We’re thrilled today to welcome author Kathleen Pickering as a guest blogger. Kathleen is an award winning author of romance and women’s fiction. She’s the past President of Florida Romance Writer’s South Florida Chapter, and has held every Board position, except Treasurer—she knows her limits!
Kathleen’s first novel, ECHOES OF LOVE, a paranormal romance achieved finalist awards from affiliates of the Romance Writers of America such as the Holt Medallion, and the Booksellers Best Awards. Her latest novel, FLIRTING WITH FINANCE, is self-published and co-written with financial advisor, Gwendolyn
Kathleen is married, has two grown sons and loves to travel for fun and on-site research for her novels. She lives in south Florida, wants to swim with dolphins, dances to any music that moves her, sings karaoke with her friends and escapes with her husband on their sailboat every chance they get.
The digital craze in self-publishing may leave one’s head spinning, until one takes the plunge and uploads a book. I was prepared to give step-by-step instructions for uploading to Kindle, but discovered that Amazon makes the process embarrassingly easy with their Digital Pad Upload.
I now understand why senior editors I chatted with at conferences this summer expressed so much concern over the competition from Amazon and B&N with their self-publishing and marketing offerings. Between the ease of upload and the excellent royalty returns, digital self-publishing is a siren singing in the night. For those authors with a backlist they’d like to put to good use, check out this YouTube link for Kindle upload instructions. This will answer any questions you may have on getting your work listed with Amazon. Just be prepared to supply a social security or tax ID number as well as bank deposit information. If you opt for royalty payments by check they’ll charge your $8 per check. Here’s the link:
http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=362.
Once I saw how easy the process is, my concern grew over what so many people have suggested: Anyone can upload anything and call it a book! This notion compels me to address the unpublished author who is considering uploading his/her precious work. Let’s have a chat before you press that upload button.
First, have you sufficiently canvassed the editor/agent publishing pool by submitting your manuscript(s) before going digital? Remember, J. K. Rawlings experience something like 48 rejections before she sold Harry Potter. Patience does pay going the traditional route. I understand the publishing market is tough right now, but I wholly endorse seeking a publishing house contract before going digital. A brick and mortar publisher can offer insights and marketing for your work that you may miss on your own. If you’ve decided otherwise, hopefully, you have received constructive criticism from professionals on what needs tweaking in your manuscript. Pay attention if the same points have been stated more than once about your work and correct them.
If you have not submitted manuscripts and received feedback, I suggest you find a professional editor to look at your work. If you cannot afford an editor, find critique partners whom you respect. I can guarantee there are writing groups in your town who would welcome you! Bottom line, no authors wants to crash onto the digital scene by uploading a bad book. Poor plotting, typos, spelling and grammatical errors will throw your reader out of your story and seriously hinder your credibility as an author. The last thing any writer wants to do is kill their reputation before getting launched as an author. Your story must have compelling characters and a concise, riveting plot told in a voice that sets you apart from the slush pile, even on Amazon, because you and I both know the digital book lists are going to explode.
Second consideration is the cover art. If you are familiar with Photo Shop, you can create your own. Otherwise,
Third factor is an ISBN number. Amazon does not required one for digital uploads, but it is recommended for tracking. Cost for an ISBN number starts at $125. The cost helps one appreciate one of the many expenses incurred in the publishing world. For more information on ISBNs, visit: http://www.isbn.org.
By the time this blog goes to print, I will have uploaded my first effort on Kindle. As past President of Florida Romance Writers in Fort Lauderdale, I couldn’t resist offering to compile a Horror Anthology as a fund-raiser for our chapter. (I know, Horror from a Romance group. Go figure!) Notable authors from FRW, such as Heather Graham, Bonnie Vanak, Carol Stephenson, Traci Hall, Michael Meeske, Veronika Levine, and yours truly, contributed to this anthology. Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies, Oh, My! should be available on Kindle by the end of the week. Putting this work together was great fun and has given me the incentive to upload more books on Kindle. Heck, if the digital book lists are going to swell, I plan on riding that wave!
In the meantime, I’d love to hear of any delights or snafus you may have discovered in uploading your digital books. Please post a comment with your experience. We are all curious to know more about this new publishing venue.
I’ve self-published some books, and Lulu offers them in pdf. It seems like Kindle is much easier, but I’m glad it took me longer to do mine–had to think about formatting since it kept going wrong, and that made me read and reread so I did more editing too.
I have 2 books out as e-books and am in the process of publishing them in trade paperback through Createspace.
In the past 6 months I have sold about 2400 copies of my books and am very pleased with the self publishing experience.
Great article and very informative about the latest in publishing.
Kathleen, welcome to TKZ. Your post is very timely as more writers in all categories turn to self-publishing, especially epub. This is such a slippery slope–the world is changing and new opportunities are being made available to writers, but at the same time, many wannabe authors think this is a shortcut to the glamorous, celebrity, Palm Beach lifestyle of a published author. 🙂 Your tips on editing, cover art, etc. are spot-on.
Sheila, Mike, Joe, and “Anonymous”–Thanks so much for your comments. It is so important to have a well-edited work, eh, Sheila? Mike, sounds like your books are doing well. I’ll look for them! And Joe, thanks for the compliment. Here’s wishing huge success for us all!
Welcome to TKZ, Kathleen. Excellent tips.
Another factor those who are rushing in may fail to account for is “branding.” Every book you put out there begins to shape you in the eyes of readers. If you charge ahead before you’ve thought this through, you may hurt your chances of gaining any sort of long term foothold.
Thanks, Kathleen! For someone like me who’s only been observing from the sidelines so far, this is excellent information, and excellent advice, too. FLIRTING WITH FINANCE is a fantastic example of self-publishing done right!
Great info, Kathleen! Someday I hope to try self-publishing, although for now I still publish the old-fashioned way, lol.
I’ve done several e-books, as well as traditionally published books, both fiction and nonfiction.
E-books: The format is different for Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt. It’s best to get someone who knows what they’re doing. I won’t release my books yet on Smashwords, which cuts me out of part of the market, but Smashwords’ format is basically a bastardized Word file and I still give a damn about presentation.
It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, despite all the talk on Joe Konrath’s blog. Yes, some authors are doing quite well with it. Guess what, some authors traditionally published do quite well too and nobody knows why.
In e-publishing, the growth is reversed from paper publishing. In other words, with paper books in a bookstore, your sales are usually pretty quick at first then taper. With e-books, they seem to grow month after month, particularly if you put new books out.
My best selling e-books to-date are actually the e-book versions of 2 of my traditionally published Derek Stillwater novels that went out of print: The Devil’s Pitchfork and The Serpent’s Kiss. Go figure. But they outsell the others by a factor of about 10 to 3.
Keep in mind with cover art that on the Kindle it’s black-and-white and postage stamp sized. The cover art should be simple and reflect that.
One of the beauties of e-publishing is if things aren’t working, you can experiment. Change the title. Change the cover art. Change the price. See what works.
Self publishing seemed like trying to figure out the plans for a space ship. I’m glad to hear that even a computer challenged person can do it.
It intimidates me, but maybe I can do it too!
It is a pleasure and a thrill to know you Kathleen. You are one special soul!
Great topic. I see e-publishing as a supplement to traditional books, not an either-or.
As a newbie writer I will continue to write and submit through traditional publishing. That is still the gold ring for a writer (IMO) but in the meantime I am using e-pubbing to put my name out there, built a fan base, test product, and advertise the novels I will get published traditionally. I can do this by putting up short stories and novellas (lengths not exactly embraced by traditional publishers anymore) and give readers a taste of main characters in novels I’ve written or will write and a stage for beloved secondary characters that I don’t have novel plans for in the immediate future.
To Jim’s point, I’ve developed two author names — one for crime writing the other for SF/Fantasy and building two seperate “brands” so readers will identify my names with a specific type of reading experience and focus the marketing toward those brands.
Considering the e-market is anywhere between 10 and 15% depending on who you talk to, and will grow to 25-50% again depending on the “expert” because nobody really knows. To not embrace the “device reader” is cutting off a big and gettiing bigger chunk of your available readers.
Mark,
Not sure what the issue with formatting on Smashwords is, I have two short stories pubbed through them and they look fine. I did go direct through Amazon and BN. All three souces formatted almost effortlessly and again I think look good.
Wow – great blog, Kath
This is great info for anyone looking to self publish. Thanks for sharing and inspiring those of us who were more hesitant to look into it.
Thanks for the post, Kathleen! Interesting points.
Thanks for the great feedback, folks! Mark and David, these are excellent insights. Thank you for contributing you experiences. Mary, your compliment warms my heart–Love you, too! Traci and Allison–big hugs! James, it’s great to be here. And, agreed, branding is so important. I’ll tackle that subject in another blog, if this wonderful group hasn’t already. Kathryn–thanks for the opportunity to blog with you!
Excellent article! It’s a very interesting time in publishing. A few of my oop books are out there now as e-books. Nice to have an all new reader audience.
I posted something earlier but it apparently got swallowed in a digital black hole somewhere. But that’s all the better because my insight has changed slightly since this morning.
I think you hit it right on the head Kathleen when said get an editor, make sure your self-pubbed stuff it top notch.
My books have been doing modestly at best…actually they’ve been languishing in anonymity as Amazon eBooks for a couple of months. Last month I paid $$ for a an editor to go through one tooth and nail. Then I ran an ad, added a promo and put it up again. Between 0600m this morning and the time of this writing (1500 Alaska time) my eBook 65 Below has risen from 156,000 to #4 in Kindle/War, #9 in Books/War, #10 in Books/Espionage, and #485 Overall on Amazon.
My new neighbors are Vince Flynn and Lee Child, and Newt Gingrich is around the corner. I’m a little stoked…
Lesson learned…don’t skimp on the details. Hire an editor.
oh and maybe offering a free Kindle for every 1000 books sold doesn’t hurt too…but still I don’t think they’d $2.99 on crap for a one in a thousand chance to win
It’s fascinating to see where the self-publishing momentum will take us all. Lot’s of juicy info. in your post – and follow up comments. Thank you.
Hi Kathy and welcome to the Kill Zone. I haven’t read other responses yet, but I heard advice about uploading to Smashwords first and getting an ISBN there before doing Kindle. I did my first three backlist titles with Belgrave House. They take a 50% split but do all the work. I’m revising my fourth backlist title now and it’s tedious work since I’ve learned so much in the interim. This is the hardest part and takes time away from new work.
Basil,
I’m interested in what type of ad/promo work you did? Sounds like that had some impact too. And yes, I agree, get a good freelance editor to look your work over.
Lots of good information, kathy. my heart is still set on the traditional publishers, lol. I do think that people need to be careful what they put out there and make sure the book is the best they can make it.
And hey, thanks for all your work on the FRW Horror Anthology. Maybe if we do it again, we’ll actually do “romance”.
Anonymous,
The ad I ran was through Kindle Nation Daily. They have several different levels of ads, I went for the big package for two of my books. 65 Below ran this week and Faithful Warrior runs next week. Hopefully FW will have similar success.
The ad was a combination of a general ad with a link and a 20k word sample of the book, and the free Kindle WiFi drawing as well. All in all it was worth the money. Thus far the book has held on to its place in the stats for over 24 hours.
I recommend trying it out, but of course having a properly edited, cleaned up and generally good story is most critical.
Thanks Basil. I’ll take a look. Kristin & Basil, I couldn’t agree more, a good story, well edited is crucial.
I think to succeed in self-publishing will be no different than in traditional publishing — the readers will find quality writing and that which isn’t will ultimately fail.
What’s exciting about self-publishing and e-books is that short story and novella length fiction can have a home, also stuff that raders want but may be too quirky for mainstream publishers can now find an audience