Terry Goodkind goes self-pub

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I think Law of Nines tanked because it was hyped as being something in a "completely new direction" from Goodkind; when in fact ... it was simply a Sword of Truth "mashup" with a contemporary setting starring Richard's and Kahlan's characters with different names. New non-SFF readers just didn't seem to be interested at all, and the rampant self-plagiarism falsely billed as "and now for something completely different" split his existing fan base right down the middle: half loved it because it was Wizards First Rule all modern "thriller-ized," and the other half felt betrayed by what seemed like a shady plot/character/philosphy recycling project.

Really?
I haven't gotten that deep into his series but I read the first three.
Maybe I'll give LAW OF NINES a try; parallel lives in parallel universes isn't that bad an idea by itself.
(Mind you, true parallel universes aren't done as often as people think; most "parallel universe" stories are really alternate timelines.)

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Really?
I haven't gotten that deep into his series but I read the first three.
Maybe I'll give LAW OF NINES a try; parallel lives in parallel universes isn't that bad an idea by itself.
(Mind you, true parallel universes aren't done as often as people think; most "parallel universe" stories are really alternate timelines.)

I agree. It's not a bad idea on it's own. And had it been billed as such... I don't think as many would have minded. But many picked up Law of Nines with the expectations of a completely new direction for Goodkind (because that's what the hype machine said it represented)... only to discover it wasn't really "new" at all.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I agree. It's not a bad idea on it's own. And had it been billed as such... I don't think as many would have minded. But many picked up Law of Nines with the expectations of a completely new direction for Goodkind (because that's what the hype machine said it represented)... only to discover it wasn't really "new" at all.

Which (given the context of this thread) brings up the question of "whose bright idea" that was?
At least with THE FIRST CONFESSOR there is no room for confusion.

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Really?
I haven't gotten that deep into his series but I read the first three.
Maybe I'll give LAW OF NINES a try; parallel lives in parallel universes isn't that bad an idea by itself.
(Mind you, true parallel universes aren't done as often as people think; most "parallel universe" stories are really alternate timelines.)

What's the difference?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

What's the difference?

Parallel universes, like the lines in geometry, are totally distinct, even if some events echo each other. (The most common ones are the ones where the laws of nature are diferent so that magic is real or humans coexist with other sentients. Think OZ or Wonderland or the parallel universe of Asimov's THE GODS THEMSELVES.)

Alternate timelines start out the same until something changes and those changes ripple out. Like most alternate history novels (Harry Turtledove's GUNS OF THE SOUTH, etc, Eric Flint's 163x project...).

Of course, if the story is set far enough from the point of divergence, the alternate timelines can play out as if they were true parallel universes. It's all a matter of what the author needs to tell the story.

[charlesatan]

Originally Posted by ATimson

Well, Law of Nines appears to have tanked. (Amazon has non-remaindered hardcovers available for $3.50 each.)

Yeah, it tanked, but you can't say the publisher didn't give Goodkind leeway to try something different (from his main series... same can be said for the other successful Terry with Brooks's Landover and Knight of the Word series; not as succcessful as Shannara).

Although what was probably a failure for Tor.com might be a modest success with self-publishing (or had he gone to a smaller publisher).

[charlesatan]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

a) advances are, as the very term suggests, the publishing equivalent of payday loans. They tide you over until the (royalty) paycheck gets in. Like them, they aren't too far from disguised loansharking. Unless Goodkind has been really unwise in his money management he should be well past *needing* an advance.

It's not loan sharking. You pay off loans. You don't pay off royalty advances (although you obviously don't get any more money if you don't earn enough royalties to cover advances).

Originally Posted by fjtorres

b) the second use of advances is to disguise higher royalty rates for best-selling authors who get paid such large lump-sumps for their books they never earn-out their "advance" at the nominal rate. Given the mixed reviews of his last two books, it seems unlikely the "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" trad publishers will be thinking of him as a *current* bestseller worthy of such a deal.

High royalty advances are a gamble. If they don't earn out their advance, why would a publisher continue to pay you that same amount for the next book, unless they think it'll sell better?

From the author side, the economics of trad-pub and self-pub are so different as to be almost complementary so which way to go is a matter of personal situation at the moment of choosing.

Depends on what you mean by the Economics (for me, they are actually similar but I view them as businesses rather than some holy grail of print or eBook is sacred/art) but definitely there are pros and cons for each and the best route to take depends on the situation (and neither is it an either-or proposition).

Neither approach is going away and the wisest authors will keep an open mind and choose the one best suited to each project on a case by case basis, doing what is best for *them*.

Agree.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by charlesatan

Depends on what you mean by the Economics (for me, they are actually similar but I view them as businesses rather than some holy grail of print or eBook is sacred/art) but definitely there are pros and cons for each and the best route to take depends on the situation (and neither is it an either-or proposition).

They are business decisions and like most business decisions, the path chosen dictates how revenue arrives:

Trad pub is all about quick up-front revenues: the advance, the first few months after launch. Once sales slow down, the low royalties (especially on ebooks) means author revenue slows to very low levels for most authors. Especially if the contract hasn't earned-out, the ebook long tail accrues mostly to the publisher.

Self-pub forgoes the advance for the higher royalties and a "fatter" long tail so it keeps on delivering revenue to the autor (more or less) indefinitely.

As Lois McMaster Bujold's Mark Vorkosigan might put it: in the best case scenarios, Trad pub is "get rich quick" while self pub is "get rich big".

(Worst case scenario is nobody buys, of course. )

[Top100EbooksRank]

Tracking this book on Kindle Best Selling:

July 2nd: ? (price is $8.99)
July 3rd: #28
July 4th: #54
July 5th:
July 6th: #101
July 7th: #103
July 8th: #125 (price is still $8.99)
July 9th: #119 ($8.99)
July 10th: #76 ($8.99)------what caused the jump?
July 11th: #68 ($8.99)


I think that article on the Guardian and twitter/facebook that followed is the reason for the jump.

[fjtorres]

When did the Guardian article come out? Online it is tagged for the 11th...
(The spike started the 9th.)
Might be a reflection of the original Facebook outing post or it might be that word of mouth on the book is getting out.
I found 80 reviews at Amazon: 78 give it five stars, 1 four stars, the last one star.
Sales may now be going beyond the hard core fans expected to buy anything in the series.

Interesting experiment and getting more interesting daily.
Especially with reviews like this:

I almost didn't buy this book. Although Terry Goodkind is one of my favorite authors I found his last couple books disappointing, so I started it with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. This book was impossible to put down. The story was fast moving, gripping and masterfully written. Mr. Goodkind will have you transported inside the Wizard's Keep while you are reading the story. I feel it is his best effort since Faith of the Fallen. It also gave we SOT series fans a better understanding of how the sword came to be and the creation of the Confessors. If this is an example of what he can do freed from the constraints of a publishing house then I hope the rest of his offerings come in the same format. I can't wait for his next book!

Still don't know why or how this book ended up self-pub but the question seems to be looming ever larger.

[DiapDealer]

I'd say word of mouth. The spike's about 7-10 days after publication. That's probably the magic time-window that the vast majority of first day purchasers started wrapping up the book.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'd say word of mouth. The spike's about 7-10 days after publication. That's probably the magic time-window that the vast majority of first day purchasers started wrapping up the book.

I would prefer it were word-of-mouth getting to fence-sitters; the folks who felt burned by the recent books who were waiting for a reasonable review base to build up before deciding.

Makes it a cleaner experiment.

[MichaelSullivan]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Only if the contract had a total non-compete like the one the Penguin editor claimed on Kiana Davenport.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0...s-amazon-deal/

Which way an author goes should be simply a matter of cold calculated business interest. As long as the books get to market, *how* they get to market won't much matter to readers.

Hey guys, it has been ages since I've been to this forum, but might very well be a regular. This post made me come out of the closet. For those that don't know I was originally self-published, now I'm traditionally published with Orbit. I think the best way for an author to "earn a living" in today's publishing climate is to be a "hybrid" author. Mixing self-published and traditional published releases.

Under the terms of my last contract, I can't even release a new novel right this moment (due to non-complete clause). I'm in the midst of signing my 2nd contract and one of the things I want to make sure of is that I can self-publish to augment my income while I'm waiting for the next series to be produced.

It would seem like a simple thing, and I'm pretty sure we have ironed out everything that both me and the my publisher are happy with, but this is just a reminder to all authors who do sign contracts to keep in mind to realize what you are signing up for and need to abide by.

[CWatkinsNash]

I almost posted this is the "other" Terry Goodkind thread by accident.

I have never read Goodkind. Not really my thing. But with the Facebook uproar, I checked things out a bit over there and I get the feeling that this self-pub release wasn't very well thought-out. It's kind of playing out like your average indie self-pub, not something I'd expect from someone like Goodkind.

It was released first on Kindle, not because of any exclusivity but because there was no coordinated release. Then the other major stores gradually had it for sale, and he (or whoever posts in his name) seemed joyously surprised whenever another store finally had it available. The fans were confused by this. It's not in libraries, but I don't know if this is deliberate or if it's because he can't get it there himself. (Some of) the fans are upset by this. He only released in ebook, except the $300 Limited Ed. hardback. Some of his fans only read on paper and are not planning on converting, even for him.

So he's all, "Read my book! Read my book!" and they're all "We'd like to but we can't!" This has to be especially frustrating since the book is a prequel to a series they've already gotten hooked on.

[charlesatan]

Actually the release was moderately well-promoted by Goodkind (he made an announcement) and the reason it was readily available for the Kindle is that Amazon is the easiest retail store to work with when it comes to selling/distributing your eBooks (48 hours upon submission).