Upon the Wings of Greater Things

The creative endeavours of Starla Huchton

Balticon Panel Review: Getting Noticed in the Self-Publishing World

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So, this past weekend was Balticon 49, and, as always, it was a lovely (albeit exhausting) time. It’s great to catch up with old friends, but I had something else I took away this year from the experience. On Monday, the last day of the con, I had the extreme pleasure of being part of a panel on how to stand out as a self-published author when everyone is self-publishing. Now, I’m not sure I’m a foremost authority on this, but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of some basics, and the other four people on the panel generally agreed with what I had to say and added bits of their own that left me nodding in firm agreement. So here’s the gist of the discussion distilled down for you.

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Got Swag?

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So, I’m way, way behind in posting this, but house repairs from a water leak, a sudden influx of design work, and a book release sort of piled on top of me all at once. But now, I’m back at it and am here to bring you another post in the indie author cost/recoup series. This time, we’re talking about physical promotional costs.

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Shaking Your Digital Money Maker

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Another week, another post. This time, we’re talking about the advertising costs associated with book sales. Admittedly, this is the part I hate. I don’t know many people that like the marketing part of selling books, honestly. I die a little inside every time I share a promo post on Facebook or tweet out a link to my book. Mostly, it’s because I don’t feel like being my friend comes with the requirement of buying my books. I know a certain portion of my social media network is there only to hear about my books, but… yeah. Really not my favorite thing to do, and I’m probably a terrible salesman, but I’m getting a little better with the not-throwing-up-in-my-mouth thing when I do promo.

So why do it? The things above are free. It doesn’t cost me a cent to tweet my book or post to my Facebook author page. I still do it, because how else will people find out about my books if I don’t tell them?

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Working With a Cover Artist

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I know I said I was going to talk about editing next time, but after thinking about it for a few days, I thought there might still be some questions regarding hiring someone to do a cover for you. In the last post, I gave some tips on how to make the DIY method cheaper, but I felt like I needed to go into a little more detail about the process of working with someone else for the cover, especially for those just starting out.

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The Numbers Game

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So I introduced this series a little over a week ago, and I’m coming back to you with some preliminary data from my cost/recoup survey. Keep in mind that I’m pulling from a relatively small cross-section of the publishing writer population, so I don’t have access to huge amounts of data. For that, you should look up the Author Earnings Report headed by Hugh Howey, or look at findings from Digital Book World’s articles on past surveys they’ve conducted (they’re in the midst of collecting survey data again for those interested). I did take the DBW survey this morning, and after answering the questions, I was able to get a look at the collected responses, so I’ll include some of that here.

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So You Want to Be a Writer…

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helpful tipsThe last week I’ve had a Facebook feed filled with authors responding to/venting about complaints they’ve received in reviews or emails from readers. To add to that, I’ve gotten many messages or questions over the last year asking about why I write and advice for someone just starting out.

I think I’ve come up with a way to address some of these things, but I can’t do it all in one post. So, I’m going to start a little series of helpful (I hope) blog posts talking about things people should know before diving into this business (or looking down on indie authors).

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Crafting the Dreaded Blurb

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helpful tipsAll of my writerly friends have struggled with this topic at some point in their careers: the dreaded blurb creation.

As readers, we look at these book descriptions on the back flap or on the Amazon listing and tend not to give them much thought. They either pull us in, or they don’t. But as a writer who is used to using tens of thousands of words to tell a story, condensing that story down into 200 words or less is a major struggle. If you’re one of those people that know how very real that struggle is, this post is for you.

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