Taking the Plunge!

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AndreaGS

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So I’ve been lurking around this part of the forum for a while, as well as attending self-publishing seminars and picking the brains of my friends. I’ve finally decided to take the leap and self-publish a series of urban fantasy books. It’s quite a bit different from what I usually write—silly and fluffy as opposed to serious and dark.

THE (TENTATIVE) PLAN:

I’ve *gulp* set a release date of April 2015 for the first book, am ½-way through writing the second, and I hired a copyeditor to go through book 1—my scheduled spot pops up in two days. I’ve set up a tentative calendar, with the goal of releasing the second and third books June 2015 and August 2015. I’ve already finalized the covers for the first three books. I also have a manuscript with my agent at the moment…so some of this depends on how that all goes with edits and revisions.

As soon as I go through the edits for book 1, I’m going to send it to a formatter, and then offer copies for review. I started a mailing list with a small monthly prize. I’ve also been building an audience through Wattpad. The stuff I have on there is different, but I’m hoping for some crossover. When the release date gets closer, I’ll start posting sample chapters from book 1 up on Wattpad.

I also posted some of it up on WriteOn, where Shea MacLeod said it was “hilariously funny” (SQUEEEE!). I’ve just had my Goodreads profile upgraded to an official author account—and I need to figure that whole shebang out. I’m debating whether or not I should create a facebook author page. I have my personal one, which is public, and I’m still not quite sure if I should create an author one? I mostly talk about writing on my facebook page anyways.

My blogging is sporadic, and my twittering only a little less so. I bought the domain changelingwars.com, and I’m going to create a page there for the series. I do want to keep my traditional publishing stuff and my self-publishing stuff separate (hence AG Stewart for this series).

I’m hoping to earn some fun money. I’ve had some success with selling short stories, but I only ever started writing them because I wanted to achieve publication, on one level or another. I really want to be a novelist. I want to hold my book (not an anthology!) in my hands and know that I did that, cover-to-cover.

Anyways, if you’ve gotten this far, the title of book 1 is Loose Changeling, and the cover is my avatar. HERE GOES! :D

THE PITCH:

When Nicole catches her husband in bed with another woman, she doesn’t just eject him from the premises—she turns his mistress into a mouse.

It’s not as if she meant to. Far as she knew, she was regular-issue human. So she’s mystified (and mortified) when Kailen, Fae-for-hire, shows up on her doorstep the next day, hits on her, and then drops this bomb: she’s a Changeling, a Fae raised among mortals. The doorways between the Fae and mortal worlds have been sealed shut for a millennium, but now are opening randomly at an alarming rate, and mortals are turning up dead. Kailen’s employers believe she’s the only one who can close them.

Nicole would be happy to oblige and get her life back to normal, but she’s developed a magical block. Not only does she fail to turn her husband’s mistress back into a human, she can’t do any magic unless she’s angry—and she’s only angry enough when her husband’s in the room. Before Nicole can say “I don’t believe in fairies,” she’s jumping between the Fae and mortal worlds with her soon-to-be-ex, his mousy mistress, and the Fae bodyguard she’s increasingly attracted to, trying to figure out who’s opening the doorways and why.

And she’d better stay mad and learn how to use her powers quickly, because there’s a price on her head. Any magic a Changeling performs cannot be undone by another Fae, so the Fae have a simple rule for those like Nicole—kill on sight.
 

nealraisman

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Good luck on the venture. How do you plan to market the book?
 

AndreaGS

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Nealraisman, I'm still figuring that part out and doing research. I'm thinking about investing in a small ad campaign (twitter, fb, google). Once I get book #2 out, I'll try for a bookbub ad. I saw you can submit self-pub books for a publisher's weekly review, so I'll do that as well. I'm going to see about getting blurbs from a couple friends and ask if they'd be interested in cross-promoting.

And I'm going to offer advance copies for review on Goodreads and to my Wattpad followers. I'm hoping to build up a legit-looking number of ratings before release.

I won Writers of the Future in 2013, so once book 1 is out, I'll see if they'd be interested in writing up a press release for it.

I'm going to write a novella in the same world, same character, bridging the gap between books 1 and 2. I'll post it for free in the hopes of luring some readers and keeping the readers of book 1 interested.

We'll see! I hope to stay flexible as far as marketing goes, and sort of see what works for this series and what doesn't, because there's no way to know for sure at this point :)
 

AndreaGS

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I started a mailing list. So far, it's only people I know or know peripherally, but at least that's something. I downloaded a bunch of free photoshop brushes (YES, MY PRETTIES!) and went a bit mad--creating this banner for the mailing list emails:

mailing-list-banner.gif


Because nothing says pro like messily-splattered paint, no? ;)

I also added the book to Goodreads, and I sent it off to the editor on Tuesday! I'm pretty excited to get it back, get it formatted, and send it out to people.

I'm over 1/2-way through the draft of book 2. I also outlined the plot for the novella in the same world. I have rough outlines for the first four books in the series, so as soon as I finish the draft of book 2, I'll be on to the draft of book 3.
 

caracy

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Sounds like you have thought this through and have some good background success to egg you on. With so much dark stuff on the shelves these days, something lighter is always appreciated.
 

jmichaelfavreau

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Looks like you are off to a great start! Congrats! I like your cover art as well :)
 

Celeste Carrara

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I like your plan, don't worry about blogging, it's overratted lol Ok, that may just be my opinion ;) I'll look you up on Goodreads and add your book to my shelf. I love urban fantasy! Good Luck with everything!!
 

AndreaGS

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Thanks so much, Celeste!!

I'm terrible at blogging. TERRIBLE. I still have a long-defunct blog about sustainability in the suburbs floating around somewhere on the intarwebs...
 

akaria

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Your story looks like a lot of fun! Added to my TBR list because UF needs more fun and less angst.
 

AndreaGS

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Thanks so much, akaria!! I added your book too. Soooo pretty!

I like writing about morally gray choices (which tends to involve corrupt characters with good intentions), so this series is a fun change for me. I'm hoping for a good beach read--a lot of action, some romance, and a ton of silliness. I can't wait to get the book back from the editor so I can get it formatted and move to the next step. I'm chomping at the bit to get paper copies formatted and printed. I've gotten involved locally with a few different writing groups, and I'll be handing out free copies.

Diligently working on book 2, will finish the draft by the beginning of January, and then I'm going to just go right into the draft for book 3.

Of course, if I get any movement on the trade publishing end, that's going to take priority.
 

AndreaGS

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I got the edits back today!! The editor said that it was nicely structured and beautifully written :D I'm spending this weekend getting it formatted wheeeee!
 

jmichaelfavreau

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I got the edits back today!! The editor said that it was nicely structured and beautifully written :D I'm spending this weekend getting it formatted wheeeee!

That's always the best news to hear back from an editor! Congrats!
 

Old Hack

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I got the edits back today!! The editor said that it was nicely structured and beautifully written :D I'm spending this weekend getting it formatted wheeeee!

I don't understand.

If you only just got your edits back, you still have to implement those edits. Editors don't make changes, they just suggest them: it's up to the author to work through the edits and to make changes where they think appropriate.

This takes time to do well. And once it's done, you need to set it aside for a few days before checking it with fresh eyes: you'll spot several more problems this way.

I don't see how you can be ready to format your book if you only just got your edits back.

http://absolutewrite.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
 

AndreaGS

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Hey, Old Hack! I should have clarified--the editor I used does developmental editing, but I only paid for copy editing. I spent last night going through the suggested changes, and I'll finish this morning.

I completed the manuscript over a year ago. The book has been through three rounds of beta readers that I trust, so I'm happy with where it stands with characters, plot, and world building. I write fairly clean prose, but I'm really glad I hired an editor. I had someone falling on someone else twice, some misplaced commas, and a couple typos, in addition to other various grammatical errors (plus side: I've learned some things, so my next manuscript should be even cleaner).

I very much want to do this right.
 

Old Hack

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I very much want to do this right.

In that case, I urge you to rethink your decision to skip a proper edit. Beta readers can be great, but a good editor is a completely different thing.
 

AndreaGS

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I very much appreciate the advice, Old Hack. I'm going to take a step back and reconsider if it's really ready. I've run it through some professional eyes, but they are authors and not editors. I set a publishing date of April 2015, so I have time. And I'm going to ask some more opinions and feel things out with some other people (not that I don't trust your expertise, but always good to have more information ;) )

I definitely will hire an editor for the second book, since I'll be on a tighter timeline and can't ask people to read and critique something on that tight of a timeline for free. I am trying to weigh cost with value added and how much of this I can do on my own.

I may format it and try to get another professional opinion.

I do feel that maybe I'm getting impatient. I really want to publish, but I also want to be 100% sure that I'm doing the right thing. I regularly vacillate between feeling like it's overcooked and feeling like no one should read my work ever because it's simply not good enough yet.

It's hard to know which voice to listen to and when. But like I said, I have time :)
 

Old Hack

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If you're not convinced that it's ready, trust that. Or at least, listen to it. Step back from it for a while (this is such an important step when writing, editing and publishing) and then consider if you're confident enough in it to send it out into the world. Don't mistake impatience for confidence.

And good luck.
 

AndreaGS

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I've done a lot of thinking and careful consideration over the past few weeks, as well as talking things over with other authors and my spouse. I read the book again. I checked dates and records, and I finished it two years ago. Since then, it's been through several rounds of revisions and beta readers, which included professional authors, neo-pros, a literary agent assistant, a non-fiction editor, genre readers, and non-genre readers. The copy-editor I hired is also a developmental editor, and she thought it was nicely structured and beautifully written.

At some point, I have to consider costs spent, value gained, expected revenue, and weigh them against one another.

I spent 2014 doing a lot of self-rejecting. It's easy for me to convince myself that I'm not good enough. I can think of some examples in 2014 where I actively hindered my career by being overly cautious, shy, and anxious.

So I'm going to try something new in 2015. I'm going to be bold. Even after this last (hundredth) read, I'm proud of the book and confident in its value.

I'm moving forward.

An editor who likes my work has offered to pass the book on to some professional reviewers. This is the sort of opportunity I passed on in 2014, so *gulp* hello 2015.
 

Polenth

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It does sound from what you're saying that your doubts aren't because you know deep down that something isn't ready... it's that you're prone to self-rejecting even when something is ready. Some level of doubt can be a good thing, but there does come a point where you have to draw the line and release it anyway.
 

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Andrea, your cover is gorgeous. It sounds like you are really trying to get everything prepared. Good luck and keep us posted. I just jumped into self-publishing last week, and it's been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

Celeste, I love your cover as well. All the pretty covers... ;-)
 

AndreaGS

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Polenth, I think that's been my problem for a while now. I didn't enter WotF for some time because I didn't think I had a chance; the first time I entered, I won (no one could have been more surprised than me, believe me!). I've volunteered to be on some panels at a local, upcoming con, so we'll see. I expressed interest in all the ones about imposter syndrome, seesawing emotions, and self-rejection... ;)

Jennifer, thank you!! I used to do some work as an illustrator, so I put together my own cover. I'm still learning some stuff about typography, and my sister is an artist and graphic artist turned UX designer, so she's been lending me pointers.

I've lined up a review in another pro venue that will hopefully come out April/May to coincide with the release. Another friend-of-a-friend thing. Still have to get back to the editor I mentioned with a copy of the book. We chatted about it for a bit, wherein I informed him that it is a hmm...very silly book. I have a lot of fears, since this is so different from what I tend to write, that the reviewers will hate it and I will lose all credibility. But I can't skulk around forever if I want to go places.

I finished typesetting the print copies and I'm still making some small adjustments to the e-copies (links and such in the back). A friend suggested using Adobe InDesign next time for the typesetting, and setting up a template. Typesetting in MS Word is probably a good way to get a colossal headache. On the other hand, I've learned a lot about what MS Word is capable of (and not capable of). Widows and orphans and kerning, oh my!

I've got final proofs lying around now. I posted one for a giveaway on goodreads, and ~300 people added it to their to-read lists so far, which makes the whole thing look a little more legit, I think!
---

ETA: Hey, so what do you guys do with all the extra proof copies that have formatting errors? Recycle them? Give them away to friends and family? Pet them and love them and tell them you will never, ever abandon them?
 
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Mclesh

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ETA: Hey, so what do you guys do with all the extra proof copies that have formatting errors? Recycle them? Give them away to friends and family? Pet them and love them and tell them you will never, ever abandon them?

Keep them as souvenirs! :D

Best of luck, Andrea! (And get that ARC out to your editor friend so he can share it. Take advantage of those kind of opportunities.)
 

AndreaGS

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Thanks, Mclesh! I ended up with over 400 want-to-reads from my giveaway, and I'm posting another one in a week.

I lined up a review at Urban Fantasy Magazine, and I'm finding out what format to send to the other magazine. So I'm going to do it!

Working through book 2 and getting the Changeling Wars website set up. I'm thinking about posting the book up to wattpad, in an effort to build up some interest before the release. I had my trunked epic fantasy novel featured, and I picked up some followers from that.

Just trying to figure out best strategies here.

I'm in the phase in book 2 where I hate it and am wondering why the HECK I thought writing a murder mystery was a good idea...
 
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