Traditional Publishing Vs Self-Publishing Discussion With Cynthia Sax

by Cynthia Sax

I started my SciFi romance writing career with a large digital first publisher. Self-publishing was an option at the time but not the best choice for me.

Why?

Because I didn’t know anything about covers, writing blurbs, what SciFi romance readers are looking for (even though I was a SciFi romance reader myself), etc. I didn’t have a readership base, a street team, relationships with reviewers or bloggers.

My publisher paired me with an editor who specialized in SciFi romance. She not only taught me about reader expectations, about how to thread in the science and the world building, but she also taught me how to write blurbs, that all important back cover copy that drives sales.

My first release occurred before Amazon took over the world. My publisher still had a large number of readers buying directly from the website. Many of the SciFi romance readers bought EVERY release in the genre, including mine. I wasn’t starting from zero readers.

My publisher had established relationships with reviewers. I got reviews! Woot! And yes, many of those reviewers review my books today.

Everything was groovy for a while. Then this publisher began having financial difficulties. My beloved editor and many of the staff were let go. Royalty payments were sent later and later.

I was very lucky. My fourth SciFi romance series ended right before the publisher’s issues came to light. But it scared me. I don’t ever want to leave a series unfinished.

I wrote Releasing Rage, my cyborg SciFi romance, without knowing where I’d publish it. It is a dark, raw, emotional story. When I pitched it to my agent, she told me she couldn’t sell it.

A part of me was relieved. I wanted total control of this series. I wanted to decide how many stories I’d write in it (traditional publishers usually decide this and this decision is almost always based on the previous release’s sales). I didn’t want anyone to smooth the edges off this story.

I now had the contacts to self-publish. I knew a great cover artist, a great freelance editor, a great formatter. I also had the experience. I had written over 80 blurbs. I had a street team, the reviewer contacts, a base of readers.

Most importantly, I had the confidence. I didn’t need an editor to tell me the story was great (though she did). I knew it in my bones. I knew if I didn’t publish this story, I’d regret it.

I love self-publishing. Having control over my work is wonderful. So is the ability to see my daily sales, instead of waiting three months or more for a grouped unit and dollar amount. I can run a promotion and see immediately if it is working or not. Blurbs can be tweaked after they’ve gone live. I can insert my own key words and tags.

Would I work with a traditional publisher again? If they offered me something I couldn’t provide for myself, absolutely. Until then, I’m happy to be self-publishing.

***

Blurb

Releasing Rage
Half Man. Half Machine. All Hers.

Rage, the Humanoid Alliance's most primitive cyborg, has two goals--kill all of the humans on his battle station and escape to the Homeland. The warrior has seen the darkness in others and in himself. He believes that's all he's been programmed to experience.

Until he meets Joan.

Joan, the battle station's first female engineer, has one goal--survive long enough to help the big sexy cyborg plotting to kill her. Rage might not trust her but he wants her. She sees the passion in his eyes, the caring in his battle-worn hands, the gruff emotion in his voice.

When Joan survives the unthinkable, Rage's priorities are tested. Is there enough room in this cyborg's heart for both love and revenge?

Buy Now:
On Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Releasing-Rage-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZOL1DRO

On Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZOL1DRO/

On ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-releasingrage-1850041-340.html

On B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/releasing-rage-cynthia-sax/1122455646


　

Bio

About Cynthia Sax

USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes contemporary, SciFi and paranormal erotic romances. Her stories have been featured in Star Magazine, Real Time With Bill Maher, and numerous best of erotic romance top ten lists.
Sign up for her dirty-joke-filled release day newsletter and visit her on the web at www.CynthiaSax.com

Website: CynthiaSax.com

Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/

Facebook: facebook.com/cynthia.sax

Twitter: @CynthiaSax

Blog: TasteOfCyn.com


Disclaimer: All views expressed in this post are the views of the author and not the views of the SFR Brigade.
　

Five Things I've Learned Going Indie #publishing

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. On the 1st of May, 2015, my main publisher closed, leaving my five titles homeless. This was the third publisher I'd lost in just over a year, and I really didn't want to go through it again. 

So I decided the time was right to go fully self published (although I still have one title with a publisher). I've been self publishing short stories for as long as I've been with small presses, and had just committed to publishing my first full length novel - Keir - which had been my debut but reverted to me early 2014 after losing that publisher too (no, I'm not a jinx!). Only time and the costs of cover art and editing had held me back from self publishing more.

My former publisher went out of his way to make the closure as painless as possible by allowing us to use the edited version of our books (the norm is that you get the rights back to your unedited MS and often with a clause that you can't use the edits provided by the publisher). We were also given the option to buy modified versions of our book covers (ie logos removed) at a much reduced cost compared to having to buy totally new covers. As it happened, I took the opportunity to change two of my covers and bought two others from the publisher. 

Which left me the task of minor edits to remove the publisher's info front and back of book and adding new info, reformatting and uploading all my books to a host of retailers, and the new artwork. I'm not going to go through all that process, but I will share five keys things I learned while doing it to save you some trouble. 

1. Previous reviews, especially Amazon. One thing that disheartened me was losing the precious few reviews I'd had, but someone told me these transfer over to the new edition. Well, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. There's something you can do about it though (but not for iTunes. Once those are gone, they're gone). If after republishing on Amazon they don't automatically transfer over, you can email Amazon and ask for them to be linked (include titles, new ASINs and your author name for good measure). In the case of my SciFi romance Keir - which had been off Amazon for nearly eighteen months AND had a name change - they requested the old ASIN number for the original release in order to find those reviews (if you don't have it, check out the 'other editions' of your book on Goodreads - it should be listed there). Within a few hours even those reviews were back (though Amazon do say allow five days). Surprisingly, B&N automatically linked all my old reviews to all my titles without any intervention from me, even the one that had had a title change! You can also get ebooks linked to the print books the same way.

2. Don't upload on a Friday. The book I uploaded on a Friday at D2D and Kobo still wasn't live by Monday, even though the books I uploaded Monday were live by Tuesday. I also had copyright issues with one of my titles, possibly because my publisher's print edition was still live (and I only suspect that because similar things happened to my fellow ex-Breathless authors). It was rejected twice with a request to confirm my rights and the dire threat of needing to do it within five days or it would be deleted. Eep! I emailed KDP several times, but didn't get a reply until the Monday. Fortunately by then a third attempt to upload the contested book resulted in it publishing (if this system is meant to prevent piracy, it's extremely flawed since simple persistence got the book up).

3. Have all your info to hand (blurb, cover, tags, categories, previous publication dates if applicable, pricing, etc), whatever digital formats you need, the Goodreads page open, and the dashboard for each retailer open. This means you can just copy and paste, or click and go pretty quickly. If you don't have your own ISBNs, do NOT use the free one issued by Smashwords or any other retailer. Those are specific to YOUR book on THAT retailer. For All Romance eBooks, they have their own 13 digit number system to use in place of an ISBN but you need to email them.

4. Do all your formatting and preparation beforehand. Depending on if you use software to prepare and/or convert your MS (like Scrivener or Calibre, which many authors swear by) or if like me, you just work with Word and use online conversion programs (or Word to make my pdf), be sure to have all versions ready to go. If you're new to the process and using Word, be sure to download and read the free Smashwords Style Guide. It looks long and complicated, but it takes you through step by step and can save you a lot of trouble.

5. Be strong! While not without its issues, hiccups and glitches, and being time consuming even when things run smooth, at the end of the day you have full creative control of your work, the option to play with pricing, categories and tags, and almost instantaneous sales data to show you if something is working particularly well. You can also instantly update your work, change around your back matter with things like traceable smart URLs to see what readers prefer to click, and keeping any sales links inside the book up to date. It's worth it!

Do you have any tips to share on the process?

Bio:

After spending twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay is now a stay-at-home mum who writes scifi and the supernatural. Somewhere along the way a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends the odd free moment playing guitar very badly, punishing herself with freestyle street dance, and studying the Dark Side of the Force. Although happily settled in the historical town of Colchester in the UK with her husband of 22 years and three little monsters, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

Pippa Jay is a dedicated member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade and Broad Universe, blogging at Spacefreighters Lounge, Adventures in Scifi, and Romancing the Genres. Her works include YA and adult stories crossing a multitude of subgenres from scifi to the paranormal, often with romance, and she’s one of eight authors included in a science fiction romance anthology—Tales from the SFR Brigade. She’s also a double SFR Galaxy Award winner, been a finalist in the Heart of Denver RWA Aspen Gold Contest (3^rd place), the EPIC eBook awards, and the GCC RWA Silken Sands Star Awards (2^nd place).

You can stalk her at her website, or at her blog, but without doubt her favorite place to hang around and chat is on Twitter as @pippajaygreen.

Website – http://www.pippajay.co.uk

Blogs –

Adventures in Scifi - http://www.pippajay.blogspot.co.uk

Spacefreighters Lounge - http://www.spacefreighters.blogspot.com

Romancing the Genres - http://www.romancingthegenres.blogspot.co.uk/

SFR Brigade - http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/pippajaygreen

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5054558.Pippa_Jay

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pippa-Jay-Adventures-in-Scifi/114058821953752

Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/pippajaygreen/

Google+ - https://plus.google.com/u/0/101080630877126516448/posts

Wattpad - http://www.wattpad.com/user/PippaJay

Amazon page - http://author.to/PippaJay

All Romance eBooks - http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Pippa+Jay

Newsletter - http://eepurl.com/IKX7b

A SciFi Romance Novella
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon | All Romance eBooks
B&N | Kobo | iTunes | Scribd
Smashwords | Google Play

Blurb:

She can kill with a kiss. But can assassin Tyree also heal one man’s grief, and bring peace to a galaxy threatened by war?

For Tyree of the Su, being an assassin isn’t simply something she was trained for. It’s the sole reason for her existence. A genetically enhanced clone—one of many in Refuge—she’s about to learn her secluded lifestyle, and that of all her kind, is under threat by a race capable of neutralizing their special talents to leave them defenseless.

For Zander D’joren, being a diplomat has not only cost him his appearance, but also the love of his life. Scarred, grieving, he must nonetheless continue in his role as co-delegate to the fearsome Tier-vane or risk a conflict that could only end one way.

Now both of them need to keep each other alive and maintain a perilous deception long enough to renegotiate the treaty with the Tier-vane, or throw their people into a war that could wipe out Terrans and Inc-Su alike. But there’s more at stake than humanity, whether true or modified. Can the love growing between them save them both? Or merely hasten their destruction?

Pinterest and Cover Art

Releasing September 12th!

I've been involved in various writer's groups for almost eight years now. When Pinterest debuted there was a lot of chatter about how authors can use it to reach readers. I'm still not sure reaching new readers via Pinterest is a valid strategy for an author, but I have found uses for it.

Originally I wrote historical romance, and I've always had a thing for 19th century clothing. I have nine boards of historical fashion, all but one of them for the 19th century.

When I started writing SFR in 2012 I knew I was creating a world I needed visuals for. Once I knew what Lok'ma looked like I spent a couple hours hunting through Google Images and various photo sites looking for landscape shots that matched my vision of the planet.

As Pinterest evolved and I watched more of my writing friends sign their first contracts, those who had jumped on Pinterest had an advantage in one important area. Cover art. They had boards to go with their manuscripts so the art department could see what the writer sees.

Last month it was my turn to do cover art. I found a graphic artist I like and started talking with her about what I wanted my cover to be. It's inspired by a pre-made she had on her site that I liked the composition of. I sent her the link to the My Name Is A'yen Pinterest board so she'd know how I envision the planet the story takes place on. And you know what?

SHE NAILED IT! Pinterest helped give me the cover of my dreams.

Each book in A'yen's Legacy has a Pinterest board, with how I see the characters, important items and places, and the marking patterns that are a crucial part of the experience. You can follow me if you like.

Will I ever find new readers using Pinterest? Don't know. Don't care. All I care about is I got the cover of my dreams out of it.

Rachel Leigh Smith is a romance writer, a geek, and a Southern belle. She lives in Louisiana with a half-crazed calico named Zoe. When not adding words to an SFR novel she’s reading paranormal romance or crafting while watching some type of SF on TV. Her debut novel, My Name Is A'yen, will be out in September. She also blogs sporadically at www.rachelleighsmith.com and hangs out on Facebook.

My Name Is A'yen: Releasing September 12, 2014.

They've taken everything from him. Except his name.

The Loks Mé have been slaves for so long, freedom is a distant myth A'yen Mesu no longer believes. A year in holding, because of his master's murder, has sucked the life from him.

Archaeologist Farran Hart buys him to protect her on an expedition to the Rim, the last unexplored quadrant. Farran believes the Loks Mé once lived on the Rim and she is determined to prove it. And win A'yen's trust. But she's a breeder's daughter and can't be trusted.

Hidden rooms, information caches and messages from a long-dead king change A'yen's mind about her importance. When she's threatened he offers himself in exchange, and lands on the Association's radar. The truth must be told. Even if it costs him his life. 

How I Fell Into Self Publishing or Blame It On The Titanic

I didn't actually set out to self publish. I had sold my first novella to Carina Press - a paranormal romance set in ancient Egypt - and was all caught up in the work of editing, learning the ropes of promo and getting better at navigating social media in late 2011, when I realized that 2012 was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. This become relevant because I had a completed science fiction adventure novel with romantic elements, which I'd set aside when Carina bought the Egyptian novella. And the book, WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, was loosely based on Titanic, but set in the far future, in outer space.

Uh oh, sounds like a book that an author would definitely want to have out there in the world for Readers to discover during the 100th anniversary hoopla, doesn't it? Because the 101st anniversary of anything just doesn't command as much attention. At this point it was December 2011. There was literally no time  to submit the manuscript to anyone, not even Carina, much less to go through a publisher's editing and release process. So, self publishing is where I went!

I commissioned a cover from the wonderful Fiona Jayde, I had the book edited during January, formatted in late February and released in March of 2012. I put together my own small blog tour, did promo where I could, wrote LOTS of blogs about all aspects of Titanic...had terrific encouragement from Heather Massey at The Galaxy Express in particular, and along the way I discovered I really loved self publishing. I'm kind of a control freak by nature, I write fast and my Muse likes to pick and choose what stories to tell.

Don't get me wrong, I love Carina and they've been excellent to work with...but it's very satisfying to choose your own cover art and to get new books out on your schedule, rather than on the publisher's schedule.

PROs of self publishing in my opinion:

• Total control of the book, from cover to edits to distribution
• Ability to publish as often as I have a high quality product ready to offer the Readers. I'd hoped to get four books out this year (counting my second Carina book), only got three plus an audiobook of WRECK. I do have a day job. I learned a lot this year, about self publishing in general and about managing my "schedule of releases". Going to try for four new books released in 2014.
• Advice and guidance from a wonderful community of other self published and/or hybrid authors. If you're even thinking of dipping a toe into self publishing, I recommend joining the Yahoo group established and moderated by Marie Force  - here's the link http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/selfpublish/info . She and many other authors share advice and information generously. I've learned SO much from the group...
• Ability to write whatever story you want to tell (although you might not draw a large number of readers if no one else wanted to read the particular tale you've penned) and see it published.

CONS:

• It's a business. That works for me because I have a degree in business, plus years of experience in contracts, and all the many details of being your own publisher don't daunt me. But it is very different than having a publisher handling all the tracking, the copyrights, the ISBN's, formatting, uploading, pricing, Netgalley, pirates, whathaveyou. Some people love doing it all themselves, others not so much. The business deducts from your writing time...
• I think there's a benefit to being part of a publisher's group of authors, especially if they cross promote each other or if the publisher does visible promo, or is well known. But that being said, you can find your own community in self publishing, as with the wonderful SFR Brigade we have here...

I'm sure others can add pros and cons to this list but those are at the top of my mind. I self published ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE, which also became an Amazon Best Seller in SFR, and the most recent paranormal, DANCER OF THE NILE. For now I'm firmly entrenched in the self publishing world and loving it. Never say never, I wouldn't mind being more of a hybrid author, but right now I'm concentrating on my own little "publishing empire" (don't I wish it was an empire LOL, more of a tenacious colony at the moment).

You can find me: Blog  @vscotttheauthor   Facebook

I'm happy to try to answer any questions about my experiences in self publishing and I'll check back on the comments after the day job!

The Author Strikes Back

Victorine Lieske: An Amazing Self-Published Success Story

This is an exciting time in the publishing industry when authors can literally take their careers into their own hands. Today I'm interviewing one of the biggest success stories in self-publishing, Victorine Lieske, to ask about her experiences, tips and secrets. Her novel, Not What She Seems, has sold over 70,000 copies and just hit the NY Times Bestsellers list at the end of February. Recently, in a complete twist on the usual professional journey, New York agents are now querying her asking to represent her work.

Thinking this might be something other writers would like to know more about, I asked Vicki if she'd be willing to do an interview for SFR Brigade, and she graciously agreed.

First of all, Vicki, I just want to clarify for the Brigade that Not What She Seems is not a SFR but a contemporary romantic suspense. Is this your first novel? Can you tell us a little about the plot?

Yes, this is my first novel. It's about a billionaire from NY who falls for a woman on the run, and when he uncovers her past he puts his own life in danger. There's a murder mystery, a little romance although it's totally clean, and some suspense.

Please give us some of the details about your amazing journey. Did you try the traditional publishing route? When and why did you decide to self-publish and how long did it take you to reach that decision?

After I had edited and reworked the book to the point where I felt it was done, I did send out a few query letters to agents. However, I knew the wait was long, the prospects slim, and the advances for a first novel weren't that great. So when I got my first rejection letter I was actually glad. I had decided that I didn't really want to be traditionally published. My novel then sat around on my hard drive for about a year when I stumbled upon Joe Konrath's blog. He was reporting great sales from his ebooks on the Kindle. I checked into it, and it turned out I could sell my book on the Kindle for free! I was astonished.

Is it difficult to self-publish a novel? What are the steps? Where did you learn about how to accomplish this? How did you go about getting self-published? Who created the cover, etc?

It's not very difficult to self-publish an ebook. First you sign up on the Amazon KDP website. (You can also do this on the Pubit website for B&N, the process is the same.) Just create an account, upload a cover image, type in a blurb, upload the book file, and choose a price. The hardest part of this is making sure the file you upload comes out looking good on the hand held device. But when you upload it, the website gives you a preview of what the book will look like on the device. Just click through some pages and make sure the spacing looks good, and you've got indents and such. If you need to, you can adjust your file and upload it again.

I created my own book cover, but if you don't know how to, there are artists who you can hire to do this for you. They charge anywhere from $50 to $250 depending on who you hire. You can also create your own cover, if you know a little bit about design.

Take us through the first month after Not What She Seems was listed on Amazon. How were the initital sales? What steps did you take to promote your novel and develop an online presence? How do you think word got out and why do you think it became so successful--other than being a great story, of course.

I uploaded Not What She Seems on April 17th. By the end of April I had sold seven books. That first half-month definitely seemed quite slow to me. But I had joined Kindleboards.com, and had figured out how to get my book in my signature line, and I would go on there and join in conversations, and post for a while until I would see one sale. In May I began to see two and then three sales each day. Then it grew to five. By the end of May I had sold 158 books. My biggest promotion secret is hanging out on Kindleboards and networking with the other authors. Many of them are looking for authors to interview, or feature on their blog. They'll also share tips on forums that work, and what they've done to promote. Everything I've learned has been through Kindleboards.com.

Did you set any sales goal numbers and plans to reach them, or did you just wing it? What was your first major milestone in terms of sales and how long did it take to get there?

My goals started out small and grew. I began with the goal of one sale each day. Then when that was easy, I raised the goal to three sales each day. As that became the norm, I changed it to five. My first major milestone was to sell 100 books in one month. I was lucky enough to do that in May, my first full month of selling on the Kindle.

You decided at one point to release Not What She Seems in print. Can you explain when and why you made this decision? What was the process involved in getting your novel into a print version?

I honestly didn't think I would publish my book in print. However, when customers started asking if I had a print copy, that changed my thinking. It's a lot harder to turn down sales when people are emailing and asking if you've got a paper copy. So I looked into it, and CreateSpace seemed to me to be the best deal. It wasn't too hard, the hardest part was formatting the inside to look like a standard book. I had to create page numbers and headers, and then I had to save it as a PDF.

How many print copies have sold in comparison to e-books? What are your thoughts on both mediums?

I've sold about 200 print copies, and over 70,000 ebooks. The print copies are nice because you can send them to book bloggers that don't take ebooks. You can also do giveaways on Goodreads.com, and you can't give out ebooks there. But by far, I earn the most money selling the 99 cent ebook. That's pretty easy to see why. It's a buck. The paper book is $14.95.

The latest in your success story is that now agents are querying you. Will you accept representation at this point, and why or why not?

Yes, I am going to accept representation. I have been approached by two people asking about foreign rights, and I know nothing about negotiating a foreign rights deal. I could definitely use an agent to help with that. An agent would also be needed to negotiate film and audio rights.

What are your future plans? (Any Science Fiction Romance in the works?)

Yes, my next novel is a science fiction romance! It's titled The Overtaking, and I'm hoping it will be out in a month.

What's the best advice you can give someone who's considering self-publishing?

1. Write a good book. Join a critique group and make it the best you can.
2. Have a great cover design.
3. Write a compelling blurb.
4. Price it low.
5. Network with other indie authors at Kindleboards.com 
6. Study the successful authors and mimic them.

Would you be available to answer direct questions from writers interested in pursuing self-publishing? Where can they reach you?

Yes, they can contact me through my website at http://www.victorinelieske.com/. I also publish tips on my blog, at www.victorinewrites.blogspot.com

Is there anything else you'd like people to know?

I'm incredibly grateful for the wonderful writers on critiquecircle.com who helped me shape my book into what it is today. I wouldn't be anywhere without them.

Thanks so much, Vicki, for taking time out of your schedule to share your thoughts and knowledge.  I wish you every success with the future sales of Not What She Seems as well as your next SFR novel. 

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