Karen Abrahamson – Page 18 – Mystery, fantasy and romance at the dangerous ends of the earth

Social Media and Marketing your e-Published Book

By Karen Abrahamson | July 9, 2011

Which social media do you prefer and what success have you experienced with it? Last Post I said that we’d start to explore social media and how to make it work for you. When I consider social media and on-line marketing there are four basic areas to discuss:

Twitter
Facebook/Google+
Websites and blogs
Author opportunities on Amazon.com, Pubit and Goodreads amidst others.

In addition there are other opportunities such as interviews/blog tours and UTube, however I recently saw an amazing graphic that shows the immense possibilities available for social marketing (click here). All of these are built on a key concept we discussed last week, namely the importance of social networking.

Marketing on social networks requires you to first of all to focus on also being social. To help with introducing this subject, successful self-publisher, Joshua Graham, provided these insights about his experience building from a newly published book to a best seller. He provides a good introduction to what social marketing requires.

1. You’ve talked about using social media for promoting yourself and your books. Can you tell me what social media you’ve used and what have you used them for? E.g. do you only use social media for your writing, or are you involved with the various forms for other social purposes?

I have Facebook accounts, fan pages for my pen names and books, as well as twitter accounts. I mostly use them for marketing my work.

Do you have those for each of your pseudonyms and each book?

That is correct. For now, with only 2 novels and 2 pen names, it’s manageable.

2. How have you used each type of social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon book groups, etc.) to promote your writing? E.g. announcing new publications, pushing your books (if so, how?)

Twitter is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I’m learning. I’ve used Facebook to find readers and let them know about my books, reviews, interviews, awards, and honors. All of these help build my internet presence and create a platform. As this platform grows, there will be more of an audience for future releases.

To find readers, I basically went to various special interest pages on Facebook such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., engaged in discussions and “friended” anyone who seemed like they might be interested in my books. Also, based on the reactions (comments, “likes”) to my book posts, I “friended” those people as well.

3. Did you have a social media presence before you began promoting your books?

Not really. I had a personal Facebook page, but I really began marketing under my pen name when my ebooks first became available.

4. How often are you on the various social media sites? What time commitment does social media involve a week? (What did you devote to it?)

Probably a bit more than I should be. I spend several hours each week on Facebook, and often when I’m feeling a bit unfocused in my writing, I hang out there more doing marketing and communicating with my fans.

5. Have you tracked which social media sites have had the greatest impact on your sales? If so, which ones have you found most effective?

It’s hard to draw a direct correlation (esp. with Twitter) but I have definitely found Facebook the most effective way for now. Even that is reaching a limit, so I’ll need to explore other venues for marketing too.

6. Are there actions you would recommend for writers venturing into marketing on social media and, conversely, are there actions that you would recommend writers avoid?

There’s no one way that works for everyone. Definitely, write the best book you can. Get some good reviews and use them to talk about your book. I find that if you start giving away a lot of free ebooks (short stories, or even novels) on a regular basis, you’ll develop an appreciative and loyal following.

Then when you release a new book, they as your fans will be very enthusiastic and hopefully talk about it on their social networks as well. I would avoid over-saturating certain fan pages with ads. Be aware of the culture and rules of each fan page or message board. If you fall out of favor, it will harm rather than help your marketing efforts.

7. What would you recommend to the writer who has little to no previous experience with social media?

Get started! Learn your way around and find your own social media voice. Have a personality online that people can identify with. And most of all, be a giver. Give your readers and fan something of value. If they perceive you as a taker–someone who just wants them to buy your book, they will be turned off and you will become noise to them.

A big thanks to Joshua for sharing his insights. And just to reinforce what he has said, as an author he has focused on his marketing, but he has done so through becoming involved with communities within the social media.

A similar story can be found if you look at the process John Locke used to become a best seller, however his preferred social media was Twitter. So it seems that both social media can be successful; you just need to decide which you prefer and determine how to make it work for you. That’s what we’ll talk about next time out.

So I’ll repeat my question here: which social media do you prefer and what success have you experienced with it?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Social Media, Pulling Teeth and Getting Started

By Karen Abrahamson | July 3, 2011

I remember it well—the day my writing mentor said I had to be on Twitter. First came the panic.

‘No’, I said. ‘No way. E-mail eats enough time as it is.”

Another kindly pair of friends took me aside and explained that really, Twitter wasn’t so bad, and you needed it to market you books (no mention of how). So they helped me get an account and TweetDeck, and set me loose in the Twitter world.

And I never used it.

The few times I logged on, it was like going to the dentist and I HATED the fact that my darn computer dinged and disturbed my train of thought every time a new tweet came through. Now I know I could turn my speakers down, but I needed the volume to tell me when business e-mails came through. The trouble was twitter kept dinging and dinging. So this post is about Twitter and Facebook and social media in general and how to make it manageable for you. Next post will be on how to make it WORK for you.

The thing with Twitter and Facebook is that you have to understand that they have tremendous potential, but you also have to understand that there are downsides:

Social media can be frustrating as heck until you understand them and how they work.
Social media can feel like floundering in deep water until you decide the parameters of how you are going to participate.
Twitter and Facebook can become veritable time sinks.
Social media can begin to take over your social life.

DSC_0038 - revised la saucet river — Winter river near La Saucet, France (2005) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Like anything new, understanding Twitter and Facebook requires purposeful learning. Yes, it is possible to simply open an account and begin tweeting or sending messages, but why, and what do you send messages about? One reason may be to simply keep in touch with existing friends. Once you’ve connected with your friends, it’s easy to fulfill this purpose. You can use Facebook and Twitter to send out urls for blogs, which is also useful, and if that is all you want, then the social media is working for you.

So to make social media work for you, this is a first decision point: what do you want from Twitter or Facebook?

If you want to leverage social media to help with marketing your books, this requires you to become more involved in the social media family. It requires you to become more comfortable with working with social media. A good place to pick up pointers is through Lynda.com, which contains video tutorials on the basics, but also sessions on marketing.

Marketing your book requires building your connections to others in the Twitterverse, or Facebook Universe. This involves building connections to friends, which means that you need to do more than marketing. You need to give people something of yourself and your interests, something that both you and other people find of value. This involves reaching out to others to become their friends, either by identifying common interests, or through their connections to people you friend or follow. This is easy enough to do, by simply clicking on a person’s profile and friending or following them. Hopefully they will reciprocate and follow you, too. But the trouble is this can become an obsession. You can spend hours identifying friends and follows, and you have to ask yourself what is most important—this social media work, or time spent writing (and time having a life).

This is a second decision point: Are you a writer first and a social media savant second, or is it the other way around? If you are a writer, then you may need to set parameters around your time spent on social media. For an example, I try to put in thirty minutes to an hour in the morning and the same in the evening.

Street scene, Montmartre, Paris (2005) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

But at the same time you need to understand that social media is social. This means that even if your original intention in joining the Twitterverse and Facebook was to market your book, you need to do more than that. You need to have something to add to the Twitterverse. This was initially where I stalled. I didn’t know what I could add to all the comments out there. Well we all have things to add, whether it be book recommendations, reporting on your latest accomplishments, or links to blogs that you found important, these are the things that will build your followers and your social connections, and when you get your first message from a follower it starts to feel fun that you are building connections to people—people who might eventually become your friends.

And not your dentist.

Cover Design: What is your favorite book cover?

By Karen Abrahamson | June 26, 2011

This morning I happened to talk to a reader of one of the Karen L. McKee books called Judas Kiss. The reader told me she had had difficulty reading the book; it might have been the fact that she was in hospital at the time, but when she got home she picked up the book and still had trouble. When I asked her what stopped her there was no hesitation: The cover. She described it as too dark, and though the book is a romantic suspense, to her the black, white and red cover said this book was horror.

Not what I was going for.

So I decided to get in touch with one of my cover-designing, author friends, Pati Nagle, and ask her a few questions about how to design a proper cover.

1. Are there specific design elements, like title fonts and placement authors should think about as we design covers?

Pati suggests that a good rule of thumb is to use only one or two fonts on a cover. Critical to this is make sure the text is legible even in small (thumbnail) size. This means that if you are using an ornate font, you need to check whether it is readable in the size cover that will come up on Amazon or Smashwords or Barnes and Noble.

Pati also says that generally the title and author go at the top and bottom, or both, leaving the centre for the main image.

2. Are there guidelines regarding using too many or too few images on a cover?

Pati suggests that we should keep it simple as too many images will confuse the reader.

From my experience, when a reader looks at a book, the cover is generally designed with one or two strong images that the reader’s eye moves back and forth over. My experience as a photographer says that too many images make the reader’s eye keep bouncing from image to image and never really come to rest so the cover never really gains a focus for the reader. As a result, they don’t know where to look.

3. How do we convey mood? For mystery? For Fantasy? Horror? Etc.

The best way to really understand book covers for each genre is to study recently published books to see what the genre is doing. You can decide then, whether to follow their lead. This holds true especially for bestsellers.

4. How do we judge when a cover is too dark or too light?

If it’s readable, it’s fine. That usually means there must be sufficient contrast between the image and the text.

5. Are there specific graphic design elements to keep in mind?

1-3-9- rule image — The 1/3/9 guideline. The placement on the page does not have to be in exactly this position.

In graphic design there is a 1/3/9 rule for division of a picture. They can be in any order (meaning you can change placement around the cover).

When designing your cover, create a graphic image with cover dimensions and three bands of those proportions, and compare it to your cover. See if the title/author name and main image are in the 3 and 9 proportions. The 1 proportion can be a secondary image or a blurb. This isn’t an absolute rule, but it’s a good guideline.

6. What is a good process to use to come out with a reasonable cover?

Select a cover image and choose a font for the title and author. Lay those out on the page. Then tweak the text color for contrast and at the same time harmonize it with the other colors. Add a blurb or subtitle last.

When choosing the cover image, consider using elements from the book as that will please the author and the readers. Iconic images are best: things that will immediately raise an idea in the viewer’s mind. If the cover concept is complicated to describe, it probably won’t read well on a cover.

7. Are there specific programs you recommend for developing a cover?

A good graphics program that will let you build a layered image. Many people use Photoshop.

A couple of other points to consider come from readers I’ve spoken to and my own experience:

A cover with a photograph may not go over as well as something more artistic or illustrative.
For authors who can’t afford Photoshop or something like it, covers have been successfully developed using only PowerPoint.
When positioning a picture on the page, consider the strongest elements and where they should be to draw the reader’s eye. Photographers know the rule of thirds – that each picture can be divided into thirds horizontally and vertically. The best place to put major elements is near where those horizontal and vertical lines intersect, because that is where a viewer’s eye naturally goes.
Finally, always consider what image will sell. By this I mean, what image has the best chance of getting people’s attention. Case in point are the two covers here. The one with the feather was my first cover. Then I realized that stories with dragons on the cover (and this story actually has one) probably sell better. Well duh!

So cover two came into being. That’s the nice thing about this electronic world- we can try things out and find what works.

Just remember, these are design guidelines, not rules. So keeping all these thoughts in mind, what are some of your favorite covers and how do they meet these guidelines—or not.

And to keep my reader happy, I’m considering changing the color of Judas Kiss. What do you think? Which one would you choose?

: Color 2

Branding Your Books: Having a ‘Look’

By Karen Abrahamson | June 18, 2011

Angelina Jolie has her Bardot lips, while Jennifer Aniston has her girl-next-door appeal. You pick up a James Patterson novel and you can tell it’s a thriller, while Urban Fantasy has a leather-clad woman on the cover. Each of these are examples of having a look, or a trademark, whether of a person, a novelist or a genre. For indie publishers, you need to consider what is the ‘look’ of your books.

Part of your look will depend on what type of book you are publishing, because each genre seems to have style conventions. I mentioned the urban fantasy trope of the leather clad woman, and the cliché for romance is the bare-chested hero rescuing the damsel in distress (thankfully this isn’t the case anymore), but establishing a look for your books is more than the cover art.

Why is this important? Because readers come to recognize books with a similar look and if they liked the last one they read, they are more likely to pick up the next. While readers often don’t pay attention to who the publisher is, they know when the books have a similar look. They also come to expect certain authors to have a certain look to their books. As a result, when a Publisher goes through a rebranding of an author, there is often confusion for readers about which book of that author they have read. How many times have I picked up a book thinking it was a new title by a favored author, only to find it was one I’d read, but released in a different cover. Readers remember covers and are attracted to them. Thus we need to use covers to convey who we (the book and the author) are.

To talk about Branding I thought it might be best to look at some examples of books recently put out by indie publishing authors:

Spirit Dance is an award winning fantasy from Canadian Author Douglas Smith. He has been published through Lucky Bat Books, an independent e-publisher. Smith’s Books have been packaged with a similar look that any reader would recognize. Each of them have the Author’s name in large print at the bottom of the cover, with the title in relatively small print in a narrow black strip across the waist of the cover. This strip acts either as a division between two related images, or as a division in the one main picture. Alternatively the covers have a very simple, single image that conveys a feeling about the books’ content. Most of the covers also use photographs rather than illustrations and all have an other-worldly feel about them, which is good given that Smith is known for his fantasy writing. This use of the specific graphic elements – the title band, the faded-towards-transparent author name, and the same placement of any award notifications on the covers all provide a combination of easily recognizable cues that this is a ‘Smith book’.

Eternally Grounded is a fantasy story from Camden Park Press. Camden Park publishes across a number of genres including fantasy and science fiction, but all of the books have something in common, namely the italicized logo, Camden Park Press, somewhere on the cover, so you always know you are getting a book from that publisher. In the best of worlds, there would be consistency of placement of the logo as well, but design sometimes requires this type of thing be moved. Structurally, within the Camden Park family of books, those by Elizabeth Ann Pierce also have a commonality of the author’s name being set off in a neutral band at the bottom. If used in all the Pierce books that can become an easily recognizable standard for this author.

Downhill Rush is one title in a line of books from Fiero Press. Terri Darling is one of the authors who specializes in romance. If you look at the cover, the publisher has passed on a logo, but has used layout and color to show a common line of books. In this instance most of the Terri Darling books have a valentine-red border at the top with the author’s name and the tag line “Where the action is hot and the romance is hotter”, in a consistent, easy to read font that puts the author front and center . Does the tag line sound a little sexy and a lot hot? Does it tell a reader what they’ve got? With this memorable little tag line and the familiar look of these books, it won’t be a surprise if these books sell well once the author is established.

The Nara Effect is a Science Fiction book from Matthew Lieber Buchman. Matt has a line of books that cross genres, but there is a similar look to most of them, so you know you have a Buchman book. Across the books, the covers have a consistent upper and lower border with a consistent placement of the Author’s name and title. The central cover art section of the cover often uses a montage of images out of the book and the blurb usually is placed right at the top. Again the reader is going to know they have a Buchman book, and just to be certain of that, on the back of each novel Buchman has placed a knife, a Samurai Sword or some other sharp-bladed object diagonally across the back cover blurb. This is unique and memorable and I can see people describing them as ‘the knife book brand’.

The last of the books I’m examining comes from best-selling e-book Thriller author, Joshua Graham. His cover for Beyond Justice follows the tropes of many thrillers. It has the emphasis on name of a ‘big name’, best-selling author. It has the black band at the top for the author’s name to stand out in and the cover image is clean and simple with this cover focused on the primary character. This similar layout is present in many of his other publications, but the focus here is on NAME. He has made himself a brand, just as Clive Cussler, and James Patterson have made themselves brands, though not at their level yet.

So the look or brand is layout and font and logo and feel. This means that in establishing your brand it’s helpful to:

Chose something that you can present consistently on the cover of your books. This could be a logo, a tag line or even the name of the Author.
Consider whether your approach is to have a collage of images or a single strong image. This can be used consistently across all your books so that your Brand either has complex or minimalist covers, both of which are used in ‘traditional’ publishing.
Be consistent in format. If you are using bands of text, use the same type of band across all your books. If you use a specific font for your books and a brand is important, use that font consistently. If you are going to include a tag line or logo, position them consistently on the cover.
Think about whether color can be used to show consistent branding.
Think about how you are trying to position yourself or your books and your genre. If you are writing/publishing big thrillers, then use a thriller format for the covers. If you are writing/publishing epic fantasy, it will be something totally different, than if you are writing/publishing sweet romance. So go study the covers in your genre and see what you can come up with as cues for readers regarding your brand.

So creating a brand can include combinations of graphic elements that build a ‘look’. When you are creating your brand, try out various combinations to see what works best.

I’d be interested in seeing or hearing about what others are doing to establish their brand of books. Now I’d better go do some branding of my own.

Prepping for the Market

By Karen Abrahamson | June 5, 2011

This post is on preparing your novel/story for the e-market. I’m not talking about the formatting required to put a novel on Amazon or Smashwords, I’m talking about what you need to do after you complete the manuscript, but before you begin the Smashwords or Amazon process. To make this of the most value to the most people, I encourage readers to please share what you’ve found worked for you.

Editing –

Of course you edit. We all learned to do this before we sent a manuscript to the traditional publishing world, but the stakes are a little different in the indie-e-publishing world. In the traditional publishing model, writers sent the best manuscript they could manage to an editor and it was that editor’s task to make sure that the book was the best it could be before it went out into the world for readers to see.

In this new world of indie publishing, the writer is selling directly to the reader, and thus ensuring the book is ‘the best it can be’ is now the writer’s job. Sure, we all say our manuscripts are the best they can be, but if you talk to writers who have been through traditional publishing they will tell you things like ‘the editor didn’t just pick up on things I’d missed, they saw the possibilities I had failed to explore’.

Editors are the ones who suggest to writers that their manuscript would be better if they shifted points of view. Editors are the ones who point out, for a second book in a series, that you’ve changed from writing a romantic thriller to just writing a mystery. Why is this important? Because the readers who loved the first book in a series are going to be expecting the thriller in the second book.

So editors are our friend and we writers becoming indie publishers need to find a way to overcome the lack of an editor. This means that writers have to develop new skills and resources.

Not only must the writer complete their usual editing process, but they must also go one step further to ensure their book is ready for the reader. This means that the writer must cultivate first and second readers for their books. These readers need to have the skills to not only read for proofing, they need to read for things like (and this isn’t a complete list):

Opening hook,
logic,
plot,
character arc and consistency,
consistency (e.g. character with blue eyes on page one, must have blue eyes on page 300), and
whether the book fulfills its promise and the promise of the series.

Sometimes this can be accomplished through a critique group, but in my experience most critique groups are not at a level to critique a book in this way unless they are professional writers. If you do have access to a reader like this, whether they be a librarian/spouse, or a writer friend, cultivate them and listen to them like they’re gold and treat them very well. If it’s another writer, trade reading/editing with them. We can all use a friend with those skills.

If this option isn’t available, then an alternative is to pay an editor. No, I don’t mean going to one of the author service agencies I mentioned here, because they often expect to sell you a package of other services along with the editing. Nor am I talking about the services of a book doctor who might keep you revising your manuscript for years.

But there are other services out there. For example, Lucky Bat Books offers complete editorial and other services based on what the writer is looking for. Or check within your local writing community for writers who also provide editing services on a fee-for-service basis. Fee for Service means that you agree on the task and a price before the ‘editor’ provides the services and they DO NOT receive any royalties from your work. This is important as it could be a nightmare for the indie publisher to have to provide royalty payments and statements to an editor.

While this service will cost you, it pays in the long run. You’ll provide a professionally edited product to your readers, rather than alienating them due to numerous errors in the manuscript. Finally, even though your editor will provide you with a proofed copy and editorial comment, this doesn’t mean that you don’t still have to provide the manuscript one more read-through to make sure the manuscript is clean. Even after having one of my manuscripts well-edited, I found a continuity error no one else had picked up on.

Covers –

Lady of Ashuelot — Lady of Aushuelot (2010) Twisted Root Publishing

The bane of my existence and very important, because covers are (unless you are a known author) one of the most important ways to draw potential readers’ attention. I’ll discuss what makes a good cover in a future blog, but here I wanted to mention the importance of this and that you need to take the time to put a cover together. For e-publications, the easiest program for this is PowerPoint. You can change the slide size to 6-9 and then create a cover using photographs found on line and graphics provided by the program.

PowerPoint created all of my existing e-book covers using photographs either I had taken or that were available royalty free or free on the internet. If you are going to create your cover yourself, consider what you’ve written and what are strong images contained in your book. Go to bookstores or on line and check out the covers of the books that are in your genre. Often there are style conventions (some might say clichés) for the covers. For instance, Urban Fantasy often has the main female character in black leather standing before something indicative of the story setting. When you are designing covers, start well before you want to publish so that you can try different cover possibilities and get friend’s reactions. I had a cover designed for me and was pleased with it, but when a friend’s daughter saw it (and she was my target demographic) she just shrugged and said it ‘looked like a photo’. Back to the drawing board.

The alternative to creating covers yourself is seeking a cover artist. To find such a beast you can look at covers you admire and try contacting the artist, but this can cost many hundreds (or thousands) of dollars. The alternative is to look for graphic artists who are just starting out. This can be through your local art school or college and can give you the opportunity to work closely with the artist to sort out your vision. Like with editorial services, you want to conduct business on a fee for service basis so that the artist isn’t expecting ongoing royalties for the cover. Definitely set this out in writing.

If you are going with a graphic designer, make sure you give yourself enough lead time before your planned publication. Often preparing a cover can take an artist at least a few weeks, so while you’re doing your editorial reviews, get busy with the cover, too..

So like I said, creating a cover isn’t something you should do last minute. You spent a long time writing a book. You want it to sell. Spend the time to make sure your cover helps.

Blurb –

The blurb is what, in traditional publishing, you would find on the back of the book. In e-publishing, this is the description you’ll read on Amazon or Smashwords or Barnes and Noble that tells you what the book is about.

Let me emphasize that: It tells you what the book is about.

It should be short. It should be snappy and it should catch readers attention and make them go: “I’ve GOT to read this.”

It should not give you a detailed look at the plot or the back story. I’ll talk more about blurbs in a future post, but suffice it to say that if you are starting to think about Indie publishing, start seriously reading the backs of books now. Start to get a sense of how blurbs hook you and try out those techniques for your book.

So what do you do to get ready to publish? How do you make sure your book is edited properly and what have you learned about producing a book cover or blurb, that might help the rest of us?

Holding a Book in Your Hand: Print on Demand

By Karen Abrahamson | May 29, 2011

The chance to hold your book in your hand in published, bound format is a treat each would-be author dreams of. I know published authors, with reputable e-publishers, who struggle to accept themselves as published authors because the book isn’t available in hard copy. For those authors who are either venturing into publication on their own, or who have started their own publishing company, there are avenues to satisfy this craving. They are known as Print on Demand (POD).

POD generally comes in two forms, one which I am going to call Traditional POD and the other I’ll call True POD. In Traditional POD, the author works with a printer and orders a print run of so many hundred or thousand copies of the book. The printer prints the books (at a cost to the author) and then either warehouses the books (also at a cost to the author) or ships the books to the author so that the author can warehouse them. Downsides of this model are the high, upfront, printing costs, and the ongoing cost of warehousing and shipping books when (if) they are ordered. Also a downside is the fact that, unless the author has a means (a platform) to sell these books, the author might end up holding onto them forever. So downsides of traditional POD include high up front costs, ongoing costs and/or the storage space the author must pay for.

On the other hand, I know of motivational speakers with platform who have used this printing method with complete satisfaction. They know when they are going to give a series of lectures, can have the right number of books printed to meet their expected demand, and store the books for a short period of time while they sell them at their lectures. It works for them.

For the rest of us, however, having to either store or pay for the storage of books, and the upfront costs make this rather prohibitive.

Enter True POD. In a nutshell, this model of self publishing allows you to have the book ready for sale through a distributor and, when someone wants to purchase the book, that individual book is printed. It does away with the need for storage, but allows quality books to be printed.

There are three main companies for True POD:

1. Lightning Source

2. Lulu

3. Createspace

Lightning Source differs from the other two because it is basically a printing company, while the other two could be called ‘author service companies’ with mostly-free options. Lightning Source focuses on providing printing services, and printing services alone. They expects you to know how to format your book both inside and the cover. The company does provide templates and instructions, but does not expect to deal with author/publishers who don’t know their business.

To Lightning Source’s credit, it offers extensive book formats, including hard cover and full color. The company also has the most extensive distribution in both the US and UK and allows the author to control discounts to distribution points (stores).

Costs, however, are higher, with Lightning Source charging between $117 and $150 per title, depending on whether you are doing hard or soft cover. Other downsides include the requirement that you have your own ISBNs and that their website is not the most easy to use. I’m told, however, that once you figure it out, it’s no more difficult to use than the two author service companies.

Lulu – The first of the author service companies presented here, Lulu offers a full range of services including author packages like “The best selling publishing package”. While this package comes at a charge of $629.00, it doesn’t offer anymore than an author/self publisher can do themselves. Lulu offers pre-publishing, marketing and publicity packages, but again, the author can do most of this themselves.

On the plus side, Lulu publishes in the US and UK and offers many more trim sizes including everything from pocket books to hard covers with dust jackets, similar to Lightning Source. Distribution through Lulu on a free basis is through Lulu.com, and, if you choose Lulu as publisher, through Amazon. If you want yourself listed as publisher it will cost you $99.00. Lulu also offers a good template for cover creation.

Createspace (my current choice) also offers author publishing packages, but the author creation of a book on Createspace is relatively intuitive. Packages include the $758.00 Total Design Freedom Standard that has ‘professionals’ work with you to get your book ready to publish. Again, you don’t need this unless you have money to throw at the project.

Createspace basically has two ‘plans’ for publication, basic and pro-plan. The basic plan allows your book to sell at the Createspace e-store and Amazon for only a share of the royalties, while the pro-plan (at a charge of $39.00) makes you eligible for the Expanded Distribution Channels that can get your book into libraries and bookstores (theoretically). In the pro-plan, you also pay less per copy when you order your own book. Royalty rates are also higher in the Pro-plan in comparison to Lulu.

So for my money, Createspace seems to win as a low-cost option for POD.

While these three companies seem to be the front runners for POD, there are any number of other author service companies who will, for a price, provide book formatting, editorial services, cover production, and marketing advice and services. Let me emphasize this: FOR A PRICE.

These companies aren’t cheap and for the most part any author can learn to produce reasonable POD books on their own or through finding freelance services, or friends (to trade services with).

That said, however, there is a significant learning curve required for POD. Assuming your cover design is reasonable enough to be used in POD, there is still the matter of being able to write suitable back cover copy, and to format an entire cover (front, back and spine). You also have to be able to produce a print ready interior of the book. This requires the author to develop other skills in self-publishing, and to learn new programs like Adobe Photoshop and In Design, or Microsoft Publisher—something that took a lot of hours for me to accomplish. But if you are determined to have a print copy of your book, and if you are prepared to do the work, there is nothing like the mailman delivering your first proof.

Electronic Market Options for the New Writer/Publisher

By Karen Abrahamson | May 22, 2011

I recently self-published a short story called The Wife’s Tail. Like with a novel, the first decision I had to make once the story was completed was what to do with the manuscript to get it out into the world. While this isn’t marketing to readers, it will determine some of the marketing steps you take afterwards.

In the old days (like a two years ago), the first choice (for me) would have always to been to send the manuscript to traditional New York publishing houses appropriate for a short Fantasy story. Now, however, the world has changed—not the 2012 Mayan calendar change, but just about. Over the last twelve months the world seems to have shifted and more long-time published authors are saying that self publishing may be the way to go.

Why?

Primarily for financial reasons and the personal control a self-publishing author retains. For example, for novels a writer can earn a higher percentage royalty for self publishing, retain all copyright, and can maintain the book (or short story) in print far longer than a manuscript published through New York. (For more information on the e-book revolution see Here and Here, and for information on the current massive changes in publishing see Here.) Self publishing allows authors to get books into print without going through the convoluted games of agents and publishers. So if you have a good product, and if you are prepared to work with your manuscript beyond packaging it up and mailing it, self publishing may be the option for you.

Having made the decision to self-publish there are basically two options to consider:

1. Electronic (e-book) format, and

2. Print of demand (POD).

A third option of audio books is also out there, but for this post I am going to focus on electronic publication options.

With the overwhelming acceptance of e-readers as an alternative to hardcopy books, we are truly entering the heyday of self-publishing. Amazon Kindle, the Nook, the i-Pad, and a profusion of mobile reading platforms have all contributed to this revolution, and all provide the author with avenues for self-publishing and marketing. A March 2011 article in FutureBook quoted Bertelsmann’s executives as saying that e-book sales were up 250% and that, for some US titles published by their New York branch, as much as 50% of the first two week sales are in e-book format. Other on-line resources state that E-book readership is expected to top 30 million globally by 2013. That’s a lot of potential readers.

For the self publisher to take advantage of this phenomena, there are self-publishing platforms available, most notably:

1. Amazon KDP

2. Pubit (Barnes and Noble), and

3. Smashwords.

Amazon KDP is the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and allows you to easily upload a formatted manuscript to be sold to Kindle users on Amazon.com. Preparing a manuscript for KDP publishing is relatively painless (less than an hour), but involves removing typical manuscript formatting like headers and page numbers and any tabs, and changing underlined words to italics, etc. so your manuscript is formatted for electronic publication. Table of contents are also added so that readers have a chance to return to places in the manuscript. Amazon provides instructions on formatting on their website. Along with the manuscript formatting, you will also need a cover for the book or story. I’ll talk more about covers in a later post.

The fortunate thing about Kindle is that this publishing avenue is available to writers all over the world. As a writer from outside the US, it allows me to get paid for novel sales into the US market as long as I have sorted out the Income Tax issues with US Internal Revenue Service. Canadian and other english readers can access the books through their Kindle and now, with the advent of Kindle UK and Kindle DE, readers in the United Kingdom and Germany can also access these books.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing pays the writer either 35% or 70% royalties (depending on the book price) which is a far cry above the standard 25% offered by New York publishing for e-rights.

Pubit is the in-house program for Barnes and Noble and apparently is an excellent publishing option. It pays 65% royalties on Pubit purchases, which again is far better than the traditional publishing option. The one problem with the program is that it is only user friendly for authors having addresses in the United States. Frankly, their website is misleading as, when they first opened, they contacted me to offer publication, but then threw up enough road blocks I haven’t used them to this day.

First it was the requirement for a US bank account. Then, after I had obtained the bank account, they required a mailing address in the United States. While it would have been possible for me to accomplish this by renting a mailbox, from a business perspective, the potential revenue wasn’t worth the outlay and the only advantage to me would have been slightly faster payment. A last negative comment on Pubit is that they required more personal information than any of the other e-publishing sites. As a result, I have reached Pubit readers through Smashwords.

Smashwords offers another entry point for e-books, but unlike Kindle and Pubit, it is not limited to one digital platform. Smashwords-published books can be read on a variety of devices including, Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook, Kobo, and IPad, and are also available as HTML, RTF and PDF. Smashwords pays between 38% and 85% royalty depending upon the book price, whether Smashwords or an affiliate (Kobo, Sony etc.) sold the book, and what currency the book was purchased in (and taxes in the Purchaser’s country). Again, this rate is significantly higher than New York publishing’s.

While initially self-publishing on Smashwords seemed daunting because of the fairly rigorous formatting requirements, Smashwords provides a complete instruction manual that, when followed, usually leads to a successful upload. Instructions include such details as requirements for front-matter (copyright statements) and instructions about adding in table of contents. Having completed preparation of a manuscript for one digital platform (whether you do Amazon Kindle or Smashwords first), it really takes very little time to prepare the manuscript for the other platform.

I’m sure you’re asking, then why bother with Kindle and Pubit at all, if Smashwords publication will reach those platforms, too. The answer is in the royalty rates. Selling on Kindle or Pubit directly will usually reap you the 65% or 70% for a novel. Selling via a Smashwords affiliate will reap you less, depending on where the novel is purchased. So if you have decided to sell your e-book on Smashwords and Kindle/Pubit, it is important for the self-published writer to TURN OFF the Smashwords sales to those two channels.

To do this, the writer/self-publisher should go to their Smashwords ‘Dashboard’ and click on Distribution Channel Manager in the left hand column. Then you should scroll down to the specific novel/story title and check ‘opt out’ for the Kindle or Pubit channel. Again, this should only be done for books you have already published on the other platform and is done to avoid having two listings on Amazon and Pubit that pay you different royalty rates.

And that is all it takes. Be prepared for some frustrations the first time through, but for the next book you’ll know what to do and the time commitment will be shorter.

Next post I’ll talk about POD, because let’s face it: e-books might be nice, but we authors like to hold something physical with a cover.

Marketing: What I Learned From Peruvian Markets

By Karen Abrahamson | May 15, 2011

Traveling in Peru, I visited many local markets, from the large mercados of Miraflores and Cusco, to tourist markets of Pisac, to the small village markets of Chivay and Ollantaytambo. I love the sights and smells and how they tell you a lot about the culture you are travelling in. But now that I’m home and starting to focus on the business of writing, I realized that there are marketing lessons for writers and indie publishers to be learned from the markets of Peru.

Before I list the five general lessons, I just want to comment on writers versus independent publishers. It used to be that independent publishers, were exactly that – small publishing houses as differentiated from the large houses of New York. Today, however, though the traditional independent publishers still exist (thank goodness), the self-publishing writer has a choice: they can either publish as authors, or they can create independent presses that publish their work. Either way, it’s the writer doing the work, but there are benefits to having a publishing house, that self-publishing as a writer doesn’t have – namely that an indie publishing house can get its books into bookstores more easily than a writer can.

The following five lessons apply to both independent publishing houses and writers publishing on their own.

1) Product must get to market – In Peru’s cities trucks unload crates of fruit and vegetables. In Chivay, the produce comes to town wrapped in colorful mantas (blankets) on women’s backs. They brought in everything from tomatoes, apples, and animal fodder. Sheep were tied upside down to the back of a moto-taxi on the way to market. So however, they did it, the bottom line was that items for sale had to get to market.

Papas (potatoes) on their way to market (2011) photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

For the writer/indie publisher, this is perhaps the largest issue. Yes, writers have the traditional methods of getting manuscripts to traditional publishers, but now they have the choice of whether to publish into the electronic market or POD – both of which are now extremely acceptable ways of selling.

2) You must have a regular place to sell – In Peru I purchased my snack food – oranges, apples or bananas – at the local markets. When I can get them, died fruit and nuts are a staple. When I found a merchant that sold produce I liked, I always went back to them. Thankfully, mercado and street vendors have ‘their’ spots so you can always find the same apple vendor in the same spot.

Women with their 'spot' picked out. Ollantaytambo (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

For writers this means having a website – or two. At the very least you should have an author’s website (or possibly more than one if you are writing under more than one pseudonym) that includes in it a list of your books with links to where they can be purchased.

If you are serious about indie publishing, you should also have a website for your publishing house that includes all of your books (see examples, here and here and here), and presents all the books by all your writing personas. This allows people to find you and your books.

Shaman's stall, Cusco market (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

3) You must have product – The markets of Peru are filled with produce. There are fruit and vegetables, meat, breads and cakes, fresh cheese, nuts, dried fruit, jugos (fresh mixed juice that is the most sublime treat – ever), shaman supplies, clothing, tourist weavings and so on. Most markets provide a wonderful place for browsing.

For the writer, this means that although self-publishing a single short story or novel is fine, to be serious about indie publishing you must have more product. Dean Wesley Smith talks about having a minimum ten novels. What this means for the writer, is that the focus HAS to be on writing more product, so that you aren’t dependent on just selling oranges in a world where oranges might fall out of favor.

4) Product must look good – I couldn’t tell you how many vendors I walked past looking for the perfect orange or apple. Imagine how much time I spent in front of the kiosk where the vendor had avocados the size of green footballs. Good looking fruit is a lot more likely to sell than produce that looks like it’s had a hard ride on a bucking donkey.

Fruit display, Miraflores market (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

For the writer this means that your produce needs to both look good and BE good – or at least as good as you can make it. As a writer you are responsible for the quality of your work both in terms of story and editing. Covers are the responsibility of the writer/indie publisher and are your calling card. Good covers, as Joe Konrath frequently talks abouton his blog (here), are critical to sales.

5) Product must be positioned – Peruvian vendors always took advantage of their location to show their wares. Some, near the doors, laid out attractive displays to catch the sunlight. Independent vendors crowded around the main doors to get attention. Others located themselves by side doors where they might not get as much traffic, but they might get more attention from those who DID pass through the doors.

Positioned for the light, Cusco maket (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

As a self-publishing writer, or an indie publisher, you also need to make choices about how to get the attention of booksellers and readers. This can be either as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Examples of means to get attention for product include:

• Social marketing on twitter, facebook, etc.

• Social marketing on reader and writer groups

• Providing free fiction as loss leaders

• Advertising at conferences

• Advertising to booksellers

Choosing the methods that are right for you is the trick.

Given marketing is as foreign as a Peruvian market to me, I’ve planned a series of blogs that will explore marketing and provide information from authors who have gone farther down this road. So don’t consider me an expert, but look at this as a place to pull together ideas. Over the coming weeks I’ll explore each area in more depth and include interviews and examples. And please, if you have experiences in marketing as an author or indie publisher, share them here. After all, the last lesson I learned in Peruvian markets is that vendors help each other.

Working together to sell pork rinds outside Cusco mercado (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Peruvian time

By Karen Abrahamson | May 7, 2011

Women in the moment of Cusco Parade(2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Coming home from another continent affords lots of time to sit in airports and to reflect (as you cross time zones) on the nature of time, and timing, and how we experience it. Coming from North America we are so driven by the clock – to be punctual, to punch the clock, and to resent those who don’t bow to the ticking moments in the same way the rest of us do. I speak from experience. I lost a very good friend because she refused to honor my time as I honored hers. She always kept me waiting for at least an hour every time I was to meet her for a social engagement and when I pressed her on the issue she decided my friendship wasn’t worth trying to change her time sense. So we parted ways.

In Peru I ran into a similar phenomena. There I was, sitting in the train station at Aguas Caliente, going home from Machu Picchu, and the train before mine arrived. They called the train’s arrival. They called boarding and the foreign tourists crowded around to load. They called last call and a few Peruvians came running. They called last call again (I guess they didn’t mean it the first time). More Peruvians came running. They called last call again and an entire tour group (Peruvian) came trotting up. They closed the gate and announced the train was leaving.

Time worn ripples in the stone of Sacsaywaman (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

About 5 minutes later another entire Peruvian tour group arrived and were a tad put out that the train had left without them.

I watched this and put the phenomena down to this being a tourist train and Peruvian tourists, but then I had to catch a plane to get from Cusco to Lima. There, I was, sitting in the departure lounge as LAN airlines boarded a flight. They announce last call. A couple of people come running. They announce last call again, and a few more people come. They announce that they were closing the gate and a western tourist who had been guarding the belongings of a Peruvian friend, finally tossed the friend’s belongings to the gate crew and boarded. His friend eventually showed up and was choked that the plane wasn’t waiting for her. They announced last call again and at that point – after Airport staff had been walking around for at least ten minutes paging missing passengers (by name) – someone pointed out to a group of businessmen in the waiting area that they were supposed to be on that plane. They dashed off, madly. So after about 4 last calls, personal pages and various and sundry announcements the gate was finally locked and the plane took off, but the whole thing got me thinking.

Village near Ollantaytambo (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

What was it about Peruvians? Did they just not pay attention? Was the whole world to wait for them? Did they just not care that they were holding up an entire airport? Was there something called ‘Peruvian time’?

While waiting for another flight (this time in Canada), I had the chance to chat with a Peruvian woman who has lived in North America a long time. I ran my story past her and she laughed and said that the Peruvian psyche is not so Machiavellian. Instead the reason those passengers missed their trains and almost their planes was more likely because Peruvians are more ‘in the moment’. When they engage with friends they are totally ‘present’, and so they miss little things like the announcement for a train or last call for a plane. She told me that when friends get together for dinner they had best plan for people to arrive two hours late.

Which is interesting for a writer, because, from personal experience, our sense of timing is such a rich source of conflict.

Peruvian mountain woman (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

And now I’ve come home to Canada to find my mother in the hospital from a stroke and my family playing a waiting game. No longer is our focus on punctuality. Now we live in the moment and keep hoping for a few moments more – Peruvian time. Let the world pass us by for a long, long time.

The masses at the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Machu Picchu Redux

By Karen Abrahamson | May 3, 2011

Machu Picchu caught in the coil of the coil of the Urubamba River (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Okay, I guess I have a type A personality. If it isn’t right the first time I’ve been known to do something again and again and again, until I get it – if not right, at least closer to right. I’ve been known to go back to the same place again and again and again to get THE photo I want, when previous attempts didn’t yield what I wanted. With writing, I’ve been known to trash manuscripts 2 or 3 or 4 times before getting what I originally envisioned.

Terraces (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Given this, it shouldn’t surprise you that I decided to return to Machu Picchu after blowing out my legs on the Inca trail so that on my first visit to the site I was basically stationary. So up I got at 4:45 am on April 24, to catch the train to Aguas Caliente, an hour and a half train ride as the Andes unwound their scrub grass into jungle. Picture dawn light on magnificent glaciers, and then we slid into Aguas Caliente and I had to catch a bus up the mountain. And there I was. Again.

The Orchids of Machu Picchu (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Not that my ankles were 100% yet. Nope. I was still using a walking stick and my left ankle was still swollen and sore, but darn it, I’d come all this way and I darn well was going to enjoy the view. So I set off uphill, up innumerable steps to the guardhouse that perched along the path between the Sungate and what was once the main gate to the city. There I sat on the edge of a terrace and overlooked the city, trying to believe I was really here. It was still incredibly busy with tourists, but this time I could move away, an take cover in the shade of bamboo farther up the terraces.

The Guardhouse, many steps above the city (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

I ambled (read limped) around the ruins and found the series of fountains the Inca had built. Now don’t think spraying water and dolphins or cherubs – these are a series of small pools fed by a single spring that still supplies the ruins with water from far up the mountain. The story goes that each small pool has its own voice. I think could almost make out the tonal differences out over the myriad loud tourists. So I focused on the liquid song and, on as hot a day as this was, and after seeing children crying because foolish parents forgot to bring drinks, I could believe that the Inca built this series of fountains as homage to the importance of water to life.

There were swallows soaring and song sparrows trilling and generally it was a glorious day – except for the tourists. The final straw for me was some children who were determined to separate a very young baby llama from its mother because they wanted to pet it. I mean where were those darn children’s parents? I was about to use my walking stick and not on the llamas! Thankfully another tourist intervened before I got myself arrested. But I did get some photos I’m happy with and so here you go.

Enjoy! Ciao, from Peru!