One Small Step

The trouble with writers is we never finish.  We like to fiddle with words, and that fiddling is neverending.  Sometimes it takes a friend or family member physically removing you from the computer and saying:

“Enough already, this is as good as it’s going to get. Time to move on.”

My name is Lesley Curnow and I am a wordaholic.

After promising Peter I was putting the novel to bed

I gathered up my courage and registered with Createspace, Amazons POD publishing arm.  I chose Createspace for a number of reasons:

1. I had my free proof copy with no obligation to publish as a result of the ABNA competition.
2. Their set up is very easy, requiring only a PDF file of your book.
3. They have very easy to use templates for cover designs which allow you to use your own art.
4. There is no upfront fee
5. You can price your book competitively – this is a huge problem with many of the POD publishers.
   
6. They issue you with an ISBN and barcode if you don’t have one, again for free.

Preparation

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and thats what I did.  I scoured my bookshelves and chose the books I liked the look of.

I looked at:

• Most effective cover designs
• Best font
• Wording of disclaimers
• Dedications
• Acknowledgements
• Paper

In the end it all comes down to personal taste.  But the exercise was worth doing in that it allowed me to focus on what I really wanted the book to look like.

Looking at font characteristics was especially valuable

In the end I chose Bell MT with a line spacing of exactly 15 point

I also chose the cream paper option because it has a warmer look

Traps for Young Players

• Don’t forget to number your pages (I didn’t do this, and had to resubmit)
• Make sure the images you use for your cover are at least 300 DPI.  There are lots of good, free image resizers out there.
  
• Set up your paper size as the size of your finished book. In my case I chose 6×9.
• Get someone else to check your manuscript for typos.
  

A Giant Step

There are no words that can express the thrill of holding a copy of your book. The thrill lasts for about ten minutes, and then you start to notice the blemishes. A proof is a proof. Mine had all sorts of warts.

I began tinkering the next day. Peter threw his hands in the air in disbelief.  it took me two months to whip it into shape.

I Changed

• The cover design.
• The back cover blurb to have a very short teaser and then reviews.
• Page numbering.
• Rewrote and tightened.

Hold-ups

If you live outside the US you will have to obtain an International Tax Identification Number (ITIN).  This is what has held me up in my publishing effort.  It requires filling in the IRS W-7 form.  You can download the form from the IRS website.  You also need a letter of intent from Amazon.  The hold-up for me is they ask you to file a tax return.  As I haven’t earned anything yet, that is rather hard to do! I’m hoping to have this sorted out in a couple of weeks. I will keep you posted.

Then the fun will really begin.

The ABNA Class of 08

I’ll come clean now, I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for when I entered the inaugural Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

My friend and editor, Lesley Marshall, sent me an innocuous seeming email with a harmless looking link in it.

“This sounds interesting. Why don’t you give it a try”

I had just finished my novel and it seemed a painless way of getting some feedback on it.  I uploaded it onto the Amazon site and promptly forgot about it for a couple of months.

I don’t know what made me go and check the Amazon message boards

I think I was wondering when I would hear whether I’d made the cut for the next stage of judging. What I stumbled into was a maelstrom. Frenzied writers exchanged comments, views, rumours and speculation. Who was in, who was out, Amazon would be letting us know within hours, only one in eight would make the cut. I was sucked in to the drama of it all – it was irresistable.

Then people began to get emails

I’m in, splashed repeatedly across the boards.  Feverishly I checked my inbox. Nothing. I was in despair. Peter found me sobbing all over my keyboard -”I’m not even good enough for the first cut,” I wailed.  He gathered me up and took me to Takapuna Beach for a picnic, bought me flowers and tried to console me. It didn’t even come close to working.

Finally he gave up and took me home. The email was waiting for me – I was in to the semi-final.

Life got really crazy

Let me say from the outset that the Amazon competition changed my life. If you have a novel tucked away somewhere, take my advice, enter it.  Write a really good proposal, sell yourself, enter.

But don’t expect to emerge from the experience unscathed.

For three months I went totally barking mad.  Obsession is too mild a word.  I ate, drank and slept the ABNA competition.  I forgot to write, or talk to my friends and family.

I spent all day and everyday on the boards talking to fellow sufferers swapping reviews, discussing the competition ad nauseum, playing, making friends.  The level of committment and community we built between us was amazing.  Who says writers operate only on self interest.  During the ABNA competition many of us built online friendships that continue today.

Reviews

The other thing the Amazon competition gave to me, were a whole stack of reviews.

Aside from the prize reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and several Amazon Top Reviewers, I also had reviews from fellow writers and Amazon readers.  These helped me immeasurably with my rewrites.  They also form the base for the back cover of my book.

The reviews alone make the competition worth the time and trouble of entering.

I began to think about marketing

It also made me think about marketing my book and myself.  I looked at other writer’s websites and garnered ideas then redesigned mine to reflect the look and feel I wanted.

I began to talk to people like April L. Hamilton about the Indie publishing movement.

Increasingly writers are being asked to do their own marketing by publishers and middle lists are being cut to the bone. I began to look into the possibilities of POD publishing as a way forward.

Createspace

As part of the prize for reaching the semi-finals, Amazon offered a free proof copy of your novel through its POD publisher, Createspace. I decided to take advantage of this offer, though there was very mixed opinions by the ABNA entrants as to whether this was a good thing or not.

So far I have found the process of setting up my book on Createspace very rewarding.  I have learnt a great deal.

• In the next installment I’ll chart what I’ve discovered while trying to get my book into print.
• The problems, costs and difficulties entailed in the process
• Being an overseas writer using an American service

About My Book

The New Writer’s Dilemma

I’ve started this blog to make contact with other suffers, to share the struggle and ideas on breaking through to an audience, and hopefully to have a bit of a laugh along the way.

I’m going to start with a bit of history and then follow the path that’s led me to the decision to publish my book as an Indie publication. I’ll also track the marketing campaign and how it’s going.

I hope you’ll feel free to chime in, offer suggestions, be rude if you feel you want to. If you have helpful links or information let’s have them.

Finishing my book was a divine struggle.

Well to be honest, not so much divine as devilish – I’m very distractable. I kept wanting chocolate and coffee and the sunshine. I was sullen and moody and unlivable with for a very long time. Still, in the end I did it. I finished novel number two. I didn’t want it to join novel number one, in the bottom drawer of my desk.

So I re-read all the How to Books – Publishing for Dummies, The Idiot Writers Guide. They had screeds of advice on getting an agent. I’d been through it all before, I thought I knew how hard it would be.

I was wrong

It was worse than before. I sent out my letters and my samples and got back many kind replies. Everyone, it seems, is cutting back their fiction list. My writing is good, they liked the story, but there’s a recession on and they wanted a SURE thing.

Apparently I’m not a sure thing. I haven’t been to celebrity love island, I don’t feature in political scandals, I haven’t shot a president or slept with any movie stars lately. Had I thought about writing a book that tells people how to attract wealth and power and rule the known universe in five easy steps? Novels are so last week, could I write an app for an iPhone instead?

I was down. How dare they say I have an ugly baby.

There was only one thing to do, and I did it. I entered it in a beauty contest

The first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.

Stay tuned, gentle reader, for the next instalment of my quest. Experience the highs and lows, the bitchiness and the camaraderie.

HERE BE DRAGONS

So How About It?

1. Do you have an ugly baby story?
2. Is there a way out of the perennial dilemma of getting someone to take a chance on you?