How Todd spent 2016

In short, it was the year of Vortex.

As indicated, I devoted the bulk of this year to querying selected agents regarding the completed manuscript. This took place in several small waves throughout the summer and fall months. I culled a number of different references in order to target agents that represented Contemporary YA, Sci-Fi or similar. New agents, well established ones, East Coast US, West Coast, even a couple overseas. Alas, though I received a few offers of encouragement that went beyond the rote 'Not for me,' there were no takers. At this point, I feel I have allowed sufficient time for reactions to come in accordingly on my outstanding queries. These days most agencies tend to operate on the basis of: if you don't hear from us by X, assume we are not interested. I'd estimate around half of my query letters did result in some kind of formal rejection returning; I figured I'd be lucky to get any kind of actual rejection from around a third of them. Props to the ones who took the time to say no thanks. Closure is a good thing.

So I am therefore switching to the next stage of my go-to-market plan. I'm currently in the midst of performing two professional editing passes on the story: a) an extensive structural critique to identify any plot, characterization, continuity or other glaring issues requiring correction, and b) a line edit to catch and resolve all the grammar problems. In parallel, I'll be commissioning cover art. The goal is to pull together an e-book package and self publish early in 2017 via Amazon and Smashwords. Once that is accomplished, I'll be into the marketing and promoting stage of my plan. I'm interested to see what the latest options are in this area, how they work, certainly how well they work (if that's even measurable). One way or another, this ride will be fascinating.

I actually do have an older short story of mine, Shadows in the Mirror, that I need to package up and publish as a standalone e-book. I'll be completing that activity to learn the latest and greatest methods and procedures involved ahead of having to use them for Vortex. The tools and techniques for e-book publishing continue to evolve since my last hands-on years ago. From what I'm seeing, it appears to have simplified somewhat but it still isn't to the point where it could be called simple, consistent and reliable with predictable results. Unless a writer just wants to fork over a fee for someone else to take care of it. I suppose that's mighty dirt simple, if you can afford to do it.

In the background, I've been working on a smattering of flash pieces. One looks promising to have ready for early 2017. Most of the other works I'm chalking up to exercising and experimentation. At some point next year, I'll need to sort out and embark on my next major project or two.

So onto 2017. As of now, it's looking like year 2 of Vortex, at least for starters. Hope this ride doesn't get too bumpy.

Right.

Silly me.

Self vs. traditional publishing. Tastes great or less filling?

If you're into self-publishing, you're probably into articles about it. While it's easy to get caught up in the hype, the straight answer is: there is no easy answer as to whether self-publishing is the 'right way to go' for any given writer.

The real answer is: it depends. (Yes. Those cop-out answers just suck. Don't they?)

When I get asked, I generally advise writers not to be quick to limit themselves. Stay flexible. After all, the traditional publishing industry is undergoing change at warp speed, all thanks to the digital era. Writers must too. We have to adapt as the industry shifts around us.

So go ahead. Read the advice columns. Devour the How-To articles. But use what you learn to build up a map of all the directions you can go, instead of picking just one path and locking that one in. This trip to writing success is about the journey, not the destination. Might as well enjoy it.

Humor me a bit more while I further milk my metaphor.

On your journey, don't speed. Meaning, don't try to rush things along. Plan and be deliberate about the steps you take. Backtracking might be involved. Accept that, if it happens. Haste just leads to stress, frustration and disappointment, as it would on any cross-country expedition. Don't be hasty. Your vital signs will thank you.

Okay, I'm done with the cheesy metaphor. But I do want to make one more point, the most important thing you can do no matter what.

Write.

That can't be said enough. The more writing you do, the more it might lead to. There aren't any guarantees, of course. That said, the members of the one-hit-to-instant-stardom club are precious few. You'd have much better odds in the lotto than trying to win that way.

So write. And then repeat. Repeat some more.

Much of what I've said is emphasized in this nice article, Freedom isn’t Free—5 Common Tactical Errors in Self-Publishing, by Kristen Lamb. Check it out.

Then add all this lovely data to that big, writerly map you're building up. After all, quite a journey lies ahead.

5 paths to publishing

This is a good overview of 5 typical paths to publication in use today. Many of the writers I've met are focused on #5, DIY Direct. This doesn't surprise me much because:

1. I'm meeting most writers virtually, that is, via the web. Which is the primary channel for DIY Direct.
2. DIY Direct gives the writer more control. I think many people much prefer to sit in the driver's seat, especially in regards to their business, life or passion.

Frankly though, there really isn't one "best" way to get published anymore. Just different ways, each of which has pros and cons to be considered.

No real surprise, it comes down to: whichever path works for you. And that choice of path may not stay the same over your writing career.

The article provides a handy PDF file with summary info and reference links.

How tough is it today to put your book on Smashwords?

I uploaded my second book to Smashwords recently, so I thought I’d give a report on how well that process went. Here’s the summary:

It’s about as slick as greased glass.

OK, if you are as anal as I am, you sweat the small stuff. In my case, I took between 3 to 4 hours to get the book content ’just so,’ which is not to say that the process calls for grueling, painstaking steps that you must grind through that whole time. Not at all.

You see, I’m a bit of a perfectionist (the nice way to refer to someone who’s anal). I want my product to be spiffy and top notch. I don’t want errors or inconsistencies, no matter how slight. I want it to shine. Which takes time. It takes checking and rechecking. It takes grumbling over how a paragraph looks or how a story intro meshes with the opening sentence. It takes tweaking the layout and adjusting the overall flow. It takes imagining yourself as a reader holding a Kobo, Kindle or Nook.

This is the responsibility and work of a publisher. In the case of Smashwords, that’s you. You make the decisions on how it should look and feel. Once you’re happy, you push it to market. But it doesn’t end there. You can go back anytime and make changes, add content, improve the product. You are the publisher. You decide how it will be. The power rests in your hands.

So that’s all fine and good, but... getting back to the Smashwords process... just how tough it is these days?

If you have your document polished, your cover art image ready, and you can follow some step-by-step editing guidelines, you can do it in 2 – 3 hours. No sweat. Smashwords provides aspiring authors a decent instruction set that takes you through the process, including what gotchas to beware of and what to do when things don’t go as well as they should. In short, this is a process that demands attention to detail, but don’t let that scare you. This is not rocket science or black art. You can do it. Honestly, if you just don’t want to be bothered with the effort, you can even hire someone to tackle this, possibly for as little as $50. Bottom-line: if you’ve got a book ready to go, you should press on and do it.

Just a couple of brief observations:

1. Be sure you have your book cover ready to go. Smashwords just upped their requirements on the image dimensions. It now should be no less than 1,400 pixels wide, ideally a bit larger. The height should end up being a multiple of the width by like 1.3 or 1.4. This is considerably larger than the old requirements they’ve used.
2. Before diving into the Smashwords Style Guide process steps, take the time to refine your manuscript file to make it as polished as you can. Once you start the publishing process steps, you won’t want to be detouring to deal with beefing up your manuscript format, not if you can avoid it.
3. Check out the Smashwords publish web page and especially review the meta data you’ll need to provide at the time you upload and publish your book. I recommend you think about each of the inputs and prepare your information in advance, ready to cut-and-paste into the fields on the Smashwords web page. That approach is a lot better than waiting until the moment you publish your book’s file and rushing through entering the meta data. It matters. Think like a publisher would, because that’s you.

If you’re sitting on the fence about publishing via Smashwords, I hoped I’ve convinced you to take the plunge. With a little effort on your part, you can be selling your book in just a few hours.

Good luck!

Busted by Amazon Price Match!

The Kindle store policy is: competing venues cannot undercut Amazon on price. If a lower price gets posted, Amazon will eventually detect it (or someone narcs about it) and then they'll price match on the Kindle store. 

Some authors actually exploit this policy to get Amazon to drop the price of their Kindle book below the minimum allowed. As in, making it free, which an author can't do when they upload and price their book; free is not allowed. I didn't intentionally pursue this, but I figured it was bound to happen.

About a year ago, I posted a version of Game Over on the Kindle store. This was a special edition I intended just for Kindle owners in that I added another scene amounting to 2,000 additional words. I labeled it an Extended Edition and put a 99 cent price on it. Over on Smashwords, I had the original, shorter version of Game Over for sale at no charge. I was thinking I might get a month or two before Amazon price matching kicked in. It ended up being 10 months, and no, I didn't assist the process.

But there are a healthy number of Kindle owners taking advantage of the $0.00 price since it changed last month.

I'm good with that.

Not renewing KDP Select

In mid-March Dark Doses finishes its first 90 days being offered exclusively via Amazon's KDP Select program. The results have been less than spectacular. Thus I won't be renewing it and will release the book to other venues like Smashwords.

I think KDP Select can be useful, particularly for authors who have a portfolio of books and they want to set aside 1 or 2 as magnets to draw readers to the others. Here's an example. Say you have a 5-novel series for sale. You could enroll just the first one in KDP Select as a way to hook and draw readers to the rest of them. Or you could write 2 or 3 short stories or novelettes as tie-ins and put those shorter works into KDP Select while keeping the novels out.

Beyond that, I'm not seeing much value for the everyday author.

The 'borrow' feature for Amazon Prime customers, while interesting sounding, seems to me to work best for books more in high demand. Not many folks would want to burn their limited borrowing opportunities on lower profile or unknown books. So the bonus bucks Amazon credits to KDP Select authors for borrows is fairly constrained, though Amazon likes to make noise about the monthly budgets allocated to borrows.

Finally a thought on the 'make available for free' feature. There are beaucoup processes and web tools now that enable Kindle owners to soak up the tidal waves of KDP Select freebies. It's a slick arrangement for Kindle owners. Without risk or outlay, you can grab 100 stories in a day, scan the first 3 pages of each, and discard all but the top 3 that you feel are worth reading start-to-finish. By the end of a week, you've crunched 700 books down to 21 that are locked into your To-Be-Read list... all without spending a dime. You can literally keep that up until your Kindle cries: "Uncle!"

What does the KDP Select author have to look forward to in this? A shot at discovery. Perhaps a Like or a meaningful review. If you're fortunate, your book just might catch-on via chatter in social media circles or from a high-traffic blogger's comments. But I would not recommend holding your breath for any of that.

I don't regret the experiment. It was worth a shot. When the 800-pound gorilla gives you a way to rearrange the bananas, you have to see if you just scored a banana bonanza out of the deal. In the case of KDP Select... not so much.

To Soar Free is now live on the Kindle store

To Soar Free is a short story of about 7,000 words. It originally appeared in The Lorelei Signal back in 2010. You can still find it there along with a number of delightful stories that emphasize female protagonists and feminine themes.

I have to give two shout outs regarding the work that went into making To Soar Free available as an e-book.

Firstly, this is the second time I've published an e-book under the guidance and tutelage of Paul Salvette. Paul's web site has numerous helpful articles that aid an author with the whole production effort required for a well-polished e-book. Browse his articles for in-depth, step-by-step instructions or, better yet, buy Paul's guide book that brings it all together. Available for Kindle, on B&N and on Smashwords.

Secondly, the delightful, intriguing cover art for To Soar Free was crafted by Robin Nuttall. This is the second cover she's made for me and I really enjoy working with her. You can find out more about her services and view samples of her work on her web site. 

Time to release another e-book

So far I've e-published one short story and a collection of short stories as different e-books. It's time for a new addition. I'm going to publish a second short story as a standalone e-book, which will make two from the collection available for readers to try out solo.

Why bother with this?

Numbers.

Besides needing a name (brand), presence (web site, blog, facebook page, twitter account, etc.), push (marketing, promotions) and pulls (reviews, likes, links), an author needs product.

Well duh, you say. The more you have to sell, the greater the chance you will sell.

Very true.

But besides giving current fans more of your goodies to enjoy, having a larger number of released books provides more ways for potential fans to discover you. Each book is like a beacon, drawing wayward readers in to check it out. When they find one, they find them all. This provides more temptations to consider, which might help make the difference when a reader is unsure about a newly discovered author.

Plus I can use the standalone short stories not just as lures but also as promotions for Dark Doses, my short story collection. For instance, I can give away the standalone stories more frequently than the whole collection. This matters particularly now because I'm thinking about dropping Dark Doses out of KDP Select. But that will be another post for the future.

Funny thing, publishing. It starts with words and it pretty much ends with numbers.

Creating an eBook via The Killer Cookie recipe

If you’re into self-publishing, you are likely acquainted with J.A. Konrath. Over on his blog, Joe provides quite an insightful view of the journey he’s taken. I think most would call it a highly successful one, though Joe hasn’t yet crossed the proverbial finish line and declared total victory.

When it comes to publishing a successful eBook, I like Joe’s formula. To me, Joe simply follows a recipe for producing The Killer Cookie, namely:

1. It has to catch your eye,

2. It has to sound good to eat,

3. It has to look positively delicious,

4. It has to be priced so you don’t even think twice about it,

5. It has to be found where ever you want to buy it, and

6. It has to make your taste buds squeal when you munch it.

In eBook terms, this translates to:

1. Have a striking cover and a title that grabs

2. Have an arresting book description, search tags and keywords

3. Have all aspects of the packaging be clean and crisp

4. Have a low or even impulsive buy price

5. Be readily available across all major store fronts

6. Be well written, engaging, compelling and error-free

For the most part, I’ve tried to be faithful to The Killer Cookie recipe in producing my latest eBook, Dark Doses. I consciously chose to deviate from point #5 though. Here’s why.

I opted in to Amazon’s KDP Select program. Dark Doses is exclusively offered via Amazon for at least 90 days.

Let me be upfront and acknowledge this ploy by Amazon to lockout the competition. In this post, I’m not going to dwell on the potential consequences and ramifications of Amazon’s tactic. Plenty of writer blogs are reacting to the launch of KDP Select and perhaps that’ll be the subject of one of my future missives.

Instead, let me just say that there are lots and lots of cookies out there. More are rolling out every day. What’s an aspiring cookie-baker to do?

Play the numbers game. The majority of cookie-lovers are going to browse and consider the selections put forth by the number one cookie peddler in the world. So for a brand new, just-released Killer Cookie, I’m exploiting all available tactics to break into that leading market.

Amazon is selling a million Kindles a week. There is a lot of muscle and inertia propelling that market. I hope to tap into that as best I can. Not to specifically get rich via KDP Select’s anemic remuneration terms but to get better known.

I seriously doubt I’ll keep Dark Doses exclusive to Amazon for any greatly protracted period of time. I don’t especially like being locked out of non-Kindle eReaders.

But, at least for now, I’m willing to test this one modification to the recipe.

My anthology "Dark Doses" is published on Amazon

Just in time for Christmas, I've added one more temptation to the Kindle store hopefully to entice a few of those customers Amazon is selling e-readers at a rate of 1 million a week. I titled my anthology Dark Doses and it joins the lone short story I had available in the store. Click the cover image on the right if you'd like to visit the Amazon page.

I'll blog some more about the whole eBook publishing process in the days ahead since I used a different approach than for Game Over, my short story. Also, it's going to be a while before I release the eBook to other venues like Smashwords since I enrolled it in Amazon's new KDP Select program. More on that too in a future post.

Building an eBook? Here's a pointer...

If you're building a first eBook and are game to tackle the work yourself, browse over to Paul Salvette's web site. Paul has plenty of advice, guidance and additional links to assist you with the process. I'll toss in: get ready to get your hands dirty. With patience, effort, and Paul's coaching though, you can prime your masterpiece for a professional-grade release via Kindle, Smashwords and the other e-venues.

Maybe you aren't too worried over the finer points and are willing to accept 'good enough' quality. That's your choice and certainly there are shortcut methods you can resort to. Another alternative is you can just pay to have your eBook prepared. Plenty of wranglers are available for a modest fee.

But if you aren't put off by some text manipulation and HTML editing, give Paul's approach a shot.