Doug Farren's Blog, page 12
February 7, 2016
NEO RWA
UpdatesDragonverse Origins is moving along at a good pace (76,217 words if you're a numbers person). I know what needs to be written and the words are running together in their excitement to get out into the open. As soon as the last one is digitized, the book will be sent to my content-editor so he can rip it apart and help make it better. In the meantime, I’ll be starting work on Peacekeeper 3. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep that as the title or not – suggestions?
NEORWAYesterday, I was honored to present a talk at the monthly NorthEast Ohio Romance Writers of America (NEORWA) meeting. I say ‘honored’ because these people have their act together! Seriously – the SFWA can learn a lot from how the romance writers have organized themselves.
To be totally honest, I was expecting to present a talk to a group of women authors of which the majority knew little to nothing about self-publishing. Boy was I wrong! It didn’t take long before I realized I was addressing a very different group of people. These were seasoned authors, some of whom have won several major romance awards (none of which I’ve ever heard of). About half have published novels (traditional as well as self-published).
The room was filled with around 30 women. Male romance writers do exist, but they make up a very small percentage of the existing writers. During my talk and subsequent question and answer session as well as during the lunch afterward, I learned that writing romance is not as easy as one might assume. I’ve heard some people describe romance as “your typical boy meets girl, they fall in love, something tragic happens that tears them apart, they make up and get back together and live happily-ever-after.” If that’s what you think, you would be dead wrong. While some major plot-lines might follow this track, that's not always the case.
Just as in other genres, romance has its sub-categories: Historical, paranormal, erotic, contemporary, etc. The story can take place anywhere and at any time. Sound familiar? As a science fiction author, I can easily imagine a romance story set on a different planet complete with all the science and other trimmings that make science fiction what it is. The over-arching theme of a romance novel is a central love story with an emotionally satisfying ending. The rest is as diverse as any you will find in science fiction or fantasy. Based on what I've learned, writing historical romance is particularly difficult because, like getting the science right in science fiction, you must get your history right or your reviews will suffer.
Unlike SFWA where you must make a certain amount of money selling your books, membership in the RWA requires an author to only have written a book and made it publicly available. Another unique aspect of the organization is that to retain your higher-level membership, you must continue to write and publish. For a full set of rules, click here. During the lunch after the meeting, I learned that RWA authors, no matter how well-known they become, tend to always have the desire to help foster other RWA authors. While this same attitude exists in other genres, it seems to be more prevalent among romance writers. Their use of local chapters that meet monthly and engage in group activities is another strong factor in bringing writers in contact with one another. It’s a model SFWA should look into emulating.
I’ve been an active member of SFWA for nearly a year. The organization’s website is full of useful information. But, other than being able to visit the SFWA suite while at WorldCon, and running into a few members at other events, I haven’t interacted with any other members. Having local chapters that meet once a month is a great idea. The monthly meeting begins with the business of doing business as an RWA chapter. Later on, they discuss upcoming events sponsored by the chapter such as a trip to a fashion museum. These events, as well as the meetings, allow members to interact with each other, exchange ideas, and learn from each other. There’s a lot to be said about face-to-face interaction with other writers.
There are other benefits to having local chapters. Guest speakers (such as myself) can be invited to present to the assembled group. This is a learning opportunity for the members that is very difficult or impossible to obtain without the existence of the local chapter. Experts from the community can be invited to share their knowledge in a wide variety of topics. Granted, much of the same information might be available on the internet, but being able to interact with a live person, ask them questions, and get instant feedback from them as well as the other members of the group is a much better way to learn. Writer groups are a popular alternative but they tend to focus on reading and commenting on what the members are currently working on. They have their place in a writer's life, but attending a chapter meeting dedicated to your chosen genre can provide additional benefits.
I learned a lot by accepting the invitation and I’m very glad I was invited. I came away with a whole different view of what it means to be a romance writer. They are hard-working, authors dedicated to producing a professional product for their readers. If you are a writer of science fiction, fantasy, romance, or any other specific genre, you should seriously consider making a visit to a meeting of another genre’s writers – if you can find one. You will walk away a better person.
There is one more thing I learned the other day I would like to share with you. I have always viewed indie-publishers and self-publishers as one and the same. One of the authors pointed out that being an indie-publisher means you are an “independent-publisher”. This means you go through all the same steps as a traditional publisher but you are responsible for the cost of these steps (editing, proofing, cover development, marketing, etc.). A self-published person, on the other hand, is someone who simply self-publishes a book. They tend to skip the other steps that turn a good book into a professional product. Although I’m not sure I agree with this definition, I found it interesting that this particular author made the distinction. It’s the difference between being or not being a professional. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Perhaps I should begin identifying myself as a professionally self-published author, but that sounds like too much of a mouthful!
Time to get back to finishing Dragonverse Origins.
NEORWAYesterday, I was honored to present a talk at the monthly NorthEast Ohio Romance Writers of America (NEORWA) meeting. I say ‘honored’ because these people have their act together! Seriously – the SFWA can learn a lot from how the romance writers have organized themselves.
To be totally honest, I was expecting to present a talk to a group of women authors of which the majority knew little to nothing about self-publishing. Boy was I wrong! It didn’t take long before I realized I was addressing a very different group of people. These were seasoned authors, some of whom have won several major romance awards (none of which I’ve ever heard of). About half have published novels (traditional as well as self-published).
The room was filled with around 30 women. Male romance writers do exist, but they make up a very small percentage of the existing writers. During my talk and subsequent question and answer session as well as during the lunch afterward, I learned that writing romance is not as easy as one might assume. I’ve heard some people describe romance as “your typical boy meets girl, they fall in love, something tragic happens that tears them apart, they make up and get back together and live happily-ever-after.” If that’s what you think, you would be dead wrong. While some major plot-lines might follow this track, that's not always the case.
Just as in other genres, romance has its sub-categories: Historical, paranormal, erotic, contemporary, etc. The story can take place anywhere and at any time. Sound familiar? As a science fiction author, I can easily imagine a romance story set on a different planet complete with all the science and other trimmings that make science fiction what it is. The over-arching theme of a romance novel is a central love story with an emotionally satisfying ending. The rest is as diverse as any you will find in science fiction or fantasy. Based on what I've learned, writing historical romance is particularly difficult because, like getting the science right in science fiction, you must get your history right or your reviews will suffer.
Unlike SFWA where you must make a certain amount of money selling your books, membership in the RWA requires an author to only have written a book and made it publicly available. Another unique aspect of the organization is that to retain your higher-level membership, you must continue to write and publish. For a full set of rules, click here. During the lunch after the meeting, I learned that RWA authors, no matter how well-known they become, tend to always have the desire to help foster other RWA authors. While this same attitude exists in other genres, it seems to be more prevalent among romance writers. Their use of local chapters that meet monthly and engage in group activities is another strong factor in bringing writers in contact with one another. It’s a model SFWA should look into emulating.
I’ve been an active member of SFWA for nearly a year. The organization’s website is full of useful information. But, other than being able to visit the SFWA suite while at WorldCon, and running into a few members at other events, I haven’t interacted with any other members. Having local chapters that meet once a month is a great idea. The monthly meeting begins with the business of doing business as an RWA chapter. Later on, they discuss upcoming events sponsored by the chapter such as a trip to a fashion museum. These events, as well as the meetings, allow members to interact with each other, exchange ideas, and learn from each other. There’s a lot to be said about face-to-face interaction with other writers.
There are other benefits to having local chapters. Guest speakers (such as myself) can be invited to present to the assembled group. This is a learning opportunity for the members that is very difficult or impossible to obtain without the existence of the local chapter. Experts from the community can be invited to share their knowledge in a wide variety of topics. Granted, much of the same information might be available on the internet, but being able to interact with a live person, ask them questions, and get instant feedback from them as well as the other members of the group is a much better way to learn. Writer groups are a popular alternative but they tend to focus on reading and commenting on what the members are currently working on. They have their place in a writer's life, but attending a chapter meeting dedicated to your chosen genre can provide additional benefits.
I learned a lot by accepting the invitation and I’m very glad I was invited. I came away with a whole different view of what it means to be a romance writer. They are hard-working, authors dedicated to producing a professional product for their readers. If you are a writer of science fiction, fantasy, romance, or any other specific genre, you should seriously consider making a visit to a meeting of another genre’s writers – if you can find one. You will walk away a better person.
There is one more thing I learned the other day I would like to share with you. I have always viewed indie-publishers and self-publishers as one and the same. One of the authors pointed out that being an indie-publisher means you are an “independent-publisher”. This means you go through all the same steps as a traditional publisher but you are responsible for the cost of these steps (editing, proofing, cover development, marketing, etc.). A self-published person, on the other hand, is someone who simply self-publishes a book. They tend to skip the other steps that turn a good book into a professional product. Although I’m not sure I agree with this definition, I found it interesting that this particular author made the distinction. It’s the difference between being or not being a professional. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Perhaps I should begin identifying myself as a professionally self-published author, but that sounds like too much of a mouthful!
Time to get back to finishing Dragonverse Origins.
January 31, 2016
Self-Publishing: Tax Time
Update
This has been a good week for writing. Dragonverse Origins now stands at 74,436 words. If I have another week like this one, the book will be done by next week. Even though this is the first draft, I'm going to send it to my content editor as soon as I'm done so he can tear it apart. I would rather do major editing at this stage than after I made a couple of editing passes. While I wait for his review, I'll be working on a couple of other side projects: I need to update my web page to show my new Galactic Alliance covers; I need to update the first two books in the Dragonverse series; I want to put together a complete linked summary of all my self-publishing posts; and I need to start work on Peacekeeper 3. I think I have enough to keep me busy for quite awhile!
I will be giving a self-publishing presentation at the NorthEast Ohio Romance Writers Of America (NEORWA) meeting next Saturday, February 6th. I'm looking forward to this event. If you live near Parma, please join us. The meeting will be held at the Parma public library starting at 10:00. I begin my presentation around 10:30.
Tax Time
Tax time is upon us and it's time for my annual reminders concerning taxes. If you've been following my advice, you have a great start on filing your taxes. The Amazon 1099's should be going out soon and when they arrive you need to pay particular attention to them. Smashwords tax forms are already available on their website.
So what's so special about the Amazon 1099's? If you have had any overseas sales, you will have to compare the total of all your Amazon 1099's with the total of all the money Amazon actually deposited into your bank account. If you keep good records, this should be easy. If you have sales outside the United States (and you're in the United States) you will discover that the 1099's add up to more than what was actually deposited. The first time this happened to me I thought Amazon had made a mistake. It took a few back and forth emails to sort it out but the difference is caused by the foreign currency conversion fee you are charged.
I used to think this was a problem with how Amazon reported my income. But, after a few more hard to decrypt emails from Amazon, I don't think the problem is entirely their fault. Their overseas units will deposit the money into my bank account but this deposit is in the local currency. My bank (or theirs) will do the conversion. Overall, it amounts to about 3.3% of the deposit. If you carefully read the Amazon contract, you will find a clause that says you will be charged a fee for this conversion. It does not specify what this fee is because Amazon does not control it.
So why is this important? Why not just take the numbers from the 1099's and plug them into the tax form? Because that foreign currency conversion fee is a business expense. Do the math and take the expense. If you are ever audited, just pull out the 1099's and a copy of your end-of-year report and show them the difference. You will never see this value reported to you from Amazon nor from the bank. You must calculate it on your own.
There are a whole list of other expenses you can claim as well as long as you are treating your writing as a business. These include but are not limited to:
Writing supplies (computers, pens, pencils, paper, ink, printers, etc.).Writing related magazine subscriptions.Cost of ordering books.A percentage of your internet cost if you share it with the rest of your home.Meals while you are away from you home office.Mileage that is associated with your writing business.Professional organization membership fees.Travel expenses to conventions and other writing-related activities.Office furniture.Fees paid to editors, artists, and other individuals for writing-related services.Advertizing expenses.Cost of printing business cards.Some of the above will only apply if you have a home office. This is an area specifically set aside and used exclusively for writing. It does not have to be a single room -- it can be a part of a room. It can even be a small building outside your home (but be careful, there are special things the IRS will need concerning such an office). You can track your household expenses and deduct the percentage of the size of your office from those expenses or you can use a standard deduction calculation based on the size of the office. It's much easier for me to use the standard deduction calculation.
Mileage can be claimed if you have a home office. If you don't have one, then the IRS will most likely disallow mileage because a writer can write from anywhere. If you own more than two cars and you use both for writing activities, you're going to have to treat both cars as if they are one. The tax forms only have room for a single vehicle. I have two and I use them both. I combine the mileage from both vehicles and pretend as if they are from a single car. You can also use this method if you sell a car and buy another one. Just make sure you have a detailed mileage log for each vehicle and you track the total mileage driven over the year for every vehicle.
Many people have an accountant who does their taxes at the end of the year. The fee for this is a business expense. If you have someone else do your taxes, make sure you examine the final product very closely. I've found errors on ones I've had done and had to go back and correct them. I find that it's much easier for me to do my own taxes because I know what needs to go into the calculations.
If you have any questions about what can and cannot be deducted, go to the IRS website and read the following IRS documents. They're actually not that hard to understand if you carefully read them.Publication 587: Business use of your home.Publication 550: Investment Income and ExpensesPublication 535: Business expensesPublication 583: Starting a business and keeping recordsI know you would rather spend your time writing, but if you want to survive an IRS audit, please make sure you know what is going on with your taxes. Handing your records over to someone else and trusting them to do it all correctly can be a costly mistake. It's your money, it's your business -- make sure you make it your responsibility to at least understand what every line on the tax form means.
Next week I'll talk about how my presentation went at the NEORWOA meeting as well as some things I've heard about concerning the publishing industry.
This has been a good week for writing. Dragonverse Origins now stands at 74,436 words. If I have another week like this one, the book will be done by next week. Even though this is the first draft, I'm going to send it to my content editor as soon as I'm done so he can tear it apart. I would rather do major editing at this stage than after I made a couple of editing passes. While I wait for his review, I'll be working on a couple of other side projects: I need to update my web page to show my new Galactic Alliance covers; I need to update the first two books in the Dragonverse series; I want to put together a complete linked summary of all my self-publishing posts; and I need to start work on Peacekeeper 3. I think I have enough to keep me busy for quite awhile!
I will be giving a self-publishing presentation at the NorthEast Ohio Romance Writers Of America (NEORWA) meeting next Saturday, February 6th. I'm looking forward to this event. If you live near Parma, please join us. The meeting will be held at the Parma public library starting at 10:00. I begin my presentation around 10:30.
Tax Time
Tax time is upon us and it's time for my annual reminders concerning taxes. If you've been following my advice, you have a great start on filing your taxes. The Amazon 1099's should be going out soon and when they arrive you need to pay particular attention to them. Smashwords tax forms are already available on their website.
So what's so special about the Amazon 1099's? If you have had any overseas sales, you will have to compare the total of all your Amazon 1099's with the total of all the money Amazon actually deposited into your bank account. If you keep good records, this should be easy. If you have sales outside the United States (and you're in the United States) you will discover that the 1099's add up to more than what was actually deposited. The first time this happened to me I thought Amazon had made a mistake. It took a few back and forth emails to sort it out but the difference is caused by the foreign currency conversion fee you are charged.
I used to think this was a problem with how Amazon reported my income. But, after a few more hard to decrypt emails from Amazon, I don't think the problem is entirely their fault. Their overseas units will deposit the money into my bank account but this deposit is in the local currency. My bank (or theirs) will do the conversion. Overall, it amounts to about 3.3% of the deposit. If you carefully read the Amazon contract, you will find a clause that says you will be charged a fee for this conversion. It does not specify what this fee is because Amazon does not control it.
So why is this important? Why not just take the numbers from the 1099's and plug them into the tax form? Because that foreign currency conversion fee is a business expense. Do the math and take the expense. If you are ever audited, just pull out the 1099's and a copy of your end-of-year report and show them the difference. You will never see this value reported to you from Amazon nor from the bank. You must calculate it on your own.
There are a whole list of other expenses you can claim as well as long as you are treating your writing as a business. These include but are not limited to:
Writing supplies (computers, pens, pencils, paper, ink, printers, etc.).Writing related magazine subscriptions.Cost of ordering books.A percentage of your internet cost if you share it with the rest of your home.Meals while you are away from you home office.Mileage that is associated with your writing business.Professional organization membership fees.Travel expenses to conventions and other writing-related activities.Office furniture.Fees paid to editors, artists, and other individuals for writing-related services.Advertizing expenses.Cost of printing business cards.Some of the above will only apply if you have a home office. This is an area specifically set aside and used exclusively for writing. It does not have to be a single room -- it can be a part of a room. It can even be a small building outside your home (but be careful, there are special things the IRS will need concerning such an office). You can track your household expenses and deduct the percentage of the size of your office from those expenses or you can use a standard deduction calculation based on the size of the office. It's much easier for me to use the standard deduction calculation.
Mileage can be claimed if you have a home office. If you don't have one, then the IRS will most likely disallow mileage because a writer can write from anywhere. If you own more than two cars and you use both for writing activities, you're going to have to treat both cars as if they are one. The tax forms only have room for a single vehicle. I have two and I use them both. I combine the mileage from both vehicles and pretend as if they are from a single car. You can also use this method if you sell a car and buy another one. Just make sure you have a detailed mileage log for each vehicle and you track the total mileage driven over the year for every vehicle.
Many people have an accountant who does their taxes at the end of the year. The fee for this is a business expense. If you have someone else do your taxes, make sure you examine the final product very closely. I've found errors on ones I've had done and had to go back and correct them. I find that it's much easier for me to do my own taxes because I know what needs to go into the calculations.
If you have any questions about what can and cannot be deducted, go to the IRS website and read the following IRS documents. They're actually not that hard to understand if you carefully read them.Publication 587: Business use of your home.Publication 550: Investment Income and ExpensesPublication 535: Business expensesPublication 583: Starting a business and keeping recordsI know you would rather spend your time writing, but if you want to survive an IRS audit, please make sure you know what is going on with your taxes. Handing your records over to someone else and trusting them to do it all correctly can be a costly mistake. It's your money, it's your business -- make sure you make it your responsibility to at least understand what every line on the tax form means.
Next week I'll talk about how my presentation went at the NEORWOA meeting as well as some things I've heard about concerning the publishing industry.
January 24, 2016
Self-Publishing: Sharing
Reminder
I am still collecting funds to help Launch Pad. You can donate by clicking here. This workshop is an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I have been supporting it since going to my first workshop in 2012. It was recently featured on IO9, and has appeared in many other magazines including Locus. Even a small donation will help.
Update
Good progress has been made on Dragonverse Origins. The word count now stands at 69,643 and the end of the first draft is in sight. The Dragonverse series is not my top seller but I do enjoy writing about dragons. As soon as the book goes to my content editor for checking, I'm going to start work on another Peacekeeper. One of the main characters in that spin-off from the Galactic Alliance series is a member of a species that looks very much like a wingless dragon. It's sort of a theme in virtually all of my books. Obsessed with dragons? You bet!
Last week, I was out of town taking a class on how to use a powerful product called Qlikview. The company I work for has had a license for quite some time but not many applications have been developed to use it. I think that's changing. One of the really cool things about the product is the ability to download it and use it's full power for free. I plan on using it to analyze my Amazon sales. Being out of town also gave me a lot of time to write which is how I managed to make such good progress on Origins.
One of the challenges of analyzing Amazon sales data is actually getting the data into a database so it can be analyzed. Amazon does supply a detailed report in the form of an Excel spreadsheet for every month of sales. But the data is not in a format that can be directly imported into a database such as Microsoft Access. I'm working on a computer program (written in VBA) that can scan the spreadsheet and load the relevant information into Microsoft Access. From there, I can load it into Qlikview and generate all sorts of interesting analysis. If anyone is interested in getting their hands on the code or the actual database when it's done, please let me know. I would be happy to share.
Sharing
I enjoy sharing my self-publishing experience with others. That's one of the reasons I started this blog. The sharing of information is the engine that has pushed our civilization forward. Last year, I was invited to speak at a future Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America meeting. My first question was what the heck does a science fiction and fantasy writer know that can help a romance writer? After a few rounds of emails, the answer was -- plenty! I presented a list of possible subjects, the list was presented to the members, and a selection was made. I will be at their next meeting on February 6th. If you click on the above link, you will see me listed on the right. I will be sharing my knowledge on self-publishing.
The first half of what I plan on talking about is not about marketing. In my opinion, marketing is too expensive for most self-published authors and the return on investment is not great enough to be considered useful. I plan on talking about how to present yourself in a professional manner. Doing so will go a long way towards helping you on the path to success.
I'm not getting paid for doing this (they are buying me lunch though) and one would think that making an hour-long trip to talk to a bunch of romance writers is not good business sense. But that would be wrong. I'm sharing what I've learned with other writers and helping them improve their final product. It's also a chance for me to meet with writers who live in another genre and perhaps learn something from them.
There was a time when the term 'self-published' was associated with trashy, poorly edited, grammatical nightmares that were dumped on Amazon by amateurs in the hope of becoming rich. That's slowly changing and I hope to be part of that change. A self-published novel should go through the same steps as a traditionally published novel. Granted, the results will not be perfect, but I've read traditionally published works with plenty of mistakes in them.
There's been some complaining floating around on some of the social media from other authors about not being paid to make an appearance. The vast majority of writers don't earn enough to make a living at writing. The rising complaints I've encountered deal mostly with being invited to a conference or a convention and then being asked to pay your own way, buy a conference ticket, and pay for the hotel. In my mind, this is a valid complaint. If you're a writer and you were planning on attending the conference anyway, then I wouldn't complain. If you were not, I would refuse unless you received compensation for your appearance. That's good business practice.
On the other hand, I've read some statements from authors who believe their local library should pay for them to appear. If the library is local, you should be supporting it, not asking them to pay you to walk in their doors. Even if you've made it to the big time and you make enough to quit your day job, you should be willing to support your local library by accepting an invitation to talk to the patrons without asking for money. Doing so indicates you've fallen victim to what I think is the biggest problem in this country -- Greed.
Yes, a writer should be paid for their work. Yes, a writer should be compensated if they are asked to travel more than an hour or two from their home. But asking to be paid to speak to a classroom full of kids at the local high school, making an appearance at a library, or giving a talk at a nearby coffee shop, is being greedy and inconsiderate. I'm not a very opinionated person -- my most commonly used phrase is: "I don't care". But, when it comes to dealing with greed, you will find I am VERY opinionated. It's a cancer that seems to have infected most of America.
I will always accept an invitation to appear at any local establishment without asking to be compensated in any way. I like to share what I've learned over the years as a self-published author. Granted, I'm not the most successful author out there, but I've learned plenty over the years and I won't keep it to myself.
Two posts ago, I said I would begin my round of tax-tips for writers. I plan to start that next week unless another, even more important topic, surfaces.
Time to get back to writing.
I am still collecting funds to help Launch Pad. You can donate by clicking here. This workshop is an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I have been supporting it since going to my first workshop in 2012. It was recently featured on IO9, and has appeared in many other magazines including Locus. Even a small donation will help.
Update
Good progress has been made on Dragonverse Origins. The word count now stands at 69,643 and the end of the first draft is in sight. The Dragonverse series is not my top seller but I do enjoy writing about dragons. As soon as the book goes to my content editor for checking, I'm going to start work on another Peacekeeper. One of the main characters in that spin-off from the Galactic Alliance series is a member of a species that looks very much like a wingless dragon. It's sort of a theme in virtually all of my books. Obsessed with dragons? You bet!
Last week, I was out of town taking a class on how to use a powerful product called Qlikview. The company I work for has had a license for quite some time but not many applications have been developed to use it. I think that's changing. One of the really cool things about the product is the ability to download it and use it's full power for free. I plan on using it to analyze my Amazon sales. Being out of town also gave me a lot of time to write which is how I managed to make such good progress on Origins.
One of the challenges of analyzing Amazon sales data is actually getting the data into a database so it can be analyzed. Amazon does supply a detailed report in the form of an Excel spreadsheet for every month of sales. But the data is not in a format that can be directly imported into a database such as Microsoft Access. I'm working on a computer program (written in VBA) that can scan the spreadsheet and load the relevant information into Microsoft Access. From there, I can load it into Qlikview and generate all sorts of interesting analysis. If anyone is interested in getting their hands on the code or the actual database when it's done, please let me know. I would be happy to share.
Sharing
I enjoy sharing my self-publishing experience with others. That's one of the reasons I started this blog. The sharing of information is the engine that has pushed our civilization forward. Last year, I was invited to speak at a future Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America meeting. My first question was what the heck does a science fiction and fantasy writer know that can help a romance writer? After a few rounds of emails, the answer was -- plenty! I presented a list of possible subjects, the list was presented to the members, and a selection was made. I will be at their next meeting on February 6th. If you click on the above link, you will see me listed on the right. I will be sharing my knowledge on self-publishing.
The first half of what I plan on talking about is not about marketing. In my opinion, marketing is too expensive for most self-published authors and the return on investment is not great enough to be considered useful. I plan on talking about how to present yourself in a professional manner. Doing so will go a long way towards helping you on the path to success.
I'm not getting paid for doing this (they are buying me lunch though) and one would think that making an hour-long trip to talk to a bunch of romance writers is not good business sense. But that would be wrong. I'm sharing what I've learned with other writers and helping them improve their final product. It's also a chance for me to meet with writers who live in another genre and perhaps learn something from them.
There was a time when the term 'self-published' was associated with trashy, poorly edited, grammatical nightmares that were dumped on Amazon by amateurs in the hope of becoming rich. That's slowly changing and I hope to be part of that change. A self-published novel should go through the same steps as a traditionally published novel. Granted, the results will not be perfect, but I've read traditionally published works with plenty of mistakes in them.
There's been some complaining floating around on some of the social media from other authors about not being paid to make an appearance. The vast majority of writers don't earn enough to make a living at writing. The rising complaints I've encountered deal mostly with being invited to a conference or a convention and then being asked to pay your own way, buy a conference ticket, and pay for the hotel. In my mind, this is a valid complaint. If you're a writer and you were planning on attending the conference anyway, then I wouldn't complain. If you were not, I would refuse unless you received compensation for your appearance. That's good business practice.
On the other hand, I've read some statements from authors who believe their local library should pay for them to appear. If the library is local, you should be supporting it, not asking them to pay you to walk in their doors. Even if you've made it to the big time and you make enough to quit your day job, you should be willing to support your local library by accepting an invitation to talk to the patrons without asking for money. Doing so indicates you've fallen victim to what I think is the biggest problem in this country -- Greed.
Yes, a writer should be paid for their work. Yes, a writer should be compensated if they are asked to travel more than an hour or two from their home. But asking to be paid to speak to a classroom full of kids at the local high school, making an appearance at a library, or giving a talk at a nearby coffee shop, is being greedy and inconsiderate. I'm not a very opinionated person -- my most commonly used phrase is: "I don't care". But, when it comes to dealing with greed, you will find I am VERY opinionated. It's a cancer that seems to have infected most of America.
I will always accept an invitation to appear at any local establishment without asking to be compensated in any way. I like to share what I've learned over the years as a self-published author. Granted, I'm not the most successful author out there, but I've learned plenty over the years and I won't keep it to myself.
Two posts ago, I said I would begin my round of tax-tips for writers. I plan to start that next week unless another, even more important topic, surfaces.
Time to get back to writing.
January 17, 2016
Self-Publishing: 2015 Year in Review
Updates
I've been making very slow progress working my way through Dragonver Origins. I have not yet reached the point of adding additional material because I've been doing some major rewriting of what I wrote before I started on my project to professionalize all of my books. It took several months to finish reworking the Galactic Alliance series and while Origins sat idle I was thinking about what I had written. Changes were needed and I decided to start from the beginning and edit what I had written. This is not how a book is supposed to be written but there are times when the rules need to be broken. I've added at least 3,000 words so far and some of the rewrites have taken a considerable amount of patience. Finding the right way to word something to get across a concept is not always an easy thing to do.
I will be out of town for a few days living in a hotel and that will give me plenty of time to write. I hope to make significant progress on Dragonverse Origins in the next few days. While the book is being looked at by my content editor, I will be starting work on a new Peacekeeper novel. I've never done two projects at once but that's the plan. While Origins is being reviewed by my content editor, gone over by my wife to fix my dumb mistakes, and then looked at by another fan in Germany, I will be working on a new Peacekeeper. It's going to be a busy year.
Income
I'm following up on a promise I made over a year ago to continue to post my writing income on this blog. Writers don't know if they are doing well or doing poorly unless they share their writing income with each other. This time, I will also share with you the number of books that have been sold.
Year Income Books sold
==== ===== ========
2009 $66 58 This is the year I published my first book
2010 $302 342
2011 $2,929 3,577
2012 $92,772 46,379
2013 $9,753 3,879
2014 $8,528 1,360
2015 $3,804 457
Looking at the above information, you should be wondering what the heck happened in 2012? The answer is -- Amazon. One of my books was featured in an Amazon daily deal or recommendation or something (which one I'm unaware of) and sales took off. I could literally sit at my computer and watch the book move up in the ranks. This is the power of advertising. The question is, can it be duplicated? Advertising is expensive and unless it reaches a wide audience with the right interest it's not going to give you a good return on your investment. The advertising I received in 2012 was free and it targeted the perfect audience. I doubt I could have done better with any type of paid advertising campaign.
Ignoring 2012, do I think I'm doing good? I would consider 2013 and 2014 to be good years for a self-published author. 2015 was a not so good year. I've heard it said that the best way to boost sales is to write the next book. I did not release a new book in 2015. I also raised my prices (based on feedback from a number of people). That is a deadly combination! Late in 2015, I lowered my prices and sales seem to have picked up again. I'll let you know how that works out as more data comes in. I'm also pushing to release at least one and maybe two books this year. Sales should increase.
I've also moved my books out of Smashwords and made them exclusively Amazon products allowing me to join the KDP movement. This, I believe has also increased sales. But, with all these changes, how is someone to know if a price change or a book release has an affect on sales? The answer lies in analytics. I'm a computer programmer and I will be going to school next week to learn how to build complex analytics using a product called QlikView. Our company uses it. QlikView has a free version you can play around with at home. I plan on trying to use it to analyze my Amazon sales. If that product does not work, I will write my own program.
Amazon does a great job of providing you with a ton of information in the form of a detailed spreadsheet. All you need is the right software to analyze the data. One of my goes for 2016 is to develop a useful writer's tool that incorporates everything a writer needs to manage their business. That includes performing analytics on Amazon's data. Good data analysis is a must when you're trying to make a business decision.
2015 in review
Last year was both good and not so good to me as far as being a self-published author. On March 31, I received an email stating I had been accepted into SFWA. This was a big milestone for me. I attended Launch Pad in the first week of June. As usual, I had a wonderful time and met another fine group of people. In mid-July, my wife and I took a trip to South Caroline to visit my dad. Two weeks after getting back from that trip, I drove to Washington D.C. to attend the week-long Schrodinger Sessions.
On August 18th, I left to attend my first ever World Science Fiction Convention (Sasquan) in Spokane Washington. It was also my first experience of sitting on a panel. I was very nervous! I'm not a well-known writer, I'm self-published, and I was sitting on panels with traditionally published authors who are well-known. All-in-all, I believe I did well. One panel in particular, however, bothered me for a long time afterwards because I was definitely out of my league. But, I came away from that conference with a very different view of who I should be as a writer.
A few days after returning from WorldCon, I started on my re-editing and reformatting project (professionalization). I realized this was going to delay the release of Dragonverse Origins and would most likely hurt my sales this year. But, in the long run, it will be worth it. The Galactic Alliance series has been professionalized and the results are easy to see. The books look great on the shelf providing a consistent look for the entire series. If you open them up, they look professional on the inside, formatted properly and all of them presenting a consistent look. The Kindle versions are also newly formatted and edited and look just as good.
I also changed how I blog. Instead of rambling on and writing about writing in general, I focused my posts on self-publishing issues. Readership has slowly gone up. A friend of mine recently posted that it took him many years of focused blogging to achieve a high readership. This is my goal and I don't expect it to happen over night.
From a business perspective, I will end the year with a loss. The cost of the WorldCon trip as well as my continuing support of Launch Pad, exceeded my writing income last year. I took a hit in sales because I raised my prices and I did not release a new book. My new dedication to producing a professional product, a heightened involvement in SFWA, and the release of one and perhaps two new books this year will help improve the business side of my writing. I'm also not going to any conferences (including this year's WorldCon in Kansas City) unless sales are high enough to support it. That's sound business.
All-in-all, I would say 2015 was a year of learning for me. I hope to share this information with other writers who are just entering the self-publishing field so they do not make the same mistakes. If you're reading this and you know of anyone who is thinking of self-publishing, please have them read my past blog posts (especially the recent ones) and if they have any questions, ask them to write me.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write to me. I will always get back to you. I do stay busy and if I tell you in an email that I'm going to do something and I fail to do it, please remind me! I don't mind being reminded. If there's a topic you want me to write about, I want to hear about it. If there's a storyline you want to see in one of my books, please make the suggestion. The next Peacekeeper will incorporate at least 2 suggestions from my readers. I appreciate hearing from you. If you just want to say hi - well, that's okay too.
Have a great 2016!
I've been making very slow progress working my way through Dragonver Origins. I have not yet reached the point of adding additional material because I've been doing some major rewriting of what I wrote before I started on my project to professionalize all of my books. It took several months to finish reworking the Galactic Alliance series and while Origins sat idle I was thinking about what I had written. Changes were needed and I decided to start from the beginning and edit what I had written. This is not how a book is supposed to be written but there are times when the rules need to be broken. I've added at least 3,000 words so far and some of the rewrites have taken a considerable amount of patience. Finding the right way to word something to get across a concept is not always an easy thing to do.
I will be out of town for a few days living in a hotel and that will give me plenty of time to write. I hope to make significant progress on Dragonverse Origins in the next few days. While the book is being looked at by my content editor, I will be starting work on a new Peacekeeper novel. I've never done two projects at once but that's the plan. While Origins is being reviewed by my content editor, gone over by my wife to fix my dumb mistakes, and then looked at by another fan in Germany, I will be working on a new Peacekeeper. It's going to be a busy year.
Income
I'm following up on a promise I made over a year ago to continue to post my writing income on this blog. Writers don't know if they are doing well or doing poorly unless they share their writing income with each other. This time, I will also share with you the number of books that have been sold.
Year Income Books sold
==== ===== ========
2009 $66 58 This is the year I published my first book
2010 $302 342
2011 $2,929 3,577
2012 $92,772 46,379
2013 $9,753 3,879
2014 $8,528 1,360
2015 $3,804 457
Looking at the above information, you should be wondering what the heck happened in 2012? The answer is -- Amazon. One of my books was featured in an Amazon daily deal or recommendation or something (which one I'm unaware of) and sales took off. I could literally sit at my computer and watch the book move up in the ranks. This is the power of advertising. The question is, can it be duplicated? Advertising is expensive and unless it reaches a wide audience with the right interest it's not going to give you a good return on your investment. The advertising I received in 2012 was free and it targeted the perfect audience. I doubt I could have done better with any type of paid advertising campaign.
Ignoring 2012, do I think I'm doing good? I would consider 2013 and 2014 to be good years for a self-published author. 2015 was a not so good year. I've heard it said that the best way to boost sales is to write the next book. I did not release a new book in 2015. I also raised my prices (based on feedback from a number of people). That is a deadly combination! Late in 2015, I lowered my prices and sales seem to have picked up again. I'll let you know how that works out as more data comes in. I'm also pushing to release at least one and maybe two books this year. Sales should increase.
I've also moved my books out of Smashwords and made them exclusively Amazon products allowing me to join the KDP movement. This, I believe has also increased sales. But, with all these changes, how is someone to know if a price change or a book release has an affect on sales? The answer lies in analytics. I'm a computer programmer and I will be going to school next week to learn how to build complex analytics using a product called QlikView. Our company uses it. QlikView has a free version you can play around with at home. I plan on trying to use it to analyze my Amazon sales. If that product does not work, I will write my own program.
Amazon does a great job of providing you with a ton of information in the form of a detailed spreadsheet. All you need is the right software to analyze the data. One of my goes for 2016 is to develop a useful writer's tool that incorporates everything a writer needs to manage their business. That includes performing analytics on Amazon's data. Good data analysis is a must when you're trying to make a business decision.
2015 in review
Last year was both good and not so good to me as far as being a self-published author. On March 31, I received an email stating I had been accepted into SFWA. This was a big milestone for me. I attended Launch Pad in the first week of June. As usual, I had a wonderful time and met another fine group of people. In mid-July, my wife and I took a trip to South Caroline to visit my dad. Two weeks after getting back from that trip, I drove to Washington D.C. to attend the week-long Schrodinger Sessions.
On August 18th, I left to attend my first ever World Science Fiction Convention (Sasquan) in Spokane Washington. It was also my first experience of sitting on a panel. I was very nervous! I'm not a well-known writer, I'm self-published, and I was sitting on panels with traditionally published authors who are well-known. All-in-all, I believe I did well. One panel in particular, however, bothered me for a long time afterwards because I was definitely out of my league. But, I came away from that conference with a very different view of who I should be as a writer.
A few days after returning from WorldCon, I started on my re-editing and reformatting project (professionalization). I realized this was going to delay the release of Dragonverse Origins and would most likely hurt my sales this year. But, in the long run, it will be worth it. The Galactic Alliance series has been professionalized and the results are easy to see. The books look great on the shelf providing a consistent look for the entire series. If you open them up, they look professional on the inside, formatted properly and all of them presenting a consistent look. The Kindle versions are also newly formatted and edited and look just as good.
I also changed how I blog. Instead of rambling on and writing about writing in general, I focused my posts on self-publishing issues. Readership has slowly gone up. A friend of mine recently posted that it took him many years of focused blogging to achieve a high readership. This is my goal and I don't expect it to happen over night.
From a business perspective, I will end the year with a loss. The cost of the WorldCon trip as well as my continuing support of Launch Pad, exceeded my writing income last year. I took a hit in sales because I raised my prices and I did not release a new book. My new dedication to producing a professional product, a heightened involvement in SFWA, and the release of one and perhaps two new books this year will help improve the business side of my writing. I'm also not going to any conferences (including this year's WorldCon in Kansas City) unless sales are high enough to support it. That's sound business.
All-in-all, I would say 2015 was a year of learning for me. I hope to share this information with other writers who are just entering the self-publishing field so they do not make the same mistakes. If you're reading this and you know of anyone who is thinking of self-publishing, please have them read my past blog posts (especially the recent ones) and if they have any questions, ask them to write me.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write to me. I will always get back to you. I do stay busy and if I tell you in an email that I'm going to do something and I fail to do it, please remind me! I don't mind being reminded. If there's a topic you want me to write about, I want to hear about it. If there's a storyline you want to see in one of my books, please make the suggestion. The next Peacekeeper will incorporate at least 2 suggestions from my readers. I appreciate hearing from you. If you just want to say hi - well, that's okay too.
Have a great 2016!
January 10, 2016
Launch Pad Fundraiser
UpdatesI’ve started a fundraiser on GoFundMe for Launch Pad. For those of you who've been reading my blog on a regular basis, you know I’m a very big supporter of Launch Pad. It has been, without a doubt, one of the best things I’ve attended to help me establish a network of author friends. Launch Pad relies on funding from external organizations such as SFWA and – in the past – NSF and NASA. These funds are becoming more difficult to obtain and I can see a day in the future when Launch Pad will not be able to continue its mission of educating writers, editors, and other media-centric people in the area of astronomy and science. If you have $10.00, $20.00, or more to spare, please consider donating to help support them. Please, help get the word out as well -- post this on your Facebook, on Google+, Twitter, and anywhere else you believe will help. In advance - Thank you!
I managed to avert an expensive disaster last week. My wife's nephew was over for a visit and he likes to drink a lot of milk. I had separated the screen from the keyboard of my Surface Book and set the keyboard down between our two couches. When the nephew left, he put his almost empty glass on the stand -- also between the two couches. About 30 minutes later, my wife bent over to get something out of her purse (also between the couches) and she knocked the glass over. I heard cussing and yelling and when I looked all I saw was my keyboard covered in milk.
There are quite a number of electronics as well as a large battery in the keyboard section and it is also where the charger connects. I grabbed the keyboard, ran it under water for 10 seconds, and turned it on edge. Milky-white water ran from the cooling ports. I flung it around to get as much water out of it as possible and then ran to the bathroom. I fired up the hair dryer and started blowing through the keys as well as every port I could find. That's when I noticed that the cooling fan in the keyboard was running -- I didn't know it had one! The detach light was also lit.
I will shorten this story by saying that I did attach the keyboard and screen and then found I could not detach them because the screen thought it was detached. I also discovered that the charger was not charging either section. I set the entire unit on a heating pad and let it sit all night. Around 0130, I got up and found the computer charging and I could detach the screen. It's been working fine ever since.
I don't recommend running the Surface Book keyboard under water but I thought leaving the milk in there to dry would have been a worse mistake. I was lucky and I'm not about to let that happen again.
I've been doing some editing and revising of Dragonverse Origins as I work my way through the chapters I’ve already written. I am almost to the point of adding new material. I’m hoping to have the first draft of this book finished in another couple of months. I’ll let it sit for a while I work on finishing/editing two short stories and then I'll begin the chore of digging in and editing the manuscript. I really want to get this book done and published by the end of summer so I can begin work on the next Peacekeeper.
Speaking of Peacekeeper, I requested and received new artwork for Peacekeeper 2. I added the wording and uploaded it to Createspace. I passed the artwork around at yesterday's writer's group and everyone loved it. I'll put a picture of it at the end of this post.
I still don't have a solid story yet for the next Peacekeeper. I have some ideas though. A fan requested that I delve more into the Omel and several others have asked for another similar to PK2. I'm not going to start writing though until I have a firm idea of where the story will be taking us. I'll let you know.
Tax season is coming up and next week I will start my short series on reminders for taxes as a self-published author. If you have any specific requests, please let me know. I've sort of run out of topics for self-publishing, so if you have any ideas there, drop me an email. I should also be able to post my annual writer's income documenting how many books I've sold as well as how well I've been doing financially as a self-published author. There are several other writers who do this and I believe it is important that more do so in the future.
As always, I enjoy hearing from you, please feel free to write me.
I managed to avert an expensive disaster last week. My wife's nephew was over for a visit and he likes to drink a lot of milk. I had separated the screen from the keyboard of my Surface Book and set the keyboard down between our two couches. When the nephew left, he put his almost empty glass on the stand -- also between the two couches. About 30 minutes later, my wife bent over to get something out of her purse (also between the couches) and she knocked the glass over. I heard cussing and yelling and when I looked all I saw was my keyboard covered in milk.
There are quite a number of electronics as well as a large battery in the keyboard section and it is also where the charger connects. I grabbed the keyboard, ran it under water for 10 seconds, and turned it on edge. Milky-white water ran from the cooling ports. I flung it around to get as much water out of it as possible and then ran to the bathroom. I fired up the hair dryer and started blowing through the keys as well as every port I could find. That's when I noticed that the cooling fan in the keyboard was running -- I didn't know it had one! The detach light was also lit.
I will shorten this story by saying that I did attach the keyboard and screen and then found I could not detach them because the screen thought it was detached. I also discovered that the charger was not charging either section. I set the entire unit on a heating pad and let it sit all night. Around 0130, I got up and found the computer charging and I could detach the screen. It's been working fine ever since.
I don't recommend running the Surface Book keyboard under water but I thought leaving the milk in there to dry would have been a worse mistake. I was lucky and I'm not about to let that happen again.
I've been doing some editing and revising of Dragonverse Origins as I work my way through the chapters I’ve already written. I am almost to the point of adding new material. I’m hoping to have the first draft of this book finished in another couple of months. I’ll let it sit for a while I work on finishing/editing two short stories and then I'll begin the chore of digging in and editing the manuscript. I really want to get this book done and published by the end of summer so I can begin work on the next Peacekeeper.
Speaking of Peacekeeper, I requested and received new artwork for Peacekeeper 2. I added the wording and uploaded it to Createspace. I passed the artwork around at yesterday's writer's group and everyone loved it. I'll put a picture of it at the end of this post.
I still don't have a solid story yet for the next Peacekeeper. I have some ideas though. A fan requested that I delve more into the Omel and several others have asked for another similar to PK2. I'm not going to start writing though until I have a firm idea of where the story will be taking us. I'll let you know.
Tax season is coming up and next week I will start my short series on reminders for taxes as a self-published author. If you have any specific requests, please let me know. I've sort of run out of topics for self-publishing, so if you have any ideas there, drop me an email. I should also be able to post my annual writer's income documenting how many books I've sold as well as how well I've been doing financially as a self-published author. There are several other writers who do this and I believe it is important that more do so in the future.
As always, I enjoy hearing from you, please feel free to write me.
January 3, 2016
Self-Publishing: Libraries
Update
Because I let Dragonverse Origins sit for so long while I was reformatting and re-editing the books of the Galactic Alliance series, I've had to go back and re-read what I've written so far. As with almost any story that you let sit long enough, I've come up with a few changes. I've been making these changes as I read through the manuscript and so far I've added over 2,000 words. The word-count (if you're a numbers person) sits at 61,850. I'm about 75% of the way through what I've already written and then I will begin adding new material. I like to have a target of 85,000 words which puts me at about 73%. I have a feeling this book is going to exceed that target but I have no way of knowing until I write "The End".
My recent focus on self-publishing in this blog has paid off. People have noticed and I've been getting questions from other authors (one of them is an award-winning author) about certain aspects of the self-publishing process. It's a great feeling to know that I'm helping out other writers.
I celebrated my 58th birthday yesterday. Although I have no plans on retiring from my current job, the fact that I'm another year older did cause me to wonder if my retirement plans are solid. Using a couple of online calculators, I ran the numbers, inputting values that were very conservative. I really enjoy my job and I will most likely work until I'm 70. The numbers I used though assumed I retire at 65. Even with the conservative estimates, both calculators show I will be fine for many years. I did not include my writing income in these calculations because one never knows what will happen. I could be selling hundreds each month or nothing. So, that part of my retirement income came out of the equation. It's a relief to know that my future is secure. Now I can go back to writing without having to worry about the future.
Libraries
A friend of my dad and a regular reader of this blog suggested I talk about libraries and how they can be used to support a self-published author. I've been meaning to make contact with our local libraries and this gave me a push to get moving on this. My results have been mixed as you will soon see.
My dad's friend told me about an article that appeared in "American Libraries". I did a quick internet search and found it. If you're interested in reaching out to your local library, you should read this article as a starting point for your research: Solving the Self-Publishing Puzzle.
Libraries have a review process before putting a book into their collection. If you have one or more books you would like to donate to the library, you should learn about their review process and who specifically to send your manuscript to for review. A large number of libraries are building huge collections of ebooks. They don't take up any shelf space and are much easier to deal with than printed books. For many self-published authors, donating an ebook might be the only option.
You will see in the article that Smashwords is mentioned. This company has established relations with several outlets that can be used by libraries to obtain books to add to their collection. This might affect your decision to refrain from using Smashwords so you can be a part of the KDP Select crowd on Amazon. It's not an easy decision to make and, as with all business decisions, should be done after careful consideration.
You can also donate printed books. If you use Createspace to produce your book, you might have a difficult time getting your book into a library if you use the Createspace-supplied ISBN. Purchasing an ISBN is not cheap though. Using another print provider such as Ingram Spark is a good alternative. Read the contract carefully and make sure you will be getting an ISBN that can be used by libraries.
I have not yet been able to find the time to make a physical trip to any of our local libraries. There are quite a large number of them within a short hour's driving distance from my house. One of them is literally around the corner. Two years ago, I did walk into the library and I spoke with one of the clerks about setting up a local author section. She did not think the library would do such a thing but she did take my card and said she would give it to the library's administrator. I never received a call back from them.
I have sent emails out to several local libraries. I received a reply back from one of them. That library is far more involved in the community and they host an event called "Cooks and Books". Local authors can set up at a table provided by the library and sell their books or just talk to people as they come in to sample the food that local bakeries and cooks bring in for the event. The library must keep very good records because I was reminded that I had attended this event years ago when I was just getting into self-publishing. Now that I'm more established, I will be attending this event every year.
That same library is also putting on a self-publishing panel. As part of the email conversation I had with them, I was invited to sit on the panel. This is a very different response than the one I received from the library literally around the corner from my house. That particular library has not responded to my inquiry. I do plan on making a physical attempt once again, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
There are other libraries around and I will be making contact with them as well to see how they support their local authors. I will let you know how this process goes.
Using a library to help get your name out there is a wonderful idea as long as the library is also committed to the process. Some seem to not care and rely on a central library to send them books to put on their shelves. In my opinion, libraries that are part of a bureaucracy might be so bogged down in a process set in stone long ago that they have no ability to do anything other than what a central authority tells them to do. As more and more people jump into self-publishing, I'm hoping this changes.
A good, strong library can help a community discover their local authors. Even though sales through such channels will be low, it's fun and exciting to get involved and interact with your neighbors. If you can find a local library that supports local authors, especially self-published authors, get involved -- make yourself known to them -- learn about what they are doing -- and participate.
Because I let Dragonverse Origins sit for so long while I was reformatting and re-editing the books of the Galactic Alliance series, I've had to go back and re-read what I've written so far. As with almost any story that you let sit long enough, I've come up with a few changes. I've been making these changes as I read through the manuscript and so far I've added over 2,000 words. The word-count (if you're a numbers person) sits at 61,850. I'm about 75% of the way through what I've already written and then I will begin adding new material. I like to have a target of 85,000 words which puts me at about 73%. I have a feeling this book is going to exceed that target but I have no way of knowing until I write "The End".
My recent focus on self-publishing in this blog has paid off. People have noticed and I've been getting questions from other authors (one of them is an award-winning author) about certain aspects of the self-publishing process. It's a great feeling to know that I'm helping out other writers.
I celebrated my 58th birthday yesterday. Although I have no plans on retiring from my current job, the fact that I'm another year older did cause me to wonder if my retirement plans are solid. Using a couple of online calculators, I ran the numbers, inputting values that were very conservative. I really enjoy my job and I will most likely work until I'm 70. The numbers I used though assumed I retire at 65. Even with the conservative estimates, both calculators show I will be fine for many years. I did not include my writing income in these calculations because one never knows what will happen. I could be selling hundreds each month or nothing. So, that part of my retirement income came out of the equation. It's a relief to know that my future is secure. Now I can go back to writing without having to worry about the future.
Libraries
A friend of my dad and a regular reader of this blog suggested I talk about libraries and how they can be used to support a self-published author. I've been meaning to make contact with our local libraries and this gave me a push to get moving on this. My results have been mixed as you will soon see.
My dad's friend told me about an article that appeared in "American Libraries". I did a quick internet search and found it. If you're interested in reaching out to your local library, you should read this article as a starting point for your research: Solving the Self-Publishing Puzzle.
Libraries have a review process before putting a book into their collection. If you have one or more books you would like to donate to the library, you should learn about their review process and who specifically to send your manuscript to for review. A large number of libraries are building huge collections of ebooks. They don't take up any shelf space and are much easier to deal with than printed books. For many self-published authors, donating an ebook might be the only option.
You will see in the article that Smashwords is mentioned. This company has established relations with several outlets that can be used by libraries to obtain books to add to their collection. This might affect your decision to refrain from using Smashwords so you can be a part of the KDP Select crowd on Amazon. It's not an easy decision to make and, as with all business decisions, should be done after careful consideration.
You can also donate printed books. If you use Createspace to produce your book, you might have a difficult time getting your book into a library if you use the Createspace-supplied ISBN. Purchasing an ISBN is not cheap though. Using another print provider such as Ingram Spark is a good alternative. Read the contract carefully and make sure you will be getting an ISBN that can be used by libraries.
I have not yet been able to find the time to make a physical trip to any of our local libraries. There are quite a large number of them within a short hour's driving distance from my house. One of them is literally around the corner. Two years ago, I did walk into the library and I spoke with one of the clerks about setting up a local author section. She did not think the library would do such a thing but she did take my card and said she would give it to the library's administrator. I never received a call back from them.
I have sent emails out to several local libraries. I received a reply back from one of them. That library is far more involved in the community and they host an event called "Cooks and Books". Local authors can set up at a table provided by the library and sell their books or just talk to people as they come in to sample the food that local bakeries and cooks bring in for the event. The library must keep very good records because I was reminded that I had attended this event years ago when I was just getting into self-publishing. Now that I'm more established, I will be attending this event every year.
That same library is also putting on a self-publishing panel. As part of the email conversation I had with them, I was invited to sit on the panel. This is a very different response than the one I received from the library literally around the corner from my house. That particular library has not responded to my inquiry. I do plan on making a physical attempt once again, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
There are other libraries around and I will be making contact with them as well to see how they support their local authors. I will let you know how this process goes.
Using a library to help get your name out there is a wonderful idea as long as the library is also committed to the process. Some seem to not care and rely on a central library to send them books to put on their shelves. In my opinion, libraries that are part of a bureaucracy might be so bogged down in a process set in stone long ago that they have no ability to do anything other than what a central authority tells them to do. As more and more people jump into self-publishing, I'm hoping this changes.
A good, strong library can help a community discover their local authors. Even though sales through such channels will be low, it's fun and exciting to get involved and interact with your neighbors. If you can find a local library that supports local authors, especially self-published authors, get involved -- make yourself known to them -- learn about what they are doing -- and participate.
December 27, 2015
Interview with Linda Nagata
Updates
Last week, I mentioned that I was unsure of what my next project would be. After thinking about all my options, I decided to finish Dragonverse Origins. I was nearly 75% complete when I set it aside to work on re-editing and reformatting my already published works. Although I've had several requests to write another Galactic Alliance book, I don't have a complete enough plot laid out to feel comfortable starting another book in that series. So, I started from the beginning of Origins and I've been re-reading, editing, and altering that story. I hope to have it finished in a few months. Once that's done, then I will work on another Peacekeeper.
For anyone out there who has purchased a new computer with a super-high resolution display -- be advised that Scrivener will not display properly unless you make a few changes to your system. If you have this problem, I've included the fix at the end of this post.
I also have a tip for anyone using Createspace for their print books. The files are reviewed by a live person and some of the people doing these reviews have a very strict stance on Createspace's rules. When I first published the Galactic Alliance books, I entered the name of the books in Createspace as "Galactic Alliance book x - Title". This was before I really understood what I was doing. When I uploaded the newly formatted interior for Chroniech, I put the name on the title page as "Chroniech". I received a reply from Createspace telling me the interior cover does not match what I named the book in the dashboard. True, it wasn't exact, but it was clear they were one and the same. My solution was to upload the exact same interior again and resubmit. This time, it was accepted.
Linda Nagata
The topic of this week's post is a short interview with Linda Nagata. Because it was the holiday season and I know Linda is a very busy person, I kept the questions to a minimum and focused on self-publishing.
I first met Linda Nagata in 2012 while attending Launch Pad, an intense one-week course on astronomy and astronomical science held yearly in Laramie at the University of Wyoming. Ever since then, I’ve stayed in touch with her via Twitter and email. I was pleased to spend some time with her earlier this year at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) which was held in Spokane, Washington. I had the honor of sharing my first-ever panel with her during that convention.
I decided to interview Linda for my blog because she has managed to gracefully straddle the line between being traditionally published and self-published. She began her writing career as a traditionally published author. After a long break, she decided to publish her back-stories as well as her new ones as a self-published author. Her novel The Red – First Light is the first self-published novel to be nominated for the Nebula award as well as the John W. Campbell Memorial award. Following the nomination, she was contacted by her old agent and successfully negotiated a contract for the entire Red trilogy (The Red, The Trials, and Going Dark) with Saga Press.
She currently lives on the island of Maui. For more information concerning Linda, please visit her website. The following interview was conducted via email.
============================
You were a traditionally published author, what made you decide to self-publish your next major novel when you began writing again?
I had lots of reasons to self-publish The Red. First, I’d already self-published other novels, most recently, two fantasy novels--the Puzzle Land books—and I enjoyed all phases of the process. I loved the control self-publishing gave me. Being responsible for every aspect of a book means you have no one else to blame when things go wrong, but it also means you’re in a position to correct mistakes when they happen. And they do happen, in both self and traditional publishing.
Another great perk of self-publishing was that I didn’t have to wait on anyone else’s schedule—and schedule was important to me. It had been ten years since my last major science fiction novel, and I didn’t want to wait another year, more likely two, to see The Red in print.
So impatience was one factor in my decision, but there were others. I’d been listening to grumblings out of the traditional field and I kept hearing that typical advances were terribly low, and that publishers were supposedly hesitant to publish science fiction by women. The Red is high-tech, military, hard science fiction, by me...a woman, writing under a woman’s name, with no military background. I thought I could probably sell it, but I couldn’t see it snagging a big advance, and I wasn’t willing to take a small one. So I figured, “Why waste time waiting on an offer that I’ll turn down anyway?” And I published it myself.
If “The Red – First Light” had not been nominated for a Nebula award, do you think you would still be totally self-published?
If we’re talking only about novels, then yes. I think most readers don’t pay a lot of attention to award nominations, but agents and editors do. And the Nebula nomination gave The Red enough credibility that editors were interested, and my agent was able to get me a good offer on the trilogy in just a few weeks. If I hadn’t gotten that offer, I would have self-published the other two books in the trilogy. I was literally a week away from releasing the second book when I was asked to hold off, pending the outcome of the auction.
But novels are only part of the market. Then, and now, my short fiction continues to be traditionally published. And looking ahead? I’ll probably be self-publishing a collection of recent short fiction sometime in 2016.
You managed to negotiate what is, in my mind, a unique and rare contract with Saga Press. With the signing of the contract, you are now officially both traditionally published and self-published because you’ve managed to retain the UK rights to the Red series. In your opinion, do you think these types of contracts will become more common or did your past influence the type of contract you were able to negotiate?
Well, first, I didn’t negotiate the contract. That was my agent, Howard Morhaim—and he’s done a terrific job. But historically, it was very common to retain UK rights when selling to an American publisher. Every traditional contract I ever had did just that. These days I think it’s increasingly common to sell world rights, but I don’t think that retaining UK rights is unusual. At any rate, we shopped the trilogy among UK publishers, but the offers were disappointing. So I decided to publish on my own in the UK market. Having the option to do that is simply revolutionary. But will the practice become more common? I don’t know. It’s certainly easier to sell world rights and not to have the worry of putting the book out on your own in a limited market, but for me, it’s been utterly worthwhile to do so.
There are pros and cons to both traditional publication and self-publication. Having experienced both sides of the publishing industry, do you have any advice for an author who is on the fence as to how to publish their first novel?
I try to refrain from giving advice like that. Everyone is going to have to find their own path, and the question itself isn’t really fair, because it assumes you have a choice. A better question might be: Can you sell your first novel to a traditional publisher? The cold hard truth is that, for most of us, the answer is “no.” But even if you believe you can, do you want to? And if you do want to, how much time and effort and angst are you willing to invest in the process of seeking an offer? And if you do get an offer, what is the minimum you will agree to? (Not just the advance, but the other terms as well.)
Some writers will do very, very well going traditional. Others will have their hearts broken by the process, and will never have a good thing to say about the traditional market. So the only advice I will give is to make sure you know your options, seek current evaluations of self versus traditional because the industry changes all the time, understand your contracts, and never sell yourself short.
================================
Here is the email I received from Scrivener support containing the steps necessary to get Scrivener to display properly on my Microsoft Surface Book:
Unfortunately, Scrivener for Windows is not yet optimised for high-resolution displays, although this is something that we hope to address in a future major upgrade. I'm afraid we can't be more specific about the timescale for this, other than to say that the developers are working on it. I believe that the problem stems from the way in which Microsoft has implemented scaling in Windows for high-resolution displays, which requires applications to be rewritten extensively at a low level in the code to accommodate the mechanism used.
In the meantime, please refer to the following article for advice on a workaround: <https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/....
Last week, I mentioned that I was unsure of what my next project would be. After thinking about all my options, I decided to finish Dragonverse Origins. I was nearly 75% complete when I set it aside to work on re-editing and reformatting my already published works. Although I've had several requests to write another Galactic Alliance book, I don't have a complete enough plot laid out to feel comfortable starting another book in that series. So, I started from the beginning of Origins and I've been re-reading, editing, and altering that story. I hope to have it finished in a few months. Once that's done, then I will work on another Peacekeeper.
For anyone out there who has purchased a new computer with a super-high resolution display -- be advised that Scrivener will not display properly unless you make a few changes to your system. If you have this problem, I've included the fix at the end of this post.
I also have a tip for anyone using Createspace for their print books. The files are reviewed by a live person and some of the people doing these reviews have a very strict stance on Createspace's rules. When I first published the Galactic Alliance books, I entered the name of the books in Createspace as "Galactic Alliance book x - Title". This was before I really understood what I was doing. When I uploaded the newly formatted interior for Chroniech, I put the name on the title page as "Chroniech". I received a reply from Createspace telling me the interior cover does not match what I named the book in the dashboard. True, it wasn't exact, but it was clear they were one and the same. My solution was to upload the exact same interior again and resubmit. This time, it was accepted.
Linda Nagata
The topic of this week's post is a short interview with Linda Nagata. Because it was the holiday season and I know Linda is a very busy person, I kept the questions to a minimum and focused on self-publishing.
I first met Linda Nagata in 2012 while attending Launch Pad, an intense one-week course on astronomy and astronomical science held yearly in Laramie at the University of Wyoming. Ever since then, I’ve stayed in touch with her via Twitter and email. I was pleased to spend some time with her earlier this year at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) which was held in Spokane, Washington. I had the honor of sharing my first-ever panel with her during that convention.
I decided to interview Linda for my blog because she has managed to gracefully straddle the line between being traditionally published and self-published. She began her writing career as a traditionally published author. After a long break, she decided to publish her back-stories as well as her new ones as a self-published author. Her novel The Red – First Light is the first self-published novel to be nominated for the Nebula award as well as the John W. Campbell Memorial award. Following the nomination, she was contacted by her old agent and successfully negotiated a contract for the entire Red trilogy (The Red, The Trials, and Going Dark) with Saga Press.
She currently lives on the island of Maui. For more information concerning Linda, please visit her website. The following interview was conducted via email.
============================
You were a traditionally published author, what made you decide to self-publish your next major novel when you began writing again?
I had lots of reasons to self-publish The Red. First, I’d already self-published other novels, most recently, two fantasy novels--the Puzzle Land books—and I enjoyed all phases of the process. I loved the control self-publishing gave me. Being responsible for every aspect of a book means you have no one else to blame when things go wrong, but it also means you’re in a position to correct mistakes when they happen. And they do happen, in both self and traditional publishing.
Another great perk of self-publishing was that I didn’t have to wait on anyone else’s schedule—and schedule was important to me. It had been ten years since my last major science fiction novel, and I didn’t want to wait another year, more likely two, to see The Red in print.
So impatience was one factor in my decision, but there were others. I’d been listening to grumblings out of the traditional field and I kept hearing that typical advances were terribly low, and that publishers were supposedly hesitant to publish science fiction by women. The Red is high-tech, military, hard science fiction, by me...a woman, writing under a woman’s name, with no military background. I thought I could probably sell it, but I couldn’t see it snagging a big advance, and I wasn’t willing to take a small one. So I figured, “Why waste time waiting on an offer that I’ll turn down anyway?” And I published it myself.
If “The Red – First Light” had not been nominated for a Nebula award, do you think you would still be totally self-published?
If we’re talking only about novels, then yes. I think most readers don’t pay a lot of attention to award nominations, but agents and editors do. And the Nebula nomination gave The Red enough credibility that editors were interested, and my agent was able to get me a good offer on the trilogy in just a few weeks. If I hadn’t gotten that offer, I would have self-published the other two books in the trilogy. I was literally a week away from releasing the second book when I was asked to hold off, pending the outcome of the auction.
But novels are only part of the market. Then, and now, my short fiction continues to be traditionally published. And looking ahead? I’ll probably be self-publishing a collection of recent short fiction sometime in 2016.
You managed to negotiate what is, in my mind, a unique and rare contract with Saga Press. With the signing of the contract, you are now officially both traditionally published and self-published because you’ve managed to retain the UK rights to the Red series. In your opinion, do you think these types of contracts will become more common or did your past influence the type of contract you were able to negotiate?
Well, first, I didn’t negotiate the contract. That was my agent, Howard Morhaim—and he’s done a terrific job. But historically, it was very common to retain UK rights when selling to an American publisher. Every traditional contract I ever had did just that. These days I think it’s increasingly common to sell world rights, but I don’t think that retaining UK rights is unusual. At any rate, we shopped the trilogy among UK publishers, but the offers were disappointing. So I decided to publish on my own in the UK market. Having the option to do that is simply revolutionary. But will the practice become more common? I don’t know. It’s certainly easier to sell world rights and not to have the worry of putting the book out on your own in a limited market, but for me, it’s been utterly worthwhile to do so.
There are pros and cons to both traditional publication and self-publication. Having experienced both sides of the publishing industry, do you have any advice for an author who is on the fence as to how to publish their first novel?
I try to refrain from giving advice like that. Everyone is going to have to find their own path, and the question itself isn’t really fair, because it assumes you have a choice. A better question might be: Can you sell your first novel to a traditional publisher? The cold hard truth is that, for most of us, the answer is “no.” But even if you believe you can, do you want to? And if you do want to, how much time and effort and angst are you willing to invest in the process of seeking an offer? And if you do get an offer, what is the minimum you will agree to? (Not just the advance, but the other terms as well.)
Some writers will do very, very well going traditional. Others will have their hearts broken by the process, and will never have a good thing to say about the traditional market. So the only advice I will give is to make sure you know your options, seek current evaluations of self versus traditional because the industry changes all the time, understand your contracts, and never sell yourself short.
================================
Here is the email I received from Scrivener support containing the steps necessary to get Scrivener to display properly on my Microsoft Surface Book:
Unfortunately, Scrivener for Windows is not yet optimised for high-resolution displays, although this is something that we hope to address in a future major upgrade. I'm afraid we can't be more specific about the timescale for this, other than to say that the developers are working on it. I believe that the problem stems from the way in which Microsoft has implemented scaling in Windows for high-resolution displays, which requires applications to be rewritten extensively at a low level in the code to accommodate the mechanism used.
In the meantime, please refer to the following article for advice on a workaround: <https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/....
December 20, 2015
Happy Holidays!
Updates
All of the books in the Galactic Alliance series have been reformatted and are going to be uploaded to Amazon this morning. Translight and Chroniech also received an editing pass to fix problems from my earlier writing. This has been a long project and it is not quite complete. I am waiting on a new cover for Peacekeeper 2. The Kindle version of the PK2 is ready for upload, but the Createspace version will have to wait until the new cover art arrives.
This entire re-editing/reformatting project was the result of how I felt about being a writer after attending WorldCon earlier this year. My novels are a part of how I am perceived as a writer. Unprofessionally formatted novels indicate that the writer is not completely serious about what is presented to the public. When I first began publishing novels, I didn't know anything about formatting and my writing skills were undeveloped. Those skills continue to evolve and my knowledge of proper formatting has grown considerably. It is only right that I go back and fix my earlier books.
But, the itch to get back to writing has been scratched until it is raw and now that I'm bleeding all over the floor I need to get back to writing. My re-editing/reformatting project is not complete, but my other books can be done as time permits. I must return to writing. I am not abandoning the project -- I will continue to work on the remaining books in between getting some writing done.
My problem now is -- what shall I work on? I recently received another very positive response from a reader of the Galactic Alliance series. As with most of these types of unsolicited feedback, I've been asked if I plan on writing another book in the series. I now have many requests to produce another GA book and no requests to add to the Dragonverse series. I've spent about 7 months working on Dragonverse Origins and the book is about 75% complete. Do I set aside all that work to start another Galactic Alliance book? This is not an easy decision to make!
I am a big fan of dragons and I love the Dragonverse universe. Origins will provide a link to one of my stand-alone science fiction novels (Off Course) linking it into the Dragonverse. This will create a science fiction based fantasy series with an opportunity to add many more books. On the other hand, my Galactic Alliance series is my best seller. If I set Origins aside and start a third Peacekeeper, it's going to be at least 8 months before I put out another book. That will make it around 2 years from my last release. In my mind, that's too long because readers will move on and my name will fade from their minds. What to do?
I haven't made a final decision yet, but I will have to do so by Christmas Eve. That's when I plan on starting writing again. I will let you know when I post my next blog.
I have come up blank with anything new to discuss on the self-publishing topic. This is probably due to my focusing on the re-editing/reformatting project as well as the busy time around the holiday season. If I come up with something by next week, I'll put it in the post -- but don't count on it! Next week is Christmas and things get crazy around here this time of year.
I hope everyone will enjoy themselves during the holiday season.
All of the books in the Galactic Alliance series have been reformatted and are going to be uploaded to Amazon this morning. Translight and Chroniech also received an editing pass to fix problems from my earlier writing. This has been a long project and it is not quite complete. I am waiting on a new cover for Peacekeeper 2. The Kindle version of the PK2 is ready for upload, but the Createspace version will have to wait until the new cover art arrives.
This entire re-editing/reformatting project was the result of how I felt about being a writer after attending WorldCon earlier this year. My novels are a part of how I am perceived as a writer. Unprofessionally formatted novels indicate that the writer is not completely serious about what is presented to the public. When I first began publishing novels, I didn't know anything about formatting and my writing skills were undeveloped. Those skills continue to evolve and my knowledge of proper formatting has grown considerably. It is only right that I go back and fix my earlier books.
But, the itch to get back to writing has been scratched until it is raw and now that I'm bleeding all over the floor I need to get back to writing. My re-editing/reformatting project is not complete, but my other books can be done as time permits. I must return to writing. I am not abandoning the project -- I will continue to work on the remaining books in between getting some writing done.
My problem now is -- what shall I work on? I recently received another very positive response from a reader of the Galactic Alliance series. As with most of these types of unsolicited feedback, I've been asked if I plan on writing another book in the series. I now have many requests to produce another GA book and no requests to add to the Dragonverse series. I've spent about 7 months working on Dragonverse Origins and the book is about 75% complete. Do I set aside all that work to start another Galactic Alliance book? This is not an easy decision to make!
I am a big fan of dragons and I love the Dragonverse universe. Origins will provide a link to one of my stand-alone science fiction novels (Off Course) linking it into the Dragonverse. This will create a science fiction based fantasy series with an opportunity to add many more books. On the other hand, my Galactic Alliance series is my best seller. If I set Origins aside and start a third Peacekeeper, it's going to be at least 8 months before I put out another book. That will make it around 2 years from my last release. In my mind, that's too long because readers will move on and my name will fade from their minds. What to do?
I haven't made a final decision yet, but I will have to do so by Christmas Eve. That's when I plan on starting writing again. I will let you know when I post my next blog.
I have come up blank with anything new to discuss on the self-publishing topic. This is probably due to my focusing on the re-editing/reformatting project as well as the busy time around the holiday season. If I come up with something by next week, I'll put it in the post -- but don't count on it! Next week is Christmas and things get crazy around here this time of year.
I hope everyone will enjoy themselves during the holiday season.
December 13, 2015
Self-Publishing: Formatting Step-By-Step
Updates
Honor Thy Enemy (Galactic Alliance book 3) and Peacekeeper (book 4) are ready for upload. I've been working so hard at getting the books ready for upload that I haven't actually uploaded the latest versions yet. Starting with Peacekeeper, all of the other books will be formatted without any re-editing. These later books have been proofed by my wife and I believe they are in good enough shape to remain as they are. With four books behind me, the rest should move along rather quickly and then I will be able to get back to writing. The itch has become very strong.
I'm also happy to announce that I've been invited to speak at the February 6th meeting of NEORWA (North East Ohio chapter of the Romance Writers of America) in Kirtland, Ohio. I know exactly what you're next question is and it is the same one I asked when I got the phone call. Why would a science fiction writer be invited to speak at a romance writer's meeting? It turns out that romance writers are interested in world-building. I'm also a self-published author and I'm sure their members are interested in hearing about how I've done as well as I have. I'm looking forward to this opportunity.
Step-By-Step Formatting
I thought I would share the details of what I've been doing the past few weeks and what I've learned. I use Scrivener to produce my first draft and then I transfer it over to Word for the final work. Word's default font and settings puts the entire manuscript in Times New Roman font with the style set to Normal. I'm not going to rehash what I wrote about in my post about formatting. If you haven't read it, you can do so here.
First things first - make a backup copy. I start with the Kindle version first because it can be easily used to build the Createspace version. I name the copy something like "Peacekeeper (Kindle).docx". The first thing I do is to remove all of the standard styles from the style gallery. I then import my specially created styles and then add them to the style gallery toolbar at the top of Word. I also turn on the feature to display formatting marks. This sets the stage for the rest of the formatting.
If you want a baseline to begin with, you can type CTRL+A to select the entire document and then change everything to the style you've created for the main text. This might have unwanted side effects such as removing italics etc. Since my formatting is already fairly close, I don't do this step anymore. Starting at the top of the manuscript, I highlight each group of paragraphs and then click on the appropriate style.
For Kindle, it is important to watch out for manually entered page breaks. These are ignored by the Kindle converter. Chapter headings use a style that instructs Word to insert a page break before the heading. I remove all manual page breaks as I work my way through the document. I pay particular attention to the first paragraph after a chapter heading or scene break, making sure I set that paragraph to the flush-left style. Scene breaks and the text just before a scene break also get their own styles.
I work my way through the document paragraph by paragraph, highlighting large sections where possible, and selecting the appropriate style. Make sure you periodically save your work! When I'm done, I'll take a short break to let my eyes (which by now feel like they're bugging out of my head) rest. I will then go back over the entire book using CTRL+Down-arrow to move down one paragraph at a time while keeping my eyes focused on the font indicator at the top of the application. Everything should be set to Georgia. If not, then I missed something and I make sure that missed piece is formatted correctly. To finalize the document, I make sure the header pages and ending pages are appropriate for the Kindle version (I use slightly different text for Kindle and print versions).
I then go over it one more time putting Word into multi-page view. This gives me a large view of entire pages allowing me to spot formatting errors. I double-check that all paragraphs after a chapter heading and scene break are flush left and I make sure my chapter numbers are correctly sequenced. After a final save, I convert the document to a "Web page (Filtered)" file. I do a final quick check to make sure the conversion didn't do anything strange and call the Kindle version complete.
To make the Createspace version, I make a copy of the Kindle version and name it something like "Peacekeeper (Createspace).docx". The first thing I do is to right-click all of the styles and change them to match the desired print formatting convention. I use Garamond font and also set the text to be justified with auto-hyphenation turned on and line spacing set to "at least 15 pt". I change the page size to match my printed version making sure to set the margins appropriately and turn on mirror margins. This should take care of the vast majority of the changes you need to make.
Next, I locate the start of the first chapter and insert a continuous section break at the end of the previous page. I pull up the header and footer editor and create the page headers and footers. I don't use footers but you might. I use different headers for odd/even pages because I want my page numbers to appear along the outside edge of the page. You must turn off the "like previous" setting and make sure you set your page numbering to start at page 1 on the page where chapter 1 begins.
Save these changes! Since all of the styles I use in Kindle are named the same as the styles I use in Createspace, modifying the style settings takes care of the majority of all reformatting. I put Word into the multi-page view setting and start flipping through pages. Chapters must start on a page on the left-side of the screen. If not, I must do one of two things: Insert a manual page break, or alter the line spacing to shorten the previous chapter. The choice depends on how many lines are on the last page of the previous chapter. If there are more than 4, I insert a page break. If the previous chapter is quite long, I can often move 5 or 6 lines up.
To move the lines, select several pages of text in the previous chapter making sure you don't cross a scene break, right-click and select paragraph. Make a small change in the "at least xx pt" setting. I typically don't drop the setting by more than 0.3 points. If you change it too much, the reader is going to notice. Scroll down to the bottom of the chapter and check the results. If the lines are not entirely on the previous page, hit CTRL+Z to reverse your changes. You can then highlight more or use a slightly larger change in line spacing. After doing this a few times you will get a feel of how Word behaves.
Once this is done, I go back over the entire book making sure I have not missed something. I look at page numbers and the formatting of the headers as well. One thing I missed and had to fix was a missing underline in the header of the even pages. I don't know why it didn't appear, but I had to fix it after an upload. Once I'm satisfied, I make sure the header pages and trailing pages are set for the print version.
The Createspace version is saved in PDF format using the ISO 19005-1 compliant or PDF/A formatting option. This is the type of PDF that Createspace prefers and if you don't use it you will receive a polite warning from them. I then load the PDF into Adobe, set it from side-by-side view, and look at each and every page to make sure the formatting is correct. Word does not always output a PDF in the exact same format as you see it in Word! If you find errors here, you'll have to make the change in Word and export it again.
Finally, I can build a new cover using Photoshop. I use the page count from the PDF to have Createspace build me a cover template. I use this template to make the final cover. I flatten the file and output as a PDF. One word of caution, if you use Photoshop do not flatten the master copy! If you do, you can no longer edit the elements. I made this mistake once - never again.
Using the finished cover, I display it as large as I can on my monitor then use a screen copy program such as the Snippet tool to grab just the front part of the cover. I use Photoshop to make the cover at least 1560 by 2500 pixels in size and save as a high-quality JPG. I write a blurb and then upload everything.
It's a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. But, it's what a professional writer would expect from a publisher and since you are your own publisher, it's what is expected of you. Take the time to format your books properly. Take the time to read up on how this is done. Read widely because there are differing opinions out there. Document your fonts, your settings, and your other formatting choices so your books remain consistent.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. I'm not an expert, but I have learned a huge amount over the past few months and I'm always glad to help out.
Happy holidays!
Honor Thy Enemy (Galactic Alliance book 3) and Peacekeeper (book 4) are ready for upload. I've been working so hard at getting the books ready for upload that I haven't actually uploaded the latest versions yet. Starting with Peacekeeper, all of the other books will be formatted without any re-editing. These later books have been proofed by my wife and I believe they are in good enough shape to remain as they are. With four books behind me, the rest should move along rather quickly and then I will be able to get back to writing. The itch has become very strong.
I'm also happy to announce that I've been invited to speak at the February 6th meeting of NEORWA (North East Ohio chapter of the Romance Writers of America) in Kirtland, Ohio. I know exactly what you're next question is and it is the same one I asked when I got the phone call. Why would a science fiction writer be invited to speak at a romance writer's meeting? It turns out that romance writers are interested in world-building. I'm also a self-published author and I'm sure their members are interested in hearing about how I've done as well as I have. I'm looking forward to this opportunity.
Step-By-Step Formatting
I thought I would share the details of what I've been doing the past few weeks and what I've learned. I use Scrivener to produce my first draft and then I transfer it over to Word for the final work. Word's default font and settings puts the entire manuscript in Times New Roman font with the style set to Normal. I'm not going to rehash what I wrote about in my post about formatting. If you haven't read it, you can do so here.
First things first - make a backup copy. I start with the Kindle version first because it can be easily used to build the Createspace version. I name the copy something like "Peacekeeper (Kindle).docx". The first thing I do is to remove all of the standard styles from the style gallery. I then import my specially created styles and then add them to the style gallery toolbar at the top of Word. I also turn on the feature to display formatting marks. This sets the stage for the rest of the formatting.
If you want a baseline to begin with, you can type CTRL+A to select the entire document and then change everything to the style you've created for the main text. This might have unwanted side effects such as removing italics etc. Since my formatting is already fairly close, I don't do this step anymore. Starting at the top of the manuscript, I highlight each group of paragraphs and then click on the appropriate style.
For Kindle, it is important to watch out for manually entered page breaks. These are ignored by the Kindle converter. Chapter headings use a style that instructs Word to insert a page break before the heading. I remove all manual page breaks as I work my way through the document. I pay particular attention to the first paragraph after a chapter heading or scene break, making sure I set that paragraph to the flush-left style. Scene breaks and the text just before a scene break also get their own styles.
I work my way through the document paragraph by paragraph, highlighting large sections where possible, and selecting the appropriate style. Make sure you periodically save your work! When I'm done, I'll take a short break to let my eyes (which by now feel like they're bugging out of my head) rest. I will then go back over the entire book using CTRL+Down-arrow to move down one paragraph at a time while keeping my eyes focused on the font indicator at the top of the application. Everything should be set to Georgia. If not, then I missed something and I make sure that missed piece is formatted correctly. To finalize the document, I make sure the header pages and ending pages are appropriate for the Kindle version (I use slightly different text for Kindle and print versions).
I then go over it one more time putting Word into multi-page view. This gives me a large view of entire pages allowing me to spot formatting errors. I double-check that all paragraphs after a chapter heading and scene break are flush left and I make sure my chapter numbers are correctly sequenced. After a final save, I convert the document to a "Web page (Filtered)" file. I do a final quick check to make sure the conversion didn't do anything strange and call the Kindle version complete.
To make the Createspace version, I make a copy of the Kindle version and name it something like "Peacekeeper (Createspace).docx". The first thing I do is to right-click all of the styles and change them to match the desired print formatting convention. I use Garamond font and also set the text to be justified with auto-hyphenation turned on and line spacing set to "at least 15 pt". I change the page size to match my printed version making sure to set the margins appropriately and turn on mirror margins. This should take care of the vast majority of the changes you need to make.
Next, I locate the start of the first chapter and insert a continuous section break at the end of the previous page. I pull up the header and footer editor and create the page headers and footers. I don't use footers but you might. I use different headers for odd/even pages because I want my page numbers to appear along the outside edge of the page. You must turn off the "like previous" setting and make sure you set your page numbering to start at page 1 on the page where chapter 1 begins.
Save these changes! Since all of the styles I use in Kindle are named the same as the styles I use in Createspace, modifying the style settings takes care of the majority of all reformatting. I put Word into the multi-page view setting and start flipping through pages. Chapters must start on a page on the left-side of the screen. If not, I must do one of two things: Insert a manual page break, or alter the line spacing to shorten the previous chapter. The choice depends on how many lines are on the last page of the previous chapter. If there are more than 4, I insert a page break. If the previous chapter is quite long, I can often move 5 or 6 lines up.
To move the lines, select several pages of text in the previous chapter making sure you don't cross a scene break, right-click and select paragraph. Make a small change in the "at least xx pt" setting. I typically don't drop the setting by more than 0.3 points. If you change it too much, the reader is going to notice. Scroll down to the bottom of the chapter and check the results. If the lines are not entirely on the previous page, hit CTRL+Z to reverse your changes. You can then highlight more or use a slightly larger change in line spacing. After doing this a few times you will get a feel of how Word behaves.
Once this is done, I go back over the entire book making sure I have not missed something. I look at page numbers and the formatting of the headers as well. One thing I missed and had to fix was a missing underline in the header of the even pages. I don't know why it didn't appear, but I had to fix it after an upload. Once I'm satisfied, I make sure the header pages and trailing pages are set for the print version.
The Createspace version is saved in PDF format using the ISO 19005-1 compliant or PDF/A formatting option. This is the type of PDF that Createspace prefers and if you don't use it you will receive a polite warning from them. I then load the PDF into Adobe, set it from side-by-side view, and look at each and every page to make sure the formatting is correct. Word does not always output a PDF in the exact same format as you see it in Word! If you find errors here, you'll have to make the change in Word and export it again.
Finally, I can build a new cover using Photoshop. I use the page count from the PDF to have Createspace build me a cover template. I use this template to make the final cover. I flatten the file and output as a PDF. One word of caution, if you use Photoshop do not flatten the master copy! If you do, you can no longer edit the elements. I made this mistake once - never again.
Using the finished cover, I display it as large as I can on my monitor then use a screen copy program such as the Snippet tool to grab just the front part of the cover. I use Photoshop to make the cover at least 1560 by 2500 pixels in size and save as a high-quality JPG. I write a blurb and then upload everything.
It's a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. But, it's what a professional writer would expect from a publisher and since you are your own publisher, it's what is expected of you. Take the time to format your books properly. Take the time to read up on how this is done. Read widely because there are differing opinions out there. Document your fonts, your settings, and your other formatting choices so your books remain consistent.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. I'm not an expert, but I have learned a huge amount over the past few months and I'm always glad to help out.
Happy holidays!
December 6, 2015
Self-Publishing: Dedication
Update
The re-editing of Honor Thy Enemy (book 3 of the Galactic Alliance series) is complete. Formatting for CreateSpace is also complete. I will be working on the new cover and the Kindle formatting today. If all goes well, the newly revised book will be uploaded on Monday. During my updating of HTE, I found a few issues that also appeared in the first two books I re-edited. I will be uploading these corrections as well.
I have also dropped the price of the remainder of my books as well as enrolled them in Amazon's KDP program. This is still an on-going experiment and I will let you know how this pans out.
Lessons in Formatting
Before I jump into the topic for this week, I thought I would share a few lessons I've learned during this long re-editing / reformatting project. The overall lesson I've learned is: Pay attention to detail. I was looking at the PDF of Honor Thy Enemy and I noticed that the odd pages had a line at the top while the even pages did not. After fixing this, I went back and looked at the first two books - Translight was okay, but Chroniech had the same problem. How did I miss that? I also found that I had forgotten to switch the font from Georgia to Garamond in one of my styles. This wasn't very obvious when editing in Word but it stuck out like a beacon in the PDF.
After you've done your formatting, export your novel to PDF and switch the display to show pages side-by-side. Don't read, just flip through the entire manuscript and run your eyes down each page. The formatting should appear smooth and consistent. Make sure you are following your formatting rules and look to see that each and every page is correct. If you need a refresher on formatting, take a look at my past post on formatting.
Dedication
How long does it take you to read a book? Let's say you can read a 90,000 word novel in about a month. You read at home, during lunch at work, sitting on the pot, on the bus, wherever you can. That's a lot of time. Now think about how long it takes to write that novel. The initial draft might take a year, two years, or many more depending on the writer. But once the first draft is done, the editing begins. The writer now reads the entire novel again, making changes along the way. If she does what most writers suggest, the manuscript is set aside for a month to put some distance between the words and the writer. She will then go back and read it again and make more changes. This process is repeated several times. Often, another person reads the manuscript and provides feedback. The writer then reads the entire manuscript again and incorporates the changes. This entire process is repeated until the novel is done.
But wait - we aren't done yet! If you're a self-published author, now you must take the time to format your novel for distribution. Often, you will read the entire manuscript again while doing this. If you produce output for both Kindle and printed versions, you will have to at least scan the entire novel once for each output format.
Sounds like a lot of work - right? You bet! Since most writers also hold down a regular job, all this writing, editing, formatting, and revising is done when most people are out with friends, reading books, watching movies, etc. And, if you want to sell your book, none of these steps can be shortened. This takes a tremendous amount of dedication. How many readers ever consider what it takes to write a book? The next time you meet an author, thank them for their dedication and for the sacrifices they have made to put that book in your hands.
After attending WordCon earlier this year, I promised I would take the time to ensure that my currently published novels were as professionally formatted and edited as I could possibly make them. I set aside a novel I was working on and started my re-editing / reformatting project. There have been times when I wanted to set that project aside and get back to writing. But, I had dedicated myself to doing what I had promised. There is a price to pay for this.
Book royalties are based on a number of factors. To name a few: How many people spread the word; How many books an author has in print; And, how often an author puts out a new book. If you put out a book every year or two, people tend to remember you. If you take longer, your name and the name of the book they read by you will fade from memory. Sales of all my books increase when I release a new novel. I'm coming up on the one year point since I released my last book and I'm getting uncomfortable about not having one ready to release. Does that mean I'm going to abandon my project? NO!
The books I have in print right now are a reflection of who I am as a writer. If they appear unprofessional, then that's the opinion people will have of me no matter what I write in this blog. I will finish the project before I go back to writing. Dedication is not easy, but it's a way of life for a writer. If you want to be respected by your readers and other writers, you've got to have focused dedication to the art and craft of writing.
The re-editing of Honor Thy Enemy (book 3 of the Galactic Alliance series) is complete. Formatting for CreateSpace is also complete. I will be working on the new cover and the Kindle formatting today. If all goes well, the newly revised book will be uploaded on Monday. During my updating of HTE, I found a few issues that also appeared in the first two books I re-edited. I will be uploading these corrections as well.
I have also dropped the price of the remainder of my books as well as enrolled them in Amazon's KDP program. This is still an on-going experiment and I will let you know how this pans out.
Lessons in Formatting
Before I jump into the topic for this week, I thought I would share a few lessons I've learned during this long re-editing / reformatting project. The overall lesson I've learned is: Pay attention to detail. I was looking at the PDF of Honor Thy Enemy and I noticed that the odd pages had a line at the top while the even pages did not. After fixing this, I went back and looked at the first two books - Translight was okay, but Chroniech had the same problem. How did I miss that? I also found that I had forgotten to switch the font from Georgia to Garamond in one of my styles. This wasn't very obvious when editing in Word but it stuck out like a beacon in the PDF.
After you've done your formatting, export your novel to PDF and switch the display to show pages side-by-side. Don't read, just flip through the entire manuscript and run your eyes down each page. The formatting should appear smooth and consistent. Make sure you are following your formatting rules and look to see that each and every page is correct. If you need a refresher on formatting, take a look at my past post on formatting.
Dedication
How long does it take you to read a book? Let's say you can read a 90,000 word novel in about a month. You read at home, during lunch at work, sitting on the pot, on the bus, wherever you can. That's a lot of time. Now think about how long it takes to write that novel. The initial draft might take a year, two years, or many more depending on the writer. But once the first draft is done, the editing begins. The writer now reads the entire novel again, making changes along the way. If she does what most writers suggest, the manuscript is set aside for a month to put some distance between the words and the writer. She will then go back and read it again and make more changes. This process is repeated several times. Often, another person reads the manuscript and provides feedback. The writer then reads the entire manuscript again and incorporates the changes. This entire process is repeated until the novel is done.
But wait - we aren't done yet! If you're a self-published author, now you must take the time to format your novel for distribution. Often, you will read the entire manuscript again while doing this. If you produce output for both Kindle and printed versions, you will have to at least scan the entire novel once for each output format.
Sounds like a lot of work - right? You bet! Since most writers also hold down a regular job, all this writing, editing, formatting, and revising is done when most people are out with friends, reading books, watching movies, etc. And, if you want to sell your book, none of these steps can be shortened. This takes a tremendous amount of dedication. How many readers ever consider what it takes to write a book? The next time you meet an author, thank them for their dedication and for the sacrifices they have made to put that book in your hands.
After attending WordCon earlier this year, I promised I would take the time to ensure that my currently published novels were as professionally formatted and edited as I could possibly make them. I set aside a novel I was working on and started my re-editing / reformatting project. There have been times when I wanted to set that project aside and get back to writing. But, I had dedicated myself to doing what I had promised. There is a price to pay for this.
Book royalties are based on a number of factors. To name a few: How many people spread the word; How many books an author has in print; And, how often an author puts out a new book. If you put out a book every year or two, people tend to remember you. If you take longer, your name and the name of the book they read by you will fade from memory. Sales of all my books increase when I release a new novel. I'm coming up on the one year point since I released my last book and I'm getting uncomfortable about not having one ready to release. Does that mean I'm going to abandon my project? NO!
The books I have in print right now are a reflection of who I am as a writer. If they appear unprofessional, then that's the opinion people will have of me no matter what I write in this blog. I will finish the project before I go back to writing. Dedication is not easy, but it's a way of life for a writer. If you want to be respected by your readers and other writers, you've got to have focused dedication to the art and craft of writing.
