Good or bad, it's your choice...

When you sat down to write your first manuscript you made the choice to do that. You decided that it was time to put your thoughts on paper and it was the right choice for you at that moment. But what then? Would you decide to publish it? How would you do that? Would you go traditional or self publish? Decisions, Decisions! It's a critical choice in any writer's mind. I talked to a writer not too long ago that has written several complete manuscripts but she was confused as to what road to take. She actually contacted me with the hopes of getting a little more insight into how I chose the path I did. As I told her it's really as simple as making a list and figuring out what's best for you. For me, I had other options than self publishing, but it was a good fit for me, maybe not for others. After I had self published a couple of books I received "THE CALL" that all authors love to receive. It was a rather large publishing house that I'd heard of and actually had several books in my library published through them. The gentleman was nice and had knowledge of my books and style of writing. He'd actually read one of them and was interested in putting it under their label. Of course my heart did a quick pitter patter, but then I started asking questions. I'm a very analytical person, so I had questions. What are you planning to do for my book that I don't already do? What's the royalty percentage? Will I lose my rights? Turns out I was better off where I was at. The royalties were 1/2 of what I was already making and yes I had to sign my rights to my work over to them and then the promotional package they offered for a nice little sum was exactly what I was already doing on my own for free. I kindly thanked him and said I'd keep his number. He hounded me for a couple of months with different 'offers', but I stayed true to my decision. Here's a couple of things that you need to decide on before you make the choice: 1: Do you have the discipline to do the marketing and social media presence that's needed to keep your name available? 2: What about the business end of publishing? Can you handle all the ins and outs of the publishing business? Self Publishing is a business and it can take some time to put things together. 3: What type of royalties are you looking at? If higher royalties are needed, then self publishing my be the route to go, but be aware of the needs of self publishing. 4: You're in charge of getting a cover made, either you design it or you hire someone to do it. Remember this is the first thing someone will see and first impressions are valuable. 5: Editing is still a must even with self publishing. I know that we all think our work is great, but it needs to be edited by someone other than your best friend. Editing is important. Of course I could go on and on, but this is a couple of things I told the author. She sat for a moment thinking and then she told me that this had helped her start the decision process. Either way you go, it's your choice. If you send your manuscript to a traditional publisher, be patient. If they like what they see it'll happen. Take their advice and use it. If you choose self publishing, please take it seriously. You are in the hot seat if you choose this route. Either way you go, it's your choice. You're in charge of this decision. As always, good writing and May God Bless You...

3 Ways Indie Authors Can Improve Self Publishing

As you know I'm a self published author. When I decided to publish my manuscripts I studied the market. I'm an Accountant and I have a strong analytical background so that pushed me to make a study into this. I looked into both the traditional market and the self publishing market. One thing I realized was that more and more traditionally published authors are going to the self publishing market. But let me tell you this, in order to do it right you've got to keep up the traditional publishing standards strictly enforced. Here are 3 of the ways Authors can improve Self Publishing: 1: Editing: This is a very important part of publishing and this is where several self published authors fail at. It's also part of why some people will not pick up a self published book because they've been burned before. You've got to read your manuscript and read it again. Also you need to either get Beta Readers or someone that will be critical and unbiased to read your work. When you read your manuscript pull yourself away. Read it as though you're a reader and are you inspired to read it again. If it falls flat, then how can you expect anyone else to get into. Have you corrected all the spelling errors, grammatical errors, and just plain out story line disasters? 2: Covers: I can't stress this enough. Covers can sell even a badly written book. This is the first thing that a reader sees. This is the first line of selling rank. If you don't spend money on anything else, please spend a little on this. There are so many talented cover designers out there. I've been so fortunate to have a awesome cover designer. I've seen some really cool covers and then some really horrible attempts. Your cover needs to tell something about what's inside. It need to pull the reader in. I've purchased so many books just from the cover. 3: Book Blurbs: I stress about this with all my books. This is the hardest part of writing to me, no kidding. Make sure you don't give away too much in the blurb. Too many authors tell the story on the back of the book. This is not good. Be very descriptive and use complimentary words that will draw in the reader. I've done a study on this with my very own books. I put out a blurb on a couple of my books that I was somewhat happy with, but I noticed a lag in sales. Then I sat down and poured over the blurbs changing some of the key words and adding some small elements. This helped the sales dramatically. Try it and see if your sales go up. It's hard to be an author, period! When I say I'm an author, people come back with yeah, I could write a book. Well, yeah, anyone can write a book, but can they write a book that will go anywhere? Do they have the drive to publish that book and do all the marketing? Being an author is not as easy as it looks and being self published is brutal at times. But let me tell you the rewards far outweigh the difficulties. The first time a fan comes up to you at the grocery store and says, "Oh my goodness you're that author." The first time this happened to me I was so embarassed and excited at the same time. When you get emails from fans excited about your work it makes you smile all day. I've gained so many new friends from all over the world that some days I'm just amazed. Yes it's a lot of work, but it's so worth it. Have I thought about traditionally publishing? Yes. I sent Ghost Lover to a traditional publisher and never heard a word. Then I decided to self publish it and it was all uphill from there. It was my introduction into the publishing world and the response to that book has been really great. I've had a couple of big publishers call me about coming on board with them, but they couldn't offer my anything different from what I do now, so not now. I do have a work in progress at the moment that it's been in my heart to send to a publisher that I contribute to as a blogger. We'll see how that goes. So, my advice to you is to go for it, but be prepared to do it right. This is your name you're putting out there, so make it shine. If you need any help with it, I'm in partnership with my editor/cover designer in a publishing service, Horseshoe Publishing. We'll help you iron out those wrinkles and make your work shine like a new penny. As always, good writing and May God Bless You...

Monday Morning Writing

It's Monday morning and the kids should be going back to school today, but due to the extremely cold weather and threat of snow they will not be going back until Wednesday. I've moved my office into my dining room since it's so cold. My office is hard to heat sometimes so it's just easier to work where it's warm. I do hope all my US friends are staying warm and safe in this cold and snow snap. We didn't get any snow here south of Atlanta, but North Georgia got a little bit. It's just cold and windy. As for my writing I'm first working on balancing some year end accounts and then back to the writing. I hope to have Finding the Right Time completed with the second edit tonight. The 2nd installment in three of my series are well on their way, but the holidays got in the way. Now that it's somewhat back to normal I hope to get in some quality writing time. I sat last night with my hands poised over the keys but nothing came through my fingers. Writer's block is not a fun thing when you have some time to write and nothing comes through. Of course this morning my mind is on overload with stories, but alas my accounting work needs to be done first. It does help pay the bills and as many writers know, the writing doesn't do that in most cases. I'm playing with the idea of sending Finding The Right Time to a publisher, but still not sure. I've always self published and noticed many big writers are going back to self publishing. It just makes me wonder if that's the right course. I'll have to do a list of pros and cons. Oh well, this isn't getting this account balanced. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have power and can post an update on Finding The Right Time. If you get a chance go over to Amazon and check out my writer friend from Georgia, V. Steele. She'd just released the 2nd book in her My Prodigy Trilogy. I usually don't read this kind of romance, well I do read vampire books, but hers are a little racey but well written. She just laughs at me. I guess I love her work because she uses my publishing company for editing and covers. My brilliant and talented cover designer has outdone herself lately with V's covers and the one for Finding The Right Time. As always, good writing and May God Bless You...