Indie Authors: How to Get Reviews for Your Book

Indie Life is a monthly feature hosted by the fabulous Indelibles where we get to share something related to indie writing life.

(Note: This is the LAST Indie Life posting. But everyone who posts for Indie Life is welcome to join the Insecure Writer's Support Group from now on, if you're not already part of it :-) )

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If you're an indie author, you're in charge of getting your own reviews. No publisher to acquire them for you. So yesterday I wrote a post for the Dauntless Authors blog about how to get reviews. It would be awesome if you could head over there and check it out :-)

Please tell me what review-hunting tactics have worked for you and what haven't. I'd love to know!

How to Get Reviews for Your Book

Thanks :-)

Push Past Your Fears - Just Hit Publish! (An #IndieLife Post by @PiperPunches)

Indie Life is a monthly feature hosted by the fabulous Indelibles where we get to share something related to indie writing life.

And this month, my Indie Life post is a guest post written by author Piper Punches. Thanks for stopping by to chat about indie author fears, Piper!

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Six months ago if you had asked me what my two biggest fears were, I would have said snakes and spiders. You would have nodded your head at that clichéd answer and gone about your day not giving one more thought to my irrational fears of the common household arachnid or the backyard serpent. As you walked away, I would have been congratulating myself on keeping my secret. Of not telling you what I dreaded most in my life was hitting the publish button.

Was I a writer? Yes. I spent every single moment of my existence for years wrapped up warm and toasty in a daydream of other people's lives; characters that needed that one final breath to be brought to life. I ate words for breakfast. I dreamed dialogue when I closed my eyes, but the one thing I didn't do was commit to the actual process of writing. Why? Well, that is easy enough to explain. I was afraid of being wrong. I was afraid of letting my so-called book baby out into the world where it would be subjected to judgment. I was afraid of being called a fraud – a wanna-be writer with little talent to stand on. Were these fears as deadly as spider bites and snake venom? Actually they were worse because they as they pounded in my chest and ate away at my reasoning, they killed that part of me that knew I could succeed. So, instead of hitting publish I hit the snooze bar on my ambitions and dreams of being a novelist.

What changed? Honestly, I'm really not sure. Maybe it was getting older and realizing that I had the power to write what I wanted, when I wanted. I didn't have to wait for a swanky publishing house to agree I had a story to tell. The term "independent author" didn't have to be a dirty word. Instead, it could be a term that stood for me. Once I made that connection, I started putting one foot in front of the other towards publishing my first novel.

Have there been bumps in the road? Of course, because what road is pothole-free? The first major speed bump was when I sent my finished manuscript to the editor convinced my book was an utter disaster. She disagreed, but I was still ready to scrap it. Self-talk, booze, and my husband telling me to stop acting silly helped me navigate this hurdle. The second major hole in the road came when I finally hit publish and found a slew of typos I had overlooked. Self-talk, booze, and a supportive husband couldn't help me get over this fatal blunder as easily.

So, what advice can I give you as an Indie author when I have only made it to home plate once? Here it goes.

Write From Your Heart

If the story you have to tell comes from your soul, readers will fall in love with your words and your characters. They will be invested in the storyline and keep turning the pages. I have been overwhelmed with the response that I have received from readers that have told me they felt connected to the character in The Waiting Room.

Be Human, but Proofread

The truth is we all make mistakes. Even bestselling authors produce books with typos, but they have the publishing house to blame - you don't. So, if you see a typo or two or a hundred after you hit publish, scold yourself for only a second and fix it. Own the mistake, but don't let it own you or ruin your accomplishments.

Don't Be Critical

Promote your book and be proud of your success. Hitting the publish button will open up your novel and your talent to judgment. This is when you put your big-girl or big-boy pants on and brush it off. If someone leaves a less than glowing review, don't let it stop you from pursuing your passion and publishing again.

Don't be afraid to hit the publish button. Embrace it instead. Save the fear for the little things like those furry spiders with the beady eyes and snakes that like to sun on your driveway.

ABOUT PIPER PUNCHES

Piper Punches lives in the far west suburbs of St. Louis with her husband and two daughters. The Waiting Room is her debut novel. Piper is excited to connect with her readers and encourages everyone to stop by her website and say hello. In the meantime, she is currently working on her second novel, 60 Days, which will be available April 2014 and a short novella, Missing Girl, available January 2014.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

THE WAITING ROOM

a novel by

PIPER PUNCHES

Waiting rooms tell stories. They are a medical purgatory. Some sit in the waiting room for hours to be shone the light, graced with blessings. For others this is the final holding room before they are delivered into hell; facing uncertainty, despair, sadness, even death.

When Charlotte receives a note on the day of her mother’s funeral containing a cryptic message, she is confused and intrigued. Although she knew that waiting rooms told stories, she never realized that part of her own story resided in this seemingly neutral environment. But, then again, why should she be surprised? Her mother had secrets. Charlotte knew this. She just didn’t know how life-altering those secrets could be...

A stunning debut novel from Piper Punches, The Waiting Room weaves a tale that reveals the complexities of family, the invisible bonds that connect people, and the pain that can reverberate through the choices we make. Told from several points of view the story becomes clearer and clearer with each turn of the page that the secrets we keep aren’t always ours to take to the grave.

Available as a Kindle edition and paperback edition on Amazon

Indie Life: How is the Stigma of Self-Publishing Doing These Days?

Indie Life is a monthly feature hosted by the Indelible Writers.

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I'm posing a question today: Is self-publishing still frowned upon the way it used to be?

I don't exactly know. My views have certainly changed. There was once a time when I thought the self-publishing route was the absolute last option. A total fail! But several years down the road I've done a complete 180. I'm excited to be an indie/self-published author! I like having control over every aspect of my books. I love the freedom I have to choose what I want to write and set whatever deadlines I want to set. And I admire others who've chosen this route as well.

I suppose because my own opinions have changed, I had this idea that the rest of the world was changing its opinion of self-published writers and books. And I think it has to a certain extent (look at the self-published authors who have ended up on various bestseller lists -- and I don't mean the Amazon category lists. I mean the Big Deal bestseller lists!), but I think there are still a huge amount of people in the writing/publishing industry who think of self-publishing as the highly embarrassing, distantly-related member that threatens to give their family a bad name.

From what I can tell, here in South Africa self-publishing is still Not Cool. When people ask me who I'm published with and I say "myself", I still sometimes get That Look! And here I am thinking, you should be more impressed, not less, because I've done the entire process myself!

So ... what do you think? What do your family and friends think? What do people you've just met think? Do you get That Look when you mention the word "indie" or "self-published", or does it really not bother people what publishing route you chose?

I want to know what people are thinking about self-publishing these days!

IndieReCon and The A to Z Challenge

Have you heard of IndieReCon? It's this awesome online writing conference focusing on Indie publishing. There will be LOADS of informative posts, live chats, tips, prizes -- and best of all, it's FREE! It's happening online at this address from Tues Feb 19th (which is TODAY) till Thurs Feb 21st.

And ... I'm pretty sure I don't have to ask if you've heard of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge! So. After telling everyone that I would NOT be taking part in the challenge this year, I developed a major case of fomo and have given in once again! *sigh* Last year I exhausted myself writing a new flash fiction every day, so I've set myself a much easier theme for this year. Book covers! I'll be featuring different covers each day that have recently caught my eye, with titles starting with the relevant letter, mainly from self-published/indie authors.

Will you be "attending" IndieReCon? 

Have you signed up for the A to Z Challenge, 

and if so, do you have a theme planned for your posts?

Vote on the Future of the Creepy Hollow Series!

You may or may not know that I've been planning to put the Creepy Hollow installments together in a longer-length book. But I don't want to put them aaaaaall in one book, as that would be a pretty long book, and it also wouldn't be available until I've written the very last installment (and I don't currently know when that will be!). So. My plan is this -- to ultimately produce three novel-length books made up of the individual novelettes. So 3 to 4 per book.

But then ... I started wondering. If I'm going to be producing three novels, is there any point in publishing each future installment separately? Or should readers just wait until they can read them all together in a novel? I've already published the first four parts separately, but that doesn't mean I have to do the same thing for the rest of them. That's the fantabulousness of self-publishing! I can change the journey along the way!

Some pros and cons of continuing with my current publishing model...

Individual novelettes + three compilation novels

• Pro - it's easier to edit, proofread and format a smaller story
• Pro - readers get bits of the story sooner
• Pro - it's easier for book review bloggers to fit a novelette into their reading schedules
• Pro - it looks like I've published more stuff ;-)
• Con - more covers = more work
• Con - more ISBNs
• Con - can't exactly do a big launch and blog tour for every single novelette!
• Con - novelettes are a bit too short to print as paperbacks, and paperbacks are COOL and REAL!
• Con - many people who have read the Creepy Hollow installments have said they wished they were longer. ie. "Give me a whole book please!"

So while I'm still thinking about it all, I thought I'd ask you guys what YOU think :-) Yay, another poll widget thingie! And, um, try and think what you'd want as a READER and not a writer (don't know if that makes a difference to some of you!). There WILL be three novel-length books, so the question here is whether the individual novelettes continue or not.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!

INDIEpendence Day: Celebrating Indie Authors!

"The 25 Indelible authors all believe that amazing works of fiction can be found in indie novels. By highlighting and bringing greater awareness to quality indie books, people find great books to read, indie authors get support, and we continue to change hearts and minds about the gems that can be found among self-published and small-press novels."

As part of this celebration of self-published and small-press novels, I'm being featured over at Refracted Light Reviews, a gorgeous review site (you should seriously follow it!). In addition, if you want a "sneak peak" of the guys chosen to play Nate and Ryn on forthcoming Creepy Hollow book covers, you can find them today at Refracted Light!

Visit the Indelibles site to the other books being featured during the INDIEpendence Day celebrations.

Self-Publishing: Amazon KDP vs Smashwords

If you haven't used either of these epublishing platforms, you may be interested to know a little bit more about them, especially if you're a writer planning to publish your own work sometime in the future. Well, luckily for you, I'm guest posting today about both Amazon KDP and Smashwords over at Rach Harrie's blog. Just one more click and you can be there!

Self-Publishing: Amazon KDP vs Smashwords

LABYRINTH (CREEPY HOLLOW, #2) Is Now Available!

The second installment in the Creepy Hollow series

is now available!  

(after a not-so-small and highly annoying Amazon hitch!)

Both GUARDIAN and LABYRINTH are $0.99

on Amazon and Smashwords!

If you live outside the US, you may see a higher price on the Amazon US site. Smashwords, however (which produces all kinds of ebook formats, including .mobi for Kindle and .epub for iPad) should show you a price of $0.99.

Guardian trainee Violet Fairdale has officially been suspended for bringing a human into the fae realm. No assignments, no training, and goodbye to that position at the top of the class. While this sucks, it at least allows her time to secretly keep visiting Nate, the human boy who caused her suspension in the first place. It’s not the wisest move to continue breaking Guild Law, but no one’s going to find out. And Nate is worth the risk, isn’t he?

To prevent herself from going into assignment withdrawal, Vi throws herself into investigating Nate’s real mother, Angelica, a woman who seems to be mysteriously connected to the world of the fae. Nate’s never given her much thought, but that was before an insane faerie abducted him in order to blackmail Angelica out of hiding. Now Nate wants answers, and Vi’s got the perfect ability to help him.

You can find LABYRINTH here:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords

And you can add it on Goodreads

My A to Z post for letter B can be found below this post.

Cover Reveal for GUARDIAN, Creepy Hollow #1

[Note: this post may contain an excess of exclamation marks.]

Alrighty. Here it is!!!!

So... What do you think?! You're allowed to be honest ;-) Though if you want to say that you hate it, it might be nicer to keep that to yourself! I -- obviously -- am super excited about it!!

Yes, she's meant to have purple eyes and purple in her hair, which I think is super cool. I once died my hair "blackcurrent" (according to the box) but if I was really brave I'd go real purple, like Vi up there (though hers in natural. Yup, you heard me. Natural).

(Something I've never noticed until recently is that not all computer screens are made equal in terms of colour. Yeah, okay, so maybe that's obvious to some of you, I just never had a reason to think about it before! Anyway, on my one screen she looks awesomely brightly purple, and on my other she looks kinda meh-purple-blue :-( )

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Summary for GUARDIAN:

1. Receive assignment.

2. Save a life.

3. Sleep.

4. Repeat.

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.

Watch the book trailer for the series.

Introducing... Creepy Hollow

I'm Going Indie!

As in independent. On my own.
After much reading around, thinking, and internal debate, I've decided to self-publish a series of novelette-length stories entitled Creepy Hollow.



The Details

• the series name is Creepy Hollow (duh. Guess you figured that out by now!)
• the genre is young adult paranormal fantasy (with some romance, of course!)
• each story will be a novelette in length (I like that word ;-) )
• there is an as yet undetermined number of stories
• they will be published in ebook form
• they will be published at the beginning of each month, starting in March 2012
• here is the Creepy Hollow website, which still needs some content added to it
• here is the Creepy Hollow Facebook page

Something Interesting

When I started blogging a year and a half (approximately) ago, I Googled my name. It was then that I discovered that author Kim Harrison had a paranormal series revolving around a character named Rachel Morgan. I was a little bummed that someone pinched my name (my real, parents-gave-it-to-me-at-birth name) before I could use it! But whatever.

I haven’t yet read the series, so I didn’t realise the following until this week, after I created the Creepy Hollow website. To check that the website is “discoverable”, I Googled it. Amongst the hits I noticed that Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series is also called the Hollows Series.
Bummer! So now we have the Hollows Series about character Rachel Morgan, and the Creepy Hollow series written by author Rachel Morgan! Hmm...

What do you think about that? Is it a good or a bad thing for me? Am I likely to get in any “trouble” over this? I gather from the Goodreads blurb that the series is about witches and vampires (and werewolves?), none of which appear in my series.

Blog Tour

I'm planning a blog tour for the release of the first story (I couldn't do it for every one, of course. That's like a continual blog tour. People would get so sick of me!), but I'll email people individually to ask if they want to be involved in that.

So, there you have it! Watch this space.

Why Self-Publishing Appeals to Me

I've always been a DIY type of person. Not the drilling-holes-and-hammering-nails-and-building-cupboards kind of DIY, but more "craft project" DIY.

For example...

I see a necklace I like and think, I can make that for half the price (beads + fastening bits + really cute little tools + minimal creative skills = whatever necklace you want)






I needed an armband for my iPod and after Googling them online I thought, I can totally do that myself (material shop + super cheap piece of faux leather + amateur sewing skills = DIY iPod armband)




When I was little I made a mini "hardcover" book (as in, the cover was made of thick cardboard and the pages were paper) and actually sewed it together along the spine!


Then I decided I wanted to try to make a book cover so I offered to help out Kittie Howard and, voila (look to the left. Duh) (non-fancy camera + free-for-commercial-use fonts + PowerPoint = clothes for Remy)








So I've come to the conclusion that my DIY nature is the reason self-publishing has been growing on me over the past few months (that and my super-control-freak nature).

Confession: I used to kinda turn my nose up at the idea of self-publishing. I mean, that's what "loser" writers do, right? The ones who aren't able to get the stamp of approval from a "real" publisher.

WRONG! (well, in my humble, control-freak opinion)

More and more people are doing it - and doing it well! Joe Konrath, Amanda Hocking, John Locke... <other names I can't remember right now and don't feel like looking up>... Did you know that THE SHACK was self-published? Did you know that ERAGON was originally self-published? I'm not saying that you're going to end up like these authors. I'm just saying IT'S POSSIBLE to be a respectable self-published author! And the more I think about it, from just about every angle, being in control of my own stories seems like a smart move...

Thoughts? Opinions? Rotten tomatoes you want to throw?

Amazon eBook Prices: What Do You See?

Image source

*Skip to the end of the post to see the answer that has since been found.*

It has come to my attention that the prices of self-published ebooks on Amazon are not the same outside the US as they are inside the US.

I used to look at authors' ebooks on Smashwords and Amazon and I'd think to myself, why are they pricing their books higher on Amazon than they are on Smashwords? Is it because more work goes into formatting for Amazon? Surely anyone with half a brain cell will choose to buy from the cheaper site then?

BUT after a conversation with a friend recently, and having looked at a few more author websites and then at their books on Amazon, I suddenly twigged: the authors are NOT pricing their books differently on different platforms, it's Amazon that keeps showing me a price that's $2 higher than the price the author set.

What??

I contacted Amazon to ask them why this happens and they couldn't answer my question. They told me that they're unable to offer a price match with a different online retailer. Okay, I get that, but that isn't what I asked! I asked ONLY about Amazon: if I click on the exact same link that my friend in the US does, why do I (in South Africa) see a price that is $2 higher than the price she sees?

No response.

So, if you're not currently in the US (or even if you are, just so we can make sure about this), I'd like to ask you a question. When you click on the following Amazon links, what price do you see?

Book	The author says	I see
Remy Broussard’s Christmas	$3.99	$5.99
Open Minds	$2.99	$4.99
In The Mirror	$3.99	$5.99
Campaigner Challenges 2011	$2.99	$4.99

And another important question for authors: if you've priced your book at $0.99, but I pay $2.99, do you still only get 35% royalites (and not 70%, as you should on a $2.99 book)? Does Amazon take the rest even though someone has paid more for your book?

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UPDATE (22 Nov 2011)
The answer can be found on the KDP Sales and Royalites FAQ page:

1-6. Why is the price of my book higher in other countries than in my own?
There are a number of reasons why prices for Kindle titles may vary from region to region, including taxes, delivery costs, and other operating costs. We understand your concern about prices and we share that concern - we will continue our efforts to reduce costs and offer the best possible prices to customers in every region.


I guess I should have searched harder for the answer before posting about this, but I'm still glad I posted, as it seems that many people are unaware of the price difference.

Formatting your eBook for Kindle

I've recently been helping a friend out with formatting her manuscript for conversion to Kindle ebook form. I was very excited to do this, as I've been curious for a while as to how the process works, and from everything I'd read it honestly didn't look too difficult.

I have to admit, though, that it was a little more of a mission than I anticipated. NOT because it is difficult in any way, but because I am finicky about tiny details, and every time I'd done the conversion process and put the file onto my Kindle to check, I'd think something like... actually, that heading right there would look better in caps, or that word between the title name and author name might look more attractive in italics.

So I lost count of the number of times I did the whole save as html / import into Mobipocket Creator / add cover / click Build / plug in Kindle / copy file onto Kindle / open and check ebook process. It was all good though, because I could do it in my sleep now :-) (though why I'd ever need to do that, I can't imagine...)

Formatting a document for Kindle is not that difficult.

The instructions provided on KDP's Simplified Formatting Guide page are pretty easy to follow:
(specific for MS Word 2007)

• DON'T manually indent the first line of each paragraph, but rather use the Home > Paragraph > Indentation > First Line function, so that it's automatic.
• DON'T manually insert page breaks but using multiple returns (the Enter key), but rather use the Insert > Page Break function at the end of each chapter, before you begin a new chapter.
• DON'T copy and paste images into your document, but rather use the Insert > Picture function.
• Save your Word document as a .htm file.
• Open Mobipocket Creator (the software is available for download. Follow the link on the Simplified Formatting Guide page) and follow the last few instructions on the Simplified Formatting Guide page.

There was only one thing I found frustrating: Whenever I had blank lines between lines of writing, for example:

CHAPTER ONE

My First Chapter's Name

My first chapter begins with these lovely words: We all went out for a blah, blah, blah. It was delicious. But just as we were leaving, a great, big blah, blah, blah appeared and we were all, like, terrified!

Those blank lines DID show up when I put the file onto my Kindle device to check it, but they DIDN'T show up on the Kindle Previewer software or the Kindle for PC software. Freakin' annoying! But I eventually figured out the following solution:

• Put the cursor in front of My in My First Chapter's Name and go to Page Layout > Breaks > Section Breaks > Continuous. Do the same in front of the My in My first chapter begins with... And, of course, anywhere else you'd like there to be a blank line.

So. Anyone else done any formatting for ebooks lately? Have you formatted for different platforms? Are some of them more complicated than others? (For example, are Smashwords guidelines more complicated than KDP guidelines?)

A to Z Stories of Life and Death

Fellow blogger and writer, Damyanti, has put together an ebook of bite-sized short stories, many of which were written during the epic A to Z Blogging Challenge.



How do you judge a teacher toying with the sexuality of her teenaged student? A boy who decides to murder his mother? What thoughts rage inside a pedophile serial killer before he shoots himself? These are some of the premises of 26 stories of life and death, based on 26 letters of the alphabet. They question the concepts of beauty, truth, and morality, by revealing the face of the other side.


The book is available at Amazon and Smashwords. Well done, Damyanti!

PS. Isn't the cover super-duper awesome?!

To Self-Pub or Not to Self-Pub?

I'm marking calculus papers right now, so unfortunately I don't have time to write a super-inspired writing tip post!

I shall leave you instead with a question I have been pondering for a little while now...

If your novel(s) got rejected enough times and you felt that traditional publishing just wasn't working out for you, would you self-publish/e-publish?

Amazon e-Publishing: A Question

I've been reading quite a lot lately on self-publishing and e-publishing and indie authors... So I was thinking that at some point I'd like to try e-publishing, just to see how it works out.

So now I'm getting excited about my new idea. I go off to Amazon, click on the link that says Self-publish with Us, go to the Kindle Books section, click on Learn More and setup an account for myself.

Easy. Great :-)

Not so great... When it comes to filling in the rest of my account info (the info that is necessary in order for me to be able to publish something) I get asked for my US taxpayer info and my US social security number. Neither of which I have!

So then I get directed to the IRS website to apply for this stuff...

My question to you: Are you a non-US citizen, residing in a non-US country, who has e-published with Amazon before? How much of a mission is it to get this tax number stuff sorted out? What was the process and how long did it take?

(Ok, so that's several questions... Sorry!)