Now that I’ve actually finished the first draft, received some feedback, and am on my way to the next part of the process, I’ve changed the name of my upcoming novel. I am almost brave enough to share some excerpts with you! Time permitting, I’ll be releasing chapters this fall and all that fun stuff.
New Title: Renaissance – The Nora White Story
Log-Line: “A young woman seeks to pursue a writing career in The Harlem Renaissance Movement. Meanwhile, her parents search for their daughter’s disappearance.”
I’ll have a full description of what this book is about at a later date. Stay tuned.
I’m all about simplicity. To me writing should be fun and all of the talk about business this and business that can be overwhelming and also suck the fun out of your writing life. So today I thought it’d be fun to discuss some not so technical things that you can do easily and go from Author to Authorpreneur.
From the EC Mental Dictionary
“An Authorpreneur (play on Entrepreneur) is a Self-Published author who has turned their work as a writer into a full blown business.
Authorpreneur is a term that is being used more and more everyday. With the explosion of the Independent Publishing Industry, authors are claiming the title to represent their work as serious business people. Below are 8 ways you can join them:
Legalize Your Name
I know that sounds weird, your name is already legal! Right, but here I’m speaking of your business name. Decide on a name for your business. If you write under a pen name, register it as a business. You can file the paperwork easily through Legal-zoom under an LLC, Sole Proprietorship, or S-Corporation (please Google these terms for further understanding of what they are). Or, you can just get a DBA. A DBA is a doing business as name that gives you the opportunity to legally write and conduct business under your pen author name. You’ll be able to set up a bank account to separate your author royalties from your regular income, use a debit card under this name, and even set up a PO Box.
Register Your ISBNS
This means you have to first invest in purchasing a block of your own ISBN numbers. You can get them from Bowker or Publisher Services for your books and register your ISBN with your company name as publisher. This will look more professional as your business name and ISBNS are now connected and will show up on Amazon or whichever platform you use, as publisher instead of Independent Publisher.
PO BOX
Obviously, you probably don’t have a brick and mortar unless you’re a bookstore owner already, but you can set up a PO Box in your new business name. This will make it easier (and safer) to send and receive packages without having to give away your home address. It also looks more professional on your business cards.
Business Cards
Go to Vistaprint or hire a professional print company and print some business cards. On them, use your new business name and PO Box.
Company Email
Set up a company email address. Gmail is the best email service provider but you can surely use others. If you have a website, your provider probably offers you a unique business email. yoursuper awesomebusinessname at gmail dot com. If possible, use a business email connected to your website such as yoursuperawesomebusinessname at yoursuperawesomewebsite dot com.
Website
I keep saying this and maybe it’s because I’m weird but in my humble but also professional opinion, a blog is not the same thing as an author website. A blog is a blog. Your website is the yourdomainname.com place without the constant stream of posts. It’s a place that showcases your work without any other distractions as a place people can go to purchase your books. It may be wise to incorporate your blog into your site. Setting up a website means you’ll have to register a domain name. The most common sense thing is to register a domain name matching your business name.
Set Up An Inventory System
Using a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, keep track of your inventory of books. This can also work as a basic accounting system. You can use it as a very simple way to track and record your business finances and products. When you are ready to publish your books, calculate the cost of publishing said book and record this data to go back to. How much is editing? Cover design? Formatting? Print and distribution? Landing page or website? You can use this to save the money you will need to cover everything. Publishing doesn’t have to be expensive but it’s also not free. You will have to invest some money to get this book published even if it’s just a small amount.
Email List
Last but not least, set up an email list where you can add the contacts of those who are interested in the business of you. Most people recommend sending emails once a month. I do not think you have to follow this advice. Times have changed and sending an email once a month doesn’t work for everyone. It’s okay to send emails every two-three weeks if that’s what works for you. It also helps to build a relationship with your readers when you are in touch with them on a more consistent basis. A lot happens in a month. Send your emails whenever you have something important to say but monitor them to see if your strategy works.
Yecheilyah is an Independent Author, Blogger, and Poet. She writes Black Historical Fiction, poetry, and books that inspire. Learn more at www.yecheilyahysrayl.com.
When I developed a passion for writing, I could not foresee what the publishing industry is like today. My vision was always to hold a book in my hands, feel the pages against my fingertips, and smell the fresh ink. It was always to see my name on the cover and read my words behind the pages. And more so, allowing others to take part in this journey by having them to read my words. With eBooks trending, it is no question what the increase and development of technology has done for authors. In short, Self-Publishing would not be where it is today. So it is without question that eBooks and Amazon Kindle has changed the game. However, I read something today that disturbed me a little bit. In one of the Facebook Writing Groups in which I am a part of, a writer was seeking advice on Book Promo. His question had to do with promoting his paperback book. One of the commenters told him he should do away with his paperback and stick to eBook only. Obviously, there is more money in the eBook game.
I do not believe this and I also do not believe this person’s advice is very wise.
As I always say, advice is subjective. It’s always personal. You can take it or leave it because not all of it may apply to you and not all of it is true. However, when it comes to advise or tips about someone’s career path or livelihood, I believe its important to know what you’re talking about. So in this case, it would have been more wise to tell the person (as many people did) to have BOTH an eBook AND paperback version of his book than to say to just do away with the hard-copy.
Many Self-Publishers underestimate the power of hard-copy in this digital world and I do think it is to our disadvantage. The truth is that the paperback has potential to earn you more money than your eBook. The reason is because there’s diversity to the paperback that the eBook just does not have. I’ll explain that more deeply later. For now, let’s look at this:
The stats tell us that the average self-published author will sell fewer than 250 books, and the average published author will sell fewer than 2,000 books. Books are now more cost-effective and easier to access, which has created a wealth of competition. Estimates tell us that one million books are published every year.”
In addition, it is my belief that this less than 250 book sell has a lot to do with a reliance on strict eBook sales. I believe this because an author can sell hundreds of paper-book copies alone at a book signing. First, let us establish something about Amazon Kindle. It’s not hard to become a bestselling author. For some categories all you have to do is sell maybe 100 copies (or less) of your eBook to make the #1 spot. This, according to The Millionaire Digest, is called gaming the system:
You can pick low-competition categories in Amazon and sell as few as ten books (in a particular period) and become a “#1 Amazon best-selling” author. Authors even make their book free through Amazon’s KDP Select program and claim “bestseller” status.
While I think selling 100 books is great, 100 copies of a book sold is a failure in the Traditional Publishing world as compared to, let’s say 10,000 or 100,000 copies. And even that, in Traditional Publishing, is funny. If a publisher printed 15,000 copies, shipped 10,000 and returned 8,000 then technically the author only “sold” 2,000 copies. This is what makes people Self-Publish. Ain’t nobody got time for all of that.
As for my personal opinion, I think one book sold is a success. If you sold 100 you’re a star in my book. But I digress.
The point is that I’m sure we all envisioned that making it to Amazon’s #1 spot requires selling much more than 100 eBooks. This isn’t to say those authors didn’t put in hard work, but that Amazon’s ranking is “iffy” to use an EC term. “Iffy” meaning ranks are not calibrated based solely on books sold alone. The truth is that Self-Publishing is hard work and for this reason many people have chosen the Hybrid Publishing method, which I actually think is interesting. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about it because I’ve yet to try Hybrid (I’m not a middle ground type person) but nonetheless, Hybrid Publishing is:
The hybrid author is someone who has book deals with traditional presses, but also self-publishes, or publishes in some other nontraditional way. Hybrid publishing encompasses the middle ground between traditional and self-publishing.”
Publishing using a combination of Traditional and Self-Publishing methods is an interesting thing. Though I’m Indie all the way, I don’t play the cool kid game. Traditional or Self-Pub, I like them both and I think Hybrid Publishing is on the come up. But this is precisely my point. (Though I am learning now that Hybrid Publishing is nothing more than Vanity Publishing. I don’t have the facts on that so I’ll just stick to what I know, but this is what I’ve heard.)
Because Self-Publishing is hard work, Indie Authors miss out on A LOT by opting out of print books. Someone in the group mentioned that the only people who will purchase your paperback are family members. This is also not true. According to Publishing expert Lou Aronica, self-publishers cannot afford to ignore print, as it still accounts for some two-thirds of book sales overall. “Print is not going away,” Lou said, “and outside of the US print is seriously not going to be a minority percentage anytime soon.” Lou goes on:
Ebooks are the preferred method of reading for a large percentage of readers and that will only get larger as the international markets reach their inflection point.
People won’t pay $12.99, but they’ll pay $9.99 — for e-books I’ve seen absolutely no price resistance up to $9.99. In fact $2.99 sometimes sends the wrong message. (With the exception of romance, because romance readers are different, the velocity of reading is different.)
It’s clear that publishers are raising e-book prices to make print more appealing.
It is clear that the increase in technology is not slowing and that authors are wise to have both an eBook and paperback copy of their book. Not only does it look more professional but you have options on sells. I’ve made over $1,000 in one night at an event selling paperback copies of my books. In fact, I make more in one day selling paperbacks than I ever did in eBooks. That’s because book promotion should go beyond social media and when it does, you need to be ready for it. It’s a lot more professional to sell a paperback to someone face to face with a business card and bookmark than it is to tell them to go to amazon and buy the eBook. Who’s to say they will remember to do that when they get home? I for one cannot afford to depend on your memories people (smile).
It is what makes publishing fun to me, hard-copies. Just this week I had to deliver some packages to the UPS Store and made a connection with the Notary there. I found it refreshingly exciting to verbally discuss my book as opposed to writing about it which I do most of the time. I started to think about public speaking and how this plays a role in book publishing.
With paperbacks, Indie Authors have the opportunity to network almost anywhere. Heck, you can sell books out of the trunk of your car if you wanted to, and set up various events to which your book is the star. As much as you need an eBook version as well, you cannot sign an eBook. As much as we’d like to push it away in the background, paperbacks are making a comeback. Well, at least in my neck of the woods.
Speaking of which, I’ll be in San Antonio this weekend at The La Quinta Hotel on 850 Halm Boulevard by the airport. I’ll have copies of my books if any of you are in town. Just approach the front desk and ask for Yecheilyah. I’m in town on business from Friday to Sunday time permitting. In the meantime, I have dropped the Kindle price again and am extending the Amazon sale through Thursday. If you want to check out my writing for cheap, The Road to Freedom is available now for $0.99 until Thursday.
Today is guest post day! Client, author (LOSING THE LIGHT, Simon and Schuster/Atria Books 2016), and social media expert Andrea Dunlop is here to talk about how to embrace marketing your book. Don’t panic! She has all the answers. (And if you like what you read she is now taking on clients herself as a consultant.)
Having worked with authors for over a decade—first in publicity, now in social media—I know how reluctant many feel about marketing their own work. And as a newly-minted author myself, I can completely empathize. I often see authors with new books out—a time that should be exciting and celebratory—wracked with misery, guilt, and even outright panic. A little of this is expected, just as with any big life event (weddings, births, new jobs) it can be unsettling. But often the level of despair leaves authors unable to enjoy their momentous accomplishment…
After posting my EC Quote Friday a thought struck me: “It’s not just book cover design, but even how your books are presented makes a big difference.” Here’s what I mean:
You’ve poured everything but the breath of life into your work. You’ve gotten it edited, formatted, converted, typesetting is tight, book cover is banging, everything. But what about presenting your book to the world? What about posting it online, presenting quotes, sample chapters, and all of that good stuff? Because I’m a person who strives for excellence, it can take me hours to produce just the right photo to post online. It can take me days to produce just the right image to parade up and down your social walls and timelines. Everything about writing to me, from penciling my soul into a blank piece of paper, to showing off my book cover requires the very best that I can give even if it doesn’t produce the result I want. At least then I can say that not only did I try, but I did and I did to the very best of my ability. Sometimes our books are not attractive to potential readers because we don’t take the time to put in the work that is necessary to produce our absolute best. Even sample chapters and excerpts should be presented a certain way. If you understand people, you know that we are, for the most part, lazy. A picture of a whole bunch of words on a screen is not exciting (Remember, less is always more). No, I’m not going to read your IG chapter post of 100 words screenshot from your smart phone. Boring. Below are some exclusive tips on how to increase your books online visibility by making sure the book looks as good as the writing:
Book Cover Design
So the most obvious thing here is to ensure you really do have an attractive book cover. If there is nothing else that you pay for in the publishing process, make sure it’s editing and book cover design. These are probably the two most important investments you’ll make. Not the only, but the most important. Plus, book cover reveals are fun!
Photoshop
Go to YouTube and learn how to use Photoshop to add special effects to those photos. No, seriously. I learned how to use Photoshop watching How To videos on YouTube. If I can learn, so can you. Then, go online and purchase Photoshop. This is probably your 3rd most important investment. OK well, maybe your fourth but you get the point. You don’t have to get the fancy versions either. I pay $10 a month to produce most of the images you see me posting, including the ones on this blog. Not bad for lunch money.
Subscribe
Subscribe to free mock-ups sites! What I love about technology is that you don’t have to be a professional photographer anymore. I do not, at this time, have a fancy camera. I want one but wants and needs are two different things. I’ll get one eventually. Until then, Book Mock-Ups are my best friends, especially when I find those people who are giving away free Book Mock-Ups. One person I absolutely love is Mark from Covervault. His book mock-ups are free and he always has freebies for those subscribed to his list. He also offers paid book mock-ups that are also off the chain. Because he does such excellent work, I would recommend supporting his paid mock-ups as well because he gives away so much for free. I would caution that in the editing phase, edit the mock-ups so that they’re original and uniquely you. One thing about Book Cover Designs and Mock-Ups is that, if they’re free it means lots of people are using them. To avoid having book twins, edit the mock-ups so they have your special signature. They’re editable so you don’t have to use the exact same format. However, Book Cover Mock-Ups is just a fraction of it. Subscribe to all kinds of mock-ups! Coffee, Computer, go crazy with it.
Photo Editing Websites
Don’t stop at Photoshop! Also look into photo editing websites. I like to combine more than one element to produce the best unique quality. Some you can explore are:
Free Version of Photoshop (Adobe offers a free, online version of Photoshop with scaled down features that include those needed for basic photo editing).
Remember, everything about your book, from the writing, to the editing, to the book cover design all the way down to how your baby is presented online, it all matters and shows readers the level of effort you are willing (or not willing) to put into your work.
Very interesting article here. We are all familiar by now with how important Book Reviews are for authors. We are also familiar with how damaging a bad review is. As a Book Reviewer, I can admit that I only read certain genres. My restrictions are not large, but there are a few books I will not read. I also have my specialty area (African American History / Literature), or the books I especially enjoy reading. What’s the connection between book reviews written by those who are not particularly fond of your books genre? Is that why the reviews are so negative? Is your book reviewer actually enjoying reading your book? Are you targeting the wrong audience by having someone who does not particularly like your books genre to review your book? This article is a must read!
(BTW, I can’t let you go without some shameless plug. COMPLETE THIS FORM to schedule a book review from me. My Genre preferences are listed).
Hi guys! Guess what’s on sale today? The Road to Freedom will be just $1.99 from now until next Tuesday, July 19, 2016. Just click on the button below to check it out. Buy or read the reviews for a better understanding of what the final book in The Stella Series is about.
The PBS Blog 