SFF stories, plus squid (self-publishing diary)

Polenth

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I don't really comment on anything anymore. I suppose I ought to, especially since this forum is currently my favorite lurking spot. I'll self-publish one of these days and in the meanwhile soaking up the huge and varied range experiences is pretty cool. So I find this useful.

Also I love your cover art a lot. :)

Thank you!
 

J. Tanner

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I'm not sure if anyone is still finding this useful? If not, this is probably a reasonable place to end it, as I might not have made a fortune, but at least sales seem to be slowly going up rather than down.

FWIW, I've enjoyed following your thread even if I haven't commented a lot (at all?) in it before now.
 

Polenth

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Publishers Weekly have this BookLife thing where self-published authors can submit books for review: http://booklife.com

It was free, for the sake of a little time setting up the profile. My book was selected for review, so I've now been reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Not a bad review all round. I already know readers tend to either love or hate Ari's way of speaking:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/ASINB00J1A69PO (No longer available online)

Something I didn't realise is I thought it'd email me the status updates. It didn't, hence not finding the review until today. There's also no status update saying it was reviewed (though it clearly has been, as the review exists). The site is in beta though, so that may be a bug rather than a feature. The status updates on my BookLife profile have the following messages:

Your BookLife project has been received.
08/04/2014 (US Dates, so August)

Good news: your BookLife project is being considered for review.
08/26/2014

Congratulations, your BookLife project has been sent out for review.
09/11/2014

The review is dated 10/06/2014 (6th October), so it took about two months from submission. I assume I can put a quote from the review in my 'editorial reviews' section on Amazon, but I've not had to do that before. So pondering which bit to use. It was a nice surprise though!
 
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slhuang

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Ooo, congratulations! :D And thanks for the tip on PW; I didn't know about that!
 

Polenth

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I'm on the road for print editions. Back when I started this, I looked for font recommendations from people who worked in publishing for interior book design. The font I chose from those was Minion Pro, but the license was expensive. I've now managed to save up for it (yay), though hadn't realised the Abode store doesn't have an automated system for download purchases (bah). A human has to check them, so orders can't be processed outside of office hours. It took them a day to process the order so I could download the files. Possibly Abode will enter this century at some point, but not this year.

The first book I plan on turning into print is Sunstruck, as it has a relatively simple layout.

Rainbow Lights is more complicated. Firstly because it has unusual layouts for some stories, so will be more of a challenge. But also because I want to illustrate it. Other than this being a fun thing to do, it'll give me some portfolio pieces. There are a lot of calls for black-and-white interior art from small presses, so it may be a way to supplement my income.

That's biggest update for now. Sales are rolling on (with increased sales of the collection since having some shorts published). I still have Intersections to finish and I have a countdown deal for Sunstruck scheduled for Christmas, but I don't expect to see a lot of action until I get another novel done.
 

M. H. Lee

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Nice! Looking forward to hearing how the print editions go. That's something I've toyed with for my longer works, but it's a completely different skill set that I haven't yet had time to explore.

I think doing your own illustrations is a great idea, too.

Who are you using? I read a recent discussion about Lightning Source vs. Create Space and glossy vs. matte covers and white vs. beige pages. Lots of moving parts in addition to proper layout and font choice.
 

AndreaGS

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Best of luck with the print editions! So neat that you're going to illustrate one of your books too--I'm always fascinated by illustrations created by the author. It's neat that there's no middle-man.

Thanks for the tip about Publisher's Weekly, by the way! I had no idea!
 

Polenth

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Who are you using? I read a recent discussion about Lightning Source vs. Create Space and glossy vs. matte covers and white vs. beige pages. Lots of moving parts in addition to proper layout and font choice.

Probably CreateSpace. The print quality is decent and I'm not expecting huge print sales. I think matt looks best for most illustrated covers, as it looks more like a painting/drawing on the paper. Probably cream paper for Sunstruck, as it's an industry convention and I don't really have a good reason not to roll with it. White paper for Rainbow Lights, as it'll be illustrated. It might change once I get going, but those are my initial thoughts.

Best of luck with the print editions! So neat that you're going to illustrate one of your books too--I'm always fascinated by illustrations created by the author. It's neat that there's no middle-man.

Thanks for the tip about Publisher's Weekly, by the way! I had no idea!

It's both neat and I-have-to-learn-all-these-things. One reason why I'd rather separate print from ebook editions, so I have time to fiddle.

Good luck if you try out BookLife!
 

Polenth

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I'm running a Kindle Countdown deal for Sunstruck, probably. Amazon haven't really thought through how non-US authors can tell if their deal is running, as it won't show me on the US site. But I do seem to be listed in the promotion categories, so I think it's working. And it's hopefully listing the right price (I wanted $0.99 for the whole time).

On my first check, there were 20 pages of results for SFF countdowns. I was on page 11. mystery/thriller had 17 pages of results and I was on page 9. No idea if it'll do anything to sales, but this'll be my last promotion before I leave Select.

The promotion start was delayed, so probably best not to do any paid advertising for a deal on the first day. I didn't have a budget for that, but it might impact someone else.

I looked around sites that had previously listed my free days, to see if they did countdowns. A few did, but a fair number of the sites had gone over to paid listings only and/or requiring a minimum of 8-10 reviews. I know at least one site is listing my deal today, so that's something.
 

akaria

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Thanks for the PW tip! Good find.

Your promotion countdown seems to be running smoothly. Says it has six days and some odd hours left.
 

Polenth

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Thanks for the PW tip! Good find.

Your promotion countdown seems to be running smoothly. Says it has six days and some odd hours left.

Thanks! I checked as best I could, but it knows I'm in the UK (and it won't show the timer to US proxy sites).
 

Polenth

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I'm fairly sure the countdeal deal is over now. I had six sales and one return, for a final total of five sales. Most were in the first couple of days. It wasn't huge, but I likely would have sold nothing in those days otherwise. That's the end of Select for this book, as I'll be putting it back on Smashwords when the term expires in late January.

Overall, the year hasn't been good. Sales improved slightly with the short story releases, but it's not close to enough to really cover basic expenses. Next year will be about trying other genres to see what sticks. If I can find something that sells, it'll take the pressure off everything else.
 

M. H. Lee

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Next year will be about trying other genres to see what sticks. If I can find something that sells, it'll take the pressure off everything else.

Good luck! That's what I did the last couple months and I definitely saw an increase in sales/borrows versus before. Of course, then you run into the dilemma of writing what's paying you vs. writing what you love. Fortunately, I still have plenty of ideas in my new genres, but I can see a day where I stop and think "whatever happened to my speculative fiction stories"? 2015 will be about finding balance for me.

Glad to see you keeping your thread updated. Even if I rarely comment, I do always read it.
 

Polenth

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Good luck! That's what I did the last couple months and I definitely saw an increase in sales/borrows versus before. Of course, then you run into the dilemma of writing what's paying you vs. writing what you love. Fortunately, I still have plenty of ideas in my new genres, but I can see a day where I stop and think "whatever happened to my speculative fiction stories"? 2015 will be about finding balance for me.

Glad to see you keeping your thread updated. Even if I rarely comment, I do always read it.

My big worry isn't so much genre, as my second genre area can include aspects of the first. My first books are SFF, and the pending ideas are mystery/thriller/suspense, so there can be genetically engineered dinosaurs. I'm reading a cozy mystery right now with a skeleton person in it. There's some wiggle room there on reality.

My worry is putting the characters I want to write about in a different plot and setting may not be enough. I may have to erase those characters, the diversity and the things that make my books sound like they were written by me. I don't want to have to write books where people like me only get to be token stereotypes at best, and usually don't appear at all. But I'm having trouble seeing a way out that doesn't involve erasing myself from my work.

That's the thing that bothers me really. Success in another genre would be fine. But I'd like to do it without having to compromise my general voice and principles.
 

M. H. Lee

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I'd think there has to be an audience out there for diverse characters in mystery/thriller/suspense. It may not be as big of an audience as the whole mystery/thriller/suspense audience, but there have to be some readers, I'd think. And I'd bet that if you attract those readers then you'd have an incredibly strong and devoted fan base.

Only one way to know and that's to get it out there and see.

Definitely don't sacrifice yourself or your principles just for success. It's not worth it. (At least IMHO.)
 

Polenth

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There have been some changes in the UK tax returns system that might interest other UK people. For many low-earning self-employed people, it's now fine to use cash basis accounting. Which means you only record money as it comes in or goes out. This simplifies accounting, which was great for me as I don't earn enough to hire an accountant. I only realised this when I did my return (there's now a question asking is you're using cash basis or not), so useful to know for anyone starting out who hasn't hit their first tax year yet. It may make your accounts less painful.

The page on this is here: https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-cash-basis/overview

Though I did note if you're using profit averaging, you can't use cash basis.
 

M. H. Lee

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Hey! Just wanted to drop by your thread and say that I saw one of your stories mentioned in one of the diversity guest posts on Jim C. Hines's blog. Not sure if it's one of your self-pubbed ones or not, but has to be a good feeling to see that your writing touched someone enough for them to mention it.
 

Polenth

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It's bittersweet. I write the stories I couldn't find, so it's great that they matter to other people too. But that audience is tiny and relatively poor. So though my work has been favourably received, it's a success in a very small group of people who can't afford to buy very much. I have so few job options that I can't keep going on like this, even though I wish I could. Writing may be a terrible way to earn money, but it's all I have.

My future continues to look bleak, so I'm trying not to think about it too much.
 
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M. H. Lee

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Sorry to hear that, Polenth. Sending virtual hugs your way.

I'm sure you've been over it any number of times, but aren't there some virtual options for making money with your writing skills? Like offering editing or cover design services on Fiverr? Or Createspace formatting or Kindle formatting or...So many people seem to be lost when it comes to that that I'd think you could parlay your own experience into a side business.

I know I hesitate to go get some sort of temp job because I know that if I write a good story and it hits that it'll pay far more than that temp job would and it's adding to my catalog which will mean more sales down the road. But...if you need cash, then you need cash. And that has to triumph over everything else.
 

Polenth

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I don't really want to get into discussion about why certain job options are a problem for me. Like I say, I'm trying not to think about this too much, as that stops me getting anything done. I'll update the thread if anything changes.
 

Polenth

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I don't have any updates on becoming fabulously wealthy, but I am back at work after finishing my art course (which took up most of the year). Book sales have stayed at one a month with no promotion. It's at least stable, and better than dropping to nothing.

I've sent out some short stories and I'm working on the cozy mystery still. But I'm also taking a bit of a different direction, in looking at ways to self-publish art. My covers got a lot more attention than my writing, so it's a logical thing to try.

First up is exploring Zazzle. They do print-on-demand for art, on a wide range of things. By wide, anything from a postcard to cake pops. I've set up my basic store with some older images I had: Zazzle store. This was mainly to get a feel for working with their site, but if anyone wants a shiny mushroom on a badge, there it is. I've also filed the tax paperwork with them, as I'm a UK resident. I won't be promoting it until I've got some new stuff done and filled out the store a bit more.

Second is working on an adult/all-ages colouring book. I'm aiming at a picture a day. Adding on some time for formatting and getting proof copies, this will maybe take a couple of months. I'll be using CreateSpace for this, and drawing lots of aliens. There are a fair number of self-pubbed ones in Amazon's top 100 in the category, so it's really down to whether people like the art. I hope so, as I can produce colouring books much faster than novels.
 
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M. H. Lee

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Great to see you back on here and good luck with the coloring book idea and Zazzle!

I've seen a lot of people talk about finding cover artists on Deviant Art. Never looked at it, but may also be worth exploring if you want a place to display your art in hopes of attracting some paying work.
 

Polenth

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Great to see you back on here and good luck with the coloring book idea and Zazzle!

I've seen a lot of people talk about finding cover artists on Deviant Art. Never looked at it, but may also be worth exploring if you want a place to display your art in hopes of attracting some paying work.

I have a DA account, but most of my hits are on my cupcakes. :D I'll probably delete it at some point, as I don't think that was a successful experiment. And put a cupcake section on my website.

I'd consider cover art commissions a last resort. The pay tends to be very poor for a piece of work that can only be used once. Also a lot of authors don't know much about hiring artists, so it can lead to a lot of additional issues.

Sorting my portfolio to apply for other things is on the list though. Better pay for the rights wanted, and will leave me free to sell the art on other things later.
 
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