BOOKS THE RT BOOKLOVERS CONVENTION IS AN ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF LUST, SISTERHOOD AND MARKETING, ATTENDED BY THOUSANDS OF WRITERS AND READERS OF ROMANCE FICTION. THIS YEAR’S EDITION, HELD IN CHICAGO, FEATURED NIGHTTIME REVELS WITH BARE-CHESTED male models and seminars with titles like becoming a viral e-book phenomenon, IT’S EASIER THAN EVER FOR AUTHORS TO PUBLISH Beyond the Bodice. But to see its real, throb- building a following through whispers THEMSELVES—BUT TOUGHER BY THE DAY TO FIND FAME. bing center of passion, you had to jam into and Web clicks. To Coker and his audience a packed room where dozens of authors of would-be romance novelists, Fifty Shades INSIDE THE RACE TO BECOME THE NEXT E.L. JAMES were talking mathematics: the profit cal- wasn’t just a titillating read; it looked like a BY ANDREW RICE culations behind the digital-driven phe- harbinger of the future of publishing. nomenon of self-publishing. Once a frustrated novelist himself, “Romance is hot,” said speaker Mark Coker believes that authors no longer need Coker, one of the few men in a room full traditional publishing houses to reach a of women—some dressed in character in large buying audience. He urges writers 19th century finery. Coker is the founder to be their own marketers and distribu- and CEO of Smashwords, a Silicon Valley– tors, telling them to “imagine a book with based Internet company that allows au- dozens of knobs and dials” like plot, title thors to publish and distribute e-books and price. Each of them can be calibrated directly to devices like the Kindle and the to capture one of the most powerful forces iPad. Like other digital entrepreneurs, he’s in publishing: the algorithms behind discovered that there’s a huge market in online book recommendations. His audi- catering to female readers’ desires. This ence scribbled notes as he went through a year’s most shocking literary success, E.L. PowerPoint presentation based on his sales James’ erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, data. It tracked everything from word of grew out of Twilight fan fiction and was mouth to the optimal price for fiction—3¢ first published by an obscure online start- per 1,000 words, Coker said. up called the Writer’s Coffee Shop before In the book business, doing it yourself BOOKS | SELF-PUBLISHING has long been considered an act of des- This is where Hoyt’s story would have peration. “When I first started thinking IT’S AN ARTICLE ended if not for the appearance of an un- about a writing career, self-publishing was OF FAITH IN expected rescuer—the Kindle—and with not what you wanted to do because you’d it a program that enabled writers to pub- get a bad rap,” said aspiring author Beth THE INDIE lish their own work. Amazon’s platform, James, a Minnesota state worker who road- Kindle Direct Publishing, offers writers tripped to the conference with a friend, a MOVEMENT more than just the immediate gratification librarian interested in writing erotica. THAT WRITING of seeing their stories in print. It also gives But Amazon’s introduction of the Kindle them a more favorable split of revenue in 2007 completely changed the literary FICTION CAN than traditional publishers offer. equation, allowing authors to approach Here’s how the math works. With readers directly while keeping a larger BE A WAY TO Amazon, for books priced at $2.99, self- share of the royalties. Amazon says such GET RICH published writers keep 70%, or approxi- books accounted for 30 of its top 100 sell- mately $2 from every sale. That’s about ers in October. Self-published titles now the same amount they would get for an regularly appear on the New York Times’ e-book sold at $12 under the big publish- e-book best- seller list; four were in the top ers’ typical royalty model. The cheaper a 25 on Thanksgiving weekend, the begin- book, generally speaking, the more likely ning of the holiday book-shopping season. readers are to take a chance on it, meaning Since 2006, annual production of self- barnesandnoble.com. “I can’t wait to see,” more sales overall. published titles has more than tripled, ac- Hoyt wrote on her Amazon biography Amazon frequently touts self- cording to the research firm Bowker, and it page, “what we all do with this newfound publishing in egalitarian terms. “Even now tallies more than 200,000; within that power next.” well-meaning gatekeepers slow innova- category, e-book self-publishing is growing The convention, held less than a month tion,” CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in his annual at a rate nearly four times that of print. To into her life as a published author, offered letter to Amazon shareholders last year, a growing movement of indie authors— Hoyt an opportunity to learn, network which recounted many rejection-to-riches many of them working in pulpy genres and promote her books. A chatty, petite tales. Skeptics, however, point out that like mystery, fantasy and romance— brunette, she arrived with thousands of the company has a stark business inter- self-publishing is no longer a mark of glossy business cards bearing the volup- est. For the past few years, Amazon has shame but a route to freedom, affirmation tuous cover art for her books, Dangerous battled for control over pricing with ma- and a potentially vast pool of readers: buy- Heart and The Scoundrel and the Saint. She jor publishing houses, the so-called Big ers who are willing to risk a few dollars on and her conference roommate, Deborah Six. The Big Six have argued that Ama- an unknown author who doesn’t happen Schneider, dressed up in Victorian ensem- zon’s preferred e-book price point—$9.99 to meet the (often opaque and arbitrary) bles to grab attention at a book fair, where or lower— devalues the product. Self- standards of traditional publishing houses. they handed out coupons for free down- published books undercut the Big Six’s po- At the convention, a middle-aged wom- loads to a mob of romance fans. sition even further, creating a bargain-bin an in a peach sweater raised her hand and By giving books away, the authors marketplace at little cost to Amazon. And asked Coker whether self-publishing was hoped to gain visibility and precious read- all those little sales add up: one study esti- preferable to dealing with “New York.” In- er reviews, bumping themselves up in mated that the traditional houses missed die authors use New York as shorthand for sales rankings and search results. Schnei- out on about $100 million in revenue last the world of literary agents and editors— der tells me she was shocked when, via struggle used to be taken as a given for Profits aside, though, every book Hoyt Romance novelist Bella Andre year because of self-publishing. like Moscow in a spy novel, a seat of forbid- the mysterious alchemy of the algorithm, authors, it’s an article of faith in the in- had sold represented one more reader than (real name: Nyree Belleville) has The battle over digital pricing has ding power. “The quality of information sales of her western-themed romance die movement that writing fiction can she would have had if she had continued self-published 17 e-books and says sparked a Justice Department antitrust that is out there today is unprecedented,” Beneath a Silver Moon suddenly took off last be a way to get rich quick. On websites to accept the publishing industry’s rejec- she’s made $2.4 million this year prosecution and is also likely to contribute Coker replied. “You have the ability to year. She made an Amazon best-seller list, like Kindleboards.com, the community tions. When I asked what went through to a wave of consolidation. Already, the two be a more successful, more professional where sales become self-reinforcing. One exchanges encouragement and market- her mind when she downloaded her first industry leaders, Random House and Pen- publisher than most traditional publish- day Hoyt visited her friend’s house, and ing tips, urging would-be writers to be self-published book, Dangerous Heart, to guin, have announced plans to merge, and ers. You have the opportunity to go out Schneider showed off her latest month’s masters of their own revenue streams. her e-reader, she went quiet. “It was a eu- is my destiny,” she wrote in the diary. “I analysts say the Big Six may soon dwindle there and control your destiny, set your proceeds: more than $2,000, 70% of which Sales figures and earnings, once a great phoric feeling,” Hoyt said, choking up a will be published.” to three, two or eventually just one major own prices, experiment ... The secrets to she kept under Amazon’s revenue-sharing unmentionable in the literary world, are bit. “It was like, all these years.” When she finished the manuscript, house. But even that may not be enough to successful publishing are being written deal for self-publishers. openly discussed—even flaunted—as self- The scenario for Dangerous Heart came Hoyt duly pitched it to agents and publish- shore up the publishers’ position. by authors like you.” “I just went, ‘Oh my God, look at how published writers measure their success. to her in 2000 in a vivid dream, Hoyt says. ing houses in New York. Her great hope was “A technology has come along that is The questioner, Sheryl Hoyt, walked much money she’s making,’” Hoyt says. So far, Hoyt told me at the spring con- She beheld a man and a woman, together that someone would pick her book off the changing their business model, and pub- out of the talk bubbling with excitement.