Amanda Hocking

A couple things. One sad. One good.

First sad: Despite pledging my devotion to Mike on Dancing with the Stars and posting the call-in number on twitter and Facebook, he did not get enough votes to stay on. And now I am sad. Because he endeared himself to me. He doesn’t seem like he’d be super adorable, but he really is.

Mike on DWTS – you will be missed

Oh well, I’ll just throw all my support behind Macchio, since he’s going to win DWTS. 

Good thing: I ran an impromptu caption contest on Twitter and Facebook last week. I said who ever came up with the cleverest response would win a signed copy of a book. I based my decision solely on how much I laughed upon reading the caption.

Here’s the picture:

And here’s the winning tweet:

The caption is especially fitting, because although you can’t tell, I am in fact wearing a Star Wars shirt in the picture.  It was this shirt, actually (from Threadless.com):

Thanks to everyone for participating in that. I had a lot of fun reading what everyone had to say, and I think I’ll be doing more of that kinda stuff in the future. Because it was fun. And I enjoy fun things.

If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of blink 182 and Mark Hoppus. I also really enjoy helping out people whenever I can. So a few weeks ago, when Mark Hoppus started putting blink 182 paraphernalia up on ebay to raise money for the Red Cross efforts in Japan, I was like, “I’m in.”

I bid on and eventually won the orange shirt he wore in the music video for “Dammit.” As seen in the video below:

Naturally, I was excited enough by that. “Dammit” was the first song I heard by blink way back in the day, and I still think it’s a fun song.

The shirt came today, and it’s awesome, and I’m excited. But along with the shirt, there were a couple blink 182 stickers, and  a hand written letter from Mark Hoppus.

Since I saw it, I have shouted “It’s the coolest thing ever!” no less than 15 times, because it is in fact, the coolest thing ever.

Here’s what I hate about reality TV: I get attached to people, then they get voted off and I never see them again. I want to see them again, every week for a half-hour to an hour for the next 3-7 seasons, until they start to run out of interesting stories.

I still talk about much I miss James from Big Brother Season 9 and Flex from Daisy of Love 2 and Fabio from Top Chef Season 5 & Top Chef: All Stars. Eric is crazy obsessed with Big Brother, but I think he gets annoyed when the season is because of how much time I spend talking about how much James was than everybody else on the current season.

I’m thinking about this because I really enjoy that Mike fella on Dancing with the Stars. I find him very amusing, but since his dancing skills aren’t the greatest, I know it’s only (a probably short) matter of time before he’s gone, and I’ll relegate him to the long list of reality stars I miss.

There should be a show with just former reality stars living together. But like the Jersey Shore, where the same cast comes back every season.

So far, my dream cast would be James, Flex, Fabio, and Mike. I also love Raja on RuPaul’s Drag Race a ton, and I still miss Jordan from Big Brother & Amazing Race, and Jes from Rock of Love. And JWOW and Snooki from Jersey Shore (because that show has about one season left.) And Bridget from Girls Next Door.

Yep. You can put them all on an island where they have to live together and share rations of food. You can call it Reality Show Castoffs or something ridiculous like that. It’d fit in perfect on VH1. And I would watch it every week. I wouldn’t even wait to DVR it. I’d be too excited.

Okay, I’ve been writing this blog in my head for about a month or so, and I was trying to decide how I would break the news to everyone. But by the time I got to say things, everybody had already heard.

And if you haven’t, here it is: I’ve got a deal with St. Martin’s Press to publish a four book young adult paranormal romance series called the Watersong series. I think they’re shooting for a fall 2012 release. The Wake book I’ve mentioned a few times, that’s the first book in the series.

Here’s the article from the NY Times about the deal: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/self-publisher-signs-four-book-deal-with-macmillan/

There’s also going to be many articles in the future about it. So many, that I’m sure you’ll be sick of hearing about me, if you aren’t already.

But the big question on everybody’s lips isn’t what the deal is but why? If I’ve sold over a million books and made close to $2 million dollars on my own, why oh why would I possibly want to give up rights? How could they possibly offer me more then what I’m getting myself?

Is it because I feel I need validation? (Somebody misunderstood my post of my saying “I want to be a writer” to mean that I didn’t feel as I already am one, when in fact I meant, “I only want to be a writer. I do not want be a publisher.”) Also, after selling a million books, making the USA Today Bestseller list, and getting the amount of support from my readers that I get, I feel pretty validated as an author.

Is it because I think publishers will take over marketing over me? No. I enjoy marketing. I am hoping that since I’ll have their publicist on hand, the process will become more streamlined. I know I will have to continue doing interviews, and I’ll always blog and tweet because I enjoy that.

Is it because I’m so hung up on the idea of seeing my books on shelves in bookstores that I’m willing to give up huge portions of my profit for it? No. That’s just silly. I’ll be honest, it is pretty cool to think about having a book in stores. Having large distribution is part of the reason why I wanted a deal, and part of that is having books in stores. But just the thrill of seeing my book at Barnes & Noble in no way affected my decision. It’s just an added bonus.

Here are the two considerations I made in my decision: what’s best for my career, and what’s best for my reader. (Notice I didn’t say what was best for my wallet).

It boils down to these points:

1. Readers inability to find my books when they want them. I am getting an increasing number of emails from people who go into bookstores to buy my books for themselves or friends or family members, and not only does Barnes & Noble not carry my book, they can’t even order it for them. People are requesting my books, and they can’t get them.

2. Readers complaints about the editing of my books. I have hired editors. Many, many editors. And I know that I can outsource editing, but I’m clearly doing a really shitty job of picking editors. EDIT: The people hired as editors are great people who worked very hard. Which is the most frustrating thing about the continued complaints of errors in my books. I know that my books are better because of the people I hired. And I don’t understand how there can still be errors. So my remark at “shitty” is over my frustration at the situation. Not the actual editors or the work they did.

3. The amount of books I’ve written and the rate of speed that I write books. If it took me five years to write a book, and I only had one book written, I’d be thinking long and hard about this deal. But right now, I have 19 books currently written. By the time the Watersong series goes to print, I’ll still have 19-24 titles at least that I can self-publish.

The reason I took this deal wasn’t for the money. At least not the upfront money. Also, let’s be honest – if I self-published the Watersong series on my own, I could probably make $2 million within a year or two. Five years tops. I am fully aware that I stand a chance of losing money on this deal compared to what I could make self-publishing.

I honestly didn’t do this for money. But let’s not forget that as much money as I’ve made, James Patterson made $70 million between June 2010 and July 2010. Legacy houses (is that what we’re calling them now?) have made a lot of authors very rich.

So what do I actually want out of this deal? What do I hope to gain?

Career stability. As an author, I’ll never really have one. Each book I come out with could bomb and could be the one that turns readers off me forever. Any day, my books could just stop selling. And I know that going with a house isn’t going to change that. Any author can stop making money any day.

James Patterson has a book out now that has incredibly low reviews, some of the lowest I’ve seen for any book, and that book is still selling like crazy, and I can find it Target and Walmart. Even the sequel to the book, which the reviews say is even twice as awful as the original, is selling like crazy. Why? Because James Patterson wrote it. (Or more accurately, because his name is on the cover).

I want that. Not the writing bad books thing. I’ll always strive to write a product that people enjoy. But I want to be a household name. I want to be the impulse buy that people make when they’re waiting in an airport because they know my name.

That, I think, is as close to career stability as I can get. And that’s why I took the deal.

Does this mean I’ll stop self-publishing? No, absolutely not. I have a few titles lined up this year yet to put out via the self-publishing. And I’ll have more in the future.


Did my agent push me into this? Nope. This exactly how the conversation went: Steve (my agent): “Have you thought at all about going the traditional route?” Me: “Yeah, I have. And I have a series that I’m ready to pitch.” Steve: “Great. Send it to me when you’re ready.”

Did you sign the contract without reading it? I haven’t actually signed anything. But on top of my agent, I have a lawyer, an accountant, a financial adviser, and a personal assistant. I like my agent. I trust my agent. But that doesn’t mean I’m so excited about this that I’m going to ignore logic and forget to make sure everything is in order the way I think it is. Not only will I look over it, but I’ll have other people who understand contracts better than me read it.

Aren’t you going back on everything you said? Nope. I’ve made a number of blog posts in the past, and I haven’t changed my opinion on anything. I always said if the deal was right, I would take it. Part of the reason I’m taking it now is because I have made enough of my name for myself that I had the leverage to get the kind of deal I wanted.

What happens if they screw you over in a contract, steal all your money, and keep your erights forever? Then they do. I like the books St. Martin’s bought. And I believe in them. But if I lose money on them, I lose money on them. That’s the risk I’m taking. And I do know this is a risk. But it’s a calculated risk, and if it works out, the payoff could be enormous. But I’m making enough money on my other books – and I will continue to make enough on my self-published books – that I can afford to take this risk.

With all that said, I am very excited about this. The folks I’ve talked to at St. Martin’s have been very kind, and they’re pretty jazzed up to have me. They even sent me flowers and chocolates today.

But it is crazy that we live in a time that I have to justify taking a seven-figure a publishing deal with St. Martin’s. Ten years ago, nobody would question this. Now everybody is.

Which is really silly, you guys. If there’s one thing I’ve proven in the past year is that I’m pretty business savvy. I’m practical and level-headed. I’ve thought this through and talked it over with a lot of different people.

And now, I’m watching Scream 2 with Eric. It’s his 25th birthday today, and I’m going back to celebrating that with him.

There’s some buzz on the internet about me, and I’m not at a point where I can say much about it.

But here’s what I can say – I’m writer. I want to be a writer. I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling emails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc. Right now, being me is a full time corporation. As I said before in my post – Some Things That Need to be Said – I am spending so much time on things that are not writing.

I like writing. I even like marketing, especially when it comes to interacting with readers. And I don’t mind editing. I just don’t want to run my corporation, because that takes away from writing and everything else that I actually enjoy doing.

Also, I have not had time to get Lost Without You ready yet. I have a book that is almost ready to publish, but because of everything else going on, I have not had time to get it ready and publish. THIS is a problem. I am a writer, but that doesn’t mean anything if I can’t get a book to readers. 

There’s several factors that go into my decision making about any possible future endeavors. The biggest factors are my readers and the longevity of my career. My goal has always been to put the highest quality product I can out in a way that is the most accessible to readers. My goal has never been to be the “darling” or the “poster child” for any movement.

I currently have self-published 9 books, and I will continue to self-publish books in the future. Lost Without You will be coming out self-published sometime in April or May (I’m hoping for April, but as I said earlier, other things are taking over my life).

To put some things in the indie vs traditional in perspective, I’m going to post something that the fantastic Nathan Bransford posted on his blog only two weeks back (to read the whole post, click: here):

The reality: This is still a print world and probably will be for at least the next several years. Even as some publishers report e-book sales jumping to between 25% and 35% in January, the significant majority of sales are still in print. As I wrote in my recent post about record stores, over a decade after the rise of the mp3 the majority of revenue in music is still in CDs. 

So let’s not get out of hand (yet) about the scale of this e-book self-publishing revolution, if it is indeed one. Yes, this is real money we’re talking about. Yes, these authors deserve all the credit in the world. And yes, these authors are also making money in print as well. 

But we’re still a ways away from self-published Kindle bestsellers making Dan Brown, James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling kind of money, the old-fashioned way, through paper books in bookstores. It’s not as exciting a story to remember that traditionally published franchise James Patterson made $70 million between June ’09 and June ’10, but it’s still worth keeping in perspective.

Also, you should really check out my older blogs: Indie vs. Traditional (especially the part about Ann Author) from February, or even Some Things That Need to Be Said from earlier this month. And here’s a post from way back in August called My Thoughts on Indie Publishing.

UPDATED: Even though I specifically said in this blog that I enjoy marketing and editing, and I know that regardless of how I publish in the future, I will have to continue to market and edit, people think that’s what I’m referring to when I say I’m spending time on things that aren’t writing.

No. I’m not. I’m referring to staring at the computer for ten hours straight trying to get the margins just right on the book cover, because no matter how many times I check the rulers, Createspace insists that I got it wrong. Or getting a thousand emails from people offering to help edit, and then since I need the help, weeding through them for hours to try to find people that would be the best fit. Or working with people on various tasks only to find that for whatever reason, you’re not going to work well a person, and I have to fire them. Do you know much it sucks to fire people?

That’s what I am talking about. I have no problem with marketing or editing. I will continue to do both things. I think both of those tasks fall under the umbrella of being a writer. I think desigining covers, firing people, formatting books, hiring and firing people – those fall under the heading of publisher. And I would be happy to relinquish more of my publishing role.

So that’s my clarification.