Tips and Tricks from Indie Authors

I shot out an email to a few blogger buddies of mine that are/have self pubbed or are being published with a small, independent publisher.


Thanks to everyone who took time to send some tips. Some of these ladies will also be coming back on Fridays to provide more insight.

• Oct 12th - Tips and tricks featuring Lisa Nowak - (Running Wide Open)
• Oct 14th - PJ Hoover (Solstice)  
• Oct 21st - Elle Strauss - Clockwise (just released 9/26)
• Oct 28th - Michelle Davidson Argyle (Monarch)
• Nov 4th - Danielle Leafty - Catspell (coming 11/7)
• Nov 11th - Ali Cross - Become (coming11/11)
• Nov 18th - Jessee Harrell - Destined (coming 11/17)
• Dec 2nd - Karen Hooper (Tangled Tides, coming 11/1)
• Dec 9th - Megg Jensen (The Cloud Prophet Trilogy and The Swarm Trilogy)
• Dec 16th - Susan Bichoff (Hush Money, The Talent Chronicles)

Check out all these books! 


Lisa Nowak

• As far as copyediting goes, even if you hire someone, things are likely to sneak through. It's a good idea to have several people read it to check for typos. 
• I also downloaded WordTalk to my computer and had it read my Word documents back to me. You find a lot of missing and transposed words this way. Stuff our eyes seem to skip over. helps with editing. Here's a link to a blog post I did about it with some tips on how to get it to work.
• If you decide to do paperback. Lightning source does a great job. The biggest thing about LSI is it makes you look more legit. They're a professional printing company that works with many big publishers to print their backlist. They're associated with Ingram and Baker and Taylor, so they have a greater distribution channel, including in the UK and Australia with no extra effort on the part of the author. 
• You don't have to get ISBNs unless you plan to use Lightning source. Go to Bowker and you can buy them as a single or in clumps (10,100 etc). 
• In your case, since you only plan to do this one book and your finances are limited, you might consider purchasing 20 ISBNs from Bowker. You'll need at least four. One for Smashwords, one for Amazon, one for Barnes and Noble, and one for POD if you intend to release the book that way. You can get 20 for $250. If you get just one it costs $125. I sprung for 100, but that's a chunk of change at $575. 
• It's true that Amazon has it's own numbering system, but it's still more professional to give a book an ISBN. Whoever owns the ISBN is considered the publisher, so if you want to be the publisher (rather than Amazon) you need an ISBN.
• You need an ISBN for different formats - paperback, hardback, ebook.
• Formatting isn't that tough. If you follow the Smashwords Style Guide (a free download) you won't have any trouble. Be sure to use the nuclear option to get rid of all the wonky formatting Word tosses in a document.
• Trade "teasers" to place at the end of another book in your genre to cross promote.
• A friend of mine is experimenting with getting ebooks into brick and mortar stores by having plastic cards printed up to place in the stores. The cards have a scratch away area on the back with a unique code beneath. The buyer goes to the publisher website, enters the code, and is allowed to download a book. The cards sell for $2.99 and I think it costs around $160 for 100 cards. I only spoke to her briefly about this, so I'm not sure on the details. The company is Spirehouse books  

Here are some other things these ladies had to say - 


General Advice

• Surround yourself with a support network of writers. I have a core group at DarkSide Publishing. We support each other through our successes and failures. It’s great to have a close-knit group who gets exactly what you’re going through.
• Don’t be afraid to edit! Get brutally honest critiques. If you don’t agree with a change, see if more than one person suggests the same thing. If they do, take off your blinders and change it.
• Keep learning about the craft of writing. Don’t get so caught up in your new author status and assume you know it all. You don’t. Take classes. Attend critique groups. Go to conferences. Make new writer friends. Trust me, you’ll have fun doing it!

Making a Good book

• I can write a novel in three weeks or less. It takes months to edit. Revisions should be many rounds of critiques, tears, and ten additional pounds from eating cookies. You may think you’re going insane. This is normal.
• Covers and edits should not be scrimped on. This is our labor of love and I don't want someone judging me harshly b/c I didn't put my absolute all into it. If they don't like it once it's out, then at least I know I did my best. No regrets. 
• You may already know this, but Scrivener software will compile your book in mobi and epub. You can then open the file in Kindle or Nook, and see exactly what it looks like before you upload it. You don't have to deal with html for Kindle, or trust that Amazon will format your doc or pdf file correctly. 

Who to use?

• Smashwords is the best (and possibly only) way an indie author can get on Apple’s iBookstore. Make sure you follow their formatting guide, even though you might want to kill yourself the first time. It’s totally worth it!
• If you use Smashwords, you can opt out of Amazon and B&N to do on your own.
• I'm doing my paperback at CreateSpace but the covers may not be as good as I hoped. I hear Lightning Source has a better cover offering.
• Don't forget to register your book as a copywright at copywrite.gov

Marketing

• Run over to www.kindleboards.com. There’s a lot of great information and it’s a great place to read more about how different marketing experiences worked for other indies.
• When it comes to marketing, try out great websites like Kindle Nation Daily and Pixel of Ink. Most authors earn back the money they spend, plus profit. They’re great for exposure to readers you may not reach through blog tours or contests on your website. Do not be afraid to invest in yourself.
• Keep the blog tour short. Instead of spreading eleven blog hosts over eleven days I stacked them over four days. I did this to prevent fatigue from both the blog readers, and myself. I didn't want to bore them by talking about my blog tour for weeks and I've heard how exhausting blog tours can be for authors.  
• I read that Amazon rankings are effected by how many sales take place in one day. I'm not sure how it works, but it's one of the reasons most of my blog tour hosts were booked on one day.

Resources

• Get Zoe Winters book on self publishing - it tells you everything you need to know. 
• John Locke was the first ebooker to sell 1 million ebooks. He just made huge deal with S&S but kept his ebook rights.
• https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29261
• http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
• http://write2publish.blogspot.com/
• http://kriswrites.com/
• http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/
• http://www.newselfpublishing.com/

Also Sarah LaPolla - an agent at Curtis - just did a great indie series. Check it out!

What question do you have for me? Let me know if this is what you want to know or if there is another topic I haven't touched on yet.

Editing - is it necessary?

Housekeeping Stuff


I am collecting names for my newsletter. If you are not sure if you signed up - you can always sign up again. You won't get double I promise.


If you sign up between today and my launch, you will get a free ebook on everything I have learned about self publishing and online marketing - this will be for anyone who is self publishing or who markets online. I'm pulling together and formatting all my notes on this whole process as well as some online marketing tips and tricks (some I haven't even talked about yet) and putting them all into one place. I plan to be complete by Jan once I get through the entire process. That way you would not have to go back through a bunch of old posts to find information. Who knows maybe I'll even turn it into a self pubbed book one day :)


My newsletter will have author news, but it will also have arc giveaways, marketing contests, as well as online marketing and self pubbing advice. The first one will go out before my launch. If you don't like it after that - you can opt out and still get the ebook.


Also I added my online virtual launch party to Facebook so you can sign up there if you didn't get it. :) I will be doing an online chat on online marketing, self publishing journey, and my book as well as giving away prizes and special secrets.


If you are on Goodreads, friend me :) You can also mark Untraceable "to read". Somehow, it's already gotten on some good lists: Self publishing books to watch for in 2011 and Best Cover.  Nice :)


Enough boring stuff....


============


Editing - is it worth it? And why?


I just got my copyedits back.


First, let me say if you need a good copyeditor, email me. Because mine was AWESOME!


Untraceable has been through the ringer more than once. In addition to the scrutiny of my former agent and slew of beta readers, Untraceable was also recently edited by Lexa Hillyer at Paper Lantern and Emily Lawrence (previously at Aladdin). 


These two editors were great for my book and I HIGHLY recommend them. If you need their information, you can email me offline.


Now, I did not include this original editing cost in my current eXperiment budget b/c I'm not sure I would have used both or spent as much if I had known I was going to self publish. Not that it wasn't worth it - but now I'm on a different budget. I would say look to spend anywhere from $25-$50 an hour to get a reputable editor to work with you. At the time, I needed a fresh perspective. Editing and covers are definitely going to be the biggest expenses for any self publisher.


What I found out this week is that overall editing and copy edits are very different. I never knew this before. I assumed editing was editing. Just like I assumed revising was just copyediting.


Here's the difference:


Book Editing:
This editor looks at the whole story - the big picture. They make sure you have a roadmap and are thinking about the key story elements of Flush out the plot and subplots. What is waste? Do your characters have an arc and how do they grow over the book? 

Copy Editing:
This editor checks for spelling errors, grammatical errors and structural errors and sticks to a style/manual - Chicago manual etc. This editor's job is to make sure words are spelled correctly, the correct word is used (example. since vs sense), the correct punctuation is used, there are no run on sentences, there are no redundancies, and the topic stays the same in each paragraph and the paragraph before and the paragraph after cohere. They also look for inconsistencies in wording or style or tone.

An editor is usually more big picture and a copy editor is down in the deets. These jobs sometimes overlap some as editors definitely catch typos and smaller stuff while the copy editor also finds overarching inconsistencies and plot problems. But, these jobs are usually - and almost always - done by two different people. I always assumed if you had your book edited - it would include both. WRONG!  


My decision


At first, I thought since I had the book professionally edited, I would not need a copy editor.  I went back and forth about doing copy edits, but my traditional author friends encouraged - no insisted - that I needed them. Now that I see my edits, wow, I am so glad I did it!!!


Two main reason why copy editing is critical:


1) Copy editing caught all those things NO ONE else did. Punctuations, inconsistencies (green eyes or brown eyes), did I type "form" and mean "from". etc I had no idea how much was in there! I would have been mortified had I put that out. 


2) I wanted to put out the best product I can and be proud. No regrets. I don't want to just see a book out there, I want to see my book at it's very best. 


3) Increase the chances of success and your credibility.  Trust me, there are already a lot of naysayers out there that probably do not support self publishing or even me doing it for that matter. And, I personally don't want to give anyone a reason to say "oh! no wonder she is self publishing". 


4) Go for quality. Whether any of us wants to admit it - at some point that doubt about self publishing is what goes through our traditional-publishing loving minds when we first see someone is self publishing. It is what holds us back from self publishing. It is what has held me back. It is why I am experimenting with the process.


I'll admit it. I felt that way at one time. I guess it was because the self publishing I had seen at the time wasn't good and never seemed to be high quality work. I'm especially picky on covers and jacket copy. I can tell a touched up photo a mile away. Whether it's on a traditional book or self published book - I can see it immediately.


But I'm here to say, NOT ALL self published authors fall into the "cheap or homemade category". It's time we change our mindsets on this. Because it's not always true. There are some great authors self publishing. Look at Mandy Hubbard - she and Cyn Balog just came out with a book that is self pubbed. And I KNOW they are good.


Sure there are a lot of books that people publish that have been written in a week with no beta readers and have been slapped up on Amazon with clipart and typos. But there are also some GREAT authors out there that have WONDERFUL products, covers and writing, and do it right. Unfortunately, we all get lumped in a stack together, no matter what our product looks like. 


How do you find a good one?


There are a bunch of bad copy editors. So don't be fooled. 


1) Find someone that someone has used. That is how I found mine. A recommendation.


2) Ask them for a sample of a few pages (one page is not enough) so you can see their work. This is standard. If they won't do it, don't hire them. The three I looked at all did samples.


3) Check their rates and timeline. You need a guaranteed rate - I would go for project rate not hourly - and give a deadline.


4) Don't pay until the work is done. A deposit is okay but most won't ask for it upfront.


5) Find out if they are tracking changes or writing changes on the manuscript. Some people think writing it catches more than reading it. I prefer tracked changes.


So if you self publish, not only do you need beta readers, but I feel you also need an editor (like Lexa or Emily) who will make sure your story is the best it can be. At the end of the line, it can only help if you also hire a copy editor.


My thought: do not do this if you aren't committed to doing it right. Self pubbing is not the easy way out and it shouldn't be the cheap way out. It's a feasible option that works for some and not for them.


But can guarantee you this -  your book will NEVER have its best chance if it isn't the best it can be.  If it looks cheap and isn't well done... if it is full of typos...if you cut corners, the reader will know. They will think you didn't care enough about them to get it right and will be upset they paid money.


Editing can catch all the little things that could be the little difference between a book being good and a book being great.


Here are some articles on editing:
What it looks like
Cost of editing vs not editing
Don't skip the copyedits

Bookanista Buzz - The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Okay, I love this book! And yay! It was just announced that 2 more are coming.....


I will go out on a limp and say I even love it more than The Body Finder!


And I stayed up all night in 2 nights to finish that one.

In the violent country of Ludania, the language you speak determines what class you are, and there are harsh punishments if you forget your place—looking a member of a higher class in the eye can result in immediate execution. 


Seventeen-year-old Charlaina (Charlie for short) can understand all languages, a dangerous ability she’s been hiding her whole life. Her only place of release is the drug-filled underground club scene, where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. There, she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy who speaks a language she’s never heard, and her secret is almost exposed. 


Through a series of violent upheavals, it becomes clear that Charlie herself is the key to forcing out the oppressive power structure of her kingdom….


What I loved about this book:


1) A fresh take on dystopia and fantasy all rolled into one.
2) It's creepy!
3) I love that the ruler is a woman - finally!
4) Max's little note - so sweet - love him.
5) The unexpected twists and reveals!
6) I loved Charlie (MC) from the start. Felt sorry for her. Can't imagine hiding a gift so powerful it could cause your death.
7) The queen was nasty and it was scary what was going on in her head/thoughts. 
8) Did I mention Max is hot?!
9) It's so pacy!!!! I read it in like a day.
10) The implication of language and hot it can bring together or break up society. (yeah a little heavy But I'm not as dumb as I might look :)
11) I love the cover!
12) I adore Kimberly too :)

Check out the other Bookanista posts:

• Elana Johnson  is obsessed with Possess
• Christine Fonseca  twirls for Audition
• Shannon Whitney Messenger is wowed by The White Assassin – with giveaway
• Beth Revis interviews The Girl of Fire & Thorns author Rae Carson
• Carolina Valdez Miller delves into The Future of Us – with signed book giveaway
• Shana Silver shouts out about Shut Out
• Sarah Frances Hardy fancies You Will Be My Friend

ebook eXperiment: Those pesky little ISBNs!

**Sorry about the late post - my son was sick today!** Thanks for the little notes and tweets asking me when I was posting today! It's nice to be missed. :)


This week

• Budget hasn't changed ---yet.
• I am working to get book to copyedits - people who signed up for the ebook tour should get their review copy the week of Oct 17th which gives you 6 weeks to read.
• Oh yeah - and I'm much more scared this week, wondering if I made a huge mistake in doing this or that it is going to fail but trying to ignore those thoughts. THIS IS HARD WORK! Definitely not the easy way out!

Because I have gotten asked about paperbacks - I am looking in it. The more I looked into libraries and schools - the more I realized they don't all have access to ebooks. Question is how - Lightning source or Createspace?


I'll talk more about that next week. Buy yay!


================


Today I want to talk about ISBNs b/c I am still figuring these little stinkers out, but here is what I know (or think I know) so far:


Why do you need one? 

• Your book and you appear more professional. Think of them like business cards. You don't need one, but if you don't have one - you may not appear credible.
• They stay with the book for life.
• The distribution is wider especially with schools and libraries. That is how most of them order books so you are cutting out your market if you don't get one.
• It's best to buy ISBNs in blocks of 10, 100 etc - that way you can use them for other books or when publishing new editions that have changed.

What do the 13 digits mean?

• A "978" prefix
• A group or country identifier;
• The publisher identifier; (This is you!)
• The title identifier, which is for a particular title or edition;
• A "check digit" at the end, which validates the ISBN

Tips:

• You do not need one for Amazon. They assign their own number. ASIN
• You do not need one for Barnes and Noble. They assign their own number.
• You do need one for iTunes/iBooks.
• If you use Smashwords, they can assign one for their customers. But I believe it is only good for Smashwords. You can get a free one and list Smashwords as publisher or you can be a premium member and pay 10$ for your own.
• You have to have a different ISBN for different formats - so ebook formats would each need 1 and paperback would be another.
• Make sure it is 13 digits (not 10) - most places require 13.
• You can buy them from Bowker or isbn.org - 10 costs about $275.
• Even when you have an ISBN - you must register them at Bowker. 
• A self pub ISBN has a number that identifies it as an indie/self pub book so bookstores know when they see it.
• ISBN goes on the copyright page. And above the scan code on a physical book.
• If you want a library to order - you will also need a LCCN.
• You need an ISBN for each ebook file you publish (epub, etc) - I'm still trying to figure out what this means. So now I think I have to buy 10.
• On some books you may see a 10 digit ISBN and a 13 digit - They changed the format a few years ago and kept both identifiers.

So basically if I do ebook and B&N, Amazon, and Smashwords. I will need ISBNs (again I think they are important) for each format as well as for paperback. 


So looks like I'm going to have to add about $275 to my budget? Sigh.

If you have any additional tips or clarifications - let me know!