Who are you?

I don’t mean in the sense of your name, age, or personality.

I mean, as an author, who are you?

If you had to describe your writing – not a specific book, but just your personal writing style —to a stranger, what would you say?

It’s okay if you don’t know the answer right now.

Because by the end of this post, you will, thanks to our two secret equations (Yeah, that’s right, you’re getting a two-for-one!).

Defining who you are as an author is about more than just your genre, your book, or your blog.

It’s about what makes you unique.

And once you know what makes you unique, you can find the right readers who will appreciate your unique appeal.

So how do you find out who you are as an author?

Easy – you just have to do the math.

Don’t worry, I’ve got two simple formulas to help you along and all tests will be open book and open notes!

Both of these equations will give you two key elements:

• Something fans can relate to (in this case, a well-known author)
• Something that makes you unique

It’s up to you which one fits your writing personality best (Or, if you want to get really crazy, you can use both!).

1. The Unique Twist Algorithm

Start this equation by choosing a well-known author with a very similar writing style and genre (it has to be someone fans of your genre would definitely know and like).

Now take that author’s work and add a twist that describes why you are not only different, but *better* than that author (yeah, it’s bold, embrace it, my friends).

So you’ll wind up with a declaration something like one of these:

• I’m like Nicholas Sparks, but with more laughs and less tears
• I’m like Stephanie Meyer, but with stronger female characters

2. The Love Child Theorem

This second equation is my favorite. If you straddle a couple of genres or feel like you sort of embody a mix of two completely different styles, this one’s for you.

Start again with a well-known author who shares similarities to your writing style and genre.

Then, add another author.

Someone very different from Author A. Whether it’s in terms of genre or writing style or subject matter, just choose someone different, but who is also similar to you in some way.

Put those two authors together and proclaim yourself their simply unique lovechild.

I, for example, consider myself the lovechild of Joshilyn Jackson (smart, Southern, sassy) and Carl Hiaasen (fun, colorful, Floridian).

Try it out! You’ll come up with a statement like one of these:

• I write science fiction like Ray Bradbury, but my characters are more like something from John Steinbeck.
• I write a mix of fantasy and political thrillers like the love child of Stephen King and Brad Metzler.

So, which equation fits you best?

Try’em both on for size and figure out which one highlights your unique author attributes the best, and then share it with us in the comments!

Once you have a short synopsis of your writing style, you’ll have a much easier way to introduce yourself to new fans. Even better,  you can do a little internet stalking/research on your new author doppelgangers to find out who their fans are and where they hang out!

This is a reprint from Duolit.

The rise and rise of self-publishing has meant an influx of writers into the market, and many established authors with back-lists are also joining the fun.

There is a LOT of information out there on how to publish your book, but I still get emails every day asking me how to do it.

I also get emails from people who have paid $20,000+, have been utterly ripped off and are devastated with the results. This happened to me once, although with a lesser financial impact, and I am passionate about making sure authors don’t fall into these traps.

With big name publishers like Penguin/Random House and Simon & Schuster signing up with Author Solutions to further exploit this kind of vanity publishing, you guys need to know there is a better and cheaper way.

I have a whole page on Publishing options here, but I thought a round-up post was called for. There are options below for publishing ebooks and print books, with DIY options and easy, paid services, so there’s something for everyone.

Before you publish

Yes, you need a great book, and I believe you need to go through an editing process, and also get a professional cover design.

If you have existing contracts for your books, and /or have been published in the past, check you have the rights before you publish. If you’re a new author, you have the rights and you can do what you like. You can publish in any or all of the following ways. There are no rules and you can sell globally! [woohoo!]

How to publish an ebook – the DIY option

(1) Format your book in Scrivener to create a .mobi (for Kindle), ePub for Kobo and Smashwords (very soon) or Word, PDF or loads of other formats.

Scrivener is only $45 and the compile function is just one part of the amazing writing software, which many authors (including me) swear by.

* Scrivener for Dummies – interview with Gwen Hernandez

(2) Publish on the ebook stores

For the best royalty rates, you want to go direct to the retailers if you can and the process is easy. There’s plenty of help on each of these sites.

Publish on Kindle at KDP.Amazon.com

Publish on Kobo at Kobo Writing Life. You can also watch/listen to this interview from Mark Lefebvre, Kobo’s Director of Self-Publishing here.

Publish on Barnes & Noble Nook at PubIt (still only for US citizens)

Publish on iBookstore, Nook, or any of the other retailers through Smashwords (free but not so easy to use) or BookBaby (costs but is much more user-friendly). Here’s a useful post on Bookbaby vs Smashwords so you can evaluate the services.

How to publish an ebook – the paid services option

I know that some people don’t want to mess around with ebook files. I used to feel like that too, but seriously, if you’re publishing a lot, then try Scrivener. It will save you loads of money. But if you definitely want help, there are lots of services that can do this, so you should shop around, check reviews and testimonials and ask other authors what they think.

I recommend BookBaby who offer packages to format and distribute your book. I use them myself and I am an affiliate. Here’s a short video chat with Brian Felsen from BookBaby about what they offer authors.

How to publish a print book

Most independent authors make more profit from ebooks, so you should only consider print if you really want it for personal reasons, or if you have a live platform to sell it (e.g. speakers). Then you should consider print-on-demand as the best option as you don’t have to pay upfront printing/storage or shipping costs. Only do a print run if you have the distribution sorted out – too many authors lose money this way (I certainly did!)

If you want a DIY option, and the best financial deal, then LightningSource is probably the best bet. However, you need print ready files for your cover and interior and you have to know what you’re doing.

If you want an easier DIY option, with wizards and extra help, then go with CreateSpace.com, Amazon’s own self-publishing company. They also have an option to make the ebook as well. If you have your own print-ready files, it is free to publish. Here’s a comparison post between Createspace and LightningSource.

If you want to do print properly, soak up everything you can from TheBookDesigner.com – one of the very best blogs for self-publishers.

In terms of premium services, there are more companies offering these every day, some of them at astronomical prices, so please be very careful.

Check out Amazon’s Createspace Premium prices here. Then compare what they offer to anything else you check out, since you know if you go with Createspace that you will be able to sell on Amazon.

If you like the look of a company, then check Preditors and Editors publishing guide for red flags, because a professional online site may still mean a rip-off.

Please note that Author Solutions, which is the service Random/Penguin & Simon & Schuster have chosen is marked: Not recommended. A company that owns or operates vanity imprints AuthorHouse, DellArte, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, West Bow, and Xlibris. Here’s an article about their dishonest marketing tactics on Writer Beware,

What happens next?

Obviously once the book is available at all online book retailers, it won’t fly off the shelves without some help.

Read this post for starters: Help! My book isn’t selling. 10 questions to answer honestly if you aren’t making enough sales.

Then check out this page for more marketing ideas.

Need more help?

I teamed up with NY Times bestselling author CJ Lyons, who has now sold over 1 million self-published (indie) books, to create a multimedia course that gives you all the detailed help you need to successfully self-publish an ebook and a print book.

It includes behind the scenes videos of creating files using Scrivener and how we publish to all the various stores, as well as top tips for self-publishing, the worst mistakes authors make, how to evaluate print-on-demand companies, secrets of book cover design with Joel Friedlander from TheBookDesigner.com, pricing, piracy, maximizing your sales pages at the book retailers – and much more.

Read more about the course here (it’s just $99)

Recommended Books

If you want to read a book on the topic, then I recommend the following:

Let’s get digital: How to self-publish and why you should – David Gaughran

Self Printed: The Sane Person’s Guide to Self-Publishing – Catherine Ryan Howard

APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur – Guy Kawasaki

Scrivener for Dummies – Gwen Hernandez

Writing a novel with Scrivener – David Hewson

Want to join a community of active self-publishers who help each other out with information and advice? Check out the Alliance of Independent Authors. (I’m an active member and advisor). There’s also a great blog: How to successfully self-publish

Do you have any questions about publishing your book?

Please do leave questions or comments below. This is a community of LOTS of authors, new and experienced, so together we can likely answer everything! I’d also love people to recommend any services they have actually used and thought were good. (No posts from companies though – only authors!)

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

This post, by Peg Brantley, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

Sometimes when a writer digs, they find rich soil. Fragrant. The kind of dirt that sticks to your fingers just a little bit and compels you to bring it up to your nose to smell. The kind that brings images of lush growth. The kind where the fertilizer has long lost its poopy scent and blended perfectly into a pungent ripeness, ready for the touch of a master. It brings a promise all its own.

At other times, full of good intentions, a writer hits elusive sand. Or even worse, dense and sticky clay.

So what then?

God, I wish I knew.

I have this amazing story that I’m about a quarter into. I have a self-imposed deadline (but it’s still a deadline), and the date is looking more impossible to achieve every day. I’m struggling to find my focus. My touch. The thing that brings magic to my writing. Energy.

Last night I returned from a week long road trip with my dad during which I wrote not one new word. That’s okay. Sometimes making memories is more important than making a sentence. Truly. And the road trip? Thirteen hours each way, fourteen if you count the breakfasts at Denny’s (which I don’t recommend) and stopping to fill up the gas tank. My dad’s nickname is Rocket-Ass when it comes to road trips. I sort of learned I have a bit of Rocket-Ass in me as well, but that’s another story. Right now all I feel is wiped out. Even with a good night’s sleep in my own bed.

I’m feeling as if I’ve lost my way. After the holidays I never really got back into gear. Tonight I feel as if getting back into gear is the least of my worries. I’ve misplaced the damn car.

Today I’ve been sidetracked. Do I have Amazon Author Pages up in all of the available countries, and if not, why not? Have I refilled all of the bird feeders? Watered the plants that need watering? Have I contacted all of the possible sites to announce the free dates next month for The Missings? Is the grocery list put together enough that I can run my other errands and hit the store without a repeat performance the next day? What about scheduling those dates with friends? Writing… it didn’t happen.

I know I need to just start digging. To believe that among the yucky clay I’m bound to find fertile loam.

Maybe tomorrow.

One of the things I like most about writing is the research it leads me to. I think of a story idea and start developing it, then discover I need to know more about something that’s relevant to the story. When I was writing MageSign, for example, I needed to have a good working knowledge of cults and their methods of indoctrination. I could have just made it all up, but it’s important to me to know that I’m getting things right. And I owe it to my readers to deliver something as factually correct and consistent as possible. There’s an authenticity to well-researched fiction. Equally, poorly researched fiction stands out as being pretty rubbish, even if a reader can’t quite put their finger on why. That’s the basis for my Write The Fight Right workshops, after all.

With the cults thing I was lucky in that my mother-in-law is a psychiatrist. She’s been exposed to all kinds of stuff in her line of work and was able to direct me to good quality resources on the subject. I read a lot, educated myself and hopefully wrote an engaging and authentic book that resonated with readers. Along the way, I greatly enjoyed the process, because I learned new things. Education is good, mm-kay.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well, I had a really good read partly spoiled by poor research. I’ve just read a novel by Tim Lebbon called Fallen. It’s a great read – a dark fantasy set in the world of Noreela. It’s a bold idea, got great characters, excellent writing and some really cool stuff happens (although I was really disappointed with the ending, which was a shame). I won’t give much away, except to say that the story follows two Voyagers, Ramus and Nomi, and their band of bodyguards. Ramus and Nomi travel and learn for the sake of expanding the knowledge of their nation. To the far south of their land is the Great Divide, a huge wall of rock that stretches from coast to coast and is lost in the clouds above. No one knows how high it is, what’s at the top (if it even has a top) or anything else. So, for reasons explored in interesting ways through the book, Ramus and Nomi set out to climb the Great Divide.

It is a good book and I enjoyed it for the most part. Other than the ending, which I won’t spoil, the other thing that really annoyed me was the climbing research. I don’t know how much experience Tim Lebbon has as a climber. Personally, I’ve only climbed a little bit. It’s a great pastime and one I’d like to do more. However, when I started reading the bit about the climb (which, as you can tell from my brief synopsis above, is a very large and integral part of the book) I had a shock. The characters, as they climbed, kept hammering crampons into the rock face to tie their ropes to for safety. Crampons? I has a confused. This is a crampon:

Crampons are things you strap to your boots to improve traction on snow and ice, especially for ice climbing. You can get walking versions too, for glacier walking and the like. Can you imagine hammering one of those into a rock face and tying a rope to it? You be pretty fucking dead, pretty fucking quick.

These days people use passive safety devices called nuts or hexes for securing their ropes, or more active devices like spring-loaded camming devices. In the old days, they would have just hammered iron spikes into the rock face, I imagine. I don’t know this for certain and would have to research it, but that wouldn’t be hard. Especially with things like Wikipedia and all the hobby forums out there.

Incidentally, even though Lebbon made that mistake, how does something like that get past an editor? Does no-one connected with that book know what a crampon is? Well, I guess that’s a stupid question. Obviously no-one did. And it really spoiled the read for me, because I do know what a crampon is and every time I read about a character hammering one into the rock the narrative became farcical and I ground my teeth and had to try to ignore it and push on regardless.

I’m glad I did because, like I said, it is a good book, ending notwithstanding. Except for the bloody crampon thing. There was another thing I read once, written by an American, where a character passed briefly through England and stopped in a shop. He was charged in Euros. They don’t use Euros in Britain – still the good old pound sterling. It’s a small thing that’s really annoying because it makes the author look dumb and makes the reader question everything else included in the book. If a writer can’t tell the difference between a shoe accessory and a safety device, can I trust him or her on anything else? Unless, of course, I’m really missing something vital and there’s another definition of crampon that I’m not aware of and couldn’t find when I checked.

Even in fantasy and other forms of speculative fiction, it’s really important to get the details right. Internal consistency is essential and building your speculative world in a framework of believable and accurate detail is the only way that suspension of disbelief will survive. We all make mistakes, I’m sure. I bet there are some things in my books that make certain people grind their teeth in frustration. I really hope there aren’t, but I’m not so egotistical to think that I’ve got everything exactly right. But I do try to get things right, I research deeply and the bonus is that I really enjoy that research.

We’re always told to write what we know. Which is a load of bollocks, of course, because we’d run out of things pretty quickly. But we can learn about stuff and then write about it. It’s important that we do, because the process is good fun and it makes us better writers and more informed people. Then we write better books and stories.

Perhaps this whole post is easily summed up thus: When you’re writing, make sure you know the difference between a spiky shoe accessory and an iron spike.

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s Warrior Scribe site.

We’re glad to be able to share this excellent infographic from Open Site, which has generously released it under Creative Commons licensing.

The graphic shows some very interesting statistics about library usage, demographics and how technology is being used in libraries. It should be of interest to authors and publishers everywhere.

If text in the image below is difficult to read, click here to view the infographic in a larger format on Open Site.

If you’re a budding author, you could do a lot worse than check out the National Emerging Writer Programme. It’s a free training resource open to writers world-wide.

To quote from the website…

Developed by writing.ie and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, the National Emerging Writer Programme is a world first – a centrally funded initiative to foster and develop new writing talent.

A year in development, the National Emerging Writer Programme harnesses the experience and expertise of three of Ireland

]]> http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?feed=rss2&p=2640 0 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2624 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2624#comments Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:04:06 +0000 Steve Windwalker http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2624
In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, we share tips for beating procrastination, from the University of Illinois.

This article originally appeared on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Student Affairs Counseling Center site. While it’s geared toward students, procrastination is a pretty universal problem and one many writers particularly struggle with, so if this is an issue for you, the article is definitely worth a read.

Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination technically refers to the avoidance of a specific task or work which needs  to be accomplished.  But this technical explanation doesn’t begin to capture the emotions  triggered by the word.  For most of us, the word “procrastination” reminds us of past experiences where we have felt guilty, lazy, inadequate, anxious, or stupid–or some  combination of these.  It also implies a value judgment; if you procrastinate, you are  bad, and as such, you lack worth as a person.

Procrastination and Its Causes

In order to understand and solve your procrastination problems, you must carefully analyze  those situations where your work is not being completed.  First, determine whether the  cause is poor time management; if so, you will need to learn and develop time management  skills.  If, however, you know how to manage your time but don’t make use of those skills,  you may have a more serious problem.  Many individuals cite the following reasons for  avoiding work:

• Lack of Relevance – If something is neither relevant nor meaningful to you  personally, it may be difficult to get motivated even to begin.
• Acceptance of Another’s Goals – If a project has been imposed or assigned to  you and it is not consistent with your own interests, you may be reluctant to spend the  necessary time to see it to conclusion.
• Perfectionism -  Having unreachable standards will discourage you from pursuing  a task.  Remember, perfection is unattainable.
• Evaluation Anxiety – Since others’ responses to your work are not under your  direct control, overvaluing these responses can create the kind of anxiety that will  interfere with work getting accomplished.
• Ambiguity -  If you are uncertain of what is expected of you, it may be  difficult to get started.
• Fear of the Unknown - If you are venturing into a new realm or field, you don’t  have any way of knowing how well you’ll do.  Such an uncertain outcome may inhibit your  desire to begin.
• Inability to Handle the Task – If through lack of training, skill, or ability  you feel that you lack the personal resources to do the job, you may avoid it completely.

Procrastination Takes Many Forms

Read the rest of the article on the UIUC Student Affairs Counseling Center site.

 

]]> http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?feed=rss2&p=2624 0 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2604 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2604#comments Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:05:11 +0000 Steve Windwalker http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2604
In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author LJ Sellers discusses the dangers of perfectionism.

This post, by L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

I recently read this Facebook post, which had dozens of Likes:

A little advice, writers. Don’t think you have to put a whole lot of words on paper every day. What I find is a few words today will encourage more tomorrow. The point is for those few to be brilliant.

I respectfully disagree… that is, if you want to make a living as novelist, or least sell moderately well. If you’re writing just for your own pleasure, you can do whatever you want. But striving for a few brilliant words every day will not produce a finished novel, let alone a body of work.

I realize many writers have full-time jobs and kids at home to take care of. I did too, for most of my writing career. But I found that setting aside blocks of time in which I could write whole scenes for chapters worked better for me than trying to write a little something every day.

And brilliance? Why even think about it? Most readers aren’t looking for brilliance; they just want a good story with interesting characters. So laboring over every word and every sentence is too paralyzing. If you want to produce something for people to read, then you have to finish the story.

Done is always better than perfect.

I’m not implying that I don’t care about quality or craftsmanship. I definitely do. In the second, third, and fourth drafts, I polish my prose as much as I can. But I don’t worry about producing beautiful turns of phrase or poetic descriptions. As Elmore Leonard says, “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

In my prose, I strive for clarity, readability, and rhythm. In my word count, I strive for consistent daily production while I write the first draft. Getting the whole story down in a short period of time is my goal—because it works. The longer it takes to write the first draft, the more I struggle with keeping the whole story in my head and making the timing work out.

I’ve known people who spent five or ten years writing the same novel and never finishing it. That must be purposeful. They must not want to finish because finishing means letting someone read it. And that’s scary. I understand.

But I want people to read my stories, and I don’t care if no one ever calls my writing brilliant.

The woman who wrote the post may have thought she was being encouraging to authors. But telling writers to strive for a few brilliant words every day is bad advice on both levels… unless she was trying to thin out the market competition.

What do you think of that advice? What works to keep you motivated?

 

]]> http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?feed=rss2&p=2604 0 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2582 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2582#comments Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:45:56 +0000 Steve Windwalker http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2582
In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author Alan Baxter explains why he’s done with making New Year’s Resolutions. WARNING: Post contains strong language.

I don’t really believe in new year’s resolutions. I get the concept, and it’s an entirely admirable pursuit, but it’s often like crash dieting or NaNoWriMo – it’s fundamentally unsustainable. People make all these promises to themselves in the heat and excitement of a new year, and then sink in guilt and stress when those things may not come to pass.

After all, January 1st is only one day after December 31st and it’s entirely arbitrary that we choose to tack onto that day a new identifier for the year. The Chinese aren’t celebrating their new year until February 10th next year, for example. It’s all bollocks, as is all time. As Terry Pratchett said, we just invented time to stop everything happening at once. Which is funny, but also not true. Time is a purely human invention to help us make sense of things and organise when to meet at the pub.

My simple point is this: making specific resolutions for the new year is a fine sentiment, but it’s often very hard to follow through. For example, saying, “I will lose 20kg in 2013″ is potentially opening a person up to failure. But if you say, “I will be a healthier person in 2013: eat healthy, exercise and try to lose some weight”

]]> http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?feed=rss2&p=2582 0 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2574 http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2574#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:20:45 +0000 Steve Windwalker http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?p=2574
In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author and publishing consultant Joanna Penn looks back on her experiences as an author in 2012, and looks ahead to her plans for 2013.

We are all on the writer’s journey, and each year marks another way-point. I think it’s important to stop and reflect on the goals we set for the year, celebrating what we achieved and also being accountable for what didn’t quite happen.

I also love being honest with you here, as [The Creative Penn] site keeps me accountable. I hope it also helps you. Here’s my goal-setting post from Jan 2012 [and my updates for each goal].

Fiction

• Write 2 novels and a novella. I did publish Exodus (ARKANE Book 3) and I have 28,000 words of a new book which I started during NaNoWriMo. I also have 2 novellas under another pen-name. But I didn’t quite make my fiction goals and this is something I need to fix next year.

• Sell 50,000 copies of my fiction books by September. I tipped over 50,000 copies a little later than Sept but I made it by December, so that’s not too bad.

 

<< J.F. Penn with Lee Child at Thrillerfest

 

Go on a writing course/ invest in expanding my fiction skills. I did the Guardian Fiction weekend but primarily I went to Thrillerfest in July 2012, so that was definitely the best investment in my skills. Plus I met some amazing authors!

The Creative Penn, my business

• Change the site focus to more on the business and less on free (since I pay my bills with this site now). I have focused on more copywriting skills. I did rewrite the Author 2.0 Blueprint. I changed the Home page to reflect what is on offer. I will be doing more of this in 2013.

• Release 3 new multimedia courses. I produced 5 new courses this year: 4 ProWriter courses with NY Times bestselling author CJ Lyons. If you want to take your writing seriously, then check out the ProWriter courses here.

• The other course was Turn Your Ideas Into Cash
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