5 Tips to self-publishing your mother never told you by Jina Bacarr
November 11, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Amazon, Bob Mayer, Cinderella, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, Dr. Debra Holland, hunter, J.A. Konrath, Jackie Diamond Hyman, Marie Force, nook, rules, self-publishing, short story, SmashwordsPsst…have you heard? Everybody’s doing it. Self-publishing.
It’s hip, it’s cool…it’s like winning the lottery.
Right?
Hmm…maybe. Maybe not. It’s the wild, wild west out in the land of Amazon, Smashwords and Nook. All you need is a dusty, old manuscript from under your bed, a sexy cover and a few .html codes and you’re dancing with the stars.
Oh, what fools we writers be.
It ain’t that easy.
Here’s the deal: You’ve written a good story and your manuscript is in the best shape possible–critique groups, professional editing, etc. Now what?
No doubt you need a good cover and nearly flawless formatting, but don’t give up if you haven’t gotten it all together. Before you push that old manuscript back under the bed with the dust bunnies, it is possible to hitch your wagon to the self-pubbed stars and join in the land rush…or should I say, digital rush.
I did it. I self-pubbed a holiday novella and a short story. There are many blogs that can help you with various aspects of the biz, from J.A. Konrath to Bob Mayer’s Write It Forward (I highly recommend both!), but here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way.
Jina’s 5 tips to self-publishing:
- I formatted my manuscript myself with help from Marie Force’s blog–I especially found the info about “tabs†and indenting .33 on the first line helpful.
- I bought my cover art from Dreamstime.com They have quality photos and high resolution. You can choose from 12 million photos available on their site.
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Be prepared to spend time learning how to format. It’s a high learning curve, but I’ve found both the Amazon (short video) and Smashwords guides to be helpful if you’re willing to make the effort.
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Be realistic about your goals. No one can predict how a book will do, but reading the Kindle forums and following other authors can give you an idea of how they’re doing. I follow OCC’s Dr. Debra Holland’s blog–she’s been open and forthright about her experience in self-publishing and her sales. Another OCC author, Jacqueline Diamond (author of 90 novels), has recently self-published books from her backlist and knows the value of promoting her books (she made the top 100 in Regency on Amazon).
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Write another book or story right away. Quality and quanity are both important in self-pubbing. You need product to sell. Imagine if a shoe store opened and all they had to sell was one shoe style?
Which reminds me of Cinderella and her glass slipper.
Putting your self-pubbed book out there is like Cinderella going to the ball. She had a team of cute little mice to make her dress (editing, cover and formatting) and a fairy godmother (Amazon, Nook and Smashwords) to make the magic happen.
She also had the moxie to get to the ball. That’s where you come in.
Be like Cinderella. Don’t be late to the self-publishing party.
You’ll never know if the glass slipper fits until you try it.
Best,
Jina
Indies, Superheroes & Novellas, Oh My!
October 31, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Call for Submissions, Louisa Bacio, OCC/RWA- Manuscript should fall between 20k and 40k words in length
- Story must contain strong romantic elements, ending with either a HEA or a satisfying HFN.
- Entangled is not an erotic romance publisher, however we’ll consider any heat level so long as the erotic elements are not the main focus of the story.
- To submit a manuscript for consideration, paste the following into an email:
- A one-page query letter containing your genre, title, wordcount, a brief blurb about the book, and any pertinent writing credentials
- The first five (5) double-spaced pages
- Where we can find you on the web (links will do)
A Fantasy Life by Janet Quinn Cornelow
October 28, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category A Fantasy Life by Janet Cornelow tagged as Janet Cornelow, Janet Quinn
I have put The Irish Countess up on Kindle. It has a new look thanks to Lex Valentine, an OCC member, who made the cover. It is really a sexy cover.
After the death of her husband, Countess Ciara MacCormack Fitzsimmons returns home to Ireland and the earl’s estate accompanied by her six-year-old son. There she meets Mick O’Hurlihey, the estate overseer, and falls in love for the first time in her life. However, being the countess keeps her from Mick.
Mick is smitten with Ciara the first time he sees her, but realizes that he can never lay claim to the Countess. Then danger stalks Ciara and her son and Mick risks his own life to keep theirs safe.
It is available at Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Irish-Countess-ebook/dp/B005ZXEQGQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1319765168&sr=1-1
I have been writing, which is a good thing. I am working on A Chance for Love, which is a time-travel that I started awhile back. It is moving along quickly. I am on chapter 6 already. The hero is getting ready to tell the heroine that he is from the future which is always a fun scene to write. I wish I had more time to write but the classes I am teaching take up much of my time.
So do my two “toddlers.†My dog and my kitten love to interrupt everything that I do. The kitten doesn’t understand that the 90 pound dog is not a big cat and does not wrestle like a cat does. I keep waiting for the kitten to get smooshed. He has turned out to be the alpha male and terrorizes the dog. Then he also terrorizes the humans and has redecorated a great deal of the house. I have baby proofed my kitchen. It is already for my granddaughter when she learns to crawl. Of course, by the time she can reach the top cabinets that are also baby proofed, she’ll be old enough to not hurt herself. Rugen, the kitten, on the other hand, can reach them now and wants to get into them and knock everything out. If I could convince him that the stove is not a safe place when there is something cooking on it, I will have really accomplished something. I have to watch the stove at all moments because he keeps trying to set himself on fire.
eReaders–Isabel Swift wonders: what’s with the “But I love BOOKS” response?
October 24, 2011 by Isabel Swift in category From Isabel Swift tagged as eBooks, eReaders, iPad, Isabel Swift, Kindle, readingI’m sure you’ve had the same experience–or have been one of the players in this conversation.
But first, a bit of background….
In addition to being VP of editorial for Harlequin, over a decade ago I also chaired a digital/eBook task force charged with exploring this new business opportunity. Additionally, much later, I was part of the new business group launching a number of new digital initiatives. So I guess what I’m trying to say is: I swing both ways. And in the course of my work, I had a lot of conversations with people–readers, writers, booksellers, digital entrepreneurs. Today, I still love to find out what people are reading–and how they are reading.
Back to the present. So, I’m at a dinner party, or cocktail party, or just striking up a conversation in line or traveling–and the subject of books and reading comes up. Often one person has an eReader (frequently a Kindle, sometimes an iPad or other eReader) and is either extolling its virtues, or reluctantly (or not) going through the learning curve.
Someone else invariably chimes in (sometimes with passionate intensity) “But I love BOOKS! I could NEVER get an eReader!” Then they go on a bit about the smell, turning the pages & the multitude of pleasures, information and sensation that a physical object offers. The self-confessed eReader reader is given the hairy eyeball, or at best, a pitying look. Emotions can (and have) run high over this line in the sand, this perceived chasm.
And don’t get me wrong–I love books too. Physical books. But I am stumped as to why there is such a prevalent and passionate assumption that physical Vs digital is an either/or choice. Like once you purchase an eReader, a scarlet TTTWW (for Traitor To The Written Word) will be emblazoned on your forehead and a magnetic force field will drop down (visually similar to the Cone of Silence in Get Smart) preventing you from ever touching another physical book with your dirty digital hands. You have not remained faithful to the books that raised you–dipping your wick elsewhere is clearly felt to be a relationship ender.
Huh? I just don’t get it. My reading world is not monogamous! I believe in choice! I love stories. I love storytellers. Books have not changed my life–stories have, with their information, insights, compelling worlds, emotional challenges and eye opening truths. Stories that are shared though listening (conversation, audio, radio, lectures,…), seeing (performance, films, TV, museums,…) or reading (books, newspapers, magazines, documents, letters,…).
Yes, the story’s trasmission vehicle can make a difference in the impact of a story. Watching the Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels concert live Vs at an IMAX theatre with rabid fans Vs on a DVD alone at home delivers quite different experiences. Reading a hardcover, paperback, listening to the story on audio, reading it on an eReader all deliver a different experience.
Sure, there may be preferred formats for certain stories. Haven’t you heard people say “You don’t need to see that movie in a theater, it’ll be fine on DVD”? I assure you watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show live at midnight is a great example of the transformative impact of how you experience a story Vs sitting at home with the remote.
But everyone understands the benefits of access, choice, convenience. As a reader, I don’t like to be without something to read. And while I am usually a fairly committed reader, I must confess I’m not entirely monagamous. As a frequent traveller I have found myself lugging stacks of material: manuscripts, educational/business reading, fun reading, recommended reading, themeatically appropriate reading, books 2 and 3 in the series, just in case… You know what I’m talking about!
Now I can have everything on one slim tablet and people no longer ask me if I am carrying rocks in my suitcase. Maybe I’ll have a paperback in my purse too–cheerful in the knowledge if I tire of it or finish it, I have other options. Bedtime reading with sleeping spouse can cease to be an issue with a back-lit iPad. And another interesting aspect of the digital reading experience is product privacy. No one knows what you’re reading.
(Though for some that could be a drawback, as looking intellectual, educated, in-the-know and generally superior could be the key driver behind plowing through an improving literary tome. But surely a secondary market will spring up of sheaths for one’s tablet that will say perhaps: “Don’t bother me…Riveted by Rushdie!” or “Intellect @ Play” or “I’m improving myself. And you?”)
Alternatively, maybe you really don’t mind carrying two or three volumes around in your gigantic purse. Perhaps you are unmoved by the ability to download a recommended read instantly at the dinner table in The-Back-of-Beyond. Unlike me, perhaps you may have a house filled with empty shelves, just waiting to be filled, with your other bookshelves are stacked with easy-to-find, easy-to-search titles. But that is not my world.
So enough with this “I love BOOKS!”. Of course you do. But I love stories….
Why Do we Write What We Write
October 20, 2011 by A Slice of Orange in category Columns tagged as Member At Large, Mona Karel, Monica StonerMight as well ask why we read what we read since for many of us they are inextricably linked. We write what we enjoy reading. I was reminded of this recently during two discussions with non romance readers. The first one asked me to define exactly what sort of books I write, and if “romance” is a long story with some hand-holding, a short story with hot sex? She went on to explain her local librarian has been trying to convince her to write what she calls a romance novel – sort of relationship in the 1800s with a sex scene thrown in about every 40 pages. I sent her to RWA’s website for an idea of the professionalism involved in our genre, and had to point out her librarian is a literary bigot.
The second discussion was less abrasive. A non romance reading friend read My Killer My Love, and was surprised how much she enjoyed it. Up until now her opinion of romance hasn’t been very positive, and the idea of a heroine with glasses and a limp intrigued her. She asked me what I would write next and how I decided what to write.
These past few months I’ve devoured books of all sorts. I’ve read Jim Butcher’s entire Furies series along with the latest Harry Dresden. I’ve enjoyed Tara Lain’s Beautiful Boys and Rebecca Forster’s chilling “Before Her Eyes.” From the moment I first sat in the Emergency Room with my husband I’ve had a book or Kindle in my hand, and I’ve used the words of other writers to help me get through the days. During procedures I filled my time and my worried mind with flights of fantasy and allayed my fears with tales of love everlasting. The often silly, sometimes implausible plot points distracted me at times when I wasn’t ready to face the reality of our days.
Why do I write? I write so someone else can have those few hours of immersion in a story. I write so they can temporarily forget the stresses of their lives and briefly become a part of the lives I created in the pages of my book. Perhaps some of us write to be the next Nora, the next Jayne Ann, but for the most part we write to share what we are with anyone willing to share the worlds we lived in for the months or years it took to create the story.
I write—we write—to give someone a distraction while waiting for news of the tests, or as they sit in another uncomfortable chair during procedures, wanting to be there when their loved one goes past, to let them connect with the world waiting for their return. Those scenes and dialogue and setting pour out of our hearts onto the page, sometimes easily, sometimes with great effort, to be sucked up into the minds of readers and allow them a few moments to enjoy something other than the unrelenting sounds of a hospital.
I write because too many stories clamor in my head for release onto the screen. And I guess I write because I can’t not write.
Writing as Mona Karel, Monica’s first novel, MY KILLER MY LOVE, is available from Black Opal Books , Amazon, Smashwords and B&N.
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