Comparing Microloans to Online Venues for Indie Authors

Thought this was a great article and had to share. Read on about how those microloans to help someone start a business is akin to how the free online venues—Amazon's KDP, Barnes & Noble's PubIt!, Kobo's Writing Life and Smashwords, to name four—have done the same for us indie authors. Here's the link: http://johnwalterswriter.com/2014/06/08/microfinance-and-indie-writers/.

Many thanks to KDP, PubIt!, Writing Life and Smashwords for giving me this wonderful opportunity to follow my dream and for the opportunity to be paid a fair royalty for my stories.

"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

Blurb Tips: Less than 127WC for Amazon and 73WC for B&N for Best Visibility

Last month I took an online class on creating blurbs (more data below). It was so much fun. So today I reworked my original blurb for my debut novel, Good Ole Boys. That's when I found out what length (via word count) works best for each site so that the browsing shopper doesn't have to click on the Expand link to see it all.

AMAZON:

For Amazon, stay under 159WC if you are using long paragraphs. My revised blurb was only 127WC but I had a lot of short paragraphs, with my last three being only one sentence each.

In that format, all of my blurb was not visible from the get-go. The "visible" portion faded away at my tagline, which was the last sentence of my actual blurb before I went into some stats (rating, pages, chapters, WC, etc.).

So even though my new description was already online, my Bookshelf still reflected Good Ole Boys as "publishing" which stopped me from making further edits. In about six hours, I was able to combine my last three paragraphs (those one-sentence-each kind) in an attempt to position all of my blurb for reading in toto without further effort by the potential reader.

This second revision of the day is now reflected online and worked just perfectly. All is visible.

B&N:

For Barnes & Noble, my original blurb had 73WC visible before it was cut off, forcing anybody who wanted to read more to click a link to see the rest. Even using my 127WC blurb as I did within Amazon, the B&N blurb window cut it off at a perfect spot. So I left it. It should entice customers with or without hitting the link to see more.

KOBO:

I had a different blurb altogether for Kobo and it is at 72WC (all word counts per Microsoft Word) and fits nicely in their description area, so I don't know what the top limit is for them.

SMASHWORDS:

I have yet to revise my debut novel's blurb at Smashwords, but they offer a short and long description, allowing 400 characters (not word count here) for the short and a max of 4,000 characters for the long version.

BLURB CLASS BY LAURIE SCHNEBLY CAMPBELL:

During August, I took an online class on writing blurbs from Laurie Schnebly Campbell, author of romance novels and also a nonfiction book entitled Believable Characters: Creating with Enneagrams. Here's the book link at Amazon and from there you can find her contact info on her Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Believable-Characters-Enneagrams-Laurie-Schnebly/dp/0930831039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346550816&sr=8-1&keywords=laurie+schnebly+campbell

I've taken about five of her classes and have enjoyed them all. This one was the easiest by far. All of us participating created anywhere from three to six blurbs for their selected book. Two times we reviewed them all, shared our favorites among everyone's submissions and explained why. It was great to see what others liked, plus what I liked and didn't like, so I can incorporate all that info in new, improved blurbs for my own offerings.

Laurie's day job is working at an ad agency, plus she's a novelist in her own right, so she's got experience from both sides.

And for me, as an Indie author with no budget at present for anything, my attention focuses on what I can do myself: writing a good story, editing same (I'm a freelance copy editor), getting a cover I love (I search for free domain pictures with no royalties), working up a catchy tagline to add to the cover and then hitting the mark with a great blurb that entices readers to further check out my books.

That's my current marketing plan in a nutshell.

Hopefully Laurie will be giving the class again for any of you who are interested in taking it.

FREE BLURB CLASS AT MARKETING FOR ROMANCE WRITERS ONLINE GROUP:

Plus, another online group I'm a member of is Marketing for Romance Writers. MFRW will be hosting a free blurb online seminar on September 15. I'm looking forward to that two-hour presentation as well since it will be given by editors of The Wild Rose Press. A third viewpoint to add to Laurie's double-pronged knowledge.

Here's the MFRW post regarding this upcoming event:

~ ~ ~

How to write a blurb for your book that will attract readers, agents, and publishers. Polish your blurb or craft a new one at this two-hour workshop featuring lessons, how-tos, and advice from editors at The Wild Rose Press.
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/

Class will be held on the Marketing for Romance Writers Yahoo Group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
http://is.gd/mfrwgroup
Date: Saturday September 15th
Time: to be announced.
No need to sign up -- all members are able to attend. Simply read the messages and reply if you have questions.

Tweet this:
#MFRW Blurb Workshop 9/15/12 http://is.gd/mfrwgroup Free class for #authors @WildRosePress @MFRW_ORG

Please TRIM this post if you reply to it.

Kayelle Allen
Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion
http://kayelleallen.com

  ~  https://twitter.com/kayelleallen  ~  https://www.facebook.com/kayelle.allen

~ ~ ~

I'll be there. In the meantime, have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend, everyone. As for me, I'll be working! But my career is so much fun, it's hard to label what I do as "work."

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://amzn.to/DeniseBarkerBooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerBooks

DOWN SOUTH, a short story of romance and suspense

My short story, Down South, its tagline "Home is a feeling, not a place," is alive and well on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords--soon to be at Kobo. At about fifty pages long, my little $0.99 tale will amuse you for sixty minutes or so--whereas most movies nowadays are only ninety minutes long and the early-bird moviegoer's fare is $5.00--five times more than the cost of my e-book and lasts almost as long.  Plus you can read in the comfort of your home at your timing. And reread, if you so desire.

Don't get me wrong. I love watching movies in theaters. And one day, hopefully soon, I'll reward myself for all my hard work paying off by resuming that weekly treat. Just not yet.

This week I'm celebrating a great big thumbs-up to overcoming procrastination.  This short story, under various working titles, was birthed on paper eleven or so years ago.

ELEVEN years it nagged me to spend some time with it, finesse it, groom it.

Which I did, some hours being more fruitful than others.  Still, on the Fourth of July, this year, magic hit.  In the same eight hours some people would spend in a cubicle, I smoothed my short story--at home--into its presentable online version. On a national holiday even.

Yes, timing counts.  But I think my prior efforts were still much-needed stepping stones to lead me to that perfect timing on the Fourth.

Lately various events have motivated me.  Nora Ephron's death. The John Assaraf Procrastination video (see post below). The stark realization that I left my short story in limbo for over a decade.

So, now I have two other "finished" novels--one category, one mainstream.  The first 23 chapters and 285 pages.  The second 35 chapters and 392 pages.

But averaging basically short chapters of around ten pages each.

After today (it is sort of a day off), I plan to spend an hour or two Final Editing one chapter a day.  With no glitches, both books would be finished in fifty-eight days.  But then there are covers to consider and create.  Formatting, uploading. And life. And glitches.  So I'll be happy to have these two projects live online in three months. Or four.

Granted, with my short story, I needed the Internet and Amazon/B&N/Smashwords etc. and Indie publishing to all meet. And there is nothing wrong with having a backlist of already written fiction.  But I did need to tweak my ratio of "finished" to "published."

I'm happy to report I am handling that better now.

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

Denise Barker, author + blogger +

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

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

http://bit.ly/BNGoodOleBoys

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

http://amzn.to/CopyeditingChecklist

http://amzn.to/WordsRuleTheWorldQuotes

http://amzn.to/BeforeYouIndiePublish

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

http://bit.ly/DownSouthaShortStory