From Polished to Published - a guest post by Clara Frost

I am, as yet, completely unpublished. I haven't even self-published anything, at least not yet. And since this month's theme is From Polished to Published, I asked my friend Clara to talk about her experience on the matter. Here's Clara:

Let’s assume you've finished a book. Inciting incident, midpoint, climax, resolution, The End. A book. You've read it and edited it and polished it until even your mother is sick of hearing about it. This is A Good Book. A book that will make waves, if only an agent or an editor would give it the time of day. All this is a given, because you wrote it. Of course it’s awesome.

But you’re not willing to wait for an editor. Or maybe you have waited, and you’re tired of waking up to an empty inbox. And say, wasn't 50 Shades being fan fiction originally? You can do better than, right, and how hard is this whole self-publishing thing, anyway?

A question, my fellow inkslinger: is this your first book?

If the answer here is yes, then consider this: TSwift is right. Haters gonna hate. But consider also: your first book is not nearly as good as you think it is. Unless you have spent a decade in the arts or journalism, there are flaws in your book that you are not capable of seeing yet. So please, for the sake of you-five-years-from-now, think long and hard about self-publishing your very earliest work.
That little piece of hard-earned advice out of the way, the question is: how do I do this thing?

It’s really not too hard, and it all comes down to time and money. You need four things to self-publish a book.

1. Editing. Yes, yes, you've edited your book already. It’s polished until it gleams. If you've had multiple other people reading it specifically for copy issues, then you might be okay. But if not, I recommend finding a freelance copy editor. The book business, sad to say, is not the best paying gig in town, and many folks that edit your favorite authors will be happy to accept your special snowflake... for a fee.
2. A Cover. While you can create your own cover, it probably isn't the best idea if you want to attract readers. If you choose the DIY route, check out the videos Jason Gurley created in early 2015. They offer a great starting point. If you choose to have someone else create your covers, be ready to do some research and to pay a pretty penny. Kboards is a great place to start. An inexpensive, premade cover can often be had for around $50, but a more professional cover is often $500 and goes up from there.
3. A blurb. Go read the other blurbs in your genre. Copy and paste them. Retype them with your characters and conflicts. Get a feel for how they flow, and how they hook the reader. The best thing you can do here is to write something that fits with the other books in the genre.
4. Formatting. This can actually be done fairly well by an average writer, using software tools you already have. Scrivener will produce very reasonable epub and mobi files as outputs. Even a decently formatted Word document will be converted by the major e-tailors and look alright.

There entire books about self-publishing that cover these items in even more detail. Two that I particularly like are Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran and Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, and David Wright.

Good luck, my fellow inkslingers. This writing game isn't for the faint of heart, and neither is self-publishing, but the steps here will help you avoid the most common pitfalls.

From Polished to Published - Karen

There is still a lot of mystery in the writing field about how we writers go from a finished work (when is it finished??!) to something tangible in the world, a piece of writing that others can read, maybe even others beyond just our family and friends who we force into reading our work.

Let's talk about a few aspects of that process.

My self-published novel, Convergence, available online everywhere!

First, the finished work. When is a project finished? This one is funny. As a writer who is constantly evolving, whose interests change over time, and whose skills are (hopefully!) improving over time, looking at a piece of my writing almost always creates in me a desire to change it. I can tweak until the cows come home, quite literally. Seeing as how I don't live on a farm, this could be forever.

So I have to create an arbitrary deadline for myself to get out of the "constantly editing" cycle of doom. Sometimes it's a pledge to submit to a certain market (the Writer's of the Future contest is helpful for it's quarterly deadlines.) Sometimes it's a plan to complete a piece during a specific time interval - e.g., this week when I have few outside commitments. Sometimes the deadline is completely self-imposed by a desire to get a piece self-published. And sometimes other criteria enter the equation such as waiting on critiques or a cover from a cover designer.

Having a deadline of some sort, though, is essential to me getting anything finished. Without a deadline, my projects lie forever in a 3/4 done state. Literally I have 6 novels in that state, I might have a problem.

For me with my current goals, once a piece is finished, I have to decide if I'm going to pursue a traditional publishing route with it, or if I will indie publish it myself. I am still on the fence about this, there are so many moving parts to the publishing world and I continue to hear stories from friends with crap deals coming out of traditional publishing, I tend to teeter over to the indie side more often than not, but I remain open to the possibility of a traditional publishing deal. Best not to burn bridges.

Since I don't have a current traditional publishing deal, though, let's talk about what indie publishing entails. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather an overview for those who might be considering this route. I'm sure I'll accidentally omit a few steps (see, even blog posts are never finished!) so please add them in the comments.

1. Finish your piece! See aforementioned need to have an arbitrary deadline as my secret to getting something finished. 
2. Create accounts on the sites that permit self publishing. I have author accounts on amazon.com, bn.com, smashwords.com, and have a need to create ones on kobo.com and apple. To create accounts most require some level of personal information because selling books means income in the US - consider whether you might want a separate business banking account and if you need to get a P.O. box for professional writing correspondence. Now would be a good time to set those things up. 
3. Edit your work with an eye toward final polish. This may mean hiring an editor, or asking several detail-oriented (anal-retentive!) friends to read through with a fine-toothed comb. Reading your work aloud can help you identify last lingering typos, too. While you can upload revised versions of your manuscript later if you find issues, most readers are easily frustrated by simple mistakes particularly early in the book. Don't frustrate your readers, spend time on this step!
4. Choose a cover for your work. There are many great cover designers who create stock covers that are reasonably priced and have quick turnaround. (I recommend The Cover Counts and Mallory Rock. There are also groups of designers like Cover Art Collective.)  If a stock cover isn't for you, get on a cover designer's schedule 4-6 weeks in advance of when you hope to put your book out (popular cover designers may have even longer design schedules, contact them early in your process!) Sometimes a cover may be one of the arbitrary deadlines that helps you move your writing to completion, don't forget this step early in your process. 
5. Format your project for your desired platform. Formatting can seem like an insurmountable task. I recommend a writing program like Scrivener to help simplify the process. Scrivener lets you save your project (compile it) into all the different formats (.mobi for amazon, .epub for everywhere else) that ebook publishers require. The basic process you will need to follow is to compile your project into the proper format, upload it onto your author account on that platform, then preview the work to see if it looks right (all the sites have some sort of viewer for this, or you can load your formatted project onto an e-reader to check yourself.) Other writer friends use In Design, but I find I can do what I need to within Scrivener 99% of the time. 
6. If you are doing a print-on-demand version, work on that formatting via Create Space (I recommend downloading the template for the cut size you plan to print at. I do not have a ton of experience with this yet, so I welcome input for what other tools people use to format POD books.) 
7. Press done! Wait 24-48 hrs for your project to go through final approvals on the publishing sites. Then tell *everyone* about your available work (but don't spam us. Once a day for a few days and then once a week or less after that.) 

My mind blown, self-publishing style

I've been reading and re-reading this completely fantastic post by Hugh Howley this week. Over and over. I have shown it to all my writing friends (except you guys - so now you're in the loop!) I keep sharing it and thinking about it and talking about it and…

Fundamentally the only conclusion I can reach is this.

In 2014, I just need to publish my own stuff.

You see, I've been looking to go traditional for many years. I have an agent who has sent around a novel of mine and I've had a very good, detailed rejection from at least one excellent house that publishes the kind of thing I write (but it would require a detailed rewrite of THAT book to meet the concerns of that editor. Instead of the rewrite I took her feedback to heart and try to resolve those issues proactively in the books I've written since. I already know that editing is the Pit of Despair for me. I do my best to avoid spending too much time in it.)

I have an agent, I have completed novels (my agent has read another of my novels but it ends on a cliffhanger and he suggests, rightfully so, that he can't pitch it well as-is without at least the second book in the series. Which I haven't written yet. Details, details.) And yet, it's been a year and I haven't sold anything. More than, now that I think of it.

I think it's time for me to do something different.

So I'm telling you, dear readers, here and now I resolve in 2014 to just put my fiction out into the world via the typical channels (amazon, bn.com, apple) and see what happens.

Wish me luck. I have a feeling I'm going to need it!

If you'd like to support me in this endeavor (I would REALLY appreciate your support!) you can find my existing books for sale on the typical platforms under the author name Karen T. Smith, or go to my website (which I am hopefully updating right as soon as I finish this post, I'll include a mailing list signup and would very much love your subscription!) I have a free short story, MOON CLIQUES, available on all platforms, as well as two other 99c short stories (LIBRARY OF THE APOCALYPSE and APPLES ON THE MOON) and a $2.99 novel (CONVERGENCE.) I mostly write upbeat kid-friendly science fiction, with a particular emphasis on girls who are good at tech. The kinds of books I wanted to read when I was a geeky girl in 7th grade, the only one who played video games.

At any rate, wish me luck! And check out Hugh's post. If you're a writer, too, please comment and let me know if his post has changed your thinking on trajectory or plans for your career.

Self-Promotion Link Soup

With my fellow prosers launching a fabulous new book (link here), I thought I’d do a quick post on links that I found on the internet that might help with that dreaded self-promotion.  I haven’t gotten to this stage yet, but I know regardless of which route I take, I will have to do some self-promotion.  I am incredibly shy about these things, and I know I’ll end up with some dreadful self-conscious ramble here and there on the internet.  I’m not looking forward to it.

Anyway, here's my link soup that will hopefully help you promote your books without cringing.

 

Picture from Stock xchng



The Basics- This link has excellent advice that is the minimum of what every author should do in promoting their book online.  There is also a lot of advice to avoid those huge mistakes that can drive readers away.  The link is a discussion thread that is very long, but the best stuff is in the first post, so if you don’t want to read through the entire thread, just read the first post.

Social Media- There is a ton of advice on how to use social media to sell books (like here, here, here, and here), but the best advice that I came across is to only do the things that you enjoy.  If you love twitter, than use twitter.  If you hate twitter, don’t use it.  Find the social media that you enjoy using and use it.  Don’t use everything unless you just love all forms of social media.  Social media is about connecting with people, and if you aren’t willing to engage with others, then it isn’t going to work for you.  You don’t just throw up posts promoting your book, you get involved in discussions that have nothing to do with you or your book and connect with people.  It is time consuming, so only do what you enjoy doing.  Here is Sarah’s awesome post about selling books on Twitter. 

Be innovative– Agent Kristin Nelson makes a great point in this post.  By the time the word gets out on a new way to promote a book, it’s probably already too late to jump on the bandwagon.  Don’t be afraid the think outside the box and try something new.  Of course that is easy to say, and much much harder to actually do.  Which leads to the next section.

Research-It may not hurt to spend a little time researching how readers choose books.  I did a little bit of research for you.  Here is a survey done by Smashwords on how readers choose books.  Here is a discussion on Goodreads about how readers choose books.  It is complicated because readers are so different, but there are definitely some things you can do that will help.

Make sure your book itself captures the reader’s attention- Once you’ve captured a potential reader’s attention, you want to do everything you can to encourage them to buy your book.  This means that you need a professional cover that promises the kind of book you are selling.  You need an enticing jacket copy, and first sample pages that draw the reader in.  This survey done by Goodreads indicates reasons readers abandon books.  Might be helpful.

Write a damn good book- Of course if you are trying to sell more than one book, your first book better be pretty damn good.  This is for sure the most important part of self-promoting, giving the reader a fantastic product so that they want to buy more from you.  It’s pretty obvious, but it seems that some don’t want to do the work to take their books to the professional level.  But if you want people to buy more of your product, you better give them a great product.

Write another damn good book and another and another- In my opinion, what is more important than spending hours and hours promoting your book is to keep writing.  If you keep putting great books out there, people are bound to notice them.  I think there is some truth to the saying that cream rises to the top.  I’m sure not all the cream does.  Sometimes it might need a little push, but always make sure what you are putting out there is cream.  That is the single most important key in selling books.

I hope you enjoyed my link soup on self-promotion.  Please feel free to share any thoughts and tips you have.

~MaryAnn

What I've Learned Since Publishing my Book

Or what I'd do differently if I were to do it all over again.

This is me holding the first copy of my first book.
Yes, I do look a little shell shocked...
but not shell shocked enough.

Dear Me of six months ago,

You're about to change your life, and the entire way you think about writing. 

You know that invisible shiny editor who's approval you so desperately wanted? She's busy, and she isn't the person whose opinion matters. I know that's difficult to swallow, but it's true. An editor finally accepting your work isn't what will make your dream have meaning. I heard the other writers too. I've heard the words you've thought. I know you're just trying to be the kind of writer that an editor wants.

You're wrong.

 Editors are only looking for one thing, a book that readers will like. Your readers are the most important people to impress. Your job is to learn what your readers want, and figure out how to make it for them. And that's the amazing thing. That's really, really, simple.

See, not everyone who reads your book will be one of your readers, but you'll know them when you see them. Your readers will be people you know, and people you haven't met yet, who get the way you think. They are beautiful, supportive, amazing people, and your life will be better for having found them.  Trust them. Trust yourself and the way you tell stories, because YOUR readers will love YOUR stories. You know this, because you have writers who write the way you think.

You need to say goodbye to that editor in your head who is standing in your way, and just go find your readers. When you do that, you'll remember how much you love writing. Words will be magic again. Characters will be real, and you won't be writing to impress anyone, but your work will get better. You will, in fact, impress yourself. And once you've done that say no to yourself, and rewrite it until it's better than you would have been satisfied with before. Be your own invisible shiny editor, and keep improving. Never be satisfied until it feels right, until you can walk away and not think about it anymore.

You need to stop half-dreaming and get to work. If I could talk to you earlier, I'd have you have finish all those half-finished stories in your laptop. Get six finished books done so that I can release one every two months. Choose who you want to be as an author, and don't waste time on stories that are off brand. Tell people on facebook earlier, and build up a following before you launch a book. Join twitter. Use goodreads. Kiss my children's faces and tuck them in, living in that magic moment with them, and not be half a fictional world away. Make work time just for work, and leave the half writing for half writers.

Look around and smile. Take days off and watch Pretty Little Liars, and binge on Netflix just cause you can. Learn that whole tense shifting issue of ours cold, so I don't have to worry about it now when every word counts.

There's something magical about not being published yet, about being able to write anything you'd like, about only having one story in your head at a time. But you will love being published. Even though it means your heart is out there, and people won't always love it, and that every once in a while you'll be kicked around or ignored, it's all worth it. You don't know this yet, but there is an eight year-old girl out there who will look at you in pride and pull you aside and tell you she wants to write books just like you did. You don't know this yet, but there will be teenage girls who will think you are cool.

Yes, you. You in the minivan.

There's a day that is coming that will make you shake your head in awe. You will read good reviews that make you stay up late as you memorize every word. There will be bad reviews that you will shake your fists at, and that will keep you up late as you try to un-memorize them. You will stalk people on goodreads just because there's a 'currently reading' status next to their name. You won't hide that you are a writer anymore, in fact there will be times when you walk up to someone reading a completely different book just to tell them you're an author too. Your ego will grow, and shrink, and be kicked in the gonads. You will cry of joy, and cry of grief, anger, and frustration... in fact, just invest in Kleenex now. It's hard. You won't know what to do, which is the most difficult part of being self-published; sometimes it feels like you're in this on your own.

But you're not. The main thing I'd tell you is that most self-published authors are kinder than they need to be. They know what to do, and how lost it feels to be on your own, so don't hesitate to ask questions, and join forums and groups, and be kind to others. Give your time away. Give your book away. I mean, for reals, learn what rafflecopter is, and soon.

Writing is such a lonely business. Publishing, however, isn't lonely. Publishing is inviting every person in the world to live inside your head, and then ask their opinions of the setting.

So enjoy the alone time now. Sooner than you know, you'll be me.

Meet you then.

~Sheena

Sheena Boekweg is the author of Funny Tragic Crazy Magic, and the coauthor of Alchemy (launches October 11). You can find her on facebook, goodreads, and twitter.

Smashwords' Data on What Makes eBooks Sell

I have to thank Jeff Hargett for posting this link in his weekly Sunday Surfing over on his blog Strands of Pattern.  He always has some great links in his Sunday Surfing posts, definitely worth checking out if you aren’t already a reader of his awesome blog.

I think it has already been established that I am a huge nerd.  I love data, real data with charts and graphs that I can mull over, so I can decide for myself and not have to rely on other people’s interpretations. 

The whole publishing world is a little frustrating to learn about because there is so little hard data out there.  We have to rely so much on hearsay and experts feeding us their interpretations without showing us the data that lead to those conclusions.   So I’m over-joyed that Mark Coker from Smashwords shared their actual data with us, along with his very insightful interpretation.  Link here for all the details.

Here are a few things that I found interesting. 

1.  The self-publishing model is really like the traditional model where there are a few superstars but most don’t really sell that well.  I wish this wasn’t true.  I like the dream of all writers being able to find their audiences.  Where once you get rid of the gatekeepers, everyone can find success, but that annoying logical side of me never could believe the dream.   So here is the evidence.

From Smashwords blog

So this graph plots sales rank for individual titles (x-axis) versus the dollars sold (y-axis), but only shows the top 500 ranked books.  I really wish that he had shown all the books not just the top 500, and then just blown up this portion.  I would really like to know how many books are out there on Smashwords (I’m guessing hundreds of thousands to a million-ish range, but that is just a guess), and if the sell ranks continue a slow decline or if there are other big jumps (steep slopes), but this information is helpful (ETA: thanks to Pyre Dynasty at Hatrack here is the data I wanted, and yeah, it's not very encouraging).   Mark says that the 500 ranked books are still selling very well.

But we still see a huge exponential increase for those top sellers.  The #1 books is selling 37X more than #500, and that is pretty huge.  I like Mark’s interpretation of these results so I’ll quote him.  :)

“Most books don't sell well, but those that do sell well sell really well.  This finding wasn't a surprise.  Just as in traditional publishing, very few books become bestsellers.”

So self-publishing seems to follow the trends of traditional publishing.  A few make it really big, while the rest struggle like mid-list writers or worse.  I know this isn’t what we writers want to see.  We want a self-publishing utopia where everyone gets to win, but I don’t think that ever happens anywhere in life.  Here’s hoping we will be one of those superstars.  Fingers crossed. 

2.  Longer books seem to sell better.  So much for the traditional publishing industry and there seemingly arbitrary word-count limits.  Readers don’t shy away from those long books, in fact they seem to prefer them.

From Smashwords blog

I think this Mark guy is pretty smart because I like what he says here as well, so I’ll give you another quote.

“There will always be exceptions to any rule.   If your story deserves 50,000 words - nothing more and nothing less - because this is the length packs the biggest pleasure punch for readers, then by all means don't bloat your perfect story with extra words just because the data shows that longer books, on average, sell more.  Do what's right for your story because that's what's right for your reader."

In other words, your story is a special snowflake (I’m not being sarcastic at all; I truly believe it is), and don’t try to force it to be something it is not to fit in with the popular ebooks.  Also remember the only unbreakable rule in writing is “don’t be boring.”  But if your story is a tad on the long end, don’t stress it either because readers don’t seem to mind.

3.  $3.99 seems to be the sweet spot for pricing, at least right now since by measuring this number means that we might change this number (Yes, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle may also apply to ebook sells).

From Smashwords blog

I thought the big drop in sells of books priced at $1.00 to $1.99 was fascinating.  There must be some psychological reason there.  Anyway, it might be a good idea to play around with pricing to find your own sweet spot.

Those were the parts that I found the most interesting, but there is more data on the post, so once again, here is the link.  Check it out.  It’s definitely worth the time.

~MaryAnn

Just because it's Monday, and I can.

*Reblogged from boekwegbooks.com

Look whose name is right here ^

Twitter is a way, apparently, of stalking people in a socially approved way.

As many of you know, I'm planning on indie - publishing Funny Tragic Crazy Magic, but what some of you don't know, is that it's also in a pile on an awesome publishing house's short list. I follow (read stalk) the editor on twitter, and today she posted this picture about overcoming her depression.

A shot of Zoloft came for me when I looked at the notebook under her books and saw my name. My name uncrossed between two crossed out names. She's read it, she's liked it enough to not cross it off.

*Also, Melanie Crouse, I see an "se - Love" right there at the bottom, which in my mind has to be Crouse.

Because of this, and also because moving while trying to get book ready is less helpful than you would think, I'm pushing back FTCM launch date.

Not by much.

Funny Tragic Crazy Magic will launch April 1. April Fools Day. That's no joke, although my beta readers will get it.

A quick status report, I've broken FTCM into 5 Acts. Act 1 and 2 are back from the editor, Act 3 and 4 are in her capable hands, and Act 5 is staring at me, daring me to fix it before sending it on to the editor.

And it's good people. You can tell, because look whose name is right up there, uncrossed.

Best of luck to you, Editor-Who-Likes-My-Book.  Depression truly does suck.

~Sheena Boekweg

Kiss of Fire, Rebecca Ethington

Imagine Twilight if Edward was the only one in his family who was trying to be good. In fact, imagine if Edward's father killed humans for fun and would do anything  to control  his place of power, and that Edward was fighting to keep a semblance of his humanity, even as his father made him do horrible things.

Now imagine that  Edward and Bella had known each other their entire life. Imagine that they were friends first, and that falling in love was a process forged in solidifying experiences. Imagine that they earned the powerful love that they have.

Imagine if Edward wasn't a sparkling vampire, but a hot wealthy rugby player with brown curls, and the ability to heal or destroy. Imagine if Bella was a bullied beauty, hiding behind hoodies and trying to stay invisible. Imagine she had her own magical secret, a secret that'll end up killing her.

Now change the names to Ryland and Joclyn, give them a ton of character growth, and take away the cliched happy ending.

And what you have is Kiss of Fire by Rebecca Ethington.

Here's the goodreads link. Here's the amazon store link.

 I've known the author of this book for a long time. We met as Sophomores in High School, and Becky was beyond kind to me. That's the word for Becky, kind. We made secret Star Wars handshakes, wore the Disneyland shoes, and hung out in the drama room belting out Styx and Queen. ( For those of you who've read the book, I'm not saying that I was the inspiration for Joclyn's best friend Wyn. I'm thinking it, but I'm not saying it.)

:)

We'd sort of lost touch when she emailed me to ask if I'd be a beta reader for her.  She decided to make a copy of this book for her Grandfather for Christmas, and wanted to get her "little book" ( Becky's words not mine.) out there in case other people might want to read it too.

When I read her rough draft, I was blown away. This wasn't a little story, it's a freaking gem. A freaking gem that grabs you by the eyelids and pulls you around until at the end you're an emotional wreck. It's brilliant and beautiful, and kicking butt in sales. This "little" book has been on Amazon's top thousand for weeks now. It's having the kind of success that I hope and pray that my little book will find too.

Because...

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm publishing Funny Tragic Crazy Magic.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

(Launch date March 23. More details to come at my NEW Website www.boekwegbooks.com, or on facebook @ .facebook.com/SheenaBoekwegYAAuthor. Like if you'd like.)

With that self-promotion put aside, let's talk more Kiss of Fire. See, my friend Becky is a huge example to me on what to do, not just as a writer and in self-publishing, but also as a classy human being. Never more so than now.  She just announced on her website, rebeccaethington.com, that for all the month of February she's donating $1.00 from each copy sold to the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org).

Like I said, she's kind.

Please read and support this book. It's going to be huge.
~Sheena

Some Things to Consider when Designing a Cover

We’ve had a lot of great posts here at The Prosers on cover design and the importance of having a great cover.   Having a great cover is especially important in self-publishing because it is one way to set a book apart from the other self-published books.  Maybe I’m a little harsh, but if the cover looks amateurish, I suspect the story may also be amateurish, but if the author puts the time or money into creating a professional looking cover, I imagine that he/she put as much care into crafting the story, and I’m more willing to give the story a try.

I really think of all the things that can be done to promote a novel, having an amazing cover is the most important.  I know we shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover,” but honestly, I do, and I don’t think I’m alone.  So in those crucial seconds when a reader decides whether or not to try a book, an intriguing cover just might be the difference between a sale or no sale.

I’m not really artistically inclined, and if I ever chose to self-publish, I’d probably hire someone to help me design my cover, so I’m not sure if I’m the best to give advice on designing a cover.  But when I looked through covers to write this post, I started seeing some trends.  Then I read this blog post the Seduction of Romance-Novel Design on designing romance covers, and I realized how much thought goes into designing a cover.   Designing a cover is as much an art as writing the book, and if there are tools and tricks for us writers, there must be tools and tricks for cover designers as well.

Perhaps the most important part of cover design is the signal to the reader what kind of story is being told, that includes indicating the genre and as well as other aspects of the story.    In the blog post on designing romance covers, Claire Brown who designs covers for Hachette Publishing Group made this comment on the constraints of romance novel covers.

“The (cover) design of the romance genre is driven by sales, but the formula works. ‘There are constraints in how much we can deviate without alienating the reader,’ Brown says. ‘Familiarity in typeface and painterly style reassures the reader that this book is what you think it is going to be, and you are going to love it.’”

I think that is a great quote and just emphasizes that there a psychology to developing covers, that we readers are somewhat programmed to look for familiar things on the covers that indicate that this is a book within our genre of interest that will appeal to us.

Now as I said earlier, I noticed a few patterns when I was shifting through covers.  I think these patterns, which are sometimes broken, help indicate what kind of story is being told and genre of the novel.  Too many times I’ve seen nice looking covers of self-published books that look like the wrong genre.  For example:  I once saw a cover of a boy petting a black lab in a pastoral setting.  I imagined the story was going to something along the lines of Where the Red Fern Grows or Old Yeller, but the story was about a post-apocalyptic world.  I did not get any indication of sci-fi or speculative elements from that cover.

So to help self-publishers design covers that match their genre and find their intended audiences, here are some things to consider in designing a book cover.

1.     Type setting.  As mentioned in the earlier quote, familiar typeface is important to indicate genre.  The romance genre tends to have elegant sweeping fonts whereas dystopias have more of a clean computer-generated looking font.  Clearly, the use of different fonts and typeface can help indicate the genre of the story.

Bet you can guess the genre just from the typeface

2. Color schemes.  The use of colors tends to (not always) indicate genre.  I know that there are exceptions, but I saw some colors combinations used more frequently in some genres versus others.  I think that the color scheme can help indicate genre.   

I saw more brown, blue, and green color schemes in second world fantasy novels, and more black, white, and red in paranormal romance.  As a reader of both of these genres these color patterns work.  Second world fantasy novels are usual set in a pre-industrial world, so earth tones really work for giving that feel, while paranoramal romances are all about passion and danger, so a more dramatic and passionate colors fit perfectly for that genre.

Graceling has a green and brown (gold-ish) color scheme whereas Everneath has black, white, and red.

The Demon King has brown, blue, and green while New Moon has black, red , and white.

3.  Graphic.  I like how Trisha summarized Chip Kidd’s TED talk in her post last week. 

“A cover can only do so much.  As Chip Kidd said in a TED Talk, ‘A book cover is a distillation.’  It has to condense the story down and summarize with a single glance.  If it's done well, it will pull the reader into the book.”

The graphic is very essential to that distillation of the story.   Having the right image, one that really represents the story being told is very crucial to the entire cover.  I think it is important to get it right.  Close enough doesn’t cut it.  If you can't find that perfect image from available, already existing art that you can purchase the rights to, you may have to pay an artist to design one for you.  I know that can be expensive, but if you really believe in your story, you might have to invest a little money to give it the best shot at being successful.

I love the cover of the novel Sheena may be publishing soon.  It is amazing.  The girl with the half-human half-dragon face perfectly depicts the story being told, and I think that this awesome cover will definitely make her novel more successful.  I know I’m eager to buy it.

Awesome cover.  It makes me want to read the book.

So for all you writers either toying with the idea of self-publishing or already in the process, my not so expert advice is to look at the covers of all your favorite books in the genre you wish to be publish.  Look at the typeface, the color scheme, and the graphics, and try to emulate that style while staying true to the story you have written.  I think that is the best chance to appeal to the readers who will love your book.

Good luck!!!

~MaryAnn

So...Did You Get That Book of Yours Published Yet?

A couple of weeks ago, MaryAnn wrote this post about self-publishing versus the traditional methods of publishing. 

It's something that's been on my mind a lot lately. I started seriously writing five years ago. Since then, I've written four full manuscripts. Of those, two probably need to be scrapped completely, one is ready for publication and one is in the editing stage. I'm in the middle of a collaborative novel that I'm really excited about, and I've got part of a screenplay I'd love to get back to, if I could ever figure out how to write screenplays (but that's another story). I've written several short stories, and even won a couple of contests, though I've figured out that short stories really aren't my thing.

I started writing the year I homeschooled my (then) fifth grader. A homeschooling magazine published an article about Nanowrimo for young people, and it looked like it was right up our alley. The more I wrote, the more I realized that writing was what I had been born to do. I loved my characters and believed in their story. They were worthy of traditional publishing, and I knew it.

And then it began. I knew exactly who I wanted to have publish my novel, and they were selling querying time to authors at a writer's conference in a city I was going to be in during the week I was going to be there. It was kismet!

I paid, memorized my query, met my dream publisher, and listened as she told me that the market was absolutely saturated with young adult romantic fantasy at the moment, and that her publishing company was not currently looking for any. She was kind, and she even stood with me in the hall afterwards and introduced me to some published authors and another publisher. Of course it hurt, but I felt like I'd scaled to a new authorial level.

I might have, but I never moved past it. Once or twice I spent a day finding agents to submit queries to, and I spent some time trying to perfect my query. I even forced myself to send a few queries out. Jessica Foster (who has been a guest poster here on The Prosers) blogged about how querying makes her feel. The video of the cat and the banana described my feelings about querying so precisely that I hope you'll take the time to go watch it. I thought about having a link to her post be my whole blog today, but as usual, I found a few words to add. :^)

Click here for Jessica's post!

I don't want to feel like that cat any longer. Back when I was just starting on this journey to authorhood, I wanted it to be a lucrative career. But here I am, five years out, and the truth of the matter is that on a good week I spend about fifteen hours on writing, and that includes this blog, critiquing other people's manuscripts, and all the other writerly stuff I do (except the brain work part. That goes on constantly--sometimes even while I sleep.)  Given the other things I have elected to do with my time, that number isn't going to change. I could spend that time querying and all the other things I would need to do to get published, but I would be miserable. I know what MaryAnn wrote is true--if I want to sell to a lot of people, self-publishing is going to take a lot of work. But I'm ready to get my books out there, and I've moved past the place where I want to write a best-seller. What I want to do is write.

~Melanie

What I'm currently reading: Nothing! 

Why: Because Legend, by Marie Lu was supposed to keep me occupied until next week, at least. Drat that exciting story line that tricked me into reading all day yesterday. 

Self-Publishing and Self-Promotion

Picture from stock-xchnge by Andreas Krappweiss

Self-publishing almost sounds too good to be true.  You write it then publish it.  You don’t have to even write a query letter or a synopsis.  You don’t have to deal with submissions and rejection letters.  Finally, you can reach your audience without those pesky gate-keepers trying to tell you what readers want to read.  You’re a reader; you know what readers like you want.

The concept is so beautiful, like The Field of Dreams.  If you write it, they will come. 

Only what if they don’t?              

I read this NY Times article the other day on buying positive book reviews (I’m going to get to that in a minute), but the article claimed that more than 300,000 books were self-published last year, and that number is only going up.  It could be more than doubled next year.  Granted not all of these books will be in your genre, but if only 1% of them were, there would be over 3,000 books for consumers to search through to find your gem.  And that is only including self-published books.  You would also be competing for attention with all the traditionally published books, which could include every book that has ever been published in modern times.  That is a lot of books waiting to be bought on Amazon.  So how do you get your book to stand out above the masses?

Self-publishing is so easy, but self-promotion is so tough.

It is hard to proclaim to the world how wonderful your book is.  No one is going to take you seriously.  You can become really annoying if all you do is talk, tweet, and blog about your book.  It is so much better if that comes from someone else.

Which brings us to the NY Times.   According to the article (link above), some authors paid a man named Todd Rutherford money to write positive reviews for their books.  He charged $99 for one review, $499 for twenty, and $999 for fifty.  Before too long, he started making $28,000 a month.

I think this practice is dishonest and shady, and I feel that Mr. Rutherford was taking advantage of authors desperate to get some attention for the books they put their heart and souls into. I seriously doubt that very many of them actually made that money back in sales. But I do understand why the authors chose to buy reviews. 

Reviews should be for the readers, but good reviews and high ratings can help sell books because someone else is singing the praise for your book, making them more trustworthy.  However, if you have few or no reviews, your book isn’t going to look too promising.  And if just one of those reviewers gave you a low score, that is going to substantially affect your book's overall rating.   Furthermore, if other writers are artificially inflating their positive reviews, this is only going to make your book look worse than everyone else’s.  I can definitely see the dilemma these writers are in.

Still I don’t think that lying and manipulating consumers is the way to go even if it has been the corner stone of all advertising.  Books aren’t the only products with fake positive reviews (see the NY Times article above).

I wish I had some real answers on how to get your book out there in a more honest way, but I don’t.  I’d be horrible at self-promotion which is one of the main reasons I want to go the traditional route (yes I do know this also requires some self-promotion, but hopefully, I'd get some help).  For good advice go to Amanda Hocking who actually achieved that level of success from self-publishing that we all dream about.  Sheena also did an excellent post on how youtube videos go viral and how that can be applied to books.  While I think they both give great advice, it really comes down to getting your book into the hands of the right people, and there is so little control you have over that.

I think the truth is that there are no real short cuts to this publishing thing.  You either struggle to capture an agent or publisher’s attention or self-publish and struggle to capture consumers’ attention.  Either way, you need to find a way to stand out, and while there may be tricks to get yourself noticed, you won’t create a buzz unless you’ve written something that really resonates with readers.   Only then will they talk, tweet, and blog about it and hopefully, recommend it to their friends.  So no matter what path you choose only one thing truly matters, you need to write one amazing book.  J

So what are your thoughts on self-promotion?

~MaryAnn

Covers on the Cheap

http://www.myecovermaker.com/ecover-design

So instead of writing this week, I decided to try out the free cover maker website linked above. I made these covers in a few hours spending...no money.

Which proves that I'm cheap.

And that I have too much time on my hands.

Essentially, it proves I'm a mom.

Sarah's is my favorite... Although it's cropped weird. SoOo cheesy.

Anywhosers...

Here is the recipe for making an awesome cover.

First, write an awesome title.

 (This is harder than it looks. Check http://theprosers.blogspot.com/2011/12/wait-does-this-need-title-too.html for tips.)

 B, search royalty free websites for an awesome picture. There's a good chance you could get a stock photo that would work perfectly for free, or less than 15 dollars.

Next, if you can't find a good photo, you can always check out deviantart.com. If you find an artist you like, there's a good chance they might design a cover for you for the cheap, or even just for the publicity.

Fourthly, once you have a plan, and/or a picture/ and or just some free time, check out http://www.myecovermaker.com/ecover-design. Play around with it. After a few fun fake covers, you will learn what you are doing, I promise. It's super, super, easy/free. You have to become a member to upload pictures,( which costs less than ten dollars) but it is a heck of a lot easier to use than Indesign, or Photoshop, or Gimp. It's very point and click. If you can't figure out how to make it flat, check the upper right hand corner in the finalize stage where it say's 2D. It took me a few days to figure out how to do that.

There you go. Simple. I've just saved you several hundreds of dollars.

You're welcome.

Good luck with it!

Amazon & Smashwords & Self Publishing - Oh My!

The ever excellent Richard Flores IV (and a fellow Hatracker to boot), put together a survey about independent publishing and received nearly 300 responses. The results are truly fascinating. Please take the time to visit his site, The Flores Factor, and read the whole thing.

The survey covers a broad range of topics from personal statistics to promotion using social media. Since most of us are working on novels here at the Prosers, the information about independent publishing was particularly interesting.

Of the respondents,  55% were unpublished, 5% pro published, 11% small press, and 30% self-published. This seems typical (maybe even a little high on the pro end) for authors out there, so I trust that the data on the survey is close to accurate.

When asked which companies were used to self publish, the majority (40%) said Smashwords, followed in a near tie, by CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Lulu was far behind, and PubIt! only garnered 1%.

This seems about right. The most successful self published authors try to reach the most markets. Using the above strategy, Smashwords targets both the .ePub devices and Amazon (KDP sells directly to the Kindle Market), and CreateSpace covers print sales.

The second question asked which company the respondents liked best. Here there was a virtual three-way tie between CreateSpace, Smashwords (which fell to 22%) and Kindle Direct Publishing. Nearly as many said they preferred doing it themselves.  I wondered if the rise in DIYers is due to dissatisfaction with Smashwords, or the growing abilities and confidence of authors in navigating the self publishing world.

 Here at the Prosers we’ve already had some great discussions about self publishing here and here, and I think this survey just adds to those. I hope that Richard will consider doing the survey again in a year to see how the results have (or haven't) changed. And, have I mentioned to please go visit his site for even more information on books sales, competitive pricing, and lots of other good stuff?

In case you were interested in a little of the nuts and bolts of the companies spotlighted in the survey, I've put together a little piece with links below.

Basics of Formatting

At the very heart of self publishing are the different formats used in eReaders.Though there are a plethora of eBook formats (see this Wikipedia article), two are dominant in the field. The fastest growing and most popular format, .ePub, is used by most major readers (Apple, i devices, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, etc.). The Kindle, however, uses a proprietary (.mobi) format. Getting a file from Word or PDF documents to a readable format is one of the key functions of ePublishers.

Basics of ePublishers 

Here’s a quick rundown of the major players in self publishing (focusing on those from the survey – there are many other companies out there): 

• KindleDirect Publishing (KDP) – one of the self publishing powerhouses, Kindle Direct Publishing allows authors to publish books for the Kindle. Using a Kindle app, the platform also reaches (per their website) “iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Android based devices” – i.e. pretty much everything. Authors can publish in five languages and can also be paid royalties in different currencies, making this an excellent choice for international authors. 
• CreateSpace – offers publishing services for filmmakers and musicians as well as authors (on demand print materials).  Distribution is available through amazon.com, through direct sales by an eStore, or using an Expanded Distribution Channel, which reaches retailers and libraries. 
• Smashwords – is one stop shopping for an author’s publishing needs. Files are converted to fit all major platforms. While this may be fairly painless for authors, there is some grumbling that the formatting is not as high quality as could be achieved if done individually. 
• Lulu – provides both print and eBook services. Lulu uses an ePub converter to format eBooks for use on multiple readers. 
• PubIt! – Barnes & Noble’s offering to the ePublishing world launched in October of 2010. PubIt! allows authors to tap directly into the Nook market. However, PubIt! is hard to access by authors outside the US since a US bank account is mandatory to sign up.

It seems that when looking at independent publishing, there are a lot of options (a good thing!) and resources to help (an even better thing!). How do you see the future of publishing evolving? And how do you plan to approach self publishing (if it’s in your future)?

~ Susan