Aspiring Self-Publishers, Start Here

Now is the greatest time in history to be a writer. Self Publishing has taken what before might have been an insurmountable task, and put it only a mouse click away. The chance to have your book published. No more do the agents and publishing houses have power over the "unmarketable". Our readers get to choose who they want to read, and what they want to read about.

Unfortunately they also get to wade through the sludge pile of unedited, poorly thought out and poorly executed work. Not long ago I was also in awe at the concept of getting my work out there for others to enjoy. Excited that I would not have to worry about the rejection letters that I was sure would rain down on my mail box. (If I'd ever had the guts to send out any queries.)

My first novella was written for Harlequin nocturne cravings, and was studiously ignored for what seemed like forever to me, but was more like three months. During my wait, I discovered that you could self publish. I did my homework and found that the benefits of Independent publishing far out weighed the stigma. I took my little novella and self published it for the first time in December 2011. And never looked at a publishing house again.

Unfortunately I was not ready for publishing. All of the wrongs I previously stated ran through every inch of my book. Sales went through the roof, but it sat uneasy with me the more I learned. I fixed everything but the cover and today it is still one of my best sellers. 

More and more on the forums I frequent I see newbies posting looking for feedback on a book they've already put up for sale. This is not the time to ask for help! That time is before you even upload. Writers groups are around for your benefit. Use them. This is the best place to ask some one for opinions on what you might be doing wrong. 

Your mother, brother, friend, co worker, do not qualify as editors. Even as proof readers they fall short. None of them will want to hurt your feelings, therefor, they will not tell you when your story isn't good enough. Grammar, spelling, syntax, flow and story progression, can only be remedied by an editor. No, your Microsoft Word spell checker does not count as an editor.

Self Publishing is the most rewarding thing I've ever done, but like any thing that's worth doing, it requires hard work, determination, and drive. Slow down, take a deep breath, and polish your work before you start selling it. You will be rewarded in the end. 

Til next time, may your Muse be at your side, and your writing the light that guides you.

Dawn

Judging A Book By It's Cover. The Evolution Of An eBook Cover

-Mark Barry

I always wanted to write a football hooligan novel. 

Most Americans would never have heard of the pastime which dominated male culture in Cities across Great Britain in the seventies and eighties, but the hobby was pretty widespread. 

I was actively involved in my younger days and had a resource to draw from.

In November and December last year I put together 60k novel on er, off-field activities at Notts County Football Club, in Nottingham, England - the oldest football league club in the world. 

Then, after getting the bug bigtime, and discovering a talent for fast writing, I started writing other books and before you know it, I had four, one planned and a publishing company. 

Trouble is, while I can write a storm, I am an idiot when it comes to Art.

 I have to say that I have no artistic talent whatsoever. 

CSE Grade 5 Art in 1980. 

My Art teacher, the glamourous but waspish Mrs Dowell, in the days when these things were allowed, humiliated me in front of 25 other children by laughing at my publicly displayed effort. 

And that was that with my aspirations to paint landscapes in Sherwood Forest.

UV "Kent Cover" Version One Feb 2012

So when it came to covers, I was worried. 

Then, I thought, how difficult can this BE in a world of technology! With all the packages available, you too can be Picasso, a Renoir, a David Bailey.

So in February this year, I travelled to Kent and started designing the five covers.

Using Open Office Draw, Google and a notepad and pen, I came up with the above for the football hooligan novel.  

At the time, I wanted a pseudonym for the book - hence, Simon Haddow. (Shadow - Mask - Geddit?) 

This is a photograph of some West Ham fans taunting Millwall supporters stretched a bit in a Cubist, Twilight Zone, dreamlike state

When I showed him the finished product on my now defunct website, a friend asked me where I got the photograph. 

I said Google. 

He then went into a ten minute rage about copyright (being a top photographer and graphic designer.)

I never gave it a second thought. I thought Google Images was a public access thing. 

It took me about a day for my friend Kelly and I to design the above, choose the colours, the fonts and all that - and ten seconds to delete it.

Version II didn;t take too long. As Trainer (Sneaker) Culture  was a key aspect of the football hooligan scene in the eighties, I decided - indeed, became fixated - upon the notion of using a sneaker on the front. It seemed to say everything to me. 

Ultra Violence "Diadora Plain" Version II March 2012

I took a photograph of one of my trainers, a Diadora Borg Elite with Gold Epaulettes, and messed about with it on Open Office. 

Notice that the font layout and texture is the same as Version 1. Just different colours.

A week later, I was on the treadmill in my local gym and my trainer came up to me and told me he'd seen all the new covers on the website. He asked me what I'd used to design them. I told him. Open Office. Great JPEG conversion reliability.

Well, he went quiet. 

A lovely young lad called Adam. Top notch gamer. Has a Solid State hard drive and that.  Knows Java. I like to think he's a good friend of mine and as I plodded along at 8k an hour, I realised he didn't like the covers but he was far too nice to tell me. 

Not just the Ultra Violence one. 

All of them.

Gulp. Launch date for the books coming up like a bullet train in open country and five new covers to design.

Version 3 below is my attempt at a Seventies "Reader's Digest" approach. A thematic branding in trendy black and white, with a stark bottle green afterflash. I like the symbolic flash of red.

All five look identical to this. I loved the big green number and I quite like the aesthetic combination of grey and green. I used Word. 

I spent an entire week doing this and I couldn't wait to put the five covers on the website.

UV "Fifty Shades of Grey" Version III April 2012

I did so.

Sales went through the floor. 

That's where Dawn Smith of Dark Dawn Creations got involved.

In my short time on the Amazon Forum, I met Dawn. 

Early June. None of my books were selling. My friend and close associate, Kelly, had feedback that my covers were unappealing. 

As I have never bought a book in my entire life (and I have a sneaky collection of around a thousand), based on its cover, I didn't think that a cover made a jot of difference.

Maybe when I was about to starve, I would see the error of my ways.

One night in early June, Dawn advertised on the forum as a cover designer saying she had slots available. 

It was just too good to be true. I e-mailed her straight away and she got straight back to me. I asked her to assess my covers and she said she would.

Well. 

She didn't mince her words. I was chastened.

And with that, I was the last customer to get a deal.

Together, on Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo e-mail, Dawn and I worked on the five covers. 

Here's Version 4.

UV "County Road" Version IV June 2012

I took the photograph of Notts County's Meadow Lane stadium one afternoon in mid June. 

The guy in the hat is a Random from one of the Stock sites. 

I had never heard of Stock, but I had heard of multi thousand pound lawsuits by now and I won't make that mistake again. 

The bloody ball is Dawn's idea. 

All my books have my name in this format - based on Stephen King's First Edition hardback "Skeleton Crew", in solid block letters. Dawn came up with the colours for the title and I added the red graffiti idea. 

In all, it took us about eight nights/days - there are 8 hours between the UK and Arizona - to produce six covers (including one newly written book). 

Dawn suggested I drop the Green Wizard branding as it was fatally flawed after my abortive launch. I did so, with heavy heart, though only temporarily, and the brand has helped the marketing in other ways.

You can see them all in the photo folder of Green Wizard Publishing on Facebook or on Dawn's website.

Together, Dark Dawn Creations and Green Wizard Publishing are working on the paperback cover designs (UV is already out). I can honestly say that visiting the Amazon forum - a battleground if there ever was one - that afternoon was one of the most important (and lucky) decisions I've ever made. 

Thanks, Dawn!!

Mark Barry

Green Wizard

Find Mark at: 

Green Wizard Publishing Facebook

The Wizards Cauldron

The Independent Paperback Bookshop

Mark Barry has become a good friend in our months of planning and co-conspiring, and I look forward to seeing his dreams come to fruition. As the founder of Dark Dawn Creations I have helped many authors get the cover they desire cheaper than they could have imagined, and I have gained many friends. I will help any one, regardless of budget or genre. Stop by my website and drop me a line, I'm always here to help. 

Til next time, may your muse be at your side, and your writing the light that guides you. 

Dawn

Economic Collapse? What about the Future of Ebooks?

 by Damien Darby

The latest deluge of economic data has swept through and it doesn’t look good - how will this affect the future of ebooks? Austerity measures are creeping over the modern western world, and yet Spain is the next runner-up in sovereign nations on the edge of default. Europeans have been consuming ebooks and their corresponding technologies voraciously, and their employment struggles are as intense as ours here in the states, if not worse. On the other hand, huge new markets are set to open in the near future. One example is the Kindle’s debut in China set for next year. Another is the up and coming consumers of India and Australia.

I bet right now in some deep dark nerd dungeon, there are a lucky few engineering 21st century translation software tailored for ebooks that are destined to be the billionaires of the next decade. Something palpable and malleable that will be used by online distributors from Bangkok to Boston.   

Many ebook authors find themselves wondering what the future of ebooks looks like given the mainstream media’s harping on ever more dangerous fiscal realities. Many of us ebook authors in the trenches have seen our sales dip after the last holiday season and rightly so. Since then too much about most people’s money has become unstable, unsure, and unpredictable. Big name titles are still making it to Hollywood, and recently guests on popular talk shows are there to promote their “ebook” finally, but what can the average author expect?

What the Future of Ebooks Will Bring

• The unflinching domination of print books by their digital counterparts will stay the course, unless for some reason we go back to the Stone Age.
• Handheld technology and eReaders will be distributed and used by a third of the human population within the next decade.
• Quality control is going to begin hammering down, putting more pressure on aspiring ebook authors to polish their work in order to compete.
• Readers will form increasingly powerful niche groups online that most likely promise more sales than traditional social networking today. Sorry Facebook and Twitter.

Time to Take Stock

A fair amount of authors today got in the digital gold rush of ebooks around the middle of last year. Like a herd, discouraged workers, college students, and the unemployed sought to be the next big thing to hit the digital scene, and make a killing. However, the recession has worsened, and some of the hype didn’t pan out. Perhaps now is a good time, in light of the future of ebooks, to sit back and take stock of what you’ve done. Furthermore, what you can do to ensure a higher degree of success in the near future.

• Get your works edited/proofread as soon as possible. Filling the shelves is great, and needs to be done, but make sure that the products can compete.
• Go over the small details and make sure everything is as it should be. One big example is categories. Too many authors skim the small stuff thinking it doesn’t matter. Tip: Get your books out of any “general” category, and put them in something more refined.
• If things are squared away, do some digging and see if there isn’t another new ebook distributor looking for titles. Do your research, but sticking to the Big Six isn’t practical anymore.

Discouragement is really Encouragement

I myself have published 14 ebooks, and I’m not quite at the point of a smashing success yet. I wholeheartedly, from balls to bones, believe in the future of ebooks. It’s been a rough road. The countless hours writing, formatting, and self-editing/re-reading made my shoulders and elbows ache, my lower back throb, and my eyes sore. However, the outlook is bright, as long as we consider our ebooks as what they are: long term investments not short order satisfaction.

3 Easy Things You Could Write for $$$

If you would like to see some quick sales, I advise people in my sphere to compose shorter articles between 4k-10k words long. They are less time consuming in terms of the editing and formatting departments, and the quick reads seem to be really popular right now. The last one I did was a mini biography in the owner of SpaceX, Elon Musk. Here’s five good ideas from me to you.

• Do an article on how a family could construct and maintain a small herb garden say, on the deck of a one or two bedroom apartment.
• Write one that in some aspect will appeal to the large swaths of “renters” that have taken over the depressed American real-estate market.
• With the end date of Dec 21st 2012 just around the corner, a “prepper” article would be a good shot. Give it a fascinating twist.
• A short zombie story that has to do with the “bath salts” drug would probably get some good hits. Be Quick!
• Figure out something you would love to learn, something small, simple, and then teach someone how to do it in 5k words.

Here’s to the future of ebooks, Cheers!

Damien Darby

Let's Talk, Marketing and the Blog

One of the questions I get asked most often, and find quite frequently on  forum threads is; As a self published author, how do I market? This is  a very good question.  Facebook is okay, as well as Twitter. However, let's face it, if you don't already have a million followers, you're not likely to get them anytime soon as a self-published author. So Facebook and Twitter lose their merit.

You could advertise by spamming people's cars in a parking lot, or standing on the street-corner sign spinning. Although, I'm sure those flyers just get tossed to the ground, and nobody really reads those signs. Spamming forums meant for authors might get you a few sales, but all you're really doing is irritating the authors that go there to give & get advice, and blow off some steam.

So what's left? Blogging baby! Ok so I'm a little biased, but I have to say that my blog has brought me so many sales it's crazy. I must caution any newbie authors. It's not as easy as it seems. Yes, it's only a blog. Be that as it may, you can turn your personal online diary into something that millions can't wait to read.

My best advice to a self-published author when it comes to blogging, is stick to one topic. When you surf the internet, you are searching for information. That's the number-one reason why people use the world wide web. A blog for a self-published author can also be full of useful information. It does take a bit of planning and time, but it is relatively easy.

Here are some tips for those that wish to take their blog to a new level.

• Make sure your blog is easy to read.

The most common mistake when people create a blog; they design it so that it appeals to them. While adding a bit of your own personal style is a must, don't over do it. One of the worst offenses is the black background with colored lettering. This can very hard on the eyes, and your readers are less likely to come back. It is also not a good style for the bots. They don't like it. A white or cream background with black lettering is the best option. Speaking of Bots...

• Use SEO

SEO is your best friend when it comes to driving traffic to your blog. (This article is filled with SEO key words, dare you to find them!) That is what our precious tiny Bot friends look for when scanning your page for relevance. If you missed last month's post on Indie author SEO, you can use my handy dandy compact search box on the right, to look it up. That post was written by Damien Darby, a man that makes his living off of writing SEO articles for clients. Speaking of which...

• You can hire content writers if you don't know what to write!

As hard as I try sometimes between screaming kids, manuscripts, book covers, author features, and editing, my blog tends to fall to the wayside. Every now and again, I treat my readers to new insights from other authors by way of content writers or guest bloggers. Content writers do cost money, but it is well worth it. They are professionals who know what they're doing when it comes to SEO. Plus, you have the added advantage of telling them what to write about. Guest bloggers, while providing content free, sometimes are not so good at SEO, and generally, they write what they want to write about.(Within the relevance of your blog.) There are places you can go to find both. ODesk, and Text Broker are great for finding the right content writer. My Blog Guest is suitable for finding guest bloggers. Both are free to sign up, Odesk you set the price for the article. Text Broker is generally five cents a word, about ten dollars for a five hundred word article.

• Post often!

Readers don't want to come back to your blog and see the same post that was up there last month. The key to a successful blog is posting regularly with fresh updated content. Twice a week posting is the consensus when it comes to how often you should post. I post  on my main page every seven days, and on my note worthy releases page every seven days. Though I have been doing a lot of blog stops tours, so I've been posting twice a week on my main page.



A successful blog can be a self-published author's best friend in terms of marketing. All it takes it determination, a little insight, and a head-full of ideas. As always, I'm available for any one who wishes me to take a look at their blog and offer some advice.(Use the contact me info to drop me an email) If any one out there has anything to add that I've forgotten, Leave a comment!



Until next time, may your muse be at your side, and your writing the light that guides you.

Dawn

My Self-Publishing Journey, One Woman's Journey into the World of Self Publishing

 by Shawndra Russell

photo by Sura Nualpradid

On May 1, I took a big step towards becoming a published author: I launched a Kickstarter, which is a crowd-funding platform used to help not only authors but also musicians, inventors, and artists of all kinds. But the decision to use Kickstarter wasn’t my first choice, and self-publishing wasn’t my first dream.

I’m guessing like me, many of you grew up daydreaming about becoming a big-time author with your hardcover book displayed one day in the same bookstores that you shopped at and your book being adapted into a blockbuster movie. Perhaps you fantasized of flying around the world on a book tour, eating fabulous dinners with equally fabulous people that all loved your book. Maybe you even had aspirations to move to New York City to be in the thick of the publishing industry. 

As an adult, you learn that these fantasies aren’t real and authors, even those successful in financial terms, struggle with this profession that we mostly love but sometimes hate.

You learn the meaning of rejection. That big advances aren’t as big as you imagined, and are harder and harder to come by. The publishing industry has changed forever, and maybe your favorite bookstore has turned into another Subway. You may even wish you could be transported back in time when the path to publication seemed simpler.

Nevertheless, you press on. For me, I started writing my first real novel a year and a half ago. It actually started out as a screenplay—I don’t know why, it just came out that way—and I later transformed it into a novel during NaNoWriMo. After four drafts and a few beta-readers under my belt, I went to New York City to the Writer’s Digest Conference with plans to land an agent that weekend and be on my way to traditional publication by Monday.

What was I thinking?!

At the pitch slam, eight out of ten agents I pitched said they wanted to read more. I was ecstatic. Three months later with five rejections and three no-responses, I stuck to my self-made promise: that I would learn all I could about self-publishing and see if it was right for me; I asked myself if I was capable of going the indie publishing route, and my answer was happily a resounding “Yes!”

But around this time, Kickstarter kept coming onto my radar. I knew a couple of people who had launched a campaign to raise funds for a new invention or an art project, but I hadn’t looked into writers successfully using this platform. Then Chuck Wendig of TerribleMinds raised enough funds to self-publish not one but TWO new books, and I thought, why not try this route?

I am in the middle of my Kickstarter campaign which ends May 31 and still has a long way to go before reaching the target amount of $4000. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing program, so if the entire amount isn’t raised, then no one pays a dime and I don’t get a dime (sniff, sniff).

However, this experience has made me take important steps like letting the world know I have a novel, contacting bloggers about guest posts, and find a professional editor. It’s thrilling to know that I WILL independently publish a book in 2012. Not sign a contract with an agent and then sign a publishing deal only to wait 18 months for my book to be released, but actually be able to share this story with the world. I’m thankful that we have the ability to Self-publish our precious manuscripts with relative ease in terms of the actual uploading of our words—that’s not to say marketing and making actual sales will be a cakewalk!—and be in charge of our careers.

Good luck to all of your on your self-publishing journeys, and please contact me if you have any questions about using Kickstarter or anything else!

You can pre-order Shawndra’s novel through Kickstarter, follow her on Twitter at @ShawndraRussell, and read her published work at www.shawndra-russell.com.

 

Using your Pen Name Wisely

For many authors including myself the use of a pen name is common. Authors who wish to genre cross or just want to keep their real name private may choose this option. In the last year my pen names have become an extension of me. There are a few key details that you need to make sure you have covered if you do not want your pen names coming back to haunt you. 

• Remember that your pen name is an separate identity. Try not to link your pen name to any of your personal accounts, blogs, or address.

 

• If you choose to genre cross you will be writing under two different names, this can get a bit trickier. Now you have to make sure you do the above, twice. On top of that, you do not want to use an author photo for the second pen name if it can be avoided. Your bio should also be changed.

 

• Do not use one pen name to promote another. It is still shameless self promotion.

 

• If at all possible create your own publishing house. This is the best way to write under multiple pen names and have them all associated, with out giving you away. 

For each pen name you create you need to be prepared to promote that name and the books associated with it. That means two or more of everything. Facebook fan pages, blogs,Twitter accounts, etc... The list could go on for days. Treat each Pen name as a separate persona. (This is the fun part) Try not to be too crazy or go too far off base. This can be a sure fire way to forget the details of you alter ego.

I tend to treat my pen names the way I would a character from a book I would write. Get to know your "other self". Along with completing a bio you need to be ready to answer any question some one may have, regarding that particular personality.This means you have to create a whole story for this person. Most authors choose to have only one or two pen names for that reason alone.

Some of the greatest authors of our time have employed the use of pen names, especially early in their careers. Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachmen, Nora Roberts as J.D. Rob, Ann Rice as Ann Roquelaure, to name a few. 

Until next time, may your muse be at your side and your writing the light that guides you.

Dawn.

 

Kicking off May with Shiralyn J

       The first of the month has brought about my first blog tour stop for May. With multiple books under her belt and a plethora of five star ratings to boot. Shirlyn J Lee graces the front page of my blog with four erotic tales guaranteed to get your imagination going.

                  The Submissive Scullery Maid

20,500 word story
Sally McGuire is an Irish girl working as a scullery maid for Mr and Mrs Cox. The story is set during the Victorian era and with snippets of Jack the Ripper murders lurking in the background sets the scene for a story based in London's city.
Sally is soon introduced into a life of sexual play and BDSM with Mrs Cox, or Lidia as she likes to be known as, playing the part of Sally's mistress. Love, lies and murder are the focus of this storyline.

                       

 

                                Vampire Changeling

 

Zaleska is the only daughter of Vlad the Impaler, (Prince of Darkness.) In the 17th Century she takes Anasytázia, a young woman living at the foot of a mountain in Romania. She is to be a sister Vampire to her taker and is soon joined by three other young women from the same village. They had been voyeurs secretly watching Anasytázia taking an arousing bath and witnessed a female creature attack her. They now roam the earth as a pack, as Vampires, selecting their victims tastefully. This story brings us to modern day England where Rebcca Forbes has just inherited her late Aunt's fortune. She is taken by Anasytázia and the story tells how she transforms from a young woman and into a Vampire herself.

                              

 

                               Pink Seduction

This book entails two stories. The first, Pink Seduction, and the second, A Daring Action. Pink Seduction is the story about Alex York, she has the ability to attract any female she wishes and then discard her as soon as she has used her. Alex's loveable character will grow on you throughout this sexually explicit story and you will see how she changes as she falls in love with Tina, a girl who is hiding a dark secret from her.

The second story, A Daring Action, will have you questioning just how far you will go if you needed something so desperately, something that a total stranger could offer you and in return you abide by his/her request. This is something that money definately couldn't buy. In a world with well kept secrets and pure lust Jade finds herself at the mercy of such a situation. Will she ever be able to tell her girlfriend Philippa about her secret life as a sex toy to strangers willing to do anything that they requested all for the sake of getting pregnant?

                                 Erotic Spirits

Three short stories of lesbian erotica.
BRISTOL HOUSE...Anna and Christina buy an old unlived in property in Bristol City center. Their goal is to renovate and sell the house but after a few spiritual events Christina decides that she can no longer stay in the house. This leaves Anna's fate in the hands of strangers.
SECRET DESIRE...Bree has had a crush on her neighbour for some time. She has been away at college and on her return she is seduced by the woman of her dreams. Can Bree handle her unusual circumstances?
THE PASSENGER...Suzie is a waitress at The Riverside Inn. Her shifts often finish around midnight and her journey home through the country lanes has always unnerved her. One night she unwittingly picks up a mysterious stranger. Who is she and what does she want?

---

Author Bio.

I left England in 2006 and started a new life in Canada with my now wife Janice. We share everything and she has a lot of influence on my story developments. I began to write because I became so frustrated by how my favourite programes and films ended that Janice challenged me to write my own stories, so I did. I now have two novels and eight short stories under my belt. I am proud of what I write and when I am asked why do I write about sex I usually answer...'why not!!' I am currently working on a short prequel introduction for Lidia, in The Submissive Scullery Maid and also have started a project about a female football team. I have so many stories to tell and my mind is constantly racing with new ideas. My goal is to please all of the hungry lesbians out there as I know it is really hard to come across certain types of books. I hope that I can please enough ladies and maybe a few gents that they will keep coming back for more.

Inspiring the Younger Generation

                  Was An Inspiration To ME

I was honored, and a little nervous, when my daughter's school invited me to career day. As an Independent author I was a little scared that this group of teenagers wouldn't take me seriously as an author. I know it is the stigma we all carry as self-published writers. This article, however, is not on the expansion or personification of "the Noids." Instead, this is about how a group of twenty teenagers inspired me, as much as I hope, I inspired them.

From the moment they walked through the door and sat down all eyes were on me. From the second I opened my mouth and began to speak, their minds were open and absorbing everything I said with rapt attention. The nervousness I felt vanished, and it was replaced with the passion I have for what I do.

I am writing about this today instead of usual informative post to uplift and perhaps inspire some more. They didn't care that I was an Independent Author, or that I had self published my own book. They cared only that I was AN AUTHOR. That I had written, I had followed my dream and was living it. They had no concerns that my books were just in digital format, or that my first print proof was bad, really, really dreadful. They cared simply that I had done it.

I took away from that presentation more than most of those kids probably got out of it. They gave me something that in these last years I haven't been able to accept, pride in myself. Friends and family will tell you that they are proud of you, that what you are doing is wonderful. None the less, until I experienced what I did yesterday, I had never felt it for myself.

If any of those wonderful students is reading, thank you. To everyone else that has those moments of doubt, know this. You are doing what some people will only ever dream about. This article won't generate any SEO hits. It won't boost my blog visibility or help me sell my books. It is here for the few that follow me and the one or two that find this blog looking for help. It is to remind us all that, in somebody's eyes we are what that they hope to someday be. Authors.