Beverly Bambury - Book and Ebook Marketing Services: SF, Fantasy, Horror, Crime, Comics, Geeky

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Calls for Submission #3

Once again I bring you Selene MacLeod with Calls for Submission (CfS). You can see all of the CfS columns here. Enjoy, and Happy New Year! - Beverly

Happy New Year! I hope you had a joyous and wonderful holiday and are feeling productive. Myself, I like to hibernate during the winter months, but this year, there is too much going on.

First, a plea. Crossed Genres Magazine, a pro market and all-around cool e-mag, needs to sell subscriptions to keep going. Check them out here: http://crossedgenres.com. They've got several upcoming submission calls, so be sure to take a look at their guidelines while you're there.

Pro Markets seeking submissions:

Fantasy & Science-Fiction. Special guest editor CC Finlay. No special theme for the July/August 2014 issue. Deadline January 14, 2014. Pro rates. http://ccfinlay.com/blog/guest-editing-fsf.html

Women Destroy Science Fiction! Lightspeed Magazine special issue. Looking for sci-fi stories by women authors for their June, 2014 issue. Max 7,500 words. Pro rates, deadline February 14, 2014. http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/special-issues/women-destroy-sf/women-destroy-science-fiction-a-message-from-the-guest-editor/

Resurrection House. Seeking stories 1,000-7,000 words. Deadline March 13, 2014, to be published in the winter of 2015. Theme is XIII. The guidelines say they're looking for “transformative” stories of What Was and What Will Be.http://www.resurrectionhouse.com/2013/12/call-for-stories/

Eggplant Productions. Looking for fairy tales retold to feature POC, LGBT, disabled, and non- “Western” characters. Deadline April 30, 2014. Seeking stories for Spellbound, aimed at children 8-12 (max 2,500 words) and Spindles (max 5,000 words). Pays $0.05 per word, $1 per line for poetry. http://eggplantproductions.com/general-guidelines/guidelines-for-spellbound-spindles/

The Journal of Unlikely Cartography. Looking for stories with a “Cartography” theme (think maps, graphs, GPS, etc.). Max 5,000 words, pays $0.05 per word. Deadline February 1, 2014. Read guidelines carefully, as there are several calls on this page but only one is currently open. http://www.unlikely-story.com/fiction-submissions/

Two anthologies from Exile Editions (Michael Matheson): Start a Revolution: QUILTBAG Fiction Vying for Change. Reading period January 1, 2014-March 31, 2014. Looking for speculative stories 2k-10k, pays $0.05 per word. Theme is revolution and community building. This Patchwork Flesh. Seeking QUILTBAG horror (think Queer Fear Vol I and II). Prefer stories under 7,500 words. Pays $0.05 per word. Reading period open June 1-August 31, 2014 (so you have lots of time). Both anthologies will feature primarily Canadian writers. http://michaelmatheson.wordpress.com/start-a-revolution/

Semi-pro markets seeking submissions:

Third Flatiron Publishing. “Astronomical Odds” theme anthology. Looking for sci-fi/speculative stories 1,500-3,000 words. Pays $0.03 per word, deadline January 15, 2014. http://www.thirdflatiron.com/liveSite/pages/submissions

Aercastle Narratives. Quarterly magazine. First issue (March 2014) deadline is February 1, 2014. 500-2,000 words, no restrictions on theme. Pays $0.02 per word. http://aercastle.com/submissions/

The Midnight Diner, who I listed last time around, has extended their open submissions call until the end of January. Seeking short fiction 3,000-6,000 words, pays $60. Also seeking artwork. http://www.themidnightdiner.com/submit-your-work/

New Myths. Quarterly, has specified reading periods. Next period: January 1-February 28, 2014. Looking for all types of speculative fiction (no graphic horror), max 10,000 words. Also looking for non-fiction and poetry (must deal with some aspect of sci-fi or fantasy). Pays $50 for short stories and non-fiction articles, $20 for poetry or flash fiction (under 1000 words). http://www.newmyths.com

SubTerrain. Literary market, but magical realism/slipstream would probably work. Max 3,000 words, deadline February 1, 2014. Postal submissions ONLY. Pays $50 per page. Theme is “Coincidence.” Publishes 3x/year, so there are other upcoming deadlines on the site. http://subterrain.ca/about/35/sub-terrain-writer-s-guidelines

Token and royalty-paying markets seeking submissions:

Grinning Skull Press Little Monsters: Horror for Kids, by Kids. Seeking horror stories by young writers (age 5-12). Subject matter is open but G-rated. Deadline June 30, 2014. Pays a $25 gift card. 500-3,000 words, deadline June 30, 2014. Note: Grinning Skull also has an open call for a charity anthology of Christmas-theme horror stories, and an annual unthemed horror anthology. http://www.grinningskullpress.com/Submissions-Guidelines.html

Blank Fiction. Looking for noir stories for their second issue. Deadline January 15, 2014. Pays an honourarium of $50. Also looking for sci-fi stories for their third issue, deadline not yet determined. Stories must be under 15,000 words. http://blankfictionmag.com/submissions/

Angelic Knight Press. That Hoodoo, That Voodoo That You Do. Anthology of dark ritual themed stories, edited by Lincoln Crisler. Max 5,000 words. Pays royalties, reading period January 1-June 1, 2014. http://lincolncrisler.info/?page_id=1870

Contests:

The 2014 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest. Looking for sci-fi stories set in the near future (50-60 years), max 8,000 words. No entry fee, deadline is February 1, 2014. First prize is publication (pro payment), a cool award and swag. http://www.williamledbetter.com/contest.htm

The Carter V. Cooper – Exile Short Fiction Competition. Deadline March 10, 2014. Postal submissions. Entry fee $30. Sponsored by Gloria Vanderbilt in her son's memory. $10,000 in the emerging writer category and $5,000 in the senior writer category. Max 10,000 words (30 pages). No restrictions on subject matter and style. Finalists will be published in CVC Short Fiction Anthology Book Three. http://www.theexilewriters.com/poetry-and-fiction-competitions/

The Fifth Annual Gemini Magazine Short Story Contest. Entry fee $5 (per story). Grand prize is $1,000 Deadline March 31, 2014. No restrictions on style, content, genre, length. http://www.gemini-magazine.com/contest.html

The Eckleburg Review Franz Kafka Award in Magical Realism. Entry fee $10, max 8,000 words, deadline July 1, 2014. Prize is $1,000. http://thedoctortjeckleburgreview.com/bookstore/product/franz-kafka-award-in-magic-realism/

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Amazon Exclusivity and KDP Select: Book Marketing without B.S. #7

Book Marketing without B.S. is a weekly publicity and marketing advice column for writers and other creators who prefer a realistic, clear, and no-nonsense approach. My goal is to help you cut through the bullshit with direct, understandable advice you won't be embarrassed to follow. Send your questions to beverly@beverlybambury.com.

Once I began working independently of a publisher, I ran into an issue that I hadn’t dealt with before: exclusivity with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select program. From a publicity perspective I found it frustrating, as I have contacts affiliated with other book-buying outlets and I am unable to call on them in exclusivity situations. Why would they help with a book they can’t sell, after all? Still, I know it is more complicated than that, so here are some thoughts. I hope you'll share yours, too.

I want to make clear that I have no problem with authors and publishers who choose to use the KDP Select program. I understand why. What I am bothered by is Amazon's program itself. Since people make a large percentage of sales through Amazon, they’re often going to be tempted by the higher royalty rate, or rather, seek to avoid the punishment of the 35% royalty rate. There are other benefits as well, such as five days of being able to offer your ebook for free download (though Amazon has nerfed the impact of that by changing the visibility of the top free books list) and members' books are available for free borrowing by Amazon Prime members, which may net more reviews and definitely nets a share of money.

In a fascinating article by Eoin Purcell, he compares KDP Select's desire for exclusive content to Netflix’s production of exclusive content. The point that sticks out the most to me is that it reduces user churn. In other words, Netflix wants to keep its current viewers as much—if not more—than it wants to attract new ones. It does this in part by producing and purchasing content that only appears on Netflix. Netflix then promotes this content and funnels it to viewers' eyeballs.

While we have no direct evidence of this one way or another, it makes a lot of sense that Amazon may be trying to do something similar. It wants to keep people paying for Amazon Prime membership, and one of those benefits is free borrowing of ebooks exclusive to Amazon Kindle. It’s no-overhead income for Amazon. Indeed, retaining subscribers is a big moneymaker for pretty much anyone who does subscriptions. While Purcell contends that Amazon is getting this exclusive content without paying for it, I’d argue that it's paying for it with higher royalty rates. Still, they’re not paying publishers and authors what they probably should be given the extent of the benefit to Amazon, and given that all the work of writing, editing, layout, marketing, advertising, and publicity falls squarely on the creators and publishers.

Purcell raises another interesting point when he says that Amazon also gets to see how self-published authors sell during this exclusivity period, which gives them an edge in possibly offering publishing contracts for Amazon Publishing, and of course scads of general sales and marketing data, all paid for (in many ways) by publishers and writers.

One thing that was previously difficult for creators and publishers to control was the timing of promotional pricing. It was hard to predict exactly when it would kick in. Now Amazon has introduced Kindle Countdown, which lets one set parameters of timing. But, naturally, one has to sign up for KDP Select to use it, creating yet more pressure for exclusivity, when someone really ought to be able to schedule the dates and pricing anyway.

How big is the benefit to creators? Many argue that it’s not worth the exclusivity to limit yourself. I myself don’t have any experience that is definitive one way or another. Two publishers I’ve worked with prefer to go this route, but others don’t. I can't argue with the ones who like it when they feel they get a consistent benefit from it, after all. Still, both publishers are fairly young and neither had large marketing and publicity campaigns (of which I am aware, anyway!) prior to doing the exclusive arrangement.

This piece by Jane Litte over at Dear Author raises a really good point that gets to one of the reasons I feel uncomfortable with exclusivity. It starts to feel (to me, not in Litte’s words) a bit like the “company store” phenomenon. What Litte does say is that it can be dangerous because with all your eggs in one basket, what happens if the bottom drops out of the basket? Remember when Amazon removed lots of erotica? What if they come for what you write next for some reason? I know that’s a long shot, but exclusivity gives them complete control over that if they choose to exercise it. What if they decide to change terms in some other legally-covered way? You’ve undoubtedly agreed to a host of terms and conditions when you go with KDP Select, and Litte points out that Amazon changes terms at other times writing, “Just recently they increased the amount you have to buy in order to get free shipping from $25 to $35.” Do you fully understand what you signed when you joined KDP Select?

She also argues that exclusivity harms readers, too. Litte says that by reducing or eliminating competition, some of the drive for innovation—and thus perks for customers—disappears. If Amazon has no competition, they don’t need to win your business. They’ll be the only game in town, then we’re back to the company store of books. Again, though, I can’t blame people for doing it. When most of your sales come from Amazon, and Amazon sweetens the deal, then what’s a struggling small publisher or self-publisher to do?

In any case, many people have looked at this more closely than I have, and authors have generously written about their experiences. You can read, in addition to the above, the below interesting posts, and I am certain that a quick search will net more.

CJ Lyons on Jane Friedman’s blog: Amazon KDP Select: Is It Worthwhile for Authors?
M.A. Demers of The Global Indie Author: Kindle Countdown – just another example of Amazon extortion? (An inflammatory title, I know, but I thought there was good info in this.)
James Calbraith on his own blog: KDP Select – a week later. The price of one’s soul.

To sum up, on a purely theoretical basis I encourage people not to use Amazon’s KDP Select/exclusivity; but, in the pragmatic sense, I understand why people use it, and I still gladly work with publishers who are part of the program. We all have to work with the resources at hand, and when money is tight (and when isn’t money tight for a small publisher?) then we take what we can.

I am really interested in your experiences and I can even do a follow-up post about what readers are willing to share. Contact me at beverly@beverlybambury.com if you want to discuss your KDP Select experiences. I imagine there is a wealth of experience out there!

Keep those questions coming, and sign up to get my posts sent directly to your email by clicking here. Thank you once again for your continued support.

Remember, I am on blog hiatus until the second week of January. Happy New Year, everyone!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Inspiration vs Newsjacking: Book Marketing without B.S. #6

My client, writer Chris Irvin, did a blog post about the assassinated Mexican physician and politician Maria Santos Gorrostieta, which inspired his novella, Federales. He was concerned that the post might be interpreted as using a tragedy for his own marketing benefit. I advised that the post was just fine, and that the real problem were things such as the infamous Cairo tweet from Kenneth Cole. Sure, Kenneth Cole got a lot of attention; but, the majority of it was bad, and despite what you may have heard, bad publicity is not as good for your company as good publicity.

It's not hard to learn more about this concept of marketing tie-ins to tragedy or events. In general, this is often called “newsjacking”, a term coined by David Meerman Scott. Scott does not advocate the use of tragedy in this way; however, and even spoke out against marketers making light of Hurricane Sandy, which you can see in the comments of this controversial HubSpot blog post.

I admit I don’t see how newsjacking could ever be a positive term. I think appending “-jacking” onto something creates a negative connotation. So, what is good newsjacking, then? Why is it a thing? This blog post was a helpful run-down of positives and negatives to watch out for. Finally, if you're interested, it may be useful to also read Danny Brown's reply to the HubSpot post and its replies. .

Consensus is definitely on the side of staying empathetic, kind, ethical, and.... well... classy. Of course there still seem to be people who have no problem making light of tragedy with an eye to profit. I personally find things like that distasteful and certainly the person doing the newsjacking may create a negative association for the brand or individual in the eyes of many potential customers. It's risky at best, and dangerous and cruel at worst.

So did Chris newsjack in a bad way with his post about Maria Santos Gorrostieta? No, not at all. For him--and for all artists--this served as inspiration to create a bigger story, to create art. This wasn’t a casual, off-the-cuff tweet intended to drive traffic to his web site. Indeed, I think painful or tragic incidents are often the inspiration for people to create, which is a healthy, humanist response. A callous marketing effort this was not, and so I feel comfortable saying that inspiration is not newsjacking. They're totally different things, and respectful blog posts about one's inspiration, such as what Chris wrote, is something you should feel completely free to do. If you're ever worried about the tone, ask a trusted (and 100% honest) associate for his or her thoughts.

What do you think about newsjacking and using tragedy to inspire art? Is there a difference? What examples have you seen (of either) that have been particularly bad, or particularly good?

Keep those questions coming, and sign up to get my posts sent directly to your email by clicking here. Thank you once again for your continued support.

Pages