Category Archives: indie-publishing

Owning vs Renting: An Author’s Dilemma

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Words: 1420
Time to read: 8 minutes

Is anything completely ours in this business? Maybe only our books.

Good morning! I hope you all had a good weekend! I worked more on my last book–getting ever so closer to finishing up. I’ll still have to take a break and read the proofs to look for typos I might have edited into my books, but the end is in sight, and I can’t wait! I might treat myself to a new Mac–my T is still driving me crazy, and it would be a nice little present for myself after working on this series for so long.

So, a week ago, on Monday, March 5th, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger all went down. They were down for a couple of hours, but to say it spread panic across the author universe would be putting it mildly. I know a lot of authors happened to have releases that day, and I’m sure not being able to post was upsetting to a lot of people.

It was kind of eye-opening for me as well, because this was my first outage while on Threads instead of Twitter. Outages never bothered me because I was always able to flip from one platform to the other, but since Meta owns all of them, there was nowhere for me to go. A friend and I went to email for a quick exchange (just to assure each other we hadn’t been hacked), so all wasn’t completely lost, but not having any social media felt strange… scrolling is just habit. I finally was able to kick my Twitter addiction only because I found a substitute on Threads.

Anyway, so this gave way to some thought about how authors are always told never to build on someone else’s grass. I agree with that wholeheartedly–especially since TikTok gave me such a hard time, always accusing me of violating community guidelines. I’m glad I never got invested because it ticked me off and a ding on one of your videos like that affects your entire account and how they show your content.

But after my hassle with MailerLite, I realized that even a list you cultivate on your own doesn’t really belong to you. If your account, for whatever reason, goes down or glitches and you don’t regularly export your list as a backup, those emails you worked so hard for can disappear in a puff of smoke. Sometimes tech support can help, depending on your aggregator. MailerLite charges too much for their tech support and plenty of authors take their chances and stay on the free plan (that does not give you access to tech support) for as long as possible.

My WordPress site feels like it belongs to me. I pay for the domain and for the plan. I have access to tech support if something goes wrong (like when I accidentally deleted DNS records I needed), but the fact is, anything online can go down so even selling direct to avoid dealing with Amazon isn’t always a sure thing.

I guess this post is kind of a warning to pick and choose carefully. Last night I was thinking about all the author things I’m “stuck” with, and it’s kind of scary in a looking-into-the-future-and-adding-up-spend kind of way. Every single one of my books has a link to my author website and a call to action (CTA) to subscribe to my newsletter. Every single book. Over 20, which is over 60 files I would have to change if my author website ever went kaput (the ebooks and paperbacks on Amazon, and then all my paperbacks on IngramSpark). I mean, it wouldn’t be the end of the world to amend all that back matter, but if I didn’t have an IngramSpark code for free revisions, it would add up quickly. I was lucky I directed my readers to go to my website instead of a MailerLite landing signup page, probably one of the few things I did correctly from the start. My homebase, has been, and now with my newsletter gone, always will be, my author website.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m locked into other things too–things I want to keep at the very least because I like how they work. Like Bookfunnel. I may have gotten rid of my expensive plan that supported MailerLite integration after my migration to the new MailerLite platform screwed everything up (saving me 150 dollars a year), but I like how they deliver my free book and readers are used to that platform. The easter egg that I hid in Addicted to Her is delivered that way too. At least the team at Bookfunnel doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and it helps that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of authors, use them.

I’m also locked into my Canva account. I have so many designs there, and without it, I could never make changes to any of my book covers. I’ll always need my account, but luckily their business and reputation seem solid and hopefully won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Maybe it will make you feel better to think that being locked into certain services isn’t only an author thing. I think Amazon is so integrated into our lives now that getting rid of it would cost–I have purchased several movies and TV shows on Prime. I would lose a lot of money if all of a sudden Prime Video disappeared. The same with my Kindle account. I’ve purchased many books that would disappear if something happened to my Kindle account. Several years ago I bought books on Nook, and when I dropped it into the tub, I lost all that content. I could have bought another Nook, but I preferred being on a Kindle anyway, so I swallowed the loss.

When you’re a baby author, as they like to say, you just don’t understand what you’re locking yourself into signing up for all these things. That would be the time to weigh what you’re willing to pay for, for pretty much all of your indie career. You get used to having access to those things and you tie up a lot of your IP into an account like Canva. But, when you’re new, you don’t know what you don’t know, and if you’re proud of your newsletter and start putting the landing page link everywhere, if something happens, you have no idea the damage control it takes to fix it.

I’m very fortunate that I linked to my website everywhere, and I’m very fortunate that I chose Bookfunnel as a way to distribute my reader magnet. I didn’t have to scramble to update any links–I don’t think I can portray in writing how relieved I was that I could just shut down my newsletter and not look back.

Building on someone else’s grass is definitely inconvenient at best (career damaging at worst), but sometimes you just can’t avoid it. We subscribe to products and services every day with the hope that those products and services have the longevity we need to keep our business afloat.

Only time will tell if the things we sign up for have staying power–in terms of the business itself and how we need to use them. I had thought MailerLite was a good fit and I recommended them several times, but they proved to be just as sketchy as any other business has the possibility to be, and some people just learn that the hard way. Lots of scammers in this business, and you’d like to think a steady business like that won’t turn, but like my daughter says, the risk is low but never zero.

I was lying in bed last night thinking about my blogs and how to make them seem more professional, if only on my author blog now, so it comes off as more newslettery and less bloggy, and I decided to create a “footer” of sorts for the ends of my posts. For eight years I’ve struggled with how to end my posts, and I’ve gone through various footers, like creating a graphic that has all my books on it and attaching my Amazon author page to it. This isn’t the right audience for that, but I would still like to end my blogs with some kind of signature so I came up with this. It’s especially important on my author blog now so no one misses the link to download their free book which I will add to every post.

Tell me what you think, and I hope you all have a great week!

Author Interview: Romance and YA Author Melody Loomis

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I met Melody on Twitter when she was asking some questions about a Midwestern winter for her WIP. Being I’m in Minnesota, I was happy to help her with all the chilly details. We happened to have several inches of snowfall that winter, and I tweeted her lots of pictures. She asked me to beta read when she was finished, and I was happy to do that, too. We stayed in touch, and now I consider one of my friends. I asked her if she would be willing to do an author interview, and she agreed. Still getting her feet wet with the whole publishing thing, she was happy to share what her past couple of years have been like writing and publishing. She spills on her newest wintery release out this week… (Ironically, we don’t have much snow right now! I’m sure her FMC, Melissa, would love that!)

You write YA and Adult Contemporary Romance. What made you mix it up and do you think you’ll write other genres in the future?
I knew before I published my first book that I wanted to write both YA and adult contemporary romance. I’ve always enjoyed a good love story, and growing up, I was very much into Judy Blume and similar authors. So those are the kinds of stories I like to read and write. I considered using different pen names, but in the end, decided it was too much of a hassle. And I think there will be readers who will enjoy both. I’m still writing in the contemporary genre, even though I’m writing for different ages. And I’m mostly targeting a female audience, though not that men can’t read them too!

As for branching out into writing other genres, I might like to tackle writing romantic suspense, because I enjoy reading that too. I’ve also considered writing picture books and humorous essays, but I’m not ready to do any of that yet.

You’re writing a series now. What do you like best about writing in a series and what do you find challenging?
I love writing in a series because often, I’m not quite ready to let the characters go! I want to keep writing and find out what happens next in their story. Or, I want to explore the best friend’s story.

The thing I’ve found challenging about writing a series is that sometimes, my muse wants to work on other things, and I have to work hard to keep on track. I don’t want to leave a series unfinished. I’m currently working on my Storm Series, but stories 5 and 6 haven’t been written yet. Stories 3 and 4 need work. I think in the future, I will wait until the series is complete before publishing. That way, I’m not under any pressure to keep writing in that series if my muse won’t cooperate. This will probably be the only way I will ever “rapid release.” I consider myself a slow writer, and I like to put away projects for a long time to let them rest before I go back to revising and editing them.

You do your own covers. What prompted you to try and can you explain your creative process?
For my first book, I reached out to a book cover designer, because I didn’t really know what I was doing. When she returned the cover, I thought, “Hey, I could have done that.” Plus, I wanted to try making my own covers to save a little money. I purchased Affinity Photo, which is a great alternative to Photoshop since you don’t have to purchase a subscription. I played around making mock book covers for months. I’m still learning the program, but I discovered that making book covers is a lot of fun.

I only suggest making your own book covers if you really enjoy it and are willing to learn the process, otherwise it can cut into your writing time. But looking at stock images gives me a lot of ideas for future stories, so that’s a plus.

You’re part of the . How did you realize early mornings are the best time for you to write and what would you suggest to other writers who are struggling to find time to write?
Not everyone wants to get up early, but I’ve always been a morning person. It’s quiet before dawn, and I write best with silence. Also, I like to start off my day doing something that brings me joy. And the earlier I get up, the more time I have to write. Though I write at other times of the day, morning is simply the best time, as my creativity is at its sharpest. By early evening, I’m yawning and can barely keep my eyes open!

The best advice I can give, if you’re struggling to find time to write, is that you’re going to have to give up something. For me, that was a lot of TV shows. And YouTube. I used to have an Authortube channel over there, but making videos cut into my writing time.

Or sometimes, you just have to make time to write. Find a few minutes here and there. Maybe you can write for 15 minutes while dinner is cooking, or if you have kids, when they go to bed. For me, getting up before dawn is easy. But also, having a cat helps. They’ll ALWAYS wake you up early!

You self-publish. What is the hardest thing you’ve encountered about the process and what did you do to tackle it?
The hardest thing about self publishing has always been the things I didn’t know or expect, like when my paperback showed up as temporarily out of stock, or when my pre-orders were not fulfilled and customer support wasn’t helpful. I also had an ISBN problem for my second book. And it’s not like I don’t know how ISBNs work. I’m a library assistant, and I look up ISBNs all day! But it surprised me that some sites wouldn’t allow me to use the same ISBN, even though it was one I had purchased.

The only thing I can do when it comes to these issues is to figure out what to do better next time. The first time, I didn’t go “direct” with Amazon for the paperback, and that was a mistake for me. As for the ISBN issue, Draft2digital support helped me out with that one by assigning me one of theirs. Talking to other writers and listening to podcasts has also been helpful in solving these kinds of issues. Maybe by the time I publish my next book, things will go smoothly. Fingers crossed!

Your book went live yesterday (December 17th)! Congratulations! What do you do leading up to your launch? Any marketing secrets you’d like to share?
I’ll be the first to say that marketing is not my strong suit. I didn’t do any kind of marketing for my first book, other than social media posts and a YouTube video. For my second book, I did two book promotions through Written Word Media, In hindsight, I think it would have been better if I had spread those promotions out and not done both at once. I have no way of knowing which promotion brought me more sales because I did them at the same time. And once they were over, the sales dropped off again.

For this upcoming book, I’ve scheduled one promotion, and I’ll plan to do another one at a later date. Also, since this is book 2 in my series, and my romance books are in KU, I’m looking into scheduling some free days for book 1 at some point to introduce people to the series and hopefully encourage them to buy the next one. I’ll also do social media posts, what’s left of social media these days. I haven’t done any Amazon or Facebook ads yet. I’m just not mentally (or financially) ready for that. All I want to do for now is to write books, and if people read them, great. I believe my readers will find me eventually. I think for now, I will try to focus on building my email list. I’m still looking for my first 1000 superfans.

Share your favorite motivational quote about writing.
It’s not actually a quote about writing, but there’s this quote by Nelson Mandela. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” I think about this quote when I’m working on a novel. When the words won’t come, or when I’m stuck in the muddy middle, it’s hard to think that I’ll ever get to the end. But after some determination and butt-in-chair time, the draft gets finished. It always seems impossible until it’s done.

A couple of years ago, I purchased these motivational cards to put on my vision board, and I was excited that one of them had that very quote!

picture provided by Melody

Thank you for your time, Melody! It’s always fun to hear about other authors’ experiences. You can follow Melody at all the platforms listed below, and I pulled her book covers off Amazon so you can see them. You can also join her newsletter for updates at www.melodyloomis.com. Thanks for reading this week!

Follow Melody here: Goodreads | Amazon | Twitter | Instagram | Threads | Substack

Monday Author Update

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Happy Monday! As much as it pains me to admit, summer is a third over. I wouldn’t say our weather has been particularly great–not a lot of warm days and lots of rain–but I appreciate the slower feel to the days even if my job hasn’t gotten the memo and my work hours are just as busy as any other time of the year.

I finished with my rockstar trilogy. I formatted them with Vellum, assigned the ISBNs in Bowker (I live in the States), finished my covers, and ordered the proofs. Once they come, I’ll hand them over to my proofreader and hopefully get them up on Booksprout for reviews by the middle of August. It was a lot of work, but I’m happy with how they turned out. I tried something new with the formatting since I updated Vellum and I wanted to see how easy it was. I added a chapter header graphic that I found on DepositPhotos. Finding it was surprisingly fast, but I did have to use GIMP to flip it and crop the white out. Here is the original, the cropped version, and how it looks inside the book:

abstract musical background with notes–original from DepositPhotos
flipped and cropped
Screenshot taken from Vellum

This is will be for the paperbacks only. Ereaders don’t support chapter headers so I’ll do the simple chapter images like I have in the past. It’s a little more work, but not much, and I think the paperbacks will be worth it, even if I don’t sell many. I had to up my prices too, because these are so long, and they’re going to be 14.99 instead of 12.99. I try to keep my prices low, and they’re 12.99 in countries like the UK and France, 14.99 in Canada, and 17.99 in Australia. I didn’t want to put them that high there, but considering I only make .50 off each purchase, it’s as low as I could go. My ebooks are still 4.99, and I think that’s the way they will stay. Rescue Me is still .99 and I might take that off sale soon. It’s been on sale for a few months now, so it might be fun to run a sale on Faking Forever.

I feel more confident about the covers, too, than for the ones I did for my Lost & Found Trilogy. I like the models better, even if they still don’t quite look 50. That’s okay. I found a background that I liked and added smoke to the bottom to help the title and my name pop. I didn’t workshop these, though I asked a friend what she thought. I looked through a lot of rockstar romance covers, and there wasn’t one set way authors were doing them. A few had an audience at the bottom with male model blended into the top, but I think the stage in the background suits, and I want to thank one of the members in the Indie Cover Project for her recommendation of the title font. I workshopped Rescue Me, and she suggested it. I didn’t end up using it, but I kept it in mind and it works here.

Maybe it’s a little premature to post them here, since I want to do a cover reveal to my newsletter subscribers later this week, but I wanted to show you how they look like they belong together. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my years of indie publishing is to make your series look like they belong. It’s especially important as you build your backlist and your series will be listed on your Amazon author page. You want them easily identifiable at a quick glance–and I see authors struggling with this in some of my author groups. Sometimes I think it’s because they publish as they go–they are thinking about one book and one book only. Since I wait and publish together, I think of my trilogies and series as one large project, not each book on an individual basis. That might spill over into how I write them, too, as I have a review on Safe & Sound, the third book in my Lost & Found trilogy, that said she didn’t consider these books standalones within the series. When I write them, I think of them as one long, continual story, even if they are centered around different couples. I can’t start a series without reading them in order, and I guess I think most readers are like me.

I want to do better promoting these on social media–and I’ll start posting on IG and FB soon. I don’t think my proofreader is going to find anything serious–no large, gaping plot holes that will take days to fix–but I don’t want to post dates until I know for sure. While I do that, I’m going to dive into writing the Christmas novel I wanted to write. I need something quick and easy to put together after releasing two trilogies this year. I found the notes of the novel I want to write–but after skimming them, it’s no wonder I couldn’t put the pieces together. I have an idea and nothing more, so I’ll have to figure out what I was trying to do. I have a few notebook pages of story, and I don’t like what I where I was going with her, so I’ll need to rethink that character. Still, it has potential, and most times that can be enough to write something good. I just need to sit with a pen and notebook and brainstorm.

That’s about all I have for this week. It’s odd being between projects. I may never get used to the feeling of not actively writing something, but I’m trying to enjoy the short break. I should use the time to make up some social media graphics in Canva, too, and once again, after seeing a fellow romance author who went viral on TikTok post in a group she bought a car with her royalties, circling around to that platform, too.

For now, I’ve dumped Twitter. I’m not going to tweet much of anything and won’t post my new releases on there. I pared down my bio and put up a generic header. If I do post, it will be through sharing and I won’t check notifications. I want to focus what energy I wasted there on IG where I think I may get a better return on investment. I’m also trying to participate more in my romance FB groups. Like I said in my last blog post, I’ve been networking with the wrong people, and that is one of the mistakes I need to rectify. The friends I have made on Twitter know where to find me elsewhere, and can say adios without remorse.

I hope you had a good holiday if you were in Canada or the US, and find little ways to enjoy the rest of your summer.

How “Self” is Self-Publishing?

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This has been on my mind a little since there’s not a day that goes by when i see something online putting down authors who publish their own work. We aren’t included in some award competitions, people say readers don’t read self-published books (though I still don’t understand how readers know), and just a common misconception everywhere that self-published books are “less than” books that are gate-kept.

The problem is, not many, if any, books are truly self-published. What do I mean by that? Let’s take a look at book creation, design, and publishing.

Content: If you’re a writer, chances are 100% that you’ve brainstormed with someone. You’ve hit a plot hole and need help, or you can’t parse out your characters’ backstories to align with their present story. You bounce ideas off someone, more than likely another writer, who lights that creative spark that helps you figure out A to Z. Maybe you plot and use a plotting software like Plottr, or you use a plot generator or trope generator. Writing is a solitary endeavor, to be sure, but we rarely do it alone.

Content Part 2: After you’ve written your book, there are very few people who publish that book without a second set of eyes, be it a beta reader, editor, or proofer. Even though my editing routine is pretty hardcore (I mean, I listen to each and every book I publish, and that takes several days) I still miss things that a proofer picks up. I haven’t always used a beta reader or proofer, and with this pen name, I’m trying to get better with that. A second opinion (other than your own) can go a long way. While betas and editors can be expensive, there are ways around it–trading for services or asking a friend who isn’t in the indie community to help you in exchange for lunch. It could very well be by the time an author’s book is ready to publish, that book has been read by an editor, a proofer, and several beta readers.

Interior: Vellum makes it easy to format your own books. I’m lucky and my ex-fiancé bought me a Mac and the software. I format all my books with it, and to pay his kindness forward, I format for others for free. If you don’t have the resources to format your own book or don’t want to take the time to learn how using free software from places like Reedsy and Draft2Digital, an author is going to pay for their books to be formatted. Word does an okay job, but the PDF for the paperback can get a little complicated. I offered a lot of resources for formatting in a different blog post and you can look at them here.

Blurbs: Blurbs are probably one of the most difficult parts of publishing your book. You need one that’s hooky, that will draw a reader in, and if there is one thing out of any part of self-publishing that I make sure I do, it’s get help with my blurb. A bad blurb will turn away a potential reader just as quickly as a bad cover. A great-sounding blurb is your biggest marketing asset next to your cover. You have no idea how convoluted or confusing your blurb sounds until you workshop it. Especially with people who haven’t read your book before. Don’t put your blurb up on your book’s buy-page without feedback. No matter how good you think your blurb sounds, it can be better. Your book will thank you for it.

Covers: Considering my blog post on how to create your own cover in Canva has been viewed over five thousand times, more authors than ever are doing their own covers. It isn’t any wonder since cover designers can be a sketchy bunch, and costly, too, even the designers who are just starting their businesses because they have to recoup stock photo and font fees. You may do your own cover, but if you do, get feedback. I’ll post my covers on the Indie Cover Project on Facebook (find it here https://www.facebook.com/groups/582724778598761) and grab some tips. Often, people will see things you don’t. It’s tough though, because sometimes they’ll suggest improvements you don’t know how to do if you have limited skills, or they’ll suggest things that don’t go along with your genre. I’ve gotten some good feedback, but if you post your cover there, thicken your skin up first.

Marketing/Advertising: There are a lot of resources for indies on learning advertising platforms and marketing tips. Bryan Cohen, who offers a free Amazon Ad Profit Challenge every three months, runs a Facebook group, and that group has over twenty-seven thousand members in it. That is a lot of people to help you if you do the challenge with Bryan. Author Unleashed, another Facebook group hosted by Robert J. Ryan, has almost six thousand members in it. Authors Optimizing Amazon and Facebook Ads – Support Group, also on Facebook, has almost seven thousand members in it. That is a lot of support if you’re running ads and have questions. There are a ton of books, Facebook groups, webinars, and classes that will teach you what you need to do to market your books effectively.

Publishing: There are a lot of Facebook groups, podcasts, blogs, and books that talk about publishing. You can also join Facebook groups for authors in your genre. I’m in several for romance authors. Members are more than happy to answer ISBN, wide vs. KU, and other questions that constantly pop up. Right now there’s a big conversation about the Adult/Explicit Content and 18+ readership that KDP has started. If you have a publishing question, the 20booksto50k group is great for it. You can even tweet your question, but I’ve read some convoluted and not entirely true information over there, so it would be worth it to get a second opinion if you ask there.

Considering all the steps indies take while they’re writing, packaging their books, and publishing indies rarely do this alone, and if you truly do, I encourage you to find a group or create your own. I spent the better part of the past 7 years I’ve been publishing networking and getting to know the wrong people. Find authors who have the same goals as you do. I’ve run into some issues online lately and with writing acquaintances because we don’t have the same goals. I want my books to sell and will do what it takes to make that happen. Not everyone thinks like that–unable to separate the art from the business. I take my writing seriously. It’s not a hobby. I consider it a second job. If you feel like that too, hang out with authors who feel the same. It will save you a lot of hurt down the road.

I’m sorry this blog post was late! I was so busy formatting over the weekend, this post completely slipped my mind. I don’t want to start slacking as that is the easiest way for me to fall out of the habit of writing at all. After I post, I’m going to work on my covers. I’ll have a trilogy update for you next Monday.

Enjoy the 4th if you’re in the States, and have a great week!

When do you know when your book is done?

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books and flowers with quote: “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.” --Samuel Johnson, Works of Samuel Johnson

Since I’ve been listening to my trilogy, that’s a question that has been on my mind the last few days. Listening to my books to find typos, missing words, extra words, and syntax issues is the last editing step I will never skip. In an FB group someone said they paid a proofer (an exorbitant amount, in my opinion) who missed too many errors for the price she was charging. Listening to your manuscript can help you find and fix all those issues, and from the feedback the reviewers give me on Booksprout, I catch 99.9% of mistakes. (One reviewer found only one typo in Faking Forever, and I was so proud of that!)

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a second set of eyes on your books if you can find a set that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg, but like I wrote in my last blog post, finding people you can trust is impossible at worst and difficult at best.

So, when do I know when my book is done?

I honestly don’t spend a lot of time on my books and you can take that however you want to. Product quality will always be subjective, and I see that all the time online. People who can write quickly are judged and accused of putting out crap, as if spending more time on your manuscript means you’ve got the next great American Novel on your hands, ah, laptop. Not everyone wants to spend the next five years writing their next book. In fact, if someone told me I had to spend five years writing my next book, I wouldn’t even start. Some writers don’t bother to even finish a WIP before it’s on to the next shiny thing, but I can’t have projects overlapping in my brain. I need to finish one and then go on to the next. It’s just how I am.

books and flowers with quote: It’s being ready to accept rejection. You can work on a book for two years and get it published, and it’s like you may as well have thrown it down a well. It’s not all champagne and doing interviews with The New York Times. George R. R. Martin

When I write a first draft, it’s pretty clean. I don’t like to edit, though I’m getting better, and I never rewrite unless I find an inconsistency and I have no choice. There’s nothing I love more than reading my own books, but knowing I have things to fix makes me crabby and I try to avoid it. I edit as I go along, especially inconsistencies I know are there. Everyone will have their own process, but if you hate editing, plotting your books to avoid plot holes and knowing your grammar and punctuation to avoid errors can give you a cleaner first draft.

Standalones are easier than duets or trilogies just because you’re not dealing with so many words. The trilogy I’m working on now wasn’t supposed to be one, and I’m thankful I don’t publish as I go. I would have been in a world of hurt when it came to details that link all the books together. I had no choice, anyway, once I decided there was going to be a book two and three because there was so much foreshadowing to book one I needed to add.

books and flowers with quote: If you're going to publish a book, you probably are going to make a fool of yourself. --Annie Dillard

Once I get them all written, I immediately reread them all and make notes of character details like eye and hair color, and who knows what. That was a big one for this trilogy as this has a twisty murder in it, and I needed to keep track of what information each character had. Even at the end of the trilogy, not everyone knows everything, and I had a few pages of notes to keep everything straight.

I read book one more times than the others, but books two and three got their share. The story is set in stone by the time I listen to them. In a perfect world, I would have a beta read them before I listen, but the more productive you are, the harder it is to find someone to help you. Especially if you can’t afford the help and are looking for free or are trading services. I had a free beta lined up for book one, before I knew it was going to be a trilogy, but after I decided to add books two and three I didn’t ask her. I know I write fast, I know I produce a lot of books, and that is just too much for someone to take on. Not many people agree with the idea you should edit your own work, but sometimes that’s just how it has to be.

I have a pretty decent memory and usually know when I’ve messed up with consistency. It’s difficult when a character says one thing at the beginning and near the end says something else. That usually happens because they’ve grown in the middle, but you have to make sure that growth is on the page and not in your head or the character’s head. If you’re having trouble picking that stuff out for yourself, you probably need a manuscript critique or a developmental edit if you can afford it.

In book two of my trilogy, Eddie wants to keep his relationship with Clarissa a secret. Well, he says he does, but every little thing he does negates what he says. He moves in with her, tells his best friend he’s living with her, is in love with her, and was having an affair with her while she was married to his bandmate. Parks in the driveway instead of hiding his car in the garage. Doesn’t mind when other people find out he’s seeing her. Little things add up to the fact that while he said he wanted to keep their relationship a secret, he really didn’t want to. He was doing his best to out himself even if he didn’t realize it. It even took me a while to realize that’s what he was doing, but after that clicked, it made total sense. He was tired of hiding her, and I hope my readers understand that. It’s funny when things like that make it into your writing, almost like a subliminal message. I only mention this because I thought I had a big problem with consistency. He was continually saying one thing but doing another. It wasn’t intentional, but it was, and I’m actually really proud of that. (And super glad I didn’t have a ton or rewriting ahead of me!)

flowers and books with quote: The process of writing a book is so removed in my mind from the process of publishing it that I often forget for great stretches that I eventually hope to do the latter. --Karen Joy Fowler

I have to be pretty sure my books are how I want them before I start listening to them. How do I get to that point? I don’t get tired of my books, per se, but there is an eagerness to get them done and move on to the next thing. I don’t have a problem with perfection, and anyone reading in their genre and who can be honest knows some of the best selling books aren’t perfect either. I’m proud of my books, but doesn’t mean I’m going to reread them 120 times and haggle with myself over comma placement. If you don’t know about a comma, listen to the sentence both ways. You’ll right away if it belongs or not. For me, there’s only so much you can do for a book after it’s written. I’ve done my best by it and it’s time to nudge it out of the nest to see if it can fly.

Of course, you don’t want to publish too soon. I’ve seen this happen and the results can be… not good. You really don’t want readers to pay for a subpar product, and if my proofer finds stuff in the paperback proofs, of course I’m going to fix them. I wouldn’t ignore her findings because I’m in a hurry. That’s what she’s there for.

I’m not sure if I answered the question, “How do I know my books are ready to publish?” It’s more of a feeling, a proud sense of accomplishment that they’re done and ready to go out into the world. They sound good, the plot is solid. I had reservations about Faking Forever. I didn’t like Fox, and I was worried other readers wouldn’t like him either. But I wasn’t going to rewrite it or scrap the book. There actually was nothing I could rewrite. The story was what it was. The only thing I could have done was not publish it at all, but it was already there, already done, and I took a chance. That was a book that didn’t have a proofer or a beta reader. I put it out 100% on my own. Maybe had I had feedback first I wouldn’t have felt like I did. Or I might have felt worse. Who knows. I’m not looking at the reviews. You can do that if you want to see how readers like it.

Books with flowers and quotes Self publishing is not as easy as it is portrayed! When you think you have finished your book, proof read, proof read again, and again, and again. Don't believe it is ready until you have a hard copy proofed! --Phil Simpkin

You have to listen to your instincts and be honest about what your plans are. There are some writers who don’t ever plan to publish. They are in love with their characters and completing and publishing would mean they aren’t able to spend time with them anymore. That’s okay. I like publishing and I like knowing readers are reading my books. But I also like moving on to the next project. I’m trying to savor the process more–writing the blurbs, doing the covers, even uploading them on KDP. But trying not to be so quick is hard. Not really because I’m tired of working on that particular project, but because I’m excited to publish. It’s a lot of fun to put my books on Booksprout and send my newsletter ARC copies.

Probably the best advice I can give you is to not chase perfection. You’re not going to find it. I’ll reread books I’ve written and of course I find things I could change. That only means I’ve grown as a writer between writing it and that reread, but that doesn’t mean a reader won’t enjoy the book that exists. Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a talk about chasing perfection, and I post it every now and then. I think it’s a great. We’re our own worst critics and you can’t let that keep you from moving forward.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!

How to start a beta reading service

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Beta reading can be a great way to give back to the writing community and help out your fellow authors. Coincidentally, a couple of my friends have decided to go into the beta reading business. Turning something you do for someone for fun into something that you’re charging for might require a different way of doing things. For a friend, you can be more casual about it, but to trade your time for cash will call for a bit more professionalism. If I were to go into beta reading for a few bucks (and I never will because I’m not interested in that) this is what I would do.

What are my qualifications? This is probably the most important, and something you might not consider. But charging for your services is different than reading for your friends for free. Authors who are giving you cash want expertise and experience in return. Simply being able to say that you’ve been a lifelong reader might be helpful, but may not be good enough. Do you have any formal education like a literature degree or an English degree? Do you know the genre conventions/reader expectations of the genre you’re going to read? Do you read the bestselling books in that genre? Do you know the tropes that make them bestselling books? Not every author you read for is going to be writing to market, that’s true, but just because it’s unsavory to some, there are authors who do want to know if they’re hitting the right beats, that the character arcs and plot arcs are in line with what’s selling, and that they’re nailing the end in a way readers are going to want. If you yourself are an author, how are your books selling? What are your reviews like? Beta reading is different from writing, that’s true, but you can’t expect to tell authors what they should be doing if you can’t do it with your own work. If I were going to answer these questions, I would say I have an English degree with a concentration in creative writing, I’ve been reading romance for years, have been writing romance for years, and finally am now making a little from the books I’ve published since I pivoted from 3rd to 1st person present and niched down. I would have to read more in my genre, though. I’ve said I don’t do it enough, and I don’t.

Decide what genre I would read. Let’s be honest here. If you go into beta reading, proofreading, or editing, you’re going to come across some stinkers. That’s just how it is, and probably why they’re asking for help in the first place–they know they need it. Reading something that needs work is tough enough; reading something that needs work written in a genre you don’t enjoy is even harder. Be firm with the genres you’ll read. If you choose romance, decide if you’re going to read open door sex scenes or not. I’m dirty and I’ll read it all. Some won’t. Same with swearing. I swear, my characters say Jesus Christ all day long, and I don’t mind reading it. Put together a set of wills and won’ts, and ask the person you’re beta reading for if their books contain those things.

How long are the books I read going to be? One thing that surprised me on Fiverr is how cheap inexpensive all the beta readers were–until I dug deeper and realized that betas charge on a tier system. 10 bucks for a short story, 25 bucks for a novelette, 50 bucks for a novella, 100 bucks for a novel 40-50k words long, 125 bucks for a novel 50-85k words, and 150 bucks or more for anything above 85k. (That’s just an example–I didn’t steal anyone’s prices.) They use the lowest fee to draw you in, and you’re massively disappointed when you can’t find a beta reader who charges 10 dollars for your enormous 160k word YA Fantasy. If you have limited time in your personal life you may want to limit how long those books are, or maybe you’re happy reading and charging for one book a month and digging into 150k words is your jam. But it’s helpful to know what length you like to read. I don’t read short stories, and I find novellas lacking in depth. I don’t buy novellas, but if the premise drew me in, then I would maybe beta read for a friend who needed it. Decide what you like and make sure your potential customers know.

What would I charge? This is icky for me since I beta for free at the moment. I’m selective and honest and only do it for my friends. If I’m busy, I say so. I don’t accept a project then get pissy because I don’t have the time (or don’t want to make time, for that matter). I read romance and I’ve made allowances, like reading a science fiction romance, because a friend asked me to take a look. That’s fine, and I’m happy to help. If I were charging, I’d be more strict with the genres I accept and probably put into practice a flat fee like I listed above. Some charge by the word, and some even by the hour, though I don’t now how you would keep track of (or prove) something like that. I’d enable a disclaimer and say I have the right to return a project if I can’t handle the first chapter. If the first chapter is badly written or just not my cup of tea, reading 50k plus more words wouldn’t be worth it. Life’s too short for that. Though, that could be feedback in and of itself. Starting out I would probably beta read at a discount until I had a few testimonials and could prove I make my customers happy. Maybe I would already have that if the friends I’ve helped gave a review of my work for my website. Like with anything else, you have to prove yourself before you can charge the maximum amount.

Decide if you’re going to proofread as you go. Some beta readers proof while they read–it isn’t all for plot and characterization. One beta reader I worked with couldn’t decide if she was going to proof for me or not. She marked some things, but for every one thing she found, she didn’t point out ten others. It was confusing. Don’t do that. Either be all in or be all out. If I proof for someone, they’re getting a line edit, too. I can’t overlook a mistake. I’d have to turn off my editor brain and I think unless they were close to publishing (the book had already gone through a critique group, for instance) I wouldn’t proofread as I went along. I’d read for plot, pacing, and characterization only. If they did ask for a proofread, that could be an extra fee. That would be up to you.

How would I give my feedback? Usually I just write up a separate Word doc and email it along with the manuscript I beta read (using Track Changes for short comments). I once proofed/beta read for someone using Google Docs, but since that’s live online, she read along with me and either fixed things or dismissed things while I was reading. That was creepy AF, and I will never beta read for someone using Google Docs again.

Can I give my readers resources in areas where they’re lacking? Probably the most satisfying part of beta reading for me is being able to point out resources for authors if they need some extra help. I read a lot of editing books, my favorite being Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing by Tiffany Yates Martin. Feedback is important, no doubt about it, but learning how to do a lot on your own before someone takes a look can save time and money down the road. I have a ton of editing resources, and if you want to take a look at my favorites, you can read this older blog post about publishing without an editor.

Where would I post about my business? It would make the most sense to add a page to this website, as being a paid beta reader would be a natural step after blogging for indies and publishing my own books. I already pay for the domain name, and I have to admit, when I see an editor, beta reader, or proofreader trying to sell their services and they don’t pay for a domain name, I write them off as unprofessional. http://www.sallyeditor.wordpress.com looks cheap and I can only assume, like readers assume a crappy cover indicates crappy insides, that if they aren’t willing to pay a few bucks a month for their domain name, that their services are on par.

How would I bill my clients? Creating an invoice in Canva would be the easiest, I think. You have to have a way to bill your customers because some authors write off their beta and editing expenses on their taxes, or at the very least, they keep track of their expenditures. And you as well, should keep track of how much you make so can report that income. The beta reader I worked with asked for half before she started and half when she finished. I didn’t mind that at all and would maybe follow something similar.

How would I accept payments? If you post your job listing on a website like Fiverr, they take care of that for you, and I’m assuming, take a small cut for helping you. I paid my beta through PayPal, but I’ve never accepted money through it, only sent it out. I would need to research that and figure out how people could pay me. PayPal seems to be popular still, but I would want to make paying me easy. Not sure how I would go about it, and I would definitely set that up beforehand so my clients knew the options available.

Beta reading for payment is a business choice, and like indie-publishing, it’s best to remain professional. Confidentiality is important. Not talking about your clients’ work to other people, maybe having a privacy clause on your website stating that their manuscripts are safe. When I beta read, I delete them from my computer after I send my feedback. Their stories and books don’t belong to me so I trash them when my work is done. It wouldn’t feel right keeping them, though technically I still “have” them in email because I don’t delete correspondence.

Beta reading is more than just reading–you’re helping an author put their books into the world. That’s nothing to take lightly. I’m always humbled when someone asks me for help. I think they value my opinion and respect my work. I offer that in kind, and I like to think I’ve added something to the writing community.

If you want to read more about starting your beta reading business, look here:

https://kindlepreneur.com/how-to-be-a-beta-reader/

https://www.scribophile.com/academy/how-to-become-a-beta-reader

Have a great week, everyone!

Monday Musings and an Author Update!

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Words: 1364
Time to read: 7 minutes

It’s another Monday, but not manic, sorry, Susanna Hoffs. I’m just tired AF. By way of author updates, I don’t have too much. A proof job fell into my lap last week, and I started and finished that before working on my own manuscript. I’m 91k into the last book of my rockstar trilogy, and I’m hoping to finish it ASAP. I want to dive into editing them and polishing them up for an August release. The week between books went really well for my other trilogy, so there’s no reason not to do that again if I work hard enough over the summer. It’s crazy how I’m already thinking about a Christmas novel, but we’ll see how much time I have when school starts. My daughter will be in her last year of high school this year, and September is always a little busy as we try to shake off the summer months. I am grateful I write clean first drafts, but my co-worker who read my series and proofed them for typos would like to read the rockstar trilogy before release, so if I take her up on that, I need to make time for it.

I have a book coming out on the 17th, and the first review on Booksprout put my mind at ease. I really wasn’t sure about Fox and Posey’s story, but I was honest in my author note to my reviewers and said as much. I have ARC copies available until it goes into KU on Wednesday, and you can download a copy from Bookfunnel if you’d like. There are eight left, but don’t download one unless you want to read it and leave a review: https://BookHip.com/PPSTKQF

I’ve been trying to shake off some doldrums and with the rain and my girl-stuff flaring up, it’s been difficult. I honestly wasn’t feeling a book launch, and it shows. I need to start Amazon ads to the preorder so they’re up and running when the ebook goes live, and I was going to schedule a promo for Give & Take on either ENT or Fussy Librarian to keep the ball rolling on my books. I haven’t done that either, and they book about a month out, so we’re looking at the middle of June before I can do anything now.

I guess this all kind of feeds into the discussions online lately about writers and their worth. I wrote a blog post about it a while back, which goes to show we’ll always have conversations about things like this. I sound bitter, frantic, almost, and what’s funny is my situation has changed very little. I’m selling more books because of the 1st person POV change, so that’s turning into a good move, but my fiancé and I broke up so I no longer have that “stream of income” I amusingly called it. (I did work for it, so it may be appropriate after all.) The blogpost I wrote in 2020 I could be writing now, except I’ve learned a lot over lockdown and actually put into practice those things as I started releasing new books last year. At any rate, it just goes to show some things will never change, and writers’ pay is one of them.

The conversation this time started over a tweet from an agent who said her agenting was a career and our writing was a passion. Let me dig it up so you can see it.

https://twitter.com/SBLitAgent/status/1656429611645906945?s=20

I honestly understand where she’s coming from (don’t come at me with pitchforks, please), and I often think of something similar myself when I see all the writers querying and complaining about all their rejection emails. Savannah probably could have been a little nicer about it, but agents have bills to pay and they can only pick up what they know will sell. It’s not rocket science. On the flip side, which is where my old blog post comes in, no one pays a writer for all the work that goes into writing a novel. All the months and years that we spend writing, there’s no pay for that, and sometimes, after we find an agent, get that book deal or self-publish, there’s still no pay for that. Certainly not a living wage.

It can be disheartening to keep writing, to keep producing for no little to no gain. And when we complain there’s no money in it, everyone piles on and says you shouldn’t be writing for the money. Which… is what Savannah did. It’s quite the conundrum, especially if you break down all the hours you work on your books for free. I work maybe 20-30 hours a week on my books. I have to if I want to write as quickly as I do. Part time wages compared to what I make full-time at my job would work out to be about 15k a year from just writing. I’ve said before how much easier my life would be if that were a reality. Of course I love it. Of course I love helping my friends publish their books. Of course I love the readership I’m building with my first person books. I don’t know how you can’t be a writer if writing calls to you. How do you shut it off simply because you’re not earning an income?

I listened to the latest Six-Figure Author podcast episode and could really feel Jo’s plight. He revealed he was getting a job for the first time in a long time, and that brought on a lot of emotions for him and the people listening. I doubt I will ever be able to quit some kind of a day job. I need the stability of a paycheck, and I would have to be earning a lot from my books to even think about it, even if my work barely pays me a living wage. If you want to listen to the episode, you can here. He starts talking about that 8:00 minutes into the video.

I guess I don’t know where I’m going with this post, except I can see both sides. There are ways to make your book enticing to agents before you query, just like there are ways to make your book more enticing to readers if you self-publish. Know what’s going on in your genre. Know who your comp authors are. Know what shelf your book is going to be in a bookstore. (It really is amazing how many authors say they wouldn’t know.) Work on your craft. Whenever I see a tweet that says they queried the perfect agent and still got a rejection, I just think the writing isn’t there. It’s a tough industry and you have no idea who’s right. Should you get an editor before you query? I don’t know. How strong is your writing? Should you get one before you self-publish? I don’t know. How strong is your writing? Either way, you have to know the industry. Read Publisher’s Weekly. Read Publisher’s Marketplace if you can afford it. Read Jane Friedman’s The Hot Sheet if you can afford it. Publishing is a business. Learn about the business you’re in. Someone DM’d me and asked me a question because she said I knew more about indie publishing than anyone else she knew. That’s not just from publishing books. That’s from listening to podcasts. Reading blog articles. That’s from listening to talks on YouTube like the 20books50k conference last year in Vegas. That’s from knowing the heavy-hitters in the industry and signing up for their newsletters. Sign up for workshops if you can. Anytime Melanie Harlow speaks, I’m on it. What do you do to stay on top of your industry? When you’re querying, what can you bring to the table? Everyone keeps saying the agent/writer relationship is a partnership. Okay, what’s in your half besides your book?

I don’t understand the helpless mentality online. You are not helpless. Your career is in your hands. You just have to decide how long you want to work for free, because it’s a lot longer than any of us realized it would be.

This is the first year ever that I have sold a book or had page reads every day since January 1st. My craft is better, my brand stronger, and my focus clearer. I didn’t know what I wanted when I first started publishing. I do now. And until I have to be like Jo and cut back to find something else that will pay the bills, I’ll never stop trying.

Hopefully, you don’t either.

Have a great week!

Monday Musings and Quick Author Update

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Time to read: 6 minutes

Happy Monday, if you like that kind of thing. Today, incidentally, is the first day of May, as well, which means everyone should probably check to see how their ads are doing and compare ad spend with royalties earned. Because my Amazon ads were running away with clicks but my royalties didn’t seem to be keeping up, I paused some of them. Sometimes that’s not the best idea, but until royalties catch up, I can only spend so much. I’ve made $219.62 this month in sales, spent $108.00 on Amazon Ads (my fault I wasn’t keeping track of them) and $39.96 on my Facebook ad for Rescue Me. Of course, that’s not great (an ROI of $71.66), and I take all the blame for my Amazon ads. I had one going for Rescue Me that didn’t make any sense, because those clicks were .34 which is what I earn on a .99 book. My FB ad is .13/click so I make a tiny something. Mostly I’m using it as a gateway to my other books, and just from Rescue Me this month I made $72.22 so at least the FB ad is paying for itself.

Over the weekend I put Faking Forever on Bookfunnel to offer a few ARCs to my newsletter subscribers and later this month I’ll need to put it on Booksprout for reviews. That is going to go live around the 17th sometime, and I need to book another promo for Give & Take. I wanted to for Captivated but that duet isn’t selling and as I have lamented before, there’s no point in trying to throw money at that duet anymore. If people find it with my low click bid ads, that’s cool, but as my backlist grows, it may just get lost in the shuffle.

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about why I give away a full novel as my reader magnet for my newsletter subscribers. You hear a lot of opinions on it. No one wants to put in that amount of work into something for nothing, or they want to make money off selling it instead. Maybe they can write something shorter that still gets the job done (but how you would measure that is debatable–maybe if no one signs up would be a hint). I can understand the reluctance, and I tried writing short for my reader magnet too. But when I realized it would be easier to just give away something longer, the idea wasn’t so painful. Mostly, I heard advice a long time ago that made sense: you want to give your readers a taste of what you write. I will never write a novella, nor do I write short stories. My Biggest Mistake is the perfect example of what I’m writing under my pen name. It’s 78k words long, is about a billionaire who finds love (and family), and it’s steamy. There really is nothing better I could give away, and if the readers who picked it up don’t like that, they sure as hell aren’t going to like what’s in my backlist I’m selling.

Someone in one of my writing groups said she read that people think their email is worth ten to twenty dollars. I tried to find the source, but after snooping around online for a bit, I gave up. What’s important here is that people don’t give their email addresses to just anyone and for just anything. Authors who don’t like newsletters and haven’t started one because of their own personal biases will probably believe this more than anyone. They protect their email and will only give it away if they know it’s worth it. A $4.99 ebook more than likely isn’t worth it unless the cover and blurb really pull them in, but perhaps the books you’ve already written add to the value, the books you’ll write, and the special offers you’ll only give newsletter subscribers might be enough to tip them over the edge. Since I started my newsletter last year around this time, I’ve given my reader magnet away 952 times. I collect email addresses through Bookfunnel and Bookfunnel sends them directly to my MailerLite account. I don’t force people to give me their address, so I’m 300 email addresses short in my MailerLite account. I was hoping to add people who really wanted to be there by giving them the choice.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is, you need to make sure you’re giving value to your subscribers, and not think you’re entitled to emails just because you have a newsletter. A little short story may not do it, though there are plenty of ways to entice readers, one way being writing bonus content for newsletter subscribers only. I’m too lazy to do this– and once a story’s done in my mind, it’s done. I had one reviewer for Rescue Me say she appreciated I didn’t dangle bonus content in front of her in the form of a newsletter sign up, and I don’t do that because I’m already giving away a book and don’t feel the need to give away anything more than that. It frees up a lot of headspace.

My novel took 3 months to write and I can use it for years to build my list. I think that’s a great return on investment. I can understand if it takes you longer to write a book, but you will have to decide what you want to offer instead. It may not be good enough to entice subscribers and it will take you a lot longer to build your list.

This is all I have for his week. I’m just trying like mad to get the last book of this trilogy written, and it’s been one of those books that are more fun to read than to write. I’m going to have to make a serious effort to finish up in the next couple of weeks. I’ve already went back and read this book from the beginning twice, so I don’t need to do it again. I know exactly what I need to get it done, I just need to stop letting things get in the way. I’ve enjoyed writing this trilogy very much, and like all the other books I’ve written, I’ll be sad when their stories are done and it’s time to move on. After these are good to go, I may be able to squeeze in a Christmas novel. I really want to write one and have some kind of holiday auction plot simmering in the back of my mind, but we’ll see. I need to finish the book I AM writing first and take it from there.

Have a great first week of May everyone! Make every day count!

Does it matter how long your (romance) book is?

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There was some romance discourse last week, well, maybe not discourse, as the topic was broached by people who weren’t fighting about it (sometimes respectful discussions can happen), but it is worth a look. They were talking about the length of a romance novel, and how long a romance novel really should be. It’s kind of a sticky subject because there are a lot of reasons why romance books are longer than they should be, or, for that matter, shorter than they could be.

In a time where attention spans are short and money is scarce, I can see how someone wouldn’t want to write long novels–and charge for them. People read in bite-sized chunks (Hello Kindle Vella and Amazon Short Reads) and move on to something else. Novellas appear popular these days (I’ll add a question mark because I don’t know that to be true from a reader standpoint) and if you’re a writer and can write two novellas a month, you can build a backlist and readership that much quicker.

My main concern is how people feel about longer novels. You can pat yourself on the back if you write 100k+ novel. It’s quite a feat to be able to pull that off. It’s more extraordinary if you can hold someone’s attention for that long, and that’s the rub. According to the discussion that I peeked in on, few authors can.

I remember when Lucy Score came out with Things We Never Got Over. There was much discussion about the fact that it’s 570 pages long, or over 140,000 words. Does a romance novel need to be that long? And since publishing that in January of 2022, she’s come out with two more in that series: Things We Hide from the Light (February of 2023) which is 592 pages long, and Things We Left Behind which will be out in September 2023. We can assume that book will be equal in length, and that means to read through the entire trilogy, you’re committing to 400,000 words. You can argue that if she’s a good a writer it doesn’t matter how long the books are. But, she also works with a professional editor who would (hopefully) tell her if her stories dragged.

More indies than we realize (or want to acknowledge) work without editors, especially developmental editors that can charge $1,000 dollars or more per manuscript. Indies aren’t getting the feedback they could to tighten up their books, and I get it. When you can’t find a beta reader who will help you for free or trade, many indies go without any kind of feedback before publishing. They don’t get opinions on that subplot, or how much crap they’ve thrown at their couple to extend the story. They don’t know how to pace themselves and bog their stories down with info dumps and add characters that don’t do anything to enrich their books. I’ve also read authors by Montlake (an Amazon imprint) whose reviews say similar things . . . the books were too long, the novel could have lost 100 pages and been a better read. So working with an editor doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll end up with a perfect product.

Is this opinion, or fact?

Does it matter?

The problem is, quality is subjective, and an author sure as hell can’t do anything about a reader’s attention span. Negative reviews can make it feel like it was the author’s fault they didn’t write a good book, when it actually could be the reader who had too much going on to settle in a read something that was more than 150 pages.

On the other hand, a book that’s only 150 pages that’s poorly written can feel like 1,000 pages and I’ve read first chapters that took me all day because I just couldn’t get through them. It doesn’t matter how long or short a book is if the writing is terrible or you don’t care about the characters.

I suppose the answer is you’ll find your readers if you deliver consistently. Over time, readers will come to know what you write, and if they’ve tried you and didn’t like you, for whatever reason, they’ll avoid new books.

I can’t write short. I have three full-length standalone novels that prove that when I was trying to write a novella-length reader magnet for my newsletter. I finally ended up offering the shortest one (77k words) and giving that away rather than keep trying to write something I can’t. This is worrisome in its own way–when you’re told a reader likes certain things and you can’t deliver. I can’t write a book that’s 40k words long, and that leaves me and other authors who like to write long or want to write long with a problem–how do we make sure we’re finding the right kind of readers for our books?

No one wants a review saying our book was “bloated” or bogged down, or even worse, be accused of writing filler for the KU page reads. Like Zoe York pointed out in a tweet thread about this very topic, you get paid the full amount only if a reader reads the entire book. They can “flip” for the good parts, and if they flip to the end you get paid for the book, but what are the chances of that going to be if you bore a reader? If the reader is bored enough, they’ll close out and return it.

A reader can look to see how many printed pages your book is in the product information. Readers who are looking for a certain length can avoid books that are too long or too short for their tastes. I don’t usually do that unless I know for sure it’s an indie book. Some indies overprice their books because they feel all the work they put into their product deserves the inflated price. I’m not going to pay 1.99 for a short story, or 3.99 for a novella. Not when I price my 75k-100k novels at 4.99. Price is a different subject all together and I’m not going to get into it here.

The trilogy I’m writing now is on the longer side and I didn’t intend for that to happen. I would need beta readers to tell me if there’s anything I could cut, if getting my 107k manuscript under 100k is important to me. It’s not–I’m more concerned with all the books being around the same length. I don’t want my first book to be 107k and my third to be 75k if you know what I mean. But since they are longer–not quite that different from other my books, but still longer by about 20k–I wonder if it would be worth adding page length to the blurb. I dislike all the qualifiers that some authors are now putting in their blurbs. There was one book by an author I won’t name who added a paragraph of trigger warnings. While this blog post isn’t about trigger warnings either, reading all those put me off reading it. Life is hard, and I wouldn’t expect fiction not to be. My characters can have very angsty backgrounds, and to add triggers to my books warning readers my characters have . . . lived hard lives? . . . doesn’t seem realistic to me. So adding page length when I don’t even like adding trigger warnings seems too precious. On the other hand, it would save readers from picking up a book they don’t want to invest time in, so it is an impasse, for sure.

If you like scrolling through Twitter, here are the tweets I saw over the weekend. I’m not picking on Zoe. I love her and she really makes me think about the publishing industry and more specifically, publishing romance.

I listened to a talk once, but I can’t find the video, so I don’t want to say who I think it was because I might be wrong. But even if I can’t remember who said it, it’s worth mentioning. In her talk, she talks about leveling up, and one of the simple things she did to make more money was to write longer books as all her books were in KU. Of course, she’s not encouraging you to book stuff or bloat your books with filler. We all want to make readers happy. We know you can’t create a fanbase without doing that. I just like exploring all sides of a conversation, and if you write 50k word novels and think you aren’t happy with how much you make from KU, I don’t see the harm in looking over your books and deciding to write 70k books instead. But, it is important to look at how you view success and how much time you have to work on your books. Maybe every month is NaNo for you, and 50k every 30 days is manageable and because of your day job and family life, 70k is not. Also, what kind of readership do you have now? Do they want a 70k book or would they be happier with two 35k books? If you don’t have a readership yet, it’s worth exploring what you want to write and what you have time for.

My brand will always be full-length novels. I’ve come to realize I like trilogies–both reading them and writing them. I have a soft spot for standalones but six books in a series will be my limit. If I had a team who could help me package the books, that might be something different, but editing them, formatting them, and doing their covers wears me out and I don’t have the patience to do that often. Eventually, as I publish, readers will know each new release is a full-length novel. For courtesy, since I’m still using Booksprout, I’ll tell potential reviewers this will be a long trilogy. I appreciate all the reviewers and the time they shared with me and my books, but there was one who said Give & Take was too long. At 77 words, it’s one of my shorter books and it just goes to show you’re not going to make everyone happy. So a length warning may be helpful if only to let them know that if they review the entire trilogy they’re signing up for some serious reading time.

That’s about all I have for this week. I started book three of my rockstar trilogy, and I’m so pleased I decided to turn this into a trilogy. It will be a fabulous addition to my library. I love the characters and the over-arching plot I’ve developed. The couples were made for each other, and I’m having a lot of fun pushing them together.

I’ll be working on that book for the next little while, trying to get these ready for an August release. I don’t know if I’ll publish them one week apart like I did before. I don’t have an audience yet, so a rapid release doesn’t do anything for me. I just prefer to have a series ready to go so at least readers know their next read isn’t that far off.

Doing something like this is a lot of work. Sometimes I get discouraged. Sometimes I want to give up just like anyone else. I said something to someone last week I probably shouldn’t have. It’s none of my business how she chooses to run hers. I get frustrated when people don’t put in their time but think they deserve results. I’m not talking about a particular person now, I’m talking about anyone, anytime. I used to be like that. Maybe not entitled, but when I pushed Publish on my first book, I went to bed hoping like we all do that it would be a runaway bestseller. Of course it wasn’t. None of my books have been. I have 16 books out and make pennies a day. Not for lack of trying, and certainly not lack of hard work and willing to try new things. I think the one thing you can do for your business is know what you want and don’t be scared of it. Don’t be scared what other people think of it. If you want to make money, own it. If you want to win awards, don’t let people tell you awards don’t matter. Why you write and publish is no one’s business. Why you quit isn’t anyone’s business (but you can just leave. Stop announcing it every five minutes and just go). Why you keep pushing when year after year you keep seeing the same results isn’t anyone’s business.

I’ll keep writing and publishing and maybe I’ll luck out and have a runaway bestseller. I’ll never know if I quit.

Have a great week, everyone!

Adding discussion questions to your novel, yes or no?

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Adding discussion questions to the backs of books seems like a very traditionally-published thing to do. When I first started publishing in 2016 I never thought about it, mainly because up until that point, I don’t know if I read books that had discussion questions in the back. If I did, I skipped them entirely because after the last sentence, I set the book aside. It was only after I became an indie author and started devouring every book I read cover to cover (what people sneak into their copyright pages can be really hilarious) did I realize just how much I was missing not reading past The End.

Always Read the Acknowledgments Page by Grace Bialecki via Jane Friedman’s blog.

Why would an indie add discussion questions to the backs of their books? I asked that question on Twitter and I received varying responses. One said because she thought her book didn’t warrant them, another said if was an indie book, they would obviously be written by the author which seemed strange. (As opposed to them written by an editor, I guess.) One said he didn’t want to think too much about his own book to come up with the questions.

Those are valid reasons, I suppose, but I think any book has the content required to warrant discussion questions. Every character makes choices, and every one of those choices can be dissected and measured. That’s what I like about adding discussion questions to some of my books. I like puzzling out why a character did what he did and if there was a better way for the outcome he wanted. As an author who is “supposedly” in control, that’s not always the case. I’m not one of those authors who spends years editing her book because she thinks of something better. I write the damned book, and it’s done. What’s there is what will stay there and my stubbornness actually gives me room to explore why I wrote what I did. Characters’ choices aren’t always going to be ours–a nasty character doesn’t make us nasty because we created them.

I like the idea of discussion questions in the back of romance books. Considering what kind of a reputation romance books have, even if a reader glances briefly at the questions, it maybe give them the idea to explore the deeper meaning underneath the kisses. Of course, there may not be any deeper meaning, and that’s okay too. I think every character is flawed and will make poor choices at some point, and reaching to understand the answers to those questions help us grow as readers and our ability to understand other people.

I had a difficult time thinking of questions for the back of Rescue Me. I added them because Sam made a choice or two that may not have sat well with a reader. Lily understood the choices he made, and if there was anything to forgive, she did so with an open heart. Was she right to forgive him? We can’t control how other people behave, we can only control our reactions to what they do.

I admit that discussion questions probably work better with standalone novels, and I’ll add discussion questions to my next standalone coming out in May. That book also deals with some sensitive topics and behavior from both my male and female characters.

Characters are flawed, they’re human, and they’re not always going to do what we expect in the heat of the moment. It’s what they learn from their choices, if anything, that matter in the end.

Is it vain to add questions to the back of self-published novel? Not any more vain than thinking your own work is worthy of being published at all. When indies publish with no greenlight from a gatekeeper, you have to have faith in your work. Why not have faith that a reader will want to explore your book with questions you thought were a good complement?

You never know–maybe your book will fall into the hands of a book club and they’ll appreciate the built-in discussion help.

If you don’t like the idea of coming up with your own discussion questions, perhaps ask a fellow author to give you a few interview questions about your book. You can answer them and then offering extra content won’t feel like such a one-way street. There are always ways to reach your readers, and the more involved they are with you, your characters, and your books, the sooner they will turn into true fans.

Here are a few more resources on adding discussion questions to your own novel:

Creating Discussion Questions Using Your Book’s Themes by by Sara Letourneau via DIY MFA

How to Write Great Discussion Questions by Janet Kobobel Grant via Books & Such Literary Management

And a list of books that have discussion questions in the back: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenge_prompts/6e172dac-df93-425b-ae9e-702ebe940358

Thanks for reading and have a great week!