Collection of Self Publishing Tips for Writers

It’s fair to say that everyone at Triskele Books has learned a lot and gained bucketfuls of experience over the past eighteen months or so. But you can never know too much about the dos and don’ts and rules and regulations of indie-publishing.

We have put together a User’s Guide of Tips from some of the most established voices in the industry, and added into the mix one or two sage words of advice we’ve learned ourselves.

Writing a book is no mean feat. But publishing it yourself is another story. If something you read here helps you along the way, our job is done!

GENERAL TIPS

1) Build a Rapport

“Get your name and brand out ‘there’ now by reaching out to bloggers and writers who share your genre, and build a rapport. Support others’ books and writing and they just might do the same for you.” (30daybooks.com)

2) Take Creative Risks

“There is one other factor that doesn’t get discussed as much, but in my mind is just as important: The freedom to bend and blend genres, invent new forms, and take creative risks.” (A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing)

3) Website savvy

“Ensure you have at least a professional looking website and an email sign up list so that you can direct people from your book back to this site, and start building the list for the next one so you’re in a more confident position next time around.” (Joanna Penn - How to Market A Book.)

4) Social savvy

“Social media plays a huge role in building an author’s platform, marketing, and author branding. One of our favorite social media platforms is Twitter.” (BiblioCrunch)

5) Focus on the Basics

“A well-written story, a smart cover, a proper edit, clean formatting, and an enticing blurb. You only have to do that stuff once, and then you can get back to working on the next book.” (David Gaughran)

6) Passion, Persistence, and Pluck

“The playing field is leveling—Net neutrality ensures the internet stays equally available to all. As far as online business is concerned, each book competes on its own. In this environment it’s your passion, persistence and pluck that will sell your book, and that’s within your power.” (The Book Designer)

7) Write Well, Publish Regularly

“You don’t have to chase the hottest genre or write for mass appeal to make a living as an indie author; you do have to write well enough to appeal to the people who enjoy your niche, and you do have to publish regularly to keep your name out there, especially when you’re first building up your fan base.” (Lindsey Buroker)

8) It’s All About Connecting

“But what I learned is that the best way for me to look at my writing career is to remember why I write. It’s to reach readers, to touch their hearts, maybe even change their lives (for the better).” (Live. Write. Thrive)

9) Quality Books Take Quality Time

“If you don’t pay attention to the quality control of your work, you’ll kill your writing career before it even starts. Readers are not stupid. They may be downloading 99¢ e-books like crazy right now. But they’re already starting to figure out that something’s not right. Many of these books are poorly written and desperately need editing. (Rachelle Gardner)

10) The Big IF

“[It's the] movement that says we CAN publish well all by ourselves—if we embrace the right tools, take the time to develop our craft, find the right team members, educate ourselves, and are willing to step out of our comfort zones for the sake of our book’s success.” (Wise Ink)

11) Make Sure Your Book is Amazing

“Professionally edited with a professional cover design. Spend money on this because all the marketing in the world won’t sell a crappy book.” (Joanna Penn - How To Market A Book.)


TRISKELE TIPS

…. from Triskele member, Liza Perrat

Support other indie authors: connecting with, supporting and promoting other indie authors whose work I respect is vital. And it works both ways.

Join Goodreads: participate in groups relevant to your books, to connect with like-minded readers, and thus target readership for your books.

Host giveaways: on your own blog or website, or those with a large following, to help spread the word about your books, and gain exposure.


…. from Triskele member, JJ Marsh

Use your environment: Be a local author and visit book clubs, do signings, promote via local media. And if the book is set somewhere different, play up that feature, approach Russian/Japanese/German book bloggers and focus on the setting. If your book fits in a genre, there’ll be aficionados somewhere who want to read it - use online connections. Just remember to give more than take.

Be discoverable: Find yourself platforms which do not promote your work, but establish you as a writer to trust - through journalism, blogging, guest posting. Ensure those curious enough to click on your bio will be directed to your body of work, which has easily clickable links. Make yourself easy to find.

Keep reading: All the blog posts, articles, comments, Tweets, status updates, co-promotions and press releases add up to a lot of content, not mention working on the next book/short story. All output and no input makes Jill a dull girl. Switch off, unplug and just read, at least once a week. Call it topping up your reservoir.

…. from Triskele member, Catriona Troth

An extract from my rejection letter to a mainstream publisher

'Maybe I’m shooting myself in the foot. Maybe I’m cutting myself off from a level of marketing and distribution I can’t hope to emulate as an indie author. Maybe. But I will choose when I publish my book. I will decide what it’s called and what is on the cover. I will determine how long it remains on sale to readers. I won’t have the help and advice of a traditional literary editor, but neither will my ideas be overruled by some anonymous marketing professional from a supermarket chain.'

For me, one of the real visionaries in the world of Self Publishing is Polly Courtney who turned her back on her golden ticket dream with a big traditional publishers to go the indie route. I always remember her words because for me too control is vital: ‘The main benefit for me is the ability to fulfil the vision you have for a book, from how it's worded right through to how it's sold and promoted. You can make things happen – and not just via traditional means. I've had the chance to experiment, testing cover designs on a pool of collaborators, opening up my first draft to self-selected 'editors' from social media and making a film-style trailer for the book. I'll also be able to play with the ebook pricing when it comes out.’


…. from Triskele member, Gillian Hamer

Be as professional as you possibly can in every aspect of your book. Do what you do well (ie the writing bit) and leave everything else – as much as your budget will allow – to the professionals.

Join a critique group – either virtual or real life. Make sure at least a half dozen pair of eyes if possible have read and discussed your novel before you type The End.

Invest in a proof reader you can work with and trust, try to build up a relationship with an editor, so they understand you and your writing style.


.... from Triskele member, JD Smith

When looking for a professional to help you, whether it's copy editing, proofreading, formatting or cover designing, make sure you ask for recommendations. Never use someone you don't trust or you haven't had referred to you by a satisfied customer. Look at their portfolio and ensure that they are the best person for your needs.

Expensive doesn't always mean the best. Good cover design and formatting doesn't cost the earth. It's worth budgeting for it because in the long run it can save you lots of time and frustration that could be spent marketing your book or writing the next one.

Never let the world of writing get you down. Set yourself small, manageable deadlines. Remember that you are meant to be writing because you enjoy it, not because you have to do it.


Thanks to http://www.darlawrites.com/ for triggering this idea. Check out Darla's site for many more insights and inspirations.

Lightning Source - From the Horse's Mouth II

David Taylor, President of Lightning Source UK talks to JJ Marsh.

In the second part of our interview, David explains his vision of how Lightning Source intends to make the ideal partner for independent authors.

As a member of The Alliance of Independent Authors and writers’ collective Triskele Books, I welcome the chance to talk to someone from the industry angle. All of us at Triskele have used Lightning Source for our print material, and I’m know we’re not the only ones. Why is your service so attractive to small independent publishers?

Lightning Source works with the smallest to the largest of publishers. One key advantage that differentiates our organisation from book printing outfits is the pairing of high-quality single copy book manufacturing with global market access and distribution to readers worldwide.

I’m guessing Lightning Source has seen a remarkable increase in smaller or self-publishers in recent years?

We've seen a steady increase in the number of small and self-publishers using our services. Our access to market and innovative technology have created an inventory-free business model that enables publishers to avoid the risk and high capital investment of traditional publishing models. To put things into perspective, in the U.K. alone, we’ve grown our library of titles from 1,100 titles in 1998 to over 6 million today.

What other services do you offer in addition to Print-on-Demand?

Ingram Content Group, of which Lightning Source is a part, offers a full-suite of comprehensive physical and digital content distribution services to publishers, booksellers, libraries, educators and students. We provide books, music and media content to over 38,000 retailers, libraries, schools, and distribution partners in 195 countries. Tens of thousands of publishers use Ingram’s fully integrated physical and digital solutions and programs including Lightning Source, CoreSource®, MyiLibrary® and VitalSource Bookshelf®, to realize the full business potential of books.

While researching with colleagues, compliments for Lightning Source seems to highlight speed, quality, distribution reach and customer service. Have you needed to change your infrastructure to deal with a different kind of consumer – the indie author? 

We are pleased to hear about the compliments. Ingram took great care when developing our Lightning Source business. Our operation has been completely scalable from the very beginning - we can print, dispatch, and sell one book at a time, and our single copy capabilities give us the flexibility to work with small independent publishers to large multinational organisations.

Lots of satisfied clients from what I hear, but some disgruntlement too. I appreciate you can’t deal with every issue, so I wanted to raise just a few points such as complexity of interface, cost of revisions, lack of facility to offset set-up costs against earnings and the difficulty of making a group order (ie, separate publishers, one delivery). Do you envisage any adjustments being made to these various processes in the future?

We value all customer feedback and continually work to develop our products and services to meet the changing needs of the publishers we work with. In July, we launched IngramSparkSM, a new Publish On Demand platform that offers a new, simple path to publishing. The easy-to-use online publishing tool provides independent publishers with simple, cost-effective access to Ingram's global distribution network for print titles and e-book content. The new platform will give publishers the tools to manage their print books and e-books in one location.

What do you see as Lightning Source’s USP? What do you think is your edge over the competition?

The pairing of our high-quality single copy book manufacturing with our worldwide access to the market we provide to publishers is unmatched in the book industry. Placing titles with Lightning Source gives publishers a unique global distribution model that allows a book to be printed when it is sold. There is no need to print a book beforehand.

What are the latest developments in terms of international distribution? Can you talk a little about Global Connect?

A substantial number of our publishers use Ingram's worldwide distribution network to grow their reach and expand sales internationally - Ingram distributes to more than 195 countries around the world. In addition, our Global Connect program enables publishers to get titles to new markets through arrangements with leading distributors and book manufacturing locations. Our Lightning Source customers are currently distributing content locally in Brazil and Germany.

Colour – I understand there will be more than one new function available for publishers who need to use photographs, illustrations, images, etc. Could you give us a brief overview?

Our high-quality book manufacturing process is perfectly suited for photographs, illustrations, line art and images. Publishers that work with Lightning Source have the option to print both black and white and colour interior books. Recently, premium colour book manufacturing capabilities in our U.S. plant have been duplicated in the U.K., and our new standard colour option has just launched in July giving publishers cost-effective local colour options.

· Premium colour is available from the U.K. with two day shipping to anywhere in Europe. The rich depth of colour makes it ideal for highly illustrative publications.

· Standard colour is also available. Standard colour provides publishers with high quality colour at a very low price.

There has been some concern about piracy of material printed with Lightning Source. What’s your take?

We work with more than 35,000 publishers, and we manufacture content on their behalf. That said, piracy isn’t a new issue. In fact, the majority of pirated copies are from print books being photocopied and distributed, and, for those who can’t or don’t want to pay for books, they’ve always been available for free from libraries. For publishers, the key is to continue to make books not only an engaging experience but also an affordable and easy-to-access experience. We need to make it easy for consumers to find and purchase books legally, and we are delighted to work with publishers to do just that.

What do you see as the major changes likely to happen in the publishing industry? Where do you see Lightning Source fits in?

It has become a somewhat tired phrase to say that the publishing industry is undergoing huge change: but it is absolutely true. We expect to see publishers moving even more content to an on demand model. The old model of printing for inventory is becoming an absurdity that is increasingly difficult to defend. The physical book is not going to disappear, but its mode of production and distribution, for the vast majority of titles, is inexorably moving to one that requires single copy print on demand allied to a global distribution network that can deliver a book to anyone within 24 hours.
Increasing automation allied with the new high speed inkjet printing technologies that are now coming on stream will spur this development as digitally printed books take up more and more of the market. Print runs will continue to shrink as publishers strive to free up capital that was previously locked up in inventory.

E-books will continue to exert downward pressure on print runs but, with very few exceptions, they will not replace the printed book. We expect the print book and the e-book to coexist as publishers offer a choice to consumers about how they wish to consume content.

We expect the explosion in self- publishing to continue and to move out from its homeland in North America and Europe to the BRIC regions. We see new publishing models continuing to appear as creative talents engage with the capabilities that these news global/digital models allow. In short, we think publishing is in a good place. Never before have publishers had so many fantastic tools at their disposal to make their content available to individuals who want to read it. Never before has it been so easy for content to be discoverable.

As the print on demand arm of Ingram Content Group, Lightning Source is set to play a huge role in allowing publishers to make their content available on an increasingly global basis.
provide greater choice in the market. 

The Hard Sell

In a pop-up blog, Jo Furniss presents her MA thesis on social media and fiction.
Featuring video and audio interviews with Kate Harrison, Nick Harkaway, Liz Fenwick, Triskele's own JJ Marsh and members of the Romantic Novelists Association, Jo asks ...

Do tweets sell books?

The short answer is: no. But well-known, well-liked writers do. That much, at least, has not changed.

Schmoozing with newspaper reviewers, touring the country for signings, promoting their wares to book clubs and literary festivals: writers have always networked socially. The select few, anyway.

But social networking online has opened up the field. Now every author – from self-published to traditionally-published, fiction to non-fiction, pulp to literary - has to play the game.

My name is Jo Furniss, I'm a journalist, writer and student. This mini-blog comprises an Industry Analysis for my MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth. I set out to ask: what can traditionally-published writers learn from self-published authors when it comes to social media marketing of fiction - or are we all in it together?

Read what Jo discovered about authors, social media and sales in:

The Hard Sell

Jo has worked as a journalist, writer and editor in radio, TV, online, magazines and books. I spent nine years with the BBC and also freelanced for Monocle, the UN and a variety of magazines. I’m on the home straight of a two-year Professional Writing MA programme.

@jo_furniss
https://www.facebook.com/JoFurnissMedia
http://jofurnissmedia.wordpress.com.

Design and Print Glossary

by JD Smith

Front Cover - the front cover of your book. This can be the front cover of a paperback, or the image used to display on a webpage selling an ebook.

Spine - specific to printed books only, the spine is the part of the book where the ends of the pages are glued together. When referring to the cover, the spine is the imagery which covers the ends of the pages, typically having an author name and title on display when a book is placed on a book shelf. Designers will ask for your page count so they can calculate your spine width. This is usually done using a calculator on a publisher/printer's website i.e. spine width = number of pages x page thickness

Back Cover – the back cover of a printed book, generally containing blurb

So that’s the basics. Now for some techy stuff …

ISBN/Barcode – sometimes confused as the same thing. They are in fact two different things. An ISBN is the number allocated to books, bought from www.isbn.nielsenbook.co.uk. Some publishers buy them in bulk and sell them on or give them away free with their publishing packages. This number goes on the copyright page. On the back goes the image reference of the number i.e. the barcode. This is an image representation of the ISBN number and usually has the number sat just below it. This is so shops can scan the book on their system, rather than having to manually input a 13 digit number. These days the barcodes are usually generated by the printer/publisher using a funky bit of software and placed on the back of the cover at the bottom (sometimes on the right hand side) after the cover has been designed and submitted for publication. Occasionally, or if you specifically want more control over the ISBN, you can ask the publisher for the barcode, or generate your own using an online company, and have the designer place this for you.

[Image] Resolution - references the quality. The higher the resolution, the better quality the image. For printed books, images are generally required to be 300 dpi at the size they are to be used. For web (i.e. images for covers of ebook) images are only required to be around 72 dpi at the size they are to be displayed.

[Image] DPI - Dots Per Inch. Think of painting an image by making lots of little dots with coloured pens. The more dots, the more complex and complete the image will look. Enough dots and you won’t notice there are any dots.

[Image] Raster/Rasterised – images are either raster or vector. Rasterised images are made up of pixels/dot matrix. They’re images such as photographs and any other images which has been saved down as a JPEG, TIFF and such like.

[Image] Vector – vector images are a designer’s best friend when it comes to scale-ability. Rather than pixels/dots, they are made up of vectors (also known as paths or strokes), which means they can be scaled to any size imaginable. Complex graphics are made up of a series of paths and strokes that you wouldn’t realise are there. These file formats can be saved as EPS or AI (Adobe Illustrator) files. Commonly they are cartoons or digital drawing, although some are so complex you wouldn’t realise they are, and have a photographic quality to them.

Images of a better quality/resolution, generally cost more from a stock image library than a lower resolution image

Stock Image Library - generally speaking these are online sites which sell images in much the same way as you can pay for and download music or software. Many of them sell Royalty Free images.

Royalty Free Image - an image for which you pay a one off fee to use as much as you wish, as opposed to licensing an image where you are limited for example to how many books you can have printed with the image on, and for how long (in years).

Formatting/Typesetting - generally speaking the formatting of text for the interior of a book (i.e. the words/story/prose).

Gutter - the gutter on a book is the margin on the inside edge of a page. It is generally larger than the margin on the outer edge of the page. The reason is that when the spine is glued, and you open a book, you would not be able to see easily any text that runs too close to the spine.

Spread(s) - the left and right and pages of a book which face each other is known as a ‘spread’ or ‘facing pages’. If a designer sends you a PDF in spreads, which they potentially will when proofing a book, it means that the PDF will look as it would when you open a book, with the left and right hand pages next to one another as opposed to single pages.

Book Size - i.e the overall height and width of a book: 6 x 9”, 5 x 8”.

MOBI - Kindle specific file.

Software - Graphic Designers, for the purposes of book covers and paperback formatting, at least, use Adobe Indesign/Quark Express, Adobe Photoshop for image manipulation, and Adobe Illustrator for manipulating or drawing vector illustrations. Anyone who actually does any formatting or page layout in Adobe Illustrator needs to serious rethink their working practice. Kindle documents, however, are best laid out in Word and subsequently converted to MOBI files using a generator.

Bleed - my favourite to explain. Bleed is the image or colour which extends beyond the edge of the cover or page (normally 3mm or .0125”). Designers will deliberately set up cover files so that when they export a print-ready file for the publisher, there is excess image (bleed). This means that when the printer has printed your book covers and subsequently trims them (cuts them out of the large sheet on which they were printed) you do not end up with areas of cover which have no print on them. Think of it like this, if you are going to roll out pastry to line a pie dish, you roll it out larger than you need, line the pie dish, then trim off the excess. This is effectively what bleed is.

Crop Marks (also known as registration marks, trim marks, cutting marks) - fine hairlines printed on the outer edge of your cover file. They tell the printer exactly where they need to trim/cut your cover on each edge. Some publishers add these themselves, others require the final cover files to include them (this difference between printers is fairly specific to publishing books – in the rest of the print industry it is standard to simply supply files WITH crop marks).

Artwork - depending on what you’re referring to, this can mean a multitude of things: 1) An illustration placed on the cover (as in a piece of art, painting, drawing etc); 2) A printer might refer to the finished cover design file, the print PDF, as ‘artwork’; 3) Some designers refer to the process of design as ‘artworking’.

Illustration - painting, drawing (in any medium – pencil through to computer graphics) that may go on the cover or, indeed, the interior or the book. Illustration is NOT the same as cover design, and authors should be careful when employing an illustrator for their cover, that they are also a competent graphic designer, or that they are working with a graphic designer. Many graphic designers will employ an illustrator when occasion arises instead of using stock illustrator or photography. Not to do a disservice to illustrators out there, but as I wouldn’t take it upon myself to draw or paint something for a cover, many illustrators I have come across in my career don’t have the knowledge of typography and setting files for print that a graphic designer should have.

Fonts - the style of the characters of the alphabet. Most computer come with what are known as ‘system fonts’. Many of them are good, some are recognisable as being cheap fonts that come free with software. You can download many free fonts to install on your system from the internet. These also tend to look cheap. And lastly you can also buy fonts, in much the same way as you can buy stock imagery, from websites specialising in selling fonts.

Typography - the art of arranging type (words/titles/author name/body copy). And, yes, this does involve much more than simply centring your name and title.

Body copy/text - the bulk of text in your manuscript.

Blurb - the copy on the back of your book which sells it.

Strapline - it’s amazing how many people don’t know what ‘strapline’ means. It’s the line which goes on the front of your book which gives a further snippet as to what you book might be about (e.g. One kingdom, three brothers, three claims to the throne …)

Pantone - Pantone is a range of ink colours used by the design industry. Most publishers will, however, print the interiors of books in black only, and the covers in colours make of up Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK).

Drop Capitals - an enlarged letter generally used at the beginning of a chapter.

PDF – most people have got to grips with the file format PDF these days. Most printers will require one for printing your cover and/or inside pages; others, rarely, just a high resolution JPEG. PDF is a more secure file, which has the capability of embedding fonts and minimising anything in your file being disturbed during the printing process. Designers will also use them to proof your work to you. Proofing will usually be done using low-resolution (low quality), and therefore small file size, PDFs. When it comes to printing, the printer/publisher will require a high-resolution, print-ready, print-quality, PDF.

Mock Up - generally a term used for coming up with visuals of say a cover. Mock-up/concept/ideas/visuals.

JD Smith (Jane) lives and works in the English Lake District. Having worked as a graphic designer for over 12 years, her passion for books and everything literary took over and she now works predominantly on book cover design and typesetting. She is the editor of the writing magazine Words with JAM, and the author of historical fiction.

A Year in the Life... more perspectives

Last week, five independent authors shared their experiences of getting published. Today, two more writers join the debate. Triskele Books author Jasper Dorgan and ALLiA member Dan Holloway tell us what they've learned since they took the leap into independent publishing.

JASPER DORGAN

An author’s lot is a lonely one. The writing can’t be done by anyone else but you. Some human contact of kindred spirits, who are not always necessarily kindred, can be found in the best peer review sites but they are still distant and for the most and inevitable part of the roller coaster processes of writing a book you are on your own.  But of course it’s not a book yet, it’s only a manuscript. That’s what I had a year ago. 90,000 painstakingly crafted words on paper, or rather hidden away in the cyber caves. I didn’t have a book.
I would not be published without the help given by my fellow Triskele authors and friends. In the last year I have learned from them about script editing and typesetting and cover design and ISBN licensing and POD and e-booking and most of all I have learned that  it takes a person to write a book but it takes a team to make it. A real, live book. My book. There are scant few thrills to compare to it. Apart from writng the next.

www.jasperdorgan.com

DAN HOLLOWAY

I made the decision to write “seriously”, in the sense that I thought it’d be cool for someone other than me to read what I wrote, in 2007. By 2008 I had decided that I was going to self-publish because no self-respecting (or shareholder-respecting) publisher was going to go near my weird and quirky bits of literary fiction. By January 2009 I had started a collective of like-minded individuals and we had an absolute ball, pushing each other to new levels of weirdness and quirk, exploring form and the boundaries of media and genre with absolutely no one to be answerable to. The self-publishing community seemed to be full of creative anarchists and refuseniks and I loved it. Then along came Kindle and very quickly that changed. Self-publishing was flooded with entrepreneurs, people who wanted to make more bucks by by-passing those in the middle. The media got interested in self-publishing – because it was financially making waves. For those of us who’d set out in 2008/9 it felt like our skateboard park had been bulldozed to make room for yuppie winebars. And then in the last 12 months, things changed again. Quickly. More and more small presses seemed to be popping up doing exciting, uncommercial, experimental things, the kind of things we’d loved doing when we set out. I feel almost like I’ve come full circle, and am seriously considering submitting my work for the first time in years. Self-publishing is no longer the creative frontier – it hasn’t been fro two or more years. But now we have such a frontier again – with small presses.

Dan Holloway (http://danholloway.wordpress.com) runs the small imprint 79 rat press (http://79ratpress.blogspot.com) whose first 6 titles are coming out in June of this year.