Tag, You're It!

I read an interesting blog post today by agent Kristin Nelson that you can find here.  The hot topic this week in publishing concerned "discovery."  Meta data key words reflect one way that end users search for books (and other products online). It got me to thinking about my own "meta data," blog labels, and "tags."  In the past, I have just randomly selected some words that I thought people might search and then find my book.

I did not know that tools on the internet existed that track meta data and searches.  If only I had known.  This would effect the words I choose.  Especially considering that on Kindle Direct Publishing they only allow you a total of seven meta data tags.

My debut book, DARK MOUNTAIN, is a thriller/suspense novel that has elements of paranormal/occult and some elements of horror (especially if people actually ingesting blood makes you queasy).  I chose to use meta data tags for "vampires" and "werewolves" but I declined to mention them in the description.  Then, I also have this dark cover with the tag line, "Sometimes evil runs in the family."  My other five tags were, well, embarrassingly bland.  My name.  The title of the book.  "Thrillers," "suspense," and "Oklahoma authors."

I have changed them now, almost 9 months later.  My tags are now, "Stephen King,"  "horror,"  "vampires," "paranormal thriller," "occult," "Lee Child," and "suspense."  We will see if this increases sales.  This will be an interesting experiment.

My newest book, CRY ME A RIVER, is a suspense/thriller with elements of romance, adventure, and espionage.  It takes place in Colombia.  It has an assassin, a rogue DEA agent, a handsome photographer whose family owns a drug cartel and the woman who hires him.  Of course, she doesn't know his past and soon she becomes a pawn in the fight to protect the family business.

The meta data tags I chose for it seemed fitting, but lo, I have only sold two copies since December 6.  I thought with the Christmas rush and the fact that I gave away over 500 copies of DARK MOUNTAIN, that I would get some attention drawn to this book.  I think it has a catchy cover, but I think that maybe the market is flooded right now.  I don't know.  I think it is the better book.  So, I am experimenting with the data tags on this one as well.  I chose "Lee Child," and "Clive Cussler" for this one as well as "romance," and some other tags that have been getting hits.

We shall see.  I will give it thirty days before I evaluate other ways to boost my sales.  How about you guys?  What are the key words you search for when you are seeking your next read?

A Giving Mood

Dark Mountain

I have been in a generous mood lately.  I just wrapped up a three-day free Christmas download offer for DARK MOUNTAIN.  Over 400 people downloaded it this time.  Now, over 2,000 people have a copy of Dark Mountain.  I am excited and humbled. 

 I want to keep spreading the love, so I have been giving away three signed paperback copies of CRY ME A RIVER.  I am doing this via Goodreads.com.  So, if you have a Goodreads account, you can still enter to win until noon Saturday, January 5th.  Click on the link on my website or go to Goodreads and click on "Explore" and then "Giveaways" and then scroll down until you find CRY ME A RIVER.  As of this post, over 400 people have requested to enter for the three free copies.  The giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.

Cry Me A River

So, now I have concocted another giveaway.  On my website I have been offering monthly excerpts of my writing.  For the month of January, I have decided to run my first Quarterly Reader's Appreciation Contest.  To enter the drawing for a free Scentsy plug-in, simply read the short (less than three thousand word) excerpt and answer the question in the month of January.  Rules and more information are provided as well as book trailers, and previous excerpts to read.

I plan to continue being generous.  My next title, MANIC MONDAY is set to release by the end of February and I will be offering it only on Amazon, at an introductory price of 99 cents!  It is the first of the MONDAY CHRONICLES and I am super excited about it.  Also, I will be offering DARK MOUNTAIN for free 5 times every 90 days, so watch out for those giveaways if you haven't already downloaded it.

Why am I doing this?  I want to expand my readership is the simple answer.  Also, I am naturally generous.  My dream is that every title I offer is read by at least ten thousand folks.  I don't know 10,000 people personally, so I am relying on good old "word of mouth."  So, if you like my writing, or like me, please spread the word.  Thank you in advance. 

Production is King

As I watch the success of fellow self-publishers, I try to maintain a sense of calm.  I have one book, Dark Mountain, published so far and have had a mediocre first two months. I have learned a ton.  Perhaps the biggest thing that I have learned so far is to be patient. 

Failure tends to demand that reaction, doesn't it?  The Colts have a miserable season with Manning in the stands and the ownership flips the entire organization on its tail.  Be patient.  The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is rampant, drug use on the rise, housing prices plummeting, foreclosures skyrocketing.  Be patient.

So, the only remedy I can truly see is more production.  Write.  Write some more.  I wrote recently about a difficult scene in my current work-in-progress, Cry Me a River.  What a bunch of whiny dreck.  I just wrote it.  Powered through it and ate up 15,000 words in three days.  Finished with a 8,000 word flourish. 

The remedy, you see, is to get behind a keyboard and do what you do best.  So, with another productive week ahead (20,000 words should get me to the end of the book), I will get the next book out before November.  And, soon after that, I plan on having the first of a series of adventure/suspense novels, my Jake Monday series, ready for editing.

The more novels you have, the more legitimate you seem as a writer.  It is then easier to cross-market, to brand, to develop a fan base that no longer just reads your books in obscurity but recommends them to friends and family, tweet about them, adds them on Goodreads, and buys the merchandise.

This is truly a wonderful time to be a writer.  We can never lose sight of that.  But, in this new world of publishing, production is king.  Do you find an author with a "long tail" (multiple books published, big back-list) to have more legitimacy, or does this even factor in when looking for that new book for your Kindle/Nook/Kobo/Ipad?

The State of Publishing

I am not an alarmist.  I am not someone who cries "The sky is falling!"  I make no accusations or prophesies.  I do not pretend to know what the future holds. 

However, I can smell a skunk when he is near.  I can see a rotten apple before I pluck it.  I can hear a train coming and know not to cross the tracks.  I can taste the spoiled milk and know to throw it out.

I began writing when I was young.  Before I ever took a college creative writing course, I had studied the craft of writing and followed the publishing world.  I submitted articles, anecdotes, jokes, and stories to magazines for 5 cents per word or less.  Sometimes, contributor's copies weren't even offered.  I knew then that writing was a pitiful career choice.  The potential for ruin for the shy, the fainthearted, the under-talented, was great.  I dared only to enter into the lake of publishing by dipping my toes in the water. 

My only other activity concerning writing for decades was to wait.  To watch.  To refine my skills, define my audience, and confine my art to a drawer and a hard drive.  Recently, with the advent of a new era in self-publishing, I have awakened the hope and wonder of my semi-dormant skills and faith in becoming a published author. It was a dream I didn't think would ever transpire.

As I continued to research, I continued to hold a fondness, a loyalty, to the legacy of the publishing world.  The historical behemoths of publishing, the massive, dinosaur-like monstrosities in New York and Chicago, in London and Toronto seemed impregnable, but rightfully so.  Not everyone DESERVES a chance at publication.  For God's sake, it is best that some are not given that opportunity to muck up the pristine waters of the lake.  What a bunch of baloney.

I don't write romance novels. I have only read a few.  Some were my mom's Harlequins, more than two decades ago.  However, I have always known that the market and the authors of these books made a pittance.  I read this post by famous self-pubbed, whiner extraordinaire, viciously enthusiastic supporter and trumpeter of self-publishing, JA Konrath.  Although I don't drink Mr. Konrath's kool-aid 24/7, he often makes salient points and gives some sound advice if you have the time to wade through the detritus of his arguments and rantings to find the scraps and nuggets of goodness. 

This particular post, though, was completely enlightening.  So much so, I had to share it and my absolute distaste for Harlequin and their poor business practices.  The post is written by Ann Voss Peterson, author of PUSHED TO FAR.  Her career is very impressive in terms of total books published and total books sold.  But, Harlequin publishing hasn't treated her fairly at all, if you read the post.

I don't believe them to be "evil," any more than coal companies in the early 1900's were evil.  Or Enron was evil.  Or Exxon Mobile and the offshore drilling are evil.  They are advantageous, as most businesses are, but they have overstepped the boundaries of good taste and fair business practice.  Poor taste and bad practice to the point that they should be made to stop. 

It is the Harlequin's of the world, and agents who support them through their contract negotiations, who are turning the tide of this war on publishing.  The first salvos from the self-pubbed camp have been pathetic, with a few scattered victories to lift spirits.  There have also been defections and converts, but now, the corrupted system (think Rome) is being exposed and it may not be too long before the lake of publishing overflows its dam and creates a new body of water altogether.  I am not intoning the death knell of the Big 6.  They aren't called the Big 6 for nothing.

Right now, only a chosen few are feeling the ground swell.  Some readers are beginning to sense the shift, but are just getting over their "free book" high and seeing their Kindles and Nooks full of unreadable dreck and overpriced Best Sellers.  Soon, though, the authors themselves, will be running for the hills, hiding in the woods, turning printing presses and hiring out cover artists, laid off publicists, editors, and marketing directors.  Soon, agents will be offering service packages for a flat fee and a smaller take of the royalties (5% of 70% on a $4.99 ebook is bigger than 15% of 2.4% on a $5 mass paperback, right? The agent makes 18 cents per copy rather than 2 cents!).  Soon, more print-on-demand stores will open.  Soon, vanity presses will lower their costs.  Soon, more online ebook stores will open, offering more to the consumers.  Bigger discounts, more selection, exclusive content, bundled purchases, merchandise giveaways, etc.  Jeesh, I am starting to sound like Konrath!

But, seriously, check out her book, give Ann Voss Peterson some props.  Support your local artists, whether they be musicians, artists, or authors.  I read PUSHED TOO FAR myself, and her writing is very similar to Patterson's.  Engaging, suspenseful, and interesting.

As far as writing goes, though, before you go skinny dipping in the lake of publishing, you better look close before you leap.  There are sharks and alligators waiting to eat you up, if you aren't careful.

Self-Publishing Basics Part 2: Creating A Cover

Books are judged by their covers.  This is one truism (or "truthiness") that seems to always apply.  If you have decided to self-publish, let me recommend that you take some time to study book covers.  Look at covers that have caught your eye and covers that are appropriate for your genre.  By this I mean BEST SELLING covers for novels in your genre.  Some covers out there, especially among self-pubbed books, are very amateurish.

I chose to go a little outside my genre (thrillers), and incorporate some imagery and cover format that had worked to draw my eye.  I have always been partial to a solid block of color behind the author's name/title of the book.  Some cover artists can blend the type into a dark spot of the cover art, or a place where there is a solid color.  This allows the title to "pop" and also allows the reader to delineate between the image and the title.  The two should connect, by the way.  The image should reflect in some way either the title or the theme of the book.   Unless there is a murder at the picnic, a bucolic scene with a field of flowers, a bench with a family around it laughing does not a mystery cover make.

Covers are art.  That is the way you must see it.  This art can be as simple as type face over a solid color, photo images and type or illustration/painting with type, or any variation of those.  The point of the art, the point of the cover, is to draw potential readers to pick up the book, to click on it and read more.

Now, I by no means am an expert at this, but I have a good eye.  I have read thousands of books and have perused libraries and bookstores for three decades.  I know what stands out.  I have watched the trends.  I notice when a book cover for a particular novel (i.e. Game of Thrones or The Stand) changes.  I notice when a cover I find appealing, but is outside of my reading circle--romance, for example--catches my eye and then becomes popular.  For sure, the popularity of novels is not dependent upon their covers, but on their contents.  Some books succeed IN SPITE of their covers.  The Stand was one of them, Stieg Larsson's Girl series is another.

The practical side of the cover is the design of it in preparation for print.  Many of the Print-On-Demand publishers like Create Space and Lulu provide tools to make this task easier.  But, just like many other areas of self-publishing, you must don another hat, develop another skill.  If you don't have proficiency with Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign or some other design studio software, I recommend that this task is one that you hire out to someone that does.  A good graphic artist, a cover designer, or even a graphic design student can provide the PDF document or JPEG image you will need to provide your cover.

Another practical consideration you must keep in mind is the art/photography.  I am not a photographer.  I used to be a fair illustrator but have not honed those skills in decades.  Find a photographer you like or subscribe to iStock photos or eShutter or some other online stock photo marketplace.  You can get pictures there royalty free for less than a dollar.  Or, if you like the personal touch, digital photography is an art form in itself.  If you would like to marry that talent with your talent for writing, then that could be your best option.

The beauty of self-publishing is that YOU have the control.  YOU make the decisions.  However, it is also the burden you bear because, in the end, the success or failure is on you as well.  You have to have good content, a good story told with craftmanship.  You have to have an attractive cover that draws in readers.  You also have to have a good marketing plan that puts your title, your name and your brand in front of as many people as possible.


NEXT UP:  EDITING

Self-Publishing Basics Part 1--Formatting

You can easily find a ton of help out there for self-publishing, if that is your goal.  I am new at this, but I have followed self-publishing for almost a decade.  I want to impart some of what I have discovered and chronicle my journey into self publication.  My first book, Dark Mountain, was just released.  I am making it availabe in both print and electronic versions, because I believe that both mediums are important.  Some will laud one over the other and there is much debate over print vs. ebooks as well as traditional publishing vs. indie publishing.  I believe that there is an audience for both print and electronic books.  I also believe that authors should be able to enjoy the benefits of both traditional publishing and self-publishing.  Neither has to be mutually exclusive of the other. 

Formatting Your Book For Print

The biggest hurdle in self-publishing a book is that you need to incur some extra-writerly talents and skill sets.  One of the first skills you must use, once you decide how you are going to market your book, is to format it for publication.  Obviously, this step takes place after you have written the book and edited it thoroughly. 

You will probably be formatting for several formats (Kindle=html; CreateSpace = PDF or .doc; Smashwords = .doc, etc.), so remember to always have a clean copy or two of your original manuscript.  I kept five:  one for editing (clean manuscript with bookmarks at chapters so I could easily navigate when fact-checking); one to submit to agents (that didn't pan out); one for print publication (page numbers, headings, cover pages, etc.); and two for the electronic version--one in .doc or normal MS Word, and one in .htm format. 

This can get confusing, but if you name them to remember, it makes it easier.  You can also put them in separate files, to keep it straight.  The point is, be prepared to do formatting more than once, especially if you are publishing it in multiple formats.

First, I recommend highly that you stick to MS Word.  It is the easiest to use and has the most widely recognized format.  In fact, to publish to Smashwords, it is almost impossible to get your manuscript accepted without it.  Each version (2003,2007, 2010) each has its benefits and inconsistencies, but they are all generally the same. 

Second, get your manuscript edited.  I will cover this in another post, but it is still an important step you cannot ignore.  It will cost money, but it is worth it.

If  you are seeking to have your book published in print (via Lulu or Createspace or others), I recommend that you download a template for the size of book you are seeking to publish.  This can be everything from a mass market paperback size to a common 6" x 9" trade paperback.  Once you do that, it can be as simple as copying and pasting your book into the template.  You can alternately study the template design (page widths, margins, gutters, sections, headers and footers, etc.) and apply those to your manuscript.  Don't forget to save the document under a different name (instead of "Title.doc," save it as "Title 6x9.doc" or something similar). 

This step can be daunting.  Some publishing service providers offer a service that does the formatting for you for a charge.  In fact, at any one step, Lulu, CreateSpace and other print-on-demand (POD) publishers offer services for a fee.  Often, they are great bargains.  Mostly, if you have the technical savvy, patience, and time, you can do them yourself for free.  I did them myself and saved over $500 total. 

Formatting Your Book for Electronic Distribution

If you are seeking to digitally publish your book, then start with your clean, original manuscript in MS Word.  Select "All" and then "Clear Formatting."  You should see a pretty plain document, with all the fonts removed.  This is the best way to start your formatting for Kindle or Smashwords.  Save the document as a different title--"Title Clear.doc" or "Title Digital.doc" will suffice.  Then, you can go in and create bookmarks, paragraphing, etc.  Re-save the document and then "Save As" html, formatted.  This is the format that Kindle demands in order for it to be published in its newest format.  It can also be converted this way to Epub and Mobi formats (Apple, B & N, etc.) as well.

I could go deeper, give more information, but these are the basics.  To provide more information, this would be a very long post.  I can, however, recommend heavy research.  Each provider (CreateSpace, Kindle Direct Publishing, Lulu, Smashwords, B & N direct publishing) offers TONS of help, links, and information on how to publish.  In addition, there are ebooks online as well as other blogs that offer more in-depth information about formatting.

NEXT UP:  COVER DESIGN