Getting Your Self-Published Book into the Library, Tips from Librarian Marlene Harris

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Lindsay

So, you want to get your self-published book and/or ebook into the library, where lots and lots of new readers can discover you. Me too! That’s why I hunted down librarian Marlene Harris for an interview. First I’ll let her introduce herself:

I am a librarian with more than 15 years experience. I’ve worked in both public and academic libraries all over the United States, from the Chicago Public Library to the University of Alaska Anchorage. I’m currently a consultant, book reviewer and blogger at Reading Reality. I speak to librarians about using the blogosphere to help with collection development, and integrating ebooks into library collections. My take on the best ebook romances for 2011 was posted at Library Journal in December. I currently publish Ebook Review Central every Monday, a service that provides links to reviews and ratings for ebook-only titles from around the blogosphere.

Welcome, Marlene!

Now for the interview…

Let’s start with the question on every self-published author’s mind: Can we donate copies of our books to local libraries and get them on the shelves? If so, what’s the process? I imagine just dumping them into the donations bin might not be a good idea.

This is a terrific question, and it’s one every library gets asked.  Sometimes after the fact. Let’s say you are talking about self-published fiction and popular-type nonfiction books, and you want to get them into your local public library. That isn’t the only case, but it’s the easiest one to describe!

Please don’t put them into the donations bin. Anything in the donations bin, (or handed across the checkout desk) will probably end up in the book sale. Not always, but this is the way to bet.

Check the library’s website, or call to find out who the person in charge of Collection Development or Acquisitions is. (If your book is a children’s book, get the name of the head of the Children’s or Youth Services Department) That’s the person you want. Call or email that person and say you want to donate a copy of your book. And a lot of libraries would prefer two copies. There is a significant labor cost to cataloging even a fiction book, and many libraries find it makes more economic sense to just start with two copies.

Most libraries have a collection development policy that gives a broad outline of what they collect, whether they buy it or have it donated. Local authors usually fall neatly into the “we’d love to get pretty much everything if we could afford it, so if it’s donated, we’ll happily take it” category. There are always exceptions.  Textbooks are the biggest known exception for a public library. Fill-in-the-blank books are the second. Spiral and/or comb bindings are probably number three on the list.

If our books do get into the library, is there a limited length of time they’ll be kept on the shelves? I’ve heard that how often a book is circulated plays into whether it’s kept.

Shelf space in a library is real estate. Some libraries have limited amounts of it. Some have a lot. If a library looks cluttered, just like your own house, it can be difficult for people to find what they are looking for. In a library’s case, they go elsewhere, and usually that elsewhere is Barnes and Noble or Amazon. Libraries want to keep their patrons using their libraries, so they keep them looking fresh.

If your book is popular non-fiction, the information may get dated. Books on “flipping” houses from before the current housing crisis are all, well, not a good idea right now. Pluto used to be a planet.

How long a book stays on the shelf depends on the library’s available space, and how well the book gets used. And also the condition of the book itself. If it looks like the book got dropped in something noxious, most libraries will throw that copy out and replace it. I once saw a library book that had been put into the library’s book drop after it had been used to stop a bullet. The bullet was still in it. It was a very thick book. The book was withdrawn.

At my last library, fiction would be weeded from branch libraries if it did not circulate after a year or 18 months, depending on the size of the branch. But things lasted at the main library a lot longer, because there was more room, and the mission of a main library is usually to have a larger collection and to be more comprehensive. Branches are smaller buildings and are supposed to be popular collections. It’s their purpose.

Is there anything authors can do to improve the chances that our books will be found and checked out more often? I imagine cover art plays a big role here.

You absolutely can judge a book by its cover. Paperbacks circulate better than hardcovers, and hardcovers with dustjackets circulate better than hardcovers without dustjackets. Good descriptions on the sides of the dustjacket, or the front and back of the paperback help a lot.

If you can get the librarians on board, they can also help you tremendously. People forget that librarians also hand-sell books, just like bookstores do. Libraries host book groups, libraries do author events. If your library has any kind of book blog or book feature on their website, they can help promote your book locally, or even just post a review. At my last place of work, one of our most popular features was the list of what the librarians were reading each month. And the books we read definitely circulated more, whether they were old books or new books or audiobooks or whatever.

I had a nice SF/F acquisitions librarian stumble across my books and say she was going to order copies for her library. Do self-published authors need to get lucky like that to see their works added to non-local libraries? Or is there something they can try if they’re hoping to get in elsewhere? I imagine it’d be cool to be able to say your books are available at the New York Public Library, for example.

Any author who wants to see which libraries have their books should check out worldcat.org. Worldcat is the public face of the librarian’s cataloging tool. It tells which libraries have which books. 105 libraries have Lauren Dane’s Heart of Darkness, and the nearest one to me (I’m in the Atlanta suburbs) appears to be in Jacksonville, FL) I think when I hit that point in my TBR list, I’ll just buy it!

The trick to getting libraries to find out about your books if you’re self-pubbed or just getting started is to get reviewed. Libraries don’t always rely on reviews (Stephen King doesn’t need good reviews!) but for a relatively unknown quantity, it’s just hard for libraries to find out an author exists. And when money is tight like it is now, if there’s a choice between a book that is reviewed and a book that is unknown and not reviewed, the choice is to go with the review.

Librarians look for reviews in a few specific places; Library Journal, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews. Except for PW they are all library trade specific. And they all review everything from children’s material to adult. School Library Journal is an offshoot of Library Journal that reviews just children’s stuff. There are also review magazines, online plus print, that are specific to genres, like RT Book Review (romance) and Locus Magazine (science fiction and fantasy) that some libraries get.

RT Book Review has pretty broad distribution in bigger libraries and does sometimes review self-pub and indie-pub romances. Kirkus also reviews indie and self-pub books. Kirkus also has a way for self-pub authors to expedite (meaning pay) for a review. This doesn’t guarantee a good review, but it does guarantee a review. It’s not cheap, but it will get seen.

Library Journal began reviewing ebook-only romances in August 2011. They have reviewed at least a couple of self-pubbed books, regardless of whether they were available to libraries or not.

I’ve been thinking of paperbacks thus far, but a lot of self-published authors are going the ebook route these days. Are there any special rules for authors who’d like to get their ebooks into the library? Can they send gift copies to the librarian (I obviously haven’t tried this and don’t know what I’m talking about!), or… what’s the process?

It’s not so much a special route as a special name. The name is OverDrive. The only two individual libraries who have worked out a way to manage DRM and simply storing the contents of all their ebooks are the Kansas State Library and Douglas County Libraries in Colorado. Everyone else licenses their ebooks from a company called OverDrive and simply doesn’t have a way to manage ebook gifts. Because authors only want to donate a copy, not the rights for lots of copies, and libraries generally don’t have a way to handle that. OverDrive handles it for them. There are other companies now entering this same market, but this is pretty much a work in progress.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a way for a self-pubbed author to work something out with OverDrive and then offer their books to libraries. There are a lot of “publishers” in the OverDrive catalog that publish the works of a single author only.

For romance authors in particular, finding a way to work this out might be worthwhile. Romances are the hottest circulating category of ebooks for public libraries. And this is a case where the authors do not have to be known quantities to get circulated. Every romance circulated like the proverbial hotcakes. Or hot sheets.

Ebooks in libraries are one of the biggest issues looming on the horizon. The “Big 6” publishers are seesawing about how and if and whether they want to let public libraries loan ebooks to patrons. They are afraid that ebook lending will cost them sales. Publishers forget that people who read, read a lot. People who read also buy. And now that there is data about ebook buying, people who buy ebooks buy more ebooks than people who buy print books. People who borrow library books who could afford to always also bought print books. They would get introduced to an author at the library, then buy their books. The library provided the “gateway drug”. Ebook lending can be the same thing. But if the big publishers get out of the library market, and library patrons still want ebooks, then there will be a LOT of room for small publishers and independent publishers and self-pubbed authors to get in. The demand for people to read ebooks from their library is big and growing. We all just need to find a way to meet it.

Great information, Marlene. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!

Make sure to stop by and visit Marlene’s site for the latest SF/F book reviews.

Posted in Interviews / Success Stories | Tagged , , , | 37 Comments

Tips for Interviewing Authors

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Lindsay

One of the perks of running a blog is that it gives you a place to post author interviews.

Whether you’re a book blogger or you’re a writer yourself, if you’ve spent time building up your site (i.e. getting folks to find it and follow it), you might have the perfect place for authors to “visit.” And an interview is a great excuse to interrogate question your favorite writers. You can ask them about their books, themselves, their plans to take over the world with words, and other fun stuff.

But how do you approach an author? How many blog readers do you need to entice someone to take the time to answer questions? What should you ask if you do get an author to agree to an interview?

I can’t speak for all authors, but I’ll attempt to answer some of these questions.

How do you approach an author for an interview?

In this day and age, most authors have websites, and many will have blogs where they post regularly. If you surf around the site, you’ll probably find an email address or a contact form.

It can be harder with authors who got their start in the pre-internet age. Some of those guys jumped right on board and learned about promoting on the web, but others may never have gotten that involved with the internet and social media. You can always try getting in touch with these folks through their publisher. You might check Facebook and Twitter, too, since authors who aren’t sure about the ins and outs of buying a domain name and building a website might settle for a Facebook page.

Will popular authors agree to interviews on blogs?

One of the truths of being an author is that emails asking questions or requesting help increase as an author becomes well known. I’m a small fry, and even I’ve experienced this more of late. I can only imagine how it is for a bestselling author.

These folks may not have the time to do interviews, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. You never know. You might catch them on a slow day, or something about the theme of your questions (more on that further down) might pique their interest.

An alternative way to snag the popular guys is to find out what their conference/convention schedule is for the year (many SF/F authors in particular are active with conventions) and see if they have a few minutes to answer questions at a local event (make sure to take a recording device — you can transcribe the answer for your blog later or you can simply post the audio file). I’ve seen podcasters in my genre have a lot of luck getting bestselling authors to sit down and answer questions.

Remember, the more popular your blog, the more enticing it’s going to be for an author to appear there, so keep working on building it up and increasing traffic.

How popular does your blog need to be, anyway?

This is going to depend on the person. Some new authors just want to be interviewed and will agree to appear anywhere, but you’ll probably want to wait until you’ve built up a readership and are getting regular blog comments before approaching people.

If you have a fairly popular blog, use that as a selling point when you ask for an interview. Don’t be afraid to say, “I have 5,000 mystery readers who stop by each month and a newsletter with 500 subscribers” or whatever the case may be. If you install something like Google Analytics, you can share exact numbers and even some demographic information about your visitors.

If you don’t have many readers yet, don’t mention that. Some authors don’t really know how to figure that stuff out, so you might get lucky!

What interview questions should you ask authors?

There aren’t any rules here, but you may want to avoid some of the common questions that writers get asked all the time. Authors get a lot of “tell us about yourself” and “what first made you decide to become a writer?” There’s nothing wrong with these questions, but they aren’t always that interesting for the author to answer, and readers who aren’t familiar with the author probably won’t care.

Think of questions that might reward current readers and entice new ones. For example, I recently had a lot of fun answering questions that weren’t about me at all. They were about one of my core characters. The interview was about my assassin, Sicarius, and is up at a reader’s blog. I think the questions are fun for readers of my series, but they might also intrigue someone who hasn’t read the books (authors are always hoping to find new readers!).

Interviews with a theme can be a nice draw as well. If you share the interview on Twitter and Facebook, you need it to grab folks with nothing more than the title. What sounds more interesting to you? Interview with Jane Doe? or Jane Doe Offers Tips on Writing Psychopaths, Serial Killers, and Assassins?

If you have a writing blog instead of a book blog, it may make more sense to pick a theme that will appeal to other authors (i.e. an interview about writing or publishing or book promotion) as opposed to something that talks about the author’s books. Any extra visibility is good visibility for an author, and you’ll probably find that folks are willing to answer questions on a variety of topics related to their work.

Is there any sort of interviewer etiquette you need to keep in mind?

My first tip would be to respect the author’s time. It can take an hour or two to answer questions, especially if they’re thoughtful ones.

When I’m doing interviews, I usually only send five or six questions myself. I’d recommend you send no more than ten and make sure some of those ten are on the type where the response can be on the shorter side. Authors like to write, yes, but they’re busy working on the next book too!

Next, make sure to customize your questions for that author. I’ve had folks send me thirty generic questions and ask me to pick ten that I wanted to answer. Granted, that was early on and for a book blog tour where the blogger hadn’t read my stuff, but I definitely had an “Uhmmm, okay….” response.

If an author agrees to an interview for your site, he or she is probably doing it for book promotion purposes. It’ll be very much appreciated if you include links to the author’s website as well as their most recent book. That way readers can easily click through for more information or to download ebook sample chapters without having to head over to Google.

Many bloggers will schedule the interviews to post on a certain day. It’s good if you can let the author know the day in advance, but do yourself a favor and remind him or her when the post goes online (you’ll need to wait until it’s actually up to send the link anyway). That way, the author can help you with promotion. Social-media-savvy writers will post links on Twitter and Facebook so their fans can check out the interview.

That’s it for my suggestions on interviewing authors. If you have any comments or tips to add, please let us know below!

Posted in Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Cut Scene from Deadly Games

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Lindsay

Happy holidays, everyone!

Here’s a cut scene from Deadly Games, for those who might be done eating and opening presents, and are looking for something else to do. I snipped it early on, because Amaranthe and Sicarius have similar conversations elsewhere in the story, so it’s on the rough-drafty side, but I hope it’ll be a fun extra. After all, how often do we get to see Sicarius shirtless? 😉 (Er, wait, he was nude for a while in EE3. Never mind!)

 * * *

Though the sun had not yet risen, bringing its unrelenting summer heat, Amaranthe perspired like an icy glass of lemonade. Sweat dribbled from her brow, stinging her eyes, and streaked down her sleeveless arms. Moisture slicked her palm and saturated the leather hilt of her short sword. She licked dry lips and forced herself to focus on her opponent and not the tall, cold, quenching glass of lemonade that had invaded her thoughts.

A long, slender rapier blurred under her guard and slapped the side of her ribs.

Amaranthe winced, not from pain–Sicarius was perfectly capable of making his points without hurting her–but from annoyance with herself. He had not even needed a combination attack to get by her that time.

“Focus,” he said, returning to his starting position, a relaxed bent-kneed stance in the shadows of a dilapidated railcar. Above it, dawn brightened the sky, providing enough light to see him and his blade, so she couldn’t use the darkness for an excuse. The fact that he wore no shirt probably wasn’t a good excuse either, even if any woman would struggle not to be distracted by carved-from-granite muscles gleaming beneath a sheen of sweat.

“I know,” Amaranthe said. There, no excuses. He ought to respect that. “And I know knowing isn’t the same as doing,” she added, heading off one of his typical admonishments.

“In a fight between equally matched opponents, the one who retains focus longest wins.”

“We’re not exactly equally matched,” she said dryly, though she knew what he meant. Today he was emulating an army officer, someone who had been raised with a rapier in his hand. Though Sicarius’s own combat style was an amalgamation derived from dozens of fighting disciplines, he could separate them to mimic any number of likely opponents she might encounter.

“This morning we are.” Sicarius twitched his blade toward hers, indicating she should assume a ready stance again.

“Right.”

Amaranthe wiped her palm on trousers too damp to act as a decent towel and lowered into an athletic stance. Her thighs burned, a reminder of the hour of “warmup” footwork drills they had done first.

Sicarius came forward at half the speed he was capable of. It was enough to keep her busy.

Advance, advance, lunge. His rapier tapped her sword wide and glided toward the inside of her shoulder.

She whipped her blade back in to parry the stab and pushed his across, thinking to open up his kidney, but the rapier was already dropping for a second attack, this time to her groin. She should have known the first was a feint. Acting on instinct, she jerked her short sword down. It wasn’t a pretty move, but the satisfying clash of steel announced an effective block.

There was her opening too. With his blade low, and briefly trapped below hers, his neck was unguarded.

Amaranthe grabbed the back of his arm with her left hand, pulling him forward and–she hoped–off balance while she moved to his side and slashed her blade toward his neck. Her sword was shorter than the rapier, but had razor-sharp edges on either side, giving it versatility in close quarters. She doubted he would let her get close to his neck, but she shifted the angle anyway, to hit him with the flat of the blade. Excitement thrummed through her. Maybe she would actually get a–

Cold steel at her own neck made her freeze.

It was not Sicarius’s rapier–she had put his body between her and that weapon–but a military-issue dagger that rested against her collarbone. Amaranthe sighed and lowered her short sword. She had been two inches from her target, but it might as well have been a mile. This “army officer” had just killed her.

Sicarius lowered the dagger and stepped back. “Your focus was good, but too narrow. You must be aware of all that is conspiring around you even as you keep your eyes on your target. Use your peripheral vision and your other senses. Did you hear the whisper of the dagger leaving its sheath?”

Amaranthe stared at him while she decided whether “whisper of the dagger” deserved a serious answer or a sarcastic one. She knew he expected a serious answer, but, really, who besides him had those kinds of senses?

“Do you know why I like training with you?” she asked.

He gazed back, his expression giving her no hint of his thoughts, though she imagined him mentally bracing himself for an inappropriate and completely not serious followup.

“You’re at your most garrulous when you’re lecturing me on my mistakes. If we didn’t spend time together in this manner, I’d never get more than one word out of you.” Amaranthe smiled, hoping he knew that, despite her teasing, she appreciated his efforts–his dead ancestors knew it was surprisingly generous of him to spend time every day training her and the others. “If I didn’t put myself in these situations where you can chastise me, I’d never get to know your chatty side.” She lifted her eyebrows, hoping she could coax a comment out of him.

“So,” Sicarius said, “you did not hear me draw the dagger.”

Amaranthe dropped her face into her hand. That wasn’t the comment she had hoped for. “No,” she said. “No, I didn’t.”

“We will practice again.” He returned to his starting position.

“Oh, let’s leave some fun for when the others get up and join us. You’re planning on leading a group weapons drill, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I could use a few minutes break before we start up again with them.”

“You are weary?” Sicarius regarded her through half-lidded eyes.

“No!” Amaranthe threw up a hand. “Not at all.” If she admitted to being the faintest bit tired, he would say that meant she required more exercising, thus to build her endurance. She had learned not to make that mistake months ago. “I’m just…” She looked down at herself. “Sweaty. And dusty. And, uh…” She found a lock of damp hair that had escaped her bun and was sticking to her cheek. “And I need to fix my hair. I need to look professional for the men. Didn’t you say that once?” Yes, that was a pathetic excuse, but it might buy her five minutes. She laid her sword down, grabbed a towel, and tugged her hair free so she could tighten it.

“You are fine,” Sicarius said.

His eyes tracked her movements. Had she more courage, she might have offered up a suggestive wiggle of her hips, but she doubted he had anything prurient on his mind, and she would only end up feeling foolish.

“Anything else you want to chastise me about before we wake the others?” Amaranthe asked.

“Yes.”

Amaranthe stifled a groan. “Truly? Did I just open myself up for castigation?”

“Mancrest,” Sicarius said. “It is unwise to solicit him. A warrior-caste lord will not traffic will criminals.”

“You just think he’s a bad bet because he wrote unpleasant things about you. True things, as I understand it.”

Sicarius’s chin came up, and his tone cooled. “There was no truth in his proclamation that I kidnapped Sespian and intended to assassinate him. His articles on assassinations I did commit were full of hyperbole.”

“We’ve discussed this, though,” Amaranthe said. “Because he wrote those articles, he’s the perfect man to turn to our side.”

“He will not turn.”

“Maldynado is warrior caste, and he turned. He’s happy to be working with us.”

“Maldynado is a disowned fop,” Sicarius said. “He lacks the unyielding loyalty to the empire that members of the aristocracy have indoctrinated into them from birth. You should choose a plebeian journalist. Someone who has already expressed dissatisfaction with the status quo would be a logical choice.”

“But less of a victory if we get him.”

“Is this a race at the Imperial Games? We don’t need a victory, only for someone to cast doubt on the idea that we’re criminals, working against Sespian.”

“No,” Amaranthe said. “I think you’re wrong. Getting a staunchly loyal-to-the-empire warrior-caste scion to vouch for us, or at least suggest we might be reputable, would be many orders of magnitude better than a piece by a disgruntled plebe.”

“After the last time one of your ideas nearly got you killed, you said you were going to start listening to my advice.”

“I always listen to it,” she said.

“And dismiss it.”

“Usually because it involves torturing people. You probably think that’d be an acceptable way to get a journalist to write what we wish.”

“You can’t trust Mancrest,” Sicarius said with more dogged stubbornness than she remembered him using for any argument. For some reason he cared about this; he wasn’t content to let her hang herself. “He’ll try to trap you again if you arrange another meeting.”

Amaranthe grabbed her towel and her sword. She’d had enough of the discussion. If the previous night had ended without a hint of yielding from Mancrest, she could understand Sicarius’s argument now, but Mancrest had been curious about her. Emperor’s warts, he’d even laughed and flirted at the end, though if he was anything like Maldynado that did not mean much. But it was promising, surely. A sign that he might one day listen and–

Her thoughts skipped backward. Mancrest had flirted with her. Was it possible that was what was bugging Sicarius?

She draped her towel around her neck and searched his face, wishing it gave more clues. “Are you worried he’ll trap me, and I’ll be in danger? Or are you worried…he won’t?”

“What?”

Amaranthe almost accused him of being intentionally obtuse, but maybe she was being intentionally vague. No, not maybe. Probably. But she couldn’t bring herself to straight out ask if he was jealous. She had a hard time believing that was the case, and she would end up feeling stupid for asking.

“It’s time to wake the others for training,” Sicarius said.

“Yes, of course,” Amaranthe murmured, her head down as as they walked back to camp.

 

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

How Editing Works for Independent (Self-Published) Authors

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Lindsay

In the year that I’ve been self-publishing, I’ve been fortunate enough to receive many nice reviews and compliments on my work. It still tickles me to hear that other people enjoy spending time with my characters as much as I do.

It’s always nice to hear, as well, that someone believed the editing was of good quality, because that’s one of the areas where it’s tough to match up with the traditional presses. Even when you have beta readers and hire a freelance editor, you still don’t have as many eyes going over a manuscript as you’d have with the traditional system.

My Early Experiences

As with many new authors (AKA folks who aren’t yet making anything from their writing), I was trying to save money with my first manuscript, The Empeor’s Edge. I hired someone offering to proofread inexpensively on a forum. He said he was an English teacher, so I figured that was good enough.

He ended up editing the heck out of the manuscript, and most of the suggestions were incorrect. I don’t mean that we had stylistic differences of opinion; I mean the guy didn’t know how to punctuate dialogue correctly. In the end, it was a big waste of time for both of us, and, no, he didn’t offer to refund the money, even though I pointed him to sources on the web for examples of proper punctuation.

Lesson learned for me.

I went on to hire another editor (an actual freelance editor with a website this time!), though I was still trying to keep my costs down, especially since I’d just wasted money, and went for a simple proofreading. Overall, the experience was good, but readers did point out quite a few typos or flubbed words that had slipped through. (I should qualify that, I suppose, because some indie books are riddled with errors — EE had maybe 20 in 105,000 words, which isn’t a ton, but it bothers me when that many things slip through.)

It’s funny (or sad?) that I actually went into that first book thinking, “Oh, it’ll be nearly flawless since I ran it through my writing workshop twice.” Right. Note to self: beta readers are, rightfully so, usually more concerned about story and characters than fixing your typos, and, even when they do point such things out, you tend to add in as many errors as you fix when making corrections.

These days, I’m fortunate to be making enough from my book sales that I don’t have to scrimp quite so much, and I can afford to pay for a couple of read-throughs with an editor who has many years of experience in the business. She has a good eye and catches a lot. (If only I could get her to follow me around and proofread my blog posts, Facebook messages, and Twitter tweets.)

You’re probably always going to have a few things slip through (hey, that even happens with books from traditional presses), but it’s good to know that those types of errors are few and far between.

Hiring an Editor and Associated Costs

So, if you’re first starting out, what should you look for?

First off, let’s talk about the different options you have as a writer hiring an editor. And, because you’re probably wondering, we’ll discuss costs, too, though these will vary a lot from editor to editor.

Developmental/Substantive Editing

You can find freelance editors who specialize in developmental editing. This is where they’re going to look at narrative flow, consistency, logic, story and character development, etc. In short, they may tear your manuscript to shreds and tell you to re-write entire chapters.

This is the most expensive form of editing, and you may very well get quotes in the $2,000-$4,000 range for a novel-length manuscript. If you write epic fantasy tomes that, if dropped, could kill a chihuahua, then you might get an even higher quote.

While developmental editing often includes copy-editing/proofreading, I personally think that this is too much to pay for most self-publishers. You’re putting yourself into a huge hole right from the beginning, and it can take a long time (if ever) for your first novel to earn out when you start with such high expenses.

I believe that free/inexpensive writing workshops can fill the same role (the nice thing about a workshop is that you get to experience the editing styles of multiple other writers, some of whom know those grammar rules forward and backward, and you can develop long-term, beta-reading relationships with the ones whose suggestions click with you).

You’ll learn a lot from the workshop process too. I’m sure some will disagree with me, but I don’t think you’re ready to self-publish if you’ve never had strangers shred your work before. Friends and relatives don’t count. Your fellow writers will be some of your toughest critics, so if you can get them to like it, then maybe you’re ready for the next stage, hiring an editor and pubishing that puppy.

Copy Editing

This is when an editor reads through, often twice, to look for typos, missing words, frequently used words (apparently my characters were “lunging” all over the place in EE3!), incorrect words, grammatical boo boos, and awkward sentences.

The editor won’t typically make comments about story or character, so you should be confident that you have things fairly well nailed down ahead of time. Of course, some editors may stray into developmental editing territory from time to time if they see the need. It’ll depend on the editor and what you ask for.

With copy-editing, expect your person to make changes in the text. MS Word is what most people in the biz use, but you can find Mac-friendly editors, too, who have Pages. With either program, you can choose to accept or reject the changes with a mouse click.

Note: if you’ve been writing for a while, and you’re very confident in your style and your characters’ voices, then you may find yourself rejecting a lot of the suggestions (I do this, much to my poor editor’s chagrin). It’s not at all uncommon for freelance editors to have more experience with non-fiction than fiction (this whole rah-rah-self-publishing boom is quite new!), so there can be a little friction when it comes to matters of style. Just remember that you’re the boss, and it’s okay to reject changes! Most editors will understand that you’re not necessarily going to agree with everything. Once you find an editor you like working with, you’ll both get more used to each others styles.

Copy editing costs are usually figured on a per-word or per-page basis, so get out your calculators. Typical costs might be in the neighborhood of one cent per word. So, if you need 100,000 words copy edited, that’ll be $1,000.

I’ve definitely seen editors who charge more, but that may be getting into the realm of too-pricy-for-a-self-publisher. You need to shop around to find an editor who does a good job for you and offers an affordable rate. Don’t be afraid to ask an editor to give you a break. It won’t always happen (it’ll probably depend on how busy they are), but many are sympathetic to indie authors. They know a lot of us are just trying to start our writing careers up and don’t have a lot of money to spend.

But be realistic in your requests too. If you know grammar isn’t your strength, and there are likely a lot of flubs in your manuscript, be aware of how many hours are going to be involved in editing it. You may be tickled if you find someone on Craigslist or a message board to copy-edit your 150,000-word novel for $200, but you may either a) get a poor result or b) end up paying someone the equivalent of two dollars an hour. Neither are cool.

Note: Because editing, even copy editing, is a big expense, you may want to look for editors who offer sample edits. This might be a few trial pages for $25 or some such, and that gives you an idea about the suggestions they’ll make. I highly recommend this, even over getting recommendations from other indie authors (unless you’ve read that author’s book and found their editing to be nearly flawless). Remember, others indies are often new to the game, too, and haven’t necessarily worked with enough editors to make useful comparisons.

(Editorial) Proofreading

This is your least invasive (or, as the case may be, least corrective) form of editing and typically involves checking for typos, missing words, punctuation issues, etc. You may only get one pass from an editor here.

Costs for a novel-length manuscript may be in the neighborhood of .0035 to .006 a word, so a fraction of a cent per word. It doesn’t sound like much, but even that adds up for something novel-length. You may want to go ahead and pay for copy-editing, so that you get a more thorough look from an editor.

Editing Software

If you absolutely can’t afford to hire an editor, editing software such as AutoCrit is an inexpensive option and can help you find some of the common mistakes in your manuscript. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve heard good things from those who have.

Personally, I’d put the pennies toward hiring a human being unless you want to use the software in conjunction with hiring an editor later. They do have a free trial.

* * *

Okay, readers, authors, and editors who might pop in, anything to add? I know I’ve seen a lot of variation on what exactly falls into each category of editing, so I imagine folks might have differing thoughts here.

Posted in Editing | 68 Comments

10,000 Ebooks Sold and Encrypted Mentioned in RT Book Reviews

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Lindsay

This morning I received a nice email from Heather Massey over at The Galaxy Express. She let me know that Encrypted had been mentioned in the latest issue of RT Book Reviews.

Oh, that’s neat, I thought. It wasn’t until I Googled the site and looked around that I realized this was a) a print magazine and b) one I’d actually seen before at the bookstore. Apparently they’ve started a new column called “What’s Hot this Month in Self-Publishing.” (How cool is that?)

There’s no way I’d be able to find a copy of the magazine down here in Australia (though they’ll probably get a subscription out of me when I get home — part of their master plan, right? 😉 ), but Heather was nice enough to type up the blurb:

Encrypted By Lindsay Buroker
Genre: Fantasy
Print or e-book: E-book

Summary: A young professor may be the only one who can decode old runes, which is why the enemy has kidnapped her from her home. Her only hope may lie with a fellow prisoner as threats to their world increase.

Why you should read it: With more than 10,000 e-books sold, Buroker is certainly making a name for herself in the world of self-publishing. Her most popular books are part of her Emperor’s Edge series, of which she just completed her third book.

I’m guessing they got the sales numbers from Amazon, because I haven’t even tallied things up yet for the year (it’s kind of a pain to separate free downloads from paid ones). I figured I’d hit that mark though, so many thanks to all of you who have tried my books! And thank you, too, to RT Book Reviews for starting a column to highlight self-published authors.

If you’ve stumbled across this post and haven’t read Encrypted yet, you can try the first couple of chapters on my site. The ebook is, of course, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords too. Paperback coming later this winter. 🙂

Also, if you like steamy science fiction romances, check out Heather’s books, Once Upon a Time in Space and Queenie’s Brigade.

Posted in Ebook News | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

Story Updates and Why My Ebooks Aren’t in the Amazon Prime Lending Library

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Lindsay

Hi, folks. Just a quick “news” update today. The first half of this post is for the Kindle folks, and then there are a few story teasers at the end.

Why my ebooks aren’t in the Amazon Prime Lending Library

If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’ve probably already heard about the new “lending library” where you can check out an ebook a month for free. I believe just about every author and publisher is getting the option to put their ebooks into the library, and, while they won’t make as much as they do on book sales, they’re supposed to get a little compensation (there’s a set pot and participating authors get to share it).

I’ve opted not to participate because Amazon requires 90 days of exclusivity for titles enlisted in the program, meaning I wouldn’t be able to continue to sell my ebooks at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, iTunes, etc.

I also wouldn’t be able to sell them on my own site, and I’m hoping to add a little store here in the not-too-distant future. I’ll have all of the ebooks for sale, of course, and I also plan to make it so you can order signed paperbacks. I know that’s something a few folks are interested in. Since author copies are cheaper than typical copies, I should be able to offer the signed paperbacks here for the same price as if you were to buy unsigned paperbacks through Amazon or B&N.

Anyway, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Lending Library, and if Amazon gets rid of the exclusivity clause, I’ll enroll my books.

Other places to borrow a copy…

In the meantime, if you’re looking to borrow rather than buy, I know the Flash Gold stories and Emperor’s Edge books come up from time to time on BookLending.com, and I imagine they are on other lending sites too. (If anyone has one to recommend, please let us know in the comments below!)

Story updates

For those who wonder how future stories are coming along, I’m working on the rough draft of EE4 now and am about a third of the way into the novel. Some teasers?

Emperor Sespian, as you probably guessed from the way 3 ended, will be coming back in this one. Yes, he, Sicarius, and Amaranthe will get a chance to “chat” (well, you know, Amaranthe will chat and Sicarius will try not to loom as menacingly as usual), though I haven’t yet decided if all the details of certain relationships will come out in that conversation.

Sergeant Yara, from Book 2, will also have a role, and we’ll finally get to meet someone from Maldynado’s family (though his story won’t be the focus until Book 5). Akstyr is the secondary point-of-view character in this one, and he’s already scheming up trouble.

For the steampunk fans out there, I finished the fist draft of the next Flash Gold story (Peacemaker) during NaNoWriMo, and, though I’ll probably wait until I finish the rough of EE4 to start editing it, a few teasers…

There’s a murderer killing native women in Dawson, leaving Cedar worried that Kali will be targeted. To make things worse, his past is coming back to haunt him. Or, perhaps hunt him is the better word. Also…there will be airship pirates, up close and personal this time. Kali will have to build herself a new weapon to escape their clutches.

(More blog posts should end with the word clutches, don’t you think?)

Posted in Ebook News | 13 Comments

Should an Indie (Self-Published) Author Create an Imprint (i.e. their own “press”)?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Lindsay

PressIf you go surfing around Amazon, you’ll notice a lot of the books in the Kindle Store that look self-published and yet have publishers listed. Boom Stick Publishing. Harvest Moon Press. Soft Kitty Productions…

With the proliferation of small presses out there, it’s hard to know, at a glance, which ones are actual publishing houses (with a submissions process an author must go through to have a book accepted) and which ones are simply made up.

Made up, you ask?

Well, yeah. When you’re uploading an ebook into the Kindle Store, there’s a field for publisher, and if you type something in, I doubt Amazon checks whether a press with that name exists or not. In fact, given the number of indie authors with presses listed, I’m sure Amazon doesn’t check. Oh, I imagine some of those authors have actually filled out the paperwork and created a business entity with that name, but I’d guess a lot haven’t.

I was never particularly tempted to do this because I like to embrace being an indie. For me, self-publishing wasn’t a choice of last resort. It was something that appealed to me for a number of reasons, and I haven’t regretted choosing this path. I know there’s a stigma associated with self-published books, but I’m not willing to disguise my books by making up a publisher so people will think I’ve been published by a small press.

That said, someone more experienced (and more successful) than I said that indie authors should create an imprint because a) reviewers who say they won’t take self-published fiction might consider work from small presses and b) there are readers who refuse to try independent authors, so you should make your books look like they’re not self-published.

I’m all for trying to make the packaging of my books professional, but I don’t think it’s in me to make up a press in an attempt to look like something I’m not.

What are your thoughts, authors? Have you conjured up a press for your books?

Readers, are you more likely to try a book with a publisher listed? Or would you be irked if you’d found out an author had made one up?

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , , , , | 71 Comments

Creating a Facebook Fan Page for Marketing — One Author’s Experience

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Lindsay

Back in August, I finally put up an author fan page on Facebook. I say finally because it was on my to-do list for months before I actually did it. I’d never been a big fan of Facebook when it came to having a personal account, just because I never seemed to be able to find anything, and if I did find whatever elusive thing I was looking for, Facebook would have an update and hide it from me again.

But 600-odd million people are on Facebook, so it seemed like an up-and-coming author should be there, too, right?

Despite my waffling, I’ve found it to be a good experience, yes.

Has my Facebook fan page led to more book sales?

It’s hard to pinpoint where sales come from. As an independent author, you can see real-time sales numbers at Amazon and Barnes & Noble — something that can be helpful with linking promotional campaigns to results… or a lack of results — but they don’t tell you where those sales came from. Did a visitor originally click through from Facebook or Twitter, or did the visitor simply find your book by surfing through the bookstore? It’s impossible to know.

Sometimes readers will tell me how they first found my books (i.e. I tried your sample after seeing a post on Twitter or I found your free ebook at Amazon and got into the series that way), but I don’t think anyone has mentioned Facebook to me yet.

I imagine there are at least some folks who have tried the freebies I have listed there, but for now I’m thinking of the site as more of a place to keep in touch with folks who have already read the books and who enjoy interacting on Facebook. If you read last week’s post on author branding, you know I try to be out there everywhere I can.

Maybe I’ll figure out how to be more effective on it in the future (I’m not one to go running around, liking a bazillion things or participating in oodles of discussions in the hopes that some bored person will find a way back to my page), but for now I can say that the page seems like it’s worth keeping and that it plays a small role in my book-promotion efforts.

How do I get fans for my Facebook page?

I have 300-some fans (this is just when someone “likes” your page), which isn’t all that many, but I don’t believe in asking random people for likes. Not because of any moral issues with the notion, but because, from what I’ve read, your page will do better with fewer fans, fans who actually interact with it, than a lot of drive-by like-clickers who never return again.

The fans I do have on there came from…

  • a few initial posts on Twitter where I let my followers know that I’d set up shop on Facebook
  • a brief advertising campaign I tried for sharing my free ebooks (I wasn’t looking for likes when I did that, but if you’re advertising a FB page, Facebook will put the like option right on the ad.)
  • adding my Facebook page to the afterword in my recent ebook releases
  • people gradually finding my page through other means (in particular, I posted a picture of a sand-sculpture dragon that went viral and had something like 160 shares and 400 likes, and I remember I had a bunch of fan page likes during that unusual week)

What do I post on my Facebook fan page?

Despite my past difficulties with Facebook, I’ve found it to be easy to keep my author page updated. It’s the work of a couple of minutes a week. I post book updates, of course, and links to blog posts I think fantasy fans might find interesting.

I’ve also posted pictures of cool things (like that dragon I mentioned). Pictures seem to do very well on Facebook, meaning people like, comment, and share them readily (when your updates have a lot of interactions, they’ll appear on other people’s walls, so it’s a bit of viral marketing).

Some people do more and get very involved in the community, but I ultimately prefer to focus on other things (like writing the next book!).

What’s the point? What can a Facebook fan page do for you?

You might be thinking that it’s not worth the effort, especially since I couldn’t say, “Oh, I’ve sold XXX number of books solely because of my Facebook page.”

I believe there are some pluses to having a presence there even if it’s not immediately apparent that it can help you sell books (of course, just because Facebook hasn’t sold a lot of books for me doesn’t mean there aren’t authors out there who have had different experiences):

  • Some of your fans are there, waiting for you — With so many folks on Facebook, it’s inevitable that some of your readers (and future readers!) will hang out there. People who enjoy Facebook like to interact on there every day, not just with friends and families but with businesses and, yes, authors too. The first week I made my page, a nice reader popped in and said, “Oh good, I was waiting for you to get on Facebook!”
  • Advertising on Facebook becomes more affordable and practical once you have a fan page — I’ve only tinkered with this a little bit, and Facebook advertising should probably have its own post, but the short and sweet of it is that it’s cheaper to send people to a fan page than it is to send them off-site (i.e. to your Amazon book page or your blog). There are ways to put sample chapters and links to free ebooks right on your Facebook site.
  • Being on Facebook gives you a place to chat with your readers — While some people might come to your blog and comment, there are more who are likely to interact with you while they’re in the process of interacting with other folks, so it can be worthwhile to hang out where they hang out. (It’s the topic of another post, but this is why I have my blog syndicated on Goodreads.)
  • Facebook fans can share your links around — You may only have a hundred fans for your author page, but if a couple of them share some of your links now and then, you’ll have people that you couldn’t otherwise reach becoming aware of you and your work. If you have freebies or samples up on your Facebook page, these new folks can easily check you out when they pop in.

How do you get your own Facebook author page?

You can go here to make a Facebook fan page now.

You can use something like PageModo to make a free landing page or gate page if you want visitors to come in on something more enlightening than your wall. (A gate page is one where people are required to “like” your Facebook presence before they can get to the meaty stuff — I don’t do this, but I do have a welcome page that tells new visitors who I am and what they can do on my Facebook site.) If you don’t like the PageModo wizard, and you don’t want to do the coding yourself, you can also hire someone to design a custom Facebook page for you for around $150. (I’m having this done and hope to have the new version up in January.)

Authors, readers, what are your thoughts on Facebook?

Posted in Social Media | Tagged , | 8 Comments