Time to Reboot

After discovering that something had gone horribly wrong with the publication of one of my books, I had taken the ‘drastic’ step of unpublishing them until I could upload copies onto the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) system. Drastic? According to the Amazon system, it meant losing any and all reviews. Since reviews are the lifeblood of any aspiring author, this would be another one of those indie author suicide moves, right?

Err, no.

Let’s face it, I was nowhere near the top 10,000 let alone the top 10. So, I had nothing to lose. Unpublish my books is what I duly did.

What was more important was ensuring that my potential readers (and reviewers) saw the best work I could offer. So far, I have two books back up: Beta and Merysekhmet.

Both are the ‘second’ books in their respective series. This means I can focus on the respective series ‘Volume 1’, Alpha and Cysgodion

Beta introduced two key characters from the Cwn Annwn side of the story, Bran Cadwgan and Owain Cadwaladr, a name which sends my computer’s autocorrect feature in paroxysms of confusion. That’ll be the Welsh language for you then. It also introduced the apparent ‘baddie’ in the brother of the one of the female main characters, Casimir Gosselin, the brother of Detective Alix Gosselin. Since Cysgodion is the story of Casimir, it was best his reputation was established sooner rather than later. Alpha explained my interpretation of the Welsh legend of the Cwn Annwn.

In comparison, Merysekhmet introduced a ‘new’ character, from the perspective of the overall series arc: Ramses Tariq-Omari. Undoubtedly, there are references to events occurring elsewhere, much of which will become clearer in subsequent books. Whilst both books may be read as standalone novels, it is inevitable when writing about a group of individuals, that there will be references to the stories of other characters. One can but try to balance those references. Both books are out for review. To the best of my ability, I have corrected the errors in formatting etc, but until a purchased copy is reviewed, I won’t know for certain.

Whether the relaunch will be worthwhile remains to be seen. However, it gives me an opportunity to learn from mistakes:

* Are peer to peer groups worthwhile?
* Is advertising on social media worth the variable cost?
* Which forms of social media are better?
* How do I convert followers to buyers and active readers?

What my experience has shown me is that it is better to concentrate on a selected few social media outlets. Many of these companies are now cracking down on perceived Spam, so advertising on every platform could compromise a Facebook account, for example. I have seen this happening with other authors. It could also result in the loss of Amazon reviews, rather than gain. If that happens, the behemoth that is Amazon does not seem to have a right of appeal. They decide. You, the author either wins or loses. Which forms of social media are better? That depends on your demographic. The last point of converting followers to buyers in a bit more difficult. One thing that is important is back-catalogue. So, rather than ignore those short stories, you may find that it encourages readers to buy the actual book.

LINKS FOR THE DIARIES OF THE CWN ANNWN AND THE HELLFIRE PACK SERIES

Beta
Amazon. com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KB20OL6
Amazon. co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KB20OL6

Merysekhmet
Amazon. com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJPK5S7
Amazon. co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJPK5S7

More Than A Christmas Star

Just about any author, self-published or traditional, would like to hope that the book into which they have put so much effort will be more than a shooting star. We would all like to think that, whilst it may not be a bestseller, it will be a steady seller, a star in the sky seen night after night, and not just a flash at Christmas.

But, the question is in which metaphorical sky?

The last year has not been as easy one for me, given that stresses in my day job resulted in my having a breakdown in May. That’s pretty impressive: admitting to a mental health problem, but it is what it is. What it did mean as an author was that I learnt some very important lessons about some of the networking options out there. These are lessons which are key when it comes to promotion and thus, hopefully sales.

Whilst I was in the depths of the pit of depression, I spent hardly any time online. As a self-published author, that was tantamount to suicide. Why? Self-promotion. If one is self-published, there is no big marketing machine to be out there making noise, telling folks about your book. Much like when you are working your way out of depression, you are on your own. Equally, there is no one else but you to keep a watch on the outlets, to find out with which blogger-reviewers one should work for best results. Is it worth joining peer to peer networks? Do they make a difference or just take advantage of your efforts to increase the sales of other authors?

That makes it sound a bit dire. But it is something that may be corrected. I withdrew my books from sale and am intending to relaunch in 2018, not necessarily in January, with improved copy, and with a better idea of how to maintain momentum without driving myself into the ground again. I have every reason to believe it is possible.

First thing, if you are planning to use social media, choose your platforms carefully. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Snapchat. WhatsApp.

For the sake of argument, I will go for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as my word driven outlets. For me, the pictorial social media serve a purpose to promote my name. However, my genre is paranormal romance. Not all my target demographic use those, so they won’t be a priority.

Next is building a following. These are the people whom I hope will want to BUY my book. What I have noticed is that having a newsletter helps dramatically. Instafreebie. Rafflecopter. What they have in common is giving something away. So, before I publish the novels proper, I need to tempt people. A free book of short stories set in my ‘universe’ seems reasonable as it introduces people to my world. Maintain the momentum with a newsletter which has snippets and it should keep people interested.

Then, let’s return to social media. An author page and a personal profile have to be managed differently. The former is again somewhere for snippets. The latter? Well, the thing is one has to be careful about posts on your personal page. Don’t rant on either. Maintain positivity. It is a minefield.

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can all be linked. It is also possible to use apps like Hootlet to schedule your posts. This is vital. Remember what I said about avoiding burnout? Let the software do the work for you. You may still edit scheduled posts, and this way, you may also be able to post to suit target timezones.

The trick is enjoy what you are doing. It doesn’t matter what you are doing. The day you cease to enjoy it is the day for serious re-evaluation.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas! May you have a good day and look forward to a productive New Year.

The Arrows of Retribution

Thoroughly enjoyed archery tonight, with 30m and 50yd targets used. For those that don’t know me personally, I have three longbows. The draw weights are all at 28″ draw length: “My Lady” (in the picture), 33lb, “Bronwen” (Neolithic Holmgaard replica bow), 33lb and “The Beast”, 40lb. Yesterday, I was using My Lady.

I don’t shoot a modern bow after discovering my eyes can’t ‘work’ with sights. Plus I like the feel of my yew bows. Most archers will shoot rounds of six arrows per end with a view of scoring sufficiently for a classification e.g. third, second, first, bowman and master bowman.

I was taken to task yesterday, albeit quietly, for loosing nine arrows per end instead of six. However, as I don’t shoot recognised rounds to aim for a classification, it doesn’t matter if I loose ten arrows in an end to everyone else’s six arrows. I will have finished my end before all the recurves have shot. I loose my six, and check if I have time for the remaining arrows in my quiver. I am not holding up collecting the arrows, since I will have left the shooting line before the last recurve.

Why does this matter? Just because you don’t fit the mould (of most archers), does not mean you lack validity.

I use this illustration often. A competitive archer might look at these and assume two groupings, and a reasonable score. Another of my friends saw it as three threat and three heart shots, with my target experiencing a good dose of dead.

Another thought was that the other individual using that target, in her own, was shooting a round. Whether my shooting none arrows to her six meant it might endanger the round she was doing, I don’t know. Benefit of the doubt. So, near in. Mind that you might only have half the picture.

But it still comes down to one thing. Live for yourself and those dear to you. All manner of negative emotions might hiding in the backbiting and bitching. Protect yourself, but consider what drives such hatred. Don’t let the narrow-mindedness of others prevent you from helping.

LINKS TO THE BOOKS IN THE DIARIES OF THE CWN ANNWN and HELLFIRE PACK SERIES

“Bound”, Volume 1 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.com $0.99 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016TQFBNY
Amazon.co.uk £0.99 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016TQFBNY

“Alpha”, Volume 2 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.com $3.00 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENZ972O
Amazon.co.uk £2.99 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ENZ972O

“Beta”, Volume 3 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.co.uk: £1.66 or free on KU https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KB20OL6
Amazon.com: $2.58 or free on KU https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KB20OL6#nav-subnav

“Merysekhmet”: A love story with bite
http://www.facebook.com/Merysekhmet
Amazon.com: $2.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJPK5S7
Amazon UK: £2.30 or free on Kindle Unlimited https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XJPK5S7

“Make Yourself Happy …”

How many times have you heard that line? At work, with the classic advice of find a job you enjoy? That is closely followed by ensuring you have a good work/life balance. Companies will have their policies, probably including some of the following in terms of protecting one’s own health:

Be aware of issues such as back pain, musculoskeletal disorders, eye-stress and strain
Stress and anxiety
Mental and physical fatigue
Threatening or bullying behaviour

This will be followed by advice to report it to a line manager or HR, because, of course, your employer has your best interests at heart. You might even believe that, in terms of a happy workforce is a productive workforce. The problems occur when the ‘management’ come from a different generation, where ‘risk-aware’ meant ‘get rid of the problem before its existence becomes known by others’.

In the face of that, is it surprising that work/life balance may not exist?

So returning to that idea of balance. Apart from a three year period in the mid-1990s, I have always worked full-time. In the 2001 census, that meant a 60 hour week. Wait just a second. If you work 60 hours, and you sleep 11pm to 6am (35 hours), have a bit of a lie in at the weekend (18 hours). There are 282 hours in a week. Work and sleep is 113 hours. So, that leaves 169 hour as time with significant others.

That’s cool, because that’s 38 more hours spent not working or sleeping. No problem. Balanced. And, as a bonus point, balanced in favour or downtime. But, remember, I am also working this out from:

A working mother’s perspective
Someone trying to write and self-publish her own novels.

Oh, and don’t want to hear that nonsense about shared parenting and the sharing of household tasks. Great in theory but does it happen for the majority. So we will just cut to the chase. Yes, you may well be spending time with your family, but it is eating, shopping, laundry, housework. When do you sit down? When do you relax? When are you not a wife, a mother?

When do you truly have ‘me’ time? When do you have the time to do something just for you?

This was the point that my therapist made to me. When did I do something that made me happy? Writing whilst cooking? Writing when I have insomnia? Thinking about plots when driving? And, it was not just my writing. How often had I put my dream of learning to ride a motorbike? When we are on holiday, do I have the chance to paint?

It made me think. Part of self-publishing is the promotional side. If readers don’t know you are out there, they won’t buy your books. Simple as that. My WordPress stats showed I hadn’t posted for several months. Facebook reminded me that my followers hadn’t heard from me in my author page. The 600+ people following my Hunter’s Arrow page hadn’t heard from me in a while either. That self-promotion stuff takes time.

Time. Timely-wimey. Wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey.

Damn, but the therapist was right. Doing things that I enjoyed had become a guilty pleasure, one that didn’t deserve time in my schedule. This is the reality of being a self-published author, as many of us know. But don’t mistake my words for a whinge. It was a wake-up call, because it is all to easy for our pleasure, the one thing that should make a writer smile, become a chore.

Make yourself happy.

No, that doesn’t mean give up writing if it becomes a chore. For me, what it has meant is when the little voice in my head says, “You can’t afford motorbike lessons.”, there is a countering voice saying, “Yes, you can. After all this time, you can.”

How does that translate into my writing? It means making it clear that ‘that hour’ is writing time and I am not to be interrupted unless the house is on fire. Similarly, if I put aside time for promotional work. That is a necessary part of my writing. It is not me ‘playing’ in Facebook and social media. It is part and parcel of my wanting to stand a chance of my books selling more than a single copy. I know writing won’t replace my day job, but I would like to have something to show for the time I spend putting pen to paper.

For the record, since my therapist asked me that question, I have booked the motorbike lessons, I have bought the Royal Enfield Bullet in the picture at the top. I have taken time to edit, have critiqued and re-edit the next book I want to publish.

‘Me’ time.

It matters. We owe it to ourselves because no one else will grant it to us.

LINKS TO THE BOOKS IN THE DIARIES OF THE CWN ANNWN and HELLFIRE PACK SERIES

“Bound”, Volume 1 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.com $0.99 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016TQFBNY
Amazon.co.uk £0.99 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016TQFBNY

“Alpha”, Volume 2 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.com $3.00 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENZ972O
Amazon.co.uk £2.99 or free on KU: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ENZ972O

Self-publishing advisory: formatting

So, you have written the book. You have either self-edited or you have sent it for professional editing. You have made the alterations and corrections, and now … now you are ready to format your precious for publication.

First off, this is not a step by step guide to how to format your beloved book. There are more that enough guides on doing that. As with my other posts, this will be about things I have learned as I have gone through the mill of setting up my books for sale on Amazon, Smashwords and as a ‘print on demand’ book.

Secondly, I will add a caveat, a warning. There are a lot of companies out there who will offer to format your books for you, and many of them come under a thinly veiled disguise. A bit of digging will show them to be a vanity publisher. They offer to format, and then they offer to publish. Self-publishing via the Amazon Kindle Direct option or via Smashwords costs nothing, other than the cost of having a decent front cover. That is the only thing on you should need to expend money.

So, why do I reckon it is so straightforward. If you look at this illustration, you might well think, “Noooo! I can’t face this …”. But it is possible. It just takes a bit of planning. I am going to make the assumption that you are using Microsoft Word. Not everyone does, but the majority do.

That picture looks scary, but it is not. The basics that you need are a style for your main body text, usual ‘Normal’ and one for chapter titles, for which you can use something like the one shown in the picture as ‘Book Title’. Everything else can be based on those two titles. It really can be that simple.

The key thing is that if you use those pre-set styles, you can fiddle with the fonts later. You can decide if you want block or indented paragraphs later, bearing in mind that indented paragraphs works better on Amazon, and Smashwords specifies block paragraphs in their Style Guide.

When it comes to CreateSpace and the concept of ‘print on demand’, this is NOT vanity publishing. This is a facility where you can still offer paperback editions, but without having to splash out for a print run of 100 copies, which would be your only other option if you wish to keep the cost per copy down to something where you make a bit of a profit on the cover price. Also, if you don’t use CreateSpace, you will have to buy your own ISBN, unless you use a printer who can supply this. With CreateSpace always order a print proof copy, because the screen version and the print version look very different. Key things which I learnt were that margins look at lot bigger in reality, and you can go with a 9-point font if you wish and have a lot of words. CreateSpace defaults to a 6×9″ book size. If you have an 80,000 word or less book, this will result in a very thin book. But if you go for a less common and smaller size to give a decent thickness, then the cost per copy will change.

In summary, scour the internet for specific guides. I have added some links to the ones I found useful. Both are free to download:

Smashwords Guide by Mark Coker: essential reading if you want to publish on Smashwords, which will give you access to Barnes & Noble and iBooks is here Link for Smashwords Guide

Publish on Amazon Kindle via Kindle Direct Publishing: this is specific to Amazon and may be found here Link for Amazon Guide

Above all, relax. It is not as scary a process as some people might think. Even if you don’t class yourself as a ‘technie’, you will be able to do this. You wrote the book. Go for it.

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