Independent publishing reveals our long neglected mass creativity - Tracy Falbe Guest Post

Is talent rare? Well, extraordinary genius-level talent is certainly rare, but good old down home talent is abundant within humanity. Just go to any local theater production at a community college or other amateur club. Most of the performances will be adequate, but there's always someone who really shines.

It's like this with writing too. Most people are reasonably literate. Some of them enjoy writing as a creative outlet. And, from that group, some of them will write books that are great to read.

Because self publishing, or indie publishing as it now styles itself, has become a feasible outlet for many writers, the talent is escaping from the confines of a traditional and orderly literary universe. From all quarters, people are writing and publishing without waiting to be tapped on the shoulder by a high authority that once was able to glamour every writer with the illusion of respect and success.

The gates of the publishing kingdom have been breached by a clamoring horde banging away with laptops and Kindles and POD contracts and a vast host of websites. People never realized so many people were capable of writing books. Why? Because they used to never get published. Before computers and the internet were widespread, aspiring authors had to sadly file their rejection letters or burn them in a fit of petulant rage, pack manuscripts away in boxes, and move past their foolish idea that anyone wanted to read their novels. Novels were written by talented people, and publishers knew who talented people were because they conducted exhaustive searches. Just like professional baseball, publishers have scouts lurking around writing groups and MFA classes and rummaging through the trash bins of lonely frustrated-looking people. Wait, no they don't. There I go writing fiction again. How dare I?

The truth is more people write books than publishing businesses could possible produce. Creativity is one of the defining features of humanity. I recently read Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class, and his demographic research discussed the tremendous potential of creativity in people and how that creativity is the great engine of our modern economy. For example, the creative work of computer scientists launched entire new industries. As a result more people than ever before feel entitled to pursue their creative interests and express them.

Florida wrote:

"Creativity has come to be valued - and systems have evolved to encourage and harness it - because new technologies, new industries, new wealth and all other good economic things flow from it. And as a result, our lives and society have begun to resonate with a creative ethos…It is our commitment to creativity in its varied dimensions that forms the underlying spirit of our age."

The human population contains a great deal of creative capital. The sheer numbers of people participating in independent publishing reveal the extent to which old technology, attitudes, and business models stifled writing as an outlet for people. Now word processors, digital distribution, social media, and major online retailers willing to list independently produced content mean writers have an outlet and an audience. They don't have to wait around for rejection anymore.

Of course just because a person produced his or her writing independently does not mean fame and fortune will follow. There will be a few stars, many modest successes defined in subjective personal terms, and I suppose a multitude of embarrassing failures. But at least people get to try now. They get to actively seek an audience for their writing. Like the actors in community theater, writers can at a minimum earn polite applause and make their mothers proud in a public venue.

And a few with appreciable talent might even get to develop their craft and profit from a following of readers. A tiny few might even get picked up by large companies and put in bookstores. Someone might even get a movie deal.

With indie publishing, any writer who is interested gets a chance. Not everyone can win the lotto, but we can all buy a ticket and play now.

Author's statement: I have been independently publishing my fantasy series The Rys Chronicles for five years now. I was making sales before there was any Smashwords, or Kindle, or Nook, or iPad, or any ceaseless internet chatter about ebooks. I'm so excited to see indie publishing becoming part of the mainstream market for readers. To see if my fantasy novels suit your style go to www.braveluck.com and download for free Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I at http://www.falbepublishing.com/braveluck/Union_of_Renegades.html

P.S. And thank you Chris Kelly for the opportunity to be a guest writer. May you have much success with Invictus.

Why Indie Authors Should Start Writing Queries Again

Okay, so we promised we would teach you how to write an effective Smashwords synopsis, and here it is... write a query.

Wait!!! What???

Yes, a query.

There are plenty of sites on the net that teach you how to do this, but we'll break it down here for you as well.

Dear Agent you basically don't need any of this suck-up shit so throw it in you desktop bin.

My novel is a genre wordcount story can be binned.

When orphaned Harry Potter discovers he is a wizard, and is taken to wizard boarding school, he couldn't be happier to be away from his awful aunt and uncle. But as he makes friends and learns magic he discovers a terrible truth... that his mother and father were murdered, and the evil wizard who killed them is after Harry, too.

There you go, none of the issues discussed in the previous post here.

Authors submitting to agents spend a long time making their queries just right. They have their queries critiqued. They rework them and rework them. They go over them in writing groups. They quite often put hundreds of man hours of effort into making them perfect. All this so ONE PERSON will buy their book and then ship it to publishers, hoping ONE MORE PERSON will buy their book.

Don't give us any crap that they need to do this because publishers and agents are gatekeepers. Don't tell us it needs more work to go to these "gatekeepers" because it doesn't, and to think it does only insults your readers.

At the end of the day, it comes down to how many copies you want to sell. Look at how much effort those other guys put in to sell to 2 people. We think you would love to sell a few thousand. Then it is simple, the synopsis should be the very centre part of what would be a query if you were going for one of the Agency 6.

Our upcoming short story, Coffee, is only a 1000 words long. Here is a possible blurb for it:

They said Galileo was mad. They denounced Darwin. Now they seek to discredit me. Well, I won't have it.

A possible blurb because we probably won't use it.

We might use

Coffee. The very word has a taste to it, a smell. You can't ever separate the three; word, taste, smell. As soon as one comes to mind, they all do. But what could be hiding behind a taste and smell so strong?

It is difficult to use a 1000 word story to illustrate points made on a 50k story. So here is something else to consider, the upcoming Matilda Raleigh novella. Yes, we're planning the synopsis already, a month and more before the grand release.

After a lifetime of adventures, Matilda Raleigh is finally dying. But when people she trusts betray her, and threaten all she holds dear, Matilda picks up her demon-possessed revolvers once more and heads off to stop them. Can she stay alive long enough to save the world one last time?

So, this isn't great.

It's actually quite shit, if we're honest. We have the gist of what we want to say, though we hoped for more (something about allies becoming enemies, enemies becoming allies would have been nice) and we had definitely hoped to plug our non-sparkley vampires, but c'est la vie.

We've not actually told you specific ways to improve, we know. But by pointing out what doesn't work, and including some examples of what could work, you may find your own way. If you don't, we shall make a further post with more detailed scenarios for success.

Edit: we used that second synopsis for Coffee. It's available now on Smashwords, download it for free.

Ending the Stigma of Self-Publishing

This is a fairly interesting blog post from over on Free Kindle. The author asks the question "What is a book?" He has a valid point. If the book is the physical thing, then an e-book isn't really a book at all. Neither is an audio book, a podcast or anything else.

This is the way I approach it, too. I see myself as a storyteller more than a writer, which is why I'm as happy directing as writing. Films, books, it's all just about a story at heart.

Here's another free kindle post about what readers judge a book by. Publisher isn't in the top 5, interestingly enough. One reader comments that he (or she?) only reads books that are like books by authors he (she?) likes. This reader doesn't know how to search out other books.  I keep getting the feeling that there should be a way Indie Authors can come together, because only collectively can Indie Authors outshine the NY Publishing Houses.

Until there is a way for Indie Authors to work together, there will be limited individual successes (yes, okay, like Zoe. Zoe who?) and a huge amount of people falling into obscurity. Yes, there is crap produced, but there are some real gems out there. I feel there needs to be a way to get readers to more easily find Indie Authors.

I read a lot of Indie Author blogs. You'll find them down the side of my blog, all except Zoe who (lol, again) for some reason I can't link to from down there. I'm always finding more Indie Author blogs without even looking thanks to the gem that is Google Alerts. I have various alerts set up but the important one just now is "Indie Author" including the quotation marks.

A lot of these author blogs I read are geared at other authors. Very few make a conscious effort to blog for readers. I don't either, but I don't have a book out yet so I doubt readers are interested in me.

This isn't an Indie Author thing. Of all the blogs I have read by authors, only 2 have been strictly for readers. Neil Gaiman posts a "this is what I did, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm going to be doing" style blog here. For a blog that's fun, interesting, and all about the readers, try this one: Patrick Rothfuss. The reason I think this works so well is because he wrote a magazine in college. His blog posts are college-magazine like.

So what can Indie Authors do? I don't really like offering advice because my book isn't out yet. I am kind of side-lined, but it is getting unbearably close to being ready. Like standing at the tip of the diving board, staring into the water below, people behind getting impatient. I did that, once. Was terrifying all the way up the ladders, and just before I jumped I lost all fear. It was about 30 ft above the water and I was doing a life-jacket test.

Indie Authors all seem to see themselves as being alone. But that won't work. When a NY published book comes out it comes out without the stigma attached to self-publishing. It comes out with the backing of literary gatekeepers. Yes, as Zoe Who episode 2 points out, that gatekeeper might be a 19 year old fashion school drop out, but it's still a gatekeeper.

Right now is the best time to be an Indie Author. Right now the publishers are killing themselves, they are literally in their death throes. I really do think they will re-invent themselves, be reincarnated in a new form. But right now they are dying. They are collapsing where they stand. And there are so many reasons for this, way beyond the obvious reasons. You want to know one of the major reasons the publishers are dying? J A Konrath is murdering publishers, or at least he has the potential too.

He is showing that mid-list authors with backlists and fans can do a lot better on their on, without publishers. When this news gets about, as it will, more will follow. When they do, publishers will be left with noobies and big guns. With only debut authors and giants and nothing in between, and every few years the noobies reaching the point where they are better off on their own, the publishers will die.

That's not the only reason. This is another one, and the agency pricing model another, and the obsession with dead tree books another. Now is the best time to be Indie, but to truly get passed the self-publishing stigma, I think that Indie Authors need to work together. There needs to be a grassroots community of Indie authors that readers find easy to navigate. There has to be a way of finding other books readers will like.

It has to be aimed at readers. It has to be directed at the people we are directing our work at. It has to be honest. If we recommend something shit, it damages our reputation. By finding a way to highlight the gold we can widen other indies readerships even as they widen ours. Books are read faster than they are written. By bringing Indie Authors together and sharing fans everyone's readership will grow, and we will lose some of that stigma that self-publishing has.

If a reader picks up an Indie book they might think "Wow, I thought all self-pubbed books were shit. Guess this is the exception." If they Stumbleon the grassroots community of Indie Authors where every book is quality, then their whole opinion must be revised. A self-publishing author isn't news. A grassroots, word-of-mouth community of authors that have turned their backs on Publishing because someone left a wardful of idiots in charge might be news.

For the benefit of all of us, Indie Authors need to come together. I'd love to hear other people's views on this. Leave a comment below.

Size Matters (But Not in the Way You Think)

Picture from I can has force.


Size Matters in the Indie world, but here I think smaller is better.  Blog posts are short, Twitter is short, Facebook updates are short.

On the net, everything is bitesize. 


There's a major theory that our attention spans are getting shorter.  We are not paying attention to the world around us.  We only read blogs with pictures (like the nice one of the lady with the strawberry ------------>) or short blog posts. 

Readers like things short.

There is also lots of things on the net that are free. 

With so many free things abounding, how do we make our readers buy our books?  Well, the books have to be good.  The free sample has to hook them in.  Make them desire our books. 

And give them content that's bitesize.

NY may have turned its back on novellas, but they are alive and well amongst the indies.  Cheap enough that the freebie loving internet generation doesn't immediately discount them, short enough that an author could write several a year (writing full-time, at the speed I write, I reckon I could turn out 3  novels a year - so a lot more novellas, then) and short enough that the internet generation with its goldfish attention span doesn't mind reading them.

I don't know if my attention span is as short as a goldfish, but I do know that, unlike some people who have recently experienced a complete about-face with regards to e-books, I'm not likely to get a Kindle anytime soon (they're not worth it in the UK yet) and as a result I'm much more likely to download and read a novella, especially an inexpensive one.





So let NY continue with its a year and a half to produce an over-priced and under marketed novel.  After The Guns of Pleasure and Death comes out, I'll be moving onto novellas for a while.  

How about you?  Do you fancy lots of short, good reads, or something more substantial.

Hallelujah I Broke My Head - Part 2

Off the cuff, can I say how much I love google analytics?  I'm bad (real bad) at geography, but the way I see it, if it's not in Scotland, why should I care?  

So, anyway, google analytics just told me where Malaysia is.  And it told me where Petaling Jaya is.  I did a google image search and the city is lovely.  I don't know who visited my blog from there, but thank you.  Now I know something new.

I love knowing new things. 

My broken head, part 2 carries on from My Broken Head Part 1 (the post immediately beneath this one.)

I was all for adding my Tome of Infinite Greatness to the assembled crap of the slush pile, seen on the left here.  With a title like The Guns of Pleasure and Death and a kick-ass septigenarian and a rampaging evil God it was so incredibly awesome it would stand ten miles out from the crowd.  It would blow them all away.

I am nothing if not confident.  (It would only count as arrogance if I thought I was better than I am.  But despite the fact that I am number one on this list, ((I am, go, check, look right back to number one... okay you got me, I'm not, but I should be)) I'm actually modest).

But then I started to think things through.  And I realised I didn't want to do that.  And I blogged all about my recalcitrance elsewhere.  Because I know how much you love reading about me, it's here.

And then I decided to go indie.

And that's when things got interesting.  Or difficult.  Depends on your point of view, really.






I mean, the cat probably finds this interesting.  The mouse, I'd say he's more angled towards difficult.



Interesting or Difficult: problems with POV

Weirdly I discovered my head had been subliminally altered by years of consumerism.  I thought the way I had been taught to think.  I bought the things I had been told to buy.  I was a good little Mass Media consumer junkie.  I was a 21st Century Zombie (that would make an awesome title).

I thought the way I was taught to think.  I thought e-books were wrong, evil, dirty, not real books at all.  I thought books should have a minimum of 80,000 words.  I thought novellas were wrong, evil, dirty, not real books at all.  I thought success could be measured in sales and money.  I thought Neil Armstrong had landed on the moon (the flag moves in the wind, for goodness sake).


I, who consciously rebel against conformity for no reason other than the fact that I like rebellions; I, who am in mind if not in body of a punkest mindset (I be a punk, right-o, yo ma bitch); I, who - yeah, you get the point.  I'm always that guy, the one not doing what he's supposed to be doing.  The one, you know him.  


I have problems with authority.  If I was a girl, I'd get pregnant just so I could piss in a policeman's hat.  What?  Are you saying you wouldn't?


And now my head has betrayed me.  It's a conformist.  Damn it, my head is a sheep, and it isn't a cool ass sheep like this one. 

 I love that sheep.


No, it's a lame duck type of sheep.  I'm not posting a picture because my blog is already nearly overrun with wool and animals.  Y'all might start thinking I'm Jodi Meadows' secret identity or something.  Incidentally, if you have never read her blog, you should.  It's good.  Nearly as good as mine.  It is here.

My head betrayed me, and so I broke it.  And now I'm free.  Now I see what I couldn't see before.   

 Oh, this one has gotten long, too.


Well, I shall post the third and final part of My Broken Head soon. 
 

The Value of Editing

I recently received an email containing one of my beta's comments on my manuscript.  A lot of the comments I felt didn't really apply, for instance when the comment was that only one character seemed to be introduced (there is only one main character introduced in the first two chapters)  whilst other comments were essentially lost in translation (I will continue to spell artefact with an e; sorry, but I know I'm right and spell checker agrees with me.  So does the Oxford English dictionary.  :p   )

And some comments blew me away.

Really.

My novel is about an old warrior who heads out on one last battle, and discovers the only way to win is to die.  In some ways it has been vastly influenced by David Gemmell's Legend.

I love Legend, so no big surprise there.

There's a scene in Legend where Death comes to Druss and warns him that if he goes to war he won't be coming back.  If he stays in the mountains he can have another twenty years.

Druss goes to war.  He's a hero, that's what heroes do.

There's a scene in my book just like that.  It wasn't until it was pointed out to me and I thought about it that I realised it does nothing for the story.  It slipped in out of my love for Legend.  It's coming out.

This is the importance of editing.

I sent the full manuscript out to two beta readers.  They knew nothing about the manuscript before they started reading.  I told them I wasn't fussed about crits, I just wanted people to read it.  At least 1/3rd of my story is flashbacks, an entire second story within the novel.  I didn't tell them this; I needed to know if the flashbacks were confusing to people who had no idea they were coming.

I'm waiting on them coming back in.

When they do I will do a full, intensive revision.  I'll do the fact-checking edit myself.  It's something I feel I can do myself; with every fact I'll check in 3 sources to make sure I have it right.  I'll edit my grammar and spelling again.  This is something else I feel I can do on my own.

At school I was sitting Higher level past papers at standerd grade, and at Higher I never did a single piece of work except assessments and exams, yet I consistently had the highest grades in English in the entire school.  So I know I have talent in that area.

I've managed to get someone to agree to do me a free grammar and editing pass.  She is studying editing and needs the experience, apparently.  So despite the fact that I'm confident in my own abilities, I'm still having someone else look at it.

I'm considering having someone edit the whole thing for story.  I know it will be cost prohibitive (seriously, I have a budget of £0)  but there's no underestimating the importance of a good first impression.  I don't want to turn readers off future books because the first one is a mess.

And I need to make enough money off of this one that the next will be paid for (cover + editing).

The Face of Indie Publishing

Some people are putting J A Konrath forward as the face of Indie Publishing.  I don't really buy that.  Yes, he earns enough from publishing his own stuff to survive at it, but that's all he does.  Yes, he has a blog, but he doesn't crop up all over the place declaring Indie publishing as the future and fighting our corner.  Yes, he sells a lot, but he comes from a NY published background, and brought a platform with him.

I don't really agree that we need a face of Indie Publishing, but if we have to, should it really come down to sales?  That's a very NY way of looking at things.

Surely, the poster boy of Indie fiction should be someone so passionate about it that they can't keep their big mouth shut (in the nicest possible way of course).  Someone who is everywhere on this silly internet thing, speaking up about Indie, pointing out that it's worthwhile, corrupting those who were on the fence to trying our way of thinking.

Surely the poster boy of Indie fiction is already out there, somewhere, being all over cheerleader for the indies.

Everywhere I go, everything I read, a name comes back to me.  I'm yet to find a single Indie resource, anywhere on the web, that doesn't have a certain name attached to it.  Surely that name, that person, has made themself the face of Indie fiction?

Zoe Winters is everywhere across the net, on every site I come to.  I first discovered her on Nathan Bransford's blog, leaving comments about self-publishing.  She is on Indie Reader, and on Publishing Renaissance, and anywhere else I seem to look.  She was one of the first people to join my Guild (link at the top, please join) and she blogs and tweets about Indie all the time.

If someone has to be the face of Indie Publishing, it should be someone like Zoe. 

You can read Zoe's blog here.

The Typography of Book Covers

Here are some book covers by debut authors or unknown authors.

Now okay the thumbnails are small, but the similarities are easy to spot.

First of all, how many of these books have you heard of?  I've heard of the one on the end, that's it.  I'm very intrigued by the first two.  Definitely by the first one.

So, some interesting covers.  Number three is very generic (a fantasy that has people on horseback riding through the mountains.  My Gods, I must buy this at once.  Yeah, not so much...)

But what do they have in common?

Try some more covers, not all fantasies this time.

Do you see what they have in common?

In the first four pictures, the book title is given far more importance than the author's name.  Because the title is the selling point in these cases.  "Oh, Fallow Blade," says the bookshop browser.  "I wonder what that's about."  In the second lot of four we see a shift to "Oh, the next Terry Pratchett/Dan Brown/ whoever book.  I have to buy that."

The Unique Selling Point or USP (seriously, if you want to market your books effectively, you will need to learn marketing.  And that means learning things like USPs and how to do market research and so on) alters in the second batch of books to be about the author.

Interestingly, even by book seven, Harry Potter was still considered of far more importance than JK Rowling.  That's the power of branding.

So, for the debut author it seems that you're title should be at the top of the book.  Should it?  Readers are subconsciously targeted by the layout of your cover.  If you give your name all the attention, it might suggest to readers that you are far more well known than you actually are.  And having the readers subconsciously thinking "Hmm, this is a popular author," can't be a bad thing, can it?

Oh, and it's not lying, it's marketing.  Well, it is lying, but marketing IS LYING.  And we are having to compete with companies that have multi-million pound turnovers per annum.  We need whatever help we can get.

What do you think?  Where's the title going on your next book cover?

These book images are all copyrighted.  I don't own the copyright.  I have used them simply for illustrative purposes.  I am not claiming to be the author or publisher of any of these books.  If you are the author or publisher of any of these books and you wish me to remove the image, please email me at Chriskelly82*AT*aol.com, replacing the *AT* with an @.

Thank you.   

 

How to find a beta reader - part 2

Well, this is my beta reader results.  It's been not bad, I'd say.


Writing Groups


I asked in the two writing groups I was involved in.  In one I received nothing, no offers.  But this isn't a fair assessment because one of the writers there is my usual beta reader and read an early draft version of my book before I reworked it.


In the other one, I received 1 offer.  Nice.


Crit Partner Match


I have had 0 offers so far from Crit Partner Match.

Friends

I asked at Superhero Nation.  I received 1 offer.  Nice.

 Family

I didn't ask.  They're not big readers.

 My blog

I received a request for a sample.

So, 2 and 1/2.  Well, 2 chapters.  Not bad, not brilliant.  I'm waiting on them coming back, and then I'll find out if my betas are any good.

In the end, I think the best way to get beta readers is to have a blog or twitter or join a forum.  Make connections.  Make friends.

And ask your friends.

But friendship is a 2 way street, so be ready when they ask you, too.

My book cover requirements - book cover part 3

I've had four book covers done so far, all with the same artist. I give her a rundown of what the book is about, the feel of the book, the main characters, and then let her go to town. She always comes back with amazing designs. I've chosen to work with freelancers for art design, editing, and interior layout rather than do it myself, though. I just do the writing and publishing. :)

S.L.Armstrong left this as a comment on the previous post.

I'm going to do the same with The Guns of Pleasure and Death.

Let's see, synopsis.

16 year old Matilda Raleigh is deep in the Amazonian rainforest, searching for Manoa (El Dorado) with her father.  When they finally find the lost city, their entire party is killed by savage jungle tribes.  All of them except Matilda, who commits unspeakable evil to save her life.

72 year old Matilda Raleigh is dying from consumption.  After a lifetime of fighting evil, of trying to atone for her past, she is faced with one last quest; the evil magic wielded by those jungle savages has resurfaced, this time wielded by a power hungry madman, and she is the only one who can stop him.  But to stop him means committing an act so evil it will damn not only her, but 1500 innocent people to an eternity of Hell.

The book has a steampunk setting, but the general tone is very much sword and sorcery, a la Conan.

 Matilda Raleigh is a chain smoking, kick-ass Victorian behemoth, a woman who will not stay down and out for the count, wise-cracking, pistol-whipping, big-jacket-wearing old-style Hero with a capital haitch.

Now translate that into an image.

Book Cover Design - stage one

That last post was just to point out my tastes, aesthetically. Now I'm going to sum up parts of my novel, and see where they fit into possible cover ideas.

The 5 most important points in the Guns of Pleasure and Death

1)the guns
2)the skulls
3)Matilda
4)Britain
5)the guardian/Midas


The genre is Sword and sorcery crossed with Steampunk, but in the tradition of Victorian Penny bloods.

So where does that leave me?

Confused.

Locations: the Amazonian rainforest, Edwardian London, on board the Titanic.

Nope, still nothing is suggesting itself to me. Damn.

This is harder than I thought it was going to be. How did you come up with your book cover?

I wish I'd known this

In Britain, all expenses incurred can be carried forward year after year until you are published, and then you can claim them all back from your taxes.


I wish, wish, wish I'd known that ten, fifteen years ago.


Taxman vs Writer

How to find a beta reader - part 1

I'm doing part 1 today.  I'll do part 2 in a few days time.


I mentioned before that the reason I have this blog is to detail everything in my adventures in Indie Publishing.  Well, now I've finished my novel I need beta readers.  And I'll post here with all my plans to get them.


And I'll post the results of my efforts in a couple of days.


Writing Groups


Okay, my first option is to ask in writers groups.  But you can't just pop up in these places and say "Hey, read my book."  Luckily I'm already a member in two online writing groups.  The first one is  mystical adventures and the second one I'm not going to name.

Mystical Adventures is a site where a small bunch of writers hang around and help each other procrastinate.  A great group of people.

The other site actually does critiques for each other, a chapter per month.

Internet Dating Sites

Well, not quite, but sites like Crit Partner Match are like dating sites for writers.  Join and post looking for your perfect partner.  Sounds simple, right?

Ask your friends

I kick about sometimes over at Superhero Nation so I asked there.  Why not?

Ask your family

Don't think you need to find beta readers online.  Sadly my family aren't readers.

And use your blog.

Anyone fancy being my beta reader?  Post a comment and let me know.



Are there any ways I've missed?  Post and let me know how you found your beta readers.
 

Indie vs self-published: is there a difference CLARIFIED Part 2

Hats.


I was talking about hats.  About Indie Publishing hats, to be precise.  If you haven't read Part 1 of this post, you'll find it here.  


Anyway, hats.


I'm not trying to steal the Indie Author hat from anyone.  There are a lot of great Indie Authors out there.  A whole community of them, and if I or any one of them wants to make it big we have to support each other.  This support, this community spirit, is what we can have that NY publishers can't. 

United we stand...

Alan Baxter started Blade Red Press to self-publish his own work.  He now also publishes anthologies of other people's work.  He's a sound guy and when we've emailed he's always given me good advice.  He has a couple of books out, and if you haven't given them a look you really should.

Zoe Winters I already mentioned in the last piece.  She has a 10 year plan, and I think she'll go really far.

These are just two of the awesome Indie writers out there.  There are hundreds, possibly thousands, more.  And the cool thing about being Indie is the freedom; the freedom to blur genres, to challenge the traditional (and quite often boring) mainstream fiction streams, the I-can-do-whatever-I-want (as long as it's good) mentality. 


We need to network.  We need to support each other.  That is exactly what I'm trying to do with The Guild and I really, really hope it takes off.  Zoe was writing the other day that Indie Readers (people who love Indie writers work but don't write themselves) are looking for more writers to read.

The bottom line for big publishers is £££££ or $$$$$.  For the Indies it's more about the creation, the joy of bringing something to life.  I can't wait until my book is released and some comments how much they liked it.  I'll be like "OhhhhhmyyyyyyyygooooodddddddssssssI'msquuueeeeeaaaammeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Yeah.

So, if you're an Indie and you think I insulted you, I am truly sorry.  I never wanted to do that.  I want us all to become a community, to support each other.  To link to each other's blogs, and point readers in each others direction.  Because they can read faster than we can write, and there's more of them than there is of us, and sharing is nice.

Big businesses, like NY Publishers, aren't interested in nice, and they aren't interested in customers.  They only care about the money, and that's why Indie Authors are threatening them.

PS, join The Guild.  It's free and I hope, hope, hope it will become the awesome resource that it could, easily, become. 

Indie vs self-published: is there a difference CLARIFIED

I posted a few days ago about Indie vs self-publishing, and Ian O'Neill replied.  I know Ian from elsewhere on the 'net.  Anyway, we had a good little gossip and it turns out he thought I was insulting him.

I was shocked.

No, Really, I was Shocked.  Okay, maybe I'm taking the piss a little here, but I saw this ----------------------------------->
and wanted an excuse to use it.

It was not my intention to be insulting (well, not to insult Ian.  There are some people who might be best served by being insulted.  Then they might go away and stop self-publishing crap books that no one will read because the writer doesn't understand basec gramar).

Yes, I know I put two spelling mistakes in there.  I was making a point.  It's ridiculous trying to read books with bad grammar and worse spelling.

So, anyway, I'm following Ian's advice and re-posting to clarify some issues.

What I think self-publishing is:

*    My daughter's school did a book about the janitor.  They sold about 30 copies.

*    My local writer's circle did a great book of new Scottish poetry, and sold 150 copies.

*    I picked up a self-published book from the College Library.  It was so bad I regretted having learned to read.

*    Self-publishing can be bad, or awesome, but is ALWAYS small-scale.

What I think Indie-publishing is: 

*    someone who has made over 4000 sales from 1 book on Kindle

*    someone who has gotten out more money than they put in

*    someone who is at a level where they could have been published by a NY publishing house

*    don't ask why this is accompanied by a photo of a typewriter; I have no idea

Zoe Winter's first novella, "Kept," is available from most places for free.  Amazon doesn't deal in free books, so she's selling Kept for just under $1 over there.  She has made over $1500 from Kindle sales.  Including free downloads, her novella has been downloaded nearly 25,000 times.   And her next book won't be free.  All these people who read the novella, and I bet at least half will buy book 2 in her Therian series.  Go, Zoe.

Ian O'Neill mentioned in the comments that he was a former Indie author who'd made back more than he'd put in.  Well done, Ian.  I'm sure it was hard, but I'm sure it was also worth it.  Although only Ian knows for sure.

Okay, to clarify my P.O.V. on the whole indie - self-pub thing:

No one would compare a big NY publishing house to a University Press.  I wouldn't compare someone like Zoe Winters to someone who's sold a half dozen copies to siblings and cousins.

Sorry, but I wouldn't.

Now I'm not trying to steal the Indie Publisher or Indie Author hat for myself and leave all my fine Indie fellows, guys and gals, hatless.  I'm not saying there all crappy little self-publishers.  That's really missing the point of what I want to do.

Anyway, this is getting long, so I'll post the other half tomorrow.  Until then, keep your hats on!

PS, you really should read Kept.  It is free, after all.  You can find it here.   I haven't read it yet (so don't think I'm saying it's good) but I intend to within the week.  I'll call it like I see it when I do (the sample I read was excellent).

You'll find part 2 of this post here. 

Indie vs self-published: is there a difference

We're hearing so much lately about Indie Authors, but are they just self-published authors revamped for the new millenium? Well, okay, the millenium is a decade old, but it's newer than the last one.

I don't think they are.

We have

Traditionally Published (NY) Authors. They jump through hoops to get their work out.

Vanity Published Authors. They pay cash up front.

Self-published Authors. Small scale, often write crap, aren't that serious about the whole thing.

Indie Publisher/Authors. Serious business men and women who take their work seriously and seriously use the new technology in very serious ways. I'm serious.

So does that mean there's a difference? Well, this is how I see it. People self-publish books about their local towns or so on, things that have a very small geographical area of significance. There's no point in doing an e-book if your subject is Bonniebrig or if you fancy writing like this:

Ah dunnae kinn if 'at means there's a difference ur nae, but as far as aam concerned thaur is.

Imagine a whole book written like that. I could read it, but could you? So, self-publishing suits very small niche audiences. The writer can put the books together on their PC and print them out, bind them themselves and sell them on the streets of their hometown.

Indie authors are completely different. For the most part an indie author should have the same standards as a NY publishing house. An Indie author should run their own imprint. To look at music, an Indie author is the equivalent of the Ting Tings.

Ting Tings on youtube - Awesome, much.

A self-published author plays the local pub. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not, very, very rarely they'll be picked up by an agent/publisher/record company.

Labels are important. It's why you won't here me refer to myself as self-published from here out. I'm indie, and I love it.

What do you think?


Ian O'Neill pointed out I should clear up some misunderstandings.  I did, and you can find my new post here.

10 self publishing questions

In a brilliant bit of marketing Nathan Bransford has posted 10 questions to ask yourself before you self publish.

Why is it a brilliant piece of marketing? Simple, really - people who frequent agent's blogs are desperate for some way to get published, traditionally published. He knew that the majority of people would instantly dismiss the idea of self-publishing.

If you want to know why they dismissed the idea, Zoe Winters blogged about the real source of self-publishing stigma.

Anyway, I thought I'd have a go at the 10 questions, see how I do.

Here goes:

Have you taken the time to research both the self-publishing and traditional publishing routes?

Yes. I've wanted to self-publish since 2005. I know all about Smashwords, Lightning Source, going straight to Kindle, and I've spoken extensively with others who have done this. I've also researched traditional publishing, and regularly read
Nathan Bransford's and Kirstin Nelson's blogs.


Does your book appeal to a wide audience, or a niche?

Well it's a steampunk sword and sorcery adventure so I guess a large niche.

Question 3 is "if you tried to find an agent..." but I never tried.


Do you know which self publishing model you want to follow?

Yes. Due to monetary constraints I will publish by ebook, then when I have enough money coming in I will buy my ten ISBNs from Nielson. Then I'll publish through Lightning Source.

Can you afford to lose any money you plan to spend?

If everything goes to plan I won't be spending any money.

Do you have a plan for copyediting, cover design, ISBNs, etc?

E-books don't need ISBNs. Cover design will be done nearer the time, I'm researching the Hell out of it (I've just read so much info on typography that you wouldn't believe. And when you look at other, published books, the word placements become so obvious). Copy editing will be my kryptonite, but I'm active on a Runboard writing forum, and Kelly Armstrong's Otherworld OWG, and if I have to I'll join critters or something.

Or I'll do someone's book if they do mine.

Do you have a marketing plan?

Absolutely. It hinges on me being published by August/September. It's still being worked on, but there will be money-off vouchers, special offers, competitions, and a few other things I'm not mentioning yet.

Do you have a plan for your next book?

Of course I do, just because I intend to DIY doesn't mean I'm not a real writer.

Do you have a healthy amount of self-esteem and an entrepreneurial spirit?

Yes, and oh yes I certainly do.

10. Are we having fun yet?

Oh yes, I love all this. The danger, the excitement. Okay, maybe not danger; but it is exciting, like being on the edge of something awesome, the edge of the future. I feel like an explorer in new territory, a pioneer in new technology. The world's a-changing, baby. You're either going to change the world or let it change you, and I've always hated being told what to do.

Maybe it's my film student background (I'm going to do an HND in television this September) and maybe it's because I'm Scottish (for such a small country we have loads of entrepreuners and often lead the world in innovation), but I love the idea of being Indie, whether it's Indie films, music or writing.

What about you? How did you score?