Facebook flog - Oct 22 2013

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Oct 22 2013, 7:18
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

New press release about my newest e-short story Shutdown. You guys downloaded it over 30,000 in the first day! Thank you, so happy I could share it with you!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/best-selling-author-laurell-k-hamilton-extends-free-ebook-deadline-following-30000-downloads-in-first-day-of-shutdown-release-with-just-in-time-publishing-228640811.html

Article text:

Best-selling author Laurell K. Hamilton Extends Free eBook Deadline Following 30,000 Downloads in First Day of "Shutdown" Release (with 'just-in-time' publishing)

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Laurell K. Hamilton, author of the best-selling Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, has released "Shutdown," a new short story featuring Anita Blake, which she made free to readers for the duration of the government shutdown. Hamilton worked with the epublishing technology company Vook to deliver free ebooks directly to her audience. Hamilton wrote, edited, designed and released the short story, featuring characters from her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, published by Penguin Random House.

With production contributions from Hamilton's husband Jonathon Green, who also designed the cover, and the assistance of her agent Merrilee Heifetz with Writers House Digital Director Julie Trelstad, it took less than 72 hours to take advantage of this unique moment in American politics.

"Shutdown" features the recurring protagonist Anita Blake and series' regular Richard Zeeman, the bad-boy werewolf beloved by fans.

Hamilton used Vook's technology to quickly release a story to her audience and control the process, which made it easy for her fans to access the book, resulting in first day download numbers of more than 30,000 copies of "Shutdown." Hamilton has commented that, "This story is for all my readers who have been affected by the current political snafu--and for anyone else who might need to enjoy a free story in these difficult times." While the original plan was to withdraw the free story at the end of the shutdown, to celebrate the enthusiasm of her readers, and the government coming to its senses, Hamilton has decided to extend the free download until Friday October 25th. Hamilton stated, "I love being able to reward people with one more free week, and having a process that is flexible enough to do it."

"Shutdown," a new Anita Blake story, is available via Vook's free ebook delivery service at http://signup.vook.com/laurell-hamilton/

Comments

[nialla]

I wouldn't doubt that she's looking into self-publishing. She's got enough name recognition and watching a train wreck appeal that enough people would buy it to make it viable, especially if she doesn't have to give a cut to one of the "Big 6" publishers. Would she even have to give a cut to her agent if she did it on her own?

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

Someway I find it hard to believe that she would be able to lift the weight of self-publishing>_> She would have to take care of her own promotion, deadlines and all that other stuff that she didn't have to even think about staying under the wing of a big publishing house>_>

[nialla]

That's what her minions are for. She's probably convinced she can churn out a book, and her husband and other minions can take care of promotion.

And I think from her point of view, the lack of deadlines would be a bonus.

[cherose228.livejournal.com]

Haven't posted here in a while.

I've been saying on the forums for at least the last 2 years that lkh is going to start self-pubbing and sooner rather than later. It's my belief that she owns a piece of BenBella after the ARDEUR debacle, and she's just found out how easy it is and how fast she can get something like this last piece of crap published WITHOUT having to worry about all of those PESKY craftsfolk that work for big publishing houses and who insist on her turning in a salable project ON TIME. If nothing else, BenBella would publish her although the contract money wouldn't be there, and royalties would be slow in coming.

If she self-pubs, she's going to have to do all of the publicity work, blog tours, signing trips etc on her own and on her own nickle - but that will be more than offset by the sheer amount of books that she could sell for $14.99 and for which she wouldn't need an agent. Saving that fee. Offset the amount of money that she could make but NOT having the cushion of the contract monies/royalties/overseas contracts/royalties might slow this process up a bit, but I don't think that it would stop her for very long. She's all about the money.

She's losing fan base and, while she's replacing some of it, she's not replacing it enough to justify a big house to keep on risking their reputation on an inferior product. AFFLICTION debuted at #5 and was completely off the lists a week later. With self-pub, she doesn't have to worry about that. She'd lose a bit of cachet BUT she'd sell books.

[nialla]

I'm thinking some of her promotion would be through conventions. Many of those pay her a fee to attend, so that's one less thing to worry about financially.

Cutting out the publisher and her agent would free up a chunk of money to spend on promotion.

She's definitely losing fanbase, but there's still the train wreck factor as well as the core base of True Fans.

I work at a library, and I wonder how much of her sales are to libraries where their patrons are now reading library copies instead of buying them. Libraries can be a big boost to initial sales. If she self-publishes, that might change, because some libraries can only purchase from certain vendors.