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DropTheAnvil
May 16, 2021

Leng posted:

So there are three big authortube channels making trending "unpopular writing opinions" videos that have all said they agree with the hot take "indie/self-publishing well requires financial privilege", which made me kind of mad. Mad enough to make a 13 minute video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_D-9JXCRHg

I don't fully understand what the context is around self-publishing requires financial privilege. I do know people can have polarizing opinions around privilege, so I don't want to go in with a half-assed response here. I'm gonna watch the videos you sourced from and come back if I have anything worthwhile to add.


newts posted:

Okay, guys. I haven’t posted in here before because I haven’t had a reason to. But I wrote a book. Now I need a cover for my Mystery/Detective/Sci-Fi novel. It’s the first in a series. Please tell me how much it sucks.



Looks cool. Judging by the cover I believe this is a mystery novel, with a woman being a central character. Would flip over and read blurb. Send a link when it's out!

Below is only minor nitpicks:
I don't know what "joint-investigation" is, or rather, I don't know why I should care. "A Sherlock Holmes Mystery" on the front cover tells me what to expect, and what the novel is about.

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newts
Oct 10, 2012

DropTheAnvil posted:

Looks cool. Judging by the cover I believe this is a mystery novel, with a woman being a central character. Would flip over and read blurb. Send a link when it's out!

Cool! It’s working :)

quote:

Below is only minor nitpicks:
I don't know what "joint-investigation" is, or rather, I don't know why I should care. "A Sherlock Holmes Mystery" on the front cover tells me what to expect, and what the novel is about.

Yeah, I’m just having trouble picking a good series name—they all sound super lame to me.

ETA: Updated based on feedback:

newts fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Aug 23, 2021

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


I'd make the title smaller, it's crowding the artwork. Or just move it down a bit and put the author name up top. I wouldn't let the title go higher than where the raincoat ends.

newts
Oct 10, 2012

ravenkult posted:

I'd make the title smaller, it's crowding the artwork. Or just move it down a bit and put the author name up top. I wouldn't let the title go higher than where the raincoat ends.

Thanks! I’ll try that out.

DropTheAnvil
May 16, 2021

Leng posted:

So there are three big authortube channels making trending "unpopular writing opinions" videos that have all said they agree with the hot take "indie/self-publishing well requires financial privilege", which made me kind of mad. Mad enough to make a 13 minute video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_D-9JXCRHg
/rant over

So I watched the videos you sourced. Something to note is all of the videos are answering the same question, and they all reference each other's channels.

The question is too vague to answer correctly, so I think everyone hedged their bets. You even touched on it in your video, the question asked is "To do Indie publishing well (... more details ...) takes a level of financial privilege that many don't have. Well is vague and each response covers things from marketing, editing and even profitability.

If I ignored how vague the question was, I would agree with the videos you sourced. Taking a look at developmental editing costs, at 9 cents a word, an 80,000 word manuscript can cost $7,000 just for a developmental edit https://marykole.com/how-much-does-an-editor-cost. That gets into numbers where people may not have the money to take that gamble. I haven't researched into marketing, or covers, but I think to do "Well" in those categories, the costs there are hitting a thousand dollars.

Leng
May 13, 2006

One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind


No other road
No other way
No day but today

DropTheAnvil posted:

So I watched the videos you sourced. Something to note is all of the videos are answering the same question, and they all reference each other's channels.

Yes, that's the nature of YouTube. The original question came up as a response to an anonymous survey Kate Cavanaugh ran on her channel, then her video elicited responses.

DropTheAnvil posted:

If I ignored how vague the question was, I would agree with the videos you sourced. Taking a look at developmental editing costs, at 9 cents a word, an 80,000 word manuscript can cost $7,000 just for a developmental edit https://marykole.com/how-much-does-an-editor-cost. That gets into numbers where people may not have the money to take that gamble. I haven't researched into marketing, or covers, but I think to do "Well" in those categories, the costs there are hitting a thousand dollars.

Yeah, no one is contending it doesn't take money. It does take money.

My point is that to jump from "it takes money" to "it requires financial privilege" ignores a whole heap of things. It ignores considerations like access to financing (other than from your own pocket), start up costs and risks relative to other industries but mostly it ignores that there's difference between people who are self publishing as a hobbyist and people who are self publishing in order to earn income.

The cost for a book doesn't change depending on whether it's being published by a traditional publisher vs a self publisher. The difference is, in self publishing, you're also starting a business as a publisher, in addition to being an author.

If you're in this just because you want your name on the cover of a book, that's cool, but that's also a hobby, and just like any other hobby, if you want to produce something that's at professional standards, then yeah, it's gonna be an expensive hobby and I won't argue that expensive hobbies require financial privilege.

But if you're in this to earn income, then calling it a financial privilege is a real stretch and makes light of things that are actually privileges. You'd have to call starting any other small business (like a restaurant) an endeavor that requires financial privilege too, and self publishing is considerably less risky in comparison, given how little you actually have to front up in investment costs.

Camo Guitar
Jul 15, 2009
I'm been wondering how to spruce up my rough looking $30 Gumtree writing desk for a while and then it finally dawned on me. A couple of minutes with the work printer printing out my covers and under the removable glass top they go! Now spill proof and also inspiration when I get stuck on my latest work in progress while thinking 'Well this isn't going anywhere, let's start again...'




One more space left for whatever I write next. When I finally get around to it..

Leng
May 13, 2006

One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind


No other road
No other way
No day but today
Amazon KDP just went wide with their hardcover printing beta. Everybody who has ever wanted to do a hardcover but didn't want to hassle with IngramSpark, login to your Bookshelf now!

(unless you're publishing with square/custom trim sizes like me, in which case continue to grit your teeth and bear with IngramSpark...)

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!

Leng posted:

Amazon KDP just went wide with their hardcover printing beta. Everybody who has ever wanted to do a hardcover but didn't want to hassle with IngramSpark, login to your Bookshelf now!

(unless you're publishing with square/custom trim sizes like me, in which case continue to grit your teeth and bear with IngramSpark...)

had a look at this, didn't get around to working out the resizing of my cover art

but I absolutely concur: OFFER A HARDBACK. I got this advice from a self-pub author who finds it useful for pinning a high price point, thus making his paperback and ebook look cheaper by comparison. He'd previously do the hardback through Lulu, but this will increase the convenience.

Leng
May 13, 2006

One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind


No other road
No other way
No day but today
Annnnnnnd KDP are doing that thing where I can't ship a proof copy of the hardcover to an Australian shipping address.

:suicide:

I might have to do the thing where I just live publish it and then sneak order a copy to myself to double check. Whhhhhhy.

n8r
Jul 3, 2003

I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar
Anyone have a recommendation for a layout person that can do simple interior layouts with some photos. These are simple non fiction books (about dogs).

Leng
May 13, 2006

One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind


No other road
No other way
No day but today

Leng posted:

I might have to do the thing where I just live publish it and then sneak order a copy to myself to double check. Whhhhhhy.

Annnnnnnd 3 days later, my hardcover is live. But I STILL can't ship a copy to Australia because apparently "the book is not available for Australian customers right now". WHHHHHHY???? It's a book! You can ship it anywhere!?!??!?! I do not get it.

Dream Weaver
Jan 23, 2007
Sweat Baby, sweat baby
Well, maybe it needs more stickers?

In other news I started posting my web serial on royal road and it’s been an experience.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46687/red-mist

Have a look and see if my multiple rounds of edits have made it any good! 3 chapters are up and I’ve started queuing up a week ahead.

I think that doing review swaps has helped a bunch but that’s a whole thing on its own and I hope to have a bigger picture in a month.

Dream Weaver
Jan 23, 2007
Sweat Baby, sweat baby

White Chocolate posted:

Well, maybe it needs more stickers?

In other news I started posting my web serial on royal road and it’s been an experience.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46687/red-mist

Have a look and see if my multiple rounds of edits have made it any good! 3 chapters are up and I’ve started queuing up a week ahead.

I think that doing review swaps has helped a bunch but that’s a whole thing on its own and I hope to have a bigger picture in a month.

Dropped from 34,000th to like 3,860 after two weeks of consistency, so it’s not very difficult to get up there, but I think there’s some strategy to it.

newts
Oct 10, 2012
Author bios. If you’re publishing under a pen name, how truthful and specific do you get? Or how vague? My gut is to be truthful but not include anything really identifiable.

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!

newts posted:

Author bios. If you’re publishing under a pen name, how truthful and specific do you get? Or how vague? My gut is to be truthful but not include anything really identifiable.

It's part of your marketing, treat it as such.

Doom Mathematic
Sep 2, 2008

Leng posted:

Annnnnnnd 3 days later, my hardcover is live. But I STILL can't ship a copy to Australia because apparently "the book is not available for Australian customers right now". WHHHHHHY???? It's a book! You can ship it anywhere!?!??!?! I do not get it.

As I understand it there are actually laws about this. I think the idea is to protect publishers in the country in question from being undercut by insanely cheap publications coming from outside the country? Or something like that?

newts
Oct 10, 2012
Now I have a new question! I’m currently trying to format my manuscript for paperback, but I’ve run into a problem I can’t solve.
I figure there must be someone else here who has formatted a manuscript for paperback using MS Word and dealt with similar issues, so why not?

I want to have a fancy first line to start off each new chapter, as you do, but Word adds extra spacing after this line, like so:



I know the issue is caused by the large font size of the first letter. And the most common suggestion to fix is to change the line spacing from ‘single’ to ‘exactly’ in the Paragraph dialogue box. However, no combination of lines selected, or specified point sizes seems to fix the issue for me: I can squeeze that extra space between the first two lines down, but lines further down now have huge spaces. Nothing has worked!

I realize using a drop cap on that first letter (instead of the larger font size) would solve this issue, but drop caps don’t work for me either: the letter is always cut off at either the top or the bottom. I can’t fix this after hours of work. I’m totally stuck. I’ve been all over the internet trying to find a solution to this problem, but I just… can’t. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with Word.

Anyone have any suggestions? I’m pulling my hair out here.

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Using Word for layout is an exercise in futility.

Fuschia tude
Dec 26, 2004

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

divabot posted:

It's part of your marketing, treat it as such.

I think newts is asking, what's the morality of inventing a wholly fictional biography and persona for your penname, rather than just writing vaguely-but-truthfully about yourself?

newts
Oct 10, 2012

ravenkult posted:

Using Word for layout is an exercise in futility.

I know it is, but this is what I have to work with right now :(

Fuschia tude posted:

I think newts is asking, what's the morality of inventing a wholly fictional biography and persona for your penname, rather than just writing vaguely-but-truthfully about yourself?

Yeah, this. Sorry, I should’ve been more clear: Do people using pen names also use fictional biography details?

Madurai
Jun 26, 2012

First experience using the Kindle formatting app: surprisingly not terrible. I managed to convert a book into publishable format on the first try, without having to export through Scrivener a dozen times with increasing levels of screaming each time.

Dream Weaver
Jan 23, 2007
Sweat Baby, sweat baby
I used the epub generator that you get from royal road premium and… it’s not terrible??? My book isn’t done but for five dollars a month you can get it just put into the right format easily. Anyone that wants to see the result, I’ll gladly send it to you.

Icon-Cat
Aug 18, 2005

Meow!
Those of you doing KDP hardcovers, interested in your reviews and/or photos when the copies come in. I know it may never be as high-quality as Ingram's or as pretty as a dust jacket, but I'm glad they're dipping their toe into those waters, and it can only get better from here, presumably!

I have kind of stepped away from fiction this year, most of my creative time was spent with my first love, scripts. But I knew I wanted to do something about our first post-pandemic Halloween, and maybe do something a little different (just a little) from my John-Hughes-ish Halloween romcoms. Giveaway ensues…



Samantha hates her job, her debt and her general circumstances, and if that weren’t enough, her first post-pandemic Halloween isn’t shaping up to be any fun. Unenthused about the prospect of another day (and week and month and year) stuck working in a boring health food store, Samantha hopes that dressing as a witch will help recapture the magic in her life… or at least conjure up a little Halloween fun.

But when a mysterious black cat crosses her path, Samantha’s holiday hijinks take a turn for the weird, culminating in a spooky confrontation with the scariest horror of all: her own future.

Award-winning writer and filmmaker Adam Bertocci has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The New Republic, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Back Stage, Broadway World, E!, Maxim, IGN, Wired, Film Threat and more. This wistful-yet-witchy short story explores the mysteries of improvised cat care, growing up, and what’s really important in life.

Free through Sunday Oct 24: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B09JDGJBKM/



Fuschia tude posted:

I think newts is asking, what's the morality of inventing a wholly fictional biography and persona for your penname, rather than just writing vaguely-but-truthfully about yourself?

Purely on a gut level I say go for it. Especially if you're writing fiction. If you're concerned about ethics, don't make yourself sound more "qualified" than you are or give yourself expertise you don't have (like, don't write a story about the police and have your pen name claim he did X years with the NYPD). JK Rowling did something like that with Robert Galbraith, which makes me inclined to side-eye her, but maybe we're just all used to side-eyeing Rowling these days…

Icon-Cat fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Oct 20, 2021

Dream Weaver
Jan 23, 2007
Sweat Baby, sweat baby
That’s awesome. When I order my author copies I’ll make sure to show the results.

My question is, what kind of awards merit recognition as a self-published author? Winning a watty? NY times bestsellers? #1 on their genre on amazon?

Leng
May 13, 2006

One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind


No other road
No other way
No day but today

Icon-Cat posted:

Those of you doing KDP hardcovers, interested in your reviews and/or photos when the copies come in. I know it may never be as high-quality as Ingram's or as pretty as a dust jacket, but I'm glad they're dipping their toe into those waters, and it can only get better from here, presumably!

My hardcover for my low content book came in last week. Pages are still somewhat see-through but it was better than I expected. Sorry about the lighting, but hopefully this gives you a good idea.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!
How does the hardback paper and printing compare to the paperbacks?

Icon-Cat
Aug 18, 2005

Meow!
Hm - based on that, the cover is nicer than I was expecting, the paper worse. Although maybe the see-through-paper issue is only a problem because your pages have so much white on them to see the other side, it doesn't look bad when I'm looking at your text and graphics, only the white space. Thanks!

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!
Ya know how big publishers are having a paper shortage right now? Gossip it's hitting Amazon print on demand too.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AaronFown/status/1452252280913371140

I sell signed books from a box I ordered (maybe a pair a week?) - might be worth getting a spare box in while I can.

Leng
May 13, 2006

One song / Glory
One song before I go / Glory
One song to leave behind


No other road
No other way
No day but today

divabot posted:

How does the hardback paper and printing compare to the paperbacks?

Icon-Cat posted:

Hm - based on that, the cover is nicer than I was expecting, the paper worse. Although maybe the see-through-paper issue is only a problem because your pages have so much white on them to see the other side, it doesn't look bad when I'm looking at your text and graphics, only the white space. Thanks!
My KDP paperback is a kid's book with full color interior so it's not exactly comparing apples to apples. But I do feel like the paper is similar - there is some slight transparency in white spaces (especially if one side has a lot of color and the illustration on the other side is a smaller spot as opposed to a spread) but overall it's okay. I like the IngramSpark printing better, personally.

divabot posted:

Ya know how big publishers are having a paper shortage right now? Gossip it's hitting Amazon print on demand too.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AaronFown/status/1452252280913371140

I sell signed books from a box I ordered (maybe a pair a week?) - might be worth getting a spare box in while I can.

This was only a matter of time. Pretty glad I decided to delay my second book to next year!

newts
Oct 10, 2012
Hey, guys! I just published my book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KP5NVZ1/ It’s a Mystery/Sci-fi thing. More detective fiction than sci-fi, I suppose.

I didn’t post much in here, but the thread was an invaluable resource. I worked on this from start to finish in the Creative Convention forum, so it really feels like an SA baby :love: Not really sure if I care if it sells at all because It’s been mostly a fun learning experience. Spent zero dollars (but not zero effort) and this is the result. Yes, I know my cover is not the best. And my blurb could be better. I’m okay with it right now.

Got a sequel in the works now, so I’ll start caring more once that’s ready to go.

DropTheAnvil
May 16, 2021
Would you be able to talk more about how you formatted your ebook?

newts
Oct 10, 2012

DropTheAnvil posted:

Would you be able to talk more about how you formatted your ebook?

I just used Kindle Create, which worked fine for me because I didn’t have anything fancy. I basically formatted the book in a docx file, using styles for formatting, and imported that into the app, which spits out an editable file. There, you can customize it a little bit: adding drop caps, making a ToC, and changing how it looks. Not many options, but a few.

The issues with it are that you can’t preview the actual ebook on your own devices (you can use the Kindle Previewer which isn’t always accurate). It also produces a file type that’s, as far as I understand it, proprietary to Amazon, so you can’t use it anywhere else. Also, the ‘Look Inside’ feature reads the formatting in a different way than most devices, so while it looks fine on Kindle, it looks wonky in the ‘Look Inside’ (which is something Amazon should really get on top of).

I am probably the least-qualified person to ask because I just chose the easiest route.

John Cenas Jorts
Dec 21, 2012
Follow the advice in this thread and you too can have a #1 NEW RELEASE in an INCREDIBLY NICHE category on the Kindle Store

divabot
Jun 17, 2015

A polite little mouse!
Ultra niches are great. The loved one just released an album on Bandcamp and it made #1 in Light Music and #5 in Modern Classical!!

on sales of 4 downloads

And #1 in Mood. It's officially a big Mood.

here it is

Camo Guitar
Jul 15, 2009
Anyone else doing discounts for Black Friday? While it's probably in the minor leagues compared to some of the authors on here, 11 book sales so far today has finally got me across the $100 US payout threshold for Aussie authors so I'm stoked!

(Just don't ask me how many years it took to get there..)

I mean who wouldn't want some cyberpunk fiction to go with their new bargain fridge? Wait..

Blue Scream
Oct 24, 2006

oh my word, the internet!
Are erotica/erotic romance serials a viable thing anymore? My writing partner and I have a story idea that would translate well to the format, but I haven't seen anyone sticking up for Kindle Vella as a useful platform. It seems like the other options are going Patreon with Royal Road, Radish, and Wattpad. I published some novels on KDP back in 2017, but it looks like that's not the place for this kind of project.

KrunkMcGrunk
Jul 2, 2007

Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.

i'm not writing serials or shorts (generally) but from others i have heard nothing good about kindle Vella. Seems like it isn't panning out.

Calico Heart
Mar 22, 2012

"wich the worst part was what troll face did to sonic's corpse after words wich was rape it. at that point i looked away"



Hello all!I recently completed my Tabletop RPG, DEAD IN THE WEST! It was funded on Kickstarter a while back, and earlier this year all the physical copies for backers finally shipped after a long delay due to COVID.

I guess, as someone totally green to the industry, I'd like to ask if anyone has any advice on shifting copies of my little indie game? I have about 25 books left from the first run. I really have no idea where to start - a few local stores are carrying it, and I made a big long effortpost on these forums that seems to have slipped by unnoticed.





For those curious, you can hear some folks playing my game on this cute little actual play podcast.

Additionally, if anyone is interested themselves, digital and physical copies are available here. Code "goonsgowest" will also give you a lil' discont!

any advice and help welcome!

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Dream Weaver
Jan 23, 2007
Sweat Baby, sweat baby
After like three books on self publishing, one do you have a social media presence and two do you have a mailing list, those seem to be the key beyond word of mouth. That's the regular old fiction or non-fiction book rec.

Since this is also a gaming supplement, I assume it's also fighting for space with other possible games that people would play. The last three games that were TTRPGS that I picked up to play were in this order, and reason.

Blades in the dark- heard great things about thw system and it didn't dissapoint

Honey Heist - was a comment in dungeons and daddies or TAZ that caught my notice.

PBTA- I was only interested because of friends at the table and the desire to play this or band of blades, couldn't get a group going


So my advice is to get this into the hands of .ore people who want to play it and can review it, and/or do some live plays and get some buzz with it.

Think about why you picked up a certain game or supplement and take that to its logical conclusion . I picked honey heist because the rules were one page and my time was short. I picked blades because I wanted to see how it worked.

People don't just play alone, they play with groups. And often it's the one person bringing in the game and explaining the rules. I have been that person frequenly.

David Gaughan has a good series of books about mailing lists and the nuts and bolts of self pub. Much of that is about finding your ideal audience. Think about your ideal audience and where they hang out online(this is why I joined the progression fantasy subreddit and discord).

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