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Two days ago I thought to myself I should come to CC and see if there was a self-publishing thread, as I started self-publishing this summer and have been really enjoying it so far. Two days later, I finally made it to the end of the thread! I have some questions! 1. Sean has recommended a few times the title "Let's Get Visible" by David Gaughran when romance writing is brought up. Is this book useful to authors not writing in erotica/romance? 2. I feel like I'm walking into a club of old friends when I read the thread. It's been mentioned that moana is a New York Times Bestselling author; is there somewhere I can see her work? And for those of you who have been published, do you have links to your stuff on Amazon? I'd like to poke through it. As far as I can tell no links have come up in the thread, so perhaps its a rule that I didn't notice outlined in the OP. 3. The OP is great. I'd love to see a brief section outlining what works best in pricing, such as: Free for the first five days using Select, then $0.99 for short stories (won't sell unless it's erotica) and $2.99 for pretty much everything else. That would be really helpful I think as a new user going over the OP for the first time. Lastly, I have a template for HTML formatting KDP titles that I'd be willing to share for new authors who aren't happy with trying to write their own HTML. Is that something that would benefit the thread?
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Jan 10, 2015 07:38
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moana posted:(your inbox is full btw) Oh, wow, I had no idea it had gotten so full. Thanks for the heads up, I cleaned it out a bit. chthonic bell posted:Would writing a series in the same subgenre achieve the first part of your advice? I have a couple of ideas suitable for a series. My short story series is following this method, but because they're short stories, they don't exactly sell well. Still, it's built up a small following of fans that continues to grow who will pick up each release as they come out.
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Jan 10, 2015 21:07
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the brotherly phl posted:Gave this a shot, I like it better. Thoughts on something moodier? 
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Jan 15, 2015 20:34
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Yeah that hand-stump really throws off the image.
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Jan 16, 2015 00:38
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Yooper posted:What do you guys think of the cover and blurb ideas? Cover design critique: The leading between the title is too wide; you'll want to drop that to a tighter fit to make it more dramatic without making it uncomfortable to read. That typeface begs for some sort of style applied to it, so I would either go over-the-top with a gradient and bevel and drop-shadow and rivets and weathering effects or change the typeface entirely. Perhaps Bebas Neue Thin (something modern sci-fi), keeping it on two lines, and increasing the size to make it really stand out. Really try to capture the virtual passers-by to make them linger on your cover. And definitely get rid of the steel-semi-opaque band going across the center. Watch the artwork. You can tell it's been stretched because the planets are no longer circles. Make sure to maintain aspect ratio when adjusting things otherwise it will look weird. I would either rework what you have there to have more saturation to bring out the colors more or find some new stock photography. Or make your own using resources like the program Space Engine or something. If you're feeling artsy, use some brushes in Photoshop to add nebula-like clouds. Oranges and greens, or blues. As others have said: Get rid of the silhouette at the bottom. Your best bet, though, would be to take ravenkult up on their offer.
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Jan 16, 2015 21:54
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moana posted:That's $7 they wouldn't have made trad pubbing Have made $7. Can confirm.
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Jan 18, 2015 07:15
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Railing Kill posted:
This has worked very well for me so far, but I come from a design background. I think as long as you have an eye for it, are willing to work with peers' critique (do you have peers to critique? We can do it in this thread, I will always be happy to offer constructive criticism if you post it), and understand basics of tension and genre (seriously, don't throw this too far out the window), you can brand your own work with something that you're happy with. Sharing time; here are mine of the four I've published so far:    
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Jan 18, 2015 19:06
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I'm looking at designing my own cover. I know, I know. But I'm pretty good with photoshop, and I want to keep my cover somewhat minimalist. What I have in mind isn't beyond my Photoshop skills, or my eye for design. I was planning on doing the photography myself to avoid a legal or financial headache, but I just want to know if anyone has had success with this. I know the horror stories described in the OP, but I'm curious if any authors can actually pull this off, or if I'm deluding myself. Bear in mind, I'm not looking for a genre-ish cover (that is way beyond my skills and eye for design). I'm looking for something minimalist but strange, like a David Sedaris book cover.
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EngineerSean posted:Just bought all four, I kinda feel that covers like that are wasted on sci fi shorts. Thanks so much for this. And I agree: If there's one thing I've taken away from this thread it's that I need to sit down and hammer out a novel ASAP. I'm going to wrap up part five in the series (almost done) and then get to work on something bigger. You've inspired me! And thanks for the kind words everyone.
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Jan 19, 2015 07:18
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Great stuff! Thanks for sharing the final outcome.
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Jan 21, 2015 19:32
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psychopomp posted:I ask my mailing list. Do you just say "Hey who wants a free copy if you give me a review?" or what?
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Jan 22, 2015 06:19
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Just finished my fifth story's first draft, so I'm going to take a break from writing for a few days and do some cover design for it.  I love this part.
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Jan 24, 2015 23:10
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I type a post on an internet forum. The thread is about self-publishing, or something, I don't remember. There is irony. The words come furiously, the pantomime of an impressionist artist putting paint to canvas to share an experience now since forgotten. A man is sitting next to me, the sort of man that's indebted to the government. You can smell it on him like the ghost of a bottle of Jack's on a ten-dollar whore. He smiles at me and we touch hands, only briefly. It's a public library with the name Tristen, the same name a former mistress once had before she changed it to Trixie. The new name suits her better, in the end. I hit post.
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Jan 25, 2015 20:11
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This thread has taken a very strange turn.
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Jan 26, 2015 17:00
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Liam Emsa posted:Anyone here publish short stories? What's the general word length and how are they priced? I sell all of mine for $0.99 each. They generally run long for short stories, at 5,000-10,000 words. That being said, no one wants to buy short stories.
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Jan 31, 2015 06:52
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I think I've got my latest short's cover ready to go. What do you guys think of this and the blurb (it's a little different than the direction I normally take)? What drives the madness behind plotting murder? What lengths would a person go to gain the success they believed robbed from them in their youth? And what if it meant traveling backward through time and murdering an innocent man to do it? In the latest chapter of The Chronology Division, we follow the path of a woman seeking revenge while battling an internal moral struggle. And with her as a partner-in-crime, an artificial intelligence who may not be all that they seem.
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Feb 4, 2015 04:50
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You guys mentioned there being periods through the year that do better/worse for certain genres: Is there a slow period for horror?
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Feb 13, 2015 18:42
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Roar posted:Petition to rename erotica "super-romance" so we can stop dancing around the genre title "Hard-romance"? 
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Feb 23, 2015 19:37
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TheForgotton posted:I'm creeping towards self-publication of my first novel, which is a dark comedy/crime thriller. How does this cover strike you for something in the neighborhood of Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey? I'm still trying to nail down an appropriate blurb as well. I know this is a couple of pages back, but I was just going to say that I think you should move the key/keyring to the center of the page so that the keyring isn't bleeding off the right edge. I also agree with ravenkult: Increase the author name so that it is larger than the title. Looks good!
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Apr 21, 2015 01:14
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Bobby Deluxe posted:So which one of you is this? Meanwhile, I've made $14.70 in seven months... Oi. Just gotta keep at it. I'm not at all surprised, as I've been writing fiction shorts and nobody wants to read fiction shorts. I did outline a couple of ideas for novels last week and my goal is to write at least one novel this year. I'm trying to wrap up a sixth short story in my series before venturing into novel territory, though. I'm hesitant to self-publish my novel when it's complete, at least at first. I hope I'm not alone in wishing to still land the dream of having a book picked up by a publisher the old way. Question: Assuming I picked up a pen name to do some--ahem--work on the side, what is the best way to go about getting a headshot to use on authorpages/etc? Stealing someone's face without paying them seems icky.
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Apr 21, 2015 23:56
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Great answers guys, thank you. I'm going to try going 100% with Amazon and seeing if it helps sales!
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Apr 22, 2015 06:00
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Malloreon posted:This sounds like a great opportunity to start IRC for this thread. I would also love one.
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Apr 25, 2015 08:01
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So I'm thinking about posting to Wattpad as a writing exercise (a writing exercise in hating money) and I've quickly realized that the only things that get clicks are covers with women on them. It doesn't matter what the story is about as long as there's a woman on the cover. Do you guys have any resources for stock photography versus just using any generic stock photo site?
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Oct 2, 2017 00:43
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