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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with JCM Berne About Self-Publishing

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On July 28, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., JCM Berne, Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week, The Hybrid Helix

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I’ve talked about him all week, and now it’s time to hear from the man himself, JCM Berne. Without his help, there’d have been a lot less for you to read and me to post this week. And as anyone who has read his fiction, watched his Youtube videos, or has interacted with him in any way will expect, this particular entry in the series is as fun to read as it is useful and informative. Without further ado:

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
I am JCM Berne. I write superhero stories. For grownups. No, they’re not silly. No, they’re not deconstructions. Or anti-heroes. Or gritty. Or hyper violent. Yes, they’re for grownups, I said that already. Yes, I’m serious. Yes there are bears, and sentient space stations, and giant bug monsters. No, really, none of it is silly.

It’s a story about regret and redemption, humor and happiness, coffee and donuts. Some people call it slice-of-life, but there are some war crimes and mass murders, so it’s not exactly cozy fantasy.

My website: jcmberne.com (shocking, I know!)

My books can be found at: https://a.co/d/5LoNrHZ

Best place to talk to me is twitter (my DMs are open!): @joeberne1

What are some of the biggest misconceptions you find that readers have about self-published books?
I’ll summarize it like this: people know that in, say, fantasy, Tor, Baen, Orbit, and whoever else you consider the ‘real’ publishers are releasing a certain number of books each month. People imagine that those companies are actually getting the BEST books. That if those companies release 50 books, the BEST indie book that month is, at most, the 51st best book being released globally.

That is incredibly far from the truth. The major publishers are finding, at best, a fraction of the best books according to their own editorial taste.

If your taste doesn’t exactly align with the Tor (or Orbit or Baen) staff (and it probably doesn’t), the BEST book for you that month might be one that those companies have all passed over. Maybe you want something more original. Or less original! Or litRPG. Or a non-ironic superhero story! The big companies are only releasing books in a very narrow window of genre and style.

Additionally, the process of getting a book through slush piles and into an editor’s hands is so onerous and so luck-dependent that there’s a good chance the best book in any given month was never even looked at by an agent, let alone an acquiring editor at Tor.

If you can find review outlets that you trust, you might find that THEY find better books than Tor can ever manage.

The second set of misconceptions is that self-published books are low quality – more typos, ugly covers, poor editing, etc. This is absolutely true some of the time, but it’s not hard to find self-published books of higher objective quality than trades. It just varies more (the worst self-published books are much, much lower quality, because there’s no gatekeeping at all).

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
Cover: as low as $50 – but you’d have to be very lucky to find one that cheap that matches your book and still looks decent. Really good covers are very findable in the $1000 range. I spend over $4k on mine (which is probably a really poor investment, but I’m not a smart businessperson).

Editing: Varies. Most self-published authors writing GOOD books are hiring a line editor and copy editor and getting some developmental editing done (I am an exception, I don’t use developmental editors, because I’m just that arrogant). Minimum $1000 for a book and usually closer to $2-4k.

Layout and design – some people hire this out, but there’s software like Atticus ($100 lifetime purchase) that make it really easy to do.

Beta readers – people do hire beta readers, who cost a lot less than editors (usually under $100 for a beta read). Hiring beta readers is a lot less common than just trading with other writers.

Audio narrator: some people do this themselves, but a good audio narrator is around $200+ per finished hour. My book, for example, was about 13 hours. You can go higher.

Marketing: That’s the open-ended part. Blog tours, ads on amazon, newsletters, etc. You can spend absolutely any amount.

I am not making any money at this. Some indie authors are. Some support themselves doing this – more often those in high volume genres, like romance. I hear about indie authors hitting seven figure incomes (I assume that’s US dollars, not rupees or anything). I personally am eager to one day come close to recouping what I’ve already spent (nowhere near it).

Are there tools, mentors, websites you’ve found to help you through this process? Or did you stumble through blindly on your own?
I figured out a lot of it myself. I had early mentors in Ande Li and Maurice Alvarez, who I talked to because they’re friends in real life who had been publishing books for a while!

Once I got a foothold in the community, I got a LOT more help from authors on various Discord servers. I’ve found self published authors very willing to share advice and strategies. It’s a bizarrely supportive community.

How do you juggle marketing/PR/etc. with writing new work? (along with day jobs, family, hobbies, etc., etc.)
I keep telling myself it’s cheaper, and less time consuming, than a drug addiction. Not sure it’s true, but that’s what I tell myself. (that’s the second time someone’s said that—or words to that effect—today. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad sign that multiple people think this way)

What made you decide that self-publishing was the direction you wanted to go? How often do you question that choice? How do you get through the self-doubt?
Honestly, I spent a small amount of time trying to find agents that might be interested in my book and got nowhere. It’s possible that some are out there and I just couldn’t find them. Believe me, if I thought I could have gotten a contract from Tor, I would have. I also feel my particular book doesn’t pitch well. I’ve never been able to come up with a brief (1 sentence) description that sounded anything other than a bit dumb. My strength obviously isn’t marketing!

I almost never question that choice, in the sense that to this day I still can’t come up with a good pitch for my book, and I don’t think there’s a route to a traditional contract that would have ever worked for me.

If I had held out for that, I’d be waiting still, and I wouldn’t have the readers I have, who I treasure.

Have you thought about trying to get a deal with major (or indie) publishers for upcoming works, or are you planning on sticking with self-publishing?
I have an independent book coming soon that pitches well (Taken, if it starred Michelle Yeoh and was set on Cradle – a retired monster hunter wrecks a continent when her children are kidnapped.) I tried to get a deal and failed. I’m not sure the patience for that anymore – especially when I’m in a position where I can get literally hundreds of people to read my next book with a few tweets.

Odds are, you’re doing this from love/passion, not to pay the bills. What keeps you going? I’m assuming there are more “who”s than “what”s, actually—who is it?
It creates plenty of bills… not paying any of them yet! While I do dream of making a profit at some point, I’m pretty happy with what’s going on right now.

I love to tell stories. I love crafting them, the slow reveal, figuring out ways to change the emotional impact. I constantly make up stories, even if it’s just in my own head.

Writing is, for me, incredibly fulfilling for that reason!

I tell people this: if you don’t have to write, don’t. It’s frustrating, time consuming, and difficult. If you aren’t driven to do it, don’t punish yourself! But if you’re compelled to write, then by all means, become an author. Just don’t quit your day job!

Self-publishing tends to have fewer external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
I have a system.

I book slots with my line editor, who usually fills her schedule 4-6 months in advance. Then I am forced to finish my books to get them to her.

Because I love my line editor (she makes my books more authentically mine than I can manage on my own), I am deeply afraid of disappointing her, so it works!

I do not recommend this system. Do as I say, not as I do.

If you were to start the process over with the experience you have now, what would you do differently?
I would probably write a different genre. Superheroes are a tough sell, much tougher than I expected, and getting readers to take my books seriously is hard (I’m surprised you read it, HC, given what you generally review) [Really? I loves me some good super-hero stuff, I need to do better at talking about that]. On the other hand, this genre is what I really love, so maybe I’d have decided to go with it regardless, and just had lowered expectations.

Maybe that’s what I’d do differently: moderate my expectations.

How do you decide a book is finally finished and ready? (or how do you avoid “perfection as the enemy of good”?)
This is the tricky thing!

I set a deadline – usually announcing things on twitter, or booking a slot with my line editor – and just try to get it as good as it can get before then. But you have to couple that sort of process with a willingness to bail (and eat the editorial cost, or kill some of the buzz you’ve generated) if the product you have really isn’t up to par.

So far, I haven’t done that. It helps that my goal is a really fulfilling series, not a really fulfilling book, and I remind myself that every series has some subpar entries. But really it just takes an enormous amount of confidence, earned or not, to release a book, and you just have to do it.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!
Thank YOU so much! Reviewers and influencers are all that stand between relative obscurity and complete obscurity for us authors! (Sorry, I wrote that sentence wrong, then read what it said, and it’s too funny for me to fix). Writing is inherently communicative. Having readers who really understand what I was trying to do in my books is what makes writing them worthwhile, and to be honest, I only KNOW they ‘got’ the meaning when I can read an actual review. Not that a buy or a star rating aren’t great – they are – but it doesn’t mean as much.

Be sure to give The Hybrid Helix (and anything else Berne puts out) a try!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Robert Germaux About Self-Publishing

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On July 28, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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Here’s our second dose of Robert Germaux today (his guest post, Why Do We Write? showed up earlier). In this Q&A, he gets to talk about the nitty-gritty of his experience in self-publishing (as opposed to the more philosophical “Why” from before). As you can see from the first question (because there’s no way I call an author by their first name) he took it upon himself to do a little remix on the phrasing of some of these questions, making me sound better in the process—I appreciate that almost as much as the answers he gave.

Tell us a little about yourself, Bob.
I started writing after spending thirty-one years teaching high school English in Pittsburgh. Like (I assume) most people who follow your blog, I’m a lifelong bookaholic. I’ve written mostly mysteries, but also a couple of romance novels, along with three (four, probably, by the time you post this) collections of essays about “life and stuff.” No website, but you can find my books and more info about me at my Amazon Author Page.

What kind of expenses do you incur with self-publishing your books?
My primary expenses in publishing my books are cover art (all of my covers have been done by the wonderful Brandi McCann in Maine), and formatting (mostly by Word-2-Kindle). I used to have some online promotion work done by a woman in Texas, but Susan retired a few years ago, and I haven’t replaced her. So at the moment, I spend around $350 to get a book ready for publication, which means my break-even point for any given book is 175 sales. That hasn’t happened with any of my books, so no, I don’t make money on these things. I used to feel guilty about spending so much money on my writing, with little to no return, until my wife said I should look at my writing as a hobby that I enjoy. That led me to write “Well, I Don’t Play Golf” for one of my Grammar Sex books of essays.

Speaking of my wife, Cynthia’s my biggest fan, not to mention my “beta reader.” She knows my writing style and my characters as well as I do, and 99% of the time, I gladly accept her edits to my work.

A final note. I’ve been on Amazon for just under ten years now, and I’ve sold 650 books. I doubt I’ll ever hit that break-even point with any of my books. On the other hand, people have borrowed my books from Amazon and read almost 30,000 pages, so I know I have a few fans out there. Fortunately, I don’t need to make money with my writing. I write because I love to write. Heck, I’m having fun doing this. Plus, it keeps me off the streets.

How do you promote your books?
Early on, Susan arranged for book tours for several of my books, but these days, I mostly rely on my small but loyal fan base to buy my books. Some of them get alerts when I publish a new book, others follow me on FB. Plus, I have a good many friends and family members who promote my work on their social media sites. And, of course, H.C., you’ve has been more than generous with your time over the years in terms of reading and reviewing most of my books.

What’s the breakdown of your audience?
I’d say at least half of my readers are people who know me: family members, friends, former colleagues, former students, et al. The rest are just people who’ve stumbled across my books online or heard about them from a friend, etc. One cool thing is that last year, someone in the UK borrowed all five of my Jeremy Barnes mysteries and read them in the space of about a week. I got an essay (“My UK Binge-Reader”) out of that for Grammar Sex 4 (Seriously?), the book I’m writing at the moment. Along with that, I’ve had a sale in India and another in Australia, allowing me to tell people I’ve “gone international.”

What made you decide to self-publish? Have you tried getting a deal with a publisher?
After I finished Small Bytes, my first Jeremy Barnes mystery, I queried a lot of agents, most of whom wouldn’t accept manuscripts from unpublished authors (yeah, that was maddening). But a guy here in the Pittsburgh area not only read the book, he immediately offered to represent me. I signed a contract with Uve (that was a red-letter day for this boy), then sat back and waited for the offers to roll in. (Ah, naïveté, thy name is Germaux.) Over the next several years, as I kept writing, Uve kept pushing my work to publishers big and small. He came close a couple of times to, as he put it, finding a home for my books, but despite his best efforts, nothing ever happened. (A man who owned a small publishing house told Uve that my work was “really good,” but he only published about a dozen books a year and just couldn’t justify the expense on a new author.) Eventually, I decided to go the indie route, and at my suggestion, Uve and I parted ways, professionally. We still keep in touch, and he continues to encourage me. BTW, Uve’s a fairly well-known agent. He represents best-selling authors, and he’s negotiated movie deals for some of his clients. He never took a penny from me (even when I offered) during the years he tried to find a home for my books. Just to have him tell me my work is worthy of publication meant a lot.

How do you keep to whatever deadlines you set? If you could start over, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
I’ve never really had a problem in terms of getting the work done. I truly love writing, and most days I can’t wait to get started. It probably helps that I’ve always been very organized, something I quickly learned was a prerequisite to surviving as an English teacher with over 2,000 student compositions to grade every year.

If I had it to do all over again, I’d probably go the indie route right away (my only regret being missing out on working with Uve). I know now that the odds of an indie author finding a publisher are incredibly low. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, but it’s rare. (For those very few indie writers who make that leap to traditional publishing, I say congrats. Good on you!) I wasn’t driven to be a commercial success (although that would have been just dandy). I just wanted to write and put my work out there, so I would have done that sooner.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

Be sure to look over his Author Page, he’s got a little bit of everything—contemporary fic, P.I. novels, police procedurals, and some non-fiction essays for you to choose from.

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Rebecca Carey Lyles About Self-Publishing

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On July 28, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Literary Locals, Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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In our brief acquaintance, Rebecca Carey Lyles has participated in a Literary Locals Q&A with me, recommended others for that project, had me on her podcast, and has now subjected herself to this series (and we have at least one more Q&A to come once I catch up on some reading). I cannot thank her enough for all this. Lyles as some great experience—and therefore has plenty of advice to provide.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Thanks so much for asking, H.C. I’m a wife, mom and grandma as well as an author and an editor. Although I’ve written for a variety of publications, fiction became my passion when I moved to Idaho and joined a wonderful Treasure Valley writing group. Since then, I’ve written two fiction series plus the first book in a third series.

My tagline for my novels is Contemporary Romance Set in the West and Salted with Suspense. But some have suggested the books are suspense salted with romance due to the subject matter and action/adventure aspect. Although I tackle difficult subjects like human trafficking, coercive cults, and contemporary polygamy, I always promise happy endings—because I like happy endings. 😊

Here are some links for you to peruse:
Website: http://www.beckylyles.com

Amazon Author Page: https://Lyles.gy/t54xp

Facebook Author Page: Rebecca Carey Lyles

Twitter: @BeckyLyles

What are some of the biggest misconceptions you find that readers have about self-published books?
From what I’ve observed, readers don’t look to see who published a book. They choose a book based on the cover and the blurb, a recommendation from a friend, or good reviews. They might even read the first two or three pages online or at a bookstore to see if the story interests them. Therefore, I assume most readers don’t have misconceptions about self-published books, but I could be wrong…
The shoe is on the other foot, eh? I’ve got misconceptions about readers? I buy that 😉

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
I’m an editor, but I’ve also paid for book edits. I’ve designed book covers for a couple people who requested that I do so, but I always hire graphic artists to design my covers. In the early days, I hired someone to do interior design and then realized I could do it myself. And I always enlist the help of beta readers and proofreaders. Their input is crucial to the final product’s quality. About sales, I’ve found the only way to sell more than a handful of books is to advertise, which is not how most authors like to spend their time and money. But it’s a necessary evil of the writing game these days.

I think we’ve talked about this already, but this is a new context—what kinds of advertising has proved the most effective for you? Least effective? From talking to other writers, do their experiences match up, or does it vary a bit from person-to-person/genre-to-genre?
Facebook ads do the best for me, but they require a huge learning curve and can get pricey. I’ve taken courses re. how to advertise books and continue to follow several experts.

These links may be helpful.
https://davidgaughran.com/ [crazy hair, fun accent, and a great sense of humor!] Here’s his list of book promotion sites: https://davidgaughran.com/best-promo-sites-books/
https://learn.selfpublishingformula.com/p/adsforauthors [Mark Dawson also has a fun accent and an excellent podcast: https://selfpublishingformula.com/spf-podcast/]

https://kindlepreneur.com/book-marketing/ [Dave Chesson has plenty to offer, including a zany sense of humor!]

Do you do your own cover design, or have you found people to help with that? It seems almost as difficult as writing the novel itself—talk about the process a bit.
A quality book cover is crucial because the old adage is true, we do judge books by their covers. For that reason, I hire professional graphic artists to create my covers. I’ve worked with local artists and online artists. I’m always thrilled when a designer can take the vague ideas I suggest, hone in on one, make it “come alive,” and produce the perfect cover for a book, whether fiction or nonfiction. The designers I’ve used have all been well-qualified and reasonably priced as well as patient and willing to make the (many) changes I request. 😊

How do you go about finding these artists—online or local? What’s the process of vetting them and then getting the cover to start requesting changes on? (cover design is one of those topics I can’t get enough of—I don’t know why)
I found my first cover artist at the library. Actually, I heard an author speak there whose cover had been designed by a local graphic artist. She put me in touch with him, and he designed several covers for me. Another local recommendation came through a writer friend. My latest cover was designed by 100 Covers [https://100covers.com/], and I was quite pleased. After I explained my vision, each artist threw out an initial concept (or two), and we went from there. As I said, everyone has been patient with my multiple changes. Several other reputable sites offer expert cover creation or programs to create covers.

Are there tools, mentors, websites you’ve found to help you through this process? Or did you stumble through blindly on your own?
Through Idahope Christian Writers (ICW), a local faith-based writers’ group, I’ve met lots of Treasure Valley authors; plus, I attend their workshops and conferences. (ICW’s new website should become active soon: https://idahopechristianwriters.org/) Not only is the wisdom, knowledge, encouragement and camaraderie of likeminded friends valuable, smaller critique groups have formed from the main group. My crit partners are super helpful. They provide a fresh perspective and ideas I hadn’t thought of, suggestions to improve my writing, insights re: story direction, and so much more. Even better, we’ve become good friends and prayer partners.

Three podcasts I find helpful –
https://www.thestoryblender.com/

https://selfpublishingformula.com/spf-podcast/

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/

What made you decide that self-publishing was the direction you wanted to go? How often do you question that choice? How do you get through the self-doubt?
I worked with a partner publisher for my first nonfiction book and a second partner publisher for my first fiction book. Both experiences were good but taught me I could do everything they did except create the cover. For a brief time, I had an agent who sent out a mass query to ten or so traditional publishers. After informing me none of them showed interest, I didn’t hear from him again. When I finally contacted him, I discovered he’d forgotten about me. Rather than search out another agent and extend the process even longer, I decided to go the indie route and haven’t regretted it. I’d love for someone else to do the marketing for me, but I hear traditional publishers expect their writers to market their books just like we indie authors must do.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
For me, I think it’s an ingrained from childhood finish what you start ethic plus the nagging need to get a story out of my head and into the computer/onto paper.

What was your process for learning how to take care of all the facets that go into self-publishing? (editing, book cover and design, ISBN, finding places to sell/distribute, etc.)?
Workshops, seminars and conferences for writers, how-to-write books and magazines, online research, webinars, podcasts—and lots and lots of trial and error.

Would you be willing to share a trial or two that resulted in errors you learned from?
Wow, you’re stretching my memory. Way back, when online book sales weren’t nearly as challenging as they are today, my books sold fairly easily with minimal advertising. But then my daughter got married (silly girl!) and I focused on the wedding and reception and a houseful of company and lost momentum just when authors began to flood the internet with books. And thus, to diminish the opportunities for a book to be noticed.

I’ve done something similar lately. After months of pushing hard with Facebook ads and then Amazon ads, I became weary of the time and expenditure marketing books demands. And stopped all ads. Funny thing, sales have dropped in tandem with lack of marketing. Must get back to it! I’m pretty sure any business person would tell me/us that marketing must be consistent and ongoing.

Also back in the day, every ebook sales site demanded a different format—Kobo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc. The trial and error was figuring out each of their complicated formats. Today, thank God, we have Draft2Digital, a wonderful aggregator that provides distribution services for authors whose books aren’t exclusive to Amazon. https://www.draft2digital.com/

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

Lyles has quite the variety of books to look into, be sure to look into them!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Raina Nightingale About Self-Publishing

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On July 27, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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Earlier this morning, I featured a Guest Post from Raina Nightengale, Self-Publishing Freedom. Now we get to chat with her about some other aspects of self-publishing. Nightengale’s another author who came my way from JCM Berne and has been super-easy to work with, and has been very enthusiastic about these posts. I really appreciate her time for this.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Hello. I’m Raina Nightingale, and I like trees, volcanoes, the night sky, dragons, and lightning storms – and deep explorations of (usually non-romantic) relationships. Not necessarily in that order. I’ve been writing ever since I learned how to read in about one week when I was eight years old, and I call my writing dawndark high fantasy as a kind of umbrella term, since while it sometimes gets dark, there’s always the promise of hope and when I explore the darkest places, it’s in order to find a deeper hope that can overcome them.

Epoch of the Promise: Dawn Unseen and Epoch of the Promise: Vision’s Light are my darkest books. I’ve since discovered they’re less unique than I thought they were when I wrote them (I hadn’t encountered epic grimdark fantasy yet), but I think they are still very unique, since – though they are not at all gory – they are saved from being grimdark only by scandalous redemption, and explore religion and the impact that can have on people’s lives from the perspectives of some very theologically-inclined characters at times.

Heart of Fire, which is the first book of the Dragon-Mage series, is basically classic high fantasy with a twist: instead of focusing on fight scenes, the focus is on relationships and personal struggles. It’s also set in a world reviewers have praised for its ancient and lived-in feel, and a fresh, unique magic system and take on dragons. If you’ve read lots of dragonrider books, but you’ve always wanted the dragons to be a bigger part of them, Heart of Fire may be the book for you (that, by the way, is how I feel about a lot of dragon books).

And if you’d like something a little cozy, Kindred of the Sea is about two men, platonic lovers, forced to desert the army and become traitors when the dreams of an enchanted forest show them that their nation’s war is unjust – and eventually fall through a portal onto an ocean world where they’re befriended by magical dolphins.

You can find me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Areaer_Novels) and my website (https://enthralledbylove.com) where I post lots of art, as well as reviews of books I read, and occasionally other musings as well.

You can find all my books here, from whichever retailer you’d prefer, (https://books2read.com/raina_books) and be advised: I’ll usually have a discount of some sort going on one book or another if you like Smashwords.

And you can check out my books Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79130352-heart-of-fire).

What are some of the biggest misconceptions you find that readers have about self-published books?
That because we have different priorities than a traditionally published authors, and we don’t want to give up control over our story, that somehow means we care about it less. Care less about making it the best it can be. I might have a different idea of what ‘perfect’ or ‘best’ is than other people do. I think all artists have their own vision of ‘perfect’, and this is part of what makes art art: the attention to the thing I see and I want to share. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less rigorous in seeking that vision.

I’m not self-publishing because I’m afraid I’m not good enough for a traditional publisher. I’m self-publishing because I’m not letting anyone change my story to be any less than what I want it to be. I’m not letting anyone change my story so that it appeals less to me and those I want to reach, because that might make it marketable to a wider audience or whatever the reason is. That’s how art loses it soul, and in the end it can’t win the world either. And I’m not willing to take the risk of not being able to publish later, dependant works because the first ones don’t do well enough or my publisher otherwise doesn’t want to pick them up.

Do you do your own cover design, or have you found people to help with that? It seems almost as difficult as writing the novel itself–talk about the process a bit.
When I was just a child, I saw these covers on traditionally published books that did not have the details inside the book right (if it was only the MC having the wrong color hair). I didn’t like that, and promised myself I’d do my own book covers when I published my books. So for a long time I did that – gradually getting better at it. And some of my pieces I really love – Vision’s Light, Heart of Fire, and the two new Legend of the Singer covers are among these.

Design-wise, it’s always been pretty easy. I’m a very visual thinker, and by the time I’m done writing a book, I usually know what kind of scenes and elements I want on the cover. The hardest ones were probably the Legend of the Singer books though, because I didn’t have a good scene or image from Children of the Dryads that I just sensed had to be the cover, and I wanted most of them to match. So the current image is kind of representative. The scene it depicts probably happens, but is not described in the story.

Doing the actual art, however, is quite a lot more difficult. And now that I’ve discovered Midnight Rose’s art, I might have most of my covers done by Midnight from now. Midnight’s art just makes me want to have it so much, and it was a delight working with Midnight on the new cover for The Gifts of Faeri.

Odds are, you’re doing this from love/passion, not to pay the bills. What keeps you going? I’m assuming there are more “who”s than “what”s, actually–who is it?
I have to write. Stories are how I think, challenge my thoughts and convictions, and develop them. How I explore new ideas. I can’t sleep if I don’t tell my stories, one way or another. So writing … that’s always going to be a part of my life.

Publishing is a bit different. That’s a lot more costly than just writing, and the time and energy I have to put into publishing – and marketing/PR stuff – can take away from the art I love. So what’s keeps me going here, are the occasional comments of readers, and perhaps even more the fact I know I have stories that people need to hear, and I know there are people out there who want my stories, just like I would have wanted them – and want to find more that are like them. The struggle is finding them, making it so that they can find me, and it’s a struggle some of them probably share from the other end. And if I give up, we won’t ever connect.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
One of the first reasons I knew I could never be a traditionally published author is that external deadlines are the bane of my creative process. In fact, even the kinds of planning and deadlines that self-publishing can involve are tricky for me to handle and figure out.

My work process thrives off entirely internal energy: I love art, and I love making my thing whatever I think is perfect/the best it can be. So I do that. And not having deadlines means that when one story isn’t flowing, but a new one shows up in my head, I don’t have to be worried about giving that one my energy and attention. And I think that is the trick to how productive I can be.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

Be sure to check out all of her work!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Tao Wong About Self-Publishing

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On July 27, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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It wasn’t until I’d received Wong’s answers that I figured out why his name had rang a bell when JCM Berne sent him my way. Thanks to K.R.R. Lockhaven talking about it, I’d contributed to a Kickstarter campaign of his a few weeks earlier! (it’s my eye for detail that makes me such a valued employee…). Getting to know more about the writer in this context was a great bonus for me. When it came to the answers, Wong was willing to give specifics, really get down into details. We readers need to think about the numbers he uses (and others in this series) next time we’re tempted to complain about the cost of an e-book/paperback.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Hi there! I’m Tao Wong, a science fiction and fantasy author, working mostly in the LitRPG and xianxia sub-genres. I’m best known for the System Apocalypse, an apocalyptic LitRPG and A Thousand Li, a Chinese high fantasy epic (xianxia) involving cultivating to immortality.

You can find details about all I write on mylifemytao.com and on Twitter.
I’ve never heard xianxia before…but now I’m eager to try it out.

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
The cost of putting out a work can vary significantly depending on the skill level of the author involved and the market they’re pushing for. More experienced authors who have been through multiple rounds of editing can often do a lot of self-editing for shorter works, reducing their cost. Newer authors likely will want to work with experienced editors. As such, cost can be as low as $20-30 for a short story to thousands.

For myself, I work with a copy and line editor to go through my work and then, after I’ve gone through their suggestions, a proofer. Occasionally, I might use a second proofer for a final verification. This cost roughly $500-1200 per book (most editors and proofers charge per word so it depends on the length of the book).

Cover art again varies, from $20-30 for a short story cover using modified stock photos to a couple of thousand for cover art. You’ll need to review what other books in your genre are using and find an artist to suit your budget.

Additional cost that are optional include formatting for ebook and print (free to $150 per book), copyright registration fees ($65), ISBN numbers (free in Canada and certain countries to more) and graphic software for marketing.

I am extremely fortunate to be able to work full-time as an author, with a more than adequate annual income.
I sort of expected numbers like this…but to really see it broken down like this? Very helpful. Thanks for the specificity. And a great reminder that maybe we shouldn’t gripe about $1.99 for self-published books (or more, either).

Are there tools, mentors, websites you’ve found to help you through this process? Or did you stumble through blindly on your own?
I stumbled my way through a lot of this, but I had the advantage of having run both a small business before and also extensive experience in digital marketing. As such, the areas I stumbled was understanding the self-publishing specific aspects.
That being said, I’ve found a few things very helpful in my time:
• Writer’s Beware for watching out for scam artists and potential vanity presses who come along
• The SFWA has a contracts committee that will work and/or review contracts for free. In addition, the Authors Guild has a model contract that you can review and compare contracts to
• Kristyn Kathryn Rusch (kriswrites.com) has an on-going publishing blog. Hers was a blog I had been reading long before I got into publishing and she has a vast sea of experience to draw upon to compare and contrast between the present and past industry and changes she has seen.
• The Facebook groups Wide for the Win and 20booksto50k have a wealth of information available for free from publishers who have provided this information for free. You might have to dig for your specific question, but it’s often around.
• Smashwords has a great guide to formatting, though Draft2Digital also has a free option to allow you to format an ebook for free

How do you juggle marketing/PR/etc. with writing new work? (along with day jobs, family, hobbies, etc., etc.)
In the beginning, I did minimal social media marketing, had a basic website and created a newsletter to allow readers to keep in contact with me. My initial couple of years was dedicated entirely to writing and putting out work.

It’s very hard to make paid advertising work with fewer than three books in a series or a large backlist of standalone books (I hear 7 to 9 books). As such, my focus was writing and putting out as many books in the series I was working on as possible while I was doing this part-time.

Only once I had a series of books did I begin more sophisticated paid advertising, starting with paid newsletters, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) and then Facebook advertising. These days, I have an employee who works with me to test out a variety of other paid advertising options on top of all that, including book reviews and blog reviews, but I view those as brand building rather than direct marketing.

I prefer paid advertising in general since a lot of it can be set to run with only a few hours a week for review rather than social media which can often be significantly more time intensive.

Social media continues to be an outlet to allow individuals to get to know me, but I do not put much effort into making it a sales platform for me. That suits my personality and skills, though I have friends who do very well on TikTok and Instagram.

Have you thought about trying to get a deal with major (or indie) publishers for upcoming works, or are you planning on sticking with self-publishing?
I generally publish for myself, though I’m not against finding a traditional publisher or a major indie publisher to work with if things worked out well. However, most of the indie publishers in my sub-genre don’t have much to offer me (nor me them); so it’d likely be a traditional publisher that I’d be looking at unless I’m exploring outside of my main genres.

I do have a few contracts with audiobook publishers though like Tantor and Dreamscape and have spoken with other audiobook publishers about working with them for future works. I do believe that keeping options open, whether it’s in different media (for example, some friends have signed great contracts for comic adaptations of their work) or languages are one of the ways to be successful as an author in this day and age.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
These days, I have bills to pay. 😉

But more seriously, setting internal deadlines for when works need to be done help keeps me on track. I give myself sufficient time to be flexible around slowdowns or when I find another project to work upon, but there are hard deadlines with external suppliers like audiobook narrators and editors that need to be met, so I work backwards to know what the minimum timeline to get work done is required.

At the same time, I’m a pantser. I want to know how the story ends, and I won’t really know I write it, so that’s always a nice push.

If you were to start the process over with the experience you have now, what would you do differently?
I released my first few books with minimal editing, and no professional editing. That was a mistake and one I’d certainly rectify. I would not recommend doing that at all. Otherwise, there are specific craft things that I’ve learnt which I would obviously want to edit.

In terms of the business side, there are a few missed business opportunities that looking back at it, I was a little too conservative on. Some of these have not played out entirely yet, so they might be mistakes entirely, but for the most part, I have been happy with the choices I’ve made.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

There’s likely something for everyone in Wong’s backlist, just start poking around it, and you’ll find something to obsess over!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with James Lloyd Dulin About Self-Publishing

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On July 26, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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Dulin’s another who 1. Came my way thanks to JCM Berne and 2. Gave some specifics that really underscore what kind of commitment self-publishing takes. As I go through these Q&As one final time before publishing, my appreciation for what they do grows. Hope you find that to be the case yourselves.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
My name is James Lloyd Dulin, and my debut novel, No Heart for a Thief, came out on January 24, 2023. No Heart for a Thief is a dark, coming of age adult fantasy centered around two characters as they navigate a world of war and colonization. When the spirits place the fate of a young war orphan in Kaylo’s hands, he has to face the past he left behind and the war he abandoned to keep them both alive.

No Heart for a Thief is the first in a trilogy of books with the second, No Safe Haven to release fall 2023. This series will be great for fantasy fans who are interested in character driven plots, mentor relationships, unique magic systems, and non-European inspired settings..

You can find more about me, the first chapter of No Heart for a Thief, and signed copies on my website, https://www.jamesldulin.com/.
Books for sale: https://books2read.com/u/bxrzJD
Twitter and TikTok @jamesldulin

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
There are so many ways to answer this question. It all depends on the author, their budget, and their needs.

For editing, authors may spend money on beta readers, sensitivity readers, developmental editors, copy editors, and proofreaders. However, there are also ways to cut expenses and find people interested in helping out at no cost.

With No Heart for a Thief, I hired a couple of beta readers because it was easier to have them work on my time table, and they only charged $40 each. I also hired a sensitivity reader because I am writing about characters with identities that I do not share, which cost $400. I skipped a developmental editor because I had done so much work with a writing group, self-edits, and critique partners. Then my copy editor and proofreaders cost me $1,000 and $450 respectively.

When these prices are based on word count, it can get expensive in a genre like fantasy.

My next biggest expense was hiring my cover artist, Felix Ortiz. Felix is an expert and well-known in the self-published indie community, so his work came at a premium of $1,500. However, my brother is an expert at typography, so I was able to save money on cover design.

There are several other expenses here and there that pop up, but editing and cover art were the bulk of my pre-release costs.

To answer the question, I am working on earning my costs back and building an audience. Hopefully, I’ll make some money in the long run, but right now, more is going out than coming in as I prepare for books two and three of my trilogy.

Word-count costs like that would make me think about changing genres—or at least trying to switch to novellas 🙂

How did you get together with Felix Ortiz? Tell me about how cover design part of the process went. (it’s becoming a theme in these interviews, and it’s making me curious)
You aren’t wrong. Costs based on word count make me rethink my genre.

As for artwork, I emailed Felix through his ArtStation account with my idea for the cover, he got back to me fairly quickly. We emailed back and forth about the idea, then he went to work getting it ready for my launch timeline. Something about my original idea wasn’t working 100%. Felix was depicting it as described, but unfortunately what I asked for didn’t fit the vibe of the scene we were setting. We ended up finding our way through with a bit of trial and error, coming to a beautiful cover in my humble opinion. I credit Felix with a lot of the initial attention I received for my novel.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
This is an interesting sentiment. Although, self-published authors do not have the same external pressures as traditionally published authors, there is a lot of pressure created by the culture around self-publishing.

One of the biggest strengths that self-publishing offers an author is that we can publish at a fraction of the speed of traditional publishers. As such, readers have come to expect a quicker output from the authors they follow. If an author isn’t releasing at least a book a year, they risk losing relevancy. Often, authors have to release multiple books a year to keep their momentum.

At the end of the day, no one is going to call us up demanding the new manuscript. However, if we have ambitions of growing a readership, we better produce.

Luckily, at least at this point, I really enjoy being a self-pub author and putting out my work. I’m in this to tell as many stories as I can. So, I’m glad there isn’t a machine holding back my time table.

If you were to start the process over with the experience you have now, what would you do differently?
If I had done more work to become a part of the indie fantasy community sooner, I would have had less stress struggling to figure out how to self-publish. I had a cover artist who tried to scam me and a copy editor who bailed on me, both of which set my process behind by months. However, once I connected with authors and talked to them about their connections, I was able to find a great team to help me publish my book.

The biggest lie about self-publishing is the name “self-publishing.” In order to do this right, you need a team to help you produce the book, but you also need a community to support you. There are so many things I don’t understand about publishing yet, so many techniques and marketing strategies that I haven’t thought of. If I had to do it on my own, my book would be lying in obscurity—or more obscurity.

Seriously, finding my place in the indie author community has helped me figure things out while maintaining my mental and emotional health through the process.
This second paragraph is gold—and am sure that it’ll generate a few “amen”s.

How do you decide a book is finally finished and ready? (or how do you avoid “perfection as the enemy of good”?)
I have only made this decision once so far, but I’m getting close to making it again. No Heart for a Thief was ready for me when I decided that I would be proud for people to read the book with my name on it. When I stopped needing other people to tell me it was good and I knew that it was, my book became ready to release.

There is always going to be something to improve, especially since I am always going to be improving. If I finish my tenth novel, and I have not grown as an author, I have not been an author worth reading. The story is not the only important part of a book. The craft, the way we tell the story, is just as important. If I’m not honing that, I have failed as an author.

That is a long way of saying, that I have to be comfortable knowing that I will grow beyond they first book I published. However, I have to know that when I published it, I was proud of the work I had done. If I can say that, it was the right decision.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

Be sure to check out No Heart for a Thief!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Andi Ewington About Self-Publishing

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On July 26, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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I’m very glad to be able to include Andi Ewington as part of this series–he has experience being published by others in addition to being self-published, and that perspective is important. Also, over the last couple of months I’ve found him to be a supportive, fun, and generous guy, and why wouldn’t I want to expose more people to someone like him? I think Ewington was the first to send his responses in, just based on some of my follow-up questions. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have taken another shot at some of these after reading what others said, but that problem is with me–not with anything Ewington contributed.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
I’m Andi Ewington, Writer & Game Director. I’ve written Campaigns & Companions, The Hero Interviews, and many comics for IPs such as Just Cause, Dark Souls, Fighting Fantasy, and Vikings (TV Series). I’m usually found on Twitter as @AndiEwington, while most of my books are available from Amazon.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions you find that readers have about self-published books?
I think the biggest misconception is around the quality of any self-published work because it hasn’t been released via a traditional publishing route. I would say there’s a lower entry bar for sure (you don’t usually have an editor demanding rewrites or making company decisions on your work)—but it doesn’t mean that every self-published book isn’t up to scratch—if anything, being the gatekeeper to my work has pushed me to over-deliver on quality.

Something tells me that this is going to be the misconception that everyone mentions here, and I’m all for having a bunch of people react to it.
Exactly!

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
This is a real ‘how long is a piece of string question’. In short, you have to ask yourself, as a self-published writer, ‘What can I do myself versus what do I need to pay for—and if I can’t pay for it, how can I thank those that do help?’ So, for The Hero interviews, even though I have over 30 years of graphic design experience, I wanted to pay for an illustrated cover drawn in a particular style—that came with a sizeable financial outlay. For editing, I pulled a favour from a close friend in exchange for a credit on the cover. Several volunteers offered to beta read for me—all were credited and thanked in the acknowledgements. I designed the cover, set the interior pages, created the ebook file, submitted it through Kindle Direct Printing, typeset the interior pages for paperback, and submitted it all over again. Beyond the illustrative cover—the biggest expense is time. As for making money, it’s almost impossible with just one book (unless you’re fortunate) to make enough to sustain a lifestyle beyond living in cardboard boxes. I’m lucky to have a good enough job that allows me the luxury to write without any financial expectations. That said, I’ve probably just about made a small profit after covering the costs of my initial outlay.
A profit is a profit! Congrats! [having read all the Q&As now, want to underline that–any kind of profit is fantastic]

Are you using any kind of crowd-funding to help with that? What have those experiences been like?
I’ve never used crowd-funding; I have a bit of a conflict of interest that I don’t want to go too much into—but it’s an avenue that isn’t viable for me. I’ve seen plenty who have both succeeded and failed. Getting the postage right seems to be the biggest pitfall; if you are over budget for it—you may end up paying out far more than you initially planned.
Sure postage. The one thing I’d really never think of if I were setting something like this up. You think the big stuff to worry about would be cover design, editing–just writing the things–while keeping your day job. But it all comes down to spending the right kind of time at stamps.com or whereever.

Do you do your own cover design, or have you found people to help with that? It seems almost as difficult as writing the novel itself–talk about the process a bit.
I have an unfair advantage with 30 years of design experience. I can design my own cover and get it print ready to the correct dimensions with relative ease (coincidentally, I will do exactly that for my following (12) books to save on costs). For ‘The Hero Interviews’, I was more than happy to employ the services of a professional illustrator (Conor Nolan—who did a fantastic job!).

Are there tools, mentors, websites you’ve found to help you through this process? Or did you stumble through blindly on your own?
Self-publishing embraces the ‘learn on the job’ mantra—that said, Reedsy.com is a fantastic place to start if you’re looking to get an ebook file produced. The rest of the time, I was bumbling along, trying my best not to make any mistakes (spoiler alert, if it’s your first-time self-publishing, you will make mistakes—don’t worry too much about it).

How do you juggle marketing/PR/etc. with writing new work? (along with day jobs, family, hobbies, etc., etc.)
Self-publishing is always a constant juggle. Carving out the same time each day is a great way to complete your novel (which is the hardest part of the journey). With self-publishing, as most of the work falls upon your shoulders, you’ll have to spend more time with your head buried in your computer, scouring community forums trying to figure out why your footnote pop-ups aren’t displaying correctly on your ebook than not. As obvious as it sounds, try to focus on doing just one thing and do it well rather than spreading yourself too thin and delivering something that’s under par.

How do you promote your book–what things have worked best for you? What kind of lessons have you learned for things not to do (at least for you)? Do you do any in-person marketing, or are you all on-line (I assume predominately online)
Primarily, for self-publishing, online will be your go-to. Social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter will give you a better chance of expanding your reach. Of course, all this depends greatly on your followers count—so maximizing engagement opportunities is key. Understanding how a market reacts is also essential. As a self-published author, it’s tempting to shout about anything new immediately—but you’ll have a better chance of making a sale if you shorten the distance between engagement and when a book is available. I’ve been guilty of wasting a golden opportunity simply by announcing something before the book is ready to be purchased. You’ll only have a small window of opportunity with most of your audience; learning how to leverage this for maximum impact is invaluable.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
Your largest potential audience will always be around the genre you’ve chosen to write in—after that, it probably be based on your location. I know I’m strong in my home country (UK), but I’ve also a sizeable following elsewhere across the globe—especially in America. As my work draws inspiration from British TV comedy—I tend to attract fans with a similar sense of humour.

You’ve been around the block enough to at least have an educated guess here–do you think this is how it’s going to be for self-published authors going forward? People finding you more based on their tastes than localities? It’s just as easy for me to grab a UK author as much as a US one anymore (largely). It seems to me that self-published authors would have to have a strong local base to keep them going, but now it’s more of a taste/social-media base? Does that sound about right? Or would you describe it differently?
The world is much smaller these days—I don’t think it matters where your audience is based. Sure, cultural tastes change from region to region, but if you’ve pitched your tent in a particular field (say Fantasy/Comedy 🙂 ), then I think you’re going to find fans naturally gravitate towards your work regardless of where they are. Social media has made it easier for a Self-Publisher to reach other territories in a single post—I know from my own sales I have a large following in the US, almost rivaling the one I have in the UK. You’ve got to put in the groundwork and engage with those communities you think will pick up your book; if you don’t—it will be much harder to be noticed in a crowded market.

What made you decide that self-publishing was the direction you wanted to go? How often do you question that choice? How do you get through the self-doubt?
There’s a belief that you’re somehow less of an author if you self-publish—but I’ve never thought that. Sure, I always liked the kudos of being picked up by a large publisher. However, after my initial experiences with self-publishing, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to jumping through hoops to bag a traditional publishing contract again. As for self-doubt—I have to remind myself that I’m no worse off than I would be if I had been traditionally published—plus, I much prefer not having to answer to an editor who wants to cut your book in half to save costs and get your overall page count down.
That’s a great way to deal with self-doubt.

Have you thought about trying to get a deal with major (or indie) publishers for upcoming works, or are you planning on sticking with self-publishing?
I chose self-publishing because I had exhausted all other traditional options. I had been rejected repeatedly and decided enough was enough, and I would go it alone.

Odds are, you’re doing this from love/passion, not to pay the bills. What keeps you going? I’m assuming there are more “who”s than “what”s, actually–who is it?
My kids—I want them to follow their dreams. Writing is my dream—and I hope it gives them the courage to follow their dreams too.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
Time schedules and dedication. You must have discipline—sometimes saying ‘no’ to distractions and getting on with your book. It’s a long, hard road—but the feeling of publishing something from start to finish without needing an external publisher is hugely satisfying.

If you were to start the process over with the experience you have now, what would you do differently?
Write a shorter book. 195,000 words is the equivalent of ‘The Fellowship of the Rings’. Next time, I will write something that doesn’t take me 6 weeks to proof!

What is your favorite and least favorite thing about being self published?
Having to shout from the rooftops about your book—I don’t enjoy feeling like a hawker trying to sell their wares. It’s a necessary evil—if you don’t shout about your book, someone else will shout about theirs instead.

What was your process for learning how to take care of all the facets that go into self-publishing? (editing, book cover and design, ISBN, finding places to sell/distribute, etc.)?
As mentioned, there’s a lot of learning as you go along. Fortunately, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Printing handles many design, ISBN, and distribution questions. That doesn’t mean they’ll have the answers to everything—but it’s a good start.

This is the second time you’ve mentioned Amazon’s KDP. Are they essential for the contemporary self-published author, or were they just the option you picked and/or the most expedient?
The latter for me; I wanted a quick solution to market. I didn’t want the hassle of having lots of spinning plates to manage—KDP offered a large potential customer base and a way to monitor and maintain sales.

How do you decide a book is finally finished and ready? (or how do you avoid “perfection as the enemy of good”?)
I don’t think a book is ever really ready—you have to decide what mistakes you’re happy for a reader to find. Self-publish has one huge advantage, however—at any point I spot an error after being published (on Amazon) either digitally or physically, I can amend the mistake and submit it again to KDP and have the new version up online within 72 hours—now that’s something traditional publishers are less inclined to do for you at the drop of a hat!

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

Be sure to check out The Hero Interviews and the rest of his work so he doesn’t have to be the only one shouting about his books!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Michael Michel About Self-Publishing

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On July 26, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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Michael Michel is another author that came to my attention (and this series) thanks to JCM Berne. I really enjoyed his answers here and our interactions around this. Much like every grimdark author I’ve heard interviewed, you wouldn’t think someone this fun could produce something so…well grim and dark. Hope you enjoy this half as much as I did.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
I’m the debut author of “The Price of Power,” a grimdark epic fantasy book about loss, redemption, grief, and the danger of beliefs. It’s like Game of Thrones meets X-men, or First Law meets a plot. At least, those are the two series my reviewers liken it to most often. I often find myself flattered by what folks say about it.

Social and Links
FREE NOVELLA: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/f1vi1k6lx9
The Price of Power: https://www.amazon.com/Price-Power-Book-1/dp/B0BTKZPNF9/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Twitter Handle: @Michael__Michel (that’s two underscores in the middle)
Instagram: @michaelmichelauthor

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
More costs than you might think. At least, more than I was aware of. The more common ones are book cover ($500+ for a good one) and editor (varies by need but upwards of a $1,000 for a big book). I hired a proofreader only, but that’s not recommended for everyone. The editors I reached out to said it was pretty polished, so you have to work really hard if you want to save on editing. Beta readers assisted with all the same duties a developmental editor would have, so that was an easy skip for me. I formatted it myself, too, but found it to be more fun than expected. Atticus is great and you only buy it once—same with Scrivener which I needed for a novel/series as expansive and convoluted as mine. Those are all the expenses one might expect. The hidden costs are things like ISBNs, BookFunnel, websites and newsletter builders, and a ton more software-type crap like that. If you want to market well, you’ve got to be setup to do so. And giveaways…I’ve given out a lot of ARC copies ($25 a pop if physical) and there are those, more successful than I, who gave out way more.

I’m making money, sure. Getting better all the time and my Kickstarter was a success. Am I making a net profit though? If I am, it’s negligible. This year is all about setting up for the long haul. I’d say that’s the rule more than the exception. New authors be prepared to invest if you’re serious.

What made you decide that self-publishing was the direction you wanted to go? How often do you question that choice? How do you get through the self-doubt?
I actually wanted to go traditional. I thought indie was less credible, and let’s be honest, in comparison to traditional, it still is a lot of the time but not to the level it used to be. Great authors are now coming out of the indie scene at an ever-increasing rate. When I made the choice, I’d just started reaching out to agents. Maybe fifteen of them. Got a partial request pretty quickly but it fizzled just as fast. I didn’t see the point in continuing. My energy dragged while doing it, and the outlook of ever seeing my novel published seemed so far away. I have a driven mentality and a decent self-marketing skill set, but even this didn’t fully convince me.

My friend, Jerry Oltion, has that honor. If you don’t know him, he’s a Nebula winner, multi-time Hugo nominee, writer of Star Trek books, and is the most published author in Analog Magazine’s history (with like 100 short stories). Suffice it to say, I needed someone with credibility to kill my dreams of credibility. He said, “I think the New York dinosaur has just about breathed its last.” It was a long email, full of convincing reasons to go indie—all from a trad author, no less. It was just the push I needed, and I couldn’t have been more excited to make the leap afterward. I felt free.

I’ve probably already made as much as the average trad author makes on a book. And I’ve retained total control. With more books lined up, I feel like it’s a good position to be in.

I absolutely question my decision sometimes. On days when I make less than a dollar. On days when I get less than a five-star review. On days when I’m sucked up in social media all day when I would rather be writing. Self-doubt sticks to the sedentary, so I just make sure to keep plowing forward.

Have you thought about trying to get a deal with major (or indie) publishers for upcoming works, or are you planning on sticking with self-publishing?
Here’s the thing. Once you go indie, you’re kind of locked in unless you become very successful. Publishers want to know what your indie sales have been, and if they aren’t amazing, they see that as a sign it’s probably not going to work with them either. Conversely, if you do really well as an indie author, then there’s less point in going traditional because you’re likely making more and retaining all the control.

That said, if a big trad publisher came along with a hefty advance, I’d probably take it even if it meant less money long-term. The exposure, the validation, and the chance to rub elbows with other trad authors under the same organizational umbrella is too great an opportunity to pass up. It’s not all about the money for me anyway. It’s about producing the best product I can and entertaining the hell out of people. Honestly, having access to the best-of-the-best editors is very alluring. I often wonder how good my book could be if it had a premier expert combing over it six times. Better, I expect. Much better.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
Let me lead with the caveat that everyone is different. Carrot or stick, you do what you have to in order to create art. Drink raw eggs, sleep upside down, sacrifice a bull, or sip a coffee: it doesn’t matter. Just get it done. I take this approach to a degree as well. Although, readers telling you nice things and saying they want more is always a major motivator.

I consistently set 1-2 months goals. Once I have that signpost, I get pretty excited and the energy starts to flow. Fortunately, writing is one of the things I love doing most. A note on goal setting though: don’t set a goal that isn’t achievable. Whatever you think you can accomplish, stretch it a bit or reduce your aspiration. Better to guarantee success than miss your ambitions by a mile. Good for the brain (specifically, the nucleus acumbens).

How do you decide a book is finally finished and ready? (or how do you avoid “perfection as the enemy of good”?)
It’s usually accompanied by the sound of your soul shrieking and a little part of you dying. Haha. Kidding…kinda. Letting your ego die in order to publish is the both the suffering and freedom we authors live by.

Perfectionism itself is a double-edged sword. I like to think of rockets launching into space. Giant fuel cells known as “stages” are jettisoned as the rocket climbs through the atmosphere. Once their fuel is used up, they’re dead weight.

Perfectionism is the same; it pushed me to make, “The Price of Power” as good as it could be, but at some point, I needed to let it go in order to coast smoothly to my next endeavor. Even now, I still read sections of my book sometimes and find a dozen things per page I might change. Well, as authors, we’ve got to understand a valuable principle:

We’re always growing, and honing our craft.

The more we write, the better we get. By the end of draft 5, you’ve got ideas about how draft 6 could be better. Every work you write makes you better at writing. If you understand this, you’re better able to let go and move on knowing the next will demonstrate your current skill more clearly The work grows with us. This what kills Patrick Rothfuss, I think. He can’t help himself but to rewrite more.

I’ve found that people don’t care as much about the nitty gritty as I do, anyway. Look no further than Brando Sando as an example. The man’s not the greatest writer, but damn can he produce a bunch of novels and keep readers’ imaginations well-fed. Readers want authors that satisfy their needs, not the authors’ own ego.

In conclusion, perfectionism is a good tool, but a bad way of life.
That’s a good line. I should try to adopt that.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

Be sure to check out Michel’s novel—looks like a great grim time!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with H.C. Newell About Self-Publishing

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On July 26, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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I was aware of H.C. Newell only because I’d skim something on Twitter and have to stop—”I never said anything like that…oh, Newell. Never mind.” I’m very glad that JCM Berne got us together—if only so the two of us could clear up our name confusion. But more than that, I enjoyed these answers and advice. I took something away from it, hope you do, too.

Before we get into things, why don't you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Heyooo my name is H.C. Newell (Not to be confused with the illustrious H.C. Newton who is running this shindig) I’ve been writing my entire life and published my first book, Curse of the Fallen, in 2021. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but if not, here is a quick little blurb and even a link to chapter one that you can read for free 😀

Nerana is a sorceress born in a world where magic is forbidden. Outcast, exiled, and hunted since birth, she seeks to free herself of a curse that ties her to the Order of Saro who relentlessly hunt her down.

Her hope now lies in a legend from the time of the elves that speaks of the Trials of Blood, a test that promises salvation. Darkness gathers, and the hunters close in on their prey, but with little left to lose Nerana embarks on her perilous journey and soon learns that the path to redemption may prove more fatal than the Order itself.

But for Nerana, this is more than a quest for survival… it’s a promise of revenge.

You digging it? Grimdark Magazine called it “a grimdark twist on classic Tolkienesque fantasy”

My Linktree has all my links, including a PDF of chapter one for you to download and read 😀

How do you promote your book–what things have worked best for you? What kind of lessons have you learned for things not to do (at least for you)? Do you do any in-person marketing, or are you all on-line (I assume predominately online)
Networking has worked the best for me. I love people and interacting and just integrating myself into the community. (I’ve never used paid ads and never will.) The book speaks for itself, so I just share my blurb and cover and let readers decide if they want to give it a shot. Everyone has their style, and I know my book isn’t for everybody, so all I can do is show it to you and let you decide if it’s a good fit. 😀

Supporting other authors, making connections, and genuinely caring about their success can make a huge difference. Don’t just be in this for yourself – we’re all in this together. That’s my philosophy, anyway. Everyone is trying to succeed, and some may view others as competition, but there are billions of people in the world and millions of books to read – there is no need to try to put yourself above someone else. Be kind, be caring, and enjoy the journey.

My advice for newer authors, or those struggling to see sales: make yourself known. No one will see your book if you don’t show it to us. Be part of the community, work together with others and find friendship in fellow authors or readers. I promise we’re a good bunch.

Sound advice! A rising tide does seem to lift all boats. Indie and self-published authors seem to be great at lifting each other up—and yeah, it does make me more inclined to check someone out when I see them interacting with others. I don’t know if it’s possible (this feels like one of those job interview questions I hate), but can you give a specific example?
Uh… haha it’s hard to really be more specific here. Just being involved in the community and caring about other’s successes as much as your own is a good start. My philosophy is that we’re all in this together. This isn’t a competition, it’s a journey.

Join the discords, join twitter, integrate yourself within the community, make friends, and also be sure that your cover and blurb are attracting readers. Reach out to bloggers for review copies, send out arc copies, join sale events. The list goes on 🙂

Another big thing I forgot to mention: don’t ever ever compare yourself to others. It’s something we all struggle with, and it can really make or break your spirit. There is a big luck (and monetary) factor that comes with success, and just because someone else is having more success than you right now don’t mean you won’t or don’t deserve to be recognized. Just focus on yourself, what you’ve achieved, and keep moving forward. Don’t give up or lose yourself to the ‘why’s’

ToriTalks has an amazing video that I think is very motiving for authors who are struggling with things like this. Dear Writer Video

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
I never ever ever rush or force anything. I’d rather wait two years for an amazing book/movie/game to release than to have it now for the sake of deadlines and it be subpar. So, I don’t really have a schedule. I can’t. My brain doesn’t work that way. Creativity ebbs and flows, so I roll with the punches. Some days I can write entire chapters, other days I can’t write a single word. I have a deadline in mind that I strive to meet, but I never set an actual date until my book is in my editor’s hands and I know it’ll be completed in time.

If you were to start the process over with the experience you have now, what would you do differently?
I would research more, not hire an editor for things like developmental editing and used beta’s instead. I would’ve had more beta readers and I would’ve read more books so I could’ve understood what readers enjoy. I’d have also joined twitter from the start, instead of being so afraid of it and waiting 2 years!

Why not an editor for the developmental stage—just the kind of feedback they provided vs. your betas? How many beta readers did you use, and how many would you have? For you, what does a good beta reader bring to the table? (this is partially selfish, I’ve done it twice and haven’t been satisfied with what I produced)
I had a developmental editor, and the price (for me) wasn’t worth it. Everything they tell you can be told by a beta reader for free. This isn’t advice for someone else to follow, just what I would’ve done differently for myself. Some people prefer dev edits because the trust the opinion of a professional on those things. Book one I had 1 beta reader, book 2 I had 3. I think 3-5 is a good number that isn’t overwhelming.

For me, I don’t care to have betas correct my grammar or try to edit the novel. It’s fine when they do, but I get the most help when they can give their honest feedback on more structural things like pacing, plot progression, how captivating the scenes are, etc. Just general reactions are my favorite types of beta feedback.

How do you decide a book is finally finished and ready? (or how do you avoid “perfection as the enemy of good”?)
For me, a book is never perfect. I’ve read my book a dozen times since I published, and every single time, I find things that I want to change. It’s just a part of being an author. You are your biggest critic. Once the book is completely written (draft 1) you need to comb through it with a critical eye, find what works and what doesn’t, polish it up, and then send draft 2 to beta readers. Once you’ve read through their suggestions and made the necessary changes, then it’s time to send to the editor.

Your book is finished after it’s completely written, reread by you and then read by a handful of readers who can help you find mistakes you may have missed along the way.

I can rarely stomach re-reading a blog post of mine because I want to tweak so many things, and I devote far less time to one than a novel would take. I can’t imagine doing it to a novel. The last time that you revisited Curse of the Fallen, what kind of changes did you want to make—are we talking a word here or there, a few lines—chapters/events?
Well, the last time I actually sat down to re-edit Curse, I added 40,000 words and 4 chapters lol!!! I still find things that I want to change, such as slowing the pace, adding more filler, slowing down some of the relationship arcs, etc, but no book is perfect, and readers are always happy to point out flaws that you wish you could change. I have to learn to stop reading ANY book with a critical/editorial eye and to just enjoy the journey.:)

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

I encourage you to go check out all of H.C. Newell‘s work!

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The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with Jonathan Fesmire About Self-Publishing

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On July 25, 2023

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

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I’ve talked about Fesmire’s Steampunk Westerns a lot–I’ve even promoted his crowd-funding campaigns. So I was quite pleased to get him to talk about his self-publishing work, too. I hope you enjoy it.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Sure! I’ve been writing for decades, and I’ve been a science fiction, fantasy, and horror fan all my life. I write steampunk westerns with robots and zombies, all in the same world I’ve been building for years. I call it the Creedverse, after the main character, 1870s lawman James “Bodacious” Creed.

The easiest way to find all my links is via my Linktree site at https://linktr.ee/jonathanfesmire. From there, you can visit my website, join my newsletter and get a free short story, check out my books on various sites, including Audible, visit the Creedverse site, and even check out my TikTok channel.

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
Yep, there are definitely costs involved. I often have one or two beta readers who do that for free because they like my work. I also have an editor whom I pay. If I feel that the book doesn’t need any more story suggestions, I’ll pay for a line edit, but if I think it could use a critique, I’ll pay for that, too. I work with KH Koehler, who does a fantastic job. I also pay for cover art, though I have an art degree and I think I’ve now learned enough to create my own, professional covers going forward. As for layout, I do that myself. I actually use the Kindle Direct Publishing templates, which work great.

Are you using any kind of crowd-funding to help with that? What have those experiences been like?
Indeed I do! I’ve run crowdfunding campaigns for my trilogy, The Adventures of Bodacious Creed. It’s a fantastic way to get the word out about the new book, make some early sales, and get enough money to pay for editing and cover art, plus fulfilling the rewards.

For the first book in my series, Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western, I ran the Kickstarter when I had a basic outline for the novel. I knew I’d be able to write it. What this allowed me to do is give backers, depending on their backer level, input into the story. One integral character was based on the backer himself. By the time I was on the third book, Bodacious Creed and the San Francisco Syndicate, I’d written the first draft, then ran the campaign.

As I recall, you’ve used a couple of different crowd-funding sites in the past. What are the pluses/minuses for each? Any advice for someone thinking of trying this method?
I prefer Kickstarter, because Kickstarter has a larger audience than Indiegogo. With Kickstarter, if your project doesn’t raise it’s goal, it doesn’t go through. But on Indiegogo, you can have a goal, and get the funding even if the project makes less. So, here’s what I figured out with my last Kickstarter campaign, the one for my novel Bodacious Creed and the San Francisco Syndicate: Set the goal to the lowest amount that will help you.

Here’s what I mean by that. You may have a project that you need a certain amount of money to even be able to afford. Maybe you project that it will cost $2,000 just to develop a product. Then, you need to fulfil the backer orders, including shipping. Certain backer levels will cost a higher percentage of what backers pay for you to produce. For example, digital copies of books are essentially free to send out, while print copies cost more. So, if someone pledges $5.00 for a digital book, that’s $5 you can put toward costs like editing and cover art. If a person pledges $25 for a paperback (plus $5 for shipping), you may make $15 on that. That’s 100% toward development for the digital copies, and 60% from the print copy (not counting the shipping).

I recommend people check out Don Stainsberg’s The Kickstarter Handbook, which provides the info they’ll need to create a spreadsheet to figure out how low they can set their goal and still make enough to cover everything.

Anyway, what I realized when running my last Kickstarter was this. I was going to pay for editing and cover art, anyway. And that meant that any bit of money I raised from a Kickstarter would offset my costs, and I could set the goal to something low. I set it for $300. If that meant I ended up with $150 to put toward those services, that was better than nothing. What ended up happening, though, was the $300 was pledged in six hours! I added a sticker to the graphic that said, “Funded in 6 hours!” That looks really good to potential backers. And it ended up raising $1,681. I was hoping for $1,600, so that was great.

So, my advice would be to use Kickstarter, but put the goal at the lowest level that will cover your expenses. Or, if you plan to pay those, anyway, you can set it even lower.

How do you juggle marketing/PR/etc. with writing new work? (along with day jobs, family, hobbies, etc., etc.)
I’m lucky that I work from home! At my day job, I’m a content writer, so I’m basically writing for work, writing my fiction, worldbuilding, or editing a lot of the time. I’m a single dad and, of course, spend a lot of time with my son. But being able to do all my work from home really helps.

Self-publishing tends to have less external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
You have to get to a point where you internalize the urgency to write. Also, you need to remember that it’s a long-haul sort of profession. Writing a novel takes time. Get 500 to 1,000 words written a day, and you’re making good progress. If you can do more, great. But you need to understand it’s a process you need to take a day at a time.

“Internalize the urgency,” I like that phrase. It lines up with what some others in this series are telling me—it’s not so much a matter of work-ethic (although I’m sure it’s there, too), but about interest in the work. Did you have to cultivate that to go from “aspiring author” to “working author” or did you start with it?
’ve definitely had periods when I wasn’t writing much, and in the aughts, I focused on digital art for a while. I’m glad I got back to writing, which I feel is my true calling.

Writers are people who feel a need to write and do so to get their thoughts down. It’s how we best deal with our emotions and everything going on in our heads. So, writing is just what I do. And I write a lot every day. Most days, I write in my online journal, I work on whatever book I have in progress, and I also write for my day job as a content writer.

I think I had to accept that this is just what I do, and that it’s good for me. The fact that I’m not getting any younger helps, too! I’m 53, and by the time I leave this world, I want to have a lot of books out. I also hope to make enough off my books so that when I retire from my day job, I’ll be making a good living on top of my social security.

One thing that helped a lot is learning to outline my books before writing them. I have to admit, it took me a long time to learn that. I was a pantser for too long, and that meant my books came along painfully slowly. Now, rather than taking four years to write a book, it takes me a year to a year and a half. And I’m trying to streamline that even more. (A pantser is someone who writes books without a plan and figures it out as they go.) I now use a beat sheet to plan the major plot points of a novel and figure out how to get from one point to the next as I go.

Another useful way to get a lot of writing done is by using the pomodoro technique, also known as writing sprints. Set an alarm for 15 to 25 minutes, and during that time, all you do is write. When the timer goes off, you stop, and take a short break, then repeat. Do this a few times every day, and you’ll get a lot of writing done.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!

If you like Steampunk, Westerns, Zombies–especially all three–or just books that are fun and well-told, be sure to check out all of Fesmire’s work!

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