My first published novel, The Renaissance Club, was released in December 2018. It was the culmination of a complicated journey to publication as my first novel. At the time, I had no idea it would become the first book in a series. It was the end of a long, tortured odyssey from first draft to printed novel selling to the public.Hurrah for me! I’ve never told the full story of how this book was published,…
Calling all creatives: Writers, artists, musicians, people who create and have lively imaginations–do you want to take charge of your books and your work? I do. I want to own my creative life from beginning to end. I came to it through experiences I’ll describe below.I became an indie because publishers have their own ideas of what will sell, and collaborating with them can be rocky, but emerging models of self-publishing offer a wealth of…
I’m a veteran of publishing poetry books with small presses, but now as a successful self-published novelist, I’m considering how to succeed with self-publishing a poetry book. While it’s true that far fewer readers engage with poetry than with fiction, I know the poetry readers are out there. And I know how to publish a book using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, a good cover designer, and promoting books with ads. What I don’t know is…
Many people ask me how to self-publish a book on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). What are the steps? Is it easy? Do you have to pay someone to help? What do you need to have ready before starting? This article provides some answers and links. It’s relatively simple, if you consider making a nicely puffy cheese souffle simple. You don’t need to hire people, but I do. If you have hours of time to…
Finding Your Path in Publishing The young writer of fiction today faces a very different publishing landscape than even a decade ago. You can take a far different path in publishing a novel than when I started out, decades ago. Choice! A new writer has so many more choices than existed in the past — which consisted mainly of submitting manuscripts directly to a publisher, if you had connections, or to an agent.
Creating Your Author Business Plan Plan out yours steps for launching and advertising your new book. Phase it on a calendar of events for launch week and month, post-launch month, sustaining sales, discounts and giveaways. If you plan specific promotional efforts, you can calculate cost and project returns on your investment. Include a budget for each phase and each advertising platform you intend to use (Facebook, BookBub, Amazon, Pinterest, etc.). Budget for education: books, courses,…
Deciding to self-publish fiction is full of thorny questions. I’ve asked myself tough questions at every stage of creating a novel. Now I ask these thorny questions as early as developing a concept for a new story. These are discussions you might have with your agent if you traditionally publish. As an indie, you have to force yourself to consider how the market will receive what you want to write. It’s all about analyzing genres…
Self-publishing is a vast subject, but I’ve narrowed down my thoughts to self-publishing for writers of women’s fiction. That’s what I know, and there isn’t a lot written about it. This is Part 2 of my blog series “Self-Publishing for Heroines”
About a year ago, I made a momentous decision. I decided on going indie as an author of women’s fiction. It was a choice born of necessity, but it grew to be a good thing for me. I didn’t intend to do it, but I haven’t regretted it, as I’ll explain. My first self-published book, The Renaissance Club, came out in late 2018. It’s done so well under my imprint, Time Fold Books, that a…
The Invisibles on Amazon “A timeless and poignant story of sisterhood, with all its joys and challenges, and also a reminder that we can dearly love and care for those who are not exactly like us.” — A reader. Several writers’ groups and blogs I follow are hosting big discussions about publishing and changes in the industry. Is it a good time to self-publish a novel? Everyone agrees that it’s harder to get an agent…