Category: Self-Publishing

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 5 – Physical Health)

Any sedentary job has health risks, but writing the bulk of your work hours poses some particular ones. That’s why I included physical well-being in this series of things to think about before writing full time.

The physical issues I’ve confronted myself or hear about most often from other authors include:

  • Aches and strains, including neck strain, shoulder and back pain, eye strain, and stress on just about any part of your body from remaining too much in one position or looking too frequently at a keyboard or monitor.
  • A step up from aches and strains are repetitive stress injuries (RSI). These types of injuries occur when we make the same motions, such as typing on a keyboard, over and over again. They also can arise from sitting or standing in the same posture for too long.
  • Weight gain from a lack of exercise and or changes to the way we eat when we write. Those changes could include snacking more often because we are home more or using food as a reward when we have something to celebrate–or a way to feel better when we get discouraged.
  • Overuse of alcohol. It’s easier to drink alcohol while working when you have no boss looking over your shoulder. It’s also easy to eat and drink without really thinking about it while you are absorbed in your writing. Finally, some writers find alcohol helps them relax and be more creative, though others find it dulls their writing or makes it harder to focus.

Below are techniques and habits that helped me or other authors I know. I also recommend Joanna Penn’s book The Healthy Writer: Reduce Your Pain, Improve Your Health, And Build A Writing Career For The Long Term.

Before you read on (you were going to, right?), a quick disclaimer.

I am not a medical doctor or health professional. Before making changes to your exercise, diet, or other health related habits you should check with your health or medical practitioner to be sure the changes will be good for you and will not create other problems. Also, if you try any of these suggestions, remember to tailor them to your own life or particular circumstances.

Vary Your Workplace

Last week in 6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 4 – Where To Write) I talked about setting up a good place to work. You can look there for more on arranging an appropriate keyboard and screen height and other suggestions like standing or walking for part of your writing time.

No matter how good your set up, though, you can usually help your body by choosing a different place to write for an hour or two a day or a few times during each week.

For one thing, you need to get there. If you choose somewhere in walking distance or you drive and park a few blocks away, you’ll add some extra exercise to your day and you’ll sit less. If your home or your new writing space has steps to get in or out, you’ll add more stair climbing to your routine.

Also you’ll likely be sitting in a different position, holding your hands differently, and keeping your head at a different angle. All of these changes can ease your neck, wrists, eyes, and other parts of your body.

So if most of your writing time is at a particular desk at home, think about where else you might go, such as the library or a cafe. (You can find more suggestions on where to write here.)

Schedule Breaks

If you’re working another job now, you’re probably longing for uninterrupted time to write. Yet for your physical well-being, consider scheduling regular breaks.

You might write for 28 minutes and take a 6-7 minute break. During my breaks I try to look out the window at something far away to give my eyes a rest from close work.

Sometimes I do physical therapy exercises that I have for my neck and back, ones I can do while standing that don’t require any special equipment.

Sometimes I read a book for a few minutes. While it’s still close work, I switch position by lounging on the couch or sitting in an armchair rather than at a keyboard.

Create An Exercise Routine You Enjoy

When I shifted to spending most of my work day writing I had a hard time getting in my usual amount of exercise. Before that, I worked in an office a mile away. Every day, sometimes in temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit, I walked to and from my office. That gave me 10-14 miles of walking a week. And when it was below zero, you can believe I walked very fast and got my heart pumping.

When I started working primarily from home I lost those built-in miles.

So I purposely set up my routine to include walking. My business mailbox is about a mile away . I also teach classes (legal writing) at a school about a mile away and walk there several times a week.

I also do yoga almost every day for about 20 minutes.

It works for me because I can do it first thing in the morning at home. In my pajamas. And the stretching helps counteract the shoulder and neck strain I experience from writing so much. It also helps me relax.

There are other types of exercise I know from experience I won’t consistently do no matter how many schedules I create or promises I make. I hate running. I only ever feel pain with it. I’m not a fan of other types of bouncy aerobics. The only time I stuck with going to a health club was when I was a college student living at home and pretending I was going to mass every Sunday morning to make my mother happy.

You might hate what I love.

Maybe yoga makes you yawn. Maybe, though I will never understand it, you love running marathons. The point is to figure out what sort of exercise makes you feel good enough when you do it that you’ll stick with it, and figure out what time of day you’ll be most apt to include it.

The beauty is once you start writing full-time your workday schedule is almost entirely up to you.

Some questions to ask yourself as you try to figure this out:

  • Over the course of life which exercise types have I done on the most regular basis?
  • Am I more apt to continue going to a health club or class or to exercise at home?
  • What makes my body feel the best?
  • Do I prefer to exercise with other people or alone?
  • What ways can I work exercise into other parts of my life?
  • Do I have friends who also want to exercise more who might agree to a weekly date to exercise and visit at the same time?
  • Are there other things I can do while I exercise like listen to an educational podcast or plot my novel in my head?

If you can afford it, you might want to consider seeing a healthcare practitioner or exercise specialist (like a physical therapist or yoga teacher) to get exercises specifically designed to help you with whatever physical issues you have from spending a lot of time writing.

While it does cost some money, in the long run it can be less expensive if it helps you avoid more serious problems.

Finally, think about what activities you do that provide exercise that you simply find fun. Do you like playing tennis? Are you a skier or runner? Do you, like me, enjoy taking walks?

Plan Healthy Ways To Change Your Mood

It’s human nature that if we wait until we are celebrating or until we feel sad and discouraged to decide what to eat or drink we probably won’t make terrific choices. It’s easy to reach for things like cookies, chocolate, or wine.

Personally, I don’t think any of those things are terrible. But if we are reaching for anything constantly, it probably won’t be very good for us.

To help counteract that, you can choose a time when you’re feeling good and make a list of easy and quick things you really enjoy that will allow you a momentary celebration or that will lift your mood during a rough patch.

My list includes:

  • See a movie
  • Read a novel
  • Take a hot bath
  • Light scented candles
  • Watch an episode of a TV show I already know that I love
  • Call a friend I haven’t seen in a while
  • Play a song on my guitar

Whatever is on your list, pick out the things that you both really enjoy and that are, if not good for you, at least won’t impact your health negatively.

I’m not suggesting you immediately make radical changes in your eating and drinking. (Or that you never eat dark chocolate–I would never suggest that.) If you substitute a handful of raisins for a piece of chocolate cake on Day One you’re probably not going to stick with that.

I wouldn’t.

But if you find yourself having chocolate cake with fudge frosting every day, maybe you can shift to unfrosted brownies. Then a couple weeks later look for chocolate cookies that are smaller, and have fewer calories and less sugar and fat.

Or try the handful of raisins every other day, promising yourself the cake the next.

Likewise, if you tend to drink a lot of alcohol while writing or, in my case, black tea (which I know doesn’t sound problematic but it causes me a lot of problems with acid reflux and with insomnia) you can try drinking water every other glass or cup instead. You might not love the water, but you know when you finish it you can have another glass of the beverage that you really want. And you might surprise yourself by how much better you feel.

Note: I’ve never had to struggle with alcohol addiction or other substance abuse issues, which I’m sure is due to the luck of heredity and body chemistry. If you’re concerned about your drinking or use of other substances, you may want to seek professional or medical support to help address it.

Step Away From The Laptop

If you don’t already, just as you vary your writing place think about varying your writing methods to get more time away from the keyboard.

In recent years I have much more often written outlines or character sketches by hand and dictated first drafts. I also handwrite bullet points for articles I’m writing or advertising copy. Then I dictate a draft into my iPhone, email it to myself, and copy it into a Word file to clean up.

While that may sound like a lot of extra steps, I always do at least 3 or 4 drafts of everything I write. The only difference is now I’m doing one by hand, speaking one, and revising one at the laptop. Same number of drafts, but three different places that I sit and movements that I make.

Okay, that was really long.

At last, that’s all for this week.

Until next Friday when I’ll write about other habits that can help you reach your writing goals—

L. M. Lilly

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 4 – Where To Write)

At first, switching to writing full time rather than on the side doesn’t seem like it should require changing where you write (a topic already covered in Three By Three: Creating A Writing Space).

But what works well when fitting writing in around the edges of other jobs might not be ideal when writing full time.

Physical Comfort And Well-Being

Whether you sit, stand, or walk as you write, there’s a vast difference between writing for short periods a few times a week and writing many hours each day. If your keyboard set up, for example, causes pain in your neck, hands, arms, or other parts of your body, it’ll likely be that much worse  the more time you are in that position.

Two things helped me:

  • Writing areas that allow varying positions and writing methods.

If you usually sit, consider creating a space where you can stand at least part of the time when you write.

Adjustable desks are one option, but I’ve found the mechanisms for raising or lowering tend to break, so it’s more cost effective in the long run to have one sitting desk and one standing area. (I use stacked storage cubes for my standing “desk.”)

If you always type, try working somewhere quiet and private so you can dictate. A couple options are at home if you live alone or have a room where you can shut the door or in a reserved conference room at a library or school.

As far as how to dictate, many laptops and computers now have a dictation function, as do most smartphones.

There also is specialty software like Dragon Naturally Speaking. Or you can pay someone to type your dictation if you can afford that. (For tips on dictating, check out this The Creative Penn podcast.)

  • Experimenting with keyboard set up.

Having your keyboard and monitor at the correct height can ease the strain on your body. You can find advice on general rules (such as, according to WebMD, placing your keyboard slightly below your elbows and the top of the monitor 2-3 inches above eye level) on the Internet.

In my opinion you also need to experiment.

I love my desk, shown along the wall in this photo, but it’s far too high to place my keyboard on.

The table (which cost about $25) from World Market works better for my keyboard height, but when I placed my laptop directly on it I had to look down too much. I solved that by buying a laptop stand and buying a separate keyboard to place on the table.

Over the years I’ve also experimented with moving my mouse to the left, using a Microsoft Natural keyboard (which I found very helpful when my tendinitis in my hands and arms was bothering me), and connecting my laptop to a separate monitor.

If your budget is limited, you can use books or boxes as laptop or monitor stands. I’ve also used folded yoga mats to raise my standing height.

The main concern is not whether it looks good but whether you feel good when you write for hours at a time.

Avoiding Work Spread

When I worked many hours as a lawyer I rarely worked at home. I lived only a mile from my office, and I preferred to keep work at work. That way I didn’t associate being at home with working, adding stress to what little free time I had.

I don’t find writing stressful, at least not in the same way. So I figured I would enjoy the convenience of writing at home.

And I do. To a point.

The danger is that loving your work can make it easy to spread it through your entire life. For a long time I used my dining room table to write, watch videos for relaxation, eat, and visit with friends. I liked the view out the windows. (The view shown here is on a rainy day.)

But after a while I found using the dining table most of the day to work meant I always felt I ought to be writing. Or doing social media. Or watching classes on marketing.

So now I work for half an hour first thing in the morning at the dining table and then I switch to my home office. While I still occasionally work in my main living space, when I leave my office it’s a signal that I’m on a break or done for the day.

Writing somewhere other than home can also help this process, as well as help you separate writing time from writing-adjacent work like interacting with other authors on social media, taking courses online, or scheduling advertising.

You might choose to work at a library or cafe when you are actually writing and do the other tasks from home or vice versa.

Other People

As I mentioned last week when writing on emotional health, when I worked many hours as a lawyer I craved quiet time alone to write.

Now that I mainly write, I really value the hours when I teach because I get to interact with people. In the summer when I’m not teaching, I’m more apt to write in cafes simply to be around more people.

There’s no right answer for every writer as to where you will write best and how much contact you need with others. What’s best for you will likely vary over time depending on things like whether you live alone and whether your other activities bring you in contact with people.

But it’s worth giving a little thought to whether the need for contact with others will require adjusting your writing space if you switch to full-time writing.

Always The Same or Always Different?

A lot of writers ask if they should always write in the same place.

When I wrote on the side, I preferred to mainly write in one spot. It was a good way to divide writing from my other work and the rest of my life, so it helped me switch gears and focus.

There are advantages either way:

Same, Same, Same
  • The feel, look, sounds, and smell of a particular spot, whether it’s a desk in your living room or a corner in your favorite Starbucks, signals your brain that it’s time to write
  • As talked about above, it can help avoid work spread
  • It’s easier to design or create one space with your ideal noise level (or quiet), keyboard set up, lack of distraction, etc., than to create multiple ideal spaces
Different Spaces
  • Varying your writing space might help ease physical strain from being often in the same position, as noted above
  • Changing spaces can help break up your day, making it easier to write more hours
  • It might be easier to achieve whatever balance you need of being alone v. being with people, noise v. quiet, open space v. coziness, etc., if you move from place to place.

That’s all for today. Next week I’ll write more about caring for your physical well being when you write full time.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 1 – Income)

For a lot of writers, including me, the most important goal is to write full time.

That may mean earning the bulk of your income through writing so you don’t need to do anything else or earning income in several ways but devoting most of your working hours to writing.

Either way, there are some stumbling blocks almost every full-time writer encounters relating to emotional, financial, and physical well-being.

Answering the questions below before you shift to full-time writing can help ensure happiness in your writing life:

Today I’ll talk about income.

Ups, Downs, And How Much Money You Need

Income from writing is generally more up and down than a regular job.

Even if you’ve been self-employed in another field for years, as I was, relying more on your writing income means shifts in the publishing world–from royalty rates to Amazon algorithms–will have a greater effect on your bottom line.

Knowing from the start how much you realistically need to earn and how you’ll earn it can help you weather the storms.

Before we go ahead, a quick disclaimer:

I am not a financial adviser, and this article is not meant to advise you about your personal circumstances. The information below is based on my own experience and information I gathered for my personal situation. You should turn to a personal financial adviser for specific advice tailored to your life.

Creating A Spending Plan

I like the idea of a spending plan rather than a budget.

A budget sounds limiting and makes me focus on what I “can’t” spend. A spending plan sounds more realistic and positive. You need to spend money to live, and it’s a plan for doing that.

There are tons of free worksheets and calculators online to help you figure out what you spend. I like Vanguard’s Retirement Expenses Worksheet. While you’re not retiring, you are making a shift (or hoping to), and many of the money issues are similar.

You can also find books in the library, bookstores, or online about budgeting. (I like Suze Orman’s books, including the 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.)

Here’s what helped me most when creating a monthly spending plan:

  • Track what you actually spend for 2-4 weeks.

Not what you hope to spend, but what you truly spent, including expenses you don’t expect to have every week like birthday gifts or car repairs.

  • If you use credit cards, your credit card company may offer you a list of what you spent the year before by category.

If you use an accounting program, you can run your own list. Both are good to compare to what you track and fill in gaps.

  • In your plan for the future, remember to include unexpected one-time expenses and average them out per month.

Home or car repairs, doctor or emergency room visits, family member emergencies, or traveling for (and/or standing up in) a friend’s wedding are all expenses you don’t expect to have every month, but you’ll almost certainly have one or more of them every year. Ignoring them while planning will leave you constantly short of funds.

  • Leave funds for non-necessary things you enjoy.

Much as you love writing, most of us need more than sitting in a room writing all day to feel happy. You may not mind spending a little less on some things, but it’ll be next to impossible to stick to a spending plan that cuts back on everything you do for fun.

  • Think about your future.

Depending where you are in life, you also need to consider planning for retirement.

Yes, you can hope, as I do, that your books will keep making you money as long as you live. But it’s possible they won’t.

Continuing–or starting–to put away money for retirement, even if it’s in small amounts, matters. If it’s something you’re not doing now anyway and you’d rather be writing than working at your current job, you may want to make the switch regardless. That’s a personal decision.

But be sure you make a choice rather than let the issue go completely. Think about when and how you’ll move toward a place where you can put something aside for your future.

Consider what you may need or want to pay for someone else.

If you have dependents, you’ll need to consider your spending relating to them. If you don’t, there may still be amounts you give to others. Do you help pay expenses for an aging parent? Donate to charity? Send your nieces holiday gifts? Take friends out for their birthdays?

Remember to include these things in your spending plan. If you plan to cut back, imagine how you’ll feel about that and be realistic about whether you’ll do it or not.

Tracking The Money

Knowing where your money comes from is essential to planning your full-time writing life. Let’s call it your Income Plan.

Make a list, chart, or spreadsheet of your current sources of income, whether you have one or many. Include all amounts high and low.

If you have a savings account that earned $10 last year or you get $2 a month from listing your ebooks on Kobo, list it. You may be able to increase those amounts in the future, so you want to have them in mind.

Remember to subtract business expenses from your business income.

If last month you earned $1,000 in royalties on three books, but you spent $500 total on advertising, paying your email list provider, and a new cover, you only have $500 of those royalties that can go toward expenses. List $500, not $1,000.

Taxes will further reduce what you keep in your pocket.

If you didn’t include income taxes in your spending plan, make a guess based on the last few years how much of your income you’ll need to pay in taxes and subtract it.

If you’re leaving a job to write full-time, leave the income from that job off your Income Plan.

Now let’s look at the future.

Planning For The Future

Unless you are independently wealthy, are already earning a large income writing, or have a partner who earns enough to cover expenses and then some, the income from you Income Plan may very well not yet cover your the expenses in your Spending Plan.

That means switching to writing full time will require educated guesses at how much you’ll increase your writing income or other sources of income once you have more time to write. While all of us hope that our writing income will increase the more time we devote, there are a lots of market factors out of our control that can affect that or make it take more time than expected, so don’t assume that if you double your writing time in the first year you’ll also double your income.

But first, look at your best case scenario.

Consider how much more you are likely to write and what you realistically hope to earn. It’ll inspire you and help you move forward.

Second, consider the worst case scenario and decide how you’ll deal with it. For writers, that usually means you quit your job and your writing income either doesn’t increase or it goes down.

If you have a plan for what you’ll do if that happens, it will ease your mind and help you focus on writing rather than panicking over money.

Some questions to ask yourself when creating that plan:

  • Are there additional or different types of writing you could do that might earn you more money?
  • How quickly can you get a new (non-writing) job if you need to?
  • Is there freelance work you can do that will help pay your bills?
  • Do you have savings that you’ve set aside to use while you build your writing career and will you feel comfortable seeing your account balance go down if you spend it?
  • Can you decrease your spending in specific ways and still be happy? (For instance, could you downsize your home, find cheaper transportation, or grocery shop at less expensive stores?)

The answers to these questions will be different for everyone, and you may think of alternative ways to cover your expenses if your writing income doesn’t meet your expectations. But whatever your personal questions and answers are, thinking about them will help you decide when and whether to switch to writing full time.

Until next Friday, when I’ll talk about a key issue for any self-employed person: health insurance—

L.M. Lilly

Sitting, Not Pitching, And Relaxing: Lessons Learned At This Year’s Book Fair

This year I felt really nervous about the Printers Row Lit Fest (a/k/a the Printers Row Book Fair) because I broke my foot some time back.

That fact meant I didn’t get as much publicity done for the fair as usual, I had to get there and back with all my books, a wheelchair, and crutches, and I’d need to sit rather than stand most of the time at my table.

To my surprise, this year was my best year of the 5 times I’ve rented a table there.

I talked with more new readers, had more people join my email list who seemed truly interested, and sold more books to strangers.

Last year in The Beauty of Book Fairs my thought was that it was hard to make a sale at a live event to someone who didn’t already know your work.

So what changed?

Sitting Rather Than Standing

Most authors I talk to about or share tables with at book fairs favor standing behind the table or at least standing as soon as someone approaches.

The idea is that people are more likely to see you as they pass by. Also, as educators and speakers have found time and again, standing generally gives you authority and makes you the focus of a room.

Initially I tried standing on the crutches.

But it was awkward and uncomfortable, so most of the time I sat in the wheelchair. And what happened? Way more people came to my table to browse, and more talked with me as they passed by, then looked at the books.

My guess is that more people stopped to talk because I wasn’t looming over the table like an overanxious salesperson.

(They couldn’t see the wheelchair from the aisle, so it wasn’t sympathy or curiosity.)

They didn’t feel pressure to buy, so they felt free to chat or browse.

Also, I was more relaxed. I felt happy to have gotten safely behind the table (for more on my harrowing wheelchair ride there see my author blog) and to be outside among people.

I hoped to sell some books, but mostly I wanted to enjoy the day.

In short, I was more interested in having conversations than selling. I think that made it easier to chat with me.

More Books To Share

People also seemed to feel more comfortable looking over the table because I had more different books to sell. In previous years I’d published fewer titles (only Book 1 and 2 in my first series the first year). People assumed I was the author standing behind the table. This year, though, they asked if I was and were excited when I said yes.

When you only have one novel or two to sell, readers feel bad if they pick one up, look at the back, and walk away. At least, I always feel that way at a book fair. So I’m more comfortable looking if there are lots of choices. It doesn’t feel so personal if I choose not to buy.

The larger number and type of books also allowed me to group them on the table by genre.

I put my supernatural thriller series at one end, then my short horror story collection and standalone gothic horror novel, then my new mystery/suspense novel, then my non-fiction books.

That way, if people didn’t like one genre or weren’t interested in the covers, they naturally gravitated to the next set of books.

This progression seemed to make readers more comfortable browsing.

Having many books also allowed me to have multiple price points.

The novels were $10 (or two for $18), the non-fiction $5, and the short story collection–which is very short–$3. One person bought the short story collection, which was set in Chicago, as soon as he heard it was $3.

On Not Pitching Your Books

In previous years, I asked people who neared the table or browsed, “What do you like to read?” or started telling them about the books.

This year I said hello, said how nice it was it had stopped raining (it was nice!), or asked if they’d found anything interesting this year at the fair. If they didn’t start looking at my books, I didn’t say anything about them.

As a result, some people who started out by saying they’d already bought too many books ended by buying after chatting with me, and/or signed up to my email list.

If people looked at a book or two, I explained how the books were grouped. If someone seemed interested in that, I volunteered which ones were set in the neighborhood of the book fair, which I’ve always found to be a good sales point. If they looked at the writing books, I asked if they were interested in writing.

But I only explained the premise of a book if the person asked about it. In previous years, I started with that–my pitch–as soon as the person picked up the book.

After this year’s experience, next year I plan to sit behind the table, enjoy talking with people, and not worry so much about sales.

Who knew breaking my foot could be such a good thing?

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

 

Answering The Snarky Things People Say About Your Writing

Many of us have heard the Eleanor Roosevelt quote “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

When it comes to something as personal as our writing, though, sometimes it’s hard to put that advice into practice.

While most people you talk to about your books will be supportive or at least polite, odds are you will run into someone (or more than one someones) who says something that leaves you feeling bad about yourself or your writing.

The comment may be made unintentionally or it might be designed to belittle you.

As  I mentioned last week in Mastering Talking About Your Books, fear of these types of comments can keep us from telling people about our writing despite that it helps our careers to do so. I think this can be especially so for self-published writers because we don’t have the outside validation that trad-published writers get when a traditional publisher backs their work.

Below are a few thoughts on how to handle unkind, thoughtless, or snarky comments, followed by a some responses I’ve used.

Taking Comments In The Best Light

I find it helpful to answer each comment or question as if it had been meant in the most positive way possible.

For one thing, that might be true.

Sometimes the person is genuinely asking for information or expressing interest or support, but doesn’t know a question might be intrusive or upsetting.

When I was submitting a manuscript to publishers and agents and getting rounds of rejections, a business colleague of mine would always say, “Hey, keep trying, you’ll be just like that Harry Potter lady. Pretty soon you’ll be a millionaire.”

He was trying to be supportive, but every time I’d plummet into depression because I couldn’t possibly have felt farther from J.K. Rowling. My colleague didn’t know that I’d already been trying, and trying, and trying for years. I’d written several novels, yet I’d never made a single dollar on a piece of fiction. (I sold one short story for $15 and the check bounced.)

As another example, most people don’t realize asking how many books you’ve sold is a bit like asking your salary.

Some people might be comfortable answering that, but others won’t be. If you’re not, you can come up with some responses you do feel okay with.

Recognize It’s Not About You

Sometimes a person’s comments about you or your work are really about themselves and where they are or want to be.

For example, someone who says “I wish I had time to do nothing like you do” (I’ve had people say this) on hearing that you write fiction may be feeling overwhelmed at work and desperately wants to be doing something else.

This also is true for someone who makes comments that undermine you.

For instance, a relative once called to ask me about self-publishing paperbacks. She knew I’d published a series, and she was giving a workshop for people in a retirement home who had written memoirs or family histories and might want to publish them.

After I’d given her information on tips, costs, and publishing platforms, she said, “Thanks. I figure most people will self-publish because their writing is pretty bad. The ones who wrote anything good will get real publishing deals.”

I was so surprised by her implying that my writing must not be any good, especially after I’d spent an hour of my time helping her, that I didn’t respond.

Later, I thought about it and realized that she often threw digs about my writing and publishing into conversations as asides or “jokes.”

None of it had anything to do with my writing. She’d never read my books.

Instead, her snarky comments reflected something inside her. What exactly I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. There are no good reasons for trying to tear someone else down, and someone who does that isn’t a friend.

Ways To Respond

Over the years I’ve developed some answers that work for me to difficult comments.

Most are based on the idea that the person is genuinely seeking or offering helpful information, even if they’re not, and others are meant to shift the conversation, point out that the questions might be a bit tactless, or elicit information that might actually be helpful.

My friend sold 100,000 copies of her book the first week. How many have you sold?

  • Answers (assuming you haven’t sold 100,000):

That’s fantastic. Do you think she would meet me and give me some advice?

I’d love to sell 100,000 in one week. Do you have any suggestions on doing that?

I haven’t sold 100,000 this week. Maybe next week!

Oh, you wrote a book. Did you self-publish it? (said with raised eyebrows or while looking down the nose)

  • Answers:

Yes, I did. Are you thinking about it? I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned.

Yes, I did. I love having control and keeping all the profits.

Did you try getting a real publisher?

I thought about a traditional publisher, but I’d rather work to make money for myself than a big company.

No, I like having control over my creative work.

Why? Do you know a good one?

Your book sounds dull. Why don’t you write about something interesting/ important, like General Custer/animal rights/wizards?

  • Answers:

Oh, are you interested in General Custer/animal rights/wizards? Tell me more about that.

Is there anything I could change in how I described the book(s) that might make it sound more interesting to you?

How much do you make writing  books?

  • Answers:

It varies. Some authors earn six or seven figures, others earn enough to cover their Starbucks habit.

Oh, I’m sure you make more. What’s your yearly salary?

I wish I had time to sit around and do nothing but write.

  • Answers:

What would you write about?

Sounds like you have a busy schedule. What have you been working on lately?

If you like, I could share some tips/recommend a good book on how to fit writing into a busy schedule.

Obviously, these aren’t the only ways to respond. I offer them in case they might be helpful to you, or to spark your own ideas for what to say.

However you choose to answer, having responses ready can help you shift away from a comment or question that might undermine your confidence. And it might help you learn something new or get to know the other person better.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

Mastering Talking About Your Books

These days most marketing takes place online, so if you’re uncomfortable talking about yourself or your books it’s easy to avoid it entirely. But potential readers you meet in person can become some of your biggest fans.

Also, not everyone spends time on social media. Some of your acquaintances may never come across your work if you don’t tell them.

In person. Using your voice.

So how can you get comfortable talking about your books? And do it in a way that engages people?

Why Some Of Us Hesitate To Share

The idea of telling someone you just met—or even someone you’ve known a long time—about your novel or other writing can be intimidating.

You might be hesitant to “brag” about yourself. You might fear other people will say unkind things, that you’re boring your listener, or that you don’t deserve the attention.

Maybe you just don’t like the spotlight or aren’t sure what to say.

The best way to deal with these concerns is to prepare ahead of time.

On Not Being A Bore

We’ve all met that person at a party who corners us for what feels like forever to tell us everything we never wanted to know about fruit flies or the dangers of red dye or some other topic in which we have limited (or no) interest. 

Worse, that person never seems to pick up on cues such as attempts to change the conversation, repeated monosyllabic responses, or glazed eyes.

If you’re like me, your concern about not wanting to be that person can make you hesitate to say  anything about a book or books you’ve written. 

So start out by resolving to pay attention to your listener.

If after you’ve described your book briefly (see below) and perhaps said a few words in follow up, your conversation partner is saying little more than “Uh-huh” or non-committal things like “Oh, how nice,” let the topic drop.

It may help you to get started to realize that….

Most People Will Be Excited To Hear You Wrote A Book

When I was about to publish The Awakening a colleague who is great at connecting people invited me to a networking event with other lawyers and businesspeople. She surprised me by always adding when she introduced me that I’d written a thriller.

Why?

Because half the people in the room were lawyers, and the other half were people the lawyers wanted to get business from. So every other person there started with something like, “My law practice focuses on small businesses…”

People were excited to hear I’d written a thriller because it was something different to talk about.

As a side benefit, I discovered they were more likely to remember me as a lawyer because I was the one who had written the book.

Unless you’re at a writers conference, odds are you’ll be the only person in the room who’s written or published a novel. And if you happen to run into someone else who has, that’s great. You’ll have a ton to talk about.

As to friends and acquaintances, if they like to read they’ll want to know you’ve written a book (or books). As long as you remember to ask about what they’re doing as well and don’t monopolize the conversation, they’ll be happy to hear about your writing.

But if you don’t have a colleague to introduce you, how do you mention your writing without it feeling forced?

Starting The Conversation

When I started publishing my books, I didn’t feel comfortable introducing myself as a writer or novelist.

In my mind, I wasn’t a “real” writer because I didn’t make my living at it. Also, when I started out self-publishing was much less accepted than it is now. I felt like if I said I published my own work, they’d assume it must not be very good.

Eventually I figured out that I felt more comfortable stating facts or my feelings, and it was natural to do it in answer to most basic conversation starters.

For example, often people ask “what do you do?” Though I wasn’t comfortable calling myself a writer yet, I was okay saying I was a lawyer and also wrote supernatural thrillers. 

If someone I hadn’t seen in a while asked how I was, I said something like, “I’m doing great. I’m so excited because I just published a new novel/got a good review/got a new cover design.” Or I might say, “I’m nervous because I’m launching a new book tomorrow.”

Though I didn’t like calling my writing a hobby because I was pursuing it in the hope of making it my career, if asked about hobbies, I’d say that I wrote novels as a second job. 

Once you’ve told people you wrote a novel, the typical question is what it’s about.

To get your best chance at intriguing a possible new reader, and to avoid rambling until the person’s eyes glaze over, try preparing a one-sentence summary in advance.

The One-Sentence Summary

To create this sentence, answer these three questions:

(1) Who is your protagonist?

Not your character’s name, which won’t mean anything to your listener, but a brief description. For example, a young woman, a brand new attorney, a retired police detective, a frightened child.

(2) What does your protagonist want or what problem does your protagonist face?

In The Awakening, the young woman protagonist’s problem is that she discovers she’s pregnant despite that she has never had sex. In my latest release, a suspense/mystery novel, just as she’s about to move in with him, the protagonist discovers her boyfriend’s dead body. 

(3) What stands in your character’s way?

You answer can identify the antagonist or focus on other barriers to what your protagonist wants or needs to do. 

Now combine these three elements into sentence.

For instance, in Fifty Shades of Grey, a young woman wants a relationship with the man she loves but his controlling nature and his specific sexual needs conflict with her own.

For The Awakening, my sentence is: a young woman with a mysterious pregnancy faces a cult convinced she’ll trigger Armageddon.

You can also create variations of your one sentence if you know someone likes a particular type of book.

If I’m talking to someone I know enjoys horror or occult books, I might start by saying “The Awakening is a supernatural thriller about…”

If it’s someone old enough to remember the popularity of Rosemary’s Baby or who’s interested in themes about divine femininity or religion, I’ll say, “It’s a cross between Rosemary’s Baby and The Da Vinci Code.”

What Next?

Once you give your one-sentence description, watch and listen to the response. If the person’s eyes light up or they lean forward or smile or say they love that type of book, feel free to tell them a little more about it.

Again, a sentence or two will do. (See On Not Being A Bore above.)

You might share how you got the idea for the book or how long it took you to write it. If the person still seems interested, that’s the time to say that the book is available on your website or on Amazon or wherever it’s is easiest to find.

If you have a card or a bookmark or other paper with information, feel free to hand it to that person.

Now stop, as it’s time to apply the rule of leaving your listener (and potential reader) wanting more.

Until next Friday, when I’ll talk about what you can do if you take the risk of talking about your book and get a negative response—

L.M. Lilly

Writing A Flagship Series (And Why You Should)

Last weekend I attended the Sell More Books Show Summit. In the first presentation, Author Chris Fox talked about how and why to write a flagship series.

As I listened, I realized that without knowing it I’d started what I hope will be a flagship series. The talk helped me hone in on how best to build that series (my Q.C. Davis mystery/suspense series).

If you’re hoping to make a living writing–or you want to develop long-term fans–writing this type of series can help.

The information below comes mainly from Fox’s talk, but it includes my own thoughts as well. So any errors (or inept explanations) are mine.

What Is A Flagship Series?

A flagship series is one that readers and fans (and often non-readers) know by name. Such a series is as well known as, if not more known than, its author.

Many fans read or follow only that series and not the author’s other works.

Think about the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.

Most people know the name of the series even if they don’t recall the author.

Devoted fans not only read everything about Harry Potter and any related characters, many will buy Harry Potter merchandise, post about the world on social media, and see all the movies.

A lot of these fans, however, do not cross over to read Rowling’s mystery series (written under pen name Robert Galbraith), which I love just as much.

Another very well known example of a flagship series is Sue Grafton’s alphabet series. Each mystery features her private eye Kinsey Milhone and begins with a successive letter of the alphabet, starting with A is for Alibi.

Elements Of A Flagship Series

Flagship series should be:

  • Well Branded

The brand should be easy to identify, as in the examples above.

Two other well-branded series are John Sandford’s “Prey” novels (each includes the word Prey in the title) and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series. Either the titles or the characters make it easy to identify that each new book belongs to the series.

This requirement is one reason my Awakening series doesn’t qualify.

While the titles are somewhat similar (The Awakening, The Unbelievers, The Conflagration, and The Illumination), I took the name from the first book in the series. I include it in sub-titles, but it isn’t otherwise recognizable the way Sandford’s Prey novels are.

Also, The Awakening is a title that’s been used far too often for other books and movies, so it’s unlikely readers will associate it only with my supernatural thrillers.

  • Long 

Fox suggests the series ultimately should include at least 1 million words. If your novels are 80,000 words long, which is about average, that would be 12.5 novels.

The idea is that the reader should become lost in the world of the books.

I think it also helps to write an open-ended series. That way you can always write another book in it if you want to.

Mystery and suspense novels focused on the same protagonist have this advantage, which is part of why I started my Q.C. Davis series. If it goes well and I still enjoy it, I can just keep writing it.

  • Designed To Create Loyal Readers

These readers not only buy each book but often publicize a flagship series for the author. They might post on social media, tell friends, buy and display merchandise, or write fan fiction.

Pluses And Minuses Of A Flagship Series

If you successfully create a flagship series, you’ll have lifelong fans.

When you write a new book in the series, readers will be eager for it and excited about it, something most authors dream of. They may even write you to hurry you on.

This demand for additional books will occur without the need to do a tremendous amount of marketing. Built-in demand makes it far easier to earn a living as a writer.

As an example, though not quite a flagship series, I did build some following for my Awakening series.

When I set the fourth and final book for preorder a month before release, I had 50 times the number of preorders as I got for The Worried Man, the first book in my new series.

The only downside I can see of a flagship series is that authors sometimes end up feeling trapped by it or get tired of writing it.

They may want to write about a different character or different world but find that readers are primarily interested only in the flagship series. Also, the longer the series runs, the more limitations there are on what they can do with the characters.

For most of us who are working on establishing and growing an author career, though, the idea of having those types of problems sounds very appealing.

Creating Reader Loyalty Through A Flagship Series

Creating a flagship series means including certain elements that help readers become and stay engaged with the series.

  • Open Loops

Open loops are questions you raise at the beginning of the series that aren’t resolved in the first book or the second or the third….

Wanting the answers keeps readers eagerly picking up the next book despite that the main plot in the current book resolves.

Fox gave the example of the television show Lost which raised numerous questions in the very first episode.

Book 1 in The Awakening Series

Many audience members watched the entire series in the hope of getting answers to those questions. (I personally felt the series didn’t resolve enough of them, but I watched faithfully the entire time.)

Another TV example of an open loop is Fox Mulder’s on-going quest to find out what happened to his sister in The X-Files.

In my Awakening Series, an open question from Book 1 was what originally caused my main character Tara’s supernatural pregnancy. That question isn’t answered until the fourth and final book.

  • Narrative Drive

Narrative drive encompasses the running plots woven throughout the series.

For example, in each of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, the crime is solved. But Stephanie’s romantic relationships remain a running subplot. For many books, she wavers between a policeman boyfriend and a strong and somewhat shady private security guy.

Wanting to see what happens next in her relationship is part of what draws readers from book to book.

  • Character Growth

Significant changes in the characters keep readers engaged.

In Harry Potter, we see Harry and his friends struggle to learn how to harness their powers. We also watch them grow from children to adolescents to young adults.

Fox noted that all the characters in a flagship series should change dramatically throughout. So the protagonist, antagonist, and side characters should all experience significant character growth.

In some series readers become nearly as invested in the side characters as they are in the protagonist. Think about the hugely successful Twilight series. Readers were Team Jacob or Team Edward.

Likewise, in the Hunger Games Trilogy, Peeta goes through radical changes in his personality, his view of the world, and his feelings for Katniss.

So what are your favorite flagship series to read?

Are you writing one yourself?

Until next Friday —

L.M. Lilly

Should You Use A Pen Name?

I recently got a question from a new author about whether or not to use a pen name.

The closest I’ve come to a pen name is that on this site and on my non-fiction books, I use initials. So I’m L.M. Lilly.

My fiction is all under my full name—Lisa M. Lilly.

(I was once asked why the “M.” Basically because otherwise my name sounds a little too much like a romance writer—or an exotic dancer as my godmother once said. As I write mystery, occult, suspense, and thrillers, I thought that might confuse potential readers.)

Why Use A Pen Name

Here are a few reasons authors use pen names:

 

  • To keep writing separate from other professional pursuits

If you have a job or profession where you fear your writing might affect how colleagues, bosses, clients, or others see you, a pen name can be a good option.

Writers who cover potentially controversial material or otherwise write something that they don’t necessarily want business associates to connect with them often use pen names.

If you’re a professor and you write erotica, for instance, you might prefer your students not to know you wrote the steamy book they’re reading.

Also, you may worry that your boss or clients will think you’re not focusing on their work/business/issues if they know you’re also pursuing another goal.

As someone who wrote while also running a successful and busy law practice for many years, I think there’s no reason you can’t do both.

But that may not be everyone’s view, so you need to weigh whether that’s a concern.

  • To stay anonymous among family and friends

Similarly, some authors don’t want family and friends to know what they’re writing.

If you’re writing political thrillers or essays that espouse a certain point of view and it differs from your family’s, you may not want to get embroiled in the political discussions you could otherwise sidestep.

If as you write you’re thinking about people you know reading your words, that could inhibit your creative process. A pen name is a way to avoid that feeling.

It also avoids friends and family (and enemies–but you don’t have any, right?) trying to figure out if characters are based on them.

  • Separating genres for readers

I use initials for non-fiction to make it easier for readers to find my other similar books.

If you read Super Simple Story Structure that doesn’t mean you’ll be interested in my Awakening supernatural thriller series or my new Q.C. Davis mystery series.

And the converse is likely to be even more true.

So I prefer that when a reader of The Worried Man clicks on my author name, the books that display are my other novels.

Likewise, when a reader of one of my Writing As A Second Career books clicks on L.M. Lilly, that person will see my non-fiction.

Pen names also can be handy for different types of fiction.

If you write both hard science fiction and romance, you may want to write one under your actual name and one under a pen name. That way, readers of one genre will more easily find the type of book they like.

  • Separating genres for algorithms

From what I’ve read, Amazon’s algorithms also try to match readers with authors.

Using different names for different types of writing helps the algorithm send readers to the “right” books.

The Downsides Of Pen Names

Using a pen name–or more than one of them–has downsides.

  • More names = more work

If you are writing under more than one name and you want to publicize your work, you’ll need to spend more time building your pen name’s identity.

You will likely want to create social media accounts for each name, as well as author profiles, websites, and printed materials.

  • You won’t be able to leverage existing social contacts

If you truly want to keep your pen name separate or anonymous, you won’t be able to use your existing social and work connections to help market your book.

If you don’t want to stay anonymous and are using a pen name for other reasons, you’ll still be adding a hurdle to people learning that you’re an author.

As I noted in The Top 5 Reasons Your Friends Won’t Read Your Book And What You Can Do About It, often friends and family aren’t the best source of sales or support for your author career.

But some of your connections will be.

I published the first two books in my Awakening series while still running a busy law practice. I was regularly in touch with hundreds of lawyers all over the country.

Because I published under my own name, it was easier to let them know about the books and for them to find them organically.

Some have bought the entire series.

Others have told friends and colleagues about it, and some connected me with other professionals (such as graphic designers and other writers).

Using a pen name would have added a layer before my business colleagues could find me. It also would make it more difficult to connect with them on social media.

  • True anonymity is hard to find

Staying truly anonymous can be a challenge in today’s world.

Author’s notes, biographies, and comments on social media all give clues to your real identity. Ensuring that doesn’t happen takes extra time and effort that you could devote to your writing instead.

And no matter how much you do, readers may still figure it out.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to stay anonymous if it’s important to you. Just know that you may put in that effort and still find you can’t really be anonymous.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few pros and cons, so feel free to share in the comments.

Also, if you have a question please send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll do my best to answer in a future article.

Until next Friday—

L.M. Lilly

Chickens, Eggs, and Sales (Advertising Your Book Before You Get Reviews)

A question I often get is how to advertise a newly-released book that has few or no reviews.

This issue causes a lot of stress for self published authors, including me, because it’s the old chicken and egg problem. It’s hard to sell books if you don’t have reviews. But it’s also hard to get reviews without a lot of sales.

The best places to advertise e-books are always evolving.

That’s why I periodically search the Internet for articles with up-to-date lists.

Best Book Promotion Sites 2018 is a good example of this type of resource. It includes descriptions of many sites as well as bonus discount codes for some of them.

Caution When Advertising

Below are some advertising options I’ve used in the past–and intend to use in the future–for new releases.

A few things to keep in mind before you advertise:

  • It’s often hard to make your money back on advertising, particularly in the beginning when your book has no reviews.

For this reason, I try to keep my advertising spending at a level I can afford even if it takes a long time to sell enough books to make a profit or cover the cost.

  • The options below are ones that I found helpful, but results vary depending on your genre, the price at which you’re offering your book, whether your cover appeals to your target readers, your book description, and how readers feel about your first few pages (among other things).

So sites that worked well for one of my books may not be helpful for one of yours, or for a different book I published.

  • Before you advertise anywhere, sign up for the newsletter or study the books listed on the site.

That way you’ll see whether the books being promoted are similar to yours.

  • I also find it helpful to see how high advertised books rank on Amazon on the day of the ad.

This gives some clues to whether the platform is effective. Keep in mind, though, that authors may be advertising on more than one platform at a time, so a book in the Top 100 overall or for a category may have gotten there based on a combination of ads.

Digital Book Today

Digital Book Today offers a New Release option for Kindle books. The feature has no minimum review requirement. For 14 days, your Kindle book will be featured on the website’s New Release page and will be included in a dedicated blog post with just 2 other books.

Right now it costs $30. 

The site also offers some genre-specific pages, including one for Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller, which is where I’ll be advertising my new mystery release The Worried Man for 30 days beginning on May 1 (the ebook release date).

While I haven’t found Digital Book Today webpage listings to be as effective as enewsletter options, which go directly to readers’ In boxes, I have seen boosts in sales when I listed my books there.

Digital Book Today also offers some listings for free.

Bargain Booksy

Bargain Booksy lists ebooks on its site and in enewsletters.

You can advertise ebooks on numerous platforms, including Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, and Google Play, as well as include a paperback link and an audiobook link. You can list books that are priced anywhere from Free to $5.

Bargain Booksy’s website says that it has no minimum review requirement, but “every book goes through an editorial review process. If your book does not meet our editorial guidelines, we will email you within 72 hours and issue a full refund on your payment.”

So far, I have not had a book turned down for lack of reviews when it was a new release. I suppose that might happen, but why not try and see?

The price for listing in the enewsletter varies based on genre.

For mystery, right now it is $55. (This site is the only other one so far where I’ve scheduled a new release ad for The Worried Man.)

Q.C. Davis Mysteries, Book 1

Free books can be listed on Freebooksy, a related site/enewsletter.

Fussy Librarian

Fussy Librarian is also a website and enewsletter service.

If you have a new release, you can advertise there before you have reviews so long as you have another book with an average rating of 4.0 with between 10 and 19 reviews (or an average rating of 3.5 you have more than 20 reviews).

Fussy Librarian also lists ebooks on multiple platforms and includes an audiobook link, which is one of the reasons I like advertising there.

As most of my books are wide (meaning they are available on multiple ebook platforms), I prefer advertising venues that allow me to list all my links. Also, I’ve found that when I advertise a discounted Kindle book on Fussy Librarian, I often see additional audiobook sales.

The prices for Fussy Librarian vary by genre and by whether your book is offered for free or at a discount. Right now to list a Mystery/Female Sleuth, it’s $18 if the book is offered at a discount.

Fussy Librarian also offers an enewsletter dedicated solely to free ebooks.

AwesomeGang

AwesomeGang will include books in its enewsletter that have no reviews.

According to the website and an interview I heard of the founder, that’s because he had trouble getting noticed when he had new books and he wanted to offer an option for authors in that same position.

Listings are available free or for $10.

I’ve only used AwesomeGang once when the service was just getting started, and I couldn’t tell whether or not it really boosted my sales.

For the price, though, I feel it’s worth trying again in the future.

JustKindleBooks

JustKindleBooks sends out enewsletters and lists books on its site.

Despite its name, it includes links to both Kindle books and iBooks.

Listings cost between $18 and $38 depending upon the features you want.

I could not find a review requirement on the website. The site does state, however, that authors are better off launching a book promotion “after your book has some reviews.”

I agree, but in my opinion, it’s sometimes worth spending to get some initial sales. Those may in turn generate reviews, making advertising more effective in the future.

Books Butterfly

Books Butterfly provides many options over a wide range of price points for advertising your ebook in its enewsletter, on several websites, and through its social media pages. You can include links to multiple platforms.

I did not see any review requirements listed.

The cost ranges from $50 up to thousands of dollars, so I personally use some caution in using this service.

The site offers a guarantee of sorts for some of the promotion options if you don’t sell as many books as projected. Read the fine print, though, as there are caveats on that guarantee.

Book Zio

I also did not see a review requirement anywhere on this site.

The cost ranges from free to $49. You can include links to multiple ebook platforms.

I advertised The Awakening, a supernatural thriller, through Book Zio and was very happy with the sales, but at that time the book had about 100 reviews. I do plan to try for The Worried Man, but probably when I have at least 10 or 20 reviews and am offering a significant discount, as I feel I’ll get the best results then.

Ereader News Today

For me, Ereader News Today, or ENT, has been one of the best places to advertise. Through its newsletter, I have usually sold enough books to pay for the ad the day it runs and earn some extra money.

As with Book Zio, though, I have not used it when I had a low number of reviews.

Also, it’s unclear whether a book with no reviews would be accepted.

The website says “while we do not have a minimum number of reviews [that] are required, we do look at the reviews to get an idea of how well the book has been received by those that have read it.”

Further, the site says that it will accept preorders and, if those books have no reviews, ENT will consider reviews of previous titles.

Both of these comments suggest to me that you probably need to have some reviews to be accepted by ENT. Personally, though, I’d submit a book regardless and see what happened.

The cost varies by genre and by the price at which you are offering your book. For mysteries, right now it is $45-$120.

If you found other places to list books with limited or no reviews, I’d love it if you’d share them in the comments so that other readers can see them.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

What To Include In Your Book Launch Schedule

Once again it’s March and I find myself getting ready for a May book launch.

New Book, New Series, New Genre

Last year I was launching the fourth and final book in my Awakening supernatural thriller series. (You can read more about that in When Working Harder Might Not Be The Answer Part 1 and Part 2 if you like.)

This year I’m launching Book 1 in a new series. I’m also publishing in a new genre–mystery/suspense without any paranormal or supernatural element.

Because I’m seeking new readers as well as trying to reach existing ones, I hope you’ll find my launch plan helpful wherever you are in your career.

As in any business, it’s always more of a challenge to draw in new customers than to sell additional products to existing ones.

Because of that, I felt I needed a more detailed schedule/plan than I had last year.

Feel free to copy and paste any part of my plan and modify it to fit your books.

The tasks to do begin this week, but I created the schedule by working backwards from the May 1 launch date.

What It All Means

A few notes on the reasoning behind certain tasks and on vendors you might not be familiar with:

  • Book Funnel is a service that allows you to easily deliver free ebooks to readers who are reviewing your books or to whom you want to give an ebook for other reasons (such as for a bonus for signing up for your newsletter). (See Nos. 2, 9, & 10 in the plan below.)

Right now it’s only $20 a year for a basic account. I signed up last night.

  • As I wrote about in Reaching More Readers PublishDrive is where I upload my files to distribute ebooks to a boatload of platforms. (Nos. 17, 23, 29.)

For the other platforms, I upload directly.

Q.C. Davis Mysteries, Book 1
  • I’m setting a later preorder date for Kindle than for Kobo, Nook, and iBook/iTunes (Nos. 19 & 21) because last I checked, in terms of where your book ranks on Amazon’s charts, it’s better to have more sales on the first day than a bunch of preorders.

Why do a Kindle preorder at all in that case?

I want to have a Kindle link available before the release to put on my website and into the back matter of my other books.

  • Vellum is the software I use to convert Word files to files for the various ebook and paperback platforms. (No. 8.)

It’s very easy to use, but so far available only for Mac.

  • When Darkness Falls is an urban gothic horror novel and my only novel in Kindle Unlimited (which means it’s not available on any other ebook platform). (Nos. 12, 16.)

Because it’s in KU, I can run a Kindle Countdown sale. I’m hoping by doing that for the same week as the new release, at least some readers who buy or borrow it will find their way to my Q.C. Davis series.

Gothic horror in Chicago’s South Loop
  • The Charming Man is my working title for Book 2 in the Q.C. Davis mystery series.

As you’ll see in Nos. 36-40, I’m holding off on most of the advertising and outreach to bookstores on The Worried Man until Book 2 is also out. That way the effort and funds have a chance of selling two books in the series rather than only one.

It’s possible I could sell three rather than only two if I’m superproductive and get a preorder for Book 3 underway in time. (Working title The Fractured Man.) That seems unlikely, but I’m ever the optimist when it comes to time.

  • The people I mention sending paperback books to in No. 35 are ones who love mysteries or loved my previous books and who know a whole lot of other people that they might tell about The Worried Man.
The Book Launch Schedule

The Worried Man (Q.C. Davis Mystery No. 1) Launch Schedule

Completed? Date Task(s)
1. __X_ Goodreads

__X_ Facebook

 March 12 Create Goodreads and Facebook review teams & invite friends
2.  __X__ March 16 Create Book Funnel Account
3. Contact Kobo re: Worried Man preorder and release date
4. March 17 Contact my book groups re: reviewing advance copies
5. Invite Goodreads readers who like Sara Paretsky and Elly Griffiths to join GR review team
6. Email mailing list re: chance to read and review
7. March 18 Add Coming Soon to LisaLilly.com
8. March 19 Create Vellum files for review teams
9. Add files to Book Funnel
10. ___ Goodreads

___ Facebook

___ Mailing List

 March 23 Contact reviewers re: links to ebooks on Book Funnel
11. March 24 Add Coming Soon to all Bios online
12. ___ Countdown scheduled

___ Just Kindle

___ Digital Book Today

___ Other(s)?

 Schedule When Darkness Falls 99 cent Kindle Countdown (for 5/1-5/8) plus ads
13. ___ Fussy Librarian

 

___ Bargain Booksy

___

 March 26 Schedule New Release ads Worried Man
14. March 30 Contact designer re: paperback cover
15. April 1 Final Edits (if any)
16. April 2 Schedule When Darkness Falls 99 cent ads (for 5/2)
17. ___ Kindle Upload

__ Kindle PreOrder set

___ Nook Upload

___ Nook PreOrder set

___ iBook Upload

___ iBook PreOrder set

___ Kobo Upload

___ Kobo PreOrder set

___ GPlay Upload

___ PublishDrive Upload

 April 8 Upload Final Files on All eBook Platforms & set pre-order dates as noted below
18. April 8 Create KDP Print edition
19. ___ Nook

___ iBook

___ Kobo

 April 9 Upload for 3 eBook Platforms PreOrder
20. April 16 Upload cover and manuscript files on Ingram Spark
21. April 17 Kindle PreOrder Begins
22. ___ Awakening

___ Unbelievers

___ Conflagration

___ Illumination

___ Also add 1st Chapter of WM to Illumination

___ When Darkness Falls

___ Also add 1st Chapter of WM to When Darkness Falls

___ Super Simple Story Structure

___ One-Year Novelist

___ Creating Compelling Characters

 Update Also By and Bio in previous books with Worried Man (include links for Kindle, Nook, iBook, Kobo, website for others)

 
23. ___ Kindle

___ Nook

___ iBook

___ Kobo

___ GPlay

___ PublishDrive

 April 26 Final Book Files Uploaded
24. April 27 Add Worried Man To Goodreads
25. ___ KDP Print

___ Ingram

 Publish KDP Print & Ingram editions
26. Contact review team re: KDP Print edition
27. April 29 When Darkness Falls Countdown price to 99 cents today
28. April 30 Schedule Goodreads Ad for Worried Man
29. ___ GPlay

___ PublishDrive

 April 30 Publish
30. May 1 Worried Man Live on all
31. May 1 Contact review team re: eBook editions
32. May 1 Contact email list New Release Worried Man
33. May 2 When Darkness Falls 99 cents ads run
34. ___ Awakening

___ Unbelievers

___ Conflagration

___ Illumination

___ When Darkness Falls

___ Super Simple Story Structure

___ One-Year Novelist

___ Creating Compelling Characters

 May 2 Update back matter with GPlay and print links and upload new files
35. May 3 Send print copies of books to Merry, Anne, Dan L., others who might spread the word
36. June Contact Bookstores in Chicago area re: signings/release parties for The Worried Man and The Charming Man
37. June Set release date for The Charming Man
38. June/July Schedule Worried Man Ads for week of Charming Man release
39. Charming Man release week Run 99 cent sale for 3 days on The Worried Man
40. After The Charming Man is released Schedule Goodreads Kindle Giveaway

If you have other questions about the schedule, please ask in the comments.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly