A Forest Full Of Trees

This post, from Devon Monk, originally appeared on the Deadline Dames site on 7/20/09.

You’ve got an idea for a novel. You’ve worked on it in stops and starts ferverishly for a few years months, and the first draft is finally done! Congratulations, you’re a novelist! During your moments of deep depression coffee breaks on the veranda, you also researched agents and editors, and cruised web sites and blogs to scream in despair perfect your cover letter, synopsis, and outline skills.

But the thing that’s stopped you dead is getting the novel draft cleaned up for submission. Yes, I’m talking about the dreaded rewrite.

Some writers don’t like to rewrite. Some writers don’t like to stop rewriting. Neither affliction is beneficial to a lasting career in this biz.

I see rewriting (or revising, if you prefer the term) as a very important tool in the writer’s tool box. When you are under contracted deadline and are asked to cut ten thousand words, or get rid of a character, or add more action, or slow down the scene, ore completely change a plot line, and it has to be fixed and beautiful and back in your editor’s hand in two weeks, baby, you’re gonna want a toolbox bristling with every rewriting trick in the book.

But how do you know what needs rewriting? You bled your soul into wrote the thing. You know all the back story, you know what the setting looks like, you know where the characters are running to and from and why.

But you may not have put any of that on the page in a way the reader can clearly see and experience it. Since you’re the author, your mind automatically fills in the missing bits with the info only you have. That’s a problem.

One way to address that problem is to shove your ego in a carpet bag and look at what you’ve written through the eyes of a reader.

Yes, you, the writer, stop being a writer for a second and look at your book as a reader. Print it out and sit down and read your book as if you just pulled it off the shelf. Read it out loud. If you trip over the sentences, likely the reader will too.

Another way to spot what needs rewriting is to critique other people’s work. Over on her blog, Ilona Andrews did a terrific series of line-by-line edits (and suggested rewrites) for opening scenes. Check it out. Read through what she thought should be changed, and why. Then look at your story and see if you can apply any of those principals to it.

Read the rest of the post, which includes an excellent 21-point revision checklist, on Deadline Dames.

Why I Am Not Afraid To Take Your Money

This post, from Amanda Palmer, originally appeared on her blog on 9/29/09. Amanda Palmer is known primarily as a musician and cabaret artist, but what she has to say here is something authors need to hear, too.

aie!

i had two conversations within the last 24 hours which made me feel like blogging about this.

one was with jason webley, who i’ve been living with for the past week in the Middle of Nowhere.

i was writing a press release and in it disclosed how much money i made from the recent london webcast (about 10k).
i gave a copy of the text to jason to proofread over a cup of tea (that’s what rock stars do for each other nowadays instead of leaving lines of blow on the backs of bathroom toilets).
he suggested taking the money part out. he gently advised; he’s heard people gossiping about me and my shameless revelations about my webcast/twitter income etc.

right around the same time i got an email from beth, regarding the future of my webcasting.
she suggested we do something totally free and not ask people for any money.
she’s been picking up on heat from people that the ask-the-fans-for-money thing has gotten out of control.

listen.

artists need to make money to eat and to continue to make art.

artists used to rely on middlemen to collect their money on their behalf, thereby rendering themselves innocent of cash-handling in the public eye.

artists will now be coming straight to you (yes YOU, you who want their music, their films, their books) for their paychecks.
please welcome them. please help them. please do not make them feel badly about asking you directly for money.
dead serious: this is the way shit is going to work from now on and it will work best if we all embrace it and don’t fight it.

unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely noticed that artists ALL over the place are reaching out directly to their fans for money.
how you do it is a different matter.
maybe i should be more tasteful.
maybe i should not stop my concerts and auction off art.
i do not claim to have figured out the perfect system, not by a long shot.

BUT … i’d rather get the system right gradually and learn from the mistakes and break new ground (with the help of an incredibly responsive and positive fanbase) for other artists who i assume are going to cautiously follow in our footsteps. we are creating the protocol, people, right here and now.

i don’t care if we fuck up. i care THAT we’re doing it.

in fact, i ENJOY being the slightly crass, outspoken, crazy-(naked?)-chick-on-a-soapbox holding out a ukulele case of crumpled dollars asking for your money so that someone else a few steps behind me, perhaps some artist of shy and understated temperament, can feel better and maybe a little less nervous when they quietly step up and hold out their hat, fully clothed.

i am shameless, and fearless, when it comes to money and art.

Read the rest of the post on Amanda Palmer’s blog, and if you like what she’s saying and doing, buy something from her.

Reviewing The Reviewers: A Dialog About Book Reviewing

This post, from Henry Baum, originally appeared on Self-Publishing Review on 9/17/09.

The idea for this dialogue came after the controversy regarding the review of John Lacombe’s Winter Games.  If you haven’t seen that thread, check it out, it’s a long one – it has a lot of interesting commentary about how writers and/or their fans should respond to reviews, including examples of how not to respond to a review.  Carol Buchanan, who reviewed the book, didn’t like the novel.  Steven Reynolds, who reviews for SPR, liked the book in a review for the now-defunct Podler.  Carol and Steven got together to talk about the controversy and book reviewing in general. This will be the first in a series.

Self-Publishing Review: You’ve both read Winter Games by John Lacombe and had quite different responses to it. Why do you think this is?

Steven Reynolds:  It’s because Carol doesn’t know what she’s talking about! Just kidding. We had different responses because we’re different people: we have different backgrounds, interests, reading histories, and tastes. Carol’s an award-winning novelist, I’m not. Carol has a PhD in English Lit, whereas I have degrees in Economics, Literature and Film Studies. Carol’s a woman, I’m a man. Carol grew up in the 1940s-50s, I grew up in the 1970s-80s. Carol reads James Lee Burke, Val McDermid, Michael Connelly and Craig Johnson, whereas if I’m looking for chills and thrills I might pick up Thomas Harris, Michael Crichton or the darker volumes of Robert Cormier. Some of these factors might have influenced our readings of Winter Games, whereas others might be irrelevant. Who knows? What I do know is that it’s possible for two, three, or thirty-three people to read the same book and each form a different view. Some will be broadly similar, some will differ wildly.

Without wanting to get too esoteric about it, the act of reading – making meaning out of words on a page – is an essentially subjective experience. They’re just dots of ink assembled into shapes we call letters and words. The magic happens in our minds, and it’s going to be influenced by what’s already there. This is why I can read Ian McEwan’s Saturday and think it’s wonderful, and my friend Kath can read it and declare it “ideologically rancid”. Who’s right, Kath or I? That’s not a question with an objectively verifiable answer, and it’s actually an extremely boring one. This is why I don’t give books a score or a star-rating anymore (unless it’s compulsory). I’m more interested in exploring what the novel’s about, how it works, its relationship to other books, and who might enjoy it. You must pass judgement, in some sense, because readers expect that. But when I say of Winter Games, “Overall, this is a slick and solid action-thriller from an emerging writer of considerable strength,” readers know this isn’t a statement of fact, even though it’s phrased as one. It’s my opinion. Whether or not they value my opinion is up to them.

Carol Buchanan:  As Steve says, we’re different people. We both read thrillers, but by different authors. Steve appreciates Michael Crichton’s work, while I’m partial to the novels of James Lee Burke.

Novels are an art form. Being a writer myself, as well as a former college English teacher, I pay attention to the writing of every book I read – how the sentences and paragraphs are constructed. I listen for rhythm and variety, to hear the English language sing, which it does for good writers. One of my favorite authors disappointed me recently with this sentence: “Rows of windows … rose above ….” The kernel of meaning in that sentence, the part a writer can’t strip out and have anything left, actually reads “Rows …. rose.” Not “windows rose,” which would say something entirely different again. For some people, windows rising might recall sash windows; for others it might portray a different window action. But these windows could not rise. They were set in stone. Whether “Rows …rose” or “Windows …rose,” it’s sloppy writing. It jars the ear.

Does that mean the book wasn’t any good? Or the author is a poor writer? Not necessarily, but if I were writing a review, I would be obligated to point out problems and let the readers judge for themselves if it might interfere with their enjoyment of the novel.

I write reviews primarily for the reader, who may lay out money for a book. If the author reads a review and learns from it, so much the better.

When Steve says his reviews are his opinion, that goes for me, too. The reviews I write are not fact. They are my opinion, even though they are based on some decades of reading and studying and writing fiction. Readers can take them or leave them.

SPR: What makes a “good” novel? Similarly, what makes a “bad” novel?

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Self-Publishing Review.

Creative Commons: What Is It And How Can It Benefit You?

This is a cross-posting from The Creative Penn site, where it appeared on 9/13/09.

I went to a fantastic workshop this weekend at the Brisbane Writers Festival on Creative Commons. It was presented by Elliott Bledsoe, who is Project Officer at Creative Industries and Innovation in Australia and a wealth of information in this area. (You can find him on Twitter @elliotbledsoe). All the detailed information is at: http://creativecommons.org/

This is such important information for authors online so please read and share!

What is Creative Commons?

  • It is a version of copyright licensing, and it relates to your creative works. The basic Copyright law says that no one can copy or distribute your work, or use it, remix it or profit from it. This law becomes impractical in the digital environment where sharing, remixing, distribution and marketing are so important. Creative Commons licensing is a license you can put on your work to allow some of these things and make Copyright work for you and your creativity. Read this for the full lowdown on Creative Commons.
  • You can license your work for different purposes. The main aspects are Attribution (you let others use/distribute your work but you must be attributed as the creator), Share Alike (you can use my work but you must share your own work too), Noncommercial (you can use my work but you can’t profit from it), No Derivative Works (you can use my work verbatim but you can’t remix it or change it). For more on the different licenses, read this. People can approach you for options beyond the license e.g. you have a novel released under Creative Commons which is Noncommercial but someone approaches you with a movie idea based on it that will be sold. You can still allow them permission.

How can it benefit you as an author?

  • On Piracy vs Obscurity. You need to make your own decision as to whether you want your ideas to be out there and used (and potentially pirated), or whether you want to keep them in a drawer where no one will discover them. If you want to be a successful author who sells books, you need to be known and the internet is the place to build your global presence. The risk of piracyis nothing compared to being unknown. Cory Doctorow addresses this in “Giving it away”, a Forbes.com article where he describes giving the ebook versions of his books away for free under a Creative Commons license. His sales increased but his books were also translated by fans and his ideas spun into new creativity.
  • “Share your creative wealth and accomplish great things”. This is a quote from the video at the bottom of the page which explains Creative Commons in a great way. The internet has changed the way we produce and consume information. We all find ideas everywhere now. We put our thoughts and text online in the hope of building an author platform, or selling our books/products or finding an audience. Other people may get ideas from our work, and Creative Commons enables a legal way for them to re-use or remix it. This has started in mainstream books now with the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a remix of Jane Austen. Is it fan-fic or a remix of a Public Domain book?
  • Collaboration and Creativity. Expanding the theme of fan-fic and remixes, licensing under Creative Commons gives people the ability to take your work and recreate it in different ways based on your ideas. This could spread your work much farther than you could do on your own and may lead to some extraordinary ideas you can take and reuse in your turn. Is your idea your own? or can you release it and see what happens to it out there in the big wild?

How can you license your work as Creative Commons?

  • Advice from Elliott was: Have a really good think before you do license as Creative Commons. Are you really happy for people to use your work? Can they make money from it? Can they remix it? Only license once you are sure.

How do I find other authors and creatives using Creative Commons?

  • You can find works licensed under Creative Commons by including it as a Search term on sites like Google and Flickr. Many of the images I use on this site are Flickr Creative Commons and I add Attribution to each one. Use the Advanced Search option. You can also use http://search.creativecommons.org/
  • I have now licensed this site under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License, you can see this on the sidebar under my books. This license applies to the blog content and does not currently apply to my workbooks, Author 2.0 material and published books. This means that you can use my posts on your own websites, books and projects as long as you attribute me and this site as the original creator, share the work derived from it and don’t make income on it. Start with this one and spread the word about Creative Commons! You can see all the international licenses here

 

Publetariat Presents: The First Indie Author Stem-to-Stern Workshop Cruise!

In this exclusive, weeklong, all-workshop cruise aboard the Carnival "Fun Ship" Splendor (the one with the big waterslide you’ve seen on Carnival’s TV commercials!), just 24 UPDATED: 30 attendees will have the opportunity to learn everything they need to succeed with self-publishing, ebook publishing, podcasting, author platform and book promotion from Publetariat founder and Editor in Chief / self-publishing expert April L. Hamilton, ebook publishing expert Joshua Tallent, authors and podcasting experts Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, and author platform / social media experts Kirk Biglione and Kassia Krozser—all while enjoying a wonderful cruise vacation on the Mexican Riviera from March 7-14, 2010 UPDATED: October 10-17, 2010!

In addition to attending four, 3-hour workshop sessions on POD Publishing, Ebook Publishing, Author Platform/Social Media and Podcasting/Author Platform, each attendee will also receive a private, one-on-one, 45-minute coaching/consulting session with the speaker of his or her choice. This private consulting session alone is a $300 value. Add to this the opening night Meet and Greet, mid-week mixer and farewell mixer, and you’ve got a whole lot of face time with workshop speakers to get your questions answered and issues addressed as part of a very small group.

Also, we’ve scheduled all our workshops for "at sea" days, so attendees will be free for sightseeing and shore excursions on the three in-port days at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. If you’re already thinking about taking a vacation and attending a writers’ retreat or conference next year, why not do both in this one trip?

For full details on pricing, the workshops, cruise itinerary, presenter bios, travel agent contact and more, check out the Indie Author Stem to Stern Workshop Cruise page, and if you’re interested, register and get your deposit for the cruise in right away; there are only 24 UPDATED: 30 slots available, and once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Building On The Momentum

Promoting doesn’t and shouldn’t end with the book sale. I live in the middle of farm country where book sale events are hard to find. Harvest is about ready to start. Winter is coming soon. The internet is my best method for promoting. I’ve just had a successful book sale. Now I can build on that and find ways to promote the fact that I am an author with books for sale until the next event.  Do I know everything about promoting?  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m still learning. 

I took my camera to the last book sale and snapped a lot of pictures. The first pictures I had my son take of me in my pioneer dress and bonnet and of my table after it was set up with stacks of books and the two posters. With these pictures I made an album on Facebook and other web sites complete with captions.

On twitter, I submitted messages about my book sale and later wrote to take a look at my album on Facebook. By the way, I am developing a following. I have at least two authors following me now – Stephanie Cowell and Steve Weber the author of Plug Your Book – online book marketing for authors (which I have).

Every time I find a website for writer/authors I’ve signed up. In fact, I am on so many that I had to log them in a book with login name and password. I wanted to stick to one login name.  My choice of names should describe me and what I do so I picked booksbyfay. I don’t want to miss an opportunity to reach internet users. Having a list helps me keep track so I don’t forget to make entries on one of those web sites about a new book, a book sale or press release. Several of these websites have links to other websites which I happened to registered on so I can link what I do to be announced on those sites.

I’ve put a link to Publetariat where I could. Hopefully, internet surfers will come across my blog post on the front page. I appreciate the opportunity to help other authors. On Biblioscribe, I wrote two news articles. One article was about the success of my book sale. The other article was about my blog entry "Preparing For A Book Sale" posted on the front page of Publetariat. That should get people to take a look at Publetariat and perhaps become interested in my blog.

So don’t stop promoting after a book sale event. Keep finding ways to get your name out there until the next event.  Then work on that event and build on the momentum.

The One That Got Away!

This morning, I read a wonderful compilation of stories from agents and publishers on  agent and author Betsy Lerner’s blogsite called "The One that Got Away"

It’s a must-read for any new (or established…) author who’s been rejected by an agent or publisher.  We all know the drill. We’ve painstakingly honed our novel or non-fiction proposal to a bright, shiny appearance, and approached the "gatekeepers" with trepidation and awe, our hands shaking as we hold out our "jewel". 

They respond in a couple of weeks or months with a pleasantly efficient form letter saying "[insert brush off here]".

It’s nice to keep in mind that the bastions of power where the keys to the kingdom are guarded, are staffed by human beings, after all.  They make mistakes.  They have regrets, too.

I especially enjoyed the publisher in the blog who admitted to having responded to a pitch for Cold Mountain by telling the author’s agent, "I was raised on a Civil War Battlefield! If I don’t believe it, no on elese will either!"

Authors, it seems are not the only ones that suffer from occasional hubris.

But, as authors with a "product" to pitch, we need to remember the job description we labor under.  Author: a hard, unfulfilling, obessive occupation with impossibly long hours and very poor pay.  But that’s why we do it!

Do your homework. Edit. Get help. Edit. Find a developmental editor who can suggest mechanics to improve the way your plot works. Edit.  Edit.

If you must… pItch to agents and publishers who you know ahead of time have worked successfully with genres and styles such as yours.  Polish your submission and personalize it just for them, and when you receive their pleasant, but dismissive letter, realize they just might have made a mistake!

How To Handle Criticism And Get Something Good Out Of It

This post, from Henrik Edberg, originally appeared on The Positivity Blog on 6/9/09.

“Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing”
Aristotle
 
Receiving criticism isn’t always fun. However there are ways to handle it in a less hurtful way and – sometimes – get something good out of it. Here are a few pointers I have found useful when dealing with criticism.

 
Like most tips, these are not magic bullets. They won’t work perfectly the first time you use them. You have to practise. Over time your mental muscles will become stronger. And criticism will become easier to deal with and more valuable.
 
Count to 10 before you speak.
If you react immediately to criticism then you’ll often react in a knee-jerk manner. And the words that come out may be overemotional, vicious and unnecessary. Count to at least 10 after someone has criticised you. Then respond. This simple way of calming yourself down and regaining some perspective can save you a lot of trouble and help you avoid saying something you can’t take back. It’s a good approach to avoid creating unnecessary problems.
Handle it like Buddha.
Maybe you’ve heard this one before. It’s a great and practical way to look at criticism. It might be extra useful when dealing with angry, destructive criticism and nasty personal attacks.
 
A man interrupted one of the Buddha’s lectures with a flood of abuse. Buddha waited until he had finished and then asked him, “If a man offered a gift to another but the gift was declined, to whom would the gift belong?”
“To the one who offered it,” said the man.
“Then,” said the Buddha, “I decline to accept your abuse and request you to keep it for yourself.”
 
Simply don’t accept the gift of a criticism. You don’t have to. Then it still belongs to the person who offered it.
Take both praise and criticism evenly.
My mindset for praise – that I try to stick to as much as I can – is that it’s cool and I appreciate it. It’s great to get praise, but I seldom get overly excited about it and jump and down shouting enthusiastically.
 
A great upside of this mindset is that when you receive the opposite – negative criticism – you can often observe it calmly without too much wild, negative emotions blocking the way. And you can often appreciate that piece of criticism too (if there is something to learned from it).
 
Basically this mindset is about not caring too much about what other people think. If you do then you easily become pretty needy and let others control how you feel. Both how good and bad you feel.
So you move from depending on external validation to depending more on internal validation. You validate yourself more and more and then you need less of outside validation. Don’t take this too far though. Don´t become that arrogant jerk who never listens to criticism no matter how valid it might be.
 
If there is nothing to be learned from some piece of criticism you received or it’s just nonsense ravings and insults then with this mindset you just go: “Ok”. You don’t care that much and you quickly forget about it. Instead of spending the rest of the day being angry, sad and riled up.
 
Shifting into this mindset isn’t always easy. You can slip quite a bit. But if you learn more about your mind – especially about your Ego as Eckhart Tolle describes it in books like Power of Now and A New Earth – this understanding gives you more control over your reactions and less knee-jerk responses.

Read the rest of the post on The Positivity Blog.

Reviews, Word Of Mouth And Super Users

This is a cross-posting from Alan Baxter’s alanbaxteronline site, from 9/28/09.

Today I’m pleased to present a guest post by MCM. This post explores the difficulties in building a fan base through word of mouth, and talks about how reviewers can help us with that.

Recently, I’ve had some conversations with very smart people about the future of publishing, specifically about how readers and writers can connect directly and make old-style functions like reviewers obsolete. It’s a great notion with dangerous consequences, and if you’re game, I’ll explain why.

Here’s the thing: the internet breaks down barriers and actively enhances communication between people. In the old days, it was impractical for an author to chat with their fans; today, it’s downright pedestrian. The old notion of “word of mouth” expanded beyond your neighbourhood and now covers the globe. Tell your five best friends about your new book, and they’ll tell their five best friends, and eventually you take over the world. It is, theoretically, pure unbridled exponential growth (at least until you run out of people to tell). This is the way of the future.

Except it’s not as easy as it seems. Just because you tell your five best friends, it doesn’t mean all of them will like your writing enough to tell anyone else. There are lots of factors that play into the “infection rate”, but the end result is you may only get one of your friends to follow through. And then only one of their friends. And so on. It’s still exponential, just working on a lesser scale.

Word of Mouth (WOM) depends less on the potential pool of converts, and more on the accessible pool. There are billions of people on the planet, but you probably only know 0.000002% of them. Add in decay (meaning your WOM is not eternal… eventually, the lag in reading will affect the infection rate) and your growth is severely capped. If you have 135 friends at the start, in most cases you’ll end up with a total audience of 621 (note: all numbers are based on a rough systems model and are probably too high).

135 Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users   Guest post by MCM

Next time around, you’ll have a base pool of 600 to work from, which helps a lot. But unless you’re willing to spend years and years building up an audience, straight WOM is not going to cut it.

This is where Super Users come in. They are, very simply, people with a lot of friends and influence. If they say “this book is awesome!” a larger percentage of their network will act on the promotion. You get a 1% infection rate, but they’ll score 10% or higher. Add that to their larger pool, and your growth will have much more potential. Switch from a gentle curve to a steep one, and you see the difference.

The other benefit of a steep curve is that the decay is postponed… someone, somewhere will always be finishing your book and telling their friends about it. It creates a constant state of critical mass, which also ups the infection rate. Think of it this way: nobody likes to be dancing alone, but if you’ve got a large pool of people all dancing together (even if some of them cycle out after every song), it looks like a party. You’re more likely to dance if that’s what everyone else is doing. Super users can find enough people to throw that party.

Super Users can take many forms online, but one important role to weblit is the reviewer. People are looking for advice on what to read, and reviewers read a lot of material. As a reviewer proves their merit, their social network grows, and so does their influence. Writers can expand their network with every new title, but reviewers can expand with every new posting.

135and1000 Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users   Guest post by MCM

The value for authors is that a single positive review by an established reviewer can give them access to thousands of eyeballs, not just hundreds. If you have no social network, a reviewer can give you one. If you already have a solid base, a reviewer can help you tap a different set of people, or at least add to your own influence.

To compare: if your book is reviewed by someone with a social network of 1,000, your total audience potential increases from 621 to 4,937. If their social network is 10,000, you’re looking at just shy of 82,350. Imagine someone with a million Twitter followers reviewing your book… you’re looking at 8,242,224 converts.

1000and2influence Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users   Guest post by MCM

The trick for weblit reviewers is that, right now, very few of them have large followings. That’s something authors can help change, by supporting and promoting them. It may seem unappealing to put reviewers on a pedestal (especially since it reeks of gate keeping), but if you look at it objectively, a healthy weblit community depends on a healthy reviewer class.

The question of how to build a SMART reviewer class is something I’ll cover in a guest post on Novelr tomorrow. And yes, it’ll have more graphs. Yay!

MCM is the creator of the animated series RollBots as well as the author of several picture books for kids. His grown-up work includes the sci fi thriller “The Vector” and a crowdsourced mystery novel called “Fission Chips”. He has a background in programming and systems thinking, which is how he learned to make graphs. He lives in Victoria, BC, Canada with his wife and kids, and may be at least partially insane.

What are your experiences with word of mouth marketing? Do you trust all reviewers or no reviewers? Do you have particular places that you’ll go for reviews to help you decide on a purchase? Leave a comment.

Creating Agents

This post, from Bob Spear, originally appeared on his Book Trends Blog on 9/25/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Once upon a time, there were many highly experienced, very capable editors working for the big publishers. It was possible to send queries and manuscripts directly to the publishing houses for consideration, thereby creating the infamous slush pile and the phrase, “Over the transom,” referring to a small window that opened out into the hallway and was located above the office door. Ah, but the bean counters came into power, and they were very smart at saving money for the bottom line.

The older, experienced, very expensive editors were let go with a pat on the back and a thank you. Young, intelligent, much cheaper editors were hired to fill some of the slots that had been vacated; however, they would do little actual editing. Rather, they were essentially book project managers. The preponderance of real editing would henceforth be done by freelance editors (many who had just lost their jobs) paid for by the authors smart enough to do so.

In addition, the publishers said, they no longer would accept contact from unrepresented authors. Suddenly, there was a need for knowledgeable agents to represent authors. Eureka, the recently laid off editors decided to become agents. They would receive the queries and manuscripts. They would decide who they were willing to represent. They would maintain contacts with their old publishing houses and determine what hot new directions they were wanting to go.

Those bean counters were so bright. Their laying off the editors saved money initially and also created a filtering system (the agents) who gave good service for free, as far as the publishers were concerned. The authors paid for that service out of their commissions on their royalties. And so, that is where we are today, and now you understand the system and how it came to be.

 

Weird Signals from the Great Beyond….

I guess everyone has heard about the old guy with the metal detector…I’m not kidding, it’s not a joke ….who uncovered a huge, horde of Celtic gold and silver treasure in a field in Staffordshire this past week.  It was all over the NY Times — big article, color pictures, etc .

Now I’m always interested in archaic Celtic stuff.   It’s been a lifelong interest and is actually the glue that holds my first three books together.  I laid it all out in the first book.  Because of shallow pockets, I eliminated some illustrative material I researched and sketched out while I was writing the first draft back in the Winter of 1999-2000.

Friday, I opened up the Times, and read the tresure story, to be confronted face-to-face, with an artifact that is an exact illustration of an odd symbol I devised from pre-Christian Celtic sources as being the device on the sails of some very important (to my book, at least) ancient ships. I don’t mean a little reminiscent. I mean exact.

So here I sit, two days later, with an odd buzing in the back of my mind to pay heed to this.  Really.  LIke it is a message, or a sign, or a poortent, or something….

We writers need to believe in such portents. We need a talisman to protect us from encroaching reality.  The magic we weave in the dim recesses of our imaginations need recharging from time to time, and this is one of those times for me.  Whether it’s really communication from the auld gods or not doesn’t matter…. it can be if I want it to be! 

Just remember: Whatever works.

Crafting a Cover: A Do-It-Yourself Sermon in Two or Three Parts…

We’ve all worked the keyboards till our fingertips are bruised getting our books into shape for readers to actually read and enjoy.  At some point, towards the end of the editing and rewrite drudgery, I need a break.  I’ll assume we all do, and that’s a good point to start thinking about your cover design, if you haven’t already been carrying the whole idea, or components of it around inside you head for months and months.  Putting together a hard hitting cover design will require a whole different set of tools from writing, although you’ll use some of your well-honed writing skills on the cover, you’ll need to put on a new cap – the graphics designer cap…

When I was fresh out of school, the guys who worked the Linotype machines setting hot metal for newspaper type galleys and the pressmen (very few presswomen at the time) wore hats they made by folding last nighty’s sports section, to protect their hair from ink, etc.  and give them a place to stick a couple of extra red pencils and/or grease pencils.

That’s not what I mean.  I mean, it’s time to start thinking about graphics for your book in a new way.  The way a craftsman thinks about an upcoming project: Who is this for? What will it be made of? What will it accomplish? The answers will help organize the tools and materials that will be used in completing the work.  There’s a bit of design philosophy and some scientific touchy-feely stuff, too, but I’ll hold it down. You can skip it if you want, but it will give you a better idea of why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Depending upon your book’s distribution channels, your book’s cover should be designed for:

1. The book seller
2. The book reader
3. The book’s content

Your book cover is packaging for a product you are going to be selling.  The way in which you will be marketing it will have major implications for the effectiveness of the design.  Let’s say, that you intend to use traditional distribution as your primary marketing focus. That means book stores.  The best place to start the design process is to visit a few, if you haven’t had the time lately.  I don’t expect you’ve had a lot of free time on your hands for quite a while, but take some now.

As you pass the front desk, note any Point of Purchase promotion going on, especially book posters and displays.  If you can, without being too obvious, jot down the titles, and the sizes of the books displayed on the counter for later reference. See if any of these are in a similar genre to your book.  Then, go to appropriate sections to your book, and see what’s in the stacks.  Are there books also displayed flat on tables for your genre.  If either a book spine in the stacks, or a cover on a table attract your eye more than others, pick it up, check out how the cover is put together and try to jot down the first three things about the cover that got your attention, including color, besides the title or author(which may be memorable from marketing and promotional exposure).

The point of this exercise is to begin training your eye to “see” book covers as product packaging, and as individual objects composed of several key elements. In good design, these elements are arranged in such a way that they motivate you to hold the book, open the cover and begin reading the book. Some work better than others. You’ll need to learn what these often subjective attributes are.  Whether you have the right terminology to label these attributes doesn’t matter – you will develop your eye to “see” what works – what attracts and hold your attention and what doesn’t.

Pick it up…

If a cover does the right thing, pick up the book and turn it over. Read and file away what about the cover, back blurb, images, Titling, etc. makes you want to open it up. Notice, especially how your eyes move over the cover. Where is your eye led? Does your eye re-visit certain areas of the cover?  There is an entire science of the study of reader eye movement that has been called into action in the graphic design field, especially in advertising and packaging design.  Most people’s eyes move in predictable ways. These ways can be exploited to create more effective design.

If you’re not motivated to open it, file that fact and ask yourself what distracted you or gave you the feeling not to bother to open it up.  These are important points, and will vary from book to book. Remember not all the covers that held your attention will continue to hold it once in hand. Be sure to remember especially the covers that you put down before opening.

You’ll will need to find as many examples of what works once your attention is held, and the book is picked up, as what doesn’t.  You’ll need to “see” a lot of covers and pick up a lot of books before you begin to notice the graphic elements of the designs as separate from the words set in type on them.  Learning to discern the fine point of manipulating graphic elements for best effect takes years, but getting used to seeing those elements in a book cover is something that will begin to take place after only a few visits to a few different book sellers. 

What we’ve learned…

You’ll come to some conclusions about the designs of covers.  You’ll need to be able to see through differences in size, as larger books (trim-size here, not thickness…yet) will attract and hold your eye longer, so sort out primarily any notes regarding similar sizes to your book.  Not all designs are as effective in every size.  There are a few element decisions which will be influenced a great deal by the finished size alone.

Images…

Color alone is a very important element, as is whether the cover is a photographic, illustrative or typographic design.  In my experience, speaking of novels and some non-fiction historic genres, I believe photographic cover designs can hold a reader’s attention longer than the other two types of covers.  It is a true fact in most product advertising design, that whether the ad is set up to feature the product, or a life-style associated “benefit” image; photos (and now, video) work in print and in broadcast media better, in most case that illustration or typographic only advertising.  The other two types, though have very effective uses in specific areas. I’ll deal with those types as well as additional color considerations, next week.

The ascendancy of photography is based in part upon scores of case and focus studies that have shown that it works.  The idea is to get the prospect’s eyes to linger on the cover image long enough to begin to associate familiar experiences, items, etc., from their own lives.  While this is going on, the “magic” takes over. Key graphic elements, ad copy and headlines have a chance to penetrate the often hard, shell of resistance.  If a tiny spark of familiarity and empathy can be kindled, most of the job of selling has been done. 

Bored to tears yet?  Let’s concentrate, right now, upon photographic images. Where can you find them? Should you go through all the shoe boxes of snapshots stored in your closet? Maybe.

Image Resources…

I recommend visiting online providers of stock photo images.  Do keyword searches for images from your book, your intended reader market, even place names and key phrases from your prose. Stock Photo houses, such as Comstock, Veer and Corbis have achieved their high ranking in advertising design circles because of the way their catalogues are organized to provide relevant images.  Each house will have a specialty. For your book, each will probably offer several images that will relate in some way, to creating interest in reading your book. They may show a feeling, a mood, or illustrate a setting, even items used by your Primary Characters. 

Whatever the glue is, stick with it.

If a substance, such as mud, or water is an underlying “glue” throughout your book, then that kind of image may be most appropriate.  Remember, in your cover image choices, you’re not trying to answer all the reader’s mental questions – you’re trying to establish the need to open the book and read it.  A mysterious setting, a dangerous image, all may contribute towards establishing the intended feeling in the viewer, motivating them to pick up your book, turn it over, study the back blurb, then open it up.  Later, they may receive a small, bonus gift in the form of an “Aha” moment as they understand why the image was chosen for the cover!

You may find a handful of appropriate images available from each site, or you may only find a few online across many searches, but the next step will be to consider each of them in turn as potential covers.  Most sites will allow you to download low resolution samples of the images you are interested in for “comping”, which is the term for creating full color mock-ups for presentation.  It can be useful to learn how to use a basic graphics program at this point, or you may have a friend or colleague who can give you assistance in this area.  Oh …also buy a bunch of high-grade glossy inkjet printer paper, as well (you did run out and buy that printer, didn’t you?). 

A short digression, here, if you’ll prop up your eyelids a bit longer. I have been using CorelDraw graphics suite for many years, which is an image/bitmapped studio system for photo bitmapped images (resolution and size dependant) as well as vector graphics (for graphics elements including typography, which will not be resolution and size dependent: scale-able).  There are several other design and photo software suites from Adobe and Quark among others, but initially I purchased CorelDraw because it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the others and provided the same capabilities as well as hundreds and hundreds of different type fonts. Of course, I soon learned that I really only use a few of these, but at the time, in 1985, it was exciting! I also couldn’t afford a Macintosh at the time, so my software choices were also limited by the PC platform – no longer much of a limit at all.

I usually create a composite cover image in the vector program using these steps:

1. Set up page layout and trim size, adding any folds or scoring (read: spine and back cover) as needed. Cover Templates can come in handy here, also page count, which will determine your spine thickness..
2. Import all the photographic bitmap elements,
3. Resample bitmaps if necessary (changing size and/or resolution),  and adjust contrast and color balance, using the photo-editing accessory. The final touch, if needed will be to apply unsharp masking at a reasonable level (too much gives image components ghost haklos and harsh edge definitions) after all image editing is complete.
4. Convert all bitmaps to CMYK (process printing color) format if proofing for print. Leave it RGB if proofing for online presentation. If RGB, look at the proof on your monitor, not a printed sample.
5. Add typography and other scale-able vector graphics elements in appropriately valued areas with little distracting texture,
6. Tweak until it looks the way you want it, make all elements align along pre-determined invisible lines, then exporting the whole thing to a jpg bitmapped format for reproduction as a proof on my trusty photo printer.

I always make up rough proofs for opinion gathering, using several different images, but always use the same simple typography (at first) to concentrate upon how effective the image alone is.  The book title and authors name are all I use to proof comps.  If there are nice, light areas in the right part of the image, I use darker, related-color type surprinted over the image. If there are nice, dark areas, I knock out the type (white on a dark background, for example).  I use the same type font on all examples, to make the image the most important single element in the overall design. The type weight, size and placement should be chosen to balance and enhance the natural eye movements that take place on a printed page. Composition is an art in itself, but we’ll suffice to say, work it til it’s right, and if it’s not broken, don’t fix it! Noodling a cover is the same as over-editing a book. You can fix it until all the life is gone from it. Now, back to the selection process…
                           
The Money Part…

At this point, you need to have reality intrude a bit.  Stock photos are sold two ways.  First, at a fixed price, Royalty Free, based upon the size of the finished reproduction.  The other way is to pay royalties for each use and published instance of the image, based upon what kind of use, what kind of media and the expected circulation potential.  If you have unlimited funds, this is the way to go, as usually the best (subjective word here) images are managed and sold this way. I’ve found a wealth of material is out there, Royalty Free, and this is probably the way you’ll want to go.

You always need to pay for the use of the cover image or images, unless you own a photograph that is perfect for your cover.  You may have taken it yourself (in which case, you own the photo rights completely, but if it is of another person or recognizable place or landmark, you may need to secure model and/or property release documents for the cover use. Stock photography is almost always fully released when sold. But not always. Be sure.  You will receive a rights receipt, which you should protect carefully when you have decided and paid for an image.  You will also need to understand that you are only apying for the rights you asked for when making your purchase – most stock images are licensed, when sold, for a single use. Be sure to read your licensing/release agreement very thoroughly before you pay up..

But you don’t need to pay for an image before working up several dummy covers using different photos. It’s a very useful step you should take.  Narrow your selection of potential photos down to three or four that you like equally well, and considering the price, subject, clarity and the purely mechanical ideas of tone and texture fields available for type titling and eye movement considerations.  These should be printed in color and show around to people whose opinions are important to your decision. They should all be readers, and they should all read in your genre.  Record all their comments. A bookseller or two would also be a good idea if they have the time to give you.  A nice technique for bookseller presentation involves finding two or three papervback books of the same trim size and page count as yours, then trimming out your proofs and using rubber cement to glue your cover and spine onto the books to show the bookseller. You can even put your books into the stacks this way, to see how they work spine only.  You want your cover to “pop” off the shelf for someone who has not seen it before.

Image Composition, again…

Most stock shots have been professionally composed, and are either basically a portrait (vertically composed) or a landscape (horizontally composed) image.  Here the orientation of your book trim will influence your image decision. Keep in mind, that in some case, it will work nicely to wrap the image around the spine and onto the back cover, especially if it presents lots of areas of minimal texture and either light value or dark value.  Too much texture underlying typography, even titles and headlines,  will distract the reader and create difficulty, so I would try to minimize texture in those areas where type will reside on your design.  Look for the right spots.

These areas are prime real estate for Title type and text, assuming all other considerations fall into place. Images can also be cropped, but bear in mind the final size of the image you’re paying for when thinking of cropping.  Cropping in “tight” and then having to enlarge a lot to fill the trim size is generally risky if the original resolution of the image is 300 dpi or less. It can create resolution issues in final reproduction and even nasty, fuzzy jaggies along the image areas of high contrast and detail. Keep the need for resolution equal to 300 dpi in it’s final form, hopefully achieved without having to enlarge an image or parts of the image.  Reducing to a smaller cropped size does not usually create issues, and is generally a safer way to go, but larger, high resolution images cost more, so you have to balance cost versus application when considering image costs.

One design that can make use of smaller, tighter cropped images, is a layout that makes use of more than one image along with the type on a color or textural background.  Depending upon how appropriate this may be considering the book’s content, and upon the length of the title, this may actually be a potential consideration and savings if smaller images with less resolution can be used successfully.  My only issue with this idea, is that the design aspects of the cover layout will need to be much more refined to pull all the elements together for maximum attention-holding, attracting value, especially in a trade paperback size. A multi-line title can also prove to be much too distracting. This kind of layout also requires a lot of refinement in image alignment and order.  I generally go for the easier path of a great single image, bled all around (no borders) and simple titling.

When designing for smaller sizes, the key is simplicity and readability.  If you have a smaller space to work your magic, it needs to be very arresting.  Use a very simple concept overall, to get the desired results. A larger scale cover gives you more latitude. Oversized books, especially, usually displayed on sellers tables, carry have a lot more space for your “presentation”.  While simplicity is usually the best approach, there might be certain types of books that need to involve the prospect more – a “how to” book for example.  Men – I’m one of those – tend to like to tinker, so appealing to the tinkerer in potential readers is smart design. In this case, additional image “situations” may pose some additional questions. This may lead to the prospect opening the cover up to look for specific answers. But enough theoretic blither…

Let me give you an example of a trade paperback book front cover design.  Below is the front cover of my first novel, The Red Gate:

View 1

It’s a very simple cover, but it has been effective, both flat and on bookstore shelves.  I’ve even had some feedback that the cover was the reason they bought the book!

In the next image, I’ve added a grid I like to work with, superimposed over the image. I call this the Rule of Fives. Catchy name, huh?  I divide a page space into thirds (two lines) vertically and fourths (three lines) horizontally. Five lines in all.  The intersections of these lines correspond, roughly to the places the average readers eye will stop, and are prime locations for informative elements such as title, authors name, and subheading, if one is used.  The choice of five lines is based upon which kind of space divisions most people seem visually comfortable with, given natural eye movements. I’ll cover the source of that design philosophy next week, meanwhile…

The idea is to set up natural alignments of necessary elements in your cover design. Some of the individual elements may also be parts of your photo image.  Look inside the photo.  Considering also the typical eye movements of the reader (clockwise, mid-left, around, then ending top right…). Finessing these into an effective cover is the goal.  Let me illustrate:

View 3

Here, I’ve added the small primary and secondary circles of eye movement to show how elements within the photograph help support the intended eye movement within the natural inclinations. My main focus is to never lead the eye off the side of the page, but to keep it circling and re-circling.  Try to choose well-composed photographic elements that do this – have clear central emphasis and focus – those whose internal elements won’t introduce lines that lead the eye where you don’t want it to go.

In addition, while in the example, the eye is gently guided to rest on the title and author’s name, the subject matter of the image – the wet, craggy Irish coastline – dangerous looking rocks and the arresting sunset coloring all are directly connected to important elements within my book.  The setting is an important Primary Character, influencing much more than movement of the people in the story.  The orange tones, overall display an arresting color, but only a little intimidating, mostly warm and inviting. 

While generally seen as a cheerful color, in this instance, in contrast with the jagged cliffs, it sets up an immediate conflict adding an air of mystery.  Just what I want the viewer to feel. It’s the way I first felt when viewing the image – and since I’m a reader, and have feelings, my opinion has some weight here., and so should yours. The color also relates directly to the title , adding questions which hopefully will guide the person holding the book to turn it over.  I will mention here, that the image was so good for cover use, I decided to carry it over the spine, leaving an arresting color and simple texture: a strong area for titling. It makes for an easy to spot spine in the booksellers’ stacks!  The wrap around image with the abrupt diagonal line formed by the sheer cliffs edge, encourages the reader to turn the book over to see the back, where my pitch awaits. The image was from Corbis, and my out of pocket was under US$100. 

Next week, we’ll continue thinking about color selection and we’ll decide how to pick a type font or face.  I’ll discuss my take on illustrative or typographical cover designs but I’ll minimize the philosophical and touchy-feely stuff in favor of more Nuts and Bolts – I promise. 

The Curmudgeon is also looking forward to your submission of your cover design preliminaries for comment. Email ’em in!

Running a Mile in Under Four Minutes

On May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister became the first human in history to break the four minute barrier and run a mile in under four minutes.  Stick with me here folks, I really have a point.  He decided he was going to break this record and after several attempts he did it.  No one thought it was possible for any human being to run a mile in under four minutes.  It was too extraordinary to even comprehend.  But Roger Bannister decided in his head that he could and would do it, and then he trained accordingly.  

 

In the two years following his achievement, 37 additional people ran a mile in under four minutes.  Why?  No human in history had done it, suddenly Roger Bannister does it, and then 37 other people can do it too?  It’s because Bannister proved it was possible.  Once something is proven as a possible human achievement, other people gain the belief in themselves to make their dreams a reality.  And then other people achieve as well.

 

Tony Robbins is one of my heroes, and not just because he has those awesome big teeth.  This video is 38 minutes long, but if THIS doesn’t change how you view your dreams and go after it, then probably nothing will. I believe this video could be the best 38 minutes of your time you’ve ever invested. tonyrobbinstraining.com/320/interview-with-frank-kern-and-john-reese/

 

Tony explains it far better than I do, but the bottom line here as it relates to us is… self-publishing is really filled with a lot of underachievers, and I believe there is a reason for this. The reason is that self-publishing has been poo poo’d for SO long, that nearly every person who goes into it has a dream, but it’s a pipe dream.  They don’t REALLY believe they can do it and so they don’t take the required actions to make it happen.

 

In the past 10 months since I released my novella, KEPT, I’ve had over 10,000 readers.  over 2,000 of those readers bought the Amazon Kindle version, so they actually paid money to read it.  The rest got the free PDF.  (And just so no one jumps on me, the Amazon Kindle Version is a dollar, they won’t let little indies like me give it away.  So when you get it on Kindle, you’re paying for the format and convenience of having it delivered to your Kindle.  I have no control over that issue if I want to be on Amazon.)

 

And yet… there is a giant gap between free and $1.  Because free is a no-brainer, and $1 is a "buying decision" even if a little one.  Candy Bars are under a dollar but people don’t always buy those just because they are in their face at the check out line.  In this economy especially, something being cheap, doesn’t equal massive sales necessarily.

 

My "over 10,000" number doesn’t impress me. (Many people are doing far better than I am.  And I take full responsibility for the fact that I haven’t done even better.  I know how much (or little) I’ve worked at times, and the results are the fruit of that.) I see it as progress, and that’s great but it doesn’t just knock me over with "OMG I’m so awesome."  And that’s because I have big goals and even bigger dreams.  Meanwhile I’ve seen many self publishing authors who have moved under 300 copies in a full calendar year.  For free or pay.

 

Why?

 

There could be many reasons… maybe the book isn’t good. Maybe the cover is lousy.  Maybe the book isn’t being marketed; the author thought they could print it and it would magically sell itself.  Or maybe… the author doesn’t believe in himself.

 

Belief in what you can accomplish creates your reality.  You can’t just believe and not take action… that’s just a pipe dream.  And you can’t just take action without belief because then you’ll put less effort into it.  The force of your belief in yourself will drive you.  You have to get to the point of absolute certainty.

 

Absolute certainty that you are a good writer and people will want to read your work. (Get there however you have to get there.  Test market, get crit and beta readers, see if any agents show any interest in your writing at all, even if they don’t think they can sell it.  They don’t have to sell it. You will.)

 

Absolute certainty that you can create a GOOD and well-put together book that illustrates your competence.  i.e. you’re going to do what you have to do to have proper editing, layout, cover design.

 

Absolute certainty that you can market and sell this book and move a certain number of copies in a certain amount of time.

 

 

Self-publishing is one of the hardest things to do successfully, well except for maybe brain surgery.  Many people I’ve seen publishing their own work just aren’t displaying a high level of savvy.  They aren’t bringing much to the table.  Their covers look homemade, their editing is shoddy, they’ve sold 150 copies in a year.  I mean come on guys.  You have got to BELIEVE you can do this.  And then you have to bring the competence to the table.

 

Some of the people self-publishing have high-powered jobs, that require a level of savvy they aren’t bringing to the publishing table.  WHY?  Take this seriously.  If you don’t take it seriously, you’re not going to succeed.  If you don’t believe in yourself with absolute certainty you’re not going to succeed.  If you take a million shortcuts and don’t take the time to educate yourself about publishing and marketing and how to create a great book and get it in the hands of readers, you’re not going to succeed.

 

Here is the feedback loop many self-publishing authors are stuck in:

 

Critic:  You’ll never succeed. Do you know how RARE it is to succeed self-publishing?  Most self-publishing authors sell 150 copies or less.  You’ll never make any money at this.  Most self-published books suck.  They are poorly edited, have crappy covers, and don’t sell well.  You can’t get in bookstores, so obviously you can’t sell books unless you sell out of the trunk of your car.

 

When the self-publishing author hears this, unless they’re just really stubborn and determined, they’re likely to believe it and internalize these thoughts.  If the odds are so bad then they think of what they’re doing as a lottery.  They put minimal effort into it.  They don’t get the book well-edited or the cover properly produced because what’s the point?  They don’t learn what they need to about marketing or how they’re going to move books outside the bookstore environment, because there’s no point right? 

Because they’ve been infused with the belief, and bought into it, that their odds are really really bad and it’s probably just a silly dream, they don’t take themselves seriously and do the things that they need to do to succeed.  Instead they self-sabotage.  They design their own cover, and it looks it.  They don’t get proper editing.  They don’t do the proper market research, and when the book comes out, they don’t work that hard to sell it because they’re afraid of failure and being mocked. Or failure and losing money and being mocked.

 

If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it properly and take the time to learn HOW to do it properly.  Because some people do succeed self-publishing, and there are more of those stories than you think.  But you won’t, as long as you live into what your critics have said.  You have to rise above it.

 

Some of your critics and naysayers are trying to save you from yourself… bless their hearts.  What they don’t understand is… if a person truly has a dream they feel compelled to follow, they’re going to do it anyway.  And if a critic/naysayer really has their best interest at heart and just doesn’t want them to get hurt, then they’ll be supportive and help them problem solve, not try to talk them out of it.  Once the decision to do it has been made, the naysaying becomes pointless and cruel.  I’ve noticed that many many many people like to spend hours naysaying but they won’t spend five minutes trying to help problem solve.  Says more about them than it does about you, huh?  Keep it in mind so you can determine who is really on your side and who wants you to follow their path so they can feel better about their own choices.

 

There are also too many self-publishing authors who aren’t treating this like a business.  And it’s fine if you want to hobby publish.  But if you want to publish as a hobby then you need to understand that you are going to lose money.  Hobbies don’t generally make a profit.  You aren’t going to sell many books because it’s hard to be motivated to do a lot of work without any financial payout or promise of one at all.  If you just want to publish for love and not money, then give it away.  Save yourself the time and stress and money of getting it into print.

 

If you want to look at it as a business then you must become aquainted with the concept of the profit and loss statement.  Simple as that.  You have to have a business plan and a marketing plan.  You have to know where you’re selling and how.  You have to test market to see if people respond to your work.  You have to bring in more money than your sending out.

 

But in order to do all of this you have to take yourself seriously and believe in yourself.  Stop listening to the naysayers.  I’m going to let you in on a little secret of life… 90% of the naysayers out there are too gutless to follow their own dreams so they have to pick at yours.  And I gotta tell ya, I’m not that impressed with a mediocre cubicle monkey who can’t even THINK big, let alone act big. Don’t let them impress you either.

 

Grab your dreams and go for them.  If you’ve truly done your research and then you have someone coming to you with a million excuses of why your dream won’t work… then you know that you know more than they do.  Because you’ve spent months researching it, and in all likelihood, they just spent about 30 minutes to an hour reading other naysayer’s views and then parroting those back.  It doesn’t take guts or knowledge or savvy, or really anything impressive to follow the naysaying herd.  But it does take guts and knowledge, and savvy, to step out and follow your dream in your own way.  It takes guts and knowledge and savvy to self-publish successfully.

 

Weak-minded people concern themselves with everybody’s business but their own.  The strong-minded find what they want and stay the course.  In order for self-publishing to turn a corner and start breaking the stigma and stereotype, self-publishing authors must have the courage and strength to ignore all the negative mental crap being thrown at them and what their doing, and rise above it to follow their dream.  It’s the only way we’ll run that mile in under four minutes, and give others the courage to do the same.

 

 

A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books

This post, from Bob Stein, originally appeared on the if:book blog on 9/24/09.

The following started out as a set of notes to various colleagues suggesting that successful digital publishing involves much much more than coming up with a viable form for networked books. rather unexpectedly this led to the question of how bookstores might evolve to give publishers a way to reassert their brands and strengthen their position vis a vis Amazon (as well as Google and Apple). This is very much a work in progress but i thought i’d post it and bring others into the discussion along the way.

 

The idea that "a book is a place (where readers, sometimes with authors, congregate)" arose out of a series of experiments investigating what happens when the act of reading moves from the printed page to an online space designed for social interaction. as we expanded the notion of a work to include the activity in the margin, in effect we re-defined "content" to include the conversation that a text engenders. Put another way, locating a text in a dynamic network brings the social aspects of reading to the fore. (see Without Gods, Gamer Theory, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Golden Notebook projects)

In an earlier set of notes ("A Unified Field Theory of Publishing in the Networked Era") I suggested that as discourse moves off the page onto networked screens, the roles of authors, readers, editors, publishers will shift in significant ways. For example, the author’s traditional commitment to engage with a subject matter on behalf of future readers will shift to a commitment to engage with readers in the context of a subject. Successful publishers, i posited, will distinguish themselves by their ability to build and nurture vibrant communities of interest, often with authors at the center, but not necessarily always.

The purpose of this new set of notes is to expand the thinking beyond how a specific text is presented or interacted with. Reading (and writing) do not happen only at the level of the individual work. There is a broad ecology of behaviors, activities and micro-environments that surround each work and our relationship to it — how things come to be written, how we choose what to read, how we make the purchase, how we share our experience with others. Currently (i.e. toward the end of age of print), that ecology is defined by agent/editor mechanisms of acquisition, sharp delineation between authors and readers, top-down marketing, heavy reliance on big mainstream media to get the word out, the bookshelves that make our books part of our daily life, bookstores and — yes — Amazon. Much more than not, Amazon is a product of the same DNA that underlies the still-dominant mode of the print-book read by the solitary reader. Everything about the Kindle, from its interaction design to its draconian DRM provisions, underlines its conservative role in preserving the ecologies of print.

The current e-book business (the buying/selling bits) was designed (or at least evolved) to minimize friction with the legacy business; pricing, release schedules and DRM all structured so as not to challenge print, which is still the predominant source of revenues.

To succeed at publishing in the networked era, it won’t be enough just to re-conceive the work as a "networked book." If we accept that social interaction will be paramount, not just at the level of the individual work but throughout the ecology of networked reading and writing, then it’s important also to ask the question "if a book is a place, what is the place for books? (or, more accurately but less forceful, "what are the places for books?")

Currently the predominant place(s) for books are bookstores, libraries, classrooms, cafes (as a stand-in for the general category of informal brick-and-mortar gathering places), living-room reading groups, and the infoweb (mainstream media + internet) where books are reviewed, promoted, and on sites like LibraryThing and Shelfari, discussed. Each of these places has its own culture, its own social fabric that determines how people relate to each other, what their transactions are like, how you meet "new" people, how you come to trust them or not, and how you manage ongoing connections/relationships.

The bookstore, The Library and The Cafe
Brick and mortar bookstores are much better for (un-directed) browsing than online stores. This is probably mostly a function of bandwidth, i.e. I can see so much more in a bookstore than I can on my 2D screen. This will change as the web and its attendant hardware/software develops over time, but my guess is that a satisfying browsing experience of the order i can get in a great bookstore is many, many years away from practical. On the other hand if you know what you’re looking for, online shopping excels at simplifying the process of making the transaction. In fact, in every sense except immediate transfer to the buyer of the object they’ve purchased, online buying is vastly more efficient. When the bulk of our book purchases are in electronic form, and therefore delivered instantly, the significant advantages left to the bookstore will be the superior browsing experience, the help desk and the cafe.

[And before you say "oh, it will be years before the bulk of what we’re buying is in electronic form," think about how many iPhone apps or iTunes purchases you or your friends have made in the past few months (including the books you’ve been reading on your phone or Kindle) compared to how many print books you/they bought. This part of the future seems to be near-now.]

Read the rest of the post on if:book.

Preparing For A Book Sale

Publetariat Editor’s Note: This blog post, from Fay Risner, originally appeared on her Publetariat blog on 9/17/09. It’s such a salient topic for indie authors, I asked Fay if we could reprint it as an article for the site and she graciously agreed.

Friday the 18th Civil War Days begins in Belle Plaine, Iowa. I’m going to sell my books in the park on the fringes of North versus South battles. So am I ready?

I’ve watched the weather forecasts. Looks like perfect days for having a table full of books outside. To help the customers visually see what kind of books I write, I made place cards that states the genre to place by each pile of books. It would be a good thing if the wind wasn’t too strong, or I will spend time chasing those place cards down. Also, the bookmarkers I printed that list my inventory and address for future reference.

I’ve been doing a mental list in my head this morning. It has taken a lot of preparation for this three day event. I’ve got an aluminum folding table left over from my craft sale days. (Those craft sales are where I learned some salesmanship.) An Indian blanket for a table cover, doesn’t go along with the Civil War but in that century. Dressing in a pioneer dress and wearing a bonnet should give me some attention. (How did I come by a pioneer dress and bonnet? I revamped a dress and sewed the bonnet years ago when I volunteered at Ursher Ferry in Cedar Rapids. I was spinning in a one room log cabin as the woman who lived there. When visitors came in, I had to tell them about my life. It was fun to act the part.) I still have my money box from craft show days (a small fishing tackle box). It’s perfect with a top divided shelf for change and the bottom for bills. I bought a mesh folding chair with a canopy top so I wouldn’t have to sit in direct sunlight. Haven’t had it out of the bag to see if I can set it up. Every time I buy something in a bag or box that needs put together, I’ve found it a struggle to put the object back in the bag. So guess I’ll wing putting the chair together in the park after I have the table set up.

After some fall house cleaning, I found a four by four poster board upstairs to use for a sign to lean against the table. This advertisement shows that I am a local person. That might help get me some interest if not sales. So I printed large banners and tacked them to the poster board. The sign reads Keystone Author Fay Risner – Book Sale – Featuring – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia . On each side of the Book Sale line was a blank space so I put a picture of my book cover on one side and a Confederate Flag on the other. That definitely states which side of the war I’m on. Figured I might as well join. You can’t hear it in my writing, but I have a southern accent. That would be a dead giveaway if I tried to join the Union forces. They might shoot me for a spy.

I have no idea where I am to set up. The man I talked to said I could be by a building where reenactors sell their wares. Guess someone will point me in the right direction.

Friday is the day the schools bring students to learn about the Civil War. I wanted to be a part of that education. Besides, a presentation will go along with my book. So I made up another poster board. While the reenactors will be talking military feats, I will be discussing Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers. A time line of the border war between Kansas territory and Missouri is on the poster. A large Missouri map dominates the board with stars for important places and Vernon County drawn in so the children can see where my history comes from.

I won’t have anyone to watch my table and I don’t know how far it will be to the concession stand. I baked an apple cake. That will be meals and snacks plus I’m taking a large container of ice tea.

My husband isn’t so sure all this stuff will fit in my small car. Best be prepared. Today I pack the car just to see how is the best way to fit everything in. It will be good to have that much done. I’ll have to get an early start to be set up before 9 a.m.

No matter what, this will be a fun experience going back in time amid the smell and explosions of gunpowder, war cries and crowd appreciation of the battles. Lincoln will give his Gettysburg Address, a church service will be held under the open sky and much more. I can’t wait to get there.

Fay did so many things right, from being very well-practiced and prepared, to hitting her target demographic square in the middle, to highlighting her local community connections, and more. Read Fay’s next blog post to see how well she did with her book sale event. Fay’s books are available on Amazon.