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Writers: Working with Louise Cusack

Tag Archives: self publishing

A self publishing adventure

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by louisecusack in Getting Published series, The Publishing Industry, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

creative writing, erotica, motivation, psychology of writing, romantic comedy, romcom, self publishing, writing

DigitalPublishingTalkFeb2012Most of you will know me through this website as a writing mentor and teacher, but I’m also a writer. I began my career with fantasy twenty years ago, being published in a Harper Collins anthology, then with a fantasy series published by Simon & Schuster. Since then I’ve been published by the Pan Macmillan imprint Momentum Books, and I’ve dabbled in self publishing backlist titles. But my main focus as an author has always been traditional publishing.

For the last 2 years, however, I’ve been writing books in a romantic comedy series and trying (unsuccessfully) to crack the US market with the opening novel. I quite understand why it’s a hard sell. It involves infidelity which isn’t common in romance novels, and the combination of erotica and romantic comedy is also relatively new. Unfortunately, even well published authors can become demoralized, and when my rejections hit double digits, I found my enjoyment in the work and my motivation were slipping. All my reader feedback on the series, however, was positive, so at the start of the year I took the plunge and decided to self publish these books, and since then I’ve been excited, bewildered at times, but ultimately optimistic.

My reason for blogging this is that I’d like you along for the ride. I’d like to share my experiences with you if you think they’ll help your own writing career. There will be highs and lows, tips and tricks, pitfalls. Hopefully you’ll work out whether self publishing is a road you want to go down, and which path you want to take!

Here are the opening 4 books of my Husband Series (along with a quote I was kindly given by Romance Writers of Australia mate Amy Andrews who’s already a big seller in this genre):

HusbandSeriesAmyQuote

To begin, I’m releasing book one Husband Sit exclusively on Amazon Kindle (where 80% of romance novels are purchased) so I can access their pre-order function, and I’ve set the book at .99c US until its release date of Feb 17, at which point it will revert to $3.99. That’s my incentive for people to BUY NOW! My goal is to see a shirtload of sales go through on release day, which should bump the book up the charts. If a book reaches the Amazon best seller lists in the top #100 it develops a momentum of its own. So if you’ve got .99c US to spare, feel free to pre-order. I won’t complain about you being part of the experiment!

I’m also part of a few Valentine’s Day book hops (promotional opportunities where readers win prizes) and you’re welcome to join them as guests to see how they work. I’ve never done them before so I’m looking forward to finding out myself. Just click on either of the links below and join:

PageCurlValentineBookHop   KindleBookReviewValentine

To complete my promos, I’ve got my own Facebook Release Day Blitz party organized for Feb 17 which you’re most welcome to join. My beta readers are coming and they’ve invited friends. It’s on Facebook so you can wear pajamas! Just click on the picture below and then when you’re on the Facebook event page, select GOING. Facebook will remind you when it’s on.

ReleaseBlitzForHusbandSitFacebook

If you’ve got ideas for me, please share. I’m busily finishing book two so I can upload it in draft form on Amazon before book one goes on sale. That will allow me to set book two on pre-order. I want people to be able to finish Husband Sit and love it so much that they immediately click on the link in the back of the book to pre-order Husband Stay.

My longterm goal is to have twenty books in this series, and the first four will be released this year. Wish me luck!

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Guest Blogging on self publishing

19 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by louisecusack in The Publishing Industry, Uncategorized

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Tags

amazon, Amazon kindle, eBooks, Goddess & the Geek, kindle, Marriage & the Mermaid, self publishing, Sex & the Stand In

Today I’m a guest on Marianne de Pierres’ blog, discussing how I self published my backlist of romance stories as ebooks. You can click on the image below to read the article:

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Workshop Wednesday: How to self publish an ebook

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by louisecusack in The Publishing Industry, Uncategorized, Workshop Wednesday series

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

amazon, book covers, eBooks, editing, KDP, kindle, kobo, nook, promoting your ebook, publishing, self publishing, smashwords, writing

Welcome to this week’s Workshop Wednesday where indie author Patrick O’Duffy is generously sharing his expertise to help you self publish an ebook.  Self publishing is a fabulous option for established authors who can’t sell a particular project, or who want to self-publish their backlist, as they already have a readership who are likely to buy their ebooks.  It’s also a great option for unpublished authors who don’t want to go the tradition route, or who haven’t been able to find a publisher or an agent (although they would need to do more work in marketing to create a readership for themselves).

Firstly, here’s a little about our guest today: Patrick O’Duffy is tall, Australian and a professional editor, although not always in that order. He has written role-playing games, short fiction, a little journalism and freelance non-fiction, and is currently working on a novel, although frankly not working hard enough. He loves off-kilter fiction, Batman comics and his wife, and finds this whole writing-about-yourself-in-the-third-person thing difficult to take seriously.  And the blurb of his novel The Obituarist (which I’ve read and loved!): Kendall Barber is a social media undertaker with a shady past who’s returned to the equally shady city of Port Virtue. Now a new client brings with her a host of dangers, just as Kendall’s past begins to catch up with him. Can he get to the bottom of things before it’s too late, or will he end up as dead as his usual subjects?

I can highly recommend The Obituarist (and I’m not a crime reader!).  It was sharp and funny and had great twists.  Do buy it.  So without further ado I’ll introduce Patrick and let him fill you in on how you can publish your own ebooks.

Patrick O’Duffy: I’m writing this blog post from Nanuya, a Fijian island four hours north of Nadi. The water is crystal blue, the sky limitless, the beer cold and the sand warm.

I’m not saying this to rub it in that I’m having a good time, but to say that even this far from the rest of the world, and armed only with a tiny laptop and a little internet access, I could still self-publish an ebook and put it up online for sale in less than five minutes.

It’s not difficult. You can practically do it while snorkelling. Or at least just beforehand.

Self-publishing (or ‘indie publishing’) in ebook form is rapidly outpacing traditional print publishing. Success stories like Amanda Hocking and EL James have become bestsellers with their independent ebooks, and tens of thousands of other authors have also put their own work straight onto virtual shelves.

How do you do it – and how do you do a good job of it? It’s a process I’ve tackled several times now with my books Hotel Flamingo, Godheads and now The Obituarist, and I’ve learned a couple of things that I hope others will find useful.

Where to do it

The number one source of indie ebooks on the planet is Amazon, via their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) operation. KDP allows you to create an ebook and list it alongside titles from major publishers in the world’s largest and best-known online bookstore. The drawback, of course, is that Amazon only creates and sells ebooks for the Kindle, with no provision for other file formats – so readers with Nooks, Kobos and other devices need to look elsewhere.

The other major outlet is Smashwords, a site devoted solely to indie publishing. Not only does it create ebooks in all formats, it also acts as a distributor to other major ebook markets. That alone is enough to recommend it; publishing through them takes away 90% of the work of getting your ebook into online stores. On the downside, Smashwords lacks the market presence of Amazon, and the material they publish isn’t always as polished.

So which should you choose? Well, you shouldn’t – publish through both! It doesn’t take much more effort and time, and using both sites will get your work into every major ebook store.

How to do it

Start with your final, fully edited manuscript. Don’t skimp on the editing – the world is full of badly-written, completely unedited ebooks. Be better than that, and don’t be afraid to pay for a professional editor’s services. It’s worth it.

Next, check the formatting of your Word file to make sure that it fits the guidelines of the website. And it should be a Word file, not another file format; the conversion software will either reject a different format or convert it in strange and horrible ways.

You also need a cover, and it’s worth paying a designer to create one for you rather than make it yourself. It should be a high-resolution JPG in a 6 x 9 format, and it should be readable in both colour and e-reader greyscale.

Once you’ve done all that, just create free accounts on the sites of your choice, upload the file and start the conversion. You should have an ebook minutes later!

What to do next

The first thing is to check the ebook for conversion errors, which are almost inevitable. The conversion software may introduce errors like line breaks, font changes and random italics. Fix these up and upload the corrected version, and be prepared to do this a couple of times until it’s right. These errors won’t stop people from buying your book, but they might stop them from buying your next book.

You should also determine a price for your ebook. Most indie ebooks cost between 99 cents and $4.99; look at what books of similar length and genre sell for as a guideline. You don’t want to overcharge for your book, but you also don’t want to undercharge; readers often assume that very cheap books are that price because they’re not worth anything.

Finally comes the hardest part – finding your audience and promoting your ebook to them. There are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of indie ebooks on the market, and you need to let readers know that yours exists and is worth reading. Most authors do this through social media sites such as Facebook, Goodreads and Twitter, all of which are essential tools, as are word-of-mouth, personal blogs and good reviews from satisfied readers. Self-promotion is a never-ending job for an indie author, but the important thing is to avoid boring or annoying readers with repetition or constant calls for attention.

And then it’s time to write another book. And another. Keep improving your craft, keep developing your skills, stay focused on writing the best books you can and putting them out for your audience. Because if you write well, if you try hard and you genuinely engage with your readers, they’ll keep reading your ebooks – ebooks that you’ll find are easy to produce for them.

Go on. Give it a try. Give it your absolute best shot. And see what happens.

Louise: Thanks so much for that Patrick! Invaluable advice.  If anyone has questions for Patrick, or comments on your own experiences as an indie publisher, please post that as a comment below.  We’d love to hear from you.

Other Workshop Wednesday topics: Deep Point of View and Writers working with the Media

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Welcome Writers!

I'm Louise Cusack, an Australian author of fantasy and romance published by Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, and Pan Macmillan. I also mentor and tutor other writers like yourself. Please avail yourself of the resources on this website, and happy writing!

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