The Kindness of Strangers (and Friends)

I'm depending lately, on the kindness of so many people. And they're coming through!

Since publishing my short story collection on a whim, as an ebook (A PATCHWORK OF STORIES), I decided to do some publicity on it. I'm sort of using my ebook as a test run for when my trade paperback novel, CHOKE, comes out in May from Mainly Murder Press. It might be good, I figured, to try out different marketing tools on the ebook and see if I have phenomenal success with any one thing. Or more than one.

I added my book to my signature line. For the first few weeks I put links to the purchase sites on Smashwords and Amazon. Then I thought that might be annoying and took those off. The links are front and center on my webpage, though.

Let me back up a sec, though. First, I had started publicizing my novel and put it in my signature line. Things I've done to get the word on on it (although it doesn't come out until May 2011):

*make sure I post on the lists I belong to so my signature line gets seen (not a problem, since I'm always posting anyway);

*get a new author photo and put together a preliminary press kit, and put it on my webpage;

*start consciously acquiring new Facebook and Twitter followers (20/day was recommended to me, but I haven't hit that yet);

*put up an author page on Facebook;

*start collecting emails of people I think might want to know about--and buy--the novel;

*register for a couple of big conferences next year, try to get onto panels, donate a silent auction basket at one, buy a group ad at another;

*and, lastly, get myself onto other people's blogs as a guest once a month until my pub date.

Here's where the friends and strangers came through, on that last one. And, in the midst of this, I put out the ebook and sort of switched my efforts over to it. So, the blogs are more about the short stories now, with just a mention of the coming novel.

I'm overwhelmed by people who have spontaneously blogged about me, and those who have offered me spots and interviews. Since August, I've averaged more than one every month.

Take a look at all the great publicity!

August:

Carole Morden at Dry Bones

My blogmates at Dialog For Murder

September:

A two-part in depth interview at Writers Who Kill, by E.B. Davis

Part One

Part Two

October:

A nice essay from KB Inglee

November:

A review of the short story book by Judy Alter

And an interview by David Wisehart, who promotes Kindle authors

I will have a guest blog at Lelia Taylor's Buried Under Books blog Saturday!

photo from http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p86/rodgj/vivienmarlon.jpg

December and January are mapped out with one each so far, and several are lined up for May. I can NOT thank these folks enough for all of this!

Since putting the ebook on Amazon, I also created an Author Page for them. I guess I can add the new book in May to that. I have no idea who looks at those.

What works? What doesn't? That's what I'll try to decide as I go through the process for both books. Maybe some things work better for ebooks and some work better for print books. So far, with the only one for sale, A PATCHWORK OF STORIES, there's been a steady trickle of one or two sold every day or every other day. I'm kind of amazed at this. And anxious to see if anyone will buy the print version when it becomes available later this month (I hope). Right now it's at Smashwords and Kindle (hint, hint).

A PATCHWORK OF STORIES

I've been back from my travels to DC and Tennessee for a little over a week now and am almost caught up with things. I think. I'll journal my travels next week, but first--

My big accomplishment since my return has been to get my short story collection published! It was almost ready before I left--just the cover remained. I guess my subconscious gained clarity while I was away from it because when I got back, I was able to do it.

Tell me if you like it. If you don't, please don't tell me. Same with the stories if you go a step further and get the ebook.

If anyone is thinking of publishing with Smashwords, I'll give a little tutorial here, although they give step by step instructions to get you through most of it. The first thing you do is click on the Publish tab at Smashwords.com, which will get you here.

This style guide will tell you how to format your Word doc to send through the "meatgrinder". It answers any questions I could ever think of, even nifty instructions to create a hyper-linked table of contents, which worked beautifully for me. The hypertext works in only some formats, though.

You'll need the document to send through the formatter, a separate document for the cover, and an idea of what to use for an online description. You can also set up tabs to make your book easier to find.

After submitting your book for publication, it's fun to watch your number in the queue go down. That first night, I sat up late, sipping a Scotch, and watching my number decrease until--TADA--I was published!

The cover gave me pause, but I did figure out an easy way to do it. I had a photo I wanted to use for the cover, but it wasn't the right size and I didn't know how to put words onto it. The cover has to be a jpeg file, so it's easiest (and maybe essential) to start with a photograph. Smashwords, in the Style Guide, can suggest places to acquire photos if you don't have one. They suggest a size of 600 x 900 pixels. Mine is 500 x 700 and works well. But how to do that? Irfanview to the rescue. This is a free download that I have gotten SO much good out of. You open the file you want to use, click Image at the top, then select Resize/Resample. Using Set new size, designate "pixels" as your unit and type in the numbers. I also check "Allow sharpen after Resample" and "Resample (better quality)".

At this point you should maybe save a couple three copies so you can mess up and start over. Just do a Save As.

Then, to add words, stay in Irfanview, and draw a box with the mouse (if it's too big, that's OK because the extra will disappear). Then click on the Edit tab and select Insert Text into Selection. If you have a busy photo, like I do, you can select a background color. You type the text and probably want to center it. There are a lot of fonts to choose from, and you can experiment with them, and with sizes, until you have what you want. When you're fininshed, the rest of the text box is there, but it won't be after you save the file.

The Word doc will produce a bunch of different files:
mobi for Kindle
Epub for most other e-readers
PDF for online reading or for printing
HTML for online reading
Java Script also for online
PBD for Palm Pilot and similar devices
LRF which the old Sony format (I don't think it's used anymore)
RTF for word processors
Plain text also for word processors

After you've produced all of these, you should look at them. The first two are easy, just download and look at them on your computer screen. Also true for PDF. You should download the PC version of Kindle if you don't have the device, just to check it out.

You can download Kindle for PC here.


I think this download will let you read an Epub file.


I ended up using the first 7 only. The last two gave unformatted, hard-to-read text. And yes, I published my book, then found some errors--after I had publicized and started selling it. You should NOT do this. Find the errors, then republish, then start selling.

You may get a notice that there are some errors, too, on your first pass. They should be spelled out so you can find and correct them. I only got one, which I am submitting for review because I don't want to change it. To republish, go to your Dashboard and, under Operations, click on "Upload new version".

Smashwords even provides a downloadable marketing guide, which I am just beginning to peruse.

After I pass the review and qualify for Premium Status, my book will appear on Sony after 2 weeks (Kobo would be the same, but I opted out of this one), Barnes and Noble after 8 weeks, Apple after one week, and Amazon "pending meatgrinder update". At the Dashboard, under Distribution Channel Manager, is where you select who you want to carry you.


When my Premium Status is achieved, I can also apply for an ISBN, required for Sony and Apple. If I just wanted to sell on Amazon, I could do that, too.

My price is now $1.99, but I'll raise it to $2.99 when it reaches Amazon to take advantage of their 70 percent deal. I opted out of Kobo because I've heard they keep lowering the price and messing up the Amazon deal. I'll have to keep an eye on the others to see if they do that, too. Seventy percent is a great deal! An author makes more on a $2.99 sale, keeping 70 percent, than on a $12 dollar book keeping the standard 15 percent ($2 versus $1.80).

If anyone wants a few good short stories, visit A PATCHWORK OF STORIES by yours truly. A sneak preview of two and a half stories if free. My Agatha nominated story is included, but not in the preview.