So my second reason to try self publishing was because you have instant access to a Worldwide marketplace.
This infographic is almost a couple of years old but still highlights the amazing potential Amazon, as a virtual "marketplace" offers us. Check it out - nine facts about the giant:
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How much should you be budgeting for nice book covers, professional editing and proofreading? Here are some guidelines taken from The Society of Authors and the Freelance Fees Guide: Paying someone to do a simple proofread will only eliminate the spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Work with a proofreading rate of about 10 pages per hour with approx 300 words per page. A copy-editor will spot weaknesses in your style, factual mistakes and inconsistencies. Work with an editing rate of about 4 to 6 pages per hour with approx 300 words per page. The below prices are starting points for negotiating rates depending on your needs. Say you have a 300 page manuscript. Your budget for proofreading would be 300 pages / 10 pages per hour = 30 hours x £21 = £630 Your budget for copy editing would be 300 pages / 5 pages per hour = 60 hours x £24 = £1,440 Then you need £400 to £500 for a jacket cover design... A budget of £2,500 wouldn't be far off...
And not forgetting a few optional extras like book formatting and some basic membership to Author services to help with marketing the book on SEO services and social media platforms... let's say another £500. I have to admit when you write the numbers down and process them, it's a little scary! If you're feeling quirky and creative (oh, and broke!), check out the following crowdfunding websites for financing your self publishing endeavours: www.kickstarter.com www.pubslush.com www.indiegogo.com I haven't yet tried any of the eBook tools available to us because my debut novel was put together by my publisher, but here's some information I've pulled together for beginners like me that may be of use.
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself: "Am I a blogger, an author, or both?"
Do you sometimes wonder whether you should be blogging, or working on your manuscript, and which is more important? Do you sometimes think you spend more time doing marketing and publicity then actually writing? I'm addressing these questions in today's post because I'm just as confused as some of you may be! My blogging has really taken off and I feel great with my new blogging plan and marketing strategy. However, I haven't touched my manuscript for at least a month. At least. What does Bridget Jones say? It's a well known fact that when a part of your life is going well, another part will fall apart. Ok, I'm being dramatic, but it is frustrating trying to find that lovely, natural balance. I think I've found a halfway house solution though - using some of my blog content to make an eBook which I'll publish to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. That way I can publish something, get it out there and feel like I've achieved - all whilst working on longer projects. Remember what you're trying to achieve when considering starting up in self publishing: 1) A brand for yourself and your work 2) Becoming an expert in your field 3) Attracting a wider audience to your website and blog 4) Making a little money to re-invest in cover design, professional editing, proofreading and marketing If you blog regularly (three times a week), you'll know what I mean when I say your blog content gets lost pretty quickly in the archive. Everything you write should be used and re-used over and over so you get your deserved return from each piece you pen. When I thought about this idea a year ago, I wasn't sure because I felt using my blog content was cheating - and who would buy it when they could read it for free? The trick is to create some new material but this doesn't have to be complicated. For example, how about an exercise at the end of each chapter? I have to be organised with my blogging and write within a series each time. It doesn't matter if your blog doesn't follow one set path, but you will need to read back through your content from beginning to end and do some sorting through. Try to group by topic (check your post categories). See which posts were the most popular (check your stats). Each category could be an eBook if there is a lot of material to work with, or you could create a "Best Of" collection. Then - Intro, conclusion, nice cover, format, upload. You know the drill. Think about whether you want your eBook to carry the same design as your blog (think branding)... and then promote it on your blog and via your social media. Remember at the beginning of this Self Publishing series I gave you ten reasons to try it? Why should you self publish? Number one on that list was you can publish a book freely without the depressing submission and rejection merry-go-round, and today's post is a brief visual overview so you can see the work involved and plan your time, energies and finances accordingly. So if you're thinking about self publishing, why not start with an educational eBook?
In the "old" days not so long ago, it was difficult to get published with only the option of the traditional route - and with that came the same old problem I always encountered when trying to find my first job - if you won't employ me (publish me), how will I ever qualify for that thing you call "experience"? Writing and publishing an eBook will ensure you become a published author thus your portfolio is up and running. It will help you establish your brand and you can begin to position yourself as an expert in your subject matter. There is very little risk so consider it a one-time investment and if you already have a blog and post regularly, the content is just sitting there waiting to be used. Everybody is writing about writing. You need to find a niche and fill the demand. This is easier said than done, but with a little mind mapping and thinking time, something is bound to shine through. It just needs creativity and your own personal writing touch! Once you've found an idea, introduce it on your blog and through your social media and see what kind of response you get. An eBook should have structure. Ideas need to be presented in an organised way so the book flows. With this in mind, don't take your blog posts as they are and simply drop them in as chapters. There needs to be transitions between the different topics and be sure to include fresh content as well. You still need to hold your audience's attention just as you would with a story, so keep the writing tight and succinct because this type of eBook is created to teach your readers. Once read from virtual cover to cover, I imagine your text will be referred to over and over (if it was a success) so it should be "skim presentable". What do I mean by this? Make the information pop off the page - use headings, subheadings, bullet points, colourful text blocks, photos, illustrations, diagrams. I'll always remember when studying for my Science GCSEs, we had these new "bitesize chunks" textbooks to revise from. They gave me a fighting chance because they brought the boring details to life and I ended up with a double B. I honestly thought I'd failed in all three exams. I'm no scientist! If you use industry specific terms, make sure you explain what they mean. Give your eBook substance so that it packs a stimulating informational punch. Throw in facts and examples and try to present the details in a fresh, original and exciting way. Most informational eBooks are 50 A4 pages or less so if you set yourself deadlines, it could be published and on the virtual shelves in next to no time. A lot of people write in MS Word and then release as a PDF, and if you keep the size to 2MB or less, readers can email it around easily. Of course, you can put more time, effort and money into your project and make it a proper looking book should you wish, but if you're determined to keep your first attempt simple, a PDF would be the way to go. And there's no rule that says you can't re-release the original text with additional content in the future... The beauty with eBooks is you can hyperlink to any references thus making the book / text come alive for your readers. Interaction is key. Hyperlinks are especially useful in your table of contents. The other point to consider when writing the text is using key words you can later exploit in your SEO endeavours. Get an ISBN for your book so people are more likely to take you seriously. There are many many outlets for selling your work - Amazon (KDP) and Smashwords to name just two. Each have their pros and cons and experimenting will help you find what works best for you. For example, Smashwords will allow you to download different formats for your book and sell copies on your website. Next up we'll be looking at a typical plan for writing, launching and selling your informational eBook. I know how I feel about Amazon - I'm going to embrace it and all of the opportunities it provides for self publishing. However, it's important to gain a balanced perspective on this giant, so we can make informed decisions how best to use our time, energy and money when it comes to putting a self published book out there.
We know Amazon holds the lion's share of the eBook market, but is this good or bad for authors? There are views that suggest Amazon is short changing us and here's why: They have the monopoly so whether we like their policies or not, we don't have the audience or the financing to go elsewhere. Under Amazon's various imprints, they've priced eBooks significantly lower than Traditionals ever could, thus securing their position as the eBook's gatekeeper. In light of the above, have we gone from stuffy publishing houses telling us what is good to read, to Amazon allowing the market to be swamped with the good, the bad and the ugly - even spam - book covers with no content? 99p for a book is a ridiculously low price and has been described as Amazon's fast-food pricing model - a pound for a burger at Maccy Ds that takes five to ten minutes to make verses a pound for a book which took years...! Is that price point doing us, as authors, a massive disservice? Just throwing these thoughts out there. What is important to remember, is that at any time you can change the price of your book (higher or lower), remove your book from sale and even sell it elsewhere without any contractual obligations to Amazon. So in that respect, it's a very flexible platform to work with. As with most things in life, you get too involved in the politics and soon the enjoyment is sucked right out of you. I'm keeping an open mind for now. And Amazon still struggles in print publishing - not that they care as digi is their "thing" - but swings and roundabouts people. At the moment, there appears to be room for everybody. A little word today on the Traditional Publisher's weakness:
It's interesting to read about the transformation of the publishing industry over the last few years. One thing I am picking up over and over is where there are weaknesses in the traditional publishing model, we, as writers, can exploit them and turn things on their head to make them work for us. An example of this is the Trad's lack lustre approach to the digital age and the potential it holds. While we all long for a traditional book deal with that giant advance (although don't forget, you don't start earning royalties until the advance is paid back through book sales), the way to build a brand for ourselves and create a catalogue of our published work is to go down the self publishing route first - specifically with eBooks where the financial outlay and risk is minimal. And why wouldn't we, when the potential to earn more and keep the investment running over a longer period of time with a digital rights contract with Amazon is readily available to us? It's a steady and predictable revenue stream to base our future writing endeavours on. But, as with anything, for all the love we may have for Amazon in redefining the publishing model, sadly it does have its weak points too. We'll look at some of these in my next post. I read an article at the weekend that really resonated with me and my writing life. It was about self publishing and how it won't replace traditional publishing, but it might supplement and influence it. The pros for self publishing in the article got me thinking.
In life, as sad as this is, people are only deemed a success if they are rolling around in money. You can apply this principle to anything. For a writer, it means they are only a success when they are selling lots of books. I'm certainly not saying don't have ambition, but creative minds need to be realistic - and everybody has to start from somewhere. Self publishing is a solid platform to take that leap of faith. Personally speaking, I have changed my mindset a lot since I first started out. I had to do this in order to be productive, otherwise I would have given up writing a long time ago. Rather than thinking I must make loads of money immediately, I like to know my thoughts and ideas are out there in the world for anybody to receive at any moment. Thinking like this helps keep me focused and motivated. There is potential and that's all that matters. Right now, I view self publishing as a conclusion to my writing projects. I know I won't always think like this. As humans we always want more out of something. Eventually I will want to have a giant internet following and eventually I will want to be traditionally published... but that will be the next chapter and the next one after that. Little steps. Self publishing is enticing because readers can get your book while you're still passionate about it. If you have amassed a decent sized internet following who are interested in what you're working on, then away you go. That's why it's so important to have a blog and social network. In contrast, the traditional publishing model puts money up front (the advance) and then sets about trying to build an audience for a book that's already created. Whilst being published traditionally is great for the ego - how fabulous would it be to say "Headline are publishing my book in the Spring" - the risk that goes with it is greater as you're placed precariously in other people's hands. For me, control is quite important at this stage of my writing career. We'll explore more of the pros and cons as this series on Self Publishing progresses. Writing a book and publishing it yourself gives you something that not many occupations can - at the end of it you hold a physical manifestation of your hard work in your hands. All of those hours, all of those emotions and all of those words come together to leave a tangible mark.
As we've discussed, the appeal of self publishing are the controls you, the writer and creator, can exercise over your book. You can decide on a title, how much to sell it for, what it will look like, when it will be published and how you will market and sell it. Do invest in an Editor because if nothing else, they will tighten up your writing, plot, characters and story line and let you know if you have a good idea - and how that good idea could become a great idea. Don't give up if the initial feedback results in more revising. It almost certainly will. However, this doesn't mean you aren't ready for publication and never will be. Do those revisions to create the best book you possibly can FOR YOU - but don't be so quick to give up your autonomy. Maintaining the book's integrity is something we all worry about. I have an idea for this. Put the first few chapters up on story sharing websites. Gain an audience first through the numerous social media channels to see what people think. After all, they will be the people who buy your book when you eventually put it out there. Digital printing and print-on-demand has paved the way for quick and economical book distribution not only for your readers, but for you as well. The elimination of financial exposure means you can experiment with marketing throughout the product cycle. Don't rush to publication. I think I did with my debut. The problem was I didn't know what I wanted. I took so long to write the damn thing, I couldn't wait to get it out there so I could move on to the next one. I didn't realise I was doing everything in reverse. I didn't do my homework. I ended up with substandard editing, an ok book cover and a doomed price. It could have been so much better. And it will be - because we owe it to ourselves. Self publishing isn't a last resort. Self publishing is a choice. I love having the freedom to experiment, to correct experiments that didn't work out and to push myself to make it better next time. Writing and publishing is a journey. I consider my debut an investment in my education. Within days your book can be in the hands of your readers and within days you can see if anyone is buying it. Unlike Trads, we are willing to share information about everything - pricing, formatting, marketing tips and tricks. There is a community feel to the way the industry has evolved. The Trads have shrunk but the freelancing market is brimming with experts to help us. |
AuthorBlogging is an amazing concept so here I am giving it a whirl. You'll get words. You'll get pics. Sometimes a vid or two. You'll get tongue in cheek, the odd humble opinion and an honest insight into my travels and writing life. Maybe even a few gems along the way. I'll be musing on home turf as I see more and more of the UK and sharing my experiences further afield on holidays and adventurous trips across the globe. Archives
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