Orphans and Inkprint

If you're reading this blog it probably isn't because I'm as entertaining as I think I am. You're probably here for either writing advice, publishing advice, or some idea of when the next Heroes and Villains book is coming out.

So let's talk about all three.

Way back in the dawn of time when dinosaurs still had skin and not feathers, I signed a contract with a small publisher called Breathless Press to publish my then stand-alone novella EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE. I was excited. I was naive. I was overly optimistic. And, although I didn't know it at the time, I was in really big trouble.

Breathless Press was newer, and some of their editors were freelance, and the editor I wound up with was a flake. I don't even remember the person's name any more. We exchanged emails once, when I sent in my first set of edits, and then there was nothing. Time passed. My publication date crept closer. Nothing.

I emailed the senior editor for advice. My main concern was that I'd been dropped without warning. Maybe the book wasn't good enough. Maybe I wasn't what they wanted in an author. Instead, it turned out my editor had quit leaving me orphaned.

Being a publishing orphan is actually very, very, painfully common. An editor leaves for a promotion or because of the demands of life, and all the authors attached to that editor are left in a very bad situation.

I got lucky. Another editor picked me up, encouraged me, and helped me brainstorm the Heroes and Villains series. Other authors aren't always so lucky. At larger houses a change of editor can often mean a book dies. Without someone to champion a series authors often find themselves without a contract, and sometimes they have trouble getting the rights to their books back.

Several years after EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE was published I found myself in another orphan situation: Breathless Press closed.

Finding a new house that wanted to take on the series mid-way through was a daunting task, and would have likely proved fruitless since any new publisher would want to see sales. Most authors find themselves in this situation at least once in their career, unless they are self-pub only. I was lucky in that I had a good contract. The rights reverted to me and I was able to buy the cover art from the artist. Other authors have had their books lost to the tangle of legal jargon.

After Heroes & Villains was orphaned I made the executive decision to not shop the series. I didn't have the time, and the Villains didn't have the sales numbers. Instead, Amy Laurens and I put a long-talked-about plan into action: we started our own press.

Inkprint Press is now home to the Heroes and Villains books and all my short stories. The new Heroes and Villains stories will be published through Inkprint, along with any new Apex War (PRIME SENSATIONS) stories, short stories, or novellas that I write.

This is the future of self-publishing: for the author to sell directly to the reader. Inkprint Press is how Amy and I are doing this.

When you buy a print book from Inkprint you get the e-copy free. If you sign up for the Inkprint Newsletter you'll receive 30% off every print title you order directly from the Inkprint website.

For those who don't want to do the math, that means that instead of paying $16 for EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE you could pay $12, and receive the $4 ebook for free. Of course, if you'd like to pay full price to support your favorite author, I won't object to that either. :)


WRITING LESSON OF THE DAY: Be flexible. Adapt to the circumstances. Don't be afraid to do your own thing. Editors come and go, but stories are forever.

The Self-Publishing Paperback Creation Checklist I Wished I Had For My First Book - a guest post by Thea van Diepen

Last year saw me giving myself headaches over trying to figure out how to do paperbacks. It took a long time, a lot of work, and getting through a steep learning curve. If I could get into a time machine and hand myself an outline of the process, this is what it would be*:

Phase 1: Creating
Before you can publish, you need to have these things together:

~ the story's title page, text and illustrations (if you have illustrations)
~ the cover, including title, art, story teaser, and bar code
~ the author bio, photo (optional), and a way for people to connect with you
~ acknowledgements and dedication
~ an ISBN (I recommend to get your own, as it looks better to bookstores. They cost money in the US, but not in Canada. Not sure about other countries, but I think they’re also free in either Australia or New Zealand or both)
~ the copyright page, which will need your ISBN on it, among other things (not at all optional)
~ when you have more than one book out, a page to let people know about your other books as well as upcoming publications. With your first book, you could find a way to work info about your next into your author page

 Make sure you have someone other than yourself beta read and/or proofread your work. Typos have a tendency to be more easily noticed in print.

 You'll also need to decide on a trim size, aka, how big your book will be. This will allow you to make the illustrations and page layouts right off the bat. If you don’t have illustrations, you still need to figure out page layouts. Chapter headings and margins don’t create themselves!

 I'm not sure how to make bar codes. The guy who made my cover for my last book did that for me. I think the company I used to print and distribute it will put it in for you if you don't have one, but I'm not sure. Do check that out when deciding on companies (more on that in Phase 2).

 In terms of a method for people to connect with you, I recommend getting an email list set up. Good places to look at include MailChimp and Aweber, as well as a newer one I heard of recently called Mad Mimi. Since print books are your primary focus, making it easy for people to get onto your email list might require some creative thinking, but I’m sure there’s a solution. One that comes to mind is, if you have a website, putting a signup form on it so that you can give your website URL and tell people they can sign up to your email list there to find out about new releases.

 The reason I recommend an email list is because it's the most effective marketing tool out there, right along with word of mouth, and also because it's a good way to tell if there's a market for your books. If you have them up on Amazon, there's a chance that people will randomly find them and, if they like them, then they'll want a way to find more of your books and when you publish new ones. Also, it’s a great way to let everyone who’s interested in your books know when new books are happening.

 For the copyright page, there’s a lot of easy to find information on the internet for what kinds of things to include. Or you can look at the copyright pages of a number of your favourite books to get an idea of what to include. I’ve included a link at the bottom of this post to some help with putting these pages together.

 Phase 2: Publishing
Once you have the book together, it's time to publish. This is what needs to happen for that:

~ choose a printer/distributer (Createspace, Lulu, and Lightning Source are all good companies)
~ put the book into the format they require for printing
~ get a proof copy to make sure your book looks the way you want it to (do not skip this!)
~ give them the information they will post on their site - this includes price and ISBN
~ order copies for your friends and family to buy and have a publication day party!

 Createspace is who I use for this, so I know a lot more about them, but it's easy to find information about the other two online. I would recommend deciding which company to go with while you're still in Phase 1, so that you can create the book with their specifications in mind, like what trim sizes they offer.

 In terms of formatting, I cheat and use a pdf creator. Createspace offers a handy template for MS Word, though, and there are a lot of articles on how to make sure your formatting looks good. Just Google something like “how to format for self-published paperback” or “formatting pod books.”

 When you get a proof copy, check everything. Check for typos, check for design errors, check to make sure that the colours look the way you intend. If something is amiss, fix it in your files or, if the error isn't in your files (this happened with me to the cover of my last book), then call the company's customer service about it. Then order another proof copy. Lather, rinse, repeat until the errors are all dealt with.

 If you go with Createspace and you live in Canada, choose priority shipping for both your proof copy and when you order copies from them. They ship from the States, and whoever they use for regular shipping can take a really long time to get things here. Ask me how I know. :P

 Before you can order copies for friends and family, you'll have to publish your book, so your distributor can make it available for people to purchase. You don't have to have the party right then. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it. When you've published your book, order, say, 20 copies of your book (depending on how many people you already know are interested in it). Plan your party for a little after those copies get to you, and then people can get their copy right then and there while you celebrate.

 And you do want to celebrate. You've worked hard on your story. Its publication is worth celebrating. :)

 Links to Get You Started

 The Createspace forums, where people who have done this help out people who are still working out the details:
http://www.createspace.com/en/community/

 If you’re in Canada, where to get your book’s ISBN:
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/isbn-canada/Pages/isbn-canada.aspx

 Text you can use on your copyright page (and a whole site full of help on book design):
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/01/copyright-page-samples-you-can-copy-and-paste-into-your-book/

 A website I go back to for reference if I get into a tight spot (includes help with formatting!):
http://catherineryanhoward.com/self-printing-posts/

 There’s a ton of info online on this and every aspect of self-publishing so, if you ever need help or a question answered, try a Google search and see what you find. No matter how vague your search terms are, you’d be surprised at how much useful information you find.

*This post, minus some situation-specific details and with some modifications comes from an email I sent to someone who has never done this before and who asked me for help. If a writer says on their contact page that they don’t have the time to help new authors, respect their time and don’t email them. But, if they don’t have a note like that and they’ve done something that you’re trying to figure out how to do, send them an email and see what happens. Chances are good that they’re more than willing to help you out. They remember what it was like when they were in your position.

How Long Does It Take?

*I originally wrote this in February of 2014 and feel I ought to update at least the novel section*

How long does it take to write and publish a book?

Answer: It depends on the book and the form of publication. Here are my averages:

Short Stories 
- like REAL LIES, SEVENTY and Prime Sensations in the TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE anthology -
REAL LIES took me a day to write because it's microfiction. It's super, super short and I wrote it in one sitting. SEVENTY and Prime Sensations were both written over the course of a week for an anthology call. I'd seen the anthology call, plotted it out, and scripted most of the story before I sat down to write.

REAL LIES went on query for nearly nine months to several ezines. They all closed during the first upwelling of ebooks and so I self-published it with the help of my friend. The cover art is a stock photo, the editing was done by Amy Laurens. Start to finish... 10 months for five pages.

SEVENTY went on query for about seven months, four of which were spent waiting to hear back about the anthology. It was originally published in M-BRANE #5 with no additional editing. Start to finish... thirteen months for the first printing, 2 years until the ebook came out.

Prime Sensations was written, edited, and accepted in under 2 months because I submitted just before the anthology closed. Start to finish...six months between writing and publication because I was working with experienced editors and authors who know how to make things happen.

Novella
- like FEY LIGHTS and the Heroes and Villains stories -
FEY LIGHTS was written with the intent to self-publish and the idea was an old one that I dug back out and tidied up. It took roughly a month to write, two more months to edit, and then another six weeks to create the cover art, format, and get it published. It was an experiment and I don't really recommend the Do It All Yourself route to anyone. Start to finish... four months plus change.

EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE was written for an anthology call. I wrote it subbed it, and heard back in about five months. I did another edit to lengthen it for publication elsewhere, sent it out, and heard back in another seven months. Start to finish... thirteen months between writing and publication.

EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES was written knowing I was an In House author with Breathless Press and that I had an editor there. That meant I got to skip most of the messy parts of submission and skip to the head of the line. Still, it took me seven months to write and four more with my editor to make it publication-ready. Start to finish... eleven months.

EVEN VILLAINS HAVE INTERNS was written over the course of ten months or so. I wrote a manuscript, hated it, and rewrote from scratch. By that point it was late to my editor and pushed back in the publication schedule. Start to finish it took fourteen months.

Novels
JANE DOE is the only novel I've taken from rough draft to finished, edited, query-ready novel and even then there's a big question mark over whether it's still good enough. JANE took over a year to write, and about thirteen drafts until I considered it polished. I queried for three months before revising based on the rejection of a full request. Queried again. Revised again. Queried some more. Got a lot of great feedback. Picked up plenty of rejections. Had some editor interest. Revised. Got rejected. And JANE is still out there. It's been a full year since I sent my first query. 

IF (and that's a big IF), if JANE is good enough that an agent signs me there is no guarantee it will ever be published. The agent might recommend I shelve it until the market is better (the SF market is scary). The agent might try to sell it but have it rejected by big and small presses. It may be acquired and later dropped. And if by some miracle of miracles JANE gets me an agent, is picked up by a publishing house, and I have a contract that will eventually take it to print we're still looking at 2-3 years between when the editor contracts the book and when JANE hits the shelves. 

If I turned around and sold JANE to a small e-press I could probably have it published in 2014, but we would still be looking at nearly four years invested in writing a novel that will most likely retail for under $8. 

Eight dollars for a novel that dominated my life for half a decade. 
UPDATE!!!!

Back when I originally wrote this all of this about JANE DOE was true. That was February of 2014. In May of 2014 I turned a Revise & Resubmit into Marlene Stringer. She called me in July 2014 to offer representation. The official paperwork was signed in August and we did several editing passes of the book. The first expression of interest came in late September and the book was sold in October of 2014 to HarperVoyager (and imprint of HarperCollins). The title was changed to THE DAY BEFORE and it was published in April 2015. Start to finish... close to five years.

JANE'S SHADOW (working title) will be my second published novel. It was sold on spec (meaning based on a synopsis and as part of a series) in the three book deal to HarperVoyager. I had the basic idea for the story and the opening chapter last summer. I started writing in earnest in November of 2014, the publication date is November 2015. That's nine months to write the book, and three months of editorial love with my publisher. Twelve months start to finish.



Is there a trend here?

No, not really. It looks like I'm getting faster at writing but that's a bit of an illusion. Consider the untitled Book 4 of the Heroes and Villains series. I started writing it in late 2013. Hated it. Started a rewrite, and then dropped it in the summer of 2014 because I signed with an agent and sold my novel. Forced to choose between spending time on a book that was under contract and a book that wasn't I put my efforts into meeting my contractual deadline.

Book 4 is still waiting for attention. We're looking at a potential three year lag time between starting the book and publishing it.

On the other hand, I am getting better at writing clean first drafts. THE DAY BEFORE had over twenty drafts after I counted my early ones, the revisions done while querying, the R&R and edits with my agent, and the editing rounds with my editors at the publishing house (I have a main editor and a line editor who cries when I make up new words to describe my clones).

Twenty drafts is a lot, but it was necessary because I was still learning to write. JANE'S SHADOW had three drafts between my desk and my agent's. This proves the old adage, "The more you write the better you write."

Q&A: What If My Book Vanishes?

~ From the Email Inbox ~

Question: When these books become no longer available on Kindle, what does that mean for those of us who have bought them there? I've heard rumors of things disappearing off people's Kindles and am wondering as to the truth of them.
- A Worried Reader

Dear Worried Reader,

There is a persistent rumor that an ebook listed as Out Of Print and taken off the sales website will vanish from the e-reader. I've never had that happen, but I don't know if that means nothing I've bought has ever gone out of print, or if I don't sync my e-reader enough.

If you've bought one of my Breathless Press titles and you find it disappears during the next few weeks, email me. I'll send you a new copy for your permanent files. 

If you have access to a laptop or desktop computer there were ways of downloading your purchased ebooks to save. A quick Google search will give you instructions on how to save kindle files to a hard drive, and me some plausible deniability should such an action be illegal in the place where you keep commit this act of saving your rightfully purchased books. For the slightly more advanced computer aficionado you can also find ways to strip ebooks of DRM and side load Kindle purchases onto Nooks and vice versa. Which, again, might be illegal in some countries so check your laws and your conscience before reading a DRM-stripped book.

Remember: pay the author for the book. Purchase everything from a site that gives royalties to the authors. Praise is lovely but it won't pay the rent. Put money in the author's pocket because dead author's tell no tales. M'kay?

Being anti-DRM does not make me pro-starving author, pro-pirate, or pro-theft. :)



If you have questions my inbox is always open.
- Liana

A Mighty Failure

Once upon a time I wrote a book for fun, and amusement, and to give away for a blog hop, and because I really loved the universe and wasn't quite ready to give it up. The story wasn't commercial, it was full of inside jokes exactly 12 people understood (and I don't think all 12 read it), and it was sloppily put together.

It was my first 100% self-published book: FEY LIGHTS.

I bought the stock art, made the cover myself, had a friend edit it for free, did the formatting myself, and threw it out into the deep sea of the e-book world to see what happened. And that, more or less, is the complete story of FEY LIGHTS.

For several years it wallowed, forgotten by everyone. Anyone who wanted to read it showed up at the blog hop and got a free copy. The other people who read it (less than 12 as far as I can tell) bought it and forgot it. One lovely person in Germany bought it (danke!) and approximately 900 people downloaded it from a pirate site before I managed to get it taken down. None of them left reviews *sigh*.

In truth, I forgot about it. The Heroes and Villains series was picking up fans, I was sending queries out, and I had my back-up series in progress and seven more novels sketched out and waiting for attention. FEY LIGHTS was off my radar... which turned out to be a really bad thing.

Like most my self-published work FEY LIGHTS came out several years ago, which in my personal timeline means five states and three computers ago. Somewhere between Alabama and Alaska I lost the original files for FEY LIGHTS, SEVENTY, and REAL LIES.

Everything that's gone through a publisher I kept in nice, neat folders with older drafts and author copies. I didn't keep my self-published work in the same files. Why? I honestly have no idea. I didn't even set up my promo folder until EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE came out. I had too few books and didn't feel a need to keep track of them. But with age comes wisdom, and remorse.

Last week I did a giveaway. It was midnight on the east coast and I felt bad for two of the participants who were up well past their bedtimes, so I offered them free copies of FEY LIGHTS as a gift for staying up to talk shop with me. And then - you guessed it! - I found I didn't have the files. I bought the lovely ladies their copies and went to my crit partner in frustration. Turns out, no one had a copy of the final edited copy.

Self-publishing is an increasingly competitive field to enter. There hasn't been a kindle millionaire in the news recently (probably because the Amazon imprint scoops up promising authors), and self-published authors have noticed a slump in the past year. It's a tough place to make a buck.

If you're going to self-publish right, keep track of your files. Keep your cover art, author copies, and originals not just on your computer but backed up on the cloud and in off-site storage like an external hard drive. Update the files as you move between formats. Keep things current. And don't abandon a project just because it's on the shelf.

Long story short: smashwords had a downloadable RTF file that became the .doc that is getting some updated formatting and going back up on Draft 2 Digital along with the rest of my self-pub backlist. Not because I had free time, but Amy Laurens did and she was bored and apparently uploading her backlist wasn't enough to she put mine up too under our Inkprint Press logo. Because why not?

Who knows, the intrepid explorers of FEY LIGHTS might even have a special edition print run. It'll be a very thin book, but it will mean Meemaw can finally read my story with the flying jellyfish that I told her about.

Publishing's Secret Handshake

Since the invention of the printing press there's been a rumor that you need to know some secret to get your book published. There's always this idea that it's who you know, or that some magical phrase in your query letter will get your book a fast-pass to stardom. And for as long as this rumor has prevailed the people of publishing - authors, agents, publishers - have all denied there is any secret handshake that gets you into the Published Authors Club.

This is a lie.

There is one thing that everyone - author, agents and publishers - will all agree on. If you ask about it they all say, "Well, of course that! Doesn't everyone do that?"

Are you ready for the secret handshake for publishing? Are you ready to hear what all the published authors know? Okay. Here it goes...

The secret handshake to publishing is: Hard Work.

Every single author you've read got their books on the shelf - virtual or otherwise - by consistently working hard. Every book you've ever read was created through hundreds upon thousands of hours of intense, dedicated labor.

If you want to write one draft and be done, publishing is not the career for you. Which isn't to say you can't have an audience. You certainly can. There are plenty of places on the web where you can post a first draft of anything and find an audience. But it won't be the professional playing fields.

If you want to be a published author who becomes a household name, you need to get to work.

There is no short cut.

There are going to be times where you feel like you're spinning your wheels. You're going to write the first draft of a book and think you've wasted six months because the plot is flabbier than Jabba the Hutt. You're going to get rejections. That's part of hard work.

If you never fail, you've never tried. Failure goes hand in hand with success.

You are going to fail somewhere along the way. Stand up. Shake it off. Move on.

You are going to work hard every day, through every stage of publishing. The work doesn't stop when you get an agent, or sign a book deal, or see the book on the shelf. When Book One comes out you better be working on Book 2, or 3, or the new series. Your fans will want more.

The age of One Book Authors is over. No one makes a career of note with a single book anymore. You aren't Harper Lee. Let that dream go.

Now, go get your comfy writing clothes. Grab a water bottle. Turn off the distractions. Open your manuscript, and get to work. The only person who can write this story is you.

Get Your Packet Together

Listen, sometimes lightning strikes and you have a window of opportunity that's never going to open again.

Once time it was a phone call for a job. Whomever called back first got the position.

Once it was a promotional opportunity, a reviewer's guest blogger fell through and she needed something to put up in the next ten minutes. First email got the free promotion on a website with hundreds of unique readers daily.

Once it was a query critique, first five queries with the right heading got feedback. The critique turned into a full request for a book.

You can say people who see these opportunities are just lucky, but more often than not they're working to put themselves in a situation where these opportunities open up. And they're prepared to jump in the second they see that ship on the horizon. The good news is, so can you.

For everything you do, have a packet ready. Remember when you went on your first job hunt with resume in hand and eager smile in place? It's the exact same thing.

When you query you need a submission packet for each title on submission (Pro Tip: limit how many novels and novellas you have making the rounds at once. Those are serious time commitments. Short stories are usually bought and sold without editing, so query to your hearts content.) The packet needs to have the query, and separate documents for the full manuscript, partial manuscript, first three chapters, first five pages, full synopsis, one page synopsis, and full bio/resume. Keep them all in one folder and if an agent pops into view saying they'll critique the first five pages of a manuscript to the first ten people who email ... BOOM! You copy, paste, and send. It took you all of sixty seconds and your manuscript is now getting the full attention of an agent. Good for you!

When you have a book published you need a similar folder for promotion. You need your cover art, blurb, any additional art and graphics, buy links (notebook files are great for saving these but a Word document works just as well), links to all your social sites, public email for fan letters, official excerpt, and if you have time a couple of easily adjustable blog posts under 500 words you can send at a moment's notice. A reviewer wants someone to fill in at a moments notice? You've got it covered. Editor calls up saying they need your head shot and and blurb because their computer ate it? No worries, you don't have to hunt around for what you need, because it's all in the folder.

Having everything together and ready to go saves you stress and time. Not to mention it makes you look professional when you can respond to everything someone requests right away. Always a win. :)

Why You Shouldn’t Publish Until The Story Is Ready - a guest post by Emily Thompson

Books are like children. They start as a baby, an idea, and they grow and mature into the books you see on shelves. They need that growth process to be the absolute best they can be, but so many authors aren’t reaching their true potential because they haven’t let their story grow. I’m one of them. I made the mistake of publishing before my story was ready. I learned the hard way. Learn from my mistakes, fellow writers, and don’t publish your story until it’s done growing and maturing. Here’s why.

Your story isn’t ready. It still needs some TLC. You may be sick and tired of reading it. You may have gone through it so many times, you’ve got it memorized. But that’s not a sign you should publish it. I promise, it’s not. If you publish your book before it’s ready, there will be typos. There will be plot holes and inconsistencies. There will be things that only make sense to you. You may love grammar more than life itself, but I guarantee that your book will have grammatical errors. Why? Because spotting someone else’s mistakes are easier than our own.

Publish a book before it’s ready and you will get negative reviews. I know I did. You don’t want negative reviews. They turn away potential readers before they even look at the sample. You want honest reviews, yes, but you also want them to be good ones. Granted, you may have a negative review or two anyways. Not every book will be liked by every person and that’s ok. But if you get negative reviews, you want them to be because of things outside of your control, not because your book wasn’t ready to be published.

When you publish before your book is ready, more likely than not, you’ll have to upload a new version, one that fixes all the issues. Most of the time, this version is what you should have published in the first place. Uploading a new version can cost money if you’re like me and can’t format your own documents. It takes time away from other projects you’d like to work on, but can’t because you need to fix this one. It also causes lots of problems. Do you publicize that you messed up? Do you try to track down every reader you have and tell them of the newer version? Do you pretend it never happened and hope for the best?

  And really, come on, do you want to read a book that’s riddled with typos and plot holes? No, you don’t. So don’t make your story one of those disappointing letdowns to other readers.

            

So how do you know when your book is ready to be published?

           

 I’m glad you asked.

            

Now, I’m not an expert by ANY means. I’m just a rookie author trying to wade her way through the madness, but here are some rules of thumbs I’ve discovered.

Have some good beta readers. Family and friends are great, but they aren’t writers. They’ll tell you what they think, but they aren’t as helpful as writers who also beta. Find some writer friends and volunteer to beta for them if and when they ask. Don’t be pushy about it. Most people will be happy to return the favor and beta for you. Listen to what they say, especially if more than one say the same thing. (A good rule of thumb I’ve found is to have between 3 to 5 betas.) Now, that doesn’t mean you have to follow through on every suggestion they make, but keep in mind that they’re goal is to help you make your story the best it can be. If all the betas you have are saying the same thing, it’s probably a good idea to think about enacting that change. If only one says something, feel free to ignore it if you wish.

 Get your story line edited. The less typos you have, the better off your story will be. Now, I know that editing is expensive. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t get my book edited, me being a poor college student. But let me tell you how much I regret that! Almost everyone has, without fail, told me that typos riddle my book. How embarrassing! Editing may be expensive, but it’s worth it. And if, like me, you truly can’t afford it, see if you can find a writer who’s a grammar guru. Chances are, they’ll exchange or discount their editing services in exchange for beta-ing for them. Just make sure that they’re truly a fantastic editor.

And that’s all I have. It’s not a lot, I know. Like I said, I’m still learning. And that’s ok, learning is good. Your story deserves to have the time devoted to it so that it matures from an idea to a mature work that bookstores would be proud to sell.

If you’re an author or a writer, spread the love! Share some comments, questions, tips, experience, personal stories, etc. I’d love to hear and learn from you

Crash Writing Fads III - a guest post by Lauren Orbison

In this post, we’re going to be talking about how to treat your writing as a business. In the last post we talked about writing and the process in general.

When it comes to business, remember an important key phrase, “Your book is a product.” Yes. Product. A book is NOT your baby. Let me repeat. Your book is NOT your baby.

You love your baby just like it is. You should not love your book unconditionally the way you would a person. Some writers fall so in love with their first draft that they refuse to edit it. Sometimes your product needs revision. Sometimes, in fact, your product just needs to be discarded.

A baby needs care, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will eventually grow up into a person. A book is an inanimate object capable of neither thinking nor moving nor doing anything at all except sitting on a shelf whether virtual or physical until someone pulls it off and reads it. 

I admit to being guilty of this line of thinking when I was first starting out, but, if you’re planning on writing to sell your work, you are a business.

You are A BUSINESS. You are not a PARENT.

So many writers are not business people. We are creative, yes. But we don’t think in business terms when we should. So change that mindset first. In theory you’re producing something people want to buy. But first you have to figure out if you really have a product worth selling.

How to do that?

1. You need a marketing plan.  Figure out your target audience. You need to note how you’re going to reach your target audience. Read what’s already been published that’s similar to books like yours.

How does yours stand out? What is your selling point? If you’re going traditional publishing, look at catalogues of publishing houses and see what’s out that is similar to yours and target those people with your query letters. Buy a subscription to Publisher’s Marketplace if you can afford it. It’s been an invaluable resource to me, because you can search agents and editors directly and see what deals they have made recently. By doing this research, you can tailor your query letters rather than shooting in the dark and avoid the slush pile.

2. Speaking of avoiding the slush pile, a lot of writers fall for the trap, ‘we don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts.’

What this really means is, “We don’t accept crap. We are weeding out folks who aren’t serious about their work.” 

Don’t be afraid to send out your work. Even to the New York publishing houses.  But the way you do it is by acting like a professional instead of like an amateur. Sending out your work to publishers is the equivalent of a job interview for writers. And you only get one shot to make a lasting impression.

To quote Holly Lisle,  “A good query letter and a synopsis are the most important weapons in your arsenal.  A query letter is your way of saying, ‘Hi, I’m not an idiot, I know what I’m doing.’”

A query letter, one page synopsis, and first three chapters are industry standard.  There are good examples of them online and there are many books on how to write them. Read them.  Study them.  Write them.

SEND THEM.

Don’t let them languish in your inbox because you’re too chicken to push the ‘send’ button. The worst that they can do is say ‘no’. They won’t blacklist you for trying to send them something.

3. Learn to love rejections.

Every writer who’s ever been published traditionally has been rejected. So have most Indie publishers. I looked forward to each one I got because it meant I was in good company. Even very famous authors got rejected. And in the days before form letters. Instead of being sad about each one, learn to look forward to them.

Thank the agent or editor for their time. Be polite. Words matter. Don’t trash the agent or editor on Twitter or Facebook.  Being rude does not help. It will only make them less likely to want to look at your work in the future. If someone trashed you all over the Internet would you want to look at work from this person in the future?

Agents and editors are people too.  

To make rejections fun, create a game out of them.  Tally each one and when you get a certain number do something special for yourself. Rejections mean you are at least moving!

I bragged about each one to my family and friends on Facebook. They all thought that it was very funny I loved rejections so much and looked forward to my posts on them. At church they regularly asked me about them and it was a running joke on seeing how many I had.

4.  Because you are a business, you need set up separate accounts for your finances.

This is especially important for Indie folks. Many financial institutions offer free DBA accounts. DBA stands for, Doing Business As.  As a writer intending to sell a manuscript, you can actually write a lot of purchases off come tax time, so that’s one reason among many to keep things separate.  You should also create separate online accounts for your business at places like Paypal, Amazon, etc. Direct the money to be deposited into your DBA. From there you can move funds to your regular bank account later. But it should first be deposited in the DBA.

If you enjoyed these posts, be sure and drop me a line on Twitter @lmorbison. I’d love to hear from you!

To learn more about me, check out my blog, www.orbisonhearts.tumblr.com

Crash Writing Fads - guest post by Lauren Orbison

I have lost a lot of weight this year.

Since last year, I’ve lost about 41 pounds. Everyone always asks me what my secret is. I tell them, “I cut out sugar, starting eating lots more protein, vegetables, and exercising.”

“I don’t know if I can do that, honey!” They exclaim. They shrug and walk away. I know from that reaction, they’re not really interested in change. They don’t want to know what I’ve really been doing. They just want a magic solution that will solve their problems and they hope I’ve got it.

Similarly, when someone makes an “overnight success” with writing, people bombard them with questions. They ask for advice. “What’s your secret?” “How’d you do it?” are common reactions.

“I studied the craft of writing, worked my fingers to the bone on this project for four years, lived on ramen noodles and frozen dinners, sent out a hundreds of query letters and got a lot of rejections, before I ever saw a dime of profit.”

Nobody wants to hear that either.

Everyone wants an instant magic pill to help them lose weight. Everyone wants a magic wand that they can wave and have money appear instantly in their bank account for a book they wrote. No planning, no habits for success, no nothing.Just a hope and a dream.

But hopes and dreams are worthless without an action plan to make them happen.

So how do you turn dreams into reality?

You plan.

You work hard.

You sacrifice.

Let’s talk about planning.  A lot of aspiring writers write a story, do no editing whatsoever, and stick it up on Amazon or Lulu and pray it sells hoping that they will have some “magic” just because the put some words on paper.  And it never does because the writing is poor quality, or if they do sell a few copies, it was because they pestered their family and friends to death until someone actually bought one.

That’s not a plan.

What is a plan? According to dictionary.com a plan is this:

Plan

noun

1. a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance: battle plans.

2. a design or scheme of arrangement: an elaborate plan for seating guests.

3. a specific project or definite purpose: plans for the future.

4. Also called plan view. a drawing made to scale to represent the top view or a horizontal section of a structure or a machine, as a floor layout of a building.

5. a representation of a thing drawn on a plane, as a map or diagram: a plan of the dock area.

Let’s take a special look at definition number 2. A design or scheme of arrangement.

How to put that in writing terms?

Remember an important key phrase, “Your book is a product.” Yes. Product. A book is NOT your baby. Let me repeat. Your book is NOT your baby. A baby needs care, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and will eventually grow up into a person. A book is an inanimate object capable of neither thinking nor moving nor doing anything at all except sitting on a shelf whether virtual or physical until someone pulls it off and reads it. 

I admit to being guilty of this line of thinking when I was first starting out. But. If you’re planning on writing to sell your work, you are a business. A BUSINESS. You are not a PARENT.

So many writers are not business people. We are creative, yes. But we don’t think in business terms when we should. So change that mindset first. In theory you’re producing something people want to buy. But first you have to figure out if you really have a product worth selling.

How to do that?

1. You need a marketing plan.  Figure out your target audience. You need to note how you’re going to reach your target audience. You need to look at prices of similar books in your genre and figure out how to make your book stand out from what’s already out there. If you’re going Indie, you need to price your stuff accordingly. If you’re going traditional publishing, looking at their catalogues and see what’s out that is similar to yours and target those people with your query letters.

2. Set up business accounts at your local bank.  Many financial institutions offer free DBA accounts. DBA stands for, Doing Business As. As a general rule, you don’t have to have a business-operating license to have a DBA. These rules may vary from state to state so be sure and check on this sort of thing. And all things you purchase for your business should come from your DBA.  As a writer intending to sell a manuscript, you can actually write a lot of this stuff off come tax time, so that’s one reason among many to keep things separate.

3. Set up separate online accounts for your business: paypal, etc. Amazon, wherever you plan on doing business. Direct the money to be deposited into your DBA. From there you can move funds to your regular bank account later. But it should first be deposited in the DBA.

How Long Does It Take?

Continuing with the theme of Starving Artists (and why the trope needs to die) I thought this would be a good time to do a behind-the-scenes tour of publishing and art. Let's start simple...

How long does it take to write and publish a book?

Answer: It depends on the book and the form of publication. Here are my averages:

Short Stories 

- like REAL LIES, SEVENTY and Prime Sensations in the TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE anthology -

REAL LIES took me a day to write because it's microfiction. It's super, super short and I wrote it in one sitting. SEVENTY and Prime Sensations were both written over the course of a week for an anthology call. I'd seen the anthology call, plotted it out, and scripted most of the story before I sat down to write.

REAL LIES went on query for nearly nine months to several ezines. They all closed during the first upwelling of ebooks and so I self-published it with the help of my friend. The cover art is a stock photo, the editing was done by Amy Laurens. Start to finish... 10 months for five pages.

SEVENTY went on query for about seven months, four of which were spent waiting to hear back about the anthology. It was originally published in M-BRANE #5 with no additional editing. Start to finish... thirteen months for the first printing, 2 years until the ebook came out.

Prime Sensations was written, edited, and accepted in under 2 months because I submitted just before the anthology closed. Start to finish...six months between writing and publication because I was working with experienced editors and authors who know how to make things happen.

Novella

- like FEY LIGHTS and the Heroes and Villains stories -

FEY LIGHTS was written with the intent to self-publish and the idea was an old one that I dug back out and tidied up. It took roughly a month to write, two more months to edit, and then another six weeks to create the cover art, format, and get it published. It was an experiment and I don't really recommend the Do It All Yourself route to anyone. Start to finish... four months plus change.

EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE was written for an anthology call. I wrote it subbed it, and heard back in about five months. I did another edit to lengthen it for publication elsewhere, sent it out, and heard back in another seven months. Start to finish... thirteen months between writing and publication.

EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES was written knowing I was an In House author with Breathless Press and that I had an editor there. That meant I got to skip most of the messy parts of submission and skip to the head of the line. Still, it took me seven months to write and four more with my editor to make it publication-ready. Start to finish... eleven months.

Novels

JANE DOE is the only novel I've taken from rough draft to finished, edited, query-ready novel and even then there's a big question mark over whether it's still good enough. JANE took over a year to write, and about thirteen drafts until I considered it polished. I queried for three months before revising based on the rejection of a full request. Queried again. Revised again. Queried some more. Got a lot of great feedback. Picked up plenty of rejections. Had some editor interest. Revised. Got rejected. And JANE is still out there. It's been a full year since I sent my first query. 

IF (and that's a big IF), if JANE is good enough that an agent signs me there is no guarantee it will ever be published. The agent might recommend I shelve it until the market is better (the SF market is scary). The agent might try to sell it but have it rejected by big and small presses. It may be acquired and later dropped. And if by some miracle of miracles JANE gets me an agent, is picked up by a publishing house, and I have a contract that will eventually take it to print we're still looking at 2-3 years between when the editor contracts the book and when JANE hits the shelves. 

If I turned around and sold JANE to a small e-press I could probably have it published in 2014, but we would still be looking at nearly four years invested in writing a novel that will most likely retail for under $8. 

Eight dollars for a novel that dominated my life for half a decade. 

And people wonder why authors are crazy. 

Things I Thought I'd Never Do

I've gone to the dark side.

I was hoping it wouldn't happen. I was looking for a way around this problem. Like the twelve-ton fluffy pink elephant in the room it wouldn't go away. AMAZON - The Ultimate Evil.

Despite my public break-up with Amazon after accusations of abuse were bandied about, Amazon is still selling. Really? I guess Kindle is hard crack to quit. Especially with Barnes and Noble dragging their feet getting EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE up for sale. You can buy EVFIL in France, but not on Nook. Words fail me.

This created an awkward situation where my three published works (don't get excited - it's two short stories and a novella) weren't all in the same area. Worse, I have no bait on Amazon for the people who love free and cheap stories. No 99 cent anything. No free e-books luring customers into my devious trap.

I was in a situation where I was cutting my nose off to spite my face. Instead of offering Kindle readers the easy option and making my books readily available to read I was making them hunt my work down. That's a lousy marketing tactic. Customers don't want to jump through hoops to get a book. They want to read a book, and click a link, and read your next book.

So I spent a few days learning how to format for Kindle. I set up the Kindle editions of REAL LIES and SEVENTY so that they each had a blurb about EVFIL at the end. With any luck (and some nagging) REAL LIES will soon be free on Kindle. They are now on Amazon.

You know what? As guilty as I feel selling my work with the evil giant, EVFIL's sales rank had an uptick yesterday. People bought REAL LIES and SEVENTY, and then turned around and paid $2.99 for EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE. As a new author hoping to sell a second book, all of those sales matter. I need to prove to my publisher that I'm worth investing in, that they want to buy my next book and publish it.

If you want the books on Kindle you can get them now!
EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE
SEVENTY
REAL LIES ... and if you'd like to tell Amazon that REAL LIES is *free* on Nook that URL is HERE

As always, clicking the tags and agreeing is always nice. I love reviews, especially if you've picked the free copies up from the newsletter. If you aren't signed up for the newsletter yet the link is on the right side bar. - <3 Liana

Why She Went Traditional...

Roni Loren had a guest post earlier this week on Anne R. Allen's blog entitled Why One Author Chose Traditional Publishing--And How to Decide if it's Right for You...

I've been sitting on this over the weekend debating my thoughts on the process. Self-publishing is gaining ground, and I find I approve of it much more than I did a year ago when it was still untested (at least in my mind). I now know several authors who have done very well with the self-publishing route. I know even more authors who have dazzling careers with the small presses. When I first looked into publishing e-queries were almost unheard of. Now? There are some agents who don't take an e-query but they aren't at the top of my list.

That's why I really appreciated Roni's take of traditional publishing.



Do I need validation? Maybe not. I've seen my name in print. I've writing awards* for non-fiction (that's my dark shadowy past with skeletons in the closet so let's not go there). As a writer, I'm confident in what I do. More to the point, I like what I write and I don't need someone to agree with me to feel that way. Call it a point for self-publishing.

Deadlines? I love deadlines. It's a holdover from my dark and shadowy past. I like the structure of deadlines. I like planning my life out months ahead. A point for traditional.

Marketing? We all do marketing regardeless of how we publish. I consider this a null.

Genre? I can write cross genre, but the bulk of my ideas are sci-fi. I'm happy there. A point for traditional.

Flexibility? I consider this a null. Contracts usually apply to one genre or one length. I haven't heard anything about traditional authors being restricted from publishing short stories or novellas in other genres away from their agents and editors. I've seen them do it, in fact. If all else fails... Name Change! It worked for Kim Harrison/Dawn Cook.

Speed? This is where Roni caught me.

Indie publishing favors the fast writer. The more backlist you have, the better chance you have for making a good living. If you can bust out a quality novella in a month, then the thought of waiting 12-18 months (the normal publishing turnaround time for publication) may seem interminable.

I am a slow-ish writer--though I'm steadily improving. My deadlines are set up to have me finish a 90-100k book in 4-6 months. And that's a fast schedule because my books are going to be released every six months instead of once a year. If I was indie publishing, I wouldn't be getting anymore than two books out a year anyway, so the traditional publishing schedule doesn't hinder me any.

I am not a fast writer. I can write a 75,000 word draft in a month, but it takes me a year to edit. I spent five months writing and editing EVFIL. I've been working on JANE DOE for over a year. Waiting six months for a query response is a waste of time if I'm twiddling my thumbs. If I'm hustling to write and edit JANE'S SHADOW? All of a sudden six months isn't nearly long enough.

For me, this is a big point in favor of traditional publishing.

Control? A mother of four does not have time to be a control freak. At least I don't if I want to retain my sanity. I love the idea of delegation. Have you ever read the book THE FOUR HOUR WORK WEEK? The whole idea is that you delegate out to the experts rather than wasting your time (and thus losing money instead of earning it). You have to balance what you are worth in an hour against what it would cost to do something in that time. Designing my own cover art and being a control freak is not cost effective.

At the end of the day, writing is my job, it isn't my life. For me that's an important distinction. When I edit I have a team of beta-readers. Yes, they're my friends, but they're also people I can rely on to tell me what works and to do their job without my hovering over their shoulder. I'd rather have a competent team of experts to work with than try to DIY everything. Traditional publishing works for me.



Roni's article helped me settle my opinions. Where I'm at right now, both in my personal life and in my career, traditional publishing is the best route for my novels. Does that mean I'd rule out everything else? Of course not. I'm not here to burn bridges.

I'll spend 2012 trying to find a home for JANE DOE. If I get no interest by 2013 I'll look at why I can't get interest, and reevaluate. At that point I'll also have JANE'S SHADOW done and be working on the drafts of CHASING JANE, which will set me up nicely for self-publishing if that's what I need to do.

Nothing is set in stone in this industry, but now I feel confident with the choices I'm making. Thanks, Roni!

*Small writing awards from the local newspaper staff. *sigh* It turns out the skeleton in my closet is made of plastic. Isn't that heartbreaking?

The Waiting Game

Steve Laube from the Steve Laube Agency said a few words about waiting on Monday. One glance and I could hear the Militant Self-Published Mob screaming, "We told you so! This is why you should do it our way!" It makes me cringe.

First and foremost, you should never publish the same day you write "THE END" on your manuscript. Just... don't. There are entire blogs devoted to why you shouldn't do this, most of them run by self-published authors. One draft was enough to get you through a high school essay on a book your teacher has never read, it isn't enough to make readers who have handed over money in the anticipation for a good book.

Second, for every part of the traditional waiting game the self-publishing and Indie Press venues have an equivalent.

Start with the assumption that an author has done everything in their power to make their manuscript beautiful. They've written, revised, run the MS through beta-readers and critique groups, and done a final line edit. What comes next?

Traditional Publishing: Find an agent
Indie Publishing: Find a house
Self-Publishing: Find an editor

But, I hear you stutter, but I already edited! You did. You did a great job. But that Confirmation Bias we talked about yesterday comes into play in editing too. It made sense to you when you wrote it, you know where all the commas should be, and so your brain will miss mistakes even after dozens of readings. Every author needs an outside editor. Not a family member, beta-reader, or friend, but someone who has no preconceptions of the book and no need to flatter you.

The next step for all three is...... WAIT.

Everyone, from literary agent to professional publisher has a life that doesn't revolve around you. No one will see your email and push everything else aside to focus on your problems - er - I mean manuscript. o:-)

Next step for all three... REVISE.

It doesn't matter if you've landed an agent, a contract with a small house, or have sent your baby to a private editor you will be revising again. Maybe more than once. This is not the time to pull your Speshul Snowflake routine and insist that leaving out punctuation has artistic merit.

Next step...

Traditional Publishing: Sell to editor
Indie Publishing: Sign a contract (possibly after negotiations)
Self-Publishing: Find cover art (also includes a contract in most cases)

This is where the smaller houses and self-publisher cut out a step. The number of revisions may be the same, but Traditional Publishing has a two-tiered entrance system. The agents help you stumble through contracts, some which exceed 300 pages if anecdotes from friends are correct (I have no reason to doubt the source). Smaller presses and Smashwords have much shorter contracts. Be thankful.

Next step...

Traditional Publishing: Edit/format
Indie Publishing: Edit/format
Self-Publishing: Format for publication

In the final stages of publication all three forms look eeriely similar. It's a matter of final edits (fixing a typo, comma gone missing, ect) and making sure your manuscript fits the style guidelines for the house, press, or e-book venue of choice.

Next step...

Traditional Publishing: Cover Art and Publish
Indie Publishing: Cover Art and Publish
Self-Publishing: Publish

For everyone but the self-publishers cover art is largely out of your control. Sometimes you get to give a lot of input, sometimes you don't. It varies from house to house and editor to editor.

Next step for all three... WAIT FOR PAYMENT

The argument here is that in self-publishing or with an Indie press you'll get paid monthly. In theory, that's correct. But that theory relies on someone buying your book. With a larger press you're waiting for an advance of some form, and then waiting for people to buy your books. The difference here is that only one of the three is guarenteed payment of any form, and that's the advance from the traditional press.



... I can see you toe-tapping from here, you know that right? You want to know about actual calendar time, not wait-time equivalents.

The thing is, there is no standard. From finished final draft to publication usually takes 1-2 years with traditional publishing, but it depends on whether you're a debut author who needs to find an agent and editor or an established author who already has those waiting. For an established traditional author the turn around from THE END to ON THE SHELF can take well under a year.

The same problem applies to an Indie press. A debut author who is looking for a press will take longer to publish than one who can drop a quick email to their favorite editor and say, "Hey! Look at what I wrote!" I've seen Indie authors putting out a new book every few months.

Ditto for self-publishing. Professional editors are easy to find, but the ones who come recommended have wait times, sometimes over six months of wait time if you've never worked with them before. Once you have a working relationship with the editor that can change. An established self-published author can feasibly publish something every month, although it may not always be a novel.

The real determining factor in every scenario is the author. How fast can you write? How fast can you edit? How fast can you make changes on demand?

Self-publishing is faster, but only if the author is motivated and can put in the work that needs to be done. If you're someone who works better with external motivation then self-publishing might very well fail you.

It all comes down to knowing what's best for you and your manuscript. Do your homework. Find your market. And then sit down and write.