I Have the Answer to the Indie Book Challenge!

No, seriously, I really do! I am writing it all up and will post it in the next few days. Check back to see what I figured out! All will be revealed.

Nan

Analyzing Indie Book Marketing

The following is a post I placed on a writers group in response to a report from a major event for romance writers and publishers in London.

I am part of a movement which has a steeply uphill climb but I still think it is worthwhile for reasons I could wax eloquent about for hours.. indie or alternative publishing. It is in response to what the author was talking about, the narrow standards of corporate, for lack of a better term, publishers. Yes, the other term for what we are promoting is "self publishing" but it has in this era of the Internet a great deal of potential.

I and others in the alternative publishing movement feel that corporate publishers are doing a great disservice to readers, particularly readers of genre fiction. The very fact that writers are told that publishers will only consider books about historical women means that anyone out there who might like to read about purely fictional people who have modest everyday lives or about historical men of an era really gripes me. Maybe those books won't sell gazillions, but readers still want to read them. And self published does not automatically mean crap. Each book deserves to be judged individually.. and readers are the ones who should decide. That's what I believe.

So I published AN INVOLUNTARY KING myself. Of course there are disadvantages, but they are all disadvantages that can be overcome. That is why the organization Independent Authors Guild was formed and even more specifically why I set up a working committee yesterday to analyze book marketing opportunities for indie authors. If you are interested, here is the skinny. www.independentauthorsguild.org and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indiebookmarketing/ .

For some reason the embracing of indie film making and indie music recording has not been extended to indie book publishing. That's part of the movement, to shift that situation. The latter group I mentioned was formed to look at only one aspect of indie publishing, how to improve book marketing for indie authors.. with any book getting the same space on, say, Amazon, as any other, it is purely getting the word out that keeps indie books at a disadvantage. We want to examine the tools and resources in a methodical way to see how we can get or make access for those whose work does not meet the corporate publishers sales criteria.

You know, one book I highly admire is Brandy Purdy's THE CONFESSION OF PIERS GAVESTON. She does things with first person narrative that made me sit up and look. She has little if any chance of having that book published unless she did it herself.. Even though her other book, which will now be called THE BOLEYN WIFE was actually picked up by a traditional publisher - female, historical, first person, and Tudor -- the publishers all say of GAVESTON that no one will reader a first person narrative by a man, especially a gay man. So this marvelous book would never see the light of day. Except.. the author had the courage to face the bias against self publishing. I thank the literary gods she did.

The publishers have to be realistic, especially these days, but since "these days" also shows an increase in library use, I am glad there are people who are creative enough and willing to be risk takers to get their work out there so readers aren't cheated. No one is going to get rich off this.. except maybe intellectually. So being a born problem solver I look not at regretfully bowing to the inevitable but instead to be part of the solution and find a way to strengthen the alternative. Power to the people and all that.

Will I publish DEATH IN EAST WELLOW as an indie book? I won't pretend that would be my first choice.. I will try to get an agent and a publisher, but my guess is that that will be a waste of time. If it works out, then wow, cool! If not, I will have,. I hope, helped level the playing field for indie authors.

Each of us has to choose.. though ultimately the choice is the publishing industry.. I honor whatever choices you each make.

Nan Hawthorne
http://nanhawthorne.blogspot.com

Broadsword

A sort of amalgam of the song, which I adore, with Lord of the Rings and other fantasy impressions.

Guest Post: Write On, by Lloyd Lofthouse

By Lloyd Lofthouse

In the world of alternative publishing, self-published books start out untested, which mean the book hasn't run the gauntlet of professional agents, readers and editors that traditionally published books have to survive to reach the marketplace.
Sure, traditional publishing is a flawed system and good books aren’t selected all the time. Due to individual biases, the people that populate this pipeline make mistakes. On the other hand, what human system, corporate or government, is perfect?

In addition, do not forget that traditionally published books reach bookstores with a guaranteed buy-back if they don't sell. Why should a bookstore or library take a risk on a self-published book that hasn't been vetted by agents, editors and reviewers before it is available just because an author with an over inflated sense of self-esteem believes his self-published work is good? The reality is that there is only so much shelf-space in bookstores and libraries. Books that have proven themselves already fill most of that space. There isn’t much room left for newcomers. Even authors published by Traditional publishing houses don’t get into every bookstore. How can they when the average bookstore has room for twenty to fifty thousand titles and there are over a hundred thousand new titles published each year?

There is a good reason for the traditional book world being the way it is. A bookstore owner has to sell books to survive, so he shelves books that have already passed the test. Why take a chance on a title that has no guarantee?

There is no way to prove that a self-published title arriving out of the cold with so many other self-published titles is worth taking up shelf-space in a library or bookstore unless that self-published book somehow earns further attention as “The Shack” by Wm. Paul Young did.
That's where the promotional challenge begins.

It is up to the self-published author to prove that the book he or she wrote is worth further attention. To do that, the author must seek reviews, enter literary contests, promote on the Internet, and drive to brick and mortar bookstores in and near his hometown. In other words, get noticed as often as possible until people start paying attention. Don’t forget, tens of thousands of other self-published authors may be doing the same thing. Regardless of what your teacher, friends and family may have told you about your ‘fantastic talent’, that does not guarantee success. Watch the early tryouts for America Idol, and you will discover what I mean.

Sitting back and waiting for lightning to strike is not going to bring the vast majority of self-published books to the attention of the people that buy and read books when there are several hundred thousand new titles each year and more than six million books in print.

Who has time to read them all? Book store owners and librarians have more to do than read endless books from self-published authors, most of which may be of a questionable quality making it more difficult for those that are up to traditional standards to get noticed--like a rusty needle in a hay stack the size of a ten story building. It may be easier to win a state lottery than getting a self-published book noticed if the author sits around waiting to be discovered.

I suggest that a self-published author gets started close to home by becoming a salesperson and taking a copy of his book into the local brick and mortar bookstores while also mailing out copies to the best reviewers she can find that will give the book a chance. When the bookstore owner is not interested, be nice. You never know. A door closed today may open tomorrow.
One virtual place to seek reviews is PODRAM, which is a review site with several volunteer reviewers. There is also The Midwest Book Review among others. Some of these free book review sites may have good reputations and others may not. It’s a learning process. It will cost an author the price of the book and postage to find out. These reviewers, for the most part, expect to get the book free. Self-published authors should also become involved in a virtual literary community like Authors Den (there are several sites like this) where writers post their work and hope readers/strangers will stop by and leave a bit of praise now and then. Heck, that readers may even buy your book.
If a writer does not have the confidence in what he or she wrote to send that work to those reviewers that give self-published work a chance, why are you writing? Stick your neck out. Take a chance. Grow a thick skin. You might be surprised. If the reviews are not glowing and the author drops into a depression, he may need to return to the drawing board or change his dream while holding down that crappy day or night job that pays the bills.

It helps when writing is a passion. That passion may keep an author going even when it seems dark and forbidding out there. That way, if you do not make it onto the bestseller lists and become the next King or Grisham, on the day you draw your last breath, you can say you gave it your best shot. Who said life is fair and dreams come true? Anyone that said that was a liar.

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of My Splendid Concubine, a historical novel set in 19th century China. Lloyd will be the guest on a discussion of his work at Let's Read Historical Fiction, June 2, at 9 PM Eastern on AccessibleWorld.org. See the site for the time in your time zone.

Just Waiting for the Book Sales to Roll In!

This appears in the Consumer Blog on the latest edition of EE/TIMES. The author is Nic Mokhoff, Research Editor.

Nan Hawthorne, a successful historical novelist, was born with Stargardt's Disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes the deterioration of a person's vision over time. Nan has been partially blind her entire life; now with 20/1200 vision, she has learned to live with the disease but has had to constantly rely on others for help when reading and researching.

In fact, to accomplish this, she had to go through the laborious effort of mailing every research book she needed to a third party service that converted the lengthy tomes into spoken word in order for her to complete her research--a frustrating and time consuming endeavor.

Hawthorne has a Plustek BookReader V100, a reading device that has both text-to-speech and optical character recognition. She was impressed with the dramatic results she achieved even from her very first attempt.

"Now I am able to buy the books I need and read them whenever I want. It has dramatically changed my life," said Hawthorne.

Nan Hawthorne is the author of An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England. She is currently working on the first of a series of historical paranormal mysteries.

Glad to hear i am successful.. articles like this may be self-fulfilling in their prophecies.

How To Re-educate Librarians About Indie Books?

Sigh. Here we go again. Why are they, the very people I worshipped from childhood, who stood in the forefront of so many populist causes I care about, who at least appear to champion the proliferation of books and literacy, why are they so contrary about learning about indie publishing?

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone informs me, a founding member of the board of Independent Authors Guild, that self-published books are just poorly produced self-indulgent crap of interest to no one but the author and few family members and friends. The latest instance is a librarian at the Washington Talking Book and Braille library. Danielle King wrote,

We do frequently get requests from authors who have self-published books and unfortunately, they haven't been of a very good quality and we haven't felt they are appropriate for our collection or been something that would be popular with our patrons.

I replied that I would not be at all surprised. I am sure they get a combination of book length racts, reminiscences of wacky family life, and stories about just how remarkable "my beautiful guide dog, Sally, was."

I had written to her to advocate for a change in policy to reflect the changing nature of publishing and in particular the development of the indie publishing industry. I started out just wanting my own novel recorded, being a local author and all, but when I understood the policy would automatically mean the the rejection of lots of great books, I changed my focus to asking for a general policy change. I found out quickly that yet again I had to do some re-education. And I thought librarians were more savvy than that.

I got this same response from Jim Fruchterman at BookShare.org, and from a friend who works for the Smithsonian Libraries. They are not the only ones. They are stuck in outworn notion of what an indie book is. They picture photocopied and largely unreadable rants, ladies' auxiliary cookbooks, and books about family histories printed in Courier New. Is it possible they just don't know about the sorts of books coming out of the indie publishing industry? Books in under served genres like historical fiction, books that simply are not fated to compete with John Gresham or his ilk? Books with their own simple, honest integrity, written with intelligence, professionally produced, that indeed "would be popular with our patrons".

What I will try to do with this exchange with Ms. King is to have a chance to share what indie publishing has become, an alternative to mass production and quick profit. You know my own strongly held belief that the arbiter of what is good in a novel in particular is the reader. Those very people Ms. King serves. I realize that library resources are limited, but why deny fans of certain genres what's coming out of indie publishing for no better reason than that the professional librarians don't know they exist yet?

I think one thing I will do is send Ms. King the list of books that made the IPPY semifinals.. that ought to enlighten her. If my book never gets recorded, sobeit... but at least the greater cause will be served.

The Daily Story Boog

"An Involuntary King" is now a blog -- of sorts. Most of you know that the novel started out as stories written by a couple of teens with overactive and rather medieval imaginations, then decades later became a couple years' worth of more adult stories posted on the collaborative writing group, Ghostletters. Now it is a daily posting of letters, stories, drawing, even a ballad.

For a daily infusion of teenage angst or grown up drama along with humor, intentional and otherwise, come visit at http://aninvoluntaryking.blogspot.com .