Shelli R. Johannes's Blog, page 28

Bookanista: Cover Love for Surrender (Elana Johnson)

Sorry I have been MIA. 





It's been one of those weeks: car broke down on highway going out of town, place we rented was full, computer crashed, my son had to poop in the woods (this was more disturbing that anything - not only the aftermath but the witnessing of it all) and my dog got attacked by fleas and then got a bad haircut.





So I've been out of commission to say the least - emotionally and digitally. yes usually crashes are not that bad but....(and this just added to my week) - my husband turned off time machine (so no backup) and I don't have AppleCare on this computer (only on hubby's).





Cant really totally blame him (can I?) but lets just say - he was lucky to be out of town b/c the wrath of Sheila (which is my dark side - kinda like Beyonce's Sasha Fierce side only not as sexy!) had descended upon the house and all in her path were in pins and needles. (yes I threatened my kids life at Apple store if they did not behave...they did...b/c they value human life.)





But thanks to Onyx Consulting in Decature (my new beffies) - they were able to back up when Apple couldn't AND got me back my computer in 2 business days! (Apple was at least 10!) I know - the electronic Gods shafted me but come through in the end. ( I already apologized for cursing them. However Murphy's Law owes me big time.)





Anyway, I'll get back to regularly scheduled posts on indie pubbing next week. 





I hosted a great yalitchat last night on self pubbing in the digital age - head over to yalitchat.com for the transcript if you missed it.





Thanks to Danielle Leafty for having me on her blog. I gave my best tips in marketing so check it out and let me know if you have questions.





Today I want to give a shot out to Elana Johnson for her fab new cover.





Go check it out here :)Love love love - Congrads Elana :)





Check out some other Bookanista posts today.



LiLa Roecker announces a winner - plus a Past Midnight series giveaway

Christine Fonseca reveals books she cannot wait to read
Shannon Messenger interviews Skyship Academy-Pearl Wars author Nick James & agent Jennifer Rofe
Jessi Kirby twirls for Audition
Beth Revis interviews My Very UnFairytale Life author Anna Staniszewski
Carrie Harris devours Deadly
Shana Silver burns for Circle of Fire
Stasia Ward Kehoe travels to The Day Before
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Guest Post: Elle Strauss (Clockwise)

[image error] Okay so the very best part of jumping into indie publishing is all the wonderfully sweet people that have reached out to me and who I have a feeling will be the beginning of a long friendship.





Elle Strauss is one of those. She has dropped by today to give us some advice about indie publishing.





Tell us about you and your book journey

My book is called CLOCKWISE, a YA rom/com about a teen time traveler who accidentally takes her secret crush back in time. Awkward.



I began this book four summers ago, on and off and once I'd had it read by beta readers and did about a thousand revisions I began querying. It took a few months to land an agent and Clockwise went out on submissions. I was so excited. It was finally happening! I had an agent and surely a book deal was right around the corner.



Wrong.



Who can explain these things, but sometimes worthy books don't find a home. It could be a case of missing the "trends" or a recession, or game changing technology. (Or, as in my case, all of the above.) Once I caught on that indie publishing was proving to be a successful option for many authors, I decided to give it a go. 

What do you think is the hardest thing about indie publishing?





Shouldering the pressure to succeed alone. (Or feeling like you're alone.)

What is your biggest advice for indie publishers?



Community! I love that we are a collaboration, not competitors. People will buy my book AND yours. When we help each other, we help ourselves.



What do you like to do outside of writing?





Besides reading and hanging out with friends and family? I like to hike, bike and do yoga. I also like to watch movies and certain TV shows. (Ahem, Castle, anyone?) 



What is the biggest mistake you have made in publishing world?



What was a mistake for me may not be a mistake for another author. I hired a third party to format and upload my book for me instead of doing it myself. Hiring to save time and effort is not a bad idea except with this company I couldn't make changes after it was uploaded, or track sales, which I found to be important information I needed in order to assess my marketing efforts. I didn't realize this when I made the decision. I have since formatted and uploaded the files myself, and it wasn't that big of a deal. For some reason I'd come to believe that formatting was this big, hard, thing, when it's not, really. 

If you could travel in a Time Machine would you go back to the past or into the future?

I think we'd all love a chance at a do-over in some part of our life, wouldn't we? I'd like to do high school over. I'd focus on my grades and my friends, instead of boys. I wouldn't care so much about what people thought of me and I definitely wouldn't get that PERM. 





What's the craziest writing idea you've had?



Well, I had this crazy idea to write a companion book for CLOCKWISE, which I'm totally doing now. I have half of a first draft. I plan to finish it during Nanowrimo, not as an official entrant, since it's half written, but just to ride on the nano energy, and git'er dun.





If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?

Oh, that's easy. LATE BLOOMER. 

You can also see Elle on Twitter and Facebook.http://feeds.feedburner.com/Faerialit...

Bookanista Buzz - Ditched by Robin Mellom!

Here is Ditched by Robin Mellom coming your way Jan 10th! A book that made me laugh over the summer when I needed it most.

High school senior Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. So she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.


Ian, who always passed her the baseball bat handle first. 
Ian, who knew exactly when she needed red licorice. 
Ian, who promised her the most amazing night at prom. 
And then ditched her.

Now, as the sun rises over her small town, and with only the help of some opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven, Justina must piece together – stain by stain on her thrift-store dress – exactly how she ended up dateless. A three-legged Chihuahua was involved. Along with a demolition derby-ready Cadillac. And there was that incident at the tattoo parlor. Plus the flying leap from Brian Sontag's moving car… 
But to get the whole story, Justina will have to face the boy who ditched her. And discover if losing out at prom can ultimately lead to true love.

Side note: Spend all my time with Robin in LA and she is as funny as Justina and just as crazy :)





Top ten reasons I heart this book:





1) Robin makes stains cool because they have stories. See I always get stains on my shirt whether they are mine or my kids but never thought about the story behind them, now my stains are powerful writing prompts.





2) I get to relive my time I spent at 7-Eleven growing up drinking slushies. Justina converses with 2 hilarious ladies at the 7-Eleven telling them her stories.





3) Justina was hilarious and interested yet still flawed and real. Just like your best friend you loved but would sometimes drive you crazy and you wanted to shake her!! Justina's voice and how she sees the world is true to teens.





4) The chapter heading were amusing and different.





5) It made my horrific Prom night in the dress I designed (hence I am not a designer) a cake walk. Thanks Justina for making me feel like LESS of a loser. 





6. Love the little nuances about Justina's and Ian's bipolar relationship (friend, foe or crush?). Like when he brings her cookies b/c she gets low blood sugar and the shakes (who doesn't). 





7) Its an easy light read which is a nice break from the heavy and dark paranormal stuff coming our way.





8) Robin definitely doesn't take it easy on Justina - everything that could go wrong does in a hilarious way. less just say wardrobe malfunctions, bad pranks, and misplaced kissing. 





9) It's like a modern day 16 candles. If it could go wrong, it does but in the end its all okay. I kept hearing that Thompson Twins song in my head when they were leaning over the cake on the table.





10) The secondary characters had so much life. Mike and the "other Mike" were hilarious stoners. That's all I'll say about that.





Loved it and you will too :)





Check out the other Bookanista posts:





LiLa Roecker  hosts The White Assassin blog tour stop – with giveawayChristine Fonseca  celebrates How to Save a LifeShana Silver shivers for Shatter MeStasia Ward Kehoe applauds VirtuosityVeronica Rossi  is ensnared by Girl of Fire and ThornsShelli Johannes-Wells delves into Ditched



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What to consider when creating other formats?'

First, I all of a sudden looked up and realized it was Wednesday and I had not posted this week.





Yikes.





The biggest problem with ebooks (besides the slew that are low quality and printed at Kinkos) is distribution. If people can't get access to your books then why sell them at all?





Today, I wanted to quickly go through how to decide what format to choose for your indie published book. But how do you know what format to do them in?





1) Think about whether you just want digital or also want a physical copy.

Some people only want to go digital in indie publishing and they make great money and have little hassle. Indie writers don't make much off paperbacks. With Amazon's 70% royalty (if your list price is 2.99 or above - you can make about $2 on every 2.99 book sold. That's great compared to most publishers. I think we will see a time in the future where authors will try and keep their digital rights b/c the royalty rate is low and put out the ebooks themselves once the physical book is available.





2) Going Digital? Decide what ebook formats. 

If you just want your book available on Amazon - it will only go to those people with Kindles. B&N has Pub it, which only goes to Nooks. So - do you want all the other ereaders to have access? I say why not? Smashwords will sell your book in most formats for Sony, or iBooks etc. So why not. I think it will cost you extra time and probably under $50. So what do you have to lose. I will say about 80% of sales come from B&N and Amazon (mostly Amazon) so it might not be worth it to you.





3) Want physical copies? Understand your royalties first!

Okay so this is where indie published authors vary. Some only do digital, others do paperback while some do hardback (only Lightning source offers that). The problem is the royalty - I mean if you are not smart - you will end up paying for people to buy your book, which sucks. So it comes down to money.(doesn't everything?)





Theer are tons of POD companies - LuLu,  iUniverse etc - but I have heard CreateSpace and LS are the best from reliable sources so I don't have time to research all of them.





Paperbacks





Now you can just do paperback on Createspace at Amazon (no hardback). But it is only available through Amazon online. In order to get a good royalty on Amazon, use this calculator to figure it out to be sure it is worth your while. I'll tell you now - the shorter - the better. 





For example - if Person A has a book that is 350 pages and wants to sell it for 9.99, they lose about 

-$2.50 for every book. I know - seems crazy right? At that point your only option is to upgrade for about 40$ to the Pro plan and then you would make 90 cents a copy. Not too bad. 





But if Person B writes massive books - like 500 pages - then they will lose across the board - whether they do Pro Plan or not. It doesn't make sense for B to do a physical book through CreateSpace at all. At that point they should look into Lightning Source.





Amazon offers Extended distribution which gets you bookstores and libraries online but as you can see - it doesn't seem worth your while b/c the royalty rate is hard to get above negative unless you do novellas at under 200 pages. Plus most indie bookstores and libraries don't order through Amazon (esp with everything going on.)





Hardbacks





If you want Hardbacks? Lightning Source is your only option. CreateSpace does not do them. I am looking into that to understand pricing and haven't decided on it yet....I will let you know as I learn more. I do know you can also get dustjackets





4) Lightning Source - another option for paperbacks AND hardbacks

They offer better royalty rates but I've heard the paper is either blue or grey - so not sure how that works. They offer extended distribution but are more expensive. However, you get on Ingram which makes it able to be ordered from any bookstore, libraries etc. That means you HAVE to get an ISBN where if you do it through Createspace - you don't. So again - that is another expense of at least $150-250 dollars. So some people don't do it. To me if I'm spending $1,000 to get the book out - what is $1,250 in the scale of things if it means more access? You can do this at a later date once you see how your PB are selling too. They are more expensive and harder to navigate.





5) What am I doing?

I am doing an ebook in all formats, which will cost me about 100$ to set up b/c I am getting the pro plans at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. 





I will list price my ebook at 2.99 so I will make about 2.10 a book. 





As far as I know, my paperback will be on Amazon and is about 370 pages so at $9.99, i will get about 70 cents a book.  BTW - if you are trying to figure out how big your book is - use mine as an example. My book was about 80,000 words and about 275 pages (double spaces 12 font) and when I formatted it to standard 5x8 - it ended up 375 with 12 font garamond and 1.2 line spacing. Maybe that will help.





Now here's the clincher - I THINK I am doing Createspace and Lightning Source. Will probably focus on ebooks first, than do paperback at createspace, then move to LS. Why would I do that when LS offers everything Createspace does? 





Well, I heard Amazon will blackball all LS titles if they are not through Createspace by marking them out of stock and leaving them out of search engines. Now, I don't know if it's true, but I could see how easy it would be for them to do that. Plus I really don't want all my eggs in the Amazon basket. It scares me and I'm not sure I fully trust where they are headed. Not to mention I have heard libraries and bookstores talking about boycotting amazon - its the only power they have against them right now.





Bottom line - I want my book available to anyone and everyone. I want it to be professional and I want to minimize any notion that it is self pubbed by making it easy to get. Of course, I do not want to lose money though either. So I am still working out all the details. 





I will say I am spending a MASSIVE amount of time researching this. So make sure you do your research and don't rely on mine. I'm sifting through it all the best I can and trying to summarize but there are a lot of minor things you will need to understand (list prices, sales prices etc)





Indie publishing is NOT the easy way out. I'm realizing to do it right - it is hard work. Lets hope it all pays off.





Current Expenses

9$ for stock photo

$400 for editing with professional editor

170$ for an 3 day ad (I will talk about this next week)





Expected costs

* not totally sold yet yet 

40$ CreateSpace Pro Plan

150 Lightning Source*

250 ISBN block*





Time - priceless (someone asked me to log how many hrs I'm spending - right now about 5 hours a day to get everything set up. I don't expect to spend as much time once the book is out.)





Let me know what questions you have! :)http://feeds.feedburner.com/Faerialit...

Guest Post: PJ Hoover on Independent publishing

As I mentioned, every Friday from until the end of the year, I am celebrating independent publishing. 

Schedule:Oct 12 - General tips and tricks from Lisa Nowak and othersOct 14 - PJ Hoover (Solstice)Oct 21 - Elle - (Clockwise)
Oct 28 - Michelle (Monarch)
Nov 4 - Danyelle - (Catspell)
Nov 11 - Ali - (Become)
Nov 18 - Jessie (Destined)
Dec 2 - Karen Hooper (Tangled Tides)
Dec 9 - Megg Jensen (The Cloud Prophet triology)
Dec 16 - Susan Bischoff (Hush Money, Talent Chronicles)


Today P.J. Hoover stops by to tell us more about independent publishing.

Thanks for inviting me to guest blog over here, Shelli! I'm so happy to get the chance to hang with your readers! For those who don't know, back in May, I independently published my first young adult novel, SOLSTICE, with the assistance of my literary agent, Laura Rennert, at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. 

SOLSTICE is a story set in a global warming future, and it's what happens when mythology and dystopia collide. You can read all about it on my website, and I'm always happy to answer any questions asked.

There's been lots of talk in the publishing world about the shifts in independent publishing, and plenty of authors are considering it. So I thought I'd share with you three reasons you might want to consider it and three reasons you might not.

Three Reasons you Might Want to Independently Publish your Novel:

1)    It follows a trend, and that trend is hot now. In a year or two, the trend may be on the downswing. Check what publishing deals are being made, and if your topic feels like it is fading in the market then you may want to consider indie-publishing rather than losing the market entirely.

2)    You want a chance at something exciting and cutting edge. The publishing market is changing on a daily basis, and it's a great time to give indie-publishing a go.

3)    Your agent is a rock star, and she suggests it as an option for you to consider.

Three Reasons you Might Not Want to Independently Publish your Novel:

1)    Everyone who has read your novel has loved it, but this list is comprised entirely of your husband, your best friend, and you mother. Before you make any decision, get valuable feedback from qualified editors, authors, or agents.

2)    Impatience is your driving factor. Putting a book up on Amazon does not guarantee overnight success. There are lots (and lots) of ebooks being published every day. Wait until yours is really ready.

3)    There is still a stigma. Even with increased popularity of indie-publishing, readers and reviewers definitely still exist who will not read indie-published books. Knowing this going is in critical. If you're going to indie-publish, accept this fact and roll with it.

Whatever decision you come to, take the time to think it through. Make sure you're making the decision for the right reasons.

Now, let's say you've decided to take that manuscript and indie-publish it. How can you go about marketing this new creation? What should you do, and what should you not?

Three Things you May Want to Consider when Marketing your Indie Novel:

1)    Blog Tours – No matter whether your book is indie or traditional, these are a great way to go about getting the word out about your novel. Yes, this will involve giving away digital copies of your book, and writing lots of guest posts and interviews. But accept it and make it fun.

2)    Mastering the twenty second pitch. No longer. Seriously. People are busy these days. If you happen to run across an old coworker at the grocery store and they ask you about your writing, be prepared to give them the "very quick" version that had been tailored to hook them. And then hand them a postcard with information on it J

3)    Group Marketing. I mentioned there are lots of indie authors these days. Find out who they are and make friends. We have a wonderful writing world, and joining people who have the same goals as you is key. If you can't find the right group, consider forming one yourself. Reach out. Other authors will be happy you did.

Three Things you May NOT Want to Consider when Marketing your Indie Novel:

1)    Spamming people. Nobody wants to be spammed. Sure, it is fine to send out an email or a newsletter on the day of your release, but don't start sticking your book info on other people's Facebook walls. That's just uncool.

2)    Never showing interest in other people's writing and books. We're all out here writing and marketing books. Be genuinely interested in what other people are up to. Dominating relationships with only your own stuff will get old very quickly.

3)    Being stingy about sending review e-books. Seriously, this is costing you zero. If someone wants to read your book enough to email you and they are fine with the digital version, send it to them. And thank them.

Good luck! And thank you again for letting me be here! I appreciate the support J

 =========



P. J. Hoover first fell in love with Greek mythology in sixth grade thanks to the book MythologyTHE TEXAS SWEETHEARTS & SCOUNDRELS. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing Kung Fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek. Her first novel for teens, Solstice, takes place in a Global Warming future and explores the parallel world of mythology beside our own. Her middle grade fantasy novels, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, and The Necropolis, chronicle the adventures of a boy who discovers he's part of two feuding worlds hidden beneath the sea.

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Bookanista Buzz - Recent Book Launches

Because I've been so busy I have forgotten to blog about a few books I've read lately. So this is a little snippet of each and a shout out to the authors.....







Stasia Kehoe - Audition (Happy Book B-Day!!!)When high school junior Sara wins a coveted scholarship to study ballet, she must sacrifice everything for her new life as a professional dancer-in-training. Living in a strange city with a host family, she's deeply lonely-until she falls into the arms of Remington, a choreographer in his early twenties. At first, she loves being Rem's muse, but as she discovers a surprising passion for writing, she begins to question whether she's chosen the right path. Is Rem using her, or is it the other way around? And is dancing still her dream, or does she need something more? This debut novel in verse is as intense and romantic as it is eloquent.

What I loved: I love a good book written in verse mixing love and ballet. The writing is beautiful - uh yeah I was jealous. Oh yeah and the guy on the cover is hot :)







Michelle Hodkin - The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer



Mara Dyer doesn't believe life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can.                                                                                                                                             She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.                                                                                                       She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

What I love: The voice is amazing and the atmosphere spooky. um hello - Noah is hot too - let's not pretend. This is a twist on the paranormal books out there and a fresh take. 





Scott Tracey - Witch Eyes

A boy who can see the world's secrets and unravel spells with just a glance.Braden's witch eyes give him an enormous power. A mere look causes a kaleidoscopic explosion of emotions, memories, darkness, and magic. But this rare gift is also his biggest curse. Compelled to learn about his shadowed past and the family he never knew, Braden is drawn to the city of Belle Dam, where he is soon caught between two feuding witch dynasties. Sworn rivals Catherine Lansing and Jason Thorpe will use anything--lies, manipulation, illusion, and even murder--to seize control of Braden's powers. To stop an ancient evil from destroying the town, Braden must master his gift, even through the shocking discovery that Jason is his father. While his feelings for an enigmatic boy named Trey grow deeper, Braden realizes a terrible truth: Trey is Catherine Lansing's son . . . and Braden may be destined to kill him.





What I loved: Love Braden. he's just as funny as Scott - if not more so :) The story has everything, mystery, heartbreak, suspense, and love.





Lisa Albert -  Mercy Lily



Lily's mother has slowly been losing herself to multiple sclerosis. After traditional treatment fails, she uses bee sting therapy, administered by Lily, to alleviate her pain. Lily is trained as a veterinary assistant, so she can easily handle the treatments. What she can't handle is what happens when the bee sting therapy fails and it becomes clear that her mom wants to die. One beautiful spring day, Lily's mother asks her for the most impossible thing of all—mercy. While navigating first love, friendship, and other normal worries faced by high school sophomores, Lily also has to choose: help her mom go, or cling to her fading life for all it's worth.





What I loved: I related to Lily. My grandmother has MS and died of it so I connected with this storyline and the question of letting someone live in pain or die in peace. Lily's inner turmoil broke my heart more than once.











Check out other Bookanista Posts:







Elana Johnson offers a preview of upcoming awesome!

LiLa Roecker dances for Audition

Christine Fonseca  is wowed by Witch Eyes

Beth Revis  features a guest post by Darkfall author Janice Hardy

Carolina Valdez Miller steps up to Audition – with giveaway

Shana Silver contemplates The Future of Us

Carrie Harris is dazzled by Don't Stop Now

Corrine Jackson celebrates the success of Epic Fail



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Tips and Tricks from Indie Authors

I shot out an email to a few blogger buddies of mine that are/have self pubbed or are being published with a small, independent publisher.





Thanks to everyone who took time to send some tips. Some of these ladies will also be coming back on Fridays to provide more insight.

Oct 12th - Tips and tricks featuring Lisa Nowak - (Running Wide Open)
Oct 14th - PJ Hoover (Solstice)  
Oct 21st - Elle Strauss - Clockwise (just released 9/26)
Oct 28th - Michelle Davidson Argyle (Monarch)
Nov 4th - Danielle Leafty - Catspell (coming 11/7)
Nov 11th - Ali Cross - Become (coming11/11)
Nov 18th - Jessee Harrell - Destined (coming 11/17)
Dec 2nd - Karen Hooper (Tangled Tides, coming 11/1)
Dec 9th - Megg Jensen (The Cloud Prophet Trilogy and The Swarm Trilogy)
Dec 16th - Susan Bichoff (Hush Money, The Talent Chronicles)
Check out all these books! 





Lisa Nowak

As far as copyediting goes, even if you hire someone, things are likely to sneak through. It's a good idea to have several people read it to check for typos. 
I also downloaded WordTalk to my computer and had it read my Word documents back to me. You find a lot of missing and transposed words this way. Stuff our eyes seem to skip over. helps with editing. Here's a link to a blog post I did about it with some tips on how to get it to work.
If you decide to do paperback. Lightning source does a great job. The biggest thing about LSI is it makes you look more legit. They're a professional printing company that works with many big publishers to print their backlist. They're associated with Ingram and Baker and Taylor, so they have a greater distribution channel, including in the UK and Australia with no extra effort on the part of the author. 
You don't have to get ISBNs unless you plan to use Lightning source. Go to Bowker and you can buy them as a single or in clumps (10,100 etc). 
In your case, since you only plan to do this one book and your finances are limited, you might consider purchasing 20 ISBNs from Bowker. You'll need at least four. One for Smashwords, one for Amazon, one for Barnes and Noble, and one for POD if you intend to release the book that way. You can get 20 for $250. If you get just one it costs $125. I sprung for 100, but that's a chunk of change at $575. 
It's true that Amazon has it's own numbering system, but it's still more professional to give a book an ISBN. Whoever owns the ISBN is considered the publisher, so if you want to be the publisher (rather than Amazon) you need an ISBN.
You need an ISBN for different formats - paperback, hardback, ebook.
Formatting isn't that tough. If you follow the Smashwords Style Guide (a free download) you won't have any trouble. Be sure to use the nuclear option to get rid of all the wonky formatting Word tosses in a document.
Trade "teasers" to place at the end of another book in your genre to cross promote.
A friend of mine is experimenting with getting ebooks into brick and mortar stores by having plastic cards printed up to place in the stores. The cards have a scratch away area on the back with a unique code beneath. The buyer goes to the publisher website, enters the code, and is allowed to download a book. The cards sell for $2.99 and I think it costs around $160 for 100 cards. I only spoke to her briefly about this, so I'm not sure on the details. The company is Spirehouse books  
Here are some other things these ladies had to say - 





General Advice

Surround yourself with a support network of writers. I have a core group at DarkSide Publishing. We support each other through our successes and failures. It's great to have a close-knit group who gets exactly what you're going through.
Don't be afraid to edit! Get brutally honest critiques. If you don't agree with a change, see if more than one person suggests the same thing. If they do, take off your blinders and change it.
Keep learning about the craft of writing. Don't get so caught up in your new author status and assume you know it all. You don't. Take classes. Attend critique groups. Go to conferences. Make new writer friends. Trust me, you'll have fun doing it!
Making a Good book

I can write a novel in three weeks or less. It takes months to edit. Revisions should be many rounds of critiques, tears, and ten additional pounds from eating cookies. You may think you're going insane. This is normal.

Covers and edits should not be scrimped on. This is our labor of love and I don't want someone judging me harshly b/c I didn't put my absolute all into it. If they don't like it once it's out, then at least I know I did my best. No regrets. 
You may already know this, but Scrivener software will compile your book in mobi and epub. You can then open the file in Kindle or Nook, and see exactly what it looks like before you upload it. You don't have to deal with html for Kindle, or trust that Amazon will format your doc or pdf file correctly. 
Who to use?Smashwords is the best (and possibly only) way an indie author can get on Apple's iBookstore. Make sure you follow their formatting guide, even though you might want to kill yourself the first time. It's totally worth it!
If you use Smashwords, you can opt out of Amazon and B&N to do on your own.
I'm doing my paperback at CreateSpace but the covers may not be as good as I hoped. I hear Lightning Source has a better cover offering.
Don't forget to register your book as a copywright at copywrite.gov
Marketing

Run over to www.kindleboards.com. There's a lot of great information and it's a great place to read more about how different marketing experiences worked for other indies.
When it comes to marketing, try out great websites like Kindle Nation Daily and Pixel of Ink. Most authors earn back the money they spend, plus profit. They're great for exposure to readers you may not reach through blog tours or contests on your website. Do not be afraid to invest in yourself.
Keep the blog tour short. Instead of spreading eleven blog hosts over eleven days I stacked them over four days. I did this to prevent fatigue from both the blog readers, and myself. I didn't want to bore them by talking about my blog tour for weeks and I've heard how exhausting blog tours can be for authors.  
I read that Amazon rankings are effected by how many sales take place in one day. I'm not sure how it works, but it's one of the reasons most of my blog tour hosts were booked on one day.
Resources

Get Zoe Winters book on self publishing - it tells you everything you need to know. 
John Locke was the first ebooker to sell 1 million ebooks. He just made huge deal with S&S but kept his ebook rights.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29261
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
http://write2publish.blogspot.com/
http://kriswrites.com/
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/
http://www.newselfpublishing.com/


Also Sarah LaPolla - an agent at Curtis - just did a great indie series. Check it out!

What question do you have for me? Let me know if this is what you want to know or if there is another topic I haven't touched on yet.

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Editing - is it necessary?

Housekeeping Stuff





I am collecting names for my newsletter. If you are not sure if you signed up - you can always sign up again. You won't get double I promise.





If you sign up between today and my launch, you will get a free ebook on everything I have learned about self publishing and online marketing - this will be for anyone who is self publishing or who markets online. I'm pulling together and formatting all my notes on this whole process as well as some online marketing tips and tricks (some I haven't even talked about yet) and putting them all into one place. I plan to be complete by Jan once I get through the entire process. That way you would not have to go back through a bunch of old posts to find information. Who knows maybe I'll even turn it into a self pubbed book one day :)





My newsletter will have author news, but it will also have arc giveaways, marketing contests, as well as online marketing and self pubbing advice. The first one will go out before my launch. If you don't like it after that - you can opt out and still get the ebook.





Also I added my online virtual launch party to Facebook so you can sign up there if you didn't get it. :) I will be doing an online chat on online marketing, self publishing journey, and my book as well as giving away prizes and special secrets.





If you are on Goodreads, friend me :) You can also mark Untraceable "to read". Somehow, it's already gotten on some good lists: Self publishing books to watch for in 2011 and Best Cover.  Nice :)





Enough boring stuff....





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Editing - is it worth it? And why?





I just got my copyedits back.





First, let me say if you need a good copyeditor, email me. Because mine was AWESOME!





Untraceable has been through the ringer more than once. In addition to the scrutiny of my former agent and slew of beta readers, Untraceable was also recently edited by Lexa Hillyer at Paper Lantern and Emily Lawrence (previously at Aladdin). 





These two editors were great for my book and I HIGHLY recommend them. If you need their information, you can email me offline.





Now, I did not include this original editing cost in my current eXperiment budget b/c I'm not sure I would have used both or spent as much if I had known I was going to self publish. Not that it wasn't worth it - but now I'm on a different budget. I would say look to spend anywhere from $25-$50 an hour to get a reputable editor to work with you. At the time, I needed a fresh perspective. Editing and covers are definitely going to be the biggest expenses for any self publisher.





What I found out this week is that overall editing and copy edits are very different. I never knew this before. I assumed editing was editing. Just like I assumed revising was just copyediting.





Here's the difference:





Book Editing:

This editor looks at the whole story - the big picture. They make sure you have a roadmap and are thinking about the key story elements of Flush out the plot and subplots. What is waste? Do your characters have an arc and how do they grow over the book? 



Copy Editing:

This editor checks for spelling errors, grammatical errors and structural errors and sticks to a style/manual - Chicago manual etc. This editor's job is to make sure words are spelled correctly, the correct word is used (example. since vs sense), the correct punctuation is used, there are no run on sentences, there are no redundancies, and the topic stays the same in each paragraph and the paragraph before and the paragraph after cohere. They also look for inconsistencies in wording or style or tone.



An editor is usually more big picture and a copy editor is down in the deets. These jobs sometimes overlap some as editors definitely catch typos and smaller stuff while the copy editor also finds overarching inconsistencies and plot problems. But, these jobs are usually - and almost always - done by two different people. I always assumed if you had your book edited - it would include both. WRONG!  





My decision





At first, I thought since I had the book professionally edited, I would not need a copy editor.  I went back and forth about doing copy edits, but my traditional author friends encouraged - no insisted - that I needed them. Now that I see my edits, wow, I am so glad I did it!!!





Two main reason why copy editing is critical:





1) Copy editing caught all those things NO ONE else did. Punctuations, inconsistencies (green eyes or brown eyes), did I type "form" and mean "from". etc I had no idea how much was in there! I would have been mortified had I put that out. 





2) I wanted to put out the best product I can and be proud. No regrets. I don't want to just see a book out there, I want to see my book at it's very best. 





3) Increase the chances of success and your credibility.  Trust me, there are already a lot of naysayers out there that probably do not support self publishing or even me doing it for that matter. And, I personally don't want to give anyone a reason to say "oh! no wonder she is self publishing". 





4) Go for quality. Whether any of us wants to admit it - at some point that doubt about self publishing is what goes through our traditional-publishing loving minds when we first see someone is self publishing. It is what holds us back from self publishing. It is what has held me back. It is why I am experimenting with the process.





I'll admit it. I felt that way at one time. I guess it was because the self publishing I had seen at the time wasn't good and never seemed to be high quality work. I'm especially picky on covers and jacket copy. I can tell a touched up photo a mile away. Whether it's on a traditional book or self published book - I can see it immediately.





But I'm here to say, NOT ALL self published authors fall into the "cheap or homemade category". It's time we change our mindsets on this. Because it's not always true. There are some great authors self publishing. Look at Mandy Hubbard - she and Cyn Balog just came out with a book that is self pubbed. And I KNOW they are good.





Sure there are a lot of books that people publish that have been written in a week with no beta readers and have been slapped up on Amazon with clipart and typos. But there are also some GREAT authors out there that have WONDERFUL products, covers and writing, and do it right. Unfortunately, we all get lumped in a stack together, no matter what our product looks like. 





How do you find a good one?





There are a bunch of bad copy editors. So don't be fooled. 





1) Find someone that someone has used. That is how I found mine. A recommendation.





2) Ask them for a sample of a few pages (one page is not enough) so you can see their work. This is standard. If they won't do it, don't hire them. The three I looked at all did samples.





3) Check their rates and timeline. You need a guaranteed rate - I would go for project rate not hourly - and give a deadline.





4) Don't pay until the work is done. A deposit is okay but most won't ask for it upfront.





5) Find out if they are tracking changes or writing changes on the manuscript. Some people think writing it catches more than reading it. I prefer tracked changes.





So if you self publish, not only do you need beta readers, but I feel you also need an editor (like Lexa or Emily) who will make sure your story is the best it can be. At the end of the line, it can only help if you also hire a copy editor.





My thought: do not do this if you aren't committed to doing it right. Self pubbing is not the easy way out and it shouldn't be the cheap way out. It's a feasible option that works for some and not for them.





But can guarantee you this -  your book will NEVER have its best chance if it isn't the best it can be.  If it looks cheap and isn't well done... if it is full of typos...if you cut corners, the reader will know. They will think you didn't care enough about them to get it right and will be upset they paid money.





Editing can catch all the little things that could be the little difference between a book being good and a book being great.





Here are some articles on editing:

What it looks like

Cost of editing vs not editing

Don't skip the copyedits



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Bookanista Buzz - The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Okay, I love this book! And yay! It was just announced that 2 more are coming.....





I will go out on a limp and say I even love it more than The Body Finder!





And I stayed up all night in 2 nights to finish that one.





In the violent country of Ludania, the language you speak determines what class you are, and there are harsh punishments if you forget your place—looking a member of a higher class in the eye can result in immediate execution. 





Seventeen-year-old Charlaina (Charlie for short) can understand all languages, a dangerous ability she's been hiding her whole life. Her only place of release is the drug-filled underground club scene, where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. There, she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy who speaks a language she's never heard, and her secret is almost exposed. 





Through a series of violent upheavals, it becomes clear that Charlie herself is the key to forcing out the oppressive power structure of her kingdom….





What I loved about this book:





1) A fresh take on dystopia and fantasy all rolled into one.

2) It's creepy!

3) I love that the ruler is a woman - finally!

4) Max's little note - so sweet - love him.

5) The unexpected twists and reveals

6) I loved Charlie (MC) from the start. Felt sorry for her. Can't imagine hiding a gift so powerful it could cause your death.

7) The queen was nasty and it was scary what was going on in her head/thoughts.

8) Did I mention Max is hot?!

9) It's so pacy!!!! I read it in like a day.

10) The implication of language and hot it can bring together or break up society. (yeah a little heavy But I'm not as dumb as I might look :)

11) I love the cover!

12) I adore Kimberly too :)





Check out the other Bookanista posts:



Elana Johnson  is obsessed with Possess
Christine Fonseca  twirls for Audition
Shannon Whitney Messenger is wowed by The White Assassin – with giveaway
Beth Revis interviews The Girl of Fire & Thorns author Rae Carson
Carolina Valdez Miller delves into The Future of Us – with signed book giveaway
Shana Silver shouts out about Shut Out
Sarah Frances Hardy fancies You Will Be My Friend
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ebook eXperiment: Those pesky little ISBNs!

**Sorry about the late post - my son was sick today!** Thanks for the little  notes and tweets asking me when I was posting today! It's nice to be missed. :)





This week

Budget hasn't changed ---yet.
I am working to get book to copyedits - people who signed up for the ebook tour should get their review copy the week of Oct 17th which gives you 6 weeks to read.
Oh yeah - and I'm much more scared this week, wondering if I made a huge mistake in doing this or that it is going to fail but trying to ignore those thoughts. THIS IS HARD WORK! Definitely not the easy way out!
Because I have gotten asked about paperbacks - I am looking in it. The more I looked into libraries and schools - the more I realized they don't all have access to ebooks. Question is how - Lightning source or Createspace?





I'll talk more about that next week. Buy yay!





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Today I want to talk about ISBNs b/c I am still figuring these little stinkers out, but here is what I know (or think I know) so far:





Why do you need one? 

Your book and you appear more professional. Think of them like business cards. You don't need one, but if you don't have one - you may not appear credible.
They stay with the book for life.
The distribution is wider especially with schools and libraries. That is how most of them order books so you are cutting out your market if you don't get one.
It's best to buy ISBNs in blocks of 10, 100 etc - that way you can use them for other books or when publishing new editions that have changed.
What do the 13 digits mean?

A "978" prefix
A group or country identifier;
The publisher identifier; (This is you!)
The title identifier, which is for a particular title or edition;
A "check digit" at the end, which validates the ISBN
Tips:

You do not need one for Amazon. They assign their own number. ASIN
You do not need one for Barnes and Noble. They assign their own number.
You do need one for iTunes/iBooks.
If you use Smashwords, they can assign one for their customers. But I believe it is only good for Smashwords. You can get a free one and list Smashwords as publisher or you can be a premium member and pay 10$ for your own.
You have to have a different ISBN for different formats - so ebook formats would each need 1 and paperback would be another.
Make sure it is 13 digits (not 10) - most places require 13.
You can buy them from Bowker or isbn.org - 10 costs about $275.
Even when you have an ISBN - you must register them at Bowker. 
A self pub ISBN has a number that identifies it as an indie/self pub book so bookstores know when they see it.
ISBN goes on the copyright page. And above the scan code on a physical book.
If you want a library to order - you will also need a LCCN.
You need an ISBN for each ebook file you publish (epub, etc) - I'm still trying to figure out what this means. So now I think I have to buy 10.
On some books you may see a 10 digit ISBN and a 13 digit - They changed the format a few years ago and kept both identifiers.
So basically if I do ebook and B&N, Amazon, and Smashwords. I will need ISBNs (again I think they are important) for each format as well as for paperback. 





So looks like I'm going to have to add about $275 to my budget? Sigh.

If you have any additional tips or clarifications - let me know!http://feeds.feedburner.com/Faerialit...