05/5/12

Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough

If I were merely interested in selling copies of the second Dakota & Svetlana adventure, The Rich Are Different, I would probably release the novel now. According to reviews of the first book, there is certainly a demand for the second. And by the standards of most readers, not to mention many other writers in the detective genre, as it stands now The Rich Are Different is entertaining, compelling and engaging enough that fans waiting for the second installment would be pleased.

What page one of the new Dakota novel looks like.

The case is sufficiently complex, and Dakota & Svetlana’s repartee is enjoyable. There’s ample humor, variety of scene, and a balance of action and reflection. Overall, when compared to similar works in the detective/PI genre, the novel is “good enough,” and most other mystery authors wouldn’t hesitate to release it.

But here’s the thing: while I would love to sell 25,000 copies of The Rich Are Different tomorrow, it’s more important to me to put out my very best work. I want you readers to have the best experience possible, and in order to accomplish this, I have to have the attitude that “good enough isn’t good enough.” I have to pursue excellence.

A reviewer at IndieReader, Maya Fleischmann, writes of A Real Piece of Work (ARPoW), “Action, lust, danger, style and witty repartee, Orcutt’s A Real Piece of Work is a work of art.” Naturally, I was pleased by her comment because when I wrote ARPoW I set out to create a work of art first, and a detective novel second. In other words, I wanted to make the novel as much a piece of art as I could—within the limitations of the story, characters and genre. This is what I’m after with The Rich Are Different as well, and all I can say is, it’s not there yet.

As you’ll see when it does come out, besides being a mere detective story, The Rich Are Different is meant to be an homage to two works I love deeply: The Great Gatsby and Westerns. Therefore, until the novel is a compelling mystery that pays sufficient tribute to Gatsby and Westerns, I can’t release it. I sense there are still tweaks I can make to bring the novel closer to my original vision for it: a detective story that combines the urbane sophistication of the affluent East with the rough and wild nature of the Old West. We’ll see whether I realize this vision.

The inauspicious original cover of the 2nd Spenser novel.

Paradoxically, reviews of ARPoW and comments from readers—almost unanimous in their gushing praise (no pressure)—have made editing The Rich Are Different a highly torturous process because I want readers to be even more wowed and moved by the sequel, and I don’t know if that’s possible. In fact, I’ve spent the last 2 sessions with my psychiatrist discussing whether, with ARPoW, I might have created an act that is impossible to follow.

Fortunately, besides being an excellent doctor, she is also an avid reader of mysteries, and mystery series in particular. She assures me (as do my wife and best friends) that readers of series are in it for the long haul, that they don’t expect the next book in a series to trump the previous one. Referring to the creator of the Spenser series, Robert B. Parker, my doctor shrewdly asks me, “Is every one of Parker’s novels better than its predecessor?” I think about this—especially the second in the series, God Save the Child—and I have to answer with an unequivocal “No.” Yet, she points out, once a year readers would line up for the next installment.

Now, I hope I don’t sound defeatist here, because I’m confident that in many respects The Rich Are Different surpasses ARPoW. It’s just that, in addition to the Sisyphus-like labors of editing, I’ve been grappling with the intimidating notion of having to follow a critical success. And in case you can’t tell, it hasn’t been easy.

Rest assured, I am working on The Rich Are Different every day, and every day it gets a step closer to completion. Thank you for your continued patience.

03/29/12

Please Bear With Me During Remodeling

Because of a recent pharmaceutical spam attack on some of my websites, I am in the midst of moving this blog and DakotaStevens.com to another hosting provider.

These sites will look bad for some time.

I ask for your patience. It will take me a month or more to rebuild both DakotaStevens.com and Chris Orcutt, Writer. Please realize that while doing this I am also editing the next novel in the Dakota Stevens series, editing two short story collections, and writing every day.

I will do all I can not to allow this spam issue to affect my publishing the second Dakota Stevens novel as soon as possible. However, in case I am delayed, you now understand the cause.

Blame the pharmaceutical companies. I am.

Thank you,

Chris Orcutt

03/22/12

Hemingway Had the Pilar, I Have Golf

Every morning while living in Key West and Cuba, Ernest Hemingway rose early to write, and every afternoon he went out cruising and fishing on his yacht, Pilar. There are many articles out there, including this one and this one, that detail what Hemingway did during his afternoons on the Pilar, as well as how much the boat meant to him, so I won’t discuss any of that here.

I only mention the Pilar because as much as Hemingway loved writing, he needed an activity that took his mind off it. Spending hours cruising and fishing (and hunting German subs during WWII) enabled him to forget his writing and enjoy himself for a while, so he could return to his work the next day refreshed.

As a boy I loved to fish, but somewhere along the way I developed an aversion to handling slimy, squirmy things, so in the last 25 years I’ve fished maybe twice.

The promise of the 1st tee

Instead of fishing, for relaxation I’ve turned to another classic obsession: golf. While I’ve taken a few lessons and read several books on the game, I’m only an average player, typically shooting between 100 and 110 (par is 72) and occasionally—if I’m on fire—in the low 90s.

But most of the time I don’t even keep score. I play for the Zen aspect of the game. For those few hours while I’m playing, nothing else exists.

All worries about characters and plot and reviews and fan mail and royalties and where in Europe I want to travel and whether the second book in my detective series will be as good as the first and my friends’ and relatives’ health and why literary journals tell me they enjoy my stories but continue to reject them and bills and the incongruously gorgeous postal worker I chatted with that morning and what I’ll write next and what I’ll talk about at the party I was invited to that weekend and whether I’ll ever amount to anything as a writer—all of these worries fall away while I’m playing golf, leaving just me, the course, and the ball.

There’s so much I love about the game, I can’t possibly express it all here. Nor do I want to. Someday I want to write a novel—or at least a story—about my love of golf, so I have to keep a certain amount of my passion to myself. If I write it all now, there won’t be any creative tension to write more in the future. I will share one observation, though:

Besides the quiet and the solitude when I’m able to play alone, I love the panoply of green on golf courses. As James Kaplan notes in his short story “The Mower,” contrary to what most people think, there are about a thousand shades of green on a golf course: green-green, yellow-green, blue-green, orange-green, black-green, gray-green and so on.

Walking a course forces me to see—really see—the world in greater detail, which is exactly what a writer needs. Golf gets me out from behind a desk and actually seeing things, not thinking about them, mulling them. It reminds me of why I write in the first place: to attempt to capture some of the beauty and poignancy of moments in the world.

03/2/12

Rewriting The Rich Are Different

While in the post office the other day, a couple of postal workers who bought A Real Piece of Work complimented me on the writing.

“It reads so smoothly,” one of them said.

“It seems like it’s effortless for you,” said another.

Then they asked what I was up to now. I told them, “Reworking the second book in the series so it reads like the first.”

In fact, yesterday I finished a new revision of the novel—The Rich Are Different—and I was reminded of something Michael Crichton once said about his own struggles with revision. He said, “Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten….It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

I’ve lost count which rewrite of The Rich Are Different that I’m on, but I’m sure there will be 2–3 more before I’m through.

(Long sigh.)

02/25/12

The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe: An Interview with Jeff Bennington

Greetings, readers. Today, for the first time in the history of my blog, I’m making somebody else the focus. Today I’m going back to my roots as a newspaper reporter and interviewing Jeff Bennington, creator of The Kindle Book Review and author of a new book about the indie publishing phenomenon, The Indie Author’s Guide to the Universe.

Ever since I independently published A Real Piece of Work late last year, I’ve been struck by how collegial and supportive the indie author/publisher community is. For example, out of hundreds of potential reviews to run on The Kindle Book Review, Jeff chose one about my novel. Grateful for his generosity, I wanted to pay him back somehow, and so I’m running this interview.

The indie author/publisher world is a fascinating one, and as one of the world’s movers and shakers, Jeff is well qualified to talk about its current state, as well as its promising future. So, without further ado, here’s my interview with Jeff:

What inspired you to write THE INDIE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE?
The inspiration to write TIAGttU came from my desire to learn from my past mistakes and share those lessons with other authors. I blogged about the lessons learned for nearly a year. I was actually surprised how thankful my readers were. I thought I was just being transparent, when in fact, I was offering useful information that writers were in desperate need of. The longer I immersed myself into the world of publishing, the more I watched other authors repeat the same mistakes over and over.

You’re the founder of The Kindle Book Review. Where did the idea for that very popular website come from?

Jeff Bennington

The Kindle Book Review was actually created as part of my “author platform.” I also wanted to help promote other authors in my genre via cross-promotion. What I didn’t know is, the blog would transform my platform in ways I never imagined. So what started as just another blog, turned into a review site, and then into a promotional tool on a larger scale. Every day the number of visitors increased. One day we had 400, and then 450 the next and then 500 and then 525 and then 600. It’s just amazing how fast it’s growing. We now have about 20 reviewers and several promotional venues for any budget, including a “Media Buzz” promotion that is working great. We’ve teamed up with WorldLiteraryCafe.com and DigitalBookToday.com to make this promotion extra effective.

What is the difference, as you see it, between self-published and indie-published? What are the advantages of being an independent publisher?
Good question. I address this in the book because I don’t think there is clear definition. Here’s what I say in the book:

I’ve been down the roads of self-publishing and what I call indie publishing. An indie author, in my opinion, is in complete control of their publishing project, including cover design, pricing, editing, formatting, and ownership of the ISBN. As an indie author, you report to no one but your readers.

A self-publisher, as I see it, is one who contracts a pay-to-publish business such as Tate Publishing, Outskirts Press, Author House or any other service that charges to publish an author’s book. I include 50/50 publishers as well because they require the author to pay a portion of the production expenses. Sadly, after all the hype, the publisher usually owns the ISBN, ultimately controls the price, and charges ridiculous fees for the simplest of tasks. In this case, you are self-published, but you are not actually the publisher.

What is the most common mistake made by indie publishers and how can they rectify it?
I don’t know if I can pinpoint one common mistake. But I think the most damaging mistake indie authors make is by refusing to pay for professional editing. What I’ve seen is a mentality that says, “If I sell some books, I’ll afford to pay for an editor, book cover design, and proper formatting.”

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. If you invest in those elements before publishing, you’ll have a better chance of selling, and a better chance of NOT killing your reputation as an author.

I have a checklist I refer to when an author asks me for help. It’s quite simple:

Book Cover, Book Blurb, Price, Writing Quality, Reviews, Marketing

If a book is not selling, I begin analyzing each one of these elements to discover which is broken. I often find that a book is not selling for obvious reasons, such as poor cover design, no marketing, inflated price, poor editing, etc. If you do not know how to fix these key elements, you will have to pay an expert. Although I do not have an exhaustive list of resources, I do list the professionals I use.

THE INDIE AUTHOR’S GUIDE is loaded with advice on marketing, pricing, coding and a lot more, but what aspects of the book are you most proud of?
The part of the book that I’m most proud of is that I think I paint a very realistic picture of what it means to be an indie author and what your life will become when you are your own publisher. I’m very honest. I give no promises of selling a million copies in a year. Like my blog, The Writing Bomb, I motivate authors who are discouraged, and encourage those who are considering going indie without giving them a false impression that they will grow rich and sell millions. Most will not.

I am also proud of the fact that not only have I had success with some of the strategies I teach, but I have been working with other authors who are seeing an increase in their sales.

How is THE INDIE AUTHOR’S GUIDE different than other books on the indie publishing phenomenon, books like David Gaughran’s LET’S GET DIGITAL?
I’ve never read that book, but I looked it up and was surprised at how similar they are. The biggest difference is that Let’s Get Digital was published six months ago and a lot has changed since then, specifically Amazon’s KDP Select program. I address KDP Select in detail and offer marketing and promotional strategies that can benefit authors who are enrolled in that program.

I also checked out David’s list of books and see that he has one that is currently ranked at 60K+ and one that is ranked at 100K+ in the Amazon paid store. Reunion, my supernatural thriller is a legitimate #1 Amazon category bestseller and hit #55 in Amazon’s Top 100 paid store. All of my books, with the exception of my short stories, now incorporated into Creepy, have been consistently ranked in the 2,000 to 25,000 range for several months and I haven’t seen six digits in over a year.

While searching for David’s book, I noticed that there are other related titles that were published in 2010. Those border on ancient history.

Ebooks have been under fire since their inception, with critics declaring them poorly written and edited. The standard argument is that they are of inferior quality compared to print books from mainstream publishers. Recently notable authors like Jonathan Franzen have joined the fray, adding to the criticism of ebooks. As a promoter of indie authors and one of the vanguards of independent publishing, how do you respond?
There is definitely some truth to the naysayer’s arguments. But what they don’t realize is, indie authors are selling A WHOLE BUNCH of books and readers are grateful for the variety and general quality. Is it likely that there are a greater percentage of lemons coming from the indie camp? Sure. But I believe critics of indie published books are speaking out of ignorance and fear, and their thoughts will have zero impact on our continued success. Your book, A Real Piece of Work, is a perfect case in point. You have 68 reviews and a 4.9-star rating.

Is epublishing a fad that will go away eventually, or is it here to stay? Please explain.
Easy. With the exception of a cataclysmic disaster, a foreign invasion, or a world-wide collapse of the Internet, epublishing is here to stay. Ebooks are an “inventory free” product, profitable and economical for all parties concerned. The more money eReaders like the Kindle generate, the more money their creators will invest in the products and technologies that they use. There’s a lot of money riding on these digital devices, and authors are the ones who create the content, and content is King.

In the introduction to THE INDIE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE, you mention that the bulk of the book includes morsels of encouraging and motivating material for writers. How about giving readers a sample right now?
Sure. Here’s a direct excerpt taken from Section One:

When Dreams Are Lost

“The best part of my indie journey has been the manifestation of ideals I believe in but which the universe seemed reluctant to validate until now.”

—Scott Nicholson, author of The Indie Journey: Secrets to Writing Success

The grill billowed with smoke. Your stomach growled. Children frolicked in the yard, and your mouth watered as you savored the flavors of life. You could practically taste the hotdog and ketchup in your mouth. Your mom slipped you some chips and soda, and you were in heaven.

As usual, you played until the streetlights came on, and when you lay in your bed at the end of the day you dreamed of who you’d become.

You were young. You were fresh. You were exactly who you were supposed to be, and your dreams were bigger than life.

If you were like me, you wanted to be a stunt man and jump the Snake River like Evel Knievel, soaring by the power of your will. Or maybe you wanted to be a dancer, a drummer, or a writer.

Then life happened.

You had children. You went to college. You started a career, working long hours, hoping to get ahead while you paid your bills. Sometimes, you thought about your secret dreams when no one was looking. Of course they were there, hiding, waiting, still electrified with that youthful energy you once had. But you pushed them aside.

You gave your time to your children. You gave your time to your wife or husband. You gave your time to remodeling the house. It all drained the life out of you, but you wouldn’t change a thing. Your family has made you who you are, loving you through the highs and lows of life. Or, maybe not.

And yet through it all, your dreams are still calling. Thoughts of soaring over the Snake River and writing your magnum opus have remained at your side, whispering to you, hoping that you’d drag them from your memories and realize them for what they are: your bucket list, your destiny.

Let me ask you a question: Do you hear your dreams calling, or are you blocking out the noise with the busyness of life?

I hope you’re listening, because your aspirations will never stop calling you. They’re a part of the child that exists within. Your dreams are who you’re meant to be. And if you dream of writing, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t, at the very least, be your hobby.

Listen for just a moment, and remember who you are. Remember your calling. If you’re a writer at heart, there is no better time to rediscover yourself and publish your work. Life is too short for what-ifs.

Write. Publish. Live out your dreams.

Where is THE INDIE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE available, in what forms, and how much is it?
The Indie Author’s Guide to the Universe is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The ebook sells for $3.99 and the print version sells for $8.99.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about your book or the world of independent publishing in general?
Why yes! Let’s wrap up this interview with my closing remarks in the book…

Amazing, isn’t it, this writing thing? The world has walked right up to us and crouched down with their ears pressed tight to our brains, listening to our ideas and to our hearts. Kindles and Nooks and iPads have changed everything for the writer, giving us an opportunity that has never been possible. We can write and publish with little to no restrictions, an unequivocal ticket to freedom.

We have been given a gift.

Yet nothing is guaranteed in this life. Everything can change without warning.

Now is the time for you to whisper in the reader’s ear. Now is your opportunity to share your story, your words, and your song with the readers of the world. Write it down. Get it professionally edited. Do it right. And send your words through Amazon’s Whispernet with my love.

Thanks for having me, Chris. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to share my book with your readers, and for your insightful questions. And by the way congratulations on the success of your book, A Real Piece of Work. Sixty-eight reviews with a 4.9-star rating is absolutely amazing. You deserve to be a number one bestseller, and I think you’ll get there.

02/13/12

Next in the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series…

Back in late November 2011 when I released A Real Piece of Work, I promised to release book #2 in the series, The Rich Are Different, once book #1 sold 1,000 copies.

When I wrote that, I was convinced it would take me at least 10 months to sell that many copies (an average of 100/month). Therefore, I would have plenty of time to give The Rich Are Different another polish and to format it and publish it on the Kindle platform.

As most of you know, over this past weekend I had a promotion and sales bonanza, selling over 1,000 copies of A Real Piece of Work in three days alone. While I’m tremendously grateful for the overwhelming response, it does alter my planned timetable considerably.

And so I’m here, dear reader—dear fan of Dakota & Svetlana—to ask for your patience.

I want The Rich Are Different to be every bit as good as A Real Piece of Work, and in order to ensure this, I need time—time to read it again (it’s lain in a drawer for 2 years), time to revise it, and time to get it into the complicated Kindle format for publication. I also need time for my talented cover designer, Elisabeth Pinio, to create the new cover.

Ultimately I want every reader to have as enjoyable an experience with book #2 as s/he did with book #1, and I want every reader to feel that The Rich Are Different stands up—in entertainment value and literary quality. Getting the novel to a level of quality where I’m thoroughly satisfied with it will take me anywhere from a few months (for summer release) to several months (for holiday season release). The best answer I can give is that it will take as long as it takes.

As I get further into the process of preparing The Rich Are Different for publication, I’ll post updates on where I am.

When the cover design is complete, Elisabeth and I will release that in advance as well.

For now, I’ll leave you with what I hope is a tantalizing synopsis of book #2:

The Rich Are Different, the second novel in Chris Orcutt’s Dakota Stevens mystery series, explores the rarefied world of a Long Island heiress and her murdered brother who owned an Old West resort in Montana. Going undercover as actors in a make-believe mining town straight out of 1885, Dakota and his associate, Svetlana Krüsh, hunt down the man’s killers, discovering a mother lode of a motive in the process.

Like bullets from a Gatling gun, the suspects come fast and furious: eccentric heiresses, aimless party girls, greedy CEOs, catty thespians, sexy henchwomen, angry Native Americans, mysterious mobsters, menacing mercenaries, kinky housewives and contract killers. It’s a classic case of East meets West as Dakota and Svetlana follow a trail of clues that takes the reader from the urbane setting of The Great Gatsby to the forbidding land of Pale Rider.

###

02/13/12

The Free Ebook Experiment — Part 2 —Conclusion

Last week I said I would report on the results of my 2 “free days” on Amazon’s KDP Select: the total number of free downloads, as well as the number of sales of A Real Piece of Work in the days afterwards. So, without further ado, here are the numbers:

Free Downloads (approx.):

Day 1 = 19,000

Day 2 = 8,430

TOTAL = 27,430

Once again, if you happened to pick up A Real Piece of Work for free, I hope if you enjoy it you’ll do me the favor of a positive review on Amazon. Thank you.

Top 100 Rankings:

During the free promotion, A Real Piece of Work rocketed up the top 100 free ebooks charts and at its height reached the following rankings in four categories: All Ebooks – #3, Fiction - #3, Mysteries/Thrillers - #2, and Literary Fiction - #1. I must admit that, if only for one brief shining moment, it was a thrill to be ranked at the top of these esteemed writers—writers including Dickens, Tolstoy and Chekhov.

During the sales days (Friday–Sunday), on the Amazon Top 100 list, A Real Piece of Work reached #100 on the overall list, #13 in Mystery and #9 in Literary Fiction.

Post-Promotion Book *Sales*:

The reason I did this promotion in the first place was to boost sales. Since I had read of other writers in the KDP Select program who had magnificent sales following their promotions, I decided to see whether, if I followed their actions exactly, I could duplicate their results.

My touchstone was the woman mentioned in Part 1 of this experiment, Karen Baney, who had a total of 29,500 downloads over 2 days and 700 sales and 150 borrows in the days following the promotion.

Here are my own numbers:

Friday, 2/10: 300 sales, 75 borrows

Saturday, 2/11: 491 sales, 85 borrows

Sunday, 2/12: 586 sales, 90 borrows

TOTAL SALES = 1,377

TOTAL BORROWS = 250

After Sunday I stopped counting. Exhausted with doing this kind of detailed accounting for 5 days, I was ready to move on.

Conclusions:

In my case, KDP Select’s free promotion obviously worked, and I think it will work for just about anybody. Provided you have a good quality product that you’re giving away, I believe if you stick to Karen Baney’s script for the free promotion and the days following, while your results might not be insane, they will be positive.

Initially I wasn’t keen on the idea of tens of thousands of people getting to read A Real Piece of Work for free, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed. I now have over 25,000 readers out there who know me and my work, and I’ve already read comments from some of them that they will gladly pay for the next book in the series.

Amazon’s KDP Select program has worked for me, but it could stand some improvements, particularly in the area of real-time reporting. All you are given on your sales “report” page is a readout of Sales, Units Refunded and Units Borrowed, so in order to keep track of how you’re doing, you’re constantly making calculations. You’re also left in the dark about the details: where the sales are coming from, the royalty rate (70% or 35%) and other crucial information.

There should be a feature on the “reports” page that enables you to export Excel spreadsheets in real time, or at least daily, and books that are given away during a free promotion should be segregated from those that are actually sold.

While I hope my novel continues to sell gangbusters, I’m glad the promotional experiment is coming to an end. You wouldn’t think so, but constantly checking sales figures and rankings is stressful. I’m a quiet writer who likes writing and giving readers a great story; being an entrepreneur or self-promoter doesn’t come naturally to me.

To other KDP Select members who are considering doing free promotions of their own, I have one piece of advice: follow Karen Baney’s script—to…the…letter.

In my next entry I’ll be writing directly to readers, my “fans,” about when book #2 in the Dakota Stevens series, The Rich Are Different, will be coming out.

02/9/12

Writing vs. Self-Promotion

The big problem facing writers today is finding a balance between writing and self-promotion.

I’m currently doing a free promotion of my Kindle mystery novel, A Real Piece of Work, and I’ve discovered that it’s easy for tweeting, posting to Facebook, and blogging and the like to take over your life. Meanwhile, in my own case, I think if given a choice between writing and promotion, I’d choose writing every time.

To my thinking, the best way for a writer to get noticed is over time by producing high quality work, and if he is spending all of his time promoting (a realm that thrives on instant feedback), then he isn’t spending the requisite time on his craft (a realm that thrives on quiet and reflection).

If the writer doesn’t want to focus on the writing, he needs to ask himself whether he really loves the process of writing or if he does it so he can be known as an author.

The greatest rewards truly are in the process of doing it.

In her book The Writing Life, Annie Dillard tells the story of a student writer who asks his writing mentor if he could be a writer, too. The mentor says, “I don’t know. Do you like sentences?” Ultimately all of this writing stuff comes down to sentences. I happen to love them.

I do this because I can’t not do it. I am compelled to write every day, and have been for over 20 years.

Every writer needs to ask herself why she is doing this. If it’s to sell a ton of books, that’s great, and greater still if she is being honest with herself. If it’s to become the best writer she possibly can, that’s great, too, so long as she understands that she won’t necessarily become a bestselling author. I think it is nearly impossible to achieve an equal balance between writing and promotion, so each writer needs to decide where she wants to focus.

NOTE: This piece came out of a reply I made to a thought-provoking article by Rachel Abbott entitled, “Using Twitter: Are You a Writer, a Brand, or a Salesman?” You can read her original article here.

02/8/12

The Free Ebook Experiment — Part 1

The 5-star novel, available on Amazon.

According to the new, social-networking philosophy of book promotion, one of the most effective ways of building your audience is to give away copies of your book.

Of course the old-school part of me—the part of me that has been paid for my writing ever since I was a cub reporter—bristles at this. I don’t want to give my work away; I want readers to buy it.

My Kindle mystery novel, A Real Piece of Work, has been available on Amazon since late November 2011. That’s over two months. But in that period of time I’ve managed to sell fewer than 200 copies of the novel. For those eager readers waiting for me to sell 1,000 copies and release book #2 in the series, this news must come as a disappointment. There’s still a long way to go.

This is where the giveaway comes in.

On Wednesday and Thursday, February 8 & 9, 2012, A Real Piece of Work will be available on Amazon as a FREE Kindle ebook download.

Many successful indie publishers on the Kindle platform report that offering your book for free for 1–2 days boosts its ranking and visibility, so that when the free promotion is over, the residual buzz drives sales. That’s what I’m hoping for.

If you’re a bargain-hunter and you happen to pick up A Real Piece of Work for free, I hope if you enjoy it you’ll do me the favor of a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads. And please tell everyone you know about the novel—everyone with a Kindle, iPad or other Kindle reader-compatible device (there are many), as well as everyone you know who enjoys mysteries and exquisitely well-written books. Help get the word out. Please.

The sooner the word gets out and I sell 1,000 copies of A Real Piece of Work, the sooner I’ll release book #2 in the series. The Rich Are Different is already complete, and if you’d like to learn more about it, check out the Dakota Stevens website.

Please note, if you’re a fellow writer who hoped this would be a step-by-step how-to article about using your “free days” on KDP Select, let me direct you to an excellent blog entry that I’m using as my script for this experiment. It’s titled “Maximizing Free Days on Kindle Select,” and the author is a woman named Karen Baney. She details the tactics she used, and since she had positive results, I decided to use her methodology as the model for my own free promotion.

I’ve already decided that this experiment will be the Litmus test for whether I continue with Amazon’s KDP Select. Unless my “free days” translate to radically improved sales, I plan on expanding publication of A Real Piece of Work onto other platforms including Google Ebooks, iTunes and possibly Smashwords. We’ll see.

In Part 2 of this piece, I will post the results of this free promotion experiment: how many free downloads there were and how many sales there were in the week following. Fingers crossed for 800+ copies sold.

01/6/12

It's All About the Reader

The novel, available on Amazon.

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a mystery novel, a mystery novel that only one agent and zero editors believed in. This mystery novel was read by editors at top publishing houses including Dutton, Harper, St. Martin’s Press, Harcourt, Tor and Poisoned Pen. It was even read by a major movie studio. Yet none of them were willing to take a risk on the novel.

“The mystery market is too crowded,” they said. “We don’t see how it can stand out.”

Never, though, did they say it wasn’t good enough, that it wasn’t well-written.

So, for many reasons, A Real Piece of Work never found a home among mainstream publishers. Which is why, about a month ago, I finally self-published it as a Kindle ebook.

Since then, between Amazon US and Amazon UK the novel has netted 21 reviews—19 of them 5-star raves. Readers write how they lost sleep over A Real Piece of Work. The most recent reviewer writes, “Read this book when you have a day to spare. You won’t be able to put it down.”

A forlorn slush pile.

Had I not published it on Kindle myself, the novel would have lain dormant on my hard drive or a slush pile somewhere, and I would have always wondered what readers thought of the book. It turns out they think a lot of it. They love it—some so much as to beg me to release the second one in the series tomorrow.

I’m tremendously grateful to readers who have posted reviews or told their friends about the book, but the most important thing they’ve done for me is to remind me that it’s all about them. It’s all about the readers, not the agents and editors.

All readers care about is whether a book is a good read, a well-written story. But because my pursuit was agent- and editor-centric for so long, I forgot whose opinion I really cared about—the reader’s.

I read this somewhere—I can’t remember where—and I realize it’s more true now than ever: “The reader’s opinion is the only one that counts.” I’ve always written with the reader in mind, but now I’m going to write that truism on a 3″x5″ notecard and post it above my writing desk.

The readers have spoken, and I have listened. It’s all about the reader.

12/30/11

A Shattered Paradigm

I HAVE READ hundreds of books on writing. Conservatively figuring an average of 15 per year, over 24 years that makes 360 books on the subject. Books on voice, style, grammar, plotting, dialogue, point of view, syntax, narration, description, characterization, novel writing, technical writing, short story writing, nonfiction writing, query writing, getting an agent and getting published. But, none about what it means to be your own publisher. And none specifically about how to go forward as a writer during this time of the rise of e-publishing and the slow, inexorable decline of print publishing.

I often go to my bookcases for tried-and-true books on aspects of writing I’m having problems with, but for help on this issue, like Old Mother Hubbard I’ve found the cupboards bare. Even the few books about marketing can’t help me. Less than 2 years old, they’re already woefully out of date.

The trouble is, the paradigm I’ve been laboring under for 20-odd years is now shattered, and I’ve been trying in vain to salvage some of the pieces. It’s as though I’ve dropped a family heirloom vase and am in denial about its shattered state.

Ye Olde Publishing Paradigm (the one that ruled for centuries):

Writer learns craft, maybe works at a newspaper for a while, gets a few short stories published. Writes a novel, perhaps a few, and gets an agent. Agent contacts the major publishers, sells the book (taking 15% in the process). Author gets an advance against royalties (a loan, not free money). Publisher negotiates rights of first refusal on author’s next two books, publishes the first book 18 months later, hopefully in prestigious hardcover. Then trade paper, then mass-market (pocket-sized) paperback. If the author is lucky, someone from Hollywood contacts his agent to option (not buy) the book for a film that, chances are, will never get made. In the meantime the book has hopefully made its way into bookstores, where readers are hopefully buying it and loving it. There may be other subsidiary steps I missed but this is the general idea:

Writer –> Agent –> Publisher –> Bookstore –> Reader

The 21st Century Publishing Paradigm: The writer is the publisher. She writes what she wants to write, and when she publishes it, it goes directly to readers for their purchase and enjoyment. There are no gatekeepers like agents and traditional publishers preventing the writer from reaching readers directly. In fact, the only intermediary is the company that owns the delivery system, or bookstore—Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, B&N’s Nook, Smashwords, iBooks, etc.

Writer –> Bookstore –> Reader

In case you missed it, in the New Paradigm two large and obstinate obstructions between the writer and the reader have been removed.

As I said in my article of a few weeks ago about why I’m publishing my mystery series on Kindle, and as I said to half a dozen newspapers during my self-made publicity “junket,” a writer writes to be read, not to be forced to jump through hoops and told that the market won’t like what the writer is writing. My response to that old chestnut is one of the most basic principles of free market economics: let the market decide what it likes.

When I look at my shelves of hardcover fiction, I feel a pang of sadness for something that will probably never be: my own writing in prestigious hardcover, with acid-free paper, an eye-catching cover and the logo of a major publisher on the spine. Even worse, nowadays when I look at these once proud volumes (the pinnacle of book technology), it’s as though I’m seeing living fossils. I know something important without a lot of evidence for it: The vast majority of print books are going to fade away, to be replaced by slimmer, sharper, more powerful tablets.

One piece of evidence I have for this is that there are successful, traditionally published authors out there who have switched to self-publishing exclusively. In his thorough primer on electronic self-publishing, Let’s Get Digital, David Gaughran profiles an author named Bob Mayer, whose last three book deals prior to self-publishing totaled over a million dollars. Yet, Mayer walked away from traditional publishing and now self-publishes his work. “The main difference,” Mayer says, “is that I have more control than I ever did in traditional publishing.”

My point is, when commercially successful writers like Bob Mayer are leaving traditional publishing behind, how long will it be before the Stephen Kings and Tom Clancys of the world begin to leave it as well?

We’re witnessing a rare occurrence—an overlap in evolution, like when Neanderthal man existed on the planet at the same time as Homo sapiens. Neanderthal man was stronger and probably should have survived, but Homo sapiens was smarter, and did.

So, what is a writer to do who has operated under the old paradigm for all of his adult life? Suddenly, with no gatekeepers in his way, he can publish (from the Latin publicare - to announce, to make public) anything he wants, anytime he wants, reaching readers directly while reaping the lion’s share of the profits. This being the case, should he continue to pursue mainstream publication or representation? If so, why? For prestige? To fill a need for outside approval? Assuming one’s writing is of quality, how is print publication any better—any more prestigious or virtuous—than e-publishing? Are the words of The Great Gatsby any less poetic and utterly perfect presented in e-ink than they are in print? No. In fact, I submit that you could paint those words on a dark cave wall and they would still be as great. Great writing is great writing, regardless of the medium in which it’s published or who decided to publish it.

One of the key tenets of the old publishing paradigm was that as gatekeepers agents and editors ensured that only good quality writing reached readers. Writing that didn’t meet certain standards was rejected. Whether or not their role as gatekeepers has been of service to readers is debatable; but what isn’t debatable is the idea that readers deserve material that is well written. And with writers now filling the roles of agent and publisher for our work (or really publisher and publicist), it behooves all of us only to publish the best writing we can write.

We all need to become our own best editors, too, learning the rules and craft of writing inside-out so that our work is indistinguishable in quality from any work published by “professional,” traditional publishers. Doing this en masse is the only way to defeat the hackneyed argument by the publishing establishment that self-published work is inferior in quality. Doing this will raise the overall quality, benefiting all writers and, more importantly, our readers.

One of the reasons I wrote this piece was to think this issue through for myself, because like a lot of writers who labored under the old paradigm, I’m now unsure about how I should proceed. Everything has changed. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the writing itself. The writing is going to be good or bad, and will come easily or with difficulty, no matter how it is published. However, now that the barriers to readers have been removed, we writers don’t have the publishing industry as a scapegoat anymore. The only limitation on how much we publish, and its quality, is ourselves.

So, as for myself, I know what I have to do, and it’s the same thing I’ve done every day in one form or another, and that’s just write. Write the best I can, every day, and then decide what’s worth publishing.

12/17/11

An Open Thank You Letter to Readers

This one is for you readers. For those of you who took a risk on a relatively unknown quantity (me) by plunking down cash for my PI/mystery novel, A Real Piece of Work. For reading it, and for expressing your love of the book to everyone you know.

Your words of praise for the novel have encouraged me more than I can express.

I also feel vindicated as all hell.

You have to understand—I knew it. Back when I was submitting A Real Piece of Work to agents, and then my agent to editors, I knew that if I could just get the book into the hands of readers…well, I knew you would love it. At the time, however, the book and I first had to run the gauntlet of mainstream publishing.

Indy outrunning the giant boulder in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Looking back on the experience, it was like that scene at the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones is running out of the cave, clutching the golden idol like a football as the cave collapses around him. Except in my version, the cave was mainstream publishing, the golden idol was my manuscript, and the light at the cave entrance was publication (preferably in hardcover).

In the movie, Indy outruns the giant boulder and makes it to the light.

In my story, the cave collapsed around me.

But I survived. I survived and crawled out of the rubble with my book intact. After a suitable recovery period, I looked around for a more direct route to readers, which I found in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in the film masterpiece "Double Indemnity."

The great Billy Wilder, screenwriter of two of my favorite films, Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity (co-written with Raymond Chandler), had great faith in an audience. Remarking on the wisdom of movie theater audiences, he once said, “An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark— that is critical genius.”

Although my audience for the novel has yet to reach a thousand, I’m gratified that so far they’ve been in agreement about the novel’s virtues. Following are snippets from their Amazon reviews, as well as some of their comments on Facebook and Twitter:

“I read A Real Piece of Work in three days. I could not put it down. Didn’t get much sleep for a couple of nights, but it was well worth it.”

“I can’t believe how addicting this book was.”

“Orcutt’s masterful addition of wit and humor makes A Real Piece of Work that much more irresistible for those who haven’t historically flocked to the mystery genre. Dakota Stevens and his indispensable sidekick/chess champion Svetlana Krüsh are intoxicating and a delightful modern take on the noir detective style.”

“The author’s ability to paint a picture or scene with words is astounding.”

“The characters came to life in 3D for me. I know Hollywood will come knocking on this door, and even though it is premature the movie could never hold a candle to this book!”

“From chapter one, you don’t want to put the book down.”

“A Real Piece of Work is a proper, old-school P.I. novel. It’s fast-paced and exciting, with snappy dialogue, likable characters, and a thrilling plot that kept me guessing right to the end.”

“Looking for a good winter read? I’m proud to share the work of a great writer (and happy to say, a friend), Chris Orcutt.”

“I found myself amused and intrigued in every chapter. Orcutt can weave a story that keeps you hanging on until the very end. The action, tension, and suspense make you feel the need to desperately turn the page.”

“Read this journey. It’s a rare literary mystery.”

“In the presence of a shapely vixen whose hair smells like mint, a guy can stand idly by in his shorts for only so long.” OMG @chrisorcutt

“A Real Piece of Work claims to be the start of a series of books centered around a detective named Dakota Stevens, and I for one hope that the series goes on forever, for what we get in this first outing. People in the reviews keep mentioning Spenser/Robert B. Parker, and they’re right; but add a good streak of John Le Carré, turn the roaster up a notch, and maybe you’re getting in the ballpark.”

“I have enjoyed all of the Spenser novels, but Dakota Stevens and his sassy sidekick Svetlana, are my new favorite detectives.”

“The writing style is engaging and witty, the plot twists reel you in from the first page, and the characters came to life. I literally couldn’t put this book down until I finished it. I am now stalking this author on Amazon, anxiously awaiting the release of his next book in the series.”

Hard at work on my beloved Hermes 3000—arguably the best manual typewriter ever made.

Of course I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop—the inexplicable one-star review that claims my novel is the worst thing that reviewer has ever read and that I should be summarily exiled to Antarctica for publishing it

But in the meantime, I’m going to bask in the wisdom of the audience.

Thank you again to all of you who purchased and reviewed the novel, and I invite anyone else reading this to pick up a copy—whether for yourself or as a gift for a mystery lover.

Thank you, too, for vindicating me, for proving I was right.

I wrote the novel for you readers, not agents and editors, so to receive your praise and the ultimate compliment—your time—makes what has been an arduous journey completely worth it.

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