eBook Experiment - Sequels

I ended up swapping some of my tasks. I started reading the sequel this weekend, rather than doing my editing. And again, I couldn't stop reading, although this one is far from ready. I will not be able to set a publication date for it that I can put in this book right at the start.

But I do see that I not only have one sequel, but two. The second book, called Test of Freedom, is much longer than the first. And the first third of it can easily be a story unto itself, and it is kinda sketchy in parts. The second part is kind of a mess, and might work better if it were to stand alone.

This is very cool, because the very best possible promotion for a book is another book. That's what you need when you're marketing via something like Kindle or any other "bookstore" - you want to take up shelf space to be noticed. And a trilogy is always better than a duology.

If I do nothing else with this experiment, getting three books up in a series over this coming year would be a great way to accelerate the test. It should not affect my schedule on my mystery writing, but it will affect my short story writing.

The cool thing about this is that if the project doesn't fly, it's okay, because I wanted to get these stories out there. But if it does fly, I have at least one more story I'd like to write in this series, and I have another possible series set in a different stagey, pulpy world that I don't want to put into traditional publishing, so I've just never written it.

(That one could potentially be the same world 150 years later, or it could be a world with some fantasy element, like maybe zombies. I'm not a big zombies fan, but the characters need to be fighting something simplistically monstrous, although I'd rather it not be horror. We'll see if I ever get to it.)

Silly Insane Me (Re The Cover)

I have not gone back to look at the typography on the cover in a while, so I forgot that I actually did find my perfect sanserif font! What you see in that image is not Birch. It's Helvetica Neue, Condensed.

(If this doesn't matter to you, you probably shouldn't even consider designing your own cover. If it does matter to you... you're typography geek. You should probably get a life or something.)

eBook Experiment - the First Version of the Cover

I mentioned earlier some of my practical thoughts about covers and genre. Now I'm down to thinking personally about my book, and I wanted a cover that accurately depicted the character and themes.

And as I mentioned earlier I am working at this point with no budget, so I decided to go with something from the public domain, something classic that would suggest an historical time period, even though this novel doesn't take place in real history.

My first thought was to look for something like Liberty Leading the People. The problem is that my heroine, Mary, is a loner who wouldn't be caught dead actually leading people. She's more a do-it-yourselfer. (And besides it's not the right period - a little late.)

So I thought about a more romance-oriented cover. Something that depicts Mary's soul, a free spirit. So I went for George Romney, who painted lots and lots of pictures of Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante. A free spirited maenad type.


The problem with this is two things. One is that the woman looks too happy. This is what is in Mary's soul, but it's not her. Mary was that girl once, but she was orphaned and raised by well-intentioned puritans. As she describes it around mid-book, they stuck her in a box and locked it. And the events at the beginning of the story undid the catch on the box, and out popped Mary "all on springs." There is something fierce and practical about Mary too. She is a hard working peasant woman, raised by puritans, after all.

And then there is the issue of that picture with the title The Whore of Freedom. It makes her seem like a party girl. So, I went for another period artist, George Stubbs.


Ah ha! There's the attitude. Bold peasant woman looking you right in the eye. I think this un-whore-like woman, in conjunction with the title, makes for an interesting cover.

Of course, there was still the problem of all the guys climbing around on the hay pile, but it's amazing what you can do with the Photoshop Rubberstamp tool.

As for the rest, as I mentioned before, I knew I needed a very prominent title. For that I needed a bold and condensed font. I would have preferred a sans-serif font, but Birch really gave me what I wanted in weight and size. It looks pretty good, I think. (Later edit - silly me, I DID find that perfect sanserif font - it's Helvetica Neue Condensed.)

(Note to amateur typographers: Do get the right font. Don't just stretch your fonts to make them taller or fatter. They will look whacky. The cross strokes really do have to have a thickness that is in the right proportion to the uprights. Also, if you don't know know what leading is, don't try this at home at all.)

Yellow is visible, and I think works with the prevailing blue-green. The drop shadow is the dark brown color from the hay, and it makes the yellow stand out, especially at smaller sizes. But unfortunately like all thin details, it looks different at different levels of zoom. If I offset it more it would look better at small sizes, but awful at full size, so this is my compromise. The author name is not as big, but big enough to see even at the smallest version of the thumbnail.

I also added a blurb in the same dark brown as the drop shadow. While this won't be readable in a thumbnail, it is a style element that common in this kind of book cover, so it "looks right." It is readable if people click on it.

Here is a half-size image of the beta version of the cover. The smaller one is the size that Amazon commonly displays Kindle covers. (Note, the drop shadow would probably look better in the littler one in real life - I was in a hurry so I did not export the little one from the original, but rather just shrank the other one down.)

eBook Experiment - Titles - The Good, The Bad, and The Spammy

Sometimes a book just wants a certain title. This one wanted a title that I really wasn't sure about, but it did really fit the book. It's the title of a book within the story, and a label that the unfortunate heroine gets applied to her. It's kinda thematic and all that.

And I find it odd that I haven't had any negative response to it. (So far. Not that many people have seen it, yet.)

The title is The Whore of Freedom.

It's a provocative title, and that's a good thing. You want a title people might take a double-look at. And since the book wants that title and all that, I can't think of a better one.

Most of the arguments that I can come up with against it comes down to "it's provocative." And I have to think, hey, I'm the Daring Novelist not the Ninny Novelist.

There is one practical argument against it - it contains a word that could get caught in spam filters. Even though I don't intend to promote it by email, pretty much any promotion online is going to be affected by spam filters and word blacklists.

Luckily we promote books by author name as well as by title. In particular, the website associated with a book can be the author name or a title. So it becomes especially important for me to decide whether to use a pseudonym or not. I think I've pretty much decided to publish under my own name. It keeps things simple.

The other potential downside of the provocative title is that it doesn't really give a good picture of the story by itself. And that's where the cover comes in - and why a good cover is important even in an ebook. Later tonight I will post the beta version of the cover I came up with, with some commentary as to why I chose it.

The eBook Publishing Experiment Goals

For the new visitors, this blog is for progress reports on ongoing writing projects - "novel dares" mostly. I report every day to keep me honest. For the next couple of weeks, though, I'll be taking time out from writing to do something different. I'm going to self-publish an ebook. (More info on my reasons why here and why not here.) This is for fun, and is not to be confused with my efforts at "real" publication.

I am a marketing geek, and I really enjoy this sort of thing. So sue me. (Wait. Don't sue me until after I establish an LLC first....)

Overall goal: to post the book on Kindle and Smashwords by April 4, 2010.

Broken down into tasks:

1. Read, edit and format ms. (By March 21)
2. Get feedback on the cover, and do what's necessary. (By March 20 - fixes by March 28)
3. Read the sequel (yeah, there is a rough draft of a sequel) and judge how soon it could be edited and ready so I can put a "coming soon" notice in the back of the first book. (Mar 22-24)
4. Copyright Registration (March 25)
5. Catalog Copy - test with my writer's group and here. (March 25-28)
6. Get my author website updated. (March 25- April 3)
7. Upload - go live. (April 4)

Some of these tasks will be simple, or even involve waiting around for responses, so I will probably also start in on the next Dare, which will be reading and idea generation.

On The Subject of Book Covers

The eBook Publishing Experiment Continues....

Book covers are big subject. There are a whole lot of things that go into a cover, from the art, the design, the typography, the spine and the back cover. Embossing. Gloss and paper type.

eBook "covers" however have simpler criteria. They are just a single image - no spine, no back - and they are generally displayed in small thumbnails. The customer can click on the cover to get a better look, but usually they've made the decision as to whether it looks interesting based on the thumbnail.

I've been studying the covers of ebook bestsellers, and I notice they seem to have very prominent typography. When the image is shrunk down to a tiny thumbnail, you can still read the title and usually the author name too. You probably can't make out the illustration, but the design looks good even so.

So that is goal one - good clear typography designed for thumbnail viewing.

From there other elements help send signals about genre and flavor. A thriller will usually use the illustration as a secondary graphic element. Category romances will have a full cover illustration heavily featuring one or both of the major characters, which gives a hint of whether it's "hot" or "chaste" or paranormal or contemporary. (Certain publishers use a specific layout for each of the specialized lines - but those are a whole different marketing approach, so I'm ignoring those, mostly.) However, as romances cross over into other genres, they take on elements of those other genres' cover style. Which leaves me a little leeway.

In addition to those considerations, I have my own budget to consider. Literary and mainstream covers often use classic (public domain) art for the illustration elements in a cover. While eventually I might pay for my own cover illustration, I have decided that for my novel I need a suggestion of historical period, as well as a good human figure, so I will probably use something from George Stubbs or George Romney for the illustration part of the cover.

This will help give the flavor of being a little mainstream/literary while still being solidly in the romance category. And I'll certainly go with the large typography of the overall "commercial" category. I'll go into the issues of each element more later.

Now, about that title....

Genre's New World Order

I really think we're at the beginning of a very interesting period for literature and other media. Right now, genres are slipping and blending, and coming up with wonderful new genres.

I think thing that really struck me about this was when I was watching "24" the other day. I don't watch it on broadcast any more. I usually set up my laptop in the kitchen when I'm cooking, and watch it on Hulu in a more leisurely way.

My mother came in the other day and watched a few minutes and wanted to know what was going on. So I paused the show and explained who was decieving who, and who was sleeping with who, and who was in grave peril.... and it struck me:

The TV show "24" is a soap opera with guns and bombs.

My interest in the show had been waning until I thought of that. And now I find it fun again, in spite of the worsening idiot-potting.

Whether it's paranormal romances or zombie detectives, or literary culinary fiction - genre is bending and blending these days. And this is possible partly because marketing is changing. The power is more and more in the reader's hands. Thanks to the internet, it is easier for people to find what they are looking for, no matter how strange and unique it might be.

But with every opportunity is a challenge: if it's new, it's harder to get across to the audience just what it is. The cover, the title, and the book description all have a lot to convey. With an established genre, it's easy. Publishers have long used particular styles for particular kinds of books.

When you've crossed genres, though, you have to find ways to suggest not only the big idea of what it is, but also the smaller elements of taste. If you see a horror cover, you know what you're going to get. If you see a cozy mystery cover you know what you're going to get. But what should you expect from something that seems like a cross between horror and a cozy?

My book is primarily a romance, but it isn't a category romance. Once upon a time it might be considered a pot-boiler with humor. The themes are women's literary and mainstream, but the plot and settings are fast and sketchy like pulp fiction. The humorous style and the romantic story is chicklit-ish, but the story events tend toward sprawling and adventurous.

With something like this, the cover, title and book description has to say what it is without triggering expectations of what it isn't.

(You know. Just like with any book.)

Setting the Baseline on the eBook Publishing Experiment

"I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?" - Emily Dickenson

J. A. Konrath is highly successful at self-publishing on Kindle - but he has so much going for him, and he does so many different things to give his sales a boost, how do you know what is working and what is accident? And how do we know if any of this would work at all for the average joe?

So the main thing I want to do with this eBook/Kindle Publishing Experiment Dare is to help establish a baseline. What is the result of the minimum professional effort? What can a book do on its own? And then later on, I can try out various marketing efforts to see what difference they make.

When I say "minimum" effort, I mean professional work, but without anything outside the book -- no reputation, no platform, no immediate marketing plan to credit or blame for success.

I figure you need at least:

1. A good book, well edited, properly formatted and converted.
2. A professional cover.
3. Professional catalog copy.

That's all you need to get into the Kindle store and Smashwords (which gets you into a whole lot of other venues). From there, Amazon and Smashwords both have internal systems to help readers find the books, but you do have to optimize the book and cover and copy to make use of that. So that's another task that has to be done up front.

And, of course, I will do more marketing later, so I have to build a foundation for that into the book too. For instance, I need to decide on things like whether to use a pseudonym, and what website or contact info to include in the author notes, and whether or not I'm going to publish the sequel and put that info in the book as well.

Of course, the marketing I do later will be much like the marketing you might do for a book published with a traditional publisher. And in that sense it should be a good learning experience for my writing career overall.

Tomorrow, I'll discuss covers and titles.

Why Not Traditional Publishing?

Someone asked this question in the comment section of my post about my upcoming Kindle Publishing Experiment. "Why not use traditional publishing?"

It's an important question, but it's the wrong question. Asking that is like asking someone who went and got some Chinese dumplings for lunch why they didn't get a delicious panini instead. I am not (I repeat I AM NOT) forgoing traditional publishing.

You should never do something, especially something as difficult as publishing, because something else isn't working out for you. You should do it for its own sake.

Self-publishing is for people who want to be a publisher. It's for people who desperately want to do marketing and editing and layout and design and copywriting and bookkeeping. That's a separate profession from being a writer. If you want to be a writer, you need to find a publisher who is at least as good at their job as you are at yours (and preferably better).

This upcoming publishing dare is an experiment. I'm doing it for it's own sake. I am not willing to sacrifice any of my other writing to this experiment. And because I don't have time to write anything new, I would have put it off -- until I remembered that I already had a novel that actually was tailor made for this.

For those who are interested in some of the pros and cons of self-publishing, you might look at this post on J. A. Konrath's blog "Whoa, There eBook Writer!" Konrath is highly successful at self-publishing, but he got there through traditional publishing.

Part of the purpose of my experiment will be to set a baseline - to try to separate out the process from other factors, like the fame of the author. (More about that tonight.)

Problem Solving

Are your characters persistent in the face of obstacles? Are they as good at problem solving as a pudgy Japanese Scotch Fold cat named Maru?

Going after a goal is what makes your characters interesting.

Madness and Self-Publication

About ten years ago, I got my life back from the Kerfuffle Monster (otherwise known as the Day Job and Other Life Issues). That beast had pretty much shut down my writing for over a year, and I had finally battled my way back from the abyss. I got back my time, and sanity.

I needed to get my good habits back, though. I needed to throw myself into something, but since my skills were rusty, I also needed to shut down my inner critic. I needed to do something fun, with full permission to fail.

So I started my first novel dare. I was going to write a "trashy romance" in two months. It would be just an experiment and pure fun - something that broke some rules. And not big exciting rules, but a quiet rule; I was going to write something that concentrated on the drama of the story, and which contained none of the elaborate "world building" I'd been trained to do by my SF writer friends. This story would be set in a simple, sketchy world that was almost like a theatrical backdrop.

Which meant, of course, that it would be unpublishable. It wasn't historical, and it wasn't fantasy, and it wasn't realistic. And me being me, it was also not in the least bit trashy. Sigh.

But there was something magical about it, and everyone who read it was enthusiastic about it. Still, other than trotting it out and doing a little rewriting on it, I just left it in a drawer.

However, I have two drives in my life. One is writing, the other is entrepreneurship. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs, and I often hear the internet business sirens call. I expect to start self-publishing ebooks one day, probably reprints of short fiction for free as a promotional thing. Or at least so I thought.

The thing is, there are two rules of entrepreneurship: The key one, the most important one is: Start Now. The other is: Experiment (i.e. fail a lot before you succeed).

What, oh what, do I have in my arsenal that I could possibly experiment with? I need to save my mysteries for the "legit" publishing world. One day I will self-publish that not-trashy romance, but it really isn't something I should do before I have a good reputation, should I? But maybe I could publish it under a pseudonym!

So I pulled out the book and took a gander at the opening page, and kept reading. And reading. I couldn't stop. So... I'm thinking I may even put my real name on it.

This week I will be defining the task ahead of me. I will need not only to proof and edit the manuscript properly, but have a professional looking cover, and good catalog copy, and register the copyright and do layout and figure out what website to send readers to in the author note a the end.

By the end of this week, I will have set my goals and time line.

Day 55 - 2095 Words THE END (of the dare, anyway)

I still have a lot of clean up to do, but I think it's time to stick a fork in this dare. I filled the manuscript with notes. I'll be getting back to it officially in May, but I may take it up before then in small spurts. (In particular I may pick out a weekend or so for each of the three sections that need some work to do exploratory writing and brainstorming.)

Tomorrow I will unveil my next Dare, which has changed a bit in the past month. I will be doing a Kindle Publishing Experiment Dare.

Over the next five days I'll be posting my ponderings about the nature and goals and tasks, and on Friday, I'll post the official time line for the dare (which I expect to last about a month).

Running Total: 60204 Words.

60204 / 70000 words. 86% done!

Day 54 - 1000 Words Exactly

My goal right now is not just to rack up word counts, but to log all of my ideas, options and intentions as thoroughly as I can.

You set a novel aside is so you can forget details and come at it fresh.... so if there are important details, they need to be written down somewhere, or you will either NOT forget the novel sufficiently, or you will lose something important.

So I did spend a lot more energy logging information today. I found three larger sections that still need some real exploratory writing before they will shape up properly, but the rest of the story just has small gaps.

Running Total: 59109 Words.

59109 / 70000 words. 84% done!

In Today's Pages: Karla witnesses a shooting, but loses her wits and her cellphone.

Day 53 - 1076 Words

I read through a lot more, and did some editing, so I probably wrote more words than that. The progress in the title is just the net gain.

But I still didn't do as much as I really should have. I think I'm getting tired. I'm really going to try to hit 60k tomorrow, though.

Running Total: 58109 Words.

58109 / 70000 words. 83% done!

In Today's Pages: Too many different things across the second half of the story.

Day 52 - 1865 Words

I continued the read through, but I'm at the point where I have a lot more gaps, so I have been making good notes in the manuscript for later. I do feel good about the flow, and I think this story is stronger than I had originally imagined. It will also, however, take a lot of work in some areas on the rewrite. Especially in secondary characters, and maybe loosening up the tone.

I hope to finish strong this weekend, since I am coming up on gaps where I have some fresh and exciting ideas. We'll see.

Running Total: 57033 Words.

57033 / 70000 words. 81% done!

In Today's Pages: Mostly little bits and pieces, and Karla takes a ride.