For instance, do you know what DRM stands for? I didn't until I read a blog comment John Locke made to a writer who had e-books published on Kindle. He wrote that to get the DRM off her books--they're annoying to readers and don't protect copyrights anyway--she would have to change her titles and resubmit her books.
Until today I didn't even know who John Locke was. The presenter, author Jane Friedman, at the publishing webinar I watched on Thursday, mentioned his name. She also named Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrath.
Amanda Hocking is a best-selling Kindle e-book writer, who is gifted with an unusual, delightful creativity. You can see for yourself on her blog here:
Amanda Hocking
Based on everything I've been learning, here's what I suggest: if you're a writer, write, publish, and market. If you're a writer, you're writing because it's something you do, like breathing. Writers write in every cranny-space of time and place. We can't help it. If you know how to do something, write a book that tells how. If you love reading fiction, make up a story.
Long before you finish writing your book, you have to begin creating and implementing a marketing plan. Search online for the place where the readers hang out who would read your book. Start your own blog, create a website, and learn how to use Twitter and Facebook to connect with people who would read your book. Your book can cost readers as little as $.99 to download from Amazon. Amazon pays the author $.35 for each $.99 download.
When the book is finished, send it off to an editor for editing and proofreading. If you have Power Point, you can create your own cover and save it as a JPEG file. Be sure you learn the elements that make a good book cover! (Hint: the title and your name have to be really BIG!)
For $99 you can send your book off to Book Baby to have them format it for e-readers and distribute it to all of the e-book outlets.
All this time, in between writing your book, you'll still be doing what you love--writing on your blog and everywhere else where you can get to know potential readers.
Here's what I learned today--you probably already know it--DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. I believe it's on software CDs for Microsoft Word and other programs you buy. I've been running into it on iTunes, and now with my brief affiliation with Audible Manager (a subsidiary of Amazon that sells audio books). These huge companies have software that monitors your computer use and shuts you down to keep you from making copies of a product you downloaded from them.
Authors in the webinars tell us that someone pirating one of our books shouldn't be a concern. Jane Friedman addressed the battle to get attention all writers are engaged in and wrote, "Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy."
And now I learn from reading John Locke's comment that I shouldn't allow Kindle to use that "protection" on my books when I publish them. Here is a company I found online that is taking on and fighting against the use of DRM software:
Defective by Design
So now who is John Locke? By now, maybe you've already googled him and found out he's the first independent, self-published author to sell a million e-book downloads on Kindle, and he did it in 5 months. He's much more than that, or he couldn't have done what he did. He's a marketer, a lovable, sweet man who joyfully answers every single reader who writes to him and happily answers every blogger on any blog site where he writes. He also reads other independent authors' books and generously praises their work and supports them on their blogs. He has the online joyful larger-than-life presence of a Bill Clinton. I wonder if he's the extravert in his real life that he is online. It's hard to imagine how he would get so much done if he were.
Here's his website where you can download his book that tells you how to do what he did to market his e-book online and sell a million copies:
John Locke's Website
This is J.A. Konrath's website. He writes thrillers and lives in a suburb of Chicago, for my Chicago-suburb readers. Who knows? He might be your next door neighbor!
J.A. Konrath's Website
Numbers show value, and over a million readers read Konrath's blog, "A Newbie's Guide to Publishing." He interviewed John Locke as a guest, and afterwards more than 100 writers wrote questions for John, which he answered. I learned heaps about publishing and marketing from reading the interview and all of the comments. Jane Friedman mentioned Konrath's blog in her webinar presentation as a valuable source of information for publishing.
I can't finish this post without mentioning how this information I've learned has caused me to change my mind about my own writing project, Life with a Buckskinner.
To repeat what I've already written in other posts, the book is primarily a collection of my humorous stories published in the Muzzleloader magazine in the early 1980's. My husband was the talented leader/jazz musician/arranger of a Las Vegas-style showband on the road in the 1970's-80's, and I also sang and played instruments in the band. We'd been out less than a year when he decided to take up mountain man reenactment as a side distraction from our stressful life. We were a team, so wherever the van went, there went I! Since I had no interest in guns or camping, my life style of performing at night and sleeping during the day worked well for me during our first few years at rendezvous. Gradually, I started staying awake longer and decided I might as well bloom where I was planted. I became known as the "Erma Bombeck of Muzzleloading."
Initially I was going to write an introduction telling how Whitey and I got together, went on the road, and ended up in a lean-to at rendezvous. I was also going to write a short afterword about us, and then self-publish the e-book and audiobook.
Then a few weeks ago I started thinking about what an interesting period of musical history our story would be, juxtapositioned with that buckskinner life. Based on that idea, I decided to flesh out the musician story and include the published stories in a section in the back. And, of course, my stories of the road would be so delicious to read, I would have no trouble finding a traditional publisher for my book! I have time to wait for the year or so it takes for a traditional company to publish my book--so I thought!
Today, based on John Locke's encouraging words, I've changed my mind again and returned to my original plan. I want this little 100-page book to come out soon, not years from now. Here is my plan of action:
- Write a beginning and end chapter to tie the stories together.
- Stay with a $.99 pricing plan for Kindle books.
- Put a marketing plan in place to find and hang out where my readers for this book are congregating and use social media to stay in touch with them.
- Have cover designer Becky Fox finish the covers and upload them when I retain the publishing services.
- Finish recording another 4 stories.
- Have Bo, a world-class fiddle player who happens to live in my town, record some original fiddle 4-bar ditties for the beginnings and endings of the stories.
- Send my beginning and ending chapters to a friend who will edit/proofread them for a fee. (Yes! Writers need editers!)
- Buy a block of ISBN numbers for selling the books ($250 for a block of 10)
- Submit the e-book to Book Baby for formatting and distributing
- Submit the audiobook to CD Baby for distribution to all of the online places.
- Order short runs of printed books and audiobooks for signings at book fairs. (I will not publish this book through a subsidy publisher such as i-Universe. I'll share printing information with you in another post.)
Does writing, publishing and marketing sound like something you would like to do? If so, I've learned that a dreamer usually comes outfitted with the talent and ability to accomplish the dream. Honing the craft of your talent is hard work. But in the end-phase of getting it all out the door, you can read and follow the directions of those who have succeeded and are willing to share their knowledge. They're sharing information everywhere. I hope you're okay being a life-long learner!
Check out my new toon! I started wondering what a combined show of "Ice Road Truckers" and "Swamp Loggers" might look like and....
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