150 Self-Publishing Questions Answered E-Book

Alliance of Independent Authors

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Publishing Guidebooks for Indie Authors
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 209

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Do you have self-publishing questions that you can’t seem to find the answer to? We’re here to help.

It has never been easier to publish a book, but with so many options, it can be hard to know whether writing advice is good or bad.

Your Self-Publishing Questions Answered is based on overwhelming data & analytics: 1,000+ questions from our author members, 2000+ ALLi blog articles, 400 ALLi podcast episodes, our 24/365 Facebook community where members ask questions daily, and input from our world-class advisors from every corner of the publishing industry.

There’s no question that ALLi hasn’t seen. In fact, this book answers questions you may not have thought about yet.

In an engaging question & answer format, you’ll learn how to:

- Sell more books effortlessly
- Design bestselling covers
- Win the war against writer’s block
- Edit your book till it shines
- Improve your marketing and sales

And more, including a resource section with 75+ resources to help you keep learning and building on the information.

The advice in this book is best practice as honed by the experiences of our members and the thousands of authors–novelists, nonfiction writers and poets –who visit ALLi’s Self-Publishing Advice Centre each month.

We’re the only non-profit organization for self-published writers doing this kind of work.

If you’re ready to become a savvier author, grab 150 Self-Publishing Questions Answered, and let ALLi show you how to turn your imagination into income.

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2020 Alliance of Independent Authors

The authors’ moral rights have been asserted.

All rights reserved.

Font Publications is the publishing imprint for Orna Ross’s fiction and poetry, the Go Creative! books and planners, and the Alliance of Independent Authors publishing guides.

All Enquiries: [email protected]

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150 SELF-PUBLISHING QUESTIONS ANSWERED

ALLi’s Writing, Publishing, and Book Marketing Tips for Indie Authors and Poets

E-Book: 978-1-913349-88-2

Paperback: 978-1-913349-89-9

Large Print: 978-1-913349-90-5

Hardback: 978-1-913349-91-2

Audiobook: 978-1-913349-92-9

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150 SELF-PUBLISHING QUESTIONS ANSWERED

ALLI’S WRITING, PUBLISHING, AND BOOK MARKETING TIPS FOR INDIE AUTHORS AND POETS

M.L. RONN

Series EditorORNA A. ROSS

CONTENTS

Foreword

What You Will Learn in This Book

I. Writing Books

The Craft of Writing Books

Writing Productivity

II. Editorial

What is Editing?

Self-Editing and Beta Readers

Working with Professional Editors

III. Book Design and Formatting

Cover Design

Book Formatting and Typesetting

IV. Book Production and Distribution

Your Book, All Over the World

All About ISBNs

e-book Distribution

Audiobook Distribution

Print Book Distribution

V. Book Marketing and Promotion

Book Marketing

Book Promotion

VI. Book Rights and Licensing

Copyright and Contracts

Your Book, Your Rights

Resources to Help You Keep Learning

Acknowledgements

Other Guides

Meet the Author: M.L. Ronn

Meet the Series Editor: Orna Ross

FOREWORD

BY ORNA ROSS

Thanks to self-publishing, there has truly never been a better time to be an author. Publishing a book has never been easier. Social media and other tech innovations make it possible to reach readers all over the world. Authors are strengthening each other through co-operation and collaboration.

At the same time, it is also true that writing and publishing are as hard as ever. Writing a good book is a high-order challenge. So is publishing well, especially finding and connecting with the right readers. You can quickly find yourself lost in the land of confusion, especially at the beginning, as you negotiate some steep learning curves. That’s where this book and ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors, come in.

If you haven’t yet heard of ALLi (pronounced ally, “al-eye”), it’s a global, nonprofit association for self-publishing authors. Our mission is ethics and excellence in self-publishing and we bring together thousands of indie authors all over the world who are united behind this mission. All our profits are reinvested back into the organization for the benefit of our members and the wider indie author community.

Our intention is to empower today’s authors with the knowledge and mindset shift needed to become the creative directors of their books, and of profitable author businesses. For our members this means private forums, discounts and deals, a member-care and watchdog desk, and other benefits. And ALLi also provides an outreach service to the wider author community, curating, monitoring, and campaigning in seven key territories across the world.

As you can imagine, all of this means answering a lot of questions. Back in 2014, ALLi launched its #AskALLi campaign, in which we pledge to answer, with evidence-based authority, any self-publishing any author might have. One popular highlight of that campaign is the monthly Member Q&A in which Michael (ML Ronn) and I answer our members’ most pressing questions.

Michael has done us all a wonderful service in authoring this book, which curates those questions and answers into one convenient collection. Organized across the seven stages of publishing—editorial, design, production, distribution, marketing, promotion, and rights licensing—together with sections on writing and running an indie author business, it addresses more than 150 of the most common and complex queries.

Whether you’re a beginning writer wondering how to publish, an indie author who’s published a book and is ready for the next level, or an established author who’s making a living—or even a killing!—from your writing, you’ll find a lot of value here. Michael’s clear, trusted, and accessible answers will guide your way, ease your journey, flatten your learning curves, introduce you to strategies and tools you may have overlooked, and save you time and money.

In the words of Michael’s own popular YouTube channel and website, AuthorLevelUp.com, this book will enable you to level up across all the stages of the writing and publishing process. Keep it close by as you work and dip into it, as needed.

If you have further questions arising from what you read here, or a question that isn’t answered in this book, ALLi would love to hear from you. Members: drop by our private Facebook forum, or send a private query to the Member Care  Desk. Non-members, drop us a query anytime at SelfPublishingAdvice.org/Contact.

Until we hear from you, happy writing and publishing and may all your questions be answered.

Orna Ross

Director, Alliance of Independent Authors

London 2020

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WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS BOOK

INTRODUCTION BY M.L. RONN

Every writer’s journey begins with a question. Many questions, actually.

What’s my first step? How do I publish a book? How do I write it? How do I sell it?

As an aspiring writer, I had many questions. The more answers I found, the more questions I had!

I learned the hard way that not every answer you find is a good one. In fact, I found a lot of bad advice. Sometimes, I didn’t know if advice was good or bad.

Enter the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi for short, pronounced “al-eye”).

I discovered ALLi in 2012 while searching for resources on how to self-publish my first book. I was intrigued by ALLi’s description as a global nonprofit association for authors with a mission of ethics and excellence in self-publishing. I also loved how ALLi shone a light on shady companies who tried to take advantage of fledgling writers like me.

I was also intrigued by the sheer amount of helpful information they provided to writers for free: blogs, books, podcasts, conferences, a Facebook group, and so much more.

After reading a few blog articles, I became a member. After meeting ALLi’s Director, Orna Ross, I found her enthusiasm and passion for helping writers infectious. All these years later, I am still a member of ALLi because I believe in the organization’s mission.

I also appreciate and admire the ALLi member community—ambitious self-published writers trying to help one another. I’ve been a part of many writing communities, but there isn’t one quite like ALLi.

Through being a member and experiencing the benefits for myself to further my own author business, I became a believer in ALLi’s ability to assist any writer to become the creative director of their books and their business.

I have made it a focus to help as many people learn about ALLi as possible because I believe ALLi can help them, just like it helped me when I was an aspiring writer with no clue how to write or publish a book.

A little about ALLi, a little about me

In the publishing community, I’m known as Michael La Ronn. As I write this, I am ALLi’s Outreach Manager. Since ALLi’s HQ is in the United Kingdom, with members all over the world, like its other ambassadors I spread the good word about ALLi to all my friends in my country and state, and I encourage businesses that have services for writers to consider joining ALLi’s roster of approved services.

Since 2018, I have co-hosted the #AskALLi Member Q&A Facebook Live show and podcast with Orna, where we answer our members’ most burning publishing questions every month. Since its inception in 2012, this question-and-answer session has solved more than a thousand member problems in publishing, writing, marketing, and more.

The podcast is part of the #AskALLi campaign, which pledges to answer any question any self-publishing author might have, using its extensive network of blog posts, podcast episodes, videos, and books. This program is addressed to paying ALLi members, who can submit their question through a form in the member zone of the ALLi website.

However, we publish the audio and video of the show online for free so that any self-publisher may listen and view, learning from our members’ experiences.

There are few questions that ALLi hasn’t seen and heard. For any questions that Orna and I can’t answer, we have world-class advisors to draw from who have immense influence and expertise in publishing.

As for me and why I am qualified to write this book—I have written over fifty books of science fiction & fantasy and nonfiction for writers. I also host a popular weekly YouTube channel for writers called “Author Level Up,” that, at time of writing, has over 25,000 subscribers, nearly one million views, and over two million minutes watched per year. Every minute of every day, someone is watching one of my writing videos on YouTube.

I built my writing business while working a full-time job in insurance, raising a family, and attending law school classes in the evenings. I also have a weekly podcast called “The Writer’s Journey” that chronicles my experiences as a working writer, and a daily podcast called “Writing Tip of the Day” that provides a crisp writing tip in just two to three minutes.

I share my experiences and advice I’ve learned because I want to help writers succeed.

But enough about me. Let’s talk about you and what you’re going to learn in this book.

How to use this book

This book gathers 150+ of the most common self-publishing questions across the seven stages of publishing. You can read it from start to finish, or skip around to questions that interest you.

The Writing Books section covers all things writing, writing craft, and publishing productivity.The Editorial section covers self-editing and working with different kinds of editors.The Book Design and Formatting section addresses book cover design, common questions about working with a cover designer, and the nuts and bolts of e-book formatting and print book typesetting.The BookProduction and Distribution section covers the questions that most frequently come up when uploading your book to self-publishing platforms and distributing to readers, such as ISBNs and retailer-specific issues.The BookMarketing and Promotion section covers questions about selling your book and getting it in front of readers.The BookRights and Licensing section covers the importance of understanding your rights as an author and publisher, common copyright questions, and other scenarios you might encounter where you have an opportunity to license your work to another party.And finally, the Resources section gathers many free ALLi resources to help you delve deeper into any questions you might still have after reading.

Does this book answer every single self-publishing question in the universe? No, but I tried to get in as many as I could. I also limited the question set to “evergreen” questions—meaning the answers in this book will be as true ten years from now as they are today.

I wrote this book primarily to help our ALLi members, but I also wrote it to help writers in general with common questions they have. My hope is that it will continue to serve as a helpful resource for years to come.

(Fun fact: ALLi members receive this book for free. If you’re not a member, join us today!)

You don’t have to go the writing route alone. Help is just a page-turn away.

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PARTI

WRITING BOOKS

THE CRAFT OF WRITING BOOKS

How can I improve my writing craft?

Ah, the elusive, enigmatic, mind-maddening challenge of improving your writing.

Writing craft isn’t easy. Of all the necessary skills you need to master as an indie author, becoming a good writer has the biggest learning curve. It’s not uncommon for it to take a writer years to learn how to write well.

My first tip on learning writing craft is to read often and across different genres. Even if you only write in one genre, reading widely allows you to take ideas and cross-pollinate them into your genre, which makes your voice and writing style fresh and original.

My second tip is to develop a loose system for studying the craft. You don’t have to sit down and do a critical analysis of everything you read (actually, please don’t do that), but taking some time to pay attention to passages you like and why you like them is a smart tip to improve your craft that costs you nothing.

Orna goes as far as recommending writers to read books they admire twice--once as a reader, for enjoyment. Then begin again and read as a writer, for learning. How did the author do what they did? What worked and what didn’t, what was outstanding and what flopped, and, most importantly, why?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention blogs, writing books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and courses—but there is no replacement for close reading and experiencing masterful craft firsthand.

No writing book in the world will truly teach you how to write at a Stephen King, Nora Roberts, or Margaret Atwood level.

Do I need an MFA/MA to write a book?

The short answer is no. The long answer is absolutely not. The slightly longer answer is it might even get in your way. It all depends on what kind of writer you are, and what drives you to write.

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Masters (of Arts) (MA) programs are graduate-level degrees whose focus is teaching writers how to write, but they primarily exist as a vehicle so that one can learn to teach the craft of writing to other writers. The major benefits of these programs are that they provide writers ample time and space to write, access to a supportive author network, and writing workshops to hone their craft.

While these programs have their merits, you don’t need an MFA to write a book, just like you don’t need a film degree to make movies, or a music degree to make music.

In today’s publishing environment, everything an indie writer needs to be successful can easily be found on the internet.

For an investment of $1,000 on all of the best and current writing resources, you would potentially get a better, more practical education than you’d get from an MFA program—for a sliver of the cost. You won’t get the campus experience, but I’d rather pay $1,000 and take my chances versus incurring tens of thousands in student debt that the campus experience provides. That’s my personal opinion, of course.

Should I write fiction or nonfiction?

Most new authors instinctively know what genres they want to write, but some don’t. If you’re one of those authors in the latter camp, it could be because you have wide-ranging interests, or because you’re still trying to figure out what kind of author you want to be.

If you’re in doubt about what you truly want to write, I recommend reading a truckload of books. Go to your local library, wander the stacks until you get dizzy, and read dozens and dozens of books. Find out which ones resonate with you most.

When you find that book that makes you feel fuzzy inside, like you could read it over and over again—write that.

You may think: “If I already read a book like this, why write it?”

Because no one will write a book like you can, that’s why. Even if you write something similar, you’re going to put your own unique spin on it, and readers appreciate that.

Invest in finding your true writing passion, and it will be worth your time.

How do I come up with story ideas?

Keeping your creative well full is an important way to maintain your vitality as a writer and avoid burnout.

The best way I’ve learned to never run out of ideas is to capture new ideas daily.

I use the Evernote app on my phone to write down ideas as they come to me. You can substitute Evernote with any common note-taking app. They all work the same.

I also value people-watching. Whenever I am in public, I pick one person out of a crowd and I ask: what’s this person’s story? I try to capture it in a few sentences.

I refer back to my Evernote app whenever I need inspiration. I find that old ideas blend together with new ones and create interesting hybrids.

Orna has long promoted the practice of F-R-E-E-writing (where the word free is an acronym for “fast, raw and exact-but-easy”), which is a proven method for idea generation that has a host of other benefits.

You can find out more about Orna’s method of F-R-E-E-writing on her website.However you decide to capture ideas—by hand, by app, or even by voice—remaining open to nature and your surroundings will help you develop a writer’s eye.

Should I write to market or write my passion?

There is not a single indie author who doesn’t have to wrestle with this question at least once. This is a deeply personal question that doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer.

The goal is to find the intersection of art and commerce, something that you truly enjoy that also makes money. Maybe it means writing books in a few genres to see what you like and then doubling down on the ones you like the most that also have the best sales.

However, keep burnout top of mind as you negotiate this balance. I’ve talked to authors who strictly wrote to market and wish they hadn’t because they burned out writing in genres they weren’t passionate about. I’ve also talked to authors who don’t make much money from writing because they’re strictly writing their passions and not thinking enough about readers’ needs.

Find the happy medium. It isn’t as hard as you think. You’ve just got to be willing to explore and grow.

How do you research a book?

Research is fun. There’s nothing better than learning about the story you want to write—except (maybe) writing it. I know some writers who prefer the research to the writing!

Some authors generally spend too much time on the research process. That said, research can be a time suck for any author and it can be hard to know where to stop.

Before you start, I recommend setting a time limit on your research. Maybe it’s a couple of days, a week, or a month—whatever that looks like for you—but when the time limit is up, make a promise to yourself to start writing. You don’t need months and months to research—only enough information to enable you to start writing. Then you research other details as they come up.

Depending on your genre, start with an Internet search on what you want to learn and go deeper from there.

There are two major story elements you will likely need to research: the world and the characters.

Let’s say you want to research a historical fantasy novel that takes place in London during World War I. Here’s what you might need to do:

Read books on what it was like in London in the World War I years. You may be able to buy them online or at a local bookstore, check them out from your local library, or listen to audiobooks.Watch documentaries, television shows, movies, or YouTube videos about World War I London.See if your library has microfilms that may be related to your book’s era. Microfilms are a goldmine.Find era-inspired images on Pinterest to get clarity on what the city looked like and what people wore.Listen to history podcasts that cover the World War I London era.Talk to people you know who live in London, or who have relatives who lived there during World War I. Sometimes family stories can be a great inspiration for your novel.Post on social media that you want to interview someone with that background. You’ll be surprised at who might see it.

Those are basic examples. Research greatly depends on your book and how much you already know. The less you know about the world you’re writing in, the more research you will have to do.

Once you have finished your research, you’ll need to gather all of your findings into a structure, which leads us to the next question…

What’s the best way to organize my research?

Some writers like physical notebooks or scrapbooks to keep track of their research.

Some writers like to use a digital note-taking app like Evernote or Microsoft OneNote. These apps have “web clippers” that let you download content from the internet straight into your digital notebook.

And other writers like to use a writing app like Scrivener to track their research. Scrivener in particular has a nice corkboard and an index feature that helps you visualize your findings, and you can also move documents around to your heart’s content.

However you decide to organize your research, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Just beware of the time it takes. If you find yourself spending several hours or days trying to get your research to look “pretty,” it’s probably time to start writing. Remember, when you are done writing, you’ll likely no longer need your research, so treat it as a helpful tool, not a time-intensive process.

How do I outline my book?

There are as many novel-writing techniques as there are writers.

My approach has always been to expose myself to as many writing techniques as possible, and pick and choose what works for me.

I have included some useful links in the Resources section to get you some exposure to different outlining methods.

Full disclosure: outlining is not required for fiction, memoir, and other literary nonfiction. There are many writers who prefer to make up their stories as they go (I’m one of those writers), and that’s perfectly valid. These are known as “pantsers,” as opposed to “plotters,” and there are resources to help you become a better pantser too.

Even if you don’t outline in the beginning, you’ll probably find yourself doing so at some point in the editing process.

For practical nonfiction, like how-to books, outlining is essential in order to communicate the value of your book to prospective readers. The best way to outline practical nonfiction is to look at all of your topics and structure them in a logical order that would make sense to a reader.

If you have a book on nutrition, for example, and you are smart about how you label your chapters, a prospective reader will see exactly what they will learn. They might see a chapter on vegetables, a chapter on fruits, a chapter on smoothies, another chapter on diets like Paleo or Keto, and so on.

This provides tremendous value to your readers and is a courtesy to them.

You can also supplement your research by looking at what other popular books are doing. A tip that has worked well for me is to title your chapters based on SEO research (SEO stands for search engine optimization). Let’s say that you’re passionate about smoothies and are going to spend some time writing about them in your book. Let’s say that people are searching Google and Amazon for terms like “best smoothies for energy boosts.” I’d title one of my chapters something like “Endless Energy: Best Organic Smoothie Recipes to Boost Your Energy.”

You get the picture. Hook the reader with what they want and then you can deliver what you think they need.

What is NaNoWriMo and should I try it?

You may have heard a little term called NaNoWriMo (or one of its many spin-offs, like NaPoWriMo) and wondered what it meant…

It stands for National Novel Writing Month (and that spin-off is National Poetry Writing Month). NaNoWriMo is both the event and the namesake of the nonprofit organization that coordinates the event each year.

It began in the United States, but that “national” should now read “international,” as it quickly spread around the world. Every November, novelists all over the globe sit down and try to write an entire 50,000-word novel in thirty days.

If that sounds challenging, that’s because it is! But it’s not an insurmountable challenge. Many aspiring writers became published writers with books they first wrote for a WRiMo.

While NaNoWriMo is marketed at novelists, there’s nothing that says you can’t write nonfiction or something else. All the WriMos are about the spirit and community of writers coming together to support and encourage one another—the “rules” are very relaxed.

If you’re interested in participating, check the Resources section at the end of the book for links.

Should I include people of races/cultures other than my own in my stories?

This is a touchy subject that doesn’t have a clear answer. No matter what answer I give, I risk angering 50 percent of the people reading this, but… I’m going to answer it anyway. (Controversy!)

Let’s illustrate the problem with an example.

I am African-American. I’ve always wanted to visit Australia, but I’ve never been there. What if I want to write a novel that takes place in Australia from the perspective of an Aboriginal character?

The 100 percent honest answer is that I can do whatever I want, write whatever I want, and no one can stop me. It’s a free world, and the country I live in (the United States of America) grants me freedom of speech, as do many countries around the world.

I’d better be careful, though.

For starters, I’d have to do a lot