Hi Folks,
Back on track for writing during my quiet time. In fact, during the wake-up, I wrote an article, basically, to rebuff a HuffPo article in which the author got pretty much everything wrong. As my response was not really long, I’m including it in this post.
For reference, the full Huffington Post article is here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/apple-taxes-authors-patie_b_8711882.html
I hate it when such obviously slanted stuff is offered (and bought, unfortunately, by many writers) as fact. Here’s my rebuttal.
The first sentence of Ms. Tavakoli’s article is an outright falsehood. The rest of the article is misleading at best. No doubt this is the result of either extremely shoddy research or an intentional and very steep slant.
Let me set the record straight from personal experience. I have been selling my works through Apple since 2011. I don’t have an account with Apple, nor do I own any iProducts.
Originally I sold to them through a distributor called Smashwords. I still could but when a new distributor with a much cleaner user interface came online (Draft2Digital, or D2D) I began using them instead to distribute my work to several major venues.
Today, I submit my work (184 short stories, novels and nonfiction books to date) through Smashwords, D2D, XinXii (only long works) and Amazon. As a result, my titles appear within a week in over 400 sales venues and 1200 libraries worldwide.
Ms. Tavakoli’s article is at least in the ballpark where she talks about venue shares of sales, but she completely omitted several major players, including Kobo, B&N, Baker & Taylor, OmniLit, Overdrive, Tolino (Germany), Rakuten (Japan) and Gardners (UK) as well as the subscription services, such as Scribd and 24symbols.
My sales personally are about 50% Amazon, 20% StoneThreadPublishing.com (the reader gets a big discount) and 10% Apple with the rest distributed among the others.
I encourage writers to indie publish. It isn’t difficult, and it’s far better than giving a large share of YOUR royalties to people you will never meet who do absolutely nothing to earn it. I also encourage indie publishers to do their own research and avoid such obviously hard-slanted articles as Ms. Tavakoli’s HuffPo piece. Or email me. I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
Got the notice from CreateSpace that Book 9 of the Crowley series is ready to proof, so I’ll do that later today and then order a few copies of several books so I have sets available.
Later today sometime I also have to write some nonfiction for my other blog.
The Day
Rolled out right at 2. Too cold to let the baby out yet so she’s snoozin’ somewhere. The first hour went by quickly with email that included the stuff above plus responding quickly to some Facebook stuff. Then here to start this. Now to make my second mugga stuff.
I spent another half-hour putting together a list of things I have to get done today. When more than two or three nonfiction things pile up on me and they’re necessary, I make a temporary Do Today list and leave it on my desktop. I won’t think about those things while I’m writing because I have them listed for viewing later.
Off to play with Hal.
Got two good sessions on Babineaux with a break in between before 6:30. Now I’m gonna proof The Scent of Acacias, then order books. I’ll mark that off my list, then go back to Babineaux.
Okay, proofed Scent, ordered enough copies of various books to be able to mail out 4 full sets of the series at a moment’s notice, then dealt with some stuff on Facebook. I guess that’s not too bad for 2 hours gone. Back to Babineaux.
To knock another item off my list I searched high and low for a clock (free or premium) I could download for a website client. She wants something with an ocean theme. They just don’t exist. Sorry Ronny.
There were a few other things I didn’t get done on my nonfiction to-do list, but I’ll move them to tomorrow. Except writing a blog post or two for the Pro-Writers Series. So I’m gonna close down the fiction writing now and go do that.
Back to Babineaux in the morning.
Oh, and Heinlein’s Rules Chapter 4 is up over at Dean’s place.
By the way, I don’t like that this little journal eats up the main page every day. So probably I’m gonna switch this back to a different website. You shouldn’t notice any difference unless you read it on the website. And even then you won’t notice much. Also, service should be uninterrupted.
Today’s Writing
Three good sessions, not a lot of interruptions. Still not the stellar day I’m looking for but not bad either. The novel keeps moving forward so I’m good with that.
Fiction Words: 3056
Nonfiction Words: 1563
Writing of Norval Babineaux
(Words brought forward 5231)
Day 1…… 3059 words. Total words to date…… 8290 words
Day 2…… 3436 words. Total words to date…… 11726 words
Day 3…… 3056 words. Total words to date…… 14782 words
Total fiction words for the month……… 39545
Total fiction words for the year………… 643536
Total nonfiction words for the month… 11895
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 53998 (since September 1)