Do Free Promotions Work? Part Two

When I published the first post about this I promised a follow up post once I had a better idea of how the boost provided by my free promotion was going to translate into sales in the long run.

Well, we are only a week or so further along, but I think it's still worth looking at how things are panning out. And hopefully I can give my answer to the question in the post title.

Let's start with a reminder of where I was at before all of this.

I (or rather The Last Knight) was ranked somewhere around #500,000 in the paid kindle store. I made perhaps one or two sales or borrows (remember, I count these because I still get paid for them!) each week. And that was if I was lucky. There would often be stretches of 10 days or two weeks without a single sale.

The free promo, with paid advertising I should stress, resulted in around 3,000 downloads and a huge jump in rankings, that translated back into a higher ranking in the paid store once the book was no longer free.

But that was in the immediate aftermath. How about weeks later?

I like to think that the image is pretty self-explanatory. I had a huge surge in the first few days, but it's continued solidly since then. I haven't had a single day without a download, whether it's a full sale or a borrow. And most days have been more than one. The average I would say has been around 4 a day.

Now, I know, that's not exactly going to make me rich. But I think it's important to understand that it's all relative. Compared to the last few months, the last few weeks have been a huge game changer.

It isn't just the sales. Reviews and ratings on goodreads have gone up, people are adding all my books to their 'to-read' shelves, and my facebook page has had a little bump in terms of likes. My ranking on Amazon fluctuated a lot over this time frame, but as of right now it sits at around the #80,000 mark. More that 400,000 places higher than The Last Knight was on the 28th of January. I even became a 'bestseller' briefly.

 

So now, the question, do free promotions work?

I think I have to say yes. But with a couple of conditions. I think you have to be willing to pay out a little for advertising. I think simply putting your book free and expecting people to find it won't work. In order for it to make a difference you have to have downloads in the thousands, and for that I think you need the advertising.

The second condition is that you have other books for sale. Not all the sales you see are for The Last Knight (though there are more of those particularly when the book was ranked higher), my other books have been selling more too. Those who did pick up The Last Knight for free are potentially the buyers of my other books.

And I think the final thing is not to expect free promotions to make you money. I've made back what I spent on advertising, plus a nice little chunk, but that's it.

When I say free promotions work I am thinking more in terms of exposure. I think they are an effective marketing tool. It all comes down to how you use them.

I hope people found this interesting. It's strange putting my sales figures out there because I know they aren't that high, but for me this was a breakthrough. I feel like progress in my career has been made. Perhaps it's a method that could work for others too if their books have stalled.

Would love to hear people's thoughts. Have free promotions worked for you? If they didn't, what did?

Do Free Promotions Work?

Let me start out with a little bit of honesty.

As much as we might not like to admit it, the indie author has low odds of being successful. It is an unavoidable fact that most indie authors only ever sell a handful of books, and most often only to family and friends. Breaking past that point and reaching a wider audience is the dream we all share, but we all know how hard it can be.

We have a limited number of tools in our toolboxes for achieving that aim. And there comes a time when shouting into the void of Twitter or Facebook becomes a little pointless. There is a hashtag floating around on Twitter that I'm growing to love #IndieBooksBeSeen, because after all, the best written book is irrelevant if no one knows it exists. Spreading the word and sharing the love amongst the indie crowd is essential. A big part of why this blog was created in the first place. But even all that shared love isn't enough. We have to find ways to get our books into people's hands.

Free promotions, putting the book for free for a limited time, is one of the tools we have, and it's one that sparks a bit of debate amongst the indie crowd.

A lot of people will tell you that giving your book away for free will only devalue it. A bit like when your Mum told you no one would buy the cow if you gave the milk away for free. Most people who are against free promotions will tell you that the people who download free books will never buy your book, in fact they probably won't even read it.

I'm not going to argue with them. They may well be completely right. But I think that there is more to free promotions than the people who actually download your book for free. It's what those downloads can do for your rankings. It's what it can mean in the long run once your book goes back on sale.

I decided last month that I was going to give the free promotion thing another try. I'd done it before and received some extra reviews from it, so it hadn't been a complete waste, but this time I was going to do it properly. Which included a little paid advertising. Not much, just a $15 outlay for being included in an e-reader newsletter. Not enough to break the bank, but enough to test the waters.

I'm now going to give you actual numbers and figures. My sales prior to this were low. Not embarrassingly low (after all, see above about the success rates of indie authors) but low enough that the results are pretty obvious. 

Prior to the free promotion days my sales ranking was somewhere around the #500,000 mark. Yup. That low. I would say I made at most 2 sales a week. (note that as I get paid almost as much for borrows as sales on the KU scheme I do count them as a sale). Not terrible considering The Last Knight has been out for over a year and a half, but not brilliant by any means.

The free promotion days ran from the 30th Jan to the 1st Feb, with the paid advertising falling on the 31st. Right in the middle.

The first day of free downloads was OK - but nothing more than that. 159 copies.

The second day the advertising kicked in, and things changed.

By the time the day ended I had over 2,300 copies downloaded.

The next day the downloads continued, but not at the same rate, another 800+ copies however.

But the big thing for me was not how many were downloaded, but what it did for my ranking.

At it's highest point I reached #72 in the free rankings. I'd started at around #18,000 the previous day.

I know what you're thinking though. All of this is irrelevant in a way, because I'm not getting paid for those copies and the people who downloaded them probably won't read them.

But you see, those free copies do matter. Because if I take away the free copies on the sales graph, I get this:

Now, it may not seem like much - but when you look at the whole of January, you can see what a difference has been made. Even taking the borrows (which I do tend to count as I mentioned above) I had six books sold in January. (Which was up on last years sales of...zero) But on the day the free promo starts the sales jump up. And they've gone up since this graph was taken. But even just with what is visible here, in 4 days I had 13 sales. Double what I'd had for the whole month. To me that is a huge increase.

And it in turn has had a massive impact on my rankings now I'm back in the paid charts.

 Remember up top where I told you my ranking before this was somewhere around #500,000?

Here's my little indie book ranked up there with a traditionally published book. (Yes I am just a little pleased with that!).

The fact is though, rankings matter. Success breeds success. It's a well known fact. Those free downloads, and the subsequent sales have boosted me up the rankings, which will in turn bring more sales.

I hope.

And this is where the waiting game comes in. I plan on doing a second post in about a week - to see if any of this has sustained itself. Then I might be able to actually answer the question this post poses.

But until then I'd love to hear what others make of these numbers. Do free promotions work? Do you think success (even if somewhat artificially created) can only breed further success (or sales?).

To be continued...

Fighting Writers Block

Now, I don't know about the rest of the writers out there, but there are days when the words simply won't come.

Or in my current case, weeks, possibly even months.

I couldn't tell you exactly when it started. When I suddenly began to find it hard to get the words that were in my head down on paper.

But for some reason the flow has stopped.

Instead of my typing skills barely being able to keep up with my brain, I find myself staring at a blank screen for hours on end. Looking at the little blinking cursor.

And if I do manage to write, I end up deleting most of it in a fit of frustration. Even blogs. I can't tell you how many times I wrote and deleted this post.

I'm afraid that for once, I don't have any advice. Instead I'm asking for it. What do any of you do when the writers block simply won't shift? What are your tricks and ideas for getting rid of writers block?

I'd love to hear them!

On a separate note, huge congratulations to my fellow Rock the Book Chick, Kate on the release of her second book, Evolution. If you haven't read the 'E' series yet, get yourselves on Amazon and buy a copy. E was my favourite book of the year by far, and Evolution comes in a very close second.

Have a great weekend!

Why do we do it?

A week ago today I published my third book.

You'd think it would get easier with every book, less doubt, more confidence.

I'll tell you this - I was as terrified about a terrible response to the third book as I was about the first. Possibly more.

In fact, I spent the three or four days before Blood Calling came out, asking my Other Half if I was doing the right thing. After all, I kept telling him, it's not like other books are flying off the shelves. Why do I keep putting myself through it all, for so little reward?

Well, two things happened over the course of the following week that answered my question for me.

The first was a couple of brilliant reviews of my first book, The Last Knight. Reviews from readers who had really connected with the book, and loved it.

The second was that I got stuck into writing something that will probably never see the light of day - but I loved writing it none the less.

The point is, these two things reminded me of why I write. And it's not for sales.

The two reviews were from free copies I had provided. I didn't make a dime. But it doesn't matter because I always wrote not for the money, but because I love telling a story that can entertain people. Even if the only person it entertains is me.

I knew when I got into indie publishing that it wasn't about the money. I was never going to make a fortune. It was about getting my books out there, finding people to read my stories (other than just my mother and my Other Half). It was about touching one or two, or if possible, a thousand readers.

But it was never about the money.

Sometimes with the promoting and advertising, and desperately trying to get heard, I think I forget about that. The obsessive (sometimes) checking of the sales graph, the constant research into how I can get my book to a wider audience. That becomes the only focus.

It's good sometimes to remember that I write because I love to write. And those sales? They're just a bonus.

What about everyone else? Do you ever lose track of why you're doing this? What things remind you why you write?

Have a good weekend everyone!

How to Grab Your Reader's Heart with Emotional Scenes

Fleshing out characters, outlining physical descriptions and backstory that may or may not be used, picking locations, revising and editing, and choosing the perfect formats are all important aspects that are involved in creating a great story. But, after that is all complete and your hard work is placed into readers’ hands, it is up to them to decide if they want to look past its cover and add it to their reading lists.

It’s up to the author to make a reader want more. 

In order for a story to catch on, to draw the reader in, an author must find a way to write with an immersive quality. If you ask someone why they love their favorite book, do they ever say it’s because the author wrote a great follow-up? Gave them a signed copy? Was it a good idea poorly executed?

It only takes a sentence to break the flow in a story. One misused word has the ability to break the flow of a story, and sometimes, if it is blatant enough, the reader won’t return to finish. For multi-book authors especially, they not only lose possible word-of-mouth marketing and the prospect of this reader picking up other titles they’ve penned, they run the risk of negative reviews by publishing ill-rounded stories for public consumption.

So what can you do to keep a reader hooked?

By making a reader care about characters and their problems—giving the reader something they can relate to or fantasize about—an author can rest knowing that one or two slips will not cause a huge drop in readership. That’s not to say you shouldn’t put out the best book you are capable of creating, of course, but nobody is perfect. Some of the main immersive qualities that keep readers turning pages are the author's ability to produce a unique voice, a pace that fluctuates while still remaining fluid enough so as not to jar the reader out of story, and its believability. By no means is this ALL there is—you can have a great story with mediocre characters that lack depth, or great characters and no story. For now, I aim to confront the believability, or at least one aspect of this concept: emotions.

If you ever listen to someone while they are upset, sad, or afraid, you’ll notice that their voice changes in direct correlation to how they feel. People who throw five six-syllable words together for a ten-word sentence suddenly speak as though they haven't graduated into a two syllable vocabulary. Some people stutter, raise their voice, or even speak so fast that nobody can figure out what it is they are saying. It all depends on the situation and the person. But it isn't often that there will be forty-word sentences in an emotional scene, or purple prose spouting the beauty of a scene as though describing every petal of a rose.

Next week, Sasha will share 8 helpful tips that will help you grab your reader's heart.

By Sasha Leigh

Sasha Leigh is a self-diagnosed dreamer. When she isn't stuck in worlds of her own making, listening to characters squabble for attention in her head, she's immersed in stories created by others. A lover of all things "weird", Sasha's world is considered complete when she has her daughter at her side, her sketchpad, notebook, and something to write with - even if it's just a piece of chalk. Working by day in the insurance industry, she spends her evenings and weekends devouring or writing new tales of magic, mythology, and all things supernatural (except dragons).

Check out her newly-released book, Fate's Return.

Amazon/ Smashwords

David Estes talks about Indie success: Beating the Odds

Today's blog post comes to us from David Estes, an author who has proven that Indies can overcome the challenges of the market and create successful writing careers for themselves.  If you have not yet read any of David's books, check them out.  I just finished my first one (David's new release, Brew) and I am now officially a *fangirl*.  Enter to win a free copy in the giveaway below.  - Kate

Beating the Odds

by David Estes

Due to the explosion of ebooks and the destruction of publishing barriers, there are now literally thousands of Indie authors all screaming at the top of their lungs that their books are worth reading. That’s pretty daunting if you’re trying to make your book(s) stand out amongst the crowd. When I started seriously writing four years ago, I was CLUELESS as to what I was really getting into. And yet, somehow, some way, I’ve managed to “make it” after a zillion mistakes, a lot of hard work, and plenty of good old-fashioned luck. Although I don’t pretend to have all the answers or the magic bullet for success, here’s my story along with a few tips that have helped me get from bored full-time accountant who liked to write stories to full-time Indie author.

Roll back the tape of my life. I hated being an accountant. Desperately hated it. Long hours, high stress, corporate politics. So I quit my job and switched to another desk job that I’d heard would be less hours and less stress. I had two weeks off in between, and my Aussie wife asked what I was going to do with my break. “Uh, sit on the beach?” I said. She gave me that raised-eyebrow look and said, “Why don’t you start writing that book you always talk about?”

Although the thought of even looking at my laptop during my vacation gave me a stomachache, I listened to her pointed advice. I did it. I started writing. She hasn’t been able to get me to stop since. In four years I’ve written twenty books and published sixteen of them. Two years in I was able to quit my boring day job to pursue my dreams: I became a full-time fiction writer. 

My first trilogy was a huge success, right? Um, no. Not even close. When I published The Evolution Trilogy (a unique non-religious spin on angels and demons) a year after I started working on it, I was ready. Ready for success. Ready for a big payoff from all my hard work. I’d been reading about Amanda Hocking’s success as an Indie author and I said, “Hey, why not me?” Well, because my writing wasn’t good enough. My book idea was awesome and unique and had huge potential, but my writing was amateurish, sloppy, and in desperate need of a good editor. While I wouldn’t say The Evolution Trilogy bombed (it has sold 3,000 books in 4 years), it didn’t come anywhere near my expectations, and it most definitely wasn’t paying any real bills. The reviews were mediocre at best, which was a major reality check. Writing wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. At first I was heartbroken. Thousands of hours of hard work down the drain. All that hope dashed on the rocky coastline of failure. I didn’t have what it takes—never would.

SCREW. THAT.

I’m the type of person that hates failure. I don’t like losing, especially at something that I love. And I LOVE writing. That’s a major key to success as an Indie author. If your goals (like mine were) are to make millions and be rich and famous, then you’re in the wrong business. Most of us will make a few bucks here and there, and a lucky few will be able to scrape out a living. Even fewer still (the Amanda Hocking’s, Elle Casey’s and Hugh Howey’s of the world) will hit it big. Right now I’m in the middle category—scraping out a living. I’m not complaining, I’d rather scrape out a living as a writer than be earning six digits a year in some job I hate. I’m happy.

My second series was the one that allowed me to quit my day job. Originally I planned another trilogy, but eventually the project turned into a 7-book epic series that combined two separate trilogies, The Dwellers Saga and The Country Saga, in a 7^th book that brought characters and plotlines together. So far it’s sold in excess of 30,000 copies in just over two years.

That brings me to another key for success: Building your backlist. Unless you’re extremely lucky and far more talented than me, writing one book a year like most traditionally published authors simply won’t cut it as an Indie. I wrote and published the 7 books in the Dwellers/Country Saga in 20 months. By that point I’d written 1 million words in three years. There are a few good reasons for writing and publishing like a fiend. One, practice is the only way to get better. By having a crazy-aggressive writing schedule you’ll force yourself to improve. Two, every new reader multiplies your potential sales. Suddenly a new reader doesn’t mean just one sale. It means a potential sale for every single one of your books, particularly if your books are in a series. It also means you can magnify the impact of giving away free copies of your books. I’ll pretty much give away an ebook of The Moon Dwellers to anyone who wants one. Why? Because if they like it, they might buy the other SIX books in the series! Quick side note: the BEST way to give away free ebooks is buy making your book free on Kindle through Amazon’s KDP Select program. The BEST way to advertise that is via BookBub, which seems extremely expensive but which is WELL worth the money. As an example, I advertised The Moon Dwellers for FREE on BookBub and had 30,000+ downloads in three days. Then I did Fire Country a month later and had 27,000+ downloads. Obviously, I made zero royalties from these downloads, but sales of the sequels took off, and I had four straight months of 2,000+ full price sales. These months changed my life. You might have tried BookBub. You might have been rejected multiple times. I was too. They are extremely selective, which is also what makes them so valuable. Keep trying. Continue to build your reviews on Amazon. If you can get over 100 with a decent average rating, that’ll give you a chance at being accepted by BookBub. Don’t give up!

So you’re probably thinking the Dwellers Saga was an instant success, right? Try again. My third year as an Indie was decent, far better than I ever could have expected. Although I wasn’t making enough to live on, my wife and I had savings and we decided to quit our jobs to make a go of my dream, with her as my editor. A big risk, but that’s what life is anyway: one massive risk. My writing was improving, and I wasn’t going it alone anymore. I’d learned the hard lesson that good writing takes work. It also takes serious criticism from serious critics. I started using a beta reading team, and I stopped brushing negative feedback aside as “Just one person’s opinion.” I realized my writing sort of sucked and that I needed to learn how to improve it. I focused on every single sentence, every single chapter. Making them tighter. Making them better. I read books on writing, like Stephen King’s On Writing and Donald Maas’s Writing the Breakout Novel. I improved with each book, and my readers noticed. They appreciated my efforts. They were fully along for the ride. 

Partway through the third year I started a Goodreads fan group. Right off the bat I had 300 members. Woohoo!! I was ecstatic. Over the moon. Six months later I was churning out the sequels to The Moon Dwellers and I still had around 300 members. What? I couldn’t understand why my membership wasn’t growing. The Dwellers Saga was getting great reviews, but my fan group was dead. No activity. No interest. I decided to change things up. My biggest problem was that I made the group all about me. And who was I? Nobody. Just another person who writes books, another tree in the forest. So I changed things up. I made the group all about books. My books, someone else’s books, reading in general. Anything was fair game. It became a place where anyone could hang out and talk about their interests, passions, and experiences. The group started growing and now has more than 2,600 members, many of whom have never, and may never, read my books, which is perfectly fine by me, so long as they read other books. You see, it’s NOT all about you as a writer. It’s about READERS. The more readers we have, the more readers enjoy reading, the better it is for everyone. Become part of a book community, not for the purpose of selling your books, but because you love books like all the other people. I recommend Goodreads, but there are many others out there. Take it seriously. Participate in discussions. Make friends. Don’t spam about your book. Readers will realize you’re a valuable member of the community and they’ll click on your profile and discover you’re an author and get EXCITED about that fact and potentially try your books. I’ve had numerous people message me on Goodreads to say they’ve been my friend for over a year and never knew I was an author, but loved all the book recommendations I gave them (books that weren’t mine!). In most cases they said they’d give my books a shot. 

Year four. The best year. Part luck. Part hard work. Part good timing. The Dwellers Saga was listed as one of 15 Series to Read if you Enjoyed The Hunger Games on Buzzfeed. Sales shot up. A couple movie inquiries came in, as well as a TV inquiry (nothing has panned out so far, but it’s still cool!). An agent contacted me and eventually signed me. I wrote another trilogy, Brew, and although it had interest from publishers including a purchase offer, my agent and I decided to sign on with Amazon White Glove. Brew, and its sequel, Boil, hit the top ten on genre bestseller lists almost immediately. I stopped eating away at our savings and started paying bills with my royalties—ALL our bills. It could happen to you, but don’t expect it to. Expect to have to fight for every reader. Treat every reader like your ONLY reader. Be generous with your free books, especially the first book in a series. Never stop writing. Never. Do it because you love it and good things will follow.

Never give up. 

For more specific Indie Author Advice from David Estes, check out his dedicated author advice page on his blog here: http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com/search/label/advice

Also, David Estes loves connecting with fellow Indie authors as well as readers, feel free to contact him on one of his favorite social networking sites:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3167424.David_Estes

Blog: http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Davidestesbooks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidestesbooks

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Reviews

Reviews

The Holy Grail of the writer.

We seek them out, desperately hoping that if enough good ones pile up they will finally help us reach more readers.

But how do you get them?

The sad fact is, most people who read your book won’t leave a review. I know I don’t review every book I read. Most people unfortunately only review if something blows them away, either by how good it is or by how bad it is. And as much as we want reviews, we certainly don’t want the latter!

For most indie books building that review pile can seem impossible. We see the sales, but if feels like they’re disappearing into the ether, because there’s no feedback. Whilst part of me subscribes to the no news is good news idea, I also hunger, like any other author, for more reviews.

Now you can sit back and let them come in naturally, or you can try and generate some more yourself.

How?

One option is book bloggers, blogs like this one that offer a free and honest review of your book in exchange for a free copy. There are plenty of sites, like World Literary Café, just as example, that have forums to connect authors with bloggers looking for books to review. The downside is, a lot of those bloggers have huge to read lists, and it can take a while for them to get to you. But if you can be patient you might be rewarded with a nice full blog post about your book.

Another option is Goodreads. There seems to be a growing trend for R4R discussion groups where you can find readers who are willing to write reviews in exchange for a copy of the book. Find groups that fit your genre and market and join up. Try and be a part of the community, and you may soon find you have a steady stream of people willing to review your book.

The one path I don’t recommend: paid reviews. It might seem like a tempting idea. Pay for a few reviews to boost your rankings and ratings, and hopefully generate some real sales. But what this means is that you’re lying to your reader, and that’s hardly the best way to start out a new ‘relationship’.

So what about you? Do you love reviews or hate them? What are your tips for bumping those reviews on Amazon and Goodreads?

How to Start Your Own Publishing Company (A Tale of two Authors II)

If you missed out on Lisa's post last week, here's where you can read part I of A Tale of Two Authors.

The last thing we did was start our own publishing company. Basically, you wear two hats when you are a writer, the creative hat and the business hat. Making our books our own business was a no-brainer. No, we don’t publish others' books (although one day we might), but we have created our business into our own little enterprise. We opened a separate account for our business, we got an LLC license from the state, we have copyright status through the Library of Congress, and eventually, when we make some money, we will sign up with the local and state taxing regulations. (We do file business taxes with the IRS.)

There is a lot to self-publishing besides writing a book, and making that decision can be a tough one, but it is worth every stressful moment in the end. I weighed out the two options, traditional and self-publishing, and doing it ourselves was the best for us. 

Going through the process of trying to get an agent or find a publisher who was willing to take our book on, having to deal with rejection letters, waiting for God knows how long until our books became published, then having to pay them most of our profits, did not work for me. Plus, you still have to do all the marketing for your book, because the publishers do very little, if any, and we figured if we have to do all the hard work ourselves, we might as well reap as much of the reward as possible. 

There is a cost, however, to making this decision, one that’s not cheap. I suggest you start saving now, because the cover design will run you about $300.00 to $500.00, the cost of the editor could run $1000.00 or more, and then, once published, there are a lot of other costs you didn’t think about, such as business cards, bookmarks, launch parties, giveaways, and the list goes on. That is the one benefit of traditional publishing: the major costs are covered. 

So when you sit down and think about what’s the best way for you to go, weigh it all out in your head and in your pocketbook. But I will say this: I’m glad I self-published!

Thanks for joining me on Rock the Book today! All of you keep on writing or reading, and if you get a minute, leave me a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts on self-publishing.

You can find us on our site and our books on Amazon. We would love it if you joined us on our writing journey!

by Lisa Fender

Lisa Fender and Toni Burns, co-Authors of The Lorn Prophecy Series, have lived in Greece, Kentucky, and most recently (and most loved) in Colorado. Between them, they have two husbands, four children, two grandchildren and three dogs. Although a writer from a young age, Lisa did not bring her passion to light until she decided in 2008 to stop procrastinating and start writing. 

You will find out more by reading the interview they gave us, or by visiting their brand-new website, Djenrye World.

Making Deadlines

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but keeping my deadlines as an Indie author is probably the one thing I struggle with most.

I have my goals in mind at the start of any project. I give myself the date at which I want to have the first draft finished. I estimate the time it will take me to edit. I factor in the time it takes to make a cover, get my feedback from my beta readers, and format the ebook.

Yet somehow, despite all my planning I always seem to run out of time.

Writer’s block stalls the first draft, editing takes longer than I expected and so on.

But of course the main problem is simply life. Writing, sadly, is not yet my full time, and only job. I have a day job, that admittedly doesn’t take up a huge amount of time, but certainly makes it harder to focus as much as I would like. I have a partner, and a dog, and a house to keep tidy (during first drafts the first thing to get neglected is the housework!).

Yet, I think I have figured out the hardest part. I am the only person who sets my deadlines. I am the only person who cares or suffers when the deadline is missed. Of course, I have readers who are anxious for the next book to come out, but they don’t yet badger me for the sequel. I have no editor nagging at me to get them the latest edits.

The only person I have to push myself, is me.

I wish that I could end this post by offering some advice for other writers who suffer the same thing, but I can’t. I’m still trying to come to terms with this particular problem. So instead I’m going to end with ASKING for advice.

What do other indies do to make sure they stick to their deadlines? What’s your trick for getting yourself to work when you have so much else on your plate? All advice welcome!

How to Self-Publish (A Tale of Two Authors I)

Thanks, ladies, for inviting me to your wonderful site. I am also looking forward to having you on my blog. I think it’s great how you’re supporting self-published authors. Believe me, most of us are very appreciative. It’s not every day you find lovers of Indie books who turn that love into a blog.

I have to say that being an Indie author, or self-published, whatever you choose to call it, isn’t an easy task. First, it takes several years (took me 4 and a half) to write your book, then the big decision on who will design the cover, plus, not to mention, an editor, before you can even begin to set up the book for publication. Not an easy task, but once you’ve accomplished it the first time, it’s easier the next. 

My sister, Toni, and I decided to go through Createspace for our paperback distribution and had to learn how to set up the book so that all the dimensions were correct for the “mock” book on the Creatspace site. Once you’ve figured out what size book you want (usually the standard 6 by 9 in), each page has to be indented opposite the next, then the book needs to be loaded into the “mock trial” book they have on the site, and it will guide you along until you get it right. After that, load your cover, spine and back cover, and you’re published.

The next step, the electronic book, is much harder. For the first book, "Fable", we hired a girl to do this. We found her on Facebook. It took several attempts before it was correct, but we finally got it. You also have to have one for Amazon, (mobi) and epub for all others. Formatting an ebook is not an easy task. Toni decided to learn how to do it herself for our next book, "Fated", and found a site on line with a step-by-step guide to help her learn. It took her about a month to learn it all and get the book set up correctly. After that, she published on Amazon through their download.

On top of all that you have to set up your page for your Amazon readers, with things such as a blurb for the book - not just the one on back of the book - an author profile, and pricing. It is not an easy task, and it’s not for everyone, but we are glad we self-published. We can control all when it comes to decisions for our books. 

Check back next week to find out how Lisa and Toni started their own publishing company!

by Lisa Fender

Lisa Fender and Toni Burns, co-Authors of The Lorn Prophecy Series, have lived in Greece, Kentucky, and most recently (and most loved) in Colorado. Between them, they have two husbands, four children, two grandchildren and three dogs. Although a writer from a young age, Lisa did not bring her passion to light until she decided in 2008 to stop procrastinating and start writing. 

You will find out more by reading the interview they gave us, or by visiting their brand-new website, Djenrye World.