Business End

Articles about the business aspects of publishing and self-publishing.

What Do I Know?

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This post, by Gayle Carline, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog on 12/6/12 and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

The first piece of advice given to any writer is to write what you know. Actually, the first piece of advice is don’t quit your day job, but that makes a depressing post and tis is the season to be jolly.

When I decided I wanted to write a novel, I took that write what you know business to heart. I wrote about a Midwestern girl who jumps in her car and travels to the West Coast, something that I had done. The problem was I didn’t know how to write a novel. To my great surprise, the characters all revolted, and the girl’s car broke down in Amarillo.

What the hell did I know about Amarillo? I’ve been there once, long enough to visit the American Quarter Horse Museum, and eat at Cracker Barrel. That (really sucky) novel sleeps peacefully on my external hard drive, where I use it for spare parts.

After writing what I knew turned out so abysmally, I threw caution to the wind and tried writing what I wanted to know: a mystery. Much like Amarillo, what the hell did I know about writing a mystery story?

Not much. But I knew how to read and enjoy them. I knew what to expect when I watched them on TV. I had to have a crime, and a plucky character who would poke around in all of the corners, looking for the solution.

As far as writing what I knew, I used a few familiar things to help me. For example, I made my private investigator, Peri, a former housecleaner. I like a clean house, and know how to do it. Having that little background story gave me a bond to her. I like dirty martinis, so I made that her signature drink.

I also know my hometown of Placentia, California. It’s a small town squished between other towns. I know its streets, its neighborhoods, and its feel. I know how it tastes and smells. Setting a mystery there meant I didn’t have to create someplace else.

 

I now had a protagonist and a location that I knew.

As for the mystery part, well… how does a bland little Midwestern gal inject suspense and thrills that she’s never experienced?

In the end, I used two of my own hobbies: puzzle solving and communicating with my husband. Mysteries are a lot like puzzles. There are pieces that you must gather, data you must analyze and slip into the correct slot. This translates to clues, alibis, and information that is collected by the protagonist and the reader in order to come to the “AHA” moment.

As far as my husband is concerned, I am married to possibly the most laconic man on the planet. He also possesses a soft, deep voice, which is sometimes inaudible to me due to some hearing loss at the lower registers (yes, too many concerts in my youth). If I want to know anything, I can either chase him down and hound him until he speaks clearly, or just follow the clues he leaves behind.

I remember one day, when we were supposed to meet friends for lunch. It was in the days before cell phones and there was a mix-up at the restaurants, and we were trying to figure out whether Dale would be able to find us. I mentioned that he had taken clean clothes with him that morning, so he was probably changing at the tennis club, making it useless to leave a message on the home phone.

One of the women looked at me, agog. “Don’t you two ever talk?”

Well, not that much. I make assumptions about where he’s gone, what he’s doing, and what my next move should be, if any. Maybe I am a private investigator. A very private one.

I’ve now written three Peri mysteries (and one short), and a lot of times I feel like I’m in the weeds and don’t know why I’m not writing what I know. That’s when I remember my horrible first novel, and I go do a little research until I can move forward.

I hope this gives other writers the encouragement to take what you do know, write it into what you don’t, and stop stressing about the rest. It’s fiction, people. You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it believable.

And if readers think that I make writing sound like it’s as unknown as most of life in general, well, it’s true. We don’t just want to tell you a story. We want to lead you through an experience.

If we knew where we were going, it wouldn’t be half as much fun.

 

 

KDP Select: Is It Worth It? (6 Takeaways From My Experience)

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As if it wasn’t difficult enough for us to keep up with our social media accounts, emails and writing — the authors’ life also calls for us to stay on top of ever-changing technology.

We were just getting the hang of Smashwords when Amazon rolled out their new pride and joy (and their charming mea culpa for withholding a huge chunk of author’s eBook profits for so long), Kindle Direct Publishing.

 

KDP and its more devout sibling, KDP Select, offer a bevy of new options and promises for the modern day author — higher royalties, exclusive promotional opportunities and access to the Kindle Lending Library, among them.

But these bonuses come with one pretty heavy stipulation. Authors participating in the KDP Select program cannot sell their eBooks through any other website (Barnes & Noble, Apple, Smashwords, etc.) during their 90 day sign-up with Amazon.

So the question becomes: Is it worth it?

I decided to take the plunge and submit my debut novel to KDP Select during the holiday season.

After removing my title from Smashwords (and waiting a full month for B&N and Apple to catch up and remove it from their catalogs — make a note if you plan to do the same, it takes a while) I upgraded my book from Amazon’s regular KDP program to the shiny, new KDP Select.

Aside from the 70% royalties (which are contingent upon the length and price of your book) the biggest benefit of KDP Select is the option to offer promotional days (5 per 90 day period).

Promotional days allow authors to give their book away for free on Amazon, which not only puts the book into a different promotional list on Amazon itself, but gives you a chance to promote the book on a plethora of available websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts that all exist exclusively to alert readers of free Kindle books.

So I dove in, November 9th – 11th, with my first promotional KDP Select experience.

I learned a lot in a short time, and thought it would be valuable to my Duolit author friends to know more of what the experience is about so you can decide for yourselves if it’s worth it.

6 Things I Learned from KDP Select Promotional Days.

1. Planning is EVERYTHING.

Full disclosure: I screwed up.

I did the one thing we tell you guys never to do — I jumped in headfirst, with no planning or prep-work for my promotion prior to the first of my three promotional days.

In my defense…nope, there’s not really a valid excuse here, I just let a killer combination of procrastination and laziness get to me.

I didn’t realize I was in trouble until I started going through a lot of the available websites for free and paid promotions of Kindle books. Most of them required a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to add your book to their promotional lists/blogs for a specific date.

Oops.

If I’d planned ahead, I could have gotten my book onto a lot more websites during the start of my promotion, plus I could have built up the free days as more of an event for my fans.

I should have had events on Facebook and GoodReads and built anticipation the week before. I should have given my mailing list a heads up and shared the details on Twitter as well.

The only thing that saved me from suffering complete embarassment was having my promotion for three days instead of one or two. If it had been any shorter, I would have had no time at all to get the word out.

So lesson learned: Plan ahead!

2. Choose your days wisely.

photo by mufan96

I picked the weekend of November 9th – 11th for two reasons:

  • My book is Christmas-themed so it’s a good time of year to get people in the holiday spirit.
  • My birthday is 11/11 and I wanted to center my marketing campaign around the idea of giving presents rather than receiving them for my special day.

These were not flawed ideas in and of themselves, but when I actually did *research* about using KDP (afterwards, of course) nearly everything I read advised against using your promotional days on the weekend (especially Saturday) because people are typically away from their computers and spending time with their families on the weekend.

Valid point.

Worse yet, I chose a *holiday* weekend in the U.S. when a lot of folks take short vacations or just generally veg out watching football and relaxing.

So for future reference, weekdays are generally better and if you can have at least two days back-to-back you’ll have more time to build momentum for your promotion.

3. Push for more reviews before your promotion.

I discovered that a lot of the popular free eBook promotions blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter(ers?) require a certain number of reviews for your book to be included in their promotions.

If I’d known that beforehand, I would have done a push with my mailing list to try and beef up my Amazon reviews before the promotion days (which I really should have done anyway, but you know how that goes).

4. Add action steps to your eBook.

This is the one thing I actually DID do right for my promotion (Yay!). 

Before your promotional days, make sure your eBook file is updated to include a page asking readers to leave a review for you on Amazon (you can include a link as well).

You should also have a page in your eBook with a link to your website and advertising any other books you have as well.

This is especially critical for your KDP promotion days. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from people who’ve used KDP Select is that the high numbers of downloads on promotion days don’t often lead to long-term growth.

While you can’t expect every person who downloads a free copy to become a fan or leave a review, if you can get even a third to make the effort, you’ll come out way of the game. So use opportunity you have to encourage readers to take action after they read the book.

5. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on social media.

The best, most effective way to get the word out during your free promotion days is to advertise via social media.

You have to toe a very dangerous line here by not spamming your friends (especially on Twitter) while still making sure your free book is shared with as many people as possible.

Try to notify all the free eBook promoters at once with your mentions on Twitter so you can get that big blast out of the way.From there, plan to tweet a link or announcement every couple of hours.

Don’t use the same tweet every time — mix it up offering different quotes, loglines and other reasons why people would love to read your book for free. Also be sure to hashtag like a Boss on Twitter.

On Facebook, share a link on your fan page first, and then you can also promote your link on several other Facebook pages (just make sure they allow that kind of self-promotion, some don’t and they get very ornery about that, which is fair).

Scheduling these posts can put you at a disadvantage because services like HootSuite sometimes don’t get shared as much through Facebook’s algorithm and on Twitter you’ll probably find (as I did) that you get a lot of interactions from others that you should really respond to right away.

So be prepared to really spend your promotion days glued to your computer or smartphone milking your social media accounts.

6. Manage your expectations.

I came away from my KDP experience feeling really good.

In three days, my book was downloaded almost 400 times. My Facebook and Twitter following grew by several likes/followers, I got five new sign-ups for my newsletter and I reached as high as #991 on Kindle’s overall list of free eBooks (not bad given my lack of planning).

Whatever your opinion of KDP Select might be, there is absolutely NO other medium that would allow you to get your book into the hands of almost 400 people in three days without costing you one red cent.

Is it a great tool for making money? In the short term, no of course not. You’re giving your book away for free and other than maybe a few peripheral sales right after your promotion ends, you’re probably not going to make any dough.

But in terms of fan building, I think KDP Select delivers in spades.

Even with my egregious lack of planning, I felt like I took a giant step forward with my promotions, so I can’t imagine how someone who actually planned and executed their free days like a major events could benefit from KDP Select.

And it’s especially fantastic for us indies, because it’s so cost effective as well.

What lessons did you learn from your KDP Promo Day experience?

If you’ve participated in KDP Select, do you have any additional takeaways for other authors from your experience? Do you think it’s worthwhile?

For the folks who haven’t worked with KDP Select yet, if you have more questions, let us know in the comments and we’ll get you some answers! 

 

This is a reprint from the Duolit blog, by Shannon O’Neil, the author half of the Duolit team.

How to Use (not abuse) Jargon, Slang and Idioms

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This post, by Susan Bearman, originally appeared on Write It Sideways on 4/20/12.

I started my writing life as a business writer, compelled to try to improve the tortured, often incomprehensible language I found in operating manuals, annual reports, memoranda, and other formats that some bad writers tried to pass off as business “communication”. There seems to be a great misconception that passive voice, undefined acronyms and abbreviations, and loads of jargon make for good business writing.

Not true. All writers—whether writing for business, science, or academia, or those writing fiction and creative nonfiction—should strive for clarity.

But does that mean jargon, slang, and idioms are always taboo? Not if you do your job to make them serve your writing, rather confuse or bore your readers.

Jargon

jargon (noun) — specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject; a characteristic language of a particular group.

To use jargon effectively, you must know your audience. Almost all industries use jargon to some extent, and that’s OK, because most practitioners of a particular profession have a basic understanding of the material and its associated jargon. Business and sports writers are notorious jargon users, as those in medicine and education.

For most writers, the goal is clarity. Unless you have a specific reason to use jargon, it’s best to avoid it. If you must include jargon, be sure to define it or make it understandable within the context of your story.

Bad writing is often the result of too much jargon. While jargon can be helpful when communicating within a specific group, too much jargon, or jargon that is not clearly defined can lead to muddy, confusing writing. If you find yourself having to reread a sentence over and over again, it is often because it contains confusing jargon.

Well-placed jargon in a piece of fiction can lend the voice of authority or the face of authenticity to a particular character. If one of your characters is a pompous Wall Street trader, using some insider jargon will help readers hear his voice on your page. Genre fiction, such as crime fiction, often relies heavily on the use of jargon. Here again, know your audience.

One way to help define jargon in your writing is to spell out acronyms or abbreviations the first time you use them:

Fuzzy: SCBWI announced on June 19 both the winner and runner up of the Don Freeman Memorial Grant-in-Aid.

Better: On June 19, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced this year’s recipients of the Don Freeman Memorial Grants for picture book illustrators.

See if you can translate the following jargon into language that could be understood by a general audience (note, I did not make these up). You may need your search engine to help you. How many clicks around the Internet did it take you to understand the original jargon?

 

Read the rest of the post on Write It Sideways.

The Proverbial Sex Reassignment Surgery: What This [Publishing] Transition Is Really About

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This post originally appeared on Publishr on 4/27/2010. It’s fascinating to see how visionary the post is now, two years later, and to consider how little the industry has heeded its advice. 

Forget the words “print” and “digital” even exist. Now, what is the transition in publishing really about?

Publishing is, and has been for many years, a B-to-B business. In fact, the walls of the publishing house have traditionally been closed off to anyone without an in. On one end, we have agents who work as buffers to the outside world, so we are not required to interact with anyone who does not have any official business. On the other end, book buyers shield us from having to interact with readers. 

Almost everything about our industry is set up in a way that lessens contact with the outside world. The whole mystique of this industry is based on its inaccessibility to the outsider.

Some examples, to name a few:

Agents: Most publishers do not accepts direct submissions. This, in itself, limits front-end interactions with both published and aspiring authors. In fact, agents serve an important purpose, they act as buffers to the world-at-large, to all the people who think they can write a book. They are the first line of defense, as it were, to prevent contact from the (unsavory) outside world. For scouting works, for performing triage, for acting as a buffer, agents are compensated in percentages based on performance of those things they bring in from the outside.

Review pubs: Industry review publications seem to go beyond just buffering publishers from the outside world, by performing the task of marketing our products to ourselves. This is something that works perfectly in a B-to-B system; different houses vying for space in industry publications to look better than others, our books over your books, our authors have more name recognition than yours, angling for buyers’ attention always with the thought that they will order more copies. Are these publications relevant to the average person on the street who is going to visit a retail location or eCommerce site to purchase a book? No. Not at all.

Industry Conferences: Like review publications, many if not all of our industry conferences consist of self-referential presentations with little to no interest given to the outside world. While this is the case throughout many industries, we seem make a heightened effort to market and promote our latest titles at these conferences. Think about the amount of money spent on galleys, booths, travel, and accommodations for BEA. Take note of the amount, and remember it. It’s going to come back to haunt you.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Publishr.

Why Ignoring Offline Promotion is a Baaaad Idea (and 9 Ideas to Get You Started)

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Have you ever been totally sidelined by (what should be) a simple sickness?

You know the ones I’m talking about: that cold or flu that just won’t quit! I don’t get sick often, but, over the past week, I’ve been kept offline by the nastiest cold I can remember.

Wanna hear a secret?

Aside from the general ickiness I felt (exacerbated by taking care of my also-sick family)…I kind of liked it.

Even though I’m still having problems tasting food (coffee, I miss you!), I found spending time in the “real world” to be quite refreshing — and it brought to mind an important book marketing lesson.

Does this sound familiar?

After awhile, staring at a computer screen feels…well, exhausting. Especially when you also work on computer during your day job, running home and staring at more pixels quickly causes promotional burnout.

You need a change of pace. But, you still need to get your book in front of new readers. The solution?

Turn off the computer.

I hear you scoffing, but I’m serious! Sure, half of folks buy books online, but that means there’s still a huge offline audience for your work.

And you know those crazy-dedicated fans? Not all of them are hanging out online.

9 Offline Book Promotion Ideas (That Don’t Suck)

The problem with offline book marketing is that many of the ideas feel dated and ineffective. You don’t have time to mess around with boring ideas that don’t pay off, so a little creativity is in order.

1. Create Bookmarks

Want an offline promotional tool that keeps working long after you’ve left the scene? Enter the humble bookmark.

Bookmarks are like business cards for authors, only far more useful (and totally cost effective). A set of 250 2″ x 6″ bookmarks costs less than $20 to be printed, allowing you to leave a piece of yourself in:

Books you sell (so your new fans can give them away to friends who might also like your work)

Books you donate (more ideas on that later!)

Other books similar to yours that you borrow, donate or give away

Include your book cover, logline-style pitch and (most importantly) a link to your website!

2. Pitch Your Story to a Local Paper

Press releases aren’t the only way to grab your local newspaper’s attention. Being featured in your paper earns you exposure to thousands of new readers — but your story will only be picked up if your pitch is enticing and relevant to local readers.

While pitching locally gives you an instant angle (you’re a local author!), this isn’t attractive enough on its own to earn you a story.

To increase your chances, give your pitch a little something extra. Reporters need to know why your publishing story is special, how your book breaks new ground or what insider information you can offer readers.

3. Host a Book Exchange

Avid readers are eager to seek out new authors and new books. Help them out by hosting a book exchange!

Invite your friends (and their friends) over to your place for an evening of book-sharing awesomeness. This is a perfect opportunity to get your book into new hands!

4. Join (or Form) a Local Authors Group

When you’re stuck, an outside perspective works wonders! Chatting with other authors is an awesome opportunity for brainstorming (and commiserating) with others who know exactly how you feel.

Check Meetup to see if there’s a local writing or author group in your area. If there’s not one, make one! Once a month, get together for coffee, chats and brainstorming. You can even consider hosting a group book signing!

5. Get Friendly with Bookstore Owners

While the manager at a chain bookstore (like Barnes and Noble) might not be super-eager to hear from you, small or independent bookstores are staffed with book lovers who usually enjoy meeting local authors.

Find a store with a vibe that matches your personality and become friends with the owner and staff. They might just invite you in for a book signing or feature your book in the store!

6. Donate Your Book

Aside from your local library, anywhere folks spend time sitting and waiting is a great candidate for a book donation.

Libraries, doctors office, and salons are prime locations to share your book (with a few bookmarks tucked inside, of course). Those long waits are sure to snare new readers!

7. Make a Flyer

Awaken memories of that teenage babysitting business and post flyers for your book at your favorite local businesses.

The trick to using this old-school technique effectively is to make your flyers attention-grabbing and attention-keeping. Create a large, enticing headline, reel in readers with a cliffhanger summary and short, memorable URL for purchase.

Tip: Use bit.ly to create a custom URL that points to your website.

8. Have an Answer to “What Are You Up To?”

How many times do you run into folks at the grocery store you haven’t seen in awhile? Dreading that awkward “so…what are you up to?” conversation? (Seriously, that’s one of the reasons I shop at 7am when everyone with sense is still asleep!)

Turn this dicey situation around by sharing your excitement about your book. Just a simple “Oh! I recently published a book” opens the doors to an enticing conversation — and a potential new reader!

9. Read Your Book in Public

Do you notice what people around you are reading in public? Whenever I’m in a waiting room, I can’t help but sneak a peek at the books in the hands of others.

Take advantage of these opportunities to read your own book. If you have an eye-catching cover or intriguing title, someone might strike up a conversation — or make a mental note to research it on their smartphone!

Tip:  If anyone asks why in the world you’re reading your own book, you can always say you’re working on your next book and need some inspiration.

What do you think?

Which offline promotions have worked well for you? Do you have tips for other authors looking to close the laptop? Let’s chat in the comments [on the original post]!  

 

This is a reprint from Duolit.

Simon & Schuster Introduces Self-Publishing Service

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This article, by Bob Minzesheimer, originally appeared on USA Today.

11:16AM EST November 27. 2012 – In the latest sign of consolidation as well as the growing role for self-published authors in the book business, Simon & Schuster, one of the largest traditional publishers, is partnering with Author Solutions, a leading provider of services to writers who do not have traditional publishers.

Technology has made it easier and cheaper to publish and distribute books. Led by Amazon and Author Solutions’ imprints, which include iUniverse and Xlibris, self-publishing has become one of the fastest growing sectors in publishing.The two firms today announced the launch of Archway Publishing, which unlike traditional publishers, will not pay advances to authors, but instead charge fees to release, distribute and publicize their books in print or digital formats. In turn, those self-published authors get a larger share of the proceeds of any sales.

According to Bowker, a research firm, 211,269 self-published titles were released last year, up more than 60% from 2010. A vast majority sold fewer than 100 copies, but enough were successful — even hitting USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list — to draw attention to self-publishing. For example:

– After Amanda Hocking had seven self-published paranormal romance e-books hit USA TODAY’s list, she signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the traditional print publisher St. Martin’s Press last year. 

 

Read the rest of the post on USA Today.

Chris Baty: The Terribleminds Interview

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This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds site on 11/21/12.

 

Chris Baty, ladies and gentlemen: the founder of NaNoWriMo is here just in time to save you and your novel. I met Chris as the Crossroads Conference down in Macon, GA, this year, where the both of us were guest speakers of the con (and what a kick-ass con it is), and damn if he isn’t the nicest and most inspiring dude. Which tells me he’s probably a serial killer, but that’s okay. Who isn’t? Chris harnessed the power of his niceness and inspiration and focused them on an interview here at terribleminds. Find his site at chrisbaty.com, and you will find him on the Twitters @chrisbaty.

This is a blog about writing and storytelling. So, tell us a story. As short or as long as you care to make it. As true or false as you see it.

 

 

Almost a decade ago, one of the most active members of the NaNoWriMo message boards died in a car accident. I’ll call her Mary. Mary lived in a small town in Michigan, and on New Year’s Eve, she was driving alone on an icy road when a deer jumped in front of her car. She swerved and skidded, slamming into a tree. We learned about the accident when the executor of her will posted a note about her death on the NaNoWriMo forums.

Everyone was stunned. Mary had been a vital, hilarious presence in the NaNoWriMo message boards. She’d always gone out of her way to be encouraging to everyone, and had been particularly generous with younger participants. Mary had a lot of virtual admirers spread out all over the country, and none of us really knew how to deal with her sudden absence.

A week later, the first bit of weirdness appeared. A fan of Mary’s had posted in the message boards, saying she’d contacted the mortuaries in Mary’s town because she’d wanted to send flowers to the funeral. And none of them were hosting a funeral for Mary.

Thinking “Mary” might have been a pen name (or that Mary was being buried elsewhere), this person called Mary’s local newspaper to get the details of the woman killed in the New Year’s Eve crash. Which is how she learned there had been no New Year’s Eve crash.

This weirded everyone out. I sent Mary an awkward email asking, in essence, if she really was dead. She didn’t respond. Shortly after that, a longtime member of the NaNoWriMo community decided to take matters into her own hands. She found Mary’s phone number online and called it. To her surprise, a woman answered.

“Mary?” the caller asked.

“Yes?” the woman said.

The caller hung up and immediately posted details of the interaction on the NaNoWriMo site. Mary’s sister, who had never posted on the site before, responded quickly, saying that she had been packing up Mary’s house and had answered the  phone. The name thing had been a misunderstanding.

This was fishy enough that, by the time someone found Mary alive and well and posting on another other message board one week later, most of us had already accepted the fact that she’d faked her death, creating the executor and sister to sell the lie.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on terribleminds.

Overcome Roadblocks to Successful Book Sales

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Many authors consider book marketing a necessary evil – they would rather be writing! But of course it’s essential to promote your book if you want to actually sell it.

Here are five common roadblocks to successful book sales: 

  • Starting too late – Ideally, your marketing journey should begin the minute you decide to write a book. You want to consider whether there’s a viable market for the book and also tailor the book to meet the needs of a specific audience. But wherever you are in your publishing journey, NOW is the time to get serious about marketing your book.
  • Inertia – You can overcome inertia by setting goals and taking positive action each day to meet those goals.
  • Lack of direction – Many authors just aren’t sure how to promote a book or how to prioritize the numerous tasks involved in book promotion. Lots of authors feel overwhelmed or jump from one activity to another without any clear plan. A good book marketing plan gives you a blueprint for promoting your book.
  • Lack of knowledge – Marketing requires a different still set from writing a book. Many authors have no background in marketing and they need to learn new skills. There are numerous books, blogs, podcasts, teleseminars and other resources available to authors. Many resources are free, but it’s a good idea to invest in training in the areas you most need to learn about. 
  • Lack of time – Many authors are surprised at the amount of time and effort required to promote their books. This can be especially challenging for those who have full time jobs and family responsibilities on top of their writing and publishing venture. Having a good book marketing plan helps you to budget your time most effectively.

Book Marketing Plan = Success

As you can see, a book marketing plan will help you overcome the most common roadblocks to book promotion. But your plan must be: 

  • Well thought-out and in writing
     
  • Customized for your book and your audience
     
  • Reflect your own skills, budget and time constraints

Book marketing can seem daunting, but I guarantee that having a plan will make it less daunting! 

Your book marketing plan will help to keep you from feeling overwhelmed or paralyzed. Just put one foot in front of the other – take at least one action every day, no matter how small, and you will make progress.
 

To learn what goes into a good book marketing plan, download my free report, Create a Book Marketing Plan That Sells Books. For step-by-step guidance in how to develop your own customized plan, check out the Ultimate Book Marketing Plan Workshop.  

 

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Tools to use to Recreate the Past: Annie Fuller’s Boarding House

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I am working on Bloody Lessons, the third book of my historical mystery series, which means I am wrestling once again with how adequately and accurately to portray the past, in this case 1880 San Francisco. This led me to the idea of describing some of the tools I used in creating the historical background for my protagonist’s home, which appeared first in Maids of Misfortune and will continue to play a role in all of my books, a boarding house in the 400 block of O’Farrell Street of San Francisco, between Jones and Taylor.

First of all, as Susanne Alleyn points out in her clever and very readable book, Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders: A Writer’s (and Editor’s) Guide to Keeping Historical Fiction Free of Common Anachronisms, Errors, and Myth, an author of historical fiction needs to recognize that the city of today can be vastly different from the city of whatever time period you are writing about, and this is true even when you are talking about a relatively young city like San Francisco and a time period that is only 132 years in the past.

Sometimes cities change for man-made reasons. Street names are changed, new streets laid out, hills graded, wetlands filled in, residential areas become commercial and commercial areas become residential, and railroads, subways, and freeways are built, destroying existing property. Neighborhoods change, expand and contract, and sometimes disappear.

And then there are natural disasters. Hurricane’s Katrina and now Sandy have demonstrated the ability of natural forces literally to obliterate areas, wiping the structures, even the ground the structures are on, off the face of maps. Sometimes these streets and blocks are rebuilt, sometimes they are not, but a good historical fiction writer of the future, setting their stories in New Orleans or New Jersey shore towns anytime after these disasters, will have to take the impact of these disasters into consideration. In short, I needed to take both man-made and natural disasters into account when I set Annie Fuller’s boarding house in the 400 block of O’Farrell Street to make sure that the street existed in 1880, that it was an area of the city that would have had a boarding house, and that the physical environment would be the same (grade of the hill, etc).

So, how did I determine this was an appropriate place to put the house, particularly since I wanted the house to have been built in the 1850s when Annie Fuller’s aunt and uncle first settled in San Francisco? As Alleyn recommends, I started with historical maps. Sally Woodbridge’s San Francisco in Maps and Views, was most useful. O’Farrell Street did not exist in 1847, but it existed by 1852, as determined by a series of surveyor maps of the city streets, and it was named for the first surveyor and map-maker for the city, Jasper O’Farrell. In 1852, however, there were no buildings past the 100 block of O’Farrell.

Yet, by 1859, another map shows at least three structures existed on the south side of the 400 block, making it historically accurate for me to write that my protagonist’s house was built in the mid 1850s. In addition, since the block was so sparsely built up at the time the house would have been built, I was able to a create a house that was a little wider and in a different style than the narrow Italianate houses that would come to predominate in the 1870s and 1880. I used this fact to help me determine that the house would be constructed in the Greek revival style, which was briefly popular in the 1850s, and in my second book in the series, Uneasy Spirits, I used that fact to support the rather large back yard to the boarding house where a Halloween Party was held.

According to historical maps and histories of San Francisco, by 1879, when my first book opens, the streets north of Market and between Van Ness and the financial district to the east were built up with a variety of residential and commercial buildings representing a variety of architectural styles. For example, see Burchell’s The San Francisco Irish, 1848-1880. O’Farrell Street was no exception. Obviously one of the ways I could try to get a feel for what the block was like in 1880 would be to go look at it today,  hoping that some of the buildings are still standing.

However, this isn’t possible because in 1906, between the earthquake and the fires that came after, the 400 block of O’Farrell, along with most of the buildings east of Van Ness, were destroyed. After reading a detailed account of these fires, it looks like the 400 block may have been spared the first day after the earthquake, but the afternoon of the second day, April 19th, it was engulfed by blazes coming from all directions.  If I wanted to get a feel for what Annie’s boarding house would have looked like in 1879-1880, I was going to have to do more research.

Census records (which I had analyzed for my dissertation) gave me information about the size of homes and boarding houses in this part of the city in 1880, and newspaper classified ads not only confirmed that there were boarding houses in this residential area (including on O’Farrell Street), but also gave me a range of prices people were paying for room and board. This all helped me plan the size and number of servants and boarders that would be found in her house. Architectural histories of the city told me what styles predominated in the 1850s, when the boarding house on O’Farrell was supposedly built.  See for example, Kenneth Naverson’s West coast Victorians: A Nineteenth-Century Legacy. In addition, photographs of the city in the 1870s and early 1880s were another enormously helpful source, confirming what I had been reading about. For example, this picture shows how residential and commercial buildings of every shape and style could be found in houses in the same neighborhood in the 1870s. One of the most useful historical sites on the internet links historical photographs by time and place on a map of the city, so you can begin to see what the neighborhood looked like over time.

Since Annie Fuller’s Uncle Timothy, the man who built the house she inherited, was a successful businessman, he would have made improvements in the original 1850s house, including the installation of a bathroom on the second floor, upgrading the woodwork, and putting in new wallpaper and furnishings. I consulted books such as Victorian Interior Decoration: American Interiors 1830-1900,  In the Victorian Style, and a wonderfully illuminating book, Death in the Dining Room: And other Tales of Victorian Culture, to help me determine what Annie Fuller’s boarding house would have looked like by the time she inherited it in 1878.

While Susanne Alleyn cautions historical fiction authors about depending on historical movies as sources, a well-researched movie can provide a useful visual impression. For example, the 1993 movie based on Edith Warton’s Age of Innocence, and the companion book that compares stills from the movie to paintings of the period, were wonderful sources, although the movie portrayed much wealthier interiors than would have characterized Annie Fuller’s boarding house.

While houses from O’Farrell neighborhood don’t still exist, there are examples of Victorian architecture that did survive west of Van Ness that also helped. The Hass-Lilienthal House in San Francisco, built in 1886 and open for tours, has been a wonderful place to visit to for this purpose.

Finally there is simply the tool of my imagination. As I have written elsewhere, forty years ago I lived in a house built in the 1870s or 80s in Ohio, and I used my memories from that house and my own imagination to picture and then describe the interior layout of Annie Fuller’s boarding house.

Are my descriptions of the O’Farrell Street boarding house a hundred percent accurate Who knows. But if I have done my historical research sufficiently and used my imagination and writing skills effectively, I will make my readers believe in this house, picture it in their own imaginations, and want to revisit it, book after book. 

 

 

This is a reprint from M. Louisa Locke‘s blog.

Publetariat Omnibus Now Available: The Best of the First Four Years

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Believe it or not, Publetariat turns five years old this coming February. In light of this milestone, and the massive quantity of content here on the site, Publetariat has released a compilation ebook in Kindle format (which you don’t need a Kindle device to read, there’s a free Kindle reader app available for PC, Mac and mobile devices).

Publetariat Omnibus 2008 – 2012: The Most Popular and Practical Posts From The First Four Years of Publetariat is now available. This book includes 67 how-to, advice and commentary articles, written by Alan Baxter, Julian Block, Mark Coker, Melissa Conway, Nick Daws, Joel Friedlander, April L. Hamilton, Joseph C. Kunz Jr., Cheri Lasota, M. Louisa Locke, Shannon O’Neil, Joanna Penn, Virginia Ripple, Fay Risner, Mick Rooney, L.J. Sellers, Dana Lynn Smith, Bob Spear, Richard Sutton and Toni Tesori. Click through to view the full Table of Contents.

 

All the best stuff is here: excellent self-editing advice, a cover design and ad design walk-through, tax tips, business advice, advice for dealing with internet defamation, tips and how-to’s for author platform, social media and book promotion, copy-and-paste boilerplate copyright page examples, craft advice, publishing advice, a podcasting how-to, a little bit of fun, and lots more! 

 Think

1: Learning to Wait

2: Indie Author vs. Indie Entrepreneur

3: 7 Links To Encourage The Writer In You

4: How a Traditional Publisher Could Harm a Writer’s Career

5: Goal Setting For Writers

6: Musings On POD Publishers And The Music Business

7: Managing Expectations: Patience and Perspective in Indie Publishing

8: The Formula For Success And Life In The Way

 

Write

1: Outlining: Straightjacket Or Lifeline?

2. The Fear Factor

3: 11 Resources To Make Editing Your Novel Easier

4: Writing Detail: Finding The Right Balance

5: 6 Dialogue Traps To Avoid

6. Five Mistakes of New Fiction Writers

7. What Readers Hate

8: Seven Links To Understanding (And Finding) Beta Readers

9: How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 1

10: How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 2

11: How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 3

12: The Greengrocer’s Apostrophe, and Why You Shouldn’t Buy It!

13: Working With An Editor: Got My Edits Back. Now What?

14: The Power Of Strong Characterisation – Dexter Morgan

15: Why Writers Should Always “Give It A Week”

 

Design

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

2: Crafting a Cover, Part II…Making Relationships Work….

3: Crafting Your Back Cover — The Selling Continues….

4: Small Ads Can Be Beautiful And Work, Too!

5: When Redesigning Your Site Or Blog, Don’t Forget To Grandfather

6: Copyright Page Samples You Can Copy and Paste Into Your Book

 

Publish

1: Ebook Madness: Don’t Confuse Ebook Conversion With Ebook Formatting!

2: Peeling Away The Layers of Confusion

3: The Truth About CreateSpace’s Free ISBNs

4: Traditional Publishing And Self-Publishing Are Not Mutually Exclusive

5: Harlequin Horizons & Thomas Nelson West Bow Press: Good For These Publishers and Author Solutions, Inc., Bad For Indie Authors

6: How To Create A Podcast

 

Sell

1: Does Social Networking Really Sell Books?

2: Secrets of Ebook Marketing, Excerpt Trades & the Future of Enhanced Ebooks

3: Regional Bookseller Organizations

4: 7 Reasons You Need A Facebook Fan Page

5: Create Hard-Hitting Ads for Your Book…

6: How To Lose Fans And Alienate People

7: Are You Making These 7 Book Marketing Mistakes?

8: Preparing For A Book Sale

9: Update on Categories and Keywords: Why Authors Should Still Care

10: Build Your Author Platform Through Guest Posts

11: Do We Know The Author?

12: Help! My Book Isn’t Selling. 10 Questions You Need To Answer Honestly If You Want To Sell More Books.

13: Email Service Roundup

 

Business End

1: Significant Reader Trends

2: The 70 Per Cent Solution

3: Write For All You’re Worth

4: 10 Signs That You Are Not Ready To Self-Publish

5: Jump-Start Your Self-Publishing Adventure in 10 Steps

6: Avast Ye Lubbers, And Hear Ye Me Pirate Tale of Two Clicks!

7: The Future of Book Publishing: Risk Shifts To Author

8: Internet Defamation, Author Platform And You

9: Splurge & Save: How To Be A Thrifty Indie!

10: Writers’ and Other Freelancers’ Tax Questions Answered

11: Dress For Success: Just Don’t Expect The IRS To Help You Foot The Bill

12: KDP Select Free Promotion — Discoverability Experiment: One Month Later and Feeling Fine!

13: Simple Steps to a Successful KDP Select Free Promotion

14: Lessons Learned From 1 Year As A Fulltime Author Entrepreneur

 

Lighter Side Of The Writing Life

1: Indie Author: THE GAME

2: How To Write The Best Critique Ever

3: Top 10 Reasons Not To Be A Writer

4: An Author’s Field Guide To Internet Trolls

5: The Writer’s Night Before Christmas

 

 

So whether for yourself or a writing friend, Publetariat Omnibus 2008 – 2012: The Most Popular and Practical Posts From The First Four Years of Publetariat  is an invaluable resource you’ll find yourself (or your friend will find himself!) referring to again and again. 

 

Open Book Audio May Be The Best Choice

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Back in June of last year I finished recording the audio version of Simply Prayer and wentlooking for a place to sell it. At the time Kunaki seemed the best choice. Since then my audio book journey has drawn a bit of attention between two companies: ACX.com and Open Book Audio.

Being a social creature I did some asking around and found that most of the indie authors I knew were going with ACX, so that’s where I decided to go, despite Andrew Parker of Open Book Audio’s various helpful comments.

 

To make a long story short, I’ve been disappointed in ACX. Some would say I’m just being impatient, but so far the results with this company has been null in trying to get Apprentice Cat narrated. Thankfully I have an author friend who put me in touch with someone outside that company who may be able to narrate the book for me. (We’re still working on details at the moment.)

I’ve been looking into how to upload narration from an outside source onto the ACX site, but I keep getting lost in the directions available. Admittedly, I have yet to contact the company about this. I had plans to contact them this week, but then an interesting comment appeared from Andrew Parker on a post on my old blog about how Open Book Audio may be a better choice.

Here it is in full:

Hi Jaime (and all who are following the conversation),

Thanks for the kind words on the podcast. To your questions, the reality is with Audible that if you decide to go the ACX route (which definitely has it’s benefits) and go non-exclusive, you can sell your audiobook elsewhere, like through Open Book Audio. The problem with that, as I see it, is that you are locked into the 7 year agreement and, here’s where it gets interesting, you lose out on the marketing push we offer. Not to mention being able to track your sales through our website. As for Audible, they distribute their library, as I think most everyone knows now, to iTunes on an exclusive. So, if you want into iTunes, you have to get into Audible first. If you don’t go the ACX route, you have to have 5 books to get in. As for iTunes/Apple, they accept no audiobook unless it comes through Audible. So, even if you were to pay the development fee of $99, it still gets your book listed as a Spoken Word album or just an app. Either way, it makes it hard for folks to find you.

Back to the marketing push. At OBA, we have a very specific formula about what books we’ll take and what books we market. The truth is that, as long as the audio quality is good and the subject matter isn’t offensive, we’ll take the book and publish it to all of our retailers. What we then do is see how the book performs over the next few months. If it performs well enough, we put a big marketing push behind the book (reviews, websites, social media, press releases, interviews, podcasts, library journals, etc.) to goose the sales of the book and drive more money. Best of all, it’s free. How can we do that? Well, it’s simple really. If the book has proven that it can sell, it’s kind of a “why wouldn’t we?” mentality. Better yet, we have a specific formula that allows us to determine the precise amount of copies sold over a given period to guarantee a successful book. It’s remarkable how accurate we can be in determining what will be a hit and what won’t, rather than doing like most publishers do and go from their gut.

All that said, any publisher, like ourselves, won’t take your book if you decide to go direct through Audible and then come to us for the rest. Financially, we can’t make it work without the Audible slice of the pie and that’s the truth. Now, our fees are the lowest in the industry (again, math allows us to do that!) but Audible is still an essential piece of the puzzle.

So, what I would tell you is that if you’re content with your book just being available and not looking to make a great deal of money on it, ACX might be the way to go. But, if you’re looking to make more money, regardless of whether or not you hit the threshold for the marketing push, OBA is a much better option. After all, with a wider net, you’ll always get more fish.

Hope that helps. If you want to talk further (if anyone wants to talk further) just email me at andrew at openbookaudio dot com.

After reading this comment, I have to say I’m seriously considering using Open Book Audioinstead of ACX. I’ll be contacting Andrew soon to find out the details and I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Has anyone else been through working with audio book companies? What did you like? What would have liked to see improved?

*** Update***

I’ve just learned that once you sign up with ACX you cannot delete your account with them without deleting your Amazon account as well. That makes me very unhappy because now it seems they’re trying to force me to use their services. While it does simplify things, just as using Createspace does, it also limits your options once you claim your book, even with non-exclusivity.

I urge everyone to make weigh all your options before signing up with any audio book producing company. 

 

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s blog.

Be Afraid

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This post, by JA Konrath, originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 10/11/12.

A few years ago I wrote a horror novel called AFRAID.

I tried to write the scariest book of all time, and lots of people seem to think it is. But it wasn’t an easy sell. In fact, it took my agent six months to find a buyer. After many, many rejections, we landed a two book paperback deal with Grand Central.

I got a $20k advance. Not enough to support my family, but enough to keep me in the business. I hoped that AFRAID would be given a wide distribution, quickly earn out its advance, and I’d be able to grow the Jack Kilborn brand (that’s the pen name I used). To promote AFRAID, I did a blog tour, appearing on 100 blogs in 31 days. I also did a  real book tour, signing at 206 bookstores in 12 states.

Happily, AFRAID managed to find an audience, and quickly earned out its advance. Between March 2009 and June 2012, AFRAID has earned me $75,882. Not too bad.

But all was not rosy.

Grand Central didn’t like my follow-up horror novel, LEVEL 6. They didn’t like the title, or the story, even though they published the first few chapters of it in the back of AFRAID, under a title I hated, TRAPPED.

So I rewrote TRAPPED, because even though I thought the book worked well, I needed the money.

They didn’t like the rewrite, either. I had fans expecting TRAPPED, but apparently they weren’t going to get what they wanted.

So I wrote another novel for Grand Central, ENDURANCE. This one they liked, but wanted changes. I told them no, and paid them back the advance I got for the second book.

Telling a major publisher off was pretty much unheard of at the time, and I believe I became the first author to reject a Big 6 deal in favor of self-pubbing. I published TRAPPED and ENDURANCE myself. Had Grand Central been smarter, they could have published TRAPPED and ENDURANCE and perhaps even more Kilborn novels.

So how’d I do on my own?

 

 

Read the rest of the post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

Copyright Reform – NOT!

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This article, by Matthew Yglesias, originally appeared on Slate on 11/19/12. Copyright is a topic that should be of interest to any author, and self-publishing authors in particular, since they don’t have the backing of a mainstream publisher’s legal department.

The Case of the Vanishing Policy Memo: An influential conservative group released a copyright reform memo that was so smart it had to immediately disavow it.

A Friday afternoon policy memo is not normally the sort of thing that gets one’s heart racing, but “Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where To Start To Fix It” was an exception. It offered a bracing attack on the conventional wisdom about intellectual property that’s dominated Congress for decades mounted a vibrant defense of competition, and advocated regulation aimed at consumers rather than incumbent copyright owners.

 

Even more amazing was the source. The memo went out on the letterhead of the Republican Study Committee—an organization of House Republicans who think the House Republican caucus isn’t insanely conservative enough—under the names of Rep. Jim Jordan and executive director Paul Teller.

It was an exciting moment for copyright reformers, who were surprised and delighted to find these new conservative allies. But a moment was all it was. By Saturday, Teller had already retracted the memo, claiming it “was published without adequate review” and needed to be “approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand.”

Common sense suggests there were other reasons for the retraction. Derek Khanna, a tech-savvy young Republican staffer who came to Washington with Sen. Scott Brown before shifting to the RSC to work primarily on cybersecurity and government oversight issues, is clearly well-versed on the subject. He simply lacked the authority to enact a change in position on a topic dominated by powerful interest groups with a ton of money. Khanna’s supervisors seem to have paid too much attention to the merits of the memo and not enough to the larger politics when vetting it. According to Mike Masnick at TechDirt, when news of the memo filtered out to the Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America, those organizations “went ballistic and hit the phones hard, demanding that the RSC take down the report.” They won. 

 

Read the rest of the post, which details Khanna’s "three myths" and the arguments against continuing to support them, on Slate.

Saying “No” to NaNoWriMo

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This post, by Steven Ramirez, originally appeared on his blog.

As I write this there are thousands of other writers around the world, madly slaving away at their novel in honor of NaNoWriMo. For those of you who are not in the writing trade, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Here is an excerpt from the “About” page on their site:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

So that’s fifty thousand words in thirty days or 1,666.666666666667 words per day. Yeehaw! Well, guess what. I’m not having it.

That’s right. I refuse to participate. Why? It’s not because I don’t respect anyone who has the discipline to write nearly seventeen hundred words a day for thirty days straight. And it’s not because it wouldn’t be fun to see if I could create a story from start to finish in that time. And it’s certainly not because I wouldn’t be able to boast in some future tense that I created my bestselling masterpiece in thirty days. No, my reason is much more prosaic. I don’t have time.

It’s All About Priorities
I actually considered participating in this year’s contest. I’m a member of several writers groups which give out daily encouragement to those foolhardy enough to attempt this Herculean task. But you see the thing is, I am into the second draft of my zombie novel and at seventy-five thousand words it really isn’t long enough to begin with, which is a never-ending source of agita. In addition I have committed to posting regularly on this blog and am doing my best to market my published works via Twitter and Facebook. On top of that I regularly offer my time to other writers for anything from marketing and social media advice to written critiques of their works in progress.

Not that I’m complaining! I love what I do.

Looking at the problem practically, however, I would essentially have to put everything on hold for thirty days in order to participate in this contest. But if I want my book ready for publishing in the spring—or let’s face it, summer— I simply can’t afford to take a month off.

What Happens on December 1st?

 

Read the rest of the post on Steven Ramirez’ blog.

Indie Author Marketing – Get a Blog, Right? Wrong…

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This post, by Renee Pawlish, originally appeared on her Master Wordsmith blog.

Did that title get your attention?  Let’s face it, indie author marketing is tough work (indie author marketing success even more so).  And so many indie authors will tell you that you need a blog for effective marketing.  Well, yes and no.  I’m actually all for having a blog, ifyou are doing this for the right reasons, and you are avoiding some key mistakes. 

Having a poorly designed blog or one with little content can do just as much damage as good for you as an author, so you must think about why you have a blog in the first place.  I’ve touched on some of these points before, and I’ve added some new things here as well…

Indie Author Marketing – Reasons To Have A Blog

The primary purpose of blogging, for indie authors, is to help you sell books (unless you’re running a blog like this one that focuses on helping indie authors with writing and marketing).  Here are some of the things a blog can do for you:

  • it can connect you with potential readers
  • it can build your audience
  • it can showcase your writing skills
  • it can generate book sales
  • it can position you as an expert in your genre
  • it can generate traffic to your author website
  • it can give you credibility as an author (great if you want to get an agent)
  • and more…

Okay, you’ve probably heard of all of those and could add to the list.  And you may be asking yourself, I do these, so why isn’t it working?

Indie Author Marketing – Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Working

As I meet more and more indie authors, I see numerous things that they do with their blogs that actually harm their blogging efforts:

  • having a poorly designed blog
  • spelling or grammatical errors
  • blogging inconsistently (this doesn’t encourage people to come back because they see you’re inactive)
  • only blogging about your books (and saying buy my books all the time)
  • little or no book information
  • not linking your books directly to Amazon or other selling sites
  • not having a niche (you have to target your audience and write to them)
  • sharing your posts with those that aren’t in your target audience (I see this on Triberr a lot)

Now that we know the good and bad about our blogs, what can we do to correct things?

Indie Author Marketing – The Big Key – Your Blog Design 

 

Read the rest of the post, which gives further detail on each of the above bullet items, on Renee Pawlish’s Master Wordsmith blog.