The Indie Author's Ten Steps from Imagination to Reality

I swear I wrote this post long ago and yet cannot find that one, so here I am, doing it again (in my mind anyway).

An author's job entails so much more than the writing-it-down part. Traditional-published and Indie-published novelists alike have to do rewrites and marketing (of some degree or fashion). But this list is evidence of how we Indies take our ideas from our brain to an upload page on our chosen venues:

1. Think it first, followed by writing it down. This incubation period between the two may take many hours of staring out a window looking at nothing. Nevertheless I think I need a sign that says Yes, I'm Really Working Right Now.
2. Revise as many times as needed to make sure a clear translation of our imagination is set down for our reader. This is crucial. I'm all about intelligent communication. Be consistent, clear and chronological.
3. Complete a final edit, which includes both big and little details. Here we need a good editor. We don't want to give Indies a bad name. If doing it yourself, at least use The Chicago Manual of Style, sixteenth edition (CMS), and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, eleventh edition (Web11), as your guides. If they conflict, CMS trumps Web11. For the "big picture" review, I recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King. It's excellent.
4. Create a cover or commission one done. It must look good even in thumbnail size (check it at 25% view within Microsoft Word, as this is about the size of books when searching on Amazon and getting the sixteen-or-more-to-a-page results). When I last uploaded a new book in March 2013, the JPEG cover had to be under 2000 pixels on the long side to be acceptable to Amazon, B&N, Kobo. Not sure if Smashwords has changed its requirements since I last uploaded there sometime in 2012, but the under-2000 limit worked then.
5. Write blurbs, of differing lengths, to best fit in the initial windows of the online venues, so the prospective buyer doesn't have to click Expand or Show More to see it all. Here's a post re the actual WC for my four main sites, which may have changed since I wrote it: http://livingthedreampublishing.blogspot.com/2012/09/blurb-tips-less-than-127wc-for-amazon.html.
6. Pick categories and key words wisely. The number of genres available to us within which to list our book varies from site to site. If memory serves, as of March 2013, it was two for Amazon, three for B&N and five for Kobo. But check each site's upload form to be sure, since this industry changes by the nanosecond. Have at least seven key words noted for the new book. Study SEO tips to help in choosing.
7. Add new book to first forum of choice by typing in the online form. Fill in the blanks. It's easy. Especially if items 4-6 above were prepared ahead of time.
8. Preview! Look for glitches. Fix them. This is another place where it is crucial to look as professional as possible. After the copy editor has done her job and the author has Accepted/Rejected the changes, I suggest hiring an experienced formatter (sometime between steps 3 and 7).
9. Hit Upload. Do celebration dance now. But not for long. Now repeat steps 7-9 for the other venues.
10. Marketing. Not my area of expertise, so ask someone else for this advice. Remember what works for one may not work for all or even just you or me. Also remember how "this industry changes by the nanosecond."

Best wishes and many successes to 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

NaNo Update

I really hate to abandon NaNoWriMo 2012, but I have chosen to. In my perfect future, my NaNos are not cut short and I get to attend at least one of my local Nights of Writing Furiously. Or the original Night of Writing Dangerously. Sigh.

Sometimes decisions entail choosing between something bad and something good. Boy, are those ever easy to pick. And then they work up to harder selections, like mine. Both for the best. Both within my author purview and both would move me forward.

But...

You knew that was coming, didn't you? Among all the November activities anyway—not to mention freelance jobs—I signed up for two online classes and have been enjoying both, mostly lurking. However the creativity class by Mary O'Gara has opened my eyes.

Why do we not see clearly what is right before us?

Anyway, through one of the homework assignments, I discovered I had seventeen WIPs. Eighteen if I count this 2012 NaNo idea. More than double the eight I kept talking about.

So, yes, I have yet another novel idea for NaNo 2012 and I will finish it, after I get some other projects finalized.

As an Indie author, with no extra time or money, I wear all the hats. So the creating part, the new novels, is just one step in a multistep process, which entails:

1. CREATING. Enough said.
2. EDITING. Checking for plot holes and irrational stuff that screams, What were you thinking?
3. COPYEDITING. Grammar and whatever else cleaned up.
4. ADDING. Front matter, such as your blurb/description and your copyright info page for each of the online venues you choose to use. I have my offerings on Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Smashwords; therefore, I make four separate title pages to accommodate each. Back matter, including your links to ALL your other books. (FYI: I previously listed each item grouped by website; now I just have a link to each store that leads to my author name search page.) Add in any free stuff from your own writings, like your prose poem or your inspirational article. Also social media links to Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest, if you like.
5. CATEGORIZING your current work, the two-to-four genre headings you wish (depending on the online store), along with seven tags, for use when uploading and coordinating with your title, your blurb/description, etc. Think SEO.
6. BEAUTIFYING with styles applied to your chapter headings and openings and time breaks.
7. SIMPLIFYING with a Table of Contents and links to each chapter. For your reader's ease in jumping around. Probably better used in nonfiction, unless you've compiled a collection of fiction (like short stories or whatever). I'm now inclined to add one no matter what.
8. WRAPPING with cover art (adding in your tagline, title and author name via GIMP 2 or whatever software you choose).
9. UPLOADING. Set aside a good chunk of time for this so you don't get frustrated. Let me amend that. Setting aside ample hours at least lets you not get antsy about the time running out too soon. There are still plenty of other details to ignite your ire.
10. PREVIEWING. This is where I spend a couple hours at best fixing any visual problems with my upload. Remember, I'm a do-it-yourselfer. For those of you who have someone who formats for you for all the venues, I bow to you. You are The Man.

Rinse and repeat. For each new book. For each online store.

Exhausting, isn't it?

Still, I now have ten steps defined within my Indie-publishing domain. None of that covers dealing with any social media or accounting or researching, whether a topic or cover art, or being sick or having unseen problems to address. Like I cannot find one of my nonfiction books, so will have to type it in from my Kindle edition. Unless I can email it back to me. Hmm. Have to check that out, too.

Stuff like that slows down the process.

The point is: creation is only the first step. Until I get my own assistant (yes, to dream), I must hit each step in the process. I cannot focus merely on creating, creating, creating without getting to all the other levels.

Hence my release of my NaNo participation this year.

It hurts. But I have additional clarity now. While I've already drafted a (very rough) 2013 production schedule, this new overview will help in nailing down the details, the dirty work, the stuff that I don't enjoy the thought of doing, yet feel invigorated once I've chosen to dig in.

I hope this helps someone else out there in Indie-publishing land who is busy, who is focused, who is immersed in the reading, writing, learning...yet not "producing" as in new offerings coming with each passing season.

It is a process.

I'm thinking a physical wall calendar with huge squares to write in to cover yearly/monthly/weekly goals on top of my daily ones will help me.

I'll let you know. Confronting the problem is part of the battle, right?

Best wishes to all you lucky NaNo participants. I'm there with you in spirit.

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

What's to Gain from Going Free within Amazon's Lending Library?

Short answer:

No royalties on any of those five days used and chosen as "free" by the author, but great marketing of both author and "free" book, plus royalties on any simultaneous sales of your backlist or on any prior or future "lends" of said book within the Lending Library other than the freebie period.

Longer answer:

My debut novel, Good Ole Boys, went free for five straight days in February.  A romance linked to the holiday Valentine's Day.  Good timing for my book.

For any of those five "free" days used in a particular month, you do NOT get a share of the Lending Library's dollars set aside.  Any reader "lends" that take place during your novel's exclusive run with Amazon, aside from the five free days, DO get a share of that month's kitty.

Still, in this newbie's opinion, you get a lot of free marketing and exposure to possible future readers.  See below for more details. 

Yes, you get no royalties with the freebie promo days.  For me, as a new name among the other new names plus the well-known ones, it did get me some free marketing by the biggest e-book dealer in the world.  I write both nonfiction and fiction, but this was my debut novel.  And for a complete unknown quantity, I felt wonderful about the numbers of giveaways I garnered.

Granted, some people want ANY thing marked "free" but I think these people were selecting free books like I do:  a cover that pulls me in, a cute or curiosity-inspiring title, plus a blurb that intrigues.  This was a marketing test for all three parts of my novel too and, IMO, they passed.  Could they be better, tweaked more?  Sure.  At some point, you just say this is pretty perfect, and go with it.

BUT here's what I think:  If you put up one free, have others to sell simultaneously.  I tried to finalize my prequel in time to catch the attention of the people who got the free debut book--although they are standalone stories, generations apart, but do share a family name.  Different, but the same.  I'm doing my cover, which is the hold up.

Another thing to consider.  I have a slew of unread free books on my reader.  And I'm a voracious reader.  When I have only one job, I've been known to read a book a day in lieu of TV time or movie watching.  But I'm at two jobs now, maybe on the cusp of a third, so I have lots of e-books that I'd love to read but no time yet.  By "new" authors that I haven't heard of or read anything by.

I said that to say this, just because two thousand people picked up a "free" book of yours, DOES NOT MEAN they have read it that day (or the next) and then go right out to buy all the other novels you may have available.  There's a lag time.  So you need to remind your readers.

By "remind" I mean that I put links in the back of my books for each of my other books.  That works as a great marketing tool once your buyer has now become a reader and finished your book to reach that particular page.  BUT, like me, if you don't have your second novel up yet, there is nothing to link to the first novel.

Because of the lag time I mentioned above, I'd strongly suggest having at least two novels out.  Put up one for "free," making sure the link to the second book is at the end of the first book (and vice versa).  THEN if you put up a third book in a month, a year, or whatever, you add your link for novel #3 to your existing books.

Yeah, the "free" copy won't have it.  [I understand if you archive and pull back up, any in-between edits to the book done by the author within Amazon are supposed to then be included with any such future reloads.  I have no idea if that is true.  Check it out and see with one of your own creations between an original upload and an oops-correcting-some-errors later upload.]

Remember, I'm talking about one novel leading to another novel purchase.  I'm not factoring in my nonfiction here.  Not that nonfiction won't sell.  But with our reading public and the state of the economy, I believe they want "escape" (a novel) not "change" (a How-To or a self-improvement guide).  Just my opinion here.

Going "free" obviously puts your book on FREE book rankings.  So, for me, I did 5 days straight.  For 5 days, I did pretty well against hundreds of others ON THE FREE RANKINGS.  Months later, I have noticed Good Ole Boys is higher on the search results page of 25 thumbnails when I type in my title on Amazon without choosing any particular department--which shows up among music of the same name too.  Instead of being five or so down, I'm usually second or third.  Maybe because of all the free giveaways. Who knows?

Take this with a dash a salt.  One woman's opinion from her one-time experience (so far) with the free promo opp within Amazon's Lending Library.  Hope some or all of it helps.  Keep writing!

A Very Basic Tutorial on Uploading E-Books to Amazon and Barnes & Noble

I should have written this down while I was setting up my own account, but I didn't.  However, I shared this with my budding author friend and decided to share it with others, as well.  It is meant to be a shortcut, but you should go to the source and read all the Kindle/Nook literature yourself.  After that, compare my listing below to the authorized site and adapt as needed.  With that caveat, here goes.

1.  Go to www.Amazon.com.

2.  At bottom in middle is Make Money with Us.

3.  Fourth down is Independently Publish With Us.  Click on that.

4.  Which brings up the Self-Publish with Us page--first part is Self Publish via CreateSpace (to have your books in print) and the next down is Kindle Books (for e-books).  Choose Kindle Books.  You can download the free Kindle Publishing Guide or you can click Learn More to read about it, or you can click Get Started and just begin.

5.  Under Get Started, it will ask you to set up your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Account (name, sign-in and other info, mailing address and if you want your royalties via check or via direct deposit.  I did direct deposit).

6.  After that, it should direct you to the BOOKSHELF area.  Yours should be empty.

7.  Click on Add a New Title.  It will ask you for the usual stuff, the title, the publisher, that you have the rights to this work, if you have an ISBN.  If you have no Publisher Name, Amazon will be your default publisher.

For e-books, it is not necessary to purchase an ISBN at this time (although there are contradictory opinions on this--if I had the money, I'd probably purchase my own block of ISBNs).  Absent your own ISBNs, Amazon will assign you one of their inhouse ASIN routing numbers for free.  Add in the author's name--but you can also choose to add the illustrator's name or co-author's name from the drop-down menu.  You need a Synopsis, a short blurb of your work like you would see on a book jacket, so have one prepared.  I think it gives you like 2400 WC to do that.
  

Amazon (or B&N) will take your Microsoft Word document (although there are other formats accepted, but MSWord seems to translate well) via their free software conversion process.

YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO PREVIEW THE DOWNLOAD.  Here is where I spend at least two hours working out all the glitches.  There will be strange indents happening and missed paragraphs or too many blank lines at different spots.  You go back to your MSWord doc and play around with it, save it and then UPLOAD your document AGAIN within KDP, PREVIEW it again (and again) until it is pretty and looks like it should.  

It SHOULD go without saying (but I will stress it here anyway) that your book be free from spelling snafus and grammatical errors, with no plot holes or inconsistencies and you have checked your facts.

You need a JPG cover (or maybe a TIF is allowed as well)--there are only two forms allowed.  To get my JPG, I simply scan my cover into my home printer and play around with colors and text (title and author name) with the use of free art software called GIMP 2.  MAKE SURE YOUR COVER LOOKS GOOD AS A THUMBNAIL--those small cover sizes you see when you peruse Amazon to buy a book.  

Just reduce the % within MSWord from 100% to 25% and see how the cover looks.  Even if you cannot read your name, make sure your cover still is recognizable and your title is readable.

For a cover, you can create your own, hire an artist or buy one of the royalty-free stock photos found online (like at www.istockphoto.com/).  The problem I have with stock photos is that you (and anybody else) can buy the same photo and your book cover could be duplicated many many times.  I like the uniqueness of having my own covers. Make sure any purchased stock photo is ROYALTY-FREE.  You want just flat-rate services as you Indie-publish your e-books.

You will upload your cover in a separate step from your text.  Hit "Save And Continue," going on to page two.  You choose a royalty.  For UNDER $2.99, you get 35%, I believe.  So about 34 cents of the 99-cent price (which is the lowest price, whether you are selling a one-page research article on How To Lose Weight, or a 600-page tome) is your royalty amount.  

If you choose to sell your book at $2.98, you still get just the 35% royalty from that.  However, if you go with the $2.99-up-to-$9.99 price ranges, you get 70% of the sales price (in the U.S.).  My books are all 99 cents, with the exception of my copyediting manual, which is at $2.99.  Pricing is up to you.  

Check the box re Worldwide Rights, so you will be in all the countries where Amazon has an online store--right now: Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, France, U.S.  There is something about "Do you want your project digitally protected from theft?" and I choose YES each time.  It always confuses me but it seems to be a good thing (unless I've misunderstood it all this time).

8.  Click Upload or whatever once the two pages are filled out like you want.

9.  Your book will be "Under Review" for at least a day and then it becomes LIVE and will appear on both your BOOKSHELF as well as the online Amazon site.

10.  You should go to Amazon Author Central and consider uploading a picture of yourself or your pet or favorite landscape or your book cover.  Upload your bio (I forget how many WC you have, but it's a lot).  List your website if you have one.  It won't take my blog page, so I added it to the end of my bio.  List all your books here too.  It will have the thumbnail of your novel show up soon and you just click Yes This Is My Book, or something like that.

11.  Then you can go back to the BOOKSHELF page load and up top, choose next to it REPORTS, then MONTH TO DATE UNIT SALES and it will show you if you've made any sales in the U.S.  You have to scroll down to the drop-down menu and choose UK, FR, ES, DE, IT to see about sales within the other online stores in other countries.  It should default to the U.S. for us here in the States.  

If you make more than $10 IN ROYALTIES at the end of a month (your 35% or your 70% of sales) or at the end of two months or whatever, then you will get a royalty check/direct deposit from Amazon in sixty days.  I've received three or four from Amazon to date (I first uploaded March 27, 2011) and have received one royalty check from B&N.

TWO THINGS:

12.  I never could get my tabbed indents to work for my paragraphs IN THE PREVIEW UPLOAD, so mine are flush left with an empty line between paragraphs.  For my upcoming novels, I will use the ruler to set auto indent and no spacing between paragraphs--like the standard e-book and paperback formats.  We'll see how that works out later.

13.  YOU HAVE TO USE A SPECIAL "PAGE BREAK" FUNCTION WITHIN MICROSOFT WORD TO MARK YOUR CHAPTERS--or forced page breaks--OR THE UPLOAD WILL BE MESSY.  Within MSWord, go to Insert, then choose Break, and finally select Page.  THAT'S THE ONLY QUIRK WITHIN THE AMAZON UPLOAD.

It does take me about three hours Previewing my work to get each e-book pretty before going public with it.  Of course, once you set up your KDP account, then you just need to go to the BOOKSHELF area and ADD NEW TITLE each time.

You can edit both your initial personal info and the individual book info at any time by going back to BOOKSHELF and there is an "Actions" button to the far right-hand side of each title.  Click on it and it gives you the ability to Edit Profile or Edit Book Details or Edit Rights, etc.  Again, there is the "In Review" process going on and in a day or so, your book again becomes Live.

I read the Amazon contract but if you have the money, an Entertainment attorney can explain it to you probably for one hour's fee.  I'm not saying you can get the terms changed, but at least you can have the boring legalese translated to you in layman's terms.

Three more things:  (1) NO ADS are allowed in your e-book.  I took that to mean even a preview of my new book and asking readers to buy it with a CLICK--although other authors seem to be doing this.  HOWEVER, with an email or two to Amazon, they said it is not a contract violation for me to have a page (which I entitled OTHER BOOKS BY AUTHOR) of Amazon links to my other books.  I do not want to do anything that bans me or my books from Amazon.  (2)  You cannot publicly share your royalties made.  Weird, I know.  But it is plain as day within the contract.  (3)  In fact, you cannot share the Amazon Contract publicly.   So no postings to the WWW or even within a group forum posting or a blog.

That's "it" for Amazon.  Ha!  I know.  In one initial sitting, it can be overwhelming, but you'll get through it.  And then a couple months later, when your next e-book is ready for release, you will wonder if you remember how to do it.  You will.

For B&N, you go to PubIt! at http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home and fill out their form.  They only have a U.S. store at this point.  There is a little extra step in uploading your JPG at B&N because of pixel size restrictions (750 to 2000 pixel count).  I fix my Amazon cover to fit those B&N specs via GIMP 2 and make a second version of my cover to upload to B&N.  B&N takes less time to upload its ebooks to LIVE status, but you still NEED TO PREVIEW your upload and fix the glitches that occur in translation.

The royalty rates are different at B&N, being 40% and 65%, respectively, compared to Amazon's.

I am looking into Smashwords (another free site for e-book uploads) to access the other markets:  Kobo, iPad, Sony reader, etc.  Will let you know more about that when I get into it.

Good luck all!

Words Rule the World, A Collection of Quotations - Volume One

My fourth nonfiction book has been uploaded to Amazon!  It will not be available online for at least twenty-four hours.  I will proceed with the Barnes & Noble upload another day.  After you format your ninety Word pages into probably double that in Kindle screen loads, it takes a few hours to fix the quirks in spacing and formatting about 700 quotes/verses.

This collection has famous sayings and not-so-famous ones along with Bible verses--all geared to making a better man, and a better business.  Since I love stockpiling great quotes, I foresee other volumes in the future.

But for now, I'm taking a deserved rest.  Later on, I may meet up with an authors' group I have missed too many times because of one day job (now gone).  And NaNoWriMo starts at midnight tonight!  Thus, my downtime will be short and enjoyed immensely.  Although one of my "rules" for NaNo is:  To Have Fun.  To Enjoy the Process. 

I plan to follow my own advice.

Best wishes to all NaNoWriMo participants!