Benjamin M. Weilert's Blog: BMW the Blog, page 4

Audible isn’t the only way to distribute an audiobook

Over the last two months, I’ve covered how to create noise-free audio files and what it takes to produce said audiobook. However, the best voice acting and production values in the world won’t mean a thing if nobody has a chance to purchase your audiobook. As with most things on the internet, the de-facto place to get audiobooks is Amazon. More specifically, the Amazon-owned Audible service. Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) is the one way for self-published authors to get their books into the ears of Audible listeners. Still, it’s not the only way to distribute an audiobook.

Having never created an audiobook before, I was worried that my recordings wouldn’t meet the quality standards of ACX. I knew was a test to determine if I could successfully self-publish my book via Audible, but what if they didn’t accept it? I had put in a lot of work to make sure I had created an audiobook I was proud of, but it would be wasted if nobody could listen to it. As a result, I started pondering other ways to distribute my audiobook if the Audible angle didn’t work.

Audiobooks can come from places other than Audible.

While I was elated that First Name Basis was accepted as an audiobook into the Audible catalog, I still wanted to try offering it in a few different formats for my readers. This decision caused me to take the 40% royalty option instead of the 60% Audible-exclusive royalty option. As the rights holder of my audiobook, I can distribute it any way I want to, even if it means missing out on some money from Audible. On the flip side, I can get 100% of the royalties with some of these alternate distribution methods. Sure, Audible is the easiest method for most people to get my audiobook, but I wanted to see if I could create these three other formats:

1. Compact Discs

Yes, I realize most people do not have CD players anymore. The thing is, most of the audiobooks I grew up with were on tape or CD as my family took long car drives across the country. With this in mind, I wanted to see if I could make this audiobook into a multi-CD set. It turns out, with a short enough audiobook, I can. The limit seems to be a six-CD set, as it’s difficult to find packaging that accommodates more discs than that (I ended up using a DVD case that fits six discs). This means my audiobook is limited to eight hours or less. Fortunately, First Name Basis comes in at just under seven hours. The key to making this format work was purchasing the cases, slipcovers, inserts, and CDs from blankmediaprinting.com. Because I could have my original artwork used on these items, I could create a CD audiobook that almost nearly mimics the look and feel of the paperback. While it was a little tedious burning six audio CDs (not mp3 CDs) for each set, I feel it was worth it. The big secret about this one is ordering blank CDs that allow you to write what each disc is so you don’t have to get six separate orders of CDs.

CD and USB versions of the First Name Basis audiobook.2. USB Card

After I produced the mp3 files for First Name Basis, I realized that most people have USB drives in their car that they can use to listen to mp3s. This helped overcome the hurdle of CDs becoming obsolete. Fortunately, the mp3 files were just over 500 MB in total, so I wouldn’t need a huge USB drive to distribute the audiobook in this format. The trick with the USB method is that I wanted something that still had the look and feel of the cover so people would know that it was an audiobook at a glance. That’s when I stumbled across Vistaprint’s USB cards. I had already made business cards with some of my book covers, so this was a perfect fit for what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, it looks like Vistaprint no longer has this product, but a cursory Google search found a lot of similar options. The one drawback to both this and the CD option is the cost. On average, with coupons, a batch of 25 units costs about $10 to create (with shipping included). This means I have to sell these items for more than $10 to turn any profit. This is why I like the last option for distributing my audiobook…

3. Direct Digital Download

Having all the mp3s for this project made it easy to produce this audiobook’s CD and USB versions. It also meant I could upload a zip file of the audiobook to Google Drive and provide a direct download link for anyone who wanted to purchase it directly from me. This option is the most profitable for me since I can keep the $15 cost for the other two options and pocket the whole amount without needing to create a physical product. It’s why most authors like selling eBooks: little to no overhead. Of course, this option also assumes you have an online storefront where people can buy your books. Personally, I like the free option Square provides as part of its services. I can also sell eBooks directly to customers through my Square storefront, once again netting all the profits (minus Square’s reasonable transaction fees).

The more formats your book is in, the fewer excuses people have not to read it.

Along with Audible, these three options are great ways to get your audiobook to eager listeners. Granted, these options allow you to make some profit from the sale of your audiobook. You put a lot of work into it, after all. Alternatively, you can try uploading it to iTunes as a podcast or using the audio files to create videos to post on YouTube so people can listen to your audiobook for free. In fact, I’m working on getting the first chapter of First Name Basis up on YouTube to entice people to get the rest of the audiobook. Sometimes a little hook is all you need. Ultimately, creating an audiobook is a lot of work, but it’s fulfilling when you find the right format for the right reader.

 

Did you ever listen to books on tape?
Have you ever used a USB drive to listen to music?
What’s the primary way you listen to audiobooks?

What it takes to produce an audiobook

After years of people asking me, “Is that in audiobook format?” I finally broke down and . Last month, my post about this process mostly revolved around creating the cleanest audio to submit to sites like Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). This month, I’d like to explain the process of actually recording and producing an audiobook. It’s a bit more complicated than you might think.

For those who read last month’s post, you might be wondering why I used a Christmas tree box to prop up a tablet and hold the microphone. First off, using a tablet with my manuscript on it, I could easily scroll through the pages of my book using my finger on the screen instead of flipping pages on an actual book. Not only did this remove any page-turning noises in my recording, but the seamless manuscript prevented any unnecessary pauses that might occur between pages.

Recording an audiobook? Stand up!

Secondly, having my setup at chest height allowed me to stand for each recording session. It might seem intuitive to some, but your voice will be the strongest and clearest if you’re speaking while standing up. Sure, this may become uncomfortable after a while, which was why I would sit down between takes to go over the next section of the text. This also allowed me to gesticulate a little to get into the characters.

As an audiobook listener, I appreciate the narrators who manage to make each character sound unique. After all, recording an audiobook isn’t just reading the book aloud. It should be a dramatic reading, with all the right emphases on the correct parts of each sentence. Most of the time, I’d have an accent or distinguishing feature for each character’s voice that I’d use so it would be clear who was speaking. In a book with over 20 unique characters, it became a bit of a challenge by the end to create truly original voices for all these characters.

The process takes longer than you think.

ACX requires each “section” to be its own mp3 file, so I had to record each section of First Name Basis in one take. At least, that’s what I originally thought. Some of these sections were over 15 minutes long, so if I screwed up near the end, I felt I had to re-record the whole thing. Fortunately (after a few-month hiatus), I eventually figured out that I could pick up again at the spot where I messed up and keep recording the rest of that section. The iPhone Voice Memo app lets me edit the audio I just recorded and start recording again before my flub. To ensure I trimmed out the extra silence of starting the recording again, I would snap next to the microphone to cause a spike in the waveform that I would trim out later.

Of course, before I recorded each section, I would read it out loud so I wouldn’t be surprised by anything in the section. Sometimes in these first, non-recorded readthroughs, I would find spots that I needed to carefully work through in the live recording. Sure, this meant I was essentially reading the whole book twice, but it was worth it because I could identify the emphasis of each word instead of going in cold and potentially reading a line wrong. Rerecording botched lines meant a mere seven hours of recorded audio likely took me 20 hours (or more) to record.

Even after recording the whole book, the resulting audio was still too quiet for ACX standards. As shown above, I needed to amplify almost every audio file to meet the required levels to be accepted. Unfortunately, while this process was tedious for 72 individual mp3s, it often wouldn’t fix random volume spikes I had in my files. Occasionally, the narration I gave would be a bit too loud, so I needed to dampen these spikes before amplifying the whole file in Audacity (a free audio editing software). Fortunately, ACX easily identifies if the uploaded files have these errors before the audiobook is ultimately submitted for review and provides suggestions for fixing these errors. This ensured the audio I submitted was of a consistent level and quality.

As this was my first time doing Do-it-Yourself audiobook narration, I was nervous that ACX wouldn’t accept my files. Ultimately, my audiobook was accepted and is now available on Audible. However, there is a pretty sharp learning curve if you haven’t done voice acting or audio file manipulation, both of which I had some previous experience with. While I hated learning how to produce an audiobook (as I was doing it for the first time), the lessons I learned during the process were invaluable for any future audiobook I wanted to record.

Now that my audiobook was available, I wanted to do a few more things so that potential readers would have the audiobook format that worked for them. Next month, I’ll discuss some other ways (besides Audible) that you can get your recorded audiobook into the hands (and ears) of your readers.

 

Do you have voices in mind when you write characters?
How does the emphasis of a sentence change its meaning?
What’s stopping you from recording your own audiobook?

Birthday Gift: Free eBook!

For my birthday today, the 10th Anniversary Edition of my first novel, First Name Basis is free for Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YJD91JH

If you want to buy any of my other books, you can visit my website: www.author.benjamin-m-weilert.com/pub...

How an iPhone, a comforter, and a Christmas tree helped me record my first audiobook

Ten years ago, I had just released and was excited that my book was in a physical format. I could grab a paperback copy of my book and flip through it just like any other big-name author. However, when I tried selling this book, most people would ask, “Is it in eBook format?” This question confused me because I figured anyone could make an eBook. It takes a bit more effort to produce a physical product like a paperback. After finally caving and creating an eBook for First Name Basis, everything was fine…for a few years. Now, everyone asks if it’s in audiobook format. *sigh*

Don’t get me wrong; I understand the appeal of audiobooks. The majority of the books I read each year are in the audiobook format because I can multitask something menial while also absorbing a book. For self-published authors, the problem with audiobooks is that they are significantly more complex to create than an eBook or paperback. “But isn’t it just reading the book out loud and recording it?” you might ask. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. What’s worse is that if a self-published author doesn’t have the right equipment or understanding of dramatic readings, the only alternative is to pay someone else to record the audiobook for them. An author will have to sink a few thousand dollars into a good audiobook narrator if they can’t do it themselves.

An audiobook should not be the author just reading their book.

With the 10th anniversary of First Name Basis happening this year, I wanted to create an audiobook version but didn’t have the funds to pay someone to do it. However, I’ve listened to enough audiobooks to know roughly how they should be narrated. I also have some background in the dramatic arts from high school and college, which helps with character voices and line readings. Another hobby of mine in college involved a lot of audio editing, so I felt prepared to deal with that aspect of this audiobook project as well. All of these skills would come in handy as I set out to record my first novel in a new format.

As part of releasing the 10th Anniversary edition of First Name Basis, I read the entire book out loud again so I could do another polished edit. I didn’t find too many things wrong with the content, but some of the wordings hadn’t aged as well as I initially thought they had. Making these tweaks helped make the audiobook recording process much smoother. Granted, this was the easy part. Next, I had to figure out my setup for recording this audio. From what I had seen of voice actors performing their art, I would need a good microphone, some sound dampeners, and a stand for my manuscript. In true DIY fashion, I gathered together my iPhone, a comforter from a guest bed, and a box for a Christmas tree we weren’t using anymore.

This was my “recording studio” setup.

Late at night, when the world outside (and inside) my house had gone to sleep, I set up my “recording studio” in my basement office. This is the quietest place in my house and has the least background noise when I record. I plugged an IK Multimedia iRig Mic Studio USB Condenser Microphone into my iPhone to improve the sound quality, draping a light washcloth over it to act as my pop filter. I clamped the comforter to a shelf to provide sound dampening so my voice wouldn’t echo back into the microphone. I placed my tablet on the Christmas tree box to have my manuscript readily available for me to read while I was standing. Using the “Voice Memos” app on my iPhone, I started recording each section of First Name Basis.

Before I started recording, I made sure to check the requirements on Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) so that the files I created would need the least amount of work to be accepted for sale in the Audible, Amazon, and iTunes online stores. This required me to ensure my iPhone settings for Voice Memos were set to “lossless” so the audio I was recording didn’t have any compression artifacts. Using the iPhone’s built-in audio editing for voice memos, I was able to trim the silence at the start and end of each section so it met ACX’s standards. I also (eventually) figured out that the little magic wand in the corner of the audio editor helped reduce any ambient noise that the microphone might have picked up. Ultimately, I needed to run each file through Audacity (a free audio editing software) to increase the volume of each section, but I’ll get to that part in a future post.

Be aware of the noise around you.

While I could control a lot of noise from inside this basement room, there were noises outside of this area that I needed to handle. When I started recording this audiobook in February, it was cold enough in the middle of the night that the furnace would turn on and add a lot of background noise. I had to turn the thermostat down during these recording sessions to ensure my audio was as clean as it could be. Additionally, a vent flap outside my house kept clattering when it was windy out, which prevented me from recording for quite a few nights. I eventually found this vent and put a pad on it to prevent this noise, but I was in a bit of a recording hiatus by then.

Something I learned very early on in this process was that it’s important to be adequately hydrated. This might seem like an intuitive statement, but there is a danger of being over-hydrated. One of the first microphones I tried to use for this project was positioned close to my mouth, which merely accentuated all the “mouth sounds” that horrified me when I listened to the audio I had recorded. The key here is to be hydrated enough that your mouth isn’t dry and “sticky” (which creates clicking and smacking noise) but not so hydrated that the excess moisture creates the same effect. I had to plan ahead and hydrate throughout the day so I wouldn’t load all my water drinking close to when I wanted to record and end up over-hydrated. Narrating an audiobook can quickly dehydrate you, so be sure to have some water on hand to take sips between takes.

Even though this post mainly covered how to get the best audio on a budget, there is more to an audiobook than just recording good audio. Next month, I’ll discuss some of the techniques I used to produce an audiobook that ACX accepted.

 

How many audiobooks do you read each year?
Do you prefer to read books in audiobook format?
What are some things you like about audiobook narration?

Commissioning Art for Your Book

Most people judge a book by its cover. It’s the first thing they’ll see, and it should give them a sense of what to expect inside. If you can’t clearly communicate the title and genre with your cover, it’s likely your readers will be disappointed with what they have purchased. Astute readers can easily recognize when a book uses a cover creator with stock footage, which is an easy indicator to weed out authors who don’t invest some money into their book. While I certainly started with these cover creator covers, I’ve made an effort as time goes on to try and commission art for the covers of my books.

A few months ago, I wrote about some of the costs associated with self-publishing a book. One of these costs is hiring an artist to create art for your cover. While this sounds simple, there is a process that you’ll need to follow. Sometimes it’s so exciting to see the art of something you’ve written that you might end up paying for something that might not be what you wanted in the first place. Additionally, just like you don’t want people copying your writing and redistributing it without your permission, be sure you have the correct rights to the artwork you paid for—you might need to pay a little extra to use it for other promotional materials.

Artists are professionals.

I’ve read too many horror stories of some self-published author who tries to guilt an artist into creating art for “the next big thing” for free. This is entirely unprofessional, and as an author, you should think about how you would react to someone wanting to use your writing without compensating you for it. “Exposure” is not a valid form of payment for anyone. As long as you handle yourself in a professional manner, you should get a serious and professional result from your artist. After all, you are paying them for their time and talents. This is also where having your own author website and e-mail address come in handy, as they also show you are serious and professional about your writing. Whatever you do, be sure to ask the artist before using their work! If you’ve found something that already fits what you want, don’t just steal it and give them a call out in your acknowledgments section. Pay them for the rights first.

Each artist will price their work differently, so you might want to shop around a little before committing to anything. Although, if what you want to be done is quite complex, be prepared to pay for it. Color will be more expensive than black and white. Backgrounds can also add cost to a piece. Be sure to factor in taxes for your locale as well. As a point of reference, the sketches that are included in the were $30 for the base cost, an additional $15 for a royalty-free license (so I could use them however I wanted), and $3.71 for taxes. That means each sketch actually cost almost $50, and that was just for sketches. For the full-color illustration used for the 10th Anniversary Edition cover, that final cost was just over $400. This is a bit on the expensive side, though, as other cover art I’ve commissioned has cost closer to $100. It truly depends on the artist.

Similarly, while some artists work with full-up contracts, others might be OK with a chain of e-mails describing the agreement’s details. Ultimately, you’ll want to settle on terms before the work is to begin. This includes how many revisions you’re allowed before the artist gives you the final product (and how much it will cost for re-work), due dates for the art, how the art is to be used, the size and resolution of the art, and how much the art will cost. If the artist has done commissions before, they will likely already know how to do this part of the process, so you’ll have to be sure you can answer their questions promptly.

Perhaps the biggest thing you should be prepared for is how to describe what you want the artist to create. As authors, we should excel at descriptions, but don’t let words be your only avenue of communication. Reference images can go a long way in describing how something should look so the artist can have a starting point instead of just using the words you’ve written. If there’s something unique to the object or character you’re having illustrated, be sure to include those details. The better you can communicate the intent of the art you want to be created, the better chance that the rough draft the artist creates will be close to the final product.

This was one of the reference collages I made for the First Name Basis illustrations.

Since I’ve gone through this art commissioning process three times now, here’s how it usually goes…

I contact an artist with a style that I think will fit what I’m trying to do, asking if they are available for commissions. Usually, they are available, but sometimes they might already have many commissions from other people that will prevent them from starting something new.We settle on the details of what I want to be done (content, size, price, etc.), and we’ll agree on a contract (if needed). I provide reference materials and description statements for the artist to work off at this stage.Depending on the artist, they’ll usually ask for payment up front. This may be half of the full payment, with the rest paid when the piece is complete, or it may be the full payment up front. Sometimes, they may only ask for payment once the piece is complete, but be prepared to pay the full amount up front anyway.The artist will then create a rough sketch or draft of the final piece for my review. For complicated pieces/busy artists, this may take up to a week. For simpler things, it might be a few days.I review the rough sketch/draft and provide feedback about things that aren’t quite right with my intended vision. Sometimes, I give myself a few hours or a day to mull over this to ensure I don’t immediately accept the first draft because I’m so excited to see the art I had in my mind. This way, I can reduce the amount of rework needed later when the excitement ebbs. This is usually the only time you can change anything, so be sure to be confident that the art is exactly what you want.Using my feedback, the artist will then provide the finished/polished product. If more tweaks are needed, I then pay for rework to be done, usually per hour. If there is still an outstanding balance on the payment to the artist, this is when the remainder is paid off.

All of this, of course, ignores how to find an artist to work with at all. Over the years, the artists I’ve found have either been friends I meet through other shared interests (like church), conventions, or even just perusing the internet. The bottom line is that you need to network with visual artists if you want to have artists to commission for your next project. And while it might be tempting to get a “friends and family” discount from an artist you know personally, consider how often you’d like your friends and family to buy your books at full price.

An additional word of warning comes from an experience my author friend, Joseph D. Slater, had recently. He went to Fiverr to find a cover artist and got an incredible piece that he used for the cover of his latest book, In the Sky. While the cover he got looked great, he did a reverse image search on Amazon and found the cover he paid for used art stolen from someone else. While he had to scramble to find a new cover, he taught us all an important lesson about the dangers of commissioning art over the internet. To be extra sure you’re getting an artist who creates their own work, do your due diligence by checking to see if their style is consistent (via their website or Instagram pages). Additionally, a reverse image search on Google can help turn up any identical images that the “artist” might be trying to pass off as their own.

In the end, art commissioned for your book will help make it eye-catching, which may increase your sales. As long as both you and your artist are professional about the arrangement, the whole process is generally painless.

Here’s a gallery of covers that contain commissioned art:

Why I like Self-Publishing

Ten years ago, I learned how easy it was to self-publish. Not only was it “free,” but I was able to hold a physical copy of the largest thing I had ever written. I have since written larger books and expanded into eBooks and hardcovers (and maybe audiobooks in the future). I did try to get into traditional publishing to see if I could do it, but I found the systems in place too bizarre for me to continue pursuing it. This meant I was left with the first choice I went with when I published : self-publishing.

Since I don’t make a living off my writing, I consider it a fun hobby to do in my spare time. After a few weeks of therapy to get over imposter syndrome and my unhealthy focus on sales, I’ve come to love what self-publishing allows me to do: hold a physical copy of a story I created. Granted, I still want to create a product that’s as professional as possible (which is one of my main problems with self-publishing), so I put a lot of work and effort into making sure the story is the best I can manage—both in content and presentation. Recently, though, some additional information came through my newsfeed that solidified why I like self-publishing.

According to an article in the New York Times from April, 98 percent of the books publishers released in 2020 sold fewer than 5,000 copies. From feedback on the Reddit thread for the article, this isn’t that out of character for the publishing industry. While it does make you wonder why publishers don’t try to publish more books that aren’t “sure things” if even the ones they chose to publish didn’t sell that well, I won’t reiterate what I wrote in my post about how odd I find traditional publishing. What I got out of the article was that even traditionally published books don’t necessarily sell that many copies. Sure, I don’t think I’ve sold 5,000 copies of the entirety of my books combined, but it was comforting to know that even the books “chosen” to be published traditionally aren’t being bought. So, without the constraints of traditional publishing, what does self-publishing have to offer?

Self-publishing is freedom.

I like to experiment in my writing. I feel there are many ways to tell a story—some of which are unique. Part of me likes the technical challenge of making these innovative storytelling methods become a reality. Whether it’s printing text sideways, cross-referencing over 1,000 points in a book with hyperlinks, or even needing to flip the entire book upside down to read the other half of the story, I strive to make the reading experience as fresh and interesting as possible. While this may limit me to physical copies or eBooks (depending on what I’m trying to do), I try to make the effect work in the different formats of the book. Either way, this avant-garde style of storytelling is something that you will likely only find through self-published authors. It’s this creative freedom that I love to explore in self-publishing. Trying to expand the art form of the written word is exciting to me. Additionally, I hold my creative vision so tightly that I don’t want anyone else to come in and ruin it (obviously, I still listen to beta readers, but I’m talking about the “committee” style of publishing endemic to the traditional sphere here).

Second to None has part of a chapter that flips sideways and syncs across three different POVs.

Another way I like to experiment is with genres. My first trilogy was in the somewhat niche science-fantasy genre, which fuses real science with a fantasy setting. My fourth book was a memoir about climbing all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains with my dad. My fifth book was a guidebook through cinema. My sixth book was a collection of poems, articles, and short stories. Notice a theme? No? Well, that’s the beauty of self-publishing: I can experiment with different genres. Maybe I’ll find a genre that really clicks for me (I still predominantly write Science Fantasy), but learning how to write in other genres is useful in honing my craft. Of course, part of me wants to try all the different genres just for the fun of it. As of right now, I have plans to publish a hard science fiction book about colonizing extra-solar planets, a homemade ice cream cookbook, a children’s picture book about tool safety, a historical fiction book about the life of Clara Schumann, a drama about suicide, a thriller about a couple who break into houses, and a sci-fi retelling of the Arthurian legend. As long as I keep coming up with story ideas, self-publishing lets me see them come to fruition.

Ultimately, writing in multiple genres is a good way to establish a fanbase. Someone might read my memoir and want to see how I used these experiences climbing mountains in the science-fantasy trilogies I write. Or perhaps someone who reads my collection of short stories might find my storytelling style engaging enough to try one of my novels. While I write what I enjoy, if I keep with my goal of publishing a single book each year, my back catalog will only grow with time. I figure it’s better to widely explore genres right now than to fully commit to a single one. I won’t know if I’m better at writing one of these genres I haven’t tried yet until I start putting words to the page.

Self-publishing gives a platform to the underrepresented.

As a reader, though, I understand the hesitation to try self-published books. Traditional publishing is a good gateway that (usually) filters out lower-quality works. However, I would wager that you’ll find some stories that you wouldn’t ever find in the traditional publishing landscape—mostly because they aren’t “guaranteed” to sell. Not only is self-publishing a place to find niche genres that are underrepresented in the publishing world, but also writers of underrepresented communities. If you want to support authors of color or LGBTQ+ authors, try looking into what’s available through self-publishing. You might be surprised to find your next favorite book and your next favorite author.

 

What’s the last self-published book you read?
What’s the most unique thing you’ve ever seen in a book?
Do you have a favorite author who is self-published?

The right way to ask for reviews

It’s weird to think that I’ve written more than 600 reviews since I started my website back in 2016. Of course, as I cross-post these reviews to various sites like IMDb, Goodreads, and Amazon, I started receiving requests for reviews relatively soon after I started gaining some traction from my posts (my reviewer ranking is above 23,000). I’ll ignore the requests clearly from Chinese sellers trying to manipulate their Amazon rankings, but I do have a soft spot for authors.

Unfortunately, most authors don’t know how to interact with reviewers—especially when sending a request via e-mail. They all understand the value of reviews, but they don’t take the time to ensure they’re making the best first impression. After all, reviewers are people and sending a review request is much like pitching an agent: you want to show you’ve done your homework. As a result, most reviewers will ignore these requests or send them to their spam folder, which wastes the author’s precious time when they could be spending it promoting their book.

First impressions are huge when asking for reviews.

Yes, I understand that if you send out a ton of e-mails, eventually, you get a few hits from people who hand out 5-star reviews like candy. However, this “shotgun” approach is lazy and shows the author doesn’t know their audience. For example, let’s say I read a book about childrearing and left a review on Amazon. This is not the type of book I regularly read, so a smart author will visit my Amazon profile and see that this book is an outlier. Instead, I am likely to be inundated with review requests for other parenting books from first-time authors because the book I reviewed is known to be “famous,” and these authors want to think their books are just as good. However, I generally accept any review request that can provide a physical copy, so they may be disappointed when they receive a less-than-stellar review because I don’t regularly read these types of books.

This brings up another point that I think most authors sending review requests fail to consider. The only way consumers can trust the reviews posted online is if these reviews are honest and unbiased. Sure, a reviewer might receive a free copy of a book in exchange for a review, but they aren’t required to give a 5-star review of the book. I value honest reviews because, as a consumer, I want to trust that I’m purchasing a product that someone else has legitimately enjoyed. I will often ignore 5-star reviews with less than a dozen words, much like I’ll filter out the 1-star reviews from people who didn’t even finish reading the book.

Many review requests are basically spam.

With all this in mind, what are some of the traps authors fall into when “cold calling” reviewers? The first thing that I notice is their failure to follow instructions. I have posted on my Amazon profile instructions on what an author must do to request a review from me, and rarely do these authors comply with what I ask (I’ll get into why this is a little later).

Second, I find too many authors rely heavily on the “comp title”—a book they can compare theirs with to entice potential reviewers. Often, authors choose famous books that I’ve reviewed (I’ve lost count of how many Ender’s Game-type requests I’ve received) that their book can’t possibly live up to. This is a dangerous game to play, as I’ll often have the famous book in mind when I’m reading their book and will inevitably be disappointed when it doesn’t live up to that standard (thus hurting their review score).

Finally, most review requests are too long. I’ve received complete synopses, first chapters, and even full books attached to the e-mail when all I need is a two-sentence pitch and a link to the book’s information (either on their website or on Goodreads/Amazon). This is a case where “more” is actually a detriment, as it shows me they aren’t confident in their book, so they give as much information as possible. Most readers make a decision about a book in about 30 seconds—usually with a cover, title, and two-sentence description—so all this extra effort the author puts into this e-mail is wasted.

Of course, all this ignores the biggest issue with review requests: how did they get my e-mail in the first place? Sure, I have it posted at the top of my Amazon profile, but 99% of the time, these requests reference my Amazon reviews and completely ignore the other details I put on my profile (see above about following instructions). This is because these authors are using third-party sites like AMZDiscover to glean reviewer’s e-mails from Amazon.

I received these three review requests within weeks of each other. Notice anything similar?

If you read Amazon’s Terms and Conditions (riveting, I know), you’ll see that Amazon is not likely to give away the e-mails of its reviewers. If you use sites like AMZDiscover, not only are you stealing from Amazon (which can get your account suspended), but you are violating these reviewers’ privacy. Basically, all the review requests I receive are copy-pasted templates showing me how prevalent this is (it’s still lazy). If authors hate template rejection letters from agents, they should also know reviewers hate template review requests. Sure, a cute and humorous review request can work to get you a review—but only once. If others use the same template, reviewers won’t find it funny anymore. They’ll find it annoying.

Ultimately, authors who cut corners in promoting their book are likely to cut corners in writing their book, so this method of requesting reviews is not the best way to go about this process. Instead of just spamming a bunch of e-mail inboxes, go to communities like Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit to find willing reviewers to give your book the reviews it deserves. If you still want to try the “shotgun” approach, I’d suggest uploading your book to sites like Booksprout, which brings reviewers to an author’s book instead of the author trying to find the reviewers themselves. If an author still wants to use Amazon to find reviewers, I would suggest taking a little more time to vet the list of potential reviewers, as this extra bit of work shows the author cares enough to treat reviewers like people, not a product. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a fan of your work in the process.

 

Do you review products online? Do people request your reviews?
If you receive review requests, what are some things that annoy you about them?
What are some other places to find reviewers? Book clubs? Libraries?

Why self-publishing isn’t “free”

I have always said that one of the main benefits of self-publishing is that there is no financial barrier to entry. Anyone can write a book and have it published without paying a cent to anyone. Granted, this is also the reason why many people look down on self-publishing. With the costs of self-publishing being non-existent, there are no quality checks to ensure the content being published is good enough for readers to spend their money to buy it. Sometimes, this can result in backlash with angry readers leaving negative reviews. Often, not investing in a written work doesn’t produce the sales an author would like to make (and is the main reason I don’t make a living with my writing).

Over the years, I’ve learned that self-publishing isn’t just writing a book. Instead, self-publishing is editing, formatting, cover design, marketing, and any number of other tasks that combine to create a polished product. Depending on an author’s skill level, some of these tasks can be accomplished for free—because the author does the tasks themselves. There are plenty of free tools available online that can help authors create professional products. Still, sometimes a little extra investment toward polishing a manuscript or commissioning an amazing cover can go a long way.

What tasks are worth the money?

Some elements of self-publishing are fairly inexpensive. For instance, I pay less than $20 a year for my website domain (www.benjamin-m-weilert.com) and $5 a month to host it. I’ve already covered why authors need an online presence, and a custom website is useful to have so you can direct potential readers to your books. I also have author friends who have had some luck paying for work through websites like Fiverr. They were able to get 3-D printed models made, logos designed, and other aesthetic elements created to help market their books. Of course, you can spend a lot on marketing, with targeted online ads on Facebook and Amazon, but I think these are purchases that should wait until the two main costs are covered. The way I see it, there are two categories of costs any self-published author should be ready to pay if they want to create a polished book: Editing and Cover Art.

[image error]1. Editing

If there’s one place where money is well spent on a self-publishing project, it’s editing. Admittedly, this is where sticker shock can unnerve neophyte authors and cause them to avoid an editor altogether. I’ll admit that I don’t always pay for an editor. When I do, I want it to be for a book that I want to be taken seriously. Books like my memoir, Fourteener Father, and my hard sci-fi, Buried Colony, have both received professional edits, and I don’t think I’ll ever make money back on those costs. Even with the discount I had for these edits, it still came out to around $1 per 100 words. Obviously, you’ll want to shop around a little to find an editor that fits your style, but professional rates can add up fast. Of course, knowing if you need line edits, structural edits, or proofreading edits should help cut some of your costs as well.

Alternatively, if costs close to $1,000 are too high for you, there are alternatives out there that won’t break the bank. At a minimum, I’d try using Grammarly, which has a premium subscription that’s generally less than $200 a year. While Grammarly does a good job at pointing out some of the flaws in your writing, it is still only a program and won’t catch everything about your writing that needs to be fixed. This is one of the benefits of hiring an editor: they can identify the blind spots in your writing that can be difficult to spot when you’re just editing by yourself. Perhaps it’s how you structure your sentences or the way you use dialogue tags. Whatever it is, a professional editor should be able to work with you to improve your writing, which is why it’s worth the cost.

Another item I’d put under “editing” is hiring a sensitivity reader. While your free beta readers can give some insightful feedback into how your manuscript is received, they may lack the cultural background to help you iron out any objectionable material that may be harmful to people groups that you do not intimately understand. Stereotypes can easily infiltrate your writing and make potential readers uncomfortable with inaccurate character actions and descriptions that merely perpetuate the negative aspects of these communities. Again, you can shop around a bit for this, but expect to budget about $500 for this review, especially if you are trying to include diverse characters that do not match your background.

2. Cover Art

One of the biggest lies authors are told is that readers shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. In reality, most books have a fraction of a second to grab any potential reader’s attention. The first step in making a book attractive is in the cover art. The cover art should quickly convey two things about your book: what genre it is and what it’s about. The title can do a lot of heavy lifting here, but the imagery associated with it is what makes or breaks a sale. Something to consider when buying cover art is what rights you have to distribute said art. Usually, a good artist will have a contract that details the usage of the image you have bought. Sometimes, you can only use it for the cover. If you pay a little extra, you can obtain the rights to sell the image separately. While it’s tempting to peruse the internet and find the “perfect picture” for your cover, be sure you have the rights to use it! Visual artists want to be fairly compensated for their time, so expect a good cover art image to run anywhere from $120 to $1,000 (depending on factors like backgrounds, color, and scale).

When it comes to purchasing cover art, be sure you know the formats your book will take. If you only need an eBook cover, then there’s less to consider than if you’re publishing in paperback or hardcover format. However, if you’re not comfortable with the design aspects of creating covers, you may want to hire a graphic artist. A graphic artist can arrange the text over the cover art you purchased and make sure that everything is placed correctly so the barcode, spine, and other key measurements for your cover line up correctly. Additionally, they can help with interior formatting as well, choosing the right fonts, chapter header images, and scene break dingbats to create the right “feel” for your book. The cost for this service can be as low as $25 for an eBook or up to $100 for physical books.

As was the case for editing, there are cheaper alternatives. While I have used them myself, I would try and stay away from the free “cover creators” provided by Amazon or other publishing services. There isn’t a lot of freedom in these tools, and most of the covers created by these creators stand out as being particularly unprofessional. That being said, I have found Canva to be a fairly robust free alternative to the online cover creators provided by Amazon, even if it does have its limitations as well. At the very least, Canva’s selection has the feel of modern book covers that don’t feel like a cover creator made them. Still, Canva works best with eBook covers and other online marketing materials, and not so much on the full design for a paperback or hardcover book cover.

“Free” self-publishing can cost up to $2,600!

The costs I’ve detailed here are only to get your book into publishable shape. If you decide you want to sell physical copies of your book, you’ll have to factor in costs like printing author copies and shipping (both from the printer to you and from you to your customers). Ironically, many of the costs I’ve described above are covered by traditional publishers if you choose to go that route. This is perhaps the biggest downfall of self-publishing: the author has to cover these costs. Still, many authors (myself included) save money by performing some of these tasks themselves. For instance, I have a fairly good background in graphic design and have done all the interior formatting and cover design for my books. However, I am not as good at editing or cover art, so I make sure to pay a fair price to self-publish a polished product.

 

Can you tell if a self-published author didn’t have an editor?
Is it obvious when a self-published author uses a cover creator?
What elements of a book do you think are worth the money?

Why you shouldn’t ignore creative burnout

Working on creative projects takes a lot of effort. When things are running smoothly, it’s easy to ignore how many tasks need to be done, especially if you’re trying to accomplish this project alone (as I’ve written about before). But when does it become too much? When can a creative endeavor cross over from pleasure to work?

Part of the problem of accumulating creative projects is the desire to work on all of them at once. For some, it’s how they pay the bills. For me, my creative pursuits are meant to be enjoyable hobbies. I understand that some aspects of these hobbies (like editing) aren’t the most enjoyable, but they still need to happen if I want to produce a product I’m proud of. There are plenty of ideas I want to see come to life, but I don’t have the time to work on them all simultaneously.

Sometimes projects overlap.

I’ve recently recovered from a bout of creative burnout. I pushed myself too hard and ended up hating what I was creating and knew if I kept working on it, I would be making it worse. Many factors led to this burnout, and I hope that this post can help some of you identify when you’re reaching your limit.

1. Take a break!

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Fortunately for my family, my creative burnout did not result in violence like in The Shining. However, with my own self-imposed deadlines pushing me to continue working on my creative work, I neglected to refill my creative tank. Immediately after I finished getting the paperback and eBook versions of the 10th Anniversary of First Name Basis set up, I transitioned into another edit of Buried Colony. Except, I stared at the first few pages of feedback and immediately despised what I had written. This spiraled me into a significant bout of existential depression as I wondered if it was even worth it to continue this manuscript that I’ve been fighting with for years.

Anecdotally, many creative types have some form of manic depression. There’s the euphoric high of creating something you love, but there’s also the depression that pairs with working too hard. Since I didn’t allow any time to reward myself for finishing up part of a big project (there’s still more that needs to be done), my lack of energy fed into my eventual burnout. I’ve since given myself a nice break from all my creative projects, even those that don’t take much effort. By not working on anything creative for a week, I found my mood to be much improved. I’m still not quite ready to dive into Buried Colony edits again, but at least I don’t hate it anymore.

2. Scale back

Anyone who’s read my “To Do” list for this year knows I’ve signed myself up to do a lot. While I enjoy writing first drafts (for the most part), there are still plenty of projects I need to edit this year. Since these take so much more energy to complete, I needed to space them out more than I did. In retrospect, jumping from First Name Basis edits straight into Buried Colony edits probably wasn’t the best idea. Even though I had already transitioned from the first round of Buried Colony edits earlier this year to the First Name Basis edits, I couldn’t keep that pace up for long.

I’m also going to blame some of my burnout on trying something new. For years, people have asked me if my books are available in audiobook form. While I could pay thousands of dollars to have my books produced as audiobooks, I found I had enough experience and equipment to attempt the feat myself. While I learned a lot in my first pass at a First Name Basis audiobook, it still required a lot more energy than I was expecting at first. At this point, I’m debating scaling back this part of the 10th Anniversary project since I’ve already accomplished the goal of producing the paperback and eBook versions. These versions still took a bit more work than I had anticipated, which is likely what led to this burnout.

3. Reconsider deadlines

I set a goal for myself five years ago. That goal was to publish a new book under my own name every year (i.e., I can’t count short stories published in anthologies). Because I have plenty of manuscripts going through various stages of editing and polish, I’ll always have something I can publish. The problem is, I didn’t really consider yet another version of First Name Basis to qualify for meeting this goal. This was why I pushed myself to continue working on Buried Colony. After all, the last few years of books I’ve published (being Cinema Connections in 2019 and The Ascent of the Writer in 2020) were merely collections of previous material. I wanted to publish something new in 2021.

As a self-published author, I set my own deadlines. For , I wanted all three versions available on its 10th-anniversary date (May 27th). After struggling with the audiobook version, I decided to put it on the back burner to focus on the paperback and eBook versions. Will I still try and get an audiobook version out this year? Perhaps. Additionally, while I want to publish Buried Colony as soon as possible, I also hadn’t considered how many revisions it would need to meet my quality standards. I appreciate the feedback I’ve received on it, even if it requires major re-writes each time. I think I’m honing in on a final product, but it’s taken so much work that I’ve started to hate working on it. Fortunately, with as many projects in the hopper as I have, I can easily slide another one in and publish it this year as I give myself more time to get Buried Colony just right. This is what happened last year and was why I ended up accelerating The Ascent of the Writer. Who knows? Maybe I’ll publish This is Not a Drill this year instead.

Don’t force your creative projects.

The biggest thing I learned from this burnout episode is that I shouldn’t force myself to work on something just “because it has to get done.” Technically, I have no real deadlines as everything I’m doing is self-imposed. And while I thought both of my main projects this year were in different phases of being ready for publication, when I realized this wasn’t the case, I had already pushed myself too far. If I had kept going, I would have forced these projects to be far worse than if I had just delayed them.

I’ll grant that other factors likely led to this burnout as well. Seasonal depression played a factor as it was too cold and snowy these last few weeks to get outside and exercise consistently. I also found out that there’s a new TV show coming out with the same plot as a book that I have planned but haven’t even started writing yet. Plus, the extended nature of this pandemic had steadily chipped away at my energy so that I don’t have as much as I used to. At any rate, this episode of burnout has taught me a lot of valuable lessons. First and foremost: if I’m not having fun working on my creative projects, it’s time to take a break.

 

Have you ever experienced creative burnout?
What did you do to recover from burnout?
What can you do to help your friends who are experiencing burnout?

The Benefits of Fanfiction

Anyone who has consumed a significant amount of media can tell you that there are no original ideas. Most stories merely borrow ideas from their predecessors. The fact that most stories can be categorized into a handful of core concepts proves that everything has already been done before. And yet, people keep writing stories. Part of what makes a story original is how it mixes its influences to create something new, even if the foundation is recycled.

Then, there’s fanfiction. Some stories are told so well that the characters and settings are adopted wholesale into a different author’s new work. While this form of creative writing could be considered intellectual property theft (especially if the stories are sold without consent from the original creator), it can be used as a stepping stone for writers who want to improve their craft. Alternatively, experienced writers can find the weak spots in famous stories and re-write them to fix plot holes and character inconsistencies. In the end, using pre-established characters and settings for new stories is fanfiction, regardless of its intended purpose.

Fanfiction alleviates the need to create from scratch.

It’s no wonder that some of the highest-grossing franchises have inspired writers to continue the stories considered canon. It’s easy to come up with new adventures for characters who already exist in our minds, especially if the universe’s rules have already been established. Working within the set limitations of the universe and characters can be a challenge at times. Fanfiction is often criticized when writers take the franchise’s agreed-upon rules and ignore them to write the story they want to read. Sometimes the fantasy of interacting with favorite characters can be so enticing that the original intent of the franchise is left behind for something that hardly resembles the source material. Not that it’s all bad. Heck, even Dante basically wrote self-insert fanfiction centuries ago that’s considered a “literary classic.”

What newer writers perhaps don’t realize when they start writing fanfiction is how they are learning the basics of good storytelling. With the characters and universe already established, the story can rise to the surface. This also helps learn how to integrate backstory since the potential readers already know most of the canon material. There’s less of a need to do information dumps when there’s an implicit contract between the writer and the reader that everything that’s happened in the “official” timeline exists in the fanfiction one.

It’s a small step between fanfiction and original content.One Piece: superpowered pirates

Looking back over the stories I have written over the years, I realized that many of my “original” stories had their origins in fanfiction. At the time, I wrote what I knew, and I knew the TV shows that I watched religiously. It’s no wonder that I eventually joined an online Roleplaying story set in the One Piece universe. While I didn’t write any of the established characters from the anime, I used the rules and setting of the One Piece universe to frame my own story. Granted, the character I wrote was wholly a self-insert, which is far from uncommon in fanfiction. Still, I enjoyed writing this story so much that I started to wonder how much I’d have to change to create my own original content. After all, books like Fifty Shades of Gray are merely Twilight fanfiction with some of the details changed to make it original.

While The Rulers of the Waves Chronicles was something that petered out due to the lack of commitment from the other writers, I realized that I could use parts of the story as a foundation to make a different kind of fanfiction. The one thing I needed to change between my fanfiction and my original story was how One Piece‘s Devil Fruit powers were implemented in the universe of my book. Because I wasn’t writing any of the canon characters of One Piece, once I swapped “Devil Fruits” for “Fluxions,” I was set. The next challenge was coming up with original characters. At the time, I had finished my Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, so I knew a lot about science. From my knowledge, I pulled out the individuals who discovered these scientific concepts and used them as characters in my story. I had done what Dante did: I wrote fanfiction about historical figures.

is merely historical fanfiction in a fantasy setting.

Ten years after I first published First Name Basis, I still like what I’ve written. Sure, I have improved since then, but knowing how my fanfiction evolved into my first novel is something that I think about when I’m feeling low on inspiration. The fact that I still want to tell stories in established universes tells me that I’m still not done writing fanfiction. With each book I write, I try and hide its influences, but sometimes it’s a lot easier to turn off my brain and write what I think these well-known characters would do in new scenarios.

 

Have you ever read any fanfiction?
Have you encountered a story that you think you could fix?
What stories have you read that feel unfinished?