Showing posts with label e-publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label e-publishing. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Creating a Platform for Novices
Four weeks ago I'd never heard the term "Creating a Platform." For those novices reading this, it's what you do to have an online presence to be able to promote your work.
With e-publishing this is essential because you are your own marketing firm. E-publishing sites do some marketing for you; some more than others, but they all expect you to market yourself. Unless you're just publishing something for your friends, family and or colleagues, you'll want to find a way to get the word out there that your book exists; not enough readers are just going to happen to see your book listed and decide to buy it.
Ideally, you should have started self promoting from the minute you first set your hands on a computer. Waiting until your book has already been published is not the best idea, but better then than later.
There is so much to learn about the process. If you're already big on social networking you've got a good base to work from. The really great thing about all of this is every site I mention in this blog is free; it'll just cost your a bunch of your time.
I started blogging the day I first decided to e-publish my novel, "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." I actually had no idea what I was doing. I'd liked the info I'd gotten about Smashwords and thought at the time I'd publish with them. Reading over all the great info they had, I read that all e-published author's should have a blog. I clicked on the link and within a minute or so I had this blog.
Blogger makes the process of starting a blog incredibly easy. Soon after, I started a website on Wordpress. This was rather confusing because I'd read that I could start a website on Wordpress but it's actually a blog site. However, after some fiddling around in the site I found out that it's a blog site that lends itself well to website hosting. You create a static page to be your home page and go on from there.
I also opened a Pinterest account, a Twitter account, an Facebook Author's page (I'd already had an active Facebook personal presence for years), breathed life into my long neglected Linkedin account, and recently started up Tumblr and Aboutme accounts. And +Author Harrie Farrow - just created a google+ Author's page.
All these accounts have to be monitored. All of them need fresh information and interaction with other users frequently.
There's lots to learn in each of these sites about getting your page set up just right. Linking the pages, which apparently is essential, is like rocket science (just do as your told in each site's help pages and you'll be alright - if you try to stop and make sense of it all... well, good luck with that).
I may be spreading myself too thin; I'll see how it goes and keep you posted.
E-publishing my first novel, working on my second novel, and self promoting, is my full time job right now, but frankly this business of setting up self promoting (creating my platform) is currently taking up all my time. Soon though I'll be able to get back to my fiction?
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Fist Impressions - Book Covers!
Fist Impressions - Book Covers!
Been struggling for weeks now to come up with a good cover for my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." If this had been anything but seriously daunting, my book would have been published already. I admit, I'm a slow learner. Not slow as in dull witted, but slow as in it takes me a while to process, assimilate and digest info that requires an important creative output on my end. I've been doing a whole lot of learning and digesting, and have found some interesting and useful bits of info and advice.
A book's cover is of utmost consequence - it's that all important first impression. This is especially true in today's internet world of massive, quick, and ever-evolving information. In a book store or library, once you've bothered to pull a book off the shelf, chances are you're going to look at the blurb on the back, or read the first paragraph, if the cover is anything less than repulsive. On the internet, people make split second decisions to move on if their attention is not immediately sparked by the initial image they encounter.
One of the great things about e-publishing is that one can change one's cover easily and relatively quickly if a cover doesn't seem to be capturing an audience. In fact this convenience has demonstrated quite clearly how much difference a good cover can make. I read of a woman whose first book wasn't selling so well even though those who bought it gave it great reviews. She came up with a much better cover and her sales exploded.
With e-publishing size matters. Covers on e-books are only virtual and most often seen in the size of a thumb nail. An author's graphics have to be big enough to be clear in that size. Same with the title. Extra long tittles, like the working title I've had for my second - soon to be finished - novel "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round," end up needing smaller font sizes to fit, and thus become illegible. Which is why I've decided to go back to my original title, "The Man with the Camera."
Color is an issue too because many e-readers show the cover only in black and white. The first option I tried for "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" had a black silhouette on a blue background; the effect was pretty cool in color but didn't work at all in black and white.
Some other useful advice on creating a cover, that I discovered, includes:
Don't depict some profound aspect about your story that isn't going to mean anything to someone who hasn't read it yet.
Figure out what feelings your book is meant to provoke and create a cover that will provoke the same feelings. You can do this by exploring what your book's themes are.
Sex sells, so if you have a lot of sex in your story use it on your cover. Duh; but someone did have to point this out to me. Well I said I was a little slow.
Don't bring your potential reader down. Another thing someone had to point out to me. I had chosen an image of a sexy guy on a bed looking distressed. Yeah, my character is frustrated a lot, but I don't want those considering downloading my book to think it's a sad story when it's actually quite uplifting.
Anything else anyone reading this would like to add, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm still working on that cover.
Been struggling for weeks now to come up with a good cover for my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." If this had been anything but seriously daunting, my book would have been published already. I admit, I'm a slow learner. Not slow as in dull witted, but slow as in it takes me a while to process, assimilate and digest info that requires an important creative output on my end. I've been doing a whole lot of learning and digesting, and have found some interesting and useful bits of info and advice.
A book's cover is of utmost consequence - it's that all important first impression. This is especially true in today's internet world of massive, quick, and ever-evolving information. In a book store or library, once you've bothered to pull a book off the shelf, chances are you're going to look at the blurb on the back, or read the first paragraph, if the cover is anything less than repulsive. On the internet, people make split second decisions to move on if their attention is not immediately sparked by the initial image they encounter.
One of the great things about e-publishing is that one can change one's cover easily and relatively quickly if a cover doesn't seem to be capturing an audience. In fact this convenience has demonstrated quite clearly how much difference a good cover can make. I read of a woman whose first book wasn't selling so well even though those who bought it gave it great reviews. She came up with a much better cover and her sales exploded.
With e-publishing size matters. Covers on e-books are only virtual and most often seen in the size of a thumb nail. An author's graphics have to be big enough to be clear in that size. Same with the title. Extra long tittles, like the working title I've had for my second - soon to be finished - novel "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round," end up needing smaller font sizes to fit, and thus become illegible. Which is why I've decided to go back to my original title, "The Man with the Camera."
Color is an issue too because many e-readers show the cover only in black and white. The first option I tried for "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" had a black silhouette on a blue background; the effect was pretty cool in color but didn't work at all in black and white.
Some other useful advice on creating a cover, that I discovered, includes:
Don't depict some profound aspect about your story that isn't going to mean anything to someone who hasn't read it yet.
Figure out what feelings your book is meant to provoke and create a cover that will provoke the same feelings. You can do this by exploring what your book's themes are.
Sex sells, so if you have a lot of sex in your story use it on your cover. Duh; but someone did have to point this out to me. Well I said I was a little slow.
Don't bring your potential reader down. Another thing someone had to point out to me. I had chosen an image of a sexy guy on a bed looking distressed. Yeah, my character is frustrated a lot, but I don't want those considering downloading my book to think it's a sad story when it's actually quite uplifting.
Anything else anyone reading this would like to add, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm still working on that cover.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
What's So Great About E-Publishing.
What's So Great About E-Publishing.
I first started writing the short-story that ended up becoming my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," in 1989. No, that's not a type-o. Yep, 1989, and I started writing it as a novel in 1995. My final edit (there where tons of edits) was done around the turn of the century. Then around 2007 - after sitting in a drawer all those years - there was an "Oh, yeah, I guess there's going to be one more edit." And yep, my book has been sitting around now, again, - for about 3 years.
My point is this: I never published it in all those years. Why? Because when I was done writing it the first time around, there was no e-publishing, and well it's taken me this long - since e-publishing started up - to get the idea firmly in my head that e-publishing is an established, successful, legitimate, and respectable way to go.
But why didn't I try to go the usual old-tymey route of hard cover publishing? Because I knew my book had a limited audience; I knew it wouldn't be mainstream enough for traditional publishers. After all, those guys can only afford to publish books that are going to have - I think the number is something like - a godzillion, sales. This was a shame, because I knew there were people out there who would really appreciate my novel - just not a godzillion - and they'd never get to read it.
So what's so great about e-publishing? E-publishing works for books that will attract any size audience. That means there is now all kinds of groovy stuff out there that in pre-e-publishing times never would have seen the light of day. In fact, back in the old days, most people - not me of course - didn't even bother to write books that couldn't get published traditionally. But now they are! And now "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," gets to be out there for any and all who will appreciate it, to enjoy! Cool, huh? I think so.
I first started writing the short-story that ended up becoming my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," in 1989. No, that's not a type-o. Yep, 1989, and I started writing it as a novel in 1995. My final edit (there where tons of edits) was done around the turn of the century. Then around 2007 - after sitting in a drawer all those years - there was an "Oh, yeah, I guess there's going to be one more edit." And yep, my book has been sitting around now, again, - for about 3 years.
My point is this: I never published it in all those years. Why? Because when I was done writing it the first time around, there was no e-publishing, and well it's taken me this long - since e-publishing started up - to get the idea firmly in my head that e-publishing is an established, successful, legitimate, and respectable way to go.
But why didn't I try to go the usual old-tymey route of hard cover publishing? Because I knew my book had a limited audience; I knew it wouldn't be mainstream enough for traditional publishers. After all, those guys can only afford to publish books that are going to have - I think the number is something like - a godzillion, sales. This was a shame, because I knew there were people out there who would really appreciate my novel - just not a godzillion - and they'd never get to read it.
So what's so great about e-publishing? E-publishing works for books that will attract any size audience. That means there is now all kinds of groovy stuff out there that in pre-e-publishing times never would have seen the light of day. In fact, back in the old days, most people - not me of course - didn't even bother to write books that couldn't get published traditionally. But now they are! And now "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," gets to be out there for any and all who will appreciate it, to enjoy! Cool, huh? I think so.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Promoting One's Work
Wow, so excited. I have been so busy trying to figure out how to make sure people will know I have a book out there when I e-publish. With no big publishing house behind you when you e-publish; one has to self-promote.
I set up this blog and a website among other things. However, over the last few days I was very frustrated to see what came up when I Googled my name. So I've been spending a whole bunch of time trying to fix that and my website which yesterday did not come up at all in searches suddenly is at the top of the list when I google Harrie Farrow!
So good to see hard work pay off! It's a complicated world on the web, that's for sure - the learning curve is huge. But the cool thing is it can be done with more than a little perseverance. Here's one valuable tool.
Another helpful thing to do is go to your website or blog host help and search : "Search engine optimization."
Good luck; if I can do it so can you.
I set up this blog and a website among other things. However, over the last few days I was very frustrated to see what came up when I Googled my name. So I've been spending a whole bunch of time trying to fix that and my website which yesterday did not come up at all in searches suddenly is at the top of the list when I google Harrie Farrow!
So good to see hard work pay off! It's a complicated world on the web, that's for sure - the learning curve is huge. But the cool thing is it can be done with more than a little perseverance. Here's one valuable tool.
Another helpful thing to do is go to your website or blog host help and search : "Search engine optimization."
Good luck; if I can do it so can you.
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