Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher:
Also includes articles on Good Writing, The Novelization Process and the Art of Revision
Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative Writing
Smashwords Edition, December 2008
Copyright 2008 by Edward C. Patterson
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part (beyond that copying permitted by U.S. Copyright Law, Section 107, “fair use” in teaching or research. Section 108, certain library copying, or in published media by reviewers in limited excerpt), without written permission from the publisher.
For my many Indie Author Friends
Who have outrun self-doubt
And embraced readers
And to the readers
Who share the vision
And have embraced the authors
Acknowledgements
This booklet evolved from a percieved need in the Independent Author community to have some details on a path to using Kindle and CreateSpace POD in a blended manner and leverage the distribution and marketing visibility of Amazon.com. This work in no way expresses any input from Amazon or its subsidiaries and is purely the experience and opinions of this author. It is reasonably priced for accessibility (I have all but forgone a royalty), however, I suspect as authors join the bandwagon, new methods will obsolete mine. Unlike my novels (which are universal and timeless — one would hope), this work will succeed if in a year’s time it stands beside How To books for the Apple IIc. In an effort to keep shelf life fresh, I have included a number of universal and timeless articles on the writing craft.
I am indebted to many Independent Authors and supportive readers that to name a few would neglect them all. However, this information wasn’t born like Minerva from the head of Zeus. It was acquired, either through stumbling or from some author on the discussion forums — all pioneers. However, I must thank April Hamilton, the Indie Author who introduced me to this world and to CreateSpace, and to Esmerelda Luv, who has single-handedly opened most of the discussion forums devoted to independent author promotion. As an author, the reader is more important than anything except the word itself. It is a shame that the traditional publishing industry is faultering and devoting most of its energies to narrow gauged marketing. There’s room in the universe for both traditional publishing with its restrictive process and independent publishing and its liberating breath of grace and beauty. Readers are lucky. They now have alternatives at their command, and given the Kindle’s success, they are excercising their options. Indie Authors must be ready to place quality reading in their hands to touch their souls.
Edward C. Patterson
Articles
Are You Still Submitting Your Work to A Traditional Publisher?
Writing Good Stories
The Novelization Process
Revisions vs. Re-Visions
Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher?
Are you self-published, an Indie Author or Just waitin’ around?
This article is something different for me, the King of the long ball opinion and promotion. It will consist of a short tips on how to become an Independent Author, and join the thousands of us who have awakened to the fact that the publishing world has changed and that most authors are just waiting around for something to happen with their work — something that never happens.
First blast over the bow is this. The difference between a self-published and an Indie Author. Self-published authors have employed some means to get themselves into print and have a few big boxes of books in their garage, which they peddle about on weekends, or not. They have paid a fortune for these copies and rightly wear the label “vanity-published.” An Indie Author has managed to engineer their work into print and e-Book on a no-inventories POD distribution point and has mastered the art of promotion so that they can make a few bucks, and more importantly, establish a beachhead of bon fide readers. The big difference is that the Indie Author has not laid out any cash for this experience — either FREE, or a few bucks for a proof copy. Indie Authors DO spend money, but usually under a hundred dollars a year to make their mark. Of course, there are those who still shop around in a ever waning traditional publishing industry trying to be one of those 1% of authors who are accepted, and then must trudge along for a year of pre-production, OR wait for the rejection and move on to the next house.
The First Step is Validation
Becoming an Indie Author means, you must take all the responsibility for yourself in print (or e-book). That means that all the things that a traditional publisher would give you if they weren’t in such a precarious position to take on one in 80,000. The first of these responsibilities is a hard one. The HARDEST one. Is your work publishable? (Not marketable — that’s a different question and has nothing to do with writing). Is your work good enough? Too many writers think that every word they write is a blessing from Mt. Olympus. In fact, most writers think they are perfection — first draft is magic, immaculate — eat your heart out Stephen King. However, the fact is, if you want your work published, you need to validate your talent. Not with your friends and family either, because they will tell you’re the next J.K. Rowling — and they will never buy your books. (Rule of the Jungle — Friends and Family do not buy your books). What you need is the opinions of 1) perfect strangers —- beta-readers, and 2) a professional editor, agent, or an annotated rejection from one of the Dead-Tree houses (a fond, but catty name that Indie Authors have coined for traditional publishers).
Stephen King says that authors are “always outrunning their doubts.” However, you must do it. You must reconcile yourself to the fact that every novel you write (and even non-fiction), must go through many passes. You must develop your style so it is consistent and recognizable. (You will find that when you are marketing a book to readers, you are marketing yourself, not your titles). You need to validate your talents and face facts. It takes time and nerves (and tears, sometimes). Treat a reader of your unpublished manuscript as gold, and you will learn to treat every reader as gold. Treat their feedback as platinum, and you’ll learn to treat every review of your published book as platinum. Listen to an editor (and you need to get one — free is best, as there are many that will work for free, if they like or love your work). Editors can be hellish — cruel, and tell you that your work is crap. Listen and change. Don’t fight them. Submit your book and see if you get a rejection beyond the “good luck.” A rejection tells you nothing about your talents. It took me a long time to get an annotated rejection that told me about problems in my style, and then a rejection that came after an interim letter that told me my work was publishable and passed two of the three tests to get into print (from Mundania Press). Only the last editor (the one for Marketing) passed on the manuscript. I was delighted. It validated my talent.
If your work is poor, mediocre or even just good — don’t publish. It’s the kiss of death, because the first readers will publicly proclaim your stuff “crap.” It also hurts all Indie Authors when a writer thinks they are ready for prime time and they’re not. It’s a hard first step in the process, but be sure you’re ready and get those beta-readers and mean editors rolling over your darling manuscripts. You will find there’s a point when the question goes away (usually after you’re published and the reviews come rolling in). Then, and only then, have you “outrun your doubts,” and you’re dancing with Uncle Stevie. Sometimes it’s a leap of faith.
We know why you write — so, why do you want to be published?
The second hallmark of becoming an Indie Author is as core as having the talent chops validated. It has to do with your motives, ulterior or otherwise. You must ask yourself the question: Why do I want to be published? Wouldn’t I rather just write a few articles and blog away in quiet obscurity? Doesn’t that get this writing-bug out of my system?
1 - If you want to be published just to see your writing in print, get a grip, get some money and a vanity publisher. You don’t need any other quantum of reason (which is like a Quantum of Solace, only it has an abrupt ending — sort of like that vacation to Disney on the last day). We all want to see our novels in print, and although that is technically “published,” it DOES serve a purpose. It keeps printers in business and it breaks the ice at parties.
2 - If you want to be published to become rich and famous, you shall be sorely deprived of your sanity. The rich and famous are published and get richer and famouser (SIC). Unknown titles zoom to the top by pure luck (ask King and Rowling). Too many times, I run into an Indie Author who is frantically watching the till and panicking because their book is selling one or two copies a quarter. Their motivation has usually caused them to spend money that don’t have and to overprice their book, because they are focused on sales and marketing and not . . . #3.
3 - If you want to be published so you can be read, and if you are focused on the reader, guiding your style and pricing (marketing) accordingly, you will succeed on the first sale (that ever-loving first sale that makes you AN AUTHOR, Indie or otherwise).
It is my humble (not so humble, really) opinion that if you’re about to independently publish, you should get your mind in order. You will no longer have “rejection” notices, but with the improper mindset, you’ll still get rejection — public rejection. If you put the reader, and engaging the reader, FIRST, you will accept the small royalty as a nice to have. Readers are gold, and good reviews are platinum (and good reviews are read by happy readers). If you set yourself up to be “rich and famous” from Indie Authoring, you are destined to be “poor and (perhaps) notorious.” There are Indie Authors I will not read because they have out-priced themselves and in their descent into madness have become obnoxious promoters. (Please buy my book . . I’m begging you, sort of thing).
When I started Indie publishing, it was tough to get my first books sailing (not selling — sailing). However, since I put the reader first, those that bought came back for more, and told others, and reviewed me well. When I released my latest tome (a big 600-page sucker), I had a reader (who widely reviews) state on Amazon: “Patterson has become an author I look for. Whenever I see he has a new book out, I’m in line to buy it. I’m not gay, but I like people, and his characters are likeable, full of spirit, going places and when they decide to go do something . . . I won’t be left behind!” Readers first — and reviews will come; and you can concentrate on the writing and less on the marketing.
So you have validated your talent with a leap of faith and you have the proper mind set to launch your work. The next step is more technical, but crucial.
Editting — Grandma and Spielling Countt
The last of the non-technical pre-requisites has to do with taking the responsibility of editing from the “dead-tree” houses, perhaps the one major service that traditional publishing gives you (if they give it to you). Writers are notoriously poor copy editors, especially for their own work. (We strut fine over other author’s works). The reading public will forgive some errors — but not many. It’s just like buying a car and saying “whoops, only one windshield wiper works. Sorry. Better luck next rainstorm.” Your reader deserves your talents and a perfect read. PERFEKT! Impossible. However, one must strive for it. A review that says “Wonderfully written. Great story. Needs editing.” KILLER.
Make up your mind to put into effect a completely new skill set before launching a work into print or into e-book-land. One thing that keeps the stigma on Indie Authors is “they make boo-boo’s.” If you are lucky (and most of you are), you’ll have someone who will proof-read for you for FREE (love, chocolates, a dinner and a free copy of your book — hardcover, if possible, signed — and a nice gift certificate to Border’s at Christmas). Such saints are so caring that they have invested in your success. Such is a blessing — so pray on it, because God is now your agent.
You must also rely heavily on your own IMPROVED copy editing skills. Catch those bad quotes and malapropisms. Here a misplaced comma, there a passed/past. An acquisition editor is a marketing guru. A literary editor will separate your crap from your cream and make you revise until your deadlines come home, but you must be an uber-proof reader. I can’t stress this enough. I have the arrow wounds in my ass to prove it. Fortunately, Indie Authors of my ilk (who publish with no up front cost) can revise their works in e-book and print at will, which is something you are rid of with traditional publishing where change is costly, time consuming and . . . nearly impossible. You mustn’t make that an excuse, however. You should plan a “maintenance” revision for every published book.
A good guide to remember is that writing, revision, copy editing, proofing and maintenance are all different skill-sets. When you are proofing, you should not be writing. That person should be off writing some other work. Use the ten sides of your brain. Is it easy? It is the toughest part of relinquishing the stranglehold of the traditional publisher — BUT it can be done.
Publishing Trends — Sunrise and Sunset
You might think I will now trash the traditional publishing world and sing the praises of Print-on-Demand (POD), but I shall not. This is a brief entry to say that authors misunderstand the current publishing processes and trends. They think they need query letters, agents, publicists and a host of rejection letters before they can publish a book. It ain’t so. Because Traditional Publishers (Dead-Tree Houses) have dicey profit margins and must worry about inventory, blockbusters, mid-range titles, returns, discounts and other, non-writing concerns, they are selective in their choice of authors. That selection has little to do with quality and more to do with marketing. If your book is lousy, it will still be a marketing decision that floats you a rejection. If your book is one that people will be reading one hundred years from now, your rejection is still based on all those marketing considerations. A thing of the moment. Publishers are as nervous as cats on a griddle, and deservedly so, because they lack basic market projection skills. (I’m a former Director of Marketing at a Fortune 500 company and smell this fur on the griddle).
With Print-on-Demand (POD), certain concerns are eliminated, or rather transferred to the author. The process remains the same, except that you query yourself, be your own agent, publicist, editor, and send yourself the rejection, hardy har har. Transfer of process is the keystone. Marketing the book is one transferred task. However, as any traditionlly published author will tell you, their publishing house does little in the way of marketing and will turn to you for your marketing plan anyway. “It’s your book — we printed it, now you sell it.”
However, some things are truly eliminated, like inventory control, returns, and bookshelf worries (blockbuster and mid-range). The POD house takes your file (generally, as is — the importance of quality and editing is your responsibility; and also layout and cover art), they set it up, send you proofs, and then funnel it to a distribution point where it is printed on-demand for a customer. The same is true of e-books, but in the case of electronic delivery, there are price breaks to the customer and cost breaks for the author. We’ll address e-books at length, because there are places where the “e-book doth languish” and other places where they sell like hotcakes (KINDLE, for instance — and delivered WiFi via whispernet).
What you need to know here is that Traditional is NOT bad, but since the publisher accepts the liability, they are in control, not you. With POD, you are in control (and responsible or not. If not, you have one damn big liability, which is your fault — go stand in the corner). In both cases, you have no up front costs, and in both you are contracted for royalties. However, with POD, generally you do not relinquish your rights, except for the use of the ISBN, which belongs to the imprint (unless you buy your own).
The BIG warning label here is: beware the old fashion vanity houses turned POD. “SEE YOUR NOVEL IN PRINT.” In addition, be wary of POD houses that offer you marketing services to publish your book for a few hundred bucks. Some, like BookSurge, iUniverse and Lulu are legitimate and do a fair to good marketing job, it’s according to how lazy you are and how much you are not willing to do yourself. In most cases, you can accomplish these tasks for FREE or for minimal cost. However, beware such infamous POD publishers that charge you like a vanity publisher would, offer you editing services they do not fulfill and marketing services that permanently damage your book’s chances in the marketplace.
In short, seeking POD solutions should be a serious pursuit. However, look to the NO COST houses first and consider e-book not as an alternative, but as a tandem publishing pursuit. You want readers, after all. Modern readers read in many formats. Moreover, keep in mind that the process hasn’t changed. You are picking up the ball for many. However, you are lifting that ball past the marketing barriers that publishing houses are forced to erect to protect their investments and profit line. As an Indie Author, your profit is 100% beyond your first sale, so you can dash or crash. It’s your choice.
Deciding What to Publish
This topic will be brief. It’s part of the prerequisite to Indie Publishing. If you have only one book in your personal catalog that has been talent validated, thoroughly edited and ready to shoot the rapids, then this is a moot point. However, your first Indie book must be sufficiently packaged to attract a reader to an unknown name. It’s a point we shall take up later. However, if your book is an 180,000 word epic fantasy novel, you are asking a tall order from your new reader, in print — less so in e-book, because you can lower the price to something like $3.99 and some readers are more price driven than others. If you have a few literary properties up your sleeve, publish the shortest, and the most intense first. Use the tools that we’ll discuss to give a sample of your writing style. Write a blurb that will get someone’s attention.
If you marshal your work properly, effectively priced, you’ll get a reader. If you can get that reader to review the book, you’re sure to get another reader . . . and another reader . . . and then that reader will read your next book . . . and your next book. And that’s how the process works. This topic begs more questions than answers, I know. However, I mention it here because you must have a plan in your head on which material will lead out, or the initial frustration might send you screaming back to that scheisshole of queries and pitches and agents and bored acquisition editors and the gates of Dead-Tree house hell. (That would make a glorious book title – The Gates of Dead Tree House Hell). In my own case, I published three novellas and two books of poetry first. Now, whatever I publish, I can get a reader (at least one) to buy and read. My first book sold two copies in the first month. My last book sold 30 copies in the first 2 weeks (and it was an 180,000-word Fantasy epic). In addition, with eight books out there, they haven’t mid-shelfed yet. I was even able to sell the poetry books, which as we all know, is a labor of love. Love deserves to be shared and read also.
Just in Time, I’ve Found you Just in Time
. . . or so the old song goes. There is nothing like a good old brick and mortar bookstore for browsing, touching, wishing, and hoping. I’d be the last person to eschew the experience of the stacks. I remember Mendoza’s in downtown Manhattan, where the aroma of books (which in my novel Turning Idolater I called bibliodiferous) kisses your mind like no other perfume. BUT, let’s get real. Books take up space and cost money to warehouse. They can crowd us out and make short work of a complete choice in your local Barnes & Noble. (I remember when Barnes & Noble was a noble barn on 14th Street in New York City. Ah, the wonders therein. Now it’s a pick and choose sterility).
Enter AMAZON.COM
How cold, you might say. Complete and with marketing savvy, but nothing like the real thing. However, as an Indie Author, Amazon.com offers you a virtual slot on a virtual shelf that anyone can bump into or be led to or even promoted to. They also have a wonderful new contraption called The Kindle (aw, that’ll never catch on. It’s a toy. It’s a gimmick. It’s a . . . revolution — just ask Oprah Winfrey or any of my many readers). With e-Books delivered via WiFi at 1/2 to 1/3 the price, Indie Authors have a playing field that’s leveling. To see your book in the rankings between King’s and Maupin’s is an electrifying sensation.
Now, what would be really nice is if the Just In Time technology of Print On Demand (POD) could guarantee a spot on Amazon’s distribution and shipping system also. That would be ideal. It would also be nice if you could get an e-book in some other form than the Kindle (let’s say mobipocket, pdf or blackberry) and have Amazon take care of that too. Well, here’s a secret that’s no secret, but most authors ignore, even those independently publishing. As of November 2007, Amazon covers the full spectrum.
One of the web’s most prominent “no Up Front Cost” POD publishers is CreateSpace, which is owned, operated and blended into . . . Amazon.com. CreateSpace will not only POD your book with no minimum purchase, give you an ISBN, but provide you with an Amazon Product page, pricing discounts (not at your cost), set up Search Inside the Book, give you options for Suggested Retail Pricing (latitude), give you a separate web page for your directed sales and specialized discounts, great pricing on author books, distribution to ALL Amazon network sites including Target and overseas markets. Plus, all the other perks of an Amazon product page (tags, reader reviews, blogspace).
Kindle by Amazon is known as Digitalpublications.com and now includes the recently discontinued AmazonShorts. Any author can publish for the Kindle using the DTP interface. The process is free, simple and relatively quick. You get a product page, an ASIN (e-Books do not have ISBNs), upload functions for covers, categories, tags and pricing from $.99 up. (There is a $6,000 Kindle book on Nuclear physics that Indie Authors believe is a hoax.) The product pages, after processing, are connected with your CreateSpace product pages (mutually) so non-Kindle owners can find your paperback books.
This is just scratching the surface, but for No Up Front Cost, an Indie Author can publish a paperback and an e-Book and have it printed and/or distributed by Amazon.com. THAT’S WHY it is an imperative that you validate your talent and edit like a Viking picking through an English village. That Amazon’s system is simple and free — we print, distribute — we don’t edit — we keep a percentage and pay you a royalty. So if your book is a sack of hammers, you can publish it at no up front cost within an hour of reading this paragraph, but it will still a sack of hammers.
The good news is, with no warehousing, returns, mid-shelf crisis or any other brick and mortar concerns, the Amazon arrangement is exactly what a printer/distributor/author relationship should be. Neither should constrain the other in the pursuit of their “thang.” Amazon’s quality is top notch. Are there glitches? You bet there are, at times — many avoidable, but they are nothing compared with the dumb-ass snafus of the traditional publishing house over months and months. Moreover, Amazon.com owns Mobipocket (another format covered).
I mean to drill down on my own experiences with CreateSpace and Kindle. The set-up processes can be scary to the novice, but they’re actually less scary than your average query letter. There are also other alternatives to Amazon’s pure solutions. Moreover, there’s marketing and promotion, key to selling the damn things. Amazon no more sells your books than Doubleday, except Doubleday likes branded names that sell themselves (and that’s a concept that could be pursued). Whoops, when I wrote that last sentence, Doubleday was still in business. Point taken.
Manuscript Preparation — One
Preparing a manuscript for Indie Authoring depends on the place and formats you will be using (POD and e-Book), but since I go CreateSpace and Kindle, I have set-up a rhythm which takes a few weeks to prepare for a launch. I also own a Kindle, so I get a view of how the manuscript looks on the device. However, many of my Indie Author friends do not have a Kindle and rely on tools such as mobipocket reader to guesstimate look and feel, and then ask the Indie Author Community to validate the results.
Manuscript preparation begins with the proofing. Now that your work has been fully revised (at least twice), you should do a final go-through on the computer. Be sure that automatic spell check has been SHUT OFF. It’s bad enough that writers are poor proofreaders; we don’t need any help from MS Word’s algorithms. You make a typo and Word will attempt to correct it. That’s how I was able to miss the following line: “Huang Li-fa pissed his paints,” instead of “pants.” Luckily, it was on the beta-copy and a beta-reader brought it to my attention with all the hilarity it deserved.
1 - SHUT OFF Automatic Spell Check.
2 - Read your manuscript not as a writer, but as a wicked old editor. Catch those “their/they’re”, ”past/passed”, “hopped/hoped” errors. Add your missing “thats”, kill every adverb that can be slain, check that all commas are placed properly, delete errant quotes and other untidy punctuation, and be consistent with “iffy” stuff, like capitalization of certain words, italics for thought bubbles and DO use the proper progression of action (“xxxx, and then xxxx”). Detect POV errors and adjust with “probability text — possibly, probably, perhaps . . . you know what I mean (and if you don’t — don’t publish yet. You’re not ready. See your editor). In addition, watch pacing. Kill darling lines that extend metaphors to more than two references. “He was like a cat on a roof that’s on fire in the rain.” You KNOW what I mean. And BE MEAN to yourself.
3 - Print out these pages (double-spaced) and do the same thing again, but better than that — have a proofreader do it. You might have to pay someone, but four eyes are better than two, and twelve eyes are better than . . . I’m blind in one eye, so two eyes are better than one.
4 - Go through the manuscript and effect changes and corrections and then . . . get your manuscript uploaded to your Kindle. (No Kindle? Transfer it to Mobipocket reader for the computer). The point is this. Your proofing skills change with each media change. You will catch things at one point size on paper that you won’t catch at another on the screen.
5 - Read your book on the Kindle setting the font to a larger size (three is good). You’ll be surprised at how much you can catch. When you find an error or a change, use Kindle’s line highlighting function and add-notes to keep a running file of edits. Then, either download the file to your computer, or (what I do) just hold the Kindle in your left hand and effect edits with your right (and chew gum and dance the meringue at the same time. We all know that writers can multitask, as my Irish Aunt once said: “I’ll shove a broom up me arse and sweep the floor.”)
6 - THEN, run MS word spell check with grammar check ON to catch all the other things everyone missed. It so happens that as you do those little revisions (changing passive to active, etc), you leave “ghosts,” extra words that should be deleted OR tense remnants (tenses and verb conjugations that should have changed with the change but you didn’t change them because . . .). Grammar check will catch most of these.
7 - Be sure that your manuscript has “printers” quotes on, that em-dashes are properly formatted with a space on either side and that ellipses are like this ( . . . ) and not ( ... ). Then, if I were you, and you were me, read the work over again. There will be something wrong. Always is. However, if you are 99.95% clean, the .05% can be rectified in a maintenance edition later on without travail.
With all that done, you are now ready to reformat your work. I work with single spaced manuscripts, but tradition says double-space is best. I disagree, but that’s a matter of style. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is implode your spacing and tickle your styles. And on that note . . .
Adding Pages for Kindle Manuscript Preparation
You now have a clean manuscript ready for publication. Indie Publishing this work only needs a few more formatting tricks. First, for the Kindle, and then, for POD. My usual modus operandi is to prepare the Kindle version first. The front page contains the cover art for my novel. On the Kindle, color covers will convert to gray scale. In Word, I insert a reasonably sized jpg representation of my cover, and resize it so it takes up half the front page. I then page break for the Title Page. You can have a formal title page with Title, your name, a publishing logo OR, I just begin with the colophon, which contains the follow:
Series title (if
applicable)
Title
Subtitle (if applicable)
Author
name
Author’s imprint name (usually a website url Version and
date
Copyright information
List of published books with
ISBN’s
Cover acknowledgements
Email or other contact
information
The copyright can be any established legal text that protects your work and deems it original. You might need disclaimers, such as all characters are fictional etc. I use a standard copyright text for all my books (see below). The imprint is a nice touch, as your book’s publishing imprint on the Kindle is Amazon Digital. Don’t put that. Use something that you have, particularly from your website. Mine has been, and still is Dancaster Creative. A list of your works (which needs to be updated in maintenance releases) is important also, so you can recommend to the reader other books that you have penned, and by supplying the ISBN, they can always find them on-line. Kindle books, like all e-book, do not have an ISBN. You’ll get that when you publish the book on CreateSpace. However, they have ASIN, which is an Amazon product ID. Don’t use that in your colophon. DO list your unpublished works and update them with ISBNs as they are published. Finally, include your email address so the reader can contact you with feedback, and then you can convert that feedback into a review.
NEXT, add a preface or a few words thanking the forces that supported your efforts. Thank your beta-readers. Thank your fifth grade teacher. Thank Dickens. In short, sell yourself as the humble scribbler who offers this work to a worthy reader.
Include a Table of Contents (if you’re good at this Kindle thing, you can add optional hyperlinks)
Be sure that every section and chapter starts on a new page using Word’s page break feature. Have all section titles (Part I, Book One, BIG CHUNK THREE: The Monster Lives), start on a separate page, and do not center it. Have it start flush to the top of the page. Trust me, it’s a Kindle thing.
Be sure that your work is single-spaced and that it’s ragged left. If you justify the margins, you’ll create rivers for your reader on the Kindle and will prevent them from changing their reading format choices.
Finally, include your biography at the end. Mostly your book flap bio, but add your published and in progress works there as well. IN ADDITION, your motto — a slogan that you use to help define you as the real product. I include my picture too, for the Kindle version.
SAMPLES:
The Colophon for my last published book The Jade Owl & the Biography page for the end.
The Jade Owl Legacy Book I
The Jade Owl:
In Search of the Old China Hand
Edward C. Patterson
Dancaster Creative Writing
First Kindle Original Edition, November 2008
Copyright 2008 by Edward C. Patterson
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part (beyond that copying permitted by U.S. Copyright Law, Section 107, “fair use” in teaching or research. Section 108, certain library copying, or in published media by reviewers in limited excerpt), without written permission from the publisher.
Other Works by Edward C. Patterson
(available in Paperback and Kindle Editions on Amazon.com)
No Irish Need Apply ISBN 1434893952
Cutting the Cheese ISBN 1434893847
Bobby’s Trace ISBN 1434893960
The Closet Clandestine: a queer steps out ISBN 1438220502
Come, Wewoka & The Diary of Medicine Flower ISBN 1438227639
Surviving an American Gulag ISBN 1438247230
Turning Idolater ISBN 1440422109
Southern Swallow: Nan Ya
Look Away, Silence
Belmundus
The Road to Grafenwöhr
Green Folly
The Jade Owl Legacy
The Jade Owl
The Third
Peregrination
The Dragon’s Pool
The People’s Treasure
In the Shadow of Her Hem
Cover art by the
author
Jade Owl Icon by Tee Jay Patterson
For further information contact edwpat@att.net
Biography:
Edward C. Patterson has been writing novels, short fiction, poetry and drama his entire life, always seeking the emotional core of any story he tells. With his eighth novel, The Jade Owl, he combines an imaginative touch with his life long devotion to China and its history. He has earned an MA in Chinese History from Brooklyn College with further postgraduate work at Columbia University. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he has spent four decades as a soldier in the corporate world gaining insight into the human condition. He won the 2000 New Jersey Minority Achievement Award for his work in corporate diversity. Blending world travel experiences with a passion for story telling, his adventures continue as he works to permeate his reader’s souls from an indelible wellspring.
Published Novels by Edward C. Patterson include No Irish Need Apply, Bobby’s Trace, Cutting the Cheese, Surviving an American Gulag, Turning Idolater and The Jade Owl (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book I). Coming soon: The Third Peregrination (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book II), The Dragon’s Pool (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book III), Southern Swallow (Nan Ya), Look Away, Silence, Belmundus, The Road to Grafenwoehr, and Green Folly. Look also for The People’s Treasure (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book IV) and In the Shadow of Her Hem (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book V). Poetry books available are The Closet Clandestine: a queer steps out and Come, Wewoka - and - Diary of Medicine Flower.
Dancaster Creative www.dancaster.com
From my mind to your imagination . . .
Launching your Masterpiece on the Kindle (Start Your Engines)
Before you start the Kindle launching process, go to http://dtp.amazon.com/ and read the terms of agreement (the contract) and sign up as a Kindle author. This will allow you access to your DTP Dashboard. (DTP = Digital Text Platform). The next step is to have a manuscript ready for upload. This can be one of three different formats, depending on how complex your manuscript is: We’ll go for “simple.”
WORD DOC: Your word document .doc version is good enough to create a Kindle upload file. There could be some formatting issues, but if you have a Kindle, you can test it by emailing the document {your email mailto:name}@kindle.com and it will download via whispernet to your Kindle for viewing. You can do that with all three types of Kindle upload files. I used this format (.doc) for all my earlier books with no problems. Be sure that all section headings start on the first line of the page, and for your reader’s ease, page break before each chapter and do not justify text. In addition, for every line break (double space) that you have in your document, the Kindle version will double it — so be careful with spacing. Too much is disconcerting and never double-space the entire document unless you like the sound of readers cursing. Don’t worry about page numbers (the Kindle does not use page numbers) or Headers and Footers. (The Kindle creates its own header).
HTML: You can also save your document from WORD 7 or later to an .html file and upload that instead. This is good if you are going to create links within the document. You can edit your html or bring it into Dreamweaver or another GUI html editor.
(best) PRC: The final Kindle native format is a PRC file (on the Kindle it is called .AZW), which is also the native format for Mobipocket. Therefore, the surest and cleanest way to upload is to create a PRC file. How do I do that? Go to http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp?Language=EN and download both the Mobipocket Reader and the Mobipocket Creator. They are easy to install. Then, in Creator, load you word doc file and process it. This will create an HTML file. Then, press the “Build” icon — IMPORTANT: select “standard Compression” and do not select DRM — the locked version of the PRC file. Then run it. That produces the PRC file. We’ll upload that when the time comes.
Some more preparation for launch:
DESCRIPTION: Carefully (and I mean carefully) craft a blurb for your product page. Kindle gives you space for up to 4,000 words. Don’t use that many. Don’t do something like: “The book is about Olympian Gods and Goddess’ dancing the Irish jig on St. Patrick’s Day, and then they do this and go there and blah blah.” Do something more like: “Arthur Pimp has a problem — he has taken too much Viagra. In his quest to reduce the swell, he meets a host of helpers. Thrills and chills (and perhaps spills) go forth.” OR do my favorite. Get mysterious and give the reader a sample of your style. (From The Jade Owl) “In China they whisper again . . .”
The description sells books, so make sure the spelling is perfect and it draws the reader in, much like the first paragraph of your book.
COVER ART: Design or get someone to design a cover. You’ll need it for the POD version anyway. I’ll speak about cover art soon, but there are royalty free stock photos that can be used if you’re artistically challenged (go to Google or Wikipedia), and any one of several digital programs can help you get the TITLE TEXT and your NAME on the cover. I am lucky to be a certified Photoshop artist, but I have used stock covers for three of my books. Sometimes the stock stuff suffices. DO NOT LAUNCH WITHOUT COVER ART. The cover graphic on Amazon sells books. I have even changed covers and have gotten a sales spike. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Hell, yes.
CATEGORY: Decide which genre you want your book to be categorized. It’s important for the rankings and the genre lists (more on those later). You get up to five categories. In addition, decide on some key words prior to starting the launch.
PRICE: You get to set the price. Make it as low as $.99 or as high as $6,000.00 (There is a Kindle book out there for that price on Nuclear Physics). This price will also set your Royalty (which will be 35%). Word to the wise — keep the price as low as possible. I price on the Kindle for $3.99 regardless whether it is a 98-page book (Bobby’s Trace) or 600 pages (The Jade Owl). This gives me a $1.40 royalty, BUT you will learn that it is all about getting readers, not making money. If you disagree, go re-read the earlier topics on deciding why you are publishing. If you go over $7.00, you will find resistance from readers to purchase your book. You can always lower or raise a price at any time.
Have all that. Take a deep breath, because we’re going to DTP and launch your book.
Launching your Manuscript on the Kindle — Let’s Do It!
You’re armed for bear. If not, re-read the last post and arm yourself. You should have already registered on DTP before starting (I will assume you have). Now, go to http://dtp.amazon.com/ and sign in. If you’ve been there before, it’s just a button press.
Click on Add a New Item and you will see a 3-part form appear.
ENTER PRODUCT DETAILS
UPLOAD & PREVIEW BOOK
ENTER PRICE
Entering product Details:
Title: Enter your book title. Be careful that it’s spelled correctly and, if you are also going to publish a paperback on Amazon via POD, be sure it matches that title. E-books do not have ISBN’s, therefore the cross-referencing of your various media pages that do not have ISBN’s but ASIN’s relies on title (correct and precise title).
ISBN: Enter that here if it applies. I usually enter that later on, after the fact, when I have an ISBN from the paperback. Leave it blank otherwise.
Publisher: Leave this blank for now (or put the owner of the ISBN here). I fill this in after the fact.
Language: If English, leave default.
Publishing Date: Leave blank, Amazon will autofill that in.
Categories: (press add/edit) Select up to five categories. On the Kindle, rankings are revealed by category. Rankings are extremely important in promotion, so choose these with care as every sale you make will be reflected in the top 100 of each category’s ranking, exposing you to more sales opportunities. You can adjust these later, if the ones you have chosen are not working for you.
Authors: (press add/edit) Put your Author Name as it will appear on the Product page. Remember that YOU are the product, so use a consistent style throughout all your titles. Remember “author” is a searchable feature on Amazon. I always, for example, use my full name with middle initial on all my titles — Edward C. Patterson (with a period after the C.) If you use a pseudonym, I do not suggest screen names — YippieYapster012 will not sell books. Screen names are wonderful for blogs and comments, even Amazon ID’s, although as an author you should use your authorial name on Amazon profiles and “real-name”authenticate it. If the work is co-authored, this is where multiple authors are listed.
Search Keywords: Put as many as you want bearing in mind that this is where you can pick up niche search result from readers. If your work is set in Palmyra, Ohio, Palmyra is a good keyword. Save broader keywords such as novel, fiction, mystery, for “tagging,” BUT don’t be lazy — keywords help sell books.
Product Image: Upload the cover or image representation for your book. Books without images on the product page are rarely purchased by anyone unless they are generic rehashes of Shakespeare. Covers sell books. Think of your image on a bookshelf (lists of 25 titles in Amazon searches). You compete with other titles by name recognition, number of stars (reviews), and number of reviewers, ranking and book cover. You may not have stars or review numbers at first, nor will your name compete with Stephen King, but you can enter the cover beauty contest to attract a click to your product page. My covers all have a similar look and feel, part of selling myself. When a reader of my last book clicks on my next book, they should feel they have entered my universe when it comes to covers.
Edition Number, Series Title, and Series Volume: Leave the default at 1 and leave the other two fields blank. I’ll talk to those later. They can be tricky and can cause travail if not done properly (It’s an area that DTP needs to improve).
[Save your Entries] Now
Upload & Preview Book:
Media Location: Type or search your computer for your manuscript, which should be either a Word Doc, an html file or .prc (as per previous discussion). Once found, press the upload button. If successful, you will get a confirmation.
Preview: Press the preview button. Your uploaded manuscript will be displayed in its entirety for your review. It approximates what it should look like on your customer’s Kindle. If you don’t own a Kindle to do a preview before uploading your manuscript, then it’s important that you review page by page looking for odd line breaks (caused usually by errant tabs or double spacing). If you’re not satisfied, return to your manuscript, adjust, re-uplaod and preview. If you have reviewed the results on your Kindle, still preview to assure that you have uploaded the correct file or file version. One of the beauties of both Kindle and POD publishing is that you can upload an entirely new manuscript at any time. With traditional publishing, you cannot, at least not without considerable cost. With this new age of publishing, it is cost-free and affects no inventory — and with Kindle customers, they can download your changes at any time via WiFi. Some author’s have even used this capability to publish serial novels.
If everything is to your satisfaction, save your converted work.
Enter Price:
This is simple, but tricky. Enter the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) for your title. I suggest you keep it low. All my Kindle books, whether 100 pages or 600 pages are $3.99 (part of my marketing image), but priced to attract readers. At $3.99 my royalty is $1.40 or about the price of a Diet Coke in a vending machine. To date I have over 300 Diet Cokes. If you wish to up this price and model (as an unknown name in a sea of a gazillion books, competing with DVDs and TV as entertainment media) go right ahead. You may sell some, but I guarantee you’ll be a bit thirstier. The consensus on the Kindle-Author forum is that $7.00 is the ceiling for an Indie Author book on the Kindle or in any electronic medium. Stephen King sells his at $9.99. Good for Uncle Stevie as he could get away with $12.00.
Note: Amazon may discount your price to something like $3.19. It doesn’t affect your royalty, which is still based on your SRP. You can also go as low as $ .99, which I will do when I publish this little sermonette on Indie Authoring. You can also change your price at any time
Save your Pricing NOW
Take a deep breath, because you’ve done it and you are one button press away from being published. Okay, do it. Press the publish button and watch the wheels turn. You should get the ubiquitous banner saying that your work will be published between 12 and 72 hours. So go watch TV, take a weekend vacation or just sleep. It will take that long . . . but relatively shorter than 6 months with one of the Dead-Tree houses, especially if they are on the skids, as most of them are.
ARE YOU THERE YET? Not quite yet. “Aha, there’s a catch,” you say. No, not really. Amazon is more a process than a publisher in the true sense. You are the publisher. All the information you supplied now needs to be processed, and it’s processed in separate streams. Your product page will be built in stages . . . and that’s the next topic.
Pieces of Eight — The Amazon Product Page (Kindle)
Now you have submitted your manuscript for publication for the Kindle on Amazon.com. You’ve been told it will take between 12 and 72 hours before it is live. So what does LIVE mean? It means that the product page will be available in some fashion. In order to know what’s there, what’s complete and what’s missing, you need to know the “pieces” that are separately processed. Unfortunately, this part is a bit like going to the casino. Your page may start coming together in 12 hours or 72 hours. In addition, you may get the whole product page or part of it. You must know that you will get the whole thing, but sometimes it takes a week or more for the entire thing to come together. With eight published books on the Kindle, I can say — sometimes I’m lucky. Sometimes I’m not. However, given the vagaries of traditional publishing, I’d rather go to the casino with a sure thing than to the crap tables with a risk.
Here are the various pieces of the product Pages and what they mean.
Title, Author and Vitals: This is your Title listing, with your name and the vital statistics (book size, ASIN number, sold by, publication date). These are generally the first things to show up, and they sometimes show up alone.
THE BUY NOW BUTTON: The price of your book and the purchase button. If this doesn’t show up, there will be a NOTIFY ME WHEN AVAILABLE button. This is one of the most important elements to show up. I have had the entire Product Page available without a purchase button. All dressed up and nowhere to go. Can’t sell books without that button.
The Sample Button: Kindle users can get a free sample of your book downloaded via whispernet. This is a great feature for both prospective readers and authors. It generally shows up with the BUY NOW button.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: That lovely blurb you crafted to catch people’s attention. Well, it might show up a week after the book is ready to sell, which makes it hard sometimes to promote. There are ways around this using your Amazon Author’s blog, if you get a sponsor. (later topic). If not, be patient. It will show up eventually.
Rankings: Rankings generally do not show up until after your first sale. Rankings are important to promoting and marketing your book on Amazon (and frustrating and fun at the same time). You can invest in getting in the rankings by purchasing a copy of your own book if you have a Kindle. (Only one to a customer).
Cross References: These are links to your title in other formats, i.e. paperback. Of course, you need to have a paperback in place on its own separate product page. However, cross-referencing is important, especially when reviews start coming in.
PEOPLE THAT BOUGHT: After your first sale, book images from your customers show up. This helps sell other author’s books as well as your own on their product pages.
PRICE DISCOUNT: Don’t be surprised that your Suggested Retail Price is discounted from the get-go. That’s Amazon’s prerogative right out of the gate and in the contract. However, the discount might not show up for a while.
Also, press your name link to assure that you are in the author searches. All your books should show up in a list.
DO give yourself 5 stars as a rating for the product page.
DO tag your book with popular tags (later topic)
Once your product page is “live,” your DTP dashboard will indicate that. Immediately capture the URL for promotion purposes. The URL is usually an Amazon address that includes your ASIN.
You’re published. Congratulations. Press the Reports button on your DTP Dashboard and the current monthly report link to see your sales for the month, which should be (unless you made that one self purchase) blank — but here is where you can check your sales and commissions at any time, unlike a traditional house where reports generally are weekly and monthly or after teeth pulling.
You’re published, but your work has just begun. Now you need to promote, which is a chore by any standard. However, you’re on Amazon and can use many official and unofficial Amazon tools to self-promote as well as websites, blogs and other engines. You will need reviews and stars, an exciting pursuit if you have really validated your talents (otherwise, your stars will be more like moons or goose eggs).
However, before we move on to promotion, let’s publish this manuscript again . . . as a paperback on Amazon’s CreateSpace. Two formats are better than one, and promoting one book in multiple formats makes sense.
Preparing Your Manuscript for CreateSpace
Preparing your manuscript for the Print-on-Demand Publisher (POD) can be as simple or as painful as you want. The end game is that you will need two (2) .pdf files — the Innards and the Outers (Cover). If you are adept with publishing programs (I am, but still prefer the easier course), like PageMaker or InDesign, you can layout your inner manuscript (usually through importing) and “do your thing”. Remember that your publication size is NOT 8.5 x 11, but 6 x 9. You can spend considerable and worthwhile time designing your publication, and then creating the .pdf for the inner manuscript. The Cover is a different story and requires some skill, not only as a graphic artist, but also in laying out front, back and spine. You can use stock art (copyright free) or your own creation. OR go to a professional cover designer, which is a valid option. There are reasonably priced design houses that work within Indie Author’s budgets, such as bddesign (contact gregb@bddesignonline.com) that specialize in the POD cover arena. (If you mention this book’s title and my name at that site, you’ll get a price break).
However, it is possible to take your current 8.5 x 11 word manuscript and covert it to a POD- ready .pdf with little or no pain using the PATTERSON recipe. In this case, you use another POD Company’s on-line design tools and utilize the results for the CreateSpace publishing process. That “other” POD is Lulu.com, and is a viable POD publisher, but not for this particular exercise. The on-line book creator at Lulu.com is a fine platform for doing the job, and we’ll have a step by step in the next topic.
Step 1 - Save the manuscript you used for the Kindle uploaded under a different name. (I add the letters POD to the file name). It’s important to keep your base manuscript for maintenance, and repeat these steps when making maintenance changes to the print copy.
Step 2 – On the Lulu.com site, download the manuscript template file, which can be found at http://www.lulu.com/en/help/book_formatting_faq select 6 x 9” Word (doc).
Step 3 – Open this file in Microsoft Word. Save it to a new filename such as YourManuscriptPOD.doc
Step 4 – Open your Word manuscript. Press Ctrl-A (Slect All), and copy to memory.
Step 5 – Switch to the templat document and paste your manuscript. Save and close the origignal manuscript.
Step 5 - Add your page numbers (footers) – centered. If you need fancier pagination or left-right numbers, use a Desk Top Publishing program and abandon this recipe.
Step 5 - Center the title on your title page. Use a dingbat font, if you want to add interest (not required). I use wingding and a nice Celtic leaf repeated four times above my title, and then again below my name. I also use this on Section breaks. Since I use this same dingbat in all my books, it becomes part of the brand. No copyright stuff etc. on the title page. Be sure that the Title matches the Title of your Kindle product page, otherwise your cross references will be lost.
Step 6 - Now it’s time to step through your manuscript. You’ll notice that it has grown (page-wise). The page limit for this process is 750 pages. If the number of pages exceeds this, lower your body text point size by .5 or 1 point. If this doesn’t do it, abandon this recipe or (dependant on the book length) consider two volumes. (Lulu’s limit is 750 pages, perfect binding 6x9. CreateSpace goes to 850 on white stock).
Inspect your new POD manuscript, page by page. Be sure there are no widows and orphans or strange line breaks. IMPORTANT: Be sure that every Chapter, Section or Major Commencement page begins on an odd page number. This means forcing blank pages. Walk through your entire manuscript making adjustments. What you see is what you’ll get. Save your POD document.