Category Archives: Writing

My book is out. Now what?

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20295-Sylvia K-Climbing the Coconut Tree-Cover Design-FA Ingram

You’re probably wondering what I’ve been doing since the book launch.

I mean it’s all done, published and out in the marketplace. Right?

Not at all. It’s only the middle of the process. Just because friends and family have been enthusiastic and kind enough to buy my book, this doesn’t translate into sales across the world. Although I do recommend a book launch as family and friends can and will spread the word for you too. A lot of writers think that all you have to do is release it and hey presto your book is found.

With a quagmire of books out there and thousands of new releases every day around the world, my one and only book is barely a spec in the world for readers. When I look for it online it doesn’t exactly come up screaming its name out from the many retailers out there.

I have no brand, public relations and marketing team behind me to work on selling my book. It’s just me and it is quite daunting. Part of me wants to stay obscure and another part wants to see how far I can go.

This is what I’ve done so far.

1.       I’ve expanded distribution beyond Amazon and have been working with Ingram Spark. So my book is for sale online to forty-nine other eBook retailers such as KOBO, Booktopia and Barnes and Noble. Bookstores will shortly be able to order paperback format via Lightning Spark. This last process has taken at least six weeks so the learning for me is to allow for a longer lead time next time.

2.       I’ve used social media such as Facebook, GoodReads, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I haven’t inundated this and I probably should as I have achieved a good reach.

3.       An email address list has been put together to provide updates.

This is what I still have left to do:

1.       Get my book into bookstores and libraries particularly in my city.

2.       Encourage more reviews

3.       Check out cost/benefits of promotional advertising online

4.       Seek out a reputable book distributor

5.       Explore interested media outlets eg local newspapers and community radio stations.

6.       And blog!

Somewhere in all this is writing the second book which is well under way.

 

I Launched my Book

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Book signing 2

The date was set and the venue sorted. I ordered copies of my book for selling and signing on the night. So who to invite. I scrutinised my email list, phone contacts, Facebook friends, colleagues, neighbours and the word spread. Before long the list was over one hundred attendees.

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The night was approaching. I had to prepare what I was going to say. I hate long speeches but I knew that the story about this book needed to be told – much like this blog site only a tad shorter. There were so many people to thank. You might think that writing a book is done on your own but there were over twenty people who had helped in some form or another. So you see a writer’s life is not so alone – anyway not for me.

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Everything was organised. It began to rain after weeks of dry, hot weather. The roads were a mess but soon they came in their droves – well, maybe two’s and threes. My brother Andrew, surprised me by travelling from Sydney; my friend, Karen flew in from Adelaide.

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No doubt many were curious about a person who had reinvented herself as a writer- banker no more. But in the end it was a great excuse to get people together – some who hadn’t seen each other for years. I wasn’t nervous. If I was going to stumble, then better it to be into the arms of supportive friends and family.

book holding
I was swept up by the excitement. Only I felt removed from the author tag. It was almost like it wasn’t my book but someone else’s. What was everyone congratulating me for? Why the clamour for my very long signature?

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I guess it takes a while to get used to the tag – I’m an author. Mmm…it sounds rather good.

My Book is Actually Published.

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It was quite accidental really. After uploading my book into Createspace umpteen times, fixing format, spell checking and staring at the same errors over and over, I finally pressed the approve button.

Then the message popped up, “Congratulations. You are now published.”  Oops! I hadn’t meant for it to be out there so soon.

You see I ‘d decided to present my book at a formal book launch with supportive friends and family, but somehow it made its own way to the  Amazon book store. Then  within a few days the book was purchased not by one but three customers. I was very nervous as well as excited. Of course, the launch is still being readied.

I just can’t quite believe it, but now I’m a published author.

But a word of warning – go back and check the instructions before you press that approval button.

If you’re curious, feel free to check  out my novel “Climbing the Coconut Tree”  at the link below.

The Proof is in the Hand

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 Proof pic

I uploaded my  manuscript into Createspace and waited for the file to be checked. Approval came through and I was invited to peruse the finished book on-line. It looked like a book, but for me, I needed to touch and feel it.  So I ordered three proof copies; one for me and two, for others to proof read.

A few days later, the door bell rang and there was the courier holding a small box in his hand. I took it and walked around the house with it. I knew what was inside, yet all I could do was stare at the package.

Finally, I peeled off the wrapping and found a real live book –  a manuscript no more. Like a newborn baby, I was tentative about picking it up. I was excited yet nervous. Months of work and obsession sat there waiting for my scrutiny. I made myself a cup of tea glancing into the open box, I guess to make sure the book was real. Then, with my cuppa, I picked it up and sat down to read.

About twenty percent of book sales are eBooks but there really is nothing like holding a paperback in your hands – flicking the pages back and forward, turning it over to read the back, examining the feel of the cover and pages inside.

Unsurprisingly I found myself making changes once again. Was I ever going to stop I wondered?

What’s in a Cover

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How your book is dressed entices the reader to look inside. Never judge a book by it’s cover? Rubbish! We all know that’s simply not true. It’s the greatest marketing tool to have. So how do you decide what the cover should look like? It’s a big question and a hard one to answer.

My book is historical fiction so I knew that I wanted a vintage feel. My book is titled “Climbing the Coconut Tree” so a coconut tree might be a good idea somewhere on the front. I had a working cover photo of an original ink picture that someone had drawn by hand of a coconut tree and native huts. It was on a Christmas card sent by my father in 1948. I was never able to find out who the original artist was. It is beautifully drawn in black and white and I although loved it, I knew it wasn’t strong enough.

Original front cover

Strolling across the internet there are lots of economical do-it-yourself covers. Createspace and Smashwords provide templates. But the problem for me was there was nothing that really grabbed me. Finally, I decided to seek help and found a graphic designer Anthony Guardabascio from http://www.continue.com.au. He designed my perfect cover which is below. I really love it and I hope you do to.

Print

 

In the gutter.

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When it comes to getting your book out into the marketplace,  big decisions are needed.

I’d tried traditional publishers but in big business an unknown and untried author is rarely noticed. I wasn’t daunted though because I wanted to stretch myself further by exploring the options of self-publishing.

I had a manuscript. It was edited, reworked and revised. I went to workshops on self-publishing. There’s a carnival of sites like Ingram Sparks, Createspace and Smashwords amongst many who make it sound easy. After all what could go wrong. Just sign up, build your cover and upload. Easy. Nothing to it.I knew some people who had done it. A couple were in their eighties. Surely it couldn’t be that hard.

I was wrong.

There was another step in the process that I hadn’t counted on and it was called formatting. How naïve I was?

I tried a recommended site called Pressbooks which is a WordPress format. The deal is that you copy and paste your book and they take care of the format. For a small fee they do the formatting for print and ebooks in one foul swoop. Somehow it didn’t work quite that way for me. There was so much extra work for me to do with them that I decided to format it all myself. Was I brave or just stupid?

Nevertheless, I took the leap. I spent weeks learning how to format my lovely manuscript. I learnt about gutters (that’s the bit in the centre of two pages in a book) and how they need to be a certain width. Who’d have thought  this was so important and that I would find myself falling into it, so to speak.

I learnt about indentation, paragraph spacing, font, sizing, page numbers, front matter and back matter. There’s lot to it. Making lots of mistakes along the way and seeking help from Robert, a fellow writer, improved my expertise enormously.

And of course, formatting a print book is very different to an ebook.

But a basic crash course in Word would have been very helpful at the start.