Tag: books

Making paperbacks with CreateSpace

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I never imagined that my self publishing journey would take me to where it has. OK, I’m not a millionaire, I’m not even earning a living off my books, but back in March I had nothing published – at all. Then, I discovered this world of eBooks, and I was hooked. Later, I heard about CreateSpace; this company that would print actual paperbacks. It souned too hard, too complicated, something I would explore….eventually. Now I have explored, and I’m overjoyed.

One of the reasons that I’ve been put off developing paperbacks in the past is a) my personal confusion and b) the higher costs that readers have to pay. $2.99 is a very good price for a book, in my opinion, and so I have no qualms pricing an eBook of Inside Evil at this level. However, to pull back paperback costs means that Inside Evil has to be at least $10 for me to even make $1 profit on it. Would people pay this for my book? I didn’t know.

Whilst I’m still in the dark as to whether people will actually buy at a paperback by an indie author at that price, my paperback copy of Inside Evil arrived today and I’m OVER THE MOON. It seems far more real to hold an actual book in your hands. See the print, see the cover, turn the pages over with your fingers. And, far from my huge concerns, creating the paperback was VERY easy.

 

 

 

Making Paperbacks with CreateSpace

The formatting issue was my first concern when it came to producing a paperback, and I thought I’d never be able to get the book outline correct. However, CreateSpace makes this very easy to do. Whilst  you can go through all manner of preformatted options and templates, I’ve found that using a current Word .doc of your manuscript is the best way. Here’s what I did:

1. Used the Word .doc of Inside Evil that I use to upload to Smashwords. Don’t worry – CreateSpace will send you an email saying that you’ve got all manner of formatting issues, but this is normal. I chose the 5′ x 8′ template for my book, meaning that my .doc was completely wrong. However, after you’ve uploaded, CreateSpace will offer you the option to download a template. DO THIS. You will find that the template includes your manuscript but with the CreateSpace formatting. You can then make alterations to your document in line with the formatting required.

I’ve found this method to be a lot easier than trying to pre-prepare any document. Remember, if you’re uploading a Smashwords ready file, take out the Smashwords copyright blurb at the front of the book. Also, if you have hyperlinks in your eBook, remember to take them out. As many times as a reader presses that link, it won’t open if it’s on paper. 😉

2. Having made the inside of your book beautiful by using the easy process above, it’s time to do the cover. There are MANY tutorials on the web which show how to make extremely good but complicated covers. If you have some cover art ready made, use the CreateSpace online cover editor.

If you scroll through the template options that they give you, there are a few blank ones that you can use. Simply update your information for the spine, use your cover for the front and utilise Photoshop, or something similar, to make a back cover. You might have to make a few corrections so that no text spills into the gutter lines but CreateSpace makes this very obvious so you know when you’ll need to change something. Your back cover also doesn’t have to be complicated – at all – and all I did was to overlay a black raster layer on top of my front cover, cut through to create a few lines of colour, and add the same text that I use for my sales copy.

*Note* – CreateSpace GIVES you a free ISBN and sorts out the barcode image on the back of your book. Don’t stress, they do it for you! 😀

3. After you’ve done your interior and cover, you’re pretty much done. The team of reviewers will look at your work, after which point you have the option to order a Proof copy or just proof online. I was tempted just to proof online, but ORDER A PROOF COPY. Here’s why:

– Because I’d used my Smashwords .doc, I’d forgotten to put my headers and footers back in. Therefore, Inside Evil had NO page numbers.

– My About Author section still said ‘ebooks’, when it should have said ‘books’.

– You need to check your cover prints correctly. Just because it looks great on your computer screen doesn’t mean it will be perfect on the book.

– Your ebook font size and spacing may need changing. My font is size 12, with spacing set at 1.5 lines. Whilst this is OK, I’m trying another proof with normal spacing. This will reduce the number of pages, therefore making it cheaper for readers to buy. It’ll also look better.

– Holding the first ever printed copy of your book is AMAZING. I have no page numbers, an author error and PROOF written across the last page, but I love it.

Using CreateSpace is really easy to make your paperbacks, and I highly encourage it. Now that I’ve done a first proof of Inside Evil, I’m going to make a few changes and get another proof done. I’ve also spent today getting the The Tower of Souls ready for publication. Will I sell any paperback copies? Who knows. Will I love having MY books on MY real bookshelf? Yes.

Defining genre for indie authors

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There was once a time when the big six practically ruled the literary world, making authors famous, rejecting great books on a flippant whim and creating their own specific genres that writers had to adhere to if they wanted even the slightest hope of publication. I’ve heard many stories of authors who’ve had to significantly alter novels or remove entire story threads so as to appease the literary powers that be. Then, Amazon said ‘hang on, lets enable authors to publish their own books and take a cut‘. The self publishing indie world was born, free of restrictions, enabling authors to write what they wanted with no compromise. However, in the sudden rush of this literary bandwagon it seems that both Amazon and many readers have failed to keep up with the changing genres, often making it very difficult to place your book into the right category.

It seems that many good indie authors, authors who have written amazing novels and are doing well, as still finding difficulties with defining their genre. Numerous problems seem to be rife with romantic books in particular; even if your entire 400 page novel is bursting with romanticism, if the lovers don’t end up together, then your book is not romance and you will feel the wrath of many a reader. Readers are the indie author’s life force, offering the means to keep writing and share their work. But, there can often be a very stringent unsaid code of conduct to write by if you want to please the majority. Of course, there are readers who like the break from the mould, the chance to read something a little different, something refreshingly new, but in altering the traditional format, you may find yourself risking a backlash.

I’ve had particular problems defining Inside Evil myself. There are fantasy and paranormal elements scattered throughout the book, but many readers of this popular genre are looking for werewolves, vampires and fairies, of which NONE appear in my tale. Instead, a mystical tome offers intrigue, an evil curse lurks awaiting another victim, another realm’s ‘gatekeepers’ follow ancient customs to keep demons at bay. I sail perilously close to mentioning spells and some characters do entertain supernatural beliefs, but for a reader wanting a witchcraft read, once again Inside Evil does not quite fit the bill. Parallel worlds are often used in science fiction, but again, though there is another realm in Inside Evil, it is certainly not one that lives in the sci-fi genre. Then, there is the horror and occult aspect of the book which, though not apparent in full visceral force, does provide an underlying tone. But, for those wanting full throttle horror, once again, Inside Evil may not be the right genre. It seems that I’ve written a novel which fits into many, yet no traditional genres. Though the eclectic cast of characters offer a unique and page turning story, traditional readers may remain unsure.

Indie publishing is a godsend for people like myself who want to share their work with readers without having to deal with creative oppression. However, even Amazon itself is has so few categories within their Kindle listings that they seem tied to the very stereotypical genres that have been forced into society by traditional publishers. Whilst the traditional author might have to write a, b and c to create a perfect thriller, the indie author might take out b altogether and throw in a couple of wayward z’s to the mix. Just to liven things up a bit. Just to refresh the genre and offer something unique. But, it comes with the risk that you may divide readers, causing outrage from traditionalists and clamouring fans from modernists.

There are many indie authors whose works easily falls into a specific genre, making their lives far easier. However, for many, like myself, who have forgone the carefully constructed genres of the past, the world may be our oyster, we just have to work a little harder to try and define ourselves. Meanwhile, readers will remain vital in helping to break the traditional restrictions so that authors feel free to offer something new. In the meantime, I’ll keep trying new genres for Inside Evil and taking feedback from readers to help discover its best suited category, but until then, it seems that many will either love, or hate, novels which break the norm.

How to get 1,000 Ebook sales

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How to get 1,000 Ebook sales? That’s a question I often ask myself. Look around the various blogs about self publication, and it seems to suggest that once you’ve hit around 1,000 sales on Amazon, the website’s algorithms will take over and help to make your work more visible. Note that this isn’t total sales, but sales for each title. While, of course, selling more of one title is likely to help sell other works too, pushing up your overall sales figures, it is 1,000 per book that you’re aiming for.

This can be an astronomical figure to reach, especially if you’re only selling tens of books per month. Inside Evil was published in March and I’ve not yet cleared the 100 sales barrier. Interestingly, in my latest giveaway on Elle Casey’s blog, Inside Evil was one of the most sought after titles, so the book itself seems to be in demand and attracting attention. It just doesn’t get noticed by people browsing on Amazon. And, without a lot of luck, I’m warning you, growing to 1,000 sales will be hard work.

But, how can you achieve this feat? How can you reach that target? I’m not entirely sure myself, having not gained those dizzying sales heights yet. There are variety of methods that I’ve come across, and some may work for you, others may not. Here’s some of my findings.

Forums

Some people advocate joining lots of forums, putting your book in your signature and then talking, continuously, about yourself and your work. This doesn’t work and WILL NOT SELL ebooks. You’ll quickly get a spam notification and be ejected from the boards.

However, there are some forums that you might be persuaded to join, such as Kindleboards, the official Kindle forums at Amazon and the Kindle Users Forum. Whilst you’ll get all manner of help and tips at these places, I wouldn’t look for a lot of sales here. Generally, these boards are occupied by people like you; authors wanting to find how to sell ebooks and unlikely buyers.

LibraryThing & Goodreads

My use of LibraryThing and Goodreads has been haphazard at best, largely due to the fact that I hate both website’s interfaces and I find joining in conversations extremely confusing. LibraryThing is great for doing giveaway’s, but though I’ve noted a few reviews trickling through, these haven’t turned into sales. Meanwhile, though I’ve had a very few ‘adds’ on Goodreads which may have possibly led to a miniscule number of sales, my Goodreads ad campaign was a complete failure and I didn’t make one sale from the investment.

Word of Mouth

This is a very obvious way of selling, but if you don’t tell anyone about your book, then how can you expect sales. Word of mouth is vital for sales. Tell friends and family about your book. When you go to parties and meet new people who ask what you do for a career, tell them about your writing and mention your novel’s name..who knows they might just go home and download it. Put a link to Amazon in the signature of your email so when you’re emailing people, you have an unobtrusive marketing ploy ready to go. This has been my best sales tactic to date, helping to push Inside Evil higher in the Amazon charts and therefore being more noticeable.

Twitter

Some people swear by it, others don’t, but I have found that Twitter has got me sales. I have recently opened a new Twitter account devoted to only my writing. Whilst I have a personal account with over 1,000 followers, I tend to have verbal diarrhoea on that feed, and whilst those 1,000 followers don’t care about me talking non-stop about the Olympics or saying slightly rude things when I’ve had a glass of wine too many, I really don’t want my main group of readers and authors bombarded with this. Of course, many may want to, so it’s worth tweeting that you have another account, but to keep all my professional and book related stuff in one place, I now use GWakelingWriter.

One of the good things about Twitter is that you can easily interact with readers. If someone tells you they’ve bought your book, thank them, ask them for feedback. RT their comments if they’re positive reviews. Use Sample Sunday (a writer’s RT group which helps spread book samples on, you’ve guessed it, Sunday’s) to reach a larger audience. Use Writer Wednesday to follow and RT other writers. Most of all, ensure that the majority of your tweets are personal, RTs or links to informative articles rather than constantly links to your own work. This will turn people off immediately, and your Twitter account will never get off the ground.

1,000 ebooks is a hard task…

Selling ebooks is no easy task, and shifting these first 1,000 ebooks is monumentally difficult. I read blogs all the time offering advice on how to get sales, with each and every post saying, ‘once you’ve reached 1,000 sales you can use X, X and X to get increased earnings,’ but what about the climb to 1,000? What about the depressing screen of Amazon’s Beige Bar of Shame when it’s staring at you mid month because you’re yet to have  a sale? What about selling five or 10 copies a month and realising that it’ll take you years to reach that elusive 1,000?

I’ve used the above processes to get a few sales here and there, but nothing that has finally swept me along at pace. I’ll soon be releasing a new book, The Tower of Souls, and I’m hoping that it’ll attract more people to the series. However, for the meantime, it’s the slow plod along. What do you use to try and increase sales? Found any tactics that worked? I’d love to discover new areas that I haven’t tried…and we can all look forward to pushing our sales and cracking that 1,000.

The importance of choosing the right book reviewers

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Getting readers to review your books on their blogs is a great way of spreading the word. I have to admit that I haven’t seen a huge spike in sales after reviews are released, but it is a good way to get your title’s into readers hands. This is especially true if you have a number of titles because even if none of the book review readers buy your novel, perhaps the book reviewer themselves will come back for more.

There are huge lists of book reviewers to be found on the web. A great place to start is the Indie Book Reviewer, a place where you can find hundreds of eager readers who want to take your novel and blog about it. As you go through the listings you’ll discover that many people are simply swamped with books and cannot take on more reads, resulting in your pool of possible reviewers shrinking considerably. This can cause you to simply contact everyone that is open to taking on books. However, this may not work to your advantage; a fact that I found out this morning.

There are always going to be people who don’t like your books. Fair enough. I don’t like every book that I read either. However, it is important to try and choose reviewers who have a great looking blog, lots of followers and who are actually interested in the genre AND style that you’ve written in.

This morning I had a three star review from a reader who mentioned that Inside Evil’s pacing wasn’t very good and that there wasn’t enough back story in the book. Looking into her history, I saw that she marked similarly for all books which didn’t give back story or lots of superfluous information. She also mentioned that it took her longer than normal to read the book because she just couldn’t get into it. In my rush to find reviews, I’d simply just found a name, an email and sent the book out. Of course, EVERY reader is entitled to their opinion and I’m grateful for the honest review, but if I’d done my research, I would have discovered that perhaps this reader wasn’t the best candidate for my work.

You can then compare this to the wonderful four star rating that I also received today from The Book Barbies. Whilst the pacing was slow for the reviewer mentioned above, the reader at The Book Barbies couldn’t put it down. She was devastated by the cliffhanger and is ‘dying in anticipation for the next book’. She even had a dream about the book after she’d finished.

You can never tell if someone’s going to love or hate your work, and it’s important to not become too bogged down by the details. After all, Twilight has 715 ONE star reviews on Amazon, The Hunger Games has 501, and even Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has 88. However, when you’re searching for book reviewers, it can be worthwhile to take some time and establish a reader’s back history of reviewing and the genre and style’s that they love. It could make or break your resulting write-up.

LibraryThing Giveaway Promotion

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As some people will know, early in June I offered a LibraryThing giveaway, providing 50 copies of Inside Evil to people on LibraryThing in return for reviews. I had many hopes, not to increase sales, but to get reviews. Here are the results.

It can safely be said, that the LibraryThing giveaway was a bit of failure. At the very least, it failed to live up to expectations. Of the 50 books that I offered, 39 people downloaded the novel from Smashwords which I would think is a pretty good result. However, over the course of the past month, I’ve only had ONE review and around FOUR Goodreads adds. It’s a little disappointing, as I hoped that a ratio of at least 10% would give me a review, but alas, so far, the one sole review is all I’ve had. Still, this was a 4star one so it’s not a complete loss and I was ecstatic to see that the reader posted on LibraryThing, Amazon and Smashwords.

Of course, when you’re running a LibraryThing giveaway, it’s important to remember that the types of people bidding in these contests are the type of readers who may well have a substantial backlist of books to read. After one month, I’ve had one review. However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be more to come in the future as individuals finally get around to giving Inside Evil a go.

Would I use LibraryThing’s giveaway again?

At the end of the day, it’s a great giveaway tool and so, yes, I would use it again. I plan to offer 50 copies of Tower of Souls to readers about a month before the release. This should give people the chance to read the book and make a few reviews so that when it goes live on Amazon and Smashwords, there is already some feedback available. Obviously, it’s a sequel, so people winning the book may even buy Inside Evil first so that they’re caught up on the story.

If you’re thinking of using a LibraryThing giveaway, then don’t expect great instant results. Be happy for the reviews that you do get in, and utilise it as a way to get your work read and find a few new fans and followers.

May’s increasing sales

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May’s been a great month for me. Today, not to blow my own trumpet ‘too’ loudly, it’s my birthday. I’m 31 on the 31st of May…if only I could get 31 sales today too. 😉 Talking of sales, May has, by far, been my best month and I’ve noted a 233% increase in my books rocketing off the shelves. OK, ‘rocketing‘ may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’ve increased from THREE sales last month, to 10 sales this month. See, I’ve had so many sales that it’s now not grammatically correct to spell out the number!

I know that hitting the lowest possible double digit figure for monthly sales may seem a ridiculous thing to be celebrating, but I’m moving in the right direction and that’s a good thing. I’ve had a unsolicited five star review on Amazon.co.uk, I’ve had an email from a reader asking if I’m writing another book, and I’ve been getting great feedback from a couple of reviewers. I’ve had Inside Evil proofed from tip to toe so as to remove as many errors as possible (there were quite a few, I’ll admit it). And, let’s not forget, I had a new cover created.

When you’re first starting out in the publishing world, it’s little things that thrill you. Any sale is very exciting, a positive review makes your jaw hit the floor, and moving into a Top 100 list offers so much excitement that it’s almost impossible to stop screaming and dancing around the house (yes, I did this). I could never understand the rankings. I was listed as at some stupid seven millionth and something in the Kindle store, yet I didn’t appear in any other category lists. I wanted to know exactly how awfully low I was for specific genres. Then, I sold a few books and suddenly I was #87 in Horror and #93 in Occult in the co.uk listings. I didn’t stay there for very long mind you, but I don’t really care. I, me, Geoff Wakeling was, for the briefest moment, in a top 100 list. Awesome.

With May almost over, I’m already looking forward to June. This lovely summer month should see me feature on a few website reviews. In addition, my LibraryThing promotion finishes on June 5th. I’ll then be sending out 50 copies of Inside Evil to readers for reviews, so I hope that a few more positives may come back from the promotion. Ultimately, I hope this will lead to more sales as news of the book is spread across the web.

In the meantime I’m cracking on with the second book of the Inside Evil series. I’m almost ready to reveal the name, I just need to ponder it a little more before it’s set in stone. I’m also readying for a tiny weeny competition, the winner of which will have their idea featured in Book Two. Details to come.

For now, I must go and celebrate my day with another cup of tea, maybe some cake, and definitely some more writing. 🙂

The first review

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Today has been a brilliant day. I found three neglected venus fly trap plants in my local garden centre for 10p each (yes, only TEN PENCE). They’ve got new shoots coming up, and all they need is some sunlight and rain water to start thriving again. Oh. And I got my first Amazon review as well. A five star one.

I haven’t been rushing out to find reviews from people, and though I’ve heard that this obviously helps sales, I like the organic process of gaining write-ups. Asking for a review and getting five stars is one thing. Having a random reader buy your book for $2.99 and love it enough to come back to Amazon and leave a FIVE star review,  is quite another.

A few days ago a Goodreads member gave me three stars. I was a little downhearted, especially, as from looking at her ratings, she either reads from the moment she wakes or simply goes through awarding book ratings by their covers and descriptions. I mean, can anyone seriously read four or five books A DAY? She wasn’t just having a sudden blitz either as looking through her history, she seems to do this every day! Still, a three star rating was a great ‘I like this book‘ rating, which in itself is very good. Followed the next day by a five star review. Wowzers. ‘Well written‘, ‘believable characters‘, and ‘great descriptions‘ were all highlighted. I’m in awe. I’m encouraged. I’m certain that this little review was totally worth it.

To think that in the current economy, a reader chose to pay $2.99 by buying a book from an unknown author with only a single title in their catalogue is great. To think that the unknown author was me, that someone liked my book, enough to go onto Amazon, write a review and give me five stars – well, that’s just a feeling that’s quite indescribable.