More about You

Thanks to my last post, I received great advice on finding my muse - and what to do about it even if she remains MIA.  Soon, I'll combine all the advice with some witty banter and catchy phrases, and make a great post out of it.  In fact, this advice is so great - I was even able to churn out a few guest posts in addition to my NaNoWriMo novel.  Check out the latest one at The Next Best Book Club, and if you missed my previous guest post, it is still up at Indies Unlimited.

Still can't get enough of me?  I have a new page on my blog; just click on 'More of Me'.  But enough about me - let's focus on you.  YOU should check out the latest promotion on 'Water', found under 'My Books'.  Enjoy!

Formatting, Shmormatting

Q: You mean we have to format things, and stuff? 

A: Yes.

Q: But, I'm a creative-type.  I just barely learned how to market my book.  Is it really necessary?

A: Yes.

Q: *Whine* How do I do it?

A: Carefully.

Q: Seriously, it can't be that important.  Can it?

A: Yes.

This is the last thing authors want to do with their manuscript; removing the tabs, creating a Table of Contents, ensuring images are inserted properly, blah, blah, blah.  But not doing it could very well be the demise of all your marketing efforts.  Even if you are self-published...scratch that...especially if you are self-published, your book needs to appear, like, hella-proffesional.  Otherwise readers and reviewers won't give you the time of day.

You know who else didn't format properly?  Hitler.  And look what happened to him.  Listen, I'll make it easy on you – go to the 'resources' section listed on the right hand side of the page, and open the 'Basic E-Book Formatting Guide'.  Follow this guide to format your novel first; then use the additional guides to format specifically for Smashwords, Kindle, and Nook.  If you have a go at it by yourself, use Mark Coker's Smashwords Guide – it is very user friendly and very detailed.  Kindle is understandable, but not as detailed.  Barnes & Noble PubIt! formatting guide for Nook is just plain confusing as hell.  Don't attempt to use it; unless you are the geeky type or like a challenge.

Formatting a full length novel should only take a few hours.  There are plenty of help forums out there if you have questions.  If you intend to self-publish more books in the future, I suggest you learn how to do this now instead of hiring help.

A quick 'Google' search led me to these helpful resources:

http://howtowriteshop.loridevoti.com/2010/11/how-to-format-ebook-word/

http://workingwritersandbloggers.com/2010/10/07/how-to-format-a-manuscript-for-an-ebook/

Hella-proffesional, shmormatting, and...GO!

Mormons, Vaginas, and Cover Art

Ever have one of those nights where no matter how much alcohol you drank, you just couldn't get, well, drunk?  Happened to me last night.  So instead of watching everyone else around me have fun, I decided to work – and it was…fun.  Luckily, the graphic artist I hired for my novel 'Water' was also working (she is Mormon, and therefore doesn't drink – also lucky for me).

Your book's cover is possibly the single most important aspect of the book – even before a good story.  Fact is, many potential buyers will base their buying decision on the cover image – you have one to two seconds to make an impression; many may even move on before reading the book's blurb.  I have been lucky enough to find artists who charge between $40 and $100, including revisions, and I always have them sign a copyright release (see example under the resources section on the right).  I will also always credit them with their work wherever I use the image.

Anyway, while the party raged on above me, I sat in my basement collaborating with Keary Taylor via e-mail.  We (and by 'we' I mean mostly 'she'), were able to come up with the final design.  Soooo glad I decided to ditch the first cover and start from scratch with a new artist:

The first cover was a product of my imagination – I just kept thinking of more shit the cover should have and telling the artist to revise, revise, revise.  She did everything I asked her to do; her mistake.  After seeing the final product I sat back, looked at it, and thought, "What in the hell was I thinking?"  I paid the artist then hired another.  My decision was validated by a friend's opinion, "It looks like a vagina."

The second cover is a product of the artist's imagination.  I gave her all the same instructions I gave the first artist, and she plain out said, "No."  Well look at the big balls on this chick.  I tried again, giving her the simple instruction of, "Water.  Fantasy.  Go."  And….voila.  A vagina-free masterpiece.  She came up with an attractive cover that pops against the black background.  The design can easily be mimicked for the next books in the series; Air, Fire and Earth by placing those elements in a woman's hand or hands, thereby creating an identifiable brand for my fans (you know – once I have some).

Moral of the story?  Drink heavily, hire Mormons, do good art.

Pitch-Slapped, yay.....

Finally got some attention from sending out review requests.  Granted, it wasn’t the kind I was hoping for but I’ll take it.  At this point I’m so starved for attention I would even attend a book-burning of my own book – which would be rather expensive considering it is an ebook.   Check out:  http://thecanaryreview.com/2011/09/09/pitch-slap-on-why-we-missed-the-point-completely/, where every Friday the canaries tear apart, analyze and revise pitches authors have sent to their book review site.  I was lucky enough to have them pick my pitch:

It was brutal, but will ultimately help me revise a better pitch/review request and hopefully generate some traffic, at least on my blog.  I might actually have to use their ‘suicide by sexy’ line in a future book.

Thanks to my previous post, Creative Marketing, Indie Snippets Bryan Dennis tweeted it to his 2,000+ followers.  Hasn’t resulted in any more blog followers, but maybe at least views?  Not sure how I can tell. 

So far I have still only sold six copies on Amazon, two on B&N, and five via Smashwords.  However, 14 copies were downloaded from Smashwords using the free coupon I generated and sent out to review sites.  That means at least 14 out of the 75 sites to which I sent my request were interested enough to download the short story.  

My list of review sites can be found under the resources section on the right hand side of my blog, I will be adding to it occasionally.  In most cases, I provided a link directly to their review policies and the contact name.  I didn’t include the e-mail address as it is VERY IMPORTANT you take a minute to look at their site and see if your book is right for them.  Otherwise you are just wasting your time.  I have also come to the realization that starting out your e-mail with, “I was just on your blog and *compliment, compliment, compliment* or *relate to the blogger in a personal way*” is twice or possibly thrice as likely to illicit a response from the blogger.

My first review requests were sent out at the beginning of August and most reviewers are taking 2-3 months to post reviews.  This means by the end of September my nightmares of a bunch of 1 and 2 star, scathing reviews posted will hopefully cease either because they finally happened and I manage to survive somehow, or I was able to actually gain several respectable reviews.  

A note on the review request – I have learned to paste the image I use directly into the review instead of adding it as an attachment (many reviewers don’t like opening attachments) and including direct links to my book.  My current review request looks like this (click to enlarge):

If you have lists of review sites you can add, or additional comments/suggestions on review requests and marketing, please don’t be stingy – share!  Especially with me.  

Creative Marketing

Marketing is the bane of my existance; and I am not being overly dramatic.  Ok, maybe a little.  Isn't it enough that I write?  Now I have to be a salesman too?  I am pretty sure those skills come from two different parts of the brain, so if you excel at one you surely suck at the other.  However, there are many who have managed to find unique ways to promote themselves:

Bryan Dennis and his Indie Snippets site features 200 word excerpts from the latest indie novels and short story collections.  As of 9/7/11, his stats are as such: 198 blog followers, 2,538 Twitter followers, 17 reviews on Amazon for his book, An Epitaph for Coyote, (this is good, or better than me, because his release date was July of 2011).  I asked him about his sales, and he reports a few per week.  He said he didn’t expect much sales due to the genre (literary and satire), but is hoping his next book, Saw a Rainbow (suspense, speculative genre) will result in more sales.  In July he participated in a blog hop, giving away his book to two winners which resulted in two Amazon reviews and increased blog traffic and membership.  He plans on participating again, putting his blog to his advantage.

What Bryan has done is creative marketing.  He is providing a great service to fellow Indie colleagues by promoting their work, and is still able to market his books via non-traditional means on a site that garners a lot of traffic.

Of course, many writers have started their own book review services.  Check out my book review blogs list under the resources section – many people who run these sites are authors as well, and are able to market their own materials on their site.

Another great small press publisher, Ridan Publishing, has a blog specifically geared towards small press and Indie publishers, www.write2publish.blogspot.com.  Robin Sullivan hosts lectures and provides guidance to hopefuls like me; all which I am sure has boosted the book sales of her nine authors.  As of 9/6/2011, Robin has 265 blog followers and 238 Twitter followers.  I haven’t found the stats of her book sales, but I’m sure they are great.

A few days ago, Mark Coker (Founder of Smashwords), tweeted this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/melissaconwaywrites#p/u/3/3G-vQ8YhoJo.  Melissa Conway’s The Indie-Author Laments video, no doubt produced a lot of buzz.  She has three books released plus four more written under a pen name.  Her blog has 18 followers and 234 follow her on Twitter.  She also has a newly created a website where Indie Authors can exchange unbiased reviews.  Right now, there are at least 25 books listed on the site.

Each of these authors/publishers have gone beyond the traditional e-book marketing methods, creating their own niche to attract an audience, all of them brilliant ideas or simply a case of hard work.  So the question is, what do the rest of us do?  Or more importantly to me, what do I do?  One idea that comes to mind is to create a self-publishing event that follows right on the heels of NaNoWriMo.  This could occur over a 3 – 4 month span of time where followers take their newly written novels (created during NaNoWriMo or otherwise), and as a group follow a step by step process through the self publishing nightmare.  As a creator of the possible website, forums, etc., I would get some ‘discoverability’ (as Robin Sullivan would put it), but oh man – that is a lot of work.

Keeping that idea on the back-burner, I will stick with sending out my review requests for now, hoping to gain enough momentum to generate higher sales.

Zombie Apocalypse

This post is not actually about the Zombie Apocalypse.  It is about ISBNs as they pertain to ebooks.  But if I said that up front you wouldn’t be reading it now.

When people start talking about mundane things such as ISBN’s, I just want to shoot myself.  However, this is one subject that each self-publishing author must explore.  After asking my husband to hide all of the firearms, I started in on the research.

The Rundown

An ISBN—which stands for International Standard Book Number, is your book’s ID number.  You do not need an ISBN if you only plan to distribute your work as an ebook.  Amazon does not require ebooks to have an ISBN for the Kindle.  Same goes for Barnes and Nobles and the Nook.  However, Apples iBook Store and Sony do require ISBN’s for their ebooks.  If you publish via Smashwords, and do not have and ISBN, your book won’t be available on these mediums.

Each format through which you publish your book requires its own ISBN because this thirteen-digit numeral unmistakably identifies the title, edition, binding, and publisher of a given work. So your paper book will have its own ISBN, the audio book will have its own ISBN, and the ebook its own ISBN.  Never use the same ISBN for your ebook as you did on your printed version.

The Cost

If you purchase an ISBN directly from the operating agency, Bowker, it will cost you $125 for one (plus additional charges for the actual barcode), or $250 for a block of ten.  

Smashwords will provide an ISBN for you for free.  However, I have read (this is not substantiated) if you use this ISBN to publish directly to others (i.e. Nook and Kindle), you still have to include the ‘Smashwords Edition’ notice on your copyright or front-matter page.  I e-mailed Amazon and Smashwords both to ask if I could use the Smashwords-issued ISBN for my Amazon published ebook.  Amazon responded with “If you've already obtained an ISBN for your eBook, you may enter it in the Book Details when publishing in KDP. However, it will only be used as a reference and won't actually appear on the detail page of your eBook.”  Not too helpful, but they didn’t say no.  Smashwords also responded with, "Since we provide the ISBN as a free benefit of distributing with Smashwords, it wouldn't be appropriate for you to use the ISBN elsewhere.  We don't enforce this, and we really don't care all that much."

If you choose to let Smashwords issue an ISBN for you, the Bowker record will register Smashwords as your publisher.  Smashwords claims this in no way makes Smashwords your legal publisher since the Bowker record has no legal bearing over ownership of material.  If this does not sit well with you, you can pay $9.95 to Smashwords, and they will give you an ISBN that registers you, the author, as the publisher.  However, there are claims that doing this will result in junk mail and solicitations (probably the same as if you registered directly with the Bowker agency).

Some countries (including Canada, I think), give out ISBN’s for free.  Yet another reason to move to Canada.  Plus, I like moose.

Conclusion

All that said, an ISBN is necessary for inclusion in the Smashwords Premium Catalogue.  The Premium Catalogue allows for distribution to: Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store and major mobile app marketplaces including Apple, Android, Windows Phone 7 and HP's WebOS. 

So, in conclusion, the benefits to purchasing an ISBN for your ebook are (1) inclusion into more markets and (2) your ebook will be listed in Bowker's "Books in Print" which will allow it to be listed and searched by any other database (such as WorldCat) that takes a feed from Bowker (translation: more marketing, kind of). 

Knowing all this, I have decided to get the ISBN through Smashwords for free.  I won’t include it on the Amazon and B&N portals because that offers no benefit (since Smashwords also publishes my book through these portals, anyone searching by the ISBN will come up with the Smashwords edition).

Miscellaneous

And since we are on the topic of very boring subjects, let’s talk copyrights.  But only briefly because I think I’ve discovered where Nick hid the Glock.  Your material is essentially ‘copyrighted’ as soon as you create it.  The only reason why you would need to register with the U.S. Copyright Office is if you wish to sue someone for infringement of your material. Not sure what prompted me to do it, but I copyrighted my short story, my full length novel, and the four next novels in the series (which have yet to be written) all on the same claim.  Cost for registration is $30. You can register online without actually having to submit content of materials.

Zombie Apocalypse

And for those thoroughly disappointed by my blog subject, maybe this will satisfy:

http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/: A preparedness guide put out by the CDC themselves for – you guessed it – the zombie apocalypse.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apocalypse-could-actually-happen.html: A Cracked Article that explains how/why this event could actually occur.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/zombie_how: Something more to further encourage your avoidance in going back to work/chores/bills.

http://www.zazzle.com/the_perfect_shirt_for_the_zombie_apocalypse-235570005828129334: If you don't know what this is; read the link.  The perfect shirt for the zombie apocalypse.

The Technology of it All

Following up with my last post.  Yes - emailing five review requests per day have proven to be too much work, as I have yet to meet that goal for any day this past week.  A large problem with this is getting sucked into a blog.  Many are funny, have good advice, or are just plain addicting (http://www.thebloggess.com/).  Some of the best advice I've seen in a blog is to stop reading the blog and start writing.  And yet - I read on...and so are you.  Not to mention the usual distractions of kids, a full time job, dinner and east coast earthquakes.

No matter - even five reviews a week is something.  I also continue to edit my full length novel, Water, and have set a goal of getting the ebook published by mid-September.  This would allow me to hopefully have a few reviews generating buzz in time for the biggest e-book buying season  - November/December.  I am all still working with a graphic artist to get the cover done.  It is going slower than I would have hoped; I should probably say something to her at some point.  Although, if she follows this blog, mission accomplished.

Another unanticipated kink in the self-publishing process is technology.  RSS feeds, hash tags, links, different formats (.epub, .mobi, .prc), pixels, ebook converters; the sheer amount of technological know-how I now have to know is blowing my mind.  Since I tend to retain very little, I will probably have to re-learn it when I publish Water.  As both books are the first of a series to come, I have resolved to start documenting step-by-step processes and will hopefully one day have them posted here.

Yes, one day, this blog will be great...

My Advice Doesn't Suck

A long weekend on the laptop, and I have my short story published via the Amazon website, Kindle and Nook for $.99.  Next step is Smashwords (will distribute to iPad, Sony, Kobo, Android, Stanza, Aldiko, etc.).  After, that I can stop ignoring my family and the pile of dirty laundry that is trickling out of bedrooms and down the stairs.

So glad I decided to use a short story as a test run for ebook publishing.  I was constantly going back through the text making changes and I can't imagine having to do that with a full length novel.

For those about to pursue the same endeavor, a few bits of knowledge (disclaimer: 'knowledge' should not be presumed to be preceded by 'good', 'useful', or even 'slightly helpful'):

- Format for Kindle first (larger audience, in my opinion, and much user-friendlier instructions plus a more populated help forum).
- Use MobiPocket Creator to turn a .doc into a .prc format
- Use the Kindle Previewer before uploading to Amazon.  Trust me - there will always be something you need to go back and revise and it is much easier to do before you publish.
- For publishing to Nook, use Calibre to format your book.
- Upload the .prc file you already created for Kindle into Calibre to create the epub document.  The transition is much smoother than using .pdf and it won't allow .doc.

Of course, my e-publishing saga is still in the beginning stages, and by the end of it my best advice might be 'don't follow my advice'.  Either way, hopefully my books prove to be much better than my advice.  I used the word 'advice' way too much just now.  Not so in my books - I have an editor.  Speaking of good editing, here is an excerpt from my short story, Gleaming White:

             The vampires reacted with a loud, synchronized hissing but did not move towards her.  Their gazes slid over her shoulder.  She didn’t have to look to know something was there; in fact, she dare not look.  Her blood forgot all other vampires, and began to ebb and flow like the tide, beating itself against her veins.

            “What do you want, brethren?”  A vampire finally spoke, but he had a tremble to his voice. 

            “I’ve been summoned.”  His voice was like warm liquid, washing through her and back out again, taking pieces of her with it, beckoning the rest to follow.

            “No one here is in need of your assistance.”

            The powerful being spoke again, “Your thoughts are not yours alone.  I heard the call for protection through your own thoughts.  I have to assume it came from the only human among us.”  - End of Excerpt 



I know - right?!