Watch That Basket

Somebody—either Mark Twain or Andrew Carnegie, the jury’s still out—once gave this questionable financial advice: “Put all your eggs in one basket—and watch that basket.” I doubt if Enron’s employees and investors would appreciate those words of wisdom. Especially if not only the basket, but the whole henhouse happens to tip over. What are you supposed to do then?

What brings on my latest bout of pessimism is the news that Samhain Publishing, one of the first and biggest e-publishers of romance, announced over the weekend it’s throwing in the towel. Reasons are varied, but the bottom line appears to be that old standby, low sales.

When Samhain started, there wasn’t much competition out there. Epublishing was a whole new animal. Ellora’s Cave came up from nothing and cornered the erotica market. Samhain and a whole slew of romance e-publishers soon followed. For the longest time Ellora’s Cave and Samhain were considered the Holy Grail by us striving writers. Get a book accepted by one or the other and you knew you’d finally arrived.

What we didn’t know back then—how could we?—was that the road we were on was destined for a dead end. Without going into the sordid details (readily available through a simple Google search), Ellora’s Cave hit a financial speed bump that included massive layoffs and a growing number of writers claiming they haven’t been paid. They’re still in business, more or less, but appear to be circling the drain. Now Samhain says they’re closing shop. And these two were at the top of the mountain. What does that say for the scads of smaller e-pubbing outfits out there? And what does it mean for us nervous writers who hope to publish with them?

I myself never published any books with either EC or Samhain, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. In fact, my career in romance started when I wrote a story for an open call at Samhain. They rejected it, I sent it elsewhere, it got accepted, and suddenly I was a romance writer. The following year I wrote an M/M story for another Samhain anthology, and again I was rejected. I sent it to the other publisher, they took it, and suddenly I was an M/M writer. So Samhain’s responsible for my success, even though it wasn’t with Samhain. I might have sent them other things, but I sent them to my regular publisher first—loyalty, y’know—and they got accepted there. Samhain started a horror line about a year or so ago, but I never got around to writing for that. Too late now.

A few months back, around October-November, I applied to Samhain for work as a freelance line editor/proofreader. I took the test and waited. And waited. After six weeks and a nudge letter, I was told thanks but no thanks. Fair enough. Then within a month Samhain announced they were firing the editor of their horror line and closing to new submissions of all types while they “regrouped.” When I read the bit about how they planned to cut personnel through attrition I realized why I hadn’t gotten hired. My timing has always been lousy.

And now this. My timing’s not only lousy, it’s fatal. (I killed both TSR/Dungeons and Dragons and a local adult bookstore. Ask me for details sometime.)

What brought about Samhain’s demise? A lot of people seem to want to blame Amazon, the way retailers want to blame WalMart, but I’m with the group that blames the rise of self-publishing. There’s a glut on the ebook market right now, primarily in romance and all its subgenres. Anybody with a computer, ten fingers to type and format, and enough bucks to buy a cover from someone on Fiverr (or download a free stock photo and do it themselves) can now write and publish a book. It may not be good, but it’s there. E-books from publishers can run from $3 to $5 and up. Rhonda Writer from Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey can hit Send and have her magnum opus up on Smashwords or Amazon overnight and charge 99 cents for it. You’re a romance reader on a budget, looking for a cheap fix. Which book are you going to buy?

Like I said, I don’t have any books with Ellora’s Cave or Samhain. I wish the best of luck to the writers who do. They’re going to have to get their rights back now, so they can rework and try to re-sell their books, or else go into self-publishing themselves. Even more competition for dwindling bucks from a dwindling number of readers.

As for me, I’ve got my eggs in two baskets right now, with two different romance e-publishers, and I’m anxiously watching those baskets. I may have to ask my hens to start laying eggs in other genres, like science fiction (my old standby) or young adult. Maybe even horror. Or mystery. Hard-boiled eggs, anyone?

I knew I should have taken art in college. I could have had a career as an illustrator and written books on the side. I could be on Fiverr right now, making up covers for all the self-publishers. What’s in your basket, folks?

The Year in Review

But first, my final words on Obamacare. I did find a cheap plan and signed up for it ... until I discovered none of the major hospitals or doctors in my area accept it. No wonder it was so cheap. I ended up with a slightly better plan that's costing me over $100 a month with the same deductible as the crap plan (about $6500) and no co-pay, but if I get sick a doctor will see me and a hospital will take me in. If I'd been willing, and able, to pay $200 or more a month, then I could have gotten co-pay and a lower deductible. My last plan had all that, but it was discontinued.

I didn't use my insurance last year. Didn't go to a doctor. I may not need it next year, but that's the problem. You never know. It still would have been cheaper to not have insurance at all and pay the fee at tax time -- which, by the by, has doubled again. Even my insurance agent doesn't like this deal. She called it: it's not affordable health care, it's available health care. It's only affordable for a lot of us because our fellow taxpayers are footing the bill.

I'm going to say it again. This was not health care reform. This was a tax, under another name. This was a scam. I'd love to know whose pockets got lined at our expense. I suspect we'll all find out later in 2016 -- specifically, right after the election. I also suspect there will be major changes to the law right after the new President's announced. That's my prediction for next year.

One other prediction: somebody famous will die. See how easy it is to foretell the future?

# # #

As far as the rest of 2015 went for me ... well, it had its ups and downs. The car held up for another year. So did my aging body.  I still had to vacuum the house and mow the lawn. My first venture into self-publishing didn't go so well. On the other hand, I published under a pseudonym and that story did okay. I'm now convinced I can achieve success in publishing, but it won't be under my real name. Hey, that's okay. I'm fine with that. As long as the right name's on the check, I'm a happy camper.

Almost forgot -- I sort of got a job. It's freelance but it's steady, or at least it was until this month. I'm hoping things pick up again in January. Five hundred a month (on average) may not sound like much, but it covers a bunch of expenses. If I could get a second gig like this, I'd be fine. Or two or three, now that I need to pay for "affordable" health insurance.

I'd like to extend my sympathies to Serena for her plight. She sold a story to Ellora's Cave right before all the excrement hit the AC. I know how that is. My work history is strewn with incidents of me getting hired by companies that went belly-up soon afterwards. Most recent example: I applied to Samhain Publishing for freelance work as a proofreader/line editor. They turned me down. That was last month. I just recently learned Samhain has closed to submissions from all but their current authors and is "regrouping." They also fired the editor of their relatively-new horror line. Sounds like a restructuring's going on. No layoffs, but people who leave won't be replaced. Looks like my timing was off in that job application. The doomsday clock's still running on my current freelance job. I'll keep you posted.

So that was my year. Pretty much more of the same, only more expensive. I wish I could blame somebody. Okay, sure, I can blame the current administration for having to buy health insurance. Though if I have a heart attack tomorrow, bet I won't be bitching while I'm dialing 911. The rest of it's on me. You have to actually do something in order for good things to happen. I applied for the freelance job and I got it, and now I can buy gas and groceries. See? It does work out.

Don't worry about bad stuff. You don't have to do anything there. Bad stuff happens all by itself. If more good than bad happens to you in a year's time, consider yourself ahead of the game.

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to make resolutions. Those usually last about 48 hours after the clock strikes midnight. Let's see how I feel next week, with a whole new, fresh year looming ahead. And higher insurance bills. Prediction: I see job hunting in my future. Happy New Year, y'all!