Stay in the Game

The publishing industry is constantly evolving and we as writers are expected to do our research to stay in the game. That research includes the publishing routes writers take upon themselves.


Self-publishing is a very personal choice. No one has the right to tell you how to publish your book, but do you know what you’re getting into by leaving a traditional publisher on the sidelines?

If you’re considering self-publishing, you have to research and you have to be meticulous. Otherwise, without the tools a traditional publisher or an agent offers (editing, copyediting, marketing, legal guidance, etc.), you may look like a fool. Your dedication to succeed is the deciding factor. Self-publishing is a great resource for new or advanced writers to get their work into the world. Without the stress and disappointment of finding an agent or waiting years for your book to hit shelves, you can take your career into your own hands. But there are a few things to consider before you take that final step.


Interviews from four authors will give you insight into the following questions when comparing a traditional publisher to self-publishing:


* How long does it take for my book to become available to readers?


* What are my royalty rates?


* What level of self-promotion is involved to sell my book?


* What level of editing is required to self-publish my book?


* How does self-publishing help already-published authors?


Sherri A. Dub, self-published author of her paranormal romance, Goddess Cottage, chose to take her career into her own hands because the slushpile was taking too long. She states, “I knew my book was ready, as it was requested, in full, by a major publishing house, but they chose to praise it and pass” (Dub Interview). This led Dub to utilize BookBaby.com and pay $219.00 for an ISBN number, a cover and to format her novel. Dub’s novel was made available on iBooks, Sony, Nook & Kindle on April 21, 2011 at $1.99 with a second novel, The Witch Ball, and a third novel, following suit later in the year. However, there are no royalty figures available as of yet for Dub as it can take between 60-70 days in order to receive payment from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and Sony. The writer spends a good chunk of free time, when she isn’t writing, promoting her first novel. “I do daily promotional work on Twitter, Goodreads.com and Facebook” (Dub interview), she states and lists Twitter as her greatest resource, reporting over one thousand followers. Dub feels she is doing well with over one hundred downloads of her novel and advises, “If you have a large writing group of peers who are encouraging you to do this and you have honed your craft, then I say go for it” (Dub interview). Even with this amount of success, Dub is still on the hunt for an agent and looks forward to pitching herself at future writing conferences. Sherri A. Dub can be reached through her website: www.sheropatra.com


Romance writer Sherri Smith, writing as R.M. Sotera, has numerous novellas traditionally published electronically. Her decision to self-publish came after she realized she had to evolve as the industry evolved. “In all honesty, it appears that building a name for oneself through E-Publishing and Self-Publishing is a good step in securing the ultimate goal of a traditional publishing—if this is an author’s goal” (Smith interview). Smith continues to query agents in the hope that one of her manuscripts will catch an agent’s eye, but is currently succeeding electronically through eXtasy Books and Evernight Publishing. Smith reveals that even though she has gone through a traditional publisher for her work, the release date for her novellas, after the contract is signed, is only two to three months. According to Smith, e-published authors can be paid monthly, quarterly and semi-annually, depending on the publisher, but Smith reports that $55.00 is the most she’s made in one month through this route. The writer attributes the amount of money she personally makes to promotion. “I’m sure I could do better if I had the time needed for promotion, but with my full-time job and allotting writing time in my schedule, online promotion is a big problem for me” (Smith interview). Smith is one of the authors who have considered self-publishing, eager to get her name out there as any author is, but she goes on to state, “At this time it isn’t feasible because I don’t feel that I have the time to put the amount of leg-work needed into self promotion” (Smith interview). She can be contacted through her website: www.rmsotera.com






Self-published author and self-publishing guru Kris Tualla is another one of those authors who tried the traditional publishing route, but found that her books were not what the publishing houses were looking for. The main reason: her Norwegian heroes weren’t Scottish. Thousands of writers are praised for their writing capability, but hit the “your book isn’t sellable” wall. Tualla’s answer: self-publishing. Spending over ten hours a day promoting her books while writing three to six hours on her next manuscripts, this writer has published her books both in print and electronically. Tualla pulls in about $75.00 a month with her books, spending between $4.88-$5.00 on the print-on-demands and absolutely nothing for her e-books. How’d she do it? CreateSpace from Amazon. With offers like free membership, flexible royalty models, free CreateSpace ISBN, and a print-on-demand option, CreateSpace is the “juggernaut” of self-publishing (Tuall interview) and perfect fit for Tualla. With an art degree in her background, Tualla created her brilliant cover designs herself. By studying traditional covers for those key elements, this writer took every aspect of her career into her own hands, but warned writers that, “No writer can edit themselves” (Tualla interview). Because of this, Tualla uses four separate readers for plot consistency, characterization, GMC and setting while using a completely different set of readers for copyediting. Before even considering releasing her manuscripts to the masses, the writer buys her own book for one last edit, folding down the corners of every page that has a missed mistake. Her first rule before self-publishing: create a well-written product (Tualla interview). Currently in the works with a traditional publisher for her sixth, seventh and eight novels (a trilogy), Tualla offers a 5-day self-publishing intensive for members of www.savvyauthors.com who want to learn the ins and outs of self-publishing. She can be reached through her website: www.kristualla.com.


And lastly, our very own multi-published crime author Robert S. Levinson has nine novels published to date. Taking six months to find an agent and a year to land a publisher, Levinson takes the brunt of his promotion upon himself, even with publishers Forge and Star/Gale at his back. This author reports that it generally takes between twelve and sixteen months for his novels to become available to the public and receives industry standard royalties of the cover price.


But how can self-publishing help already-published authors?


Even though Levinson still writes and submits to his publishers, he has taken his backlist (those books no longer available) and self-published them electronically on Amazon’s Kindle and other e-book outlets along with authors such as Carolyn Jewel, Kevin J. Anderson and L.L. Bartlett. Websites such as Smashwords and CreateSpace are helping traditionally published authors keep their titles available after the publisher has given back the rights to them. Once the author has those rights, it’s fair game.


If you’re still not sure self-publishing is right for you, consider one last route before uploading that file. Jessica Faust of BookEnds Literary Agency is just one of the thousands of literary agents who have opened their own e-publishing house. Beyond the Page Publishing is out to help both agented and unagented authors to publish electronically. They offer expert editing services, cover design, distribution through major e-book sellers, copyright application, pricing consultations, and marketing guidance. What the agent gets in return: 15% commission from your sales. All you have to do is submit your query to info@beyondthepagepub.com. Beyond the Page is a traditional publisher. However, they are strictly electronic. Other companies such as Carina Press and Sapphire Blue Publishing follow the same line and since they are strictly electronic, the guidelines are a little more relaxed and you’ll see sales a lot sooner than with a traditional publisher.


Whether you’re a new author or a veteran, writers all over the world are working to stay in the game by self-publishing. Either you can take your career into your own hands or wait another year to see your book on the shelf. The choice is up to you.

Like A Virgin

“If you wish to be a writer, write!” - Epictetus

So you want to write a novel. It’s always been a goal of yours and you have an amazing idea that readers will eat up. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done as thousands of writers have learned, but you have to begin somewhere. Before you write that first line though, ask yourself:

Why? What is your reason for wanting to write your book? Motivation is central for every writer to discover for themselves. Why are you writing? If it’s to be published, you’ve chosen the wrong career. Writing for the market (the trends) is going to end in disappointment. Trends come and go and readers are looking for the next best thing. By the time you finish your novel, the market may have moved on and you will be left with a novel that agents have seen enough of. Write for you. Your passion will be noticed, and respected, if you write a story you are in love with.

Do you have the time to invest hundreds of hours on one project? Oh yes, my friend. HUNDREDS of hours will be spent, not only to write that first draft, but to revise it as many times as you need to before submitting the manuscript. It will be hard. It will be time consuming and take more patience than you have at the moment. If you are serious about writing and have children, school, work or other obligations, you’ll want to make a writing schedule. Even fifteen minutes a day is progress and sometimes you will even need to force yourself to do it. It won’t be easy. You will get frustrated and you’ll need to power through.

Can you accept that writing might not pay your bills? Chances are you aren’t Stephen King. You’re not Nora Roberts and your novel won’t be a New York Times Bestseller right out of the gate. The truth is, most writers have a day job and advances aren’t as large as they used to be. The industry is changing. It’s going digital, but it’s also impossible to know whether books will be digital or some print will be left in the next decade. Costs are down and profits are up concerning digital books (e-books). Royalties are rising for authors, however, advances are shrinking or not being offered at all. In an industry, and an economy, that’s always changing, have a backup plan. This is not to discourage you, in fact, it’s to motivate you to push harder. If you want writing to be your life, make it so. Go back to school for your English degree, attend conferences, join a writers group, check out freelance work. While you’re waiting for those royalties, invest in your education and keep your day job.

Are you ready to be a professional? Just as with every industry, publishing is a business. So treat it as such. Maria Conner once advised in the Romance Writers Report, “Become a professional writer: meet deadlines, educate yourself about the market, network, refine and apply your skills, complete and market projects.” You may not be published, but getting into the swing of things is going to help you in the long run. Build healthy habits such as setting a writing schedule, meeting deadlines, getting dressed to write even if it’s in your own home and researching. Treat your writing as a job.

Do you know where to start? You might think this is the easiest part of writing your novel. You already know what your characters look like and maybe a basic (or detailed) plotline, but there are a couple more items to consider.

First, you need to ask yourself if you are going to have a prologue. Now days, prologues aren’t that popular. They usually consist of backstory, which is a giant NO-NO to start your book. If you find yourself writing nothing but memories, set up or flashbacks in a prologue or first chapter, cut them out and put them someplace else if they are that important to the plot.

Second, what is your first suspenseful scene? Make that your beginning. Sometimes it won’t happen until 50 pages in, but you want to drop your main character (MC) in the middle of the action to reach out and grab your reader (or agent) so they will never want to stop reading. You will want to do this for every novel you write. It does not have to be a shoot-em-up scene, but your MC will be involved and the stakes will be crystal clear to keep your reader interested.

Are you willing to learn? I learn something new about my style of writing and my craft every day. I am not right all of the time and my willingness to try new things has made me a better writer and taken me one step closer to being published.

You must admit to yourself that you are going to make mistakes. How else will you learn to be a better writer without making a few? The best and fastest way to make your writing better is to submit your manuscript and query letter through critique groups. BETA readers are great to start with, but in order to make your novel shine, group input is crucial. However, you MUST remember not to take their suggestions personal because that’s exactly what a critique group does: they give suggestions.

Do you have tough skin? I’m sorry, but nobody thinks you’re serious about writing. You can tell family and friends how much it means to you, that you must write because you can’t not write, but they won’t care. They will view it as a hobby that you’ll give up soon or a phase. These realizations are going to hurt, but that’s when you need to suck it up and make new friends. Writer friends. Writer friends think you’re serious and they’ll give you support every step of the way. Find a local writers group or friends on the blogosphere. They will be more than willing to encourage you to keep going and to lift you over the next hurdle.

The next hurdle being the agent. Agents are a wonderful guide through the publishing world. That is their job. They help you negotiate contracts, they pitch your book to editors and publishers and they give advice. Sure you can do it alone with some publishers, but you probably don’t know much about contracts or haven’t made the effort to study the industry.

You need an agent, but what you need tough skin for is rejection.

It will happen many, many times and with every book you pitch. It’s just a fact. However, you must realize, and this took me a while to learn, that at rejection is not personal. It’s just good business. It may seem as a personal attack, but it really isn’t! This person/agent has never met you before, they haven’t read your book and they have another thousand query letters to slosh through. You are just a letter that didn’t keep them interested. It hurts, I know. I’ve cried many times throughout the process, but if you are not willing to go through rejection, you are not ready to be a writer. What you must do, especially after rejection twenty, is to dedicate yourself more. Revise the query letter, send it out to other writers for critiquing and submit. Rinse and repeat again, and again, and again until there is an agent out there who can support you. The worst that can happen is an agent or publisher saying, “No”. Resilience is one of the most important traits of a writer. In her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood wrote, “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.” Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Thousands of individuals such as yourself have dreamed of writing a novel, leaving a legacy and a mark on the world. You can educate yourself, research the market, dress as a professional and attend conferences, but the best way to ensure your success is to write your book. What are you waiting for?

The Craft

The Craft of Writing will be my career (as long as I can help it!) and so there is a lot I do and a lot of places I go in order to learn more. Through the past year, I've attended almost all of my RWA meetings, joined a critique group and researched the hell out of getting published.

To make the story short: I have a lot of handouts and notes.

Since this Craft will be my life's work and I have such a horrible memory, I keep them all. Right now, however, they are all in an ugly, blue, floppy folder. This floppy folder:

I have a mix of things like articles on dialogue to basic and advanced character charts in here. They are not organized and they are not accessible unless I want to go through hundreds of pages to find the information I want.

Solution: The Craft Binder.  [Dramatic music...]

This is just the beginning. It will be pretty. It will be colorful. It will be organized.

It will be my bible.

Organized sections thus far will include: Plotting, Character development/GMC, Setting/World-building, Query, Synopsis, Formatting and Critiquing. By organizing my notes, handouts and research, I will be able to stay on top of my craft and help other writers out with advice. Yay me :)

How do you handle the onslaught of information you gather from friends, organization and family about this Craft? Willing to share ideas?

Crash and Burn

I hope you all enjoyed the week dedicated to me, including the excerpts from LET ME OUT. Since summer semester has started, I've been disastrously busy with homework. I'm not even able to continue revisions on my current WIP. I'm saddened, but also a little relieved. This MS is a beautiful disaster. A wonderful mess and all other adjectives and adverbs I can think of. It's been hard to get through.

I'm moving ahead with my career goals by working on a bachelors degree. I've been focused on my career 100% this year, but to be honest...I'm feeling a little burned out. I'm sorry I don't have much to post on, but here is a bit of what I'm working on right now.

Like a Virgin

            So you want to write a novel. It’s always been a goal of yours and you have an amazing idea that readers will eat up. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done as thousands of writers have learned, but you have to begin somewhere. Before you write that first line though, ask yourself:

Do you have the time to invest hundreds of hours on one project? Oh yes, my friend. HUNDREDS of hours will be spent, not only to write that first draft, but to revise it as many times as you need to before submitting the manuscript. It will be hard. It will be time consuming and take more patience than you have at the moment. If you are serious about writing and have children, school, work or other obligations, you’ll want to make a writing schedule. Even fifteen minutes a day is progress and sometimes you will even need to force yourself to do it. It won’t be easy. You will get frustrated and you’ll need to power through.

Do you know where to start? You might think this is the easiest part of writing your novel. You already know what your characters look like and maybe a basic (or detailed) plotline, but there are a couple more items to consider.

First, you need to ask yourself if you are going to have a prologue. Now days, prologues aren’t that popular. They usually consist of backstory, which is a giant NO-NO to start your book. If you find yourself writing nothing but memories, set up or flashbacks in a prologue or first chapter, cut them out and put them someplace else if they are that important to the plot.

Second, what is your first suspenseful scene? Make that your beginning. Sometimes it won’t happen until 50 pages in, but you want to drop your main character (MC) in the middle of the action to reach out and grab your reader (or agent) so they will never want to stop reading. You will want to do this for every novel you write. It does not have to be a shoot-em-up scene, but your MC will be involved and the stakes will be crystal clear to keep your reader intersted.

Do you have tough skin? I’m sorry, but nobody thinks you’re serious about writing. You can tell family and friends how much it means to you, that you must write because you can’t not write and they still won’t care. They will view it as a hobby that you’ll give up soon or a phase. My husband still thinks “it’s a phase” that has been going on for almost five years. These realizations are going to hurt, but that’s when you need to suck it up and make new friends. Writer friends. Writer friends think you’re serious and they’ll give you support. Find a local writers group or friends on the blogosphere. They are more than willing to give you the support you need for the next hurdle.

The next hurdle being the agent. Agents are a wonderful guide through the publishing world. That is their job. They help you negotiate contracts, they pitch your book to editors and publishers and they give advice. Sure you can do it alone with some publishers, but you probably don’t know much about contracts or haven’t made the effort to study the industry.

You need an agent. What you need tough skin for: rejection.

It will happen many, many times and with every book you pitch. It’s just a fact. However, you must realize, and this took me a while to learn, that it’s just good business. It may seem as a personal attack, but it really isn’t! This person/agent has never met you before, they haven’t read your book and they have another thousand query letters to slosh through. You are just a letter that didn’t keep them interested. It hurts, I know. I’ve cried many times throughout the process, but if you are not willing to go through rejection, you are not ready to be a writer. What you must do, especially after rejection twenty, is to dedicate yourself more. Revise the query letter, send it out to other writers for critiquing and submit. Rinse and repeat again, and again, and again until there is an agent out there who can support you. The worst that can happen is an agent or publisher saying, “No”.

Are you willing to learn? I learn something new about my style of writing and my craft every day. I am not right all of the time and my willingness to try new things has made me a better writer and taken me one step closer to being published.

You must admit to yourself that you are going to make mistakes. How else will you learn to be a better writer without making a few?

Publishable Business

Up until recently, I was dumbfounded and a little intimidated by the world of publishing. As a writer, I’ve been through the traditional publishing route, trying to land that agent each time I finished revisions, but I really didn’t know what my other options were. I know other writers out there, especially beginners, can get a lost when it comes to who to submit your manuscript to, if you need an agent and which publishing houses to check out unagented. I was there. I know how you feel!


It does take some individual research when you bring your entire list submissions down to a few matches, but others may not even know where to begin. I’m here to discuss the four ways to get your manuscript published-pros and cons style.

1. Traditional Print Publishing. This is the agented route and very important to any beginner. For this you will finish the book (keyword: finish), write a query and synopsis, then pitch/submit said query to a list of researched agents that represent your work. A typical contract will include a two-book deal with the option for a third and profits are split between author, agent and publisher. You need to try to land your agent to figure out what’s wrong with your manuscript. You’ll start out with form rejection letters the first couple of submissions, but as you revise, perfect and resubmit, you’ll get more informative input from agents and editors. Fix those mistakes and keep trying.

If you haven’t unearthed any results with tradition print publishers after numerous rounds of editing and revising, try an e-publisher. Practically new within the last couple of years, e-publishers are willing to look over a lot of what the traditional publishers won’t. As long as you have a good story, they will take a chance on you because costs are down. It doesn’t take as much money to put out your e-book than it would a print.

2. Traditional E-Publishing. As a new and almost unchartered area for a lot of writers, these publishing houses are reputable, some a division of traditional print publishers, but only publish digitally. There are no physical books, only downloads. Since they are newer to the industry, submission guidelines are a little more relaxed and open. You still have to submit a query, but you’ll send along your entire manuscript as well. Guidelines may ask you to go through the simple process of reformatting. You will still receive the same amount of editing expertise as a traditional print publisher, but your book will be released (if accepted) sooner. However, seriously consider an e-publisher who does NOT go through all outlets of e-readers. We’re talking Kindle, Sony, Nook, iPad, Kobo, and a dozen more. The more devices, the more accessible your book is, which leads to higher sales. Royalties here can range from 35% to 50% depending on the publisher.

A few of these publishers include: Avon Impulse (Romance), Carina Press (Any adult genre), Sapphire Blue (Any adult genre), Ellora’s Cave (Romance), and Wild Rose Press (Romance). In order to find the publisher right for you, buy a book, read it, study the style of writing and editing. Were there a lot of mistakes? Will they catch yours?

Now, onto independent publishing. You are taking your goal of getting published upon yourself. No agents, no editors. You are doing the work yourself. A warning here: make sure your book is EDITED. I know how dumb that sounds, but have you seen some of the short stories and books online lately? If you want to be taken seriously or have a shot of being noticed by one of the big publishing houses through self-publishing, get as many eyes on your manuscript as possible. Try for a critique group. They all don’t have to be within your genre either. A romance writer may not catch what a non-fiction writer would. Diversify and bring in as many people as you can to give yourself the best chance or looking professional.

3. Independent Publishing. Let me start this point by saying you should NEVER have to pay someone to publish your book. EVER. EVER. EVER. Romance Writers of America and other organizations do not consider vanity press authors (independent print publishing) published, but that doesn’t mean that you have a horrible manuscript. It just means you shouldn’t be paying someone to put out your book. Independent publishing means you’re going to have a lot of your plate. You will have a full time job promoting, designing covers, editing, revising and writing the next in the series. This is all on you. Author Kris Tualla built her “Norway is the new Scotland” brand by self-publishing. She is retired, but spends about 70 hours a week promoting. This way of publishing can be very rewarding, but only if you’re willing to put in the hours and frustration. Royalties, if you don’t have a contract with a press, can skyrocket up to 70% here because you are devoting your time and energy into getting noticed. If you are in contact with a published author, ask them if they’d be interested in reading your manuscript. Try for that author blurb to put on your cover. That author’s fans are watching everything they do and they might be led to you.

4. Independent E-Publishing. Again, you shouldn’t have to pay for this. CreateSpace through Amazon or Smashwords.com will give you everything you need in order to publish your book digitally and it’s free. The same rules apply here as with independent print publishing. However, your costs will be down. You’re not going to be paying for those print books. You didn’t even pay to upload your book!

We are coming into a digital age. Books are available in more than ten different formats just for e-readers, depending on the reader, but print isn’t going out of style quite yet.

If you've tried both traditional publishers by this time, and you still haven’t gotten the results you want, it’s time to take a serious look at your manuscript. Something is wrong. Your book may not fit into the publishing industries’ box; it may not be sellable because of your premise. Whatever the reason is, get some other eyes in there. Get opinions from other WRITERS-not your mom-and see what the issue could be. The more the merrier. Writing is a very solitary art, but you need the opinions of others to sell.

You want to be published. That much is clear. And a better understanding of your options, and mine, will get you a step further than those who don’t do their homework. Good luck out there!