Ava Fails's Blog, page 14

Proofreading

I cannot emphasize proofreading enough (yet again, I'm pointing self-ward as I write). I very recently read a book from a self-published author. I reviewed the book on Amazon, and one of the main things I noticed was that every other page in the book had a typo. Grammatical and spelling errors are a distraction. That being said, you will find them rampant on this website. We'll cover that later.

The aforementioned author is quite the success and there's really a lot of buzz around the Internet about it. I'm attempting to avoid being a part of that buzz; positive or negative. On the author's blog, he/she states that he/she had hired an Accountant, Financial Adviser, and a Personal Assistant. Should you or I "hit it big" with self-publishing, I'd like to stress that an Editor might be a wiser hire before the Personal Assistant.

Sure, sure, I'm positive the hype is difficult to handle and the flood of email, tweets, and other communication is probably overwhelming; however, first things first. It's your craft that is bringing in the fortune. More than that, it is your readers who are supporting your efforts at your craft. Shouldn't your first actions be centered toward further perfecting your craft and source of fortune? I think so.

Some Facts About Proofreading

It is nearly impossible for you to proofread your own writing. I proofread every post and page before I hit Publish on this website, but the typos abound.
Proofreading is not the same as Editing. Learn the difference.
Final proofreading on your own should take place some time after the writing. A day is not long enough, a week is okay, but a month is better.
It's a necessity.

At the Very Least…

When you complete a chapter, proofread it. Do it by the paragraph if you have to, and then the whole chapter. That's even better. When you've completed your rough draft, scan it for those red squiggly underlines. Correct the mistakes. Run Spell Check. Proofread until you're sick of proofreading. Then…proofread some more. Ask your friends and/or family to proofread. Give them a little time without hounding them. If you haven't heard anything, proofread on your own again.

At the VERY least, proofread until it feels like overkill. Proofread until the story is nearly memorized…until you're sick of it. If you have the means, hire someone to proofread for you. After all of this, I can nearly guarantee you that there will still be mistakes present in your book, BUT they will be few and far between. That is what you want…at the very least.

At Most…

Hire yourself a bonafide Editor/Proofreader to check your book professionally for mistakes in grammar, spelling, flow, and content. Again, there will still be mistakes, but they will be few and far between. It's worth your time, your money, and it's worth it to your readers. First things first.

Do It YOUR Way

Here I am procrastinating on the brink of writing my first novel. I've tried a few methods to outline my book by mind-mapping it, staring at sample outlines, downloading outline templates…only to come to the conclusion that I have to create it MY way. Writing is an art; a creative process. Classically trained artists study the processes of the masters and some even try to emulate their style. In the end, you find that your best work comes when you just…LET GO.

That's where I am. It is by no means my intention to undermine the advice of countless successful authors, but they did it their way. Creation is as unique to the individual as a fingerprint. You can't create something new and different by emulating someone else. Take advice, but mold it to work for you. Let the process take over and control every aspect of creation from the method you use to outline to the last period. "Bob's outline" might look great on the page, but it's Bob's.

If you flow better with a physical pen to the page, start doing your hand exercises because 50,000+ words is A LOT. If you want to spend some quality time with your laptop because your brain is too fast for your cursive slant, what are you waiting for? Brew some coffee, tea, buy a 6-pack of Pepsi, a pack of smokes, a Large McDonald's French Fries or whatever you need to feed your vices. Cut out the distractions and prepare to virtually hibernate…because the time is now.

Do this thing YOUR way. That's the only way it's going to get done. All the specialized software and sample outlines in the world won't feed your creative juices. Get the $ signs out of your head. This is for you and them, your readers. Write. Write like never before. Write like there's no tomorrow. Push. Push yourself…push until you have that rough draft…until it sits before you tangibly. Then proofread. Stay tuned, because that's the next post.

A Price Evaluation

My pricing listed on this site has accidentally ended up being a year long experiment. I tried to go with the school of thought that if I listed higher rates, then I would command higher rates. I undersold SEVERAL competitors to cover more bases. I'm sure there's some marketing rule written or otherwise that I am breaking, but basically, neither tactic worked.

A lot of freelance writing sites would have you believe that you are selling out if you take low-paying work. Somehow, it devalues THEIR work. I've heard this before when I moved in the web design circles as well. In fact, designers have a whole movement devoted to the idea. The situation of Speculative (Spec) work is that you work on a design, enter it in a contest, and hope you win the specified pay. 99designs is the best example of this type of work.

When I was in design school (2004), my professors would say that a logo or "corporate identification" paid $3000 on average. "You may say that I'm a dreamer…but I'm not the only one." What I found is that the places willing to pay that are few, far between, and called things like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and McDonald's. It's the same with writing.

A Look at My Pricing Table with Commentary

First off, ALL of these prices are inflated except maybe the How To Articles and Tutorials depending upon length. In the current economy, there are few companies that have the resources to invest this much in written content. Limiting yourself to only those few companies is a significant limit. You might as well forget working with small businesses or working locally in your area unless the businesses you contact ( or sit around and wait to contact you) are extremely successful.

I can't tell you how to price your services, but I can tell you what has and has not worked for me…and these prices DO NOT work. The best judge of price is YOU. How much would you pay? I surely wouldn't pay $25 for a blog post. I would write it myself first…even if I weren't a professional writer. Make sense?

I've adopted a new strategy:

Do your own thing; don't listen to the competition or any naysayers
Go with your gut
Price with your heart
Negotiate
Be transparent
Interact positively with the community

Basic HTML for Kindle Publishers

I wrote an e-book explaining how to format your manuscript in HTML for easy upload to Kindle Direct Publishing. This is sort of a quick and dirty tutorial with links to information and a few screen shots to help you out. Don't let HTML scare you, it's one of the simplest programming languages on the planet. Because of the repetition you will use when formatting your book, I'm confident that you will find it easy to learn.

The most intense (and I use that word loosely) formatting you will do will be your first chapter, then it's repetition after that. Basically you can format a chapter with less than 20 HTML tags, so don't let it intimidate you. I would estimate that even a novice could code their manuscript in under 8 hours if it had a lot of images and links. If your manuscript is straight-up fiction or mainly text, it should take you a lot less time than that.

Keep coming back to ProWebWriter to learn more about self publishing through the various channels available to you. If you've ever considered self-publishing before, NOW is the time. If you've ever thought about writing e-books or even written a couple just throw out there and didn't have much success. NOW could be the time when your luck changes. E-books aren't just for people with money-making secrets anymore.

The world is slowly coming around to the idea of reading books in digital format. While I believe the novelty of the printed page is here for a long, long time, e-books are quickly becoming a hot commodity. E-Readers like Kindle and Nook are seeing phenomenal sales because digital books benefit the the reader's pocketbook with deep discounts on all kinds of books.

The zip folder below available for download is packed with the following:

The Basic HTML for Kindle Publishers e-book in PDF format
Sample HTML documents in HTML and plain text format

You don't need any special software to get started TODAY!

Basic HTML for Kindle Publishers

There Will ALWAYS Be Naysayers

And those naysayers are usually people who think their way is better than yours. I guess I'm naysaying on them a bit. Even WordPress can be a naysayer…like it just told me that naysaying is not a word. Well, I just made it one, so there. Let's keep on topic.  I've been writing for the web professionally for 5 years, and I've come across my share of naysayers. First, they tell you that writing for free makes you a loser even if you are just trying to get your name "out there". Then they tell you that writing articles for only a few dollars each makes you a loser and you are bringing down the value of their hard work.

So, then you start writing for the upper echelon of the content mills, and still they persist. They say it's still peanuts because they command much higher rates. Furthermore, they procure work by merely resting on their laurels and letting it roll in to them without so much as an outgoing email. They've always done it better, longer, and more than you have no matter what. The clencher: They never offer any sort of proof because that is beneath them. From upon their high horse they naysay with vigor. I've never understood why they work so to bring down the little person.

My mom would say, "They are just trying to make themselves feel/look better." With egos so large, I'm not sure how they might go about being better. I mean, according to them, they have arrived. They can't get any higher. So, when the little person gets tired of getting kicked around and rejected at every turn, they, well, WE get feisty because we're not the sort that gives up…EVER.

So I would encourage all writers everywhere to DO IT YOUR WAY. It doesn't matter how you do it as long as you do it and you are not directly hurting others. Start at the bottom and work your way up. You can't just put effort into things blindly and NEVER get a result. There is a pay off at some point. That pay off may not necessarily be monetary. I encourage you to put the $$$$ out of your mind. Write because you love it. Ponder the success stories of people who did something because they loved it and it paid off: Anne Frank, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling. Ignore the naysayers. They will ALWAYS be there.

 

Amanda Hocking – Indie Publishing Sensation

I can't emphasize enough (and I'm talking to myself as well) that NOW is the time to get in on the indie publishing scene. Up until recently, the only way to make it as a writer was to gamble and hope against hope that your luck would hold out or take a turn for the better. Becoming a published author entailed a grueling routine of submitting your manuscript to publishers. This task could entail jumping through a series of butt-kissing hoops and hoping you caught someone's eye. It could be months before you received that letter saying the publisher just wasn't interested in your blood, sweat and tears.

Amanda Hocking received a stack of rejection letters. She finally decided to try publishing her books for Kindle after doing a bit of research on the subject. It is IMPORTANT TO NOTE that if you are only seeing dollar signs $$$, perhaps you have more work to do on yourself mentally. The money is hard to ignore, but it can't be your focus in this endeavor. Just trust me on that. Amanda says on her blog, "I decided that even if I only sold a few copies of any book, it'd be better than the pile of rejections I had building up. And the no money I had in my checking account could use a boost."

Amanda has 9 works available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and Smashwords. In the previous article, we talked about John Locke's numbers. Amanda is doing just as well if not better. What's more is that she is transparent regarding her success. She has chronicled the process on her blog and seems very down-to-earth. She's just as shocked as we are at her success. There's no need for me to reproduce her numbers here. We got an idea of what kinda money we're talking about in the previous post. Besides, you can find all that on her site. The link will be included below.

WRITERS, I am appealing to you. It's worth a try. ProWebWriter.com currently has a book published for Kindle and Nook. You can read about it in this post if you missed it. The first week, I've gotten 2 sales. It's a start. Every sale is a shock…a good shock. My focus is almost completely on producing more books for self-publishing and running this Writers' Community. Please keep in mind that I am available to consult with you about e-book publishing. In the near future, ProWebWriter.com will be producing A LOT of free information on how you can get in on this scene.

Find Amanda Hocking Online:

Amanda's Blog

Amanda's Twitter

Amanda's Amazon Author Page