The Word Cloud

I've been reading a lot about this and, to me, it seems like a good idea.

Not sure if you're familiar with Amanda Hocking but her story really got me thinking about self publishing for the first time.

www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/amanda-hocking-self-publishing

I also just read something on here about Tim O'Rourke and again I found it really inspiring.

www.writersworkshop.co.uk/blog/how-i-became-a-kindle-bestseller/

It all sounds too good to be true but then I don't know much about it.

Would love to hear your thoughts on self publishing via Amazon. The good and the bad...

Thanks!

You've no doubt had someone say to you, 'you should write a book.' Several people said that to me over the last ten years. Flattered, well yes! The only problem was what to write about? I hated English classes at school - hated school generally to be honest. I'd probably forgotten more than I ever knew about grammar, tense and punctuation. I could do verbs, nouns and adjectives I thought, but a participle? That only provided an degree of mirth; my dad's name being Percy Tipple. I rarely read anything other than car maintenance manuals, or electronics magazines or articles connected with work.

So what happened? Why do I want to write now? For starters, I've read lots of books over the last twenty years and enjoyed them. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. I knew which authors left me cold and those who worked for me, eager to read their latest. When I retired three years ago, we spent a lot of time in Thailand, especially over the winters. I began to write short articles about living here mainly for the benefit of those back home: perhaps to reassure them that we were alright living in Asia. Those early scrawlings were loaded with errors; all the things I'd forgotten about. But I enjoyed doing them.

This month I self-published them as a short e-book on Smashwords and Amazon, under the title of My Thai Eye, a wry look at things Thai. And they're selling, not in vast numbers - I didn't expect they would - but selling. I  did this for a number of reasons;

• It would raise some money for Thai flood relief: I have chosen a book library for children's charity. Seemed fitting as many were destroyed,
• It would help to get my name 'out there',
• I would gain experience at placing my own work in e-book stores and to learn how it all worked.

But My Thai Eye is done with now, apart from the marketing - which I think I'll enjoy - and checking from time to time to see how sales are going, which I might not. As part of my marketing, I designed my own website - and the cover for My Thai Eye - so gradually I'm learning quite a lot about more than writing.

I haven't acheived this alone and want to thank all of the Clouders at The Writers' Workshop - the best on-line community for new writers - and their editors who nicely but firmly pointed me in the right direction. Plus David Gaughran - you should visit his site Let's Get Digital if you want to e-pub, he's a real enthusiast.

So, what now? What to write about next? Two years ago I had no idea. Then one balmy evening, I had that eureka moment. I knew what my first novel would be about.

Edwin Tipple edwintipple.com

January 2555 (2012)

http://www.edwintipple.com/blog5.html

After listening to the anguish and turmoil of my fellow writers for a while now, I am beginning to consider the option of starting my own small-scale publishing firm.

I have had the opportunity to read a number of perfectly publishable books over the past year, and yet publishers turned these authors down, including me!

Now I'm not disillusioned, I know exactly how difficult this will be. It will require a great amount of time and effort to set up, it will be a costly venture and may well fall at the first hurdle!

However, I am between jobs at the moment, I have nothing better to do, and who better to work for than myself? I have some knowledge of business and some friends who have started their own business from scratch so I can always call on them for advice. I also have a friend  who has experience of supporting up-and-coming businesses from when she worked in PR, so I'm not really on my own here.

Like I said it's just a thought at the moment and nothing is set in stone.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Be as blunt as you want - If you think it is a stupid idea, tell me! If you have some advice or know any useful sites, organisations or anything that can help me, I'm all ears.

I enjoy designing the dustjacket of a book; I find it very relaxing and often considerably less demanding than actually writing the novel. Above you will see the dustjacket for TOR Assassin Hunter, my latest young adult novel. I think it’s pretty eyecatching. If you agree then below is the general plan of how I put it together. I hope it helps.

Firstly, I use Serif PagePlus 9.0. It will do pretty much 95% of what Photoshop will do and you can buy it on the net for about ten pounds. Photoshop will set you back a few hundred! Check it out. It’s very user-frendly and for such a low price you can’t go far wrong. They also do a very cheap web design software, Serif Webplus 10, which I also used to design www.felicitybrady.co.uk and www.thewsa.co.uk.

So now you have your software and you have spent a few days playing with it and you know what it can do. Now you must find a picture for the cover. Personally, I think a jacket with just one very powerful image on it is the most eyecatching. A crowded jacket just looks, well, crowded! So I decided the type of image I needed; in the case of TOR Assassin Hunter I wanted a picture of my hero, Tor, a 26 year old mercenary from the 1870s. Now, if you happen to be self published you probably have a very limited budget, so I simply went on Google Pics, put in ‘mercenary’ in the Search Box and on page 7 or so, I discovered the pic I wanted. I then contacted the illustrator and asked (begged) if I could put it on my cover. She was happy for me to do so and I, in return, put her name and webpage in the book; plus I will send her a free copy or two in February!

Next, I needed a short but sweet quote for the front of the book, so I sent a PDF of my book to a few lit mags and bloggers and I managed to get this: ‘So many twists, I felt dizzy’ from a lit. blogger down in New Zealand. This, I think, is very important. It needs to be simple and basically tell the ‘would-be’ reader that your book is f****** wonderful. For example, on the cover of my book, Felicity Brady and the Wizard’s Bookshop, there is simply the word ‘Spellbinding!’

The last bit of the puzzle is the blurb and for a bit of advice on this, see my other blog ‘Blogs, A Marketing Tool’.

Now you can start to put the jigsaw together.

Let’s start with fonts: the type, the size, the colour. TOR Assassin Hunter is set in 1870 so I wanted an oldish-looking font and I finally settled on High Tower Text. The size, well, I think ‘GO BIG!’ Simply the author’s name and the title of the book big and bold on the front; totally unmissable. Remember, your book will probably be selling on the internet so it needs to look good thumbnail size too. Finally colour. Well, TOR is a mercenary battling assassins so I went for red, a yummy bloody colour.

When designing your cover try not to forget the spine. It is the bit of the book that most browsers will first see on a shelf. I try not only to put the title and author’s name on it, but also a pic; in the case of TOR, a sword with a flower wrapped around it (my hero is not only a mercenary but he’s a botanist too!)

Now for the small stuff.  A price is handy, on the back of a paperback or on the inner front flap of a hardback’s ductjacket. I also put there ‘Children/Young Adult’; it helps parents, particularly dads, who can be a bit crap. And don’t forget the ISBN Number!

But the most important thing of all is ‘feedback’. Let lots of people see the cover prior to your book being published and try to listen to what they have to say. Often difficult, I know, but it is a little embarrassing if the title of your book is spelt incorrectly on the front cover.

Ok, that’s all for now. Next week: editing!

 

seems to be the thing to do these days.

http://sophiejonashill.blogspot.com/

If you would like to hear my ramblings, efforts and progress on the way to being published, do stop by!

For anyone who's confused by the plethora of options for getting your book 'out there' (apart from a deal from one of the big 6 trade publishers) this  very useful  post from Writer Beware tells you what to look for.
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/small/

When you plan your ‘Bestseller’ you can do it in one of two ways: write the story you want to read in the bathtub or write the story everybody else wants to read in the bathtub. Occasionally, for example, the wonderful J K Rowling and her Harry Potter books, the two coincide, but usually, 99.999999999% of the time, they don’t. So, which to choose? Well, it depends on you and why you decided to spend the next year or so torturing yourself at a keyboard. If there’s a wonderful but totally unmarketable story in you and you think ‘Hell to it! I’m gonna write it anyway!’ then I think ‘Good for you’ and ‘Go for it’ but sadly, the hard, inescapable truth is you probably won’t sell very many. But maybe that’s ok. Maybe to you the book is simply a trophy, to sit happily on a shelf in the front room just over the TV so anybody who visits will spot it, particularly Cousin-Alfred who always seems to have a much bigger car than you. But, if you decide to check out the market and try to write a book that fills a niche, then, in my opinion, you’re not just a writer, you’re an author too.

When I wrote my latest children’s novel, The Gullfoss Legends, I decided to spend a lot of my time pouring over the primary school curriculum for English and consequently I discovered the importance of myths and legends, historical setting and understanding a different culture, to teachers responsible for stocking the book cupboard. Consequently my novel is based on a legend in Iceland in the early 1900s. BINGO! My book fulfills three of the key elements of the school curriculum. Now, when I market my book to schools, parents and even the odd library, I can explain this to them. The result: I pre-sold 90% of the 500 books initially planned to be printed before they had even been printed! I sold thousands of my first set of books all about a girl called Felicity Brady who finds a magic bookshop (Felicity Brady and the Wizard’s Bookshop), and I realistically plan to sell 6,500 Gullfoss Legends in the next academic year. But to do this I must do a colossal amount of marketing. This is helped by the fact I already had a market in mind i.e. schools, prior and during the writing of the novel.

But if you too wish to market your children’s book to schools then STOP! THINK! There’s an awful lot to do. You can’t just pop in the school, set up a table in the hall and sign away. First, you must persuade the literacy co-ordinators to allow you to visit. This is no easy task! I offer free literacy workshops - this gets me in the door - but I’m an ex-secondary school English teacher so I (sort of) know what I’m doing. Also, if you suffer from stage fright, this might not be the route for you. I visit approx. 200 primary schools in the UK a year and I talk to small groups of children (20 or so) and large groups of children (up to 1,000!) so it’s important you enjoy being stared at by so many critical eyes. And my job in these workshops is not just to educate; I must entertain too. Basically, my job is to get them to laugh, and by doing so, get them to learn (and buy a book too).

I no longer teach; I’m a full-time author, so I guess my workshops must be a success. I think (hope) they get better and better. Last year I spoke to over 27,000 children just in London. My secret formula to a good workshop for kids: energy, lots and lots of energy. I do get fantastic feedback from teachers and pupils and they do buy a lot of my books. And doing this: writing and giving workshops; well, I would not give it up for anything. Half of my life is spent writing and half in front of a hall full of kids. Wonderful fun!

Knowing the market for your book also helps when you’re looking for a publishing contract with the ‘Big Boys!’  Often a publisher wants to know how you, the author, see the market for your book. If you can confidently tell them you planned and wrote the book with an affluent market in mind then Bob’s y’ uncle and y’ best pal too. Even better if you self published your book and now with so many orders flooding in you need help!

I understand many authors believe a book is sacred and the idea of a marketing plan prior to writing it is sacrilege. I guess Tolkien did not have multi-million dollar films in mind when he wrote The Lord of the Rings, and nor did C S Lewis when Aslan growled in his mind. But we live and write now, and now is a much more competitive world with wild, hungry packs of authors all juggling for shelf space and a publishing contract. So think market. I knew prior to writing The Gullfoss Legends that there was a tourist centre by the waterfalls. Now, there’s my market, I thought, and happily, they ordered a truck-full.

Just a note on bookshops. Personally I think most of them want too big a cut and frankly, unless you do a book signing or your novel hits it big, your book will be lost on a tiny shelf in a dusty, slightly cobwebby corner of the shop. The trick to self publishing is to sell direct and the trick to selling direct is to identify a market you can tap directly in to. No greedy middle men!

Finally, the title of the book. These days, think Google and think Amazon. Do not choose a title that will get lost in the vast world of the internet. For example, if you decide to call your new fantasy book, ‘The Wizard and His Magic Wand!’ then anybody looking for your book who puts the title in Google will be met with an eye-popping 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 hits (most of them probably rather unusual and very creative porn!). With The Gullfoss Legends, Gullfoss is a word which is only associated with the waterfall in Iceland I’m writing about. Consequently, there are hundreds, not trillions of hits for ‘Gullfoss’ on Google so my book has a chance of being discovered on the first page or two of the results.

So, if you want to self publish your novel, wonderful! The very best of luck to you. But if you want to sell it and sell it ‘BIG!’ then you can’t just be a writer, you must be a very enterprising entrepreneur too. And the time to be that entrepreneur is when you plan the book. Basically, first think ‘Market’ and then think ‘Book’.

Billy Bob Buttons, the pen name of Edward H Trayer, is the author of six independently published books and the organizer of The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards (www.thewsa.co.uk), the first independent book award based in the UK. His next YA book, TOR Assassin Hunter, will  be in the shops in February, 2012.

Visit his website: www.felicitybrady.co.uk.

When you plan your ‘Bestseller’ you can do it in one of two ways: write the story you want to read in the bathtub or write the story everybody else wants to read in the bathtub. Occasionally, for example, the wonderful J K Rowling and her Harry Potter books, the two coincide, but usually, 99.999999999% of the time, they don’t. So, which to choose? Well, it depends on you and why you decided to spend the next year or so torturing yourself at a keyboard. If there’s a wonderful but totally unmarketable story in you and you think ‘Hell to it! I’m gonna write it anyway!’ then I think ‘Good for you’ and ‘Go for it’ but sadly, the hard, inescapable truth is you probably won’t sell very many. But maybe that’s ok. Maybe to you the book is simply a trophy, to sit happily on a shelf in the front room just over the TV so anybody who visits will spot it, particularly Cousin-Alfred who always seems to have a much bigger car than you. But, if you decide to check out the market and try to write a book that fills a niche, then, in my opinion, you’re not just a writer, you’re an author too.

When I wrote my latest children’s novel, The Gullfoss Legends, I decided to spend a lot of my time pouring over the primary school curriculum for English and consequently I discovered the importance of myths and legends, historical setting and understanding a different culture, to teachers responsible for stocking the book cupboard. Consequently my novel is based on a legend in Iceland in the early 1900s. BINGO! My book fulfills three of the key elements of the school curriculum. Now, when I market my book to schools, parents and even the odd library, I can explain this to them. The result: I pre-sold 90% of the 500 books initially planned to be printed before they had even been printed! I sold thousands of my first set of books all about a girl called Felicity Brady who finds a magic bookshop (Felicity Brady and the Wizard’s Bookshop), and I realistically plan to sell 6,500 Gullfoss Legends in the next academic year. But to do this I must do a colossal amount of marketing. This is helped by the fact I already had a market in mind i.e. schools, prior and during the writing of the novel.

But if you too wish to market your children’s book to schools then STOP! THINK! There’s an awful lot to do. You can’t just pop in the school, set up a table in the hall and sign away. First, you must persuade the literacy co-ordinators to allow you to visit. This is no easy task! I offer free literacy workshops - this gets me in the door - but I’m an ex-secondary school English teacher so I (sort of) know what I’m doing. Also, if you suffer from stage fright, this might not be the route for you. I visit approx. 200 primary schools in the UK a year and I talk to small groups of children (20 or so) and large groups of children (up to 1,000!) so it’s important you enjoy being stared at by so many critical eyes. And my job in these workshops is not just to educate; I must entertain too. Basically, my job is to get them to laugh, and by doing so, get them to learn (and buy a book too).

I no longer teach; I’m a full-time author, so I guess my workshops must be a success. I think (hope) they get better and better. Last year I spoke to over 27,000 children just in London. My secret formula to a good workshop for kids: energy, lots and lots of energy. I do get fantastic feedback from teachers and pupils and they do buy a lot of my books. And doing this: writing and giving workshops; well, I would not give it up for anything. Half of my life is spent writing and half in front of a hall full of kids. Wonderful fun!

Knowing the market for your book also helps when you’re looking for a publishing contract with the ‘Big Boys!’  Often a publisher wants to know how you, the author, see the market for your book. If you can confidently tell them you planned and wrote the book with an affluent market in mind then Bob’s y’ uncle and y’ best pal too. Even better if you self published your book and now with so many orders flooding in you need help!

I understand many authors believe a book is sacred and the idea of a marketing plan prior to writing it is sacrilege. I guess Tolkien did not have multi-million dollar films in mind when he wrote The Lord of the Rings, and nor did C S Lewis when Aslan growled in his mind. But we live and write now, and now is a much more competitive world with wild, hungry packs of authors all juggling for shelf space and a publishing contract. So think market. I knew prior to writing The Gullfoss Legends that there was a tourist centre by the waterfalls. Now, there’s my market, I thought, and happily, they ordered a truck-full.

Just a note on bookshops. Personally I think most of them want too big a cut and frankly, unless you do a book signing or your novel hits it big, your book will be lost on a tiny shelf in a dusty, slightly cobwebby corner of the shop. The trick to self publishing is to sell direct and the trick to selling direct is to identify a market you can tap directly in to. No greedy middle men!

Finally, the title of the book. These days, think Google and think Amazon. Do not choose a title that will get lost in the vast world of the internet. For example, if you decide to call your new fantasy book, ‘The Wizard and His Magic Wand!’ then anybody looking for your book who puts the title in Google will be met with an eye-popping 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 hits (most of them probably rather unusual and very creative porn!). With The Gullfoss Legends, Gullfoss is a word which is only associated with the waterfall in Iceland I’m writing about. Consequently, there are hundreds, not trillions of hits for ‘Gullfoss’ on Google so my book has a chance of being discovered on the first page or two of the results.

So, if you want to self publish your novel, wonderful! The very best of luck to you. But if you want to sell it and sell it ‘BIG!’ then you can’t just be a writer, you must be a very enterprising entrepreneur too. And the time to be that entrepreneur is when you plan the book. Basically, first think ‘Market’ and then think ‘Book’.

Billy Bob Buttons, the pen name of Edward H Trayer, is the author of six independently published books and the organizer of The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards (www.thewsa.co.uk), the first independent book award based in the UK. His next YA book, TOR Assassin Hunter, will  be in the shops in February, 2012.

Visit his website: www.felicitybrady.co.uk.

Has anyone heard of these people:

http://www.bibliotastic.com/

Apparently free publishing and free to download books?

I am slowly working through a list of possible agents to send my opus too - and I have been reading up on the website of one of them.
They speak of wanting to see that an aspiring author has already made efforts at self publicity (Not publication) because they're looking for someone they can market and can represent themselves well in an interview etc. Well, no issue with stage fright there as I'm always getting on TV and have done a tone of interviews, though most not broadcast as yet - but should I think about having a website/blog about me as an aspiring writer also?
Has anyone else done such a thing, and has it worked?
I imagine one would not publish extracts of great length or the work it's self, but presumably a few snippets and a sort of back cover blurb, and sort of 'this is how I do it' kind of articles?
What about a Facebook page?