Don't Listen to Me...Part 8 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

We've reached the end of my self-publishing series. It's filled with a lot of information...some from me and some from other writers with experience in the arena. Although I just self-published my novella and many people have said I did it "right" and "professionally," I'm scared to death someone is going to follow in my footsteps and be extremely disappointed and angry in the end and, consequently, blame me, even if they never say it out loud.

Here are a few things I'd like everyone to remember:

1. I never queried Cinders. I wrote it specifically to self-publish it.

2. I have lots of resources at my fingertips to self-publish...you might not have those same resources and this might cost you (a) more time, (b) more money, (c) more headaches and emotional investment than it cost me. Or it might not. See, you must remember that...

3. The decision to publish in any way is a huge decision and must be made with your eyes wide open and...

4. The decision to publish in any way is an extremely personal decision.

5. I also feel that self-publishing is not the right thing for all of my projects. Why? Well...

6. I currently have a manuscript on submission to a small publisher who did not require an agent for me to send in the work. I hope to hear back from them soon. This would mean that if they offer me a contract, I will be traditionally published. This means that...

7. Obviously, I feel both traditional and self-publishing are valid ways to publish your work and that you must always remember there are other options out there if one option is not working out for you.

8. There are also many different ways to self-publish your work. The route I took may not be the best option for you.

So I guess I'm imploring you to not listen to me too closely when I talk about how absolutely wonderful an experience self-publishing has been for me. I just spoke with a friend of mine who also self-publishes her work, and she shared with me some of the sales she makes every day. My jaw dropped open and my jealousy meter shot sky-high. I thought, "There is no way in a million years I'd make those kind of sales with my work...probably not even with the small publisher I want." Of course, never say never, right? Still, her situation and experiences are completely different from mine.

And yours will be, too.

______________________________

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22nd
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th

No

Lately, the harder I work, the more opportunities I'm being offered...and the more time it's taking up. I'm in a state of transition in my life. I'm getting ready to apply to new jobs (1st deadline this Friday!), I'm being open to moving far away, and I'm planning to publish 1-2 long pieces of fiction (Rooster and Bread) if ever I find a few precious hours to do some polishing revisions--no comments from the peanut gallery, MDA, SGFB, TM, and Nevets!

I guess I should consider myself lucky because my friends are helping me by throwing more possibilities my way. In November, I'll be involved in a grant review panel in D. C. that will require me to be well-versed in about 700-1000 pages of scientific proposals. I've got more applications due, and I was just offered the opportunity to write a review article on vitamins and algae. It's all stuff I'm excited about doing, but I'm also realizing that I'm having to say something I don't often have to say.

No.

Being the pantster, I like the challenge of having a lot on my plate. But, the more I entrench myself in work that has such ill-defined finish lines as creating art and solving the mysteries of life, I'm finding that flying by the seat of my pants often results in a lot of mediocre work with little or no value.

But, isn't it hard to say no?

I guess what I'm actually feeling these days is a lot of gratitude and a lot of regret for having to turn certain projects down. It's an impossible question to ask all of you how you handle all that life throws your way. So, I guess I'll try to simplify it at least a little by asking: How do you decide when to say no?

In other news, you may be shocked and excited to learn that Scott, Michelle and I finally had our first conference call last night. While I've talked and seen Michelle before, this was the first time all three of us communicated together, and the first time we experienced Scott live. I had a blast, which was probably evident to the others because I was laughing goofily while they were talking about writing. Scott was quite dashing with his calm demeanor, classy office, and charming I-don't-have-an-accent-you-LA-fool. Michelle was looking lovely and, as usual, served as the technology guru. We chatted, among other things, about getting a gift for the great Becca, who assisted in handling our Notes From Underground entries. And, we also discussed some secret plans that somehow involves reading and banter...and another opportunity we haven't managed to say no to.

First Paragraphs, First Pages, First Impressions, Et Cetera

Let's talk about what the opening passage of a book is supposed to do. The writer's number one job when writing a novel's first page is to establish for the reader that a good story is beginning and to assure him that the author has the ability to tell that story. The opening promises something interesting and intelligible (most times). It sets the tone, mood and style of the story, and gives the reader an idea of what she is in for.

We should look at the opening passages from some successful novels.

Here's the beginning of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov:

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

Did she have a precurser? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.

This passage is, on the surface, about a girl named Lolita. In reality, it is the egocentric narrator telling us about himself, which prefigures the tone and style of the whole book. Nabokov has begun as he means to continue. He has challenged the reader to a battle of wits and piqued our interest with that thrown-away reference to "a murderer."

---

Here's the opening of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina:

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

All was confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had found out that the husband was having an affair with their former French governess, and had announced to the husband that she could not live in the same house with him. This situation had continued for three days now, and was painfully felt by the couple themselves, as well as by all the members of the family and household. They felt that there was no sense in their living together and that people who meet accidentally at any inn have more conncection with each other than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife would not leave her rooms, the husband was away for the third day. The children were running all over the house as if lost; the English governess quarrelled with the housekeeper and wrote a note to a friend, asking her to find her a new place; the cook had already left the premises the day before, at dinner-time; the kitchen maid and the coachman had given notice.

The first line here is Tolstoy's "theme sentence," the claim that he will have to "prove" by the events he gives us in the book. We know already that we will see an account of a uniquely unhappy family.

You can say that what follows that first line is all "telling," but so what? The list of tensions, of battles in and defections from the household is delightfully energetic. Tolstoy has launched us headlong into the middle of a domestic war. We know that the situation can't last; something's got to give and it won't be pretty when it does.

---

Here's one you might already know:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

A lot of The Hobbit is about being underground, and we are first given a contrast between nice underground living and "nasty, dirty, wet." The nice versus the nasty is a constant element in this book, running all through the story. Even so seemingly tame a sentence as this contains conflict and mystery.

---

And finally, this is how Neil Gaiman opened his Newberry Prize-winning The Graveyard Book:

The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.

The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.

Gaiman begins in medias res. Something horrible is happening. The focus on the knife, as if it is an intelligent agent, and the "not immediately" are sinister and disorienting: we want to know what is going on, as all this elliptical prose is creepy and we want to rule out our own worst fears as soon as possible. The language and tone here are calm, low-key to describe a horrible, violent murder.

---

It is my claim that all of these openings, which begin radically different books, accomplish the same thing, and do so without being over-the-top or in any way anything but careful and assured. All of these writers begin as they intend to go on. The openings are not prologues, and the action of the books flows directly from these opening passages. There are no tricks, there is no bait-and-switch, there is no huge event followed by a lot of dull backstory. The tales begin where they should, and move forward from there.

Each of the above openings promise that something interesting will happen and it will be told in an interesting way. Most good openings in modern fiction show something happening. This does not have to be something violent or sinister as in the Gaiman example; it just has to be something unexpected. It can be a minor moment of the unexpected, like Nabokov's announcement that the linguistically-playful narrator is a murderer.

I have noticed that some people are putting more emphasis on (and more work into) the first page of their novel than they put into the whole rest of the book. This is a Very Bad Thing, and I'm not exactly sure what's sparked this evil and misguided trend. I think a lot of it has to do with agent websites and online "first page/sentence/paragraph" contests that put too much weight on the opening of the book. Well, anything that makes a writer think more deeply about his own writing is a good thing, but there is a lot of bullshit advice out there. There is a lot of emphasis on "hooks." Everyone seems to be ignoring the very basic idea that we should just write a solid story well. If you write a good story and start the story in the right place and begin the story the way the story goes on rather than trying to do something special and fancy at the start, your opening should mostly take care of itself.

Ironically, therefore, my advice is to ignore the advice about beginnings that you'll get from most people on the internets; just look at real books that have been published and that you love and admire. But don't just mimic an opening you like; figure out why that opening works for that particular book! Your book is not a collage; it is not a pastiche of little techniques you've gathered together from other books. Your book is a single and unified whole that you have written yourself.*

There is no perfect opening gambit that will "hook" every reader, or even most readers. What looks like brilliance to me may be boring to you, and vice versa. Your opening page(s) will either attract, repel, or leave your reader indifferent. You have no control over that. So just write the best you can, always, no matter what page of your novel you're writing.

*Unless you're David Shields, that is.

Never Let Me Go and Let Me Go

I've raved before about the beautiful and heartbreaking novel, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This weekend I cautiously watched the movie adaptation, hoping at the very least that it wouldn't ruin my impression of the book. My hat is off to Director Mark Romanek and screenplay writer Alex Garland for staying true to the book's vision and not getting all Hollywood (okay, except perhaps for the last 10 seconds, but I'm willing to overlook that). Ishiguro's brilliance was showcased on this movie, and I'd recommend both the book and the movie to lovers of literary fiction (with a pinch of sci-fi).

This weekend I also spent some time lunching with a relative stranger who asked to talk to me regarding her desire to start writing again. This person, we'll call her Kangacon Spartacus, has apparently been wanting to write since elementary school but somehow got convinced to repress that urge because it might not pay the bills. Thankfully, it sounds like she's finally going to go for it, and face her fears. So, here's to Kangacon for letting herself go and doing what she wants to do!

Question: What are your fears as a writer, and how do you overcome them?

My answer: I'm scared of people knowing where I'm vulnerable. I overcome it by ignoring my fear long enough to send my work out into the world and then worry about the consequences later.

The Paris Review Interviews

In case you don't know, the Paris Review has been interviewing good writers (of fiction, poetry and nonfiction) for over half a century. They've put all of these interviews on the internets, here. Go read some of them; get inspired. Check out Hemingway's cranky boredom with George Plimpton. Imagine yourself answering the interviewers' questions.

Also! Starting tomorrow, it is Banned Books Week. Celebrate your freedom to read! Go expose yourself to something dangerous.

More and Better Also! If you live in glorious Seattle, make sure you swing by the University Bookstore (4326 University Way, N.E) by 7pm to hear Alexandra MacKenzie read from her debut novel Immortal Quest. You must come, and you must buy a copy, and Alex must sign it! Because I said so!

Cheaper Than Kinko's: Part 7 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

Formatting is a scary thing. Even if I had never self-published a book, I would still be using basic formatting skills. Did you know you can get drafts of your novel printed and bound like a real book for cheaper than it would cost you to have it printed at Kinko's? It's true! I've had a manuscript printed there for $30 and my Lulu copy of Monarch only cost me $15 (that includes shipping).

Here's a picture of me with my copy of Monarch. This was one of my final drafts. It was a nice experience to be able to ship this book to some beta readers and to be able to hold it as a real book in my hands as I took a red pen to the pages. I saw things differently that way. But in order to do this, you need to know have some basic formatting skills. Once you have those, you can usually branch out on your own to learn whatever else you need.

Here is my super-simplified step-by-step guide to formatting a manuscript for printing - from the experience I've had, at least!


(1) Choose Your Printer

You have several options in this arena. Here's what I have found out about some printers. If you have more info to share, please do and I'll add it here to the list.

Lulu
Quality - Good
Cover - Fair - the color printing doesn't seem as slick as others I've seen - it's more pixelated
Binding - Good
User-Friendly - Good

CreateSpace
Quality - Good
Cover - Great - the color printing is really nice! I'll talk about some setbacks down below
Binding - Good
User-Friendly - Good

Lightning Source
I don't know! Anyone willing to share some information here? All I know is that you do have to purchase your own ISBNs and have your own publishing name/business even if it's just you

Small Printing Press (this is limited to two books I've seen)
Quality - Excellent, that I've seen
Cover - Excellent
Binding - Excellent
User-Friendly - Don't know

Here are some photos to give you an idea of the quality and issues with your printing options. For all photos, I've uploaded high resolution copies. Click on the picture so see more detail!

This set is Lulu printed books:


This set is CreateSpace books:



This set is small press/publisher books:

Jamie DeBree was kind enough to send pictures of a Lightning Source book:



Doesn't appear to be too much difference, huh? Let's get CLOSER! Here is a close up on the bindings. I personally think the lack of "glue" on the small press books looks SO much nicer. One reason to go that route, but it's more expensive...or you need a small publisher to accept your manuscript.



The one here is from Lightning Source:



Here is the wear-and-tear of the books:



These ones are on Monarch, a Lulu printed book. If you click on the photo to see it larger, you can see the printing quality of the cover as well. The book hasn't fallen apart at all. The bends seem to hold up pretty well.



The cream one below is a Lulu printed book. Notice the raised area where the glue for the binding spilled over to the front and it creates a "bead" underneath the cover. That's not the prettiest thing, and a big drawback, I think, to this type of binding if it's not handled correctly.



This book below is a small press book, Immortalis. It got crunched on my shelf, but it has held up well.



This one below is a CreateSpace book, Cinders. I really hate this flaw...the beautiful glossy cover has a film over it, which is gorgeous until it starts to peel! I've had other readers who own this book tell me they haven't seen this happen on their copies yet, but I handled mine a lot, so I'm sure that's why this happened. Also, I've this happen on commercially published books. It's nothing to do with the printer, but that type of printing.



These shots below are of the printing on the inside. The first one is of Son of Ereubus from Rhemalda Publishing, a small publisher. This is the nicest printing! Nice and crisp, and lovely paper.



This one is Immortalis from a small press. It's white, thick paper, and the printing is nice.



This one below is of Cinders, done through CreateSpace. It's done on their cream paper, and I love it. The printing is nice, as well, and is the same quality as Lulu, although Lulu's cream paper is thinner. The page isn't crooked, sorry. I had a hard time taking the picture and holding the book at the same time!



And here is one of Blood Lust from Lightning Source:



All right. There you have an idea of quality!


(2) Choose Your Formatting Software

I've used QuarkXpress and Word. That's it. I used Quark about 9 years ago, and I loved it, but I don't have it anymore as it was the property of the university I attended. So...being the cheapskate I am, I just use Word for all my formatting. There are pros and cons to this. Katie and Jamie helped a lot in yesterday's post about formatting if you want more information on formatting software.

What I can help you out with today is to tell you these simple guides.

(1) For Word, it's pretty easy to format if you're going to stick with something simple! And, honestly, simple is almost always the best option when it comes to a reader wanting to immerse themselves in a book, not pretty formatting. The only things you have to know how to do are how to set the page size, line spacing, page numbering, and headers and footers. It's not more difficult than that! Any printer you choose to go with will give you guides on the margin spacing you'll need.

(2) Do Google searches. It's not hard! Figure out how to manipulate line spacing and headers, etc. As you can see on my Cinders page up above, I used some wider spacing between the lines and paragraphs. If you can't find help online how to do this, email me. I'll help.

(3) If you need to convert your file to a PDF, I highly suggest using dopdf.com if you don't already have the software. This one is free, easy to use, and doesn't put a stupid watermark over everything.

(4) Word is really, really bad at doing drop caps. If you want to do that, you might be better off using a different program. 


(3) Choose Your Book Size

This can be a tricky one. All these books are 6x9:



I don't necessarily like this size for a novel unless it's a huge, long novel. For my book, Cinders, which is a novella, I went with a smaller size. These CreateSpace books are 5.25 x 8:



You can kind of see the differences in sizes here, but I took the picture at a bad angle, sorry. To really see the difference you have to hold them and open them up.



Also, you are severely limited, unfortunately, by what your printer offers. CreateSpace, nor any other print-on-demand publisher I can find, offers 5 x 7, the trade paperback size you see in grocery stores all the time. They also don't offer the publisher-grade paper, either - that flimsy cream paper you see on mass market paperbacks. Lulu offers this, but only on 2 sizes and they don't let you do an ISBN (so far) with this option, either. I'm not sure if WordClay or Lightning Source offers these? Anyone know?


(4) Format, Send It In, and Sell (or use it to edit)!

This is much easier said than done, but CreateSpace at least offers a formatted file you can download and use, as well as offers a formatted template for your cover so you get the spine width correct. A huge drawback for Lulu is that I've never been able to use their pre-formatted templates. They never work for me...they'll never upload. I don't know what I'm doing wrong there, so I'm stuck using their crappy cover software online and it's severely limiting, especially for the spine.

As far as CreateSpace goes, from my experience, it was a pretty simple process, although a little more time-consuming than Lulu, and I had to wait for a few things to be approved. You are also forced to order and pay for a "Proof Copy" of your book before you can get the book up on Amazon. They print "PROOF" on the last page, too, so you can't even sell it! I DETEST THIS. I wish they'd do away with it. I have already complained to them. If you use CreateSpace, you should complain, too. Hah.

Anyway, this is all very simplified, but it's already 11:20 my time and I need to get this post up! I hope this has been helpful for you! Let me know if you'd like more or different information in this arena.
_____________________

Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think Series

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22nd
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd 
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th

The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book: Part 6 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

Some fellow writers of mine have generously shared their knowledge and experience of formatting their books for print and have granted me permission to post their information here. They will, or have already, posted this information on their blogs.

This is a lot of information, I know, but if you are thinking of self-publishing a print version of your book, I recommend you read every word. Next week we will talk about ebook formatting!

Tomorrow I will post my own step-by-step guide to self-publish your print book using CreateSpace.
  

Katie Salidas
book layout

The Book Layout.

A Do-it-yourself self-publishers worst nightmare but a necessary evil.

What is a book layout? The layout is the internal formatting of your book; everything from the Title to About the Author.

Go grab a book off of your nearest bookshelf and take a look at it. Notice how the headers alternate between pages? Notice how the page numbers are spaced? Notice the different fonts used? Notice how chapter pages lack both page numbers and headers? Notice that nifty extra-large capital letter at the beginning of the first chapter paragraph? These are just a few of the things that need to be set up during the layout stage of book design.

As a self-publisher you are already fighting an uphill battle. Though your book might be the next Twilight or Mockingjay, it will already start off with a stigma because you self-published it. Things are changing in the publishing world self-publishing or Indie publishing are becoming much more mainstream, however they still have not garnered the prestige of their traditionally published counterparts. What that means for you, the self-published author, is that you must do that much more to make sure your book is indistinguishable, in quality, from others on the bookshelf.

To really nail down what your book should look like inside, you need to look at its peers. Take 10 or so traditionally published books from your genre and go through them with a fine tooth comb. Note the standards in their layout so you can try to mimic them.

So, now that you know what a book should look like, how do you recreate it?

On paper it sounds pretty easy. Change a few fonts here, create some page breaks there, and add in a few page numbers the poof, a bright shiny new book!

Once you actually try to duplicate what you see in printed books, you find out how difficult it can be.

While word is great for general word processing, it can be very difficult to use when formatting books. Trying to get page numbers to show up on some pages but not others will provide a bit of a challenge. Same goes for alternating headers that only appear within chapters but not on title pages, acknowledgement pages, about the author pages, or copyright pages. Drop Caps doesn’t ever work as it was intended and usually adds extra spacing to your lines. In short, it creates a lot of headaches.

Even though it is a headache, book layout can be done in word. It is, however, going to be a frustrating and time consuming process. Be prepared for long hours. For the do-it-yourself publisher, this is going to be your cheapest option.

There are some other alternatives if you just don’t want to deal with the added stress. For those choosing to use a service, I believe Lulu, CreateSpace, and many others offer layout and design as part of their packages. You can also hire out for this too. There are many companies out there who specialize in layout (This will cost you some money. Around $200-$400).

There are also many programs the pro’s use (Quark and InDesign come to mind). They are available for anyone to purchase and use but they will cost you a pretty penny. I was lucky enough to stumble across a program that works within Word. I found it on Self-pub.net and it was quite helpful and only cost around $40.

http://www.self-pub.net
Book Design Wizard 2.0
What this program does is standardize things for you via VBA coded templates. You answer some questions about your book and plug in your layout desires, (e.g. what fonts to use for chapter headings, title pages, etc…) and it creates a template for you to work within.

I found it to be extremely helpful. It still took me about three days to get the book layout exactly as I wanted it. For the do-it-yourselfer, this is probably the best happy medium you will find.

I’m sure this is not the only program of its kind out there, do a Google search for book layout templates and programs. If you don’t like this on, you can probably find plenty to suit your needs.



Jamie DeBree
formatting for print (overview)

Formatting the print version is the most daunting thing I faced when I decided to self-publish Tempest. I was fairly certain I could do okay with the ebook, but print is a whole 'nuther thing. With print, you have to worry about margins, typeface, widows & orphans (which honestly, I didn't), spacing of letters, chapter headings, page headers, and all within the context of the size of book you want to print. And that's not counting the cover formatting. I know it's all overwhelming – believe me, I looked at it and asked, "why am I doing this again?" But when you get right down to it, the hardest thing is changing straight quotes (like you see in this blog) to curly quotes (pick up your favorite book). Everything else is fairly easy once you make friends with the formatting tags in your favorite word processor.

I should point out that you don't have to do this yourself. You can pay someone to format your book for a hundred dollars or so (which, if you really don't have time or want to mess with it, is a reasonable price). But the less you spend at the outset, the more money goes into your pocket from sales, so I'd urge you to at least give it a try first. Like most things, it looks a whole lot harder from the outside than it really is.

I have a wonderful cover artist – Heidi Sutherlin of Creative Pursuits – who does all my covers and artwork for me. So for my cover, I just had to give her a copy of the book, character descriptions, a back cover blurb and the template for the cover. CreateSpace (which is the only print-on-demand company I have experience with) provides a cover template when you put in the number of pages, width and height of your book. I sent that to Heidi, and she turned it into art. Just like magic.

For the interior formatting, I did a search of the CreateSpace community forums, and found that someone was offering CS members free templates and an abbreviated formatting guide. The formatting guide was only semi-useful to me because I'm just not all that familiar with the ins and outs of word processing programs. The template was my savior though – I turned on the formatting guides (all those little symbols that tell you where paragraphs and line breaks are), and basically just cut and pasted each chapter of Tempest into the template. The margins must be set to mirrored, and you'll want to play with the headers for page numbers, title and name. I kept things very simple – no fancy fonts (I used Times New Roman, which is the mark of an amateur or so I'm told, but I prefer it to most fonts I see), just basic italics, single line spacing, and first line indents (use the ruler bar to set indents – don't use tabs). Personally, I kept it very basic, and aside from my little chapter-flipping incident, it worked pretty well. Do a search for book formatting, and book formatting templates, and I'm sure you'll find what you need. I'm not linking to the one I used simply because it was/is meant for CS members – but if you go search that community, you'll find it. I don't think it would hurt to do some playing with whatever word processing program you have too (I use Open Office for final formatting). That's really what took me the longest – just finding my way around my own program.

It also took me nearly an entire day to switch my straight quotes to curly quotes. The instructions are all over the internet, and they all sound super-easy. They're a pain in the butt. My advice here would be to do everything else first, then make a copy of your file to use for your ebooks before you switch the quotes. On Smashwords, straight quotes convert better – the curlies will show up on the newer ereaders and programs, but they return to code on older models. It's not pretty. Just say no to curly quotes on Smashwords.

One thing I did do, and not just because Tempest is a novella - I used a full 12 point font. I figure people buying print will appreciate a slightly larger than normal font to make reading easier on the eyes. I don't think I'd go larger than that, but I do like the way it looks on the page. Most print on demand trade paperbacks will be at least a little larger than the average mass market paperback, which makes it easier to get away with large fonts not actually looking "large".

You'll also need to add "front matter" – title page, copyright page, acknowledgments and dedication if you have one. In the back, don't forget an author bio with contact information, and a blurb for your next book. Maybe even an excerpt to get people hooked early? Don't beat yourself up worrying about how these are formatted. Just do what I did - go grab a book in your genre off the shelf, and copy the format as you're creating your own pages. Simple as that.

CS accepts only PDF files for uploading, so your final cover art and interior files will both need to be in that format. Open Office has a pdf creator included, or you can do a web search for "convert to pdf" and find a ton of free utilities. Once you have your two files ready, you upload them and wait for CS to "approve" them, and then you can order your proof copy to check.

I had to fix my files after the first proof got here – and from what I hear, that's not uncommon. So be prepared for the book not to come out perfect the first time...at least not on the first one you do. If you're impatient or in a hurry (like I was), it will cost you. My book at cost is around $3.00 – but I paid $30 for each proof copy to have it shipped 2 day air. This is one of the reasons I recommend you give yourself a month to 6 weeks for producing a print copy. Buy yourself some breathing room for the less expensive shipping options for proof and sales copies.

And that's it. I apologize for not adding more links, but the information is all over in many different forms, and what appeals to me as far as instructions go may well not appeal to you. Google is your friend. A little research goes a long way with formatting guides and templates. You can always ask a friend too – most indie authors are more than happy to help when they can.

And as I said before, if you don't have time, or just don't want to tackle it – hire someone. The whole "money always flows toward the author" thing is silly when you think of it in light of a business. Every business requires some initial cash outlay, and writing is no different. In traditional publishing, the author pays for it by taking only a percentage of the profits, and only after the advance pays out (if it does). In self-publishing, it's an up-front cost, rather than hidden. But it's there, either way, so don't shy away from hiring someone if you need to. It's a business decision, plain and simple.
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Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think Series

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22nd
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd 
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th

Taking Risks With Structure

When I wrote the most recent draft of my book Killing Hamlet, I used a traditional narrative structure where the story is presented in chronological order, in past tense, with only a few brief passages of explanatory backstory here and there. It seemed like the best way to tell the story and I was content with a straightforward narrative until I got to the very last chapter. At that point, something in my brain zigged when normally it would have zagged, and I decided to do something different.

There were a couple of reasons I wanted to do something radical in the final chapter:

First, the chapter had to contain the book's last scene of dramatic action and then relate what happens after the story proper ends. I really don’t like the “story/epilogue” structure, and I wanted to avoid it. But I still wanted all that epilogue material in the chapter.

Second, I have taken a lot of chances with this book already. I’ve pulled the characters out of Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” and told a different tale with them, one that sort of mirrors the historical accounts of Hamlet that Shakespeare based his play on, but also plays fast-and-loose with the source materials and with “Hamlet” and is entirely new at the same time. That’s a risk in itself. So I figured that if the reader was willing to come along up to this point, I could try to pull one last rabbit out of the hat and give a shot at a really virtuoso performance in the final chapter. So, yeah, I just want to show off a bit at the very end.

Third, and this properly goes with the first point, I wanted the drama to keep rising until the very last word on the very last page of the book, and using the “story/epilogue” structure won’t allow that; the epilogue is always a slackening of drama and I want to go out on a high note, to keep pushing the reader into new territory with each sentence. Again, it’s showing off.

So I came up with a structure that’s more or less as follows:

Last scene of story (interrupted)
10 years previous
Last scene of story (continued)
A few hours later
Last scene of story (continued)
Three years later
Last scene of story (continued)
Three years later
Last scene of story (finishes)
Three years later and into the future

The language becomes increasingly high-flown and poetic as the chapter progresses, and I am inordinately pleased with the last sentence of the book. I’ve never attempted anything quite like this before, with a narrative sort of coiling around itself while moving forward. I bail out of the 'last scene of story' in the middle of the action without truly finishing the scene; it’s clear what’s going to happen so there’s no point in spelling it out. I’m proud of that bit. Anyway, this is the chapter that establishes my “literary fiction” street cred. I have no idea where the impulse to tell the last scene and the epilogue in overlapping segments came from, but I’m glad it came to me.

My next big book project will present the story out-of-order, for the length of the narrative. We'll see how that works out. Some day I'll try A.S. Byatt's idea of "laminating" stories on top of each other, or working the way Salman Rushdie has done, telling at once several stories that are linked just barely by theme/location. Or maybe I'll borrow the idea from Nabokov's The Real Life of Sebastian Knight where the book takes on the structures of the books the narrator is discussing, but this isn't pointed out to the reader. Who can say? Possibilities abound.

So, you: are you doing/have you done anything interesting/different with the structure/chronology of your narrative(s)? If so, what? How successful do you think you were? How have readers responded to it?

Waiting

The last couple of weeks I've been down because of a number of writing-related observations. Being around sad or frustrated or angry writers has made me wonder what all this is for.

In a very general way, I think what most writers crave is to bring their story to life.

But what is life? Is it the point when the story is finished? Is it the point when you send it out to your first readers? Is it the point when it's published and you've decided you aren't going to touch it anymore?

For me, I get a good amount of joy out of finishing a story and sharing it with a few people. But the point when the story comes to life is when it's published and put out into the world. So far, this has only been the case for short stories. I crave the moment when I can publish a longer work of mine, something that I have labored over for at least a couple of years.

And, so I wonder. If that end point is really the happy spot for me, the point when I feel like I've actually brought something to life. Why am I waiting so long to reach that point?

I've finished one novel now, Rooster, and I'm at the final polishing stage of a novella, Bread. Neither one is a perfect work, in my opinion, but does imperfection mean that the story should remain dead in a drawer?

Last week, Tara Maya had a great post on Growing Up In Public. It hit on some ideas that I've been thinking about as well over the last few months. I've been so scared to publish my books because of the dreaded "record" in which bad sales of one book supposedly destroys all of your chances of ever publishing anything else. I'm wondering, what if that actually isn't true? What if I can get away with publishing my little runt Rooster just for the sake of bringing to life the results of seven year's hard work?

The thought is quite exciting...

So, the question I have for you on this Monday is: Do you think it's worth it to wait for perfection?

Or in the case of the few who say there's no such thing: Do you think it's wise to publish something that isn't your best work just to give it a life?

Don't Rush to the Finish Line

As I approach the end of my current WIP's first draft, I can't help but feel as though I have been sprinting through the scenes toward the final page. Part of that is due to the whirl of character activity and the rush of events in the story itself (and--for those familiar with my work--all the killing going on). But part of it is just me, hurrying my way through the writing. Last night Mighty Reader told me that I was moving so quickly just so I'd be done with this first draft. I told her she was wrong, but of course she's right. I have been hurrying just for the sake of hurrying, or for the sake of my self-imposed end-of-September deadline. Hell, if I really tried, I could finish the book up in a couple of hours tonight. There aren't that many actual events left to narrate. The trouble is, it would be a crappy, rushed narrative.

I look at some of the scenes wrote this week and I realize that they were not much more than sketches of scenes. A final act that I thought would take 10,000 words to tell looked like it was going to be written in more like 4,000 words. That's not economy of style, but stinginess with the narrative elements. I felt less like a writer of careful prose than a guy running down the aisles at the supermarket, throwing ingredients into the cart and promising you a good meal at some point down the road. That's no way to write a novel. Or to feed a dinner guest.

During the last few Designated Writing Periods (that is, lunch breaks) I did not move forward with the story. What I did instead was go back into the last scenes I wrote and fleshed them out more, slowing them down and beefing them up, putting in things to ratchet up the tension and madness of the story. I've thought of a nice event (a handy bit of violence, as it happens) that will fit neatly into the end of one scene, an event that will boost the tension and conflict and will also manage to dramatize the change in one of my character's personalities. If I had not stopped to consider the idea that I'm moving too fast, that I am presenting only the bones of the story in an effort to simply Get To The Last Damned Page of the Novel as fast as I can, I would not have had any of the cool ideas I'm now working into the story. So it's all win, and maybe I would've fixed this sketchy finale in the revision stage, but maybe I wouldn't have and then my agent would be saying, "I liked it until the end, and then it got sort of suck, Mr. Bailey."

I long to print the final pages of this MS, place my hands on the stack of paper and say, "Done! Done! Bring me cigars and champagne!" But I want to be done writing, not just done typing. If you know what I mean. So is it just me, or do the rest of you run headlong through the endings of your first drafts as if you were escaping a house on fire?

Got stories? Share them! Talk about the final stages of a first draft, no matter what the experience is like. It will be educational for everyone, I promise.

Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You: Part 5 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

I won't apologize for the length of these posts since I know several of our readers want all this information. But even if self-publishing doesn't interest you, you might find something interesting and worthwhile here.

I've been talking-up self-publishing quite a bit. It's kind of expected...since I self-published a book and I'm proud of it and I'm confident I can do it again. Two more times, actually. I'll be self-publishing two more fairy-tale themed novellas in the future.

Does my confidence and positivity mean you should self-publish a book?

That's an awfully personal question. I know many of our readers are not considering such a route, but some are, and it frightens me to think some of you are watching me like I'm a fish in a fishbowl because I'm doing this series. Some of you are trying to make the decision right now whether or not you should self-publish a book. Tara Maya, for instance, just made the huge decision to self-publish a short story anthology. I think she mentioned that I had some sort of influence on her...among others who also had an influence on me.

Influences.

I think one of the hardest things I've ever had to write was my Acknowledgements page. It was easy enough to write when I actually sat down to write it, but thinking about who I was going to personally name...that was difficult. Some names were obvious. Others became shrouded under the "friends and beta readers" title. The truth is, every writer's blog I've ever read, every writer who has given me advice, supported me, urged me to follow my dreams. I owe them all my thanks. When I wrote the page, I wasn't thinking specifically about self-publishing, but of writing in general. That's when specific names popped up first.

Here is where I'd like to talk about the few people who helped steer me (directly and indirectly) into the direction of self-publishing Cinders.

Katie Salidas

Katie probably doesn't know it, but I've watched her for awhile. Katie started her own publishing company name, Rising Sign Books LLC, and published her first book, Immortalis Carpe Noctem in March of this past year. As soon as I discovered Katie had self-published her book, I bought a copy. I had read some of her writing before and enjoyed it. I was really interested to see what her self-published book looked like. I had some exposure to self-published material before through Lulu (we did Genre Wars last year through Lulu), but Katie did things a bit differently. She hired a cover artist, layout designer, and editors. She then found a commercial printer for print runs of the book.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received Katie's book. She even had a bookmark with it. I loved the bookmark because I thought it was well-done and a great promotional item we could maybe consider for The Literary Lab anthologies one day.

Katie's book, although a vampire story (which I've tended to avoid lately...) was quite fun! My husband even snatched it away from me and read it, and the cover and formatting and printing were all high quality. I started to think...hmmm...self-publishing...

F.P. Adriani

F.P. has been a reader over here for quite awhile. I became a fan of F.P.'s as soon as I started reading her comments on some of our posts. Her insights and strong opinions about specific issues in publishing and life in general got me thinking deeply about more things. She got me thinking differently about almost everything publishing-related. I don't always agree with F.P., but I have definitely changed my mind about some things because of her, and self-publishing is one of those things.

I eventually bought one of F.P.'s self-published novels, Remember & Forget, and read it with great interest. My husband read that one, too, and enjoyed it. We talked for days about it, actually, about the issues it brought up and how they related to us personally. I read Katie's book and F.P.'s book at about the same time, and I was delighted to see that F.P.'s Lulu-quality book wasn't far behind the quality of Katie's commercial print-run book (in printing quality). I started to think again...hmmmm...self-publishing.

Probably one of the most influential things of all, however, was F.P.'s intense drive to put an emphasis on the quality of her work inside the book. This shows in her beautiful writing. F.P. has been self-publishing for 11 years (I hope I got that right, F.P.), and I was impressed with how confident she is with her work and how much she supported and helped me when I made the decision to self-publish. For some reason, before I met F.P., I had always thought that self-published writers went around with their heads hung in shame. So not true.

Davin Malasarn 

This might seem a given since I blog over here with Davin and I included his name in my Acknowledgements page, but I had to mention here that when Davin self-published a middle-grade novel he wrote just for his nephew, a light turned on in my head. I realized self-publishing can be the perfect solution for specific projects. I first started Cinders as a novella to include in a combined novella-project Davin and Scott and I have been discussing for awhile, but it soon became evident to me that Cinders was something I wanted to put out there on its own. As I watched Davin write and publish his novel for his nephew, I understood the significance of knowing the aim of your novel.

Zoe Winters

Zoe influenced me a little after I had already made the decision to self-publish, but what she did was give me an extra boost of confidence in my decision. Zoe is adamantly opposed to traditionally publishing her work and is constantly out in the blogosphere talking about her experiences with self-publishing. She has even made a series of YouTube videos about self-publishing you might want to watch. You can find them here on Zoe's Channel.

Zoe has been quite successful by way of sales, from what I understand, but in the end that doesn't matter to me as much as whether or not the writer is happy with what they've accomplished writing-wise, and Zoe is obviously happy and excited about her work as a whole. Her confidence was a real life-saver and good example at the very beginning of my Cinders release.


Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You...or it Might Be Totally Awesome...

Yes, self-publishing might just stink for you. It might be a very bad decision for you. After speaking about influences, I hope that if I am an influence for you, I hope you also understand that I can't tell you if self-publishing would be right for you or not. I don't know. I honestly didn't know if it was a very good decision for me until I tried it. Even now, some of the cons for me are:

(1) The constant, ridiculous, and unnecessary but unavoidable worrying I do about what people think of me for self-publishing a book.

(2) The fact that if I do try and traditionally publish, the traditional publisher may look at my self-publishing numbers and factor that into their decision in a negative way.

(3) Putting more money into the project than I'm making in sales from the project. So far I haven't made back what I put into the project, but I do have confidence I'll make it back in the long run.

(4) The fear of regretting all of this later. Yeah, that's a real fear, but not one I can see happening. I'm proud of the work I've put out there, and just like anything else I have published, once it's out there it is permanent and I learn to accept it for what it is and where I was at that time as a writer.

Making the decision to self-publish is not something you should take lightly, in my opinion. I'm also of the thought that if you're going to do something, you should do it right. For me, that meant putting money and time and a lot of work into my project to get the final product I did. For you, that might mean something entirely different. In the end, I can't say if it would be awesome or stink for you, but I can at least answer these questions asked by my dear friend, Alicia:

So I am genuinely curious about something. After doing the math and seeing you can make a profit  in writing (however small or large), would you still go through it all again if you could only break even or have it cost more than you sold (a...ka take a loss)?

I remember you saying early on your only real goal was to get people reading what you wrote. Now that you are officially published and money is involved, is that still true? Would you be satisfied if you never made another penny from Cinders, or sold another copy, but people kept reading it? What about if no one read it again, would it still be a success?

There is, of course, no wrong answer. I just wonder if things have changed at all, since I haven't experienced publication as you are now.

 Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes. 
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Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think Series

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th 
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22n
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd 
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th

Notes From Underground Results...Part I

I deeply thank everyone who entered our contest. If you read my final plea a few weeks ago, you'll know how emotionally attached I was (and am) to this experiment. I'm very grateful to everyone for supporting our attempts at nurturing writing in the best way we know how.

Yesterday, Scott, Michelle and I talked about our selection process and how hard it was to choose the 25 writers below. Today, I want to celebrate our selections. In one way or another, everyone here excited us with their writing and ideas.

Hey, you're in! No matter what kind of writing you turn into us on December 15th, we're going to showcase it in our second anthology. You've got ten pages to create whatever text story you want, and if you so desire, you've got the three of us to bounce ideas and drafts off of. Feel free to use us during these next 3 months, but also realize that this is your chance to really find out what you can do for yourself.

Remember that this is only the beginning. The next hurdle is the actual writing of the stories, where your biggest obstacles are your own highest standards. And now, on to our selections...

Congratulations to:

Beth Overmyer
Rachel Becker
Jeannie Miernik
Bridget Chicoine
Nevine Sultan
Judy Croome
Summer Ross
Cee Martinez
R. Mac Wheeler
Simon C. Larter
C. N. Nevets
Anne Allen
Candace Ganger
Anne Gallagher
Erin L. Harty
Matt Zandstra
Lisa Shafer
B.A. McMillan
Taryn Tyler
Aerin Bender-Stone
Susannah Pabot
Brian King
Yvonne Osborne
Lavanya Krishnan
Loren Eaton

Our hearts were definitely broken for some of our friends and writers who we didn't select. We know that this doesn't say anything personal about your own talent. We hope you know that, too.

For our selected writers, please e-mail us at LiteraryLab@gmail.com to confirm that you're up for Part II of the contest. If we don't hear from you over the next few days, Scott will probably cry, Michelle will probably go on an angry rampage, and I'll probably regress to my boyhood days when I did things like hide in the dryer.

"Notes From Underground" Pre-Announcement Ramble

Last night, rather too late, I finished reading the last of the entries for our “Notes From Underground” contest. Domey and Michelle finished hours before I did, and cheered me on through the last of the reading. It was like coming in last at a marathon with the runners who came in first waiting at the finish line. Which was nice. My co-hosts are nice. I heart them. And, of course, I digress.

Last night I finished reading the last of the “Notes From Underground” entries. There were 59 of them. The majority of entries were in the form of text, but some of them included image files, music files, movie files and possibly other sorts of files I can’t recall just now. So it was very interesting for me as a reader, and I’m sure Domey and Michelle would agree that this has been a fascinating experiment.

I don’t actually know how all the votes tally just now. Mostly that’s because the hated Microsoft “live” mail program isn’t working and I have no way of communicating with my co-hosts. I’m sure Michelle at least has a good idea of which 25 entrants will be part of the anthology, but I don’t, so I can’t say anything intelligent about that and besides, we will be announcing those results tomorrow, my impatient writer BFFs. But I’ll tell you how we judged this contest.

Last year the three of us discussed the stories, gave detailed comments about each one, weighed the merits and all voted on every story that went into the Genre Wars anthology. That took a lot of time. I will admit that I didn’t want to spend all those hours resolving the results of this contest (especially since a lot of that email discussion would have to take place during work hours when I should be working), and I also realized it wasn’t necessary. Each of us pretty much knew which entries we liked a lot, which ones we didn’t like as much, and which entries we were not decided about. Discussion wasn’t really going to change our minds. So I suggested that we read each entry—multiple times if we had the time—and vote yes/no/maybe on each. Any entry with more than one “yes” vote automatically gets in. If those entries are less than 25 in number, we divide the difference by 3 and each get to pick whichever of our remaining “yes” vote entries we like to make up the difference and get to a total of 25 writers who will bless us with their work in our anthology. Thanks in advance, writers who will bless us! So it’s a simple and quick selection process we used.

The two big questions on the mind of each entrant are, I suppose, Did you select mine? and How did you decide which entries got a “yes” vote?

To the first question I can only say that I don’t know. This contest was anonymous, thanks to the efforts of the tireless Becca. I don’t know who wrote what, and I’m going to try and keep it none of my business. I will say, however, that I know how weird and disorienting the free-form nature of the entry process was for many of you, and I also know that it’s scary to submit your work to anyone, even to a contest run by an obscure website like ours. Everyone who submitted to the contest is very brave—braver than I probably am—and I am impressed by all of you. Thanks so much for participating this year. Seeing what you’re all up to, and getting you to be part of the experiments here, are the best things about this blogging experience for me. So, like I said, thanks to all of you.

To the second question, the answer is going to vary from entry to entry. I can’t really say much about the “no” votes I gave, except that they weren’t things I’d vote “yes” for. That’s very subjective. Domey and Michelle would be able to tell you that I am a very harsh and unforgiving critic. Yes, even a bit of an ass when it comes to writing. But I was looking for things to which I could give a “yes” vote. That’s what my judging philosophy was. “Let me vote for you,” I prayed at the beginning of each entry. I was looking first of all for something that I liked, something that made me want to keep reading. Genre didn’t matter. Stylistic and verbal virtuosity were not my primary concerns. I just wanted something that made me want to read it all the way through. As well as that, I looked for the “wow” factor. I wanted to read something I wish I had been clever enough to write. Sometimes that was no more than a well-turned phrase, a metaphor that surprised me, or really just anything that pleasantly surprised me. After that was something that Domey calls “movement,” which to me (if I interpret his use of the word correctly) means that the writing went somewhere, there was a progression of ideas or events. I will digress a moment and say that I noticed some pieces start with a bang, and go on strongly for a couple hundred or a thousand words, and then sort of fizzle out or don’t go anywhere from the starting point. Some of them circle around, some run in place, some stand still and a lot go to sleep. My advice to you is that if you have a really strong idea and you can’t go someplace from it, you should make that strong idea the endpoint and try working toward it instead. The results, I predict, will surprise and charm you.

Anyway, I was looking for things that kickstarted the right bits of my brain and made me sit up and read. A lot of the entries I did not vote for were well-written and imaginative, but they didn’t have that “wow” factor, which is I realize one of those annoying things that agents and editors say and nobody knows what the hell they’re talking about. But there it is nonetheless. We like what we like and I’m a difficult audience. But one thing I do want to say before I beazle on any longer is this: There were only 25 places available in the anthology (for a variety of reasons I’m not going to defend), and there were 59 entries. So while not everyone could get in, I do not want those of you who didn’t to think that you have, in any way at all, “lost” this contest. Because, dear writer, you have not. I have had my share of rejections from publications for my brilliant stories and each of those rejections wounded me more than is reasonable and I assume the news that your work was not selected will wound you and I regret that deeply. But Domey, Michelle and I invited you and your work into our lives because we value the experience of reading your work, we wanted you to send it to us, and we are grateful that you did. I don’t like the idea of winners and losers, especially in art. I reject that idea outright. You’re all brave, talented and wonderful people, and I am impressed with everyone who entered. You’ve done something difficult, and there is no way that isn’t a victory for you. So congratulations to you, and thanks for playing.

Skylight Books, Tara Maya, and I'm a grumpypants when I'm nervous

Happy Monday, everyone!

This weekend I attended a book release party for the Strange Cargo anthology at the great Skylight Books. I was one of the "lucky" ones that got to read their contribution to the anthology, which meant that I was mean and grumpy to all of my friends and family and co-workers all day Saturday and part of Sunday. Sorry. And, Marytza Rubio, if you read this, thanks for calming me down.

...imagine this place crammed with people and me being mean to all of them...

I also realized that I really suck at signing books. Not only did I have difficulty thinking of things to say, but I couldn't even decide what page to sign on or what name to use. Such is my identity during this transition period.

Oh, and thanks to the internet and my non-code name, my brother found out about the reading and showed up without telling me. Don't get me wrong, it was totally cool that he came to support me, but I get even more nervous when I know people in the audience. (For those of you who care, my brother's students often compliment him on how good he looks with his shirt off. And, for those of you who care, he doesn't teach history, and taking his shirt off during class isn't such an inappropriate thing.)

Double oh, someone else really cool showed up! Tara Maya--who I only recently found out lives in LA--was able to make it to the book store with her beautiful family. Tara, thanks so much for stopping by and talking to me! You're the first person I've met in person after first blog-meeting them. It was groovy. If you've got pictures, send one over to me, will you? I didn't tell this to you at the time, but you looked really familiar to me. I feel like we've met before, so maybe we have a mutual friend or something? Is it possible? Quick, list everyone you know. Then go finish your thesis.

Lady Glam, Mr. Bailey and I are busily sorting through the Notes From Underground contest entries. We'll be making the big announcement on Wednesday, the 15th (...wow, is it really Wednesday? We need to take care of this, you two). One thing I'm realizing right away is that my votes feel much more arbitrary than they did for Genre Wars. In other words, if you aren't chosen, it could be due so many factors out of your control.

Friday Filler?

Mr. Bailey,

Is there a Friday Filler today? I need one. Is this one? Have I done it? Could it be?

Dr. Malasarn,
I came to the Lab and there was filler all over the floor. Have you been getting up to hijinks again?
-Mr. Bailey


Mr. Malasarn & Mr. Bailey,

We really should be judging our Notes From Underground entries... This is a good filler post so we can go focus on all that awesome writing. :)

--Glam

Co-authors,

Oh, that's right. We're working. I forgot. It's hard to tell sometimes, because sometimes working looks so much like sitting at my computer and blog-snooping. But, I must remind myself that this is all leading to the publication of fellow writers and a charitable donation.

-Doolittle Dee (my childhood monkey doll with the velcro hands)

Whither The Author-Artiste? (Guest Post): Part 4 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

I'd like to introduce a fabulous post I ran across a few weeks ago by self-publishing guru, April L. Hamilton. April has been kind enough to give me permission to re-post her words here. This post addresses a real issue. Those of us who appreciate literature at its finest should be aware of these issues and the possible solutions. Read on.
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Seth Godin's announcement yesterday that his future works will not be traditionally published seems, to me anyway, to have finally knocked over the "Tipping Point" domino in a chain that's long been poised to open the floodgates of true acceptance and respectability for indie authorship. For authors like Godin, JA Konrath, Steven Covey, and lesser-known indies like me, this is a wonderful development. It's a clear signal that going indie can be a big step in the right direction for any author, established or aspiring, who's got an entrepreneurial spirit and commercial sensibilities. But what about all those other authors, published and aspiring, who are more in tune with art than commerce? How would a Flannery O'Connor, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Camus, Dostoevsky or Salinger fare in this brave new world of indie authorship? Not too well, I suspect.

These are authors of seminal literature which has inspired whole generations of writers, thinkers and artists, and their works will continue to inspire thought and action for generations to come. Yet somehow I doubt any of them would've been very excited about, or done very well with, something as worldly and mundane as author platform. And this begs the question: where, and how, is the important and challenging literature of tomorrow to be discovered and brought to the public's attention? Will it be lost to the ages for want of a Twitter account and Amazon Rush?

I'm not saying the rise of indie authorship has somehow created this problem. If anything, indie authorship has opened a door of opportunity for those few authors of literary fiction and philosophical or metaphysical nonfiction who are also web savvy and/or highly motivated to get their work out to the world. After all, it's not as if mainstream presses have been clamoring for more edgy, unclassifiable, non-commercial manuscripts. Trade publishing in the United States hasn't been primarily about enlarging the canon of quality American literature for quite some time.

While there have always been passionate and compassionate editors, agents and others willing to champion this or that "great" book, regardless of its apparent commercial potential, these have increasingly been diminished to the role of mere voices in the wilderness. Because the publishing business is, first and foremost, a business, and there's nothing wrong, illegal, or unethical about that. A book that doesn't look like a substantial moneymaker isn't likely to be picked up by a big, mainstream house. Small, independent presses can bridge the gap between art and commerce to some extent, but those presses have to turn a profit to survive too. Great reviews and a slew of doctoral theses based on a given book won't pay the rent.

I've turned this over in my head again and again, but there are no easy answers. Plenty of people have gone through the exercise of sending some literary classic or other to a mainstream house or agent under a different title just to get it rejected and then knowingly blog about the generalized cluelessness of trade publishing (and in so doing, entirely overlook the fact that publishers are engaged in a for-profit business), but this exercise barely pays lip service to the larger issue. If we agree as a culture that important, if non-commercial, literature deserves wide exposure, study and discussion, who's supposed to foot the bill for getting it out there in front of eyeballs?

Indie authors like me who've worked long and hard to master platform and publishing skills may feel some righteous indignation at the notion of our artier, less business-savvy counterparts getting somewhat of a free ride when it comes to the labor involved in indie authorship, but we should try to get past this tit-for-tat mentality and look at the big picture. I know all kinds of things about self-publishing, trade publishing, setting up and maintaining an author platform, and the business side of indie authorship, and I'm a pretty good writer of entertaining little novels and instructional nonfiction, too. But I'm no Salinger, O'Connor, Dostoevsky, Garcia Marquez or Camus, and I never will be.

Is it better for the culture at large if the only new authors to achieve any meaningful level of exposure or acclaim are like me, succeeding largely for reasons having at least as much (if not more) to do with our business and marketing skills than our writerly gifts? I'm thinking, no. I have come up with some ideas to address the problem, but it's a woefully short list. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments area.

1. Introductory self-publishing, author platform and publishing business courses should be added to the core curriculum of all creative writing degree programs; many students in such programs may have no intention of ever self-publishing, but these subject areas are so commonplace in the publishing world of today that to be ignorant of them is indicative of an incomplete education.

2. The National Endowment for the Arts has grants on offer each year, but admittedly, they're limited to pretty specific categories and putting together an acceptable grant proposal is scarcely easier than setting up and maintaining an author blog and Twitter account.

3. Anyone who's mastered a crucial publishing or author platform skill like podcasting, ebook creation, book cover design or the like should share the wealth of those skills by providing some free instruction to their fellow writers in the form of how-to videos, articles, or podcasts.

4. Any author or publishing pro who's in a position to give wider exposure to a deserving non-commercial manuscript, book or story should do whatever they can to lend a hand to the writer in need.

Remember: it was probably some classic of literature, not a NY Times Bestseller, that originally inspired you to become a writer in the first place. Let's all do what we can to give that same gift of meaning and inspiration to future generations of writers, thinkers and artists everywhere
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April L. Hamilton is an author, blogger, Technorati BlogCritic, and a leading advocate and speaker for the indie author movement. She’s also the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat, the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints, and offers professional services to indie authors. She’s a frequent conference speaker on subjects related to self-publishing, and judge for self-published book competitions. In her popular self-published reference book, The IndieAuthor Guide, to be released in an updated and revised edition from Writer’s Digest Books in December of this year, she offers aspiring self-published authors a roadmap to success.

This post originally appeared on April's blog, Indie Author.
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Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think Series

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th 
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22nd
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd 
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th

What Going Indie Will Cost You: Part 3 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

I've had many people ask me what everything costs when one decides to self-publish, and sadly there is no straightforward answer. Instead of trying to estimate what someone might spend on self-publishing a book, I'll tell you my own experience.

First of all, let's straighten out one thing: I am not considering any of the packages you can buy to self-publish your book - the ones that cost thousands of dollars and provide a cover artist, editor, marketer, etc. That's a great way to go if you want, but for me, it was pretty much taking all the self out of self-publishing. So everything I talk about below pertains to doing everything yourself, including hiring out artists and editors if needed.

Some of you might laugh at these numbers, but they are what they are and I'm happy to share them so you have a realistic expectation of self-publishing. You might spend more. You might spend less. Everyone and every project is different! I know some of my fellow Indie writers have sold more copies than myself, and some have sold less. It makes me happy to see that everyone is different and that it is truly up to the writer's own devices on what they sell, how they sell it, and how well it does.

*First, I used CreateSpace, a Print-On-Demand publisher (POD). Print-On-Demand simply means that the publisher, like CreateSpace, doesn't print and ship your book until someone purchases it. This literally means the book costs you nothing out-of-pocket - you and the publisher make a profit off each sale. Self-publishing with a small press costs MUCH more because you must pay for all of your print copies up front and then sell them. POD publishing is taking off, and there's a good reason why!

TOTAL SALES (first 6 weeks): 151 copies

TOTAL REVENUE (first 6 weeks): $1,066.47

TOTAL SPENT (first 6 weeks): $1,240.92

TOTAL LEFT TO EARN BEFORE I START MAKING MONEY....: $174.45

Now, you must understand these numbers keep changing. The total I spend changes every time I pay postage on signed books I send out, and that will change the amount I have left to earn. But I do think that as time goes by, the gap between the two will get larger and larger until my revenue is much higher than what I spent on the book.

Here's a breakdown of the costs for you:

COVER: $217.35
(This is the cost of stock photography for the background, as well as the cost of the dress I had custom made, and props. I did not have to pay the model or the seamstress for the dress - only for materials. Because of the kindness of others volunteering their time and talents, this cut down on costs)

POSTAGE: $267.26
(Shipping overseas can get expensive, but most of this was paid by the customers, so it was not directly coming out of my pocket. This also includes shipping materials - bubble mailers and labels, etc.)

ADVERTISING: $151.22
(This includes giveaway items and advertising on Facebook)

BOOKS: $446.50
(These are physical copies I've sold by hand or by mail, as well as free copies for reviews and giveaways. Consequently, I make the most profit, even with double-shipping, to sell copies by hand, but over half of my sales are ebooks and books sold through Amazon, so I make a different profit off each kind of sale)

EDITORIAL SERVICES: Free
(This is usually not wise, I'll admit, but I happen to know some amazing people)

SWAG: $85.47
(This includes bookmarks and business cards...hint: Vistaprint.com does practically FREE business cards...)
 

RELEASE PARTY: $34.12
(All I paid for was food at Costco. Talk about simple)

PUBLISHING (CREATESPACE): $39.00
(Yes, that's right. $39.00 to publish my book. Everything else up above was completely unnecessary. I could have paid this $39.00 and that was it. Oh, and you can choose not to pay $39.00 if you want. It gets you the Expanded Distribution Channel service through Amazon. I'll discuss this later)

Now, that being all said, let's look over some things. If you wanted to self-publish and completely forgo print copies - selling only ebooks, you'd cut down on a lot of cost. Even if you sell print copies, you do not have to sell them by hand as I have done for some of my sales. You can simply sell them through Amazon or CreateSpace or Lulu or whatever print-on-demand publisher you've used.

So, now that I've shared all of that lovely information with you (it's unnerving to share all this, by the way), I'll give you an idea of what you should spend money on if you decide to self-publish.

Quite honestly, you can self-publish your book COMPLETELY FREE. A lot of people do this. I don't think it's very smart to do that, but that's just my opinion. Publishing a book is a huge deal, and you should treat it as such. If you are uncomfortable pouring some money into your work, you probably shouldn't be self-publishing.

If you are going to self-publish, you should absolutely, most definitely spend your money on at least these things:

*update - someone whom I respect as a self-published author, made it clear to me that perhaps I shouldn't imply that you HAVE to do these things. She is 100% right. You really don't have to do these things, but in my opinion, doing these things may help your chances at getting your book more noticed. Just my opinion. As this person always says, and I agree with her 100%, the QUALITY of the book INSIDE is what matters!!! Therefore, I do think getting a good editor is important, or at least making sure your work truly is ready to put out there.

BOOK COVER
Either pay a designer or buy stock photography or something to make your cover look professional. If you can't make it look professional yourself, hire someone. Your cover says a lot about how you feel about your work. Readers pick up on that in about 5-billionths of a second. You have about 5-billionths of a second to make a reader go "Oh, I want to read that book!" or "Oh, I hate that cover. It looks amateur, so the book is probably amateur." However untrue that may be, it's sadly true in this day and age.

EDITING
Do not underestimate this. This might be where you spend most of your money, actually. Unless you seriously know what you're doing or you know someone you completely trust to edit your work, hire an editor.

ADVERTISING
Do not underestimate the power of social networking! This can cost money when you start to advertise your book. There are reviewers you can pay to review your book. You can advertise on Facebook for relatively cheap. You'll want to do giveaways. You'll probably want bookmarks and business cards if you're sending out print copies of your book.

If you're self-publishing, the most important thing is to be professional. Professionals advertise. Advertising is how you sell copies. It's probably going to cost you some money.
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Here are some fantastic links you should check out:

SELF-PUBLISHING: Maybe You're Not So Vain After All? by Anne R. Allen

The Indie Author Revolution by Seth Mullins

ISBNs Don't Matter As Much As You Probably Think They Do, But You Might Want To Start Owning Your Own Anyway by April Hamilton

Kindle Author Interview: Mary McDonald on Kindle Author

Will Self-Publishing Make You Die? by Livia Blackburne 

CreateSpace Self Publishing, Create Space Book Photos by Lisa Shea

8 Reasons Self-Publishing is Entering a Golden Age by Joel Friedlander 

Empty Validation by Zoe Winters 

Vanity Press Goes Digital by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

 Jamie DeBree has been kind enough to share the following here. This post is originally found on her author site, here. Jamie is the author of the recently released romance novella, Tempest.

Self-Publishing: Be Prepared 
by Jamie DeBree

I made a lot of mistakes when I decided to self-publish Tempest. Mostly because rather than researching the heck out of how to do it first (like I do with most things), I just decided to jump in with both feet and pick it up as I go. I didn't do too badly, but there are still some things that would have gone much more smoothly had I thought them out ahead of time.

Don't set a public release date until you have finished revising/editing your work. My reason for doing this was to set a very public deadline and force myself to get the work done. It worked great to motivate me, and if I'd only done an ebook as originally planned, it would have been fine. Unfortunately, deciding to add a print copy set my delivery time line back – which leads to the next thing I should have done early...

Decide early what formats you're going to publish in. I originally planned to release Tempest only in ebook format. Then I discovered that the majority of my regular readers still prefer print books. Because those are the people most likely to help me get the word out, I impulsively decided to release print copies as well. It turns out that print takes a lot longer to format and get approved/ordered – so if you want to do a print release, plan well in advance. Give yourself a month to six weeks to format, upload, fix any issues, and order proof and sales copies when dealing with print publishing. Ebook publishing goes far more quickly – you can format and upload an ebook in less than a week. 

Double-check your formatting and proofreading. My biggest mistake was switching the order of two chapters when I formatted Tempest for print, and then copying that error across all of my ebook formats. I caught it before the final print copy, but not before several e-copies had already sold. My plan for next time is to format and order a proof of the print copy first, read that carefully to mark and fix any mistakes, and then use that file as the basis for my ebook copies. I'm confident that will catch the majority of mistakes and make for a much cleaner release next time. 

Order any print copies you plan to sell from your home at least one week ahead of the release date. My readers have been very patient in waiting for print copies to get here for signatures, but it's been a long wait. 

Don't forget the small stuff. I really dropped the ball on this one. The print copy has a dedication in it, but I forgot to add it into the ebook copies altogether until I had to redo them because of the chapter switch. I'm still not entirely sure it made it into all copies. I completely dropped the ball on acknowledgments, though I did remember to give credit to my editor and cover artist. These are things that will be far better thought out and included as a matter of course in later works. 

Be proactive getting review copies out. I offered 20 ebooks free for review, and had only one person accept it. Later, I heard that a lot of people simply hadn't been aware of the offer – it was listed on my web site and I mentioned it a few times, but I should have made a bigger point of getting the word out. I think doing that would have been very helpful in getting more initial reviews, so I'll be doing more of that next time, for sure. 

I think those were my biggest mistakes for my first self-publishing experience, and hopefully my sharing them will help someone else not to make the same ones.
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I have really enjoyed my experience so far with self-publishing. It has been fun and exciting, but a lot of work. I'm pretty sure I'd like to try and publish through a small publisher, as well, and I'm not sure an agent or a large publisher are good options for me. I have the resources, talents, and drive for self-publishing. You might, too, but be honest with yourself before you jump in.

What is the bottom line here? Mostly likely, self-publishing is going to cost you money, time, heartache, and a lot of patience and determination. And most likely, you're not going to make a lot of money off self-publishing. AT FIRST... 

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Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think Series

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th 
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22nd
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd 
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th