Too good to be true?

So, in the search to get my book into as many hands as possible, I have stumbled upon a service called booktango.

Note the beta. This is definitely a work in progress and isn't as polished as smashwords, although the rates are definitely attractive (0% cut for sales on booktango, 10% for external retailers)! The main thing I can see that is missing is a slightly clunky search facility for books listed on their site, a missing sales reporting facility and an overly manual process for submitting your novel.

The positive to this service is that it distributes to a tonne of electronic retailers (the list is here). Colour me impressed. Especially for barnes & noble, which doesn't allow non-US residents to submit their novel via their pubit website.

Although,
it has been about two weeks since I've submitted my book and it is still in the process of being validated / approved / verified / distributed, rather than 'auto-vetted' in comparison to smashwords. All in all, I'm happy to allow a little down time between publications just as long as more revenue comes my way and my book is distributed to as many possible readers as possible. My experience with their representatives have been positive and as soon as it becomes a little more automated, it will be a must use for every independent writer.

If anyone has had any prior experience with this service, or a better one, leave a comment in the post. It's good to know what is out there!

Zed is alive!

I thought writing was simple - I breezed easily through writing a novel-length story - why do they make it out to be difficult? No writer's blocks, no writing into corners, no 'what do I do now' moments. Writing is a doddle - or so I thought.

Well, the devil is in the details. Writing is easy, editing your novel is hard. I think I spent about as much time editing it as I did writing it. It was harrowing, although it could simply be a reflection of my infancy within the literary world. I learned far more about the rules of grammar, punctuation and 'writing stuff good' than I did from twelve years of schooling. Is it an indictment of the education system that I was subjected to? I should damn well  hope so ... but I digress.

Oh, and by the way, I released my first novel today!

Zed is not your typical zombie. He is cursed with the affliction of thought ... although he tries to make the best of a bad situation. The goals for his unrest are simple: to improve his stride, to taste a lightly-seared pork loin once again and avoid Activists at all costs. 
His life was predictable, controlled and good until chaos crashed the party. In just one day, his world is destroyed and his ability to survive is tested. Would he be able to get through this in one piece? And would he somehow be able to survive the unstoppable force that goes by the name of Chase?

Here's the link to smashwords - you can read the first two chapters for free and it's only $2.99 to own a DRM-free copy of my novel in most e-book formats. Nice. Here's the link to Amazon - I'm Kindle-official!

I think I'm going to take a few seconds to savour the moment before I plough into my next project. It might not necessarily be zombie-related, but I have a few ideas that should make it a must-read, even if I do say so myself.

Publishing like a champ

In preparation for the 'imminent release' of my first novel, I thought I'd investigate what I can do to get the most exposure when I publish my book into the ether. I think, outside of writing something which people actually want to read (very important), the rest relies on your target audience being aware your latest 'masterpiece'. There is no point writing a book like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, if the only people that read it are pot smokers who think it's something to do while high.

The main thing for getting the word out is, apparently, blogging (ahem), enabling the prospective customer a chance to read a portion of it, distributing to as many eBook publications as possible and getting influential book sites to review your novel.

Blogs

The blog is a good medium - you can discuss your characters, you can paste excerpts to whet their appetite. You can do a lot to promote your book, but only as long as you have a large-ish reader base.

eBook Publications

I think, outside of the well-known ones, like kindle, nook, iTunes, there is another which seems to be pretty good.

Smash Words

The first thing, which is pretty compelling, is that 85% of the revenue goes straight to you - and that ain't shabby. The second is that it supports all the major eBook readers, as well as PDF's and even plain text. The third is that you can allow your reader to read a good portion of the novel before they even purchase it - that makes things a lot easier so you know what you're getting when you plonk down your hard-earned cash. Coincidently, the majority of the story was written over the course of November, which happens to be the month of NaNoWriMo.

Book review sites

Rather than listing each one, I'll give you a link to a list of book review sites:

100 best blogs for book reviews

For popular blogs by authors, I think this is pretty compelling:

Top 50 blogs by authors

References and further reading:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Amanda Hocking: How to do what I do

Bare bones guide: How to launch a new ebook for sale

The one major thing that I missed was to send out ARC's (Advanced Review Copies) and to drum up some excitement leading up to the release of my novel (shame on me). Well, lesson learned. So don't forget that no one will care if you've written the next Harry Potter if there is no lead up. Start early and drum up interest before the book is released.