Category: Uncategorized

Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Conversations: 2/10/2017

FOUR DOZEN ROSES—FOR WRITERS—II

Have you ever read a sequel to novel (that you just loved) and found it lacking the intensity—the passion and purpose—you enjoyed in the first book?

William Shakespeare is the author who penned the words “…that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” which I paraphraroses royalenesed in last week’s blog (Romeo and Juliet, 1600). Tradition tells the story that Shakespeare was poking fun at a local theatre group at the Rose Theatre (rival to his Globe Theatre), considering his to be the better environment. And he wrote the critique right into his play.

There are many skills a writer must develop when creating excellent work. I’m not so sure that throwing punches at other writers within a storyline is one of them. So it is that you’ll find my second dozen roses below—for you to consider as you build your own, personal writing career!

  1. AS you are writing/developing #s 4 and 5, begin a PLOT file—a plot timeline. Keep this first plot draft in chronological order. You’ll have plenty of creative time later to mix things up should you choose to do so.
  2. As you’re developing the theme, you’ll discover the conflict in the story. Like the difference in the right side of a spoon and wrong side, your story will not hold the plot without knowing the right and wrong side of issue/theme.
  3. Using your creative thinking while accomplishing the first seven tips will begin to show you the best perspective from which to reveal this story. Each character must stay true to their specific point-of-view. However, you may choose to complete the story through one point-of-view—or several.
  4. Also, as you get to know your characters, they will share the crises of their lives with you. You can make a separate list of these crisis elements—or you can incorporate them into the plot timeline.
  5. Look for the joy in your character’s lives. This term “joy” is defined quite differently in the lives of various characters. Be sure you understand your characters well enough to what bring true joy into their hearts.
  6. Look for the explosion factor in each main character. What event, action or missing action, cause your characters “scale” to be tipped?
  7. When you started writing you may have had one specific resolution or outcome in mind. Keep an open mind. Your characters may point to a totally different solution—or there may be several mini-solutions that just might carry you into a second or third novel.
  8. Make sure you have one solid character who Readers can cheer for. This could be—but doesn’t have to be—your main character. Supporting characters, who have one major problem that is resolved by the end of the book, can eventually become main characters in your next book(s).
  9. As you begin the actual manuscript draft remember: every sentence must either advance the plot, reveal more about the characters and/or the theme you’re developing.
  10. At the end of every chapter (or section) give the pages a “reality check.” Does this scene live? Are the actions of your characters realistic as they deal with the situations?
  11. Look for the miraculous as well as the ordinary events in your character’s lives.
  12. Challenge your thinking about how the story is growing. Allowing our “left-brain/right-brain” argument time often leads to amazing outcomes.

NEXT WEEK: A third dozen … ⚓︎

Royalene

ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.  

Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.

in your corner, Uncategorized

In Your Corner: Battling Burnout

What is burnout? I love this definition from Merriam Webster, which draws inescapable comparisons to combustion engines:

burnout definition

But chances are, if you’re a writer, you’re already well-acquainted with burnout–its symptoms, and its effects. This is because the act of writing is itself exhausting, even when it is also necessary and therapeutic and good for us. Writing saps a person’s physical and emotional energy reserves, tapping into both left and right brain by requiring both creative and analytical thinking … simultaneously.

Writing is work. It can be fun and wild and wonderful, but writing is work.

Luckily, there are ways to combat burnout and to write past the sticking point. Emmy Award winning Gene Perret, in a 2011 interview with Psychology Today‘s Carolyn Kaufman, says that writers are “not people who can be superb 24 hours a day. We must allow ourselves to be mediocre at times…maybe even semi-terrible at times.” He cites Shakespeare as an example of a famous author who was still constrained by the same laws of time and energy–and self-criticism. “Burnout,” he says, “is a real phenomenon. Writers get weary of turning out so much similar material. The best cure I’ve found for this situation is to retreat to some sort of vacation. Get away from it all.” He continues with an anecdote:

However, I’m talking more about a brief vacation. Get away from your desk and take a walk, watch something on television, read a chapter or two of a book, take a brief nap. Then come back to your task refreshed. Many times my partner and I would struggle to get a new sketch idea. It would be so hard that we would often have words with one another and sometimes partners almost came to blows. Then we go to lunch, tell each other a few stories, trade insults, pay our bill, come back to work, and discover that one or the other had come up with a great idea for a sketch. – Gene Perret

And look, we’re not all Gene Perret. We’re all going to require different means of getting over the hump and back into a place where we can write comfortably. But taking our cue from Perret’s suggestion of taking a break or a short “vacation,” here are five tips for combating burnout:

  1. Know the signs. Burnout can present differently from person to person, but generally it shows up as a constellation of symptoms: exhaustion, lack of motivation, an unfocused general negative attitude towards people and situations you normally enjoy or tolerate, memory and perception troubles, poor health, and quality fade in your writing. There are plenty of other things which might cause these symptoms, of course, so it’s well worth reaching out to a professional to help verify that your problems stem from burnout and not depression, chronic fatique, Lyme’s, or any of the other possibilities.
  2. Accept that this is burnout, and don’t be too hard on yourself. Everyone runs out of gas sometimes, and it’s not a sign that you’re in the wrong profession or somehow otherwise “messing up.” It’s a sign that you need a break–nothing more or less.
  3. Unplug. You won’t truly ever get away from your writing unless you make a couple of big changes and physically distance yourself from the act of writing for a while. But you’ll also need to distance yourself from those sources of frustration and inspiration which remind you of writing, so it’s best to unplug not just the computer you type on but the smartphone or tablet you use to browse Twitter and Facebook and Instagram … and read New York Times Book Review and other works of literary criticism. A break means a break. A total distancing of yourself from the act of writing.
  4. Do something you’ve been putting off. For me, this is usually cleaning the house. I know, it’s disgusting. But I find cleaning does a good job of getting me out of my head and back into my body where I belong, and it also … well, it cleans the house. And having a clean, uncluttered workspace is vital to my own mental health, I’ve discovered. But maybe cleaning isn’t something you put off–maybe it’s going to the doctor, or the vet, or meeting up with friends. Maybe it’s a camping trip you’ve always wanted to go on but haven’t ever found the time for. Do the thing you never have time for when you’re chained to your writing desk!
  5. Remember your audience. As Pettit tells us in his interview, “Writing is a solitary profession. Many of us sit in a quiet room with only a keyboard for company. But to be a good writer, you must remember that there are readers out there. They’re waiting for what comes out of your printer. Keep them in mind and your writing will be all the better for it.” And your readers are why you do what you do, so don’t forget as you return from your break that you’re not just combating burnout because it feels bad and lowers your productivity–you’re in the battle because burnout alters your relationship to your readers, and they are a precious part of what you do.

burnout matchsticks

You are not alone. ♣︎

Elizabeth

ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized

A Book is Like A … CAT?

Run a search on Google for “A book is like a…” and you will find that nearly everyone has a handy simile, thousands of entries dedicated to comparing books to start-ups (I suppose they do often keep us up at night and drive us into bankruptcy), to children (they are demanding and require discipline as well as inspiring great pride in us, I expect), to frigates (‘handle with care; this thing might sink you!’ perhaps?), to the good Doctor’s faithful TARDIS (it is bigger on the inside and leads to Narnia–oh, wait).

But so far as I can tell, nobody has yet compared a book to a cat, although the comparison is so perfectly neat as to defy the rules of Internet, which dictate that you can find someone comparing any one thing to any one other thing somewhere, no matter how hyperspecific we want to get about the details. (SEE: Why having an ulcer is like “having a burglar alarm go off inside you” … IN RUSSIAN.)

And a book is most definitely not like a dog. In no way could it ever be like … a dog. So happy to see you after work, so congenial and eager to please, so pleased with even the smallest investment of time or the teeniest of bones thrown its way.

But a cat:

c39purrvcaaoxkk

  • A cat is not dignified and neither is your book. Inspiration won’t come to you easily, or conveniently, but instead unload itself all over your lap whenever you’re least prepared to take advantage of it. It’s difficult to please, but it also can’t clearly articulate what it wants or needs to be what it needs to be, so you end up dancing in circles, trying to keep the blood flowing to your legs.
  • A cat … lurks. And so does your book. It will sit on your desktop, on your laptop, on your cloud storage platform of choice … and wait for attention. Demanding attention is what cats and books do best, only passively, and without wanting to be touched except on their hyperspecific terms so don’t even think about getting cozy.
  • A cat has a mind of its own, and yeah, so does your book. Its characters will run off in completely unexpected directions, your plot will do loop-the-loops instead of following your very thorough outline (or mental sketch, at least), and the ending never feels quite right once you get it in there.

But most importantly, a book is like a cat in one last meaningful way:

  • A cat is worth it. And I guarantee … your book is, too. It’s worth the struggle, the lack of dignity, the lurking, all of it. And yes, it’s a wonderful feeling when you’re done and have the manuscript off to a publisher–but completion, like a cat, is never a fixed point in space or time. Pretty soon you’ll have more ideas cascading in to fill the gap, and the process begins again. The act of being an author is the real work, and the real reward. Just as a cat is its own (self-important, sometimes) reward.

And that, my friends, is how a book is like … a CAT!

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

Kelly

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com
from the archives, karl schroeder, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “Quality and Control in Self-Publishing”

Welcome back to our Tuesday segment, where we’ll be revisiting some of our most popular posts from the last few years.  What’s stayed the same?  And what’s changed?  We’ll be updating you on the facts, and taking a new (and hopefully refreshing) angle on a few timeless classics of Self Publishing Advisor.

∗∗∗∗∗

[ Originally posted: November 14th, 2008 ]

A very informative article was recently published outlining one author’s success self-publishing over traditional publishing, most notably in terms of higher net royalties on book sales. In fact, the case study recorded significantly higher royalties on a lower quantity of book sales along that self-publishing route.

The book pricing advantages of self publishing is no stranger to this blog, nor the increasingly successful population of authors who follow that path. But this particular article also mentioned that writers should never have to pay for publishing upfront.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen authors who have been pulled in by that concept, but end up publishing an often poorly produced book sold back to them at highly marked-up costs. (Publishers are businesses and need to make money, after all.) So that model really only puts poorly produced books right back in the hands of authors, not readers.

The successful alternative does involve upfront publishing fees, which opens a direct contract between authors and publishers including quality, professional production on books that are competitively sold in the marketplace, where readers buy books. Make sure your self-publishing choice includes those things like cover design, interior formatting, and full distribution. Also, as I’ve mentioned before – and the significance here is worth the redundancy – make sure your publisher offers pricing flexibility (control) and 100% royalties on book sales.

I hope that helps. Have fun and keep writing…

– by Karl Schroeder

Well, Karl’s not wrong. He wasn’t wrong all the way back in 2008–nine years ago!–and he’s not wrong now. (Of course, this will come as no surprise to those of you who have read some of his backlist posts for Self Publishing Advisor.) Quality is determined by many independent and interrelated factors, and one of the most important of those factors is control. Control of the artistic process, the publishing process, and the distribution process too. Lose your access to influence any of these three steps, and you’re at risk of spending money you didn’t anticipate on processes over which you have very limited control.

quality infographic

I love this infographic from Empathy Lab, because even though they specialize in e-commerce and responsive web design–subjects only tangentially relevant to our interests–they have spent years putting together quality infographics representing ways in which to both qualify and quantify their systems and products. Here, they’ve created an infographic by which any business might measure quality, based on a flexible framework which incorporates everything from inputs, outputs, values, and employees.

While this may not be the most finely-tuned visual for self-publishing, specifically, many of the principles here helpfully capture the spirit of what Karl first wrote in 2008: You must first decide what your priorities are, and how quality is both a product of and a shaping influence upon, what you do. Only then can you decide how much money to invest, and where to invest it, in the self-publishing process. A hint: For most of us, it’s going to be some sort of up-front cost which gives us access to premium publishing services and full royalties, full creative control, and full authority on what happens to our books–because this is your brand, after all.

Take a moment to let Karl’s words sink in, and spend a little time with Empathy Labs’ infographic. See if you can sketch out some thoughts on how your own book and publishing experience is coming together–and let us know how that’s going! We’d love to hear from you and be a resource for you.

Thanks for reading.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

Kelly

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.
Kelly Speaks, news from the self publishing world, self publishing news, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 2.6.2017

And now for the news!

This week in the world of self-publishing:

Because I love the juxtaposition of these two articles on Amazon in relation to self-publishing, I’m going to present them both and let the readers formulate their own opinion on this corporate conglomerate. First, we’ll start with an article by Doris Booth that analyzes the ways in which Amazon “vigorously promotes its 70% royalty plan over its 35% plan to compensate authors on the sale of their e-books.”

But, 70% is DOUBLE 35% you say. Diving deeper, however, Booth unveils how the promotion of the higher royalty package is actually misleading.

“Believe it or not, the writer earns more money on the 35% plan than on the 70% plan. Why? Because the 70% plan is based on the publisher’s net income and the 35% plan is based on the gross sales price of the book. A book priced at $9.99 based on 70% of the publisher’s net income earns you $3.15. The same book based on 35% of the gross sales price yields $3.50.” – Booth

With that in mind, and also considering the fact that amazon puts a ceiling of $9.99 for the price of the ebooks using the 70% plan, while authors using the 35% plan can pick the price at which they’d like to sell their work.

More interestingly, the 70% plan grants Amazon exclusive rights to your piece, meaning you cannot sell it on ANY other platform, even if that platform was simply your own website. You grant them this exclusivity and you receive nothing up front. That’s right, “the author who signs the exclusive deal has just given away his or her entire content for free to Amazon, at least initially,” says Booth.

Further, when/if you do get paid by Amazon, it will not be based on the sale of the individual copies of your book, but rather, on the number of pages read by those who purchased it. So if your book sold for $9.99, but the reader only got 15 pages in, “your royalties will be calculated upon how many pages of your book are read, divided by the number of other books read that month.” Booth continues on with a more staggering statistic; “In hard-to-find data, Digital Book World reported not long ago that Amazon Kindle’s monthly individual author payout equaled $1.38.” One dollar and thirty-eight cents per month, you couldn’t buy a can of Coca-Cola with that.

I would definitely encourage authors to do their research, perhaps beginning with the piece above by Booth, before deciding where to self-publish their work. If choosing Amazon, carefully read the plans and what they offer you as a client, and don’t be too easily persuaded by larger numbers that are hiding larger inadequacies as far as returns go.

One lucky author is going to receive £20,000 as the Kindle Storyteller Prize winner in 2017. “The prize is open to any author who publishes their book through Kindle Direct Publishing between February 20 and May 19 this year,” says Tristan Fane Saunders, “Entries from any genre are eligible – including fiction, non-fiction and collections of short stories – so long as they are more than 5,000 words and previously unpublished.” So, if after reading the previous article and you do decide to publish with Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon, you could end up with a pretty big paycheck.

The incentive to offer a prize like this? Saunders seems to allude to dwindling Kindle sales and a general decline in ebook sale, “having shrunk 2.4% over the previous year.”

Whatever your opinion on Amazon might be, it has provided a streamlined way for authors to directly publish their work online. Be it for better or worse, being able to get your story published is often half the battle, and Amazon turned that battle into a breeze.

spa-news

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry. This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

Kelly

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.