#publishing help

[chemicalforgery]

Does anyone have advice/tips for self-publishing a book? (Particularly an e-book, not a physical one)

[novlr]

Easy Book Marketing for Indie Authors - Novlr

Here are some tips for low-cost, low-effort, easy book marketing strategies for indie authors to suit all budgets and confidence levels.

[writingkeepsmewhole]

Can anyone help me with self publishing a book? Don't know what is the best way to go about it. I've been looking at so much stuff I don't know what to do anymore. Is Amazon good? I need some help. Please and thank you.

[brynwrites]

On Wordcounts For Traditional Debuts (and other things.)

I know that thread from yesterday got a little wild and long, so I wanted to clarify some things here, because I am not always the best at wording during discussions.

Firstly: If the manuscript you want to query is long, you don’t have to go into a panic!

There are lots of agents who are okay with manuscripts in the 110k-130k range, and still many who will take higher counts, (even, in one case, up to 300k words). 

Having a bit of extra (or fewer) words also won’t make an agent who is reading and loving your book reject it! As long as the story itself is good and it’s near the range they like, and they’re intrigued enough to start reading it, that little bit on the end won’t change anything.

The point of this discussion on word count is twofold:

1. Always evaluate why your story is the length it is and make sure it should in fact be that length. (This holds true for all books, regardless of word count!) If you have bulk there that isn’t needed, then cut it. If you have skimpy patches, add to them. Make your book be the length it must to properly tell the story you want to tell.

2. Know that if your book falls outside the most commonly desired range for your genre, some agents and editors won’t want it. That’s okay. It’s okay to choose to query something that only certain people will be interested in. But in order to feel confident in your book and push through those rejections, it’s good to know it upfront and decide that your book is worth that extra effort of hunting down the specific people who might love it.

Sometimes the result of #1 is that you realize your long book is, in fact, needlessly long or too short. Sometimes the result of #2 is that you realize you want to query your more typical length debut project first. Sometimes the result of both is that you’re happy with what you have and are going to push onward.

There’s also another component here that we absolutely can’t ignore:

Word count isn’t all that makes a book marketable.

There are many attributes which tie into marketability. A book that hits the market perfectly, is well-written, has a unique hook but good comps, and comes with a fantastic query can easily have an extremely high (or low) word count because in all other ways it’s perfectly sellable. A book with few of those features will be hard to get an agent for even at the world’s most traditional debut word count.

As I’m so fond of repeating: Querying is like a card game. The more you stray from what agents are looking for, the more you’re stacking the cards against yourself. You might still win. But it gets harder and harder will every less-than-marketable aspect you include. Querying is already ridiculously hard, and sometimes it’s nice to make sure that we have a good deck starting out. Other times, those cards you choose to stack against yourself are worth it to you. 

That’s all I have to say, but I did want to share the fantastic graph Cinnia made based on the results of @angelicbadass’s twitter call for data on debut word counts.

While this is a very small study with no categories to account for exact SFF genre, based on it, we get an average word count of about 101k for debuts, with a mean of about 96k. There is variation, but most sit between 80k and 115k.

What does that mean for you? Each person has to decide that for themselves, in regards to each book they attempt to query. There’s no single right answer, only what’s right for you and your book at the this point in time.

I wish you all the very best of luck with all your manuscripts, long, short, and everything in between. If you believed in your book when you set out to query, then keep striving. And keep writing. The only thing that will prevent you from getting an agent is is if you choose not to querying your next book.

[etjwrites]

(1/2) Hi! Congratulations on publishing your book!! That’s so exciting! I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your experience with publishing? If you don’t want to answer feel free to ignore this. Did you self publish or publish with a publishing company? And what’s your opinion on publishing your work online if you want to physically publish your book later?

(2/2) I’ve heard people say that publishing online, like on Wattpad or wherever, is good because publishers like when you already have an audience/fans, and if they agree to publish you just take your book down. But I’ve also heard people say they don’t want to publish online because it may be detrimental to physically publishing? Any opinion on it?(stuffaboutwriting)

Thanks @sleepyoceaneyes I can hardly wait for everyone who's pre-ordered a copy to dive into the story when it drops on May 20, 2020!

And no problem! That's a great question! (Or set of questions.😁)

• I self published, first with KDP, and later adding IngramSpark and Draft2Digital.

I did so because I want and need to have complete creative control over the entire process. It's very intensive (although the process can be made easier by contracting out to freelancers) and costs quite a bit of money upfront vs trad. publishing (for cover design, editing etc.) If you start selling well however, then you keep a much larger percentage of profits.

Check out the 20booksto50k and Publishing Made Simple Facebook groups (they are very active and vibrant, with extremely friendly, helpful, and knowledgable members) for some excellent advice as far as publishing and marketing indie.

• If you're aiming to self/indie-publish, by all means, post wherever you'd like online. I personally wouldn't post something in full that you intend to sell, because unfortunately, piracy is a thing, but it can definitely help you grow your following.

• If you're planning on pursuing trad. publishing, the answer is YES and NO.

Yes, you can publish online and grow a following, BUT you cannot then query (and expect to land a deal and an agent for) that SAME story, as you've essentially given up first rights of publication for that specific story. You can, however, pursue a book deal with a DIFFERENT story, one that has never been published online anywhere, and by having some fans of your (different, not trying to trad. publish) work already you can make yourself more attractive to prospective publishers.

Twitter is a good place to grow your public following pre-publication.

• Check out this video by author Alexa Donne (the rest of her videos are great too, she has a TONNE of trad. publishing (and just general writing) advice) if you want a clearer, more in-depth answer than I can give:

(Yes it does happen for some people, that they self-publish and get picked up by trad. publishers, but 1. They are Spiders Georg, and 2. if you're doing so well that trad. publishing wants to buy your book, you'd be best only signing on for international benefits re: distribution, marketing and translation into different languages etc., and continuing to self pub in your own country.)

Hope that helps!

[dragontamer626]

I’m writing a book - help!

Looking for content to go on my website. I’ve been writing ‘seriously’ for the best part of 20 years. I launched my own label and self published my book. I have also published others. I’m looking for new writers to send me F.A.Q’s on any aspect of publishing so I can answer them and post the most common ones on my website. There is NO CHARGE for this... I’m doing it because I’m bored: This is the basic opening of the new page:

So, you’ve written your book. Great! You have had it professionally proofread and have got a nifty cover design. Excellent! What now?

‘Well the next logical step is publishing,’ I hear you say.

‘Oh brilliant! Off you go then?’

‘ Huh?’

I’m going to level with you all here. The world of publishing is scary. Unfortunately, it’s full of unsavoury characters and can sometimes end up costing you a lot of money for little to no return. But fear not. Seventh Realm is run for authors by authors. We have experienced many things new authors often get caught by so here are some pro tips. What to look for and some F.A.Q.

[lianabrooks]