The Most Helpful Book I’ve Ever Read About Self-Publishing . . .

It sure can seem like a lot of the info on self-publishing is generated primarily to make money, not to help folks really learn what they need to know.

In fact, many sources of “expertise” are misleading and aimed right at our bank accounts.

This is my 85th post on Self-Publishing—many about my own experience and many about what I’ve found that makes sense, and has a sense of service about it…

It’s also my 31st post featuring Joel Friedlander—usually about posts on his blog, The Book Designer.

I just finished reading his book A Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish.

In the book, Joel says:

“Instead of a how-to book, I decided to create a kind of ‘why-to’ book.”

“I went through the archives of my blog looking specifically for articles that contained my best advice for new self-publishers. I ignored the articles that dealt with specific tools like writing software or page layouts…I wanted to find, and to offer to you, the articles that would come together to give you an overview of the self-publishing possibilities we have available today, to warn you of mistakes that are easy to avoid if you only know about them, and to encourage you to use these tools to pursue the publication of your ideas, your history, your dreams, and your personal story.”

On the site Wordpreneur they say this about Joel:

“The man knows his stuff. He won the AIGA ’50 Books of the Year Award’ for his work at Aperture Publishing. And the Printing Industries of America Gold Award as well for his book design and production. Born in the Bronx, New York, and educated in Buffalo and Danbury, Connecticut, Joel now owns and runs Marin Bookworks in San Rafael, California.”

My own first impression of the book was that it definitely “has a sense of service about it”…

Here’s an excerpt that exemplifies that service-attitude:

“Each author who decides to self-publish has a logic all their own. Some books may be more profitable than others, but in my experience this is not what moves authors to publish. The more you understand your own motives and goals, the more likely you are to succeed in self-publishing, because you will more accurately define that ‘success’…“

And, there are many comments that reveal his motivation for being so involved with the Book-World, like this one:

“I love self-publishing because of the absolute finality of the process. At the end, you are left with a book in your hand, one that will probably outlast you and most of the people you know.”

And, combining his service orientation with his own experience:

“When you self-publish, you get to define success, to set goals for your own publication. In a way, you’ve already won.”

Then, there are the warning statements, like:

“…when authors go looking for a way to get their book into print, all too often they are seduced by misleading or downright fraudulent advertising by the industry that’s sprung up to sell services to these authors.”

And then, the abundance of sage advice, like:

“Avoid overwhelm, burnout, and weeping in frustration. The solution is to approach your new business as . . . a business! Do what you can do well, and the things that you are interested in.”

“Leave the rest to the many skilled practitioners who are only too happy to help.”

Last, a summation of the book itself, about three-quarters of the way through:

“Think about what you know that others might find interesting. Know your niche and how to market to people with similar interests. Create a quality product. Take one step at a time and build credibility, leveraging into larger and larger networks. Take the long view, seeding success tomorrow by your actions today.”

I should add that he gives an even-hand to fiction and non-fiction writers.

This is an extremely valuable book, written in a voice that makes consistent sense, based on hard-earned experience.

Here’s his table of contents:

A Self-Publishing Orientation

Why Self-Publishing is Entering a Golden Age
“I Want to Be a Book Publisher”
Two Kinds of Self-Publishers ~ Which One Are You?
7 Scenarios for Successful Self-Publishing
The Self-Publisher’s Self-Questionnaire
Four Ways to Publish Your Book
5 Good Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book
What Hasn’t Changed in Self-Publishing
5 Things That Shouldn’t Surprise You About Self-Publishing
8 Answers That Help Self-Publishers Get Up and Running
What Does It Take to Make a Publishing Company?
Is It Time to Kill “Jerry”?
How to Get Unstuck
Top 10 Worst Self-Publishing Mistakes ~ Explained!
The Secret to Successful Self-Publishing
Things I Love—and Hate—About Self-Publishing
26 Ways to Win at Self-Publishing

Bookmaking

Does Book Design Really Matter?
Book Design Tips for Authors
Cover Design Tips for Self-Publishers
3 Ways Self-Publishers Fail at Cover Design
What Book Designers Do to Get Your Self-Published Book Into Print
The Death of Book Design
Designing Books

Social Media for Authors

Rise of the Content Creators
The Hub & Outpost Method to Organize Your Social Media Marketing
How to Get Started on Twitter
Self-Publishing Pro and Con(temptuous)
17 Ways for Writers to Publish Their Content
Why Authors Shouldn’t Blog Their Books
The Big Problem With Blogging Your Book
Self-Publishers and the Social Media Divide

The Ebook Revolution

The Problem With “E-Books”
Is the Paradise We’ve Lost the Beautiful Page?
Less Expensive, Bite-Sized, Available for Take-Out: The Book of the Future
EBooks Today: Futility or Utility?
6 Keys to Self-Publishing Success in the Age of the Ebook

The Electronic Life

Why Self-Publishers are Exhausted
I Am My Keyboard
Frustrated Self-Publisher Escapes DIY Trap
The 5-Million Word Typewriter and How to Stay Focused
Tribe
Two Things All Content Creators Can Do

You Are the Market

How I Sold 10,000 Copies of My Self-Published Book
What Writers Need to Know Today
Why Self-Publishing Is a Long-Tail Business
Author Branding: The You That Is Everywhere
Author Platform: What Are You Waiting For?

Read it—Come back here—Tell me what you think :-)
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Dear Writer: Lots of Words or Few, Which Is Right?

I’ll cheat and answer the question before you read the post—neither is “right”, it “Depends” :-)

Certainly, certain writers use too many words and others scrimp but Simple or Ornate is a decision that the Writing Itself decides.

The Writing decides?

It’s all about being in the “Zone” or “Flow” or following the Muse’s guidance…

Sure, you can look back, revise, get feedback, put it away for a year, whatever; but, when you first approach the work, let IT decide.

Now to get a bit more rational :-)

There’s a woman in my G+ Circles named Victoria Grefer and she has a blog with a Great name: Creative Writing with the Crimson League.

She has two blog posts that consider the long and short of it and it’s easy to see which kind of writer she considers herself to be…

I’ll link to both and give you a few excerpts from each (But, do take the links and read the full posts):

Bloggers, Authors: the benefits of simple style and simple structure in your writing

“Grammar-wise, it’s simpler. There is less room for error as far as grammar and punctuation are concerned when your write simply…

“Less room for misinterpretation and confusion….I like how my simple sentences lend themselves with little toil on my part to clarity.

“My third person narrator doesn’t draw attention away from the characters….Thanks to plain sentences, the structure of my narration doesn’t lend itself to remarks or contemplations.

“I can write a first draft of a paragraph without worrying about style….I keep it plain and I keep moving.

“I don’t feel pretentious.…If I tried to force embellishments, I would feel uncomfortable and pretentious…”

Bloggers, Authors: the benefits of an ornate style and complex structure in your writing

“For you, writing is a bit like painting with words….You take risks with words, and that thrill is what keeps you writing.

“You draw connections between things that writers like me can’t think to….Your metaphors and similes connect objects people wouldn’t normally put together.

“You are able to paint a clear image of your characters and their world for your readers….You…don’t have to worry about how your reader might interpret…You tell them what’s there.

“You see the value in the grunt work of writing. In its foundations….Sentences aren’t building blocks or work for you; they’re a puzzle to fit together.”

So…

Which kind of writer are you?

Simple?

Ornate?

Both??
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Fictional Geography ~ Alien Worlds

This post is part of the Friday series: Behind The Scenes of the story Notes from An Alien.

If you want to avoid having “spoilers” intrude on your enjoyment of the book, just grab a free copy and read it before you dive deeply into this series of posts—the book is short… and, deep…

You can also ask Any questions about the book in Any of these Friday posts :-)

Today’s article was prompted by a post on Google Plus by John DeNardo which linked to a post on SF Signal called Love Them Landscapes: The Unique Geography of Speculative Fiction.

He begins that article with: “It’s almost a given these days, especially with fantasy books–you open up the front cover and an enormous map sprawls out before you, denoting various continents, kingdoms, murky forests, coastal ports, and all the other bits and jots composing the world.”

When I was writing Notes from An Alien, a number of people said I needed a map of the Worlds to reduce confusion since the names were so similar.

I made an executive decision and didn’t include any maps…

Here’s a diagram I considered using:

The names are all hyphenated—the first name is what the people on the closest World to the star, Angi, use—the second name is what the people on the next planet out use—all the A-names are used on Anga, all the P-names are used on Purum :-)

It’s probably a bit confusing even with the diagram, eh?—all part of the alienness of the story…

So, the book has no charts or maps but, before I wrote it, I created all the Worlds in a 3-D Space Simulator called Celestia.

Using Celestia, I could move around in my Star-System and get used to living there…

I even packaged up all the files I used to create my Worlds so folks could use Celestia (free) and visit the Worlds of Notes from An Alien. ( Download and install Celestia then drop me a note at amzolt@gmail.com and I’ll send you the files and help you get them installed :-)

Now, I’ll show you the flat maps of the three primary Worlds (since they’re flat, areas at the top and bottom are distorted…):

Anga-Param

Anla-Purum

Angla-Palli

And, since Angla-Palli orbits Beli-Pallos, I’ll include a picture taken inside the Celestia Simulator, from one of the Created Worlds, of that Gas-Giant planet, with its streams of Plasma…

Now, two excerpts from the book with close-up shots of the areas mentioned…

The farming family sat in their kitchen in the hills of Beselima, forty miles from Babur, overlooking the Vesun River.
Helmos, the father, said to his wife, Murlum:
“We can’t make the quota.”
“But, we must or the children will suffer.”
The children—Nesur, twelve; Albes, six; and Iti, five—sat with intense interest in the conversation.
“Murlum, if we can’t, we can’t. So, we must find a way to transfer the children to a safer place.”
“What place? Anla, with its religious idiots?”
“No. A place on Anga. A place I’ve heard of, with a family of Harians.”
“Oh, so dump them with local rather than alien religious idiots, eh?”

Not long after the dispatch of transfer pods paused, to give ShipOne time to return to the proper place in its orbit, a single pod prepared for descent. It contained Akla, Rednaxela, and Morna.
“Morna, check Akla’s coordinates again please.”
“They are fine. We’ll be landing in a deeply forested region of what the Anlans call the Unholy Lands in a country called Ceia-Abi, 50 miles from the main city, Oaur.”
“Yes, yes, I know. Sometimes you’re too consummate in your responses.”
“Thank you, Rednaxela…”
Akla returned from his lengthy meditation and said, “The Nari in this region are anxious for my arrival.”
Rednaxela countered, “Their knowing the time of your arrival is the one part of this plan that I truly don’t understand.”
“It is simple. I told them.”
“Yes, you’ve told me you told them but communicating through plasma waves can only convey general principles and emotions—  Why am I repeating myself?”
“You are trying to convince yourself that what I have done is impossible.”
“Yes.”
Morna chimed in with, “Detach.”

There ya have it—Fictional Geography ~ Alien Worlds………
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Are You A Writer? Do You Use Twitter? Is There A Better Use of Your Time?

“Simple” post today…

First a “confession”—I tried Twitter three times, each attempt spurred by a “revelation” about its usefulness…

It may be valuable for others but not for me, though I still question the “value” others find in it…

I can sum-up my doubt by saying that a hundred fans that truly care is worth far more than thousands that sorta “care”.

Still, if you do see value in Twitter, nay more, if you are having great fun and making real friends, you may find a list of hashtags for writers helpful ( by the way, Google Plus has just added hashtags to its features… ).

I found the list below on a site called Self-Publishing Resources that says:

“…contact us today and learn how you can become a published author without the stigma of going to a vanity/subsidy press.  For about the same amount of money, you can truly self-publish your book, ensuring you can price it appropriately and market it effectively.”

That throws up all kinds of red flags for me, but then, I use FastPencil—check out these posts for my experience with Fastpencil…

OK, so, you feel there’s some value in using Twitter but you don’t use hashtags, or don’t use very many?

voilà:

{Compiled by Sue Collier}

#1K1H (write 1,000 words in one hour)
#ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers)
#AmEditing
#AmWriting
#AskAgent
#AskAuthor
#AskEditor
#Author
#Authors

#BookGiveaway
#BookMarketing

#Creativity

#EBooks
#Editing

#FictionFriday
#fridayflash (flash fiction on a Friday)
#FridayReads
#FollowFriday (or #FF)

#GetPublished

#IndieAuthors
#IndiePub (or #IndiePublishing)

#MGLit (Middle Grade Lit)
#MustRead

#nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month)
#novels
#novelists

#poem
#poet
#poets
#poetry
#pubtip publication tips
#publishing

#PromoTip

#scifi
#selfpublishing

#RomanceWriter
#RWA (Romance Writers of America)

#SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators)
#SciFiChat
#SelfPublishing
#StoryFriday
#StoryStarter

#vss (very short story)

#WIP (work in progress)
#WordAThon
#WordCount
#WriteChat
#WritersLife
#WriterWednesday (or #WW)
#WriteTip
#WritingParty
#WritingPrompt
#WritingTip
#webfic web fiction
#weblit web literature
#wip work in progress
#wordcount
#writegoal
#writequote
#writer
#writers
#WriterWednesday (or #WW)
#writetip (writing advice)
#writing
#writingtips (writing advice)
#wrotetoday

The following are chats that take place on Twitter, but are still good writer resources:

#BookMarket (Thursdays at 4 pm ET)
#JournChat
#KidlitChat
#LitChat (every M/W/F)

#scifichat
#scribechat
#storycraft
#writechat
#yalitchat (young adult literature chat)

#MemoirChat (every other Wednesday at 8 pm ET)

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Education For Writers ~ Did Your Teachers Help You Learn?

A writer begins to learn the moment they’re born.

First mom and dad are the teachers—maybe siblings and friends—then, the grades of school…

In an essay I published 15 years ago, about my own education, I wrote:

“As I sit here…surveying the territories my learning and education have each secured, I see the utter dependence of education on the quality of the learning that fills it; and, more importantly, the need for clearly-defined, comprehensive goals of education to insure proper learning. I’m also aware of many other people called ‘bright’, ‘exceptional’ or ‘natural learners’ who are as chaotically confused as I was….

“This is an educational universe in which learning is a tool that acts to expand the potential for humanity’s education. Did that seem like a circuitous definition? Well… It was meant to be.”

Back in March of 2011, I published the post, All About Kids And Creativity…—worth checking out if you feel you got a bad education…

That post has two videos of Sir Ken Robinson who says that his mission is “to transform the culture of education and organizations with a richer conception of human creativity and intelligence.”

The videos are called Do Schools Kill Creativity and Bring On The Learning Revolution!

Seems to me that any serious writer (even if they’re writing is all humorous) either has, or wishes they had, fully utilized their creativity and intelligence…

Yet…

Many of us grew up in educational systems that tried to cram information into our minds—turn us into Good Little Social Units…

If I may be briefly blatant: Good Little Social Units are not creative writers—they may be “good” writers but their work doesn’t inspire or invigorate or vivify.

I had to work hard, for many years, to dismantle the parts of my mind that got indoctrinated in Social-Unit-Education.

Then, I had to learn new ways to release my ability to Learn—Old English leornian “to get knowledge, be cultivated, study, read, think about,” from Proto-Germanic *liznojan (cf. Old Frisian lernia, Middle Dutch leeren, Dutch leren, Old High German lernen, German lernen “to learn,” Gothic lais “I know”), with a base sense of “to follow or find the track,” from PIE *leis- “track.” Related to German Gleis “track,” and to Old English læst “sole of the foot”.

Sir Ken Robinson has a new video called How to Escape Education’s Death Valley.

I would Love to see your thoughts and feelings about what he says, in the Comments :-)

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