Self Published Authors

"Self Published Authors" Bi-Monthly Newsletter
Helping self-published authors promote and market their books and share information and resources.

August 1, 2009 Volume 4: Issue 19
Dan Shaurette
editor@selfpublishedauthors.com
http://www.selfpublishedauthors.com

By Subscription Only! You are receiving this newsletter because you requested a subscription. Unsubscribe instructions are at the end of this newsletter.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Editor's Notebook
2. Newsletter Submission Guidelines
3. Feature Article by Patricia Fry
4. Resource Links
5. Announcements
6. Free Products, Services, and Downloads
7. Creative Corner by Randy Ingermanson
8. Classes, Groups, Workshops, And Events
9. Commentary by Patricia Fry
10. Reciprocal Links
11. Subscriber Management / Contact Information

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1: EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
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Welcome to the August 2009 newsletter for SelfPublishedAuthors.com. For those of you who are new to the website and newsletter, I hope you will enjoy this issue. Thank you for visiting the website and subscribing to the list. To the regulars out there, I'm very glad to see you back for another issue.

I'd like to share with you some links I discovered recently while perusing the interwebs.

One Minute How-To Item #369 - How To Self Publish A Book On The Cheap
This episode of the One Minute How-To podcast features Bryce Beattie who explains how you can self-publish your book with some tips he learned along the way.

Online tools to help you publish your own book | TechRadar.com UK
This article by Pete Travers gives some great background for writers who are thinking about self-publishing. While he does discuss POD sites like Lulu.com, he focuses on the do-it-yourself approach he used.

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or if you'd like to contribute, be interviewed, add an event or have a request, please reply to this email, or drop a line to me at: editor@selfpublishedauthors.com

Thanks for reading and enjoy the issue!

Dan Shaurette
editor@selfpublishedauthors.com
http://www.DanShaurette.com

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2: NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
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The newsletter for SelfPublishedAuthors.com is here to provide a resource for all authors. Obviously, I want to help you succeed in your writing, self-publishing efforts, and self-promotion. I have received a few requests from fellow authors asking what they can do to promote their books in the newsletter.

I am always happy to help promote an author and their works in the newsletter. That's what we're here for. That being said, the best I can do is one of the following.

If you are interested in writing an article about your experiences as a self-published author, I would be more than happy to consider it for publication. If I publish the article, I will give you space for a signature box that you could use to promote yourself and your book.

If you would like me to review your book, or interview you for the newsletter, I would ask that you please query me first before sending an ARC copy of your book, eBook format preferred, or even better, an audio version. The last thing I want to do is build up a slush pile for reviews.

If you have a press release or other details about yourself and your book, do feel free to forward them to me and I will happily publish them in our Author's Showcase. These aren't reviews, rather they are spotlights, and you can send me your info anytime if you wish to be included. I will share one book and author per issue.

If you have a book signing coming up, we do try to list those when they are timely. Remember our newsletter is published in February, April, June, August, October, and December. If you host a class or workshop, or have a website that promotes a writer's resource, please let us know about it. All links about such events are provided free of charge. Your name, location, dates, and contact info. will be presented.

Currently there are places for you to list your books, websites, and even join our banner ad exchange. You can also feel free to post in our forums and tell us about yourself and your books.

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3: FEATURE ARTICLE by Patricia Fry
Make Sure That Your Manuscript is Ready For the Right Audience
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I turned away work this week, and I feel good about it. Why? Because neither of the book manuscripts the clients brought me were ready to be edited.

The author of one nonfiction manuscript still wasn't sure how he wanted to organize his book. I knew that any changes he made in organization would affect the text, so it was premature to start the editing process. Instead, I sent him back to the drawing board with this advice:

"Think about your target audience. Crawl into their heads and determine their needs. How do you envision this particular audience assimilating the material? How will they receive it and use it? If pertinent instructions follow each chapter, rather than being stuck in the appendix, will they more likely be read and your book more likely be effective? Or will this stilted material scattered throughout the text be a turnoff for the reader?

Look at some of the most popular books on your topic to see how they are organized. What makes them reader-friendly or not?

Run your manuscript by members of your target audience (same age, interest-level, etc.). Ask for their painfully honest assessment."

I suggested to this client that he bring his manuscript back to me after he is comfortable with the way it is organized.

The other client wants me to organize her nonfiction book for her. But, as I began to read through her roughed-out chapters, I realized that she doesn't have a clue as to her audience. She is addressing four different groups of people and this just won't work. I told her that she must have a specific audience in mind and write her book for that audience. Sure, others who are in need of this information will benefit from it, as well, and she can include chapters for readers in other specific groups. But she has to write for one well-defined audience or she'll end up with a nightmare of a book to promote.

Think about it, if a publisher, a TV talk show host or a potential customer asks you about your book, you must be able to describe it succinctly. And you cannot do this if you tried to write it for a broad audience. Let's say that you're writing a book on child behavior problems. It makes sense that your audience comprises parents. But is that stay-at-home parents, working parents, adoptive parents, single parents, parents of disabled children and/or grandparents raising grandchildren? Does it include daycare operators, teachers, family therapists, child behaviorists, school administrators, school bus drivers or babysitters. Can you see that you could conceivably write a separate book for each of these audiences? So which one or which segment are you writing this book for?

Sure, your book on child behavior problems might have something valuable for each of these groups--you might even include a chapter for childcare professionals and teachers, for example. But, in order for your book to be effective, you really must zero in on one segment of this broad group and write the book with this audience strictly in mind.

In the book I am working with now, the author is addressing professionals in one sentence, laypeople in the next and clients in the following one. This is simply not working. And I urge you to give up the idea that your book can be "all about" for "all readers."

When identifying your target audience, consider your marketing plan. Who will you promote this book to? Do you have access to a particular group of people? In the child behavior scenario, the author might be a family therapist. She might write articles for numerous parenting magazines and has a following of parents who trust her opinion and knowledge. Thus, she should writer her book for parents of children with behavior problems and maybe include sections on the special problems that occur for working parents, single and grandparents raising grandkids.

How do you know when your book manuscript is ready for editing? I guess some of you don't until you get an evaluation from a good editor. But you can consider the following and, perhaps, be more well-prepared to approach an editor or a publisher:

* Be crystal clear as to your target audience. Narrow this down as precisely as you can and write the book for this audience.
* Make sure that your target audience is substantial. Instead of writing a book for people who like starfish, consider expanding it to include all (or several) tide pool creatures. It could be a children's (or parents') guide to tide pools along the west coast. Rather than a book featuring your elderly loved one's day care experience, consider a review of local senior day care facilities with a chapter on how to start one.
* Know how to access your target audience. In fact, choose to write your book for the audience you can access as these are the people you will be promoting to.
* Determine whether this book is actually needed. Before writing any book, research other books in this category and ascertain how yours will fit into the scheme of things.
* Is the book well-organized? Some editors will help with this.
* Have you self-edited and proofed your manuscript to the absolute best of your abilities?
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Copyright © 2009 Patricia Fry. Reprinted with permission.
Patricia Fry is a full-time freelance writer and the author of 29 books. She is the president of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org/. Patricia is an editorial assistant and publishing consultant. http://www.matilijapress.com/. Visit her informative blog often at http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/.

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4: RESOURCE LINKS
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AUTHORAUTOBAHN - Book Marketing and Promotion Resource
Although there may be hundreds of author promotion sites out there on the internet, Author Autobahn is quite a bit different. We're published authors, coaches, and sales professionals who have gone through the sludge and found out what works and what doesn't.
Also, we have FREE ways to promote you, along with many affordable services. You owe it to yourself to give your book the best chance it has of selling! Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was it built by one man. Greatness takes time and a team!
http://authorautobahn.webs.com

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5: ANNOUNCEMENTS
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FREE First Lesson in Book Promotion Workshop

Get personalized book promotion help from 35-year veteran author Patricia Fry.
Special offer: The first lesson in her 6-week online Book Promotion Workshop is FREE. No obligation to sign up.
Information: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm
Questions: PLFry620@yahoo.com.

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6: FREE PRODUCTS, SERVICES, and DOWNLOADS
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ATLANTIS WORD PROCESSOR - Shareware Win95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista software - Free 30-day trial
Amongst its suite of features, the one that caught my attention was the ability to save as an eBook in the EPUB standard format.
All trial copies of Atlantis Word Processor are fully-functional. No features are disabled.
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/

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7: CREATIVE CORNER by Randy Ingermanson
Choosing Your Creative Style
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There's an old saying in fiction writing: "Get it written, then get it right."

Fact is, there's a huge difference between the creative phase (getting it written) and the editing phase (getting it right). If you try to edit yourself while you're being creative, you're going to give yourself a nasty case of writer's block.

So the old saying is great advice. Unfortunately, it's not enough.

How, exactly, are you supposed to "get it written?" Should you just slam out that first draft without any planning, or should you plan it carefully and then slam it out?

If you want to start a war at a writing conference, ask this question and then put on your flame-proof cloak. Different writers will make wildly different claims on how best to write that dreaded first draft.

I've been thinking about this for many years, first as a clueless wannabe novelist, later as a published author, and most recently as a writing teacher. My well-known "Snowflake method" is one answer to the question of how you write a first draft. But it's not the only answer, and it's not the only right answer.

The more I've thought about it, the more I've come to see that different people are wired differently. Different people use different "creative styles" to produce their first drafts.

And that's OK.

I don't think anyone knows all the different possible "creative styles" that writers use. There's a spectrum, depending on how much planning a writer puts in up front. Normally, the more planning before the first draft, the less editing after it.

At one end of the spectrum is the "Seat Of The Pants" writer, commonly called the "SOTP" writer or sometimes the "pantser."

SOTP writers typically just start writing, often with no clear idea where they're going, who their characters are, or what's going to happen. The act of writing makes the story unfold. It's like driving through fog with the headlights showing only a few feet ahead. This is exciting to SOTPs, often excruciatingly scary.

But it works. Stephen King writes this way, as do many other famous novelists. If you write the SOTP way, you're in good company.

On the other end of the spectrum is the outliner, who writes a meticulous, detailed synopsis of the story before writing the first draft. Outliners don't have a cool acronym, nor do they have the sexy, stubble-chinned image of the SOTP. Outliners are sometimes regarded as emotionless accountants who want to keep chewing their gum long after all the sugar is chewed out of it.

But outlining also works. Robert Ludlum was a well-known outliner, with some of his novels requiring 150 pages of synopsis. Many excellent novelists find it impossible to work without a very long synopsis. If you're an outliner, you've got some great compatriots.

These aren't the only options, of course. Another approach is a modification of the SOTP creative style. I call this the "Edit As You Go" creative style, because the writer first writes a page or two, or even a whole scene, seat-of-the-pants. Then, instead of continuing on with the story, the writer edits the page or scene several times. I've heard of writers who edit it 20 or 30 times before moving on. By the time the page or the scene is done, it's in final form, ready for the editor.

"Editing As You Go" works. Dean Koontz writes this way. If you edit as you go, you're among stars. Just be sure that you aren't mixing the creative phase with the editing phase. Write first; then edit.

I'm known around the world as "the Snowflake Guy" because of a fourth creative style which I call the Snowflake method. (Google it if you want all the details.) In the Snowflake method, you do quite a bit of planning up front, both with your characters and with your plot, but the longest synopsis you ever produce is only four pages. You leave the details of the story unexplored, so your first draft will have some surprises for you.

The Snowflake method works. Every novel I've written has used some elements of the Snowflake. I hear from writers all the time who find that the Snowflake works for them.

I'm currently writing a book titled WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES, in which I cover these creative styles in more detail. Early in the planning process for the book, my editor asked me to make it a little clearer which style is "the right one."

I'm afraid I shocked my editor a bit. I told her there isn't any such thing as "the one right way to write your first draft." The best way for one writer will be the worst way for another writer.

I've met writers who thanked me effusively for the Snowflake method, which gave them hope after years of struggle. I've met other writers who told me that the Snowflake almost wrecked their story.

The same is true of ANY of the common creative styles. For some writers, SOTP is salvation. For others, it's damnation. Ditto for editing-as-you-go and for outlining.

The important thing is to find the best way for you. Your best creative style may be one of those I've named, or it may be some mix of them. That's for you to find out.

When you find the right way for you, stick with it. There really is one best way for you. Just don't assume that it's also the one best way for everyone else.
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Copyright © 2009 Randy Ingermanson. Reprinted with permission.
Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 16,000 readers, every month. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

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8: CLASSES, GROUPS, WORKSHOPS, and EVENTS
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SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK EXPO
The time has come to have an exhibition where the spotlight is solely on self-published books and authors. The first annual Self-Publishing Book Expo (SPBE) will bring national focus and attention to the fastest-growing segment of today's publishing industry.

Unlike any other book exhibit, the Self-Publishing Book Expo will be the only event of its kind to highlight the books of self-publishing companies and their authors, and give them the prominence and prestige they deserve.

The SPBE will bring together many of the key players who make this universe the thriving area it has become, while simultaneously exposing both the houses and the authors to a greater audience of other publishing professionals, booksellers, media, and consumers.

Topics will include everything from publicity & marketing to sales, distribution, e-books, etc. We have a very impressive list of speakers lined up.

If you need any further information or would like to speak to
one of us, please feel free to call 212-353-3478 or e-mail us at info@selfpubbookexpo.com.

The first annual SPBE will be held at 630 SECOND AVENUE, right in the heart of midtown Manhattan, between 34th and 35th Streets. It is easily accessible to eastside subways, tunnels, and bridges.

The Expo will be a one-day event on Saturday, November 7, 2009. Hours of the Expo will be 10:00 am - 5:00 pm.

General admission: $15.00 (cash, payable at the door)
Includes admission to the Expo, plus, from 3:00 - 4:00 pm, a special "Open House: How to Get Started" panel discussion hosted by representatives of the top self-publishing companies. Come learn all the tools you'll need to see your work in print!
Exhibitors -- $275.00 prior to 7/15/09; $325.00 thereafter.
http://www.selfpubbookexpo.com

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9: COMMENTARY by Patricia Fry
Who Do You Write For?
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When you write a story, how-to or self-help piece or something instructional, who do you write it for? Of course, you're going to say that it's for your audience. Right answer! But is it really? You may address your audience using "you" a lot in your nonfiction works. You might believe that you are providing instruction or information for your audience. But are you really? How do you know if your writing attempt will truly engage, touch, teach and/or otherwise resonate with your audience?

I meet authors who are so into writing their memoirs that they forget completely about their audience. They remain in their own little world of thoughts, memories and fancy word combinations that they pay little attention to their reason for writing this in the first place--to entertain members of an audience. They disregard their readers while trying to satisfy their own egos. They are more focused on their way with words than the readability, continuity and flow of their work.

The nonfiction author sometimes confuses the reader by providing too much of the wrong kind of data. A reader on overload doesn't benefit much from the material he is trying to sift through. Authors often make simple instructions terribly complicated. It takes a knack to write clear instructions.

Many nonfiction authors have trouble organizing the material for their books. Some are not good researchers, so they omit important aspects of the topic they are trying to cover. Others simply don't know how to appropriately and sensibly present the information. They don't have a clear intention for their book.

All of these problems make for books that are not reader-friendly.

What is the solution? Number one: Think about your reader and then strive to speak to him/her, engage him/her and entertain, teach, inform him or her.

What are you writing today? Go to your desktop now and read through it. If it is fiction, here's what I want you to consider:

* Who are you attempting to write it for?
* When you honestly evaluate your story, is this still your target audience?
* Is it an enjoyable story or does your attempt to impress make it seem stilted?
* Are you trying to use material that just doesn't fit right?
* If you want to improve the entertainment value of your story, review books or short stories that really kept your interest. Determine what you can do to improve the entertainment value of your story.

If it is nonfiction:
* What is your intention with this piece?
* Is it well-organized?
* Is it easy to read and follow?
* Have you provided a mix of text, bulleted sections, Q & A, anecdotes and a study program, for example?
* What, exactly, will your reader get from this book or article? Do you envision the reader walking away with a new skill, a greater understanding on some topic, a fresh perspective? Do you believe that you have succeeded in providing this opportunity? If not, I suggest going back to the drawing board.
Writing for oneself is easy. Writing for others can be difficult. That's why it is important that you know your audience and that you write expressly with them in mind at all times.
___

Copyright © 2009 Patricia Fry. Reprinted with permission.
Patricia Fry is the author of 29 books including "The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book," which is designed for authors who are at any stage of writing, publishing or promoting their books. Read the profile for this useful book at http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html.

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10: RECIPROCAL LINKS
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LISTINGS:

ADD YOUR BOOK LISTING & AUTHOR BIO:
This is a FREE marketing feature you don't want to miss!
http://www.selfpublishedauthors.com/books

THE POST-PUBLICATION BOOK PROPOSAL
If you didn't write a book proposal before writing your book, you missed a vital step in the process of successfully producing and marketing a book. Don't let sagging sales determine your grim future in publishing. Write a post-publication book proposal and get back on track. Order Patricia Fry's FREE report, The Post-Publication Book Proposal. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

SHAURETTE.NET: The Home Page of Dan Shaurette
- His Novel, LILITH'S LOVE - http://www.Liliths-Love.com
- Out Of The Coffin Podcast - http://www.OutOfTheCoffin.com
- The Lurkers' Domain (creative writing forum) - http://lurk.us
All of this and more at: http://www.DanShaurette.com

YOUR ADVERTISEMENT COULD BE HERE!
Contact Dan Shaurette for more information at editor@selfpublishedauthors.com

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11: Subscriber Management / Contact Information
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