Friday Speak Out!: You Oughtta Write a Book! (Part 2 — The Digital Revolution. Or, There’s More than One Way to Skin a Cat)

by Heather Heyford

Ironically, the rise of the digital age has made publishing both more complicated and simpler. It’s essential to be familiar with the ways in which you might publish your finished manuscript.

Traditional Publishing. In the old days, your book was bought by a publishing house, either with or without the help of a literary agent. (Agents skim 15% off your royalties from the publisher. In return, they help you find a publisher in the first place then help negotiate the contract and intervene when problems arise.) Your publisher may give you an advance or you may only get royalties, a percentage of sales disbursed several times a year.

Digital. Sparked by technology, e-readers such as Kindle, Nook and iPad are now part of the culture. Consider the advantages of digital over print books: portability, storage capacity, low price points, instant gratification, and discretion, to name a few.

Indie, the of-the-moment term for self-publishing. The rise in popularity of indie is directly related to the evolution of digital. It is infinitely more affordable for a writer to produce ebooks than to have to pay to have books printed, distributed and warehoused. Once an ebook is written and edited and the cover designed, it can be reproduced digitally an unlimited number of times at little or no additional cost. What’s more, e-books can be marketed forever, and to a global audience.

The negative stigma once attached to authors who self-published is over. What’s more, indies, while often paying professionals for services like editing and cover art, don’t have to split the proceeds from the sale of their books.

The downside of self-publishing is the need to learn new skills, the expense of hiring a professional editor—strongly recommended, even if your grammar and spelling are top notch—and cover artist.

Print on Demand, or POD. Books are only produced as they are ordered by consumers, eliminating the waste of left over books as well as doing away with warehousing and distribution costs.

To clarify, both traditionally published and indie authors may be published digitally. In fact, publishers are more likely to offer new writers exclusively digital and POD contracts, to minimize their risk. For those writers, only if a book sells at least ten thousand digital and POD copies might it go into print and be stocked in actual stores.

Vanity Presses. These companies produce printed copies of your book for a fee. It is entirely up to you to store and sell them. An outmoded idea today, when you could publish yourself digitally at nominal expense and market your ebook to millions more potential buyers.

Hybrid Author. Simply an author who publishes both traditionally and independently.

With all these options, there has never been a better time to be a writer. In Part 3 of You Oughtta Write a Book! we’ll talk about getting your book noticed, regardless of which route to publication you choose. (You can read Part 1— Discover Your Style of Writing here.)


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Heather Heyford is the author of Wine Heiresses Series: A Taste of Chardonnay,  A Taste of Merlot, A Taste of Sauvignon, and A Taste of Sake, from Kensington Publishing. She is represented by The Nancy Yost Literary Agency. Visit her at HeatherHeyford.com, https://www.facebook.com/heatherheyford1 and http://www.pinterest.com/Romance_Writer/.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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1 comment advice for writers, book publishing, digital publishing, Friday Speak Out, Heather Heyford, traditional publishing

Creating a Writing Career with Julie Lindsey

Several year ago a blogger contacted me and wanted to host a WOW author on a blog tour. Well, she didn't have many followers but she was so eager that we made an agreement--I would include her on the tours as long as she didn't cost the authors any time or money. Basically, she was stuck with pdfs to plow through and review. Before long Musings from the Slushpile and Julie Lindsey became one of my, and WOW readers, favorite blogstops. But Julie hasn't just been blogging and I thought it would be fun to invite her to The Muffin to share her writing experience with us.

WOW: Julie, here at WOW we remember you from just a few years ago when you were a WOW blog tour host/fledgling writer and now you have over a dozen published books to your name and several more in production. How have you managed to write so many books in so short a time?

Julie: I was blessed to hook up with the right people early on. A really nice girl at WOW! Gave me sage blogging advice and a place for support. *points to Jodi* I also found a critique group of authors to work with me. I joined local writing groups, attended conferences and actively sought instruction on all things authorly. About a year later, I got my foot in the door at a small online press, Turquoise Morning Press, where I wrote sweet romance and learned everything I could from my editor. I applied that information, tightened my craft and kept writing. I’ve used social media to stalk agents, publishers and editors. I stay on top of what’s happening in the industry and I jump on any and all opportunities to network or get my work read. I’ve spent the last three years in fast forward, treating my craft like a full time job far before I received my first pay check.

WOW: Well, then you're the perfect person to tell us all about building a writing career! First, give us the details. How many series have you written and in what genres/themes?

Julie: I started with a sweet romance series for Turquoise Morning Press called Seeds of Love. I wrote three novellas for that series. Afterward, I added two full novels to the set. The sweet romances are part of the Honey Creek Books line and take place in a small fictitious rural Ohio town. There’s something about sweet tea and southern charm that makes me smile. I really enjoyed writing those.

Last winter, I contracted a YA fantasy/romance series with Lyrical Press/Kensington. The first book in that series releases October 6th and the second is tentatively set for February 2016, though I finished writing it in August.

I also write cozy mystery / amateur female sleuth books for Carina Press. Carina is the digital side of Harlequin. When I heard they were branching out and looking to acquire mysteries, I jumped on the opportunity. They liked what they saw and gave me a chance. My third book in the Patience Price Mysteries releases September 29 and I recently learned that the debut book was picked up for print in the Harlequin direct to consumer book clubs, so those readers will all get a print copy of Murder Comes Ashore in November. I hated to see my time with Carina end, so I proposed a new, similar series. I’m calling it The Geek Girl’s Guide to Murder, and they accepted the proposal last month! I have a contract for three more mysteries. *wild eighties dancing*

WOW: I know sometimes publishers develop series ideas and then find writer(s) for them. Have you developed your own series, written publisher developed series or both?

Julie: So far, I’ve developed my own concepts and presented them to publishers. I’ve been fortunate to find editors who connected with my characters enough to go to bat for them at committee and get me into the lineup.

WOW: We're all familiar with series that feature the same character with different adventures in each book. But there's also a type of series that features different characters but have another common thread that makes them a series...maybe they take place in the same town or the books have a similar theme like "second chances". Which type of series are you involved with?

Julie: Honey Creek is an example of series writing where one story’s main characters become another story’s secondary characters or even cameo characters. That was a lot of fun, seeing my babies interact with one another and pop up at a diner or street fair, dispensing advice or catching fireflies.

My mystery series are the more traditional variety. The stories follow the same main character through many adventures. The fun thing about cozy mysteries and amateur sleuth books is the way secondary characters maintain their role. A handful will come and go because they are specific to the story/crime, but the majority of all characters stay and become extended family to the heroine and the reader. Readers become one of the gang and look forward to seeing what everyone’s been up to since the last book released.

WOW: Here at WOW we've discussed where book ideas come from, but I'm sure we're all wondering about series ideas too. After all, it has to be an idea that can carry you through several plots. What about an idea makes you think, "That would make a good series" instead of "That would make a good book."

Julie: I know from the start if the concept will be a series. Many concepts can be a series, like a romance where secondary characters can become main characters in later storylines, or where threads of the completed story can unravel later, if the author chooses, and create an ongoing saga for readers. In those stories, the book seems to end, but there are things left unsettled, small things, not enough to leave the reader dissatisfied, but enough to grab onto and pull if needed.

Other stories are created to be a series, like my mysteries, for example. I set out to create a heroine who can become a reader’s best friend. I want her to be interesting and quirky, smart and lovable. Then, I give her a great supporting cast, a love interest and a big problem. In this scenario, the characters are very important. The reader has to be willing to follow them anywhere and hopefully through lots of different adventures in the future.

In the Calypso series, my YA series, I have an average teen who learns mythology isn’t mythical and there’s a budding Norse apocalypse on the way. In the first novel, Prophecy, I wrap up the novel’s major plots at the end, but a topic like demi-gods in present day Ohio is the kind of thing that leads to other stories. Mythology is big. I could take her on endless journeys with any number of mythological creatures, gods and troubles. I plan to.

It’s important to me to find publishers where I can grow, so I always try to plan ahead for a potential series. If I find a press who likes my work and a readership willing to read it, I want to hang on to both.

WOW: Have you ever developed a series and then, after the first book, decided "I don't think there is another book"?

Julie: Yes. Oh, and it’s a terrible feeling. I have a YA contemporary romance on submissions now and I wrote it at a time when many editors were openly requesting standalone titles. So, my agent and I decided to call it a standalone with series potential. I’d planned to take a secondary character from the book and make her the heroine in the next book. Heroine number one would leave for college and the other character would take center stage for my sequel. I’d hoped to do this several times, telling many love stories over the course of a long series. As it turned out, I really don’t have a solid idea for any further books. In my mind, book one was a one of a kind, how do I follow something like that??? book. So, if this manuscript finds a home contingent on a series, I’m in big trouble.

WOW: I'm sure you'll manage somehow. But how does selling a series to a publisher work?

Julie: I think the key is to start with the best book you can write. You want to get the publisher’s attention and hook them the way you want to hook your readers. Then, you let them know your book has series potential.

If they’re interested in hearing more about this, be prepared. Have a query or pitch paragraph polished and ready for at least two sequels. This shows the person reading your proposal that you’ve given your series thought and developed a solid plan of action. Your vision will determine what happens from here. If you’ve taken the time to craft an interesting and creative set of sequels, chances are the editor will ask for three books instead of one. After all, you’ve already sold them on your amazing first manuscript, of course they’ll want to know what happens next.

WOW: Why do you think series are so popular with readers (and publishers)?

Julie: It’s my experience that digital first publishers love series more than traditional publishers. Probably because traditional publishers have more to lose if the first book flops. Digital publishers have less overhead and a quicker turn around, lower price points and voracious readers waiting on sequel after sequel. It’s in their best interest to keep popular authors producing popular series.

As a reader, I think series are the best thing since Ovaltine because I never want books to end. With a series, I know there’s more coming. When I devour a book and know there’s a whole shelf more at the library, I experience nerd euphoria. Honestly, I seek out new series intentionally so I know I won’t be cut off after just one.

WOW: Does a series make promotion easier? Does it keep readers interest if you can say "And the next book in the series is coming out in January 2015"?

Julie: I think having a backlist makes promotion easier. I’m not convinced it helps to have more coming as much as it helps to have other titles waiting. When I find a book I love, I immediately look for more by that author. While readers wait for your sequel to release, they read other titles by you and in the process, you become a new favorite author. In this scenario, it’s no longer about loving the first book they read and waiting for another. Now, it’s about loving you as an author. They’ll likely read whatever you produce because they like your style. Better yet, they’ll tell their friends about you.

I’m a huge champion of producing titles as often as possible. Certainly not at the cost of your craft. Don’t publish just to get something on the market, but definitely keep writing. Keep producing. Keep creating. Your readers will thank you.

WOW: What advice do you have for anyone who thinks they have, not just a book, but a whole series in them waiting to be written?

Julie: I say go for it! Start by giving everything you can to book one. This flagship is your seller. This gets you an agent, a publisher, readers. Make sure it’s the very best story you can tell before you send it into the world because you don’t get a do-over. Editors won’t look at it again once they say no. I know an author who sold her second book first, but she’s the exception, not the rule. Hook them with book one and then keep writing stories of equally high quality every time.

Also, and this is just me…I never write a sequel until I have it under contract. This is why: I get rejected. A lot. What on Earth would I do with three or four books in a series I can’t sell? Self-publishing isn’t for me. Not now. Not yet. My goal is to climb this publishing sand dune the traditional way. If they don’t buy book one, then writing book two and three wasn’t the best use of my time. Once I finish a book and put it on submissions, I start something new. I keep the balls rolling in multiple directions. Again – that’s only my opinion, but it’s working for me, so I’m sticking to it.

WOW: What's coming up next?

Julie: Well, I'm facing a big month of promotion for the release of my third Patience Price Mystery Murder in Real Time and the same shebang for my debut YA fantasy novel, Prophecy. These books release 7 days apart. It will be madness. Meanwhile, I’m writing a short story submission for a YA Alice in Wonderland anthology. It seems 2015 is the 150th anniversary of my favorite classic, so I’m honored to be a part of that. Also, I’m working on book one in my new Geek Girl mystery series. I have three of those to write, so that should keep me busy for a while. All the shiny new concepts that pop into my head go in a file to look at later. Let’s hope I can leave the file alone.

WOW: Julie, I'm getting tired (and envious) just hearing about all the balls you have rolling! Readers, why not share your ideas for a great series concept!

Get to know Julie Lindsey for just 99 cents:

To celebrate the release of the third book in Julie's Patience Price Mystery series, book one: Mystery by the Seaside is just 99 cents for the month of September. Her first publisher, Turquoise Morning Press, is also re-releasing eight small town romances (including Bloom by Julie Lindsey) for just 99 cents. I'm no math whiz but that works out to around 12 cents a book!

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9 comments digital publishing, fantasy, Julie Lindsey, mystery, romance, series, YA

Is E-publishing Helping or Hurting Authors?

by Brooke Warner

The rise of digital publishing has completely changed the landscape of how we consume content. That e-books have surpassed and continue to surpass the sales of hardcover books has been newsworthy more than a few times this year. Most people, even industry professionals who ten years ago were prematurely mourning the ways in which digital publishing would make paper books obsolete, agree that digital publishing has actually revived publishing. It’s given non-readers a whole new platform for reading, and it’s proven that certain demographics—older women and professional men—are in fact buying more books than ever.

The question of whether it’s helping or hurting authors, however, is a little more nuanced. I’ve previously made the case for why all authors want to publish paperback versions of their books. And publishing a digital version simultaneous to a paperback version is status quo for traditional publishers at this stage of the game. So where the nuance comes in really has to do with e-only publishing. I only advocate e-only (by which I mean you opt to publish a digital but not a print version of your book) in very specific scenarios:

1. You're a business owner looking to build visibility for yourself and your business and you publish an e-book to use primarily for promotional purposes.

2. You’re an already well-known author who has a big following and want to publish something short and sweet (in the 5,000- to 10,000-word range) for your readers—and you know they’ll come.

3. You’re publishing a few chapters of a longer book in an e-only format several months (but no more than a year) before the full print (and digital) book is released for the purposes of gauging readers’ interest and/or building buzz for the bigger book.

4. You’re in the business of producing quick e-books as products, making use of key words to encourage impulse buys in what closely approximates a get-rich-quick scheme.

The above reasons are good reasons to publish digital formats without a print counterpart. All of them have to do with increasing visibility (i.e., growing your platform) or making money.

You can make good money with e-books, but only if you follow the low word-count model. If you have a traditional-length book (60,000–100,000), that’s a book you want to see in print. Because Amazon essentially forces authors to price their e-books at $9.99 or less, the vast majority of authors aren’t making big bucks off of their e-books (unless they’re a scenario #2 author, like Stephen King or Ann Patchett).

By the time you’ve written 60,000 to 100,000 words, you’ve put a lot of work into your book. I’ve worked with a lot of authors who’ve trimmed down their 100,000-word books to 80,000 and published the other 20,000 as Kindle edition books. Smart business!

The only way to make digital publishing work for you is to use it in tandem with print publishing. Digital publishing isn’t hurting authors, unless they don’t understand that it’s supplemental. E-publishing has not surpassed print publishing, and it will be a good long while before it does.

If being an author is part of your long-term goal for yourself—whether exclusively or in conjunction with what you already do—you need to value print publishing as king and use digital publishing to your advantage. Yes, I’m pretty much saying honor the former and use the latter. When you make digital publishing work for you, it will never harm you, but if you start to believe that it’s anything more than a stepping stone, or perhaps a quick way to make a few bucks (when you do it right), then it can be detrimental to your long-term publishing goals.

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About the Author:

Brooke Warner is founder of Warner Coaching Inc. and publisher of She Writes Press. Brooke’s expertise is in traditional and new publishing, and she is an equal advocate for publishing with a traditional house and self-publishing. What’s Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author is her first book, and she’s honored to be publishing on She Writes Press.

Find Brooke online:

www.warnercoaching.com
www.shewritespress.com
www.facebook.com/warnercoaching
twitter.com/brooke_warner
www.pinterest.com/warnercoaching

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9 comments Brooke Warner, digital publishing, e-book publishing, print vs e-book, She Writes Press, What's Your Book?

Does EPub Change the 32-Page Illustrated Picture Book?

This is an excerpt from How to Write a Children's Picture Book, an ebook by Darcy Pattison, available on Kindle, Nook and iBook.

DOES EPUB CHANGE THE 32-PAGE ILLUSTRATED PICTURE BOOK?

The gold standard for printed, illustrated children’s picture books is 32 pages. It has to do with the way paper folds: eight sheets will fold nicely into what is called a signature. More than that, the ends of the pages don’t align well. Four signatures is 32 pages, the typical picture book. It also has to do with the way printing presses are set up, so that a picture book can be printed on a single huge sheet of paper, then cut apart to create the book.

Digital publishing is about to blow this standard apart. There are two ways to publish a picture book digitally. First, you might make it into an app on any of the devices, but especially an iTunes app. Second, the book can become an EPUB. EPUB (http://idpf.org/EPUB) is the standard for displaying information in a digital book format. Basically, it uses a form of html (hypertext markup language) that is used to code webpages, allows for CSS (cascading style sheets), which controls how the information looks, and adds a container for all the files. The rest of what I’ll say here refers to EPUB, not apps.

In contrast to printing a book, EPUB, doesn’t deal with paper or printing presses. One way to think about an EPUB is that it is one long, continuous webpage. It happens to be displayed one “page” at a time on an ebook reader, but the person reading can change the type font used and font size, which means each person’s page can look unique. Each ebook reader displays the book differently, too. One problem with the EPUB format is that each ebook reader supports it in different ways, which means that your book’s code might need tweaking to be consistently displayed in the Kindle, Nook, iBook and other readers.

EPUB presents a problem for an illustrated picture book: how do you keep the text and images together? The images expand upon the text in some way, so we assume here that you want to keep them together. There seems to be two answers to this question.

First, you can embed the text in the image, which makes the ebook a series of images. This allows simple control of where the text is displayed on the image. It also makes for a simple production process because the pages are a series of images. It’s almost like making a pdf file of the story, except each page is a separate file saved in an image format for EPUB display. VonLogan Brimhall started the Instant Sunshine Publishing using this method and has over twenty books in the Nook version of EPUB. He’s written a free ebook that explains how he prepares his files: Idea to eBook in 3 Easy Steps: How to Design, Build and Publish Illustrated Children’s eBooks with Adobe InDesign.

Second, you can use CSS to control the display of the images and text. This is more difficult because it requires some knowledge of html and CSS. But Elizabeth Castro has an ebook which explains the process and provides sample files from which to work. EPUB: Straight to the Point discusses the EPUB (especially for iBook) in detail, and is a good general reference on the current state of producing EPUBs. If you already know something about EPUBs, html and CSS, you may be fine with one of her mini-guides such as Fixed Layout EPUBs for iPad and iPhone.

With her fixed layout EPUB, Castro imitates the double-page spreads of print books. Without a fixed layout, you are limited to images in the portrait orientation. With fixed layouts, you can force the display to turn landscape and show two pages at once.

WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO OUR QUESTION: DO EPUB PICTURE BOOKS NEED TO BE 32 PAGES?

Short answer: No. EPUB illustrated books for children can be any length you want.

However, the question is whether you want to only do an EPUB, or if you are also interested in a print version. Even here, new technology in the form of print-on-demand (POD) printing presses is changing the industry; these presses are set up to only print when a book is ordered and can print/bind/deliver a single copy at a time. Amazon’s CreateSpace POD program allows for 24 page and up, which means you can do a book with 25, 26, 27 pages, or whatever length you choose. In other words, the requirements of this printing press do not force you to print 32 page picture books. Of course, if you go to a commercial printer, the most economical printing
size continues to be 32 pages.

32 pages? Yes, if you want the best prices on a printed quantity of books. Or, if you think at some point you might want to do this. So far, traditional publishers are sticking to the 32 pages, because it is the most economical; POD is still far more expensive per book.

32 pages? No, if you only want to use EPUB and POD. 24 pages is the minimum for POD, but you can do whatever size you want after that.

In my mind, an apt analogy is poetry, which was bound for years by strict forms like a sonnet. When free verse swept through the poetry world, it resulted in amazing creativity and wonderful poetry. Those who still favored sonnets were still writing great poetry and to attempt a sonnet is still a wonderful thing. But free verse allowed for a different sort of expression, a different sort of verse. It meant redefining what poetry was and is. I think we are the threshold of doing the same thing for children’s illustrated picture books. The form no longer restricts anything; but that puts more of a burden on the creativity of the author and book designer on how to use the freer format to an advantage in telling a great story or sharing great information.

ACTION POINTS

Look at and read some children’s illustrated ebooks. Read about POD printing. Investigate the app market, as well, the other option for a children’s illustrated picture book. Decide what format you want to write for and adapt everything in this book to that format. You’ll still need to write a great story, which is what the rest of this book explains. You can just adjust the page requirements as needed.

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Darcy Pattison blogs about how-to-write at Fiction Notes.

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1 comment digital publishing, ebook formatting, EPUB, how to format a children's picture book, self publishing ebooks