Indie Methodology

Dear Reader,

Let’s talk about the indie methodology. That is, the method in which an author decides to indie publish. This is largely inspired by Kait Nolan’s recent post about Kickstarter (I’ll admit, my heckles were raised), but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

I realize I am taking a very different path along my indie publishing journey. Let me break down the “traditional indie method” for you, as I understand it.

Author wants to self-publish. Author has little-to-no money, and no followers. Author decides they need to cut corners in self-publishing. How? By releasing to eBook first (or only). Maybe hire an editor. Maybe hire a cover artist. Use free services like Amazon DTP, Smashwords, PubIt. Send out coupons and giveaways to attract readers. Solicit reviews. Attract followers through social networking. Earn money from purchases. Save up to maybe release a print book, set up a micropress, etc. Or not.

This works for many indie publishers like Kait Nolan, Zoe Winters, Susan Bischoff, Amanda Hocking, etc.

It doesn’t work for me. Why? Because I published in high school and made a profit even though I used a vanity service. I continued to write for the next seven years, but put schooling first and didn’t publish.

Now I’m back. I’ve been at this for three concentrated months, and I decided to use Kickstarter to build up venture capital because I intend to indie publish a little differently.

Author wants to self-publish. Author has little-to-no money, and a number of followers. Author has a print book out, and short stories on Scribd. Author wants a micro-press and to dual-release the eBook and print versions. Author needs venture capital. Author applies to Kickstarter to reach new readers, gain support and excitement for new book. Buy ISBNs. Design cover and interior layout. Register micro-press. Use services like Amazon DTP, Smashwords, PubIt, CreateSpace. Send out coupons and giveaways to attract readers. Solicit reviews. Attract followers through social networking. Earn money from purchases.

The process is very similar. But the reason why I’m talking about this is because there was a lot of questions, even negativity, about authors using Kickstarter, as if they were trying to cheat the system. As if they’re clinging to the traditional method of getting an advance and then receiving royalties, etc.

Independent, as I understand it, means to go your own way. Do your own thing. March to the beat of your own drummer. Who cares if I’m using Kickstarter to raise money? Who cares if I decide to go print and eBook, rather than just eBook? As long as I follow through with my promises, it should be all gravy.

I admire and respect Kait, Zoe, Amanda, and Susan. I love what they’re doing for the indie publisher reputation. I’m taking my own spin on the indie publisher’s path, though, because that’s what an independent thinker does.

What am I trying to say? I guess all I’m trying to say is that if you’re deciding to go indie, read up on it. Learn who the big names are, and study how they are doing it. Make note of the methods that will work for you in your situation, and throw the other methods away. The indie world is too small for negativity about how you’re doing things if you’re producing quality work.

All the best,

Belinda

P.S. We made the Kickstarter goal! Huzzah! We’re still accepting pre-orders for Haunting Miss Trentwood through Thursday Oct 14.

Self-Publishers Unite!

As a published author determined to self-publish all future works, I always find it fascinating to read about others’ adventures in the self-publishing world. More people are doing it these days with the help of digital processing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a new trend. Many “established” authors self-published, such as Virginia Woolf.

Where do I begin?

Jumping into the self-publishing realm is not for the faint of heart. In fact, I would do a subsidy/vanity publisher first, just to get your feet wet. Something like Lulu would be a nice start as well, because they walk you through the process.

Once you’re certain you want to self-publish, subscribe to Publetariat. This is a blog peopled by a collection of self-publishers who write about everything, from hand selling your work to finding a good copy editor. They discuss the highs and lows, and provide resources to learn more about self publishing.

Then I would hop over to Dan Poynter’s website, which is chock full of free online resources for publishers.

Start watching Self-Publishing Review to get an idea of the quality people are looking for in terms of good self-published fare.

Listen to The Creative Pen podcasts on “writing, publishing options, internet sales and promotion – for your book.”

Most importantly, keep writing! If you don’t have anything to sell, what’s the point?

How are your projects going?

Have you decided if you want to self-publish, subsidy publish, or go the traditional route? Now that I’ve returned to the blogosphere, what would you like to see me write about?

Lightening Source Publishing

Just for the record, I’m switching my posting schedule to once every two weeks. Hopefully I can keep up with this schedule once school starts again.

I’m getting into the self-publishing gig again, and I’m liking it. Last week, Zoe wrote an article about Lightening Source, which is the best-kept secret in the self-publishing industry, methinks. Zoe has written about this before, but in case you know nothing about Lightening Source, read the article linked at the beginning of this paragraph.

The main points are as follows:

1. Lightening Source is a print-on-demand printer, not publisher. You maintain all rights, etc, as they only print for you. This is what you think you’re doing with Lulu, right?
2. Publishing through Lulu is a nice alternative to creating a micro-press, but when it comes down to it, Lulu is using Lightening Source.
3. All the major publishers use Lightening Source for their back-end printing, why not you?
4. Lightening Source is cheaper than offset printing.
5. Lightening Source already has an in with many of the book distributors, so half of your work is done for you!

Has anyone had experience with Lightening Source? My Worderella on Writing book is through Lulu, and while the quality is nice and I was pleased with how easy it was to create, I have to admit I want more control. May stick to using Lulu for small projects, and then use Lightening Source for actual novels.

For those of you not interested in self-publishing, what do you think about this?

Contest Winner

Don’t think I’d forgotten! The winner of the autographed Worderella on Writing is Kait Nolan! Use the contact form on my website to send your address and I’ll ship it ASAP. Congratulations!

Indie-Publishing Extravaganza

I am a fan of the indie-publisher in the same way that I’m a fan of a lot of indie musicians. It’s a scary thing to put your work out there for others to judge. And as there will always be artists that maybe shouldn’t have released their work, there are authors that shouldn’t release theirs.

But that goes vice-versa, too. There are indie artists who are so good at what they do that they gain fans, word-of-mouth publicity, and possibly even a big label contract, which may or may not be their end goal. Lucky for us, the same thing goes for authors… except there is still a stigma behind “self-publishing.”

Today, I’m listing some useful websites that will help you decide if you want to take that leap into the unknown and become an independently published author.

Indie Publishing Revolution
Maintained by Zoe Winters, a frequent commenter and even a guest blogger here at Worderella Writes. She’s an intense supporter of independent publishing and is doing her best to make sure that you know what you’re getting into if you’re interested in doing the same.

Publetariat
Self-described as an “online community and news hub for the independent author.” The people behind it claim to be experts in editing, marketing, journalism, etc, and are determined to help you make the best product you can. It’s not that you’re “resorting” to independent publishing, it’s that you “choose” to independently publish.

Selling Novels on the Amazon Kindle
A first-hand account from an author who experimented with selling a draft version of his novel on the Amazon Kindle and in e-book format. Very interesting and useful; read the comments to gain more insight as to whether you want to follow a similar path.

CNet’s 25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing
An honest assessment of what you need to know about self-publishing from a man who had to struggle through it the hard way by himself. Read it, learn it, love it.

Book Cover Archive
Not actually a publishing website, but an excellent resource for those of you needing inspiration for your book covers.

The Benefits of Free

I’ve been reading a lot, recently, about how authors are trying to to convert those “early adopters” over to their writing. Early adopters, if you don’t recognize the term, comes from the early adopters of software. That is, software users who grab the newest version first, decide if they like it, and then tell everyone else how great the software is. Early adopters have a lot of clout in their circles. Get an early adopter on your side, and they will do the majority of your word-of-mouth marketing for you.

As authors, we should aim for the early adopters. But how do we do that?

Well, you can always go to their blogs, websites, etc, and build up a relationship with them. This is the nicest way to go about it, and takes the most time. You can visit their blogs and ask them, without knowing them, to review your work… and I wish you good luck with that one.

It seems to me that free things seem to work, most of the time. But what can authors give for free?

We can give away what we do best: our work. MJ Rose is a huge proponent of giving away our work to gain new readers. And she would know, having left advertising to write full time. This is one of those things were you really need to worry about copyright infringement, though. If you’re published by someone else, you need to read your contract carefully and make sure you can give away a portion of the work.

So why give things away for free? Because people love free things! It spreads a sense of goodwill. It gives your reader a taste test so they can get a feel for your style. And, if they really like your work, they’ll buy your book, whether you give it away for free or not.

MJ Rose definitely got me with The Reincarnationist. I began the book by reading the free download she offered a month ago. But honestly, I hate reading on a computer, even while I loved reading her book. So… I bought the book. I knew I was loving it, so why not go for the investment?

You can use this to your advantage, as well…

• Have a contest on your blog where your top commenters can read an advance copy of your work.Your blog commenters/readers are your early adopters, and if they have blogs of their own, they will be the first to spread the good news of your newest work.
• Or perhaps have your top commenters act as your beta readers. I did this with my first two chapters for an assignment in my graduate program. Not only did I get wonderful feedback, but it seemed like everyone involved really enjoyed it.
• Offer the first couple of chapters of your book as a free download on your website once it’s released. In this day and age, everyone wants a taste test, and this is your opportunity to give it to them.
• Offer a discount to your blog commenters. Reward your friends for sticking with you through the hard times!

What other things can you think of to give away for free that you think would really snag those hard-to-reach readers?

To Self-Publish or Not

The other day, I indulged during my break time and did some reading on self-publishing. This is self-publishing in the literal sense, meaning that I would handle the interior and exterior layout design, select the printer for the book, obtain my own ISBN, set up a business account, find the printer, and handle distribution.

In other words, to self-publish, I would be a micro press, a.k.a. small business owner. I’m not sure people realize that, in order to be a true self-publisher, you are effectively going into business. This is very different from publishing through Aventine Press, for instance (their services are excellent, but have high retail prices).

Why Would You Self-Publish?

There are multiple reasons for self-publishing, the first usually being that the author doesn’t want to jump through hoops to find an agent, an editor, and then shop around the big name publishers. In the 1990s, this was seen as the extreme vanity of selfish authors, hence the name “Vanity Press.”

A vanity press, also known as a subsidy press, is where the author pays a fee for the publication of the book. The press owns the ISBN, provides a template cover and interior (some packages provide more customization), and prices for small print runs are large due to the print-on-demand technology.

So there is a stigma against self-publishing authors who do it simply because they want to see their name on a book. These authors are seen as “cheating the system,” as it were. And then there are the authors who believe in the very spirit of self-publishing, like Zoe Winters.

Authors like Zoe and myself take great pride in our work, and turn to self-publishing because of this very fact. We also have an entrepreneurial spirit, which we apply to our passion for writing.

These are the two extremes of self-publishing authors: those who self-publish because they’re tired of the rat race, and those who self-publish for the sincere pleasure and pride of having self-published. There are other reasons for the authors who fall between these extremes; all are stigmatized against by the big name publishers and chain bookstores.

Is Self-Publishing for Me?

It depends. Do you have money? Because you’ll need it, to set up your accounts with Lightening Source, a wholesaler, for instance. Do you have storage space to hold your copies? Because if you go through Lightening Source, you are your own distributor and marketer.

But here is the most important question: what is more important to you, seeing your name in print, or putting your name on a book that you guided from draft to publication, hiring professionals as needed? A self-publisher invests in their book the same way a company invests in a product. If the product (your book) fails, you’ve lost the money you invested. If it succeeds, you receive all profits.

Zoe knows a lot more than I do about self-publishing, so I suggest checking out her blog. My experience is with vanity publishers, but for my next book, I do plan on releasing self-published print and e-book versions.

Which, by the way, I’m up to chapter 22 in the second draft! Things are coming along pretty well, I think, considering I’m a full-time graduate student.

Share and Share Alike

“Good writers are those who keep the language efficient.
That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.”
– Ezra Pound

Today’s post is a distillation of news I’ve seen around the blogosphere.

First of all, I’m about 60% done editing the WIP. Maybe not a great bit of news for the writing world at large, but something worth noting anyway. As I’m editing by paper and pencil, I can’t tell you how many pages I’ve cut, but this is one substantial tummy-tuck of which everyone will approve.

J.A.Konrath collected over 300 of his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing essays into a free E-book this week. It’s 750 pages bookmarked by topics such as writing, breaking into the publishing world, promotion, reviews, motivation, and more. The no-nonsense style of writing is appealing, and Konrath’s got a pretty good sense of humor, so at least give it a try. It’s not every day a published writer hands out a free book about how they got published in the first place.

Bernita at An Innocent A-Blog reminded us to check out Absolute Write’s Bewares and Background Checks forum for those of us looking for an agent, small press publisher, print-on-demand company, or traditional publisher. The forum is beyond huge, so I wouldn’t try browsing. But if you have a specific company in mind, this is the place to look them up and see the experiences other writers went through. (For some reason the search is at the bottom of the page… annoying.)

Sidenote: Notice how there’s an entire conversation put aside for PublishAmerica? Summary for that conversation: Don’t publish with PublishAmerica. I looked up Aventine Press, the company that manufactured my first book, Catching the Rose, and found the comments there to be accurate. (As for my own opinion, I’m thinking of working with them again because yes, I liked them that much.)

And in that vein, I hope all of you are keeping up with the Writer Beware! blog. In this technology-driven age, there is no excuse if you sign up with a bad editor/agent/publisher. Do your research before you commit to anything. The professionals will understand if you take a couple of days to decide. The scam artists will tell you, just like those infomercials, that you better decide in the next ten minutes or you’ve lost the deal.

Rather than going to the annual Romance Writer’s of America convention, Lynn Viehl is hosting a substitution Left Behind & Loving It week of online workshops (July 28 – August 3). This is where Viehl organizes fellow authors to host workshops on their own blogs, much like Eliza’s Villain Month. Published and aspiring authors alike can host the workshops as we all can stand to learn something new.

I updated my Affiliates and Links page to include the new websites. Leave a comment here or on the affiliates page if I’ve left out a resource you consider valuable. Also, tell me how your work-in-progress is coming along!

Self-Publishers in the wilds of Amazon

I was going to post a Thursday Thirteen on graduating with my bachelors of science in computer science and engineering. Note the past tense. Instead, I’m going to weigh in on this ongoing hooplah about Amazon.com making a business decision that no small or self-publisher wants to hear: that print-on-demand books sold through Amazon must use Amazon’s subsidiary, BookSurge, rather than relying on the industry standard, Lightening Source.

A panic quickly ensued, and my RSS reader was flooded with blog entries about how Amazon is becoming a book monopoly. PublishAmerica was the first victim of Amazon.com’s new policy by having all of their “buy this book now” buttons removed. As such, PublishAmerica books are now only available through resellers on Amazon.com. Same with Whiskey Creek Press, which is a traditional publisher who uses print-on-demand technology to produce their books.

I am, of course, concerned. As an author who has vanity published, and plans to self-publish, Amazon.com’s contract with BookSurge doesn’t sound too attractive. To register with BookSurge, you have to pay $50 per new title in set-up fees, and Amazon.com takes 48% out of the sale price to pay for the printing of the book. If you choose to use the Advantage Program (using a POD other thank BookSurge), then you pay $29.95 a year to keep the book in print/stay a part of the Advantage Program, pay all shipping and handling to get the books to Amazon.com warehouses, plus Amazon.com still takes the usual 55% from the sale price.

It’s no wonder there’s little more than a dollar or two per book for us poor authors once the royalty check comes in the mail!

For the record, it seems that the big three print-on-demand companies have already signed the contract, so books printed through Lulu, AuthorHouse/iUniverse, and possibly Xlibris, remain available on Amazon.com. The general consensus is that Amazon.com is being really unfair to the little guys, and there is a petition to stop Amazon.com, along with an active suit against Amazon.com for becoming monopolistic. For updated information if this continuing drama, see here: http://www.writersweekly.com/amazon.php.

I do realize that this is a business decision, and a smart one on Amazon.com’s part. In fact, I’m surprised they, or Barnes and Noble.com, didn’t do this before. But it still stinks for the little guys like me, who are going into self-publishing. And now that there’s a class-action suit against Amazon.com, who knows where this will lead? This may go nowhere, and all this worry will be for naught… or, Amazon.com could win the suit, and I’ll just have to sell my book from my website and independent booksellers only… because I doubt I can afford such a cut of the sales if I want to make any sort of profit, even if only to break even. (FYI, if I break even, I consider myself a success.)

I’ll try to keep you all updated on what’s going on as I hear more, and I’m sorry for not breaking this sooner. I’ve been watching myself, hoping the entire issue would die down to reveal a mistake on the part of Amazon.com’s PR staff, or something.

In the meantime, I’ll need to take a short two week haitus as I take time to graduate, visit the extended family, start my summer internship, find a place to live for grad school, and hopefully find time to edit. See you the week of June 23!

To read more about this issue…

• Amazon’s Book Gambit Changes the Digital Landscape – The New York Center for Independent Publishing
• Author’s Guild Looking into Antitrust Issue of Amazon’s POD Plan – Publisher’s Weekly
• A Statement from Lightening Source – Lightening Source
• Use BookSurge or Die? – Writer Beware

31 Questions when Choosing an Agent

Agents, it seems, are the way to break into the traditional publishing field for authors. But how do you find an agent? More importantly, once you find an agent, how do you know they are a good one? This is not a decision for the faint of heart, as Susan Kearney points out at Plot Monkeys.

The biggest thing to keep in mind when looking for an agent, and once you get that agent, is that your agent is NOT your friend. You have a business relationship and it is their duty to do their best to sell your book.

Also remember that the agent is your voice to big name publishers. If you have a bad agent, this might damage your ability to break into the market. So don’t be afraid to terminate the contract if you and your agent can’t conduct business in a professional manner.

For more information on disreputable agents, add Writer Beware! to your RSS feeds, as well as look up your potential agents in their archives.

If you want an inside look to the life of an agent, agent blogs are the way to go. See BookEnds, Nathan Bransford, Jennifer Jackson from the Donald Maass Agency, Rachel Vater from Folio Literary Management, Nephele Tempest from the Knight Agency, and the snarkives of Miss Snark. At least…these are the ones I read.

Here are Susan Kearney’s list of questions that should be answered to help determine whether your potential agent will make a good business partner for your writing goals.

Self-Published Authors and Taxes

It turns out that if you’re self-published, you’re considered self-employed. If you’re self-employed, you need to report your income if you accept more than $400 a year for your services (as seen on the form, here).

Some of you may know this already. But let me tell you, back when I was a naive, trusting seventeen-year-old (as opposed to the naive, not-so-trusting twenty-two-year-old I am now), I was completely bummed out that if I became the author I wanted to be, I’d have to pay taxes on my hard-earned royalties. This includes selling your books online, through PayPal, etc.

So for you writers that are either self-published or vanity-published, here are some tax forms you might want to take a look at.

• Publications and Forms for Self-Employed Individual: These are all the forms that apply to any sort of self-employed writer. Self-employed in this case would imply self- or vanity-published, because you are putting the money into having your work produced.
  

  That is the key distinction: you are producing your work. Otherwise, you are working with a small press or traditional, large press, who pays all of the production/marketing costs and eke out a small royalty your way.

• Filing Requirements for Self-Employed Individual: This page lists the different forms you may have to fill out in order to be kosher with the Tax Man.
• Business Use of Your Home: This page gives you some idea of what is considered a business in the home, and what benefits you can get by claiming your home office as such. Keep in mind, you need to keep separate receipts, as well as make sure that your office is specifically for your writing, etc. If you’re going to have a business office, keep it a business.

For more information, check out Taxes and the Writer, which goes into more detail (and in paragraph form) about allowable deductions, home offices, retirement plans, etc. And read Death, Taxes, and the Writer for an emphasis on the importance of filing your return, even if you only made $401 in income the previous fiscal year.

P.S. For those of you needing a bit of extra help with your writing, I’ve begun re-compiling my general writing notes on my website, along with all the quotes I’ve compiled over the past couple of years. Stay tuned for more goodies!