I Would Love To Die On Mars

When I first heard about the Mars One mission being proposed, where a permanent human settlement will be formed on the red planet by 2023, I felt an immediate yearning. Four applicants will be sent on a one way trip to our nearest planetary neighbor to live in carefully built and interconnected habitats, with four more joining every two years. Science fiction author David Brin is one of the applicants, and you can read about the reasoning here.

I cannot even tell you how much I envy those who will be embarking on this journey. Whoever goes will be pioneers in the truest sense, setting foot on alien soil, ushering in a whole new era of exploration, and I want so much to be one of them, I can barely stand it.

Some people probably think it's nuts, of course. Selectees would be confined to small living quarters. If you ever wanted to go outside, you would have to wear a space suit. There would be no blue sky, no real air to breathe that doesn't come out of a can. Nothing green outside what you can grow yourself in your little indoor garden. You and your habitat would be subjected to the very hostile Mars environment replete with solar radiation (Mars doesn't have a magnetic field like Earth does, so it gets the full brunt of the sun's rays) and vast wind and dust storms that can enshroud half the planet for long stretches of time. Mars also gets very very cold, with the average temperature being -66F and down to -225F in other areas. The gravity on Mars is only about 40% of Earth's, so issues of human physiology in that environment over the long term will pop up, and we will ultimately have to answer the question of how certain functions, like human procreation and the babies that might result from it, would work. Over the long term, would the colonists even look or function like Earthly human beings? Doubtful. And this is alllll assuming that you would even survive the 6-8 month journey in a tin can soaring through open space.

That's really only the tip of the iceberg of questions and challenges that those people will face on the Mars One mission. But that doesn't negate the fact that I would love to be one of the people to offer myself up to help answer those questions. I have been a space junkie for as long as I can remember. The study of planets and stars and galaxies and black holes and everything in between has cultivated in me a sense of awe that is in many ways the basis of my spirituality. Somewhere it's coded in my DNA that innate desire to make footprints on another planet and eventually die there. I have a strong wanderlust. My instincts are that if I die anywhere near the place I was born, especially if I haven't seen a huge chunk of the world first, I will have failed the ultimate mission of my life. I'm already approaching my mid-30s and still have yet to leave the U.S. In many ways, already feel like a failure. I'm the antithesis of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Home is great and all, but I have always felt that shelter can only be shelter too long before it becomes a self-imposed prison. I think it is in our base nature to wander and discover and learn. We just sometimes scare ourselves out of doing so, we find what we think are valid reasons for staying put, and that is when we stagnate... like fish that stopped swimming and sank to the bottom of the sea.

I have come home for a few years after being away for a decade, but I don't intend to stay here for the rest of my life. This world is too big and too amazing for us to remain in one place indefinitely. This universe too big. I sometimes feel like I was born 300 years too soon, because if it were up to me, I would be soaring through the cosmos right now.

Who knows. Maybe one day that distant dream of mine will come true. Perhaps not on the Mars One mission but on some other. If humanity continues to advance along on these tracks, who is to say where I will be in another 30 years? Maybe I will be writing books on Mars or on one of Jupiter's moons when I'm 65. A distant distant dream, but one that fills me with wonder every time I think about it. No, I haven't applied, though I've considered just filling an application out like someone tossing a penny into a wishing well, certain that nothing will actually happen but that the act of doing it will fulfill at least part of that internal longing. Perhaps one day, I can at least have the memories implanted of my having already been there. Sounds like the basis of a good story...

A Fistful of Pennies: My Ebook Price Point Woes

See what they did there?

I'll just come out with it arrogantly. I think my work is worth more than a buck. Actually a great deal more. I'm well-reviewed. I get the sense that people enjoy most of my work, so why shouldn't I be able to command higher prices? If I thought I could get away with it, I would charge $2.99 for my short stories and $9.99 for any novel I put out. In other words, Big 6 prices. After all, how is their time spent at a keyboard more valuable than mine? Yes, those prices reflect more overhead (gotta pay the publishers, editors, artists etc etc), but you know what? I have overhead too. It's called rent and groceries and gas. At those prices, if people were willing to pay them, I would also be able to afford more editors and artists. At my current $.99 sales rates, I would be making real, substantial income with my writing. More money than I would make at any part time job I would find outside the house to supplement my husband's income.

But it doesn't work that way. Don't ask me WHY it doesn't. It just doesn't. Stephen King can get away with asking $2.99 for a short story, but I am not Stephen King. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding what gets charged for ebooks, but never is it based on the question, "Is the author getting a fair wage for his or her work?"

Here's some boring (and depressing) math. My most recent release, a 15000 word novelette called The Empathy of Agnes Winters, took about, I would say, 40 hours of work. It may have taken more than that, but I'm going to stick with easy numbers. That hour count includes all the raw writing, the editing, and the cover design. I would have to make $312 on that story to qualify for minimum wage ($7.80/hr in the state of Ohio). At my current royalty rate of $.35 (I'm selling it right now for $.99, because it wasn't selling at $1.99, but I'll get to that in a minute), I would have to sell nearly 900 copies to make $312. EIGHT-HUNDRED NINETY ONE to be exact.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I've sold 900 copies of anything. I've given away that many, absolutely, but sold? For money? I would have to dig back through two years' worth of sales records, but I think "Dust" may be the only story that has come close or passed that mark, and again, that's taken over two years.

Help the poor. Buy indie.

So at $.99, it will take a minimum of two years to make minimum wage on one story. This is why I sell so many stories (and why you should too). Because cumulatively, maybe I can make a minimum wage salary on my work. Eventually. I could make more money on a collection of stories, but I've had mixed results with that attempt, and I will have to create a separate article to address it another time.

You're probably wondering why I'm not asking more. Good question. I've tried. Believe me, I have tried. For the last two months, I have been asking $1.49 for my short stories instead of $.99. I figured even if my sales dropped off a little, I would still come out on top because one sale would nearly equal TWO of what I was making at the $.99 price point.

Well, my sales didn't just drop off a little. They stopped almost entirely. In the whole of April, at $1.49 price points, I only managed to sell around 40 books, a fraction of what I typically sell. Sales usually do drop off in the spring for me, as they do for a lot of other authors I know. My best season is November - February. But this was a precipitous drop, such that the increase in royalties wasn't making up for the drop in sales. I saw no choice but to flip back to $.99 and to see what would happen. And sure enough, though sales are still slow as they normally are this time of year, things normalized and I have already passed April's totals. This tells me that the $1.49 price point was no good and I should probably avoid it. Furthermore, smaller sales even at a higher royalty rate = fewer readers. If I had to make a choice between more money and more readers, I'll always take more readers. At least with adding readers to your roster, you have a chance to make up for the money in volume.

Smashwords recently released a survey of indie book readers showing, among many other helpful metrics when it comes to buying habits, popular price points. $.99 and $2.99 were the most popular, but $3.99 was becoming even more popular for novels. Things dropped off considerably above five dollars for indie authors. $1.49 and $1.99 were complete black holes for sales regardless of short or long fiction and it was suggested that people avoid them entirely. Also, not surprisingly, cheaper books sell more copies overall, and the longer the book the better it sells.

In short, it appears that the $.99 price point for short fiction, for better or worse, is the best one. I don't like it. I don't have to like it, but if I want to make at least a meager income while attracting new readers, it's where I have to be. Now, when I release a novel independently, expect the price to be around $3.99. I don't know what the price will be for my traditionally published books coming out this year, but I expect it will be around that, give or take a buck.

Yes, I think I'm worth more than a dollar... or the thirty-five cents I'm making on every dollar. But artists rarely make what they think they're worth. They make what people are willing to pay.

My Sweet Spot

I read a great little article today on Lit Reactor about how to build a writing routine, and I think it's definitely a topic worth addressing, because whether you're just starting out writing or if you're a pro, you may have trouble nailing down the reasons why some days you write like gangbusters and others you can't seem to force out more than a measly "the" before calling it quits.

Some of this can be attributed to lack of inspiration or being stuck in a plot dead end, but I think it's mainly because of something we didn't do to properly prepare ourselves for the task. Like any other job we do in life, be it cooking, working out, going to our day jobs, or doing homework, a ritual or at least an acknowledgment of some necessary preparation is in order. I'm not the most routine oriented person I know. Sometimes I write a lot in the morning, other time I burn the midnight oil, but I have found that a certain set of parameters has to be put in place in order for me to work to an optimum level, and it's going to be different for everyone. In order to find what works best for you, follow the suggestion in the Lit Reactor article by keeping notes after you finish, detailing what you ate, what time of day it was, how much sleep you got, etc, so you can see a pattern emerge.

Me, I didn't take notes. I guess if I'd read this article a few years ago I would have considered it, but it took me a couple years to discover the things that work for me and keep me on a regular enough writing routine that (while not daily) help me to complete 2-3 novels per year and about 7-10 short stories. I could do better if I completely gave up the internet, but fuck that. Most of my suggestions have to do with how you treat your body, and there is a good reason for that. A good body equals a good mind, and a good mind is a productive one.

1. Get Plenty of Sleep

Because everyone looks like this when they sleep...

90% of the writers I know absolutely insist on the magical powers caffeine to help them write billions of words, and the association between writers and coffee is about as plain as the one between Colonel Sanders and fried chicken. But I guess I'm odd or something, because I don't require much if any caffeine to write. My coffee drinking seems to coincide with seasonal changes more than anything. As of right now, in the full swing of springtime, I haven't had a cup of the stuff in a month, and on the days when I do feel like I need coffee, it's because I didn't get enough rest the night before. If I don't have my requisite seven hours a night, I feel dopey in the morning. Nothing gets done, let alone the writing. I love being up during the wee hours of the morning, but doing that and sleeping until the early afternoon hours to compensate for it just doesn't mesh well with the whole having a husband and kids thing. If you're a regular coffee drinker and you find you still can't get the mojo to write on a regular basis, consider whether you're getting enough sleep at night and make some adjustments.

2. No Food

But only after you write

Oh look at me, recommending a starvation diet. I'm actually not doing that, but the article mentioned how food can be a creativity killer, and I couldn't agree more. I've been on fasting-style diets and found that when my digestive system wasn't being taxed at all, I was in sort of a writer nirvana mode. Of course, I can't sustain myself long on diets like that and I'm not saying you should start fasting or even that you should write while feeling physically hungry (because that's just as distracting). But you might consider not writing after you've just had a meal. You might be the exact opposite, but to me, writing on a full stomach is a lot like exercising on a full stomach. Both make me feel sluggish and wrong. On a typical morning following a good night of sleep, I start the day with a very light snack (a piece of fruit or cheese or something) and have some water or juice. Then I'm ready to commence writing. On days when I'm really in the heat of a project, I will typically not break for an actual meal until about 2pm. Of course, this throws off my dinner schedule if I eat too much, so I try to keep it light and then have my big meal around 7 or 7:30 that evening. I didn't say it was good for the metabolism, but that's why exercise is probably a good idea. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Move Around, Dammit

Me in fifty years, before I start an important scene

I'm the least disciplined person I know when it comes to working out, as I detailed here recently, but even making a little effort to move can mean a boost to the word count, provided it's LIGHT exercise. When I was swimming a mile a day, I wasn't writing much. I was too damn tired, and the sensation of finishing a long swim was not unlike the sensation of finishing a book, so I found I didn't have much left for the page when I got home. But if I don't exercise at all, I feel like crap. And all that sitting with no moving around is just bad for anybody. So again, finding the balance is key. Get out for a little walk, clean your house, lift some free weights or do some calisthenics or yoga or something before you sit down to write. I submit that getting your blood flowing this way vs artificial chemical stimulation via coffee or energy drinks is the way to go. That and you'll just feel better overall.

4. Kill Your Distractions

Before they kill you...

The article was so right on about that, and I'm sure I've talked about this before, but you definitely have to find a way to deal with outside distractions, especially early on in your career when your confidence is probably shaky and you haven't proven yourself able to finish much of anything. Even if you can't get away from the internet, unplug your router. Or if that would make things too inconvenient for anyone else trying to use the internet in your house, there are programs that will disconnect the internet from your computer for a set amount of time (I particularly like Freedom). Consider a device for writing that has no internet connection, like pen and paper or an Alphasmart. Turn off your phone if you can. Go in a room and shut the door or tell the people in your life that you are not available during certain hours of the day, that your writing IS a job and they should respect that and to not call you or knock on your door unless they are dying a spontaneous case of advanced syphilis.

5. Make Sure You're Writing What You Want

Maybe you want to try something else for a bit...

I hear from a lot of people who are just having a hell of a time finishing a story they started, or they've thought about it a long time and have plotted and researched a ton of stuff, but just can't seem to get it off the ground. We all hit bumps in the road with a project, and I don't want anyone to think that having an off week means you shouldn't be working on your current WIP, but I think if the problem becomes pervasive enough that it's NOT getting finished and you're becoming discouraged as a writer in general, then it might be time to do a little soul searching and maybe try something else. It's a well-known wisdom that the most important part of being a writer isn't just writing, but finishing what you write, and I agree with this. But there is a fine line between torturing yourself with a piece of work that is making you resentful of the craft and making you LESS productive overall and working on something that you know you CAN finish. The key is to choose a project that keeps your enthusiasm up, that doesn't feel too arduous, and is sustainable enough that you know you can get it done, provided all the other things are in place. Maybe at some point your inspiration for the other piece will return, but in the meantime, I think it's important to busy yourself with writing you can finish.