I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

I used to be a preacher

Now this is a trip.

I have four books out there and sales have gone from lousy to none.

I have all four books on Amazon and one of the publishers evaporated, two of the books hit a big e-publisher’s line and one is an e-book with such lousy sales I forgot it was out there.

In short, I am changing the orders so that they may work.

Crimes Against Commerce has been in print as a paperback for four years. The publisher folded a couple of years ago. Sales were lousy enough but it has been sold as being done by Cloonfad Press.

Where the money goes I have no idea other than that it did not come to me.

Top Ten Tips to Advertising Your Book is listed there as an e-book published by Kindle Press since 2007. As far as I know it has never sold a copy in the three years it’s been out there. It may have sold but no one paid me.

The Lost Generation was published by e-publisher Kindle Press in 2007. It’s my favorite of all of them. Unfortunately Kindle has yet to have sales I know about.

A Matter of Tastes has been done by Publish America in 2004. This was my first book out there and I was excited about seeing it in print. Folks, forget about Publish America…

They print almost anything they get and do absolutely awful things to the writers. They start with making them sign a seven-year contract.

They overcharge the books. They ask for $23.33 per paperback copy and that’s at least three times more than stuff normally sells for. They’ve sold more copies than they have paid me for, but that’s another story by itself.

Soon, okay… A Matter of Tastes has been a scam and nightmare…

I’ll keep you posted on what happens.

As far as copyright go things should not be much of a problem – well almost no problems. Three have contracts that I can get out of publishing with a month’s notice.

A Matter of Tastes is promising to be a nightmare. My contract with Publish America has a few months left.

This is shocking -- well at least to writers

I was amazed today to find four of my books with Amazon.com. It was fantastic at first until I realized that I might be getting ripped off more than ever. The books run from $7 to $25 and my cut on the books is a lot different. It's zero -- or just about -- almost any way about it.

One thing that has always amazed me is how writers are usually the worst paid people in a book.

Printers, publishers and sales folks on a project always make more than the writer. They'll jump in and say there wouldn't be a shot on product sales and production without them. Writers nod at that, not realizing that there wouldn't be a product at all without them.

It's not a good thing for writers any way you look at it.

The writer's cut of the sales is very different in print and on the web. Writers are excited when the print books will give them 15 percent -- if they are lucky -- but that isn't from the retail sales. Publishers pawn books at rates much lower than retail and you can take out your calculater for the bad news

They may be very lucky to see five percent of the end sales.

It's a lot different with e-books, and that's very good and very bad. Writers find that they can get between 30 and 60 percent of the final sale. That can sound exciting when you think about how these books cost pocket change to put out, but it can adjust you to realize that there are billions of books on the web and writers are very likely to find out their books can't be pimped enough to sell decently.

Publishers aren't paying unions of paper printing staff. Just about everybody can get canned. It's sad but true that some money-making publishers can do almost all of their business in a two bedroom apartment.

In 2008 stats showed that the web books had more sales than the print industry. "Sales" is a fuzzy word in this, a huge amount of the web books were given away or sold for next to nothing.

All this in mind it's not really fantastic to have a book on Amazon.com.

Let's not even think about passed on or resold books. The writer doesn't make a dime off of those and it's how most books are read -- especially the good ones.

Oh, for the record Amazon sells used books. Lots of them. Don't expect to see a dime from them... all the folks in the industy will make a buck but you.

And my books are there...

Your work can suck, but it doesn't have to

I have no idea how many times I've told writers that publishing is a business. I don't care about how great (or lousy) your writing is that but it should be edited.

Editing has different levels and I think I've done them all. I know it doesn't show here that I'm the world's greatest editor -- I'm not.

Editing starts out with folks who are essentially technicians. They chase around things like spelling, sentencing, and paragraph construction. Folks may put this down as something that isn't attractive -- but it is to writers. It keeps the work technically correct to silly little things like making a book readable.

Add that to the fact they often get paid to read great stuff. Imagine that. There was probably somebody who made a buck reading every book, paper and magazine you like. I don't know about you, but that aspect of the job can be great.

These folks may piss you off. You may take them as idiots chopping up great writing.

Maybe I'm wrong but I think they should be the last editors in a project. Chances are that every book will be beat up technically after it's done creatively as a great reading.

Another kind of editor deals with the content. That kind of editor will go though a project and look at it creatively. They'll go through it as a reader. The results of their work will range from suggesting a few changes to rewriting a book. They can go as far as becoming co-authors -- even the freaking writers -- of books. I'll note they won't be named as somebody who (may have) rewritten a book.

I had both jobs. It's wrong, but I hated the work as a techical editor. You can see it by looking at all of my writing. I loved work as a creative editor. As it happens I had freelance work from lousy writers I helped put out better books to being the top freelance editor for a publisher.

One place I'd like to pimp is FreelanceWritersAndEditors@yahoogroups.com . I've been with that group for years and have seen everything from readers to publishers. That includes wannabe writers, lousy writers, writers who think they are too great to be edited, writers who are great at writing but lousy at selling it, writers who can't get published, writers who are published -- some doing it full time -- best sellers, all kinds of editors, creative publishers and technical publishers.

Some shut up and rarely do anything but read. Others, like me, are smart asses or folks who understand the business. They went from being a tiny website to a pretty big group of people.

I've pimped the site here before but they've grown a lot since. It's a great read.

The bottom line is that publishing is a good and bad industry. You can be a wanna be to a global star. All of those kinds of folks have read this column at one time or another.

I've reread it recently to day one. Take a look yourself.

I bitched and thanked folks exactly like you.

Put sales numbers into a lousy understanding

I just found a new publisher for "Crimes Against Commerce". I won't name them or detail on it until it actually appears.

Although they'll be considering a print edition of the book, distribution will be on the web as an e-book.

I've been against e-books since the turn of the century. Something twitched in me considering what would happen in the 21st century. I predicted that e-books would not jump in any number of sales until 2015, maybe 2020. Old people -- the people who actually buy books -- are still buying a great deal of the prints. A good part of them don't do hours and hours on machines every day.

The main media has reported that e-books are higher in sales than print right now.

Why am I concerned? Moving a book around has been something that's always happened. Most writers are very happy to get a percentage of the sales. They forget that it's got nothing to do with the actual number of readers. You'd be amazed how little they really get.

One thing that didn't bother me at first was that a lot of companies sell used copies of books. They may only get a buck for an edition but they won't send the author (or authoress) a dime.

Sales are not an accurate readership demand you've been reading about. Yes, the book will sold. Consider the fact folks will pass it around -- and worse yet is that a library might let a huge amount of people read it for free.

Quality? Realize that if you put out a great book it will get passed around more. One that actually sells 100,000 copies may get a million readers.

Look at your own place. More than 99.9999 percent of us have a ton of books, newspapers and magazines that have been passed around.

I admit that I'm one of those folks...

I've got a lot of hope my book will be marketed aggressively. I haven't had any of my work (other than newspaper and magazine writing) bashed by anyone.

Two of my three books can still be found at http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook46188.htm . Their sales have been lousy there, but at least I can say -- even to you -- that my stuff is still out there.

Hey buy a copy, okay? They are less than $15 and everybody has to admit they spend that much on lousy crap every month.

Not that MY books are lousy crap!