Tag: self publish

from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “Self-publishing, Literature and Pop Culture”

Welcome back to our new 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.

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[ Originally posted: August 19th, 2009 ]

I opened the Books section in yesterday’s New York Times “Urban Eye” to read the headline, “Why Literature Doesn’t Matter.” Really? How sad. It matters to me. It matters to my family, friends, and colleagues. It matters to the self-publishing authors I work with every day. Literature doesn’t matter…. I wish someone would have told me.

According to “Urban Eye,” a recent Sunday Book Review article penned by novelist Kurt Anderson was to fill me in. Anderson writes, “During the 1960s and ’70s…people who hadn’t read a word of a first-rate contemporary novel — no Cheever, no Bellow, no Salinger, Heller, Styron, Doctorow, Updike or Roth — nevertheless knew the novelists’ names… And then everything changed.”

But book sales in the US have remained strong, and are even growing over previous years in Europe. Despite the current recession effects, statistics show that readers are still buying books. Not matter? Anderson goes on to claim, “But irony of ironies, after literature was evicted from mass culture, pop culture itself began to fragment and lose its heretofore defining quality as the ubiquitous stuff that everybody consumed.”

Ah, I’m seeing to whom, or rather to what, Literature doesn’t matter to – pop culture. Wait, then this is a good thing for authors and readers. The fragmentation that Anderson talks about is the segmenting of consumers into smaller, more clearly defined profiles. What that means to self-publishing authors of fiction, non-fiction, etc., is not that your work doesn’t matter, that Literature doesn’t matter, but that it doesn’t matter to everyone. Perfect, now you can coordinate and focus your subject matter and marketing efforts to readers who will benefit from, and buy your books.

Talk to your self-publisher early on about your custom marketing plan.

Karl Schroeder

 

Interior detail of antique and vintage books and ornaments on a shelf in a Cotswolds country cottage

When Karl Schroeder first wrote this blog for us back in 2009, the market for self-publishing authors had already begun to (in his words) “fragment” into smaller and smaller niche genres and industries.  Authors were on the lookout for that “big hit wonder” element for their books to tap into, the mode that we’re often taught to expect or at least reach for as writers in the modern West.  But despite appearances–despite the rise of J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and E.L. James and Gillian Flynn and too many others to name–the superstar writer has mostly receded into the background.  What we have today is a (more) stable, (more) diverse, and (more) opportunity-rich industry, and this holds true even for the oft-neglected self-publishing author.

So, yes, what Karl said remains true: literature does still matter, though not to everyone.  What may have, perhaps, changed is that it no longer matters just to connoisseurs of hyper-specialized niche genres and so on … literature does in fact have a profound impact upon and presence within pop culture.  And I’m not just talking about Young Adult Literature or the ever-popular megagenre of crime fiction … I’m talking about the supposedly “forgotten” or “neglected” classic literature.

Ever heard of the #IReadEverywhere hashtag?  Well, it’s a thing.  A very, very big thing … because it demonstrates that our favorite pop culture icons–whether Mindy Kaling or or–read.  A lot.  And they read a pretty fantastic cross-section of all genres, including, yes, classic literature.  For example, we have:

ireadeverywhere1

Mindy Kaling reading Jane Austen (it doesn’t get more classic than that).  And …

ireadeverywhere2

Judy Blume reading Wally Lamb. And …

ireadeverywhere3

The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch reading Jonathan Safran Foer and Julia Child, while their co-star …

ireadeverywhere4

Jim Parsons reads Buster Keaton.

And they’re not the only ones!  The #IReadEverywhere campaign has generated hundreds of pictures of celebrities catching a few classic words between subway stops, while sipping mochas at coffee shops, or playing on the floor with their cats.  The age of the book may vary (Foer and Childs never overlapped with Jane Austen in the historical record, let’s just say), but the tenor of the trend remains the same: everyone reads, and a lot of people read everywhere and perhaps even often.  You can’t despair for the state of classic literature or any literature at all when it’s literally a marker of “cool” to snap a selfie of you toting Hemingway along to a hip bar in NYC of a Saturday night.

And yet, Karl’s ultimate point remains as valid as ever: you still need to “[t]alk to your self-publisher early on about your custom marketing plan” if you want to create and maintain a steady stream of book sales.  And you can do that most effectively by narrowing your gaze to a specific, manageable target audience.  It’s better to start with a handful of very interested, very invested readers than to spread your fairy dust thinly among people who are only marginally interested.  Invested fans will (sometimes quite literally) sell your book for you, and that has historically been how self-published works have come to receive broad acclaim.  Think of Andy Weir and his blog readers.  Think of E.L. James and her fanatically excited followers on FanFiction.net.  Think of John and Jennifer Churchman and The SheepOver.  You can do everything right as an author and still not sell books if you haven’t gotten your fans on board.  On the flip side, you can invest just a little time and energy in wooing your readers and seizing opportunities when they arise, and sell books like hotcakes by doing so.  Talk to a marketing expert at your self-publishing company, and see what magic you can make happen, together! ♠

KellyABOUT 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

News From the Self-Publishing World: 11/16/15

This week in the world of self-publishing:

In true entrepreneurial fashion, superstar actress and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow has decided to start yet another new venture … and this one’s into our world, the world of self-publishing.  According to Andrea Mandell in a USA Today article from November 10th, Paltrow will be calling her self-publishing line “Goop”––the same name as her existing fashion/beauty/lifestyle website.  It’s unclear at this point whether Paltrow will open up the new company for other aspiring authors, and how content will be selected and curated, but for now there are plans in the works for a cookbook and a beauty book at some later date.  Goop (the self-publishing company) will exist in partnership between Paltrow and existing publishing powerhouse, Grand Central Publishing.

On November 11th, Jessie Rosen of Bustle published a meme-rich list of reasons why authors should write that long-delayed YA novel … and now.  I’m happy to report that point #6 is, in her words, “You Can Self-Publish and See Just as Much Success.”  (The accompanying GIF image is, interestingly, pulled from the recent 50 Shades of Grey film––and keeps company with other GIFs on the list from Pretty Little Liars, Divergent, and Harry Potter.  It’s nice to know once and for all that popular culture has officially been infiltrated by Our People.)  Anna Banks and Amanda Hocking also win mentions.  And if this list isn’t enough to convince you that writing a YA novel is a worthwhile investment of time and energy, perhaps it will provide a good dollop of inspiration to publish whatever other kind of book you want to write.  (Hint: it doesn’t have to be YA!)

“There is proper etiquette on approaching a bookseller with a request to stock a self-published title,” writes Sue Corbett in this November 10th Publisher’s Weekly piece on the runaway self-publishing success, The Sheepover.  The joy of this sweet little picture book’s journey to an international market with Little, Brown and Company is in fact a story of the authors’ local Vermont community: when the husband and wife team first approached a local indie bookstore owner with their book, it was an eavesdropping customer who purchased the first copy, pulled in a friend to buy a second copy, and convinced the bookstore owner not only to stock a handful but to write a blog post about the book––a blog post which ended up capturing a lot of attention both at Publisher’s Weekly and among those who subscribe to PW emails.  And those original eight copies?  Paid for by a Kickstarter campaign linked to the authors’––John and Jennifer Churchman––Facebook account.  And if this story doesn’t warm the cockles of your heart, even after the first Autumn snow, then perhaps it will at least inspire you to try self-publishing a picture book of your own!

On a more “serious” newsy note, a decision has been made in respect to a long-running lawsuit leveled against self-publishing supergiant Author Solutions that has far-reaching implications for indie authors looking to publish in the near future.  In his November 13th article for Publisher’s Weekly, Jim Milliot charts the progress of the lawsuit, which was filed in 2013 by three authors accusing the company of fraud, and how this case intersected with the company’s transition to a new president and CEO––Andrew Phillips.  While the case has been dismissed, Phillips admits that he is “happy to be able to focus entirely on growing the company’s business.”  Author Solutions, which was first formed by the merger of AuthorHouse and iUniverse in 2007, has since gone through sequential ownership by Pearson, Penguin, and finally, Penguin Random House.  With all the resources of one of the Big Five publishers behind it, Author Solutions has instituted something called the “Author Care Initiative,” with the goal of improving customer satisfaction and retention in the face of an increasingly competitive market.  And they’ve seen measurable improvement in their numbers, which speaks to the value of actually caring about the authors!  You can read about the full set of measures as instituted by Phillips in the article.

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.

KellyABOUT 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.

Royalene Speaks, Self-Publishing

Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer: 08/07/2015

[UPDATE: Apologies for the posting error this morning!  It should be corrected now.

– SPA Blogrunner]

WHY SHOULD I PUBLISH?

Isn’t the world turning to their iPads and Kindles for research and pleasure reading?  WHY should anyone jump through all those book-publishing hoops these days? Last time I attempted to break through the walls and cross the motes to reach a traditional publisher every door slammed shut! No agent would take the time to even read my manuscript because “the main topic is too obscure.” The one publishing house editor who might have read the first few pages sent me a form rejection letter with a scrawled note at the bottom. “We’re packed to the gills with contracted publishing projects for at least the next five years.” OH, the cry of the writer who is unpublished today or who has barely stepped into the published author arena.  Within my sphere of writer-acquaintances I have two examples to share with you today. One author was “accepted” by a small (yet mainstream) publishing house and one made the decision to self-publish with an established “press.”

The “house” author was so excited to have the backing of a known publishing house.  However, as the months and years went by her enthusiasm dwindled. It was two months shy of three years before the book reached bookstores.  The eBook and online presence came along much later.  Then came the realities of marketing.  Yes, this book wore the label of the mainstream publishing house.  Yes, it was listed in their catalog of New Releases that went to bookstores around the world.  Yes, they offered a helper to “get the marketing off and running.”  However, (SURPRISE!) the actual marketing beyond their label and catalog would have to be done by the author—or a “contract” marketing team-for-hire.

The self-publishing “press” author held her finished book in her hand 98-days after submitting the manuscript with immediate availability to bookstores, major online book sites and as an eBook. That time-frame comparison alone has brought many new champions to the field of self-publishing.  Here are a few other contrasts that will help all writers in making their publishing decisions.

PROS

  • Traditional Publisher (TP): There is NO upfront expense to the author who is accepted by and signs a contract with a mainstream publisher—and often there is an “advance payment” based on expected sales.
  • TP handles development (editing, rewrites, enhancements, etc.) of your manuscript as well as onset marketing, distribution and some traditional “warehousing.”
  • Self-Publishing Presses (SP) have developed priced “packages” of publishing options for authors to select from—from bare bones “print my book” to full-assistance Custom Cover and Interior design.
  • SP Authors maintain 99% of the control in developing their book. I say 99% because there still remains some printer guidelines regarding the finished “trim-size” of books.

CONS

  • The days of the 6-figure advances are gone.  Plus, authors are beginning to consider their lost income due to the years it takes to get a book in print through Traditional Publishing.
  • There is also the very real concern that TP editors and book developers/marketing specialist will turn an author’s work into something it was never meant to be.  TPs will deny this happens—yet too many authors tell a different story.
  • Because Self-Publishing presses consider their main goal is to get the book OUT and available to readers QUICKLY, many do not have a printed Galley Proof for authors to hold in their hands and actually “proof.”  Although online Galley Proofing is an excellent way to manage corrections and changes, it is not always the easiest process for the Author.

These are the first of the Pros and Cons I will share with you this month.  However, I will add here that for me personally, the biggest factor to overcome as an author is actually releasing my work into the hands of ANYONE else—whether traditional publisher or self-publishing press.  Other eyes (professional publishing eyes) will be looking at what I’ve created.  So, bottom line, I search for the right fit within current publishing options. That means research into the publishing field beyond what I ever expected so that the heart of my words will reach the hearts of my readers. ⚓︎

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

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 03/27/15

CREATING THE MOMENTS OF EXPERIENCE

In the study of Philosophy, the term “empirical knowledge” refers to knowledge based on experience. As professors and students dig further, they discover that experience is also the processed and unprocessed thoughts perceived after an event occurs.  From those thoughts, wisdom is gained as people/characters reflect and/or interpret the actions and events of their lives.  German Philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “To live is to suffer; to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”

What I’ve just described is the heart of and the “act” of writing and reading fiction. In the course of our lives, we will never be able to experience what it is like to live in all the societies/cultures around the world—or all the times/eras. However, through fiction novels we can imagine it. Some might argue that non-fiction facts provide a clearer picture and understanding. I politely disagree because it is in the EMOTION of the moments of life that we are able to truly grasp the essence of what has happened.

Back when I was teaching, we did a week-long exercise in Emotion, Mood and Motivation. My question was, “Which comes first?” Does the mood of the moment create the emotion that motivates the action?  OR…does a character’s deep-seeded motives create the mood that then creates the emotion and action? OR…(well, you get the idea).  Here comes the really fun part of writing fiction. Writers get to jump into those motives, moods and emotions of each of their characters and discover new experiences for their readers to experience.  Here are some ideas to help you in developing your skills and abilities in this area.

  1. Fiction author, Orson Scott Card suggests focusing on motivation: “Instead of writing about feelings, write about WHY your characters are doing the things they’re doing.”
  2. If your readers need to know that the main character is “full of fear,” stay away from telling that fact—show the emotion. Example: the house is quiet and peaceful…the cat knocks over her water dish…the main character JUMPS into the corner of the room behind the couch and bursts into tears.
  3. Mood music. The world of movie-making uses this element to the max and we’ve all experienced it. This can be—and must be—accomplished in fiction writing, too. Much like an artist paints a masterpiece, the use of description (yes, adjectives) is an art to itself. READ the master-authors who utilize this gift and you will develop it, too.

Folding these elements of Mood, Motivation and Emotion into your characters will greatly enhance your ability to give readers exactly what they are looking for in Fiction Novels—their subconscious (and often conscious) need to experience life from another perspective. No two characters (or people) will react to events and circumstances in the same manner. And, as the character experiences more of life, they may not react as they did previously.

The excellent Fiction Author will grasp these elements of writing and never let them go, but continue to develop them throughout their writing lifetime.  That is my hope for every reader of this blog, that you will write and publish the very best quality of Fiction Novels and reap all the rewards!

Royalene ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene Doyle is a Ghostwriter with Outskirts Press, bringing more than 35 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their writing projects. She has worked with both experienced and fledgling writers helping complete projects in multiple genres. When a writer brings the passion they have for their work and combines it with Royalene’s passion to see the finished project in print, books are published and the writer’s legacy is passed forward.
Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Weekly Self-Published Book Review:The Complete Mystery of Matthew Alcott

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review by Midwest Book Review:

 the complete mystery

 The Complete Mystery of Matthew Alcott

Michael Oborn

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN:9781432788933

The mind of Joseph Smith has been debated much, by both Mormon and non-Mormon alike. “The Complete Mystery of Matthew Alcott” is a mystery surrounding the early time of the Mormon faith and the pursuits of Joseph Smith and his early circle of Brigham Young and Matthew Alcott, his historian. Michael Oborn creates a novel that explores the potential of Alcott to rebel and release a tell all history of the period, free from meddling from above. “The Complete Mystery of Matthew Alcott” is a strong pick for those who are seeking a bit of religion blended in with mystery and thriller.