Krista Lakes's Blog, page 4

Traditional vs. Self-publishing

Traditional vs Self-publishing

Traditional
publishing: send your manuscript off to a publisher or agent. They
decide if they like it. They do all the work. They get a percentage
of the profits.

Self-publishing:
You do all the work. You make all the profit.

It's
a tough decision. Traditional publishers have a lot of skill and
knowledge. They have cover artists, editors, proofreaders, marketing
teams, and bookstore contacts. They have decades of experience
publishing books and marketing them to readers.

If
your book gets selected, then it has a good chance of being
successful. You don't have to learn how to pick a good cover or run
Facebook ads.

You
can focus on just writing.

However,
you will have to deal with rejection letters when they don't want
your book and you will get less money when they do want it.

On
the other hand, as a self-publisher you get to pick your cover. You
get to hire an editor that you like and not one that someone picks
for you. If the books succeeds, it's all because of what you did.
And, you'll get all the profits. It's a lot more risk, but a lot more
reward.

I love self publishing. From the couple of books I've pitched, it's very possible that I wouldn't be published at all if not for self-publishing. (Here's a link on how to get started!) However, my books sell well enough that this is my full time job.

It's
a lot of work. I would love to get a publishing contract (it's
actually one of my goals this year) because I want to write more and
do the publishing side less. I'll still self-publish because I love
the freedom and choices. I love not getting rejection letters, too.

The
best of both: pitch your book to a publisher. If they don't want it,
self-publish it.

The post Traditional vs. Self-publishing appeared first on Krista Lakes Romance.

Impostor Syndrome

How to Manage Impostor Syndrome

Impostor
Syndrome: Feeling like a fraud. That you don't deserve anything
you've worked for and that everyone will see you for what you are.

I
feel like this all the time.

I
didn't go to school for writing. (I wanted to be a doctor.) I don't
have a fancy publisher that picked me (and even if I did, I would
worry that it was a mistake.) I know that a lot of luck went into my
success as an author.

How
do you deal with this feeling?

Acknowledge
it and put it into perspective. I feel like an impostor because I
don't have fancy credentials. But, that doesn't mean that I'm not
good at things. A person doesn't need fancy credentials to be
successful.
Reframe
how you talk to yourself. The
only difference between someone who experiences impostor syndrome
and someone who does not is how they respond to what's happening to
them. You are as good as you tell yourself you are.
Talk
to friends and coworkers. Odds are, they feel the same. It helps to
know you aren't alone in this feeling. Plus, they will tell you the
truth of if you are an impostor or not.

This
is something that a lot of people struggle with. I see other authors
doing better or posting on social media about their latest release
and I feel like I'm not doing enough. Like I'm not earning my
position as an author.

Even
writing this blog, I question my own credentials. I've been writing
and publishing romance novels for seven years. I've made enough money
doing it to support my family, yet somehow, I feel like I'm just
getting by on luck.

It
doesn't help when I have a book that fails. If anything, that just
solidifies how much I don't know what I'm doing. That I got here
purely on luck.

Logically,
I know that isn't true. When I talk to other authors and we share
knowledge, I know that isn't true. I know a lot about what I'm doing.
That doesn't mean that I don't have a ton to learn, but I'm not a
newbie either.

Impostor
syndrome is hard. It never goes away. It's always whispering in the
corners of the room, hinting that there is a fraud.

The
only way to get through it is to keep going. Keep learning. Keep
trying. Keep talking.

The post Impostor Syndrome appeared first on Krista Lakes Romance.

How to Self-Publish a Book

The basics of how to self-publish a book



Welcome to the amazing world of self publishing!

These are the basic steps for self-publishing a book. It's an overview, not a guide. Entire books are written about this subject, so this is very bare bones but should give you a good place to start and give you a basic idea of what to expect.

CREATING

1. Write stuff. (You've done this part! Good job) Now figure out what genre you fit in (contemporary romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, ect). Look at Amazon and figure out similar works. Look at their covers, blurbs, excerpts, and categorization. You will want to mimic successful books.

A note for e-readers: anything more than about 3-4 sentences looks like a giant wall of text on small screens. Thus, try and make lots of small paragraphs to make it easier to read. Do not use tabs to indent a paragraph. As your book will be read on a multitude of electronic devices, the tab is too much for most of them. Instead, in your word doc go to tools>paragraph>first line and set it to 0.3

2. Get a cover. A good cover is critical. People won't click on your book to even read the description if the cover doesn't catch your eye. This needs to be professional looking or no one will pick up your book. I don't recommend making your own unless you have a lot of practice making book covers. However, if you can't afford a premium cover there are plenty of premade covers available for reasonable prices.
(www.goonwrite.com andSteveRicherBooks.com/covers/ are great options)

3. Write your blurb. To write a good blurb, it should sound like a movie announcer is reading it. Keep it short and sweet. This is harder than it sounds, so keep in mind that this is what is supposed to entice a reader to click buy. Read the best seller blurbs in your genre to get good examples of the tone and wording your readers are looking for.

PUBLISHING

The big player is Amazon, especially with their Kindle Unlimited (KU) program. (Read about choosing between KU and being wide!)

*If you want to make going wide easy, you can distribute through draft2digital.com (D2D) or https://publishdrive.com. You upload your stuff and they will format it and send it out to Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Apple. They just take a portion of your sales as payment for the service./

Decide on a price. On Amazon, you will get 70% royalty if you price $2.99-9.99. If you price under/above that, you only qualify for 35%. Some countries are only 35% royalty rates, but they aren't the big ones.Format your book. There are services (like D2D) that will do this for free or you can pay someone to make it super fancy. Follow the directions on the screen and publish! It will take a few hours for it to go live, but you will get an email when it does. Be sure to use your keywords! This is how people will find you! KDP Select/KU: This is an OPTIONAL program for KDP authors, where you can choose to make your book exclusive to Amazon for a 90-day period.Please note that returns are common on Amazon. Their return process is crazy simple so a lot of people use Amazon as their own personal free library. If it feels like you are getting a lot though, check your formatting to make sure they are actually just being cheap and that there isn't something actually wrong. Rank: the more you sell the lower your rank. It is based on how all books in the store are selling compared to your book. The lower the number, the better you are selling.Physical copies: Kindle Publishing and IngramSpark are venues to use Print-on-Demand publishing. You will need to format and make a print cover for your book.

PAYMENT

Retailers pay out 60 days after the end of the month, so you won't see any money for the first two months. Please note, you will need to pay taxes on this income at the end of the year. Taxes are not withheld like at a normal job.Don't get discouraged if you don't sell very much. It is a tough market to get into (especially with the first book). Get on some blogs, goodreads, send out to reviewers, tweet, facebook and promote.

My first book barely made back my costs (cover, physical copies, and some small promotional stuff). I took it as a learning experience and wrote something a little more mainstream (a billionaire novel).
Sometimes stuff just doesn't sell and then other times it will take off. The best advice is just to write more. If something doesn't sell, leave it. You can either spend your time trying to fix it (which might work) or you can write something new (which probably will work, and if nothing else brings in more readers).

Good
Luck!

The post How to Self-Publish a Book appeared first on Krista Lakes Romance.

KU or Wide?

Kindle Unlimited (KU) or Wide?
How to choose between the two as a self publisher

In
today's indie author world there are two choices: Kindle Unlimited
(KU) or Wide.

There
are pros and cons to both, but ultimately there is no “right”
decision. It really depends on your genre, level of involvement you
want, and a whole mess of luck.

What is Kindle Unlimited (KU)?

Kindle
Unlimited is a subscription service offered by Amazon. If you spend
$9.99 a month, you get unlimited access to the Kindle Unlimited
library.

This
is awesome if you are a big reader. Since many romance readers are
voracious, there is a great market for romance. (Also LitRPG is big
here too)

Authors
are paid by how many pages are read. This is traditionally around .05
cents a page (half a cent). At 250 words a page, that means a 50K
novel read from cover to cover nets an author about a dollar. This
money is paid out of a monthly “pot” that fluctuates in amount.

Any
author that wants to be part of this program must be Amazon
exclusive. They cannot sell their books on any other sellers. (E-book
only. Print is different) Their book will be part of the KU program
and be available for sale on Amazon only.

Authors
can join KU for 90 day contracts. You cannot get out early.

What is Wide?

Going
wide is when an author sells their book on multiple sites. Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, iTunes, GooglePlay, and Kobo are the big book
sellers. Authors sell their books on all these (and more).

Pros and Cons

Pros of KU

Ease.
Being exclusive means you only have to have one version and uploaded
it to one place. It also means that when you advertise your book,
you can have all the ads lead to the same purchase page instead of
making readers choose which version they want.
Higher
search rankings. Books that are “borrowed” in the KU program are
counted in Amazon's search algorythms. Check out the top 100 books
on Amazon and you will see a lot of KU books.
Readers
are more willing to try new authors with KU. They haven't “spent”
money, so they are more willing to take a risk on an author they
haven't tried yet.
Amazon
has some nice perks for exclusive books. There are Kindle Countdown
deals and sales.
If
you are a top seller, you can get bonuses.

Cons of KU

Exclusivity.
You can't publish other places and have other revenue streams
No
hitting lists. With only one seller, you can't hit NYT or USA
Today's bestseller lists.
Following
the rules. If you break the rules, Amazon will kick you out of the
program. Unfortunately, many authors have been caught up in unfair
practices or even targeted by other authors.

Payment.
One dollar for a full novel that sells for $2.99 or more is a big
discount. The theory is that there are more readers in KU, so you'll
make up the difference with volume.
Unsure
payments. All the page reads come out of a big pot. This means that
the actual value of a page fluctuates on a monthly basis. It's
usually around half a cent, but also tends to trend lower. You will
never be exactly sure how much money you are getting paid.
The
problems with KU. KU is a mess. There are so many issues,
scams, and payout issues. I'm not going to go into them here, but
you can read about them here:
https://andrewbeymer.com/2018/05/11/kindle-unlimited-snafu-scammers-suspended-accounts-and-page-read-reductions/.
Innocent authors have seen their Amazon accounts terminated without
warning or recourse. As someone whose entire income is books, this
is terrifying.

Pros of being Wide

Selling
your book everywhere. Not everyone wants to buy from Amazon, and
this means you can sell your book to them. It also means you can use
cool promotions (B&N just announced coupons!)
Can
hit best seller lists like New York Times or USA Today
You
know exactly how much money you are making
Amazon
is less likely to ban your account due to scammers

Cons of being Wide

More
work. You have to upload to each site. You have to set your
advertising to a specific website. You have to keep track of it all
Less
visibility on Amazon. Amazon favors their KU books because that
makes them money. It means less natural visibility from Amazon
unless you are a big seller.

So, how does an author choose?

If
you are brand new, I recommend KU. It's easier and you will get more
readers willing to take a chance on a new author in KU. It simplifies
marketing and it gets your foot in the door.

If you're not brand new, this gets trickier. You have to look at your numbers. Are page reads a huge part of your income or are sales? Are you willing to do more work? What does your audience expect? (For example, the only website that sold stepbrother romances was Amazon. The other retailers wouldn't sell them, so being wide with a stepbrother romance isn't a good idea.)

It really comes down to whether you will make more money selling to multiple websites or if you'll make more with page reads.

There
are many authors that do the first 90 days of their book launch in
Amazon KU, then at the end of their term, go wide.

There
are authors that launch wide and then go to KU when sales have slowed
down on other retailers.

There
are authors that are exclusive. There are authors that hate KU. There
are authors that fluctuate and change as the market and their needs
change.

It's
a tough choice. Luckily, it's just a 90 day one. Experiment. Find
your market. Then roll with the punches to keep your books where you
want them.

The post KU or Wide? appeared first on Krista Lakes Romance.

Heroes

I need a hero!

Since the reader will see themselves as the heroine, you have to make the hero someone the reader wants to be with.

The Physical

The hero should always be inwardly attractive. It helps if he's outwardly attractive too, but it's possible to have a scarred, deformed hero that we still love. (Jane Eyre for example, or even the Beast in Beauty and the Beast.) He doesn't have to be handsome on the outside, but he does have to have a heart of gold.

Most women still say the tall, dark, and handsome look is preferred. Taller tends to be more attractive.

Hair, skin color, race, eye color, and builds can vary. They need to take care of themselves, though. They don't have to be Mr. Universe, but they shouldn't be Homer Simpson either.

There is definitely a wish fulfillment aspect here. We want to be with the hot guy. We want to have the prince. So give your reader that if you can.

The Emotional

Your hero must be intelligent. Since this is a book, we only get a description of the physical but we get a play by play of what he says. He needs to have a brain or your reader will lose interest. If he's just a pretty face, why would our heroine (us) want to be with him? We'll be bored since we don't actually get to see those rippling muscles.

Intelligence, humor, and kindness will win the hearts of your readers.

The hero can be dark and brooding. He can be locked away inside himself with his emotions, or a bad boy with a dangerous past. He can be an assassin, a gangster, a soldier, a doctor, or a gigolo.

But he must be intelligent and have a good heart. Why would we fall in love with him if he didn't?

The post Heroes appeared first on Krista Lakes Romance.

Dealing with Bad Reviews

You wrote an amazing book. You spent hours agonizing over the cover. You poured your heart and soul into the blurb. You published it. Months of hard work.

And then you get this:

1 star: Unbelievably Lame

I've never given a one star before, but this book deserves it. The authored tried too much to make the book a contemporary romance novel, but failed miserably! Waste of my time.

1 star: One Star

This was so poorly written I couldn't get beyond the 2nd chapter. How could this get published?

1 star: Very disappointed. I think I could have written a better …

I would give less if it was an option. Very disappointed. I think I could have written a better story. Didn't know it was a short story, feel ripped off for purchasing it. I should have requested a refund.

And your heart breaks.

I know mine does. Those are real reviews on one of my books. (Yours Completely. It was the #2 selling book on Amazon for a month in 2016.)

So, here's what you do.

Curse them. I yell at my computer and tell them that they are complete a-holes. If they think it's so easy- they should do it. Also, 50,000 words is not a SHORT STORY! It is a novel! It took months! F*** YOU RANDOM STRANGER!
Have someone else read the reviews. I have my husband do this. He's close enough that he'll tell me if there are real issues (like I need to get a better editor) or if they're just jerks. He doesn't tell me about the just jerk reviews.
Know that some people are haters. Seriously- how sad do you have to be to give a book a one star and call the author names? I figure those people are just pathetic sad individuals that need to get their kicks by feeling superior to others.
Forget about them. This is the most important. You are not your reviews. I'm going to say it again and in big bold letters because it's incredibly important.



YOU ARE NOT YOUR REVIEWS.

I actually find that one stars are worthless. They are always sad, bitter people hoping to troll. Two and three stars are where you learn things. The two and three stars at least acknowledge that work went into this book. They usually have more than just “Ugh. I can't even!”

Use those reviews to improve. If you have lots of negative reviews, figure out why and come up with a plan. If you have lots of positive reviews, then you're doing your job well. Keep improving.

Harry Potter has made billions. Yet there are one stars on her work. Everyone's a critic. There are people that gave Harry Potter one star reviews. You are not alone.

Basically, ignore the one stars. You will never please someone who gave a one-star rating. Never. They are lost causes and don't deserve your time.

Also, NEVER respond to a review. It does you no good. It's like arguing on Facebook. No one wins and you just end up looking like an idiot.

Yell at them in your head. Write their names down and burn them in a fire. But don't respond. It won't change anything. It will only cause drama that won't help you sell more books. Let the stupid people have their opinions.

It's probably all they have.

*If you need someone else to tell you basically this same sentiment, check out Chapter 14 of “Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis. She says, “Someone else's opinion of me is none of my business.” And it's true. It doesn't matter what someone else thinks.

Writing Resources

I recommend these in no particular order! *And I will update these periodically!

Books I Recommend:

Wired for Story by Lisa Cron –On Amazon
2k to 10K: Writing Faster, Better, and more of what you love –On Amazon
Writing the Great American Romance Novel by Catherine Lanigan- On Amazon
Write Naked: A Bestseller's Secrets to Writing Romance & Navigating the Path to Success by Jennifer Probst –On Amazon
The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi –On Amazon
Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes –On Amazon

Websites for Writing:

http://www.sex-lexis.com/ Sex words. Lots and lots of sex words.
https://jamigold.com/2012/11/write-romance-get-your-beat-sheet-here/ A great beat-sheet to help you plot out a novel.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanceNovelTropes Here's the story lines that have lasted the ages. Remember, there are no new stories, just new ways of telling them.
https://www.mindyklasky.com/index.php/for-writers/romance-tropes/
http://thatfrenchhelper.tumblr.com/post/59694514952/and-finally-after-five-months-of-hard-work Need some secrets for your characters? Here you go!

The Romance Genre Rules

I'm guessing that if you're reading this, you want to write a romance novel that makes money. You'd like to sell more than three copies to friends and family.

How do you do that?

You have to write to reader expectations.

Rule 1: For a book to be considered romance, there must be a happily ever after or at least a happily ever after for now. (This is why Nicholas Sparks doesn't consider his books to be romance. Romeo and Juliet is not a romance. It is a tragedy.)

The hero and the heroine must end up together. (This can be over the course of several books if you have an ongoing series. I know Fifty Shades of Gray doesn't always end on a happy note, but the last book does.)

If you do not give your readers this, it is not a romance. Romance readers want the emotional payoff. That's why they picked up your book.

Rule 2: No cheating. The hero cannot cheat on his girlfriend to be with the heroine. He needs to break if off with 1st girl before dating heroine. (And vice versa) You can play with this, but know that cheating triggers a lot of unhappy reviews.

Rule 3: The romance is what is important. It is what the book is really about. There can be zombies and aliens and nuclear bombs, but if the book isn't focused on the relationship, then it's another genre with a romantic sub-plot.

Then within each sub-genre there are expectations. Sweet romance: no sex. Erotic romance: hot, steamy awesome sex. Historical has different rules than paranormal (historical peeps like factual details.)

How do you discover these rules? You read that genre. If you want to write historical fiction, you need to read a bunch of historical romance novels. Read the best selling ones and see what they do well. Read one that has terrible reviews and see why people hate it. (Or just read the reviews on those. They usually spell out why they didn't like it pretty clearly.)

Follow authors' blogs and Facebook pages. There are some great resources out there! (I'll be adding some links soon!)

Happy Holidays!

From my family to yours, may your holiday season be happy and bright.

 

*Tips will resume next week!

Heroines

Not the drug, but the person.

The heroine should be someone you would like to be or someone they could be best friends with. Since they are one of the two main characters in a romance story, they should be someone that the reader will enjoy. The reader will be spending at least two hours with this person, so they should like them.

(There are of course exceptions to this rule. There are always exceptions.)

We want to live another life. That's why we read fiction. It gives us a chance to fall in love with different people and live lives that we could never have. I will never be a 16th century courtesan, but I can read it and give my brain the sensation that I am. I'd love to fall in love with a handsome billionaire, but my husband would miss me.

That's why I read instead. I get all the thrill, but none of the work.

As such, make your heroine someone that your reader will want to be. Make them funny or sweet. Make their life more exciting. They can have danger and drama without the risks. They should never be boring or rude. We have to like them, even if we don't agree with their decisions.

You can have a strong heroine. She can be brass. She can be ditzy or even a little self-centered, but we have to like her. We need to see something redeemable inside of her. Romance readers want the happily ever after (that's why we read romance and not other genres) so she needs to be capable of not only having that good ending, but deserving it.

Your heroine may not be everyone's cup of tea, but she should always be kind. She needs to be someone you want to spend the next week with (as a writer and a reader.) I'm a shy introvert, so I don't always see myself as the bold, uber-friendly heroines. However, I would LOVE to be their friend. I can get behind a heroine that could be my best friend.

Your heroine can make mistakes. She should make mistakes. If Elizabeth Bennet wasn't prejudiced, we wouldn't have a story. But, the important part is that even though Elizabeth has all the wrong ideas about Darcy, we still like her. We understand why she's sure that Darcy is a prideful snot, and we can see a bit of ourselves behaving that way too.

Keep this in mind while writing your character. The heroine is your reader. No one wants to think of themselves as rude or unkind. We all want to be Cinderella with animals that come rescue us because we are so damn awesome. She shouldn't be perfect, but she should be someone we want to be. Someone we would want to be friends with.

The main point here is that the heroine should be likable. We should want her to succeed. We need to feel that she deserves this chance at happiness.

As you write your heroine, make sure that she's always someone you'd want to have around. Even when she's sad and mopey because she's lost the love or her life, we should want to bring her ice cream. We can want to smack her upside the head, but we should want to do it because we love her and want what's best for her.

Not because she's annoying the crap out of us.

Your heroine should be someone you want to be or someone you want as your best friend.