Adventures in Self-Publishing (2)
Hello! Welcome to my second blog post, hopefully it will be of some use to anyone just starting out on their writing career, as I am. As I mentioned in my previous blog, my debut novel, The Broken Doll, has now been self-published. It was initially made available on Amazon (worldwide) as an ebook and as a paperback (via CreateSpace who print to order thus meaning I could avoid any upfront cost of printing a lot of copies). It was also made available at Barnes & Noble (Nook) and on Smashwords. Smashwords distribute to a large number of retailers including WHSmith, iBooks and so on but I ran into a problem with this (I’ll explain later what happened).
Over the past fortnight I have learnt quite a lot and discovered the importance of being represented on as many platforms as one has time to manage. As previously mentioned, I had created a page on Patreon, which looks as though it will have the potential to generate some income but this is yet to happen. I am being consistent with my promotion of this page on my other media platforms and strongly believe that these things take time to grow. I also have discovered a blogging community called Niume, on which I now have a page (you may be reading this on that very site). There has been a greater readership of my posts on there which is exciting. In addition to these, I am also posting my blog and some upcoming chapter excerpts on my Scriggle page.
When my paperback version of The Broken Doll arrived it was a tremendous feeling; a real sense of pride. I had an issue with the layout, however, as the margins were larger than anyone would expect and this explained why the print copy was 381 pages, compared to the ebook at 230! After a play about with the formatting on CreateSpace and uploading a new file, I managed to trim of forty pages and make it look much more professional. The added bonus to this was a slight reduction on printing costs and therefore a little extra in the royalty payments. The font is still quite large but I like that and have decided to keep it.
In my previous blog I mentioned that I had completed a short (7500 words) horror story which I hoped to have published as part of an upcoming, multi-author anthology. I’m due to hear at any time soon whether or not it has been accepted and have been checking my emails far too often in the hope of some news! EDIT: My short story has been accepted to become part of this anthology and I’m very excited (and a little proud!) to have managed to sell a short story to the first place that I submitted to.
Now, Smashwords. In my last post I explained how easy it seemed to be to convert a manuscript into the epub file required for ebooks. So I managed this without any major issues (or so I thought) and it passed verification for both Amazon and Nook. It also passed verification for Smashwords. So far, so good I thought. For Smashwords to distribute to all the other retailers that they list, however, the file needs to be reassessed to gain entry into their Premium Catalogue. The file failed, with only an error message that I could make no sense of. Essentially it was a part of the files code that was the problem and I had no idea how to rectify it. So I ignored it. Not a very sensible attitude but the book was selling on Amazon and this was taking up too much time trying to Google an answer. After about a week, I came back to it and it looked as though my only option was going to be to pay someone (around $120) to format the file. As a last resort before spending any money, I contacted Smashwords helpline, giving them the error message and shyly explaining my lack of understanding of computer coding. They were fantastic, though (of course it’s in their interest to sell as many copies). The following day I received an email explaining which part of the text the error related to and how to fix it. It turned out to be a part in the story where I had included a bullet-pointed list (as Ella makes notes on how to dispose of her husband’s very recently deceased body). Manually numbering the points meant the file passed the checks and is due to be made available at more than ten other major retailers in the next few days. It will certainly be interesting to see how well the book sells on more platforms.
Being easily distracted, I have been playing around with my writing schedule, trying to create a realistic plan for how much to write each week, alongside social media updates, blogs, short stories – all on top of family life, getting some exercise and still keeping my day job alive. Organisation is certainly the key, personally I would achieve very little if I didn’t have a weekly target to reach. I have now created a weekly target for the next entire year(!) which would enable me to publish my follow-up to The Broken Doll early August, and a third novel at the beginning of the new year (ideally earlier to catch the Christmas sales spike). It also allows me time to complete a short story every other week with the plan to release anthologies in different genres.
Over the next few weeks I have two competitions lined up which require short story submissions; one is a fluffy, romantic piece for a magazine and one is a short horror / fantasy tale so they are quite different. I think that I will find the latter easier but the word count limit is only 500 words so I will have to edit harshly I’m sure. It’s hard removing parts of a story that you’re proud of writing but sometimes it has to be done, for the sake of the story overall. Kill your darlings.
On another note, perhaps one that you can help with, I am currently looking for someone to illustrate a children’s book, preferably who will accept a 50-50 share of the royalties. I wrote a rhyming story for my daughter last year about a time machine that she makes and, along with her monkey Bobo, heads off a thousand years into the future to see how different the world has become. My daughter loves it and it would be great to offer this to a wider audience, potentially creating a series from it, but you can’t have a young children’s book without illustrations. Alternatively, I could try and teach myself to draw but I don’t have the time or the talent for any of that!
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions then please feel free to get in touch with me and if I can help in any way I will. If you would like access to my short stories (due to become available in the very near future) you can subscribe to my Patreon page for as little as $1 a month. I’m loitering about on Twitter and Facebook too please do come by and say hello.
Until next time.
Peter
Over the past fortnight I have learnt quite a lot and discovered the importance of being represented on as many platforms as one has time to manage. As previously mentioned, I had created a page on Patreon, which looks as though it will have the potential to generate some income but this is yet to happen. I am being consistent with my promotion of this page on my other media platforms and strongly believe that these things take time to grow. I also have discovered a blogging community called Niume, on which I now have a page (you may be reading this on that very site). There has been a greater readership of my posts on there which is exciting. In addition to these, I am also posting my blog and some upcoming chapter excerpts on my Scriggle page.
When my paperback version of The Broken Doll arrived it was a tremendous feeling; a real sense of pride. I had an issue with the layout, however, as the margins were larger than anyone would expect and this explained why the print copy was 381 pages, compared to the ebook at 230! After a play about with the formatting on CreateSpace and uploading a new file, I managed to trim of forty pages and make it look much more professional. The added bonus to this was a slight reduction on printing costs and therefore a little extra in the royalty payments. The font is still quite large but I like that and have decided to keep it.
In my previous blog I mentioned that I had completed a short (7500 words) horror story which I hoped to have published as part of an upcoming, multi-author anthology. I’m due to hear at any time soon whether or not it has been accepted and have been checking my emails far too often in the hope of some news! EDIT: My short story has been accepted to become part of this anthology and I’m very excited (and a little proud!) to have managed to sell a short story to the first place that I submitted to.
Now, Smashwords. In my last post I explained how easy it seemed to be to convert a manuscript into the epub file required for ebooks. So I managed this without any major issues (or so I thought) and it passed verification for both Amazon and Nook. It also passed verification for Smashwords. So far, so good I thought. For Smashwords to distribute to all the other retailers that they list, however, the file needs to be reassessed to gain entry into their Premium Catalogue. The file failed, with only an error message that I could make no sense of. Essentially it was a part of the files code that was the problem and I had no idea how to rectify it. So I ignored it. Not a very sensible attitude but the book was selling on Amazon and this was taking up too much time trying to Google an answer. After about a week, I came back to it and it looked as though my only option was going to be to pay someone (around $120) to format the file. As a last resort before spending any money, I contacted Smashwords helpline, giving them the error message and shyly explaining my lack of understanding of computer coding. They were fantastic, though (of course it’s in their interest to sell as many copies). The following day I received an email explaining which part of the text the error related to and how to fix it. It turned out to be a part in the story where I had included a bullet-pointed list (as Ella makes notes on how to dispose of her husband’s very recently deceased body). Manually numbering the points meant the file passed the checks and is due to be made available at more than ten other major retailers in the next few days. It will certainly be interesting to see how well the book sells on more platforms.
Being easily distracted, I have been playing around with my writing schedule, trying to create a realistic plan for how much to write each week, alongside social media updates, blogs, short stories – all on top of family life, getting some exercise and still keeping my day job alive. Organisation is certainly the key, personally I would achieve very little if I didn’t have a weekly target to reach. I have now created a weekly target for the next entire year(!) which would enable me to publish my follow-up to The Broken Doll early August, and a third novel at the beginning of the new year (ideally earlier to catch the Christmas sales spike). It also allows me time to complete a short story every other week with the plan to release anthologies in different genres.
Over the next few weeks I have two competitions lined up which require short story submissions; one is a fluffy, romantic piece for a magazine and one is a short horror / fantasy tale so they are quite different. I think that I will find the latter easier but the word count limit is only 500 words so I will have to edit harshly I’m sure. It’s hard removing parts of a story that you’re proud of writing but sometimes it has to be done, for the sake of the story overall. Kill your darlings.
On another note, perhaps one that you can help with, I am currently looking for someone to illustrate a children’s book, preferably who will accept a 50-50 share of the royalties. I wrote a rhyming story for my daughter last year about a time machine that she makes and, along with her monkey Bobo, heads off a thousand years into the future to see how different the world has become. My daughter loves it and it would be great to offer this to a wider audience, potentially creating a series from it, but you can’t have a young children’s book without illustrations. Alternatively, I could try and teach myself to draw but I don’t have the time or the talent for any of that!
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions then please feel free to get in touch with me and if I can help in any way I will. If you would like access to my short stories (due to become available in the very near future) you can subscribe to my Patreon page for as little as $1 a month. I’m loitering about on Twitter and Facebook too please do come by and say hello.
Until next time.
Peter
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