

Everything is a trade-off in life and what works for you, make not work for me.  At the end of the day, the one thing we all can embrace is… the readers.  They’re out there, either holding paperback books, Kindles, Nooks, iPhones, iPads, etc.  They are the only thing that matters to me… how do I get to them, how do I entertain them, and how do I keep them coming back?  Everything else is just background noise.

For those who haven’t seen the news, Amazon KDP opened a new exclusive option for authors.

You have to give Amazon 90 Day exclusivity to your book – meaning NO other vendors can have it.

In return you get:

1. A chance to make your book free for 5 days within the 90 day period.  You could split the days up too.
2. Amazon put $500,000 in lending money to give out to indies… just indies… based on how many time their book is borrowed.

It seems like a sweet deal, but it comes with many sides to consider.  I’ve seen people jump right on it, not even reading the contract.  I’ve seen some instantly hating it.

Before anyone says a thing, each author needs to evaluate their goals, sales, and future before making a decision.  What’s good for you isn’t always good for me.  This is an option, not a scam or something.

There’s plenty of reading out there today about this so I encourage everyone to take a look at it.

Consider the following:

Are you prepared to NOT have your book sell anywhere else for 90 days?

Are you prepared to track you book on the 90 day mark (because if you don’t opt you, KDP opts you back in)?

Not that the lending is (1) for Prime members only and (2) Prime members can borrow 1 book a month

Now, I’m a Prime member, so the following is my personal actions… when I got for a book once a month, I’m going for the big priced titles.  $10 plus.  I’m not going to care about a $3 indie book… if I like it, I’ll just buy it.

But again, the exposure is nice, putting your title right with other big name authors in the lending library.

This is very interesting because it looks so good one second, kind of stupid the next second, but then good again.

I will say this though… Amazon is making a great step for indie’s with this.  They may be trying to beat the hell out of their competition (rumors are spreading that B&N and other vendors have made it so authors can’t take their books of their sites…) but one thing I’ve noticed is that Amazon actually got together with indie authors before making this decision.  They listened to some of us, and for that, I applaud them.

As of this writing, I will be opting into the Select program.  While I respect its potential and I highly thank Amazon for keeping the wheel turning, I just have too many sales elsewhere to do so.  Amazon accounts for half of my sales.  I can’t give up the other sales, customers, or people who prefer a Nook or a Sony or a Kobo reader.

I hope this is the beginning of good things between Amazon and authors… I hope they realize that we all need to work together to make money.  Every time someone pressed BUY on my book, Amazon makes money.

For my current projects and published projects, things will stay put.  As for future projects, who knows?

But again, I encourage all of you to PLEASE read the contract and read the views and opinions of those across the net.  There are so many good points supporting and against Select, it’s worth reading and thinking about.

Exclusivity isn’t always a bad thing… but at the same time, we are supposed to be expanding… so this definitely goes both way.

Let’s talk free…

Those who know me, know I’m not a fan of it.  I know it’s worked for some and that’s great, but I believe that free is a temporary strategy, not a publishing plan.

But back to my point.

With the release of KDP Select, there are now some open questions about FREE.  Those who sign up for Select can make their books free for 5 days within the 90 day window.

My first reaction was YUCK – more free stuff?

But I started reading a series of responses suggesting that the only way to get your book free is to be in the Select program.  For that, I give thumbs up.

Why?

Because… people would be limited to 5 days within 90 days.

Free isn’t always good… if people started giving everything for free, consumers would get used to it.  And free is a gamble, and there are plenty of posts out there that support why we need to value our books.

If the people are in the Select program, they can’t publish on the other vendors.  So for those who can’t live without having a book free, while their bound to Amazon for 90 days, I’ll be on B&N, Smashwords, Omnilit, etc. still selling my books.

I also hope that this program and limitations of free will encourage authors to get back to the keyboard and WRITE!  You need to write to sell books.  Those with two books out, complaining about sales, need to shut up.  Go write another book!  Those with two books out, crappy sales, and making their books free… what do you think you’ll get back?  There’s no incentive to come back, if someone gets the free book and reads it.

I still say we put value on our books and price accordingly.  Again, that’s up for debate and I won’t argue with anyone who chooses free… it’s personal choice.

But for the Select program, if that’s the only way to be free, I’m okay with it.  Because it will be a controlled free system, with more organization and it won’t be a constant free thing… you have 5 days per title within 90 days.  It’ll keep things rotated.

But I still don’t have the definite answer from Amazon whether the free option is ONLY via Select…

This is the first horror novel I’ve written since The Failed was finished back in the summer.  And even that wasn’t true horror in the sense of the elements because of the zombie element.  Zombies are fun because they themselves stand alone as the centerpiece to design scenes around.

But when you face horror… one on one… wow, there are so many options to explore and clichés to avoid.

The Floors is about a house that has secrets within the floors.  More than that, I have the personal elements of the people living there coincide with the horror waiting – and coming – from the floors.  I’m not a fan of just jump off the page horror with one dimensional people.  Sometimes in horror, the scariest thing is the people – the characters, etc.  Good characters make great books in any genre.

Building the back story for the house and the floors was fun, trying to come up with something original that was dark and scary, but yet something that could not only happen, but in some sick way, it makes sense.  A solid background can serve as a solid foundation in writing, so use it and enjoy it.  If you have cracks, things will slip through and hurt the story.

So, while I do apologize for not being around this blog more right now, I’m glad to be back in horror… I’ve seen the release of The Failed AND I’ve launched my middle grade horror life under the pen name J Wiz with the release of Zombie Mist.  My plans for that are HUGE.  I have a zombie trilogy coming early next year plus an actual series of horror books.  As far as being Jim Bronyaur, up next we have a horror story called Within the Walls coming hopefully by Christmas.  I’m on a little kick of terror in the home – maybe because I sit in the basement all day and night and write.  I also have an interesting concept for a zombie story that needs a little more tweaking.

Being busy is working and working is fun, sometimes.  There’s a lot of crap out there right now – and I’m we’ve seen most of it.  Books to Amazon to books selling or not selling to the end of the publishing world and back… but let’s keep the sights cleared because the words are the only thing that matter.  Consider the best and worst case scenario here…

Best case:  Amazon and the other vendors leave their gates open and we are able to publish and earn a living… (key there is WE have to publish and earn a living… not rely on Amazon.  They aren’t the sellers, they are the vendors/distributors).

Worse case:  All these place shut down to “non-traditional” books.  So be it then… because (1) there will always be a place to sell your books because it’s big money now and (2) if that’s the case, I’ll have at least a dozen full manuscripts to bother agents and publishers with… WITH previously published books that have a proven track record.

Never stop working my friends.  Writing is all we can control, and do.

For those who are in this game, working our asses off, we quickly realize how bad of a deal this is.  It’s suicide in so many ways… all you do is pay, pay, pay.  Penguin gets their hooks in the person by stating that the manuscript will pass before the eyes of Penguin and if they like the ms, they may contact the author for a contract.

You can read this ten times over, Google it for all I care to learn more, but the question is this… who would fall for something so horribly stupid?

The answer… ME.

Well, me a year ago.

See, when you’re sitting and writing and editing and searching and finding nothing, and the rejections pile up, and the world is going to cave in, you’ll do anything for hope.  I’ve been there.  Hell, I once paid $15 to submit writing to a magazine to have the editor write back and tell it was horrible.  Ouch. 

This service with Penguin is from $99 to $500 which is a hell of a range if you ask me. 

But who would pay for it?  Someone who believes it’s easy to make money.  Someone who thinks a person like Hocking, Locke, Konrath, Mayer, etc. are just run of the mill people that got lucky.  Someone who doesn’t have the one year plan, three year plan, five year plan.  And someone who doesn’t have another book writing, written, or ready.

That’s who.

And I could see Penguin making money off this.  People will do a lot thinking their books are the greatest and to have “big publishing” eyes hit it. 

I’m sure there’ll be a success story from this, like everything, but as writers, we need to calm the hell down and focus.

To add to the emotion of it all, the article I read in WSJ had a picture of Amanda Hocking.  I wanted to puke.  Not because of Amanda – she’s a very nice woman – but because of how it makes her appear.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if anyone thinks these big selling indie people are just lucky, pull your head from the sand and get a clue.  They’ve written.  They’ve been rejected.  They’ve stayed the course.  They’ve found a path.  They are professionals and in many ways run themselves as a business… which is why some of them go on to sign with publishers because they don’t want to be a business.  (But that’s another post coming soon.)

If you want to write, then write.  Find your path, plan, and go to it.

And for all that we believe in here, if you need a cover, an editor, a formatter, or anything publishing related head over to Kindleboards and find someone!  Why would you pay $500 for someone to do work and then charge you’re a royalty?  There are plenty of people starting out in cover design that will make a cover for the same cost or even grossly cheaper. 

My point is this:  use the resources at your fingertips first. 

If you upload your book and it doesn’t sell, don’t quit.  Don’t fret.  Move on.  Write another damn book.  Don’t make it free and don’t pay Penguin to “format” it for you.  If you’re in the game moving around blindly, sorry to say, you’ll hit enough walls to mess up your head enough to make the Penguin deal look great.

Like I said, I’ve been there.

If I read this a year ago, and I had $100, I’d probably go for it.  Because I used to chase things like that around.  I’d become desperate to have writing in front of anyone EXCEPT the readers.  And that’s what counts… the readers.  What gets your book in front of them?  This is a community and support system… do I think the Penguin thing is a rip off?  Yes and no.  I haven’t read any concrete data as to what each package gets, but I can say that if they want to charge $500 plus royalties for a cover and formatting, I wouldn’t sign. 

The final thing to say here is this:  Take a deep breath, and plan.  You’ll have good days, and bad.  Don’t be taken off your course for something like isn’t there.  This goes for all the situations now… just because Amanda Hocking made her book $0.99 to sell the rest of her series to sell millions doesn’t mean you should.  Just because John Locke sold everything for $0.99 doesn’t mean you should.  And just because Billy B. Bobby made his books free and landed a deal somewhere doesn’t mean you should.

Find YOUR path.  Find it, follow it, and love it.

This is your journey… keep it yours.

(Just a note:  I have not put any links to this Penguin thing on purpose.  I refuse to give them traffic.  If you want to see it, or the opinions of others, use Google.)

THE FAILED, my latest horror release, is available.

Yes, it’s a zombie novel, and yes, it’s awesome.  For those who know me, you know that I don’t take zombies lightly.  I prefer to write them with a great back story, something that can happen in today’s world…

A laboratory in New Jersey holds what has the potential to be the biggest breakthrough in medicine and science, ever. An injection named D8-C10, which has the capabilities to combat any disease and sickness through the revival of dead cells within a body.
After tests are conducted on animals, it’s time to test it out on humans. As the humans begin to die, one by one, the lab has no choice but to send the project to a different facility.
With the bodies packed into a train, a truck, and an airplane, they are off for more experiments, except there’s a problem… the D8-C10 beings to work now, after the people are dead. And the D8-C10 does exactly what it’s supposed to do, revive dead cells.
Now the bodies begin to come back to life…

Get your copy today!