Penniless Publishing: How to Indie Publish for Free (or Almost Free)

I was leaving one of my author group meetings earlier this month when one of the guys mentioned that all my books were e-books. I told him how I was the queen of the budgeted Indie-pubbed authors. He thought I should share my tips with our group. He got me thinking. Maybe I should share my tips with y'all here. Even though I'm on a very restricted budget, I do the best I can with what I've got at the time. You can too.

Anyway these all seem fairly obvious to me, but who knows? Maybe they're not. Let's begin.

1. E-Book Versions Only. I publish e-books now, with every intention later, once I'm a "rich and famous" author (which means, to me, able to pay all my monthly bills with my monthly royalty check), that I'll offer CreateSpace paperbacks (and have one for my home library too) and even Audible versions of my books as well.
2. Covers. Out of my eighteen current online offerings, I've created twelve of my own covers from scratch, using various routes, with intentions later to have professional artwork done on some of them. My Good Ole Boys cover was done by a professional artist, whose great talents I enlisted via a good ole boy agreement between me and him, as he was my son's friend. I paid a pittance for his art. I hope to repay him somehow in the future for the true worth of his skills. The three-book and four-book collection offerings sporting 3-D covers were also designed by my son's artist friend. The cover for my stand-alone short story Down South was a royalty-free and payment-free option I found online as long as I gave the artist an online mention. Which I've done for all the artists I've used (including my son's kindergarten artwork replicated for my Checklist series, using differing colors for each book). For my short story collections #1 and #2, I used another royalty-free and payment-free photo. For my quotations series, I arranged the photograph myself. For my Catch Me novella, I drew a freehanded whimsical cover for that romance story. For my upcoming fiction series, I plan to freehand another cover, one that'll be used as the main background art for all the book covers in that series. For my latest upload, Stress Less: 365 Tips, I used bright colors for the text and one repeated keyboard symbol to style that cover. At the time of each book's publication, I selected my cover art, then added in the appropriate title, my name as the author (or as editor for the quote collections) and a tag line as needed, all via the free GIMP software. It comes with a lengthy downloadable instruction manual, but you may find it easier (and faster) to check out YouTube's various videos on certain GIMP functions instead.
3. Storytelling. Obviously, as the sole author (no ghost writers involved), I've written the books (both fiction and nonfiction), which is the biggest time investment. Some involved research too. Plus Microsoft Word's spell-checker helps to catch most of the grammar issues and misspellings. But you still need the human touch of two kinds of editors.
4. Two Kinds of Editing. Thankfully I'm both a developmental editor (the big-picture plot doctor aka the DEing) and a copy editor (the grammar and spelling police aka the CEing), so I currently do my own DEing and CEing of my work, along with some help by my two primary CPs. When I doctor my own books, it does work best if I let the book lay dormant for at least one week before I first do a DE, finding and fixing plot holes, etc., then I can follow that with a CE in a couple days.
5. Formatting. I'm not a professional formatter, but my layman's formatting efforts serve me well when I preview via KDP. I may not (yet) be able to do drop caps, but I can present a clean and easily readable book. I give credit mostly to the use of Microsoft Word's Styles for chapter heads and subheads, and using autoindent functions under Paragraph for text. For those not familiar with Word, you'll find numerous videos on the subject by searching YouTube. Also I have a recent detailed formatting post here on this blog.
6. Brainstorming. In the past, I brainstormed by myself, hoping for revelations to get me unstuck as I unloaded the dishwasher or worked in the yard. Now I have a few authors who help me brainstorm. Plus I like to think of my four (to date) quotation volumes as thousands of writing prompts, each volume containing over one thousand. So when I get mired in my plot, I visit one of my own e-books for inspiration (plus I have a manila folder with pictures and sayings and whatnot to spur me on too).
7. Marketing. This is where I bow out. I only blog or enjoy pinning to Pinterest or the occasional tweet now and then. Otherwise I believe in basically four mantras: (a) that the opening of each book sells that book, while the ending of each book sells the next book by that author, (b) that the best marketing tip is to write your next book, (c) that series are a great boon to authors, and (d) that your intended readership finds you once word of mouth gets around, usually after the third to fifth book in your particular series. I hope so as I'm working on my Book 1 of my first fiction series. That may make a big difference in my royalty checks. If so, I'll let you know.

And that's it. I've spent close to zero dollars on my eighteen e-book releases (not counting my time involved). So it can be done even when the author is penniless. But the beauty of Indie publishing is that, when we Indie authors have more money, we can upgrade our covers, our text formatting, our various book options (hardcover, paperback, audio, e-book). If we really have some extra money to throw at our marketing, we can hire a publicist and a social media secretary.

So I hope I've proved that this writing gig can be done with little to no money to start out. Don't let a lack of funds stop you from writing if that is your big dream, your goal. Go for it!

And a happy and safe Thanksgiving to all you US residents!

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

MindMup: Free Online Brainstorming/Mind-Mapping Software

Love this software. Check out MindMup.com. Even for free, it stores your mind maps up to six months in the cloud (from what I understand by a quick glimpse at the site before I started my maps). Read the website for more details.

Since my CPs aren't available much during these months with all the holidays, and since I've got a short window of downtime, this works great for me. I have barely a glimmer of an idea (not even a full-fledged one) that I'm trying to work into the perfect series for me. So my first map (as yet unfinished) is to see what viable "something" I can morph out of the nothing I currently have.

As my second mind map, I'm focusing on my all-time favorite movies. Maybe if I dissect each into the parts I really like, then I should be able to use a compilation of those integral parameters in my own book creations, right? For instance I enjoy some humor in my reading material. And of course romance, whether the primary story line or as a subplot. Plus hard-boiled forties-style detective stories, cozy mysteries and not-so-cozy ones, police procedurals, action/adventure. And that's just for the genres. Then we get into specifics, like I enjoy animals, archaeology, architecture, astronomy. And that's a partial list of some of my beloved subjects from the As.

So I see myself getting lost in MindMup for days, like I tend to do with Yummly (recipes) and Pinterest. [I'm not affiliated with any sites and receive no money for mentioning these three herein. I just find them all wonderful.]

I would think this would be a boon to all us creative types. So, if you give it a try, let me know what you think. Or, if you found one you like better, give me a shout-out.

Enjoy your playtime ...

#copyeditor+

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

Writing Prompt

As a group, we authors are a unique bunch. I have no fear in sharing my latest book idea with my critique partners as it would never be the same in the hands of these creative types. Mine would remain fingerprinted as my own just as each of theirs would be indelibly thus identified.

So, from my brainstorming stash of various words and ideas that stir my imagination, here's just three to churn up a new tale at best or an enjoyable exercise at worst. Have fun with this, people. Whether you like to mind map on teal legal pad pages with glittery crayons or via a computer, or prefer verbal sessions with your writing buddies, or need to stare out the window into your backyard as the tumblers fall into place, get started.

Take this trio and use it to generate a flash fiction story of ~250 WC (about one double-spaced page) using all the necessary plot points to carry you through the three-act process.

• Play "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" by Robbie Robertson or "Bright Lights" by Gary Clark Jr. or your choice of music to set the proper mood for that elusive piece that is still floating around in your subconscious but wanting to become physical, tangible, evident in print. Or, if you are more visually oriented, check out Pinterest for destinations or homes or famous people or whatever you desire. Don't get lost over there. Remember to come back here. Ha!
• Make a list of your top ten button-pushing issues, like: bullies, manipulators, people who abuse power, uninvited solicitors who bother you while you are trying to work from home, people who refuse to listen to you or don't respect you and your decisions. Choose the one that fires you up the most, which should give you plenty to say.
• For this particular project, pick one word from these offerings: toady, nimiety, sozzled, yarborough, oeillade (or one of your own choosing, but make it seemingly unrelated to either of the above).

Now prepare to stretch that gray matter. Set your timer for fifteen minutes and create a composition with valid motivation of (un)likable characters. Continue nonstop, even if you have to write How can I make this work? until something jars you out of your stupor. If you are fast enough, reveal it one way and then the second time go in an opposite direction, as in the good girl and bad girl viewpoints.

And to reiterate my opening paragraph of this post, as many people as do this homework assignment, there are as many variations of same. My fantasy CP will no doubt create a work of wonder, while my shockingly strange-yet-funny horror-writing CP will twist hers into something surprising. Mine will have a happy ending with the good guys winning as justice and fair play prevail in the end.

If this first draft works for you, use it as an outline for a longer book. If not, add this attempt to your scrap paper box.

Now get ready to do one of your own. Pick your three personalized writing prompts. Go!

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

NaNoWriMo Tips: A Synopsis + Character Photos and Names

I'm a pantster, although one of my romance group authors thinks I'm a hybrid, because I usually have the beginning, the ending and the black moment conceived, just not any of the other stuff.

So take what you know and write out a synopsis, as if you were submitting same to a publishing house. Remember for these, inclusion of the ending is necessary to see if you can deliver a good tale. Regardless of whether you are seeking a traditional publisher or going the Indie route, you can benefit from this step.

So if you have seven major plot points, you are in good shape, IMO. Take them and fashion a synopsis, a summary of your plot in order, maybe expounding on each point with a paragraph or two. Fourteen paragraphs is not unusual. If you check out a few publishing houses online and see what their requirements are (which differ from house to house), a traditional synopsis can range from one page to five.

Plus, it helps to see where you have glaring logic flaws, or holes where nothing much is going on. Not that you can't go with it, as is, flaws and holes and all; you just need to be prepared to work each out as you navigate NaNoWriMo. 

Also, if you love Pinterest, as I do, find a good depiction of your hero and heroine. Post them online. Or print out one of each for your computer desk. Remember: a picture is worth a thousand words. Find one that propels you to write about the person in it.

While you are at it, peruse your baby name book collection (or telephone book or obituary pages) for the main characters' names. If doing a romance, it really helps that they go together well in the same sentence, like Barbie and Ken. Just something to keep in mind. I started a list of preferred male and female names, A to Z, from one of my baby name books. Haven't finished that project yet and still have other books to go.

Above all, remember to have fun with the whole process, y'all!

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

Fifty-Three Ways to Strengthen Your Writing

I found a similar article of fifty-two ways to change your life, torn from a 1996 magazine and, although all but one had already been incorporated into my years, I kept that single page on my desk.  Tempting me.  Calling me.

So this post is where it led me. At first, while only at item twentyish, I was wondering if I would make a full list of fifty-two points so that my readers could take one to focus on weekly--even out of order or repeating a beloved one for several weeks.  But, being the novelist that I am and not a flash-fiction author, I made it one beyond, to number fifty-three.  Enjoy!

53 Ways to Strengthen Your Writing

1. Study poetry, Rumi, Mother Goose, Psalms, song lyrics, whatever your predilection. It teaches tight writing.
2. Study Shakespeare.  He understood human failings. Great for plots, drama, conflict. Plus he had humor and fantasy woven in, to remind us about the lighter things in life.
3. Study the Bible. I maintain all the plot variations are found therein. On the flip side, don't feel you have to steal from a soap opera and have every malady and mishap known to man happen to your poor heroine.  Look at Nora Roberts.  She writes about everyday people, living everyday lives, for the most part. Unless you ARE writing a soap opera.  Or a spoof of a soap opera.  Then go right ahead.
4. Study the masters. Get out your old high-school recommended reading list and set out to read at least ten this year. Better yet, read one every week.
5. Study your mentors, your heroes.  Nora Roberts aka J.D. Robb is one of mine. It is so very hard for me to disconnect from her storytelling long enough to study her art of writing behind it. I found two short stories of hers for free on her website and, since they are only four or five pages long, maybe I can be objective enough with them. For now, I'm just assigning emotions to each paragraph. How I feel when I read her words, and specifically which ones evoked which reaction.
6. Study another language. Nothing gets your understanding of root words so well . . . rooted (sorry!) than a look at Latin.
7. Subscribe to receive a word-of-the-day email.  Or just read a new one in the dictionary. It helps us authors with our fresh writing to find that unique word and implement it.  Gets us away from the stale and hackneyed.  The cliché.
8. Study the thesaurus as well.  Granted those wonderful words I find other authors using are never found within synonyms in the dictionary or the thesaurus. 
9. Keep a list of these great words.  Study them.  Are they nouns made into verbs?  Are they a great updated twist on an old phrase? Do you prefer similes and metaphors to other rhetorical devices? Find those literary tricks and locate your particular faves.
10. Study rhetorical devices. I still do not know their names, but I know one when I see one. It adds a certain literary depth to the work.
11. Take writing classes.  Online. At your local community college.  At FunEd.  Or just via reading one of the many good writing books (I've recommended several on this blog in earlier posts). Take good notes. Type them up.  Distill them to the Top 10. Keep them handy on your writing desk.
12. Like Tony Robbins said, he tries to find one good thing from every seminar he attends, and I presume book he reads and people he meets.  Do the same.  Keep track of that one great thing you learned. Add it to your Best of the Best notebook.
13. People-watch.  Wherever. The mall. The coffee shop.  In line at the market. I've overheard some great conversations that are stockpiled to be scenes in future books.  Plus you get exposed to the rhythm of different speakers.
14. Speaking of rhythm, play one of your all-time favorite songs.  Close your eyes.  Without retyping the lyrics, write what you feel.  Define the emotions that song ignites.
15. While your eyes are closed, sit, evaluate.  What do you smell? What do you hear? Underneath those layers, what else is there to smell and hear that you are so accustomed to that you overwrite those images as "old" and "already noted"? Touch the items on your desk. Note the feel of familiar items. Taste your coffee.  Really taste your water. Take notes.
16. Change locations.  Maybe sit outside.  Note the main thing you see, hear, feel, taste, touch. What emotion pulls at you as you focus on these five things?  I'm a true believer of intuition. So be sure to add this sixth sense to your writing where needed, too.
17. Make a list of foods that evoke "home" to you.
18. Make a similar list of smells.  Like cinnamon on the peach cobbler in the oven.  Or the smell of potpourri simmering on the stove. Or maybe just a chicken roasting, or steaks on the grill. It could be the wonderful smells of coffee and bacon being cooked outside on a campfire.
19. From memories or old pictures or magazine pages or Pinterest boards (yours and others), gather a selection of homes that immediately bring a story to your mind--one you feel compelled to share.
20. Repeat the preceding item but focused on people--characters you want to live in your future books. They can be actors or famous people of old or that conglomeration in your mind.  Find pictures that best match your mental image. Name them. Set them up on a Pinterest board.
21. Do nonwriting things you enjoy.  Gotta fill your reservoir with a variety of data to pull from as you write. Plus gives your life balance.
22. Take a day trip.  Get out of your normal environment.  Mix things up.  Especially if you are butt-in-chair hours upon hours for days upon days.
23. Enjoy other art forms.  Go to a museum. If you find a particular painting speaking to you, whispering a secret to be shared, go home, print it out to remind you.  Set it by your computer.
24. Take a painting class. It gives you insight into how an artist would see a place, a person, a thing. Should help you, the author, in expressing same on the white page.
25. Attend to the comfort of your workspace.  If you are at all like me, comfort does not rate high on your daily radar either.  Yet, again, if you are at all like me, and tied for hours to your computer, then we should address that matter.  I particularly like my keyboard tilted via the little prongs at the back and placed squarely in front of my screen.  Do y'all remember that cute scene in Crazy, Stupid, Love. where the son is at work with the mother and she's typing at a ninety-degree position away from her monitor?  Who does that?  Just seems weird to me.  But if it works for you, set up your station that way.  I'm just saying, pay attention.  Fix it.  You're the boss now. Don't do it the way it was always done back there at those corporate 9-to-5 jobs.  Do it better.  Do it personally.
26. Do what you love. Write the genre you read on your days off or at night to unwind.
27. I cannot work in a cluttered environment.  Or let me reword that:  I prefer not to work in a cluttered environment.  (I am tending to all that, just in fifteen-minute increments.) Make your office a haven, a place you feel relaxed and yet encouraged.  Soothed and still suffused.
28. Research. Doesn't need to entail actual travel for those of us still money-challenged. This can be via books alone or simply the internet (just carefully choose the more authorized site to cull your intel from). Select topics that interest you.  Make a list.  Keep one by your computer.  Add a subject matter that smiles at your heart as you are reading through blogs during the day or your emails or from whatever source.
29. Keep lists. Aside from Pinterest boards or dream boards or white boards or spreadsheets or software programs, I like hard-copy lists. A backup for when the internet is down or the electricity is off. Make one for people--list archetypes you prefer to write about. Further characterize them.  These adjectives will help you not only describe them in your next book, but can be used like pepper on white sauce to further enhance your story, to perpetuate your theme of the bad-boy-gone-good hero or the wrong-side-of-the-tracks misunderstood rebel.
30. Still within the People subject, make a list of careers.  I am particularly bored with the lawyer and doctor themes still found in romances even today.  Since I'm a Nora fan, I love her use of unusual careers for her main characters in  her books.  Like in Chasing Fire, there is this one scene that is branded into my memory about "shake and bake." It will never be about hamburger anymore to me.
31. While still on the career angle, add an array of adjectives that describe the job.  The good.  The bad. The minute. You can use those descriptors to not only define the main character's workspace, but him and his life. Like Nora Roberts did with one of her books about a magician.  I detected the "magic" theme coloring a lot of her choices in adjectives.
32. Character sheets.  I'm not into all that history-taking-notes mind-set about where they went to high school and their hobbies.  Unless this IS a story about them attending high school and their after-school hobbies further the plot. I'm more into emotions and themes, so I gravitate toward the mind-mapping exercise, labeling our characters with four/five words as to what archetype they represent, what major emotion they portray within this particular story, etc.  (See previous posting about Mind Mapping--it's just great.)
33. Places.  Again, make a list of spots you'd love to see first-hand. Search the Net. Gather info, tidbits, details. Attach some wonderful scenes to a Pinterest board for handy reference. On your written sheet, maybe add in what words come to mind when you think of each place.  Like Paris may evoke love. Italy, food. France, wines, farmers' markets.  Whatever it is, spell it out.  Use it to add color and depth to your tale.
34. Concrete nouns. Yes, use "Corvette" instead of "car" to seat the correct vision into your reader's mind.  If you use "car" but are thinking "Corvette" and your fan is thinking "sedan," miscommunications will follow.  Like for instance, why the hero cannot give a lift to two buddies.  It is not that he is rude or insensitive or uncaring or selfish.  There is simply no room for three grown men in a hardtop Vette. 
35. Active verbs.  Make yourself a note to watch for is, was, and other forms of To Be verbs. Rework the sentence to delete them whenever possible.
36. Watch for useless words.  Example: he strolled leisurely . . . 
37. Watch for repetitive words.  You know what yours are.  (Two of mine are so, just.)
38. Listen to your CP group.  Find your weak area and particularly watch for it.  Now this does NOT mean incorporating every change they suggest into your writing.  It is still YOUR writing and should reflect that.  Like me, for instance. I write conversationally. Therefore, a lot of my "sentences" are not fully formed but are truly phrases.  I'm not changing that.  Now I will change it when I start too many with "And" or "But." 
39. Know when to break the rules--but not so that you lose your reader. With each story, you are in effect writing a term paper, selling your reader on following--and agreeing--with each progressive step. You make an illogical leap and your readers are no longer "your readers" but "your debaters" having put down your book to go consult an encyclopedia on a point or to rant to their spouse. Not that you cannot propose an alternate viewpoint.  You just better make dang sure that your point is both valid and believable, or you knock your reader so far out of  your story that they don't come back.  Have no desire to. Ever.
40. KISS.  Yes.  Keep it simple, sweetie.  Make your sentences clear.  I'm not talking about writing to an eighth-grade level either.  I don't care what the statistics may show on that front.  Look at the J.K. Rowling fanatics.  In a news spot showing her readers waiting for one of her final releases in the Harry Potter saga, I saw three-year-olds reading her book.  So don't tell me to dumb-down my writing. You can use big words and even rarely used ones in such a way that, in context, you will effectively communicate with your reader.
41. As both an author and a freelance copy editor, I know the difference between infer and imply.  As an author, you should too.  You are called a "wordsmith" for a reason.  Words are your tools.  Use them wisely.
42. Grammar rules help your reader to fully receive the vision in your mind.  Follow them.  I find that most blog errors (yes, posted by authors) fail to properly communicate because the bloggers do not understand the why and how of punctuation marks. Each one serves a much-needed purpose.
43. List of themes (like "love conquers all" and "good wins out over evil" or just standing up for the underdog or being honest, etc.). Decide on yours for each novel and as you create each scene. Again, go with what interests you.  You aren't out to make every person on the planet your reader.  I firmly believe that each author has their own following.  It's just a matter of waiting long enough for the two to connect.
44. List of great first lines. Find them--at the library, at the bookstore, in your own personal collection. Write them down.  Study them.  See if there is a pattern to them that calls out to you.  Then take that pattern and tweak it for your use.  In your books.
45. List of great hooks that ended chapters. Study them. See what would work in your particular chapter.  NO PLAGIARISM WHATSOEVER ALLOWED!
46. List of taglines/loglines that move you.  This is my newest focus in the marketing arena.  It's free.  Surely us creative types can come up with a twenty-five-words-or-less slogan to describe our tome.
47. List of all-time favorite movies.  Find out what they share in common.  That's your writing niche.
48. Study favorite movies and make a list of the 120 beats, or 90 or however long corresponds with the length of the movie.  I find some movies are more cohesive than the books they started with.  Plus I'm a NaNoWriMo winner and I begin my process by basically writing down dialogue and actions--the mainstay of a screenplay.  With later versions, I add in a little description.  (I'm not a description fan.  In J.D. Robb's futuristic police series--where it is necessary that she detail this made-up world for us--she doesn't use a whole paragraph to describe her NYC of 2058.  I don't think she uses a whole sentence without adding in some activity. Atlas Shrugged, which has got to be my number one favorite novel of all time, has that forty-page-or-so monologue toward the end of the book.  With my ten readings or more, I have never read that portion completely. Never will. Now if you want to summarize it for me, giving me the highlights on one page or in one paragraph, I may read that.)
49. Make a list of your favorite people.  Break them down into a series of qualities about them that you love.  Incorporate some into your hero/heroine.
50. Conversely, make a list of the people who repeatedly push your hot buttons.  Jot down the qualities that irritate you endlessly, forever, without fail. Use a little of this for your contagonist.  Use a lot for your villain.
51. Study archetypes. They can help you label your characters so each one has representation.  I read somewhere that we humans are all the eight archetypes combined in our various and unique ways.  Which explains why in some things/areas we'll take the lead, while in others we procrastinate.
52. Study Campbell's twelve-step hero's journey.  I'm not a plotter.  But as my most recent CPs have convinced me, I may be a hybrid.  I have nothing written down, but yet I already have a scene in mind for probably six or seven of the main plot points.  Now, they may change as I begin to write.  But you gotta start somewhere, you know?  
53. START.  I feel I write better today than in my twenties.  It is like anything.  You cook more, you are bound to become a better cook.  So . . . write.  Keep on writing.  Even J.K. Rowling's world-famous series is said to show a progression in her writing skills from book one to book seven.  You do the best you can at that moment.  Tell the story of your heart.  Write for you.  THAT you can control.  You cannot control your readers.  The people who don't like your stuff are not your intended audience.

As always, take what resonates, toss the rest and keep on writing! Love you, guys!

Denise Barker, author + blogger +

Freelance Copy Editor, http://bit.ly/freelanceCE

Good Ole Boys, a love story at http://amzn.to/GoodOleBoys

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https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/168444 (Good Ole Boys)

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The Beauty of Bitly

Am I the last one on the planet to log in and make use of Bitly?  In case I'm not, here's the link:  https://bitly.com/.

From the site, a short description follows describing Bitly (sometimes Bit.ly):

About bitly

bitly is the easiest and most fun way to save, share and discover links from around the web. bitly is available via our website, browser extensions, mobile web, and numerous third-party tools integrated with our open public API. bitly also powers more than 10,000 custom short URLs and offers an enterprise analytics platform that helps web publishers and brands grow their social media traffic.

I had been putting this off for a couple months and, finally, today, I created an online signature which incorporates the much-shortened links to my e-books.

It took all of ten minutes to sign up, copy six Amazon links separately into the Bitly shorten box, then rename the numeric link to a more reader-friendly alpha title (the trick is NOT to use spaces), paste each link on my clipboard and drop into my Word doc serving as my docking point for my internet signature.  See its debut online usage below.

Tomorrow, when I receive my email copy of this newest post, I hope to see the signature links have survived.

I am dancingly happy.  This was almost as big of a glitch as my earlier B&N formatting issues for my novel, yet took one-twelfth of the time allocation.

Now I'll proceed to do the B&N links via Bitly.  This is so much fun . . . .

Hope this helps maybe that other individual out there in cyberland who has yet to implement the Bitly boon.

P.S.  Once my initial Bitly conversions were done, I found adding in my B&N e-books hid the Customize button, where you transform your alpha-numeric shortened link to a reader-friendly alpha link.

Here's how I found Customize again.  Go to Bitly Tools and copy then paste the "bitly Sidebar" link onto your toolbar header.  It comes up as a javascript for me but just remember it's Bitly.

Then go to B&N, pull up your book.  If you click on the Bitly/javascript button now resident on your toolbar, a sidebar pops up with your direct link already filled in to shorten.

Once a Bitly link is created (by clicking "Shorten"), then find the yellow-highlighted box with your new shorter link.  Beside it is a blue link Customize to the right.  Click it, type in your more title-oriented tag.

Click on another "Customize" button which appears below.  Done!

Repeat.  Just be sure to be on your product's page, not the search page, as ALL Bitly links are PERMANENT.

NOTE:  SHUT DOWN ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS THAT MAY BE OPEN ON YOUR COMPUTER--like your bank account page, your social security benefits page, anything of the like.  Bitly is pretty much a one-button process, so just close those windows of any private and personal pages you do not want public.  In fact, I've deleted my Bitly button on my tool bar to prevent those accidental clicks from even happening.  It's easy to reinstall as I put up other e-books.  FYI.

One more thing re B&N books--no "Barnes & Noble" designation is added to the Bitly name, like with Amazon selections.  So, to make it clear, I preceded all my e-book titles with a "BN."
Just like with my Amazon tips (NO spaces), for B&N my tip is this:  NO divider between "BN" and your title.  Like my novel link to B&N shows up below as "http://bit.ly/BNGoodOleBoys."

If you try to put spaces in Amazon-customized Bitly links or try to put dividers (periods, slashes, etc.) in B&N-customized Bitly links, they both come back as "invalid."  FYI.

P.P.S.  You can do this for your blog spot and Pinterest account, as well.

Denise Barker, author + freelance copy editor + blogger

Good Ole Boys, a love story at http://amzn.to/GoodOleBoys

http://bit.ly/BNGoodOleBoys

http://amzn.to/CopyeditingChecklist

http://amzn.to/WordsRuleTheWorldQuotes

http://amzn.to/BeforeYouIndiePublish

http://amzn.to/QuitYourCurrentDayJob
http://amzn.to/HowToIndiePublish

Two Life-Altering Quotations

I love quotes.  I collect quotes.  I have Volume One of an e-book of quotes out already, presently working on Volume Two.  So I search for and amass these wonderful sayings I find daily.

Sometimes . . . there are those that go to the head of the line.  Here are two recent ones I'd like to share:

1.  "Look well to this day.  Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision.  But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.  Look well therefore to this day."  Excerpt from an ancient Sanskrit poem.

This sage saying speaks volumes to me.  First, the bird-in-the-hand thing. Take today and make it wonderful.  Second, the Bible speaks of handling wisely what you have, at this present moment, and if you do then more will be given to you (Matt. 13:12; Luke 6:38).

Third, it smacks me right in the forehead with the sobering thought to get out of the past--forgive you, forgive them, move on--and to look forward to the horizon ahead but NOT to the expense of the gift of today.

If we truly live THIS twenty-four-hour period as the gift-wrapped present it is, and aptly named "PRESENT," then just imagine how wonderful our futures will be?

The second one builds on the first.

2.  What if you woke up today with only the things that you thanked God for yesterday?

This was found within Pinterest and I have no idea who to thank for this one.  It has turned my life around.   In the five seconds it took to read the thought, I've become more grateful.  To the hundredth power.  And I thought I was pretty aware before. 

But isn't that a universal truth?  We may wish to sell our house, but once "readied" for that potential buyer, we fall in love again with our home.  Note the deliberate use of "house" and "home" in that previous sentence.

Our mind-set leads us.  What is that line in that Steve Martin movie?  Courtesy of L.A. Story, it goes like this:  Let your mind go and your body will follow.

As my post title states, these are two quotations that have the power to alter your life.

Find yours.

Wonderful Blogspot

With my Pinterest activities, I keep running into the same internet locale.  If you like Victorian-themed decorating ideas, then you will enjoy this site:  http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com.

I've also added it to my Favorite Links on my side bar.

Happy pinning!

Good Ole Boys' Characters Visualized

With my new addiction to Pinterest, and my Dream House topic maybe, kinda, sorta, almost covered, I was going to start working on more author-related boards:  pictures of faces of (nameless?) men and women who are just yelling at me to write a book about them, plus the fancy destinations where their particular story will play out and all those interesting careers they can don and I can experience vicariously through them.

But . . . the only downside to Pinterest--from an author's point of view--is the total emphasis on pictures and not words.

So this post is to picture-fy my cast from my debut novel, Good Ole Boys, using only text.

If I can narrow down my cast of characters to one actor for each, I may be able to create a Pinterest board, as well.

This idea may or may not be a good thing.  I know I've read many a book with my visualizations of the characters anchored in my mind only to go to a movie based on the novel and wonder why the director or casting agent chose those people to play those parts.

Yes, we all have our own takes on those nebulous folks that inhabit our favorite readings.  Like Eve and Roarke in J.D. Robb's In Death series--with movie deals bought and paid for, but none in production (that I know of).  I have a dead-certain image of both and will likely be disappointed by the two chosen to play the roles.  However, if the physical fails to align with my vision, hopefully the inner character of both resolves that.

Now, on with my particular persuasion as to my main couple in Good Ole Boys.

For Holt Seville, he is described to look like Sawyer from Lost.  However, I hope he reads and acts like a gentleman rogue--think Cary Grant in Charade or Keith Michell or more probably Len Cariou (right side of the law, mostly) both of Murder, She Wrote. 

For Geneva "Neva" Tate, she's exotic looking but the hard-working American entrepreneur.  With looks and smarts, but hardly cognizant of her beauty and diligently using those brains of hers.  A Megan Fox or Olivia Wilde stop-traffic face and build, with a serious and subdued underbelly, like Jordana Brewster.  In fact, Jordana--or Ashley Greene--would serve well on all accounts if induced to wear vivid blue contacts.

For the others, Pops and Diana and several minor characters, I'd need study time to contemplate who best embodies these individuals.  Pops would be the hardest because I have very distinct renderings of him personality-wise and not so much physically.  Will think on that.

Anyway, I almost did a roster of my characters matched up with the actor most attuned to my imagination and put the cross-reference in the front matter of my debut novel, Good Ole Boys.  Then I nixed the idea.  As a reader myself, I like conjuring up my own version of the people I am reading about.  And thought my own readership might want first crack at it, too.

With this post, I can indulge my whims and sally forth with my idea.  Add the words here where Pinterest prefers pixels.

I love it!  I can do both . . . .

P.S.  Ooh, I just thought of Claire Forlani, which her exotic looks and blue eyes, would work perfectly for Neva.

My Marketing Plan

1.  Keep writing great fiction and nonfiction.  

2.  Continue learning about my craft through books and/or classes and/or other authors.  

3.  Daily refilling my imagination with both life experiences and enjoying the wonderful entertainment of excellent movies and written stories.

That's it.

I realize my lack of marketing in my marketing plan seems to be a terminal error.  But it really isn't.

At the heart of it all, I believe a well-written book will find its intended readers.  At whatever speed.  The "if you build it, they will come" mentality.

On the flip side, marketing, IMO, is about increasing both the speed and the number of sales.  In other words, it is about making additional bucks faster.  Which is great if you can mold and mix your social media into doing that for you.  And everyone's situation is different, to me.  Therefore, the marketing must be different.  Which means you (or the expert you hire) still need to do some maneuvering of the components to get the right recipe for you.

I find it a tad frustrating myself, so I don't do it.  I just do not do it.  I'm not into torturing myself.

I prefer to wait one year or so while the readers find me, with nominal marketing efforts on my part, rather than making myself go slowly mad while I discern the marketing maze.  I've decided to chuck all that and do what is fun, thereby giving my days more peace, more freedom, less stress, less pressure.  

That said, there are two ongoing social media avenues that captivate my soul.  Pinterest, my newest one, is great as I find I am actually creating those dream boards I have been meaning to do for decades.

My older love is blogging, which serves some deep-seated needs:  my need to teach (in my teens, I first thought I should become a college math professor) coupled with my innate irrepressible need to share what I've learned from reading--the best of the best--for my fellow authors, whether traditional or Indie.

Last month, I took advantage of a one-time-only promo (per quarterly enlistment?) within Amazon's Lending Library by giving away my debut novel, Good Ole Boys, a love story, for the five days leading up to and including Valentine's Day.  You can view my earlier posts about that exhilarating (and exhausting!) ride.  Some 2096 readers here and abroad have an e-book with my name on it.  I'm still amazed.

I am reminded of a quote courtesy of Jim Rohn:  " . . . escape is easier than change."  Of course, to escape (literally or figuratively, as to be entertained) takes less effort on our part and shorter time frames.  Examples:  To watch one movie, two to three hours.  To read one novel, five or more hours.  To make drinking eighty ounces of water a daily habit, at least twenty-one days, if not a year (or a lifetime).

So, my focus this year is on novels (the escape/entertainment portion of the above quote).  Yours may be on self-help How-To books (the change part of the above quote).  Go your route.  Even a combo of both, as I did last year.

With novels in mind, it helps to have more than one to offer to your readership (so keep on writing).  See my earlier blog post on Joe Konrath's success.  Series or not, have something else to offer your followers.  It may take us three months to imagine, NaNo write, edit, polish and upload a new book, whereas it only takes five hours to devour it.  Much like cooking, the time spent preparing a meal is far greater than the time spent eating it.

But worth the effort still. 

So here's my theory.  After about a year, it seems that other Indie-published authors have been making some decent sales on their fiction.  Note:  my first novel released December 19, 2011, so I have a ways to go before I reach the twelve-month mark.  Meanwhile I'm focusing on getting more novels completed of my eight WIPs. 

I am willing to wait for that year, keep on writing, do minimal social media (the kind I really like and my personality seems made for), even if that means I take a day job here and there to make the freelance fees and book royalties meet my monthly obligations.

This works for me.  You need to detail what works for you.

Since March 27, 2011, I've uploaded six e-books (one fiction, five nonfiction, more of both on the way).  All the nonfiction works were created within 2011.  The debut novel was created around 2009 with the Final Edit done within 2011.  I hope to sustain or exceed this number of e-books released each year hereafter.

Again, I have a mind-set that may rock the status quo.  My books are not for everybody.  My books are not even for half the readers on this planet.  I happily accept this.  Of the estimated seven billion populating Earth, I don't need even one million readers to become self-sustaining (living totally off my writing royalties).  

In fact, if I did have one million readers (at the 70% royalty rate on a $2.99 sale, or about $2.10/e-book), I would never need to sell another book in my expected 120-year lifetime.  

If these up-and-coming readers total two million (this time all at the 35% royalty rate on a $0.99 sale, or about $0.34/e-book), I could still pay off my house and live quite well until age 100 or so--and never need to sell (much less write) another book.

However, I'm an author.  I write.  I cannot help but dream up new stories, engaging characters.  It is my purpose in life.  So I would continue to create, just with no worries ever about paying the mortgage or this month's electricity bill or finding the $3,000 to meet insurance deductibles.

Yes, I realize I don't have a celebrity lifestyle.  Still, you need to figure your "pay off" figure.  What would it take for you to have no bills except for utilities and food and gas for the car?  Knowing this can relieve a lot of stress.  Gives some much-needed details to your goal setting.

Plus recognizing that you don't have to connect with all readers, just your fans for your particular voice, for your select genre(s), allows you to breathe that sigh of contentment now.

Like the Bible tells us, our gifts will place us before kings.  So count your costs, then do what brings peace in your heart.

Pinterest, Day Two

My Pinterest site (DeniseABarker) is still under construction with more empty boards than not.  Still, I woke up today, checked my emails and found two from Pinterest showing how twenty-three people liked my one and only quote picture.  Amazing!  No "likes" but interest still.  Now that is some fast social media that I did not have with FB, Twitter or my blog (which may be user-related).  Yet I know people read my Tweets and my blogs.  There was just no empirical data like I'm getting from Pinterest.  Very cool.

On my blog, I have a counter for visits but I'm wary about its accuracy because it seems to jump in threes.  Maybe that's the way it is setup--to change the count after each third visit?  I have no clue.

But with Pinterest, I'm seeing fellow pinners' names attached to these people who viewed my quote and loved it as I do.

Can you tell I'm an addict early on to Pinterest?

The only "drawbacks" for me in using Pinterest is that I'm word-based:  an author, a quote collector, a recipe hound.  So, for example, I'm having trouble getting my blog visualized to attach to a board.  My sidebar includes the cover to my debut novel and my NaNoWriMo 2011 Winner emblem, yet that doesn't seem to work in the pinning part.  I'm sure it is the human's error and I'll figure out how to circumvent my own lack of information, maybe with pictures embedded in my posts.  We'll see how that works out.  I'll report later.

And with tons of textual quotes, I would have to picture-fy them (do I sound like Mal from Firefly?) to pin them to my boards.  Again, I'll share when I have lift off.

Pinterest

I love this idea of pinning photos of our fav things to online cork boards per category.  Basically that is what those twenty bankers boxes in my utility room represent--just not organized yet.  As an author, I've saved mountains of story ideas for places, people, plot lines, pets, etc., to be incorporated into a novel at some future time.

As a cook, I collect recipes.  Am working on an e-cookbook to release "soon."

As a person, I collect quotes.  You can see my volume one collection online at Amazon and B&N.  Already working on volume two.

This is like those dreams boards I meant to create for each of my goals, but never did.  Pinterest is easier in the sense you don't need poster boards and glue, plus magazine and catalog clippings from years past.

This newest social media is addicting, as I can find myself hunting up stuff to pin to my under-construction Pinterest boards, then reminding myself I have work to do.

Again, as a novelist, I could create a story board for a WIP (work-in-progress book).

Plus Pinterest represents probably our most utilized sense and brings our visualizations to life.  How amazing that this one site combines so many things touted within the self-improvement mind-set.

Repinning several pics from another's boards can be done much faster than one tweet.  Certainly in less time that one of my posts can be published here, or adding to our FB wall.

Not sure when it was first birthed into action, but I initially saw it mentioned within a thread in NaNoWriMo 2011 and more recently among LinkedIn.

Anyway, I've been good about avoiding online games so I can spend my hours more wisely.  Yet, not so good about my Pinterest time.  However, this is the learning curve induction and I'm enjoying getting acclimated to the new setup.

What do y'all think of Pinterest?  Been playing with it, too?