writing – Page 16 – Tiffany Shearn

Publication and Social Media

Before I jump into sharing the social media aspect of my publication journey, a little announcement on the book’s status: The beta reads came back with only some minor adjustments. I took care of those, and the manuscript is now off with the copy editor! I’m on schedule, and maybe even a little ahead, to have it in the hands of ARC readers with plenty of time for them to read and review for the launch. If you are interested in hearing more about ARC readers, stay with me until the end of the year. I will have a post about them as well when I get to that stage.

Today I talk about communication and brand building. When I first began this blog, I mentioned how it is because of the strong recommendation for authors to have one. Blogs are a way for an audience to know an author through more than their book writing. They also connect to the author’s website and can provide a solid base of communication. That was my goal with this blog. I started it well in advance of my launch, intending to publish weekly, so I had an online presence should a reader come looking for me.

Now I’m a little more than three months out from my intended launch date, and I expect the preorder link to be available sometime in October. The last couple of weeks have been all about communication planning. How do I cast a wide net? How do I capture my audience? How do I offer versatility to my audience’s preferences? What do I respond to? How do I respond when it is going to be just me doing this for quite some time?

First, I looked at building what I am calling “passive contacts.” These are the follows on various social media platforms where people may or may not see my posts in their feeds. I took a look at websites for some of the authors I read to see what platforms they used. Based on that information for guidance, I decided on adding Instagram and Twitter to my existing Facebook presence. This is how I am describing my presence on these platforms:

Website: This is my website, including my blog. You can sign up to receive blog notifications either with a WordPress account or simply with email. Blog posts are short, weekly musings about what is going on in my life, ranging from family, to writing, to D&D games. Few of these posts, if any, will be included in the newsletters.
Twitter: My posts will primarily be sharing blog posts, so you can follow the blog through this source instead of the website if you prefer. There will also be some soccer or family tweets in there as well.
Facebook: My Facebook page will primarily include brief progress posts and some blog sharing. There will also be some Facebook exclusive events with giveaway raffles.
Instagram: This will primarily be pictures of me, my cats, Seattle Sounders games, and book cover images as they come out.

“What is this ‘newsletter’ to which you refer in the descriptions?” you ask? Well, that is the part I am calling “active contacts” and starting to build out now. I now have a MailChimp account and will be sending out newsletters! This is one of the best ways to keep an audience because you are directly telling them about a new release or work-in-progress rather than relying on a news feed in an app. I am still working another job, and I need time to actually write the books, so I’m only planning quarterly newsletters with a few extras if there are special events.

I don’t know how this is going to work exactly just yet, as I only made the newsletter sign-up live on my site last night. At the moment of writing this, I am my only audience member. New audience members SHOULD get an automatic welcome email. I’m crossing my fingers that I set up the automation correctly. There is going to be some learning along the way, so I hope my early subscribers find errors humorous and enjoy the process with me.

If you are curious about any of this and want to follow me on any of these platforms, I have included links to them all above in this post, and they are the icons at the bottom of my website pages as well. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are back next week as well for an exciting reveal of the new page I am adding to my website!

Self-Publishing

Last week, I discussed and shared links related to descriptions, frontmatter/backmatter, copyright, ISBNs, and licenses. While I’m certain those will need some adjustments before publication, I’m relatively comfortable with that line of activities. Now I’m working on Amazon-related information like search keywords and categories. This part is going to be more learning-as-I-go. I will share steps I’m taking, process points where I’m more or less confused, and the resources on which I’m relying. Take all of this with a grain of “I’m new” salt. There will probably be many lessons learned to be shared later.

Categories, Keywords, & Accounts

I started looking into categories and keywords before I set up my KDP account with Amazon. Categories and keywords are critical for helping readers find my book amid all the other books out there. I want my work to stand out while providing the reader with a good idea of where my work fits into genres they like. I’m using a couple of resources for advice on these two things: Publisher Rocket and Kindlepreneur.

Kindlepreneur has advice on many self-publishing steps, and I like how the information is presented in easily digestible and easy-to-follow pieces. Publisher Rocket is a purchasable downloadable program that can help you look for keyword and category options. When I created my KDP account and started setting up my book, I found the keyword research and information translated well. The categories…there is some confusion on this piece.

In KDP, you can initially select two categories for a new book. It opens a menu where you expand sections to drill down to find the categories you want. Straightforward enough. However, the category advice mentions countless more specific and nuanced categories than are available in the menu. I did all the research and picked the two I thought best to start with, and neither is in there! This part requires more research. I need to figure out if there are additional steps or later steps that bridge this gap. I have enough time for this research, and for now, I have two adjacent categories selected in my draft book in KDP.

It is exciting to see something in my KDP “Bookshelf.” I’m on track with my administrative tasks, and the beta reads should all come back early next week. The upcoming stages should move quickly, and I think Hidden Memory will be available for pre-order late in September! Now I need to figure out a mailing list and newsletter process. I’m thinking quarterly with special newsletters for new releases that don’t fall in that schedule. With a blog and newsletter to produce, I don’t want to take too much writing time away from future books with an overly aggressive schedule.

That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend!

Business of Publication

I mentioned last week that my book is out with beta readers. While that is happening, I’m working on the administrative steps related to the business of publication. A handful of months ago, when I was looking into beta readers, a friend passed on a publication checklist. It includes a comprehensive list of steps with many links to help learn about the requirements or where to go for the best information. My friend received the checklist from author Lee Hadan. While I’m not going to share all of the steps in the list here, I will share a few with some supplemental research on the items added.

First up: writing that is not part of the story.

Book description.
Frontmatter/Backmatter.
About the author.
CTAs (including copyright).

I worked on my “blurb” earlier for getting beta readers and have done some additional work on it since then. This link has the information on book descriptions I found the most helpful for my fantasy novel. There are other sources in the checklist, but I did not feel they related specifically enough to my genre.

Frontmatter and Backmatter include everything before and after your story, including “about the author” and copyright pages, but I decided to call them out separately. I found this link helpful for the overarching structure and as a rough guide for me to select from for inclusion. It explains the purpose of each section and when they would be used for reference text versus fiction or such. I looked at the link provided for the “about the author” section in addition to reading through a lot of those pieces in books I own.

For copyright (CTAs), I heavily leveraged the link included in the checklist. It includes example copyright information and states that self-publishing authors can use them as templates.

Next up: business purchases.

ISBNs
License/DBA

ISBNs are standard and you need one for each version/type of book you publish (audiobook, paperback, etc.). Bowker Identifier Services is where you purchase and register ISBNs in the USA, and they have package deals. As for a business license or DBA/Trade Name, I highly recommend researching your state and local municipalities. Many states have a sales tax that you will need to pay as the publisher, and this is based on the sale price, not on your royalties. I’m still following up with my city, but I have my state information now.

Now I’m working on Amazon-related information like search keywords, but I will save that information and those links for next week. To sign off today, I will say, “Happy Birthday, Little Cat!” Her birthday is actually at the end of July, but I missed it last week with how busy things have been lately.

I’m a year old now!

I hope this information is helpful to some, and thanks again to Lee Hadan for being willing to share her checklist with aspiring authors!

Overwhelmed by People Stuff

The last two weeks have been packed with people. From both work and personal perspectives, I’ve been inundated with human interaction. It is starting to put pressure on me. As the upcoming week’s schedule is also packed with people, I’ve decided to take today off and be by myself.

My husband had already decided to have sushi lunch with friends, so this works out well from a timing perspective. Sushi is one of the few food styles that I will usually pass on – surprising for someone from the Seattle area, I know – so it is no hardship to skip this lunch for leftovers at home. It leaves me with plenty of time to just exist and take care of internal tasks.

I do have a few goals today. Two of them are must-do items, while some are in the time-allowing category. My self-assigned, mandatory tasks are to complete the “read-alouds” for our D&D session this week and to finish my edits of book one. For D&D, I’m not sure which directions the party will go at this point. They could potentially reach the end of this level in either direction, so I want to have all the level one commentary completed in preparation. I can wing it at need, but I find I forget more details that way, and I prefer preparation that gives them all the initial information they will need to make decisions.

For the book, I only have the epilogue left. I need to edit what exists right now and add one perspective to it as recommended by an alpha reader. I should complete both of these today since the epilogue is shorter than a full-length chapter. With this timing, I’m also posting my beta reader request for a couple more readers today. I want them to focus on plot or character disconnects or areas that pull the reader out of the story rather than line edits. With those items as the focus, I’m hoping to have the book back from them within two weeks.

The timing becomes tighter now. I’m going to schedule a copy editor and will need to finish any edits before that deadline. While I’m going to have some buffer planned in the sequence, any beta reader delays mean less time for my side of the polishing work. I also need to work on the administrative tasks, but I will do that once the book is out with betas.

As for the optional weekend tasks left for today: one is related to how much effort I want to put into cooking dinner tonight, the other is canning some pickles. I purchased some pickling cucumbers the other day, and I want to turn them into pickles. We will see if I can dredge up enough energy to fit that in today or if I procrastinate until a time when it is either “do it now” or “they go bad.” Wish me luck!

Introvert Power

When we were all going into the office every day, I preferred people set up meetings with me ahead of time rather than just stopping by my desk. That is because I had to psych myself up for every interaction. It is not that I dislike people. They simply drain my energy levels. The bigger the group, the more the drain. Even dinner out with my husband requires some level of energy from me.

Working from home for a year has helped me mellow a lot, as I can spend my energy in a more focused manner each day. I feel more productive, happier, and less stressed overall. The one concern I had over the forced isolation is whether I could push myself to interact socially again.

I isolated myself in my younger years, safe in my little bubble, not going out with anyone unless I had at least a week’s notice. That usually meant staying home all the time. A friend eventually broke me out of that habit, and I realized how much I needed that form of interaction in my life, even if it was a little uncomfortable or draining. It was worth it.

Now I need to remember that value and push myself out of my cocoon of comfort again. I need to watch how often I decline invitations or talk my husband out of inviting others over. Fortunately, he is extroverted, so the latter is much less likely at this point in my life. I am already easing into society again with soccer games and Dungeons & Dragons. Slow and steady, we will all get back out there safely.

As for writing, I believe I have overcome my editor’s block for the moment. After the long weekend, this edit is back on track for my target schedule. I hope I can find another beta reader or two for this version to see how well I fix some of the (thankfully few) early issues brought to my attention. Now I need to poke at my alpha readers on book two, so it is ready for me when I get to that point.

Tonight, dinner with friends. Tomorrow, more editing. Progress on all fronts!