Chuck Wendig: THE AUTHOR-PUBLISHER AND THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR

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He's a great author. I highly recommend his books on writing. There's plenty of swearing but full of excellent advice.

So... what did *you* think of this column?

I have not read any of Chuck Wendig's works so I am not familiar with him or his blog. Someone emailed me the link to that column and I thought it was very interesting.

I thinks it's an exciting time to be an author because there are now more options.
 

Kylabelle

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I enjoy Chuck Wendig's blog, but don't read every post that he writes. This one is interesting. I know Wendig has posted at length about self-publishing, to the effect that it is not an easy path and that in order to be successful at it, the writer has to do a lot of behind-the-scenes work, which with trade publishing is handled by the publisher.

I only skimmed this particular blog post just now, and note it is about the recent success of Brenna Aubrey, which we've had some other discussions about here.

I also happened to notice in the comments someone asked him to rate self- and trade- publishing on satisfaction. He ranked trade publishing (which he calls "traditional publishing") slightly higher. (He has done both, successfully.) I didn't go on to read just why he gave trade publishing a slightly higher notch. (7/10 and 8/10, respectively, almost no difference and of course, highly subjective and personal.) But clearly he is competent with both processes and at ease with how they work, so he's worth paying attention to.

I agree with both the OP and Chuck Wendig that there are many more options now than in the recent past for writers to see their work published. It's often pretty confusing, too, how best to proceed! Wendig has some really good advice to offer based on his own experience.
 
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Jamesaritchie

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Kylabelle

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Let's stick to the substance and avoid casting aspersions, please.
 

Hanson

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I reckon the biggest fear publishing houses have is that of having a high profile author leave them to self-publish.

Which probably means that high profile authors will get better deals.

Didn't I hear Jim Carry was going to self-publish? did he?

ETA, he did!. Now, how well will it do I wonder. Although, if he paid for an editor etc, it will probably do as well as a trade pub...or will it? Will it have a bricks n mortar outlet as well as ePub?
 
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Sheryl Nantus

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There's actually a whole lot more there than just the discussion on one particular author's finances.

It might be worth reading the entire post and the comments below as well as Chuck's other postings. He's quite the level-headed commentator and I take his views much more seriously than some other self-proclaimed publishing gurus.

;)
 

cornflake

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I reckon the biggest fear publishing houses have is that of having a high profile author leave them to self-publish.

Which probably means that high profile authors will get better deals.

Didn't I hear Jim Carry was going to self-publish? did he?

ETA, he did!. Now, how well will it do I wonder. Although, if he paid for an editor etc, it will probably do as well as a trade pub...or will it? Will it have a bricks n mortar outlet as well as ePub?

I think he put out a picture book that was sort of existential or something.

I don't know if that's really that big a fear. Why would a really successful, high-profile author suddenly want to do everything for his or her-self, especially when the power is on their side?
 

Chekurtab

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I reckon the biggest fear publishing houses have is that of having a high profile author leave them to self-publish.

High profile authors probably have enough follow-up to be able to self-publish. The less established authors may not get away with self-publishing. I don't know who Brenna Aubrey is, but I suspect there is more to the story than just the numbers. I read periodically Chuck's blog. He has some good insights sprinkled around the threads, however, this post bases on the half-baked anecdote is not one of them IMO.
 

Torgo

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I don't know who Brenna Aubrey is, but I suspect there is more to the story than just the numbers. I read periodically Chuck's blog. He has some good insights sprinkled around the threads, however, this post bases on the half-baked anecdote is not one of them IMO.

"Half-baked anecdote" is not, in fact, a respectful way to talk about either Wendig's post or Aubrey's original blog post, and I'd appreciate it if we didn't continue to discuss that aspect or to take that tone. We had a previous thread in which that went poorly, to say the least.
 

Sheryl Nantus

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http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/01/13/the-author-publisher-and-the-almighty-dollar/

If my math is correct, the $40,000 advance would mean $34,000 as the actual take home amount for the author after the agent takes a 15% cut. She has earned about half of that $34,000 in just her first month alone. Amazin' and congrats.

But there's so much in there that makes it *NOT* about the money.

The discussion goes over the hard work involved and the efforts taken to get where she was to decide what she decided.

There's so much more content in this blog post and the others than just bragging about how much money someone made self-publishing vs taking a contract with a publisher that wasn't beneficial to the author.

I recommend going through Chuck's earlier posts dealing with hybrid publishing. Self-publishing. Trade publishing.

Listen to the man.

There is not ONE way. There is YOUR way. What you have to do as an author is not only choose YOUR way but also respect those who walk a different path. We have enough opponents out there trying to bring us down along with our own inner demons - do we NEED to keep creating more by fighting among ourselves?

*drops mic and walks off page*

Peace. Out.
 

Mr Flibble

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There is not ONE way. There is YOUR way. What you have to do as an author is not only choose YOUR way but also respect those who walk a different path.

Precisely.

Also, I'm really glad it all worked for Brenna. I think I'd have had a conniption at walking away from "certain" money to "perhaps" money (Plus all the work that necessarily has to go into SPing, for which I am not sure I have the skillset).

Will that work for anyone else? Maybe, maybe not. But it's a changing world and the possibilities to do what YOU want are almost endless.
 

jjdebenedictis

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Y'know, there was this person banned as a sock-puppet about half a month ago, Geo Travis, who would start a thread with some link about self-publishing and then disappear. (Although at least one of his threads has likewise disappeared due to mod intervention.)

KatyPerryfan19, you joined after Geo Travis was banned, but you said you were a long-time lurker in your New Members post, so I don't know whether you remember Geo Travis' posts or not. Either way, like Sheryl Nantus, I just wanted to encourage you to comment of the articles you link to, and to make sure you come back to the thread and engage with the discussion.

That is to say, don't be like Geo Travis (although we don't even know what Geo Travis was like, because he was a sock.) We'd love to hear what you think! :)
 

Torgo

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Folks, I don't see this thread going in a particularly useful direction, so I'm going to lock this at least temporarily.
 

Kylabelle

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Because there is excellent information in Chuck Wendig's blog, about both self- and trade publishing, we're re-opening this thread. Let's stay on topic as best we can, and remember that both avenues to publishing are legitimate and each has its pluses and minuses. Neither avenue is "the best way" or "the right way" and it is entirely up to individual writers which course to pursue. Let's try to focus on sharing useful information, and remember that while money is important it isn't the only factor by any means.
 

CrastersBabies

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I think Wendig is a great example of how someone can make waves in self-publishing, though he has plenty traditionally published as well, doesn't he?
 

shadowwalker

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I think Wendig is a great example of how someone can make waves in self-publishing, though he has plenty traditionally published as well, doesn't he?

He's done both successfully - and I love that he has a no-holds-barred attitude toward both. He can be a bit crude at times, but I trust him to be totally honest regardless. Not to mention he's hilarious in that honesty...
 

Kylabelle

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Crasters, I don't know the breakdown, but Wendig definitely has trade published books out as well as self published.

And yeah, shadowwalker, I subscribed to his blog because the first post of his I ran across was such a hilarious, outrageous rant full of foul language, but so well-written, I loved it. He is also quite prolific and works very hard at what he does.

Somewhere he has a post devoted to the process of self-publishing and some of what you need to be prepared to do if you choose to go that route. It's been linked to here at AW before, too. Maybe we can relocate that one.

Another thing I appreciate about Wendig is he is a real writers' advocate. He seems to genuinely care that writers get correct information and he offers people a lot of encouragement along the way, too.

/a fan of his. :D
 

Manuel Royal

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Interesting stuff from Chuck Wendig; looks like another blog to add to the pile I try to keep up with.

Brenna Aubrey's success with her novel At Any Price seems to me to be a special case. Unlike the vast majority of self-published novels, it got a fair amount of attention precisely because she walked away from a deal with a trade publisher. That's likely to remain a very unusual circumstance; and we can't know how well it would have done without that being the case.

Will have to read the rest of the blog, for sure.
 

Hanson

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I think he put out a picture book that was sort of existential or something.

I don't know if that's really that big a fear.

Why would a really successful, high-profile author suddenly want to do everything for his or her-self, especially when the power is on their side?
That's what I mean, they'll probably get better deals now because they have the self-publish option as an alternative.

Not saying they would, just that there is now another option.
Personally, i'd be way too lazy to go self pub.
 

James D. Macdonald

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...we can't know how well it would have done without that being the case.

What we do know is that it's a dandy book that has a huge audience.

How do we know this?

We know that at least one editor at a major house was willing to bet a hundred grand of the boss's money that it's so.
 
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synna

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Kindly request that you delete my name from this thread and stop discussing my book. Your people have decided to attack me on twitter now because they can't do it here.

https://twitter.com/beth_bernobich

Please. You people have been nothing but nasty to me. Can you just stop?
 

Kylabelle

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I am locking this thread again, for now. Brenna, if you read this thread you'll discover it is not at all attacking to you. We have made sure of that. The tweet you linked is not something we can be responsible for. I am sorry this is difficult. My only intention is to support other writers. I find this entire situation very sad.
 
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