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Readers Behaving Badly—Seriously, Who Says This Stuff? · Reality Writes

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Rights.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we talk about all things writer-ish, bookish, reader-ish, and anything else that's on our mind.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I am here with the tech guy.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Hello.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: Hello.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: How goes it?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's going pretty well.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh it's a good day.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: How about you?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good day to do a podcast.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's always a good day to do a podcast.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: Uh what are we talking about today?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm glad you asked because I uh think we're gonna talk a little bit about um something sparked from an email that I just recently received from a reader, and it seemed like a good idea to um sort of tackle the topic of readers behaving badly and um to kick it off this particular message that I got from a reader.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, a good message.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not exactly.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: I I know the answer to that.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: I just wanted to see if I know.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be busting some myths today in response to uh this particular message that I got, and then maybe we'll dive into a couple more.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see, we'll see how it shakes out and how much time we end up having.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get into it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I got an email from a reader who shall remain nameless, and I will rephrase it too, just in case.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh, because we don't want to throw shade, and I think a lot of this comes from misconceptions about how the publishing process works.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I received an email from a reader saying basically, how dare I, how dare I charge$17 for uh my book?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Was like, oh damn.
• 1:55
  unknown: Damn.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think it's important to talk about because this is one of those things that writers do not have control over.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, not like definitely different levels of control, but but at the end of the day, like nobody has a hundred percent control over it because the and this may come as a shock to some of the darlings out there.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: It costs money to publish books.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it costs a lot of money.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's let's break it down a little bit and let's talk about sort of um the different paths to publication and the publishing process and how that works.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because uh, for this particular series, they were talking about the new secret bookcase mystery that just came out.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um I am with a traditional publisher for this.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So as the author, I literally have zero say, none, none whatsoever.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So anyone who is in that realm in terms of how books are priced, um, print production, that entire process is on the hands of the publishing house.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the reality is, like you said, books are really expensive to print.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to go back in time.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: That book, first of all, took me months to write.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Months to write, right?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: And and you're the only one that touches the book, right?
• 3:17
  unknown: Right.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I was gonna say.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then it goes through extensive.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are at the publishing house, there are editors who go through the book and provide editorial feedback.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are copy editors and page proofers, cover artists.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: What'd you say?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: Cover artists, yeah.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Cover artists, yes.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, then there's the whole team that works on distribution.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a whole team that has relationships with bookstores and goes to bookstores and makes sure that bookstores know about the new books coming out.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So and then there's just the physical cost.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is also, I shouldn't say, the caveat here was this was for the new version of the print book.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's the cost of print and paper for all the designs, shipping.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Shipping is a huge one that that never gets factored in because I don't think people, you know, and and this is no fault of their own.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like who, you know, they don't know how the sausage is made, right?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: But that all is exactly why you should maybe ask the question a little bit, you know, or make your point a little bit more politely.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it it so shipping, you have to consider the fact that the the paper and materials and ink and everything need to be shipped to the printer.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: The printer prints the books, the printer packages up the books, the printer ships the books to a distribution center, distribution centers around the country, around the world.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: Then those books are shipped from the distribution centers to bookstores or to customers directly to through online channels, but then from the bookstore, then sometimes the books are even shipped to customers from there.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: So now you're talking like that book's been shipped, or the material starting with the materials has been shipped four times.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: Four times.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I was shocked just the other day.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, you can attest to this.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: I was I was shipping out some sticker orders, and I was like, when did the price of stamps go up to 74 cents?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I didn't what what happened?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like it it I swear every three months shipping gets more expensive.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: And somebody somewhere is making a lot of money off this, but nonetheless, that all has to be factored into the cost of a book, all of that.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the same goes for the process of printing, um, because paper's more expensive now.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: All the printing presses that um deliver books are not here in the US, so there is a tariff factor going on.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, trust me, as an author, I'm not sure.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: I so I was just being in I was being a jerk.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: I said you said a bad word.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, go for it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, blah dad.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I've got my shirt on today, so this let me go.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um as an author, of course, I want the books to be as reasonably priced as possible, but um, I don't have control over it.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, like when I how many people have touched it and um how much time I have spent as a labor of love putting that book together at the same time, like it it's it's not an outrageous ask.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there are also lots of other ways that you can get my books, libraries.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there there are other alternative methods um from buying the book.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there's also that.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: Legal alternative methods, because there are other methods too, but um the no one benefits from people doing that.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's traditional publishing.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: Talk a little bit about indie publishing because you do have some control over it on the indie side.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: However, however, yeah.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So even on the indie side, let's say you're going, um, you know, you as the author are then the publisher yourself.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like, oh, hey, that's great.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I now can set the book at five dollars because I am the publisher.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Still not true because all of the same things apply.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: The book still needs to be edited.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: You need to pay for a cover designer, you're paying for actually like binding the book and the paper and the printing and the delivery again to distribution distribution centers, and all of the indie platforms for publishing have set prices.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you as the author can go in and go, okay, well, I know the book is going to be, you know, this size and you know, it's gonna be about 300 pages.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you can sort of make a guesstimate before you go.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: But again, we're not talking about like even profit margins of 50% most of the time on print because um it's just so expensive.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I hopefully this isn't coming as a surprise to many people because this is true of literally anything that you can buy, whether online or in a store.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: This type of thing happens where you you start with the materials and they cost a lot.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then you move on into the manufacturing or the printing or the design or whatever that costs a lot.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Plus, the time, like that's true both traditionally and in the uh published books.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: Authors spend an enormous amount of time writing writing the book.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so I guess my whole thing is like, I don't want this to come across as like, oh, here's an author complaining about, you know, readers who are complaining about expensive books, because that's not it.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's it it like we understand that books can be expensive.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and if there was something that we could do about that, you know, sure we would, but there, but there's there's only so much that can be done.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: And on the traditional side, as you explained, it's zero.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then on the indie side, it's it's really not that much more than zero, honestly, because if you know, if if somebody's writing to make a living, they have to price the book accordingly.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: And and it it just I don't know.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: I I it gets me all riled up when people complain about it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Because I like you said, the the number one thing that I that that drives me bonkers about this this complaint in particular is there are free options to get a book.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: You can go to a library, you can go down to your library and you can get the book.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have to wait sometimes?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, but it's free.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's free.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: So like wait or pay the$16.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's a like, you know, I mean, it's it'd be one thing if you couldn't, if there was no other way to get the book and you had to pay that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: I I I and and trust me, I everybody is in a different place economically, financially.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: We're all we all have things that you know we that we're dealing with in that realm right now.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh some more than others.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I I so I am I am happy that there are things like libraries out there still.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and please, you know, I'm crossing everything.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: Let's let's make sure they stay um because um it's just such a wonderful resource and it's free.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that brings up a second point, which is um most of the time uh the ebook is less expensive.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's another less expensive option because you take away, you still with an ebook, have me writing the book, you have all of the editorial staff touching it, you have the whole process of cover art and design, but you take away physically printing the book and distribution.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so most of the time, those ebook prices tend to be a bit lower as well, right?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Although uh well, no, and to your point, I was also gonna say, um I love again so much of this is the tone in which uh a message is sent.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody, if if one of you darlings, emails me and is like, gosh, you know, I I don't understand why the book price went up.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, totally.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I let's chat about that.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: But don't come at me and be like, how dare you raise the price of your book?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: No one wants to.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: The publishing houses don't want to, for the most part, either.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like they want reading to be as accessible as possible.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I guess that's that's an important point.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um that m most authors, I I all authors, I can't speak for all authors, but I know a lot of authors through you.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um all authors.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I would just say they're on the planet right now.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: There there aren't any authors out there who I know that would like to make their book less accessible, right?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: So they're not the like the whole pricing thing is just like again, I think that's an important message.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: Don't come at the authors, like they're not trying to make the book harder for you to get.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: The authors don't make more money if the book is more expensive either.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's the other thing because uh listen, I've worked in in marketing and advertising my whole life.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: And if you make something more expensive, everybody thinks, oh, well, now they're just making a bigger margin and they're making that much more money.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: But the in general, especially for uh lower priced items, if you the higher the price point, the lower the conversion rate.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so it all equals out.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like if you jack the price up$4 a book, you're going to sell the same number of books as you would if it was$4 cheaper.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you're gonna sell fewer books, so you're not going to make more money in the long run.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's I keep saying this, but we are gonna do an episode of book math at some point in time.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we got to just put that on our reality rights agenda because I think it would be fascinating to peel back the curtain and show readers, like, oh, okay, you know, like with some hard numbers, like here's here's how it all like inks out for authors.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And spoiler alert, it's not much.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's$17.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Most authors are making like maybe 15% of that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you have an agent, your agent is taking a cut of that.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So um, it's not like I'm sitting here like you.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, tone is always good.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Should we go over a few other um anonymous messages that I've received lately?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, we're on this topic.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know me, I've got um, I have a special folder in my email for these that come in through the website.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: And one day I'm gonna write a book about the the stuff that people say to authors because it's not always nice.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um and and the thing is, like we do this anonymously because uh it in in all honesty here, even though these people piss me off time and time again, I know a lot of them don't mean it this way, but so many people write the internet has like destroyed personal communication because so many people write messages without considering tone.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so they come across like if I say, How are you doing today, versus how are you doing today?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean it's like right, like so personal personal communication is is uh is key here, but people just don't yeah.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: So let's go through some other ones.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I've got some tips for readers who want to write in and actually get responses from authors that we'll cover at the end.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that that's sort of my baseline as a writer.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is important for any of my darlings out there who, you know, are writing themselves or maybe new to writing and just stepping into author space.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's okay to put up boundaries.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like if somebody comes at me with a really negative, mean message, I just you don't get a response from me.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like we don't get my time, like because that's headspace for me to respond.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you come at me with any other question, I might not respond immediately, but I try to respond to all messages that I get.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that does go back to tone and the way that you ask something.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, this one comes in, I don't want to say often, but every few months I'll get a message along these lines, which is Ellie, I just received my book and it's damaged.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like the corner is turned down, like there's this something wrong with the spine, the box came damaged.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I need you to fix it for me.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't actually make the books.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do that.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: And which tracks back to the first message of readers behaving badly.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this one, maybe it's not behaving badly because for the most part, these are usually pretty nice.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: But again, sometimes they're not though.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes they're not.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time they are.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time they are.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this goes back to trying to dispel some myths about what authors do.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a stack of books in my office here that I get to use for giveaways that come from the book when I try to share with you darlings whenever I can.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: But otherwise, I I don't make the book physically.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I write it.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't distribute the book.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So there is nothing that I can do if your book comes damaged.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: You should definitely get a refund.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so contact the bookstore, whatever retailer you purchased it purchased it from, and they will send you a new book.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's like sorry, like I got nothing for you.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: And the one the one thing I will say about this that is unfortunate, um, because this goes back to the shipping costs that we kind of covered in the first one.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: The the uh absolute cheapest way to ship a book in in the United States is uh a service called Media Mail through the US Postal Service.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: And even that's like five bucks now.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's not cheap, but but that's the cheapest way to ship it.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: That is also the way that shipping a book that way, you guarantee that that book is going to be abused, like really abused during shipping.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you're gonna see people throwing it across the mail room, and I apologize to any US Postal Service listeners out there, you're like, you know, employees out there, but you know it's true.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know it's true.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, books, media mail packages are not treated well.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so it's gonna happen.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's hard to package something as because I I I know this.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's actually one of the reasons, honestly, and this is this is honest, honestly, this is one of the reasons that I have cut way back on reading paper books, is because I cannot stand a book where like the corners are caved in or they're all bent or or something.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: I just it just it every time it takes me out of the story because I'm reading and I know this is a problem, I know this is all me, but I just yeah, uh it it's gonna happen, and there's just nothing authors can do about it.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um that is that is well, there's nothing like the companies that ship it can do about it.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you can only package things so well, and then it things happen.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um it when a book is traveling hundreds of miles.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you go back to the bookstore and you say that you ordered it from, they they're going oh wait to send you a new copy.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like your odds are way better going that path than emailing an author and saying, Hey, my book arrived damaged.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, your business relationship is between yourself and the store you bought the book from, not yourself and the author who wrote the book.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's and then to tag team on this one, uh, the other thing that pops in on semi frequent um occasions are messages about there being some kind of printing error in the book.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so like page 32 was missing, or um, in fact, we just I just got a copy of um one of the Sloan Krause books and it's completely upside down.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was printed completely upside down.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um the cover was put on upside down.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: That was what I mean.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: But like it's upside down.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're gonna read an upside down book, which I know you don't want to, no, that would freak me out.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, as the author, absolutely nothing I can do about that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, like you should hold on to that because that's kind of like a cool, um, you know, funky version.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Go back to wherever you've purchased the book.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes, like, that's been known to happen with library books because libraries do order so many copies of books.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they can't vet everything.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a reader reach out and like, gosh, I got this book from the library, and there's like a whole chunk of it missing.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, take that back to the library, they'll order a new one for sure.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: The librarians want to know that because they spent money on that book and they expected to get a real book, and they'll they'll rectify that situation.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: But you just you you actually um uh uh said, you know, you you talking about um having control over this, so it's like a different different issue, but but same resolution, right?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um and the but the one thing I wanted to point out was you because you just mentioned that like the library can't check at every single book, right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's true of indie authors too, because we've done indie publishing.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: We have several several of your titles that we've published, you know, ourselves.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: And when you get a box or boxes of like 200 copies of a book, we can't it's just we don't have time to go through and like thumb through every page and make sure that like oh, chapter six, chapter seven, how many pages did chapter eight have?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yes, check, you know, everything.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: We'll I mean, I I know when you go to like sign a book, you will check and make sure it's not printed upside down, or um, or or up, you know, we've had a few where the cutting was off.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: So like the the you know, the top top three lines of the the page had been whacked off, and there was a huge uh um like um white space at the bottom.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, gap, thank you.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but that that's gonna happen, you know, there because there are indie authors out there who are publishing and shipping thousands of books themselves, and they're they're a one person operation or maybe a two person operation, and they can't they just can't check everything.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: So just like yes, it's disappointing to get a book that is not perfect, but just take it in stride and be nice and um contact whoever you bought it from and they'll take care of it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not the author.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not the author.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't reach out to the author.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: They can't do anything.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, especially on this particular topic, because uh I did have um a little bit of a contentious exchange with one reader about this, and it was for my bake shop mysteries, and and one of them came um printed wrong.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they were like, Well, you need to reach out to your publisher and let them know that this is an error.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's not an error.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: This happens because to track back again to our very first thing, the printing presses where these books are printed, they are printing thousands upon thousands of books every day.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes errors happen.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a wrong cover gets slapped on, they put on the cover upside down, these margins, like, so this isn't like, oh, hey, I found a grammatical error um in your work.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is like, no, this is a production problem.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's nine times out of ten, just a one-off, um, that then the publishing house and or the bookstore or the library is just gonna destroy, recycle, and buy a new one for you.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and and books like for print books go through different printings too.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: So not only is the printer printing thousands of books, thousands of unique books, thousands of copies of thousands of unique books, but once a book is g goes through its pr its print run, it's done and the files get set aside.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, in between like the first and second print run, new machines might be put into the lineup.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: Machines might have settings adjusted or whatever.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so when the second print run happens, the book might actually look different than it did the first time.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: And you've had that happen with like um you did a social post on like I think there were like four different shades of purple on fudge and jury.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean I had all the covers lined up at one point.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: I should share that again, Freddy or Link'en it because it's I mean, it's the exact same book, but it's just in great, it's in multiple print runs, which is lovely because it means that book has been out to a lot of you to read.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: But each subsequent printing, the color changes slightly on the cover because of exactly what the tech I just said.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, settings, all those things.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Ink, like they're using a different ink, like it just yeah.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes um the level of gloss on the cover changes.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: So something will be like a higher gloss for a first print, and then it gets more matte, or vice versa.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've I had a reader uh message me, this was a while ago, about that because they had their whole collection on on the shelves and one of the books was glossier and they were like this for me again.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, and actually in that case, um, short of going back and finding like one of the like a first print, you're probably not gonna change that because I agree.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: There's nothing you as the author can do about that, but I do feel that reader's pain.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um that would that would drive me nuts.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Size differences that's come up with the series.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh boy.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, don't even you know, don't open that can of worms.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I have to open that can of worms because I have them sitting right here on my shelf, darlings.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm taking out um Donut Disturb and Bake Barrow and Steel, which were midway through the Bake Shop series.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And for some reason, they decided to do these in what they were calling max market, so they are bigger than the rest of the series, but just by a little bit, just enough to really irritate you when you look at your bookshelf.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: Well, not even bigger in one dimension, right?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: They're taller and a little bit wider.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for anyone who's watching, sorry to darlings at home, but like, oops, I gotta go this way.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just like, you know, slightly enough to go.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:46
  unknown: Yeah.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of reader email back in the day about these two sizes.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I didn't even know they were happening.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was completely out of my control.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and this is this is a problem that can be experienced by indie readers too, because sure, this is something, again, as a traditionally published author, you have no control over.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: If the publisher is like, hey, we're gonna do this one and it's gonna be a diamond-shaped book, that's you know, you're you're like, okay, uh, that's not gonna sell at all, but you have no control over it.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but uh indie authors can run into this too because again, they're at the um, you know, they're they're controlled by whatever sizes are offered by the the publisher that they're using, the publishing service.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: So whether it's Ingram or it's you know Amazon or anybody, those companies might decide that a certain size is just not profitable for them, and they might they might decide that, you know, we're not gonna offer this one anymore.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: And suddenly mid-series your book sizes change.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: So there's just nothing the author can do about that.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, so don't smell the author.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: You can't you can't you can't print these books at home.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: So you can't like I can't, my my cricket machine, there's no way.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like I mean, sure, technically, yes, but uh then people would be complaining about waiting a year and a half to get a book that's been finished.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I have one more, and this is definitely a reader behaving badly, and I will um, you know, again, disguise as I do in the world of mystery exactly what they said.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this was right after I announced that um the Meg Read series, Meg Read Investigates, is being re-released and is back in print again.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this reader wrote a very um mean-spirited email message about how basically I um like updating it was just to make it become AI and that um it was like a big money grab and there's never a reason to republish a book.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, these books have been out of print, like they don't exist in the world.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I also love and adore this series.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And um, even though it was my first series and I learned a lot in the process of writing it, like I'm super proud of the fact that that was my first mystery series that I wrote, and I'm bringing like back in a holiday at rom-com, so it'd be real sucky if you can't have any history about her because these books don't exist in the world in any version, ebook or print anymore, because they're out of print.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Quite often in the world of publishing.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can name Tanner Fish.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm so worked up, I just choke tank.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can name 10 or 15 series myself that had gone out of print, and then when they come back, I'm like, yay, finally.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, what no?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's that's that's disappointing.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and and also like um the whole money grab thing is just like that that is clearly a reader who thinks all authors are millionaires.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um spoiler alert, not true.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um there authors who are millionaires, yes, but is that the majority of authors not even close?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: Not even close.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I think people would be, yeah, we like we won't get into that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's like that's like talking about your salary with coworkers and everything.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's just like not a good place to go.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: But non-millionaires, like that's just gonna, I'm just gonna say it right now.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um I uh, you know, you you are a prolific author, and and hey, I have no complaints about our life, but um money grabs are not things that we are into.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, not even close.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And again, like if that had come in a if that message had come in a different form, I would have been much more receptive to having a conversation about it.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, like why is this happening?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, tell me more.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, there was none of it.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like, you're just gonna make this panella.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, not at all.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, I do think this goes back to at some point doing a book math, just to like, even if we're just talking like general numbers for most authors to show readers how that breaks down.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because our goal always in reality rights is to break the fourth wall and show you a little bit how the software is made.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that then, you know, maybe if you have an author who you're thinking about emailing and telling them um not to charge$25 for their hardcover, you won't do that next time.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I guess that leads us into the few tips that that I have for readers out there who want to contact their authors.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I get uh I'll start with number one for me.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: And this this is true of anything you post online or just in general.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: The caps lock key, forget about it.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like just that shouldn't even exist on a keyboard.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_03: Because for those of you out there that don't know this, but this has been true since the beginning of time.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_03: Time.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if you write something in all caps to someone, it means that you're yelling at them.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: So there's no way that it it and and I I do this because I see the messages that come through the website.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I'm I'm just gonna be honest with you, I don't even send the ones that are in all caps to her.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: She doesn't even see them.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna give that person time.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um if you can't like just like don't write in all caps.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: That is just like, even if you don't mean it like that, it is it's terrible to try and read a message in all capital letters.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I say this as somebody who writes in all capital letters and writing.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Fun fact, darlings, the tech guy, when he writes, writes in all caps.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not email, not anything you type, but when you handwrite for our entire adult life, it is in all caps.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: But that's why that's that's why I don't write in with my hands very often.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I'm a tech guy.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: Everything I write is is electronic.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I use I use initial caps only, and I use punctuation.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_03: I because I'm old school like that.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh journalism major, hey, you know, advertising copywriting, that's that's my game.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I will say I appreciate an all caps um in moderation if I'm trying to actually like really scream one or two words, maybe a brief sentence, to highlight something.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm okay with that.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: But if you come at me an email with all caps and it's something negative, yeah, that's yeah.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: So that's so that's number one.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: Number two would be like just just make sure that whatever you're contacting the author about, you've like done your basic research.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's it.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like authors are authors would be happy to interact with you with questions you have or maybe suggestions you you want to offer for things, whatever.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but if you haven't done the basic research to know, like emailing an author and saying when is your next book coming out, I can guarantee you that that information is on the website.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's probably on the first page that you went to on the website before you got to the contact form.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_03: So things like that, just because authors are busy people, so are their tech guys or girls or women.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like just yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so those are the those are my top two things.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'll leave it at that because it I don't want this to be a rant, because this is all in good fun, right?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: This is like we're like no, we don't want to we we don't want reality rights to be just uh a complaint fest, but um, but these are things that I feel like people need to know.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Darlings, we're doing the important work of how to not end up on Ellie's list of readers evil than badly, because here's one more little inside tidbit.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: I do use some of these at the given for who I might want to kill in my next book.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so maybe that'll make darlings go, I'm gonna try.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: Don't don't encourage this.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, but I would I would love to hear from the darlings out there.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what like I'd love in the comments here, like, share the wildest thing you've seen uh readers like say to authors, whether it's in a review or or a message that's been posted or whatever, because I know they're out there, but that is the goal of the reality rights podcast is make this a better world for both readers and authors.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: So there you go.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: We're we're we're doing we're we're taking it on.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: One podcast at a time.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh especially for any darlings who are writers, uh, we would love to hear from you too.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like you any uh emo from readers behaving badly, uh, feel fair free to share in the comments, but don't name names.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no name since writers can behave badly too, and that's a little teaser for another podcast we'll do in the future.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: All right, well, on that note, uh until next time, darling, uh email me, please.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time.