A Week of Questions

Top o' the morning to ya! All about questions this week. A questionnaire for the promotional text creation. Another for the copyediting, and still anther that I cannot recall the purpose of. The week became rather busy, so maybe there were only two questionnaires. The questions involved...wait for it... what is the book about? I did find it easier to write a summary, but still... Kind of hard to summarize a novel in only a few sentences or paragraphs. I guess the Cliff Notes version will have to be written up by someone who is a lot better at it. Other questions had to do with me. Aha, that was the other one - cover creation.

What does a person write about himself? Looking at the many novels I have in my library it becomes obvious that a 20-page biography is out of the question. There is so much to tell, but quite a bit may not be all that interesting to someone looking for a new book to purchase for that long flight back home. I tried, just for fun, to write up a paragraph in the manner that is seen on books in the store. I'm paying up front for this cover creation service; should I be trying to do their job for them?

Both numbers arrived this week. The ISBN assignments and the LCCN. A writer has the option of accepting the free ISBN assignment from Createspace or purchasing one through another service. The number can only be used for this publishing project. You cannot use the same number for a hardcover edition with Harper Collins for example. (Of course I'm hoping for a hardcover deal too!) I saw no reason not to simply accept the free ISBN. The LCCN has a fee and is not necessary for publishing. Of course I want the Library of Congress to catalog my first novel. A kind of vanity thing perhaps, but I paid the fee. Once assigned by Createspace, the writer simply acknowledges the number. It ain't like you can ask for a different one.

The link to upload the file became active this week too! This is the file, the novel, the ticket to fame and loot. Okay, so right now it isn't exactly a page-turner. A lot of copyediting will be needed first. My written voice will not make the bestseller lists without a lot of help from editors. Not a problem, just uploading the file seemed like a milestone in the process. No special formatting involved. Createspace accepts many formats and software. I used Microsoft Word 2010 and the docx file type, but the text is the main thing. After that, the wait begins. 4 weeks to edit a 98,000 word manuscript, and then back to work for me.

In the waiting time, I will be starting the process for the second novel, the first in a different series, and updating the blog on that as well. I wrote both novels at the same time simply because my mind seems to work that way. Some sort of attention-deficit thing perhaps, but I didn't do one novel in order and then start another as some writers do. To use an old-timey IT reference: you might say that some writers are serial printers and I am more of a parallel printer type.

Cover proofs, promotional text, and other things will probably arrive in the waiting time too. I did select a book size from the standard sizes. If a writer included photographs, I could see specifying a custom size (with a fee). As my work is simply the black text on the white (cream-colored actually) page novel, I looked on my bookshelf; found a size I liked that matched one of the choices, and selected the check box. There are many more options, some with fees and some at no cost. Look at books that caught your eye in the store or library. You may want to pay more to get exactly what you want.

At one of our local library's dead book sales, I discovered that a title on the spine makes a big difference too. If you don't have that big name to put on the spine like "Stephen King" or "James Patterson", the title becomes even more important. I don't recognize "Loewen", but Lies my Teacher Told Me, with the first word in big red letters over a scenic background grabs my attention. I use that book as an example because even on the shelf above my writing desk it stands out quickly. The little things are important.

Have a great week and God bless!

Bucky

Publishing the New Way

Three years and a bit in the making, I began the process to publish my first novel this week. Not the traditional process, mind you, but the self-published way. The more traditional method is to seek an agent or publisher, send a cover letter, wait, and hopefully an agent will respond wanting to see a full proposal. I visited many a website researching this method and couldn't help but feel pretty much unwanted. More than one literally said, "Don't call us; we'll call you!" I had thought that an old Hollywood cliche, but I now stand corrected.

Of course the first thing to note about self-publishing is that you don't have to literally print the book all by yourself. The publisher I selected offers many options for editing, describing, marketing, and illustrating books. One thing I did not see was an option to print my book in a nice hardcover format. As a first-time author, I may not have seen that going the traditional way either. Having not used this blog for too many postings yet, I decided yesterday that I would give you a week by week log (on a weblog no less!) of what goes on with this process.

On Tuesday, I signed up for an account with Createspace, the publisher mentioned earlier. The following day I received my first call. Bryan, led me through some initial setup on the web account and I created a horrendously difficult password that, alas, I had to write down - a major no-no from my days in the IT department. I'll get that memorized as soon as possible and destroy the paper copy. Later in the day the Createspace account notified me to take the next step and enter my personal or business account information for receiving royalty payments. Unfortunately, the payments won't begin until after the first book is published. There are no advances in the self-publishing world. I guess self-publishing means that I get to trust in God to take care of my "self" until the book starts selling copies.

During the initial consultation, Bryan asked a few questions and set up a meeting with the next level, the publishing consultant, who would call me. The phone meeting with Sarah took place on Friday and the first thing I discovered is that I am a bit of a disaster when it comes to verbally selling my own book. Listening to my verbal synopsis of the book, you might wonder whether I actually wrote the thing! I suppose that after using more than 98,000 words to write the novel, I am allowed to have a little trouble describing it in a few hundred words. In any case, Createspace offers services to take care of my shortcomings in that area as well.

Among the other services I selected, including cover design, interior layout, book description, marketing, Library of Congress Control Number, and others, one service stands out - copyediting. I had thought that traditional publishers would be all over this, but I read in one book that this is no longer the case. Strangely, the book listed something like seven different editors who apparently don't do the kind of editing a first-time novelist really needs. Remember the Jack Nicholson part in Wolf? Yeah, it kind of led me to believe that publishers did that kind of thing. Anyway, Createspace does offer basic and comprehensive copyediting. Although I believe that I have the talent to be the next bazillion-copy, best-selling novelist - just like every other first-time author - I can read my copy and tell that it needs something to make it read more like the great novels you can find in your bookstore.

Finally, I started two projects on the member dashboard. One for the first novel, The Rumble of Wheels: A Toledo Ted Adventure, and another for my second novel. As this process moves forward, I will do weekly updates each Saturday until the publishing date. Next week I am to expect contact from the design team assigned to my book. The damage thus far: just over $3,000 for the options mentioned above. A more experienced (or less verbally and graphically challenged) author might need to purchase less to get started. As a first-timer, I decided to risk more to get the professional help I need (pun intended).

The grace of God be with you this week!

Bucky