I'm back from a two week vacation, and today I'm discussing the merits and problems with exclusivity and free ebooks with Blake Crouch, and his brother Jordan.
Blake and Jordan have a new ebook horror-thriller out called
EERIE, which is currently free on Kindle.
Download it. It's a great book.
For the sake of experimentation,
EERIE didn't debut on Kindle. In fact, it has been available for several weeks.
Here are the Crouchs to explain why.
JORDAN: Blake and I
shared a room for five years while we were growing up. Bunk beds, one closet,
and a single dresser. When our father finished the basement, he built a second,
even smaller bedroom with no windows and a door that locked, behind which my
older brother disappeared and was never heard from again. Twenty years later we
find ourselves sharing another space. This time, it's the page.
I guess it should come
as no surprise then, that our first book together is about siblings trapped in
a house. EERIE [
free on Amazon today] follows an estranged brother and sister
as they try to uncover the mystery of the violent presence that inhabits the
upstairs bedroom.
Here's this pitch:
From
newcomer Jordan Crouch and Blake Crouch, author of the Top-10
Kindle-bestsellers Run, Stirred, and Fully Loaded, comes Eerie, a chilling,
gothic thriller in the classic tradition of The Shining and The Sixth Sense.
TRAPPED
INSIDE A HOUSE
On a crisp
autumn evening in 1980, seven-year-old Grant Moreton and his five-year-old
sister Paige were nearly killed in a mysterious accident in the Cascade
Mountains that left them orphans.
WITH A
FRIGHTENING POWER
It's been
thirty years since that night. Grant is now a detective with the Seattle Police
Department and long estranged from his sister. But his investigation into the
bloody past of a high-class prostitute has led right to Paige's door, and what
awaits inside is beyond his wildest imagining.
OVER ANYONE
WHO ENTERS
His only
hope of survival and saving his sister will be to confront the terror that
inhabits its walls, but he is completely unprepared to face the truth of what
haunts his sister's brownstone.
Although I’ve been writing
for close to ten years now, it’s always been as a personal outlet, not a
serious professional endeavor. I’m really excited to say that’s about to
change. This book represents a lot of firsts for me. My first novel, my first
collaboration with Blake, and my first foray into self-publishing. So in the
spirit of the blog, I'll talk about the experience with the collaborative
process as the Newbie that I am.
I've read Blake's stuff
for as long as I can remember: the good, the bad, and the humiliating high school
creative writing projects. It’s not lip-service when I say that he’s one of my
favorite writers. So, when the opportunity to work together presented itself in
November of last year, it was an easy decision. We already had the basic idea
for what would become EERIE, and over the next few months, we sequestered
ourselves inside a Google Doc and hammered out the first draft.
If you've never used
Google Docs before, here's what you need to know: it's a word processor that
allows multiple users to edit the same page in real time. Like a big dry-erase
board. As a collaborative tool it’s great, but for two brothers, it’s the
creative equivalent of sharing a room again. There's nothing more humbling than
watching a sentence you just carefully arranged disappear word-by-word and be
replaced by another thought entirely.
That's the license we
agreed to give each other. If something felt wrong or lacking or just plain
stupid, strike it. Sometimes it hurts, but the price of collaborating is giving
up a certain amount of control. Of course, that's easier said than done, and
diplomacy did not always prevail. But on the few occasions when we resorted to
the nuclear option, we always ended with something better than we had before.
Writing is an intensely
personal endeavor. If you can make it work with someone else, it’s awesome. If
that person is your brother, well that’s pretty special.
BLAKE: This was my
fourth collaboration. I've written extensively with Joe, and then with Joe,
Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson, for Draculas. I collaborated with Selena Kitt
on our short story Hunting Season. But this was different. My brother has been
a writer for a long time and got a degree in creative writing from
UNC-Wilmington. I'd always wanted to collaborate with him, because he's one of
my most important sounding boards in the writing process. We finally hit upon
an idea we were both very excited about, and though there were some speed bumps
along the way, we persevered, and are immensely proud of the final product.
It's essentially a monster-under-the-bed story, something that plays upon every
child (and inner child's) greatest fear.
I've rambled on at
length
on this blog about collaboration, so I thought I'd share my
experience on EERIE from the perspective of its publication.
With the dawn of KDP
Select last December, exclusivity has become an increasingly divisive and
provocative aspect of self-publishing. There are essentially five viable
platforms--KDP, Pubit!, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony, and Apple (no, I didn't forget to
mention Diesel. On the latter platform, I've sold a grand total of 1
book in my entire career, and I have a feeling that's more than most.)
NOOK
For EERIE's initial
release, Jordan and I decided to try the Pubit! Nook First program. This is
Barnes and Noble's interesting take on exclusivity wherein, by invitation, they
offer you merchandising and promotion in exchange for releasing a new work
straight to their platform for a 4-week period. After that period, you're free
to publish everywhere.
I don't know what other
writers' experiences with Nook First have been, but for the most part, Jordan
and I were pleasantly surprised. We sold about 1500 copies of EERIE (@ $3.99)
in May for Nook, which I know is far more than we would've sold on Barnes and
Noble on our own. There were some disappointments, however. Despite huge sales
on a handful of days, our sales rank was wonky. It never seemed to correlate to
a corresponding low rank. Even on days where we sold 400 books, our rank never
dropped below 2000. I have no doubt this cost us many, many sales, a good chunk
of money, and kept the book from every appearing on the BN bestseller lists. A
real shame, because the marketing triggers that Pubit! pulled worked in a big
way. The tech just wasn't there to support them, and their tech support staff
just couldn't be bothered to give a damn.
But that aside, Pubit!
clearly has some real marketing power, and the smaller window of exclusivity
(as opposed to KDP Select's 90 day commitment) is a definite plus. When
Pubit!'s tech support decides to follow the model of Kobo and Amazon and treat
writers as customers instead of entities to be ignored, Pubit! could become a
force.
KOBO
Also in May, I had the
opportunity to drop my best-selling title RUN into a Kobo promotion involving
email blasts, coupons, and prominent placement on their landing pages. I could
not have been more pleased with the results. RUN reached the top 10 on Kobo's
overall list, stayed there for several weeks, and the rest of my catalog sold
well in response. When you consider the size of Kobo's market share, the fact
that I sold more books on Kobo in May than I did on Pubit! is astounding. It
was only a few hundred dollars shy of beating Amazon for May, and it did beat
Pubit! again in June. Even better, Kobo did not request exclusivity. Their
writer-relations people are some of the friendliest, most proactive, responsive
people in the business. Suggestions and requests I made last year were taken to
heart. It's no secret that Kobo is on the verge of unveiling their own platform
(Writing Life). If there is a company that could one day compete with the
mighty Amazon, it's these guys. They're inventive, have far, far reaching plans
to bring writers what could become the slickest digital publishing platform
ever created, and they get that writers are customers. They listen. Best of
all, my titles continue to sell and rank highly on Kobo's bestseller list, a
month after the promos ended. I cannot say the same for Barnes and Noble. There
is no other platform (aside from Amazon) where I've seen this level of
"stickiness." If someone asked me what's keeping the majority of my
titles out of KDP Select, I would have to say these guys.
AMAZON
KDP Select opinion
pieces are a dime a dozen. Amazon is still, hands down, the most lucrative
platform for me. Even though the transition from free to paid sales appears to
have weakened as of late, success stories like Ann Voss Peterson and Robert
Gregory Browne are convincing enough for my brother and I to roll the dice and
drop EERIE into KDP Select. I say this as someone who has had great success
with free titles: they still make me nervous. I get the excitement of giving
away 70,000 ebooks. The prospect of making new fans. But free, in the long run,
is dangerous. It sets a bad precedent and level of expectation in the minds of
readers. Am I a hypocrite for saying this while EERIE is free? Maybe. But if all
the platforms did away with free, I'd be okay with that. As writers, we cannot
keep going to that well. It will dry up. Kindles may be able to hold a
gazillion ebooks, but readers can't read that many. The key is not being
downloaded. It's being read.
This post is not going
to end with a definitive conclusion on freebies and exclusivity. I'm
uncomfortable with both concepts, even as I play the game. My sense is that the
people who survive and continue to do well selling ebooks will be those who
experiment, take risks, and adapt. We've said it before, but what worked
yesterday, may not work today, and the possibility of a game changer (like KDP
Select) is constantly looming.
JOE SEZ: I predicted that ebook
retailers would seek exclusivity back in 2009. It's an obvious conclusion to draw
when retailers compete. If there is a commodity that people want, and it is
only available at one place, they'll shop at that place.
The author is the brand.
I've lost count of the emails I've gotten from Nook and Kobo ereader owners who
are wondering when Shaken and Stirred (both published by Amazon) will be
available on their devices. That's one of the reasons my ebooks are DRM
free--so readers can convert to other formats like epub to read on devices
other than Kindle.
So how effective is exclusivity as a sales tool for Amazon? I've had people email me who bought a Kindle just
to read Shaken. But how many more of my fans are annoyed because they own a
different ereader that doesn't allow for a one-click purchase of Shaken? How
many sales are lost?
My guess is: a lot. Shaken and Stirred have done well, but Blake and I have done better on self-pubbed projects.
For me to be exclusive
with a retailer, I have to know the sales I'm going to lose will be made up for
with increased sales on the exclusive platform. Long term, that's risky. After
the big initial sales push, sales will even out, and years from now the lost
sales will really rack up.
This is a related
dilemma I'm having with foreign sales. My agent has been great in selling
foreign rights to my self-pubbed ebooks. But do I want to give up future sales
(which I'd have if I kept my rights and translated the ebooks on my own) for
immediate sales?
I've been nudging Amazon
for years to release titles in epub format. Let Nook owners buy my ebooks on
Amazon. And let Kindles read epub format. I think that would make more money
for everyone.
But until that happens,
we're going to have retailers jockeying for market share, and one of the ways
to do that is to have exclusive brands (ie authors).
A lot of people ask me
my opinion about KDP Select, and I made it known that I have opted all of my
titles out of it. I dislike Amazon's desire for exclusivity, because it limits
my readership.
Back in January, it was
possible for an ebook to be released free on the KDP Select, then bounce over
to the Top 100 paid bestseller list. This is still possible, but a lot harder
to do, and I'm not sure it justifies removing a title from other platforms to
do it. I'm also not sure it does what Amazon wants it to do: lure customers to
the Kindle platform. If Amazon wants to sell more Kindles, it should have as
many ebooks in the KDP Select program as possible. But when authors like me opt
out, that hurts readers.
A lot of people also ask me if it is a good idea to sign with one of Amazon's publishing arms. Blake and I hit the #1 Bestseller spot because of the push Amazon gave Stirred, something I haven't been able to do on my own. But was it worth the sales I lost on other platforms?
I don't believe so.
If Amazon wants me back in KDP Select, they'll have to offer more. And if Amazon Publishing wants another book from me, they'll have to offer more. Exclusivity, and signing away rights, isn't how I see the future. Authors should be able to keep their rights, and exploit them in as many ways as possible.
I might be missing some
important parts of this story. No doubt Amazon is crunching numbers, and they
probably know how to find that sweet spot among ebook sales and freebies and
Kindle sales and Prime memberships. But I know I'm not the only author they are disappointing, and in the long run that won't be good for them.
Like Blake, I'll soon be
doing a thing with Kobo, and I hope to replicate his results. I like that Kobo
doesn't demand exclusivity. They want to please their customer base and make
their website a worthwhile place to shop.
That's the line a retailer has to walk.
Bringing new people to your online store (and ereader) while also making your current
customers happy. Exclusivity might bring in new customers, but it will also irritate your current customers as more and more authors leave the platform.
Amazon is THE place to
shop online. The shopping experience is better there than anywhere else. They
make shopping easy, fast, and enjoyable. It's understandable that they want to sell more Kindles and Prime memberships. It's understandable that they
don't want people buying Nooks or Kobos. But if KDP Select was non-exclusive,
and Amazon sold epub, that would benefit all authors and all consumers, and irritate nobody.
It is in my best interest, as an author, to
try as many things as possible, and for many platforms to succeed. I want the
whole world to read my ebooks. And I don't care what ereader they read them on,
or what store they buy them from.
Kobo gets that. Amazon
sort of does. B&N, not so much.
As I've said in the
past, the only two parties needed are writers and readers. The retailer who
treats its writers and readers well will flourish. You do this by learning what
these groups want.
So I'll make it real
easy:
Readers want as many
titles available as possible, without DRM, in multiple formats. They want to
get ebooks with one-click. They want lower prices, and free ebooks. They want a
fun, easy, fast place to shop. They want to have titles recommended to them,
either by algorithms or other readers. They want to be able to contact and
interact with each other, and with authors. They want to be listened to and
have their needs and concerns met.
Writers want their work
to be available as widely as possible, in multiple formats. They don't want
exclusivity. They want to be able to interact with their retail partners and
publishers easily and promptly, and to be treated well. They want high royalties,
and the ability to control price (including the ability to make their ebooks
free). They want data that can help them optimize their pricing and sales, and
platforms that make accounting and joint-accounting a cinch. They want to be
paid promptly. They want the ability to work directly and outside the box with retail partners and
publishers and try new things. They want a stable platform
where titles disappear immediately if removed and appear immediately if added,
and where sales and rank are updated quickly and accurately. They want more
bestseller list categories (like Top 100 Female Police Procedurals Priced at $2.99) and
more BISEC categories. They want to be listened to and have their needs and
concerns met.
Blake, why the hate for
freebies?
BLAKE: I don't hate
freebies. But why will readers buy ebooks if there are more freebies to
download than they could possibly read in their lifetime?
JOE: Because that's
human nature. We collect. We horde. We buy more than we can ever use. That
doesn't mean we reach a point where we stop buying, or acquiring. We all have
To Be Read piles. Ebooks have made them easier to attain and manage.
BLAKE: More
than we can ever use. That's what worries me. If a TBR pile is suddenly 1000
books instead of two dozen, and my book is #899 in the pile, what are the
chances I will be read? If someone downloads my book for free, but never reads
it, they won't become a fan and buy the rest of my paid catalog.
JOE: There are a few
things happening here. First, there's a difference between being owned and
being read. That difference has always been there (and I say "owned"
instead of "bought" to include freebies, and even though ebooks are essentially
a licence and not a purchase). We all own more media than we'll ever be able to
experience. The whole concept of the "cloud" plays into this. Why own
anything if it is all always available to access?
But the cloud is still a concept that hasn't entirely caught on. People do like to own media. More people will own us
than read us. It'll always be that way. There's no guarantee a book owned will
be read, even if that book was bought. Adding more choice to the equation
doesn't matter. We've always had a lot of choice.
BLAKE: But if I pay
money for that book because I heard about it and found it through reviews or
whatever, the chance that I'll read it is better than if I just grabbed one of
20 freebies listed on Pixel of Ink.
JOE: We read what we
want to read, free or not. I've bought $30 Blu-Ray disks that sit unwatched on my shelf for 5 months, and instead I've surfed YouTube for free for 90
minutes. But YouTube didn't stop me from buying. And I'll watch the Blu-Ray
eventually.
That's a human
mentality. We want to be able to access media whenever the mood hits. So maybe
we'll stock up on freebies for a rainy day, and maybe that rainy day comes and
maybe it doesn't, but I don't see it limiting or hurting sales.
We have paper
bestsellers because of a lack of choice. Only so many titles can fit on the
shelf at Costco. More choice is a good thing.
BLAKE: You don't think
there's a segment of customers, possibly very large, who have so loaded up
their Kindles since Christmas and KDP Select came into being, that they don't
actively shop anymore, because they have so many titles they want to read?
JOE: You've been to my
house. How many books do I have? Video games? Movies?
BLAKE: You've got a few.
JOE: I've got tens of
thousands. And this morning I was on Amazon and I bought 5 new Blu-Rays, two
ebooks, and a video game.
My rule is: I only use
marketing strategies that work on me. Which means I think a lot about my buying
habits, and my media habits. While I'm sure there aren't many people out there
with tens of thousands of books, movies, and games, I'm also sure the principle
of what I'm saying is widespread: having enough doesn't inhibit acquiring more.
If someone gets your ebook for free, it doesn't mean you lost a sale. They may not read it, but they might never have bought it either. And people may be downloading a lot of free titles, but not reading them. Free, however, is a way for a customer to try you without any risk. Even if only a small percentage of freebies get read and make readers into fans, I believe that's still worthwhile.
BLAKE: So you think the
free model is viable for the long haul? You don't think it trains people NOT to
pay for books.
JOE: You know my belief
on this. Eventually, all media will be free, and artists will be paid by
advertisers. People can't be trained to pay more. That doesn't work. They'll
get it for as little as they can get it for, and that ultimately means free.
Rather than fight that, I'm happy to give consumers what they want. So I've
made my titles free, I have no issues with file sharing, and I'm looking
forward to a future where ads are in ebooks. But that's the topic for another blog.
My final point is: don't
fight what the customer wants. If customers want free ebooks, give them free
ebooks. So far it hasn't hurt my sales, and I don't expect it to.
Readers are very good at vetting, at finding what they want to read, free or paid. Our jobs as writers should be feeding those readers in any and all ways that we can. If you find readers, the money will follow.
