Business End

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

4 Ways to Move Beyond Discouragement in Your Author Career

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This post, by Matthew Ashdown, originally appeared as a guest post on Writer’s Fun Zone on 12/2/11.

Welcome to Artist Entrepreneur Fridays, where we focus having a successful author career from the business and strategic perspectives. This week I have another guest post from Matthew Ashdown, Book Promotion Specialist with FriesenPress. FriesenPress is a fee-for-service self-publisher. Matthew offers 4 useful tools that we can use to overcome being discouraged during our author career. Read on!

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Many self-published authors will move full steam ahead on their marketing path in the first three months after their book is released, with their passion and enthusiasm stoking the fires of their engine. But after this initial period they inevitably start to find themselves slowing down, not selling as much, and it is here that many become discouraged. This is common once we have exhausted our inner circle’s support, and the honeymoon period is over. But how we meet discouraging events is critical in our willingness to go on.

Three years ago, I had a publishing contract with a major publishing company. I was set for book tours for the next couple of years, while my business partner and I were set to speak in front of a large audience of 10,000 people alongside one of our icons. It all came crashing down, though, just before we were set to go to print, and our contract was retracted by the publisher. Our dream seemed to slip away from our grasp. The next two years were a great challenge, but in time I was able to realize that while it lasted, that opportunity was probably one of the greatest gifts in my life. This gift helped me remember what really makes me happy and while it also brought me to writing, which truly means something to me.

In this post, I want to share how you can move beyond the discouragement that comes along the path to success.

These are things that kept me going when the future seemed bleak and little was happening.

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” –Dale Carnegie

1) Just because you have a low number of retweets or comments does not mean that people are not reading your blog.

 

Read the rest of the post on Writer’s Fun Zone.

About Writing (Introduction)

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Today we’re happy to promote this post from the Publetariat member blog of Michael LaRocca to the front page.

Here’s everything I know about improving your writing, publishing it electronically and in print, and promoting it after the sale.

Two questions you should ask:
1. What will it cost me?
2. What does this Michael LaRocca guy know about it?

Answer #1 — It won’t cost you a thing. The single most important bit of advice I can give you, and I say it often, is don’t pay for publication.

My successes have come from investing time. Some of it was well spent, but most of it was wasted. It costs me nothing to share what I’ve learned. It costs you nothing to read it except some of your time.

Answer #2 — “Michael LaRocca has been researching the publishing field for over 10 years.”

This quote from Authors Wordsmith was a kind way of saying I’ve received hundreds of rejections. Also, my “research” required 20 years.

But in my “breakout” year (2000), I finished writing four books and scheduled them all for publication in 2001. I also began editing for one of my publishers, a job I’ve been enjoying ever since.

After my first book was published, both my publishers closed. Two weeks and three publishers later, I was back on track.

See how much faster it was the second time around? That’s because I learned a lot.

Also, I found more editing jobs. That’s what I do when I’m not writing, doing legal transcription, or doing English consulting work in Thailand (my new home). But the thing is, if I’d become an editor before learning how to write, I’d have stunk.

I’ll tell you what’s missing from this monologue. What to write about, where I get my ideas from, stuff like that. Maybe I don’t answer this question because I think you should do it your way, not mine. Or maybe because I don’t know how I do it. Or maybe both. Once you’ve done your writing, this essay should help you with the other stuff involved in being a writer. Writing involves wearing at least four different hats. Writer, editor, publication seeker, post-sale self-promoter.

Here’s what I can tell you about my writing.

Sometimes an idea just comes to me out of nowhere and refuses to leave me alone until I write about it. So, I do.

And, whenever I read a book that really fires me up, I think, “I wish I could write like that.” So, I just keep trying. I’ll never write THE best, but I’ll always write MY best. And get better every time. That’s the “secret” of the writing “business,” same as any other business. Always deliver the goods.

I read voraciously, a habit I recommend to any author who doesn’t already have it. You’ll subconsciously pick up on what does and doesn’t work. Characterization, dialogue, pacing, plot, story, setting, description, etc. But more importantly, someone who doesn’t enjoy reading will never write something that someone else will enjoy reading.

I don’t write “for the market.” I know I can’t, so I just write for me and then try to find readers who like what I like. I’m not trying to whip up the next bestseller and get rich. Not that I’d complain. But I have to write what’s in my heart, then find a market later. It makes marketing a challenge at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you write, be a dreamer. Go nuts. Know that you’re writing pure gold. That fire is why we write.

An author I greatly admire, Kurt Vonnegut, sweated out each individual sentence. He wrote it, rewrote it, and didn’t leave it alone until it was perfect. Then he wrote the next sentence the same way, etc., and when he reached the end of the book, it was done.

But I doubt most of us write like that. I don’t. I let it fly as fast as my fingers can move across the paper or keyboard, rushing to capture my ideas before they get away. Later, I change and shuffle and slice.

James Michener writes his last sentence first, then has his goal before him as he writes his way to it.

Then there’s me. No outline whatsoever. I create characters and conflict, spending weeks and months on that task, until the first chapter leaves me wondering “How will this end?” Then my characters take over, and I’m as surprised as the reader when I finish my story.

Some authors set aside a certain number of hours every day for writing, or a certain number of words. In short, a writing schedule.

Then there’s me. No writing for three or six months, then a flurry of activity where I forget to eat, sleep, bathe, change the cat’s litter… I’m a walking stereotype. To assuage the guilt, I tell myself that my unconscious is hard at work. As Hemingway would say, long periods of thinking and short periods of writing.

I’ve shown you the extremes in writing styles. I think most authors fall in the middle somewhere. But my point is, find out what works for you. You can read about how other writers do it, and if that works for you, great. But in the end, find your own way. That’s what writers do.

Just don’t do it halfway.

If you’re doing what I do, writing a story that entertains and moves you, you’ll find readers who share your tastes. For some of us that means a niche market and for others it means regular appearances on the bestseller list.

Writing is a calling, but publishing is a business. Remember that AFTER you’ve written your manuscript. Not during.

I’ve told you how I write. For me.

Editing

The next step is self-editing. Fixing the mistakes I made in my rush to write it before my Muse took a holiday. Several rewrites. Running through it repeatedly with a fine-toothed comb and eliminating clichés like “fine-toothed comb.”

Then what?

There are stories that get rejected because the potential publisher hates them, or feels they won’t sell (as if he knows), but more are shot down for other reasons. Stilted dialogue. Boring descriptions. Weak characters. Underdeveloped story. Unbelievable or inconsistent plot. Sloppy writing.

That’s what you have to fix.

I started by using free online creative writing workshops. What I needed most was input from strangers. After all, once you’re published, your readers will be strangers. Every publisher or agent you submit to will be a stranger. What will they think? I always get too close to my writing to answer that. So do you.

Whenever I got some advice, I considered it. Some I just threw out as wrong, or because I couldn’t make the changes without abandoning part of what made the story special to me. Some I embraced. But the point is, I decided. It’s my writing. My name on the spine, not yours, and I want people reading it centuries after I die. Aim high.

After a time, I didn’t feel the need for the workshops anymore. I’m fortunate enough to have a wife whose advice I will always treasure, and after a while that was all I needed. But early on, it would’ve been unfair to ask her to read my drivel. (I did anyway, but she married me in spite of it.)

Your goal when you self-edit is to get your book as close to “ready to read” as you possibly can. Do not be lazy and do not rush. You want your editor to find what you overlooked, not what you didn’t know about, and you want it to be easy for him/her. EASY! Easy to edit, easy to read. It’s a novel, not a blog.

Your story is your story. You write it from your heart, and when it looks like something you’d enjoy reading, you set out to find a publisher who shares your tastes. What you don’t want is for that first reader to lose sight of what makes your story special because you’ve bogged it down with silly mistakes.

Authors don’t pay to be published. They are paid for publication. Always. It’s just that simple. Publishers are paid by readers, not authors. That’s why they help you find those readers.

Your publisher should also give you some free editing. But there’s a limit to how much editing you can get without paying for it. Do you need more than that? I don’t know because I’ve never read your writing. But if you evaluate it honestly, I think you’ll know the answer.

As an editor, I’ve worked with some authors who simply couldn’t self-edit. Non-native English speakers, diagnosed dyslexics, blind authors, guys who slept through English class, whatever. To them, paying for editing was an option. This isn’t paying for publication. This is paying for a service, training. Just like paying to take a Creative Writing class at the local community college.

By the way, I don’t believe creativity can be taught. Writing, certainly. I took a Creative Writing class in high school, free, and treasure what I can remember of the experience. (It’s been a while.) But I already had the creativity, or else it would’ve been a waste of the teacher’s time and mine. (Later I taught Creative Writing in China. We call this irony.)

If you hire an editor worthy of the name, you should learn from that editor how to self-edit in the future. In my case it took two tries, because my first “editor” was a rip-off artist charging over ten times market value for incomplete advice.

That editor, incidentally, is named Edit Ink, and they’re listed on many “scam warning” sites. They take kickbacks from every fake agent who sends them a client. Avoid such places at all costs, and I will stress the word “costs.” Ouch!

If you choose to hire an editor, check price and reputation. For a ballpark figure, I charge a penny a word. Consider that you might never make enough selling your books to get back what you pay that editor. Do you care? That’s your decision.

Your first, most important step on the road to publication is to make your writing the best it can be.

Publication

My goal is to be published in both mediums, ebook and print. There are some readers who prefer ebooks, and some who prefer print books. The latter group is larger, but those publishers are harder to sell your writing to. I want to be published in both mediums, because I want all the readers I can get.

Before you epublish, check the contract to be sure you can publish the EDITED work in print later. I’m aware of only one e-publisher whose contract specified “no,” but my information on this is very much out of date.

Also, you might want to make sure your targeted print publisher will accept something that’s been previously published electronically. That’s a nasty little change that’s taken place over the past few years. Will I have to choose between the “big publishers” and epublication? I shouldn’t be forced to, but it’s possible. Check on this with someone more knowledgeable than I am.

If you know your book just plain won’t ever make it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD) is an option. Some of my books fall into this category. The best epublishers will simultaneously publish your work electronically and in POD format, at no cost to you.

A lot of authors swear by self-publication, but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo, all that self-editing, maybe driving around the countryside with a back seat full of books. I’m a writer, not a salesman. Maybe you’re different.

(And did I mention that I live in Thailand? And don’t have a car?)

I self-published once, in the pre-POD days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and broke even. With POD, at least it’s easier (and probably cheaper) to self-publish than it was in 1989, because you’ll never get stuck with a large unsold inventory.

POD setup fees can range anywhere from US$100 to well over $1000. Don’t pay the higher price! Price shop. Also, remember that POD places publish any author who pays, giving them a real credibility problem with some reviewers and readers, and that they do no editing or marketing.

Closing Thoughts

Here’s something you’ve heard before. When your manuscript is rejected — and it will be — remember that you aren’t being rejected. Your manuscript is.

Did you ever hang up the phone on a telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face of a salesman? Of course, and yet that salesman just moves on to the next potential customer. He knows you’re rejecting his product, not him.

Okay, in my case I’m rejecting both, but I’d never do that to an author. Neither will a publisher or an agent. All authors tell other authors not to take rejection personally, and yet we all do. Consider it a target to shoot for, then. Just keep submitting, and just keep writing.

The best way to cope with waiting times is to “submit and forget,” writing or editing other stuff while the time passes.

And finally, feel free to send an e-mail to me anytime. michaeledits@michaeledits.com. I’ll gladly share what I know with you, and it won’t cost you a cent.

I would wish you luck in your publishing endeavors, but I know there’s no luck involved. It’s all skill and diligence.

Congratulations on completing the course! No ceremonies, no degrees, and no diplomas. But on the bright side, no student loan to repay.

 

 

But Why Would You… Insult Writers Like This?

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This post, by Dean Wesley Smith, originally appeared on his site on 11/29/11.

 

A few weeks back, while out of town, I got a form letter from a traditional publisher in my SASE. Normal for writers, right? I get form letters all the time and they honestly don’t bother me.

Except I mailed the novel to that editor exactly TWO YEARS ago.

 

Who the hell do these editors think we are out here anyway?  Wow, talk about insulting to all writers. I was stunned. Did the idiot editor really think I still cared or was tracking my little submission to her after TWO YEARS?

Flash to editors: Treat this like a business, like writers are in business and your partners. I can see no reason why you would ever insult a writer like that by assuming we still cared while you screwed around for two years. You really are not the centers of the universe.

Two Years Ago… In Another Age of Publishing

Let me tell you the fun story of how this submission to this stupid editor came about in the first place. You might have guessed…from another challenge.

Starting on November 1st, 2009, a friend of mine and I decided to do a challenge and see how many novels we could get in the mail to publishers. (Remember, this was before the world actually changed for most of us. Traditional publishing was still the only real choice just two short years ago, even though Konrath and others were starting to shout about the coming new world.)

I put a new book in the mail every Monday morning to five different editors for three full months.

Thirteen different novels in thirteen weeks. (Then I had to stop and actually write another novel under contract.)

Now, before you scream, hold on and let me explain.

I didn’t write thirteen books. I just wrote the first fifty-or-so pages of each book, did a five-to-ten page synopsis of the entire novel, did a cover letter, and mailed the package with a #10 SASE. Easy to do in one week, actually. Like writing a short story per week, only with a ton more plotting. (grin)

It was great fun and I came up with some books I still want to write. Oh, and yeah, I sold two of the books and almost sold a third, but the sales force of the company couldn’t figure out how to market it. Go figure. Stunning what mailing books to editors can do for you.

Just stunning.

And can you imagine me doing that through an agent? (snort…choking with laughter at my own joke…sorry)

Here is what I did on the mailing side.

— Eight of the books were under three different and brand new pen names, but in every cover letter I told the editor who I was and gave my credentials.

— Two of the books were to specific editors for certain projects and those I sold, both as ghost novels, since the editors liked the writing and the idea.

— Three of the novels were under this DWS name which did no good at all. (grin)

— I mailed nine of the books to five editors for each book. Most of the time I told Kris I had finished a certain type of novel package and she just gave me five editors she thought might be right.

—I didn’t send any novel submission to any editor I actually knew.

— I never sent any of the novels to more than the first five editors. In other words, I never kept the books in the mail as I tell other writers to do. (I plan on writing a few of the novels now as indie published books.)

— On one book (beside the two special-project books) I only sent one package out because, to be honest, I didn’t want to write the book. (Got bored with it before I finished the submission package and mailed it to an editor only because of the challenge.)

— So the total number of novel submission packages I mailed in thirteen weeks was fifty-three. All different editors. No repeats.

Here are the basics of the responses I got.

 

Read the rest of the post, which covers the responses received and includes a set of guidelines for writer submissions, on Dean Wesley Smith’s site.

The Ebook Value Chain Is Still Sorting Itself Out, And So Are The Splits

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This post, by Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on his The Shatzkin Files blog on the Idealogical Company site on 11/27/11.

The division of the consumer’s dollar across the publishing value chain has a history of change. When I came into the business 50 years ago, discounts from publishers to retailers often topped out at 44% and even wholesalers seldom got more than 48% off the retail price on hardcover books. Today discounts into the mid-50s for big retailers and for wholesalers are common.

The top royalty for authors was, as it is now, 15% of the retail price, but there were fewer exceptions allowing the royalty to be cut, contractually or in practice. Today “high discount” clauses, calling for a royalty of something less that 15% of retail (and sometimes a lot less than 15% of retail) will often apply to more than half of the sales the publisher makes. (It is also true that in those days the agent’s standard cut was 10%. The 50% increase they’ve achieved to 15% is the single biggest change in share in the past 50 years.)

Lower royalties subsidize higher discounts and higher discounts have subsidized price cuts to the consumer. Discounting off the publishers’ suggested price by the retailer was rare until the Crown Books chain, which had a meteoric tenure as a major retailer from the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s, made it a core component of their offering. The Barnes & Noble and Borders chains, which rose to prominence during the Crown decade, used the tactic, although less aggressively than Crown.

All of these numbers: the discount determining what the retailer will pay; the royalty calculated either as a percentage of the stated retail price (usually printed on the book) or of the net paid by the retailer on a high-discount sale; and the ultimate consumer price (whether what the publisher printed or lower if the retailer wants it lower) are based on the price the publisher sets and prints on the book in the first place. The informal internal formulas for setting the price have changed over the years too and, although it is a bit hard to really compare, it would appear that the markup over manufacturing cost has also risen steadily over the past 50 years.

So we had reached a point, somewhat before we had the Internet and Amazon.com, where, on big books at least, the publisher would charge a price higher than they expected the consumer to be charged, give the retailer a discount larger than many retailers would keep as margin, and state a percentage as the per-copy royalty in the main body of the contract that didn’t apply to most of the sales. One could say there was a “virtual” world in trade book publishing’s value chain before the term was applied to our new digital reality.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Shatzkin Files.

Build Your Author Platform Through Guest Posts

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Doing guest posts on other blogs is a great opportunity to build your author platform and gain exposure to potential book buyers that you may not reach in any other way. Getting backlinks from relevant websites is an added benefit of guest posting that will enhance the search engine optimization of your own site.

 Guest posts are win-win for everyone. Readers get useful or entertaining content, bloggers get additional content for their sites, and guest posters build their reputation, get links to their websites, and have the opportunity to sell books.

Your guest posts can take the form of how-to articles, essays, interviews, or case studies, and you can even create audio or video clips. Fiction authors can discuss the writing process or topics related to their novel.

Look for blogs that are a good match for your book’s target audience, then make comments on some of their posts before proposing a guest post. Check with each blogger to see what their requirements are for the length of the post, the topic, and whether they accept previously published content. Some bloggers post their guidelines on their site.

Be sure to write a good "resource box" containing a one or two sentence bio, a call to action, and a link back to your website. The call to action should include an incentive for people to visit your site, such as a free report or sample chapters. It’s a good idea to include a link to your book’s page on Amazon as well.

One terrific way to do guest posts on other blogs is to organize a virtual book tour where you will visit a series of blogs, radio shows and other venues during a certain time frame. Learn how to organize your own successful virtual book tour in my new book, Virtual Book Tour Magic.

 

 

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

How To Make Sure Your Book Is The Best It Can Be

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As authors I believe it is our responsibility to make our books the best they can be. As independent (indie) authors it’s even more important to produce an excellent book because of the widespread criticism about the lack of quality. I’ve just sent my second novel Prophecy to my beta readers and in this video [5:55 mins], I explain my process of drafting and edits.

 

In the video, I explain:

  • How I have just sent Prophecy to my beta readers and how some people don’t consider the full extent of editing, rewriting and beta readers in the timing of their publishing schedule
     
  • The first draft to me is when you can read end to end with no missing bits or [must research this] [put fight scene here] etc. You should be able to read it end to end as a story. I  print this version out and read it in entirety.
  • I do a big structural edit at this stage. I rewrite scenes, restructure and delete sections (Here I explain why deleting 20,000 words is sometimes necessary). I added in bits I missed as well as foreshadowing and other layers to make it a better read. After this big second draft, I print it out again.
  • In this 3rd draft, I line edit, change repetitive language, fix typos etc to create a clean draft for beta readers.
     
  • Beta readers will read the book as if they bought it and give me feedback and comments. Importantly they will also mention anything that jolts them out of the ‘fictive dream’. My 7 beta readers are a mix of professional writers but also my family whose criticism is sometimes hard to take. We need thick skins in this business! They have 2.5 weeks to read and provide feedback.
  • Then I will make changes based on feedback. It won’t be everything mentioned but if there are commonalities I will fix these issues. It won’t be a complete rewrite but it will be a tidy up at this point which will create the final draft.
     
  • I will then submit to a copy-editor/proof-reader who check the grammar & typos in the final version so it is as professional as possible.
     
  • These things take time but it is critical that you put the best version of your book up for sale. I personally hate the accusations of bad quality that is laid on self-publishers these days. There’s no excuse for it!

What is your editing and rewriting process like? Do you do all these steps? If you’re an experienced writer, what changes as you write more books?

 

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

RIP Anne McCaffrey, Vale Dragonlady

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When I got up this morning I was checking through the social networks over breakfast and saw from Trent Zelazny’s Facebook page that Anne McCaffrey had died of a stroke yesterday. It hit me like a speeding a truck and a small part of my childhood died too. To say that Anne McCaffrey was instrumental in the person and writer I have grown up to be would be an understatement. I immediately put my condolences out through Twitter only to realise that the news hadn’t spread yet. I’m usually a bit behind on this stuff, but suddenly I found myself being the first person people had heard the news from. It was an unusual experience for me, but a profoundly touching one as I saw the massive heartache that Anne’s passing caused, saw so many other people as deeply affected as I was.

I discovered McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books when I was a child, maybe ten or eleven years old. Already a voracious reader, I was always on the lookout for the next great story. McCaffrey’s books transported me. When I realised there were several of them, I couldn’t believe my luck. I felt like a prospector striking gold. Always a fan of dragons, here were books that made dragons into something nobler and more beautiful than I could have imagined. Here was a world so rich in detail and populated with such wonderful characters that I truly wished I could slip between and go there. If someone had offered me a one way ticket to Pern, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

RIP Anne McCaffrey, Vale DragonladyAt about 12 years of age, I wrote my first ever fan letter to an author. I needed to tell this lady how much her books meant to me, how wonderful they were. In the back of one book I saw a note, with an address for any correspondence. I found it hard to believe that such a thing was possible, but I sat down and wrote my letter and asked my mum to post it off. Weeks passed. Weeks are a long time for a twelve-year-old and I thought, Oh well, it was worth a try. It was no surprise that someone as magical as Anne McCaffrey wouldn’t have time to write to some precocious kid in England.

Then a postcard arrived. It had dragons on the front. On the back was a handwritten response from Anne McCaffrey, telling me how pleased she was that I’d enjoyed her books, and how much she appreciated my letter. I was stunned. In my letter I’d told her how I wanted to be a writer one day too, and that I hoped I could maybe write books as good as hers. In her reply she said, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t.” That still resonates with me to this day. I do write books now, and maybe one day they’ll be as good as Anne McCaffrey’s.

I wish I could find that postcard. I kept it safe, but it was close to thirty years ago and I’ve moved many times since then, to the other side of the planet. If I ever find it, I’ll scan it and post it here. Regardless, it lives on in my memory as one of the most important things I’ve ever owned. It shaped me as much as her stories did.

Anne McCaffrey was a class act. An absolute legend who touched the lives of millions. It’s a world worse off without her in it, but we’ll have her stories forever. When I read the news over breakfast this morning, it was raining heavily. I sat at the table, staring out the window at the lancing rain and thought about the thread. I imagined riding a dragon out to burn the thread before it could harm the people below. I remembered just how magical those stories of dragons and guilds were. And all her other stories too, the Crystal universe and Ireta, Talents and Freedom, and so many more. Vale, Anne McCaffrey. If you listen really hard, you can hear the dragons keening.

 

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

3 Ways to Get Free (Or Almost Free) Training

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I’ve blogged about using a training budget before, but sometimes you may find your budget is hovering around $0. What do you do then? Spend time trolling through other author’s blogs, especially those who offer eBooks (and other types of media) covering topics you’re interested in, and prowling over social media networks. There are three things to be gained from this.

 

  1. Free information from the blog itself– Most blogs are free to read and easy to subscribe to by RSS or email. If you’re a savvy reader, you can pick up how-to info from author blogs whether the author is trying to teach their readers or not. Sometimes it’s obvious, like from http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/”>Kristen Lamb’s blog in which she teaches on how to build a killer author platform using social media. Other times it’s a matter of noticing what the blogger is not saying. Same goes for other social media like Twitter and Facebook. Find authors you want to learn from and follow them. Read enough blogs, tweets, status updates, etc. and you’ll learn an astounding amount about whatever it is you’re interested in.

    2.  

  2. Discounts are there to be had — I’m one of those people who rarely buys anything as soon as I see it. I hate buyer’s remorse. That means I’ll wait around until the book or service I want goes on sale. For instance, I really wanted to by http://www.problogger.net/”>Darren Rowse’s http://www.problogger.net/31dbbb-workbook/”>31 Days to Build a Better Blog as soon as I saw it on his site. However, there were no excerpts to read to know exactly what was in the book and I wasn’t sure my budget would handle yet another bad buy. (FYI this eBook is one of the better training buys I’ve purchased in several months.)I waited to buy the eBook until I read a tweet that said a group called http://www.thesitsgirls.com/”>the SITS Girls were signing up women bloggers to take the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge and Darren was discounting the price of the eBook for all those who signed up. Jackpot! Not only could I get the eBook at a discounted price, but I would have a large group of women to work with. Waiting can be hard, but it’s worth it when you get what you want at a price you can afford.

    3.  

  3. Sometimes a freebie is just a click away — Another author I truly admire is http://www.jakonrath.com/”>J.A. Konrath. He has found a way to make very good money on his eBooks through Amazon’s Kindle store, so, naturally, I follow http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/”>his blog closely. He also has an eBook called http://www.amazon.com/Newbies-Publishing-Everything-Writer-ebook/dp/B003I6496Y“>The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, which, like 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, I really wanted. The price wasn’t bad, but, again, no excerpts. Then I discovered that Joe has made the eBook available for free on his website. (Thanks, Joe!) Voila! A little research and I had my eBook for free in a version I can read on any laptop, computer or eReader. That won’t be the case for every book or training series you might want, but it’s worth a little “foot work” to see if it’s out there (and not a pirated version!).

    4.  

Finding what you need can take some time, but it’s worth it for good training.

Where have you discovered a great deal?

Important upcoming giveaway…

I believe prayer is an important part of life, especially during Advent and Lent. I also know that sometimes we get stuck in the details and make having a conversation with our loving Creator more difficult than it needs to be. That’s why I wrote Simply Prayer, to give you some tools to break through what’s holding you back.

With that in mind, I’m giving away a free copy of the Simply Prayer ebook during Advent (Nov. 27-Dec. 26) and during Lent (Feb. 22-Apr. 9).

Watch here for more details or follow me on twitter (@virginiaripple)

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s The Edge of Eternity blog.

The Future Of Books And Publishing

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In the last week there have been two great audio interviews on the future of books. I would say it’s not the future but more current, emerging and becoming more mainstream every day. I recommend you listen to them both! They will educate and inspire you and that’s what this blog is all about :)

 

The Future of Books and Publishing at Six Pixels of Separation

There’s one podcast I listen to avidly and that is Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation. It’s primarily a marketing blog and podcast but also talks a lot about new media, publishing and Mitch interviews a lot of authors of business books. It’s not usually aimed at writers but this episode is a definite must-listen podcast for those of you who enjoy audio.

Click here for The Future of Books and Publishing with Mitch Joel and Hugh McGuire

Here are some key points I found interesting:

  • Hugh’s new software PressBooks (currently in beta) is a simple online book production tool. It’s based on WordPress software and produces a print book as well as an ebook but it’s also all online so it can be given away for free as well. This enables all the analytics to be tracked as people join in and share online.
  • How Amazon is a tech company with an amazing amount of analytics on their customers which enables them to compete aggressively. (For us as authors, this is a great thing as it fuels the Amazon algorithms that help sell our books.)
  • The key thing is the connection between readers and authors. You have to control that connection to the customer and Amazon has this. (This is also why we are building online platforms, so we can connect directly to readers)
  • “You have talent on one side and customers on the other and the middle is the engine of marketing.” Mitch Joel. Connecting the two is the key and Amazon has this.
  • Amazon as a publisher has signed Deepak Chopra now, as well as a lot of other authors including Tim Ferriss.
  • A discussion on the value of print books and books in general. The way of reading on the Kindle with sampling and having no time for books that don’t immediately grab you.
  • “It’s the context, not the container.” This underlies everything. What can you do as a writer/publisher to make things better for your reader? This is the important thing.

You can find Mitch Joel at Six Pixels of Separation and on twitter @mitchjoel

You can find Hugh McGuire at HughMcGuire.net and on twitter @hughmcguire

On the future of books: A discussion with Seth Godin

In an interview with Leo Babauta on Zen Habits, thought leader and marketing guru Seth Godin talks about:

  • How the current changes in publishing are scary for those people who want someone to pick them and just write but fantastically exciting for those writers who can embrace the change and pick themselves
  • There is an abundance of shelf-space online. It’s not about shelf space, it’s about finding a tribe and developing relationships and selling to those people. Your job is to connect and create your own community around your work. Then you have the power to market to them. It’s not about the table by the cash register at Borders, it’s your ability to attract a passionate tribe and then fulfil the needs of those people.
  • Really think about what needs to go into a physical book form and whether your ideas could be disseminated in other ways. Seth mentions how books will become 99c or $1.99 ebooks that people devour like popcorn (the John Locke model) and then a few very specific books that will be hardback or collector’s items and many more that will need to be sold to the tribe e.g. idea type books like his own.

There’s much more in this interview and one of my takeaways is that I feel I’m in the right place for the publishing shift. When I started this blog, there was a huge stigma against self-publishing but that lessens everyday and these two interviews on such high profile blogs prove that this model is not going away.

Click here to download the interview with Seth Godin on the future of books

Read the blog on The Domino Project, Seth’s (very successful) experiment in publishing here

Leo’s blog Zen Habits is also brilliant and focuses on minimalism if that’s something you’re interested in.

What do you think? Are you excited about what’s happening in the publishing industry?

 

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Book Marketing Toolbox – Stock Photos and Illustrations

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If you’re looking for just the right image to use on your website or books, you can find photos and illustrations online at reasonable prices.

Here are just a few of the ways you can use stock photos and illustrations:

 

• Illustrate blog posts to reinforce the message and break up large blogs of text.
• Use images on covers for books and ebooks.
• Find arrows, buttons, guarantee seals, and other graphics for web pages.

The toolbox photo on this post came from my favorite stock image site, iStockPhoto.
Bigstock is another good source. Right now, Bigstock is offering a 50% discount on the first image purchased by new customers. I’m not sure if the offer has an expiration date.

Other good sources for photos and illustrations include Dreamstime and Crestock. On Stock.Xchng you’ll find free photos mixed in with links to paid images on iStockPhoto.

All of these sites offer royalty-free images that can be used for marketing purposes, but check the license agreement if you have any questions about the specific uses that are allowed. The cost is usually about $2 to $3 for small photos suitable for online use. Prices are a little higher for larger, high-resolution photos and for illustrations, but still reasonable.

For free photos to use in blog posts, check out the Creative Commons section of Flickr. Use the search box on this page to look for an appropriate image. When you find a photo you like, check the License section in the right column to find out how you may use the photo and what attribution is required.

For more tips on buying and using images, see this article.

Now, go forth and illustrate! 

 

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

The Seven Types of Pirate – Which Are You?

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This post, by Richard Curtis and Anthony Damasco, originally appeared on e-reads in October of 2010, and was reprinted on the same site 10/27/11.

The ability of the human mind to rationalize is extraordinary. Take piracy. Among the many comments we have received in response to our postings on the subject, we have heard every rationalization under the sun, ranging from “I didn’t know it was copyrighted” to “I don’t know what copyright is” to “DRM sucks” to “The e-book wasn’t available on legitimate retail sites” to “Information wants to be free” to “I’m not reselling, just sharing with friends” to “The percentage of pirated books is an insignificant fraction of sales through legitimate channels” etc. etc.

Piracy is something that other people do. When we do it there’s always a good excuse. When other people do it, it’s as heinous as grand theft auto.

Clearly, there is a disconnect between the phenomenon of rampant piracy and the scarcity of perpetrators, and the reason seems to be semantic. If we can develop better definitions we may be able to develop better solutions.

Towards that end we offer the following categories of pirate:

1. The Innocent

Young children, technologically inexperienced individuals and others who know nothing about copyright law or Internet etiquette and don’t realize they may be stealing when they download music or e-books. People who simply don’t know better.

2. The Ignorant

These are downloaders who know enough about copyright law to understand the difference between right and wrong, but choose to ignore or flout it.

Though many who fall into this category are young, the classification includes adults, some of whom are highly educated – business people, computer engineers and other professionals who should know better.

We’re giving Innocents/Ignorants the benefit of the doubt by describing their acts of downloading as “inadvertent” or “improper” rather than “illegal.” But if nothing else they must be aware of the legal principle that ignorance of the law is no excuse. If an aggrieved publisher decides to sue you for illegally downloading e-books – as has been done in the music and movie fields – your case will not be automatically dismissed because you didn’t know it was against the law.

3. The Customer

These are people who paid for one version of a book and feel entitled to acquire other versions without paying for them. A good example is the case of a consumer who buys a hardcover edition of a bestselling novel and feels justified in downloading a pirated e-book because the publisher’s legitimate e-book version has not yet been released. No less a personage than the New York Times‘s own ethical arbiter felt that a customer has the right to do this. (See NY Times Ethicist Condones Ripping Off E-Books). In other cases, consumers impatient with DRM restrictions will download a ripped off version of a file instead of paying for it and dealing with customer support.

 

Read the rest of the post, which covers 4 more types of pirate, on e-reads.

Getting A Big Name To Write Your Book’s Foreword: An Introduction For Self-Publishers

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Once again, we are happy to promote a post from member Joseph C. Kunz Jr.’s Publetariat blog to the front page.

Getting a notable VIP, industry guru, or media celebrity to write the foreword for your book is a great way to jump-start bigger sales and get positive publicity for your book. If you are an unknown author, getting a notable leader in your field to write your foreword is essential if you want to get readers to take a chance on you and buy your book. Having your name associated with an industry leader will greatly enhance your credibility within your industry and with your readers. 

Forewords give the endorser another place to discuss and show-off their skills and knowledge. It also gives them and an opportunity to connect with your reading audience in a deeper, more meaningful way. This is a great selling point to consider when requesting this service from someone. You get a foreword for your book that will help improve your sales, and the foreword author gets additional exposure and credibility for their own name and business. It’s a win-win situation for the book’s author and the foreword’s author.

The process of getting a foreword written is the same as with endorsements. But instead of simply writing a few sentences endorsing your book, the endorser writes what amounts to being a glorified recommendation letter to the reader. It can be as short as several paragraphs or as long as a few pages, and gives, in greater detail, the reasons why the industry guru recommends your book.

One thing you should remember – that when you ask a VIP to write your book’s foreword, that you should not be selling your prospect on your book’s good points. You need to sell them on their own value as a potential endorser of your book. In other words, don’t start off by telling them how great your book is. Start by saying why you admire their opinion and why it’s important for you to have their opinion included in your book. Also, make sure that you share your reasons for writing the book. Discuss the subject of your book in detail.  Finally, discuss who the market is that your book is addressing so that the endorser can readily see that you are marketing your book to the same audience that they serve. Doing this allows them to see the advantage in having their name visible to your network of readers. They are looking to connect with their own audience as much as you are.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

Denying the Muse

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This post, by T.L. Tyson, originally appeared on her blog on 11/1/11.

Like I’ve said a handful times before, I used to be the Queen of beginnings. For the longest time, I wrote stories I never finished. Beginning after beginning, start after start and nothing to show for it, except a truck load of half stories that I never wrapped up. I feel this is the curse of an overactive imagination.

A lot of writers talk about their ‘muse’. This is basically what we call our imagination. Some people even name them, things like Bob and Flutterbutt DeBarnacle, and give them characteristics. The idea of a muse is a bit crazy if you break it down. A lot of non-writers don’t understand why we have them. Well, a muse to a writer is much like an invisible friend is to a child. They keep us company when we’re all alone, or in really boring, never-ending business meetings. In a lot of ways they keep us sane, while giving the world the impression we’re completely off our rocker.

Writers, like fingerprints, are all uniquely different.

Some need complete silence while others need music. There are some people who can create under any circumstances. They have the luxury of being able to shut the world around them out. Others need to lock themselves away, burrowing themselves in a dank, dark cave as far away from humanity as possible. Some even write with their laptops precariously perched on the arm of their couch with the television playing the latest episode of something they can pay little attention to, a cat laying across one arm and a dog’s head in their lap. The later might be close to what I experience on a day to day basis.

But that’s all physical environment and, in reality, there is another environment writers are tested with every day. The mental environment. Humans are moody bastards. We allow the people around us to dictate our moods, as well as the weather and trivial things like how many dishes are in the sink. There are some writers out there who can write no matter what mood they are in. I hate them with my whole heart. Just kidding. Well, sort of. I just went through a very tedious couple of months where I was unable to write a word. Even the outgoing dirty emails I like to send screeched to a halt. (That’s another joke.) For me, I need a mental environment like a soothing rainy day, calm, slightly gray and a total sense of not caring.

 

Read the rest of the post (and see the funny cartoon, too!) on T.L. Tyson‘s blog.

No Hurry to Publish

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This post, by Marika Flatt, originally appeared as a guest post on Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer site on 11/1/11.

In today’s guest post Marika Flatt, founder of PR by the Book, shares her wisdom about choosing your pub date and planning ahead for publicity.

This blog post is for all you authors out there who are self-publishing, now or in the future! Let’s start with the big picture. There is a reason why it takes so long for the publishing process to roll out with publishing houses. It’s not unusual for there to be an 18-month window (or longer) between a publisher accepting a manuscript and the publication date. There are a myriad of reasons why this is. So much has to be done: editing, cover design, more editing, seeding the distribution pipeline, sales meetings, more editing, printing galleys (also called ARCs/ advanced review copies), etc.

The publicity department starts working on a title approximately six months prior to the pub date. The reason for this is because they want to send galleys to publications that are book review publications, industry publications (for that topic, such as education magazines) and national media outlets (such as national TV programs). This process takes time. And, for six months leading up to pub date, the publicists are pitching, pitching, pitching (and lunching with producers for national TV shows).

 

So, self-published authors . . . what’s the big hurry? I talk to one or two authors per week who tell me that their pub (publication) date is this month or next month and what can we do?? First of all, you don’t want your pub date to ever be in November or December (unless it’s a holiday book).  Don’t get me wrong. Publicists stay busy during November and December, but not on books that are releasing those months. So, why?

The publishing industry has two big time frames for releasing books: the Fall (primarily September and October) and the Spring (primarily March and April). There are a few other months that are popular for releasing books, depending on genres/ topics: January for New Year’s resolution-oriented titles: February for relationship books and books from African-American authors since it’s Black History Month; May and June for beach reads, etc.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Savvy Book Marketer.

Z Winters: YA Dystopians

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For a long time I’ve thought about trying my hand at writing YA dystopian novels. It’s a genre I really enjoy and I have a ton of creepy ideas for them. I hadn’t pursued it because I felt like I’d need to create ANOTHER identity. And really, there are only so many separate brands I can maintain. It gets difficult, especially when you are building brands and not having crossover/cross-pollination. But for some reason there seem to be a lot of paranormal romance readers who also read YA dystopian. I have no idea why this is. And I fit into that camp as well. I enjoy reading both genres.

 

So I thought I didn’t really want to create a whole other identity somewhere, just a slight branding distinction. Like if I’m going to write both genres, I don’t want someone to pick up a PNR from me expecting YA dystopian or vice versa. But since there is a lot of crossover potential, as long as it’s easy to tell which is which at a glance, there should be no problem with keeping it all in the family so to speak.

I set up a Facebook fan page for Z Winters. Yes, that’s my sad little fan page with nothing on it.

On Twitter, I am Z_Winters (Don’t forget the underscore.)

And I also purchased Zwinters.com and Zwinters.net

So I’m ready to roll with that when I get ready to. Please note, I am NOT changing my name. I am simply adding a new brand identity. Zoe Winters will still be there and she will continue to write paranormal romance. (No, that didn’t sound schizophrenic at all!) Z Winters will write YA dystopians. I will be cross-promoting the names also.

Those who are waiting for more Pretverse, don’t worry. I am not writing my dystopian until I get Dark Mercy (the novella/novelette coming in November), The Catalyst (tentative title for book 3) and LifeCycle (book 4), out the door to you. I just have this awesome idea that’s been percolating and really want to write it. And even though there are some dystopian type themes in Pretverse which will be expanded upon, this particular idea won’t work in that world and doesn’t fit a paranormal structure.

I’m not sure how many dystopians I’m going to write. I’ll probably publish them less frequently unless I just get on a tear with ideas. But by keeping the pen names so closely linked together, I feel like it will be less stressful/overwhelming trying to build a totally separate brand with a totally new readership because I anticipate a lot of the Zoe Winters readers will also read Z and vice versa.

And that’s all I have to say about that. :)

 

 

This is a reprint from Zoe Winters‘ weblog.