Shoshanna Evers's Blog, page 15

Should you Self-Publish? My New Thoughts

Hello Fellow Writers!

A couple years ago I posted on this subject and at the time my feeling was, don't self-publish if you're *only* self-publishing because no publisher will publish your books. There are so many small presses and e-publishers out there, my feeling was that if the book is good enough then *someone* somewhere would be willing to invest time and money into it by paying for an editor, cover designer and promo etcetera for you, so you aren't stuck with those costs.

Now I'm not so sure how I feel. I do think there's something to be said for being "vetted" by a publisher. There's a real feeling of accomplishment that comes with having a total stranger tell you that not only is your book worth reading, it's worth them investing time and money into the project by contracting it.

But then... I read stories about people self-publishing, selling their books for 99 cents, and making a fortune. We all know about Amanda Hocking making a million dollars (literally) on her 9 ebooks, and then getting a 2 million dollar traditional publishing deal.

Yesterday I heard about author Selena Kitt in this article here. Incidentally, I was already following her on Twitter. She made over $200K this year with her self-published ebooks. Yeah, it's only April. The year's not over yet. HOLY SH*T.

When I see things like that, and I see how expensive my books are comparatively, I wish I could choose to have a lower price point for my books. But the publishers set the price, not the author. Unless, of course, you self-publish, in which case yeah, you can do whatever the heck you want.

I understand why my publishers have to have a higher cost for my books - they have to pay everyone who helps make the book happen, and have enough left over to pay royalties to the authors and have a profit for themselves. So I'm not begrudging them making money. This is business. I understand that completely.

So I've been thinking about the possibility of self-publishing something. Specifically, an idea for a trilogy of novellas that I have. But I also wonder if I have the guts to put something out there that hasn't been given some sort of external validation by a publisher. I wonder if I can objectively look at a book I've written and say "yes, this is good enough." I'd definitely have to hire an editor and cover designer, etc.

My mind has been spinning lately with all these thoughts. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Real Answers from a Reader & Book Reviewer!

Hello Fellow Writers!

I often interview other authors, but today I thought - it's about time to interview a reader! I've tried to ask the sorts of questions that are really important to know as a writer - because why do we write if not to be read?

Marika Webber is an avid reader, a book reviewer, an aspiring writer, a mom, a wife, and a baseball/hockey/NASCAR fan. She lives and works full time in East Texas.

Marika's Avatar :)She also has a blog where she posts reviews of some of the books she reads. In addition, she beta-reads for several erotica authors. In short, this a woman who loves books! And any friend of books is a friend of mine :)



Shoshanna: Thanks for being here, Marika! What's your favorite genre of book to read?

Marika: I love contemporaries but I also like paranormal, romantic suspense and historicals.


Shoshanna: There are so many books out there. How do you decide which books to buy? 

Marika: Actually, it really depends on my mood. I have a wishlist that I keep up with but the book really has to grab me from the get-go for me to buy it.


Shoshanna:  Is there anything that you'd see that would make you pass on reading a book? 

Marika: I don't particularly like fantasy, sci-fi, urban fantasy and I'm just now reading more in-depth BDSM.

Shoshanna: Do you mainly read print books or ebooks? Do you have an e-reader? 

Marika:  Since I got my Nook for Christmas, I'm beginning to have more ebooks but I will buy paperbacks if I want to read it right away.


Shoshanna: What makes an enticing book cover to you? 

Marika: Jimmy Thomas on the cover. Seriously, the cover really isn't that important, the book itself is. A great cover is nice but....

Shoshanna: Oh yum! Absolutely, LOL! 
Do you review books on the publisher's website, Goodreads, Amazon, or anywhere else? What would make you give 5 stars? 

Marika: I'm a reviewer for Night Owl Reviews and The Romance Studio. I also have started reviewing books on Goodreads and on my own blog. A great book is plot, characterization, pacing and did it keep my interest. Actually, the last thing I look for in a book is sex. I know, I'm weird.

Shoshanna: Have you ever given a book a low star rating or poor review, and why?

Marika: I reviewed a book for Night Owl Reviews and while the plot and pacing were good and the hero to-die-for, the heroine didn't sit well with me. It was supposed to be a Domme-led book but I wasn't feeling it from her at all.

Shoshanna:  If an author wrote in one genre and you loved her work, would you read another book she wrote even if it was in a different genre? (Say, she wrote a romance and then wrote a thriller) 

Marika: I will always follow an author regardless of the genre. Now that said, sometimes, the book is good and sometimes it's not. I always give an author a chance if they have switched genres. I'm loyal to a fault.

Shoshanna:  Do you ever read self-published books, or do you mainly stick to reading books by publishers you know? 

Marika: I'm just now getting into self-published books, so the answer would be not really.


Shoshanna: What makes you put a book down and not finish it? 

Marika: If the plot and pacing are too slow and too far out there. Plus, if I don't connect with the hero/heroine, I will put it down. Now, I have finished books that I wish I hadn't bothered to finish.


Shoshanna: What makes you stay up late to finish a story you love? 

Marika: A really good romantic suspense or thriller! I'm very analytical about suspense/thriller books and I have to know what happens.

Find Marika on the web!
www.facebook.com/marika.weber2
www.twitter.com/marika67
www.goodreads.com/briansmom
http://harliebooks.blogspot.com

Editing Two Books at Once

Hello Fellow Writers!

Sorry I've been MIA for a while - I've been blogging all over the place to spread the word about my latest Ellora's Cave book, Hollywood Spank, and right now I'm editing two books at once.

Yeah.

On the same day I got back edits for Taste of Candy, a short ebook with The Wild Rose Press, and edits for my upcoming book Chastity Belt with Ellora's Cave.

I'm not complaining - this is my idea of the perfect problem to have :) I'm just a busy bee now, that's all.

I also have an idea for a full length paranormal romance that I'd like to flesh out into an outline and then take a couple months off to write it.

My husband pointed out that taking a couple months off writing to write a book doesn't make sense. To me it does, though, because I've never written paranormal before, so I'm viewing it as an experiment that might not pan out and lead to a contract.

I better get going on those edits!

Wanna be on The Writer's Challenge?

Hello Fellow Writers!

Today I'm interviewed on Tonya Kinzer's blog. One commenter on Tonya's blog will be picked to be interviewed here on The Writer's Challenge.

If you're a reader, I want to find out how you add books to your To Be Read list, what makes you love (or hate) a book, and why you might decide not to buy a book. I have tons of questions but I'll save them for our interview!

And if you're an author, I'll do an author interview as well!

Please stop by and say hi! A winner will be drawn on Saturday.

http://tonyakinzer.blogspot.com/2011/03/author-interview-shoshanna-evers-erotic.html

Balancing Life & Writing

Hellow Fellow Writers!

Today I'm on newly contracted and soon to be published author Heather Thurmeier's blog. She interviewed mw about how I balance life, family, work, and writing!

http://heatherthurmeier.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/ask-an-author-shoshanna-evers-how-she-balances-it-all



Stop by, say hi!

Writing a Nonfiction Book Proposal…and What to Do Next!

[image error]
Hello Fellow Writers!
I'm thrilled to have Marianne Stephens guest-blog to tell us how she got her non-fiction book published. As you know it's a very different process than getting fiction published.


Marianne:

With the first nonfiction book I wrote, I didn't check what protocols were acceptable. I wrote the entire book and then decided to try and get it published. I queried agents and publishers…and found many wanted a book proposal even though I'd completed the book.

Book proposals sounded ominous and my head spun with the many versions considered "approved methods". But the timing for my book, a ghostwritten autobiography about a speaker from a women's shelter, was off. O.J. Simpson had made the news, and suddenly everyone had an "abuse" story to tell…mostly celebrities. No one was interested in an average woman's struggle when faced with selling millions of celebrity "abuse" books.

That book was published by Online Originals as in ebook in 1999. Unfortunately, the timing was off there, too. Ebooks and readers weren't as widespread as now. And, the company changed hands many times. When the original owner finally got it back, there were no records of my sales. I learned an important lesson about timing in the publishing world!

My recently released nonfiction book, "Guilty Survivor – Memoirs of Tamerla Kendall", had a different journey to publication. This time, I researched how to do a book proposal…and still came up with many versions

The first difference I noted: I did not need to write the entire book before sending out proposals. I compiled the basic elements of a book proposal that most sources suggested:

Overview of book Marketing PlanPromotion of the BookCompeting BooksAbout the AuthorTable of Contents Book SynopsisChapter-by-Chapter Synopses (Chapters Four – Eleven)Sample: Thirty Pages (Chapters One – Three)
Overview: A general description of the book. I mentioned the contents of the book, the fact that it would be written in first person, and photos were available to be inserted in the story. I should have mentioned in this section that a professor in Austria, Dr. Florian Bieber, allowed me to use some of the historical background text from his book on the Bosnian War. He wrote Bosnian War reports for the United Nations and then his own book about the war.


Marketing Plan: Mothers, women, those interested in history or war stories would be the target audience.

Promotion: I talked about my past promotional endeavors, how both the subject of my book and I would be ready to do interviews, my website, blog, and other Internet outlets where I could do promotion.

Competing Books: This is tricky and time consuming. I researched books similar to war survival stories or book specifically about the Bosnian War on Amazon. I checked their ranking numbers and quoted these in this section. A brief description of each book was also given. I listed 6 books.

About the Author: I gave my biography, what I'd written, what articles I'd had posted, and previous speaking engagements.

Table of Contents: Here's my list for "Guilty Survivor".
Acknowledgements DedicationForewordProfile of CharactersChapter One: Surviving WarChapter Two: Before the War: My Early Years Through CollegeChapter Three: After College to the Beginning of the Bosnian WarChapter Four: During the War, Part OneChapter Five: During the War, Part TwoChapter Six: During the War, Part ThreeChapter Seven: Dangerous Trips Out of Sarajevo and BackChapter Eight: After the War, Part OneChapter Nine: After the War, Part Two and New HusbandChapter Ten: Time to LeaveChapter Eleven: Life in the United States
Synopsis: A detailed synopsis of the book.

Chapter-by-Chapter Synopses for Chapters Four – Eleven: A one-page synopsis for chapters four through eleven.

Sample: Thirty Pages – (Chapters One – Three): First thirty pages – short chapters.

After preparing this 61-page proposal, I queried agents and some publishers while I completed the book. Since my projected word count was under 30,000, I received only one request for more material. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't make the book longer. The heart of the book centered on my subject's War years…a three-year period in her life.

I finally submitted to online publishers, and accepted a contract offer. Although Secret Cravings Publishing publishes mostly romances books, they have a Living and Learning imprint for nonfiction. My book is published as an ebook now, and print copies will be offered later.

Doing publicity and getting reviews has been difficult. I'm a member of the romance community, and the outcome of doing promo to these readers has been less than what I'd like to see in sales. I'm finding that some romance review sites/blogs also do nonfiction, and have started doing promo where I can.

Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are also sources for doing promo. I've sent a press/news release to my local area papers, TV and radio stations, since both the subject of my book and I live in the Kansas City area. And, I've offered to speak at a Women's group…while I look for more speaking engagements.

If you plan to write a nonfiction book proposal, I hope my experience helps in your endeavor!

Here's the Blurb for  "Guilty Survivor – Memoirs of Tamerla Kendall" by Marianne Stephens, which released on 1/26/11 under the "Living and Learning" imprint of Secret Cravings Publishing. It's also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ARe (Omnilit).

She looks like any woman you see rooting for her son at a sporting event or shopping for groceries. Yet, Tamerla Kendall's past includes masquerading as a United Nations soldier and riding in a tank in order to cross Bosnian War (1992-1995) checkpoints to visit family...and facing interrogation by the police because someone betrayed her trust.

Another dangerous trip had her switching cars and drivers to get through checkpoints, done to get her daughter to the safety of family outside the war zone in Sarajevo...only to return and find her home torched and family restaurant robbed. Her daughter, brainwashed by her father, believed she'd been abandoned by her mother, causing years of heartbreaking separation and non-communication.

With either trip, she risked getting caught, arrested, or shot. And, with each trip, came the critical decision to return to Sarajevo to save the family restaurant business. Each day presented the challenge of finding supplies on the Black Market or by bartering with the military to keep her restaurant operating.

"Guilty Survivor - Memoirs of Tamerla Kendall" by Marianne Stephens, presents the memoirs of Bosnian Croat, Tamerla Kendall...now a US citizen. Grenade bombings of her restaurant, cleaning blood off the streets and buildings after random attacks, and witnessing people dead and dying, convinced her she'd be able to shoot the gun she'd bought for protection. When a gun was pointed at her head and her family threatened after the war because she'd married an American, Tamerla made the crucial decision to move to the United States.

About the Author:Marianne Stephens writes nonfiction and mainstream contemporary/paranormal romance books. Check her website, http://www.mariannestephens.net,  for more information. She's a member of: Mid America Romance Authors, Romance Writers of America, Published Authors Network, Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal, Long Island Romance Writers, Dunes & Dreams Romance Writers, Published Authors Special Interest Chapter. Also check: http://www.aprilash.net for erotic romance books. 
Links:
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/romancebooksrus
http://romancebooksrus.blogspot.com
Marianne Stephens http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=1518319389
http://twitter.com/AuthorMarianneS
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=62849416&trk=tab_pro
April Ash: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=1683746739

What I do When I'm Not Writing

Hello Fellow Writers!

The Hollywood Spank Blog Tour continues...
Author Juniper Bell interviewed me on her blog & asked all about my day jobs as an advice columnist & RN!

http://authorjuniperbell.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-interview-shoshanna-evers.html

I'd love it if you could stop by & comment! :)

A Writer on Head-hopping

Hello Fellow Writers!

Recently I was on CoffeeTime Romance and a writer named Tonya Kinzer commented on my post. Since then we've emailed back and forth a bit and followed each other on Twitter :) She'll be interviewing me on her blog here on March 28th, and she was kind enough to write a guest post for me on the craft of writing.


Head Hopping Loses Readers
by Tonya Kinzer

Have you ever wondered why some books are a faster read than others? Or perhaps why some books are a bit more confusing and harder to read and follow than other books? Think back on the last book you put down and never finished. Open it up and reread a few paragraphs again and see if the following isn't true.

If the author is in a different character's head in every other paragraph or maybe every two paragraphs, the reader has to keep going up to reread those lines to figure out who's doing what or who's thinking what. Don't do this to your readers. Your book will end up sliding down the wall when they throw it!

Try to stay in one characters head at least through a scene if not through that entire chapter. What do I mean by staying in one character's head? Let's take a peek....if you're in Tom's head and he's watching a woman entire a bar and loves the sway of her hips that is making his blood heat, your reader is getting his thoughts on how he feels and what he sees. So when their eyes finally do meet, you can NOT write that she loves his blue eyes because you're NOT IN HER HEAD! TOM can see her eye color but you can't write anything at this point of HER thoughts or what she sees.

Now remember back on a book that read so fast you hated that you finished it so quick. That is because the author didn't bounce you from one head to the other and constantly make you go back and reread lines. The writing is smooth and one thought easily leads to another because they all belong to the same character. Most likely the entire chapter read that way and the next chapter may have been in another character's POV. Point of View is all about head hopping...or NOT head hopping to be exact.

I hope this has helped you understand POV a bit better. Go back and edit some of your work and if you have to do a few rewrites, so be it...Your work will be a better, smoother read for your audience! The same goes with dialogue tags...don't use them unless you have to, then keep them belonging to the character whose head you're in. Instead of dialogue tags, try this:

"Care to buy me a drink?" Her eyes held a promise of a longer night.(seen by Tom)

You know right away that Tom didn't say this and it was done without adding 'she said'. Are there a few dialogue tags you might be able to remove as you edit? I hope this has also helped you a bit. Good luck and I hope to see you around the net!

Tonya Kinzer

To check out Tonya's writing, you can find her self-published erotica here:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/tonyakinzer
Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/6cgprjf

I used to be an Actress...

Hello Fellow Writers!

Today I'm at Gem Sivad's blog, talking about how I used to be an actress. Meow! (that's me letting the cat out of the bag)
Stop by, say hi! :)

http://www.gemsivad.com/book-shout-outs/shoshanna-evers-guesting-today/

Hot Heroes & Heroines with *Secrets*

Today I'm at author Lily Harlem's blog talking about hot Heroes and heroines awith *secrets*!
Stop by, say hi! http://lilyharlem.blogspot.com/2011/03/shoshanna-evers-hot-heroes-and-heroines.html