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I'm going to be taking a crack at self publishing later this year with a project I've been working on for almost a decade. I've finally settled down to finish it, rewrite it, get it edited, and self-publish. I'm quite obviously a long way from the actual publishing, but it doesn't hurt to start doing homework early. My last name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Does anyone have any suggestions concerning self-publishing and pseudonyms? I'm not sure how it affects things like copyrighting, or the entire process.... or if it's even something I'll do. It'd just be odd publishing under a different name. For a blog/social media aspects, I might just go with the title of the series of books (for the Facebook and Twitter handle/domain/etc) I'm working on, though it worries me that might be a problem if I decide to branch out after the series is completed. My primary profession is currently web design and server management, so I plan on leveraging it when the first book if finished and edited, but I'd like to start thinking about this stuff while I'm still writing, rather than sitting with a completed book and having to spend the effort to figure this all out.
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May 10, 2011 20:32
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Sounds good. In that case, I'm going to skip using my name as part of my domain name and twitter handle and just do something that sorta implies I'm an author, once I get to that stage, and publish under my name. Trust me, it won't work well as a domain you want to give to people vocally. I've got to say, this thread has been an inspiration. I've been writing for longer than I've been doing just about anything else, but never bothered to finish anything. A few months back I heard about self-publishing, and thought that the ideas and mindset behind it really fit with what I was looking to do with my writing, and reading this thread bumped it from "Yeah, when I finish something, someday" to "Okay, let's set some goals and do this."
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May 10, 2011 21:47
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Secret Agent X23 posted:I went the opposite way with this. I've spent my whole life watching people mangle my oddly-voweled last name mercilessly and relentlessly, both in spelling and pronunciation. Some of the variations would have seemed quite creative if I hadn't known it was simply the result of sheer cluelessness. We're talking about adding extra syllables and wedging in letters that have no conceivable reason to be there, even in a phonetic spelling. That's exactly what I'm worried about. While I've grown accustomed to spelling out my last name every time I give it (especially due to the fact that the "common" spelling of my last name is different, thanks to my father's birth certificate spelling errors), I know there's no way the general population is going to spell it right for search engines. When you signed up for publishing services, do you sign up in your real name and just have the pseudonym on the book? Does your actual name show up at all as the author, or do the publishing services let you set that separately from your billing information?
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May 11, 2011 16:54
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Something I'm definitely considering once I finalize this book, since early on spending money to get people buying and (hopefully) generating buzz and word of mouth is worth a few bucks lost per click/book sold.
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May 18, 2011 06:04
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Purchased and I'll give it a read here when I find some free time. Been picking up a few goon-created books from this thread for quick reads and supporting the cause and all that.
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May 26, 2011 00:34
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What sort of related forums do you post on to drum up those sort of sales? And is the Facebook pay per click, or do you also have to pay by impression? Haven't really looked deep into it yet, since I'm still a bit off from selling, but it pays to be aware early.
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May 26, 2011 20:33
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Ah, related to content, not related to self-publishing. Interesting idea, though I'm not sure where "Victorian-era-style-fantasy" winds up (not steampunk!). The world I'm working with has late 19th/early 20th technology for plot reasons, but none of the fantastical gears-everywhere or steam powered mechs stomping about.
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May 26, 2011 22:28
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I agree that it sounds like it could be abused, but I think the self-publishing area is ripe for outside the box ideas that go beyond "pay $, get book". I could see a popular enough self-pub author doing a "members club" with a small entry fee to extras beyond the book - advanced reading copies for review, signed print on demand copies, short stories that are only available through the club for the first 6 months, or something. The best part about self publishing is that really, your only limit is your imagination, unlike traditional publishing. Of course, the same thing could be a serious drawback.
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Jun 7, 2011 21:11
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I know the feeling. Feels like I haven't read in forever. My writing laptop gave up the ghost last week, and I just now got a new one, so I'm making up lost time in earnest. Got all my domains purchased, blog set up, twitter and Facebook created and started looking around at forums like kindlebooks.com in preparation. Course, I'm just over a third in towards my target word count, then comes revising, editing and finalizing it all, so really I'm months away from actually using any of it.
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Jun 9, 2011 03:57
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FingerbangMisfire posted:Well done, man. (Kindleboards hasn't done much for me personally, but I've heard others swear by it). Yeah. I figure that "Brand Awareness" is an important feature, and having my (pen) name as part of the name will just be easier for anyone using a search engine or taking a look on twitter. Now I just need to buckle down and finish writing. Hoping to have the remaining 60k words or so done by end of summer and get something up on amazon et al by mid fall.
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Jun 9, 2011 16:30
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Has anyone had much luck with Amazon's Print on Demand service for their ebook? I'm looking at https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/ under "Distribution and Royalties". First, it doesn't look like they have the standard trade paperback size (6.75 X 4.25), so what would be a good size to use? Second, it looks like without going for "Pro", the cost becomes pretty prohibitive. I'm not going to have a 13.99 POD version of my book. However, the "Buying Copies" looks reasonable for use as promo books at least. Pro isn't terribly expensive - $39 per book, $5 annually for that book from then on. Has anyone looked at POD and offer any experiences up?
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Jun 13, 2011 18:17
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Oh, yeah. I'm familiar with the bulk way it works. I work at a print company, and while we don't do a lot of books (not trade paperback, anyway, more like instruction manuals or artist portfolio stuff), we work in bulk as well. I wasn't sure if anyone could comment on the specifics of the pricing versus quality - I have no idea what PoD books look like and feel like, how the glue holds up, what the cover is printed on, how fast it ships, if people have gotten any physical book sales from them enough to justify it, etc. I'll probably do a few "Author Buys" when my book is ready to roll and give some comments on that, though that's still months away sadly.
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Jun 13, 2011 23:04
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Myrddin Emrys posted:What I like about Smashwords so far (just published there last night) is that I can make my own promotions. Made myself a "free" coupon, and gave it out to some twitter followers last night. Got some people interested, which is always nice. And I appreciate the code! Loading it up on my Kindle now for a lunchtime read.
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Jun 17, 2011 16:46
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Finished the first book of my trilogy. I've shelved it to let it age a bit and moved on to writing the second novel, but as I'm doing the second one, plots and thoughts are starting to materialize in a "should add/change that with book 1". Now I'm thinking I might not release any of them until the whole trilogy is done, so I can weave better plots and foreshadowing through all of them, though that sets me back from being published for quite a long time. Maybe there is something to being too meticulous...
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Jun 29, 2011 18:43
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I guess I'm the dissenting voice here, as I don't find a 5$ ebook to be terribly out of my range of comfort. It kinda bums me out when people throw out things like "It's a bit pricey for an indie", when I thought we were trying to tear down that distinction. However, you'll find that the two sweet spots really seem to be $.99 or $2.99, depending. Higher than that isn't innately bad, but I'm obviously not of the same mindset as the majority of people who have already expressed that 5$ seems high to them. In the end, I don't think 5$ is high, but if the majority of people do think it's a tad too much, it's probably a good idea to listen to the masses on something like this. Also, Goat Bouillabaise - bought Shadow of a Dead Star based on your post here, and finished it last night. I really dug it. Maybe that's cause I live in the pacific northwest and have played a metric asston of Shadowrun in my day, but I think you did a good job of evoking a cyberpunk feel without it coming off as BEING Shadowrun/Blade Runner. Liked your prose, dug the main character, and the plot moved at a decent and believable pace.
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Jun 30, 2011 16:08
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Yeah, that's fair. And I wasn't really meaning people in this thread specifically - I don't think anyone here actually said "for an indie" so much as "unproven author", which is true. Sorry if I came off as condescending.
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Jun 30, 2011 17:07
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Enjoy the cover, picked up the first of the series. My backlog of reading is a bit full, but hopefully I'll rectify that soon.
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Jul 8, 2011 21:35
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I would really like to urge people that are self-pubbing to please, please consider professional editing. I know that it costs a decent chunk of change, but if you're going to publish, please consider that your work deserves a professional touch to make sure all the worst offenders are caught. I'm not going to name any work in particular, but I had to put down one that was covered in misspellings (not even accidental, the same misspelling was used twice in the same paragraph), obviously incorrect punctuation (periods and commas outside quotes being a big one), and a dozen other annoying to outright obnoxious items. You owe it to yourself to treat this like a wonderful, professional project. Please don't type it up, proof it yourself, and upload it to Amazon.
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Jul 11, 2011 16:22
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I realize it can be pricey, but anyone with some experience (not just beta readers that might not be versed in what needs to be done) should help. I'm planning on paying for professional editing, and figure it'll set me back about a grand for my trilogy, and doubt I'll ever make that back, but I'm not really in this to make money. It'd be nice, but it's not the end goal. Plus, paying for that editing gets me a better chance of selling well, in the long run, the way I see it. I owe it to myself to treat this the best that I can.
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Jul 11, 2011 18:44
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Oh, I agree. I can deal with a healthy dose of bad commas, and if it doesn't throw me out of the book, I don't really care. What I was talking about was much harder to read, though. Something along the lines of:quote:"This is a test sentence". He said, sipping his wine. "I have this tendency to put punctuation outside my quotes and use the wrong one", He continued sighing. That makes it really hard to follow the flow. I'm not nitpicking the normal run of the mill mistakes everyone makes that leak into a book. I'm talking about things like above, or using "site" for "sight" or other homophones.... not poor comma placement in general or too many adverbs. I guess I'm a bit too touchy about this.
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Jul 11, 2011 19:06
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Really dig that cover, though the font doesn't really do it for me. Personal preference though. In the editing stages of my first book, and looking at cover artists. Looks like I might have to drop half a grand to find a cover I like. Really lamenting letting my own art skills atrophy over the last 15 years now.
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Jul 14, 2011 19:35
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Oh, it's certainly not bad. I don't quite like the font, but it's not bad by any stretch.
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Jul 15, 2011 01:45
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Finally almost done with the self editing of my first book. Clocks in around 85k words, and I've gone through about 72k of them so far. Pretty sure I need to rewrite the climax and maybe add another chapter for pacing, but it's nice to be nearing the end. Then it's off to some trusted friends for review and see where it goes from there. Then professional editing and a cover. Ugh.
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Aug 7, 2011 01:09
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Well, got my first book self-edit done today. About to send it to a few trusted friends for beta reading, and depending on how that goes, should be sending it out for professional editing in a month or so. Pretty excited, though self-editing took way, way longer than I'd anticipated. A good learning experience, however. Back to writing book 2. 22k words in so far, but I've been so focused on editing it'll probably take me a bit to get back into the groove.
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Aug 13, 2011 23:16
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What do you all consider more important: Editing or a good cover? Professional editing will help with narration, picking up plot holes, finding slow parts as well as grammar and comma problems. Professional editing could change a good book to a great book, or at least help make a mediocre book hurt less. It only helps for people that pick up your book, though - it might help them to buy more of your books, but it only matters once they've been hooked. A good cover will catch more eyes, though. It helps with that initial pull in, hopefully converting a "maybe buyer" into a purchase. Sadly, a lot of people seem to pass on a book with a mediocre cover, even if the blurb is interesting and it might be something they might otherwise buy, because a mediocre cover says "unprofessional" to them. It's sad people look that way, but true none the less. Put another way, if you had enough cash to cover only one, which do you think would A: produce better sales, and B: make you feel better about your work?
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Aug 19, 2011 23:19
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Doctor Zero posted:Why would you sell your work short? Editor, editor, editor. Do you want to be known as a lovely writer with good covers? See, that's how I feel as well. I'm actually kinda surprised at the number of replies about the cover. It's not just about sales for me. Naturally I'd like to make money, but I feel I'd be more rewarded, personally, by having an editor tackle my stuff. Yes, if you can do both, then you should do both. I'm looking at maybe not being able to do both, and feel editing would be my best bet, but wanted to see what others thought.
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Aug 20, 2011 05:15
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I've found artists that do work that I'd be very proud to have on my covers for $500ish. If I were going to do an art cover, I'd want a traditional fantasy style with digital/traditional painted characters and scenery, rather than some text and stock photography (not really going to find stock photography that would work for my genre, in any case). I've looked at some editors that I like the quality of work and depth they go to for you for about the same price. I'm having trusted friends do beta reading/giving feedback/editing for grammar, punctuation and flow, but I'd also feel better to have a professional do it. Given the two, I'll likely spring for the editing, and do the cover myself. The cover I've worked up thus far is simple, but should work well enough.
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Aug 20, 2011 06:51
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Azure_Horizon posted:I've sold 12 copies in a week and a half. I lowered the price on both Amazon and Smashwords to $2.99 because I felt a 225 page novel shouldn't really be going for $3.99. Have you looked at Amazon's Createspace? https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/ I'm going to give it a shot when my book gets back from editing late this fall, but click the "Distribution and Royalties" tab. Generally you'd want to set up as Pro, since it's a pretty reasonable price (IIRC, 35 a year per book), and nets you better profits. If you click the "Buying Copies" tab, you can also self-purchase the printed version of the book at a discount for giving away to friends/promotions. I'm looking at the 6" x 9" option, myself. If I understand correctly, and I admit I've not looked hard into it as my books isn't quite ready, it'll even show up on Amazon.com under the normal print book, and cross promote with your KDP e-book. This also has a free ISBN version (though I'm going to buy my own ISBNs to ensure I own it through and through for use anywhere).
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Sep 1, 2011 00:12
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Well, think I finally secured an artist for my cover. My beta readers are still beta-ing, then it's off to editing with a launch of hopefully late October or early November. That'll be about 6 months from start to finish for my 85k book, with about 22k (that needs heavy revisions based on feedback from book 1 changing plot threads a bit) slapped down on book 2 already. Many thanks to this thread, and the posters, for keeping inspiration and motivation high. Finish line is finally in sight.
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Sep 2, 2011 20:29
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Why would I vote something 5 stars if I simply liked it? 5 is the best rating you can give. Unless it's in the top cream of the crop of books I've ever read, "good" doesn't get you a 5. Agree that 2 being "It was okay" is pretty odd. That's a 3, the perfect center of the curve - neither good nor terrible, it simply was okay. Most books I've enjoyed I'll rate 4. If they have prose problems, character issues or just didn't hit a groove, it's probably a 3. Lower than that, I generally won't rate. I know it's hypocritical, since I feel honesty is pretty important and what's more honest than rating something you TRULY didn't enjoy as a 1 or 2, but I feel it might be a bit too harsh. Maybe it's just not for me, but others enjoy it - voting a 1 or 2 could really screw up the rating curve, even if I (subjectively, of course) think it's pretty poor.
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Oct 5, 2011 23:27
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Still waiting for my beta readers to get me my feedback before I send it off to get line-edited, but I got my cover back today. Overall, I'm pretty thrilled with the way it turned out. Really drat anxious to publish. All this sitting around and waiting for feedback, then waiting for publishing... it's driving me nuts. 50% done with book two already while I wait, though.
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Oct 20, 2011 21:43
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Can I get a quick poll here: How many have paid for any type of professional editing, and what type (Copy Editing, typo-detection, in-dept plot review, etc)? I'm in the final stages of tweaking based on my beta reader feedback. I've been pretty adamant I was going to pay for some pretty in-depth editing, figuring I owed it to myself to do things right, but with Christmas on the way and my car breaking down, the funds I had set aside have vanished. I think I've got a pretty good mastery of the language, so it's not like I'll be churning out steaming poo poo - but I'm worried that any typo, mis-placed comma or incorrect hyphenated word will destroy credibility and keep me forever "indie" (when used as the pejorative sense). I'd like to do it the professional and best way, but I'll have to wait another two months to publish - or more, depending on how backed up editors are right now. Not to mention being out another $800 to $1000. It's pretty over the top pro-pay-for-editing on Kindleboards, but there's a lot of you here that have published with respectable sales numbers, so let's see an alternate view! Edit: No way I could publish before the holiday season if I wait for editing. With the new e-readers recently launched, this is probably going to be the largest Christmas for e-books on record. drat. Mortanis fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Nov 10, 2011 |
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Nov 10, 2011 01:50
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Well, finally went live on Amazon and Smashwords today! Trials By Fire - Richard Hein http://www.amazon.com/Trials-Fire-Divine-Order-ebook/dp/B00676KQBE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1321218732&sr=8-5 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104696 Hot drat it's been a long time coming.
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Nov 13, 2011 22:17
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My book cover was done Kristi @ http://www.kristikirisberg.com So very crazy to look at Amazon and see my work there.
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Nov 14, 2011 18:33
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The cover and the rights set me back 600$. 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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I know it's not a big deal to get ranked when the pool is so tiny in sub-sub-sub categories, but I hit #60 on Amazon's Hot New Releases in Epic Fantasy. Pretty stoked about that, even though I haven't even hit 10 sales yet. It's just a nice feeling to see myself ranked somewhere.
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Nov 21, 2011 22:21
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How do you think it would have worked if you'd started the aggressive pitch when you only had a hundred followers? Would you have grown into the thousands at that point? Let's ignore the indie and self-pubbed aspect for a second. How would I feel if some of my favorite authors that I followed used their social media to hawk their goods? I realized that some of them DID, and I bit on that hook. So, it does have merit. However, I still prefer to see little slices of their lives, rather than an ad. It doesn't turn me off to them, but it certainly isn't endearing. In example, I follow Brandon Sanderson. A friend of mine got me interested in his books (word of mouth still being king). I read his stuff, loved it, and started following him. He seemed to be absurdly personable and approachable, and when I discovered that he was living in the same town as a friend, mused that it'd be cool to have said friend meet him and sign stuff for me. My friend hit up Sanderson on Reddit, and 2 days later had signed books - not only signed, but with inspirational "keep on writing" messages when my friend said I was about to publish a book. Now, when I tell people about books I'm reading, I talk up Sanderson because he's shown himself to be a good person as well as a good author. I'm more likely to spread the word about an author who has excellent books that is also an enjoyable person compared to an author with good works that's spending their time shilling to the masses instead of meeting the masses as a person. Will it work for you? I'm inclined to say yes, after that long winded post that really had no point. I'd be willing to bet that most of the masses are fine with ads being thrown at them on Twitter and Facebook. The retail world works entirely this way, and it seems to work fine for them. I don't think there's enough data to say "hey, this is a new and profitable way to sell books" quite yet, and I don't think I'm ready to take that approach, but I think people WILL respond to it, because they're used to it from other areas. I just don't think it's for me.
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Nov 22, 2011 21:28
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Pen name for all my books (so far just fantasy), simply because my last name isn't Google-friendly.
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Nov 25, 2011 17:17
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Kinda fun seeing my first book still floating around in the Top 100 for Hot New Releases - Epic Fantasy. Sales have been steady, though nothing special. It's actually all been a little surreal, being published. Also, Goat Bouillabaise, I'm guessing you opted for CreateSpace's expanded distribution to see yourself in book stores - how long after it was approved did you find yourself? I'm in the final stages of approval, but decided against expanded distribution, simply because it drove the price higher than I was comfortable charging. However, seeing my book in a store is pretty drat tempting.
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Nov 29, 2011 01:50
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Both. Thought I just got my second CreateSpace print proof today, and they actually edited my subtitle, destroying the spacing. It'd be nice if they honored the bleed lines they put in their demo file, but I guess another 10$ isn't bad to try for a 3rd time.
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Nov 30, 2011 22:13
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