Tout your Kindle and E-Publishing!

Messrs. Harvey and Shoemaker:

Please be advised that you have reviews from yours truly on your recent ebooks at Amazon. As for any inferences you may draw between real-name me and pen-name me, you are hereby advised that these are not the droids you're looking for, and you should move along.

Cheers!

Kary

Messrs. Harvey and Shoemaker:

Please be advised that you have reviews from yours truly on your recent ebooks at Amazon. As for any inferences you may draw between real-name me and pen-name me, you are hereby advised that these are not the droids you're looking for, and you should move along.

Cheers!

Kary

Thank you!

Messrs. Harvey and Shoemaker:

Please be advised that you have reviews from yours truly on your recent ebooks at Amazon. As for any inferences you may draw between real-name me and pen-name me, you are hereby advised that these are not the droids you're looking for, and you should move along.

Cheers!

Kary

Wow, thanks! I thought it might be a family member, because my maternal Grandmother's family has that last name. But, they don't read SF (or any fiction).

wow, I wonder if we're 11th cousins or something like that.

I love that cover, Annie. Who is your cover artist?

Ah! I haven't been on this thread in a while. I agree with Kyle's sentiment! Lots of books, guys. Way awesome. Right now I'm scrambling to prepare as much as I can for the WotF workshop, so when I'm not herding kids and ferrets, I'm writing, and when I'm not writing, I'm trying to catch up on my back log of judge's books I'm reading right now.

Thats not to say I'm not also building a list right off this thread for my Nook, when I come back.

Keep up the good work. Keep the projects coming. Annie: I'm floored at your level of productivity. Amazing.

M.O.Muriel- Tom Edwards did the cover ( http://www.tomedwardsconcepts.daportfolio.com/ ). He was amazing to work with and I think really captured the mood/feel I want.

Wow, his work is amazing. Annie, does he know about this contest?

I've been on Smashwords for a year!

I wrote a blog post about what I've learned

http://pattyjansen.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... ublishing/

I agree with your pondering, Grayson!

I've always said (and never understood) "Why isn't IotF flooded by some of the amazing artists we see on deviantarts?" They can't ALL have disqualified themselves with a pro illustration.

Part of being deviant, I suppose: visual lotus eaters ... That, or too many days locked in air-tight rooms with turpentine fumes?

I tell folks about the contests whenever I can. I preach it, bruthahs and sistahs (more comfortably, I'll admit, since I'm not competing with the visual artists) But then ... look how often even WRITERS don't come here even when they're in the contest. Whazzup widdat? Do they ALL just lurk?

Lurkers. Deviants. Ours is a strange people ...

M.O.Muriel- Tom Edwards did the cover ( http://www.tomedwardsconcepts.daportfolio.com/ ). He was amazing to work with and I think really captured the mood/feel I want.

Amazing portfolio. Annie, what was his going rate for the Casimir Hypogean cover? I do my own cover art, but I'm curious to see what other artists are charging indie authors.

By the way, I love the titles you come up with for your stories, too.

M.O.Muriel- Tom Edwards did the cover ( http://www.tomedwardsconcepts.daportfolio.com/ ). He was amazing to work with and I think really captured the mood/feel I want.

Amazing portfolio. Annie, what was his going rate for the Casimir Hypogean cover? I do my own cover art, but I'm curious to see what other artists are charging indie authors.

By the way, I love the titles you come up with for your stories, too.

Yes Nobu, thanks for sharing! Do tell us his price range . . .

He's doing all 3 for me for 750 total, which I feel is a kind of a steal, frankly. He usually charges a bit more but since I ordered three covers at once, he was willing to come down in price. I'll need to sell 165 copies between the three books to pay off the covers, which is fully doable as far as I can tell from my data so far (even my worst-selling ebook has sold more than 50 copies in the last year). Of course, then another 120 copies to pay for the editing. So editing and cover costs should be earned back within a year or two. And after that I need to sell 5,935 copies to pay myself my 10 cent a word rate... That'll take a while, I think. But fortunately, ebooks can keep earning for a very long time. That's the thing about putting on the publisher hat, too, it's exactly like starting your own business. I expect the first few years to be pretty bumpy as things take time to earn back (though my thriller novel has already paid for its cover and editing and started earning me my word rate which I re-invested back into getting covers and editing for other books). Definitely things to consider when getting into self-publishing. By my calculations, based on the year of sales data I have now, and if I write most of what I have planned, I'll start earning a decent (more than 3k a month) living by 2016. Not so long to go now...

Not that you *need* gorgeous covers, of course. But I couldn't pass up this chance to have them. I think some types of SF and most Fantasy covers really benefit from custom art. It's easier to do thrillers and romance covers with stock art and a little photo manip, which costs a good deal less (and those genres also earn a good deal more), but for my SF and F novels I'm going to try to find the funding to make sure they all have lovely covers. I think that it will help sales.

Not that you *need* gorgeous covers, of course. But I couldn't pass up this chance to have them. I think some types of SF and most Fantasy covers really benefit from custom art. It's easier to do thrillers and romance covers with stock art and a little photo manip, which costs a good deal less (and those genres also earn a good deal more), but for my SF and F novels I'm going to try to find the funding to make sure they all have lovely covers. I think that it will help sales.

"Farewell to Tyrn" is selling much better than I expected it to (I figured if I sold 50 copies in the first month, I'd be ecstatic; I'm already halfway to that goal after four days!) and considering all the remarks I'm getting from people on how much the love the cover, I think Fred's work is doing just what it's supposed to be doing. I couldn't think of a photoshop cover or a ready-made cover that captures the strange science-fantasy environment—romance and crime novels have it much easier in that department, definitely—so I needed something original. And it appears going to Fred was the smart decision!

I only need to sell two more copies of the Lounge or twenty more copies of my short stories, and my self-published works have broken even. I'll have covered what I paid for three covers (only two in use so far) and for gift copies to friends and coworkers. That's a long way from paying myself a wage, but it's a faster break-even than I expected.

If I add in my two pro sales, I can safely say that my writing has actually turned a profit this year! Again, not a wage, but in the black.

Now I just need to add two more zeroes to the end of the numbers. Or three. Or...

UPDATE: Of course, my cover art -- delighted as I am with it -- is work licensed from Dreamstime for around $10 to $13 a piece. That makes break-even a little more possible.

Thanks, Annie. His rates sound professional. Not bad for 3 covers (I assume the rate would have been closer to a clean thousand for three titles without the nice discount). Give or take, similar rates would be around what I would expect IotFer to charge.

I consider us IotFers to be at the Journeyman stage--no longer apprentices, but not yet masters--and we know the thousands of $ the masters command for a single cover illus!

I agree with having a catchy cover for sf/f. I'm very fortunate to be able to render my own covers. And in different styles, too. My OCKT art is whimsical and fun, for example, and rendered in two (normally opposing) styles: 3D background, which I fabricate, and 2D cartoon characters superimposed. It reflects the absurdity of the world and that it's for kids and adults alike--not to mention, I've always pictured that this is how the world probably looks like through a ferret's eyes, lol: some real elements, some pretend or imagined.

But, yeah, this purposeful mix of styles wouldn't work for absolutely anything else I can think of, as perfect as it is for the OCKT books. Not even for other mid-grades.

For my adult sf/f, I'm with you: full processed, color, all one style . . . but those take far longer for me to render. Up to a month each. If I wasn't 'self employed,' but was an artist only, and was accepting commissions, I'd probably be charging similar rates to your cover artist for similar quality work.

For what it's worth, it seems to have taken him about 5 days from initial "here are some things about the book" email to completed cover.

As for rates, yeah. I've corresponded with at least 20 artists about various ideas over the last year and rates ran anywhere from 100 for a nice but simple photo-manipulation type piece to 1500-2000 for an original fantasy cover. The difference is generally in what kind of work the artist has been doing, I have found. I have a few artists in my "use someday" file that get a lot of work from foreign publishers, collectible card game companies, and places like that. I think I got pretty lucky that Tom is on the very low end of things price-wise for original covers like this (especially given that he also does beautiful font and layout as well as awesome art). I think artists have to decide what they want to charge based on what is reasonable for them and how well they think they can execute a job. And it's probably tough to know that you could be missing out on work if you charge more than people want, but it is important to value what you do, as well.

Of course, it's also important to be professional. I think that will lead to more work even if your prices aren't rock bottom or even low-ish. I can highly recommend Tom because he worked quickly, he put up with me nitpicking a few things and made the changes I wanted, and he was great about involving me in every step of the process. I really look forward to working with him on more covers and I'll probably go to him for more work after this even though I have other artists in my folder who are a little less expensive.

One thing I've definitely learned is be careful of asking friends for things. I have a friend who is a great artist, though illustration is not her strongest or most practiced side of things (she does a lot of glass blowing and metal sculpting, but when she does draw, it's lovely). I hired her for some covers. Over a year ago. She gave me a "friend" rate (still not completely insignificant monies) with the stipulation that I recommend her to all my writer friends so she could possibly pick up more work. I'm not sure I ever will, even if she ever delivers the covers she says she's working on. I just don't know how I feel about recommending even a great friend when I'm not sure she's organized enough to deliver things in a professional way. It makes me sad. I also know that even if she gives me covers that are utterly amazing, I will never hire her again. I've had to rearrange my writing schedule and been sitting on a finished novel for nearly a year now because of her inability to give me the covers. Professionally, I can't afford to do that very often.

That's the thing about self-publishing. I'm running a business. I need to figure in costs and time expenditures and all those other fun things. And if I'm going to produce professional products, I need to make sure I work with pros. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, right?

Absolutely, Annie.

Sometimes I'm tempted to just help people, but I honestly can't afford to. It's hard to say 'no.' At least with us IotFers--and we run the gamut for styles and levels of quality for different outlets--we've had to go through that grueling 30-day read-this-story-and-illustrate-it, so it's been proven that we can 'hang.' For me it was a personal accomplishment to deliver quality, not only on time, but before the deadline. (Actually, I was running against my due date, hehe, and had my 2nd daughter on the same day I submitted the work, so for me, the experience proved that I 'could do it no matter what!' 'Be a professional' on all levels . . . and of course, we all still giggle at that experience ).

It's good to see how professional you are with this indie publishing business, seemingly on all levels. Say, when did you start--officially launch your 'business?' And, how long did it take for you to build your little platform. What kind of marketing do you do, if any?

I got my feet wet back in July of 2010 with three literary short stories under another name. I put them up and then watched to see what would happen. They sold a few copies a month without me doing anything and I found that promising. So in January of 2011, I put together an SF collection with three short stories and a novelette that had all gone through the pro markets without selling and I also published a novella that I felt very confident in (got me my first personal rejection from Analog and got personal notes on the first page from KD when it came back with an HM). I put those up and started selling a few more copies. Then in March I published a fantasy novel that had gotten a few full requests and nice rejections from major houses. It also started selling a few copies. And I kind of went from there, ending the year with 15 products up under three different pen names. I don't really do much marketing. I've tried a few things, gotten some reviews, some interviews, did a blog tour, etc, and as far as I can tell the only things that have actually boosted sales are putting up new work and making something free for a short period (and even that has become much less useful with KDP Select now).

So this year I decided I'm not going to do any promotion at all beyond give-aways and freebies (since those take zero time and effort from my writing) and just focus on putting out a lot of books and working on craft. I'm hoping to have 18 new products up by the middle of march (15 novellas and 3 omnibus collections of those novellas), which are all in a series that has recurring world/characters but can be read in just about any order. I also have some experimental erotica short stories to write and publish (I want to work on writing sex scenes, so hey, why not, right?) Then I'm going to probably focus on getting the Lorian Archive trilogy done and out by June. Then the sequel to my first fantasy novel, which is mostly written already and just needs an ending and editing. After that, we'll see. I have a ton of books and novellas planned out, but I don't really want to pressure myself to write anything I don't feel like writing. I figure as long as I get them all done by the end of 2015, I'm good. My goal is to have at least 185 products available by the start of 2016, hopefully across six pen names.

Being a freelancer is always a little scary. I've been doing it on and off for years though (I played pro poker in college and was also a model for a while). But the freedom is worth it. I just hope I can do it right. I want to write awesome books that people can't put down, which is what I aim for with my writer hat on. And then I want to make sure those books are packaged nicely with fabulous covers, good editing/proofing, good blurbs (my most hated task!), etc. Which is my publishing hat. It's a lot of work, sure, but most of it involves writing fun stories and looking at really nice art figuring out what I can afford. The stress part is the no health insurance (husband got laid off last year and is back in school because he couldn't find a new job), not knowing if we'll be able to make the rent, and the doubts and fears that come with writing for a reading public. I'm slowly learning to accept that I'm never going to know if I'm good enough and fortunately for me I guess, I'm too poor to be able to worry about it too much.

But hey, even selling at the tiny amounts I am now, I'll be earning a nice living by 2016 if I get the work done that I want to get done. And that isn't too far off, now. Most businesses lose money for the first few years. If it hadn't been for Clarion, I would have made more than I spent last year, so I figure I'm doing okay for someone who only started writing seriously less than 3 years ago.

Hope that mini-novel there answers your questions.

It's pretty inspiring (to us just getting started) to read how you've mapped out your course, Annie! Quality writing always come first, but you've got that, and seeing how you're laying out the map course and then following it ... that's inspiring!

Thanks, Annie! That was a well thought out response, and I appreciate hearing your story. E-Pub is still so new, and with color readers coming out, and my penchant for color interior art, the possibilities arise, and everything is so new, but we've got to ride the wave and get in *now*! Now, before the market becomes so over-saturated that it's like white-noise to the buyer.

For me, I'm a novelist. Not much of a short story writer. But all available shorts, I've just put into circulation at the pro mags--why not? Worst case scenario, they go to e-book, which they will eventually anyway, even if they got picked up and credited, first. I have 7 in circulation right now and all of them are WotF HMs, except 2 (one I just wrote). After WotF and the rights for my winning story revert back to me, that's another one, and then I'll have my 24-hour story. So, I'm looking at 9 shorts/novelettes/novellas that can eventually be up in the near future (after I do cover art, which I might have to initially do symbolic cover art for, and then update the covers with high-speed renditions when I get the time). Then there are the mid-grade Land of OCKT novels. Still in the process of working out the formatting kinks for Amazon for Book 1, but I'm half-way through book two on the writing front. So, I'll have a few whole novels up as well.

Other novels, I'm still holding out on two of them for traditional publishing--a military SF and a different mid-grade, both firsts in trilogies. We'll see what happens as a result of WotF. In any case, I want to retain my digital rights to those, so even if I land a book deal <hopes! prays! does voodoo magic!>, I would also be putting them up digitally and doing the cover art, as well . . .

Yeah, I hear you. It's all about product. Humph, my hubs just read an article on Amanda Hocking. I think he thinks we're suppose to become like millionaires over night or something now. So if things don't take off asap, that, I think to him = failure. Abject, total failure. It is very hard to make the non-writers understand that even with a huge hit on your hands, these things take time to process and start up--doesn't mean the project is a failure, or you are a failure as a writer. It's not like you get an advance going indie, anyway. . LOL, well, from his POV, he's been waiting for 10-11 years for something 'to happen' (reads: in a lucrative way, ideally large and lucrative), so my time is running out; very soon, he will no longer 'support the hobby' . . .

Tell him that Amanda Hocking wasn't an overnight success either.

And I think the writers that will make it in this new world are the ones working on long term success. Regularly putting out good quality books will be the key and not every writer will be able to follow through. Heck, I'm pretty driven myself and I get worn down by the grind from time to time. Thankfully, I have an extremely supportive wife and children, so they're always there to pick me up when I need it.

Yeah, I don't think there is necessarily any need to rush. The "market" is readers. And there are tens of millions of them in the English language alone (and India hasn't even really opened up yet for e-readers/e-books, which will add a ton more). People make good money off paper books still, too, and there are millions of those already. I tried to estimate how many books I'd read in my lifetime and came up with about 4,000. I'm considered a voracious reader (~300-350 books a year in general). In SF/F alone there are about 1600 new books published every year from the traditional publishers which means that if I only read new fiction in only one genre, I couldn't even manage to read a quarter of what is produced and not even counting self-published work. Worrying about "too many books" is just a waste of time, in my opinion. There are enough readers to go around.

I think the key will always be to write great books, package them nicely, and get them up. Amanda Hocking had about 7 or 8 books up before her stuff really started to hit, and she'd written over 15 already (ie practiced her craft over and over). It's easy to look at success and think it happened overnight, but it rarely does. I think it can happen a little more quickly in this new world of publishing, thanks to a return to some of the pulp era mentality, but it still requires doing the work. When I quit my job and decided to try to be a writer, I told my husband I needed ten years to build my career and make a living. As far as I can tell, with the new world, I should be able to do it in 5-6 years instead. Not exactly over night, but not over a decade, either.

Haha, Annie, that's my point. I've been actively querying agents for novels for the better part of 11 years now (been writing the darned things since I was 7), so yeah, talk about over and over. The way the hubs looks at it is, well, 11 years and STILL nothing? Running out of time here real quick, babe . . . (caveat: he's the bread winner). I think part of it is he's nearing retirement in the military, and the economy is so bad right now. He doesn't want to keep 'supporting the hobby.'

New caveat: the indie e-pub thing is totally new to me as of a few months ago, though. Never thought I'd touch it with a 10 foot pole. But that was back when it was taboo and equated to: e-pub = failure to trad pub = not a good writer/not a good product. Now, of course, that notion has since changed. In fact, it's been turned completely on it's head. It's a totally valid business. And even if we discount all the pros e-pubbing their back lists, for all of us neub indie authors with no startup platforms, good product can sill find it's way to eager readers--we're just cutting out the middle man.

That said, lol, even though I'm just now, hardly getting into the indie game, breaking out is still breaking out is still breaking out to the hubs, and "IT'S BEEN 10-11 YEARS!!! No more!"

When the babies are full time school, I'll just get a Creative Writing teaching job, or a copy editing job, or what have you . . . and <shhhh> write under the cover of darkness. LOL!!!!

Well guys,

I can now say that THE LAND OF OCKT is officially up on Amazon for Kindle! Since I'm working with images, I wanted to be sure that all the bells and whistles were working 100% to my satisfaction before announcing it
The color e-readers seem to be all the craze now, so I hope to hit the ground running to meet the 'color demand,' with my color interior art! (Can't say the interior art looks too shabby on the old e-ink Kindles, either, as I design everything digitally).

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Land-Adventures-Peeje-Herder-ebook/dp/B006XJW7X0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1327345166&sr=1-1

And, of course there's good ol' smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104545
Also available at B&N, Apple, Kobo, Sony, and the Diesel eBook Store.

Have a look-see. Tell your friends. Tell your kids. IT'S ON AMAZON, yay!

Looks great, Meghan!

And like I mentioned elsewhere ... be sure to keep an eye open for the "add customer images" tool when/if it ever returns (on Kindle books' pages) so you can showcase your interiour illustrations in all their glory!

Hey! I was totally wondering about that!!!

I actually added 4 images (including the cover) to the customer image feature. They were there on-and-off for a day or so, but now I can't find them . . . or for that matter, pictures under anyone else's books either, like WotF Vol. 27--and I know we have customer images posted under that. What gives?

Not only is this a cool little marketing tool for illustrated books, the feature even has/had a sub-feature associated with it that allows the poster to add pop-up information bubbles to the images, so when customers drag their mouse over the images, they can see what the bubbles say. I had all kinds of interactive goodies on my sample images. But now they're gone, along with apparently everyone else's.

Yeah, I've been preaching the use of the "images & notes" as a selling tool for a while here and elsewhere -- then suddenly zzzzzziiiiiippppppp! Gone!

What gives?

It seems "customer images" are vanished from all KINDLE books(even WOTF #27 etc)

They vanished maybe a week ago, p***ing me off greatly. HOWEVER: if you check your Amazon profile, under "images" they'll still be there (pop up notes working too) ... so it's not like they've been deleted.

However, they're still there for printed books. So Amazon hasn't abandoned the tool or been hacked to death etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Future-27-Ron-Hubbard/dp/159212870X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327388344&sr=1-1

Hopefully, Amazon is just tinkering with pop ups to blend them into working with the new K 8 system for Fire.

Interiour illustration from my new sci-fi short story
"A FINE SEASONING FOR WAR"
-- available on Amazon for a mere .99 cents!

http://www.amazon.com/FINE-SEASONING-WAR-ebook/dp/B00735Z1CM/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327976081&sr=1-7

All are invited to read -- to enjoy -- and review!

"It's ... It's a COOKBOOK!"

We all know how THAT story ends, from the award-winning 1950 science fiction story by Damon Knight, and the shock-ending episode of the classic TWILIGHT ZONE !!!

Even THE SIMPSONS couldn't resist getting in on the fun ...

But HERE NOW is a twisty, scary short tale that takes that story ...
and adds a new and even more frightening twist perhaps ...

When, sometime in the near future, the fate of the Earth hangs between Peace and Holocaust ...

... And the salvation or destruction of the world depends on whether or not the alien minds of the dreaded, God of War-worshipping Qwee'Xoo Empire have or haven't been watching Earth's late nite TV re-runs … and whether an unexpected gift brings Peace ... or utter Annihilation to Mankind !!!

A FINE SEASONING FOR WAR ... 4300 words ... both salty and sweet,
with more than a pinch of nightmare added to make your meal complete!

Illustrated for your tentacled delight!

The next Gryphonpike Chronicles novella is out:

Description:
The mute elven archer known only as Killer. Azyrin, a half Winter-orc shaman and his human swordswoman bride, Makha. Drake, the charming, swashbuckling rogue. The fireball-slinging pixie-goblin, Rahiel, and her mini-unicorn, Bill. These are the Gryphonpike Companions.

On route to the town of Coldragon, the Companions find a peaceful monastery threatened by necromantic evil and get a chance to answer an important question: How many times can you kill a dragon?

It's Kindle exclusive for the moment: http://www.amazon.com/Drowned-Dragon-Gr ... 00746S8BQ/

On to writing the next one! Wee.