“Self-Publishing is No Longer a Dirty Word”
By Jean Henry Mead
Not everyone agrees that independent publishing is the key to writing success, but a growing number of authors are proving the naysayers wrong. More and more writers are leaving their publishers to strike out on their own, some with unparelled success, such as Robert Walker, who has repeatedly said that the secret to success is to consistently turn out quality work on a regular basis.
But even Rob will admit that there’s more to it than that. We’ve all heard that writers need a platform and a fan base of readers who trust the author to turn out quality work. But how does one acquire a fan base? Not by hermitting him or herself at the computer without making contact with the outside world. Those days are over.
When I put together my second volume of mystery writer interview, I met some successful new writers, among them Canadian bestselling author Cheryl Kaye Tardif, who publishes not only her own work but others with her Imajin Press from Alberta.
She says in The Mystery Writers: “In 2010 Amazon opened KDP to Canadian authors and I went back to my roots—to indie publishing. For me it's probably the best fit. I am by nature very independent and a strong marketer. Plus I'm ‘an idea person.’ Even my old publisher saw this in me and often called me a "guru" or "marketing genius." While I don't consider myself a ‘genius’ I do know that I'm a risk-taker.”
Independent publishing isn’t for everyone. It requires not only writing talent but good marketing skills and industry know-how to succeed. A number of other self- publishers are included in The Mystery Writers as well as bestselling traditionally published novelists such as Sue Grafton, Lawrence Block, J.A. Jance, Vicki Hinze and James Scott Bell (former Writer’s Digest fiction columnist).
Tim Hallinan, award-winning author of the traditionally published Poke Rafferty mystery/thriller series, decided to self-publish his Junior Bender series—humorous stories of a burglar with a “moral code who works as a private eye for crooks.” Tim’s earlier novels earned him critical acclaim but not enough money to retire from his day job. He now earns thousands of dollars a month with his self-published ebooks.
He said the reason he decided to leave his agent and publisher is because “the money we were offered by the publishers wasn’t very good. I looked at the offers and thought, ‘I’d rather own my books.”
Rebecca Dahlke once managed her father’s crop dusting service in Modesto, California, and decided that her protagonist—a beautiful former model—should also be a crop duster. She then decided to independently publish her novels, with successful results. Rebecca, like Cheryl, is a promoter and a humorous one at that. She says, “Self-publishing is no longer a dirty word. . . Eons ago, back in the dark ages (of publishing)—was it really only five years ago?—all we authors could hope for was a good agent,
Yesterday I was pleased to do a blogtalk radio interview with crime writing author Jennifer Chase. Instead of doing the usual blog here for Friday, instead, here is the interview. Be patient at opening as it takes a bit to get to the talking points, but it is well worth it as Jennifer asked some probing questions indeed, kept me on my toes.....although I did the entire interview with my feet up at a time when I might well have ought to have been taking a power nap. Still we cover a wide range of book issues, including ebooks, the creative process, my process, various and sundry jokes sprinkled in and much more. I was pleased with this. Find the interview here, enjoy, and come back to leave a comment on my blog space here or drop me a line elswhwere, and if you wish to duplicate and spread the news as to where to find the interview, I would not be opposed. Thanks -- find it here
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase/2011/03/31/acclaimed-thriller-horror-author-robert-w-walkerRob Walker
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Selling the e-book with a Look! What Sends ebooks Sailing off Virtual Shelves?
Some simple changes I made turned my book sales on Kindle from a drip, drip, drip to big sales. I just clocked in at 935 books sold in my slowest month since sales have been going well for me—December 2010. Now in month one of 2011, I have sold 1,140 books – all at 2.99. I make almost $2 (70%) from each book or unit as they say.
When first I placed my work onto Kindle, I was lucky to make 60 bucks a month.
How'd I do it? What changes did I make? First I went back to my book descriptions and made absolutely certain of no typos or errors of any kind as well as rewriting to make each the best damn short-short I could. This made a huge difference in sales, I kid you not. Secondly, I went on a TAG binge, tagging all my books below where they are found on Amazon to utilize genre-specific tags like Occult Horror, Generational Horror, suspense, mystery, police procedural, supernatural, paranormal female detective, etc. and I linked using my name along side other more successful authors in my field. This did two things – by placing my name on tags whenever anyone opens my book list, they also get my author’s page coming up. By ‘associating’ my work with the work of say William Miekle—as he did me—I am seen by his fans, and he by mine.
I had an amazing spike in numbers since taking these steps. Of course promoting online is of great import but so to is professional cover art and editing. When I am working on a novel, I put it out there what I am working on, and I invite early readers, and it is amazing how much readers will catch. One does not have to pay huge prices for good editing as I have found my best editors – amazing editors – who love to read a book BEFORE anyone else help me create the best book I possibly can. Most people believe they had to pay out big bucks for excellent editing but truth be told many people pay out big bucks and get punk editing for their money. I’d rather have a passionate edit with no exchange of money than a so-so one that cost me a couple thousand bucks, wouldn’t you? I edit myself heavily and do many rewrites, but I know I need more sets of eyes on the project, so as I am doing a work in progres
This blog today is an open letter response to a question I often get other than "Do you eat raw meat?" How hard is it to put an ebook up on the Kindle platform? - That is the Question these days. This seems a question on a lot of people's minds, so here goes:
First off, really it is no bother to offer advice in any way, and I enjoy helping others out; part and parcel of my teacher-nature. Let me also say that not every title you place on Kindle is automatically going to sell a bundle; I have been up a year now on Kindle July to July. I did not start making good money until around January but last month my earnings doubled. It is also true that your favorite of your books may not be the big seller, and each book has its spikes and dips. My most schlockiest little
horror novel pubbed in the early 80s has sold this month alone 112 copies and counting. My but this is heady! Such figures! Never had such happen from sales in a box store.
Here is the thing - #1 if you have your rights free and clear, you do not want to pay someone wishing to take fifteen percent of the life of the book to place it up and do all the "work" for you. There are a number of people (Ithink Tony Burton being one, Hitch being another, Peggy J. Henderson being a third I know, along with my son and others who charge a one-time only fee for this EASY task. A computer wiz kid of ten or eleven can do this.
You have the option on your PC to save AS....you can take your doc file and save it as a htiml file yourself and pay no one....do it all yourself. It does take some learnng curve time, and it can get a bit frustrating but it is well worth your time. Others you know who are more proficient with converting a
doc file to html file - people you know may be willing to have you send them the doc file and convert it to html for you. You are going to upload the html file once you go through the three step process of successfully putting your book up on the amazon digital platform or dtp. Simple go to http://www.dtp.amazon.com/ -- this is where it is all done. Step one - filling in title, author, book description (must be flawless and exciting at once)...after which you will be asked to upload the doc/htiml file. Actually if you upload it as a doc file, Amazon converts it for you -- with a caveat -- as glitches occur in just about any conversion.
The directions will ask you to proofread your book once it is put up. If you see a lot of horrible problems, you need to resubmit it a second time. You do this by just uploading it again.
Cover art is the other larger problem you face. You can't use the art from the original publisher but you can upload a cover you have had designed or you can use a template that Amazon provides to create your own cover. Again a talented young person you know who has grown up with computers can do this in an hour. My son does all my cover art. Once he has something we agree on, he uploads it for me. It is as easy as uploading a photo.
ebook covers are front covers only. you may want to look at mine on Kindle Store pull-down on Amazon.com who have made it as simple and easy as they could. A quick scan/look over of what you see at www.dtp.amazon.com can allay any fears. www.Createspace.com is for PODs with Amazon. I have as yet to get those done.
Then once the book or books are up, the real work begins - you are the PR person, you are the Marketing team, and you must find ways to drive those voracious e-Readers to your e-Title. But that's another blog.
Hope this helps, dear friends,
Rob
> WWW.RobertWalkerbooks.com
http://makeminemystery.com/
Find me too on facebook; twitter
Martin Scorscese was awarded a special life's work Golden Globe award for directing films, and his acceptance speech was a long eulogy to all those who came before him, all those he learned from and built upon. Ever watch a young artist at work? Go to any museum and you will find a young painter at an easel set up before one of the Masters—Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Rembrandt. A look over the student's shoulder shows that she's not painting just anything, but rather she is attempting to duplicate the master artist's method, trying to determine precisely how the artist in question used line, shape, light, shadow, brush stroke, color, medium, pick, pencil, charcoal—the whole of it. A student of art learns skills, tools, and techniques via mimicry and imitation, or if you prefer stealing—focusing so closely on how Renoir did it to learn it and own it. The how and why of the masters has to be harnessed. Even if one doesn't care for Picasso's art, one needs to know how he pulled it off.
Writers do the same, but they do so via voracious reading. As a writer reads, so shall he reap. Learning the art of establishing shots, openings, dialogue, settings, character, plot, props, symbols, metaphor, simile, texture, depth, color, tone and the marriage of all the parts amounts to working on a PhD in Letters. Steinbeck liked to say, "I'm just a storyteller" and that's all well and good, but he was also an artist to learn from—a writer's writer in other words.
Writers who succeed in finding their own brush stroke(s) or style do so by closely examining and trying their hand at crafting words in the "voice" of variou
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1 Comments on <em>eBook Publishing How-To From an Author){kind=small}
, last added: 8/27/2010
Welcome to Acme Authors Link, Jean. Sounds like your book has a lot of great advice from outstanding authors!
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Thank you for the invitation, Morgan. Yes, the book is loaded with good writing advice from some pretty impressive novelists. I wish it had been available when I was learning to write fiction.
I'm pleased to be a part of this book.
Hi, Jean and Morgan.
Marilyn
Thanks a lot for this post!
Hi, Marilyn,
Your interview and article on settings are among my favorites in the book. Thanks for stopping by.
I'm so proud to be part of this book. Sometimes we indie authors are still looked on as not "real' writers. So we just have to try even harder to do everything as well as we can. And that includes both writing the best book we can write, and marketing the heck out of it. That's what I talk about in the book -- creative ways to think outside the box of bookstores and libraries for marketing. It's a whole new world! And an exciting one!
Thanks, I really needed a pep talk as I near publishing my first novel, a decisions that hasn't been easy. Still now so sure, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. Great post, thanks Jean!
Thanks, D.P., Susan and Madison for your comments.
Susan, you wrote a good article on independent publishing and you've certainly proved that hard work and persistence pays off.
And Madison, don't be afraid to publish. It can be the most exciting and rewarding thing you've ever done.
Well done, Jean. I'm honored to be included in your book.
Joan
Thank you, Joan. I'm pleased to havea you in the book.