Publishing Ebooks on Smashwords

Most of my readers know I’m a big fan of ebooks. I read on a Kindle, but I believe in making my books and my clients’ books available for a variety of ebook devices. The easiest way to accomplish this is to publish on Smashwords, a platform that allows anyone to publish their work as an ebook for free. Currently I have eight titles available on the Smashwords website and in its Premium Catalog.

• Trapped by Love, a free novelette that has been downloaded more than 5000 times on Smashwords and has five 5-star reviews
• Dream or Destiny, a romantic mystery with a paranormal touch and a theme of domestic violence
• Stroke of Luck, a contemporary romance, five-star rated, featuring a disabled heroine
• Fern’s Fancies, a humorous contemporary romance with four 5-star reviews
• The Secrets of Fantastic Houseplants, an indoor plant care guide based on a small booklet I wrote for customers in my plant shop many years ago
• Finding the Information You Need: Research Tips for Your Family, Business, or Personal Pursuits, a short how-to guide to research, useful for writers as well as individuals and families
• Preserving Memories: How to Write a Family History, tips for writing a family history or memoir to share with family or to publish
• Creating Fictional Characters, my newest offering, based on a series on my blog—at least three of the posts rank among the top 10 in Google for the keywords “creating fictional characters” as well as among my most popular posts

All except Dream of Destiny and Stroke of Luck, which are published by a small press, are self-published and available only as ebooks through Smashwords. All my self-published ebooks sell for $1.99. In addition to my own books, my associate and I have published a dozen ebooks on Smashwords for clients, so I’ve been through the process enough to share a few words of advice.

The magic of Smashwords is the Meatgrinder, the system that takes a Word document and converts it to a variety of ebook formats for sale on Smashwords and other retailers across the Internet. Books in the Premium Catalog are distributed to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple, Diesel, and Scrollmotion and will be distributed to Amazon when the two companies complete technical integration. While authors can upload ebooks directly to most of these stores, letting the Meatgrinder do the conversions and Smashwords do the distribution saves a lot of time and frustration.

Preparing a manuscript for Smashwords takes some time and occasionally causes some frustration, but when it does, the simple solution is to follow the Smashwords Style Guide. Mark Coker, Smashwords’ founder, has spelled out in detail exactly how to prepare your Word document (be sure to use .doc, not .docx) to make the AutoVetter (the technology that Smashwords uses to check your manuscript for formatting errors) happy. In my experience, when a file has been rejected by the AutoVetter, the reason is failing to follow the Style Guide exactly.

You don’t have to learn from your own mistakes when it comes to Smashwords. I’ll share my mistakes with you so you can learn from them. The following tips suggest things to do and not do—for details see the Style Guide.

• Do remove all formatting—even the hidden formatting you don’t know is there. Mark explains how to find and remove the formatting and how to normalize your text. When the Style Guide says to remove all formatting, believe it. Don’t think you can get by using that fancy font that you love so much. Stick with Times New Roman, Garamond, or Arial.
• Don’t mix a lot of different styles. Start with everything in Normal paragraph style, then add the variations you need for headers and font attributes such as bold and italics, but keep styles to a minimum. Elaborate formatting doesn’t translate well to most ebook formats.
• Don’t use tabs, paragraph returns to create blank lines between paragraphs, tables, columns, or text boxes. Instead use paragraph indents and set the “space after” to 6 point in your Normal paragraph style; convert tables, columns, and text boxes to plain text.
• Don’t use Word’s AutoCorrect, AutoFormat, or automatic table of contents creator. All of these features are apt to put garbage into your ebook. You may think it takes a little longer to create the table of contents manually, but, believe me, if you corrupt your file with an automatic table of contents, you’ll wish you had spent a little extra time initially.
• One simple rule for success: Do follow the instructions in the Style Guide. Mark Coker has provided step-by-step instructions that work if you follow them exactly. And if you still get AutoVetter errors after following the instructions, fall back on the “nuclear option” and paste your text into Notepad to remove whatever hidden formatting or corruption is causing the problem. Then start over following the Style Guide instructions.

Anyone can publish anything on Smashwords. As an editor, I have one piece of advice that isn’t a “how-to” but a “what-to.” Ensure that your book is ready for publication before you start formatting. Hire a professional editor or find a knowledgeable friend who can edit your book for you. Smashwords will produce a lovely ebook in nearly a dozen formats. Make sure the quality of the content is commensurate with the quality of the formatting.

Review: A Self-Publisher’s Companion by Joel Friedlander

A Self-Publisher’s Companion by Joel Friedlander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been a fan of Joel Friedlander for a long time. As a long-time reader of his blog, The Book Designer, I had read most of the articles in this book, which is a compilation of blog posts organized and edited into a cohesive whole. Even so, I found the re-reading worthwhile.

If you’re looking for nuts and bolts details on self-publishing, this is not the book for you. You won’t find advice on choosing the best font (something Joel is expert at and covers thoroughly on his blog) or on what software to use to layout the interior. What you will find is encouragement, information on what self-publishing is and how it and the perception of it have changed in recent years, advice on why self-publishing might be a good choice for you and your book, and suggestions on marketing your book.

While much of the book is primarily aimed at nonfiction authors, anyone considering self-publishing fiction or nonfiction would benefit from reading it. Anyone who is already self-publishing will likely find encouragement and words of wisdom that will help them become more effective as a self-publisher.

View all my reviews

Disclosure: I purchased this book because I am a fan of the author and his blog. I have had some discussion with Joel regarding a guest post from him, and I hope that happens in the future, but that did not influence my review.

Conversations about the Future of Publishing

In the last couple of weeks, Barry Eisler, Joe Konrath, and Dean Wesley Smith have been discussing epublishing and self-publishing after Barry turned down a half million dollar publishing contract to self-publish. All three are best-selling traditionally published authors making the leap to self-publishing.

You can follow the conversations on the authors’ blogs:
Ebooks and Self-Publishing: A Conversation Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath was posted on March 19, 2011 on both authors’ blogs:
Barry Eisler’s The Heart of the Matter 
Joe Konrath’s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

On March 25th, Dean Wesley Smith entered the conversation on his blog:
The Writings and Opinions of Dean Wesley Smith

The conversations are extremely long and some of the language is, shall we say, colorful. However, the dialogue demonstrates the dramatic changes taking place in publishing today.

Guest Post at Getting It Write for You

Lisa Vella at Getting It Write for You has been publishing a series on publishing options. Today I have contributed a guest post: Subsidy Publishing? Self-Publishing? It’s All Beginning to Blur.

If you are a writer wanting to better understand your publishing options, visit Lisa’s blog and read the entire series. They are all linked from my post.

In my Self-Publishing Primer, I differentiate between subsidy publishing and self-publishing, but recently the distinctions between the two are beginning to blur. Find out in the latest in my guest post.

Case Study of a Life Story: Part 4 – The Result and Recommendations

Now, long after Borge started recording his life story and a little more than seven months after his first phone call to me, Borge can hold his life story in his hand and share it with those he loves. Borge and Brigitte are traveling to Germany next April to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary with Brigitte’s family in the place they met, fell in love, and married. They will give a copy of the book to each family member who attends the party. Although many of them won’t be able to read the story in English, they will be able to enjoy the photos, and English-speaking members of the family can translate.

I recently asked Borge a few questions about his experience.

Lillie: After the time, effort, and money that you spent, how satisfied are you with the results?

Borge: I’m very happy with the book. It turned out really good.

Lillie: What advice would you give to anyone else considering writing their own life story?

Borge:  Go ahead and do it. I’m really glad I wrote my book. 

Lillie: Thank you for letting me use you and your book for a case study.

Borge: You’re welcome. I hope it helps other people who want to tell their own stories.

If Borge’s story has captured your attention, you can order My Life Story: Adventures of the Great Dane from Amazon.com.  You’ll enjoy a good read, and you just might get some ideas on how to tell your own life story.

Maybe you would like to write your memoir or autobiography but don’t want to spend the amount of time and money that Borge did. You have a lot of options.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Instead of dictating the story into tapes, write your story in a word processor on your computer. Or write it in longhand and get a family member or friend to type it for you.
• If you prefer to dictate, hire an administrative professional or even a high school student to transcribe the tapes at less cost than an editor would charge.
• Before hiring a professional editor, ask a friend or relative to read your story. This first reader should be someone who is good with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The person also must be objective and honest with you. Submitting a well-written manuscript to your editor will reduce her time and save you money.
• Use the template provided by the print-on-demand company to lay out the interior of your book. You can do this yourself in Word. The result should be adequate for a non-commercial book.
• Rather than create a custom book cover, choose a fill-in-the-blank template provided by the POD company. The companies offer a variety of stock photos for cover art, and you can probably find something suitable for your book.

Following these suggestions will allow you to produce your book in a cost-effective way. The quality will be acceptable, and you will create a priceless  legacy for future generations.

You can find more advice about writing your memoir, autobiography, or family history in Preserving Memories: How to Write a Family History. I welcome your comments and questions.

Disclosure: I received compensation from the author for editing and formatting the book, creating the cover, and providing consulting and self-publishing services. The author did not ask me to write about his book. I asked his permission to share his experiences to encourage and help others who want to write their life stories. The links to Amazon.com are affiliate links.

Interview with Aggie Villanueva

My guest today is Aggie Villanueva, author of Rightfully Mine (God’s Equal Rights Amendment), which I reviewed in my last post. I didn’t know Aggie when she contacted me to offer her book for review. Since that initial contact, however, it seems that I see her everywhere, and I’ve learned that she is a talented and active lady.

She’s giving away an electronic copy of Rightfully Mine to a lucky commenter today so be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.

Lillie: Welcome to A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye, Aggie. You have quite a range of talents. You’re a photographer; a freelance writer, novelist, and blogger; an editor; a writing coach and teacher… Have I forgotten anything?

Aggie: I don’t think you’ve forgotten anything. Except that all writers and photographers also wear the hats of promoter, public relations, accountant, business manager, etc. But I’m talking to other writers here, so they well know all this. I also should scratch editor. I do edit for my blog, Visual Arts Junction, but when I publish my books I mostly hire out professional editing.

Lillie: Do you think of yourself primarily as a writer or a photographer?

Aggie: I’m equally a writer and photographic artist. But I have to admit, I write daily, even if it’s sometimes only for promotional material, etc. I don’t make it to the high mountains nearly as often as I’d like. Heck, I like to live there.

And I also don’t get as much time as I’d like to work on the images I take. But both writing and photographic art are the main hats I wear. And then I add blogger to the list. I didn’t realize when I started Visual Arts Junction last year that blogging is a career in itself. I work on and write daily for the blog too.

Lillie: I’m sure my readers would like to hear something about your photography and how you came to be known as the Grandma Moses of the Southwest.

Aggie: I’ve always been behind a point and shoot camera or camcorder for my family and for sheer pleasure. It wasn’t until 2007 that I made a decision to go pro and bought my first digital SLR professional camera. I had no idea how to use it.

But I’m one of those people who go whole hog into whatever I do, so within a year I was speaking in Santa Fe at the Marion College of Photographic Arts, showing a large body of my work. I’m now represented in several online and walk-in art galleries across the nation. I also sell licensing for people to use my images as book covers and other uses.

The Grandma Moses nickname came early on, too. Back when I had the time, I belonged to several photography forums where I learned so much from the other professionals there. Because my photo art is all from the southwest, and many, actually most, look more like paintings after I’m done with my digital darkroom work, plus the fact that they are mostly rural, they began calling me the Grandma Moses of the southwest. It stuck. I’m honored and humbled by the tag, but I have to admit I love it.

Lillie: Tell us about your home in the mountains. The photos included here show both the beauty and majesty of the scenery and your talent as a photographic artist. Have you always lived close to nature? How does your environment influence your creativity?

Aggie: Wow, Lillie. You’ll be sorry you asked that! I could talk forever about my beloved mountains. And I could write a book about your other two questions. Hmmm, maybe I will after this!

No, I haven’t always lived close to nature—quite the opposite. As a child in Kansas City I had severe asthmatic allergies. Spent most of my grade school years in a hospital, doing school work in an oxygen tent.

Besides being allergic to almost all foods and my own cold germs, I was also literally allergic to the outdoors. My grandparents who raised me, and my mother, used to call me a hothouse plant. Twice, after I’d purposely reveled in the outdoors, I was rushed to the hospital, each time the doctors saying I probably wouldn’t live till morning.

Then, because I wanted to change the world, I ran away at age 15 to do just that in the mountains of Colorado. I didn’t change the world. Not even close. But it changed me forever. And my asthma and allergies were almost non-existent in the high altitude.

Fast forward to chronic illnesses that left me mostly bedridden after 28 years of marriage, living in Kansas, and the accident of having to go to the mountains of Sedona, AZ, where I discovered anew how much healing I experience in the high, dry altitudes.

Next I got land in Madrid, NM, near Santa Fe. No water, no electricity, no phone, no house, just wonderful rolling arroyos and mesas. I loved living in Madrid. The people were just like me, a bunch of aging hippies. The town’s history is so rich; there are books about that too.

But, nevertheless, it is a tourist town. Though I lived in the hills outside of Madrid where I was so isolated I didn’t even have walls around my outhouse, I found it was just too crowded; too citified. So I sold the land and moved further north.

I now live in the more remote and forested foothills of the San Pedro Wilderness, surrounded by the Santa Fe National Forest. It’s a tiny four-room log cabin, less than 900 square feet. I’m about 20 miles from the nearest village, in a hamlet so small you can drive through it and miss it. There are two gas pumps and a quick-stop type store downtown.

As to how my environment influences creativity, living so remotely and so close to nature have great advantages and almost no drawbacks in every way, including enhancing creativity. In fact, just a few years ago, because I was in better health, there were no drawbacks. It takes two hours to drive to the nearest ANYTHING.

But, oh the advantages: fine art pictures taken on my own lil’ acre, living so close to my beloved mountains I can almost touch them, and can definitely walk to them, and so much more. An hour’s drive will get me to the peak of most of the ranges in my area. The Quiet. The Solitude. You can hear the air, especially when snowed in during winter. You almost believe you hear the echoes of the past. I wax poetic, but honestly, if you live here, how can you NOT!

Another enhancement to creativity is when you’ve learned how to live without what most consider necessities, such as phones, electricity, heat, water, even sounds such as TV and radio. At one time for a few months I had to survive on fresh fish caught daily as there was no other food, not even spices or salt.

But on a more esoteric level, I’d say living here taught me what I’m capable of. Never again will I panic if I don’t have the necessities of life. Money means far less to me. I know things about myself that I would never have figured out before.

I also know I can do anything, endure anything, become anything, all the while humbled daily by the harsh surrender of nature that surrounds me, and grateful to Spirit in all things. Each of these things, and all the hurdles to come, shows through every word I write, and also each piece of photo art I complete.

Lillie: Your passion is obvious, Aggie—in the description you just gave of your environment, in your photographic art, and in your writing. Rightfully Mine fascinated me. I’ve read the Bible through several times, so obviously each time I’ve read the passages in Numbers that inspired your story. However, they never made any impact on me until I read your book. What captured your attention in these few short verses to motivate you to tell the story of Zelophehad’s daughters?

Aggie: Thank you, Lillie. I’m honored. I’m also showing my age here: In the early 80’s the big political issue was ERA. Feminists were pushing hard to get a women’s equal rights amendment passed. Debate within the church became particularly heated.

I had already written a slightly controversial novel with Thomas Nelson about a literal prostitute whom God chose to be the symbol of his beloved bride. I still chuckle about my editor, who was tense about the wedding night scene after reading my synopsis of a detailed portrayal, so I don’t think they weren’t surprised when I approached them about this book idea.

Still, they wouldn’t allow me to use the blurb, God’s Equal Rights Amendment. They told me it was too controversial a subject within the church, and might hurt my sales. I disagreed, as is evident from the present title, now that I’ve republished.

Lillie: How did you create three-dimensional characters based on the little information in the Bible? Your main character is based on the daughter called Noah in the Bible. You named her Rizpah in Rightfully Mine. Did you change the name just to avoid confusion with Noah the ark-builder or were there other reasons?

Aggie: Yes, Thomas Nelson suggested changing Noah’s name to avoid confusion. They were right, of course. The first thing I did was research the meanings of each daughter’s name. Names are quite revealing, and I gave them all characteristics accordingly.

I then got to know my characters as most writers do; I wrote reams posing as them, in first person, describing themselves, answering questions I asked them, etc. Ha. Now that I think about it, they were among my first interviewees.

As in any time period, the era and environment also shape personalities. So my research of the times added greatly to characterizations throughout. I traveled to Israel to deepen the reality of the research.

The men were easy to characterize, especially Caleb, Joshua, Moses and other biblical heroes, about whom much is written. The girls’ father was easy too. He had to be exceptionally insightful, loving, attentive, and even pro equality, even if that was an unknown concept to him, in order to raise a family of girls who would change history against all odds. These women set the stage for Israel to accept women leaders in battle and female prophets, all within the next few generations.

Nothing is said of his wife, so I had her die in her last childbirth. And actually, there is more information than those few lines in Numbers. In fact, I found Rizpah’s lineage. If I ever have the time, and I pray I will, I plan to write two more sequels to Rightfully Mine, stories of the two generations following her that are just as dynamic as she.

Lillie: I look forward to reading those sequels. Rightfully Mine was originally published by Thomas Nelson, and now you’ve re-released the book yourself. Can you share your perspective on the pros and cons of publishing through a traditional publisher compared to self-publishing? Were there advantages to having the book first published by a publisher who provided editing and other services?

Aggie: Everything is more immediate nowadays, such as POD, which is how I published Rightfully Mine. Some people cite lack of quality against self-publishing. I know my writing is of acceptable quality because, well…I’ve been accepted by standard publishers, but in truth, I think I would know that without their stamp of approval.

So I don’t abide by the criticism of self-publishing creating a sea of inferior writing. And let’s not forget how intelligent and discerning is the reading public, and they get more so with each decade. If a self-published book is of questionable writing quality, it won’t sell. The same goes for poor quality books from traditional publishing houses, of which there are many.

I have nothing but good to say about Thomas Nelson publisher—they were a joy to work with, but having been through the traditional publishing cycle, I also know that they do very little marketing unless you’re a big name author, and they take most of the money.

These days, even traditional publishers nearly require that you have already built your platform following before they will publish you, and request that you continue your marketing plan even more aggressively after publication. So why give them most of the money when you’ve done, and still do, most of the work?

It’s true that if you are a proven seller, they will invest in marketing you. But their promotional power is in the traditional bookstore, and our bookstores are changing. For one thing, if I ever sign with a publisher, I will retain all electronic rights, and I hear more and more authors agreeing.

Our traditional bookstores are even becoming their own print-on-demand publishers. More and more malls, bookstores, even county fairs. are installing the Espresso book machine, where you choose from a nearly unlimited list and watch while your book is printed, cut, bound, and delivered into your hands in about 10 minutes.

And the Espresso print-on-demand list isn’t limited to traditionally published paper books, but includes self published and eBooks converted into print form. What bookstore can stock hundreds of thousands of books and give you access to twice the titles that traditional publisher can offer? They can with the Espresso print-on-demand machine, and the number is already predicted to soon reach millions of books. And the Espresso is just the first in a long line of similar machines. See my short report on my blog.

Lillie: Another of your talents is being an exceptional interviewer, and you have a new book showcasing those talents. What is it that makes you such an outstanding interviewer? Who are the subjects of the interviews in your book?

Aggie: 2009’s Hot Authors: Interviews by Aggie Villanueva, available in both print and e-book, highlights authors I’ve interviewed at Visual Arts Junction.

I guess the difference is that I don’t just use the same list of questions for every interviewee. I research my subjects, as you did me, so that I can ask intelligent questions about their work and not waste their time on a standard set of questions or information I can find out myself if I take the time to research them thoroughly. I think you’ll notice (how could you not?!) how, because I can tell by your questions you’ve researched me, you got these (sigh) verbose, lengthy answers from me. Hopefully that is what you wanted!

I spend a lot of time researching in order to write in-depth introductions to each interviewee where I tell about their past, what prompted them to write, and anything else my research turns up, which can sometime be quite surprising, even to the subject. Including lots of pictures enhances the piece too.

I also contact their closest friends and loved ones for a short interview. I want readers to feel they know the person after reading my interview, especially the introduction. I’ve had a few subjects use my introduction in whole for their promotional material. Researching this fully also allows me to create the tone of my own writing to match the subject’s.

For instance, my interview with Larry Brooks. I discovered in my research that Larry is a hard-hitting, no-nonsense person who tells it like it is and shies away from nothing because it may be uncomfortable, but with a fabulous sense of wry humor that permeates everything he writes and all his professional relationships. This is why my intro is so tongue-in-cheek. Even the manner in which I asked some questions automatically takes on this tone.

But I want much more than that the reader feels they know the interviewee. I spend my own time putting together a picture of who and why they are for another important reason too: so that I need take only enough time from my subjects to grill them about the particulars of their specialty.

I can spend their limited time delving into asking the technicalities. I’ve had many interviewees, after finishing my interview, say things like, “Whew!” “You pulled more out of me than anyone.” “You really put me through my paces.” And they seem to love that I ask them to dig so deeply.

I want my readers to learn something new about writing (or photography if that is my subject). Because this takes so much time is why I can only finish 1-2 interviews per month. But I feel that limitation, and the investment of my time, is worth it.

Time is so short for everyone; the reader, the interviewee. If I don’t waste their time; if I offer something of value to the reader’s professional life, that draws more readers and that gives valuable exposure to the subjects. Everyone profits.

I am honored every time someone reads my interviews and each time my subjects dig down further than usual for me. They’ve both invested something valuable, and I want them both to gain something valuable.

Lillie: Tell us about your family. Are they creative like you? What do they think of your creative endeavors?

Aggie: I think my family feels good about my creative endeavors. Yes, my children are all creative too, as are my grandchildren. They are in Kansas so I only get to see them once a year when I travel there for a special time of being together. I look forward all year to this time together.

My two boys, Eddie and Nicky (and his wife, Vanessa), are creative in the artistic areas of drawing and painting, writing, jewelry making, leather work, custom-made gravity bikes—the list is long.

My daughter, Angie, follows my mother’s path of what Mom calls creative financing. Angie just performed her artistic magic in that she found a hall to be married in, plus hold the reception, for less than one-fourth the cost of even less attractive buildings. I just took a virtual tour of the place and the grounds. I’m amazed that she accomplished this feat.

Lillie: It sounds like your family is as talented as you are. Where can readers learn more about you and your books?

Aggie: I’ll give you a list.

• Rightfully Mine blog and purchase pages
• Rightfully Mine available in 10 eBook formats at Smashwords
• Rightfully Mine (God’s Equal Rights Amendment) available in paperback from Amazon.com
• 2009’s Hot Authors: Interviews by Aggie Villanueva available in 10 eBook formats
• 2009’s Hot Authors: Interviews by Aggie Villanueva in paperback from Lulu.com
• Rightfully Mine mini movie
• Photo Art Trailer
• Join Aggie for a video virtual photo shoot
• Visual Arts Junction blog for writers, photographers, etc.

Lillie: Is there anything I’ve failed to ask that you would like to share with my readers?

Aggie: I do have a work in progress. I’m deeply into the research for a book on chronically ill and handicapped artists. Since I fit this category, I know it’s been therapeutic, and difficult, for me to thoughtfully compile a lengthy list of interview questions for the artists. So I get it when many have commented that it’s a good thing I gave them up to a month to complete the questionnaire, because it’s sometimes painful to plumb these areas.
I empathize, because I’ve been through it also. I want to bring these problems to the forefront that millions of artists endure daily, silently, heroically, with no accolades for their courage. Few people understand, sometime not even closest family members, friends and co-workers, who don’t quite always believe we’re really that sick. A possible working title for this project is Still We Dance: the Invisible Heroes of the Arts.

Lillie: Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing with us something of your amazing talents in such detail and with such passion. Readers will probably have more questions for you. Will you check in during the day to respond to comments and answer questions?

Aggie: Thank YOU so much, Lillie, for having me. I will love to hang around for the week. I look forward to meeting many great talents here.

Lillie: Readers, don’t forget to leave a relevant comment to be included in the random drawing for an e-copy of Rightfully Mine that Aggie has graciously donated. The drawing will be open for a week.

===================

Bio
Writing since the late 70′s, Aggie Villanueva’s first novel, Chase the Wind, Thomas Nelson 1983, was published before she was 30 and her second, Rightfully Mine, from Thomas Nelson in 1986. Villanueva freelanced throughout the 80s and 90s, also writing three craft columns and three software review columns, for national magazines. Villanueva was featured on the cover of The Christian Writer Magazine October 1983.

After teaching at writers conferences throughout the Midwest, she founded/directed the 3-day Mid-America Fellowship of Christian Writers conferences for four years until 1990. For the past several years Aggie has blogged. She is founder of Visual Arts Junction and is known for her in-depth interviews.

Photographic art entered in 2007, and within two years Villanueva was critically acclaimed and award winning. Dubbed the Grandma Moses of the American Southwest by her artistic peers, Villanueva is represented in several online and walk-in art galleries across the nation.

 Added 2/5/10: Congratulations to Helen, the winner of the drawing for an electronic copy of Rightfully Mine.

Amazon.com and Smashwords links are affiliate links.

Author Interview: Stacie Vander Pol

My guest today is Stacie Vander Pol, the author of Top Self Publishing Firms: How Writers Get Published, Sell More Books, and Rise to the Top: and Make Money Working from Home with the Best Print On Demand Self-Publishing Companies. That’s almost a complete book in the title.

 

 

Lillie: Welcome, Stacie. It’s a pleasure to have you here. As I mentioned in my review post, you and I define self-publishing differently. Explain what you mean by self-publishing and self-publishing companies.

Stacie: By self-publishing, I mean taking it upon yourself to get published (and pay for the expense) rather than leaving the fate of your book to someone else. You can self-publish with the assistance of an existing company or by setting up your own little publishing firm. I have pursued both routes and there are advantages and disadvantages to each, depending on the number of books you wish to publish and your inclination toward business.

Lillie: I notice that you have taken your own advice and published your book through CreateSpace at Amazon.com. Are you happy with the results?

Stacie: I have been very pleased with CreateSpace and will most likely use them again.

Lillie: I appreciate that you emphasize that a book must be well-crafted. Do you think it’s important for authors to have their work edited? If so, do the companies you evaluate in your book offer editing services?

Stacie: No matter who you are, how well educated, or how detail oriented, you must have your book edited, preferably more than once. It should be edited for content and flow, consistency in formatting, as well as grammar and punctuation errors. I am amazed at some of the things I overlook, even after multiple read-throughs.

Many of the companies in Top Self Publishing Firms offer editing services, but you can often find a student or acquaintance to do it for less money.

Lillie: Or you can hire someone like me. Your book is encouraging that self-published books can become commercial successes. Tell us a little about your research. You give examples of successful titles published by self-publishing firms and describe books as being in the top 2%, 5%, etc. The top 2% or 5% of what?

Stacie: Before I decided to write Top Self Publishing Firms, I was looking for a book like it and couldn’t find the information I needed compiled in a book, online, or anywhere else. I was curious about self-publishing companies, but I was only interested if I knew my book had a chance to succeed. I found plenty of information regarding publishing costs and distribution but nothing on sales performance. I started doing all of the cumbersome research on my own, and soon realized it would make a great resource for other writers.

To prove that self-published titles can succeed, I list hundreds of titles that are performing in the top 15% of sales on Amazon. This is based roughly on the 1.2 million titles ranked by Neilson BookScan. Using the top 1 million titles in the Amazon ranking system, one can draw a conclusion that books that consistently rank at 150,000 or better, are perfoming in the top 15% percent of books sold on Amazon. Several services are available that track and compile a title’s long-term Amazon sales rankings.

Because the industry is so tight-lipped about sales numbers, this method is the best one I know for determining a book’s performance.

Lillie: You provide a great deal of specific information about the services individual companies offer as well as the pricing options. How often do changes occur? Will you have to update your book to keep the information current?

Stacie: Likely because of the economy, the firms discussed in the book haven’t made many changes since the book was first published. I have noticed that several are offering promotions and special deals on their Web sites. In fact, when I published through CreateSpace, they were running a special that made it free to publish. I didn’t have to pay a dime to have my book published.

A book of this nature will need to be updated every year or two, depending on how quickly things change.

Lillie: You offer advice about leveraging Amazon.com that can be useful to all authors interested in promoting their books on Amazon.com, no matter how they are published. Give us a taste of some of the ways authors can increase their sales on Amazon.

Stacie: Start by ensuring your listing is accurate, and if it’s not, take steps to correct it. Next, take advantage of the ways in which Amazon allows authors to participate in the promotion process. For instance, you can submit search words relevant to your book that will help customers find your title. You can also create tags that do the same thing. Both of these can currently be accessed from your book’s detail page. The idea is to make your book easier to find and more likely to come up based on the search words most fitting to your title.

To give your book detail page a feeling of activity, set up a blog that will appear on the page and create at least one entry. A blog can make an otherwise, lonely detail page look full of life and interest. You can set up an Amazon blog through Amazon Connect.

Lillie: Amazon will even carry your existing blog on your book page. A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye appears on the page with Dream or Destiny. You set up the RSS feed to Amazon at Amazon Connect just as you would create an Amazon blog. What else do you suggest?

I also recommend getting as many reviews for your book as you can. This can be difficult and requires some time commitment, but if your book is well written, you will be rewarded. Amazon reviewers can be found on the Amazon Web site. Many of them list an e-mail address in their profiles. Most will say no or ignore your email, but you will eventually get a few yeses.

Additionally, you can list a Web address or e-mail address on the copyright page or in your back matter. When you receive praise for your book, ask for a review.

Lastly, the most important thing you can do to sell more books on Amazon is to sell more books on Amazon, meaning that the more copies you sell on Amazon, the more likely they are to put your title at the top of the search results page, which almost guarnatees more sales.

Lillie: Where can readers learn more about you and your work? Where can they purchase Top Self-Publishing Firms?

Stacie: Readers can email me at topselfpublishers at gmail dot com. They can purchase the book on Amazon.

Lillie: I’ve added an Amazon link at the end of this interview to make it easy to buy the book now. Thank you for visiting A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye, Stacie. Is there anything else you would like to share with us that I haven’t asked you?

Stacie: I would just like to encourage all of the writers out there to keep trying, to take a risk, and to put yourself out there. If you really want to be published, and you don’t want to wait years for it to happen, consider self-publishing. It’s an excellent option. If you write a great book, you can see outstanding sales results and often make more in royalties than you would with a traditional publisher.

I did, and I’ve been very happy with the outcome.

Stacie will be coming back throughout the day to respond to comments and answer questions. What would you like to know about Top Self-Publishing Firms?

Review: Top Self-Publishing Firms

Top Self-Publishing Firms: How Writers Get Published, Sell More Books, and Rise to the Top and Make Money Working from Home
with the Best Print On Demand Self-Publishing Companies
Stacie Vander Pol
Copyright 2008
CreateSpace
ISBN:1440407541
Paperback, 156 pages, $16.95
Nonfiction

In my Self-Publishing Primer, I differentiate between subsidy publishing and self-publishing. So when Stacie Vander Pol asked me to review her book Top Self Publishing Firms: How Writers Get Published, Sell More Books, and Rise to the Top: and Make Money Working from Home with the Best Print On Demand Self-Publishing Companies, I warned her that I had a quibble with her definition of self-publishing. However, she suggested that we agree to disagree on the definitions and that I read the book for the information it provides.

Stacie’s goal is not to convince the reader to publish their book through a self-publishing (or subsidy publishing) company. The book is designed for writers who have already done their research on publishing options and decided this option is right for them. Her purpose is to help writers choosing to publish through one of these companies to find the best company for them, and her focus is on how successful the companies’ clients are in selling books.

Chapter 1 begins this way:

This book profiles the top twenty-six self-publishing firms based on their sales results. Other factors in self-publishing are important, but without sales none of them matter. Book sales will determine how much money you make, how seriously you are taken as a writer, and how much recognition your book receives.

She gives examples of the Amazon sales rank of books published by the companies she profiles, and she covers services provided in the publishing packages offered by these kinds of companies.  Most useful for a writer choosing a publishing company, however, are the comparison chart and the profiles of individual companies.

Specific details, such as available packages and costs, may change, so I recommend that you verify the information before choosing a company. However, Top Self Publishing Firms is a valuable resource because you will have a list of the companies that consistently have the best sales, and you will have complete contact information (including Web site URL) to make it easy for you to confirm current services offered and prices.

Before using this book, you need to determine if publishing through what Stacie calls a self-publishing company and I call a subsidy publishing company is the best choice for you. If you decide to publish through one of these companies, then this book can help you choose the right company.

Stacie will be here on Wednesday for an interview and to answer your questions. Be sure to come back then to learn more.

Self-Publishing Primer

The Self-Publishing Primer started as a series of fourteen posts early this year.

To make the primer more convenient and accessible, I have compiled the posts into an e-book (PDF). You can download the file here.

If you download the primer, please let me know if you find any errors. As I’ve said many times, it’s difficult even for an editor to edit her own work.

Ask any questions you have or let me know what other information you’d like in comments. I’m planning to write more about POD as this subject has come up at the Weekend Writers Cafe at Grow Your Writing Business.

[tags]self-publishing[/tags]

Answers to a Writer’s Questions, Part 3: Marketing a Children’s E-Book

In the last post, we talked about self-publishing a children’s book on CD. This is the final installment in the answers to questions posted by a writer.

Patti McQuillen wrote in answer to my follow-up questions:

I don’t have a clue about making my children’s book available online as a download. I am working on a website through Google Page Creator. I cannot afford to have a professional one yet.

I’m glad you’re setting up a Web site, but I think you will have more marketing success if you have your own domain name and site rather than xxx.googlepages.com. I set up sites for my clients for less than ten dollars to register the domain name and as little as forty dollars a year for hosting. You can use WordPress (which is free) as a template and have a blog and Web site that you can create and maintain yourself. I created the site for GASLight Publishing on WordPress.

You can then sell both the CD and download versions of your book. Although the ideal option is a shopping cart with secure download features, that is expensive and not necessary for a single product or even a few products.

Updated: I have recently learned of E-Junkie, a shopping cart for digital products that is very reasonable (only five dollars per month for up to 10 products). You can even try it free for one week.  

One simple process that works when you have a fairly small number of sales is to store a zip file containing all the e-book formats in a password protected area of your site. When you make a sale, have an autoresponder send out a link for the buyer to download the file. You can accept payment through PayPal or Google Checkout.

Selling Digital Products Online: Why? How? at MoreBusiness.com has a lot of information about selling digital products.

Another option is to sell through Lulu or PayLoadz. Lulu will also create and ship CDs, but I believe PayLoadz offers only digital downloads. There are other options as well, several of which are listed in the MoreBusiness.com article mentioned above.

Once you have your site and distribution set up, then you start blogging and commenting on other blogs and look for other opportunities to participate in forums and other places – perhaps educational sites and writing sites – frequented by people who would be apt to buy your children’s book.

I hope these posts have given you some insight into the next step … or several next steps, Patti, and that this information has also been helpful to other aspiring writers.

If you have a question or a particular topic you’d like me to write about, please ask in the comments below.

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