More on Self Publishing Options

Options for publishing your novelBefore you begin:1.      Have a completed product. This means fully written, with all the necessary Front Matter and Back Matter pages that are necessary for the type of book. Refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, page 1.4 (of the sixteenth edition) which is available from the library. 2.      Have your book professionally edited. This cost me $1,375.00 for my novel of 209 pages. It included two full edits looking at; Grammar, punctuation, sentence structures, word choice, misplaced info, areas that need to be ‘beefed up’, areas that drag, description lacking, repetition, incomplete plot lines, etc.!, from an editor who specializes in first time authors. The following article tells about what editor do; http://kobowritinglife.com/2013/07/18/want-readers-hire-a-copy-editor/?utm_source=cheetah&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=augKWL . There are numerous large editing companies around these days.  First editing is an example: www.FirstEditing.com.  Their quote to me ranged from $1,115.79 USD for “ Level 1 - Standard Editing  Standard Editing includes checking spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency and appropriateness of verb tenses, transitional phrasing, continuity/flow of thoughts, and support of statements.”, to $2,510.53 USD for “Executive Content Editing  Executive Content Editing is the most in-depth editing service that we offer. This all-inclusive package encompasses Editing Levels 1, 2 and 3 (spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency/appropriateness of verb tenses, transitional phrasing, continuity/flow of thoughts, support of statements, formatting of citations/references, and footnote editing according to your requested style guide) PLUS significant content re-writes of up to 20% of your entire document when necessary. This ensures a smooth presentation with consistent plot/character elements. Additionally, you will receive a professional editorial review of your writing's overall substance, organization, and presentation.”3.      Obtain an ISBN—International Standards Book Number—from The Canadian ISBN Service System at:  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ciss-ssci/index-e.html Note you should send a copy of the book to Legal Deposit of Library and Archives Canada. See this link: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/041/008/index-e.html4.      If you plan to follow the agent/publisher route, create an agent query letter. The requirements, examples, and a database of agents can be found here;  http://www.querytracker.net/index.php  or by searching Agent Query online. Be prepared to wait at least 8 weeks to hear back or not to hear back. Check the agent’s web site for exact requirements—this is important because they are all different, some want samples, some don’t. Personally, I found that without writing credentials this was almost a useless exercise except for writing the summary of the book.5.      Write a few short and long pitches. These are the summaries that entice a reader to consider your book.Methods:Traditional: Agents and Publishers:Being new to the writing/publishing process, I don’t have any history to help verify what I have learned recently, but it appears that Publishing Houses are going through significant change. They no longer employ an army of editors, for one thing, and from what I have read, they want to deal with agents not writers. Therefore, if you want to try to follow the traditional process—as I tried to do first—I suggest the following, have lots of patience, send your query letters out on mass, and hope they aren’t too busy to answer.I have noticed a few instances where someone has put out an eBook which has become successful, and then the agents and publishers start making offers to them.  I wonder if this will catch on?Pay to have it published:This method also appears to have a number of companies anxious to take your money. I didn’t attempt this method, but I did make the mistake of downloading a free white paper from one site (AuthorHouse—I have included their white paper as an attachment on this email.). I received a call within two days from a very persistent salesman. It took three months to get rid of him.I think this is a valid option if you want to publish something for your own bookshelf or something to pass on to your family, but if you want to sell your book I suggest the Traditional method or the following eBook method.There are a number of printing options available on the eBook sites also. Publishing a printed version yourself:This route is definitely a viable option. It requires some additional work on the format of the book to make sure it is exactly the way you want it to be printed—again, refer to the Style manual of your choice for this. You also have to produce a cover page and a back page. Then, find a printer. According to a presentation done for our writer’s group, this is doable for a reasonable price--$7.00 per book was the best price our presenter found. With many, the size of the run (how many are printed) and the setup costs are factors of the cost.Publish it yourself as an ebookAs I said on an earlier blog post, I found this to be a reasonable inexpensive, simple, and not extremely frustrating—just reasonably frustrating method. There are a few points I would like to make.
Formats:The three sites I used—Google, Kobo, and Kindle—all accept various formats (doc, docx, PDF, epub, odt) and so on. I read somewhere that the Open Document Text format (odt) converts to epub cleaner than a doc or docx format, so I used it as the source for my eBook in calibre. (calibre is the eBook management software I talked about on my blog post, http://calibre-ebook.com/download_windows) Please note: If you download calibre, watch out for additional programs being downloaded along with it. Read all the download instructions carefully because sometimes you have to say no thanks. I uploaded my novel in the epub format, that way it only had to be translated on the Kindle site—they use the MOBI format if I remember correctly.The newer Word versions can save in Open Document format (odt), or the free suite of programs Open Office is another option.  It is available at http://www.openoffice.org/ and has a mac version.
Legal issues:For Canadians, the easiest option is Kobo because they are a Canadian company. If you are not a US citizen and you sell through Kindle and/or Google you have to complete an IRS form—the W-8BEN. This form can be submitted electronically for Google, but has to be printed, filled in, and mailed for Kindle. It doesn’t do anything for you except to allow the IRS to collect taxes at a rate of 30%.Canada has a tax treaty with the US, but in order to get a lower tax rate you have to get a number called an ITIN from the IRS. This means filling out some forms and contacting a company/agency/office which has the right to verify your identity. The closest is in Barrie, and of course they charge a fee.Although I have my novel out on Kindle and Google, I have yet to sell anything through them, so I didn’t bother with the ITIN. When—read that as if—I sell a lot of books I will consider it again.
The Cover:A good cover seems to be a big issue. It is suggested on a couple of sites to spend the money to have it done professionally—both the art and the design. I did my own design, but my son asked a friend he works with to clean it up for me. It looks better now. One of the sites I’m on—I believe it is Kindle—has a design your own cover option. It is new, and is in beta development (which means it still has bugs and you will be helping to iron them out). An article I came across the other day told about an author who used one of these sites for raising money to get enough to have the artwork and design done, so I don’t think this is inexpensive, but ask around and see what you can find.
Marketing and Advertising:Once you get your eBook out on a site you are free and clear, right? Sit back and collect your money. Don’t we wish it was that simple? I suppose we all hear the stories about those writers who put out their first book, and it is gobbled up by the people, but alas, that obviously isn’t my situation. My book is classified as Science Fiction. On Kobo, in the Science Fiction category there are 26,506 books listed, so how do we get our masterpieces noticed?Again, there is the option to pay for advertising--there is always the option to pay. Kindle (Kindle Direct Publishing) has an option where they do some promotion of your book if you list it exclusively with them. I think I will try that for my next book. It is called KDPSelect. Here is the web site: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelectGoogle has two parts to what they offer. Before you can sell through them, you have to sign up for the Google books partner program. https://books.google.com/partner/You can join this program without selling through Google.
CreateSpace is something I haven’t looked at, but here is the blurb from an advertisement. CreateSpace is a leading provider of independent publishing tools that empower authors to produce, publish, and distribute their printed work.  Learn more  about the royalties and distribution options available with CreateSpace.
Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/ is another option worth checking out. It is free and seems to be successful in distributing eBooks for independent and indie authors and publishers.
Bookpleasures.com http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/ looks to be an interesting site for book reviews.
Kobo and Kindle suggest strongly that you join Goodreads, put your book information on the site, and participate with reviews and discussions to promote your book. There appear to be a number of sites similar to this. Goodreads has an author’s program which allows authors to advertise their books http://www.goodreads.com/author/programalthough it hasn’t done anything for me so far. They also send out a monthly newsletter which contains some very interesting entries about marketing, writing, and promotion. Here is a sample: http://kobowritinglife.com/2013/07/29/how-do-you-promote-on-kobo/?utm_source=cheetah&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=augKWL
If you have looked at a few of the entries I have included here, you have realized that Social Media plays a big part in some of the suggestions and offers. I have included an article at the end of this document called Harnessing the Power of Social Media to give you an idea of what is offered, but personally I agree with what Patty Jansen said in the above article.
 “What does promote mean? Since the start of self-publishing, it has come to mean spam the living daylights out of all your Facebook and Twitter friends, and pay big bucks for advertising that may or may not work, but even if it works, effects are usually very short-lived.”
Michael J. Sullivan – The master of Self-Publishing and Self-Promotion has some good ideas on how to go about it that have worked for him. My son gathered some useful posts from him for me from redit. Here is the link to Sullivan's web page: http://riyria.blogspot.ca/
Harnessing the Power of Social Media
Whether you’ve contracted with one of the ‘big six’, self-published, or you’re just starting out, there’s no denying that your online profile can make all the difference. This is why we’re delighted to bring you a guest post from people-in-the-know. Authoright PR are a group of book marketing experts, who we’ll be working with over the next few weeks to bring you some top tips for getting your novel noticed. Here is their Director of Marketing, Hayley Radford, talking about harnessing the power of social media.

Social media is short-hand for self-promotion. This 21st century phenomenon is dabbled in by many of us, but few really know how to use Twitter and Facebook to their best advantage. So how can you make your online profiles work for you? and, of course, for your writing?

Firstly, you need to take the personal element out of it by separating your private Facebook and Twitter accounts from more strategically designed platforms that give a clear indication of the brand you are trying to establish. This image needs to be consistent, professional in appearance and comprehensive in design.
Now to the content. Don’t upload any material that isn’t directly related to your writing; that means no tipsy photos of you on nights out, no pictures of children and pets being amusing. You must keep it fresh and book-focused. Things you can write about include elements of interest and themes drawn from your book. You should always try to broaden the appeal of your work wherever possible, so that it has a chance of making lots of positive connections; a great trick is to be news aware, highlighting contemporary news stories or trending themes that are of interest to everyone and writing about them in your own words, particularly those that can be related back to your book.

Authors need to be dedicated in order to make Facebook and Twitter work for them - since many simply don’t have the time to update their profiles multiple times daily, we run Social Media Marketing Campaigns at Authoright that essentially do all of this time-consuming, strategic work for them. Even those writers who hate the idea of using social media to promote their work recognize that they cannot afford to overlook its potential.

The most outstanding quality of social media is the ability to make direct connections, quickly and concisely. It’s crucial that you develop a comprehensive strategy for this: who am I going to contact, follow, like and why? By targeting key individuals – writers, journalists, literary blogs, charities or clubs that reflect the themes of your work – you can suddenly access a ready-made fan-base and these in turn will lead on to other, fruitful connections.

A great example of a successful Social Media Marketing Campaign that we’ve run at Authoright is that of our gifted fifteen-year-old writer from Palo Alto, Anna Caltabiano, who’s debut novel All That Is Red is causing a storm online. By aggressively targeting groups and individuals within her genre – Young Adult fiction – and making connections with similar social media contacts that operate within her thematic arenas – self-harm, teenage mental health, fantasy-fiction – we have been able to accrue almost a quarter of a million follows for Anna on Twitter and she has a loyal following of 41,000 – and growing – on Facebook. Through well-judged content, Anna can demonstrate how switched-on she is to the kind of issues that her target audience may be struggling with. The result is a dynamic all-rounder, an author who can demonstrate their viability, their written flair and make generous and important connections with readers and reviewers alike.

If you get social media right, you can find that your online audience will do much of the work for you, writing about you, praising your talents and making connections with other potential fans and book-buyers on your behalf through their own profiles. And since there are nearly a billion people all over the world who are actively engaged with social media, it’s a sales market that no author can afford to ignore.

For more information on how to become the master of your own media, come visit us at www.authoright.com/authonomy