Lana Pecherczyk's Blog, page 10

Read the review for Robin Lockslay

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 Repost from @loutop1a – Check out my review of #RobinLockslay by Lana Pecherczyk @lansi – a fun, flirty gender twist on Robin Hood as you’ve never seen her! http://ift.tt/25IeXLr 

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Z is for Zeal – Self-Publishing from A to Z

zeal: n Great enthusiasm or eagerness.

If you’ve been wondering if you should try the self-publishing route, and not sure if you think you can do it, then this is the post for you.

To be successful, you need to have zeal. You need to be enthusiastic and you need to keep that spark alive constantly for a period of time. Nobody got to the top of the mountain by falling there. And if you’re only half-heartedly entering the prospect of self-publishing, you won’t succeed.

How to tell if you’ve got the zeal for self-publishing …

Is it hard to fall asleep because you can’t stop thinking about your project?
Do you like learning?
Are you resilient enough that you can bounce back after failure?
Are you willing to be your own boss?
Can you become a sales person?
Are you determined?
Are you tech-savvy or willing to learn?
Are you in a hurry to see you book out there?
Are you an organised person?
You can’t think of anything else and if you don’t finish it, you’re going to explode.

This concludes my series on the A to Z of self-publishing. Next up on my agenda, the A to Z of writing romance. Please send me a message if you have any suggestions, or make sure you sign up to my newsletter to stay in the loop. (Link in the footer & header.)

About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.

Learn more about ...

Books | Blog | RWA |E-Newsletter for Books

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18 truths about getting your self-published book into a bookstore

I’ve been working in the marketing department of an independent bookstore for the last six months and have learnt quite a lot of truths that affect how a self-publisher gets their book into a local store. I’m in Australia, so these tips are localised. They may work internationally, but as I’ve never worked in another book store, I’m not sure.

So, here are the truths I’ve learnt:

Using Ingram Spark is best. Check your prices are relevant to others similar to yours. Also check to make sure that the bookseller is getting the right RRP price. Sometimes Ingram can go off a base price in US dollars and mark up the RRP in Australian to something ridiculous.  You can call Ingram to make sure it’s all coming in at a particular price to the bookseller.
Don’t pay extra to put it in the Marketing magazine from Ingram. Similarly, your marketing copy may not even get looked at.
Visiting the store in person with a care package works best. Make an appointment, because this is what the publishers sales reps do. Make sure your care package is set up to include a copy of the book, a targeted sales letter (including where your book fits in the bookstore), any publicity you’ve had regarding the book. Do you have a large following on your social media or blog? Can you direct book sales exclusively back to their store as a return favour for them stocking your book? You want to make the decision as easy as you can for them.
Bookstores are too busy to chase you up. You call them.
Don’t be pushy. You’ll get shut down.
Look at the kind of books the bookstore sells. The one I work at focuses more on literary fiction and not romance. So, half my titles are out.
About the sales rep process: A rep from each publisher comes in with a stack of free sample books and a list a mile long to show the buyer.  They do this monthly. A book store may have up to 5+ weekly appointments over an hour long. You have to become your own sales rep. Give away free review copies of your book. I know this can be expensive, maybe try getting together with a bunch of other self-pubbed authors or pay for one or use a distributer like Dennis Jones or New South Books.
The ratio of fiction to non-fiction sales isn’t as much as you think. Non-fiction way outsells fiction. This is partly due to the nature of non-fiction books having a higher price point, but also there’s something about people willing to spend money on learning.
Book stores are not dead. Well, the smart ones aren’t.
Don’t take rejection personally.

When a sales rep comes in with a list a mile long of new titles, the buyer is ruthless, picking out only a select few they believe are going to sell. If you’re not on the list, you’re not on it. Go back to the drawing board and write some more. Try writing something to market.
If they’re considering it, they will check the nelson book scan site, so make sure your details are up to date.
I read once that booksellers like to see whether you have any language warnings on there or explicitly violent or sexual scenes. This is going a bit far, in my opinion. When I asked the staff, they said my warnings just made them laugh. So, just worry about marketing your book in the right genre.
Bookstores send back unsold copies to the publishers all the time so they are taking a risk when accepting Indie books without a return policy. I’m not saying you should offer this policy because bookstores are well versed in the differences between indie and traditionally published books, but if you decide to offer it, definitely put it on the sales letter.
Make sure the quality of your cover is professional, meaning, if you hold it up next to others in its genre, can you tell it is self-published?
Some stores have self-published title procedures. Call to make sure you are following theirs.
Most bookstores expect a 40-50% discount off the RRP.
If your book is set locally, you may stand a better chance.
Considering you may only sell a handful of copies a year from one store, consider if your time is really worth it. If you have too much to learn, sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to write the next book.

So, what do you think? Are any of these tips useful to you? Did any surprise you? Do you work in a bookstore as a buyer – is there anything else you’d like to add? Please comment below.

About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.

Learn more about ...

Books | Blog | RWA |E-Newsletter for Books

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Book Review – Happy People Read & Drink Coffee

I started this book about five times, cried like I was in a Cold Play song and then gave up. But with a book cover and a title like that, who can resist?

If you’ve ever suffered a great loss, the start of the book really gets to you. The main character Diane, suddenly loses the two major loves of her life. Her husband and daughter. A year later she moves to Ireland in an attempt to get away from her demanding family and the pressure to get over it. Of course she meets a grumpy but sexy Irish man who is dealing with his own dramas. There comes a series of events that grab your attention and don’t let go. They fall in love but can they get over their own issues to be with each other? Let me just say that the book ended without me feeling satisfied. I was grateful to hear that there would be a sequel to explain why.

This is the way I felt while reading this book:

First third – Cry baby. Wah, wah, wah.

Second third – Wow. I really like this book.

Last third – What the hell? I hate this book.

Googled it – Yessss there is a sequel and yess it’s going to be made into a movie.

Can I explain my emotional roller coaster? Not without giving spoilers. I can say that I’m not ready to give up on the book. I will read the next as soon as it’s translated from French. Because it’s such a quick read, and because there’s another coming out, I give it three curiously cautious Giraffes.

P.S. Here’s a little tidbit of gossip. The book was originally self-published. Yey! Go indies.

About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.

Learn more about ...

Books | Blog | RWA |E-Newsletter for Books

 

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Y is for YOLO – Making friends for scaredy writer cats

In case you’ve lived under a rock these last few years, YOLO means:

You only live once.

There are many devils on your shoulder when you are a writer. The same goes for any creative industry that falls under the daily scrutiny of consumers. Self-publishing is even worse! You’ve got the pressure of producing a quality book on your own that takes an entire publishing team to do traditionally. So many thoughts might travel through your head that, when piled on top of the other, can weigh you down so much that you might not get up again.

There’s one saying that I use (thanks to the Butthole Surfers and of course the Chilli Peppers song I originally heard it on):

Better to regret something you did, than something you didn’t do.

Think about it just for a minute. Really think about it. Visualise yourself on your deathbed looking over your life and wondering, Did I do it right? Or, am I going to regret not giving this a shot because people might laugh at me? Might being the operative word.

The only way you can show these naysayers – or your inner nag – who is the boss, is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. Nobody else is responsible for your happiness except you. C’mon, let’s all hold hands and sing Kumbaya. But before we do, I’m going to tell you a little story about how the dynamic duo was formed. I’m talking about me and my pal, Louisa Loder. It’s been well documented around Perth, that we are a great team. In fact, we mesh so well that we even started a publishing company called Creative Cartel Publishing. And last week, we were invited to the KSP Writing Centre to speak about the benefits of finding a writing partner and how our dynamic partnership works. Our business is still developing and evolving, but the main point is that it’s still going and we’re both better writers because of it.

Here’s a run down of the good bits:

You give each other ideas
You give each other validation
You’re motivated to meet deadlines, even if it’s just making a phone call.
You have someone to critique your work
You can workshop your ‘sagging middle’
You’ve got each other’s back

At the KSP Writers Centre. Tabatha (KSP Chairwoman) on the left, Louisa in the middle, and me on the right.

So, it was a dark and stormy night. The last night of my very first NaNoWriMo, and the first time I’d ever ventured out of my home to meet other writers. To say I was nervous was an understatement. You may not believe me if you’ve ever met me (I am rather loud and bubbly, especially after a glass of wine) but I do get shy and introverted too. I know how hard it is to put yourself out there when you know absolutely no one. And even harder when you are unsure of the value of your work.

The problem was that I’d been writing on my own, from the dark corners of my study, for a year and I’d exhausted my support system. They smiled and patted my back, read the stories I forced on them and supported me in my endeavour. But it wasn’t enough. I needed to talk to someone who got me, understood my situation and knew the right things to say to help me along my way. So, even though I was failing NaNo miserably, I braved the cold, dark and stormy night and took myself down to the South Perth Library where the local Write Night was happening to celebrate the end of NaNoWriMo.

I walked into the hall filled with round tables and stopped. Every table was almost at capacity except one. Smack bang in the middle sat a girl on her own, typing madly away on her laptop. So what did I do? I thought one person is easier to introduce myself to than a table and walked right up to her. Even though the rest of the table was empty, I sat down next to her. ‘Cos that’s how I roll. Before you knew it, I was offering to share my dark chocolate covered coffee beans and we were chatting about everything and discovered that we were very similar. We liked to write in the same genre, we both worked in Marketing, we both had husbands who worked away and had children.

By the end of the night I knew that there was just one more step I needed to take to fully cross that friendship bridge – Facebook. Even though there was a scaredy cat voice whispering in my ear that ‘who makes friends at your age?’ I answered back with an ‘I’m not that old, Jeez’ and told that voice to go shove it.

Everything after that is history. I now have a fantastic friend who I regularly Skype for our own ‘Tuesday Night Writes’, where we workshop, word war and sometimes just chat about stuff to give ourselves that little motivational boost. I have someone who ‘get’s’ where I’m at and who can come to writer events with me.

And how many cliché’s did I use in this post? Loads. But I don’t care. Because hopefully I’ve just given you the boost to put yourself out there. And I’ll bet, you’ll find others just like you trying to do the same thing. If you need a place to start, try joining a writers organisation. I’m on the committee for the Romance Writers of Australia and can honestly say they’ve been very welcoming and supportive community. But there’s plenty of others out there. Google it.

And remember, next time you’re about to be a scaredy writer cat, change it up. Say YOLO to yourself and go make lemonade.

 

About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.

Learn more about ...

Books | Blog | RWA |E-Newsletter for Books

 

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X is for Xerox

I know, I know. Xerox? It’s a bit of a stretch, but when it comes to thinking of something to do with Self-Publishing that starts with X I had no other ideas. In Australia we don’t really use the term Xerox very much, but i’m going to use it here to symbolise the action of copying. So, the moral of this post is …

ALWAYS MAKE COPIES OF YOUR WORK.

Make copies of your working manuscripts. Make copies of your design files. Make copies of your website. You name it – copy it.

I can’t stress how important it is to back up your files. If you have no money, and you’re on a budget, one way of doing this is to open a free Google Drive account, or Dropbox and update your working files on there. Your work will be saved in the cloud, which means that no matter where you are, you can access them. And on the flip side, no matter what device you are on, if it breaks, and you’ve saved your files to the cloud, then they won’t get lost.

You could also buy a small flash drive and copy your latest versions to it nightly.

You could also email them to yourself.

You could even print out your latest version of your manuscript and save it. Sure, it’s horrible for the environment and I really stress doing something digital.

If you’re scared that someone will hack into the cloud, get a home back up system. I use the apple 2TB Time Machine back up. It links to my computer every hour over wifi and backs up while I work. It’s great.

But, I’ve heard all too much how laptops disappear, drop, break, and all your work disappears into thin air. The point is, ALWAYS BACK THAT UP.

Go forth and save your work.
About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.

Learn more about ...

Books | Blog | RWA |E-Newsletter for Books

The post X is for Xerox appeared first on Author Zoo.

V is for Voice – Self-publishing from A to Z

When someone says a writer has great voice, they aren’t talking about the sound coming out of their mouth. Whaaaat?

But that’s what a voice is, I hear you say. Well, in writer terms, voice is your unique writing style. You could pick up a book by the same author and know it’s theirs without ever seeing the cover. When I was beginning, it took me a while to understand this, so I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.

How does your voice differ from another writer?

Examples …

Mary Janice Davidson is a romance writer who is light on the plot, heavy on the sass and fast paced.

The last book I read by literary author, Isabelle Allende is told in omniscient POV so in some ways is more distant because you don’t get deep inside the characters minds, but has more overall character reveals …

Shakespeare is .. nah, just kidding. We all know what Shakespeare sounds like. Do I really need to remind you?

Why is Voice important to a self-publisher?

Because you’re swimming against the stream. By this, I mean that you are competing with all the traditionally published authors. You need to make sure your writing isn’t part of the collective noise. I see this as an opportunity. A traditional publisher will want you to fit within a certain box, maybe just a little out of it. But being self-published, you can take whatever risks you want. If you want to be that person who wrote a sexy fan fiction  of twilight, you go right ahead. (But seriously, that was EL James before she turned her self-pubbed title into 50 Shades).

How to create your unique voice?

Try being as natural as you can when you write.
Dictate your story as though you were speaking to someone then listen to your voice recording for tips.
Write lots. You may not truly find your voice until you’ve written a few books. And that’s okay, just keep at it.
Read lots. This is very important in understanding the different styles of voice.
Try using different POVs. Third person may feel more natural to you than first or vice versa.
Think about language choice. Do you want to use huge words? Do you want formal, or conversational?
Try this exercise: write your story as though it were part of a letter to a long lost friend. All those little bits of personality you add are devices that help carve out your unique identity.

Do you have any tips? Share them with me.

 

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U is for Ultimate Wingman – Self-Publishing from A to Z

What on Earth is a self-publisher’s ultimate wingman?

Google.

Now, this may sound a little silly to some of you, but to others, it’s like a lightning bolt to the brain. Basically, what I’m saying here is, if you don’t know something, Google it. I’m serious. You would not believe how many times I hear from newbies, Luddites, the technologically challenged, the digital immigrants (or whatever word you want to use) that they don’t know where to start. They could spend hours, absolutely hours, asking me what to do about this or that in self-publishing, and do you know what? I learned it all by typing the keywords into Google myself. I spent hours reading the blogs, listening to audio, watching tutorials on YouTube. I learned it myself. Nobody else handed it to me. I went looking. And you can too.

So, when in doubt: Google it.

When you think it’s all too much … Google it.
When you want to learn how to write a book … Google it.
When you want to know which companies will print your book on demand … Google it.
When you want to find out how to create your own digital manuscript and what kind of file is compatible … Google it.
When you want to find out how to bring more visitors to your website … Google it.
When you can’t find a graphic designer in your neighbourhood … Google it.
When you want to know how to get your book into a book store … Google it.

Are you getting a picture here? Nine times out of ten, you’ll find the answers for free on Google. It just takes a little thing called initiative. Don’t wait for someone else to show you how to do it, find out yourself.

Please don’t get me confused with commenting on blog posts such as this as being lazy. Certainly not, because do you know why? You Googled your way to get to this blog post. You’re at least half way to finding out your answer by yourself. You’re doing swell! Go one step further and sign up to my newsletter so you can get knowledge directly in your inbox for FREE. You don’t even have to go looking for information. It will find you! Hows that for efficient?

About the AuthorLana Pecherczyk Facebook Twitter

Lana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.

Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.

Learn more about ...

Books | Blog | RWA |E-Newsletter for Books

 

The post U is for Ultimate Wingman – Self-Publishing from A to Z appeared first on Author Zoo.

T is for Tools

There are so many tools and resources out there, how do you know which ones to use?

The short answer is you can’t be sure until you try them for yourself.

But if you want a list of tools and resources I use, here they are…

Blogs

Helping Writers Become Authors
The Book Designer
Now Novel
Blots and Plots
She’s Novel
Romance Writers of Australia … or America
Janice Hardy
More at my Pinterest board ..

Podcasts

Sell more books show
So you want to be a writer
Writing Excuses

Books

Style Manual
My Novel Writing Workbook (gotta plug it somewhere)
The Emotion Thesaurus
Check out this blog post I recently did

Community

RWA
K-boards (Amazon)
Alliance of Independent Authors
NaNoWriMo

Publishing

Createspace
Ingram Spark

Designing

Me

Editing

Douglas B Wimmer
Anne Harth
Fiverr

Local Writing Organisations

Writing WA
Centre for Stories
Australian Writers Centre
RWA
Wheeler Centre
Queensland Writers Centre
Local Libraries

Is there a tool or resource you want to know about that I haven’t covered? Please ask and comment below.

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15 Awesome books to help make you a better writer

Hello writers! I’m trying something new today. I’m on the train and doing a bit of multitasking because you may have noticed I’ve been a little slack lately on the bloggesphere. I’m back at work full time, looking after 2 little kids with a FIFO husband and writing, or working with RWA with my spare time. So, I figure, there’s got to be some benefits I can share from me working in a bookstore. Yes!

Here are 15 great books I think are totally tops for writers.

A is for Arsenic – this is a fab little compendium that shows all the poisons Agatha Christie uses in her writing. Great research and reference tool from one of the greats! 

 Forensics – The Anatomy of Crime.

Uhhh . The inside of this book has pics of little flies crawling as it goes through the history of forensics. Written by a crime writer. Awesome. 
 Keep it simple stupid. Use plain words and if you don’t know how, get this book.

The Snark handbook – A reference guide to verbal sparring.

Need to inject a bit more witty banter into your stories? This has heaps of examples.

 Save the Cat!

Tried and tested – for screen writers but applies to novel writing too.

Fiction Writing Master Class.

Learn from the masters. Great gift for the writer in your life.

The Writer’s Idea Thesaurus.

I had this recommended to me from a fellow customer. It’s next on my shopping list.

The Writer’s Guide to Weapons.

No more googling weapon sites and wondering if some black ops team are going to bang down your door because if they see your browser history they’ll think you’re a terrorist. 

Writing Tools.

I love flicking through this book and finding gems. The tools are tips on writing better. It’s fast becoming invaluable to me.

 Charles Bukowski.

Nuff said.

 Into the Woods.

A great tool for plotting with both script writers and novelists.

 What’s a writing book list without a little romance? This book is a great starting point for any budding romance novelist.
Every writer needs one of these, and if your Australian, like me, you need an Australian Thesaurus because we have everything down under here, including spelling.



 How to write comedy.

A good book if you want to inject some funnies into your writing and you don’t know where to start.
 Word painting helps you understand why certain words together sound more interesting than others.

All of these books were sourced from Boffins Books in Perth. They have an online store so go for your life.

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