Working on this e-book thing.
I downloaded a book by Zoe Winters called “Smart Self-publishing” and read it all the way through in a few days while taking copious notes. I have to recommend it for anyone considering this direction with their books. It was informative, inspirational, step-by-step, and covered basically everything I had questions about.
Now to actually do this monkey business.
I am not computer savvy. My husband is in IT and can make computers sit up and beg. I am not and can barely check my e-mail. This blog is still a bit of a mystery to me. I’m a little nervous about dumping my book into the Meatgrinder at Smashwords. I do not want my book to come out looking like shit! I have downloaded a few indie books that did indeed look like shit. It made me sad and nervous. My book will take a lot of reformatting, not the least of which is because I only have the copy that was already formatted for print. It’s also presently 311 pages long. (My goal is to have 10% cut by the time I am done editing. At page 130, I have cut 9 pages. Grumble, grumble, grumble.) This is going to be a long process.
I am supposed to hire two people according to Ms. Winters: A proofer/editor and a cover designer. I do believe I can skip both of them, since my two proofers are both pros in their area. And willing to help me out for gratitude. Also, I am a drawer. I don’t work out of my head much, but I can copy photos and still lifes like no one’s business. Pen or pencil isn’t exactly a great medium for book covers, but I am seriously hoping that some good editing software can pimp my drawings so that they look like pro cover art. So that means I have to learn how to use image editing software, too. And format my book for upload. And draw the cover!
This list keeps getting longer.
Oh, and I’d like to get a copyright. I wasn’t too worried about it in print, because legally the document is mine, and it was printed by such a small company and so few copies sold. I just didn’t think copyrighting officially would be a big deal. But putting my stuff on the likes of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, etc., I think a real copyright registry is in order. That’ll be $35.
And I can’t recall if it was an ISBN or a barcode I would need for the e-book version. (That’s what notes are for.) I know when I do decide to print the book I’ll want both, but one or the other was needed for e-book. ISBNs were about $100 last I looked. I bet it’s gone up. Barcodes I have no idea.
So now I’m on to learning about marketing. This, at least, I feel I can do. I am not supposed to worry about social media or blogs so much, but have a website and get reviews. A website will be a pain in my ass, since I am incompetent on the computer and my husband hates web developement. He’ll do it, but he hates it. Reviews should be medium-simple. I just need to contact reviewers, offer them a free copy of my book, and ask them nicely if they will write me an honest review. As far as I’m aware. If I need to bribe them with sex or cash, I will be sad.
I did run across an article that cited some statistics, and authors who market like animals have lower sales than authors who write like animals. This only makes sense to me, because if you are marketing like crazy, you are no longer a writer, you’re a salesperson. If you are writing like crazy, you are honing your craft and turning out the highest quality product you can, and quality attracts people’s attention. Also, if you are writing like crazy, you have a bigger presence in your genre through more titles. If you are marketing like crazy, you are probably only trying to market one or a few books. This makes you lower visibility. In my opinion.
It’s really making my head swim a little to be pushing so hard so fast at this. I”ve been living in a cave for the last several years, apparently, because I had no idea e-books were becoming so popular until literally three months ago. The last time I looked was in the early naughties, before e-readers had been invented, and NO ONE was reading e-books but hard-core geeks who didn’t mind sitting in front of their computers for the length of a novel. I knew Kindles and Nooks came out when they did, but I didn’t realize the major change this would make in e-books. In fact, I wondered what the hell the point of e-readers were. No one read e-books! Why create a device to read them? I’m a serious forward-thinker in the tech world, aren’t I?
Well, here I am, and I’m doing my damndest. I will almost certainly continue to react to tech trends late, with shock and awe and a desperate scramble to catch up, but dammit, if the tech sector can help me get my novels out to people who will enjoy them and allow me to earn a living as a writer, then I’ll sure as hell try.
