Advice About Going Indie

Did you know I'm still alive? Ha! I know, I know. I haven't posted on this blog in ages. With Devotion's release and managing my other blog (www.KristieCook.com), I just haven't had the time. But this is my blog about writing and sometimes I have something to say about writing or to writers specifically, so I don't want to close it down. Today is one of those days.

I'm often asked what advice I'd give to writers who are considering self-publishing. There's a TON of advice I could give. But here's the most important things I can tell you before you dive in:

First, do your homework and be sure you understand all that it takes—formatting and uploading is the easy part. It’s all the marketing and promotions to get your book noticed that authors don’t expect or want to do. It takes a lot of work, but it’s so worth it.

Then, commit to this as your career path. I don’t mean you can’t keep trying to go the traditional route, but throwing up one book that didn’t get an agent just to get it out there is not going to make you happy. The more committed you are, the more success you’re going to see. This means commitment to marketing and promotions and also commitment to your readers by bringing them more of your work – more books for them to enjoy.

Hire an editor and, almost as importantly, hire a professional cover designer. Many people will suggest saving yourself the money and creating your own cover in PowerPoint. Trust me – covers make a HUGE difference. I have graphic design experience and used fancy software and everything to create my original covers. They weren’t bad and even won some Best Cover competitions. But after I hired someone much more experienced and talented than me to redesign them, I now have covers that rival any of those produced by the Big 6 publishers. They’re gorgeous! And they’ve made a HUGE difference in attracting the right audience and boosting sales.

You’ve made the investment of your blood, sweat, tears and hours upon hours of time to write your book. It deserves the monetary investment to hire an editor and cover designer to really make it shine. Especially when there are virtually no other costs to self-publish.

So that's my initial advice. I actually have some other topics I want to write about soon, too, so maybe we'll see a little revival here. Hopefully, I'll have time.

Are you indie? What advice would you give to writers considering this path? Are you a writer considering self-publishing? What questions do you have? 

Hey, there! (Yeah, I'm still here...)

Holy schmoly, has it really been two months since I've posted here?! What a slacker I am! LOL Yeah, right. I assume most of you follow me on my main author's blog (www.KristieCook.com) so you know what I've been up to - blog tours, Genesis release, holidays, pulling Devotion together for its upcoming release... Yeah, not much slacking going on here.

I really haven't had much to say in regards to writing, but I thought it was time to at least drop in and say "Hi!" and let you know that I'm still here.

I'm in the midst of editing Devotion, so not many new words being written, and I get tired of complaining talking about revising and editing. So I just kind of kept quiet here. I'm slowly making my way through a book on dialogue that I'm determined to finish, though I'm not sure why. I guess I'm hoping there's still something I might learn from it. I'll let you know soon what the book is and my thoughts.

The big talk in the self-publishing circles seems to be about production, production, production. Everyone who's making decent sales is pushing out book after book after book. I can't say that I completely agree. Yes, the more books you have, the more you'll sell overall. Each book plays a role in sales of the others. You can't just put one book out there and expect to become a bestseller. However, my experience proves that you don't have to put out a book every two months, either.

I have three books out, one of which just came out a month ago and had little to do with my sales numbers. And my sales numbers are fantastic. If you didn't see, Promise made it into the Top 100 of all Kindle paid. It's a national bestseller. That was before I even had three books, when my most recent release had been nine months prior. So, no, you don't have to push out a book every 2-3 months to find success in this industry.

Now, if you want to produce that many books that quickly and it doesn't cause you to lose all of your hair, scream at your loved ones until your voice runs out or result in your home being a disaster area that makes the houses on Hoarders look clean...well, then, that's your choice. I'm just saying you don't have to. Just make sure that you're producing the absolute best books you can that have been edited and polished to a shine. The goal should be to be proud of your work, not just throw something out there because you think you're in some big numbers game.

Ruth Ann Nordin wrote about how to write 4+ books a year and she has some great ideas. I know I can't do it like her - I need more than one draft. Like 4 or 5 or 6...or 10 is more like it for me. And that's before the final proofread! But as she says, just as we all plot and plan (or not) differently, we all write on different schedules, too. So it is possible. Not for me, but possible.

What I liked most about the post: her emphasis on the subjectivity of quality. Because she's absolutely right when she says quality is in the eye of your readers. If enough people think you're producing high quality work to keep buying and telling their friends about it, then you're producing quality.

Just keep in mind the "enough people" part. Because you may get a few thousand or even ten or twenty thousand people who think your quality is good, but that's not enough. Not enough to make you a bestseller. Not enough to make you a full-time writer earning a decent living. Even if you do produce 6-8 books a year. Because people's attention wanes. We're easily distracted. What we thought was good for the first 3 or 4 or 5 books might not impress us anymore in book 6 or 7. We might have moved on to something new - another series, another author. And there aren't enough new readers who accept that same quality to make up for the ones who've moved on.

Again, produce something you're proud of. Nothing less than your best. When you're proud of your work, everything else just goes better, from promotions to your response to reviews to, yes, sales. And trust me, readers notice when your quality doesn't reach your potential.

That's my two cents. What's yours? What are your thoughts on producing 6-8 books a year? And I mean actually writing and producing, not pulling out past pieces that are already finished and just need edited. Is that something you can do? Is it something you'd want to strive for?

When NOT to Go Indie - Thoughts Part II

As I said before, self-publishing will soon become the norm and agents and publishers will find their next authors from the Amazon and Nook bestsellers lists. It'll take a few years, but unless some industry game-changer comes along (which could very well happen!), it will get there. It's already starting. The number of indies getting approached by agents and publishers is growing. And I can't count how many writers I've seen announce the decision to go indie just in the last month or two.

For now, though, it's not for everyone. It is a lot of work. We are still finding our way, learning the ropes, creating and re-creating the best paths to take to success. To go this route, you must have a sense of adventure because the map is still being developed. For each one of us who achieves success, a different road has been taken. Some are close and parallel but no highway yet exists.

But (some may say) maybe I don't care if I'm successful. I just want to get my book out there and see what happens. It's written, it's good and since the publishers (or agents) didn't want it, I don't want it just sitting in the drawer or on my hard drive. I may as well give it a chance.

I can totally understand this perspective. And I'm all behind you if this is you. But the key phrase in this situation is, "I don't care if I'm successful." See, this is where my big "However" comes in.

At one point, not only did I agree with that philosophy, I was completely behind it. Self-pubbing is so easy and relatively cheap. What do you have to lose by putting something out there instead of letting it sit on your hard drive? By watching others with this mentality go for it, though, I've changed my opinion on this. You have a lot to lose.

There are many writers who have queried the hell out of their books, never to get an agent. Or perhaps they did get an agent but the book didn't sell to a publisher. They've given up on that particular book, but not on the thought of traditional publishing. Rather than leave that book to collect dust, they decide to throw it out there as self-published, while they continue to pursue traditional publishing for their next piece.

But here's what happens...

I've seen more than one author fall into a pit of depression, thinking they've failed and only went this way as a last resort. If they feel so negative about their decision and about their book, how on earth are they going to promote with passion? You need passion to market! You have to believe in your book and in yourself to get others to do the same.

I've seen other authors throw their book out there and then basically forget about it as they continue querying and submitting their next book for traditional publishing. There's nothing wrong with still pursuing that dream, however, when do these authors have the time to promote their self-pubbed baby? They don't! But it's not just time.

More importantly, it's focus. It's the mentality of, "Okay, it's out there. Now I really need to focus on getting an agent for this next one." Our minds (and time) are already split in so many ways - writing, revising, blogging and social networking, learning, improving and, oh yeah, those people called family, those dirty things called dishes and clothes, etc. It's inefficient and ineffective to split it even more to try to market your self-pubbed title AND query.

Then there's the whole bit that the more titles you self-publish, the faster and bigger your success. That is a proven point on the map. So if you only have one out and you're not even considering putting the next one out because you're querying it, you're losing your big chance. A single title by an unknown author just doesn't get noticed.

It all comes down to the fact that you can't be successful with self-publishing if you're not 100% into it. And if you're not successful, not only are you losing opportunity for sales, but you're also really messing with your career. Because the whole idea is to attract readers and build a following so you can become a full-time author. You gain attention to your books and your writing...and, very possibly, land a deal with a Big 6 publisher. Or, at least, get offered a deal. Then the decision is in your court whether you still want that deal or not. If you flop at self-publishing, you just might gain that black mark against you and the chances for that deal are virtually eliminated.

So that's my big "however": If you're going to choose this path, choose this path. Make it a real decision, not a throw-it-out-there-and-see-what-happens, half-ass gesture. Approach it as a business or career - this is how you'll publish your books, all of them, at least until a traditional publisher picks you up (after picking you out).

Either go all in or don't take the risk. Not now, anyway.

Earth-Shattering Decisions

Well, earth-shattering in my world anyway. I’ve made two decisions this past week that completely change my writing life. And I feel really good about both of them. I’ve been contemplating both for some time and I came to their realizations within a few hours of each other. Coincidence? I think not. I believe that they work together to finally launch my stories into the world. I’m excited and scared at the same time…excited because my stories will go beyond a tight circle of friends and into the world and scared because of the risks and the potential changes to my and others’ lives.

Get on with it already, right? Stop blabbering and tell us! Okay, here goes, my public announcement (and don’t forget…these are BIG to me, but probably not to many others, so be prepared for disappointment LOL)…

My First Major Decision

As I’ve been writing here, on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve been working on rewrites of PURPOSE, primarily the first 75 pages. Many times I thought the novel was done. I even queried agents, only to receive rejections or no responses. My queries were pretty sucky because I had a hard time pitching the story. I couldn’t decide the real main plot line to focus on, what makes the story stand out from all the others. That was my first clue.

I still have a partial out with an agent (sent in November!), but I don’t expect to receive good news. Because I know now it wasn’t the best it could be when I sent that out. The beginning still just wasn’t right. I’ve also known all along that PURPOSE was entirely too long as a debut novel and this became clearer after learning more and more about story structure and publishing. So, back to rewrites and edits.

But every time I tightened everything up, I felt like I lost something in my characters and the story. I often wondered if I should just break the novel into two, but I couldn’t completely grasp that idea. First, I felt like this was the story given to me and I needed to stay true to it. Second, I didn’t know where to break it up. Where could I build in a climax earlier in the book? There were a couple obvious places, but I had good reasons for rejecting those ideas without further thought. Third, I also LOVE the ending to PURPOSE. It’s epic. It’s beautiful. And it leaves the reader wanting for more. If I broke the novel into two, the first one wouldn’t have nearly as great of an ending as PURPOSE.

But I finally realized this week that I’ve actually already written two novels. There are two great story lines in the current PURPOSE, which is why I couldn’t focus on one for querying purposes or for rewrites. So, PURPOSE is now my second book. The first one remains unnamed, although I have a pretty good idea. When I feel positive about it, I’ll announce it. The best thing is, once I made this decision, the responses to my above objections came loud and clear: 1) I can still stay true to the story. It will just be better. 2) The best breaking point is painfully obvious, and I really mean painfully. For the few who’ve already read PURPOSE, you have a good idea of where the first book will end. And yes, my readers may hate me for it, but they’ll be begging for the next book. And 3) Ideas for the climactic scene to the first book came rushing through me and I could barely get them scribbled on paper fast enough to keep up. And it’s going to be just as epic as PURPOSE’s ending. I can’t wait to actually write it!

My Second Major Decision

This one can be chalked up to what I’ve always considered as character flaws: impatience and my need for control. These flaws were exactly why I hadn’t decided this earlier, like nearly a year ago when I first thought about it. I told myself I needed to be more patient and more willing to give up control because it would be best for the books and my writing career. A lot has changed since then, though, including even more impatience and a stronger need for control. So, I’ve decided to go Indie…as in independently publishing my books.

It’s not that I don’t think a traditional publisher will eventually pick me up. I’m just not willing to wait for that to happen. It could be months or years. And even if someone bought the rights tomorrow, the first book likely wouldn’t hit the shelves until 2012! Yes, two years from now! And I’d still be responsible for the majority of the marketing and publicity…for making the sales. Publishers just don’t have the money to put into debut novelists these days. I completely understand their situation, but I’m not going to fall victim to it.

Besides, self-publishing means I control everything, from the cover to the interior formatting to the release date. Well, not me alone. They will be team decisions. Because I’m not doing this on my own.

I am blessed to have a great supportive network that believes in me and my books. We’ve already started discussing the plan for publishing the first book, which we’re targeting for a June 2010 release. Yes…just a few short months from now, not years. That’s why I’m scared! LOL But this will be good, not just for me, but for others, too. I believe in our abilities as a team and I’m really looking forward to this.

I’ll be writing a lot here about this incredible journey. For now, though, I must go write that new ending. Can’t wait for you to read it!