London Book Fair 2013 - What I Learnt Part 2

I am book with the second half of my post about last Monday (can't believe it was a week ago today).  I was talking about the talk by the Alliance of Independent Authors (whom I will join).

They mentioned editing - the average cost is £2000-£3000, which was discussed between a few editors there. Editing is needed by writers as we are blind to everything in the ms and can't see it all. I know I can't. If you are approaching a new editor, get samples.  Designers - the same as editors, they are all different.

Then we had to write down how much time we thought we could spend in a week on our project. I wrote 3 hours, 30 mins a day for writing, and half an hour a day for other stuff. Then we had to write our deadline for our project.  I put that I wanted to finish my current romance ebook by end of May, then have edits done in 2 months, then launch in July, which would take one week. With it being published end of July.

Reaching readers

Each plan is different for each book. Think about reader, and we had to write down the genre of readers - mine is fiction, romance and magic. What does your book do for your reader? I put - enjoy light read, feel hopeful in life, feel hopeful that romance is there for them. Feel happy.  For my YA I put feel hopeful. Then we had to tick if our project was either inspirational, educational or entertainment. I ticked the first and last ones for romance, and all for YA.  I also wrote that my Asperger's articles are inspirational and educational. Who is my reader? Female for romance, and teens for YA. What age range are they for? I put all from 20s to 60s (each main character is a different age). What ethic? White. Reader should get happiness and hope and want to read love.  For my Angels series, the reader is teens and both boys and girls, and for all ethnics.  You have to know what online they reach your readers -for romances I put FB, Twitter and PInterest. For YA, I put FB and need to look at Wattpad.
Think about subject: we had to write 3 for our project. So I wrote, romance, magic and ghost via photo. Know where to find reader online eg romance blogs, romance writer groups on FB. Magic - fantasy blogs and groups on FB. For YA, paranormal and fantasy groups etc.

Then it was time to go to the café to meet others. I thought I would meet Anita, but found out later that she was too busy at talks to come, instead I bumped into Donna Reid Vann and Paul Morton. Donna and I had a good chat about books and ebooks. It was thanks to Donna having a brochure of all the talks that I found out there were more talks I was interested in. So after having lunch I made my way from one court to the other to find the relevant theatres. Tomorrow I will blog about what I learnt there and how an Aspergirl was brave to talk to Kobo and Amazon.