Ian Dawson's Blog, page 28

THE FIELD RECEIVES BOOK AWARD FINALIST HONOR FROM READERS’ FAVORITE!

I’m excited to announce that The Field has received the Book Award Finalist honor from Readers’ Favorite in the category of Children – Coming of Age! I am very excited and happy to have taken part in the contest, and look forward to seeing what happens next with the book!

Thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed The Field! I look forward to you reading the next adventure in the series coming early next year.

If you haven’t reead it yet, buy a copy of the paperback at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/The-F.... Use the Promo Code BIKE25 and save 25%!

Also available as an ebook at BookBaby, Amazon, and Barnes&Noble.

You can also check out the Readers’ Favorite page for The Field at https://readersfavorite.com/book-revi...

Join Me on Twitter Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, join me for my Twitter Takeover of @YoungEntmag Thursday, February 7 from 2p to 4p PST about my YA novel, The Field, writing, and other things!

Looking forward to your questions! #YAauthorTakeover

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part Seven

Here are a few takeaways and final thoughts I have about self-publishing The Field:

It’s important for your own creative sanity that once you make the leap from your novel being your baby to publishing it either as an eBook, a paperback, or both, it is now a viable, marketable product.  This means that you have to put distance between you the author and you’re the person trying to market and sell what is a now a viable commodity.

This distancing will also help you in the event your get a negative review or criticism you don’t like.  The person may not have liked your product, but they still bought the product and you reap the benefits either way.  By taking this more objective and business-like approach to each work, you can then free up your mind to write the next book, and the next, and the next.

Distancing yourself emotionally from your completed project will also help you think more clearly when it comes to the marketing and sales aspects of your work.  It’s not at all helpful if you get wrapped up in a minute detail that occurs during the publishing process and your obsess over something that in the end has an easy fix. Case in point: I talked in a previous post about the paperback being priced at $14.63 due to production costs. I agonized over this for half a week, sure that my book was now doomed for failure because it was too expensive. Then, a Book Baby rep suggested I create a promo code to decrease the price.  Boom.  Problem solved.

I had I been thinking like a salesperson and been more pragmatic than emotional, I could have solved the problem without the needless drama. Leave the drama for the page not the publishing.

Know that if you are self-publishing that you are going to have to do almost everything yourself.  Yes, there are sites like Book Baby that will guide you, but when it comes to getting the word out to a wide swath of people, just know that you are the best marketing tool there is.  So use social media, your own website, co-workers, family, and friends to get the initial word out.  If you want to, you can enlist the aid of a marketing company – like I did with Smith Publicity – to spread the word farther.  But again, while they will be assisting with press releases and other aspects, the project is still driven by me and my knowledge and passion for the project.

There are also dozens of videos on YouTube as well as blogs that can give you insights into how to market your book either inexpensively or for free.

Also, make sure that you have the means to afford all the aspects of doing this yourself.  There are inexpensive and even free alternatives if you want to publish your eBook on Amazon or even on your own blog chapter by chapter.  Don’t go into debt or sacrifice eating or bills to do this. And if you do, make sure you budget and keep track of all your expenses.

So, what would I do differently.  Well, for the next book I will definitely publish the eBook and paperback as part of the same project.  The reason: it’s cheaper.  I could have paid 50% less if I had gone with one of the packages offered through Book Baby that allows you to do both.  But I thought just an eBook was easy money.  As of this post I have sold more paperbacks than eBooks, so that shows what I know!

I also learned that the best strategy is to budget your time in an efficient manner, especially if self-publishing is a side business and not your full-time occupation.  I work six days a week at my main job, so everything involving the book is like having a second job. It’s important to give yourself some downtime and not burn yourself out with everything that now needs to be done on top of all your other responsibilities.  Your novel won’t get published any faster if your agonizing over pricing at 4am.  Trust me. It’s not worth losing sleep over.

And that’s my self-publishing journey.  It was definitely worth all the time, effort, and expense, and I will definitely be doing it again soon.  If you have any questions, comments, or further advice you’d like to share, please feel free to leave a comment.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading!

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part Six

Here’s where things get a bit more complex when it comes to self-publishing.  You’re no longer in the digital realm when it comes to a paperback, you are in the real world and that means there are many more variables at play.  Let’s talk about them! 

For the eBook I did everything online with no assistance from anyone. If I ever had a question – and this has been true since day one of this experience – Book Baby responds to emails very, very fast.  With the paperback, I set up a call with one of the Book Baby people to go through all the details that go into making a paperback a reality.  We hashed through book size, page count, page color, would I need a cover or provide my own, and host of other questions.

After the call, I emailed Steven Novak and he got to work on the paperback’s cover.  I think it turned out great!

I went through the familiar steps on Book Baby’s website, but the nice thing was since it was just a new version of the same book I didn’t have to deal with as much technical stuff.  Then I had to decide on what price was best for the paperback.  Since this is Print-on-Demand, the price was set at $14.63, which I initially was concerned was too high a price.  I’m a new author, who’s gonna invest almost $15 for my first book?  (I would soon learn that there are a lot of people who are willing to pay that price, which was quite a nice feeling)

A consultant at Book Baby advised me that I could create a promo code on their site to reduce the price, and I did just that.  You can order your copy here and use the promo code FIELD20 at checkout to save 20%!

When I got the proofs for the paperback I jumped up and down even higher this time.  They looked AMAZING!  I had been a bit unsure of the whole process before I got the proofs, but the final product was definitely exciting!

All the pieces were in place.  I had ordered 125 copies for myself (well, not only for me, that would be a tad odd and narcissistic), and was awaiting their arrival.  I got the email from Book Baby that the four 22-pound boxes of books had been shipped.  I was glad for the sake of not getting a hernia that they were in four separate boxes.

Then on Friday, September 7, 2018 at 9:30PM, I got an alert on my phone that UPS had delivered the books.  And they were on my doorstep.  And we have a package theft problem at my complex.  And I live 40 minutes from where I work!

I clocked out and rushed home (as fast as one can in L.A. traffic on a Friday night).  I arrived just in time to see the sprinklers turn off in front of my door.  Where the boxes were.  Now all wet.  Yay.

I hefted the wet boxes into the apartment and dried them off.  I opened the first box, planning to unload them all to ensure there was no water damage, and I froze.  There, from inside the box, staring back at me was my novel: The Field by Ian Dawson.  It was a profound moment.  I took the top copy out and flipped through it.  The new book smell hit my nose the smell after a new fallen rain (or it could have been the smell of wet cardboard box, who know?).  I then pulled them all out of the boxes and luck was on my side: no water damage!

Now I had 125 books ready to go.  Where were they going?  Well, remember in my last post I talked about Smith Publicity?  Well, I've teamed up with them for a three-week media blitz in late September, and I needed copies to send to potential reviewers and interviewers (more on that experience soon!).  Plus, I knew that family, friends, co-workers, and those who helped me get the novel done and published wanted copies, too.

So, after all of this, from the push from the woman who cuts my hair to publish the damn book, to getting the paperbacks in wet boxes on my doorstep, what have I learned and what will I do differently with the second book (Coming Spring 2019!)?

Come back tomorrow for the final post in this series to find out!

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part Five

With Book Baby, you can sign up for a marketing consultation with Smith Publicity, which is exactly what I did.  Having a Young Adult novel to sell is great, but you need to get people – especially young people – interested and buying the book. I had two one-hour consultation and I learned a whole heck-of-a-lot!  A few of the key takeaways were:

- You need to have a social media presence;
- You need to have an Author Photo;
- You should have hard copies of your book to send out
for potential reviews and interviews.

Well, guess what?  I didn’t have any of these!  Like I said in the first post of this series, I had run away from social media in 2016, so I had no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, none of it (I didn’t have a dating profile up!).  I knew that it was time to extricate myself from the wilderness and rejoin the masses on social media.  Well, at least one platform: Twitter (@thefieldya).

I also had no really good, current pics of myself to use for my website or profiles.  Luckily, I knew a co-worker who was a photographer and I asked him if he could take some photos of me for my Author Photo.  After I offered him money, he said yes (I’m kidding, he would have done it for free…but I’m sure the cash didn’t hurt).  We took a whole bunch of photos and by a vote of my co-workers, we landed on the one that is my Goodreads profile pic.

The biggest hurdle was the lack of paperback books to send out.  I knew it was a good idea for a number of reasons: a lot of kids don’t have access to tablets and phones 24/7; many of my co-workers wanted paperbacks instead of the eBook; a lot of my relatives didn’t have tablets or phones to read the book on and would prefer a hard copy.  Hm. There seemed to be a demand for paperbacks, something I had not realized.

It was time to go back to Book Baby for another project. How did it go?  Come by tomorrow to find out!

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part Four

Yes, yes.  I’ll admit it.  The last post was pretty technical.  Metadata. Pricing.  Websites.  While they aren’t exactly sexy topics, they are important parts of the self-publishing puzzle, which is why it’s a good idea to know about them.  So, today, let’s talk about a few more exciting topics.

So, you’ve submitted your manuscript, your cover, and input all the important info needed to launch your eBook on various sites. Well, while you’re toiling away at your website, a busy group of people in another part of the country are converting your Word doc or other files into a polished and professional-looking eBook.

The nice thing about Book Baby (and I’m sure other self-publishing sites do it, too) is that they constantly email you to let you know the progress of your book.  You can also check the status of your project on their website as well.  I was very excited to get the email announcing that my proofs were ready for me to view.  I will confess that when I opened the file for the first time and started to go through the pages I jumped up and down (I really did this, I’m not lying). It was an exciting feeling to finally see what I had written converted into a format for others to read and enjoy on their tablets or phones.

That part done and approved, I had to wait for the book’s official release onto Amazon and other sites in order to move on to the next step: reviews.

Readers’ Favorite (https://readersfavorite.com) is a site that works with Book Baby and allows you to do a number of helpful things with your book.  You can sign up for their Press Release program, you can participate in their Book Exchange Program, and you can have your book reviewed.  Now, you have to pay for the reviews, but I found this was a helpful way to get new eyes on my book and to get some legitimate reviews to use on my Amazon page and website.  I paid for three reviews, having no clue what I would get.

About a week later I got all three reviews back and they were all very positive, five-star reviews!  But, me being a skeptic about things, I did do some digging to find other reviews written by these particular reviewers and they weren’t just handing out five-star reviews across the board.  That added to the legitimacy of their reviews, which was a good thing!

I set up a profile on Readers’ Favorite, and then took the time to add myself to a few others as well.  I worked on my Amazon Author’s Profile and my Goodreads Author Program Profile (https://www.goodreads.com/author/prog...) to get my name and book out there.  The more ground you cover the better.

The Field by Ian Dawson was officially launched as an eBook on July 4, 2018, and I was pretty excited.  But other than my family, friends, and co-workers, how could I get others to buy the book?  In a word: Publicity.  In more words, stop by for tomorrow’s post!

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part Three

In its most basic terms, metadata is data about data. A novel is filled with data, and Amazon and other sites use data (keywords) based on the data in the novel to categorize your book and make sure that when certain terms or phrases are searched that your novel pops up.

The keywords Book Baby and I chose were:

“abduction|courage|friendship|kidnapping|survival story|teenage boys|thriller”

If you do wish to change these in the future for your novel you can, and it takes about 24 hours for the changes to occur on Amazon.

Now on to pricing.  Since it was my first novel, I didn’t want to charge a crazy amount, but I also wanted to make sure that I could make some money off each sale.  I decided on the lowest amount that gets you a maximum return on Amazon: $2.99.  At this price I get 70% of the sale and Amazon gets 30%.  Any lower and I get 35%.  $2.99 seemed like a fair price since it is affordable for an eBook and my main goal was to get people to download and read the book.

With all that in place, I did a few more accounting-based steps about where you want your money sent and at what set amount would you like the money sent to you, and awaited the proofs for the eBook.

But did I just sit around waiting for that day to arrive? Quite the contrary!  I knew I had to create a platform for people to learn about my book, so I created a website using www.wordpress.com.  I started with a pretty basic and bland theme and format, but eventually took the time to make it my own.  I opted for the business website option, which costs a bit more but gives you more freedom and options with your design.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about proofs, other book sites I joined, and getting early reviews.  See you then!

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part Two

My mind was made up, I was going to self-publish The Fieldas an eBook.  I began to research different methods and companies that specialize in taking a manuscript and turning it into a professional finished product.  I came upon www.BookBaby.com and after a few clicks knew that they were the company I wanted to partner with.

I emailed my editor, Kathleen, and told her that after long last I was going to publish my novel.  She suggested I reach out to cover artist Steven Novak at http://www.novakillustration.com.  I did and after a couple email exchanges, I decided to use his services for my book cover.

Things were starting to fall into place.

Steven sent me a list of what he needed in order to get an idea of how the cover should look.  This being my first time doing this, I went WAY overboard with the materials I sent him.  Luckily, I’m sure he has dealt with first-time authors before so he whittled my over-the-top ramblings into an initial cover concept.  We then worked over the next two days to fine-tune the cover into what the final cover became.

I was very excited with the final product, and was excited to share it with people.  Now that I had the cover, I could take that and the manuscript and begin the process on Book Baby of creating an eBook.  And that’s exactly what I did, but before I did anything, I copyrighted my manuscript.  This is a very important thing to do that I highly recommend to all self-publishers. While you do retain the rights to your work when you publish with Book Baby, it’s always good to have the official copyright on your side as well just in case.  Visit the site here: https://www.copyright.gov/registration/ (FYI, it doesn’t let you do it on the weekends or holidays)

Copyright in, I submitted my manuscript and cover to Book Baby.  There is a lot of other extra information that it’s important to have on-hand as you go through the process:  a short description of your book, a long description of your book, and metadata keywords.

They use this information on the various sites like Amazon, Apple iBooks, and Barnes & Noble.  Some use the short version of your novel’s description, others use the longer version.  Think of either one as the blurb that you would want on the back of your novel if it was a hard cover or paperback.

My original short description:

When fourteen-year-old Daniel Robinson is abducted during a summer game of hide-and-seek, his life quickly changes from one of fun to one of survival.  Daniel must find the courage and strength to escape his two captors and get back home no matter what it takes.  Will Daniel make it out alive, or is this one nightmare too real to escape?

My original long description:

A summer of adventure becomes a summer of terror when fourteen-year-old Daniel Robinson is abducted by two older boys during a game of hide-and-seek with his best friend Kyle.  Daniel soon finds himself at the mercy of his captors, doing whatever he can to survive and escape before his fate is sealed.  Can Daniel make it out alive, or is this one nightmare too real to escape?

As Kyle comes to the realization that something bad may have happened to Daniel, he sets out to find his best friend and bring him back to safety.  With nothing but his teenage instincts to guide him, will Kyle’s quest to find his best friend result in a happy ending or end in tragedy? 

In his first novel, author Ian Dawson draws from his real-life experiences to create an action-adventure story about unconditional friendship, courage, and determination.

Welcome to The Field.

Metadata are keywords that Amazon and other sites use to categorize your novel based on its content.  That way people looking for books about the topic you have written about are likely to have it pop up when they search. Once Book Baby has these three things, they tweak them to make them for better search optimization on the various sites.  Tomorrow I will let you know what metadata Book Baby and I decided on, and how I decided on the pricing for my eBook.

The Field - From Word Doc to Paperback, Part One

The manuscript for my novel, The Field, sat in a file on my computer for years before I decided to make the move to get it published. Sure, it was ready to go, but I would occasionally open the Word doc and tweak little things every once in a while. However, I knew it was done when the ideas I had late at night for lines of dialogue or sequences to include were already in the book.  I knew then that it was time to take the next step into publishing the novel.

But I was afraid.  I’ll admit it.  I was terrified of having to deal with trolls on social media after releasing The Field to the public.  I had already left Facebook and Instagram back in 2016 during the election cycle, so I was overly cautious about jumping back into the social media fray as an author.

And so, I waited…and waited…and made excuses…and waited.

And then one day, as I was getting my haircut, the woman who cuts my hair asked me for the 100th time how my novel was coming along and why I hadn’t published it yet.  I finally told her why: I was afraid of what the response would be on social media.  She looked at me in the mirror and said, “F**k those trolls! Publish your damn book!” Since she had clippers next to my head I agreed that it was time.

And she was 100% right.  It was time to publish the book.

That weekend, I went home and started to do research on how to self-publish.  Previous to this, I had sent out query letters the traditional way years prior to no avail.  I knew that eBooks were popular – I certainly have a Kindle full of them – so I decided to publish my novel initially as an eBook.

And so the process began, and tomorrow I will tell you what steps I took to take The Field from computer file to published novel.

Write What You Know

One of the nice things about writing is that we all know something about something. Everyone has knowledge about topics and activities that can be used to either create a story, enhance a story, or give new life to a story in the re-write phase. This concept goes beyond life experience, which I wrote about yesterday, but it does include your opinions and views on topics based on your experiences with them.

Think about something you enjoy. Maybe it’s a sport. Maybe it’s a school subject like history or science. Maybe you know a lot about cooking, or gardening, or arts and crafts. Whatever it is, you know enough about it or you can do research to find out more about in in order to incorporate it into a story. And if you have a fresh take on a familiar topic, you can always dig in and write a how-to book or blog that can help others experience that topic from a new perspective.

The point is that we all know a lot about a lot of topics and things. We all feel we are an expert in something that we are interested in and love. So why not use that information and passion for that topic and make it a part of the plot for your next story? Maybe it can even be the interest of your main character.

Make a list of five or more topics or interests you feel you know really well. Can any of them be used to create a story or character? The next time you feel stuck by writer’s block, look at this list and see if it sparks something that will help you move ahead in your story or just get you writing in order to keep a block from stopping your writing altogether.