Beyond Romance: indie publishing

Showing posts with label indie publishing. Show all posts

Thursday, March 14, 2019

How I stumbled and fell into self-publishing - #indieauthor #paranormalromance #KindleUnlimited

By Victoria Jayne (Guest Blogger)

Hi everyone, my name is Victoria Jayne, and I am an author. It took me roughly two decades to be comfortable calling myself an author, but I’ve done it, and I’ve never been prouder of myself. I write erotic flash fiction, contemporary romance, and have published my debut novel in the genre of paranormal romance. I love sexy romance. I can’t get enough reading it or writing it.

My debut novel came out December 4^th 2018 via the traditional route. I know, you’re going: ‘Hey, Vic, you said this was about self-publishing, what’s this about traditional?’ Hold on; let me get there.

I have been writing since I was about 16 years old. Novels, flash pieces, erotica, all kinds of things. I really committed to writing in my 30’s. During NaNoWriMo 2017 I doubled down, I buckled down, and I told myself that this manuscript was going to be thee manuscript. I would work this one to the bone and not give up on it as I had others.

I used every resource at my disposal to make sure I stood the best chance of nabbing a coveted publishing deal. I used MSWL.com, querytracker.com, twitter.com, and google.com. I listened to podcasts, I scoured websites, I was determined. This was my turn, my shot. I had a good manuscript; I just had to get it in front of the right eyes.

So, I had my first draft done by the end of November. I did four rounds of edits myself. I submitted it to agents and publishers, and got my stack of rejections. I had one publishing house request a partial. The victory dance was epic. Ultimately, this turned into a revise and resubmit and yet another rejection.

Rather than tuck tail and accept defeat, I took the twitter. From a recommendation of a friend, I met Vicky Brewster, a phenomenal editor out of the UK. This was the first time in my life I trusted one of my book babies with a professional editor. She is amazing and super supportive. I cannot sing her praises loud enough.

With Vicky’s insights, I edited my manuscript again and this time, when I submitted my work, I took to small publishers. I also re-approached the publisher, which had given me the revise and re-submit. She agreed to look it over again.

I got two contract offers, and the original publisher declined though complimented me on my growth. I took all of this as wins; I was every happy cliché in the world. I ultimately chose one publisher because she offered more of a marketing platform than the other did. I have since learned a lot about marketing, though I’m still flailing, but that is a story for another day.

I did the edits my publisher requested. I got to see the most beautiful cover and cried at the reality of my being a published writer. On December 4, 2018, a year after I completed my first draft, my novel was available across several platforms for purchase. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

This is where the self-publishing comes in. As I said above, this publisher offered some marketing. Little did I know that her marketing efforts were not enough. Ultimately, six weeks after my book was released, my editor dropped me due to disappointing sales.

When I asked what they were, the published sent me screen shots of Amazon’s graphs. On my phone, I couldn’t really read them on the tiny screen. She only sent them via phone. I learned that when you publish the traditional route, you have no idea what your sales numbers are unless your publisher tells you. I still, to this day, have no idea how many books were sold. I am guessing around 20 in six weeks.

My publisher signed the rights of my work back to me. Additionally, she gave me my work in all the file formats I would need to self-publish. She also gave me rights to use my cover art. I was poised to self-publish and that’s what I did.

I went to Amazon, and I used KDP. I put my book up for Kindle Unlimited. I am an “unknown to you” author. My readers, the ones I haven’t even met yet, don’t know me; therefore they are less likely to trust that I have something to offer them. I figured, if I enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, readers would have less of a risk in investing their time and energy in discovering me.

Publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. Spikes happen depending on the marketing and the promotions I run. However, consistency is through Kindle Unlimited. I never wanted to be an author to become a famous author. Sure, I dream of one day having the words “best seller” after my name, but the reality is, what I really want out of all of this is to know someone sat down, read my story, and enjoyed it. I want my book, and subsequent books, to get in front of the eyeballs that will appreciate it.

As my first novel is the first book in a trilogy, I decided to publish the second book myself. I will skip the headache of trying to find representation and just get it out to the people who have asked for the follow up. I am using the same editors and the same cover artist to maintain continuity. I’m optimistic about this. I’ve learned a lot from my first book and I’m excited to embark on the journey of self-publishing this entire trilogy.

Here is a peek of what you will find in my debut novel, which will take you on the adventure that is the Prophecy Trilogy:

“The vampire whose heart beats for a witch that belongs to a wolf shall save us all. He shall take his throne and rule over all kinds.”

“I’m not some prophetic, self-sacrificing hero.” Rori’s arms fell to his sides, and he used them to push himself up. He wasn’t going to sit for this. “I will plead guilty to all my crimes but being a hero isn’t one of them,” he said to the court with contempt.

Esmine cracked a smile. “Roricus, you are many things but a hero.” She shook her head.

Why did that assertion bother Rori? He had just made the same point himself. She didn’t need to agree with him.

Emptiness spawned in Rori’s gut. Was that disappointment at their lack of belief in him? What had these witches done to him? He lowered his gaze in an attempt to process Esmine’s words.

Florence spoke up. “Sometimes, the world doesn’t need another hero, Roricus.” She folded her hands over the intricately carved table. “There are times when the monster has more morals than the supposed heroes.”

“Keep your spells and your morals away from me,” Rori said and raised his gaze to the center witch. Locking his ire directly onto Esmine when he spoke. “I’m not doing anything else for you.”

Rori had had enough of these witches and their games. They spoke in half-truths, giving him hope before, but he knew better this time around. He wasn’t some toy with whom they could play.

“You have no power over me,” he declared.

Esmine was the first to chuckle. Followed by the blond, then Florence. It didn’t take long for the entire panel to join the laughter.

Rori’s lip curled into a snarl. His canines extended. Heat rose through his chest, up into his face. His fists clenched tightly and he shook. He couldn’t take on all thirteen witches. They’d get him in the end but not before he took out Esmine.

“My apologies.” Esmine held a hand to her chest as her laughter subsided. She waved her hands in both directions so the witches would do the same. “It was just that you seemed so adamant about it.”

His restraint was only as strong as his self-preservation instinct. “I don’t answer to your coven, or any witch for that matter,” Rori said with his fangs still visible.

“You think you have a choice,” Esmine said with a tilted head. The exaggerated pleasantness of her tone signaled her sarcasm. “How very sweet of you.” She folded her arms on the table and leaned toward him. “But Roricus, the time has come for you to take your place. It is time for you to step up and be what you were created to be.”

“And if I don’t?” Rori countered. The temptation to walk away from the table, from the witches, from the prophecy, grew the longer he stood there. The witches had proven before that they promised great things but with them came suffering. He’d done their bidding before and while he was given a beating heart, leaving his emotions more intense and raw, he had to give up the person who had given it to him. From where he stood, their price wasn’t worth the reward and the witches were not beings he could trust.

“The vampire who belongs to the witch will end your kind, our kind, and all other kinds,” the blond offered without emotion. A knot of discomfort grew in his chest, not just from how the witch spoke but from what she had said.

About the Author

Growing up on the Jersey Shore, Victoria was an insatiable reader. She adored getting lost in the worlds others created for her. During her early teen years, she enjoyed the works of R.L. Stein and S.E. Hinton. As she got older, she drifted into the worlds provided for her by Anne Rice, Suzanne Wright, J.D. Tyler, Joanna Wylde, Cherise Sinclair, Dianne Duvall, and Elisabeth Naughton, to name a few. These writers spawned her love affair with both the romance genre and the world of the supernatural.

Victoria started writing as a hobby while still in high school. Now her days are spent writing, enjoying time with her husband, and her two children. She still lives in New Jersey. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and New Jersey Romance Writers. Victoria is a New Jersey Devils Hockey fan, an avid SecondLife Roleplayer, and a Netflix binge watcher.

Links

Website: https://www.authorvictoriajayne.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MMFMJJD

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Celebrate Smashwords Read-an-Ebook Week! #discount #ebooks #Smashwords

Starting today, Smashwords – the world’s foremost marketplace for indie authors – is celebrating Read-an-Ebook week. I have lots of titles published with them, and for the next week, they’re all 50% off! This includes all four volumes of my outrageous Vegas Babes series, my lesbian fantasy The Witches of Gloucester, and my Asian Adventures series.

In case you haven’t purchased from Smashwords before, you can download your books in any format you prefer, including mobi (Kindle), epub, pdf and more.

To see all my sale books, visit my profile page:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LSarai

And books that are normally 99 cents are all free!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Leaving the Sweatshop Behind

By Mitzi Szereto (Guest Blogger)

We’re hearing a lot more about “indie authors” and “indie publishing” these days. Although this has been going on for some time now, it has usually consisted of unknown or newbie writers giving away e-books for free or selling them for 99 cents. However, we’re now seeing an interesting shift taking place—specifically major name authors getting on board. You might ask why a bestselling author whom you’d expect to be raking it in should wish to go the “DIY” route. Well, when you consider that authors are among the very few working professionals that spend several months to several years creating a piece of work, only to earn a few paltry cents on the dollar in income from it, it’s a wonder that anyone even bothers with publishers (let alone literary agents) these days. The situation is particularly egregious when it comes to digital royalties. Although the so-called industry standard is still far too low, there are some authors being paid digital rates that are downright criminal. Unfortunately, I’m one of them.

Therefore I too, have joined the ranks of the Indie Author. For me, the indie publishing route isn’t just about getting a better return on my investment, though that’s still a very important part of it. It’s also about independence and creative freedom. It’s about having control over how my book is marketed and how it is perceived by the reading public. It’s about having full credit given to me for my hard work, rather than seeing that credit being mistakenly given to or hijacked by publishers, who (at least for my books) have nothing to do with the creation or editorial direction of the work, but merely handle the mechanics of it through to publication. Indie publishing is about freedom from exploitation. It means getting a fair deal rather than being the equivalent of a child in the Third World working all hours in a sweatshop while someone else pockets the profits.

I launched my first major indie project back in 2012 with Normal for Norfolk (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles)—the first in my quirky crime/cozy mystery series co-written with my celebrity sidekick bear, Teddy Tedaloo. I’m now pleased to announce the release of the second installment—Rotten Peaches (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles). The series features protagonist Thelonious T. Bear, who’s a pint-drinking, Mini-Cooper-driving British photojournalist bear (yes, I said bear!) who always seems to run into trouble wherever he goes. In the first book it was village pub landlords being murdered in Norfolk, England. This time it’s an armed gang of bank-robbing little people in the American South. Thelonious definitely has a flair for being in the wrong place at the wrong time—and with hilarious results!

Now I’m not saying I’ll never work with a traditional publisher again. There are some good publishers out there and I’d be happy to work with them. But like many of my book-writing contemporaries, this time I’ll make 100% sure I’m getting a fair publishing deal—particularly with regard to digital royalties—before I place my hard work with anyone.

Book blurb for Rotten Peaches (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles):

“Animal Dwarf Bandits” with Tommy Guns are on a crime spree in Georgia!

Dillinger-style bank heists are being committed by a dangerous gang of little people wearing animal masks. Enter ursine photojournalist Thelonious T. Bear. Still smarting from his misadventures in Norfolk, he’s eager to begin his assignment in the American South. However, Thelonious soon learns that the South isn’t all fried chicken and sweet tea. In between encounters with a trigger-happy farmer and a fire-and-brimstone preacher with a snake, he’s stalked by a man in a red pickup truck and nearly bear-napped by a family of hillbillies. Thelonious’s resemblance to one of the bank bandits puts him on the radar of Sheriff Maynard Grizzle and budding reporter Nate Jessop, both of whom are convinced he’s in the gang. As the robberies gain more media attention, locals smell fame in the air. Suddenly everyone wants in on the action. And Thelonious finds himself at the heart of yet another series of crimes!

Excerpt

By late afternoon a tired and hungry Thelonious was ready to pack it in for the day—until he saw the ruined timber barn. It was set well back from the road in a field so long untended it actually seemed to consume the structure. An oak tree had fallen onto the roof, causing it to collapse. The tree was thriving and had even become part of the barn, feeding new life into something left to die. Parking at the edge of what once had been a driveway, Thelonious got out of the Mini. He stood for a moment perusing the site. Slinging his camera bag over one shoulder, he trundled forth into the overgrown field. A No Trespassing sign lay on the ground, covered over with weedy detritus. It was still attached to a chain that had fallen down between two rotted posts. He passed right by, never seeing it.

Thelonious photographed the barn from various angles, changing lenses as he saw fit. Although the weight of his camera bag was a nuisance, he dared not set it down for fear it would be swallowed by the overgrowth. Approaching the barn’s entrance, he noticed several bales of hay inside that had been left there to rot. Rust-covered farm implements lay scattered about both inside and out. He included them in some of the images, since they lent extra character to the scene. He even captured a triangle of sunlight coming through the barn’s collapsed roof as it returned the mouldering hay to its original golden splendour, zooming in when a mouse poked its head out to feel the sunshine on its whiskers. The light shifted and changed hue, adding shadow, depth and richness to his compositions. Had Thelonious’s attention not been caught by a ramshackle assemblage of containers off to one side, he might’ve seen the figure skulking in the shadows behind him.

A rusty metal cylinder with a triangular-shaped lid had been set up in a corner of the barn. An encrusted pipe had been attached to the top, the elbow joint bending it sideways connecting it to a worm-eaten wooden barrel; its remaining iron bands had turned green with corrosion. Glass jugs and jam jars lay strewn about on the dirt floor. Some looked as if they had mouse droppings on them. Thelonious’s nostrils detected the odour of fermenting grains. It appeared that he’d stumbled upon a moonshine still.

As Thelonious framed it in his viewfinder, he heard a loud explosion. A bullet whistled past his right ear, nearly taking his deerstalker hat with it.

“Hold it right thare!”

A wiry old man with a shotgun stepped out from the shadows. He planted himself solidly behind Thelonious. A long scraggly beard hung from his chin; it would’ve been white if not for the dribbles of tobacco juice. Thelonious was pretty sure he saw things moving in it.

The ancient codger aimed the firearm at Thelonious’s chest, the brown sticks of his arms surprisingly steady as they stuck out from his tattered bib overalls. “This here’s private property!” he shouted.

Thelonious took a few steps back, feeling his bowels loosening. “I thought the barn was abandoned?” he croaked.

“Abandoned?” The old man spat into the dirt. “This here barn ain’t abandoned!”

“I must’ve made a mistake.”

“Ah’ll say y’all made a mistake! This here’s my farm!”

“Sorry.”

“Hmmph…” The farmer squinted hard at his intruder, his creased face like a dried plum above the beard.

Thelonious shifted the camera bag to his other shoulder. “I’ll just be on my way then.”

But the farmer had other ideas. He moved nearer, closing the gap between them. “Did that no ’count Bobby Ray Tuggle send y’all down here to steal my corn liquor?”

“No!” Thelonious shook his head until he thought it would fall off. The cosy relationship between the old man’s index finger and the shotgun’s trigger was making him nervous.

“Y’all don’t know Bobby Ray?”

“I don’t know anyone!”

“Okay. If’n y’all say so.”

Hoping this was the end of it, Thelonious turned to go.

“Not so dang fast! Didn’t y’all see my ‘no trespassing’ sign?”

“What ‘no trespassing’ sign?”

“Y’all walked right on past it. It’s thare, plain as day!” A skeletal brown finger pointed toward the barn’s gaping entrance. “C’aint miss it!”

“But I didn’t see any sign!”

“Ah shoot trespassers.” The farmer gave Thelonious a grisly brown grin. “Shot me one last year. He’s buried out back of the barn. Wanna see?”

About the Authors

Mitzi Szereto is an author and anthology editor of multi-genre fiction and non-fiction. She has her own blog Errant Ramblings: Mitzi Szereto's Weblog, and a web TV channel Mitzi TV, which covers the “quirky” side of London. Her books include Normal for Norfolk (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles); Love, Lust and Zombies; Darker Edge of Desire: Gothic Tales of Romance; The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray; Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire; Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts; Red Velvet and Absinthe: Paranormal Erotic Romance; In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales; Getting Even: Revenge Stories; Dying For It: Tales of Sex and Death and Silk Sheets: Collected Stories of Mitzi Szereto.

Teddy Tedaloo is an author, celebrity teddy bear and the publisher and editor of The Teddy Tedaloo Times. He’s also a trendsetter, world traveller, and the production assistant extraordinaire/co-star of the web TV channel Mitzi TV. Popular in social media circles such as Facebook and Twitter, he’s known for his entertaining commentary and opinions as well as being an advocate for animal welfare. He lives (and goes) wherever Mitzi lives (and goes). He’s the co-author of Normal for Norfolk (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles). Rotten Peaches (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles) is his second novel in the series.