Kevis’s Comments (group member since Jul 22, 2009)

Kevis’s comments from the I'm Trying to Get a Book Published! group.

Karey,

Thanks for the kind words. To touch upon your thoughts, I can certainly agree with you that coming up with character names is one of the most fun parts of writing. Without character names, you have no people to engage in your story. In a way, once you give a character a name, they become real people to us sort of like naming a child. Glad to have you as a member of this group. Look forward to talking to you some more. :)

Hmmm. Moby Dick? What's that? LOL!!!!

As for chapter three of your story, it worked wonders for my curiosity. I just love a story that makes me want to know what happens next!

Kat works for me. :)

I don't doubt you'll get it done! Just keep chopping away at your story bit by bit and you'll see how quickly your story comes together for you. Good luck!

Lisa,

Smashwords, Amazon (Kindle), and Mobipocket all pay royalties for every sale. Smashwords pays you quarterly once your book sales exceed $25.00. Kindle pays you after 60 days once your sales exceed $10.00. Hence, if you make the minimum amount of book sales every month, you will receive a payment every month. Mobipocket pays you once your sales exceeds $150.00.

In the case of Mobipocket and Smashwords, they will issue your payment in the form of a check or via PayPal. Amazon, on the other hand, will deposit your payment electronically into your personal bank account.

Without a doubt, Amazon has the most convenient and frequent method of payment. But I'm sure you'll be happy just knowing that all of the aforementioned parties will compensate you for your hard work.

Lisa,

The beauty of the way the business is shaping itself is that competition is such that few publishers are requiring exclusive contracts. Rest assured that you can safely publish your book on Smashwords without fear of not being able to publish it elsewhere. You can definitely publish your book on Smashwords and then on Kindle or/and with a POD publisher like Outskirts Press who also does not require your book to be published exclusively by them.

However, there are a couple of things that you should keep in mind. First, there are some POD publishers such as PublishAmerica, which do force you into a contract that will not allow you to publish your content anywhere else. So you have to make sure to read the fine line of every contract before you sign your name to it. Many poor authors are now lamenting the fact that they signed on with PublishAmerica and now have to wait several years until their contract expires before they can go elsewhere.

The other point that I want to make is that when you publish your book on Smashwords (and to a lesser degree MobiPocket), even if you decide to withdraw your book at some point in the future from their catalog, it will not be removed entirely. New customers cannot purchase your book. But any customer who previously downloaded or purchased your book will have access to the version they downloaded from Smashwords. In the case of Mobipocket, your book will be removed from their catalog, but they will require that it remain in their database for bookkeeping purposes.

That's the beauty of technology, Amber. Amazon keeps your books in its electronic database, so even if your Kindle gets lost, stolen, or broken, all of your books remain intact. In fact, when you get another Kindle, it will even remember what page you were reading on all of your books. Cool, huh?

BTW, regarding the price of the Kindle. It really pays for itself. Even though the Kindle is currently 300 bucks, there are over 10,000 free books on the Kindle with another several thousand books for 10 cents or less. When you add the fact that most of the books on Kindle are discounted over 50% off of the paperback versions, there is no question that the Kindle saves you money in the long run.

Granted you can go to the library to check out books for free. But they'll never be yours. On the other hand, once you download a Kindle Book it's yours forever. The only downside to owning a Kindle book is that you can never sell it or give it away like you could with a regular book.

That's a good question, Amber. I am really fond of Ariadne. But I also love Electra. Athena is quite beautiful too. I'm pretty sure I'll go with Ariadne. But as with things of this nature, I'm sure I won't have the final say on this matter. ;)

I must admit, Caitlan. Your story is vastly improved over the previous incarnation. Thanks to the prophecy and more improtantly, the Tyan storyline, it gives your story a well-roundedness that was lacking before. There is not only direction, but a sense of urgency to Fire-touched.

With every new chapter that I read I find myself wondering what is going to happen next which is what all good stories do. On that front, you have succeeded. I am very happy to see that you were able to go back and give your story the legs in needs to keep readers plodding on.

So far, I wouldn't have you change anything. I do have some suggestions and other ideas about what you can do to make your story better. But I will hold these ideas in reserve until you can get further into your story, especially since the most important thing that needs to happen is for you to complete your first draft.

You really should be proud of yourself. Your willingness to learn is paying off dividends for you. Keep up the great work! :)

Amber,

I love ancient Greek names too. In fact, I plan to name my children after the ancient Greek Goddesses and heroes. How cool is that? ;)

Sorry to break it to you, folks. But ereaders are here to stay. Even now, they are currently trying to make it a requirement for students in California to buy their textbooks for ereaders. Regular books aren't ever going to go away. But devices like the Kindle are the future.

Just remember, people used to think books would disappear when T.V. was invented. Judging by the sales of Twilight, Harry Potter, and the Da Vinci Code, I don't think regular books are ever going out of fashion.

And just so you'd know, the Kindle's going to be sold for $249 before the end of the year. Since Barnes and Noble is going to release their ereader very soon, it won't be much longer before the Kindle gets even cheaper than that.

Ronna wrote: "So do you guys change your character's name when something comes you think is better comes up. Cause I was thinking of changing one of my character's name, since i'm not that attached yet. What do ..."

Ronna,

It's never too late to change a character's name until your book is in print. Even then, I might take a swipe at changing a character's name if I can get away with it. In fact I have! ;)

No problem, Caitlan. I'll be sure to check out the new chapter and let you know what I think.

BTW, I've noticed I keep calling you by 3 different names. What would you prefer I call you? Caitlan, Cat, or Kirilee?

I have to admit. "what Kevis said" certainly does have a bloggish ring to it. ;)

Lisa,

Smashwords is indeed an online publisher which allows you to publish your work for free. For a while, Smashwords was a bit player in the online publishing world. But in the attempt to give Amazon all they can handle, Barnes and Nobles has partnered up with Smashwords and will be selling Smashwords books through their catalog on barnesandnoble.com. That is a major move which basically makes it a necessity for authors to publish their books on Smashwords.

Now you are probably wondering what's the difference between Smashwords and Amazon Kindle. The difference is in the formatting. Amazon Kindle uses Digital Text Platform or DTP to upload your books into their database. DTP transforms your book into Amazon's proprietary Digital Rights Management (DRM) encrypted software. The reason Amazon uses DRM is so that it limits the ability of the customer to share the book. Although this is primarily to keep books from being pirated or copied, it also serves to help keep most of the content published on Kindle exclusive. The downside to publishing your book on Kindle is that only the people living in North America can use a Kindle, which means the rest of the world is unable to read your book.

This is where Smashwords comes in. When you upload your book to Smashwords it automatically converts your book into multiple formats including mobi/prc which can be read on Kindle. The other formats make your book accessible to virtually every non-Kindle owner. Now the rest of the world can read your book too!

The only downside to publishing on Smashwords is that your book is DRM-free, meaning that the people who download your book can make as many copies of your book as they want. If someone wants to pirate your book or give away unlimited copies to friends and family members without paying you for your work, they can do so at will. With that said, it is not impossible to "steal" the content from DRM-protected Kindle books, but it does make it a little more difficult.

As for royalties, Amazon allows you to charge any price you want for your book so long as you price your book at the minimum of 99 cents. Smashwords, on the other hand, allows you to either give your book away for free, allow your customers to select how much they want to pay for your book, or price your book yourself also starting from 99 cents.

In my opinion, it's best to have your book represented in as many formats as possible. The more people have access to your book ultimately means the more readers you can potentially have.

That's okay, Rita. If "what Kevis said" ever becomes a catch phrase, you can go ahead and trademark it, LOL!

That's okay. At least you've already given yourself a running start. The beautiful thing about writing a blurb or synopsis before your book is complete is that it serves as an outline to help guide you in the writing process. So as far as I'm concerned, you're on the right track. ;)

Kirlee,

I guess I was confused by your language. A synopsis is simply a condensed version of your story which is often submitted to an agent or publisher in the hopes of landing a book deal. What you are referring to is what we call a pitch or blurb. In that case, what you posted above for NaNoWriMo is much more appropriate for a blurb or pitch. But I would suggest that you try to tighten it up even more and make it read with a little more intensity. My suggestion to you is to take a look at the blurbs on the back of a DVD/VHS box or novel and try to mimic what you see there. It will give you a pretty good example of how to write a blurb.

Since I am also an author who decided to publish a book with Outskirts Press last year, I'd like to say that Outskirts Press has been good to me. They offer tons of excellent services (professional editing, press release, marketing coach, world book tour, book video creation, kindle submission, etc.) that are very helpful to an author. However, these services can add up to what I would say is a small fortune if you use them all.

Truth is, most of the services that Outskirts Press offers can be purchased elsewhere for a much cheaper cost. There are some services such as their annual retail book return program which is a great service, but ultimately way overpriced.

One of the problem with using 'free' publishers like Lulu and CreateSpace is that that you have to do all the legwork to prepare and produce your book in addition to financing the production of it (book cover ilustration, editing, interior illustrations, etc.). Although you are still responsible for financing the content of your book, Outskirts Press handles the production aspect of your book which I love.

Another advantage to publishing with Outskirts Press is that you get your own ISBN #, meaning that from day one your book can be sold at multiple retail stores both on and offline. CreateSpace and Lulu forces you to purchase your own ISBN #. And if I heard right, Lulu has recently stopped selling ISBN#'s to its authors which means customers have to go to Lulu to buy your book. As far as I am concerned, if your book is not on Amazon you are missing out on the opportunity to sell your book to the biggest online book buying customer base out there.

I am not saying that Outskirts Press is the best POD publisher in the world. But they do hold themselves to a pretty high standard. I have only had a couple of hiccups with Outskirts Press which was easily forgiven when they proved themselves to be professionals and resolved my problems.

With that said, I think every author needs to figure out what their specific goals are before selecting a publisher, be it POD, vanity press, or commercial.

Nikki,

Rita has given you some wonderful advice. But allow me to add this much. You have to learn to allow your stories to dictate what they will become. You may have the desire to write a book and in the process write a really marvelous piece of fiction that may not reach novel length. Are there ways to make your story longer? Sure. But you would also be in danger of padding your story just to get the word count up. Perhaps that novel you are writing really isn't a novel, but rather a short story, or even a novelette. Let your story tell you how long it should be. Then, and only then, you can worry about what to call it and in which market it should find a home be it short story or novel. The idea is not to over think the writing process and allow it to hinder you from writing your story.