Podcast episode on self-publishing

I'm featured in a podcast! MUCH EXCITE!

Last month I recorded a (very long) podcast episode about self-publishing with r. r. campbell, creator of the Writescast podcast. (His debut novel, Accounting for it All is coming out later this year, btw, and I cannot wait!) In this episode I downloaded pretty much everything I've learned about self-publishing over the last 5 years, from distribution platforms and ISBNs to psyching yourself up for the long game and why you'd ever want to offer your book for free. Rather than edit out some of the juicy bits, campbell decided to split our conversation into two episodes, and GUESS WHAT! Part I went live today!

Self-Publishing Part One: a How-To Featuring Sione Aeschliman

So if you're thinking about self-publishing or you've decided to self-publish and are wondering, What now? - this episode is for you. It's roughly 44 minutes long, perfect for a meal break or a wind-down at the end of the day. (Even better: my voice doesn't sound as horrible in this recording as in normally sounds to me. Gotta celebrate small victories.)

I hope you enjoy this episode!

Jan. 26, 2018 UPDATE: Part Two is now available!

More clients' books published!

Two books I've worked on have been published in the last couple of months, and I'm feeling like a very lucky editor.

In August Michael Sussman published Incognolio, the surrealist novel we worked on together.

Bewildered but lovable author, Muldoon, is trapped in the dreamlike narrative of his own surrealistic novel. Beginning with just a title—Incognolio—he enters a bizarre fictional realm that plunges him into an identity crisis of anguishing proportions. Is he writing a story in which his stillborn twin sister has come to life, or is he the one who died at birth and it’s his sister who’s writing the novel? Guided only by the whims and dictates of his subconscious mind, Muldoon must unravel the mystery of Incognolio and write his way to freedom or succumb to madness.

And now, just a couple of months later, the book I chose to work with for the 2017 ShoreIndie Contest - a far-future biopunk novel, Malfunction by J.E. Purazzi - is out, too!

When Menrva, a geneticist in the subterranean city of survivors known as Bunker, responds to a call for help from Cowl, her former best friend, and Bas, a renegade cyborg, she makes a vital mistake and places all three of them in danger. As they struggle to escape City guards, cyborg soldiers, desperate scavengers, and ravenous aliens, they find in each other something they never expected: family.

During a battle, an attacking cyborg manages to overcome her programming just long enough to deliver a cryptic message. The trio is forced to decide if they will risk death - or worse, capture - to seek out the truth about the City, or if they will fight only for themselves.

This fast-paced, gritty first book of The Malfunction Trilogy introduces a future caught between destruction and oppression, where Menrva and her friends must decide if the ends justify the means.

You can check out Purazzi's brief interview about writing, editing, and self-publishing on the ShoreIndie blog.

I'm currently working on a blog post about the unusual structure of Incognolio, which I'll publish later this month, but in the meantime you can read Sussman's guest post about writing from the subconscious here.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to happy-dance myself down to my favorite coffee shop for a celebratory fancy espresso drink.

Cross post: Analysis of Author Earnings Survey by Amelia Smith

A few weeks ago I was browsing Joel Friedlander's "Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #59" for posts about ebook marketing and came across this post by Amelia Smith, which she has graciously agreed to let me cross-post here. This post struck me as a great addition to the ebook marketing series because when I first started researching indie publishing in 2012, the #1 bit of advice I kept coming across was "publish more books." Smith's analysis of the Author Earnings Survey Data speaks to this advice and offers some insight into how much money a dedicated indie author might reasonably aspire to make.

An Analysis of the Author Earnings Survey Data

by Amelia Smith

I took a survey about half a year ago and promptly forgot about it. Then I wondered, why doesn’t anyone do those big surveys lately. All the talk seems to be about Author Earnings report, which collects and interprets sales from Amazon, focusing on top sellers and leaving out a lot of the not-so-successful authors like me. Then I found this, a huge collection of not-yet-summarized data. When I grabbed the spreadsheet from Hugh Howey’s author earnings survey, I wanted to find out what it takes to win at this game, and what my chances are of making a living writing books. I also wound up chasing a few side collections along the way. Here’s some of what I learned. The TLDR version? The majority of authors will never make a living at this, but chances increase both with number of books written and with years in the game. They get as good as 50/50.

I didn’t pay much attention to the merits of self-publishing vs “trad,” or to whether the authors in question used professional editors and/or cover designers.¹ Instead, I compared median numbers of books published versus median income for a variety of groups, mostly divided by number of years in the game. Through this, we can see if there’s any relationship between earnings and number of books published per year (there is, but it’s not straightforward), and whether there’s any point at which an author can be reasonably assured of making a living (there isn’t). I also disregarded author’s response to the question of “Are you making a full time living?” because some said that they were at $12,000 a year, while others thought they weren’t, even at over $100,000/year. I wound up using $32,000 a year as my “Making a Living” threshold, because that’s an Average Joe earns in the US, according to Google. 

5 reasons to self-publish

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my 28 July post, "5 reasons NOT to self-publish," I mentioned that I'm a proponent of self-publishing despite the arguments against it. Today I'd like to expand on that a little bit and offer five reasons you might want to self-publish.

One of the most popular arguments against self-publishing is that the market is already glutted with books, and we need to have some kind of quality assurance so that readers can be reasonably confident that the books available to them are of good quality. We need, they say, gatekeepers (i.e. publishers) who have taste in literature, know what's already out there so there aren't too many similar books, and can assure us that the books we're buying are worth reading both in terms of content and style.

I myself am often overwhelmed by how many worthwhile books there are out there - far more than I'll ever be able to read in a lifetime - and while I agree that there are a lot of self-published books whose quality is not so great, it is also my experience that there are plenty of traditionally published books that aren't so great - even some that have made the bestsellers lists. What's more, I have read some phenomenal self-published books (e.g. Andrea K. Höst's Touchstone Trilogy, Ruthanne Reid's The Sundered, and Ember Casey's His Wicked Games), which is proof that self-published does not need to equate to poor quality, nor does traditionally published always mean high-quality.

Call for Submissions: Indie Ebook Marketing

Every Monday on Facebook and Twitter I post a few selected calls for submissions, usually from literary magazines or contests. But today I'm announcing my very own call for submissions. Que emoción!

The gist: I'm inviting authors who have self-published at least one ebook to submit a proposal for a 500- to 600-word blog post about their ebook marketing experience. I will choose up to 10 submissions to pursue, and the contributors will be paid upon delivery of a satisfactory post.

Please read all of the information carefully before submitting. Submissions that don't meet the criteria and/or follow the guidelines will be automatically disqualified. Yes, for realsies.

Project description

Over the next 6-12 months I'll be publishing a series of blog posts here on Sione Aeschliman, LLC that are geared toward writers who are considering self-publishing an ebook for the first time. (Examples of posts in this series: "7 Tips for Self-Publishing an Ebook, Part 1"; "Part 2"; and "5 Reasons NOT to Self-Publish.") This content will remain free on my site indefinitely, but I also intend to compile it into an inexpensive ebook for those who want easily navigable, offline access to the information. While I'll be writing most of the content for this project, I do want to invite other contributors to talk about their experiences, especially in regards to areas into which I have not yet delved extensively, such as ebook marketing. This is where you come in.

5 reasons NOT to self-publish

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Followers of this blog will know that, despite the myriad arguments against self-publishing (the two most common being that there are too many books out there already and that the quality of the majority of self-published books is sub-par), I am a great proponent of it (more on that in next week's post, "5 Reasons to Self-Publish").

But self-publishing is not the right path for everyone, and I believe that an emerging author should consider both options before deciding which route to take.

Here are five reasons NOT to self-publish.

1. You lack the resources to give the indie author route a proper go.
Time/energy
Becoming a successful indie author is like having two full-time jobs: there's the full-time job of writing, and then there's the full-time job of finding and engaging with your audience in order to sell your books.

7 Tips for Self-Publishing an Ebook, Part 2

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last week I shared my first three tips for self-publishing an ebook:
1. Start working with a cover designer early-ish
2. Ask your cover designer for a JPEG, not a TIFF or PNG file
3. Publish with both Smashwords and Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Today's post contains four more tips to help you have a smooth ebook publishing process (and avoid learning the hard way).

4. Format for Smashwords first.
You've finished the book, which is to say you have a finished manuscript that has gone through several rounds of editing and revision and has been copy edited. You are 99.9% sure you will not be making any further changes to the content of the manuscript. Does this describe you? Yes? Okay. Then you are ready, young Jedi. It's time to format your manuscript as an ebook.

7 Tips for Self-Publishing an Ebook, Part 1

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A couple of writers have approached me lately looking for advice on how to self-publish an ebook, so I thought I'd share what I've learned over the course of the last three years and five self-published ebooks (plus two for a client) here, available to all.

As I worked on this post, I realized I had more to say than I originally thought, so I'm breaking it up into two parts. This week's post contains tips about working with a cover designer and which publishing platforms to use. Next week's post will address the recommended order of operations.

Please note that these tips are not meant to be an exhaustive how-to, much less a step-by-step guide. My intention is to make your self-publishing experience a little easier by sharing some things I wish I'd known when I first got started.

1. Start working with a cover designer early(ish).
I usually start working with a cover designer about 3-4 months before I expect to release my book. Depending on your cover designer's skill and availability - not to mention your availability, when it comes to providing feedback on mock-ups - it can take anywhere from a week to several months to nail down a cover.

To print or not to print?

One of my goals this year is to see at least one of my books in print, so I've been doing research on print-on-demand options for self-publishing.

Pretty early in my research I narrowed it down to three options based on price and packages: Xlibris, Outskirts and CreateSpace. Both Xlibris and Outskirts offer packages with features I was looking for - ISBN assignment, interior design, cover design with price-embedded barcode, and worldwide distribution - for $699. The Xlibris package also includes a set of promotional materials (bookmarks, posters, etc.), but I was leaning in the Outskirts direction because I have a client who used them and her book is beautiful, whereas I've never held an Xlibris book in my hand so I don't know what it's like.

CreateSpace, on the other hand, is free and they'll assign an ISBN, but I'd still have to hire someone to help me with the cover and interior design aspects. I was also leaning away from this option because the royalty calculator revealed that anything lower than a $9.99 list price would result in my actually losing money on sales through expanded distribution.

My definition of success as a writer

Since deciding to make writing a much bigger part of my life two and a half years ago, a few of my poems, short stories and creative nonfiction pieces have been published. I'm currently working on a collection of short speculative fiction stories and two books of poetry, which I haven't yet decided whether to self-publish or query. In addition, I've self-published three novellas and a collection of short stories under my pseudonym, with another novel and a few short stories on the way in the first half of 2015.

But getting my work out there isn't enough for me. For me, success as a writer is about money, influence, and growth.

Guest post: How author Scott Burtness defines success as a writer

Am I a successful author? I have no frickin’ idea. Honestly, I still have trouble deciding if I’m actually an author. At the moment, I have one novel finished (Wisconsin Vamp), a sequel on the way (working title, The Book that Comes After Wisconsin Vamp That I Really Need to Get Done, Dammit!), and a sci-fi short story that’s been shortlisted for an upcoming anthology. Seems like I should be able to say with some confidence, “Yep. I’m an author,” but I haven’t rounded that corner yet. For the most part, writing and all the marketing I’ve done to promote myself and my work has just been something fun to do while drinking coffee.

You see, writing was never a dream of mine. I’m pretty sure that when the teacher asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “astronaut,” or, “the guy in the coffee commercials.” I remember these commercials featuring a guy that was all rugged-handsome and dressed in a heavy, cable knit sweater, who travelled the world and took amazing pictures of amazing places. In the commercials, he’d bump into some nice family and they’d invite him in for a cup of instant coffee. I wanted to be that guy, or an astronaut. But a writer? Never crossed my young mind.

Guest post: How author Ebony Williams defines success as a writer

The guest post series about success as a writer continues today with a contribution by radio personality and author Ebony Williams.

"It’s not about how many words are on a page, or how lengthy your book is, or whether you’ve put out tens to hundreds of books...." So then how does Ebony, who is on the verge of self-publishing her third novel, define success for herself as a writer? Read on to find out.

I wrote my first book when I was six. My mother found it the other day and was talking to me about it, laughing about the subject and hand drawn illustrations. It was about 30-35 pages, but for a six year old that’s not bad. I slowly started to fall in love with poetry, the art of making it rhyme and then not rhyming brought on a new sense of creativity for me.

New goal: get rejected

Several unexpected and exciting things happened this week, one of which was that my mom told me about this NPR story about a guy who, in order to get over his fear of rejection, makes it a goal to get rejected in some small way every day. Which got me thinking about the fact that I haven't done much (any?) submitting in the last six months, and hence have neither had my work accepted or rejected for a very long time. I think I'm going to make it a goal to get work rejected by 20 editors this year. The beauty of this goal? If I send out 20 submissions and 2 of them are accepted, I have to send out more submissions and get rejected at least twice more to meet my quota.

I have too many other things on my plate right now to dive into this goal immediately, but I'll start submitting poems (and stories?) this summer.

Related to that, I've also semi-decided to query at least one of the books of poetry I'm putting together this year instead of trying to self-publish absolutely everything. I'm mostly in it for the experience of querying, which I'll be able to use to both empathize with and advise my coaching and editing clients, but if someone ended up accepting the book, that'd be pretty darn cool.

As for the other exciting things that happened this week? They are mentioned in my...

ROW80 Update
"A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life."
 

Guest post: How author Ruthanne Reid defines success as a writer

Science fantasy author Ruthanne Reid has three novels out - The Sundered (which is a great read, btw), The Christmas Dragon, and Strings - all with high ratings on Amazon; a fourth on the way, Notte; and a slew of short stories available on her website.

But none of that matters. Read on to find out why.

How author Ruthanne Reid Defines Success as a Writer

Contentment.

That's cheating, perhaps, to use one word, but it's true. Let me explain.

When I started this whole writing thing, I really had no idea how publishing worked. I wanted to write, find an agent, and then see my books on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, where they would inspire potential movie deals and copious amounts of fanfic.

On being a reader-editor

In the last few months I have recommended the same few books to a couple of different people, each book for its own reason.

One of these books was traditionally published, and the other two self-published.

Two of these books I recommended because they're well-written, well-edited and contain some intriguing metaphors that I find personally meaningful. One of these books I recommended as a good example of a story that has serious flaws - it needs developmental as well as line and copy editing - but is nonetheless entertaining and has (in my opinion) some worthwhile aspects.

Does it surprise you to learn that the one book that needs serious editing - that I consider worth reading despite its myriad flaws - is the traditionally-published one? It surprised me when I realized it.

Self-publishing in print

a guest post by Andrea Scovel (@AndreaScovel1)

As an indie publisher, how does one go about getting one's book in print? What does it entail and, more importantly, where does one start? I wish I could say that these questions are easy to answer but I have found that the world of publishing is anything but easy. From what I have discovered, you need to define whether or not you should publish in print and who you should print with.

Photo by Rick Campbell

Should you publish in print?

Asking the important question of should you is a good place to start. You probably know that some authors only publish ebooks. The reason? It is inexpensive and a lot of times free to publish in ebook format. Whereas publishing in print can be very expensive. Not to mention that the platforms available for distributing ebooks are very efficient and wide-reaching.  According to Joanna Penn of the blog The Creative Penn, a lot of authors (including her) have made the mistake of paying a huge upfront cost for printing out tons of copies of their book, yet they had no distribution network. Without a way to get your book out there and noticed by customers; you may end up eating the cost of the books. If this is your first publishing venture and you don’t have a following yet, the ebook-only option may work the best for you. 

Distributing through Smashwords

a guest post by Andrea Scovel (@AndreaScovel1) 

For the past week I have been exploring the Smashwords website and am really excited to share what I have learned with all of you authors and aspiring authors alike. If you haven’t heard of it yet, Smashwords is the world’s “largest distributor of indie ebooks.” FYI: Smashwords only offers publishing for ebooks. I suggest you visit the site and have a good look because they have a lot to offer. I was both impressed and intimidated by the wealth of information on Smashwords; there is everything that an indie author needs to know about publishing their own ebook. For this post, Sione and I had some questions that we wanted answered and we thought that you may be interested in their answers too. 

Why distribute through Smashwords?

• It’s free!

• They provide tools to help you market your ebook.
• Smashwords has relationships with top ebook retailers.
• They have the know-how when it comes to publishing quality ebooks.
• Smashwords offers high royalty rates!

So how can you publish your book on Smashwords?

• Create a free account.

• Follow the free Smashwords Style Guide and upload your book.
• Obtain a quality cover; if you need help with that you can find vendors on Mark's list.

What exactly are the royalty rates that Smashwords offers?

• Authors earn 85% of their sales minus the fee for paypal transactions (.85) at their retail location, Smashwords.com.
• Authors earn 60% off the list price for sales from major retailers.

Introducing Andrea Scovel, my intern!

I have an intern! *happy dance, happy dance!*

Photo by Stephanie Richey

It is with great pleasure and much excitement that I introduce Andrea Scovel. Andrea, an English Literature and Writing major with a concentration in Creative Writing at Marylhurst University, is an aspiring freelance writer and author of children's and young adult fiction. She lives in the Portland, Oregon area with her husband and three children. Andrea will be working with me over the next couple of months to bring you a series of blog posts about writing and indie publishing. Some of the topics we've discussed so far include:

• The low-down on distributing your ebook through Smashwords
• Crowdfunding your book project
• Options for self-publishing a print book (as opposed to ebook)
• Writing fellowships and residencies open to emerging writers
• And more!

So be sure to keep an eye out for Andrea's guests posts, coming once a week starting this Monday, April 28, with a post about distributing your ebook through Smashwords.

I feel that no introduction on this blog would be complete without at least a brief interview so you can hear Andrea's voice yourself. Read on to find out more about what she writes, what she reads, and whether she'd take ten million dollars to never write another word in her life.

Interview with author Kristen Strassel

This week's interview is with my friend Kristen Strassel, whom I met on Twitter. Kristen is one half of The Undead Duo who runs deadlyeverafter.com, the other half being Julie Hutchings, whom I interviewed back in July.

I love Kristen not only because she and Julie helped introduce me to some important writing communities on Twitter and have supported my writing on their blog but also because her tweets are interesting and often hilarious. Unlike some authors on Twitter who are just there to push out tweets about their writing, Kristen engages with people and interacts as a whole, real person.

And so it brings me great pleasure to present Kristen's interview, in which she talks about her books, her unorthodox approach to self-publishing, her marketing strategies, her writing process, and more. Enjoy!

Self-publishing research: Interview with Chris O'Byrne from JETLAUNCH

Last week, I believe it was, Chris O'Byrne followed me on Twitter and I found out about JETLAUNCH Premium Publishing, a company that helps indie authors navigate self-publishing their print and ebooks by offering editing, formatting, file conversion, book and cover design, and distribution services.

This got me thinking of indie authors I've encountered who find the idea of learning about the nuts and bolts of self-publishing daunting (especially after having just gone through sometimes years of work writing the book), so I decided to investigate a little further and to invite Chris to do an interview so we could get a glimpse of the man behind the company. Happily, he said yes and was able to respond to the interview questions in record time!

In the following interview, Chris talks about how he got into the business of helping indie authors self-publish, his reading habits, and the challenges to and best strategies for selling a self-published book.