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    $50 million reasons to smile …

    There was an interesting news item at Dear Author last week about Janet Evanovich, author of the hugely popular Stephanie Plum series, asking her publisher for $50 million for her next four books.

    Yes, you read that right — $50 million for four books. Assuming that the four books are each around 100,000 words that is $125 per word. Yep, all those thes and buts and ands would be worth $125 a piece. If the books are only around 90,000 words (which seems more likely to me), that figure goes up to about $139 per word.

    This boggles my mind.

    Most writers, including yours truly, are lucky — lucky — to get 20 cents a word for whatever they write, whether it’s books, magazine articles, or something else. Some publications literally only pay pennies per word — if that.

    Sure, the powers that be in Hollywood are making a movie out of Evanovich’s books, which will only increase her sales. But $50 million? For only four books? At $139 per word? C’mon. Is anybody really worth that kind of money, especially in today’s economy? I don’t know how many books Evanovich sells, but she would have to sell a whole heck of a lot of them to justify that kind of advance and for her publisher to make a profit.

    Now, I’ve read several of the Plum books. I found the first four or five to be great, fun, breezy reads, so much so that I bought copies for friends for birthdays and whatnot. But somewhere around book seven or eight, the series starting feeling a little repetitive to me. It seemed like Stephanie was making the same mistakes and telling the same jokes over and over again. And don’t even get me started on the love triangle between her, Joe, and Ranger. I quit reading the series because I just wanted her to pick one of them already (!), and it didn’t look like it was ever going to happen.

    Am I jealous? Yeah, a little bit. It would be nice to be as successful as Evanovich. I’m sure I would be quite happy to swap all of my book advances for just one of hers. Heck, forget the advance. I’d be happy with just her sales numbers.

    It’ll be interested to see if Evanovich’s current publisher agrees to her price, if she’ll move to another publishing house, or if anyone will shell out that kind of money to her.

    Perhaps if Evanovich’s Plum series ever gets up to the number 50, she can title the book Fifty Million Reasons to Smile …

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    Tangled Threads …

    23 Comments

    So my editor sent me the final version of the back cover copy for Tangled Threads, the fourth Elemental Assassin book that will be out in May 2011. Here is it.

    Note: There are a few mild spoilers below.

    I’d rather face a dozen lethal assassins any night than deal with something as tricky, convoluted, and fragile as my feelings.

    But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assassin known as the Spider. Hovering outside sexy businessman Owen Grayson’s front door like a nervous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my forehead. Cold-blooded Fire elemental Mab Monroe has hired one of the smartest assassins in the business to trap me. Elektra LaFleur is skilled and efficient, with deadly electrical elemental magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone powers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t survive this battle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assassin to take out my baby sister, Detective Bria Coolidge, too. The only problem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sibling … or that I’m the murderer she’s been chasing through Ashland for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead …

    Pretty cool, huh? I hope it makes you want to read the book because I think that LaFleur is one of the best villains that I’ve ever written — mainly because she’s just like Gin. 😉

    In other news, I am slowly going through and updating the website in anticipation of the release of Venom on Sept. 28. The book is up for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, if you are so inclined.

    One of the things that I’ll be doing is posting the first chapter for Tangled Threads along with a few new recipes of things that Gin makes in the various books. I’ve also written two more free short stories that tie in with Venom. Right now, I’m calling them Wasted and Poison — and both are told from Finnegan Lane’s point of view. Y’all wanted more Finn — you’re getting him.

    The stories need a bit of light editing, but I’m hoping to get them up on the site by Aug. 1. I’ll keep you posted and let you know when everything is up and formatted properly. Until then, hope you are staying cool this summer!

  • Countdown to Venom and more …

    4 Comments

    I found something cool on Twitter this past weekend. Larissa, a book blogger, has made countdown widgets or buttons for several fantasy books, including Venom. Thanks, Larissa!

    Here’s the link to the post so you can see all the covers and get the code for the widgets. Less then 70 days now until the book is released. 😉

    In other news, Jennifer over at Rayment’s Readings, Rants, and Ramblings posted about her family making the Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich that Gin makes in Spider’s Bite. Here’s the link.

    Thanks, Jennifer! I hope you guys enjoyed the sandwich — I know I always do when I make it for myself. 😉

    I have to say that these are the first countdown widgets for my books that I’ve seen and the first time that someone’s made one of the recipes from the books and posted about it online (at least to my knowledge). Knowing that folks are looking forward to Venom and the rest of the books in the Elemental Assassin series really does make my day. So thanks!

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    Final (promotion) games people play …

    So I’ve talked about some promotional things that have and haven’t worked for me this week. Today, I thought that I’d share a few quick tips that have helped me along the way:

    1. Asking for discounts: I use the same company to print all my bookmarks. A while back, I asked one of the reps if I could get some kind of discount since I had used their services so much. She put me on her preferred customer list and now gives me a small discount every time I put in an order for new bookmarks. It’s not a huge discount, but it saves me a little when it comes to shipping costs for the bookmarks.

    So don’t be afraid to ask somebody for a discount. The worst thing they can do is just say no.

    2. Rewards cards: Authors buy lots of office supplies — envelopes, rubber bands, printer ink, books. So sign up for a rewards card at your local office supply store or book chain. I know some places like Office Depot will give you a couple of bucks (I think it’s $3) towards a gift/rewards card for every printer cartridge that you recycle. I usually buy enough ink alone to get a gift card every quarter with at least $10 on it, which I use to help pay for color copies or envelopes or whatever I need at that particular time. It’s not a huge savings, but every little bit helps.

    3. Become an affiliate: If you’re an author, make sure that you are an affiliate with at least one of the major booksellers or a good independent store. I’m an Amazon affiliate. That means that every time someone clicks on one of my book links, goes to Amazon, and buys the book, I get a commission of a few cents. Again, it’s not a lot, but a few times a year, I get an Amazon gift card, which I can use to buy books for giveaways or whatever.

    4. Find someone local to do the work: If you need to have something done (like creating a Web site) that you just don’t know how to do, try to find someone local who does. Look in the yellow pages or contact one of your local colleges and see if you can hire someone in your area to do the job. They might just be cheaper than trying to find a Web site or graphic designer online. A college student might design a site for you for a class project or just to be able to put it on their resume. It never hurts to ask.

    5. Do the work yourself: I do a lot of my work myself — everything from designing bookmarks to stuffing envelopes to booking ads. Yeah, it’s mostly grunt work, but it needs to be done — and I am far too cheap to pay people to stuff envelopes when I can do it myself.

    So there you have it. Some final thoughts on book promotion. Got questions? Ask them in the comments.

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    More (promotion) games people play …

    So earlier this week, I talked about some of the promotional things that I do for my books. Today, I thought that I’d share some things that haven’t worked so well for me:

    1. Print ads: When I was first starting out, I bought several print ads in various magazines, like Romantic Times and Romance Writers Report because that’s what all the info that I found online said to do — and I quickly had my eyes opened about how expensive these sorts of ads are. Even small, black and white ads can cost you a pretty penny depending on the publication.

    I’m not saying that it’s bad or wrong to buy print ads in these or other magazines, but I just didn’t get the return on my money that I thought that I would. These days, I usually only buy online ads, because with one click, a reader can go to my Excerpts page or to Amazon to buy the book — something they can’t do with a print ad. And let’s face it — as a society, we’re all about the instant gratification. That’s why e-books are becoming more and more popular. With one click, you can start reading right then and there.

    2. Book signings: Also when I was a newbie author, I went around and set up book signings at all the major book chains in my area. Some of them went okay, some of them did not. I once sat in a Books-A-Million for two hours on a Saturday and only had one person come over and ask about my books — and that was only because she was my old high school Spanish teacher and I recognized her and called out to her.

    In general, if you’re sitting there by yourself, more people are likely to ask you where the bathroom is than about your books. Seriously. These days, the only place that I do local signings is at my local comic book store because I know that I will sell several books there. Not a whole lot, but enough to make it worth my time. Besides, the owner has been great to me, and I have a lot of fun talking to the folks who come into the store, since they are mostly fantasy fans like me. I have always had a good experience at the comic book store. The chain stores have definitely been more hit or miss for me.

    3. Personalized stationary and business cards: I know, this seems a little weird. But in the beginning, I spent way too much money getting personalized stationary and business cards printed up, because again, that’s what I thought you were supposed to do. I did use the stationary to write to booksellers, and I did pass out the business cards at various places.

    But really, I think the bookmarks and flyers that I design myself are just as good, if not better than stationary and business cards. Certainly, I seem to get more use out of bookmarks/flyers — I just hand them out or stuff them in envelopes knowing that they have the most important info about my books and how to contact me on them. And I don’t have to worry about putting a bookseller’s address on them or addressing them all individually when I’m doing one of my massive mailings.

    So there you have it. Some promotional things that haven’t worked out so well for me. Got questions? Ask away in the comments.

    Coming up on Friday: Some final thoughts and tips about promotion.