Wait... Indie What?

So 2nd Wednesday was Indie Wednesday for ages, but I could swear I saw that wasn't happening anymore. Am I making stuff up?  I DO do that?

But because I might be, I am going to give it a brief shot ANYWAY...

I've decided solidly and completely that DONE RIGHT Indie is a hella lot more work than traditional. So there. I said it.

I don't mind hard work.
My trouble is hard work takes a LOT of TIME. And time I don't have.

That said, Book 9 is with my copyeditor. I made progress editing book 10, and I've decided I am then going to SPRINT the rest of 11 and all (read: most) of 12 before I go on my conference for work April 30.  Look at it as the delayed ending of March Madness when I had a lot of madness and no TIME.

Then while GONE, I will work on What Ales Me, which I have lots of revision notes for, and THEN, I have hopes life may get back to normal. Whatever that is.

What are you working on? Are you ahead or behind for the first 3rd of the year winding to a close?

Watch and Learn (or, don't make my mistakes)

Halo, fine friends! And welcome to 2nd Wednesday's Indie Life
In which Indie authors share their support and wisdom.

Not feeling very wise at the moment, but I'll give it what I've got.

So I've been releasing a serial since September... 7 episodes are out... I started off promoting each time, but it was for not much, so I've sort of petered off... see... I've heard enough people say for things like that they wait until it's all there, and all will be 12 (pace to finish is about one a month)... nobody is beating down the door. I'm losing money because I am paying editing and cover costs... I made all of $39 last year or some such thing... less expenses... which puts me way in the hole.

Now I have faith. Once they are all out, I will push hard, but I sort of feel right now like it is a lot of effort for naught to do it every book.

So what would I do differently next time? 
I'm glad you asked.


1)  I would NOT have a serial be my first thing out the door. I would have a backlist of three or four books so if someone read the start of the serial and loved it, they could READ ME while WAITING FOR ME. The other advantage to this is you get the practice formatting and publishing without the time crunch of NEXT ONE NOW looming. And you can learn all the OTHER formatting venues, so you aren't stuck with just one—not that Amazon isn't great, but I'd like to be everywhere. I just haven't had time to learn all the other formats because I've been WRITING (and having a full time day job that has exploded since last summer—used to be able to do little things there—no more)

2)  I would write my WHOLE first draft (all the books) before I started publishing. (in fact I'd have the first reader beta job done, too) I think there is time between optimal book release to EDIT, but not to write and edit and polish... because a month apart is too long (which gets to my next)

3)  A month apart is too long. HA! See how I did that? I'd say 2 weeks is good. 3 maybe.


Did I do anything right? Why YES, as a matter of fact I think I did...

1)  I am pleased with the length. A penny a page seems like good value to me I think the sweet spot for these is 60-100 pages. It is long enough for a nice, meaty piece of story with some ups and downs...

2)  Giving away the first FREE is good.

3)  I also think my offer to give the NEXT to my first 10 reviewers is a good idea. Maybe it is 20 reviewers... Though I still only have more than 10 reviews on the first book.

But for a little perspective, I have a TRADITIONAL book (Keeping Mum) coming out March 4 and the work I have had to do for that (post writing) is SO microscopic by comparison. I mean I had my beta readers—always do. But They do all the art, formatting, prepping. I even have a publicist who has arranged a blog tour and giveaway—I wrote a couple posts but ALL that organizational stuff SHE is doing.

I really think for the part time author, traditional is a much EASIER route (not getting in—I know it's very HARD to get in). And I know it isn't the same money once you get going, but I will count those sales in the thousands, not the dozens. If I didn't have the day job, I could do a little of both, but since I DO, I really can't both write and promote at the same time. It just seems SO MUCH EASIER to be carried on the water and obey when they say jump. Now I KNOW that isn't for everybody. In fact it probably isn't for ME eventually... but in conjunction with the full time job? I will keep the traditional in my mix.

Publishing and Money

Second Wednesday is for Indie Author stuffs...

I ran across an article last week that was a fabulous dose of reality about which kind of authors made how much money. Not that money is the be all and end all, but it is nice to know what we are in for...

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/self-publishing-debate-part3/

See here is my thing...

I have a day job. I will HAVE TO have a day job until I make enough writing to make up for NOT having said day job... because my retirement and insurance are really good, this is quite a LOT of writing income I have to make, or I really CAN'T quit... And not just once, but a good guess it will continue in the foreseeable future. That means I really need to be in that LAST, six-figure group to quit the day job. (not my income, but my income plus insurance for my family plus retirement put me very close—close enough that when I start TAXING the money that buys insurance, it would push the need over)

[now I LOVE my dayjob in a lot of ways, I'd just really prefer to do it maybe half time—the content is great, the people are great, the cause is great... but it just ISN'T writing fiction to my heart...]


So I need to keep the income in mind... do I write a little and not worry about it, or do I try to write enough to cross over and be a WRITER?

That's why I'm talking about the money.


See, the OTHER thing about the money (and time and jobs)... When I have so little writing time, I REALLY only have WRITING time... and I have some projects I'd like to commit to as an INDIE publisher... An Indie person needs to be a jack of all trades, but with a JOB, I just don't have time for that—not even to DO it, but REALLY not to LEARN IT. Does that make sense?

I didn't really get it until I started publishing my serial, which I can only do Indie, there being no formal serial mechanism annallat... but there is a LOT of time involved (and money)--covers and editing—I am paying for these, but it means thus far I've lost money. I KNOW this will be worth it—to not have a sub-par product out there, but time and money... time and money... time and money... neither of which I have.


So back to the graph... did you know I am a number nerd by day?

These are all percentages, so it gets a little hard to know what is what in real numbers... I assume there are MANY more aspiring writers than published writers, though self-publishing makes crossing that bridge a lot easier... so N for aspiring is biggest, followed by self... but I have NO CLUE how traditional and hybrid categories compare.

Comes out March 4--my 3rd Cozy

What I KNOW is I fell into the $1-$4,999 category this year... and last year... and the year before that. In 2010 I was the next category up because a three book contract with an advance meant I got a portion (40% of the advance for all three books) at signing. But in 2011 and 2012, I would have fallen in that 'traditional' $1-$4,999 category... this year I became purple... me and my $30 of Indie income *rolls eyes * Actually I've lost money on that so far, because I am paying for covers and editing, but I have hopes now that I am bundling it will get better, and once it is DONE, it will improve even more.

What gives me HOPE though, is that distribution of purple... hybids. That's me.

I sent a book that would be first in a second cozy series to my agent this week. I think it will sell. I'd frankly like to ALWAYS have a traditional series going. It gets me invited places. (is that shallow?) I think breaking out is easier with an icebreaker... and my personality just is NOT charming enough to break out otherwise. I am awkward.

And while hybrids have about 26% of us sitting here where I am ($1-$4,999) the next bump is at the $20K-$40K slot and 14% of us are making over $100K... I can be top 14%!


I will believe forever that publishing route should be a match of goals, genre and personality, but I am SO RELIEVED to see I am not dooming myself going about this sort of willy-nilly as I am... I'd felt very uncommitted...but I'm NOT uncommitted! I am a THING! A HYBRID!

Indie Authors: Time Management Challenges

Welcome to Indie Authors Second Wednesday Thingy-ma-Bob. In case you haven't heard of it, that may very well be because I can't recall the name at the mo, but it is a group of fabulous Indie Authors offering each other support and offering everyone ELSE a bit of a view into the world of this new ever-changing thing..

As to Time Management...

If you think my title implies you are going to find answers here, I will just give you a heads up now that I don't have them.

I just need a bit of a vent on the matter.

Cuz see... I have a lot of obligations, some more critical than others... I am a full time worker which is the only reason my family isn't starving on the street. I am a mom. I am traditionally published with obligations to people who have my name on a dotted line... and I am TRYING to be an Indie Author with all that entails...

You know... writing, editing, formatting (several versions), publishing, promoting...

I am TRYING to do it all, but some days it feels fairly impossible.

Take last night for instance:

I had a blog to write *waves at all of you*
I had prizes from a promotion to send out.
I had revisions for book 7 to enter.
And I had book 8 to finish writing. (my NaNoProject is books 7-10 for my serial)

And on Monday I had a medical procedure (just preventative) that caused me to be 'out of it' half of Sunday and all of Monday.

THANKFULLY, I was ahead on NaNoWriMo, so partially losing 2 days isn't the end of the world.  (I'm sitting at about 29K)  Though losing most of last night because nobody warned me the Windows 8.1 update would take that long really irked me. Especially as it would have been totally unnecessary if Windows 8.0 didn't suck so bad.

But enough grumbles... How do I TRY to cope?


Depends on the thing. The writing to me, isn't optional. It is my identity. I try to WORK AHEAD as much as possible... for the obligations to others on writing, too. I still find myself scrambling ALL the time, but if I hadn't tried to work ahead, that is a lot of lateness that would have crashed in on me.

NEGLECT MY FAMILY. *cough* I don't recommend this strategy, but it is one of the few things with any give. My kids are both teens and prefer it this way. It is only my husband who gets annoyed. Mr. Tart would prefer I cleaned more and parented more actively.

Learn the publishing IN PIECES. I am publishing serially—100 page installments of a longer story. The one-at-a-time ones I published to Kindle Direct first—get them OUT THERE, but only learn ONE system right off. It has given me free days to promote my first. Then in December I am going to begin that whole 'learn all the other formats for the collections' thing. Probably I should have published a stand-alone first so I didn't have to keep turning around and doing it all again, but I'm not known for doing things rationally... I CHOSE self-publishing because I wanted to do a serial and it was the only way. (my temperament is really better suited for traditional—I'm just not a details girl)

So that's my story and I'm sticking with it. How about you? Any time management tricks you want to share?

HA!  Indie Life!  That's it!  Find the list of authors here!

Tapping My Inner Slut (Indie Life)

So second Wednesday of every month is an Indie Life blog... You should go see ALL the Indie authors, yes?

You know... there are certain advantages some of us have in this Indie world... because when I want to tap my inner slut... I sort of had an outer slut once upon a time (though at the time I called it feminism... you know... what's good for the gander... all that, but I digress).

Anyway.

So last Thursday (actually Wednesday, but only because I wasn't sure it would work the first time) I pushed publish on my FIRST episode of my FIRST self-published work. It's really out there.

And there are terms that just seem really apt...

Giving it away...

Flaunting it...

Putting out...

But then there are other things I am just less familiar with... For instance I've always thought 'teasing' was cheating... that part doesn't translate. HERE teasing is GOOD, not lousy. Though it IS still manipulative... which maybe I want to be? Am I figuring this out right? I don't LIKE manipulation! In fact I HATE being manipulated and usually rebel, tossing POO at said manipulators! But am I unusual that way? I think some people must like it or there wouldn't be so many who DO it.

And I can't give it ALL away or nobody buys anything!? Gads, this is confusing! So I give a little away and hope they marry me? But I don't WANT marriage! I just want really good sex! Okay, you can see how bumbled this whole thing makes me.

I completely come from the WRONG ideology. I'm all good with parts of it, but I never did master drawing the lines. I guess, though, if people LIKE it, they will keep coming back, yeah?

I think I was more adept with the drug dealer analogy. What does that say about me that I can push it as a drug, but not as a sex toy? Are you all feeling uncomfortable yet?

ANYWAY, episode 2 comes out next week. I am offering it free to anyone who reviews A Flock of Ill Omens (honestly)  by Sunday...

Oh, and the reviews are going well! All my actual reviews (4 at Amazon and 1 at Goodreads) come with 5 stars. I only have a 4 star average at Goodreads, but there is a person who gave it a 1 star when I hadn't actually sold any, and since she wasn't on my list of the 60 freebies I sent, she rated without reading (she has a single 4 star review: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and 15 one-star reviews—me and a bunch of famous people... I figured it meant I'd arrived.

I haven't sold many copies, but I didn't really expect to--I gave away oodles and plan to give oodles more... first free day is next Thursday when the second comes out to buy. THAT, I would love help shouting about...

IndieLife Intro

So I am not yet Indie published, but by this time next month, I will be, so I decided to join in with some great people and start getting to know them… this Indie Life Blog  is the 2nd Wednesday of the month… (go join if you have or will Indie Publish!)

Since I am new at this, let me start with a brief intro, THEN I will list the things I plan to do this month before pressing publish on September 5.


What I hope to get from YOU is a reality check of what I’m MISSING.

I’m Hart (hi, Hart) and have traditionally published a couple Cozy Mysteries. I’ve always written, but only learned how to FINISH books in about 2006 (and those first three were fan fiction).

I’ve now written 15 first drafts (plus the fan fiction, so 18) but only published 2 (my 3rd Cozy comes out in March and a 4th Cozy I plan to sell traditionally-I don't suspect I will have trouble).

Probably half of those remaining are fixable to be published… but I’ve been waffling how to go about this. See… I believe the decision of the HOW has to do with genre and personality. And my personality is really more suited to traditional—details stress me out. Control’s not my thing. DETAILS aren't my thing... I just want to WRITE.

But I also HATE the ‘shopping the stuff’. The mystery is pretty easy. I had a referral and an easy first sale (7th book, mind you, but 3-book contract), but my other books I’ve queried haven’t gone that easily.

The serial collection cover

And then I fell in love with the serial.

I have three very strong stories in various stages of development that are definitely best suited to the serial format, so I decided it was time to set aside my fears (and detail aversion) and give it a shot.

I will see how it goes and see if I learn what I need to before I decide how I’ll publish my standalone books, but for now, I’m committed to the serial release of A Shot in the Light, a flu apocalypse thriller… (10 ‘episodes’ about 100 pages a piece) And here is what I need to do:


Production (by the end of August)
(the stuff I know how to do
Book 1 is with editor (scheduled release 9/5)
Book 2 is getting an edit (scheduled release 9/19)
Book 3 is with first readers

Need to write book 4 (the core is done)
(first 3 covers are ready)

(the stuff I need to figure out)
Need to learn to format for ePublication
Need to investigate Kindle Special Direct—considering this for initial publication, then expanding formats in maybe December when I’ll put out my first ‘bundle’

Need to write cover copy
Need to write acknowledgements

The first in the serial (99 pages)

Need set of blurbs (15 words, 50 words and 100 words)


Marketing

Update Author Profile on Amazon
New Author Profile on Goodreads (first need to get them to allow me two names)
Look into additional book venues (Book Bub?)

Solicit reviewers

And I know there are a thousand other things. I want to do this RIGHT or I probably would just wing it. I tend to do that. But I LOVE this story--really I do. And I want everybody ELSE to love it, too!  Which means I need to do all I can so people even KNOW about it.


So if any of you have MUSTS on your list for first time indie authors, especially if you know about serials, I would LOVE to have you share!!!