Steps to self-publishing a novel!

My Six Steps to Self-Publishing

The more I’ve learned about the publishing world, the more excited I’ve become over the prospect of self-publishing. In the past, self-publishing wasn’t as accessible to authors due to the technology and machinery required to create a book. But today, with print-on-demand technology and the prospect of eBooks and Kindle publishing, the world of self-publishing has opened up for the Do-It-Yourself author.

I’m a bit of a control freak. I want to have all the power all the time, and never liked the idea of selling my work to a publishing house and giving away my power and my rights. What if they took years to finally get my book published? What if they decided that my book didn’t fit the popular genre they were trying to sell? What if they slapped a horrible cover on it and called it good? I just couldn’t handle all the What-Ifs. So, I’ve decided to take my book publishing into my own hands.

Self-Publishing, when done right and with the intent of selling to a large audience, is not easy. Not only do you have to write and edit a great book, but you have to handle the formatting, cover design, and marketing of that book as well. While it’s true that you can hire freelancers to help you with many steps of the process, I believe it is imperative for a self-published author to take the time to learn the different aspects of the publishing process and to become as skilled and knowledgeable in each niche as possible.

I’ve self-published in the past, and I’ll admit that I made quite a few mistakes. The cover design was childish, the interior formatting was sloppy, and I didn’t know the first thing about marketing. But now I’m diving headfirst into the self-publishing world, and I’m taking it more seriously than I ever did before. Here are the steps I’m taking to make sure my book is ready for its debut and doesn’t show up sloppy-drunk. Because that’s embarrassing.

 

1)      Write a book.

a.      Writing a book is hella-hard. Not only does it take time to sit down and write, but the emotional roller-coaster of writing a book is even bumpier than actually writing it. I’ve had to battle self-doubt all along the way, but the pride I feel after accomplishing a goal makes all the struggle worth it.

2)      Revise said book to make it a great book.

a.      First drafts suck. The character development falls flat, entire chapters have to be cut, and how did we get from a wild-western to a space-time-continuum-sci-fi? After writing the first draft, I take some time away from it to clear my head. But after that short break, I have to dive right back in to revising/editing. This means taking a serious look at the book as a whole. Is it complete? Are there plot holes? Can it keep a reader awake and intrigued? This takes a lot of serious thought and dedication. After all the book boo-boos have been bandaged up and are healing over, I have to do another run through for line edits, which include grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc.

3)      Send book to beta readers.

a.      Before the book hits the real world, it needs a test run. These beta readers need to be readers of my genre, and I like to get feedback on a few chapters from them before giving them the entire book. If I like the way they read and review my work, and feel that they can help me make it even stronger, then I’ll continue to work with them. But there’s nothing wrong with parting ways with a beta reader that you just don’t vibe with.

4)      Dress it up.

a.      Even a phenomenal book can strike out if it comes to the game not wearing its cleats. In other words, my book needs to look professional. This means a striking cover design and proper interior formatting. Thankfully I am well-versed in Photoshop, and even spent a few years doing photomanipulation commissions to make a bit of pocket-money. Before creating a design, I like to look through the bookstores and get ideas about other cover designs in my genre. I want the cover to communicate to readers what genre the book is, as well as grab their attention. I also have to make sure that I obey copyright laws if using stock images that I don’t own. Sometimes this means paying the owner for the right to use them commercially.

b.      Once the cover looks good, then I have to focus on the interior. This part is hard for me, and this time around I’m going to use CreateSpace’s interior formatter to make sure that all the pages look the best that they can look. This means formatting the pages so that they don’t get pinched in the center, and making sure all my chapter headings are properly centered on the page. This also means making sure that no random blank pages have found their way into the manuscript, because that was a problem I had with my first book.

5)      Market it!

a.      After all the writing and designing is finished, now it’s time to put on your business-hat. Self-publishers are entrepreneurs, so I have to be able to sell my work. This means planning giveaways, promotions, book trailers, special sales, and more. For my new book, Way of Spears, I have a marketing/promotion plan that I am adding to and using as my guide along the way. I’m also using my first book, High Born, as a means of advertising for my new book. I reformatted the interior to contain an image and advertisement for Way of Spears.

6)      Repeat.

a.      After all this is done and water under the bridge, it’s time to go back to step one and start on the next book. The more books I can write and sell, the better I’ll get at this entire process, and the more readers I’ll snag over time.

 

Overall, I think self-publishing is an exciting new way to get your work into the world, and I have loved learning along the way. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have; I love spreading the knowledge I’ve acquired over the past few years!

How do I write a synopsis?

 With Way of Spears set to come out in August, I need to establish a synopsis. Today I'll be writing a draft of the synopsis and then getting feedback from potential readers before nailing it down for sure.

As I write I'll be working with a template:

1) Establish setting
2) Identify protagonist
3) Plot trigger
4) Subplot
5) Main conflict

I'll be inserting basic information into each category and then making the language 'pretty'. Here's how I started:

1) Establish setting

Greenehaven: a big forest

2) Identify protagonist

Rima Bishop: member of the guard

3) Plot trigger

Rima receives her first assignment

4) Subplot

Rima and the Captain struggle to get along

5) Main conflict

Rima has to deal with emotional burdens and figure out what to do with her life

After I've established these main points, the next step is to go back in and describe each in more detail. After this work is complete, I end up with this:

Rima Bishop has spent her entire life in Greenehaven, kept sheltered by the ancient trees that protect the realm from outsiders. She trained at The Academy for six years to become a member of the Second Guard, but finds the work to be less than satisfying. After two years of breaking up fights over pork prices and egg quality, Rima receives her first assignment. It will take her away from her home and into the world she has always wondered about.

As a member of the guard, Rima has been trained to obey commands. But as she and her Captain struggle to cooperate, she starts to question the lessons that The Academy instilled in her.

Rima and her comrades will venture into foreign realms and enemy territory, and they’ll have to work together if they ever want to make it home. Along the way Rima will face her past demons and be forced to make decisions regarding the life she has chosen for herself.

This is still a rough draft, and I plan to get feedback on it and do a few rounds of edits. If you want to watch my process video, in which I talk my way through the synopsis, you can see that here.

-Natalia

Where have I been?

So, where have I been?

It’s been over a month since I posted anything on my Tumblr, my blog, or on any of my editing websites. I was on a roll with my new novel, Way of Spears, until I hit a wall. I’m majoring in creative writing, and decided to take my first chapter into class to have it workshopped. My peers loved it and wanted to read more, but my professor hated it. She thought my characters were “deliberate stereotypes” and felt that the use of “horses, brooches, and cloaks” was cliché.

Now, I have to say right here that my professor is not my intended audience. She’s a very interesting and intelligent woman, but she’s about eighty years old and hates the Young Adult/New Adult genre, which is what I enjoy and write in.

It felt great to get such positive feedback from so many of my peers, but receiving such harsh criticism from a professor really sent my head spinning. I worried that my entire novel had been a waste of time, and that no one would enjoy the story of the characters that I had so come to love. If no one liked it, why write it?

It took me a few weeks to heal from this. During that time I rewrote the Prologue and Chapter One multiple times, and each time I felt like I was rewriting it to try to please someone else. Every time I asked for feedback, my readers gave me conflicting opinions. And that’s when I realized something important.

I need to write for myself.

I cannot be constantly trying to please others, because it’ll never work. Everyone has different tastes and opinions of literature, and what one person loves, another might hate.

So I’m ready now to love my story again, and to take my professor’s harsh criticism and put it behind me. I love my story, and I adore my characters, and that’s really what matters.

We will all receive harsh criticism, but we can’t let that stop us from believing in ourselves and doing what we love. So take all those critics and put them in a glass jar, then hide them on the top shelf in your darkest closet. Because if you love your work, that’s all that matters.

 

-Natalia

Book Review: Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

Song of the Sparrow, by Lisa Ann Sandell, is a retelling of the story of the Lady of Shalot. It is based in the time of King Arthur and follows the story of Elaine, a daughter of a soldier in Arthur’s army. 

I was surprised when I first opened the book and realized it was in free verse. I’ve read a few other books in this form, and while I enjoy how quickly I can tear through a novel in this form, I feel that I just can’t connect as well with the story. Throughout my reading of this novel, I never felt particularly attached to any of the characters. There was backstory on a few of the characters, which felt realistic and helped me to understand their situation more clearly, but even so, I found that at the end of the book I really didn’t  care who lived or died, or whether or not any of the characters fell in love, which is quite the bummer because this book has a strong romantic theme. I never once gasped, or cried, or had to reread a section because of how powerful it was. 

The writing was clear and flowed well, which assisted my understanding of the form. I’m not a fan of poetry, so reading novels in this form is often difficult for me, but Sandell wrote in a manner that allowed me to comprehend the story, and its form, with little difficulty.

Overall, I rate this book a 3/5 stars. It was well written and had an interesting basis, but didn’t reel me in the way I had hoped it would.

Book Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

 Book Review: 

RED QUEEN

I just finished reading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Upon reading the synopsis of this book, I thought it sounded promising. I love books regarding monarchies and government and rebellion, so this all sounded lovely to me. But when I started reading, I had some serious problems with the plot. Beware, spoilers ahead.

I started to struggle with this novel almost immediately. It opens with a scene in the arena with Silvers fighting one another. I understand that the purpose of this scene was probably to introduce us to the oppression of the Reds in the world and to the power of the Silvers, but it felt off. It seemed like a strange way to go about instilling fear in people. From this point on, much of the action seemed a bit fake to me. To begin with, it didn’t seem likely that King Tiberias and Queen Elara would allow Mare to live after discovering her powers. Lying to their people in order to imprison this ‘little lightning girl’ in their palace seemed ridiculous to me. I understand that Elara may have come up with a means of using Mare to her benefit, but I don’t think it makes up for the fact that this girl was only an insignificant Red with powers unlike any seen before, and that she was better off dead. (For the Silver’s purposes, anyway.) These thoughts continued to occur to me as the novel went on. Some of these doubts were cleared up when Elara announced that she knew Mare’s plans all along, but it still doesn’t make up for the sense of uneasiness I got while reading the book.

My second problem with the book was the dialogue. It sounded so forced and fake to me, especially the cringe-worthy nicknames like ‘little prince’ and ‘little lightning girl’. Not only is that a mouthful, so it doesn’t make sense for a nickname, but it just made me grimace every time I read it.

Now, I do admit that the book picked up quite a bit in the last few chapters. For the first time I found myself really curious about what was going to happen next. This all occurred after Maven’s betrayal (WTF?!), and the book got really good from that point on. But I wanted this kind of action and tension from the get-go, and I just didn’t get that.

On a positive note, the cover is absolutely beautiful. If not for seeing Red Queen all over Tumblr, I would have picked it up for its cover alone.

My Rating:
3/5 Stars

NaNo Prep: World Building

We're approximately three weeks out from Nano and I've started my NaNo Prep! This will include character sheets, world building, a story outline, and anything else I can organize into my NaNo Kit. The past two years I haven't done a whole lot of prep work, but this year I'm going to need all the help I can get. I'm working harder now than ever before and because of that my free time is limited, meaning that when I sit down to write during NaNo I'm going to need lots of inspiration and road maps to get me where I'm going.

So today I decided to create a little map of the town where The Peregrine Trials takes place. Helena is a sea-front province in the country Quinland. It has an ever shifting climate, with cold, wet winters and muggy summers. The mountains in the east protect the middle class homes from the onslaught of weather, while the castles in the north are surrounded by thick forests that keep out the worst of the snow and rain. But the homes of the impoverished families lie in the west, near the sea, and are left out in the open where rain, snow, and heat batters them to pieces.

Town Square is centralized and can be easily accessed by anyone in the province. I plan to create another map specifically for the Town Square to depict where different shops and vendors are.

And in the south, near the ocean, is the prison. Separated from the rest of Helena by tall guard towers, the prisoners have only one chance of escape; the sea, which is rough and rocky.

I'm not quite finished with the map, but I'm happy with this WIP of it.

I'm getting more excited every day!

Natalia

Decision made...I think.

After consulting multiple sources and reading a ton of writing blogs, I think I've decided to write a new story for Nano. I love Fire Tongue, and I've come to really know my characters, but I don't feel like the plot really speaks to me. Perhaps I'll pick up the characters some day and drop them in another world and another story (actually, that sounds really fun), but for now I'm going to put Fire Tongue on hold and pick up a story I started messing around with about a year ago.

The WIP title is 'The Peregrine Trials'. It's set in a 20th century fantasy world in which winged horses, pegasi, are real. They are owned and trained by the elite upper class aristocrats, and the best of them compete every year in The Peregrine Trials. The winners go on to compete in The Peregrine Classic, a high stakes endurance race that brings the winner fame and glory.

Very few women compete in the Trials, but Mercy Harland wants to be one of them. Her father owns and operates a barn full of champion pegasi, but he refuses to let Mercy ride. Refusing to give up, Mercy enlists the help of a roughneck stable boy to help her train a dangerous and unpredictable pegasus colt, and together they plan to take on the champion stallions.

I've got a couple chapters written and am working on a rough outline. It's so exciting to be thinking about a new story, and I have inspiration to write again.

I hope I've made the right decision.

Natalia 

P.S. I quickly photoshopped that cover image, and I think it turned out rather nice. So thankful I used to do graphic art in my spare time.