Business of Writing Archives - Page 2 of 2

Some of you know the story of how I came to be an indie-published author (aka self-published). Probably more of you don’t.

The highlights are here:

Doctor said to put my affairs in order
Initial panic at thought of dying
I didn’t want my novel manuscripts thrown out by the kids
I sought out the best solution for me
I acted on it by publishing my first book
People liked the first, so I did the second one, too
I was Indie before it was cool
The doctor was wrong

That doctor actually did me a favor. I love what being in charge of my writing career does for me.

However, I see new and wanna-be authors making costly, unthinking mistakes in seeking traditional publishing for their book. I’ve done the careful cautions, but can’t save everyone from their dreams. They’ll sign the contracts, get badly burned, then ask around about how they can get out of those hideous contracts. Most times, they can’t. In a fraction of cases, they can, but only because the publisher already breached the contract.

I’m about to the point that I won’t open my mouth anymore. It’s sad.

Yesterday, one of my heroes among writers, Dean Wesley Smith, published a blog post that tells how he feels nowadays. Check it out here.

EDIT: I’ve fixed the link. I’m blaming the error on my fat fingers using the WordPress phone app.

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Business is Keeping Me Busy

I’m in the middle of taking a course on business for fiction writers. One of the things I’ve learned is that an Indie Publisher should have many streams of revenue. Here a few sales and there a few sales adds up.

One revenue stream often neglected by Indies is print editions. I’m hearing that I should rectify this situation.

It must be true. Many times I’ve heard one of my friends say, “Well, I’ll buy it when it comes out in print.” Make that two, no, three friends. There must be more who I haven’t heard from.

I’ve always thought, Well, it’s only a novella, and I don’t plan to do it in print. It’s too small.

Always Learning New Stuff

But I’ve learned that nothing is too small for print! Bundling several projects together can make a larger printed product, but it’s a valid idea to have ALL work in print.

So, I’ve taken a bit of time away from writing to do some business “housekeeping.” That is, I’ve been making print editions of a couple of pieces of my work. I will continue to do this in the future.

Today I also uploaded an updated cover for The Man from Shenandoah with the correct Book Number, and will do the same with Spinster’s Folly after TMFS clears the process.

Besides that, I’m toiling over new print editions for the last two of the Owen Family Saga novels, Ride to Raton, and Trail of Storms. Once they are ready to go, I’ll rescind permission for iUniverse to print those books. My relationship with them will then be at an end.

FYI, prices of the print editions for Gone for a Soldier, The Man from Shenandoah, and Spinster’s Folly are going up a dollar each, but Amazon is holding the line with sales at the lower prices. I don’t know how long that will last, however.

In Print Today:

Newly published is a print edition of Western Stories: Four Tales of the West, with a brand new cover! It’s currently available for $6.99 plus shipping and handling from CreateSpace and Amazon, and is coming soon to BN.com, the Barnes & Noble online store.

Work continues on a mega print edition of The Complete Owen Family Saga. That has been quite an undertaking. I’ve had to change the font and margins several times in order to keep the book within the page limit for the size. At first, I thought I might have to go up to 8 1/2- x 11-inches, but I figured out a way to keep it at the familiar 6-x 9-inches.

It will be a thick book. The minus is that it has over 400,000 words, so the font size is smaller than I would like. However, it’s going to have that stunning yellow cover. I might do it in the silky-feeling matte cover. The five novels within are in the best reading order. Those are big pluses.

I trust these moves will be good for business.

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