E-Publishing: Who I Use for Editing, Formatting, and Cover Art Design

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Lindsay

Every now and then, someone emails and asks for recommendations on editors, cover art designers, and ebook formatting folks, so here’s a quick run down on who I’m currently using.

Editing

A few months ago, I did a post on how editing (and hiring an editor) works when you’re self-publishing, so you may want to take a peek at that if you’re new to things. It’ll give you an idea about which level of editing you may need, and it talks a bit about prices (though there’s a huge variation from editor to editor).

I’ve tried four or five different editors since I got started e-publishing, and, for the last four novels, I’ve used Shelley Holloway. She’s been freelancing for a while, and her rates aren’t the cheapest you’ll find, but, for me, it’s been worth paying more. She always seems to catch more typos, missing words, etc.. When I used a different editor for a short story last winter, I even had a reader point out that it had more errors than she was used to in my novels.

Cover Art

I don’t think I’ve done a write-up on how selecting a cover-art designer works, but I did figure out, through trial and error, that it’s helpful to get someone who has experience doing books. You can make a cool cover out of a custom illustration, but it saves some headaches if you use someone who handles lettering/fonts as well and gets that, especially with ebooks, the cover should look good in a thumbnail version as well as a full-sized one.

I tried a couple of different people before finding Glendon Haddix, the fellow who does the Flash Gold and Emperor’s Edge books for me (he redid Encrypted last year too). He’s also done the covers and interior formatting for my paperbacks. I believe he does ebook formatting now too. One-stop shopping. šŸ˜‰

Ebook Formatting

This is something that a lot of indie authors learn to do themselves, but, if you’re like me and prefer to outsource the non-creative work, you can find lots of folks offering formatting services. $100 or so (for a full-length manuscript) seems to be about average, but you can find bargains out there too.

Glendon and Shelley both offer ebook formatting now, as an add-on to their other services, but I started out using Ted Risk over at Dellaster Design, and I’ve stuck with him. He does a good job and he also has the files to all my earlier books, so it’s easy to have him update the old ones at the same time (as you publish more work, you’ll want to update your “also by the author” lists in the earlier books). I also like that he creates HTML files rather than simply converting Word .doc files. I think you have more possibilities for customization that way, and, for non-fiction, in particular, that can be nice.

You can also check into Paul Salvette, an indie author based in Thailand. He’s been a guest poster here before. He wroteĀ How to Format Your eBook for Kindle, NOOK, Smashwords, and Everything Else and just started BB eBooks, which offers formatting services.

Do you have anyone you’d recommend? Feel free to do so in the comments.
 

Posted in E-publishing | 22 Comments

Can Writing in Multiple Genres Hurt Your Sales Potential?

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Lindsay

When it comes to fiction, authors seem to fall into two camps: those who have multiple favorite genres and want to explore all of them and those who couldn’t imagine wanting to pen stories outside of their chosen niches.

One of the things we noticed when looking at many of the successful independent authors in the fantasy/science fiction arena was that they all wrote in series (many had multiple books out in multiples series), and most of them stuck to one genre. In the cases where they wrote in multiple genres, they tended to be related (i.e. fantasy and science fiction).

As we’ve discussed before, there’s a lot of power in a series. If people like the first book, subsequent books often become auto-buys. Also, the series itself is out there where it can be discovered for a long time (every time you publish and promote a new book, there’s a chance that fresh readers will chance upon it, and that’ll rekindle interest in the earlier books). With self-publishing, you can change prices on a whim, and this can help tremendously when you have a series; you can offer the first book for free or 99 cents to get people into the adventure, and then use normal pricing for subsequent books.

So, what happens if you like to write stand-alone books? And, more, what if those stand-alone books are in different genres? Western, science fiction, romance, thriller, historical non-fiction on the importance of basket weaving in Sub-Saharan Africa…

If you have multiple unrelated books out, you may have already discovered that one sells better than the others, and people just don’t go on to try the others you’ve written. If so, you’re not alone. I’ve seen indie authors rock it with one book, maybe even reaching the Top 100 in the Kindle Store, only to see mediocre sales on subsequent books if they’re not related to the first. And, if the books are in different genres, getting readers to cross over seems to be even more of a stretch.

What are your options, then, if you like to genre hop?

I’ve thought about this because I’d like to try my hand at space opera some day, and there might be an urban fantasy series in there somewhere. Even in the SF/F area, though, you’ve got folks who will only read epic fantasy or only urban fantasy, and getting them to try your other books can be a challenge. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Make use of the “afterword” area in your books to cross-promote — You can include previews of one or more of your other works at the end of your most popular ebooks, so why not post a few pages of something with a similar style? Even if you’re writing in different genres, you’ll probably have some distinctive you traits that appear in all of your work, and that’s likely part of what drew people into your first book. If you can get the reader to try one of your unrelated stories, maybe they’ll get into it even if it’s not in a genre they typically buy. (It occurs to me, as I write this, that I should probably do more cross-promotion of my own unrelated ebooks!)
  • Include your social media sites, blog, newsletter signup details, etc. — It’s always good to encourage people to follow you online and sign up for your newsletter (even if they read your thriller and aren’t interested in the historical romance you’ve got out now, your next book may be more up their alley, so it’s worth keeping in touch with them).
  • Think about whether a series makes sense in one or more of your chosen genres — Even if you’re a genre-hopper, you can still utilize the power of the series. If you’re at all inclined to write that sort of fiction, you might want to leave things open for the possibility of sequels. Even with only two linked books, you can start seeing some of the benefits of writing in a series.
  • Work on branding yourself instead of specific books — When you’re writing in one main series, it makes sense to try to turn the series into the brand, i.e. the Harry Potter books. But when you’re jumping genres, you’re going to have a lot of work on your hands if you try to and create a brand for every world you create. I’ve seen authors do three or four different pen names because they’re writing in three or four different genres, but I don’t think this is necessary unless there’s a possibility that some of your books will offend readers of the other books (i.e. if you write both children’s books and steamy romances). Ultimately, you end up with a ridiculous amount of work if you’re maintaining online presences for all of these entities. Instead of building one career, you’re trying to build three. Also, you lose out on those readers who will follow you across genres. Instead, I suggest finding the common thread (you) that runs through all of your books and turning that into your distinctive brand, replete with a little tagline that applies to all of your books. Amy Smith, the queen of wry humor, explosive adventures, and geeky heroines (okay that could be my tagline…). If those qualities are typically in all of Amy’s books, then it’d make a lot of sense to offer that promise as part of her “brand.”

All right, that’s enough from me. I do think writing in multiple genres can make it tougher to succeed, at least from a financial standpoint, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In the end, you have to go with what you enjoy writing if you want to have a chance of turning this into a career.

Do you have any thoughts on what else authors can do when they’re trying to succeed across multiple genres?

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Using Your Self-Publishing Success to Find an Agent with Elizabeth Mock

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Lindsay

Some independent authors have little desire to hunt down an agent or a traditional publishing contract once they’re doing well. Others choose to use their self-publishing success as a springboard into the big time. Fellow indie fantasy author, Elizabeth Mock, has recently signed on with an agent and is here to answer my questions on why she’s choosing to seek a traditional contract. If you’re an author thinking of doing the same, you may want to check out her answers.

Interview with Elizabeth Mock

LB: I remember seeing your Children of Man book in the Kindle Store (with oodles of reviews) when I was first getting started, so I know you were a fairly early adopter when it came to e-publishing. What did you try before that, and what made you choose self-publishing?

EM: Huh. I guess I am. It’s weird to think of myself as an early adopter, simply because Iā€™m friends with Randy Lalonde. We’re World of Warcraft (WoW) guildmates from way back. Randy writes the Spinward Fringe space opera series, and he published Spinward Fringe: Origins back on mobipocket, pre-smashwords days. He actually deserves a lot of the credit for me going into self-publishing, because it wasn’t exactly my plan.

I never queried or submitted short stories to publications or took any of the normal steps. I didn’t try anything before self-publishing, because it happened almost accidentally. I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2009 and finished the first draft of Shatter on Christmas Eve. One of the prizes for NaNo that year was a free proof of your novel from CreateSpace.

I have a graphic design background (like old school, I-can-run-an-offset-printer, print shop background), so I decided to go forward with the CreateSpace offer, since it wouldn’t require me to spend any money on formatting or design. I spent that winter and spring editing and revising the MS as well as designing the interior pdf and cover. I discovered, during the proof process, that the paperback would be sold on amazon. So, I figured, why not? Let’s see what happens.

During the editing process, I sent the MS of Shatter to Randy to beta read. He encouraged me to distribute it as an e-book and helped me navigate the muddy waters of self-publishing. He introduced me to smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and answered all of my crazy questions. The e-book went live at the end of June 2010. This was all before the big self-publishing wave hit with Amanda Hocking’s success.

So, for me, self-publishing was more of an organic process and less of a chosen path.

LB: Can you tell us how self-publishing has treated you so far? Your Book 1 has over 150 reviews on Amazon, so a lot of people have obviously checked it out!

EM: Self-publishing has treated me quite well. In July 2010, I participated in smashwords’ semi-annual sale and offered Shatter for free. As a result, my sales saw a massive spike. Once the sale ended, I decided to try the loss-leader model (first taste is free!) and offered the book as free all the time. In October 2010, amazon price-matched the e-book as free. On amazon alone, I saw 25,000+ downloads that month.

At this point, Shatter, both print and digital, has been sold or downloaded over 230,000 times. In November 2011, I released the second book in the series, Render, and more than 7,000 copies have been sold.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with self-publishing. My readers are vibrant and enthusiastic and gracious, and I adore them. My cover artist, Claudia McKinney, is spectacularly talented as well as a truly lovely person. One of my close friends, Anne Hromalik, designed my jaw-droppingly beautiful maps. (Shameless plug: If you need freelance artists, theyā€™re both extremely professional and worth the money.) Itā€™s been a lot of hard work and long hours, but Iā€™ve enjoyed it.

LB: I understand you recently decided to take on an agent and hope to switch to traditional publishing. What made you decide to go that route?

EM: Last November, I was contacted regarding my books. I can’t really go into details, but it raised some questions about publishing that I was ill-equipped to handle. I immediately turned to another old-school WoW guildie for advice. (And people say playing MMOā€™s is a waste of time.) Outside of Azeroth, he’s Barry Goldblatt, rockstar YA & Children’s Lit agent of BG Literary (BGL).

What Barry and I discussed that day led to my decision to seek representation, and the first phone call I had with my agent Joe Monti led to the move into traditional publishing.

First: Why an agent?

  1. Navigating the business end of publishing. This is why I contacted Barry in the first place. Iā€™m not savvy to all the ins and outs of the business end of publishing. (Though to be clear, the reason I contacted him turned out to be completely legit.) With an agent, I donā€™t have to worry about the business end of things, because Joe guides me through it.
  2. An agent protects you and your interests. Agents can protect you from predatory contracts or publishers. They know what a legit contract looks like, and they fight for their clients. Think James Freyā€™s shady contracts with I am Number Four.
  3. Selling rights. Even if I hadnā€™t decided to go traditional with the series, an agent can still sell foreign, movie, and audiobook rights for a self-published author.
  4. A professional partner that sharpens you. This was something important to me personally. Not all agents take an editorial role with their clients. BGL does, and I think it shows in their clientsā€™ books. Joe gives sharp critiques that always push my writing further. I respect and appreciate that so much about him.
  5. Connections. This is a large part of an agentā€™s magic. They know people. Good agents have connections all over the publishing world. They have reputations, and editors trust their professional opinions enough to read your MS. This is why an agent is necessary for entering traditional publishing. I decided to sign with Joe and BGL because they have some pretty reputable credentials. (Info here: http://www.bgliterary.com/about/about-joe-monti/)
  6. A community. Again, this is not necessarily true of all literary agencies, but it factored into my personal decision. BGL is a community of authors. Itā€™s a priority to Barry that the agency be a family, not just a business. Every year BGL hosts a writersā€™ retreat for the agency. Because artists in community create better art.
  7. Pie. Thatā€™s right. Pie. The first time I met Joe in person we went to a little pie shop in Brooklyn to discuss my books. My agent bought me pie. Apparently, the way to my heart and my writing is through my stomach.

Second: Why traditional publishing?

  1. Editors. Editors. Editors. I crave constructive criticism. Thatā€™s my primary motivation. I want an editor to eviscerate my MS, so we can burn away all the dross. I want copy editors to catch all my idiotic typos. (Seriously, a book free of any typos is a miraculous thing to behold.) I want to collaborate with a creative team to produce the best work Iā€™m capable of producing, and I believe that traditional publishing can offer this.
  2. Other mediums. Traditional publishing can more easily lead to audiobooks, movie optioning, foreign publication, and graphic novel adaptations to name a few. Yes, these are all possible within self-publishing, however, you have to devote a lot more time and energy into making them happen, and I still have another full-time job as a teacher.
  3. Scope. What amazes me is that my books have achieved the reach they have through self-publishing without any advertising and just a bit of publicity through social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Shelfari). Iā€™m excited to see what a real marketing and sales team behind me can accomplish.
  4. Fan girl. Full disclosure. This is the embarrassing reason. My name is Elizabeth, and I am a geeky fan girl–to my core. Because Iā€™ve gone traditional, Iā€™m getting to know some extraordinary authors whose work Iā€™ve respected and adored for years. This makes me giddy. Iā€™m a dork. I know.

LB: Do you think you’ve had enough success with your first two books that it’ll make finding a publisher easier than if you were simply plucked from some agent’s slush pile?

EM: Yes and no. My commercial success is definitely advantageous. I come with an established fan base, and publishers want to acquire books they know will sell. I also come with the baggage of being self-published, which is becoming less of a stigma with the continued success of self-published authors.

However, if an MS makes it through an agentā€™s slush pile, itā€™s going to be a solid story. Iā€™ve watched an agent read through queries. It takes a lot to get an agentā€™s attention from the thousands of submissions–a lot. In the end, I think itā€™s a wash. I donā€™t think Iā€™m any more likely to have a publisher buy my series than anyone else with a good agent.

LB: Do you have any tips for indie authors who might like to use self-publishing as a stepping stone to eventually get an agent and a traditional deal?

EM: When I did decide to release the e-book, I was primarily motivated by a thirst for feedback. I wanted to see how people–who didnā€™t know me from a raccoon bashing its paws against a keyboard–would react to my stories. This may seem like an masochistic decision, because the interwebs are merciless. Fortunately, people enjoyed my story.

But I wonā€™t lie that squirreled away in my mind, I thought self-publishing could prove my writingā€™s commercial viability to an agent. That was more of an afterthought, however, rather than a driving force. I had no expectations that self-publishing would ever lead to representation. I also realized, after the fact, that if my books had wallowed in obscurity, I could have really damaged my career prospects.

I would not necessarily look to self-publishing as a route into traditional. There are a lot of stereotypes to overcome, and while some of the circumstances that led me to my agent were within my control, some werenā€™t.

Things in your control:

  1. Write a good story. Writing is a craft. Practice it. And go read Chuck Wendig over at terribleminds.com. Seriously. (Caveat: Heā€™s more than a tad vulgar, but heā€™s so very right.)
  2. Hire an editor. At the very least, you need someone to copy edit for you. People also judge a book by its typos.
  3. Commission good cover art and design. EVERYONE judges a book by its cover. Youā€™re trying to get the readerā€™s attention.
  4. Be professional. I really cannot stress this enough. The bottom line: Donā€™t engage bad reviews. Donā€™t be vitriolic about publishing or other authors. What you say matters. Be professional. Be gracious. Be classy. Think Wil Wheatonā€™s first rule of the internet. (Full disclosure: Joe stalked my blog and other online presences before deciding to offer representation. He wanted to see if weā€™d be a good fit working together.)

Things out of your control:

  1. Timing. I happened to self-publish around the same time as Amanda Hocking, so the field wasnā€™t quite as saturated. For a while, I was one of two free fantasy e-books available on kindle. My agent also had been actively seeking a female-driven ensemble epic fantasy series to represent, which is why Barry referred me to him. So many things were just good timing in my situation, which was completely uncontrollable.
  2. Trends. You canā€™t control whatā€™s popular or what readers or agents or editors are seeking. All you can do is write the best story you can.

I know those are only two things, but they are major factors.

There are so many options available to storytellers today, and there is a lot to get excited about. You need to research and decide which options are the best for you. Take the opportunities that are out there and tell your stories. Just remember that self-publishing, like an entrepreneurial venture, is a big time investment. I wouldnā€™t necessarily say that my path is a formula to follow, because so much of it came down to uncontrollable timing.

I want to thank Lindsay for having me on her blog. I love her Emperor’s Edge series, and if you haven’t read them, you should. She’s a fantastic example of why self-publishing can be vibrant and viable. Seriously, read them. It has a laconic assassin, an OCD heroine, and many, many things going horribly right as they go horrifyingly wrong.

LB: Aw, thanks for the plug, Elizabeth! Good luck with the publisher hunt!

If you’d like to know more, check out Elizabeth’s blog or the website for her Children of Man series. Her first book is available at Amazon, Smashwords, and other stores.

Posted in Interviews / Success Stories | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

How to Upload Ebooks Directly to Apple/iTunes with Danielle Bourdon

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Lindsay

If you stopped by earlier in the week, you know I’m planning to switch from using Smashwords to distribute to Apple and Kobo and start uploading ebooks directly to those stores. I’ve already uploaded my fourth Emperor’s Edge book to Kobo (I’m beta testing their new self-publishing portal, but the platform should be available to everyone soon), but I need to either get a new Mac or upgrade my own one before I can give Apple a try. Fortunately, I stumbled across Danielle Bourdon‘s blog where she was talking about her experiences with Apple. Since she’s already done what I plan to do, I asked her to answer a few questions for us.

Uploading Ebooks (iBooks) Directly to the Apple Store

Thanks for stopping by, Danielle! I’ve heard there are some hoops to jump through to be able to upload your own ebooks into the Apple Store. What made you decide to figure things out?Ā 

There are definitely a few hoops to jump through. I’ve never owned a Mac before this, so I was green going in. One of the top reasons I decided to upload direct was the wait time regarding reporting through the aggregator. Sometimes it was as long as 5-6 weeks between reports, which makes it very difficult to plan marketing strategies or to know what promotions are working.

Can you talk about what’s involved? I know you have to have a Mac, and I think there’s some software you have to download?

First things first is to make an iTunes Connect account. Once you’re approved (it takes anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks), Apple will send you a link to iTunes Producer. This is the application you need the Mac for. It’s a simple download and easy enough to use. They only accept ePubs (as of this writing), so you’ll need to generate one that passes through an ePub checker.

The other must-have is your own ISBN. Apple does not provide them. They cost $250 per 10 ISBNs through Bowker.

Do you know if it’s easy for self-published authors to get accepted as iTunes publishers, or is there an approval process?

The approval process is fairly smooth. The only hitch I encountered was that the Seller’s name must also match the EIN or the SSN. I use my maiden name, Bourdon, not my married name. Once I figured the semantics out, I was good to go.

Is it fairly painless to upload new books once you’ve done the initial setup?

I think so. The screens are easy to read and pretty self explanatory. You need Producer to make any other changes such as text, description or things of that nature. You can use iTunes Connect through a regular PC.

One thing prospective authors should note is that if you’ve had your books up through an aggregator, you’ll lose all your reviews once you direct upload. That was why it took me four months to finally bite the bullet and upload myself. Losing hundreds of reviews isn’t fun.

Ouch! Yes, at this time I’m planning to leave my old ebooks at Smashwords and just upload directly with new ones.

Do you feel you have more control over your books/descriptions/categories/etc. than if you went through a distributor such as Smashwords?

What I have is more immediate control. I can make changes instantaneously, which I prefer. Some authors might not need or want that option. There is a short wait time–no more than 6 days for me so far–from the time you upload to the time the books go live. I’ve heard others say they’ve waited upwards of three weeks. For me, personally, it was absolutely worth the investment to start from scratch with iTunes.

Great, thanks for answering these questions, Danielle!

Thanks for having me, Lindsay!

~*~

If you have any questions for Danielle, please ask them below, and I’ll try to get her to stop by and respond to comments. Also, if you’d like to support a fellow indie and check out her work, she’s writes paranormal, romance, horror, and dark fantasy, and is the author of 10 novels and 9 short stories. You can find more information on her site.

 

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Beyond Smashwords — My Plans to Upload Ebooks Directly to Apple & Kobo

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Lindsay

In late April, I published my fourth Emperor’s Edge book to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. The book appeared in all of these stores within 24 hours. This is what you’d expect in this digital age. But what of other stores? Apple? Kobo? Sony?

When I started publishing in December of 2010, I decided to use Smashwords as my distributor to get into these other stores. That was, I gathered from listening to other indie authors, how it was done. Sony and Kobo didn’t have self-publishing portals and it sounded like a convoluted process to get into the iTunes store, so I didn’t research it much. Smashwords was willing to handle the distribution for free (well, they take a small cut of the sales, but they don’t charge an upfront fee), so I was content to let them handle things.Ā  Most of my early readers were at Amazon and, to a lesser extent, Barnes & Noble, so I didn’t worry much about Apple and the others anyway.

Last Christmas, however, I decided to make the first book in my Emperor’s Edge series free at all of these stores, and that led to more readers at Kobo and Apple, in particular. Readers tried the freebie and went on to buy other books in the series. Unfortunately, these readers aren’t able to get new books as they’re published. It took my last ebook (Peacemaker) over six weeks to show up in the Apple Store, and I’m still waiting for EE4 to show up (it’s been over six weeks since I first submitted it to Smashwords).

Several readers have tweeted or written and asked where the heck EE4 is at Apple. They follow me online, so they know that the book has been out for a while. All I can tell them is that I’m still waiting for it to get from Smashwords to the other stores. Even though I don’t think Amazon needs the extra publicity, I’ve mentioned the iPad’s Kindle app more than once and suggested folks may want to buy the book from Amazon. Not everyone is interested in supporting the e-giant though, and I don’t blame them.

Smashwords is a very affordable service (as I mentioned, free until you start making sales), so I don’t want to complain about the waits and the customer service (you get what you pay for), but the fact that people want the book and aren’t able to get it in a timely manner has led me to take a second look at ways to get into these stores. Fortunately, there are some new options coming online.

Kobo’s New Self-Publishing Platform

I just uploaded EE4 over at Kobo where they are beta testing their new self-publishing platform, Writing Life. It’s due to go live for everyone at the end of June.

As many of you know, I’m a fan of having readers everywhere and not putting all of one’s eggs in the Amazon basket. Going the Smashwords route, things took forever to get into Kobo, if they made it at all (I have a title published last August that isn’t there yet). Now we’ll be able to get ebooks into the store within a day or two.

As with other self-publishing portals, the dashboard will allow us to see real-time sales stats and make changes to price, cover art, blurbs, files, etc. that will be reflected in their store within a couple of days. The royalty rates there are set at 70%, which means you’ll make more than if you went through Smashwords, and it looks like you’ll be able to run free-ebook promotions any time you like.

This may be a great new opportunity for indie authors, especially for authors hoping to expand their reach with international sales. Kobo is based in Canada, and I’ve honestly never seen a Kobo e-reader here in the U.S., but it seems to be making leaps and bounds in global markets.

I’ve been in touch with Mark Lefebvre, the director of self-publishing & author relations, over at Kobo, and I hope to be able to give you guys some more information on the program soon, but it definitely looks like a promising new contender so far. They have things set up to pay in U.S., Canadian, Australian, etc. dollars, so it looks like there won’t be any barriers for international authors.

More on Kobo’s Writing Life here.

Uploading Directly to the Apple Store

From what I’ve read, you’ve actually been able to upload directly to the iTunes store for a while, but there are some hoops to jump through, which makes it tough for a lot of authors. The biggest one is that you need access to a Mac because publishing is done through their iTunes Producer software.

I was all set to install this last month, but my Mac is too old to run the OS required for the software. I am, however, planning to use my next Smashwords payout (irony?) to buy a new Macbook Pro, so I can make this happen (and because the keys are falling off my old Macbook). For those of you who have no interest in purchasing a Mac, it may be worth finding a friend with one if you get to be in the boat I’m in.

The other obstacle is that you need to buy your own ISBN. Once I’ve actually gone through the process, I’ll write up a post on what all is involved here, but I don’t think it’ll be a major hurdle.

Apparently, you can also make your ebooks free any time you like at Apple, so I’m looking forward to playing around with sales over there (since that first free ebook is what took me from $X a month at Apple to $XXX a month).

A Goodbye to Smashwords?

Though, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned, I’m not planning to use Smashwords to distribute to Apple and Kobo with future books, I’ll still make sure my latest titles are available there. I know there are quite a few international readers, in particular, who enjoy downloading ebooks from Smashwords (there are no extra fees for them to buy there).

Smashwords also has some perks that make me wish the outfit had made more inroads into the ebook market on its own merits (as a seller and not just a distributor), such as the ability to issue coupons, to offer affiliates a greater percentage of the sales price, and the fact that authors receive a higher royalty rate there than at any of the other stores. Their store interface has never been user friendly, though, and I know it’s rare that I make sales there when I haven’t specifically directed folks to my book links. The times are changing, though, and we may see less and less of a need for a distributor.

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 42 Comments

Winner in the Maldynado-Hat-Design Contest!

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Lindsay

Next week on the blog, we’ll get back to some less frivolous posts, but in the meantime I want to announce a winner in the Maldynado-Hat-Design Contest (if you haven’t been following along, the entries are here and the finalists are here). We had lots of great submissions, but the most popular amongst voters were…

Christian:

This time he had done it ā€“ this was unquestionably the hat of a killer. This was a serious, no-nonsense hat for serious no-nonsense people. It was black, low, and sleek, made of the finest brushed velvet and meticulously handcrafted by master millinery artists. It oozed menace, and whispered of blood-soaked deeds carried out by dark men of sinister purpose. This was The Hat. He was vaguely surprised Sicarius didnā€™t already own one. He added a large, bright pink plume sticking jauntily out of the side. There. Perfect.

and…

Tilly:

They’re both great hats, but I decided to use Christian’s in Book 5. Due to some new suspicions others have toward him (it’s such a pain when one’s family members are plotting to overthrow the throne), he’s trying to be on his best behavior and prove himself a worthy and dependable comrade (he wants to finally earn that statue too!). Of course, it’s Maldynado, so he can’t manage to be entirely serious. The pink feather is just right.

Since they’re both great hats, I’m going to send signed paperbacks to both up-and-coming milliners.

Thanks for entering and voting, everyone!

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | 6 Comments

Finalists in the Maldynado-Hat-Design Contest (which is your favorite?)

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Lindsay

It’s been two weeks since I posted the Maldynado Hat Design Contest, and we’ve had a lot of great (humorous!) entries. I was going to pick a winner this weekend, but there were quite a few hats that made Maldynado’s ears perk. So… I’ve picked out a few finalists to post today. If you’re so inclined, let me know which sounds (or looks) best, and I’ll take your opinions into account when finally choosing a winner. The winner’s hat will be used in Book 5, and he or she will also receive signed paperbacks of the first four books.

Thanks, all!

Hat Entries

Seth:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gail:

Iā€™m thinking porcupine quills, a lot of them sticking out, so it looks like a porcupine is sitting on his head. Except this is Maldynado so of course the quills would be dyed some ridiculous color. I can see it being an aviator like cap.

Christian:

This time he had done it ā€“ this was unquestionably the hat of a killer. This was a serious, no-nonsense hat for serious no-nonsense people. It was black, low, and sleek, made of the finest brushed velvet and meticulously handcrafted by master millinery artists. It oozed menace, and whispered of blood-soaked deeds carried out by dark men of sinister purpose. This was The Hat. He was vaguely surprised Sicarius didnā€™t already own one. He added a large, bright pink plume sticking jauntily out of the side. There. Perfect.

Sonya:

1. People are always ready to re-fight the last battle. Having just lost a quick but decisive skirmish with gravity, heā€™s determined to be better-prepared the next time. Thus, his chapeau of choice in this case is a solid, reliable pith helmet. In this case, though, it is decorated with a scene of hummingbirds in a field of flowers, painted in brilliant blues, greens, and purples; worked over with gold and silver filigree and brightly colored beads; and with a curtain of rich green mosquito netting suspended from the brim. That way, heā€™ll be ready to blend in in any jewel-toned magical forest glades he should encounter.

Tilly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dawn:

I am thinking that it is about time Maldynado got a nice turban that is tastefully striped in alternating red and white silk cloth. It would have a large gaudy ā€œrubyā€ set in gold on his forehead. And it would need a large red feather sprouting out of the ruby and curling over his back. Naturally he may have to end up sacrificing this gorgeous creation to make bandages, so it could be useful as well decorative.

Cassandra:

A yellow snakeskin fedora. Specifically albino burmese python skin which is a creamy white and bright yellow. And I think it would need matching feathers in the band to complete the look.

Jane:

How about a shako with a plume on it?

A shako is a tall, cylindrical military cap, usually with a visor, and sometimes tapered at the top. It is usually adorned with some kind of ornamental plate or badge on the front, metallic or otherwise, and often has a feather, plume (see hackle), or pompon attached at the top.

Carolyn:

1) As Maldynado has had all of 20 minutes at the helm of the dirigible, he undoubtedly has earned the right to call himself an ā€œaviatorā€. I suggest a close-fitting leather cap with goggles, but in a color that will catch the eye (like fuschia).

Anna:

I think he might feel the need to incorporate a little more practicality into his style now that heā€™s been through so much with the team. I was thinking he could have a sweeping, feathered hat, full of gold and silver swirls, with a descending set of goggles and glasses. Of course, the whole ensemble would have to be ridiculous and fail in some way or another, properly fitting Maldynadoā€™s characteristic slip-ups. Maybe heā€™d even have a blade hidden somewhere in the device! I can see him hitting the control panel now!
ā€œWow. Letā€™s see what this one does! Ah, Sicarius, I didnā€™t mean for that to happen!ā€

David:

The drinking game hat.

A broad rimmed hat in some outrageous shade of lime green with a series of six to eight scarlet tassels hanging off the brim.

The hat is sold incomplete as the wearer or player is expected to add the wax sealed corks from various implausibly named and expensive bottles of wine to the tassels as the night wears on.

Possibly with a indent in the top designed to hold the base of a glass of wine, so Maldynado can win bets for dancing the jig or hornpipe without spilling his wine.

Rebekah:

Hereā€™s my idea: What about a Spartan- type hat? šŸ™‚ I drew a couple of pictures of them. The color Iā€™m not so sure about, but Iā€™m sure These types of Maldynado-worthy hats come in all sorts of colors. šŸ™‚ hereā€™s the link to my pictures. http://artoflonewolf.blogspot.com/2012/05/picture.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynne:

My mom told me about this contest during dinner and I immediately thought of the following hat. Said hat is hard to describe, and easier to explain how to make.

Take a pair of silk, ladies victorian bloomers with a thick ruffle on the waist, that go to the mid thigh. Turn them upside down, so that the opening on the hat would be where ones waist normally goes. Take the ruffle off the legs and stuff one leg down the other, then sew them together. This should result in a poof on the top of the hat. Take the end of the poof that is closest to what you want the back of the hat to be and tack it to the seat of the bloomers. This is to prevent the poof from falling down in ones face as you flee. The ruffle should just flop down and give the same sort of appearance that cockatoo feathers do when the birds are irritated. Place on head and you have a very distracting and distinctive hat.

The color of course would have to be beige. Nevermind. Knowing Maldynado he would never wear a color as mundane as beige. It needs to be ecru.

As you can imagine, the description of said hat made it very hard to finish dinner.

Sonya:

Hat #1: Beyond tactics and sound judgment, the single most important quality in naval officers is the ability to present an image of being unflappably, totally in control. This hat was made with that ideal firmly in mind. In many respects, it was a standard-issue black naval bicorne. However, this hat, unlike its more mundane contemporaries, rested entirely on a large gyroscopic balance within the crown, so as to be always level no matter how much the wearer pitched or swayed. It was made to offer a sailor the image of his or her commander being a fixed, reliable, and immutable point on a turbulent ship. Whether it would in fact do so at sea was unknown, but it certainly tended to impart a strangely unsettled feeling in onlookers on land ā€“ most of whom would only gradually become aware that, depending on your point of view, either the hat was staying still while the man moved under it, or the man was staying still and the hat was slowly roaming around his head. It was unnerving. And produced in Maldynado the pronounced desire to fidget.

A last comic from Seth who entertained us with several entries on Facebook:

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , | 53 Comments

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

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Lindsay

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, though 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 favor 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 18 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 exposures 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 of 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 e-publishing 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 long.

By the way, I’ve never been in the Amazon Top 100 (or in the Top 1000 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 uber seller to make a living, though 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 16 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

What else have I done that’s 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.Ā 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 amongst 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 cliffhanger will. (My first book admittedly doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, 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 good will 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 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,” is that 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 ends, I’ve seen authors try to get a hundred people to buy their book in the same hour. I’ve seen them pay for 5-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 “1000 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 realize 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 (see previous posts on the how and why of starting a mailing list). 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 a thousand. 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 others’ 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.

Thoughts? Please chime in below.

 

 

 

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 81 Comments