D.M. Henry's Blog

I’ve written a blog post or two about self-publishing and the tasks that indie authors have to deal with on a daily basis. A couple of days ago I came across Wordle. Now, I’ve seen Wordle creations before, but had no idea how people made them or what they were called. Now, I do and it got me to wondering: What would a Wordle look like if I grouped all of the words that I associate with being an indie author into one Wordle? So, I went to work. I made a list including the following factors:

Characteristics of an author;
Tasks that indie authors have to do on their own (with little or no help from others);
Challenges that indie authors face from the outside world (as well as ones indie authors create on their own); and
Creative process.

This is what I came up with:

An Indie Author’s Journey by DM Henry

 

Every author has their own personal experiences and ideas about what it means to be an indie. Have you tried to create a Wordle based on your own experiences as an indie author? How would it look? Or do you have any words that you would add to my Wordle creation? Share below in the comment field.

If you like my Wordle, then feel free to share it with others.

Is crowdfunding the new piggy bank for self-published authors? Without the backing of a sponsor (i.e. a traditional publishing house) indie authors have to pay for editing, cover design, publishing, marketing and promoting their brand and books. The cost can run into the thousands and seeing how most of us are strapped for cash – I started to wonder if crowdfunding could be the wave of the future for funding, and discovering authors (and their work). If you want to learn more about crowdfunding, then Forbes has a great article. You can read it by clicking here.

I’m still learning about this relatively new mode of social media myself so I’m not going to produce a long blog post sharing my “wisdom.” However, I thought that you may also be thinking about crowdfunding your next book. If so, then the links below may be of help. They have been for me.

Tips for a successful crowdfunding campaign

BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/05/what-authors-need-to-know-about-crowdfunding/

Build Book Buzz http://buildbookbuzz.com/7-ways-to-conduct-a-successful-crowdfunding-campaign/

Crowfundingeye http://www.crowdfundingeye.com/5-tips-for-a-successful-crowdfunding-campaign/

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/sellanapp/crowdfunding-campaigns/

How to promote your crowdfunding campaign

Crowd Crux http://www.crowdcrux.com/21-places-to-promote-your-kickstarter-campaign/

Unsuccessful Stories

Pigs Don’t Fly http://www.pigsdontfly.com/2013/05/7-things-i-learned-from-unsuccessful.html

Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/05/25/crowdfunding-mistakes/

How to relaunch a failed campaign

Patrice Williams Marks http://www.patricewilliamsmarks.com/10-surefire-tips-for-relaunching-a-failed-crowd-funding-campaign-if-at-first-you-dont-succeed/

A little outdated, but still helpful

Appsblogger http://www.appsblogger.com/behind-kickstarter-crowdfunding-stats/

In depth report on crowdfunding

Geek industrial complex http://www.geekindustrialcomplex.com/articles/crowdfunding-report-part-1

http://www.geekindustrialcomplex.com/articles/crowdfunding-report-part-2

http://www.geekindustrialcomplex.com/articles/crowdfunding-report-part-3

Have you thought about crowdfunding your next book? Have you done so already? If so, was it a good or bad experience? Share below in the comment field.

British Lionhearts 4:1 Dolce&Gabbana Italia Thunde. Photo by World Series Boxing, Flickr.

A lot of fuss and hoopla have been kicked up in the publishing world when it comes to self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. We’ve heard the pros and cons about both camps. I think that if we mesh together the pros and cons, then we can see that the two actually have some things in common.

Naysan Naraqui, a manager at Rockable Press and fan of self-publishing stated that the pros and cons of self-publishing are the following:

The Time Factor
Setting Your Own Agenda
Building Your Brand
Reaching Your Audience
Making Money
Quality Control

You can read his post here. Now, see below for my comments on his list.

The Time Factor

I agree that a self-publisher or indie author can publish their work much faster than a traditional author can. Writing queries, waiting for an agent to represent you, getting a publisher on board already takes a long time. Then once you’ve cleared those hurdles, then you have to go through the publishing process. The entire process can take at least one year (if you’re lucky).

A self-publisher is taking care of the entire publishing process and decides whether they will complete all of the steps (professional editing, professional cover design and marketing plan) or skip and go straight to publishing. If the author decides to complete the steps, then it will also take time before they will actually be able to publish their work.

Setting Your Own Agenda

If you go with a traditional publisher, then you will need to confine yourself to their timeline and meet their deadlines. You may also have to make changes to your writing style and compromise on the layout and cover design.

On the other hand, as a self-publisher who sets their own schedule discipline can be their friend and enemy. It’s tempting to find distractions during the day. The television is blaring in the background, the radio is on, the park looks inviting, the carpet needs to be vacuumed, the flowers should be watered…. You see where I’m going with this, right? However, if they decide to use developmental editing services or receive input from a cover designer, then they may find out that the editor or cover designer’s own ideas fit the vision of their book better. It can be difficult to let go of our ideas and take a fresh neutral look at our work, but sometimes compromises need to be made to obtain a polished work product.

Building Your Brand

One huge reason to go with a traditional publisher is that they have history and already know the business. We tend to believe that the traditional houses have the knowledge of how to market a book and a top notch team that will rocket books onto the best seller’s list (or at least find a fan base). The author can write while the publisher works on building their brand. Our bubbles have burst – traditional publishing houses may have the resources, but not all traditional authors are being provided with a team of talented publicists. It’s coming to light that many have to market their own books and build their own platform.

The self-publisher has to switch their brain from writing to marketing on a daily basis, which isn’t easy. Most self-publishers cringe at the thought of having to market their own books. They have to contact book stores and reading groups, become active on websites like Goodreads or TheReadingRoom. If that wasn’t enough, a self-publisher has to find ways to get (hopefully unpaid) reviews and get the message out by being active on social media networks, such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. A successful marketing plan involves knowing your target audience and being able to be well…sociable – pretty tough for authors that feel more comfortable sitting behind the computer typing away or enjoy the feel of the pen as it touches paper.

Reaching Your Audience

I think that this actually ties in to building your brand.

Making Money

A traditional publisher has access to premium bookstore shelves and the international market. Half of the work to making money has already been taken care of. Also, if they’ve provided an advance to the author, then they’ll work harder to recoup that money. But, although some of the work will be completed by the publisher more of the marketing tasks are being handed over to the author. Can’t get the word out about your book or get people interested? Then making money is a non-issue. Also, traditional publishers have overhead. They not only have to pay the author, but also everyone else that has been and will be involved in producing, publishing and marketing the book. The author’s royalty may be smaller than we think.

Depending on how the self-publisher markets their book, they will either keep most or all of the profit on their book sales. However, in order to make money you have to reach the public and with thousands of new books appearing daily on the market, it’s easier to get drowned out by the masses instead of being found by the thousands.

Quality Control

The traditional publisher will want to make sure that the finished product is high quality so that they will make money, especially if an advance was provided. They have professional editors, cover designers and marketing departments to help ensure a polished end product.

The self-publisher has all of the control. If they outsource editing and cover design, then they can listen to the editor and designer’s advice or give full control to these professionals. But, it must be said that the self-publisher has to find an editor that understands the genre, is good at their work, and can work within the confines of the self-publisher’s budget. The same goes for the cover design artist. He or she will have to understand the story line, listen to the author’s ideas and then make an awesome cover that will catch the reader’s eye. The most important aspect is that the self-publisher makes the final decisions; there are no compromises that have to be made.

Alison Baverstock, a former publisher, has looked at self-publishing from a different angle. She wrote a post for The Guardian outlining 10 ways the self-publishing industry has changed the industry. In short, here are the topics that she focused on in her article*:

Self-publishers are more knowledgeable nowadays about the publishing industry;
Publishers and Agents don’t always know what the public should be reading;
Copy editors are being highly sought after by self-publishers;
More people are self-publishing for personal use (e.g., family cookbooks);
Marketing and building relationships with readers is becoming the author’s task taking power away from the publishers;
 The role of the agent is changing. They are no longer the “only” gatekeepers to getting published;
Various services are popping up every day to help writers on their journey to becoming published.
Self-publishing isn’t just about making money;
Vanity publishing is no longer seen as the last resort for bad writers;
Self-publishing brings confidence and a sense of achievement.

But, I think that I like S.L. Scott’s article the best. She had written that both modes of publishing were equally rewarding and challenging. She has also listed what she believes to be the pros and cons of both avenues. Feel free to take a look at her article.

After reading countless articles on this issue, I’ll tell you what my opinion is:

The traditional publishing industry definitely needs to reinvent itself and find a new way to service established and emerging writers. Offering contracts will not be enough to entice authors in the coming future;
Industry professionals and readers are starting to take notice of self-published works – the imaginary wall between self-published and traditional publishing is disappearing;
The myth that all traditionally published authors don’t have to market their own works while self-published authors do is evaporating;
The time is coming when self-publishing will not be seen as a last resort for untalented writers;
Non-Independent bookstores, magazines, newspapers and writing organizations will start reviewing and accepting self-published works and authors as qualified members.
More traditional authors, especially those that are already accomplished, will think about self-publishing their works or becoming a hybrid author.

Self-publishers have been like little fish swimming around sharks in the big fishbowl. The main reason for a battle between the two camps, in my opinion, is the threat that these little fish have imposed on the big six publishers. What do I mean? The self-publisher can set the price of their book – free, .99¢, $2.99 or more. I can’t see how the big six will be able to compete with these prices in the longrun; not with their overhead. Instead of ensuing a battle and postponing the inevitable, maybe we should refocus our efforts and energy on innovating the publishing industry and writing books!

What do you think? Should the battle continue or can we agree that both camps not only have their pros and cons, but that the publishing industry will alter dramatically over the next few years?

*I summarized the topics based on my own understanding of the article.

Take a break from writing that novel! What comes to mind when you see this picture? What’s your unique caption? Write it in the comment field.

Dhaulagiri_Peak by Bob Čáp

What? My new tweep has gone from following 24,000 people to just 20 and is now being followed by 24,000 people? My new tweep is no longer “new” because he or she has ditched me along with the others.

Have you ever had that experience?  I, in the true spirit of Twitter, try to follow everyone back. Well, I follow back as long as my new tweep isn’t a porn star who has followed me because they think that SEO actually means something else. Wait…maybe in their world it actually does have a different meaning. I also won’t follow back people that tweet weird or off the wall crazy things. If I hesitate with clicking the follow button, then I won’t make the click. I’m also cautious with following back the #teamfollowback people. I’m just not quite sure if their only goal is to achieve a large following, but I have followed them back in the hopes that they’re looking for more.

At least I know (think I know) where I stand with the #teamfollowback people. It wouldn’t shock me to find out that they’ve “unfollowed” me a day or two after I’ve followed them. What I don’t get are the people that need to feel like instant celebrities. These are the people that don’t mention #teamfollowback or state something like, “let me show you how to gain 1,000 followers instantly” in their profile. These are people with normal looking profile summaries. They are authors, businesses, and the neighbor next door. Twitter is supposed to be sociable; a place where we can share, learn new things, show our true selves (some people do that well on Twitter), and sometimes rant. When has it become a place for asocial gratification?

I know that there are Twitter users that don’t care whose following them back. I’ve even read an article by someone who said that they don’t even look at their follower stats. Well, I do and if you haven’t realized it yet – it annoys me when a person finds me, follows me, I follow them back, and then within the day (or two) they’ve unfollowed me along with a large number of others that they were following. I can’t prevent this type of thing from happening. I know that. However, I can and do combat it by using Qwitter. It’s a wonderful program that tracks my qwitters on Twitter. I’m not only able to unfollow the instant celebrities, but I also can see if I’ve missed following back someone that has finally given up on me. Thank you Twitter for providing this great service.

Now that I’ve solved my problem with the instant celebrities, I have to figure out how to deal with the impatient tweeps that unfollow me if I haven’t followed them back within 24 hours…or do I? Come on, tweeps! A 24 hour turn around period? Seriously? Can’t we just be sociable and reasonable? Or am I asking for too much?

4journeys:

Great Interview – added fuel to my motivation to keep writing!

Originally posted on Metro:

Author David Baldacci, 52, has written 26 best-selling thriller novels with help from pals in the US Secret Service. His latest, The Hit, is out now

What’s The Hit about? It’s about a government assassin who has been tasked with tracking down a colleague who has started to kill members of her own agency. Then he starts to wonder why she’s killing these people – is she on the side of right?

Was it research intensive? It was for locations and some of the technology they use. I’ve met with special forces personnel over the years – they don’t have cards that say ‘government assassin’ but they told me about the skills they use and places they’ve been.

Who are they? People who are still in the military who are tasked to do certain things and have the skills to carry out the missions the characters in the book perform…

View original 718 more words

Reblogged from Metro:

Author David Baldacci, 52, has written 26 best-selling thriller novels with help from pals in the US Secret Service. His latest, The Hit, is out now

What’s The Hit about? It’s about a government assassin who has been tasked with tracking down a colleague who has started to kill members of her own agency. Then he starts to wonder why she’s killing these people – is she on the side of right?

Read more… 831 more words

Great Interview - added fuel to my motivation to keep writing!

Writer’s brain teaser – Inspirational photo #1

Writer’s brain teaser – Inspirational photo #1