- Joined
- Mar 24, 2019
They say everyone has a book waiting to be written, which is what this thread is all about, to help and share books we are writing or even have written.
I am an author. I've written and co-written six books so far, but by no means a bona-fide professional or a success. To help those on Kiwifarms who might be writing or starting to write to get books out there, I've put together a mega-post that could come in handy, there's a little plug to my book at the end, but I want this to be more about writing in general and getting independent authors onto the web, especially as it's hard to get noticed now. One example is this one, it's in ebook format so very suitable for the casual reader who doesn't want to drop 10 bucks on a paperback.
Here we go, buckle in and rattle those keys folks....
Writing a book
When you want to write a book, it's important to write something you either know a lot about or enjoy writing about. Both are optimal but having one at the very least will carry the story. What size is important too. A 150,000 to 200,000 word epic is great, a novel length is considered optimal by some and is usually about 70,000 to 110,000 words. Bear in mind the editing and proof-reading will be a lot more grueling than a novella of 50,000 words. The epic length books will struggle with some audiences though, who prefer a shorter story, the shorter the story, the harder it can be to get the details in. That being said a veteran writer won't find this too much of a challenge.
The trend now with everything being digital this and that is for more concise stories, for better or worse.
Part of the magic is, and it's hard to put this into words, carrying the reader into your story. Personally I think this is easier to do with contemporary stuff set in a typical urban city (as that's where most readers tend to be) or similar than say fantasy or sci-fi content. You almost have to beguile and cast a spell on them, something best done in the first or second chapter.
This dove-tails into the next element of writing a story. Do you write in 1st or 3rd person?
Narrator-driven or character-driven?
Quite a few American folks, when they write a fictional story, will write in 1st person (at least from what I've seen). This is where the character directly relates the story to the reader. It's easier, it flows well and a story can be constructed faster. In my view it lacks broadness and can be shallow, developing other characters can be more difficult (more effort will get you there usually). That being said many classics are in 1st person.
I write in 3rd person, and do for all my books thus far. 3rd person is basically the narrator telling the story, your POV will move from character to character and place to place. You aren't fixed like it is in 1st Person. It is more difficult and longer to write in this way (I find) but you'll be able to cover all angles. The protagonists, the antagonists and the world itself can be covered easily.
The next facet to keep in mind is 'showing and not telling', I cannot state how hard I argued about this with other writers. To this day I'm not great at the concept as I'm a rambler-storyteller who expects the reader to self-frame and fill in the gaps and not a 'lead by the hand' writer.
Genre can be important too. I'm going to be frank here, some genres are better at making money than others these days. In my view and opinion, romance, self-help, erotic (which is putting it politely) and childrens books generally sell the best and generally in that order.
The public appetite for novella length romance is voracious for example.
If you are writing in most others you'll be looking at a somewhat smaller piece of the big pie.
Editing and Proof-Reading
Then comes the hard part, once you have written your story, spell-checked and grammar edited it the battle really begins. You may have written your book / story but realistically it's only the first draft NOT the finished product. I made my early errors with my first book years ago in thinking one or two sets of eyeballs scanning manuscripts were enough. No, you have to proof-read it many times to get 99% of the issues dealt with. Even novels that hit the big stores can sometimes have one or two minor issues like spacing off a little etc.
Paying an editor to proof-read your work is a faster and arguably more effective option than doing it yourself or even having friends and family help out. Off memory a publisher-grade editor will charge about 1 or 2 cents per word (word count can come into play on this). Sometimes though this isn't the fire-and-forget solution though as they may well do a good job and fix errors you've missed, but I've often seen criticism from authors that glaring issues remain. This can include word repetition not being fixed (you generally don't want to repeat words too often within 2-3 paragraphs, it'll 'tire / bore' the reader), context and flow, continuity and something as simple as character names not matching up as the story progresses.
Another thing is if you are writing an e-book or a paperback the book editing requires some fine-tuning and variation.
The former is generally needing some specific html editing for tables of contents and the layout etc. That being said, e-books are more forgiving than a paperback book in some ways. Errors on the latter are usually more glaring and obvious. On the paperback what may not be an issue, will show up as an issue on a digital copy and vice versa.
Getting a paperback done right is the real acid-test in some ways though. I actually went over hundreds of books already published to get a 'feel' for the look, headers, footers, drop-caps and so on. Fictional books have certain different traits / idiosyncracies to the layout compared to non-fictional books. I know people online who actually make a living from book-formating in this fashion to prepare books for publishing on Amazon and it can be considered if you haven't the time or patience to get it done yourself.
A third-option can be an audiobook. If you are going to get this done, it can be quite the endevour. Most will opt to pay a professional Voice Actor. This may be a money loss but I've had plenty of interest in this from truckers and people who drive a lot and don't have time to read a book at work, at home etc. I should get this done someday.
Promoting and Marketing
This is by far the toughest, most challenging thing for ANY writer who isn't connected with a big publishing house. Sometimes even then it can be tricky but as a one-man band unless you already have a large following from another angle you are going to struggle.
This can be impossible / very difficult nowadays, even on dedicated writing forums.
About seven years ago I got typing from purely a fan-fiction POV and was making a little sale here and there, I eventually got my first book written and self-published onto Amazon. No restrictions or red-lines, book sales were nice and steady, but nothing to write home about. I wrote another three books and onto the forum they went too. At first I thought most of my sales were via people from Amazon just randomly buying my book but I soon learned this wasn't the case. Nearly all of them were from the forum I'd been using and posting about my book. I'd be messaging folks on there that liked my book about it too. I was later to learn this can be a no-no, especially when jealous types found out about it.
The forum I had actually started the story on was sold to a new group of people but they maintained the pretence of it being still under the old owner. The new management, went full on shekel-merchant and demanded I pay $$ every month for a merchant account. I wasn't making enough to cover the $$ and told them I couldn't do that. They pulled my links and deleted every reference to my books. This is why forums can be a double-edged sword.
Sometimes worth considering, some are better than others, especially those that get you traffic and interest.
Deals can be had on some online book outlets like Amazon where you have a period where your book is massively discounted and free. This can get people reading your book and the thinking behind it is that you get more people who hear about it buying it, along with extra-reviews.
Making a lot of reivews on other things on Amazon is another option, if you make enough of them someone can click on your username and then see what books you have written. Get onto various social media groups and start a channel, build a following and you'll get fans.
The upshot of self-publishing is you have complete creative control over your works. The same cannot be said of a big publishing house. They can make demands, chapter additions and even alter entire sections if they deem it 'appropriate'.
The Book Cover
The Book Cover is, along with the blurb, the deal maker or the deal breaker oftentimes. Ideally people would want to just buy books and treat the cover and blurb as tertiary things. Unfortunately it doesn't.
This is a book cover I personally designed myself to save some shekels. It's bloody awful and is from before I got better at artistry. Remember this is when I figured people weren't judging a book by its cover that much....
Looks natty and ratty. Good riddance, on we go.
So your other options are to get good at Photoshop / Illustrator (especially if you are designing a book cover for a paperback which is much more challenging, more on this in a later post).
My next attempt is probably the best I can do for stock footage, I kept it simple and interesting enough (in my view anyway lol).
Another option that is to pay for a stock art image and stick your own book title and author name at the top and bottom etc. It's not much more expensive to get an artist to play at tailoring a good book cover to exactly match the book. Which is what I usually go for nowadays. With my Air Captain book series, since there will be several of them, contracting an artist for each novella-sized book would be too expensive.
In general for a novel-sized book or larger, if I have the money to spare I'll usually drop it on a professional artist, which is what I later did for the earlier book. This one below cost me about $200-$250 going off memory, this isn't too much and usually will get you a collage of 2-3 stock images 'matched' to your book with bespoke fonts and looking great. :
Some artists that charge the earth will create a complete bespoke book cover and can charge $600 to $1,000+. This is usually something big book publishers will foot the bill for, especially to go for with books that are likely to really sell well. Pick up any fantasy book in the bookstores and you'll see what I mean by that etc.
Well, I've waffled and shilled about enough, what about you folks out there?
Post up your stories and books you personally have written down, questions and so on!
Here's my latest book, yes the cover art is a bit mismatched, but it's one I designed myself to save a few $$$ (as I'm a poor dude these days). Compared to my earliest incarnations I'm sure you can agree it's an improvement.
The Blurb
If the book cover isn't what grabs your potential reader into looking inside your book, the blurb will hopefully get them in the rest of the way. The blurb is basically the stuff you read on the back of every book (or on the inside flap of the dust-cover if it's a hard-back book) that tells you about it. It's a similar thing you see on DVDs and VHS tapes back in the day.
Now this seems simple, but there is an art to it.
Some people (called Copywriters) derive a good living from selling their services in writing blurb for the highest bidder, book publishers etc.
Where the book cover captures the eye and heart, the blurb can really get the mind racing and eager to see what is in the book.
I'm ok at blurb-writing but nothing special, the professionals can look at things from the outside and really sum it up with the best impact possible. The more extroverted, charismatic and fancy the blurb is the better generally.
Videography is a nice to have addition in your skillset. Using it can make a video-trailer free and easy. Get it onto Youtube and spread the link around will generate interest.
Dont make it too long unless it's a for fans, then you can have it much longer. General rule of thumb is not more than five minutes. Get the main selling points / interest done, try and get people interested.
www.youtube.com
Where to Publish
Not so long ago you had to go cap in hand to the mainstream publishing houses. These are mainly in NYC and London. Chicago and down from there it's smaller and smaller. It's almost impossible to get your book published via them these days. More and more people write manuscripts and submit them to the publishers. Most get rejected and it's not cheap to print out a big, doube-spaced manuscript which may or may not be returned. JK Rowling got lucky though and she's made her fortune many times over with The Harry Potter series.
However to even stand a moderate chance you'll need an agent to act as a go-between. Agents are like databrokers to use a cyberpunky analogy. They will know which publishers like certain genres, will make sure your book looks presentable (they won't edit it but just make sure it's not awful to look at) and, if they like what they see, will get your manuscript looked at by the publishers. all over the place and can act as a good in-road but you'll be charged a percentage on your book sales. Royalties are usually 3-6 months at a time, unlike Amazon and others like it (which is monthly). That being said, your book sales and 'reach' will be considerable, and you'll be able to brag about being a 'proper' published author. If you are fortunate and your book sells well the publisher can start throwing cash-advances at you for sequels and so on. You have to be a best-seller / populist maestro of writing to get that typically. In either case, such a thing will serve as an incentive to write for deadlines etc.
Self-Publishing
For us lesser mortals self-publishing is generally the avenue, especially with E-Books / Kindle being a thing now. Back in the times of Pre-E-Book it used to be considered vanity-press. Which meant you'd pay some outfit money who would print your books for you and you'd have to try and sell them yourself!
Print on Demand works in a more lucrative form where people pay, then they print the book for them and take care of shipping etc.
Barns and Noble, Smashwords and Amazon (which took over Create Space recently) are your options.
Selling on your own website can work if you get decent traffic to it. For that though you'll have to get a print-on-demand done to your address then forward it on. Amazon does a discount for paperbacks. E-Books / Paperbacks you've successfully titled onto Amazon look like this:
Getting a book onto Amazon so it looks like this with all the formating protocols is sometimes another matter entirely, more on this in a later post (as I'm rambling enough as it is).
I've messaged the admin / senior dude in advance via the contact form at the bottom and received an 'ok' about starting this thread, hope I've not crossed any red-lines regarding links etc. Cheers.
Authored by
Fashy Airship
I am an author. I've written and co-written six books so far, but by no means a bona-fide professional or a success. To help those on Kiwifarms who might be writing or starting to write to get books out there, I've put together a mega-post that could come in handy, there's a little plug to my book at the end, but I want this to be more about writing in general and getting independent authors onto the web, especially as it's hard to get noticed now. One example is this one, it's in ebook format so very suitable for the casual reader who doesn't want to drop 10 bucks on a paperback.
Amazon.com: Beyond The Underworld eBook: Danann, Tyler, Michaels, M.: Kindle Store
Beyond The Underworld - Kindle edition by Danann, Tyler, Michaels, M.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Beyond The Underworld.
www.amazon.com
Here we go, buckle in and rattle those keys folks....
Writing a book
When you want to write a book, it's important to write something you either know a lot about or enjoy writing about. Both are optimal but having one at the very least will carry the story. What size is important too. A 150,000 to 200,000 word epic is great, a novel length is considered optimal by some and is usually about 70,000 to 110,000 words. Bear in mind the editing and proof-reading will be a lot more grueling than a novella of 50,000 words. The epic length books will struggle with some audiences though, who prefer a shorter story, the shorter the story, the harder it can be to get the details in. That being said a veteran writer won't find this too much of a challenge.
The trend now with everything being digital this and that is for more concise stories, for better or worse.
Part of the magic is, and it's hard to put this into words, carrying the reader into your story. Personally I think this is easier to do with contemporary stuff set in a typical urban city (as that's where most readers tend to be) or similar than say fantasy or sci-fi content. You almost have to beguile and cast a spell on them, something best done in the first or second chapter.
This dove-tails into the next element of writing a story. Do you write in 1st or 3rd person?
Narrator-driven or character-driven?
Quite a few American folks, when they write a fictional story, will write in 1st person (at least from what I've seen). This is where the character directly relates the story to the reader. It's easier, it flows well and a story can be constructed faster. In my view it lacks broadness and can be shallow, developing other characters can be more difficult (more effort will get you there usually). That being said many classics are in 1st person.
I write in 3rd person, and do for all my books thus far. 3rd person is basically the narrator telling the story, your POV will move from character to character and place to place. You aren't fixed like it is in 1st Person. It is more difficult and longer to write in this way (I find) but you'll be able to cover all angles. The protagonists, the antagonists and the world itself can be covered easily.
The next facet to keep in mind is 'showing and not telling', I cannot state how hard I argued about this with other writers. To this day I'm not great at the concept as I'm a rambler-storyteller who expects the reader to self-frame and fill in the gaps and not a 'lead by the hand' writer.
Genre can be important too. I'm going to be frank here, some genres are better at making money than others these days. In my view and opinion, romance, self-help, erotic (which is putting it politely) and childrens books generally sell the best and generally in that order.
The public appetite for novella length romance is voracious for example.
If you are writing in most others you'll be looking at a somewhat smaller piece of the big pie.
Editing and Proof-Reading
Then comes the hard part, once you have written your story, spell-checked and grammar edited it the battle really begins. You may have written your book / story but realistically it's only the first draft NOT the finished product. I made my early errors with my first book years ago in thinking one or two sets of eyeballs scanning manuscripts were enough. No, you have to proof-read it many times to get 99% of the issues dealt with. Even novels that hit the big stores can sometimes have one or two minor issues like spacing off a little etc.
Paying an editor to proof-read your work is a faster and arguably more effective option than doing it yourself or even having friends and family help out. Off memory a publisher-grade editor will charge about 1 or 2 cents per word (word count can come into play on this). Sometimes though this isn't the fire-and-forget solution though as they may well do a good job and fix errors you've missed, but I've often seen criticism from authors that glaring issues remain. This can include word repetition not being fixed (you generally don't want to repeat words too often within 2-3 paragraphs, it'll 'tire / bore' the reader), context and flow, continuity and something as simple as character names not matching up as the story progresses.
Digital or Print?
Another thing is if you are writing an e-book or a paperback the book editing requires some fine-tuning and variation.
The former is generally needing some specific html editing for tables of contents and the layout etc. That being said, e-books are more forgiving than a paperback book in some ways. Errors on the latter are usually more glaring and obvious. On the paperback what may not be an issue, will show up as an issue on a digital copy and vice versa.
Getting a paperback done right is the real acid-test in some ways though. I actually went over hundreds of books already published to get a 'feel' for the look, headers, footers, drop-caps and so on. Fictional books have certain different traits / idiosyncracies to the layout compared to non-fictional books. I know people online who actually make a living from book-formating in this fashion to prepare books for publishing on Amazon and it can be considered if you haven't the time or patience to get it done yourself.
A third-option can be an audiobook. If you are going to get this done, it can be quite the endevour. Most will opt to pay a professional Voice Actor. This may be a money loss but I've had plenty of interest in this from truckers and people who drive a lot and don't have time to read a book at work, at home etc. I should get this done someday.
Promoting and Marketing
This is by far the toughest, most challenging thing for ANY writer who isn't connected with a big publishing house. Sometimes even then it can be tricky but as a one-man band unless you already have a large following from another angle you are going to struggle.
Internet Forums
This can be impossible / very difficult nowadays, even on dedicated writing forums.
About seven years ago I got typing from purely a fan-fiction POV and was making a little sale here and there, I eventually got my first book written and self-published onto Amazon. No restrictions or red-lines, book sales were nice and steady, but nothing to write home about. I wrote another three books and onto the forum they went too. At first I thought most of my sales were via people from Amazon just randomly buying my book but I soon learned this wasn't the case. Nearly all of them were from the forum I'd been using and posting about my book. I'd be messaging folks on there that liked my book about it too. I was later to learn this can be a no-no, especially when jealous types found out about it.
The forum I had actually started the story on was sold to a new group of people but they maintained the pretence of it being still under the old owner. The new management, went full on shekel-merchant and demanded I pay $$ every month for a merchant account. I wasn't making enough to cover the $$ and told them I couldn't do that. They pulled my links and deleted every reference to my books. This is why forums can be a double-edged sword.
Paid Adverts / Deals
Sometimes worth considering, some are better than others, especially those that get you traffic and interest.
Deals can be had on some online book outlets like Amazon where you have a period where your book is massively discounted and free. This can get people reading your book and the thinking behind it is that you get more people who hear about it buying it, along with extra-reviews.
Make a wide internet footprint.
Making a lot of reivews on other things on Amazon is another option, if you make enough of them someone can click on your username and then see what books you have written. Get onto various social media groups and start a channel, build a following and you'll get fans.
The upshot of self-publishing is you have complete creative control over your works. The same cannot be said of a big publishing house. They can make demands, chapter additions and even alter entire sections if they deem it 'appropriate'.
The Book Cover
The Book Cover is, along with the blurb, the deal maker or the deal breaker oftentimes. Ideally people would want to just buy books and treat the cover and blurb as tertiary things. Unfortunately it doesn't.
This is a book cover I personally designed myself to save some shekels. It's bloody awful and is from before I got better at artistry. Remember this is when I figured people weren't judging a book by its cover that much....
So your other options are to get good at Photoshop / Illustrator (especially if you are designing a book cover for a paperback which is much more challenging, more on this in a later post).
My next attempt is probably the best I can do for stock footage, I kept it simple and interesting enough (in my view anyway lol).
Another option that is to pay for a stock art image and stick your own book title and author name at the top and bottom etc. It's not much more expensive to get an artist to play at tailoring a good book cover to exactly match the book. Which is what I usually go for nowadays. With my Air Captain book series, since there will be several of them, contracting an artist for each novella-sized book would be too expensive.
In general for a novel-sized book or larger, if I have the money to spare I'll usually drop it on a professional artist, which is what I later did for the earlier book. This one below cost me about $200-$250 going off memory, this isn't too much and usually will get you a collage of 2-3 stock images 'matched' to your book with bespoke fonts and looking great. :
Some artists that charge the earth will create a complete bespoke book cover and can charge $600 to $1,000+. This is usually something big book publishers will foot the bill for, especially to go for with books that are likely to really sell well. Pick up any fantasy book in the bookstores and you'll see what I mean by that etc.
Well, I've waffled and shilled about enough, what about you folks out there?
Post up your stories and books you personally have written down, questions and so on!
Here's my latest book, yes the cover art is a bit mismatched, but it's one I designed myself to save a few $$$ (as I'm a poor dude these days). Compared to my earliest incarnations I'm sure you can agree it's an improvement.
The Blurb
If the book cover isn't what grabs your potential reader into looking inside your book, the blurb will hopefully get them in the rest of the way. The blurb is basically the stuff you read on the back of every book (or on the inside flap of the dust-cover if it's a hard-back book) that tells you about it. It's a similar thing you see on DVDs and VHS tapes back in the day.
Now this seems simple, but there is an art to it.
Some people (called Copywriters) derive a good living from selling their services in writing blurb for the highest bidder, book publishers etc.
Where the book cover captures the eye and heart, the blurb can really get the mind racing and eager to see what is in the book.
I'm ok at blurb-writing but nothing special, the professionals can look at things from the outside and really sum it up with the best impact possible. The more extroverted, charismatic and fancy the blurb is the better generally.
Video Media
Videography is a nice to have addition in your skillset. Using it can make a video-trailer free and easy. Get it onto Youtube and spread the link around will generate interest.
Dont make it too long unless it's a for fans, then you can have it much longer. General rule of thumb is not more than five minutes. Get the main selling points / interest done, try and get people interested.
Air Captain Book Trailer
In a world where technology and danger are swirling it is up to the Air Captain to ascend and meet the challenges of his enemies. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ai...
www.youtube.com
Where to Publish
Not so long ago you had to go cap in hand to the mainstream publishing houses. These are mainly in NYC and London. Chicago and down from there it's smaller and smaller. It's almost impossible to get your book published via them these days. More and more people write manuscripts and submit them to the publishers. Most get rejected and it's not cheap to print out a big, doube-spaced manuscript which may or may not be returned. JK Rowling got lucky though and she's made her fortune many times over with The Harry Potter series.
Agents
However to even stand a moderate chance you'll need an agent to act as a go-between. Agents are like databrokers to use a cyberpunky analogy. They will know which publishers like certain genres, will make sure your book looks presentable (they won't edit it but just make sure it's not awful to look at) and, if they like what they see, will get your manuscript looked at by the publishers. all over the place and can act as a good in-road but you'll be charged a percentage on your book sales. Royalties are usually 3-6 months at a time, unlike Amazon and others like it (which is monthly). That being said, your book sales and 'reach' will be considerable, and you'll be able to brag about being a 'proper' published author. If you are fortunate and your book sells well the publisher can start throwing cash-advances at you for sequels and so on. You have to be a best-seller / populist maestro of writing to get that typically. In either case, such a thing will serve as an incentive to write for deadlines etc.
Self-Publishing
For us lesser mortals self-publishing is generally the avenue, especially with E-Books / Kindle being a thing now. Back in the times of Pre-E-Book it used to be considered vanity-press. Which meant you'd pay some outfit money who would print your books for you and you'd have to try and sell them yourself!
Print on Demand works in a more lucrative form where people pay, then they print the book for them and take care of shipping etc.
Barns and Noble, Smashwords and Amazon (which took over Create Space recently) are your options.
Selling on your own website can work if you get decent traffic to it. For that though you'll have to get a print-on-demand done to your address then forward it on. Amazon does a discount for paperbacks. E-Books / Paperbacks you've successfully titled onto Amazon look like this:
Getting a book onto Amazon so it looks like this with all the formating protocols is sometimes another matter entirely, more on this in a later post (as I'm rambling enough as it is).
The Air Captain (Odyssey Book 1) - Kindle edition by T.R Patton, Tyler Danann. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
The Air Captain (Odyssey Book 1) - Kindle edition by T.R Patton, Tyler Danann. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Air Captain (Odyssey Book 1).
www.amazon.com
I've messaged the admin / senior dude in advance via the contact form at the bottom and received an 'ok' about starting this thread, hope I've not crossed any red-lines regarding links etc. Cheers.
Authored by
Fashy Airship
Last edited:
https://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc174/Ulysses3100/FN%20FAL/MBR_zpsf6392c55.jpg
