Self-Publishing: A Growing Trend

I follow Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers' Marketplace blog, which recently posted about triple-digit growth in self-publishing since 2007.

Check out the full article here.

Two initial thoughts crossed my mind as I saw the statistics.

Go Self-Publishing!

Cleary, more people are breaking away from traditional publishing options and doing it themselves. (Interestingly, CreateSpace claimed the top spot for self-published print media at 58,412 titles in 2011.)

I found these statistics encouraging. More and more, I am becoming a fan of people brave enough to break away from “the way we’ve always done things” into being more independent and personally responsible for pursuing their dreams. Traditional publishing houses have made themselves virtually inaccessible to upstarting authors, using screening services to find book proposals they find interesting.

Granted, these services, such as Christian Manuscript Submissions and the Writer’s Edge, can be helpful in providing advice and exposure to aspiring authors (and a select few do have their books discovered through these services). Before self-publishing my first book, I submitted a proposal to Writer’s Edge and did not find the exercise a waste of my time.

However, that’s not my point. My point is that statistics like these show people have discovered that they can get published on their own – instead of waiting and hoping that the traditional publishing community will take notice of their work.

More Competition

I believe competition is healthy and necessary in any field. It helps screen out the poor performers and forces thought-leaders to work harder to stand out from the crowd.

Therein also lies the challenge of self-publishing. You may have something brilliant to say, but how do you differentiate yourself when hundreds, if not thousands, of people are shouting to get noticed?

I don’t pretend to have the answer to that question, but I think Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity) is right when he says that you must first clearly identify your cause and your intended audience – and then give them a reason to care and a reward for caring.

How we accomplish that is for each one of us to decide.

Amazon's CreateSpace: A Flexible Self-Publishing Solution

When I self-published Wings of the Dawn Book 1, I worked with Xulon Press, a Christian Self-Publishing Company. If you're considering self-publishing for the first time, I would recommend including Xulon in your list of publishing options. Xulon provides clearly defined services (based on your budget and expectations) and structures the process for you from beginning to end.

As I finalized my second book, I considered publishing with Xulon again but decided to try something different. With the experience of my first book in my back pocket, I wanted to see if I could self-publish at a reduced cost and with greater flexibility.

By flexibility, I mean more control – and ultimately, more responsibility – for my interior and cover design. With Xulon, I purchased their plan, shared some design ideas, and their graphic artists created my cover for me. Granted, I've received some great feedback on my first cover but knew that my second was going to require a great deal more customization.

A friend of mine is a graphic artist, and the two of us worked together to make my cover vision a reality. Yes, there is a story behind my second book’s cover, which I’ll share with you another time.

I heard about Amazon’s CreateSpace publishing services through a Facebook friend and started researching it in detail after she shared her positive experience.  CreateSpace offers a variety of self-publishing options (which at first can seem overwhelming but ultimately lets you pick and choose exactly what you want).

For example, CreateSpace offers the following options for self-publishing books. (Note that they also have resources for musicians and other artists as well.)

·         Publishing Solutions (packaged plans)

·         Editing (if you need professional proofreading services)

·         Layout & Design (for interior and cover services)

·         Marketing

The Layout & Design option essentially lets you create your own custom plan, which is what I wanted. For my interior, I selected the Author’s Advantage Book Interior, which involved uploading my manuscript and selecting basic formatting preferences. Then, with the help of my graphic artist, I submitted my cover PDF.

Last weekend, I uploaded some edits and as of today, am waiting to receive my second hard copy proof in the mail. Once approved, Wings of the Dawn Book 2, Secrets Beyond Lake Winona’s Shore will become available on Amazon.com (likely later this month or next).

What about you? Have you self-published in the past, and if so, what programs have you used? Or, if you’re looking to self-publish for the first time, what is most important to you as you look for the right program?

Book 2: Coming Soon!

I apologize in advance for neglecting my blog.

But I do have a good excuse, well, as good an excuse as any. The second book in my Wings of the Dawn series, Secrets Beyond Lake Winona's Shore, is in the final proofing stage; and if all goes as planned, will be available for sale on amazon.com either later this month or early next.

For the last several weeks, I have spent most of my spare time proofreading and proofreading and proofreading.

But that's not what readers care about, so I'll get off my "I've been working really hard" soapbox.

What is book 2 about?

Abby has just ended her summer internship with her detective Uncle Rick Benton - the job that got off to such a rough start in book 1. She's looking ahead to her freshman year of college when her brothers and their friends Matt and Andrew Baxter surprise Abby and the Marshall sisters with plans for a week's vacation on Lake Winona in the lakes region of New Hampshire.

Yet she no sooner arrives in New Hampshire than her uncle leaves her an unsettling voicemail, and Abby is torn between telling the truth about his suspicions to her brothers and friends - and not wanting to worry them.

She stumbles upon a mysterious old letter and suddenly finds herself face to face with her nemesis Neil DeWitt, entangled in a mystery surrounding a Cold War diary, a missing dossier and a kidnapped treasure hunter.

Can Abby solve the scrambled clues before time runs out? Beyond that, can she find the courage to confront her dilemmas and begin to forgive the one who has wronged her? What weighs in the balance is worth more than even the secrets that lie somewhere beyond Lake Winona's shore.

How did I go about self-publishing book 2?

We'll talk about that in another post.

Hello, Audience! Who are you?

Do you remember the story I shared about the kindergarten art competition my brother won? The reason I believe he won is that first, he put some thought into his drawing (before he picked up a crayon) and second, he understood his audience.

He titled his drawing, “A School of Fish.” Now what kindergarten art judge wouldn’t appreciate that kind of ingenuity?

More often than not, we can learn fundamental lessons from the elementary.

For instance, have you ever started a writing project and then asked yourself, “Who am I really trying to reach and why?”

I finished re-reading a book my brother lent me called The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. (Side note: I strongly recommend this book if you need help thinking outside the box.)

In his chapter on “The Power of Your Own Small Army,” he asks readers to carefully consider whom they want their audience to be.

In addition, he challenges them to ask what he calls “The Reason Why.” In other words, why should someone care about what you have to offer?

He writes:

“In the English language alone, there are now more than 110 million blogs being regularly updated. Why should someone care about yours or mine? …. If you can turn the tables and look at your project with this kind of brutally honest thinking, you’ll quickly see whether or not you provide a good ‘reason why’ …”

You may have different audiences and reasons, depending on your writing project. For example, my blog is targeted towards writers looking to self-publish, but on a larger scale, it is truly for anyone who wants to achieve their dreams and express their ideas.

On the other hand, my Christian fiction writing is targeted to a young adult audience and families looking for entertaining, clean and thought-provoking reading.

Have you asked yourself who your audience is? And have you given them a good reason to take an interest in what you have to say?

Proofreading Your Manuscript

Your book draft is done. You lovingly finger the warm pages you just printed. You enjoy a feeling of accomplishment. Your book is almost ready.

Almost. But it’s too early to celebrate. You’ve got proofreading to do.

If you’re an English major (like me) or have a strong command of the English language, you may not need to hire a professional editor for your book. However, if you choose the DIY (Do It Yourself) editing option, here are a couple tips I’d like to share from personal experience.

Ask someone else to read your manuscript.

I’m not downplaying your skills, but even if you’re the best editor or proofreader out there, you still want a second set of eyes.

Why? A couple reasons. First, you as the author are so close to your book that you may have a hard time seeing its flaws. (It’s natural. You’ve just poured months of your life into this project; you’re going to be a bit protective.) You want an objective, unbiased opinion. Don’t bristle at criticism. Welcome it with open arms.

Another reason for a third party perspective is that we can become so close to our stories that we tend to read sentences the way they should be – not the way they are.

Here’s an example: “I cracked open the door and found you package on the step.” (Did your mind naturally fill in the word “your” instead of reading “you” as mistyped?)

Another: “You’ll have plenty of time think of this later.” (Did you catch that the word “to” is missing?)

There’s another helpful exercise to spot these kinds of flaws, which brings me to my second tip.

Read your manuscript out loud.

You may have read your story a dozen times, but “hearing” it helps awkward sentence structure and missed or misplaced words stand out.

Also, it helps you identify overused phrases and words. Do you say “rolled her eyes” on every other page? Do you use the adverbs “really” and “very” too often? I recommend making a list of your “trouble words” and keeping an eye out for them.

Spell check. Spell check.

It’s obvious, but sometimes, we overlook the obvious. Spell check is your friend. You can’t rely on spell check alone, but it provides one additional help for identifying grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. (Granted, sometimes you have to ignore it, because it can’t discern the difference between an intentional fragment for expression and an actual mistake.)  

If you have the luxury of time, I suggest setting your manuscript aside for a couple weeks and then returning to it with fresh eyes. For those of us who have deadlines or are trying to make sure our books are ready for Christmas, try the tips above.

Happy proofreading.   

Olympic Dreams

I don’t watch much TV, because frankly, I don’t have time for it. But I make an exception for the Olympics. I’ve stayed up late and watched more TV since the opening ceremony than I probably have all year.

Why? There’s something about sensationally disciplined, hard-core, dream-driven people (egotists excepted) that makes me want to stand up and cheer.

We all have dreams. Maybe we can’t all be Olympians… or maybe we just think we can’t. It depends on your perspective and what you’re willing to do to reach your goals and dreams.

Remember when you were in school. Think back to an academic course or athletic requirement where you struggled. Did you ever say, “It’s just too hard. I can’t do that”?

I had a moment like that in college. I had managed to CLEP out of first year Spanish and jump right into the intermediate level. In my first class, the professor spoke almost entirely in Spanish. I sat at my desk thinking to myself, “What have I gotten myself into? I can’t do this.”

I met up with my professor in the cafeteria and asked him candidly if I could succeed in the class without having gone through the elementary courses.

“You can if you want to,” he said. “You’re going to have to work extra hard, but you can do it.”

And I did. I even got an A. But it wasn’t easy.

Easy isn’t a word that belongs in an Olympian’s dictionary. Pain. Disappointment. Sacrifice. Tears. Those words all belong in their books. And sometimes, so does gold.

But you can’t get to gold without all the other excruciating elements first.

That makes me wonder: What are my dreams? What I am willing to sacrifice to make them happen? As a writer, I’ve sometimes wondered if I can reach my goals or if there’s any point in trying. Getting published is an accomplishment, but will I ever be successful as a writer? Will my writing ever make a difference in someone’s life?

I won’t know if I don’t try, if I don’t fail, if I don’t make mistakes.

So maybe I’m too tall to be a gymnast and too poor a swimmer to qualify in anything but the doggy paddle (which has yet to be recognized as a swimming stroke in the Olympics).

But I can dream. I can dream big … as a writer, as a child of God designed to live a purposeful life.  And so can you.

The next summer games will be held in Rio in 2016. If you’re an athlete, you start training today – no, yesterday. Ok, so you’re not an athlete. You fill in the blanks, and figure out what your goals are and what you have to do to reach them.

Where do you want to be in four years?

What Makes a Good Book Cover… for Your Book?

We’ve all heard the saying, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

That may be so, but regardless, we do buy books based on their covers.

Yes, of course we do. We’ve all been in bookstores and lost ourselves on our favorite aisles. Unless we have a specific title in mind, we leisurely peruse the shelves. If a cover catches our interest, we’ll pull it out – and then flip it over to see what it’s about.

So a book cover, like it or not, has a huge marketing impact on the bottom line of a book’s success.

But what makes a book cover good or bad? To say that a good book cover should be beautiful or eye-catching is subjective: What one person considers interesting may be of little or no interest to another person.

I suggest a slight rephrase of the question: What makes a good book cover for your book?

Here are the two key words: genre and audience. Your cover should represent your subject and closely connect with your audience and what interests them.

Some other factors to consider:

·         A readable font

·         Cover styles typical for your genre

·         Don’t forget the spine and back cover!

If you’re feeling lost, check out christianbook.com, barnesandnoble.com, or any other online bookstore. Then, search for books within your genre to get some ideas for what you like and don’t like about the covers.

We as authors spend the bulk of our time writing, reworking, and editing our manuscripts; that said, if we want to reach our audience, we can’t skimp on the cover. It deserves the same careful detail and attention as our book – because it sets the tone for our story and ultimately acts as a significant influencer in our audience’s buying decision.

Your cover is like gift wrapping or icing on a cake. Make it memorable.