Ereading Experiences in Germany

Okay... so I went down the rabbit hole a bit. I found this article: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15423450,00.html  about reading portals in Germany. And now you will be so proud of me... I signed up for a profile on Lovelybooks.de! Yes, it is a little funny I'm sure as I was using Google Translate. No telling what some of my answers will come out in German when they translate them from English. Thank goodness some things about websites are universal, so I understood what they meant about uploading my image and this warning, or at least how Google Translate put it: "By 
uploading the photos you certify that you have no rights of third parties, in particular copyright and 
portrait right, injured."


This is my profile: http://www.lovelybooks.de/mitglied/elizabethannwest/

Click on Marcel Proust. I'm not 100% sure what the German means, but it's basically answer these random questions and we will put one up randomly on your public profile on the bottom right. :) Some of the questions I couldn't answer because the translation was too vague. I'm nervous about my answer to "What great misfortune on you?" I hope they meant something along the lines of "What is the saddest thing to happen to you?" I was a bit personal there, revealing that I once lost an early pregnancy while my husband was out to sea for the military. I wasn't sure how well Navy deployment would translate.

There is supposed to be somewhere I can get them to identify me as the writer of CANCELLED. I was most interested in joining LovelyBook.de because they offer a way for readers to ask questions of authors as soon as they have them with their ereader and highlight text. I thought, well snap, what a great way to help foster global communication? My book is a modern, contemporary American tale, I'm positive there are colloquialisms and customs in the book that I take for granted as known to my American readers, but any German readers would be confused. Like, they might wonder where on earth are the sex scenes since I have a tendency to fade to black. To give a perspective on how prude our society is in comparison? The Book of the Day on the left side was Mindfuck. Yep. Just out there, here it is. :)

I'm going to spend some more time on the site, it runs basically like a Goodreads, but I think some users do speak English. It's a great learning opportunity for me, and I'm ecstatic to have found it. Signing up is not for the faint of heart, there is a little bit of guessing, even with Google translating the page for me in Chrome. German embedded in images doesn't translate. But I learned some new German words, like Bucher is books, Alle is all, and Autor is Author. How cool is that?

***BREAKING NEWS: I'm featured on Nathan Lowell Presents today! It's a fun feature about the time I killed my mother's rubber tree plant in an attempt to become a superball mogul. Please show some love with a little traffic and comments. http://www.nathanlowell.com/presents/guest-post/mother-of-invention/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mother-of-invention :) ***

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.  WIP: PAST DUE A nurse, crippled by debt, takes a part-time job in medical investigation only to find the man she's dating is a fraud!  (status: outlining)

September Sales for Cancelled

I am very proud of my release month! My original goal, way back when, was to sell 50 copies, releasing the beginning of the month. I didn't release CANCELLED until September 14, so I only had 16 days, not 30. I sold a total of 28 copies!!! Extrapolating that rate out, it was roughly 1.75 books on average per day, and if I had had 30 days, multiplied by 1.75, that would have been 52.5 books!

Here is what my sales looked like:

New Book Release: 3 Things I Wish I Had Done

We all have regrets. This post is not about that. I do NOT regret publishing CANCELLED one bit. The feedback has been great, though I know the less-than-stellar feedback is going to have its own season. This is about sharing the knowledge I learned from my two-weeks of being a published author and what I wish I could have done differently for a better release.

1. I Wish I Had Trusted My Resolve

Book reviewers schedule month in advance. They have to. It takes so much work to volunteer to review book, even free ones. There's time invested in reading, writing the review, uploading the review, running the blog, and promoting the post. For this alone, even if I ever get a bad review, I will NEVER be anything less than eternally grateful to anyone who takes the time to review my book.

I didn't 100% trust myself that I would make my deadline. I wish I had. If I had known without a doubt I was going to publish in September, I would have scheduled my book reviews in August to make October. Right now I'm struggling to get dates in October and a few popular places can't review my book until January! But I'm turning that lemon into lemonade by promising to have a sneak peek at my next book for those reviews (I'm releasing PAST DUE in February). Here's the thing, I could have even scheduled my blog tour a month past my release date, giving myself a month cushion. Now I know I'm a writer that can push myself to kick a deadline's butt; I will be less fearful about making commitments.

Why The Hardest Part Is AFTER Your Publish

My #ROW80 Round 3 goals was to publish. I did that!

I heard in a couple of places that writing is the easy part, it's after you publish where things get tough. I secretly laughed. HA! I have marketing experience. HA! I love talking and networking with people. That's going to be the best part!

I was incorrect.

I won't say wrong, because I AM enjoying marketing. But I'm also starting to look forward to writing over marketing. Here's why:

1. I make mistakes out of my control to fix quickly. Even when I wrote non-fiction, the first few times you are using an uploading interface, you're going to mess up. It's inherent. Either the form instructions aren't worded correctly, or your browser makes a funky refresh half-way through, or you just have so many fields the chance of error is very high. I uploaded the wrong file to Amazon and Barnes and Noble at first, and didn't realize it takes 48-72 hours to fix that! Read that again, if you upload the wrong file, it takes 48-72 hours to fix it. You have to wait 24 hours for the wrong file to populate just to get access to change it, then you upload the right one and must wait another 24 hours to upload the new file. No big deal right? Except that the book is available for sale BEFORE the KDP or PubIt interface gives you access to fix it! Smashwords is MUCH quicker, and once I realized my mistake, I fixed it there and then made sales on the other sites and I didn't have access to fix it. 
2. Every interaction counts. I was still a little too high off my publication and stopped by Konrath's blog because he was getting down on himself and I wanted him to know his blog educated me, and now I was self-published. I didn't include a link to my book, I wasn't there to flog my book (that would be very bad manners). He gets a bunch of flak from people entrenched in their ideals, and I figured a thank you, even from a small author, would help. I explained that 6 people bought my book. He responded back "Make that 7, I just bought it for my wife." CRINGE. The file was wrong! Yep. Even worse, there were typos in my comment! Now, even just a comment can be a big deal. Part of me is hoping his wife never reads it, but the other part of me hopes she does and likes it. All of me hopes she doesn't read it and hate it. Dislike, okay. I dislike many books that aren't poorly written, they just don't appeal to me. 
3. Cliques are everywhere. I am working on a new paradigm in indie marketing: inclusive. There are so many books of the day, book of the month, today's review, today's deal promotions, increasingly more that you must pay for. Remember in school when we got the Scholastic book fair sheet? There were dozens of books. It was fun to read about all of them and circle the ones I wanted. If the teacher passed out a sheet with only one book on it? One book on it? Most of the class wouldn't be interested and Scholastic wouldn't make any money. Even B&N and Amazon when they email to me include numerous books in the newsletter. So I'm working on building http://ebookpromotions.blogspot.com for ALL authors of ALL genres to run monthly promotions that have traction because of the sheer number of authors participating. As a reader, which circular are you going to read? These 5 products are on sale...or...Over 50 products, now on sale! I know which one I'm going to spend my valuable time on because there is a greater chance there is something I will want. October we're putting together virtual Trick or Treating for Ebooks and every author is invited to join.
4. It's no longer the me show, but the us show. Marketing as an indie requires help. You have to get over asking for help pretty quickly. Then, once it's offered, you sure as heck better pull through on your end of the bargain. I asked for help and received 4 offers to guest blog. I have two entries due tomorrow for this week. I had to put two more on my calendar so I do not forget that I promised to contribute. 

So that's just the tip of the iceberg I'm sure. I'm also thinking about my next novel, wondering when/if I can let CANCELLED run on auto-pilot. Probably never. But things sure do seem a great deal simpler when I only had one book I was working on writing...

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. 
WIP: SERVED A single father learns moving on with his life bring out the worst in his daughter's mother. (Sequel to CANCELLED)

My A ROUND OF WORDS IN 80 DAYS Friends: Visit their blogs and leave some writer love. This is our last week!

All Ebook Formatting Made Super Simple

I finished my final round of edits and began working on formatting. GRR! UGH! SERIOUSLY??????? and a number of expletives left my mouth early on...until I found Jutoh. I originally was looking for something free, but this program is worth 40 pounds of gold, not just $40. I only paid $24 in a combination deal to purchase Writer's Cafe as well, but that's a separate blog post.

How easy is Jutoh? This easy.

Download OpenOffice.org if you don't already have it. Write your story. Pick one style for your chapter headings. Pick another for your ebook text (set your paragraph indent with the style, DO NOT USE TABS). Save as .odt [you can have more styles, I have 4 in my book total and it preserved them all!!!]

Open Jutoh. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux (YAY!). Start a new project. Fill in your metadata (be prepared for this, this helps Amazon and the other sites catalog and show your book for other readers). Select the .odt file you made with everything in it. Select the file you want to be your cover. Tell it to autogenerate your Table of Contents. Click compile. Wait a minute or two. Run the check, then go to FILE:Export and pick the format you want. 

TA DA!!!! You now have access to your book is every format you need. Including .epub, .mobi, the file for Smashwords, and other formats I don't even know where they sell.

Want to get fancy? You can change up which files are included in making the ebook for different versions called configurations. So if one store doesn't allow links in the book, but another does, have two different files of the area with the links and presto changeo.

Like I said....worth 40 pounds of gold. Which at current market value would be almost $1.2 million. 

Give Jutoh a try, a trial copy is free. I don't know exactly how long the trial lasts, as I played with the software for about 30 minutes before deciding it was a must-have for a self-published author.

UPDATE: All formats uploaded to the Amazon, BN, and Smashwords with 0 problems. The Smashwords edition I just saved the file I made perfect for Jutoh that was .odt as a .doc. I fixed the Copyright page and added the ### to the end. So far, so good. A few typo issues, but that was my fault of choosing the wrong file. In the future, upload day will not involve me being the sole caregiver of my toddler. 

And I've already sold 3 copies! 

Get 50% off any version on Smashwords! Coupon code: JZ49W. http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88799

"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 22, 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Free Advertising On My Reader Site

I just overhauled my reader site because we changed to Go Daddy for hosting. I have 4 spots for 125x125 ads on http://eawestwriting.com. I would love to feature other indie authors/resources for readers. This site is NOT for writers, so if you are trying to sell a book about writing, this isn't the right venue. I know one spot will be taken up with a spot for the paupersbookclub.com. But I am open to other suggestions. I will be leaving up the first set at least through the middle of October. 


For individual books, I would like to read a copy first (and no, it doesn't have to be free, if your summary grabs me, I'll buy it and read it). I am making this site personally for my readers and don't want to recommend books I myself did not enjoy. It's nothing personal. I am not charging for these ads, and my site will be a link at the front and back of each of my ebooks. There will also be weekly chat. The ads do show up on every page. Also coming is super secret behind the scenes information for my readers to access via password in the ebook.


If you're interested, please email me with the information on the contact page.


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Small Victory, 30 Days to Publication

Since dancing animals went over so well yesterday, this is for you @Christinenolfi!





I detabbed my manuscript and removed all extra spaces!!! If could Irish line dance, I'd be doing it! :) The above clip is from a show my daughter and I watch called Shaun the Sheep. It's by the same people who do Wallace and Gromit. From a mother's POV, this show is awesome because NO ONE TALKS. Yep. That's right. Everything is communicated through music and sound effects, but no talking. I wrote many scenes of CANCELLED to the background noise of Shaun the Sheep.


It feels awesome to have the file ready for ebook formatting, even though I still need to edit more. I couldn't help myself reading a little as I went along, and man, I'm still in love with this story. I still laugh out loud at parts. It's a little surreal, because *I* wrote it. But when I read it, I feel like it's some other author's work I'm deliciously getting a sneak peek at. (Don't worry, it's really, really mine. I have the 20 plus different files showing the progression of the story, LOL). Anyone one else get that sometimes when they read their own work? Like it's not theirs?


Goals for this week:


Finish up the editing. 


Get my husband to move my reader site to a host so I can get my links straight.


Make reader site 100% ready to go!


Setup a reader email address I'm willing to make public.




"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

#ROW80 Check In: "I Like to Move It, Move It"

This isn't a pun about my move to Connecticut, although it works on that level, too, I suppose. No, this is the theme song for the next month, our last month in this round of A Round of Words in 80 Days. It is direct response to my perfectionism/procrastination blog post from Friday. If I'm moving it (getting stuff done), I'm NOT procrastinating. If I'm moving it, I sending a big, fat raspberry to my crippling perfectionism. PPPPPPPPPPPPFFFFFTTTTTT!!!!! ;)

To start, today I am moving over the entire .txt file of my manuscript into the ebook formatting master and fixing the tabs and formatting in one fell swoop. ****TABS are EVIL. NEVER, EVER use them! Use the ruler at the top to set your indentations, TRUST ME! (PSA over)**** Then, I will go back and start making the penned edits into the computer. I still have about 14 chapters to pen edit. 

I think the methodology might work better for me. I was going chapter by chapter with the copying and pasting from the .txt file, then editing. It's too easy for me to self-congratulate myself that way without seeing how much work to go. This way, I can see the final page count (200) and still go chapter by chapter editing. I can still be proud of myself when I finish each chapter, but still see I'm only up to Page 36 out of 200, or Page 57 out of 200, etc. This gives me a more realistic sense of a progress bar.

So, goals for today: get whole kit and kaboodle tabs fixed.
Finish making computer edits up to Chapter 7
Work on pen edits tonight, get up to Chapter 20.

THAT would put me at about a full 35% complete for both a clean copy AND an ebook file. Remember, I'm doubling duty. I have two weeks to finish so I can print one more time, and pen edit during my move when I will be without Internet (might be a good thing). Then, I will make last few changes and VOILA! I'm ready to publish an ebook!!! 

:Singing:: I like to move it, move it.  


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER AWESOME A ROUND OF WORDS IN 80 DAYS PARTICIPANTS AND THEIR BLOGS!!!! LEAVE SOME LOVE IF YOU STOP BY:

#ROW80 Check In #2 When Plans go Awry, You Adjust :)

I am blessed in that I have had many opportunities to travel. My mother always says it's because I was born on a Thursday (Thursday's child has far to go). This journey of writing I am on is already coming with adjustments. This non-coffee drinker has been drinking the stuff! (well, half coffee, half milk, a little caffeine goes a LONG way in my system).


The first trip I ever took that went horribly awry was a school vacation to Walt Disney World when I was in 6th grade. We went by bus from Virginia Beach, Va to Orlando, FL. On the way home, the bus broke down, stranding us at the Georgia Welcoming Center. A bus full of teenagers for 8 hours? The staff at the Welcoming Center was NOT very welcoming. But, we bought their entire supply of candy, and nearly emptied out the vending machines. And we played a good deal of card games. The center sold decks with pictures of Georgia on them.


Since then, I've gone to Paris with my husband....with him in a wheelchair. Want to know how handicapped accessible the City of Lights is? The Louvre. That's about it. Oh, and the train station in La Defense has an elevator. No other train station has an elevator, so I carried the wheel chair up and down the two flights of stairs while my husband played Hop-along Cassidy up and down the stairs. Did I mention this was our honeymoon? Yep. He broke his ankle in three places two weeks before our wedding. 


Then there was the 10 days in Japan in 2007. Going home, I didn't really consider how difficult it would be to move all three pieces of my luggage through Shinjuku Station during rush hour in the morning to get to the airport in Tokyo (I was staying in Yokosuka, where the Navy base is). It wasn't like Paris where people offered to help me. No, instead I just cried as I couldn't get all of the pieces up the stairs in time to make my train to make it to the airport in time to catch my flight. I was about to fall into despair when Eureka! I just pushed the pieces out the door and hailed a taxi. It was $150 in U.S. after the exchange rate, but I made my flight! 


Anyway, every journey I've ever made is never perfect. From the cross-country moves to San Diego and back to the East Coast, visiting my husband in Australia and Hawaii, and the multitude of times I've traveled to middle-of-nowhere Texas, I've always had to improvise. This Round of Words in 80 Days is no different.


I am sad and disappointed to say my first draft still isn't finished. However, I'm not throwing in the towel. Far from it. I have adjusted. The story planning of my next novel is going to become something I do whenever, not necessarily this week. It's not absolutely vital to me getting CANCELLED out the door. I am also very, very close to a completed first draft. 

In fact, today is Sunday, and the day I have the most time to write. Friday and Saturday I had social obligations for my husband's work. But today, he's going to watch the baby and I'm going to get a book finished!


So if your #ROW80 journey isn't going 100% to plan, fret not. This is a pretty long trip, 80 days. And if a few days aren't what we expect it will be okay. Looking back, we're going to remember the successes, and the setbacks won't matter.


"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.


Be sure to read a check-in from one of my friends also participating in Round 3 of a Round of Words in 80 Days.

Self-Published Author: Paying the Tax Man

Taxes? Who thinks about the tax ramifications when they are self-publishing a novel? I most certainly did, and you should, too.


There are two types of organizations the IRS and State Treasurers see writers falling in: hobbyists and professionals. Serious problems arise when an author moves between the two groups and doesn't adjust accordingly!


Hobby Writers: while they might make some money off their writing, do not take steps to improve profitability, turn vast majority of money back into running their hobby. A good example would be a short story writer who runs a blog with advertising on it that covers her website operating expenses. 


Now, that same short story writer gets popular. Suddenly, her advertising costs aren't just covering her hosting expenses, but bringing in $100, $200, $500 of extra money in per month. Uh-oh. Someone just turned into a business! 


Generally, a business is any activity that makes a profit in 3 of the last 5 years. 


Here's the million dollar question (okay not really a million dollar question, but important):


CAN AN UNPUBLISHED WRITER WORKING ON HIS OR HER FIRST NOVEL CLAIM EXPENSES RELATED TO SELF-PUBLISHING THAT NOVEL BEFORE IT COMES OUT?


Yes. Yes, you can.***


And here's the ***, you must be in this for the win. This means, yes you can claim a reasonable loss for writing your first novel. Examples of reasonable expenses might be cover art, web hosting space, office supplies, etc. Should you go out and splurge on a $4,000 gamer's delight desktop and make it a tax-write off? I wouldn't unless you are planning on making that computer a work computer first and foremost. If you go out and buy a reasonably priced "work" laptop? Sure, and you can depreciate it, but that's a whole blog post by itself. 


The bottom line is you must keep records. Actual receipts or bank statements showing the purchases. I use Mint.com to keep my financials straight so I can tag expenses as they come it. I also have a separate bank account just for my writing income and expenses. All of these little things make it clearer to the IRS should I get audited that I am serious about my writing business. And don't make the mistake that just because the profits you make is considered "fun money" by you and your partner that the IRS will agree that means you don't "live off it." They won't.


Another must have if you are going to take a loss for your first year writing (and MOST businesses take a loss in their first year due to start-up costs), is a BUSINESS PLAN. Don't break out into a sweat. A business plan is just a document you write that shows your plan for becoming profitable. It gives an expected publication date (or in the case of a writer pursuing traditional publication, an expected date of a deal). It shows how much you expect to make, either in sales or in an advance, and where that money will be cashed out to you, the owner, or reinvested into the company. We don't write on typewriters anymore people, you should have a plan to get that novel written and making you money in the next 24 months. 


WHETHER YOU DO OR DO NOT ITEMIZE DEDUCTIONS, YOU DO HAVE TO REPORT YOUR INCOME.


Here's the deal on Internet writing. Many websites find loopholes around reporting income greater than $600 to the IRS for their users. Either the website is based in Canada, or they label it as something else. n the end, it doesn't matter. The responsibility to report YOUR income is on YOU. 


If you have given your social security number (or FEIN) to a website that is paying you via Paypal or any other manner of transfer, the IRS can find out how much you made. If you HAVEN'T given your SSN to a website that is paying you via Paypal or any other manner of transfer, the IRS can find out how much you made. 


How? You still bank in the United States, right? Imagine you get audited for something else, and suddenly you find yourself trying to explain these lump sum transfers into your bank account. Remember, even gifts over a certain amount you have to claim as income.


BEWARE THE TAX DOWNSIDE OF SUCCESS!


Another problem self-published, or any writer can face, is success. That's right. As you start making money, the IRS wants some withholding. Now, when you work for an employer, this is automatic. You set it up with a W-4, and your employer withholds a certain percentage for federal and state taxes, and pays half of your Medicare and Social Security taxes. As a writer, you are self-employed, and on the hook for the full 15.4% (this doesn't include your federal and state tax obligations, just the self-employment tax). 


If you are going to OWE the federal government more than $1,000 when you go to file your taxes, you MUST make quarterly tax payments to avoid penalties.


There isn't a hard and fast threshold on when you need to start making quarterly payments. In my case for example, my husband and I file jointly, and his withholding more than makes up for my current tax obligation at the end of every year. We still get a tax refund. However, since we are military, I file state taxes on my own and have to be very careful there. States require quarterly payments too, but the rules vary. Some states only require quarterly tax payments if you are required to make federal tax payments (a loop hole I fall into), some have a monetary threshold based on the taxes you'd owe the state. It just depends, but all states have a website now and you can look yours up.


If you don't feel comfortable estimating a tax return to figure out when you'd owe more than $1,000, then make quarterly tax payments. You get the money back when you file if you don't owe enough tax to need it. The only downside is you lose any interest you could have earned had that money sat in your bank, IF it was going to sit in an interest bearing account. Some writers I know use their quarterly tax payments to make a "cash stash" for their projects next year. I don't agree with this philosophy; if you can save it for a tax bill, you can save it in a savings account. But that's just me.


Also, if you are getting into the area of enough profits that you wish to hire an accountant, ask about moving your reporting dates. As a business, you have the ability to file a form with the IRS that says your fiscal year runs from June 13th to June 12th of the next year, or any year-long span you choose. Some accountants will offer a discount for their services if you stay away from January-April (tax season) and September-October (end of the government fiscal year, time when many government contracting companies do their reporting also). This means you won't bring added stress to their busiest times, and depending on how you time it (late July/August) you'll probably get better service and a glimpse at the tax changes to come and can plan ahead more.


Finally, use your local Small Business Administration. It's what they are there for. Their help is free, and their goal is to help small business owners navigate the myriad of state and federal laws concerning business. Plus, they are a great resource for grants and loans.






"Cancelled" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Self-Published Authors: We're A Smaller Group Than You Think

As a relative newcomer to the fiction writing community, and self-publishing fiction writing community at that, I have made a startling observation: we're small potatoes. That's right. There aren't thousands and thousands of us seeking "professional" author status through self-publishing. By my count, there are probably a few hundred "self-published" blogs/"author platforms" out there and we're all linked together. Even me with my paltry 10 followers. 


Remember that game we played on car trips or to drink more alcohol? The Six-Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Self-publishing is like the two or three degrees of J.A. Konrath/Dean Wesley Smith/Amanda Hocking/ and the other big names. Our blogs are linked. We spend time commenting and linking to each other's blogs. Of course the big names don't really have as much time to comment on others' without running the risk of ticking off other followers for not commenting on their blogs. However, I was pleasantly shocked and honored when Lucy Kevin commented on mine ;)


And I am SO tired of reading that only crap is self-published. That's ridiculous. You want to know what I think is crap? William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Most of the Hemingway crap I had to read. Cold Sassy Tree. And so on, and so on. Then there is crap I changed my mind on. 17-year-old me forced to read Pride and Prejudice? Didn't relate to any of the characters, couldn't really understand or respect the time period. Hated it. Labeled Jane Austen as crap for many, many years. Want to know what changed my mind? Maturity. Oh, and watching the 2005 movie. Yep, THAT one loathed by Colin Firth lovers everywhere. Once I saw the nuts and bolts of the storyline, I was able to read with pleasure every one of Austen's words. 


And you know what, speaking of Austen's times and much earlier, self-publishing is NOT new. First people to invest in a Gutenberg? Pretty sure they didn't have agents. I'm not excusing work that isn't given even a cursory edit. However, I'm not 100% convinced every book I've bought, especially lately, is given a thorough look-through. I'm not talking about typos, but clunky descriptions, characters I can't stand, and pages and pages full of bleh. Yes, bleh is a technical literary critique term ;) 


At the risk of naming names, I am a huge Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham fan. Even her cheating Lexi in Remember Me? However, one book I couldn't believe was published by her was Twenties Girl. I am even such a die-hard Kinsella fan, I pre-ordered it back when it came out. A few months ago, it was donated to Goodwill. I thought it was slow. So slow, I couldn't even finish it. I tried five different times to read it, but couldn't find anything remotely redeeming about the characters, ghost or no. 


But I'm not Sophie Kinsella's editor or publisher. I am also in the minority of the review opinions for that book. But what if I WAS her editor or publisher and said "Sophie, this isn't going to work. You're going to alienate your readers and jeopardize your illustrious career." My goodness, that would have been horrible for the hundreds and hundreds of people who loved that book! People who maybe had cranky, overbearing relatives that made Sadie endearing to them (I lack such relatives).  


Thank goodness Sophie Kinsella didn't stop writing. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Mini-Shopaholic. I mean, I laughed so many times my husband asked me to go read upstairs! Maybe it was because I HAVE a 2-year-old. Thank goodness she doesn't say "Mine" yet, but she knows how to grab candy and put it on the conveyor belt at the grocery store when I'm not looking. And she has grabbed my credit card out of my hand to be the one to swipe it through! They learn so fast...


Here's the point. We can't make blanket statements about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing and the quality of work both produce. It's at the individual work level that critiques should be made. I have read horrible self-published works, and horrible works that were published through other means, including commercial outlets. I've played fantastic independently published video games, and seen commercially sold games riddled with spelling mistakes, bugs, and graphical catastrophes. Are we such a corporate-ocracy that we only believe quality exists when it has a company selling it? If so, then I have a Sham-wow to sell you. It's great, because it's made in Germany.... 

G. P. Ching recently talked about the literary bullying that goes on all the time on her blog So Write. The sad part is everyone has had someone come before them. Even those with contracts to scrutinize and a "marketing department at their disposal," had other writers that acted as inspirations or role model. We should be encouraging each other, not tearing each other down. Together, indie published, self-published, or Big 6 published, all of us are fighting to increase readership of books, period. We're competing against TV, video games, and other forms of entertainment. Not each other. And the sooner we realize that the more books in a given genre there are for a fan of that genre, the longer the reader will stay reading and not doing other leisure activities, the better off we'll be.




"CANCELLED" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Self-Published Author: On Vacation

I am on vacation. It's been very difficult with my laptop in tow to not "work" while I'm on vacation. I don't count writing in this, I have written a small amount each day I've been here. No, the work I'm talking about is building a following, staying present in the online writing community, and all that jazz. THAT has been difficult to stay away from. 


This blog post is technically breaking the rules, but I figured it better to announce where and why I'm gone, than to just be gone for nearly 2 weeks. I will not return home until June 15th, and then I will be recovering from vacation. I don't expect to be back at work until June 20th. 


My first draft is taking a little longer than I anticipated, not a horrible thing. Better to have a goal to work towards and maybe not make it than to have no goal and just work on it willy-nilly. After speaking with a few people in my accountability group, they all agree it is better I push back my publication to September and put out the best book I can than to slap-dash something together just to make an arbitrary deadline. This doesn't mean my personal deadlines aren't important, they absolutely are! However, in reality, this novel is my first fiction project and I made the deadline on a best-educated guess. I wasn't too far off, only about 25% time-wise. In the corporate world, projects run over all the time. 


I will admit I was disappointed, and nervous to even set a new deadline. But, after a few days of letting those feelings work themselves out, I got over it. Some days I worry that I'm not up to snuff to write a novel. Then I have days where I'm ready to charge the literary world! I'm sure every writer goes through this, and I will have many more up and down days before any reader ever gets her hands on CANCELLED.


"CANCELLED" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Self-Published Author: Deadlines, Making a Living, 10-year plan

Going to be close on deadline, but I can do it! Tuesday at midnight is the deadline for my first manuscript. I'm currently sitting at 48,000 words. I have about 20,000 more to go. Then let it simmer, and work on outlining second book.


Which brings me to one of my favorite activities: GENRE SNOOPING. That's right. What are people in my genre writing? What are they pricing it at? What does it read like? I've mentioned Lucy Kevin before in regards to her ebook pricing strategy, and was surprised to realize why I couldn't find a ton of information about her. She doesn't exist. Okay, she does, but her main writing name is Bella Andre. No, I'm not unmasking a superhero, she plainly lists her pseudonyms on her main site. 


Bella Andre is an indie publishing goddess! She has over 16 titles and even better, she's like me! Let's write those modern, contemporary stories about love in the real world! Melodrama? Yuck. Weak females? Double yuck. Super strong females the male must "tame?" Super double yuck. June looks like it's going to be me devouring her entire Lucy Kevin line. It might be the first series I can put in my section of books I have personally read and like for my readers waiting in between my novels (check out my Catering to the Readers post)


So there is hope for my writing style. +1. I next played with the real numbers posted by one of the wonderful brains behind The Writer's Guide to Epublishing, D.D. Scott, and also by YA author Megg Jensen, writer of Anathema. At $2.99, Megg saw sales in the range of 50-150 books per month. D.D. Scott's $2.99 offerings, with a $.99 intro (Bootscootin' Blahniks) sees monthly sales between 200-290 books per month.


Why would I forecast my own writing? After all I have 0 data for my own books. True, but I can set goals. I know I will sell at $2.99 for a royalty of roughly $2.00, to make the math easy and to account for slight variations in royalty calculations between Amazon, Nook, and Smashwords. I currently have a publication schedule of two novels per calendar year. This year is only one, but it's my first year. I have Book #2 of the Red Ink Collection, PAST DUE, slated for March 2012, and Book #3 SERVED which is a sequel to CANCELLED slated for August 2012. 


If I average 100 books per month, per title (yes, some months might see CANCELLED sell 150, but PAST DUE only 57, and vice-versa. Calculations are based on an average, so I can even have good and bad months and not panic, Hitchhiker's style). In 2012, I will make $5,400 on my three novels. That meets my second goal of writing when I began my fiction career: Make $5,000 in one calendar year from my fiction writing. 


What if I do better than that? What if my numbers are higher, say 150 books per novel per month on average for the year? That's $8,100 in 2012. 


The highest I hoped for was to average 200 books per title per month. Again, we're talking averages, so having a few outlier months that are awesome would be enough to pull the average up. This is like big dreaming. That would be a nice $10,800 for 2012. Or 5,400 books sold in the year.


Now here is where the math gets interesting. Once I have more titles, assuming I can keep the average up (which it looks like is possible given D.D. Scott's numbers on her older titles, remember just average, not every book must sell the average number each month), in 2013 I would have 5 novels (no idea what book 4 and 5 are, but I have ideas that could flesh out, too far in advance to think concretely that far. Maybe PAST DUE gets a sequel, maybe it doesn't.) Average of 100 books per month per title (5) = $10,200 for the year. Average of 150 books per month per title = $15,300. Average of 200 books per month per title = $20,400. 


That's moving from intern to entry level hire.


I continued my two books per year production schedule up to 9 novels, or 2015, which is where I think a little burn out might occur. Then I stepped down to 1 novel per year. I calculated out for the next ten years because that is the length of my husband's naval career at the moment. Here's where I'm looking at this as a career path:


2021, ten years in the game. I'm 39 years old. 15 novels in the game. 
100 books average per month per title = 17,800 books $35,600.
150 books average per month per title = 26,700 books $53,400.
200 books average per month per title = 35,600 books $71,200.


Over my ten year career:
At 100 books avg. I would have sold 114,000 books, made $228,000.
At 150 books avg. I would have sold 170,900 books made $341,800.
At 200 books avg. I would have sold 228,000 books and made $456,000


What's The Point? My writing, while keeping me sane, doesn't come without trade-offs. For every 30 minutes of wordmongering, that's 30 minutes I'm not hanging with my family or doing something else. Some things, my writing is way more productive over, like over me playing video games. Other things, like playing with my daughter or playing a family game I wouldn't necessarily put my writing down as more important in comparison. For the record, doing laundry does not override writing time. :)


I've been writing for 4 years (non-fiction articles). I took off considerable time when I became pregnant and had my daughter. About 14 months of maternity leave :) I made $4,000 my first year writing, $2,000 my second (I became pregnant that year after struggling for over a year with fertility issues), and $1100 my third (didn't start writing again until daughter was 6 months old). Last year I claimed a $500 profit, because as she learned to walk, I got busy. Very busy. Now that she's almost 2, there is more time she is independent. 


I have to look at the monetary value of my writing and decide if it matches up with the qualitative value of my life. Does the money I make for the hours I work add to my family's well-being by giving us money to take vacations, by keeping Mommy from feeling restless/worthless, by growing a retirement fund for me to perhaps lessen the financial burden later? I think it does. 


Why forecast 10 years? In ten years, my daughter will be 12. With 15 novels, I could easily take a long hiatus and still see some money come in. There's no telling what life will be like between now and then, or even after that date. I do know most likely my husband will be leaving the Navy and that will be a big transition. That extra money will probably come in handy in reducing the stress between military and civilian job. 


10 years is also a good length of time to plan a career path. No one goes from grunt to manager level in one year. It's important as indie writers we seriously sit down and look at expectations. We're not all going to be Amanda Hocking, J.A. Konrath, and Dean Wesley Smith. In fact, this year, I'm the equivalent of the girl getting the coffee. I'm writing my first novel, and politely talking to those ahead of me already published. Next year, I'll be the new girl in the cubicle farthest from a window, only part-time until a full-time position opens up. :)


But, we're in a growing industry. Who knows? Maybe I sell an average of 300 novels per title in 2012, breaking my highest expectations. Maybe I go from intern to full-time employee, with benefits. It's entirely possible with the double digit growth in ebooks. Of course, that also means more competition. So maybe I won't break an average of 75 books per month per title and spend more time in the windowless corner, still being asked to make the coffee once in awhile. 


I urge all of you to sit down and crunch some numbers. Have a goal. Have a realistic goal (100 books per month), a fantastic goal (150 books per month), and a super-awesome screaming from the top of the mountain goal (200 books per month). Reassess every year. 


For now, my 10 year plan is going in the front of my writing notebook (a three-ring binder with sheet protectors for my goals, current project, and next project). I will see it everyday. And work towards it every time I jump in my role as a writer and publisher.




"CANCELLED" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Self-Published Novel: Writing Accountability = #WORDMONGERING

I've been a dead beat for awhile on my novel. Poor, CANCELLED. But, I've recently found a new accountability program for the dead beat writer: #wordmongering. Yep. Put that hashtag into Twitter and you'll find us. A group of writers who start at the top of the hour, write for 30 minutes, then take a break for 30 minutes.

At first I thought this would be very inefficient. But it's not! My first round of 30 minutes I managed exactly 1,000 words. My second round? 1,172. Two thirds of Chapter 12 done.

So now I'm eating some ice cream and watching a NUMB3RS. Suddenly, my deadline of Tuesday for my first draft isn't so ominous...:)

In other news, information is off to my cover artist. Can't wait to show some results from the wonderful Melissa Oyler!


"CANCELLED" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

I Want to Self-Publish Because of the Cerulean Sweater

I have not read The Devil Wear Prada but I've read Everyone Worth Knowing by Laura Wesiburger. I tried recently to get through Last Night at Chateau Marmont, but it wasn't a good time for me reading-wise, I was more focused on writing energies. Okay, I have no idea if this scene is in the book, but I loved it in the movie version with Meryl Streep. The famous cerulean sweater.

In the movie scene, Meryl Streep's character as the editor-in-chief of New York's hottest fashion magazine, nay, bible, informs Anne Hathaway's character that she didn't choose that sweater, but a fashion line two seasons ago featured cerulean as a color. Then the next season other designers featured cerulean in their collections and that made it's way down the fashion lines to the bargain-bin sweater she was now wearing. 


Here's why I'm self-publishing: I want to be the person putting out the new cerulean line two seasons before everyone else wears it. Come again? Elizabeth, you're writing a book not designing clothes. I know that. My point is that I know my story isn't typical. I don't want to be typical. Craft wise, yes we should all be well-read in our genre and know the rules. Then break them. If you are writing a book just like another story already published, you're not going to make it out of the bargain bin. 


I know there will be readers who are annoyed my ending isn't perfect and I follow the hero's trip down Cupid's Path, and not his fiancée or the mother of his baby. And I do get flashes of scenes from the women's point-of-views. Such as Alexis calling her sorority sister from undergrad and talking about wedding dresses. You want to know what Johnathan's concerns about the wedding dress is? Is it in budget? Yes? Okay, then I can't wait to see you in it on our wedding day. That's it. He doesn't care about the fabrics used, the length, the line of the skirt. But if this was a traditional chick-lit, I would absolutely throw in a gushy, trying on the wedding dress scene. Shoot, chick-lit Hall-of-Famer Becky Bloomwood (Kinsella's Shopaholic) has TWO wedding dresses, and the drama of choosing between the two lasted nearly the entire novel! 


But so much about the publishing world is about what other books is your book like? As if your book must be similar in details, with just minor permutations or the silly, ignorant reader won't know what to do. In my opinion, there is wearable couture, and then there is the ready-to-wear lines. Wearable couture? Dan Brown's conspiracy thriller making secret societies cool and stuffy academia suddenly equips the hero physically and mentally for a life-or-death chase across countries, with no military involved. A spy type thriller with no military? And you're replacing the Establishment with the Vatican? Stephenie Meyer's vegetarian vampires. Vegetarian vampires? Whoever heard of a friendly vampire? Even Rice's Louis killed. 


With indie publishing, there aren't editors deciding which plot lines and story constructs are hot at the moment. I'm not arguing we don't need editors, we most certainly do. In fact, I am not proud of the way book releases are handled by many self-published novelists, with first drafts going to print. Editors welcome there! What the book world doesn't need is the bandwagon approach to publishing. Don't chase a reader trend, make one. Write to make people pause and decide if they like it. Be prepared to hear more from the people who don't like it than from the people who do. 


Forgive my constant pep-talk posts. They help me get excited all over again about my book as I'm currently stuck in the middle doldrums. Here's an excerpt from what I wrote yesterday in the dentist's waiting room and finished this morning, there's 1,000 words total to this scene:

     “Didn't you wear that same tie yesterday?” Eric gestured to the slate blue accessory with a satin geometric design around Johnathan's neck. Johnathan grabbed the tale and looked at it. 
     “A gray one like it.” Of course it was the same tie. He forgot to pack a different tie in his overnight bag. Yesterday's became today's recycling after he and Alex woke up at her place that morning. The last two weeks were a blur of dinning out, sleeping over, and alternating who packed an overnight bag.

    “No, I don't believe so. I believe that is exactly the same tie you wore yesterday.” Eric thumbed screens on his smart phone and showed the impromptu pictures from yesterday with the Claw, the mechanical hand at the end of the Hedis armature. It wasn't operational yet. He zipped through the scenes of showing what most men would do with a sudden third hand. Finally, he found Johnathan's poses. There was the CEO, struggling against the inactive Claw around his neck, and a slate blue tie with a satin geometric design dangling underneath.

    Johnathan hung his head. The cement floor of the work cave was a piece of abstract art. Various oil and lubrication stains made a random pattern of darkened splotches. Rainbow bits of electrical wire hid here and there, temporary visitors until their heavily modified Roomba was released. Neon drops of epoxy and other unidentifiable materials held permanent positions. At least until a good floor scraping.

     “And I also believe...” Eric held his pointer finger in the air, as if testing the wind, then brought it down and pointed it back to his best friend.  “You are in love with Alex.”

     No shock. No shame. Johnathan faced his oldest friend with a sheepish smile and eyes full of defiance. “She loves me back. I was going to tell you, but she had all of these rules at the beginning and I just tried...it was a miracle I didn't screw things up.”

     Eric played with an actuator on the work bench in front of them. He flicked the toggle switch back and forth. Click. Click. Click. Johnathan waited.

    “I'm not stupid. You two sucked at hiding.”

"Cancelled" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Reading About Craft, Trying to Write

I've had a very bad case of the insecurities lately. I keep reading about self-publishing and how it's all crap and slowly that mentality started to freak me out. What if I'm writing crap? what if everyone hates my book? What if no one buys it? 


Then I began reading On Writing by Stephen King. Phew! All of this is totally normal. And I don't suck. I didn't really get these fears with my non-fiction writing because I started that with 0 expectations. I wrote, it sold. Each random transaction was regular confirmation that I AM a writer and one that makes money doing so.


Writing fiction is a completely different beast. I don't get regular confirmation that my writing is good. I think it's good. I enjoy reading it, even over and over again. I have the first 9 chapters written, and most of the end of the story. I just need to fill in the gaps, about 12 more chapters worth. I have 15 days to do it. I made a pot of coffee for tonight, and will try to get as much as I can done.


I can see the finish line. It's taunting me. Today in church, one bible passage stuck out to me from my New Living Translation: Galatians 6:4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well-done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. Even if you aren't of the Christian faith, it's sage advice. I need to worry about my own project and seeing it through to the end. Who cares if my book isn't as good as other chick-lit/romance writers? They aren't me. And maybe my different style and voice in writing will catch an audience who loves a good love story, but nothing too sappy. 


Grooveshark on. Writer open. Time to get busy.


"Disengaged" arriving Late Summer 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Day 18 I Have to Say It: Marketing Begins With YOU

When I first considered making the jump from non-fiction to fiction, I read many books about publishing novels. Before joining this crazy whirly-gig of fun, I wanted to know the inside scoop on the industry. The dark skeletons kept in the closet. Here is a piece of advice I read from a book written in the early 90s about publishing that stuck with me:


Be prepared for a face-to-face before a publisher will sign off on a book. They are looking to see how marketable you are.


Harsh, right? But true. Marketing begins with us. My genre, women's fiction/chick-lit/romance is written by some very beautiful women. And some not. Some who have a head shot that looks like they just rolled out of bed in the morning and grabbed the nearest T-shirt. Their hair is a rat's nest. Makeup? Ha. 


A recent discussion on G. P. Ching's blog about my pricing ideas prompted me to start checking my genre. Turns out, I can price a little higher because the indie women's fiction author population is about 12 (okay, I'm exaggerating, but seriously, put women's fiction in the Kindle Store search). I will be competing with $7.99 and up traditionally published books. This is very different from the thriller, YA, fantasy genres that are up to their necks in indie authors. I was scoping out my competition when I realized besides price, the author photo was another dead give away that someone was an indie/self-published author instead of a publisher backed author. The traditionally published authors have gorgeous, professional photographs in their author bios. The indie authors? Mostly casual photos that look like they were taken in the backyard at a random time. 


Now, back to to the regularly scheduled programming. I spotted G.P. on Twitter after following another author, Megg Jensen. I will be absolutely honest and this isn't meant in a sexual/lesbian kind of way. I clicked to learn more about her because her photo was attractive. I liked her hair style and the jewelry and attire made me wonder what kind of books she writes. She isn't in my genre, but I kinda guessed that based on the cross around her neck. This doesn't mean everyone needs to look runway ready with a teeny-tiny waist and perfectly veneered teeth. I will never fit that description! But, even authors who aren't a perfect size 2, and more like a 22 can have very attractive photographs. Styled hair, a touch of makeup and a fashionable top is all that is needed. Oh, and smile. Like your best friend is sitting across from you, drinking a cup of coffee and complimented your new shoes.


Here's the point: If you are going to put a picture of yourself up as an author, make sure it is an attractive one. Actually, go further. Pose for a portrait. You probably know a friend who is great at taking pictures, or hit a Sears/JC Penny/Walmart. Take lots of outfits, make lots of poses and buy the CD for $99. You spend tons of time on your book's cover, consider yourself just as important.


I am not immune to my own advice. I hate my black-and-white photo that I'm currently using as my official public photo. Guess what? That's 4 weeks after I gave birth to my soon-to-be 2-year-old. Yeah. I'm still puffy, and there's a very good reason that photo is a head shot. But not many people would guess that from the photo. And, I am working on remedying this situation. That picture will NOT be the photo on the back of my novel or anywhere my face is associated with my book. No way. I'm working on losing a few pounds over the next few weeks and my photo session is planned with the brilliant Kristen Channel.  It will be lovely. Most importantly, my picture is going to make people want to get to know me and read my books.


I may be a stay-at-home Mom writing my first novel, but I'm certainly not going to look like it.


"Disengaged" arriving Fall 2011. Johnathan Michaels, a robotics engineer, jeopardizes his engagement with his business partner when a previous one-night stand surfaces, carrying his child.