Book writing, publishing, promoting sources

Signing books in Newtown

In preparation for my talk at the library in Newtown, I created the following as a handout for the attendees, sites that can be useful in writing, publishing, and promoting your book:

www.nanowrimo.org This is NaNoWriMo’s home page. Register, which is free, and you have access to a wealth of writing tips, research help (under Forums), and a place to record your words every day to check your progress during November.

www.createspace.com Amazon’s self-publishing subsidiary. Register, and the site walks you through the process of registering your book, uploading the text and cover, and setting a price (all free). It offers extended distribution for a price, and has a link to the Kindle site to create a Kindle version.

www.smashwords.com I haven't used it, but it's a popular way to publish ebooks at no charge. The site offers a ton of info and there's a blog post you might look at if you're considering an ebook. 

http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/ This is a list of sites and individuals who review self-published books. To be on the list, reviewers have to be actively posting reviews, review ebooks, not charge for reviews, not be affiliated to a publisher, have submission guidelines for an Indie author to submit an ebook, and put a link back to TheIndieView on their site. Authors have to vet each site to be sure that (a) it is appropriate for their book’s genre and (b) their submissions follow the site's guide.

  

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/diy/instructions/index.html Publishers Weekly Select costs $149 to buy a brief listing in this monthly supplement. With the listing, you can send two copies of your book, which PW may or may not review, and, if reviewed, may not be positive. A Kirkus Indie Review is $425, but you can keep it private if you don’t like it.

Type “self-publish” into a Google search box and you’ll have 2,080,000 results in less than a second. There are success stories and advice, and while no one knows what will sell, you can increase the odds of sales success by (1) writing the best book you know how; ideally a book you yourself would like to read; (2) hiring a professional editor to edit the book; this costs money but everyone needs an editor; (3) hiring a professional cover and book designer; again, this costs money; (4) following the publisher’s requirements; this can be free; and (5) doing everything you can think of to reach readers.