Tudor Robins's Blog, page 28

Self-Publishing Step-by-Step

It just occurred to me that some of you might be interested in seeing the overall process / progress of self-publishing. The steps and the order those steps go in. Or at least, the steps I take, and the order they go in for me.

I think I’d also like to be able to look back and remind myself of the journey.

So, for both those reasons, I’m going to start telling you – possibly in a sort of weekly digest format – what I’ve done, in increments you can follow.

For this first post in the series, I need to go back. Because I’m right in the thick of it now, I really should explain how I got here.

I’m going to address two things here:

(1) Researching

Before I decided to take the leap and self-publish, I’d been reading about self-publishing for – literally – years. The whole time I was submitting, and re-writing, and submitting again, I was reading all sorts of writing blogs and articles on writing websites. At first, I mostly read information about how to get an agent and how to get a publisher, but then, bit by bit, I started finding self-publishing sites.

Here’s how my thinking on self-publishing progressed:

- A few years ago: I would have to be completely desperate to self-publish. It’s a last resort.

- Eighteen months ago: If this was a business decision, I’d probably self-publish. But it’s not a business decision.

- For the last few months: Why isn’t this a business decision? This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want this to be a career. Why wouldn’t I make this a business decision?

This progression was fuelled by two things. One was me learning more about self-publishing over time, and the second was self-publishing changing over time. This progression led me to the second thing I want to address in this post:

(2) Deciding

When it came right down to it, this was much easier than I would have ever guessed it would be. In fact, it was so, so easy that, once I’d decided – which was right before Christmas - I forced myself to not do anything about it. To go away to Wales. To empty my mind of writing and publishing decisions. To take some time, and let it percolate, and see if I still felt the same way when I got back.

Rewinding a bit, late fall / early winter 2013 was spent working on an on-again, off-again adult novel I’ve had underway for about ten years. I keep making progress, and getting a bit farther, and then other things come up and I don’t touch it for months, or even a year, at a time. Whenever I come back to it, I have to re-write half of what I’ve already written. It’s very much a three-steps-forward-two-steps-back process.

I had decided, this last time, that I was going to finish it, and I was going to publish it. I knew my YA publisher wouldn’t publish an adult novel, and there was no way I was going through the endless publishing submission cycle again. I could say quite a bit about this cycle, but that would make this post ridiculously long and tangential. Suffice it to say, no way I was doing that again.

So, clearly, I would self-publish my adult novel. This was a super-easy decision – not even requiring a cooling-off period. To be honest, it was a complete no-brainer. I had a story which had already taken far too long to see the light of day, so I’d make sure it saw the light of day myself. The thing is, though, it wasn’t ready (it still isn’t ready), so all this was still in the undefined future.

And then, one day, I thought “You have a YA novel that’s publication ready. It’s done. Your current novel has some momentum. You should capitalize on that. You could stay in limbo, waiting for a firm publication date, and a contract, or you could just publish it on your own.”

It was, quite literally a light bulb moment. It had never occurred to me before that I could self-publish the book I already had ready. And then, immediately after the light bulb turned on, I wondered why I’d been sitting in the dark for so long. And that’s when I decided to leave the light bulb in Canada, go away, not think about it at all, and then think hard when I got back, and when I got back the light bulb was still there shining at me, and I knew I had to do it.

Of course, after that, there was the telling (mostly fun / partly painful) and then … well, then there was the next part of the process, which I’ll write about in my next post!

As always, with anything I write, please feel free to contact me if you want more particular information / details about anything.

On Covers and Control

Control first. Let’s define it -

Control: To exercise restraint or direction over.

Pretty simple. Not an inherently good, or bad word. At least, I don’t think so. Except we make it so. We add “out of” to the front, or “freak” to the end, and now the meaning twists.

“Control” is a word you’ll see quite a bit if you follow the self-publishing, traditional publishing debate. There’s a back-and-forth about needing / wanting too much control, and not having enough.

All I really want to say about control is, somebody needs to take it. Without control over a process, the process risks never being finished – or not properly. If you’re willing to take control for the entire process of publishing your book, that doesn’t make you a “freak”, it just means you’re willing to do the front-line work. If you don’t want control of that entire process, that’s just fine, but you really need to make sure you can trust those you hand the control to.

Which brings me to book covers. Because, for the first time ever, I have control of the book cover process for a piece of my work.

And, oh my, do I love it.

I didn’t know I would. I thought this was just part of the process. Something that needed to be done, and so I’d do it.

And then I found the photo. As in THE PHOTO. The perfect photograph to sum up my story, and represent the feel of it. I couldn’t have commissioned a better photo to match what I’m trying to convey in the book, and, at the same time, I never could have commissioned this photo because I couldn’t have imagined it until I saw it, and fell in love with it.

It’s great. And the photographer is a doll. I’ve loved dealing with her. She’s been enthusiastic, and excited, and supportive. I’ve learned a bit about her life, and where she lives, and she’s asked me about my life. I respect her as an artist, and I like her as a person and, once I’m ready to reveal the cover, I’ll be giving her photo credits and telling you exactly who she is, because you should see her work!

I would never have met her if I wasn’t doing this part of the work myself and that, alone, is already making my decision to self-publish a positive one.

I’m also excited to work with my cover designer. Actually, I have two cover designers. One will do the front cover, and the other will do the interior design of the book, and create the spine and back cover to match the front cover.

Both have been incredibly professional – they reply to my emails quickly, send me quotes promptly and – it’s surprising me how important this is to me - express enthusiasm about working on my project. There’s something so motivating and encouraging about having the people you’re going to work with say how excited they are to tackle your project.

I’ve seen examples of the work of both designers and can’t wait to see what they come up with.

I sent my cover images off to designer number one (front cover designer) today, and so the next step in the publishing adventure continues!

As always, if you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask …

Editing

In my last post, I said I’d talk more about editing. Notice there’s no “self-publishing” in the title of this post. That’s because editing is essential for all writers, no matter what route they’re taking to publication.

The Editing Process

Editing is a process mingled throughout the writing process. This is how it goes for me:

(1) First Draft – write loosely, quickly and steadily. Correct some, glaring, problems as I go. For other issues that will be more fiddly, make notes to myself (I write in Scrivener and I always create a chapter called “notes” for things like this).

(2) Leave it alone for a while! Essential. You must get some distance from your writing. There’s no exact period of time to do this, but I’d say at least a month. Work on something else. Practice your writing more. Learn more.

(3) First re-write – I usually open a whole new Scrivener project for this and populate it chapter-by-chapter. If the chapter is still good, and makes the cut, it gets put in with, often, some small changes. If it’s not good, it gets chopped, or completely re-written. I go through the whole manuscript like this until I have what I guess you could call the Second Draft.

(4) Usually at this stage I seek outside eyes. This could be paying for a manuscript critique, getting your book to beta readers, or – if you’re really brave – submitting to agents / editors. What follows is a long process of getting feedback, making changes and, usually (for me) doing the whole “new Scrivener file” and re-import thing a couple more times. I lose count of drafts in this process, but both OIM and APS were re-written five to six times before they went to “final” edits.

(5) Final Edits – If you publish traditionally this should come with the package. It certainly did in my case. There was still much work to do – the editing feels different when you realize “this is it – any niggling concerns, or things I’ve been putting off, have to be fixed in this round because after this the readers get it.” This is no different for me, now, self-publishing APS, except I pay for my editor. For your reference, this will be the single largest expenditure I have in self-publishing and will, in fact, be as big as everything else combined. As it should be (IMHO). Good editing is critical.

APS is with its editor right now. Yikes! I’ve worked with this editor before, and she sent me a seventeen-page editorial letter, so I’m prepared to be hit again with a tonne of work to do before the book’s ready for formatting and designing, and selling. And that’s as it should be too – I want to be proud of this book once it’s out.

Types of editing:

(A) First are big-picture manuscript critique type edits that deal with storyline and plot and pacing and overall writing style and character development. These are essential and for these you need a very qualified, very smart editor. In my personal opinion, your mother, or sister, or best friend can’t do these types of edits for you. Someone out there may have a very special mother, or sister, or BFF, who can do these things, but I think they would be the exception that proves the rule.

(B) You may go through a couple of rounds of the above-type of editing, but it should start to narrow down, until you get to line edits. This is, as it sounds, a pickier, line-by-line edit of smaller things. In my case my editor and I will work on big picture stuff and, after I revise the book, we’ll both read it line-by-line to see if the issues are improved and also to look for inconsistencies, issues – really anything that might throw a reader off.

(C) Copy-editing. This is the small stuff that you really do need to sweat. Grammar, spelling, typos, even lay-out glitches. This is fine-tooth comb stuff. In this case, if you have a friend who’s a professional-type editor, I think they could do it. This is just my opinion, but this type of editing is less emotional, less subjective (to me, anyway). Having said that, you may be surprised at how bent out of shape you get over little things. Comma usage is a huge one. Also American or Canadian spelling? There are lots of little conventions that your copy editor may interpret one way, and you might another. If you’re working with a traditional publisher, I’d recommend accepting all the copy editing suggestions that don’t kill you, and asking nicely if the ones that really do bother you immensely, can be done your way. In other words, pick your battles. In theory, in self-publishing, you get to decide, however, it’s important to ask yourself why you’re resisting a change. Is it out of habit? Is the copy editor’s way better? I still think you should take most of their suggestions and only stick to your guns on things that are very important to you and that you can justify.

Editing Attitude

Which leads me to my final thought on editing. Attitude. It’s really important to go in wanting feedback. Being excited to get it. Thinking of the relationship as a partnership. Both of you want your book to be better, stronger – kick ass! Don’t hope for no changes. Hope for great new ideas, suggestions, prompts. Don’t expect the editor to solve your problems, but expect them to point them out in a way that stimulates you to solve them yourself.

Many people have warned me that as cumbersome as the agent / editor submission process is, it does have the advantage of making sure your book is really ready by the time it’s published. With OIM I submitted, got feedback, fixed it, moved forward, got more feedback, re-wrote, etc. Because I was originally going to traditionally publish APS, it’s gone through the same process, and I truly think it’s ready for final edits now. My challenge will be making sure future books are also ready. I’ll have to be hard on myself. I’ll have to ask difficult questions. I’ll have to rely on beta readers and truly take their thoughts into account (I’m so lucky to already have five smart, book-loving beta readers lined up – feel free to send me your name if you’d like to be one too).

I feel confident I can do it, though. In the past, the decision to re-write / revise or give up has always been up to me, and I’ve always rewritten. There’s no reason to think I won’t do the same in the future.

My advice to anyone still figuring this out, is keep going – writing and revising – until you literally can’t think of any way to make your book better. Then either submit it or hire someone to work with you. There are amazing freelance editors out there – many are bestselling authors in their own rights, others work for traditional editors on contract – these days it’s completely possible to buy great editing, and I have a list of freelance editors I can give you, if you’re interested.

Quickie – on Dialogue

For anyone working on their dialogue-writing skills, this is a really good post, covering the basics.

Many, many of the books I read could benefit from following these tips.

Happy writing!

New Series: Self-Publishing Yays and Boos

I said I was ending my hiatus because I had some things to say. From the post above, you may guess these things will have to do with self-publishing – the ups and the downs.

The reason I’m going to be able to write these things, is that I’ve decided to self-publish my next book. And, in theory, the one after that. And after that. And so on.

I think I wrote the above pretty calmly, but many of you will know, this is a pretty big choice. Although I think it’s diminishing a bit, there’s historically been some serious nastiness between extremists in the self-publishing pit, and those within the traditional publishing world.

I tried to make this a business decision, although that was very tricky because there’s been so much emotion built into my quest to be published. As many of you will know, it was over five years between finishing the first version of OIM, and the book being published. Since self publishing was always an option during those years, I obviously had a pretty powerful inner compulsion to earn a traditional publishing contract to stick with it for so long.

During that long period there were, of course, times when I thought there’d be no choice – that I’d have to self publish, or be willing to leave OIM in the metaphorical drawer forever. Also during that period, self publishing changed immensely. At the beginning I used to think “I’d have to be desperate to self pub.” By the end I was thinking “If this was purely a business decision, I’m probably self pub, but it’s not.”

Emotion has been there during this entire decision, and there’s still some emotion attached to my decision. That’s why I’m only going to go so far into the details in this post. Having said that, in the true spirit of self publishing (which is astonishingly open and sharing), as I go through my journey I really want to help others. So, if you have a specific question, please feel free to contact me directly.

What I am prepared to do, is show you the list of gains and losses I feel I’m taking on by self publishing. Here they are listed in some sort of order of how they occur in the publishing process:

1) Planning. When will my next book come out? Will it have a sequel? When will that come out? Will I try a different genre? How will my writing days, and years be structured? These are now entirely my decisions (within reasonable human limitations) – Gain

2) Preparation. Securing and paying for editing services. Securing and paying for design and layout services. I now have to do all this myself and I have to pay enough to produce an extremely high quality book – Loss, but with a caveat. Many traditional publishers today employ freelance editors. These editors are available to edit self published projects. I’ll do a post very soon on finding an editor when self publishing. Also, re: design, yes, I have to pay, but I also get the final say. I was very lucky to love my cover for OIM, but there are many authors who’ll tell you they don’t like their covers much at all.

3) Distribution. This is rather difficult to compare. If you’re talking about distribution to bookstores, traditional publishing still has the edge – no doubt. Having said that, only large publishers can get meaningful space in Chapters. My book is carried by Chapters but we’re talking (maybe) two copies, deep in the Teen section, spine out, on a bottom bookshelf. Which leaves independent bookstores. These are great, but they’re still closing at a steady rate – in fact, the bookstore that was supposed to support my book launch shut between making the plans and the actual launch. Don’t get me wrong – sales into multiple small bookstores across the country can add up to decent numbers – but they probably won’t  make you a best seller. E-distribution, on the other hand, is a pretty equal playing field. I’m not talking about recognition here – just plain old availability. A self-pubbed e-book is just as available on Amazon as a traditionally published book. And the disadvantage in print is narrowing quite a bit too - by self publishing using Lightning Source, your book enters the Ingram distribution system. This is the system used by traditional publishers. So, I think both methods have distribution advantages (today – who knows what will be true in a year or two), but for the kind of distribution that feels important to me, this is a – Gain (Note: OIM is not currently available as an ebook, which also skews my personal assessment of my current distribution situation vs. what I feel I can gain by self pubbing. If I had an ebook out with a traditional publisher, I might feel differently).

4) Sales / Promotion. This is a very case-by-case area. Your publisher may be great at marketing and sales. If so – hurrah! – you’re in a great situation. Or your publisher may do very little in these areas. You may shudder at the thought of doing any of this yourself, in which case somebody else needs to do it for you – whether that’s a traditional publisher, or somebody you hire to do it. In my case, I have a background as a publishing sales rep. and I already do a considerable amount of promotion work. I don’t really want to pay somebody else to do it. So, for me, this area is a – Gain.

5) Team / Community. Some people feel a true sense of inclusion and protection through their publisher and / or agent. This really matters to many writers. I don’t have an agent, so that doesn’t apply. In researching self publishing, all my friends are on side, my family supports me, both in theory and with offers of financial support, and I have talented professionals ready to do work for me that I need done. Also, the self publishing world at large is unbelievably open and welcoming. I send emails to total strangers and they answer in two hours, providing me with the information I’ve asked for and saying “I love talking about this stuff – please send me any more questions you may have!” So, again, in my personal case, this is a Gain.

6) Money. Ah, yes, filthy lucre. Somehow writers aren’t always supposed to be interested in money. The money itself isn’t a huge motivation for me. I make very little right now, and I will continue to make very little self publishing. The principle of the money, however, is important to me. If I’m willing, and able, to do all the things I’ve listed above, the bottom line is, I need to earn more than 10 per cent in royalties. I just do. Maybe I’m a shallow person, but I resent working my butt off to secure sales that somebody else earns commission on. So, I’m not doing this for money, but I am doing it for the way the money flows. Gain.

7) Accolades. Awards, lists, and the esteem of the writing community are probably things I’m throwing away. I get that. I can live with it. I would love to have some awards to my name, and I would love to be on some “best of” lists, but if certain awards and lists won’t look at self published books, so be it. Some great awards and lists do look at all books (thank you Ottawa Book Awards), and I think, like so many other things in this world, that will change increasingly as time wears on, but for now I’m accepting I won’t be nominated for a GG anytime soon. Loss. ETA – since writing this, I’ve learned OIM was on the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Best Books for Kids and Teens list, 2013 – so I’m already on a list!

8) Opportunity. Taking a chance. Seeing how it works out. Trying different things. Nobody saying “don’t”. Riding an ever-changing wave. Not wondering what could have been. The only way to have all this is to try it. Gain.

Final word. When I say I’m self publishing, I mean I am SELF PUBLISHING. I am doing as much as possible myself and directly choosing what to outsource, to which professionals, and how much it will cost. Some people think vanity publishing has been replaced by self publishing. That is not true. Vanity publishers are alive, and well, and flourishing. They will take so much of your money your head will spin. You should NEVER pay money to have your book “read” or “considered” or “submitted” – this is a red flag. If you’re self publishing you should only pay money for an exact service that you know you’re getting. I can’t say any of this as well as David Gaughran, so do some reading on his blog and, please be careful!

Oh, and wish me luck, please!

Coming out of hibernation (or out of hiatus)

Which, I know, sounds crazy because this is January and, on the day I start this post we’ve had a freezing rain warning, a flash freeze warning and a wind chill warning. All in less than twelve hours! Who comes out of hibernation under these conditions?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. One is, I have some new things to say, and I’m going to start saying them on the 1st and 15th of every month – for now, anyway – and see if that schedule works.

The second is because my nine-year-old has graciously allowed me to post a paragraph he wrote while looking out the plane window on our way home from Wales. I love it, and posting it here seems like as good a way as any to break this hiatus.

Clouds

“Clouds are a natural work of art. They stretch across the skies of the vast world. They resemble a sea textured with everlasting ripples. Tufts of white rise above the sea like islands in the sea.”

I really like this, but more than that, I really like that my son thinks it’s perfectly normal to compose a paragraph about something he’s seeing, and to grab my notebook and write it down. I wasn’t doing that when I was nine, so I wonder what he’ll be doing by the time he’s my age.

Back again soon, with something different to say.

On Hiatus

Hiatus: a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

That’s me – on hiatus from blogging.

Why? Many reasons. I’ve been at this for a long time. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it. I’ve considered hiating (that’s not a word) many times, but now I’m doing it. At least for a while. Possibly forever. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I wish anybody stopping by this page all the best, and if you want to follow my writing progress, I’ll be updating it in a shorter, quicker way on my Facebook page. Likes are much appreciated!

Thanks and hope to see you on FB!

Tudor

 

Weighty Issue

It’s funny the things that can inspire a blog post. For this one, it was my annual physical (very important, by the way – please go, please take twenty minutes once a year to look after yourself). Every year my check-up starts with the blood pressure / height / weight triumvirate, and every year I have to tell the nurse, “The other two are great, but I don’t do my weight.” And, every year the nurse says “Oh!” and hesitates, and frowns, and says “And she’s good with that?” (“she” is my doctor), and I say “Yes”, and I don’t get weighed.

Being weighed, for me, would be like pouring a gin and tonic for an alcoholic. Knowing my weight is, to say the least, angst-inducing. It sets off a chain reaction of obsession. If the number is “bad” (higher than I want it) well, then, of course I need to get it down. If it’s “good” (lower than I think), that actually just prompts the same response. I need to keep it there. No wait, ideally, I need a five-pound cushion. And, after that, another five-pound cushion would be prudent … As I write this, I know this isn’t a logical thought process, but it’s mine, and I own it, and I’m respectful enough of it – and its power – that I’m not about to mess with it. Especially when the solution is as simple as just not being weighed.

GREAT BIG CAVEAT: I am not a doctor. If you, or your doctor, or medical professional, wants you to be weighed, then you should be weighed. I also totally understand why babies / infants / young children need to be weighed – you need to put them in the right car seat, they need the right amount of medication for their weight, etc.

However for myself, personally, I’ve gone through the last several years (like maybe nearly twenty?) not being weighed. And, yes, this includes both my pregnancies and, no, my midwives had no issue with that. Not at all. In fact they were probably the most nonchalant of all people I’ve ever met about not weighing me. The only times I really, really need to know what I weigh is for my passport, or for the DIN adjustment on my downhill ski bindings. And then close enough is good enough. I know roughly what I weigh. I know what I weighed twenty years ago, and I still wear the same size of clothes (I may even have one or two clothing items that are still with me from those days, although I’m not going to disclose what they are).

This is Grace’s take on the bathroom scale, from Chapter Seventeen of Objects in Mirror:

… On autopilot I prepare for my morning weigh-in. Toe the bathroom scale out from the corner where it lives. Breathe in, then out, whooshing every spare bit of air from my body, willing lightness into my step as I raise my left foot …

… and freeze. No more numbers. The words – or something like them – swim back to me through eleven hours of solid sleep. Leave me balancing, one-footed, as I prepare to get my first number of the day. Success or failure right here in front of me.

And then she does something, but you’re going to have to read the book to find out what …

We don’t have a scale in our house. My boys find out what they weigh at the doctor’s, once a year, or when they visit people, like their grandparents, who have a scale. They don’t seem to care much what they weigh, apart from a vague sort of pride that they’re getting bigger. Even I was stunned when I found out my older son weighed 99 lbs. It’s hard to believe I have a child that big!

I’m not an expert, and I can’t say what works for everyone, but I will say not having weighing as a normal activity in our household works for us. I wasted too many precious minutes in my younger years waiting for those numbers and then went on to waste too many more precious hours worrying about them. I don’t want that preoccupation in my home.

By all means, if you need to track your weight for valid health reasons, do so. Or if you love knowing your weight – good for you. But if stepping on that scale is something you dread, and there’s no good reason to do it, then – maybe – don’t … do something good for yourself instead; eat a carrot stick or walk around the block.

Or do the thing Grace does in OIM!

 

 

 

 

Patience

This post is really just to say a strange patience has washed over me. Writing – the kind of writing you try to get traditionally published – requires a lot of patience. There’s a great deal of waiting. Waiting for agents and / or editors to give you a yes or no answer. Waiting for various steps in the publishing process to take place (getting your contract, getting your revised contract, seeing your book in print, waiting for feedback on your book, etc.).

Even though you always know this waiting is inevitable, it’s sometimes very hard to accept it. Some days you think “I just want to know SOMETHING. Anything!”

My way of handling this waiting has always been to keep writing. (1) It keeps me from dwelling on the wait – the thing I can’t control – and (2) It means if / when something does happen, I have even more work to offer.

However, even while writing and trying to ignore the impatience, there are still usually moments of angst. Of waiting for a certain message to pop into the inbox. Of wondering how book events and deals and contracts are being announced all over the world and so when will I EVER hear anything?

But right now, for this minute, I’m not impatient. I’m enjoying the book I’m working on. I’m feeling OIM get its legs. It’s moving on its own! It’s finding readers without me!

Patience is extremely relaxing.

Long may it last …

Pre-Christmas Giveaway!

This time of year seems like a really good time for a giveaway, and I’m so lucky to have Oneka on board for this one. Regular blog readers may remember Oneka from my “No Showers” Simple Pleasures post. Now that the cold weather is here (not to mention 25 cm of snow in Ottawa), and I’m back to my shower, Oneka has come with me. I use their Citrus shampoo and conditioner every day and love both products.

My kids love them too, and I love that because Oneka products are biodegradable and free from harmful chemicals = kid friendly.

Oneka has kindly offered not one, not two, but THREE full-size trios (16 oz shampoo, conditioner and body wash), which they’ll ship to Canada or the U.S.

And, because I haven’t given away any copies of my own book on the site, I’m throwing in a couple of copies of Objects in Mirror. So that means five winners – five! Yay!

I don’t believe in making people jump through hoops, or open accounts they wouldn’t otherwise have, just to enter a giveaway so the only REQUIREMENT to enter this giveaway is that you leave a comment below – so I know you’re in and so I can enter your name in Random.org as a potential winner.

However, for good karma – and to help a new writer (me) and a growing Canadian business (Oneka), it would be wonderful if you could do any / all of the following:

- Like Oneka’s Facebook page

- Like my Objects in Mirror Facebook page

- Visit Objects in Mirror on Goodreads and – if you have an account - a rating, review, or “to read” would be great

- Use the power of your word of mouth. For example, ask your local library to carry Objects in Mirror, or recommend it to a friend. Tell people about Oneka’s products. Keep doing this, in general, for great products / books / restaurants, etc. If we all recommend the things we like, we won’t have to complain about the things we don’t like, because the good will eventually squeeze out the bad.

Quick review:

Three prize packs from Oneka, two books from me.
Enter by commenting below.
I’ll put commenters’ names in a list and choose using Random.org.
If you win I’ll email you to get your mailing address.
Winners for Oneka must be in Canada or the U.S. I’ll send books to Canada, the U.S., or the UK (in other words, if you’re in the UK, you’re only eligible to win a book).
Entries are open until Thursday, December 5 at 5:00 p.m. EST – I’ll announce winners on Friday, December 6.

That’s it, that’s all! Questions? tudor (at) tudorrobins (dot) ca or comment below.

Oh, also, if you want to buy your very own Oneka products, they’re now carried at Well.ca!