Today, I want to introduce you all to a fellow author, Sheryl Hoyt (aka Saralynn Hoyt). Sheryl writes historical and contemporary romance and has recently been featured in Time Magazine! How cool is that?

She’s going to talk a bit about the money side of Indie publishing and how it differs from being enslaved traditionally published. Take it away, Sheryl!

Thanks, Shannon! Recently, I was featured in an article in the 12/10/12 issue of Time Magazine, entitled “The 99¢ Best Seller” where journalist Andrew Rice wrote about my self-publishing journey.

In the article, Andrew talks a lot about the money side of the Indie publishing equation. What he didn’t talk about was how it differs from traditional publishing, but I think it bears mentioning.

Sure traditional publishing has its perks; like the editors and cover art are free and you can feel pretty confident that your mass media book will show up on some bookstore shelves or maybe even at Wal-Mart or the grocery store.

So how much can you expect to pocket while the publisher takes on these costs? The authors I know who have shared this information with me say for a first time romance author, it’s usually under $3000 for their first book, if they get an advance at all. Lately, it’s common practice to not get an advance, but receive a higher percentage of sales. If you do get the $1500-$3000 advance, you might expect a 6-8% cut of sales as your royalty. For an established author, who can count on their books being on bookshelves for a long time, this works out to some residual income. For new authors, whose books have a very short shelf life, sometimes only a few weeks to a few months, they may never advance out (sell enough books to pay off the advance).

My good friend and critique partner Deborah Schneider, sold her first book in 2001, and with stars in her eyes she dreamt of future sales with the same publisher.  That dream never materialized. Instead Deb spent her whole advance on her own promotion, because although the publisher did pay for the edits and cover art, they did not do any promotion for this new author. To make matters worse, Deb never saw a royalty payment. It took her nearly ten years to sell another book— no more stars in her eyes. This is a tough business for authors to make a profit in until Indie publishing and Ereaders came along.

The difference being, your book is on sale forever now, or as long as you want it to be. You know exactly how many books you sell every day. Traditional publishers make sure that you never find out exactly how many books you’ve sold, so you will probably never know if your royalty statement is right. Another key difference is as an Indie published author, you make between 35-70% of your sales price. Which means on an $8 dollar book (the lowest standard price for a paperback) a traditionally published author earns 8% or .64¢ per book sale. But an Indie author can sell their book for $3.99 (half the price of a paperback) and earn between $1.40 to $2.80 a copy. Not too difficult to figure out which one is more beneficial to the author.

Sure there are NY Times bestselling authors making huge multi-million dollar advances and being treated like kings and queens by their publishers. But for every one of those there are thousands who are not. It’s no different from any other entertainment professional. You have your ‘A’ list authors, musicians and actors. Then there are the rest of us, the extras and the wannabes. The difference being that writing books takes time—a lot of time—and readers read faster than writers can write. In order to feed those readers appetites, they need to have more choices. And the gatekeepers—the publishing houses—have unfortunately, tried to monitor this production by only being interested in the next JK Rowling, the next Hunger Games, the next—fill in blank of the latest hottest book. This creates a vacuum whereby the reader is simply reading a different version of the same books over and over.

I say let the reader decide what is a good book and a good read. Maybe they want something different? Like my historical romances that aren’t regencies? Dangerous Heart is set in 1838 Philadelphia, Heaven Made is an Edwardian paranormal and The Scoundrel and the Saint a twist on a western. I say it shouldn’t be up to a few underpaid assistant editors to find and publish a handful of books that may or may not keep the readers buying.

I say, “Amen, sister!” Let the readers be the gatekeepers. What do you think?

Follow Sheryl on Facebook & Twitter!

We took our twins to the circus for their seventh birthday. It was all of our first time at a real Barnum and Bailey “Greatest Show on Earth” experience. I was excited. We were going to introduce the boys to the magic and mystery of humans conquering gravity, fear and doing the impossible. They were going to gain a love and awareness of animals. They were going to giggle at these animals doing tricks. Tigers sitting on chairs, waiting to amaze us with how domesticated they could be. Poodles dancing with each other. Horses twirling in sync. Elephants…

Yeah. The elephants.

Here’s where the spell was broken for me.

As the dozen or so large gray bodies filled the arena, a wave of sadness hit me. It hit me so hard, I was suddenly blinking back tears. Sorrow. That’s what I was feeling and then panic, because I had no idea where it was coming from or how I was going to keep from scaring the kids around me by breaking down. I held my breath and concentrated on the steel scaffolding and lights above me. When I got the tears under control, I worked on breathing through the suffocating, oppressive emotion. I told myself to feel it and let it go because this is what I’ve been practicing.

It helped. It helped me look at the elephants again. We were in the front, so I could see right into one big brown eye. I made myself keep looking. Made myself see. See the gentle soul within that massive body. My heart broke for him. I promised him and myself that I would research their living conditions. That if there was something I could do to change their lot in life, I would do it.

I enjoyed other parts of the circus. Watching the humans, who had a choice, perform mind-boggling acts of strength and grace. I enjoyed the boys’ wide-eyed innocence as they watched the daring tight-rope walkers, the clown on ten foot stilts, a girl shot out of a cannon and the acrobatics that rivaled the Olympics.

Girl being shot from a cannon

And I’m glad that I experienced something else. I’m not quite sure what it was, really. I’m not even saying the elephants don’t live a great life full of peanuts and massages. But the pain was real and it wasn’t mine. Until that night.

“Having no idea is the doorway to realization.” Karen Maezen Miller 

I’ve only begun to look into their story so I can’t claim to know any facts. But if this is something that speaks to you and you’d like to help you can sign this petition. I don’t know if it will make any difference but it’s a step through the door.

How do you feel about animals in the circus? Have you ever experienced anything like this? Please share.

Welcome! I’m excited to be a part of the TNBT blog hop!

What is a blog hop? Basically, it’s a way for us writers to help readers discover great new authors.

First, I want to thank August McLaughlin for inviting me to participate. If you enjoy a good psychological thriller be sure to check out her new novel, IN HER SHADOW, which Edgar nominated thriller author D.P. Lyle calls “A tale of personal terror that resonates on many levels, with twists and turns that will keep you on edge from page one to the end.”

You can find out more about August on her Blog

In this particular hop, we are asked to answer some questions so you get to learn about our current work in progress as well as some insights into our process. Here are my answers, and don’t forget to check out the authors I’ve tagged below for theirs! I hope you enjoy it!

What is the working title of your book? Goddess of War

Where did the idea come from for the book? A few years ago I became involved in  great group of writers who posted flash fiction on Fridays. One of the pieces I wrote for this was called “Mario’s Goddess”. Basically a sanitorium worker falls in love with a patient there named Alice Lois and breaks her out. Turns out she’s the Goddess of War. Alice has been haunting me lately, begging me to tell her story. She wants to be understood. (Read the flash piece HERE)

What genre does your book come under? Honestly, I’m not sure. Psychological thriller? Literary? Mystery? Probably a little bit of everything. Luckily for Alice, pinning a book down to one genre isn’t as important anymore since physical bookshelves are going away.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Alice is such a mixture of naive innocence and unbridled power, its hard to think of an actress who could pull her off. Maybe Christina Hendricks. She’s got the red hair and rockin’ goddess body.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Alice Lois, Goddess of War, just wants to be Alice Lois, soccer mom.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? This book is still in the research and planning stage. And will be for a while while I write book 3 in the Pet Psychic series.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? As I mentioned, Alice’s story started as a flash piece. This is a good time for me to let you know you can share your flash fiction through the #fridayflash twitter group and be a part of a great community of writers HERE.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Alice is a very unreliable narrator. The reader will see the world through her eyes and must decide for themselves if she really is the Goddess of War or if she belongs back at the sanitarium. Honestly, I’m not even sure yet.

Below you will find #fridayflash authors who will be joining me by blog, next Wednesday. Do be sure to bookmark and add them to your calendars for updates on WIPs and New Releases!
1.Jon Strother (the man behind the #fridayflash community)
2. Olivia Tejeda
3. And a special shout out to a #fridayflash pal, Cathy Olliffe-Webster, who’s already answered these questions about her soon to be published book, which sounds so good!
Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and questions.

Lady Luck Runs Out

Fall tourist season in St. Pete has kicked into high gear for Darwin Winters, pet psychic, but that doesn’t stop her from getting tangled up in a new murder investigation. Rose Faraday, a gypsy fortune teller, has succumbed to a rattlesnake bite in her own condo. After a run-in with the victim’s traumatized cat, Darwin knows it was no freak accident. Can she
find a way to prove it? Or will the killer get lucky and get away with murder?

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When I was nine or ten I read the James Harriot books. Remember those? All Creatures Great and Small? All Things Bright and Beautiful? He was a fabulous story-teller. I knew that I wanted to grow up and be and writer and a vet just like him.

Fast forward thirty something years later and I’m only a writer. Not a vet.  Because (besides being seriously allergic to math)  I found out you can’t actually save all the animals–that no matter how much knowledge, training, or passion you have–as a vet you have to deal with loss. You have to watch people say goodbye to their pets. And that would  break my heart.

So, I told you all that to say that today I’m able to use my writing to help save someone’s pet, which is the best of both worlds for me.

Her name is Kylee. She’s an eight month old mastiff puppy born with a heart defect. Eight months is just not enough time for this sweet girl to spend on this earth with the people who love her. She needs a life-saving operation. I know we can’t save them all but this girl’s mom, Ro Lewis,  is part of the mastiff community that I belong to and she does so much for others, I wanted to find a way to help. So this is personal.

Here’s the part where my writing comes in. I’m giving a copy of Karma’s A Bitch (A Pet Psychic Detective) to everyone who contributes to Kylee’s chip-in page.

You can give a dollar. Five. Fifty. Whatever you can afford because every little bit helps! Then Ro will send me your email address so I can send you the book. Easy! You get to help save a life and get a free book. What could be better than that? And your dog will love to read it, too just ask my friend Morgan:

Happy Mother’s Day! Being a mother is truly hard work, so I don’t mind having down time to celebrate it for a day. Unlike my birthday, where it’s kind of embarrassing getting gifts just for growing older.

Speaking of time…when I think of what I would like for Mother’s Day this year, I think of time. I would like to freeze it; keep life square in this moment where my family is healthy and happy and we’re all excited about the future. Because, as we all know, change is inevitable.

So, since I can’t wave a magic wand and freeze time, I would love to test drive this baby:

Oh yeah! With this Cuisinart beauty I could chop, blend and puree myself into a food coma!  Here’s the funny thing, I could just buy one and be done with it but I haven’t. Then I realized there are things that I’ve wanted for years and just will not buy. Why is this? I mean, I bought myself a spirooli for crying out loud, but I won’t buy matching bath towels?

It got me thinking: What other things have I just refused to buy? So here ya go:

TOP TEN THINGS I JUST WON’T BUY

10. A real fruit bowl (Plastic tupperware bowl anyone?)

9. A mousepad ( Poor mouse.)

8. Replacement flowers for the ones that perished in our backyard landscaping two years ago. R.I.P.

7. A feather duster (Okay, I just may be being lazy here.)

6. New kitchen knives (Ours don’t cut anything harder than bread. And it better not be stale bread.)

5. A new vaccuum cleaner (All the duct tape seems to be holding it together just fine.)

4. Yoga blocks & strap (After seven years, I’m still using the nasty gym ones. Yuk.)

3. Luggage (The old beat up black Walmart one gets the job done.)

2. Aforementioned matching bath towels (We’re still using the mishmash of colors and shapes from combining our households eleven years ago.)

1. Socks! *

*When it got chilly this winter my hubby got tired of me stealing his socks and bought me some of my own. Sad, right?

So, fess up! What do you just refuse to buy? And would you want someone to buy it for you for Mother’s Day?