Self publishing for starters

Back in October 2011 I started to realise that the Publishing Industry was changing in a very significant way and people didn’t really know about it. I wrote a series of posts at that time over on my website, where I talked about my book publishing experiences thus far. I remember it being a steep learning curve, and I guess in many respects, it still is. In this day and age, authors have to be all-rounders capable of anything and everything (see my post The 10 Jobs of a Modern Day Writer). It’s also a journey encompassing just about every emotion you can imagine.

Check out these posts:

The Real Deal - I talk about the differences between publishing with a Traditional verses an Independent.

Luxuries and Publicists – An example to illustrate the points I was making in The Real Deal, and posing the question “Publisher or Publicist?”

Publishing Revolution – Amazon verses traditional publishing houses as eBooks outsell paperbacks for the first time on Amazon.

Embracing Amazon – Amazon is actively plugging the gaps left open by Traditionals and smashing the stigma of self / vanity publishing.

What Will 2012 Bring? – An industry in turmoil with the spoils there for the taking, if we writers keep an open mind and embrace change.

So a couple of years on and eBooks are still going strong. There’s never been a better time to realise this market’s awesome potential and self publish your way to success.

Here are some pointers to start you off:

Find your price point - lots of authors are building their platform / online presence by keeping the price of their books between 99p and £2.99. Remember what I said in this post - I could make the same profit by selling my book directly with Amazon for 99p, as I am right now going through an Indie Publisher and selling it for £12.99!

Write great content - goes without saying. There's a lot of trash out there, people trying to make a quick buck by writing crap. Don't be one of them! Be the authority on your subject matter.

Understand metadata - I'm still getting to grips with metadata and search engine optimisation (SEO) but here's a post I wrote a while back to give you a basic understanding. You want to ensure your book is top of those search engines especially Google's.

Have a hook - with all the books online, you need to stand out from the crowd. Why should someone read your book over other books in the same genre?

Integrate online - don't just create your author platform and then sit back and wait for things to get started. You need to be blogging, tweeting, facebooking, Google+ing, Pinning, Instagramming, StumblingUpon daily to keep your digital presence alive. This is how you reach a worldwide audience with just a few clicks and you build your fan base slowly but surely.

Why should you self publish?

So far we've covered building your author platform and your brand, all the different elements you could include to reach a worldwide audience and how to get the best out of the tools available to you. We've also looked at how to be a better novelist - writing a great book to launch - and the publishing journey today and how it's changed to being mostly virtual.

Today I'm going to give you ten reasons why you should consider publishing your own books. This kicks off my new blog series "Self Publishing". Over the coming weeks and months, we're going to look at self publishing in depth and I'll have case studies, debates and useful advice to help you make an informed decision about this type of publishing. Five years ago, this would have been frowned upon - "vanity, vanity" - but not any more. In fact, if you dream about an amazing publishing deal with a traditional publishing house, self publishing your book first and drumming up sales into the thousands could prove incredibly resourceful.

Why self publish?

1) You can publish a book freely without the depressing submission and rejection merry-go-round.

2) Online marketing tools give you instant access to a worldwide marketplace.

3) There's the potential to earn a lot of money.

4) There's the potential to fulfill your writing ambitions.

5) Respectable authors are doing it.

6) Cuts out lots of middle men who all want a cut - agents / publishers / distribution channels.

7) Yes, marketing is hard work but you are in control of the experiments.

8) Technology and social media is there to be exploited - and most of it is FREE.

9) Any contracts with Amazon / Lulu / Smashwords are for as long as you want and there's no pressure to earn back the advance that you would normally get with a traditional pub. house.

10) If you're dedicated and you hang in there with marketing, you'll earn more over time (higher percentage of royalties on a like for like digital rights contract) than you would with a traditional.

We'll go into each of these points in a lot more detail as the series progresses.

Running with the moon by Jonny Bealby

When it comes to travelogues, I find it hard to find one that hasn't overdone it on the description, and when you don't know the place very well, too much description loses me. To have just the right amount of description to keep the reader's attention and engage them in your adventure is a very tricky art. What Jonny does so brilliantly in this story is mix a perfect blend of emotion, beautiful honesty, energy, courage, adventure and dare I say, spirituality into the narrative. For me, he strikes a chord and there are moments in the book where I applaud the prose and only hope I can be as good some day. I mean, the whole thing is edited to perfection, but those particular sections are extra extra special. Page 209 is a great example of this when Jonny finally reaches Cape Town.

This is the first travelogue I've read cover to cover and boy what an adventure. Makes me wish I had the guts to jump on a motorbike and ride down one side of Africa and back up the other. I love Africa, it's in my blood having contracted adventure tours there for a good eight years. This book was recommended to me by a friend who now works for Jonny over at Wild Frontiers. From the way he was describing it to me, I knew I was going to enjoy it. We all face crossroads in life and it's how we deal with the fallout of change that shapes our future. This is at the heart of Running with the moon. What also resonated with me from a travel perspective was the bits of Africa he travelled through which I didn't know very well, I came to know better, and the bits I did know, it brought back wonderful memories. The description of Lake Tana hotel in Tana, Ethiopia on pages 294 and 295 - I stayed there in December 2007 and it's still exactly the same!

If you love Africa and you love an adventure coupled with beautiful prose, this is definitely a must read. I am sure I'll be reading it over and over. 

My guest blog for the Namibian Tourist Board

Sharing a little guest blog triumph with you today which I'm very proud of!

Check out my piece here - Why Namibia is my number one

The Publishing Journey series - in conclusion

A final word on The Publishing Journey as we wrap up this series -

As I've been working through the posts, it's become obvious to me that the publishing journey - from book proposal to post launch exposure and everything in between - is a completely different beast to how I remember when I first started out at the age of 15.

If you aren't venturing down the traditional route - and even if you do - at some point you will need to embrace and learn about the virtual book marketing techniques available to you as a promoter of your own work. This series is packed with good ideas to kick start your publicity and branding - and I've been learning along the way too!

I'm going to squeeze in some last minute marketing advice for you before we get into all things self publishing next week ...

Like most of you reading this, marketing is something I've plunged into head first with no prior knowledge, but thankfully I'm picking up tips and tricks and helpful advice all the time.

Here are 10 pitfalls to avoid when marketing your book and how to stay on the straight and narrow:

1) Don't try to aim for everyone
You have written for a specific genre so stick to it

2) Don't bet on consumer rationality
Research suggests that emotion plays a big part in purchase decisions so market to your audience's whims. Don't be square with your strategy. Think outside the box

3) Don't take market research as the be all and end all
Interpret the data at face value and don't try to read between the lines - that could cost you

4) Don't get seduced by new, exciting marketing methods
Stick to what works whilst evaluating what might

5) Don't advertise your aspirations
You are setting yourself up for a mighty fall by inviting your potential readers to catch you out. Live by them and set the tone for you and your writing that way

6) Don't follow the leader
Focus on your individual hook because that's what makes your story unique. If you try and copy someone else's style or idea and it doesn't work, you are proving to your audience that you will never be as good

7) Don't create a big marketing team
What's that saying? "Too many cooks spoil the broth". I can't afford a big team of people to help me market my work which is just as well because the best committee is a committee of one

8) Don't starve your budget
Tricky because I have no budget, but every writer must somehow get their message out. For now I'm using free social media and the internet. That's as good a starting point as any...

9) Don't expect your marketing efforts to work immediately
It takes time to build a brand. Credibility grows through consistency. Plan plan plan and stick to your plan

10) Don't get stage fright
Now it's time to execute those plans and find out what works and what doesn't

GOOD LUCK!

And here's a novel tip for free advertising overseas:

Write a message in the front of your book linking back to a promotional piece about your story on your website or blog. If you travel a lot or know someone who does, give them a copy of your book to leave in a well trafficked area like a cafe, hotel reception or even on public transport. Get them to take a pic of your book in-country and "social media" it, then you could post their pic and words back to your website or blog and keep an area dedicated to this ongoing promotion.

Wouldn't it be amazing to see your book travel all around the world!!!

Networking tips

I promised a blog post on the daunting subject of networking so here we go. I'm hopefully going to show you that it isn't as scary as it sounds...

I know for a fact many writers are the shy, retiring type (like me). We don't want to talk to people. All we want to do is be left alone to write. Our creative space only has room for one!

But, here's a thought - what if you're already talking with fellow writers through Facebook and Twitter? And hey presto, guess what, you're networking.

My first word of advice - don't think of it as networking. Don't think of it as what can I do / what do I have do for this person for them to like me and connect with me. And turning it on its head, don't go into the relationship with the selfish motive of what can I get out of this, either.

Think of it as socialising with friends - meaningful sharing of ideas, sharing books and articles you've read and interesting industry advice. Who wants a shallow, negative relationship anyway?
 
Seek out the people you admire and invest in them. After all, you get out what you put in. And people will reciprocate. The idea is to surround yourself with those friends who will motivate you and keep you sane on the rocky road of a freelancer.
 
I love giving something back through my blog. Put yourself out there with your writing and pretty soon you'll be attracting like-minded people. It really is as simple as that - and once again I say Hallelujah to the Twittersphere!

Not only did networking uncover the real world of publishing to me, but it found me my agent, who in turn found me my publisher. I also made some good friends and held some lively debates at the events I attended. This is why it's so important to throw yourself out there every now and then. You never know who you're going to meet and what will happen.

Go on, go for it!

Here is a splash of my favourite networking tips:

• Understand the other person's needs ahead of your own

• It's not about quantity, but quality - find the right people

• Proactively seek out people who you want to connect with

• Offer praise first, then request help / advice later

• Keep the initial contact short

• Introduce people - this is my absolute favourite bizarrely enough. If I'm in a crowded room with too many people to talk to, I pair people off so I can talk to the one person I need to make contact with. Don't be a drifter moving from group to group. Sparkle, shine and hold your own

• Make a point to follow up - hold my hands up, I'm rubbish at this

• Exchange business cards and jot down one thing about that person on the back so you remember them!

Your book's exposure

Something I never capitalised on with my debut novel - because I was learning how the Publishing industry had changed and adapting - was maximising its exposure at the time of release. Looking back now, I would definitely have a solid marketing strategy in place before the launch date based on the advice I've been sharing in The Publishing Journey blog series.

We spend so much time plotting and writing a book, editing, re-writing, editing, re-writing so it seems criminal that the hype will probably only last for a couple of months after all of that hard work.

Marketing yourself and your book/s has to be scheduled into your writing week unless you can afford to pay someone to do it for you. It's a hell of a lot of work but will ensure you do your work justice and get it in front of as many people as possible on a regular basis.

The point is to keep networking - making new friends / contacts / potential readers and sharing your experiences as a writer. Therefore it stands to reason, much the same as the build up to your book launch, your long term marketing strategy should include some or all of the following:

• Competitions
• Giveaways - Goodreads is an excellent starting point
• Blog tours
• Make sure your book is advertised in your social media profile sections and on your website
• Work on getting as many reviews as you can. Offer incentives. Share these reviews
• Schedule interviews and save them as podcasts
• Visit in person or use Skype if your audience is further afield to talk with book groups and writing circles
• Talk at writing conferences
• Enter your book into competitions for published authors

You know, this does take up a huge amount of your time and could completely overrun any time you have for writing, so don't pressure yourself to do all of these things at once. Pick one from the list and see how you get on. Maybe give yourself two months to accomplish it. If it doesn't work out or you didn't find it useful, pick another and try over. As I so often say, it's all about finding what works for you.

I'll have some tips for networking in my next post.