Archive for category Self-publishing
5 Questions About Writing With . . . David Wake
Posted by Sally Jenkins in 5 Questions About Writing, Authors, Self-publishing on December 13, 2024
David Wake writes science fiction, adventure, comedy and, most recently, fantasy. 
An advocate of indie publishing, he co-wrote Punk Publishing with Andy Conway on why and how to self-publish. He’s published 14 novels and has been a guest of honour at SF conventions.
More information: www.davidwake.com. Sign up to receive his latest news via his mailing list.
How do you discipline/motivate yourself to write and do you set daily targets?
It’s the other way around. I like writing, so it’s other things, real life stuff, that gets in the way. The trick is to make writing part of your lifestyle. You write, say, in the mornings, and always do that. Then writing is easy, part of your every day routine. I get twitchy if I’m not writing something.
I have, and do and will do in the future, set myself targets. Most successful writers I know, and I’ve read about, tend to write 1,000 words a day. But, if you set yourself a target, then you can feel a failure when you don’t reach that arbitrary number. But we shouldn’t. And maybe this chapter, that paragraph or whatever has to be written slowly.
So, make it part of your lifestyle.
What are the most important qualities required by a writer?
Perseverance. Bloody mindedness. Kindness.
How do you market yourself and your books?
I really don’t do enough and I should. I go to SF conventions and sell to fans there. I occasionally do Amazon Ads. I’m too English and hate blowing my own trumpet. It’s a problem for me. I’m great at turning readers into fans, but rubbish at turning strangers into readers.
Which writing resources have you found useful, e.g., books, courses, organisations, websites etc.?
Wikipedia for research, obviously. I did an MA in Creative Writing. There’s loads of stuff on YouTube, but a lot of it takes a lot of time to say nothing.
I’ve written a program to help me with a few admin things when writing. For example, it does an automatic word count for the target I shouldn’t be setting myself.
As for organisations, the best is New Street Authors (http://newstreetauthors.com/), which I co-founded and co-run. It’s a collective for independently published authors.
Andy Conway and I also co-wrote a book, Punk Publishing, on why and exactly how to self-publish. (http://punkpublishers.com/)
A top tip for other writers?
Just keep going. And work out how to use Word’s styles – fiddly, but worth it once you get them working for you, rather than against you, it really helps.
And be kind.
About The Jackdaw’s Choice (The Daughters of Égraine Book 1) – published November 2024
Mara dreams of peace and the return of Red Mill’s men from war, yearning for the day she can marry the blacksmith’s apprentice. But when a brutal goblin raid strikes her village, Mara must lead the women on a desperate journey into the unknown…
The Jackdaw’s Choice begins the spellbinding Daughters of Égraine trilogy.
Kickstarter, Audiobooks and Limited Edition Print Runs
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Resources, Self-publishing on November 29, 2024
New Street Authors is a collective of independent authors. We aim to support each other and increase our publishing knowledge. To this end we have a monthly guest speaker via Zoom. In November it was Oriana Leckert who is Head of Publishing at Kickstarter.
These Boots Were Made for Kicking!
Kickstarter is a crowd-funding platform aimed at creatives such as authors, artists, crafters, who need to raise money to fund projects such a hardback book print run, video game production, board game manufacture and so on.
Two particular uses of Kickstarter appealed to members of our group and I’m highlighting them here because there might be others who would like to fund their writing in this way.
Audiobooks. Audiobooks are growing massively in popularity. Possibly because, in our busy world, they allow multi-tasking, such as driving or doing chores at the same time as enjoying a book. Most traditional publishers now produce audio versions of their books alongside the paperback and e-book.
But the cost of producing a professional audiobook can be prohibitive for independent authors and/or risky. There is no guarantee of sufficient sales to recoup costs. This is where Kickstarter comes in. An author can ask for funding to produce an audiobook. If sufficient backers signup the project can go ahead at no financial risk to the author (assuming he/she has costed the project correctly). If there are not enough backers, the project doesn’t go ahead but the author has lost no money.
To attract backers, the author offers rewards for different levels of investment, as well as a copy of the audiobook. These rewards might be in the form of physical books, mentions on the acknowledgements page, artwork from the book and so on.
Limited Edition Print Runs. An author selling books at a genre-specific convention directly to readers who are hugely enthusiastic about their reading matter, might find that having a limited edition print run specifically for that event will attract large numbers of buyers. These buyers are getting an edition of the book which is not available elsewhere. But these are not books that can be cheaply produced via KDP. They may have gold sprayed page edges, a cover that is printed on the inside as well as the outside and various other expensive special effects. Upfront capital is needed to produce books like these. And Kickstarter can be a way of generating that capital in return for giving investors access to limited edition rewards.
Of course, the backing of investors has to be worked for. It’s not simply a case of putting your project on Kickstarter and waiting for the money to roll in. You will have to publicise and shout about the project in order to attract backers. But if you fancy creating something from your writing that requires capital, it might be worth a shot. The only thing you have to lose is your time.
Editing, Podcasting and a Flash Fiction Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Self-publishing, Writing on October 17, 2024
I’ve been buried deep in structural edits for the past month. 
This has involved improving character arcs, deepening internal conflict rather than relying on external conflict and trying to ensure that my secondary characters remain sympathetic throughout the book. After doing the major changes, I downloaded the document to my ancient Kindle to read, and I scribbled notes about all the additional things that needed changing. The manuscript is now covered in my scarlet Microsoft Word ‘track changes’ deletions, amendments and insertions. I wish my editor much luck in deciphering it all!
This is the third novel of my three book contract with Choc Lit and, at the moment, I don’t know what comes next. It may be time to branch out. Watch this space!
In other news, I have taken part in my first ever podcast. I chatted with Natalie from the US Fiction and Friends podcast for nearly an hour. It’s amazing how the time flies when you’re talking about reading, favourite books, authors and, of course, writing. The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.
I am also now part of New Street Authors and have my very own page on the NSA website. New Street Authors is a collective of indie authors with links to the Birmingham (UK) area. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I published several books independently prior to my career with Choc Lit. These books are still alive and kicking on Amazon and, therefore, I’m keeping up to date with developments in that area.
Finally, the New Writers Flash Fiction Competition 2025 is now open for entries of up to 300 words. The entry fee is £10 and first prize is a generous £1,100! Second place gets £300 and the third placed writer will receive £200. £1 from every entry will be donated to the writing charity, First Story. Closing date is Friday 31st January 2025.
In my next post, crime writer Claire Sheldon will be answering five questions about writing.
To Blog or Not to Blog?
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Non-fiction, public speaking, Resources, Self-publishing on January 2, 2024
To blog or not to blog?
That is the question many are dwelling on at the moment. Some bloggers have given up, some have switched to Substack and some have decided to concentrate on newsletters.
I started this blog in the autumn of 2010 and love the fact that many subscribers have been with me since then (thank you! – and I hope we’ll continue to be virtual friends). I’ve gained a lot from blogging, including discipline (it’s not easy to dream up topics to blog about), contacts (it’s so lovely when people take the time to ‘like’ or comment, especially on a regular basis) and knowledge (from the lovely guest bloggers I’ve hosted and from research I’ve done for my own posts). I hope you’ve all gained something from it too!
For me, the answer to my initial question is: Continue to Blog.
I’ve thought about Substack but don’t know enough about it or how it beats a standard blog. If you’ve got experience – please enlighten me because I never seem to have the time to investigate it fully.
I have a newsletter but, so far, I’ve only used that for significant book or writing news rather than the general information and titbits I put on here. If you’re curious, signup here. Plus casual browsers stumble across this blog in a way that they wouldn’t find back issues of a newsletter.
I don’t want to abandon communicating with writers and readers because it’s taken a long time to capture you all (!) and I think an online presence is important.
So, you’ll find me here for a bit longer.
I’ve just looked back through my WordPress statistics to find out which have been my most popular pages over the last 13 years. Here are the top four:
Icebreakers for Creative Writing Adult Education Classes
The Seven Sisters Series by Lucinda Riley
The statistics for 2023 show that I wrote 31 blog posts and August 15th was the day this site got the most hits, which was also the day I published the post about My First RNA Conference and an Award.
Finally, given this is the start of a brand new year and many of us are setting goals and challenges, here are a few publications that might be useful:
For those dipping a toe in the world of self-publishing – Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners and Kobo Writing Life Publishing for Absolute Beginners.
For those wanting to build self-confidence or to promote their books via author talks:
Public Speaking for Absolute Beginners.
A Competition, Kobo and NaNoWriMo
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Computers & Technical, Resources, Self-publishing on November 9, 2023
I’m deeply down the NaNoWriMo rabbit hole this month, trying to churn out words that don’t resemble a plate of cold, congealed spaghetti. First drafts of a novel are never easy!
(For those of you outside the writing community, November is National Novel Writing Month when we attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November i.e. 1,700 every single day for 30 days.)
In other news, I was delighted to be invited by GeniusLink to contribute to their blog on the subject of Self-publishing on the Kobo Ebook Platform, based on my book Kobo Writing Life Publishing for Absolute Beginners. Kobo is big in the Canadian market and offers worthwhile opportunities to those authors who choose not to stay exclusive to Amazon.
This free-to-enter competition popped into my Inbox this week. I seem to remember something about it last year so it may be an annual thing. THE GLENCAIRN GLASS CRIME SHORT STORY COMPETITION is looking for crime stories of up to 2,000 words based on the theme ‘A Crime Story Set In Scotland’.
First prize is a lovely £1000 plus a couple of extras! Closing date is 31st December 2023.
Don’t forget to check all the details plus the terms and conditions before starting to create your story.
Finally, don’t forget the special preorder price of just 99p for my next novel, Waiting for a Bright New Future – to be published on December 5th by ChocLit (an imprint of Joffe Books). It’s a story about family, friends and facing your fears to find love after fifty.
Now I’m going back down that rabbit hole!
A Plethora of FREE 2023 Writing Competitions
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Poetry, Self-publishing, Short Story on July 4, 2023
Four writing competitions for you – in a mix of genres!
Short Story – Run by Green Stories and the theme is ‘Microbes’.
The main prize for the winner is £500 plus up to three runner up prizes totaling £300 (or the local currency equivalent).
It may help to have a scientific bent as the aim of the competition is to use fiction to raise awareness of Environmental Biotechnology and what microbial systems can do for us. However, the website has a video explaining Environmental Biotechnology and there is also a free virtual workshop linked to the competition.
Closing date is 21st September 2023. Full details are here.
Poetry – Poetry on Loan’s 2023 poetry competition is open to anyone who lives, studies or works regularly in the West Midlands (which is a very big area!). This year the theme is ‘Refuge’.
The prize for adult entries is a paid performance as part of a Poetry on Loan event. The junior prize winner will receive book tokens to the value of £25. Plus there is a special ‘fresh poet’ prize.
Closing date is 1st September 2023. Full details are here.
Novel – The Writers College is running a novel writing competition. Any genre of novel qualifies. Submit the first three chapters plus synopsis.
First Prize is a full ‘Write a Novel Course’ and ‘Advanced Novel Course’ (value $4000; 24 months of mentoring with an award-winning writer up to 70 000 words) from the Writers College.
Closing date is 31st July 2023. Full details are here.
Self-publishing – Amazon is running its annual Kindle Storyteller Award. This has a massive £20,000 prize and is very competitive (full disclosure I interviewed Rachel McLean, the 2021 winner, for Writers’ Forum magazine and she worked extremely hard). However, anyone self-publishing a novel on Amazon KDP before the closing date of 31st August 2023 can enter by including “StorytellerUK2023” (without quotation marks) in the “keywords” metadata field as they publish the book. Full details are here.
And if you are thinking of taking your first steps into self-publishing, you might find Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners (newly updated for 2023!) or Kobo Writing Life for Absolute Beginners useful.
Good Luck! Let me know if you’re successful in any of these competitions – I have the bubbles ready to celebrate!
Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners – 2023 Update
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Computers & Technical, Self-publishing on June 20, 2023
I’ve just updated Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners again. I first published this e-book back in February 2014 – nearly 10 years ago! Over that almost-decade it has continued to sell and I’ve continued to update it every 12-24 months in the hope of not misleading readers with outdated information.
This time, as I was going through the manuscript checking links, processes, new facilities etc., it struck me that over the years it has become much easier to self-publish on Amazon and no one should be frightened of the technicalities – because, mostly, it’s not technical!
Here are a few examples of the changes I’ve seen:
- Product Description (on screen equivalent to the back cover blurb) – In the early days if you wanted to include bold, italics or other formatting it was necessary to use html coding. Now Amazon provide a facility similar to Word where you can select this formatting from a bar on the screen.
- Manuscript Format – In the beginning the self-publishing gurus advised uploading the manuscript in html format, however I now simply upload the Word .docx and find the results are just as good (applies to text-only manuscripts with no illustrations).
- Paperbacks – In the early days these had to be published separately using the Createspace platform and author copies were shipped from America, meaning extra expense plus a time delay. Now paperback publishing can be done via the same Amazon KDP Dashboard as the Kindle version and the books for the UK are printed in Europe, saving time and money. (By the way, if you use one of the Amazon-provided templates, I find formatting a print book is simply a copy and paste exercise).
- Amazon Ads – Those who want to get serious about marketing can now pay (according to the number of clicks on their ad) for the books to show up when shoppers use specific search terms.
Does anyone else think Amazon KDP is getting easier and more user-friendly?
If you’re contemplating self-publishing, Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners does what it says on the tin. It will hold your hand and guide you through the various topics and processes you should know about before you take the plunge.
These reviews sum it up:
“My third time of re-reading this excellent how-to book and getting more out of it each time.” – Tektron.
“This book is clear and concise and is a very good guide for beginners. Topics are clearly explained and are well covered.” – John Parnham.
Books Fit For a King
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Self-publishing, Writing for Children on May 5, 2023
On this Coronation weekend I am absolutely delighted to welcome children’s author Iona Chisholm to my blog.
Iona’s books about royalty make perfect follow-up presents for youngsters who’ve been watching proceedings on the television or been involved in parties and activities at school. Here’s Iona to tell us about the books, her writing journey plus she offers some useful tips for publishing illustrated books on Amazon KDP:
It was an unexpected opportunity to write that led me to self-publish my first children’s picture book on Amazon. Isolating with Covid in 2022, I wanted to be productive and so I challenged myself to write a rhyming story about The Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee. ‘Jubilee Bee’ was born!
I experimented with collage illustrations using paper, card and magazines. I inserted photographs of them into my word document. It proved straightforward to publish this as a Kindle edition. However, I encountered teething problems producing a paperback and made several mistakes. Firstly, I selected an 8 by 6-inch book size and, secondly, I had issues because my word document didn’t convert properly into paperback through the Kindle Kid’s Book Creator.
By the time I produced ‘Jubilee Bee and the King’s Christmas Present’, I had learned that an 8.5 inch square book size was best. Further, if I transferred my word document into a PowerPoint presentation with 8.5 inch square slides and saved as a PDF, it converted perfectly into paperback.
I’ve now released my third book, ‘Jubilee Bee and the Coronation’.
Each storybook I’ve written contains suggested questions and associated facts for children, whilst promoting looking after nature, the earth and each other. The positive feedback that I have received always refers to these features.
I learned recently that Amazon picture books must be fewer than 43 pages to be able to retail at an affordable £5.99 and produce a reasonable profit. I’d done so much work for the Coronation that I ended up with an 87-page document! Therefore, I split it in half and published my fourth book, ‘The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, The Queen Consort.’ This non-fiction text contains acrostic poems, illustrated anagram puzzles and journal space to make a personal souvenir. Self-publishing allowed me to quickly utilise all my work and ideas.
I am proud of my writing journey and the progress that I am making. I have now produced a second edition of ‘Jubilee Bee’ in an 8.5 inch size. Holding my set of 4 books in my hand was a real high point!
Wanting to make my family proud and improving with every project really motivates me and I am finding it easier to prioritise writing, dip my toe into social media and integrate into the online writing community where I have felt welcomed, supported and nurtured. Everyone has been so keen to share their experiences and I hope to be able to encourage other newcomers to press that ‘publish my book’ button!
As a mum of four, primary school Governor (with a focus on writing) and keen gardener, I strongly believe in the inspiration and well-being that we can all gain from words and the outside world. Therefore, I aim to promote nature, learning and positivity in whatever I write, whether it be an article for Garden News, a poem, a short story for a woman’s magazine or my next book! In the future, I hope to complete and publish a novel, but must remind myself to take things one step at a time….
Find out more about Iona at www.ionachisholm.co.uk or follow her on Instagram Ionachisholm01 for gardening and writing posts!
Short Story Writing Tips & a Launch!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Self-publishing, Short Story, Successes on October 28, 2022
I’ve been busy with the feather duster in my Dropbox repository and have rediscovered several of my favourite short stories that missed their target. These are the stories which didn’t land on the right editor’s desk at the right time or failed to catch the imagination of a competition judge.
This exercise made me think about two things: What are the best tips or rules for short story writing? And how can I best utilize these short story ‘misses’ in this age of recycling and ‘waste not want not’?
Here are the five top short story writing tips I came up with:
1. Have only a few characters. Any more than three or four makes it difficult for the reader to get to know them in a short space of time. Make sure all their names begin with a different letter – this makes it easier for the reader to differentiate between them. Don’t give names to ‘walk-on’ characters such as the postman or policeman – this will only add to any confusion in the reader’s mind.
2. Be clear whose story it is i.e., from which character’s point of view are you telling the story. That person should have the most to gain/lose from the action. Ensure the reader becomes emotionally invested in that person.
3. Have the action take place in a short timescale. Focusing on a single moment in time works best because the story is ‘immediate’. Avoid a long buildup of backstory. If back story is essential, drop it concisely alongside the action.
4. Conflict should be at the centre of the story. The main character should be facing a dilemma or decision of some kind. This character should solve the dilemma himself rather than have it sorted out by someone else, coincidence or fate.
5. Edit! Give the story more impact by removing words like ‘very’ and ‘just’. Replace adverbs with more specific verbs, for example ‘run fast’ becomes ‘sprint’. Combine characters, for example does the heroine need two friends or will one work just as well and make the story neater?
And what’s happening to those short story ‘misses’? They are now getting their fifteen minutes of fame in Hit or Miss? 33 Coffee Break Stories. 
I’ve mixed the stories up with others that DID land on the right editor’s or judge’s desk at the right time, and I challenge YOU to decide which were hits and which missed their target.
Hit or Miss? 33 Coffee Break Stories is now available on Kindle, in paperback from Amazon and on Kobo.
It would be lovely to get the comments started on the book’s Amazon/Kobo Review pages to indicate whether or not you agreed with those editors and judges.
On Submission! (Again)
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Non-fiction, Self-publishing, Successes on November 23, 2021
463434 © Judwick | Dreamstime.com
For the greater part of this year I’ve been working with my wonderful agent, Juliet Mushens, to get my current manuscript into tip-top condition. She is now happy with it and last week it went out into the big wide world of publishers. My fingers are firmly crossed but, as I know from my experience two years ago, there is many slip between cup and lip. I’m not saying much about the actual story except there are no murders and it’s infinitely more cheerful than Bedsit Three or The Promise.
Juliet recently re-opened to submissions if you’re currently querying agents and think she might be a good fit for you.
I’ve also continued writing occasional articles for The People’s Friend and was asked to pitch ideas this week for Christmas 2022! As I’ve said before, finding the ideas is by far the hardest part of article writing. Correction: finding ideas that haven’t already been covered in some shape or form by a magazine with such a long history is the hardest part of article writing. The good part about writing for The People’s Friend is the quick response to most pitches – I usually get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ within a week to ten days and the ‘pitch black hole’ of many publications is non-existent.
There are submission guidelines on The People’s Friend website if you fancy having a go at writing features for them.
Kindle Direct Publishing for Absolute Beginners was selected by Amazon as one of November’s Kindle Deals. Amazon have discounted the book to 99p and given it a little bit of a push. So far it has sold about three times more than in October which is good! And it’s currently got orange bestseller flags in both the Amazon Electronic Publishing and Digital Media categories. But at 99p my royalty rate drops to 30% so financially I won’t make any more money, however I’m hoping the boost the Deal has given me will generate a head start for December when the price returns to normal.
If you’d like to nominate any of your books for an Amazon Deal, go to your Amazon bookshelf and click the Marketing tab along the top of the page. Scroll down to see the option to nominate your e-books. It’s free of charge and so worth a try. There’s more information on the Amazon help pages.
Now I’ll stop typing so that I can cross my fingers again!
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