Tag Archives: self-publishing

Self-published? Add sizzle to your page with Amazon A+

Liz offers a helping hand for self-published authors

An introduction to Amazon A+

Helpful tips


bigstock-220888645.jpg

Authors need all the help available when we promote and market our books. This is especially so when self-publishing. And it’s an expensive business.

I’m sure that, while  browsing Amazon for your favourite authors, you will have noticed that some books – mostly published by mainstream publishers – have extra goodies on their page, enticing you to buy.

This is one  that Joffe Books put on the page for Murder Among the Roses.

Book promotion graphic featuring a rose against a black background.

The good news..

Continue reading →

Self-publishing in print: preparing text for uploading

print copies of The Duke and the Dubious Damsel by Joanna MaitlandJoanna again, still on self-publishing…

In my last blog, I explored the pros and cons of publishing print books with Amazon KDP, or Ingram Spark, or Draft2Digital. And it wasn’t all that straightforward as you may have seen. This blog is about preparing text for publishing in print. (A future blog may be about covers for print, since there isn’t space here.)

Self-publishing in print isn’t difficult, especially if you’ve already written your text using Styles, as I recommend. But it does involve more steps than ebook publishing and will require attention to detail if you want to produce a really professional-looking paperback.

But we writers can all do attention to detail, can’t we? Without that, our plot and character continuity would be shot. So, if you’re a writer, you can do this 😉

Print preparation : automatic formatting or do-it-yourself?

Continue reading →

Self-publishing ebooks: Amazon KDP or Draft2Digital (D2D)?

Joanna’s experience and advice on using Amazon KDP and D2D for ebooks

Regular readers of this blog may remember my tale of woe when Amazon KDP terminated my publishing account. I eventually got it back but it was not a pleasant experience. Some of my ebooks are still available on KDP but I’ve been publishing most of the others on Draft2Digital (D2D). I’ve done enough of them now on D2D—as ebooks and also in print—to have some experience and lessons to share.

I’m not including print publishing choices in this blog because it would make it too long. Nor am I including Ingram Spark here, because my only experience with them is print publishing, not ebooks. I’ll include Ingram when I blog about print choices.

graphic figure with box on head, thumb downThere are upsides and downsides to publishing ebooks on Draft2Digital. Just as there are on KDP. Some of the downsides might not apply in every case, but I’ll explain what they are anyway. Then you can make up your own mind whether KDP or D2D is right for your ebooks.

Which platform wins the grinning yellow mug and which gets the down-in-the-mouth blue one? Your decision. Continue reading →

Light and Dark, Sunrise and Sunset : Do they matter?

Joanna welcomes longer dayslight and dark, a brick wall under torchlight

Ages ago, I wrote a blog about creating atmosphere with light and shade. You can read it here, if you’re interested. But today’s blog is about more factual aspects of writing: the light and dark that go with the time of day.

I reckon light and dark matter in writing. Yes, they add atmosphere. Think of the magic of twilight over a silent, snowy landscape, for example. But light and dark can also make our writing feel more real to our readers.

What started me thinking about light and dark?
Two things.

First that at the end of January as I’m writing this, the days are getting noticeably longer which is very welcome. I hate it when it’s dark at four in the afternoon. Don’t you?

Second, because of vampires 😉 Continue reading →

Dear Editor Please Note : Sophie Weston reprise

Dear Readers: Sophie is still not up to typing a whole blog so we’re taking this opportunity of republishing her case-study-cum-love-letter to Dear Editor from back in 2016. (The blog was mentioned in Joanna’s cautionary tales blog last week). Even if you’ve read it before, it’s well worth rereading. And for any editors out there, we’d say it’s a must. But, being authors, we would say that, wouldn’t we?
hand writing a letter to editor with a goose feather

Dear Editor . . .

Whoever you are, wherever you are, Dear Editor, this blog is for you. You’ll find it’s somewhere between a  human resources case study and a love letter.

I’ve been writing most of my life. I’ve moved from “Not a semi colon goes” (end of conversation, book never published) to “Whatever you say” (utter misery, nearly stopped writing) and am now definitely at “Looking forward to discussion”.  I hope the following may help other authors and their Dear Editor avoid some of my pratfalls — or at any rate, get up afterwards a damn sight faster.

Relationship in the mist

Whether you’re a difficult author or a pussycat, the author-editor relationship is always edgy, groping its way through the mist. You can’t get away from it. There are just too many dark alleys and water’s edges. You think you’re striding along a good straight path of mutual understanding and — KERPLOP!

Both of you have to live with this.
And pull each other out of the water when necessary. Continue reading →

Cautionary tales of indie authors and editors

“Your editor is your first, best reader.” So said Sophie Weston in a Libertà post on editing and editors that bears rereading. And it reminded me of a few recent instances related to indie authors and whether or not they employ a professional editor.

I’m not proposing to preach at you in this blog. (Sighs of relief all round?) I’m just going to set out a few cautionary tales and let you reach your own conclusions. Continue reading →

What Copy Editors Do and How They Save the World

Dickens and editorFor some time now, people have been asking me to write about what copy editors do and why they’re important. This is a companion piece to last year’s little trot through the origins and history of publishers’ editing: “What Editors Do”.

Why now? I have just actually been reviewing the copy editor’s changes on the text of my new book. So the mind is focused on what I did and what it felt like.

I should point out that, like my blog on editors, this is highly personal. Though I have also drawn on conversations with copy editors and a great talk, some years ago at an RNA Chapter, by jay Dixon, a trained copy editor. Continue reading →

Screw the Punch — Editorial that Works For You

Editorial Advice — Revisions?

Human hand breaking stone question mark. Editorial problem solving

image by Sergey Nivens/bigstock.com

Which editorial suggestions to follow?

Screw the Punch was the first editorial idea to work for me in a big way.

Traditionally published or indie, everyone agrees that authors need to be edited. But what do we do with those editorial reports? One of the most crucial judgements for a professional author to make is deciding exactly that.

You sought an editor’s help. You got it.

Now you have their report and you’re back on your own again. Continue reading →

Dear Editor Please Note

hand writing a letter to editor with a goose feather

Dear Editor . . .

Whoever you are, wherever you are, Dear Editor, this blog is for you. You’ll find it’s somewhere between a  human resources case study and a love letter.

I’ve been writing most of my life. I’ve moved from “Not a semi colon goes” (end of conversation, book never published) to “Whatever you say” (utter misery, nearly stopped writing) and am now definitely at “Looking forward to discussion”.  I hope the following may help other authors and their Dear Editor avoid some of my pratfalls — or at any rate, get up afterwards a damn sight faster.

Relationship in the mist

Whether you’re a difficult author or a pussycat, the author-editor relationship is always edgy, groping its way through the mist. You can’t get away from it. There are just too many dark alleys and water’s edges. You think you’re striding along a good straight path of mutual understanding and — KERPLOP!

Both of you have to live with this.
And pull each other out of the water when necessary.

Editor-author relations like fog in Venice

Editor Fears Author

Continue reading →

Cover Design and the Self-published Author

cover design In the Arms of the Sheikh by Sophie Weston

 

Cover design is a whole new area for me. Before I self published, I sold my stories to big publishers. The cover was part of the deal. Sometimes a good part.

First Pitfall — Absent Author

Sometimes not so much. The Author’s input back then generally consisted of doing a précis of the story and describing the characters’ looks. The designer made of that what he/she would. It could be pretty weird. The cover design where the heroine’s only identifiable feature was a bad case of measles is burned into my soul.

Second Pitfall — Baboon Bomb

Continue reading →