Do KDP Select Free Promotions Work?
Yesterday I did my first KDP Free Promotion. For those that don’t know, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has an option to sign up for KDP Select. This is a 90 day period where you allow Amazon (and by default Kindle) to be the only electronic form of your book sold. Some people balk at the exclusiveness this implies. But there are some pluses. You get to be part of the Kindle Prime Lending Library. This means that people can borrow your book for free and in return you get a part of the collective “pot” of money. I’ve not had any borrows yet. Some authors have told me that you get more borrows for higher priced books, since prime users can only borrow one book per month. I don’t know about that.
The other thing you get to do is pick five days per 90 day period to make your book free. You don’t have to do that. You don’t even have to pick the days when you publish your book. You can go back and set up your days when you want. You can do all five together or pick and choose a few days spread out. The choice is entirely up to you.
As you probably saw in yesterday’s post, I made Dissolution of Peace free in honor of Veterans day in the United States. It was free on all Amazon sites globally. I did this for two reasons. First, I wanted to see how well this KDP Free Promotions thing would work. Second, I have a special place in my heart for those that serve in the armed forces. It may even be why I enjoy writing military fiction. So I decided to honor those people in a way that was important to me.
The real question is, do promotions like this work?
Success is truly something only you can decide. But, I will show you what it did for me in just the one day since the promotion. You can decide from there if it could be successful for you.
I would also like to point out that I did not market my free book on anything other then this blog, my Twitter, and Facebook. I didn’t announce it on one the the many free eBook blogs. I just spread the word myself.
Getting Books in the Hands of Readers
The point in writing a book is to have it read. I’ve stressed that making money is not my goal in writing. My goal is to get readers and maybe get a few fans who want to read anything I write. So did the promotion get my book in the hands of readers. With out a doubt it is a huge success in that fashion.
In Amazon US, I had about 19 times more downloads yesterday then I have had since my book was released. Nineteen times more readers in one day then in the four weeks since my book was released.
In Amazon UK, I had 88 times more downloads yesterday then I have had since my book was released. The UK was phenomenal in this free promotion. I’ll get to more on that soon.
In Amazon Germany, I had 7 times more downloads yesterday then in the four weeks since it was released.
I even had my first download in Italy.
In comparison to other promotions I have done, this was by far the most successful. My own eBook giveaways resulted in only around 10 free eBooks being given away. This includes those sent to reviewers. But if I wanted to get more readers, this was certainly a great way to do it. They may not read it right away, I am sure there are people who just won’t pass up free, but there a whole lot more people with copies of my book now. This means there are a lot more people in the pool to write reviews, tell their friends, and look for future titles I release.
Creating Awareness of my Book
This is a really hard thing to do. Getting your book noticed by potential buyers is very hard for any author, especially the indie author. You are fighting an up hill battle with major authors, major publishers, and the rest of the indie market. It is not easy to be noticed.
One way to get noticed is on Amazon’s Best Seller Lists. The thing that always frustrated me about many “help” sites that talk about these best seller lists don’t let you know the secrets to getting on the lists. The truth is the secret is simply getting sales. But Amazon does one great thing here. The Best Seller Lists of the Top 100 eBooks sold is listed right next to the Top 100 Free eBooks. Number 5 in sales is right next to number 5 in free.
This means that when someone is looking for the best sellers on science fiction ebooks, they are also seeing the best sellers in free science fiction ebooks. You still have to get the downloads to get on the list, but you can get a lot of benefit once you get on the list. If nothing more than getting the cover of your book seen by more eyes.
I mentioned how great the UK was in this free promotion. The first time I checked my Amazon UK page yesterday was at 10:16 in the morning. My book had only been free for ten hours, which is a fair amount of time, especially considering the time difference. But at that point I was #48 on the Top 100 Free Science Fiction eBooks. And by the end of the promotion I was #19. In that time I had been on the same page as H. P. Lovecraft, Jules Vern, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, and more. I was even next to George R.R. Martin at one point. That is some good company to hang out with, even on a virtual level.
UK Best Sellers of Science Fiction on 11/12/2012
In the US, it was a slower start. This, in part, has to do with two factors. First, the US site has a much larger pool of shoppers. They include India, and many other places that don’t have their own sites. But, KDP free events also start at 12:01 am Pacific time. Right when most of the US is still asleep. But by 12:45 pm, twelve hours into the the promotion, I was on the top 100 list at number 61. And by the time it was over, I had made it to 28. So while the UK really came through on the Best Seller’s list, the US still put me along side the great names of Science Fiction past and present.
US Best Sellers of Science Fiction on 11/12/2012
I would say that overall that is a successful way of gaining exposure to my book. I don’t know how many people browse the Top Sellers list. But I do know that I often look for books online this way. So overall even if I didn’t get downloads, people saw my book cover. And book covers are the brand image of books. Like all brands, the more the image is seen the more it becomes known and in some cases trusted.
You might be wondering where my book ranked at in the over all ranking for Free eBooks. In the US it was #779 and in the UK it was #425. Not bad considering how many thousands, probably millions, of books are on Amazon.
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth advertising is probably some of the best. People often choose books based on the recommendations of friends and family. While I doubt anyone recommended my book the same day they downloaded it. I got far more downloads then I have Facebook, Twitter, and Blog followers. This means people had to hear about it from other people. So people were at least mentioning my book. I also noticed that many people were downloading my book in the US before it broke on to the top 100 list. So they had to find it some other way.
But this huge pool of new readers who downloaded my book will contribute to the word of mouth advertising that will continue to increase traffic to my book. And will hopefully increase my sales volume.
Reviews
I don’t know if this will increase my reviews. Before the promotion I had two Amazon reviews, and one Amazon UK review. But, the increased reader pool also means an increased reviewer pool. So that has to cause a higher chance of being reviewed. But only time will tell on this.
Increased Sales
Again, only time will tell on this. But my point has never been to get money. Some people see the free book giveaway as nothing but lost revenue. But to date, nothing has got Dissolution of Peace in the hands of more readers than the Amazon free promotion. I’ve never thought of writing as a way to make money. For me it is has been about readers, and maybe making enough money to cover the costs associated with publishing it. Would I complain if my book starts flying off the shelves? Of course not. That is the goal of most writers, but not for the sake of money but for the sake of the volume of readers.
From what I have heard from others, the sales will increase but that takes time.
Summary
I can’t really see it any other way. KDP has hit a home run with the idea of allowing authors five days to make the book free. And if you use those days through out your 90 day period as a promotional tool, you can really gather a lot of new readers. And many readers who might not have otherwise picked up your book. I’ll likely do another two or three of these free promotional things in the next few months. I see nothing but success here. And if I enjoyed this much success with limited announcement outlets, imagine if I branched out from my circle of followers.
Of course, many people are turned off be the exclusiveness of KDP Select. They feel like they are excluding a market of readers that use other eReaders. Personally I have had little request for ePub format. But, 90 days is a relatively short time. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to renew it. Personally I think it is worth a try.
Form Rejections
When I started out as a writer, I went to work with short stories. There are tons of markets to share my stories with. When I got my first form letter rejection, I wasn’t surprised. I’d known rejection was part of the game and I had been warned that most markets use the Form Letter for rejections. The question no one could really answer clearly was: Why?
I’d first been told it was because of the sheer volume of submissions. Which I wasn’t sure about since I didn’t think it took but two seconds more to tell me why I was rejected.
I was told it has to do with editor policy. Which is true, but doesn’t really answer the why.
I was told it was just the industry standard. Again true, but not really why.
The point is, every writer danced around the topic because frankly none really knew why. We just accepted it as the way of the writing world, and went with it. After all there really isn’t anything any of us can do to change it, unless we all just stopped sending in submissions. But I’m not going to stop sending in submissions over the type of rejection I get.
I’ve been running Plasma Frequency now for five months and we’ve put out two issues. And up until yesterday we offered personal rejections on every submission. Even as our large volume of submission came in, we continued to provide personal rejection letters. Why did we do that? I thought that was what writers wanted. They wanted to be told why their story was rejected. They wanted to learn from the rejections. They wanted to know if the editor even finished manuscript. And if not, why. So I thought, lets tell them.
The problem is this. Authors don’t really want to know. Not truly. When they find out from the editor that the opening was boring, it upsets them more than the form letter did. When an editor say the manuscript wasn’t formatted and submitted correctly, they get aggravated they were rejected on a technicality. When the editor says the story was great but doesn’t fit the publication, they get mad that the publication doesn’t accept “great” stories.
I realize this is an over generalization. I get upset at personal rejection from time to time, but I really appreciate that they took the time to tell me why. And in the end, like most writers, I just move on. I fix the problem, or don’t, and send it off to the next place.
The problem is that there are a significant number of authors who are not professional enough to move on. They have to say something back. Those authors should read my blog post, “Inside an Editor’s Mind (Tips for Writers)”. The problem is they are rarely correct in their anger, and it is almost always misplaced.
My staff and I have been threatened, cursed at, CAP LOCKED, and cyber bullied. I already nearly lost one editor because of it. Here are some of the things we’ve gotten back from authors.
“Well you would know about “overly sexual” you whore.”
“I will find everything any of you have ever written and I will ensure everyone I know rates it as poorly as possible.”
“You can suck my dick!”
“I consider myself above your petty opinions.”
“You must be sleeping with the Lead Editor to get your job.”
“I will tell everyone about your lack of professionalism.”
“YOU CAN ALL EAT SHIT!”
“You are by far one of the UGLIEST people I’ve seen.”
“I will find you and you will regret rejecting ME.”
Your first thought might be that we are doing something wrong. That we are rude in our personal rejection. But I discovered I am not the only one getting this behavior, we just rarely talk about it.
John Joseph Adams, editor for Lightspeed, and in my opinion one of the better editors in the business recently tweeted: “This week, have been both called a “tool” for rejecting someone & had a writer reply “FUCK YOU!!!” Still so surprising when people do this.”
While he is one of the only ones I know to publicly say so, many other editors have privately shared the same types of stories. Writers who complain about how unprofessional we are, while writing to us in an unprofessional manner. Frankly it is embarrassing to writers as a whole, and if we editors wanted to be truly unprofessional we’d share with you their names so you could rise up against them. Because the fact remains that the main reason editors stop providing personal rejections is because of the abuse that writers like these give us.
The problem here is the professional divide. There are many websites warning writers of bad editors. Editors that take advantage of writers. There should be. There are also plenty of people who take to the internet in persecution of an editor or a company simply because of a rejection letter. That is not right. I personally have yet to find a website that warns editors of unprofessional writers. Writers who say things that I’ve mentioned above.
Why? We have to take the high road. We have to be professional and accept that is is part of our job. We are trying to give our opinions to help you understand why your story didn’t make the cut. They are our opinions. We are then persecuted, bullied, and abused for giving those opinions. We just wanted to help. It makes many editors quit. And as their boss, I can’t really allow it to happen. We can take limited steps to protect ourselves, such as switching to form rejection. That is why we, at Plasma Frequency, stopped providing personal rejections to first read rejections. We hope to continue to provide them to second and third read rejections. Hopefully the writers at that level can handle our opinions.
Once again, I recognize that most writers don’t behave this way. This might come off as a bit of rant. And in a way it is.But the point is, it is my opinion that many publications use form letters simply because of the abuse the get if they used personal rejections.
Of course, as an editor I still very much respect writers. I am thankful for the submissions we get. I couldn’t run my magazine with out them. I’ll likely still send out a few personal rejections to those who might appreciate the opinion.
Distinguishing Yourself from the “Steaming Piles of Crap”
On of the members of the writer’s group I belong to, and a person I follow on Google+, recently released her first eBook. I offered my congratulations and she mentioned that anyone can put up an eBook, “…from Stephen King to steaming pile of crap.”
And truthfully she is right. Anyone can do it. They can go on Smashwords, KDP, or even PubIt and throw together an eBook and sell it in about ten minutes. I just got done setting up Dissolution of Peace for eBook sales on KDP and was surprised just how quick it was. I was set up and done in about an hour. And I spent some time debating the price and royalties options. On the other hand, the print version has taken almost a week now to get set up and it still isn’t done. But even that is only because they review the file for “print-ability” but not for content.
So one might wonder how they separate themselves from the crap. The simple answer is not to be crap.
If you wrote a book in a week, and published it the next week. Chances are your story is going to be garbage. You simply miss way to much when you spend so little time on a project. I’ve talked a lot about the steps you have to take to get your work ready for publication. If you start cutting corners, it will show. All told, I will have spent nine years (or more) working on Dissolution of Peace. From the original manuscript written in 2003-2004 to the final product you will all see October 16th.
Do I recommend taking nine years? No, not necessarily. From the time I made up my mind to finish, and see published, Dissolution of Peace it took almost exactly one year. In that year, I spent most of that time editing.
The rewrite of the manuscript cut out 30,000 words of pure crap. Words I might have missed if I didn’t reread the original manuscript. Next, I read it again. I corrected the mistakes I found, and read it again. Then I sent it off to a few beta readers. They made their comments. I fixed some things, and read it again. Then it went to a professional editor. He sent me back a boat load of suggestions. I fixed those, rewrote some passages, corrected the plot holes and confusing information. Then, you guessed it, I read it again. I fixed a few things and put it in format for publication. Then I ordered a proof.
ALWAYS ORDER A PROOF. I know many people who skip this step. They figure they have caught everything by this point. They look at the digital proof for format errors and then approve it. They never hold a proof copy in their hands. Well I ordered a proof. And I read it cover to cover. There were exactly ZERO formatting error. However, there were twenty-two other errors. Missing words, typo words, and other things. Things four beta readers, an editor, and five of my own readings missed. All of which were just things your eyes miss. When you see a word in its context you might not notice that “closest friend” was typed “closet friend” in the book. The fact remains that as I read it in book format, these things came out because it was the first time I had read it as an actual book. In print. Not on a computer screen. I saw my novel in a new way.
And now, as I get ready to approve the final draft I am confident it is ready to be read. Will I miss something? I will almost bet money I did. But even the professionals miss something. It is one of the ways book experts can detect what edition many books are. They know of certain misprints, typos, ect in each edition. The point to this is not to spend forever making the novel absolutely perfect. The point is to spend enough time with it to make it the best you can possible put out.
I read my story six times in this last year. If you are not reading your book multiple times to prepare it for publishing, how can you expect buyers to read it once? If you wrote it and you find it boring to read more than once, it may not belong in the steaming pile, but you should figure out what needs to be fixed to make it readable.
I will also say this. Grammar and punctuation do not make a book readable but they can may a book unreadable. If your book is overly riddled with grammar mistakes, they can distract a reader. However, you can have a grammatical masterpiece, not one grammatical error in the entire manuscript, and still have a steaming pile on your hands.
You need a plot. A story that starts where the real story starts. You need a conflict of some type. You need a resolution to the conflict. And you need a satisfying ending. You have to be able to tell a story. A story readers want to read. A story with characters people love (or hate for the right reasons). You need a world for this to all take place in. Once you master that, you can go back and fix the grammar.
The point is you need to take time with you works. He who publishes the most books, does not win.
You need to put together a quality novel before you submit it for publication. If you do that, your work will stand out for the steaming piles of crap that come out. But also remember that some people will simply not like your novel for their own reasons. While others may love it. You can’t please everyone. We’ve all bought a book we thought would be good only to be disappointed. But if you take your time to put your best work forward, you will find a following of readers who will love your story.
Dissolution of Peace – Updates, Pre-Order, Giveaways, and more
As Dissolution of Peace gets closer and closer to being released, I find myself with an odd mixture of pride, fear, and anticipation. But all the hard work is worth something in the end. As I see the finished project coming along, I can’t help but be happy to see so much work coming together for this project.
UPDATES
I wrote my acknowledgements section the other day. It is certainly an optional part of a novel. I’ve read plenty of novels that don’t have one. But with this being by first novel, I had to write one. I always enjoy reading other authors’ acknowledgements, and it only felt right that I put one in. It came from my heart, so hopefully it doesn’t come across as too much. Either way, I am happy to thank those people that helped me get this book together.
I dedicated the book to my three boys. They are a huge part of why I followed this dream all the way to the end. I already know who I’ll be dedicating my second novel to.
The Official Book Trailer is getting a lot more views than I expected, considering how little I have shared it. So I assume that must mean a few of you have shared it. Thank you. So far those who have talked to me about it, like it. Please make sure to hit that thumbs up button and leave a comment if you enjoyed it.
PRE-ORDER
The good news is that you don’t have to wait until October 16th to order your copy of Dissolution of Peace. You can pre-order online right now. Best of all you will save 25-50% off the list price. But, this will only last during the pre-sale period. I’ll also be signing all pre-order copies of my book. You will see I have added a “Buy” tab to this site. This will be a place to buy copies of my book. If you don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you should. I’ll be sharing discount codes with my followers there through out the pre-sale period. You can order here: LINK
GIVEAWAYS
I also have two giveaways starting:
First, if you visit my Facebook Page, and click on the giveaway icon (see the picture right). You can enter into a raffle giving away one signed copy of my book. The number of raffle entries you have is based on the tasks you chose to complete. If you complete them all, you can be entered twenty times. That raffle ends on November 1st (12:01am Eastern), so hurry to get your entries in now. If a lot of people enter this raffle, I’m sure to do another one. Oh, and you’ll want this giveaway code: Carlson. It is worth one entry into the raffle. Enter the Raffle here: LINK
The second giveaway is on Goodreads. This one runs until November 30th. As of writing this post, it is still awaiting approval from Goodreads administrative staff. So if the link doesn’t work, please try again. Enter the Goodreads Giveaway here: LINK
Another reason to follow me on Twitter or Facebook is because I will likely be announcing more giveaways on there as soon as I come up with more idea.
ATTENTION BOOK REVIEWERS
If you write book reviews on your blog/website or magazine, or know someone who does, get in touch with me. This is another great way to get a free copy of the Kindle version of my book. I will not pay for a review. So if you charge for your reviews, I’ll pass. You can go to the contact me section to contact me about a book review. Just let me know a little about your site, and send me a link.
INTERVIEWS AND EVENTS
If you would like to interview me about my book, and other topics, you can contact me. I’ll be happy to schedule something with you. I’m open for newspapers, blogs, journals, magazines, Television, Radio, Podcasts, and I’m sure many other types of interviews.
If you own a Bookstore, you can contact me for a book signing. I am already working on scheduling a couple of them to be announced soon.
PLUGGING AWAY
I want to thank everyone who is helping, and I am sure about to help, plug my book. I really appreciate the word of mouth advertising. I’ll keep everyone updated as the book releases.
Dissolution of Peace — Announcements
I present to you, the cover for Dissolution of Peace.
As many of you know, I have been waiting on a lot of things before I officially make any announcements about Dissolution of Peace. Some of you may have even been following along as I took each step.
This journey to publishing a novel really started with my first acceptance letter, in August 2011. Followed by my second. After selling two short stories, I decided to open up my original manuscript for the then untitled novel. Perhaps I felt validated as a writer, or perhaps I simply the timing was right. Either way the much needed rewrites began.
My New Years Resolution was to write more. I rewrote the entire manuscript from scratch. And by February I was finished. I sent it out to several beta readers, made changes. And then let it rest for a bit.
I struggled long and hard for a tittle. The original title was going to be: Serenity. This was back when I wrote the first manuscript. But, this certain movie came out a short time later, and of course I had to change it. After some time, and using multiple different random title generators. I came up with Dissolution of Peace. After a good night sleep, I fell in love with the new title. And I feel it describes the novel well.
In May I hired Robert S. Wilson to do my editing after giving it a look over for some time. I followed that by hiring Neil Jackson to do the cover art. And after waiting (rather impatiently I might add) I got both a marked up manuscript and a cover art sample.
I was ready to announce a release date that day. But when I began to work on my edits, I was overwhelmed by it. I was afraid and I had no idea how long it would take.
I got the final cover art. I whittled down those edits. And while there are still edits to be done, I can confidently announce a release date:
October 16th, 2012.
Of course that bars anything else crazy going on. But it will be out and ready before the end of October. After all, you will want to give this as a Christmas present.
Now many of you expected to see my cover art and a release date. But I have another surprise for my blog followers. I have attached the Official Trailer!
Dissolution of Peace will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle and in Print. And I will be announcing a Pre-order sale soon. You will be able to order a signed print copy right from my blog. Details will come on that soon.
Description:
When Earth Navy Captain Christina Serenity is brutally attacked by a traitor, her life is saved by Security Forces Corporal Michael Carlson. On the heels of her recovery, her ship is attacked by terrorists, and she is thrown into a difficult assignment. She must chase after the only clue they have, a Martian ship called the Phobos, and find out what secrets it hides. To make matters worse, someone still wants her dead.
Her ship, E.S.S. Australia embarks on a mission that leads Serenity on journey of discovery, friendship, betrayal, and revenge. She quickly learns the only thing harder to prevent than war, is love.
Now Serenity must trust her protection crew to keep her alive long enough to solve this puzzle while trying to prevent an interplanetary war.
The line has been drawn… Who will cross first?
So with out further ramblings from me, I present the trailer for Dissolution of Peace:
Editing (and why you need an Editor)
I am blogging a lot later tonight because I spend my day time editing Dissolution of Peace. Though I finally went through all my editors notes, I am not finished. My editors made nearly 3,000 line by line comments on my manuscript and also provided me with four full pages of comments and suggestions. I still have 70 to correct, but I made the decision to fix what was easiest first. The points of story and character, I’ll go back and review. It was a lot of work just to correct those other 2930 comments, but many of those were punctuation mistakes, grammar mistakes, and typos.
Grammar is a touchy issue with me. It is also a pit fall of mine. I’m not afraid to mention that. But I do become incredibly grouchy when grammar mistakes are pointed out to me, especially in social settings. And while a few simple mistakes may not ruin a story for a reader, major slip ups will. And a pile of minor slip ups can make a mountain that becomes distracting. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and for that reason I dreaded reading these comments.
But if grammar bothered me, I was more worried that the editor would have listed a huge amount of plot problems. Or tell me he hated the story line all together. Thankfully I didn’t get that. There were even some plot points I was worried about that my editor made no comments on.
But in the end my editor caught 3,000 mistakes (in his opinion) that my three beta readers missed. That is 3000 things that were not brought to my attention before I hired an editor. And this is exactly why you need to hire an editor, especially for your longer projects. I don’t hire an editor for my short stories, it doesn’t make financial sense to me. But I will hire an editor for all of my novellas and novels.
Beta readers help you find those plot mistakes, story flow problems, and gauge overall reader enjoyment. Editors break out the find tooth comb and check for all the little mistakes (and even some big ones). Think of Beta readers as sand paper, they smooth out the story. And Editors are polish, they make the story shine.
There are some things you have to look for when you hire an editor:
First, do they have any editing experience. Don’t be afraid to ask them what they have edited. Don’t be afraid to ask other writers for recommendations. And do a search for information about that editor. Check out their website and other people’s posts about them. Ask for references. Remember you are hiring them.
See if you can get a sample. Many editors will provide a small sample of their work. Some won’t but I’d suggest they do. Even if it is just a few pages. If not, but you know they are a good editor. Find out what you get for the money you are paying. Some editors charge a lot of money just to give you a summary of thoughts. While others will offer line by line edits. Always ask if it includes proofreading. Some editors don’t consider proofreading part of editing. It is semantics if you ask me, but that is why you should always check.
Find out a deadline. Make sure the editor gives you a timeline. Don’t dump hundreds of dollars on an editor that plans to take an excessive amount of time on your manuscript. You may have to pay more if you want a rush on your edits, and you may pay less if you allow the editor some extra time. Again, establish that up front.
Last find out if your editor will continue to help you if you fail to understand his notes. Some editors charge for the markups and a separate fee if you want further opinion later. Others are willing to help you through the whole process up to publication for no extra charge.
Tips for handling editor markups:
Just like when you get feedback from Beta Readers, the feedback from an editor does not mean you have to change something. There were a number of suggestions my editor made, that I won’t be changing. Most of these are a simple matter of opinion. But, remember you are hiring an editor to provide you a professional opinion. So if you are not sure you agree with an editor remark, look it up for yourself. For example, my editor marked that “sickbay” should be “sick bay”. I won’t be changing that because my research shows that many naval traditions refer to it as one word, sickbay. So I will keep it that way. My editor is not wrong for marking that, I just prefer it the one way. The plus side is that by him pointing it out, I realized that in some parts of my manuscript I had it as two words. So for consistency I fixed that.
That being said, never ignore an editor’s comments. They marked it for a reason. Good editors will also explain why they marked it that way. Mine did. I was also able to research it myself. I learned from it and now I know a lot more than I did in the beginning. There were a few times I thought I had done something right, but when I went and looked it up I was wrong. Don’t ignore a comment, learn from it even if you don’t change it.
Next, bit of advice is not to be overwhelmed. It is pretty scary when you see all those red markups on your manuscript. At first I didn’t really want to move forward on the edits. I was intimidated by the volume of notes. But I told me self I’d start working my way down. Anything that required extra thought I would skip. I would fix all the typos, punctuation, and grammar errors and other simple fixes. That got the ball rolling. And soon you realize that you repeat a lot of mistakes. For me, punctuation at the end of dialogue was a pit fall for me. That was probably the number one punctuation fix for me. A few spelling errors.
And a lot of repeated words. When I started to find out my editor was marking repeated words, I was a bit mad. I didn’t see the importance in it. I thought it was something trivial and a matter of opinion. But when I got back my manuscript I found that my characters “smile” a lot. They “stated” everything. And they “look” all over the place. And a lot of the time I used all three of those words as a filler. Something a simple “said” would work for. Or sometimes the sentence could be removed with no effect on the story.
My last tip for handling big project edits is not to read while you edit. If I had reread my entire novel while working on the edits it would have taking far longer. I simply went from comment to comment and corrected what was wrong. I only read the area of the comment to get the context. It helped me power through those thousands of comments leaving the real meat of the edit there. I will now read through the novel and as I hit the comments left behind I can decide how to best correct those.
I don’t need an editor.
If you are writing a novel (or even a novella) you are wrong. You may plan to publish the traditional way, or you may plan to self publish. Either way you need an editor.
If I was submitting my manuscript to an editor at a publishing house, I’d have just submitted them a manuscript with 3,000 errors on it. That is 3000 things the publisher will notice. I think my current manuscript would have a better chance of being picked up simply because I correct so many errors.
If I self published my manuscript, it would have went to readers with 3,000 mistakes on it. That could very well add up to low sales. And the number one way a self published author gets (or loses) sales is word of mouth. There is rarely a large marketing budget for the self published author. So hiring an editor is the best way to invest what little money you have available to improve your work.
Every writer needs an editor. At least one.
Who did I use?
I am sure you wonder who I used for my editor. I used Robert Wilson, editor for Nightscape Press. Robert is a self published author of multiple top rated novels and novellas, including the only Vampire novel I have truly enjoyed: Shining in Crimson. Robert was also an editor for Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology and is a freelance editor. His rates are reasonable (you can contact him about that). His work is very in-depth. He even took time to look up facts about how military ranks are capitalized, since this was his first story that dealt with so many ranks. I think that speaks volumes right there. He took the time to make sure he has it right. He provided me broad notes and line by line edits/proofreading. As I mentioned he took the time to point out repeated words. He did this by highlighting them a different color than the comments, and that was really helpful. It made them stand out and I really saw how much I was using some words. Overall, I highly recommend him. And I will use him again (provided he can stand working with such a needy writer again).
Making SOME Money in Writing
I briefly touched on this in an early blog post. Writing is really about more than making money. If you are a short fiction writer you’d have to do a lot of work to make a good salary.
Where you live will depend on how much you need to survive. But lets assume you’d be happy with $35,000 a year. Out in California that is a small amount of money and barely scraping by. But, if I was doing it as a writer, I’d be happy to scrape by. If you stuck to short fiction, you would need to sell 700,000 words a year at pro rates (5 cents a word). That is a lot of words. And that is words to sell, not write. You’d have to write roughly 1,900 words a day that are publishable, with no days off.
Most of us don’t put something on paper and it is instantly publishable. We need to spend time editing. We need to send it out to and listen to our Beta Readers. Now back to editing. And there is always the time it sits on submissions. But, lets assume you work part time at it. Say three hours a day, five days a week, for a year. Or 780 hours a year. And you manage to get an average of 5,000 words a month published at pro rates. You’d make roughly $3.85 an hour. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
You might argue that if you really did spent 15 hours a week on writing, they could put out more that just 5,000 words published each month. But the truth is you won’t make a lot of money publishing short stories. You will get paid in a different way. You will get paid with recognition, reader enjoyment, positive feedback, and much more. This is why I fail to understand writers who believe anything less than 5 cents a word is beneath them.
They are measuring the payment of writing in dollars and it really needs to be measured in other ways. And, in many ways the payments you gets from writing can’t be measured. Reader enjoyment is hands down my favorite method of payment. Each time a reader comments on my story, enjoys a plot point, or loves a character I feel like I have been paid again for that story. Each time some one clicks the like button for this blog, I feel like I got another payment. And when someone says they have heard of me and my writing, I feel like I hit the lotto.
Don’t get me wrong, I like a pay check too. But I don’t write for the money, I write for the enjoyment. So I wonder how can we make some money in writing. The trick is that it is a process. Just like most jobs, you start at the bottom and work your way up.
I still strongly urge anyone who writes to start with short stories. Even if you have a novel in the works, starting with short stories really puts a feather in your cap. It gets your name out there to a community of readers both before your novel hits the shelf, and after.
Now, lets talk about novels. When I release Dissolution of Peace, I have no intentions of making millions in the first release. Let us say that I sell my novel for $2.99 on Kindle. And, I doubt I would start there. But lets say that I do. I get 70% of most sales. So I would need 16,750 downloads in a year to hit that $35,000. That may not sound like a lot, 17,000 downloads, but when you are trying to market that book by yourself, it really is a lofty goal. And lets not forget that you might be more inclined to start your novel off at $0.99 or $1.99 because you may be lesser known.
But, lets consider something a bit more realistic here. Lets say you really buckle down and dedicate yourself. I don’t believe it is impossible to turn out two novels in a year and six short stories sold. I work full time, run a magazine, and volunteer a bunch of hours to Youth Soccer, but that is my goal. A goal I won’t achieve in 2012, but only because I just made it this month.
Let me assume that I sell $300 in short stories (5,000 word average at 1 cent a word for six stories). And, in those sales I get to make a quick blurb about my novels and this website. I think realistically I could expect 3,000 downloads a year per novel at $0.99 price point. So I’d get $4,200 there. For a total of $4,500 a year not counting other expenses such as marketing. So, I may not be making millions as a writer. But I think that is a good goal for 2013. And $4,500 a year to do something I love isn’t bad considering the other things I love to do, watching hockey and playing video games, don’t make me a cent.
And, if you keep building from there, soon you have more sales and more works in circulation. It is a slow process, but I do believe that eventually it can be possible to make a decent amount of money as a writer. The process takes time, you have to build a readership. But remember all the other rewards you get for your writing. The ones that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.
Now some might say that I sound like I am trying to dissuade you from writing. This is not true. Don’t be discouraged by this post. If you sole goal in writing was to make money, you might want to try your hand at different types of writing. But if you have bigger dreams than money, carry on with the craft. I firmly believe that if you write for the love of story telling, the rewards (and even the money) will follow.
Dry Spells
We writers often talk about writer’s block. I even had a blog post on the topic. But sometimes we just have dry spells. They can be caused by different factors, including writer’s block, lack of time, and lack of motivation. For me it has been the motivation mostly. The ideas have been flowing free in my mind. Both for a sequel to Dissolution of Peace and the current novel I am working on have been very active in my mind. But I just don’t sit down and write. So for today’s blog I thought I would talk about how to ride out these dry spells and even do a little rain dance to get things going again.
The first step is recognizing the dry spell. That may seem easy enough, and for some it is. But for me it wasn’t so easy. I only just started thinking about how little I have written. And when I look at my work in progress, I see the file hasn’t been modified since May 10th. That is nearly two months ago, and I wasn’t aware of it. This is by far the longest dry spell I have had in some time. The only saving grace is that I have still been writing in this blog on a weekly basis.
In fact it was this blog that made me recognize I was in a dry spell, and at the same time it was what made me not realize it for so long. Each week I sit down and put together a blog post for you. I’m writing, and perhaps writing these blogs kept my ‘writing sense’ working. Blogs are great ways to keep people aware of your existence, and to break down writing blocks and walls. But, in this case it tricked me into thinking it hadn’t been so long since I wrote. But, when I only wrote a short ‘Happy Independence Day’ blog last week, it clicked to me how little I have written.
You may not blog, so you may see you haven’t written in a matter of weeks. Or, it could take you some time to recognize it for other reasons. The point is you have to realize you’re in a slump before you can move on to the next step.
The next step is identifying the cause of the dry spell. Again this may seem easy, but that is not always true. Writer’s Block is often the first thing to blame. But, if your ideas are still percolating in your head, as mine were, writer’s block is likely not your cause. You have things to write about in your head, you’re just not sitting at the keyboard and doing it. If you think it is writer’s block, dig deeper. If you find no other causes, then revert to the steps to break down writer’s block.
The next most common thing to blame is time. That is what I blamed. I told myself I haven’t had time because I have been running a magazine. I’ve been trying to get the first issue ready for print. But that wasn’t fair. Sure, running the magazine has taken up a lot of my time, but so does work, and my family. All valid things to be working on rather than writing, but I’ve worked around all of them before. But if you work through all this and find that time really is the issue, then you need to revert to the steps to find a time to work on your writing.
You might find it is depression, lack of motivation, or you have something new in your life that you’d rather be doing. You may even find out that writing isn’t what you want to do. But chances are that if you’ve realized you’re not writing, and are looking for ways to start again, you genuinely miss writing. Once you find the cause, you need to dig deeper and find the true cause.
For me, I found it was a lack of motivation. The ideas were there, but I wasn’t writing. I dug deeper to find the cause of my lack of motivation. That was a series of bad news in my writing. I have received five rejection letters in those two months. Three of those were for a story I have really felt confident in. It has been stacking up the rejections and it has started to take a toll on my confidence. In fact I have two short stories that are not selling despite approaching a year in circulation. I’ve reminded myself that my first stories sold remarkably fast. I’ve also reminded myself that I have not turned out a short story in almost eight months. That is not a bad thing though. I’ve been focusing on putting out novels. When the right idea hits me, I’ll write another short.
There have been other delays in my novel as well. I still don’t have cover art. The edits may be delayed. That coupled with the lack of sales of my son’s children’s book, has me worrying about my ability. I get frustrated when people are not as excited about something as I am. I feel as though they don’t approve of it, or even thing it not as worthy of their time. I am a pessimist by nature, so I see all these things for the worst rather than the possible truth. I see cover art delays as an artist who is disinterested in my story. I see edit delays as an editor who thinks my work is so bad it needs more time. And I see lack of sales on my son’s book as validation of my worst fears (that I can’t do this).
Long story short the reason for my dry spell is a lack of motivation because I am suffering from the “I can’t do this” and “I’m not good enough to do this” mentality. We all hit this. Everyone, in anything they pursue, hits a point where they think they can’t continue. But if you stop, you are only proving yourself (and your critics) right. It is the people that continue and refuse failure, that make it to their goals.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Next, you need to break past your road block. You have figured out what the cause of your dry spell is, but now you need to break on through and keep working. For writer’s block, it may be as simple as sitting down and typing until you get something going. For a lack of time, you can schedule in writing time. If it is more complicated, break it down into simple ways to motivate yourself.
For me, I inflated my ego a bit. I went to the reviews of my short works that are previously published and saw what they had to say. Reminded myself that people do enjoy what I write, and that eventually an editor will. I also recognized that not everyone is able, or willing, to fall into finite deadlines. I either need to live with it, or only work with people who will follow deadlines (likely a mixture of both). Last, I think I am good with marketing. But I had to recognize that when it comes to books, I am new at it. And when it comes to Children’s Books, I am unsure where to start. So I’ve started asking around for help on that.
The point is whatever is holding you back needs to be addressed. You need to either make peace with it, or solve it. Either way you have to get those things out of the way before you can start writing again.
Last, perform a rain dance. You will never get past a dry spell if you don’t start getting things going. If you have a work in progress, open it up and get working. You’ve worked past all your issues, but your desire to write won’t magically spark up. You need to start writing. You might find that you will jump right back in. Or, especially in the case of writer’s block, you will struggle to start up again. But after a little time at the keyboard you will find the rains will fall again. And hopefully once you get going again your next dry spell will be a long way off.
Some people hit dry spells and give up. For some people they simply don’t feel the need to write anymore. But, chances are they would not be interested in finding a way to start writing again. If you have the desire to keep writing, but you just can’t seem to do it, you are a writer in a dry spell. Don’t give up on it. Clearly writing is something you enjoy doing, or you wouldn’t seek out advice on how to end your dry spell. Now get to work on fixing it, and get those words on paper.
Updates: May 2012
Here we are pushing the halfway point of the year. I’m having trouble believing this fact, but unless the calendar has adapted a mind of its own, June is almost here. What is even crazier is how much has happened since my last set of updates.
I finally crawled out from under my rock and picked up a copy of The Hunger Games. I don’t know why I stalled on it for so long. I think it has to do with the fact that I typically don’t read books that have suddenly jumped into popularity solely for the fact that everyone else is reading them. I have not read one Twilight or Harry Potter book. I was over at Costco and saw a copy of it sitting on their book display. I decided to give it a read. I won’t go into a review of it here, there are plenty of those around, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll likely pick up Catching Fire soon. I’ve added a “What I am Reading” box to the side bar on my website, thanks to another Goodreads plug in.
There are some other books I have on my to read list: Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology is one of those books. I’m not a huge fan of Horror, that has to be said. But, I am a huge fan of what this anthology is about: giving back. There are some big names in the Horror community that have shared their talents with the Editors for the purpose of doing good. Put out by Cutting Block Press, they are taking net profits and donating them to The Foundation for AIDS Research. In my opinion $5 for the Kindle version is money well spent. I’ll be likely to order the print edition, as most of you know, but either way I can’t help but support this. Pick up your copy here: LINK.
I also plan to read Exit Reality by Robert S. Wilson once that is released. I don’t think an official release date has been announced yet. Some other titles I hope to read soon: Fading in Darkness by Robert S. Wilson and Death on Zanath by Lee Gimenez. Of course this is all money and time permitting.
Besides reading and blogging you may have heard that I am a writer. You may have also heard some rumors about a Novel I have coming soon. Since I will be virtually self publishing Dissolution of Peace, I hired an editor to review it. So right now it is over at Wilson Book Service awaiting editor mark ups. I think this is an important step serious self publishers should consider. A professional editor is something that is lost when you self publish. No matter how good you are, self editing is always bound to miss something. In any case, I’m expected to get his mark ups by mid-July. I will certainly be diving right into fixing what needs to be fixed and getting that out to you.
I have also hired the talents of Neil Jackson at Pig and Cow Design to create the cover art for Dissolution of Peace. I’d hoped to have some cover art to show you for this post, but good art takes time (It has only been a week or so). I most certainly will have it up for your on Facebook and Twitter when it comes out.
I do have something to share with you. A little update and tease to novel. Below is the blurb for Dissolution of Peace:
“The people of Earth have enjoyed centuries of peace under one global government. They’ve made great strides in space travel and planet colonization. The colonies on Mars wanted independence and Earth granted without a fight to preserve the peace.
When Earth Navy Captain Christina Serenity is brutally attacked by a traitor, her life is saved by Security Forces Corporal Michael Carlson. On the heels of her recovery, her ship is attacked by terrorists, and she is thrown into a difficult assignment. She must chase after the only clue they have, a Martian ship called the Phobos, to find out what secrets it hides. To make matters worse, someone still wants her dead.
Now Serenity must trust her protection crew to keep her alive long enough to solve this puzzle while trying to prevent an interplanetary war.”
On the topic of things taking time, I realize that for… well hell almost a year now, I have been telling you that Daddy is Tired will be coming out soon. So far I’ve been embarrassed with every false promise I have made in hopes this would be coming out soon. As you know this is a children’s picture book my son and I wrote together, that has been at the illustrator for a really long time. Sadly, it is now well below his reading level. So my hopes of he and I reading it together have been smashed. I am utterly disappointed and have tried very hard to be understanding of every delay. I did warn her that I would like to see it done before she had a baby because life would get hectic after that. She assured me that wouldn’t change things. Unfortunately it has been one life event after another. That being said, she is doing this for free. But, I am learning, somethings are worth the price you pay. And the Artwork will be great once it is done, so don’t get me wrong when I speak of worth, it is the delays that are maddening. I’ll hold off on announcing a release date until I have the illustrations in hand. While my wife and I will be happy to see it published, my six year old son probably doesn’t even remember writing it.
In other news, I’ve become involved in a project I am really excited about. I am the Editor-in-Chief for a new Speculative Fiction magazine called, Plasma Frequency. I am excited about this project for several reasons. One, it is a paying market. We are seeing a ton of new markets pop up, but rarely do they pay. Eventually, depending on the readers and the advertisers, we plan to grow to a pro-rate market. We offer both print and electronic forms. We also provide something different to the writer. We provide editor feedback. There are two things that always frustrate me with a rejection letter. One, I never know how far they read in my manuscript. Two, I never know why they reject my manuscript. Plasma Frequency‘s editors changed that. They are sending out letters telling authors they don’t accept just how far they got in the process and at least one line as to why the editor did not send it on. When I agreed to this project, I built the process to be transparent. Writers have a right to know just a little bit about what happens to their manuscript when they click submit.
Another great thing about this project is that they plan to review books that are published by Independent Presses and Self Publishers. For now I will likely be the one to review them, but I think this is great news. These two groups need a bit of the spotlight. Surprisingly though, we’ve only received one book review submission. We have received a steady stream (10-20 a day) of fiction submissions. Artists and Books to review are just starting to trickle in. So if you have one of those, now is the time to submit. Our fiction submissions are open continuously. If you don’t make the flagship issue (currently set for Sep 2012), we will be publishing bi-monthly.
If you are a self published Author, we give you 15% off our advertising rates. Right now these rates are already really low compared to other magazines. But, as our readership goes up, so will those rates. Of course, anyone can advertise (within our standards) in our magazine. Our electronic issue is free, so we expect a lot of downloads.
For submission details, advertising details and subscriptions, visit: plasmafrequencymagazine.com
So what else is coming down the pipeline? I have a new novel in the works, maybe I will have some announcements on that in the June or July updates. The sequel to Dissolution of Peace is also in the talks. I have two new short stories out making their rounds at the various markets. And, of course, I will have my weekly blog posts for you. I don’t have any new topic lined up, but subscribe to my blog to get alerts for my new posts.
The Dangers of Bad Publishers
Last week I blogged about the different types of publishers. Well over the last week, mainly the last two days, there is a blog post that is going viral in the writing community. I thought I would talk a little bit about it, and in this community we all want to learn from each other (even our mistakes).
Mandy DeGeit published a post called “When Publishing Goes Wrong…Starring Undead Press“. If you haven’t read it, please do. The language is strong but if this happened to me, mine would be too. In short, Mandy wrote a story called “She makes me smile” and it was excepted by Undead Press for their anthology Cavalcade of Terror. Needless to say, Mandy rushed to read her work in this anthology. She opened it up to find the title had a typo (adding an apostrophe where there shouldn’t be one). I wish it ended there. However the editor took out whole chunks of her narrative and even added a very poorly written paragraph. Not to mention adding a gender to a genderless character.
Mandy contacted the publisher, which is a one man company run by Anthony Giangregorio (who also runs Open Casket Press and Living Dead Press), and she received a very unprofessional response. One that included vague legal threats. It appears this is not the only unprofessional issue he has had. It appears a soon to be released Anthology World’s Collider had some issues as well (read about those here).
Long story short this was a very bad press, run by someone without much skill in the area of business relations. It is a very unfortunate thing but fortunately writers and other independent presses have risen up to effectively cause some disturbances to Mr. Giangregorio’s businesses. On the heals of DeGeit’s post, Undead Press announced it would only be accepting submissions from authors living in the United States (DeGeit lives in Canada). I’m sorry Mr. Giangregorio, nation of residency had nothing to do with this. Today, as I write this blog, I can no longer seem to find Undead press on Facebook. Thanks to authors everywhere taking action and declaring this unfair and wrong, we can all hope Mr. Giangregorio doesn’t do business again. I encourage you to read Mandy’s article and then tweet it, post it, and reblog it until we see nothing more of Giangregorio.
Your first thought might be to steer clear of independent presses all together. While I can’t speak for DeGeit, I don’t think that was the intentions of her post. It was a warning beacon to us all to carefully check out an editor and publisher before doing business with them. I still champion smaller presses, in fact I am starting a magazine of my own, but we all have to be aware of what to look out for when we get ready to be published. Here are some tips:
- Research the publisher before submitting. See what they publish. See if they have had any complaints. If they are a new publisher, that is not a red flag. Red flags include multiple name changes, no contracts to sign, poor reviews by other authors, and negative ratings on social sites.
- You take no risk by submitting your work to a publisher. Remember, until you sign the contract you can walk away at any time. If something doesn’t feel right, you don’t agree with wording in an acceptance, or if you just don’t like their publication any longer, you can walk away. And you should. No publisher, at least the good ones, want you to commit to something you are not comfortable with. It is easy to be excited over that acceptance letter, but don’t let your excitement blind you.
- Read the entire contract for yourself. Read every section of the contract word for word. Look for things that are either vague or overly complicated. Make sure the contract is something you can live with before you sign it. If not, ask the company to make changes to it. If they can accommodate you, or at least meet you half way, most publishers will try. If they can’t or won’t you can walk away.
- Editing is important. Nearly every contract has an editing clause in it. It should only allow for punctuation, grammar, and formatting. There should always be a line in there that says something to the nature of “All other changes must be agreed to in writing.”
- Always make sure payment terms are laid out. When will you be paid, how much you will be paid, and how you will be paid should all be spelled out. Typically pay times range from the day you sign the contract to 30 days after publication.
- When working with a publisher, MONEY SHOULD ALWAYS FLOW IN THE DIRECTION OF THE WRITER. That means no reputable publisher will ever charge you any fees to publish with them. Bottom line, no excuses. They pay you for your talent and that is it. I can’t stress this enough. Do not pay a publisher a dime, or even a cent!
- Rights is another important area on the contract. First Print and First Electronic rights are common (meaning your story is first being published with them). Rights typically last for only 365 days on short stories (with an option to extend say for a yearly anthology). Anything longer than that seems outrageous to me.
- Keep copies of any emails, letters, or other correspondence you have with the staff of the publisher. This may be very important if something comes to dispute. Keep a file cabinet for that stuff.
- It is not uncommon for an editor to ask for changes to be made. Usually this is done before acceptance and contract signing (in the form of a rewrite request). You don’t have to rewrite it and you don’t have to resubmit it to them even if you do rewrite it. If you don’t like their changes don’t change it. If requests are done after contract signing, you should be the only one to rewrite your story. Again, all parties should have to agree to this in writing per the contract.
- Know your opt out clauses. Know certain situation where it is okay for either you or the publisher to choose not to publish any longer. This could be a mutual withdrawal, such as if publisher and writer can not agree on a change. Or there could be other clauses thrown in there (don’t sign the contract if you don’t like it).
- I may have said this before, but if there is no contract then DO NOT PUBLISH, with them. Contracts are in place to protect you, just as much as they are there to protect the publisher.
Most independent publishers are reputable businesses that work to help writers reach the goal of being published. They share the desire to entertain readers. Every now and then a publisher surfaces that needs to be stopped. That is when we as writers and publishers unite to keep the problems out. I have to thank Mary DeGeit for being bold enough to share this and sound the alarm. I’d like to thank everyone else for taking her story and sharing it everywhere they can.
The Different Publishers
It is funny that most people ask me the question: Should I self publish or should I try the traditional publisher? There are other options for publishing your book that just those two options. We’ll explore some of those with this post. I’ll give you my thoughts on each of these, and you can give me your thoughts in the comments.
The Conglomerate Publisher
We like to say “Traditional Publisher” but truthfully traditions are changing and the term doesn’t really fit anymore. And, truth be told, traditional publishing can be divided up. So we’ll talk about the conglomerate publisher. These are the big guys in publishing. Orbit Books, Tor, Del Rey, Bantam, Baen, and Scholastic are just a few examples. And, if you look most of those up you will find a parent corporation they are under. The parent corporation often has a number of press names they use depending on the genre. They employe a ton of editors, copywriters, printers, and basically just a lot of employees that work to publish books.
Advantage: Well they are the big guys. Land a deal with them and you are likely to get exposure in a wide market area. They will handle most of your book’s marketing. They have the ability to print out mass copies. They may offer you a higher advance and royalties too (maybe).
Disadvantage: Getting accepted is hard. Many talented authors spend a lot of time just to get rejected from these guys. Nearly everybody submits to them. You often have to sell off a lot more copies to pay off your advance (they have a higher overhead then any other option). Even if you do get published you tend to find that it takes a long time to get anything going. And, I see a lot of people published by these conglomerates that are still marketing the heck out of their own works. The other HUGE disadvantage is that authors often think getting published by these guys guarantee a hit novel, it doesn’t. Plain and simple these guys can do little to make you any better of a writer and story teller.
The Mid-level Publisher
A lot of sites go straight from Conglomerate to Independent when they talk about types of publishers. But there are a few mid-level publishing companies. These companies may be only big in one genre, or maybe are big in one country. The main difference here is that they tend to publish more books then the independent publisher, but not as many as the conglomerates.
Advantage: They handle the major marketing. They can produce a moderate amount of books at one time. They offer you a good advance and royalties. They tend to have a smaller overhead which means more profit margin and hopefully more money in your pocket.
Disadvantage: Acceptance is still hard. Exposure is not as big, but in the days of the internet and Amazon it is getting much better. There can still be lengthy delays from acceptance to publish date.
The Independent Press
This is often confused with someone who sits in their basement printing books. That is not the case. These are simply smaller companies working to publish books. They tend to specialize is a genre or two. They often only have one or two editors (sometimes more). They often don’t work to make huge profits. Sometimes they are Sole Proprietorships (one owner) or Partnerships. But many are now LLC, LLP, or even incorporating.
Advantages: Acceptance times are often faster. They are far more approachable. They will market your book as well. And, with the internet as big as it is. They are often on the virtual shelves of Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and their own private stores. They often pay lower advances but higher royalties (though not always). It often takes less sales to “burn off” the advance and start earning royalties. They are in the business of getting good writers out to the readers that other presses are simply over looking. But, you will find more and more authors are going with smaller presses to get their voice heard. First, you still have to market your book no matter what way you go about this. Here you get a little help. Plus, even if your Novel is rejected. The smaller presses are far more likely to tell you why. Giving you a chance to fix the mistake and try again.
Disadvantage: They simply aren’t the big guys. Most don’t stock book shelves of brick and mortar book stores. But, some do. But with how many books are purchased on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online. It is starting to be irrelevant. Last, many authors worry about using a Independent press simply due to brand recognition factors. But, I frankly never looked at who published a book until I started writing. Most readers don’t care who published it, only how the story is written.
Vanity Press
A vanity press is often confused with a Independent Press. But they are vastly different. A vanity press publishes almost every thing they are sent, provided you cut them a check. That’s right. You pay them to publish your book. They offer many of the services other presses offer, editors, marketing, ect. But you have to pay for it. They slap a publishers name on it and sell it. They came is to play when self publishing was hard, and carried a much more negative image then it does today.
Advantages: Frankly it is hard for me to think of any. Money should always flow in the direction of the author. I suppose if you wanted to self publish, but didn’t want to let people know you did it. This is the way. But why?
Disadvantages: It’s a rip off. Frankly they over charge for just about everything. You may as well hire a good independent editor, and publish it yourself. Or better yet, give a few of these Independent Publishers a shot and not have to pay a dime.
Self Publishing
This is just as it sounds you self publish your works. You pay for the cover art (or make it yourself), you solely market, you format it on Createspace, KDP, or where ever. You are the publisher of your own book.
Advantages: No middleman to work with. You get final say on everything. You do it all. You are guaranteed to get published.
Disadvantages: You do it all. Self publishing is the most underestimated form of publishing. It is by far the most work. You have to pay for an editor (and you really need to do that if you plan to self publish and maybe even if you plan to use a different method). Sure you could just take your story, look it over and then throw it together on KDP and tell you friends to go buy it. But, is that really getting published? Or just perpetuating the stereo type that nothing good is ever self published? Of everything I mentioned here, self publishing is the hardest.
You can see there are a lot of options, you can choose what works for you. I strongly recommend that you look at them all. I think Independent Presses give you the best balance between self publishing and “traditional” publishing. That is just my opinion though. Perhaps in another post I’ll highlight a few independent presses that specialize in certain genres. If you know of one, visit the contact page and let me know.
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover… Wait
We all know that saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” We hear it all the time. But, we rarely hear it applied to actual books. That is because we all judge our books by the cover.
In a Disney’s Phineas and Ferb episode, “The Chronicles of Meap”, there comes a very funny scene (at least to me the author). In which Candace is with her Mom (Linda):
Phineas: Yeah, it looked way outside, but then it was right in the zone. There’s a lesson, baseball fans: never judge a book by its cover.
(scene flips to Candace, looking at a row of books)
Candace: Boring, dull, stupid, lame— heavy-handed and derivative.
Linda: Oh, thank you for those insightful reviews of books you haven’t read.
Candace: Mom, that’s why books have covers: to judge them. I mean, why did you choose these books from the library?
Linda: They looked interesting.
Candace: So…
Linda: Point taken.
Every time I see that scene (and I watch a lot of Phineas and Ferb) it makes me smile. Because it is so true. Books have covers to entice us to buy them. When I am in the book store (yes they still have those,) I browse the rows of books until I see a cover that jumps out at me. I pick it up, look it over (including the back) and I decide if I am going to buy it based solely on the cover.
This is why cover art is so important. Once you get them to pick up the book, you need to get them to turn it over and read that all important “sales pitch” printed on the back. Only after you get past that will you be able to get them to buy the book. Even if the person thumbs through the first few pages, they have to pick it up off the shelf first.
That is why covers are important in the store, but what about online. Do people still browse the virtual aisles of Amazon.com? I think they might. Even if they know exactly what they are looking for, they may browse more. For example, go to Amazon.com and search Richard Flores IV… no wait that sounds vain, search Robert S. Wilson instead. If you were specifically looking for his book Shining in Crimson because you saw my post about it (vanity again). How would you recognize it instantly in the scrolling list of results. THE COVER.
Now, if you click on the link to his novel. You will see Amazon puts that “People who viewed this also viewed:” on the bottom. Now all you see there is the cover, the title, and the author. Now, you may not ever use that (I have), but people do that. Otherwise, Amazon wouldn’t use it. Again, they will make the choice to click on the novel, based on the cover.
So the cover is important in store or online. If you go with a big publisher, chances are they will have someone take care of the cover art for you. But, if you decide to self publish you will need to deal with cover art on your own. Perhaps you hire somebody, or you can do it yourself if you choose. But be prepared to spend some time on it.
A good cover needs:
- To have the title on it. That seems obvious enough, but the title should be the dominate text on the cover. I have seen books where you could easily mistake the Authors name as the Title. Or even a tag line. You don’t need to place the Title on top, but you do need to make it the most eye catching thing on there. Use easy to read, but stand out fonts. Make sure the title contrasts with the rest of the cover art, you don’t want it getting lost in the artwork.
- To have the Author’s name on it. Believe it or not, I have seen covers with no Author’s name on it. If I want to find a book by Robert S. Wilson, Lee Gimenez, or even a blockbuster like Orson Scott Card; you need to have the name on it. I am not going to spend time looking to see who the book is written by. You may not think you are worth looking for, but if you are marketing your book, someone is looking. Even me, the twice published author of two short stories, gets a hit to this site based on a search for my name, an average of once a week. Again, stand out font that contrasts with the artwork.
- The artwork itself. Many would argue this should have been number 1 on this list. Sure the art may be what catches the eye first, but title is what always hooks me in to reading more. So as far as importance goes, you decide. There are several ways to get artwork for your cover. There are plenty of stock photo/artwork sites. You can buy the artwork per piece or you can pay a monthly fee and get all the artwork you want. Some are even free. Always check the terms and conditions carefully. You may not be able to use the stock art commercially. The other down side to stock is that your image could be used by some one else not giving you exclusive rights to the art. If that is the case, you may want to commission an artist to do your cover art. It will likely cost you (unless you are connected) and it will likely be more than the stock art sites.
- Relevant artwork. Artwork is important enough to get two bullet points (that I didn’t want to turn off my bullet point format). Make sure however you get artwork it is relevant to the story in some way. It should be eye catching as well. The artwork should not be overwhelming either. It is not an art gallery exhibit. Just enough to entice the readers to pick it up off the shelf.
- The sales-pitch. Typically this is on the back cover. Not seen right away. But you got the book off the shelf (or they clicked on the link). Now you need to get them to buy it. If you buy paper books like I do, the first thing I do after looking at the front cover, is turn the book over. This is where the author now has a chance to tell me why I should buy the story. Online they have a section for the Book description or synopsis. There could be whole blogs on how to write that. The main issue is you want to have a quick sales pitch about what your story is going to offer. And then, if you have them, some quotes for fairly well known (or just known) reviewers. This is your chance to get them to check out with your book. A poorly written sales-pitch will result in them putting the book down. Of course, they may also put the book down because the story isn’t what they like to read. That’s okay though. You’d rather have them not buy it then get it thinking it was something else and hate it (and possible tell a lot of people they hate it).
Lets take a look at the cover of Shining in Crimson and The Nanotech Muders.
Cover design by CL Stegall of Dark Red Press.
On SIC we see a large red eye. That certainly will get you a second look. The eye is not just some red circle. It is very detailed eye that almost starts to tell the story itself. The title is a unique font, but very readable and stands out. The author name stands out from the cover art, while not taking over the cover. The book description from Amazon provides a brief sales pitch and some praise:
Set in a dystopian, religiously-demented American Empire, the city of Las Vegas is no longer a city of sin. Now called Necropolis, it is a city that eats sin. The vampires of Necropolis wait patiently for the Empire’s weekly drop off of guilty Penitents; sinners and criminals full of fresh blood.
Hank Evans is one of those Penitents and he would gladly let the vampires take every drop of his blood if it weren’t for one detail: Toby. Toby is Hank’s only son. Now, Hank must do whatever it takes to escape the city of the dead and save his son from an Empire as bloodthirsty as the vampires it uses to keep its people in line.
Praise for Shining in Crimson:
“A big-scale vampire thriller that changes the rules.”–Scott Nicholson, author of Liquid Fear, The Red Church, and They Hunger
“One of the best surprises I’ve had in a long while. Writing with a smart, self-assured ease, Robert S. Wilson has given us a gift with Shining in Crimson. Part Underworld, part Escape From New York, Shining in Crimson is genuinely frightening, genuinely thrilling, but above all, first-rate storytelling. I’m a Robert S. Wilson fan from now on!”–Joe McKinney, author of Flesh Eaters and Apocalypse of the Dead
“Robert S. Wilson shows a lot of promise here with this debut novel. Now it’s time to see where that promise will take him.”–Ray Wallace, The Chiaroscuro
“You’ll not find some glistening torsos and smouldering eyes in this book. What you will find is a brilliantly thought out society of Vampires.”–Jim Mcleod, Ginger Nuts of Horror
“The Mesh of Religious symbolism and political commentary tucked neatly between pure horror and suspense is superb.”–Lisa Lane, The Cerebral Writer
Cover art by Deron Douglas
On The Nanotech Murders we have a beautiful woman standing in front of a detailed back drop, holding a gun. Let’s be honest here, it catches your eye for several reasons. One you have an attractive woman, two you have interesting shading, that almost implies she might not be all human, and last you have that gun. The cover certainly catches the eye. The font on the title is unique while readable and the authors name is prominent but not overwhelming. The book description from Amazon offers a brief sales pitch:
The year is 2071 and there’s a serial killer loose in Atlanta. Lieutenant Jak Decker, a homicide cop, is on the case but is getting nowhere. As the body count mounts, his boss assigns him a partner, the smart and beautiful Detective Cassandra Smith. Decker, a tough, wise-cracking loner, doesn’t want a partner, especially when he finds out she’s an android.
While I am no expert in Book Covers, I do understand that we judge books by their covers. If you want to sell some books cover art helps a lot (and it certainly doesn’t harm anything). We must also remember that your cover art will become that books brand. And we all know how powerful branding is. Just think about golden arches. So consider your cover art carefully. I can’t wait to get some cover art for my first novel. Please comment below with your cover art tips and tricks to help others learn from your own experience.
Critiques
One of the most important parts of the writing process is the critiques. I am talking about the step where you get trial readers to look over your work in progress so that they might catch things you missed. You get a lot of valuable information from good critiques, but bad critiques can be useless.
Let me clarify that. When I say good critiques I don’t mean positive feedback or five star reviews, I mean a critique that provides the author with feedback that useful (though not always positive). And a bad critique provides the author with little help in their quest to polish the work in progress into a final draft.
I have had my share of bad critiques. Some have just had useless comments that give me no help. While others were just downright mean and hurtful. I realized there are a few guides out there on how to properly critique another author’s work so that they get the most value from your reading. After that, I will talk about how to accept the critique with an open mind.
How to be a better sample reader:
I prefer the term “sample reader” over critic, simply because it provides a more accurate description of what the real job is. Your job is to provide your fellow author with the perspective of a reader. For some reason, we authors tend to keep our author hats on when we read a draft copy of a manuscript. We want to point out ways we would have written it differently, sometimes pointing out matters of style rather than structure. Or worse, we want to provide our own rewrites. Instead we need to put on our reader caps and try (as hard as it can be) to look over the manuscript as a reader. We need to look it over as a reader would and find things that make a reader stumble. Of course, we have advice to offer as an author and you can add it is correctly (I’ll get to that) but think like a reader first.
Well, shall we get started? You have a draft manuscript one of the writers in your group has shared with you. So where do you start? First, read the Turkey City Lexicon. I have read it at least ten times, and I continue to look it over as feel the need. Not only does it help you learn what to avoid in your writing, it also helps you look out for these things when reading to help other authors. Remember this: Just because it is listed in the Turkey City Lexicon, doesn’t mean is necessarily always wrong. I have read some really great stories that had one or two of these “no-nos” in them, but overall it worked for the story. The author was right to keep them in there.
Start with the opening lines. We call this “the hook” in my writers group. This is the first thirteen lines of a manuscript (that is formatted at 12 point courier font with one inch margins all around). On a short story that is usually what is seen on the first page of the manuscript. Therefore, it has to be strong enough to get the editor to turn the page. The bottom line here is, when you read these thirteen lines, are you ready to read on. Is turning the page a must for you? Is the pacing strong, does it establish a setting and a voice?
For longer works you will want to break the next steps into sections. For novels, I suggest going a chapter at a time. For short stories, I tend to be able to do it all at once. Perhaps with Novellas you may want to break it down by significant scenes. It is easier to manage your comments in smaller chunks rather than trying to comment on a whole novel in the end.
I use the comment feature on Word to make comments line by line as needed. I don’t comment on every sentence, that would be tedious and useless to the other writer. I only highlight areas I think are exceptionally strong, I had trouble understanding, or otherwise catch my attention.
Here are some things to add in your line by line comments:
- Areas where you tripped up on reading. This might be a confusing sentence, a long piece of exposition that loses you, or an area that just doesn’t seem right. It is okay to simply put “This line tripped me up and I had to reread it, but I don’t know why it tripped me up.” This at least lets the Author know you had a problem with it. Other readers may have seen it to and can better put it into words. But you would be doing a disservice if you didn’t mark a line because you didn’t know why it bothered you.
- Areas that don’t seem to belong. Perhaps you read a sentence and it just doesn’t seem to be part of the story. A random mention of a character’s memory that seems to have no bearing on the story (in your opinion). Or it could be something that seems to belong in another part of the story.
- Pacing issues. All stories have a pace and that pace changes as the story goes through. But if you are reading a fight scene and the author stops to tell you about the scenery, that should be marked. Or if you are reading an action scene and suddenly a sentence or two seems to be too long and disrupts the pace. The reverse can also happen, a slow dramatic scene that is suddenly interrupted with bursts of short sentences. The fact is, you will notice when the pacing of a story suddenly changes, and it will jar you from the reading.
- Thrown into the real world. Anytime you are reading a good story or book you will get wrapped up into it. It is all you’re thinking about as you read it. Your mind is pulled into the story and you are in its world. Anything you read that jars you into the real world should be marked. Did your mind wander at a particular section? Did you suddenly become aware that you were reading? Again, it is okay to tell an author that you don’t know why you were brought back to reality.
- Inconsistencies. The main character has blonde hair all story long, and suddenly there is a reference to his dark hair. Or, the story seems to take place in one area and you read something that doesn’t fit the scene. Anything you read that doesn’t seem consistent with the rest of the story should be pointed out.
- Unrealistic. This is a tough one in the Science Fiction world. We like to write things that are just a tad bit unrealistic. But, there are things that simply make you shout “OH COME ON!” There are certainly unrealistic elements in the worlds we create. So remember to look for things that are unrealistic it the world the story is told.
- Don’t forget the good. Did one particular line stand out as a real strong one? Do you really identify with a character’s situation? Was there a scene you found especially moving? Mark those and let the author know. Anything you think is really good; let them know you appreciate those points too.
You may have noticed I made no mention of punctuation in the list above. All too often people confuse critiquing with proofreading. The point of a good critique is to offer the author a perspective of a reader. So, unless an author specifically asks for punctuation, I only point out the punctuation that confuses me as a reader. Proofreading is best left for later.
After the line by line comments are put in, I always write an overall critique of the story as a whole (or of the chapter for novels). This is my overall thoughts of the characters, the scene, and the tale. This is where I put any thoughts that don’t fit in the line by line critiques. Again, put the positive in there too.
Be polite and be nice. All too often I have got critiques that were simply uncalled for. Things like “this is terrible” and “you don’t know what you are doing.” will not help anyone get better. It fact, it is just downright hateful. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be honest, but if you are not going to be constructive, leave it off. There is no room for hate, or just being mean in the writing world. Be constructive and be fair. The overall goal of any critique is to make the writer’s work better. Keep that is mind.
Accepting Critiques
So many authors cannot seem to accept critiques. Perhaps it is our natural defense against being hurt, or perhaps it is the feeling that we know our own work best. So here are some tips on accepting critiques from your fellow writers:
- This is not an attack. The goal of the critiques is to make your work the best it can be. Not to attack you or your writing.
- You want readers, right? Remember you want people to enjoy your stories. You didn’t write them just for you? If you did you wouldn’t be looking into publishing them. So remember these are readers too, open your mind to their ideas. After all, if they are having trouble with something, chances are other readers will too.
- Be receptive. I have heard this a lot from writers. “They want to change my style.” or “That is just my style of writing.” And most of the time I have heard that, they were not talking about style at all. Style is the way you right, the type of narrative you use, ect. The goal of any critique is not to change your writing style, but to strengthen it. If your “style” is confusing it needs to be refined. Most of the time “style” is used as a way of closing off to other people’s thoughts. Be receptive to their ideas. Chances are if people are pointing it out it needs changing (see below).
- Don’t respond to a person’s critiques. There is a need for us to defend ourselves. When someone points out a flaw in our writing we want to tell them how wrong they are. The problem is they are a reader expressing their opinion. It can’t be wrong because it is what they thought. And, chances are they are right… you just aren’t ready to see it. And if you don’t want to change it, don’t. But you don’t need to argue with them.
- You are the Author. This means you get final say in what you change and what you keep. Just keep this in mind. If the majority of your readers had trouble with something, it is likely something that needs a second look. If even just one person has an issue with something, it needs a second look. In fact, I can only think of two times I did not change something sample readers had an issue with. Otherwise, I have addressed every concern as best I could.
- Move on. I haven’t ever gotten more sample readers on a piece after the first round. It is my preference. I move on to proofreading. You may want to make the changes and have a second set of readers look at it. If you do that, move on to a new set of readers. Don’t use the same readers for the same work more than once. The effectiveness is gone.
More tips for Authors:
If you want to get the most from your sample readers, ask them questions you want answered too. Don’t just let them do all the work. Do you wonder if a character is likeable? Do you wonder if someone understands a particular concept? When you send out your manuscript to the sample readers, give them a list of questions.
Some of you may know, I really took interest in the craft of writing after reading Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (among others). It that book he talks about teaching your sample readers (I paraphrase but you get the point). After reading that, I used some questions of his and added some of mine to create a list of questions I wanted answered by my readers. Feel free to use some of these if you wish:
Questions about the story (or chapter). Please answer these after your first reading of the draft. Please put your first thoughts on these questions.
- Were you ever bored? Did you ever find your mind wandering? If so, can you tell me where it was you lost interest?
- Without looking back at the story, name some Characters from this story. What do you think of them? Did you like them, hate them, and why? Did you confuse any characters or forget any?
- Is there anything a character did that seemed out of place for that character, against his/her nature?
- Did any dialogue seem excessive or not realistic for the situation or character?
- Is there any section you didn’t understand? An area you had to reread? Did anything confuse you?
- Was there any time something happened you didn’t believe? What was it? Any time you thought “oh come on!”? If so what was it?
- What do you think will happen next? Is there anything you are still wondering about?
- What name might you give this story (or chapter)?
- Are there any other comments that can help?
In summary:
If you want to be a great writer, you will need sample readers to look over your works before you get them sent out to the editors. But, you will also need to be a good sample reader. I have learned more from the critiques I have given then the ones I have received. That is why it is important the writer knows how to accept the critiques of his peers while also knowing how to effectively writing critiques of his own.
Updates: March 2012
I can’t believe we’re already six days into March. A lot has happened since my last updates and as a result my regular scheduled blogs had been disrupted. I hope to start posting every week again, but instead of Sundays it will be on Tuesdays. So keep an eye out for regular blogs posts again, hopefully I can keep up the advice blogs.
Let’s start with some personal updates. I spent President’s Day weekend moving. I didn’t move far, just back to my hometown of Vacaville, but the move still took three days. My advice… DON’T USE BUDGET. I reserved a truck with Budget Truck rentals, and AFTER I confirmed the reservation they decided to tack on a $200 deposit. Had the online reservation tool mentioned that prior to confirmation I would have canceled. So, I called Budget and told them I wanted to cancel. They charged me $50 to do that. I can’t possibly believe that the 10 minutes from the time I pressed confirm to the time I canceled, inconvenienced them that much.
Well, that took away half my moving truck budget and made it impossible for me to rent from anywhere else. So I had to move my whole three bedroom house with my minivan. That made the move tiring, exhausting, and LONG. But we got everything moved but we are still working on unpacking.
I finished that move on a Monday and started my new job on the Wednesday after I had been out of work for just under a year. I know many other people have been out of work even longer so I feel blessed and fortunate to have found work. That being said, it is still hard to get back into the rhythm of working full time after so many days off. I hope to get a schedule figured out soon so that I can fit in my scheduled writing and gym time. But it feels good to have a reliable income again.
On the writing front, I haven’t got much done. My January short story is still in it’s infancy. I think it is just short and it needs to be developed more. I didn’t get one done in February, but I may start in on another novel based on the Characters and world of “Dream Job” (you can read it here in the first issue of Cygnus Journal).
The two short stories I have out are still making their rounds. “Miles from the Future” recently received another rejection. However it was a rare personal rejection explaining that it made it all the way to final stages, but was apparently just nudged out by other works. I am debating on where to send it next. I have a very promising story called “Compassionate Death” that is currently still circling with some Pro Markets. I haven’t got much feedback on it from editors, but my trial readers really seemed to enjoy it. I think it could still be some time before either one is published, but I look forward to when I can share them with you.
My son’s Children’s Book, Daddy is Tired, has hit yet another road block in its journey to publication. The illustrator has developed a medical issue that has impacted her drawing arm. While it is not anything major (as in life threatening) it is very painful. I hope she can get the treatment she needs and gets well soon. There is one plus side. I did get this sample image to share with you all:
My recently completed first draft for my untitled novel, is still resting. I plan to get to the first rounds of edits this month, schedule permitting. I am excited to get that one out to you guys as well. I know it is a bit premature but I already wonder about cover art for that one. I also hope the sample readers like it. It will be a ton of work, and I do intend to use professional help for the final draft. But that is still a long while away. If I can think of a good title, I will certainly share it with you guys.
On this blog, I plan to work on another help piece for authors on the subject of properly critiquing other writer’s works. I have found that helping others with their works has helped my writing improve more than any other method. In any case, I am not sure if that post will be out next week or the week after.
But, I will have something to share with you next week. So, until then, happy writing. As always you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
“The End” Doesn’t Really Mean The End
So many of you made a point of letting me know that I forgot my weekly blog post this past Sunday. I didn’t forget, in fact I let my Facebook and Twitter followers know exactly why I didn’t post. I was finishing my novel.
Of course, by finish I mean putting ### (The End) on the first draft of my novel manuscript. It is in no way finished. But it sure felt nice to say it was finished. I let myself bask in the fact that I had completed my novel for a few days. And now, reality has struck. “The End” on paper doesn’t really mean the end.
Many of us can write. Most of us can write enough to create a short story. A few less can write enough to create a novel. But far fewer can keep following though on all the steps after “The End” to really finish a novel (or even a short story). I’d like to see a few more people reach the real finish line.
When it comes to writing works for publication (even self publication) there are steps you have to take to reach the finish. I’m going to clue you in on some steps so that you know what to expect after you type “The End” on your manuscript. I’m new to the Novel steps, but they are the same as those for a short story, just longer (and maybe harder).
Let it Rest
You have to let the story rest in your head for awhile. That is, you have to forget about it a little. If you finish the first draft and then start edits the next day, you’re bound to miss things because the ideas and words you typed are still fresh in your head.
How long is enough time? Well that is really up to you. I know fellow writers who wait months to touch a short story and years for a novel. I know others who can wait a week on a short story and two weeks on a novel. There is no right answer when it comes to time.
For my short stories, I post the first 13 lines (or the hook) in my writer’s group. I give them a week to ten days to share their thoughts and offer to read the story. After that I move to my second step. With this novel, I plan to wait until March to start the next step. I think it will be enough time for me. If not, I’ll give myself more time after the next novel.
You don’t need to forget the story as a whole. If you are like me that could be impossible. It’s just enough time to allow you to forget enough of the gritty details that you will see things like inconsistencies, grammar errors, missing words, POV errors, and other things.
Self Edit
Next, you will need to read your entire manuscript and self edit. Check for errors that don’t fit the story line. Maybe you typed a chapter thinking you’d go one direction and now it no longer belongs in the story. Perhaps another area needs more development to increase the story. Go though and edit all these things. If you find grammar errors, punctuation mistakes and typos fix those too, but that isn’t the main focus here. They point here is to begin to smooth out the story. Cutting out unneeded areas, and beefing up areas that need it. Once you are done with that, you’ve got a second draft.
Trial Readers
Once you are done with that second draft you need some trial readers. You need someone who will give you HONEST thoughts on your story. This isn’t likely to be a family member or even a close friend. No one wants to hurt anyone’s feelings, especially not those of a friend. Friends and Family are best left to read the final product, not your drafts.
This is where a writers group is very handy. You can get honest thoughts and critiques on your work from other trusted readers who also know a bit about the business. I’ve planned a blog post for later this month on critiques. Watch for it.
Now, you are likely to get responses at different times. One reader might be done in a week, the other might take two. Since you definitely need to have more then one trial reader, here in my suggestion: Don’t read any critiques or change anything until you get a response from all your trial readers. Otherwise you may change something one reader hated, but the other four readers loved. So save yourself the extra work and go through each critique after you have them all.
Self Edit: Part 2
Look at all these suggestions your trial readers gave you. Some of them you will find completely useless and you should ignore those. However, if all the readers point out the same trip up, you might want to fix it (even if you think it is fine the way it is). But remember, this your work not theirs. And only you know what is best.
You may really like a scene, but your readers have trouble with it. Rewrite it then, or cut it. That is up to you. But again, this isn’t about grammar and punctuation. You will be polishing this into a even better story. Soon, you will have something resembling a third draft.
Proofreading
Unless you made major story changes, it is time to move on to the final draft. I am a firm believer in four drafts and done (the done being the fourth). It keeps you out of the endless rewrite circle. I have a friend who is on their twelfth draft of a novel. As I have told that friend, that novel will not be published. They have become obsessed with making it perfect. It won’t happen.
Now, with my short stories my proofreader is my wife. She catches most, if not all, my typos, grammar mistakes, and punctuation screw ups. And for a short story that is enough.
There are proofreading services out there. I haven’t use any, but I may use one when it come to my novel. I miss things, and a professional shouldn’t. Now, some people don’t feel comfortable with that. It is entirely a choice that is up to you. I see no reason to do it for short stories. But, my novel is 67,000 words. So after my wife reads it she may miss some things. If the rate is reasonable I will use one. Otherwise, I am an author that has no money. I won’t spend a lot on it.
However, no matter how you do your proof reading this is the time to go grammar cop. Fix all those little mistakes. Look for those rather then anything to do with the story. Fix them. Once they are fixed you have your forth draft and your completed manuscript.
THE END
You are done with your novel, right? Well not exactly. You want to see it published. That involves a lot more work. It is really a blog topic in itself. But you have already accomplished much more then the average person who sets out to write. You have a completed manuscript. Pat yourself on the back. Go get a snack, and then start working to get it published.
Self Publishing
Should I Self Publish?
I get at least one email a week asking me about self publishing. Some are frustrated with the submit and reject cycle. Others feel it might bring them more money. And others think it may bring in more readers. Most of all everyone wants to know if they will be successful if they self publish.
I don’t know much about self publishing because I have never done it. So I have asked other writers to completed a survey on the matter. I think a survey offers the best advise on whether or not you will be successful. Success is a self defined quality. You can look at these survey results and view them with your own view on success. For example if selling 10 copies is successful to you, then look at the percentage of people who have sold more then 10 copes. Hopefully this helps.
My friend and talented Author, Robert S. Wilson (@EmpireOfBloodRW) will be helping me as I write this. Robert has self published a number of works, and was already kind enough to point out a forgotten company in this survey (more on that later). I feel he has been successful in his endeavors to self publish, and he certainly has worked hard to get the success he has had.
In this blog, I will give you the results on the survey. The survey results are separated into several categories. At the end, I will provide my thoughts on the results. I will give you my insights as an author who hasn’t self published, but is considering the idea. Then, Robert will give you his thoughts. He can give you some insights as an author who has self published.
The Respondents:
Two hundred and fifty nine (259) people completed this survey. This does not count all the people who started the survey, but where unable to qualify based on their answers. I posted links on my Google+, the Hatrack Writers Group, My Twitter, and My Facebook. From there it was circulated by fellow authors. Here is some information about the people who responded to the survey:
94% write fiction, the other 6% did not. Those 6% did not finish the rest of the survey, as my concern was with fiction Authors.
51% where Male and 49% were female
78% where from the US, 6% Canada, 9% UK, and 7% where from someplace else. Those places include: New Zealand, Australia, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Bosnia
One person was under 13 years old and did not continue in the survey. The rest breakdown in the following age groups: 2% were 18-20, 18% 21-29, 24% 30-39, 25% 40-49, 25% 50-59, and 6% where over 60.
89% write in English, 4% in Spanish, 2% French, 1% German
100% write primarily in English
84% spoke English, 4% Spanish 2% French, 3%German, 1% Japanese
94% spoke primarily in English
About the Writers:
Please note this was not exclusive to Self Published but rather information for both self published and “traditional” published authors.
The Genres broke down as followed (survey takers could select multiple selections):
Horror – 16%
Science Fiction – 18%
Thrillers – 11%
Fantasy – 21%
Romance -8%
Children’s Picture Books – 3%
Young Adult – 10%
Literary Fiction – 5%
Westerns – 1%
Other – 8%
68% had works published, 26% have not, and 6% were accepted but waiting publication
10% had 1 work published, 25% had2-3 published, 11% had 4-5, 4% had 6-7, 2% had 8-9 and 14% had 10+
10% had flash works published, 31% had short works published, 13% had Novella works published, 4% novelette length, and 24% Novels
How were your works published:
Short stories, including Novelette, Novella, Short, and Flash broke down as follows:
26% None published
7% Pro Rate Markets (6+ cents per word)
11% Semi Pro Rate (1-5 cents per word)
12% Token Markets (less then 1 cent per word)
23% Non Paying Markets (no monetary payement)
20% Self Published
Novels broke down as follows:
55% None published
5% Professional Publishing Houses (Random House, Orbit Books, and other big publishers)
11% Independent Publishing Houses (Regional or “small” publishers)
30% Self Published
My Thoughts:
I was surprised at how high the Self Publishing number where. This was publicized as a “Survey on Self Publishing” but I think it still shows a trend that moves towards self publishing. Only those who marked self published in either of the last two questions continued with the survey. Roughly 48% of the people who started this survey were Self Published (126 people). That’s nearly half, which is surprising.
Robert’s Thoughts:
I’m not at all surprised by the percentage of people who have self-published. More and more people are self-publishing all the time. Writers are finding that they can find an audience by self-publishing whereas before they were spending so much time submitting their stories/novels and getting rejected and not reaching an audience at all. Now, whether this is a good or bad thing depends on many factors. I will be posting a blog post of my own for a more indepth look at that.
Self Publishing Results
Now I am sure you want to know what people had to say about Self Publishing. There were a 126 people who continued to this section of the survey. Here are the survey results:
How many works have you self Published:
26% – 1, 10% -2, 23% – 3, 6% – 4, 3%- 5, 6% – 6, 10% – 7, 6% – 8, 3%- 9, and 6%- 10 or more
Novelette or Shorter Break down.
26% had not self published any short works
29% said 1, 16% 2, 6%-3, 13% – 4, 3% – 6, and 3% said 10 or more. 5, 8, and 9 had 0%
Novel Break Down:
29% said they had not self published any novels
39% said one, 13% said 2, 6% said 3, 10% said 7, and 3% said 10 or more. The others had 0% (4, 5, 6, 8, 9)
How they self published:
On a website, PDF or other electronic means 6%
Paperback and/or Hardcover 3%
Anthologies 3%
E-Reader Formats (all types) 26%
Both Paperback and/or Hardcover 38%
Multiple formats listed above: 23%
And which of these resulted in the most readers?
10% only used one format
13% Paperback
3% Hardcover
74% E-Reader
My Thoughts:
Clearly e-Readers have opened the door to new Authors and the ability for them to self publish their works. From what I have seen, getting your works out in an e-reader format is easy, fast, and relatively cheap. This means you can list your work for a better price and attract more readers that way (more on that later). Perhaps I am the only one who doesn’t own an e-reader.
Robert’s Thoughts:
I agree with you on this one, Richard. Not to mention this data is completely consistent with what I’ve already seen with my own work and with other self-published authors I know. I have sold very little paper copies of my books. Even with setting them at low prices for print books. It really comes down to the fact that you really can price really low with ebooks and readers are much more likely to take a chance on an unknown if they don’t have to pay much for their work.
But how many works are selling when you self publish?
On Combined Total copies (or downloads) for all works was:
6% said under 10
6% said 11-50
13% said 50-99
6% said 100-199
3% said 200-299
3% said 300-399
6% said 400-499
3% said 500-749
6% said 750-999
13% said 1000-1999
3% said 2000 - 2999
0% said 3000-3999
0% said 4000-4999
13% said 5000-9999
16% said 10000+
The work that gave them the most copies sold (downloads or prints):
6% said under 10
10% said 11-50
13% said 50-99
10% said 100-199
10% said 200-299
6% said 300-399
3% said 400-499
0% said 500-749
6% said 750-999
13% said 1000-1999
0% said 2000 - 2999
3% said 3000-3999
0% said 4000-4999
6% said 5000-9999
13% said 10000+
My Thoughts:
Well really it means that the range is vast. There is no clear dominate number of copies you can expect when you self publish. It could very depending on how the work was promoted (more on that later). I don’t think this is a far cry from Traditional Publishing. They don’t really know how many copies they will sell of your book. This is why they can be so touchy about what they publish. You might get an advance if you go with traditional publishing, that would be the big difference. Of course, that is if you even get accepted.
Robert’s Thoughts:
This data really does come 100% down to good promotion. But don’t let that statement fool you. Good promotion isn’t just getting the word out to readers who will like your work. Having a good product is a large part of promotion in and of itself. If you have a story that no one likes that can be the worst promotion you could ever have. The more the right market(s) for your work finds it, the more likely that work is to sell. Simple as that. The cover, description, title, story, and how you present all these things to your market are all factors that can make or break a self-published work just the same as a traditionally published work. Difference is, you’re SELF-publishing. You have to learn and execute the promotion yourSELF!
Self Publishing Companies
I forgot to to list Kindle Direct Publishing, however my survey responders didn’t forget. They listed it in Other so many times. I blame ignorance, I thought Createspace and KDP were the same thing. Oops, consider me educated.
Published themselves (on their own website or printer) 11%
Createspace 21%
lulu 6%
Smashwords 40%
Kindle Direct Publishing (write in) 20%
Pubit (Write in) 1%
Other write ins 1%
Which Company did they like best:
19% said doing it themselves
23% said Createspace
3% said Lulu
22% said Smashwords
22% said Kindle Direct Publishing (Write in)
2% said Pubit (Write in)
9% listed other companies (write in)
My Thoughts
Clearly I am living under a rock to have not heard of KDP for one. But, it seems Smashwords is very popular with 40% of survey takers using it. I think the results would have shown a higher KDP rating had it been included, especially with how well Amazon does in the company ratings (see Rating Below). I suppose that it is because it offers a diverse set of formats, but Createspace and KDP are also very popular among the survey takers. When it comes to a favorite choice all three are nearly equal in popularity. You may want to take a look at the company rating before choosing one. Of course, it will also depend on you needs too.
Robert’s Thoughts
Honestly, Richard, when I took the survey, I didn’t know that you had made it. I thought you were just passing it along. If I had known, I would have contacted you asap and said, “Woah, you’re forgetting the biggest chunk of the market!” Because in my experience KDP really does have the self-publishing ereader market cornered. More authors may be using Smashwords, though I highly doubt those results would be the same if you were to manage to get a larger study pool, but more books are sold to a staggering degree through KDP than on Smashwords. Every self-published author I’ve spoken with and my own results both reflect that. We’re talking something like a 96/4 or higher ratio. That’s a significant difference. It’s as simple as this: MORE READERS BUY FROM AMAZON.
Promotions:
Yea, that’s right. One of the biggest differences I see between using a Publishing House and Self Publishing is promotion. You are in charge of getting your work out to the people. Here are some of what the Survey Takers used:
1% had other works published traditionally
9% used promotional pricing (temporary discount prices)
8% low pricing (pricing the book low permanently)
3% said making the book free (permanently)
11% said they promoted on their Facebook Site
4% said they promoted on their Google+
10% said they promoted on their Twitter
10% said they promoted on their website
12% provided free copies for reviewers (6% for professional reviews and 6% for amateur reviews)
6% provided free copies to try and generate word of mouth
8% posted on sites designed to promote independent authors
5% did giveaways or contests
3% did paid advertising on Social Meda
0% (1 taker) did paid advertising in literary magazines
1% uses other online advertising (paid)
3% did book signing events
1% did booths at fairs or events
3% created a book trailer
3% used Youtube videos
2% listed other means
What way worked the best for them?
32% didn’t keep track
3% had other works published traditionally
3% used promotional pricing (temporary discount prices)
3% low pricing (pricing the book low permanently)
0% said making the book free (permanently)
13% said they promoted on their Facebook Site
6% said they promoted on their Twitter
6% said they promoted on their website
6% posted on sites designed to promote independent authors
6% said book signing events
6% listed other means
I removed the answers that got no votes.
How much did you pay for advertising?
45% said $0
48% said $1-$100
6% said up to $500
No 0ne said more.
Will paying more get you more?
3% said yes
35% said no
61% said they were not sure.
Will promoting one work get more readers for all your works?
13% said Yes and they wouldn’t have to promote the other works
58% said Yes but they should still promote the other works too.
3% said No
26% said they were not sure.
My Thoughts:
First of all, KEEP TRACK OF WHAT WORKS! If you are not keeping track of what advertising worked, you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. This can mean wasted money and wasted time. I was really surprised how little use social media had. It is 100% free and takes little or no time. The same goes for your website. Sure, websites can take some time, but they are worth the effort. I get anywhere from 10-100 new visitors to this site a day. That’s new visitors that have not ever been here before. That’s a lot of people I can promote my new writings with.
I think Authors forget that writing is a business too (I know I do). And, for better and worse, when you self publish you take the whole business aspect on alone. Business is tough work, I owned one. Keep track of what is working. Use different codes for certain coupons so you can track what worked. Offer 10% off if they mention a certain ad. For example you might post exclusively on Facebook a coupon code that gives 10% off to Facebook Followers. Then a little later cancel that coupon and post another one for 10% off to Twitter Followers. Perhaps you make signed copies only available direct from your site. Perhaps all your Giveaway contestants get a code for a discount. This way you can track who heard about you from where. If the Giveaway didn’t work, you won’t waste the time next time. But if the Facebook ad was a huge success you may want to run one once a month.
Advertising is hard work. I had a hell of a time with it in my business. I learned a lot. Perhaps when I get done with my first novel, I will blog about what advertising I used and how well it is working.
Robert’s Thoughts
Unfortunately, Richard, it’s just not that simple. You can’t give away coupons on Amazon. The only site you can really do that with is Smashwords and unfortunately, MOST READERS DON’T BUY FROM SMASHWORDS. Now, I wish that weren’t true. Smashwords is a great company for authors and publishers. But it just doesn’t get the commercial traffic that Amazon does. And any little thing you do can make a difference in sales. Things other people or things that the different distributors like Amazon, Lulu, Smashwords do can make a difference and you won’t even know it. There’s no real clear way to find out for sure as far as I know. It’s like blind voodoo. So, your best bet is to just do everything you can. If you’re doing something and sales go up, keep it up. If after a while of doing that sales go back down try something new. It’s a crazy game of cat and mouse, but if you want to sell more books, it’s what you have to do.
One thing that does work tried and true is to have an online presence and be in touch with possible readers. They will respond to you and you will meet new friends and everyone wins all around. They find new books to read, meet a new friend, you sell books, and also meet some great people as well. You don’t have to be terribly charismatic, just be yourself. Treat your readers as your friends because frankly. The people who like your work are more likely to be the kind of people you can be real friends with.
My Reply:
It is unfortunate that there is not better tracking for these self publishing solutions. But what Robert describes is still tracking of some sort. It is certainly better then guessing. When I launch my first advertising campaign for my son’s Children’s Book (which will be self published this year). I will post a blog on how I tracked what was working and what wasn’t. Advertising and publicity is something I have worked with for some time, so I am a bit excited to see how I can apply it to this industry.
Pricing:
How much is your writing worth? Well, I would say mine is worth a lot more then I would probably realistically sell it for. Here is what the Survey takers had to say:
What prices have you priced your e-books at?
2% didn’t have any ebooks
19% said Free
27% said $1 or less
37% said $1.01-$2.99
14% said $3.00-$4.99
2% said $5.99-$9.99
What they thought was the best price of an e-book:
2% didn’t have any ebooks
0% said Free
10% said $1 or less
68% said $1.01-$2.99
19% said $3.00-$4.99
3% said $5.99-$9.99
What prices have you priced your Paper Copy Books?
28% didn’t have any paper copies
3% said $3-$4.99
23% said $5-9.99
28% said $10-$14.99
10% said $15-$19.99
10% said $20+
What did they think the best price was for paper copy books?
28% didn’t have any paper copies
3% said $3-$4.99
46% said $5-9.99
23% said $10-$14.99
0% said $15-$19.99
0% said $20+
How important is pricing to the self published Author?
Very Important – 71%
Somewhat Important – 28%
Neutral – 3%
Both Unimportant Categories received no votes.
My Thoughts
I have to say I agree with what I see here. I have a huge problem with Kindle e-book pricing even from the big name Authors. I will save that for another time. The prices Self Published Authors are setting seems to be reasonable. I don’t agree with making your book free to all forever. A limited discount maybe, but give yourself some credit. Surely your work is worth more then $0. Don’t go crazy either, you are a new author and a self published author. Consider how much you would be willing to pay for a work put out by an author you don’t know? For me, I like taking a chance on new authors both self published and published by the Publishing Houses. I have rarely been disappointed. But I put little value on an e-book, therefore I am not likely to spend more then $3 on an author I haven’t hear of. That’s me.
Robert’s Thoughts
Most self-publishers and independent publishers are competitive enough to price reasonably if not all out low. Most of the ebooks you find online for outrageous prices are the big publishers trying to push people into buying paper copies. You see they win either way: People want to read the authors they’ve come to know and love and now they either have to continue reading paper copies and not move on to an ereader or they have to start paying more for ecopies. That’s what these larger publishers are trying to do. So, either way, they win as long as people are willing to pay these outrageous prices. The best way to stop it is to NOT PAY SUCH RIDICULOUS PRICES. And one free work can be a great promotion for your other works. It’s all in how you do it. If you have a series, I could be great to have the first work free and then when the readers are done and want to read more in the series they are likely to buy your second and third and so on in your series. Of course there’s also a nice simple short story that just shows your skills. It may seem like a big loss to give one of your best works away for free, but when someone reads one of your best works and is impressed by it, they’re more likely to buy other works by you.
Companies to Use:
The last part of the survey was designed to give people an idea what companies work well with self published Authors. Not just for publishing but for the all around needs of the author. I have ranked them based on the survey responses. For each vote in a certain catagory I assigned them points. Then I divided the points by total survey takers, and I ranked them Highest to Lowest:
Companies in terms of Ease of Use (out of 4):
1. Twitter (3.46)
2. Facebook (3.39)
3. Amazon (3.22)
4. Blogspot (3.14)
5. WordPress (2.94)
6. Smashwords (2.88)
7. Google+ (2.87)
8. Barnes and Noble (2.7)
9. Lulu (2.67)
10. Createspace (2.63)
11. Goodreads (2.35)
12. Live Journal (2.29)
Companies rated on their ability to promote Self Published Authors (out of 4):
1. Twitter (3.17)
2. Facebook (3.08)
3. Goodreads (2.7)
4. Amazon (2.65)
5. Google+ (2.57)
6. Createspace (2.54)
7. Blogspot (2.5)
8. Smashwords (2.44)
9. WordPress (2.38)
10. Barnes and Noble (2.05)
11. Live Journal (1.76)
12. Lulu (1.71)
Companies Rates on Ability to Generate readers (out of 4)
1. Facebook (2.92)
2. Amazon (2.89)
3. Twitter (2.88)
4. Goodreads (2.55)
5. Google+ (2.5)
7. Blogspot (2.43)
8. Tied Smashwords and WordPress (2.29 each)
10. Barnes and Noble (2.19)
11. Live Journal (1.71)
12. Lulu (1.14)
How likely are you to recommend these companies to other Self Publishers (out of 5)
1. Amazon (4.63)
2. Facebook (4.26)
3. Tied Smashwords and Twitter (4.19 each)
5. Goodreads (3.82)
6. Barnes and Noble (3.37)
7. Createspace (3.22)
8. Google+ (2.96)
9. WordPress (2.74)
10. Blogspot (2.26)
11. Lulu (2.15)
12. Live Journal (2)
Companies rated based on ability in the e-reader market (out of 3)
1. Amazon (2.85)
2. Smashwords (2.28)
3. Barnes and Noble (2.27)
4. Tied Createspace and Lulu (1 each)
Companies rated based on ability in the paper market (out of 3)
1. Createspace (2.64)
2. Amazon (2.31)
3. Barnes and Noble (2.1)
4. Lulu (1.88)
5. Smashwords (0.57)
My Thoughts
These are people’s opinions on these companies from the perspective of being a self published Author. Take it as that. You may find you like one of these companies that was low rated here. But, this might give you a starting point if you are not sure where to check out first. I was surprised, as I expected Createspace and/or Lulu to dominate these numbers. Clearly I was mistaken. If print is what you want you might consider Createspace, but when it comes to the e-reader market Amazon and Smashwords seem to rate the highest.
When it comes to social media, Twitter seems to be the preference. I can’t say I am surprised. I have a lot more followers on Twitter then any where else. I have seen a lot of writers say how much they like Google+, though I will be the first to admit I think it is useless. Facebook is popular seems to rank well too.
If you like to blog, clearly Live Journal is not a good choice. However WordPress and Blogspot seem to be equally popular. It seems to be true of the Authors I know. I would guess that about 50% of them use either site. I picked WordPress. It works for what I need and I find it really easy to use. It allows the custom content I want, and in the future I can import/merge this blog with my own website.
In the end, the company you use depends on what you need and want. Read all the Terms of Service/Use. I hope this information will at least shorten your trial and error routine. Check them all out. Otherwise you might miss Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
Robert’s Thoughts
I self-published my first work in July of 2011. In the not even six months since then, I’ve gathered a great deal of my own sales data. And I’m here to tell you Ereaders are the future of books. Especially for self-published books. There are thousands if not millions of readers out there looking for their next favorite indie author.
I do find myself surprised on the social media front. I’ve found Facebook to be much more helpful for me. Or it could be that I’m still new to Twitter and haven’t put enough into using it to my advantage.
I use blogspot myself and have enjoyed that it is already connected with my Google account and is very easy to use and maintain. And with being free and having almost all the options you would have with a standard website, it works great for most everything I need in a website. Now, if only I could get it to make blog posts for me as I seem to neglect it all too often.
Overall as Richard has said already, your mileage may vary. It’s best to cover all the avenues you can. Clearly, you’re not likely to have multiple blogs but if you’re planning on self-publishing definitely cover all your distribution options and all the social media and free promotional options you can make time for. Because in the end what works best for one person may differ proportionately to another. So, in order to reach the most possible readers you should highly consider putting your work out at in all possible venues and in all possible formats and of course have an online presence in all the different social media sites. These thing can only add to your chance of becoming a successful self-published author.
What does this all mean?
Well it’s the results of a survey on self publishing, with the thoughts of two authors. I hope you find this a helpful insight if you are planning to start, or even continue, in self publishing. It has certainly shined some light on my own ideas in self publishing. It is a viable means, and slowly the negative perception of self published works has dissolved away.
I am a paper book lover, but you can’t deny that e-readers have opened the door to the self published author. The ability to reach readers worldwide, at a low cost, has allowed talented authors to emerge. These are talented authors who have made the choice to control the process of their writing from creation to sale. Perhaps that is more difficult when compared to waiting for an editor at a publishing house. At the least I would say it is equally challenging.
If you found this helpful feel free to share it, re-blog it, or post it on your social media site of choice. Thank you to all the survey takers and thank you to Robert Wilson for sharing his insights.
About the Authors:
Richard Flores IV
Richard is an author of Speculative Fiction who lives in California. He fits his writing time around being a father of three young boys and a husband to his beautiful wife. He has been published in Cygnus Journal of Speculative Fiction and Liquid Imagination. He has a Children’s Picture Book, that he wrote with his oldest son, set to be released in early 2012. For more information on Richard Flores IV, you can find him online at http://floresfactor.wordpress.com/. You can also find him on Twitter @Richard_Flores4
Robert S. Wilson
Robert S. Wilson is the author of the Kindle bestseller The Quiet: A Novella and the critically acclaimed Shining in Crimson: Empire of Blood Book One as well as co-editor for Horror For Good: A Charitable Anthology, an anthology which includes stories by international bestselling authors and horror legends. All proceeds from Horror For Good will go toward amfAR, an international AIDS research foundation. For more information on Robert S. Wilson, you can find him online at http://shiningincrimson.blogspot.com/. You can also find him on Twitter @EmpireOfBloodRW
Robert lives in Smyrna, Tennessee with his wife and two children while he attempts to make time for everything and utterly fails constantly.
Quality Versus Quantity
Recently there was a post in my writer’s forum on Robert A. Heinlein’s Rules for Writing Speculative Fiction (Appeared in his essay On Writing Speculative Fiction in 1947). The poster argued that the rule; “You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.” was no longer a valid business practice in today’s market. His argument is sound, and I have already blogged on my thoughts on the rewriting circle several times (mentioned here), so I don’t plan to do into it.
But it did involve lengthy discussion about the need to constantly rewrite and ensure you put out high quality work. The argument was that, in the 1950s, there were so many pro rate markets that there was far more demand then supply. Therefore established authors (and new ones) could quickly turn out a high amounts of manuscripts and be able to sell them. So I thought I would elaborate on the quality versus quantity debate
Quantity
If you throw darts at a target, one at a time, you might hit the bulls-eye but it may take a while. But, if you throw 1,000 darts at the target, surely one of them will hit the bull-eye and quickly.
Obviously, simple statistics would show that the more works, you put out the more likely you should be to get published faster. And the slower you put out works the longer is should take. But, if there is one thing I have learned, math has little place is art.
But the truth is you have to submit works to ever get them published. And very few people are ever satisfied with one published work.
Quality
If you take time learning how to throw a dart. You study how darts fly, how to aim, and the correct throwing techniques. Then you take that one dart, and throw it at the target, you are more likely to hit the bulls-eye.
There are a lot fewer pro rate markets out there. It would be a good idea to understand the craft, and write well, before you cast your dart. However, when is a manuscript ever perfect? I’ve never written one.
But the truth is you have to write well, and edit them well, to ever get published.
The Debate
So do you throw 1000 darts or cast that one best shot? I think it is a bit more complex then that. After all, you could throw 1000 darts and they all miss the bulls-eye. Or you could spend years studying darts, only to miss that one best shot.
There is really a fine balance between the two. If you throw one dart a year, you won’t hit the target much (maybe with blind luck) but you also won’t get better. But if you throw darts regularly, slowly you will get closer to your bulls-eye. You need to submit often and you need to do a few rewrites. How many? Well that depends on your target.
I think the first thing you have to do is define your bulls-eye. If it is just getting published, then there are a ton of markets. If you want some type of payment, there are still a lot. And, if you want a pro-rate payment there are only a few.
This is why I use the Darts analogy. Because I think you should have a target, with a bulls-eye in the middle. That bulls-eye is you best case scenario, the big deal for you. Mine looks something like this:
So, make your target. After all you need to know what you are aiming for. Always aim for your bulls-eye. You may not hit it, but keep throwing those darts. Throw your darts often enough that you learn each time, but not so fast that you sacrifice accuracy for the odds.
New Short Story Out
Today Cygnus Journal of Speculative Fiction published Issue 1, which features my story “Dream Job”. I am excited about this publication for two reasons:
First, this is the first short story I have written since my choice to be a published writer. I did write a short story in High School that people seemed to like, but its long gone. So really, I consider this my first short story. I am blessed that it was published. I know many very talented authors whose firsts are still awaiting the acceptance letter.
Second, it was chosen to be in the first issue of a new publication. This may not seem like a big deal, but when a magazine starts up, there is a lot of pressure to be good (if not great). Editors have to choose the stories they publish in their first issues carefully, as they set the bar for the entire publication. That doesn’t mean publications don’t grow and become better. It just means that you want to make a good first impression when you start up. So I feel privileged that “Dream Job” was chosen to be among those stories that represent the start of Cygnus Journal of Speculative Fiction.
The Editors have also chosen to provide the electronic copy of their first issue free on Smashwords (Kindle, Nook, PDF and more). It is also available on the Amazon Kindle Store for 99 cents, but I am sure you would prefer free. So please, click here and check out “Dream Job” as well as the other works published in Issue One of Cygnus Journal of Speculative Fiction.
Then come back here and let me know what you thought of the story and the Characters. I would love to hear from you.
