Tag: self-publishing

Marketing is Farming, Not Hunting

Very informative post. I love the Farming analogy. Most excellent article.

Chris's avatarChris Fox Writes

Writing a novel is an immense undertaking, and before you finish it you think it’s the most daunting thing you’ll ever do. Then you DO finish it, and suddenly you need to figure out how to get people to read it.

Before long you realize you need to learn this strange sorcery called marketing, so you start asking around, reading blog posts, and digesting anything else you think will help. Then you start posting ‘look I wrote a book’ to Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else you think people might see it.

People throw rotten tomatoes, and you quickly retreat back into your introvert shell. You realize that all the Facebook groups you joined are full of other people like you who are also yelling BUY MY BOOK as loudly as possible.

The method described above is the hunting approach. Your prey are readers, and you are stalking them through the…

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Wise Ink: ERROR: Kindle’s Latest Warning Message

ERROR--700x350

Wow, check out this post from Wise Ink about Amazon’s coming Error Message. This is exactly why I prefer to always have a paperback copy of my books available. Electronics are not dependable and in the case that a great book is flagged because of minor errors or formatting issues, leaves the reader to do nothing but abandon that authors work. With no option to purchase a paperback / hard copy, what options are available for the reader but to abandon that book altogether? I’m not concerned about this to be honest (I try not to worry about things much anymore, especially things I can’t change) but I do see how it can be a hindrance to many Self-Pub authors. I would suggest making your work available in as many formats and on as many platforms as possible and to have an author website or blog set up as another option from which readers can find your work. I would have a paperback/hard-copy on standby just in case. Yes, technology is increasing every day and changing the book publishing industry, but don’t believe the hype. Readers still buy paperback books! To take it a step further, you can set up a DBA (“Doing Business As” name – A fictitious name (or assumed name, trade name or DBA name) is a business name that is different from your personal name, the names of your partners or the officially registered name of your LLC or corporation) and try to get your books stocked at a major distribution company where you can buy in bulk directly from them. I know, easier said. I probably just spoke of something nearly impossible unless your Oprah but it can be done. (In my “Flash” voice “Believe in the impossible!”) The process is long and challenging and tedious and I’m sure we will all be wanting to pull our hair out BUT I think it will be of great benefit in the end. I’m interested in why B&N NOOK, KOBO, and other platforms are not as prominent as Kindle as additional sources in which ebooks are sold. While I can’t “knock” Amazon for wanting to distance itself from the the lack of “Grammatical / Formatting professionalism”, I’m not sure if relying solely on Amazon as a source where readers can find your book is wise.

Self-Published Authors With Thin Skin

offended

You won’t make it. And no, I’m not saying that I have made it. It’s just that, well, if you have paper thin skin just stop right now. Do not pass go and do not collection $200.

I have a lot to work on as an Author but the only reason I know this is because of what others have told me, what I have learned about this field, and what I have accepted as flaws that must be pruned and tuned to become strengths. I noticed, while reading an article about negative reviews, that there is not enough attention paid to the dark side of self-publishing. That is, the negative feedback (and reviews) you get from those who (wait for it) thought your book sucked.

You are entering a world that is a lot different from other businesses. You can’t pick up a book and drink it or rub it into your skin. It’s not a collection of diamonds or a tasty meal that will satisfy your flesh. No, the book business is a lot different than selling soap. Books require more than money, but people must be willing to invest their time into a read and that’s only if they actually enjoy reading. Even if they enjoy reading, books require lots of attention. It’s not a disgusting vegetable drink you can gulp down quickly and complain about later. No, if a book is tasteless it will be promptly put down, rejected, and possibly never tended to again. There’s just way too much to do in a day.

As a Self-Publisher, you must prepare yourself for this rejection. It will hurt initially because let’s face it, your a genius. But, not everyone will see it this way and usually when you think something is brilliant chances are it’s not so in the eyes of others. It’s an interesting thing, the work I don’t think much about is what gets the most attention. The poems I write just because I felt like writing, where I was nonchalant in the process for lack of a better word, are the poems people love the most. It may have something to do with humility: the humble will be exalted and the exalted humbled. (As a rule of thumb, the greater you become, the more humility you should have) Work we think the world of may not be as we intended. I didn’t intend on writing a book when I wrote the first chapter to Stella, nor did I intend for Book #2 to do better than Book #1! That’s just the business. It surprises you like that. And you know what? I love it.

Add onto this the stigma (though significantly fading, so much so that I feel funny writing this) of Self-Publishing and Indie Authors in general. I’ve read some Traditionally Published books that sucked but the reality is that as a Self-Published Author you have to have a much thicker coating of skin. If you can’t take constructive criticism in your everyday life and you have plans to publish a book, you may want to get started on that. Taking criticism that is. I know I have talent as a writer but I am not naive. I know that not everyone is going to enjoy my work or see the message and I don’t expect them too. Truth is, I’m not trying to save the world and neither should you. I’m just trying to reach the remnant of the world that wants to be saved. For this reason, I expect some people to dislike my work. (The bible also says something about when everyone thinks well of you, careful, for so they did the false prophets. You don’t have to believe in the bible to consider the message in that).

I also know that not every review will be a positive one. This is actually not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. Its a good thing because without knowledge of your flaws you can’t improve. For instance: A reviewer once told me to watch my POV (point of view) when I’m writing. In my mind, I write as if a camera is floating the room. I see the book playing out in my mind like a movie and I move wherever the camera takes me. If I feel like speaking from the perspective of the roof that I’ll do. It didn’t occur to me that this surveillance comes across as very confusing to the reader. When I received this tip, I became more cautious of this and began to write so that it is clear to both myself and my readers. What I would do without that tip! Now, I make sure to keep the “camera” nice and steady. No more moving from the first person to the third person because it looks good in my head.

shocked

If you plan to Self-Publish a book you must first examine your heart. If there’s thin skin there you may want to trade it in for some course material. If you desire to become an author you have to have a certain endurance for negative attention, it comes along with the territory. I have people speak badly about me all the time and I’m not even talking about my writing! People are generally not very fond of me because while I strive to be gentle and display the same respect to all persons, I’m not going to give you deception. I have to tell you the truth or I would not be the person I am today. I would be a liar.

Be thick skinned about whatever criticism that takes place in your life whether that’s in regard to your books or whatever. Understand that everything you encounter in life is to mold and shape you into the individual you were meant to be from the very foundations of the world. It hurts, yes, but its all for the greater good. I am thankful, personally, for growing up the way I did. For knowing struggle and pain and deception and humiliation because what it has done for me is to allow me to bear the burden of whatever negative vibes come my way. Don’t like me? Great, stand in line with the rest of the people waiting for me to care. That’s not being arrogant that’s just being real. In the book publishing industry, pinch your skin first and make sure its thick enough.

(There’s a lyric to Maxwell’s song “Lifetime” I think is very interesting. As the song opens he says, “I was reborn when I was broken”. You gotta be broken down to be built up. Something to think about.)

Author Identity: Urban Fiction

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of reading a reblog to an original post I had not seen until then. After promptly liking both the reblog, as published by Whitney of Write, Live, and Love and the original as published by Ja’da of quizoticmuses (who I do believe also has a book out on Amazon), I felt compelled to reply in a separate post so that my commentary was not limited to the comments section of her blog. I thought the post served as a great conversation starter, and I do encourage others to tune in if so inclined.

But before throwing in my two cents here’s the original (used with permission):

“As a writer, I have come to understand that in every capacity the term “urban” is synonymous with “Black people.” I don’t want to be an urban fiction writer; I want to be a writer. But I’m Black writing about Black people and not exclusively Black people drama. So I feel like I’m automatically fitted into the urban fiction slot when really, I just want to write fictional stories. Period.

How do I get there?”

There are certain words that, although can be applied to various races of people, pretty much is a reference to black people depending on the context. Words like Urban, and Minority, to name a couple. Specifically, the term “Urban” is no doubt a crafty way of saying “Black” and Urban Fiction then is used to denote black fiction.

What attracted me to the post is that as a person who speaks often concerning the state of Black America, Black history, its ancient origins, slavery, freedom, and as someone who is deeply passionate about writing about Israelites or so-called blacks, for blacks, our history, and culture, I must say my writing has never been deemed Urban Fiction. This revelation caused me to think that maybe the characterization of Urban Fiction is a bit deeper than being a black writer writing about black people in general but that it is also about the style of writing.

Writing Styles

“Style is the way writing is dressed up (or down) to fit the specific context, purpose, or audience. Word choice, sentence fluency, and the writer’s voice — all contribute to the style of a piece of writing.”– Google

As I began to think about my own reading experience with UF, I am hearkened back to books that have a certain tone and feel to it. These books tend to follow a certain writing style. Though they do tend to deal with the internal struggle of the African American experience, it’s the way that these books are written that makes them different. Personally, my characterization of Urban Fiction books is based upon the language, setting, and overall surroundings incorporated into the book.

This led me to consider that, though I do find it is exclusive to the black community, Urban Fiction is a label applied to a certain kind of writing that not everyone can do. Everybody can’t write good Urban Fiction books, especially people who have not lived the life they are creating for their characters. Urban Fiction is a unique genre. While you can research for Historical Fiction and Romance or Thriller, if you write a UF novel, you had better have lived that life or be familiar with the setting in some way or it will fall flat. It will read fake.

Black Lit or Urban Fic?

What makes Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” Black Literature and Tracy Brown’s “Snapped” Urban Fiction? Just by looking at the covers alone we can see that they are two completely different kinds of works, though they are both written by African American female writers about African Americans.

5337019 thebluesteye

Both books are relevant in black society. Both are truths concerning black family life, struggles, and both contain black central characters. So why is Brown known as an Urban Fiction writer and Morrison a Fiction writer? Both are very talented and though Morrison is most prominent, Brown is no less valid. The classification has to do, I think, with the individual writing styles. The overall message of the book itself and the direction in which it tends to expand conversation.

I often find that black writers who write with a passion that is rooted in that hardcore truth concerning black family life, if its raw, uncut, up close and personal, then it is often labeled Urban Fiction.

Believe it or not, this is a conversation that many are already having. Bernice McFadden, the very talented author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), and Glorious, has already coined the term, “seg-book-gation”. She argues that black books are lumped into an “African American Literature” category instead of typical genres like General Fiction.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with the separation and encourage Blacks to embrace being such a set-apart people. Nothing we do is going to be normal or traditional because we are not a normal people. We are unique, creative, soulful, we are the salt of the Earth.

Triangle of Sins; Alibi and Midnight: A Gangster Love Story; Diary of a Street Diva; No Disrespect, A Street Girl Named Desire; The Coldest Winter Ever, these are all titles that represent Urban Fiction or “Street Literature” because they focus on the internal struggle of growing up Black in the Hood. They are books that are written in such a way that it captures the personal truths concerning the life many African American’s live and that’s why we love them so much.

These are books about what I like to call, “The Curses” or the struggles blacks have had to endure for centuries now. It is prophecy fulfilled and the gritty reality is what makes them appealing to the Black community.

In closing, Author Identity is all dependent on the mindset and thought processes of the author and who they are. Because Black people set the trend in a host of areas, Urban Fiction and Street Lit is another spin on the norm that African American’s have contributed to. Black people have always been the creators of what is different, creative, or uniquely separated from tradition. If Black writers of fiction are labeled Urban Fiction I believe its more so because of the uniqueness of the work itself. Urban Fiction is not just a genre, but it’s a different way of writing. So whereas one person can write about Blacks and for Blacks and never be looked at as an Urban Fiction writer, the same may not be true for someone else because their styles are different.

(Also, because reading is a HUGE part of writing, people tend to write how they read, what they experienced (or experience) in everyday life, and what they’re most knowledgeable or passionate about.)

Author Spotlight: Yecheilyah Ysrayl

My Author Interview with Dottie Daniels.

dottiedaniels's avatarThe Write Perspective

Hey.

Here’s another author (she’s a poet as well) who also has a page here on WordPress. I consider myself and anyone else aware of her to be pretty lucky already as this author has a pretty powerful perspective and is more than capable of articulating her experiences and thought processes as it relates to the cultural upbringing of the African American experience. Her name is Yecheilyah Ysrayl and I had the pleasure of doing a Q&A session with her a few weeks ago. Below is the interview along with her social media contact info.

  1. I’ve read you were born in the South side of Chicago (so was I!), what were some of your earliest memories?

Hi Dottie. First, I want to thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. Yes, I am from Chi-Town indeed. Since I’ve been in Chicago for the better part of my…

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You Must Have an Agent, And Other Myths about Publishing

A wealth of information on book publishing

wbspeirjr's avatarAuthor William Speir's Blog

For years, I thought that the only way to get published was to be represented by a literary agent.  The publishing industry perpetuates this myth – just look at how much Writer’s Digest talks about finding and keeping agents if you don’t believe me. But the truth is: it is not necessary to be represented by a literary agent to get published. I’m living proof.

There are many ways to get books published. One option is self-publishing, although that option has the most difficult path to financial success for an author and puts 100% of the marketing and sales efforts squarely on the back of the author. Another option is small press publishing, which typically uses a business model where the publisher and the author are partners in getting the book published and into the hands of potential readers. The third option is large press publishing. Unless you’re already a…

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The Evolution of the Blog

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I was fulfilling some orders this morning, you know the daily grind, and my thoughts fell on blogging in general. I thought about the history of blogging and how it has changed over the years. But what my thoughts focused on more so is how the increase in technology seemed to have downgraded the professional image of blogging in the eyes of the (wait for it) blogger.

When we launch these blogs, I do not think we really understand its significance. At least I didn’t.

Anyone can create a blog today. It is as easy as signing up for a Word Press free account. You can write about what you want and organize your blog how you see fit. Though it is easy to do, have you ever thought about what it means to be a blogger? I remember watching television over the years and seeing someone speak. Sometimes the person speaking had a title that said “Blogger” and as he or she spoke concerning their subject of expertise I never second guessed that they were a professional. “Blogger” was no different to me then than “Attorney at Law” or “Psychologist”. That is because before the blog evolved into what it is today, it was a big deal.

“The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle. Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994.

The blog was independently invented by Ian Ring, in 1997. His online journaling platform was called an “e-journal”. Ring’s project was later abandoned, but was rewritten in 2006 but didn’t become popular amid the overwhelming flood of other CMS systems becoming available, including WordPress. Ring still maintains that he “invented the blog”, which is technically true even though there were other projects that could make the same claim with greater authority.

Another early example of an early online entry into the evolution of blogging was created by Dave Winer. Winer is considered a pioneer of Web syndication techniques and has been considered one of the “fathers” of blogging. As the editor of Scripting News claims that his site “bootstrapped the blogging revolution and that it is the longest running Web Log on the internet”, Winer did not use the term “blog” and has never claimed the term. However he has gone on record as saying that “The first blogs were inspired by this blog, in fact many of them, including Barger’s Robot Wisdom, used my software.”

Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have “What’s New” or “News” sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based “weblog” is the Drudge Report founded by the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes this classification. Two others—Institute for Public Accuracy and Arts & Letters Daily—began posting news releases featuring several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several times a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to a blog was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.

Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today.” – Wikipedia

So what of all this? What’s the point?

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From personal reflection, understanding the magnitude of what it means to blog helps me to maintain a level of professionalism on my blog; whether that is the appearance or the quality of the content. It helps me to remember that people are browsing the internet and coming across this blog from Google everyday in hopes of finding solutions to problems, or to overall be informed. It is not to say that blogs are not fun because I have lots of fun on this blog. And as we have read the first blogs were online diaries. Interestingly enough, many of the blogs I come across have this format.

The blogger is not a writer in the organized sense, just someone using the web as a way to publicly vent their thoughts (which I think we all do to an extent). It is just to say that I have come to look at blogging in a new light. As opposed to when I first started this blog, I place a kind of value on it now that I didn’t really think about before. Not value as in its my whole world or anything, but value as in the fact that real people are taking the time to stop here and to read and to learn. Therefore, how I present myself online, as a reflection of my real self, is not just some mediocre past time. What we write here is a big deal. Every day you are helping people in every aspect of their lives. To be a blogger then is kinda a big deal. I would even say it is something worth mentioning on a resume.

Timeline: Blogging Evolution:

January 1994
Swarthmore student Justin Hall creates first blog ever, Links.net.

December 1997
Online diarist Jorn Barger coins the term “Weblog” for “logging the Web.”

April 1999
Programmer Peter Merholz shortens “Weblog” to “blog.”

August 1999
Blogger rolls out the first popular, free blog-creation service.

January 2000
Boing Boing is born.

July 2000
AndrewSullivan.com launches.

February 2002
Heather Armstrong is fired for discussing her job on her blog, Dooce. “Dooced” becomes a verb: “Fired for blogging.”

August 2002
Nick Denton launches Gizmodo, the first in what will become a blog empire. Blogads launches, the first broker of blog advertising.

December 2002
Talking Points Memo highlights Trent Lott’s racially charged comments; thirteen days later, Lott resigns from his post as Senate majority leader.

December 2002
Gawker launches, igniting the gossip-blog boom.

March 2003
“Salam Pax,” an anonymous Iraqi blogger, gains worldwide audience during the Iraq war.

June 2003
Google launches AdSense, matching ads to blog content.

August 2003
The first avalanche of ads on political blogs.

September 2003
Jason Calacanis founds Weblogs, Inc., which eventually grows into a portfolio of 85 blogs.

January 2004
Denton launches Wonkette.

March 2004
Calacanis poaches Gizmodo writer Peter Rojas from Denton. Denton proclaims himself “royally shafted” on his personal blog.

December 2004
Merriam-Webster declares “blog” the “Word of the Year.”

January 2005
Study finds that 32 million Americans read blogs.

May 2005
The Huffington Post launches.

October 2005
Calacanis sells his blogs to AOL for $25 million.

December 2005
An estimated $100 million worth of blog ads are sold this year.

January 2006
Time leases Andrew Sullivan’s blog, adding it to its Website.

February 2006
The Huffington Post surges to become fourth most-linked-to blog.