HALLIE EPHRON: Talk about reinventing yourself! The first book by Laura DiSilverio that I read was one from her Swift Justice
series with a delightfully wacky pair of female detectives (I remember thinking: Cagney & Lucy!) A ton of books later, last year I was blown away by her RECKONING STONES, a riveting, thought-provoking standalone. After that...
Laura, shapeshifter that she is, talks about her dystopian YA trilogy, INCUBATION, and her strange and wonderful (and frequently frustrating and demoralizing) journey through the world of writing and publishing
LAURA DiSILVERIO: Some of you probably know me as the author of 17 traditionally published crime fiction novels--18 if you count the forthcoming THAT LAST WEEKEND (Sep 2017). You may not know that I have also written a Young Adult (YA) dystopian trilogy.
Taking the Plunge
Yup. About this time last year, I decided to dip my toes in the self-pubbing waters to see if there was more money in that ocean. (Did I mention I'll have two kids in college come August? Money
matters.) I self-pubbed the first book in my Incubation Trilogy. (More about the trilogy at the end--this post is about following dreams and perseverance and the serendipity that happens because you've put in the work and positioned yourself to succeed. Cue "La-La Land" soundtrack.) Reality Bites
My agent, who told me dystopia was dead, had shopped Incubation to about four editors who all told us dystopia was dead. I loved, loved, LOVED this series, so I swallowed hard and made the decision to self-pub. INCUBATION went on sale in April 2016 to rave reviews and disappointing sales.
You read about how hard it is to get a book discovered in the vast ocean of self-pubbed books, but until you put a book out there, you don't understand how hard it really is. I've had trad pubbing success--national bestseller status, awards, and all that hoo-hah--but it didn't matter. Relatively few people found INCUBATION.
The same held true when I pubbed INCINERATION and REGENERATION later in the year. Let's just say I wasn't paying for tuition out what I was making on the trilogy--I was maybe paying for textbooks.
Everything Will Be Okay in the End--If It's Not Okay, It's Not the End
You knew there was a "however," right? My agent gave Incubation to her foreign rights person to take to the Frankfurt Book Fair and, lo and behold, we sold the French language rights for the first two books to a French publisher for a five figure advance against
royalties. Whoo-hoo!
My self-pubbing experiment was now well in the black, potentially providing a profit equal to my traditionally published books, although it hadn't ended up there the way I expected.
Who knows? It may be a blockbuster in France, and then a producer will come looking for the movie rights . . . I'll keep you updated as this story unfolds.
What I've Learned (and It Wasn't All in Kindergarten)
- If you love something you've written, don't abandon it because an agent, editor or industry big-wig says it's out of favor or unpopular. A great story will find its audience.
- There are many routes to publication these days --and to financial success.
- Having industry connections--an agent, in my case--helps. There are things they can do for you that you almost certainly can't do for yourself, like foreign sales.
- Work your butt off, practice your craft obsessively, network and market, and be open to capitalizing on opportunities that arise, even if they're not the ones you expected.
- Celebrate all of it. It's a crazy, exhilarating, and mad, mad, mad, mad publishing world.
I'd love to hear about strange or unexpected twists in your professional journeys--in publishing or other endeavors--if you want to share them in the comments.
For any Jungle Red reader who is interested in reading and posting an Amazon review of Incubation, I will send you a Kindle copy if you email me at ldisilverio AT gmail DOT com.
INCUBATION by Laura DiSilverio
Bio-chemistry whiz Everly Jax wants one thing: to know who her parents are. Raised with other repo kids in InKubator 9, she has pinned her hopes on Reunion Day, the annual event where sixteen-year-olds can meet or reunite with their parents. When her Reunion Day goes horribly awry, she and her pregnant friend Halla escape the Kube, accompanied by their friend Wyck who has his own reasons for leaving.
In a world where rebuilding the population is critical to national survival, the Pragmatist government licenses all human reproduction, and decides who can--and must--have babies. The trio face feral dog packs, swamp threats, locust swarms, bounty hunters looking for "breeders," and more dangers as they race to Amerada's capital to find Halla's soldier boyfriend before the Prags can repo her baby and force the girls into surrogacy service.
An unexpected encounter with Bulrush, an Underground Railroad for women fleeing to Outposts with their unlicensed babies, puts them in greater peril than ever. Everly must decide what she is willing to sacrifice to learn her biological identity--and deal with the unanticipated consequences of her decisions.
Laura DiSilverio
A retired Air Force intelligence officer, Laura DiSilverio is the national bestselling and award-winning author of 20 mystery, suspense and young adult sci-fi novels. Library Journal named her most recent book, Close Call, one of the Top Five mysteries of 2016, and The Reckoning Stones (2015) won the Colorado Book Award for Mystery in 2016.
Somehow, Laura, although I’ve read and enjoyed your crime fiction stories, I’ve managed to miss this YA trilogy. [And dystopian stories are “dead?” How and when did that happen?]
ReplyDeleteAnyway, congratulations on your foreign sales success with the books . . . . Stories that writers love should certainly find readers that love them, too.
I’m curious to know if, after this experience, you’d consider going the self-publishing route again?
The jury's still out on that, Joan. I think I might if I had another trilogy or a series where I already had several books written. That way, you can offer the first book for free or .99 and attract readers to the series. It's just too hard to get discovered, otherwise.
DeleteLaura, I agree with Hallie that your Swift Investigations Series were a hoot to read. I also enjoyed reading the Mall Cop and Readaholics series but I have missed your other books written as Lila Dare and Ella Barrick! Congratulations on deciding to go the self-publishing route with yout YA trilogy and telling us about the results both domestically and abroad. I am also curious whether you would want to do self-publishing again.
ReplyDeleteYes, good question Grace!
ReplyDeleteAnd was it different feel writing a dystopian novel? Did you look at the world a different way while you were doing it?
Congratulations on your wild success!
I loved loved loved writing Incubation. Creating the world was so freeing, and creative, and thought-provoking. I had many good conversations with friends and families about some of the ethical issues raised by the need for national survival in "Amerada."
DeleteAnd following on Hank's question, is there anything that carried over from writing mystery novels to writing dystopian YA, or is it really a whole different world?
ReplyDeleteThe basics of good novel writing, of creating suspense, and of building characters that people care about carried over. Additionally, there are several mysteries throughout the trilogy (not murders, but still mysteries) that drive the narrative, so the thought process behind structuring those carried over as well. Really, the main things that were markedly different were writing in present tense, and the world-building. Oh, and no formal "detecting" in the sense of interviews and tracking down alibis.
DeleteHalf the people in my book club love dystopian tales, including YA novels. I'll share this information, Laura.
ReplyDeleteAnd brava, for not only going ahead with your stories, but also for finding a traditional outlet for the books, as well. Publishing is such a strange business these days, isn't it?
I've shared this before, that after sending out two dozen rejected queries I decided to self-publish my first (non-fiction) book. In 1993, when that meant having actual books printed, and taking delivery of a minimum of 1,000 of actual, physical books (the printer was allowed to include an "overage" of 10%, and they always did, so that meant 1,100 books). And having a reprint of 5,000, actually 5,500. You can't imagine that many books until a semi-tractor trailer arrives out front loaded to the gills with boxes.
However, two traditional publishers asked me to write other books for them, based on my first one. No one ever asked to republish that original title, but that was okay with me. I sold 10,000 copies, mostly via mail order or handselling. The typical royalty I'd have made on each of those books is how much it cost me to print them.
For awhile self-publishing was a big deal, and some people (Konrath) made quite a bit from the process. What do you see happening in that arena right now, Laura? Is it still as lucrative, or do you think there's a lot of dilution?
What a fascinating story, Karen. Brava! What I see is that it's very, very hard. Even with traditional pubbing success, good reviews, and a fan base behind me, it was very hard to get any sales traction in the self-pub realm. I can't imagine doing it as a newbie author with only the one book to put up. I would not yet be in the black if we hadn't made the foreign sale. I think I'm headed that way, but it's a slog. (I could write a whole 'nother post on what I've tried for marketing and promo.) We're in the process of making the first book free on Amazon (you can already find it for free on some other platforms, and it's only .99 on Amazon), and I'm interested to see if that sparks lots of downloads and then larger sales of the other two books. I'm hoping this strategy will work because it's a trilogy, and you don't really have the whole story until you've read all three books. Luckily, people who read the first one love it, and we've seen an extremely high rate of conversion (as in sales of the other books). It's all been trial and error, though. What I need is a big movie deal. Anyone? Anyone?
DeleteGood to know about the Amazon pricing. I'm going to recommend it to my friends who are dystopian fanatics. Thank you, and good luck!
DeleteHope to see you next week, by the way. We sat together at the Malice banquet a few years ago, although I'm sure you don't remember.
Wait--you must follow the rules to succeed! Thou shalt not write dystopian YA, because it is dead! Thou shalt have a major plot point occur within the first 2 pages or no one will read your story! Thou shalt, thou shalt..... Bah! There is no magic formula for success in writing. There, I've said it and I mean it. Good writing--a great story--comes from hard work, perseverance, and a determination to keep going in spite of the naysayers. That and a whole lot of luck in this industry will bring you success! Congratulations, Laura, for following your dream!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Flora! Truer words were never spoken. I've always had buckets of perseverance, and a tendency to ask forgiveness rather than permission, and occasionally it pays off. :-)
DeleteWhat did not work when it comes to promotion? Asking for a friend.
ReplyDeleteDefine "work." The tough part, as we all know, is linking a promotional effort with sales; of course, the two may not be close in time. One of the things that didn't seem to work was writing to all of the high school English teachers and librarians in Colorado Springs (the 40th largest city in the US, so a time-consuming proposition) and offering a copy of Incubation for the library and offering to talk to English classes about writing or anything related to it. I got a couple of takers (not as many as I'd hoped--the librarians seemed to view the offer with suspicion), and talked to some classes, but it didn't seem to translate into many sales. Too much time invested to call this one a winner.
DeleteWhat do you think worked, Laura, in terms of promotion? And did you find yourself pursing different avenues of promotion than you did with your traditionally published books?
DeleteI did pursue some different and more creative promo ideas, largely because this was a YA series and I didn't think I'd find a lot of YA readers in my usual crime fiction outlets (although plenty of adults read YA). Most didn't really pan out. I got almost zero traction writing to YA book bloggers for reviews or opportunities to do a post. Offering an e-copy of the book free to folks who get my newsletter and were interested in reviewing it worked. Discounting the book and advertising in some of those email newsletters (like BookBub, which I'm still aiming for) generated a lot of downloads and subsequent sales of the other two books. I'm in the process of putting up an Audible version of the book with a terrific narrator, Evie Cameron, and we'll see what happens with that. I'm also contemplating mailing a copy of the first book to a handful of high school libraries in every state and seeing if that generates some sales and/or buzz. I've been meaning to do that for a while, but researching the schools/addresses and sticking books in envelopes will be fairly time consuming, so I haven't moved it to the top of my to-do list yet. I'm open to other ideas, if you have any!
DeleteOne of the ideas I considered, but ultimately didn't pursue, was offering a scholarship to a student who sent in a work of art or short story based on the world I created in the trilogy. I would have posted them on a website and encouraged voting to pull in the entrants' friends and family. Putting together the website to support that effort would have been too expensive, but I still like the idea. I would have tried to send out announcements about the scholarship to art and creative writing teachers in high schools around the country (also a logistical nightmare), and gotten it listed on some of those sites that list scholarship opps.
DeleteLaura - As a former teen librarian, I am a YA junkie and this trilogy sounds fantastic. I will most definitely add it to my TBR. Self-pubbing terrifies me just because of the time it would require. Did you hire people to do the copy editing, the cover art, and the formatting for Kindle, Nook, etc?
ReplyDeleteI did the copy editing myself. I know "they" say you can't copy edit your own books, but I've got a really good eye for detail, so I think it worked. (My agent gave me her comments on the first book, too.) I hosted a contest on 99Designs to find a cover artist and paid about $750 for the three book covers, total. I did hire someone to do the formatting and put the books up on the various sites. What with those efforts, and giving away promotional review copies, and mailing costs, etc., I figure I have about $5,700 sunk into this effort. The foreign sale put me well into the black. Without it, I'd still be a couple of thousand in the red.
DeleteThank you for breaking it down. This is fascinating and very courageous. I am delighted that it has gotten picked up in France and hope it becomes a huge movie hit and doubles back to the States so you can say, "Take that!"
DeleteTHIS JUST IN! And the winner of Michelle Gagnon's Unearthly Things (chosen at random by Michelle): Karen in Ohio! Karen, send me your address and the book will be on the way! xoxo
ReplyDeleteAh, self publishing...
ReplyDeleteI have a middle grade series that started with a micro-press. They folded, returned the books and I re-released them. I've sold a handful of them. All the reviews are positive, but yes, a slog is a good way to put it.
I have a mystery series I love, but is not finding any love in the query process. I'm re-writing the first with the help of my critique group (which I didn't have when I wrote it). I plan to shop it some more, but some people urge me to self-publish it. And I'm...terrified. I mean, I want to put the book out, but I'd like to sell a few copies (because I'd like to give up the day job someday).
And then I read you can't hope to even begin to be successful self-publishing until you're established and have a fan base in traditional publishing.
Maybe I should stick to short fiction. LOL
Mary/Liz
I admire your perseverance, Mary. I have to say that if you want to quit the day job, it doesn't look to me like self-pubbing is the way to go. In fact, writing fiction probably isn't the way to go. I have traditionally pubbed 18 books, mostly with Big Five publishers, since my first came out in May 2010, and am a national best-selling and award-winning author, and I would still have a day job if I didn't have a military pension and a hubby with a good job. In addition to talent and perseverance, it takes a large dose of luck, hitting on the right idea at the right time and getting it in front of the right editor and right marketing team, to get the kind of sales that translate into a living wage. A depressing fact that most aspiring writers don't want (and will choose not) to believe.
DeleteMay I also add, Mary, that I wouldn't give up on that mystery series you love just yet. I think the easy availability of self-pubbing encourages a lot of authors to give up on getting trad published way too early. I amassed well over 100 rejections before I landed an agent and I kept improving my book (and writing new ones) while I sent out queries. I have four complete "practice novels" tucked away that will never see the light of day. Work with your critique group, send me a first chapter and synopsis, if you want (ldisilverio at gmail dot com), and keep at it.
DeleteWow, Laura - that's amazingly generous of you (and why should I not be surprised?).
DeleteI guess I should say I don't want to entirely give up the day job. I want to give up the day job I have and move to one with slightly fewer hours and sure, less pay (which is why I'm not going to do it until I stop paying private high school tuition).
Oh, I also have a hubby with one of those military pensions and (soon) a federal pension, so I assume that's going to help - probably a LOT more than fiction sales! LOL
Mary/Liz
What is your day job, Mary? I feel your pain with tuition, although mine is about to be two kids in college simultaneously.
DeleteI'm a technical writer. I write software instructions for a company that does medical software (dictation, speech recognition, and coding).
DeleteI know, tres exciting! LOL
Fortunately, we've been saving for the college years. They both have accounts and they will have to make the most of it (we'll give some money, but within reason).
Mary/Liz
We are totally with you on "They both have accounts [as do our girls] and they will have to make the most of it (we'll give some money, but within reason)." Our philosophy exactly. It's hard to find a college, in state or out, that is reasonable these days, however.
DeleteI wasn't aware that you'd self-published that series. We always hear the "overnight" self-publishing success stories. It's interesting to read yours, and what I figured was a more realistic outcome.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought - I wonder if your results would have been any different if you had self-published another book in any of your established series? Maybe the fact that you were writing for a different audience in a different genre meant you had to start over trying to find an audience while the audience for your mysteries is already there.
DeleteCould be wrong, of course, since I'm just on the reading side of things, but just a thought that crossed my mind as soon as I hit publish.
I'm sure you're right, Mark. If I had self-pubbed a crime fiction novel instead of YA sci-fi, I suspect there would have been more carryover of my existing audience. Still, I don't think it would have been a hugely lucrative venture. The "discovery" issue is still too hard. Even going out with newsletters, doing blog tours, etc., most authors can't reach enough people (and convert a large enough percentage of them into buyers) to make big bucks with a self-pubbed books. I think it's important to remember that libraries buy lots of trad pubbed books and account for a reasonable percentage of royalties, but self-pubbed authors mostly don't make library sales in the thousands.
ReplyDeleteLaura, so interesting about France. Fingers crossed the books do really well there. (And I'm downloading Incubation!)
ReplyDeleteAfter traditionally publishing 13 books in the UK, I've self-published the last four (Garden of Lamentations coming out soon!) in that market. When I say "self-pubbed", I really mean that my wonderful agent has done all the work. This was a financial decision, as I get a much higher royalty, and the UK publishers do nothing to promote the books. This has worked pretty well for me as I already had a reader base in that market, but I can imagine it would be a hard slog starting out in a new genre. Kudos to you for writing a series you are passionate about! And I never believe it when publishers decide that a certain type of book is dead. There's always room for good writing and good stories!
I didn't know you were self-pubbing in the UK, Debs. So very interesting. Your series is so well established and beloved, that I'm sure it's doing really well for you. Do you use a different cover? If you (or anyone else here today) wants to download Incubation, here's a link to versions on any platform you want. You may need to copy and paste it into your browser. https://books2read.com/incubation
ReplyDeleteLaura, we do a slightly different cover, but we want to make sure readers who have seen the US version aren't confused.
DeleteAnd thanks for the download link for Incubation, but I was happy to buy it:-)
My crazy story, and right at the beginning of the adventure, is how I ended up with my agent.
ReplyDeleteAn author friend had agreed to help me with my elevator pitch in advance of last year's Malice. I'd started querying agents and I was in the Hurry Up and Wait phase with those so I wanted to prepared in case any of them, or other agents, were there and I got stuck in one of those slow-ass elevators. :)
We were having coffee and I was "pitching" to her using the query I'd written with the help of two other authors (a not-crazy or unexpected part of this has been how generous and supportive people have been giving time, advice, developmental assistance, beta-reading, etc) and I was super nervous even with her. She's one of the kindest and most open people I know and I was still bombing Starbucks even with her.
She asked me to email her the pitch, thinking maybe we could reword it a little to keep me from tripping over words. Well, I don't know if it was her intention when she asked for the query blurb but she emailed it to her agent. The next day I got a text from her telling me to check my email. There was a forwarded reply from him asking if she could have me call him. She could, I did, he and I talked for an hour and he asked for a full.
At Malice there was no pitching (thank goodness because I was still bombing hard at it) and then summer. I was mildly distracted by all the "thanks but no thanks" replies from the agents I'd queried and driving my kid to all her cool activities but still waiting on him and this other agent - both of whom I really liked and I was really hoping one of them wanted me because I really did not want to start querying again in earnest.
I was driving to pick up my daughter from the last day of the last week of drama camp after opening and reading the "thanks and I really like it and it was a struggle but I really have to pass" email from the other agent literally moments before heading out the door. I was pretty bummed.
The phone rang as I was merging into 60 mph traffic. He loved the manuscript, he loved me, would I like to be represented by him and could I put together a package of such-and-such for the series, and 80 billionty other things?
I was not the model of driving safety I hope my learning-to-drive teen is seeing from me and her father now (thank goodness she wasn't in the car). My voice shook as I answered his questions, my hands shook on the steering wheel, my legs shook as I parked at the university and walked to the pickup line.
As a side note, I am so much more generous with people who are on the phone, being rude, when they're dealing with other people like baristas, cashiers, and camp counselors now. They could be on a life changing call.
What an amazing story, Aimee! The publishing world is full of such moments of serendipity. It just proves that you've always got to be ready to catch the opportunities that come by. And I totally agree that writers in the mystery world are among the world's most generous and kind people.
DeleteAimee: Here's lookin' at you! Congratulations!!
DeleteAimee, you know I'm already a fan, and I can't wait to hold that book in my hands!
DeleteLaura, what a great example of believing in yourself and not giving up. Success couldn't happen to a nicer person. I admit to being way too behind on your books. If I could just get you and a few other authors to slow down. Hahaha! I have enjoyed your Readaholics series, and I have Incubation on my Kindle. And, I can't believe I haven't gotten to The Reckoning Stones. It is currently on my to-read table (large round table) though, and it should be soon on that one. Thanks for visiting the Reds today and sharing your story with us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comments, Kathy. I appreciate the effort you make to read my books. Always happy to visit the Reds!
ReplyDeleteIncubation is now on my Kindle machine. It looks great. I've been fairly happy self-pubbing. Not lighting up the sky, but I've had sales every month for 2 1/2 years with very little promotion on my part. I also discovered Kindle Worlds, which is "sanctioned" fan-fic where you can write in other worlds. I get a cut, the world owner gets a cut, and Amazon gets a cut. It's a fun way to write short works. I can't wait to see what you come up with next!
ReplyDelete
DeleteI've never heard of Kindle Worlds. Huh. I'll have to check it out--sounds interesting. "Next" for me is a suspense novel set partly in Jonestown immediately before and during the massacre, and partly in the present with Jim Jones' fictional daughter.
Wow. I am in awe.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat story of your journey, Laura, and one many of us can identify with. Like Mary Sutton, I have a middle grade series that started with a micro-press. I was very fortunate to get the rights back to the three-book Nikki Latrelle series. I redid the covers, put the books out and in the first month made more income than I had made the whole previous year. Still it was a very small amount, and the books were soon lagging in sales. In the meantime, lightning struck, and my new agent landed me a two-book deal with Minotaur Books. While I was waiting for the first book in the new series, Flamingo Road, to appear, I wrote a prequel novella to the Nikki series. It took three months and when it appeared it earned a quick thousand bucks, or $333 for each month devoted to writing the story. Who can live on $333 a month? It's a tough business we are in, but money cannot buy the satisfaction and sense self-worth I've gained from writing my novels. Still, there must be enough money to feed the doggie.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I would love to see a follow up post on what worked and what didn't promoting your trilogy. Come to think of it, it would be great to have a Sisters in Crime in depth survey on what works to market a self pubbed book and what doesn't!
Congrats on all your successes, Sasscer. It's great that your books are doing so well. I'd be happy to do a follow-up in a few months.
DeleteMany thanks to Hallie for hosting me here today. For those of you who are interested, Incubation is FREE as of today on Amazon!