Articles about putting pen to paper. Or fingers to keyboard.
It’s always good to know if you’re suspicious to the government. For a quick diagnosis, take this handy quiz based on my novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall.
For more dystopian fun, play Watched Sweeper — an HTML5 game about surveillance!
I’ve always been envious of traditionally published authors.
I am the self-published author of two dystopian novels and I know there are advantages to my way, including greater control over the final product and more revenue per sale… but marketing is not easy and it’s certainly not cheap.
So, while self-publishing is going OK for me, there’s always been a voice in the back of my head saying, “This would be so much easier with a New York publisher!”
I have to admit I was a bit surprised when Guy Kawasaki said that’s all a myth.
Guy, the former chief evangelist of Apple, is the author of 12 books and recently self-published one all about this topic called APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. At a recent media breakfast in Sydney, he said self-publishers can find just as much success as authors with New York publishers–if not more.
“The publishing industry is a very interesting place because it used to be an oligopoly where a few dozen firms in New York controlled the whole world. That is no longer true because of self-publishing and Amazon.”
It can take a year to release a book under the traditional publishing model, he said. “As a self-publisher, from the time manuscript is done–which I can determine–8 hours later it’s for sale on Kindle.”
That all sounded good, but I couldn’t help but feel that Guy might be forgetting that getting initial sales depends on marketing. Maybe Guy is famous enough to sell his own book to thousands of people, but what about the rest of us? I had to ask, wouldn’t a relatively unknown author still get better marketing from a big New York firm?
Guy said no.
“The fact is that they only do those kind of things if you are Hillary Clinton or you’re David Beckham. They don’t do it for the other 10,000 authors every year because frankly they can’t call the New York Times 10,000 times every year.”
In many cases, even traditionally published authors end up doing their own marketing, he said.
“The irony is, if you are lucky enough to garner interest from a New York publisher, one of the first questions they are going to ask you is, ‘What’s your marketing platform?’ Which is kind of ass-backwards because the reason why you’re going to them is for their marketing platform.”
If the publisher actually took care of marketing, Guy said the 90-10 revenue split between publisher and author might make sense. But if that’s not going to happen, it makes little sense for the author to give up 90% of the sales, he said.
With self-publishing through Amazon, the author keeps 70% of each sale. “That’s five times better than what you would get from a publisher,” he said.
The good news, he said, is that self-published authors today have a free marketing platform to get the word out to their audience: social media.
“I’m not saying everyone is guaranteed a bestseller, but at least everybody has a shot and you’re not at the whim of someone in New York.”
Adam Bender is the self-published author of two dystopian novels about surveillance: We, The Watched and Divided We Fall.
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Hey, Adam here — I am super excited to announce the release of my new novel, DIVIDED WE FALL in paperback and eBook. Writing this book was a long labor of love. It was crafted in the late hours after the work day and in spare moments of the weekend. But in my mind I was working on it always, inspired by news about government surveillance and my day job at the time reporting on the U.S. Congress.
This novel brings to an end the journey that Seven began in WE, THE WATCHED. However, for those who have not yet read that story, I encourage you to read these books in any order you like.
This is also a self-published work and I thank you in advance for your support.
The paperback costs $13.99 and the eBook is $3.99. Also, if you buy the print book on Amazon you can get the digital version for free through Kindle MatchBook! Below is a list of stores where you can buy DIVIDED WE FALL. There may be a delay in some stores posting the book — I will update this list as more stores come online.
Paperback
eBook
Even more info is available at the official website for DIVIDED WE FALL — www.wethedivided.com
And here’s a sample of the eBook version, courtesy of Scribd.
Divided We Fall by Adam Bender
3 CommentsOkay, so a lot has been happening behind the scenes on my new novel, Divided We Fall.
But let’s start with the release date: May 10, 2014. As in, less than two months from now. Get hyped.
What’s that? How should you get hyped? Well, a good place to start might be the brand-spanking-new website for the novel! If you didn’t already click the link above, here it is again: www.wethedivided.com.
Preorders for the eBook will open soon at select online book stores including Apple iTunes, Barnes & Noble Nook and Kobo. On release day, you’ll be able to buy the paperback and eBook from Amazon.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me take a step back. Divided We Fall is a dystopian love story about surveillance. An elite agent of the Guard finds out that her fiancé has become an Underground revolutionary and tries to win him back. Complications ensue.
It’s also a sequel to my first novel, We, The Watched. Should you read We, The Watched before Divided We Fall? Well, of course you should, but you don’t have to. I’ve written the new book so you won’t get lost without reading the first. You will gain a more full experience reading both, but really, I don’t mind about the order.
Anyway, we’re almost there, people. The cover and book layout is complete for both the eBook and the paperback. I’ll soon be getting the paperback proof in the mail (UPDATE: It’s here! See above photo) and will just have to do a check to make sure everything looks all right. Then it’s just a matter of getting it into the stores!
One more thing! Remember that time I invited you to submit pictures of surveillance cameras to my Facebook page? Well, I’ve just moved all of that to Tumblr, which I think is a far more effective place for that kind of thing. So, please follow my Tumblr page and submit your own pics!
Keep your eyes on this blog for more updates on Divided We Fall. Between now and release day I should have a fun surprise for you…
1 CommentIt’s here! The cover for my new novel, Divided We Fall, coming this spring!
Divided We Fall is the sequel to We, The Watched. The manuscript was a quarter-finalist in last year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and received a great review by Publishers Weekly.
Belinda Pepper, who designed the cover for We, The Watched, has returned to do Divided We Fall with brilliant results! Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Quick status update: With the cover finished and the book fully edited, we’re nearly there! I’ve still got to get the interior text formatted for the print and eBook versions. Then it’s pretty much just a matter of clicking “Publish.” Keep your eye on this blog for more updates!
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