Why I Write

I haven't done anything with this blog in over a year, mostly because I didn't feel I had anything worth blogging about.  My skill at promotion is sorely lacking,   I've sold a few copies of Soul Searching, but its nothing to, as they say, "write home about."  That begs the question, "Why do I write?

Yeah, there is the fantasy.  There is the dream of becoming popular, famous, and yes, rich.  In reality, I know that none of that is likely.  Yet I still want to continue writing.  I want to write to tell my stories.  If anyone WANTS to read them, great, if not, I'll continue writing for ME.

I've also noticed that my blogging ability is also lacking.  Perhaps not my skill, but rather my determination.  So many things preempt my blog.  I heard a country song awhile back, about people not chasing their dreams because "life happened."  Every day life, family, earning a living, and assorted obligations, tend to take priority. 
I attended a writing workshop at our community college last week.  It was hosted by a local author.  I was "the old guy in the room," surrounded by young college students.  When it was over, I chatted with one of these young people.  Jon was working on his first novel.  He felt "driven" to tell his story.  It was as if it was fighting its way out of his brain.  But he was struggling.
I began to think about this blog to not only tell the story of my Kindle adventures, but the resources I have found.  Perhaps they might be of some help to people like Jon.  Even my failures could be of value, helping other avoid the mistakes I have made.
I decided I need to write something on this blog at least once per week.  When it comes to writing about writing, there is no shortage of subject matter.  So lets see what happens.

Stay tuned for new about my second novel Apocalypse Road, coming soon to a Kindle near you.

It's Done

It’s done.  My novel is uploaded.  All 72,450 words, cover art, description, keywords… the whole shebang.    Distribution… set.  Royalty options… set.  Price… set.   I clicked “Save and Publish” at about 9:45 last evening.

The status was given as:  Now in Review and should be available within 72 hours.  

Within a few minutes the status changed to: Now Publishing. Again there was the promise of 72 hour availability.  I was loving that fact that at that time I still didn’t have a product link so there was nothing more I could do.  A procrastinator’s dream.

Some time around 11 pm it went live.  I had a link and I could see it as Kindle Shoppers see it.  I immediately saw that I would have to edit my html in the description.  I added a line break unbeknownst to me that Kindle would add one as well underneath my headline.  It really blows the flow.  But that’s not a problem, I needed to go back in and register for KDP Select as well, but I don’t want to do that until the ad looks just right.

It’s was also available to the Kindle search at that time.  I typed in Soul Searching and it comes in third with several more underneath it.  I’ll have to play with keywords later and see how it ranks.

At around 11:15 I noticed the status was: Live – Updates Publishing.  But I couldn’t get in to edit that pesky html error.

It was a little past midnight, and I still couldn’t edit anything.  That was probably a good thing as it might have inspired me to stay up later.

When I woke up this morning, it was all there and available for editing.  It only took a few moments to make my corrections to the html coding in the description and enroll in KDP Select, then a few minute for the changes to appear on the page.  I’m in business.

So here it is on Kindle; my first novel. Soul Searching.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012JO8E98?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

So I guess my next step will be promotion.  But I kind of want to see how many, if any, people stumble across it in the next day or so.  Maybe that is procrastination, but I'm curious to see if anyone  will see it among the millions of other ebooks on Kindle.

Today I will be studying the ins and outs of KDP Select. 

Fear

At the end of the last post I mentioned that things were getting a little frightening.  I don't know about other first time Kindle publishers, but I would hazard a guess that many experience this angst.  Very few outside my immediate family, my actual household, and a few close friends know this is happening.  To those who know, I'm guarded.  "Maybe I can sell a few copies," I say, tipping my head from side to side with a forced smile. 

Inwardly is a different story.  I wonder if I'll hit pay dirt.  Maybe I'll be an overnight success.  Fame and fortune will be mine.  My family will never again be in want of anything.  I don't even care if its not overnight; if it takes a month that will be fine. 

But going deeper is a more dispiriting thought.  What if NOBODY wants to read it?  As Marty McFly said in Back to the Future: "What if they say 'Get outta here kid, you're no good.'?"  It's a scary feeling.

It's getting scarier because there are few things between me and hitting that "Publish" button.  The time is drawing near.  It might even be tonight.  In the winter, I drink coffee morning noon and night with a few colas in between.  In the summer, I tend to drink coffee only in the morning, and colas until bedtime.  Tonight, I'm thinking coffee.  Its a "project drink."  Something you drink as you work to keep your edge sharp.  Or perhaps beer would be in order.

Why Kindle?

So why did I decide to put my novel on Kindle?  I had a little late night rant a little while back after researching "conventional publishing," and had made the decision to go with an ebook.  This should explain it.


So why am I here working on putting my novels on Kindle?  Why not go the conventional route and have my books published for real?  Well, in my opinion, online publishing IS real.

I have doubt that digital media will ever take the place of print completely, at least not in my lifetime.   A physical print volume offers comfort to many.  But the convenience of digital cannot be denied.  It is the ultimate in instant gratification for readers.  While there is the warmth of a visit to the local book store, more and more people’s lives are just too busy for that.  Of course there is Amazon, but if there is a book you really want, you want it NOW, not three or four days from now.  E-books can be yours in seconds.

Then there is another reason.  The agent search process is INSANE.  In the old days, an aspiring author typed up a manuscript and submitted it to a publisher for consideration.  Usually, the manuscript was returned with a note saying “Don’t call us we’ll call you.”  But now it’s different.  Most publishers will ONLY accept submissions from literary agents. 

So how do you get a literary agent?  You don’t just find one in the Yellow Pages and say “I want to hire you to be my agent.”  Any agent that wants money up front should be avoided.  Agents work on a percentage.  It gives them incentive to sell your book and get the best possible deal.  But the question remains, how DO you get an agent.

You send out a letter called a query.  It’s one page and HIGHLY structured.  First, you tell them WHY you chose them.  You’re supposed to tell them that you chose them because they represented a similar book for another author.  What?  I have to go out and find books similar to mine?  THEN find out who represented the author?  Are you CRAZY?  I spent 2 years working on an original novel and now I’m supposed to go out and find books that are JUST LIKE IT???  Not just one, but potentially DOZENS.  I have a job.  I don’t have time to read that many books and I sure don’t have time to research dozens of books that ARE “just like mine.

But it gets better.  The rest of the query is a doozy.  The next paragraph should be a run on sentence called “The Hook.” The hook should describe your ENTIRE book enough to garb the agent’s interest.  It’s tough but doable.  I still have a problem with run on sentences though.  I had a lot of them in my rough draft.  And I went through it over and over to get rid of them, breaking them up into two or sometimes three sentences.

The next paragraph is a little easier.  It’s a whole paragraph describing your book: a normal one without run on sentences.

Lastly, you describe it in a little more detail in TWO whole paragraphs.

A lot of emphasis is put on the query letter.  There are web pages devoted to how to write query letters.  One in particular, http://www.agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx, is considered to be the standard.  It even includes examples of queries from published novels.   And since the query is so important, there are forums that exist for people to submit their queries for critiques. 

Boy do you get critiques.  No matter what you write, one of the first comments will direct you to the above website, because you obviously don’t know how to write a query letter.  Then people come in and pick it apart.  Then it dawns on you.  99% of the people commenting have never sold a book.  It’s a classic case of the blind leading the blind.  Why am I here?  ARRRG!!!!

On top of all that, your letter, as a first time author is going to end up on what’s called a “slush pile.”  That’s where all of the unsolicited first time authors go.  The main agent (or agents) at the firm likely will not read them.  A lower level assistant may or may not read it immediately, if at all.  It may be tossed aside because frankly, it’s terrible.  Or it may not be exactly what they are looking for at this time.  Hmmm.  Maybe they already have a similar author writing similar materials?  Is THAT a possibility?  Or you might have the next best seller but the assistant was having a bad day and just didn’t see your brilliance.

In common parlance, it’s a crap shoot.  It’s not unheard of for an author to have to make 100 submissions before they are published.  I’m 55 years old!  I don’t have THAT kind of time. LOL

Louis L’Amour received 200 rejections before getting published.

140 rejections for Chicken Soup for the Soul

Margaret Mitchell got 38 rejections for Gone with the Wind.

Zane Grey was told he had no business being a writer, and even Dr Seuss was informed his work would never sell.

The odds of finding an agent are far less than the odds of going crazy trying to find an agent.  Kindle became a viable option, if for no other reason than my mental health.

Going to Do It!

OK, you finished your novel.  YAY!!!  After 4 years, it’s done.  Endless hours, often late into the night, you toiled to get it just right.  They say once you finish your story you should polish it and polish it, then polish it some more.  You’ve polished it so long that some of the “i”s are missing their dots.

That sound like you?  It sounds like me to a tee.  I decided I can’t be alone out there in this feeling, so I decided to blog about the trials and tribulations of getting my books on Kindle.  I tried the conventional print method, but I could never get past the agent search.  After only a handful of query letters I gave up.  That could be a blog entry all of its own, and it will be at some point.

So in this series I am going to talk about the process and the amusement and anguish along the way.  Every once in awhile, something will work easily, and I’ll have cause to celebrate.  I don’t think that will include the cover art though.  Even though it’s not print, it’s been suggested that a good cover still matters.  I tend to agree with that as we are a visual society.  I suspect that on social media, images get shared more than plain links, and are probably more likely to get clicks as well.

I have all the tools, or know where to get them either cheap or free.  I have my concepts visualized in my head.  And I roughly know the process for Kindle.  I take my version upload it, and let Kindle do the conversion  Easy.  But if I remember correctly from my previous research, it’s a good idea to make sure in the process none of the desired formatting was lost. They recommend html, and since I have a familiarity with it, that's what I'll use.  But I will still create my final final final manuscript in document form.

I have three completed manuscripts, and have decided that the first will be my romance novel entitled Soul Searching.  It happens to be my wife's favorite, and I have an idea for cover art.  In the coming evenings, she will be doing the final read through, looking for any typos we might have missed in the last three final edits, and any formatting errors that might have cropped up from using a backup copy in PDF format.  I'll tell you about THAT next time.

So stay tuned for more blogs, coming soon.