The Violet Fox has kindly
agreed to share her take on challenges facing indie authors, in honor of her newest release, The Violet Fox.
About The Author:
Clare Marshall grew up in rural Nova Scotia with very little television and dial up internet, and yet, she turned out okay. She has a combined honours degree in journalism and psychology from the University of King’s College, and is a graduate from Humber College’s Creative Book Publishing Program. She founded Woulds & Shoulds Editing and Design in 2010 for self-published authors and businesses looking for quality editing and design services. She enjoys publishing books through her publishing imprint, Faery Ink Press, and released her first novella, Within in 2011. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing the fiddle and making silly noises at cats.Find Clare Marshall on the Web:
Guest Post:
THREE CHALLENGES INDIE AUTHORS FACE
Knowing the publishing business when you’re about to jump in goes without saying. It’s fun to offer your work up to the public eye and receive feedback, but if you want to be serious about it, there’s a lot of work involved.
As someone who publishes her own books, here are the three biggest challenges I face.
1. Sales & Distribution.
Distribution is one of those things that crept up on my last year. I published my novella, Within, using Amazon CreateSpace as a printer. When you list with CreateSpace, you automatically get listed on Amazon.com.
That’s awesome! I thought....for Americans.
I’m Canadian. And most of my sales have been in Canada. I quickly realized that for a Canadian to buy a book from Amazon.com (instead of Amazon.ca), the shipping is quite atrocious--like, half the cost of the book. And for me to order the book at wholesale and sell it myself, well, again, the shipping cost is pretty sizeable. But I did it anyway, just so people could buy from me directly, in person or on my website. Some people don’t mind ordering the books from my website, but others prefer going to their favourite bookstore. Others don’t quite get why I’m not in a bookstore.
This time, I’ve decided to do a (small!) offset print run. Having my own copies on-hand will help me have more control over where I’d like to distribute them, whether it’s online or not. I plan to see if I can get distribution through a few bookstores around the country, but I’m going to build this slowly. There’s no sense in having hundreds of bookstores take my book and only have a few sales. Because first, I have to focus on...
2. Marketing.
Marketing itself doesn’t have to be hard. Finding and setting aside the time to market your book is the difficult part. Keeping the momentum from the book release going might be even harder.
As a writer, you want to write. And sometimes, writing the next book can be good for your marketing efforts, especially if you’re blogging your progress. Marketing isn’t something you should leave to the last minute. It’s something that should be simmering in the back of your mind. Updating Facebook and Twitter and engaging with your audience that way can keep you in people’s minds, but planning other events can help too. Keeping a word document or a notebook of marketing ideas can help you when you’re stuck for something creative.
I find blog tours effective in that lots of new people discover my book, but that doesn’t mean that they sell books. They are the first step in the long road that is the relationship with the reader.
Doesn’t that sound daunting? Marketing doesn’t end when the initial promotion stuff is over. You can’t just run away and write your next book and start the marketing machine again when it’s convenient for you. As an unknown author, you have to stay in people’s minds, or else you’ll fade into the noise.
3. Finding the Drive to Succeed
Not everyone is going to like your book. Even worse, not everyone is going to LOVE your book. One of the keys to success as an indie writer is to develop a loyal fan base. If you don’t have people buying your book, it can be very frustrating. You might want to give up.
This is something I struggle with every day. Not everyone can be in the top 1%. So we have to take it one step at a time. I have small goals that I set for myself, that I work at achieving. Achieving these goals will lay the foundation to achieving other, bigger goals. This works with both writing, and publishing. One does not simply write 90,000 words all in one go. If you write 1,000 words a day for 90 days, or 500 words for 180 days, then you have 90,000 words.
See where I’m going with this? Baby steps. One day at a time. You are only one person, but you can elicit the help of many.
Knowing the publishing business when you’re about to jump in goes without saying. It’s fun to offer your work up to the public eye and receive feedback, but if you want to be serious about it, there’s a lot of work involved.
As someone who publishes her own books, here are the three biggest challenges I face.
1. Sales & Distribution.
Distribution is one of those things that crept up on my last year. I published my novella, Within, using Amazon CreateSpace as a printer. When you list with CreateSpace, you automatically get listed on Amazon.com.
That’s awesome! I thought....for Americans.
I’m Canadian. And most of my sales have been in Canada. I quickly realized that for a Canadian to buy a book from Amazon.com (instead of Amazon.ca), the shipping is quite atrocious--like, half the cost of the book. And for me to order the book at wholesale and sell it myself, well, again, the shipping cost is pretty sizeable. But I did it anyway, just so people could buy from me directly, in person or on my website. Some people don’t mind ordering the books from my website, but others prefer going to their favourite bookstore. Others don’t quite get why I’m not in a bookstore.
This time, I’ve decided to do a (small!) offset print run. Having my own copies on-hand will help me have more control over where I’d like to distribute them, whether it’s online or not. I plan to see if I can get distribution through a few bookstores around the country, but I’m going to build this slowly. There’s no sense in having hundreds of bookstores take my book and only have a few sales. Because first, I have to focus on...
2. Marketing.
Marketing itself doesn’t have to be hard. Finding and setting aside the time to market your book is the difficult part. Keeping the momentum from the book release going might be even harder.
As a writer, you want to write. And sometimes, writing the next book can be good for your marketing efforts, especially if you’re blogging your progress. Marketing isn’t something you should leave to the last minute. It’s something that should be simmering in the back of your mind. Updating Facebook and Twitter and engaging with your audience that way can keep you in people’s minds, but planning other events can help too. Keeping a word document or a notebook of marketing ideas can help you when you’re stuck for something creative.
I find blog tours effective in that lots of new people discover my book, but that doesn’t mean that they sell books. They are the first step in the long road that is the relationship with the reader.
Doesn’t that sound daunting? Marketing doesn’t end when the initial promotion stuff is over. You can’t just run away and write your next book and start the marketing machine again when it’s convenient for you. As an unknown author, you have to stay in people’s minds, or else you’ll fade into the noise.
3. Finding the Drive to Succeed
Not everyone is going to like your book. Even worse, not everyone is going to LOVE your book. One of the keys to success as an indie writer is to develop a loyal fan base. If you don’t have people buying your book, it can be very frustrating. You might want to give up.
This is something I struggle with every day. Not everyone can be in the top 1%. So we have to take it one step at a time. I have small goals that I set for myself, that I work at achieving. Achieving these goals will lay the foundation to achieving other, bigger goals. This works with both writing, and publishing. One does not simply write 90,000 words all in one go. If you write 1,000 words a day for 90 days, or 500 words for 180 days, then you have 90,000 words.
See where I’m going with this? Baby steps. One day at a time. You are only one person, but you can elicit the help of many.
The Violet Fox:
Author: Clare C. Marshall
Publisher: Faery Ink Press (http://www.faeryinkpress.com)
Release date: October 13, 2012
Genre: YA Fantasy
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Teaser blurb:
Run.
That’s what instinct tells me.
But in order to save the secrets of my people
and to protect my brother
I have to become the enemy.Long blurb:There are two kinds of people in the land of Marlenia.
The Marlenians, who live on the surface, and the Freetors, who are forced to live underground.
The war between them ended two hundred years ago, but the Freetors still fight for the right to live under the sun. Fifteen-year-old Kiera Driscoll embodies the Freetors' hopes as the Violet Fox. In a violet cape and mask, she sneaks around Marlenia City stealing food and freeing her people from slavery.
Then the Elders task her with a secret mission: retrieve a stolen tome that contains the secrets of Freetor magic, something the Marlenians both fear and covet. Kiera must disguise herself as a noblewoman and infiltrate the Marlenian castle.
Before the Freetor-hating Advisor finds out her real identity.
Before her brother is imprisoned because of the secrets he hides.
And before she falls any more in love with the prince she's supposed to hate.
More is happening in the castle than she realizes, and Kiera is faced with a difficult choice. Will she be loyal to her people and their fight for freedom, or will she be loyal to her heart?
Find The Violet Fox Online:
Giveaway!
Happy reading until next time!
I so agree; baby steps. One of those days of my life I will be a indie author. Lol. All in its time. I loved the book; great blog :)
ReplyDeletewww.thingworlds.blogspot.com
Thanks for participating in the blog tour ^^
ReplyDelete