The ever changing writing world by Paty Jager

           

I’ll admit here and now I have never been a person to delve into politics, business, religion or anything that I felt didn’t have a close correlation to my life. I let those that are zealous about things duke it out and keep to myself only taking in what I feel pertains to my well-being.

But I’m finding that being a self-published author, I can’t have a lackadaisical attitude. I have to pay more attention to the business end of writing, the publishing end of writing, and the marketing end of writing. All elements I would rather leave to someone else, but if I want to succeed, I have to buck up and pay attention and learn what I need to learn.

The days of a writer sitting down in the chair and writing by long-hand, then typewriter and sending it off and forgetting anything other than writing the next story is gone.

Now, you write the story, while doing publicity for it and the one before and the other books. You have to keep up with all the self-pub venues, learn the different formats they each take and how to size the cover after you’ve found a cover artist you can work with or taken time from your writing to design your own cover.

After the product is uploaded there’s finding ways to keep putting it in front of readers and pushing your sales up. Begging for reviews, asking around to fellow self-pub authors what they do, how that worked for them. And realizing you’ve spent most of your writing time with the business side of writing and you still have to hit your goal of 3000 words today.

Do I sound like I’m not having fun?

I am having fun helping design my covers, having the ability to write what I want to write, and meeting great people. But I would have more fun if I could use all my brain for writing and not have to worry about the areas, I blissfully ignored when I first started writing.

If you are a published writer what is the most daunting thing about your career? The most fun?

As a pre-published writer, what are you dreading and looking forward to when you get published? 

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Winding Up or Winding Down

Hi, all.

This will be the last of my "Adventures in Self-Publishing" blogs at Mid-Willamette Valley RWA, so you could say I am winding down.

But I'm actually just getting started. This year has been wonderful for me. I dipped my toes in the self-publishing water, and found the ocean so fine I dove right in!

I'm making as much money as I would as a mid-list author with mainstream publishers. No, I haven't hit the big-time yet. But I'm paying some bills, while writing *my* stories my own way. 

I will release six books in 2012. I plan to top that in 2013. My biggest concern now is that I can't write fast enough to keep up with my plans:

I have a set of four books for next year called "A Year in Pajaro Bay." Each story is complete in itself, but there's also a continuing storyline that will wind up with the Christmas story late in 2013. I have another eighteen Pajaro Bay books outlined after that, so I hope to continue the series for a very long time.

I also have a new series which I'm calling "PB DARK." These are books set in the same world of Pajaro Bay, but they are darker stories (hence the name), with a heavier emphasis on the suspense, and plot twists that don't fit into the cheery world of the main Pajaro Bay brand. I have three of them so far, and am really looking forward to that mini-series, too.

Then there's the cozy mystery series I've got in mind. I don't want to give that one away, but it's a trilogy plus a Christmas story that I can hardly wait to write.

And that doesn't even begin to cover the fantasy side of things. I have "Deeds of the Ariane" sequels, and another series that is more directly based on my Medieval Studies degree, with a present-day immortal who was a figure in medieval history.

So my biggest problem is writing quickly enough to keep up with my imagination! And that's the ultimate plus of self-publishing. I am no longer confined by "the market." I put my work out there, and see what readers like and don't like, and go from there. The fantasy is on the back burner because it's not selling as quickly as the Pajaro Bay books, but I still have the freedom to write the less-lucrative storylines as I find time. I'm not worried about being "dropped" by a publisher. It's up to me.

And this year has given me the best gift of all: I have regained my joy of writing. I had gotten so sick of being told "you write well, but you're doing it wrong." Turns out I was writing something that an audience wanted (as I believed all along, but couldn't convince New York). It wasn't that they were wrong--I didn't fit into their marketing plans, and by their standards wouldn't be a success. But as a self-publisher, my books can go directly to an audience that is hungering for them. With a much larger slice of the pie coming my way, it is just as lucrative for me to work for this audience as it would be to reach the NY publishers' definition of a good audience. I am now blessed to be connecting directly with readers who want what I'm selling. No middlemen, no rules. Just the readers and me on a journey.

And that's the ultimate happy ending.

I'll be blogging in different places and with a very different format next year. I'm now at a point where I need to connect more directly with my readers with my blogging, so I will be centering my blog activity at my site and Goodreads.com (I'll put in one final plug for Goodreads: I highly recommend it for all authors; it's a great way to connect directly with avid readers). My 2013 blog will profile the "People of Pajaro Bay." I have over 120 brief character biographies now, so I'm thinking I'll be posting the bios twice a week. I will be posting at my site, Goodreads.com, and Pinterest, with links to Facebook, Twitter and who-knows-where. Whew. 

I wish all my former chapter mates in Mid-Willamette Valley RWA the best. It's been wonderful knowing you all, and I hope to continue that in the new year (maybe I'll even get around to doing weekly goal-setting).

Happy holidays and a wonderful new year to you all!

And happy writing, everyone. :-)

Barb
Barbara Cool Lee

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Book Trailers

Today I'm going to talk about the 2012 RWA National Workshop, Deciphering Book Trailers.

The speaker was Jeannie Ruesch. 

In addition to being an author, she also owns a design firm called Will Design For Chocolate (which makes me hungry just looking at it!).

I went to this workshop knowing nothing about book trailers. I'd never even watched one!  After the workshop, I really think it's something fun and interesting to do for your book promotion.

It can get expensive, though, so I haven't done it yet, and am not going to spend a bunch of money for a professional to create one for me. I will have to invest time to make one myself, so for now it's on the back burner for me.

Here are some of the book trailers she showed at the workshop:

Death of a Cure (notice not too many details/cryptic)

Jonathan Fields (incredibly powerful)

Room

It's hard to summarize the workshop, since she went through each video, showing what worked and what didn't, but here are some general tips:

•create an emotional response in viewer. Push their buttons. Make them feel.

•set up expectation/anticipation

•You have 10 seconds at most to hook them.

•don't try to squeeze in a whole synopsis! It's not a query letter. You're setting mood, expectations. Trust the reader to fill in the gaps.

•"You have to respect the fact that imaginations are deeply private."--Peter Mendelsund, Knopf book jacket designer

•Don't tell the story! Create an emotional connection, pull them in, make them want to find out what happened. Leave them wanting more.

•Short sentences--none longer than 5 words. A power word in every sentence.

•Use the images. Don't just have an image of kissing to illustrate the word kissing. Don't be so literal. Use an unexpected twist. An example was a video for a suspense book that first showed a woman tied up to convey, duh, a woman held captive. But when the image was changed to images of a dark, scary place/a hand coming out of the darkness/shadows, it was actually more effective than a literal image of kidnapping. Look for that compelling image, not the most obvious one.

A final word, not from the workshop, about all this marketing jazz: http://youtu.be/OFki2O8-28s

So, have you made a book trailer? Do you want to? Have you ever seen one? If you have seen some book trailers, which ones have you liked/found effective?

Next time, on November 14th, I'll either be talking about Christmas books (if I have mine done!), or non-Kindle publishing outlets.

Until then, happy writing, everyone. :-)

Barb

author of the Pajaro Bay romantic mystery series

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Building Reader Loyalty Workshop Highlights

Today I'll be talking about my impressions of this workshop from the 2012 RWA National Conference:

17-056 BUILDING READER LOYALTY 

Speakers: Nancy Berland, Sheila English, James Rollins, Barbara Vey, Rebecca York

The speakers were:

Nancy Berland of Nancy Berland Public Relations (bestselling clients like Debbie Macomber)

Sheila English of Circle of Seven Productions (she popularized the book trailer) 

James Rollins, author of bestselling thrillers 

Barbara Vey, book blogger at Publishers Weekly 

Rebecca York, NYT betselling author 

What a line-up! This workshop was packed with information on connecting with readers. I'll try to highlight some of the discussion, but I highly recommend getting the workshop audio on this one as well.

Here are some of their tips, in no particular order:

•First, last, and everything in between: be respectful, kind and interested in all your interactions with readers. Treat readers well and they will be loyal.

•subscribe to Barbara Vey's twitter feed--she's one of the top 10 book bloggers 

•the core of reader loyalty is forming a relationship. Ways to do that: answer your own email; provide a contact button on your web site; make interaction with you easy and fun.

•social media takes time from writing. You have to balance it. You must get the writing done first. The book is most important.

•Rebecca York: only put up positive stuff on social media; make people feel excited about you. Do not engage with negativity. Don't respond to bad reviews or negative people. Stay positive. People are attracted by positive personalities.

•Be consistent in your writing (consistent with your book brand, in other words). Tone, genre should be in keeping with your writing style. Don't write dark and gloomy posts if your books are humorous. Don't get into off-topic areas that clash with your brand.

•Off-topic areas that are consistent with your brand are great, though. For example, if you write cozy mysteries, topics like cooking, gardening, or travel might be of great interest to your readers. Just keep with the same type of topics that your readers will be interested in.

•You have to care about your readers. Connect with them. Don't just push books at them, but talk about common interests and find ways to get them involved. Talk about them, too, not just about yourself. See things through their eyes and ask them questions.

•Consistency builds trust; be consistent in your books and in your social media.

•Readers want to believe you are a wonderful person; don't betray that trust.

•Some people hire assistants to tweet or post for them. No one on this panel liked that idea. It's a kind of lie to the reader, to imply they are getting to know you but you're not even there. It feels forced and false, and betrays that trust you want to build with them.

•Maintain a privacy wall. Don't reveal personal things you want to keep private. Don't talk about your kids or your location in detail if you want that private. Choose your topics wisely. Sharing a recipe is great. Sharing your child's school location is not.

•Remember that if a reader contacts you, they are trying to engage. Welcome them and make them feel happy about that connection. Ask them about themselves; don't always talk about yourself. Ask questions.

•Reader appreciation luncheons (like Debbie Macomber does) are wonderful. Any in-person event is golden. Book festivals, signings.

•Pick some venues. You can't do everything. Website is the basic starting point. (Look at James Rollins' website--apparently it's very well done.) They recommend also doing something more immediate than a website--Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. Something immediate with a lot of interaction.

•Give gifts and prizes. Digital giveaways are good, like a short story or first 3 chapters of a book. Enter to win a book dedication; enter to win a mention in the book (make sure they sign a disclaimer so they don't sue if they hate their namesake character!); enter to name the pet of the hero, etc. These are really fun for readers.

•James Rollins sends bookplates overseas--see his website to see how he does it.

•Asking for volunteers or ambassadors or street teams (whatever you choose to call them) is a great thing for readers. Many love to feel they are helping you succeed. Send them periodic thank yous/excerpts/bookmarks. They are glad to talk up your book, like it on facebook, retweet for you, write reviews, etc. Be appreciative; let them know how much they are helping you.

•Reward loyalty. Make the reader feel special.

Whew. Like I said, I recommend this workshop if you're getting involved with promotion, because it focuses on what's important: connecting with readers and making them feel involved.

Next time, I'll be posting a summary of the book video workshop I attended. Unfortunately that one wasn't taped (probably because it had so many visuals), but it was fabulous and I'll try to gather some coherent thoughts from my notes to share here on October 31st.

Happy writing, everyone!

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Audiobooks Part 2

In my July 25th blog, I discussed creating audiobooks through acx.com, which helps you find narrators who can produce a finished audiobook for you. The audiobooks are then distributed to Audible.com, iTunes and Amazon. 

I dipped my toes in the audiobook water with my first project, Cat's Blood, a vampire short story. In the three months since its release, the audiobook for this short story has earned back only about the cost of producing it. So it's not exactly a barnburner, but it broke even, and I own the audio rights for seven more years, so it might in the end be a bit profitable.

I decided to do a second project, just to see how a full-length book would work.

For this project, The Honeymoon Cottage, the first book in my Pajaro Bay series, I wanted a young woman's voice to match the age and personality of the heroine.

I ending up working with a narrator named Elizabeth Siedt, a younger actress (in fact, I think this may have been her first audiobook project). I went with a newer narrator because the price was a lot more reasonable than the very experienced actor I had hired for my short story. Since you pay by the finished hour, I was able to produce the entire full-length book for about the same cost as the short story.

So, did I learn anything from this second project? 

First, if your book contains any regional terms or foreign words, you'll need to tell your narrator how to pronounce them (think of how someone from outside of Oregon might pronounce Willamette for a good example!). I had several Spanish phrases in my book, and of course the title of the series itself contains a Spanish word, Pajaro (the Spanish word for bird). Many of the auditioning narrators didn't pronounce the words correctly, and I realized how, because of my own background, I hadn't considered the variation in accents and pronunciation in other parts of the country. So I ended up creating a pronunciation guide for narrators. I was able to find a vocabulary lesson online that provided audio of Spanish words, and linked to that. If you are using something more unusual (say, you created a new language for your fantasy world), you might need to record yourself reading those words and upload it. Funny how we don't think about things like that until we hear our own work read aloud.

With that little issue solved, I narrowed down the auditions to a couple of potential narrators. One was an experienced actress from San Francisco. She had a wonderful delivery, but had a bit more mature and soothing voice that wasn't quite what I was looking for. The other was the one I picked. I had several people listen to the samples, and the decision was unanimous to go with Elizabeth Siedt. She captured the tone of the story well, and read in a really appealing way that seemed to fit the young heroine.

The audiobook was released September 19. Surprisingly, it immediately jumped into the top 40 in audible.com's romantic suspense category. It's been selling steadily since release, though I haven't done any real promotion for it. I noticed the majority of buyers were audible.com regulars who used their membership credits to buy the book, so I think they were just stumbling across it.

This project has already, in twelve days, earned back more than its production cost, and appears on its way to becoming quite profitable. I'm now scrambling to get another one produced ASAP, and would love to have my Christmas book available in audiobook form by holiday time.

My second attempt at producing an audiobook appears to have been more successful. It's hard to tell at this point, but I understand some listeners like to read along in the text while they listen, so that may account for a bit of a spike in e-book sales for this title that happened around the same time.

So, as I asked in the first blog, is it worth the bother to produce an audiobook version of your self-published work? In this case it clearly seems to be. I'm already making money on the book, and two of the reviews specifically mentioned wanting more in the series to listen to. So I think this could be a good supplement to my writing income.

Now I just have to scramble to finish my Christmas story and see if I can get it produced before this year's Christmas trees end up in the recycling pile....

Happy writing, everyone!

Barb

Hear a free sample of The Honeymoon Cottage

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Copyright

(FYI: All of the following post applies to the issue of copyright for authors within the United States. YMMV)

Here's an aspect of self-publishing I totally overlooked--and I imagine I'm not alone in that.

Copyright.

Yeah. I know. Yawn. But hey, it's worth spending a little time thinking about.

If your work is published by a major publisher, generally they will register copyright for you, but if you self-publish, you need to decide if going through the registration process is something you want to do.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf has a good explanation of copyright. Your copyright exists from the moment you create the work. That's the law. You don't have to do anything for your work to be copyrighted; it is automatically yours from the moment you create it. That means you may sell it, or give it away. It's yours. Others do not have the right to sell, loan or give away your work without your permission.

So if you already own the copyright, why register it?

For one reason, if you don't register your copyright, it becomes more difficult to prove that your work belongs to you. For example, some authors have received letters from Amazon.com asking for proof the author has the right to publish the book.

If the work was previously published, and the rights have reverted to you, it's generally easy to prove. You can show the letter or contract stating that the rights have reverted to you and the book is yours.

But what if this is original work and you just put it up online for the first time?

Yes, the law says it's yours, but registering your copyright with the United States Copyright Office is a form of protection. It is a legal record of your work, and a legal claim of your rights to that work.

So how do you register copyright? The United States Copyright Office has actually made this remarkably easy for digital authors.

Go to http://www.copyright.gov/eco/

You wil need to create an account with them, which enables you to file copyright claims.

Then you fill out the form online, pay the fee ($35 for online filing), and upload a digital copy of your book.

You will then receive a receipt showing you have applied for copyright registration, and approximately 2.5 months later (according to their site), you will receive your registration certificate.

That's all there is to it. 

Not the most exciting topic, but an important one, so I thought I'd mention it.

(I've been super-busy this week, or I threw this topic out there. Next time I'll get back to reviewing workshops from RWA National.)

Happy writing everyone.

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Marketing Workshops

Here are a few highlights from the next batch of RWA National workshops I attended.

(I've included the billspro.com workshop numbers where available--I definitely recommend listening to these when they're released on audio.)

17-039 Hook a Reader in 140 Characters: How to Promote Using Social Media - Andrea Laurence, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Rhonda Nelson, & Kira Sinclair

*Great workshop--the info came so quickly I had trouble writing it all down

*Social media allows you to make a personal connection with readers, to build your author brand, and build reader loyalty

*Freebies for loyal readers are always a good thing (sneak previews, extra deleted scenes, any tidbits that further involvement in the world you've created)

*Relate all your posts/your blog design/your comments to your author brand. This doesn't mean constantly selling your work, which is quickly annoying to readers. It means giving readers more of whatever your brand is about:

--quotes from your books

--extra character info

--a look into your writing process

--weather/locations/background

--books, movies, tv shows that inspire you or that relate to your stories in some way

--pictures get the most feedback (always remember the rights issue and post only legally obtained pics)

*Recycle/repurpose/link your posts/tweets/blogs. Make multiple use of your social media efforts.

*Maintain an up-to-date website (if you do nothing else, do this)

*Respond daily to comments; don't let your account stagnate

*Have a main platform--you can't do it all so pick one or two places to concentrate and link to those places from other sites (if you blog, tweet links to your blogs, instead of spending all day tweeting, too, for example)

*"Facebook is probably the biggest time suck ever created"--don't let social media take over your writing time. Plan your time and use it efficiently

*I have about two pages of notes just on Pinterest. You can use hashtags on Pinterest. If Pinterest is something you want to pursue, be clear on copyright issues (give credit to sources!) and don't just re-pin, add your own content. Making sure you have permission to pin is important--pinning products is usually safe because the companies want you to spread the word--so pinning images from Pottery Barn to show how much you love their sofa is not going to make them mad at you!

*Newsletters. Main Chimp, Constant Contact, and MyEmma are good newsletter management tools. Don't just use newletters to sell your book, again, use them like above--connect, build your brand/identity, give readers that extra something to keep them engaged.

There was a ton more info. Definitely get the workshop and listen if you're trying to maximize your social media efficiency.

17-050 Integrated Marketing Plans for Writers - Jennifer Fusco

*speaker was Jennifer Fusco, the author of "Market or Die" guides (http://www.marketordie.net/). Every word out of her mouth was a gem on marketing. She has worked in the field for years and really knows her stuff.

*Spend less time on executing and more time on strategy.

*Define your position in the marketplace (she spend quite a bit of time on this). What is your brand about? Create a positioning statement that defines you as an author. (Example: Convince ROMANCE READERS that LAURA MOORE in the CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE MARKET can deliver ROMANTIC SAGAS that INCORPORATE BUILDING FAMILY BONDS THAT LAST.) This part was the least interesting to me, I guess because I have a clear idea of my Pajaro Bay brand--what it means, what it stands for. But the idea is that you examine everything in light of this position: does this post, does this picture, does this web design convey the position, or is it diluting my message or even worse, sending a conflicting message? Be clear, be consistent, and know who you are in the marketplace.

*Competitive comparison: look at an author you admire. See what they are doing and how they're doing it. What technology do they use? How do they connect with readers? How are they defining themselves?

*Execution: build a list of goals; analyze not only what works, but what doesn't and why it didn't work. Continue to learn and improve.

This is already a long blog so I'll continue the reviews next time, when I'll cover Building Reader Loyalty and Deconstructing Book Videos. I hope people are getting some use out of these blogs--it's helping me to go back over my notes--I'm remembering so much info I want to start using!

In the meantime, I'll do my own little bit of marketing: if you'd like to subscribe to my author newsletter (which hasn't come out yet, 'cause I have no idea how to do it yet, but I plan to put out about once every couple of months starting this fall), email me at barb at BarbaraCoolLee.com.

Happy writing, everyone. :-)

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Quick Tips

I attended a lot of workshops at RWA National in Anaheim. It was a pretty overwhelming schedule, but I came back really fired up about my work and my plans for the rest of this year.  I'll try to pass on some quick tips I picked up in the various workshops during my next few blogs.

My first workshop was Jackie Allen, Terry Blain, Teresa Carpenter and Jill Limber's 3-D Story Development (not recorded):

*The conflict between hero and heroine is always about trust. No matter what the "conflict" is, the fear of commitment is about trusting each other--why specifically for these characters, in this story?

*They use 16 Master Archetypes to start the brainstorming process for their characters. (I think this is the book they're talking about.) It helps them clarify why these two people are at odds, based on their underlying motives and personalities.

(I left this workshop early because I was writing so many notes for my current WIP that I stopped listening to the workshop. It was very helpful for me. Unfortunately, it wasn't recorded, but I'll try to think of some of their other ideas that set me to brainstorming and share them next time.)

Next, I attended Sylvie Kurtz's Writing at Peak Productivity:

(I highly recommend this workshop, which was recorded, and should be available for download soon at the billspro.com website.)

*Productivity isn't time management, but energy management. This is a big one. We all have the same amount of time, but we need to have the energy to make the most of that time. That involves physical, mental and emotional health, as well as focus on our purpose and goals.

*Growth works from the bottom up, but change from the top down (you have to visualize where you want to go in order to get there).

*Reconnect with your passion and purpose. Why do you write?

*Script your personal purpose.  One sentence, saying why you do this. Mine is "I write to give people faith, hope and charity: faith in humanity, hope for the future, and charity toward others."  Everyone's will be different, but having your purpose written down makes clear where to focus your energy.

Next workshops was agent Ethan Ellenberg's New Paradigms in Publishing (not recorded):

Mr. Ellenberg's workshop was more of a question and answer with the (packed) audience. He answered a lot of questions authors had about rights management, reversion of rights, foreign rights and translations, etc. He's obviously an advocate of having an agent represent you (which differs from my opinion at the moment <g>), but he gave some advice that I think was applicable to everyone, no matter which choices we make.

*As everywhere at the conference, his focus was on change in the publishing industry.

*The question is, do you want to take on all roles? To be author, agent, publisher, publicist? If you don't want to do it all, which roles will you take on yourself, and which will you pay someone else to do?

*As always, it all comes down to the book itself, the author herself. We are the heart of the industry, and a great story remains the key to everything.

*Print distribution is still 80% of the market--how do you maximize both print and ebook markets? It's hard to tell if mass market paperback market is actually shrinking--some contraction, probably, but data is not clear yet.

*You can't just throw something out there into the sea of a million books; have a thought-out, planned, deliberate campaign.

*When thinking about reversion of rights, it's best to have a minimum sales level in the contract. What this means is if the book doesn't sell X number of books in a year/quarter, it is no longer "in print," and the rights revert to the author. Otherwise, a book can be listed in a print-on-demand catalog and technically be in print forever. This is generally how this issue is being handled now, but make sure understand this part of your contracts.

That was my last workshop for Thursday. I did some more writing on my WIP after my last workshop (that first workshop really got me going on my plot--yay!). The rest of the conference I concentrated on marketing and career tracks, and got a lot of good information from the 10 workshops I attended on Friday and Saturday. I'll cover all (or maybe half--it's a lot of info!) of Friday's workshops next time, on August 22.

Happy writing, everyone!

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Audiobooks

(I am heading to the RWA national conference in Anaheim right now, so I wrote this blog before I left.)

My subject for today's "adventures in self-publishing" is audiobooks.  Yup, you can self-publish audiobooks.

I think this is the neatest thing since the iPod.  My first audiobook project, the short story Cat's Blood, is now available.  It is a bit daunting to hear one's words read by a professional narrator, let me tell you! 

What I like most about doing this particular project as an audiobook is how it takes a 10,000-word short story and turns it into an experience. Sitting and listening to a storyteller narrate the tale for an hour and a quarter allows you to follow along on Henri and Cat's journeys as they both learn and change from beginning to end.  Hearing a story in this way slows down the experience, making it something to savor.  I now get the appeal of audiobooks (I had not been an audiobook listener before this). Now I want to buy a bunch of audiobooks by other authors, too!

So how does a self-published author create an audiobook?  Once again, the giant company Amazon.com has come up with a plan (or a way to get their fingers into one more pie, a cynic might say <g>). They own audible.com, a major retailer of audiobooks, and also distribute audiobooks via amazon.com and iTunes.

To get started creating your own audiobook, go to acx.com (the Audiobook Creation Exchange). You sign up, and list the book(s) you want to turn into audiobooks (making sure, of course, that you own the audiobook rights--check any publishing contracts to be sure where you stand).

Once you have signed up, you can list your project, describing the book itself, giving a sales pitch to potential narrators (I'll get to why in a minute), and then listing what you are looking for in a narrator: genre, gender, language, accent, style, and last but not least, price.

For Cat's Blood, I ultimately decided I wanted a male narrator who could do a French accent for my French-born vampire. I wanted a more mature voice (not a teenager), something that would capture the darker element in the story. This part of your decision is important. I'll provide a link at the end to a free sample of Cat's Blood. Imagine how different the story would sound if I'd decided I wanted the voice to be representative of Cat, the teenaged, very traumatized heroine. I deliberately went with the male voice to emphasize Henri's story (he makes the greatest change in the story), and to not dwell as much on Cat's trauma (which personally freaks me out, even though I wrote it).

So then we come to actually finding a narrator.  The pricing becomes important here. There are two approaches to this. 

One, you propose that the narrator does the audiobook essentially for no money up front (except for a stipend that AFTRA actors must be paid), and then you split the royalties 50/50 for the seven-year term of the audiobook contract. You can see how this puts a huge burden on the narrator to invest in your work (10-15 hours of labor per hour of finished audiobook). This means you must pitch your project to the narrator, convincing the actor to spend time on a project with no guaranteed profit.

The second option is to pay for the work up front. You agree to pay by the hour for the finished audiobook. The narrator's investment is then done, you own the audiobook for seven years, and have the right to distribute it according to the terms you agreed to, keeping all the profits for yourself.

As you can imagine, the more experienced audiobook narrators tend to go for the pay by hour terms, and the newer or less-experienced narrators are more willing to go for the split-royalty terms.

I started out thinking I would do the split-royalty terms, but then decided I would see if I could find someone who could complete the project for about one-month's worth of Cat's Blood's current ebook and print royalties. I decided I was willing to invest that much to see how this would work. For this short project, that actually put me on the high end of hourly rates (about $300/pfh -- per finished hour).

For this first project, I approached a few narrators and asked them to audition (you can hear samples of narrators' work, and then ask them to try a short reading from your book). I listened to both male and female narrators, with several different accents and approaches, and then decided on Gary Dikeos, who really impressed me with his audition.

The project was completed quickly, within a matter of weeks, and once the narrator was paid, the audiobook went live on July 18th, with distribution to amazon.com, audible.com, and iTunes. 

So was it worth it? At this point, who knows. The first day I had 7 sales. Ten days like that and I'll start turning a profit. Hard to tell what the long-term earning potential is so soon.  But I see a lot of options for using the audiobook sample for promotion, and it's yet another way to increase visibility for the story. So I'm pleased with the experiment, and time will tell.

You can hear a free sample of Cat's Blood at the places below:

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/MzXooW

Audible.com: http://bit.ly/MAyuna

iTunes: http://bit.ly/SR5clp

And here's my first promotional postcard for the Cat's Blood audiobook:

Coming up in "Adventures in Self-Publishing": I hope to return from the RWA National conference in Anaheim with a bunch of new promotion and craft ideas, which I'll share with you in my bi-weekly posts for the rest of 2012.

Happy writing, everyone!

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Some Quotes and BSP

A few quotes and some blatant self-promotion...

I released my third book this week.  I started this particular book when I was a teenager.  All these years, it's been back and forth, in one form or another, never really finished and never really in a form that seemed to be what I wanted it to be.

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." (Maya Angelou)

But I could never let it go.  It kept coming back, needing to be told.  There was something way down in the heart of it that I had to work out.

"The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear." (Stephen King)

Eventually it became a whole book.  When it was done, I was kind of surprised at what the story ended up being about, because I hadn't consciously set out for where I ended up.

"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it." (Lloyd Alexander)

It made all the rounds of agents and editors, and got a lot of positive feedback, but it just "wasn't commercial."  It just "didn't fit the market."

"Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators." (Olin Miller)

So now, out it goes into the world.

"The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all." (Mark Twain)

Will it be a success?  Who knows.  So far it's starting to sell without me even announcing it's been released, including two copies sold in Germany on the first day (who knows why).

"Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent." (Neil Gaiman)

It served its original purpose, which was purely personal.

"I write to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." (Joan Didion)

Now I can just hope it serves some purpose in the world, and isn't just a waste of pixels on someone's overstuffed Kindle.

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts." (Charles Dickens)

Happy writing, everyone!  May your journey be smooth, and may all your stories find an understanding ear. :-)

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: Goodreads

Here are a few tips I've learned about Goodreads in the last couple of months:

*To become a Goodreads author, you simply "claim" your author profile.  Search for your books, and then where the author name is listed, click on it, and there should be a place to click to claim the profile.  Fill out the form and in a day or so your status will be changed from reader to author, which opens up a lot of promotional opportunities.

*Set up an author user profile for each separate pseudonym.  Unlike a lot of social networks, which limit you to only one account, Goodreads actually encourages you to set up a separate account for each pseudonym, since they don't have a way to link various pseudonyms to one author profile.  To do this, you need to sign up as a new user with a different email address, then "claim" your profile by clicking on the author name on one of your books.  Do this for each pseudonym.

Having a bunch of accounts (or two, in my case) makes it more difficult to keep up, so I set up my pseudonym to link to my real name.  I wrote in my author profile for "Barb Lee" that I could be found under "Barbara Cool Lee" (my main name), and wrote a blog post referring people there, and put that information in the pseudonym book's description as well.  That way I don't have to spend much time logged in on the pseudonym account.

*If your books aren't listed (common with small press or self-published books, you can manually add your book at http://www.goodreads.com/book/new.  But be sure it's not listed already before you do this!  Adding a duplicate could mess up things, so do a thorough check before adding.

*Dashboard.  Once you have claimed an author profile, and Goodreads has validated it, you can do a lot of things to promote your work.  Start at your dashboard:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard. Your profile is listed, showing the number of books you've written, the number of people who've added your books to their lists, the number of ratings, reviews, etc. Then each book is broken down individually, with the same information.

You also have a blog.  This is easy to create (just write a post), and you can make announcements about promotions, releases, and/or just copy the same info you post on your regular blog.

*Next comes the Advertising section.  I have used Goodreads' self-serve advertising, but honestly I'm not seeing much response to it.  It's easy to do:  just follow the directions and it'll pull the cover photo and link from the isbn you enter.  You have a very small space to enter advertising copy, so think about what you want to say and play with it a bit.  They recommend a "call to action," for example, "click here to add the book," instead of simply telling about the book.  You can also target specific genres and authors, which they recommend (this means the ad will appear when people who expressed interest in those genres and authors are surfing Goodreads).

As I said, I didn't get much response to my ad for The Honeymoon Cottage:

but I did get some results from my Cat's Blood giveaway ad:

*Which brings me to Giveaways, one of the best promotion tools I've found.  On Goodreads, you can give away a copy of your book (must be a printed copy, not an ebook, and must be published with the last 6 months or be an advance copy).  How is that a good promotion?  Well, you simply list a giveaway (they walk you through the steps from your author dashboard), and they do all the work.  They list it, gather the entries, and pick the winner.  When they inform you of the winner, you mail it to the person (do NOT add the winner to your mailing list, by the way; it's against the rules to ever send them anything but the book they win), and that's it.  

I did my first giveaway last week.  From June 5-10 readers could enter to win a copy of The Honeymoon Cottage.  Results?  507 entries, 1 winner, and... over 90 people added the book to their to-be-read list.  That's the big payoff.  All of a sudden, 90 people became aware of my book, thought it sounded interesting, and put it on their list of possible future reads.  The intriguing thing is that when they did, their 2000+ friends saw  a message that said "Jane added The Honeymoon Cottage to her to-read list."  So those are the numbers from a mere 5-day promotion:  507 entries, 90 adds, 2000+ potential readers who at least had a chance to glance at the book.

Last week I had my highest sales of the previous 6 weeks.  I don't think it was a coincidence.  Good return for a promotion that only cost me one paperback and postage.

My only mistake I think was doing such a short giveaway.  I noticed the books with the most contest entries were not just from famous authors; they also were giveaways that ran for at least a month or two.  So I've listed a second copy of The Honeymoon Cottage, and a copy of Cat's Blood, and am running the giveaways for a long time.

*The last three items on the author dashboard are E-books (you can actually sell your ebooks directly through Goodreads, unless you are doing the KDP Select program which restricts sales outlets), Q&A groups, and Facebook Fan Page tab.  I haven't done any of these yet.  I'll write another blog when I get to them.

So that's what I've learned so far on Goodreads.  I'm finding it one of the best places to directly interact with readers, but I've barely put my toe in the water so far.  There's a lot to learn.  If you're on Goodreads, stop by and enter my giveaways, and be sure to "friend" me if you haven't yet so we can follow each others' journeys!

Happy writing, everyone!

Barb

http://www.BarbaraCoolLee.com

Adventures in Self-Publishing: How Long is a Book?

One of the interesting things about self-publishing is the redefinition of what a "book" is.  Many people are self-publishing short stories, either alone or in collections; people are selling novellas (20,000-40,000 words); they're selling huge 200K-plus works.  Length doesn't really matter in an electronic format.  The pricing is whatever the buyers think is fair. The length is whatever the story needs, no more and no less.  No longer do we need to cut work to fit the page count, or pad with extra scenes because the book is "too short" to be marketable.  It's up to the writer--and the reader--to decide if the story works.

One of the things I am doing now is deciding how to market my "Deeds of the Ariane" stories. These are a series of fantasy stories about a band of magical women swordfighters whose mission is to protect the royal family of the Silver Isle.  I had been trying to write them as a trilogy of novels (about 250,000 words total), but now I'm thinking I might try selling each section as a novella, and releasing them on a monthly or bi-monthly basis (thanks, Genene, for that idea!).

Do you have any pet peeves about story length?  Do you prefer a quick read, or one you can get wrapped up in for a long time?  As an author, how would you feel about doing something like Charles Dickens did, releasing a chapter a week of a book, without fail?  Would you find the idea of writing a serialized novel fun, or scary? (I'd find it both!)

***

A quick note:  There's a brand-new magazine about indie romance novels, called InD'tale.  They reviewed my book, "The Honeymoon Cottage," for their first issue.  (Yay!)  You can get a free subscription for a limited time at their website.

Happy writing!

Barb

Barbara Cool Lee

The Honeymoon Cottage

Cat's Blood