I Never Know What to Title These Things. Subtitles, on the other hand...
Subtitles usually come to those who are too busy looking for them
This is the fourth edition of Assorted Nonsense on Substack, a newsletter from Donovan Street Press Inc.
By Joe Mahoney
If you own the publishing company that publishes your book, are you self-published?
For example, if Tom Doherty published a book with Tor Books, the publishing company he founded with Harriet McDougal, and Jim Baen in 1980, would he be considered self-published?
I guess so.
(Asking for a friend.)
“Taste and quality are not the same, and you should know the difference.”
~Neil Peart TechTalk: Hit Parader
One day it occurred to me that beyond a certain level of quality it all comes down to taste. I was thinking about this in the context of my own work. I was thinking that if I could just make my own work good enough, make it “quality”, then whether anybody liked it was up to them. I’d done my part.
It shouldn’t matter whether you’re self-published or put out by a big publisher. If it’s quality, it’s quality. Is it easier to achieve that quality with a big publisher? Maybe, with access to (presumably) top notch editors. But honestly, my editors have been top drawer. If there are any deficiencies in my work, that’s me, not them.
Is my work quality? Impossible for me to say. Can’t be objective. Dunning-Kruger effect, and all that.
But that is the goal. To make whatever I do so good that it cannot be distinguished from any other comparable work out there in terms of quality.
And it becomes just a matter of taste.
Speaking of which, I occassionally get reviews that begin, “I don’t normally like science fiction, but…”
I’m just gonna put this out there:
If you read A Time and a Place and you like it, then you like science fiction. Because it’s science fiction.
If you like A Time and a Place, but don’t think you like science fiction, it’s probably not because A Time and a Place is so different than ordinary science fiction that it’s possible to like it. Or so better than most science fiction that it’s in a league of its own, and therefore possible to like it.
Either you don’t really like A Time and a Place, and you’re just saying that you do, maybe because you’re my friend or my sister (and if so, thank you for that, it’s not that I don’t appreciate it), or, hang on, maybe you actually like science fiction.
Just consider the possibility. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Is it?
My books are at a handful of bookstores. Cover to Cover, in Riverview, NB. The Chapters in Dieppe, NB, and Coles in Summerside, PEI. There may be physical copies located in other bookstores but if so I’m not aware of it. Of course, they’re available at most bookstores; you would have but to ask and they can order them in.
They’re available via something called consignment at the bookstores mentioned above. Basically, I provide the copies, the bookstores place them on the shelves, and if they sell, we each get a cut.
It’s nice to see my books in actual bookstores but I don’t get too worked up about it. I approached Cover to Cover about consignment shortly after Adventures in the Radio Trade was published. The owner agreed to stock three copies each of Adventures and A Time and Place. To date, two copies of Adventures of sold and zero of A Time and a Place.
This is not surprising. Obscure science fiction from an indie writer is a pretty hard sell. It’s a miracle A Time and a Place has sold as well as it has, frankly. The memoir is an easier sell, at least to CBC Radio fans. But it’s probably still not a great fit for this kind of bookstore. I have an acquaintance who owns a used book store (Nearly New Books in Comox BC), Daniel Kyle. He’s a fan of my work. But he won’t carry my books because they’re not what people buy in that store.
As he puts it:
“I have tried a few times to peddle new books with no luck (there are new bookstores all over town anyway), and this market is too small to do so for all but mass market fiction, perhaps only a copy or two would sell in a year as had been my experience.”
When I asked for permission to quote him, he added:
“Part of the reason that we are unable to sell new books has to do with 1) tax, where we aren't set up to process the PST, and 2) our Trade Credit policy, which takes 50% off the price of our used books, therefore having customers wanting 50% new books (not possible). In short, people come to us for cheap used books and go to new bookstores for regular priced new releases.
And, I imagine, ordering online is easier for many (new bookstores have a hard time competing against the ~40% discount), or the large volume sold at Costco and Walmart cheaper. A small independent book seller buys from their warehouse distributor at 60% of list on a revolving credit, so at full mark-up must cover their costs AND make a profit in the remaining 40% but are usually forced to give some sort of discount in order to compete. There is just no way, when the big boxes and Amazon have a 1 - 2% margin of profit and make it up in volume. The independents basically rely on the goodness of loyal customers, and the fact that they offer a much more personal customer service experience.”
Daniel (whom I’ve never met in person) supports my work in other ways, by purchasing it himself, and letting me know how much he enjoys it. People like Daniel are great for my morale! And the truth is I’m better off without my books in stores gathering dust. That’s valuable inventory I can do a better job of selling myself.
I didn’t approach Coles or Chapters; the manager of the Coles in Summerside, Jasmine, approached me during the Three Oaks Christmas Craft Fair, where I was manning a table with my sister Susan. I was immediately taken with Jasmine’s enthusiastic, friendly demeanor. They didn’t identify themselves right away, though, and I immediately put my foot in my mouth.
After finding out where I lived, Jasmine asked, “Have you tried consignment with the Chapters in Dieppe?”
“Those crooks?” I responded.
I was joking, thinking of the Chapters 45% commission, and the time I once tried to sell books at an appearance in Chapters in Oshawa. Because I was being published by a small indie publisher at the time, authors copies were crazy expensive (that’s another story, and not the publisher’s fault). With the 45% Chapters commission the only way I could make any profit at all on the books was to charge $35 per book, and I STILL only made about a buck per book. The price embarrassed me. Amazingly, I still sold nine books that day. So, nine bucks for a day’s work, not counting gas. (I skipped lunch, so that helped.)
That experience helped confirm my growing impression that everybody makes money off books except the people who actually write them.
Anyway, that’s what I was thinking when I made that crack to Jasmine.
“I manage the Coles here in Summerside,” Jasmine replied. (Coles is Chapters by another name.)
D’oh!
I attempted to explain. Fortunately Jasmine has a sense of humour, and completely got where I was coming from. Jasmine explained that their store and the one in Dieppe do quite well with consignment, the best in the country, in fact, and invited me to give it a shot. Jasmine loves to support local authors. Appreciative, I agreed to give it a try.
Because I’m completely indie right now, I’ll do much better with consignment, as I’m able to get authors’ copies at a much more reasonable rate now.
If they sell, that is. Because the other thing I’m figuring out is that for books to sell, they have to basically sell themselves.
By which I mean, they have to be so good that people can’t help but talk about them.
Somebody has to convince you to buy them. They almost have to be hand sold. By somebody. Anybody. An employee in a book store, or a friend, or a hairdresser at a hair salon. The author can hand sell them, but the author can’t be everywhere. And it’s better if the sell comes from somebody else anyway.
If somebody tells you a book is great, you’re much more likely to buy it or read it. If nobody does that, and you don’t know the author or anything about it, and a bookstore puts it on the shelf with only the spine facing out, very likely that book is just going to collect dust.
So that’s really the challenge, these days. You have to write books that people can’t help but talk about.
I got my hair cut last week. The hair dresser asked me what I was going to do the rest of the day.
“Write,” I told her.
“Oh you’re a writer! Do you have any books published?”
I allowed that I was, and that I did.
“Are you a reader?” I asked.
“I’ve only ever read one book that really blew me away,” she told me. “In school, my teacher loaned it to me from her personal collection. It was called Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, and I just loved it.”
I bought that book, and I’ve already finished it. Frankly, it knocked my socks off. It is a powerful, compelling novel. I recommend it highly.
And that’s how books are sold.
Wouldn’t it be great if dogs could laugh? I mean, really laugh?
We could have such good laughs together.
Re-Creative
In the latest episode of Re-Creative, the podcast that Mark A. Rayner and I co-host together, we’re joined by Robert J. Sawyer, renowned Canadian science fiction writer.
I’ve actually known Rob a long time, since the late eighties, before the publication of his first books. I met him when he was working on a couple of episodes of the CBC Radio show Ideas, episodes about science fiction. A brand new tech at CBC Radio at the time, I recorded some of his narration. We had a lot in common. We’d both graduated from Ryerson’s Radio and Television Arts program, Rob about five years before me. We both loved science fiction and we both fancied ourselves writers. The only difference was… Rob actually was a writer. A working writer since the age of 23. I didn’t have anywhere near Rob’s talent and I had about zero of his discipline. It would be many years before I would muster up enough of the latter to produce a book. And in that time he’d write about twenty and win more awards than any other SF writer ever has.
Rob and I have kept in touch and he’s always been there for me when I’ve asked him for a favour or requested his services. In fact, the scales are tipped quite a bit in his favour in terms of who owes who (I owe him big time, several times over):
He helped me make a pilot for a radio show for CBC Radio, Faster Than Light. Three pilots, in fact, one of which aired.
He participated in a radio documentary I made for The Arts Tonight, with fellow authors Robert Charles Wilson and Jean-Louis Trudel
Rob also participated in a short documentary I made for CBC Radio’s The Current
He was the guest of honour for a Book Fair I held with my friend Pat Flewwelling in Whitby that we called Book Markit (get it?)
And now he’s agreed to be on the podcast Re-Creative that I co-host with my friend Mark A. Rayner
Rob’s topic for discussion is one of my favourite movies, Planet of the Apes. But we don’t get to it until about the 40 minute mark, cuz there’s so much else to talk about.
I hope you check it out; it’s a fun conversation.
Nerd Corner
Star Trek: Charlie X
So, four episodes in and I’ve already got the order screwed up. I was SUPPOSED to write about Charlie X in the last issue of this newsletter, but I guess I got excited about Where No Man Has Gone Before, so I wrote about that instead. I did at least watch them in the right order.
James Blish calls his version of this story Charlie’s Law. Apparently this comes from something Yeoman Rand says in the script that never makes it to air: “Everybody better be nice to Charlie, or else.”
Maybe I skipped writing about this episode cuz I’m not really a huge fan of it. Basically, a boy is rescued after being stranded on the planet Thasus for fourteen years where he’s been forced to grow up alone with aliens that he can’t physically touch. Kirk and the gang are charged with transporting him back to human civilization, but it quickly becomes apparent that not only is he (understandably) socially inept, he’s dangerous.
Out of the four episodes that I’ve rewatched so far (including The Cage), it’s the second one about rescuing a castaway, and the third about people with dangerous mental powers. Taking a while for the Star Trek folks to branch out.
I really don’t like Charlie, played perhaps too effectively by Robert Walker Jr, who was 26 at the time he played the 17 year old Charlie. Charlie is disagreeable, immature, and kills people with no remorse. It’s that last point that really gets me. I get that people not liking him is the point, and the source of his tragedy. But it’s also basically the plot of the Twilight Zone episode It’s a Good Life, and I didn’t really like that one either.
Nimoy still hasn’t quite nailed Spock here, who is still smiling, but he’s getting there.
In this episode, the Enterprise has a cook. We hear the cook, too, voiced by the man himself, Gene Roddenberry.
Blish’s version differs from the televised version slightly, but I’ll spare you a blow by blow account.
Next up: The Naked Time.
Upcoming Appearances
I’ve been invited to appear at the Dieppe, New Brunswick location of Chapters (just behind the Champlain Mall) for a signing event on February 25th between noon and 4pm.
I’ve invited myself to Curt’s General Market at the Riverview Lion’s Club March 2nd (my birthday!)
And I’ll be at the Riverview Lion’s Club for the Athena’s Touch Craft Fair March 23rd
That’s it for this time around. Thanks for reading! Hope to see you back.
This has been the 4th edition of Assorted Nonsense, the official newsletter of Donovan Street Press Inc.