Was ambling down the post on my Facebook page between chapter edits of There Be Demons. At Chisled Rock, J. A. Kazimer -- a romance, mystery writer -- blogged about the "7 Things I Wished I Knew Before I Indie Published". She doesn't knock it. In fact she's planning to repeat the process ever though the sales were disappointing. Read her comments and be forewarned about what you must do, especially in the dreaded area of marketing.
-- Thought Kazimer was right on. May be glad that my self-publishing efforts are to build platform more than selling epubs to make money. Though my self-published novella [Troublesome Neighbors] has sold more than the indie publisher one [Taking Vengeance].
-- Psssst. Don't tell the Grumpy Dragon that I may still self-publish if I ever am able to get some short stories written.
One Writer's Progress
On LinkedIn, I read a lot of unsuccess stories. I can even contribute grumps of my own. But self-published writers can achieve greater success as they go through the process of writing and self-publishing. Milo James Fowler is a case in point. He's self-published lots of short pieces including the funny western fantasies about Coyote Cal [Amazon]. I networked with him first at Write One, Sub One -- basically a group who aim to write and submit at least one story a week. Fowler combined stories written in 2011 for Immaterial Evidence.
-- Even joined it in hopes of speeding up my own writing ... but fell by the wayside. First couldn't keep up. Second my ideas tend to turn into novels.
Back to Milo. Since he has lots more reviews that I do, I assume he's more successful with his self-publishing. Now. Ta-dah. Musa Publishing is released his new book Immaterial Evidence.
Tagline: A detective with a price on his head. An invisible criminal with nothing to lose... Basically, it a story about a private detective who comes out of hiding to help the FBI solve an impossible theft. If it's runs true to form, you'll get more than one chuckle along with your mystery.
So a book you like gets published: What can you do to foster its success -- especially if a friend wrote it. Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest blogged at Writer Unboxed about ways to support a writer's new book. Some of the support tactics are real simple and don't cost anything. Some of them are even doable by the author anonymously.
-- Now if I wish I was the type who networked easily. Fowler is good at it and has all those Write One, Sub One rooting for him. He has implemented some of the marketing advice: built a following with his stores and his networking activities.
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Progress of sorts. I'm building up a sympathetic character to be killed later in There Be Demons. I'm also starting to Twitter-promote it with the hashtags #WIP, #novelines, #writer, and #amwriting. I'm not impressed with Twitter, but I'm doing it anyway. Also mention what I'm doing on my author Facebook page. [I even have some 60 likes and 20-some reads on the page.]
Also am still rewriting the first couple of chapters of Forbidden Fruit, the beginning Far Isle Half-Elven story, for my critique group. -- Then I'm going out and read under the hackberry. If I'm lucky the hawk will come sit in the bird bath. For some reason we aren't seeing many small birds again this year.
6 comments:
It's definitely a growing process, Kay. I learn something new each time I publish something. There's definitely a different mentality needed to self-publish. Traditionally published authors do have to picture their books as a commodity to an extent, but it's way more the case when you self-publish.
Once it's published, it's no longer a piece of art, etc. The book becomes just another 'good' or product that has to hold its own right along side the toasters, TVs, etc. on Amazon. You can't be detached from that process--even for a minute, it seems--and have success self-publishing.
It definitely gives you some perspective on why traditional publishers do the things they do. :)
Wish I was better at marketing when I've got something to sell like Troublesome Neighbors. But my cheapness makes me so resistant to advertising that I just don't seem to get the hang of copy writing.
Nothing beats the traditional editorial process. All of those reprints I've self-published on Amazon benefitted from it the first time around, and I'm glad to have connected with the editors from the original publications. It gave me a small taste of the process I would face with my Musa editor: 3 rounds of revisions (after my own 6 or so) that truly made the final draft stronger.
Thanks for giving Immaterial Evidence a signal boost, Kay!
Edits. Actually, they are a good thing even if the publication doesn't accept the manuscript after you've done them.
Am in the middle of my own edits ... which seem endless, but I know they're more than worth the effort since I've made the story clearer as a result of editorial suggestions.
Hey ... we're traveling the same road as is E. J. It helps to know others are in the same boat.
I think the main reason I hang on to the traditional process is that it's less work and less up-front expense for me. The trade-off is the long wait from acceptance to contract to release date, so if I can come up with a small collection of stories or essays to self-publish, I'll do that too.
Actually, my self-published stuff is the short stuff ... and my reviews complain they're too short. End abruptly etc.
On the other hand, Only the Grumpy Dragon has been interested in the longer stuff.
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