Self-Publishing Goons: Yep, people buy it!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons: Yep, people buy it!

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

midnightclimax posted:

Anyone know what kind of CYOA stories are possible with the Kindle? Is it basically HTML, or does it support other formats with more complex structures? Or maybe avoid Amazon and just put out mobile apps, I don't know.

http://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter/

InkleWriter allows you to create complex CYOA stories with state tracking and compile them into Kindle e-books. However, it does that by generating every possible path through the story, so there is a limit to how complex the story can be.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2015 15:59

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 04:06

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

midnightclimax posted:

Yeah I'm currently googling for authoring systems. All I need is something that allows for conditions ("he picked up that scrap of paper in scene 2, so he knows she's lying"). Twinkle and Inform 7 came up as well. But easy Kindle-export sounds cool, I'll look into that.

Since Amazon abandoned active content for Kindle, there is currently no way to convert Inform 7 games to Kindle format. Twine won't work either, since there is no JavaScript support. InkleWriter allows conditions, but the Kindle-export functionality will simply generate a static book containing the text for every possible playthrough (with links between sections, of course), so you have to make sure it doesn't get too complex. I am pretty sure that's the only way to use conditions in a Kindle e-book, though.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2015 16:13

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I am getting tired of spending years submitting stories to magazines that take three months to reply and then making, like, 20 bucks when they finally sell. Given the time I spend researching markets, etc., it will be hard to make less money per hour, so I would like to give self-publishing a chance.

I have enough stories for a collection, but I understand that it is also feasible to publish individual short stories as e-books. Should I go with the collection or would it be better to publish the individual stories gradually? Can you combine the options and have the same stories available both individually and as part of the collection? If so, is it possible to do a Steam Bundle kind of thing where people who own individual stories can complete the collection at a discount?

Also, several of these stories are available for free at various online markets. Can I still get away with selling them on Amazon, or will people get mad if they find out? Maybe I will add some commentary and call it a special edition...

# ¿ Jun 21, 2023 09:33

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

DropTheAnvil posted:

When you sell a story you should sign a contract. The contract should say when you are allowed to reprint the story. If you can't find it in the contract, contact the magazine direct.

With you about frustration over magazines taking forever to get back to you. It's the same in the agented space. Kind of feels like the whole magazine/author market has dried up.

Sorry, I expressed myself badly. I mean will the readers get mad when they realize they paid for a story they could have read for free online? That is why I considered adding some extra material to the Amazon edition

# ¿ Jun 21, 2023 16:26

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Thank you for all of the feedback. This is extremely useful!

How is this for a cover:

The story in question is only about 4k words, which I worry might be a bit on the short side. I have three short stories about weird animals that add up to about 7k words, so I was thinking about doing a little themed mini-collection and selling it at short story price. What word counts are typical for short stories and collections?

# ¿ Jun 24, 2023 10:35

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Dream Weaver posted:

I would buy this instantly and I follow most of Her advice.

Also she made me read "Moist Actually" so I may be biased.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9TRVQ4Q

I will hold you to your word!

Any feedback on cover, blurb, etc. is welcome. I uploaded an old version of the cover without the neat frame by mistake, but it seems that fixing it will require a new approval, so I am waiting until any other potential issues have been identified.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Jun 30, 2023

# ¿ Jun 30, 2023 15:38

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Fat Jesus posted:

I think it great, reads fine to me. Maybe just remove the lines, idk.

Do you mean the frame lines on the sides? If so, I already uploaded and old version without those lines, so I can just not fix it later

# ¿ Jul 1, 2023 16:25

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

So far my short stories have sold two copies, not including myself and personal friends, and have 2 KENP read on KU. I wasn't expecting to make bank from short fiction, but it would be nice if I could sell a few dozen copies, maybe.

I suppose I should do some promotion, but how? I've signed up for KDP Select, but I don't know if any of these promotional options are worth it. Should I do a free giveaway, a countdown deal, run ads, give out copies to reviewers, or what? What do people here usually do to promote their e-books?

Anyway, this mini-collection is mostly a trial balloon, so I can get this process down before publishing a full-length collection later. I am not expecting huge success, but I would like to learn.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Jul 8, 2023

# ¿ Jul 8, 2023 10:47

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Cover reveal for the upcoming paperback version of my short stories. I am still not sure about the blurb - which is the same one I used for the e-book - so feedback is welcome. So far, I have followed the advice from this post on publishing short stories..

I have realized that I have to make a paperback since no one I know owns a Kindle. They are not very widespread over here because there is no Amazon.dk, and Amazon has this stupid rule where you must buy Kindles through Amazon.com if there is no local Amazon in your country. I can't buy a Kindle from Amazon.de, even though Germany is right next door. I have already signed up for Kindle Select, so it will be at least another three months before I can expand to other e-book markets.

Edit: It just occurred to me that I might not actually qualify for KDP Select since several of these stories are still available online. Is it just the book as a whole that must be exclusive to Amazon or does it apply to the individual parts as well?

Edit2: Reading the terms, they mention that "...if your Digital Book consists primarily of content that is in the public domain or licensed by you on a non-exclusive basis (i.e., if others can also publish this content), you cannot include it in KDP Select." So, you might be able to get away with including a few non-exclusive stories, but definitely not all of them. I guess I will see about unenrolling and distributing the e-book more widely.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Jul 13, 2023

# ¿ Jul 13, 2023 13:31

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Doctor Zero posted:

Non-exclusive rights doesn�t mean it can�t be available online. Publishers will still have to license your work if they want to publish it.

Most short story contracts explicitly state that the market maintains non-exclusive publication rights in perpetuity. Otherwise, they would have to stop selling the magazine when the exclusive rights expired. That means "others can also publish this content", which is incompatible with the KDP Select terms as I read them.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2023 18:08

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Doctor Zero posted:

No, that's not how it works. Most markets purchase First Publication rights, and include a period of time before you are allowed to sell second printing / reprint rights. NEVER sign a contract that gives someone rights to your work in perpetuity. That's only appropriate for contracts where you are writing Work for Hire.

The "article" here is a short story.

Most short story contracts I have received has included a non-exclusive rights provision like this.

Edit: I double-checked and managed to find a single exception:

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Jul 13, 2023

# ¿ Jul 13, 2023 18:22

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Doctor Zero posted:

Ah, I am an idiot. I read what you wrote as exclusive rights in perpetuity. My bad. I also didn't realize when you said they were online that they were on a publisher's site, so bad assumption on my part.

Regardless, for short story markets they don't have to get perpetual non-exclusive rights to publish the story in the magazine. They just wouldn't be able to reprint the issue in which your work appears. But the already printed editions can still be out there without issue (pun intended). Online would be a different thing, though. When I sold to Analog, the only non-exclusive rights they retain are for anthology and foreign print editions, probably because those could be published some indeterminate time in the future.

I am glad we understand each other, then

. As I read the KDP Select terms, even something like Analog's anthology rights would theoretically preclude you from enrolling since another party has rights to publish the story outside of Amazon. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any way of unenrolling from Select, so I have just turned off auto-renew and will wait out the three months. It can't hurt to see if anyone reads the book on KU.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2023 20:20

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I don't mind getting kicked off KU as long as I don't get kicked off KDP entirely. I assume that there is no risk of that? I think it was a mistake to enroll in KDP Select, but there is no way to unenroll before the three months are up, and I am certainly not going to contact Support and draw attention to myself. I will just do the three months and see what happens.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Jul 14, 2023

# ¿ Jul 14, 2023 11:01

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Look at these gorgeous author's copies I just received from Amazon! Can you really live without such a beautiful book in your life?

I now intend to apply for a mobile street vending permit, so I can sell my works on the streets of Copenhagen and use my contact juggling skills for promotion. Thus, solving two monetization problems at once.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2023 10:47

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Anyone else having issues with Amazon's search? When I search in "All Departments", my book doesn't show up. I have to explicitly select "Books" in the dropdown to find it. The book has been out for more than a month, so surely it should have been indexed properly by now?

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Aug 13, 2023

# ¿ Aug 13, 2023 09:01

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Fuschia tude posted:

I don't think I've ever seen the phrase "Xyzzy award-winning" before.

I am counting on people not looking up what a Xyzzy award is and just assuming it must be important

. Like you say, it does make the blurb stand out.

https://www.cityartsmagazine.com/issues-eastside-2010-07-ted-chiang-vs-tor-publishing/

Slightly off-topic, perhaps, but I stumbled across this interview with Ted Chiang about his cover art struggles with his publisher, which have led him to exclusively publish with small boutique presses that give him full control. It is an interesting illustration of the dynamics that lead successful authors to chose self-publishing (even though Chiang didn't go quite that far).

Ted Chiang posted:

�Most science fiction cover art falls into a very specific mode,� he says, �which is a highly finished realistic rendering of a specific scene in the novel or something. But there is all sorts of other art out there. I like the idea of having the art reflect the story without being a literal illustration of the story, so that the art would act as a parallel storytelling medium. I am trying to use a style of representation, a style of rendering that is not usually seen in science fiction books.�

Tor, though, had different ideas for Stories of Your Life and Others, says Chiang.

�The hard cover has this nude heavily muscled man and his lower body forms this collage with various things like a galloping white horse, some monkeys and I think some vultures; it�s sort of a collage. None of [those animals] were in any of the stories. I asked that, if we do this, can we at least have something that reflects my work? Nope.�

...

�The reprint is letting me use the cover I want,� Chiang says. �It�s a piece of art I commissioned back in 2002 when the collection first came out. I hired an artist who had done work for the publisher to create something for the paperback and they said, �No.��

Now Chiang is working with boutique presses that are willing to offer him creative control such as Subterranean Press, which is allowing the author to control the full packaging of Lifestyle. Asked about his bold move to risk mainstream appeal for artistic vision, Chiang is clear that he considers the move a no-brainer.

�When you�ve been told to gently caress off as definitively as I have,� he says, �it is no longer such a bold move. I think the really bold move would be if someone were embraced by New York publishing and then they rejected it.�

drat, that is a lovely cover. What the hell, Tor? I thought you were cool.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Aug 15, 2023

# ¿ Aug 15, 2023 08:04

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I have been looking into budget cover options, and Goonwrite is worth browsing just for the incredible placeholder texts he sometimes writes.

I am tempted to buy a random cover and write a story to fit the text.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2023 12:18

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

pidan posted:

Don't those AI generated images creep you out?

Are they AI-generated? I thought he just did stock image collages like everyone else, and his "How It Works" page has no mention of AI. Now that you mention it, those hands do look pretty weird... Gah, it's annoying that you have to be on guard for this stuff all the time.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2023 08:47

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

ravenkult posted:

Just for the record in case it's not clear from the tweets,it was pure AI, since they supplied the raw file with layers still named midjourneysoandso.png.

I thought only some of the lawyers were AI generated and had been mixed in with hand drawn art?

# ¿ Aug 21, 2023 13:50

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Soon, we will all have to hire two artists for each book: One to design the cover and another to check for AI elements (and maybe a third to check if the second one is merely passing off the opinions of an AI content detector as their own).

# ¿ Aug 21, 2023 16:52

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

divabot posted:

that sounds like complete bullshit in any legal sense, let alone any ethical sense.

I would stay the hell away from any service that thinks this is an explanation of anything. The linked blog post is possibly worse. This is just AI grift that is coming up with excuses to separate you from your cash.

As I understand it, you can't copyright stock photo covers anyway, so legally it makes no difference if the cover uses stock photos or AI art. There is nothing to prevent someone else from using the same art pieces either way. All that matters is whether you have a license to use the pieces for commercial purposes. Whether it is ethical to use AI is an entirely different question, of course.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2023 09:40

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Selkie Myth posted:

Or you can just ask for recommendations! I have a bunch of artists that I know do their own thing and are really good

Beezus posted:

Same; I just commissioned an incredible watercolor artist for my own book, and she recently said she's keen to start doing book covers. I think it's really cool to see new artists branching into this space and it gives me hope.

By all means, recommend your favorite artists

# ¿ Aug 22, 2023 14:41

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Can I get some feedback on this blurb?

Blurb for Power Armor for Poltergeists! posted:

When Kristian Vinther decided to do his postdoc in a robotics lab in future Copenhagen, he did not expect the doctor in charge to be building Power Armor for Poltergeists!

Now, spirits who once idled away their days sending spooky messages though Ouija boards stalk the streets of the city in gleaming, military-grade power armor equipped with bazookas, booster rockets, roller skates, and any kind of tool known to man.

Business is booming as people are reunited with their loved ones, but the government is not about to let private enterprise monopolize such useful technology. If the bureaucrats of the welfare state have their way, the wars of the future will be fought by your dead grandma encased in chrome and steel.

As the city burns, Kristian must decide whether his loyalties lie with the doctor, the government, his girlfriend, or the hulking monstrosity that was once his wife. His decision will shape not only the fate of the world but also the nature of death itself.

Edit: And here is the cover. Just arrived five minutes after I made post. Feedback is welcome here too!

This is a 35$ premium cover from https://getcovers.com.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 3, 2023

# ¿ Sep 3, 2023 17:37

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

DropTheAnvil posted:

Edit: My Opinion, get others.

Thank you. I've fixed the typo and removed "business is booming" as well as the final sentence, which was just a bunch of cliches.

However, I am still not sure how to make people care about the world and characters in a 150-word blurb. I've tried looking at some other goon book blurbs, but they also seem to mostly include vague statements about how protagonist must deal with problem. Does anyone have any advice?

# ¿ Sep 4, 2023 11:36

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I love how you gave me all that great advice and still can't figure it out yourself

. Man, I expected blurb writing to be harder than I expected, and it is still harder than I expected.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2023 19:00

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

KrunkMcGrunk posted:

Have you been able to work on a revised blurb yet? Mind posting it?

Sure, this is what I have so far:

KrunkMcGrunk posted:

Copenhagen, the future. When Kristian Vinther started his postdoc in a robotics lab, he didn�t expect the doctor in charge to be building Power Armor for Poltergeists! In return for his help, Kristian will be reunited with his dead wife.

Now, Kristian works to make spirits stalk the streets in gleaming, military-grade power armor equipped with bazookas, booster rockets, roller skates, and any tool known to man.

The government is not about to let private enterprise monopolize such powerful technology and seize the armors, including Kristian�s wife. If they have their way, the wars of the future will be fought by your dead grandma encased in chrome and steel. If Kristian wants to see his wife again, he must either join them or defeat them.

As the city burns, Kristian must decide whether his loyalties lie with the doctor, the government, or the hulking monstrosity that was once his wife. Will the dead be treated as commercial products, tools of the state, or as people allowed to find peace?

# ¿ Sep 5, 2023 14:17

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHBJ7X7W (UK)

Well, here it is! I can always update the blurb later if I get more feedback and/or ideas. And here is what the story would look like if it was five times longer and available in hardback:

Neither of those things are the case, but the mockup was part of the 35$ cover package, so I might as well use it.

I'm not sure if 2.99$ is too high for 8800 words, but I can always lower it later. I considered 0.99, but then I read this reddit post warning against pricing things that low and claiming that you can totally make money selling shorts for 2.99+. 1.99 would put me only one dollar short of the 70% Amazon royalty rate, which would triple the royalties (70% of 2.99 vs. 35% of 1.99). 2.99 it is, for now. Anyway, it is also on KU where the price makes no difference.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Sep 5, 2023

# ¿ Sep 5, 2023 16:45

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHZY2QJD (Kobo)

Another story! This is also a 35$ GetCovers.com cover.

Feedback on the blurb is welcome. I still have time to update it. I know "In a world..." is a clich�, but I feel like it works here.

Anyway, this story actually sold to a small market called Penumbric Speculative Fiction for ten dollars, but they only purchase non-exclusive rights, and the editor is fine with me publishing it separately. That means I am only 25$ in the red and need to sell about a dozen copies to break even. Feel free to PM me for a review copy.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Sep 14, 2023

# ¿ Sep 13, 2023 21:12

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

What tools do people use to hand out review copies? I tried Booksprout, but they don't seem to care about short fiction; only one person signed up for my campaign, and they didn't even post a review. Now, I am trying out BookRoar.com, which is a review exchange site where you buy and review each other's books. The way it works is that you select a book from the pool, buy it and write a review. When your review has been approved, you receive a credit to submit one of your own books. I haven't received my first credit yet, so I can't speak to the efficacy, but it was recommended on Reddit.

Would there be interest in setting up some kind of goon review exchange?

# ¿ Sep 15, 2023 08:51

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Leng posted:

Personal opinion here but imo review swaps are going to hurt more than help you, in the same way that pushing your book to friends and family who aren't your target audience are going to hurt more than help you.

Review swaps on launch is a standard strategy on some platforms like Royal Road and you might get away with it on something like Goodreads, but it's not gonna fly on Amazon. Not only are there restrictions on what accounts can post reviews but review swaps are explicitly against terms and conditions.

Besides, readers are smart; they can tell if a review is genuine. Spend your time figuring out where your ideal readers are, finding them, coming up with better pitches to get them to read your work, and basically everything that's involved in building an audience. Reviews are a lag indicator of how well aligned your pitch, your packaging and your book are�they're the result of a reader who made it all the way through your sales funnel and cared enough about how your work made them feel to leave a review. Having a bunch of random 5-stars with generic praise isn't going to magically skyrocket your sales.

I meant swapping review copies for honest reviews, not just writing generic positive reviews. I will much rather have an in-depth 3-4 star reviews than generic praise no one cares about.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2023 10:08

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

KrunkMcGrunk posted:

Libbie hawker had a good blurb explainer on YouTube. I haven't seen it in years, but let me find it...

E: I can't find it.

However! I always set my blurbs at that transition between Act 1 and Act 2 when the main character has just been pushed out of their comfortable, familiar life and is now faced with the bigger problem they must solve, then I close with the stakes. What happens if the MC fails? Embarrassment? Death? Losing their front tooth?

So, paragraph 1 is introducing the MC, what they want, who they are, etc.

Paragraph 2 is when the MC learns of the main problem, and any unexpected complications (sometimes this takes 2 paragraphs to get right).

Paragraph 3 is the stakes - what does the MC gain/lose if they succeed/fail. In mysteries and thrillers, this is almost always "the MC dies" which is kinda boring, but ya gotta give the people what they want.

Here's an example from one of my books

quote:
Cready Marsen wants two things in life: South Florida Sunshine and a mountain of money. Living on his forty-seven foot trawler at Dinner Key Marina gets him sunshine, and his work as a private investigator brings in cash, but it requires every bit of Cready�s skill, guts, and questionable morals.

When a scummy businessman offers Cready work with a big payout, he happily accepts. The job�s tricky, but nothing he can�t handle. At least, until his client�s daughter gets involved. She�s doe-eyed, gorgeous, and runs with bad company.

Cready�s job gets complicated, and deadly, in a hurry. He�ll have to think fast and act faster if he�s going to outwit the assassins and thieves after his client's property, because if he fails, he�ll lose everything he holds dear�including his life.

In my example, you learn a little about Cready (and get a sense for the genre/setting) in paragraph 1. Paragraph 2 is all about the Act 1 -> Act 2 transition, where Cready is faced with his problem. Paragraph 3 is purely about stakes.

e2: re-reading your blurb, you seem to follow this, generally. I think the problem lies more in language choice and sentence structure, and things could be a bit snappier. I'd suggest cutting it down to three paragraphs, and, specifically, getting rid of paragraph 2 as much as you possibly can.

Man, I completely missed this great advice because you edited it into post after I had already read it. I recommend making new posts for major updates.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Sep 16, 2023

# ¿ Sep 16, 2023 10:56

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I know am I required to submit two copies of each book to the Royal Library in Copenhagen - and I have dutifully done so - but I have never heard of that applying to every country where you sell the book. I am pretty sure it goes by the residence of the publisher.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2023 19:22

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Bright Bart posted:

Do you submit two seperate files of an eBook

e: I mean actually there could be a benefit to two copies of a file in case one gets corrupted and the Royal Library really needs a working copy of Swordy Tales of Swords and Wizardy Wizards. But they can click 'copy here' themselves. Athough I can also see a national library want to keep a fun tradition, or on the less cool side have set rules and need to follow them regardless how silly.

https://pro.kb.dk/pligtaflevering/digital-pligtaflevering

A single copy is sufficient :v:

. I know they have all my games because the games archivist actually got in touch with me about it.

Anyway, I checked and it definitely only applies if you are either a Danish publisher or a reseller importing the book into Denmark. Danes being allowed to buy the book on Amazon isn't sufficient. I assume other countries have similar rules. You also have to register your own publisher, of course. If you get a free ISBN from Amazon, presumably they are the publisher and required to fulfill all legal requirements.

Just as I was writing the post, this popped up on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/NatalieKelda/status/1704035612318118210

# ¿ Sep 19, 2023 11:07

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

freebooter posted:

The Australian government can barely even do anything about the billions of dollars of tax fraud that waltzes out the door every year, I'm never going to bother with this outdated practice

Here in Denmark, at least, submitting your book has the added benefit of having it added to the library system, so people can look it up and potentially ask their local library to order it. One of the two copies will be available to check out. Considering Amazon only charges a few bucks for an author copy, I think of it as a cheap form of promotion.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2023 11:57

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/comments/138rswh/how_i_made_568699_in_my_first_two_weeks_of_self/

Does anyone here have experience advertising on TikTok, Instagram, etc.? I've been reading the self-publishing reddit and came across this post from a woman who claims to have made nearly 6k in the first two weeks by advertising on TikTok. I particularly like her advice on how to create video blurbs by describing the characters in a way that implicitly sets up the conflict:

quote:

The TikTok Video Format That Worked:

It was literally the most simple out of all the videos I had tried.

I put an image render of the main character, with a one sentence explainer of who she is/her current situation.

Then after 8 seconds, I switch it to a picture of the love interest with a one sentence explainer of that character.

******THE KEY HERE is that the way I describe them sets up the conflict. It explains the hook of the book without flat out saying it. ******

So of course since its a romance, you can assume they will end up together (at least at some point). But with the hook, the viewer instantly goes "how do they end up together with that stopping them?"

From the comments on the video, that seems to be what intrigued people.

This is romance, so obviously not directly appliable to other genres, but still... Maybe you could do something similar with protagonist and antagonist. I do have 112 TikTok followers from posting juggling videos, so if just some of them could buy my books, that would make a difference.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2023 17:10

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Megazver posted:

Does anyone have any suggestions of good funny popular author TikTok accounts to see what they're doing?

https://www.tiktok.com/@maser.sapphic.writer

I found the author I was quoting's channel. This is how to make a viral video for romance, apparently:

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7225683972439739690

A good girl... a bad girl... will they gently caress?

It's interesting that a minimalist pictures + text approach can be that successful. And what's up with that second sentence? Is it just me?

Edit: I had no idea TikToks embedded...

# ¿ Sep 22, 2023 20:32

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Well, here is my first attempt at creating a TikTok promotional video. Let's see how viral it goes!

E: Nah, I'll let you know when I figure out something that works.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Sep 25, 2023

# ¿ Sep 24, 2023 17:59

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

KrunkMcGrunk posted:

don't expect the first thing you make to blow up! treat it like a learning process, and keep in mind you're only going to get better as you do more of them!

Thanks, that's my plan

. The first thing I've learned is that video text must be on the top half of the video with large side margins or TikTok will cover it up with buttons and scrolling text. I don't know why anyone watches videos on an app that covers up 1/4 of the image with user interface stuff. Kids sure are dumb!

# ¿ Sep 25, 2023 14:17

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Captain Log posted:

Would it be appropriate to post a rough, rough, rough stab at a blurb here? Or the fiction writing thread? I don't want to poo poo up this good thread with my amateurish attempts if it's inappropriate.

Post away! I've posted several blurbs here and received great feedback.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2023 14:22

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 04:06

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

What's the best way to build a mailing list? Are there specific tools that people use, or do I just get people to send me their email addresses?

Edit: I am seeing recommendations for MailerLite and Mailchimp, but many of the posts are quite old. What are people using nowadays?

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Oct 1, 2023

# ¿ Oct 1, 2023 10:52

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Self-Publishing Goons: Yep, people buy it!

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