Tag: publishing

Choosing a Publisher

Ask the Doctor – Sections in a Novel / Self-Publishing

Q: Is there any technical reason for a novel to be broken up into parts? I want to break my next novel up in a way that I haven’t really seen before.

Part 1 – Introduction of the main character (the good guy). Provide plot and conflict.

Part 2 – Introduce opposing character (the bad guy)

Part 3 – Good and bad characters clash, and conflict is resolved.

The first twelve chapters focus on the “good guy” perspective. The “bad guy” is introduced in Chapter 13. If I spend the next twelve or so chapters telling the other side of the story (the bad guy’s perspective), will readers forget the plight of the good guy in the first twelve chapters?

I really want to have the two sides (good and evil) make compelling arguments. By breaking up the novel this way, I hope the reader will be conflicted going into the third part of the book. Any thoughts?  

A: The reason you can’t find any specific material on the subject of breaking a novel into parts is that (at least to my knowledge) there is no absolute rule regarding it.

The only problem I can perceive is that according to your outline, all the clash occurs in the final part, so what will make readers continue reading through the first two parts? Yes, it says plot and conflict will be provided in Part 1, but if there’s only one character in that part, how can there be conflict? Conflict and tension are the elements that make readers turn pages and keep reading.

That said, I can’t judge the book without seeing it, so if you sense that it is working the way you are writing it, trust your gut and move forward. I have seen good books broken into parts for the characters; Franny and Zoey by J.D. Salinger comes to mind, for one.

Bobbie Christmas, book doctor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com. 

Choosing a Publisher

Self-Publishing Book Pricing Research

Writing a book is art. Publishing a book is an all-together different animal. Publishing a book is business.

I spent some time meandering around the Internet exploring self-publishing options and came across some significant book pricing discrepancies.

I found that most publishers charge authors the wholesale price (or higher) for their own book unless bought in large, bulk quantities.

In the business of getting books in reader’s hands, how are authors supposed to make any money reselling that book to retailers? The wholesale price is what retailers will expect to pay.

The good news is that there are self publishers out there that offer low author copy base prices. Author copy prices should always be below wholesale.

Most publishers attempt to conceal this by offering “bulk discounts” on large book orders of 100, 200, 500, or more.

Authors shouldn’t have to buy 500 copies at a time just to get a reasonable “per unit” price.

Something to be aware of. 

Keep writing…

Karl Schroeder

 

Book Promotion

Using Podcasts to Promote Your Self Published Book

Perhaps you’ve heard about podcasts? These are recorded sessions of either music or talking. Podcasts that focus on books are perfect because they are already written (so you aren’t making something up at the same time you record) and they are either entertaining or educational (or both).

Recording a podcast of your self-published book is a great way to promote it. Once your podcast is recorded, you can upload it to popular sites like itunes.com and reach a whole new audience.

Podiobooks.com is a relatively easy way to start creating a podcast for your book. You will find helpful instructions for what you need in the way of hardware and software to make your first recording. They also allow you to upload your files to their site for free, but once you have your podcast file (usually an mp3 file) don’t forget to upload it to other popular sites, too.  You can conduct a search on Google to find sites where you can upload your podcast, and you can submit your podcast feed URL to the iTunes Store here.

Other links that will help you down the road of podcasting include:
audacity.sourceforge.net
mypodcast.com
switchpod.com
blogtalkradio.com

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com