Inverview with Mickey Mills, Indie Author of "Haunting Injustice"
I'm really excited to introduce everyone to a friend of mine, Mickey Mills, author of Haunting Injustice.
In this interview, Mickey shares a lot of valuable insight into self-publishing.
Thanks, Mickey, for taking the time to join us!
First off, tell us about your book Haunting Injustice.
Before I do that, first I'd like to thank you for allowing me this opportunity. Haunting Injustice was a concept that came out of a conversation with a friend. In the context of the conversation, the phrase "Phoenix Worthy" came out, and it occurred to me what a great character name that was. I had the name, so I wrapped a story around the character. I always loved ghost stories and the paranormal, so it seemed like a good fit.
Phoenix Worthy is a modern day ghost hunter living in Savannah, GA. The story is about one of his paranormal investigations. I wrapped a small cast of characters around Phoenix and drove the plot from multiple points of view. So far, anyone who has read it likes it. At least that's the feedback I am getting.
How did you come to the decision to self-publish?
I initially thought about self-publishing, but thought I would give the traditional route a shot. What changed my mind was when I received a nice "Sorry, but you're not right for us" message from an agent roughly 47 seconds after sending the query. I'm pretty confident that was a blow-off without consideration.
So, after that I took a look at the state of the industry and what was happening. I was hearing from most first time novelists that even if they did sign with a publisher, they would be responsible for the bulk of their marketing. I know a lady who has to pay for her reviews. I figured if I was going to have to pay for it anyway, I might as well get paid more for it.
• What obstacles/inspirations did you encounter that guided you down the path to self-publishing?
I really didn't encounter any obstacles, per se. I was mostly blinded by my own ignorance of the process. I had the technical chops to do the typesetting, and I had a volunteer do the cover. The publisher took my camera ready PDFs and next thing you know, I was holding my book. It was all very exciting. Almost too easy.
• What platform did you use to put your book into e-book form?
I did the original manuscript in MS Word. From there, I built the eBook versions. I took the original manuscript and pulled out all formatting related to the typeset print version – headers and footers, page numbers and such had to go. The Kindle version was easy to do at Amazon. I uploaded the PDF of the base eBook format to their Digital Publishing platform. That output the Kindle version, which automatically went up on Amazon for sale.
For other formats, I used Calibre eBook management. It is a very intuitive piece of freeware to do eBook conversions. The list of supported formats is very impressive for a user-supported software platform. http://calibre-eBook.com
• What helpful things/techniques did you learn along the way that may be of use to other writers who are considering self-publishing?
Don't rush the process. What I learned is – writing the book was the easy part. There is just so much to do to market and sell a book, none of which I did particularly well for the release of Haunting Injustice. Marketing needs to happen long before the launch date. Ideally, in the weeks leading up to the launch date you are elbow deep in everything you will do to line up the market for the book.
• How involved have you been in the design of your book?
Other than the cover for Haunting Injustice, I've done 100% of the work. I would've probably done the cover if I didn't have a wonderful graphics designer volunteer her services - Thank you Kippy!
• How do you get the word “out there” about your writing? Do you use Twitter, FaceBook, or other social networking sites?
Yes to all of the above. I will add that I still haven't quite learned to really use Twitter in marketing. I know people do it all the time; I just haven't got my arms around it.
• What do you feel are the top three differences between traditional publishing and self-publishing?
That's a great question, although the answers are fairly subjective based on who you are talking to. I'm positive someone with an agent and an eager publisher would answer quite differently.
1- Contacts. This is one thing I really lacked in the process of self-publishing. For all practical purposes, I didn't know what I was doing most of the time. I made some incorrect assumptions that cost me some marketing edge. Sales suffered.
2- In the traditional world, you have a lot of experience and guidance to plug into. Most of them have been in the industry a while where self-publishers lack that experience and tend to glean everything they can from readily available sources.
3- Bookstores. Many book stores have policies including self-published titles. I had a terrible experience with a book signing I was trying to setup at a Barnes and Noble. As a self-published author, they treated me like a vagrant.
• What is your best piece of advice for authors who are interested in self-publishing?
Start marketing long before the release date. If you wait until you publish to market your book, you are too late.
• Tell us about your next book. Do you have a release date? Is it a sequel to Haunting Injustice? Will you self-publish it, also?
I am working on the follow-up to the first book using the same cast with a few adders. The title is Haunting Charleston. It has more scope, more characters, and a dynamite ending. I don't have a release date yet. I have been engaged in some other projects as of late, and my work in process is suffering because of it. (It's a cash flow thing)
The plan is to self-publish.
• Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Just a couple of things come to mind. Because of the eReader boom, eBooks are changing the way people read and purchase books. For the first time, eBooks have outsold paperbacks, which I think is a bad sign for the traditional publishers. A large part of the book-buying public will no longer pay $30 for a book they can download for $10. Some of the eBook-only outlets are seeing tremendous growth because of it.
I just re-released Haunting Injustice on Smashwords for $1.99. What I like about Smashwords is that all I had to do was upload a PDF formatted to their specification. They automatically output the book in multiple formats for sale on their page. The only downside is, because it's packaged to their specification, I have another Word document to manage. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55588
And lastly, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to share a little about my book and my self-publishing journey.
Thanks, Mickey. Again, I appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences with self-publishing! We look forward to reading Haunting Injustice and are waiting with bated breath for Haunting Charleston!
