Welcome to a New Day

Well, actually, a new year.

 If you haven't already thought of what your plan is for 2013, now's a good time to do it.

 What do you hope/plan to accomplish over the next 12 months?

 Will you complete a new novel? Will you edit and perfect the book you've been working on?

 Is your manuscript ready, but you're not sure it's ready to let others see it? Is 2013 the time when you hand it off to a trusted editor or writer friend for their comments and notes?

 Have you been accumulating a list of agents who would be a fit for your book? If not, now's a good time to start that list. If you have a list, will you start querying in 2013?

 Or are you thinking of self-publishing? Have you researched how to do that? Will you go for an ebook first or print?

 If you don't know how to self-publish, have you looked for a class that will teach you or instructions online?

 Do you have a writing buddy who's open to your questions?
 Are you open to help that buddy with their questions?

 Have you already developed a plan for marketing your book?
 Do you have a Facebook page or an Author Facebook page?
 Are you on Twitter? Do you have a blog? A website?

 It's a new year. Now's the time to organize your future plans and start putting them into action.

What Are You Doing?

Today, I’m over on The Blood-Red Pencil talking about self-publishing and authors taking on more and more duties. I hope you’ll come over, read the post, then tell us what you’re doing or plan to do to learn about “doing it yourself” and to promote your books.

I’ll start you off by telling you three things I’m doing.
1. I recently met with two other authors for an overnight confab about self-publishing and promotion ideas.
2. I’m currently participating in an online class on how to publish via Kindle.
3. Tomorrow, I’m attending an all-day conference on publishing.

So, link on by and share your ideas.

Is Apple Evil?

According to technology writer Ed Bott, he’s read many license agreements looking for the gotchas in the fine print. What he found in Apple’s license agreement for its new iBooks Author program caused him to call it “mind-bogglingly greedy and evil.”

The paragraph that most bothered him was this one:

Apple will not be responsible for any costs, expenses, damages, losses (including
without limitation lost business opportunities or lost profits) or other liabilities you may incur as a result of your use of this Apple Software, including without limitation the fact that your Work may not be selected for distribution by Apple.

He says this paragraph means that if you submit your book to Apple and they reject it, you can’t legally sell it anywhere, at least not in that form. In other words, you would have to throw away all the formatting you did in iBooks Author and re-format it. He goes so far as to say:

Outputting as PDF would preserve the formatting, but again the license would appear to prohibit you from selling that work, because it was generated by iBooks Author.

Bott says he’ll be writing more on this topic, so if you want to follow him, check out his blog, The Ed Bott Report.

Thanks to James V. Lee and Timothy J. Bruce for emailing me about this article.

Making It Easy

Ecommerce Times had an article recently that announced something most writers already know.

 … Amazon owns a company that is determined to make self-publishing easier. That company is called CreateSpace.

Using Amazon, you can print your book in paperback form. You can also upload it into Kindle format. Kindle formatting doesn’t mean the reader has to have a Kindle to read it. I read Kindle books on my iPad because I have a Kindle app. But if you want it available in both formats, you have to upload it to Kindle Direct Publishing and Create Spacde. But, and this is a big but, the article says:

In my experience, both formats are relatively easy to use.... Just about as easy as pie.

The author of the article, Theodore F. di Stefano, says:

As people ordered books, they were printed. When I wanted a pile of books for a book signing, I would merely order the books at author's prices and the books would be at my doorstep within a matter of a few days…

Plus, if he needed assistance, he hit the “call me” link and talked to a technician.

‘Course, once the book is printed (or put into e-form), it’s up to you to market it, although CreateSpace can help you with that as well – I assume for a fee.

It’s a good article to read and might ease your fears about trying to self-publish.

Any of you used CreateSpace? What did you think of it?

A Tale of Success

USAToday has an article about one author’s success with e-books that is an interesting read. The article starts with the main reason why authors move from the “old” way of publishing to self-publishing:

Money. (Isn't it always about money?) Instead of earning an 8% royalty on a $7.99 paperback, about 65 cents, the author can earn 70% on a $2.99 book, about $2.09 (this depends on the royalty structure, which can get boringly complicated). The important thing: I bet you noticed the reader benefits, too. Who wouldn't rather get the same book for $3 instead of $8?

The article focuses on author Marie Force, whom Joyce Lamb, the writer of the article, calls a best-selling author. Lamb asked why Force self-published. To which she answered:

Well, I wasn't a best-selling author until I self-published. My self-published books propelled me to the Kindle top 100 on Amazon and the Nook top 100 on Barnes & Noble.

Force pushes herself to get her work out to the public:

 Between my own books and books I had coming from two publishers, I had a new book out every month from November 2010 to August 2011. I believe the regular releases built momentum and excitement for my two series.

She doesn’t just depend on her quantity of books to draw in readers:

Another thing that has made self-publishing such a viable option for authors is the daily contact we now have with our readers through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, e-mail, etc. We are able to foster those relationships in ways we never could before social media became a part of everyday life. It's a different experience for a reader who feels she is buying her friend's book, rather than an author she doesn't know personally. I've tried to be very accessible to my readers, and have been blessed with many new friends and a loyal following.

Her sales figures keep accumulating.

These kinds of success stories motivate more writers to turn to self-publishing and e-publishing. Do any of you have your own tale of success?

Publishing an eBook

During my travels around cyberspace, I came across a three-part series on publishing your own eBook. The info and advice comes from a journalist, Robert Niles.

In Part one, A journalist's guide to eBook publishing - part one, he talks about choosing the subject of your book and gathering information.

In Part two, A journalist's guide to eBook publishing - part two, he gets into formatting, providing what he calls “the cheapstake's method to eBook publishing.” Here he covers buying an ISBN and creating or paying for a cover design. Then he gets down to the nitty-gritty of things like using HTML and XML, naming your files, coding problems, and the copyright page. He ends with advice and notes on editing your HTML code.

In Part three, A journalist's guide to eBook publishing - part three, Niles focuses on compiling all your information into eBook format. He offers tips on what you need to know to be accepted by Amazon and Barnes and Noble. He links to the Big Three’s direct publishing programs, lists the steps in Mobipocket Creator, and talks about uploading to iTunes Producer.

Then he leaves the promotion of your book up to you, but he’ll get you to that point. It seems like things are constantly changing, but for now, this is a pretty good explanation of what you have to do to self-publish your own eBook.

Downside of E-Pubbing

E-pubbing is so fast and easy, anyone can do it. And millions do. More e-books than print books are being made. There’s no longer that middle gate authors had to get past (usually an agent or an editor) who blocked/opened the path from writer to reader. The process has been made relatively easy for those wanting to publish their own books.

But easy, fast, and money usually draw in people other than those wanting to get their books out to the public. It also draws in scam artists.

I read an article by John Naughton in The Observer called: Now anyone can ‘write’ a book. First, find some words… And by “find” he means it.

One of the most prolific self-publishers on the site is Manuel Ortiz Braschi. When I last checked he had edited, authored or co-authored no fewer than 3,255 ebooks. Mr Braschi is clearly a man of Herculean energy and wide learning, who ranges effortlessly from How to Become a Lethal Weapon in Two Weeks (£1.40) to Herbs 101: How to Plant, Grow & Cook with Natural Herbs (£0.70) while taking in Potty Training! The Ultimate Potty Training Guide! (£0.69).

How could he be an expert in all of those areas? He can’t. According to the article, Braschi is one of many spammers who

 "scrape" content from websites or, in some cases, actually lift entire texts, and republish them as ebooks. And, in a neat twist, each of these ersatz "books" can be marketed under several different titles as coming from different authors.

One “entrepreneur” is marketing a video course on how to post 10 to 20 new Kindle books every day by handing “the video course to your spouse, your assistant, your brother... heck – even hand it to your 10-year-old kid!”

The article claims Kindle self-publishing is “metamorphosing into a new kind of lucrative spam.” It even answers its own question as to why Kindle would allow this to happen:

 Could the fact that it takes a 30% slice of every transaction have anything to do with it? 

My question is: Can anything be done to stop this kind of blatant plagiarism? This is going to keep happening. It’s too easy for spammers to do and too lucrative for them to stop.

Kirkus Review Guaranteed

If you’re an author, you know that getting a Kirkus Review is a big deal. Being able to quote from a positive Kirkus Review can get you sales and prestige. Now, Outskirts Press, “the fastest growing self-publishing and book marketing company,” has a marketing option that will guarantee the author a review by a Kirkus reviewer.

Outskirts Press says the reviewer will “provide one hundred percent honest feedback that can be used by an author as a promotional tool.” They also claim:

"It's an excellent way for authors to quickly get people 'buzzing' about their books."

A full review of two to three hundred words will be ready within ten to twelve weeks and authors can use the review as they see fit: on the back cover of their books, on their own sites, in letters to agents, publishers, librarians or book store owners, or in any of their other marketing collateral.

Outskirts is not guaranteeing the author a positive review, but they do say:

 … even one praiseworthy phrase from a Kirkus reviewer becomes potent advertising copy for a new author's book.

You can read all about their new Kirkus Guaranteed Review service in their Press Release.

What do you think about this?

Author Bob Sanchez

 Bob Sanchez is the author of When Pigs Fly, (an iUniverse Star book), Getting Lucky, and Little Mountain. He’s also Nonfiction Editor of The Internet Review of Books and is active in the El Paso Writers' League, and the Internet Writing Workshop. And today he’s here on Straight From Hel. I enticed him to stop by on his book tour for Little Mountain.

I’m excited he’s here because not only is Bob an excellent writer and blogger, he’s very willing to share with others his experience diving into the publishing pool.

Please welcome Bob Sanchez.

The Little Mountain of Publishing

Thanks so much for hosting me on my tour, Helen!

My promotional focus has changed with the publication of Little Mountain, my third novel. Some of this is due to where I live, far from a population center where I can readily drive. A couple of years ago I drove 120 miles round trip to do a reading at a library. They’d even put my name up in a big marquee, but I sold only two copies of my book. It was fun reading to a pair of nice librarians, but at that rate having a bestseller would have bankrupted me.

The hard fact is that writers can’t control how many books we sell—inducing guilt trips among friends and relatives will only take us so far. What we can control is expenses, so that when revenue comes in it won’t seem like such a drop in the bucket.

 My first two books had cost me around $1200 each at iUniverse. Yes, they provided various services that were by and large adequate. But Little Mountain cost only $39 at CreateSpace and could have been free. I paid a local graphic artist $150 to create my basic cover design. An excellent local writer gave the novel a final pass in exchange for my doing the same for her. As for the ebook version, I learned how to do it myself for free.

Next, I’m not doing any book signings that involve driving out of town, unless other business takes me there anyway. I’m doing no mass mailings. For When Pigs Fly, my first book, iUniverse persuaded me to spend an amount I’ve tried to forget to email an ad to 500,000 book buyers, and the campaign barely nudged my Amazon ranking. (If you’re looking for a sinkhole for your excess cash, buy into an online ad campaign.) The last I heard from iUniverse was an email wanting me to spend $12,999 to turn my book into a screenplay. My reply: “You've got to be kidding me. No thank you.” I never heard from them again.

So now I focus on cyberspace: blogs, virtual tours like this one, meeting new people online usually one at a time. I ask people for Amazon reviews or for permission to quote them when they tell me something nice in an email. If they decline, which no one has done yet, that’s perfectly okay. My email signature reminds people about my blog and my books, costing me nothing. I use Twitter and Facebook sparingly so far. Part of that has been that it’s time-consuming, and part is that it’s hard to strike the right balance. Don’t do it at all, and you’re selling yourself short; do it too much, and you’re seen as crass. As time goes on, I’ll gladly share my experiences with you.

What do the rest of you do to promote your work?

I hope you’ll visit all the great blogs on my tour. Please post a comment for a chance to win an ebook or signed paperback copy of one of my novels. And thanks for visiting!

Thank you Bob!

If you’d like to know more about Bob’s latest book, you can purchase/check out Little Mountain on Amazon.

Before you do that, though, leave a comment and share your ideas for promoting your books.

Bookstores are Adapting

Some of you may remember a bit of a rant I went on about Bookstores last month. In that post I said:

if bookstores want to stay “the primary vehicle for book discovery” they need to totally revamp their thinking.

Well, people listened to me! Okay, they never even heard of me, but some bookstores ARE taking the initiative to save themselves. Yay! I love bookstores.

Publishers Weekly has an article about how some bookstores are developing new concepts of what a bookstore is. They are reimagining their stores.

"I think there's hope," said events director Karen West of Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., which is considering adding an Espresso Book Machine to offer self-publishing to those at the store's writing conferences.

HugoBookstores, which has three locations in greater Boston, will begin testing knitting next month. … co-owner John Hugo decided yarn could be the right sideline.

Bluestockings in New York City, for example, has begun commissioning cards from local artists, while [Words] in Maplewood, N.J., stocks T-shirts from all nine local elementary schools.

At McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., manager Matt Norcross does tech seminars for customers to show them how to download a digital e-book and associate e-books with his store.

At Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., co-owner Chuck Robinson has begun selling iPads through an agreement he worked out on his own with a local Apple dealer, who built a kiosk in his store.

What ideas do you have to keep bookstores relevant and in business?

Author L.J. Sellers

 L.J. Sellers, an award-winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series: The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, Thrilled to Death, Passions of the Dead, and Dying for Justice. Her novels have been highly praised by Mystery Scene and Spinetingler magazines, and all four are on Amazon Kindle’s bestselling police procedural list. L.J. also has two standalone thrillers: The Baby Thief and The Suicide Effect. When not plotting murders, she enjoys performing standup comedy, cycling, social networking, and attending mystery conferences. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes.


You can check out her books online:
The Sex Club
Secrets to Die For
Thrilled to Death
Passions of the Dead

L.J. agreed to answer my questions about self-publishing and e-publishing. Having done it herself (and had great success!), she has a lot of advice to offer.

Please welcome L.J. Sellers.

At what point do you quit looking for a major or regional publisher?

 A lot of writers are asking themselves that question right now. I hear from authors all the time and many are saying. “I’ll give the query process two more months, then I’m going to self-publish this as an e-book” or “I have this book out on submission, but if nothing happens, I’m going indie too.”

If your dream is to be published by a New York press, then there’s no harm in trying that route. But one of the main factors that led me to leave my publisher was the waiting time. I had books completed and scheduled to be released in the summers of 2011, 2012, and 2013. I started thinking about how much money I could make on my own in the meantime if I published the e-books immediately. I decided not to wait. For me, life is too short to publish under someone else’s schedule. Especially considering how rapidly the publishing industry is changing and how many midsize publishers have already gone out of business.

How in the world do you learn how to publish your own books?

 There are many author forums and listservs in which writers help each other with every aspect of the publishing business. In addition, Amazon, which is the best place to self-publish both print and digital formats, has made it very easy and also offers a lot of guidance.
.
What do you do first? How do you decide which e-format to start with?

The first step is to have your manuscript professionally edited. While that’s in process, you need to find a cover designer and develop a professional cover. The e-book format you upload depends on the distributor. This can get complex, but the smartest move is to hire a professional formatter to convert your manuscript and cover into an e-book. Most formatters send two files types, mobi and epub, which can be uploaded to various distributors. I’ve also blogged about the various places to self-publish your e-books.

How do you maintain an outside job while you publish and promote?

 This is the most difficult aspect. Once you decide to be your own publisher, a part of your writing time will go toward the production process. Another chunk of time must be dedicated to promotion, and unlike production, promotion is ongoing. For a lot of writers, this is the Catch 22. They don’t have time to promote because they have a day job. But without extensive promotion, they never make enough money from their novels to quit their day jobs. You have to be prepared to work 70 hours a week for however long it takes. I’ve been working those kinds of hours for five years, but it wasn’t until I left my publisher and published all my stories as e-books that I started making a living as a novelist. Now writing and promoting is my day job.

Is it feasible for the ordinary writer to get to the point that they make enough off their books to quit the outside job?

Absolutely. I recently reached that point myself. Many other writers are doing even better with their e-books. For more inspiration, read J.A. Konrath’s blog, starting with my guest post. The promotion takes a lot of time at first, but the results can happen very quickly.

How do you find someone to do your cover—and do it so well it looks professional?

 Again, there are writer forums where people are happy to give referrals, and graphic artists also participate in the conversations. Writers can find examples of independently published covers they like and ask the author for a referral to the graphic designer. I get that question a lot about my covers and I’m happy to send people to Gwen Rhoads.

What about all the details, like the ISBN, the copyrights, getting it into bookstores, etc.?

Copyright can be registered online for $35, and you can purchase a single ISBN or a block of ten ISBNs from Bowker. For print books, the two best POD publishers are CreateSpace and Lightening Source, and they can make your book available to bookstores for a small setup fee. As for getting bookstores to stock your novels, that’s the most challenging aspect of self-publishing or even publishing with a small press. But you can make enough money selling e-books that print sales don’t even matter.

How do you not go crazy, let alone write the next book?

You have to be a little crazy to start with to be a successful novelist! You also have to be driven and to get used to feeling like you have more to do than you can possibly accomplish. Not everyone can live like that, but I thrive on it. Still, I have some days when I feel overwhelmed and I simply have to walk away from the to-do list for a few hours. Making to-do lists is essential for me. I have lists for the day, the week, and the month. I have lists for promotional ideas, lists of reviewers/websites to contact, and lists of blogs to write. It’s endless, but for me, it’s also a lot of fun.

Thank you, L.J.

This was so helpful! If you have questions or comments for L.J. Sellers, leave them here. She’ll be checking in today.

Dual Success

Can you be successful at being both a writer and a publisher? According to Richard Curtis in e-reads, probably not. The article starts with this paragraph:

Do authors make good publishers? The answer is No. But it’s fascinating to watch them try.

He uses three authors to explain his reasoning: Cory Doctorow, Seth Godin, and J.A. Konrath. Of those three, Konrath has had the most success, mainly because his name is so well-known by the reading public.

You can read the full article, then draw your own opinions. Curtis does quote from Konrath’s blog (the most successful of those big authors going to self-publishing):

Right now, the best way to begin a writing career is to find a good literary agent and sell the book to a well-respected print publisher. In other words, don’t do it on your own unless you completely understand what you’re doing.

I know a lot of you are self-publishing. Do you think you’re successful? Are you making money yet (above what it cost you to publish)? Would you rather publish on your own or would you rather have a “house” take you on?

Outskirts’ Best Book Cover

Outskirts Press is holding a book cover contest. They’re featuring 6 book covers and you can go vote on the one you think is best. And the winner will get a Book Teaser from Outskirts Press to help promote the book “on popular video sharing sites such as YouTube, mySpace and MetaCafe.”

The six books are ones chosen by and published through Outskirts Press, which calls the books “self published.” Personally, it’s difficult to believe a company that charges to publish your book is really a “self-publishing leader.”

If you want to vote on the books, the good news, according to the press release, is that “Voting takes only seconds and is completely free.”

Self-Publishing and MetaData

If you want readers to find your self-published work, you need to know about Metadata. To help, I’m linking to a very informative post called “A Self-Publisher’s Guide to Metadata for Books.” Wondering what metadata is? It’s keywords that drive searches. When someone is searching for your book, say on Google, they enter phrases or words. It could be your name or book title, but it could also be something like “sci-fi historical romance.” If you know your audience, you can determine what your meta tagwords are. [Be sure to come back this Thursday when Alex J. Cavanaugh will be here to talk about knowing your audience.]

Carla King, the author of this article, takes you through providing the metadata for your book. She covers these topics:
Identifying Your Keywords
Provide Metadata for Your Book on Bowker
Metadata in Documents and Other Media
Metadata on Reseller Sites
Metadata on Social Media Sites
The Future of Metadata

It’s a very interesting article – worth reading and saving for future reference. Using metadata points readers to your book.

How many of you use metadata? Did you know you can create metadata for your Facebook “like” page? Did you know when you upload your book in Kindle format to Amazon, you have an opportunity to create metadata that point to your book?

Importance of Book Covers

We’ve talked before here on Straight From Hel about how important book covers are. Arielle Ford over on The Huffington Post agrees. She calls your bookcover “Your #1 Best Marketing Tool – Guaranteed!”

…in publishing, there is a magnificent tool that changes the playing field. A tool that, if created and used properly, can quickly and seamlessly create intense interest in you, your creation and your expertise.

The magic key that opens the door to success with any book is your book cover.

I don’t know that the cover is the “magic key that opens the door to success,” but it is important. You’re in a store. You pick up a book, look at the cover, and set it down. The cover doesn’t appeal to you.

But a compelling book cover can draw the reader in and get them to read the back cover blurb, read the opening, and then buy your book.

Simply put, a book cover, designed and leveraged properly, and coupled with your great content can do all this for you and much more.

Those of you who have self-published, did you go the extra mile or the extra bucks to make your covers professional looking? Or do you depend on the content to sell your book?

Writing Contest with a Twist

Been thinking about self-publishing or what’s sometimes called indie book publishing? There’s now a contest to help you, if you win, of course.

The non-profit San Francisco Writers Conference and San Francisco Writers University announced they are partnering with indie book publishing leader Author Solutions, Inc., and its integrated author marketing division, AuthorHive, to launch the Indie Publishing Contest for writers.

It’ll cost you $35 to enter, though, in one of three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and children’s. Or, if your book is poetry, It’s $25.

The winners in each of the four categories can choose between a one-hour consultation with an agent or a free publishing package from an Author Solutions Imprint, plus publicity. If you’re the Grand Prize winner, you receive an indie publishing contract. It doesn’t include money, but you can link over to see the other things it does include.

Publishing on Amazon

Yesterday, I stumbled onto a tutorial that seemed pretty clear and straightforward on how to get your self-published book on Amazon, which would allow people to read your book on a Kindle E-Reader, a Smart Phone, or on a PC.

The article also goes into pricing your book and marketing ideas.

So, if you’re at that point in publishing your book, check out: How to Self Publish and Market an eBook on Amazon.

Authors Profit

Blaine Loomer, after 20 years in the corporate world, decided to write a book and make some money. Then he found out he’d take home 5 to 10 percent of the profits. He didn’t figure that was enough to bother writing.

So he decided to publish it himself.

Sounds familiar, huh?

He also created an online platform to help other authors publish and market their books. Thus was born Wubbit.com.

I have no first hand knowledge of Wubbit, but according to Cincinnati online:

Wubbit lets authors and small presses register books on the site for sale directly to consumers or bookstores. Wubbit charges a one-time $36 registration fee but then pays the seller 65 percent of all retail sales. Bookstores can purchase on the site at a wholesale discount, still giving authors 45 to 55 percent of sales

Loomer is working on getting books on Galaxy Press and in independent bookstores.

For authors, Loomer will continue to roll out new services, like the ability to use Mitchell's publishing services and the marketing and printing offerings of other partners. Wubbit.com will also have a platform for them to build personal web pages and to offer electronic books that can be used on an iPad, Nook or Kindle.

He’s also investing in electronic bar code technology. All in all, he expects by the end of this year, he’ll have invested $1 million.

We may have to wait to see what happens with Wubbit to know whether it’s a great deal for writers, What do you think?

Your Own Magazine

Ever thought about publishing your own magazine? Think that sounds even more difficult than publishing your book? Maybe not.

An article in Yahoo! News says it’s possible (not necessarily cheap, but possible).

MagCloud is a new service from Hewlett-Packard that, put simply, lets you make your own magazine online. You actually design your magazine offline — PDF works — and then upload it to MagCloud…. Issues cost 20 cents per page to print and mail….

Your magazine isn’t printed until someone orders it, so you don’t have to have tons of magazines sitting in your garage waiting for someone to order copies. And you, the publisher, get paid royalties once a month via PayPal.

If you’d like to get an idea of who else is publishing magazines, zip over to MagCloud and take a look and learn more.

I’ve been to some of your blogs where you posted fabulous pictures. Have you thought of creating your own magazine with them?

Here, not There

Today I was scheduled to report for the first day of two months of Federal Jury Duty…at 8 a.m….in downtown Austin where the traffic at that time of morning is bumper to bumper and parking spaces are nowhere to be found. But when I called in last Friday to find out what days I’d be needed the following week, I was told I would not have to call in …until November. I’ve been bumped. To celebrate my freedom, I’m linking you over to an interesting article on getting your self-pubbed books into stores.

Carla King covers a lot of important topics you’ll need to know, from The Databases, Traditional Print Book Distribution, POD Distribution with Lightning Source, POD Distribution with a Self-Publishing Firm, to A Middle Path.

If you self-published your book and would like to get it into bookstores, read the article. I’d add that you might want to check out SPANnet which has a free online community where you’ll get a lot of helpful information.