Ethics

My business partner says ethics should top my list when marketing or
publishing my writing.  I say, let’s allow for a little bit of
grey about such things.  Of all the professions out there, the one
that gets the short end of the stick is writing.  There’s room to
be flexible as a writer, to get just a little bit ahead…to go for an
extra dollar or two. Don’t fool yourself, you won’t go from publication
to mansion.  In business, it’s all about the extra dollar.
Hell, in the writing business, it’s all about the extra penny.

So if writing’s a business, what are some shady things you can do to get ahead without actually hurting anyone?

Sign your books.

Sign every copy of your book that you see in every bookstore.  But
here’s the thing – do it secretly.  Slip in and slip out.
I’ve seen writers try to do this openly and make a big, arrogant show
about it.  You can pull that off at a little indie place but, take
it from a one time retail manager, it won’t work at the big
places.  We know what you’re doing.  We know what it’s really
about.  We’ll stop you.  Why?

The publisher will not accept returns if the books are mutilated or marked in any way.  Let’s put together a scenario, because most young writers I talk to are clueless about the whole retail thing:

In the publisher’s eyes, the bulk of book sales are not measured by how
many individuals buy the book.  Yes, of course, individuals
determine how many copies go out, but retail stores are stocking based
on a presumed demand.  If they sell ten books right away and it’s
hot, they may reorder 20, though maybe the buzz will die down and
they’ll only sell eight copies from that reorder.  However, the
publisher sees 30 sales altogether and that’s what they record.
The money that goes to you, the writer, is determined by all of the
sales from the publisher side.  They’re recording how many copies
they sold to the retailer, not the readers.

Let’s say Barnes and Noble buys five copies of your book.  The
publisher sells the copies to them and, that’s it, that’s the
sale.  The publisher is done.  They’ve collected the money
from those five books.  The money goes into the account and,
eventually, that’s where your money comes from.  Barnes and Noble
now needs to resell the book to make their money back.  The writer
makes, whatever, a dollar a sale.  So you made $5, but you’re not
getting that right away.

So what if B&N only sells two books and they return the other three
after six months?  The publisher refunds them and, all of a
sudden, the five dollars you could have made off of the initial sale
turns into two dollars, all because B&N needed more shelf space for
the 29th Harry Potter book.

How could that have been different?  Say you went to your local
bookstores, slipped past those wide-eyed, brain-dead clerks and slinked
into the shelves to pick up all five copies of your book.  Then,
real Mission: Impossible like, you quickly inscribed each book with a message and your autograph?  Thanks for reading!  Enjoy!

The two readers who buy the book get an unexpected signed copy.
They’re thrilled.  They think that they’ve found a secret signed
copy and, for them, it’s like finding Atlantis.

Meanwhile, the other three copies are just sitting there.  B&N
goes to return them.  They have a kid who flips through the books,
or maybe they get as far as the distributor or publisher (who also has
a kid flipping through them), and the return is rejected because the
books are “marked.”  So B&N is stuck with the three copies and
your simple act of signing three books just earned you three dollars,
based on this scenario.

I’m told this isn’t ethical.  But you’ve hurt no one.
B&N will eventually put them on sale and, you know what?  They
got 40% off – maybe more – when they bought the books.  (Oh, and a
quick side note – many publishers only give authors 20% off when they
buy copies of their books directly.  B&N ranks higher than the
guy who wrote the book?  The author has to pay more than a
bookstore– plus shipping – for every additional copy. Now, is that
ethical?)

Amazon.

Shockingly, many (usually young) authors I know say that joining the
Amazon Associates program to sell their own book is unethical.
Why does the word “unethical” even cross the lips of someone under
30?  It’s enough to make me want to run away to the Mojave and
farm rattlesnakes for a living.

There’s nothing unethical about selling your book through the
Associates program.  Amazon makes money, your publisher makes
money, you make money and the customer is happy.  Where’s the
problem?

The great thing about the Associates program is that anyone can sign
up.  My ten year old cousin can sign up.  You don’t even need
a webpage, you can shoot links out via email.  And here’s the fun
thing – you make money off of each sale.

Many authors these days are doing newsletters.  Now, I know lots
of folks who roll their eyes and say that they don’t have time to
maintain a newsletter.  Hey, that’s fine, but a monthly newsletter
is easy stuff:  What are you doing this month?  What are you
reading this month?  What’s your latest book?  The people who
sign up for your newsletter are fans.  They don’t care what you
say, you don’t have to write an essay.  They’re glad to hear from
you.  They’re looking at links.  Look here, and here, and
here, and thank you. What if all those links are book suggestions
leading to Amazon?  Your fans, by their very nature, will buy shit
linked on your newsletter.  Say your newsletter goes out to three
thousand people and only 300 preorder your book or buy the CD you’re
listening to.  You just made close to $300 (or more, in some
cases), simply for saying hello, please click here.

I don’t think that’s unethical at all, but writers get dodgy when I
bring it up.  It seems to me, in my experience, that writers don’t
like making money.

Opportunism.

Here’s a grey area for you:  Sell everything.  Galleys, rough
drafts, manuscripts, you name it.  “Rough draft of X, by
internationally bestselling author so and so.  Own a piece of
literary history, see the writing process at work.  Opening bid:
$50.”

I mention this to authors and, universally, they shout out that I’m the
son of Satan and I’m damned for all time.  Well, hopefully, the
following revelation will galvanize you and open up that dark writing
mind:  It’ll happen anyway.  It always happens.  An
intern, or even the publisher themselves, will do it – and keep the
money.  They’ll do it on Ebay, on one of the Amazons, or on
countless private lists and chatrooms dedicated to a sort of “black
market” of rough drafts and galleys.  I personally know of five
interns and employees, all from medium to large publishing companies,
who do this with every manuscript they can get their hands on.
Pound away for the man all day while running dozens of auctions worth
$50 a pop.  All of your work rescued from the recycle bin and sold
directly to your fans and spotty little collectors, with not a penny
going to you.

My publishing house sources for these Margin articles confess that
they, sometimes, sanction this and funnel the money back into the
publishing company.  Maybe that Stephen King rough draft goes for
$5000, sold through a sneaky place nobody checks like Amazon.de, or
directly to collectors through private chatrooms.  Then the
publisher takes the cash and never reports it to the author.  It’s
a behind the scenes publishing trick as old as the hills and it’s
carried out at your expense.

Now, see, that’s unethical.

So if other people are making money off of your work and doing it with
glee, why do you hesitate?  You’re struggling while a 22 year old
intern makes $100 a copy off of the galley copy sitting on your
editor’s desk.  You’re making a pittance off of each sale while
the publisher is in for the kill, operating or, at the very least,
aware of a sinister black market that leaves you in the cold.

There are ethics and there are ethics.  Don’t steal or
plagiarize, sure, but do go into business.  You – the author – are
the product, and everyone around you, from your friends to your editor
and their boss, are going to make a killing off of you the first chance
they get.  Meanwhile, you aren’t selling yourself?  You
should be, because that same editor, or agent, or whoever will throw
open the trap door beneath your feet as soon as your engine
stutters.  While you fade to out of print obscurity, they’re
walking away with the bulk of the money.

Publishers are sickly proud of their shady ethics.  All I’m saying
is fight fire with fire.  Newsletters, websites, forums, home spun
local news stories.  Hell, posters on phone poles and yard signs
can even come into play.  Usually those are reserved for the
energetic and insane, but you get the drift.  The equivalent of a
video store clerk is getting rich off of your work while you’re blowing
your advance on your credit card debt.