A Slice of Orange

Home

Whatâ€™s Wrong with this Cover?

January 12, 2012 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as Charlotte Carter, Charlotte Lobb, Love Inspired

The creation of a book cover is a collaboration of the author (most of whom claim their suggestions are ignored), the editor, art department and marketing. Sometimes things go wrong.

One of the most infamous cover calamities happened to Christina Dodd, author of Castle in the Air, an historical romance. The hero on the cover is standing behind the heroine in a lovely red gown, holding her with, um, all THREE of his arms. Amazing fellow!

Jill Marie Landis, who writes western historicals circa 1880, got an early peek at one of her covers. It featured a cabin in the woods with a TV antenna. Oophs! The publisher had to reprint ALL of the covers. Boy, was that an expensive mistake.

I think my cover for Big Sky Family is both appealing and charming; the colors are positively lovely. Itâ€™s hard to beat a cowboy hero (Arnie), the heroineâ€™s young daughter (Torie) and a golden retriever (Sheila) for getting reader attention. But thereâ€™s just one small problem.

Arnie, our hero, is sitting on the porch steps. Heâ€™s a paraplegic. In every scene in the book he is sitting in a wheelchair (with the small exception of rounding up cattle on a specially equipped ATV).

Iâ€™m guessing, and I really donâ€™t know, that marketing has â€˜discoveredâ€™ that heroes portrayed in wheelchairs donâ€™t sell. Okay, I really want to sell lots of copies of Big Sky Family.

But what will readers think when they get to page 10 and find Arnie in his wheelchair? Will they blame me for the misleading cover and write nasty notes? Ouch!

And what about readers who read Big Sky Reunion, a previous book which featured Arnieâ€™s brother Daniel? Wonâ€™t they remember that Arnie was a paraplegic in that book? When they see the cover will they think heâ€™s been cured? And write nasty notes? Oh dear . . .

So do you think marketing is right? Would you be more or less likely to buy a book with the hero on the cover in a wheelchair?

Let me know.

Happy reading…….

Char…..

Big Sky Family, Love Inspired, available 10/19/2011

Written With Love, working title, Love Inspired, 10/2012

Books that leave you smiling by

www.CharlotteCarter.com

0 0 Read more

How Much Money I Made Self-Publishing in 2011

January 10, 2012 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives

Happy Monday! As part of the changes this year at Routines for Writers, I am now starting the week there with news and information about my self-publishing journey. Since itâ€™s tax time and time to finish planning out the new year, I thought Iâ€™d compile my revenue and expenses and share them with both my friends there, and here as well.

In the following list, I did not include any revenue or expenses for 2011 that were not directly related to self-publishing. All the things I bought or paid for that I would have spent money on anyway – books, DVDs, conferences/speaking events, online classes, web site, software, etc. – are in addition to these numbers.

EXPENSES

In April I started thinking I would probably self-publish if I didnâ€™t hear good news about my genre at the Romance Writers of America national conference, so I started buying books and ebooks on how to publish ebooks. (That still sounds funny to me!) I spent $12.74 on five ebooks between April and August. I self-published Little Miss Lovesick [link] in September. Then I spent $67.59 on three books and three ebooks between September and December. I also bought a copy of my book for $0.99 at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble so I could double-check the formatting.

My husband is a former graphic designer so I paid $9.99 for the photo we used to create the cover, and my husband gained a lot of points to leverage against chores in the future. 🙂 I spent $15 on an online class where I learned how to format my book for Kindle, then I did all the formatting myself.

I decided that I wanted to own my ISBNs, and I wanted enough of them to continue publishing years into the future with consecutive numbers assigned to my â€œpublishing company.â€ So I paid $575 for 100 ISBN numbers. I also paid $57 to file a DBA (Doing Business As) form with the State of California to use Daydreamer Entertainment as my company name. (Itâ€™s not a corporation or an LLC, itâ€™s just permission to use a name that is not my own.)

PUBLISHING THE BOOK

I uploaded the book to Amazon on September 17. But I was pretty sure I had a formatting problem, so I asked all of my friends not to buy a copy until I fixed it on September 22. I decided I wanted to price books the way I like to buy DVDs at Best Buy and Target: on sale when they first come out, and then full price after that with occasional sales. So I set the price at $0.99 for 30 days…which really means 5-6 weeks by the time you wait for your changes to take effect across all venues.

The book went up on Barnes & Noble on September 22 and Smashwords on September 21. If you arenâ€™t familiar with Smashwords, they distribute my book to the iTunes store, Kobo, Diesel and more. There are a couple other venues I want to use, but with the move and the holidays, I havenâ€™t been able to complete the work yet.

SALES AND REVENUE

I think the minimum that you have to earn before getting paid (on all three sites – Amazon, B&N and Smashwords) is $10. You can download a spreadsheet showing your sales and revenue from Amazon and B&N, which I have done every month. Iâ€™m not sure about Smashwords; I have a spreadsheet with all of my sales across all their distribution channels, but Iâ€™m still reading it over and figuring it out. It looks like their spreadsheet is only available by quarter, but it includes what countries youâ€™ve sold to. Cool.

For September through December, 2011, Iâ€™ve earned $5.39 on 17 sales from B&N, and $8.11 on 8 sales from Smashwords (for sales to Smashwords and Apple customers only, so far). Again, I wonâ€™t get paid by either of them until they owe me at least $10. As seems to be so often the case, the biggest sales are from Amazon. Iâ€™ll break it down by month.

September – $13.65 in earnings on 39 sales, paid on November 29th; $0.26 on 1 sale in the Amazon UK store, unpaid until I reach $10.

October – $12.15 on 33 sales, paid on December 23rd; no non-U.S. sales.

November – $22.05 on 9 sales, not yet paid; no non-U.S. sales. (The price from the end of October on is $3.99.)

December – Reports are generated on the 15th of the month (next week), but it looks like Dec numbers are approximately $9.65 on 4 sales. That means I wonâ€™t get a check in February.

THE BOTTOM LINE

My total earnings for 2011 is $71.26 on 111 sales. (Of course, thatâ€™s not what Iâ€™ll report to the IRS. That number would be $25.80, the amount I actually got paid in 2011.) Total expenses for 2011 per the above is $739.30. (That is the number Iâ€™ll report to the IRS, in addition to other expenses, because I really did spend it in 2011.) That gives me a net loss of $668.04 for the year. (Again, not the number that will appear on my tax form because I had other writing-related income from teaching online classes. I just want you to understand the difference between the numbers as Iâ€™ll be presenting them to you throughout the year, and the way you report a cash-basis business.)

You can look at these results from a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty perspective. People who have been doing this longer than me seem to agree that it takes about a year for you to really see progress, and itâ€™s quicker if you have multiple books out. Iâ€™ve heard that nonfiction sells better than fiction; Iâ€™ll let you know if thatâ€™s true for me when I put out my nonfiction ebooks. In the â€œcorporateâ€ small business world, common wisdom is that it can take up to five years to start seeing profits and have a business that supports you financially. I expect Iâ€™ll be closer to the one-year than the five-year mark, but only time will tell.

On days when I feel despondent about the numbers, my awesome husband reminds me that a few months ago Iâ€™d sold zero books and earned zero money from my fiction. This, from a self-proclaimed pessimist, so you can see why it cheers me up so much.

Todayâ€™s a new day, itâ€™s a new week, a new year, and Iâ€™m feeling optimistic. I have a lot to do and some days I donâ€™t know how I can possibly do it all. But every journey is one foot in front of the other, one mile after another, so I have to focus on what to do NOW and what to do NEXT and leave the rest of it on my To Do List.

Again, ask any questions you want and Iâ€™ll try to answer. And if youâ€™re interested in planning out your 2012 writing year with me, sign up for my online class. We start next Monday.

Until next time, Happy Writing! 🙂

Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her first novel, Little Miss Lovesick, was released in September 2011 as an ebook and will be available soon in print format. Kitty has also written magazine articles, devotionals, and worked as a magazine editor. She is the co-founder of Routines for Writers where she blogs every Monday. Her next novel, Love at the Fluff N Fold, will be released in Spring 2012.

4 0 Read more

Greetings, New Year’s Grinches

January 6, 2012 by Marianne H. Donley in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as Berkley Prime Crime, Harlequin Nocturne, Linda O. Johnston, Pet Rescuer Mysteries

Admit it–are you a New Yearâ€™s Grinch?

Okay, I realize there really isnâ€™t such a thing. Thatâ€™s certainly not the background of the character created by Dr. Seuss who despises Christmas in the book How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

But the term Grinch has been extended somewhat in common use to mean more than that nasty, greedy and cute character. It can also mean someone whose holiday spirit is lacking.

So why not a New Yearâ€™s Grinch?

Most of us have looked forward to the New Year as a new beginning. We like to think that whatever went wrong for us in 2011, or wasnâ€™t ideal, or even could just use some changes or tweaks, will get resolved in 2012. Sometimes itâ€™ll just happen, and sometimes we have to work on it, but this year can definitely be better than the last.

Canâ€™t it?

What about if you just let one year run into the next? I donâ€™t make New Yearâ€™s resolutions, so although I may aspire to changes, mostly those that I cause, they donâ€™t rise to the level of promises to myself the way resolutions might.

What about people who just figure January 1 is just the day after December 31? Those who may enjoy taking time off over the holidays because everyone does (well, everyone but writers) but donâ€™t really consider the upcoming year to be different from the one that just expired?

Tell you what. All you New Yearâ€™s Grinches: since you donâ€™t believe in the magic of the New Year, make your resolution now. This year, youâ€™ll vow to stop Grinching and start working on changing all those things in your life that need improvement. And admit it. There are some.

Silhouette Nocturne BITES
November 2011

Like–if you havenâ€™t read any of my Pet Rescue Mysteries or my Harlequin Nocturne Alpha Force miniseries books, thatâ€™s something thing you can start in 2012. Or if youâ€™ve read some, pick up some more! Then thereâ€™ll also be my first Harlequin Romantic Suspense book in July…

Okay. Enough BSP. How about your own writing aspirations or career? What can you change in the upcoming year to improve wherever you are? Or what about your family life? Your home? How can you improve our environment? Help save some homeless animals? Whatever!

Tell us all, right here. Are you a New Yearâ€™s Grinch? And are you resolving to change that?

In any event, to all of you OCC members and friends, whether youâ€™re Grinches or not: Have a very happy and productive 2012!

Linda O. Johnston
http://www.lindaojohnston.com/
http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/

2 0 Read more

Conversations with Barb and Jann

January 2, 2012 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Barb Delong, Conversations with Barb and Jann, Jann Audiss

by Barb DeLong and Jann Audiss

We have been friends for what seems like forever and been struggling with our writing as well. So to start 2012 off with a bang, we have decided to blog on the Slice of Orange. What better place to get our mojo working. We decided to do a conversational blog between the two of us exchanging our thoughts and ideas about our writing.

Jann: Hi, Happy New Year. Yada, yada…been thinking about blogging again. What do you think about blogging together? I remember when we were doing it as a group several years ago?

Barb: Yes, I remember. I also had a Pro blog and my own blog for a while. But I stopped writing them, as it seems I do regularly with my creative writing. I plunge in, all excited about a new story, write feverishly, then more slowly, then I hit the skids. How can I make this year different?

Jann: I know what you mean. One problem I have is getting sidetracked with other obligations. Remember when we use to meet once or twice a month for critique group? We were actually getting pages out, why don’t we try committing to – oops backup and remove “try”, let’s commit to meeting twice a month to write for 2 hours or critique. If we critique, let’s set a page minimum – doesn’t’ matter if the pages are good, bad or ugly.

Barb: The goal is ACCOUNTABILITY!

Jann: Hey, what about taking Kitty’s Online Class for January. Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for the Writer?? Sounds like we could use it.

Barb: Setting goals, supporting each other – sounds like a plan, Jann! And hey, I think we just did our first blog! Blogging is writing, so we actually wrote something. I like this already.

0 0 Read more