New Way to Win
So a few months back I wrote a short, 8,000 word ebook on publishing... ebooks. It mainly deals with how to maximize your writing time vs. publishing time as an indie author, along with some basic outlining of how to indie publish on your own. That was a big part of my life last year, and now... not so much.
The ebook sold a few copies, and got downloaded for free a bunch of times when I gave it a Select Promotion. But now, I've decided it's not really mindblowing enough to make people pay for again, so I'm posting it for free on this blog- the only place you will now be able to read it. So consider this a crash-course-blog-essay. May it somehow enlighten you.
New Way to WinBY GREGORY J. DOWNSYou don’t have to play the marketing game……because your books will do it for you.COPYRIGHT 2012 GREGORY J. DOWNS
Introduction
A lot has changed in the world of writing and publishing. If you’re reading this book, there’s probably no need to tell you that. No more is the “traditional” way the only way to go. With the rise of ebooks, self-publishing has become not only a possible avenue of work and art, but a viable method of making a living. I’m not as successful as some, but I’ve learned a few things- well, a lot of things- and I think some of them are worth sharing. There are plenty of places to research the how-to’s of self-publishing; so many, in fact, that it’s ridiculously easy to get caught up in “being an author,” to the detriment of our writing. Be a writer, not an author.What does that mean, exactly? And just how is this book different from the hundreds of others on the subject?For starters, this is a book on self-publishing. It’s short, because instead of getting eloquent about the process, I’ve boiled it down to four core components and explained them all as simply as I can. The thing that sets my method apart is that it focuses on the writing part of self-publishing, not the marketing part. See, most people tend to focus (and occasionally, they’re right) on promoting work you’ve already written. Websites, blogs, tweeting, reviews, etc… etc… that’s tiring stuff. Most of us simply don’t have the time, and in many cases (such as my own) we find our marketing efforts ineffective and discouraging.I’ve given this book an odd tagline. “You don’t have to play the marketing game… because your books will do it for you.” In this book I’ll show you how to focus on writing the best work you can, in the most efficient way possible. Those are the first two elements of my simplified method. Then I’ll bring you through the process of professional presentation- the third, and possibly the most important element- and capitalizing your strengths, the final and most universal of the four.This isn’t some miracle plan for success. Different systems work for different people. This is simply the most effective way that I have found. Use it, or experiment with it. Your choice. How do you know if the knowledge in this book suits you? Consider these three questions:-Are you new to the self-pub scene? Great! This book will give you a plan to go by… but don’t stop here. Do your research, and find some other how-to’s on the internet. Other people’s blogs are your best friend…-Have you been around the scene for a while? If the answer is yes, then maybe you don’t need this book. But perhaps you’re sick of marketing, and nothing seems to work. Ready to get back to the roots of producing good stories? By all means, then, read on.-Are you already pretty successful? You are? Then why are you reading this book? No, I’m joking. Success in the new world of publishing isn’t defined by any set income or sales milestone. Maybe success for you is that new house, a big fat stack of greenbacks, or simply an ecstatic email from a fan you’ve never met before. If you think this book will help you on your way to your goal… try it out. I can’t guarantee you sales, but I can show you how to streamline your publishing method and help you get back to what you love most: writing!Lastly, if there is anything in this book you liked or hated, or helped you in any way, tell me about it! I’ll answer any email sent to gregoryjdowns@gmail.com, and you can contact me on just about every book site/social network. The thing is, I want to hear your side. Does this method help you? If not, what does? Remember, there’s no one way to win… people are always finding new ways.~Gregory J. Downs
Core Concept 1: Tell a Good Story
Duh. Everyone says it: “The most important thing is to write well.” Well, from my point of view teen vampire novels proved that wrong, but still… it’s a useful piece of advice. It is certainly essential to write the best story you can, but it is also paramount you don’t get caught up in the trap of “the writing is EVERYTHING” or “you just have to pander to your audience.” The craft of writing is intrinsically bound up with the business of publishing… that is, if you ever want people outside your immediate family to read it.This will be end up being a shorter section of the book, as I’m mostly telling you what to do with an already-written story. Most likely, since you’re reading a book on publishing, you’ve already written such a story (or two, or ten, or fifty). But let’s go over some ways to ensure that what you have is the best you have.Learn the CraftThe best way to learn writing, of course, is to write things. And more things. And then even more. The most essential part of practicing writing, really, is that you finish the story. Short stories can have the same level of depth and polish as full-length novels, and in the ebook world, length no longer matters as it once did.So write a novel. Write a short story. Write anything in-between… just make sure you finish, somehow, someway, someplace. The sooner the better.Another way to grow in experience and technique is to read. Some people apparently possess the inherent ability to simply sit at a computer and write for hours on end, never having read a book in their lives, and come out with a bestseller hailed as “unique and poignant.” I am not one of these people, and I doubt the stories of those who say they are.But think about it seriously for a moment. If you wanted to become a professional athlete, what would you do? You would play the sport (practice) and watch the greats of the sport at their best (learning). If you wanted to be a filmmaker- and I know people who do- you would start by working on projects of your own (practice) and watch the movies made by the filmmakers you admire (learning).The same holds true for writing, only it’s now far easier to become a successful writer than it is an athlete or a filmmaker. Write often and finish things (practice) and read from the masters of the craft (learning).What exactly should you read? There is an answer to this question! Firstly, read what you enjoy. Secondly, read classics… even if they’re not in your favorite genre. What, you say? Shouldn’t there be a read the popular and ‘great’ books in the genre you’re writing in there somewhere?No. Well, you can if you want to. But what if your writing doesn’t fit into any single, clear-cut category? And further still, why would you want to write another version of someone else’s story? The idea for your story is your idea. You shape it with your imagination and past experiences. Read what you like, because you like it and it helps you write something that other people will hopefully like, too. Read the classics, because, well, they’re classic for a reason. By this I don’t mean you should stick to Dickens, Austen, and Orwell (or any of the other myriad masters). What are considered ‘really good books’ in your particular field of interest? Find them. Browse them. Read them. Look beyond them, too, and widen your horizons. If you hate it, you don’t have to finish it. But some- most, actually- will make you a better writer, and possibly a deeper person.I write mostly fantasy, and why? Because I like to read it, and because I was read to out of Narnia and Lord of the Rings as a small child. I read them myself, later, along with all the more modern fantasy, when I realized how much I liked the genre. But I also like things along the lines of westerns, sci-fi, spiritual nonfiction. School-assigned reading introduced me to The Iliad, David Copperfield, Emma, Helena, Brideshead Revisited, and many, many others.Guess what? My writing doesn’t sound like any of those. But the wider and deeper your reading is, the freer and deeper your writing will be.Find What WorksPractice your craft. Learn your craft. Write, write, write. There’s no set path for any of this. Some things work better than others. The key is to finding that unique way it works for you. You’re not the center of the universe… but when you pick up your pen/keyboard, you’re building your own world. J.R.R. Tolkien called it “sub-creation,” and that simply is the best way I’ve ever heard it put.What kind of stories should you write? WHATEVER YOU WANT. Genre is an outdated word, at least in the initial stages. Whatever your process is for building a plot, a world, or a cast of characters, it’s your story. I won’t say much about the actual way to improve your story… not at this point, anyway. There are far better authors than I, waxing eloquent on the subject elsewhere. Go with what works for the story and the idea, not what works for the spine label. There’s a lot of complicated terminology concerning “branding” and “author brands” and “establish a brand,” both in the traditional scene and the indie scene.Want to know the truth? Your “brand” is whatever you want it to be. People worry too much about losing readers when they try new things. Don’t. It isn’t about you finding readers… it’s about readers finding you. Whatever you write, if it’s good, someone will find it and enjoy it. I can’t say this enough: write your story, not someone else’s product. We’ll worry about “market this” and “customers that” later. Length and structure is also literally no issue at all- I’ll explain why in later sections.Polish, but There’s a LimitSo you’ve written a story. Maybe it’s long. Maybe it’s short. You read some great books that inspired you, and you also managed to reach that magical point of “DONE.” What next? Well, I think we can all admit that first drafts can be pretty ugly. Of course they can be good, too, but nothing’s perfect. How do you know when you’re not only “done,” but “finished”?All stories need editing, to some extent. But you usually don’t need to pay someone. Look over it yourself, first. Polish the dusty parts, fix the leaks… but don’t overdo it. Eventually you have to let go, and the sooner- I’ve found, oddly enough- the better. If you like to write, chances are someone close to you- spouse, parent, sibling, friend- will want to read what you’ve done. As long as they have some idea of what a good story sounds like, they can help you out. But don’t stop there: there’s the Internet! So many avid readers are out there, it shouldn’t be too hard to get some people to read it, in whole or part. Just make sure they’re not a crook.Join a writing group, in real life or online. Participate, so they like you, and get some of them to read your work. Find people. And don’t be afraid… it’s the web, so even if they hate your guts at the end and try to strangle you, they’ll hit the hard computer screen and get nowhere. You’re safe. Sure, it can be scary to give someone else full permission to praise and/or bash your work. But better they bash it in the editing stage than in the review stage… trust me.So you’ve written a book. You’ve edited out all the obvious typos and glaring plot holes. Your friends from Thriller-Romance-Writers-of-Seattle have looked it over and given some advice. But you just… don’t… think… it’s… ready… yet!Too bad. You really can’t edit a manuscript into perfection. Either it’s good or not-so-good. Countless times I’ve talked to writer friends who tell me all this great stuff about their book, and it genuinely has me interested. “That’s so cool,” I say, “when are you going to publish it?”“Oh, not yet,” they say, “I’m still editing it. The last draft still had some rough spots.”“Hmm. How many drafts did you do?”“Oh, about the seventh… or so.”My jaw drops. I thought only Brandon Sanderson did that! Well, you get the idea. And maybe that really works for some people. A certain self-published author making six figures a year said he goes through that many revisions, and his stuff is some of the highest rated ANYWHERE.But for most of us, you simply Do. Not. Need. It. Edit, yes. Polish, yes. But if it takes you longer than a month or two, stop. If you sense yourself getting stuck in an endless circle of constant tweaking, STOP. You will- I do not exaggerate- ruin your story. All that time you just spent changing perfectly good prose is time you could have spent getting your book out to readers… and writing the next story.I made up a little quote to end this section.“It’s better to produce 4-star work all the time, than to produce a single 5-star work and sit on it until it dies.” Or worse, sit on it and hit it again and again until it becomes a 4-star or a 3-star.
Core Concept 2: Concentrate on Writing
No, this is not the same as the last part… and you’ll find out why, soon. You’ve written a story… fantastic! But now it’s time to write another… and another… this is an essential part of the process. You will not make it with one story alone… well, maybe you will. But most likely you won’t, and especially if you’re not into the marketing thing, there needs to be more for people who enjoyed your first work.Just Do ItHow do you go about continuing your writing? How do you keep producing stuff people actually want to read… and in a timely fashion?One word: discipline. Yes, I know that’s what your mother told you in middle school Thing is, she was right. You will not be able to write productively without discipline. Whether you write full time, part time, or in your free time, you need to be committed to your work. I can give suggestions (and I will), but ultimately you have to just do it.It doesn’t matter if you’re still working towards publication, or you’ve published a few things, or you have an empire of separate works. Whatever the reasons, you need to be disciplined in your writing. Having every work day devoted entirely to writing is a magnificent boon- one I’m working hard to be worthy of at this writing- and it shouldn’t be wasted. If you write full time, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be churning out massive amounts of writing. Not necessarily word-count-wise, but content-wise. Seriously. If other people can work eight or more hours a day at a job they hate, shouldn’t you be able to work that same time at a job you love?Start early. That’s when you’re at your sharpest. Even if it hurts, get up and drink lots of coffee and write! I try to start early and get 4 hours of solid writing in before lunch. This can be used up by blazing through a short story, touching up the next scene in your novel, or anything you want. Just spend the time on something writing-worthy: and it’s best if you spend the whole time on one thing. Outline. Edit. Write. Do something… anything. Take a break of you need to. Eat, drink, and be merry… but get back to the book within an hour, and don’t take too many breaks. Get writer’s block? Muscle through it. MAKE the story happen… and if you can’t, work on something else.Really, this advice can work for anyone who has a few free hours, not just full time writers. But if you are full time, make sure you’re producing as much and as high-quality as you can. Also, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Your mind and body are linked: when one suffers, so does the other. That’s all I’ll say on the topic, but live intelligently. It helps.A side note: I really don’t believe in writer’s block. Any time I’ve had it (or thought I have), it’s always been solvable. Most times I already have at least a vague idea of where I’m going, and there’s really no problem with writing what you know to be bland junk, in order to get through the tough, un-writable parts. Just make sure you mark the place and go back to spruce it up when your muse returns. And really, I don’t believe in muses or inspiration, either. Sure, sometimes the ideas seem to flow like a firestorm, and sometimes they flow like backed-up toilet. But 99% of the time, you just need to concentrate and make yourself do it. Discipline, remember?Stay Away!…from distractions of ANY KIND. Really. Set up a block of time: say, from 8 o’clock in the morning ‘til 12 noon. During that time, do nothing but write (as I said before), but also do not touch the internet, or even leave your chair. A ‘just this once’ or ‘just for a minute’ will turn into ‘just one more tweet’ or ‘just for five more minutes’ every time. Every. Time. If it helps, disconnect your internet. I have, on more occasions than I’d like to relate, simply because it was the only way to get writing done and keep myself from getting distracted.Quotable Moment of the Chapter: “The internet is the biggest killer of successful writing, though it is also the biggest aid to it.”Don’t get discouraged, though, if nothing I say here seems to work. Just keep trying, and try new things. Schedules are changeable. Your book isn’t going to hate you for spending more time with it, and it also won’t run away if you leave it for a while (though, while we’re on the topic, it is a very, VERY good idea to frequently back up every document on your computer; all the writing discipline in the world won’t help you when the darn machine crashes and you lose everything).I say “try new things” a lot, but also remember that an unfinished book is no book at all. Once you’ve started something, you’d better not give up on it unless you’ve tried every possible way (and then some) to make it work. Adapt, but don’t discard. Try not to have more than one work-in-progress at any given time, unless you’ve previously proven to yourself you can finish multiple things at once, in a decent time frame.Length is IrrelevantA final note: when you’re done the book/story/novel/tome, it doesn’t matter what length it is. If it’s the story you set out to tell, it’s good as gold. Gone are the days when your work had to be at least length A, or no more than length B, or even conform to any length category at all.Got a bunch of short stories following the same topic or hero? Collect them into a single ebook, or publish them separately as a linked series (I actually recommend the latter). Got a series consisting of many different length stories? Good for you: price them according to length and make sure readers know the right order. Got a single, 300,000-word novel? You might be crazy… but there are other crazy people out there.I’m one of them. My story ended up being 300k, and I split it into a 6-book series. 50,000 words makes a novel, remember? Another author in the same genre as me is currently selling thousands with a 6-part serial novel. The total word count is about 200k, and it’s split into segments of 35k each. Serialization is the future of ebooks. I really do believe it… longer works are more palatable at cheaper prices, in smaller segments. Then you can slap all the serials into an omnibus and offer that at a discount… ta-da! More options, more visibility, more sales!In the end, it all comes down to a few key things:-Write often, and write well.-Length and genre are irrelevant.-Don’t market… write more!-Serialization works. Use it at your discretion; at least consider it.-Never lose sight of the fact that it’s about the story, not the sales.
Core Concept 3: Present Professionally
As I said before, this is possibly the most universally important element of the let-your-book-market-for-you ideology. Your book could be the greatest piece of literature the Western world has seen in the last hundred years… but if it looks like junk, it will be treated as such. Bad formatting, a cobbled-together cover, and a lame bio are not doing your book any favors, and they’re probably alienating people from reading further works of yours, even ones that have better presentation.So present professionally in everything you publish. Anything new needs to look new, and if you have old/backlist titles sitting around with less-than-stellar art and formatting, by all means re-issue them! Facelifts and clean-ups are your best friend with ebooks: and it’s easier to be professional than you might think.Covers: Make or Break!Your cover art is arguably the most important part of your ebook, even more essential than the story itself (at least in the beginning). How could that be, you ask? Whatever happened to “Never judge a book by its cover?”What’s the first thing a person sees about a book, either on a bookstore table or a website sales ranking? The cover. You just can’t help judging a book by its cover, because you’ll always see the cover- and title- first. Almost every buying decision is influenced to some degree (usually a large one) by the cover. Unfortunately, an unofficial trademark of many indie books seems to be bad covers. It’s just a fact.I do my own covers, because I’ve had some experience with art and the like beforehand, and I always have a clear idea of what I want in my cover art. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, try to do the same yourself. Unless you have a good-sized chunk of cash saved up beforehand to hire a good artist, it’s far more expedient to do the art yourself. Whoah, you say… isn’t that how all the ‘bad indie covers’ you mentioned came about?Yes, but there’s an intelligent way to make your own covers, if you’re careful and you don’t mind spending some time learning how to use any one of the many free photo-editing programs out there. At least one- Gimp©- can do most anything Photoshop can, and it’s free to download. Go look at the lists of popular books like the one you’re writing. Browse the different styles, and see if anything fits what you have in mind. Then, imitate it, draw from it, and mix it with other things.Do careful research, and find photos you can use that are either copyright-free, or have a copyright owner who will give you permission to use them commercially. Sometimes, you don’t even need a photo; just some creative MS Paint brushes and cool fonts (again, something you can get off the internet for free). Simpler is ALWAYS better. People want striking art- not something that merely blends in with a million other things- and the most professional way to do that is to build a cover that is both smooth-looking and simple. The polish of the image separates it from the horde of badly-drawn pencil covers, and the simplicity separates it from the flashiness of most traditionally published books.Of course, the same principles used in writing apply to cover art as well. Get some people to look it over. See what they think, and use their suggestions if you think them useful. Save multiple versions of the cover so that if you decide on reverting to an earlier/radically different version, you can. But, like in editing, there is such a thing as ‘too much.’ Eventually you just have to let the cover go out into the world and fight to the death with the thousand other covers out there. Again, if your book is good (and the cover works), people will find it.Now, a lot of this cover business may seem useless to you. You might think yourself no good at art, or perhaps you simply don’t have the time to make a cover, or even both. I suggest at least trying, though… it’s easier than it seems, and it’s especially useful if you just don’t have the money to hire out the work.In the interest of exploring all angles, I’ll talk about buying cover art as well. It is true that there are many, many talented cover artists out there, some devoted entirely to work-for-hire in the indie publishing world. Do your research, and find which ones are the most reliable, the best at what they do, and the cheapest. I have never yet spent a single dollar in producing my own ebooks, so there isn’t a lot of actual referral I can do here for you.But look at the successful indie authors like J.A. Konrath, Aaron Pogue, and whoever else is doing well in your chosen genre. Who’s doing their cover art? If they’re doing it themselves, ask them how. (They will talk to you, even though they are more or less celebrities. It is one of the great miracles of the ebook revolution.) If they hire someone else (as I know Konrath does), see if that artist might be a match for you/your book. Look on forums and book sites (Goodreads is amazing for this). There are entire threads and groups devoted to this kind of thing. Eventually, you will find a way… the web is a goldmine of knowledge and experience.Formatting, the Fast (and Easy) WayEbooks are much easier to format and set up than print books. The trick is to plan from the beginning. Write the way you want the ebook to look. It’s remarkably simple. If you’re using MS Word or some similar document program, simply make sure you’re being consistent. And “take it easy.” Avoid fancy formatting, illustrations, and multiple fonts/sizes as much as possible, unless you already have a ton of formatting experience.Let’s do this the quick-and-business-like way, with a list:-Make all the body text the same simple font, same size, same spacing, same tab stops (look those up if you don’t know what they are).-Make all the chapter/part/title headings the same font/size/format. I find that it usually works best to title everything with the same font as the rest of the book, but a few sizes bigger (not higher than 18, not smaller than 12).-MS Word (and, I assume, other programs) lets you assign different ‘styles.’ Make the body text one style and the titles/headings another. The simpler the better, and it saves a headache later.-Don’t bother with weird fonts. The only formatting people actually see in an ebook (at least at the moment) is the same standardized font, bigger or smaller, bold or italic. That’s it. Don’t bother with fancy chapter headings, especially. Find a simpler way to differentiate.-Don’t forget to add things like the title page, copyright info, dedication, and whatever else you might need at the beginning. Same thing goes for the end: about-the-author, list-of-works, glossary, and other more-or-less essential things shouldn’t be forgotten.Decide after you’ve formatted the document what your next step will be. There are a few options, which you can take one or more of, and I’ve divided them into categories… using another list:-Option one: Smashwords.com. You can use Smashwords to format your ebooks for free, as well as sell them through the Smashwords website and various retailers afterwards. This is the quickest way, since it’s all automated, but the product usually doesn’t look very professional. Chapter titles have a tendency to go missing, and tabs turn out funny. I only publish short stories through Smashwords at the moment; it works easiest on those.-Option two: Basic-upload. Format the word document, as I said. Then, add a Table of Contents in the document itself, wherever you want it to show up in the ebook. It’s relatively simple to make clickable links that will send readers to the chapters in the book. Look it up if you can’t figure it out on your own… just make sure that you don’t leave the page numbers in the Table of Contents, because there aren’t any pages in an ebook. Then, when you go to upload the ebook to Amazon/Barnes & Noble, they’ll convert it into snazzy e-reader mode for you. You can double-check to make sure it looks right, then upload… and ta-da! I did this with my first ebook (there are something like 10, now), and it worked fine. All my Barnes & Noble works are done this way, too.-Option three: Formatting programs. Download one of the free formatting programs from the internet (just make sure it’s reputable). The one I use is the widely-known Mobipocket Creator, which I believe is or was owned by Amazon. This lets you build your own .prc file, which is basically identical to the standard Kindle Format (.mobi). Using this takes some practice, and it helps to know html code (I get help for that). But the finished product is the nicest I’ve seen so far, and I use it for all my ebooks, especially ones uploaded to Amazon. This also is a way to have a free digital copy of your book to send to people (for whatever reason) and/or upload to your own kindle. I believe there is also a program to do the same thing, Nook-style, but I haven’t looked into it.-Option four: Hire someone. Again, I don’t recommend it, at least not before you’ve made enough money from previous books to cover the cost. But if you must (or it’s just the best way you can see), hire someone. Use the same logic as you do for cover art: see if anyone reliable will do it for free, then see who does the formatting for the ebooks you like and hire them.Bottom line? Formatting must be good, but not fancy. Simpler is easier and higher-quality. Even if it takes you longer in the production phase, it’s worth it to learn new skills and do it yourself for no money cost whatsoever.BUT: if you can’t do a certain thing well enough for your tastes (and others, really, since that does matter), farm it out to the cheapest, most professional work-for-hire in the area.Of Blurbs and BiosBlurbs: the other defining factor in an ebook sale. It’s the Product Description… the “back cover” of you work, if you will. Make it as awesome and enticing as you can, because if you can’t interest the reader in twenty seconds, they won’t be interested in spending hours in your book. Don’t go on and on about trivial things; don’t give away major plot details; and make sure it sounds professional. This is another make-or-break moment, and you shouldn’t be worried about tweaking the blurb even after publication. I’ve changed the blurb on one of my books twice… and changed the cover twice, too. Ebooks aren’t set in stone- or even paper- but editable computer files. Make use of that, if something goes wrong.Bios. Biographies. “Stories of my long and literature-worthy life.” While not even remotely as important as covers or blurbs, these can and probably will have an impact, however slight, on people’s perception of you and any future works. It’s the ‘about me’ that the most people will see, on your author page, your website, and in the book itself. You can use the same bio for each, or a different one for different purposes: whatever you feel will be most effective. But there are a few general rules you should always try to follow:-Never give out too-personal information. Don’t say where you live, or personal contact information like phone number. This should be a no-brainer, but I kid you not… some people do it.-DO include things like author email (not home email), website links, Twitter names, and such. Just don’t be pushy about it.-Be interesting. Tell an interesting (100-word) story relating to your writing. Or not, if you don’t want to. Some authors just make up the entire thing, telling a ‘life story’ that is obviously false, so as to get a laugh. I have to say, this is currently my favorite method, though I only use it in certain places.-Try to retain some shred of dignity. Please. Even if you’re a teenager working out of your mother’s basement, perhaps it would do your image good if no one knew? Or at least, treat the topic in a professional way, if possible.Basic PresenceThis is where I begin to deviate from the common path of most self-publishing guides. There are simply too many people out there wasting their time on Twitter/ blogs/ Facebook/ Goodreads/ Shelfari/ You-name-it! Yes, you need to have a basic presence, otherwise your fans will not be able to find you when they read your incredible work of genius. I’ll go over all that in a moment, but what I want to make clear is this: you gather a following though writing and publishing stories, not chatting 24/7 with other Pinteresters and Stumbleupons and Redditers. Really. It just doesn’t help that much… and for the people who have used such sites to balloon their sales numbers, how do you think they did it?They wrote a bunch of stories first, then went out and told people about them.My method, my “New Way to Win,” is centered on writing quality work, producing more and more of it, presenting it professionally, and focusing on the strengths of your position. Eventually people will find your work, and because it both looks good and is good, they will read and enjoy it. Then they’ll want more, and you’ll have it waiting for them. Then, if you’re lucky, they’ll want to find you on the internet and be the first to read anything new you produce. Hear that? They will find you. You don’t have to go out looking: just write, publish, and hope.So here are the basics of an online presence:-Email. A mistake I made early on in my self-publishing efforts was not having a direct way for people to contact me once they’d read my book(s). Get an author email separate from the one you use in personal correspondence. There are plenty of free email systems out there: Google, Yahoo, Hotmail… the list is infinite. Get an address, and stick it in every author bio and in the about-me of every book. Then wait and see what happens.-Blog. The easiest way to make an online “Home Base” is to create a blog, using one of the several free blogging programs out there. Even if you don’t intend to post regularly, create one and make it the hub of your online efforts. Have a list of all your books, a way to buy them, and links to everywhere else you exist online. It’s hard (in my experience) to get people to permanently subscribe to your blog, but it’s easy to link them through the blog to a hundred other sites of yours (and possibly even some sales). Link to your blog wherever possible; just make sure you don’t post so often as to be annoying to those around you.-Social Networks. The Big 2 at this point are Twitter and Facebook. You don’t have to have either, but I recommend at least having one account on each. Don’t put any personal info out on either, but have your face and name so that people can easily find you. So many people use these sites (along with others, like Google+) that it has become automatic for them to connect with their favorite books/movies/people this way. Put a link to your fanpage/tweet machine in your bio at the end of each book. Believe me, eventually people will click and connect. Just make sure you don’t waste time constantly posting when you could be writing.-Book Networks. Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing… you’ve heard of these places, most likely. If you can, join one or more of them. Again, only a basic presence is necessary. The most useful thing about such places (Goodreads is head and shoulders above the others) is being able to find like-minded people. If your readers want to connect via any of the above, it’s a good idea to be include these links as well. Just remember: basic, basic, basic. Write instead of post. Edit instead of update. Finish novels instead of novel-giveaways and review queries.Bottom Line: Have a basic presence on the main sites, but don’t spread yourself too thin or waste time. I recommend Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and a home blog. That’s it, besides direct emails.
Core Concept 4: Use Your Strengths
For this final part, I’m going to assume that you’re more or less following the aforementioned formula: write lots, write well, don’t bother with marketing, and make it look good. There are strengths to this system, and when you use it, they become your strengths. Maximize on that potential, and you’ll have a winner. There’s no replacement for actual talent, and don’t get me wrong: you’ll need to be patient. But here are some extra reinforcement-ideas to help with the process.BacklistYou may have stories that you wrote long ago and did nothing with. Take them out, dust them off, polish them, and if they’re presentable at the end… publish them!You may have big-or-small-published books that have gone out of print. Get the rights back if you can, and re-release them as ebooks. There is no backlist in the new world, and anything old you re-release is essentially a new book… again!You may have a virtual library of unreleased or old work: so much that it would be a pain to re-release them all singly. Make collections! Omnibuses! 5-for-1 deals! Just make sure that, as always, it looks professional on the outside and inside.Print DistributionSo you’ve got a good selection of ebooks, but what about print versions? This is a tricky question, and one that I’m still wrestling with as I work though the print process for the first time. Ultimately, though, I’ve come to a few conclusions about POD (Print On Demand) and the like.-It’s not worth it in the beginning. You will never make as much money off print books as you will off ebooks. Even the most successful indie authors sell far more electronically than physically: it’s just a fact. So until you have the extra time and money to justify adding print to your ebook domain, it’s not worth it.-Eventually, you should do it. But not until you’ve already got a good number of people reading your ebooks. What’s the magic amount indicating ‘a good number’? Whatever you decide is prudent. I’ve sold somewhere past 10,000 copies of my 7 actual novels, and I’m still not sure print is justifiable for me.-Figure out when, and where. I’m doing it anyway (slowly), but it’s more for those who have already read my ebooks and want to collect them in print form… and for those few relatives and friends who still hate e-readers. The two biggest POD companies are CreateSpace and LightningSource. I use CreateSpace, because of its ease-of-use and relatively cheap production costs. That being said, I also don’t pay people to format the print book for me, which you might want to do. It’s hard.Choose your own path. This is what works for me… but you may be in a different situation. In general, though, these seem like pretty good rules-of-thumb.E-book DistributionIn the past, there was an easy, one-size-fits-most way to do this. You simply uploaded to Amazon, where most sales would come from, then uploaded to Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and (if you had a lot of time on your hands) the iBookstore. With the introduction of Amazon’s KDP Select, though, there has emerged a second and controversial option.KDP Select is an optional program open to Kindle ebooks. It essentially signs your books up for periods of 3 months at a time, during which they may be sold nowhere else at all but Amazon, at least in ebook form. In print, you’re not limited. Why would you want to do this? Because Amazon puts all its KDP Select books in the Amazon Prime lending library, then pays you whenever someone borrows your work. In addition, KDP Select titles are given an easy way to go free in the Kindle Store for 5 days out of every 90 they’re in the program.This is tricky stuff. Basically, Amazon is making deliberate moves to become the one-and-only of ebook publishing. Wow. Most successful authors wouldn’t want any parts of that: their books sell fine in all other ebook stores, so why should they limit themselves? They shouldn’t. But for just-starting authors, or authors with little to no non-Amazon sales, KDP Select can look pretty enticing. It’s much easier to only have to worry about one online selling venue, rather than 3 or more at the same time. The perks are helpful, and the product is the best in the business.What then, should we make of KDP Select? I think the answer is different for everyone. I’m currently testing it out with most of my books, and have come to the conclusion that it is good for certain books and bad for others, just as it is good for certain authors and bad for others. Try it yourself, if you wish, but I would generally be cautious about it. The possible rewards are great, but don’t throw everything you have into the complex basket that is Exclusivity.SerializationAs I stated before, there is literally no boundary on ebook length. A book can be as short or long as you want it. Short stories are a viable option, as are novelettes and novellas. Novels can range from 50,000 words to 300,000 words, and never has the word “series” meant so many different things at once as it does now. A big (and I mean big) way to boost sales and make yourself more noticeable is to split up longer works. You’ll notice I frequently mention lead-ins and omnibus editions here: they are an essential part of serialization. There are many ways to do this, and all of them work. Find which one is best for you.-The classic “series.” If your story is longer than one book, by all means make a series! This generally works better for shorter novels in the 50k-100k range, as it would be hard to consistently release longer books that succeed… unless you have a fan base already following your work. If you do have a series, it often helps to make an omnibus collection of the books available at a discount: just make sure it isn’t too cheap, or you’ll end up losing money when you should be making it.-Lead-ins. Many successful authors have a short story or novella lead-in to their main series. They price it cheaply- or even for free- and include an easy way to purchase the first part of the main series. If you already have a multi-book series published, try making the first book the lead-in, pricing at free or bargain-bin levels to entice readers on to higher-priced volumes. This method worked well for me when I tried it on my own series.-Serial shorter works. A series of short stories is not the bad idea it once might have been, in a print-only world. String them apart, or collect them into an omnibus, or both! The same goes for novellas: your series needn’t be 50,000 words per part, if the story doesn’t demand it. In fact, novella series often work better than short story series, and sometimes better than serial novels: the next option.-Serial novels. If you have a book that’s longer than 100,000 words, I strongly recommend splitting it into several parts. This is a “serial novel,” an older form of writing that has seen a remarkable comeback in the ebook revolution. It’s hard to get standalone novels to float, but if you split them up into shorter sections (generally 25k-50k words), you can offer the sections at a cheap price that will get readers to gobble up the whole book part-by-part. Offer omnibus editions shortly after releasing all the parts, and people will eventually try 1 or 2 installments, then go on to buy the full work at a speed they never would have before.Experiment with each and all of these options that suit you. There’s no set way, and I personally intend to try out them all. I have two completed novel series, one ongoing novella series, and an upcoming serial novel. There are pros and cons to each, and it’s blazing good fun to try out new forms of writing like this.FrequencyNever stop writing. Even when one of your works takes off, spend more time writing than Tweeting about your miraculous success (except, we both know it’s not miraculous… you did it yourself!). There simply is no replacement for frequent releases. You know the saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” It’s true. The more works are out there, the better chance someone (or many someones) will read and enjoy one, then go on to read the others… and then go tell all their friends to do the same!More stories equal more visibility.More stories equal better writing.More stories equal more readers.More stories equal success.More stories equal continued success, once you’ve succeeded the first time.Keep going, writing different stories of whatever length and topic you most enjoy. Write until one of your stories takes off, then capitalize on its success. Write a sequel, if you think it will fit the story. Write more in that genre, if you have the desire. If not, just keep writing what you want! Connected works like a series or a serial work best in the ebook world, but tell the story you want to. At the end of the day, it’s the satisfaction of finishing a good story that counts… not the money. Money is important, of course. It’s just not the main object.Professional products are key in this system, not marketing. Tell a good story and make it look good to readers.You don’t have to play the marketing game… because your book will do it for you.
Also Read…
I’m not the most experienced author or publisher in this field. I believe my “New Way to Win” system is something people need to hear, but there are many, many other proven systems to gaining a foothold in the self-publishing world. Here I’ll put down some of the best people/places I’ve found, or people have recommended to me. Some are by publishers, some by authors, but all by people who know what they’re talking about (even though what they talk about is different).BooksThe Newbie’s Guide To Publishing, by J. A. Konrath. This is a huge ebook that I’ve only read part of, covering just about everything on every kind of publishing. It’s a bit outdated in some places, but the cheap price and sheer length assures you’ll probably get something out of it. Find out more at http://amzn.to/HIy6Tq. Let’s Get Digital, by David Gaughran. I haven’t actually read this book, but it comes highly recommended from all the big self-pub names (including the one above), and it’s not expensive. I might actually recommend it over the one above. Find out more at http://amzn.to/IQdnw2. Write2Publish, by Robin Sullivan. This is a digital short by the author of what I consider to be the best publishing blog out there. Find out more at http://amzn.to/HCwULx. How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! By John Locke. Not so much a ‘how-to’ as a ‘how you might,’ but valuable nonetheless, especially now that it’s cheaper than it was upon initial release. Find out more at http://amzn.to/HGDENr. BlogsWrite2Publish (Robin Sullivan): http://bit.ly/HJAbLe A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing (Joe Konrath): http://bit.ly/HGc6HJ The Passive Voice (Passive Guy): http://bit.ly/HGDvVl Let’s Get Digital (David Gaughran): http://bit.ly/HICt0J Nathan Bransford, Author (Nathan Bransford): http://bit.ly/JetJcL Author Michael J. Sullivan’s Official Website (Michael Sullivan): http://bit.ly/HUofUa
The ebook sold a few copies, and got downloaded for free a bunch of times when I gave it a Select Promotion. But now, I've decided it's not really mindblowing enough to make people pay for again, so I'm posting it for free on this blog- the only place you will now be able to read it. So consider this a crash-course-blog-essay. May it somehow enlighten you.
New Way to WinBY GREGORY J. DOWNSYou don’t have to play the marketing game……because your books will do it for you.COPYRIGHT 2012 GREGORY J. DOWNS
Introduction
A lot has changed in the world of writing and publishing. If you’re reading this book, there’s probably no need to tell you that. No more is the “traditional” way the only way to go. With the rise of ebooks, self-publishing has become not only a possible avenue of work and art, but a viable method of making a living. I’m not as successful as some, but I’ve learned a few things- well, a lot of things- and I think some of them are worth sharing. There are plenty of places to research the how-to’s of self-publishing; so many, in fact, that it’s ridiculously easy to get caught up in “being an author,” to the detriment of our writing. Be a writer, not an author.What does that mean, exactly? And just how is this book different from the hundreds of others on the subject?For starters, this is a book on self-publishing. It’s short, because instead of getting eloquent about the process, I’ve boiled it down to four core components and explained them all as simply as I can. The thing that sets my method apart is that it focuses on the writing part of self-publishing, not the marketing part. See, most people tend to focus (and occasionally, they’re right) on promoting work you’ve already written. Websites, blogs, tweeting, reviews, etc… etc… that’s tiring stuff. Most of us simply don’t have the time, and in many cases (such as my own) we find our marketing efforts ineffective and discouraging.I’ve given this book an odd tagline. “You don’t have to play the marketing game… because your books will do it for you.” In this book I’ll show you how to focus on writing the best work you can, in the most efficient way possible. Those are the first two elements of my simplified method. Then I’ll bring you through the process of professional presentation- the third, and possibly the most important element- and capitalizing your strengths, the final and most universal of the four.This isn’t some miracle plan for success. Different systems work for different people. This is simply the most effective way that I have found. Use it, or experiment with it. Your choice. How do you know if the knowledge in this book suits you? Consider these three questions:-Are you new to the self-pub scene? Great! This book will give you a plan to go by… but don’t stop here. Do your research, and find some other how-to’s on the internet. Other people’s blogs are your best friend…-Have you been around the scene for a while? If the answer is yes, then maybe you don’t need this book. But perhaps you’re sick of marketing, and nothing seems to work. Ready to get back to the roots of producing good stories? By all means, then, read on.-Are you already pretty successful? You are? Then why are you reading this book? No, I’m joking. Success in the new world of publishing isn’t defined by any set income or sales milestone. Maybe success for you is that new house, a big fat stack of greenbacks, or simply an ecstatic email from a fan you’ve never met before. If you think this book will help you on your way to your goal… try it out. I can’t guarantee you sales, but I can show you how to streamline your publishing method and help you get back to what you love most: writing!Lastly, if there is anything in this book you liked or hated, or helped you in any way, tell me about it! I’ll answer any email sent to gregoryjdowns@gmail.com, and you can contact me on just about every book site/social network. The thing is, I want to hear your side. Does this method help you? If not, what does? Remember, there’s no one way to win… people are always finding new ways.~Gregory J. Downs
Core Concept 1: Tell a Good Story
Duh. Everyone says it: “The most important thing is to write well.” Well, from my point of view teen vampire novels proved that wrong, but still… it’s a useful piece of advice. It is certainly essential to write the best story you can, but it is also paramount you don’t get caught up in the trap of “the writing is EVERYTHING” or “you just have to pander to your audience.” The craft of writing is intrinsically bound up with the business of publishing… that is, if you ever want people outside your immediate family to read it.This will be end up being a shorter section of the book, as I’m mostly telling you what to do with an already-written story. Most likely, since you’re reading a book on publishing, you’ve already written such a story (or two, or ten, or fifty). But let’s go over some ways to ensure that what you have is the best you have.Learn the CraftThe best way to learn writing, of course, is to write things. And more things. And then even more. The most essential part of practicing writing, really, is that you finish the story. Short stories can have the same level of depth and polish as full-length novels, and in the ebook world, length no longer matters as it once did.So write a novel. Write a short story. Write anything in-between… just make sure you finish, somehow, someway, someplace. The sooner the better.Another way to grow in experience and technique is to read. Some people apparently possess the inherent ability to simply sit at a computer and write for hours on end, never having read a book in their lives, and come out with a bestseller hailed as “unique and poignant.” I am not one of these people, and I doubt the stories of those who say they are.But think about it seriously for a moment. If you wanted to become a professional athlete, what would you do? You would play the sport (practice) and watch the greats of the sport at their best (learning). If you wanted to be a filmmaker- and I know people who do- you would start by working on projects of your own (practice) and watch the movies made by the filmmakers you admire (learning).The same holds true for writing, only it’s now far easier to become a successful writer than it is an athlete or a filmmaker. Write often and finish things (practice) and read from the masters of the craft (learning).What exactly should you read? There is an answer to this question! Firstly, read what you enjoy. Secondly, read classics… even if they’re not in your favorite genre. What, you say? Shouldn’t there be a read the popular and ‘great’ books in the genre you’re writing in there somewhere?No. Well, you can if you want to. But what if your writing doesn’t fit into any single, clear-cut category? And further still, why would you want to write another version of someone else’s story? The idea for your story is your idea. You shape it with your imagination and past experiences. Read what you like, because you like it and it helps you write something that other people will hopefully like, too. Read the classics, because, well, they’re classic for a reason. By this I don’t mean you should stick to Dickens, Austen, and Orwell (or any of the other myriad masters). What are considered ‘really good books’ in your particular field of interest? Find them. Browse them. Read them. Look beyond them, too, and widen your horizons. If you hate it, you don’t have to finish it. But some- most, actually- will make you a better writer, and possibly a deeper person.I write mostly fantasy, and why? Because I like to read it, and because I was read to out of Narnia and Lord of the Rings as a small child. I read them myself, later, along with all the more modern fantasy, when I realized how much I liked the genre. But I also like things along the lines of westerns, sci-fi, spiritual nonfiction. School-assigned reading introduced me to The Iliad, David Copperfield, Emma, Helena, Brideshead Revisited, and many, many others.Guess what? My writing doesn’t sound like any of those. But the wider and deeper your reading is, the freer and deeper your writing will be.Find What WorksPractice your craft. Learn your craft. Write, write, write. There’s no set path for any of this. Some things work better than others. The key is to finding that unique way it works for you. You’re not the center of the universe… but when you pick up your pen/keyboard, you’re building your own world. J.R.R. Tolkien called it “sub-creation,” and that simply is the best way I’ve ever heard it put.What kind of stories should you write? WHATEVER YOU WANT. Genre is an outdated word, at least in the initial stages. Whatever your process is for building a plot, a world, or a cast of characters, it’s your story. I won’t say much about the actual way to improve your story… not at this point, anyway. There are far better authors than I, waxing eloquent on the subject elsewhere. Go with what works for the story and the idea, not what works for the spine label. There’s a lot of complicated terminology concerning “branding” and “author brands” and “establish a brand,” both in the traditional scene and the indie scene.Want to know the truth? Your “brand” is whatever you want it to be. People worry too much about losing readers when they try new things. Don’t. It isn’t about you finding readers… it’s about readers finding you. Whatever you write, if it’s good, someone will find it and enjoy it. I can’t say this enough: write your story, not someone else’s product. We’ll worry about “market this” and “customers that” later. Length and structure is also literally no issue at all- I’ll explain why in later sections.Polish, but There’s a LimitSo you’ve written a story. Maybe it’s long. Maybe it’s short. You read some great books that inspired you, and you also managed to reach that magical point of “DONE.” What next? Well, I think we can all admit that first drafts can be pretty ugly. Of course they can be good, too, but nothing’s perfect. How do you know when you’re not only “done,” but “finished”?All stories need editing, to some extent. But you usually don’t need to pay someone. Look over it yourself, first. Polish the dusty parts, fix the leaks… but don’t overdo it. Eventually you have to let go, and the sooner- I’ve found, oddly enough- the better. If you like to write, chances are someone close to you- spouse, parent, sibling, friend- will want to read what you’ve done. As long as they have some idea of what a good story sounds like, they can help you out. But don’t stop there: there’s the Internet! So many avid readers are out there, it shouldn’t be too hard to get some people to read it, in whole or part. Just make sure they’re not a crook.Join a writing group, in real life or online. Participate, so they like you, and get some of them to read your work. Find people. And don’t be afraid… it’s the web, so even if they hate your guts at the end and try to strangle you, they’ll hit the hard computer screen and get nowhere. You’re safe. Sure, it can be scary to give someone else full permission to praise and/or bash your work. But better they bash it in the editing stage than in the review stage… trust me.So you’ve written a book. You’ve edited out all the obvious typos and glaring plot holes. Your friends from Thriller-Romance-Writers-of-Seattle have looked it over and given some advice. But you just… don’t… think… it’s… ready… yet!Too bad. You really can’t edit a manuscript into perfection. Either it’s good or not-so-good. Countless times I’ve talked to writer friends who tell me all this great stuff about their book, and it genuinely has me interested. “That’s so cool,” I say, “when are you going to publish it?”“Oh, not yet,” they say, “I’m still editing it. The last draft still had some rough spots.”“Hmm. How many drafts did you do?”“Oh, about the seventh… or so.”My jaw drops. I thought only Brandon Sanderson did that! Well, you get the idea. And maybe that really works for some people. A certain self-published author making six figures a year said he goes through that many revisions, and his stuff is some of the highest rated ANYWHERE.But for most of us, you simply Do. Not. Need. It. Edit, yes. Polish, yes. But if it takes you longer than a month or two, stop. If you sense yourself getting stuck in an endless circle of constant tweaking, STOP. You will- I do not exaggerate- ruin your story. All that time you just spent changing perfectly good prose is time you could have spent getting your book out to readers… and writing the next story.I made up a little quote to end this section.“It’s better to produce 4-star work all the time, than to produce a single 5-star work and sit on it until it dies.” Or worse, sit on it and hit it again and again until it becomes a 4-star or a 3-star.
Core Concept 2: Concentrate on Writing
No, this is not the same as the last part… and you’ll find out why, soon. You’ve written a story… fantastic! But now it’s time to write another… and another… this is an essential part of the process. You will not make it with one story alone… well, maybe you will. But most likely you won’t, and especially if you’re not into the marketing thing, there needs to be more for people who enjoyed your first work.Just Do ItHow do you go about continuing your writing? How do you keep producing stuff people actually want to read… and in a timely fashion?One word: discipline. Yes, I know that’s what your mother told you in middle school Thing is, she was right. You will not be able to write productively without discipline. Whether you write full time, part time, or in your free time, you need to be committed to your work. I can give suggestions (and I will), but ultimately you have to just do it.It doesn’t matter if you’re still working towards publication, or you’ve published a few things, or you have an empire of separate works. Whatever the reasons, you need to be disciplined in your writing. Having every work day devoted entirely to writing is a magnificent boon- one I’m working hard to be worthy of at this writing- and it shouldn’t be wasted. If you write full time, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be churning out massive amounts of writing. Not necessarily word-count-wise, but content-wise. Seriously. If other people can work eight or more hours a day at a job they hate, shouldn’t you be able to work that same time at a job you love?Start early. That’s when you’re at your sharpest. Even if it hurts, get up and drink lots of coffee and write! I try to start early and get 4 hours of solid writing in before lunch. This can be used up by blazing through a short story, touching up the next scene in your novel, or anything you want. Just spend the time on something writing-worthy: and it’s best if you spend the whole time on one thing. Outline. Edit. Write. Do something… anything. Take a break of you need to. Eat, drink, and be merry… but get back to the book within an hour, and don’t take too many breaks. Get writer’s block? Muscle through it. MAKE the story happen… and if you can’t, work on something else.Really, this advice can work for anyone who has a few free hours, not just full time writers. But if you are full time, make sure you’re producing as much and as high-quality as you can. Also, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Your mind and body are linked: when one suffers, so does the other. That’s all I’ll say on the topic, but live intelligently. It helps.A side note: I really don’t believe in writer’s block. Any time I’ve had it (or thought I have), it’s always been solvable. Most times I already have at least a vague idea of where I’m going, and there’s really no problem with writing what you know to be bland junk, in order to get through the tough, un-writable parts. Just make sure you mark the place and go back to spruce it up when your muse returns. And really, I don’t believe in muses or inspiration, either. Sure, sometimes the ideas seem to flow like a firestorm, and sometimes they flow like backed-up toilet. But 99% of the time, you just need to concentrate and make yourself do it. Discipline, remember?Stay Away!…from distractions of ANY KIND. Really. Set up a block of time: say, from 8 o’clock in the morning ‘til 12 noon. During that time, do nothing but write (as I said before), but also do not touch the internet, or even leave your chair. A ‘just this once’ or ‘just for a minute’ will turn into ‘just one more tweet’ or ‘just for five more minutes’ every time. Every. Time. If it helps, disconnect your internet. I have, on more occasions than I’d like to relate, simply because it was the only way to get writing done and keep myself from getting distracted.Quotable Moment of the Chapter: “The internet is the biggest killer of successful writing, though it is also the biggest aid to it.”Don’t get discouraged, though, if nothing I say here seems to work. Just keep trying, and try new things. Schedules are changeable. Your book isn’t going to hate you for spending more time with it, and it also won’t run away if you leave it for a while (though, while we’re on the topic, it is a very, VERY good idea to frequently back up every document on your computer; all the writing discipline in the world won’t help you when the darn machine crashes and you lose everything).I say “try new things” a lot, but also remember that an unfinished book is no book at all. Once you’ve started something, you’d better not give up on it unless you’ve tried every possible way (and then some) to make it work. Adapt, but don’t discard. Try not to have more than one work-in-progress at any given time, unless you’ve previously proven to yourself you can finish multiple things at once, in a decent time frame.Length is IrrelevantA final note: when you’re done the book/story/novel/tome, it doesn’t matter what length it is. If it’s the story you set out to tell, it’s good as gold. Gone are the days when your work had to be at least length A, or no more than length B, or even conform to any length category at all.Got a bunch of short stories following the same topic or hero? Collect them into a single ebook, or publish them separately as a linked series (I actually recommend the latter). Got a series consisting of many different length stories? Good for you: price them according to length and make sure readers know the right order. Got a single, 300,000-word novel? You might be crazy… but there are other crazy people out there.I’m one of them. My story ended up being 300k, and I split it into a 6-book series. 50,000 words makes a novel, remember? Another author in the same genre as me is currently selling thousands with a 6-part serial novel. The total word count is about 200k, and it’s split into segments of 35k each. Serialization is the future of ebooks. I really do believe it… longer works are more palatable at cheaper prices, in smaller segments. Then you can slap all the serials into an omnibus and offer that at a discount… ta-da! More options, more visibility, more sales!In the end, it all comes down to a few key things:-Write often, and write well.-Length and genre are irrelevant.-Don’t market… write more!-Serialization works. Use it at your discretion; at least consider it.-Never lose sight of the fact that it’s about the story, not the sales.
Core Concept 3: Present Professionally
As I said before, this is possibly the most universally important element of the let-your-book-market-for-you ideology. Your book could be the greatest piece of literature the Western world has seen in the last hundred years… but if it looks like junk, it will be treated as such. Bad formatting, a cobbled-together cover, and a lame bio are not doing your book any favors, and they’re probably alienating people from reading further works of yours, even ones that have better presentation.So present professionally in everything you publish. Anything new needs to look new, and if you have old/backlist titles sitting around with less-than-stellar art and formatting, by all means re-issue them! Facelifts and clean-ups are your best friend with ebooks: and it’s easier to be professional than you might think.Covers: Make or Break!Your cover art is arguably the most important part of your ebook, even more essential than the story itself (at least in the beginning). How could that be, you ask? Whatever happened to “Never judge a book by its cover?”What’s the first thing a person sees about a book, either on a bookstore table or a website sales ranking? The cover. You just can’t help judging a book by its cover, because you’ll always see the cover- and title- first. Almost every buying decision is influenced to some degree (usually a large one) by the cover. Unfortunately, an unofficial trademark of many indie books seems to be bad covers. It’s just a fact.I do my own covers, because I’ve had some experience with art and the like beforehand, and I always have a clear idea of what I want in my cover art. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, try to do the same yourself. Unless you have a good-sized chunk of cash saved up beforehand to hire a good artist, it’s far more expedient to do the art yourself. Whoah, you say… isn’t that how all the ‘bad indie covers’ you mentioned came about?Yes, but there’s an intelligent way to make your own covers, if you’re careful and you don’t mind spending some time learning how to use any one of the many free photo-editing programs out there. At least one- Gimp©- can do most anything Photoshop can, and it’s free to download. Go look at the lists of popular books like the one you’re writing. Browse the different styles, and see if anything fits what you have in mind. Then, imitate it, draw from it, and mix it with other things.Do careful research, and find photos you can use that are either copyright-free, or have a copyright owner who will give you permission to use them commercially. Sometimes, you don’t even need a photo; just some creative MS Paint brushes and cool fonts (again, something you can get off the internet for free). Simpler is ALWAYS better. People want striking art- not something that merely blends in with a million other things- and the most professional way to do that is to build a cover that is both smooth-looking and simple. The polish of the image separates it from the horde of badly-drawn pencil covers, and the simplicity separates it from the flashiness of most traditionally published books.Of course, the same principles used in writing apply to cover art as well. Get some people to look it over. See what they think, and use their suggestions if you think them useful. Save multiple versions of the cover so that if you decide on reverting to an earlier/radically different version, you can. But, like in editing, there is such a thing as ‘too much.’ Eventually you just have to let the cover go out into the world and fight to the death with the thousand other covers out there. Again, if your book is good (and the cover works), people will find it.Now, a lot of this cover business may seem useless to you. You might think yourself no good at art, or perhaps you simply don’t have the time to make a cover, or even both. I suggest at least trying, though… it’s easier than it seems, and it’s especially useful if you just don’t have the money to hire out the work.In the interest of exploring all angles, I’ll talk about buying cover art as well. It is true that there are many, many talented cover artists out there, some devoted entirely to work-for-hire in the indie publishing world. Do your research, and find which ones are the most reliable, the best at what they do, and the cheapest. I have never yet spent a single dollar in producing my own ebooks, so there isn’t a lot of actual referral I can do here for you.But look at the successful indie authors like J.A. Konrath, Aaron Pogue, and whoever else is doing well in your chosen genre. Who’s doing their cover art? If they’re doing it themselves, ask them how. (They will talk to you, even though they are more or less celebrities. It is one of the great miracles of the ebook revolution.) If they hire someone else (as I know Konrath does), see if that artist might be a match for you/your book. Look on forums and book sites (Goodreads is amazing for this). There are entire threads and groups devoted to this kind of thing. Eventually, you will find a way… the web is a goldmine of knowledge and experience.Formatting, the Fast (and Easy) WayEbooks are much easier to format and set up than print books. The trick is to plan from the beginning. Write the way you want the ebook to look. It’s remarkably simple. If you’re using MS Word or some similar document program, simply make sure you’re being consistent. And “take it easy.” Avoid fancy formatting, illustrations, and multiple fonts/sizes as much as possible, unless you already have a ton of formatting experience.Let’s do this the quick-and-business-like way, with a list:-Make all the body text the same simple font, same size, same spacing, same tab stops (look those up if you don’t know what they are).-Make all the chapter/part/title headings the same font/size/format. I find that it usually works best to title everything with the same font as the rest of the book, but a few sizes bigger (not higher than 18, not smaller than 12).-MS Word (and, I assume, other programs) lets you assign different ‘styles.’ Make the body text one style and the titles/headings another. The simpler the better, and it saves a headache later.-Don’t bother with weird fonts. The only formatting people actually see in an ebook (at least at the moment) is the same standardized font, bigger or smaller, bold or italic. That’s it. Don’t bother with fancy chapter headings, especially. Find a simpler way to differentiate.-Don’t forget to add things like the title page, copyright info, dedication, and whatever else you might need at the beginning. Same thing goes for the end: about-the-author, list-of-works, glossary, and other more-or-less essential things shouldn’t be forgotten.Decide after you’ve formatted the document what your next step will be. There are a few options, which you can take one or more of, and I’ve divided them into categories… using another list:-Option one: Smashwords.com. You can use Smashwords to format your ebooks for free, as well as sell them through the Smashwords website and various retailers afterwards. This is the quickest way, since it’s all automated, but the product usually doesn’t look very professional. Chapter titles have a tendency to go missing, and tabs turn out funny. I only publish short stories through Smashwords at the moment; it works easiest on those.-Option two: Basic-upload. Format the word document, as I said. Then, add a Table of Contents in the document itself, wherever you want it to show up in the ebook. It’s relatively simple to make clickable links that will send readers to the chapters in the book. Look it up if you can’t figure it out on your own… just make sure that you don’t leave the page numbers in the Table of Contents, because there aren’t any pages in an ebook. Then, when you go to upload the ebook to Amazon/Barnes & Noble, they’ll convert it into snazzy e-reader mode for you. You can double-check to make sure it looks right, then upload… and ta-da! I did this with my first ebook (there are something like 10, now), and it worked fine. All my Barnes & Noble works are done this way, too.-Option three: Formatting programs. Download one of the free formatting programs from the internet (just make sure it’s reputable). The one I use is the widely-known Mobipocket Creator, which I believe is or was owned by Amazon. This lets you build your own .prc file, which is basically identical to the standard Kindle Format (.mobi). Using this takes some practice, and it helps to know html code (I get help for that). But the finished product is the nicest I’ve seen so far, and I use it for all my ebooks, especially ones uploaded to Amazon. This also is a way to have a free digital copy of your book to send to people (for whatever reason) and/or upload to your own kindle. I believe there is also a program to do the same thing, Nook-style, but I haven’t looked into it.-Option four: Hire someone. Again, I don’t recommend it, at least not before you’ve made enough money from previous books to cover the cost. But if you must (or it’s just the best way you can see), hire someone. Use the same logic as you do for cover art: see if anyone reliable will do it for free, then see who does the formatting for the ebooks you like and hire them.Bottom line? Formatting must be good, but not fancy. Simpler is easier and higher-quality. Even if it takes you longer in the production phase, it’s worth it to learn new skills and do it yourself for no money cost whatsoever.BUT: if you can’t do a certain thing well enough for your tastes (and others, really, since that does matter), farm it out to the cheapest, most professional work-for-hire in the area.Of Blurbs and BiosBlurbs: the other defining factor in an ebook sale. It’s the Product Description… the “back cover” of you work, if you will. Make it as awesome and enticing as you can, because if you can’t interest the reader in twenty seconds, they won’t be interested in spending hours in your book. Don’t go on and on about trivial things; don’t give away major plot details; and make sure it sounds professional. This is another make-or-break moment, and you shouldn’t be worried about tweaking the blurb even after publication. I’ve changed the blurb on one of my books twice… and changed the cover twice, too. Ebooks aren’t set in stone- or even paper- but editable computer files. Make use of that, if something goes wrong.Bios. Biographies. “Stories of my long and literature-worthy life.” While not even remotely as important as covers or blurbs, these can and probably will have an impact, however slight, on people’s perception of you and any future works. It’s the ‘about me’ that the most people will see, on your author page, your website, and in the book itself. You can use the same bio for each, or a different one for different purposes: whatever you feel will be most effective. But there are a few general rules you should always try to follow:-Never give out too-personal information. Don’t say where you live, or personal contact information like phone number. This should be a no-brainer, but I kid you not… some people do it.-DO include things like author email (not home email), website links, Twitter names, and such. Just don’t be pushy about it.-Be interesting. Tell an interesting (100-word) story relating to your writing. Or not, if you don’t want to. Some authors just make up the entire thing, telling a ‘life story’ that is obviously false, so as to get a laugh. I have to say, this is currently my favorite method, though I only use it in certain places.-Try to retain some shred of dignity. Please. Even if you’re a teenager working out of your mother’s basement, perhaps it would do your image good if no one knew? Or at least, treat the topic in a professional way, if possible.Basic PresenceThis is where I begin to deviate from the common path of most self-publishing guides. There are simply too many people out there wasting their time on Twitter/ blogs/ Facebook/ Goodreads/ Shelfari/ You-name-it! Yes, you need to have a basic presence, otherwise your fans will not be able to find you when they read your incredible work of genius. I’ll go over all that in a moment, but what I want to make clear is this: you gather a following though writing and publishing stories, not chatting 24/7 with other Pinteresters and Stumbleupons and Redditers. Really. It just doesn’t help that much… and for the people who have used such sites to balloon their sales numbers, how do you think they did it?They wrote a bunch of stories first, then went out and told people about them.My method, my “New Way to Win,” is centered on writing quality work, producing more and more of it, presenting it professionally, and focusing on the strengths of your position. Eventually people will find your work, and because it both looks good and is good, they will read and enjoy it. Then they’ll want more, and you’ll have it waiting for them. Then, if you’re lucky, they’ll want to find you on the internet and be the first to read anything new you produce. Hear that? They will find you. You don’t have to go out looking: just write, publish, and hope.So here are the basics of an online presence:-Email. A mistake I made early on in my self-publishing efforts was not having a direct way for people to contact me once they’d read my book(s). Get an author email separate from the one you use in personal correspondence. There are plenty of free email systems out there: Google, Yahoo, Hotmail… the list is infinite. Get an address, and stick it in every author bio and in the about-me of every book. Then wait and see what happens.-Blog. The easiest way to make an online “Home Base” is to create a blog, using one of the several free blogging programs out there. Even if you don’t intend to post regularly, create one and make it the hub of your online efforts. Have a list of all your books, a way to buy them, and links to everywhere else you exist online. It’s hard (in my experience) to get people to permanently subscribe to your blog, but it’s easy to link them through the blog to a hundred other sites of yours (and possibly even some sales). Link to your blog wherever possible; just make sure you don’t post so often as to be annoying to those around you.-Social Networks. The Big 2 at this point are Twitter and Facebook. You don’t have to have either, but I recommend at least having one account on each. Don’t put any personal info out on either, but have your face and name so that people can easily find you. So many people use these sites (along with others, like Google+) that it has become automatic for them to connect with their favorite books/movies/people this way. Put a link to your fanpage/tweet machine in your bio at the end of each book. Believe me, eventually people will click and connect. Just make sure you don’t waste time constantly posting when you could be writing.-Book Networks. Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing… you’ve heard of these places, most likely. If you can, join one or more of them. Again, only a basic presence is necessary. The most useful thing about such places (Goodreads is head and shoulders above the others) is being able to find like-minded people. If your readers want to connect via any of the above, it’s a good idea to be include these links as well. Just remember: basic, basic, basic. Write instead of post. Edit instead of update. Finish novels instead of novel-giveaways and review queries.Bottom Line: Have a basic presence on the main sites, but don’t spread yourself too thin or waste time. I recommend Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and a home blog. That’s it, besides direct emails.
Core Concept 4: Use Your Strengths
For this final part, I’m going to assume that you’re more or less following the aforementioned formula: write lots, write well, don’t bother with marketing, and make it look good. There are strengths to this system, and when you use it, they become your strengths. Maximize on that potential, and you’ll have a winner. There’s no replacement for actual talent, and don’t get me wrong: you’ll need to be patient. But here are some extra reinforcement-ideas to help with the process.BacklistYou may have stories that you wrote long ago and did nothing with. Take them out, dust them off, polish them, and if they’re presentable at the end… publish them!You may have big-or-small-published books that have gone out of print. Get the rights back if you can, and re-release them as ebooks. There is no backlist in the new world, and anything old you re-release is essentially a new book… again!You may have a virtual library of unreleased or old work: so much that it would be a pain to re-release them all singly. Make collections! Omnibuses! 5-for-1 deals! Just make sure that, as always, it looks professional on the outside and inside.Print DistributionSo you’ve got a good selection of ebooks, but what about print versions? This is a tricky question, and one that I’m still wrestling with as I work though the print process for the first time. Ultimately, though, I’ve come to a few conclusions about POD (Print On Demand) and the like.-It’s not worth it in the beginning. You will never make as much money off print books as you will off ebooks. Even the most successful indie authors sell far more electronically than physically: it’s just a fact. So until you have the extra time and money to justify adding print to your ebook domain, it’s not worth it.-Eventually, you should do it. But not until you’ve already got a good number of people reading your ebooks. What’s the magic amount indicating ‘a good number’? Whatever you decide is prudent. I’ve sold somewhere past 10,000 copies of my 7 actual novels, and I’m still not sure print is justifiable for me.-Figure out when, and where. I’m doing it anyway (slowly), but it’s more for those who have already read my ebooks and want to collect them in print form… and for those few relatives and friends who still hate e-readers. The two biggest POD companies are CreateSpace and LightningSource. I use CreateSpace, because of its ease-of-use and relatively cheap production costs. That being said, I also don’t pay people to format the print book for me, which you might want to do. It’s hard.Choose your own path. This is what works for me… but you may be in a different situation. In general, though, these seem like pretty good rules-of-thumb.E-book DistributionIn the past, there was an easy, one-size-fits-most way to do this. You simply uploaded to Amazon, where most sales would come from, then uploaded to Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and (if you had a lot of time on your hands) the iBookstore. With the introduction of Amazon’s KDP Select, though, there has emerged a second and controversial option.KDP Select is an optional program open to Kindle ebooks. It essentially signs your books up for periods of 3 months at a time, during which they may be sold nowhere else at all but Amazon, at least in ebook form. In print, you’re not limited. Why would you want to do this? Because Amazon puts all its KDP Select books in the Amazon Prime lending library, then pays you whenever someone borrows your work. In addition, KDP Select titles are given an easy way to go free in the Kindle Store for 5 days out of every 90 they’re in the program.This is tricky stuff. Basically, Amazon is making deliberate moves to become the one-and-only of ebook publishing. Wow. Most successful authors wouldn’t want any parts of that: their books sell fine in all other ebook stores, so why should they limit themselves? They shouldn’t. But for just-starting authors, or authors with little to no non-Amazon sales, KDP Select can look pretty enticing. It’s much easier to only have to worry about one online selling venue, rather than 3 or more at the same time. The perks are helpful, and the product is the best in the business.What then, should we make of KDP Select? I think the answer is different for everyone. I’m currently testing it out with most of my books, and have come to the conclusion that it is good for certain books and bad for others, just as it is good for certain authors and bad for others. Try it yourself, if you wish, but I would generally be cautious about it. The possible rewards are great, but don’t throw everything you have into the complex basket that is Exclusivity.SerializationAs I stated before, there is literally no boundary on ebook length. A book can be as short or long as you want it. Short stories are a viable option, as are novelettes and novellas. Novels can range from 50,000 words to 300,000 words, and never has the word “series” meant so many different things at once as it does now. A big (and I mean big) way to boost sales and make yourself more noticeable is to split up longer works. You’ll notice I frequently mention lead-ins and omnibus editions here: they are an essential part of serialization. There are many ways to do this, and all of them work. Find which one is best for you.-The classic “series.” If your story is longer than one book, by all means make a series! This generally works better for shorter novels in the 50k-100k range, as it would be hard to consistently release longer books that succeed… unless you have a fan base already following your work. If you do have a series, it often helps to make an omnibus collection of the books available at a discount: just make sure it isn’t too cheap, or you’ll end up losing money when you should be making it.-Lead-ins. Many successful authors have a short story or novella lead-in to their main series. They price it cheaply- or even for free- and include an easy way to purchase the first part of the main series. If you already have a multi-book series published, try making the first book the lead-in, pricing at free or bargain-bin levels to entice readers on to higher-priced volumes. This method worked well for me when I tried it on my own series.-Serial shorter works. A series of short stories is not the bad idea it once might have been, in a print-only world. String them apart, or collect them into an omnibus, or both! The same goes for novellas: your series needn’t be 50,000 words per part, if the story doesn’t demand it. In fact, novella series often work better than short story series, and sometimes better than serial novels: the next option.-Serial novels. If you have a book that’s longer than 100,000 words, I strongly recommend splitting it into several parts. This is a “serial novel,” an older form of writing that has seen a remarkable comeback in the ebook revolution. It’s hard to get standalone novels to float, but if you split them up into shorter sections (generally 25k-50k words), you can offer the sections at a cheap price that will get readers to gobble up the whole book part-by-part. Offer omnibus editions shortly after releasing all the parts, and people will eventually try 1 or 2 installments, then go on to buy the full work at a speed they never would have before.Experiment with each and all of these options that suit you. There’s no set way, and I personally intend to try out them all. I have two completed novel series, one ongoing novella series, and an upcoming serial novel. There are pros and cons to each, and it’s blazing good fun to try out new forms of writing like this.FrequencyNever stop writing. Even when one of your works takes off, spend more time writing than Tweeting about your miraculous success (except, we both know it’s not miraculous… you did it yourself!). There simply is no replacement for frequent releases. You know the saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” It’s true. The more works are out there, the better chance someone (or many someones) will read and enjoy one, then go on to read the others… and then go tell all their friends to do the same!More stories equal more visibility.More stories equal better writing.More stories equal more readers.More stories equal success.More stories equal continued success, once you’ve succeeded the first time.Keep going, writing different stories of whatever length and topic you most enjoy. Write until one of your stories takes off, then capitalize on its success. Write a sequel, if you think it will fit the story. Write more in that genre, if you have the desire. If not, just keep writing what you want! Connected works like a series or a serial work best in the ebook world, but tell the story you want to. At the end of the day, it’s the satisfaction of finishing a good story that counts… not the money. Money is important, of course. It’s just not the main object.Professional products are key in this system, not marketing. Tell a good story and make it look good to readers.You don’t have to play the marketing game… because your book will do it for you.
Also Read…
I’m not the most experienced author or publisher in this field. I believe my “New Way to Win” system is something people need to hear, but there are many, many other proven systems to gaining a foothold in the self-publishing world. Here I’ll put down some of the best people/places I’ve found, or people have recommended to me. Some are by publishers, some by authors, but all by people who know what they’re talking about (even though what they talk about is different).BooksThe Newbie’s Guide To Publishing, by J. A. Konrath. This is a huge ebook that I’ve only read part of, covering just about everything on every kind of publishing. It’s a bit outdated in some places, but the cheap price and sheer length assures you’ll probably get something out of it. Find out more at http://amzn.to/HIy6Tq. Let’s Get Digital, by David Gaughran. I haven’t actually read this book, but it comes highly recommended from all the big self-pub names (including the one above), and it’s not expensive. I might actually recommend it over the one above. Find out more at http://amzn.to/IQdnw2. Write2Publish, by Robin Sullivan. This is a digital short by the author of what I consider to be the best publishing blog out there. Find out more at http://amzn.to/HCwULx. How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months! By John Locke. Not so much a ‘how-to’ as a ‘how you might,’ but valuable nonetheless, especially now that it’s cheaper than it was upon initial release. Find out more at http://amzn.to/HGDENr. BlogsWrite2Publish (Robin Sullivan): http://bit.ly/HJAbLe A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing (Joe Konrath): http://bit.ly/HGc6HJ The Passive Voice (Passive Guy): http://bit.ly/HGDvVl Let’s Get Digital (David Gaughran): http://bit.ly/HICt0J Nathan Bransford, Author (Nathan Bransford): http://bit.ly/JetJcL Author Michael J. Sullivan’s Official Website (Michael Sullivan): http://bit.ly/HUofUa
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