Electro-Muse: Tools and Tips for the Beginning Independent Author in this Electronic Age

By Pen

Would you like to know how to create a complete book cover (spine and back included) in Word?
Ever tried to convert a Word document to an image? (As in the case of the book cover?)

Would you like to know how to format your books for uploading for MOBI devices? Or Smashwords? What tools would help you with that formatting?

The answers to these questions - and more - are here in Electro-Muse.

For the beginning writer who wants to self-publish, the technical aspects of formatting and preparing files for upload can be daunting if not downright overwhelming. The instructions and tools included here will help smooth the way through that process.

Writing since the age of ten, Pen has forty years of writing experience. She has learned the process of self-publishing through trial and error. And now she is sharing her experience with you.

Filled with tools, writing advice and helpful links Electro-Muse is sure to be a valuable tool in your writing arsenal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen
• Release date: Sep 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310032127

Pen

Pen was bitten by the writing bug at the age of ten. She has been feverishly writing ever since. A native Georgian she lives in the Atlanta area.

Book preview

The publishing industry has undergone drastic changes just in the last ten years. The Internet and the economy are the primary causes for these changes.

Long gone are the days an author’s novel was serialized in a newspaper or magazine publication as were the works of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others.

Going fast are the days of traditional publishing houses leaving authors fewer opportunities for publishing success.

The time of the self-published author is here. And the time fast approaches when everyone and everything will be available via the Internet.

The path to self-publishing is easy yet complex. Access to self-publishing sites is only a click away. Preparation is a little rockier.

There will probably come a day when uploading files for publication is a simple task. For now, proper formatting is complicated and, at times, an arduous undertaking. Not everyone is technically savvy. Word can be a daunting program if you’re not accustomed to using it. MOBI and EPUB are the catch phrases of the day. Manually formatting for them by hand is out of the question for most people.

If you are one of those fortunate enough to be able to pay someone for their technical expertise in order to properly format your books prior to upload, splendid. By all means pay someone and save yourself the headache.

If, however, you are like most writers and on an anorexic budget, you might want to slog through all the necessary steps to prepare your books for publication. If you’re not familiar with the technology, it won’t be easy. It will be frustrating and time-consuming. You will want to pull out your hair, gnash your teeth and scream. Do so. You’ll feel better.

Within these pages are instructions and tips for preparing files for publication, whether it is for print or electronic publication. Most everything in here is from my personal experience: lessons I’ve learned the hard way. I present them to you, dear reader and writer, in an effort to help soften your path to publication. Experience works best when it benefits others.

Don’t allow yourself to be daunted by the technical aspects of getting your work out there. My own hesitation has delayed the publication of my own work for far too long. As you will find in the last chapter of this book – Dying to Be a Writer? – I delayed until it was almost too late. Don’t make that mistake.

The truth of the matter is that once you have mastered the steps necessary to become an Independent Author, once you comprehend what goes into self-publishing your book, you won’t soon forget.

Maybe someday someone else will benefit from your experience.

The Nuts and Bolts of Self-Publishing

Publishing in the Electronic Age

I have been following the publishing industry since the age of twelve. Subscribed to Writer’s Digest Magazine with my first babysitting pay and purchased the Writer’s Digest Market book annually.

Until, that is, I noticed a new trend.

For the last fifteen or so years, the publishing industry has undergone remarkable changes: They are going out of business on an almost daily basis.

It is, in part, due to the economy. Printing is a very expensive endeavor. I researched it in the 90s with the intention of printing my own books and magazines. The cost was quite staggering then, I can’t imagine what it is now.

But the decline in the number of publishing houses to which an author can appeal is also due in part to the advent of the Internet. Years in the making it didn’t take a minute for this little trinket to go viral.

And it has changed everything.

Who wants to carry a bulky book, magazine or newspaper when they can get what they want via electronic devices?

So, yes, a lot of publishing houses closed their doors.

This heats up the competition for and between writers trying to get published. (Yeah, like it wasn’t hard enough already).

No one wants to represent or publish a book that isn’t a sure-fire thing. Gone are the days when an agent or publisher took a chance on new talent. With sky-high printing costs, publishing houses want to be assured they will recoup what they invest.

This is understandable, but it hinders many talented writers from getting published.

So what is a writer to do?

Ironically, the very party guilty of putting publishers out of business is also an advantage for many writers looking to publish her or his work.

Writers can locate all types of ways to self-publish on the Internet. I use Createspace (www.createspace.com ). It is a subsidiary of Amazon.com and your book is immediately available through that outlet.

Which is another sad side effect of the Internet: bookstores are going out of business as well.

Unfortunately – or fortunately, I suppose, depending upon your viewpoint – we are spiraling into an all-electronic age. I have finally reached a point of acceptance with this. There is no stopping it at this point. Trying to stop it would be akin to standing in front of a fast-moving train.

I’ve seen what a train does to a penny laid upon the tracks. I’m not going to be the Penny trying to stand there.

Be that as it may, it is coming/already here.

Embrace it and become one with it. Life’s just easier that way.

Self-Publishing: Wave of the Future

My favorite argument for self-publishing is the money.

Before the Internet, publishers got 85% off the cost of each book sale. The author scored 15%.

Let’s say your book costs $5.99. Your cut is approximately 89¢ per book sold.

Now let’s say you have an agent who gets 20% of your take. That means that he or she gets 18¢ of each of the 89¢ you get. Your cut then becomes 71¢ per book.

Now that’s not too bad. But let’s consider what the publisher used to do for their 85%.

Back in the day, publishing houses were full service. Of course, they got copies of your book on bookshelves. Printing costs are exorbitant, so most of the 85% went to those costs.

However, publishers also had editors and graphic designers on staff to design the jacket and proofread and edit your work. Some of them probably still do, although from reading a few recently published books I find it questionable.

But publishers also did marketing, publicizing, and advertising. They set up book reviews and book signings. They promoted your book because they were also promoting themselves. They had other titles, maybe even some similar to your own, and if the reading public liked yours there were other books they could choose from to purchase.

Publishing houses still get 85% of each book sale. The difference now is that the majority of them expect the author to have a marketing and promotion plan, to set up his or her own book signings and book reviews: The author has to do the legwork publishers used to do.

This may seem fair to some, but if you’re doing all that marketing and promoting, when do you have time to work on your next novel? Not to mention that many authors don’t have the skills or background to accomplish these tasks (myself among them).

Self-publishing (also referred to as Print on Demand) is something of a double-edged sword: if you’re going to be doing all the legwork yourself, why not do it all yourself? And give yourself a larger cut in the process. It still means you have to do all the legwork, but at least you get 100% of the profit. It also means you are solely responsible for preparing your book for publication whether it is for print or electronic distribution.

Here’s how most of the self-publishers online work: there is a base price for each book depending upon number of pages and color included in the interior. When you publish the book, you mark up the sale price above this base price according to how much profit you wish to make.

I strongly caution everyone to not get carried away with this. Sure you can make a $10 profit on each sale provided you have written something that is very specialized, like car repair or something of that nature. But