Tag: books

The Hidden Costs of Self-Publishing Your Book

Quan

I pay my bills as a freelance graphic & web designer, and many of my clients are authors looking to self-publish and promote their work. There is a lot of merit in that, especially if you are having a hard time finding an agent or publisher that will take an interest in your book. It is simpler and more cost-effective to self-publish than it ever has been before, and you have the advantage of not having to share any of your profits with a publisher or agent.
There is also a lot of work that goes into self-publishing. You’re responsible for literally everything, starting with the actual editing of your story. You’re going to have to get beta readers or hire a content editor to help you finetune your story into something publishable, and you will need a line editor to make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. And the work ramps up after you get your book to where you think you can publish it.

This was advice I gave to a client that was looking to make an illustrated Children’s book. so I’ve also added some of my rates (in case some of you might be interested in hiring me like she did…)
Okay. So you want to factor in how much it will cost to publish your book. Kindle direct can do it for free but they take their printing cost out of your sales. If you’re working on a children’s book, you need to factor in how many illustrations you need and whether they need to be in color or not. My base for an illustration is $100 per (My rates are pretty low compared to most of the industry).
Also you want to factor in actually formatting your book for publication, which I personally charge $200 for (with an additional $100 for creating your book cover).
And finally there is marketing and promotion, which scales depending on how much of it you want to do. You’re looking at creating websites, marketing collateral (flyers, posters, postcards, bookmarks, etc), merchandise (cafepress is a good free way to handle that), signage (for book signings and tradeshows), and digital marketing via email, social media and web advertising. You might want to look up the costs of those venues. Start with Google ads, Twitter ads, Facebook ads, Amazon ads, and mailchimp. or you could hire somebody to do all of that for you, which means you’ll have to get some rate quotes from marketing specialists.
You’re going to want to do some research into the type of markets that will actually buy your book, and depending on which resources you use, that might have a cost, too. And if you really want to do it big, You might need to look into how much it will cost to hire a publicist to officially spread the word about your book.
After you have a gist of how much that costs, then you have to look at how much capital you actually have to work with. How much can you actually, realistically allocate for all of this stuff? and will it be enough?

The good news is that once you have your budget, you can use crowd funding to raise the money you need to do what you want to do. I’d look up similar campaigns on kickstarter and indiegogo to see how others did it. If you have enough supporters (I didn’t for my crowdfunding campaign and it failed miserably), you can easily get the funds you need to make it happen. One of the many keys to having a successful crowdfunding campaign is having enticing enough rewards for your investors, and depending on what perks you offer, those can incur a cost, too.

Even with those costs, if you can generate enough support for your story, your book can still be profitable, especially if you can get a lot of good word of mouth about how good your book is. Check out the work of Renee Scattergood here. She is a successful self-publisher and an expert on book marketing.

The Secret of a Good Title

Quan

For me, one of the more challenging aspects of writing has surprisingly been coming up with good titles for my stories. It’s not as easy as it would seem. You have to remember that whatever title you give to your work will be the label that work is known under for its entire shelf life, and will be one of the first things people think of when they think of your book title.

With that in mind, you want to have the right title, and it is something you need to put some thought into.

So what are the elements that make a story title the right one?

1. Resonance. First and foremost, the title has to “sound” right. Titles within themselves have cadences and rhythms to them, and it shows when you speak them out loud. That’s why many iconic titles have three syllables or less. A shorter title just flows better.

2. Relevance. The right title will have a direct relation to the story it describes. Ideally you will be able to get a good idea of what the story is about just in the title. This isn’t a hard and fast rule (none of these are. You can find more than enough exceptions), but as a rule of thumb if someone reads your story, they should be able to get a good idea of where you got the title from. It doesn’t have to be a literal representation of the story, but it can be an allusion to a major plot point, character, setting, or some other aspect of the story that is worthy of making a title. Sometimes you can take an actual word, title, name or passage in the story and use that as the title. Sometimes the subject matter of the book, if unique enough, will suffice. For instance, “The Leopard Man” was my title for that book from the start because there was a literal man that changed into a leopard mentioned within the story. But the idea of a “Leopard Man” was unique and guaranteed to stand out. The title of “Godmode” came about because the book was originally going to be a literal written video game, and Godmode is a popular term in gaming.

3. Catchiness. This is hard to quantify, but it is nonetheless very important to the marketing of your story. How sticky is the title? Does it have some aspect that makes it stay in the reader’s mind? There are lots of ways to give a title that extra “it.” Some titles are clever plays on words. One of my favorite books is Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal.” The title has a double meaning which ties directly into the story, but the fact it is also a quirky cliché makes an interesting juxtaposition against the established world the story is set in. A title like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” has a grand, adventurous tone to it that feels like a dangerous quest which sounds like a fun story to get into. In this instance, word choice becomes very important, as different words have different psychological and emotional attachments to them that help craft the reader’s attitude towards what to expect from your story.

There is always a possibility that the right title comes right to mind immediately, or may even be the starting basis of your story. A potential reader turned off by your title might not give your book a chance. No pressure, right?

So if you’re having a hard time coming up with a title, first ask yourself a few things:

1. What is my story about? This is where coming up with your vaunted 30-second pitch will come in handy. If you can describe the essence of your story in a couple of sentences, you can possibly find a word or phrase to encapsulate that summary.

2. Who are my central characters? Lots of stories are simply named after one or two of the principal characters. Are your characters strong and engaging enough to where you can name the entire story after them? Or does a character have a unique enough name to where that can stand out?

3. What are some key details and moments of my story? You can name your book after an aspect of  the book that is crucial to understanding what is going on. “A Song of Fire and Ice” works because of the two big details of the Game of Thrones world: the fact that “winter is coming” and the looming presence of fire-breathing dragons. On top of that, the “Fire and Ice” cliché is known and relevant and evocative, which makes it catchy.

4. What are some of the more memorable quotes of my story? Do your characters or your narrator say something profound or memorable in the story? Many of James Bond’s best titles come from something that one of the characters said during the story.

5. Is there something outside of my story that can refer to something in my story? This is a clever way of entitling a story that might require a little more work. Basically, you are taking a word or phrase that really has nothing directly to do with your story, and finding something in your story that it can reference.  It could be a song title or lyric, or a quirky, unique word, or a catchphrase, or something that has more meaning to the pop zeitgeist than to your story, but can be used to refer to some aspect of your story. Once again, Godmode was a simple video game term to refer to the player having the ability to play the game without any of the normal challenges of the game. When in Godmode, you are invincible, or you have unlimited ammunition, or you can jump higher, or some other hack that makes the game a lot easier for you to play. Conversely, in my book, my protag gets to experience his own twisted “Godmode” whenever he is consumed by rage. He becomes stronger, faster and much more dangerous…but this only happens in short, infrequent bursts. For most of the book, he is running for his life, running out of ammo, overmatched and out of his depth…which makes calling the book “Godmode” rather ironic.

Aside from Godmode and the Leopard Man, titles were something I struggled with for some of my books. Double Entry was a story I wrote because I wanted to write a semi-romantic drama set in a corporate entrepreneurial environment (something I hadn’t seen a lot of before, especially with African-American characters), but it was hard coming up with a title that referenced that. I chose Double Entry because it is a literal Accounting term and the protag is a CPA. In hindsight, I should have realized that the phrase can have entirely different connotations, especially when applied to a romance novel. I’ve had my share of disappointed readers due to that.

That was an issue I tried to avoid with The Hand You’re Dealt. The book was originally going to be called “Spades” because a lot of the story involves people playing the card game of Spades. It was a simple and catchy title that would have been perfect…had there not been so many negative racial undertones attached to the word “spade.” And the fact I was using it for a book written about primarily African American characters. So I had to come up with something else, and I had a really hard time doing it. I tried “Queen of Hearts, King of Spades” to tie in to my two protags’ relationship, but Spades continued to be a toxic word. So I just used Queen of Hearts, but that implied the book was entirely about the female protag, when she was the focus for only half the story. I found my solution in my thirty second pitch for the book that I wanted to use in my query letters: “it was a book about finding love, keeping love during tough times, and playing the hand one is dealt.” The book’s theme is perseverance and adapting to whatever life throws at you, which plays perfectly with a card playing cliché that ties in to the many card games that are played throughout the story.

Currently I am working hard on deciding titles for two manuscripts that I just finished, with the added challenge of them both being the first books in planned series. So I have to come up with a title for the series as well as for the individual book. This presents an added challenge of coming up with a catchy series title that can encapsulate everything that happens over the course of the saga. I also like titles of individual books being consistent throughout the series, which makes them more memorable, like Sue Grafton’s letter-themed Kelsey Milbourne book titles, or The Early Alex Cross Novels from James Patterson that referenced nursery rhymes. So I wanted book titles that were like that. So far, I’ve settled on entitling my urban fantasy thriller “Needle of the Southside,” with the follow-up book being “Jewels of the Eastside.” The overall theme of the title is the name of the big macguffin that the book centers around, with the dangerous area that the macguffin is hidden in. The title of the planned series as of this post is either “American Artifacts” or “The Reliquary.” I haven’t decided yet.

For the other book, my working title of the series is “Aftermath Saga,” because the saga is literally a sequel to an untold story. But to me it’s not quite catchy enough. It doesn’t have that “it” factor to me like a “Lord of the Rings” or “Books of Swords” or “Song of Fire and Ice.” Problem is, I can’t think of anything better. The titles for the three books came easier, though. I wanted each title to get shorter, while describing a key element or moment that drives the story. The first book is called “Return of the Tyrant.” The second book, which I am developing now, will be called “The Queen’s Betrayal,” while the finale will simply be called “Extinction.” Hopefully a better series title will come to mind before I’m done writing all three books.

So my advice to you is to be very cognizant of your story’s title and put a good amount of thought into what it will be. It might be the difference between your story being forgettable and being a classic.

So You’re Thinking About Writing A Book…

Quan

Oftentimes when I tell people I’m a novelist, I hear them say “I’d like to write a book someday.”  I’ve even had friends explain at length their wonderful story ideas for a book they’d like to write…someday. Or friends and family would tell me of something about their lives they would like to make into a book. Someday.

My response to them is always, “why not now?”

Getting beyond all the hemming and hawing and shoulda-coulda-woulda, the bottom line is that either you’re going to write a book or you’re not. You either have it in you or you don’t. So if you believe you have it in you, then why wait to bring it out? Tomorrow is not promised, and God forbid something bad were to happen with you, you don’t want all of those wonderful ideas dying with you, do you?

You can make all of the excuses you want to NOT start writing. You have too many chores to do. You have to tend to your spouse or raise your kids. Your work takes up too much time. The Game is on. The bottom line is that you will make time for the things you really want to do. At the height of my writing, I was getting up an hour early to write my latest novel before I got ready for work, then I’d write during my lunch break, and if I had to, I’d go to bed a half hour later to finish that final thought before heading to sleep. If I had downtime at work, I’d pull out a piece of scrap paper and jot down ideas, then type them in when I got home. I’ve vocally recorded story ideas with my phone. I’ve written while waiting in long lines for appointments instead of reading a magazine or surfing the social networks. If you really want to do it, you would find a way.

And it’s easier than ever before to publish now, so being worried about getting your book out is no longer an excuse. If you don’t want to deal with the haggle of finding an agent or an established publisher, self-publishing is a very viable option. Sites like KDP.com offer easy, convenient and FREE ways to get your book formatted and made available for purchase and download. And some even offer free book cover creation. All you really have to provide is the manuscript, especially if you don’t want an editor. There are tons of networking opportunities on social media for writers and bookmakers, so it’s easier than ever to find a proofreader, a beta reader, a reviewer, and even an editor. Heck, I even typeset books and design book covers as a freelance designer; you could hire me to do that for you.

Here are a couple of simple exercises to get you started.

  1. if you are writing nonfiction, first ask yourself what you want to write about. Then, once you come up with an overall subject matter, then make a list of ten different aspects of that subject that your potential reader would want to know about. Now, for each of those topics, make a list of three things: what you know about it, what you need to research, and how will this benefit your reader. You can even apply this formula in writing a biography. Your ten subjects are ten most significant events in your subject’s life, and the three questions pertain to details of the event. Once you finish this, then you have an instant book outline to build from. And from there it’s just filling in the details.
  2. If you are writing fiction, start with that kernel of an idea that you have in the back of your head. Write it down. Now ask yourself why your idea would be such a big deal in your world. Write that down. Then ask yourself what would have to happen for that idea to happen in real time. Write that down. Now ask yourself how that idea would affect the normal, everyday people of your world. Write that down. Keep going. Ask yourself as many details around your idea as possible. Ask the WHO, the WHAT, the WHERE, the WHEN and the WHY of your idea. Ask how people would respond if your idea really happened. Ask why anyone would try to stop that idea from coming forth, and how they would do it. Ask yourself these questions and whatever others come to mind, and once you have answers, then Write. Them. All. Down. Before you know it, you’ll have a simple story bible to build your tale from, and you’ll be immersed enough in this world that the people in that world will start speaking to you. Write down what they tell you. And you do not have to start at the beginning. That is something that intimidates a lot of would-be writers. Don’t let it intimidate you. Start writing with whatever is in your head RIGHT NOW. If you write enough, the beginning will come to you eventually.

There. I just eliminated all of your excuses for you. Now, if you’re serious about SOMEDAY getting that book idea of yours out, you’re in luck.

Someday just arrived.

So get started.