Self-Publishing in 2017: Everyone Needs an Editor--Even You

By Jennifer Jett Prezkop

As the managing editor of a magazine, I deal with a lot of writers and assignments. Too many times people have sent me what they considered impeccable editorial I could not use. I spend a great deal of my workweek critiquing stories and ghost writing to help them revise their drafts into something usable. The biggest problems I come across are people who are too close to the material to recognize a problem, don’t proof their own work, and don’t consult a style guide. Much like freelancers pitching stories for magazines, as an author, your credibility is based on the quality of your work. You might have the next Harry Potter novel in you, but if there are structural problems or typos that distract the reader, you will have hard time selling copies or building a fan base. Editing is vital to publishing success.

As a writer, I know how much time, effort, and passion goes into a manuscript. It took me a long time to develop a thick skin for critiques, and it took me even longer to get in the habit of asking beta readers and editors to rip my manuscript apart. I don’t want praise. I want them to tell me what is wrong so I can get closer to a perfect manuscript.

No matter who you are or how long you’ve been writing or what you think you know, you need two things before you self-publish: a professional editor and a marketing plan. You might have a degree in creative writing and you might be a pro at formatting and you may have the style guide memorized, but as the author, you cannot be trusted to read all the words on the page and catch all the mistakes. You're simply too close to it. I thought my manuscript was ready for print. Then I paid a professional editor to review it, and surprise, surprise: it has structural issues that must be addressed. Why? Because once it prints, it’s forever.

A few weeks ago, I shared a list of 10 steps on how to successfully self-publish in 2017, and in the weeks since, I have been breaking down those steps one by one to better help you on your way. Before we move on, though, I think it’s imperative that we discuss editing, and I can think of no one better to help me with that than Sandy Tritt, the CEO and founder of Inspiration for Writers. In this Q&A, Sandy provides a wealth of knowledge from her years in the industry. Next week, we’ll look at how to edit your own work, but this week Sandy is helping me get the basics out of the way, like defining the different types of editing (yes, there are many!), explaining the importance of a style guide, and discussing why editing your own work is not enough.


Q: Tell us about the different kinds of editing.

ST: There are about as many different kinds of editing as there are editors.

Copyediting generally refers to checking the basics—spelling, punctuation, word choice, and grammar. Sometimes editors do more than a basic copyedit and also edit for paragraph and sentence structure as well as word-level edits.

Line editing is looking at how the words fit together—sentence flow, paragraph flow, readability, and, most important, the author’s voice.

Content editing is looking more at the big picture. Are the facts correct? Are there inconsistencies? When it comes to fiction, this includes looking at plot development, point of view, character development, and so forth.

Developmental editing is actually getting involved with the creation of the story—assisting in plot or character development, advising on sequencing, suggesting scenes to add or cut.
Proofreading, of course, is the final stage, in which a careful eye goes through the entire manuscript looking for typos.

Copyediting, line editing, and content editing are all critical to the success of a story, and every writer needs to have each of these edits performed. Most editors sell their services by these differentiations—you pay X cents per word for a copyedit, Y cents per word for a line edit, and Z cents per word for a content edit. At Inspiration For Writers (IFW), all of our editing packages (except for proofreading) include ALL of these types of editing. Since some writers need more work done than others, we charge according to the amount of work that needs done to make a story both technically and artistically the best it can be. We estimate this during our free sample edit.

Q: Speaking of sample edits, what should authors know about these?

ST: It’s critical to get a sample edit from each editor you consider hiring so you can compare the editors’ styles and what is included and isn’t included in their packages. IFW offers a 500-word sample edit so the editor you would be working with can get a feel for the types of issues in your manuscript and help you better determine the type of edit you need.

Q: What can you tell us about style guides and the importance of knowing which style guide an author needs to use for their project?

ST: A style guide is the set of “rules” that will be followed in editing a document. Each major industry has its own style guide. For example, journalists use the AP style guide. This ensures consistency in capitalization, hyphenation, punctuation, spellings, et cetera, throughout a paper or magazine. The AMA style guide is used for papers or articles published in the medical field. The Chicago Manual of Style is followed for fiction and informal writing like memoirs. It’s important to follow the appropriate style guide when editing your manuscript. You can find a list of style guides at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_style_guides.

Q: Why is it important to use a professional editor instead of doing all the editing yourself?

ST: It’s really hard to see your own work as others see it. We are writers because we love words—especially those we’ve created, spending hours and days and weeks to nurture and grow from infancy to adulthood. We know what we mean—we know all the backstory. So when we read our manuscript, everything makes sense to us.

Most people think it’s easy to write a book. You just sit down and write. But writing a book is like building a house. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. Yes, you can make a playhouse by nailing a few planks of wood together. But if you want to build a real house, you need to understand infrastructure and weight-bearing walls. You need to know about crawl space, basements, kitchens, bathrooms, attics and maybe fireplaces. You need to know how to install electricity and plumbing. You need to add insulation. You have to cut out windows and doors—and do so in places that not only make sense from the interior, but that also make for an attractive package from the outside. You need to know how to install a roof. Then you need to finish both the inside and the outside, do some carpentry and painting, and maybe even hang drapery. There’s a lot more to it than you might guess.

It takes a lot of time, study and experience to become a good housebuilder. It takes even more time, study and experience to become a good writer. We need to understand the infrastructure of a story—how point of view, tense, and voice work together. We need to create a solid plot to bear the weight of the characters. We need to install settings that have just the right amount of description to take us where we need to be—but sprinkled throughout. We need to understand how to build suspense and how to write effective dialogue. Then there’s pacing—we need to make sure the story doesn’t move too fast or too slow.

If you don’t have time to study the craft of writing for 8-10 years, you probably need to hire an experienced professional who has completed that study and who can guide you through the blueprints. You need a mentor.

***

So, there you have it—everything you need to know about editing. Except, of course, how to do it. Be sure to watch for our blog next week when we discuss just that—self-editing.

Self-Publishing 2017: Building Your Audience

by

Jennifer Jett-Prezkop



In reviewing my list of 10 tips for self-publishing in 2017, one of the most intimidating tasks for me is the idea of creating a fan base. Where does one begin? What works, and what doesn’t? My head spins at the thought of accomplishing such a big task.

Despite my questions, I’ve been assured by several authors that it’s important to have this done well before the book comes out. From author websites and blogs to social media accounts and mail lists, we’re going to take a look at how to overcome this obstacle on the road to successful self-publishing.

Blogging

It takes a long time to write a book. When the actual writing process is through, there are still several rounds of edits to get through before a manuscript is ready to be published. Once the first book is out, writers are encouraged to get to work on the next story because your readers will want more—and soon. Blogging is a great way to build your readership before the book launches and also maintain front-of-mind awareness so your followers don’t forget about you.

Gail Ingis, author of Indigo Sky, writes a blog post every week. “For those who want to market themselves through a blog, writing about the (novel’s) subject and sharing opinions and suggestions is probably wise,” she says. “My blog is purely entertainment. From time to time, I blog about writing, designing and historic events. I try to make the posts more personal rather than informative.”

Eric Vance Walton, a novelist, poet, and blogger, recommends blogging about your book’s characters as well as the behind-the-scenes process of writing a novel and your frustrations with the process. “People are fascinated by all of this, and it creates a lot of anticipation for your book,” he says.

Social Media

When it comes to social media, author Nina Mizner advises that it’s never too early to create your social media accounts. You can use these accounts to promote your author website and your weekly blog posts, although Mizner warns that your content should be about more than just promotions for your book. She recommends doing some research on your favorite authors to see the different ways they utilize social media and the types of fresh content they share.

Ingis utilizes social media in addition to her weekly blog. She uses The Killion Group, a marketing company with experience in publishing, to post for her on Facebook and Twitter five days a week. From her experience, following those on social media who follow her also helps grow her reach.

When creating your social media accounts for promotional purposes, make sure you are using the sites that are popular with your targeted audience. For instance, if you write young adult novels, Instagram—NOT Facebook—is where you want to set up camp. This will require some research, but it’s something you definitely want to get right in order for your efforts to be worthwhile.

Mail Lists

Mail lists are a great way to stay in touch with your readers, and Constant Contact and MailChimp are great sites that simplify this process. Both sites will manage your email database for you. Constant Contact has a monthly fee, but MailChimp is free once you reach a certain number of subscribers. Beware: when you use these sites, the subscribers must sign up. You cannot add whoever you want to the list without their permission.

Sandy Tritt, founder and CEO of Inspiration for Writers, uses Constant Contact for marketing and says creating a mail list is important because newsletters are a great way to keep your name in front of your followers. There is a link to a sign-up form on Inspiration for Writers’ website. “Whenever I set up at a book festival or some such thing, I often do a door prize drawing for those who fill out the subscription form at my booth,” she says.

Walton drives people to the subscription form on his website through links on his social media and blog posts. “This way, I can build my own lists for free, and I know the people on the lists have at least a mild interest because they signed up.” His newsletter offers exclusive content, such as updates on new releases, speaking engagements, and workshops and classes. He uses the newsletter to make this information available weeks before sharing it anywhere else so there is incentive for fans to subscribe.

Best Practices

Out of all of these marketing options there are bound to be things that work and things that don’t. Here are a few these authors have had good experience with.

Steemit: “Steemit has been the best for me by a long shot,” says Walton. “My target audience is on Facebook, but that platform has become too expensive to be viable. I recently paid to boost a post on Facebook so people who’ve already liked my page would see it, and it only got 47 clicks out of an audience of almost 3,000. On Steemit, not only do people who’ve followed me see my posts, but I get paid for writing there. There’s no comparison.”

Networking: According to Ingis, networking is a great way to build a fan base. While we all have one main group—family and friends—we need to expand our reach to writing groups, social groups, church groups, membership organizations and clubs.

Intended Audience: Author and editor Deborah Holmes says to always keep your intended audience in mind and be aware of which social media sites your readers use. “Make sure you always write with your intended audience in mind, which is critical to good reception whether you’re tweeting or penning an article for a peer-reviewed journal.”

As for what not to do, Walton weighs in on where he wouldn’t waste any more time. “Probably the least effective thing I tried was a live Q&A on Facebook a few years ago,” he says. “The other thing is trying to get physical books in brick and mortar bookstores. I don’t even focus on trying that anymore because there’s zero profit in it. All of my content is available exclusively online.”

Self-Publishing Perspective: Eric Vance Walton

 

by

Jennifer Jett-Prezkop and Eric Vance Walton

Last week, I shared a list of 10 steps on how to self-publish your book by the end of 2017. Self-publishing is no simple task, and even as the author of the list, I admit I’m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work that lies ahead. It’s times like this when it’s important to look to those who have successfully self-published for guidance—and encouragement. If you know authors who have made self-publishing work for them, don’t be shy. Ask them about how they did it. I don’t know of any authors who don’t like to talk about their work, and the amount of knowledge you can gain from their hard-learned industry lessons will be invaluable.

One of the self-published authors I like to turn to is Eric Vance Walton, a novelist, poet, and blogger who ventured into self-publishing in 2013 with Alarm Clock Dawn, the first of his dystopian trilogy. Walton put the trilogy on hold to publish One Word at a Time: Finding Your Way as an Indie Author in 2014 through a traditional publishing house, an experience that taught him to appreciate the freedom of self-publishing. Here he shares his journey through self-publishing and why he would do it all over again.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

EVW: Frankly, I chose self-publishing because it was my only viable choice at the time. This was in the late 90s before larger platforms like Amazon’s CreateSpace existed. Traditional publishers weren’t willing to publish me as a new author since I hadn’t already made a name for myself. Now we have many more choices, and even established authors are choosing to self-publish because they have more control of the whole process.

In the past, self-publishing had a stigma attached to it. Did this have any influence on your decision to pursue it?

EVW: In my experience, this stigma is gone for the most part. If you produce a quality book, have a great cover, and the book is marketed well, your work can be as attractive as a book from a major publishing house. I was traditionally published for the first time in 2014, and I probably wouldn’t go that route again. You can make more of a profit and have greater control self-publishing.

What is the most challenging thing about self-publishing? 

EVW: The most challenging aspect of self-publishing is you have to wear all of the hats—editing, book design, marketing, et cetera—or hire professionals. I would strongly suggest hiring an editor and professional book cover designer at the very least. Also, to ensure you recoup your investment and make a profit, you must already have a loyal readership built before you launch a book. You can do this by blogging and writing regularly on social media sites. Build a mailing list independent of social media using an app like MailChimp. Building your mailing list should be a top priority because this allows you to market directly to potential customers.

What surprised you the most about the process?

EVW: The work only just begins when you finish writing the book.

Tell us about how you marketed your novel.

EVW: I had already built a loyal readership on Facebook before I launched Alarm Clock Dawn, so I mainly marketed on my Facebook author page. I boosted a few ads to improve outreach there. I also collaborated with other bloggers, and they reviewed my book on their blog. This helped a lot.

What kind of success have you seen with Alarm Clock Dawn?

EVW: The novel had decent sales in the first few months after publication in 2013, but after this initial surge, sales plateaued. This past summer, I started releasing my novel in installments on a new social media platform called Steemit. This breathed new life into my novel and will likely give me the freedom to write full time very soon.

What advice would you give someone who wants to self-publish in 2017?

EVW: To do it effectively, I would say give yourself at least six to nine months from the time your book is done to do an effective launch. This timeframe is if you already have a loyal readership and mailing list built from blogging and writing on social media.


Thank you, Eric! If you are interested in Eric's work, you can visit his website here.

You can find Alarm Clock Dawn here,

and One Word at a Time: Finding Your Way as an Indie Author here.

Self-Publishing in 2017: 10 Tips for Reaching Your Goal

by

Jennifer Jett Prezkop



Another year has come and gone, and my mostly finished manuscript is still sitting on my desktop. Working full time, juggling side projects and managing daily life have pushed writing down my priority list over the last 12 months. If you’re like me, 2017 represents the chance to change that. This year, I have my sights set on self-publishing, and having a plan to get me through the process will be key.

Below, I have shared the steps I have compiled for how to self-publish in the next 365 days. These are based on the input of published authors and experienced editors from a variety of genres. I encourage you to follow these steps or do some research to come up with your own—either way, make sure you have a plan in place so that self-publishing in 2017 is a goal met instead of another year lost.

1.) Finish your manuscript.

If your manuscript isn’t finished, you should be writing instead of worrying about what to do with an incomplete novel. If you’re struggling to get the manuscript finished, make it a point to sit down every day and write.

2.) Begin building your fan base.

Author Eric Vance Walton says it’s important to have an established fan base before your book comes out, and he recommends building a following by blogging and writing regularly on social media. Nina Mizner, who self-published several science fiction and romance novels, believes it’s never too soon to create your social media accounts. Gail Ingis, author of Indigo Sky, best connects with her fan base through weekly blog posts that share personal content.

3.) Polish your draft with edits and rewrites.

When you’ve finished your first draft, you’ll have to go back through the draft several times to cut unnecessary scenes and address problems like too much internal dialoging and telling where you should be showing. Award-winning author Eric Fritzius recommends reading the manuscript out loud, preferably from a printed page. “Nothing brings out errors better than seeing them on a printed piece of paper, and doubly so for hearing them come out of your own mouth.” This is not in lieu of hiring a professional editor (see step #7).

4.) Find beta readers.

Once you’ve polished your draft, pass the manuscript off to at least two beta readers who will provide honest, constructive feedback. If your mother or best friend is only going to tell you how amazing your novel is, don’t pick them for beta readers. Your best possible novel emerges only when people give you constructive criticism—and when you are willing to take it.

5.) Research self-publishing options so you can choose the medium that is right for you.

According to Sandi Rog, an award-winning author, ghost writer and editor, there are several options for indie authors, depending on the format they choose. For instance, Amazon provides Kindle Desktop Publishing for e-books and CreateSpace for print. Other options include Ingram Spark, Lightning Source, and Whitaker House. It’s important to research each company’s policies, costs, and offerings to protect your novel and yourself.

6.) Review the feedback from your beta readers.

Once you receive your beta readers’ feedback, review their comments and address their concerns. This will require another round of rewriting and editing on your part.

7.) Hire a professional editor.

“You could hire your high school English teacher or a college student to edit more cheaply, but they are probably not aware of the different style guides and which one is appropriate for your type of writing, nor may they be up to date on the latest conventions,” cautions Sandy Tritt, founder and CEO of Inspiration for Writers. “A professional editor knows exactly what to look for and how to correct it. Just remember: once something is in print, it’s forever. Make sure you have it perfect before publishing it.”

8.) Hire a cover designer.

“People say don’t judge a book by its cover, but people do, and it’s what will likely get your book into a reader’s hands,” says author Sandi Rog. The cover is the first sales pitch you give to readers and, for that reason, it needs to be the best possible.

9.) Do a final edit on the proof. 

Before publishing, order a proof of your novel and perform one more edit. When you find errors in the proof—yes, WHEN—mark them with red ink and dog-ear the pages with corrections to be made. This ensures you won’t miss any final changes that need to be made. Remember: this is your last chance.

10.) Create your marketing plan.

Author web sites, blogs, social media accounts, newsletters, reviews, special promotions—there are dozens of ways to get your book’s name out to the masses. Do some research to determine which methods are best for your novel.