Self-Publishing Wins

I know I've discussed which is better: traditional publishing or self-publishing. At the time I gave the pros and cons of both. That discussion left out a few points which tip the scale toward self-publishing.

For example, I neglected to point out that most of us will probably end up using a small press if we go the traditional publishing route. This process takes much longer than it would if you self-publish. Much longer. I've been waiting months for my first novel to be released. And while the publisher has made progress toward that end, my book remains available for pre-sale only.

Since time to market is an important factor -- another point I failed to cite -- I don't see the advantage of the traditional publishing model. I suppose some small presses are better at keep a schedule but I suspect that most every scheduling issues.

The other thing to keep in mind is that self-publishing requires you make the quality of the book job 1. This means have the story professionally edited and pay for a quality cover. If you do those two things, you should be able to handle the rest of what you need to do yourself.

So I'm thinking that the rest of my novels will be self-published. That's assuming that the first one is ever released.

Social media needs to be organic

I've been looking at my time management because suddenly I'm very busy.  As I prepare for my book launch -- which is months away -- I've been preparing my web site, a media kit, business card, a book trailer and other items I'll want or need.

As part of this, I've decided to write a many short stories as I can and put them in collections.  I've not done this before because short story writing is hard for me.  Ironic.  I can write a multi-book fantasy series, but short stories somehow elude me.

Well, not really.  Short stories need to be focused and to the point and I prefer a wide canvas, showing the way life is, pleasant or not.

As part of my time management review, I've concluded that social media as it is now, it a waste of time.  There is no way I can keep up and go to all the forums and sites I should and post something meaningful unless I give up a good portion of my writing.  And some sites seem completely pointless.  Foursquare comes to mind here.  After using it for a few weeks, I just don't see the point.

To be effective, social media needs to be more organic, like breathing.  I shouldn't have to think about it; if I blog it should automatically go to all the sites I want it to.  Currently that's not true because Blogger doesn't interfere with Tumblr and Tumblr doesn't talk to Blogger.  To get post on Goodreads, I had to set up a pull from the blog's RSS feed, when I would have preferred a push from here, the way Facebook and Twitter are set up.

So I'm going on a social media diet.  Perhaps when this thing is like a Frankenstein's monster and all the pieces fit better together I'll do more.  But right now I'm too busy writing and getting ready for the release of my first novel.

Web site review: Tumblr

I should have known better than to think that after my last post I could put the topic of blogs and blogging behind me.  But no sooner had I posted the entry than I went to check out the site called Tumblr to see what it was all about.

In a word it is a blogging site.  But it's not like any blogging site I've ever seen.  You can post all kinds of content, links, text, images, video, audio, and chat are among them.  They all mix together into the blog, which is kinda nice.

You also get to follow your friends and their blogs merge into your blog, like the Facebook news feed.

But there is little support for integrating the site with other social sites.  If you're like me, then you want this, in fact, you need this so that you can single source posts and send them out into the world.  But Hootsuite, my social media management site, does not let me post to the Tumblr stream which defeats the purpose of using Hootsuite.

Tumblr lets me post to Facebook and Twitter and they provide code so I can add a put into my real blog; see the column on the right for an example.

But the lack of support isn't Tumblr's fault and I find that site kinda nice and easy to use.  It has got me thinking about blog content in new ways.  Perhaps I should include more images or the occasional video here.

Perhaps.  It is something to think about.

I suppose if I wasn't so heavily invested in Blogger, I would use Tumblr for my blog.  But as it is, I'm not sure Tumblr holds any value for me.  If the integration were better I think my opinion would be different.  So I think I'll wait and see if that aspect improves before abandoning Tumblr completely.

And this serves as a reminder that social media is very much a work in progress.  None of us know where it is going but like reality TV it seems to be here to stay.  The question is how do we use it?  And I don't know that even the so-called experts have that answer.  That's one reason I've begun to experiment to see how well it all works together and how far I can push it.

I hope you will welcome these experiments.  I'm sure to blog about them here.

Blogs and Blogging

I've been looking at social media again and my presence in that sphere of sites, trying to assess what changes I might make.  So far, I've been focused on blogs and blogging because I'm not sure I'm using it effectively or blogging correctly.

Supposedly there are no rules for blogging, but I don't think that's true.  You've got to have some to say and it has to be interesting and valuable to the reader.  After all, with a glut of content available why waste your time if the post says nothing.

As far as my blog goes, an analysis of which topics are popular shows that readers want posts on how to do things, and reviews on software and technology.  But that's not all I write about so respond to my posts is uneven at best.

I've also looked at the software I'm using: Blogger by Google.  I can't tell you exactly why I started using Blogger, except that it was free and I didn't do a very big search for free blogging sites.  Since that time, I've learned that WordPress appears to be more popular and perhaps more powerful.  I certainly see more support for WordPress at other sites like GoodReads and HootSuite.  Additionally, you can integrate WordPress into your web site so that it is seamless.  But WordPress also has bugs.  I've seen one that forced me to rollback to older versions of the application to get the desired plug-ins to work.  That's not good at all.

At the same time, Blogger has been overhauled recently by Google and provides some nice features.  I was able integrate the blog into my web site by tapping the blog's RSS feed and using a free RSS reader called Magpie to show that last five posts on the main page of the site.  I did this so that content of the home page was always changing without my doing extra work.

More recently, Blogger integrated usage stats into the data it provides me which I like and it now shows me the number of visits each post gets.  That's a really helpful to me so I can see which posts were popular and which ones weren't.

I also thought about moving my blog, but dismissed it because I don't need to take on that kind of work.  I've got over 200 posts now.  It would take a long time to move that I'm sure and I'd rather work on my novels.  Plus I'm not sure moving the blog is necessary.  Google seems to have decided to pay attention to Blogger so I'm hoping to see some cool new features in the future.  Additionally, Blogger is easily to use and for that reason better in my mind.  I don't worry about new software versions from WordPress or bugs in the code, or plug-ins that don't work.  I just show up and start typing each post as the mood hits.

But all that aside, does blogging work?  Is it necessary?  God knows, there are days I curse when I realize I need another blog post the next day.  And yet I continue to do it.  I ask myself why?

And I can't answer that question.  I have no idea if blogging is necessary for me.  Since I now push the posts out to Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn, more people are seeing that I have something to say.  In that sense it keeps my name on their radar, which I assume will help me when I announce my novel is in print from my publisher.

But am I saying anything important or meaningful?  That depends on who is reading the blog.  I don't expect to change the world by blogging.  But I can pass on a few things that I know to others and capture a part of myself for posterity.  I think that's important.

In similar fashion, I don't expect to influence or change person's opinions by blogging.  I can inform them a little but they will form opinions about Blogger and WordPress, for example, based on more than a few words from me.  I expect anyone interested in either program to try it out first and see what each has to offer before committing to one or the other.

But ultimately, I think blogging has disappointed me.  I expected to attract a larger audience with my blog and I've got less than 100 people directed subscribed to it.  If not for Twitter and the other social sites, I think my blog would be a failure.  But I've got nearly 150 Twitter followers and that's growing faster than I would have believed.

The moral:  Blogging + Twitter appears to be a huge win.  We'll see if it is possible to tap that potential audience when the time comes.

Social Influence

A Facebook friend invited me to join Klout this week.  For those who don't know, Klout is a site that measures one's social influence.  They give you a score from 1 to 100 and then monitor the content you create or items you share and people's reaction to it.  The more you make and the more comments you receive the higher the score.

I'm not sure that's a valid assess of influence, however.  For example, will this post influence anyone?  I doubt it.  In fact, I have a hard time believing I influence anyone to do anything.  On the other hand, if I give an honest assessment of something, a software tool or a web site, for example, you are likely to believe me so long as I am unbiased. That could end up influencing you in some small way perhaps.

But if I make a pithy comment that generates lots of other comments, I don't see how I've influenced anyone at all and yet that is what Klout is targeting if I understand their site correctly.  Seems like a weak method for artificial intelligence.

Regardless, it is interested to watch and see if anything I do affect my score.  But it is like any other measure or score, a best guess.

Still, I was impressed by the number of social sites it takes into account.  Some I've not heard of.  As a result, I opened a foursquare account and have begun playing with that for a bit.  Not sure how important foursquare is exactly for my needs but I can experiment and see.

In the meantime, I'm planning to deliver the first third of Book 2 to the publisher for review next week.  And they apparently liked my storyboard for the book trailer.  "Very detailed," was the main comment.  I laughed.  For those who know me well, that's to be expected.  I am nothing if not thorough.

Keep writing, everyone.

Blogging 102

I've been told by various people and sources the same thing about blogging:

• I need to provide useful information to the readers of the blog.
• I need to sound like (or be) and expert on the subject or subjects upon which I blog.
• I need to blog frequently enough to attract an audience.

Seriously?  Is this right?  I'm thinking only in part.  Sure, I want to provide useful information to my readers.  But how do I know what you will find useful?  Sometimes I strike a nerve, but I'm guessing I miss the mark as often as I hit it or perhaps I don't hit the mark very often at all.  I really don't know since I almost never heard from my readers.

And in regards to being or sounding like an expert, please.  Who is going to believe that I, a struggling writer with only a few successes to his credit is an expert on writing, publishing, and technology?  Sure I can give you my opinion, and what I learn as I go, but an expert?  More importantly, I notice that the people who I consider experts on writing, for example, don't give advice.  They write books.

And lastly, regarding the frequency with which I blog, I've been writing Mondays and Fridays, for almost two years now.  The audience I've attracted (assuming I've done that) I think is more from my asking people to follow the blog on Facebook than anything else.  And I've connected the blog to GoodReads and Twitter and that doesn't seem to have helped.  Although, as an aside, the number of Twitter followers is growing but I don't think that has anything to do with the blog, per se.

The bottom line here is I doubt the three points stated at the top of this post are completely correct and accurate.  It sounds to me to be poor advice but the only advice people have to give because they really don't know what works.

And in this world of mis-information that we live in I think a healthy dose of skepticism is in order.  What do you think?

P.S.  I also been told to end blog posts with a question for readers and voice an opinion.  In the words of Rocket J. Squirrel.  "The trick never works."

In an Age of Self-Publishing, Do Publishers Still Have a Place?

Democratic ideals pervade our society; we believe that everyone should have a right to decide things for themselves.  That's how our politics work -- well sort of.  And increasingly that's how publishing is working.  In fact that's one of the appeals of self-publishing because it does an end run around the publisher, who has traditionally been the gatekeeper.

Some writers today don't want someone else to decide whether their story is good enough, particularly since the decision is subjective.  Instead, these people want to publish their work and let readers decide.  In this way, each story should be able to find the audience most likely to receive it well.  But the internet is huge with billions of pages and terabytes (or more) of content.  It is very hard for me as a writer to be found by just putting up a web page and advertising.

That's why sites like Smashwords exist.  Readers go there to find content to read.  Goodreads in another place readers congregate and where a write might find an audience.  Scribd and Wattpad also come to mind for find readers, but my experience suggests that none of these sites get enough traffic to help me enough to sell my work.  What I need is either a large following or a spot on the Amazon home page.

And so despite the trend toward self-publishing, the only way I can see of reaching enough people to really sell my book is by using a publisher.  And the minute I say that I must be ready to give up some of the royalties I would receive otherwise.  But that's not a big deal; Smashwords wants a cut too.  And the one advantage a publisher has that Smashwords does not is the publisher will promote my book and help me promote my book.  Smashwords gives my pointers and tips for promotion but it's not the same.

A publisher will also be able to give me feedback on a draft of something which for me is great.  I need that feedback to stay on course.  One reason my first book took so long to make it really good is I kept going off the road without realizing it.  It is was only the constant rejections that made me realize something wasn't right.

But using a publisher isn't all roses and sunshine either.  They tend to be slow.  It's been three weeks since my publisher first contacted my about a contract and I am still waiting for the final version so I can review it and see what they are offering.  In that same time, I could have written and published several chapters in my next novel.

Still I'm thinking I'm better off with a publisher than without one.  Many other writers think otherwise.  And I understand their reasoning.  Frankly I'm struggling to come to terms with this point.  I guess it will depend on the deal I am offered.

Social Media Strikes Again

I've been investigating social media to get more use out of it and to my surprise, a few simple changes in my Twitter account has got me receiving unsolicited follows.  That really a surprise because up until about a week ago, my Twitter account was kind of like my appendix: it's there but largely ignored.

What changes did I make?  Mainly, I changed my profile to reflect what I'm about: that I am a writer of a fantasy series with a link to Smashwords in case they want to purchase a copy.

I also changed the background to include a custom image.  This image is the cover of Aure the Topaz, my first novel, with the text of the short pitch over it.  I don't think that has done anything however because you can't search on this image.

For each follow, I reciprocate with a follow of them and a thanks, tweeted directly to them.  The end result of this is that more people see these posts since all my blog posts are automatically tweeted to my Twitter account.

So the reach of this blog is much broader than I realized.  The odd part is that none of this generates sells for my novel.  The reason I began investigating social media in the first place is to see how I might use it to generate sales of my novel.  But there does not seems to be a correlation.  Just because you've got followers and they read your posts don't mean they will buy your book.

This makes me think I'm doing something wrong or I'm missing a piece.  Guess I've got to dig deeper into the murky depths of this technology.

Site review: Authonomy

Authonomy is a web site where writers can go to post part or all of a book they want to here published.  Once posted, people on the site are expected to see and comment on the work.  The best works are supported (backed is the site jargon) and rise in rankings.  Writers are also ranked.  The most you read and comment on the higher your personal ranking is.

The site is run by HarperCollins.  Every month they take the top five books and review them.  In some cases this leads to a publishing deal.  Most often it doesn't.  And in my experience, the entire site fails to achieve the promise set out by the publisher.

Initially I used the site on my first novel is get some feedback to see if I could get high enough in the rankings to warrant a review from the publisher.  As it turned out, I couldn't get above 1000.  Additionally, what I found was the site is more about wheeling and dealing, making bargains with others so that if they back your book, you back theirs.

So the more you play that game the better off you are.  Ultimately I gave up on that because that's not how I want to spend my free time.  I want to write not play politics.

So I don't recommend the site.  It seems pointless.  I've had better luck elsewhere.

Editing with an iPad

As I mentioned in my last post, I tried to work a new revision process, one that let me edit away from my computer.  I wanted this because I find I edit better when reading in a more relaxed venue.  For example, I've lots of errors in text when reading from my Kindle.  I wanted to replicate that for myself during the writing/revision process.

I could have converted my draft to the Kindle, of course, but I'd have no way to edit the text directly.  The Kindle only lets you leave notes so that's like adding comments to a Word or PDF file.  That was not what I was looking for.

I decided I needed a tablet with an app that let me edit my text and the iPad seemed like the logical choice since I work on a Macintosh computer regularly.  The trouble I had was find an app to do the job.  Ultimately, after discarding the notion I would save my story in RTF format, I settled on QuickOffice.

I chose that app because I had used it before on my old PDA and had experience with it.  I also chose it because it could save text in Word format and after discard RTF as my preferred format to work in, Word is the next logical format to use.

Using QuickOffice is easy and editing the text is straightforward but clunky.  This is not because of the app.  This is because of the iPad.  I am so used to having fine control for cursor placement with my mouse, that on the iPad, I really don't.  This is why I think all touch interfaces should use a pen or stylus like my old PDA.

The other odd thing is the auto complete feature is very strange.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it is a place in the ass, introducing errors.  I introduce enough errors of my own when I type, I don't need the machine adding to it when I get it right the first time.

Typing at the keyboard is different too.  A hard press on the keys isn't needed creating more typos than normal.  I also find I can't always type with two hands because certain keystrokes are being missed.  That has everything to do with how I hold my hands and pressure I use.

So it is a different model and the shift it like the one we went through when mice and GUIs were introduced to the computing world in the 1980s.  Still, I think tables may replace laptops because content creation apps are available and more will be coming.  And since tablets are smaller and easier to carry, why use a laptop?  All the tablets need is a port so I can plug in a real keyboard.  Of course if they do that, I can probably go back to using a mouse since most keyboards provide a port for a mouse.

Regardless, I think tablets are another tool in the writer's arsenal and should be used to their fullest advantage.

Showing Backstory

I've been diving deep into my characters and plot for Book 2 and turning up all kinds of interesting things.  I'm doing this up front because it was one of the things I didn't do for Book 1 until very late because I didn't know any better.  As I work, I'm seeing what I can do to round out the characters and the story.

This has led to some interesting questions that I had to answer.  For example, the tension in the story starts when the main characters prevent a little orphan girl from being abducted by a local witch.

The witch gets away but the girl, Amanda, is safe.  This poses the question why did the witch want Amanda in the first place?  Was it convenience or is there something about the girl that is special.  I had already decided that Amanda was the fifth of five girls the witch wanted for a sacrifice to a demon.  In this way, the witch hoped to acquire knowledge and power to cement her hold on the town.

Ultimately, I decided that there had to be something about Amanda, something special because if there wasn't then the witch would find a different girl and perform her ritual after not abducting Amanda.  Not a lot of tension there.  But by making Amanda special in some way, I create more tension.  Now the five girls are selected for a reason and the fact that the heroes of the story have one of the girls sets up a reason for the witch to attack them.

But the real problem I had was, what was special about Amanda? My first thought, that she had the ability to learn and use magic seem too easy, too pat.  I wanted something else.  Something we wouldn't think twice about that the heroes of the story would.  And then it all fell into place.  It was Amanda's astrological sign.  And then it hit me; what the witch needs was four girls for the four basic elements, water, air, fire, earth, and a fifth girl to represent magic.  That was perfect; it explained why the witch needed five girls and why those five girls.  It let me nail down the signs of the zodiac for my fantasy world (which I'm sure I'll use again) and tied those signs to the system of magic I developed for the first book.

All very nice and neat.  And the most the reader will learn about all this is that if the witch is planning to sacrifice the girls she had abducted they need to have the right astrological sign.  The story's demon hunter, Evan, who knows all this does not elaborate because the other characters understand what he means.  To ensure the reader does too, I have them discuss it a bit.

And this is perfect example of the amount of backstory that is often required to make the story work.  Often I can't show more than the very tip of it.  And this is also the issue I have with showing the characters as completely as some people want.  I can't (or I won't) do it at the expense of the story.  It has to fit in with the story I'm telling.  In Book 1, there weren't many subplots or side stories.  In Book 2, each main character has one, specifically to address the comments I received on Aure, the Topaz.

And I've planted seeds in Book 2 that I will pick up in Book 3.  And in this way, the story, the characters, and the readers all grow together as the series progresses.

I only hope Book 2 is well received.

Holistic Writing

Recently, I've been reading blog posts about holistic writing.  The views expressed generally state that all parts of a story need to work together, that the story is an organic whole. and that characters need to fit the plot and the plot needs to fit the characters.

Well, Duh?

Where have these people been?  All writing must be holistic or it fails.  It does not matter if it is an essay, a work of fiction, instructions for assembling the next big thing, or a letter to Mom, the writing must be conceived in its entirety and executed as a whole.  This means different things for different forms of writing.  In fiction, it means the characters and the plot are a unified whole.  The whole character vs plot discussion (about which is more important) has always struck me as pointless because all writing needs to be holistic.  You need both characters and plot and they have to work together or the story fails.

Example:  If Romeo is from a different family, not the mortal enemy of her family, does it matter whether he falls in love with Juliette?  No, of course not.  In fact, the story is not nearly as interesting because it transforms the tale into a simple love story, not a tragedy of star-crossed lovers.  But because the characters and the plot are tied together, the entire story is transformed from a simple love story to a major tragedy.

What this means is you need to select characters that fit the story and have a story that fits the characters.

Example: In my first novel, I spend time introducing the main characters.  Daniel, an orphan, is looking for members of his family.  He was rescued by elves and raised by them.  He knows his last name but little else.  Daniel is also a master of elven martial arts and revered by most elves.  When Iriel, an elf in town, meets Daniel, she offers to help him because to her he is almost a religious figure.  James, Iriel's lover, is also sucked into this plot, not because James wants to help but because Iriel wants him to and asked him to help.

I spent time setting this up so that when the magic gem in the novel communicates with Daniel and asks for his help, it starts a process that affects all three characters.  Here, plot and characters are partners each pulling their own weight to move the story along.

Now some may say, "But that's contrived."

Yes, of course it is.  All art (and writing) is contrived.  I've purposely selected details to tell the story I want to tell.  If I don't do that, you get a lot of irrelevant details and you don't have art, you have... reality TV or something equally noxious.

So if you are oohing and aahing about holistic writing, I think it is time to go back to basics and remember what makes fiction work, what the elements of fiction are, and get over any sense of novelty.  Holistic principles aren't new; they are as old as writing itself.

Self-Published Payment

I recently got paid from some of the sales on my self-published novel.  For those curious how Smashwords does this, let me explain.

They pay once a quarter, 30 days after the quarter ends.  And sure enough early in February (should have been January) I got a mail that money was being sent to my PayPal account.  I moved it into my bank account days later.

What I find odd is that not all my sales to date are reflected in that payment.  For example, I got a sale from the Apple store through Smashwords in November, but that money has yet to reach me.

Likewise, I got a sale from Barnes and Noble in December but not payment.

Now we aren't talking large amounts of money here (maybe $6) but it is really the principle and it is really surprising because I thought payments would be a touch smoother.

Just one more wrinkle in the self-publishing game I guess.

Who knew?

Self-Publishing: you are tech support

I was asked recently in a Goodreads forum why I primarily published my novel as an eBook.  I responded saying it was for time-to-market reasons.  Getting a quality paper copy ready has taken over a month because I have to wait for Lulu to ship me proof copies.

But there was another reason I released an eBook first.  I expected mistakes creating the various electronic formats and I assumed fixing those errors would be easier than getting a paper copy ready.  Turns out I was right about that.

Now I find out that despite my testing of the Kindle version, the book has odd indents on a real Kindle viewer.  When I heard this, I decided to re-release the Kindle version.  My thinking is that the eBook is like software and this error is a bug.  So I am obligated to fix it.

I also found out that I need to make some other adjustments.  Suddenly I'm my own technical support department.  I don't mind that roll, it just took me by surprise.

But in retrospect I will not be releasing any more books exclusive in one format or another because so many people still want paper copies.  In fact one of the reasons I'm having a hard time getting reviews is because many places that review books want a paper copy.  They even say they don't review ebooks and that's all I have at the moment.

So if you plan to self-publish plan accordingly.

Paper or Plastic?

When I self-published my novel, Aure, the Topaz, I had to decide what form (and format) to use.  The choice seemed obvious and yet difficult because I know eBook sales are rising fast.  Traditional paper book aren't.  Yet I'm not sure most of my audience (or at least my initial audience) has an eBook reader.  This complicated the decision.

I finally decided to go electronic only, at least to start, mainly because that's the direction the market is going and because making revision is easier.  Since this was my first book, I accepted a few wrong turns as I sorted out the Smashwords service and the whole eBook technology thing.  

And I was right.  I had to submit the book twice to Smashwords to get what I wanted and revised the description (the marketing/packaging) at least three times before being satisfied.

Sales have been slow so far and that has prompted me to revisit my initial choice.  Paper or plastic? (By plastic I refer to the eBook reader, not the book itself)

Am I losing opportunities because there is no paper version?  Probably and there is only one answer for that.  I need to create a paper version.  I don't think there is anyway around that.  Not yet.  Maybe in 5 years or 10 years the need for a paper version will evaporate. But right now, today, people still want a paper version and so I need to give the consumer what he or she wants.

So I uploaded a copy of the book to Lulu and a test copy is on its way to me now.  Hopefully, there will be a paper version soon.  In the meantime, I'm identified markets and bookstore to place my book into.

But more on that next time.

Price of Success

Now that my first novel, Aure, the Topaz, is released and being read, I am reminded that with success comes a price.  I was browse a torrent site I like to frequent.  I use the site to see what others are reading (or stealing) as a way to know what to read or consider reading.

As I browsed, I saw the book of a friend listed.  I wrote to her to let her know.  Let me stop here and explain that torrent sites are places where people upload files to share.  Often this is fine when the files being shared are public domain and not protected by copyright.  In this case however the book is under copyright protection.  So sharing the book is theft.  My friend's book hasn't even been out for a month and already people think it is good enough to steal.

I've known this has been a risk in this line of work for some time.  Writers, musicians, software publishers, and filmmakers all have this problem.  When a product is good, people want it and will find anyway they can not to pay for it.

Worse still it is very hard to stop them.  You can go after the site, of course, but they aren't really to blame.  It is the individual users who share the illegal content that are to blame.  Most folks don't try. But for a new writer each book not paid for is like a drop of blood out of the writer's veins.  Pretty soon, you've got enough for a transfusion.  No long after that, the writer is weak from blood loss and unable to write any more books.

And that's the real shame here.  My friend's success depends on everyone who is interested in her work paying for it.  And I'm in the same boat with her, having just released my first book.

So please, if you receive illegal content and you like it, but yourself a real copy to support the writer.  Thanks.

Adventures in Self-Publishing

It has been an interesting few days here.  As many of you may know, I am close to completing (for the umpteenth time) the first novel in the Aglaril Cycle.  Over the last few days, I uploaded a version formatted for hard cover print and software print to Lulu.

I then turned my attention to ebooks.

I knew I wanted a version in Kindle format, PDF, epub (for the Apple iBooks store), and one for Sony reader.  So I set out to determine how I can produce all these versions.

I started with Lulu because that's where my print version will be coming from unless a small press publisher picks me up.  The problem with that approach is Lulu wants you to pay for a conversion to epub format.  My goal is to try to do this myself.  So I scratched that option of the list.

Next, I hit the Internet.  I knew from previous research that Amazon provides instructions for creating a Kindle version.  I reviewed those steps and moved on.

Creating a PDF version was not an issue either.  I've been creating PDFs with Word and Acrobat for years.  The real issue was how to create formats about which I knew very little, like the epub format.  From what I discovered on the Internet, I could use Pages (an Apple word-processing application that is part of iWork) to export to epub.  I happen to have a copy of that application so that seemed like an answer.

Then I read a little further and learned about Smashwords.com.  They take Word files and create multiple ebook and electronic formats for free, including all the formats I wanted.  So I decided to join.

Let me stop here and say, I had heard of Smashwords before, but didn't really understand why so many people were using that service.  Dopey me. I really need to pay more attention to things like that.

But I digress.  Once I joined, I went through their process of formatting a Word file according to their style guide.  Then I uploaded the file as a test.  Several hours later, all the versions were available.  They look pretty good too.  The one I like the best is the epub version because I dropped it into iTunes and synced my phone with it and Bamph!  My book is on my phone.  That is very cool.

I'm not done exploring Smashwords.  They have a premium catalog that I'm waiting to get into.  And they all have a marketing guide I want to check out.  They will assign an ISBN to the book too it seems.

So that may be the way I start.  I don't know.  I am still investigating.  I'll post updates in future blog entries.

Stay tuned.  And if you are interested in checking out my book, go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29970

Is Self-Publsihing About Vanity?

I am very close to completing my latest draft of my novel.  This draft should be the final version, but I've said that before and it wasn't true.  One of my friends thinks I need to stop trying to make it perfect.  But that's not the reason I revised it.  I revised it because I had feedback that the characters were flat.  It can't be published with flat characters because the reader will not care about what happens.

Now that I am close, I bundled up the files and made a PDF which I uploaded to Lulu.  I decided to put a copy of the book there in case I decide to sell it on my own while I seek a publisher.  But a very odd thing happened when the process was complete.  I had the strong urge to order a copy of my book.

And why not?  I've been working on it for months.  I would be to see one possible incarnation of it.  But I had to remind myself it was not complete and not ready yet.  I still have edits to make the last few chapters. And it makes me think: is self-publishing about vanity?

How you answer that question says a lot about you and your goals in the writing field.  If you answer yes, then, I can say is good luck.  Obviously, for you writing and entertaining the reader is not your primary focus.  For me the answer is no.  Self-publishing is not about vanity; if I choose that path, it will be because I cannot find a publisher to take a risk on me.  In that context, self-publishing is about providing an alternate outlet for writers so they too can be heard.

Frankly, I hope it does not come to this.  But it could.  And I want options.  It could very well be that the publisher who does accept my work will only publish me electronically to start.  If that happens, I'll would a service like Lulu to offer hard cover and soft cover editions too.

We'll see. It should be much longer now.

Wish me luck.

Publishing Strategies

Some weeks back I wrote about self-publishing, saying that it wasn't for me mainly because I want to work with publishing professionals when my novel goes out into the world.  My theory on this is I will learn from them all the little nuisances of publishing and promoting books.

However, nothing is ever as clear-cut or monolithic as it might first appear.  In this case, I was basing my discussion on the assumption that to publish you need to use the same source to publish every version of your book.  And that's not true.

For example:  last month I submitted to a small press that only wanted the electronic rights.  Had they accepted the book, I would have had an ebook of my novel but not a paper version.  Since people still read paper copies, and some people prefer them, I realized I needed to find a way to offer a version in paper.

Suddenly self-publishing seems like the perfect answer.

I also made the mistake of not considering my overall marketing plan.  Don't make that mistake.  Think about an overall marketing plan and, as you consider how to publish, think outside of the box.  Consider whether you want to self-publish and, if so, will it be electronic only or paper or both?  If you want more of mix look for a small press that wants only the electronic rights (this is increasingly more common) and do the paper edition yourself.  Or if you don't want to even consider self-publishing, look for a more traditional small press that will handle both the paper and electronic publication.

And don't forget about an audio book.  (don't laugh; several friends suggested that I do an audio version first to promote the book.  If the effort wasn't so high I might have considered it)  Chances are you'll need to do that yourself or with until your work is wildly successful.  If you do it yourself, your main enemy is background noise.  So you may have to record the book at odd times.  The good news is you can find good theme music for the opening and there are services that will podcast it for you, in case you don't want to do that yourself.

So spend some time, do some research, and plan out how your book will go to market.  It is worth the effort.