Emotional Craft of Fiction – book and workshop (you can attend the next one in Irvine, CA in Jan 2018!) My back going out on me kept me from one day of the three in this workshop, but the other two were attended propped up in a wheelchair among friends and relatively pain-free with the help of modern medicine. Not… Read More
Community, Isolation, and Time Alone With One’s Thoughts
In our hyper-connected society, the art of being alone seems almost scandalous. And yet, there are studies which show people are even more isolated than ever before. Paradoxes—our world is built on them. For writers, isolation can be a serious issue. At the same time that you’re struggling with the emotional demands of writing well, the solitary nature of the… Read More
CONNECTION
An essential human need. Babies wither without it. Adults blossom with it. Just now, I witnessed the most adorable thing at the Panera. An older woman—at least 70—and a 20-something man embraced after an effusive “Good morning!” They both have Panera aprons on. All smiles, they set to work, doing the things Panera employees do. How delightful. And these two… Read More
KEYS FOR SUCCESS IN INDIE PUBLISHING*
*including bonus swears 1 – DO YOUR HOMEWORK – read my books, study the bestsellers, invest the time and money it takes to do that. To REALLY do that, not a five minute glance at the bestseller charts and assuming you know what they’re saying. Construct your own graduate-level Indie Publishing course and get a damn A in that class…. Read More
Daughters of FLOM – Where to Find Community in the Indie Publishing World
Community – DAUGHTERS OF FLOM (the now-retired For Love or Money FB Group) Community is important for indie authors. Support. Information. Networking for business knowledge and collaboration. I love that the closing of FLOM has inspired a dozen+ groups to pick up the mantle, carrying on the ethos of For Love or Money (respecting all authors, treating people with love)! Some… Read More
Special Recommendation: EDITOR
Adam Heine is a long-standing critique partner of mine. His insights into storytelling and command of craft always take my novels to a higher level. He’s recently started an editing business, and I highly recommend him. He’s also a published author. HE’S ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS NOW! Read about his rates here: http://www.adamheine.com/p/editing-services.html HINT: I especially like his “Just the Editorial, Please”… Read More
The Group is Closing but the Blog/Newsletter Live On!
I’m watching everyone process the closing of the FLOM FB group… and I couldn’t be more proud of how we’re making this transition. People are sad, but grateful. They’re processing it and finding that it’s opening new opportunities to recommit to the sanctity of their own writing time, spend less time on FB, and connect in new, smaller groups dedicated… Read More
On Pulling Back From Social Media
I’m booting up this blog again as I pull back from a very successful Facebook Group that I started (“For Love or Money”) – ending on a high note with 3,936 members. It was a wonderful place and I loved the positive, respectful vibe created there by everyone who joined! So why end something so successful? Most groups have a… Read More
16000 pre-orders in six months. How we did it.
(courtesy of Gwynn White) Sorry in advance for the very long post but there is a lot to cover. Tomorrow, after six months on pre-order, Dominion Rising Spec SFF boxed set goes live with just over 16000 combined pre-orders on Amazon, Nook, and Apple. A year ago, when P.K. Tyler and I met online and decided to organize a list-making boxed set,… Read More
What it takes to become a $100k Author
(Courtesy of Blair Babylong) There’s a thread on Kboards right now about what it takes to get to $100k/yr as an author. There’s some very good advice up there from authors such as “PeanutButterCracker” (I know who it is, and they’re *very* successful,) Deanna Chase, and others, but there’s a whole lot of griping and pushback and some spectacularly bad advice,… Read More
GOING WIDE (Self-Publishing)
May 2016: Reporting back with SKQ’s results from taking her Mindjack series wide again. CAVEATS I didn’t just yank my books from KU and throw them up on the other retailers. I did literally everything you can imagine to make this go well – made contacts at Nook and iBooks to get promo, endeavored to really understand the other retailers,… Read More
The Market For Middle Grade (Self-Publishing)
Children’s Writers (MG, picture books) (reprised from an epic comment I made below) I often simply say “indie MG doesn’t sell” and that’s true. It’s also true that MG tradpub doesn’t sell either – the market is just really small. In fact, I’d say there are far more children’s book writers than there is a market for MG books (see… Read More
DEMYSTIFYING IBOOKS:
Kristen at iBooks chatted with me today, and WOW lots of information. I’m excited to share this with you because I feel like we’re prying back some of the Secret Mystery stuff and getting at the part everyone wants, authors and retailers alike – how to sell more books! Here we go… HOW CAN I GET PROMO AT IBOOKS? This… Read More
DEMYSTIFYING NOOK:
Julie at Nook took time to talk with me today. Which was very nice of her. This is long, but it has LOTS of great info. Here we go… HOW CAN I GET PROMO AT NOOK? This is the question everyone has, and the one I asked first. Basically, Nook has a problem – lots of authors and only one… Read More
WAIT UNTIL THE NEW YEAR TO PUBLISH!!!
I feel like this needs ALL CAPS because I’ve answered this question several times and I feel like it needs to be a perennial announcement. From Thanksgiving to New Years is a lousy time to publish. Too many advertisements chasing too few reader eyeballs. /feelfreetodisagree The exception to this is Holiday-themed books, of course.
KU vs. Wide – Benefits for Readers
We often discuss the benefits/disadvantages of KU v WIDE for the author… but we don’t often talk about the benefits of KU for readers. This morning, I got yet another one of those emails where I realize how my books affect readers so much more than I ever expected. This one was from a disabled vet. She’s on my reviewer… Read More
KU (Kindle Unlimited) vs. WIDE
May 2016: I’m a fan of KU (but whether you’re wide or in KU, I recommend going all-in. Half in and half out gives you all the negatives (reader complaints about not being able to get all your books) without any of the positives (benefits of borrowers being able to read your entire catalogue, KU visibility enhancing sales on Amazon.)… Read More
PERMAFREE vs. PERMA99cents
(I’m sick, but apparently that doesn’t stop me from working.) Just wanted to share some results. I ran an experiment with setting one of Penname’s books permafree for Dec to compare to revenue with it as a 99cent book in KU with 5 day free runs (the rest of her books are in KU). CONCLUSION: Sales go up and borrows… Read More
EXPERIMENTING IS CRITICAL
I’m always saying you have to experiment – that’s because it’s what I do, and I attribute a lot of my success to that. But keep in mind that the results of said experimentation are *not* permanent. Ads that performed before might not now. The ground shifts. Permafrees aren’t as effective (but still work). FB advertising might work better (or… Read More
How to Launch a New Author
How do you launch a new author into the top 3k on the Amazon store and into the top 100 of a competitive category like Space Opera (#15 of Hot New Releases)? (My son’s book did this yesterday.) You might say “be SKQ’s son” but that’s really not the answer. I’ve helped launch other authors with new pennames or new… Read More
Series Page on All Retailers
SERIES PAGES – Novels and Novellas In case you think I’m an unabashed genius at everything (*snort*), I just recently figured out that each of the retailers treats series pages and *order in series* very differently. So this is in case you didn’t know (like me): AMAZON Will add any length book in your series page as long as it’s… Read More
HIRING AN AUTHOR ASSISTANT
OCTOBER 2016: There are two critical hurdles that I think indie authors face – one is growing their business from part-time to full-time; the second is growing from a full-time business-of-one to the point where you need (and can support) an assistant to grow your business even further. Both are serious challenges – I know many authors who struggle with… Read More
Freelance Service Providers
Bryon Quertermous – developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading (http://editing.bryonquertermous.com/ ) RECOMMENDED BY: Susan Kaye Quinn David Gatewood – developmental editing, line editing, copy editing (http://lonetrout.com/) RECOMMENDED BY: Susan Kaye Quinn, Samuel Peralta A Little Red Ink – macro, copy editing, proofreading, final pass (http://ALittleRedInk.com) RECOMMENDED BY: Susan Kaye Quinn Sarah Allan – developmental editing, copy editing, beta reading, proofreading (http://sarahallanauthor.blogspot.com/p/editing.html) RECOMMENDED… Read More
Newsletters are Key for Self-Published Authors
Newsletters are KEY for building a fanbase. If you’re looking for an example of how I newsletter, here’s one that went out today: https://app.mailerlite.com/b4f2l7 I tend to only send out newsletters when I have new releases, sales, giveaways or other value-add things that my subscribers would like to see… however, I have those things happening SO OFTEN that I have… Read More
Rebooting an old, low-selling series
From March 2016: I’m in the process of rebooting a series whose sales had fallen, so I thought I would share the results before it goes BOOM next week with a Bookbub ad. THE BACKSTORY: This is my steampunk fantasy romance trilogy. It’s well-reviewed and has sold some in the past, but this mish-mash of genres, plus the small size… Read More
Blurbs, descriptions, Amazon product page
Having a tight, action-packed blurb is KEY to selling books. I’m helping April’s consult winner rewrite her blurb this morning, and it’s reminding me once again how important it is to deliver a great story experience in just a few words – it’s a promise to the reader that the book is worth their time. It’s also reminding me that… Read More
SELL THE EBOOK FIRST
I’ve said for a long time that everything flows from ebook sales – audiobook sales, paperback sales, foreign rights deals, agents, print-only deals – all the “markers of success” that authors often seek. If you sell enough ebooks, the rest will come (not always – a lot of the world is crazy random, especially when tradpub is involved). You’re not… Read More
FINISHED NOT PERFECT
This video focuses on art, but is just as appropriate for the author. I think of the years I spent writing but never finishing my stories because they weren’t perfect. I still struggle with this, but I’ve finally found that place where I can accept the fact that my stories will never be perfect, but at least they’re finished.
DRIVE and Indie Publishing, Part 3 – 10% Time
The idea of 10% time is letting your employees spend 10% of their hours (or one day a quarter – whatever) working on any project they want. The idea is to spur innovation. Now, this doesn’t naturally appear to apply to writers. I mean, we’re on 10% Time ALL THE TIME, right? Well… not really. In a global sense, yes…. Read More
BE YOUR OWN ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
With 30+ titles under Penname and SKQ, I’ve got more IP than some small presses. As such, I begin to appreciate the problems they have with properly marketing all of their catalog, but more importantly, I’ve become my own Acquisitions Editor. WRITE AND RELEASE There’s this idea in Indie Land that you have to write, release, write, release. Write.Publish.Repeat (a… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing – Part 1 – Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
I have many thoughts about Daniel Pink’s book DRIVE and how its theories of motivation intersect with indie publishing. MANY THOUGHTS. So many I have to break this into parts. A PRIMER DRIVE is about Motivation 3.0 – the autonomy, mastery, and purpose that drives our intrinsic motivation to work, play, live, and create. Motivation 2.0 is your typical carrots-and-sticks… Read More