Doreen McGettigan

Writing Wednesday

On Wednesdays I like to share information I picked up on my journey to being published, marketing, editing and preparing to be published again. Information that I wish someone would have shared with me, back then…

If you like the information I hope you will share it!

It is also the first Wednesday of the month so it is time for our monthly gathering of:

The Insecure Writers Support Group #IWSG

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for today are Sarah Foster, Joylene Nowell Butler, Lily Eva, and Rhonda Albom!

September 3 marks the three year anniversary of the IWSG monthly posting. (And October 1 will mark the one year anniversary of this site and the Facebook group.)

No matter where you are in your writing journey chances are you occasionally have feelings of insecurity. No worry’s, link up and find all of the support you could possibly ask for. If you are in a good place perhaps you have some inspiration to share let’s face it we all feel the need for a bit of support from our friends. Follow the link to learn more about this amazing group of talented, dedicated and supportive writers from beginning writers to best-selling authors and the group’s creator. While you are there, add your link. You will be so happy you did.

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

I can finally see the top of the hill with the editing of The Stranger In My Recliner. A guy in one of my writing groups challenged us to 40,000 words in the month of August. Sort of catch up because we all slack off during the summer. That happened to be exactly the number of words I have left to edit. November is always a crazy month for me so I never get to participate in NANO so I thought why not? How am I doing so far? I’ve only gotten a little less than 3000 words edited over the weekend.  Not so good. I did receive some priceless research information that I pretty much gave up hope on finding and I did start incorporating that into Sophie’s  story. That should count as progress; right?

I hope if you are considering self-publishing these notes help…

Self Publishing Part 2:

Last week’s post on Self Publishing Part 1:

https://doreenmcgettigan.com/?p=5199

There is so much to Self Publishing one post just wasn’t enough so I put together another list things I thought you might like to know if you are considering self-publishing.

•  Traditional/Indy Publishers take well over a year to publish a title but in all reality you can self publish your book and have it for sale around the world on Amazon in a matter of minutes.
• The problem is still the same, no matter which publishing route you choose, how will the right audience for your book find it, know that it exists?
• Old school traditional publishers still have the advantage when it comes to editing, distribution and publicity all of which increase the chance of a books success.
• However; growing numbers of self-published authors are realizing the value in investing in professional editing and professional cover design.
• Self published authors that invest in professional editing and cover design earn at least 34% more on their books.
• If a book is published hastily and sloppy it will be mentioned in the books reviews, it will hurt your sales and taint your name as an author. Those reviews are impossible to remove.
• The most successful genres for self-published e-books are: erotica, fantasy, chick-lit, horror and crime thrillers.
• Self-published romance authors earn 170% more than their peers.
• The average age of a best- selling author is 50.5
• There is no profile for a successful author. They are seldom top graduates from prestigious university writing programs. Writing may be a second or third career for them. The industry and readers value authors that bring real-life experience to their work whether that work is fiction or non-fiction.
• The stigma of self-publishing is fading away being replaced with one success story after another.

A few reasons to publish on Amazon:

• It is the largest paid search engine in the world
• Amazon is dominant in the publishing industry, presently in the #7 slot of books sold per year.
• The review system is an authority. People read reviews on Amazon even if they are planning to buy a book elsewhere.
• Amazon is a marketing machine. Once you sell a certain number of copies, it will start referring your book at no cost to you.

Preparing to publish on Amazon:

•  When formatting for book for Kindle- you can try following the instructions and doing it entirely on your own- which I am sure gets easier with practice. If you are planning to continue writing and self-publishing e-books it probably is a good idea to learn the process.
•  Calibre is a program you can download for free. The program is used for formatting. While the program is free they do request donations.
• There are many companies and individuals out there that will do the formatting for you for a fee.
• You shouldn’t skimp on cover design. A professionally designed cover is an investment and will produce more sales.
• Look into 99 Designs and Crowdspring. Both are affordable options for cover design.Whoever you use to design your book cover they will need to create a JPEG file that is at least 2500 pixels on its longest side with a height/weight ratio of 1.6. (Amazons requirements)
• Double/Triple check, everything before you hit that publish button. It is nearly impossible to make corrections once your book has been published and that goes for all publishing not just Amazon.

Have you self-published? Do you have any tips to offer? Did you use a company you were thrilled with? Disappointed in? Please share in the comments.

*Next week’s Writing Wednesday will be on Marketing/Advertising and PR

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