I know I haven’t vlogged in a LONG time and I’m wanting to get back to it on a regular basis. Soon! In the meantime, I thought you all might enjoy checking out my Kickstarter video, if you haven’t been over to the project to see it already.
Hope you’re having a great day, everyone!
Just popping in because I HAD to share this with you:
I LOVE this SO much. Hope you’re having a great day!
Hey! I’m trying something out with book two, and I could really use your help in spreading the word.
I’ve just launched a Kickstarter project to fund the production costs of Imaginable (which include editing, copy editing, cover design, marketing, and publicity) as well as making both Intangible and Imaginable paperbacks available to libraries and bookstores (which they currently are not).
Do you know about Kickstarter? It’s a crowd-funding site where people can support artists of all kinds (musicians, designers, writers, filmmakers, fine artists, actors, etc) by pledging to fund a specific project and in return they get rewards, usually whatever is made by the project. Like if you donate to a musician who’s recording songs, you might get the digital recordings or a signed CD, depending on what reward level you choose. Or if you support a writer who’s putting out a book (ahem), you get a copy of the book. :-)
What’s really cool about Kickstarter is that the artist must set a goal—a specific amount of money they need to raise to make the project happen—and if that goal is NOT met, then no one is charged. So if you pledge to a project that doesn’t meet its goal, you do not pay any money (nor, obviously, do you get the rewards).
So I’m trying to raise money to do all that by offering PRE-ORDERS of Imaginable. This is the only place anyone can pre-order the book…and get a lot of other REALLY cool stuff, depending on what reward level people choose (like t-shirts with the fleur-de-lis, a necklace just like Sera’s or Luke’s, and more!).
I’m excited about having pre-orders before the books is out, since I’m not able to do that through online sellers PLUS I’m excited to reach more people by going through Kickstarter.
SO, what can you do to help? If you don’t want to pre-order, that’s TOTALLY fine. But you can do me a HUGE favor by tweeting, emailing, and Facebooking about my Kickstarter project. Please help me spread the word! Here’s a sample tweet/status update you can use or modify to your liking:
I just saw this great project on Kickstarter. Check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jmeyers/imaginable
So would you? Would you help me spread the word? :-) I’d appreciate anything you could do to help. (THANK YOU!)
Have a great week, everyone!
I’m taking a step away from my usual blog stuff to talk business today. Book business. If any of you are writers pondering going the indie route (do it!), this is for you.
I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a long time for several reasons: because there can be a HUGE difference in quality between indie and traditional books; because writers who are truly trying to put out their best work feel frustrated by readers continually finding and complaining about typos and grammatical errors in their books even though they paid good money to an editor; because I’ve read some indie books that have the potential for being great books if only they’d been truly edited.
But mostly because there is a LOT of good information/posts/books out there about how to self-publish your book but it’s missing very essential information that most people don’t know unless they’ve either worked in publishing or have been published traditionally. And most indie authors haven’t done either of those. I’ve done both. That’s not to brag, it’s just to say that I know how traditional publishers make their books all polished and shiny…and I’m going to tell you so you can do it too.
Each step listed here is essential—none can be skipped if you’re wanting your books to turn out as professional as a traditionally published book.
Congrats! Your book is now ready for publication!
I’m sure the steps above are going to feel overwhelming to some writers. It’s okay. Take it one step at a time. You can do it. :-)
How do you know if an editor or copy editor is any good? Ask around. Tweet to/email other indie writers whose books you’ve noticed are very well done and are indistinguishable from traditional books in quality. Ask who they used. The indie community is very generous and most authors are happy to share information.
How are you going to afford it? I know that’s tricky for some writers, but if you’re hoping to build a career as a writer then you really cannot afford NOT to. You will gain loyal readers if your book is a pleasure in EVERY way. If your book is amateurishly done, readers will not come back for more. (Would you?)
What’s next? Formatting—which you can either do yourself or hire someone to do for you. Guido Henkel wrote an amazingly helpful tutorial showing how to format your ebook that I followed with great success. I highly recommend following his advice if you want to do it yourself.
You’ve made the investment of time and care to write your book—it’s worth the financial investment to publish it well. Good luck with your books!
1. I’ve been fighting with a new computer for about a week now, and I’m telling you this is the LEAST fun new computer I’ve ever gotten. It’s reduced me to tears several times because it just. wasn’t. working. And the technical help people didn’t know why. I’m a PC kinda gal—I’ve never been a fan of Macs and had troubles with them years ago where I worked (like 20 years ago…and yes, I realize that they’ve probably gotten better since then, but the constant crashing those macs did totally turned me off of ever wanting to buy one of them for my own). Yesterday I mentioned to someone that I was pretty sure all the bugs were worked out…only to discover today that there is ANOTHER BUG. *Sigh.* I’m hoping I’ll have this under control soon. (But just in case, cross your fingers for me, okay?)
2. Speaking of bugs DRIVING ME INSANE, we had a cricket trapped in the house for two days. Making noise all. day. long. O_O You know, with the new computer and the cricket both driving me nuts, it’s really a wonder I haven’t killed anyone this week.
3. In the midst of the computer crisis, I’ve been putting together a Kickstarter project to help cover the production costs of putting out book two. (I’ll tell you more about that next week!) So I’ve had to come up with a title for book two which is NEVER easy. Intangible didn’t have a title until near the end—and I’d been trying to come up with one for over a year. My Facebook followers were fantastic and lovely, offering to help me choose the right one via a poll, but I got through the title crisis on my own (well, if “on my own” really means “by discussing it with Steve and talking through many different options”) and book two officially has a title!
4. What? You didn’t expect me to tell you what it is, did you? Okay, you’ve twisted my arm. ;-)
5. I hope you love it as much as I do. It’s really perfect for the story…which I can’t wait to share with you! Have I told you that Luke gets this amazing new aspect of his ability that is so freaking cool? (Yeah, I’m not telling you what it is.) I am so crazy excited about it, you guys. Can’t wait for you to read it!
That’s all for me. Have a great weekend, everyone!
So, I watched this video on the Tinkering School. (It’s less than 5 minutes long and *really* worth the time—especially if you’ve got kids. Or know kids. Or used to be a kid.) It really got me thinking.
This is how I learn things too. I tinker. I get a new computer program and figure it out by playing with it. I need to DO to learn—I can’t just watch someone else (though that helps) nor just read/hear about it. I need to do it.
My 6 year old is a born tinkerer. He LOVES to take things apart, figure out how things work, and put them back together again. He overwhelms me with questions about how something is made, what it looks like inside, what makes it work.
There is something magical about tinkering—whether it’s with wood and tools, yarn and needles, pencil and paper, or really anything at all. Figuring something out on your own or mastering a skill through your own hard work is the most amazing feeling. Something everyone should experience regardless of age.
Life is tinkering, isn’t it? Aren’t we all constantly trying to figure out how to do something or balance what we’ve already mastered? Relationships, family life, schedules, crafting, cooking, baking, exercising, book-writing…every part of life involves tinkering.
Well, I’m off to tinker in the kitchen to bake something sweet. :-) What are you going to tinker with this week?
Have a great one!
Well, it’s done—the first draft, that is—and I’ve spent the week catching up at home, reading, reading, reading, and taking a little break before I jump into revisions. I LOVE revising and editing (I may have mentioned that before) and I’m excited to get going, but a little distance always helps. I come back to the book fresh, renewed, and ready to get back to work. I’m getting that distance this week.
During my writing break I came across this amazing time-lapse video. It’s three minutes of beauty—visually and musically. These are the skies over Spain’s hightest mountain, El Teide, as filmed by Terje Sorgjerd. He wrote that a sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert while he was there and it made it so he couldn’t see the Spanish skies with his own eyes later that day. He’d set up his camera and was sure what it was filming was ruined. But it wasn’t. It gave the sky a golden glow. That footage is at 0:32. I also love how the clouds look like waves just past the sandstorm part. Okay, really, the whole thing is just amazing. (Click on the YouTube icon below to read Sorgjerd’s notes on this video. It’s really interesting.)
So, who wants to go hiking in Spain? Have a great weekend, everyone!
1. First, I am one chapter away from being DONE with the first draft of book two as I write this. Part of me feels like this has taken FOREVER…and the other part of me keeps pointing out that it’s been less than 3 months since I started writing it. It took me a year the first draft of Intangible, so you’d think I’d be all “I’m the fastest writer EVER” with this book. Not so much. I had (what I realize now were) ridiculously unrealistic high hopes that I’d be able to write it in a month. (Pardon me while I laugh at myself for a moment.) Obviously I forgot to factor LIFE into my initial delusional writing schedule.
2. Of course, this doesn’t mean that I’m anywhere near ready to publish this book. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Um, no. This baby needs WORK. I’m going to spend the next few months editing and revising it until it’s all shiny. Honestly, this is my FAVORITE part of writing—the revising and polishing that fills out the story, tightens up the writing so every word is the exact right word, and smooths out the whole. I totally geek out as I improve my book draft by draft. It’s true. And then I’m going to send it out to my beta readers so they can point out all the problems with it, too. Though that step can be a little rough on the ego, I’m actually really looking forward to getting to that point because beta readers rock like nothing else in this world. Their feedback is absolutely essential to producing a good book.
3. In totally un-book-related news, this week I also finished the yearly salsa-making. Last year I made 38 quarts, which wasn’t enough (there are 6 of us and we REALLY like salsa), so I’ve made 53 quarts this years. (Whew.) I’m officially tired of canning. I don’t know how people do it who can EVERYTHING. How do they not run out of canning energy? Because I totally have. I don’t think I would have made a very good pioneer woman.
4. Of course now I’m trying to decide if I have enough canning energy left to make ketchup. I’ve never made it before but I keep hearing how it is SO much better than store-bought. Plus there’s the added bonus of being able to control how much sugar is in it as well as what form that sugar is in (ie. regular sugar vs. high fructose corn syrup). Of course, if I make it we run the risk of getting completely spoiled by homemade ketchup and not EVER wanting to eat store-bought again. Which is what happened with salsa (hence the 53 quarts now gracing my shelves). Do I really want to condemn myself to yearly ketchup-making for the foreseeable future? I haven’t decided yet. (But if you have a favorite ketchup recipe, please do share!)
5. And finally, I got something in the mail this week that totally thrilled me. On Tuesday I mentioned this fabulous article I’d read by David Vinjamuri. He and I got into a really nice conversation on Twitter and he was generous enough to send me these:
I’m really excited to read his branding book after checking out the reviews of it. I have a feeling it’s going to be similar in style to The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell which I absolutely loved. Can’t wait to dig in! He also sent me his first novel, Operator, which will be coming out in the next week or so. I’ll be burying myself in that in the next few days and I’ll let you know about it.
That’s it for me! What’s been going on with you? Have a great weekend, everyone. :-)
Last week I read a really fantastic article by David Vinjamuri called “Publishing Is Broken, We’re Drowning In Indie Books—And That’s A Good Thing” over on Forbes.com. REALLY fantastic article. Like go-read-it-now fantastic. It’s one of the best articles I’ve read on the changing state of publishing, and it was a relief to read something that’s not mired down with the we’ve-always-done-it-this-way-and-we-should-keeping-doing-it-this-way-because-we’ve-always-done-it-this-way attitude of traditional publishing. (Um, like this article which is so ridiculous in its “facts” that it made me laugh out loud even while I was lamenting the disappearance of bookstores just like the author is.)
If you’re not involved in the publishing world, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t talk about it here because I’ve wanted my blog to be a way for you to get to know me and I try to keep things positive for the most part—whether it’s about life, writing, or the world.
But I’m a little riled up.
Publishing is undergoing a revolution. The Indie Revolution. Writers are bypassing the big publishers to get their books out to readers BECAUSE WE CAN. Finally. We’ve never been able to do this before and so many good books have never been published because of that. Did you know that only 1% of books submitted to traditional publishers actually get published? That 99% get turned away? And publishers aren’t just turning down poorly written manuscripts. They’re also passing on beautifully written books if they don’t think there’s a market for them. If they don’t think they can sell it, they don’t publish it.
Which is understandable, of course. It’s a business decision. But there is this blatant untruth out there that publishers are these great gatekeepers, separating the wheat from the chaff, dredging the slush piles and pulling out only the shining gems of great literature. Saving you and me from having to read anything that doesn’t meet their indisputable lofty standards.
I don’t know about you, but I’m thankful that they do what they do and put out books that are the epitome of years of blood, sweat, and toil, of someone putting in the time it takes to hone one’s craft, and culminating in exquisite writing like Confessions of a Guidette by Snooki.
So, yeah, that high standards line? Not so much.
Yes, I realize that they published her book because she’s well known and they have guaranteed sales. Again, it’s a business decision. I get that. But don’t try to sell me the gatekeeper line of bull, then. You can’t have it both ways.
I’m not anti-publisher, but I am anti-BS. I have worked with some wonderful people in publishing. And it’s possible I might choose to do it again if the right circumstances came along. But the wonderful thing is…I don’t have to. Publishers are not the gatekeepers of all good writing and good storytelling. They never were. And today, with more and more writers bypassing the middleman and taking their books straight to readers, they are even less so.
In this Indie Revolution readers are discovering more writers than ever before. They have more choices, can find more books in their favorite genre because publishers no longer control the trends. It’s a fantastic time to be a reader.
And this revolution benefits writers. All writers. (Even the ones spewing vitriol at indie authors right now.) We’re blazing a path. More writers are making a living as authors than ever before. And that’s because there is no gatekeeper standing in their way or taking the bulk of the profit for all their hard work. It’s a fantastic time to be a writer.
In fact, there has never been a better time to be a writer (or a reader) than NOW. The Indie Revolution is a beautiful thing, indeed.
Some of this…
And definitely LOTS of this…
Hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends!