Publishing – Publetariat

5 Important Things That Authors Need To Know About Self-Publishing With Mark Dawson

March 12, 2018 by Publetariat

This is a great podcast to get your feet wet with indie publishing. There is a transcript if podcasts are not your thing.

5 Important Things That Authors Need To Know About Self-Publishing With Mark Dawson

by Joanna Penn

If you’re just getting started in self-publishing, there are some things that you need to know upfront in order to save yourself time, money and heartache along the way.

In this interview, I discuss the basics with Mark Dawson from Self-Publishing Formula.

In the intro, I discuss the first album produced entirely by AI as reported by Digital Trends. The article goes into how the artist, Taryn Southern, uses AI as a creative tool and also starts to question whether AIs can be trained with copyrighted material. The beginning of a new form of copyright discussion, for sure.

I talk about why it’s so important to capture ideas in the moment, because time moves on and things change, based on the map shop around the corner from me closing recently. Walking past that shop almost every day inspired Map of Shadows, so it’s sad to see it go. [You can see a picture of it here Instagram.com/jfpennauthor]

Read the full post on The Creative Penn!

Comparing Print-On-Demand vs Offset Printing (Pros & Cons)

February 27, 2018 by Publetariat

If you ever decide that you want to publish your indie book as a print title, this post goes quite in depth on the differences between print-on-demand and offset printing. A must read!

Comparing Print-On-Demand vs Offset Printing (Pros & Cons)

by Jessica Ruscello

This is a guest post by Jessica Ruscello, a copywriter at Blurb, Inc. Jessica is also a writer, teacher, and photographer who makes her mark with empty coffee cups, ink spills, and red lipstick. She’s passionate about creativity, people, and the written word. She believes anything worth doing is worth doing beautifully. When not chasing the perfect sentence, she’s stalking Bay Area beauty camera in-hand, amazed and grateful that she gets to call San Francisco her home.

The last ten years—even the last five—have seen game-changing developments in printing technology. Even if print-on-demand has been around longer than that, we’re now seeing these digital machines produce exquisite quality. Advanced inkjet technology now creates pages and covers that are nearly identical to those created with traditional offset printing, offering incredible advantages to self-publishers.

How can you make sure you’re getting the most return out of it? Let’s find out.

Read the full post at Reedsy.

Benefits of being a hybrid author

February 8, 2018 by Publetariat

There are pros and cons to traditional publishing vs. indie or self-publishing. Why not do both? Pub Crawl has started an excellent series on just this question!

Benefits of being a hybrid author: When to self-publish and when to go the traditional route? Part One: Traditional Publishing

by Julie

Julie here! Today, I have Falguni Kothari as my guest on the blog. Falguni is a successful “hybrid author,” with both traditional and self-publishing experience. Her new book, MY LAST LOVE STORY (Harlequin/Graydon House), comes out tomorrow, January 23, 2018. This is Part One of a two part post, so be sure to come back tomorrow for Part Two. Take it away, Falguni!

Never keep all your eggs in one basket. The adage has become more of a philosophy I’ve adopted to navigate various aspects of my life, including my publishing career. So, what or who is a hybrid author? A writer who avails herself of all the publishing opportunities available to her, such as traditional, self and paid publishing, in various combinations, is a hybrid author. She is not turned off by the ever-shifting landscape of the publishing industry, but rather, she slams open doors for herself and charges across the altering, often turbulent publishing landscape, very much a captain of her own ship.

Read the full post on Pub Crawl!

6 Lessons Learned from a Year of 101 Rejections

February 1, 2018 by Publetariat

I admire author Natalie D-Napoleon. She read the same article I did about “Why You Should Aim For 100 Rejections A Year” but Natalie actually put it into practice even though she is a self admitted sensitive type. Maybe there is hope for me after all! It is a really solid article with great tips and lessons learned, so I hope you will go read it.

6 Lessons Learned from a Year of 101 Rejections

By Natalie D-Napoleon

Earlier this year I came across an article by Kim Liao in which she explained “Why You Should Aim For 100 Rejections A Year.” As soon as I finished reading the piece I went to the folder in my email marked “Writing Submissions 2017” and for the first time in my life, I began to count my rejections rather than counting my acceptances. I had effortlessly amassed 53 rejections. I punched my fist in the air and whooped out loud. It was June and I was already halfway to 100 rejections for the year.

I am the sensitive type (of course, I’m a writer): I weep openly when listening to sad love songs or during Claire and Jamie’s various reunifications on Outlander, and I have cried in the past on my friend’s and husband’s shoulder when my writing has been rejected. However, before Kim Liao’s article, another woman had sent me on the journey of beginning to accept that rejection was less about failure and more about getting closer to your goals. In 2015, I attended the first BinderCon conference in L.A. BinderCon began as a “secret” Facebook group of women writers sharing contacts and information and grew into a movement and conference which supports women and gender variant writers.

At BinderCon 2015, Katie Orenstein, founder of The OpEd Project, spoke about the lack of representation of women in the media and the reasons why. As a former journalist and foreign correspondent, she had a perspective on being rejected that I could not fathom at the time. Orenstein opened my eyes to one impressive fact—that women submit their work less than men. She had the statistics to prove it and the acceptances and consequent higher representation of men in the media. In one generalized conclusion: When women and people of color get rejected, we take it personally. When white men’s work is rejected, they don’t take it as a measure of the worth of their work—they decide it simply needs to find the right home elsewhere.

Read the full post on Writer’s Digest!

Quick Link: POD: Why Authors Should Handle Their Print-On-Demand

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Michele DeFilippo at BookWorks makes the case on why indie authors should do their own print-on-demand. What have your experiences been?

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POD: Why Authors Should Handle Their Print-On-Demand

by Michele DeFilippo

Michele DeFilippo of 1106 Design is committed to helping indie authors succeed. She has shared advice on our Discussion Groups forum and here offers further support by presenting the case for setting up and managing your own POD.

Marketing your book is the final step in self-publishing; it’s also the never-ending step. Distribution—a way of delivering your book to readers—is a vital ingredient of your marketing plan. At one time, a printed book sold in a brick-and-mortar bookstore (or via mail order or out of the back of one’s trunk) was the only distribution method open to self-published authors. Today’s indie publishers have several options: print, eBooks, audio books, and print-on-demand (POD).

In this article, I’ll focus on POD: what it is, who does it, and how authors can manage their own POD and get paid more.

Read the full post on BookWorks.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

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Quick Link: Indie authors: Your Pub Date is Not As Important as You Think

October 11, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

In keeping with the “take care of yourself” vibe, I give you this article from award winning author Tabitha Lord at Writer unBoxed.

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Indie authors: Your Pub Date is Not As Important as You Think

by Tabitha Lord

The pub date: THE big day of an author’s life, right? All of the toiling, editing, revising and decision-making comes down to a fateful 24 hours — a speck on the calendar, but a very important speck.

Or so they say. But that’s not necessarily the case, at least, not for us indie authors.

We hear a lot about the all-important pub date as authors, but it’s important to parse whom the pub date really matters to and why. For traditionally published authors, a book’s success can largely hinge on early sales. Much attention is given to garnering pre-orders in hopes of pushing a book onto a bestseller list during release week and encouraging retailers to order more books.

Read the full post on Writer unBoxed.

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Quick Link: Don’t Fall Prey to Publishing Scams: 7 New Writer Mistakes to Avoid

October 6, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Congratulations to Anne R. Allen for the awards given to her blog. We know she totally deserves the praise. Especially for articles like this. There are so many scammy people out there, I do so worry about new writers being taken by them. So caveat emptor – buyer beware and become knowlegable with this great post.

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Don’t Fall Prey to Publishing Scams: 7 New Writer Mistakes to Avoid

by Anne R. Allen

We all make mistakes. It’s how people learn. But some new writer mistakes can end a writing career before it starts. They play into the hands of the predators who make money off the delusions of newbie writers.

Ruth and I are long-time industry veterans, and as we say “we made the mistakes, so you don’t have to.” We were jazzed when two organizations honored us for our work this week.

Author Marketing Services named us one of the “50 Kickass Resources for Indie Authors.”

And the site “10 Greatest” put us on their list of “Top Writing Blogs”

So here are some of the new writer mistakes we want to help writers avoid.

1) Writing-in-a-Garret Syndrome

It seems half the people I meet are “working on a book.” I met one at the supermarket this week. He wanted to tell me about struggling with his opus—at great length. I tried to be polite, but as my bourbon-caramel gelato began to melt, I suggested he join the Nightwriters in San Luis Obispo—an excellent group for writers at all levels. (And you still have time to enter their annual writing contest, The Golden Quill Awards. More info in Opportunity Alerts.)

“Oh no,” supermarket man said. “I’ll never show my book to anybody. They might steal my ideas. They can read it when it’s published.”

Read the full post on Anne R. Allen

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Quick Link: Fringe Highlight: Should Indie Authors Go KDP Exclusive or Go Wide?

October 2, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

For all you indie authors out there or even traditional authors who are curious, The Self-Publishing Advice Center has a great article/podcast on what you should think about when you decide to go KDP exclusive with Amazon or Go Wide.

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Fringe Highlight: Should Indie Authors Go KDP Exclusive or Go Wide?

By Jay Artale

As part of our new #AskALLi weekly podcast we’re releasing popular Indie Author Fringe speaker session highlights as podcasts. This means you can catch up on sessions you may have missed, and listen to them on-the-go or in your car. We are also publishing transcripts for those who prefer to read rather than listen.

This week, we’re showcasing the session between Pippa DaCosta and Susan Kaye Quinn. If you’re wondering about the pros and cons of being exclusive with KDP or going wide with as many retailers as possible, our show hosts will explain which model works best in different book distribution scenarios.

Susan is exclusively KDP, and Pippa makes her books available in as many outlets as possible and they deliver insights and experience from both ends of the spectrum.

Pippa DaCosta @pippadacosta is a hybrid author. Before securing a traditional publisher, she published the Veil Series (a x5 book urban fantasy series) independently in 2014. She has also published two science fiction books, with more planned for 2016. Pippa is traditionally published with Bloomsbury and Random House Germany. Her work has been featured in the Galaxy Chronicles anthology, part of the Future Chronicles series. Pippa continues to independently and traditionally publish her work.

Susan Kaye Quinn @susankayequinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author. She writes young adult science fiction, with side trips into adult future-noir and sweet royal romance. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

Read the full post on The Self-Publishing Advice Center

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Quick Link: How To Be A Writer: Traditional Publishing To Indie And Hybrid With John Birmingham

September 21, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn, makes sure to cover all her bases. She doesn’t just do post, no she has podcasts – with transcripts. Someday I want to grow up and be her. All her posts are interesting and great and this one is no exception. Check it out in whatever format you want and let us know what you think.

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How To Be A Writer: Traditional Publishing To Indie And Hybrid With John Birmingham

by John Birmingham

Today I’m talking with Australian author John Birmingham about his journey from the dizzying heights of the traditional publishing scene, to deciding to go indie and hybrid and his insights into how the publishing industry has changed. It’s an honest and really fascinating interview.

In the intro, I talk about how we can deal with the political upheaval, and how, as Toni Morrison says, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work.” (Quoted in Brain Pickings).

Plus David Gaughran’s report on what Amazon cares about, and the latest KENP rate, which has dropped again. Remember, it’s your choice to choose exclusivity or to go wide, but if you want a healthy long-term eco-system for writers and readers, then you need to support the other vendors.

John Birmingham is an award winning and bestselling Australian author of science fiction, techno-thriller, crime, urban fantasy, memoir, and nonfiction. His latest nonfiction book is How to Be a Writer: Who Smashes Deadlines, Crushes Editors and Lives in a Solid Gold Hovercraft.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Read the full post on The Creative Penn.

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Quick Link: The Hack’s Guide to Dealing with Book Reviews

September 19, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Book reviews can either make you jump for joy or drive you crazy. One of my author friends gets really upset at “nonsense” reviews. You know the ones that are mad at Amazon or something completely out of your control but they still punish you for the problem. At Writer UnBoxed, Bill Ferris has a great article on how to deal with the whole mess.

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The Hack’s Guide to Dealing with Book Reviews

By Bill Ferris

Warning: Hacks for Hacks tips may have harmful side effects on your writing career, and should not be used by minors, adults, writers, poets, scribes, scriveners, journalists, or anybody.

The whole point of publishing a book is so that others will read it. The problem with people reading your books is that they insist on having opinions about them, rather than simply stating the objective fact that your book is better than the complete works of Hemingway and Rowling combined. Whether positive or negative, whether penned by a professional critic in a literary journal or hastily typed by some rando on Amazon, you’ve got to prepare your ego for how to handle book reviews. Here’s how to cope:

What to Do When You Get Good Reviews

Read the full post on Writer UnBoxed.

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Quick Link: The Relaxed Release

September 18, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I think Elizabeth S. Craig is brilliant and has the right idea when it comes to book releases. Do you agree? What tips do you have for a good title release?

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The Relaxed Release

by Elizabeth S. Craig

I remember how stressed I was whenever I had a book launch for Penguin Random House.

For one thing, the launches were happening pretty regularly, since I was writing two series for them.

But mostly, I was stressed because their expectations were high. Any marketing related emails or calls were more centered on what were my plans for the release and less on what they were doing to promote it. (Let this be a heads-up for anyone thinking of pursuing traditional publishing for marketing support.)

Oh, the publisher’s publicity person did usually do one thing: set me up on a book blogger tour. But who was doing all the work? I was–I was writing the posts, sending them over to the bloggers, and answering comments.

Sometimes they’d send me ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to distribute. Again, the pressure was on me…to figure out whom to send the copies to, mail them (at some cost…these were printed ARCs), and follow up later.

Once I went on a book tour in NC with a group of other cozy authors. We had someone help us set up events: signings, panels, etc. I think that was a pretty successful effort, but I did find it very stressful.

Read the full post on Elizabeth S. Craig.

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Quick Link: Driving Down the Price of Publishing

September 14, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

This article hits home for me. I used to love creating quality ebooks for authors. Whatever you wanted I could do, things like drop caps, special inserted quotes, linked references all no problem. It is all just HTML/CSS to me. But I couldn’t compete with people who were offering to convert a whole book for $35. It didn’t matter that my quality was great and their quality wasn’t. On the other side, I do understand that indie authors are often under a tight budget and can’t spend a whole lot for a lot of different services. It is a lose – lose situation. Having less than stellar work out there makes the whole industry suffer. I don’t have any answers but Mercy Pilkington at Good E Reader shares her thoughts. What’s your opinion on this mess?

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Driving Down the Price of Publishing

By Mercy Pilkington

Not too long ago, self-published authors were collectively admonished about the need to invest in their work. Hiring quality editors, proofreaders, cover designers, and formatters before attempting to sell a book was the constant mantra of industry experts. While some hapless writers continued to slap their Word docs up on Amazon and hope to snare a few readers, authors who took their careers seriously made the proper investments.

Around that time, a number of startups emerged, all billing themselves as eBay-like marketplaces for author services. Many of those startups have shuttered their virtual doors, while a few that produced meaningful connections between authors and publishing service providers have managed to thrive. But that hasn’t stopped newcomers to the game from trying to continually undercut the concept of paying for quality work.

“When I first began finding clients through online freelance postings, the self-publishing industry was a different place,” stated one editor who did not wished to be named. “Authors who had done their homework not only knew how much editing might cost, but they also knew enough to have sent their work to their writing group for critiques or even beta readers before declaring it ‘ready’ for editing. Now, I find new job postings almost daily requesting full edits of an 80,000-word book for $100.”

Read the full post on Good E Reader

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You can’t force success

August 29, 2017 by Publetariat

You may have heard about The Handbook For Mortals scandal, where they tried to scam the New York Times best-selling list. I am not sure how they thought they would get away with it and not have people figure the situation out. It was pretty blatant.

Through out my career, I have had people ask me how to trick Google so they could be on top of the search engine. First of all, thank you for thinking I am that smart. But because I am that smart, I tell the truth. It isn’t worth it and it can’t be done. Why would you want to? I can see wanting to make sure your site is optimized the best it can be and I am so glad to help you with that. But as my wise old granny used to say “If it is too good to be true, follow the money.” What you want is your right audience to be able to find you. Including your searches.

I can get wanting to make money and be a success. Seriously, how cool would it be to make any best-selling list! Except if you scam the system, it isn’t really you on the list because of the quality of your work. You might make some money but everything lives forever on the internet, just ask Martin Skarelli who will be forever remembered as the pharma bro dude who was disrespectful to the Wu Tang Clan. People who seem to have the tendency to act like this, who are looking for the quick and easy way, never seem to have enough self-control to stop when they should.

I am not so naive to think that the system isn’t gamed because I totally think it is. But there is a difference between trying to get an advantage and thinking I am smarter than the world (which includes you!). Because if I had to bet on which would win, I would take the world all the time (and you!).

Have a good day!

Paula

P.S. You never ever never want to piss off Google.

P.P.S. Yes, I have had someone tell me that they wanted their site to be the number one search result for all Google searches.

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Quick Link: KINDLE SCOUT –STEP INSIDE FOR A TOUR

August 28, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Have you tried using Kindle Scout for one of your titles? What did you think? I love it as a reader. (Because we all know I haven’t finished anything yet.) If you haven’t heard of Kindle Scout, or you wanted to learn more Debbie Burke from Kill Zone has an excellent article on the process. Check it out!

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KINDLE SCOUT –STEP INSIDE FOR A TOUR

By Debbie Burke

Kindle Scout is Amazon’s innovative program where readers “scout” for new books and vote for ones they believe should be published. Back in April, I covered the basics of Scout for TKZ. Since then, I submitted my thriller Instrument of the Devil and went through my own 30-day campaign. Today, let’s open the Scout door and take a tour inside.

SUBMISSION PROCESS:
To submit to Scout, Amazon requires a cover (at author’s expense), a complete, never-before-published, edited manuscript of 50+K words, a 45-character one-liner (logline), a 500-character book description, author bio, and a thank-you note to readers who nominated the book (more on this later).

After Scout accepts the submission, they select the dates for the 30-day campaign, and provide a link that shows the preview exactly as it will appear on the Scout site. The first 25 or so pages of the book are excerpted as a sample for readers to vote on.

Read the full post on Kill Zone

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Quick Link: A New You—In Name Alone? When to Adopt a Pen Name

August 25, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I never really liked my name until I found out I was named after Paul Revere. My mother, weird but cool in her own special way. As a writer you can make your name anything you want, but does it make sense to do so? Author Sophie Littlefield, aka Sofia Grant guest posting on Pub Crawl shares her thoughts on pen names.

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A New You—In Name Alone? When to Adopt a Pen Name

by Sophie Littlefield, aka Sofia Grant

For the first ten years and twenty-plus novels of my career, I wrote exclusively under my real name. But this summer, The Dress in the Window will come out under the pseudonym Sofia Grant.

The decision to use a pen name was not undertaken lightly, but after extensive discussion with my agent and editor, who ultimately felt that my new novel might reach the greatest number of readers if it was launched as a ‘debut.’ While it is not a secret to anyone who does a simple Google search that Sophie Littlefield and Sofia Grant are one and the same (the media kit and marketing materials even make this clear), the switch is an effective signal to both booksellers and readers that this book is a departure from those that I’ve written in the past.

WHEN IS A PEN NAME A GOOD IDEA?

Read the full post on Pub Crawl

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5 Important Things That Authors Need To Know About Self-Publishing With Mark Dawson

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Comparing Print-On-Demand vs Offset Printing (Pros & Cons)

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Benefits of being a hybrid author: When to self-publish and when to go the traditional route? Part One: Traditional Publishing

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6 Lessons Learned from a Year of 101 Rejections

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POD: Why Authors Should Handle Their Print-On-Demand

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Indie authors: Your Pub Date is Not As Important as You Think

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Don’t Fall Prey to Publishing Scams: 7 New Writer Mistakes to Avoid

1) Writing-in-a-Garret Syndrome

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Fringe Highlight: Should Indie Authors Go KDP Exclusive or Go Wide?

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How To Be A Writer: Traditional Publishing To Indie And Hybrid With John Birmingham

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The Hack’s Guide to Dealing with Book Reviews

What to Do When You Get Good Reviews

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The Relaxed Release

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Driving Down the Price of Publishing

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KINDLE SCOUT –STEP INSIDE FOR A TOUR

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A New You—In Name Alone? When to Adopt a Pen Name

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