Guest Post by Michael Rothman

Certainly the first major milestone in writing a novel is getting the first draft complete. Oddly enough, this is sometimes the best time to take a step back from the manuscript and give yourself a little time away from it.

The reason I say this is because when you want to go through your initial self-editing phase, you probably want to approach the manuscript as a reader. Try to get a bit of a separation from the book.

Ultimately, you aren’t writing for yourself (or typically you aren’t), you are writing for an audience and you want to scrutinize your novel as a reader would. Given that, there are many folks who can speak much more authoritatively about the editing phases than I can, but suffice it to say that self-editing is a skill that should be learned by any aspiring author, but that shouldn’t be confused with not needing an editor.

This leads me to the first of the five topics I wanted to cover.

• Editors – the folks who find the booboos, clean up the scrapes in your manuscripts, and teach you lessons you didn’t know you needed to learn.

Despite my relatively fewer years in the industry, I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some of the best editors in the industry, you know who you guys are [Betsy, Pat, Joshua]. Given that experience, I can say that without a doubt, any author who hasn’t put their manuscript through professional-level editing is likely doing their readers a disservice.

o Authors Behaving Badly

 How would you react if someone told you your child was ugly, and stupid? Not well I’d imagine.

Well, what do you think your reaction would be like when you toiled over a manuscript only to get it back from the editor awash in red ink?

Many people’s first reaction is to throw a fit, call the editor all sorts of names, and maybe throw the nearest object against the wall.

Let me recommend something a little different.

• Consider the feedback, let it soak in, don’t write that nasty e-mail you were about to write, and wait a day or two.

o Authors are a defensive lot. In many cases, they find it difficult to accept criticism of their work.

o Let’s be realistic and say that unless you’ve hired a complete cretin as your editor, they likely make a point or two you should consider.

o Had you really achieved perfection in your manuscript, you wouldn’t need an editor, people would be waiting for your golden words to spill out as you type them.

 Realize that you don’t know it all

• Something that sounds good in your head, oftentimes doesn’t sound nearly as good in the written form.

• Editors will point out things that you were otherwise blind to. Many times it isn’t because you’ve written something grammatically incorrect; perhaps the editor noted that using the word amazing five times in a single paragraph might be a touch overkill. A thesaurus is sometimes an author’s best friend.

• A professional editor is simply trying to improve your manuscript inasmuch as helping it flow better, sound better, and be more intriguing to the audience that you’ve chosen. For instance, I had an editor point out a certain scene in one of my current novels that might have been too much for the age group I was targeting. After a fair amount of consideration, I agreed with her. And that leads me to the next point about the author/editor relationship.

o It is the Author’s book, not the editor’s

 As an Indie author, you ultimately control the words in the book. When you are with a publishing house, some of that control is not absolute.

 If an editor gives you feedback, they are oftentimes giving you either specific items that they felt were wrong or inconsistent, or they were speaking in general terms. Either way, it is the author’s decision if and how they act on that feedback.

• If you generally agree with the editor’s comment, then by all means, go ahead and fix it.

• However, if you don’t agree with the editor’s comment, make the call that you feel suits the story best, because sometimes the editor simply isn’t right.

o I’d note that I probably take 80% of the editor’s comments and do “something” with them. They usually bring a unique perspective as a different kind of reader that is invaluable in assessing your writing and the manuscript as a whole.
o Editors are the ultimate teachers of writing lessons

 I’ve learned more about writing from having to deal with the editor comments than I’ve learned from writing entire novels. I can’t stress enough how important a good quality editor is. Find one and don’t let go.

• Book Covers

o As an Indie author, you will find yourself in a position to control how your novel is presented to the world. In real life, we say that a first impression is always very important. Well, your book’s first impression will inevitably be its cover.

Given that, unless you are artistically inclined, you will likely need to consult with someone on the creation of this cover. What typically happens in the publishing houses is that publisher engages with an artist and hands them the story or a particular section of the story and oftentimes a scene from the manuscript is pulled to represent the book.

Below is an example of just such a scene in my second book, Tools of Prophecy.

You’ll notice that it is a landscape picture intended to serve as a cover for a print book, so the portion on the right would be the front cover, and the portion on the left would wrap around toward the back. In this case, the scene is from a climactic portion of the story that was pulled from the finalized story material.

Clearly, for an e-book, you wouldn’t need the complete picture, but only the right-hand portion of this. Below is an example of the same illustration, but finalized for production purposes.

• ISBN Acquisition

An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is something you’ll inevitably have to acquire to sell your book. This is typically used to uniquely identify a book. Kind of like your driver’s license number uniquely identifies who you are, the ISBN number identifies what book a buyer or seller is dealing with. I’d note that even with a single title of a book (e.g. Tools of Prophecy) it likely has at least four different ISBN numbers. One for its paperback edition, another for a hardcover edition, another for a Kindle e-book, and another for a Nook e-book.

A very common purveyor of ISBN numbers is a placed called Bowkers. You can buy a single ISBN number from them, or 1000’s. The author’s/publisher’s choice.

• E-book formatting

One thing that isn’t obvious for most people is the need for special formatting in an e-book. Even though there are hundreds of articles that talk in detail about the formatting requirements, there are some software utilities that make things very simple, and I strongly recommend looking into them (especially since they are free.)

Look at one in particular; a software package called Calibre.

Another thing that I can comment on, that I’ve rarely seen mentioned in articles is the need for a manuscript (even when using Calibre) to be conscious of how they use fonts. For instance, I have on the title page, a font with shadow effects that I really like the look of.

However if I were to use it as-is, the Kindle/Nook platforms would make the title page look like garbage.

The trick for this is to take a screenshot of the font on your computer, and in the .doc file you use for your e-book creation, embed the screenshot of the title as a graphic. This way, the e-book viewers will read the content and not attempt to translate it in some funky manner. It will look like you want it to.

• Distribution methods

At this stage, you’ve written the book, you’ve gone through editing phases, and your hired gun of an editor has kicked you in the teeth and you’ve recovered. You have a cover that you don’t hate, and you even have an ISBN number, and the formatting of your book is complete. Pant…pant…pant… it’s been a long haul.

As an Indie author, I believe 90%+ of the volume you’ll likely see will come from e-book sales.

Why? Well, e-books are typically cheaper than print books, and in most cases, you’ll find it difficult to get print books in front of the noses of purchasers. Those are the facts as I see them.

Given that, I do have a few recommendations.

• I’m a huge believer in the Amazon venue of distribution. No, I don’t own stock, nor am I an employee, nor do I know anyone who is one. From what I can tell, I’ve see easily ten times the volume of material goods moving through Amazon compared to its nearest competitor. I’ve seen this with my own books, and I’d guess others see similar things as well. That being said, I’ll only mention the three most commonly talked about distribution venues. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Google is your friend for details on each of these things, and in the smash allotted, I’d look up the keywords I mention here if they are unfamiliar.Even though I have seen a very distinct majority of sales through Amazon, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take advantage of other venues. I would certainly use Amazon’s KDP service (Kindle Direct Publishing) for making an e-book available. Also Barnes & Noble’s PubIt service is their equivalent of the same thing, just a slightly different technical format, both of which are supported by the Calibre software I mentioned earlier.
• I’m personally not a big fan of Smashwords, though many people use it because of its simplicity. They take an extraordinary amount of money for services that almost anyone can do themselves – especially if you’ve gone through the trouble of getting an editor, cover artist, etc – I don’t personally see the advantage of using Smashwords for general purpose distribution. I would limit their use to target distribution areas that aren’t already covered by Amazon or B&N. In truth, you likely won’t be missing much if you don’t use them at all, but that’s strictly my opinion.

I hope this has been helpful, and if there are any questions, just let me know. As it is, I’m nearly double the word count that Joshua asked me to stick to–but I don’t always listen to my editors.

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Guest Post by Michael Rothman

 In this article, I plan on covering how an Indie author would go about taking an idea for a story, and cover some of the primary items an author should consider when they begin what might be a massive undertaking. Since there is a good amount of data that I’ll be covering, this article will be split into two bite-sized sections. The first covers topics such as knowing your audience, novel research, and realistic time allotment. All the things necessary when you consider writing that first draft.

The second part will cover the logistics of the publishing process: the author/editor relationship, creating of a book cover, acquiring an ISBN, and formatting of your manuscripts. I hope by the time you’re done reading the second article, you have a fair idea of what to expect, and sufficient pointers to get started on going from concept to completion.

For many would-be authors, the task of writing a novel may seem daunting. Let’s face the facts that 95% or more of the people who start writing a novel never finish.

“Why?” you might ask.

Well, I certainly can’t speak for most people — heck, I can barely speak for myself, but I do have a few opinions on the matter. A lot of this has to do with lack of pre-work and not realizing the investment of time that is required.

Let’s speak briefly about some of the things that a typical author needs to consider when they initially undertake the writing of a novel-length book.

• Initial Concept
  • Most books start with a concept, some kind of idea that makes the author go, “Hmm! I’d love to write a story around that.”
  • That’s usually the easy part.
• Who is your audience?
  • Some elements of what come next really depend on your audience.
    • Some people are confused about who they are writing for. Let’s realize that you are unlikely to write something engaging for a 2^nd grader that is also entertaining for a college-age student. Your novel is unlikely to target everyone, so keep in mind what the demographic of the typical reader is that you are shooting for.
    • The age of your audience affects some of the things you have to worry about as an author. For instance, if you are writing for young children, they might be quite forgiving that you don’t know the difference between an arc-welder and a brazing torch.
  • Understand that if you are writing for certain age groups, there are taboos.
    • The easiest example is the introduction of certain mature topics in a children’s book. For instance, if you are writing MG, the concept of alcohol use is usually a no-no. I’ve had people criticize my work because I had thirteen-year-olds holding hands and give an occasional kiss on the cheek, with lots of blushing tossed in. Most people in the United States don’t realize how puritanical their audience is.
  • Many caveats are cultural. Sometimes we can’t help but stumble into things that are considered rude in other cultures. For instance in Thailand, if you touch someone with your left hand, that is somewhat equivalent to sneezing in their face. It’s considered unclean and rude.
• Research
  • The older the audience, the more likely you are to have to research some things. Let’s face it, most of us aren’t experts in thirteenth century metalsmithing. However if you are going to write about someone who is a metalsmith, you can be guaranteed to find yourself being critiqued by readers who have been doing that stuff for forty years and feel you’ve maligned them in some core way by incorrectly describing the annealing process.
  • The thing to be certain about is your accuracy in the concepts you describe, and maintain a level of consistency across your story. If you are inconsistent, people will catch it and you’ll lose readers’ interest quickly. An example would be if Sonja’s hair is blonde in one chapter, auburn in the next, then back to blonde for the remainder of the story without any explanations. You’ll have readers harp on you incessantly. Rightfully so.
• Organization
  • Architects vs Gardeners
    • How you organize your story is a somewhat religious topic amongst authors. I’ve heard Brandon Sanderson use the terms architects and gardeners when describing how people organize or plan their stories, and I think that’s a very fair way of describing it.
    • As an architect, you tend to create an outline of sorts (the level of detail varies) which plots the inevitable storyline that you are creating. I find that this method is very useful for going through the mental exercise of where your story is going, and helps you avoid the pitfalls of writing yourself into a corner. Like Brandon, I happen to be one of these types, and can lay blame for my natural proclivity for it on my engineering background.
      

      Stephen King, gardener.

    • As a gardener, you start with a beginning and oftentimes a destination, and you grow the idea of your story more organically. You aren’t sure where it will take you, but you start writing and you continue to write until your story hopefully comes to a satisfying conclusion. I suppose the risk of this method of writing (which MANY people swear by) is that you are more prone to writing yourself into a corner. You might find a thread in a story that, once written, you realize doesn’t fit the rest of your overall book and either needs to be scrapped or rewritten.
  • As an architect, you’ll typically end up with a bunch of research, storyboarding, notes and miscellaneous fodder to begin the writing process.
• Doing it
  • Time
    • Most people don’t realize how much time it really takes to write a novel. It’s easily hundreds of hours, minimum, for an average 90,000 word novel. That’s why people oftentimes start, get a couple pages into it, maybe a chapter or two, then discover that they really enjoy fishing instead.
  • Real Life
    • Your real life must be able to support the time required for doing it. This means that family has to be supportive of your investing time away from them. Let’s not forget most authors have a day job when they are starting out. Heck, many authors have been publishing books for decades and never stopped their primary job.

Now that you’ve gotten to this point, as an indie author, there are several logistical hurdles and processes that you need to undertake to go from the first draft to a distribution-ready book. We’ll discuss those at length in part II of this write-up on Friday.

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Artist, Jennifer Miller

Guest Post by Jennifer Miller

I want to thank Joshua Essoe for inviting me to write an entry today! I’m going to talk with you about visual artwork for your book—for most, this means cover art. Unlike many bloggers here, I am a visual artist, and not an artist with words, so if you make it to the end, pat yourself on the back.

Before I begin, I wish to make clear that I am going to focus on those writers that intend to self-publish, or publish with smaller independent publishers. Large publishers tend to have their own artists that they work with; sometimes the author has little say in who illustrates their cover. Exceptions to this might be illustrated children’s books and things like graphic novels, that have a lot of art on each page. That is a subject for another post entirely. Pressing on….

You have a great story. You stand behind it, and you are ready to publish. Time to slap some art on that thang and call it done! The theory is simple; you want something that instantly tells the reader something about your book… perhaps a mood, or a key scene, or even just a mysterious glimpse to grab their attention. The cover is your product packaging, so some care must be considered beyond “put a nice picture on there.”

Okay, so you knew this was coming: “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” This is, of course, true about the story, but it is hardly a good reason to dismiss the cover. While I am admittedly biased, I am sure that if you asked around, I am far from alone: people notice the cover. The book is not defined solely by its cover, but certainly a cover can greatly influence who notices your book, how many people notice it, and why they notice it.

Check out this quote: “The cover may very well be the single biggest piece of marketing that book will receive,” says Paul Buckley, the Vice President Executive Creative Director at Penguin Group USA. “For first time authors and writers that have not yet built up a big following, the cover may be the only thing that gets a reader (or reviewer, for that matter) to physically pick the book up.” (source below)

While e-books have started to pick up steam, both book types benefit from having eye-catching art on the front. In fact, some suggest that e-book covers are just as important than those on physical books, because online buyers are presented with a myriad of thumbnail images when browsing on the most popular sites. The most eye-catching images in the thumbnail soup can have a big impact on what pages readers open up to further investigate. In the physical world, I cannot begin to count the number of times I have picked up a book based on the subject matter on the cover. Whether I was delighted or disappointed with the contents of the book is beside the point–the cover got it in my hands and got my eyes reading that wonderful text inside….

For much more reading on the importance of covers, check out this article.

Well, you’ve decided you want a cover, and you have the freedom to select the artist you want. Where to begin? Some of you might have an artist in mind for years, or some of you might have no idea. One way to start out is to consider your genre and begin your search that way. There are many websites out there; some are direct galleries on personal artist websites, and some are a huge mosh pit of everything. Browsing and searching might take some time, so kick back and enjoy the visual roller coaster.

Jennifer Miller’s artwork for Song of the Summer King by Jess Owen.

Once you find someone that tickles your fancy, pay close attention to their subject matter and style, and imagine that style on your cover. Visualize what subject matter you want–is it radically different from anything the artist has in their gallery? One thing that surprises me as an artist is that sometimes I will have someone in love with my style, but pays no attention to my subject matter… or, someone that is in love with my subject matter, and pays no attention to style. By all means, artists do branch out, and it never hurts to ask! But… do not be surprised if the photo-realistic artist is not keen to paint an anime-style cover for you, or if the artist that paints landscapes says ‘no’ to your cyber-punk cover. You may be pleasantly surprised, of course, but observing the artist’s strengths can only help you find someone that will mesh well with your project!

Another important consideration is time. For some artists, rolling out a complete painting in a short period of time is no big deal, and some people do work better under stress. For most artists though, we have a great many projects that have deadlines throughout the year. Asking for a fully detailed cover painting just days before you hope to publish is a good way to get a “sorry, I cannot…” letter in return, or… at the very least, some pretty stiff “rush fees” to cover the all-nighters that such a project entails. Different artists can work at different speeds, but a really nicely-detailed piece can take me more than one hundred hours. This is not counting the investment of time in research, and communication to make sure everything is on track. It is not unreasonable to consider contacting your potential artist at least six months before you have a deadline; some high-profile artists might need more advance warning than that.

Cost is something I am only going to touch on lightly because, frankly, this is a wild variable. I like to think that artists and writers have a sort of brotherhood (I think of it as the Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Underpaid Creative Persons). We both know what it is to do something you love and probably not get paid much for it. We both know what it’s like to be self-employed, and how much of our money just flies right out the window to the tax man and bill collector. Just as you would hope that someone would be willing to pay fairly for your time, please consider paying an artist fairly for theirs. I have found that most writers are amazingly cool about this (go, Brotherhood!), but I have had a fair number of rude individuals that tried to convince me that my time and skills were worth nothing. There is an artist out there that will work for any cover budget you have, but you will probably get what you pay for. Investing in a good cover is one of the most important investments you place in your book. However, don’t be deterred if you can’t afford much. Look for artists whose work is simple and has less time invested. If your artist has any sort of following, consider the amount of traffic simply having them do the cover might bring you. Once they have art published on your book, they have an investment in your book now too.

Rights and contracts: this is something that a lot of authors don’t consider until their artist is asking, “What rights do you need to buy?”

Our Forests – Digital.jpg
by Jennifer Miller

Uh, what? Now, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the internet, but this is always, always, always the time for contacts. It doesn’t matter if it’s your best friend, or your sister’s boss, or your grandma. Get a contract written. Be clear what is expected from the start, and who gets what rights, and what those rights cost. This can, and has, saved many a proverbial rear-end in the past. Authors don’t often think, “Well, this one will end up on the bestseller list, and get turned into eighteen movies, and will sell millions of action figures, and t-shirts at Hot Topic.” But… sometimes, just sometimes, this actually happens. Research some the high-grossing current authors and you will soon realize that they rarely knew something was going to make it big. Knowing who owns the art for what purposes is a big deal when this sort of thing happens, and the only thing worse than being enemies with your artist is fighting each other in court. Don’t do this. Be friends, and write contracts. If you need help with this, there are a lot of websites out there than can help you, and some even provide contract templates. When in doubt, ask a copyright lawyer.

Communication is always important. This is where an artist-writer relationship can be made or broken. Of course, be polite for goodness’ sakes… but don’t waffle. Be clear about your expectations from the start, what you want, when you want it, and if you want fries with that. Expect your artist to do the same; if you need to, ask them to please describe the process so you know what to expect. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and remember that even if you have a very clear mental image of the artwork, the artist cannot read your mind. You are a writer, by George! Use your words to paint them a picture so they can paint you something you are pleased with.

When author and artist really mesh and have a good time with the process, it is a beautiful thing. Mutually helping one another through all parts of the process, and beyond, is part of the wonderful community building that bonds creative people together and keeps them from going completely off the deep end. We are the Brotherhood of Underpaid Creative Persons, darn it, so let’s make something wonderful together!

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Author, Jess Owen

A follow-up by Jess Owen to yesterday’s post on typography.

When I set out to self publish Song of the Summer King, I knew I wanted everything to look “traditional.” I wanted it to look polished and professional, like something put out by one of the Big Six. I invested in the artwork by hiring a freelance artist who’s well known for her fantasy, wild life and particularly gryphon artwork. I invested in an editor with a great track record who I believed understood my goals for the story. I had plans for a big Kickstarter fund raiser, and wanted to hire a printer instead of going POD.

With all that done, somehow, I still thought it was fine to slap some letters on the front in a free, “medieval-looking” font, and call it a day. Fortunately my friends had my back. Josh Essoe sent my cover art around for some critiques from some pros, and very honestly told me, “You’ve invested too much in this book not to get some professional lettering on the cover. Talk to Moses Siregar; he’s put the same kind of effort into his work.”

So thanks to the power of author friend networking, I contacted said successful self-publisher and he gave me the name of his typographer, Terry Roy. She seemed excited about the book, I liked her portfolio, and so she put together a package deal to not only do lettering on the front of the e-book and the hardback edition, but to handle the interior layout and format the books for printing and uploading to Amazon. And thank goodness she did.

I think sometimes we self-published authors think we have to do everything ourselves. But just as I would hire a professional to tune up my car, I now know the value of investing in professionals to wield their magic over my stories. It’s a matter of time, energy, and expertise.

I’m so happy with the final product and with the team that fell together to make it happen. I truly believe all writers need a master mind group to make their work really stand out, and I know for my book, I couldn’t have asked for more. Below you’ll find my cover before and after the professional typography and design.

AFTER

BEFORE

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Illustrator & Typographer, Terry Roy

Guest Post by Terry Roy

Many authors go on the extravagant hunt for the best cover art out there. And while cover art is an important part of creating an attractive selling package (your book), bad typography can ruin it. Without typography, it’s not a book cover. It’s just a photo, an illustration, a painting.

What is typography? Glad you asked! It’s the art of arranging letters and words attractively on a page. Whether or not that page is a book cover or an interior narrative page, a billboard on a highway or stamped on a grocery bag you take home from the market. Most professional graphic designers are trained in this. Many others creating book covers nowadays are not. If you’re hiring someone to do a cover (to me, this means the complete package), or add typography to the image you want as the background for your cover, make sure you look at their portfolio and like what you see. Forget the pictures. Make sure you like what you see even if the titles and author names were on solid color backgrounds. Great typography design can carry itself, images added or not.

I can write pages and pages on this, but to keep it simple, I’ll distill it to basics.

1. When you commission artwork or start your image search, remember you need to display large, visible type on top of it.
Too many people sacrifice the visibility of the book title or author name so they don’t cover up the art. In my opinion–that priority should be the other way around. The art shouldn’t interfere with the stand-out impact of the author’s name and the title of the book.

2. The typeface you choose for the title can set the mood and tone of the book from the start. Choose wisely.
There’s a reason that many thrillers, spy stories, and suspense novels use a simple headline font like “Impact”—it denotes urgency, demands attention. Distressed or goth fonts get used on gritty, post-apocalyptic stories or dark vampire stories. (Be careful here, many distressed fonts won’t “pop” without a lot of help and unless you are a bestselling author, you don’t want your title blending in with the background art.) Fancy script fonts with lots of loops and swirls remind us of romantic invitations–so we see some of that on romance novels. These examples are generic. But please, don’t just pick a font because you think it’s cool. It has to match the story, and feel right with the title. Font sites often give you the option of typing in your title so you can preview it as you scroll through pages of choices. Just try it—see how it changes the mood and tone with each new look. (I spend hours trying fonts on titles, like some people try on clothes.)

Art & Design by Terry Roy.

Make sure your font choice–or the font choice of your cover designer– is legal to use commercially.
Please respect fonts tagged “for personal or private use only” and do NOT use them on your book covers. Often fonts at free sites were created to emulate a copyrighted, restricted-use font face. It is NOT okay to use these fonts on your books or anything you put out for sale or download in a public marketplace. (“Bleeding Cowboy”, which I see on a lot of vampire or paranormal books, is a good example. Lots of people are using it, but unless they got a licensed copy, or written permission from the designer, they shouldn’t be.) Go to a site like Fontspace and use the “Commercial Use Friendly” filter in the search. That way, free fonts that are cool to use on book covers and other projects will show up, without tempting you with the Personal Use Only fonts.

3. Visibility and Readability.
Now that you have the right font for your genre and title, and another for your name (a simple, non-fancy font will do in most cases) the third important thing is to make sure it’s clear, sharp, and readable. Remember, in the online market for both e-books and paperbacks, the reader is either spotting you first in a tiny ad or a tiny thumbnail image in a New Releases list. Even if your cover art loses fidelity at thumbnail size, the title, at least (if not also the author name) should stand out sharp and clear. Color choice is important here. It’s hard to go wrong with the classic choice of black (offset by white), or white (offset by black) when you’re just not sure. No matter what color you choose, contrast with the background is paramount. There should be enough contrast to “pop” that title even in small sizes.

Now… go out there and practice! One final tip I’ll leave with you today: study the bestsellers of your genre from the big name publishers. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, copy one of these covers. Import it into your graphics program and make it a locked layer. On a layer on top of that, challenge yourself to duplicate layout of the title, authorname, and any other print. You don’t have to match the typeface exactly, just get one close enough. (In graphic design courses, students are often challenged to duplicate the layouts on ads and product packaging–it’s a great hands-on learning exercise.) Even if you don’t want to tackle your cover typography on your own, studying what’s hot from the big pubs in your genre can give you a better eye for getting quality work from the person you hire to do it for you.

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Guest Post by Natasha Fondren

The question I get asked most by my clients is this: “What else, other than the text, should I put in my book?”

POD books and eBooks can handle extra pages, images, color, fonts, and content without any cost (up to a certain point, and even with Kindle, it’s marginal). When you’re done writing your book, you want to add content that will first, sell your book, and second, sell your other books.

SELL THIS BOOK

In eBooks, the front matter serves only one purpose: to sell this book to your readers.

In bookstores, readers check out books in this order:

1. They catch sight of the cover.
2. They turn it over and read the back cover.
3. They skim through the appropriate ad pages at the beginning.
4. They turn to the first page of the text and read a bit.

With eBooks, it goes more like this:

1. They catch sight of the cover on the website.
2. They click on the title.
3. They check out the average rating.
4. They read the synopsis and maybe skim the reviews.
5. They download a sample.

It’s important to note that once they download a sample, they haven’t yet bought it. You still have to sell your book with the sample: the first 10% of your book.

CONTENT OF THE SAMPLE

In a traditional book, the opening consists of ad pages, half-title page, title page, copyright page, list of other books by the author, dedication page, epigraph, table of contents, and sometimes acknowledgments.

In an eBook, we want to get rid of everything that doesn’t sell your book because it takes up space in that first 10% of your sample. First, the half-title page, a holdover from printing processes, is completely unnecessary.

The copyright page will not sell your book, nor will it magically prevent piracy. Send it to the back. The acknowledgments, likewise, should be sent to the back.

The list of other books by the author will only sell this book if you have a long list that proves you to be an author who’s had some practice at this. When in the front matter, this list does not sell those books; it only tells the prospective reader that you’ve some experience under your belt.

This list is better at the end, after they finish the book, when they’ll be looking for their next read. Probably they’ve already seen on the website that you’ve written other books, if you have.

The dedication? As interesting as it is to you, it should only stay up front if it’s truly going to hook the reader into buying your book.

The table of contents is accessed through a menu button, so it’s unnecessary to put it up front unless it sells your book, as is the case in nonfiction (telling the reader what is contained in the book) or in some fiction, where the chapter titles are so interesting that they hook the reader.

So what does that leave?

1. Ad pages
2. Title page
3. Epigraph
4. Text

Ad pages go first, and these should be an invitation to the reader. While you should take advantage of this opportunity, do not let the ad pages dominate your sample; you want to sell your book to readers, then give them enough of your content to hook them into your story.

There are several potential items that can go in your ad pages (I don’t advise using them all!):

• Reviews: If you have some exceptional reviews from respectable sources, or some funny, tongue-in-cheek reviews, then put two or three at the beginning. More than that, and you’re crowding out your sample.
• Synopsis: Reminding the readers what the book is about is not only a good sales tool, but it’s also one of the ways the human mind learns: big picture to little details. When readers sit down to a book, they want to know what it’s about. While this information may be on the website, they may look at the sample days or weeks later.
• Excerpt: A short excerpt, maybe one or two paragraphs, can work really well. There is an art to selecting just the right paragraph or two–make sure to get lots of feedback from your friends!
• Letter to reader: This is a bit of an old-fashioned technique that I’ve only seen in romance books. It’s been used quite a bit, so it must have some effect. If you pick this, please make sure your note to the reader is super good!

The title page sets the tone for the book, so embed a nice font and have a care for the design. The epigraph, as well, can set the tone for the book.

The text should be inviting: a nice chapter header, a dropcap, possibly some styling in the opening few words all help pull the reader into reading your text. Book design is important!

A PROBLEM WITH AUTO-CONVERSION

If you upload a Word document or use a converter to make a Kindle book, then when a reader opens your book, it will open to Chapter 1, skipping all front matter, ad pages, and even the prologue.

If you hire a professional, they’ll make sure your book opens where you want it to–except the cover. On Kindle, the book generally refuses to open to the cover, unfortunately. (Please do write them and complain, though! Maybe they’ll change it!)

THE BACK MATTER

From the very second your reader reads the last sentence of your book, you need to sell your next book, or your backlist.
The back matter can contain:

Thank You: First up, it’s nice to thank your readers. Make it short and sweet; this is not an about-the-author page. Perhaps a sentence or two informing about (and linking to) what you’ve got in the back matter for the reader. For example:

“Thank you for reading Great American Novel! I hope you enjoyed it. A list of my other books is on the next page, and then the first chapter of my upcoming novel, Pulitzer Prize Novel, to be released in the spring of 2014.”

Second, offer a link to a very simple html sign-up form for your newsletter. (You do have a newsletter list, right?) This should be simple and ugly, easy enough for e-ink browsers to handle, such as my newsletter (free book on Indie Book Production coming soon to all subscribers!). Please note that this doesn’t have to be your only newsletter sign-up page, but for this purpose, you should stick to a sign-up page that can be handled by the worst of browsers.

A List Of Your Other Books: This can go before or after the next section.

Your Next Book: Like the sample, this should be in three parts:

1. An image of the cover.
2. A quick synopsis or blurb of the book that hooks the reader.
3. An excerpt–you can make this substantial, such as the complete first chapter or two.

Other Ideas: I’ve seen some authors put a miniature version of their website in the back, starting with a home page that links to each section of the content that follows. Remember, the page count is nearly limitless, so be creative and give to the reader, and hopefully they’ll give profits back to you!

AND THEN . . .

After that, you can put an about-the-author page, so they know who you are. And then, (finally!) all the stuff you took out of the front matter that doesn’t sell this book or your next book.

Natasha Fondren is the founder of the eBook Artisans. Whether you’re a traditionally-published author looking to make an out-of-print book available, an indie author releasing a self-published eBook, or a publisher looking to make a backlist available, the eBook Artisans^SM is passionate about making your print book or eBook a welcoming and beautiful experience for your readers.

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Author, Joshua Simon

There are many things an indie writer needs to consider when looking for an editor. Is the editor capable of providing you with the service you need:  content, line, or copy editing? Does the editor have reputable references? Based on the sample, does the editor’s style suit your own? Can you afford the editor’s service?

I think every writer needs to carefully consider each of the above questions during the selection process.  Though this topic is crucial to every writer, it is one that has been beaten to death.  So, I thought I would discuss what I feel every writer needs to consider after the selection process is complete. Below are my top Dos and Don’ts when working with an editor.

Dos:

1. Do agree to terms ahead of time.

Be clear on expectations before work begins.

Do you want only that content edit or were you also expecting a copy edit as well?

Do you want the editor to provide a second round of edits in order to proof read your work after you’ve made the previous suggestions provided to you?

Do you need the editor to help you with writing the back cover, marketing materials, a press release, and text for your website?

Most editors probably won’t do all of the above but some might if you’ve discussed the scope of work ahead of time.  Don’t expect an editor to provide extra services (no matter how little) for free after the agreed upon work is completed. Their time is valuable and they have other clients besides you.

2. Do meet your deadlines.

As I said, you are not your editor’s only client.  The time to schedule an editor is when your book is nearly complete, especially if you’re writing your first book.

Find out what your editor’s schedule is like and how long they think it will take to edit the book, and then plan accordingly. It is not unreasonable to wait weeks or months before an editor can start on your book. Expect the overall editing process to take several weeks or longer once the editor begins work. Variations will exist based on the length of the book, how good of a writer you are, and how many projects the editor works on at once.

As a side note, after you’ve had some experience in completing projects it will be easier to schedule an editor before actual completion.  Even then, I’d recommend giving yourself several weeks or even months of cushion.  It is much nicer knowing you’ve finished early and can get ahead on your next project rather than scrambling to complete something at the last minute and turning in shoddy work.

3. Do ask for clarification.

Any editor worth their salt will clarify questions you might have on their suggestions. Otherwise, how can you determine if it is a valid change?  If an editor is unwilling to communicate with you in this way after giving you the manuscript back, I’d question using that person again.

4. Do be prompt with payment.

But what happens if it costs more than I originally expected?  Too bad.

If you go to a car dealership and they give you an estimate for a brake job that later increases by several hundred dollars because things were worse than expected, can you get away with not paying them? Of course not. Can you imagine if your boss decided not to pay you promptly or not at all, and how that would affect your life?

For some editors, this might be their only source of income.  Therefore, don’t be late with their money.

If you decide their services were overpriced and not what you expected then the only thing you can do is not use them for future work.

5. Do remember that a suggestion for change is not a demand for one.

As the writer, this is your story.  You need to be satisfied with it more than anyone else. Make changes only if you agree it improves the quality of the work. If you can’t make that decision on your own, bring in someone else to give you a second opinion.

I rarely disagree with my editor, but there have been a few times I decided against making his suggested changes.  This is partly because I had received differing opinions from my beta-readers and partly because the change would affect later parts of the story in works he had not yet edited.

Don’ts

1. Don’t hand over a mess.

Your editor should not be the first person to read your manuscript besides yourself. Employ both alpha and beta-readers.  They will help you smooth out many problems long before your editor gets a hold of your story, especially in the way of content.  If nothing else, this step will help reduce the costs to you. The more time your editor spends cleaning up your mess, the more they will charge.

2. Don’t expect your editor to do all the work.

Your editor shouldn’t have to re-write your book. They will rewrite sentences as needed, but they aren’t supposed to write chapters or sections for you (unless you’ve agreed they will act as a ghost writer).

3. Don’t take it personally.

This is all a learning experience and a way to make you a better writer. I’ve improved significantly with each work I’ve turned into my editor, and a contributing factor to my improvement has been his feedback on each story.

Remember, an editor’s reputation will be held against the quality of your work as well. You don’t want an editor to blow smoke up your rear.  You want an editor to be honest about what is good and what isn’t so your story and characters can shine.

4. Don’t be a jerk to your editor.

Like everything else in life, be professional. If I really have to explain what this means then you probably have bigger problems to worry about than everything I’ve mentioned above.

5. Don’t lose sight of your ultimate goal.

You want a great book!

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This month we’re talking publishing in all its shapes and sizes.  Like many of you, I am an author struggling to reach that huge milestone of my first published workd.  I’m very optimistic this is the year it’s going to happen.  I’ve been writing for seven years, and although I have two novels I could self-publish, I’ve opted to sign with an agent and pursue a traditional publishing route, if possible.

Several people have asked me why bother?

With the advent of ebooks and the ease of self-publishing novels, why not just throw my manuscripts out into the ether like so many other people?  Maybe I could become one of those few to really succeed with it?

Maybe I should.  Perhaps I still will.  The publishing industry is going through very difficult times, and there are many people who argue an author is doing themselves terrible damage by signing a traditional publishing deal.

I’m not convinced it’s all bad.  First, I want confirmation from industry professionals that I’m really ready, that I’ve mastered the craft to the point where I can approach publishing a work with confidence that it can compete and not waste my time, or the time of my readers.  Having an agent say, “Yes, I love this manuscript and I believe it is written to a professional standard and is ready to submit to publishers” is a huge milestone in my career.

Now it’s no longer just me and my close circle of relatives and friends who think I’ve got what it takes.  I need that confirmation.  Without it, how do I really know I’m ready?  After four years and several drafts, I completed my first novel, a 300,000 word behemoth I was convinced was awesome.  Thankfully the e-publishing bubble hadn’t hit yet, so rejection letters from agents started piling up.  Eventually I progressed in my mastery of the craft to where I could recognize the novel’s flaws.  I made the hard choice to throw it away and re-start from the ground up, saving only some of the worldbuilding and characters.  The resulting novel is worlds better than the original, and that’s the one my agent accepted.

So yes, the first huge benefit of agents is that confirmation by the industry that I’ve at least got a shot at a deal.  Another undeniable benefit to traditional publishing is getting your physical book distributed to physical book stores, hopefully around the world.  That distribution has value, and especially for a new author, I’d love the help of a publisher in getting my book out to readers.  I know there’s still tons of work to be done to market it myself, but at least I’d have a physical product to sell.

We all know authors who have self-published, and most of them sell few copies, despite how well deserving their books may be.  So, a traditional publishing deal might help establish a reader base to build off of.  I know it’s not guaranteed, but it’s something worth investigating.

Another big reason I am still pursuing a traditional route for my first book goes back to my agent.  John Richard Parker with Zeno Agency knows the industry and players far more than I can since he’s worked with them for many years.  His expertise is invaluable, and even though we have not landed a deal yet, working with him has already brought valuable insights I could not have gained otherwise.

The other reason I’ve hesitated to self-publish is that after working for years on my books, I want them to be the best they can be.  I’ve read e-books that could have been great, but fell short of their potential because their authors failed to wait just a little longer and complete a rigorous editing process.  Landing a traditional publishing deal, and working with the professional editors there, will be wonderful when it happens.  I am eager to learn from them all I can.

With all this said, I am not ignoring other publishing options.  My YA fantasy novel, which my agent is reviewing now, is scheduled to be professionally edited by Joshua Essoe (see his post on editing here)  later this year after I complete a third revision.  If the traditional route falls through, that novel is a prime candidate to be e-published through an e-publisher like MUSA, or directly self-published after it’s fully vetted and ready to go.

And while I complete preparing my two novels for some type of publishing, I’m busy writing the next one.  I also plan to explore e-publishing for a novella and related short story I wrote.

It’s an exciting time to be an author, with so many options out there.  I encourage everyone to learn as much as you can about each avenue, and explore multiple options.  But whatever way you choose, make sure your finished product is the best it can be.  Anything less is nothing short of a tragedy.

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We hope you’re enjoying our Publishing Month as much as we are.  We’ve had some great posts already from both Fictorians and guests, and there’s more to come, including Brandon Sanderson and Gini Koch.  In the meantime, here’s 10 reads worth your time:

Vickie Britton looks at Compiling A Short Story Anthology for Print or eBook Publication.

Rachelle Gardner discusses whether self-publishing and agents can mix in Self-Published Author Seeks Agent.

Laura Hazard Owen sums up the recent BookExpo America with 5 Things the Book Industry Will Be Talking About Next Week.

Victoria Strauss has a warning for those thinking about jumping into self-publishng with ePublishing Revo: It’s A New Electronic Publishing Service, But There’s A Catch.

Karen Schechner looks at how indie bookstores are responding to the growing self-publishing phenomenon in Working With Self-Published Authors.

Rich Adin asks Should Editors Certify That an eBook Has Been Edited?

Confused about creative commons?  Check out Matt Enis’s article Ebook Crowdfunding Platform Unglue.it Launched for an explanation.

Nail Your Novel muses about Where Will Self-Publishing Get Quality Control?

Dear Author lists some Publisher Experiments I’d Like To See.

Publishing Crawl discusses The Not-So-Secret Backdoor to Publishing.

Missed any Fictorians articles this week?

Guest poster S. James Nelson – Abandon All (Unreasonable) Hope

David Carrico – I Haven’t Given Up

Guest poster Laurie McLean – Literary Agents in the New Publishing Era

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I love collecting digital bits.

And I am considered an early adopter by friends.

As disorganized as I may be with files littering my virtual and actual desktops, I have an excellent track record of not losing digital data. Misplacing, yes, but my backup processes are fairly secure.

I hit the save key reflexively every few seconds or whenever I stop typing. I email copies of documents to myself to ensure they’re backed up in the cloud. I have onsite and offsite physical backups of all my files.

Ever since the advent of the Kindle and the iPad, I’ve been delighted. There are so many ways to access the rich library of documents I’ve been squirreling away for all these years. And with tools like Dropbox and various PDF viewers on the iPad, I’ve been able to have useful subsets of my digital library with me wherever I go.

Recently I’ve even begun backing up bits of my library. I’ve taken a number of big tomes and sent them to Blue Leaf Bookscanning to get turned into PDFs and word documents and even robot-read audiobooks.

But there’s a cost for me to digitization.

Serendipity.

In my home I have bookshelves. Many of them. And I have an area where I keep all my language books. And sometimes, when I walk over to that part of the shelf, I feel compelled to learn some more Portuguese verbs. Or another Latin phrase. It’s not planned.

I have another shelf full of mid 1800s American “Cyclopediae”. Had I planned to look up something in that? Not really. Was I enriched by it? Yes.

I have a shelf next to my bed, supposed to be a nightstand. It’s actually a two foot wide, 5 foot tall shelf. It has possibly 50 books I’m in the middle of browsing or reading. My “nightstand” gives me that same feeling I get when I stand in front of the magazine stand at a good bookstore. “Oooh – what am I going to choose?” There are too many good choices.

To be fair, I have experienced some form of this on my iPad. I’ve loaded up a ton of PDFs into the Apple iBooks app. Sadly (for Apple), I have to say that iBooks is only used store PDFs; Amazon has my eBook business and will keep it until I can read iBooks on my computer. (But that’s a separate rant.)

And so occasionally, I have said “why look there, there’s a book on programming Ruby on Rails, I should browse through that.”

“Oh theres that manual I downloaded on Intellectual Property and patent drafting, I’ll read it. ”

But the point is, I think it will be a while before I have the scant 64Gb of my iPad chock full of ALL my digital documents. Years in fact. I just don’t see it. First theres the scanning, or re-acquiring the book in digital form. Then there’s the filling the space, or hoping that “cloud books” comes out when “cloud music” is just getting started.

There’s no question that eBooks are rising fast. So much so that they will be the most significant part of the Western reading market soon. Ebook sales will be the driver, not just a growing segment, of book sales.

Books will go down fighting. It will probably take generations to fully marginalize books, even though digital formats are eclipsed within two decades. VHS. Tape. CDs. DVDs. Blu-Ray. These are all formats-come-lately. They have not persisted. Photographs and phonograph records are a bit longer lasting. But printed word has millennia of success.

So what of the browse? What of the bookstore? What of the random luck that comes from browsing not just a corner bookstore but of rediscovering one’s own library? Or of putting a reminder to one’s self to read a book, by leaving it in your bag?

When all books are equally accessible in a huge digital bookstore on your iPad, and when new books are constantly marketed to you, invading the privacy of your own tablet, what will this do to undirected reading? How will one continue to enjoy these essential and random encounters with books?

I don’t know. What I do know is that my family is shopping for a house right now. And after digging through probably a hundred houses on the multiple listing service, I remember just two have really stood out to me. I may make an offer on one next week. And only when I was finishing writing this article did I realize something.

Both of those homes have a library.

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