S.R. Roddy's Blog, page 8

Book Trailer Wednesday

The Loneliest Alpha by T.A. Grey

 I’ve decided to go a different direction than just your typical book review. My love for books drives my incessant need to read nonstop. I also find theatrics entertaining. Luckily I’ve found the perfect way to satisfy both. Each week I will pick one book trailer that catches my eye and read that book. I’ll then post the trailer along with a short review of the book.

There is much controversy on whether book trailers are worth the investment in the book industry. I’m not the person to give that answer, sorry. What I will say is this; I have bought books based on trailers in the past. A trailer posted on twitter catches my eye. I’m intrigued by the teaser and find myself following the buy link. Yep, it’s that simple.

For my first foray into the book trailer world and this type of review I decided to go with something familiar. One of my favorite self published authors released a book back in the summer called The Loneliest Alpha which I loved. That is today’s choice for Book Trailer Wednesday.

I just have to say this trailer is hot, a perfect pick for my first post.

 

 

Review:           

 

A spin off of Ms. Grey’s Kategan Series this story takes place several weeks after book six. After the death of their alpha a fight for leadership is held. Though Gavin never really wanted the position he entered to save his baby brother’s life.

Gavin is a man that was scarred on the inside long before physical scars appeared. His loneliness for a mate pushes him to drastic measures. From the beginning Alicia’s strength and feisty nature attracts him. His own personal lodestone and the answer to his future happiness, if only he would take that final leap faith.

Alicia is a woman who has been hurt in the past. The lies of a man who claimed to love her caused her pack to treat her as an outcast. Her decision to interfere in pack business sets in motion changes in her life she was unprepared for. The mysterious man who clings to the shadows compels Alicia to learn his secrets. Her curiosity puts her in several situations that add a touch of humor to this story.

As the author mentions, this book is a true beauty and the beast love story. I really loved the twists she provided for one of my favorite fairytales. I expected sizzling hot and once again she did not disappoint. She kept me entertained from start to finish with her fast pace and great character development. Leaving me bemoaning the fact I had things to do in the real world that kept me from reaching for the book.

As usual, T.A. Grey gives us hints to several side stories that manage to whet the appetite making you want more. I for one can’t wait for the second book in the series. The biggest question I’m left to answer. Which of her new series do I like better? The easiest choice is to just buy them both I promise you will not be left disappointed.

I’ve always been a sucker for the brooding alpha, but this time he truly has good reason. His desire to stay hidden adds an accidental sensuousness to their encounters that was hot. It allowed for a connection that might not have been there with face to face encounters.

It holds a suspenseful theme as they try to uncover answers to several crimes that take place along the way. Leaving you guessing at who might be betraying their pack. Overall I give this book 4 hearts.

 

(4 / 5)

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Choosing a Book to Read

I love reading in general. Romance of course is my typical read, but I do enjoy other genre. My favorite online hangout is twitter where I find new authors daily through the various tweets. I thought I’d share my process for picking books to read. For an easy generalization I’ve picked Amazon’s platform for this article.

My process:

The first thing I do is of course follow the link. After that I have a process I follow in choosing a new book to read.

Book Cover – The idea of first impressions is key here. If the cover looks cheesy I will usually pass.
Synopsis – This along with the cover is a very important market tool for authors. This tells us readers a little about the story and is a huge deciding factor on whether or not I buy.
Price – For a new author I will never pay more than $4.99 for their book and that’s only with extenuating circumstances. I prefer $3.99 or less for an unknown. *
Book Length – This goes hand and hand with pricing. If the book is 50 pages long and they’re charging $2.99 or more I will never buy it. **
Reviews – There are two reasons I look at reviews. 1.) I will look for a 5 star review that gives more details on the story, using it like a more in depth synopsis. 2.) I look at the 1, 2 and 3 star reviews. I read each review noting what the complaints are. Things like: “I hate this book…” or any form of “I couldn’t even finish it…” automatically gets a No this wasn’t helpful vote from me. Things I’m looking for: An abundance of complaints involving formatting, spelling errors, wrong words used or continuity issues. These are my main pet peeves and I will pass on a book for any of these reasons.
Look Inside – For an e-book this is the best option ever. It gives a reader a chance to sample a small amount of the author’s work for free. Then we get to make an informative decision and don’t waste time and money on something we wouldn’t be happy with. It helps if the author minimizes their front matter by shifting it to the back of the book. Most e-readers allow readers to access the table of content at any time so putting it in the back of the book is a win for everyone. Save all the flashy front matter for your print version.

Other factors:

While these factors will not stop me from buying a book they do show a certain amount of professionalism.

Author page – I like to look at the author page reading the bios and taking a cursory look at other works they’ve written. Their twitter feed and any blog posts they have linked.
Author’s webpage – A professional looking webpage goes a long way to bringing me back to an author. The first thing I go to is the bookshelf. If an author has a large list of books I like to see them separated in some way. Separations by genre or series are both good options. The other thing that drives me crazy: I want to see a buy link. Nothing worse than making your readers search for a book at retailers. You will lose potential customers this way.

Author’s Blog – I know a huge emphasis is made on blogs, but honestly it’s the last thing as a reader that I look at. While a blog is helpful in building a following it’s not going to stop me from purchasing an author’s book if they don’t have one. Now let’s look at this from a different view: If I read a blog article from an author that I really liked I would be more likely to consider buying a book from them.

 

If they’re doing a free promo I will normally pick up the book and judge for myself on what kind of author they are. If it’s an author I’m familiar with 1-4 still applies.

*There is always an exception to every rule. If the book is priced to high, I’ll often look for another book of theirs that’s on sale. If I like their writing style I will go back and purchase the other book.

**Everyone has their opinions on e-book pricing, myself included. Since this post is based on my own opinions I will list those. I base everything on pages, but some sights don’t list page count. It’s generally accepted that 250 words = 1 page.

Less than a 100 pages = .99

100-200 pages = $2.99 or less

200+ pages = $3.99 or more

I don’t care what your name is, if the book is under 200 pages I won’t pay more than $3.99. For bigger named authors I’ve been known to pay as much as $7.99 for a book 200+ pages, but that’s rare. A perfect example is Sherrilyn Kenyon’s new book Styxx: 848 pages for under $8 is a steal. By the way that was an awesome book.

 

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Halloween and Creepy Movies

Our Fright Night Fest

Tomorrow is Halloween a favorite holiday for horror enthusiasts. My oldest daughter and I both share an obsession for horror. We have a family tradition in our house that we have celebrated for years now. Each Halloween we go out and buy tons of candy put it in a big bowl and sit our butts in front of our big screen tv. No trick or treating for us.

I made the decision years ago that the stress and danger wasn’t worth allowing my kids to wander from house to house begging for candy. Each year I take them to a local carnival with games, face paintings, costume contests and hay rides to satisfy their driving need to dress up for just one night. We also try to find a local haunted house, something that has grown more difficult in recent years due to a lack of funding.

Halloween night in our family is celebrated with a horror movie marathon, a fright night fest if you will. It entails a list of our favorites from both the past and present.

Our lineup for this year’s fright night fest: We decided on Movies the majority has never seen before.

Psycho (1960) - A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer’s client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

An oldie but goody. Though this movie has been around for years my kids have never seen it so we found a copy of the original movie for our fright night fest.

 

Curse of Chucky (2013) - After her mother’s mysterious death, Nica begins to suspect that the talking, red-haired doll her visiting niece has been playing with may be the key to recent bloodshed and chaos.

In my opinion the whole Chucky franchise has been overdone, but I got out voted by my own little monsters.

 

A Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013) - A young family moves into a historic home in Georgia, only to learn they are not the house’s only inhabitants. Soon they find themselves in the presence of a secret rising from underground and threatening to bring down anyone in its path.

This was my kid’s choice. While I generally like ghost stories I’ve never heard of this movie so have no opinion.

 

The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013) - As Nell Sweetzer tries to build a new life after the events of the first movie, the evil force that once possessed her returns with an even more horrific plan.

The trailer for this movie prompted us to go back and get the first movie. It’s done along the lines of the Blair Witch Projects. I have to say I wasn’t really expecting the ending of the first movie. Horrible IMDB rating, but again kid’s choice.

 

Just for fun my family got together and voted on the creepiest movies of all times. Since we tend to be desensitized to horror in general it was a difficult process, but I think we did a decent job.

Dead Silence (2007) – A widower returns to his hometown to search for answers to his wife’s murder, which may be linked to the ghost of a murdered ventriloquist.

I have a deep fear of anything doll or clown related. This movie scared the crap out of me.

 

 

The Ring (2002) – A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it.

There was a unanimous vote 6/6 that this movie held a definite creep factor.

 

 

White Noise (2005) – An architect’s desire to speak with his wife from beyond the grave, becomes an obsession with supernatural repercussions.

The idea of voices beyond the grave not only exist but can be picked up by certain electronic devices just left us a bit creeped out.

 

The Eye (2002) – Originally titled Gin Gwai this is the Chinese version of the 2008 American movie by the same name. A blind girl gets a cornea transplant so that she would be able to see again. However, she got more than what she bargained for when she realized she could even see ghosts. And some of these ghosts are downright unfriendly. So she embarks on a journey to find the origins of her cornea and to reveal the history of the previous dead owner

We all six agreed to a high amount of creep factor when dealing with the ghosts from this movie. I have to say when it comes to horror/thrillers in most cases foreign films are just done better. American film makers tend to lean more toward gore than actual fear, which while still entertaining on some levels loses some of its spook appeal.

Two movies that stand out for me personally:

Black Christmas (1974) – A sorority house is terrorized by a stranger who makes frightening phone calls and then murders the sorority sisters during Christmas break.

As a child I was obsessed with many horror/thrillers, but none left a lasting impression on me quite as much as this movie. For years it topped my list as the scariest movie of all time. Oddly enough I watched it again when the remake came out, a comparison if you will of old to new, but it didn’t affect me the same. I think it held such a huge impact on my childhood fears more because of the reality factor. Without a paranormal twist it left you wondering just how real something like this could be.

Mama (2013) – Annabel and Lucas are faced with the challenge of raising his young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years…. but how alone were they?

I found this recent thriller to have a decent combination of creep and entertainment without the slasher gore found in more modern films.

 

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Tales of the Were: Red

Redstone Clan Book 2

“Red” is the latest installment involving Ms. D’Arc’s Tales of the Were world. Book two of her new Redstone Clan series follows the story of Steve Redstone, known by his military friends as Red. He is the second oldest of the Redstone brothers and Chief Security Officer for the family company.

Below is the blurb borrowed directly from her website http://biancadarc.com:

A water nymph and a werecougar meet in a bar fight… No joke.

Steve Redstone agrees to keep an eye on his friend’s little sister while she’s partying in Las Vegas. He’s happy to do the favor for an old Army buddy. What he doesn’t expect is the wild woman who heats his blood and attracts too much attention from Others in the area.

Steve ends up defending her honor, breaking his cover and seducing the woman all within hours of meeting her, but he’s helpless to resist her. She is his mate and that startling fact is going to open up a whole can of worms with her, her brother and the rest of the Redstone Clan.

Trisha’s had to hide her special abilities most of her life, but with her brother’s Army buddy – the guy they call Red – she’s finally free to be herself. He calls to her in a way she’s never experienced before and while bad guys keep trying to abduct her, he’s her safe port in the storm. But can such dangerous beginnings lead to a life-long love?

Warning: This cat loves water and he doesn’t really care who’s watching.

 

Main Characters:

Steve “Red” Redstone - The second-in-command of the Redstone Clan, Steve is a former Army Green Beret and Alpha werecougar.
Trisha Morrow - She’s in Sin City with a group of friends when she runs into her brother’s old Army friend, Red, and discovers Big Red is way more than her brother ever led her to believe.
Derek Morrow - A human Spec Ops soldier who served alongside Steve Redstone. He’s probably the best human friend Steve has.

 

My thoughts:

This book has it all. Action: bar fights, car wrecks and a leap from a helicopter. Romance: Shifter sees girl from across the room and is entranced. As he spends more time around her learning her true depths he falls deeper in love. Sexy shifters with a sense of humor and the growling dominant alpha types that make a girl want to get on her knees and beg for attention. A perfect combination.

Like most of D’Arc’s erotic romances this book maintains the right blend of sizzle, action and humor to keep the reader wanting more. I loved the way this book focused on his desire for permanence rather than the driving need to have sex over and over again that most paranormal’s focus on. Not that there isn’t hot sex scenes. They are just tempered by the need for a connection that’s stronger than the one moment in time. This book was a definite 5 star winner. It was one of those books that once I picked it up I didn’t want to put it back down until I was finished.

My favorite and least favorite characters:

My favorite and least favorite characters actually only held minor roles in this book, but both left a lasting impression. My favorite character was Trisha’s older brother Deke. I liked his protective instincts, his curiosity and acceptance of the magical world and his sense of humor. Crossing my fingers in the hope that Ms. D’Arc decides to star him in one of her later books.

My least favorite character had to be Lynda. The small glimpses of her personality D’Arc gave us left me with a strong feeling of spoiled and selfish. Seriously hoping she doesn’t show up as Deke’s love interest. She so doesn’t deserve him.

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Three Types of Dashes

Three Types of Dashes and When to use Them

 

Dashes: There are three types of dashes commonly used in writing. Each has its own significant purpose.

Hyphen
En Dash

Em Dash

 

One:

Hyphen -The basic function of a hyphen is to separate the words in a compound adjective, verb, or adverb.

 

Two:

En Dash – Is a typographical unit that is almost as wide as the letter N. It is used for periods of time when you might otherwise use to and in place of a hyphen when combining open compounds.

Three:

Em Dash – Is a typographical unit that is almost the width of the letter M. It’s commonly used to replace comma, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought.

Examples:

En Dash – When using an en dash in your writing use the short cut alt 0150.


March–June
The Iowa–Illinois State Line


Em Dash – When using an em dash use short cut alt 0151.


I work hard—she spends all the money.
If only we could—oh, forget I said anything.


Ellipsis – The famous dot, dot, dot used to leave a reader hanging in suspense. This typographical punctuation’s short cut is alt 0133.



Original Sentence:

“All employers must offer full time employees insurance benefits or risk being fined high penalties.”

Rewritten:

“All employers must offer full time employees insurance benefits…”

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Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

 

I thought this week I’d do something a bit different. One of my favorite past times, next to reading of course, is cooking. My husband’s recent diet has allowed me to explore my creative nature.

 

Ingredients:

2 pound boneless skinless chicken
Lipton chicken soup mix (1 pkg.)
Low Sodium chicken broth (32 oz)
Low Sodium Chicken bouillon (1 cube)
3 cups Water
½ tsp. Cilantro
½ tsp. Basil
½ tsp. Cumin
¼ tsp. Oregano
Sage (pinch)
Minced Garlic (pinch)
¼ tsp. Onion powder
¼ tsp. Parsley
¼ tsp. Cayenne pepper
Celery (1 stalk)
Carrots (5 baby carrots)
Package of small elbow noodles (16oz)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs. Butter

 

Directions:

Cook the chicken at 400 for 30 mins. Covering with tin foil. Allow to cool 5 mins before slicing into tiny pieces. Place in a bowl adding herbs and Worcestershire sauce before stirring.
Dice carrots and celery then steam for 10 mins. To soften them up.
Combine broth, water, chicken bouillon and the now stemmed veggies in sauce pan simmering at low heat.
Cook noodles per directions on package draining when finished. Pour the sauce pan mixture over the top of the noodles. Add the chicken, Lipton soup mix and butter stirring occasionally over medium heat 5 mins. Serve as desired.

The seasoning of course is based on your flavor preferences. I found my kids going back for seconds with the added herbs and veggies. This meal is quick, easy and doesn’t hurt your wallet. The low sodium also fits into my husband’s new diet.

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Helpful Formatting Tips

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that formatting is essential in the world of self publishing. Today I’m going to give a few pointers to help with formatting using Microsoft Word.

Number One: Do NOT use tab or space bar to create paragraph indents. This is a major issue with some writers. Using either of these methods for indentions causes issues with the conversion process and should be avoided at all cost.

Number Two: Always turn off Word’s “Auto Correct” and “Auto Format” features.

Number Three: Pick a paragraph style. Use first line paragraph indents or the block paragraph method, not both. An indented paragraph is most commonly used for fiction writing, while block paragraphs are generally used for non-fiction. It’s your book pick either one, but don’t switch between the two. This will result in conversion errors, which on some platforms may cause your e-book to be rejected.

Number Four: Using fancy non–standard fonts, colored fonts or font sizes will also cause issues when converting. They won’t translate the way you intended and will in most cases end up looking ugly. Try to keep your largest font size at 16pt. I’ve found 10pt–12pt works the best for the text body, while 14pt–16pt works best for Chapter titles.

Number Five: If you feel quotes add to your story and you just have to have them try to differentiate them from your own work. Italicize the text to help it stand out. Using block quotes and italics is the best option in this author’s opinion.

Example:

“Being in love is a mutual exchange of energy.”

 

Nuclear Method:

If your document originated in PDF or a program such as InDesign or WordPerfect it can be corrupted when converted to a Microsoft Word file. It may also become corrupted if it’s been touched by multiple word processors during any part of the writing process.

To clear out any hidden anomalies you may want to consider using what is commonly called the Nuclear Method.

Step 1: Make a backup of your manuscript. Never make changes without first backing up your work.

Step 2: Copy and paste your entire manuscript into Notepad. This will strip out any previous formatting and remove errors, anomalies and corruption.

Step 3: Close Microsoft Word and reopen showing an empty document.

Step 4: In Notepad you’re going to “select all” by pressing the Ctrl and A keys at same time (Ctrl A) then “copy” Ctrl and C keys (Ctrl C)

Step 5: Paste it all into the empty Word document either using right click then paste or Ctrl and V keys (Ctrl V)

Step 6: Format according to specifications found in the guides I mentioned in my previous posts here.

 

10 Helpful Shortcuts:

1. En Dash: Alt 0150 – When using an en dash in your writing use the short cut alt 0150.

· March–June

· The Iowa–Illinois State Line

2. Em Dash: Alt 0151 – When using an em dash use short cut alt 0151.

· I work hard—she spends all the money.

· If only we could—oh, forget I said anything.

3. Ellipsis: Alt 0133 – The famous dot, dot, dot used to leave a reader hanging in suspense. This typographical punctuation’s short cut is alt 0133.

Original Sentence:

· “All employers must offer full time employees insurance benefits or risk being fined high penalties.”

Rewritten:

· “All employers must offer full time employees insurance benefits…”

4. Paste: Ctrl V – Allows you to paste (place) text any where you want after you copy or cut it.

5. Undo: Ctrl Z – Will undo last action performed.

6. Select All: Ctrl A – Highlights the entire document.

7. Copy: Ctrl C – Copies any highlighted text into memory.

8. Cut: Ctrl X – Similar to copy this shortcut removes any highlighted text from the screen and places it in memory.

9. Save: Ctrl S – Saves changes to current document.

10. Find and Replace: Ctrl H – Pops up a window that allows you to search for designated words or codes to replace them as needed. Very handy to use in formatting.

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Self Publishing for Beginners: Part 3

Our Two Best Marketing Tools

 

Don’t forget two of the most important marketing tools you have available for your e-books.

Cover Art: Your book cover is a first impression to the world. Take your time and do it right. There are three main methods:

1. Pre-made covers – Some authors find this convenient, just keep in mind most pre-made covers are sold multiple times.

2. Cover designer – Pay a company or individual to design a unique cover for you. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Shop around a bit, there are plenty of companies that offer a cover for $100 or less.

3. Do it yourself – I only recommend this if you know what you’re doing.

Let’s take a minute to examine all three options.

Pre-made covers: They’re cheap and fairly easy to get your hands on. You browse through a selection of covers, make your pick, pay for the cover and submit your title and author name. They then slap on the book title and author name and email you your very own e-book cover. Going to Google and typing in the words “pre-made e-book covers” renders you a large selection of choices.

As I said earlier these are not always exclusive, however I have found two websites that specifically mention exclusive rights. I have never used either website nor am I affiliated with them in anyway. They just happened to come up in a search for pre-made e-book covers.

Fantasia Frog Designs – Their pre-made covers average around $40

Websites promise: Fantasia Frog Designs creates new and unique covers for each author. Once an image is used, it is taken out of our available files. That way no two covers can be duplicated, sold twice.

Graphicz X Designs – They offer pre-made covers for $60 with the option of a matching header or banner for an additional $45

Websites promise: Each ready-to-go design is original and, once purchased, is for your exclusive use and will not be re-sold or re-used in any way.

Cover Designer: A professional cover designer can become expensive. Doing a little research I’ve found two websites that offer reasonably priced covers. Both websites also have a selection of pre-made covers.

Wicked Cover Designs – Their e-book covers start at $75, with package deals starting at $95 which includes:

· 1 book jacket (front, back and spine)

· 1 e-book cover

Kalen O’Donnell Cover Designs – Their custom covers start at $120, with an All In One package for $220

· Custom e-book cover

· Custom print cover

· Website/Facebook banner

· Business cards/bookmark designs

Do it yourself: If you’re proficient with Photoshop, GIMP or similar image manipulation software by all means be my guest and try your hand. Just keep in mind nothing says “Amateur” louder than poor quality. There are websites dedicated to bad e-book covers, trust me when I say you don’t really want to be on them.

Your cover art is the first thing a potential customer sees. The impression they receive from that cover determines whether they stop for more details. That brings us to the second tool at our disposal.

Book Description: This is a key component in publishing. Every retailer requires a description of some kind. Throw in a short excerpt if that’s what you want. It’s your chance to describe the book to potential readers. The idea is to try and grab the reader’s interest, getting them to purchase the book.

A good length is between 100 and 200 words. Don’t make it to long your potential reader may lose interest. Always write in third person no matter what POV the book is in. Use emotional power words, but sparingly. Don’t deviate into subplots with the description, it’s best to stay with the basics of the story. Try to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why and how. Stay away from asking too many questions of the potential reader.

I found a decent blog post here.

 Remember an advertisement will bring a potential customer to the books profile, but from there it’s your job to get them to click that buy button. If my three part series has helped, even in a small way then it has done its job. If you have any questions feel free to email me through my website. Best of luck with your self – publishing endeavor.

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Self Publishing for Beginners: Part 2

Publishing with a Retailer

So your book is done and ready to be published right? Wrong! You have a few more steps to consider. Before you do anything you need to make the choice of self publishing directly with the retailers or using a distributer. There are a lot of distributors as well as retailers, but for the sake of expediency I will only list the most well known.

Three of the top distributors are:

· Smashwords – If you’re accepted for their Premium Catalog for a small percentage of your sales (on average you receive 60% royalty for every book priced at 0.99 or above) they will distribute your e-book to a total of 10 different retailers. They also offer your book on their site {you receive 85% royalty for sales directly from their site) in all formats for your reader’s convenience.

· Bookbaby – For a fee (starting at $99) you supply the publishing-ready e-pub file and they’ll distribute your eBook to your selected digital retailers. You’ll also get full access to the accounting dashboard reports and weekly payments. According to their website they offer 11 retailers.

· Lulu – According to their website: “Lulu is a company committed to helping you sell more books and reach more readers. Whether you are out to make your fortune, or simply share an idea, Lulu empowers authors, publishers, educators, and businesses to bring knowledge and expertise to readers more easily than ever before. You can do-it-yourself at no cost using their publishing wizard or choose from a wide range of Lulu services for help. Through their Internet retail site, retail partners, and global print network Lulu has created a one-stop shop for the ultimate in publishing freedom. You pick the price, market, and medium. As a Lulu author, you have complete control over your price and content.” You earn 80% of the profit or more when your work sells.

Choosing a distributer makes it simpler to get on some of the retailer channels. Sony encourages self published authors to use a distributor. Then there is iTunes which requires iTunes Producer to direct publish with them.

Publishing direct with retailers means you get a slightly higher profit in most cases than you would with a distributor and a little more freedom to correct errors if they are made. I’ve picked three of the top favorites to discuss below.

Publish direct to retailers:

· Amazon – Amazon calls their program KDP, which stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. They offer two royalty options a 70% royalty option for books $2.99 – 9.99 and 35% for everything else. The 70% option sounds appealing, but there are a few catches.

1. Titles must be made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights.

2. The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.

3. Set and adjust your List Price so that it is at least 20% below the list price in any sales channel for any physical edition of the Digital Book.

4. To be eligible to earn 70% royalty for sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, and India, titles must also be enrolled in KDP Select

KDP Select is an alternate program offered through Amazon’s KDP program. It offers some extra benefits with the promise of exclusivity for 90 days at which time you may opt out. In other words if you enroll in the KDP Select program you can NOT put your e-book on any other website, including your own, for sale during that 90 day period. This does not affect print books.

· Barnes & Nobles – Their program was called Pubit, but recently changed the name to Nook Press. Your e-books list price can be no greater than the e-book’s list price at any other retailer, website, or sales channel.

1. NOOK Books with a List Price at or between $2.99/£1.50 and $9.99/£7.99

  ~ 65% of the List Price

2. For NOOK Books with a List Price at or below $2.98 /£1.49, or at or greater than $10.00/£8.00 (but not more than $199.99/£120.00 and not less than $0.99/£0.75)

  ~ 40% of the List Price

An exclusive contract is NOT required for the above stated royalties.

· Kobo – Their publishing program is called Kobo Writing Life. They pay royalties twice yearly. In most countries a list price of $1.99 – 12.99 qualifies for 70% royalties. All other is 45% of SRP or Suggested Retail Price.

Your SRP for each eBook must adhere to the following pricing rules broken down per country;

A. less than or equal to $12.99USD and greater than or equal to $1.99USD in the US

B. less than or equal to £7.99GBP and greater than or equal to £1.99GBP in the UK

C. less than or equal to $12.99CAD and greater than or equal to $1.99CAD in Canada

D. less than or equal to $11.99 AUD and greater than or equal to $1.99 AUD in Australia

E. less than or equal to €12.99 EUD and greater than or equal to €1.99 EUD in the European Union

F. less than or equal to $12.99 NZD and greater than or equal to $1.99 NZD in New Zealand

G. less than or equal to $99.99 HKD and greater than or equal to $15.99 HKD in Hong Kong

H. less than or equal to ¥1,040 JPY and greater than or equal to ¥80JPY in Japan

Here is a basic break down of the rules for your e-book to qualify for Kobo’s 70% royalty program.

1. The SRP for your eBooks provided to Kobo must be less than or equal to the lowest price provided by you to any third party.

2. Your Works cannot be works in the public domain, being works published before 1923 in the United States, “author’s lifetime + 50 years” in Canada and New Zealand, “author’s lifetime + 70 years” in Australia, the EU, and the United Kingdom.

3. Your eBooks must be made available to Kobo for sale in every geographic location within which Publisher has intellectual property rights.

4. Must be at least twenty (20%) percent below the SRP of the physical edition of the book, if one is available.

To sum this up Amazon and Kobo both offer 70% royalties compared to B&N’s 65% on books priced within a designated range. All three offer free publishing, they get paid only when you sell a book. Unlike Kobo and B&N, Amazon requires you to place your e-book price 20% lower than all other retailers to receive this 70% royalty. With both Kobo and B&N the list price must be less than or equal to the lowest price at any other retailer, website, or sales channel.

Whether you publish directly or through a distributor you will need to gather some important information for the submission process:

Book Title – Try to pick a title that grabs the reader’s attention.

Book Description – You want something that will grab the reader’s attention, make them want to read more.

E-book Cover – Although cover images aren’t necessary in most online stores to publish, if you want to sell successfully they are required.

Price – Decide your pricing beforehand, remembering that the pricing sometimes results in different royalty percentages. Also keep in mind a new author just is not going to sell a book for $9.99 no matter how good it is. Readers have to trust an authors abilities before they are willing in most cases to spend that kind of money. Take your time and choose carefully.

Territories – Which geographical territories you hold the rights for your e-book? This is a question every retailer or distributor asks. If your e-book is an unpublished work then most likely you still hold rights for all territories.

ISBN – An International Standard Book Number or ISBN is a number that uniquely identifies books and e-books published.

All print books require an ISBN, but not all e-book stores deem it necessary. Amazon provides an ASIN in place of the ISBN for any e-book on their platform for free. Smashwords and several other companies offer you an option for a free ISBN. Remember these free numbers are not transferable outside their offered platforms. In other words, if you opt for a free ISBN from Smashwords you can’t use it to direct publish on another retailers website.

Format: Each retailer usually has their own formatting preferences. Although they may be similar they are not the same. Some authors find the requirements confusing and end up paying a company or individual to take care of this, while others prefer doing it themselves.

Some helpful free guides are:

· Mark Coker’s Smashwords Style Guide

· Amazon’s Building Your Book for Kindle

· Lulu’s eBook Creator Guide

· Kobo’s Learning Centre

While B&N doesn’t exactly have a free guide like the others they do provide a guideline.

Mark Coker has provided a list of independent formatters and cover artists here.

Hopefully this guide has helped clear up some of the basic confusion. The idea is to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision. There are a lot of choices to make. You can choose one or two options, all, or a combination of several. It all depends on your preference. The consensus from authors is the more retailers you have your e-book available in, the better your chances are of selling your books.

This author has only used KDP and Smashwords until recently. My reasoning is quite simple, Smashwords distributes to the major retailers, I only had to upload my original .doc file and they transformed it into other formats for me. I also direct publish with Amazon because of this statement on Smashwords: “Although we have a distribution agreement with Amazon via their Kindle Direct Platform, they’re unable to receive our entire catalog until they create of a bulk upload facility.” (There I corrected their statement for them…) “In the meantime, we’re only distributing a few hundred titles to Amazon out of our catalog of over 150,000.”

It just made better sense to direct publish instead of waiting for a possible date in the future. With the release of my latest book I decided to try KDP Select out, in 90 days I may have an opinion on this program other than the obvious exclusive clause.

Join me next Tuesday when I finish off my three part segment with Self Publishing for Beginners: Our Two Best Marketing Tools.

The post Self Publishing for Beginners: Part 2 appeared first on S.R. Roddy's Novels.

Self Publishing for the Beginner: Part 1

Getting Your Manuscript Ready

I remember when I first considered self- publishing as an option for me. I spent days researching, which only accomplished me becoming even more over whelmed. I also got a huge migraine. In the hopes of helping others I’ve decided to share my findings in a three parts series.

Part One: Getting the Manuscript ready
Part Two: Publishing with a retailer
Part Three: Our Two Best Marketing Tools

Now let me share with you some of what I found. This article is meant to be a guideline to point you in the right direction.

 

Step One: Write your manuscript. I believe every author has their own style when it comes to manuscript progression. Some authors start with an outline, while others just sit down and write. I’ve read articles by authors who write their endings first then go back and write their beginnings. I’ve come to believe this is a matter of preference, not every style works for every author. Remember to always do what feels comfortable for you.

I don’t believe in the term “aspiring author” you’re either an author or you’re not. Let’s look at the word author. The dictionary defines an author as: the writer of a book, article or other literary text. You can aspire to be a bestselling author, a well known author, or even a good author. The point is, if you write, you are an author.

As the days and months wind down and your MS is finished then what? It’s done shouldn’t I be able to upload it to my favorite retailer? The truth is you can and some actually do, but should you?

 

Step Two: Proof read. The idea of this step is to examine your text for typographical errors as well as mistakes in grammar, style and spelling. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on this subject other than to say if you care about your readers at all proof read. This article from The Writer’s Handbook gives some helpful suggestions.

 

Step Three: Find a beta reader. There are many loose definitions of a beta reader. It is this author’s opinion that they are your test audience. Their job isn’t to rewrite your story and yes there are those that will try I’ve personally met them. The idea is to critique, help with flow, continuity issues and plot holes.

I suggest finding several people for this job, but ultimately it’s up to you. I used 4 beta readers for my last book the one before that only 1. A family or friend will work for this, but make sure they are willing to give you honest input.

The ideal candidate typically enjoys the genre of the book you have written and are volunteering to be your first reader. As I said earlier, this is your test audience. It’s also a completely free service, but in most cases the author will provide a finished copy of the book as a show of appreciation. I would avoid anyone that asks to be paid to do this. Remember, while a beta reader might do some proofreading it’s typically not their job. Content and flow is. Be kind to them, check for errors before you send them a copy.

Two well established beta reader forums can be found here: Absolute Write and Goodreads. If you have a strong media following you can also use this to your advantage by putting feelers out for volunteers. Don’t spam just ask interested parties to DM you for details.

 

Step Four: Fixes and rewrites. After my work comes back from the beta reader I typically comb through their notes and do some rewriting. I take all their suggestions into consideration, but that doesn’t mean I use them all.

 

Step Five:  Editing.  This is the stage where you say I’m done let’s get this baby out there for the public to read. If you can afford it, pay for an editor. It’s well worth the money just to have another set of eyes looking at your work.

 

A writer may be skilled at explaining a procedure or verbally depicting a scene, but the editor is the one who makes sure the manuscript’s syntax is smooth, that the writing adheres to the conventions of grammar, that the wording is proper and precise and punctuation is appropriate and correctly placed. An editor may also do or suggest some reorganizing, recommend changes to chapter titles and subheadings, and call out lapses in logic or sequential slip-ups.

 

Like a beta reader and possibly proofreader if you have both, an editor only recommends changes and does not implement them. When there are errors it is an author’s job to correct their own mistakes.

 

Step Six: Rewrites and fixes. Taking the editors notes you again go into rewrite mode, tweaking your story here and there as you see fit. Remember these are recommendations; ultimately it’s your work.

 

Join me next week for part two as I discuss the process of publishing with a retailer.

The post Self Publishing for the Beginner: Part 1 appeared first on S.R. Roddy's Novels.