And Now For Something Completely Different.

The week has been full of change.

I went away for three days writing...that was a change.

I am tweaking my website...warning change can be addictive.

I am reading about writers who are making big changes in the way they publish, market and portray themselves online.

6 prescriptions to cure the heartbreak ofbeing published....Yes, you read that right. Ruth Harris looks at the downside of the newly published...one of which is when you hate the cover the publishers gave you.

Shelftalker, an indie children’s booksellerhas a rant on book covers that are coming out. I must have missed the tween goth revolution...but all the covers for this age group look like YA covers and they all only use vampire palettes...

Mary Kole from Kidlit.com interviews Daniel Nayeri, kids lit author, on the off the wall marketing he does to promote his books...and the fact that his latest book is a collection of novellas. Even the book trailers...commercials break all the rules (were there any?)

The wonderful Catherine Ryan Howard has become my latest must read blog. Catherine has built a steady following self publishing while waiting for the big publishing deal and her blog details her journey. This week she examines why she might not ever print publish again.  

And then... 

Sarah Billington said ‘I want to give away a copy of my new midgrade eBook....’

A midgrade eBook?!That’s new...So I asked Sarah some questions and we cooked up a little competition for you.

Everybody is talking about eBooks. Writers are being encouraged to look at self publishing their work as the eBook phenomenon turns the print publishing industry upside down. When did you decide to dip your toe in the water and why?

I had been hearing about eBooks for a little while, since the start of the year really (2011), hearing the astounding success stories such as Amanda Hocking and J.A Konrath, how big name authors were turning their backs on 500k publishing deals in order to self-publish their work. The royalty rates offered by ebook distributors like Amazon and Smashwords are SO MUCH higher than traditional publishers are capable of offering due to the overhead costs involved in running such large businesses. Plus there are only so many slots available in any given publisher’s schedule. This means that there are SO MANY great books languishing in drawers and on hard drives, not because they aren’t brilliant and readers would love them, but because there just isn’t room for them in the print schedule.

And there are so many genres that don’t sell in big enough numbers to make it worth a publishing house’s investment, but certainly have an audience who want to read it. Now authors of niche topics can get their books straight to their readers. Like short story writers!

I am currently studying a Bachelor of Writing & Publishing and as part of my course this year, we had to do a major project on a form of digital publishing. I decided what the heck. It gave me the perfect opportunity to teach myself how to create an ebook. I planned to make one short story ebook for the assessment. Instead, I made 5.

How did you decide which of your stories would be best as an eBook? Did length play a part?

As initially it was just an experiment, length definitely played a part in my decision. Even as an indie author now, I dream of being traditionally published because I do still believe there is a future in it and they can reach a much broader readership than I can on my own, so I decided to first off only publish short stories. And they sell. I am amazed that I am earning income from 1,500 word short stories. I now too have an upper middle grade novel for sale, Life was cool until you got popular which you can win here today! (Details below).

What I choose to write for e-publication is definitely being influenced by the trends I am finding with my sales figures. For instance, my thriller The Runaway (which can be found under my pen name, Edwina Ray) outsells all of my other stories by 10-1 so I am keen to write more thrillers. I do love writing comedy, though. And though it sells well in print books, the IT genres in the ebook world are definitely thriller and paranormal romance. If you write those, then ebook publishing is a good fit for you!

What has been the most satisfying aspect to producing an eBook?

Seeing positive reviews of my work from book bloggers, friends and colleagues I admire and random happy readers! I always ask for an honest review, regardless of whether I know the reader or not and am thrilled that people are enjoying my work.

What has been the most difficult thing about preparing an eBook?

Finding the time to do everything – write, design a cover, format, come up with a blurb, promote, change tactics if something isn’t working. I haven’t received any income from my works as yet, partly because the international banking requirements sound like an absolute nightmare and I keep putting it off. J Yet something else I need to do!

There is definitely less writing time available, as an indie author.

You worked on your covers yourself, What was the most important thing that you learned about cover design for an eBook?

Cover design for ebooks require very different things to print books. At a bookshop, your book needs to stand out from the crowded shelves, and have an eye catching cover. For ebooks, yes these things are important, but the most important thing is that you use a large font for your title and author name. Why? Because readers see ebooks as thumbnails on their computer screens. If the title and author name are not legible when the cover image is so small, then you’re unlikely to have potential readers click through to view its blurb, reviews and buy it.

In the print world the print publisher may (if you are lucky) have a publishing campaign around the release of the book. What do you do when you have an eBook?

You do it all yourself! Getting book reviews are key to the success of an ebook. They don’t have to be glowing 5-star reviews, actually a couple of 2-3 star reviews add a bit of credibility to all reviews! Cold-emailing book bloggers, organizing book tours, blogging about the topic of your book (my blog post about the different types of zombie is my most popular blog post EVER – buy I, Zombie today! J) and getting people involved are key. Constantly tweeting or Facebooking how awesome your book is and that everyone should buy it is a complete turn-off to readers though. I am a reader, and I get annoyed by these overzealous authors so I simply don’t do it.

Also, run giveaways, as we’re doing here today! The point is not to make any income from the experience, but to reach new readers who might tell their friends, or pass it on to others. Like traditionally published books, exposure, letting readers know that you and your book even exist is essential.

You have a range of different genres that you play in...Zombies, Young Adult, MidGrade, Do you have eBooks in all of these genres?

I do. J I can’t help it, I love them all. I like variety and write every other project in a different genre lately, to keep me on my toes. However, so as not to end up with a twelve year old fan of Life was cool until you got popular reading I, Zombie (a rather gruesome black comedy told from the zombie’s perspective), and assuming it would be appropriate for them, I publish my darker works under my pen name, Edwina Ray.

Ebooks are rapidly gaining ground but mostly in the adult fiction market, Do you see a trickle down effect to the younger ages? How do you market a book to the younger reader?

I do believe there will be a trickle down effect to younger readers, as more and more receive ereading devices for Christmas and birthdays. Childrens and middle grade ebooks at the moment mind you, are definitely not the big sellers. I like to think that I’m getting in on the ground floor. Marketing ebooks to younger readers is a difficult one. Young adult fiction readers are different, as young adults and adults who read YA scour book blogs and book communities, but children – not so much. To be honest: I haven’t figured that part out yet. At present, I think it is much easier to get a traditionally published middle grade or children’s book in front of kids, through bookshops, libraries and book fairs.

Will you release print versions of your eBooks?

I do have plans to, yes. Definitely Life was cool until you got popular is in the works. I have hired a graphic designer to make a sparkly new cover for a print version. I won’t be publishing the short stories individually as print books, but once I have enough in the same genre (eg. thrillers, or comedy etc) I will think about creating themed anthologies.

Tell us a little bit about your midgrade eBook...

Sure! I have been told that my middle grade and young adult fiction writing style is very reminiscent of Louise Rennison, who writes the super-hilarious Georgia Nicolson series (though you won’t need a glossary in the back to understand my terminology). I am thrilled beyond belief to be compared to Louise.

This is what Life was cool until you got popular is about:

Thirteen year old Kaley’s best friend Jules is an alien clone. That has to be it. Because Jules wouldn’t dress like that or act like that…and she definitely wouldn’t be friends with Meg-a-bitch.

Kaley can't wait to start at her new school with her best friend Jules. Jules was away in Europe all summer (worst summer of Kaley's life!) But it's cool, now school is starting and everything is going to be awesome. However as the school bus pulls up on that first day, Kaley barely recognizes the silky hair and glossy lips as Jules gets off with the cool kids and with their arch-nemesis Meg, the popular girl (God only knows why) who made Kaley and Jules's lives miserable in elementary school. In Europe, Meg had somehow won over Kaley's best friend and Kaley finds herself frozen out.

Life was cool until you got popular is a first person novel told through Kaley’s eyes, chronicling the initial pain and incomprehension of what happened to destroy their friendship. But that doesn't last long. Kaley decides that underneath the bleached blond clone with the personality transplant, Jules is still in there. Somewhere. And she is going to get her best friend back!

Life was cool is available through:

Amazon

Smashwords 

ITunes 

And wherever else you might find it!

You can find Sarah at

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SarahBillington

Twitter: twitter.com/SarahBillington

The Sarah Billington Blog: sarahbillington.blogspot.com

How To Win

Halloween is happening in a few days so...Here is how you can win a copy of Sarah’s eBook Life was cool until you got popular

Add a great Zombie Name in the comments...and the best ones will win...simple.

Maureen

aka Brains R Fried.

Cautionary Tales

The theme today is Cautionary Tales...

It didn’t start out that way but as I researched in the blogosphere some ugly stories began to be talked about.

Was there a secret pact to get promo as a lead up towards Halloween?

Were they all fiction?

Sadly no. These were genuine stories that had train wreck consequences on authors and their careers.

In business there is the motto Caveat Emptor, Buyer Beware. Writers are not immune and they are in business. Make yourself aware of the pitfalls so you can recognise the signs if it starts happening to you.

First up, Libba Bray, after carefully keeping quiet because of the ringside seat she had,vented her spleen on the debacle surrounding Lauren Myracle’s book being pulled from the National Book Award shortlist. One thing from her rant that I kept thinking about as I read was her comment.

*at the center of all this was a real live human being, an excellent writer, whose work and reputation were being dragged through the mud as if it were no big thang while the ruffled feathers of injured egos were patted down in a backroom somewhere.

And how often have we witnessed this.

Read Libba’s rant. Punch the air...and be extra supportive of any writer placed in this position. There by the grace of God goeth I

Second up, the sad tale of a respected small press who has publically had a melt down due to mismanagement. This case has been brewing for most of this year as disquiet grew over the affairs of the press and today The Passive Guy (lawyer, writer and popular blogger) linked to an explain-how -it-all-happened blog post by one of the editorsinvolved. 

This post is a Must Read and Learn From so you are not caught in anything similar.

My thoughts go out to the many people hurt, (careers and health) by this bad mismanagement and bad business practice. 

If you are working with a small press keep an eye on their business practice and draw their attention to this so they can assure you that nothing like this would happen to you.

By the time I got to this post I thought surely the week couldn’t get worse...

Plagiarism reared its ugly head.

Ok, we know that there are plagiarists out there...some of them respected authors(well not any more) but this one takes the cake for the hurt caused to others.

When an entire reputation is built on repeated plagiarism of others and then to begin a career purporting to help and advise others, AS AN EDITOR, based on a plagiarised reputation... you are moving into SLIME MOULD TERRITORY.

Thankfully The Rejectionist posted a sly bit of humour that had us laughing and nodding and thinking about pretentious writers who look down on others...and what we’ll do come the revolution (which many think is upon us now)

Dana Lynn Smith offers us some excellent advice on thinking like an Authorpreneur

The wonderful Victoria Mixon keeps us grounded on 3 Things You Need To Know About The New Publishing Industry.

I have long been interested on how authors can collectively work together to raise their profile or to make an impact in their genre. A new author collective just getting off the ground is Reader Rules Check out the reasons behind it.

When thinking about your author platform be careful not to make these blunders says Kristen Lamb who is guest posting today over on Jane Friedman’s popular blog

Over in the craft section...

Bubblecow has a nice post on the snowflake method of Novel Writing...always worth a serious read!

This is a wonderful survey done by a Mid Grade Writer with Kids on what genre’s they read and whether they read eBooks...Check it out and be surprised!

Drop into Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) and check out the article links there

To finish,

Facebook is changing again. I still haven’t come to terms with the status changes from last month...and now they want to roll out Timeline. Check out Nathan Bransford article on it and think seriously about whether you want your online life collected up in an album...It puts a whole new meaning on privacy.

I’m off on a writing retreat which is why this post comes to you a day early....

Sorry that this post has mostly been full of depressing links. To make up for it I have a link to a happy video guaranteed to have you singing away...

maureen