Deadly Obsession available in Paperback!

My paperback is out; you can read it by turning pages. Wow, its a GREAT feeling!

And it wasn't that difficult. Of course, I thought it would be (difficult) when I started because it was an unknown entity. But Createspace was amazing. The site takes you step by step through the process, and if you make a mistake you can go back and change it as many times as you like. 

Before I started, I read through the various stages so  I knew what I had to deliver from my side, such as a cover to the correct dimensions, a blurb for the back cover, the correct layout, the correct font. 

On my first attempt, I simply used the same layout as I had for the Kindle version - well, when I received my proof, the typeface was so big you could read it from a distance of  ten yards. 

Through all my iterations of this book, I found the following to work best for a paperback novel:

• black print on cream paper, not white
• 5x8 in size, nothing larger
• Palatino Linotype, 10
• review the digital proof as well as a hard copy
• provide a professional cover

I've been through it with a fine tooth comb; its been edited and proofed for grammar and typos; its been tweaked and turned and tossed and tinkered with - its should be in its best shape yet. 

I hope you enjoy Deadly Obsession as a paperback. If you do, please let me know. 

At the moment its only available on Createspace,  but I expect it to be out on Amazon.com within the next few days. 

If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them (please keep them constructive). 

Writing rocks!!

Deadly Obsession in Paperback - I'm nearly there!

Have you ever wondered why nothing is as simple as it sounds?
But then again, often when you finally complete a complex task which you viewed with dread before the outset, it turns out to be far simpler than you originally thought?

When I don't know what something will be like/take to do, it becomes this massive mountain, and I'm a piddling climber attempting to transcend a sheer rock face with nothing but my bare hands.

I even get that knot of anxiety churning away in my stomach which I have to push through in order to come out the other side. But when I'm out the other side, I look back and say 'that wasn't so bad!'

90% of the time, its never so bad. 90% of the time, its never as hard as I make it out to be in my mind.
I'm holding onto this thought with both hands and my teeth because I'm smack bang in the middle of trying to publish Deadly Obsession in paperback, and I'm daunted by the task!
I have to say, that from this side of the fence (i.e. haven't done it yet), I feel totally inept. Having said that I WILL persist.

I'm nearly there.

With any luck, by this weekend...

Tips to Design Your Book's Front Cover

Your book's front cover is the picture that speaks a thousand words. It's what your book looks like to, hopefully, millions of viewers and readers out there. You've got to make it good, and there are a number of ways in which you can do this.

If you don't have a specific idea in your head, and there may be many of you who don't, that's OK, because as with anything there is a simple formula you can use.

1. What is your book about?

The front cover is the face of your book. This is the first thing your reader will see, so it needs to be designed to draw the reader in. It needs to give the reader a taste of what they can expect to find in the book. The front cover is the epitome of show, don't tell.

Many writers will have a picture in their head of how they want the cover to look. If not, these questions may help you:

·        What does your main character do? Are they a detective or a sailor or maybe a painter?

·        Where is the book set? If your main character is a sailor then maybe the book is set on the high seas.

·        What happens in the story? Is it a murder? Is it a love story? Is it a drama?

Try to incorporate images that start to tell the story for you.

2. Is there a key/major theme?

You're unlikely to find the front cover of a murder mystery depicting two people in love under a starry sky. Likewise, any self-respecting romance is unlikely to feature a bloodied knife on the front cover.

Take the key theme and try to find images that illustrate it.

3. Where to find the images?

There are a multitude of websites offering images - some free, some not. It all depends on what you are looking for.

If you manage to find something free online then use it, but if not, it's a relatively small investment to purchase five images. Usually these images can be downloaded over a set period (up to one year), so if you don't use all of them now, you can use them for your next book.

Here are some useful websites:

·        www.shutterstock.com

·        www.istockphoto.com

·        www.gettyimages.com

·        www.alamy.com

·        www.imagesonline.com

4. Colour scheme.

What genre have you written for? If your book is a mystery, you'll probably want to steer clear of colours such as pink or lavender? Thriller, mystery, crime novels call out for dark colours full of foreboding. Chick Lit, on the other hand, works well with the use of white, pretty colours, and pastels.

Consider the colour of the spine of your book. This is particularly important if you are producing a paperback or print-on-demand edition.  At some stage, the book will sit on a shelf, and that's where the spine comes into its own. Make sure that your spine colours work well with the font colour so your title and name stand out.

5. Layout - DIY or Pro?

Here's where it can get tricky. If you're not a graphics person or don't have some rudimentary knowledge of graphics software, you may decide to opt for a professional to lay it all out for you. I did.

After days of trying to get to grips with a software programme, I gave up. After all, I want to spend my time writing rather than trying to get my head around a completely different skill.

6. Front cover hook

I'm a fan of a hook on the front cover. It's a teaser; a tantalising insight into what the book is about. I always remember the story - legend, by now, I imagine - of the guys who concocted the screen story for the film, Alien.

Their challenge was to summarise the story to the film makers. They described it as "Jaws in space."

Those three words give you the Alien story in a nutshell. No need to explain, no need to embellish.

Thing is, you don't want to give away too much on your front cover, but you do want to use words to précis the story into a bit size chunk of a taster.

7. Back cover blurb

Here's where you set the scene a bit more. Here's where you introduce your characters and the journey they are about to take in the book. It's a short pitch or synopsis, and there is an art to getting it right. Get a few drafts together, and pass them amongst your friends for feedback. You're looking for an I'd like to read that response or I'm dying to know what happens to them.

8. Your name or pen name?

This is ultimately a personal choice. You write under whatever name you choose. People may advise you why a certain name won't work or why something else would work better, but essentially it is your choice.

One thing I would say - these days with personal branding and the stratospheric rise of social media, people (readers) are looking to connect. In that quest to connect they want to get to know you, and they want to know the real you.

Just something to bear in mind.

9. Proof

You will have done it to the manuscript in various stages of rewrites and you will have done it with the final draft of the manuscript but sometimes seeing it in a slightly different format to the one you normally work in, may help you to see things more clearly.

Proof it one last time.

Remember, the more professional you can make your book the better. Be proud of your work, it's taken a tremendous amount of time and effort on your part.

Your book's cover puts a face to the name - make sure the face you put out there is a good one.

Self-publishing - Paperbacks

For the uninitiated, yes, you can self-publish in paperback yourself for no cost!

This was a glaring example to me of how I shouldn't let previous experience close me off to new possibilities. You see, I've had a fairly lengthy career across marketing, PR and events management and one of the things I got to do was manage a print production process. In those days, digital was embryonic at most, and final print costs per unit (one item) were totally dependant on print runs (total number of items printed). I take the time to understand behind-the-scene stuff with anything I do, so this made complete sense to me.

What I hadn't taken into account was technology - don't ya just love it! Before digital, I was used to organic growth, now in the digital age, we are accustomed to exponential growth and even more recently, the explosion of viral growth!
Long story short, I finally woke up to find that what I had learnt was not true and what I couldn't conceive of, was. Hello technology!

How does this relate to self-publishing your own paperback at no cost to yourself? It's called Print-On-Demand (POD).

It is possible for yes, you've guessed it, Amazon, to print one paperback book complete with full colour cover to fill one order!

As you can imagine that shot to hell my perception that if I wanted to self-publish in paperback, I would have to go to some small-time printer, scrape together the funds to get 100 copies published and then store them in my garage with practically non-existent means (financial and marketing platform) to sell them.

Amazon has given us indie authors, Createspace. So, what does Createspace do for you?

• Formatting
• Size of book
• Colour of paper
• Selection of cover templates to choose from
• ISBN

As with the process on Kindle Direct Publishing, I strongly recommend you read whatever guidelines you can on Createspace before you start. Remember, I'm only relating my experience with a novel, that means I have no internal images, no strange fonts or complex formatting, no table of contents, no bibliography.
Once everything is in place, your book is ready, and Createspace highly recommends that you get a proof copy sent to yourself to see how it looks.

You see there is one major difference between publishing on Kindle and publishing on Createspace - and that's the formatting.

This is my story... (wow, did I laugh!)
My Kindle edition looked great - I used an Arial font, 14 pt - and when I checked it out on Kindle Previewer, it looked pretty cool, I have to say so myself.
So, I took the same format, did a bit of work fitting it into the trim size (actual dimensions) of the book and finished the process.
I immediately ordered my proof copy which is free of charge, but you pay for the shipping. Not trusting myself to handle the anticipation of waiting three weeks for the regular delivery, I selected the fastest delivery time and then put myself on bread and water for the rest of the month (only kidding!).
It arrived three days later and I cannot put into words the thrilled awe I felt when I held my book in my hands for the first time. But I digress.
When I opened the book, it looked like it was meant for someone who was visually challenged - the font was huge! (I myself am visually challenged, so no offence meant or taken).
Yes, I'd seen it online and there it looked great, like my Kindle version on which it was based. But in print, it looked so wrong!
This is the value of the proof copy underestimate it at your peril.

You see, font styles and font sizes that look great on an e-reader do not necessarily look good on the printed page.
It appears that sans serif (Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet) better suits e-readers and serif (Times, Georgia) suits print. Just one of the things you'll learn on the self-publishing journey.

I am currently revising my paperback version (still in process), but am strongly leaning towards Palatino Linotype for the font, 10 or 11 pt.

Hope this helps
Until next time.

Self-publishing - The Benefits

Years ago, the idea of being self-published was frowned upon, and often considered a disadvantage if you were ever to seek an agent and go the traditional publishing route thereafter.Today, it can only be considered an advantage if you go about it the right way!
Funny how things go full circle.

Why do I say this when there's a fair amount of bad press between self-published/indie authors and traditional publishing (agents/large publishers)? From what I have read, and I can cheerfully say, I have not read everything, so I stand to be corrected, it seems that opposition raises its ugly head when the mud slinging gets in everyone's eyes on both sides of the fence.

With the global pressures on profit and turnover, you can increase your chances of securing a deal with an agent and traditional publisher (if you choose to), by self-publishing and playing an active role in the marketing of your book.

Your book is the seed from which the tree develops. Your marketing efforts form the branches/networks through which your promotions flow, and eventually the tree should be strong enough to grow unattended.

There is space for everyone out there, so do what works for you and allow everyone else to do the same. Trust me, no one is out to get you personally (unless you've been doing some serious mud slinging of your own).

So, lets look at those benefits of self-publishing:
1. Sense of achievement: You get your book out there in a published format even though you may have had a gazillion rejections. You've done it! If you never do another thing with your book, and you never make a single sale, you are still a published author. Its a great sense of achievement.
2. Additional income: The vast majority of us are not going to spend many hours slaving over our book only to stop when it gets published, sit back and say, that's it, I'm done. We want to generate income with it. This requires marketing (more on that later), but the option to earn additional income is there.
3. Change of career: Publishing a book may give you the opportunity to change direction in your career. You may think I'm talking purely of a runaway best-seller, but there are other reasons at play -  it could be the platform for a lucrative copy-writing career; you could use it as a promotional tool to local press or a magazine to become a columnist; or you could discover a love for editing and proofreading.
4. Building your brand: Marketing yourself and your book is a sure-fire, rapid way to learn about digital marketing and social media. If you have loads of money to throw at marketing then you can employ the best of the best and have them do it for you. If not, then you need to do it yourself, until the time you've made enough money to hire the best of the best and have them do it for you! Ultimately, as a writer, I want to write. That is my passion. But I also love people and I enjoy marketing and the creative energy that goes hand in hand with it.  So for now, I market myself... who knows what will happen down the line.
5. Honing your craft:
Learn, practice, improve - learn, practice, improve - learn, practice, improve. Your work is never done. With writing there is always more. That's the beauty of it. The trick is not to let the quest for excellence prevent you from taking the next step - getting it out there.
6. Getting noticed:
Some writers write because they don't want to be on display. Its a way of hiding out of sight from the world behind your books and your characters. But if you want your work recognised, and purchased, this is something you have to do. In the digital world, its called 'Know me, Like me, Follow me.' In fact there is a book by Penny and Thomas Power entitled exactly this. In the writing world, it could be 'discover me, read me (and enjoy), become a fan. This is what you want - people who know who you are, like you and what you do, and become fans. Ultimately, they become your very own marketing and advertising agency.
7. Closing the big deal/making a good living: I alluded to this in the beginning of this post: writers like Amanda Hocking who has just secured herself a $2,5 million publishing contract is a shining example. She is a prolific writer and she has built her own dedicated fan base. With these two elements, you're as close to success as you'll ever be because even if no million dollar deal comes up, you're making the big bucks on your own anyway!


I'm not touting one route as any better or worse than the other: they are both effective and both lucrative.

This post is meant for you, the writer, who wants to write and to share their work with the world, however you find your way to market. 

Part 3 - Self-publishing on Kindle

Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP - now, here's a little bit of wizardry for you. I dipped my toes into the waters of self-publishing with this one, and the process couldn't have been smoother or more enjoyable.

I'd known about Kindle's as e-readers (who didn't?), and I'd heard about people selling their own goods on Amazon but probably because my focus was elsewhere at the time, I didn't put two and two together. Then I saw a friend of mine's book on Amazon and I squealed with delight. Firstly, because I was so excited she was published, and secondly, because if she could do it, then so could I.

I loved working with KDP - it was simple, easy and they take you through everything in a step by step process. This will produce your book in a Kindle format only, i.e. to be read on Kindles.
For those who aren't sure, the kindle is an e-reader produced and sold by Amazon exclusively.

However, you can rely on Amazon to be business savvy, so, in their wisdom they offer a nifty bit of software you can download to enable you to read a Kindle book on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and android phone. So, straight away your potential reading market has just expanded. There is no cost to publish via KDP.

Where to start, I hear you ask? Let me take you through how I did it:
1. Read through all the steps in the Kindle Publishing Guide before you start - its well worth the time.It gives you a good idea of what the process entails, what it will do for you, and what you need to have prepared before you start.
2. Download the Kindle Previewer so you can check what your book will look like on a Kindle (if you don't have one). 
3. Download the Mobipocket Creator - this is the software that will convert your book into the Kindle format. There are some other ways of doing it, but remember, this is just what I did for a black and white novel.
4. Collate your necessary elements: book front cover. front pages (copyright, acknowledgements, etc.), your correctly formatted manuscript. Be sure to save everything with a date and version because you may upload a few times before it is as you want it to be. You will need to save your manuscript as a 'Web Page, filtered document (see below).

5. Follow the process that KDP gives you online. Format your book cover. For Kindle, all you will need is a front cover. Imagine the front of a book if it is lying on a table... that's what you need.
6. Upload this to the Mobipocket Creator, together with the cover to your book and it will build your book for you. This is the file you will need to upload onto KDP.

In terms of the actual publishing, that's pretty much it, but there are two other very important things you need to think about before you start the process. 

Pricing & Royalty: You choose, but there are considerations. 

• I'm a new author so I wanted to come in low on my price. I didn't want price to be a barrier to purchase. 
• Pricing affects your royalty - check out the section on pricing and royalties first. Your first book is unlikely to make you a million (although I truly hope it does!), so perhaps consider it as a learning curve and practice your marketing and networking skills on this one.

ISBN (ASIN):

• Amazon will assign an ASIN - Amazon Standard Book Number to your book, free of charge. This is specific to your Kindle version book and cannot be used on other versions such as other e-reader versions or print. 
• If you decide to offer other versions of your book, a separate ISBN (International Standard Book Number) will need to be allocated. These are generally offered by the system you are using, however, if you want to, you can purchase your own ISBN number. 

I found this article here extremely helpful. I hope it encourages you to try the self-publishing route on Kindle.
Until next time.

Publishing Yourself Part 2 - What format?

When I first started my journey down the self-publishing route, I hit a few stumbling blocks.
Firstly,I didn't find one site that told me all the 'how to' in one place. Granted there may be such a site but I didn't find it.
Secondly, I couldn't find anyone who could simplify the process for me, unless I paid for it.
There are so many different types of books which people want to publish that the sites have to cover every single option.  I had to wade through all of this to find that the process is actually not as difficult and complicated as I first thought. In my ignorance, I knuckled down and read copious amounts of information to understand what options there were and what would work best for me.
Once you understand, it will appear much easier, but to get up to speed, you need to do one of two things:

• Read a huge amount of information yourself
• Pay someone else to do it for you. 

The information in this blog is geared specifically to self-publishing black and white novels - no pictures or strange fonts, or unusual formatting, etc.

In Part 1, I looked at how ready your material needs to be before you start the publishing process. So, you've proofread and edited, and proofread and edited and ... I could go on. At some stage there needs to be a final cut-off otherwise, its a process that can easily be used as a procrastination tool. Publishing yourself is like laying your soul bare to the world - not an easy process - and sometimes the prospect is so daunting, we want everything to be perfect. Perfection doesn't exist, only excellence - so do your utmost and know its the best you can achieve, and then let it go.

So, what format would you like for your book?
Do you know what the various formats are?

Let's have a look at the different formats:
1. The Amazon e-reader - Kindle
2. Other e-readers, e.g. Nook, Kobo, Sony, Bebook, iRiver and others.
3. PDF, HTML, Java, .Mobi, PDB, LRF, ePub.
4. Paperback

You can make your book available in all of these formats at no cost to yourself.

Points to consider before choosing your format:
1. Who is my book aimed at? Decide who are the most likely readers of your book. Is it very niche or will it appeal more to a mass market?
2. How would my audience prefer to read a book? Once you know who your readers will be, you can narrow down the best format for that audience. A YA (young adult) book will do very well on an e-reader as most young people are tech-savvy and prefer electronic devices over anything else.If  your book discusses fishing off the coast of Cornwall, your audience may prefer a paperback instead of an e-reader.
3. How will I distribute my book? Unless you are prepared to spend a tidy sum on printing your own books, and negotiating what is likely to be a less than sweet deal (for you anyway) with the local book store, you are not going to see your book gracing their shelves any time soon. Thankfully, there are so many other distribution outlets for the self-publisher.
4. Where will it be available to purchase? Besides the bricks and mortars stores, there is a veritable mine of online avenues for you to pursue. Amazon, Smashwords, Createspace, online book stores, online book clubs, your own website/blog. Just these areas alone can ramp up serious sales for you.
5. How do I market it? Aaaah, the million dollar question and probably the hardest/most time-consuming part of self-publishing - you do! Adverts, reviews, blog tours, social media platforms, online book clubs - unless you are paying someone to do this for you, it is all up to you.

It might seem like an enormous mountain to climb when you are standing at the base never having scaled a rock-face before. And possibly this is the wrong analogy because I wouldn't want anyone to think climbing a mountain is easy! But publishing your own book is not as difficult as it seems. A little bit of research, some well-spent time, a smidgeon of preparation, and you've done it. There are some nifty solutions out there for the indie author, and we'll go through them together.

Next post - all about Kindle!