Discoverability - Publishing in different formats

Today is about getting discovered. One way is to publish your book in different formats. What do I mean? There are 3 that I know about: audiobook, paperbook and ebook.

For those of you who write for children, paperbook is probably the only version to do, esp if you write for younger readers eg under 9 year-olds. I currently write for 7-9s and will only publish in print for that age range, especially that I have discovered children of that age do like paper books more. When I come to write the next series, which will be for 9-12s, I might do an ebook version, too. Children of that age do have Kindles as I have been told by one mother who wanted a book for her daughter who was ten. My previous children's books are only available in ebooks for now, but I plan to start putting them back into print this year.

For those of you who write for adults, all three choices are good options, esp ebook and print. There is also audio. I won't be doing this as I don't make enough money on my adult ebooks to warrant this.

I believe the more formats you have out there, the more readers you can reach. I do like to have print copies of my books to hand, esp if I go to a meeting or a library where I can meet people and show them my book. I might sell a copy or two.

So, if you write for older children, think about publishing your book in print and digital. If you write for adults, think about publishing your book in all three formats.

Support your local library

I had a book launch at my local community library on Saturday, and it was brilliant. The librarians are very friendly and helpful, esp the main librarian called Sue. This is why I want authors and readers to support their own local libraries, esp community ones. I have been doing events and taking part in the library's own events such as fayres over the last 5 years. They have been understanding and supportive of me and my Asperger's, and are always helping me and praising me to their customers. So, if you are an author, please think about doing events at your local library, even more if it is a community led one like mine. There are a few others libraries in my borough, but none of them have been interested in me having events there. It has just been the community led one, who support me as an indie author. I thank them each time for having me. But I made a bigger thank you to them, esp Sue, by mentioning them in the acknowledgement pages in the back of Susie and the Jiggling Jumper (available on Amazon).

So, go and find your local library and ask if you can do events there from time to time. You will be bringing in more readers to them as well as yourself. A win-win, I believe.

Title and branding - A cautionary tale

I was going to post about shopping as an Aspie but something cropped up yesterday that made me feel I should warn others about. It is about titles and branding for book series. As some of you know, I have branded my new fiction series about children with Asperger's Syndrome a certain name. I did do lots of research on names back in May when I was thinking about it all. One name I really liked but had been used by someone else, so I message them on Facebook to ask if they owned the rights to it. I never heard back...until yesterday. Because I hadn't heard all this time, of course, I went ahead and used the name. The message I got yesterday was that the name was the name of the company founded by the woman who runs it and she had the rights to it, and the only other person who could use it with authorisation was a specialist publisher I know about. Anyone else couldn't use it, and if they did, they could end up being sued by the company. This gave me great worry and anxiety with my own Asperger's. I thought, oh no, I am going to get in to great trouble here and panicked. I had to come up with alternative names for my brand.

I came up with a couple of titles this morning, but when I Googled both, they were already taken by magazines and companies, so they were a no go as well. I got a few suggestions from others on a FB post I put up last night, but most of them are too similar to the first one I had. One suggestion, by my designer, Rachel Lawston, was to drop the idea of a brand. And this is what I now plan to do. Someone else I know said that if I do drop the brand idea, then my books would reach a wider audience. So, it is a good idea. I want my books to find as many readers as possible. I have deleted the brand name on the blurb for Billy, and will ask Rachel to delete it from the cover, too. For those books I already have ordered, I am going to blank out the name. The same with the postcards I have which were made from the cover. I might relaunch it again in the new year, we shall see.

So, the motto here is: if you are thinking of giving a series a brand name, like I did, do a thorough research. If it looks like it has been taken, even by a magazine, forget the idea. You will be thankful in the future. I did want to give all my books a brand but it might seem it is best not to. You will see from this post that I haven't actually put the title of the brand I had, that is because I have emailed the company concerned to say that I won't use the term anywhere again.

How to stay in control of your story by Jean Fullerton

On Saturday I went to Marylebone to the RNA SE chapter meeting to listen to a talk by Jean Fullerton about how to stay control of your story esp romances. Here are the main points I wrote down:

1. It is about structure. You have to have a structure to your story.
2. You need an inciting moment
3. Then rising action
4. A turning point and black moment (doesn't have to be the main character's)
5. Lastly, falling action leading to the resolution

If you get stuck (usually about either Chapter 5 or 8), try going back to the start of the story and read it.

Ask what your main character's motivation/goal is.

If you want to include back story, drip feed it in, not do an info dump.

If you write in a certain genre or time period, readers will expect the rest of your books to be like that. Don't disappointment them.

It had been my first time to a chapter meeting this year, and I enjoyed it. Esp as I met a friend of mine there and we chatted as we walked back to the tube station. Might go again next time.

Next post will be about what the venue was like for an Aspie (me).

Have an alternative plan

For what, you may ask? For whatever you're writing. I have an alternative plan for what I want to do with the entry for the People's Friend serial writing competition, if it doesn't win (which is likely because I know of a few others who are entering it). I really like this story I am writing; it's a romantic mystery. I have a Plan B and a Plan C for it. If it doesn't win, then I am going to try it with Woman's Weekly as a serial. If that doesn't work, Plan C is to put it on hold and write it later on as an ebook, which I will publish myself.

You can have alternative plans for most things you write. If you write short stories for women's magazines, then have an idea which other magazine you could send it to if it's rejected. This is a v good idea as there aren't many womags out there now that take stories.

Also, you can have a Plan B for the novel you are writing. I know most authors want to have their books accepted and published by a publisher, but in this day and age it is so hard to get that. You have to have an exceptional story to be taken on. So, the alternative is to self-publish it, and these days that is easy to do. It is also more mainstream and viable. So many authors are successful with their ebooks. And it's far quicker to get out to the readers.

RNA Conference Day 3

Finally, I have got round to post about the last day of the conference.

The first talk I went to was by Catherine Jones, talking about her life in the army and writing career in the army and onwards. Then was a talk about how to keep readers reading by Emma Darwin. She told us the many ways of writing styles there are, inc one I didn't know about called 'free indirect style'.  She gave us exercises to do in the different writing styles. One of these gave me an idea for a teen/YA book.

Then was a talk by Tamsyn Murray about emotion in YA. She explained one three YA books are so successful: 'The Fault in our Stars', Hunger Games and the Year of the Rat. They have these in common: Strong indentifiable and central theme. Memorable characters, quality writing, fantastic storytelling, brilliant world building, love, romance, crossover appeal, word of mouth success, PR commitment from publisher and luck. You have to know your reader. Research what's out there. Remember how intense your teen years were. Understand that readers form strong bonds with characters they like - make them relatable and make them care. Let them experience loss in a safe way. How? ID your theme early. Know what your book wants to say. Create loveable characters. Do something different. Don't be afraid to write strong emotions. Deepen the conflict there is already not add more. In teen books, more action has to happen more often. MG is best for engagement.

So there you have what I learnt and come away with. I hope you have learnt something, too.

How to create a business plan - Step 2

I have posted about writing what you have achieved this year, so how about writing down what you haven't achieved. I am going to put down what I haven't, why I think this is and what I am going to do about it next year. Here we go:

1. Ebooks - I didn't achieve to write and publish as many ebooks as I wanted. I believe this was because I didn't make use of all the time I had because I was distracted by other ventures I was trying, which wasted time for me. What I plan to do - I have already started to make more of the time I have in the day to write.

2. Sales - I didn't achieve as many sales of my ebooks that I wanted to do. Why? I think this is because of the low price. All my ebooks are at 99c, which is a discount price. I now think that this is only suitable for discount buyers and not serious readers. So, next year, or even after Christmas, I am going to up the prices of all of my ebooks. I am going to think like a publisher. Lots of trad publishers have joined the ebook world and indies have to compete with them now, so I am trying to match their prices.

3. I didn't get my Asperkids series of books out there. Why? The publisher I had emailed the partial to hadn't got back to me about it. Next year I want to get my characters out there myself. Get the ms professionally edited, get an illustrator to do the cover and drawings in the book I want. Will be researching that next year.

4. I didn't get a short story in a magazine. I hadn't done the proper research and find out what sort of stories they publish. I have been to workshops by Woman's Weekly and know what they like now. I have been reading the magazines to get a feel for the type of stories they publish. I now have a better idea of what stories I will be sending to which magazines.

So, are there things that you haven't achieved this year? If so, what are you going to do about them? Let me know.

RNA workshop/retreat day on 15 Feb 2014 - and what I learnt

Last Saturday I made my way on bus to Holborn to go to the RNA London/SE workshop/retreat day. I passed where that car was smashed in by falling bricks from a building. Horrible. Feel so sorry for her family. Anyway, I got there in time to get a good seat.

It started at 10.15 with Julie Cohen and her talk about learning structure with Pixar films. I've not seen it before and thought it was great. We watched the beginning of Wall-E, and I got a new take on it. It's about a lonely robot who finds love in a deserted world of rubbish. I liked the underlying message about recycling more or the world can be like this. We also watched a clip of Finding Nemo, where the main plot and the subplot meets. This is what I learnt: plot structure is structure of the emotional arc. We were given the three act structure of the film Cars. Backstory at the start of the story can be used in the setting as in Wall-E, where we see papers on the ground about trash covering Earth. Pixar starts their films with emotional arc. They have repeated motifs eg in Wall-E, holding hands means love. The subplot - thematic plot. More plot and add to character. Cars has a circular structure where the ending reflects the start of the film - the main character is in a car race, which is how he began the story.

After Julie came Laura Longrigg and Laura Gerrard, Jean Fullerton's agent and editor. They both said that it is the voice and USP being great is what they look for. If you are a member of the NWS, you can mention this in a query letter to them. Also, add a section about you. Your background, why you wrote the story, what you like to read etc.

Then came the '10 Common Mistakes that authors make' and this is where I learnt a lot and came to a decision.
Plotting - know your characters inside and out. Never forget your readers are interested in relationships. Start at a critical point in the story. Work in any backstory subtly. Don't put in mundale details such as making cups of tea. Know your market and readership. Know your publisher requirements (I will check the few publishers I have in mind for a romance I will shortly be working on). If it has a saggy middle then the story hasn't been thought through properly. Have a satisfying ending. Make your characters likeable. The reader has to ID with them, so the story has to be believable. The hero - the reader has to desire him, and want the heroine to want him too. Understand where you want the story to go before starting or the characters won't progress. Don't make the plot entirely driven. In an edit, you can highlight the external and internal conflicts to work this out).
POV - don't head hop unless you're Nora Roberts. Tell not show. Get POV right and experience what your character is feeling. Use emotion and feeling not reportage. And get your punctuation right for speech.

What I learned from that last talk by Melanie Hilton, the NWS organiser, was to make your story believable. In the romance novel that I plan to work on later this year, I was going to have a ghost in it, but I now feel that won't be believable so what the ghost was going to do will be done by the young male neighbour, who falls in love with a librarian, who happens to be the granddaughter. I can't wait to rewrite the book now, but have two projects to work and complete before that.