A Writer's Diary

New writers may well be confused by the superfine distinctions between self-published, vanity published, e-published and indie published.

I self-published my first book, a non-fiction writing manual, Your Words, Your Story, because I wanted to use it in the classroom as soon as possible. I knew from experience that trying to  traditionally publish a book takes years, so I decided to go it alone. What self-publishing means is that the author pays a printer to print copies of her book. She sets up a small press, buys her own ISBN number, writes a letter to the Library of Congress and later sends copies of books to them so they can be filed along with a jillion other books. Distribution can be a problem, but I had a built-in source–my college bookstore.

Self-publishing was a difficult endeavor, and had I known how much trouble it would be, I might not have done it. I hired out some of the work, formatting, design, cover image. The entire venture cost me about $3000 and I recouped that money quickly. Now I sell the digital form of that book on Kindle for 99 cents, and to my surprise people other than my students buy it.

The difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing is simple. Self-published authors with small presses have a long tradition in literature and are involved in every step of the production of their book. They learn the business end of the publishing industry. They take care that their books are scrupulously edited. Virginia Woolf’s husband set up Hogarth Press  so he could publish his wife’s brilliant but misunderstood novels. Walt Whitman, a poet far ahead of his time, self-published too.

I feel fine about being in such company. I found a printer known for quality work and met with them to discuss everything from the size of my book to the color of the pages (buff is better than white) to the type of print I wanted. Then I hired a skilled professional to format the book to the printers’ specifications. This is not how the Vanity Press folks do it.

Vanity Press companies take out ads in writer’s magazines and promise to do everything for you. Just send your manuscript and they’ll do the rest. What happens here is the writer loses creative control, and at a price far above $3000. More like $10,000 or more. Writers who don’t understand the slim but important distinction between vanity and self-publishing are writers who do not do their homework. Neither vanity writer or vanity press has any interest in editing. To their own detriment, vanity writers don’t want to know about or deal with editing or any of the many other aspects of the publishing end of things.

Now Kindle Digital Platform and other internet sources are making it easy for self-published and vanity authors to upload their books with free distribution at little to no cost. And thus the indie writer was born. Indie books run the gamut from unedited unformatted vanity projects to professional quality books. These indie authors aren’t just for e-readers. They have the option to print their work on demand. (POD). I decided to use KDP for Sister Issues, my first published novel, that fits no mainstream niche (one sister is chick lit the other is women’s fiction). Also because I was familiar with it from my first book.

With Sister Issues, I didn’t bother with the print version; I just wanted to join the band of indies. I still ended up paying someone to format my book, but this time it was for $100, a price well worth the work–because the internal workings of KDP demand certain formatting details if the writer wants an e-book not riddled with mistakes and strange re-arrangements. I found that out the hard way, too, but it’s so easy to “publish” and “unpublish” on KDP that it didn’t cost me respect or readers.

Right now, indie books vary wildly in appearance and content. Some authors, like Terri Giuliano Long, are trying to change what we have: vanity and self-published indie writers along with  traditionally published authors reprinting their back catalogs all duking it out for a spot on the list. It isn’t easy promoting an indie novel, and so far the mainstream press has been wary. As Terri Long notes, this is also changing.

Still there are so many books out there. The serious novelist who doesn’t fit any major publishing parameters finds her work buried under vanity crap and well-known traditionally pubbed authors. This is where we are now and this is what we, the indie authors who care about production and content excellence, are trying to fix.

Something funny happened to me when I indie pubbed. I received a contract for another novel from an e-publisher. These folks have been around for years and their quality of content varies. Anybody can put up an e-pub house on the net. And frankly, most of what sells is very spicy sex to soft core porn like 50 Shades of Gray. Although I love building sexual tension, I’m not fond of what my editor politely termed “consummation” scenes. Still, as an adventure, I decided to try working with an e-publisher as well. They take care of all the things I didn’t like doing on KDP, like providing a book cover, formatting, editing, distribution, and marketing.

The Wild Rose Press is set to release my new novel, The Paris Notebook, July 18, 2012 in both electronic and print versions. It will be interesting to see which novel does better, the indie self-published or the e-published by an online publisher. Right now, it’s anybody’s game.

When I brought up my marketing give-away of a free story here on the website, I didn’t have any idea how much work it would entail. But it is work I love, so I won’t complain. This post is more of a cautionary tale with a nifty bit of marketing thrown into the mix.

After searching through my laptop Word documents, and looking at my old files from a previous hard drive, I realized I didn’t take the time at the time to cut and paste Sarah’s story into a document. I just deleted it, not thinking ahead. I knew I had a print copy of the novel with Sarah’s pov still there if I ever were to need it.

It didn’t take long for me to think about using Sarah and David’s romance in some way. I loved Sarah so much I considered writing an entire novel for her but then came up wiith the free story idea. By then I had conveniently forgotten that I didn’t front load the edits into their own file. So, little job just got bigger. The good news is, I found the print version and pulled all Sarah’s scenes and read through them today. They’re excellent (yes, I know, I’ve always been modest:) just as they are after a revision session earlier today. The conclusion is perfect too, because it ends happily for now, but makes readers wonder what will happen next. So it works on its own as a nice story and also as a teaser for The Paris Notebook.

One thing I wanted to make sure of was that Sarah’s story could stand on its own without the other book. Because I hate when I read a book and realize that its the tenth in a series and the author assumes I’ve read them all. Happy to say, Sarah’s story stands alone. I deleted a few things but its pretty much intact. So good news, again! Also, I saved a Word version of the ms. with Sarah’s scenes intact. Yet more good news.

Now what is left is to cut and paste, like I should have done in the first place, from that document, add in today’s polish and upload. I have a free couple of days ahead later in the week. I am hoping I can get my syllabus typed up AND Sarah’s story. Class starts a week from today so that has to come first but I’m pretty sure I did the same class (creative writing) last summer. And I did write the book we’re using, so really, no worries there except the usual: that teaching will steal time from my writing.

Time to kick-start my marketing efforts. Reading the New York Times this morning, I saw an article about how print publishers are pressing their writers, who usually pub a book a year, into producing short stories or novellas for the e-publishing market in between books. The New York marketing departments are slowly catching on to what indie writers already knew. Offer a free or inexpensive piece of shorter writing six to eight weeks before the novel comes out, and the novel will sell better.

The NYT article kick-started me into getting my free novella up on the website with a link to my publisher. I’ve been talking to the TWRP marketing maven, and she’s all for it, giving me ideas and help. Of course I have to read the story first. It’s a subplot pulled from The Paris Notebook, and will probably need some revising.

What I really love about this idea is giving readers another love story, one that has the same group of characters in the same setting, but from a different point of view. And I love that it will be here, on the site, and also that it will be free. I love giving stuff away. You can’t write a blog for ten years and not love sharing your work with whoever clicks on the page.

I don’t mind spending time away from my main project to work on this piece on the side because for me and my readers it’s a win/win. I love the story and want to share it. And readers get something free, which is always fun.

A few days ago, I had eye surgery to remove a lens full of cataracts and insert a nice pristine new lens with a special built-in something that made my eye 20/20. In two weeks, I’ll undergo the same procedure for my other eye. For now, I’m trying to rest my eyes and just in general not strain myself. I am not supposed to bend over because the blood will flow to my eyes and the stitches might tear. Yes, stitches inside my eye! Amazing.

What’s even more amazing is that I’ve never had 20/20. I’ve had poor eyesight all my life. “Oh, Magoo, you’ve done it again” bad. Now, if all goes well, I will have, at the ripe age of 57, 20/20 vision with no reason to even wear reading glasses. This type of lens is not covered by insurance, they cover the one without the reading sight bonus. Still, I managed to convince Al of the pure magic of it all.

This must be how movie stars feel after lipo-suction. No effort, new tummy!

Nothing comes without a price, and my price is May. My vision is perfect in one eye, horrid in the other. The computer and smart phone letters are kind of smushy. But I’m reading a great book on my Kindle using LARGE print. Love that feature. And I can watch television.

When I set all this up, I knew I would have to give the month of May over, pretty much, to healing my eyes. They are an essential tool for writing, and being sighted just makes the world that much easier to navigate. So I resolved to obey doctor’s orders, not tax myself or my eyes, and not worry about writing, teaching, the conference, or anything else.

I don’t know why, but my heart sank when I saw the restriction on mascara. Six weeks without eye make up! I hardly wear makeup anymore, but I do wear it to school. So this will be the first time I walk into a classroom without face paint plus silvering hair. (I am loving my silvered hair!) It will be fine but I have to smile at my vanity. Still. At my age.

I’m trying to move from vanity to radiant health and continue to work on the changes I’m learning from The Lean. For now, I’m sticking with the first half of the changes and when I feel stronger (next week?) I will read and incorporate even more (I bought The Lean as an actual book so I could study it.) to see what else I can do to clean up my food act. I’m also hoping next week I’ll want to get back to writing my novel. I miss Twitter, too!

Meanwhile, I am able to hand write my morning pages with no fuzziness, so I’m doing that. And I can talk on the phone. Doing quite a bit of that too as family and friends check in to make sure I’m okay. I’m better than okay. I just need to be really patient with the way the internet looks smushy. And now you know why I won’t be around much in the month of May

Novelists often turn the facts of their lives into fiction. For me, there’s always some truth along with the fiction, and depending on what book, it can be more or less. My first novel started with the idea of what kinds of things happen when you find yourself, at a young age, with a new step-parent (or two), and sometimes siblings from the step as well.

That idea alone is rife with conflict, something I’m always searching out to make my stories juicy. No conflict, no story. So here’s how I mined a situation of my own for the emotional truth in my story. When my two sons were very young (the little guy was only three, his big brother five), their father and I divorced. I’ve had endless guilt about that ever since, but that’s not what I chose to drive my story. Instead I wanted to use the adult childrens’ point of view.

My novel is about two sisters with issues, and one of the issues is that Cher, the older sister, never really accepted to her step-dad or half-sister into her heart. Her own father dies when she is young, and through flash back I show how it made Cher feel to lose her dad, and then lose her mom to another man (of course Cher was part of the family, but it felt like a loss to her). When her baby half-sister came along, things just got worse. Ariel tagged along with ten years older Cher, Cher babysat every weekend, Cher practically raised her little half-sister. And Cher, right up to the present day, resents Ariel for this (and a few bigger present day problems). This fuels an important plot point for Cher and for Ariel as I tell it from each of their point of views.

Now I’ll tell you the truth about how my ex and I blended our families. We both remarried, and our sons from day one accepted and eventually loved step-mom and step-dad. The transition that was difficult for them was the divorce, not the new marriages. Then came two half-siblings on their dad’s side and I never once have heard my kids call their new brother and sister anything but that, brother and sister. They had all the usual family stuff, as we did at our house, but the blending families went pretty smoothly, mostly due to my boys’ step-mom, who is a wonderful person and loves my boys like they are her own. My husband Al was good with the boys too and my three guys talked me into many a sporting event and camping trip.

So there you have it, fact turned into fiction. While I don’t use the true story, I use some of the emotion behind it. I kind of put myself in my sons’ place, but with the different sister twist, and that’s my story. And if blending families is something you are interested in, or you just like a good sister cat fight, you can buy Sister Issues for 99 cents on Kindle.

I’m on Day 13 in my “leaning in” process of eating healthier and have not had sugar cravings. Some things are easy for me, since I’m already vegetarian. Getting off sugar was my main reason for reading The Lean, but I’m continuing just to see how it goes. My jeans are a tiny bit looser, but not much. I have “crowded out” all the bad-for-me foods, like chips and other low to zero nutrient foods, and my cravings are gone. Mostly.

Today should be a challenge because I’m going out to lunch and today is the day I give up cheese. And because I am a glutton for punishment, I am also reading Debbie Ford’s new book: Courage: Overcoming Fear and Igniting Self-Confidence. I can’t tell you how many of these self-help books I’ve read, journal in hand, figuring out my issues.

This time I gave myself permission to not do the exercises if I’ve got something down pat, but I ended up journaling about several things. Not even counting my weight issues, my life is far from perfect. I want to write all the time, but also want to take responsibility for my life, which means finishing out a certain number of years in public schools in order to receive a pension from the state. So, my goals are in conflict with each other because I can’t do it all while also exercising and hunting out the best vegan cheese.

But I’m going to try!

I did something today that I usually find extremely difficult. If you are an introvert like I am, and find it difficult to spotlight your own writing, this may help you.

I sent a query to a trade magazine I used to work for, told them what I was up to, pitched a feature story, and then asked them to please consider reviewing my novel The Paris Notebook coming out in July.

This never would have happened had I not gotten some nudges from another writer friend. She knows I’m publicity shy, but she kept after me. What made it sort of easy is I had a former connection with the magazine. My editors have all moved on, but the magazine still have my reviews and features on their website, so I figured what the heck.

What also helped is that I’m offering them something in return. So that’s my best advice for promo shy people: offer something in return. It softens the feel of being pushy. Another example is my writing group’s conference this September. I do not mind promoting it in the least because it offers so much in return.

As for my blog, I have never been shy about linking my blog to Twitter and Facebook when I feel like it fits the venue. Because with my blog I’m taking the time to tell writers something they might be able to use. So that’s my best advice. If you want to promote your book, think of what you might offer readers first, be it blog or link or freebies.

Free books are perpetual reader pleasers. I gave the Kindle edition of my writer’s manual away for a week and never had so much fun. I’m actually giving everyone who comes to our conference a free print copy of that maual. I’m even giving my creative writing college students this summer the book for free, because it’s available on Kindle for 99 cents and I don’t think it’s fair to charge students $10 at the campus bookstore. Plus, I could use the space in my closet:)

Had a very difficult time accomplishing any writing this week after my eye doc appointment on Tuesday. In fact, I have not written. Well email and status updates, but that’s it. Why am I not writing? Because I am too busy freaking out as quietly as possible.

I need cataract surgery. In both eyes. I’m not gonna lie, the news hit me hard, even though I’ve known for awhile now that when the time was ripe, I’d have to undergo the procedure. Now that the appointments have been made and the prescriptions fillled, I try to take comfort in the number of people who have had this done and say it is a snap. Probably because they load you to the gills with Valium and numb your eyeballs.

This will all be done before I start my summer teaching session. For the first time in many years, I will walk into a classroom without glasses. I won’t even need contacts. This blows my mind. I have worn glasses (or refused to wear them) since I was a pre-teen. All through junior high school, I wouldn’t wear them. Not even in class to see the blackboard.

I wised up and started wearing teardrop wires just like Gloria Steinem in high school. Then I tried contacts. Those first versions were torture, but I was going through yet another vanity phase (in high school I rebelled by not wearing make up, letting my hair frizz out, and generally trying to emulate Janis Joplin. )

I’m not afraid. Okay, I’m a little afraid. Writers rely on our eyes. Also, my main recreation and most fun thing to do is read. So…I really need my eyes. If there is a goddess or saint who looks after eyes, please rain your blessings down on me. Namaste.

Writers, because our job is sedentary, need to pay attention to diet more than most people. I never feel like exercising beyond my ten minute yoga stretches and tend to eat way too much sugar and not enough vegetables. Even though I’m a vegetarian.

Four years ago, dinner menus included beef most of the time, and lunch, in the form of Wendy’s fab hamburgers, were at least a weekly treat. Pot roast for Sunday dinner, steak on Friday night, meat sauce on spaghetti, tacos, burritos, stuffed cabbage, hamburger soup! I loved all things beef.

Then I read a book that talked a bit about the meat industry and a lot about health and I quit eating all meat and stopped buying most leather products. That one book could have such an effect surprised me. I seem to be resistant to any diet, and believe me, I’ve tried them all. So one book and I give up my favorite food forever? Just like that. Yep. Don’t even want it anymore.

So what was this book that had such a magical effect on me? Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston. You’d think that giving up meat would have made my weight problems disappear but that didn’t happen. I replaced my love of beef with love of cookies, cake, and anything chocolate. Also, chips are vegetarian and so is wine.

I’ve been wanting to get sugar out of my diet for a few years now. Sugar wrecks my metabolism, adds pounds, increases the chances of diabetes, and causes that hell-raising health abuser– inflammation. I want to do something nice for my cells by booting sugar and other inflammation causing foods out of my diet. So I’m hoping Freston’s new book, The Lean, will help me in much the same way Quantum Wellness did.

If I can give up beef, surely I can also eliminate sugar.

Freston’s approach in The Lean is a bit different than other diet plans. It’s a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. Meaning the changes I am making now are forever. She spreads the tiny tweaks out through a month so that little by little good food crowds out the bad. So far I have successfully completed 5 of the 30 days with no problem. #1 was drink 8 glasses of water a day. Done. Next, eat a hearty breakfast, also an easy fix. Then came “eat an apple” — no problem. Day #4 looked daunting “Clean out cupboards and just for today say no to your poison.”

I decided to take the weekend off (this if fine with Freston, by the way) and tackle the poison on Monday. I do have sugar in my house but mostly use it for baking during the holidays. Raw sugar is not my poison. I love cookies and cake but not enough to bake them when I have a craving. Monday I shopped and didn’t buy any of my various poisons, skipping chips, chocolate and shortbread cookies. My husband eats protein bars so I  bought those even though I have at times been driven to eat them. So they are in the house, and I’m building up my “just say no” muscles.

Today’s tweak was to eat a handful of raw unsalted nuts. Done. I ate them before lunch and then only had my apple and banana for what is usually my downfall meal of the day. I tend to eat A LOT of lunch. But I ate the nuts and fruit five hours ago and I’m not hungry for dinner yet.

The catch here, in case you haven’t figured it out, is that you need to keep doing the tweaks. All of them. I think the 8 glasses of water today helped me out as much as the nuts and fruit. So that’s it so far. I know there will be challenges ahead, but for today, I’m doing good.

It’s not just weight that I want to change. It’s energy level, so I can write more. It’s brain fog, so I can think more clearly. It’s all the crap inflammation causes, so I can stay home writing instead of making yet another trip to the doctor. I would love to follow other people trying The Lean, so I’ll be looking for you.

I bought a Kindle right away when they came out. New hardcover novels by famous authors were $10. At the pace I read, that Kindle paid for itself in no time. Then a year or so later publishers (& Apple) decided they needed more money. According to the WSJ, they ganged up and threatened to boycott Amazon. This was just before the iPad and SJ said he’d put a $14 sticker on if JB agreed to do the same. Publishers are being sued for this now. Since the article I linked to, three have settled for many millions which in theory will go back to Kindle owners like me who paid those ridiculously high prices for something that costs very little.

E-pubbing is almost pure profit for the publishers. No paper, no distribution, no cover art. In some cases, like Just Kids by Patti Smith, the photos are not even included.  In others, like Unbroken, there are less photos and the quality is not as good. Most of them don’t bother with the actual cover but just slap on the title. So really, why are we paying up to a third more?

This is the point at which I began searching out Kindle deals, Kindle indie authors, and even free classics. I bought less Kindle books because my monthly book bill went up steeply after the price hike. Not nice, New York!

Meanwhile, two (of the top five) publishers and Apple have decided to fight it out in court. The thing that ticks me off the most is that NY publishers want higher prices so they can keep their plush offices in Manhattan, maintain their lavish lifestyles in the big city and their vacation homes in the Hamptons. And also they want the power to be the gate-keepers of what people read.

I understand that there are lower level jobs in publishing houses, and it would be a damn shame if the secretaries and mail room folks got pink slips. But why not cut from the top down? Why not fix your broken system?

It is just wrong to charge so much money for something that essentially costs NOTHING. I know writers want their royalties, and publishing people want their jobs, and they deserve them. Continue with the hardcover, trade, and mass paperback books as you have been doing (which is also crazy, but another blog post). Maybe cut down on the wild bidding wars and huge advances for the few lucky JKR and SKs. Most writers have to take a day job to pay the bills. This has been true for a very long time.

So, the writers aren’t getting rich. This isn’t about writers. It’s about how middle class Americans continue to get ripped off by a dysfunctional system. Rant over.