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It ain't a romance novel until you describe a white girl as "alabaster" in some way or another.
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Nov 11, 2011 01:21
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| # ? May 11, 2024 23:02 |
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PROPOSAL: goon erotic anthology.
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Nov 11, 2011 01:56
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vseslav.botkin posted:PROPOSAL: goon erotic anthology. Result: The Neovella thread.
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Nov 11, 2011 03:07
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vseslav.botkin posted:PROPOSAL: goon erotic anthology.
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Nov 11, 2011 05:11
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There's a thread in trad games about the game business. I made a post that I think would be useful here. It's geared towards print but whatevs well I can talk about that since I'm a small publisher - (BUY MY BOOK http://www.zombiesoftheworld.com/the-book/ Kenneth Hite liked it!) Distribution is a racket - almost all book stores use one of a few major distributors to carry their poo poo. Zombies of the World uses Partners Distribution right now http://partnerspublishersgroup.com/ and they haven't charged me for signing up (but they have for shipping books to them) and I'm not sure how they would handle other new publishers. They're smaller so you have contact them to see what kind of deal you can get with them. Anyway, I contacted the Barnes & Noble small press division and sent them a copy of ZOTW. http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/for_authors/how_to_work_with_bn/how_to_work_with_bn.html B&N accepted it and they use Partners distribution so they ordered copies from Partners. I looked into Hastings and Books A Million but both they only use Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Take a look at the Baker & Taylor Vendor application - from http://www.btol.com/pdfs/EstRelationship.pdf quote:STANDARD PROGRAM – $125.00* And this is only if they accept you. So you have to sell a lot of copies just to break even to the major chains. You can market directly to libraries and book stores via the IBPA http://www.ibpa-online.org/ You sign up with them and then you can get in their regular marketing campaign - for example they will send a flier you supply to them to 4,000 libraries http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/library.aspx but this costs in addition to the cost of printing and mailing the fliers to IBPA. I haven't done that yet because I'm trying to finish up a ZOTW based novel so I can promote two books instead of one.
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Nov 11, 2011 20:37
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That's a lot of information to absorb, but an excellent post. I'm still at a loss as to how to deal with ISBN issues. Ie; I don't have the money for it.
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Nov 11, 2011 21:40
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I spent some time looking around on Amazon reading reviews for self-published books tagged under "werewolves" since my book is close to done and it has, well, werewolves in it. I found some hilarious author tinkering going on. There were several books with glowingly positive, but flower as hell reviews that were too verbose and obviously the author and maybe their families. Then the one star reviews came up. Reviews that turned into arguments between the reviewers and the authors and their cronies. Hilarious, hilarious arguments. These were universally for books that were reviewed as having thin plots, bad dialogue, and lousy characterization. The reviews were probably spot on and the author just confirmed it by trying to defend themselves. What I'm saying is that you should never do this.
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Nov 12, 2011 03:57
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Geekboy posted:I spent some time looking around on Amazon reading reviews for self-published books tagged under "werewolves" since my book is close to done and it has, well, werewolves in it. I found some hilarious author tinkering going on. There were several books with glowingly positive, but flower as hell reviews that were too verbose and obviously the author and maybe their families. Yeah I've seen a lot of this as well. I'm doing some research on self-publishing metrics as a sideline to writing a NaNoWriMo project, and an amazingly large minority of self published books on Amazon have great reviews that are suspiciously similar to the authors sample or are obviously friends/family. I can't find it now but one 5 star review even mentioned what an awesome guy the author is. Nothing but bad reviews can't help but obvious shill reviews are just as bad.
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Nov 12, 2011 20:29
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On the one hand, no matter how I end up getting this thing published when I'm done with it I would be awfully tempted to have my more literate friends and family members throw up reviews just so that I have something to get me started, but seeing these things on Amazon makes me realize just how bad an idea that is. Maybe a few of my friends who are honest and can actually form words into sentences that make sense, but even then I'd feel the need to throw up a comment acknowledging that I knew the person. Of course, someone like my mother is right out and probably should never be allowed to read the reviews since she tends to be defensive. Maybe I can manage to enter an alternate reality or create some sort of fantasy land where someone like Neil Gaiman is my friend and he can write a blurb about loving it and I can be all, "Hey, folks. Take this with a grain of salt because this here is MY FRIEND WHO I KNOW IN REAL LIFE.  "Of course, I don't actually know him and I have no illusions about my writing being that good, so . . . Either way, writing your own reviews in a distinct voice that WOOPS just happens to match the voice you write in for your book makes it pretty obvious. Especially when that voice is overly flowery and has bad grammar.
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Nov 12, 2011 21:47
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I wonder... what if, in every book you published, you said something saying that people buy based on reviews, yet people never write reviews... so to encourage your readers who made it all the way to the end of the book, you'll give a free copy of your next book to a random reviewer, good or bad?
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Nov 13, 2011 02:14
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tarepanda posted:I wonder... what if, in every book you published, you said something saying that people buy based on reviews, yet people never write reviews... so to encourage your readers who made it all the way to the end of the book, you'll give a free copy of your next book to a random reviewer, good or bad? That's not a bad theory, I don't see how it could hurt you to suggest it at the end. Though if someone hated your writing, I can't imagine they'd want to read more of what you'd wrote.
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Nov 13, 2011 02:33
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Roar posted:That's not a bad theory, I don't see how it could hurt you to suggest it at the end. I was thinking of the little PBS voiceovers saying that the shows were funded by "viewers like you," but I guess I'm most worried about Amazon deciding that it's a violation of the TOS or something.
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Nov 13, 2011 05:50
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Well, finally went live on Amazon and Smashwords today! Trials By Fire - Richard Hein  http://www.amazon.com/Trials-Fire-Divine-Order-ebook/dp/B00676KQBE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1321218732&sr=8-5 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104696 Hot drat it's been a long time coming.
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Nov 13, 2011 22:17
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squirrelzipper posted:Yeah I've seen a lot of this as well. I'm doing some research on self-publishing metrics as a sideline to writing a NaNoWriMo project, and an amazingly large minority of self published books on Amazon have great reviews that are suspiciously similar to the authors sample or are obviously friends/family. I can't find it now but one 5 star review even mentioned what an awesome guy the author is. Yes, I've seen some authors that I like and respect write up reviews for their own books. I just face palm. Isn't it common sense that you do not do that? I'm already pretty embarrassed that my mother insisted on reviewing my story and refuses to remove her review (I may put pressure at Thanksgiving). Thanks that info, ClockWorkJoe. I'm looking to turn my pub company into a small press at some point, so that's some great, great stuff.
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Nov 14, 2011 02:03
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Was this available for pre order? I could have sworn I saw it before somewhere... I spent an unholy amount of time browsing through amazon's kindle section last week though, so that might be it.
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Nov 14, 2011 02:19
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Congrats, Mortanis! Who did your cover?Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Was this available for pre order? I could have sworn I saw it before somewhere... I saw it first on the selfpublish part of reddit, so maybe there? I also interviewed our very own Ross Payton (clockworkjoe) on my blog. I think it's a great read, but I may be biased.
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Nov 14, 2011 07:49
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My book cover was done Kristi @ http://www.kristikirisberg.com So very crazy to look at Amazon and see my work there.
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Nov 14, 2011 18:33
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Are you all typing your manuscripts in Word and then converting to other formats? What do you use to convert from Word? I tried to follow a guide I saw on using styles rather than local italics, but when I converted my manuscript it stripped all my styles. This was with Mobi Pocket Creator.
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Nov 14, 2011 20:31
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Mortanis posted:My book cover was done Kristi @ http://www.kristikirisberg.com Wow, really digging her work. It's the kind of vibe that I want to pursue for some of my stuff. Was the price reasonable?
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Nov 14, 2011 21:44
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The cover and the rights set me back 600$. I'm more than happy with that, and went in looking for a high-quality artist, so for me it was reasonable. Based on a few other artists I queried (for lower quality work no less), I find the money well spent.
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Nov 14, 2011 22:01
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Holy moly, yeah that's a little out of my price range at the moment, but I agree that it's worth it. Maybe someday.
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Nov 14, 2011 23:51
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The cover artist for Zombies of the World is Ean Moody http://moodyillustrator.com/ His prices vary based on what you want, but you can definitely get a lower price than $600. Just throwing that out there 
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Nov 15, 2011 00:10
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Literally just saw this on metafiter: http://www.metafilter.com/109443/From-IDEA-to-SOCIAL-MEDIA A bunch of videos/links about the lifecycle of a book.
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Nov 15, 2011 04:07
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clockworkjoe posted:The cover artist for Zombies of the World is Ean Moody http://moodyillustrator.com/ Thanks, bookrmarked him. I have a pretty good working relationship with a good cover artist now, but it never hurts to have options.
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Nov 15, 2011 04:10
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Hi again, been a few weeks but my newest very odd childrens style book is out! http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/2139373/e7c7bdd9642fc3f86be5201c8431a167ccb713cb?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget
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Nov 15, 2011 06:56
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So this is a big deal: http://www.thepassivevoice.com/11/2011/penguin-launches-a-self-publishing-service/
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Nov 16, 2011 20:07
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It's a big deal that Penguin is the one doing it or that someone is doing it? It seems like bad business for the author unless you're just lazy. You're giving up a percentage of sales on top of a flat fee. Why not pay the flat fee somewhere else and keep your full 70%? Are formatting and a cover really worth losing royalties forever?
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Nov 16, 2011 20:56
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I'm horribly unimpressed. Penguin's BookCountry doesn't seem to have that much oomph behind it in the first place, and you get hit with multiple levels of fees / royalty cuts from the various channels on top of Penguin. What, if anything, is the author getting out of this that they couldn't figure out on their own if they spent 15 minutes on Google? Is Penguin putting any kind of marketing oomph behind your book? I highly doubt it; for that much effort, they'd just traditionally publish you instead. You're not getting access to extra distribution networks, not getting an artist, not getting any marketing assistance... what exactly are you paying for? quote:Are formatting and a cover really worth losing royalties forever? It doesn't even say that you get a cover. You get access to a cover creator. Edit: http://bookcountry.com/CMSContent/Templates/Marketing.aspx?pageid=120483 ^^^ Fee lists. quote:Professional Print and eBook: $549 Your Publishing Kit posted:The Professional Publishing Kit includes: Sundae fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Nov 16, 2011 |
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Nov 16, 2011 21:18
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Humbaba posted:It's a big deal that Penguin is the one doing it or that someone is doing it? It seems like bad business for the author unless you're just lazy. You're giving up a percentage of sales on top of a flat fee. Why not pay the flat fee somewhere else and keep your full 70%? Are formatting and a cover really worth losing royalties forever? To be clear, it's a big deal that Penguin is doing it. And while I think it's a terrible program and no one should use it, it's probably the best deal I've seen from a traditional publisher.
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Nov 16, 2011 22:27
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vseslav.botkin posted:it's a terrible program and no one should use it Agreed. It is interesting that Penguin's trying (feebly) to get into the game, but they're gonna fail hard. That, or be successful by finding gullible self-pubbers who don't know what they're doing.
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Nov 16, 2011 22:36
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The biggest thing I wonder is why now? They're ridiculously late to the game, and they think they're going to break into Amazon's self-pub market with a horrible, sub-par program? Even if it's the best a traditional publisher has put together so far, the only advantage I can see is the $6.00 manufacturing fee per copy for print books being slightly better than what the average CreateSpace or Lulu paperback charges for PoD. Everything else is not only terrible, but several years behind the other self-pub players.
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Nov 16, 2011 22:41
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They're dinosaurs. Slow to change, slow to realize potential. They've probably felt threatened for a while. It just took them this long to get something (crappy) together.
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Nov 16, 2011 23:24
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Jesus sweet Jurassic Christ, are you kidding me? That's just loving terrible.
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Nov 17, 2011 03:13
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That penguin deal is a complete and utter ripoff, for 549 dollars, I should also get a thorough proofreading and a cover, at the minimum. Still, if Penugin did offer that, it would make their traditionally publishing arm completely pointless, which it is well one its way to being anyways. --- In other news, my twitter feed as of this writing is currently up to 7307 and will be most likely hundreds higher when you get around to clicking. All those followers are finally starting to pay off, as I'm currently average one a day sold so far in November. As of this writing, I've sold seventeen books over sixteen days.People are starting to love A Clear and Feathered Danger, so What Lies Within, the sequel, makes up six of those sold. Edit: Help me out and enjoy a good book! Roshi fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Nov 17, 2011 |
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Nov 17, 2011 05:18
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Roshi posted:That penguin deal is a complete and utter ripoff, for 549 dollars, I should also get a thorough proofreading and a cover, at the minimum. Still, if Penugin did offer that, it would make their traditionally publishing arm completely pointless, which it is well one its way to being anyways. what are you doing to market yourself on twitter?
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Nov 17, 2011 05:53
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clockworkjoe posted:what are you doing to market yourself on twitter? --- I'm almost done with the fourth K23 novella's first draft and could finish it in a day of solid writing if I put in the effort, but am waiting for the sales to continue of existing. But I'm going to put out a print version of the compilation and I'm paying my goonette cover artist a lot for a good print cover. It'll come out in December.
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Nov 17, 2011 06:19
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Is anyone brave enough to talk about how well their book is selling? Are people making any money? CoffeeCat fucked around with this message at 10:35 on Nov 19, 2011 |
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Nov 19, 2011 05:24
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I aint making poo poo, the blurb books are way too expensive. I wish I could sell physical copies for 99cents. Support independent artists!
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Nov 19, 2011 18:12
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Roshi posted:Rant, rave, go on tangents about random crap and bug people to buy my stuff, which works surprisingly enough. I also have the usual series of links referring back to my blog and buy links. My story about Tampons for Ogres got a bunch of hits and a few sales from it. I'm using Tweet Adder but I wouldn't have got the explosive growth of my feed(more than doubled in October from 2 to 5k, took 8 days to go from 5 to 6k, 7 days from 6 to 7) if people didn't find my feed extremely entertaining. My feed would be even larger, but I'm no longer following back, so I get lots of unfollows. With twitter, you really need quality followers, Quantity gets you nothing.(another popular post about #teamfollowback) How often do you send out promotional tweets vs content tweets?
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Nov 19, 2011 20:48
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clockworkjoe posted:How often do you send out promotional tweets vs content tweets? Content tweets are whenever I feel like, Promo-tweets are every 45 minutes when my computer is on, generally from 6-7am to 10-11pm.
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Nov 20, 2011 00:11
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