Book designer Joel Friedlander talks with BookBaby president Brian Felsen about the why DIY authors should still hire professional designer when it comes time to print books. Firstly, Microsoft Word is not a professional product in terms of typesetting, layout, etc. So you’re already at a disadvantage if you want to handle everything yourself.

But more importantly, when you “do it yourself,” you have to know what you’re doing– and book design is not a skill you can learn in 45 minutes; it can take years to learn well. You want someone with that kind of expertise on your team when it comes time to release your book; after all, you’ve put too much effort into your book to release it with design mistakes.

Joel Friedlander: The Book Designer

eBooks aren’t just for fans (or writers) of fiction, memoir, and history. Thousands of businesses are also discovering the value of eBooks, both as an additional revenue stream and as a powerful passive marketing tool.

Writing an eBook for your business is one of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise, build brand recognition and loyalty, boost your website’s SEO, engage with clients, and increase your prospective customer base.

“But I’m in the business of doing business,” I hear you say. “I’m no writer!”

Fear not, friends. Read on.

6 reasons why you should be using eBooks to build your business 1. You don’t have to write an epic. eBooks can be SHORT!

It’s generally not worth it for publishers to print a physical book unless it LOOKS like it’s filled with the wisdom of the ages; and that means, ya know– lots and lots of pages.

As a result, plenty of business books and how-to books (heck, even most novels) tend to say a few things well, and then either repeat themselves or head off on wild tangents in order to fill those pages.

But there’s no standard minimum page-count with eBooks; they can be as short or as long as you need. Pressure’s off! The point is to share relevant information in an interesting way– and if you can squeeze that unique and helpful knowledge into 10 pages, your readers will find each page all the more valuable for its brevity.

For instance, if you’re a plumber– you could write a short eBook on DIY ways to unclog your toilet and keep the pipes clean. (The pipes in your house, I mean. For figurative pipe-cleaning advice, consult a nutritionist or doctor.)

There is another benefit to short eBooks besides the fact that they’re potentially easier to write/create: frequency. The shorter your eBooks are, the quicker you’ll produce them; the quicker you produce them, the faster you can build up a robust eBook catalog.

2. eBooks are inexpensive to produce and easily distributed worldwide.

Unlike physical books, eBooks are very cheap to make. The biggest consideration is usually the time it takes to write the book itself.

Then a company like BookBaby can take your file (.doc, .txt, PDF, etc.) and convert it into an attractive eBook that will be readable on all the major devices (Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Sony Reader, Kobo, Copia, and more). BookBaby will also distribute your eBook to all the major digital book retailers and pay you (weekly!) 100% of your net earnings.

eBooks don’t require fancy cover designs, but a nice cover can certainly help attract readers. If your design skills are lacking, BookBaby also offers professional and affordable eBook cover design services.

The relative low-cost of producing an eBook is also a bonus in another way: you don’t have to spend money doing market research for your book.

Once upon a time with printed books, it was wise to send out mailings to your professional peers and clients (even before you’d begun writing), telling them a few of the major ways the book could help them. The mailing would also include a self-addressed stamped postcard with a couple checkboxes to gauge interest in advance and see what your potential buyer would be willing to spend on the book.

Then you’d do a little math and see if writing and printing the book would be worth the effort. The worst thing would be to write it, spend thousands printing the books, only to see them languish in a storage closet in your office.

With an eBook– forget all that. There’s very little risk involved, and zero inventory concerns. Since the internet provides limitless “shelf-space,” you can leave your eBook on sale forever on the various retail sites and on your own website. If it’s not a big hit in the first month, no one is going to turn you away; you can still watch a steady trickle of sales add up over time to big earnings.

3. Everybody wants eBooks!

Over 20% of Americans own eReaders; over 20% of Americans own tablets (like the iPad or Kindle Fire); 66% of Americans between the ages of 24-35 own smartphones (iPhones, Android, etc.); and these numbers are increasing exponentially. While many European countries still lag behind the US in terms of eBook technology, they’re making the right moves to catch up. Soon enough, EVERYONE will be in the market for eBooks.

Over the past 15 years– email, websites, and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have become ubiquitous tools for conducting and marketing your business. While business-branded eBooks probably won’t be quite as obligatory as those other tools, customers and clients will become conditioned to search for businesses, references, and testimonials not only on Google, Yelp, and YouTube, but also on Amazon.com, the Apple iBookstore, and other popular eBook stores.

Why not establish your presence in the business-branded eBook market ahead of the rest?

4. eBooks help you establish your expertise and build your brand.

I don’t care what kind of business you work in; consultant, stock analyst, blogger, booking agent, art courier, railroad engineer, plumber, tinker, tailor, baker, candlestick maker, spy– you have a particular skill or knowledge that someone out there will find useful.

If you can clearly communicate that knowledge in an eBook, your reader will trust your credibility and competency, be more likely to purchase your product, subscribe to your service, hire you for a job, or recommend you to a friend.

But again, don’t stress about writing the definitive masterpiece on the subject– just add something valuable to the conversation.

You’re not writing the great American novel. Instead, simply outline the information you want to share; use a confident, straightforward tone– and keep on track. If you do, your book will be useful– and if it’s useful, it’ll sell– all the while increasing brand awareness and loyalty.

Now some of you might be asking, “Why in the hell would I want to write a book teaching people how to unclog their own toilets? Then they won’t hire me!” Well, I’m not writing this article to start a debate on the pros and cons of content marketing, BUT… I will say this: If your 10-page DIY Plumbing eBook helped someone unclog their own toilet, who do you think they’re going to call when it comes time to install a new bathroom? Yep. You!

By providing helpful info, you’re building trust and increasing the odds of selling your big-ticket items.

5. eBooks help you grow your prospect list.

An eBook is one of the most versatile ways to gather prospective clients’ contact info.

Consider offering your eBook for free on your website. Build a dedicated landing page on your site (for a little extra SEO power) which allows visitors to exchange their name and email address for a free download of the eBook. If you want to get really fancy, you can give them the choice of downloading an ePUB or PDF. Also be sure to include in your eBook some kind of offer or coupon code that will increase the reader’s likelihood of hiring you.

For readers who found and purchased your eBook through a site like Amazon or iBookstore, that coupon/offer/ad will be the most obvious link back to your website. Attracting readers to your site is important because the digital book retailers do NOT provide customer contact info to authors and publishers.

Once you’ve enticed the reader to visit your own website, they may want to download another eBook in your catalog (thus the importance of making a few different eBooks available)– at which point they’ll be prompted to provide their contact info.

6. eBooks help you boost your website’s SEO.

eBooks can also be used in tandem with a blog, further boosting your website’s SEO rankings.

If you maintain a blog for your business, you can create a content schedule where you slowly build your eBook over a series of blog posts. No need to stress yourself out writing it all at once.

Or, conversely, chop the finished eBook up into smaller segments that will fuel your blog over the course of several weeks or months.

If you use the later method, be sure to link to the landing page where blog readers can download the whole eBook.

And, of course, be sure to share the individual blog posts (as well as links to the finished eBook’s landing page) on all your social media profiles; you may just watch your eBook become one of your most powerful viral marketing tools.

 ——————–

Have you used an eBook to grow your business? We’d love to hear about the experience in the comments section below.

 Sell your eBook for Kindle, Nook, iPad, Kobo, Sony Reader, Copia, and more!

[Photo of businessman from Shutterstock.]

 

Award-winning novelist SJ Rozan and BookBaby president Brian Felsen sat down at the 2011 California Crime Writers Conference to talk about her creative process, how technology has changed the conversation with publishers, and the tricks that create a memorable book.

In this segment, SJ Rozan talks about how the advent of digital book technology has changed her own writing career, her promotional responsibilities, how she engages with readers using social media, and how eBooks can be a good thing for “story.”

To be effective in today’s noisy world, you can’t be lazy when it comes to marketing and selling your books. You have to stretch your thinking and your methods. You must break old paradigms and shatter trusted formulas.

You must become a book marketing ninja!

Here are three ways to do that:

1) Reconsider all of your marketing tactics. One of the biggest promotional mistakes you can make is doing something just because that’s the way it’s always been done before. Just because everyone else pursues book reviews, bookstore distribution, library sales, and media exposure in a certain way (or even Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn), that doesn’t mean you have to.

Your marketing decisions should be based on what’s best for your particular situation, genre, target fan base, etc. Don’t mindlessly follow the flock. Be different. Think creatively. Get focused on how you can most effectively reach new readers and fans — regardless of how the established authors or “experts” (including me) say it needs to be done.

2) Think in terms of opposites. Make a list of all the specific things that major book publishers and mainstream authors do to promote their books. Then imagine what would happen if you did the exact opposite.

What if you never did public appearances or book signings? Or made your books available only on USB drives? What if you were mysterious and never displayed your photo and never did interviews? Or … what if you did book readings live only on tennis courts, city buses or roller coasters? In short, what could you do to radically set yourself apart?

3) Redefine your small-scale, independent status. One of the reasons independently published authors feel they need to “act” like they are traditionally published is because of an inferiority complex. Without a publisher’s or a literary agent’s official backing, indie authors often feel they’re imposters and aren’t worthy of pursuing their dreams.

Guess what? That’s nonsense!

Embrace your independence! Don’t hide it. Flaunt it! As an indie, you have the unique ability to communicate on a far more personal level with your fans. You get to call the shots and control your destiny. You have freedom. Celebrate it!

And let your fans know you are doing this on your own, and how much you appreciate their help. Make them a part of your success story. So don’t you dare shy away from your independent status.

If you agree (or disagree), please leave your thoughts in the Comments section.

by Bob Baker of FullTimeAuthor.com

The Telegraph recently posted a fun video (with highly dramatic music!) that shows a group of bookbinders bringing a physical book to life. Take a a tour of Smith Settle’s handmade bookbinding process.

Looking for high-quality, short-run custom book printing? BookBaby offers the strongest guarantee in the industry — you’ll pay nothing if you’re not 100% delighted with the quality of your books.

 

Book designer Joel Friedlander talks with BookBaby president Brian Felsen about the most common mistakes self-published authors make when it comes to designing their own books, including incorrect numbering of pages, numbering blank pages, and putting running heads on chapter openers.

When you “do it yourself,” you have to know what you’re doing. Take a few books off the shelf and study what the standards are for book layout and design. Once you’ve finished designing your book, take a few more volumes off the shelf and compare your work to that of a professional designer. Do they match? Great. If not, it couldn’t hurt to consult with an expert; after all, you’ve put too much time and effort into your book to release it with design mistakes.

Joel Friedlander: The Book Designer

We’re a short attention-span society. KA-BLAM! (See– I just wrote that to get your attention.) If something doesn’t grab us in the first few seconds, we’re on to something else.

Your book is no different– and the book cover is the first thing someone will see. Excuse the gross metaphor, but if you want your book to sell, some aspect of the cover art is going to have to hook into a potential buyer’s eye and not let go.

Even in the eBook world, people DO judge books by their covers. This, more than any other factor, can make all the difference in whether a potential reader decides to check out your eBook.

Your cover art should:

• Be big and bold. The cover design needs to clearly display the book title and author name so that they can be read even when the image is small. Remember, eBook retailers like Amazon and B&N display your book cover as little more than a thumbnail. Make your title and author name POP!

• Pass the “2 second” test. Can a potential reader understand what your book is about with a quick glance at your cover? Does your design quickly convey the vibe and tone of your work? Horror novel? Make it scary. Fly-fishing guide? Make sure there’s a fishing pole.

• Look like you belong at B&N. Your writing is world class– so your book cover design needs to be, too. It doesn’t cost a whole lot to look professional. If your cover art looks amateurish, the customer will assume the writing is too.

___________
Not a graphic artist? Don’t fear. There are a number of talented people offering their design services online.BookBaby offers cover design as part of its suite of services.

Basic Cover Design – A single cover design option, using either supplied images or basic stock photography or illustrations. Includes one round of revisions. Three-day turnaround time. Just $149.

Deluxe Cover Design – Single cover design option, using either supplied images or enhanced variety of stock images in our image library. Includes two rounds of revisions as needed.  Two-day turnaround time. Just $279.

For more information about great book cover design, check out our article “How to Design an eBook: 3 Tips for Creating a Cover That Sells.”

Sell your eBook for iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, and more!

Award-winning novelist SJ Rozan and BookBaby president Brian Felsen sat down at the 2011 California Crime Writers Conference to talk about her creative process, how technology has changed the conversation with publishers, and the tricks that create a memorable book.

In this segment, Rozan talks about the influence of Beta Readers, writing groups, editors, agents, and workshops on the writing process. Outside opinions are critical for her when she’s first shaping a book; they help keep her on track. Check out the video above for more details.

Extra! Extra! April was a big month in the world of eBooks, eReaders, and digital publishing. Here are a handful of headlines. Click the links to read more details on each story.

1. Barnes & Noble and Microsoft ink a $300 million deal. The Nook digital bookstore will be bundled with Windows 8.

2. Barnes & Noble expands its foreign language eBook selection, adding Russian, Afrikaans, Urdu, and more.

3. Study reveals which cities buy the most Kindles per capita, and it ain’t the ones you’d think.

4. The “Agency Model” comes under attack, as the Department of Justice goes after Apple, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster for price-fixing.

Did we miss anything major? Let us know in the comments section below.

(Editor’s Note: This article was written by guest contributor Ali Luke, author of Lycopolis.)

Ever given up on writing a book when it was halfway finished?

Lots of writers run out of steam along the way. Others don’t even begin: they have a great idea, but are creatively paralyzed at the starting line.

And worse still, some writers struggle all the way from the first sentence to the last line … only to find that their book need massive structural revisions. They might even scrap it completely.

You don’t want to find yourself there. Instead, set yourself up for success right from the start of the journey. Here’s how.

Planning a Novel

Just like with planning for a non-fiction book, a novel needs structure. It’s hard, though, to know every step of your novel right from the start – and it’s not necessary to plan your novel in a chapter-by-chapter way.

Here’s a planning method you can use for your fiction:

#1: Know Your Main Characters

Most readers (and writers!) find that characters are the really compelling aspect of fiction. Just think how certain characters – like Atticus Finch or Hannibal Lector or Mr. Darcy – stick in our minds, even when we forget the details of their respective stories’ plots.

Before you start writing your novel, you need a clear idea of who your characters are. You won’t know everything about them at this stage, but you should have a sense of what they’re like as people. What would they lie about, or for? What secrets lie buried in their pasts? What goals and dreams do they have?

#2: Work Out the Start and End

Your novel should begin when the action starts. Some incident needs to occur that sets the rest of the story in motion. This could be almost anything, from a tiny mishap (a character misses the bus to work, ends up taking an unfamiliar short cut, and comes across a crime in progress) to something cataclysmic (plague breaks out).

While the end of your novel might seem a long way away right now, it’s a good idea to know where you’re heading. Will it all end happily … or not? Will good triumph over evil? Do you need to leave room for a sequel? (Many ebook authors find that trilogies or series of books work best.)

#3: Plan Key Scenes Along the Way

Although you won’t know every twist and turn of your plot just yet, you’ll almost certainly have some ideas about things that need to happen during your story. Get these out of your head and onto paper: ideally in some form where you can easily move them around.

Some authors use index cards for this (either physical ones, or virtual cards in a program like Scrivener); others create spreadsheets. It’s up to you what medium you choose: what matters is that you’re able to easily adjust and add to your plot as you go along.

——-

Whatever kind of book you’re writing, your plan won’t be set in stone. As you make progress, you may well find things that you want to change – and that’s fine. But by having that plan from the outset, you make it much easier to stay on track with your writing, from start to end … and you dramatically increase the chances that your finished book is going to go down well with readers.

——-

About the author: Ali Luke is currently on a virtual book tour for her novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller centered on a group of online roleplayers who summon a demon into their game … and into the world. Described by readers as “a fast and furious, addictive piece of escapism,” and “absolutely gripping,” Lycopolis is available in print and e-book form. Find out more at www.lycopolis.co.uk.

Tomorrow (Thursday, April 26th) is Poem in Your Pocket Day! A simple concept, the day invites people to:

1. Pick a poem you love.

2. Carry it with you in your pocket.

3. Share it with co-workers, family, and friends!

Poem-in-pocket-participants are also encouraged to share their poems on Twitter using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

For more information on the event and to watch a video about the day, click here.

What poem will you carry in your pocket? Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

Pinterest– isn’t that a website for travel planners, lovers of delectables, and vintage-clothing aficionados? Well, yes; but many authors are finding creative ways to promote their books using the social scrapbooking site too.

10.4 million people currently use Pinterest, and that figure is climbing fast; some data shows that Pinterest is the fastest growing standalone website ever. 

What exactly is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a combination of a digital pin-up board and a scrapbook. It’s a bit like Twitter, only for pictures and videos instead of 140-character tweets. From your Pinterest page you can create different boards for different interests– one for book covers, one for photos of characters in your book, one for pictures of you and your readers, one for photos of your writing desk, etc. Plus, other people can pin things to your public page, which encourages sharing and interaction.

How authors can use Pinterest as a promotional tool

Well, if you’ve spent much time on social networks, you know that shouting “Buy my book!” every couple days is a sure way to annoy your followers. You have to be more subtle, more sideways, more creative. Pinterest is a great way to enhance your author “brand,” build your platform, and create compelling content that supports your book promotion efforts. And since Pinterest users can create unlimited “boards” for each new interest or topic, you’ve got options.

Here are a few ideas:

1) Create a public Pinterest board for the main characters or settings in your book. Ask your fans to add photos they think help make those people and places feel real. What does the mysterious hero look like? What about pictures of that icy field where the murder took place?

2) Give us a behind the scenes glimpse into your process. Show fans your desk, your typewriter or computer, your waste basket of discarded poems, the view outside your window, etc.

3) Get aspirational. Where do you want to travel on your book-tour? Where would you love to spend a week writing? Show us the photos! One great example of this is author Priscilla Warner’s Pinterest page. She has a board called “My Dream Writing Studios.” Amazing photos.

4) Ask for inspiration. You can create boards to bring your previously created characters into 2D. But the process can flow the opposite direction, too. What about asking your readers for help when you’re just developing a new story? Are you searching for the right details about pistols to put into your Western? Ask for some photos of old guns.

5) Promote your friends and heroes. Social media followers are turned off by constant self-promotion, but pimping books by other folks can go a long way. You’re giving solid recommendations to your fans, and the writers you promote will be thankful.

Some basic rules for using Pinterest

Again, if you’ve been using Facebook or Twitter for a while, the same general guidelines apply to Pinterest.

1. Stay engaged in the conversation. Don’t just post your own content and call it good. You need to re-pin, like, and comment on other people’s Pinterest content. Follow the Pinterest boards of writers you admire.

2. Put the “P” symbol on your site or blog so your readers will know they can also follow you on Pinterest.

3. Make sure the names of your boards have catchy titles.

4. Large photos are best. Pinterst is all about the visual. Pick great pics.

I hope this intro is helpful for anyone just getting started on Pinterest. If you’ve been using it for a while to promote your writing, we’d love to hear about your experience. Feel free to comment in the section below.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, stated the theory that in order to master your art, you have to spend 10,000 hours in an a kind of apprenticeship phase. How many hours have you spent writing in your lifetime?

Here’s a cute video about staying positive while you improve at your craft and live your life. Check out more quirky videos on the writing life from Yuvi Zalkow.

Editor’s note: this article was written by guest contributor Ali Luke, author of Lycopolis.

Have you ever started a book … only to give up part-way?

Some authors get a few chapters into their book before running out of steam. Others don’t even begin: they have a great idea, but they’re stuck at the starting line, not sure what direction to take.

And, even worse, some authors struggle all the way from the first sentence to The End … only to find that their book needs huge structural revisions. They might even scrap it completely.

You don’t want to be in that position. You want to set yourself up for success right from the start of your writing journey. Here’s how.

Planning a Non-Fiction Book

If you’re working on a non-fiction book, then it’s a good idea to have a full outline in place before you start. Your outline makes things easy for you and for your reader: it ensures that you include everything important (and leave out the tangents), and it lets you organize your information in the most logical order.

Here’s one method you can use to create your outline:

#1: Draw a Mindmap

Sit down with a blank sheet of paper and write your book’s title (or topic) in the centre. Jot down all the ideas that you have around the edge. Don’t worry about putting them in order or selecting between them – just get everything down.

You might want to do this in a couple of 15 minute sessions on two different days (that way, your subconscious mind will keep working on the ideas in between).

Once you’re confident you’ve captured all your key ideas, you can start prioritizing them. Which ones belong in this book? Would any be more suitable for a sequel? Are some of the ideas too basic, or too advanced? Use a colored pen or highlighter to mark the ones you want to keep.

#2: Create a Chapter-by-Chapter Outline

Your next step is to turn your mindmap into a chapter-by-chapter outline: this is the table of contents for your book.

You’ll want to start with an “Introduction” and end with a “Conclusion” (though you can name those slightly differently if you want). In between, you’ll have chapters. If you find that you’ve got a lot of chapters, or if they cover a broad span of material, you might also want to separate the book into separate parts.

You’ll want to create your chapter-by-chapter outline as a computer document, so you can easily rearrange the chapters. Usually, you’ll want to put the more basic material at the start of your book, and work up gradually to more advanced topics.

#3: Write Notes for Each Chapter

It’s a great idea to also make a few notes on each chapter at the planning stage. It’s up to you exactly how you do this, but one technique that works well is to jot down subheadings or key points that you want to cover in each chapter.

You could also make notes at this stage about key resources you’ll need to reference, or people you may want to interview. Sometimes, you might find that one chapter is going to require a lot of research: if so, you might choose to change the scope of your book slightly and cut out that chapter, or you might want to keep it in but allow extra time for writing it.

… but be flexible!

Whatever kind of book you’re writing, your plan won’t be set in stone. As you make progress, you may well find things that you want to change – and that’s fine. But by having that plan from the outset, you make it much easier to stay on track with your writing, from start to end … and you dramatically increase the chances that your finished book is going to go down well with readers.

——-

About the author: Ali Luke is currently on a virtual book tour for her novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller centered on a group of online roleplayers who summon a demon into their game … and into the world. Described by readers as “a fast and furious, addictive piece of escapism” and “absolutely gripping”, Lycopolis is available in print and e-book form. Find out more at www.lycopolis.co.uk.

Award-winning novelist SJ Rozan and BookBaby president Brian Felsen sat down at the 2011 California Crime Writers Conference to talk about her creative process, how technology has changed the conversation with publishers, and the tricks that create a memorable book.

In this segment, SJ Rozan talks about her slow transition (over 15 years) from full-time architect to full-time writer. When she first started writing, Rozan had a professional career that took up 60+ hours a week of work. She could only write on weekend mornings and maybe one other weekday evening.

Slowly, as she became more senior in her firm, she began to work fewer hours, but realized that in order to fully inhabit the problems of plot, sentence, rhythms, and character, she needed mental space (on the bus, feeding the cat, in the shower) that had been devoted thus far to the problems of her professional clients.

If she stayed at the fir, Rozan felt as though it was like holding onto the rail; she would never know if she could do the fancy figures in the middle of the ice until she let go. Her advice to writers with day-jobs: keep ‘em, but write whenever you can; work your way towards a place where you can let go of the rail. You’ll never know unless you try.

And in preparation for that leap, Rozan offers two other bits of advice:

1) You have to write every day. It’s like working out; if you skip a day, not only are you missing the immediate benefits of having lifted weights or jogged 3 miles that day, but you’ll be weaker the next time you return to it.

2) Also, you have to think of yourself as a writer. You have to give yourself permission to blow off friends, take half a day off from your day-job every once in a while, etc. in order to get the writing done. You have to think of yourself as a writer so that the daily activity of writing feels legit amongst all the complexities of your life.

So– keep your day-jobs; give up the laundry or a little sleep instead. But keep the writing going steadily. At a page a day you’ll have a book in a year’s time. You have the right to write!

The Twitter-sphere is full of awesome content, and growing every second! Sometimes it’s hard to keep up– so here are 10 people we think are worth following on Twitter right now (in alphabetical order by Twitter handle):

1. @BookBaby

BookBaby (of course!) offers writing tips, news, & trends from the company that makes self-publishing easy.

2. @brainpicker

Maria Popova is a self-proclaimed ‘interestingness curator & semi-secret geek obsessed with combinatorial creativity.’

3. @flavorpill

Flavorpill curates culture picks from Flavorwire & the web.

4. @GalleyCat

GalleyCat is ‘the First Word on the Book Publishing Industry.’

5. @nprbooks

Notes on NPR Books, stories, & the future of reading & what to read next.

6. @poetswritersinc

Poets & Writers offers ‘information, support, & guidance for creative writers.’

7. @thecreativepenn  

Joanna Penn offers advice to ‘help you write, publish & sell your books.’

8. @The_Millions

The Millions: ‘The indispensable literary site.’

9. @WritersDigest

Writer’s Digest: ‘Helping writers since 1920.’

10. @WritersRelief

Writer’s Relief gives ‘lots of tips, hints, & hot leads for submitting & publishing your books, poems, & stories.”

Given that there are about 179 million Twitter users, we may have missed a few off our list. Who are your ‘must-follow’ Twitterers when it comes to writers and advice on writing? Please let us know in the comments below.

-Molly King

You know the stats– how even the very best writers have an acceptance rate of only 15-20%. You’ve embraced the idea that publication success involves a great deal of rejection. You’re sending out your finest work, and waiting– waiting.

But how do you keep all those submissions organized in the meantime? If submission X is rejected by publisher Y, what keeps you from mistakenly re-submitting it to the same editor 6 months later? With so many thousands of publishers, reviews, journals, magazines, and contests, how do you even know where to send your work in the first place?

For someone like me who has the organizational skills of a 4-year old (You should see my desk!), keeping track of my submissions process involved about 5 separate spreadsheets, a dozen Word documents and PDFs, a copy of Poet’s Market, and a handful of daily Google searches— until I discovered Duotrope!

What is Duotrope?

Duotrope is an award-winning free resource for writers of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that offers a fully searchable database of over 4,175 active publishers, statistics on publishers’ response times, acceptance-rejection ratios, etc. Plus, it gives you the ability to create organized lists of all your submission-ready material, track your submissions, and continue writing and submitting accordingly.

According to Duotrope’s site, the process goes something like this:

1. After you have written and polished a poem or work of fiction, enter the details of that piece (length, genre, subject, etc.) in the Search form on our main page (see our Glossary page to get a better idea of the terms we use across the site). Include what pay you are looking for if that’s something that’s important to you.
2. Go through the list of search results to find markets that might be a good fit for the story. Not all the markets in the search results will be. So that you don’t have to comb through too many markets, we highly recommend that you finetune your search to match what you are looking for.
3. Visit the websites of the publications that interest you to get a better feel for them. Closely follow the submissions requirements and procedures of the publication(s) where you choose to send your piece.
4. Enter the submission through our Report Submission and track it through the Submissions Tracker.
5. When you have received a response, update your submission through the Submissions Tracker.
6. If it wasn’t an acceptance, repeat steps 1-5. If it was, congratulations! When an appropriate amount of time has passed, you may want to look for reprint markets for the piece.

In addition, you can also sign up for a weekly Duotrope newsletter for your genre that announces newly opened and closed submission periods, contests, newly launched or newly killed publications, and some other fun stuff to keep you motivated.

And, it’s all free!!! (Though you should certainly donate some money if you find the service valuable, since the wheels of karma keep on spinning.) Check out Duotrope HERE.

How do you keep track of your submissions? Do you have a system that works? Have you used Duotrope? Let us know in the comments section below.

Publish your book for iPad, Nook, Kindle, Sony Reader, Copia, Kobo, and more!

It’s true that you own the copyright to your original creative work the very moment it is set down in a fixed form (written, typed, etc.). But there are certain benefits and protections that are only guaranteed by officially registering your copyright with the Library of Congress.

Technological advancements in the internet/mobile world are opening new doors for authors to promote and sell their work. However, these changes also present new challenges in terms of preventing copyright infringement.

For some informative reading on this topic, and to learn more about how to protect your copyright, check out “Copyright Facts Every Author Should Know” by Irene Watson.

Award-winning novelist SJ Rozan and BookBaby president Brian Felsen sat down at the 2011 California Crime Writers Conference to talk about her creative process, how technology has changed the conversation with publishers, and the tricks that create a memorable book.

In this segment, SJ Rozan talks about what she calls the “Ur Story,” (a variant, perhaps, of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth) or the central human narrative that gets told and retold in each of the fiction genres because we as humans have a need to hear those tales over and over again.

For instance, romance stories are about the promise of deeper human connection; scifi explores what it means to be human by putting the species in a fictional laboratory, a made-up or future world where a particular aspect of human experience is expressed to the extreme.

According to Rozan, the “Ur Story” of crime fiction is about our need to find or impose meaning on the world; it’s an explanation for randomness.

 

I’m flawed. You’re flawed. We’re all flawed.

You know the feeling; someone critiques your writing, and you flash them the evil eyes while thinking, “You complete moron! You’ve missed the point of my piece entirely, and of course you did– you’re an idiot and I hate everything you’ve written anyways, so what do you know?”

First you wish them bodily harm, then you start scheming your revenge, and then, finally, you think to yourself, “Hmmm. Maybe they have a point?”

The other day I posted a link to an article from the Poetry Foundation about the worth of MFA programs. While I’ve never been “officially” enrolled in any creative writing program, I did take three MFA workshop classes in poetry as a post baccalaureate at Portland’s lovely State University when my schedule (and $$!!!) allowed.

Each course was well worth my time and money, and provided all the usual things you’d hope for: expanded horizons, motivation, encouragement from a community of writers, mentorship from an established poet, etc. But maybe more importantly, a workshop offers you many of those “growing opportunities” where you’re expected to take criticism like an adult.

Put your big-person pants on

To keep the old cliché on life-support, we all look at our stories, poems, novels, or songs as “our babies.” In a workshop setting, people have the gall to tell you to your face that your baby is ugly.

Ideally, we come to see this criticism as a kind of kindness. If their intentions are pure (it’s a competitive world, no?) what your classmates/editors/friends/writing-partners are REALLY telling you is this: “Your baby has the potential to be cute; just brush it’s tooth and cut that nasty mullet and scrub the dirt off its chin first.”

Maybe you still think your baby looks cute. If so, great– let that baby rock the mullet. But maybe you never noticed the dirt on its chin because you were too busy squeezing little baby-shoes onto its adorable baby-feet. If you lost perspective along the way, criticism can help. (And by “criticism,” I simply mean an honest and in-depth critique. If someone is being mean-spirited, eject them from your creative life.)

4 tips to help you take criticism like an adult

1) Let them finish!-

The first thing I found really valuable (and uncomfortable, at first) about the workshop experience was the practice of staying quiet until everyone has had their turn to discuss your work.

You have to shut up. You sit there for 30 minutes while the class praises this particular line, eviscerates that one, hates this title, loves that image, calls the work “simple,” “obtuse,” “overly abstract,” “cliche,” “sentimental,” etc. (And hopefully a lot of nice words, too!)

Your forced silence allows you to here each person’s critique without launching into a heated defense of your every word-choice.

While you’re quiet, you can see what kind of consensus or disagreement forms about your work. Did everyone miss the point? Well then, maybe you didn’t do a good enough job of MAKING that point.

2) No snap decisions-

As you listen to someone critique your work you’ll have one of three possible healthy responses:

• Wow! They’re so right. I can’t believe I never saw that problem before. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that solution. I’ll take their advice right away!
• … but that is my favorite part!!! I’m NOT changing that. 
• Hmmmm. I don’t know. I’m on the fence about this suggestion.

Ultimately, you’re the only one that is going to have to live with your writing decisions. If you rush into your next revision later that same day, you’ll be carrying all of the pride or insecurity from the workshop experience into that next draft too.

Wait a while. Let the criticism and praise sink in. Once the sting or flush of genius has subsided, you can approach your work with fresher eyes. For me, it helps to wait long enough that I forget exactly WHO said WHAT. Only the essence of their comments stays with me, and in a more anonymous way. Only then can I REALLY tell whether or not I agree with those comments at a gut-level.

3) Thank you, sir. May I have another?-

You’ve asked someone for their opinion. They’ve given it. Even if you don’t like what they have to say, they’ve done you the courtesy of meeting your request. That is worth your appreciation. Show it!

4) Perfection is boring-

Being able to constructively criticize is a true gift, requiring the person to be both surgical and encouraging, opinionated and open-minded. If you’ve found that kind of person or group to work with, don’t let ‘em go!

If not, keep trying– and remember that few artists ever look back on their earlier works and say, “Yep. Nailed that one. It’s perfect!” There are always flaws, perceived or otherwise. Sometimes those imperfections, scuffs, and scratches are what make the work memorable for a reader.

Don’t put the expectation of perfection on your head; it’ll crush you. The best bands still need record producers. The best writers still need editors. Don’t try to be an island. If you’re an island already, build a bridge!

Once you’ve put your work through the wringer, publish it for Kindle, iPad, Nook, and more!