 
Ditch the Publisher

40 Indie Authors on their Unique Self-Publishing Journeys

Edited by Hayley Sherman

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Hayley Sherman

All contributions copyrighted by respective authors, 2012.

http://www.hayley-sherman.co.uk

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

### Other Titles by Hayley Sherman

Non-Fiction

Blood, Sweat and Ink: The Pleasure and Pain of Writing a Novel

A Novel in a Haystack: Ebook Marketing for Self-publishing Authors

Fiction

Diazepam for Sale

The Applauding Coat Factory

The New Short Story Annual 2013 (Ed.)

### Table of Contents

Introduction

One: Success as a Self-Publisher by Beth Orsoff

Two: The Secret Myth of Traditional Publishing by Dean Wesley Smith

Three: You've got Nothing to Lose by David Jay Ramsden

Four: Freedom by Steve Carter and Antoinette Ryder

Five: The Future was Never Brighter for the Indie Author by Timothy Lee

Six: Robbed! by R.J. Hamilton

Seven: The Ebook Revolution by Morgen Bailey

Eight: My thoughts on Self-Publishing by Aliyah Burke

Nine: Writing the Book by Brendan Gerad O'Brien

Ten: Creating Characters by C.S. Marks

Eleven: Authenticity in Fiction by G.M. Frazier

Twelve: Redrafting and the Magic Cupboard by Hayley Sherman

Thirteen: In Praise of Editors by C.S. Marks

Fourteen: The Writing Bug by JD Nixon

Fifteen: Nine Golden Rules (Part One) by Mel Keegan

Sixteen: Beginning with Nothing by Kirsty Fox

Seventeen: It Takes a Village to Bring a Novel to Life by Gerard O'Keeffe

Eighteen: Getting Ready to Publish by Maggie Barclay

Nineteen: The DIY Approach by Michael Wilson

Twenty: Five Places to Self-Publish Your Ebook by L.J. Sellers

Twenty-One: A Few Ideas to get You Started by Joseph Lallo

Twenty-Two: The Formatting Nightmare by Captain Peter Cain

Twenty-Three: Investing in Your Own Ebook by L.J. Sellers

Twenty-Four: What Does it Take to Become a Full-Time Indie Author? by Lindsay Buroker

Twenty-Five: Becoming a Bestseller by Terri Reid

Twenty-Six: Just Do It! by Lexi Revellian

Twenty-Seven: Publishing Full-Colour Books with Lulu by Alex Ritsema

Twenty-Eight: An Unknown Author's Publishing Experience by Arnold R. Beckhardt

Twenty-Nine: In Hot Pursuit of Happiness by Ciggie Cramond

Thirty: My Rocky Road to Publication by Sybil Nelson

Thirty-One: From Imagination to Publication by Pete Darman

Thirty-Two: Success and the Death Threat by T.M. Nielson

Thirty-Three: Four Questions About Ebook Publishing by Iza Moreau

Thirty-Four: You Never Know... by C.S. Marks

Thirty-Five: Self-Publishing by Curtis Ackie

Thirty-Six: Why Can't I? by Diana Mylek

Thirty-Seven: You Reap What You Sow by German Alcala

Thirty-Eight: I Left My Publisher, Gave Up on Bookstores and Started Making Money by L.J. Sellers

Thirty-Nine: Self-publishing: A Personal Journey by Fionna Barr

Forty: Nine Golden Rules (Part Two) by Mel Keegan

Forty-One: The Dark Side of Free by Russell Blake

Forty-Two: Indie Translators: Money is Waiting by Scott Nicholson

Forty-Three: Getting Print Copies into Libraries by Ilyan Kei Lavanway

Forty-Four: After you publish: How to Market Your Books by Michael J. Sullivan

Useful Resources

Also Available...

###  Introduction

When I started working in the publishing industry, the words 'self' and 'publishing', when fused together, had a similar impact to the words 'professional' and 'suicide'. In fact, much worse than that, it was a label carved onto the foreheads of the untouchables, the inadequates, those too untalented to go legit – a group of authors huddled in a bus shelter, telling stories from books that will never be read to keep each other warm, shunned from the magical matrix created by the 'real' publishers and their shiny writers.

As if the cold and the label and the forgotten stories were not enough, this was a group who could no longer even afford the bus fare home because they had bankrupted themselves for their efforts. They had traded in their riches to literary crooks and now ate their breakfast from a table made up of the hundreds of copies of their magnum opus that arrived in the post one morning. What a day that was... 'I'm published! I'm published... Er! How am I going to sell 900 copies of a book that no one's heard of by an author that no one cares about with no financial backing?' _I'll sell my breakfast table for a start!_

But times have changed. Since the Internet cast its cumbersome tentacles into every last aspect of our lives, writers no longer have to sell their breakfast tables to make a name for themselves. No one's got anything carved on their forehead and the shiny writers with the deals are starting to look over the fence at the colour of our grass. Self-publishing has grown a pair of respectable legs and toddled into the mainstream. In fact, if you're an 'unpublished' writer it is not only easy, affordable and respectable to publish your own work; it is the very best route that you can take in the digital age to make a name for yourself. It is the equivalent of dragging your little rock band around the pubs and clubs until you're established enough to have girls screaming at the back door to steal clutches of your hair as a souvenir.

That said, self-publishing is not a soft option. You still have a book that no one's heard of by an author that no one cares about and now you're cast adrift in a dumping ground of other books that no one's heard of by authors that no one cares about. How are you going to get Becky Booklover to part with her hard-earned cash in favour of your tome? Even if you give it away, how are you going to be sure that it doesn't sit at the bottom of her to-read list? However, before you encounter Becky Booklover, how are you even going to get the thing readable, professional, eye-catchingly covered, uploaded and ready to go? Well, that's going to take a bit of patience and a lot of research, but it can be done and this book is a great starting point. What follows are contributions from writers who have been there, done that and, well, written the book.

I like to imagine that we came out of bus shelters around the world and met in a picturesque garden in the Cotswolds to make this book happen; we played a few rounds of garden bowls, maybe ate a Battenberg or two, sipped some martinis and then shared our self-publishing experiences. The reality is a less-glamorous foray of email tennis played over the course of months with extremely busy people who agreed to give up their time to share their experiences. Together, they occupy a sizable percentage of the space on the Kindle, Smashwords, Lulu and other indie-book providers that they will tell you about. Individually, their experiences span a wide range of genres (fiction and non-fiction), routes (from online publishing and paid self-publishing to the complete DIY option) and success levels. We have novelists and scientists, bestsellers and newbies, all with something important to say on the subject, from writing the book, formatting it and finding it a home, to the all-important circus of marketing of which you must become the ringmaster.

Some of the chapters are instructional and some are personal accounts of success or woe. Some focus on specific areas of self-publishing and others provide an overview on the subject. I have resisted my OCD urge to group them into themed bundles and instead present them to you in a loosely logical order, which can be dipped into or digested from beginning to end.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all of the authors who have contributed to this collection and urge you, the reader, to check out what they do when their services are not being extorted by me. Details of their books are provided and if you see something you like, why not check it out? We're all in this together, so why not show your support?

Hayley Sherman

http://www.hayley-sherman.co.uk

http://www.whoosh-editing.com

http://notjennifersaunders.blogspot.co.uk

### One

Success as a Self-Publisher

Beth Orsoff

The first week Romantically Challenged was available on Amazon I sold four copies ... In 2010, when I'd only been self-publishing for six months, I sold 7,000 books. In 2011, I sold 60,000 books. Because of the Amazon Publishing deal, I have no idea what my 2012 sales number will be.

When I began my self-publishing journey almost two years ago (June 2010), I didn't know what to expect. I'd been seriously pursuing traditional publishing since 2001 and my first book, _Romantically Challenged_ , had been published by Penguin/NAL in 2006. Unfortunately, my timing wasn't great. The chick-lit market crashed six months prior to the release. Penguin gave it a small print run, no marketing support and, not surprisingly, the novel was not a bestseller. I spent the next several years writing more humorous women's fiction (we weren't allowed to call it chick-lit anymore). Although these books were praised by editors and loved by agents, they didn't sell.

Then, in early 2010, my world changed. I started reading Joe Konrath's blog and several of my friends and relatives purchased Kindles. One of them even sent me a link to an NPR interview with Karen McQuestion. Suddenly, self-publishing was no longer for delusional hacks. Even good writers were self-publishing.

I discussed it with my agent, who was in the midst of shopping my fourth novel, _How I Learned to Love the Walrus_ (an arctic romantic comedy), to the major publishers. She thought it was a good idea to self-publish _Romantically Challenged_ (the book was already out of print and the rights had reverted to me) just to keep my name out there, but she didn't think I would sell many copies. And neither did my normally supportive husband.

'But how will people find your book?' he asked when I told him my plan.

'I don't know,' I replied. 'How do you find a book in the book store?'

The first week _Romantically Challenged_ was available on Amazon I sold four copies. I don't know how people found the book, but they did. Soon after, I discovered Kindle Boards and the Amazon forums and started connecting with other self-published authors. We commiserated when sales fell, cheered each other on when things were going well and most importantly, we shared information. That, and old-fashioned trial and error, is how I learned the self-publishing ropes.

I uploaded my second novel, _Honeymoon for One_ , a humorous, cosy mystery, the month after my first book. It had never been traditionally published and didn't have the benefit of professional reviews, but to my amazement it sold even better than _Romantically Challenged_.

Several months later, I pulled _How I Learned to Love the Walrus_ from my agent and self-published that title too. Not coincidentally, that was the first month I sold over 1,000 books. The following year, I self-published _Disengaged_ , my current (as of April 2012) bestseller.

When I started experiencing success as a self-published author I was often asked whether that meant that I had turned my back on traditional publishing. My answer was always, 'No. For the right offer I would still consider it.' In December 2011, I received that 'right offer' from Amazon Publishing. Amazon will be republishing three of my existing titles in September 2012, and will be publishing my newest title, _Vlad all Over_ , in October 2012.

From traditionally published author to self-published author to hybrid – it's been quite a journey. But I know that everyone is most interested in the numbers, so I'll talk about those too. In 2010, when I'd only been self-publishing for six months, I sold 7,000 books. In 2011, I sold 60,000 books. Because of the Amazon Publishing deal, I have no idea what my 2012 sales number will be. Like many self-publishers, I've learned that sales numbers go up and down. Some of it is within your control (e.g. how many new books you publish and what you charge) and some of it is not (e.g. market conditions, how your book will be received and ebook retailers changing their algorithms and policies). Do slower sales discourage me? On occasion. Like most people, some days I let events beyond my control get me down, but most of the time it just spurs me to write more and write better. Every reader I know, myself included, is just looking for a great read. I want to be the one to give it to them. I'm a writer. It's what I do. I'm in this business for the long haul.

_Beth Orsoff is an entertainment attorney and the author of humorous and suspenseful women's fiction, including Romantically Challenged, Honeymoon for One, Girl in the Wild, Disengaged and Vlad all Over. She lives in Los Angeles, dividing her time and energy between writing fiction and drafting Hollywood contracts. For more information about Beth and her books visit_ http://www.bethorsoff.com _._

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### Two

The Secret Myth of Traditional Publishing

Dean Wesley Smith

You are guaranteed to sell more copies through a traditional publisher. Let me just try not to choke with laughter.

I keep laughing when writer after writer goes on about how much better traditional publishing is than indie publishing. Now, granted, I am still a traditionally published writer with a couple of books under contract, but the myths involved with traditional publishing are just head-shaking to someone like me, an old-timer.

And there is one major area that almost no one talks about when having a discussion about indie publishing vs. traditional publishing. And I was reminded of this area tonight by a writer asking me about a book. So give me a minute and I'll get to it. But first, you all know the standard myths. But for fun, let me list the major ones here:

Traditionally published books are cleaner and better proofed than indie books. Well, no, maybe, sometimes, but not always. It totally depends on the level of proofing an indie publisher has done on his or her books. It also depends on how bad the proofreader was at the traditional publisher and what level your advance was. These days, as we are through the start-up phase, indie books are often far cleaner than a traditional book.

Traditionally published books get better promotion. Well, not really, unless your advance is way, way above six figures, and even then you are going to be doing a ton of it yourself. These days a midlist book out of a traditional publisher gets NO promotion. You do it either way.

You get more respect if you sell your book to a traditional publisher. Well, maybe in your own head, but real readers never care if Bantam or Bongo Books published the book they love. If it looks professional and is clean and easy to read, they will never notice the publisher. This one is only a concern to insecure writers who need professional help. Or authors who care nothing of writing, but only want to be published to brag and sit on panels at conferences or join writer's organisations. They are not writers, they are authors.

Traditional publishing is a better way to launch a career. Well, if you have years to wait around while editors and agents and production departments get their fingers out of their noses and actually do something with your book. But most writers starting out would rather have a few readers on their books a little sooner than four or five years. It might only be a few, but that number will grow if you keep writing. If a traditional publisher buys two or three books and your first one bites it, they will drop the other two and you will repay the tiny advance.

Only 'Good' books get traditionally published. That is so darned silly; I have little I can say about it. Some of the major classics were rejected twenty and thirty times, which would never happen today. And some of the clone vampire/magic/sex books that are coming out of traditionally published houses are art I'm sure. Sigh. There are 'good' books being published both ways. Whatever 'good' is.

You can only get into bookstores by going to a traditional publisher. Well, maybe a year ago. But that has changed completely. There are indie distributors starting up all over the country that will take indie books directly into all bookstores, including B&N (unless you were really silly and signed an exclusive agreement with some store). We are firing up a distribution company ourselves that will be up and running this later summer that will take WMG Publishing books and other publishers' books directly to stores.

You can only get reviewed with a traditionally published book. Well, that's a surprise to those of us who know how to get books to reviewers. We have had both Pulphouse books and WMG Publishing books reviewed by all major review sources. It's called 'acting like a publisher' instead of a spoiled writer. If you do a professional book and act like a publisher and send them out the same way as publishers do, reviewers will treat you like a publisher and review your authors' books.

You are guaranteed to sell more copies through a traditional publisher. Let me just try not to choke with laughter. Folks, I have sold books to traditional publishers that sold exactly 625 copies at last royalty statement. I have had books go out of print and the publisher still hold them at less than 2,000 copies. Some of those books I got advances beyond thirty grand. Trust me, selling to a traditional publisher doesn't mean numbers of copies.

And that leads me back around to the reason for this silly post.

The myth that no one mentions.

You write a book, you spend the years and the energy to sell it to a traditional publisher. They pay you part of the advance. You think the book will then come out. Right? Well, not so fast.

That's right, fair myth believers. Selling a book to a traditional publisher is not a guarantee it will ever see the light of day.

I say I have 'published' more than 100 books through traditional publishers in my official bio. My sales numbers of novels are even higher. At a rough count, going quickly back over records and sadly functioning memory, I have sold and been paid for, and sometimes written, at least seventeen novels that never got published.

Yes, seventeen novels. I said that, I really did. Thirteen of them are fully written, the rest are partially written with outlines. That is not counting novels that didn't sell but I wrote or partially wrote with outlines. There are a bunch more of those.

That's right, I've written, sold and been paid for more novels that never saw print than most writers have written in their entire careers.

Guess what? A bunch of those novels are going to be coming out through WMG Publishing this next year. Wow, after decades, all the work didn't really go to ruin and a long-spent paycheque.

Have I said lately how much I love this new world?

Have fun. I am.

(First published on http://www.deanwesleysmith.com. © 2012, Dean Wesley Smith)

Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than 100 popular novels and well over 200 published short stories, including Laying the Music to Rest and The Hunted. He is the co-author of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He has ghosted for a number of bestselling writers, written books and comics for all three major comic book companies (Marvel, DC and Dark Horse) and scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made. Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name and having great fun as an indie writer as well.

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### Three

You've got Nothing to Lose

David Jay Ramsden

In my opinion, it is a no-brainer – don't wait for rejection; go ahead and test the water with self-publishing as it is easy and free!

I was born in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England in 1953. I was educated at Moseley Hall Grammar School until 1971. I was always a keen sportsman representing my school and county at athletics, cross country and rugby. I was also a decent cricketer and footballer. I was published when I was eleven years old with a poem entered in a county schools magazine. Writing was always something I enjoyed doing. That means that I have been writing for most of my life, but I began to take it seriously in the late 1990s.

My first book, _The Crowman Cometh_ was in the second draft stages when I sent it out to some literary agents and I managed to create some interest from one. At that time, I received an offer to publish from a company called Minerva Press who wanted me to pay for the book to be published. A fairly wealthy friend of mine read my book and offered to pay the costs. I would then pay him back through sales, so I ignored the literary agent and went with Minerva Press. You learn very quickly by your mistakes... Minerva went into liquidation in 2001 and took my book to the grave with them. I recently bought a used copy of my book for over £35.00. The point was that I was so desperate to see my book in print and I saw Minerva as the instant option.

From there, I went back and looked at my dreams and objectives when I first started to write seriously. I always dreamed that one day I would get on a bus or a train and see someone reading a copy of one of my books...I am still dreaming! My real objective was to write something that other people enjoyed and I believe I have done that as I have sold over a thousand books in a very short space of time, but that is because I chose to self-publish.

For every would-be writer, their first novel is always special. We all share the same feeling that this book will set the world alight and will soon be a bestseller, but as you type away and reach the final chapter you suddenly begin to realise that you have to find an outlet for your masterpiece. You begin to trawl through the Internet and find publishers and agents who usually leave a message on their website saying that they are not looking for new authors at the present time. Some will ask for a brief synopsis or sample chapters, but imagine how many writers are sending their work to them... It is probably thousands. The conventional way of publishing is the most difficult route for a new writer to take. The reality is that publishers take 'safe bets' on writers they know will sell. However good your work is they will almost unanimously reject your work because they don't know you. If they don't know you then they think that the public don't know you and they assume your book won't sell. If you are John Grisham or Stephen King then they will put your book on shelves because they know your books will sell.

My story continued after Minerva Press nosedived. I continued writing but rather half-heartedly. I wrote four books in a series and tried the original literary agents, who almost told me to 'do one', so I stopped writing for a while until I received that bolt from the blue and wrote the first in a series of detective novels set in Ireland, where I was living at the time. _Inspector Doyle Daly: the Rise and fall of the Phoenix_ was a joy to write. The follow up, _Inspector Doyle Daly: Holland_ , followed very quickly. I beavered away, sent out the manuscript and I got a lot of positive feedback. Then I got an offer to publish from a company called Pneuma Springs in Dartford, Kent. They loved the book and wanted to publish, so I ran with them. In June 2010 the book was published and I was sent two copies. Then I waited... and waited... and waited. Nothing happened, so I had 10,000 leaflets printed, advertising the book, and pushed them through doors all over my hometown. Nothing happened again. After a year, the publishers reported no sales for my book. After eighteen months, it was the same story. When we reached Christmas 2011, I began to feel a little angry. What the hell were these people doing? Why wasn't my book selling? By this stage I had written another two books and emailed the publisher with a list of queries, to which the editor responded with lethargy. She told me that she would be happy to put the first book onto their ebook list, but I would have to pay for the second book to be published. I was livid. I looked on the Internet and I found my book, which I had been told had not sold a single copy, being advertised as a used book for sale on at least ten different bookseller sites in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as the USA, Germany and Belgium. I asked the publisher how, if I hadn't sold any books, were these people selling used copies? The response was pathetic and I washed my hands of them from that moment on.

After that, I thought about constructing my own website where people could buy my books, but it seemed so difficult to attract people to the site. Why would they visit a website of an author they had never heard of? I trawled the web and found several possibilities; I liked Amazon Kindle, Smashwords and Lulu. I read the notes about self-publishing and uploaded my first Inspector Doyle Daly book. I loaded two more books and that first month I sold thirty books with Amazon Kindle. I then put the books on Smashwords and offered them for free for a short time and several hundred copies were downloaded. My ideology was that if I offered the first in a series for free then people would pay for the second in the series if they liked the first one! It has taken a while, but it is starting to work. I am starting to sell a lot of books, which is why I started writing in the first place.

One of the difficulties a writer has is finding a theme that is different, doing something that no one has done before. When I decided to write a series of detective novels I found a setting (Dublin in Ireland) that hadn't previously been used in a series before. I decided to use a style of writing which was very different by using humour when humour shouldn't really be used. I hope that it has worked. Some genres are very difficult to write in. I have tried horror, but found it very difficult, as I could not compete with the likes of Stephen King, James Herbert and many other top scribes. So, be careful when you decide to go for a particular genre and do some research about what has come before you. Again, you can come up with an idea but then take the idea into a different genre than you first thought. Writing is completely up to you, which is what makes the art so sublime. You set the direction; you invent the characters and the storyline

Before you publish, check out the guidelines that the publishers want you to comply with. Make sure you have gone back over your work several times as each time I read through my manuscript I always find something to change or an error. Spellcheck and grammar check may seem obvious, but do them anyway. Sometimes grammar check will want to change something that you have written and by changing it to agree with the check you can completely lose the thread of a storyline, so use your own discretion.

As you look at different options of publishing your completed manuscript make sure you adhere to your wishes. What I mean is, do not throw a load of money at a vanity publisher or someone making huge promises because these are pipe dreams and reality says that your book will not surface unless you make the right choices now. Go for a free website that has a lot of traffic, put your work there and find out if your project holds water. Please, please, please don't waste your money at this stage. If you can get your book into print for free or even attain an advance, which are is rare, then go for it, but while you are waiting for rejection try a free website... What have you got to lose?

Now I have seen both sides of the coin, I prefer to self-publish. I like the fact that I set the price of the book, I like the fact that I can design my own cover and that I can keep a close check on my sales through their websites. The simple fact is that people go to Amazon Kindle and Smashwords to buy books and to sample new writers. I want to build a following of readers and the only way I can offer people a chance to read my work is to offer part of it for free. I am taking a chance on my writing skill and putting my neck on the block at the same time. It could be that my writing sucks, but the only way to find out is take a few risks and get your work online.

For new writers, the literary world is a virtually closed shop. I find agents and publishers do not want to know you or your manuscript. With self-publishing you get the chance to put your book out there and find out what people think of it. Why bother sending sample chapters and synopses to people who are not really interested? The self-publishing world is honest; they post your sales into your account and send you money for those sales. They allow people to review your book and that in itself is what every writer is searching for – critique! We are our own worst enemies, beat ourselves up and think what we have written is rubbish. Then someone comes along and adds you as a favourite writer and suddenly you realise that you are not that bad after all.

When it comes to marketing, social networks like Facebook and Twitter are so useful. I am not great at marketing and as explained before, my method is to offer part one for free and hope that the reader will read part two for a fee.

For me, my whole writing life has changed and I am writing almost full-time because I know that each book will go onto websites and it will sell. As well as the two Inspector Doyle Daly books I have four other books on sale. I rewrote the first book, _The Crowman Cometh_ as _Albert and the Crows_ , part one and part two. I have written a thriller called _Jack: Revenge and Retribution_ , plus my latest novel, _The Last True Aryan_ , which I launched a couple of days ago. I know that my books will sell because they are good stories and they are being downloaded. I am not a wealthy man through my writing, but I am a happy man because of my small success and because of self-publishing.

To finish, a few 'dos and Don'ts':

Always make sure you spend a lot of time redrafting your work, go over it again and again and again until you are certain you cannot make it any better and that you have the finished product. My rule of thumb is 'would I read it?' Use sites like Predators and Editors (http://www.pred-ed.com), which will tell you who the sharks are in literary waters and you can read up on other people's disasters. Learn by their mistakes and not your own. In my opinion, it is a no-brainer – don't wait for rejection; go ahead and test the water with self-publishing as it is easy and free!

_For more information about David and his books visit_ <http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/DoyleDalySuperstar>

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### Four

Freedom

Steve Carter and Antoinette Ryder

Without self-publishing, many brilliant artists and writers have disappeared into obscurity waiting to be discovered by a major publisher.

We are SCAR: Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr, artists and writers working in the areas of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, satire and surrealism. We create in a variety of mediums including prose fiction, illustration, comic books, screenplays and even music with our experimental bands TeknoSadisT and FistFunk Futurists. In 2010, our screenplay, _Curse of the Swampies_ , won Best Feature Film Screenplay at the A Night of Horror International Film Festival.

We have been published nationally and internationally and throughout our career we have also continued to explore freedom of expression through self-publishing. Experimentation is an important development tool, and self-publishing aids in the evolution of ideas and techniques.

When working with a publisher or editor there are always compromises: deadlines, changes to text or images; sometimes these changes are not necessarily an improvement. It wasn't uncommon to receive a job, without warning, around Christmas time with a New Year's Day deadline!

Many of the comic strips that we wrote and illustrated were published in 'girlie' magazines but we always encountered the bane of censorship. It was also a time of extreme political correctness and prohibitive attitudes. You had to be careful how you depicted women; for instance, a sexy woman could not be shown holding a knife as it was deemed to be intermingling sex and violence! Depictions of violence, blood and gore were virtually forbidden and splatter imagery was pretty much taboo. Certain crude words were banned from magazine covers so the editors invented words such as 'smoo' and 'nunga', but the Censorship Board, in its tenacious and infinite wisdom, banned those too!

Freelancing was frustrating and fraught with on-going vexation. Self-publishing was more satisfying because it allowed total freedom of expression. No artistic compromise and no deadlines except for the ones you set yourself.

Self-publishing has a long and illustrious history. Most innovative ideas began life in the underground. One example is Zap Comix, which began in the 1960s and was a radical self-funded collective advocating free artistic expression. It presented the talents of Robert Crumb, Robert Williams, Spain Rodriguez, S. Clay Wilson, et al, to the world and they are at the forefront of pop culture. Without self-publishing, many brilliant artists and writers have disappeared into obscurity waiting to be discovered by a major publisher.

The music industry is full of examples of bands publishing their own music and pressing their own records. This is what makes the music industry strong, varied and innovative. So self-publishing is not a new concept and nothing to be feared.

We specialise in the genres of horror and sci-fi and live in Australia. This combination makes it even more difficult to have your work seen, as there is no genuine industry for these genres in this country. In fact, there is a distinct move to dilute the horrific elements out of horror and make horror 'respectable', by promoting mild supernatural or suspense stories under the banner of 'horror'. A very unsatisfying situation for consumers of true horror.

With the introduction of the cheap, pocket-sized paperback novel there was a reading boom. Paperbacks were affordable, could be purchased everywhere and were voraciously devoured. There were thousands of titles being released in all genres.

Somewhere around the 1980s, the rot started to set in. New editors were accepting stories that pushed a particular agenda and popular lines began to be eroded and disappear. Individual and niche market tastes were no longer being catered to and a vast number of readers turned their attention to other interests.

As if that wasn't enough, publishers shot themselves in the foot when they artificially inflated the price of the paperback novel in an attempt to turn it into an elitist commodity. Today, the publishing industry is gasping for breath. With the advent of new technological opportunities the monopoly and stranglehold publishers had on the market has been broken and they need to embrace it or fold.

It's understandable that publishing houses, as with all commercial enterprises, have limited resources so perhaps they are aiming for the lowest common denominator. This may go part way in explaining why there are so many mediocre novels being published while original and innovative manuscripts wallow in someone's drawer.

Trying to submit a manuscript to a publishing house has become a tortuous process. There are gatekeepers installed to keep new talent out. This also applies to agents.

Options have now opened up and with independent publishing, aspiring authors have an opportunity to get their work out there and seen, and reap some rewards. It's a much-needed morale booster and provides them with the impetus to develop their craft and hone their story-telling skills.

A complaint aimed at indie books is that they are poorly written and flawed with grammatical errors; why else would they be rejected by the gatekeepers? Of importance to us is imagination and ideas. We're from the punk-rock mentality where anything goes. It doesn't matter if you can't play guitar, have a go anyway. To us, imagination and originality are primary. Technique can evolve as writers practice their craft. Your first book may not be perfect or brilliant but everyone has to start somewhere. It's rare for anyone's first creation to be a masterpiece without flaws. A writer who believes that they are perfect and infallible is often simply stale and stagnant.

It's also an opportunity to receive feedback and constructive criticism. Yes, there is always the risk of receiving destructive criticism but if you are passionate enough you should not let the detractors bully you into stopping. At least your work made enough of an impact on the reader that they felt compelled to attack you. That's a positive thing in itself.

As far as quality of content is concerned, nothing's changed; there are good and bad works published by the independents just as there are good and bad published by the majors. Only now there is much more choice and we'd rather have too much choice than too little.

We have recently branched out into ebooks under the name of Carter Rydyr and this has allowed us to expand our reach to audiences that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

It's great that people have the opportunity to take charge of their creative careers and cut out the middle man. Some writers have been able to quit their day jobs and make a living from their writing on their own terms. Many of these have suffered numerous rejections by the gatekeepers; or these days, received absolutely no response to their submissions from the gatekeepers.

The only people we've seen complaining about the influx of indie authors and who are advocating the gatekeepers are those who already have deals with publishing houses. We don't know why they feel the need to complain at all; why they feel justified in trying to deny other people's creative expression. There's enough room for everyone. Perhaps it's an attempt to crush the competition or they are simply mean-spirited. True professional authors don't carry on this way; they get on with their writing, but there seems to be a contingent of writers out there that believe that they have entitlement over everyone else.

What makes the gatekeepers omniscient as to the worth of a novel? The gatekeepers don't know any more than you or I. It often just comes down to fashion, politics or personal taste.

There are numerous examples of publishers continuously rejecting novels that have eventually become classics. Conversely, there are numerous professionally published books that are mediocre and not worth the paper they're printed on. If the gatekeepers are genuinely omniscient perhaps the publishing industry wouldn't be in the mess it presently finds itself.

Testimony to that is that there are some mediocre books that are successful and everyone has their personal examples of that; and there are brilliant works that are still struggling on the underground. Some of our most cherished books are those produced independently by the creator dipping their hand into their own pocket and printing a handful of copies. These are precious gems, rare and wonderful when found.

_The strange and bizarre works of Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr (S.C.A.R.) incorporate anything from Sci Fi and horror fantasy to surrealism and weird satire. All of it has a strong element of the fantastic and a healthy dose of experimentalism. Current projects include new comics, more audio experiments and prose stories. There are also a number of screenplays and novellas in the works. Their ebooks can be found on Smashwords and Amazon under Carter Rydyr and you can visit their website at_ http://www.weirdwildart.com

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### Five

The Future was Never Brighter for the Indie Author

Timothy Lee

Publish your work on any number of the indie publisher sites and then stick your tongue out at the mainstream publishers and/or agents. They have ruled long enough and are now going the way of the dinosaurs.

I could cover the walls in my den with rejection letters. Publishers and agents alike found my work to be somewhat less than their required standards, thereby making my search for either or both to be a complete waste of my time and money. Unfortunately, that is part of the writing business and, as they say, the dues every writer must pay. There are, of course, a few who just slide in and reap the rewards of being in the right place at the right time, but the majority of new writers find themselves facing the dreaded rejection letter time and time again and this can be so damned frustrating.

Your work is good, of that there is no question. Every writer has a niche and a waiting audience; it is just a matter of being able to reach them without a publisher or agent making the decision of your worth for both you and your readers. At this point we hit the old good news/bad news scenario. Let us get the bad news over with first, shall we? You have put a lot of time and effort into your work. Your sweat, blood and tears are imbedded in those pages and you know that your manuscript will sell, but because of the way the system has been set in place for these many, many years, you and all other authors have been held hostage by those who make the decision as to what they feel is good and what is not. This reeks of unfairness, but what else is there to do?

It is relatively easy to be accepted by POD (Print On Demand) publishers who may or may not charge a fee for their services. Unfortunately, you will quickly discover (as I did with four of my books) that very little, if any, promotion will be done on your behalf. As promising as their sales pitch might sound, more often than not all sales of your work will be solely dependent upon your own promotion. You do all the work, call in the sales and they then print and ship your books to you. As for your royalties, they will take 90% of the retail price, leaving you with 10% profit for your hard work. Yes, you read that right: you do all the work, promotion and legwork and they take 90%!

Now we come to the good news. Great news, in fact. Brick and mortar bookstores are failing. Why? Because of the invention of the ebook reader. The future of publishing is in ebooks and this spells success for the indie author. Now more than ever it is possible to have your work published at absolutely no cost and have it made available worldwide through a variety of venues, including but not limited to, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and more... again, at no cost to you. I have personally found a home at Smashwords where my work is published in a variety of formats for every ebook reader and then distributed throughout the world.

Here is how that works: once you upload your manuscript to their site their software goes to work formatting it in all the popular formats, including HTML (online reading), mobi (Kindle), epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo), PDF (for PC reading) and more. You next set the price for your work and – bam! – you are a published author. It is that simple. And here is the best part of all: you receive a high-percentage of the royalties. Take that, print publishers! Next, your work is made available to the biggies as an ebook for immediate download and once in their catalogues your work is distributed throughout the world. In fact, I have found that a very large portion of my sales come from overseas and Canada.

So, as an indie author who has been under the thumb of print publishers and agents, you can now afford to gloat. Publish your work on any number of the indie publisher sites and then stick your tongue out at the mainstream publishers and/or agents. They have ruled long enough and are now going the way of the dinosaurs. The ebook is king and so too is the indie author. You are now in complete control, not them. Now you can spend more time working on your next bestseller and less time trying to find somebody to publish your work.

_Creativity is Timothy Lee's passion, although this is often surpassed by his love of Disneyland and roller coasters: an interest that drags him to Southern California every year. Once a radio announcer, Timothy now lives a quiet life of imagination and inspiration in Olympia, Washington, with his two cats. To find out more about Timothy, visit_ http://www.jeffreylynnstoddard.com

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### Six

Robbed!

R.J. Hamilton

Well, that excitement was short-lived when the company told me I'd have to purchase at least 500 copies of my own book before things officially got underway. This cost me just under $6,000 (at a discounted rate, of course).

When I initially submitted my first manuscript, it was to a 'professional' publishing company out of Colorado. I was deployed in Iraq with the United States Army and was completely clueless about the processes when it came to manuscript submissions and the publishing procedure. I'd rather not mention their name, but they were more than willing to accept my manuscript, after an approximate $800.00 payment of course.

They were paid and my 'editor' began her correspondences with me, which were far and few between I might add. After about a year, the manuscript had been completed and the cover art had been designed. Much of my story, especially some of the colourful necessities, had been deleted. Being a first-time author, I was simply ecstatic by the fact that I was being published, though I wasn't completely satisfied with the final product by any means. Well, that excitement was short-lived when the company told me I'd have to purchase at least 500 copies of my own book before things officially got underway. This cost me just under $6,000 (at a discounted rate, of course).

I received my copies by the boatload. The UPS delivery man showed up at my apartment with eight boxes of books and they took over a good portion of my dwelling. I began setting up book signings and appearances whenever I could afford to go. The final straw fell when I had a signing at Barnes & Noble. The store's book manager had ordered enough copies from the outlet set by my publishers well in advance. The day of the signing came and there were no books! B&N has a policy that they must have copies from the distributor rather than the author themselves, but we had to have something to sign, so I supplied my own.

That day, I emailed the publishers because of the issue I'd encountered with Barnes & Noble's order. The only way to contact the company was via email, which really puts a damper on communications. They responded with the fact that they 'fill all orders as they come in'. This statement was obviously untrue and it led to many other emails. I asked to see a report of sales, which they wouldn't provide. They told me, 'If you want to know how sales are doing, you can just go onto Amazon and check your sales ranking.' By the end of a five-day back and forth, they agreed to give me back the rights to my original manuscript. This was the happiest day of my life!

At this time, I had already completed the second and third instalments to my first book, with a forth in process. I revamped _Self Convictions_ , my first book, after gaining back my rights, and self-published the novel. I was able to choose my own cover art, the layout of my work, and how much a reader would be charged. Self-publishing is definitely the way to go. It gives the author the freedom to make their dream exactly how they want it to be presented.

I now know how much money is being made without a drastic amount of reduction going to a third-party. Sure, the self-publishing agencies take a small cut, but it's nowhere near the amount the 'publishers' were taking. To this day, I don't know how much money I'd made with that company and all I can say is, 'Good riddance to them!' I now have total control and am helping other authors through the self-publishing process. I believe that we all have a dream we'd like to share with the world in the form of a book. Why should some selfish publishing company be allowed to take part when they don't share the vision and usually could care less about the author as a person? Best wishes to all of you out there who are trying to share a piece of yourselves with the world.

_Feel free to contact me with any questions via my website_ http://www.rjhamilton.webs.com

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### Seven

The Ebook Revolution

Morgen Bailey

When we're happy with the content, the work can go online within minutes, be read just as quickly and commented on, for better or for worse, and this is another aspect I love... that a reader can email me and tell me what they think of my work.

'Revolution' is a perfect way to describe it. It's certainly shaken up the industry. With few exceptions, publishers are now realising that they're no longer in charge and authors now have more of a say as to the way their writing is distributed.

Of course there's a downside; there's a lot of dross out there but in the main this is because the authors haven't run their writing past anyone else, and I'm sure there are cases where what's put out to the buying public have been first drafts. Always get a second opinion on your writing if you are expecting someone to pay for it. I've been writing a short story a day since 1 May and have put most of them on my blog without having a second pair of eyes scanning over them, which is fine for a blog (although I still have to be happy with them – I've been writing fiction since 2005 and have certainly broken the 1,000,000-word barrier!) but I will have at least one (very reliable) first reader to vet them (and I know he'll pull them apart) before they go online as ebooks. I also run or belong to four writing groups and two are critique-only, and whilst there's only so much I can read out at one time it's great having so many opinions, although they often disagree with each other (someone disliking a section but someone else loving it) but that's the thing about writing, it's like Marmite; you're going to get readers (listeners) who love or hate it. I've had one-star reviews and five-star reviews for the same short story on Goodreads, with one of the one-star reviewers vowing to never read my writing again. This is a shame but I loved the fact that (a) they'd read my story and (b) they (she) felt so strongly about it (albeit not the way I would have wanted).

The other great thing about ebooks is the speed. When we're happy with the content, the work can go online within minutes, be read just as quickly and commented on, for better or for worse, and this is another aspect I love... that a reader can email me and tell me what they think of my work (fortunately all the emails so far have been positive, with some wanting to know what happens next).

The process of bringing ebooks online (Amazon, Smashwords) isn't as daunting as it may seem (although I'm technically minded so I'm sure that helps) – it's always easier once we've conquered the fear of the unknown – and you get to design your own covers (or work with a designer), pick your title (carefully – they both have to shine) and most importantly, if we self-publish, we reap all the financial benefits.

With ebooks being so accessible, it does mean that there are thousands of authors all clamouring for their books to be sold and most of the authors I've interviewed have said their least favourite part of writing is the marketing and it is extremely hard, if you're with a publisher or not. My blog is just one platform amongst probably as many outlets vying for readers' attention. You just have to try every way you can to be spotted, make your work as good as it can be and if you're passionate enough about what you do (traditional or electronic, acceptances are hard so why wouldn't you be passionate?), you keep going. As the saying goes, 'You get out what you put in' and for those who know me, I put in a LOT, but wouldn't have it any other way.

_Based in Northamptonshire, England, Morgen Bailey (Morgen with an E) is a prolific blogger, podcaster, Chair of NWG (which runs the annual H.E. Bates Short Story Competition), freelance author of numerous short stories, novels, articles and dabbler of poetry. Like her, her blog,_ http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com _, is consumed by all things literary._

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### Eight

My thoughts on Self-Publishing

Aliyah Burke

To me, there are pros and cons to self-publishing just as there are in everything. No one person can tell another what is the absolute best way to go. All of us have encountered different experiences along the way.

I started self-publishing in 2008 when I put out my _Megalodon Team_ series; it had been with epublishers and there had always been problems with them: not being paid or the company folding. Therefore, I looked around and decided to plunge into the venture on my own.

It took a lot of time, finding an editor, finding a cover artist and deciding where to publish the story, but I was lucky. I had a wonderful editor who didn't wish to temper my voice, as I've heard some editors do, and a cover artist who really listened to what I had in mind for the covers. I know some people do them on their own but I have no talent in that vein. I am a firm believer that you should always have another person look over and edit your work.

A lot of editing later and my books were released, in print and as ebooks. They are also on the Kindle now.

To me, there are pros and cons to self-publishing just as there are in everything. No one person can tell another what is the absolute best way to go. All of us have encountered different experiences along the way.

Cons for Me

It is a lot of work to be both writer and publisher. With the explosion of social media outlets, you really need to manage your time so you're not only promoting but also leaving yourself time to actually write your stories. Bottom line: you need to write in order to keep your readers. If you have a wonderful online presence but do not give them a book because you are spending all of your time on those sites, they will go to people who can give them stories. So one really has to figure out the best outlets for them and not overload yourself so that's all you do. If you have no works to sell then what exactly are you promoting? The work also increases if you have multiple pen names. I don't but I have seen writers who do and how much they have to do for each name.

Editing and cover art come out of your pocket. It can be very expensive depending on where you go for either service. Moreover, you don't want to skimp. Bad editing can ruin your name before it's begun. In addition, a bad cover can pretty much do the same thing.

More money comes out of your pocket for advertising. You don't have a publisher's website or newsletter to push your book. It will all be on you.

Pros for Me

You can choose when the book comes out. This makes it easier to set up promo spots for releases. You're not wondering if a publisher will change the date and if they do, would they let you know.

You have all the say in your cover, whereas, with publishers, they have the final word, assuming they allow you any input at all.

Self-publishing gives you a higher return, since you aren't sharing royalties with a publisher. Sales to me are private, but I will say that I am very pleased with what my self-pubbed books have brought in.

You choose where you want your book released. With publishers, they usually have third-party sites already chosen. On your own, you can pick where you want to sell. If you don't want a place, you don't have to put the book there.

I think the decision to self-pub or not has to be an individual choice. If you can't write without a deadline from someone else over your head, it may not be for you. It is all on your head when it's done and released.

I haven't self-pubbed in a while; I've been busy with my publishers, but it is something I will do again. Things are changing so rapidly that I know it will be a bit different when I get back into it. So I'll have to do some research, which people should always do whether self-pubbing or going with a publisher.

For me personally, I will always do a mix of both. I love having the control that comes with self-publishing yet I really enjoy the audiences I reach with publishers, readers I may not have connected with otherwise.

Before you make the decision to go one way or the other, I think all I can say/encourage you to do is ask other writers. Get their personal accounts. You'll find a wide range of what worked and what didn't. Never forget, though, just like the best way to write, the choice of which way to go in the publishing world is dependent on you. What works best for one may not work for you. Be thorough in your research. Make informed decisions. Moreover, never lose your love for writing.

_Aliyah Burke is an avid reader who's never far from her computer. She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached at aliyah-burke.com/blog/contact/ or apply to join her yahoo group at groups.yahoo.com/group/aliyah_burke. Married to a career military man, they have a German Shepherd, two Borzois and a DSH cat. For more information, visit_ http://www.aliyah-burke.com _._

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### Nine

Writing the book

Brendan Gerad O'Brien

Research shows that 80% of any book's success is determined by the quality of the writing. 80%! Only 20% is the result of marketing... and luck!

In my case, I write for fun and it's something I thoroughly enjoy doing. I love juggling words around, fitting them into some sort of order and hopefully creating something that people will enjoy reading.

I believe everyone has a story to tell and quite a few of them really deserve to be heard, but before committing your time and energy to putting your words out there for all the world to see, you need to step back and take a sober look at what you want to say and why you want to say it in the first place.

And, most important of all, who do you think will read it? What slot do you see it in? Have you studied the market to see if there's similar stuff out there? Have you read similar stories, absorbed interesting bits of them so you can remould them into your own script? That's not cheating, by the way – there's only a handful of truly original stories in the whole world. What you're trying to do is put your own stamp on one of them and reconstruct it to fit your imagination. But do not try to copy someone else's style of writing; you'll only come across as a fraud. Be yourself! I've heard so many people saying, 'I want to be the next Wilbur Smith or the next Dan Brown.' Well, I don't! I want to be the first Brendan Gerad O'Brien.

When you've got the basic synopsis in your head and you're satisfied that you're ready to start, make one final promise to yourself – that you will write a great book. If you go at it half-heartedly, it will show! You'll end up with a shoddy piece of work that readers will reject immediately and they will avoid everything else you do too. No one wants to waste their time or money struggling through something that's riddled with lazy writing and a careless sprinkling of clichés.

Remember, if your story inspires the readers, they will actually market your book for you by spreading the word around. So respect your reader. Research shows that 80% of any book's success is determined by the quality of the writing. 80%! Only 20% is the result of marketing... and luck!

So plan it, write it and read it again and again. One habit I've developed over the years is to read my work our loud. You'll be amazed how something that appears clear and obvious on paper will suddenly make no sense at all when you hear it being spoken. I also tend to put each completed piece away in a drawer for a month or two. You'll be amazed how you see it differently when you look at it again with fresh eyes. But don't rely too much on feedback from your loved ones because they'll probably be so proud of you they'll be biased in your favour. Anyway, they won't want to upset you with negative comments.

My advice would be to join a writers circle and submit your work for scrutiny. Believe me, you will get honest and constructive feedback, so never take it as a personal attack. Accept it, digest it and act on it. Storming out in a strop is never the solution.

If possible, team up with another writer and offer to review their work if they do yours, again stressing the need for honest feedback. I have a wonderful friend in Canada who takes my stories to pieces and gives me some excellent comments and I do the same for him.

One thing I'm not totally convinced about is that you should only write about what you know. I'm sure a lot of the stuff I've read over the years was written by people who never experienced the situation their characters found themselves in. If you have a good imagination and you can express it clearly and intelligently then I'm sure the end result will be appreciated.

But, crucially, have fun and enjoy your writing. And don't fret about making a living out of it. In the UK alone over 100,000 books are published every year. Look at the charts and see how many of them sell enough to allow the writer to give up the day job... but that shouldn't deter you from writing a great book! Good luck.

_Brendan Gerad O'Brien was born in Tralee, on the west coast of Ireland, and now lives in Wales with his wife and daughters. As a child, he spent his summer holidays in Listowel, Co Kerry, where his uncle Moss Scanlon had a harness-maker's shop, which, sadly, is long gone now. The shop was a magnet for all sorts of colourful characters. It was there that Brendan's love of words was kindled by the stories of John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon, who often wandered in for a chat and bit of jovial banter. Brendan's first thriller, Once on a Cold and Grey September, can be found at_ <http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/brendie>_. For more information about Brendan visit_ http://www.bgobrien.com

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Ten

### Creating Characters

C.S. Marks

How do we avoid the pitfalls and create good, solid characters? It helps me to imagine that I am meeting a person for the first time.

Every fiction writer has the important goal of establishing and maintaining a happy readership. When we read fiction, we want to be taken to another world, to have an experience outside our own lives. How does the author take us there? How does the story 'come alive'?

Answer: through the characters. The characters drive a good story and they take the reader along with them. So, how does one develop effective, memorable characters?

Through this presentation, I hope to help you do exactly that.

The pitfalls:

The most common complaints I see from reviewers/readers concerning character development are:

Characters are flat (underdeveloped). They do not seem 'real'.

Characters are stereotypical: There is nothing unique about them, hence they are not memorable.

Characters are 'too perfect'. Even heroic people are flawed in some way. The dreaded 'Mary Sue' character is a special subset of this. (Incidentally, no one is 'all bad' either.)

Characters are inconsistent. They do not maintain their integrity as characters, 'jarring' the reader by behaving counter to realistic expectations.

Characters are dull. Even if it is their lot in life to be dull, we can still make them interesting.

A good character is:

Three-dimensional (well-developed)

Unique (memorable)

Comfortably flawed

Consistent ('solid')

Interesting

How do we avoid the pitfalls and create good, solid characters? It helps me to imagine that I am meeting a person for the first time. I flesh out the physical details first, as we first view people before we get to know them. Physical details provide clues to personality, though, so I must have an idea of the character's nature before I design him/her.

Here are a few tips (in no particular order):

It's in the Details

Whenever I am developing a character, I want to interact with that character on every level. That means I must work out not only the physical details of the character's appearance, but I must fully imagine his/her mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, attitudes and so on. Sometimes, physical details give insight into personality. Is the character well groomed? Does he bite his nails? Are his hands smooth and well-manicured? Does he display nervous mannerisms? Does he make eye contact? These are things we learn when we meet a person for the first time.

Art can Imitate Life

I often base characters on people I know. Several of my best characters are reflections of good friends or family members. While they might differ greatly in physical details, they behave as that person behaves. This helps me to maintain consistency. For example, I can ask myself, 'What would my friend do in this situation?' (Fortunately, I have interesting friends.)

Everyone has a History

Never underestimate the importance of back-story. It's our past experiences that shape our present behaviour. Every character should have a history; you don't need to share it with your readers, but you should have worked it out for yourself. After all, if you don't have a clear understanding of your characters, your readers most certainly won't. You can include details of the back-story as required to help advance the story and intrigue your readers.

Don't Neglect the Secondary Characters

This is a common pitfall. Some authors focus entirely on their primary protagonist (heroine/hero) and secondary characters are included only to support that main character. I view the secondary characters as very important. They do far more than support the mains; they are essential to the story. They enrich the fictional world, adding colour and spice. They are like the instruments in the symphony that support the central melody; without them, the piece is diminished. Sometimes, it's a secondary character who appeals most to a particular reader. Secondaries are a veritable gold mine for the author and they should be no less well-developed in the author's mind than the primaries. It is helpful to remember that every character must serve a purpose in the story. Why is the character present at all? What characteristics will help the character achieve his/her purpose?

A Memorable Antagonist Makes the Tale

There's nothing like a 'good bad guy'. A memorable villain is at least as important as a good hero – maybe more so. While it's true that (hopefully) your readers will be more likely to identify with the hero, it is helpful for them to empathise with the villain. That means your villain must have a complex nature, not just some mindless, all-consuming evil with no glimmer of humanity. Back-story is extremely important here. YOU should understand your 'dark' characters. That means you must make them at least marginally human.

Of Special Note: The 'Mary Sue' Character

We all create characters through whom we speak. For example, I have two such characters in my series; they express my 'voice' better than the others. We might even use a character to place ourselves in the story. However, we should try to avoid living out our own fantasies too much. The result of that is the dreaded 'Mary Sue' (or the male equivalent, the 'Gary Stu'). Here's an example:

A middle-aged, sedentary man with family problems writes a book set in Arthurian Times. The story stars a stable-boy who suddenly finds himself thrust into the centre of King Arthur's Court, where he slays a terrible ogre, becomes a knight, convinces Lady Guinevere to turn aside from her adulterous ways (despite the fact that she desires him desperately), is given the heretofore-unknown 'brother sword' to Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake, and (after enduring impossible peril and hardship) finds the Holy Grail, thus saving Camelot.

Such liberties on the part of the writer are understandable; after all, we're supposed to have fun with our writing, but we must be careful to keep at least ONE foot in reality. Our readers want to indulge in their own flights of fancy, and that means they need a fully fleshed-out world populated with a variety of characters. Only rarely will they identify with/appreciate a 'Mary Sue.'

_C.S. Marks is best known for her trilogy of high fantasy novels, The Elfhunter Series. She is often called upon to present seminars and informational sessions dealing with independent publishing. Her no-nonsense, realistic, practical-yet-good-humoured approach has benefited many aspiring authors. She encourages writers who strive for excellence, regardless of the publishing path chosen. For more information visit_ http://www.elfhunter.net _._

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### Eleven

Authenticity in Fiction

G.M. Frazier

You have to show your readers that you are faithful to your own creation, that you are trustworthy as a writer, that their trust is well-placed because you are truthful and authoritative with the facts – even the made-up facts.

The world of publishing has drastically changed since I worked as the managing editor at a small book publisher nearly fifteen years ago. But the fundamentals of good writing have not changed, and in this age of the self-published author, they are more important than ever because, for the most part, self-published authors don't have the editorial support in place that traditionally published authors do. One aspect of the writing craft that self-published fiction writers need to focus on is authenticity in their storytelling.

Fiction is by definition make-believe and it is the writer's job to coax the readers out of their natural scepticism, to suspend disbelief and enter into the world the writer has created for them. Whether you are writing mainstream fiction, romance, paranormal, horror, mystery or whatever, it is your job as the writer to bring the reader into the world you've created in order to tell your story. One key to doing that is writing with authenticity.

To grasp what I'm getting at, let's look at some synonyms for authenticity: accuracy, validity, reliability, faithfulness, truthfulness, trustworthiness, authoritativeness and factualness. In whatever make-believe world you create in your story, it must have the ring of accuracy to it. For readers to accept your world as valid, your writing has to reliably maintain that accuracy throughout the story right to the end. You have to show your readers that you are faithful to your own creation, that you are trustworthy as a writer, that their trust is well-placed because you are truthful and authoritative with the facts – even the made-up facts. Once you make an authenticity blunder in your story and lose the reader's trust, it's next to impossible to get it back.

Let me give one example of an authenticity problem in a novel that was submitted to me for possible publication when I worked as an editor. The story was completely set in and around New Orleans, with much of the action taking place in the city itself. I was not three pages into the manuscript when it became painfully obvious that the writer had never set foot in New Orleans. When I got to one of the pinnacle scenes in the story, which took place in Lafayette Cemetery, where the writer spent paragraph after paragraph describing the 'breath-taking beauty' of its 'scenic vistas', 'manicured lawns' and 'rolling hills,' I had to quit reading. The cemetery she was describing was clearly not Lafayette Cemetery. The writer had a good story to tell, but she had lost all credibility with me as her reader. There was no authenticity to this part of her story. Readers who have no first-hand knowledge of cemeteries in New Orleans would no doubt not have been bothered by this, but writers should never count on the ignorance of their readers to cover their own unwillingness to do the research necessary to establish the validity of their make-believe worlds. If you are going to place your characters in a setting that actually exists, you simply must research the place so you get the descriptions right. Go there if you can and use the Internet if you can't.

Authenticity in writing is not limited to locales. You can lose your readers in the details, too. In an ebook I recently read by a well-known self-published author, one of the main characters was a truck driver. In a pivotal action scene, he mentions the 'carburettor' on his truck. At that point in the story, my disbelief was fully suspended and the writer had me hooked. I was eagerly anticipating what was going to happen next and then this glaring mistake hit me like I'd just walked into a brick wall. Why? Over the road, big rig trucks use diesel engines and diesel engines don't have carburettors. Never have. A diesel engine runs unthrottled and the fuel is delivered by direct injection to the combustion chambers. A good copy-editor will catch mistakes like that – or at least recognise it as a fact that needs to be checked.

Don't be lazy in your storytelling. Strive for accuracy in every detail and don't assume you know enough about something because 'it's just a story'. Do the research. While your story may be completely fictitious, it still must be true to life. No matter what your genre, strive to write the best, most authentic fiction and I promise you will have much more satisfied readers.

_G.M. Frazier has been writing fiction for twenty years and his latest novel, A Death on the Wolf, is a coming of age story set in 1969. From 1998 to 2000 he was editor-in-chief at Genesis Press in Columbus, MS. He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law and practices in South Carolina. Visit his website at_ http://www.gmfrazier.com

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Twelve

### Redrafting and the Magic Cupboard

Hayley Sherman

Ultimately, your readers aren't going to care if your feelings were hurt by the redrafting process, but they are going to care if your book doesn't make sense.

My personal experience of self-publishing is threefold; I edit and write books on the subject of writing (This book, _Blood, Sweat and Ink_ and _A Novel in a Haystack_ ), I write odd fiction ( _Diazepam for Sale_ and the forthcoming _The Applauding Coat Factory_ ) and I provide editorial and creative support for authors. This includes copy-editing and critiquing, and this is what I want to focus on in this article.

I have been involved in the production of hundreds of books, some great and some that needed a great deal of work. It's amazing to work on high-quality books, to play a part in the creation of incredible fiction or non-fiction, not least because it gets me to the pub quicker on a Friday night. However, it is perhaps more satisfying to have a client who needs a great deal of support and watch their project blossom into a creation that's worthy of their talent. They have put in the effort and they are dedicated to producing the best possible book that they can. It's a win-win situation, but not all of my clients fall into these categories and I can always tell from the first sentence if I'm going to be working in the dreaded 'other' category; if the following few weeks are going to be a constant battle with my laptop trying to entice me to my desk while I pretend that ironing is the best thing in the world.

And what is this 'other' category? For the purposes of politeness, let's call them the 'first-drafters' or the 'lazy buggers', although I have much better words for them in the privacy of my office. These are the writers who write the book, type 'The End' and they're on their way. Don't get me wrong, writing a book is a great achievement, but it's only the first part of the writing journey. If you want your book to be great then you have to redraft it yourself before you even think about finding an editor and definitely before you think of publishing. There is an expression in England that 'you can't polish a turd'. If you send a first draft to an editor they can't be expected to turn it into a bestseller. You could approach an editor for manuscript analysis at this stage, but what would be the point if you haven't already explored all avenues for improvement yourself? Wouldn't it be better to wait until you're out of ideas before you start spending money?

So, what does the redrafting process entail? Well, the best advice that I can give is to use the magic cupboard. We all have one in our houses; it's the place you put your manuscript for a week or a month after you have written 'The End'. When you get it out it all seems clearer: the plot flaws, character weaknesses, the inconsistencies, the loose ends, the glaring errors. The temptation for all writers is to jump straight in with a follow-up edit after completing a first draft, but having the patience to distance yourself from the project really does have magical results.

Every writer will follow up the break with their own unique style of redrafting, but a few tips here might help to get you started. The first thing that I would recommend is to perform a complete read-through of the book. The idea is to approach the task as a reader and imagine how it will be received. Make notes as you read, but don't start making changes until you reach the end. Once you have completed the read-through, create a plan of action; decide what you would like to change and then start moving things around. At this stage, think big. Think about the structure of the piece, your plot (or flow of ideas if non-fiction). Be brutal. Ultimately, your readers aren't going to care if your feelings were hurt by the redrafting process, but they are going to care if your book doesn't make sense.

You may want to return the book to the magic cupboard after this stage for more objective treatment. When you come back to it this time, the redrafting process is going to delve a little deeper. This is where the real fun begins as you get stuck into a full-on edit, working from the beginning to the end. Don't worry about spelling, grammar and punctuation; edit with heart. Would that character really say that? Am I giving too much/too little information? Am I 'telling' the story when I should be 'showing'? Is this chapter as dramatic as I had hoped? Is more description needed to really bring this to life? The questions are endless, but this is the fun part of being a writer. This is where you get to revisit the world that you have created and find the perfect colour for the walls and texture for the carpet. This is where you start to create a book that people will not only pay to read; they will metaphorically camp outside your email account waiting for your next offering.

Some writers perform a few redrafts and others go for more than ten. Take as many as you think you need, safe in the knowledge that you are improving with every round. Don't be disheartened or impatient. Time passes surprisingly quickly in life and you may as well spend it being the best that you can possibly be.

_All of Hayley's books can be viewed at_ http://www.hayley-sherman.co.uk _. For creative and editorial support visit_ http://www.whoosh-editing.com _. To read her blog I'm Not Jennifer Saunders visit_ http://notjennifersaunders.blogspot.co.uk __

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### Thirteen

In Praise of Editors

C.S. Marks

A developmental editor will take my books to a level I cannot attain on my own and having been there once, I cannot go back. I know my books are the best they can be and that's what every writer wants. While it was occasionally painful in the beginning, the gain I have received from allowing myself to be open to such expert criticism is beyond price.

First, a little bit of background. I self-published my first book in late 2005. Since then I have published three titles ( _The Elfhunter Trilogy_ ), written a fourth and begun work on a fifth, all in epic fantasy. The trilogy, with the benefit of several proofreaders and one professional line editor, has enjoyed modest success, with nearly 40,000 sales and over 200 reviews. But it wasn't until it was picked up by the small-but-mighty traditional press, Sea Lion Books, that it received what is possibly the greatest benefit of all: a full developmental edit by a real expert.

Raised as I was by a professor of literature, I have always held proofreaders and line editors in high regard. I loathe grammatical/typographical errors and appreciate all the help I can get in exterminating them. Yet I suffered from an odd disorder known as 'contenteditophobia' – unreasonable fear of content editors. This fear sprang, as many unreasonable fears do, from ignorance and misinformation. With the things I had heard from other writers, one could not blame me – horrific tales of huge sections of manuscripts being hacked away, entire plot-lines decimated, characters made unrecognisable, the author's voice forced into the pattern of 'everybodyelseness' – no wonder I was reluctant.

I became acquainted with my first ever developmental editor when Sea Lion submitted the first volume, _Elfhunter_ , for what I have come to call the 'Leslie Wainger make-over'. Now, Leslie isn't your run-of-the-mill content editor; she has over thirty years in the business, is a smart lady who knows and understands what makes a good story and also has the tact and diplomacy to work effectively with authors. This, my friends, is a very important gift.

Authors might not always want to hear what the developmental editor tells them. Her job is to find inconsistencies, plot holes, places where the story does not flow well, elements that don't make sense, bits that are dull or overly wordy, problems with point of view and... and... and.

Guess what? Leslie found all those things in _Elfhunter_. She found them and I fixed them. And I didn't even argue... much... eventually... after I'd had time to think about it (okay, I fixed most of them). But I must confess that I spent about two weeks in the foetal position when I received the first round of editorial comments.

At first, I was... well, a little hostile. My contenteditophobia was acting up and Leslie wanted to remove one of my favourite chapters! A whole chapter! One of my favourites! And just that morning I had been thinking, 'She'd just better not mess with chapter seventeen.' Oh, no, she wasn't messing with it, she was killing it! And what's with this suggestion here? Hey... we NEED that backstory! What's wrong with a little narrative? I mean the whole book is narrative, kinda. Well, she doesn't get it, obviously. She doesn't understand me. She's trying to change my voice. (Picture the scene from _Kung Fu Panda II_ where Po is running around in circles raving after unsuccessfully trying to achieve inner peace and you have a fair idea of my response.)

Then I got real.

The first step in opening your soul to content editing is to seek and consume quantities of ice cream. The second is to vent your angst to a real friend, one who isn't afraid to tell you to get over yourself. My hubby, Jeff, is a master at gently advising me to stop being self-centred and stubborn, to keep my sense of humour and to see the opportunity to learn and grow that real editing provides. And, well, I guess I've become a master at listening to him... Sometimes.

It took a couple of actual conversations with Leslie to make her concerns and suggestions clear in my mind. When that happened, I knew she was right. And yes, chapter seventeen had to go. As much as I love it, it had to go! (The ever-resourceful Leslie has suggested that I hang onto it and include it as bonus content in the mass-market edition, which totally placated me.) She had found inconsistencies that I had missed and clarifications that needed to be made (we writers often assume readers know what we're thinking, which they don't). She pointed out places where things got bogged down, areas that needed simplifying, and (rarely) those that needed expansion. I streamlined, simplified and expanded, learning a great deal in the process.

Having Leslie edit the book was better than taking a creative writing course; it was all 'hands-on' learning. For example, POV: I'm the biggest 'head hopper' since Kermit the Frog, but now I understand how to use point-of-view shifts without confusing the reader. Her suggestions helped me to become a better writer, to tighten and refine my prose effectively while keeping my own brand of 'classic' style. Like all good editors, Leslie did not want to interfere with my voice; she just wanted to make it more appealing to the readers.

She also encouraged me, pointing out those rare moments of brilliance. When one receives praise from someone like Leslie, one is prepared to endure any and all criticism without complaint. The fact that the praise is meaningful makes it precious and fills this writer with hope for the book's success. A confident editor makes for a confident author. Confident authors make the best marketers/advocates a book can have.

There's a reason a full developmental edit is expensive; it requires a skill set far above that of a proofreader or line editor. Fixing mechanical errors is important, but getting into the meat of the book – the soul of the story – and bringing it into its best possible form is really more art than science. It requires experience as well as talent and commands a higher pay grade. Don't forget, developmental editors have to deal with egotistical and often difficult writers diplomatically and gracefully. That alone increases both the value and the cost of their services. Hence, very few self-published books have the benefit of such an editor. Many self-pubbers won't even hire a proofreader, which is an entry-level expense if one wants to be taken seriously (in my opinion).

I no longer have contenteditophobia, because I have realised the value of the experience, not just to the book, but to me as a writer. I hope to have a long and productive relationship with my new publisher, but I am saving my pennies just in case I ever find myself self-publishing again. A developmental editor will take my books to a level I cannot attain on my own and having been there once, I cannot go back. I know my books are the best they can be and that's what every writer wants. While it was occasionally painful in the beginning, the gain I have received from allowing myself to be open to such expert criticism is beyond price.

_C.S. Marks is best known for her trilogy of high fantasy novels, The Elfhunter Series. She is often called upon to present seminars and informational sessions dealing with independent publishing. Her no-nonsense, realistic, practical-yet-good-humoured approach has benefited many aspiring authors. She encourages writers who strive for excellence, regardless of the publishing path chosen. For more information visit_ www.elfhunter.net _._

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Fourteen

### The Writing Bug

JD Nixon

Stands up nervously. It's time for confession.

' _Hello, my pseudonym is JD Nixon and I'm a write-aholic.'_

Why write, some might ask? I might say in response, why breathe? Because you have to. Because you need to.

I started writing in 2009 because I wanted something creative to do to break up the grind of normal life. I'd dabbled a little in writing in the past and one of my life goals was to write a book. One night, I was part-way through reading a major best-selling book (years after everyone else had read it, of course) and I suddenly realised that I didn't want to read what other people had written anymore – I wanted to write my own story. And that is how _Heller_ was born. Oh, and I never did finish reading that book .

Of course, I did go back to reading other people's books and I find that other authors are a great teaching tool. When I read a novel these days, I don't just enjoy the story, but I try to learn to make my writing better by studying the writing styles of successful authors. In particular, I pay a lot of attention to those who also write in the first person: those books where all the action is seen through the eyes of the main character, such as Charlaine Harris and Jeff Lindsay (and me), and those where the book is a mix of first-person narrative and third-person narrative, where the reader is given access to action not directly experienced by the main character, such as Jonathan Kellerman and John Connolly.

I'm not very good at moderation and I sat down and wrote five _Heller_ novels in a row before becoming bored and putting _Heller_ aside, instead writing three Little Town novels in a row. And yes, it's been fun and exhilarating, but it's also been exhausting, time-consuming and isolating. It was really only after I discovered Smashwords that publishing my books became a very real option for me. So I took a deep breath, resurrected _Heller_ (which I hadn't looked at for a year), edited it and published it on Smashwords. Then I did the same for _Blood Ties_.

I first became aware of Smashwords in the comments section of an online newspaper article about the demise of the Borders and Angus and Robertson chains of bookshops here in Australia. The commenter mentioned that they had decided to epublish using Smashwords and were happy with the result in comparison to publishing in hardcopy, particularly in a small market such as Australia. So I checked out Smashwords and decided that I would take that leap of faith and finally put my 'babies' out there for public scrutiny.

After I published _Heller_ , I read a few articles on the Internet complaining about Smashwords' strict requirements for formatting to satisfy its automatic text converter 'Meatgrinder' (and yeah, it would have been smarter to do more homework before I published, but hey, you are what you are). I can appreciate the point of view that if you have high standards of presentation and really want to produce a professional-looking book for your readers, Meatgrinder's requirements reduce your lovely formatting down to basics. But I also appreciate that Smashwords can only exist if it provides an automated process and that fancy formatting is not perfect for ebooks. So, I stripped down my formatting, took out the beautiful calligraphy 'H' I was using to show the _Heller_ 's logo, removed all the accents from words, changed my preferred sans serif font into boring old Times New Roman and turned my book into the best formatting for ebooks, following Mark Coker's precise instructions (which are free to download).

And although I had no autovetter errors, when _Heller_ published and I checked it in the HTML format as recommended, I noticed some slight wonky formatting that I was able to immediately fix and then uploaded a new version..

The Pros of Smashwords

Provides a platform for all authors, published and unpublished, to submit their work to the world.

Provides ability to fix typos, correct information, update links, etc. quickly and efficiently.

Ships your book to big distribution places such as Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

Provides instant updates of downloads at the Smashwords site.

Provides authors with a homepage where you can link to your website, Twitter, Facebook, blog, etc.

Gets you and your book/s onto Google searches.

Allows you to publish under a pseudonym, as I do.

Mark Coker provides you with a formatting guide and a marketing guide (both free to download).

The royalties at Smashwords seem to be generous.

The Cons of Smashwords

Provides a platform for all authors to submit their work to the world. Wow, there's some pretty racy stuff published at Smashwords and as a non-erotica author, it's kind of surreal to see your book wedged between a short story about women who like to be spanked while tied up in chains and a treatise on finding the true path to the messiah. Smashwords offers an adult filter to weed out all books with content not suitable for under-eighteens, but there are a lot of books like mine that don't contain explicit erotica, but are still not suitable for the young-uns because of the violence, the language or the sex scenes that areweeded out with this filter.

Some other authors complain about the amount of time it takes to find out sales results from sites other than Smashwords. But I can't see that this is Smashwords' fault – big players usually set their own rules.

Another thing that isn't Smashwords' fault is the whole tax rigmarole for someone like me who is not in the US. It's not fun.

You're on your own – it's totally up to you to market your book. Your ebook will appear for only about a minute on the homepage of Smashwords before being pushed out by newer publications.

Like most writers, I would love to make enough money from my books to be able to quit my job and write full-time. But I'm realistic and I know better than to give up my day job! I don't expect to make much money from writing (especially as I've made my first two books free!), but I'll continue writing anyway. And I won't take it too seriously either, because I amuse myself with my writing and I love my characters too much not to ever finish their stories (even if absolutely nobody else in the world wants to read them!)

One of my special talents is procrastination and I love to while away the minutes that I ought to be devoting to writing my next book reading the experiences of other indie writers. And there seems to be one common theme I read about – people who write mostly do so because they need to. It's not about money or fame, but about having a story inside you that demands to be born. And a deep need to do something creative in your life. Writers want to create, just as much as artists and musicians do.

I love my characters. I am obsessed with my stories and characters. I think about them almost every minute I'm awake – in the shower, on the treadmill, cleaning, watching DVDs, when I'm supposed to be sleeping, on the bus, in the car, shopping, sometimes in the office when I'm supposed to be working. Sometimes I don't want to think about them anymore – everyone needs to sleep and socialise now and then! And sometimes I feel as though I am merely a medium to allow these fictional characters to live their compelling so-much-more-exciting-than-mine lives. I think you'd call that obsessed.

I'm the strange woman that you pass in the street muttering to herself. No, I'm not crazy, I'm just trying out some new dialogue. Don't be afraid – I'm forever talking to myself! (And I really hope that it's not just me doing that!)

But that's what happens when you're bitten by the writing-bug. You can't stop. No matter what, the next book awaits, despite your endless procrastination.

And yeah, I should probably get back to it . . .

_JD Nixon is an Australian author with six books currently published via Smashwords, and a seventh on the way. She writes two series of books: the Heller series and the Little Town series. To learn more about JD's writing visit_ <http://www.sites.google.com/site/jdnauthor>

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### Fifteen

Nine Golden Rules (Part One)

Mel Keegan

If you write with the idea of whacking something together to earn some fast cash, you'll probably be disappointed. Readers can always tell when you're not writing out of a burning need to write – because nothing else in life will stop the 'itch' of stories that have to be written, or bust.

The decision to self-publish, or self-market, is never lightly made, and contrary to what critics of the old school might still believe, the self-publishing scene is far removed from the old cliché of poor writers selling hopeless books that 'proper publishers' won't touch. The situation is infinitely more complex, and with the explosion in Internet marketing, to a large extent driven by Amazon Kindle, some astonishing rewards can be reaped by authors who are willing to go into this business with absolute dedication.

Most long-time writers generate a considerable 'backlist' of titles, which in due course fall out of contract, and few publishers want to take responsibility for the heavy-duty marketing of books whose biggest sales are well in the past. Sooner or later, such an author reasons, 'I own the rights to those old titles. They might as well be up on Kindle and earning me something.' And this is one form of self-publishing which is absolutely legitimate and increasingly common.

But here, I want to talk about the writer who's just starting to blossom in a field that's lately become vast, confusing, intimidating, seductive, brimming with potential and sparkling with success stories.

Today, you can get to Kindle as simply as opening an account; you can use an 'accumulator' (the cyberspace term for distributor), such as Smashwords to easily get to the big ebook stores. Most importantly, you don't need a wedge of cash to invest, because almost all online services are free, and since your product isn't physical, tangible, you don't have manufacture or shipping costs. And no one is going to screen, or judge, or reject your work before potential readers are seeing it and hopefully buying it

Ebooks are the answer to a prayer, so quite naturally they're proliferating faster than one can imagine. The number of start-up ebook publishers is ballooning every day, because there are literally no constraints. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can be a publisher.

Because of the sheer freedom of the industry, competition for market share is fierce. When you publish in any form, you're up against thousands of competing products and hundreds of authors just like yourself, all determined to succeed. At a glance, you can see that jumping out of this growing crowd is not going to be easy.

A decade ago, ebooks were scarce enough that it was reasonably easy to be visible, but this has changed through the same system that makes it possible for you to seriously consider 'flying solo', and for ebook publishers to be springing up everywhere. The www is overflowing with potential.

Now, what to do with that potential and how to make the possibilities all come together into a successful publishing project? If you're a long-time author with a boatload of experience, a long backlist and an established reputation, you're halfway home already. If you're a newcomer with just a few books, or none yet, you probably still have some learning to do.

But take heart. In fact, virtually identical challenges are faced by the long-time professional marketing a backlist of out-of-contract titles, the busy ebook publisher with a vast online catalogue and the self-publishing writer who's just starting out in the business today. The whole challenge comes down to this: producing top-quality work, assembling the marketing tools to sell a significant number of copies and finding the perseverance and the time to pursue this goal with single-minded determination. Because it's not about the size of some financial investment you can make before you sit back and let the project 'cook' on its own. Today, in the world of ebook publishing, success is about the skills you've acquired, the time you have to invest in the venture and the staying power to get started, ride out the rough times, learn from failures and find the magic formula for success.

It can be done – it's being done every day. The old pros and busy ebook publishers are not reading this article. They already know nine-tenths of the formula, or all of it. So let's suppose you're a newcomer, looking at this because you have a tantalizing thought going around your mind... 'Can I make it work too?'

There are Nine Golden Rules that I know of, for certain. Other writers, agents, editors and publishers may have slightly different ideas and might expand this list, but it's a dead certainty that these nine rules of mine would never be deleted. If you're making a start at this time, you could do a lot worse than read on...

Rule 1: Write with Passion

If you write with the idea of whacking something together to earn some fast cash, you'll probably be disappointed. Readers can always tell when you're not writing out of a burning need to write – because nothing else in life will stop the 'itch' of stories that have to be written, or bust. If you don't write from the heart, the spark won't be in the piece and your agent, editor, publisher or reader won't be captivated.

The reverse is also true. When your material zings along, your readers can tell this, too. Sheer passion will touch even a jaded reader, and if you can touch a reviewer... Well, it's been said that great reviews sell books. Again, the reverse is just as true – rotten reviews stop books from selling, and one of the ways to make sure your reviews come up shining is to (yes!) write with passion.

Unless you're a one-hit wonder and this is the only book you'll ever write, you already need to be thinking about your next work and the one after. Poor reviews don't just hurt the current book, they can damage subsequent releases. Readers can start to equate your by-line with books worth one- and two-star ratings; they might not even look past the reviews to see the books themselves. This will make it harder for you to see the sales figures you want, so... Write from the heart; let that zing and zest come through in the book; touch the reader and the reviewer with your passion.

Rule 2: Read in the Genre You're Writing in. Read a Lot

Reading in your chosen genre will show you what other writers are doing. You'll soon know if you're telling a fresh story, or if your theme has been used forty times already. Also, you'll soon know if your material is well up to the standard of what's required by your chosen genre.

By reading reviews of books which you've read, and which are similar in some way to your own, you'll be able to avoid clichés and you might not even have known they were clichés! Reviewers are quick to pounce and can be brutal. Knowing what your chosen genre wants and how it wants it can smooth the path ahead of you. Critical mistakes are often made at the time of laying out the plot, before you commit to writing the story. Reading till your cup runneth over, both books and reviews, is a smart way to head trouble off at the pass.

You can always tweak the plot to avoid a perceived cliché, or freshen up the story with some new(er) ideas – more about this in the next section.

Rule 3: Check Your Plot for Leaks – How's it Hold Water?

One thing readers and reviewers will punish you for is having gaps in your plot and/or a story that ends badly – and by 'badly', they simply mean you didn't give them the end they wanted, which left them feeling like they'd wasted time and money. A reviewer will pick your story to pieces in great detail – and in public. A disappointed reader will simply not trust you enough to buy your next book, and worse, s/he might also have a dozen friends, to whom s/he will run up the warning flag of what (and who!) not to buy. Both reactions damage your chances of succeeding in a trade where success is only measured one way: in copies sold.

In fact, in the last lap of your story – the race up to The End – you're not merely trying to get your current book right, but you're also investing a huge amount of effort in your next one. If you can get the current one into the Goldilocks Spot, where readers come to the last page with a good feeling, you've halfway sold them on your next one right there.

So have a look at what other writers are doing and how other books are being reviewed. The info is at your fingertips, to tell you what readers (and reviewers) like... And what they don't. If you have the opportunity to go back a couple of steps and check over the merchandise before you 'go live' in the online stores; this would be the time do to it.

One of the hallmarks of professional writers is their flexibility, their willingness to work with an editor, the realisation that words are like kids' building bricks. They can be taken to pieces and reassembled at whim, and a story that's been re-re-rewritten is usually much stronger than the original.

Many new writers spend a long time – possibly many years – at the stage of guarding their prose as if it were cast in solid gold. Twenty years in the future, they sometimes look back at the words they were protecting and wince when they see flaws that were evident to seasoned professionals.

It's never too early to try to cultivate the flexibility of the professional. A willingness to learn from others, to respect their views on a piece of work, will stand you in good stead. These beta-readers, editors or critics might be right! However, there's also a chance they can be dead wrong, and if you're going to go it alone and publish the work yourself, you'll be completely responsible for the final product.

If you eventually get brilliant reviews, you're cruising. If you don't, you can expect to hear those three little words, 'Told you so.' When you're the writer, editor, publisher and distributor all rolled into one, the onus is on you to get every aspect of the process right, so don't be too shy to ask for advice and don't be too proud to change course if the consensus is that you're heading into stormy waters.

If you decide to ignore the criticisms of others while assembling your work, and you don't see the five-star reviews you think you should, compare the reviews with the remarks made by readers and editors in the pre-press days. If the early critiques bear much in common with the reviews, there's a great reason to embrace flexibility. It's a professional quality well worth developing.

And here's one of the often overlooked strengths of self-publishing. You can learn from a mistake, use what you've learned and try again. You can even 'unpublish' the book that was received badly, so it's gone off the virtual shelves, taking most of the dire reviews with it. Meanwhile, all too often, when a publisher or editor is dead wrong about a book, and it sells poorly, the writer is simply dumped. It can be difficult to get off the publisher's back burner and make them take a chance on you again – because in the end, the responsibility for a failure always lands on the writer's shoulders, no matter who else was actually involved.

A failed book is never easy to get over, but for self-publishers, the process is as simple as finding a way to put it behind you and start over. This is a whole other question which delves into the psychology and mental/emotional toughness (or lack thereof) of writers. If you're in this position, or fear you might be, get on the writers' forums, join the discussions, check out the experiences of others. There's a wise old quote from the musical _Camelot_. Arthurs asks Merlin, 'What's the best thing for being sad?' And Merlin tells him, 'Learn something.'

You know something? Merlin wasn't wrong!

Rule 4: Get the Technicalities Right

Long before you look for beta-readers or copy-editors, you need to be sure your technical skills are up to the task you've assigned to yourself. Writing is far from an exact science – lots of rules can be broken along the way. However, some of them are graven in granite.

One of these is (indulge yourself in a shudder, if you like) punctuation. Another is spelling. The grammatical checker and the spellchecker in your word processor won't do the job for you, and if your skills are weak and you leave the task of polishing to a professional copy editor, the assignment can take a very long time indeed. This can be dire news, when you're probably paying by the hour. Get online and check out freelance fees. Ouch!

Bottom line: the better you are with the nuts and bolts of writing, the less you'll fork over to an editor to get publishable copy. An editor might be heavily correcting five pages in an hour or just double-checking twenty-five pages in the same amount of time. You should know if you're good enough – if you're not sure, ask a good freelance editor, someone you trust on the basis of their own work, to look at an average chapter and give you an evaluation. This shouldn't be too expensive, because you're not asking them to fix anything, just to tell you if your skills are up to the task or if you're not quite ready.

If you do need to go back and figure out the pesky details, right back to things as basic as making your sentences parse properly, then settle yourself down to learn. This is part of the job of being a good writer and it's a phase every writer had to go through. Many did the learning in college; many others at college level said words along the lines of, 'Who's interested in punctuation?' Years later, the folks who took no interest will have to do the learning on their own time – but this isn't a problem, as long as one is aware that the difficulty exists and is willing to work through it.

Check out Amazon. You can buy books (used: cheap) on the almost lost art of grammar and you already know how this process works. When people genuinely want to learn something, they soak up knowledge and retain it. Once you've got this part down, the skill will serve you well for life.

_Mel Keegan has been writing professionally for about 25 years under several pen names. He made his debut as Keegan in paperback with British publisher GMP in 1989 and since 2001 has been with Australian indie publisher DreamCraft. Keegan is the author of around 35 titles in the GLBT genre, many of them science fiction and fantasy, including the cult classics NARC and Hellgate. For the last several years Mel has been the mastermind behind the community wiki, GLBT Bookshelf, a site dedicated to indie publishing and self-publishing in this genre. Meet Mel online at www.melkeegan.com and if you're writing or reading in this genre, swing by_ http://www.glbtbookshelf.com _._

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### Sixteen

Beginning with Nothing

Kirsty Fox

It's possible to start from a position of ignorance, so long as you're willing to let go of the ignorance. If you haven't had days when your eyes are square from Internet reading or your clothes smell bookish because you've spent so long in the library, you probably haven't done enough research.

I had little relevant experience when I decided to embark on a self-publishing project. I studied a fairly irrelevant degree, fine art, and began writing my first novel _Dogtooth Chronicals_ (sic) as part of my creative work. The novel took nearly six years to write, as I was studying and then working full-time in various bars. I began a little tentative research into the traditional publishing process and everything I read made me doubtful that it was something I wanted to get into. _Dogtooth Chronicals_ is very tuned into what is going on in the world right now and everything I researched implied that it would likely take several years to get it into print, if at all.

I have little doubt of the potential of the novel. It feels like a creature that has come to life by its own merit. It's multi-perspective and contains time shifts and drifts between dreams and reality. It's difficult to pigeon-hole as it works between genres. While I view this as a strength, I can see publishers doubting how to promote it.

By the time I'd completed a second draft, I'd begun reading a lot about the growth in self-publishing, how the stigma of 'vanity projects' was gradually eroding and epublishing was making it practically and financially more viable to the average Joe.

Self-publishing appeals to me on many levels. I have a furious independent streak that has always sought channels towards eventually being relatively self-employed. I've also increasingly found myself socialising and working with other creatives from various spheres, who are passionate about indie culture – be it music, film or art. Literature almost seems behind other creative art forms in championing the underdog.

My decision made itself when I inherited a moderate sum from my grandparents. They were great lovers of literature and the arts, so it seems a fitting tribute to do something they'd be proud of. I have enough funds to pay for professional editing, cover design and a fairly modest print run. In the long term, if any success comes of this, I plan to run an independent publishing house and publish the work of other artists and writers as well.

I'm not too naive about the whole thing, though. As much belief as I have in the potential of Dogtooth Chronicals to strike a chord, I know enough to know it's very difficult to make much profit in publishing. There are many flamboyant success stories in self-publishing of unknown writers selling thousands of ebooks, but as far as I can tell most of these are genre writers, able to get readers hooked on a series of books. They may offer the first for free or very cheaply in the hope this will have a knock-on effect. There are also easily accessible fan bases of readers online who are into a particular genre, like horror or romance. Once you create a buzz on a few of these forums, that precious word-of-mouth magic can happen.

My product is quite different. It's one book that will never have a sequel: one book that I've slaved over with love and passion, and cynical humour. I plan to promote it in ways maybe more similar to how independent music is promoted and I'm also not of a profiteering mind-set. If I even break even on the project I will be chuffed. If a thousand people read my novel I will be very happy. My hopes lie in getting enough return to continue publishing books.

One of the obstacles in the current climate of self-publishing is overkill. If anyone can publish a book that means anyone will. With no formal editing and some cobbled together amateur-looking cover design, anyone can put an ebook up for sale. This serves to litter the Internet with unfinished products that reflect badly on all self-published work. It takes very little research into self-publishing to find the oft repeated advice: if you've invested so much time and love into writing a novel, you should have the time and love to make it perfect. I've been lucky to have access to some money for my project; however, I appreciate that not everyone does.

This stands to highlight the importance of my place as a novice. It's possible to start from a position of ignorance, so long as you're willing to let go of the ignorance. Much of the passion and hard work that goes into a venture like this goes on research: reading about the publishing industry, trying to make numbers work in your head, making use of all the wonderful advice more experienced folk are willing to offer. If you haven't had days when your eyes are square from Internet reading or your clothes smell bookish because you've spent so long in the library, you probably haven't done enough research.

On top of that, the aspiring self-publisher must learn to wear many other hats. They're author, agent, chief editor and promotions whore all rolled into one. Many authors are likely to find blowing their own trumpet difficult. It's far easier to stand next to someone who is willing to sing your praises than to sing those praises yourself. Even if deep down you know you're the dogs doo-dahs, it's not easy to say that without coming across as a shameless egotist. I'm not sure very many writers are suited to this. But a writer's weapon is words and being creative with how you use them to say something without spelling it out is the new craft to learn: to find intriguing things to say about your novel which get people interested. A book is an enigmatic object, a thing which reveals itself in layers of precious detail. There is a trick to saying enough without saying too much.

Above all else, it's exciting to be part of an industry in flux. Many of the online writing community seem to let the transient state of things unsettle them too much. Doomsayers worry about the developing Amazon monopoly and the death of the printed book. While these are meaty issues we must contend with, dithering and worrying and inspecting our collective naval is unproductive. We're experiencing a tipping point. Grand changes are afoot. I'm yet to discover if the cards will be dealt in my favour, I just feel humbled to have the opportunity to be a part of the new publishing landscape.

_Kirsty Fox lives and works in Nottingham. She graduated Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University in 2007. She is strongly influenced by cinema, magic realism, dystopian fiction and Yorkshire. She helps jointly run Notts Writers' Group and edits the creative co-operative blogsite, Bees Make Honey,_ http://www.beesmakehoneycc.wordpress.com _. Her first novel, Dogtooth Chronicals is available from November 2012 at_ http://www.kirstyfoxbooks.wordpress.com

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Seventeen

### It Takes a Village to Bring a Novel to Life

Gerard O'Keeffe

Hope is not a strategy. Take control and see how far you can travel using your own skills and expertise – and your new network.

When I was younger (and much nicer, as Dylan Thomas used to say), I thought writing a novel was a solitary and heroic undertaking. Now I am older, I sense it is neither. To me, it is the opposite of locking yourself in a garret and emerging months later clutching your immortal words, blinking in the sunlight. It is very much a group activity, in the best sense of that word. When it works well it draws on our humanity and amazing things can happen. The process changes the writer and it changes the reader too.

The first person in your 'village' you have to interview is yourself. Do you have the skills for the job? If you're not really serious it might be better off not starting in the first place. If you're doing it for a hobby that is totally fine. In my view, everyone is creative but some of our work can stay in a drawer. To write is one thing but to connect with an audience is quite another. I am all for creativity but in this article I want to concentrate on the writer who is serious about both finding their own voice and subsequently finding an audience for their work. I hope you stay with me and want the same thing too. But the journey is far from easy.

In looking at what you have to offer, I certainly do not mean talking yourself out of the 'job' before it's even started. If writing is a compulsion, you have to stay with it. You will have little choice in the matter. I have little choice. If I don't write most days, I become miserable. But it will eat into hundreds and thousands of hours of your time, sometimes with scant results. But if you say 'yes' to the journey, I suggest you try hard to find a new way of thinking first. The reason I talk pointedly about interviewing yourself is because writing is unlike any other 'job' out there.

You are your own raw material and that is precisely what needs to be mined, explored, exploited and polished up in a many-staged process. Whatever your assessment of your abilities, if you are determined to write you have to put all those parts of your character and personality into order: they have to face the same way and be at your disposal to get the best out of yourself. No half measures.

Your strengths and your weaknesses are equally valid in the creative process and you can't afford to throw any of them away or neglect one part of your 'gift' or who you are at the expense of another. Avoid value judgements and don't beat yourself up over what you can't achieve. Leave negative thoughts to others. You need to embrace everything you have at your disposal and puzzle out how it can be put to use, the 'good' and 'bad' alike. Waste nothing. View everything in a positive light. Try new ways of working. Think differently. Look in new places inside you. Then interesting things may start to happen...

So, what do I mean by using a weakness as a strength? If in the rest of your life you like to control and might be a bit of a worrier, turn that attribute to the good in your writing and channel that same energy to come up with a good plot or to write a detailed plan of action. If people accuse you of being chaotic, see that as valuable creative energy and write down your big and bright ideas in a flood. Later, get tough with them and eject the weak ones, of course. But don't self-censor at the start and don't use only one part of your being. It's a waste and it won't get the best results. Use it all and join it all together. The best ideas may be lurking in a dark corner of your mind you haven't visited for a while. Go there and check them out.

After your successful interview with yourself, the next most important people to consider are the characters in your forthcoming novel. Can you bear to live with them for a year or more? Will they get on your nerves? Are you bored of them already? Are they merely shadows? Using whatever tactic makes sense to you, put flesh on this 'family'. See them in the round. Be sure they have their own life and can perhaps surprise you with the things they might do or say on your pages. Do they feel alive yet?

When I was writing my novel, _The Third Horseman_ , about heroic acts in The Famine in Ireland, I thought I'd brought my main character to life successfully but was brought up short by a comment from a writer friend of mine. I was gushing about how great he was and what a marvellous story I had come upon. She put her hand up and stopped me from speaking.

'What are his faults?'

She was right. He was alive in a way but not real. He had come out of my brain in an idealised shape. He lacked reality. I went back to the records, the history books and my notes on his character. What was I missing? Where was he hiding from me? After a few hours of study I found the real man. On the positive side, he was a great public speaker and spokesman for the poor. He was almost a saint – which was a problem for the book. However, I found my key. On the negative side, he had a fiery temper so was curt with people. He was witty and caustic rather than humorous. His son found him oppressive and a bit of a bully, even though that may not have been intentional. By making reference to his weaknesses as well as his strengths in the novel, he was a better invention. He was more rounded to the reader. That felt better!

Now you have sorted out your 'family' of characters you need to cast around for one or more sympathetic readers of your drafts. Writers can be a selfish bunch. They will use the goodwill and indulgence of family and friends mercilessly. Try to use their good offices judiciously, but it's hard not to ask for favours. They might go as far as to read a draft and offer encouragement, but it's not their full-time occupation. Though it comes as a big surprise to most writers, our own excitement about our work and its fascination for us is not infectious. We like to believe otherwise and kind people around us indulge us, more or less, but they are not there to be exploited. Draw upon their opinions and judgement in a controlled way, if you can.

You may well be better off linking up with other writers or attend workshops for more in-depth diagnostic advice and guidance. Join a virtual or real group and help others as you help yourself. Share what you know and ask about what you do not.

Don't go on Twitter or blogs demanding support. Social media does not work that way. It's more polite. You are feeding each other with long spoons. You can't take things off other peoples' plates, nor should you try. Give and take. Sometimes you have to give first. It may take some time to find your own personal network, but it is worth it in the end. Take a little from many, not a lot from a few.

There is one special relationship that does not obey these rules. With the explosion in self-publishing, we have witnessed a corresponding rise in the role of the editor online. This is wonderful news. There has been a great deal of bad press about terrible new novels being uploaded onto Amazon and elsewhere, with no quality assurance. Many are full of spelling and grammatical errors and are more or less unreadable. They have not been checked or edited. They don't flow. Avoid this problem. Find a decent editor and use them wisely.

I have the great good fortune to have a brilliant editor who is as tough as I am on my own work. She tackles large problems of structure and plot as well as being 100% accurate with her checking of my spelling and grammar. In this way, when my books are uploaded we can both be confident their quality matches that of others on the market. But such high quality advice costs money. What is such advice worth to you and what can you afford to pay? Think hard on this issue. Check out testimonials and look at quotes from satisfied writers/customers. Is this editor in harmony with the way you work and think? It's worth taking a good look at the market and asking around. Try before you buy.

I like innovative solutions when I can find them. Thus, if the services of a top editor are beyond your reach, think laterally. Some others are very cost effective. Or perhaps you can barter time with people in your writers group to provide this critical friend role for each other? In these times of difficult financial circumstances, why not put the idea to a gifted English graduate with time on their hands? Maybe they are out of work or could do with a bit of extra money? They can grow in skill as they work for you and learn on the job. This need not cost much. If they perform well for you, you will recommend them to others and they might have found a new income stream.

Above all, I do not recommend you work alone or in isolation. Use the facilities. You live in a village, not on an island.

If self-publishing, you need to find a market for your work, so consider a decent lead time for the likes of Facebook, websites, blogs and Twitter to build up a following as you write or as you complete your drafts. Build up a community of like-minded souls and nourish it with bits of news and updates that create a buzz or a sense of interest in the market. Take a step back to jump higher. Plan.

My novel, _The Statue and the Stones_ , is partly set on the island of Gran Canaria, so I was able to address my customers on that island in a targeted way. Segment your audience into identifiable groups sharing the same characteristics: English Holiday makers, upmarket hotels and the local tourist board. Address them in a personalised way you think will appeal to that segment and that group alone. It takes time but it's worth the effort for goodwill, word of mouth and sales.

By all means approach agents and publishers as part of your 'village' of helpers. But don't count on them for everything. Their market is in flux. As I like to say, 'Hope is not a strategy.' Take control and see how far you can travel using your own skills and expertise – and your new network. You may be surprised how far it takes you in your relationships and links, especially as you look back to see how far you have moved from that lonely place in front of your screen for the first time on page one. Create your own luck.

And remember, traditional agents and publishers are now coming calling on the biggest online sellers to offer them hard-copy deals and access to other media. So it's not a wholly separate world. All things are connected, if only we realise it. Make the first move and be open and generous in your dealings. Now, back to my daily quota of words...

_Gerard O'Keeffe was born in rural Northamptonshire to Irish parents. Both factors have influenced his writing, notably his love of Irish writers and pastoral subjects. He explores themes of trauma, silence and salvation in his work. He lives in Cambridge with his family and is the author of such online novels as The Third Horseman and The Statue and the Stones. Check out his website and blog:_ http://www.gerardokeeffe.com

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Eighteen

### Getting Ready to Publish

Maggie Barclay

Lulu print out exactly what you send them! Having the imagination to write doesn't necessarily make you a great designer and having a book that looks good is important!

That last full stop, in November 2008, marked the end of a piece of writing which had taken me far longer than anticipated, had been far more intense than I expected and had left me wondering how on earth writers survive their day-to-day existence.

_Rice and Beans_ is a memoir, intertwined with a travelogue about Nicaragua. It grew out of a desire to make something coherent out of the travel diaries I had written on several trips my sister and I had been making to the country. I had written a couple of articles for a newspaper, but had never embarked on anything as long as a book.

Nicaragua remains one of the very poorest countries in Central America and when my sister and I first went there, more by accident than design, it wasn't generally considered a tourist destination. We met a young doctor who was helping children in need of hospital treatment, and now we make regular trips which involve giving some financial aid to projects that support women and children.

Using the book as a means of raising money was an obvious step, but getting it into a published form wasn't as easy as I anticipated either. I didn't have time to tout my writing around various agents, but a quick trawl of the Internet netted literally hundreds of thousands of self-publishing sites, which was very confusing. I then made the decision that I wanted a real, physical book rather than an electronic version – it's tangibility encourages people to hand over cash.

Eventually I chose Lulu, because it was recommended by a copy-editor friend of my sister and because I would be able to make as much – or as little – use of their services as I wanted. And I needed to use these services as little as possible, because I wanted as much financial return as I could get on the book for the charity fund for Nicaragua.

Conventional publishing houses, however, have been around for a long time, and with good reason. Their editors nudge the raw material into something which is a good read, their copy-editors sort out all the mistakes, their designers turn that flow of words into printed pages inside a cover which is inviting. If you are not going to go through a conventional publishing house you'll need a lot of help if you want your book to be something people will enjoy reading and a pleasure to hold in their hands.

Lulu gives you back in printed form exactly what you send them on an electronic file and provide a list of things to think about before you send in your file, which is extremely useful. It's all about presentation and fonts, contents and page-numbering and so on. But way before you get to that point you need to have sorted out the writing! If you are not going to use Lulu's services you need to turn elsewhere. Friends and relations are great for moral support, always hugely encouraging, but it has to be said that they are mainly uncritical readers. If you want something that reads well you do need someone to take a more gritty look at your work! An editor!

Throughout my preparation for publishing I was incredibly lucky. One of our Nicaraguan doctor's friends is a writer and journalist who teaches creative writing in the UK. She gave me invaluable editorial advice from the beginning. She read the first two chapters and talked to me briskly about structure. Another literary friend read the text from time to time and sent me notes, pointing out the loose ends, the times when I had forgotten that the reader didn't have a hotline to my inside story. Then, when I felt I had finished the writing, the editor friend read the whole text and did the required nudging with a set of notes which had me rewriting over the next few months till the whole thing flowed.

Mistakes are inevitable. My sister's copy-editor friend worked on my text for free and taught me a great deal about style and conventions, from having a nice forward-facing font (to make for easy reading) to using italics for foreign language words and so on. She sorted out my lapses in grammar and spelling, and eased spacing so that I didn't end up with pages with one line on them. No-one should publish without a copy-editor!

The next big thing to consider before you send in the file is how the book will look, how it will feel in the hand. Again, because this book was for charity, a young web-designer friend offered to work for free on the cover and the setting-up of the text and pictures. He gave useful advice about a map and photos, fitted the drawings into the text, made a great cover and did all the maths stuff about calculating the size of the cover to go with the number of pages. We used the Lulu option for an ISBN number and I made a copyright statement and list of contents for the beginning, and acknowledgements for the end. Together, we worked out the number of blank pages we needed to space the whole thing out nicely. As I say, Lulu print out exactly what you send them! Having the imagination to write doesn't necessarily make you a great designer and having a book that looks good is important!

As winter slipped through spring 2009, time for _Rice and Beans_ was running out. I had set myself a deadline in the shape of a fundraising evening in the summer of 2009 when I wanted to launch the book. We sent off for a few proof copies with only ten days to go. They came back mostly okay, but the drawings had sent the text haywire in some places. The designer friend redid the file and I ordered another bundle of copies with fingers crossed tight. No time for a new proof copy. The books arrived the day before the fundraiser evening, perfect this time.

For a book aimed at fundraising, Lulu was a great self-publishing option and I used Lulu again in 2010 for a follow-up account of how my sister and I spend the money we raise for women and children in Nicaragua. But, as well as raising money, I wanted people to enjoy a good read. Having an editor, a copy-editor and a designer to work with me made all the difference. When I receive emails saying, 'I just love reading your book,' I know just how valuable their contribution has been.

Rice and Beans and Tuppeny Rice are available through Lulu.com. All royalties go to the Mayagna Children's Fund and are used to buy story books and art materials for children in the Los Quinchos centres at San Marcos and La Chureca, and the Barrilete school in León, Nicaragua.

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### Nineteen

The DIY Approach

Michael Wilson

I have no real ambitions to be a bestselling author, but I am delighted my work is so well received. I think too many writers think their work should interest a wide readership when in actual fact their work is merely average – yes, just like mine. My work is competent, granted, but I would never assume that it is brilliant.

When I wanted to publish my first book – way back in 1983 – desktop publishing didn't really exist, but I worked in printing as a typesetter and knew what had to be done. The first book was mostly photographs with captions and I supplied these to my local printer. I knew him and his staff and knew that the job would be done satisfactorily. It was. I probably had a thousand printed and eventually they all sold.

My next book was done in the same fashion: Limited runs, no ISBN, local sales, no problems. I knew that appeal was limited and when the books were out of print I worried no more. I knew I would not earn my living doing this and I was content with seeing my books in print. My third book was thirteen years later and a little more adventurous, with more pages. By now, desktop publishing was available and I worked at a small print shop. I took the photos and wrote the text then designed and typeset the book's content. Once again, I covered all of my costs.

By 2006, I was retired but still had a yen to publish more books. This next endeavour was a spoof newspaper full of completely untrue articles. The advertising paid for the printing of 3,000 copies and the 12-page, A3 paper was sold for charity on 1 April of that year. I used QuarkXpress desktop publishing software to create the pages and then sent PDFs to the printer. This endeavour was great fun and I was delighted to hear a buyer say it was the funniest thing he had read.

At some point in every life there is a make or break point. Mine came in August 2007 when I learned I had an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which could explode in the near future. This concentrated my mind and I determined to publish _Little Tykes_ , a book of my own poetry, and to reprint two Bridlington history books from the 1830s. I also wrote and created _My Bridlington_ : 130 pages filled with photographs and items of local interest. I had 200 printed and eventually had to reprint a further 700 during 2008.

The following year I followed that book with _More Bridlington_ , with exactly the same format and composition. I sold a total of 400 copies. I also typeset and published my wife's book of poetry, _The Iron Harvest_ , which was sold to raise money for Talbot House in Poperinge, Belgium, where the Toc H movement started during World War I.

My next book, in May 2010, did not sell well at all, only the initial 200 copies. I think I overpriced it and it was slimmer than the previous local interest books. However, I gained much satisfaction in its creation and received many positive comments.

In 2011, a colleague and I created _The Great War Heroes of Bridlington_ , a massive 364 pages packed with information about the 330-plus men whose names are on the local war memorial. To date, we have sold 400 copies and raised money for Help the Heroes, British Legion, a local soldier injured in Afghanistan and Talbot House. The book has been positively received by those interested in the World War I.

I have no real ambitions to be a bestselling author, but I am delighted my work is so well received. I think too many writers think their work should interest a wide readership when in actual fact their work is merely average – yes, just like mine. My work is competent, granted, but I would never assume that it is brilliant.

Fiction writers especially think they are the next J. K. Rowling and they are mostly doomed to dissatisfaction. Those who think they have led a very interesting life are also in for a shock. Many of us have lived an 'interesting' life but not many of them interest others.

I have typeset many books for others, most of whom believed they were going to sell hundreds, nay thousands, of copies. When they realise that they are the only salesperson and that Amazon doesn't actually 'sell' books but merely have them 'available', the rose-tinted aspect soon turns to a very gloomy outlook.

I feel very sorry for those who are inveigled into vanity publishing. A contact has just informed me that he has been asked for £795.00 (plus £4.00 each for forty photographs) up front and all he will receive is five complementary copies. That's outrageous. I know the book will be sent to the libraries, that the information will appear with Nielsons, Bertrams and Gardners as well as Amazon, but none of that guarantees sales. They even boast that proofs will be sent. I should hope so. But will they have done anything with the text? Read it? Corrected it? Suggested alterations? I doubt it, unless there is a heavy fee involved.

Companies like this boast that single copies can be printed and so they can. But how many copies will be needed? An amateur writer of fiction, or a relater of a life story, will be lucky to find perhaps fifty purchasers. That means the company will print sixty books for £795.00 (that's £13.25 a copy!) And that's a rip-off. That's how these companies make their money.

I would suggest that those wishing to have their work published should do it themselves. Even basic word processing packages can produce good work. Start by measuring a book to find its dimensions. It's your book; make it the size you want. Then decide on how large the margins should be. What's left is your type area. For argument's sake, an A5 sheet of paper is 148mm x 297mm. With, say, 15mm margins, the type area is 118mm x 267mm.

Create a grid and repeat it, say, a hundred times. That will give you one hundred pages for starters.

You then flow your text into the pages, linking the first with the second and so on.

Your photographs can be placed exactly where you decide, leaving space for captions if necessary. I'm assuming that word processing packages allow this. You can then create your preliminary pages. Just look at a handful of books similar to your requirements and see what is needed. Then create your own.

If you are knowledgeable about your software then use it to its maximum. Watch for 'widows and orphans', half lines at the tops of pages. Try to adjust your text so that they are eliminated. Create a paragraph indent and eliminate the white space between paragraphs. The last error shows that the book is an amateur production.

Once you have finished, create a PDF of the book and output it onto paper. Take it away and read it again, marking everything you need to correct. Correct your original text and PDF again to check once more. Only when you are completely satisfied should you go further.

If you have to create a cover, why not do so yourself? Any digital camera should suffice for a photographic cover. Lay the image on the page and put the text on top. As that irritating meerkat says: 'Simples!'

When the work is totally finished, you can then approach a printer for a price. They need to know the overall size of the book, how many pages there are and whether you need colour for your photos. For the cover, they'll need to know whether you want it stapled or perfect bound. 'Stapled' means the pages will be stapled together through the spine. This is fine for a small book. 'Perfect bound' means each sheet is separate and then glued into the cover. This is much neater and more professional. He also needs to know that you will present him with PDFs so that he doesn't have to interfere with your work. You can also stipulate the weight of paper, too. For the text, 100gsm is adequate. Don't go for shiny paper as it makes the text difficult to read. The cover will be on 180gsm or 200gsm card, printed usually in colour on one side only.

I can recommend my printer: Jasprint Ltd of Washington, Tyne & Wear. They have served me very well for the past ten years and more. They give good service and offer a great price. A recent book I did for a client cost £228.00 for 100 copies of a 50-page book. My own _The Great War Heroes of Bridlington_ cost me £676.00 for 100. They sold for £11.99, giving us a reasonable profit, still allowing a percentage to local outlets who were happy with a 20% discount. A suggestion that worked well for me was to ask for subscribers. For the war book we sold 83 copies at £10.00 before the book was completed. We published all the subscribers' names as a thank you. There's no reason why this shouldn't apply to any book.

Perhaps I have made the process seem easy. It is. Just as baking is easy – if you know how – or driving a car. You know how easy that is, surely, but remember when it wasn't? When using your feet on the accelerator, clutch and brake at the same time as using the gear stick and steering wheel seemed totally impossible? Creating your own book is like that. You need to look closely at other books. If you're a poet, look at other poetry books. See how the poems fit on the page. Are they centred on the space or lined on the left margin? You can do that. Remember, your words are to be read; they are not to be looked at. Therefore, don't use fancy type. Newspapers and magazine don't go in for much flair and fancy stuff. They know that readers don't like that stuff. Your text should preferably be in a serif font such as Times, Book Antiqua, Perpetua or Palatino Linotype. And make the text legible, at least 10 point with a two point space between the lines. If the book is to be read mostly by the elderly make it 11 point, but no more than 12 point. Bigger than that gives the impression that the text is intended to be read by children.

Photographs should be converted to Tiff files and changed from RGB to CYMK. Most photo-manipulation software should offer these operations. Don't use the huge file sizes straight from the camera. Reduce the pictures by a quarter or so.

All these suggestions may seem like hard work. They will be until you become familiar with them. But in the end you will save money. You should never give money upfront. I pay my printer's bill after I've received the goods, but gone are the days when one had a month's leeway. Now the bill comes by email the day after the books are delivered.

As far as promotion goes, I had a launch night for each book, usually in the local library. I invited friends and colleagues and left invites on the library desk. I informed the local paper that I had published a book and gained publicity that way. Now I'm on my tenth, I don't think it's news any more. I have sold copies on Ebay, too. I don't bother with an ISBN as I would lose money on the deal. I'd have to allow a discount to the seller and post him or her a copy of the book. Profit? Gone.

I approached the local booksellers, now unfortunately down to two in the town. They have handled all my books and are quite willing to do so. I offer them the books, telling them that I'll only invoice when the stock is sold. Then I supply more copies – if I have them.

Now, a few harsh words. Be honest, now; will your book sell? To whom? Why? How many? Be honest! Don't leap in thinking of massive sales. People have never heard of you. You don't have a publishing or writing background. How on earth are people even going to hear about your book? A mention on Facebook wouldn't come amiss, I suppose. But that's selling to friends. Unless you've got a thousand friends willing to put their hands in their pockets, you won't sell a thousand.

Of course I could be wrong, but I bet I'm right more times than I'm wrong. Of all the books I have created I bet not one of them has reached a thousand sales. But don't be disheartened. You can do it – yourself. Me? I have another local interest book nearly ready to go, but I'm going to celebrate my seventy-sixth birthday before I do that. Plus, the war book is being updated, corrected, improved and added to for a second release in 2014. If you wish me luck, I'll do the same for you.

_Mike Wilson is a seventy-six-year-old retired typesetter who still typesets for fun. He compiles and publishes books for others and well as himself. He writes poetry, and is also a photographer, a volunteer and local historian. He wishes to achieve as much out of life as he can. For more information about any of Mike's books visit_ http://www.freespiritwriters.me.uk

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Twenty

### Five Places to Self-Publish Your Ebook

L.J. Sellers

As ebook sales continue to escalate, more self-publishing platforms will enter the market. Savvy self-published authors will stay on the lookout for new opportunities to reach readers wherever they are or however they read their digital files.

You've taken the leap and decided to self-publish your novel as an ebook. Your manuscript has been edited and your cover is ready. Now what? Where do you upload your files to send your story out into the digital world so readers can buy it? Nearly everyone has heard of Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, but is it the only place to sell ebooks? What exactly is Smashwords and how often do authors get paid? This roundup of self-publishing platforms answers those questions and describes what to expect from each of the main venues.

Amazon: Kindle Direct Publishing (http://www.kdp.amazon.com)

Amazon pioneered the ebook publishing revolution and commands a reported 75% of ebook sales, so the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform is the place to start. The online retailer uploads its KDP content directly to the Kindle bookstore. After opening an account, authors can upload a Word, HTML or PDF file, which Amazon converts to a mobi file that can be read by the Kindle device. Don't be intimidated by the term, it's just a type of software. Authors can also create their own mobi file or hire a professional to create it, a step that ensures a quality, easy-to-read product.

If you want your cover to be part of your ebook, it must be integrated with your text, regardless of which software you use. The KDP site allows you to upload the cover file separately with your product description, but that image is displayed on Amazon's bookstore, not in your actual ebook.

For books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, Amazon pays a 70% royalty. For everything else, it pays 35% of the list price. Authors can price their books as they choose (with 99 cent minimum), but Amazon reserves the right to discount. To keep the 70% royalty, authors can't sell their ebook for less anywhere else. If you do, Amazon's web crawlers will quickly discover the lower price and discount your book on the Amazon site. If the price falls below $2.99, the Amazon royalty drops from 70% to 35%, so be careful how you price your book for other distributors.

Originally, most Kindle titles were purchased by people who owned the Kindle ereader, but Amazon has now released applications that let anyone who owns a computer, mobile phone, or iPad download Kindle books to read on their device of choice. The only places readers can't buy Kindle books are from Amazon's retail competitors, such as Borders and Barnes & Noble. Authors can chose to publish with or without digital content management (DRM), which protects files from piracy but is also unpopular with some readers.

After an initial waiting period of six weeks, Amazon pays monthly and deposits royalties directly into the author's bank account. Authors can track their real-time sales through their KDP bookshelf. No start-up fee is required.

Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com)

Founded by entrepreneur Mark Coker, the website was originally designed to sell authors' digital content directly to online customers, but Smashwords now also distributes to many ereaders, including Kindle, Sony, Nook and Kobo, and to other devices such as iPad and iPhone.

The site requires authors to upload their books as Word documents that have been properly formatted according to Smashword's guidelines. Authors often complain about the difficulty of getting the formatting correct. In addition, readers often complain about the 'ugliness' of ebooks produced by Smashwords' software. For authors who want complete control of the way their ebook is formatted and presented, Smashwords may not be the best choice.

On the other hand, it has no set-up fee and authors can price their book (or other content) as they like, including offering it for free and providing discount coupons for special promotions. For content sold directly from its site, Smashwords pays an 85% royalty, minus discounts and processing fees. It offers a 70.5% royalty for sales through its affiliates. All content is published without DRM.

Smashwords pays authors on a quarterly basis, within forty days after the close of each quarter. You can chose to receive either a paper cheque or a payment through PayPal, but authors must accrue $75.00 in royalties before a cheque will be issued and a minimum of $10.00 in royalties for an epayment. Authors can track their real-time sales on the site's dashboard. Most authors report that their Smashwords sales are only 10% or less of their Kindle sales, but the site is a one-stop distribution platform that reaches many retail markets.

Barnes & Noble's PubIt! (http://www.barnesandnoble.com)

The retail bookseller launched this platform in mid-2010 and publishes an author's work directly to Barnes & Noble's ebookstore, which also supplies the Nook ereader. Following Amazon's model, B&N pays a 65% royalty on books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and pays 40% on everything else. Authors can set their own list price, but B&N reserves the right offer a retail discount to customers.

The PubIt! site takes uploads of epub files only, but it also offers a tool that coverts Word, HTML, RTF and TXT files, and it provides formatting guides that will help you create an attractive epub file. As yet, there is no standardisation in ebooks. Most ereaders handle epub files, but Amazon's Kindle only reads mobi files, so self-published authors will likely need to produce both types. But recent Amazon announcements indicate that may soon change.

As with Kindle Direct, authors can choose to employ digital rights management or not, but with B&N, once an author has made the choice, he or she can't reverse the decision for that file. To make changes to the content, authors must correct the epub file and upload it again. Cover art can be included in the epub file and also uploaded separately to display on the website's product description.

B&N pays monthly to the author's bank account sixty days after the end of the sales month and does not charge a set-up fee. The only platform to do so, PubIt! requires authors to supply a credit card number when setting up their account. Most venues also require authors to provide a social security number so they can report earnings to the IRS.

BookBrewer (http://www.bookbrewer.com)

Its partnership with Borders may be over, but BookBrewer assures writers that it's still going strong and its content continues to be available. This venue may be the easiest to use for authors who have few technical skills, because it lets them copy and paste almost any text content, including blogs (RSS feeds), into its software to create epub files.

Like Smashwords, BookBrewer distributes its content to various devices, such as e-readers, the iPhone, the iPad, and Android-powered tablets, but there is a price to pay for that full distribution. The company offers three publishing packages. For $19.99, it creates an ebook (with ISBN) from your document and distributes it to online retailers. For $29.99, it creates an ebook (without ISBN) and gives it to you to upload or sell anywhere. For $39.99, it combines those services and 1) creates an ebook (with ISBN), 2) gives you a copy to sell or give away as you like, and 3) distributes your book to other retailers.

BookBrewer pays 95% of post-retail royalty. This means that retailers take their percentages and fees – which can be as high as 65% – off the top of the book price, and BookBrewer pays the author 95% of what it earns. It pays through PayPal on a quarterly basis, forty-five days after it receives payment from retailers and after the author earns at least $25.00 in royalties.

INscribe Digital (<http://www.ingrooves.com/inscribe>)

A subsidiary of INgrooves, INscribe Digital is a distribution company that uploads your books to other retailers. It only works with authors who have five or more titles. It offers conversion services, or authors can supply their own mobi and epub files to INscribe, which distributes the books to various retailers and ereaders, including Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Sony. It also distributes to iPads, iPhones and various other devices. For authors who want a one-stop experience, this could be a good choice.

Authors set their own prices and choose where they want to sell their books. For example, authors can opt out of distribution to Amazon if they already have a Kindle Direct account. As a distributer with hundreds of books, INscribe can negotiate higher royalties than an individual author may be offered. The company charges a $50.00 setup fee per book and keeps 5% of all royalties. It pays authors once a month, but an author must earn at least $200.00 before a royalty cheque will be issued.

As ebook sales continue to escalate, more self-publishing platforms will enter the market. Savvy self-published authors will stay on the lookout for new opportunities to reach readers wherever they are or however they read their digital files.

_L.J. Sellers is the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries. For more information visit_ http://www.ljsellers.com

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Twenty-One

### A Few Ideas to get You Started

Joseph Lallo

Others may feel differently, but from my point of view self-publishing isn't about getting rich, it is about getting read.

I hesitate to call myself an expert of any kind. I've had a lot of education, I've got a lot of interests and I've tried my hand at a lot of things. Writing had always been simmering in the background of my other activities, eating up those spare moments when there was nothing else to do. Once I'd gotten a story down on paper though, it seemed a waste to just let it sit there. So I spent some time pursuing traditional publishing and when I grew frustrated with that process, I gave self-publishing a try. As with all things, there were hits and misses, mistakes and discoveries. After two and a half years of bumps and bruises, I've learned quite a bit and it seems only fair that I share the wisdom. What I'm presenting here is not 'How to succeed in self-publishing' by any means. I cannot guarantee these tips will work for you. I cannot guarantee they will continue to work for me, but hopefully they can give you a few ideas to get you started on the right foot.

At the root of each lesson is the same simple concept; when you are just starting in the world of literature, your biggest hurdle is getting someone to take a chance on your book. The best way to do that is to make it as convenient and risk-free as possible. As a first-time writer, once your book is written and polished, you should dedicate as much time and effort as you can spare to increasing the convenience and decreasing the risk of your book.

The first and most important tip I can give is this: embrace the ereader. There is no question that the ebook revolution has changed the game for self-publishers. Nothing tops the convenience of an ereader and the costs of making your book available on one or all of them are practically zero. Right now the king of the hill is Amazon with their Kindle and Fire, so if you are going to focus on just one marketplace, you should consider Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). It will give you the biggest bang for your buck, and a successful book on the Kindle alone will bring in more than enough money to make it worthwhile. That said, if you really want to get the most out of self-publishing and give yourself the greatest chance of reaching readers, you're better off getting onto as many of the devices as possible. Barnes and Noble's Nook is gaining popularity every day, and the iPad was and remains a popular ebook reading device. Don't forget smaller but respectable markets like Sony and Kobo. However, in my experience, the greatest distribution for the least effort is achieved by listing your book with KDP and Smashwords.

Smashwords is a distributor who will deliver your ebook to Barnes and Noble, Sony, Apple and handful of others. Not only that, but they offer your book in a variety of formats, catering to every popular ereader and even PC reading. Perhaps most importantly, though, they give you the ability to create coupons. The ability to discount or give away your books to certain customers is a powerful tool that Amazon currently lacks. And discounting brings us to the second most important thing to consider – price.

Once you've done everything you can to ensure that your potential readers will be able get your book easily and enjoy it in the way they prefer, the next important risk you can remove is to their wallet, so my next advice would be: don't be afraid to give your book away. There are those who insist that there is danger in under-pricing your book. Indeed, relegating yourself to the bargain bin is quite likely to give readers low expectations and it may even send them to the more traditionally priced books with the assumption that they will find better quality there. Once again, I can only offer my own experience. Early on, I tried the $10.00 price point with my first book. When the second book came along, I dropped the first book to $5.00, then $3.00. None of the price shifts seemed to have much of an impact on sales. Around the time my third book was ready to be released, I decided to bite the bullet and make the first in the series free. On the first day, thousands were downloaded and slowly but surely, the readers of the first book began to sample the others. I began to get reviews and those reviews gave other readers confidence that the time they would spend reading my book would not be wasted. It was the foot in the door I needed, and I've seen many writers succeed with the same policy. Obviously this works best if you've got a series of books, but even a single book, made free for a short time, can get you your first reviews and suddenly you look like much less of a gamble to the next batch of readers. More people will take a chance on you and in time, you may see money coming in. Once the books start earning, you have more options as a self-publisher.

Until now, all of the advice I've given won't cost you a dime, but if you've given yourself a budget or if you've been lucky enough to earn some money from the books already, there is one thing that I would suggest you look into above all others. Find an artist and have a cover made. It should be no surprise that, contrary to the advice of the old saying, people do judge a book by its cover. Unless you are an extremely gifted artist, having a professionally made cover will go a huge way to making your book seem like a safe bet. Websites like Deviant Art are gathering places for skilled artists looking for commissions, and a quick web search will turn up a dozen forums and message boards dedicated to freelance cover designers eager for a chance to shine. You don't have to spend a lot. Even $50.00 will get you something attractive, but if you are anything like me, this is the one area you'll be willing to loosen the purse strings a bit. Why? Well, to be perfectly honest, it is downright magical to see things that once existed only in your head brought to life by the skilled hand of an artist. Not only that, but if you choose wisely, you'll find an artist who will talk you through every step of the process and teach you a thing or two along the way. What you are looking for is something professional, unique and intriguing. In my case, it didn't take long to see the difference a quality cover can make. The first month with the new cover, I saw my sales triple. Within two months, it had paid for itself several times over.

Others may feel differently, but from my point of view self-publishing isn't about getting rich, it is about getting read. You've got a story to tell and there's no sense having a story to tell if there is no one to tell it to. The more that people read your story, the more they will talk about it and about you. If you're lucky, some will even want to talk to you. That's the last bit of advice I can give you: give your readers a way to get in touch with you. In the best case, people will love your book and there is nothing as rewarding as finding out that someone out there was moved by your words. In the worst case, people will find errors, faults and flaws, but even those messages are helpful. They help you to improve the books to follow and to correct the books that have already been released. A website or Facebook fan page is good, but even just a dedicated email address is all it takes to connect. I've made quite a few friends thanks to these books and I've been able to learn what people love, what people hate and what people want to see next.

There are no secrets to ensure success, in self-publishing or anywhere else. Talent, resources, timing and just plain luck can turn the most unlikely writer into a bestseller or doom a masterpiece to a forgotten corner of the bookstore. All I can say is that today, self-publishing is simpler and more accessible than ever before. If you work hard, make yourself easy to find and do your best to build confidence in yourself and your book, in time people will notice you. The rest is up to your story. Good luck!

_Joseph Lallo is the author of The Book of Deacon Series, as well as an on-going science fiction series beginning with the novel, Bypass Gemini. You can find out more about him and his books at_ http://www.bookofdeacon.com

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Twenty-Two

### The Formatting Nightmare

Captain Peter Cain

I thought you could just write a book, do fancy things like formatting pictures so that words will line up beside a picture, etc. – No! The reproduced book on Kindle was all over the place.

My name is Peter Cain, but there is an author out there also called Peter Cain. I am quite well known on the Algarve, as I provide a weekly weather forecast feature called 'Captain Peter's Seawatch Report', which I have been doing for twelve years, and so I decided on the pen name of Captain Peter Cain.

As a boat skipper during the summer seasons out here on the Algarve, I was out of work and had nothing else to do during the winter months, so I began writing. My first book was _Percy the Parrot and Other Pet Subjects_ , which was based on true life events that I experienced with an African Grey parrot that I owned. This was followed by _Percy The Parrot 2: The Bird's Perspective_. I then published _A Sign of the Rhymes_ and _A-Z of Animal Poems_ , and I am currently working on a follow up.

I had an experience back in the early eighties when I had a go at writing TV scripts and a couple of my works went right through different processes and were almost accepted. The rejection of this work prompted me to give up writing, plus I had work commitments at the time. I was no J.K. Rowling, whose work was not accepted by thirteen publishers before being accepted by the fourteenth. I gave up too quick.

The combination of a friend encouraging me to write and seeing an article in a paper about the success of an author who published ebooks more than two years ago, persuaded me to look into how I could publish books.

Because of the advertisements for Kindle on the TV, I looked up Kindle through Google and was led to a page for authors. I followed their guidelines on how to produce a book.

Easier said than done! I struggled greatly with understanding the best way to layout the book, especially the TOC they required (table of contents). It kept doubling up and doing weird things in the background. Even though my presentation looked good, when it came to publishing, it produced different results. In fact, the greatest complication I have experienced through self-publishing has been formatting, as I incorporate pictures in my books, which makes it a little more difficult.

First of all, with Kindle, I thought you could just write a book, do fancy things like formatting pictures so that words will line up beside a picture, etc. – No! The reproduced book on Kindle was all over the place. I have already mentioned the enormous problems I had with the TOC, but even after sorting that out, you can get a glitch with Microsoft Word that is not visible until you publish. I have spent hours sorting out these little glitches and even now do not always understand how they have come about. The main problem here is that Microsoft Word assumes you are writing in a certain way and produces what it thinks you want to write into your document. To get around this problem, you have to switch off all the auto-correct options. This is done in Word by clicking on 'file' and selecting 'options'. Click on 'proofing' and untick all the auto-correct boxes.

Another problem is inserted elements. Do not make text boxes, clip art, smart art or shapes. Any pictures are best imported as jpeg files. You can keep the picture left, centralise it or put it on the right.

Once your document is finished and ready to go, you then have to convert your word file. Please note that the document should be a .doc rather than a .docx – a small detail that makes a big difference (see saving options in Word). Then, with Kindle, you have to convert to a 'web page – filtered' file. This produces an HTML file plus a folder (if you have pictures). These two items then must be put into a ZIP file. This is done by selecting the two files – as if for copying together – then right clicking and choosing the 'send to' then 'compressed (zipped) folder'. You are now ready to upload your zip file to Kindle.

But all is not finished! I had trouble uploading the file using Firefox. I had to use Internet Explorer to get it uploaded.

I went on to discover Smashwords and had to learn a completely different technique in document presentation. In fact, their system is better and is what I do all the time now as it ideally serves Kindle as well. Also, they do not require a TOC as it does not work on the Smashwords system. What you have to do with your contents is bookmark the beginning of each chapter and hyperlink to that chapter from your contents list at the beginning of the book. Again, this seems to work on Kindle.

Firstly though, you have to write your document as basically as possible (what I call RAW). For this, it is best to use Notepad, which is usually found under 'all programs' then 'accessories'. Save your document as a basic .txt document and do not change it.

From here, you open it in Microsoft Word (Remember to disable all the Autocorrect features) and then it is up to you how to proceed.

I have personally begun to save each stage. After each version, you can check how it is likely to look by saving it as a PDF. If it looks okay then you can go onto the next stage of formatting your book. I leave the bookmarks, then hyperlinks until the very last. The most versions I have ended up doing with a book has been sixteen!

I know it all sounds long drawn out, but believe me when I tell you that it will save hours of trying to find problems when it comes to finally publishing and checking your book through the various ereaders.

I have only been self-publishing since January 2012 and nothing happens overnight, although I feel very optimistic. I have sold some books, but have found marketing difficult. There are many different ideas out there and both Kindle and Smashwords provide suggestions. I have got friends to buy my books and provide reviews. The more reviews, the higher up the favourites list you go. As a tool to help promote my books, I have my own website which is a great vehicle to steer people towards me. There are also the social networking sites like Facebook that can help a budding author. Don't get too over enthusiastic about trying to add as many friends as possible on Facebook. I have had a couple of seven-day bans from adding friends to my Facebook page because I was trying to add as many as possible. I am hoping to get onto local radio in the next couple of weeks to promote my books. I am also promoting entries for a charity book called _Re-versed Rhymes_. In other words, promote, promote, promote in as many ways as you can think up without having to pay out money for advertising.

I have found writing again great fun, so my advice to potential authors is do keep trying. Don't give up.

_Captain Peter Cain has lived in Portugal for thirteen years and normally skippers boats during the summer. However, 2012 has not been a busy year, so rather than propping up a bar, he has been frenziedly writing. You can find out what he has been writing by going to his web page_ http://www.captainpeter.net

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Twenty-Three

### Investing in Your Own Ebook

L.J. Sellers

The three main elements to producing a quality ebook are editing, cover design and formatting. Many authors are tempted to do all three themselves to save money. But unless you're incredibly talented and have all the time in the world, it's probably not a cost-effective decision.

After publishing six ebooks in 2010 I've come to two conclusions: 1) digital self-publishing is a straightforward process that isn't particularly difficult or expensive and 2) there is nothing a small publisher can or will do for writers that they can't do better for themselves. I don't mean literally do everything yourself, but a writer can contract for production services as well as a publisher can.

Why? Small presses are often run by a few dedicated, but overworked individuals. They typically contract out most services and they often pay bottom dollar. I know this because I've worked as a freelance editor and turned down all of the work offered by small presses because they simply don't pay enough. Small presses are trying to profit and survive like everyone else and they cut costs where they can.

A large publisher can offer distribution and promotional backing, but most small publishers don't offer either, so what's left for the author is the label of being traditionally published and the convenience of having someone else contract the production work. Giving up most of the profit for these small advantages is a hard bargain that I don't recommend. As the author, you have to sell the book no matter who publishes it, so you might as well make the investment, publish it yourself and reap the rewards.

The three main elements to producing a quality ebook are editing, cover design and formatting. Many authors are tempted to do all three themselves to save money. But unless you're incredibly talented and have all the time in the world, it's probably not a cost-effective decision.

Editing can be expensive, especially if you contract for content evaluation, but you can keep the cost down by sending your manuscript to beta-readers or working with a critique group to fine tune the plot and structure. You should, of course, print and read the manuscript out loud before paying anyone else to proof it. After carefully reading it yourself, send it to a professional editor for line editing and proofreading. Many editors charge $1,500 and up, but you don't have to pay that much. You can find someone to proofread your manuscript for $300.00–$800.00, depending on the length of the novel. If you pay less, your editor will be in a rush and probably won't do a good job. If you pay more, it may take a long time to earn back your investment.

A good cover is also essential. Most cover artists charge a flat fee and you can expect to pay between $150.00 and $500.00. Some charge a lot more than that, but why spend that much if you don't have to? One way to save money is to find the right image yourself, so you're not paying the artist for that time. One of the great things about self-publishing an ebook is that you can revise it as often as you want, including creating a new cover down the road when the book is making money. The best way to find a cover designer is to network with other writers, including joining listservs that focusing on marketing, such as http://www.murdermustadvertise.com.

Formatting: I originally thought I would learn to format my own ebooks to save money. Other authors make it sound easy. But I quickly decided that the time and frustration spent on the learning curve was not cost-effective. Time is money. For me, it made more sense to send my Word files and cover jpgs to a professional for formatting. The ebook I got back was gorgeous. In fact, I received two files: a mobi file to upload to Amazon and an epub to upload everywhere else. I strongly recommend working with a formatter who produces these two types of files, and I personally work with www.booknook.biz.

Readers' biggest complaint about ebooks is the formatting. Getting it right is essential. Rates may vary, but if you're starting with a Word document, it shouldn't cost more than around $150.00. For authors who have a backlist and novels that are in book form instead of Word documents, those books will need to be scanned and the cost of ebook production will be more expensive. The number of errors from the optical character recognition is also much higher. It might be cost-effective to pay a very fast typist to transcribe your published book into a Word document before sending it to a formatter. You'll end up with fewer errors too.

Taking the lowest rates I've mentioned ($300.00, $150.00, and $150.00), you can conclude that it will cost at least $600.00 to produce a quality ebook. I raided my very small retirement account to publish my six books and I considered it a small business loan to myself. I now treat my novel-writing career as a business instead of a hobby and it has paid off for me.

How long does it take to earn back a $600.00–$1,000 investment? That depends on many things, including how many novels you have on the market. The more books you have, the more credibility you have, which is why I decided to do all mine back to back. Assuming you've written a terrific story and produced a quality product, the biggest factor is how much time you're willing to spend promoting. I spent at least two hours a day for six months, plus one exclusive two-week period during which I promoted eight hours a day (blogs, press releases, reader forums, etc.). I continue to spend at least an hour every day on promotional activities. For the record, I made my money back by the end of the year and going forward is all profit.

It's your book and you've invested your money, you might as well invest your time too and make it pay off.

_L.J. Sellers is the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson Mysteries. For more information visit_ http://www.ljsellers.com

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###  Twenty-Four

What Does it Take to Become a Full-Time Indie Author?

Lindsay Buroker

Right now, the numbers tell us that making a living as an indie author is a lot more doable than making a living as a traditionally published author.

A few months ago, I changed my Twitter bio from 'indie fantasy/steampunk author' to 'full-time indie fantasy/steampunk author'. Apparently, a couple of people actually read that Twitter bio, because I've had questions about it.

You really earn a living from your ebooks?

How many books do you have to write to do that?

Are you a bestseller?

If not, how many do you have to sell?

How do I sell that many books?

I'm going to try to answer some of those questions today, but before I get started, let me admit that I'm not really there yet insofar as being confident that writing books is all I'll ever need to do to pay the bills and eventually purchase a suitable super-villain lair.

I feel like I'm on the right path, but I currently rely heavily on Amazon for my income (sales in the Kindle Store make up about 85% of my earnings with Barnes & Noble accounting for 10% and Smashwords and partners making up the last 5%). If Amazon decided to cut its royalty rates tomorrow, giving indie authors 35% instead of 70% for instance, that would make a huge difference in my income. Or, if Amazon made a change in its algorithms to favour traditionally published authors over indies or some such, that could make a big difference too.

Because of that potential for volatility, and the fact that I've only been at this publishing thing for eighteen months or so, I'm not going to make any claims that this is the definitive guide to quitting the day job and becoming a career writer. I'll just share what I've been doing and what my grand plan is (yeah, I have a grand plan – what, you thought someone scoping out villain lairs wouldn't?).

What I've done so far:

Write books, short stories and novellas.

Duh, I know, but it's hard to get momentum going when you only have one or two books out. It usually takes more exposure to your work for readers to decide they're fans. Also, when you're working hard on promoting a book, you get more return on your effort if there's a series people can go on to buy, rather than a single title.

In December 2010, I started out with _The Emperor's Edge_ and a month later, _Encrypted_ : two loosely related fantasy novels I'd written but never shopped around to agents (word on the AgentQuery site was that nobody was particularly interested in secondary world fantasy).

Sales were slow at first (so you're not alone if that sounds like you). I had some luck running an advertising campaign on Goodreads and giving away a free short story starring my _Emperor's Edge_ characters (though, at the time, I didn't know how to get that free story into Amazon). What next? I wrote. A lot (by my standards anyway). I published the first _Flash Gold_ adventure (a novella) that spring, the second EE book in June, another _Flash Gold_ novella that summer and the third EE book in November.

I had some good months last summer where I saw the potential of epublishing and started to think I could do this for a living someday, but it wasn't until Book 3 in my series came out that things really picked up and I started getting more sales and a bunch of fan mail too. (Very cool, by the way. Who woulda thunk self-published authors would get fan mail?)

So far in 2012, I've published a short story, a third _Flash Gold_ novella and at the end of April, my fourth _Emperor's Edge_ book. The final numbers aren't in for May yet, but, thanks to that new release, it's going to be my best month ever. And by 'ever', I mean ever. I was self-employed before this and made a pretty good living from my old job, but May will trump what I earned in my best months at the old job. I don't know if the entire year will be my best ever, though I'd guess not (even though I'm writing a lot, I can't put out a new release every month and once the core fans catch up with the series, sales naturally dwindle to match what the rest of the books in the series are doing). Still, I could see 2013 being pretty awesome if the trend continues.

The theme here is that I'm writing a lot and putting out something new, even if it's just a short story, every couple of months. Can you make a living as an indie author if you're only publishing one novel a year? Sure. It's just going to take longer. Of course, if you're one of those lucky (or was it unlucky?) writers with eight trunk novels ready to be published, it might take less time.

By the way, I've never been in the Amazon Top 100 (or in the Top 1,000 for more than a couple of days) and I'm not particularly visible even in my sub-categories (epic fantasy/historical fantasy) in the Kindle Store. You don't have to be an über-seller to make a living, but you have to, of course, have characters and/or plots that capture people's imaginations and turn them into fans (not everyone has to like your books but enough people do so that you get good reviews and you word-of-mouth 'advertising' from readers). If you have ten books priced at $4.99 and they sell 200 copies a month, you're earning over $6,000 a month.

I don't mean to make it sound like it's easy to write ten books or sell 200 copies a month of a title (I would have rolled my eyes at such a comment sixteen months ago), but right now the numbers tell us that making a living as an indie author is a lot more doable than making a living as a traditionally published author (where the per-book cut is a lot smaller). If you're mid-list as an indie and you have a stable of books that are doing moderately well, you've got it made in the short-term. If you're building your tribe along the way, you ought to have it made in the long-term too (more on that below).

I've given away work for free, which has made a big difference. Last November, when I released Book 3, I started giving away the first book for free. That got a lot more people into the series, people who went on to pick up Books 2, 3 and 4. I also made the first _Flash Gold_ novella free.

I've tried a lot when it comes to online promotion, everything from guest posts to book blog tours to contests to paid advertising, and nothing compares with having a free ebook in the major stores. Not only will people simply find it on their own, but it's so much easier to promote something that's free. If you do buy advertising (and I do from time to time), it'll be the difference between selling 25 copies and getting 5,000 downloads (i.e. 5,000 new people exposed to your work), because people live in hope that they'll find something good among the free offerings.

I've heard authors argue that most people who download free ebooks just collect them, like shiny pebbles on the beach and that they never even bother to check them out. I say B.S. to that. I'd bet money that most people try the books they download; it's just that they find most of them don't pique their interest. Maybe they'll download 50 or 100 ebooks and only find one where they want to read the whole thing. That's fine. That just means you have to make sure your story is entertaining enough to be The One.

The power of the series:

I should mention here that, while giving away a free ebook can be huge, it's key that the story be part of a series, or at least strongly related to the book(s) you're trying to sell.

I just don't see people having the same sorts of results when their free novel or short story isn't related to the rest of their work. Oh, it might help a little, but not the way a Book 1 that ends on a cliff-hanger will. (My first book admittedly doesn't end on a cliff-hanger, but it does have a teaser epilogue to let folks know that there's a lot more to come.)

Just to be clear here, the free ebook isn't just about hooking people or tricking them into buying more books. It's about goodwill too. It's about letting people try your work for free, at no risk. It's about starting your relationship with new readers off on a good foot. If they like the book, maybe they'll buy the next one. Maybe they'll share the free one with a friend. Maybe they'll leave a nice review on Amazon. But if they don't like it, they've lost nothing but a little of their time. You don't get the resentful, 'I can't believe I wasted $8.00 on this' kind of comments. If they're disappointed, people are more likely to think, 'Well, it was free; what did I expect?' But if they like it, they feel like they won a prize in a lottery.

This is why I plan to continue to give work away for free. It's also why I don't worry about it if my books appear on piracy sites (apparently they do now – I feel popular!)

Have you ever watched Neil Gaiman's comments on piracy? It's short. Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait.

Another point I want to make, for those who are thinking, 'Oh, I'll just make some old trunk story free because it's too short to sell anyway,' or 'I'll just give away some sample chapters,' stop. What you give away for free should be great. Great in your mind, anyway. Art is subjective after all, so one person's great is another person's garbage. But this is your chance to wow people and turn them into fans. Don't save your best stuff for the readers willing to buy. Give away your best stuff and people will buy the rest because what they got made them fall in love with your characters, or your world, or your masterful fight scenes, or the way you write twist endings.

The only way to get someone's attention (and that's what we're all looking to do as new authors) and to make sure your free offering is the one out of 50 or 100 that someone actually reads, is to stand out. Give 'em your best.

I've tried to cultivate a fan base or, as Seth Godin might call it, a tribe

I see a lot of indie authors trying to figure out exactly how Amazon's algorithms work so they can find a way to take advantage of a loophole and get catapulted up the bestseller listings. To this end, I've seen authors try to get a hundred people to buy their book in the same hour. I've seen them pay for five-star reviews on Fiverr. I've seen them participate in massive book-tagging threads on forums. I've seen them go exclusive with Amazon in hopes of great rewards from KDP Select. I've seen... lots.

And, hey, I'm not above taking advantage of an opportunity myself, but I've always believed that any victories achieved through these sorts of tactics would be short-lived (and, in most cases, I've seen that to be true). That's why I'm trying to focus on getting my work out there to the fans and not worrying about the other stuff.

Early on, I stumbled across Kevin Kelly's '1,000 True Fans' article. If you're an indie anything, it's a great read. The gist is that you don't have to be a mega-seller. You just need X number of true fans (people who love your stuff and will buy everything you put out) and you're assured that you can make a living at your art, so long as you to continue to produce quality material.

I believe, for an indie author, the number is probably around 10,000 rather than 1,000 (we only make a couple of dollars on a sale, after all). This is a large number, but, given that we can so easily get our work into Amazon, B&N, etc. where millions of eyeballs await, finding this many loyal readers isn't infeasible, especially when you realise you can collect them over years, maybe even decades, so long as you're in this for the long haul.

Why 10,000? Well, let's say you have 10,000 true fans, 10,000 people who buy each novel you put out. If you publish two novels a year, each priced at $4.95, you will, under the current paradigm, make $60,000 a year. That's a better-than-average income in most parts of the world.

Want more? That's okay. It'll probably happen. Remember, those 10,000 folks are your true fans, the ones who buy everything. You'll end up with other people who will buy the books with such-and-such character in it or who will pick up a book or two just because they look interesting. You'll end up selling far more than 20,000 books a year.

And, if Amazon stops listing self-published books tomorrow, your career isn't in the toilet, because you're smart and have collected the email addresses of your 10,000 true fans. You can email them to let them know that you'll now be selling your books from your site or you'll be doing a Kickstarter campaign to finance the next book. Whatever. These folks have your back!

Remember way up at the beginning of the article where I said I was making a full-time income but wasn't all that confident that I was permanently there yet? That's because I don't have 10,000 true fans yet. Based on my newsletter subscribers, I'd guess I have about 1,000. That's an awesome number, but my plan (remember, too, that I mentioned a master plan) is to work toward getting that 10,000.

So, how does one acquire these 10,000 true fans?

Here's what I've been doing and will continue to do:

I use the afterword of my ebooks to let readers know they can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and this blog. Also, I mention that I have a newsletter and it'd rock if they signed up for it. The newsletter is key because, as I said, it's the one way I have of contacting my readers if chaos strikes in the self-publishing world (i.e. Amazon implodes).

I use Facebook as a place to interact with my readers (I don't try to sell squat on Facebook; I post links to interviews, cut scenes, contests, etc. and sometimes throw up snippets of whatever scene or piece of dialogue I'm working on). What's awesome is when people interact with each other here. I mentioned Seth Godin's concept of a tribe. He's written a whole book on the subject, but the idea is to be a leader of people with a common interest, goal, job, etc. You can 'lead' through your books and if you give people a place to interact, your books can be the connection that links folks who never would have met each other otherwise. Suddenly, you've created this thing, this entity, that's greater than you are. Pretty cool, huh?

When a reader put together a fan forum for my books, I linked to it from my blog and I try to remember to mention it in tweets and on Facebook now and then. Over there, folks can take conversations much further than they can on Facebook.

I not only have comments enabled on my blog, but I added the plug-in that allows nested comments (i.e. readers can reply to each other's comments). Again, it's about creating a community rather than standing on a pulpit and preaching. I hope to figure out more ways to use technology to encourage that community to grow in the future.

My focus may be on getting the next book written, but I'm often thinking about cool things I can do for my readers. As I write this, folks can enter a contest to design a hat for one of my more flamboyant characters. The winner will receive signed paperbacks and see his/her hat appear in the next book. On one of my character-interview blog posts, a reader mentioned that only one author she read did things like that. That stunned me. Really? Most authors aren't doing that stuff? Well, there's an easy way right there to stand out amongst your peers.

Yes, all this stuff takes time, but it pays off in the end. Most of us are never going to hit the publishing lottery (the $100,000 sales month or the $2-million-dollar book deal), but 10,000 fans? That's a reasonable goal. I have a hunch, too, that the first thousand are the hardest to get and, after that, word-of-mouth will be on your side.

_For more information about Lindsay and her books visit_ http://www.lindsayburoker.com _._

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###  Twenty-Five

Becoming a Bestseller

Terri Reid

There's been a lot of conversation about quality. You do yourself and this new industry a disservice if you think you can upload something poorly written, poorly edited and poorly executed and try to sell it.

I don't think you need my whole bio to understand how I got here, but I'd like to offer some relevant points. I did well in high school and received scholarships to go to college. After two years in college, I was married and expecting my first child. College was put on hold. Seven children later, I was working as a consultant doing advertising, marketing and public relations for small to medium-sized businesses in the area. I even had some Fortune 50 companies as clients. I still hadn't found the time to go back to school, but as a consultant, my clients were more interested in what I could do for them than the degree hanging on the wall – thank goodness!

In the background, in my spare time, I was writing novels. It was my dream – 'Someday I'm going to be a writer.' But, at that point, it was in the same category as, 'Someday I'm going to be the same size I was when I got married.' Nice to dream about, but then you wake up!

However, some of the stories had to be told, so I continued to write. A little every day. While I was writing, I was trying to find my voice and decide what I wanted to write. But, again, since my consulting was paying the bills, writing was more of an escape.

Then the economy crashed and because of the uncertainty of so many things, my clients started tightening their belts and holding onto their money. Marketing budgets were slashed. My business was in trouble. I started looking for a full-time job, but even with fifteen years of experience, I didn't have a degree. And in this job market, employers have lots of options.

Suddenly, the thought of writing for a living made sense, because, really, what did I have to lose?

I had been working on _Loose Ends_ for months. I found myself with more time than money, so I worked nearly full-time to complete it. During that time, a friend sent me the _Wall Street Journal_ article about Karen McQuestion and her amazing success in ebooks. I had heard of Kindles, but I had no idea they held such a market share. I sent an email to Karen, who was gracious enough to answer me. She shared her experiences. Then I did some research on my own and decided that I was going to try uploading my book to Amazon.

Before I learned about Karen, I had planned to send my book off to an agent I had an acquaintance with in New York. She's a very successful agent and at one time, had told me she liked my writing. But the biggest thing that sold me on epublishing was the finances. I could get paid within ninety days of uploaded my book. I could make the same amount of money on my ebook that I would through a traditional publisher. And, perhaps, as an entrepreneur, this excited me even more; my destiny was in my own hands.

I uploaded _Loose Ends_ on 3 August 2010. I joined some forums and told them about my book. I went on Facebook and told my friends and family about my book and asked them to put my link on their Facebook pages. I called the editor of the local paper and told him about my book. The paper did a Sunday feature about me and my book. (I had to borrow a Kindle from a friend for the photo.)

In August, I sold 142 copies of my book. In September, I sold 248 books. In October, I added another book, _The Ghosts of New Orleans_. I had read that multiple books help you cross the market and led to more sales. _The Ghosts of New Orleans_ was a novel I had written four years before. It was a darker novel than The Mary O'Reilly stories, but I felt it still had merit. I did a quick edit and uploaded it on 10 October.

In October, I sold 789 copies of _Loose Ends_ and 195 copies of _The Ghosts of New Orleans_.

At the end of November, I added the second Mary O'Reilly book, _Good Tidings_. It was available on the night before Thanksgiving. By the end of the month, one week later, I had sold 142 copies of _Good Tidings_ , 745 copies of _Loose Ends_ , and 320 copies of _The Ghosts of New Orleans._

In December, I watched my numbers climb and three weeks into the month, found that both _Loose Ends_ and _Good Tidings_ had sold over 1,000 copies. I reached those numbers the day after Joe Konrath invited me to be part of his bestseller blog. I couldn't believe I was part of that crowd of authors. By the end of December, I had sold over 5,000 books.

The information above was part of a blog I wrote in January of 2011. Now, more than a year later, I just uploaded my seventh book in the Mary O'Reilly series – _Secret Hollows_. In three weeks, the book sold over 8,000 copies and was considered the '#1 Hot New Release' in Women Sleuths for several weeks. I've sold a total of over 280,000 copies of my books. My whole life has changed because of epublishing.

_Loose Ends_ has been my most popular book because, in April 2011, I lowered the price to 99c. I did this because my books are a series and even though I only make a minimal amount on _Loose Ends_ , if they like it, they will buy the other books in the series. _Loose Ends_ is also the book I give out for free when I have a chance – for that very same reason. During Christmas of 2011, I offered it for free for five days. More than 45,000 people downloaded the book (these numbers were not included in my number above, because they were not books that were sold). But, my other book numbers jumped tremendously because of the free offer.

Now, the secret to my success is... there is no secret. I've heard rumblings that paranormal mysteries or paranormal romances are easy to sell. I didn't write my book because of market trends; I wrote it because that was the story I had to tell.

There's been a lot of conversation about quality. You do yourself and this new industry a disservice if you think you can upload something poorly written, poorly edited and poorly executed and try to sell it. Be sure you are offering the best product you can. Don't be your own critic or editor – that never works. Have someone who knows editing – a friend who's a journalist or hire someone – to go through your book. Get some beta-readers to read it and ask them to be honest. It's better they critique your product before you upload it, then afterward say, 'Oh, you know, that bothered me a little too.'

You only have one chance to make a first impression.

Having a series or getting a new book out soon after the last one is important too. Readers will stay loyal when you give them new offerings. But, if you only upload a book a year or every two years, even those people you impress are going to forget you, and your book will sink to the bottom of the very large ocean of Amazon Kindle books. By putting a new book out every three or so months, you make a splash and all of your other books float back up to the top too.

You need to get out there and talk about your book. You are your own marketing and public relations team – if you don't think your book's the greatest thing since sliced bread, why should I?

You need to believe in yourself, continue to write and realise your dreams.

_Terri Reid is author of the bestselling Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery Series. For more information about her books, visit_ http://www.terrireid.com

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###  Twenty-Six

Just Do It!

Lexi Revellian

Writers and readers are the only essential components of the publishing industry. Everything else is negotiable.

Since I started writing in 2006, my goal had always been the traditional one of signing with an agent who would find me a publisher. My novels would appear in bookshops and libraries; I would do tours and book signings, possibly be interviewed on the radio... Ah, that golden dream. It's looking pretty tarnished these days.

My third novel, _Remix,_ was, I knew, publishable, and I told myself I'd self-publish if I couldn't acquire an agent in a year, not thinking I'd need to. That year was full of false promise. Two agents approached me, having come across my writing; four agents read the full typescript; not one thought she could sell it to a publisher.

'Right,' I said.

I've so far sold over 57,000 ebooks, doing everything myself.

These days, there is no reason not to self-publish and bear in mind that it is far, far easier to make a profit with ebooks than print editions. Even if you are determined to go the traditional publishing route, successful self-publishing is a more effective way of attracting an agent than queuing in slush piles. But you may find you no longer want the deal when it is offered to you.

Daunting as self-publishing seems before you do it, there is a huge amount of help available with a few clicks of a mouse. Thousands of other writers have blazed this trail before you and most are happy to share what they have learned. It's a steep learning curve and you will need to allow time to absorb all the new information and put it into practice. There are few short cuts, and these tips are geared to Amazon, as that is where the opportunities mostly lie for indie writers right now:

Write a book that people will enjoy. Your first book is not likely to be your best, because it's the one you learned to write on. (I refused to admit this until I had written my second novel.) Join a critique group where writers read and review each other's work – I found that spotting flaws in other people's writing helped me to see flaws in my own. Listen to criticism in case you can learn from it. Read your prose out loud to check punctuation and readability. Do not fall in love with your book and become blind to its imperfections.

Use beta-readers – I reckon eight or so intelligent, ordinary readers are collectively better than most professional editors. I found mine among relatives (it's a myth that your family will uncritically love your book, in my experience), readers of my blog and friends I made on writers' forums. I ask them not to spare my feelings, to note any passages they don't like: anything tedious, implausible or rushed. Praise is nice, but what you need to pinpoint are the problem parts of your novel. You may not agree with everything they say. One friend hated the end of _Replica_ so much he wrote his own version – but I kept the original.

Unless you are as nit-picky and obsessive as I am, ask a grammar Nazi friend to check your spelling, punctuation, etc. or pay a proofreader whose references you have checked. What you are aiming for is a professional product. No excuses.

Covers are vitally important. A good cover can sell an indifferent book (though it won't save you from the one- and two-star reviews you'll then get from indignant readers). Unless you are a whiz with Adobe Photoshop, or have a convenient friend who is a graphic designer, pay for a cover. This need not be as much as you think. There are many recommendations on Kindleboards for cover designers, some under $50.00. Study covers in your genre to get ideas. A cover should not only be attractive, but indicative of the contents of the book.

The blurb that will go on Amazon or the back of the jacket; this must be enticing and, it should go without saying, proofread. Study the blurbs that work on other writers' books. Sign in to US Author Central and you will be able to use italics and bold. Fill in your Amazon Author's Page.

Decide on a price. Amazon's royalties are so much more generous than the paltry 17.5% a publisher pays writers for ebooks that you can afford to let the reader benefit. If you set the price at £1.93, the sale price including Luxembourg 3% VAT will be £1.99, of which you will receive £1.32. Not bad, huh? Charge less than £1.49, and the royalty will be 35% rather than 70% – still twice what a publisher pays.

Formatting for Kindle and loading to Amazon's KDP; this is something you can do yourself if you are careful, patient and persistent. It's worth mastering this, as you can then make changes when needed – adding a link to a new book at the end, for instance. But you can find recommended formatters on Kindleboards.

Okay, so now you have written a brilliant book, formatted it and loaded it to Amazon's KDP. What now? Your book still needs you. Without your efforts, the poor thing will sink to the cobwebby depths of the Amazon chart, never to be seen again. And the bad news is, there is no absolute answer to how to market your book. What worked a year ago is not working now. You will need to stay on top of a changing scene. As I write, KDP Select is one of the best methods of selling your book. In exchange for agreeing to give them exclusivity, Amazon will give your books a little extra exposure and allow you to do free promotions. No doubt there will be other opportunities soon; indie authors are gaining recognition as an important part of the publishing pie. Keep your eyes open and be flexible. If you have more than one book for sale, experiment with pricing the first low to attract readers who will then buy your other book(s). Another useful exercise is to Google book bloggers and ask them to read and review your book. Depending on their readership, this may help. And then there is Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Pinterest, etc. Do these if they appeal to you. No point forcing yourself if they don't. You may also find it useful to design attractive cards to give to acquaintances when the subject of your writing comes up. I get mine from Moo, who are cheap and excellent. Finally, it is a great idea to join a forum or two, such as Goodreads and KUF and follow the blogs of successful indies to pick up tips on how they did it.

This is an exciting time to be an author. For too long the publishing industry has paid writers badly and offered one-sided and unfair contracts. Now that self-publishing is a viable alternative, they may find they need to change their ways to survive. Writers may at last be treated with the respect they deserve. After all, writers and readers are the only essential components of the publishing industry. Everything else is negotiable.

_Lexi Revellian is the author of the bestselling novels, Replica and Remix. To find out more about these and other titles, visit_ http://www.lexirevellian.com

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###  Twenty-Seven

Publishing Full-Colour Books with Lulu

Alex Ritsema

'In those days, self-publishing – often called vanity publishing – was out of the question because it meant investing thousands of dollars and resulted in your house being filled with hundreds of copies of your book.'

My name is Alex Ritsema, a Dutchman born in 1963. Since 1989, I have been a teacher in economics at a university in the town of Deventer in The Netherlands. Since 1995, I have also been a hobby author, writing on the subject of islands and maritime history and self-publishing via Lulu.

During the mid-1990s most of my vacations were on or near the offshore islands of Ireland. Around 1997, I decided to write a manuscript about those islands, hoping to find an interested publisher. I had success and _Discover the Islands of Ireland_ was published in 1999 via a commercial publisher. In those days, self-publishing – often called vanity publishing – was out of the question because it meant investing thousands of dollars and resulted in your house being filled with hundreds of copies of your book. The printing company made its profit via you and had no financial incentive to have your book promoted.

In 2005, I discovered Lulu. I could now self-publish without spending thousands of dollars. So, I started writing new books and placed them on the digital shelves of Lulu Marketplace for free. For each new book, I only had to pay some dozens of dollars for an ISBN and for having the book sold via big distributors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

When you publish via Lulu, you are responsible for editing the text because Lulu – like other printing companies for self-publishers – does not read, let alone edit, the text of the publications. Personally, I have some good friends who critically read the early versions of my text and give hints for improvements in grammar, style and so on.

Lulu only accepts 'finished' books, with all pieces delivered electronically. In other words, the writer bears all responsibility for the layout of the text, as well as the entire book design. Personally, I am glad to do all that myself, but other self-publishers prefer to outsource those things. Of course, I always have proof-prints made during the preparation of a new book.

My most recent books are colour books, and I must honestly say that colour books are not cheap when printed with Lulu. At Lulu, your book can only be entirely colour or entirely black and white, although the covers are always in colour. A colour book is much more expensive than a black and white book; for individual buyers, a single page of a black and white book is printed for 2c and a colour book for 20c. A colour book from Lulu is expensive indeed – at least, when the buyer wants a 'classical' copy. I often tell potential buyers that my books can be purchased at very low prices as ebooks or as downloads at Lulu Marketplace.

Publishing via Lulu? I have done so since 2005 with pleasure!

_For more information about Alex's books visit_ http://www.aworldofislands.com

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###  Twenty-Eight

An Unknown Author's Publishing Experience

Arnold R. Beckhardt

I have found that I work best without an outline. I try to keep in mind the four fundamentals of a plot: lead, objective, confrontation and knockout. On any given day I jump around various parts of the story and then try to put the parts back together in the many trips through the rewriting process.

How does an unknown, first-time author get a novel published? How does someone create a novel in the first place? Maybe my story will help you create your first novel and get it published. It's a special privilege for me to be able to write a few words about how I became an author and about the books that I have written.

I was a pilot in World War II in China, Burma and India and then an IBM engineering executive who specialised in the development of military weapon systems and space programs. After my first 'retirement' from a fifty-year engineering career in government and business I was one of the founding partners of Software Engineering Technology in Vero Beach in 1987. When my partner died, I finally 'retired for good' in 1997. My wife says that I had decided to retire five times before and wondered whether I would make it stick this time! Playing golf every day of the week didn't satisfy me; I still had the need to create something. I had written technical papers and trade magazine articles in my engineering career but had never tried a real story.

My oldest grandson became the catalyst for my subsequent writing career. When my father died many years ago, I inherited the family picture album. My grandson, Mark, found the album and started to ask me who all these people were. I had to admit I could identify very few of the pictures but his questions led to my discovery of genealogy. Our local library has an excellent section devoted to genealogy and access to the many computer data bases. It was an interesting experience as I utilised the research resources to find the records of my great-grandfather's immigration from Germany in 1848. I discovered branches of the family that I never knew existed. One of the more interesting finds was a reference to Fritz Beckhardt, a pilot in the German Air Force in World War I (he later became a character in _Goering's Gold_ ). As I created a written record of my family history it occurred to me that it would be fun to try my hand at a novel.

It was very fortuitous that about the time I started to do some serious genealogy research, a creative writing class was announced at our local library. I signed up for the class and met John Mackie, the writer of several successful detective novels, who was our instructor. John was a great teacher and motivator to this class of twelve budding authors. The students came from many different backgrounds and many were retired like me and looking to tell a story. It was my first experience of the work it took to write, and rewrite, and rewrite, many times to reach the point of creating the right combination of scenes and dialog to tell a story. One of John's memorable analogies about the work of an author was the author's ability to create a scene, a conversation and put it away in a mental catalogue (a computer file) to pull out and use at exactly the right time in your story, like the parts of an engine that you were building. This writing class motivated me to get serious about this idea I had for a novel and so began the two-and-a-half-year effort to write my first novel, _Turnaround_ , which I published in 2007. This was followed by _Goering's Gold_ in 2008, _Black Gold_ in 2009, _Mexican Gold_ in 2010 and _The Kashmir Dilemma_ in 2012.

I have heard many authors describe the process by which they create their novels. I am convinced there is no best way; you create in the manner that best fits your own creative process. In my case, I have found my ideas for the Roy Neely stories from reading other books and magazines, and staying abreast of world news. When there was a lot of news after 9/11 about security of nuclear facilities it gave me the idea for writing a story that involved the Florida Power and Light facility that is close to Vero Beach and _Turnaround_ was born. The idea for _Goering's Gold_ originated from a magazine article in a US News and World Report that described how the Vatican had denied rumours of being involved with the financing of what became known as the 'rat line'. _Black Gold_ resulted from the reporting of the fighting between Russia and Georgia over oil. _Mexican Gold_ came from realising that the drug war we continue to spend billions on was not working. The big motivator for _The Kashmir Dilemma_ came from reading Paul Scott's _The Raj Quartet_ novels. These four novels, _The Jewel in the Crown_ , 1966, The _Day of the Scorpion_ ,1968, _The Towers of Silence_ , 1971, and _A Division of the Spoils_ , 1975, tell the history of the last years of the British rule in India and became an inspiration to learn more about Kashmir.

I have found that I work best without an outline. I try to keep in mind the four fundamentals of a plot: lead, objective, confrontation and knockout. On any given day I jump around various parts of the story and then try to put the parts back together in the many trips through the rewriting process. The beauty of the 'cut and paste' feature of Word lets the author create many different versions of the story.

Writing a novel and getting it published are two different activities. When I finished my first novel I was fortunate that I knew someone who could help me understand the book publishing process. The daughter of a pilot from my World War II China-Burma-India squadron had grown up to become a very successful publishing agent in New York City. So, when I was getting near the end of writing my first novel I called her to ask, 'What does a first-time, unknown author have to do to get a book published?' She told me that first I had to find an agent who would read my book, then find it worthwhile to spend the time trying to convince editors at all the publishing companies to read the book. If he or she could finally get an editor to read the book, then maybe there would be a chance that the publishing house would send it on to another senior editor who might make the decision to publish.

She shocked me with her comment, 'Do you have the five or six years to do this? That's about the average time it takes a lucky, unknown, first-time author to get published by a major book publishing company.'

'Five or six years,' I said. 'At my age I might not have that much time left. There has to be a faster way to do it.'

That's when she told me about the many companies that first-time authors may use to publish their story. She recommended that I investigate the website iUniverse as one of the better self-publishing companies. A bit of research into the services and cost that companies such as iUniverse offer convinced me it was the best way for me to publish my first novel. I continued writing and rewriting and rewriting more times than I can remember and finally I had a manuscript that I thought was ready for some serious editing.

One of the best features of self-publishing company technologies is the ability to submit all your work electronically. While authors who write their novels in longhand or on a typewriter can still submit their work, it costs more than authors who create their work in standard programmes, such as Microsoft Word or Corel's Word Perfect.

I submitted my final draft for an editorial review and a few weeks later I received a very professional review with numerous comments about changes I should make to strengthen the story. It took another month of work to incorporate many of these suggested changes and I resubmitted my manuscript for a preprint review. This was a review for typographical errors and after submittal of those corrections, the book went to press and was published. So, from my final draft until the book was published took a mere three months.

In the years that followed, I have continued the search for any literary agent who thought my subsequent novels would interest an established publishing company. The 'query letter' process is tortuous for unknown authors. In my experience, agents and editors may think your work is suitable for publishing but major publishers' marketing people will seldom take the risk that does not involve the author committing to the expense and time for a significant marketing campaign. Major book publishing companies who have paid an advance to established authors provide the marketing support and the contacts to get their books reviewed by the major newspapers. They look to sell tens of thousands books; it is very difficult for unknown authors to break into the community of well-known authors.

The economics of the publishing industry now place the major cost and effort of marketing a printed book on the author. This has created an expansion of companies offering authors their services for a fee to print their book. The author can buy editorial services, book design services, printing services and every kind of marketing services the author is willing to pay for. Digital technology has simplified the process of book publishing. The self-publishing companies like iUniverse, Author Solutions, XLibris, Outskirts Press and Lulu, to name a few, compete for the new author's attention. iUniverse produces over 500 titles a month and has more than 30,000 titles in print.

Once you've finished writing and publishing your book, selling it is a different job. Authors who utilise the services of self-publishing companies have two choices: do your own marketing or pay for the many different kinds of marketing services they offer. You can spend many thousands of dollars with no guarantees of large sales. The majority of self-published authors will probably be happy to sell several hundred printed books, utilising their skills with emails, Facebook and Twitter.

The term 'starving artist' applies to most writers. No kidding; I knew there wasn't much money to be made as an unknown, self-published author, but I didn't realise how little money I made until I put in my hours and counted out the pay. As of today, I figure I make $1.25 an hour! Mind you, I do put in a lot of hours. But still, don't assume that because you're lucky to get published with one of the Big Six, you're going to get six figures. In the publishing world, you're not golden until you've proven yourself to be a cash cow. And needless to say, it takes a lot of luck to become a cash cow.

There is a new 'giant' in the book world today named Amazon, who is one of the largest publishers of hard-copy books. Their success at online sales can't be matched by any other source. To further complicate the life of authors, the phenomenon of electronic books must be dealt with. With the success of the Amazon Kindle, authors have had to reconsider their publishing options. In today's market place about 25% of adult books are sold in e-versions. You can search for thousands of books by relatively unknown authors selling their Kindle books for 99c or giving them away free. The recent good news for unknown authors is the establishment of companies who will publish your book in all the available electronic formats. I have had good results converting my published books using Smashwords.

The 'buzz word' for authors these days is the necessity to 'build a platform'. Easier said than done; it is a lot of work and a big-time investment trying to establish your authorial credentials utilising Facebook, Twitter and a blog that you create and write for. All authors wish they could be as lucky as author E. L. James. She started publishing various parts of her _Fifty Shades of Grey_ trilogy books on her website then self-published ebook and paperback versions. Often reviewed as 'soft porn for older women', they became such big bestsellers on Amazon that a major publisher then published hard-cover versions. Guess her story is an example of the kind of success all unknown authors would like to achieve.

_Arnold R. Beckhardt was a pilot in WW2 in China, Burma and India. He is a retired IBM engineering executive who specialised in the development of military weapon systems and space programs. After retiring from IBM, he was a principal in a software engineering business. He published his first novel at the age of eighty-five. For more information visit_ http://www.booksbybeckhardt.com

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###  Twenty-Nine

In Hot Pursuit of Happiness

Ciggie Cramond

Ditch the publisher? Absolutely. But the advent of the Internet and newly opened doors for cheap self-publishing have been a two-edged sword. Innumerable writers embark on their career, provoked by a popular or recommended something they read, of which they think, 'I could certainly write at least as well as that!' For those who are right, self-publishing has been a happy way to go, but a sore achievement.

The publishing world is painfully exclusive; the wrong genre, the un-trendy subject, the unimpressive query: all these factors and more may mean a casual toss into the bin and a firmly closed door. This exclusion has necessarily meant the withholding of precious good writing from the general public internationally. Self-publishing has removed this barrier and now the true 'Best Writers' of this planet may have their works floating somewhere in the Internetsphere, waiting to be discovered. If this is true, the barrier between them and their readers remains present, because, if publishers are exclusive, even the Internet has not been able to remove all of their powers, which include much more than discovering the next good writer. Self-publishers, having done all that was previously required of the classic writer, now find themselves at an impasse. Because modern self-publishing not only requires the actual writing of a 'good book', it requires marketing. How will anyone know that your book is out there if they have no idea that it exists? Finally, and supremely unfortunately, for writers such as myself, writers are not generally marketers.

In any organisation, the machine works best when each of its parts plays its role expertly. Ideally, writers should write and pass on their work to the editor, who edits and then passes the synopsis on to the marketers. Marketers will split the business of an arresting cover to properly briefed graphic designers and then get on their phones and laptops to media and social media networks to organise the perfect promotional campaign, including perhaps an ultimate formal launch. Et voilà. The whole world is or should be aware of the fact that Ciggie Cramond has written a revolutionary, life-changing, must-read book about ferrets, and the advertisers have done their job so well that even people who have no idea what ferrets are about are suddenly itching to get theirs hands on a copy. Because of this well-oiled machine, I would recommend that self-publishers never stop their quest for formal, mainline publication. Go about your business, but include a few query letters here and there. 'You never know' is an understated and underestimated law of nature.

For self-publishers, 'getting it out there' becomes a new, all-consuming job and often one that is much more difficult than the initial writing. For those with a large expendable budget, purchasing the services of marketing firms such as AuthorHouse is the easiest and best solution. Few writers, however, have ever had money to burn, especially if they are just starting out. They must now begin a new, long journey in the Internetsphere as the cheapest and best marketing avenue available in order to establish 'online presence'. This requires, first, the creation of a website (which are available for free) as a base. Then, the opening of innumerable accounts with the most popular reading and book-related websites of the day and posting an attractive profile within them, inclusive of all their information. Then, the opening of more innumerable accounts with Internet advertising and marketing companies who promote your website links and information to others, in exchange for whatever activities they may ask from you. Following on from this, the firm establishment of active social networks, which must be grown and nurtured incessantly. Blogs are advised and 'pinging' on the heel of every post. Posting all of your links as the signature of your email, so that they are sent out to everyone you ever contact. Beginning a debate of Google Circles. Tagging everything you post, attaching photos or images, linking, establishing feeds... In short, the formula is this: activity creates 'buzz'; 'Buzz' creates 'followers', and 'followers' buy books, write reviews on them and recommend them to their friends.

Again, in this economic climate, people are less likely to buy a book at $15.00 than the Kindle version at $1.99. I have a Kindle version for every one of my books. I self-publish with more than one self-publishing program, including Amazon's CreateSpace and Lulu. Furthermore, the types of books currently being purchased are less fictional and more practical. As a result, I have put the carry-with-you, light-reading, novel writing I am so fond of on the back burner and am prioritising _The Cravings Diet_ , the book project I currently have on health and diet. I am also searching incessantly to provide website content, since there are innumerable websites and all of them, at some point or another, require fresh content.

As a penniless writer, I have accepted that the journey will be long and I am trying to enjoy every step of it and certainly the earnings I obtain along the way. I have to; I left a good job to do this and did nothing but curse myself for doing it for the next three years. Then I got to work and the work never ends. I often run out of funds to get onto the Internet. But there are blogs to be written and there are my 'followers' to keep up with. Occasionally, I must update my profile on Amazon or Lulu or I-proclaim. And there is always an on-going book.

_Ciggie Cramond is an author, blogger, freelance writer, editor and translator, currently living in Nairobi, Kenya. She supports Arsenal and is currently working on The Cravings Diet as well as her second novel in the Abereast series. A sample portfolio of her work is available at_ http://ciggiesportfolio.wordpress.com _. Check out her blogs at_ http://ciggie.blogspot.com _,_ http://ciggiecramond.wordpress.com _and_ http://ciggieonkenya@wordpress.com _. Write to Ciggie at ciggie.cramond@gmail.com – she would love to hear from you!_

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Thirty

### My Rocky Road to Publication

Sybil Nelson

My road to publication has been bumpy to say the least. For a while I was rather bitter with the entire publishing industry, but I can honestly say that now I am at peace with it. I'm happy with where I am with my writing career. I'm developing a large and loyal fan base and my sales record is nothing to sneeze at. So let me tell you how I got there so you can avoid all of the blumps and pitfalls.

2002

I was a math teacher who loved to read and got sick of there never being any black characters in books. I knew for some books it wasn't possible, but for modern day books, everyone knows at least one black person, right? Why are they always ignored in books? Especially black women. So I jotted down some poorly crafted chapters of a book about a black ballerina married to a white basketball player and their spoiled-rotten children. That story didn't really go very far and I gave up writing for a while.

2004/5

I spit out a creepy and disturbing short story about an interracial couple living in 1970s Virginia. I liked the story so much that I expanded it into a full-length novel then started submitting to agents. This was my first mistake. I submitted way too early. The book was not ready for professional eyes. Fortunately, I kept writing while blindly sending query letters to agents and I wrote my second book _The B Word of Bridgeton_ about a black ballerina who falls in love with a white basketball player. Sound familiar? It was basically the story I wrote earlier except it took place when they were in high school and focused on how they met.

Around this same time, I discovered http://www.thenextbigwriter.com , a wonderful review site that whipped my story into shape. This time when I submitted to agents, I felt it was the best story it could be. Yet and still, it took me two years to actually get an offer of representation from Uwe Stender of TriadaUS agency.

2007

I had a real, bona fide agent and I mistakenly thought that any day I would be picked up by a publisher, right? Wrong. That's when the real work began. My agent sent me through months of revisions before he started sending to publishers. And then once he did start submitting, that's when the rejections started flooding in.

Fortunately, during this time, I kept writing. I wrote during every free moment, which were scarce considering I had kids, a full-time job, a husband and grad school. But I still managed to write three other books during this time.

November 2008

The B Word comes under serious consideration by a big publisher. They send me through one major revision, and then another, and then another, and after three years I still don't have a final answer from them. During that time many people said, 'Well that's just too much time why don't you take it to another publisher?' But they failed to realise that it was rejected by every other publisher. The people that had the book were huge! I wanted to give them all the time necessary to decide. I'll come back to what I did to that book later.

2009

Okay, so during this three-year stalemate with that big-time publisher, who will remain nameless, I also wrote _Priscilla the Great_. Writing this book was so easy and I would say, magical, except that sounds really corny. But in a way it was. I wrote it in less than a month. Priscilla's voice just poured out of me. In a matter of weeks after the first draft was completed, this book caught the attention of another major publisher who shall also remain nameless. They sent me through one revision, and then another and then another. Eight months later, they passed.

One thing that happened during this year that managed to boost my confidence a little was that my agent sold the movie rights to Priscilla. Since then I've even had dinner with the scriptwriter. Very exciting indeed.

2010

During this time, of course, I continued to write, but I was also getting really frustrated with the whole publishing process. I had written nine books over the course of four years and I had nothing to show for it. So, I decided to self-publish. I was just about to release my book, _The Guardian of Eden_ , as a self-published title when I decided to give a small publisher a chance and I was accepted. The book title was changed to _Secrets of Eden_ and was published as an ebook in August 2010.

Around the same time, I self-published my book about the interracial couple in Virginia, called _Ain't No Sunshine_ , just to see what the experience was like. Well, it turns out that _Ain't No Sunshine_ is my bestseller and pays many of my bills.

Inspired by the success of _Ain't No Sunshine_ and discouraged by the sales of _Secrets of Eden_ and Priscilla the Great, which I had placed with another small publisher, I left my agent, pulled my books and decided to go completely indie. I even pulled _The B Word of Bridgeton_ from that major publisher who was holding onto it.

Now it is 2012 and I have well over 15,000 sales. I'm actually closing in on 20,000. I also regularly give speeches in local schools and libraries. I've even been featured on a local television program. Slowly but surely, I'm breaking my way into mainstream literature. So I am very happy with the self-publishing process and I'm glad I took a chance and went for it.

I do have a few warnings for people who are thinking about venturing into the indie publishing scene: treat it like a business and be professional. That means, unless you are a graphic designer, hire someone to do your cover. Unless you are a professional copy-editor with years of experience, hire someone to do your editing. Have a professional-looking website and a blog that is directed to your target audience. Many indie authors make the mistake of marketing toward other authors instead of aiming for readers and building a fan base.

So that is my rocky road to publication and there is much more to come. I still have ideas for many more books and I have goals to publish at least five books a year for the foreseeable future. My ultimate goal is that my rocky publication road will one day lead to a smooth glide to the NYT Bestseller list.

To find out more about Sybil and her books, visit the following sites:

http://www.sybilnelson.com

http://www.priscillathegreat.com

http://www.LeslieDuBois.com

http://www.sybilnelson.blogspot.com

http://www.priscillathegreat.blogspot.com

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Thirty-One

### From Imagination to Publication

Pete Darman

There are endless examples of the incompetence of agents but my favourite is when Doris Lessing sent some of her own work as an anonymous manuscript to her own agent, who wrote back saying that he could not possible consider it due its poor quality.

Writing the Book

For me, the process begins with an idea of a story, which usually revolves around a subject I find interesting or have been toying with in my mind for a long time. Then I flesh out the plot and think about characters. As I like to write around actual historical events, this involves research into the historical figures that will appear in the book. I then create profiles for all of the characters that will appear in the book, both main and secondary. Then comes the chapter breakdown, which is not set in stone at the beginning, but acts as a sort of skeleton of the book upon which the meat of the story can be hung. Obviously, when the actual writing begins, the plot may go off on a tangent from time to time, though I try to broadly stick to the plan. In this way, the story starts and finishes the way I originally intended.

With regard to the actual writing, I aim to pen a certain number of words each day, usually 2,000. You have to be realistic when writing, especially when it comes to history and historical fiction. I spend a lot of time researching during the course of creating a book, which tends to cut down actual writing time. But if I fulfil my word count each day then I know I am on course. It is important to be practical when planning how long it will take you to complete a book. If you set yourself a writing target of 5,000 words or more a day, for example, then be prepared for some long days; either that or disappointment when you fail to achieve your daily target.

There are different challenges for writers working in all genres. I write history, both fiction and non-fiction, and it is imperative to get things right. You are writing for readers who are often very knowledgeable about the subject you are writing about. An author therefore has to undertake a great deal of research to ensure that his or her fiction is credible. This does not mean that the book turns into an academic lecture but everything has to be authentic. Do not insult the readers or treat them like idiots. They are not and will be frank and forthright in their online reviews if you do.

Why Self-Publish?

Having spent many years working in the publishing industry and being on the other side of the fence to authors, so to speak, I have seen at first-hand how author submissions are often rejected on a whim, and often for no better reason than the editor was having a bad day. I have a particularly low opinion of agents, most of whom would not know good writing or a decent story if they slapped them in the face. Go to the Writers and Artists Yearbook or look at agent websites and you will see endless blurbs stating that they only accept manuscripts of the highest writing quality, which is amusing considering many agents have no experience of writing or knowledge of literature. There are endless examples of the incompetence of agents but my favourite is when Doris Lessing sent some of her own work as an anonymous manuscript to her own agent, who wrote back saying that he could not possible consider it due its poor quality.

For me, self-publishing is a way to reach readers direct, simple as that.

Preparing to Publish

A good cover is a must, especially for an ebook. It is worth getting a cover designed professionally as it is the first thing potential customers see. A poorly designed cover stands out a mile and will put off potential buyers.

It is also imperative to have the electronic manuscript properly formatted to prevent it being a dog's dinner when it is published on Kindle. This is reasonably inexpensive, though it is always best to shop around. I used 52 Novels to do my formatting.

Promoting the Book

With my ebooks I have been lucky in that the British Army's 'Army Rumour Service' (ARSSE) reviewed one of my non-fiction books. I subsequently contacted them about reviewing my ebooks and they have done so, which has helped to generate sales. I have also listed them on historical fiction ebook sites, which has helped to spread the word.

I would beware of companies promising to get your book to the number one spot on Amazon's kindle list for a fee. They won't and you will be forking out money for nothing.

Also avoid Google adwords like the plague. Several years ago I was the editor of a World War II site that the owner wanted high on Google search pages. He spent thousands of pounds on Google adwords that generated a lot of (temporary) visitors to the site for no tangible result (though Google did very well out of him).

Dos and Don'ts

Do have your own personal website. It is the first port of call for anyone who carries out an Internet search of your name. It is also an easy way to contact you and display all your books. It doesn't have to be expensive to create (mine cost just over £300.00) or maintain (hosting fees of £63.00 a year), though my advice would be to keep it simple: home page, book pages, biography page, links page and contact page. Avoid companies that promise to create an all-dancing, all-singing personal website. You will find yourself paying a four-figure sum for something that is unnecessary.

_Pete Darman began his writing career as a research officer with the Defence Intelligence Staff in Whitehall. Writing top-secret intelligence reports was highly exciting, until he realised that their security clearance was so high that only a handful of people were cleared to read them! In 1990, therefore, he decided to apply for a job in the publishing industry as an editor. He joined a small company in the summer of that year. That date marked the beginning of his writing career, with his first book being published in 1992. For more info about Pete, visit_ http://www.peterdarman.com

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Thirty-Two

### Success and the Death Threat

T.M. Nielson

It was mostly done by accident. I made a ton of mistakes and it took a year for my books to even take off. The first year they were out I sold 5 copies. The second year I sold 250,000.

Well, I've always written, from the time I was in junior high I wrote stories. _Heku_ started out the same way, as a short story. I'd get something in my head and run with it. I ended up writing Books 1 through 7 in under a year. I couldn't stop! There were a lot of stressers going on in my life at the time and the _Heku_ books were my escape. I was able to pour myself into them because no one was ever going to read them but me. That left the possibilities wide open.

I never planned to publish them, but I did post some on a website to get some feedback and what I found were people asking for more. I started to wonder if they could be an escape for anyone else, like they had been for me during that rough year.

I started researching how to find an agent, all the while posting snippets of the first book on this one website and getting amazing feedback. Then came the death threat! I didn't get scared because I used an alias and at the time, no one knew who I was or where I was. The death threat came in a message from someone calling themselves a Sanguinarian.

I was warned not to publish.

That did it for me! No bowing down. Once I was warned not to publish, I started sending out letters to Agents. I HATED this process! I sent out around eighty query letters and for the next five months got emails back saying my books weren't what they wanted. I started to get down and wondered if what I'd written should stay just for me.

The feedback kept coming in on the books though, so I decided to skip the Agent's rejection letters and find a publisher.

The first publisher that accepted _Heku_ wanted me to Christianise it. I worked for weeks trying to tweak a 'vampire' novel into a Christian book and couldn't do it! Then it dawned on me that they are MY books and I wrote them how I wanted them. If I wanted my heku to worship God, then I would have done that to begin with. There are adult situations (not erotica), violence and language, and that's how I wanted it to be. It's sad how much time I spent trying to Christianise it though.

The next publisher accepted _Heku_ with the stipulation that I would write sex into it. That was an immediate no. So I was left again with doubts and frustrations.

That's when the self-publishing world hit me. I figured that I could at least put _Heku_ out there and see what happened. Over the course of a summer I readied all seven books for digital publication and started pushing them out one at a time at one-month intervals.

Nada! They didn't sell and I wasn't sure what to do. In the meantime, I'd started Book 8 just for me, again never wanting to publish. There are personal things in these books that I felt should be only for me.

Researching books, though, I started to realise that my best bet was to try to get the first three books out for free. That's harder than you'd think. I figured I was never going to be in it for the money; what I wanted was for readers to forget about life problems and fall into the heku world.

That happened in May 2011. The books went free and that's when the entire series took off! I'm a computer tech and had made a web page, and the hits started coming in like crazy. I was getting emails begging for more, emails asking for audio books and emails full of praise.

The backlash on Book 7 though was tremendous! I had killed off the main character for personal reasons. Talk about the hate mail! I already had thoughts on Book 8 though, but the readers didn't know that. The angry responses poured into my inbox and I put out three separate endings in two days, trying to please everyone. Again, I spent weeks trying to rewrite it to make the fans happy. What I ended up doing was taking what I'd written for Book 8 and putting it at the end of Book 7 as an 'Extended Edition'. After that, the hate mail stopped. The love emails started again and the praise continued.

That all sounds good, except I read every review ever written and there are some VERY harsh ones out there. I edited my own books because I didn't charge enough to allow me to afford a real editor. I heard about that! I was so mad that someone could slam a free book! It happened though and I quit writing all together. I took every negative review to heart and couldn't even think about a heku.

Then the Facebook page was made and I found it. I hadn't realised that there was an entire group out there dedicated to talking to others about the heku. With their support, Books 8 and 9 came out.

So what did I do wrong? First, I charged for the books. No one's going to buy a book from an unknown author with no feedback, even if the book was only 99c. Then I let the negative reviews get me down so badly that I couldn't even write.

Finally, I tried writing for the fans and not for myself. I second-guessed everything that way! 'What if the fans don't want such-and-such to happen?' Once I got my head on straight and wrote just for me, things began to flow again and the _Dimensions Saga_ was born. I was nervous stepping out of my genre, but I really wanted a medieval romance.

I broke taboos of writing, which reviewers love to point out. I wrote too many books in a short time span and then pushed them to the public too quickly. I didn't re-explain the heku with every book. You can't pick up Book 7 and know what's going on. With my books you really have to start at Book 1 and work your way through them. I have been told numerous times that I need to fix that... but I don't want to!

Good things I did? I submitted the first three books to every ebook website I could find! I got the name out there and when readers had finished Book 3, they had the option to keep going.

I created a web page. Type 'Heku' into Google and I come up first now, yay!

I check Google every Friday. Four times now I've found that someone else has published my books without my permission! This has happened on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple... so the biggies. I keep tabs on every ebook out there that has my name on it. A quick email to those companies and the false books are pulled immediately.

By Googling, I also have found numerous 'Heku Groups' and even found that a guild in WoW is named and fashioned after my heku. That's always a huge ego boost.

Lastly, I know my audience. When I found that heku was huge in Italy, I had it translated into Italian. Find your resources! There are artists who will do free work for their name on a book. That helps a lot with covers. Diligence and patience are required too. Patience isn't my strong suit, but you don't have much of a choice in the matter.

_T.M. Nielsen lives in Utah with her husband and two daughters. She started writing fiction/fantasy in high school but didn't complete a novel until she decided to entertain the masses in an online writer's colony. With their encouragement, she self-published her first novel. Four years later, she's published fourteen books and one companion. For more information about T.M. visit_ http://www.hekuseries.com _._

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Thirty-Three

### Four Questions About Ebook Publishing

Iza Moreau

I have found some real treasures in the ebook world – stories, characters and authors I could have found nowhere else. But I have also found a few questions that need answering, so I am going to use this article to answer them.

Today's electronic publishing boom is changing the way we read books. It is also changing the way we publish them. Many of us are doing it ourselves, either because we don't have enough money to hire a formatter or just for joy of learning that ability. For me, both were true, so I began to study the various techniques involved until I became well-versed in the formatting art. And an ebook author.

At the same time, I have become a big fan of ebook reading, especially on my iPad, which allows me to read books from all of the major ebook distributors: Apple, Barnes & Noble, Diesel, Amazon and many others.

I have found some real treasures in the ebook world – stories, characters and authors I could have found nowhere else. But I have also found a few questions that need answering, so I am going to use this article to answer them. One of the interesting things about each of these questions is that they are unique to the ebook industry. They are also pertinent to every ebook author, especially independent authors.

Why are there so many damned typos in self-published ebooks?

Recently, I began reading a very interesting sample from a young-adult, science-fiction novel I downloaded from Smashwords. It has fresh ideas, a well-thought-out universe, an exciting and unique plot, vibrant and interesting characters and an absolutely stunning cover. What's not to love? Well, I hate to mention it, but there were four typos on the first page. In the second chapter there was a bad plot-line error – probably the result of the author planning to go in one direction and ending up going in another. Although I continued to find sporadic typos, my interest in the book never waned. I was anxious to read each new chapter to see what events and adventures would unfold.

Does this mean that it doesn't matter if a book contains errors? That we should be able to pass over misspellings and grammatical mistakes without comment? Of course it doesn't. Despite my enjoyment of this book, I would have liked it even more if I hadn't had to cringe over each mistake, if my concentration hadn't been broken by having to go back and reread an unpunctuated sentence or paragraph to make sure I got the proper meaning.

Those of us who publish our own ebooks have a responsibility that traditionally published authors do not have and have never had – to act as not only the book's author, but as its only copy-editor and proofreader. No, your girlfriend or your mother do not count (unless, of course, they are professional editors).

I truthfully don't think that any author wants to be thought of as illiterate in any way. If we are talking about 2 tables, we mean two tables, not to tables. If someone finds a mistake like this in one of my own books and tells me about it, I will immediately (and somewhat shamefacedly) correct it. In the new state of electronic publishing, the world is my editor. Yours, too. In fact, I felt so strongly about the worth of the novel I have been describing that I made a list of many dozen errors, both large and small, and submitted this to the author, who seemed truly grateful for the feedback.

If proofreading and copy-editing are to be necessary tools for today's authors then let's see this as an opportunity to learn even more about our craft than yesterday's authors. Readers have new opportunities too; for the first time in history, they have the ability to actually help create a work of literature. When I see fine new writing, like I saw in the ebook I described above, I want to do everything I can to help it succeed.

How much should I price my ebook?

I read a whining article by a published writer about how she simply couldn't afford to price her ebooks at less than $6.99 or so. At $2.99 she would have to sell thousands of books to break even for the time she spent writing them. For some reason, I took offence to several of her points. Firstly, there are many writers who download their books on Smashwords and Amazon who will probably never sell a single book, regardless of the price. Secondly, this woman, who writes the same type of genre fiction that I do, seemed to think that her books were more valuable than those of the rest of us. But mostly, I was disgusted at a creative artist actually figuring out the cost of her writing time. Fuck you, lady, and here's why.

I have put in far more hours writing than she has and most of them have been pleasurable. I love writing and I love what I create. I love the act of creating and if necessary I would have paid for the opportunity. The books I have written – the stories, the poems, the essays, and the novels – are my greatest accomplishment on earth. How do you put a price tag on that? Not every writer wants to be rich and famous, but most do. I do, in fact, but this seems to be out of my control. What is important is the writing, the characters, the stories and the things that I learn from them. If other people can learn from them, fine. If people want to pay for them, even better. The advent of ebook reading has given every author the opportunity to get their words in front of a vast audience, so let's take advantage of it if we can.

So what should you charge? Here's my two cents worth. If someone charges $24.99 for an ebook, or even $12.99, there is a pretty good chance that people are going to pass it by, no matter how good or useful it might be. I know people who have started high (high prices and high expectations) then gone lower when the book did not sell, in increments, from $24.99 to $17.99 to $9.99 and so on. But why not do the reverse? Start out by pricing the book low – anywhere from 99c to $2.99. If it doesn't sell despite whatever vigorous marketing campaigns you might undertake, then it probably won't sell at all. If it does, you can always raise the price.

Do blurbs really help sell books?

Of course they do, but in the world of ebooks, they are essential. Smashwords, Amazon and most other ebook distributors present ebook shoppers with a cover and a short description of a book's contents – a blurb. If the cover looks interesting (and yes, many times you can tell a book by its cover), they will read the blurb. If the blurb is interesting and concise, they may decide to download a sample. If the blurb sucks, they will go on to the next listing. It's that simple.

So, why do so many of the blurbs I read make me think poorly of the book? I find spelling errors, errors in grammar, typos, run-on sentences, half sentences, meaningless sentences, bluster, blather, biography and horrible clichés. If the description of the book is poorly written, there is a good chance that the book will be poorly written too. But the reverse is also true – an interesting and exciting description will often hook someone fishing for books.

As a Smashwords and Kindle author and formatter – and because I am always on the lookout for exciting new literature – I carefully read a shitload of blurbs. Yet sometimes months will go by without a single pinprick of interest.

This is not a mini-essay on how to write good blurbs. In fact, if I knew the secret to good blurb writing I would be a much better-selling author than I presently am. All I'm saying is that authors should pay special attention to what they put in their 400-character descriptions. If potential readers don't enjoy the description, they'll never get to the actual book.

How much should I give away free?

One (more) reason to shop at ebook venues like Smashwords is that you are generally allowed to read free samples from whatever you are interested in buying. Amazon allows prospective buyers a 10% free sample for all books. Smashwords, on the other hand, allows the author to choose how much of their hard work to give away free. Most go higher than 10%, and they should. Here's why.

As I mentioned earlier, I am an inveterate blurb reader. If the description interests me and it does not have egregious spelling or grammar errors (one recently published book had a spelling error in the title – not only in the title field, but on the cover), I will download the sample. Two recent books, _Shifting_ by Miracle Jones and _The Ex-Pacifist_ by Sarah Wilson, passed the sample test early. So did the series of hilarious short stories entitled _Ueda Sensei Solves Crimes of Depravity and Perversity_ by Robert Crayola. I happily paid for the remainder of those books. But this is not always true. Recently, I was sampling a book of mystery stories that had both positives and negatives. The setup was clever and interesting but the narrator was kind of a dickhead. Unfortunately, the sample ended before the first story did, preventing me from knowing how the story came out and more importantly, how good a craftsman the author actually was. I opted not to buy the remainder. Another 5% or 10% in the free sample and I might have chosen differently.

Some authors may decide that giving away more than 10% of their book cheapens it. Quite the contrary. In my opinion, the more they give away, the better chance they have to make a sale. I have always thought that the first twenty or so pages of _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ dragged a bit. Rowling was new to writing and probably fussed over those first pages a little too much. Marilynne Robinson's fine novel, _Housekeeping_ , begins with a thirty-page preamble that is somewhat less than interesting, yet the book (also a first novel) as a whole is first rate. I don't see any reason why authors shouldn't allow up to 50% of free material, or even more. The more a reader has invested in the book – the time spent as well as familiarity with the characters and the plot – the more likely he or she will pay to read the remainder.

The length of a book may influence the sample size, although it shouldn't. For a 200,000-word novel, 10% is probably enough to allow a buyer to make a decision. That's, after all, about sixty pages of a printed book. Still, one hundred pages would be better. Conversely, I have seen some books that are so short that a 10% sample only covers the title page and license notes. A sample will work only if it actually samples the work.

A minimum sample size, in my opinion, would include the following:

For a novel: at least two chapters.

For a book of short stories: at least one complete story.

For a book of poems: a sampling of at least ten poems, unless the poems are extremely long.

For a play: at least one complete scene.

For a book of nonfiction: the introduction and at least two complete chapters.

Authors are encouraged to experiment on sample size, checking their own work and making sure that their sample includes enough material. If 20% gets to within a page of the end of a chapter, make it 21%.

So the more you give away, the more you get. That's a pretty damn good exchange in these times. In fact, I have actually convinced myself to go back to my own books on Smashwords and up the free samples. Maybe you should do the same.

The increasing exclusivity of literary agents and major print publishers is causing more and more of us to explore the merits of electronic publishing. But to have any chance of success, we are going to have to excel at being our own editors, copy-editors, proofreaders and even marketers. Just a little thought and care can be the difference between a sale and a miss.

_Iza Moreau writes literary suspense novels set in North Florida horse country. The first, The News in Small Towns, can be found at most retail ebook sites, including_ <http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/149856>_. This will be followed in 2013 by Madness in Small Towns and in 2014, Secrets in Small Towns. Hopefully, they are relatively error-free are priced within a normal person's budget, have blurbs that are at least halfway interesting and give you enough of a sample for a reader to make an informed decision. Two stand-alone short stories featuring the same characters are available for free at Smashwords._

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Thirty-Four

### You Never Know...

C.S. Marks

When your methods don't appear to be working, sales are flagging or you don't think you're gaining the recognition you hoped for, stay positive and keep at it. You never know what will set the dominoes in motion.

It's an interesting time to be a writer.

In the days B.K. (Before Kindles), there were basically two paths to publication for fiction writers: the traditional way and the self-publishing-via-subsidy-press way. In the first case, a writer could send out lots of query letters to try to attract an agent, possibly acquire one and then hope that the agent was successful in convincing a publisher to pick up the book. This resulted in (usually) countless rejections from agents, followed by rejection by publishers. The odds of getting published weren't good and they still aren't.

In the second case, the writer assumed all the duties of the publisher, producing his/her own (hopefully) quality book and paying a subsidy press to print and distribute it. There were virtually no ebooks, so print was the way to go. The writer would then try (often in vain) to promote the book to bookstores, sell it out of the trunk of the car, go to conventions and other places where readers gather, and so on.

The traditionally published authors were (generally) highly regarded and the self-published authors weren't. In fact, writers were told that self-publishing would wreck their careers. They would be permanently stained with the shameful taint of the vanity press. No one would ever, EVER take them seriously.

Now, I know there are still those who believe that, but they are fast losing ground. The data doesn't support this contention any more. And the rules of the game have changed. In fact, the very nature of the game has changed. There are now countless paths to success as a writer, only some of which involve traditional methods. These days, there are a lot more players and more ways for publishers to find quality authors/books, many of which have already proven themselves with big sales in the marketplace.

Gone are the days of the self-pubbed author investing huge amounts of money in trunk-loads of $20.00 paperbacks. Of course, even with ebooks one should have invested in editing, formatting, cover art and so on, but there's virtually no production cost. And distribution? All you need is a computer with Internet access to Amazon. Before ebooks, there were fewer channels through which one could build a marketing platform. Now we have bloggers, who love to review and discuss books, as well as discussion boards like Goodreads and Kindleboards. These venues reach thousands of potential readers. Life, as they say, is good. And for those who want to produce print books, there's every option – from complete DIY to Createspace to subsidy publishers like iUniverse and everything in between.

There's even the option of creating one's own publishing company. With the increase in marketing opportunities, many writers are choosing this method. But what about those who still want the advantages of traditional publishing? There certainly are advantages to be had. Having a publisher invest in your work is worth more than personal validation; it's nice to have access to their marketing, editing and production advantages. But is there still only one way to seek that goal? Not anymore. The truth is that, for the first time in a very long while, publishers might come looking for US.

It seems that every time I turn around, some 'indie' has announced a book deal with a traditional publisher. Might be 'Big Six' or a smaller press, but it's not the rarity it once was (twenty years ago, I reckon this would have been about as common as a total solar eclipse during an earthquake set off by volcanic eruptions during an ice age). So, what's changed?

Well, a lot of things have changed. Self-published books are selling – some very, very well. This gives the books greater exposure than a million query letters could. They've got writing samples, reviews and reader recommendations. If they make a big enough splash, the publishers are likely to notice; they will know a good risk when they see one and they now have their early marketing trials already done for them. Even modest sellers can be offered unprecedented opportunity and the point is that one never knows where that opportunity is going to come from. Sometimes circumstances just fall into place; the right person sees your work in the right way. Let me give you an example.

An author of epic fantasy books decides to self-publish and puts out three volumes in about four years. At first print-only, the author sells a fair number of $20.00 paperbacks (considering the costs involved in promoting them) and actually builds a modest fan-base. But no publisher would touch the books, because the author is living in the world B.K., when it's assumed that no one who self publishes will be taken seriously. In fact, the author has suffered scorn at the hands of some book-buyers, agents and so on.

Undaunted, the author then steps into the Kindle-zone, uploading all three titles over several months (allowing each book to gain a following before introducing a new one, thus providing a ready stream of purchasers). Sales are brisk, but nothing fantasmagorical. However, the readers are sharing their reviews and recommendations and there is a 'buzz' going on that not even the author is aware of.

After a serendipitous moment where the first volume appears on the front page at Amazon, sales go through the roof. The books are ranked among the top ten in fantasy titles. Of course, this surge doesn't last and the author settles back into more normal expectations as the year progresses.

Then, one day, an email arrives in the inbox. It's from a publisher. The publisher wants copies of the books, because it is considering picking them up. Not NEW books, mind you – previously published ones! Unheard of B.K. and still really rare, most publishers won't touch a book that's been in print already.

The author, without too much hesitation, sends the books on to the publisher. The result is positive – the author signs a deal for republication of the trilogy, with an eye toward future titles. The deal includes comic book and graphic novels to be produced as well. The author has broken into the traditional world... and never saw it coming.

This is a real story and I know it because it's MY story. I shared it with you because it's interesting how it came about. One of the questions I asked the publisher was, 'Why my books? However did you find them?' I mean, let's face it, there's a sea of fantasy books floating around out there looking for homes. Many of them are excellent! How did _Elfhunte_ r get the nod? It seems one of the execs in the publishing house is a fan of epic fantasy and (as all good marketers should) he keeps current with the book world via the Internet. Seems one of his regular book bloggers was reviewing _Elfhunter_ (favourably, thank heavens) and he was intrigued. Then, when he saw another of his favourite bloggers discussing _Elfhunter_ on the very same day, he knew he had to check it out. There's a large writing sample of each book available on Amazon, along with over 100 reviews, book description and so on. When the exec read the sample, he was hooked. He pitched the books enthusiastically to the rest of the folks involved in acquisitions and they agreed to negotiate the deal.

This is not the way things used to happen. This came from nowhere as far as I was concerned, but it would not have happened had I not attracted a large enough readership to bring the book to the attention of the bloggers in the first place.

I also have an agent – a very good one who is highly respected in the publishing establishment. She came to me via recommendation and word of mouth; she doesn't even accept query letters. Again, this is not the way things used to happen for self-published authors.

When your methods don't appear to be working, sales are flagging or you don't think you're gaining the recognition you hoped for, stay positive and keep at it. You never know what will set the dominoes in motion.

Publishing now is a swirling mass of possibilities, not two roads diverging in a yellow wood. Call it serendipity, call it karma, call it luck... I have managed now to travel both and that has made all the difference.

_C.S. Marks is best known for her trilogy of high fantasy novels, The Elfhunter Series. She is often called upon to present seminars and informational sessions dealing with independent publishing. Her no-nonsense, realistic, practical-yet-good-humoured approach has benefited many aspiring authors. She encourages writers who strive for excellence, regardless of the publishing path chosen. For more information visit_ http://www.elfhunter.net _._

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Thirty-Five

###  Self-Publishing

Curtis Ackie

Self-publishing allows you to be in control of every stage of a book's development, which, although tiring, can be exciting. I take great enjoyment from seeing something turn from a few sentences to a full-fledged book with covers, an ISBN and – best of all – readers!

Writing the Book

This stage shouldn't be rushed, and one should search out and accept as much help as possible, ideally from those with a similar taste in literature to you, whom you feel will understand what you are going for with your book. I'm lucky enough to have my wife to proofread my books for me and also give me opinions on their creative direction; this sort of help is invaluable.

Be aware that the pieces of writing you are particularly attached to will not always appear as good to others and steer clear of shoehorning a passage in just because you like the look of it.

Never rush the writing stage, stay active but don't force it, and most of all enjoy it!

Have regular breaks and be sure to distance yourself from the book after each draft; this will keep your ideas and perspective fresh.

Also, keep reading other authors. Being a writer is an on-going process of learning what you like and what you don't like; it is important to take influence from the writers you admire.

Why Self-Publish?

Self-publishing offers a platform for those who are struggling to be noticed by agents and mainstream publishers, and who have an interest in all facets of a book's progress.

I began self-publishing after sending my first novel to various agents with little success and I was soon to discover that it is far from the easy way out. I would say that the main ingredient for being successful in any field is self-motivation, and this is no different here. In fact, you need an awful lot of it.

Self-publishing allows you to be in control of every stage of a book's development, which, although tiring, can be exciting. I take great enjoyment from seeing something turn from a few sentences to a full-fledged book with covers, an ISBN and – best of all – readers!

Preparing to Publish

Once you have completed your final draft and it has been satisfactorily proofread, the next stage is choosing how you want to publish it. There are many sites that offer easy-to-use self-publishing tools. I chose to use both Smashwords and Lulu. Lulu is not only a free and easy way to create physical copies of your book, but it also offers you the opportunity to sell your book on Amazon and, of course, at some point down the line, you can even attempt to get your book into stores such as Waterstones. If you are offering both print and electronic versions, perhaps add an incentive for the reader to buy the print version; I went with illustrations for my recently published book of short stories, _Goldfish Tears_.

The cover of your book is very important. When self-publishing online, your book will be occupying the same space as many others, so an eye-catching front cover will guarantee clicks and hopefully downloads/purchases. It might be helpful to learn how to use Photoshop, or a similar program. Once again, I've been lucky here in that I have an illustrator who supplies me with wonderful colourful images to use.

A good synopsis/blurb is key, perhaps even as important as the contents, as it is probably going to be the first (and sometimes the only) thing a new reader reads from you.

Promoting the Book

This stage requires on-going interaction and the Internet is a good place for this.

Review sites are handy; submit your book to as many as you can, but only those relevant to your genre (I can imagine it would be annoying to receive requests to review romance novels if you specialise in historic non-fiction) and don't be afraid of rejection; not everyone is going to want to review your book. Again, a good blurb helps.

Whilst they can be a temptation to fritter away hours idly, Twitter and Facebook are great tools for publicising your book and for staying connected to people who are walking the same path as you. This doesn't only apply to writers, but other artists too. I've found that following illustrators and musicians is a big help; their tweets regularly let me know that I am not the only one fighting to be noticed. It's also good for picking up publicity tips; for example, I have found numerous blogs through Twitter, which publish speculative fiction and short stories. Creating a website as a home for my books has also helped massively; now it's easy to point people in the direction of my work.

Don't forget that self-publishing is an on-going learning process and what works for you might be different to what works for everyone else; it's good to keep an open mind and be willing to try new methods from time to time.

Also, celebrate every sale and review; try not to get caught up in the whole thing so much that you forego taking pleasure in the knowledge that people out there are reading the work you've invested weeks, months and even years in.

_Curtis Ackie is a young, British-born novelist, short story writer and poet, based in Zagreb, Croatia. He has written and self-published three books: a novel, entitled The Door to Freedom, a collection of short stories, entitled Goldfish Tears, and Dark Matter, a book of spellbound poetry. His fiction is primarily concerned with the magic of dreams as escapism. For more information visit_ http://www.poutingbear.com _._

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Thirty-Six

### Why Can't I?

Diana Mylek

I was rejected again, and again and again; not because my stories were awful, not because they were not well written, but because they didn't want to take a chance on an unknown author.

Always an avid reader, I devoured books from the time I was old enough to read. I wrote stories and plays as a child. I loved to write as much as read. To me, there was nothing as wonderful as getting lost in a good book and as a grown woman, I still wanted that but it seemed to me the availability of good material was shrinking. I read book after book of lame stories with repeated plots that barely held my interest and I thought, 'Why can't I write something?' I can't possibly be as bad as some of the books I've read and they got published. Why can't I?

I began writing again when my kids were in grade school. My first novel was 500 pages and I wrote for three months straight. It was the most wonderful story ever written and I just knew I was about to be a bestselling author. I scraped together a hundred dollars to send it to a Christian manuscript evaluator and waited to be called for a multi-book contract. And waited. When my evaluation did come, the editor was kind and truthful. Yes, I had made delightful characters but I needed to work on some things. The editor told me that most first novels never get printed and that someday I would be glad that it didn't. Swallowing my pride (and I learned to get very good at this), I went back to work on another book. I used the suggestions they gave me and this time I got a very good review. But no offers. I bought a copy of both Sally Stuart's _Christian Writer's Market_ and the _Writer's Market_ and diligently sent manuscripts to any publisher that seemed to handle my Christian fiction. I was rejected again, and again and again; not because my stories were awful, not because they were not well written, but because they didn't want to take a chance on an unknown author.

Publishing houses felt my subject was a bit controversial and one Christian publisher even rejected my book, and then did the book with an in-house author – using my title! That stung, and I had no recourse. Who would believe me anyway? I knew and I wasn't happy about it, but it wasn't going to stop me. I published my novella anyway for free and I remember cheering when I saw it up on http://www.morethannovellas.com. I had arrived!

Still, no one called wanting to see my books, but I kept writing. Actually I couldn't stop writing. I had so many stories in me, they practically wrote themselves. I know God was speaking through me and I'm absolutely okay with that! What a wonderful thing to be used by God. I felt compelled to get my books out to the world and with no one asking for them, there was only one thing to do.

I laugh now when I think of how I 'researched' publishers, printers and vanity presses. I thought I had it all figured out but the landscape of self-publishing has changed so completely and so often that I am constantly learning and probably always will be. My first printed book was with iUniverse and I cringe now, realising all the mistakes I made. I got what I paid for –twenty books for $500.00 and I was happy with that. They sent me a 'marketing kit' that was my book cover on files for posters and bookmarks, and a sample press release. I was thrilled! I sold my books to family and friends, and prayed it would sell online. I didn't know the first thing about marketing, self-promotion or even how to go about selling a book. It's an expensive undertaking and I did the bare bones just to see my book in print. Like I said, I got what I paid for. I couldn't afford an editor, so I did this myself and oh... the typos. Bad move. I didn't understand books sizes and my book arrived looking like a workbook. So, I say you can never research enough. My book looked self-published. I'm embarrassed about it now but then it was a thrill.

With my book not getting sales, I decided to try another tactic. Ebooks were becoming much more popular and when ereaders made their debut, I found that I could produce a book that cost me almost nothing and sell it on the web. I learned to format my books correctly with the help of the Smashwords' style guide. I bought pictures from iStock and made book covers with them. I learned to edit properly and to make my book look professional and I'm still learning. One nice thing with an ebook is that if you make a mistake, you can always re-upload it correctly. I have listed my books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Lulu, Google and I'm still listing them on as many online retailers as I can. I'm selling books and I'm thrilled with the results of my diligence and, yes, hard work. So, from what I've learned, this is my advice if you choose to go with an eBook:

Make sure it's the best product it can be before you put it up for sale. Hire an editor if you can afford it. Writing is a solitary endeavour but publishing takes a group effort sometimes. Ask for help. Read, read, read. There are so many places to go on the web for advice and support. Read the blogs of successful self-publishers. Learn the trends. Format your book correctly and if you have to, study other ebooks to see how they are set up. I highly recommend the Smashwords style guide because it is simple, easy to follow advice on how to correctly format your book to look professional and not just slapped together. I do see some ebooks that look sloppy and it completely turns me away from reading the story; I'm so distracted by the mistakes.

You can upload your book all by yourself and it won't cost a thing. Every site has its own way of accepting books, but they all tell you step-by-step how to place your book for sale. It's not hard! Google about makes me pull my hair out and I've still not mastered putting my books on their site (actually I've given up trying). But Amazon and PubIt! (Barnes and Noble) are very user-friendly.

You will have to give some thought about the description of your book, in two different ways. One is a short version (think back of book) and the other is a longer synopsis that draws the reader in and makes them want to purchase it. Condensing my whole book into a couple sentences is very difficult for me, but it's got to be done. I've spent many tortured hours trying to describe my book in a way that will separate people from their money!

And speaking of money, you can't charge a fortune for your ebooks, no matter how wonderful you think you are, especially if you're a newer, unknown author. Keep it cheap enough to buy and remember; you're looking for lots of sales, not a great book that's worth every penny but never sells. My books are listed for $3.99, which seems low for all the time and effort I put into them, but I make about $2.75 on each and I'm happy with that.

Finding a cover for your book can be daunting. If you're not a photographer or artist, you have to rely on someone else to do it for you and I've learned that I can't wait around for anyone to finally help me. I've got a brother who is a wonderful photographer but I can't wait for him to fit me into his schedule and I don't want to take him away from paying customers. So what I've done is found pictures on places like iStock and purchased them for my book covers. I spend no more than $15.00 for a single picture, and then I use a program on my computer to make my cover. There's no need for a back cover. I know it's not the artwork I'd like to have ideally, but it works for me.

Once books are listed for sale, you will have to begin marketing them, and there is a wealth of information on the web on how to sell your ebooks. Some of the sites that sell books have a marketing program but, again, there is cost involved and you have to decide what you want to spend. My rule of thumb is to do a bit at a time – what I can afford. I'm not looking to spend money; I want to make money. So, I'm selective about my marketing. You can purchase ads on Facebook, and Amazon Kindle has a program that lets you market your book and give it away as a promotion if you only list with Amazon for ninety days. This program is good if you have more than one book. I gave away 6,000 books in one day with this program but I have mixed feelings because I did not sell as many of my other books as I thought I would. I think that people download more free books than they can read, and my book is probably sitting on their Kindle untouched. Also, with the Kindle Prime program, readers can only borrow one book a month for free (as of this writing) and who reads only one book a month? That limits the times your book can be borrowed, so I'm not a fan of that program at all.

So, if you have a complete book, ready to go, edited, formatted and with a killer cover, you're ready to be the proud author of an ebook. I am very happy with my adventures in publishing and excited to see other writers become published on the web. Or anywhere! No longer are we limited to what a traditional publisher sees fit to publish. And did I mention royalties? You give a fraction of the price of your book to retailers and the rest is yours, just the way it should be. I love checking my sales and do it every day. What satisfaction in knowing that what I wrote is being read around the world. I feel like I am living the life I was meant to and it can be rewarding and fairly easy for any writer, not just a 'bestselling' author like me!

Why can't I? Why can't YOU?

_Diana Mylek is a super-selling ebook author of six inspirational Christian novels, two novellas and various other projects. She is the co-owner of Valley Ridge Publishing and is passionate about encouraging other writers. She is a member of the Northwest Ohio Writers Forum, the Foursquare Church and is a pastor's wife. For more information about Diana and her books visit_ http://www.dianamylek.com

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Thirty-Seven

### You Reap What You Sow

German Alcala

At just sixteen years of age, I am much more impulsive than my adult peers. This impulsive personality leads to me running into more walls than adults, faster.

You're the creator, the editor and the toughest critic. You are the frustrated artist, but you must be the calculating business person. Your time must be given away and you will want to please everybody no matter how surely impossible it is. You're bordering on being another spammer as you try to promote your work in an expanding ocean of desperate artists. You're a skilled multi-tasker. You're an independent author! You are the boss, the only one who can take credit, the creator of your own success and the only person to blame when you fail.

Every author has his or her own reasons for taking on the responsibilities of a publisher. Some authors only trust themselves, and the controlled environment of self-publishing suits them. For others, their material simply doesn't appeal to a traditional publisher, which doesn't mean that the work isn't still entertaining. Personally, I grew weary after hearing 'No' forty times. Publishing simply seemed impossible for me after two years of sending out query letters for my first novels. However, my first self-published piece was published as a gift to my older sister. It was not until after almost a year of writing and self-publishing my poetry that I saw it as a legitimate vehicle for my full novels.

Just like me, many authors may turn to self-publication after hearing 'No' too many times and still knowing that their work would sell. This switch to self-publication doesn't cancel out traditional publication for your entire life, but it does get your career started!

When it comes to actually writing a book, you're supposed to just sit down and write. However, when an author with an eye on publication writes a book, the objective would be to please his or her publisher. When self-publishing, the focus is now to address the needs of the reader. Also, since publishers have become increasingly optional, successful editing has to be considered once the book is completed. Aside from these details, indie and traditional writing are pretty much the same thing. The art depends on a focused writer. Writing a book takes self-discipline and usually an unplugged modem. Remember everything you know about grammar and spelling, and make sure to give your characters an arc. Also, keep your plot interesting, change directions if you become bored and avoid creating a Mary Sue! If you're doing horror then don't hold back, if you're doing fantasy you should forget everything you know about gravity and if you're doing poetry make sure to evoke a reader's emotions!

If you're considering self-publication then you've probably already got a book that you want to publish. Choosing a way to publish your book is very difficult even after you've made your choice to self-publish. There is a freedom to the indie-market which can cause some creative minds to spin. You have the option to buy ISBNs, open a website and manage every sale you make. If you don't want that then there are numerous services you can use. Don't like the Internet? Self-publications are often printed as well. However, the printing process comes at a price every time. So, after using loads of different methods to distribute my work I remain a virgin to printed work (unless you count a literary magazine read by tens of loyal fans). The service I have enlisted is Smashwords. Smashwords lets you upload your work, converts it and puts it up for download. There's a process that distributes your books to retail distributors, but that's all spelled out over at Smashwords.

Once you choose your service, the costs and establish your system there is more. You must know how to control your sales as much as you can. Every book you write has its own demographic, that demographic has months every year when they can't buy ebooks, and you need to fix your prices for the most possible sales. When are these unstable seasons? With patience and vigilance you can almost pin-point them. The holidays are a time in which people artfully manage money and spend their disposable income on gifts or decorations. Frankly, ebooks are usually purchased with disposable income if the ebooks is indie. So, most people can expect to see drops during this season. After the holidays, throngs of people have new ereaders and your sales will generally hike upward over the course of a business quarter.

Promoting your novel, naturally, comes soon after you have prepared everything for publication. Promotion can be a million things, works a million ways and has one perpetual goal. Promotion is what you do when you need downloads and sales! With over forty-four books published in the last two years I can tell you, having lots of material out is some of the best promotion. My books, therefore my name, pop up more than a dozen times on iTunes popular lists. A consumer is bound to take notice, right? Also, blogs are read by curious people who usually love having more to read! An interview of any kind on a blog is usually very easy for everybody, beg for a review if you want to sit back and wait for others to rave and get on YouTube! I have loads of videos on YouTube. Some of my videos are of or about poetry, others deal with my novels and music, but it all comes back to my budding brand. Turn on a camera and start blabbing away; you have nothing to lose if you at least leave behind a link to your website.

Oh, you should really have a website! Having a blog, website or a personal page of any kind will give you nothing but power. The golden rule is to keep it simple and updated. You must have links for your books, acknowledge all distributors and offer some free reading. There's no harm in having a page on your site offering purely free material! Sure, less income, but more loyalty and there are tons of free ways to make a website! Your Power Page should be free of money's influence.

Technical details all bore me; let us talk about more organic details such as genres. The ebook market is separated into tons of other markets, genres. These markets have tons of aisles, sub-genres. The amount of products in each aisle is different for every aisle. Poetry is dead, horror remains thrilling, erotica remains successful due to human nature and fantasy remains the gargantuan it's always been. My poetry has often been able to get a steady grip of poetry readers, but they remain totally irrelevant among all other books in other genres. In horror, I have published a few pieces and used as much promotion for it as possible. I begged for reviews, gave interviews and released two revisions. With more work placed into the promotion than I was used to, the book barely gathered any strength in ITunes charts, but was at the top of the horror section in Amazon for a few days. With so many more authors taking on horror, I became a big fish in an endless pool. Like being the prettiest person on _The View_ , being at the top for only a few days in horror wasn't worth much in the long run.

In independent publishing, you get a few disaster stories after a while. At just sixteen years of age, I am much more impulsive than my adult peers. This impulsive personality leads to me running into more walls than adults, faster. You're bound to find yourself unable to summon downloads if you have no promotion. I once published a book, told people the day after and got three downloads on the first week! However, I sense some people don't mind collecting downloads over time. Got you covered! People may consider it a disaster when a book receives negative reviews like a human receives oxygen! My horror novel _, Swing: A Psychopathy_ , seemed to disturb as many people as I planned. This disgust being felt towards me resulted in a lost friendship and more negative reviews than I care to count anymore! However, people downloaded it in throngs, which I consider a success.

With that, I'll talk about success. With enough patience, there are many small and large triumphs you could have. For me, there are several forms of success. When it comes to money, I've had books pay for clothes, jewellery, a laptop and the tablet I'm writing this on (and a lot of sweets). There are several projects which led to many people reading and knowing my name. That is something to always adore if you're trying to be a one-person enterprise. Also, some books have been great successes with my readers. For most writers, there is nothing sweeter than pleasing the people who fork over their time and money to read your work! I could publish my work free of charge for a thousand years as long as the readers enjoy my work. With books to support homosexuals, political views and miscellaneous poetry I have been able to please countless readers! Each pleased reader could each be considered an individual success story.

After enough time, an author gets his or her 'supernova' book. I call it a supernova for the manner in which it blows up. It blows up in comparison to all your other books, people's opinions on the book are severe and it builds on your brand. The odd thing about my current supernova (you can give the title to different books, but there can only be one at a time unless you're Anne Rice or in that kind of lane, in which case you don't need to read anything I say) is that it is both a success and disaster story for me – _A Letter to Justin Bieber's Hair_ , published in 2010. This book received the attention it got for its title. There's that impulse I was talking about. The book remains on the top of lists and still generates triple digits on a good quarter. However, as a writer and a poet, the book was a disaster! It used forced rhymes, it had clichés, spelling errors, grammar errors, a bad cover and a badly mutilated deeper message. In any sort of publishing, your small mistakes are seen as giant flops while your big mistakes make you look like somebody who probably didn't pass kindergarten. So, I suggest you develop some thick skin for the day you make a mistake. The book has been flogged to death just like the head of hair that it featured. My supernova was a successful disaster. I hope yours is seen in a better manner.

Patience, silence and sweat will result in growth. When one works in such an active field, you eventually reap what you sow. You are a struggling artist, a cold calculating business person, the fuel and the vehicle! Congratulations, you're an independent writer. Don't take yourself too seriously. You're a writer and eventually people will take it too seriously for you!

_German Alcala is a sixteen-year-old poet and novelist. His first published work was a novella when he was thirteen years old. Always improving his writing methods and exploring new writing genres, Alcala has begun to call himself The BoyQueen of Poetry. He estimates his writing career will last ninety years. For more information about German and his books, visit_ http://www.germanalcala.tk

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Thirty-Eight

### I Left My Publisher, Gave Up on Bookstores and Started Making Money

L.J. Sellers

I made more money from Kindle sales in the first two weeks than I had made from my publisher in two years. If I had stayed with the contract, that book would not have been released for another nine months. Life is too short to wait for someone else's publishing schedule.

In January of 2010, I had one book on Kindle and sold 31 copies. I had two print books on the market with a small publisher, but they weren't selling much better. By December of that year, I had six books on Kindle and sold over 10,000 copies. To get from point A to point B, I had to make some radical decisions.

Several circumstances came together that year that forced me to rethink everything about my publishing career. First, self-published ebooks began to really sell and authors like Joe Konrath were blogging about their success in that market. The other incentive came from a round of layoffs in March for both my husband and myself.

I set aside the novel I was writing and got busy saving my career and mortgage. The first step was to rewrite and self-publish a standalone thriller on Kindle I had completed but never sold. I'd once had a big-name agent for it, so I knew it was solid. I also had a second standalone thriller that my publisher had offered a contract for, but I hadn't signed it yet – because the book wasn't scheduled to be released until late 2012. That seemed like an eternal and foolish wait. I had a mortgage to pay immediately. What made sense was to get the two thrillers into the digital world where readers were buying. I took the second major step and let my publisher know I was withdrawing my standalone.

I spent a couple months rewriting and updating the stories then I paid for editing and cover design. I withdrew the money from my miniscule retirement account and considered it an investment in my future. In August, I published the two thrillers ( _The Baby Thief_ and _The Suicide Effect_ ) on Amazon's DTP. At that point, I had one foot in each world. I was self-published, but I still had a traditional press for my series.

Next, I rerouted my promotional efforts toward ebook readers. I quit sending marketing material to bookstores and instead joined several Kindle forums, where I participated in discussions. I got more active on Goodreads and did five back-to-back book giveaways just for the exposure. I wrote a dozen guest blogs and sent them all over the Internet.

My sales jumped significantly. By then my publisher had uploaded the second Detective Jackson story ( _Secrets to Die For_ ) to Kindle and I started thinking about how much money I could make if my publisher wasn't keeping most of my digital profits.

After the third Jackson book ( _Thrilled to Death_ ) faced the same difficulty getting into bookstores, I decided withdraw from my press. It took a few weeks to finally make the call. Who willingly gives up a second publishing contract? Taking back my series meant foregoing the industry's stamp of approval. I hated to let it go, but I felt I had no choice if I wanted to make a living. So, I called my publisher and asked for my Kindle rights back. I also asked to be released from the contract for the fourth Jackson story ( _Passions of the Dead_ ). I knew the manuscript had not been edited, so no time or money had been invested. My publisher was not happy, but graciously granted my requests.

Letting go of that contract was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Not only did it mean taking on the 'self-published' stigma, it also meant giving up book signings, which I love. But I had looked into the future and determined that bookstores were not where most people would buy their novels in 2013. For once, I wanted to be ahead of the curve.

I sent my Jackson files to be converted to ebooks then uploaded my versions to Amazon, as my publisher took hers down. At that point, I had five books selling on Kindle and my numbers were getting better every month. While the last manuscript was out for editing and cover design, I bought an inexpensive ad on the Kindle Nation newsletter and increased my online promotional efforts. Sales took another huge leap.

When I released the fourth Jackson story on Kindle, I dropped the price of the first book in the series ( _The Sex Club_ ) to 99c. Sales for the first book skyrocketed and a week later, sales for the follow-up stories nearly doubled.

I also made all my books available in print through CreateSpace for people who still read trade paperbacks.

Interesting side note: For the fourth Jackson book, I made more money from Kindle sales in the first two weeks than I had made from my publisher in two years. If I had stayed with the contract, that book would not have been released for another nine months. Life is too short to wait for someone else's publishing schedule.

By December of that year (2010) I had six ebooks on the market, with all the royalties coming to me, allowing me to make a living and give up freelance work permanently.

My Jackson series stayed on Amazon's bestselling police procedural list and I wrote and published several more books in 2011. In May 2012, Amazon contacted me with an offer to buy my whole backlist of nine titles, plus two books that I had outlined but not written.

Now my books will be sold around the world in various languages and formats and I'm living the dream that I envisioned for myself twenty-three years ago when I sat down to write my first novel.

_L.J. Sellers is the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries. For more information visit_ http://www.ljsellers.com

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Thirty-Nine

###  Self-publishing: A Personal Journey

Fionna Barr

The end result, in my case, was great: a lovely glossy cover with exactly the right colour, picture, lettering. Brilliant! But beware the money-trap! They will rope you in for additional packages you absolutely can't live without: ebook presentation, Kirkus review (very expensive, that one), website/blog/author page. In the end, I paid twice as much as I had bargained for.

Step One: Write the Book

This might take months, years or even a lifetime. In my case, I wrote it a few years ago and completed the final draft while studying for my MA in Creative Writing and Authorship, which provided me with useful feedback and encouragement from tutors and fellow students alike.

So there you are: you've written THE BOOK.

Step Two: Find a Publisher or an Agent

I can say in all honesty that I hoiked my manuscript around for the best part of two years, sending it to all and sundry (carefully selected all and sundry, you understand, from the _Writers and Artists yearbook 2009-2011_ ), both in hard copy and via email, and collected about forty rejections. Some came with encouraging comments, some with one-liners in the genre of, 'Thank you, but no thank you.' I spent money on editing, on meeting 'consultants', on paper, ink cartridges, envelopes, postage. I followed all the guidelines on cover letters, synopses, the right packaging. I read books about finding an agent/publisher, etc. Nothing! Niente! Nada! Finally, I gave up, which led me to...

Step Three: Self-Publishing

This is an entirely new ball game. Oh, the relief! People listen, people are interested, people work for YOU. People are encouraging, wanting your masterpiece, wanting your attention, wanting your money! Yes, dear reader, it is expensive. Be under no illusion. Whoever you choose, however you choose, it will cost you.

I looked on the Internet and picked the one at the top – AuthorHouse – but they are all very similar, charge roughly the same and promise you the earth. AuthorHouse is as good as any. They do what it says on the tin. You choose your package according to your financial situation and start the ball rolling.

You are in charge! This is a major plus. You can choose your own artwork for your cover, your own font, colour of paper, size, anything you want and they do it for you, professionally. The end result, in my case, was great: a lovely glossy cover with exactly the right colour, picture, lettering. Brilliant! But beware the money-trap! They will rope you in for additional packages you absolutely can't live without: ebook presentation, Kirkus review (very expensive, that one), website/blog/author page. In the end, I paid twice as much as I had bargained for. But some people are more savvy than others and can do these web/blog/what-have-yous themselves.

Keeping a lid on the expenses was my personal challenge. What to go with? What to reject? Do your research; find out exactly what they mean and how it works and whether you will benefit from it. I spent hours on the phone to Jim and Jerry and Jerzy (do they only choose operators with names beginning with J?) to ask questions and got it all confirmed in emails. I was still chasing my website/blog/author page two months after the novel went 'live' and was available and displayed on Google, Amazon, Kindle, Waterstones and AuthorHouse Bookstore.

So now you have your book in your hand – awesome! – and here comes the next challenge.

Step Four: Promoting Your Novel

This is almost more of a challenge than writing the blessed thing. You tell all your friends and family, you email all your contacts, but how do you get it 'out there' to the general public? This is the major drawback of self-publishing. You have to do the self-promoting as well. It's up to you to contact newspapers, magazines and radio stations asking for a review, a book signing, an interview. I left flyers wherever I went, in all my favourite cafes where people know me, on trains to London, in shops, in bus stops, on park benches even, absolutely everywhere I could think of. I went on Twitter, following hundreds of people in the hope they would follow me. I went on Facebook and made friends with friends of friends. I went to bookshops armed with copies of my book, to libraries and targeted book clubs.

The big ones have so far eluded me – the national newspapers, Richard and Judy, the glossy magazines – but I've done quite well locally and people come up to me telling me they've read about me in the local newspaper, seen me in the parish magazine, come across me on Google. Good news, but are they buying my book? I don't know and won't find out till I get my first royalty cheque in August.

Ah, good point: find out what percentage you get of the sales of your book. This may vary with each company. AuthorHouse doesn't give you a huge amount. Don't be under any illusion that you're going to be rich or even recoup your money in a hurry. It's more about having your book 'out there' than being able to rake it in and live in luxury for ever and ever, amen. You won't, yet. You've got to become famous first.

I've had an email from Jerzy: Discounted Deal! Sign up now to publish your next novel at half price! A once-in-a-lifetime chance! Not to be missed!

I'm still paying (in monthly instalments – oh, yes, you can) for the last deal.

So now I have to write the next novel, don't I? An incentive if ever I saw one! Oh, the expense of it all. But what the hell! It's worth every penny. I am a published author. I'm up there with the greats. I've made my dream come true. And, furthermore, John Grisham started out like that and many others like him. Get your first novel 'out there' and who knows what can happen. I might be famous one day.

Yeah, alright, one step at the time!

_Fionna is a Dutch national who has lived in England since 1968. She is a retired language teacher and now works for Oxfam as a volunteer. Fionna speaks Dutch, English, French, German and Russian. Her hobbies are writing, walking and dog breeding. Fionna's debut novel, The Darkness Within, can be viewed on her website_ http://www.fionnabarr.com

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Forty

### Nine Golden Rules (Part Two)

Mel Keegan

Ultimately, if you don't go into this game with a desperate need to make bags of cash, and if you do go into it with a willingness to invest quite a bit of your time (but not – repeat, not – your money!) you can, and will, sell books.

Rule 5: Make an Informed Decision – to Fly Solo, or Not.

Why would you publish yourself? Mostly, it's about saving time, money and sanity, because it certainly isn't easier than finishing a book and handing it off to an editor!

The quest for a 'proper' publisher, meaning a physical book publisher, often in London or New York, will usually involve signing with a literary agent first, because very few publishers will even talk directly with a writer. The problem these days is that the chances of finding a literary agent are less slim than anorexic; and an agency doesn't guarantee you a sale, only the attempt (in the course of which they can bill you for their legitimate expenses). One word of caution: know what you're being billed for. Legitimate expenses are one thing, but some unscrupulous agencies charge exorbitant fees for reading and editing; they can have you rewrite your whole book two or three times and you'll pay them each time they read it. Know what you're getting into and only go there if you believe it's a good deal, because the process can get costly and the results are far from certain.

The quest can take many years and at the end of it, the Holy Grail is a contract and a book. But if the book doesn't sell well – and many don't – the publisher might not take another from you. After a decade on the quest, and who knows how much money invested, you could easily find yourself back at square one, with ten years' worth of unpublished manuscripts stockpiled in the drawer. This predicament is more common than you might like to believe. So, now what?

If you write well, with a fresh voice and can supply a specific genre with material for which that genre is hungry, you stand a good chance of selling to an ebook publisher. The www abounds with them. If you're not 105% sure of your technical skills, much less about book packaging and marketing, at least think about showing your work to a few epubs first. They'll split the earnings with you, so you won't earn as much from each sale as you would if you self-published, but in return for splitting the income, they'll provide critical services, like copy-editing and cover generation, devising a marketing plan, hosting the books and tracking the sales and one more invaluable thing: your editor will also tell you, up front, if you're not quite good enough yet to go pro, or if the book you're trying to sell isn't right for the market at this time. Publishers have access to loads of business-side info that you don't. They know what they can sell right now – they know what readers want and are buying.

Publishers serve a purpose – in fact, they're not really there to benefit you at all. They exist to sell books by the truckload and keep their proprietors in nice houses, but unless they want to re-re-reprint works of yesteryear (some do, but not many) they need writers, mostly freelancers, to keep a constant stream of new, appropriate material coming.

In particular, many ebook publishers need to issue a high volume of new material, because the sales figures of individual ebooks can be surprisingly modest. So ebook publishers are much more likely to talk to new writers; and a new writer who is very good indeed can go far.

But the process of connecting with a publisher and negotiating with an editor is still a hassle and some writers just don't want to go there. They simply want to do their own thing, while not getting hemmed in by a contract; not worrying about whether an editor will like their next book or reject it; not losing sleep over being told to rewrite a book to make it over into an editor's vision of what it ought to be... And they want to keep 100% of the earnings. These are all valid reasons for going solo.

Connecting with a publisher can be a big thrill; there's also an undeniable aura of legitimacy about signing with a publisher, which is a leftover from the past, when the term 'vanity publishing' was something of a vulgarity. If you can develop an almost symbiotic relationship with an editor, there's always advice, support, even a shoulder to cry on if things go wrong.

There are also numerous downsides to signing with a publisher: being locked into contract when you desperately want out; earning a smaller percentage of the gross than you'd have liked; being cold-shouldered because your last book didn't sell well; hating the covers that are put on your books; loathing the way your books are being marketed; being unsure your next book will be accepted, and if it isn't, what do you do? And, fundamentally, not being able to write to please yourself.

Say you want to write something that's 'off the wall', or 'way out in left field', and you know you can't, because you know for a fact that your publisher would reject it, since they need to please their established readership. You might not mind if a whacky book only sold a comparative handful of copies, but to your publisher this is a recipe for disaster. The investment of time and money is the same for a book that sells thousands or a hundred. Their business and lifestyle aren't designed around trifling sales figures.

So, there are many good reasons for flying solo, and the only golden rule is to make the right decision both for you and for this specific book. Supposing you do decide to fly solo...

Rule 6: Packaging Should be up to a Professional Standard

After you're sure the story has a lot to offer, is polished enough on a technical level and has been proofread to death by as many pairs of eyeballs as you can get on the job, the next hurdle is packaging. If you were partnering up with a publisher, at this point you'd hand off the book and let them worry about it, but if you're going to publish yourself, right now is where you take off your writer and editor's hats and put on the publisher's hat.

A little research will show you what you need to do to get into the online bookstores, and that ebooks are where the market is. You might be thinking about publishing on paper and getting your books into the physical bookstores, and here I'll just say that 'due diligence' is essential.

Know how the physical bookstore distribution system works before you pump money into it. Find out about the shelf-life of a book and what happens to the unsold copies. Find out how much it costs to manufacture the book, then factor in the mark-up by the distributor and the retailer, as well as your own royalty and some provision for getting rid of the returns. What's the retail price going to be? Is it still in the range where you could be confident of selling copies? How much money are you able to gamble here?

These are tough questions and this is why the vast majority of writers these days are going the ebook road. Not to mention the fact that readers are turning to ebooks in droves. There's some useful middle ground: you can use a print on demand service like Lulu or CreateSpace to make paperbacks available via the online stores, without ever going near a physical bookstore or distributor, and without laying down great globs of cash.

No matter which route you take, book packaging is critical. The paperback must be attractively laid out and the ebook needs to be readable by the devices that dominate the marketplace. Today, this means Kindle, Nook and iPad, plus smart phones and tablets, often referred to as 'Android devices'. The good news is, self-publishing on Kindle is easy and if you use an accumulator like Smashwords, you can pretty easily reach the marketplace from there. You'll need very basic manuscript formatting skills, after which the online wizards will take you into the market.

If you're determined to publish on paper, the job of packaging will fall to you and once again, you'll have a lot to learn. It's all about layout, fonts, ISBNs, pagination, orphan lines, image resolution, bleed zones... Ahem! You can buy desktop publishing software that will give you all the tools to do this. (As a tip, unless you're haemorrhaging money, look at Serif, not Adobe!) Or you can use a service bureau for professional results, but watch out for how the fees start to stack up. A bureau can get expensive and at the end of the day, it's all about the return for your investment, which is where the next piece in the puzzle comes up...

Rule 7: Market the Heck out of it.

Great books are sitting up on Kindle, selling just a few copies a month. Fact: fantastic books are utterly underperforming, while lesser works sell far better. You can sell a lot of copies in a marketplace like Kindle and there are big bucks to be made there by indie publishers and self-publishing writers who can deliver the goods.

The difference between dead wood and bestseller is not always (or only) about the quality of the book – it's about the vitality of the marketing.

Many writers can be quite lazy when it comes to marketing. They think, 'I've finished the book, my job is done.' And if they were with a traditional publisher throughout most of the twentieth century, this would be true. However, the industry has changed, and recently the changes have been coming rapidly.

Publishers often require the writer to market the book these days – some even have this written into their agreement. Being with a publisher rather than flying solo won't absolve you of marketing, and you'll need to learn this skill. Today, it's all about social networking. If you know all there is to know about Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Goodreads and the communities at the big online stores such as Amazon and B&N, you'll be off to a flying start.

A personal website and blog are the start of the process, not the end of it. Success is about making contact with potential readers. You'll need to put your best stuff in front of about a hundred readers to get just one of them to take a look, and ten will look for everyone who actually buys a copy. So, it stands to reason that you need to be out there, everywhere, highly visible, with free samples, a top-notch product and a cover that will make your book jump out of the crowd.

This part of the job is actually more about book packaging, but I'm talking about it here because what's on the cover will be driven by what the market wants at the time you commission the artwork, in a process of positive feedback. Unless you're a really good artist, don't even attempt to do the cover yourself. Pay a few dollars to a freelance and have a proper cover designed. And make sure the cover art looks eye-catching and attractive at about 100-150 pixels high, even if it's intended as a paperback cover. Why? Because this is the size it'll be depicted at on-screen, in the browser pages at places like Amazon and B&N. Bear in mind, it's the cover that makes people take a second look at the book, long before they read even a word you've written. So, give this part of the packaging job the attention it demands.

The other most critical marketing tool is the blurb. You have to sell the book in about 250 words and often a lot less. If you bore people in the blurb, why would they read the book? And needless to say, grammatical errors and typos in your blurbs will turn readers off for whom a good, 'clean' text is essential. So, don't whack your blurbs and bios together on the spur of the moment at the time of uploading the book. Work hard on these till they're sparkling. You can even take classes in how to write blurbs, but in reality all you need to do is read about a hundred of other folks' blurbs. After the first few, you should recognize the good, the bad and the downright stinking. Now, write your own.

The last question you'll answer regarding marketing is the price of the work. And here, it's your call – $2.00 or $10.00 for a full-length novel. Obviously, you'll earn more if you price the work high, but will you sell more if you price it low? There's an old theory: SPQR – Small Profits, Quick Returns – and it often works, but not always. Recent statistics suggest that under-pricing books causes lower sales, as well as over-pricing. There's definitely a 'sweet spot' regarding pricing, though where this sweet spot actually falls is still wide open for debate. Remember, the stores take their cut of the retail price (Kindle takes 35%), so if you price the work too low, it'll be difficult to get nice royalties, even though you're keeping the whole payment, not splitting it with a publisher. Again, 'due diligence' is the key. Cruise the online stores, see what other writers and publishers are doing, see if you can discern the happy medium.

Rule 8: Network! Network! Network!

More than ever before, networking is essential these days. Selling books is often about meeting people 'face to face' on the www. You need to make sure you have the time and ability, and the social skills, to put yourself out there for a considerable time when you're marketing your work – and this is a job that never stops.

This kind of investment of time and effort can make the difference between a book selling 250 copies and selling ten times than number. If you seriously object to spending a large amount of your life looking at Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Goodreads and so forth, the aversion will certainly show in your sales – but there are other ways to network. For example, I'm writing this article and if you never heard of me before, you certainly know me quite well by now!

The object of networking, as opposed to pure marketing, is to perform the cyberspace equivalent of the old dog and pony show. You're doing a 'meet the people', whereas marketing is all about organising a competition to win your book(s) or making available coupons for a short-term 70% discount to attract people's attention. Trading banner ads with your writer friends, sending out a couple of dozen copies to all the appropriate review sites you (or Ma Google) can find, getting the book into every single ebook store, having author pages up at all the appropriate sites, from Amazon to Shelfari, and so on; that's pure marketing and once it's done, it's done – you can sit back and see how it all performs.

Networking is an endless flux. With networking, you go out there, quite literally 'shaking hands and kissing babies'. The cyberspace equivalent of this is to devote your time to selling your books – and a lot of it. This part of the game is a time guzzler, and you need to be aware of this aspect of being a writer in today's market before you commit to the effort.

Sure, you'll have your own pages at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, Goodreads and so on, you're blogging for dear life on Blogger and/or WordPress and LiveJournal, but who's reading all those pages and blogs? So, you're also commenting on other influential blogs, posting to forums, doing Live Chat, Facebook chatting, Tweeting and making yourself available to chat with readers (customers!) via these media. In fact, you're waving your arms around, flying kites, attracting attention to yourself and your books. Networking takes time, but if you have this time to invest, it definitely returns results.

However, networking is something you'd still have to do even if you published with one of the good ebook publishers, so 'flying solo' doesn't place you in any different league from the authors who are being more traditionally published. You're all doing the same jobs, for the same reason: to sell copies and earn royalties for yourself and, in some cases, for your publisher.

Rule 9: Have Realistic Expectations

You've heard of the folks who self-published on Kindle and made millions of dollars, or went with Lulu and subsequently scored a million-dollar deal with a major publisher in London or New York. These stories are true, but they account for about one writer in ten thousand. (That's a figure of speech, but if you wanted to do the research, I'm sure you could – and let me know what the number actually is!)

On the other end of the scale from the Cinderella stories, there are books which sell almost no copies at all, for whatever reason, be it dubious technical quality or unpopular subject or incorrect pricing. The truth is almost always somewhere between those two poles.

A well-produced book, vigorously marketed and closely suited to some specific genre, stands a good chance of selling well, but 'well' is a relative term. Some genres are busier than others; market factors you can't predict or control have effects on a book's performance; fine books can receive unaccountably lousy reviews, which hurt their chances and so on. The variables are immense.

Ultimately, if you don't go into this game with a desperate need to make bags of cash, and if you do go into it with a willingness to invest quite a bit of your time (but not – repeat, not – your money!) you can, and will, sell books. How many books is another question and it's almost unanswerable with any degree of certainty. One book out of a whole truckload will sell in the thousands of copies. Many more will sell just a handful, and most of those to friends and family who've supported the effort.

Every book is a different case and every venture is an experiment. With this in mind, treat every new work as a learning experience: if Plan A didn't work so well, next time try Plan B. The law of averages is as true here as anywhere else. If you give it your best shot many times over, you're far more likely to succeed than if you try only once. If, or when, a book really goes extremely well for you, however far down the track, it can easily tow the others behind it, resulting in sales you never expected.

This is what professional marketers call 'long-tail marketing', and what they mean is that on the www, you might never sell rapidly, but you can sell for a very, very long time. Even books that many people would consider to be failures can turn into successes if you're patient, because small, steady, reliable numbers aggregate nicely over long times – and this is one of the hidden strengths of self-publishing.

When you market yourself, you're not on a firm contract that'll expire in two or three years. There's no rush to sell a load of copies in a short time because a publishing house needs to recover its investment inside the term of the contract. There's just you and Kindle and so forth, and a whole lot of social networking for as long as you want to do this.

You can write to please yourself, which means you'll write with passion. You can develop your technical skills, get the packaging juuust right, get into the swing of the social networking, see what works best for you, and keep 100% of the income generated by your work.

There can be no guarantees, except, perhaps, for this: you'll learn a lot and if you go into the venture with the spirit of experiment, you can have a lot of fun along the way.

_Mel Keegan has been writing professionally for about 25 years under several pen names. He made his debut as Keegan in paperback with British publisher GMP in 1989 and since 2001 has been with Australian indie publisher DreamCraft. Keegan is the author of around 35 titles in the GLBT genre, many of them science fiction and fantasy, including the cult classics NARC and Hellgate. For the last several years Mel has been the mastermind behind the community wiki, GLBT Bookshelf, a site dedicated to indie publishing and self-publishing in this genre. Meet Mel online at www.melkeegan.com and if you're writing or reading in this genre, swing by_ http://www.glbtbookshelf.com _._

Forty-One

### The Dark Side of Free

Russell Blake

Just as readers get everything from complete drivel to brilliant discoveries when they download a bunch of free books, authors get a mixed bag of readers from free – from 'U ar a stoopid riter and ur buk suks!' to 'Scintillating, salubrious sophistry structured with sartorial slyness.'

Amazon's KDP Select program, and its feature of enabling authors to make a book free for a few days, has treated me well. Since participating in it my sales have boomed and stayed high long after the giddy glow of free is over. So what could possibly be the negative?

Glad you asked. Otherwise there wouldn't be much reason to write this, other than to tout my crap in unabashedly self-promotional fashion. Which I will do, early and often, but that's beside the point.

As everyone is by now aware, if you rank fairly high on your free days, you see a bump in sales for four or so days after, due to the Amazon algorithms treating free downloads the same as paid downloads for the purposes of things like the Movers and Shakers list, as well as 'also bought' recommendations. That exposes your book to a whole new universe of potential readers, some of whom will buy your book to give it a whirl. All good. Everybody wins. Or do they?

One well documented downside to putting your book up for free for the majority of authors is the dreaded one-star review – the drive-by slam that slags your work, often written as though the reviewer didn't even bother reading it, by a reviewer who's never reviewed anything else. My pet theory is that free exposes you to readers who would never buy your book and for whom it was never intended – they don't like the genre or they don't like whatever the topic or underlying theme is, etc. But because it was free, they loaded up their kindle with whatever was hot on the lists and then they started reading, and... blech! That book sucks.

Sometimes a book sucks. In fact, books often suck. Sucking isn't unknown with indie books, where authors may have failed to get professional editing or proofing, and manuscripts can read more like incoherent first drafts than finished product. Typos, grammatical issues, continuity problems, echoes... and on and on. But professionally executed books also get one-star reviews, invariably after going free. Often, the review will say something like, 'I don't normally read erotica because of all the sex, but I thought I'd give Spank Happy Oiled Gladiators a try, and was reminded of why these books suck a bag of d#cks. I couldn't finish it. Ugh.'

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Note that I am not saying that low reviews are always, or even mostly, unwarranted. Everyone has different tastes, so one person reads _The Da Vinci Code_ and finds it gripping and another finds it sub-custodial twaddle. That's what makes a market. No, what I'm describing is well documented – the spate of one- and two-star reviews that invariably follows a free promotion, on a book that has universally gotten only positive reviews until then – where the consensus is that it's a decent example of the breed.

The free reader who is leaving that one-star slam wouldn't have purchased the book, ever. It's safe to say that that reader wasn't the audience it was written for. But 'free' brought them to it and now they feel they must share their dislike of it with the world. Hence the one-star reviews after free. It's just a theory, but my hunch is that if you are willing to pay $4.00 for the epic tale of greased up, corporal punishment-crazed warriors, you know what you're buying, and thus are more accustomed to the norms in the genre, the content, etc.

It's rare that I put a book free and don't see the one-star effect. Many authors dread it. I tend to be more philosophical. Free brings out all kinds, many of whom aren't going to ever like anything you write, or in your chosen genre, because the filtering mechanism that is the reader laying down his/her money to read the work has been eliminated. Just as readers get everything from complete drivel to brilliant discoveries when they download a bunch of free books, authors get a mixed bag of readers from free – from 'U ar a stoopid riter and ur buk suks!' to 'Scintillating, salubrious sophistry structured with sartorial slyness.'

That's just how it is. Welcome to the free book binge.

The other negative I've seen is that the fringe buyer for indie books, the reader at the margins who might have been willing to give a new author a test drive in exchange for a few bucks, now doesn't. Instead, they download free books. Their kindles are clogged with books they will never have the time to read, but they can't help themselves. It's free, GD it! Getcher free stuff while you can! Obviously, poop and dirt are free, too, but most don't load up and eat it just because there's no cost. But the problem is that there is a glut of content that has taken those fringe readers out of the mix for indie authors, as they're struggling to digest 1,000 free books, and so aren't buying anything right now. I believe that's substantially contributed to the lower sales I've heard so much about over the last thirty to sixty days from many name, indie authors. These aren't folks struggling to sell a few dozen books. They are established authors with plenty of titles who are well regarded. And yet their sales are down, across the board, by at least 40–50%.

My pet theory is that this is the inevitable effect of free and it will likely take the remainder of 2012 to rinse through the system.

What will stop the race to free for authors is the other negative nobody likes to discuss in polite company – namely, that the 'bump in sales' effect free can create has gone from hundreds or thousands of sales, to only a few. The market has absorbed the promotional technique and it's no longer effective – just as other techniques worked until they didn't – think 99c for an example.

In 2010, 99c was almost a guarantee of massive downloads. In 2011, not so much, and in 2012, it's hit or mostly miss at best. You still see some authors doing it, because they are reading 'how to' books written in 2011 about what worked in 2010, but most quality authors don't like the idea of making 1/6 the revenue at 35% commission on 99c as they would on 70% commission at $2.99. So it has lost effectiveness for two reasons – readers believe (often correctly) that 99c equates to barely readable dross and authors believe that they are giving away their work at that price, undervaluing their product to no good purpose. Some still do it and are successful, so whatever, but most don't anymore if they have any pricing power at all.

Free is great until it isn't and readers finally figure out that there's a resource more precious than a few dollars: time. If they can pay $5.00 and be guaranteed of a read that gives them ten hours of well-executed escape, that's a better value than poring through dozens of marginal or worse books they got at no cost, only to delete them after the first twenty or thirty pages. Time is a commodity that doesn't replenish, so in the end, I believe that most discerning readers will pay an equitable price for competent work. What that price winds up being is debatable. But it won't be free and likely won't be 99c, except as limited-time promotions.

_Russell Blake is the acclaimed author of Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, Night of the Assassin, King of Swords, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, The Voynich Cypher, An Angel With Fur, How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time and Silver Justice. He lives in Mexico and enjoys his dogs, writing, tequila and battling world domination by clowns. For more information about Russell and his books, visit_ http://www.russellblake.com

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Forty-Two

### Indie Translators: Money is Waiting

Scott Nicholson

By self-publishing your foreign books you retain control, maximise your income, make new friends and help other creative entrepreneurs make some money – the exact same reasons many now choose indie publishing in the first place. Translators will also enjoy the benefits that indie writers do – choice in which genres they work in, flexible schedules and a sustainable business that can be built over time in an industry promising tremendous growth.

As more digital-book distributors and markets open around the world, readers of many languages will finally get an incredible range of choices. But it's going to take a new kind of indie to make this happen – the 'indie translator'.

I currently have a dozen foreign translations available for independent sale. None of them required an agent, and each project was entrepreneurial and unique.

You hear some indie writers say, 'Well, I'd still need an agent for foreign and movie deals.' Like everything in this rapidly changing environment, that's not necessarily true and certainly not absolute. In fact, the same principals apply to indie digital publishing in foreign markets as in the US – all you have to do is upload a digital file. And paper books, especially print-on-demand, will follow the same pattern.

Here's how I did some of mine: I met Paolo Albrizziti on Facebook and struck up a conversation. He is an aspiring Italian writer. He translated _The Red Church_ and had his brother proofread it. I worked with Christa Polkinhorn, author of _Love of a Stone Mason_ , on her book, and as a German-speaking Swiss, she agreed to translate _The Skull Ring_. A small Polish company published a paper version of _The Red Church_ , and since the amount of money was not great and I was having difficulty getting paid, I traded rights to the translated file for the payment.

Sure, it would have been 'easier' to have someone sell foreign rights, mail me a cheque and then sit back and smile in seventeen languages. But authors actually LOSE MONEY FASTER on a foreign deal than they do in domestic publishing. Not only is the agent commission usually 20% for such sales (since a second agent is often involved), the author will continue to experience loss of revenue over time as paper sales decline and ebook sales grow. Not to mention that digital markets are just as accessible from your home computer as they are through a publishing company in Hong Kong. Their tools are no better, with the exception of existing relationships with translators.

Guess what? There are as many unemployed translators as there are unemployed writers. If people need jobs, this is a new opportunity, although professional translators are used to getting an upfront flat fee, and generally work for large businesses with deep pockets. Those willing to think outside the box and work hard can make not just a living, but a small fortune.

For example, I pay a 10% royalty of net sales to my translators. For a $2.99 book, that would earn around 20c a pop. Not much, until you consider that an income for life on a one-time job. Imagine if you translated ten bestselling titles at 10% – you'd be making more than the US author currently does when he/she sells a foreign right through a publisher!

(Such an author would probably be earning 6 -10%, minus agent fees, assuming the book ever earned out its advance, and that author's ebook prices would almost certainly be higher, which hinders sales volume). And some foreign publishers are notoriously slow in paying; like that Spanish company that still owes me the 'advance' a year after publication. But, hey, it's acceptable, because they're 'legit', right? Personally, I'd rather have the money popping up in my bank account every month.

Of course, there are challenges in marketing overseas, but the author would have those anyway. And I can't sell my Polish edition on Kindle or Nook because Eastern European symbols are not yet supported, but surely that will change as the digital markets sweep across the globe. I understand many writers don't want to be bothered with rounding up their own translators, preferring to pursue the fantasy of 'I just want to write and let someone else take care of the business stuff'. That's cool, and may even be wise for most. By self-publishing your foreign books, however, you retain control, maximise your income, make new friends and help other creative entrepreneurs make some money – the exact same reasons many now choose indie publishing in the first place. Translators will also enjoy the benefits that indie writers do – choice in which genres they work in, flexible schedules and a sustainable business that can be built over time in an industry promising tremendous growth.

Interested translators, authors are waiting for you – or, heck, get a collective together, get organised and launch a new business!

_Scott Nicholson is author of the new mystery thriller, Liquid Fear – available for 99c at Amazon, BN.com, and Smashwords – as well as The Skull Ring, The Red Church, Disintegration, Speed Dating with the Dead and 20 other books. He resides at_ http://www.hauntedcomputer.com _._

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Forty-Three

### Getting Print Copies into Libraries

Ilyan Kei Lavanway

The library director I first approached did not want to talk to me when she found out I was a self-published author.

My name is Ilyan Kei Lavanway. I wrote and self-published an epic, end-times thriller titled _Earth Sink_ and I would like to share part of my personal experience regarding an aspect of self-publishing that most independent authors do not pursue – libraries.

_Earth Sink_ was not picked up by libraries. I had to do a lot of leg work to get it into libraries, including donating copies. Here is what I learned.

First, you already know you should buy your own ISBN directly from Bowker at <http://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main> (US). You might not know that you also need to spend about $100.00 on something called Publishers Cataloguing in Publication (P-CIP) data from Quality Books, Inc. at <http://www.quality-books.com/pcip.htm>, which you will include in your book as part of your front matter or copyright page. This data helps libraries catalogue your book. They may not accept your book without it.

You also need to make every effort to get at least one professional book review from a major reviewer that libraries recognise. The library director I first approached did not want to talk to me when she found out I was a self-published author. She told me libraries will not accept self-published works without a professional book review. I had to pry further before she finally explained to me that there are only four reviewers most libraries recognise. They are Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal and New York Times Book Review. Each of these reviewers require you to submit your work as either a manuscript or a galley proof about six months prior to the date you intend to publish your book. There is one exception, which I learned the hard way.

The only major reviewer that will review after publication is a division of Kirkus dedicated to independent authors. It was called Kirkus Discoveries at the time I submitted _Earth Sink_ as a completed book in 2010. Kirkus Discoveries is now Kirkus Indie <http://www.kirkusreviews.com/indie/> about and they still charge over $400.00 per book submitted for review. If they still operate under the same policies as when I submitted my book, Kirkus Indie will refund your money if they choose not to review your book. Kirkus Indie claims to be selective about what they put their name on, so getting a review at all is a good thing, even if you have to pay for it.

When I came back to the Brevard County Florida Libraries two months later with a copy of my Kirkus Discoveries review in hand, the libraries immediately began accepting _Earth Sink_ into circulation. I placed a copy of it in each of the seventeen libraries in Brevard County and the Florida Institute of Technology Evans Library. People are reading my book from the libraries, or at least checking it out and keeping it for weeks at a time.

I wish everyone the best in your publishing adventures.

_Ilyan Kei Lavanway hated writing until he was in his late thirties. While serving in the US Air Force, his duties often involved writing. Having always had a vivid imagination and an unconventional outlook on life, the hunger for self-expression finally drove him to write for himself. Now, he can't stop. For more information about Ilyan and his books, visit_ http://www.ebooksscifi.wordpress.com

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Forty-Four

### After you publish: How to Market Your Books

Michael J. Sullivan

The activities are designed around building a creditable product then starting to drive people to your sample chapters. In all your interactions, seek to inform not sell. Remember to walk before you run.

For those who don't know, I'm Michael J. Sullivan and I wrote a six-book fantasy series, _The_ _Riyria Revelations_. I originally sold the first book to a small press, and when they fell on hard economic times (such that they couldn't afford the print run for the second book or the reprint for the first), I self-published the series. After the release of the fifth book, I decided to see if I could get New York interested and sure enough they were. The books are now re-released as a trilogy (two books in each volume). I sold over 70,000 books (priced from $4.99–6.95) when self-published, and the traditionally published books are into multiple printings and translated into twelve languages. As of this writing I've made more than $500,000 on the series.

Obviously, it's impossible to cover the subject of marketing in a limited space, so I'll try and touch on the high points. I'm going to focus my discussion on those seeking to be a professional writer (that is those who wish to make a living from their writing). There is nothing wrong with writing for a hobby or your own enjoyment, but my advice to someone doing that would be much different, so I wanted to set the expectations right away.

Producing Your Product

I'm going to forgo the standard, 'You must write a good book, and ensure it's properly edited,' because that goes without saying. The key to marketing is word-of-mouth, and unless you write something that really connects with people, and have a high-quality work, you're just going to spin your wheels – success depends on selling more than one of your books to the same people, and people enjoying them so much that they recommend to everyone they know. So keep the following in mind:

Expect that you will have to release multiple books – At a minimum one a year, but preferably one every six to nine months

Focus on a particular genre (rather than straight literary fiction): romance, thrillers, fantasy, horror, science fiction, police procedurals are all good candidates

If possible, write in a series. These are great because each subsequent release will give a boost to the sales of the ones that have come before.

Several shorter books are better than one longer one. I'm amazed when I hear people say they have a 300,000 word novel. They'll make much more money releasing it as three, 100,000 word books. But... don't break a book artificially. Plan the story out so that each can have its own conflict and resolution.

Dividing of Your Time

When you get your first book completed, you'll want to start promoting right away. Resist this urge. When you have only one book it's extremely difficult to gain traction, and if you do and have nothing else to feed your fans with, it's possible they'll forget about you. My recommendations:

With one book out, divide your time 90%–95% on writing the next book and 5%–10% on marketing activities

With two books out, shift from to 85%/15%

With three books out, now you can start your marketing seriously and for two or three months I would do it almost exclusively. After you get some traction (which we'll speak about in a minute) switch to 50%/50%.

From this point on, I would stay at 50%/50% until you start seeing that word-of-mouth is spreading the word. Your goal is to 'prime the pump' and once you start getting a name for yourself, it's time to let the fans take over the evangelisation of your work and you need to concentrate back on providing more content to them so I would shift back to 90%/10% with an occasional 'burst' where you'll go 80%/20% for a week or two.

Early on: What to Focus Your Activities on

When you first start out I would suggest you focus on a blog, Goodreads and Twitter. Set yourself a goal of blogging at least once a week and sending at least five tweets a day. I would focus your tweets on writing-related things: just finished a chapter, new word count, found a great twist for your current work in progress. At this point, you're just letting people know that you are writing something. Don't do promotion, i.e. don't say 'buy my book'; just let people know you're working on something. If they find you an interesting person, they'll check it out on their own.

As to Goodreads, join it as soon as possible and put some of your favourite books on the shelf. Search for groups that concentrate on your genre (horror, fantasy, etc.). Make a welcome post (you can usually say that you're working on a book, but check the posting rules first – some don't like authors saying ANYTHING that is 'promotional' in nature) and then respond to at least two discussions a day. At this point you are operating as a 'reader'. Don't mention your books much at all. Start establishing yourself as a member of the reading community there.

Post Release: What to Focus Your Activities on

As I mentioned, at this point you're not doing much marketing... but when you are what you need to be doing is establishing credibility – and nothing says credibility like reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. I could do a whole post on just this subject but for now, suffice to say the following:

Never pay for a review – it smacks of desperation, is costly and no one believes they aren't biased.

Don't offer to swap reviews with other authors. This is a potential minefield of problems. What if you don't like their book? What if they post a bad review? What if they don't review yours?

Offer free copies to members of your Goodreads groups (send direct messages). Tell them you're hoping for a review, but there is no obligation for them to do so. Also mention that you are looking for honest comments.

If someone posts a review on Goodreads, send them a direct message and ask them to repost the same review on Amazon.

Going to the Next Level

Once you have at least ten Amazon reviews (and hopefully thirty Goodreads ratings) it's time to start approaching bloggers. Set aside a weekend to make your 'blogger list'; this should be a spread sheet with all the blogs that review your types of books. Build your list as follows:

Start off by finding a book that is similar to yours then Google its name + reviews.

Go to the sites you find and:

Follow them on Twitter

Become a follower of the blog

Leave a comment on a recent post of theirs

Record data about the blog in your spread sheet: How many followers do they have? How many Twitter followers? Do they do interviews? What email address do you contact them through? What is their review criteria? Do they prefer ebooks or print?

Almost all bloggers will have 'blog rolls' (a listing of other blogs that they follow). Use this as a roadmap to add to your list. In a short while you should be able to come up with hundreds of potential sites.

Rank the blogs based on: how many other bloggers have them in their blog rolls, how often they post, number of followers, etc.

Next you're going to carefully construct an email. Think of it like an advert. I create it in Google Docs and use a table so that I can put a headline across the top, the cover on the left-hand side and a blurb about the book on the right-hand side (use the 'back of the book' copy). Also, add a few short choice quotes from the reviews you already have gotten from Amazon or Goodreads.

Send out review requests starting with the 'smallest' reviewers. These are people who generally don't get offered 'comp' copies and they will jump at the chance for a free book. As you get a few reviews from these places, move up to the medium-sized ones... change your ad to mention reviews from other bloggers they know (they'll more likely review something that someone else that they follow also has reviewed).

The reviewers are almost certainly going to check out your book on Amazon to determine if they should spend their time on it and this is why you need to have a good number of reviews there before you approach them.

Maximising Goodreads

Again, another topic that I could write an entire book on, but some highlights:

Do a book giveaway: As people sign up, send them a direct message thanking them for showing an interest in your book, giving a bit more information (use the same text from the ad you send to bloggers) and pointing them to where they can read sample chapters.

Maximize your author page: Make sure you have a great bio and that your blog entries are being fed to your page. Go through all your books and make sure they are in Goodreads and assigned to you. Combine any editions of a book to a single entry so that all ratings/reviews are collected in one place.

Be a member of the community first: Contribute more about books in general and be an author second. As you get to know people and they get to know you, it's fine to bring up your book. Never ask them to buy. Simply inform them that it exists and point them to a sample chapter. Let them make up their own minds.

Interact with reader of your books: Leave comments on their reviews, thank them when they add a book to their shelf. Thank them when they designate themselves as a fan.

Create an author's group: Invite fans and people who read/reviewed the books to join the group. Offer 'special' things to these core fans – maybe a short story or an afterword about your book.

Owning Your Fans

The most important aspect to your marketing is to establish a direct relationship from reader to writer. You do this by obtaining email addresses and getting people's permission to notify them when new releases come out. There are plenty of free email management services out there. Feel free to do your own research; I personally use Mail Chimp but Constant Contact is also very popular. With it I can create multiple lists (Goodreads friends, fan mails, people who have signed up for a newsletter), then you can send tailored emails to each one.

To get addresses onto your lists keep in mind the following:

Unless they are hiding it, when you make a friend on Goodreads you get their email address. Keep a list of those that have read your book and friend them. Send them an email asking if it would be okay to tell them when your next book comes out.

Every time you get a fan mail, thank them and ask their permission to be added to your list.

Have a link on your blog (or website) to allow people to sign up to be on your list.

Offer 'bonus content' but don't post it on your site, instead email it to people. This could be a short story, an afterword or any kind of bonus material.

This is just the tip of the marketing iceberg, but if you execute well on all of the above and you have a quality book, you will be successful. The activities are designed around building a creditable product then starting to drive people to your sample chapters. In all your interactions, seek to inform not sell. Remember to walk before you run. Wait until you have a good amount of third-party validation (which may have to be built by hand, one review at a time) and only after you have all your ducks in a row... then start driving people to your book. If you do your job right (both in writing the book and how you let people find it) then you'll not have to do much marketing, as the fans will end up promoting you through word-of-mouth, which is the only way a book is ever successful.

_Michael J. Sullivan has sold more than 200,000 copies of The Riyria Revelations, excluding the fourteen foreign language editions. His books have been on more than twenty-five 'best of' or 'most anticipated' lists, including io9's Most Successful Self-Published Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors and Library Journal's Best Books for Fantasy/Sci-Fi for 2011. For more information about Michael and his books visit_ http://www.riyria.blogspot.co.uk _._

Return to Contents

Useful Resources

So that's it! You've heard it from the experts and all that's left for me to do is give you a list of the websites that will help you on your journey and wish you all the best. You've read the ups and you've read the downs of the writers who have contributed to this book and I hope that it has given you a good idea of what it takes to be an indie author, what to do and what to avoid. I also hope that it has shown you that anything's possible in this new age of publishing. The only boundaries exist inside of you. Good luck and I look forward to reading you.

AuthorHouse – http://www.authorhouse.com

Self-publishing platform

Barnes and Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Self-publishing platform

Book Brewer – http://www.bookbrewer.com

Self-publishing platform

Create Space – http://www.createspace.com

Self-publishing platform

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com

Social networking site that you may have heard of!

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com

Networking site for readers

iUniverse – http://www.iuniverse.com

Self-publishing platform

KDP – Kindle – http://www.kdp.amazon.com

Huge self-publishing platform

Lulu – http://www.lulu.com

Pay-per-print publisher

Smashwords – http://www.smashwords.com

Self-publishing platform

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com

See Facebook!

Whoosh Editing – http://www.whoosh-editing.com

Editorial and creative support for writers

You Tube – http://www.youtube.com

Publicise your books with a trailer vid.

And finally http://www.google.com... It's all about the research!

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