F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Indie Publishing

The Indie Author Manifesto, by Mark Coker

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We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident! (Howard Chandler Christy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident! (Howard Chandler Christy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
I love this guy!

Mark Coker.

Creator of Smashwords.

I met him at a writer’s conference a couple years ago, drove him to the airport with a carload of other VIPs. This guy is so cool, so down to earth, so frigging real. He isn’t afraid to stand up to the icons of the publishing industry and call “Foul!” Dazzle them with the facts.

From his current post, I have lifted what he is calling, his Indie Author Manifesto.

Rock on, Mark Coker!

THE INDIE AUTHOR MANIFESTO

We indie authors believe all writers are created equal, that all writers are endowed with natural creative potential, and that writers have an unalienable right to exercise, explore and realize their potential through the freedom of publication.

I hold these truths to be self-evident:

  1. I am an indie author
  2. I have experienced the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from self-publishing
  3. I have a right to publish
  4. My creative control is important to me.  I decide when, where and how my writing graduates to become a published book.
  5. Indie does not mean “alone.”  I choose my partners.
  6. I shall not bow beholden or subservient to any publisher. In my business relationships, I seek partnership, fairness, equity and mutually aligned interests.
  7. We indie author comprise diverse writers unified by a common purpose to advance, empower and celebrate writers everywhere.
  8. I am a professional.  I take pride in my work, and I strive to improve my craft to better serve my readers, myself, my fellow indie authors and the culture of books
  9. My writing is valuable and important.  This value and importance cannot be measured by commercial sales alone.
  10. I celebrate the success of my fellow indie authors, for their success is mine, and mine theirs. Together we are pioneering a better future for books marked by greater quality, creativity, diversity, choice, availability, affordability and accessibility.

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To Blog or Not To Blog a Novel

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By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
By Camdiluv, from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons)
I say “novel,” but it could just as well be a short story.

I’m going to try to make this short and sweet.

There are all kinds of advice floating around about whether or not one should or shouldn’t blog out portions of one’s work into the Internet…how it might or might not damage the success of said work, should the blogger want to publish it, en masse.

Dare I say it?

Bullshit.

To that I add: pure bullshit.

A member of the writing I belong to expressed concern about that, because that was what this member was doing…then had stopped…but was, again, considering doing. He did it because of several reasons, some of which were that he enjoyed doing it. It got him writing. He’d found an audience.

I’d say the following be my opinion, but I really don’t think it’s an isolated “opinion” anymore. Heck an opinion at all; it has become fact: As long as what you do doesn’t hurt anyone, do what you love. Do what you enjoy. There are always people out there who love serials…and those who would love to read those serials again…or in one complete form. Those who have never seen your work, so one platform or the other serves them.

Do you really think a traditional publisher is going to care whether or not you blogged about your work–if they really felt they could make millions of you?

Hell no.

Any free promotion they can get to help sell their version of your work, all the better.

Look, no trad publisher is gonna take you if they don’t feel they can make a buck off of you, period. Your blogging of your book is an antiquated issue, based upon antiquated reasoning. Antiquated reasoning is what’s damaged (and continues to damage) traditional publishing. Reasoning can be made for or against anything, but it’s all about packaging. Look at all the crap out there that’s been out there for ever, suddenly repackaged and re-promoted. Instead of bitching and moaning about what not to do, about how terrible the world is and how things “could never work,” why not spin that frown upside down, my perfectly bound friends? Anything can be sold. Just put out a little effort, for crying out loud.

And you can always, always, Indie publish (don’t even get me going about how Indie publishing merely promulgates more shitty work into the world).

Do what gives you joy.

It’s your life.

Live it as you want. If your work is good or meant to succeed–in however way you define it—it will.

Just ignore all the white noise out there, and do what makes you happy. Life is short. Play hard.

To “he” out there, you go, dude! Have fun and keep your audience wanting more!

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Psychic Cover Reveal!

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© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)
© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)

Here is the front cover to my new novel, Psychic.

I decided to do the cover early, this time. I’m still polishing the manuscript, which, I think, still has a couple of months to go. But I’ve had such a hard time visualizing what I wanted for the cover since the very beginning of this manuscript’s creation…and, with the help of Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design, we came up with a great image, huh? I really love it.

Psychic is about a humble and angst-ridden hotline psychic who gets embroiled within a remote viewer government conspiracy, headed up by one shady, evil, Victor NMI Black. It’s an action/adventure that shows the origin of The Man With No Name (MWNN), a character from Sleepwalkers, and interlaces an alternate history storyline with John F. Kennedy. The story takes place in 1994, where JFK is 77 years old. The date is also significant, since the official remote viewer organization the government had used (in our present-day reality) was officially disbanded that year. I use a present day organization, The Monroe Institute and morph it into an alternate location, called the JFK Center, where my story’s remote viewer activities take place. The story is heavy on probabilities…the different roads that actions and people can take…or not. I play around with time…time travel…paradoxes…how scary, nefarious people can come into other people’s lives and simply take them over. How much of what you read in the news is real…or fashioned. Can “facts”…change? This is an intricate story…a gritty story (much grittier than Sleepwalkers…but it is part of the Sleepwalkers “universe”; I expect at least one more novel to come out of this universe)…and gets into the “backgrounds” of our lives and how things may—or may not—come into being in our everyday lives, however nasty those things may be….

Check out my Psychic Pinterest board for images related to this novel!

Many, many thanks go to my “cover girl,” Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design. And I hope you’ll all join me when Psychic is unleashed upon the world, and enjoy what I’m billing as the ultimate conspiracy!

Feel free to freely use the cover graphic in any (legal and tasteful) ways possible, just properly attribute ownership!

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Going Indie—What I’ve Learned (So Far)—Part 9

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Pay or Die! By W. M. Goodes (Nye, Bill: “Bill Nye’s History of England” (1900)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Pay or Die! By W. M. Goodes (Nye, Bill: “Bill Nye’s History of England” (1900)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Taxes.

Note to IRS: Writing is NOT a hobby to me.

We had our taxes done this past week, and, once again, I got hit with the standard spiel about “Hobby/Loss” rules. About my pitiful pittance of so-called “profit.”

Why?

Because I’d spent a couple thou on releasing two novels of mine last year (not counting my normal writing expenses) and hadn’t made a profit. Though I was physically and mentally exhausted at this tax meeting, and was, admittedly, a bit angry with the same (insert favorite expletive) admonishment I’ve been receiving since about 1987, I don’t really hold it against the man reading me the riot act. He’s just part of the process and covering his ass. Making sure I understand the position of my ass. I get that. But I was tired. Even a little annoyed at myself for how much I’d spent and at the small return—especially once I saw how many e-books were downloaded and no associated reviews or whatever (even bad ones) with all those downloads. Free downloads. Sure, Mark Coker (whom I’ve met and talked with—and a super, super GREAT guy) and the rest say that’s that M.O. for Indie publishing—giveaways. They will earn themselves out sometime…near or far future…but still…I was miffed. I gave away hundreds of books, and figured they were all languishing in the dark, dank corners of hundreds of harddrives, ignored and never to be read. Bit fillers.

Okay, I’m projecting and generalizing, there, because I was tired, but that was what was going through my mind. I can’t assume to know everyone’s mindset when they acquired my work, but I was happy that so many had acquired them. At that point, I just wasn’t happy with the lack of the almighty frigging important profits…and I was unhappy with the mere thought of profits!

Profits.

You see, folks, taxes bring out the weak links in businesses. The whole idea behind businesses, we are taught, is to make money. Not that we make the world a better place by the businesses we bring into existence, not that we’re out to help others. Not any other thing—

Profits.

Yes, that severely chafes me. Because every year I have to put my Business Hat on and talk money.

Artists don’t like talking money.

We don’t do what we do for the money. But…if we want to live…we have to make some sort of remuneration. Many of us have other jobs that do make money…but all of us, well nearly all of us—I don’t presume to know everyone’s motives—would love to be able to do the one thing that keeps us going…that feeds our souls…and make a living at that.

The IRS.

But this conflicts with IRS rules and regulations, if you’re making any money. Cause, if you make money, you must pay the piper. I don’t mind paying the piper. The piper is fine. We live in a great country, and somehow, we have to pay for things in this great country, and taxes are our mechanism. Live with it. Get over it. Taxes are how we get to reap the benefits of living where we live…whether or not they are properly managed is a whole ‘nother, exhausting argument.

I don’t want to bore with all the intricacies of the IRS Code, because I don’t know it and would have to research it, and, frankly, I’d rather force-vomit-up repeatedly the entire day than have to read that stuff, but here are some case studies on the matter of writers and taxes. The basic takeaways are:

  1. Treat writing like a business.
  2. Must prove the intent of making a profit in the business of writing.
  3. If no profit is made, show that it was due to circumstances beyond one’s control, like customary business risks, casualty losses, or depressed market conditions.

Now, I’m oversimplifying, and there are many and various methods to those steps, and I’m not gonna get into them, because I’m not legal counsel and the tax law is far more complex than it needs to be, but check out that link for interesting case studies and consult your tax folk. It’s interesting that there are cases where the IRS deemed a writer as not a writer-for-profit, the case then taken to court, and the court decreed that the writer was a writer-for-profit. So, all is not lost. One of the other things in those cases, was that the writer had to prove that their not making a profit was due to the third item above. In any event, nothing’s easy, nothing’s a given. You have to make every effort to treat your writing like the business it is, if you want to claim anything on your taxes and not use hobby/loss rules. There’s always a chance you could get audited, but, if you do, you can still “win,” as long as all your ducks are in a row.

Okay, so in the interests of showing how business-like I am, here is what I’m doing, plus/minus:

  1. I get up every damn day (twice on Sundays…okay, also Mondays-Saturdays, since I appear to have RLS), whether or not I feel like doing it, and write something. Promote.
  2. I log all my time on the computer for all my writing time.
  3. I log my submissions and important events in a logbook.
  4. I spreadsheet all expenses, income, and mileage.
  5. I spreadsheet inventory.
  6. I blog.
  7. I interact on social media (WordPress, Twitter, Pinterest, FB, AboutMe, LinkedIn the occasional online forum, like, currently, an Amazon forum).
  8. I push the Indie Publishing agenda.
  9. I interview on traditional and Internet radio.
  10. I try to get any gig where I can to advance the Indie Agenda, and get my work out there.
  11. I annoy and guilt others into buying my book, when severely hopped up on caffeine—which, I’m finding, I seem to need more of as I get older. Iced Tea doesn’t seem to be cutting it any longer (see RLS, above). I do same, to get readers to review my work. Note: why do I do this? I do it so others will see how much other readers have liked the book, so they, too, might like it and buy. If this was just for a frigging hobby, I could give a shit if someone liked it or not (as in I’d be doing it for my benefit and relaxation and it doesn’t matter if you like or don’t like that…) and wouldn’t keep embarrassing myself into asking readers for reviews—even short ones. My ego does not need stroking (some might say it strokes itself…). But, again, I’d really like to make a living off this stuff, so….
  12. I try to get writer conference sessions.
  13. I’ve submitted my work for official reviews, like The Midwest Book Review and BookReview.com (whose link, curiously, seems to be down, since I sent my work to them…).
  14. Am constantly prowling (yes, prowling) for any opportunity to further advance the cause of my work (note, I didn’t say me…my work…). I’ve even got my dad trying to sell my books in upstate New York. Any of you can also help out by trying to get me in anywhere you’d think I’d fit (note, I’m not 165 lbs…am currently about 200, so keep that in mind). Get me a radio phoner interview (where I’d call in, versus showing up in-studio), invite me to your library or writer/reader groups, if in driving distance (or “they” pay for my airfare and hotel…  :-] ), send links to my work all over the planet, talk my books up whenever you can, interview me for your blog. I’m a fun guy. Witty sometimes. See, I am prowling, even trolling (note double entendre, which, originally, was “double entente,” c. 1670s)…

Thing is, I’m no longer 23 and can’t do 20-hour days anymore. I do do (go on, laugh, it’s allowed) 18-hour days, though. I have a day job that’s frequently been more than just a day job and do get quite exhausted by day’s end, so that curtails evening events (frequent ones, anyway) at the moment. I also workout after work. That takes a couple hours. Staying fit is important on many levels, but to Mr. and Mrs. IRS that should mean it makes me a lean-mean-profit-making-machine. Or tries to, anyway, but, given the glutted publishing market and “customary business risks, casualty losses, or depressed market conditions,” it’s hard to break into and make a profit in the publishing world. But I’m still in there swinging. Because I lift weights. Cardio give me longevity.

Now, yes, some of this all might sound decidedly mercenary (in actuality, reviews are not just about the promotion to me, I’m truly curious about how people interpret and feel about the stories; I’ve written them to touch and impact in some way, even inform…), take some of the romanticism out of us writers, but, sigh, we’re just trying to make a living. We’re not egotistical—most of us don’t even like the limelight—but we have a driving need to write. To convey stories we hope others might find fun or interesting. What do each of you do to stay employed? How do each of you sell yourselves? It’s a true pity so much focus is put on profitability, but you have to also look at it from the IRS’s point of view: people cheat. Once you understand that, everything else falls into place.

Don’t hate the writer. We just wanna write…and without us, you don’t have anything to read.

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Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

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Well the contest everyone loves to hate by the company everyone loves to hate has opened its entry period February 16 – March 2, 2014, for the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest (ABNA).

It’s open to all unpublished and self published, English language novels. The contest will remain open until March 2, or 10,000 eligible entries have been received. Entrants can log into CreateSpace.

There will be one Grand Prize winner, who’ll receive $50,000, as well as four First Prize winners, who’ll receive a publishing contract from Amazon, and an advance of $15,000.

The categories are general fiction, mystery/thriller, romance, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and young adult fiction.See the Official Contest Rules for more info, and the prizes page for, you know, prize stuff, et cet.

You can only enter one manuscript per category.

The Uninvited and ERO can fit into two categories. Am I gonna enter?

Plan on it.

UPDATE Feb 22, 2014:

Upon reading the Amazon contest contract, I noted a curious clause, called the “Moral Rights” clause. It kinda disturbed me. It states that we waive all moral rights, which means the rights of attribution and integrity. Here’s  a link describing said clause, and below is a response from a fellow writer/publishing lawyer, Susan Spann, who has graciously allowed me permission to post her response:

“I’ll pipe in from the publishing lawyer’s perspective.

‘Moral rights’ are more important abroad than they’ve traditionally been in the U.S.

The right of attribution means the author’s right to have his or her name associated with the work. That’s critically important, but generally dealt with elsewhere in the contract (with U.S. Contracts, anyway).

The right of integrity is the right to prevent ‘mutilation or alteration’ of the work. Again…important to most of us, but dealt with in a section usually titled ‘editing.’

Ultimately, moral rights are the right of the author to have his or her name associated with the work and to prevent non-permitted changes to it. Most of those rights are addressed elsewhere in U.S. contracts, and many publishers do ask for waivers of moral rights. Most authors just don’t notice them lurking in the legalese. That said, there may well be other rights-grabs in the Amazon rules that warrant attention.”

But, you have to enter the contest, stay with the contest, then win the contest to even be considered for/get an Amazon publishing contract, which means you have to abide by giving up all moral rights to even get the publishing-your-book contract where “all this” would “be handled.” And by who—you? Better get an agent…but, of course, that’d be too late, since you already gave up your moral rights by entering and staying with the contest contract.

Read that contract. I am/still going over it.

So…I’m considering withdrawing from the contest. I’m perfectly content with the result of my indie releases, and was just looking to gain a publishing house, so I didn’t have to pay out money to publish. It appears…TANSTAAFL…still applies.

Additionally from Susan:

“Normally a moral rights waiver is pretty clear. The language will be something like ‘Author waives all moral rights in and to the Work.’ That clause may stand alone, or may lurk elsewhere in the document. Generally speaking, though, the language is actually going to use the words ‘moral rights.’

The true lurker versions of this language get rid of the moral rights piecemeal (which is more common in the U.S.). The words ‘Publisher has the right to edit the Work, and the right of final approval over the form and content of the work’ are essentially a waiver of the moral rights against defacement and alteration – because the author is giving the publisher the final right to edit and approve the work. Where the author requests additional language that says ‘provided that Publisher’s changes may not substantially alter the substantive content of the Work,’ the author is rescuing some of those moral rights — the ones that deal with substance and content.

The same is true of the attribution right. When the contract states that the Publisher ‘will’ credit the author as author of the Work on the title and verso page, that’s a protection of the author’s moral right of attribution.

In one sense, this has become a lesser issue in the U.S. because we deal with the individual rights that make up “moral rights” separately in our standard contracts.

Also, this clearly needs to get into my #PubLaw posts somewhere. I’m not sure I’ve done one on moral rights.

I used to teach this as part of the intellectual property and copyright courses I taught at the law school level, and I can tell you it gave new lawyers issues too.”

Susan also had issues with other parts of the contract that gave me increased pause for thought. For instance, the Grand Prize winner’s grant of rights in all forms and formats doesn’t terminate like the other “levels-of-winners” do. And there’s no specifics about when the “all forms and formats” runs out.

So, given I no longer have an agent, and given all the terrific info Susan—a publishing lawyer—gave, I’m withdrawing my submission.

Thanks, Susan, for all your advice and information!

Disclaimer: And, just to be clear, Susan did NOT recommend any course of action to me (she did not recommend I withdraw in any way, shape, or form), this is all and totally MY decision.

Be[ a]ware.

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It Happens To The Best of Us

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Once again, another writer friend of mine, Joe Ponepinto, received that worst-ever rejection letter we could receive. Worse than being told your writing sucks, go kill yourself.

This, however, has become the norm in the traditional publishing world. No longer is “good”  nor “great” good or great enough. It has become a world where “what does the publishing house think they can sell?”

And, no, your guess is not as good as mine. None of our guesses are. The only guesses that are allowed are those of the bean counters. Not the agents, not the editors. Bean counters. People who crunch numbers for a living, not read words. Manipulate them. I have nothing against bean counters…just the way they are being employed…by an industry (we’re talking upper-level executives, here, not the in-the-trenches managers, et cetera, so much) that doesn’t appear to really care about authors, no matter what great PR articles are written about how much they claim they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, stuff sells, they’re selling it…but so can other stuff. Stuff with more substance, intelligence, panache.

When you hear or read words like that, what are you supposed to think?

If Joe’s—or any of our—work wasn’t really good, they would have said it. But they didn’t. All “they” said was that they didn’t feel they could place his work. Even though it was “engaging,” “appealing,” and possessed “real energy and imagination.”

Really, traditional publishing, what are we supposed to think?

And you wonder why.

Sigh.

But, luckily for us, these days the traditional houses are not the only game in town.

Sorry to hear about that, Joe, but I think your current efforts are definitely headed in the correct direction. You’re a powerful writer, and I know you’ll come into your own!

Write on!

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