Novel vs. Illustrated Children's book - a world apart

When I set out on this new publishing adventure, I didn't realize it was going to be such a different adventure.  Putting together and publishing an illustrated children's story is a very different experience than publishing a coming-of-age novel.  In fact, one has very little to do with the other.  Let me count the ways:

1. With a novel, you paint a picture with words.  Lots of words.  With an illustrated children's book,

A new project!

So…. Things slowed down in the writing department.  I did write a second novel, and have been trying to shop it to agents. There has been strong interest, but still no bite.  I haven't given up, but I'm taking a break. The constant rejections are tough to take.  

Quite a few years ago, I wrote a children's book about the winter solstice.  I really liked the book - it also had some strong interest when I shopped it to agents, but again, no bite.  It's in prose, which is a little bit of a hard sell right now.  One publisher I applied to directly loved it, but they were worried that since it took place in Central Asia, they weren't going to be able to find an illustrator who would make accurate depictions of the people and environment.  I so went into Internetland and found one.  And ever since then, I cannot imagine this story without envisioning her artwork.  

But it costs a lot of money to pay an illustrator.  

If you ever doubt self-published books...

At times, I doubt myself.  Particularly because no agents would take on my book.  I feel as though a traditional publisher would help me get the publicity I need to sell books and get my name out there.  I just wrote about it the other day, in fact (http://saskiaeakyil.blogspot.de/2012/06/give-up-no-not-yet.html). 


And then I read this blog post (thanks, Krisiny!!!) and realized that, as an unknown first-time author, having a traditional publisher and agent might not have helped me at all.  I just need to keep plugging away at guest blogging and other forms of publicity, because someone might read my book because of it.  And if they do, they might like it.  And if they like it, they might tell a person or two about it.  And if they do... that's how it really works for unknown writers.  A lot of hard work and word of mouth.

Amazon was so thrilled with the post, which is by a previously traditionally published author who disses traditional publishers and praises Amazon/Createspace/KDP, that they made it  a front-page story.  Which will totally help Jessica Park sell books, further convincing her that self publishing is better than traditional publishing for her.  One of her best points as far as I'm concerned is that certain character ages fall into a black hole of literature - there is no "category" for 13-year-olds (too old for middle grade, too young for YA), no category for 18-25 year-olds...it's ludicrous.  And it is absolutely the fault of the large publishing houses who market books as they do.  I actually wanted to write a book about a 13-year-old, but was reminded that there's no category for that.

I'm still not 100% convinced that self-publishing is actually better... Ms. Park did have publisher backing for years, which surely gave her a feeling of legitimacy and she surely benefited from that publisher's connections - it is incredibly hard to get self-published books reviewed.  I will still try to get an agent for my next book.  I will still enter it into contests.  But if, in the end, I decide to self publish again, I won't feel too bad about it.

Thank you, Jessica Park, for helping self-published authors gain some legitimacy!

Blog Tour?

A blog tour is like a book tour or concert/album tour, except that the author doesn't actually have to leave her/his living room.  There are sites that organize blog tours for authors, but I haven't had the luck to "go" on one yet.  Instead, I'm slowly organizing guest posts for myself, finding blogs that are looking for guest bloggers via LinkedIn, MyBlogGuest.com, Twitter, and internet searches.  Reviews of my book are also trickling in. 

Today, I received links to my new blog guest post for an Australian writing website:
http://cutecopy.com.au/live-to-write/

as well as fabulous reviews on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/285433004

and on Flipkart (think: Indian Amazon.com):
http://www.flipkart.com/secrets-summer-village-1463740115/p/itmd3fjggzgudehf?pid=9781463740115
by a reviewer in India whom I have never met in person. 

It is exceptionally hard for authors to get publicity for their self-published books, no matter how great those books are.  The effort does not end when the book is finished - that's when the hard part actually begins.  Every single day, you've got to do something to get and keep your name out there.  I don't know if my random guest blogging can really be considered a "blog tour," but at the moment it's the closest I can get to one!

I am so grateful to all you out there are supporting me, by reading my book, by writing reviews, and by sharing my book with others!

Another self-published to publisher-published story

Being self-published is wonderful in many ways, but there's some attraction to having a major publisher take on your book.  I'm not entirely sure why this is, given that new authors still have to take a large part in the promotion of their books.  I think I would still like mainstream publishers to publish my book.  It's good to know that it happens - I wonder if in the future this is the way it will always happen?

http://www.fearfuladventurer.com/archives/5940

Hope

This article gives me hope that self-publishing can really work in the favor of authors with non-mainstream books: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-i-became-a-best-selling-author-.html

Link courtesy of my brother, Scott. Gracias, hermano!

What word describes how I feel?

There must be a word that describes how I feel, but I can't seem to find it.  Maybe the word doesn't exist in English.  Here's the situation: I convinced myself that I didn't need something (because it seemed that it didn't need me), and now it has appeared and told me that it might, indeed, be interested in me.  What is this thing?  "It" is an agent.  I have been sending queries off and on for about two years now, and while there have been a few that expressed interest, most have not.  My most recent round of querying was the most disappointing, with rejection after form rejection.  It was disheartening enough to encourage me to explore the self-publishing route.  As I started the process, the rejections continued to trickle in, and they didn't hurt as badly as the ones that had come before I considered self-publishing as an option.  I had the publishing process of my book in my control.  I got to design my cover, choose the font, and select the spine color.  I started this blog, and wrote about how much I liked self-publishing more than I would have liked going the route of traditional agent-represented publishing.

Well, last night at around 11pm, I checked my e-mail one last time before heading off to bed.  There was an e-mail with Re: Query in the subject line.  Another rejection, I assumed.  I opened the e-mail and was really shocked to read that it was not a rejection.  An actual agent, one I had hand-picked as a good match for this book, was interested in seeing the full manuscript.  Meredith Barnes of Lowenstein Associates wanted to see more.  Now, I know that this is not an offer of representation, but it could lead to that.

What is it called when you convince yourself that you don't want something because you can't get it, and then it becomes possible and you aren't sure if you really don't want it or if you were just consoling yourself because you couldn't get it?  If there is not a word for that, there should be.

And that is how I feel right now.  I feel ambivalent.  I admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed parts of the self-publishing experience.  I am putting a lot of effort into promoting my book, and I think that I will ultimately reach the correct audience for it.  But when it comes to getting it into actual bookstores, I am more helpless, especially given that my book is in English and I don't live in an English-speaking country.  I don't have a big publisher on my side, helping out with its connections and glossy promotional materials.  I don't have many connections in the foreign-rights department, even though I think my book would do really well in translation, particularly in Turkey and in parts of Europe with lots of Turkish immigrants (Germany, Austria, etc...).

I'm going to write back to Ms. Barnes and send my manuscript, per her request.  But I will also tell her that I'm on the eve of the official release of my book - I have a large list of addresses to which I'll send my press release as soon as the e-book appears on Apple iBooks.  (Dear Apple, if you're listening, you shouldn't bother allowing self-publishing if you make it so darn difficult for us to upload our content.  We own two apple computers but they are too old, in your opinion, to let me upload my content.  So my dear brother is tearing his hair out trying to do it for me on his newer Apple.  I'm not sure that is going to create user loyalty.)  Ms. Barnes may immediately lose interest in my manuscript, once I've told her that I have self-published it.  If she does, I guess I'll have to continue trying to convince myself that self-publishing is what I really want...

Waiting for the proofs

As you will notice as you read through previous posts, there is a lot of waiting involved in publishing. Waiting isn't easy for anyone - and I hear that when you're published by a publishing house rather than self-publishing, there's MUCH more waiting involved. Another reason I'm glad I'm self-publishing.

My book is now available for Kindle, and has only been purchased by friends and family thus far. Of course, nobody else knows it exists because I have done zero promotion whatsoever, unless you count Facebook and e-mail (read: friends and family). And many of them don't own a Kindle. I don't own a Kindle. So I understand the low sales.

As we speak, I am waiting for proof copies of the paper version from Lulu.com and Createspace.com, my two POD publishers. I hope they come FAST because I am so curious how they turned out. And I hope that they're perfect and require no changes because the faster they are ready, the faster I can start promoting my book. I will not do any promotion until a paper version is available. The media says that paper books are on their way out, but judging by how few of my friends and family own Kindles (which are the #1 e-readers, I understand), paper books will not die soon.

Long live paper!

Now Available for Kindle

A big thing happened last night - the digital version of my book finally showed up on Amazon! It felt great. I was checking the Kindle Direct Publishing site about every half-hour, and it continually showed it as "publishing" (it takes about 24 hours from the time you click "publish" to the time they publish it). And then I got an e-mail from a friend who had bought it for her brand-new Kindle! She bought it before I even knew it was up. Thank you, Bechert family! So even though I have been writing my whole life, I am now going to call myself a writer. The next step is to get it on Apple iBooks and BN.com (the latter is a bit more complicated). Once it's up everwhere AND the paper version is available, I'll start the real publicity campaign with newspapers, etc...

There may be an element of mild disgrace in the eyes of the major publishing houses and agents, but I am already glad that I self-published this book because, as a writer, I really just want people to read my book. It will not make me rich or famous. But it's always fun to learn new things, and to feel like I'm not just writing for myself. If you buy a copy, let me know, and let me know what you think!

Not so fast

Bismillah. I have sent the necessary files to Amazon for publication on Kindle! Next up, BN.com/Nook and Apple iBooks. Paper versions will follow.

In the back of my mind, I've been thinking that this is way too easy. That anyone can and will start putting up random books that they write, and that Amazon will be inundated with bizarre, unedited, spontaneous "books".

I really don't think that's going to happen. Even with all of the technological advances that have been made, it's not as simple as uploading a Word file and there you go, you have an e-book. And maybe that's intentional - because Amazon doesn't want an avalanche of random e-books.

Getting a book up there takes quite a lot of work. Allow me to elaborate:

1. Write a book in your "spare" time.
2. Reread, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit, edit until you can't take it anymore.
3. Torture your friends and loved ones with your manuscript, at which point you think you hope they're honest.
4. Take the honest feedback and edit some more, until you're fed up.
5. Take a break. A year is good.
6. Revisit your manuscript and edit some more until you want to give up.
7. You think you're done? Read it through one more time. Believe me, you'll find changes that need to be made.
8. Decide that it will never be perfect, and decide it's ready to publish.
9. Save file as .HTML
10. Convert file to Mobi using Mobipocket Creator
11. View with Kindle Previewer.
12. You thought you were done? No. Now you can see the strange formatting caused by a power struggle with MS Word, which takes the liberty of inserting weird formatting at random and where you don't want it. Make a note of all the odd stuff.
13. Go back into Word document or into .HTML document and take the crazy MS stuff out.
14. Repeat steps 10, 11, and 12. You won't find all the errors the first time.
15. Repeat step 13.
16. Repeat steps 10 and 11 as many times as necessary to get rid of as much weird stuff as you can before you are fed up with it.
17. View your document with the Kindle Previewer and look carefully at every single page (all 300-something of them) to catch any last-minute errors. If you still find some, which you will, repeat steps 13 and 10. Decide that you have found enough errors and you want to publish this document before your head explodes.
18. Fill out all the required information and upload .prc file and cover art to Amazon. (This is after spending days creating and perfecting the cover art, with the help of your sweet husband).
19. Hold your breath and click "Save and Publish".

TIRED YET???

I am not by any means good at computer stuff, but self-publishing requires you to stretch the computer-scientist part of your brain. It is an interesting exercise. You will gain some appreciation for people who work with computers behind-the-scenes.

Now, I will have to do slightly different processes to post on BN, Apple, and on-demand publishing sites. I guess I'd better get some rest...

Welcome to me

Welcome to my author blog! I already have a personal blog, but Writing in my Head is a blog I am keeping strictly with regards to my writing and publishing.

In 2008-2009, I wrote a novel. When I was finished, I started querying it - for those of you who are not in the writing industry, it means sending letters to agents, in the hopes that they will want to represent you. If they take you on as a client, they try to get you a contract with publishers. If they can do that, your book gets published by a publisher and may end up in bookstores. The publishers may help you publicize your book, though some of that will still be in your own hands. It depends how much of a big seller they think your book is going to be.

Quite a few agents were interested enough in the premise of my novel (which was originally called Silent Night, Unholy Night, then Some Things are Universal, now Secrets of a Summer Village), and asked to see the entire manuscript. None of them offered representation. So I decided to take a break from my novel, think about it, and edit it. 2010 wasn't such a great year for me, and I couldn't even think about looking at my novel, but once 2011 rolled around, I was ready to revisit it.

So, I read it again. And I really liked it. "Wow, I wrote some pretty good stuff!" I thought. So I edited it from start to finish and started querying again. In the nearly two years since I had queried the first time, the industry had already changed a lot. For one thing, lots of agents now ask for up to 3 chapters of your book along with the query letter, so you don't have the immediate satisfaction of the quick requests for writing samples. After receiving a few rejections, I decided to re-investigate self-publishing.

I hadn't been too interested in self-publishing electronically in the past because I'm old enough to still want paper books. Electronic books are not enough for me. Maybe I'll own a Kindle or a Nook or something one day, but I don't yet. I think they're great, but I don't particularly want one. And for me, if my book is only electronic, it's not published. I need a paper copy. That said, there's more earning potential (for authors) from the electronic version.... Still, even print-on-demand self-published books have come a long way in two years, both in quality and in price.

So I'm going to go for it. Self-publishing requires the author to wear a lot of hats - writer, editor, cover designer, publicist, etc..., but I think it's worth a try. Here I go...

I'll post about self-publishing as I get further along in the process, and will share my book cover and so forth with you. I'll also let you know when my book is available, and from where!