4 Common Questions Authors Ask About Self Published Books @kayelleallen #MFRWauthor #Author

I am often asked about self publishing. Since I have 13 self published multiple books, it's easy to see why. I also lead Marketing for Romance Writers, so I get certain questions on a regular basis. Based on my experience, here are the answers to four of the most common things authors ask.

Should I put my self published ebook in print?

Definitely. You don't have to pay to have your book printed. Use CreateSpace which will allow you to make POD versions (Print on Demand). This way if you need 10 copies for a book signing, you can get just 10 copies. CreateSpace costs you nothing. They make money when you sell a book. Because it's digital until it's ordered and printed, they can afford to keep books "in print" far longer than a traditional publisher would. The biggest reasons to have your book in print: 1) some people will only read print books, 2) The difference in price between a print book and ebook often drives sales of the ebook. If you can get an ebook for $2.99 or a print book for $8.99, which would you buy? 

How should I price my book?

Amazon suggests a range depending on your book. When you go to your book's detail page on KDP, look at the pricing section. Click the link and read everything. It's helpful. If you charge under $2.99 or over $9.99 you will get 35% royalty. Between those ranges, you get 70%. The BEST way to determine your price is to study the competition. Look up other books in your genre and see what the top 10 are doing price wise. CreateSpace will give you a minimum price - the price which they must charge to cover their costs. I make my print books as low as possible. For every print book I sell, I sell 500 ebooks. Print is nice, but it's not what sells and they are extremely expensive to pre-print and distribute. If you use CreateSpace, you can match it to the book on Amazon and sell it there too. 

Should I use social media?

Social media is for being social. You can meet people on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc. that you would never meet otherwise. People buy from people they know. Be on social media to be seen, not to sell books. Yes, you should post about book stuff. But share other material as well. Offer things of interest and people will follow you. The goal is to reach more people, not sell books. If people know and like you, they will buy your books. 

Do I need to buy an ISBN?

The site you upload to (Smashwords, Amazon, CreateSpace) will provide one at no cost. Save your money for more important things, like marketing. All the ISBN tells people is a number for your specific book and which service you used to print/publish it. They are a legacy of the old publishing system. The Libary of Congress uses them, but since you can get one for free, why spend a fortune? They are not cheap. Here's a good FAQ page from the only place where you can buy an ISBN. They own the system. http://www.isbn.org/faqs_general_questions

If you have questions about self published books, please leave a comment below. I'll do my best to answer or to point you toward someone who can.

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Kayelle Allen writes Sci Fi with misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, role playing immortal gamers, and warriors who purr. She's a US Navy veteran who's been married so long she's tenured.
https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook https://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
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Difference Between KDP and KDP Select by Kayelle Allen @kayelleallen #writerslife #MFRWauthor

Have you ever wondered what the difference between KDP and KDP Select is? Authors who self publish on Amazon use Kindle Direct Publishing. Once you upload, you're asked if you also want to join Kindle Select. This is an exclusive contract with Amazon and will place your book into Kindle Unlimited (KU). The contract runs 90 days from signing and auto renews unless you cancel prior to that date. It will put your book in Kindle Unlimited for readers. Members pay $9.99 a month and can read as much as they want of all books in KU system. In addition, you will get paid by the page count of pages read.

Breaking it down

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - all self-pub authors on Amazon

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) + Kindle Select (also called KDP Select) - exclusive contract, no sales outside Amazon (except print), includes Kindle Unlimited

I sell my books on my own site but only the print books for the ones on Select. It's exclusively exclusive. No ebook sales anywhere else.

My recommendation is to go with "wide distribution" for your first book Sign up at these sites:

Amazon
Smashwords
CreateSpace

Here's what you'll get with each.

Amazon - total reach across all of Amazon

Smashwords - reach across all venues (you can publish from here to Amazon but why would you? You'd be cutting out your own royalty base b/c you'd share it with Smashwords.) You will get Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple iTunes (iBooks), plus many others.

CreateSpace - you'll be in print on any and all sites where you want to share it. You can go exclusive on Amazon and still sell the print on Smashwords.

If, after six months, you don't see awesome sales at non-Amazon distributors, consider going KDP Select and advertise as "free on Kindle Unlimited" (KU). You will get paid for purchases as well as pages read by those who only "borrow" the books.

What I Do

I have a number of books in that system. I make more in one month on Amazon than I do in a year on the other venues combined. It's different for every person. Be sure to advertise and include places where readers can buy your books. Don't say "I'm on Amazon" when you have an opportunity to write the actual URL to the book's page. Notice the banner above shows the icons for Amazon and CreateSpace, plus the hashtags #ScifiRom and #KindleUnlimited. These are cues to the reader what your book is about and when shared, gives them a way to know what hashtags to use on Twitter or Facebook.

Try everything with your books. They're yours. What works for others might not work for you. Whatever you decide, good luck with sales!

If you've used KDP Select, please share your opinions and tips in the comments.

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Kayelle Allen is a best-selling American author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.

Homeworld/Blog https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen

Join the Romance Lives Forever Reader Group Download four free books and get news about books coming soon. You can unsubscribe at any time.

#MFRWauthor-to-author: Benefits of Self Publishing @gemwriter Claire Gem

Why Claire Gem Chose Self Publishing
I began my published author career with not one, not two, but three small publishers. My experience with them taught me many things, the least of which was patience. Which I don't have a lot of.

The first publisher did an awesome job editing, gave me the cover I asked for, and then nothing else.

The second did a crappy editing job but gave me a wonderful cover.

The third did outstanding edits, but forced me to change the title and sprung a cover on me I still have nightmares about.

Which is why I created Erato Publishing, published HEARTS UNLOCHED in eBook, Paperback, and Audiobook, and will never, ever look back. I am a control freak who also happens to be lucky enough to have a sister who is a graphic designer (and loves designing book covers) and a husband who is patient (and smart) enough to stay out of my way when I'm struggling with formatting issues.

My new release, HEARTS UNLOCHED, is a story that came to me, quite literally, already written. My husband grew up in the area of the Catskills in New York where the book is set: Sullivan County. We were visiting the area last fall when he began reiterating the urban legend about Loch Sheldrake—a lake so deep nobody has ever found the bottom.

So deep, it was the perfect place for the mob to dump bodies back in the day.

Sullivan County is littered with abandoned hotels, resorts, and convention centers. Back in the 50s and up until about 1970, the area enjoyed a prolific tourist trade from folks who lived in nearby NYC, only about two hours away. But after plane travel became more affordable, the tourist trade dried up and died. Many of the hotels were taken over by Jewish religious organizations, burned to the ground, or still stand forgotten and rotting.

As we drove around the lake, I began a ""what if"" conversation with myself. What if there was an abandoned hotel on the shores of the ill-rumored lake? What if there was a Jewish interior designer from Manhattan who owned a weekend house on the lake? Who was also psychic?

What if a sexy Italian investor bought a crumbling hotel on the shores of Loch Sheldrake? What if, after bumping into each other and producing some rather impressive sexual sparks, the investor hires the designer to renovate his hotel? But what if there's a ghost—a poltergeist—connected with the property who has a very personal interest in the psychic designer? Kate's aunt disappeared from the place fifty years ago.

Hearts Unloched

Interior designer Kate Bardach loves her single girl’s lifestyle—living in Manhattan and spending weekends at her lake house. She’s passionate about her career, reinventing old buildings. But there are some projects she can’t take on because of the spirits trapped there. Kate is psychic—she sees dead people.

Marco Lareci is one of Wall Street’s most successful investment brokers who’s achieved all of his life’s goals—except for finding his soulmate.  His latest project, an abandoned resort on Loch Sheldrake, needs a savvy designer to transform the crumbling complex into a boutique hotel. When Marco meets Kate, he can’t believe his luck. She’s the perfect match for his business and his heart.
Marco’s body excites Kate even more than does his renovation project. But the haunting there, a bonafide poltergeist, affects her on an intensely personal level. Kate’s aunt disappeared from the place fifty years ago.

Will the spirit doom Kate and Marco’s love, or drive them closer together?

BUY LINK

ABOUT Claire Gem
Claire turns the paranormal romance genre on its ear by combining the elements of gothic horror, mystery/thriller, and romantic suspense—in present-day settings. It’s a genre she calls New Gothic.

She also writes intensely emotional contemporary romance with a touch of humor under the Claire Gem Contemporary line.

website  |  blog  |  facebook  |  pinterest  |  amazon  |  goodreads

#MFRWAuthor-to-Author Tip: Selecting A Publisher @DianaLRubino

MFRW Author Diana Rubino shares her thoughts on choosing publishers.
Diana Rubino’s passion for history and travel has taken her to every locale of her stories, set in Medieval and Renaissance England, Egypt, the Mediterranean, colonial Virginia, New England, and New York. Her urban fantasy romance, FAKIN’ IT, won a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III Society and the Aaron Burr Association. She lives on Cape Cod with her husband Chris. In her spare time, Diana bicycles, golfs, plays her piano and devours books of any genre.
website  |  blog  |  facebook  |  goodreads  |  twitter

Author-to-Author Tip
Small Presses vs. the “Big Houses” – Something for Everybody
Writing for a small press can be a stepping stone to a career leap—or it can be your entire career. Since no author can plan on a best-selling career with a big house, pitching to the small presses can be your ticket to publication.
 
The independent “indie” publishers are much more willing to take chances on new writers and cultivate their talents. Sure, their bottom line is important, as it is to any for-profit business, but they don’t have the time constraints the big houses have. This gives their editors the luxury of taking more time to work with authors, and spend much more one-on-one time with them on technical details such as point of view, character consistency, and basic grammatical and style issues. Small presses also accept unagented material, so authors can avoid the Catch-22 of not being able to land an agent because they’ve not yet established a track record.

Most likely, your small press book will be POD (print on demand) which means copies will be printed only when a customer orders one. It’s up to the author to visit his/her local bookstores, and some stores will order a few dozen copies, arrange for a signing, and give your books a valuable promotional push. But most small presses run on tight budgets, and the author must take the necessary time and funds to finance a promotion; i.e., costs of designing a website and keeping it current, ads on internet sites such as BTS Book Reviews http://btsemag.com/ and BookDaily, www.bookdaily.com, business cards, bookmarks and other giveaways, travel expenses to signings and conventions, etc.

I always like to inspire aspiring authors by telling my unique story: 
I received my first publishing contract 18 years after writing my first novel. I believe it was my ninth written novel that became my ‘first novel’ – the first that got published, with British publisher Domhan Books (a small press). At the time I signed my first contract, it was the fastest-growing publisher in the U.S. Unfortunately, the owner suffered health problems and could no longer actively run the company, but my five-year tenure there earned me many rave reviews and a Romantic Times Top Pick award.

I never gave up on my dream of that ‘big house’ contract, but continued submitting to small presses, eventually landing contracts with Dreams Unlimited, Stardust Press, Eternal Press, The Wild Rose Press, Solstice Publishing, and Sarah Publishing. Although my agent is currently submitting my most recent works to the big houses, the small presses have been very good to me. I’ve had my backlist republished with Solstice Publishing and The Wild Rose Press, and I do promotional offers such as offering my Ebooks at discounted prices on significant dates, i.e., the anniversary of the Lincoln assassination or the end of Prohibition. The promo I do with Twitter, Goodreads and the author/reader groups on Yahoo have brought me reviews and sales that I’m happy with. My editors at The Wild Rose Press and Solstice Publishing are among the best editors I’ve ever worked with. They make my work sparkle. There’s a lot of talent out there in the small press world, and I advise any aspiring author to submit to them, because they offer great opportunities to start your writing career on the right path.

A few caveats to look out for are the vanity presses, which require that authors pay to have their books published. Some writers decide to go this route and self-publish. Of course some of these books have become best sellers. But make sure you choose a royalty-paying publisher if you don’t wish to go the self-published route.

Small presses have always been around, but with the miracle of the internet, many more are thriving, and authors have the choice of a great variety of outlets for their work. Some specialize in certain genres. You need to do your research to find the best fit for your work. But never before have authors had such a wide range of publishers; something for every taste. Now that the Kindle and other E-book readers have come down in price and their sales are increasing, E-book sales have exploded. E-books have been around since the 90s, but never before have they been so popular.

With the outlets that small presses have to offer, so many more writers than ever before can now share their talents with the world, which shrinks more and more every day!

Diana Rubino's newest book is From Here to Fourteenth Street, Book One of the New York

Saga with The Wild Rose Press.                                               
Buy Link!

It's 1894 on New York's Lower East Side. Irish cop Tom McGlory and Italian immigrant Vita Caputo fall in love despite their different upbringings. Vita goes from sweatshop laborer to respected bank clerk to reformer, helping elect a mayor to beat the Tammany machine. While Tom works undercover to help Ted Roosevelt purge police corruption,

Vita's father arranges a marriage between her and a man she despises. When Tom’s cousin is murdered, Vita’s father and brother languish in jail, charged with the crime. Can Vita and Tom’s love survive poverty, hatred, and corruption?