R. L. Stedman

Writer

Self-publishing

How to Get Published

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How to Get Published –

How to Get Published

So you’ve got a story you’re aching to share?  Here’s a step by step guide to getting published.

This is the fifth post in a series called Options for Publishing. This series is based on a talk I did recently in Taranaki.

Before reading this post, I suggest you go back and read the other posts in this series, as they tie together. Here’s the links:

This is a long post; you can download the PDF here.

Here are the slides from the talk:

 

How to Get Published:

1. Write

Keep a journal, a diary or a blog. Write poetry. The more writing you do the better. Think of it like fitness training; you don’t build a muscle without exercising it.

2.  Read a lot

Read books from diverse genres. Read classic books, read contemporary novels. I prefer reading books that are ten + years old more than the latest blockbusters, because I find time sifts out a lot of dross. However, I know that’s not always the best idea if you’re trying to work out what the market wants, and writing styles are constantly evolving. But you can NOT write well if you do not read. Period.

3. Write for free

Writing for a wider audience is good discipline, and helps you to get used to criticism aka “feedback“. I edited a professional magazine; it taught me about deadlines, formatting and word redundancy. School or universities generally have magazines and often welcome contributors. If you’re in a community or church group you could either start or contribute to a magazine or blog.

4. Training

Doing a writing course is not essential, but it does help. There’s nothing like intensive tuition to improve the craft of writing. Personally, I wouldn’t suggest spending enormous amounts of money or time. Gaining a Masters in Creative Writing is expensive and may not be any more beneficial than say a twelve-week course at a polytechnic. I prefer face-to-face to online, but there’s nothing right or wrong. Just make sure you participate. You won’t learn if you do not do.

5. Develop networks

Often in this world it’s not WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know. Talk to other writers. Join professional societies, like the New Zealand Society of Authors. Attend meetings. Read the magazines. Interact in forums. Talk to writers on twitter. Be helpful. Only one rule: Don’t be a dick.

If you write romance, or novels with a romantic theme I strongly recommend joining your national Romance Writers Association. RWAs are generally very commercially savvy and they’re highly internationally networked.

6. Go to conferences

In New Zealand there are very few writing conferences, alas, but if you’re in the States it’s a lot easier. Reason for conferences: you meet other writers (networking), you can have lessons in craft (training) and most usefully of all: you can often do cold reads or pitch agents/publishers. This can short-cut a lot of slush piles.

7. Submit to competitions

This was my break. Competitions are frequently listed in the forums of various professional organisations, and you’ll find more online. I suggest the smaller comps, as anything with thousands of entries are almost a lottery. But with some of the smaller ones, like the RWA ones, (another reason for joining), you’ll get feedback from the judges, and if you’re shortlisted, you may get your manuscript read by an agent or publisher.

8. Publish your own

The last four posts are my explanation of why this isn’t as crazy as it seems! There are pluses and minuses to publishing your own work, just as there are to using a publisher. These days, it’s more about understanding your options than recommending one particular path.

But whether or not you use a publisher to reach your audience, or you do it yourself, I would still follow steps 1 – 7 above.

How to Get Published

How to Submit to Agents/Publishers

If you decide that you don’t want the hassle of publishing your own work, then you’ll probably need someone to publish for you. Generally this involves an agent or a publisher. This is the classical approach, and until 2010 (ish) it was pretty much the only way to get your book published.

Warning: This can take a long, long time.

1. Write your book

2. Find out who the publishers and agents are that might be interested. You want to know who’s looking for new writers, what kind of work they want (no point in sending erotica to a children’s publisher, for example!), what format they want you to submit in. FOLLOW THIS!  Generally, this information will be on their websites.

Here’s what to do:

3. Make a list of who’s looking in your genre.

Be strategic – don’t submit to everyone at once. I’d start with 5 established agents with a great track record and 5 new ones who are hungry. Follow their submission instructions (have I said this before?!).

4. Send your submissions

  • Submissions generally consist of a query letter, a brief synopsis and, if requested, the first three chapters. This may vary, so again: check.
  • General rule of thumb seems to be that simultaneous submissions are okay to agents (that is, you it seems acceptable for you to submit to more than one agent at a time), but a definite no-no to publishers. If you are submitting to multiple agents at a time, I would let them know this; at the very least, it’s polite.
  • Here’s instructions on query letters and Marissa Meyer’s really good blog post on synopsis writing.
  • If an agent likes your work you’ll generally hear reasonably quickly. Publishers seem to take longer.
  • I allow 4 -6 weeks for an agent, and then I follow-up with an email.  If I still don’t hear anything I follow-up with another email advising I’m sending elsewhere. If you’ve submitted to a publisher you may  not hear anything for 4 – 6 months. Longer than that, and I usually send an email.
  • If you don’t get a good response to just a query submission, it might pay to rework your query letter.
  • Keep a spreadsheet of who you’ve submitted to, the date and the outcome.
  • Try not to get depressed. I know of writers who have submitted 1000 times before landing a deal!

If you want to short cut this process, enter competitions and go to conferences (see above!).

5. While you’re waiting, write another book. Or two. Or three…

An alternative approach:

Be famous or otherwise notorious!

Publishers and agents LOVE writers with an audience. If you’ve got a million followers on wattpad, SAY this. If you’ve got a huge youtube following, again: mention it in your pitch.

Options for publishing

What’s best?

This depends on your goals.

If you are desperate to see your book in book stores, you may be better to follow the classical approach of using an agent/publisher. Book stores tend to work through established channels, although there are signs this is changing. If you love literary fiction and you prefer to write richly textured novels, you may be better to approach traditional publishers. If critical acclaim and acceptance is important, again: a traditional model may be better.

However, if you’re just wanting to find people who want to read your work, if you write in a commercial genre with a huge readership (such as romance) and you’ve previously run a small business, my suggestion is self-publishing.

I say this because in the long run, you may be better off by finding your own route to market than by relying on a publisher third-party, who may or may not have the same goals as you. It’s also about the rights. Given that your copyright can last 50 + years, and that rights are constantly evolving, you may be better off in the long run to own the lot.

The good news: nowadays writers have options.

A Question of Rights

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What are Rights?

A Question of Rights

Copyright

Copyright is an automatic right generated by the development of an original work. Sometimes you see it written as ©

In New Zealand, copyright lasts for fifty years after an author’s death. In the United States, it’s SEVENTY years.

The copyright is owned by the creator, but he or she may allow another person to use their work. While the copyright remains in place, someone has to have permission to use it. In the publishing industry, permission is often called ‘licensing’, and permission is usually granted through a formal contract.

You may need to prove that you are the copyright holder. General practice among authors is to register their titles with the US Copyright Office. This is not essential, because copyright is automatic. But if you have a problem with your titles being pirated, this may help.

Copyright is a property right. You can’t hold an idea, like you can hold, for example, a house. Copyright is Intellectual Property; an intangible but valuable product. Sometimes “intellectual property” is shortened to simply “IP”.

There are other forms of intellectual property, like designs, patents and trademarks. This means if you’re writing a book, the front cover and the layout of the words (typesetting or formatting), which are design work, may belong to the publisher or cover designer. It also means you should check the licensing of any art you use in your cover. Don’t forget poetry or songs are also original work. So before using someone else’s ideas, make sure you have permission to do this.

You can find out more information at the NZ Intellectual Property Office (this is a really user-friendly site, and is worth a look even if you’re not based in New Zealand.)

If you want more information on rights, check out Joanna Penn’s podcast here.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice. For legal advice, see a legal professional!

Rights in Space
Image Source

How are Rights Used?

Rights can be sliced and diced in many different ways. Here are some examples:

  • By format: digital, audio, print, radio, screenplay, braille.
  • By location: World, Asia, Europe, Australia. There is a new rights location, called simply Space! This may sound crazy. But remember: if your rights last for at least 50 years after your death, it’s very possible that people will be in space before your rights expire. I love the thought of astronauts listening to my books on audio!

What Does This Mean For Me?

You should think of your rights as assets. When you write a book, you are in effect creating something that could generate income not just for you, but for your children and your grandchildren.

You need to consider this, when you consider a contract from a publisher. You should ask yourself: Is the amount a publisher offers me more than the amount I may make from this book?

And you should also think: can I exploit these rights myself?

For me, I’m not so worried about having worldwide rights for A Necklace of Souls in say, Chinese. So if someone was to send me an interesting rights offer for Chinese worldwide rights, I could be interested.

However, if translation services go the way that is widely expected, it’s possible I might be better off holding onto translation rights and waiting for a few years.

Take The Long View

The value of your rights may increase as you produce more books. So don’t get discouraged early on. (This is something I am constantly telling myself!) Remember, too, that technology and platforms are constantly evolving, and that something you never dreamed of having a commercial value (like Space) may one day be a real possibility.

I guess at the end of the day it always takes time to create something of value — whether its a book or a house. But an asset is generally worth having!

What Does a Publisher Do?

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What does a Publisher Do?

What does a publisher do?

There are many types of book publishers: traditional (large house) publishers; niche publishers or small press; assisted self-publishing and author-as-publisher. It’s a rapidly changing market place — by 2016 42% of trade fiction in the US was from non-traditional publishers.

This post discusses what publishers do for fiction authors, and what is expected in return.

This post is the third in a series of four posts. You can read the first and second posts here.

Agents

Publishers had so many submissions they began using specialists in finding and sourcing quality work. These specialists are called literary agents. Nowadays, many large houses will only look at work if presented by an agent. This does vary between houses, so check a publisher’s website before applying.

An agent is a broker, a negotiator, and editor and sometimes a coach. They may offer advice to an author as to which publishers are short of work, and frequently have a deep understanding of the industry. I don’t have an agent, and they’re not essential. However, many highly successful independently published authors have them, just as traditionally published authors do.

Publishing Process

Traditional book publishing process

From Visually.

 

Types of Publishers

Large house

The publisher provides full editorial, printing, distribution and some marketing support.

Editorial Process:
  1. Developmental edit. An editor will provide an overview of the plot, characters, and identify areas for improvement. For example: you need to bring out one character’s story. Or: it’s too long, you need to lose twenty thousand words. Developmental editing sometimes feels like a dance, and as in dancing, you need to trust your partner.
  2. Structural edit: this is more like a continuity edit – checking for consistency in terminology, things like locations, directions and timelines are correct within the plot. This process sometimes includes a light copy edit – things like em dashes, speech marks, spelling.
  3. Copy edit: detailed spelling. A style sheet for the work is developed and applied consistently.
  4. Line edit/proofing edit: this usually happens just after the work is set for printing; the edit is done on the print proof. This is the last chance to catch any major errors.

Nowdays, many large publishers, having downsized their editorial teams, are likely to outsource to a freelancer. although sometimes they’ll do the copy and line-edit in house.

Marketing:

The publisher may use a PR agent to put out a press release and arrange interviews — radio, TV, newspaper and so on. Sometimes they may organise tours, like attending book festivals. Marketing teams have been downsized, so often they’re small on resource.

Social marketing, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, is usually done by an individual author; unless you’re a big name author, it seems unusual for the house to provide support in the social space. Some well-to-do authors hire assistants to do these activities.

A publisher works with distributors and printers to make sure the book is printed and ready for bookstores to order and arranges disposal of unsold books.

Other services :

If the publisher has world-wide rights for all formats, they may work with translators. They’ll make sure your book is set out in electronic format, and they may do audio versions.

Other (unspoken) benefits of a large house:

There is more catchet with a large house. If you have a contract with, say Penguin Random, my feeling is you’re more likely to be accepted for residences, have your work in stores, and asked to present at conferences/book tours. In New Zealand you are more likely to be supported by state agencies. For example, the NZ Book Council told me I ‘do not qualify as an author.’

Disadvantages of a large traditional publishing house:

It is very hard to get a book contract with a large house, and it’s normal for a large publisher to take up to a year before confirming they’ll accept your work. Over this time it’s bad form to submit to another house (simultaneous submissions). So submitting to a traditional house may tie your manuscript up for a long time.

Contracts with large houses are frequently drafted in favour of the house. For example, they may not have a termination date, and may require world-wide rights. If you get a contract, read it, and if you’re not sure, check with an author’s advocacy agency, such as the New Zealand Society of Authors.

Although a publisher may sign you up for worldwide rights, they may not exploit them. This can mean you only have your books sold in one territory. Even if you think readers in other places may be interested you’re unable to sell to them. So again: read the contract.

Large houses usually take around 85 – 90 percent of the sales price of the book, although this varies depending on print run and locality. The usual advance in New Zealand for children’s fiction seems to be around $2000 although it is higher internationally. Any advance is paid of over sales of the book, so the author doesn’t receive anything more until the royalties are paid off. In New Zealand, this seems to take around 2 years, although again it can vary between genres and publishers.

If you want to read more information on average incomes, royalties and advances, here’s a useful 2016 article by Horizon Research 

Anecdotally, if you write literature for New Zealand children it is fairly common to receive the $2000 and then that’s it: unless your book is exceptionally popular, your work is unlikely to be reprinted.

A word of warning: If you’re fortunate enough to be offered a large advance, do not spend it; you should see it as a loan. Because if sales do not meet expectations a publisher may seek reimbursement of this advance.

WTF

Small Press

Small presses have low overheads and may be owner-operator, that is, they only have one or two people working with them. As they usually service niche industries and operate with tight margins they can be insecure.

However, a small press may be very collegial, and the authors may act to support each other.

Generally, they’re full-service, offering editorial and other support. They may be only work in ebook format, so you may not be able to access bookstores or print-based distribution.

A small press can be a great option if you’re new to writing, as you get the editorial support and learn how the publishing process works. You’re less likely to receive an advance, but you may still be seen as being ‘published’ by the establishment, so therefore you may still be eligible for residencies and book tours.

Because small presses are vulnerable to closure or acquisition, make sure any contract you sign will give you your rights back. Sometimes if the publisher closes their author’s rights are sold off as an asset; make sure this doesn’t happen to you. If you’re not sure, talk with your local author’s society.

Assisted Publishing

Assisted publishing is basically a fee-for-service. A company may offer some or all of the services of a large traditional house, but rather than paying the author, the author pays for the services. Sometimes this is called ‘partner publishing’ or ‘vanity publishing’. The model varies between companies so make sure you know what you’re buying.

Assisted publishing is frequently very expensive, and sometimes is a scam: do your homework before you sign any deal. The New Zealand Society of Authors and the Writer Beware websites can offer you more guidance on how to avoid being scammed.

Keep Calm and Carry On
From PinkPot Design

Do-it-Yourself or Independent Publishing

Indie publishers, like me, generally follow a similar process as a traditional publisher: editorial, design and marketing. But instead of an advance, we pay for it ourselves. We source editors and cover art. We may hire a formatter, engage a marketer and source our own PR. Some of these tasks we may do ourselves — for example, I do my own formatting. Sometimes we use software to help. Link to useful tools HERE

Independent publishing is a lot of work. However, royalties are around 30 – 90% on each sale, PLUS the author owns all the rights.

You’re unlikely to be offered a residency as an independent; frequently newspapers and other media are scathing of your abilities.

While it’s not technically difficult to do-it-yourself, it is time consuming. There is one mandatory requirement: you MUST be comfortable with computers.

Other models of publishing:

Publishing is changing all the time. Here’s a few examples:

Over to you – any other publishing processes I’ve missed out?

The History of Publishing – How Everything Changed

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The History Of Publishing –

Picture Book
Image Source

Publishing is sharing of ideas and information.

Think of the town crier; the temple scribe; the playwright — these are all publishing, and they’ve all been around for thousands of years.

history of publishing

Pre-1440, dissemination of ideas was necessarily limited. A scribe can only pen so many books, and many people couldn’t read. New ideas spread slowly, limited by distance and education. The printing press arrived in 1440, and mass production of writing emerged. Books, tracts, magazines and newspapers could be read and shared.

And nowadays, publishing can be virtual and/or physical: blogs, journals, blogs, newspapers, books, radio, television, film…all is production and dissemination of creative work. The computer, and how we use it, changed everything.

Talk Transcript

This post is a transcript of a talk I will be delivering next week. Because the talk is quite long, I’ve set it out over three posts. I’ll put the slides for the talk at the end of the final blog post.

I thought it would be of interest to you, the reader (plus, I’m lazy; it’s a lot easier to write a talk twice than invent a whole new blog post!). The talk is called Your Story, Your Way: Options for Publishing, and I’m delivering it as part of a workshop for the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Awards. 

Now, before I begin: a disclaimer. I am not a publisher, an expert in the publishing industry or a lawyer. Think of me as a gifted amateur — all information offered here is my own opinion. That being said, I have an MBA and I’m continually analysing markets for the Day Job.

This post is mostly about fiction because that’s what I write 🙂 but some points in here are relevant for non-fiction too.

The Costs of Traditional Publishing

Up until the mid-nineteenth century, book publication was a costly enterprise. Print was laid on a page, often by hand. Printing presses were expensive and cumbersome, and print runs had to be large to reduce the per unit cost. Books are relatively large, heavy objects, so freight was expensive. And because paper is susceptible to damp they had to be stored in good conditions; inventory cost was high.

Mid-1800s

Not surprisingly, then, publishers tried to reduce the risks of printing books that might never sell. Works were published in serial format, like Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes , or an author might fund or part-fund the initial print run. Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and Virginia Woolf all paid for early productions of their work. Woolf, I suspect, was motivated by creative control, but Twain, an entrepreneur, was frustrated by his publisher.

Mark Twain - history of publishing
Mark Twain

Twentieth Century

Throughout the twentieth century, print costs reduced. Skilled labour was replaced by machines and cost-effective distribution and supply chains were developed. And in the 1900s, a new model of publishing developed: venture capital.

Throughout the nineteenth century, and still into this day, large publishing houses offer advances to authors in anticipation of monies earned. In return, the publishing house gains the lion share of sales, and provides all the work to get the book to market.

The mid-late 1900s were the hey-day of print publishing.  It took a lot of capital to buy the presses to set up a publishing house, and it took a great deal of time and experience to develop the distribution networks of bookstores, libraries and bookclubs to purchase the books. So there was limited competition. And in times of limited competition, margins are high.

So, by the mid 1900s, trade publishing of fiction was probably a highly lucrative industry, as judged by the number of bookstores, newspapers and publishing companies.

THEN… along came the computer.

‘Frame-breaking change’ is business-speak for when rapid changes are enforced upon an industry, usually through technology. This isn’t a phenomenon unique to publishing: in the eighteenth century railways did this to stagecoaches.

What did the computer do?

Initially, computer-induced alterations were small. Typing became faster and it was easier to edit. But rapidly, the changes increased and increased, and this highly networked, traditional industry struggled to adapt.

And then — there was AMAZON.

And the everything changed, almost overnight.

history of publishing - the online store
image source

In 1994, Jeff Bezos created Amazon as an online bookstore. Bezos used this new computing technology to offer books to purchasers directly from printers. This meant no inventory costs, and a wider selection: a virtual store could stock thousands more titles than a traditional bookseller.

I’ve heard it said that although Bezos always dreamed of Amazon being a general store, he began with books, because he saw the high-margin publishing infrastructure a being ripe for change. I don’t know if that is true, and I also don’t know if its true that Bezos doesn’t care about literature; he’s certainly been very supportive of open access content creation.

But whatever the motivation, Amazon fundamentally changed the publishing industry, possibly even more than the introduction of the printing press.

Because after selling physical books, Amazon went three steps further. It digitised the books; it allowed content creators open access to its publishing platform, and it created a new, mass-market format for reading.

The e-reader.

history of publishing
Image Source

So, here’s what computers have done (so far) to publishing:

  • Per unit print costs have dramatically reduced.
  • Books can be digitised.
  • iPads, kindles, phones are all reading devices.
  • Print books can be bought and sold online, anywhere in the world.
  • Books can be downloaded as digital versions instantly, with no shipping costs.
  • Publishing platforms for trade fiction are open-access.
  • International cross-collaboration between creators is easy
  • Relationships between suppliers, distributors and content users can be developed across borders
  • Formatting and design are constantly improving, and ebooks are looking prettier than ever
  • Cross-content creation is emerging: say, books with music, or videos with vlogs
  • Piracy is easy
  • Increased competition for leisure time

Excited about what might come next?

history of publishing
image source

I am!

Next Post: Show me the money: Where publishers make their profits.

Want to Self-Publish? Here’s 11 Things You’ll Need

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11 Things You’ll Need to Self-Publish —

Thinking of self-publishing your book? You may as well learn from my mistakes! Before you begin, I suggest you consider your strengths and weaknesses. Here’s 11 attributes I’ve found essential for survival as an independent author.

 

writer's notebook

Do You Have These 11 Things?

1. Can you write?

If this is your first manuscript the chances are that, no, you probably can’t. Sorry. Most writers have a few failed scripts in boxes somewhere. If this is your first manuscript, and its your first draft and you are planning on self-publishing I really suggest that you DO NOT ask people to pay for it – i.e. don’t put it onto Amazon or ibooks. If you really think the idea is good (in between the normal ‘it’s crap’ feeling that every writer has) I would try to find a critique partner — you can often find a CP through a writer’s association — or put it onto WattPad or Fan Fiction . Anything to get feedback. Even better, do a course. Believe me, study really helps.

 

11 traits of successful self-published authors
2. Do you understand the publishing process?

Commercial publishers are very unlikely to publish even your final draft. Before it is set to print your book will have at least three edits – usually by three different people:

  1. a structural edit – where the structure of the plot, the characters and so forth are analysed and recommendations made on how to strengthen them
  2. a copy edit – where the spelling, grammar and so on is checked
  3. a proofing edit – check for final errors

If self-publishing, you would be wise to follow this process. Otherwise your book won’t be as good as it could be. Which is bad for reviews, bad for your reputation, and just bad for the reader. But be warned, professional editorial input is not free. It’s worth it, in terms of product, but you may not get your money back in sales.

 

3. Are you comfortable with the internet?

If you’re reading this, chances are you are quite comfortable on a browser. Just be warned: self-publishing is a global industry and unless you want to pay someone a lot of money to do everything for you, you’ll probably need to do it yourself. This means that invariably, you’ll be on the internet a lot.

 

4. Are you comfortable with e-books?

Self-publishing is really about e. The future is p and audio, too, I think. So if you’re planning on self-publishing, make sure you enjoy and are familiar with reading on an e-platform. This means you’ll have a greater understanding for the importance of layout, and you’ll be more careful when it comes to formatting. Also, you’ll be making purchasing decisions similar to your readers.

 

5. Do you have a kindle account?

Currently, Amazon is the dominator of the self-pub industry. iTunes is coming on strong, too, but more people still read on Amazon apps or kindles. Amazingly, I heard today that Amazon has 42% of the world’s print market as well!

So if you’re really wanting to self-publish, I do suggest you become familiar with the Amazon store. Understand how books are presented to purchasers and download a few yourself. Get a feeling for what you like, and what features you don’t. It is different to navigating your way through a bricks and mortars store.

 

6. Do you have a basic understanding of finances?

Here’s a lesson for you. I have an MBA so I thought, well, no problem. I’ll be fine here. And yet – I forgot about the exchange rate! I can’t believe it, but I did! The problem is, Amazon presents all its prices in USD. So when I calculated the costs of CreateSpace, I forgot to convert. This meant a price inflation of around 20%.

 

7. Do you have time?

Self-publishing your first book will take you ages. Well, it’s taken me ages. Everything is new. I don’t know how to use the technology. This is what I have had to learn so far:

    • how to download a mobi file
    • how to read a mobi file
    • how to format to a print-ready proof
    • how to format a word document to smashwords requirements (don’t believe them when they say their Style Guide is easy to use. It isn’t)
    • how to organise a press release
    • how to create, and edit, an .html document.
    • What is bleed?
    • How long are delivery times?
    • What does a book distributor do? What does a book marketer do? How much do they cost?
    • What is an ASIN and what is an ISBN?
    • What paper thickness do I need? Do I need matt or gloss cover? What is a laminate?
    • How to organise a blog tour
    • What is a marketing plan and what should it look like?
    • How much should I price my book?
    • How many copies should I order?

8. Do you have a healthy dose of skepticism?

In this industry – in most industries, really – there is no ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Yet, when you read the websites of Smashwords or Amazon, they say just upload your manuscript and click the ‘publish’ button and voila, your words in your way, ready to be read by the world. Don’t believe them. Don’t believe anyone when they tell you that it’s simple. For the first few books, you’ll be on a steep, slow, climb up the learning curve.

 

9. Do you have a background that includes any or all of the following?

The following skill sets are really, really helpful. If you have some or all of these, you’ll find the route to self-publishing so much easier.

  • Scientific/Analytical
  • Commerce/finance/marketing
  • Legal
  • Project Management
  • IT

10. Do you have enough money?

Self-publishing is not free. Well, I don’t think it’s free. Costs include time, of course, but there’s also editorial, book covers, marketing and anything else you care to spend. You can do it on a really tight, tight budget of perhaps $500 USD, but some people pay a lot more. The good thing is, these costs are all tax-deductible.

One bonus of writing – you might not make much money, but pretty much everything you do can be claimed as a deduction.

WTF

11. Are you willing to learn?

The independent publishing market is global, highly software-enabled and is in its early years. Things are changing rapidly. What might work today may not work tomorrow.  You need to be willing to embrace these changes! Doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work, you can always try again.

And on a Positive Note!

The eleven qualities above are mostly personal. They do not involve spending enormous amounts of money, or hiring employees, or building plant or buying expensive equipment. They do, however, involve spending large amounts of time.

Useful Apps and Tools for Writers

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writer's notebook

Useful Apps and Tools To Save You Time

This post was inspired by a Facebook question: how do you do it all? And I said: I don’t. I’ve got a list of tools that help me out. This is that list.

I’ve added in a google docs spreadsheet containing most of these tools – scroll down to the bottom of this post to download.

*NOTE* updated 1 Oct 2017

Why Self-Publish?

I publish my own books through my own imprint, WaverleyProductions.

For me the biggest advantage of self-publishing is time. Because I am busy, I have to have control of the process; I can’t handle the stress of working to a third-party’s deadline.

I find that now I’m self-publishing, I can create a better book. And ironically, I can do it faster than a traditional house.

But Isn’t Self-Publishing a Lot of Work?

Yes. And No. Not really.

Here’s the truth: writing is always a lot of work. Whether you’re published or self-published you’ll still have to put the words on the page. You still need to interact with readers, whether it’s through social media or author talks; you need to put those hours in.

I’ve heard: ‘I couldn’t self-publish. I don’t have time for all that marketing’. And that same writer will drive for three hours to talk to a book group of ten people. News for you honey: talking to people is marketing. But you’ve just spent a whole day doing it! I can send a tweet or an instagram post and reach 50 people. If they like it they might share it! And it takes me thirty seconds.

The trick with writing, whether self-published or traditional, is to be as hands-off as possible. Find a tool that creates a good product, that you don’t have to spend a lot of time learning and is (ideally) free. The key is AUTOMATION.

Here’s a list of resources that I’ve found really useful. I use most of these tools every day; and together they’ve saved me a fortune in time and money.

WTF

Time-Saving Tools

1  Canva  – Canva is graphic design software lite. Sure, you can’t do as much with it as you can with Adobe or Gimp but it’s SOO much easier! It will take you about 5 minutes to figure out. Plus, it’s free, unless you use a licensed photo. I’ve used it to create bookmarks, book covers and more. The graphic at the top of this blog was created in Canva. The only downside? You can spend ages touching up the filters!

2  Smartmockups  – Smartmockups was created by two graphic designers, who were sick of creating boring mockups! Wouldn’t be easier, they thought, if we make a package that’s are so easy to use that no-one will bother us ever again?

Most of the images on this blog of my books inside an iPhone or as a 3D cover were made on Smartmockups.

There is a free application, but I ended up paying the one-off  license charge, because it contained a lot more options.

Smart Mockups have recently created a whole new range of book mockups. They’re not that flash TBH 🙁

3  Vellum – this magic software allows you to format your own e-book within a couple of hours! It is the best investment I ever made. Created by two pixar engineers, it only work on a mac, but it’s super simple to use and produces a very high-quality e-pub or mobi file. Update: a print-ready file option is now available! I’ve not yet tried this, but some authors have and rave about it. It’s quite an expensive upgrade at $149.00 USD so I’m sticking to my print-ready template for now.

The price is $29.99 for a single license. I ended up paying for the unlimited license, as it just freed me up so much.

4  Facebook – enough said.

5  Pixabay – this is a catalogue of stock art. Licensed under the creative commons, images can be downloaded for free. I download them and manipulate them in canva. Many of the images on this website were from Pixabay. Some are really really great quality, so it’s worth taking time to discover your favourite photographers.

6  RecurPost – a scheduling tool for social media. You can load it up with content, and create libraries of say, blog posts. If you’re reading this later than March 2017, chances are you’ve found it from a recur-generated tweet! This little baby allows me to recycle useful content over and over again. It takes a couple of hours to set it up, and then you’re good to go. I check it every two weeks or so to make sure I’m not repeating myself too often. The basic plan (which I use) is free.

7  Draft2Digital – a publishing and distribution agent. This is super easy to use, and distributes your books to most online platforms. It normally takes me around 30 mins to publish a book with this honey. It’s not free, but you pay as a percentage of your earnings, so there’s no upfront fee, and the royalties are reasonably modest. Plus, they pay out monthly.

OCT 17 NOTE: D2D have added some additional functions to their platform. These include: free access to Books2Read Universal Links. These are fab and save SO much time. Click HERE to see an example. They’ve also enabled beautiful ebook formatting – nice for non-Vellum users. And of course, an audio publishing option through Findaway Voices. I’ve not used this as my sales don’t justify this. But for big sellers, it’s an interesting alternative to other audio platforms

8  BookFunnel – this platform allows easy sharing of share digital files with readers. If you’ve downloaded my any of my extra giveaways, chances are you’ve done it through Bookfunnel. There’s an alternative called instafreebie, which is also good, but I prefer the word ‘bookfunnel’! This wee wonder is a whole lot easier than putting files on your website (believe me, I’ve tried it!) and a lot more secure. It costs around $20 per year for the basic plan.

Oct 17 NOTE: Bookfunnel have just added bundling promos and a paid platform. The book promos are fab, I’ve done a few, with amazing results. They can format a book page so it looks beautiful! Here’s a link to Welcome to Faery, my freebie page so you can check it out.

9  Mailchimp – this is a newsletter and list management platform. It’s free for the first 2000 subscribers then ramps up quickly. It’s not that intuitive to use, but they have helpful videos. It took me ages to send my first email, but now it takes about 20 minutes. It works really nicely with book funnel, too, so I can add a link to my newsletter and a ‘download here’ button , and my subscribers can grab their giveaway. (Did I mention that I’m nice like that :)) *NOTE* I’m now over the 2K and MC is too expensive for me at $USD55 per month. I’m currently trialling Mailjet (approx $10USD per month). This tool is definitely not as good as Mailchimp. I know a lots of writers use Mailerlite, but Mailjet is about half the cost of Mailerlite.

10 WordPress.org – this is a website platform. Others are Wix and SquareSpace. Personally, I prefer wordpress, as it’s got a whole heap of additional plug ins that are very inexpensive. This website is a wordpress.org on a Genesis theme.

Websites aren’t free; you need to pay for the hosting and the domain name. But they’re very useful, and they are a lot of fun. Cost is dependant on the theme and whether or not you pay a developer. If you want a free solution, you can try Tumblr, wordpress.com or blogspot. (I’ve tried two of these, so have inserted links so you can see what you can do with them). However, after trying a few alternatives, I prefer a proper website.

11 Youtube – Nuff said.

12  Google analytics – this is super powerful reporting software. It’s not that easy to use — like most google products — but it’s very useful. Through analytics you can track whether or not people are looking at your site. You can see how they came to you (social, search, whatever) and you can see where they’re based. I know, for example, that most people find me through search or Facebook. Google analytics is free.

13  Yoast – this is a plugin, not an app. It’s free, and although it takes a while to figure out, is a super powerful way to ensure your site shows up on search engines. Did I mention that most people find me through search? Since I set up Yoast, I’ve had a doubling of traffic. If you need help setting it up, check on Youtube. There’s a whole heap of helpful videos.

14 SumoMe – the contact me field below and the pop-ups inviting you to download a fairytale for free are by SumoMe. This plug in is free for the basic plan. It takes a while to figure out (I watched a youtube video) but once learned, it’s easy to maintain. I’ve had this going for about 10 months, and have about 2 – 3 sign-ups per week on it.

15  My Book Progress – this is for fun, but I love it. It’s a free plugin, and helps you keep track of where you’re up to with your writing. If you click to my home page and scroll down, you’ll see what it looks like. – *1 Oct NOTE* – I’ve removed this now, as it seemed to slow down my site, but I kind of miss it :).

NEW – OCT 17

16  K-Lytics – this site offers lists of keywords and high-ranking Amazon categories. It’s not cheap, although there are free teaser trailers that you can review. If you’re a prolific writer, or have a whole lot of back-list books that you’re wondering what to do with, my feeling is this is a worthwhile investment. Alex Newton, who runs the site, is super helpful and very approachable if you have questions.

17 ABlurb – another writer kindly told me about this. This is the coolest, most basic tool I’ve yet discovered. Want to format your Amazon book description so it actually looks nice? As in, as nice as this website looks – with paragraph breaks, italics and larger headers? This tool does it for you! Just type in your words and use the html shortcodes below the tool to see how your description will look.

18 PublishDrive – an online book distribution company with a focus on European and non-English-speaking markets. The front facing platform took a little while to learn and the English of the support crew is a bit weird (they’re Hungarian). But I’ve actually made some sales on this platform, so hey! give it a try! You can access Google Books this way.

19 Adazing – Book marketing. This site has a free 3D ebook cover creator. You pop your email in, upload a pic of your book cover and hey presto, they email you a 3D book cover. Very nice. Only downside: the image is a low-res so you can’t use it as a big image, and of course you go onto their email list – you can unsubscribe tho. Here’s a sample of the image they produce:

Download The List

Tools That will save you time
Click on the image to download

But wait! There’s more!

Here’s some suggestions from other authors. I’ve not used these so I can’t make any comment their functionality or cost:

  • Smashwords publishing platform offers more online bookstores than D2D, apparently. I’ve not used S/W – I took one look at the website and my brain shouted: ‘Run away! Run far away!’
  • Scrivener. Again, I faded on this. But I know heaps of people use this writing software and love it.
  • Pro Writing Aid. I’ve not tried this yet, but it looks intriguing
  • Visme. Someone from this graphics tool got in touch, I’ve not tried it, but it looks interesting.
  • Pronoun. A book distribution supplier. I’ve not used this, but a lot of writers use it to access Google Play.

And that’s it — for the  meantime, anyway. This is a growing field so I imagine I’ll be updating this post in the future.

 

Any thoughts? Any other tools you’d recommend?

Disclosure: a couple of these links are affiliate links. My comments are made regardless of this linkages and I’ve only taken affiliates from products I’d recommend.