Tag: Self publishing

L…is for Lessons Learned.

I’ve learned a lot throughout this past year about self-publishing but also about myself.

And sometimes I like to say that my failures are the reasons why I still believe in success. Here are a few of the things I learned:

• Continue to dream big.
• Publish books closer to one another in date.
• Be realistic…
• Working on a business plan – not only for one book but each stage of my career.
• Define what success means for me.
• Connect and learn from other writers (really, they’re awesome and the amount of things I’ve learned from them is priceless).
• Don’t be afraid to say: “I didn’t do as well as expected.” Don’t be afraid to say: “I learned.” Don’t be afraid to see failure as a step towards success.
• Make sure you have enough coffee
• Make sure I take some time away from my writing.
• Continue to learn about the business.
• Read. Read. Read.
• Find ways to connect with readers.
• Write short stories or excerpts for my newsletter.
• Sometimes, I’ve got to step away from reviews.
• Other times, I have to make sure I seek them.
• Make sure I don’t forget to stay in the moment: publishing is a business but it’s also bringing your words to readers. People are going to read (are reading) my words, they’re having a reaction to my characters. This is truly magical.
• WRITE!

Join me tomorrow for M

K…is for Klitschko.

Technically today was supposed to be about Kindle. But…I’m feeling kind of sluggish, so I’ll reserve this part when I talk about vendors.

Instead I’ll just leave you with a photo of Wladimir Klitschko.

Why? Well…why not? 🙂

And he’s boxing on April 25th. The hubby and I saw him several times but we won’t make it to New York.

And another reason? He kind of makes me want to write a NA romantic suspense novel taking place in the boxing world. Maybe one day.

 Join me tomorrow for L…

J is for…Juggling roles.

When you’re self-publishing, you’re not only a writer, you’re also a business. You need to think like a business without losing the joy of writing (see what I did there, another J)

It’s a Juggling act. That’s why I’m going to create a business plan and make sure I schedule my time appropriately, to make sure that (i) I dedicate enough time to writing, (ii) I follow up on my own deadlines, (iii) promote as needed, (iv) learn and continue learning not only about my craft but about how the business of publishing is evolving.

 Join me tomorrow for K…Kindle

H…is for Hybrid.

Not the cars. But the authors. Some authors who are self-publishing have an agent and are also pursuing (or are already) published “traditionally.” Some may have found an agent through self-publishing, others may have already had an agent and a traditional deal but then self-published another book or were agented but decided to self-published first and another manuscript found their way to an editor.

One does not exclude the other. And I think it really comes from the thought process one puts behind its own publishing path. It’s not “one size fits all” type of experience.

Personally, I am not looking for an agent and I’m not looking to be traditionally published at the moment. Why? I like to have control over the aspects of publishing that I do. For ONE TWO THREE, I chose my pub date to coincide with my parents’ 40th year anniversary. I like that the process can be as fast as you want to be (or as fast as you can make it happen). Maybe one day, I’ll change my mind and will pursue querying again but not now. Now I’m still learning how to do this right and that’s where my energy is going.

However, if you want to read some amazing self-pub by hybrid authors: CHASING THE DREAMS series by Elizabeth Briggs. She published the NA contemporary romance series herself but her science-fiction YA FUTURE SHOCK will be published by Albert Whitman & Company. Or Dahlia Adler who published LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT but has several books with Spencer Hill, including UNDER THE LIGHTS coming out in June.

Talking about Dahlia, she has this amazing series on her blog about publishing and one part of it was about self-published authors, including the topic of “Hybridizing”. It has great insight (and you can see it here)

 Join me tomorrow for I…Inspiration

Goodreads…ah, Goodreads.

Seeing those first reviews coming up on Goodreads are quite nerve-wracking. And actually checking up Goodreads can be quite nerve-wracking.

Honestly, I read the reviews a lot at the beginning, and then only sporadically. For my own sanity. But I do try to learn from them now: what’s the one thing readers seem to enjoy about my writing? I’ve read somewhere you should try to inject more of your strength in your books and try to improve your weaknesses.

And yes, sometimes I can’t be pretending I’m all fine and dandy.

That’s usually when I write desperate emails to my lovely writer friends. Bad reviews happen, they really do. When it does? As I said, I reach out to my friends who are awesome in cheering me up, I re-read emails from readers who loved my book too and sometimes I check out what other books those readers didn’t like…in the mix, there is always one book I absolutely loved that they also hated. That makes me feel better somehow…or I look up reviews of books I loved and realize some of them have worse average than mine.  However, I NEVER ENGAGE with reviewers.

I also use Goodreads for giveaways and for raising awareness about my book that way. I found it to work quite well. But from now on, I will only put up one book.

 Join me tomorrow for H…Hybrid

F is for…Formatting: Have you ever seen a book where the formatting just seemed off? there was one too many spaces between words or a weird paragraph indent? A bad formatting  can turn readers off.

As I was preparing this post, Elizabeth Briggs (author of the CHASING THE DREAM sexy NA series) tweeted:

Bad formatting can happen to anyone but when you have control over the process (when you are self-pubbing, you are the one pushing the “publish” button), you really need to make sure it’s not all over the place.

In addition, once more you need to decide what format you’re going for: is it ebook? print? Are you going to publish on Smashwords? Which portal are you going to use?

For ONE TWO THREE, I used Caitlin Greer (she’s awesome, just saying) and she formatted the books for me in those formats:

• .pdf,
•  .mobi (Kindle)
• .epub (every other ereader)
• and final Word .doc.

The process was very easy, Cait sent me a list of documents she would need and told me she would need 3 to 5 days to complete the job at the time I “booked” her. She also did an ARC version and a final version. How did I find Cait? Thanks to the recommendation of Jennifer Ellision (Author of  THREATS OF SKY AND SEA series)

There are a lot of do-your-own formatting resources that you can use. As I’m trying to save money and have more time, I am learning how to format both print and e books.  I think this decision here should come from your business plan. You should know how much time you approximately have, if you usually are good with formatting, how much money you would be spending and so on and so on.

Articles or resources about formatting:

• Publishing: 5 Top Tips for Formatting Ebooks
• DIY Book Formats
• Advance Novel Formatting with Scrivener 

 Join me on tomorrow for G…Goodreads

E is for…Editing: Editing is very important, I think it really helps set your book apart and does justice to the readers. I find it especially crucial for me because English isn’t my mother tongue (even though I do end up writing more easily in English than in French but that would be another blog post).

Before deciding on self-publishing ONE TWO THREE, it went through several rounds of beta reading and critiquing. However, I failed to tackle one major aspect most readers commented about and which I should have done then. This mainly explain why I went through so many editors. Once I made that big, big, biiiiiig change which was “developmental editing” and which I didn’t anticipate, I then still had to go through line editing and copy editing. And since I didn’t anticipate it, I didn’t book the editors I needed and I had that self-made deadline.

On the other hand, ONE DREAM ONLY when through two rounds with the same editor (copy editing and proofreading). Which, hmmm, let’s face it makes so much more sense.

When it comes to editing, freelance editors usually have several packages: developmental editing, line editing, content editing, copy-editing…some offer proofreading as well.

From now on, I will not use developmental editing. Why? (1) I became a better writer (I’ve now written fours books, one novelette…and I’ve beta read and critiqued some amazing manuscripts), (2) I learned how to adapt comments from beta readers and CPs much better hence my manuscripts are now stronger from the get-go.

I will use copy editing and proofreading.

How do you choose your editor? In my view, you should either use a copy editor you have “seen” in action (i.e. read a book you really liked in the same genre as yours, and check who the editor was, most authors will thank the people they worked with in the acknowledgements), and/or make sure you can somehow check credentials. In addition, don’t hesitate to make use of the “sample” most editors offer (they edit a few pages of your work so you can see how they work).

List of editors (in no particular order – some offer developmental editing)

• Double Vision Editorial
• Dahlia Adler
• SP Critique & Editing Service
• Maya Rock
• Sarah Henning
• Rebecca Watson

 Join me tomorrow for F…Formatting