Have you tried putting Smokeless on shelves that way? Can you use the eBook cover art to bypass the design cost?
Related to that: Do you think self-published nonfiction has a better image than self-published fiction? Every self-published novel I've come across -- and having worked at a newspaper, I've been sent quite a few -- has been either (a) total crap or (b) in serious need of a good editor. And "total crap" describes about 95 percent. The record is slightly better for memoirs, but even for people with interesting things to say, I think most self-published memoirs would benefit from an editor with a good sense of narrative style and a merciless ability to cut. But I've found, and sometimes paid a decent chunk of money for, a number of very good self-published nonfiction books, in areas like digital journalism, publication design, and arts marketing.
It's already on shelves. I've seen several copies on shelves at the Barnes & Noble up the street at Tempe Marketplace. Yes, you can, though it requires creating a slightly different image. You create an image which is the back cover on the left side, the spine image in the center, and the front cover on the right side. I use an app called Logoist to do this. If you create the cover yourself, there's no need to hire a cover designer to do it for you.
In my opinion, it would be the reverse, though that's just intuition talking. My intuition is that traditionally published nonfiction, at least on established subjects, would be seen as carrying more legitimacy. Now, on non-established subjects, it would probably go the other way. Vaping, for example, is probably a subject where independently published work would be seen as more legitimate, owing to vapers' overall distrust of anything establishment.
Hm ... interesting. I know that my own bias against self-published fiction is much stronger than any bias I might have against self-published nonfiction, again because I've encountered so much cringe-inducingly atrocious writing in the former category. But then, the nonfiction works I have bought have all been by people who previously established their credibility in another way (specifically, through having a blog that I found useful).
That's another point to make re: marketing: have a blog. Post on the subjects related to the work you mean to promote, and likewise post reviews of other writers' works.
Here's an example of a book review: http://johncastlewriter.com/2014/06/07/jeffery-x-martins-short-stories-about-you/ Here's another: http://johncastlewriter.com/2013/04/22/trey-garrisons-spear-of-destiny/
Well, much to my surprise Castle, you have actually proved useful! Not so much in your advice per se, but I did a Google search on createspace in the UK and came up with this blog.... The blogger is UK based so I'm going to have a review of what she says and then come back to this thread.
Not to drag Castle's thread off topic, but let me offer a quick comment on the Nook. It's dead tech. B&N screwed the pooch with the Nook and Amazon ate their lunch. But dedicated ereaders are going to be a short-lived phenomenon in any case, since full-feature tablets can have an ereader app on them and the displays will continue to improve until there's no real difference, while at the same time offering a whole host of other features that a dedicated ereader doesn't have. One has only to look at the trajectory of the Amazon Kindle Fire to see which way this particular wind is blowing.
Absolutely. With battery life steadily increasing for tablets, the "hook" of e-ink displays is weakening. Unless some fairly compelling innovations emerge for the technology, it's going the way of the 8 track in short order.
And what would be a useful sales benchmark? I know success is found in sales numbers, but so is failure. Where is the tipping point in your experience?
That's purely subjective. For me, at least one sale per day is satisfactory. That's between 28 and 31 sales per month, at an average price of $2.99, 70% of which is profit. So here are the numbers: 30 x $2.99 x 70% = $62.79. Obviously, that's not enough to live on. Hell, it won't even pay a single bill. But it's a realistically achievable figure that puts a nice shot of change into the coffers. And, again, that's a minimum. I've seen as much as a few hundred bucks extra in any given month via book sales, combining multiple titles in multiple distribution channels. When 46th & Mercury launches, it'll go into both CreateSpace, which will put it into print-on-demand, retail channels, and onto Amazon Kindle, but I'll also be launching it simultaneously on Smashwords, which will put it onto, among other channels, iBooks.
I used to think the same thing, but ever since I have my own Kindle Paperwhite, I have to say that the eInk really is a huge improvement over even a superAmoled display for reading. Of course, the more pertinent question is probably about open vs proprietary formats, regardless of hardware. So far, Amazon is winning that fight, too. I don't like that, but I do buy it -- currently, it's just the much better system.
Agree on e-ink. The back lit displays will have to get significantly better before I give up my dedicated reader. On the format front, I recently became aware of the option to e-mail other format documents to my kindle. As an example, I downloaded a Rand report in mobi format, and my kindle handles it quite nicely. PDFs aren't as good, because things like table of contents and other in-text hyperlinks don't work. Anyway, this report was available free from Rand, or on the kindle store for $9.95. It's not something I would have bought, but as a free and indexed document, it's quite useful to me.
First, thanks for being so open about this. There are a lot of myths around writing (usually promoted by the Carrie Bradshaw fantasy world onscreen), and the most insidious one starts with "I wanna be a writer so I can make lots of money." Those high-profile "Stephen King/J.K. Rowling gets a bazillion bucks for next novel!!!" headlines don't help. The hard fact remains: Median income for published writers has not risen in 30 years, and it still hovers around $7,500 a year. Haven't seen any up-to-the-minute figures that reflect indie publishing, but I doubt it's that much different. Amanda Hocking's success doesn't trickle down to other writers, to borrow a metaphor. So my question is about myths. We're all subject to them. Hang out with anyone - family, friends - who aren't writers, and when you tell them what you do, they're inevitable. I doubt you get the one almost every woman writer gets asked ("So what do you write, children's books?"), but I bet you've fielded some doozies.
I don't know if these qualify as myths, per se, but there are a couple cliches I do run into quite a lot: 1. "Ohhhh, I've got loads of ideas you could use!" Fantastic -- find a keyboard and use 'em yourself. I'm a writer because my head is busting open at the seams with ideas of my own already. 2. "Ohhhh, can I be in your next book?" I write horror and crime fiction. You don't want to be in my next book. Aside from that, the characters in my work aren't based on real people. They're based on bits and scraps of real people, reconstituted to make them just the right fake people for the story. They are fast-food-pink-chicken-flavored-slime-people. But if you really want to brag to your friends about having a character based on you, pick any character you like. It's not as if your friends are going to hire a private investigator to verify your brag, or anything.
Really? You have to look a little for them now because people like shiny (backlit) tablets, but for battery life and non-glare, I think they're great: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-glowlight-ereader/379004122. You can turn on a lit display for that one, but it's still e-ink.
Ignoring whether the B&N or Amazon offering is better (I only have one), there's much more to offer from e-ink than battery life for people who love to read. It's so much easier on the eyes, plus (and I think it's a plus), it's mostly a single-use device--so I could go to the beach with just an e-ink reader and not worry I'm going to be distracted by Facebook, etc.
For new people, this is content marketing. You're setting yourself up as an authority on a certain subject, which brings in clicks and conversions. Best for nonfiction writing or other services rather than fiction, I think. If you stumble across an active blog (full of useful content) versus a static website for a guy who says he's an expert on X, which one are you likely to trust more?
And like I said, as display qualities continue to improve on tablets, the one advantage of the dedicated e-reader (e-ink) will cease to be a significant factor.
Yes, exactly. And with the sheer number of people you can find claiming to be an expert on just about any subject, there's no reason for me to believe them unless they either (a) are referred to me by someone I trust, or (b) demonstrate their knowledge with a useful and informative blog.
Keeping the flow flowin'. http://johncastlewriter.com/2015/01/31/putting-the-flow-in-your-workflow-with-todoist-and-pomodoro/
While I use Evernote for gathering research, and Together 3 for collecting and organizing that research once it's on my desktop, I've also been trying out OneNote as a worldbuilding scratchpad.
My question involves self-preservation. I'm a big proponent of self-preservation. Recently, I've heard that e-cigs are loaded with formaldehyde, a component that would be useful in preserving my youthful visage for all eternity. My question is: how should I best transfer the formaldehyde from the e-cig to my body? Orally or anally? Also, please show your work. Thanks.
Not that anybody was likely to come up with this question, but here it is along with the answer: "Castle, does the word processor called Mellel really output .doc files?" No. No, it does not. What it actually outputs are .rtf files appended with the .doc file extension.
