Last week I discussed the changes I’ve seen in self-publishing. I gave a talk on the subject, and then just this week I attended another self-publishing panel discussion. Many ideas and tips came out of all that preparation and chatting, and so I thought I’d share the whole big lot of them in one document.
Please note that the links I have in here are not endorsing the companies listed (except of course my own). These are just some businesses and references I’ve come across that have helped me figure out the industry and self-publishing steps.
My biggest tip? Be curious. Write. Write. Write–of course. And then learn the industry like your livelihood depends on it. It actually does.
Good luck.
Tips, thoughts and corrections are all welcome. What do you know?
Today I’m on my way to give a seminar on self-publishing at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference. I gave a similar talk last June to a smaller group, but the publishing world is in constant change, so I’m scrambling to gather new information.
I do know that self-published authors are now also called Indie Publishers or Author-publishers. Only about 32% of Indie authors were rejected by traditional publishers, and now even authors like Jackie Collins have self-published e-books. Authors who self-publish and traditionally publish are called Hybrid Authors. Hybrids are the most successful, earning four times as much as the self-published.
There used to be six big publishers, now there are five. Self-published used to mean doing it all, but now there are middle-men companies, like Booktrope and AuthorHouse. With them, authors retain copyrights but have help with professional editing, design and book packaging. Even PR groups like Smith Publicity, provide self-published book promotion options.
Once considered lame, self-published is now considered cool. We’re like Indie film-makers. While publishers mass-produce books their distributors want to sell, we create what readers want to buy and read. More of us are paying for professional editors and book covers now, too.
What hasn’t changed is very simple. Those authors (self or otherwise) who earn the most spend more of their time writing. They spend almost 70% more time writing, write 1/3 more, and do the least amount of marketing. They write books for readers. They don’t sell to them.
By Karen A. ChaseMy Underwood typewriter on Ted’s old roll-top desk in our living room.
Typewriters. We writers love them. Historian and author David McCullough writes all his books on a typewriter for fear he will hit the delete key and wipe out a whole novel. Tom Hanks wrote an ode to typewriters for the New York Times this week. Famous authors have had their babies–specific typewriters upon which they tapped out their best work. You can see a list here.
I, too, have typewriter. It’s a 1935 Underwood. We found it in an antique store for $20. I paid another $100 to make it work. I don’t use it often because the keys are clunky and heavy, and I could seriously break a nail typing my name. But I do go to it for one reason. Beginnings.
When I’m on a regular computer I can crank out about 75 words a minute. (My brother said, “Yeah, 75 words a minute, but half of those are the delete key.) At that speed my thoughts are flying, but I’m not always discerning about the words. Word choice, to me, is never more important… imperative… paramount, than at the beginning of a book, of a chapter, or a scene.
How those moments start must fully engage the reader, so my mind must fully engage too. And that lovely old, black, heavy typewriter simply slows down my thinking. Besides, I feel like a writer at that typewriter. I feel all Hemingway. All Faulkner.
Now when I want to feel all Austen, I pick up a pen.
The panel of authors at the James River Writers Show. (Left to right) Julie Geen, me, Deb Dudley, and Meg Medina.
The tables have turned a bit with my writing, and I’ve recently been asked to speak at writing workshops. The first show was at the Roanoke Regional Writing Conference Series (see pics here), talking about taking a blog to book. My second was here in Richmond at the James River Writers Show on a panel about building an author platform. In both cases, I discovered that although I had been asked to come share my expertise since I published my first book, I still have so much to learn.
The publishing industry is changing rapidly, so that the old models about publishing are not the same. It used to be that there was traditional publishing (book deal, advance, royalties) or there was self-publishing. But now… there are more and more groups springing up in between, and so many more options for authors to craft their career path, instead of waiting to be picked up by agents and publishers.
The most important thing I’ve learned from preparing for and doing these talks is that I must continually study the industry. I have to be curious. I have to read–mostly online, because it’s changing too fast to put it into print. I need real-time data. I thought I would share a few tidbits and resources.
Visit AgentQuery.net
The best general info to get the gist on standard things in publishing.
Read Writers Digest and Poets and Writers
Embrace Google and search for:
• Tips for writing conferences
• Developmental editing vs copyediting
• Author Platform
• Author Blogs
• Why authors tweet
• Social media for authors
• Why book trailers
• Createspace versus Lightning source
• Book publishing royalties
• Non-traditional publishers
• (and whatever baffles you about publishing)
This week I was very happily visited by Andrew Eddy, a fellow writer from Provence featured in my book, Bonjour 40. While he was here we went to Charlottesville, visiting Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and quite naturally, we hit an overwhelming number of bookstores. In a rare and antiquarian bookshop, I found a lovely copy of Ann Patchett’s book What Now?. Andrew and I went to the desk to pay, and both of us stood silent and mortified. There behind the counter was an owner of the store, with a knife in hand, slicing stone-engraved, hand-colored images of Medieval knights like the one above out of three antique books.
“It doesn’t bother you cutting up old books?” I gently asked. The man just shrugged as he tried to rationalize his craft. “It’s not as if it’s rare, dozens of colleges and bookstores have these… They’re too expensive for people to buy now because no one collects books… If I can sell the images for $95 a piece, I make more than having a book on my shelf I can’t sell… It’s what I need to do.”
I felt sad for the historians and future generations who will never see those books. I felt bad for the illustrations of the knights separated from one another, and from the words that explained them. I have an image of a book collector–ten, fifty or even one hundred years from now–cursing that stupid bookseller for tearing apart such a special book, as they struggle to recollect the images.
And what if it is rare? It reminds me of the story of the last man on Easter Island who cut down the last tree. It’s what I need to do, he probably said. And then their civilization died, and they had no way to make books to explain themselves!
So there were Andrew and I on one side of the counter, knowing we are pouring time and energy into building books we hope will be cherished for generations, while on the other side the books of our predecessors were slaughtered for parts. Bottom line, it wasn’t about the books, it was about bottom line. I think both Andrew and I would rather be on this side of the counter struggling to be brave knights creating, not destroying the words.
And as for that comment on the three books being rare, I’ll let you be the judge. The set he was slicing up was from 1824. A collection on ancient armor. The sets range in price from $3000-$7500 on ABE Books.
Friday, May 3 ~ 7:00 p.m. Main Library ~ 101 East Franklin Street Davenport Special Collections Room
When I first launched Bonjour 40, the blog, I had not intended to write a book based on it. However, once the publishing notion came along, I thought perhaps I would use this book, my first, as an experiment. By navigating self-publishing for both the e-book and print versions, I’ve learned a few things. I wish I had someone over a year ago who knew what I know now.
You can. We’ll chat about:
• Tips for blogging
• Going from blog to book
• E-book versus print
• Amazon, online retailers, and bookstores
• Self versus traditional publishing
• Self-promotion for self-publishers
I hope you’ll join us. Reward? Self-publishing know-how from a been-there, done-that author. Plus, two attendees receive a free signed copy of the book, and one of my Paris photographs.
I love working with a freelance editor for three reasons. First, a good editor not only points out where things need to improve but where I’ve done things well. I can learn to be a better writer from my own writing. Second, she sees the forest where I’ve seen trees. Reviewing it with her uncluttered eyes, she helps me focus on the central vein of my story that I should follow, and from which I have sometimes strayed. Third, she helps to highlight where my details are not furthering the story, but tripping up the reader, and taking them from that central path.
When nearly 300 pages of my manuscript returned from this latest round of editing, there were many good comments and naturally some areas that need some refinement. One of the issues was about the name of my protagonist’s horse. The name was Llamrei. “A name like this is tough to read,” she had noted. My editor was stumbling over it and it was dragging down the narrative. When she and I spoke on the phone, I admitted that many times I even typed it wrong. The name of the horse, agreeably had to change.
So I looked for historic horse names that were more easily pronounced. I found and chose “Bayard,” which means reddish-brown. Simple enough, but I also looked up the history of the name. The story of this horse goes all the way back to a twelfth century French legend, part of which according to Wikipedia includes:
“Bayard is ceded to Charlemagne who, as punishment for the horse’s exploits, has a large stone tied to Bayard’s neck and the horse pushed into the river; Bayard however smashes the stone with his hooves and escapes to live forever more in the woods.”
Here’s the strange thing… Many times in my writing to this point, the character and his horse are required to cross waterways, and each time I wrote about how the horse became frantic to the point that it needed to be blindfolded. No reason. Just wanted him to be that way. But now, it’s as if the horse’s new name explains why he is always afraid to cross rivers in my story… But I created this horse’s characteristic before I found the name. Before I read about the legend… Odd, right?
Did I know about Bayard somehow? Was he a part of me? Did I know the legend? Past life? This has happened more than once that details woven into my story somehow connect with history before I have fully learned the history.
It makes me wonder, is my historical fiction story not fiction at all? Could it be true…? {Twilight Zone music here.}
Other legends of the horse include that he could expand to the size required for the number of riders, and that he could speak English. Okay, so not ALL of the tales seem to fit with my writing. (A public domain image.)
I just did my first radio interview about Bonjour 40 and writing!
Tim Bowring of 102.9 WHAN Radio invited me into the studio to chat about Bonjour 40, about writing, blogs and more.
For you writers out there, we also chat about my experience in self-publishing, editing a book, turning a blog into a book, and using secret Pinterest boards as a research tool. Thanks so much, Tim, for having me on your show! Nerve wracking? A bit. Fun? Absolutely!
So many readers asked for it and it’s finally here. After the success of the eBook and receiving an eLit award, I went out to find an agent and a traditional publisher. But then I got to wondering what kind of book they would make. What would it look like? What would the design feel like compared to my trip? I’m a professional designer, and we like things just so. After some searching and a lot of encouragement, I eventually gave in… no, stepped up, and said, “Karen, you can do this.”
So I combed through the thousands of photos from the trip, and added in some new text. Then I went at it. Now it is 132 full-color pages, 8.5×8.5, with over 100 images. It feels more like a photo journal and a pictorial journey through Paris, but it still has my stories about a strange pillow and Bandit the dog.
If you loved the eBook, I hope the print version will be on your gift list–for yourself and others. Joyeux Noël.
For those who want to know how I produced the book, my process included:
~ InDesign for the page layout of the interior and cover.
~ Photoshop to crop, resize and color correct all 109 images.
~ Worked with April Michelle Davis to edit the copy in the new layout.
~ Opened an account through Createspace (Amazon’s print self-publishing).
~ Submitted a PDF of my files and they sent me a physical proof.
~ Based on the size and page numbers, Createspace helped me set pricing.
~ Approve it all, and wait 5-7 days for it to hit Amazon.
I’ve done it. You probably have, too. I’ve Google searched my own name to see what comes up. This week, I searched Amazon under Bonjour 40: A Paris Travel log. Typing in various words and phrases from the title, I wanted to see what other items might come up. I found a plethora of fun things from teapots to paintings. So, I gathered of few of them to share.
In just a few days, there will also be one more item. A print version of Bonjour 40! Readers who bought the e-book containing nearly 40 images, begged for more. Fans without e-readers begged for print. Those who love to armchair travel holding something tangible, asked when they could get their hands on it. So, here’s the gift I’ve personally designed to bring to all of you.
With over 100 photos, plus a few extra tid-bits, this new expanded version, is an 8.5×8.5, full-color, paperback walk through the streets, markets and delights of Paris. It still has all the content and stories of the original travel log, but now, so much more.
I’m reviewing the proofs now, so stay tuned for the big launch just in time for the holidays! In the meantime, you can click on the image above and find other ways to hold Paris in your hands (my favorite is the My Duckie Paris, black bathtub rubber duckie.)
My proofing copy of Bonjour 40. It’s 132 pages of over 100 full-color photos, journal entries and more! Coming soon to Amazon!
