Lots of Questions for Published Authors

[persephone9906]

Hi. I'm Pat and my user name is persephone9906. Some of you may have seen, and hopefully received, my praise on a few of the stories that have been posted. I'll bite the bullet here (and be yelled at later, believe me!) and tell everyone that I'm MaddieKim's editor. Maddie, twin of my heart, please don't yell too loud because I know I was the one who insisted on keeping that quiet. Me and my big mouth! Well, on to the reason for my post here.

I've written two books - a romantic suspense and a paranormal. Naturally, I'd like to be published. Yeah, yeah, I know. Duh, right? I've started to check into e-publishing and would love to hear from anyone who has gone that route. How did you start? Who did you use? How did you get a cover for your book? Where is your book being sold? Who decides where it's offered? How do you set prices? How do you format your Word doc for the publishing house? Do you need to have your story accepted first? Can you simply post a story for sale?

You see now that I wasn't kidding. I have lots of questions and will probably have more if anyone actually responds to me. Ah, and one last question would be how much can I blame on Maddie?!

Anyone interested in telling me your publishing horror story? Or perhaps your wonderful story? I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for reading. Thanks even more for your patience with me.

Pat

 

[sr71plt]

I have been e-booking erotica for three and a half years--starting with a publishing consortium, eXcessica arising from this website. I've published close to 100 e-books now with four publishers. I signed up with eXcessica and Fido (affiliated with eXcessica); the other two publishers formed around my books (and then added other authors) when my story editor because a publisher as well.

eXcessica has over 60 authors now and is, I think, now closed to new authors.

There, however, are lots of other e-book publishers, both erotica and mainstream, out there. The way you find one to submit your book manuscripts to is to go to such distributor sites as Allromanceebooks.com, Fictionwise, Smashwords, Bookstrand, or BooksonBoard, track down books similiar to yours, click through to the websites of the publishers for those, and check on their submissions requirements. Then submit.

I have participated in finding book cover images for my books and then let the publisher design the cover. I research on such photo art websites as 123rf and Dreamstime and discuss with the publisher what I'd like the cover to be.

My publishers distribute through all of the sites mentioned above (and more) and Amazon (for Kindle--the biggest distributor) and B&N (for Nook). The books are put into all of the formats currently popular, covering all of the forms of e-readers. Your best distributior will depend on the genre of your book, although Kindle is the gorilla in the corner.

Some of my e-books are also published as paperbacks (through CreateSpace, Amazon). My publishers handle all of this.

My publishers decide where the books are offered and are continually experimenting with new distributors.

The publisher sets the prices--usually in reference to similar books being offered and sometimes guided by distributor restrictions.

The separate publishers have separated formatting directions for manuscripts. All of mine use Word, though, New Times Roman, point 12.

The publisher does need to accept your book.

Yes, you can simply post a story for sale yourself at some distribution sites. You have to do all of the setup work yourself though--or find someone to do it for you piecemeal.

This leads into . . . I have publishers who do all of the editing, setup, distribution, and money collection and distribution for me.

You can do it yourself--through Amazon and such publisher/distributors as Smashwords--or entirely yourself. But you then will need to know how to do covers, worry about getting it edited, format it for a gzillion different e-readers, get it posted on offer at distributor sites, and worry about collecting the royalties.

Others here will have to tell you how to get all of that done yourself.

 

[persephone9906]

sr71plt - Thank you very much for all the great information you provided. I think the bottom line here is that, regardless of where and how, my book(s) still need to be accepted by a publisher. You've given me some great sites to check out and I will certainly check them all. I appreciate your detailed reply and will be doing a great deal more homework now. Pat

 

[lovecraft68]

sr71plt - Thank you very much for all the great information you provided. I think the bottom line here is that, regardless of where and how, my book(s) still need to be accepted by a publisher. You've given me some great sites to check out and I will certainly check them all. I appreciate your detailed reply and will be doing a great deal more homework now. Pat

Not sure how others work, but Smashwords is pretty much do it yourself. You do not have to be "accepted." all you need do is correctly format your e-book. They have a style guide you can download for free that will tell you how to do that.

Then all you need do is search the stock photo sites Pilot mentioned (Dreamstime has worked best for me so far) You can get a cover for around $5. after that go to this site:

http://www*******-image-editor.com/

you can add borders and text to your cover for free. Then you simply submit your book to SW and once it posts they sell it on their site then distribute it through various channels such as Barnes and Noble. Sony, apple and others. They take 15% of the sale and you can set your own price.

thing is, there is no acceptance required. you handle everything, and I have never heard of anyone not receiving their royalty payments in a timely fashion.

If you are interested in what the site looks like for an author here is my page at SW. All the covers were made from photos from Dreamstime.

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LauraLovecraft

 

[persephone9906]

Lovecraft68 (Laura) - Thanks! Both responses now have included SmashWords and I also read a CNET review about them. I've just opened my account and will read their style guideline. This is so cool! I read your page at SW and saw your books. Congratulations! I'll check Dreamstime for a cover soon and follow that up with the online-image-editor link you provided. Pat

 

[lovecraft68]

Lovecraft68 (Laura) - Thanks! Both responses now have included SmashWords and I also read a CNET review about them. I've just opened my account and will read their style guideline. This is so cool! I read your page at SW and saw your books. Congratulations! I'll check Dreamstime for a cover soon and follow that up with the online-image-editor link you provided. Pat

Good luck! Be sure to post the link to it in the authors and their books thread for some advertising.

 

[persephone9906]

Laura - Thanks for the luck because I'm sure I'll need it. I'd love to post the link when I'm published but, frankly, I'd feel weird about it. I already feel weird with posting this thread because, although I'm a Lit member, I've never published on this site or any other unless my story comments can be considered as publishing. My, that's stretching things a bit, isn't it? Thanks for the help! Pat

 

[MaddieKim]

Oh, yes I’m yelling!

Hi. I'm Pat and my user name is persephone9906. Some of you may have seen, and hopefully received, my praise on a few of the stories that have been posted. I'll bite the bullet here (and be yelled at later, believe me!) and tell everyone that I'm MaddieKim's editor. Maddie, twin of my heart, please don't yell too loud because I know I was the one who insisted on keeping that quiet. Me and my big mouth! Well, on to the reason for my post here.

I've written two books - a romantic suspense and a paranormal. Naturally, I'd like to be published. Yeah, yeah, I know. Duh, right? I've started to check into e-publishing and would love to hear from anyone who has gone that route. How did you start? Who did you use? How did you get a cover for your book? Where is your book being sold? Who decides where it's offered? How do you set prices? How do you format your Word doc for the publishing house? Do you need to have your story accepted first? Can you simply post a story for sale?

You see now that I wasn't kidding. I have lots of questions and will probably have more if anyone actually responds to me. Ah, and one last question would be how much can I blame on Maddie?!

Anyone interested in telling me your publishing horror story? Or perhaps your wonderful story? I'd love to hear it!

Thanks for reading. Thanks even more for your patience with me.

Pat

Pat edited Saving Caitlin and A Nymph for Christmas for me. I thank those editors I contacted that either gave a negative response to my request for an editor or gave no response at all. Because I cried, Pat offered to edit me—with one condition. Do not acknowledge me, she said. I felt guilty not thanking her in opening of each story and told her so, but she was unmovable.

I’m so glad she’s trying to get her books published and so happy I can, at last, publicly say thank you to her.

I have no desire to be published, but to each of you who respond to Pat’s questions, thank you. She is very talented and I have had the privilege of reading 2 of her books and a wonderful short story. She has started a third book that has great potential. I wish her the best with her quest to be published.

Maddie

PS to Pat: Please don’t make me look for a new editor.

 

[persephone9906]

Maddie - Thank you for such gracious acknowledgement and the wonderful compliments. I really do appreciate you and I just love all our chats. I promise not to make you find a new editor if you don't follow through on the threat you made to me that has me shaking in my shoes. Thank you for all your tips, too, and for suggesting that I post a thread here. The feedback so far has been great and already given me an idea of what I need to do. We'll chat more later, but thank you for being you! Pat

 

[Firebrain]

Are you looking for an epublisher, or to self-publish? I've worked for one publisher and have friends who edit for larger publishers, so if you have questions about submitting to these places, drop me a PM and I'd be happy to help.

Since you appear to write romance rather than erotica, I would attempt going with a good publisher first: you're new, you need a springboard. Self-pub is always an option later on if you blow up (ie have an audience), or things don't work out. In particular, a lot of places are acquiring romantic suspense right now, so you may be on to something there. Best of luck.